Hey guys! Happy Christmas, here's a little unedited gift that I wanted to get out to you all. It will be updated and edited again in a few days after all the Christmas holiday fuss is over. Even if you don't celebrate (I'm very secular myself but hey presents) I hope you have a good day and a wonderful new year!

All the best,

Meg

PS I'm so sorry that there some chunks of dialogue that aren't identifiable of which character says it, that's where the majority of the editing is needed.

Her voice was tense, an octave higher than normal "You had your face sucked by the denominator-"

"Dementor." Corrected Professor Lupin, though Gus ignored him and continued on, "And you fainted while hearing a woman screaming; a woman no one else heard. You are not alright."

Harry glared in her direction and grumbled, "I'm not going to get any better with you breathing down my neck."

She sighed, "Harry I'm worried."

"I'm fine." His tone had become final. She knew if she continued to stay she'd only be met with vindictive silence.

"You mean it?"

"Yes. Now I need to change into my robes, so you can leave."

Gus stood and shuffled pass Professor Lupin, who was looking between Harry and her with a strange expression. There was some strange sadness in it. Gus didn't know why though. It was probably because of what Harry had had to experience…

When Gus returned to the compartment she had shared with the twins and their friends she found that two more students, both wearing Gryffindor ties had found their way into what had already been a cramped space. After recognizing an additional red head Gus realized that Percy was there along with another boy who looked vaguely familiar. At the moment she couldn't place where she knew him from. She stood leaning against the door as the group was directing questions at Percy.

Angelina, she was sure that's who she was, asked "What happened?"

Jordan asked from his spot in-between the twins, his face revealed a strange excitement over the possible danger of a mass murderer being on the train, "We heard that Black attacked."

"It was a dementor. Probably checking for Black," Said Percy in an authoritative tone.

"It went after Harry." Percy jumped and turned to reveal Gus who he had been blocking from the rest of the group.

"It what?" Asked Fred, his voice slightly higher than normal.

"It tried to you know," Gus moved her hands up to her face, "at Harry. He fainted but he's fine now."

"Hell." Mumbled someone.

Jordan looked up at the group after a moment a moment of silence, "I swear since that kid came here we haven't had a normal year."

The Hogwarts station appeared to be like any rail station in rural Britain, there were two long platforms, a simple bridge to cross over them from and a station house. Though the moment when the train doors opened and the students were allowed off, a sea of black cloaks descended onto what was once a peaceful scene. The air was thick with laughter, loud gossip about a certain Potter passing out on the train, and the calls of students to long separated friends. Gus felt like she was drowning.

Suddenly there was a loud booming voice that Gus recognized immediately. "ALL FIRST YEARS COME THIS WAY!" Hagrid. It had been two years since she had last seen the massive boulder of a man.

She had heard from him, for the last two years she had received two well baked cakes for her birthday. Unfortunately Gus had ended up smudging most of the decorative frosting as she had to smuggle the cake into the house without Aunt Petunia noticing it.

Excited to see a face she recognized she waved her arm over her head and yelled, "Hagrid!"

Turning away from the small flock of first years who had gathered around his knees he shot a large smile towards Gus, "Well look who it is. Augusta Potter at Hogwarts, what a sight!" He then took three large steps, probably small for Hagrid's size though, and brought her into a bone crushing hug for several moments, before releasing her and looking over her.

"You've sprouted up like my green beans, you have. I take those muggles have been feedin' you well?"

"They've been alright." Gus shrugged her shoulders, but continued to smile. Hagrid had been so kind to her and Harry. And it seemed that his feelings over the past two years hadn't changed.

He bent slightly and lowered his voice, though it was still loud "Now I heard what happened to Harry on the train, he doin' 'right?"

"He says he's fine."

Gus thought she caught Hagrid mumble "Sure he is."

"Gus come on over this way!" cried the girl who had been confirmed as Alicia with a wave of her arm. The boy who had joined them in their compartment had called her Alicia when asking about her training over the summer for Quidditch.

Hagrid clapped a large hand on her shoulder, causing Gus to almost topple over, "I'll see you at the Welcome Feast, 'right Augusta?"

"So are we walking all the way up to the castle?"

"Nah we take carriages up thru Hogsmeade. If we walked you'd see second years lying dead on the path."

"That's cheery." Sudden movement by the front of the carriage they were about to enter caused Gus to jump, "What're those?"

Gus's head snapped back to George's face, how could they not see them, those things were massive. With wings! "What're what? The carriages?"

