Phoenix Trilogy: Together Again

Chapter 2-New Faces At Hogwarts

Harry decided two days later that he needed to get away from his aunt and cousin, on the basis of two sentences: "Get the hell away from my son!" and "If I ever see you come within five feet of myself or my son again, I will call the police and charge you with trespassing!"

After he finished packing his belongings in his trunk, he chanced a visit to the room next door and went to talk to Aunt Petunia. As he rapped on the door, he heard someone sniffing and rummaged around for a tissue box. The whitewashed door cracked opened, and an inch of Aunt Petunia´s face could be seen through the small space created.

"What do you want, boy?" she snapped, saying the last word as if it were something gross and not to speak of. Harry stepped back so she could see him better.

"I just thought-"

"Oh, so now you´re thinking!" she shrieked, spitting on the fifteen-year-old as she did so. "Maybe if you had done that before, Vernon would still be alive!"

"I was saying, I thought you would like to know that"-he rolled the owl shaped whistle around in his hand-"if you ever need help, you can blow on this whistle. An auror will-"

"I don´t need your help," she snapped, taking the whistle from him anyway.

Harry shrugged. "It´s your choice, but now that Uncle-"

"Don´t you dare say his name!" Petunia shrieked. "You haven´t the honor, haven´t the right to!" Her voice dropped to a whisper, and her voice shook with suppressed rage and sadness. "If you ever come near us again, you will be sorry!"

"I´ll keep that in mind, if I have the urge to," Harry replied stubbornly. Aunt Petunia slammed the door in his face, and Harry turned to return to his room and get his belongings.

He didn´t expect to ever see his only living relatives again.

After dragging his trunk down the country road for a mile or two, Harry decided that it was safe enough to call the Knight Bus. He had been on it once before, the summer before his third year after he had blown up his aunt-she hadn´t really been his aunt-and run off, expecting the Ministry of Magic to send an accidental magic reversal squad down on him to send him to announce his expulsion from Hogwarts-or worse.

The violently purple bus appeared with a bang! no more than three feet in front of Harry, and he warily boarded it. He paid his transportation fee, and settled back on one of the beds, hopefully to regain some of the sleep that he had been missing. When he wasn´t having `Voldemort´ dreams, he was plagued with nightmares of Cedric Diggory, the old man, Bertha Jorkins, and his parents floating around him in circles, chanting, "You killed us. It´s your fault!"

The Knight Bus lurched to a stop at his destination about ten minutes later: the Knight Bus depot station, in London. Since he hadn´t had any time to owl Remus Lupin, whose home he was trying to get to, the driver had told Harry what he thought was the best thing to do: try to Floo to his house. Harry didn´t really see any point, since he had very little wizarding money with him, but the man hadn´t recognized him, so he believed he could trust him. As he walked dizzily to the front of the bus and stepped off, trying to ignore the pangs of nausea in his stomach, the bus driver grinned toothily at Harry.

"Hope ye find yer way there wit´ no problem, me boy!" he growled. He shoved Harry´s trunk off after him, and just before the bus banged! away, Harry swore he heard, "Blimey...was that `Arry Potter?"

So much for not being recognized, he thought bitterly, trying to flatten his fringe over his scar. He looked around the bus depot, trying to spot an empty fireplace, marveling at how much it looked like Platform 9 ¾. Sighing in remorse, Harry seized the end of his trunk and tugged it towards a bench; all the fireplaces were in use. He had a long time to wait before the next bus came in to get him out of here, if that was what he wanted to do next.

Harry reached the bench and sat down heavily on it. If he had read the clock above the time-board correctly, the next bus would arrive in four hours, plenty of time some get to sleep, since the jostling and noise on the bus had been too much for him to get any. As Harry closed his eyes, he thought he saw a person that looked vaguely familiar crouching in front of a fireplace, glancing over in his direction. He opened his eyes quickly and sat up straight. Before he knew what was happening, someone was hurtling towards him.

"Oh, Harry! Thank God!" It was Hermione Granger, one of Harry´s two best friends. Slightly startled, he got quickly to his feet and braced himself, for Hermione was running quite fast and it appeared that she didn´t intend to stop anytime soon. Sure enough, she ran into him, knocking the wind out of him. She squeezed him tight into a hug. Harry choked. "We were so worried!" She said. She buried her head into his shoulder. Harry could feel something wet soaking into his T-shirt and knew she was crying. "Oh, thank God, thank God!" She looked up, her face pale.

