Four
A properly clichéd story needs as many original characters as possible.
"I'm so glad I found you, Harry," Keira smiled brightly over her shoulder at Harry, who was following along behind her. "They've been bugging me all day to meet you."
Harry had found it more than a little odd that Professor Dumbledore had asked Harry to meet him at The Leaky Cauldron just the day before, seeing that the very next day they would set off for the start of term at Hogwarts. He already had all of his school things bought and couldn't fathom what other business needed done. But walking into the busy pub, Harry spotted Dumbledore sitting at a corner table along with a girl, Keira Richardson. She was happily sipping away at a butterbeer and watching an empty fire whiskey glass drop itself into a tub of dirty dishes. When she saw him coming across the room to them she smiled brightly, her light brown eyes sparkled with giddy interest.
Her story, relayed interchangeably between herself and Dumbledore, was an interesting tale. It seemed that right until two days before, she had been raised completely muggle. Then Dumbledore showed up on her doorstep and announced that in just a few days time she would attend a magic school for the first time ever on a completely different continent.
Dumbledore informed him that he had asked Harry to come so that he could show her around Diagon Alley and help her get her own school items in order before school started the next day. However odd this might have sounded to Harry, he went along with it anyway. Not that he really minded, she was attractive in a Hollywood actress sort of way and she was pleasant enough, even if she did talk an awful lot. But even an entire day spent in her company could never have prepared him for what waited beyond the door to the compartment where Keira was leading him.
Stepping through after Keira brought him to an entire compartment full of beautiful girls. Seven girls, to be exact, Keira included. All brunettes of varying shades and hair styles (save for one blonde sitting by the window), all American, all unbelievably attractive, and all smiling wonderfully at him. Well, one wasn't smiling exactly (scowling murderously would probably be a more accurate wording) and she wasn't blindingly beautiful for all the dark makeup and hair hiding her face from view.
But the rest…
Harry didn't know if he should feel like the luckiest teenage boy in all the world or to run away screaming. Instead, he nervously ran his hand through his hair, making it even messier than usual.
Keira sat down on the bench seat and patted the empty space of cushion next to her. Trying to smile politely was apparently pointless for all the good his temporarily frazzled nerves were doing. But he sat anyway as they continued to smile expectantly at him.
Never one to lack words, Keira found it her duty to break the awkward silence with introductions, being that meeting each other had been the point of bringing him to her compartment. "This is Madison Driscoe over here," she pointed across Harry's chest to a girl with the straightest and shiniest raven-coloured hair he had ever seen. She smiled brightly at the mention of her name but Harry couldn't help noticing the smile never quite reached her dark eyes. Contemplating further on this girl, however, was not an option for Keira quickly moved on to the row of girls sitting opposite him.
Joey Littleton was the one he had previously noted to be less than enthusiastic about being trapped in a cramped train compartment full of striking beauties. She gave a very small wave as Keira listed her name and then returned to looking out the window that overlooked the narrow train hallway.
Anex Roirrow was next on the roster. Her skin was a wonderful dark tone which set off her honey-coloured eyes and black, curly hair. She reached out and gave Harry a firm handshake and informed him that she had played chaser on her school's quidditch team and hoped she would also get to play on one of the four house teams.
Aiden Ricter was the real beauty out of them all. When Keira pointed her out she smiled at Harry and he felt his stomach drop clear down to his toes. Like the others she was a brunette, but of a light shade that fell past her shoulders in soft curls. Harry thought he could even hear a tinkling of bells when she giggled softly and her bright blue eyes twinkled with a demure and decidedly feminine quality.
Cali Furlow came next but she jumped in with her own introduction instead of waiting for Keira to get to her. "It's, like, so cool to meet you!" she exclaimed. "We've heard so much about this, like, magic stuff and it's so sweet to finally get to be here, you know?" Her short chestnut hair bounced as she shook his hand vigorously and her soft ocean-coloured eyes seemed only barely to contain her excitement.
In the corner by the window sat the only blonde in the compartment, whose name turned out to be Rainbow Starshine. She smile airily, "Isn't the sun shining gloriously today?" Harry looked suspiciously out the large window to the gray clouds that loomed above with a threatening downpour.
He further learned that all but two (Madison and Anex) were not only new to Hogwarts but to magic entirely. Harry couldn't help but feel as though Dumbledore had finally gone completely mental. What could possibly possess the old man to bring these seven witches (five of them untrained no less) into their seventh year at Hogwarts? And every one of them American to boot.
