Benjy Fenwick caught my wand and said: "That will be enough, I think. You still have to pack, don't you?"

I got up, breathing heavily, and reached for my wand. "Yeah," I answered. "But I sort of hoped I could beat you at least once before leaving for Hogwarts."

He laughed. "My dear girl, that wouldn't bode very well for the Order if any newbie like you could beat me, would it?"

"I'm sorry, but I think the 'unbeatable fighter' position has already been taken by Mad-Eye. And besides, if I was allowed to use Twilight, you'd just see."

He was still smiling. "Well, that is what Mad-Eye is for. He'd beat the shit out of you, Twilight or no Twilight."

I grumbled. He was right, and I resented it. Not that I imagined I'd be the best fighter of the entire Order straight away, but..."Would it really be that much to ask to defeat at least one Order member, once, after two months of training?"

"If it makes you feel better, I'm sure you could beat some of the members if you tried really hard – but we're not sending those to train you. They are not fighters. Me, Dorcas, Mad-Eye, ...the Prewett brothers, which are away at the moment...we're the best fighters the Order has. The day you beat us, well, either we're getting old, or you got really good."

I finally smiled back at him, he handed me my wand and I went to pack my trunk.

I was more than a bit apprehensive about the first of September. The two months at Headquarters hadn't been bad. I didn't see much of my parents, but there was always something going on in the house, and the training was keeping me busy. Plus every afternoon, Marlene came with her German tutoring. I really thought she was taking it a bit too far. I just needed a bunch of Brits to believe I was German, for Merlin's sake, so why torture me with Goethe? But she was insistent. "Many pure-blood wizards," she said, "have a good knowledge of my language and could see through you unless you are perfect."

"But surely not every German speaks the language in such an elite form!"

"True," she acquiesced, "but every German that sends his child abroad for a better education does. Now go again: Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?"

It was fascinating how perfectly she fitted every stereotype about high-class German I've ever come across. We lived right next to them, so we had plenty in store, and she was just the impersonation of the cold Frau. I watched her, with her gold hair and blue eyes, conversing in her Hochdeutsch, and wondered at the irony of it all. It seemed that in exile in Britain, I was finally able to return to what my ancestors used to do all the time – have boring conversations with German high society.

As irritating as Marlene was sometimes, though, I would pick her over going to Hogwarts any time. Unfortunately, no one asked me, so I left the empty Headquarters on the first September morning and departed for the station. I got to Kings Cross half an hour earlier for fear of missing the train. I had to go on my own, since my parents weren't supposed to show their faces anywhere public, and certainly not in any connection to me, but I had a parchment with instructions how to get to the platform from Minerva McGonnagal. I managed to get through without any complications. Almost nobody was there; it was apparently too early. So I just found a nice compartment and I made myself comfortable. From what I had heard, it was going to be a long journey.

I watched as the platform was getting more and more crowded. It was a real jungle out there, all the people talking and calling each other, owls hooting...I was quite happy to sit inside already. The train started to pull out of the station as the last "Goodbyes" were shouted by parents and children. I leaned against window. I really wasn't looking forward to this school year. A lovely tradition of boarding schools ensured that I had no chance of seeing anyone except from my fellow students during the year. And I had enough experiences with my former Czech schoolmates to know that my peers weren't exactly the people I wanted to hang out with. Somehow I doubted that the average intelligence of the English population would be any better. And besides, it wasn't only about the age. They might have had a Dark wizard in the making in Britain, but the students were largely unaffected by this then. What could I, with my dissent experiences, have in common with people whose biggest worry was to get that cute guy from a year above?

Some younger students opened the door of my compartment and asked if they could sit down. I let them in and they started to talk, ignoring me completely, with me returning the favor. I seriously feared that I would go mad during this term. No social contacts! I never really befriended with my classmates – not as if I didn't talk to them at all, but they were just all so silly and naive that I never had any particular interest in them. I always made friends among the elder people. I had no idea what was I going to do.

Out of sheer boredom, I took out a German book and started to read. The cover. I had to think about the cover. Plus, I needed to improve my German, just in case. Not that I was listening to Marlene's advices or anything.

When the train arrived to its end station, I got out and I heard and saw Hagrid immediately. "Come ´ere, Belinda, over ´ere!" He cried, as if I was blind. The Order members were instructed to call me Belinda during the summer, so that I could get used to it – and them, too, since I suppose Hagrid would be quite capable of calling me by my real name just out of the joy of seeing me again.

"Do I really have to go with them, Hagrid?" I asked again. It was rather humiliating.

"Sure ya do."

"And what if I sink the boat?" I raised my eyebrow quizzically. "They're made for the first years, not for me." Molly Weasley told me how I would get to the castle and be Sorted and all that, but I still wasn't happy about it. All the first years watched me suspiciously, and frankly, I didn't blame them.

"It's all fixed, you're gonna sit there wit´ only two of them, so it's gonna be alrigh´."

Irony, Hagrid. It's called irony. I sighed, resigned, and prepared for the way. Honestly. I liked the half-giant, but he wasn't exactly the brightest phoenix out there.