"Oi, Hermione! Let him go!" Ron Weasley, Harry´s other best friend, arrived about five seconds later and grabbed Hermione´s right arm. Half unwillingly, she pulled away from Harry and wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand. Harry noticed more than ever Ron´s growth in height; he was normally a few inches above Hermione, but now he practically towered over the two of them. He looked nearly as pale as Hermione, his freckles standing out as if a young child had poked him with a brown magic-marker in his sleep.

"Dad came home with the news."

"So you told me," Harry said, recalling the confusing and slightly amusing letter that Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George had sent via Pig.

"And...your uncle...?"

"Yeah," Harry said bitterly, looking down at the ground. Another death, because of me he thought.

"Harry, come on." He was barely aware that Hermione was tugging at the sleeve of his jumper. "We need to go."

"Go...where?" he asked as he was tugged in what felt like a random direction.

"To Si-er, to Snuffles and Remus," Hermione told him.

"Sirius?" Harry said in a whisper, glancing sideways at Hermione, and then on to Ron. Harry straightened abruptly as he remembered. If you´re still interested in coming to my house Our house, Sirius. Yes, that, then meet us at the deport station for the Knight Bus. "They´re here! They said that-"

"Yes, Harry, we already know," Ron said quietly. Harry heard something scuffing on the ground and half-turned to see that Ron had taken to dragging it along behind them. Somehow, a rope had attached itself to the handle. Harry was about to say something else when a sharp, deep bark echoed around the station, and a yell of delight met their ears.

Harry looked around until he spotted who he was looking for. "Professor!" he cried out. Lupin hadn´t gained any more gray to his light brown hair since the last time Harry had seen him, and he looked more rested as well. Harry wondered idly when the last full moon had been.

A shaggy black dog bounded forward, and Harry knelt down to embrace it.

"Sirius, how are you?" Harry whispered to the dog. Sirius gave another short bark and turned, staring determinedly in the direction of what Harry thought was the barrier to the Muggle world.

"Let´s go home," Lupin said in a slightly tired, yet all together happy voice, and led the way off to the barrier.

Harry spent the rest of his summer vacation with Ron, Hermione, Lupin, and Sirius at Lupin´s house, in a small town just outside of London. The house was quite small but comfortably furnished, a quiet place of comfort, seeming to be warm during the straight four weeks of rain that followed Harry´s arrival. He kept quiet, talking only when he had to for the entire time. Ron and Hermione gave him the space he needed. Two people had died within the same year, and both, it seemed, because of him.

"You shouldn´t feel guilty, Harry," Sirius said to him one morning as Harry picked at his eggs. Harry didn´t answer, but instead moved a small portion from once side of the plate to the other. The eggs looked more yellow then what was safe, but Ron and Hermione seemed to be enjoying them, so he ate a forkful. They tasted of cheese, which explained the bright color. Harry smiled slightly at the warm taste it left in his mouth, and then darted for his cup of orange juice as the spicy flavor of a pepper burst in his mouth.

Remus grinned. "You got a jalapeño, didn´t you?"

"Yes," Harry sputtered, swallowing his juice in a gulp and then reaching for the pitcher.

At the end of August, about a week before the start of school, Harry, Ron, and Hermione (accompanied by Lupin, Sirius, and a heavy blue-black umbrella) went to Diagon Alley to pick up their school supplies. Harry saw a few people that he recognized from the previous years, including Ginny and Charlie Weasley, both of whom were concerned about Harry as much as Ron and Hermione had been when they first met up at the bus station.

"Mum was beside herself," Charlie said after grinning at his youngest brother and tousling his hair.

"She wanted you at the house, but Dumbledore wrote and said that it wouldn´t be wise. I wonder why?" Ginny said, slightly confused. Harry knew perfectly well why, but hadn´t seen any reason to worry any of them.

On September first, Remus drove three teens, three trunks, and two owls to the train station, accompanied by Sirius, in dog form, of course. The station, though still swimming with people, seemed quieter then usual, and the normal hustle and bustle of the Muggles wasn´t even as pronounced.

When the whistle of the Hogwarts Express finally blew, Harry felt relief sweep into his stomach as he leaned out of his window and waved to Lupin and Sirius. When the train rounded a bend and they were no longer in sight, Harry ducked back inside.

"We need to go to the front of the train, don´t forget," Hermione said.

"Why´s that?" Ron asked. Hermione pointed to her Prefect badge, which she had pinned to her robes when they crossed through the barrier between the Muggle station and platform 9 ¾.

"Oh, right," Harry said, opening his trunk and rummaging around for the badge. He finally found it and pinned it on his robes. Ron made a face.

