Harry Potter and the Dream of Fate

*Chapter Six*

Meeting Fellow Students

"Gryffindor!" it shouted, and Persephone took it off and handed it back to Dumbledore. Harry was a bit shocked.

"So what does that mean?" she said blankly to Dumbledore.

"It means you belong to the Gryffindor House my dear," he said, then he turned to Harry. "The errand, Harry, is to show Ms. Blair around the school and help her get accustomed to the surroundings." Harry couldn't say anything but he wasn't happy. A caretaker? Baby-sitter? Dumbledore wanted him to baby-sit the new student? This was ridiculous. It seemed as though Persephone didn't like it either.

"I don't think that's necessary," she said.

"Nonsense," Dumbledore replied. "You'll get lost before I can say lemon-drop. You also need to pick up your things and get cleaned up. In the letter I gave you should be your list of necessary items for this year, along with your schedule. You will need to pick up your things and get cleaned up. You can pick up those things at Diagon Alley," he finished.

She just stared at her hands, "No, I can't," she said meekly. "I don't got money." At this she turned bright red, and kept staring at her hands.

"Oh, my," Dumbledore said, "yes that is quite a problem." He then reached into one of his never-ending pockets in his robes and pulled out a velvet sack that chinked when he put it down. He pushed it towards Persephone.

She took the pouch and opened it slowly. Once she saw what was inside it, she closed it quickly and slid it back towards Dumbledore. "I can't accept this..." she said and started to get up.

"Gobbledygook, " Dumbledore said. "Now sit back down, consider a loan then?"

"A loan?"

"Yes, you are destined for great things my dear, and I'm sure you will repay me with one of them."

"But that's a lot," she breathed.

"No, one hundred galleons. Not to spend at once however. Buy the things you need and save the rest for a rainy day."

"But I can't," she protested.

"I am the headmaster of this school and if I tell a student to take something, I expect them to take it," he said firmly, but playfully. She reached across the desk, took the pouch, and put it into her pocket.

"I'll never forget," she said to him.

"Sure you will my dear, but I will be there to remind you," he said, his eyes smiling. "Now this is Harry, he will show you around, and Harry," he said turning to him, "please escort Ms. Blair to the Common Room and advise Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley that you will all be taking an extra trip to Diagon Alley by morning."

"Yes, sir," Harry said, still not happy with the whole situation.

"You are my most trusted student, Harry. That is why I believe I won't see Ms. Blair in too much trouble. Can I trust you to carry out this errand for me in full?"

"Yes, sir," Harry said feeling a bit guilty for doubting Dumbledore.

"Please wait outside as I review some more important things with Ms. Blair, Harry." And with that Harry got up and left. About a minute later the door opened again and the girl walked out with a confused look on her face.

They passed through the gargoyle without saying a word, and as it closed behind them, she let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Um, hi," Harry said, trying to start some sort of conversation.

"Hi," she said back and held out her hand, "I'm Persephone."

"Harry, -er- Harry Potter." He looked at her expecting to hear a gasp or a glance up at his scar, but she just nodded and said,

"So, where's Gryffindor?"

"Up there," he said and began walking. "So, you're American?"

"Oh, yeah," she said casually, "however did you guess?" she said imitating a British accent.

"That pin that says 'I Love NY' gave you away," he said pointing at the pin.

"Oh."

"New York, huh? You are from there?"

"Yes."

"What part?" he said feeling like the common room was all too far away.

"Everywhere," she said matter-of-factly.

"Oh," Harry said, "there we are." The Fat Lady smiled brightly as Harry told her the password. He walked in, but had to go back because she was still outside.

"It's in here," he said, then noticed her gaping at the portrait.

"It moved," she said weakly.

"Yeah," Harry chuckled, "pictures can move here."

"Wow, that's so cool!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, but there's even more cool stuff inside, come on."

"Okay," she said and began walking, but her eyes were fixed on the portrait.

* * * * * * * * * *

"I wonder why Snape was so mad?" Ron said nervously as he sank into one of the chairs closest to the fireplace.

"You don't think it has to do with Harry do you?" Hermione said, still standing.

"I dunno," Ron said a bit jealous.

"He didn't do anything against the rules, did he?"

"No," Ron replied, "unless it has something to do with You-Know-Who." Hermione shuddered and bit her lower lip. "But don't worry, Dumbledore's in charge."

"Yeah," she said weakly. Ron opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the opening of the portrait. They saw Harry walk in, look around, and turn back. Ron and Hermione looked at each other then got up to walk towards him. He came back a few seconds later, but not alone.

"Here," he said to the raven-haired girl beside him. "This is Gryffindor Common Room." Just as he said this a huge plate of turkey sandwiches appeared on one of the side tables.

