Muggle In Hogwarts

Chapter Three

Harry ran to a Victorian styled house that looked oddly familiar. Once he got in, he saw a tall, pale, pointed faced man with two red slits for eyes laughing coldly and cruelly at a tall man with black disheveled hair, and round glasses in front of brown determined eyes. The black hared man was yelling something at a red hared woman with pretty bright" green eyes that expressed the fear she felt. She was trying to escape with her son, but the little baby crawled away making his mother have to dash for him, with what appeared to be Floo Powder in her hands. By the time she had reached the green"eyed run"away baby, the black hared man fell to the floor with a look of intense concentration on his face. The woman looked at him horror"struck and faced the red"eyed man who looked at the baby in her arms greedily. She quickly put the baby on a couch behind her and stood protectively in front of him. A crazy yelled dialogue he couldn't hear passed between them that concluded with the man killing the woman. By that time, Harry tried to run to the woman and see if she was OK, even though he inwardly knew she was dead. Only then did he realize someone was holding his arms preventing him from running into the scene or tuning around. He painfully looked at the evil man point his wand for a third time, but now at the giggling child. He sent the boy a green bright light that seemed to be absorbed by the baby's eyes, making them painfully bright. But the child kept giggling in the evil man's stunned face, then quite suddenly, from the baby's forehead a bright green light emerged hitting the man, almost discomposing him but stopping as the baby started to cry clutching a tiny lightning scar that had formed.

Harry woke up drenched in cold sweat to find Ron holding his arms down and looking at him oddly.

"Finally you wake up. Sorry I had to grab your arms but when I first tried to wake you almost hit me in the face so I took desperate measures," he said apologetically.

"Sorry," said Harry breathlessly."I was having a bad dream.." Ron hit him brotherly on the shoulder.

"It's OK, pal. Don't worry."

"Thanks."

Ron let go of Harry so he could change. Ron faced Harry with a strange look in his face.

"What did you dream, Harry?" he asked curiously.

"I dreamt about the night my parents died," he answered gravely. Ron shuddered slightly and put a reassuring hand on Harry's shoulder as The Boy Who Lived wept.

"Cecilia ... Cecilia ... wake up Cecilia," came a dreamy voice piercing my sleep.

"CECILIA!" I jumped out of bed and with a sudden shock, woke up.

"Wha-what?" I said, finding myself in a strange room with strange people around me. Slowly all the information snaked back into my brain. I held my head with both hands, feeling dizzy. It was hard to grasp all this information all over again. It had been the first time I had slept in a bed since it happened, and I almost wished I hadn't. When you wake up on the cold damp rocks it's hard to pretend that nothing happened, but when you sleep in comfy, warm fluffy beds, you slip into a time where you used to do just that.

"Ugh, sorry." I was mad at myself, mad for letting myself be slipped back in time to my parents' arms and the constant fights between my sisters and me.

Hermione obviously thought that my anger was because she had woken me up, 'cause she looked at me apologetically.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I thought that ... uh, you'd like to have breakfast with us, so I - " I hushed her up with a small laugh.

"It's OK, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at me," I confessed. She looked at me curiously. "Look, I'm real happy you guys don't gap at me and all, and that you're friendly, but I'm just not ready to spill my guts in front of you yet. I'm sorry if you're used to the typical 'Hello, I haven't met you yet but I'm gonna open myself in half so you can check my guts inside' situation. Now, if you'd kindly point me to were this Poppy is, so I can go see my sister, I'd be very thankful." Hermione looked at me surprised. I sure didn't blame her. Why was I suddenly acting like a total jackass? She must have been wondering. "Look, I'm sorry it's just that I-I just - " The thing was that nothing could justify my behavior. Thankfully she understood what I meant and smiled at me although quite uncertainly.

"Don't worry. I know you've been through a rough night. I think I'd be much worse if that happened to me. Oh, to get to the Hospital Wing you have to..." She stopped in mid-sentence and then turned to me. "You know what, if you don't mind I'd like to meet your sister. Care if I join you? That way I'll take you there and then can guide you to the Great Hall to have some breakfast, OK?" I nodded with relief. She was offering to be my "guide of the day" and I was utterly thankful for it.

