Origins of Dracondurum

The Forgotten House

Harry stared down at his desk drowsily. History of Magic was definitely the most boring class he had all day. Professor Binns was giving a lecture on the war between the trolls and the giants about a zillion years ago, so why should Harry care?

A piece of parchment was out on his desk to take notes on but Harry was just too tired to pay attention today. He had stayed up late last night finishing his Astronomy assignment and now could barely stay awake for any of his classes. Resting his head on his hand, Harry started sketching a golden snitch on his blank parchment. He was just starting on the left wing when he saw the door open out of the corner of his eye. A girl who looked to be about a year older than him skulked into the room and sat in an empty desk at the back of the room.

Harry looked at Professor Binns, who hadn’t seemed to have noticed the tardy girl. Glancing around the room, he got the feeling no one had noticed her. That seemed very odd to Harry so he turned around to look at the mysterious girl. He had never seen her around before. She had long dark brown hair and big brown eyes that gave her a kind of innocent look. The strangest thing about her appearance, though, was her robes. While most of the students robes were black with trimming in their house colors, hers had purple trimming. Purple, Harry though to himself, Purple isn’t a house color. He continued to examine her until he realized that she was now staring back at him. As he met her gaze, she smiled sweetly then winked at him. Harry quickly turned back around to see Hermione give him a funny look before returning to her note-taking.

Harry looked at Ron in the seat next to him. Ron was staring blanking at Professor Binns, obviously not paying any attention to what the professor was actually saying.

“Ron,” Harry whispered, nudging his friend gently on the shoulder.

Ron seemed to snap out of a daydream as he whipped his head around to face Harry. “Huh, oh, were you saying something Harry?”

“Well, I was just wondering if you know who that girl is who just walked in.” Ron looked confused so Harry pointed to the back of the room. “The one with the purple on her robes.”

Ron scanned the back of the classroom. “I think you’re colorblind mate. I don’t see any purple.”

Harry looked back at the girl again. Now she was bent over her desk, writing furiously. “The girl sitting right behind Seamus.”

Ron looked over at Seamus, then back at Harry confusedly. “Uh, Harry, there’s no one sitting behind Seamus. Just an empty desk. Are you feeling alright?” Ron looked at him, concerned.

“Yes, I’m fine!” Harry said this a little louder than he had intended which earned a few startled glances from the people around him. “Never mind, forget I said anything,” Harry muttered.

Ron shrugged and turned to the front of the room once more. When Ron looked like he was in another world again, Harry turned around to the back of the room. The girl was staring at him with a huge grin on her face. She waved at him and he gave her a confused smile. He turned back to the front and rubbed his eyes. I must be more tired than I thought, Harry mused.

After class ended, Harry saw the girl stand up and begin to gather her things. Picking up his own books, Harry started towards the back of the room. "There has to be a good explanation. I’ll just ask her who she is," Harry told himself.

“Harry! Are you coming?” Hermione’s voice interrupted Harry’s thoughts.

He stopped and turned around to face her. “Umm, not just yet. I’ll see you guys in Transfiguration in a few minutes.”

Hermione nodded and she and Ron exited the classroom. Harry turned back around and saw the girl walking towards the door to leave.

“Wait!” Harry called out to her.

She gave him a mischievous look before hurrying out of the classroom. Harry ran out into the hall, not wanting to lose his chance to find out who this girl was. Once he was out in the hall, though, he didn’t see her anywhere. It was like she had vanished. That’s ridiculous, Harry thought to himself. She’s probably around here somewhere.

But Harry didn’t see her as he walked to Transfiguration class. After arriving late and getting a lecture on tardiness from Professor McGonagall, he took his seat next to Ron quietly. He didn’t really want to bring up the strange girl to Ron again.

In transfiguration, they were supposed to turn a book into a ferret. Harry wasn’t having much luck, and neither was Ron by the looks of it. After transfiguration was lunch. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione were about to leave, Professor McGonagall stopped them.

“Mr. Potter, I would like to have a word with you please.”

Harry nodded curiously, then told his friends to go ahead and he would meet them in the Great Hall in a few minutes. He then walked back to the front of the room and waited for McGonagall to speak.

“Harry, the headmaster has asked me to speak to you. He requests that you keep me informed of how things are going. I think it will do if we have little chats everyday after my class, since you have lunch right afterward.” She studied him for a moment, then continued. “So anything that you feel may be important, I shall need to know.”

Harry nodded. He had no idea why she needed to know this. “Okay, Professor.”

“Well, then, unless you have anything to say for today, you can run along to lunch now.”

Harry nodded again and then left the classroom quickly. “What on earth was that all about?” he asked himself, not quite sure of what to think.

At lunch, Harry told his two best friends about his meeting with McGonagall. They found it just as odd as he had.

“Well, why do you think Dumbledore asked her to do that?” Ron asked through a mouthful of food.

“I’m not sure,” Harry sighed. Hermione just shrugged thoughtfully.

The rest of the day went by rather dully. Potions was just as horrible as usual, with Professor Snape torturing Harry and Draco Malfoy and his goons joining in on the fun. Then he and Ron had Divination. As usual, Professor Trelawney predicted a tragic death for Harry within the next week. This time he was supposed to be mauled by a werewolf in the Forbidden Forest. That night Harry had Astronomy up on the North Tower. He was relieved to turn in the assignment that had caused his lack of energy all day. Finally after Astronomy, Harry was able to turn in for the night, deciding to do the homework he had received that day for the next morning.

It wasn’t until he was lying in his bed trying to fall asleep that night that he remembered the mysterious girl from his History of Magic class. He hoped that he would see her again tomorrow so he could get some answers to the many questions now swirling about in his head. This time he would not miss his chance to talk to her!