Once we got to the Great Hall at school – a rather impressive room in a rather impressive building, I have to admit - every single look in there was on me. It was not very surprising, seeing that I was five years older than any of my companions. I wasn't usually uncomfortable with stares, but right then I wasn't exactly bathing in the spotlight. I reckoned it was because of that stupid school uniform. Back in Czechoslovakia, things were pretty bad regarding freedom, but we still could wear whatever we wanted to, even to school. Well, almost whatever...but definitely, it was freer than this. Plus, due to the fact that I had been known as a resistance child, I could have worn what I wanted, there was no chance of irritating the teachers more. Actually, I was known as quite an extraordinarily-dressed person...But these times ended with a move to Britain. I supposed that the sooner I got used to it, the better for me. A free country, my ass. They lock you up in a school with several hundreds idiots, force you to wear idiotic black robes looking like something our elementary school teacher might choose...for a funeral...and then expect you to be thrilled by the freedom. Okay, so maybe I was being bitter. Just a little bit.

Sorting. I was dying of boredom there, watching the icle firsties getting scared out of their wits by a talking hat. My turn came after Scamander, Anne was put into Ravenclaw. I walked to the Sorting Hat and put it on my head.

"So what do we have here...ahh, well, that's definitely not Hufflepuff, I can see that..."

"You're pretty right, that's not, I can say that myself." I thought, amused.

"You are really clever, and very ambitious in some ways, too...but I can see one really dominant trait pretty clearly in there...plus there's this great determination in you to fight the war with Evil for all costs...so it's...

...GRYFFINDOR!"

I walked to the cheering table and sat down among the first years. Frankly, I was very surprised. From what Molly told me, I gathered Gryffindor was the sort of House where the goody-goody two-shoes went – that was, unless they were completely dumb, in which case, they went to Hufflepuff. I rather thought I might have been bitchy enough for Slytherin. But I guess a firm determination to annihilate the best student that House ever produced doesn't help in that respect. And I certainly couldn't see myself in Ravenclaw – as much as I did agree with the Hat that I was clever enough, I didn't think the point of my life was to be buried in books, so I supposed that excluded the House. So I imagine Gryffindor was sort of a "what-do-we-have-left" option. Well, whatever. I would survive. Not that it mattered, really – I expected the same amount of idiots to be roughly everywhere (except that Hufflepuff might be a bit worse off, from what I heard).

I watched as the Sorting concluded and listened to Dumbledore's speech – he was a born diplomat, I would have probably been much more direct if I were him. I couldn't imagine how he dealt with all the known Death Eaters' children being at school, and him not being able to do anything about it.

After the feast, when I thought that I couldn't eat any more and that I should go to bed and unpack and all that, someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around and there were four boys, standing and staring at me. One of them, the one was was probably generally considered most handsome of the group, shot me a questioning look. "Who are you?" he asked rudely.

I raised my eyebrows. "What manners!" I commented. "Who are you, to assault me in such a way?"

He smirked. I could say that he was used to girls falling for him just because this one smirk. Too bad he wasn't my type. Yes, he was handsome; he had that "classical beauty"...but I personally was never much for the classical good-lookers. Especially not for the rude ones.

"So, I'm Sirius Black. This," he gestured to the boy on his left, with glasses and messy black hair, "is James Potter. Behind me is Remus Lupin, and next to him, that's Peter Pettigrew. Remember these names well, you're going to heard them often. Now, again, who are you?"

"Nice to meet you, boys," I said, just a bit condescendingly. "My name is Belinda Schwarz."

"What year are you in?"

"The sixth."

"The same as us!" exclaimed Peter, obviously delighted. The same couldn't be said of me. "So, where are you transferred from?"

I told them the entire story about my parents wanting the best education for me and so on. The one called Remus seemed to be really interested in what was life like in Germany, so I was really thankful to Marlene for her detailed information. While I explained everything, they led me to the Gryffindor tower and showed me where my dormitory was.

"What NEWT classes are you going to take?" Remus asked after exhausting the topic of foreign lifestyle. I was surprise to see the other three be mostly taciturn – I particularly expected Sirius, the one who initiated the introduction, to talk more, but he didn't seem to have much to add to the topic of life in Germany.

"Well," I answered Remus, "Charms, they're always useful, Transfiguration, I am fascinated with it, Defense Against the Dark Arts, of course, it's necessary nowadays, Arithmancy, and History of Magic."

"History of Magic?" exclaimed Sirius. "You're positively mad!"

"Why should I be?" I asked, rather offended. I was fascinated with history. It was the only bookish subject I had any sympathies for. Especially political and military history were my favourites.

"Well," said Remus, apparently amused. "I like history very much, but even I have to admit that taking these classes is a waste of time. Plus, it's terribly boring. Trust me, the books can serve you better. Don't you want to change your plan? You could take Potions or Herbology instead."

"No, thanks, I don't like this kind of 'get you hands dirty' subjects. But I was considering Divination..."

"No!" roared all four boys at once.

"Is it, too, that bad?"

James rolled his eyes. "That old bat is seriously mad, she lost it long time ago...and she is also probably centuries old."

"See, you could still try the Muggle-studies, they aren't that bad..." Remus offered.

"I don't actually think that I need Muggle-studies," I said absent-mindedly, worrying about wasting my time in a class. The next second, I realized what I'd done.

"Why, are you Muggle-born? But you told us that your parents are magical!" James reminded me aggressively.

"Yes, they are." I replied and in my head, I swore. "It's just that in Germany, we live much more...together. Not as if Muggles knew anything, it's just that we are more in contact with them than you in Britain. And now, if you'd excuse me, I am really tired and I want to go sleep. Goodnight."

I went up to my dormitory and I fervently hoped that I hadn't just done something terribly wrong.