Harry Potter and the Unfulfilled Prophecy

As soon as Harry stepped off the train, he heard Hagrid yelling to the new students.

"Firs' years! O'er here! Come with me. Firs' years! This way! Towards the lake. Tha's it." Being the huge man he was, Hagrid easily managed to be heard amongst the bustling students trying to find their way to the carriages.

"C'mon, Harry, Ron," Hermione said, in a rather authoritative manner, "We'd better go find a carriage soon before they're all taken."

"Alright," Harry answered, carrying Hedwig's cage over to a cart that would take her to the owlery, "I'm coming." Harry and Ron set off with Hermione, closely followed by Ginny and Luna. Until they got close enough to see, Harry had almost forgotten about the thestrals, the winged horses that pulled the Hogwarts carriages. They could only be seen by those who witnessed another person's death. They were really very majestic creatures, even if they appeared somewhat imposing at first sight.

When they reached the carriage that they would be riding in Harry noticed Luna petting the unusual looking thestrals. While he could see that she was touching an actual creature, others would have thought her to be crazy because she looked as if she were stroking thin air. Harry laughed at the thought. Could other people think her more crazy than they already thought she was? He somehow doubted that.

Once they were all inside the carriage, Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione situated themselves in the seats. Luna climbed in after them and squeezed between Ginny and Hermione. Hermione looked a bit put off by the Ravenclaw's bold actions, but she wasn't about to say anything. Luna was nice... even if she was a bit strange.

"Why does that Luna girl always have to follow us wherever we go?" Ron turned his head and whispered quietly to Harry.

"She hasn't really got many other friends, Ron. Don't be too hard on her," Harry answered in a hushed voice. Ron looked at Harry as if he had sprouted a second head, but didn't say anything else. With only a few minutes of silence, they soon found that their carriage had reached the front gates of the Hogwarts grounds. Once the carriage stopped, they walked up to the front doors, and found themselves inside of the Great Hall.

Inside the Dining Hall, they made their way over to the Gryffindor table and sat down at the end closest to the Staff Table. Harry sat on the end of the table with an empty spot to his right, Ron to his left, and Hermione and Ginny across from him.

Ginny was having an internal battle with herself as to whether or not she should move to the empty spot next to Harry. She desperately wanted to, and was about to make her move when first years began streaming into the room and Dumbledore stood up to begin his opening speech. Her moment was ruined, and she mentally kicked herself for waiting so long to make a decision. It would now seem extremely awkward if she were to just walk around and sit next to Harry. She supposed she could use the excuse that it would help her see the Sorting better. That way she wouldn't have to turn around... but Dumbledore began talking.

"Before we begin the sorting of the first years, I have a few announcements to make..." The headmaster began. Harry was soon lost in his own thoughts and he only vaguely heard what Dumbledore was saying. He had noticed a tall head amongst the crowd of first years and wondered who it could be. He thought it was very strange, but he didn't have a chance to think about it any further because Dumbledore's words soon brought him back to reality.

"... The Forbidden Forest is still, as always, forbidden to students. Also, I would like to draw attention to the fact that we have a new addition to our sixth year students. She is from the Wingbatts Wizarding Academy located in the United States and we are more than happy to have her. She is not an exchange student, but will be making Hogwarts her school for the remainder of her education. She will be sorted before the first years. Professor McGonagall, you may proceed." At Dumbledore's words, the Gryffindor Head of House stepped forward holding a stool with a very ancient looking hat on top of it. The sorting hat sang through its song which happened to be the same as the previous year.

"I guess it must have had writer's block," Ron said jokingly.

After the Sorting Hat had finished its song, Professor McGonagall stepped forward with a long piece of parchment in her hand and began reading the names of the students who would be sorted. The Sorting ceremony had begun.

"Black, Cassidy," she said clearly. At these words, the tall figure Harry had noticed before stepped out from the crowd of first years and made her way to the stool. The girl looked strangely familiar to Harry, but he brushed the thought aside as she sat down on the stool and pulled the hat excitedly onto her head. After about ten seconds of deliberation, the Sorting Hat seemed to have made its decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!" it yelled with confidence in its voice. The Gryffindor table erupted in applause and the newcomer leapt up off the stool. As she walked closer to Harry, he realized why he thought this girl was familiar. It was the girl he had been intrigued by at Sirius's memorial. Harry realized the reason he hadn't recognized her earlier was that her hair was no longer held up in a bun. She made her way over to her new house table and sat down at the nearest available seat... right next to Harry.

The Sorting Hat finished sorting the first years fairly quickly. By the end of the ceremony there were eight new Gryffindors, not including the girl now seated next to Harry. The Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws got an average of nine new students each. After the sorting, Dumbledore introduced their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Tonks. He said that they were obviously glad to have her at the school and he noted that she was a well-qualified Auror so she knew exactly what she was doing and that she deserved a lot of respect. Harry had thought it strange seeing Tonks up at the Staff Table, but that was now old news to him.