When Harry woke up the next morning, he was able to finish all his homework quickly with a lot of help from Hermione. After complaining for about ten minutes, she gave in and let Harry and Ron see her homework. They even had time for a little breakfast before Herbology class. The morning passed by quickly. Care of Magical Creatures went well for once. Hagrid taught them all about unicorns and how to handle them. Malfoy only made one nasty comment the whole class. He seemed to be preoccupied with other things today. Charms was his last class before lunch. Harry had some trouble with the spell they were working on today but he managed to get it by the end of class.

Hermione decided to go to the library during lunch to get a head start on her homework for the day. Harry wanted to stop by the Gryffindor Common Room before going to lunch so Ron went down to the Great Hall with Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas without him.

After dropping his books off in the common room, Harry left for the Great Hall. He was just nearing the staircase when he saw a flash of purple go around the next corner. He ran after it and saw the girl he had seen yesterday walking briskly down the corridor.

“Hey, wait up!” he called to her.

This time she stopped and turned around to wait for him. She still had a grin on her face as he walked up to her. Now that he finally had the chance to talk to her, he wasn’t quite sure where to begin. He thought it would be rude to ask her who she was without introducing himself first. She waited patiently while he mulled over what to say in his mind.

“Umm, hi. I’m Harry.” he said somewhat awkwardly.

Her smile widened. “Hello, Harry,” she replied politely.

He waited for her to introduce herself to him, but she didn’t say anything more. “So I saw you in History of Magic yesterday. I don’t believe I know who you are though.”

“So you did see me,” she said thoughtfully. “That’s very interesting. You are quite observant, aren’t you Harry?”

“Umm, not usually,” he said slowly, not sure where this was going.

“Well, you must be if you noticed me.”

Harry was very confused. “It was kind of hard not to notice you, actually. I mean, you did walk in twenty minutes late.”

“But I think you realize by now that no one else saw me come in, don’t you? You were the only one.”

“Yes I did realize that. Why is that, anyway?” he asked curiously. He was finally getting to the answers he had been looking for.

But the girl just shrugged. “I guess they just don’t pay close enough attention.”

Harry thought about this for a few moments, then moved on to his next question. “I was also wondering why you have purple on your robes. Isn’t that supposed to be your house color? By the way, what house did you say you were in?”

“I didn’t say. But purple is my house color. I belong to the house of Dracondurum,” she said simply.

“I’m sorry, but what house?” This was getting to be too much for Harry to process. Either this girl was messing with Harry’s head as a joke or he was going crazy and this whole thing was just his imagination.

The girl then pointed to the crest on her robes. It had a purple dragon on it and read ‘Dracondurum’ above it in gold script.

“I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of that. It isn’t from this school, is it?”

“Why, of course it is! Why else would I be here?” She laughed lightly while Harry just stared at her blankly.

“No, there are only four houses here. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. There isn’t any Dracondurum.”

The girl’s smile disappeared. “No, I wouldn’t expect you to know of it. It is the Forgotten House. Very few remember it. But we’re still here, waiting to be found again. The fact that you see me gives us all new hope. Maybe we aren’t completely lost after all.”

Harry shook his head. This was too much. He had no idea what she was talking about anymore. There couldn’t be another house. It didn’t make sense.

“How can students be sorted into that house? There are only four house tables in the Great Hall and the Sorting Hat only shouts out four different names. Never have I heard it say Dracondurum. And we don’t play a Dracondurum house in the Quidditch matches. At the end of the year, Dumbledore announces the house points and he has never told us Dracondurum’s house points. It just isn’t possible.” Harry said all this very quickly and it took a few minutes for the girl to process all this.

“There are students who become forgotten before they even put on the sorting hat. I’m not sure how this happens but it does. And then they are placed in Dracondurum. The Sorting Hat has long forgotten about Dracondurum House as well. It never sings about our house or its origin. We were the first house, you know. We were the original. As for Quidditch, we have a team, but since the professors don’t really know we are here, we are never scheduled to play. Its quite a shame actually, since we really are very good. Dumbledore doesn’t ever announce our house points because no one else would know who he is talking about. While you all are at the banquets and such, we have our own room that Dumbledore always prepares for us. He knows all of us and takes good care that we are never completely forgotten. He says that one day he will make us renown to the whole wizarding world. I personally hope he lives up to that promise.”

Harry just stared at this girl with his mouth slightly open in wonderment. He didn’t know what to say. He still wasn’t even completely sure if this was just his imagination or not. Maybe he was dreaming. He may have fallen asleep in one of the chairs in the common room. Yes, that was a good possibility.

The girl smiled at him. “I think we both have lunch to be getting to. I’ll see you around, Harry. It was nice meeting you.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking off down the hall. Before she was completely out of sight, Harry realized that he never asked her what her name is.

“Hey, wait, what’s your name?” he shouted down the hall.

“Taia Andrews,” she yelled back without even turning around. A few seconds later, she had disappeared into a classroom.

Harry just stood there for a couple minutes. He decided that, no, this was not a dream or his imagination. Dracondurum House was real, and so were the people in it. They were just forgotten, as if they were written out of history. But the observant people knew the truth.

The next day Harry had another meeting with McGonagall. For some reason, he didn’t feel it necessary to tell her about Dracondurum or Taia Andrews. In fact, he didn’t want to tell anyone about it yet, not even Ron and Hermione.

Harry saw Taia a few more times in the halls and on the Quidditch Pitch, but he never actually spoke to another Dracondurum student again. Occasionally he would think he saw a flash of purple on someone’s robes and look around frantically, but no more purple would be in sight.

Even though Harry never said anything about Dracondurum, when he saw Dumbledore in the hall, the old wizard winked at Harry and whispered, “No one can ever be completely forgotten, Harry.”