"I´ll see you guys later," he said, and Harry and Hermione left through the compartment door.

"How come you never told us that you were made Prefect too?" Hermione asked as they walked down the corridor.

"It never came up," Harry answered simply, ducking past a large wad of parchment that someone had thrown. Harry wondered briefly if he should reprimand the thrower, but decided against it.

While they walked down the hall to the front of the train, Hermione questioned Harry on who else had been named a Prefect. She was delighted to hear that Draco Malfoy, someone who they both despised from the top of his white-blond hair to his expensive looking leather shoes. She was disappointed when, with disgust, Harry told her that a Slytherin had been named Head Boy, and was even more delighted to hear that a Hufflepuff was Head Girl. Harry and Hermione both agreed that the Hufflepuffs deserved the recognition they had received.

As it turned out, there was nothing much to do in the front compartment where the prefects sat. The only exciting thing that happened was when a small, doe-eyed student (A first year, Harry thought) accidentally walked in and the Head Boy began to scare her thoroughly by telling her that she would have to do all sorts of things to determine which house she would be in. The Head Girl nearly turned purple with rage, and she spent the rest of the ten minutes screaming at him and threatening to go to the heads of houses and Dumbledore with an order for him to be removed.

"Honestly," she said with the shake of her head after she had calmed down. "You´d think that a seventh year would know better, but no, this seventh year happens to be a Slytherin!" Bored to tears, Harry and Hermione practically ran back to their compartment at the end of the train.

No sooner had they sat down, when a soft knock on the door made all three of them jump.

"Who knocks on doors nowadays?" Ron wondered aloud as Hermione reached for the handle of the door.

"Dunno," Harry answered with a shrug. A short, slim girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old stood in the door, her dark brown, curly hair swirling around her shoulders. She brushed her nose length fringe out of her green eyes and glanced at them with curiosity

"Um...hey. Do ye mind if I sit in here? I´m new te Hogwarts, and I don know anybody yet except fer de jerk back dere with de blond hair. Do ye know him? He appears te have used some form of concealor te hide dat he´s bin jinxed lately." The group grinned at each other after trying to understand what she had said. She had the weirdest accent, and Harry was positive that she wasn´t from England, or from anywhere in Europe, for that matter.

"Sure," Ron said, his eyes never leaving the girl as she slid the door shut. "Where are you from?"

"Oh, here and dere," she said, very slightly shaking her head from side to side. "I´ve jest moved from New York after living there fer...oh, I´d say five years. I´m a foster house brat, ye see. I´ve lived in various orphanages fer almost all of my life."

"´Fosta house brat´?" asked Hermione as the two boys looked at her for an explanation.

"Yeah. I´m an orphan. I said dat I´ve been in orphanages," the girl said, slightly annoyed.

Hermione sniffed derisively. "You´re not from England or Scotland, are you?"

"Well, I was born in England, but when my parents died I was sent te an orphanage in Hawaii. I´ve bin travelin´ the states since I could talk, practically. I moved from New York te here from de worst wizarding orphanage in the world, I swear!" She laughed lightly.

Hermione gave her a cold look as Ron grinned. "Have a seat."

The girl smiled at him and then looked at Harry. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she glanced around her face. "Ye look familiar, kid," she said to Harry, pointing at him.

"Well," Hermione said, startled. She sat back. "Are you telling me that you don´t recognize Harry Potter when you see him?"

"What? Harry Potter? Who...oh! Him! Sorry `bout dat...ye look different in all dem books dey´ve got written `bout ye."

"`Booyks´? Oh! Books...yeah, Hermione said something about being in several Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts books."

"`Several´? More like three bookshelves full!"

"Only?" Harry said, rolling his eyes slightly when Ron sniggered. "They´re slacking off, aren´t they." He stated the last part, rather than asked.

"How would you know, anyway?" Ron asked her. The girl´s fringe fell back into her eyes as she leaned forward, and she pushed it back behind her ears.

"Mmm...aside from reading de entire school library at least once, I´ve bin te nearly every wizarding library `cross New York state!" she exclaimed, much to Hermione´s disapproval.

"You know," Ron said suddenly, "you never told us your name."

"Well, ye didn´ tell me yer name either, Red," she said, a sly grin flooding her face. Harry frowned. There was something familiar about her that he couldn´t place. Then, with realization at what the strange American had just said, he began to chuckle.

"R-Red?!" Ron exclaimed, scandalized.

"Close enough, if you ask me," Hermione said with a shrug. "He´s Ron, and I´m Hermione. That´s Harry, but we already assessed that."

"Audry," the American answered, putting out her hand to shake Hermione´s.

