Chapter 17: The Magic of Hogwarts

"Wow." Alana was amazed at the school's beauty. She had always loved the architecture of castles and spent all her time searching the area around her home for abandoned structures. Half the island was covered in a dense forest they weren't permitted to explore because it wasn't protected by the Lucas family's many spells and other defenses. Extremely clever necromancers were known to lurk in the dark woods, bidding their time until they caught a Lucas off-guard and could attack. But those attacks were few and far apart, in all of Alana's time, she nor any of her cousins had run into any trouble regarding necromancers. They did however get into tight spots with the other inhabitants of the forest on many occasions. Lots of things lived in the forest and most of them didn't like children barging into their homes whether it was accidental or not.

"Alana. Hey, earth to Alana." Ron was waving his hand in front of her face, trying to get her to pay attention. "We're over here." He was motioning towards a table to the left, where Harry and Hermione had already sat down.

"Why don't we sit over there." The table they were heading towards was already pretty crowded, but the next table over was nearly empty.

"That's not the Gryffindor table."

"What's Gryffindor. Some kind of special honors thing?"

"No, it's one of the houses."

"Uh huh."

"Houses....you know, the groups we do everything with. Classes, dorms, points..."

"I know what they're for, I just don't see why everyone is split up. You'd think with this war thing coming up, Albus would have had the common sense to put everyone together. You know, to build trust and allies. That bunch in green over there doesn't seem too keen on all us red folks." She and Ron were seated across from Harry and Hermione now and all were listening to Alana attentively.

"That's because they're Slytherins." Harry said impatiently. "They're all going to end up deatheaters. That house has turned out more dark witches and wizards than the rest of the school combined."

"Right then. I'll keep it in mind to make them stay out of my way." Alana mumbled absent-mindedly as she studied the place-setting in front of her. "Do we see them that often."

"Only in Potions and Care of Magical Creatures." Ron said "I suppose it could be worse than just two classes."

"I personally think it's two classes too many." Hermione muttered "Look! Here come the first years."

The next half hour was spent sorting students into their new houses. Gryffindor was lucky enough to gain nine new students. "Martinez, Taryn" was the last girls to be selected. She was a kind looking girl with long brown-blonde hair and pretty brown eyes and looked familiar to a few students. Her cousin, Glorietta Loronca was a sixth year Ravenclaw who was in Hermione's arithmancy class.

"Students." Professor Dumbledore stood to make his annual year opening speech. "Welcome to yet another new year at Hogwarts. I beg of you all to pay as much attention as you can humanly bear for I have many grievous announcements. As most of you know, whether from being from a wizarding family or because you attended last year, Lord Voldemort has returned to life. After a year of warnings, the Minister Fudge has realized the truth and enlightened the rest of the wizarding world of that fact. This school is the safest place any of you can be during a time like this. Lord Voldemort is not going to attack this school and even if he had it in his mind to try, our teachers have devoted their lives to protect you students. Any one of them would die to save you. You need not worry about Lord Voldemort whilst in this castle.

"As you all may also have been informed of during the summer, with Voldemort's return also comes attacks on Muggles and Muggle-born wizards. Three days ago, Voldemort attacked a muggle boarding school in Rome, targeting a pair of witches assigned to the place for safety. No one thought he could ever find them, due to the miniscule amount of people who knew of their whereabouts, but somehow he managed to locate them. For this reason, we urge all of you to have at least three people informed of where you are going to be so this same thing won't happen to you. The person that knew where they were was killed by Voldemort and that left no one to try to save the girls. The school was attacked and everyone, save one of the witches, was murdered.

"When you leave the school walls, have a group of at least three with you. Do not stray off by yourselves and for no reason what so ever will any of you enter the Forbidden Forest or leave school ground without one teacher for every ten students. This may seem harsh at the moment but I assure you, these precautions are to ensure your safety and well-being. Anyone caught violating these rules will be punished to the furthest extent of their head of house's power.

"Now, enough with the dire situations. All of the older students are aware of the trouble we have finding employees for the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, yes? This year, we are fortunate enough to have not one, but two volunteers for this position. Unfortunately, they are caught up in other business at the moment and were unable to attend this years welcoming feast. However, they should be arriving within the next three days and I'm sure you will all enjoy having them here. They are truly wonderful people. Now, I'd say it is time for us all to tuck in!"

Then, just like every year, the golden plates filled with food and all the students gorged themselves on the wonderful Hogwarts food, discussing among themselves the many things Dumbledore gave them to think about and enjoying their first day back at school.

After dinner, Ron and Hermione led the timid first years up to Gryffindor tower while Harry and Alana made their way up in silence through shortcuts and secret passages.

"I really didn't expect him to say that." Alana said, breaking the quiet calm. "I mean, it's not a problem that he did. I just didn't think he would after all the trouble he went through to keep me under wraps."

"Yeah, I was pretty surprised myself." Harry mumbled "He doesn't usually tell us underage kids anything about Voldemort's plans."

"Doesn't he think people will figure it out though?" Alana stopped and looked him in the eye. "I mean, people have to be smart enough to but the pieces together. 'Hey, the new girl came from Rome. There was an attack in Rome and only one person survived. Hogwarts is the safest place in Europe so this survivor should be here or halfway across the world. I think that new girls is the surviving witch.' It's really not that hard to think of."

Harry sighed and leaned against the wall. His eyes were closed and he was deep in thought. What on earth was that crazy old man thinking?

"I honestly have no idea." He finally said. "Dumbledore has been confusing me and Ron and, well maybe not Hermione, but he's been confusing the rest of us since we came here. Nothing is easily understood with that man. I couldn't begin to tell you the crazy plans he's pulled since I started going to school."

Alana shrugged and started down the passage again. They were silent, too deep in their thoughts to be busied with making conversation. As the passage twisted and turned and branched off into other passages, they each slowly became aware of how long the trip was taking, the exact opposite of their original intentions.

"So do you think you'll get lost around here?" Harry asked, choosing another corridor to make the walk a little longer.

"Probably." Alana said nonchalantly. "But I'll tag along with you and Ron and Hermione until I figure my way around." She stopped as their corridor split into four right in front of them. "Which way?"

Harry thought for a moment. He was tired and no doubt Alana was too. He motioned to the far right path, which would take them almost directly to the portrait of the fat lady. Just a few minutes later, they climbed the spiral staircase to the dormitories with Ron and Hermione.

"I know this is a little late, but she seems a bit dodgy to me." Ron whispered to Harry as he changed into his pajamas. "But she doesn't seem like she's trying to do anything either. What do you reckon?"

Harry thought about it for a long while, reflecting on the last few days and wondering what was really going on.

"There's definitely something she's not telling us." He said cautiously, still thinking. "But I don't think she's going to hurt anyone either."

"Right mate." Ron said, crawling under his covers. "But it's too much for me to think on right now. I'm dead tired. 'Night." He shut his eyes and minutes later, he was asleep.

Harry, however, had no intentions of falling asleep. He instead waited for his roommates' respiration to slow, then slipped out of the dormitory and into the common room.

Even if he tried to sleep, Harry knew it would never come. Sleeping was for normal people, people without worries or pressure. Those who were happy and content with their family and friends and didn't have to think about death all the time. He was alone in the world and he knew it. No one else had the pressures of knowing they had to defeat the powers of darkness or be killed. No one else in the world had to deal with what he had to deal with. No matter how hard he tried, Harry couldn't think of a single soul he could turn to...but that soul was watching him at that very moment.