Kit, Nita, and Dairine settled down in the Gryffindor common room pretty well. They told their stories to the curious students, then ate the food they found on a common room table. By nearly midnight, the crowd had dispersed and it was only Kit, Nita, Dairine, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sitting by the fire. Dairine muttered, "Red Five," and her Apple fell into her lap softly. Ron, Harry, and Hermione stared. Nita and Kit held out their hands, and their manuals fell into them. Kit reached absently in his otherworld claudication and pulled out a bag of marshmallows and a few long sticks. He speared a marshmallow onto each of the six sticks and handed each of them a stick before the three awestruck wizards could say anything about his invisible pocket. He slapped his head. "Oh, how could I forget?" He reached into his pocket once more and pulled out a few Hershey's chocolate bars and a box of graham crackers. Dairine clapped her hands and grinned. "S'mores!" she cried and snapped some chocolate off the bar and placed it onto her graham cracker, splitting her cracker in half. She leaned forward until her marshmallow was well toasted in the fire. She rested the hot marshmallow on the graham cracker, made a sandwich with it, and drew the stick out. She pressed the two crackers together, and blew on it a little before she bit into it, causing melted marshmallow and chocolate to ooze out the sides of the crackers. The others began to do it too, and they ate until they were stuffed. Ron grinned happily as he patted his stomach. Hermione dozed contentedly on her chair, and Harry had a faint hint of a smile on his face. Suddenly, a big black dog trotted to Kit, seemingly out of thin air. The dog panted and snatched up a fallen marshmallow in his teeth. Kit scolded in the Speech,
"Ponch, where were you? I expected you here hours ago!" Ponch grinned as well as he could, and replied in a string of soft barks,
"Oh, I was in my universe. I played with the squirrels, oh yes! It was fun, yayayaya!" Kit turned to Harry to tell him about his dog, but he stopped short. Harry was deathly pale, looking at Kit with a haunted look in his eyes. Hermione stirred and gasped as she set eyes on Ponch. "Sirius" she said in a faint whisper. Nita frowned. That was the name of Harry's godfather, wasn't it? The one who had disappeared behind the veil at the Department of Mysteries. Why on earth did Hermione say his name? Nita jolted as she remembered that Sirius Black was able to transform himself into a dog anytime he wished. Kit looked at Nita, giving her a knowing look. He turned to Harry and Hermione, as Ron was asleep. He shook his head. "No" Kit replied truthfully. "He's been with me my whole life. He's not Sirius Black. His name is Ponch, or Pancho." Harry nodded in silent agreement. Hermione only looked at Ponch, rose, and turned to Nita saying,
"Well, I see that you must be tired, I'll lead you to the Girls' Dormitory, and Harry and Ron will show you to the boys' dormitory. Good Night." With that, she beckoned to Nita and turned toward the staircase near the end of the Common Room. Nita, Dairine, and Hermione left, leaving Kit, Ron, Harry, and Ponch in the common room. Ponch stood up. Ron groaned and followed suit, muttering to Kit as he passed him,
"Here, Harry'll be here for a bloody long while, mate. I can tell. Let's go up to the dormitory." Kit sorrowfully followed Ron up the stairs to his dormitory, Ponch trotting at his heels.
The next day, Nita felt a hand urgently shaking her shoulder.
"Get up, I've got to show you around Hogwarts!" Nita blinked and looked up sleepily at the figure above her.
"Go 'way, mom. I wanna sleep in." Nita mumbled. Then she snapped to attention and sat up, remembering all that happened the night before. "Sorry, Hermione. I guess I'm having a complete brain holiday. Sorry." Hermione grinned at her and tossed her what looked like a black robe.
"This is your school robe. Your uniform is at the foot of the bed. Come on, hurry up, we'll be late for breakfast." Nita struggled with the uniform and followed Hermione down the stairs into the Common Room. The boys were already there, and two red-haired girls stood beside them.
"Hi Neets. This is Ginny. Isn't it neat, we look alike!" nita squinted at the girls. One was definitely Dairine. The other looked exactly like her. Dairine had found what a bother it was to do major wizardries and keep her glasses on, so she had switched to contacts over the summer. Nita scratched her forehead, bemused, and followed the others out of the Common Room through a tunnel-like "Portrait Hole" The group walked hurriedly through the hallways as Ron, Harry, and Hermione explained to the others about the corridors of Hogwarts. They finally reached two great wooden doors. Harry pushed them open and walked in. suddenly, the chatter that had gone on previously stopped as if cut by a knife. Everyone turned to stare at them. The six walked to their table amidst the hushed whispers. Dumbledore stood up. The Hall immediately quieted again.