"So...d´you like Quidditch?" Ron asked with a grin

Audry cocked her head, and her fringe untucked itself from behind her ears. "What´s `Quidditch´?"

Ron nearly exploded. "´What´s Quidditch´? Jeeze, you are from a different country! Who hasn´t heard of Quidditch?"

Harry heard the door slip open the rest of the way, but was too late when he turned to warn his friends. "Mudbloods and Muggles, of course!" A drawling voice said from the door. Audry turned, sniffing the air.

"Do ye boys smell something? I jest all of a sudden...oh, dat´s why! It´s a pureblood with a rotten attitude towards people he doesn´ even know!" She stood up and energetically shook his hand. "Nice te meet ya again..." she fished around for his name, and when he failed in shock to give it to her, she supplied one that made Harry shake with suppressed laughter. "Dumb! Dumb Ass! That´s what it was. So sorry, Dumb, I completely forgot your name!" Malfoy had never looked more furious.

Dumb Ass? Harry mouthed to Ron behind the American´s back as she continued to grin at Malfoy. He shrugged in return.

"You´ll pay for that, Mudblood," he growled menacingly, but Harry noticed his ears were a bright pink. Crabb and Goyle (Harry noticed hex marks standing out on their faces) stood there, too stupid to do anything but stare at the strange girl from New York. "My father will most definitely hear about this."

"And what would yer so-called father say if ye told him what ye´d been callin´ me? Huh?"

"He wouldn´t care," Malfoy shrugged, and then stood straighter, a steely glint in his eyes. Audry raised an eyebrow.

"Some parent. One of de pureblood girls in my old orphanage thought she was better dan one of de halfbloods and called her a Muddie. I´ll never forget how many jinx scars she ended up with after de staff removed the removable ones! Oh, silly me," she said suddenly, smacking herself in the head. "I jest remembered what it was!" She rummaged around in the small dark red purse that was slung over her shoulder, muttering, "Now if only I could find my wand in dis pig sty..." When she finally whipped it out and pointed it at Malfoy, he was gone, shutting the door too forcefully behind him and shattering the glass. "Wait! Come back!" She cried out the shattered window. "I haven´t gotten to show you what it does yet!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione roared with laughter. Audry grinned back at them and bowed clumsily, saying, "Thank you, thank you!"

"I have never seen Malfoy scared like that in my life!" Ron exclaimed, slapping his knee. "Well," he said thoughtfully, "except after the ABF incident."

"ABF?" Audry asked curiously, putting her wand back in her purse and sitting down again.

"Amazing Bouncing Ferret!" Harry and Ron yelled in unison. Another door slammed shut and the tinkling of breaking glass could be heard again. Then Malfoy began to scream at Crabb and Goyle for not standing up for him. Audry rolled her eyes and pulled out her wand again and repaired the window. The shards sprang up into the windowpane, repairing it while she, Ron, and Harry talked of Quidditch, and Hermione looked quite sulky in the corner as she dug around in her trunk, left out as she was.

~*~

"We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes time," proclaimed a nasal voice on the train´s intercom. "Please be dressed in your robes by that time." Audry stood up and grabbed a pair of her robes and her uniform out of a small travel suitcase by her feet. Audry and Hermione left to go find a compartment full of girls so they could change into their Hogwarts uniforms and left Ron with Harry.

"What do you think of her?" Harry asked Ron as he rummaged around in his trunk for his tie.

"She´s amazing," he said, starting to blush.

Harry looked up. "She looks familiar to me for some reason."

"You mean you think you´ve seen her before?"

"Well...yes and no," he said, scratching his head. He moved a book and discovered his lost tie wedged between his Herbology Dictionary of Plants and his new DADA book.

Ron groaned. "Don´t tell me that you´re going all Trelawney on me!"

"No, it´s not that; I just...she...I don´t know!" He threw his hands up in the air.

"´I just...she...´ what?" Audry asked, coming back in. Harry swallowed slightly as he looked at the way she wore the uniform. The skirt had been rolled up once or twice to reveal the bottom of her tightly muscled thighs. The white shirt, on the other hand...Harry believed that if she hadn´t been wearing her school robes, every part of her torso would´ve been visible. At the moment, the top of her black bra was visible through it. Harry wrenched his eyes away to look at Hermione. She was scowling disapprovingly again.

"Er..." sputtered Ron. Audry looked down at her shirt and shrugged.

"I guess that´s why all the guys were drooling as we walked back here," she said, turning to Hermione with a grin. Hermione´s scowl deepened and she went back to her book.

