A/N: Thank you to all those that have been reviewing. I hope that you all like this chapter as we find out part of the mystery of Kayla Rapp the exchange student. Please continue. I'm open to suggestions to the story so please R/R.

Disclaimer: I wish I could be as good as JK Rowling but I'm not. This is her stuff and not to mention the influence that this story took from various fanfics.

Chapter 10
Kayla Rapp

Harry only got three hours of sleep because his body was used to waking up at five. He knew that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep so he decided to start his work out for the morning. Everybody else was still asleep and Harry didn't want to interrupt anybody so he went down his trunk and got dressed in some work out clothing and left with his broom.

Harry made his way down to the quidditch pitch and started to jog around the stadium. He went jogging for an hour than walked to the center of the quidditch pitch. Harry mounted his broom and flew as fast as he could and as high as he could around the pitch. He felt great when on the broom, the great feeling of being free from all of his responsibilities and just flying for the fun of it. After half an hour of blissful flying, Harry landed and headed back to his dormitory to get ready for the day.

After his quick shower, it was only seven in the morning. His roommates were just waking up and to his surprise, Hermione wasn't up yet. He decided to not disturb them because it was a late night and he'll just meet them down at breakfast. Harry arrived in the Great Hall to which was still empty with the exception of a few teachers and the Headmaster who were enjoying their breakfast and talking to one another. Harry finally had a chance to enjoy his handiwork in the Great Hall from last night. Everything that he did to change the appearance of the Great Hall last night was still there from the banners that carried the Potter Family Crest to his message to Voldemort.

Harry stood in the middle of the Hall and all the teachers turned to look at him. Harry was slowly turning in circles and appreciating what he was seeing. Harry didn't take any notice of the professors looking at him. They all ranged from joyful expressions from Hagrid to reserved like McGonagall to out right loathing from Snape. Harry pulled out his Holly wand and raised it up in the air. He muttered a charm and made a circle in the air above him.

All of the banners with the Potter Family Crest changed back to their respective houses. The candles in the hall dimmed back down to what they were usually always. The ceiling returned back to reflect the conditions outdoor and Harry's message to Voldemort disappeared. Many of the professors watched in awe as they saw Harry change the Great Hall back to normal for many of them were unable to do that type of spell work. The professors that were able to do that type of spell work couldn't do it with such ease like Harry just did.

Just when Harry finished, the first groups of students started to show up at the Great Hall for breakfast. Harry had been eating for fifteen minutes when his friends showed up. Ginny and Hermione sat to Harry's sides while Ron and Neville sat across from them. Nobody seemed to notice that the Great Hall was changed back to normal.

Ron was stuffing his face as fast as he could. Luna came over and joined the five Gryffindors for breakfast. Ginny and Luna were talking to each other while Neville and Hermione were just taking there time eating. While everybody was eating, McGonagall came down from the Head table to hand out the Gryffindors their schedule.

Hermione asked everybody, "What classes does everybody have today?"

Harry replied, "Right after breakfast I have double defense than I have double charms at ten than double transfiguration after lunch and I end my day with care of magical creatures. What about you guys?"

Ron replied, "I have the same thing as you do."

Hermione said, "I have the same thing also. This is going to be a busy day."

Neville looked at his watch and said, "We should get going. We have fifteen minutes until classes start."

With that statement, Hermione was already rushing to get her bag and impatiently waiting for the boys to get there things and go to class. The four of them arrived in class just about the same time as everybody else arrived. The entire class was filled with people from the DA last year and a few that were not. When the bell chimed, everybody took their seat with the entire Gryffindors sitting in the front of the class. Lupin and Tonks came out from the teacher's office and greeted the class, "Good morning class."

The class said, "Good morning Professor Lupin."

Lupin said, "I'm sure that everybody here remembers me but if you don't than I am Professor Lupin your new defense against the dark arts teacher and here is Professor Tonks an Auror assigned by the ministry to help with defense for this year."

Tonks said, "I'm just here to help get everybody up to speed mainly due to your past history with teachers in this subject although my understanding is many of you are already well prepared with the help with a certain individual."

Harry slumped down in his seat trying to hide from everybody looking at him. Remus decided to take the attention away from Harry.

Remus said, "Well, Professor Tonks and I thought it would be fun to start the class of this year with a duel. Are there any volunteers?"

Almost everybody raised their hands except for Harry which many people in the class found awkward because they knew that he was the best. Hermione whispered to Harry, "How come you're not volunteering?"

Harry replied, "I want to see what somebody else could do. I'm always up there and I guess its time for somebody else to be up there."

Remus just shrugged off his surprise that Harry didn't volunteer and picked Ron to duel against Michael Coroner from Ravenclaw. Ron was excited because he would be able to get some revenge for dumping Ginny at the end of last year to go out with Cho Chang after Ravenclaw lost to Gryffindor in quidditch.

