Chapter 7: "Harry, can you see two Malfoys as well?"

Hey everyone,

Thanks heaps Charlie and WolfbainKohaku (that's really hard to type) for reviewing. i reall apprecated it.

Lottie. I'm sorry I made you sound like an idiot….hehe, and (copy, paste) WolfbainKohaku, I don't accually know about snuffles having something to do with Sirius (looks around suspiciously) and yes Charlie is weird.


Everyone clapped as the sorting hat finished sorting out all the new students of the first year. Dumbledore stood up and addressed the students and asked for silence as the final first year student was sorted.

"As you may all know by now, Hogwarts is welcoming into its walls the students of Castells" again the hall erupted in applause. The Castells students were very proud that their school was mentioned by the head master as they cheered and whistled enthusiastically. Professor Dumbledore, with a smile, again asked for quiet in the hall. "These students, no doubt have told you all about their home and maybe even their school, but I ask you to be cautious of their emotions. Times are growing hard in Australia and some memories are best forgotten"

Harry noticed that a few students gave quick glances at Leisha until Alexia gave a discouraging look to them.

"On a lighter note, this year we will be welcoming some new staff changes. Professor Lupin will be rejoining us in the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts, welcome back professor."

Remus stood up and every Hogwarts student was standing and cheering his return. Remus, although tired as the full moon was fast approaching, he repaid the hall's applause with a cheerful smile.

"And also" Professor Dumbledore continued after the hall calmed down, "Madam Periwinkle will be continuing teaching the Castells students in the way of Chants. Her classes will also be available to Hogwarts students that would like to join. So welcome to Hogwarts Madam Periwinkle."

A witch with a dark sweeping cape stood up to address the hall. Her graying hair would have been almost standing on end if it wasn't for her wand that kept the thick mop of hair in a somewhat neat bun at the back of her head. Madam Periwinkle gave a low dignified bow to everyone in the hall then returned to her seat to take a sip from her goblet.

"I thought I came here to escape that woman." Alexia whispered to Leisha, who again rolled her eyes at her.

"What?" Hermione asked the two of them.

"Madam Periwinkle is a total crack pot" alexia cried as quietly as possible.

"Alexia, don't say that," Leisha told her friend as she hit her arm, "madam periwinkle isn't a crack pot, she just has some weird obsessions"

"It's more then weird if the guy has been dead for longer then I can count"

"Who's she obsessed with?" Ron asked quietly.

"The grand wizard Merlin" Alexia said in a vague voice that was meant to imitate Madam Periwinkle.

"That's probably why she keeps staring at Professor Dumbledore's beard" Harry commented as he noticed that Madam Periwinkle was staring at Albus Dumbledore's long white beard as he stood in front of the hall. The small group sprang into a fit of giggles.

"Well I won't keep you from your feast and longer, so feel free to dig in" Dumbledore finished.

The plates filled with food as it did every other year, and several of the new students were in absolute awe at how much was in front of them. Everyone started piling up their plates and talked amongst each other. Hermione was explaining to Leisha and Alexia the different teachers of Hogwarts.

"And that's Professor MaGonagall, she's the transfiguration teacher and the head of Gryffindor house. Next to her is Hagrid, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher"

"He's HUGE"

"Well he's half giant. Now who else is there? Um, Professor Snape, head of Slytherin house and teaches Potions. He's not that nice really."

"Well I wish Charlie and Katie luck with him"

"Then there's Professor Lupin, he was our DADA teacher in our third year"

"Why did he leave?"

"Because Snape told everyone that he was a werewolf. Professor Lupin thought the parents wouldn't want a werewolf to teach their kids so he left"

"So why did he come back?"

"Because our last DADA teacher left, everyone hated her and she barely taught us anything, Harry had to start teaching everyone instead"

"And besides," Ron added, "Lupin is the best DADA teacher we've ever had"

:i:i:i:i:i:i:i:

Soon everybody in the great hall had filled their stomachs and they were more then ready to go to bed. Leisha and Alexia ran to find Charlie and Katie and then they all followed professor MaGonagall like the other students of Castells did. Meanwhile Harry Ron and Hermione started heading out of the great hall.