"I'll change and then you can lead me." She smiled at me.

"I'll wait for you downstairs," she replied, and with that she left the room. I changed quickly into some jeans (normal, not multicolored) and a plain t-shirt, then on second thought; I grabbed a warm jumper in case I got cold. I opened the door and ran down the steps finding Hermione immediately.

She was standing by the chimney talking rapidly to Harry and Ron who looked dumbfounded but nodded at everything she said. I tried to sneak up to hear what they were talking about but Harry saw me before I could move a hair.

Automatically I took the band out of my hair and did a neat bun in a matter of seconds.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi," said Ron, smiling slightly. Obviously Hermione told them about my blow out. "Hermione told us she was going to go with you to see your sister, mind if we join?"

"You can come if you want," I said."It's a free country." The three shrugged their shoulders and walked towards the portrait that was used as a door.

"How did you do that? "I turned. Harry, walking next to me was looking at me curiously.

"What?" I asked.

"That," he said pointing to my hair.

"Huh?" I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

"Your hair was completely messy and you did something and your hair looks like you've been hours combing it." I lifted an eyebrow.

"I guess I've had my hair dominated for a lot of time, unlike you. I almost always wear it like this." I shrugged. He rolled his eyes when I sent the little "compliment" his way. I immediately felt sorry. "I'm sorry. I don't know what happened to me. Lately I don't know what to say and when I say something, I say all the wrong things."

"Don't worry, I understand." We walked the rest of the way in silence, my eyes glued to my shoes. I wasn't embarrassed; it was just that I didn't like all the attention I was being given. Finally we went into a place that looked a lot like a miniature hospital, a strange hospital, but a hospital nevertheless. All the beds were empty except one, and even before I neared it the tears already threatened to come. From the door I could see her black"and"orange shoes on the floor. They were her favorites. She had bought them with her own money and, as most of her clothes, it was of a recognizable manufacturer like "Nike", "Reebok", "Rosh", and others.

Hermione, Harry and Ron followed silently behind me. I neared a chair to the bed and sat, just looking at her, trying to find out what it was she had.

Suddenly I heard something behind me, I turned around to find Brenda, wagging her tail and stretching herself.

"Brenda!" I breathed. Ron, Hermione and Harry looked at me strangely. I leaped from my chair and crouched on the floor to pet her. She licked my face and welcomed me by jumping on me, but she didn't bark, and I was thankful because I didn't want her to wake Laura. As if on cue, Laura stretched and woke up. She looked strangely at the threesome that sat by her bed, looking at the floor at her feet. I didn't notice until I heard a faint: "Ceci?" I stood up immediately and almost threw myself on top of her.

"Are you OK?" I asked her.

"Yeah, fine,"she said as she usually did. Then she looked into my eyes."Have you been crying?" she asked me. I didn't waste my breath denying it but simply nodded. She shook her head and told me as if I were a five year old that has done mischief. "You shouldn't do that, you wimp." She sighed and closed her eyes. "What am I going to do with you? You can't cry over something as stupid as this, go on and have fun, but," she said suddenly in a grave voice, "there are two things you've gotta do: first, bring me other clothes because these pajamas are absolutely disgusting." I laughed. "And second, you've gotta introduce me to your friends," she added motioning to the foot of the bed where Ron, Harry and a starry-eyed Hermione stood. I wiped my eyes.

"Sorry, I almost forgot. These are Ron, he has twin brothers that are absolutely cute and is supposed to be a master-genius in chess, Harry, who has a strange scar in his forehead, and Hermione the crying prefect." Everybody laughed at my introduction. They all shook hands and we were about to sit down, ready for a nice chat, when a woman who I supposed was Poppy, kicked us out of the wing on the pretext that her patient needed rest, sending also poor Bibu with us.

"Ha!" I said to them in an undertone when we were well out of earshot. "The only time Laura will rest will be when she's dead! - and thankfully she isn't that yet," I thought to myself. They all gave small chuckles of laughter.

