The next morning at breakfast, Harry, Ron, and Hermione introduced Ethan, Isabel, and Rochelle to all of Gryffindor house. All of the students were curious about their new classmates and immediately bombarded the new trio with questions.
"So where did you come from?" Neville Longbottom asked Ethan, taking him for the leader of the group.
But it was Isabel who answered: "We used to go to Durmstrang," she answered lightly, buttering a roll. "We came to see the Triwizard Tournament a few years ago, where I met Harry." Isabel gave the uncomfortable-looking boy sitting to her right a glowing smile.
"That's also where I met Hermione," Ethan said proudly, taking Hermione's hand from across the table. Hermione blushed but smiled happily.
"And that's where I met—," Rochelle stopped and glared at Ron. Before anyone knew what was happening, Rochelle had whipped her hand across the table to slap the poor red-head seated there. "Don't you EVER think that about me AGAIN!" she shouted at Ron, rising from her seat.
The Great Hall fell silent, and the students at all four tables turned to watch the show, thinking someone had received a Howler in their mail; even the teachers, including the new headmistress, Professor McGonagall, were watching what was happening at the Gryffindor table.
Ethan broke the silence with a hearty laugh, and soon Isabel followed his lead. Taking the hint, Harry and Hermione also started laughing, but Ron, rubbing his now-red cheek, simply muttered, "I don't see what's so funny…"
"Rochelle," Ethan chastised, "you can't use Legilimency every time you want to know what your boyfriend is thinking!"
The Great Hall returned to its normal volume, but Professor McGonagall's eyes never left the three intruders in her school. Rochelle lowered herself back into her seat, and the headmistress finally turned away to continue her conversation with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
"So, Hermione," a very interested Lavender Brown asked, propping her head on one fist, "what happened between you and Victor Krum, then?"
"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, looking to Ethan in alarm.
Ethan smiled confidently. "Are the same rumors that haunted me at Durmstrang spread here at Hogwarts, as well?" he asked a stunned Lavender. He sighed as if he was disappointed and explained lightly, "Krum had a crush on Hermione and asked her out to the Yule Ball before I got to her. He took the date too seriously and thought there was something going on between them, so Hermione was taken into the lake for him to rescue." Ethan squeezed Hermione's hand and smiled at her.
"Ron…" Rochelle muttered warningly.
"Yes ma'am!" Ron answered in alarm, looking quickly from Rochelle to his untouched plate of scrambled eggs.
"And you're all in Gryffindor House?" Dean Thomas asked, amazed. "That's lucky; you're all together, with your old friends and your new boyfriends and girlfriend!"
"Excuse me." Isabel turned to see Professor McGonagall standing directly behind her, lips pursed angrily. "I would like to see you and your two friends in my office at once."
Immediately, Ethan, Isabel, and Rochelle stood and bid good-bye to their friends. Ethan made a show of not wanting to let go of Hermione's hand, but eventually let go when Ron came and wrenched their hands apart with an annoyed expression on his face. Rochelle gave Ron an over-exaggeratedly blown kiss good-bye, which Ron did not return. Isabel ruffled Harry's hair in farewell before following Professor McGonagall out the Great Hall.
The trio followed McGonagall to a stone gargoyle, outside of which the professor said "White." The gargoyle promptly sprang to life and jumped out of the way, the wall opening to reveal a moving staircase.
"But in the—," Isabel began saying before Ethan "accidentally" stomped down on her foot. Rochelle shook her head disappointedly at her friends and followed Professor McGonagall up the stairs.
Once they were in McGonagall's office, the teacher turned around with a livid expression on her face. "I want to know," she said angrily, her lips completely disappeared with the pressure she was exerting on them, "who you are and what you are doing in my school uninvited."
The three Guardians of Time stood still, feigning innocence. Ethan stepped forward, being the Guard with the most experience out of all of them, and said, confused, "Professor, I am Ethan Roberts. This is Isabel Becket, and that is Rochelle Thallimar. We're here to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
"I don't recall seeing any of your names on our attendance records for this year," McGonagall countered, furious.