"Did either of you two notice when Dumbledore gave his speech mentioning the Castells students how everyone looked over at Leisha?" Harry asked as he watched Leisha, Katie, Alexia and Charlie following professor MaGonagall out of the great hall.

"No" Ron said simply

"Ok, maybe not everyone but some did"

"I did notice that both Charlie and Katie seemed very protective about something over at the Slytherin table" Hermione said as she thought more about what Harry had said.

"Alexia was doing the same thing"

"Harry I'm sure it was nothing. If it bothers you so much you should ask them about it. Just try not to get too offended if they don't tell you. As Dumbledore said some things are best forgotten"

"I noticed that you were getting along well with them Hermione" Ron said as they continued to walk.

"Of course I get along with them Ronald. I happen to be quite fond of the idea of having some friends who are girls, not that there was a problem with you two being my friends. It's just that there are some things that you will never understand. You know, girl stuff"

"It's ok Hermione, you just go off and become a girl without us"

"Ok Ronald, if you insist"

They continued walking up the grand staircase in Hogwarts and Ron had taken to counting each one.

"Umm, Hermione where are you going? The common room is this way remember?" Ron told her as Hermione started walking down a different corridor to Harry and himself.

"Ron don't you pay attention in meetings. Sixth years and seventh years get their own common room because there is no more room in the normal common rooms."

"So that's what they were going on about" Ron muttered to himself

With a sigh the trio headed towards the new common room which was placed on the second floor, close to the library.

"It's meant to encourage us to study more" Hermione announced as they walked passed the library of Hogwarts.

"Like that is going to happen" Ron whispered to Harry, who couldn't help but smile at the two of them.

At the end of the corridor was a huge golden frame that held a portrait of a wizard with pure white hair and a long beard like Dumbledore's and thick text books held in his hands. At first, Harry thought that the portrait was of Dumbledore.

"Now who do we have here?" the portrait asked. Harry then changed his mind about the portrait being Dumbledore. He was sure that the portrait of Dumbledore would at least sound like the real Dumbledore. But the portrait's voice was older, and slightly deeper.

"Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter, all 6th years." Hermione told the portrait. The wizard stared at the three of them and then smiled.

"Well Miss Granger, Mr Weasley and Mr Potter. I am the portrait of Merlin and I assure you. So long as I guard the senior's chambers you and your belongings are safe. The password to enter is 'wandless magic'"

"Thank you sir" Hermione said as she walked in

"Thank you" Harry said as he followed her

"Thanks" Ron mumbled and closed the portrait behind him

The trio then entered the common room. It was massive , a grand fire place, study corner, lots of comfy chairs, rows and rows of books and apparently that was only the entrance hall, at the other end of the room was two archways that led to either the sixth year common room or the seventh year one. Each of these was a smaller version of the entrance hall but with books for studying, it was a lot cozier.

"Ah Hermione here you are, we thought we lost you." Leisha said as she saw Harry Hermione and Ron standing in the middle of the corridor. She carried with her a small black kitten in her arms.

"We're here too you know" Ron barked at Leisha.

"I know Ron" Leisha said as she started to scruff up his hair to keep him happy like she had done to the kitten not long ago.

"So what's the deal here?" Harry asked.

"Umm. Girls on the right," Leisha said as she pointed to a stairwell that lead up she then pointed to some more stairs, "boys on the left. It's about seven two a room and the Professors are helping everyone settle in. Hermione we saved you a bed in the room we got"

"Lead me to it, will you boys be alright?"

"Hermione we did this when we were in first year, I think we'll be fine"

Hermione then ran off with Leisha and the boys were left standing there. Neville then walked through the portrait.

"Hey Neville, can you remember the password?" Ron asked him as he walked towards them.

"I'm not that bad Ron"

"Well we better get a room before they are all gone"

As the three of them walked up the stairs on the left they met Seamus along the way.

"Hey guys. I'm sorry we couldn't save you a bed in the room we got, we did try but MaGonagall started saying something about sharing with the different houses." Sorry guys" he told them as he saw them walking up.