When the train finally clanked to a stop, Audry had never looked more excited.

"I haven´t been sorted yet," she said eagerly. "What´s it like?"

"Well, you have to duel with a dra-" Ron started with a sly grin.

"Don´t be stupid," Hermione said, snapping her book shut and putting it back in her trunk. She proceeded to open the door leading outside and jumped out onto the platform. "You have to put on the Sorting Hat and then it will sort you into the house it feels you would fit in most." She stalked off towards a line of fifth years preparing to board the horseless carriages that were currently rattling towards Hogsmede Station.

"Don´t let it push you around," Harry added, trying to pull his cloak out from under a stack of papers and quills. He managed it, but not without severely scratching his hand twice on the point of the quill. "What house do you want to be in?"

"Well, I´ve heard all sorts of good things about Gryffindor," she began, twirling one of her curls around a finger and following them down the platform for a ways. They stopped as a mass of students got in their way. "Ravenclaw sounds nice, but Hufflepuff just sounds like it´s fer a bunch of blonds from...somewhere." She released the curl and brushed her fringe out of her eyes for the seventh or so time since the trio had met her. "Slytherin doesn´t sound very nice at all. Yes, Gryffindor, I think."

"Good choice!" Ron said, slapping her jovially on the back. She choked and swallowed the gum she had been chewing. "We´re all in Gryffindor. Well, see you at the feast!" he said as she was pushed by a group of first years towards the boats.

"Wait!" she cried out, trying to move back towards them. "How do I get dere?"

"Follow the first years!" Harry yelled back. Audry was swept out of sight.

"Good riddance," Hermione said grumpily as they caught up with her.

"You don´t like her?" Ron asked, confused.

"I don´t trust her," she corrected. Harry looked at Ron as they reached the horseless carriages and then clambered into one after Hermione as the first few carriages rolled away into the darkness.

Harry peered out the window of the musty carriage, gazing at the lake and the twinkling lights of the lamps on each boat. He wondered what it was like to be the only new fifth year among a group of eleven and ten-year-olds. He then realized that, perhaps, he didn´t want to know after all.

They reached the castle and Harry hopped out, happy to be back at the only place he had ever called home. Peeves was nowhere to be seen, which made everyone happy, since the previous year he had bombarded them with water balloons after they had already been soaked by torrential rains.

The Great Hall was lit only by the slightly overcast sky (the rain had stopped a few hours ago) and thousands upon thousands of flickering candles, so the shadows made the room slightly eerie. Harry shivered under his slightly damp cloak. It was cold, even for September. Harry quickly found the Gryffindor table, minus last year´s seventh years, and rushed over to it to seat himself, as if the sorting would go faster just because he moved faster. Ron and Hermione followed, obviously just as hungry as he.

"Snape´s still here," Ron said, sounding disappointed. The greasy haired professor was talking to a short man with wiry white hair, whom it took Harry a few seconds to recognize the as Professor Flitwick.

"Flitwick´s lost some hair," he noted, nodding in his general direction.

"Oh, look, there´s the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor!" Hermione said, pointing. Harry looked too. For one wild moment, he thought that it was Sirius at the top table, laughing at whatever joke Dumbledore had just told. After closer inspection, he discovered he was wrong. The man was much too dark to be Sirius, and he was taller than his godfather, too.

"He looks familiar," Ron said, squinting.

"I thought he looked like Snuffles," Harry told him. Ron nodded.

"I can see the resemblance, but you´re right; it´s not him. Here come the first years and Audry," he added as a silence fell over the room.

Ron was partially wrong. It wasn´t only Audry and the first years. A group of new students, ranging from twelve to seventeen, also filed in. Harry was surprised to see that some of them were wearing the same kind of thin clothing that the Beauxbatons students had been wearing the year before, but since it was colder than usual, the majority of the students were shivering anyway.

Audry looked annoyed as she entered the room, as if something-or someone-had been bothering her. Professor McGonagall brought out the stool and placed the hat on it. Harry stared at it and waited for it to sing. After about twenty seconds and still nothing had happened, Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. The looked confused.

"What do you think is wrong with it?" he asked.

"Maybe it ran out of songs," Ron suggested with a shrug. A strange buzzing filled the room as the students began their conversations again, this time all wondering aloud what was going on with the hat.