"No the things attached to them." Gus hand pointed to the strange, winged horse creature.

Both twins, who were standing on either side of her looked down at her their eyebrows wrinkled in concern and confusion, "Nothing's attached to them," George continued.

Sounding a bit more confident, Fred put his arm around Gus's shoulders, "We've been coming here for five years Gus, we know almost every secret that castle holds-"

Catching on to the confident act that his twin was putting on George added, "We'd know if something was pulling the carriage."

"So how do they get pulled?"

"Magic." The twins said together.

"Yeah, sorry that was stupid." The twins began to climb into the carriage and Gus looked over at the animal, she had to be going crazy.

Gus couldn't explain the feeling that was occupying her mind, it almost felt like a sort of numbness; it was as if the happiness she had over seeing Hagrid again, the relief about Harry appearing to be okay, the surprise and small amount of excitement she had over being at Hogwarts wasn't really touching her. It was being blocked out by this strange preoccupation; she couldn't identify what it was on though. There was a small amount of fear that came with it, but mainly it was a strange confusion. But the confusion wasn't over the magic she had witnessed, she couldn't figure out what was confusing her.

But the first glimpse of the great hall of Hogwarts pushed all of those things to the back of her mind. There was only one thought really grabbed her attention. It was wow.

There were too many details to take in: the beautiful house banners, the ceiling that looked just like the night sky that she had left outside, the happy chirping voices of the students, the floating candles, the fact that just standing in the room made her feel like she swiped her hand through the air if she looked at her hand it'd be covered in some dust form of magic.

She had a small amount of understanding of why Harry never thought about the deeper mysteries of their parents, if this main hall seemed to be full to the bursting with a distracting magic what was the rest of the school like?

Gus had ended up next to Harry at what she guessed to be the Gryffindor table. He didn't look overly joyed to be sitting with her.

Continuing to gaze up at the ceiling in aw, Harry gave an annoyed huff, "Are you going to sit down or what?"

"Oh yeah, of course." Gus looked around, she was the only one in the hall to be standing. Stepping over the bench she continued to look around the hall. She thought she had seen everything the hall had to give, but gazing over it again she was taking in even more. How many things could be in one room?

"Is she alright?" someone at the table asked.

"Gus?"

She gave a lazy wave of the hand as she continued to look around, "Yeah fine, perfectly fine."

"She looks like one of the first years."

"Look here they come!"

Gus attentively watched as the sorting of the first years took place. She felt awkward clapping along with the Gryffindors when they cheered and whooped for when a first year was sorted into the house. The awe she had earlier was overtaken by the uncomfortable feeling of being an outsider. She was the only person sitting at one of the house tables that wasn't wearing a school uniform, and she could feel some of the stares from the neighboring students.

Then came Dumbledore's speech, Gus had never met the man before, though she had seen the Chocolate Frog Card that Harry had of him. Even with the hype that had been made about him the only thing Gus really felt was impressive was his beard. The fact that when the man walked to the pulpit to begin his speech he did so without tripping on it was a feat in itself. Gus didn't want to imagine the care he must put into it to keep it looking so tame, magic probably. She was happy to see that Hagrid had been posted as the Care of Magical Creatures professor, she had cheered along with the table this time with full enthusiasm. She also joined in with the few full hearted claps that were given to Professor Lupin when he stood when Dumbledore introduced him; after all he had helped get rid of that shadow, dementor thing that attacked Harry.

Finally it was announced that it was time for the feast to begin, and as Dumbledore sat down food appeared, covering almost every inch of the tables in the hall. As if the ceiling wasn't enough, they had to have good food that appeared magically as well.

"Wow." Gus let out unintentionally.

"What?" asked Ron who was sitting on the other side of Harry.

"Do you get this much food all of the time?"

"Only tonight, Halloween and at the end of the year." Ron said in a tone that sounded slightly disappointed, "But usually there's always a pretty good spread."

"My god."

"Potter!"

Both Harry and Gus turned around on the bench to face a blonde boy who was leaning across the aisle. The tie that he wore around his neck was patterned with dark green and silver. Harry had mentioned this boy in his first letter to her from Hogwarts three years prior, Draco Malfoy had attempted to gain her brother's friendship by insulting his classmates before the school year had even started.

"Did you really faint in front of the dementors?"

"Oh shut up Malfoy." Ron who was sitting between Gus and Harry, pulled on his shoulder. Draco turned his gaze from Harry to Gus, taking in the obvious fact that she was not wearing a school uniform.