His polite smile began to wobble slightly. His cheeks were hurting from holding his face that way for so long. They hadn't stopped grinning manically since he walked through the door. How could they manage to smile like that the whole time? Harry couldn't help but find this to be just the slightest bit unnerving and he absently sent a hand through his messy hair again. And as interesting as this usually boring trip to Hogwarts had become, between Valore and these girls, the creepiness of it all was wearing down on him and he awkwardly excused himself.
He forced himself to take a deep breath that he hadn't realized he hadn't been taking as he walked back to the train compartment where he belonged. But when he arrived he found that every one of the people inside were sitting in a silence so thick he thought even a sharp knife couldn't have cut it. He observed the venomous glare Hermione was shooting at Valore, who was pretending to not notice that anything was abnormal. Neville was picking imaginary lint from his trousers. Ron was trying to keep the hostility that radiated from Hermione off of himself by sitting quietly.
After an uncomfortably long stillness, Harry tried his best to make pleasant conversation, "So, does anybody know who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor will be?"
There was a murmur of, "No's" through the group and the heavy silence returned, the attempt at conversation lost.
"Can I have Trevor back?" Neville quietly asked Luna.
"Trevor?" Valore chuckled.
"My toad," Neville answered somewhat defensively as he took the animal from Luna's hands.
"That's funny," she giggled, "my uncle's name is Trevor."
"You're joking?" Ron joined in on the awkward laughter, "What a coincidence."
The silence Harry had tried to vanquish returned.
"Don't really care who it is," Ron commented suddenly, picking up on what one could only assume to be the original subject of Defense Against the Dark Arts professors.
"Yeah, maybe this one will stick around for a while," Harry said hopefully. "It'd nice to have a professor that was here more than one year," Harry added.
"What d'you mean?" asked Valore curiously.
For a moment they all stared at her as if she belonged in St. Mungo's but then it dawned on Harry, "Sorry, Valore, you wouldn't know. There hasn't been a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts that's lasted more than one year."
"The position is cursed," Ron advised darkly.
It was Hermione's turn to finally join into the conversation, "It is not cursed, Ron. We've gone over this before."
Ron ticked them off on his long fingers, "Counting only professors that have been here since we have: one dead, one sacked, one attacked by Centaurs and gone batty, one was a Moody imposter and had his soul sucked out, one erased his own memory because he was a right pompous git. That's not even counting the ones that came before them! It's cursed, Hermione."
A pallid-faced Valore looked to Harry in horror but he nodded matter-of-factly in agreement and shrugged his shoulders.
"That's horrible!" she cried, her eyes wide.
"All but one deserved what they got," said Ron, trying to reassure her, "they were all a bit batty to begin with."
This last bit of information didn't seem to make Valore feel any better and she sat in silence for nearly an hour, staring at nothing through the window that looked out to the hallway.
Several hours later, Harry stood in the coldness of the growing darkness with Hedwig's cage in his arms and his large trunk on the ground beside him. He took a deep breath, drank in the chilly air, and despite the cold he felt the warmth of familiarity wash over him. Hogwarts castle stood as a distant, dark silhouette against the fading sunlight and a dense layer of fog was already beginning to settle at his feet. He shifted his weight and watched the white cloud swirl around his legs like a monotone kaleidoscope.
Harry wrapped his cloak around himself a bit tighter as he stood leaning against the wall of the Hogsmeade train station in wait for Ron and Hermione, who were currently attending to their prefect obligations of directing the chaos of students to where they belonged. First years were to join Hagrid in a traditional journey across the large lake and take them into Hogwarts castle; everyone else was to unload their own belongings so they could set off toward Hogwarts in the carriages that were hitched up with thestrals and waiting nearby.
"Firs' years this way!" came the familiar gruff call from Hagrid, who was a good thirty meters away and yelling above the bustle of the crowded train station. "Firs' years! All righ' Harry?"
Harry waved back but his vision was soon blocked by a large group of sixth years who had gathered around their friend's new fire salamander.
"Y' all 'ere? Firs' years! Don' be shy, I won' hurt ya. C'on, you too, Emmy, over 'ere!" Harry heard Hagrid shout without direction from behind the now screaming sixth years as one of them began sprouting smoke from her blonde hair; the fire salamander apparently had sneezed. "Firs' years this way!"
Harry looked over to one of the nearby train cars where Hermione was pushing a terrified group of first years toward Hagrid while Ron looked completely uninterested in something a fourth year was saying to him.
"Hermione said to go on up without them," Neville dragged along his own large trunk and dropping it beside Harry's, "they're going to be here until everybody else is off. Do you know where Valore's got to?" he looked around at the wave of students filling what was left of the carriages.