"Ahem, dear students of Hogwarts, we have two new er- transfer students from the United States of America. Juanita Callahan, Dairine Callahan, and Christopher Rodriquez, will you please stand up here?" Blushing furiously, Nita stood and walked slowly up to the dais, hearing her sister and Kit's footsteps behind her. They turned to face the crowd of curious faces. At one table was a crowd of intelligent looking students, and at another were a crowd of curious students, and at yet another, there was a crowd of cold, sneering faces. Nita looked up uncertainly at Dumbledore who stood behind her. "Please welcome them kindly and ,now, on with the meal!" Dumbledore said with a merry twinkle in his eye, and suddenly plates of food popped up on the table. Dumbledore nodded to Nita, Dairine, and Kit. They hurriedly sat at their seats. The Gryffindors at their table nodded and stared in awe as Kit began to eat, and eat, and eat.
"Wow," he said to Nita with a mouth full of pancakes, "This is almost as good as your mom-" He stopped suddenly and blanched, and Nita sniffed as she looked at her plate. Dairine looked away. Kit swallowed his food past a lump in his throat and haltingly began to apologize.
"Nita, I'm sorry, really really sorry! I forgot, she's such a great woman. I'm sorry…" he trailed off brokenly. Nita rubbed her eyes and flashed Kit a watery smile.
"It's okay, really Kit. But its hard, you know?" Kit nodded and turned to his plate and absently pushed at the remaining food on it. They sat in silence, surrounded by the chatter of the other students, until Harry, Hermione, and Ron dragged them off to their first class, Advanced Potions.
"Now, don't pay attention to Snape, the old geezer. He hates all Gryffindors, you know. Just don't do anything rash. Oh, here we are!" They had arrived in front of a large wooden door. Nita laid a hand on the wood. It spoke to her in the mind-Speech,
Be careful, youngster.
Thank you, Nita replied. She lined up the words of the air-hardening spell in her mind. Then she pushed the door open and came in. The talking in the room hushed, like it had in Great Hall. All of the eyes in the room stared at her. She and the others sat at their seats and looked around. The sneering faces at the other end of the room did nothing to comfort her. She glared coldly back at them and concentrated on the man who had just entered the room. He was of a medium build, with greasy black hair that fell, lank , to his shoulders. He sneered in a similar fashion to that of the Slytherins at the newcomers and turned to the rest of the class. He started, coldly,
"Today we will look at a new potion, called The Kraken's Blight. It is used to give unbearable pain to the user, cauterizing and paralyzing, shutting down each function of the soul until the brain is the only working organ left, leaving the user vulnerable to be used by others, mindlessly following instruction soon the body is destroyed from within by acids.. It is a slow working potion, used to torture in the early history of wizardry. You, Ms.Callahan, Mr Rodriquez, why aren't you writing this down?" Nita, knowing that the information was probably in her manual, held hand out and took her manual from seemingly thin air. Kit did the same. She noticed that all the information in her manual was adapted to this universe, with potion recipies, different spells, and different addresses in the back of the book. The manual still had the information that it did when Nita was in her world, including a precis on her status. They were on active status, though it didn't state why. she found the recipie and propped her manual in front of her. Snape sniffed disdainfully and waved his hand, motioning for the students to begin to brew the potion. Nita quickly completed all directions given and sat, nursing a pot of lime-green Kraken's Blight. Snape was ordering,
"Miss Bulstrode, you must stir you potion corrctly, or it will immediately explo-" there was a hissing sound, and Nita quickly saw the problem. The cauldron of a large Slytherin girl was hissing and popping loudly, orange-red liquid splashing onto the floor and biting away at the stone blocks. The Slytherin had recoiled in fright, and Nita immediately sent her shield to cover the area around her, including the whole class, Gryffindors and Slytherins alike. The cauldron exploded, and Nita heard screams. She struggled to hold to her spell as the corrosive potion poured out of the charred cauldron and splashed at the base of the spell. KIT! She cried mentally. Kit muttered three words, and his power surged through her. She held the spell, fists clenched against this strange new magic foe. The students stood, staring at the orange-red liquid sloshing against the bubble of air Nita had trapped them in. Professor Snape was surprised, but hid his astonishment and muttered several words. Nita felt something penetrate her spell, and then the orange-red liquid was gone. She released the spell and sagged against the wall at her back. She gasped for air and felt Hermione come and support her. She dimly heard Snape shouting,
"Miss Bulstrode, thirty, no, fifty points from Slytherin for endangering this class, and those points will go to Gryffindor, because that girl was able to save us from a very, very gruesome death. Detention with Filch for the next week!" Nita grinned, and then passed out.