Despite his anger over having to take Occlumency, he wished Lupin were their teacher again. All of the memories from his third year came flooding back to him. It was when he first saw Sirius. It was when he finally figured out he had a godfather, and an awesome one at that. No, not tonight. I have to stop thinking about it, Harry thought to himself. Dumbledore went on and announced the beginning of the feast. At his words, a plethora of foods magically appeared on the gold dinnerware. Cassidy's eyes went wide and she seemed in awe at the sudden appearance of the feast.

"Wow! They never did this at Wingbatts," she muttered softly, as if to herself.

"What?" Harry asked, inquisitively.

"Oh, I was just saying that we served ourselves at my old school. By the way," she said, smiling sweetly, "I'm Cassidy Black." She thrust out her right arm to shake hands with those nearest her.

"Ginny Weasley."

"Hermione Granger."

"Ron Weasley." They all introduced themselves.

"My name's Harry Potter," Harry said, as he reached out and took Cassidy's extended hand. Upon his introduction, she stopped shaking his hand but still gripped it lightly. A look of understanding crossed her face and Harry took it to mean that she, along with every witch or wizard he had ever met, knew his name before she'd ever seen him.

"What, they know my name in America, too?" Harry asked with a slightly aggravated tone in his voice.

"What? No, actually. I've only just heard about you in the past few weeks. My cousin's mentioned you lotsa times," she answered, with her truly American accent and vocabulary, which Harry wasn't used to hearing.

"And, who might this cousin of yours be?" Harry asked.

"Draco... Draco Malfoy. D'ya know him? I think he said he's in Slytherin."

"Do we know him?!" exclaimed Ron, who had apparently listened to their entire conversation. "Of course we know him, and we ha-- " His sentence was cut short as Harry slapped his hand over Ron's mouth.

"Well, we're not exactly friends. I'll put it that way," Harry answered, trying to cover up his friend's blatant outburst.

"Yeah," Cassidy said smiling mischievously, "I didn't say he speaks highly of you. I just said he speaks of you. I don't see what he has against you, though. You seem just fine to me." At this, Harry felt his face flush slightly.

Cassidy's eyes gleamed as she spotted one of her favorite foods... French fries. She was about to pile some onto her plate when Nearly Headless Nick popped his almost severed head right through the platter she was reaching for.

"Oh!" she squeaked, pulling her hand away as fast as she was able.

"Hello," Nick said in a jovial voice, "My name is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington. Sir Nicholas will do just fine. I'm the Gryffindor ghost. You must be the new student, right?"

"Uh... yeah, I am," Cassidy said, still startled at the fact that a ghost had appeared right in front of her. She looked slightly relieved as Nick began to drift off toward the other end of the table.

"You look as if you've just seen a ghost," Harry said, smiling at his ingeniousness.

"Cute," Cassidy said, still trying to recover from the shock of seeing Nick.

"Didn't you have ghosts at your school?" Harry asked.

"Well, I'd think you could tell by my reaction that we don't," Cassidy said, her color coming back to her face.

"I never thought about that. I guess I just assumed that all schools had ghosts. Beauxbatons and Durmstrang do," Harry added as an afterthought. Anyway, don't worry about Nick. He's really nice," Harry said, "He always does that, though. I think he likes playing with people's minds... and appetites."

Once Cassidy had recovered from her encounter, she finally began eating her meal. Harry noticed that Cassidy seemed more interested in studying the many aspects of the Great Hall rather than making conversation.

The students began feeling the effects of a full stomach and a day of travel. The feast soon began winding down and everyone was starting to head up to their common rooms. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, being prefects, had to help first years find their way to the common room. Harry was about to offer to show Cassidy the way to the Gryffindor Common Room when she spoke to him first.

"I'll catch up with you later in the common room. I took a tour of the grounds earlier and I know where it is. I told Draco I'd meet him after the feast because I haven't talked to him a whole lot today," she said, waving a short goodbye and turned to walk to the Slytherin table. Harry wasn't sure why, but when he saw her speaking with Malfoy, he found he was a little jealous.

"Hey Ron!" Harry called loudly as he tried to catch up with his friends who were leading the new group of first years to the common room.

"Hurry up, Harry!" Ron called back, unable to stop because of the rush of students around him. Harry ran through the student-filled hall and eventually caught up with his friends. They all made their way to the portrait of the Fat Lady and found themselves inside the glowing common room that they had missed for so long. The fire cast friendly shadows all throughout the room and the students immediately felt as if they were ready to drop.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny situated themselves in their usual corner of the common room and began talking. The rest of the students dropped like flies, tired from their day on the train, so it didn't take long for the common room to clear out. After a while, they heard a faint knocking coming from near the portrait hole. Hermione paused for a moment and tilted her ear in the direction of the sound.