"D´you think something´s wrong with it?" Hermione asked Ron, while Harry looked up at Audry. He noticed she no longer looked annoyed; she was severely nervous now, shifting from foot to foot as she raked the crowded hall with her eyes. When she spotted Harry, he gave her a comforting smile. She smiled weakly. Professor McGonagall ran up to the Sorting Hat, a frown on her lips, and picked it up. After placing it on her head and listening for a few moments, nodding all the while, she placed it back down on the stool and walked briskly over to the top table, right to Dumbledore´s seat. She whispered in his ear for a few moments before he nodded and stood up.

"I´m sorry to say that we won´t be using the Sorting Hat this year to sort the new students, due to the fact that the Hat refuses to sort anyone over a first year," he said with a quick glance to Audry and the other older students. Audry looked guiltily at the crowd. Harry´s mouth fell open.

"It won´t sort them?" he gasped. Ron looked surprised. An uproar came from some of the students.

"I wanted to hear its song!" A second year said shrilly. Dumbledore smiled.

"This does not mean that we won´t be able to sort them, of course," he said, holding up a hand for silence. It was quickly gained, and he continued. "I will call the students up to the top table. They will be requested to place their wands tip to tip with mine. The burst of light that comes from the wand will determine what house they are to go in." The first years looked terrified, and Audry´s look of annoyance was back. Harry thought he heard a faint whispering in his head, which startled him, but when he tried to listen to it, it stopped, so he thought nothing of it.

Professor McGonagall picked up the sorting hat and tucked it under her arm. As she passed the top table, she handed a list of the new students to Dumbledore and walked out of the room to put the Sorting Hat back in Dumbledore´s office where it belonged. Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"Acridge, Aaron." One of the first years stumbled out of line and walked shakily up to Dumbledore. He placed his wand tip to tip with Dumbledore´s, trying not to tremble as he did so. A flash of yellow light burst from the wand tips and soared up into the air, taking the shape of a badger. The Hufflepuffs began to applaud heartily, welcoming Aaron to their table and house.

"Arando, Katrine." A fourteen-year-old girl with deep blue eyes and silky brown hair nearly floated up to the front table, her head held up high. She didn´t seem the least bit frightened as she placed her wand tip to tip with Dumbledore´s. The Ravenclaws warmly welcomed her as the deep blue shape of an eagle soared towards the enchanted ceiling.

"Atins, Kyle." Frightened and looking quite intimidated by the giant sixth years on either side of him, a boy with hair so black that it appeared to have blue highlights in it walked towards Dumbledore. He trembled as he placed it tip to tip against Dumbledore´s. A badger scuttled out, and the Hufflepuffs applauded again.

"Audry," he said without announcing her last name. Harry supposed this was because she was an orphan and didn´t have one. She walked carefully up to the top table and placed her wand against Dumbledore´s. The students gasped in awe as the magnificent burgundy shape of a lion padded out, tossing its mighty head and roaring. Recovering from his shock, Harry began to cheer with the rest of the students. Audry tossed her head as well (her fringe flipped into her eyes again) and smiled at the students as she walked over.

"Well, I made it!" She cried. "I´m lucky dat I got de one I wanted. I was worried, since I thought de wand would sort me into de house it thought me most fit te join. If de Sorting Hat weren´t being such a choosy prick it wouldn´t´ve mattered. Um...right?"

"Probably," Harry agreed. He remembered how the Hat had wanted to sort him into Slytherin and not Gryffindor.

"Why does this always have to move so slow?" Ron moaned, massaging his stomach as if it hurt him. "Come on! I´m starving!"

"Why are dere so many different aged students bein´ sorted?" Audry asked quietly, applauding for Backlin, Jordana as she was sorted into Gryffindor. The girl was small enough, and her long thick hair didn´t help make her seem taller.

"I´m not sure, but I think it has something to do with Voldemort´s rebirth," Harry said softly. Hermione´s mouth drew into a thin line and Ron flinched slightly, as Harry knew they would, but he was completely unprepared for Audry´s reaction to his saying the Dark Lord´s name. She slapped him hard in the back of the head, knocking his glasses off, after her face had finished paling.

"Don´t you joke about things like dat!" she hissed at him. Harry blinked.

"I hate to break the news, if you didn´t hear about it in the states, but Voldemort was brought back last school year." Audry slapped him again.

"Don´t say his name!" she hissed in unison with Ron. Harry shrugged and turned his eyes back to the Sorting, and to Dumbledore, whose wand had just declared Durin, Tabatha, a Slytherin.

~*~

"Zwu, Chan Lo." Dumbledore read the last name off the list. The Asian boy walked quickly up to Dumbledore and was placed in Slytherin. Harry felt like cheering along with the Slytherins. There had never been so many students sorted that he could remember. All the tables seemed more crowded then usual, and Harry felt that even if he´d tried, he wouldn´t be able to see over all the black hats in the hall.

