Chapter Four
Cassie Apparated into the main living room of Harry's beautiful Scotland castle. They had moved into it three weeks ago, and Harry, along with the rest of them, had grown quite fond of it. He had named it Magic's Glow. Not
the most inventive name, they had all admitted, but everyone agreed the old
castle, with its surrounding tall, glorious trees that were covered with dark green leaves, was fitting. In the 'back yard', there was a decent sized swimming pool, Quidditch pitch, and running track. On the east side of the castle, a magnificent garden lay with roses of all colors, irises, sweet williams, lily of the valleys, and every other flower
conceivable. The garden was laid out as a sort of maze, with an elegantly engraved iron table and chairs. On the west side of the castle there was a small lake with water that sparkled brilliantly, especially at dawn and sunset, when the sun's rays first went up and down.
The room Cassie now stood in was done up in shades of blue and gold, giving off an aura of warmth and comfort. Allegra was laying on the soft, squishy deep blue sofa in front of the fire, reading a fiction book, by some Muggle author, about people traveling back a hundred years to save damsels in distress.
Cassie spoke. "Where's everyone else?" she asked, dropping her jacket onto the couch. Without looking up, Allegra answered, "Harry and Em are in the garden planting something or other, and Tera is swimming laps." Cassie nodded, then walked over to a deep green miniature bell and rang it, then did the same to a water-blue bell. Then Cassie walked over to another recliner and waited calmly.The Bells would alert the others that she needed them. The bells were connected to another bell in each area of the grounds. A few minutes later, a dirty Harry and Emerald, and a wet Tera entered the room. "What's going on? Oh, hi Cassandra! You the one who called us?" Tera asked, using a towel to dry her soaking head. Cassandra nodded. "Yeah, I did. I just got back from my meeting with Dumbledore, and he's agreed to take us on as additional security. We'll move in tomorrow after lunch. Can you all be ready by then?"
Everyone nodded. Cassandra smiled. "Good. You need to pack your bags tonight. You all know what to take, right? We don't want to forget anything
because it'll be at least a week before anyone of us can get back here, okay?" More nods.
Harry walked around his overly large room and threw stuff into his dark green bottom-less bag. Video's, CD's, books, clothes, everything he would need to make his new room feel like home. Under all that stuff was his wide
assortment of weapons. Swords, knives, daggers, axes, cross bows, etc. He'd only been in this room for three weeks, and already he was moving again. Since he'd been rescued from the burning flames of his house, he'd visited almost all his new properties; six in all, and this had been the last one. It was originally Salazar Slytherin's house; He'd lived in it three months out of every year until his death. "You finished packing?" Emerald's voice said. Harry smiled and turned to see her leaning against the doorway, an Atlantic ocean blue bag slung over her shoulder.
"Yeah," he answered, tying his bag closed. "Can you come out to garden with me for awhile? I want to visit it again before we leave. And the lake,
Hogwarts' isn't nearly as calming as I've come to find this one. What do you say?" "Do you even have to ask? You know I love that garden of yours!" she said
with a smile, taking the bag off her shoulder and dropping it by the door as they left.
The next morning, everyone, with the exception of Harry, was excited to be going to Hogwarts. Harry was nervous about going back to the school. He knew his friends were still there, and he didn't know if he'd be able to hide his identity from them. He hadn't seen them in two years. What did they look like now? Did they finally hook up? Did they remember him? Did Ron make it on the Gryffindor Quidditch team? He wondered if Hermione had been chosen to be this year's Head Girl; it really wouldn't surprise him if she had. As for the others, with the exception of Casasandra, they'd never been to a magical school since they had each been taught and trained by Cassandra, who had attended Beaubaxtons until her sixth year, when she left for a school in Italty, that wasn't widely known . Then she left magical schools all together to be trained by the last elementals.