Positive she was actually hearing something and not just imagining it due to fatigue, she jumped up to go investigate. When Hermione pushed open the portrait, Harry could hear the fat lady cursing rather loudly. This was accompanied by Cassidy apologizing profusely. After a few seconds, Cassidy came into the room and walked over to them looking rather flustered. She was closely followed by Hermione who had quickly calmed the portrait down.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Well, I knew how to find my way up here, but I didn't know we needed a password to get in. That fat woman just outside wouldn't let me in without one, so I knocked on her so someone might hear me. It worked, I guess, but apparently that's not what you're supposed to do to a portrait," said Cassidy, "What is the password, by the way?"

"It's 'Support spew'," Ron answered, smiling slightly at the situation.

"Actually, it's supposed to be 'Support S.P.E.W.', but everyone seems to have shortened it already. It stands for the Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare. It was my idea to use it as a password. Apparently the fat lady will take any version of it, though," Hermione said moodily. Cassidy seemed to be trying to hide a smile due to Hermione's unfounded agitation.

Once Cassidy calmed down a bit from her run-in with the portrait, she looked around the common room as if contemplating something.

"It's so pretty in here," she said, looking around the room with admiration.

"It is, isn't it?" Hermione said. She then pointed to certain parts of the room, "The stairs to the girls' dormitories are right over there. The boys' are over there, which of course we won't need to use." Cassidy smiled inwardly, but just nodded her head.

"We usually sit here to do all of our work and hang out. You're welcome to join us whenever you want to," Harry said.

"It's so cozy in here, right by the fire," she said in a rather sleepy voice, "More comfortable than the Slytherin common room."

"What were you doing down there? I didn't even know students were allowed to go into other common rooms," Ginny said.

"Well," Cassidy said with a hint of resentment in her voice, "Draco insisted on showing me the house he thought I should be in. He said he was rather disappointed that I got sorted into Gryffindor. But actually, I'm glad I got put in here. You guys are more welcoming than his group of friends. That Pansy Parkinson's a piece of work."

"Yeah, she is. She's downright evil to some people, us included," said Hermione, receiving a startled look from her three friends. They weren't used to hearing her talk badly about any student... even if it was a Slytherin.

"So, are you all sixth years?" Cassidy inquired.

"Well," Ginny said, beginning to answer her question, "Those three are, but I'm a fifth year. I'm Ron's little sister... as if you couldn't tell." As she finished, she pointed to her red hair.

"Since you're a sixth year girl," Hermione said, "you'll be rooming with me. There's also two other girls, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown."

"Sounds cool," Cassidy said, in a nonchalant voice, "Actually, Hermione, do you think you'd mind showing me our room now? I'm kinda beat."

"Sure," Hermione said, "No problem. I'm actually quite tired, as well." They both stood up to leave.

"Goodnight you guys... G'night Harry," Cassidy said as she was about to turn towards the staircase.

"Goodnight," Harry answered as she walked away.

Ron must have noticed Harry watching her walk up the stairs because he gave him a rather odd look.

"What?" Harry said, smiling slightly.

"Nothing," Ron answered. He didn't want to say anything while Ginny was there.

After a few minutes of silence, Ginny looked at the clock, which read "12:01", stretched and stood up.

"Well," she said groggily, "I hate to leave this party down here, but I'm going to go to sleep, too."

"Alright," Ron said, "G'night Gin."

"Goodnight Ron... 'Night Harry," Ginny said as she shuffled away slowly.

Once Ginny was all the way up the stairs, Ron looked at Harry and said, "So...what's with you?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked innocently.

"You know what I mean," Ron said, eying Harry suspiciously, "I saw you watching Cassidy all the way up the stairs... You fancy her don't you?"

"How could I? I only just met her a few hours ag--" Harry stopped himself, realizing that the first time he'd seen her was actually a few weeks prior.

"What? What aren't you saying?" Ron asked, doubtfully.

"Er--actually, I saw her at Sirius's memorial."

"Well... that makes sense I guess. Isn't her last name Black?" Ron asked, looking puzzled. "Do you think she's related to Sirius at all?"

"I'd guess so. Well, Malfoy was related to Sirius and Malfoy is Cassidy's cousin, so I guess they are related somehow. I was wondering about that earlier, but I decided not to worry about it for now. Maybe I'll ask her tomorrow," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Well," said Ron grinning broadly, "I still think you fancy her." He soon found himself on the floor after being pushed off his chair by Harry.

"Cut it out, Ron. Like I said, I've only just met her. She's pretty, but I don't know anything about her. I want to get to know her first. Anyway, we should get some sleep," Harry said giving his friend the evil eye. "Man, it's great to be back here." He couldn't help but smile as he walked up to his room.