Dumbledore rolled up the parchment and handed it to Professor McGonagall as he faced the students.

"As you can see, we have welcomed students from different schools all across the continent," he said. Harry snorted slightly.

You would have to be blind not to see, he thought. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Audry grin slightly.

"They will be staying for the remainder of their schooling at Hogwarts, and I expect to gain more students over the course of this year." Harry felt his jaw drop. More students?

"We´re packed enough as it is!" Hermione exclaimed, outraged. Most of the other Gryffindors were displeased as well, and they voiced that displeasure rather loudly and, in a few cases, obscenely.

"Other than that, there is nothing new to say. Dig in!" He waved his hands out in front of him and the golden plates and platters filled with food. Harry grinned eagerly and laughed when Audry jumped at seeing all the food appear.

"I swear dis wasn´ here five minutes ago," she said, eyeing a bowl of mashed potatoes near her elbow.

"The house-elves send it up," Ron said through a mouthful of garlic bread. Using his free hand to spoon spaghetti onto his plate, Ron continued to munch on the bread and managed to get crumbs in everything. Harry smiled and bit into his chicken breast, hungrily devouring it.

~*~

"I couldn´t eat another bite if someone threatened to use the Cruciatus Curse on me!" Ron moaned, patting his full stomach. Audry polished off the last of her green beans and leaned back in her chair.

"It should be time fer bed soon," she said, looking at her watch.

Dumbledore stood up then, causing the hall to go quiet. "Now that we´ve fed you," he said, fixing a steely eye on the Slytherins, who were becoming a bit too rowdy for safety. They didn´t immediately quiet down, but after a few seconds it became considerably less noisy. Harry ignored their jeers and looked back to Dumbledore. "It´s time for bed. Off with you, now! Don´t forget that you don´t have classes till Monday!"

Harry stood up and nearly ran into the teen with the sneering face behind him.

"How does he always appear when ye least expect him te?" Audry asked, rolling her eyes. She then turned to Malfoy with a sneer on her face to match his. "So, Dumb, ye still want me te cast dat wonderful hex dat I spoke of earlier?"

"You´d be smart not to speak to me in that fashion, mudblood," he sneered back. Audry rolled her eyes.

"dat´d better not be de worst word dat ye know."

"Oh, like you would know anything better?" he shot back, an irritated look on his face. Audry smiled sweetly and whispered something in his ear. He went pale.

"Where did you find out about that word?" he gasped. She smiled again.

"dat´s fer me te know and fer ye not te find out!" And with that, she swept around, her hips swishing seductively, and walked up the stairs. Harry chanced a glance at Malfoy to see his expression. It was one of anger, but one of longing as well. Harry shook his head and turned away. For some reason, Audry´s movements weren´t affecting him as much as they were for every other male in the hall. Ron was practically drooling, and Hermione glanced hotly at the two of them.

"Men," she muttered, as if it were a bad thing, and headed up after Audry. Harry followed, his prefect badge shining brightly on his robes.

~*~

"Blimey, I´m tired!" Ron said with an exaggerated yawn. Harry glanced over at the girls and saw Audry blink sleepily.

"I´m exhausted," she murmured. "Ye try takin´ an eight hour flight, den driving straight te a train station and boardin´ a five hour trip te a castle in the middle of nowhere."

"You must be tired!" Harry agreed. He ignored his own sleepiness and instead paid attention to where he was going. It was the new prefects duty (as it had been explained on the train) to lead the new first years, and since they had new students who didn´t know where the dormitories were, it was his and Hermione´s responsibility to lead the new Gryffindors to the common rooms. Ron was just coming with them since he had nothing better to do.

Peeves suddenly bounced into the corridor they were in, startling everyone and scaring several first year girls into hysterics.

"Ickle firsties!" he cackled as he had in Harry´s first year.

He rolled his eyes. "Sod off, Peeves," he said to the poltergeist. Peeves stuck his tongue out and made a rude gesture with one of the fingers on his left hand.

"Too bad Peeves isn´t in a house," Ron whispered to him, regarding Audry´s expression. It was one of curiosity and amusement as he dropped a couple of water balloons on the group.

"Peeves!" Someone roared from a doorway near by. Harry looked over and dodged another balloon. It was the new DADA teacher. He was walking towards them now, a furious expression on his face. Harry was slightly surprised as he skidded to a stop and pulled his wand out.

"Professor-" he started, about to tell him that it was okay.

"Peeves, you were strictly told to keep yourself and your balloons absent for the night!" he yelled.