How was she trained by the last elementals, you ask, if they lived over a thousand years ago? Simple. She traveled through time, duh. But that's a story for another day. When she returned, it had only been a year in the wizarding world, but four years in the past. After that, she became an auror. And she had fallen in love, with someone she could not be with, due to some wierd hatred the fates had for the two. Currently, everyone was sitting around the breakfast table, eating to their hearts desires and chatting away. They talked about everything and nothing,
trying to make the time left before their departures go quicker. By 12:30, everyone had assembled around the front entrance to the castle,
their bags and equipment ready to go. Harry stood with everyone in a circle
around him. He made eye contact with them all, his gaze lingering a little longer than necessary on Emerald. "It's time to go. Everyone know where you're supposed to Apparate to?" he asked worriedly. There were eyes rolling. "Yeeeeesssss, Harry! We've been over this a million times!" Tera said, exasperated. Harry grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. Just nervous, I guess." he said. "Understatement of the year," Tera muttered under her breath, smiling. Emerald placed her hand on Harry's arm. "It's all right, Harry. It's your fist time back at Hogwarts in two years. It's understandable that you'd be nervous." She said softly. Harry smiled thankfully at her. "Alright then. Everyone ready to go?" Cassandra asked, interrupting their
intent staring. "Yes." everyone answered. A moment later, they disappeared.
Dumbledore and most of the teaching staff were waiting in the Great Hall when the elementals appeared. They arrived in a somewhat impressive fashion, with flashes of light and swirls of colors, black, green, red, blue and gold. When the lights cleared, the group appeared, standing in a circle. "Hello, Mr. Dumbledore. I'd like you to meet my comrades and friends." Tera stepped forward and held out her hand, introducing herself as "Tera Vale," "Allegra Orion." Then Emerald and Harry stepped forward. " Bonjour, Monsieur Dumbledore. Je m'appelle Emerald Nyx. Comment vas-tu?" she said in flawless French, and then waited for a reply. The professors blinked. Then Dumbledore smiled. "I'm okay, is the answer if you asked what I think you did." Emerald smiled and nodded. "Oui," she said. Then, in English she said, Then Harry stepped forward. " Salut, Monsieur, Je m'appelle Joshua Roulette." Dumbledore smiled, but Cassandra could see he didn't understand very much. "I'm sorry. But I'm afraid I only understand a little bit of French." Harry
faked a blush. "I am sorry, Mr. Dumbledore. I forget sometimes to speak English." he said, "Nothing to be sorry about, Mr. Roulette. I take from you last name and accent that you are from France, but Miss Nyx, you last name is Greek, is it not?" Emerald nodded. "Yes sir. My mother was French, my father Greek. I was born and raised in France, however." Dumbledore nodded. "Well, let me introduce you to my staff. This is Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall. She is the Transfiguration professor. Professor Filius Flitwick, he teaches Charms. Madam Flora Hooch, she teaches flying and supervises the
Quidditch matches. Severus Snape is the Potions Master and teaches that subject. Everyone else I'm afraid couldn't make it. They had previous engagements, but you'll get to meet them around dinner. Well, let me show you your rooms."
Harry and Emerald were exploring their rooms. Harry and Emerald had chosen the two rooms that were connected by a single door in the west wall of Harry's room, Emerald's eastern wall. Their rooms were set up almost the exact same. Their beds were placed in the middle of wall opposite the connecting door. Up against the wall with the door was a decent sized wardrobe, and plenty of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves interspaced with portraits of the house founders. On both sides of their beds were two simple wooden nightstands and a lamp. On the south walls the entrance doors were located and on either side of them were more bookshelves, and more paintings. On the northern wall, located close to the northwestern corner (for Emerald, north eastern wall for Harry), was another door that led to a
bathroom. Centered in the middle of the north wall was a large stone and brick fireplace with a large, fluffy blue rug placed in front of it and a small sofa faced it. Harry and Emerald stood in the connecting doorway, surveying the rooms and wondering how they wanted to decorate them. After several minutes of intense thought, they locked eyes and grinned, nodding. They pulled out their wands
and got to work.