The two of them bowed to each other and took five paces each away from each other and turned ready to duel. Tonks counted to five and Michael Coroner fired the first spell at the count of five. He yelled, "Stupefy."

Ron was barely able to yell, "Protego," and get his shield charm up in time to block the stunning spell. He immediately countered with, "Expelliarmus!"

Michael dove out of the way of the spell and as he was getting up yelled, "Impedimenta!" The spell was poorly aimed and hit the wall over Ron's shoulder. While Michael shot his spell, Ron was in the middle of another spell. Ron yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!" and it hit Michael in the chest and immediately froze and fell back to the ground.

Remus walked over and said, "Finite Incantatem," and Michael revived. He helped Michael up and said, "That was a good duel."

Michael and Ron shook each others hands while the rest of the class clapped to congratulate both duelists. They took their seats and Tonks turned to the class, "That was a good duel. By the end of the year, hopefully everybody will be able to better defend themselves."

Remus continued on, "Now that everybody seems to be filled with a bit more energy, let's start today's class with a review of spells that you all should know by now. Will everybody please put away your books, take out your wands," when Remus said that there were cheers in the classroom, "and partner up and practice the spells listed on the board." He waved his hand at the bored and a list of defensive and offensive spells appeared on the board.

When class ended everybody made their way to their next class which was charms. Upon entering charms, the Gryffindors like always sat together off to one side of the classroom near the front of the class. Professor Flitwick handed Harry a note when the Gryffindors were getting settled.

Harry opened the note and it said:

Harry,

That was absolutely incredible charms work that you did in the Great Hall last night and this morning. All of which are beyond what close to being covered on the N.E.W.T.s. It would appear with the ease of which you did the charms work that you would already be familiar with everything that we will be covering in class for the next two years. You are more than welcome to continue to take this class or just wait to take the N.E.W.T.s. on this subject. I have already talked to Professor Dumbledore and he has consented to this proposal. It is of no use to waste your time when you could be learning something else. Professor Dumbledore mentioned that you have other plans of what you could do with your time. You may leave whenever you like but if you have any questions, please feel free to stop by my office.

Professor Flitwick

Charms Professor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Harry turned up and nodded to Flitwick who nodded back to Harry in understanding. Harry stood up, grabbed his things, and got ready to leave. Ron asked, "Where are you going? Class is about to start."

Harry handed Ron the letter and said, "Show it to Hermione afterwards. I'll see you later at lunch." He turned to say bye to everybody else and left the room with a few confused looking faces at him.

Harry decided to take the time to go back to his room to drop off and pick up the books that he would need for the day after lunch. He walked out by the lake and just laid in the shade under an oak tree. After lying for about half an hour he was interrupted by somebody coming to the tree.

A young girl came up and said, "Hi, my name is Kayla Rapp. What's yours?"

Harry got up from the ground and said, "Hi, I'm Harry Potter. It's nice to meet you."

She replied, "It's nice to meet you to. I'm sure you hear it all the time but it's an honor. I know it must get aggravating getting all the attention but do you mind if I join you here?"

Harry thought, 'She's really nice. She must be the new exchange student that I heard about last night.' He ended up saying, "Not at all. I was just enjoying the nice day." He paused for a moment and asked, "How come you're not in class?"

She thought, 'Well, he's pretty polite. He doesn't seem like all stuck up like so many famous people.' She replied, "I guess that you received a note similar to mine in Professor Flitwick's class. At my old school, my teacher gave me lots of extra attention out of class and it just happened to turn out that it was enough to go beyond that of N.E.W.T.s."

"Are the tests the same in the States as they are here?"

"Well, it is similar but O.W.L.s. and N.E.W.T.s. are international standards so when I transferred here, it wasn't that big of a deal. Although, I'm used to slightly more holiday breaks than you have here."

"How long will you be here and how did you get in because I thought Hogwarts didn't accept transfers?"

"First off, I'll be here for this entire year but have the option to stay here next year also if I want to finish my schooling at Hogwarts. Secondly, Hogwarts usually doesn't accept transfers. After a meeting of Headmasters at the beginning of the summer, Dumbledore decided to give it a try with only one student for now and that student had to be hand picked by the headmasters just to make sure that that student would be able to keep up with what the curriculum with the respective school will be teaching."

"What school did you come from?"