Ethan's look of confusion deepened. "I know my mother sent you and owl with all of our transfer papers…" Then Ethan's eyes widened in fear. "Oh no!" he shouted. "The letter must have been intercepted! It's been happening to us a lot lately; friends and family will have supposedly sent us a letter but we won't have received it, or we will have sent something that they hadn't received. And every time Dartemis—my family's owl—returns, he always seems to have a new injury!" Ethan gulped. "Do you think You-Know-Who could be having my family watched, Professor?"
Professor McGonagall was shocked; this was not the interview she had envisioned. She had thought she was about to discover three Death Eaters attempting to infiltrate her school using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate three students, or maybe just three students whose parents had sent them to Hogwarts without notifying her, hoping to keep their children safer in the protection of the most prestigious magical school in all of Britain. But no; these children needed help, if there mail was being intercepted by You-Know-Who. She would have to inform the Order of their predicament as soon as possible.
"What are your parents' names?" she asked the students, sitting down behind her desk. McGonagall took three sheets of parchment from the top drawer of her desk and began dabbing her quill into a bottle of emerald green ink. "I'll need to write them, to confirm your attendance here and to assure them that they will have protection if You-Know-Who is watching them."
"My father's name is Shaun Roberts," Ethan replied immediately. "He got a job helping Madame Rosmerta at the Three Broomsticks, so he could be closer to me. And he felt sorry for her, you know, being Imperiused like that… Anyway, my mum's dead so there's no point in writing to her, is there?" Ethan told that last lie without a flicker of hesitation; the knowledge dust that had been dumped on him before departing for Hogwarts had included that last bit in his alias's personal history.
Isabel came forward, offering the names of her parent: "My dad's name is Arkarian, but my mum was a Muggle; she left my dad shortly after I was born, when he told her he was a wizard." Isabel smiled and added, "He's also a metamorphmagus, and he likes to look like he's eighteen. He even gives himself long blue hair and violet eyes!"
"Not so unusual," McGonagall commented off-handedly. "One of my good friends is a metamorphmagus, and she keeps her hair short, spiky, and bubble-gum pink."
Rochelle stepped forward and said quickly, "Dad's name is Jimmy; he works for Fred and George Weasley down at the Hogsmeade branch of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He's never told me anything about my mum though…"
"Don't any of you have a mother?" McGonagall cried. She felt ashamed as soon as the words left her mouth; the three students in front of her immediately began shuffling their feet uncomfortably; Ethan's mother must have passed away only a little while ago, because a tear slid down his face. McGonagall apologized while she addressed the letters. She summoned three owls from the Hogwarts owlry and sent the letters on their way. Only a short while later, the responses arrived. Each of the fathers said that they had sent their child's transfer papers with the Roberts family owl named Dartemis, and also listed the classes that each of their children had been scheduled for.
McGonagall sighed and ran her wand down the lists of classes each parent had provided, and on her desk appeared three completed class schedules; one for each Ethan Kenrich Roberts, Isabel Althea Becket, and Rochelle Desdemona Thallimar. She handed the schedules to the appropriate student and sent them on their way, but still determined to keep her eyes on them in the future.