"Probably somewhere with Malfoy," Harry grunted in a strained tone. "Did she say anything to you after I left with Keira Richardson?"
Neville played with the fog that engulfed his feet. He found a loose stone on the ground and picked at it with the toe of his shoe. "No, not really," he answered vaguely. "Harry," he began awkwardly, "have you ever had déjà vu?"
"Nah, can't say as I have, why?"
Neville picked up his trunk, "Nevermind…it's ridiculous. We'd better get going. Don't want to miss the carriages and have to walk all the way up." Seeing Hermione and Ron were still directing traffic by the train, Harry agreed with the suggestion.
All second years and older of all four houses—Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin—had gathered in the Great Hall, each house at their own large table that filled the length of the large hall. Harry and Neville had waited in the main entry until Ron and Hermione arrived, and since they were the last to sit at the Gryffindor table they were at the end usually left open for the first years that would join their house. Ron stared impatiently at the empty plate in front of him and Hermione expectedly sat beside him while Harry sat next to Neville on the opposite side. Ginny, however, chose to sit with her friends, who were farther toward the other end of the table.
Harry's stomach had just begun to growl louder than before when he spotted Hagrid finally taking his regular seat at the head table, which meant the first years had safely arrived. He nudged Ron in the ribs, who had apparently already spotted Hagrid and looked thankful that his pleasure-deprived stomach would soon be satisfied. And as it was now the unceremonious tradition, Harry looked across the head table for a foreign face that would tell him who would fill the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
But before he could get a clear view of the adults sitting at the front table, the large double doors flew open and Professor McGonagall led the way carrying a three-legged stool and a long scroll of parchment past the four tables. About twenty-five terrified looking first years and eight much-older-than-first-year girls that towered over the small children were following her. Harry had to laugh at the odd sight. He knew Valore was not as tall as Hermione and the shortest one of the girls, but even she still managed to be double the size of the tallest first year and Harry wondered if he'd ever really been that small when he first arrived at Hogwarts. The crowd at the tables began talking amongst themselves, most likely wondering who the older girls amid the first years could possibly be as their stares and fingers were all pointed in the direction of Valore and the other girls.
They were, however, oblivious to the stares and comments as they looked over every inch of the Great Hall, amazed at the castle. Keira's eyes found the bewitched ceiling, watching it with the same awe that Harry had displayed the first time he had seen it.
The sorting hat continued to sing its song and McGonagall began calling out the names in alphabetical order; one girl went to Ravenclaw and another went to Slytherin, each being greeted with noise and cheers from their respective houses. When she came to Valore Bloom, both Harry and Neville looked to the Slytherin table and saw Malfoy intently watching her climb the steps and put on the hat. Crabbe and Goyle did not seem to share in the secret because they were busy looking off into space, as was their usual custom when something required attention.
The ancient hat upon Valore's head was silent for quite a long while when it suddenly exclaimed, "GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor students clapped and cheered politely, but were clearly puzzled why there was a strange seventh year being sorted at all. Harry tried his best to pay attention to the situation and saw Draco Malfoy smirking silently and watching Valore's every move as she took the empty seat beside Neville.
Madison Driscoe, SLYTHERIN! Rainbow Starshine, HUFFLEPUFF! By the end of the sorting, Gryffindor had gained seven new first years along with Anex Roirrow, Joey Littleton (grimly scowling the whole time), and Keira Richardson. Aiden Ricter (much to Harry's strange disappointment) went to Ravenclaw along with Cali Furlow.
Professor Dumbledore stood and surveyed the students, his bright blue eyes twinkling with an inner light that, upon first impression, should not belong to a fragile old man. His dark plum robes and matching hat flowed about him majestically, yet the golden moons and stars that decorated his robes hinted at the playfulness that lay beyond the lengthy, white beard and hair. On his long, crooked nose sat a pair of half-moon spectacles.
Simply by standing, this man had turned the head of every chattering student and said in a loud, clear voice, "Well, what are you waiting for?" and with a grand wave of his hand an impressive feast appeared before their eyes. His efforts were rewarded with a large round of cheering students, clanking spoons and forks on plates, gasps from inexperienced newcomers, and happy laughter.
Anex stared wide-eyed at the mass amount of food as though she couldn't decide where to start. Ron was already busy resembling a chipmunk with his cheeks protruding from stuffed in food and Hermione looked at him with disgust as she politely cut her meat into tiny bite-sized pieces with a knife and fork. Harry, however, had lost patience with politeness, given up on the knife, and picked up his own slab of dead animal with both hands (much to the disapproval of Hermione) and was happily chewing away.
