I'm so sorry! It's been so long, I've just been extremely busy, and school will be starting soon, so I won't have too much time to update. I've also already started volleyball practice….horror.
Anyways, thanks for all the reviews. We've reached fifty! I'd like to thank my fiftieth reviewer, RoseWeasleyRoxX. Now on with the story!
"What do you think of the new kids?"
Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were up in the Owlery. Harry, scratching out a letter to Sirius about the tournament, waited a moment before responding to Hermione's question.
"Just like everyone else, I s'pose," Harry said, finishing off his letter. "Believing I entered in the tournament myself."
"Yeah, a lot of people will," Hermione said with a frown. "But you'll just have to deal with it."
"I guess so," Harry grumbled.
"Harry, if you're still mad about Ron…"
"Of course I'm still bloody mad about Ron!" Harry snapped at her. "He's supposed to be my best friend and he's acting like a bloody four-year-old!"
"Harry, this isn't my fault," Hermione said severely. "So don't go biting my head off about this. Just cool down a little."
Hermione retreated out of the Owlery into the hall. She didn't like treating Harry this way, but it was the only way that he would learn not to blame everyone else for what one person had done.
A few minutes later, Hermione found herself in the Great Hall. It seemed lunch had started. Time really had flown that morning. Without paying attention where she was going, she sat down.
"Oof!" There came a voice from beneath her. Hermione jumped up quite suddenly, almost knocking down a pitcher of orange juice.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Hermione cried as she looked down to see a boy about her age wit h dark brown hair…oh, it was one of the exchange students, the ones in her year! "I wasn't even paying attention to where I was sitting!"
"S'okay," said the boy casually, leaning back in his chair ever so slightly. "I'm James. And, you, doll, who would you be?"
"Hermione Granger," she said a bit coldly. This idiot was trying to flirt with her!
James suddenly turned bright red. "Oh Merlin," he muttered under his breath, followed by a string of curse words. He got up from the table, pushed past her, and exited the hall, muttering obscenities the whole time.
"Er…sorry about him," said one of the girls he was sitting with. Rose, Hermione recalled. "He flirts with gargoyles."
"It's okay," Hermione said, sitting down in James' now vacated seat. "How are you all enjoying Hogwarts?"
"It's great," spoke up the redheaded first year, Lily.
"You mean marvelous," the first year boy, Hugo.
"Oh, you two were the ones down by the lake!" Hermione recalled. "Along with…." Her eyes scanned the table for the dark-haired boy, Albus, but he wasn't there.
"Oh, Al?" said Rose airily. "He just finished a few minutes ago and decided to go read in the library."
"Really?" Hermione said, a bit excitedly. No one but her ever went to the library on nice sunny Saturdays….
"Yeah, he's our residential bookworm," Lily smiled.
"So…where's Harry Potter?" Hugo asked.
"Oh, Harry?" Hermione bit her lip. "He's being kind of a prat right now, so I left him to his thoughts."
"Do you have any other friends?" Rose asked her.
"Um…Ron Weasley, but he's being an even bigger prat than Harry right now," Hermione frowned.
"Oh yeah, James told me that they were screaming at each other last night," Rose said sympathetically.
"How did he know it was Ron?" Hermione asked, a bit suspicious.
"Er…Ron was a prat to James, too," Rose stammered. "Don't quite remember what Ron said to him…"
"So the prat-ness is catching to James then?" Hermione couldn't help saying.
"Nah, he's always been a prat," Rose smiled.
"That'll never change," Lily said happily.
"Hey, something's been bothering me," Hermione frowned. "If you're from America, why do you talk with a British accent?"
"Er…" Hermione saw them all exchange nervous looks with one another. Hmm…what was up with that?
It was Rose who finally answered. "Our…parents were born in England and moved to America when they got married. They kept their accent, however, and with their influence we ended up speaking the same way."
"That makes sense…" Hermione trailed off, thinking for a moment.
"Well," she said, standing up. "I think I'm going to go do my Potions homework. Maybe I'll run into Albus in the library."
"Bye," Rose said vaguely, the other two in her wake.
Hermione rushed out of the hall and up the staircase, heading to the library. There was something fishy about those kids' story, and she was determined to find out what.
She entered the library, stopping only to nod hello to Madam Pince, then heading directly to the shelves. She had a few things she wanted to look up, the first being Leakwort's Academy of Magic.
It only took her a few moments to find the book she was looking for: Schools for the Magically Gifted. She flipped through the table of contents, searching for the right title. She found it about halfway down the list, in plain black and white; Leakwort's Academy of Magic, page 224.
Hermione tore through the book feverishly, searching for the right page. At long last she found it. It was a short excerpt, only a page or two long. Her eyes scanned the page, not believing what she was seeing.
Leakwort's Academy of Magic
Location: Near Boston, Massachusetts, the United States of America
Year Founded: 1678
Current Status: Destroyed
Leakwort's Academy of Magic was formerly one of the most prestigious magical schools in Colonial America. Its curriculum varied a bit from other magical academies, but this made the school seem even more ingenious.
However, sometime during the Revolutionary War (specific details on what point in time it was is not clear) the academy was completely demolished by various war machines combined with dark wand work. Magical historians have registered a guess that the school was destroyed sometime around 1776.
Hermione stared at the page faintly. Leakwort's had been destroyed for over two hundred years! What was going on?
"Hello."
Hermione whirled around, snapping her book shut. There was Albus Porter, just standing there, as if he hadn't done anything wrong. Which you don't know if he has…
"Hi…Albus," Hermione ventured tentatively.
"Call me Al," he smiled. "Much easier to say, and people don't constantly question you for having the same name as Dumbledore."
"Oh, people have been bugging you about that?" Hermione said, feeling sympathetic towards the boy a year younger than her.
"Yeah, it's no big deal," he shrugged.
"So…" Hermione said shifting her weight from foot to foot tentatively. "I recently talked to the rest of your family. Rose seems nice."
Al smiled. "Rose is a sweetheart. She's always been my best friend. What about the others?"
"Lily and Hugo are quite lovely as well," Hermione said, a bit nervously.
"And James?" Al surveyed her amusedly.
"James…tried to flirt with me," Hermione admitted softly.
Al's looked of amusement turned of one to incredulity. "He tried to flirt with you? What happened?"
"Er…I told him my name and he suddenly started cursing and left the hall," Hermione gritted her teeth. She didn't like telling James' little brother what he did, but James was bloody annoying….
"I'm so sorry," Al groaned, putting his head in his hands. "I swear, he'll start flirting with McGonagall next…"
"How do you know who McGonagall is?" Hermione asked, heart beating quickly. More information to gather…
Al suddenly jerked upright, eyes reflecting the obvious fear he had inside. "Er…showed us around a bit this morning."
Hermione could tell he was lying just by looking at him. There was definitely something wrong with this picture…
"Ok, then," Hermione said, not going to let this fact skip her mind. "Well, I've got to work on my Potions homework…"
"And I've got to go kick James' arse," Al grinned. "See you later."
"Bye," Hermione called after his retreating back. When he was gone, she slumped into a seat.
Just what was going on with these "foreign exchange students"?
And done! Bloody hell, I think that's the longest chapter I've ever written. Kind of pathetic, right? Oh, well.
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