Ah, well, here we go again. Next chapter. Huzzah.

If any of you wonderful readers are interested in beta-ing my story, please let me know. If none of you are, I'll just e-mail it to my best friend.

Oh, after I posted it, I realized that if Rhia lived in France, that meant that she went to Beauxbatons. Oops. It's fixed now.

Also, just because OotP has not happened does not mean that some familiar people and things won't make some kind of appearance. chuckle I know something you don't know....

moonypadfoot: yes, I do have almost everything decided already. This may be subject to change, however, as my muses are very fickle and have approximately half the attention span of a retarded rodent.

And I've hooked you? You really mean it? Wow, I feel so special!

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Second Scene: Introductions

At the Slytherin table, Malfoy had begun his interrogation of the new students.

I bet Weasel's green. We got both of the girls, and they aren't bad-looking either. Now let's see if they'll fit in Slytherin.

"So, what were things like at your old schools? Did you get high grades?"

Amamiya answered first, an absentminded look on her face. "I had the highest scores at Hecate Academy last year. That's why I was the one chosen to come here. There are only two reasons for asking a question with such an obvious answer. You either wanted to know if we would be a threat to your position in the hierarchy, or you wanted to see our reaction to the question, as a kind of test. In this case, I believe that it was both." Not once did she raise her eyes from her book.

Draco's eyebrow rose. She's good. He turned to the other girl, Azar, to find her regarding him with a knowing smirk. He felt himself slowly smirking in return. They both are. They'll do very well here. Listening to them begin a conversation in Greek, he wondered how they could possibly have been considered for anywhere else.

§§§

After the feast, when the noise level in the Hall began to creep upward again, Harry sat back and began to ponder the meaning of life in general. These musings were immediately abandoned when Ron turned to Heero and started pestering him.

"So, what's everyone like?"

Heero gave him a long-suffering look. "I don't know. We all went to different schools. The first time that any of us saw each other was on the train."

Robin looked around. "Well, there were no real surprises. I admit that I didn't expect Kyo to end up in Hufflepuff, and I figured Duo for a Slytherin rather than a Hufflepuff as well, but I guess those were my second choices for them."

"Wait a minute, you said that you didn't know each other before!" Ron looked confused.

Heero sighed. "We didn't. We were supposed to stay in the same compartment on the ride here. You think that we didn't talk to each other at all? One of the main topics was where we thought that we would end up here. I owe Yuki one of your 'galleons' because Rhia's in Slytherin, and Duo owes me a 'sickle' because Ryo's here."

Harry looked up. "Where else would he be?"

Ryo laughed suddenly. "Personally, I was betting on Slytherin. After all, both of my cousins were sure bets."

"Your cousins?" Hermione nearly shrieked.

"You could have mentioned that before I made that bet." Heero muttered peevishly.

"Hey, your fault, not mine. And yes, Rhia and Raven are my distant cousins."

While they were talking, Dumbledore had stood up. "Now, as you may have noticed, we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. We are very pleased to introduce Professor Umbridge."

There was a round of polite but fairly unenthusiastic applause that quickly died down as the students waited for the more important things, like Quidditch tryouts and bed.

Dumbledore opened his mouth to continue speaking, them abruptly stopped, and looked inquiringly at Umbridge. The students were confused until they saw her standing up. It was clear that she wanted to give a speech. Dumbledore looked taken aback for a moment, then sat and looked up at her expectantly.

{Alright, I'm going to paraphrase her speech now. If you know it by heart, and do not particularly want to read it again, I would advise you to skip this part}

"Thank you for those kind words of welcome, Headmaster." Her voice was breathy and little-girlish, and Harry was immediately struck by a feeling of strong dislike. "It is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, and to see such happy little faces smiling back at me."

At this, Harry raised an eyebrow and glanced around. No one in the Hall looked particularly happy; they all looked at this woman with disgust and loathing for talking to them as if they were five-year-olds.

Umbridge cleared her throat with a little hem-hem of a cough, and continued. "The Ministry of Magic has always considered education to be among its highest priorities." She sounded much more businesslike now, but also more dull, as though she had memorized this speech by heart and was not very good at acting. With difficulty, Harry brought himself back to reality.

"....treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished, and polished by those called to the noble profession of teaching...."

Harry tuned her out again, and looked around at his classmates instead. At the Ravenclaw table, Cho Chang was talking animatedly with her friends. Ernie Macmillan was one of the very few still looking at Umbridge, but he had a glazed, glassy look in his eyes. The teachers and Hermione seemed to be the only ones still listening, but they had deep scowls on their faces. Umbridge did not take notice of the restlessness of her audience, and Harry got the impression that a food fight could have erupted under her nose, and she would not have noticed.

"....some changes will be for the better, while others will come to be recognized as errors in judgment. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others...."

Harry tuned out again. As he looked around the Hall, he saw that he had been wrong to think that Hermione was the only student paying attention. Each and every one of the transfer students was listening attentively, marked expressions of dislike on their faces. He snapped back to attention when he saw that Umbridge was winding down.

"....ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning practices that ought to be prohibited."

{Okay, if you skipped, you can start paying attention again now}

She bowed and sat down. Dumbledore clapped, but he was the only one to do so with force. Most of the staff brought their hands together only once or twice before stopping, while most of the students were taken unaware by the end of her speech. Dumbledore started speaking again before anyone really had time to pretend that they had liked it.

"Thank you, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating. Quidditch tryouts will be held a week from this Saturday, your Head of House will notify you of your time slot, and—"

"Well, he's right about one thing. That was very illuminating." Ryo had a thoughtful expression on his face as he looked up at the High Table.

"What? That was the most boring thing I ever heard." Ron was incredulous.

"I believe that he said illuminating, not enjoyable. And he's right." With this, Robin seemed to decide that they were absolutely hopeless, and turned away from them to strike up a conversation with Ryo and Heero.

"What?" Ron turned to Hermione. "What are they talking about?"

"That speech may have sounded like a lot of boring nonsense, Ron, but there was some important stuff in there. It explained a lot." Hermione said distractedly.

"Like what?"

"Like how your Ministry is interfering. And isn't it the responsibility of the prefects to show the new students where they sleep?" Heero raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I forgot! Come on Ron!" Hermione stood up and raised her voice. "First years! This way, please!"

"Hey—hey you! Midgets!"

"Ron!"

Finally, they reached Gryffindor Tower (after a run-in with Peeves). Hermione told everyone the password and guided them to their dorms.

"Ryo, Heero, Robin, you have your own room right here. I guess that they didn't want to put you in with the other boys." She showed them a small door off to the side of the common room that Harry had not noticed before.

"Thank you."

"Hn."

"We'll see you in the morning."

With that, they disappeared into the room and shut the door. Hermione collapsed onto a nearby couch with a gusty sigh.

"Is it just me, or is there something a little odd about them?"

Suddenly, Harry remembered his dream. Are they—no, they're just kids. Besides, they'd know each other, wouldn't they?

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Okay, another chapter. It starts getting interesting after this, I promise. Review, please!