"Never mind there'll be another somewhere"

They hadn't gotten far when professor MaGonagall caught them.

"Ah Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Mr Longbottom. I believe that there is room in this room" MaGonagall as she opened one of the doors with her wand.

Inside there were seven beds, four of which had already been taken. Sitting on one of these three beds was Draco Malfoy. On the other next to him sat Zambini.

"Look Zambini, we have visitors" Draco sneered to the other Slytherin that was sitting opposite him

"Professor isn't there another room!" Ron begged

"Mr Weasley, for that I should give you a room by yourself-"

"I'll take it!" Ron screamed, cutting her off. MaGonagall glared at him.

"You will have this room thank you Mr Weasley" and then she dissapperated.

"Well this ought to be fun" Ron mumbled to Harry as he claimed a bed that was as far away from Draco as possible.

Meanwhile, over in the girl's room Hermione and Leisha had already made themselves comfortable in the new room. They had gotten a smaller room then the others so there were only just enough beds for all of them. Katie had brought out her drawing book, while Alexia and Charlie continued to jump around on their beds. Leisha lay on her bed with her head bend over a letter she had received earlier while her little black cat stood while snuffles sat and watched the cat's tail as it swung from the bed. Hermione just sat there and stared at everyone.

"So this is what happens when a group of girls get bored" she announced.

"We're not bored!" Charlie said as she jumped onto Alexia's bed. Alexia then picked up one of the pillows in the bed and threw it at Hermione. It hit her and in response Hermione threw one back. Before you knew it a fully fledged pillow fight was underway. Everyone was throwing pillows, well everyone but Leisha.

Instead she left the room with her cat and walked over towards the boys stairs. But after only taking a few steps up the stairs she was blocked by someone that Leisha really didn't want to see right now.

"Good evening Craig" Leisha said as she still wanted to be polite.

"Leisha," he said smoothly "I was just wondering if you'd like to invite me back to your room?"

Leisha then stared at the Craig. He was a tall boy, unfortunately, with short brown hair and matching eyes, which he used to charm several girls. Of course this only annoyed Leisha more. She had the biggest urge to slap the creep but while she held her little kitten in her hands she decided that a verbal attack would be safer (for her cat).

"I'm sorry, I don't think we are allowed jerks in the room" Leisha said as she slid past him.

"Shame," Craig grabbed Leisha's hand to stop her "maybe you can come back to my room then. I'd be more then happy to show you around"

Once Leisha heard this her first thought was that she was about to puke on him, somehow she managed to keep her stomach and anger down. "In your dreams Craig"

"How do you know you're in my dreams?" he shouted up at her. Ignoring that last part, Leisha continued to ascend the stairs while folding the letter away in her pocket. She reached the room that Lloyd said he was in and knocked on the door before opening it herself.

"Ok peoples, I'm looking for a Malfoy. He's this tall, has blonde hair blue eyes"

A boy that did look like Lloyd looked up at Leisha.

"Um is there another Malfoy around?"

"On minute Leisha be right out"

When Lloyd came out Leisha then noticed that both Harry and Ron were in that room as well but only because she heard them.

"Harry can you see two Malfoys as well?"

"Yes Ron"

"Oh good, I thought I was going insane"

"He's my cousin you idiots" the Lloyd look-a-like snapped at them.

"Not another Malfoy!" a boy with a round face cried. Leisha frowned, there was nothing wrong with Lloyd. He was perfectly nice, well mannered, and very understanding.

"What do you mean by that Longbottom?" the Lloyd look-a-like answered back

"Get me out of here" Lloyd urgently whispered in her ear.

With a smile the two of them ran out of the common room in search of the grounds. Forgetting how they got there Leisha and Lloyd found themselves high up in the grandstands of the Quidditch pitch. Leisha who had run ahead was leaning over the railing to see every aspect of the pitch. Lloyd smiled fondly, 'once a kid always a kid'. He walked up besides her and stared as she turned to the sky, explaining the consolations to the cat that sat on the railing perfectly balanced and listening intently

"Do you know how weird it is to look up and not see the Southern Cross?" she said with her back turned to him.

