Theda
Kaytee and her family arrived just in time to scramble onto the train. Unlike Kaytee, I had been up at the crack of dawn, unable to sleep. My dreams had been plagued with images of a huge battle, a battle which claimed the lives of everyone I knew one by one until it was just me and a gigantic snake, which then attempted to kill me.
I grabbed my wand and wandered downstairs for a cup of hot chocolate (Mum always kept a pot going) and drank it on the porch while the sun came up. After that, there wasn't much point in going back to sleep so I went back upstairs and stood in front of my full-length mirror messing with my appearance.
I decided to do something completely different, and eventually decided on thick raven-black hair that went to my shoulder blades and had long side-bangs, fair skin, large dark green eyes, high cheekbones, a straight nose, small ears and full, dark red lips. I morphed a single hole in each of my ear lobes, and another hole in the top cartilage of my left ear. My waist morphed to be a size two and I grew a few inches. From my earlobes I hung diamond earrings in the shape of a sprig of flowers.
I French-braided my hair, put a line of dark silver eyeliner around my eyes and rummaged through my drawers for clothes. Most of my stuff had been packed already, and so I resorted to opening up my trunk and digging through there.
I found a pair of dark wash skinny jeans that were the right size, a dark silver crop top and a black biker jacket. I own so many clothes it isn't even funny. I then snuck into Mum and Dad's room and silently rummaged through Mum's shoe shelf until I found what I was looking for; her black high-heeled boots. Why she had those I've never figured out, since she's the clumsiest person alive and whatnot. Anyway, I grabbed them and snuck out again.
After repacking my stuff I grabbed some toast from the kitchen and headed out to the old Abbey. By now it was about six o'clock, so I figured I had still two hours before I needed to come back.
Most years I was happy to return to Hogwarts, but this year was different. Everyone was growing up, pairing off. And fifth year was the hardest. Especially for us Ravenclaws. All the teachers expected us to be the best, so we had to study more than everyone else because they graded us the hardest. I didn't know what McGonagall's daughter was like, but if she was anything like her mother then we'd have to work very hard indeed.
I spent an hour practicing my transformation spells on bits of rock, ending up with a raven sitting comfortably on my shoulder. It was
slightly unnerving, but I was relatively confident that he wouldn't hurt me. There was no rule that said we couldn't have ravens as pets at Hogwarts, and even if I couldn't keep him in the Owlery I was sure Hagrid would take care of him for me. I decided to name him Taranis, which was the name of the Celtic god of thunder. I was slightly worried about how my owl, Paega, would take it, but then I remembered that Paega had died last year.
Was it possible to train ravens to carry letters? I mean, Sirius had done it with tropical birds, and ravens are rather clever. Taranis hopped on my shoulder and cawed imperiously, which I took to mean yes.
I waved my wand around a bit and fashioned a silver cage out of some branches that were lying near the old windmill. I coaxed Taranis into the cage, and set off for home, plotting my persona on the way.
I liked to play around with my Metamorphmagus skills, and so sometimes I would create new personas. I didn't usually do full-body morphs like this one, but it was always fun, especially for the first day of school. I walked into the house just in time to meet Teddy stumbling down the stairs.
"Whoa!" He said, looking up at me. "Kaleb's gonna like that." He teased, before he saw the raven.
"You didn't capture the raven did you?" He asked worriedly, glancing at it. I shook my head.
"Nope. Made it. His name's Taranis." Teddy chuckled.
"Good name for him. Is he a replacement for Paega?"
"Yeah. I figure they should be just as good at delivering letters as owls."
"Yeah probably."
Mum and Dad came down a few minutes later, and while neither of them said anything about the raven Mum did look pointedly at my feet.
"You look good Theda." She said, coming over and hugging me.
"Is everything packed you two?" Dad asked, helping himself to the hot chocolate. Teddy and I nodded, and Dad flicked his wand and sent all our stuff into the car's trunk.
"Why aren't we just apparating?" I asked sullenly, and Mum smiled at me.
"Do you really want to have to carry all your stuff?" she asked, and I shook my head. Dad shepherded us all into the car, and we headed off for another year at Hogwarts.