All four were rolling with laughter at Cecilia's strange remarks at everything magical that happened in the Great Hall. Ron especially admired the way she practically inhaled the food instead of eating it.

"Wow! Where did you learn to do that?" he asked. She laughed.

"Well, with someone like my Dad at a table you either eat fast or don't eat. My Dad eats enough food to feed an army ... and he eats it three times as fast." He looked at her impressed, until she noted to him that he'd have to learn to eat as fast or faster than her if he wanted to eat as much food as he usually did, and with that both were silent through most of the breakfast. When Hermione got up to handle schedules, Cecilia told Harry and Ron that they should invent a "nickname" for Hermione since her name was too long.

"How about Herm?" offered Harry.

"No, too simple," she answered shaking her head. "It has to be a little more extravagant..." After much name-morphing they came up with the perfect nickname.

"Who's gonna tell her?" said Ron. As planned, Hermione overheard them and turned with her hands on her hips.

"Tell me what?" she asked almost furiously. Cecilia and Ron had to hide their laughter, so Harry, fighting temptation to burst into chuckles right in front of those killing brown eyes broke the news: "Why, your new nickname. From now on we are only going to call you that way, and it's unchangeable." Ron, having recovered somewhat nodded and took it from there.

"Well, you see Hermione; we've done lots of morphing on your name and ended up with the most perfect..."

"...The most extravagant..." butted in Cecilia.

"...The most fashionable..." butted in Harry.

"...The best nick we shall ever find for you," ended Ron in the solemn voice that was so typical in the Weasley twins.

"Well, what is it?" Hermione asked with a note of impatience and suspicion.

"Hermsy," the three said at once. Hermsy groaned and looked at her friends in shock.

"No ... you didn't ...oh, you did ...I can't believe it..." and on and on she went changing her expression from disbelieving to shock to pure terror, whilst the others had to bite their tongues to not laugh. Hermsy bit her bottom lip and left in a huff, giving the schedules to the other students, leaving her friends to laugh long and hard.

"What happened to her?" came a voice next to them.

"Oh, Malfoy," said Harry to the boy who Cecilia recognized from the night before. He had been the one to hide his fear better from her than the others. She shook her head to take that image out of her mind, making some wisps of hair fall from the bun. Only after a minute did she realize the boys were still talking.

"...you should have seen her, she kept saying all these cut phrases and looking horrified and all..." Ron went on and on. "Typical guys," she thought. "Always recounting blow by blow everything they do." That simple word made her think about her sister, which made her think about Brenda. She took a peek under the table and found Bibu lying on the floor, looking up at her.

She grabbed a piece of toast and other things and gave them to the hungry dog. The pale boy, Malfoy, looked at her strangely as she did this. Ron had just finished to tell his tale.

"What's under the table?" he asked me. She turned slightly pale and fingered something at her throat, as she had done the night before when she had had to talk to McGonagall.

"Well, a dog," she said matter-of-factly, then hurriedly changed the subject. "So, what's this about Gryffindor and all this house business?" she asked trying to hide the abruptness of the question. All three boys looked at their watches and apparently decided they could stay a little longer and indulge her.

"Four guys founded this place; their names were Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw," said Ron and he went on explaining how all of them preferred different values in the children they taught. At the end, I started laughing.

"Oh, sorry. I just imagined that...well, you see. We were five sisters and, I could just imagine where each would be put." Malfoy looked at her alarmed.

"Five?! All women?! Wow! You're the contrary of Weasley, but they all went to the same house. Are you sure your sisters would all be in different houses?" She nodded.

"To all your questions the answer is yes. And I'll tell you about them. Let's start from bottom to top. Now, Laura, or Blue as she likes to call herself, would definitely go to Slytherin, she's very ambitious and superficial, she'd fit right in that crowd," she continued rolling her eyes, ignoring the indignant look that crossed Malfoy's face. "Then, there's Teresa, or Tewey. She'd undoubtedly be a Ravenclaw. She's obsessed with study and adores to go to school," she said snorting. "Wait, before we move on, I want to make a note that I'm only mentioning the relevant things about my sisters, not everything. So, on to the next: Mercedes, or Mercey. She'd be...hmmm. I guess she'd be a Hufflepuff. She fits right in the description. Now Clara, or Claire. Hmmm...you don't have a house for her, so I don't know where she'd be put." The three looked at me strangely, but I didn't really care much. Given the fact that Laura was awake, and almost well in record time, had improved my mood very much.