"Food!" the girl said and headed towards it, completely ignoring the redheaded boy and bushy-haired girl standing in the way.

"Yeah," Harry said, "you eat now, I'll be with you in a couple minutes."

"Okay," she said through a mouthful of turkey sandwich. Harry walked towards Ron and Hermione with a sly look on his face.

"Who is that?" Hermione questioned.

"Persephone Blair," Harry said. Hermione looked shocked.

"That's the girl that missed her sorting!? She's in Gryffindor? She's a first year? She looks much older..."

"That's because she is much older, she's in our year," Harry said calmly.

"But she can't skip 4 grades! She won't have any idea on what we're doing!"

"Dumbledore thinks she can handle it," Harry said flatly. Then he found Ron, who was staring at her with a puzzled look on his face. "Ron? Don't you have anything to say?" Harry said waving his hand in front of Ron's face.

"She looks familiar..." Ron said as if he were spellbound.

"No way, mate," Harry replied, "she used to live in America, she just moved to London a couple weeks ago."

"Where in America?" Ron asked.

"New York," an unfamiliar voice answered. They all looked to see who it was and it was Persephone.

"Oy!" Ron said enlightened, "You're the girl!" She looked at him strangely.

"Yeah, good observation, Columbo," she said confused.

"No," Ron said impatiently, "you're the girl, from New York, you know the one my mum helped!" A sarcastic expression came over her face, quickly washed by a gaunt, pale one. She stared at Ron, as if she had just figured out he was there, from his hair to his freckles to his worn robes. "Fred..." she mumbled quietly.

"What?" Ron said, "What did you say?"

She suddenly snapped out of her trance and said harshly, "Freak, I said freak, you must be a freak to think I'm some girl you met in New York. Boy, I don't know you, three are millions of people in New York, yup you must be a freak."

"I am not!" Ron bellowed at her, then turned on his heel and ran up the boys dormitories without another word.

"Ron!" Hermione called up after him, but she soon ceased and faced the girl. "You had no right yelling at him like that!" she said hotly.

"Not my fault he's delusional," Persephone retorted with an intimidating stare. They locked eyes for a moment, then Hermione walked away to get her stuff.

"Goodnight, Harry," was the last thing Hermione said.

"That went well," Persephone said brightly to Harry, but he didn't look amused. "What?"

"Now I don't have anybody to show you your room, I was hoping Hermione would," he said calmly.

"Who's Hermione? Oh, it was that girl?" she asked.

"Yeah," Harry replied.

"That's ok, she seemed too stiff anyway."

"Yeah well, she's one of my best friends, and so is Ron, and you really didn't have any right to scream at them like that. Remember, you're the new girl, you're the one who has to adapt." With that, he started up the stairs to the dormitory. This was not part of the contract.

"Hey! Where are you going!?" she said.

"To bed, it's late."

"But what am I supposed to do!"

"Sleep on the chair, you blew your chance," he said. "Oh, yeah, get up early tomorrow, we're going to Diagon Alley." He then got up to the top and disappeared into the boys dormitories.

Persephone stared after him with her mouth hanging open. "Alright," she said to herself, "I see how it is." She got up, got her things and left through the portrait hole.

* * * * * * * * * *

Harry got up to his four poster and laid down on his back and sighed.

"What's she doing here, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Miraculously enough, she got sorted to Gryffindor."

"But she's a beast, Harry, she's almost as bad as Malfoy."

"I don't know, Ron. There's something about her that makes her very defensive."

"Yeah, she's evil."

"No, I think she's scared."

"Well, she has a nasty way of showing it," Ron said.

"But Hagrid liked her, she can't be all bad."

"Harry," Ron said impatiently, "Hagrid also liked Fluffy, who almost ate us alive, Norbert, who practically tore down his hut! Not to mention blasted-ended skrewts!"

"Okay, okay, I get your point. Anyway, I have to watch her tomorrow. We're all going to Diagon Alley to get her stuff, maybe we can all start over, OK?"

"I'll give it my best shot," Ron said dully.

"Oh, and Ron," Harry said.

"What?"

"You missed one of Hagrid's best ones."

"What?"

"Madame Maxime." Harry chuckled and it broke out into a heavy laugh. Ron joined him, and they both fell asleep laughing.

* * * * * * * * * *

Hermione took out her diary from her bag, and sat stomach down on top of it. It had been a long day, and a quite frustrating one at that. Maybe she could let off some steam in her diary, it had worked over the summer.