Once outside Professor McGonagall's office, the three newly enrolled Hogwarts students let out a sigh of relief and looked over their schedules:
ETHAN KENRICH ROBERTS
First Period: N.E.W.T. Potions
Second Period: N.E.W.T. Transfiguration
Third Period: N.E.W.T. Ancient Runes
Fourth Period: free period
LUNCH
Fifth Period: N.E.W.T. Defense Against the Dark Arts
Sixth Period: N.E.W.T. Charms
Seventh Period: free period
Eighth Period: N.E.W.T. Muggle Studies
DINNER
ISABEL ALTHEA BECKET
First Period: N.E.W.T. Potions
Second Period: N.E.W.T. Transfiguration
Third Period: N.E.W.T. Herbology
Fourth Period: free period
LUNCH
Fifth Period: N.E.W.T. Defense Against the Dark Arts
Sixth Period: N.E.W.T. Charms
Seventh Period: free period
Eighth Period: N.E.W.T. Divination
DINNER
ROCHELLE DESDEMONA THALLIMAR
First Period: N.E.W.T. Potions
Second Period: N.E.W.T. Transfiguration
Third Period: N.E.W.T. Herbology
Fourth Period: free period
LUNCH
Fifth Period: N.E.W.T. Defense Against the Dark Arts
Sixth Period: N.E.W.T. Charms
Seventh Period: free period
Eighth Period: N.E.W.T. Muggle Studies
DINNER
"Looks like I'm all set to be an Auror!" Ethan chuckled. "Go figure."
"'Go figure' for you, look what I've got!" Isabel exclaimed. "I've got all the classes required for a career as a Healer!" All three students laughed.
"What do you reckon my classes are leading me towards a career in?" Rochelle asked curiously.
Isabel grabbed at the schedule and looked it over for half a second before announcing, "It looks like you're destined for a position in the Ministry's Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes!"
The three friends laughed over their class schedules while Isabel led them to their first period classes: N.E.W.T. Potions.
The trio arrived shortly after the other Gryffindors and Slytherins had gathered, but not before the gong could hail them as being late to class. After a quick explanation to Professor Slughorn about why they didn't have all of the appropriate Potions supplies, the teacher pointed them in the direction of the teacher's stores, directing them to take a book, cauldron, and basic supplies. After gathering all of the necessary supplies, Ethan set his cauldron up next to Hermione; Isabel hurried to get a spot next to Harry; Rochelle reluctantly went over to Ron and banged her cauldron down on the counter.
"This year," Professor Slughorn began, "you shall not only be making more complicated potions, potions that take longer than a class period to brew; you shall also be learning how to identify the various ingredients of each potion. This is meant to teach you how to identify unknown potions based on the ingredients they are comprised of."
Professor Slughorn went over the class assignment: after the teacher distributed each student a sample of Boil Cure Potion, each student was to go about listing the various ingredients included in the potion. Although the rest of the class looked at the teacher with expressions of horror on their faces, Rochelle laughed slightly.
Professor Slughorn handed out the vials of the potion. To everyone's shock, Rochelle uncorked the vial the minute it was in her hand and poured a small amount of it onto the palm of her hand. Immediately she turned to Professor Slughorn and smiled brilliantly, listing confidently: "Dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horn slugs, and porcupine quills."
Every person in the class held their breath; Hermione stopped flipping through pages of her copy of Advanced Potion-Making to stare at Rochelle.
"That is… correct!" Professor Slughorn said, shocked. Then, turning to Harry, he warned, "Be careful of this one, Potter! It seems as if she is trying to steal your place as the best potion-maker at Hogwarts!"
Harry shrugged; he really didn't care who was better at him in Potions, never really having liked the class in the first place. That was Hermione's area, and she really did look stunned that someone had actually done better than her without the help of a textbook filled with shortcuts and cheats.
Slughorn produced another potion for them to identify the contents of: the Befuddlement Draught. Once again, Rochelle managed to decipher the ingredients (sneezewort, scurvy-grass, and lovage) simply by pouring a small sample of the potion into her hand. When she managed to do it a third time with the Wit-Sharpening Potion, (ground scarab beetle, cut-up ginger root, and armadillo bile) Ethan nudged her softly and whispered that she should back off or risk revealing who they are. Rochelle gave him a slightly disappointed look; she was enjoying the exploitation of her power.
Ethan, under the pretense of going back to the teacher's cupboard for a better copy of Advanced Potion-Making, slipped Harry a note. Harry unfolded the note, carefully keeping it out of sight of the overlarge Professor Slughorn, and read: So when are Quidditch try-outs?