"And that must be the Potter squib." Gus furrowed her brow at the boy's use of the word, besides the time that Hagrid had explained what the word meant and why she was different from Harry she had only heard the term used by Scotty. But unlike the disinterested way that Scotty had used it and how Hagrid had passed the word off as if it was nothing important, the boy said it with such viciousness.

Harry's hands had tightened into fists on the table, though unlike how he had reacted so violently with Marge's insults, he sat and seethed. She knew that she was odd, in both the magical and muggle world, but she never saw it as something that needed to be described in such a disgusted manner, as if she trailed sewage everywhere she went.

A boy with several chubby chins then spoke up, "Has to be, never seen her ginger mug before, if I didn't know better she might be some long lost Weasley mutt."

Gus turned around, "So that's Draco Malfoy."

"Lovely chap isn't he?"

"Someone should punch his teeth in."

"We keep trying to hit bludgers at him, but Wood tells us off for it if it looks too obvious."

"Wood is your quidditch captain right?"

"He came into the compartment after the train broke down with Percy."

"Oh."

"Better hurry up, dinner is gonna disappear in a bit."

"Disappear?"

"Oh yeah, it'll disappear and then pudding will take its place."

"Don't you have people who serve dinner?"

"Magic."

"Oh."

"Miss Potter I'll be here to escort you to your chambers."

"Oh I'm not going to the dormitories?"

"No, only sorted students are allowed into their respective common rooms and dormitories."

"Of course."

"Now if you'll follow me this way."

"I- well goodnight Harry."

"Yeah."

"Will I have to be going up the movey stair cases professor?"

"No, the guest tower of the castle is down this way." McGonagall paused as she lead Gus through a particularly thick group of first years who were now wearing yellow and black, she was sure that was the colours for Hufflepuff."But you will have to use them for when you go to the library and some other parts of the castle."

Several minutes later Gus was in a hallway where she couldn't hear the excited voices of Hogwart's pupils, McGonagall stopped them in front of a large dark wood door.

"Now to open the door you'll have to knock in this pattern," she showed Gus an example of the pattern on the stone wall next to the door with her wand, "and you'll be able to enter."

She paused, thinking something over before continuing, "I advise to make sure that you have no unwelcome surprises from the Weasley twins that you keep that pattern to yourself."

"Yes mam."

"Unless you have any questions I will bid you a good night."

"No. Thank you professor."

"You're welcome Miss Potter."

The rooms weren't the chambers of Marie Antoinette, but for Gus the rooms were magnificent. There was a four poster bed in the centre of the room, which was across from a large fireplace where a small fire was crackling away, giving the room a warm orange glow. Her bag was on the foot of the bed, and the school books that she would use for the year were on a desk that was against a large floor to ceiling window that looked out onto a large hill with a forest at the bottom. There were candles in sconces that Gus guessed if she stretched she could just manage to blow out for the night.

She realized after a few minutes that she was still standing in the doorway, taking a few steps in she closed the door gently behind her. This was going to be her home for well, until Sirius Black was caught. And while it was slightly terrifying having yet another threat looming over her brother, there was a small part of her that wish that he didn't get caught for some time.

In the far corner of the room there was another door, to what Gus hoped was a bathroom. While she didn't mind having to share a bathroom, the thought of having to find her way to the bathroom in the middle of the night through the labyrinth of the castle wasn't too appealing. Pulling on the cast iron handle of the door, she opened it enough to peer in. She could make out the shadows of a bath and sink. Opening the door further she stepped in and jumped when candles lit themselves on her entry into the room.

"Magic." She grumbled. It was convenient, but bloody scary to have the room light itself when you weren't expecting it.

She had unpacked her things from her backpack, the books she had brought with her joining the others on the desk, some notebooks and her pencil case going there as well. All of her clothes pathetically filled only two of the six drawers in the dresser that was provided. The room was richly decorated with tapestries, a series of paintings that had animals running through them and warm rugs that kept the chill of the stone floor away it was still barren. Her entire life had been uprooted from Privet Drive and it barely made an impact on the room.

Sitting on the large bed Gus had changed into her pajammas, and was debating about sleeping or looking through Hogwarts: A History one more time just to refresh on any useful information. Looking over at the books on her desk, Gus crawled off the bed and grabbed one of the history books. Flipping to the end of the book she found the page with the picture of her family. She proceeded to prop the book open with some unlit candles in the direction of her bed. Lying down she watched the repetitive motions of the photo. If she had been awake a few minutes later Gus might have appreciated the dimming and the eventual extinguishing of all the candles around the room.