Peeves grinned fiendishly. "I know something you don´t know!" he sang. The poltergeist spun around and repeated it. "I know something you don´t know!"

The man frowned. "Peeves, I´m giving you to the count of three to skive off!" he said, sounding more like someone in Harry´s year than an adult. Peeves stuck out his tongue again and zoomed off, causing several of the torches to sputter and die as he blew hard on them. Harry shook his head.

"That was Peeves, the resident poltergeist. He´s always trying to get the students into trouble, and always pestering the teachers. My advice is to stay away from him for the first couple of weeks, if you can. And this," he continued, turning to the professor, who still had an angry look on his face, "is the Defense Against the Dark Arts, or DADA as we like to call it, teacher. Professor..." he looked at the teacher, suddenly realizing that he didn´t know his name.

"Professor Edward Sirs," he said, holding out a hand to shake Harry´s. "And you´re the famous Harry Potter, of course." Harry rolled his eyes again. Some of the new students began to whisper among themselves.

"Anyway, we need to continue to the common room," Harry said, beginning to walk again. "We´ll see you in class, Professor."

"Good-bye, Harry," he said with a wave. A smile had crawled across his face, one that Harry felt was too familiar. He turned back to the professor.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Harry asked. Sirs, who had already started back to his office, turned in surprise.

"Not unless you´ve seen me in one of the shops," he said. A strange look came over his face. Hermione cleared her throat.

"Down here is the charms corridor. If you´re wondering why this is taking so long, it´s for several reasons. First of all, we´re trying to show you all your new classes, with the exception of Potions, which will be down in the dungeons. And for you older students, your electives will be around and about, and I´m not even going to try to name all the classes you might take. The second reason is because Mr. High-and-mighty here is being-"

"De slow poke of de century! Come on, Harry!" Audry interrupted. Harry smiled and took his place at the front of the line, letting Hermione talk for a while.

By the time they got to Gryffindor tower, all of the students were sleepy eyed and most of them looked ready to sink into the floor from lack of energy. Hermione was struggling to keep a smile on her face, and Harry knew that his glasses were in danger of slipping off of his nose, but everyone was grateful to climb through the Fat Lady´s portrait after giving the password. ("Bludgeon!") Harry pointed out the vacated seventh years dormitory to the first years and lead each new male up to his dormitory. Harry was startled to find that they even had a new fifth year boy, who promptly seized the bed nearest to the door. He proceeded to stick his nose into a book, ending any chance of conversation. Harry exchanged a look with Dean Thomas, who was putting up a new poster of the West Ham soccer team. Harry had finished showing the boys where to go, so he rummaged around in his trunk for a blanket. The cold night air was slipping through some crack in a wall nearby and was making the room downright drafty. After securing the thin wool blanket around him, Harry headed down to the common room to have a well-earned talk with Ron and Hermione. As he stepped into the room, he saw that only Hermione was there, her nose jammed into a book as usual.

"Hullo," he said, plopping down on the couch.

"Harry, d´you know where my dress robes from last year are?" Ron said, bursting into the room. Harry jumped.

"Why d´you ask?"

"I wanted to use them to plug the galleon sized hole in the dormitory window so the decent people could get some sleep. It´s like ice in there!"

"It´s not only there," Hermione said, rising to get closer to the fire. "It´s all over the school. Even down by the fire here, it seems really cold."

"We´d be better off te jest bundle up tonight," a new voice said from the girls´ dormitories. Harry looked over the top of the couch and saw Audry wrapped in a light purple fleece blanket. The bottoms of a pair of blue plaid pajama pants were visible beneath the hem. "Isn´t it about time fer bed?"

"I just thought I´d get in some last minute studying before classes on Monday."

"Don´t you mean tomorrow?" Harry said, stifling a yawn.

"Today is Friday, you prat," Ron said, whacking him in the back of the head. "Besides, what do you still need to study, Hermione?"

"Well, you two don´t have arithmancy," she snapped, closing the book she was reading. Harry saw the gold lettering and library placement card flash briefly in the firelight before something dropped out of the book. It dinged as it hit the ground, and bounced out of sight.

"What was that?" Harry asked, getting up to look for it.

"Dunno." Ron said, squatting down to look under the couch. "Nothing here."

"I would´ve said dat i`twas a ring or somethin´." Audry placed a delicate finger on her chin and thought for a few moments. "I´ve never heard such an unusual sound come from a ring before, though."

"We can look for it in the morning." Harry said with a yawn. He then shivered again. "I´m going to bed. It´s bound to be a lot warmer in there then it is in here!"