Ella McGuire

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters. They are the property of JK rowling. I only own the new OC's which appear in the following chapters.

Draco Malfoy made an appearance on the train as he usually did every year. He entered the cabin where Harry, Ron, Hermione and Lorena were sitting, followed by his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.

'Well well, it's Pothead and the Weasel king…Granger,' He added muttering with distaste, 'And who are you?'

'I'm related to you Draco,' Lorena rolled her eyes at him, and turned away to stare once more out the window at the passing countryside.

Malfoy edged closer, 'Merlin, You're that cousin of mine, Lorena Valdéz. I remember those summers I spent at your parents house… Before your mother died… God, that aunt of mine was some blood traitor, whatever she was doing marrying into a pureblood family is beyond me.'

'Yes, I'm also very confused about it, Draco.'

'You been sorted yet?' Draco grinned, 'It'll be very interesting to see where you'll end up.'

'Was already. Gryffindor.' Lorena said shortly, 'Carlos was sorted into Slytherin though.'

'At least someone has the right idea.' Draco drawled, ' Well I'm off to find my dear cousin Carlos. Being a Slytherin, I should introduce him to a few people. Good day.'

'Cousin?'

'Come on Ron, you know we're all related. It's more like third cousins or something like that anyway.'

'Still Lorena, he's a Malfoy.'

'That's not my fault, is it?' Harry could tell she was becoming increasingly annoyed with Ron's behaviour. He did nothing but look oddly at Lorena whenever a death eater was mentioned, as if she was somehow on the dark side.

'Ron, ' Hermione interjected, 'Possibly you should be talking a bit less, and spend more time working on your OWL results.'

'Hey!' Ron said indignantly, 'My results were fine-'

'Yes they were.' Hermione said impatiently, 'But there is always room for improvement…Oh, Lorena, what subjects are you taking this year?'

'Um… Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Potions, Defence, Charms, Divination, Transfiguration and… History Of Magic.' Lorena said squinting her eyes in an effort to remember.

'Jeez, I feel sorry for you.' Ron said

'Why?'

'Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Divination, History of Magic… They all suck!'

'Well maybe to you, Ron. But I happen to like all those subjects a lot. So there. What about you anyway? What subjects are you taking?'

'Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Care Of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Astronomy and Divination I suppose. But only cause I am not taking that stupid History of Magic class again.'

'Ron, you choose classes for the most absurd reasons,' Hermione rolled, her eyes, 'I'm doing Defence, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, Transfiguration, Charms, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies and History of Magic.'

'Why on earth are you both doing so much?' Ron raised his voice, 'We should be relaxing, not taking a whole load of stupid extra subjects.'

'Ron, our choices are not stupid. Yours are-'

'Come on Hermione, You're doing Muggle Studies. What the hell is that about?'

'For your information, Ronald, I like it.'

'What about you Harry?'

But Harry wasn't listening. He was looking out the window in a trance. He was happy to be going back to Hogwarts, but on the other hand he missed Sirius a lot already. Everything was much more fun back at Grimmauld Place. The rest of the train journey was uneventful. The four teenagers got some junk food from the witch who pushed the trolley through the corridor. The time eventually came for them to put on their robes.

Harry watched as Hermione and Ron proudly pinned their prefect badges to the front of their black robes. He remember back to when Ron got his first, and Harry was slightly jealous. Though this year would be immensely better, all Ron and Hermione had to do is watch over the new fifth year prefects and tell them what to do. So, they would still have more time to spend with Harry. He glanced at Lorena and Harry could tell she was getting very nervous. It was lucky that she took a private sorting.

'Everyone in our year in Gryffindor basically knows you, Lorena, they were all at the house. So don't worry, okay?' He said to her as Ron and Hermione headed out first calling for the first years and the new Gryffindor prefects.

'First 'ears this way please!' Harry heard Hagrid's familiar voice yell, and he smiled, 'Ello there 'Arry. Welcome back!'

'Hi Hagrid, see you in the Great Hall.' Harry grabbed Lorena by the arms as the throngs of students pushed passed, trying to make their way to the carriages which were being drawn by Thestrals. Harry gazed at the magnificent creatures, he glanced at Lorena and she seemed to be looking right passed them. She must have never seen death. Both Harry and Lorena finally reached a carriage and jumped in, not paying attention to who was in there. Michael Corner and his new girlfriend Cho Chang were sitting close by each other. Both became deadly silent as Harry and Lorena took their seats.

'Hi Cho.' Lorena said quietly, and Harry thought it was a rather unusual time for her to get nervous.

'Hey Cho, Michael,' Harry said happily, sitting just opposite Cho. She smiled feebly back at him then looked at Michael, who made a sudden and very uncalled for outburst.

'Potter, you're to stay away from my girlfriend.'

'Ok. Corner, I don't want your girlfriend. I had her and she was one of the most dull people I was ever with. No offence,' He added to Cho, 'But I'm sure you're just better suited to…Another boring person.'

There was a few moments silence before Corner spoke again , 'Who are you? I've never seen you here before… Gryffindor eh?' He asked noticing her gold and red tie, Harry wasn't sure if he was smiling kindly or sneering. He supposed it was a bit of both.

