Here's the fourth chapter! If you can still stand the cheesy stuff, well, congratulations! You are a tough survivor! He he he! Just joking… And by the way, I finished this fic already before I posted it here in so that would explain why I don't comment about your reviews, criticism and praises (if there are any, anyway). Anyways, here's chapter 4…
Title: The Future is Waiting
Chapter 4: Bridgework Academy of Eastern Magic
Archer led the Hogwarts sixth years into the Bridgework grounds. They walked on the smooth grass for what felt like an hour, with the castle seemingly not looming any nearer. Finally, when everyone was panting and clutching on anything to keep themselves from falling, Archer and the rest of the students stopped in front of huge stone double doors decorated with swirls of marble.
"Ah, yes. It is hard, walking all over the grounds. But once you get used to it, you won't have such a hard time," Archer said to them.
"I don't see myself getting used to that kind of torture," Ron said, panting and hands on his knees.
"Don't they even have carriages here?" Hermione said, clutching a stitch at her side. Apparently, no horseless, or thestral-led, carriages were employed by Bridgewrok to take the students up the castle, unlike Hogwarts.
"I'm looking forward to a good meal here," Harry said, looking at the other sixth years with them.
"Yeah, all that walking made me starving," Seamus said behind him.
"Once again, I welcome you to Bridgework," Archer said as the stone doors slowly swung open, revealing the inside of the castle. It indeed looked a lot like Hogwarts, except for some details, like the floor, which was made of marble, and the walls, which were white and gleaming. But Harry could tell that the castle was just as old, though it seemed to have a fresher look.
"Oooh! Look, it's an inside garden!" Parvati Patil squealed somewhere behind the crowd, and everyone turned to look. To their left was a garden with beautiful flowers of all sorts, trees of bright green, and plants of all sizes. The garden was in the castle, but it seemed as though its part of the roof was enchanted to provide sunlight for the plantlife.
"Then good," a drawling voice said at the back too. "We won't have to deal with rubbish like we do in Herbology back at Hogwarts," Malfoy said.
"I see you've discovered our sunlit garden! But that's not where we hold our Herbology classes, I'm afraid. The Hogwarts teachers have sent your curriculum, what you should study about, and you are going to have the same classes as you would have had if you were in Hogwarts. But worry not. I am sure we will all have a great time with each other!" Archer beamed.
"So… Hogwarts?" a girl's voice said from above the marble staircase in front of them. Harry noticed, for the first time, that the stairs were packed with students wearing black robes patched with the Bridgework logo on the upper left. The girl who spoke stepped forward, but did not get off the stairs. She had short brown hair, and looked like somewhat like Cho Chang. "Good morning," she said in a formal voice. Everyone was now looking at her. "Welcome to Bridgework. I have been informed that you have already been familiarized to the school, so I need not talk about that I guess. I am Student Head Iris Lair. I will be one of those who will assist Student Head Simon Archer in his job to guide all of you during your stay here at Hogwarts. That's all. Again, good morning."
"Thank you, Head Lair. Have you seen where Head Ashworth is? Archer said to the girl. Hearing "Ashworth," Harry, Ron, and Hermione raised their heads. Harry suddenly became alert. He was surprised to hear that Ashworth was one of those Student Heads, who seemed to be the equivalents of Hogwarts Prefects. But on top of his surprise was anxiety. Rose Ashworth could be any of those students. Harry was waiting to meet her all through their journey.
"Not that I care, but she's up in the Potions office, in a meeting I think," Lair said in a tone that suggested irritation.
"Well, would you be so kind as to escort our fellow sixth years to the tower, and perhaps wait for Head Ashworth so that you two could start the orientation?" Archer said. What he was asking seemed impossible, as Harry could see that Lair, as much as possible, did not want anything to do with Ashworth. But the girl replied all the same.
"Well then, if work requires. Yes, I shall take them to the tower. See you later," Lair said. Archer walked up the marble staircase and disappeared in the mass of students. Lair, then, beckoned the Hogwarts students to follow her, and they did.