"OK, now we do have to go," said Ron eyeing his watch. "See you later," all three boys said as they left. Hermsy just directed a slight nod and smile her way when Cecilia got to the door.

"OK," I thought to myself as I walked the deserted corridors. "Now would be a good time to memorize my way through this place." So I went through the whole castle ... well, at least all the third floor memorizing my way through it, looking into classrooms, checking things out. I was seriously considering to do this (explore floors) until I found the library. The librarian, Madam Pince, looked at me curiously as she saw me enter.

"May I help you?" she asked in a snippy tone. I looked at her doubtfully.

"Uh, yeah. I'm looking for a book that can tell me a bit more about Hogwarts, please." She gave me directions and told me to look for Hogwarts: A History. Figures. I found it and put it carefully on one of the tables.

Just as carefully I turned to the first page and started reading. From the corner of my eye, I could see Madam Pince walk by several times smiling slightly at my silent interest and carefulness with the book. I read the first couple of chapters and then, I wrote the page where I left it in a spare piece of parchment I found on the floor. I left the book on the table and asked Madam Pince if she had anything on different items. She found me lots of books to keep me entertained till Christmas...except that besides from being a fast-eater, I'm a fast-reader. So I chose the titles I was most interested in: Index of Existing Banned and Non-Banned Magical Animals, Magic: myths and facts, Basics of the Defense Against the Dark Arts, the latest edition of The Daily Prophet and, of course, Hogwarts: A History and sat in a corner to read. People came and went, but mostly it was completely silent.

"Hey," someone greeted me, making me jump. I looked up to find myself looking into a pair of gorgeous pale-gray eyes.

"Hey, Malfoy. You scared the heck out of me." He grinned mischievously.

"Sorry."

"You don't look it."

"'Cause I'm not."

"Hi, guys!" came Hermsy's cheerful voice.

"Hi, Hermsy! How many points did you get us today? A hundred?"

"Hermsy?" asked a confused Malfoy. Hermsy blushed a little but then exploded.

"Don't call me Hermsy!" Then, on a calmer note added, "I only got forty." I rolled my eyes a little as a cranky Ron and Harry entered the library. They came over discussing in low voices.

"What's the matter with them?" I asked. Hermsy looked at me knowingly.

"Potions," she said simply. Malfoy looked as if he understood, but I still didn't have a clue. I didn't have to worry since as soon as the kids came to the table, they exploded like bombs, earning themselves a reproving look from Madam Pince. I didn't get much from their blabbing but a couple of words like "impossible to do", "30 points from Gryffindor", "totally unfair", "greasy git" and others that shouldn't be repeated.

"OK, OK! Chill it!" I said. "So the professor is a son of an onion, there's nothing you can do about it."

"Son of an onion?" Ron asked, looking disbelieving. "You mean a son of a b - "

"Mr. Weasley, I understand that you're angry but that kind of words shall not be said in this school. And just to remind you, five points from Gryffindor," said McGonagall, all of the sudden materializing behind Ron and looking very angry. Ron seemed about to retort something but thought better about it after receiving three hard kicks in the shins. When McGonagall was safely out of earshot all five sighed deeply.

"Ok, let's keep with son of an onion, but you know my opinion." They all laughed. Hermsy gave a quick look at her watch and announced that if they didn't want to be late to Defense Against the Dark Arts, taught by a young man called Remus Lupin, they'd have to leave right then. All four left (they were having that class with the Slytherins) and I checked out the books and took them to the Common Room to drop them there. Then I went out to search for the Hospital Wing.