She wasn't nervous that it was some type of magical, evil diary, like the one Ginny had in their second year. It wasn't impossible, but it was highly unlikely considering her very muggle aunts gave it to her as a present from Paris. A diary. Nothing more. She was grateful, however, because it had been a hard summer. For some reason she was exceptionally worried about Harry. She kept on thinking that Voldemort had come back to power and had abducted Harry and was torturing in some way. Or worse, convincing Harry to join his side. Well, part of this was already true, Voldemort had already come back to some sort of power, steadily increasing, erasing her insides. But the worst part was, what if there was a spy, somewhere in Hogwarts or on her street or even in her own house that was planning on kidnapping her, to use her as ammunition against Harry.

She opened her diary and took out her quill and bottle of ink. She unscrewed the bottle and placed it against her pillow. She unlocked it, and opened it to a newly perfumed page. Dear Diary, she wrote.

Her insides gave way. She had about a million things to write and she didn't know which one to explain first, her hand was already tired and she hadn't even started writing. OK, I had quite a busy day today, beginning with School, yes, that would have to do. After all, this wasn't a renounced novel she was writing. It was just her private entry.

Harry, Ron and I watched the sorting together, a really good start to a school year.

Something funny happened though, Pro. McGonagall, called out a name and the

student didn't come up to get sorted. Her name was Persephone Blair.

After that things went downhill. First a loud disturbance disrupted the feast,

along with Dumbledore's annual speech. Snape left to go see what it was.

Then McGonagall came over and told us that Dumbledore wanted to see us. I had no

idea why. We hadn't misbehaved? Had we? Me and Ron waited outside the office while Harry waited inside for some sort of errand.

I could see how nervous Harry was. His emotions are so readable..hehe.

Anyway, Snape walked in with some girl, and...

Just then Hermione lit a light bulb in her mind. The girl, with Snape! It wasn't just a random girl, it was Persephone! She was the one who caused the disturbance. How could she not have picked it up before! She rested the quill against her chin for while, trying to find out how to reword the paragraph.

... that girl happened to be Persephone Blair, that missing student. Me and Ron

left immediately. We didn't say a word until we got back to the common room.

I could tell her was nervous, but when I talked about Harry he seemed so

distant. I hope he's not mad at me for worrying. Why should I get upset over Ron?

He's so stubborn, he always picks a fight with me! It's like nothing I do is quite good

enough. Only my grades, but even then, he never gives me a break! Why does

he have to be soo impossible!

O, I'm drifting off the subject.

Harry came back with the girl, Persephone. She is such a menace. She yelled at Ron

and he didn't even do anything really bad. She thinks she so tough. You know I'm not one

to question school authority, Diary, but I really don't think she should have been sorted into

Gryffindor. There is nothing righteous about her. She is so, well to speak in lamest terms

Horrible.

I know that I maybe have to get to know her better, Diary, but first impressions always stick

and hers was just bloody awful.

Something has been bothering me. I have for a while believed that someone was to abduct me

for Harry's sake, and I told myself I should know better, but now I have a sick feeling

in my stomach that it might be her. That's the only thing that makes sense. She must

have used her dark powers to trick the sorting hat into getting into Gryffindor, and now she is

just spying and is ready to pounce.

What if it's not even me she's after? What if it's Harry. Or Ron...

I will have to just investigate Diary....

See you ,

Hermione

Hermione put her quill down and looked at the time. Quarter of 1. This was the latest she had ever been up on a school night. She thought of horrible thoughts only Hermione thought of. She supposed her friends never really knew what went on inside her head when she put on a worried face. Harry's position frightened her to death. Knowing that at any moment he could be dead. She couldn't handle it. What about Ron. Sarcastic, humorous, stubborn Ron. Everyone knew he and Harry were best friends. The perfect way to hit Harry hard. She had to protect them both.

And now this girl, some intruder came and she was helpless. For some reason a radiant energy came forth from that girl, that Hermione couldn't explain.

It wasn't exactly evil. She couldn't say it was, but it wasn't anything weak. It was strong. Stronger than any spell, no matter how well she pronounced it, that she could ever produce. It was scary, and Hermione didn't like it. She didn't trust it. She was worried about it. And Ron didn't care, Harry was just annoyed that he had to watch her and she was the only one left to think rational.

She didn't want to think rational anymore. She just wanted to think like they did, let it come, whatever it was, and take it full force. Not prepared, not ready, not even strong. But she couldn't. She had to highlight her star charts and organize her schedule, and be the voice of reason behind the two Hero's. But she wasn't a hero, she was just the backup, the brains, the plan. She was much to weak to carry it out, much to petite to ever defend herself. Yet here she was, talking to herself in the middle of the night, ranting on and on about this new student and all her troubles.

It's not my problem,

she thought, it's not my problem if they go out and trust everything and get themselves killed. But the worst part was, it was her problem. It was her business and she had to take care of it, with or without fame or recognition.

She pounded her fist against her head and thought on.

She didn't fall asleep until three a.m.