"You'll see it again once you go home, which reminds me, you staying this Christmas?"

"Depends if Charlie forces me to the Christmas ball or not. Hopefully not"

Leisha then pulled out the letter she had stuffed in her pocket earlier and waved it in front of Lloyd's face.

"Look familiar?"

"Depends have you read it?" he said as he braced himself for the worst. Leisha gave a small smile as she stroked the fur of the cat.

"Well it's addressed to me wasn't it?" Lloyd sighed he knew he was in trouble, nervously he ran his hand through his hair. Leisha then turned to face him with a mocking smile.

"I'm glad to see that you're still concerned about me, even after I asked you not to be."

"Actually, no you didn't, you just said that you were tired, you wanted me to keep my voice down and that you hate cute"

"And that if there was something wrong I'd tell you." She told him pointedly.

"You know what I find sad. I had to write you a letter before you'd actually listen to what I had to say" he said as he lent on the railing and patted the cat.

"Yes, well you get that on the big jobs" Leisha said as she picked up the cat to remove it from Lloyds grasp.

Instantly Lloyd frowned.

"What's wrong now?"

"Your hands," he said as he thought closely. Leisha stared at her hands to find the problem. "They're stone cold" Lloyd stared at her with a great amount of concern

"So what it's a cold night, naturally that equals cold hands"

"But you're never cold, it's impossible. Your magic is fire you can't get cold, at least not like this. It's just not possible"

"Unless I'm losing my magic. So therefore I no longer have my 'magic fire' to keep me warm"

Leisha saw that Lloyd was very troubled about her now.

"You said you'd tell me if something was wrong"

"I didn't want to worry you"

"Were you planning on telling me?"

"Yes, eventually, soon." she then saw him staring her into telling the truth. "No, I wasn't going to tell you"

Lloyd now had his head in both his hands as he tried to figure out how to solve this problem. 'Well,' Leisha thought to her self, 'at least I know it couldn't get worst. Lloyd normally over exaggerates'.

"When did this start?" he asked her.

"I don't know," Leisha sat down with the little kitten on her lap, "since I came to England"

"You've lost that much in a week! Do you know how dangerous that is? You can't afford to lose any more"

"What, you think I wanted this to happen?"

"Well no, but," Lloyd took a seat next to her, "Leisha, wand magic is heaps harder then what we learned at Castells. Here the wand relies only on your magic to perform incantations, spells, anything really, and it requires a large amount of magic at that. You can't just cast a spell or two then beat what's left of your opponent. Most of the Castells student won't make it through the month.

"At least I'll miss the Christmas ball" Leisha said as she tried to brighten the dismal conversation that she was having. Lloyd wasn't impressed.

Leisha's cat jumped off her lap, she was about to call her back when she felt something else of her lap. Lloyd's head now rested on the side of Leisha leg.

"I worry about you, you know" he said

"Of course you do, I'm like the little sister you never had"

"Exactly, like family. And I'd do anything for my family"

Leisha stared at Lloyd. He seemed to be trying to convince himself of something.

"What are you up to Lloyd?"

"Well basically, in this book that I'm reading there's this spell, the temporary substitute, have you heard of it?"

"Of course I have, it takes some of the casters magic and places it into a person, place or thing so they can retrieve it another time" Leisha said as she couldn't help but be the know-it-all for a moment.

"Ok, I haven't read that far yet" Lloyd muttered,

"You're not thinking of using this spell for me are you?"

"Why not? You'd have enough magic to keep you at Hogwarts."

"Lloyd, no. It's very advanced magic, and besides your magic's different to mine"

"So?"

Leisha sighed, "So, I'll have a power I can't control, that's potentially dangerous"

"Fine we'll do the spell then I'll help you control it"

"Lloyd I said no," Leisha said as she shoved Lloyd off her lap, "I appreciate the gesture and everything but I could never ask you to do anything like that. And this is the end of the discussion."

The black kitten returned to Leisha shortly after.