Cassandra, Allegra, and Tera sat around the kitchenette table, each nursing
cups of cocoa spiked with butterbeer. "Where's Harry and Emerald?" Tera asked, realizing the two had been gone for some time now. Cassandra smirked
evilly. "They're STILL upstairs, supposedly decorating their rooms. Wouldn't you know it; they took the two rooms that have a connecting door? I wonder why..." She smirked slyly, causing Tera to laugh and Allegra to roll her eyes. "Oh, please! You know how close they are! They're best friends." Allegra defended against Cassandra's insinuations. "Best lover friends,"
Cassie Apparated into the main living room of Harry's beautiful Scotland castle. They had moved into it three weeks ago, and Harry, along with the rest of them, had grown quite fond of it. He had named it Magic's Glow. Not
the most inventive name, they had all admitted, but everyone agreed the old
castle, with its surrounding tall, glorious trees that were covered with dark green leaves, was fitting. In the 'back yard', there was a decent sized swimming pool, Quidditch pitch, and running track. On the east side of the castle, a magnificent garden lay with roses of all colors, irises, sweet williams, lily of the valleys, and every other flower
conceivable. The garden was laid out as a sort of maze, with an elegantly engraved iron table and chairs. On the west side of the castle there was a small lake with water that sparkled brilliantly, especially at dawn and sunset, when the sun's rays first went up and down.
The room Cassie now stood in was done up in shades of blue and gold, giving off an aura of warmth and comfort. Allegra was laying on the soft, squishy deep blue sofa in front of the fire, reading a fiction book, by some Muggle author, about people traveling back a hundred years to save damsels in distress.
Cassie spoke. "Where's everyone else?" she asked, dropping her jacket onto the couch. Without looking up, Allegra answered, "Harry and Em are in the garden planting something or other, and Tera is swimming laps." Cassie nodded, then walked over to a deep green miniature bell and rang it, then did the same to a water-blue bell. Then Cassie walked over to another recliner and waited calmly.The Bells would alert the others that she needed them. The bells were connected to another bell in each area of the grounds. A few minutes later, a dirty Harry and Emerald, and a wet Tera entered the room. "What's going on? Oh, hi Cassandra! You the one who called us?" Tera asked, using a towel to dry her soaking head. Cassandra nodded. "Yeah, I did. I just got back from my meeting with Dumbledore, and he's agreed to take us on as additional security. We'll move in tomorrow after lunch. Can you all be ready by then?"
Everyone nodded. Cassandra smiled. "Good. You need to pack your bags tonight. You all know what to take, right? We don't want to forget anything
because it'll be at least a week before anyone of us can get back here, okay?" More nods.
Harry walked around his overly large room and threw stuff into his dark green bottom-less bag. Video's, CD's, books, clothes, everything he would need to make his new room feel like home. Under all that stuff was his wide
assortment of weapons. Swords, knives, daggers, axes, cross bows, etc. He'd only been in this room for three weeks, and already he was moving again. Since he'd been rescued from the burning flames of his house, he'd visited almost all his new properties; six in all, and this had been the last one. It was originally Salazar Slytherin's house; He'd lived in it three months out of every year until his death. "You finished packing?" Emerald's voice said. Harry smiled and turned to see her leaning against the doorway, an Atlantic ocean blue bag slung over her shoulder.
"Yeah," he answered, tying his bag closed. "Can you come out to garden with me for awhile? I want to visit it again before we leave. And the lake,
Hogwarts' isn't nearly as calming as I've come to find this one. What do you say?" "Do you even have to ask? You know I love that garden of yours!" she said
with a smile, taking the bag off her shoulder and dropping it by the door as they left.
The next morning, everyone, with the exception of Harry, was excited to be going to Hogwarts. Harry was nervous about going back to the school. He knew his friends were still there, and he didn't know if he'd be able to hide his identity from them. He hadn't seen them in two years. What did they look like now? Did they finally hook up? Did they remember him? Did Ron make it on the Gryffindor Quidditch team? He wondered if Hermione had been chosen to be this year's Head Girl; it really wouldn't surprise him if she had. As for the others, with the exception of Casasandra, they'd never been to a magical school since they had each been taught and trained by Cassandra, who had attended Beaubaxtons until her sixth year, when she left for a school in Italty, that wasn't widely known . Then she left magical schools all together to be trained by the last elementals.