"How could it be?" thought Draco to himself. "She's a Mudblood; she's a dork and a fool. She's a Harry Potter Fan and practically worships him. She's also best friend with that great other fool Weasley. It isn't possible for me, a Malfoy to fall so low...but even Father would have admitted she's pretty and quite nice, very smart, shockingly smart, and...ugh, I'm disgusting." He shook his head. He couldn't have this kind of thoughts for just a filthy Mudblood. He lifted his head and found the new girl, the Muggle, looking lost. She looked strange, he couldn't remember having seen her standing up before, except for the night of her arrival but he had been too scared at that moment to check her out. (A Malfoy, afraid! I'm truly going downhill, he thought.) Now that he was truly looking at her, he noticed there was something strange in her posture. At that moment, she was standing in front of a painting, discussing with it.

"Hey," he called to her. Stunned she turned around and smiled. "You lost?"

"A little," she answered laughing. "I'm looking for the Hospital Wing but I seem to have taken a wrong turn or something." She looked around herself helplessly.

"Well then, you're not a little lost. You're very lost. The Hospital Wing is on the other side of the castle, I'll take you," he offered.

"Thanks," she replied, relieved. Both walked side by side in silence.

"So did you used to do ballet or something?"

"Gymnastics, why?"

"Nothing, it's just that you stand differently. Really!" he added when she burst out laughing.

"Sorry, but I stand different? It's weird to have someone say something like that."

"Well, it's true. Usually girls that want to stand straight have this stiff look about them, but you've got ... I don't know, gracefulness?" he said thoughtfully. Cecilia snorted.

"Gracefulness, my foot. Natural, I think is the word you're looking for."

"No, not exactly ... but similar." He kept on thinking.

"How many more hours till we find it?" she asked. Draco looked at her strangely.

"How long where you going round and round?"

"I don't know ... about half an hour, an hour, I guess. I saw a ghost near but I wasn't about to ask him for directions. He had all this silvery thing around his robes that I kinda got spooked."

"Ah, the Bloody Baron." Malfoy gave an unwilling shiver. "He'd scare the hell out of you if he were willing to try."

"He wouldn't have had to try too hard." Cecilia shivered.

"Ok, it's right around the corner. By the way, why are you going to the Hospital Wing? Do you feel ill?"

"No, I feel perfectly fine, I'm going to visit my sister."

"Oh," he said. There was a sudden silence. Then: "So the girl you brought the other night was your sister?" She nodded.

"Do you have any sisters or brothers?" He shook his head no. She was about to say something else but Malfoy guided her into the slightly familiar room, to the all too familiar orange and black shoes. Laura was sleeping so Cecilia only leaned over to give her a quick peck on the forehead willing her to get better so they would be able to explore the castle together.

Malfoy stayed at a respectable distance, just looking at the touching scene, wondering if someone would ever be so devoted to him as Cecilia was to her sister.

"Oh my god! You mean this is you?" I asked surprised. Ron nodded, completely red in the face. A couple of weeks later, the four friends were exchanging baby pictures. So far they had seen Cecilia's, Hermsy's and now they were looking at Ron's. "Oh my god!"

"Could you stop saying that?" came the laughed reply from Hermsy, that was looking as if she wanted to say a couple of "oh my god's" herself. Ron was a puffy-cheek baby in cute diapers with dragons drawn on them and flecks of red hair growing like fire on the top of his baby head. He looked absolutely adorable.

"Come on! You have to admit you could eat this little thing alive."

"Apparently Ron was trying to beat you at it," Hermsy commented as they saw that, in the last picture, Ron had his entire fist in his small mouth. We all laughed.

"OK, OK. Enough of me. Who's next?" said Ron in a hurried attempt to take the picture away from our prying eyes. With that Hermsy and I turned to look expectantly at Harry, who sending daggers at Ron, grumbling took out a photo album from his trunk.

"Oh!" I said, looking dazed at the gorgeous little green eyes that peeked into mine from the moving photograph. Baby Harry passed his little fist in front of his eyes, seemingly waking up.

"Will you look at that," breathed Hermsy.