'Was that you flirting, Corner?.. You have a girlfriend for Merlin sake.' Harry thought he could at least have waited until Cho was nowhere in sight to attempt flirting with Lorena. The uncomfortable carriage ride up to the castle was soon over and Harry and Lorena were excited to be back among their fellow Gryffindors. They took seats in between Neville, Seamus, Dean and Ginny. Parvati and Lavender immediately jumped up as they saw Lorena to greet her and hug, as if they were old friends.

'Lookin' lovely in the crisp new uniform there Lorena,' Seamus winked.

'Why thank you Seamus,' Lorena smiled. She looked around curiously, 'Where are the first years?'

'See there up at the top,' Harry was standing up pointing and Lorena joined him, she wanted to greet her sister before her sorting.

'Could everyone sit down please.' Professor McGonagall was saying over the babbling crowd. 'Please, we have a sorting to get through.'

Harry and Lorena but sat down simultaneously. Closely followed by everyone else in the Great Hall. All the teachers were seated up at the Head Table. Harry immediately scanned the table for any sign of a new teacher. And there she was. Dean and obviously spotted her too.

'Whoa, I hope that's our new Defence teacher …' All the guys nodded to themselves staring at her. She was an incredibly beautiful woman, with light brown hair which ended in a wave just at her shoulders. She had dark green eyes which shone brightly as the light from the candles lit them up. Her eyes were scanning over the house tables urgently. She seemed nervous, but then again, she was being ogled by everyone, and that couldn't be making her feel too comfortable.

'Quite, everyone!' Dumbledore had stood up, and in an effort to force everyone to be quite, he rose his arms in the air high. Everyone suddenly stopped talking and looked up at Dumbledore.

'We are back here for another quite enjoyable year at Hogwarts,' He looked around at everyone and smiled, 'And before the sorting starts, I would like to introduce two new students that we will be having this year, both of them transfers from Durmstrang. I would love if everyone could welcome them to our school as well as our country.' Everyone began muttering again and looking around, perhaps wondering if Viktor Krum was here. 'Also, our new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, Professor Ella McGuire. We are delighted to have another talented past pupil to join the staff table…Now!' Dumbledore shouted loudly to quieten everyone again, 'The sorting!'

Professor McGonagall held up the sorting hat with one hand and a long roll of parchment in the other. She said clearly, 'Allington, Mitchel.'

Quite a short boy with fair hair made his way to the front of the crowd. He had such a smug air about him, Harry was sure he would be in Slytherin. Sure enough, as soon as the hat touched his head, it shouted Slytherin. The Slytherin table yelled and clapped for Allington as he ran to his new house table. The sorting seemed to go incredibly slow. Child after child went up, but yet the group of first years never seemed to thin. Harry heard Ron's stomach growl as there were finally only three left. Harry recognised one to be Lorena's sister.

'Valdéz, Taina.'

As she sat down and had the hat placed on her head, she looked down at Lorena. Harry remembered when he had placed the hat on his head and it spoke to him. He wondered what it was saying about Taina. It was impossible to know where she would go, her sister was in Gryffindor, but her brother was in Slytherin. To Harry's great surprise the hat yelled, 'Ravenclaw!' Both the little girls that were left to be sorted looked terrified. They looked toward each other, not sure what to do, as if they were looking for words to comfort each other. It must be awful being the last person, thought Harry to himself.

'White, Whitney.' Was sorted into Ravenclaw alongside Taina. She seemed thrilled to be there. Perhaps both Whitney and Taina made friends on the train. It appeared to be so as they hugged each other and clapped along with everyone else.

'White, Yvonne,' Her twin sister, however was sorted in Hufflepuff. She looked slightly dejected as she saw her twin sister smiling with Taina.

'Hmm.' Lorena said quietly as she turned back around from the Ravenclaw table. She seemed to be mulling over the separation of her family, not sure what to think about it.

'Its okay Lorena,' Dean said, 'Ravenclaw is okay. Its just Slytherin is dirty.'

Lorena merely shrugged and watched without amazement as food piled up on plates in front of everyone. Ron grabbed as much food as he could and threw in on his plate, as did most of the other guys. Hermione observed them with a look of distaste. Lorena looked at the food, unsure of what she wanted, as did Harry. He didn't really have a large appetite either so he was content with eating a small amount, which luckily no one noticed as they were all too interested in their own rumbling stomachs. All that could be heard was the scraping of knives and forks and the chattering of students, also Harry could even hear Ron swallowing his mouthfuls of Sheppard's pie. After the meal, Dumbledore stood up once more, to welcome everyone back.

'Now, if we could all make our way, please, back to the dormitories. First years follow your house prefects if you will.' He sat down again as everyone went to stand up.

'First years this way!' A fifth year boy shouted, which a shiny prefects badge glowing on his chest, he was followed by a much quieter girl who just stood there, looking slightly flushed, waiting for the first years to make their way towards her.

'Very nervous,' Harry grinned at Ron who nodded.

'Couldn't get a bloody word out of that girl.'

'Ron,' Hermione said reproachfully. 'She was nice, she's just shy.'

Ron just shrugged his shoulders at her.

Harry and Ron said goodnight to Hermione and Lorena, and made their way up to the guys dorm. Harry had to admit, it was finally great to be back there. The house elves had worked very hard to get the place back in order. Harry's trunk was at the end of his bed and the curtains around his four-poster bed were drawn. He took off his robes, shirt and trousers, eager to finally lye down and sleep. As soon as his head touched the pillow he drifted off and forgot to say goodnight to Ron and the rest of the guys in the room, though he doubted they would have minded. Everyone was tired from his long journey.