How was she trained by the last elementals, you ask, if they lived over a thousand years ago? Simple. She traveled through time, duh. But that's a story for another day. When she returned, it had only been a year in the wizarding world, but four years in the past. After that, she became an auror. And she had fallen in love, with someone she could not be with, due to some wierd hatred the fates had for the two. Currently, everyone was sitting around the breakfast table, eating to their hearts desires and chatting away. They talked about everything and nothing,
trying to make the time left before their departures go quicker. By 12:30, everyone had assembled around the front entrance to the castle,
their bags and equipment ready to go. Harry stood with everyone in a circle
around him. He made eye contact with them all, his gaze lingering a little longer than necessary on Emerald. "It's time to go. Everyone know where you're supposed to Apparate to?" he asked worriedly. There were eyes rolling. "Yeeeeesssss, Harry! We've been over this a million times!" Tera said, exasperated. Harry grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. Just nervous, I guess." he said. "Understatement of the year," Tera muttered under her breath, smiling. Emerald placed her hand on Harry's arm. "It's all right, Harry. It's your fist time back at Hogwarts in two years. It's understandable that you'd be nervous." She said softly. Harry smiled thankfully at her. "Alright then. Everyone ready to go?" Cassandra asked, interrupting their
intent staring. "Yes." everyone answered. A moment later, they disappeared.
Dumbledore and most of the teaching staff were waiting in the Great Hall when the elementals appeared. They arrived in a somewhat impressive fashion, with flashes of light and swirls of colors, black, green, red, blue and gold. When the lights cleared, the group appeared, standing in a circle. "Hello, Mr. Dumbledore. I'd like you to meet my comrades and friends." Tera stepped forward and held out her hand, introducing herself as "Tera Vale," "Allegra Orion." Then Emerald and Harry stepped forward. " Bonjour, Monsieur Dumbledore. Je m'appelle Emerald Nyx. Comment vas-tu?" she said in flawless French, and then waited for a reply. The professors blinked. Then Dumbledore smiled. "I'm okay, is the answer if you asked what I think you did." Emerald smiled and nodded. "Oui," she said. Then, in English she said, Then Harry stepped forward. " Salut, Monsieur, Je m'appelle Joshua Roulette." Dumbledore smiled, but Cassandra could see he didn't understand very much. "I'm sorry. But I'm afraid I only understand a little bit of French." Harry
faked a blush. "I am sorry, Mr. Dumbledore. I forget sometimes to speak English." he said, "Nothing to be sorry about, Mr. Roulette. I take from you last name and accent that you are from France, but Miss Nyx, you last name is Greek, is it not?" Emerald nodded. "Yes sir. My mother was French, my father Greek. I was born and raised in France, however." Dumbledore nodded. "Well, let me introduce you to my staff. This is Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall. She is the Transfiguration professor. Professor Filius Flitwick, he teaches Charms. Madam Flora Hooch, she teaches flying and supervises the
Quidditch matches. Severus Snape is the Potions Master and teaches that subject. Everyone else I'm afraid couldn't make it. They had previous engagements, but you'll get to meet them around dinner. Well, let me show you your rooms."
Harry and Emerald were exploring their rooms. Harry and Emerald had chosen the two rooms that were connected by a single door in the west wall of Harry's room, Emerald's eastern wall. Their rooms were set up almost the exact same. Their beds were placed in the middle of wall opposite the connecting door. Up against the wall with the door was a decent sized wardrobe, and plenty of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves interspaced with portraits of the house founders. On both sides of their beds were two simple wooden nightstands and a lamp. On the south walls the entrance doors were located and on either side of them were more bookshelves, and more paintings. On the northern wall, located close to the northwestern corner (for Emerald, north eastern wall for Harry), was another door that led to a
bathroom. Centered in the middle of the north wall was a large stone and brick fireplace with a large, fluffy blue rug placed in front of it and a small sofa faced it. Harry and Emerald stood in the connecting doorway, surveying the rooms and wondering how they wanted to decorate them. After several minutes of intense thought, they locked eyes and grinned, nodding. They pulled out their wands
and got to work.
Cassandra, Allegra, and Tera sat around the kitchenette table, each nursing
cups of cocoa spiked with butterbeer. "Where's Harry and Emerald?" Tera asked, realizing the two had been gone for some time now. Cassandra smirked
evilly. "They're STILL upstairs, supposedly decorating their rooms. Wouldn't you know it; they took the two rooms that have a connecting door? I wonder why..." She smirked slyly, causing Tera to laugh and Allegra to roll her eyes. "Oh, please! You know how close they are! They're best friends." Allegra defended against Cassandra's insinuations. "Best lover friends,"