The Bridgework crowd parted to let them through. Lair turned to an empty left-hand corridor, and took them up a flight of another marble staircase and they found themselves in another empty corridor. Like the one in the first floor, no portraits hung here, and no statues stood.
"Yes, eerie. I know. But this is Bridgework," Lair said, turning to them. She seemed really impressed of her own school.
The Hogwarts students waited silently. Lair faced the blank wall just above the stairs and raised her wand. She pointed it at the marble ceiling.
"Pure blood," Lair spoke clearly as she raised her eyes to the ceiling. Then, the ceiling began to move. Another marble staircase, just slightly narrower than the previous ones, descended from the ceiling.
Many of the students were amazed at this, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione found themselves raising eyebrows at each other. They had heard that Bridgework was a good school, quite like Hogwarts. Surely, they were not expecting a password such as "Pure blood" here, not unless…
"You seem to be disturbed?" Iris Lair had waded through the Hogwarts crowd to get to the three of them,and she spoke rather testily. Harry was irritated. It was not like having your eyebrows raised was a crime.
"We… er…" Harry stuttered.
"You're wondering about 'pure blood,'" Lair said, facing Hermione.
"Well – yes," Hermione made a small smile.
"It's not a password," she smiled. "Everyone, please listen," she now said to the crowd as a whole. "When you step in front of the stairs, please mention if you are pure blood, half blood, or muggle-born."
She walked towards the stairs and climbed it. When she was halfway up, she waved a hand signaling that they climbed too. Students then filed all around the bottom stair and Lair went up out of sight. Harry, however, still wondered.
"Why do we have to say if we're pure blood or not?" he said, turning to Ron and Hermione.
"Yeah, even if it's not a password, it's like – discrimination. Like their sorting out people or something," Ron agreed.
"No, it's not discrimination, Mr. Weasley," The three of them wheeled around and saw Archer standing at the top of the stairs, smiling at them. Behind him was a group of around seven or eight students.
"It's not discrimination? Then, why'd you have to – How d'you know my name?" Ron said. Archer walked towards them and talked in a rather casual voice.
"The student heads have records of their batch," he said, still smiling. "And that includes you," he added cheerfully.
"Why are we in there?" Harry asked.
"Because we're going to be batchmates from now on," Hermione said, her eyes on Archer, but smiling.
"Right you are, Miss Granger," Archer said with a smile. "Now, let's all get upstairs. The orientation is about to start," Archer said. He ushered the three of them towards the stairs.
With "Pure blood" from Ron, "Muggle-born" from Hermione, "Half-blood" from Harry, and a mixed grumble of the three types of wizards from the group below, the marble staircase evaporated and the floor above it became solidly intact. Harry found himself in a room quite like the Gryffindor common room, even the colors were alike. But there was incense everywhere, with wafts of thin bluish smoke slowly drifting away from them. There were also large pieces of parchment plastered on the wall, bearing characters Harry could not determine whether Chinese or Japanese. Hermione pulled him and Ron into a small semi-circular sofa in fron of the assortment of chairs and they settled themselves on it. Hermione seemed keen to hear every detail of the orientation. Harry turned his head over to the Bridgework students who were all talking, voices hushed over the chatter. He saw Lair talking businesslike to Archer.
And then, Harry saw her; the girl he'd been seeing in his dreams, the one he met in Sirius house when he dreamt about it. She was standing right behind Archer, talking to a girl with short jet-black hair. Though her hair was in a tight, high ponytail unlike in Harry's dream where she wore her hair down, it was unmistakably her. He also noticed something different about her, or maybe he just didn't notice it in the dream. The end of the girl's hair was cherry-red, unlike the rest of it, which was jet-black as well. He nudged Ron in the ribs, quite harder than he had meant to in his excitement and surprise, and whispered.