"Oh, Hermsy, have you ever seen such bright eyes?" Hermsy shook her head. She had given up trying to make us change her "nickname" for something more serious. Ron and Harry looked at us as if we were crazy.

"You guys have gone bonkers. Harry does still have those same cute sweet bight green eyes."

"That's what guys don't understand," said Hermsy rolling her eyes. "You aren't the same. For example these eyes, these cute baby eyes haven't seen You-Know-Who ever, they don't know what's fear, they haven't seen how fat a man can get without exploding. But these," she added turning to Harry's eyes, boring his with hers. "These eyes have," she finished softly barely hidden pity in her voice. Ron squinted at Hermsy as if trying to see what she meant exactly by that. I looked back at the picture, and just then noticed something.

"Hey, Harry," I said, making all of them turn to me. "I've just noticed. Well, I thought that lightning thingy on your forehead was a birthmark or something, but in these pictures you don't have it. How did you get it?"

Harry gave me a tired smile and explained how a very bad wizard called Voldemort (whose name made everybody wince, including Ron and Hermsy) killed his parents.

"Oh, so Voldidy tried to kill you but you were such a cute baby that the curse decided to hit the ugly git instead," I said. Harry laughed.

"Pretty much so. But his name's Voldemort not Voldidy." Hermsy and Ron winced. ("Could you not say that name?" Ron asked desperately.)

"So what," I said. "Hermsy's name isn't Hermsy, but that ain't stopping me."

"Ron and Harry laughed, Hermsy just smiled weakly. "Coming to that," I added, "my name isn't Cecilia, it's Maria." Hermsy looked at me as if reproving me from lying. "I didn't lie to you, it's just that my name is Maria Cecilia, but I'm used to being called Cecilia so that's what I say my name is." I shrugged

"Well, my name isn't Ron. It's Ronald."

"What? Like Ronald McDonalds?" I said laughing a little, Ron looked at me curiously as Hermsy and Harry chuckled. "By the way, what's Malfoy's name? You always call him Malfoy but I doubt that's his first name."

"Oh, his first name's Draco. Means 'dragon' in Latin. Figures, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean? He's a nice enough guy," I said. Ron snorted.

"Now he is, but for the five years we've been coming here he's done nothing but get us in trouble and call us insulting names and things like that," said Ron.

"Wonder what made him change?" said Hermsy thoughtfully.

"Well, that's obvious," I said trying to hide my giggles. The three looked at me surprised. "It was you, Hermsy. He's fallen head-over-heels in love with you.

"That's not true," Hermsy mumbled, all red in the face, whilst the three of us chuckled.

"No, seriously. What made him change so drastically?" said Hermsy, recovering a little.

"I know," said Ron. "My Dad told me that something happened with the Dark Lord and Malfoy - Lucius I mean, went running after him literally demanding for - something. So the Dark Lord made him go crazy to silence him and not have to give him anything, but what Malfoy did was go straight to the Ministry and confess everything, from being a Death Eater to hitting Malfoy... er, Draco, and his mother and - and other things," Ron finished, looking rather somber. My curiosity won over and I just had to ask: "Like what?" Ron looked at his hands and stayed in that position during the whole time he spoke.

"Well, that's the thing. It's really confusing because, you see, he forbade them to tell you, Harry, anything about their plans or anything under death threat. But still, he was so scared Mal - oh, Draco, would be friends with you that he made his son envious of you, he made him hate you. Still that wasn't enough so he hired Goyle's and Crabbe's sons to check that Draco wouldn't say anything nice or polite to Harry, for every word to come out of his mouth directed to you had to be full of cold, dispassionate hatred and disgust." Harry and Hermsy looked as surprised as I felt.

"Wow," was all that was said. A great silence fell around us, all in their own little worlds, thinking about what had just been said, until Ron looked up and said he had to go to the library and Hermsy, Harry and I agreed to go too. I ran to the room, grabbed a bag, and took my second list of books to return them and to renew Magic: myths and facts and finish reading it. So all four of us trooped down to the library, not noticing that the Common Room's "door" was already open, and that, right behind us another shadow was to be seen among the lightly lit corridors.