Okay, we're back!
Kaori: After several months. Sorry.
And yes, the new Harry Potter book is coming out this month, but we'll keep writing if you'll bear with us and keep reading. But anyway, here's Chapter 3.
Kaori: We don't own Harry Potter.
Nuh-uh.
Kaori: I think this is the calmest I've ever seen you, Ichigo... You feeling all right?
By the time the flock of carriages had arrived at the castle, Luna felt much better. She would have been completely content to walk to the Great Hall unassisted, but Harry still held fast to her arm.
"Harry," she said, "I'm fine now."
"Look, mate," Ron said, when Harry still refused to let go, "she doesn't need help."
Harry opened his mouth to tell Ron to mind his own business, but was stopped by the sudden arrival of Professor Snape.
"Miss DiAngelo?" he sneered.
Lilia did her best to hide behind Neville.
"Would you come with me, please?" He turned and swept away, and Lilia tentatively followed, throwing a helpless look over her shoulder.
"A bit odd, isn't she?" Luna said dreamily. (Harry had finally let go of her arm.)
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, Ron thought, but he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut for once.
The Great Hall, usually aglow with warm excitement, was somber and empty. Nearly a third of the students were still missing. Harry, Hermione, and Neville sat silently while Ron watched anxiously for Ginny. Hermione reached over and squeezed his hand. Ron squeezed back a little too hard and Hermione winced.
"Sorry," he said, tensely.
The thin stream of students gradually trickled to a stop. Ginny was nowhere to be seen. Ron dropped his head into his hands.
Dumbledore's voice broke the uneasy silence.
"My dear students," he said, "I would like to give my sincere apologies for the unfortunate accident on the train. I assure you that there were no serious injuries, and that your friends in the hospital wing have suffered nothing worse than a few broken bones."
A wave of murmurs surged through the Great Hall. A few teachers began to emerge through a door behind the High Table. Professor Sprout, Professor Sinistra, Madam Hooch.
"That said," Dumbledore continued, "I would like to welcome you back to Hogwarts. I regret to say that Professor McGonagall will not be with us for the sorting ceremony this year, but Professor Flitwick will be filling in for her." He gestured towards the doors, through which Professor Flitwick was already leading the most frightened batch of first years Harry had ever seen.
Harry felt himself slipping from reality again. It seemed like it had been ages since he had last slept. He heard the strange, gravely voice of the Sorting Hat. Then, Professor Flitwick's high, squeaky little voice took over. But the words were all smeared together, as if they had been written in ink and somebody had rubbed their hand over it before it dried. Before he knew it, he was gallopping across the vast, dusty plains.
The grass under his hooves grew greener and softer. He heard the sound of rushing water and in a few moments he had reached a river, just at the base of a waterfall. He lowered his head to take a drink, and when he raised his eyes again, he saw someone lying on the opposite bank. He trotted through the clear, shallow water and looked down on the boy in front of him.
He saw himself. And beside him, Luna Lovegood. A little farther down the bank, under a tree, lay Ron and Hermione. Were they dead? No. Only sleeping, only sleeping. Hermione shifted slightly and sighed.
Harry tossed his head and paced upstream to look down at Ron and Hermione. The cold water rushed around his ankles and the spray of the falls gently kissed his face and ears. His friends' faces were calm and blissful, and there was a strange, unearthly sheen to their skin. Deeper in the shadow of the tree he could see more people. Faces he didn't recognise, faces he couldn't place, faces he couldn't quite see. He stretched out his neck to see better. Pale, smiling people, sleeping in the shade of the tree. Only he and Luna were set apart.
"Harry?" a voice said.
Harry jerked awake. Hermione pointed to the pile of chicken drumsticks that had appeared at the table.
"All right, Harry?" Neville asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Harry said, rubbing his temples. "Just tired."
Hermione nodded sympathetically, then turned to Ron. He was white-faced and tense.
"Oh, Ron, please eat something," Hermione pleaded. He shook his head. "Look, there's nothing you could have done. It's not as if you were the one who sent her off to patrol. She volunteered for it."
Ron dropped his head into his hands again.