"It's the American Institute of Magic or AIM. The campus itself looks more like a college campus than Hogwarts. The buildings there form a square at the center of the campus. The buildings were dedicated to a field of study like defense against the dark arts, or transfiguration, etc. At the center is a large quadrangle where students lay out in the sun on a nice day or have picnics or you might see people playing soccer or what the rest of the world calls football, American football, or just catch. All of the class buildings are two stories tall and made of limestone. On the north side of the campus, there are five dormitories, one dedicated to first years, one dedicated to girls, one dedicated to sixth and seventh years. All the buildings are six stories and co-ed except for the girls building. The west side of the campus houses the student recreation facility. The recreation facility is five stories tall and houses many things like two pools, a cafeteria, meeting rooms, racquet ball courts, weight rooms, gymnastics rooms, volleyball courts, and basketball courts. Pretty much if it can be played indoors, it was able to be played in that building. The east side of the campus is the quidditch stadium along with the soccer field which was at ground level. The soccer goals were movable so it made it easy to use that field for more than one purpose. The south side of the campus was a park with a lake similar to this lake here. The campus was pretty nice. It's just more modern than Hogwarts."

Clearly amazed by the American school, Harry said, "Apparently the wizards and witches in America are more interested than just quidditch. They seem to be pretty diverse."

"Well, by nature AIM is diverse. After all, it is a school and a country that was based on cultures and society around the world. Our curriculum is a bit more diverse there also. We are obviously influenced by the magic practiced by Europe which took hold in the Northeast US, than there is African magic that made it to the Caribbean islands and up through New Orleans known as Voodoo, and we learned the magic from the Orient through California like protection charms and different types of transfiguration."

"Are you very familiar with those different types of magic?"

"Yes, those kinds of stuff weren't covered on O.W.L.s. or N.E.W.T.s. but it was interesting so I took those classes as electives."

"Can you teach me some of what you've learned?"

"Of course, we seem to have some free time during this time period. I tell you what. I will teach you what you know if you will tutor me in your defense abilities." There was a pause and than she continued, "I'm proficient in that field but I would like to learn more and the rumor is that you're the best to teach this."

Harry smiled, nodded, and said, "Alright, we can help each other improve than."

"I was wondering, is it true that you led a secret society to help each other in defense while the school had a ban on pretty much associated with doing anything productive?"

"It is true. Well, we were forced into forming the DA because the defense teacher at the time was a bumbling idiot that didn't even allow us to use our wands to practice the spells. She absolutely hated me and wanted to hang me out to dry and if that meant the entire school going down with me than so be it."

"That must be why you're looked up to by most of the students. I don't know if you noticed but when you showed up in the Great Hall last night, the entire school just lit up with joy and excitement. The hope in everybody's eyes returned."

Harry turned away from Kayla and looked back at the view of the lake. He gave a sigh and said, "I really wish that people didn't put so much of their hope in me." He paused as he turned back to face Kayla and continued on, "Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that people aren't sad about me but the wizarding world needs to place more faith in themselves than in a teenager."

Kayla nodded and said, "It's true that people should have more faith in themselves but you must also understand that people search for a hero to follow." She looked him in the eye and said, "You're that hero."

Harry shook his head and said, "I'm just lucky that's all. I survived Voldemort the first time because my mom sacrificed herself so I could live. The second time was with Hermione's fast mind and Ron being a strategy master. The third time I was fighting an image of Tom Riddle with the help of Fawkes. The fourth time was with the help of my parents and Cedric Diggory's spirits. The fifth time was when Dumbledore came in and saved me by taking over the fight with Voldemort. I would have died each time if somebody didn't help me or got me out of a sticky situation." He was counting it off on his hand when he was telling Kayla.

"It just shows how much faith people have in you. Remember even though you were helped each time, you were there to hold your own while it was happening. You did what you had to do. Every leader has help and the stronger the leader, the better his team becomes. Every General has their Colonels. Every Minister of Magic has their advisors."

"I get your point. I can't do this myself but I'm not ready to bring people along with me. Only time will tell I guess, if I'll go and fight myself or let somebody help me."

"I know that you don't know me very well. But I can tell that you're true and just in your goals." With a smile she said, "If you need somebody to jump in the flames with you than let me know."

"Thank you for the offer but I hope that that never happens. Well, if you don't mind me asking tell me about your adventures."

She paused for a moment than said, "My schooling or pretty much my life is not as eventful as yours. Let's see, two years ago we had a dueling competition against another school in the states. It was pretty much an all out fire fight were there is a small field with some obstacles in it and two teams on each side just charge at each other and the team that eliminates all of there opponents first win."

She smiled and said, "The school that we played against isn't exactly known to play fair so we decided to play dirty against them also. We launched a head on attack and firing spells like crazy with disregard for whatever was going on. What we didn't realize was the other team was caught off guard by such a suicidal strategy that they freaked and pretty much ran. We over ran them in no time but didn't stop. We actually broke through the protection shield around the field and charged one of their dormitories and destroyed it. Needless to say they were not very pleased so all of their students decided to get involved in the fight. In the end it was a field of massacre with stunned and broken bodies everywhere. At least nobody died and no permanent damage. My team was suspended for a week for that day."

"That seems like you all got off easy."

