A/N: Now if you just halfway thinking it's just the part with the sorting hat... your right. But there's a twist.
Chapter 3: Voice Behind the Headless
The sorrow of the world Juniper had just spun out of suddenly lifted, like someone had just taken a load of bricks off her back. Both the Dementor and her spiraled around and around, each never releasing their grip on the book. Through the rush, she heard a loud, piercing, yet distant screech as the train of the Dementor's cloak was abruptly torn away. The bony had clinging to the pages dug its tips hard into the pages as the wind shrieking past tried to wrench the Dementor away. More pieces of the Dementor ripped away as it screeched again. But in a way that Juniper had never seen, the Dementor seemed to posses a grim determination. No matter what happened, it never let go. The book was far too important, even if the Dementor was ripped to shreds. There was a jolt and they both flew out. The spinning began to slow down again. When everything came back to normal, the Dementor stood there, torn, battered and still gripping the book. They were in a large hall that was decorated with green, red, yellow, and blue banners, it appeared not to have a roof since she could see the night sky. The hall was full of people, children and teenagers in fact. All sitting at long tables, talking and laughing as if they hadn't noticed the sudden appearance of Juniper and the Dementor.
As if life had suddenly come back to it, it's breath began to rattle faster as it quickly backed away, releasing the book in her hands. The bottom of its cloak started to disintegrate almost, becoming dust. Then with a last extended suck of air, it shattered like glass into a million pieces. The pieces themselves disintegrated before they touched the floor. Juniper sat there a few moments, wide eyed. Trying to figure out what had just happened. "What the…" her voice started as a whisper. "What happened? Did anybody see that?" She turned around, most of the students on the other side of the table just stared at her. "There was a Dementor!" she almost shouted. A girl with bright red hair and freckles caught her arm. Juniper suddenly realized she was wearing robes over her normal clothes. "Where did these robes come from!"
"Calm down." She said. Juniper yanked her arm out.
"Who are you?" She demanded. The girl sighed
"I'm Ren." She said, holding out her hand. "This is the Great Hall at Hogwarts and your sitting at the Hufflepuff table." She added.
"Hufflepuff?" Juniper repeated stupidly.
"Yes." Juniper looked at her surroundings again. Then back at Ren.
"Why Hufflepuff?" she asked. She would have expected Gryffindor rather then Hufflepuff.
"Weren't you sorted into Hufflepuff?" Ren asked. "You must have, there's no other reason why you'd be here."
"If I was I don't remember." Juniper said. "But there was a Dementor and…"
"Are you feeling alright? Should you see Madam Pomfrey?" Ren asked, looking concerned. Juniper sighed and shook her head. It was no use trying to explain the Dementor. It was obvious no one had seen it besides her. Then she realized she had forgotten to tell Ren her name.
"I'm Juniper." She said.
"Nice to meet you Juniper." Said Ren, smiling. "Are you a new student?" she continued.
"Ah," Juniper thought for a moment. "You could say that, I guess. I'm an exchange student."
"Oh that's wonderful! You'll love Hogwarts." Ren exclaimed. She then went into a stream of chatter about the classes, quidditch games, and the Hufflepuff dormitory. Juniper at first was still in a daze, until out of the corner of her eye, she saw a ghost on horseback silently glide into the room. But the rider didn't have a head. The headless rider floated up to another ghost holding the head that belonged to the rider. Both talked for a brief moment and glanced in her direction, then floated through the wall. "Actually, you're not the only exchange student we've had." Juniper, suddenly pulled back into conversation, blinked and shook her head.
"Excuse me, what?"
"I said, you're not the only exchange student we've had. You see that boy over there?" Ren said, pointing to a dark-haired boy, about Junipers' age sitting at the far end of the table. He was alone, but didn't seem to mind. He was looking down at something in his hands. Juniper leaned back to get a better look at him. Suddenly he looked up and stared, or rather glared at her with piercing eyes. Juniper suddenly averted her gaze.
"His name is Byron, he never really talks to anybody and will sometimes argue with the professors." Continued Ren. "He's really weird most of the time."
"Really," said Juniper, raising her eyebrows. A swarm of ghosts astride white smokey shapes of horses galloped into the Great Hall. Juniper noticed that each of them held their detached heads in their hands which were making loud whoops and laughing. Juniper also realized she was the only one watching them run around room, leaping over the tables, and making other students squeal when they passed though them. That Headless rider I saw earlier, she thought urgently. The ghost she was thinking about was leading them around the room.
"Headless Hunt," said Ren irritably.
"Headless Hunt?" Juniper asked, she remembered from the second book that they were a group of ghosts who had died because they had been decapitated.
"Yeah, we never really see them around here often but lately they have been all over the place."
"And really annoying too, sometimes they play Cricket with their heads in the middle of class." Said someone else on the other side of her.
"Why are they so bothersome? They weren't in the... I mean I heard they were almost never seen... at Hogwarts." Juniper mentally exhaled. She had caught herself.
"Well you've heard wrong, they've always been like this, and nobody exactly knows why. Dumbledore has asked them to stop being so disruptive many times. They usually stop for a week but start up again." Said Ren. This wasn't really true in any of the Harry Potter books, so why is it now? Thought Juniper.
Just then a headless rider ran through Juniper from behind. She felt like someone had taken a hose and splashed her with extremely cold water. "Well looky here!" shouted the head as the headless body tossed it up in the air. The ghost made a sharp turn and started heading toward Juniper again.
"Just ignore him, they usually go away." Said Ren.
"Okay," Juniper said in a quavering voice as she saw more riders bound their way toward her. They began to circle her, and called out "Hey, I've never seen her here before!" or "Give me your head. I want to throw it at her!" Juniper tried her best to pretend she didn't hear them, but they were circling closer to her. All she could see was a white haze in front of her. Their taunts became more frequent and louder. The air around her was becoming frigid and Juniper felt herself being stifled. Their voices was a roar in her ears when suddenly, like some one had pressed the mute button, Everything became silent. A single voice drifted in as if from afar. It was distant, cold, and strangely high pitched.
"Hello." It said slowly. "Are you enjoying your stay at Hogwarts?" it said again, mockingly this time. Juniper suddenly felt weightless. She was floating but still could only see white circling mist. "I hope you know that it wasn't by chance that I brought you hear... muggle." It continued. Now there was no ignoring this who-or-whatever-it-was. Juniper began to see pieces of the Great Hall again but they starting to spin. The same way they would if she was changing books again. How did it know I was a muggle? Did it just say it brought me here? Juniper frantically thought. A book from no where was shoved into her face. It was one of the Harry Potter books.
"Go! Now!" shouted a distant voice from behind. Juniper saw that the book was being held open by a pair of hands protruding through the mist. "Touch the book! It will help you escape."
"Running away, how muggle-like." The other voice said.
"Don't listen to him!" Shouted the voice from behind. "Trust me! Touch the book!" Juniper, not knowing what else to do, her hand gripped the page. She felt a jolt as if the book suddenly took off with her still hanging on.
"Run all you want!" shouted the other voice. But it was already growing faint. "I will be looking for you, until next time!" Juniper felt herself spin rapidly as the echoes of the strange voice died away. She shut her eyes to keep her from getting sick.
Her feet hit solid ground and she found herself standing in a hallway, surrounded by other students. Her hand was placed on page 249 of the fifth Harry Potter book. The last words "Until next time," repeating itself in haunting tones still afresh in her head.
A/N: Another cliffy! Whohahaha for you people who hate cliffy's. Sorry if the whole voice thing was a not very well written, I got a major case of writers block.