Keira sniffed warily at her pumpkin juice. "What is this stuff?" she asked Neville. He answered but she continued to stare at the amber-colured liquid inside, deciding whether or not to take the risk. Eventually she took a small sip and her face contorted horribly. "Isn't there anything else?"
Harry looked at her, puzzled and took a long swallow of his own pumpkin juice. It tasted normal to him. Pumpkin juice was really the only thing anybody ever drank at Hogwarts. Even Valore and Anex seemed to be enjoying it. But he passed her a nearby pitcher of water anyway.
After they were all stuffed full to the point of exploding, their plates magically cleared spotless to their original golden luster. Dumbledore stood again, this time to make his customary speech, "Now that you are all drowsy and are no longer willing to listen to what I have to say, I must insist that you stay a moment longer. First years, as well as certain other students who should know by now, need to understand the Forbidden Forest is off limits to all students. I am afraid that with the added dangers created by the recent uproar at the ministry (along with the other hazards that have always been there and previously ignored), should you find yourself wandering into the forest, I would find it highly probable that you will not be leaving with the same state of health as when you went in. For your own safety, you must adhere to this.
"Finally, I would like to announce that we have a new addition to the teaching staff this year; Trevor Bloom has graciously accepted the open position as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
Fighting the sleepy inclination to not care, there was a weak round of applause as a man that Harry had forgotten to be looking for stood from the far right end of the head table to make himself known. He looked rather young, his mid-twenties maybe, with dark, shoulder length hair pulled back in a low ponytail, and skin that had tanned golden from the summer sun. The man smiled, nodded to Dumbledore politely, and sat back down, but not before the Great Hall quickly filled once again with chatter and giggles as they all gained a full view of the man, the girls doing most of the giggling.
Dumbledore finished his welcome speech and Hermione pulled Ron along to gather up the first years. Harry and Neville led Valore, Anex, and Keira to the Gryffindor Tower, showing them the shortcuts that they knew.
Harry was highly amused; Anex could not take her eyes off the castle, trying to look at everything all at once. The decorative armour that stood along the walls, the mass amount of paintings, and the fiery torches that hung along the walls to light their way. Keira and Anex found the secret passages quite exciting (Anex described it as being in a real life gothic horror novel) and it dawned on Harry that he never really thought about such things anymore. Secret passageways and ancient castles had become second nature to him.
By taking the shortcuts instead of the main corridors, they arrived at the painting of The Fat Lady before anybody else and quickly realized they had forgotten to ask what the new password would be. While waiting, Valore had struck up a very pleasant conversation with the woman in the painting about the history of Hogwarts and before long, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown came around the corner. Parvati's large, brown eyes immediately found Valore as she approached. "You're the new girl?" she asked Valore excitedly, unintentionally ignoring the other girls' newness.
"Everybody's talking about you," Lavender piped in and turned a smiling greeting to Anex and Keira. "Why are you all standing out here? Didn't you get the password from Hermione? Blatherskite," she stated and the portrait swung open, revealing the hole in the wall that allowed entrance to the Gryffindor Tower. Keira and Anex, thoroughly entertained by this trick, climbed through after Lavender.
When they were inside, Parvati excitedly burst with the question she had obviously been holding in since the train, "Is it true? Did you really try to kill Draco Malfoy?" She had directed this question to Valore but it had also attracted the attention of a group of second years, Dean Thomas, Collin Creevey, and Ginny as they filed in through the portrait hole as well.
Valore appeared uncomfortable with the question but did answer, "Not kill, no. Rumours are always so exaggerated…I was stupid and if Harry, Neville, and Ron hadn't helped me, I don't know what would've happened."
"Nice one!" Lavender said, astonished. "That ignorant git had it coming anyway," and walked away. The group of second years immediately began whispering hurriedly amongst themselves.
"What's a git?" Keira asked curiously.
Ginny interjected, "So it's true what they're saying, that you attacked Malfoy?"
Valore opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the opening of the portrait hole and the sudden flood of heavy-eyed Gryffindors returning to the tower from the Great Hall. Instead of answering the inquiries, Valore took the opportunity of distraction to back away from Ginny's probing questions and slipped into the crowd, unnoticed. When Harry and Ginny both looked away from the portrait hole and back to the spot Valore had occupied only a moment ago, they found merely an empty space.
"More pumpkin juice?" Keira asked, her nose scrunched in disgust. "What is it with this school?" She sat the pitcher back on the table with a splashy plunk, "Or is it just that all magical people have a thing for pumpkin juice?" Anex, a child of a magical family and sitting across from her, never got a chance to answer. "At my house we drink green tea every morning. Do we have green tea? Or apple juice? My mother makes large breakfasts like this. She always makes so much you just can't eat it all."
