Security checks were at the front gate of the castle. Our bags were checked by Aurors and teachers, and I noticed that Caspian del Rey joined the rest of us, instead of the first-years. I suppose it makes sense. He was certainly much older than an eleven-year-old.

I tapped my foot as I waited for the Auror who was checking my carpetbag to finish up. The wars were an inconvenience— no longer did they hold the same horrors they held three years ago, when my siblings and I visited Professor Kirke's.

Besides, the wizards had been at war since I was born, in 1928. It was only a matter of time before the muggles caught up.

Once the check was done, I noticed that Professor Dumbledore pulled Caspian del Rey to the side, holding the Sorting Hat in his hand.

Good, I thought. At least there won't be a ton of fuss about him. We can just move on.

I followed the other Ravenclaws into the Great Hall, sparing the occasional glance at Tom. He was talking with Avery and Selwyn now, as cheerful with them as he was sad with me. It was amazing, his empathy and ability to truly understand everyone that he was around.

After talking to him, I was ready to pretend again. I sat directly across from Phyllis Fawley and the other girls.

"I'm truly sorry about this summer, Susan," Phyllis said.

The other girls gave me looks of pity. I straightened my back. "It's alright. With the wars, the muggle one and the one against Grindelwald, it's easy to lose track. Especially when what happened was on the home front."

"Well, if there's anything we can do—"

"Oh, who's that boy?" Olive Hornby asked, leaning away from the table to look at the river of incoming students. I didn't need to turn my head to know exactly who she was talking about.

My heart sank when I saw that he was wearing the blue and bronze-lined robes of a Ravenclaw.

He swaggered up to the table, and looked to an empty bit of bench beside me. "Is this seat taken?"

"No!" Olive cried before I could respond. I glared at her, but she was so busy focusing on del Rey, that she didn't even notice me.

"So where are you from?" Phyllis asked.

"Spain, an island close to it," he said. "Isla de Piratas— it has a history as a hideout for pirates, but lots of sorcerers live there now."

"He used to attend Beauxbatons," I said as I craned my neck to see if the first-years would be sorted any time soon. It appeared Dumbledore was giving them a run-down of the four houses. Would they hurry up?

"You've met him already?" Disappointment crept into Olive's question.

I looked back to del Rey. There was something intense in his coffee-colored eyes, full of emotion and begging something of me. But what? It was like he knew me from somewhere else. . . But where?

I couldn't shake the feeling that I knew him, too. But I couldn't remember.

"On the train, he helped me with my trunk," I said, continuing to look him straight in the eye. "That's all."

I didn't understand his disappointment at all.

I blushed and looked away, and let Olive and Phyllis and Myrtle talk to him, until the teachers shushed us, so we could get on with the Sorting.

I was relieved when it was time to go up and get ready for the first day of class. Caspian del Rey kept trying to start conversations with me— but I let Myrtle, Phyllis, and Olive take over. I felt his eyes on me, with a disappointment I couldn't even begin to comprehend.

As the new Ravenclaw Prefect, I got up and directed the first-years and other students towards the Ravenclaw Tower. I'd leave it to one of the older students to let them in, or at least explain how the riddle system works.

Caspian stopped in front of me.

"Susan—"

"Follow the others in blue to Ravenclaw Tower, they'll lead the way." I double-checked, there were no more first-years from Ravenclaw in the Great Hall. The Ravenclaws were always the first to clear out, and the Hufflepuffs the last.

"I know that the memories are painful, but I'm here to make things right," he said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I walked along the benches, making sure there was nothing I needed to put in the lost & found inside the common room.

"Your siblings, they say you forgot, but you couldn't have— it was all real, Susan," he said, following me like an endearing yet annoying puppy.

I whirled around. "That what was all real?"

He froze, perhaps in shock. "Narnia, Susan."

I shook my head. "That was just a game. A game that we all made up to cope with the fact that both our worlds weren't safe anymore."

"It was more than a game—"

"That's what my siblings thought, and it got them killed!" I hadn't realized there were tears in my eyes. I didn't even care that some of the other students were staring at me. "They kept playing, and when they went to that old house in London to continue their games, they ended up dying in that awful train crash!"

He didn't flinch. There was pity in his coffee-dark eyes, but not like with Tom. There was a look as if he knew something that I didn't.

I straightened up, and swiped at my cheeks angrily. "How do you know about it all anyway, Caspian del Rey?"

He tilted his head, hurt entering his expression. "Don't you remember me?"

I shook my head, unable to articulate the complex sensation of deja vu that accompanied him.

I looked to a group of whispering Hufflepuffs, then back to him. "Just stay away from me."

With that, I took off into the castle. He could get lost for all I cared.