"That's her!" Harry hissed in Ron's ear. "That's the girl I've been telling you about! Claire! The one I've been seeing in my dreams! There, behind the Archer guy!" Ron's eyes swirved to the girl's direction, and comprehension dawned over his face.
"You mean – that's the – you've been seeing – "
"Yes! Yes, it's her! Claire!" Harry turned in his seat. The girl was still deep in conversation with her companion.
"Do keep your voices down!" Hermione said, leaning across Harry to Ron.
"Hermione! It's her!" Ron now said.
"Yes, I heard what you were talking about! There's no need to yell around the place, is there?" Hermione said with a tone of impatience in her voice. "You can talk to her anytime you like, Harry. Just stay still for now, will you? I want to listen to the orientation, don't you?" she shot at them.
"Not really," Ron muttered silently, so that only Harry could hear. Harry gazed around the room, but often landed his eyes on Claire, trying his best to catch her eye, while Ron chatted with Dean and Seamus, and Hermione sat still, nervously waiting for the orientation to start.
But Claire did not seem to enjoy being host to visitors. But she did not seem bothered either. She hardly wore any expression at all. Harry continued to stare at her, when finally, she gazed rather disapprovingly at the crowd that was the Hogwartrs sixth years. Her eyes ran all around the room, and then finally, landed on Harry, who was gazing up at her rather weakly from the small sofa he and his two friends were occupying.
Harry felt like a bucket of ice-cold water spilled on top of his head as he stared right into Claire's eyes. He wanted to do something, anything, to break out of the awkward moment, but he felt as though his body froze with the ice-cold water. He thought of averting his eyes from Claire, but he though it would look rude, so he decided to smile instead. Just when he was curling his lips into a weak smile, however, a clap echoed around the room and Claire's blue eyes darted to the front.
"So, with everything settled, we shall now proceed to the orientation. We are here in the sixth years' common room," Lair, who had clapped her hands together to get the room's attention, spoke clearly so that everyone could hear.
Harry, who looked front too, turned to Claire once more, but Claire was now staring Lair, quite expressionlessly, just as before. When Lair spoke again, however, Claire's face expressed what was unmistakable disgust.
"Now, before anything else, I'm sure you all are wondering just who we, Bridgework Heads, are," Lair said, doing a smile and gazing all around the room. "First, we are Student Heads. What are Student Heads? Here is Student Head Archer to explain."
Lair moved away from the front and was replaced by an excited-looking Archer.
"Student Heads are selected students from each batch. Ten from each batch, to be precise. They supervise student activities, they report misbehavior. They propose activities for the whole school to participate in. They are the counterparts for what Hogwarts calls – ahh, yes, Prefects. Right?"
As Archer said this, he nodded to Hermione. Hermione blushed and nodded back.
"I'm gonna be sick," Ron said beside Harry.
"Now, we have ten for each batch, one of them the superior. Ten for the sixth years," he waved a hand to the group of students standing over where the marble staircase had been earlier. "The sixth year Student Heads include me, Superior Student Head Simon Rick Archer," Archer bowed. "And we have Student Head Iris Lair," Lair came to the front once more and bowed. Then, she remained standing in front. "Student Head James Anderson," a tall, blonde boy came to the front, bowed, and stood beside Lair, beaming. "Student Head Chai Han," the girl Claire was talking to earlier walked forward, bowed, and joined the first two. Harry noticed she looked like Cho as well. Harry thought that his head was not in a right state; he seemed to see Cho everywhere. Then he remembered, he was in Asia and Cho's physical traits were quite common there.
Archer then looked back at the bundle of Bridgework students, and looked pointedly at Claire, and Harry watched her. She did not move or give any sign that she noticed Archer. Archer's hand gestured as if telling Claire to move front, but she slowly shook her head. She did not want to attract much attention, Harry thought to himself. Then, Archer gave up on persuading her and settled on mentioning her name clearly.
"Student Head Rose Ashworth,"