Harry hadn't been able to disconnect her from his side since she ambushed him early that morning as he came down from the boy's dormitory. They met Anex and Joey on the way to the Great Hall for breakfast (they had gotten lost on the switching staircases) and Harry found himself once again flanked by two beautiful girls and Joey. Dumbledore had asked him specifically to show these "transfer students" around and help them get along in their new school. However, his restless sleep had left him with a rather grumpy outlook on the morning. He absently ran a hand through his hair and tried to figure his way out of this entourage Dumbledore had unloaded upon him.
"Of course, this is much more food than my mother ever makes. What happens to the food when we don't eat it all, Harry?" Keira asked.
He was still recovering from his uncontrollable impulse to consume everything within reach the night before at the welcome feast. Thinking about the uneaten pile of scones lying innocently on a serving plate before him, and what would happen to them later in the kitchen, made him want to hurl.
His original plan had been to sit with Ginny, but walking into the Hall he'd found her already sitting with Colin Creevey and some others from her year. Anyway, he didn't know how she would react to seeing three other girls attached to him. So, instead, he sat at the first open space he came to at the Gryffindor table, closely followed by his charges.
There was no escape without them noticing.
Classes didn't start for another hour. A vast majority of students also seemed to regret their feast indulgences and were only in the Hall out of habit. Keira, on the other hand, pushed another dainty bite of toast past her full lips. Harry didn't understand how she could eat like that after last night. Where was she putting it all?
He was only really there to get his timetable from Professor McGonagall and to find Ron or Hermione, but they hadn't shown up yet. Perhaps they were off on "prefect duties" again which, over the summer, had become their not-so-secret code for sneaking off to snog. It wasn't a subject he liked to dwell on for long.
Joey pulled out a book from her bag and proceeded to ignore Keira's chatter. Harry managed to see the front cover, a disheveled girl crawling along the ground, but the colours were too dark to really see. He tried to ask her about it but it seemed she was ignoring him as well. She slid a hand through her dark hair and managed to pull it more around her face, as if closing the drapes to the front room window.
"Potter, there you are," a thin, greying woman bustled up to Harry and his entourage. Everything about her was thin. Her body, her lips, her hair, her smile, her supply of patience. The first official day of term would have her even more harried than normal and her thin mouth was stretched tight in a severe grimace.
"Professor McGonagall," Harry greeted her pleasantly.
She evaluated him from above through wire-framed glasses and managed an almost undetectable smile. She projected her glare onto the girls surrounding Harry, "I have your timetables. Roirrow, Littleton, Richardson, Bloom," and handed over a small slip of parchment to each as named. She looked around at the four students and realised she was one short. "Where's Bloom?"
"Valore?" Keira asked after swallowing what used to be a dainty bite of apple.
"Sacked out on the couch downstairs last I saw," Anex answered. "Rough night, I guess."
"Nightmares," Joey's small voice supplied, "are our windows to an unbridled potential," as she continued to hang her head over the pages of her book. It had been the first time she'd spoken in front of Harry. Possibly a first for Keira and Anex as well, judging by how their attention snapped to her. She either conveniently ignored the odd looks she had attracted from the group around her, or she simply didn't care and didn't bother to explain her statement.
"Okay," Anex searched for a way to evade the awkward moment, "yeah, Professor, I could give it to her when she comes down."
McGonagall shuffled around the papers in her hands, "No, thank you, Miss Roirrow. Your class will be starting soon; you'd best be getting off to that. However, Potter, yours and Bloom's first parts of the morning are the same. Find her," she handed over two slips of parchment, "and see to it she gets her timetable. I still need to find your other friends. Have you seen-oh, there's one of them." McGonagall bustled her way over to the Slytherin table to ambush Madison Driscoe.
"Oh look," Keira was contorting her neck around to see everybody's timetables, "we all have History of Magic together. That'll be interesting, won't it?"
Farther down the table Harry saw Ginny and Colin Creevey stand and head in his direction. As she passed him, he tried to catch her eye with a look that was, hopefully, pitiful enough to effectively convey a desperate desire for her to make an excuse to pull him away.
Colin gave an excited, "Hiya, Harry!" He waved with one hand while holding his camera in the other. Ginny passed him, not with an invitation to escape with her, but with a lopsided grin of sardonic curiosity. He cursed her sense of sadistic humour and watched the back of her ginger head leave him behind.
A/N : Not a whole lot of action, I know. Lots of setup was needed. Please leave a review anyway.