"Oh we did, it's just that our Headmaster hated that school that we destroyed so much that he only did that for show. During the suspension, my friends and I decided to take a little vacation so we ended up coming to England to play. We were out in muggle London playing when we just happen to stumble upon some wizards and witches talking about the tri-wizard tournament at Hogwarts. So we followed them and they led us to Diagon Alley and we managed to get some information from different people on how to get to Hogwarts."

"How did that happen? I'm surprised that nobody said anything about you all for being so you and not in school."

"Oh a few people did notice but we were able to convince them that we were here with our parents on vacation and it was not hard to convince considering we don't have English accents."

"How did you get to Hogwarts?"

"Well, we found out about the Hogwarts express and took the train to Hogsmeade. When we arrived at Hogsmeade we made our way to Hogwarts and snuck in with the entourage for the English Ministry Officials who came to watch the tournament. It took some convincing and exchanging of money but we were able to get them to let us accompany them to the tournament."

"Which event did you all get to see?"

"Oh we got to see the one with the dragons. I believe it was the first task. The Headmaster from Durmstrang was so unfair with that score he gave you. But you were absolutely incredible. I don't think I've seen anybody fly a broom any better and needless to say coming up with that strategy for that task while everybody else was running around on the ground."

Harry blushed at the compliment and said, "I'm not sure if you know it or not but everybody cheated throughout the tournament. I did not mean to cheat but the information was pretty much thrown at me because I was dragged out to see the dragons before anybody knew about it."

"We kind of figured that. We heard that there were lots of cheating from everybody in these tournaments but as long as everybody had the information, I guess it doesn't really matter."

"What did you all do after the task was over?"

"We hung out in Hogsmeade for a day than back in London for another few days and headed back to school. You know after I saw you that day, I wanted to meet you. All of my friends seem to have a crush on you ever since they saw you that day."

Harry sighed.

Kayla noticed the sigh and said, "Well, don't get them wrong, they knew about you before coming to England. They started to like you because of how you survived the first task. At least they didn't just like you because of your fame."

"I guess that is better than most out there."

Kayla nodded and asked, "Well, we didn't get to hear too much about how everything turned out except for bits and pieces from the newspaper. Can you tell me what happened from your prospective?"

Harry told her about the three task and an edited version of what happened at the graveyard. At the end of Harry's story, she said, "That's so awful."

They were quiet for half a minute than Harry said, "Well, lets talk about something less depressing."

Kayla nodded and asked, "Well, how about the Hogwarts All-star team?"

Clearly confused, Harry asked, "The what?"

"That's right. You didn't arrive yet when the announcement was made. Well, there was a challenge issued by Durmstrang to Hogwarts. An All-star team will be assembled which will be composed of ten people to compete in three fields, academics, quidditch, and dueling."

"That should be pretty interesting. Are you going to sign up for it?"

"I signed up last night. There are lots of people that are going to try to be on the team but from what I heard, there's not a single Slytherin that's going to sign up because they don't want to associate with the other houses."

"I would have guessed that they would've had more school pride."

"Rumor has it that there are a few that want to but don't want to be alienated in their houses. There really isn't much that we can do about it. It's their choice after all to be a leader or a follower. Are you going to sign up for it?"

"I'm assuming that the school already expects me to sign up. Don't get me wrong, I want to be on the team but I also want to show Voldemort what I can do, at least not yet."

"You can always join and not play at your full potential."

"True, but it wouldn't be fair to anybody that would be on the team and working with all of their heart for their school and team."

"You don't have to perform in every event. You can just play quidditch and not in the dueling competition so nobody will know what you can do."

"That is a good point. If that is the case though, I can just play quidditch for the house team."

"From what I heard, quidditch has been canceled for this year so all the focus will be given to Durmstrang."

"Another year without quidditch, it's about the only thing that gives me joy and a sense of freedom. Well, I'll sign up too I guess. If anything from what you told me earlier, you'll be more than ready for the dueling competition."

Kayla smiled and said, "That means a lot coming from you. Who knows what else that I'll be able to do with your help along the way."

Harry nodded and said, "Well, I'll make up my decision by dinner. I think that lunch just started."

The two of them headed back inside to the Great Hall.

A/N: Here are the responses to the reviewers since my last posting.

Haydenrocks14: Thank you for the review and hope you continue to enjoy the story.

Firebirdgs: Thank you for your review and recommendations. I'll respond to yours as for your request by e-mail.

babyHarry: Thank you for your review and hope you continue to enjoy the story.

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Lil island girl: Thank you for the correction to my error in the story. I totally forgot all about how the mirror ended up in the trunk. If you see others than please let me know.

Ima Quidditch Fan: Thank you for reviewing and hope you enjoyed this chapter also. I always try to include as much imagery as possible so hopefully everybody can feel like they're standing there also.

Nightwing 509: Thank you for your review. I hope you continue to enjoy the story.