"Wait," Lloyd asked as he called out to Leisha. She stopped and turned back. "If you start to lose more you'll tell me, right"

"Fine, now can we go inside it's getting cold" Leisha pleaded. She picked up the tiny kitten once more and started to head back the way they had come.

Once both Lloyd and Leisha had made it back inside the castle, they then tackled the problem of finding where they were. They stood in the middle of two hallways as they crossed and both Leisha and Lloyd were lost.

"I think we go left now." Lloyd said as he remembered passing one of the portraits. The cat pounced out of Leisha's arm and stood on the right, opposite the way in which Lloyd pointed out.

"Come on kitty, this way" Leisha beckoned. The cat hissed at the both of them and then turned in a tight circle to walk down the right side of the hallway.

"I think that means follow" Leisha said to Lloyd, who sighed.

"So, um, does this cat have a name?" he asked as they followed Leisha's pet around Hogwarts.

"No, not yet"

"Boy or girl?"

"Girl"

"Have you thought of a name?"

"What's with all the questions?"

"Well have you?"

Leisha thought for a minute.

"Yes actually,"

"What?"

"Deception"

"How very fitting, 'wandless magic'" Lloyd said as they approached the portrait.

"Now you two shouldn't be out this late." The portrait of Merlin scolded at Leisha and Lloyd. Leisha picked up the newly named cat and gave it praise for leading them back.

"Sorry sir, it won't happen again"

"Although, I'd rather be outside then in here" Merlin commented,

"Why?"

"That girl could wake the dead if she wanted to." Merlin added before letting them in.

Both Leisha and Lloyd shared a look as they heard Charlie's voice blasting out of the common room.

"What makes you think that for one minute that you, of all the scumbags that exist, have the right to behave so ghastly to someone else?"

Charlie was screaming down at Lloyd's cousin in the middle of the sixth year common room. Everyone crowded around, making it hard for Leisha and Lloyd to get to the front. The blonde haired boy looked so startled by Charlie, and the sight was very amusing to every person who was there. Charlie was at least a head shorter then the boy and was on the tips of her toes to get her point across. Leisha pushed several spectators aside to get to the front.

"Charlie what on earth are you doing?"

It seemed that Charlie didn't hear Leisha, and instead she continued to yell at the boy.

"You are a lowlife Draco Malfoy! And if I ever find out that you've hurt one of my friends again I'll…."

"Charlie who's hurt?" Leisha said while stepping in between the two of them.

"Katie is. Leisha, he called her a….a ….a mudblood and …. a…a…. a lot more….and you weren't here to stop him"

"Where's Katie now?"

"In the room with Alexia. Probably crying all because of that creep!" Charlie yelled again.

"Ok, Charlie calm down"

"Someone should put a muzzle on that thing" Draco commented as Leisha restrained Charlie.

"She's not an animal you snob"

"Is that the best you can come up with? Jeez, even the beach bimbo had better come backs"

Instantly Leisha became angry and Deception jumped out of her hands and hissed warningly at Draco. Leisha wanted to throw him out the window, or change his robes into a nice pink dress, or maybe just curse him until he bleeds.

"Leisha settle down, now!"

Lloyd could see that Leisha was pissed off and wanted to hex Draco back to last Tuesday. He also knew that Leisha couldn't afford to waste an ounce of magic on him. Thankfully Leisha did calm down and turned away from Draco.

"Ah, Lloyd. How nice of you to intervene. Friends of yours?"

Leisha couldn't take this behavior anymore. In one quick turn she punched Draco square in the chin, a perfect uppercut. Some of the spectators erupted in cheers, Leisha was a little down hearted to see that she had Craig's full approval.

"You could have broken my jaw!"

"Oh please if I wanted to do that I wouldn't have stop punching"

"Ok people, nothing to see here." The prefects said as they started to move everyone away from the scene. Hermione came up to Leisha.

"You know that Mal…Draco won't keep quiet about it. You'll probably be seeing professor MaGonagall some time tomorrow."

"I know," Leisha then caught a look from Lloyd, he sighed then headed up to his room. "I'm tired, I'm going to bed"

And that was how the day ended in the senior's common room.

Appreciate