"Oh, stop it," Hermione said, a little impatiently. "Didn't you hear Dumbledore? Nobody was seriously hurt. Madam Pomfrey knows what she's doing. She'll have everybody patched up in no time."
Ron sighed. He picked up a single chicken leg and dropped it onto his plate. He stared at it.
"Oh, just eat it, for Pete's sake!" Hermione said, exasperated. Ron grunted, but he did eat. Hermione seemed content with this and returned her attention to Harry.
"So," she said. "Tell me about you and Luna Lovegood"
Harry swallowed. "What about me and Luna Lovegood?"
"I mean about you carrying her and everything."
"She was dizzy."
"Even so."
"She couldn't stand up."
"If you say so."
"What are you getting at?"
Hermione put her goblet down. "It's just that I've never seen you act like that before."
"Act like what?"
"Well, you just seemed so worried, Harry," she said.
"Well, of course I was worried," Harry said hotly. "She couldn't walk!"
"It's not just that, Harry," she said, shaking her head.
"What is it, then?" he grunted, returning to his food.
Hermione sighed. "It's the way you were looking at her," she said.
Harry gulped. "H-how's that?" he said. He hadn't been looking at her, had he?
"Well," Hermione said, struggling for how to describe it, "like - like Ginny used to look at you."
Harry blushed. "Oh, come off it," he said, trying to shrug it off. But in his mind he wondered.
Hermione opened her mouth to prod him further, but Neville had been listening and quickly came to the rescue.
"So, what do you think the new teacher will be like?" he said casually.
Harry saw a firecracker go off in Hermione's eyes.
"Yes, I've been wondering about her," she said rapidly. "That girl is her daughter?"
"That's what she said."
"Well, I was talking to Tonks about her," Hermione said confidentially, leaning in, "and she said that Koryu Shimizu is only in her twenties. She's not old enough to have a daughter our age."
"So... do you reckon Lilia's lying?" Ron said, slowly putting down his chicken leg.
"But why would she?" Harry said.
Hermione shook her head. "I don't know."
"But Lilia said she had never met her mother," Neville said. "So maybe there's more than one person with the same name."
"Oh, come on," Ron said. "How many Koryu Shimizus can there be?"
"You know, Ron," Harry said. "Your Dad didn't seem to be quite sure what her first name was. So maybe they are two different people."
"And there's another thing," Hermione said. "Her name is Japanese, but I saw her getting out of the carriage after Professor McGonagall and she didn't look Japanese at all."
"So maybe she's mixed," Harry said, wearily. "Just drop it, Hermione."
"Hey, Neville," Ron said, grinning. "You're getting some looks." He nodded toward a cluster of first-year girls. Neville turned to look. The girls giggled and looked away.
"You really do look different," Harry said. Neville shrugged his shoulders noncommitally.
"Anyway, if this Professor Shimizu really is Koryu Shimizu, she's supposed to be an expert on something called physical magic," Hermione continued.
"What's that?" Neville asked.
"I don't know," Hermione admitted.
"Do you think she might have had something to do with the train wreck?" Ron asked.
"I doubt it," Harry said, combing his fingers through his thick black hair.
"Well, not directly, anyway," Hermione said. "Dumbledore wouldn't have hired her if she weren't trustworthy. But some people just attract trouble." Harry shot her a look. She shrugged. "It probably has nothing to do with her."
"But still, why attack the train? Hardly anybody was hurt," Harry said.
"Maybe they didn't know about the safety spells," Ron suggested.
"Possibly," Hermione said, "but I doubt it."
"Or maybe it was just to scare us," Neville said.
"Right now that seems most likely," said Hermione. "It doesn't seem to have done anything else."
"Unless it was just a distraction so that You-Know-Who could get away with something else," Ron said.
"Like what?"
Ron opened his mouth to answer, but Dumbledore's voice cut him off.
"Now that she has arrived," Dumbledore said, "I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Koryu Shimizu."
Thanks for reading. Again, if you're still willing to read this after the sixth book comes out, review and tell us, okay?
Kaori: Hope to see you next time.
Since when do you hope to see anyone, Kaori?