Cultural Exchange

Chpt. 1- A New Beginning

Harry Potter awoke on an early Sunday morning by a blow to the head with a very feathery pillow and the cold, hard surface of the floor as he fell out of bed.

"Nice one, Harry," Ron said jokingly. "Can we see an instant replay?"

Harry got up from the floor and grinned at Ron through a large yawn. He grabbed his glasses from the side table and jammed them on his nose. The coldness from the floor was creeping slowly up his bare feet and through his body, making him shiver a wish very much that he could climb back into his nice warm bed.

Harry glanced at his watch. "5:00! Why are you up so early?" he said rubbing his temples. He had a feeling it wasn't going to be a good day. "Usually I have to drag you out of bed. Besides, it's a Sunday."

"Yeah, well I couldn't sleep. Besides, the people from that 'cultural exchange' program that Dumbledore was talking about are coming today," Ron said pulling a pair of robes over his jeans and t-shirt.

"What? Oh, that thing. I wonder what's going to happen. They're staying for the rest of the year so it must be good," Harry said climbing back into his bed. Another hour of sleep and I'll be fine, thought Harry. Ha. If Ron thought he could get me up he's got another thing com-

WHACK!

Ron was standing next to Harry's bed again with a pillow in his hand. "Come on Harry, get up!" he whined, sounding ironically like a two-year-old.

"Okay, okay," Harry groaned as he sat up. "I'm up. I'll be in the common room in five minutes."

"I'll be waiting." Ron said as he left the dorm, closing the door behind him and receiving a loud snore of appreciation from Neville.

Harry and Ron entered the brightly lit Great Hall. They weren't at all surprised to see that few people were there, considering it was only 5:30. A few people were looking slightly disheveled, and Profesitwick was falling asleep in his bacon. The only person looking awake and perky was Hermione. She was sitting at the Gryffindor table, reading an Arithmancy book and nibbling on a piece of buttered toast.

She glanced up from her book as the two boys sat across from her. "What are you two doing up so early?" she said with a worried look. "Are you okay?"

"Hello to you, too," Harry mumbled as he filled his plate with eggs, bacon and toast.

Dumbledore stood up from his place at the staff table and almost immediately, the Great Hall became silent. It was a little after 7:00, and most of the students were seated at one of the four house tables. It didn't necessarily mean that everyone was awake. A few of the Hufflepuffs were dozing with their elbows in the butter; even the Slytherins were looking tired and some were trying to stay awake.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Ns we all know, the muggle world is a fascinating place." He paused as the Slytherins snorted with laughter. "Some of you," he glanced at the still laughing Slytherins. "like to stereo-type muggles as unknowing, blundering idiots. This is not true. There have been many muggle books written about magic. Many muggles are entranced by these books. So I have decided, on everyone's behalf, to have muggles come here to learn about magic." there came several outbursts, mostly from the Slytherin area of the hall.

"Not only," he continued, ignoring the rude comments coming from the Slytherins. "will the muggles learn about magic; you will learn normal muggle subjects such as English, Math, and Science. Since we are going to have many more students inside this school, and they need to be treated regularly and need a place to sleep, more beds have been added into your dormitories. Now if we can begin..."

He gestured towards the door which was opening and a few people were walking in behind McGonagall shyly. They were sorted into their houses the same as any other witch or wizard: by the sorting hat.

McGonagall took out a roll of parchme unraveled it and gave the same speech as usual. "Now when I call your name, please sit on the stool and try on the sorting hat. It will tell you the correct house you should be in. Then, please sit at your house's table." She called out the first name:

"ANDREWS, ELIZABETH"

A young girl with curly brown hair walked forward. She looked confident and nervous at the same time. She sat on the stool and placed the sorting hat on her head. "Hmm," the sorting hat said to her after a few minutes. "You have a thirst for knowledge, there's no denying that. But you're also cunning and brave." The sorting hat paused for a moment before shouting, "RAVENCLAW!" The Ravenclaws burst into applause, while the Slytherins remained silent and smug. She smiled, showing a mouthful of braces before sitting at the Ravenclaw table. McGonagall called out the next name.

"BARNER, KRISTY"

"GRYFFINDOR!" This time, the Gryffindors applauded loudly. She got off the stool and sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Hermione.

"BLACK, RAYMOND"

A boy walked over to the stool and placed the sorting hat on his head. He waited with a determined look on his face. After a few seconds the sorting hat said almost reluctantly, "GRYFFINDOR!" He made eye contact with Kristy, and they both grinned. He got off the stool and walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat by Dean and Seamus.

"CARROLL, KYLIE"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"CHARNICHKO, ROBERT"

He walked over to the stool and sat down with an arrogant look on his face. It didn't take long for the sorting hat to shout, "SLYTHERIN!" He took one last glance at Kristy and Ray, who were sitting at the Gryffindor table, and rolled his eyes. He then walked over and joined the Slytherins at their table.

"EVANKO, EMILY"

The girl, about the age of 15, sat down on the stool. She smiled nervously before putting on the sorting hat. Emily and the sorting hat seemed to be having a fight about where she should be put. After a few minutes, it was obvious that she won. The sorting hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" and Emily walked over to the taand sat across from Kristy, grinning.

"MCGINLEY, MICHAEL"

Almost immediately, the sorting hat shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hufflepuffs cheered and clapped, while Emily and Kristy tried to suppress their laughter. Mike walked over to the Hufflepuff table at sat down, looking daggers at the now laughing girls sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"SPAK, KOURTNEY"

Kourtney skipped merrily up to the sorting hat. A few of the boy whistled at her because of the short skirt that she was wearing. She plopped down on the stool and placed the sorting hat on her head.

"Well, no offence, but you're definitely lacg in the brain department, so Ravenclaw is out." the hat told her.

"A talking hat is telling me I have no brains." Kourtney muttered. "That's just great."

"Don't worry," the sorting hat reassured her. "You're definitely not a coward or a weakling like that Mr. McGinley, so Hufflepuff is excluded. Hmm...What about Slytherin?"

"Ew! No friggin' way!" Kourtney yelled. "Robby is in Slytherin! Besides, they look evil."

"You have a point," said the sorting hat. "So I guess I have no choice but to put you in... GRYFFINDOR!"

&ldquos about time!" Kristy shouted from her seat.

She ran over to the Gryffindor table and sat by Ginny and Neville, completely forgetting that Kristy and Emily were halfway down the same table.

"What an idiot." Kristy and Emily said at the same time and started laughing.

"WALSH, PHILIP"

The boy walked up to the stool, carrying a guitar case. A few of the girls, including Lavender and Parvarti, giggled at the site of him. He sat down and almost immediately the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" All of the Gryffindor girls--minus Kristy, Emily and Kourtney--clapped and cheered. He got up and calmly walked over and sat next to Ray.

"WILLIS, LACEY"

The last girl that was left walked over to the stool and sat down. Everyone thought that she seemed to be the calmer one in the group of students. Boy, were they wrong.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Lacey jumped up from her seat and screamed. "Yes! Victory is mine!" she ran over to Kourtney and sat down next to her, while everyone looked at her with utter shock.

After Lacey was seated, Dumbledore stood up again. "Well," he said. "I believe that went...um...very well. Everyone, enjoy your stay at Hogwarts. Classes start tomorrow."

With the Slytherins left with disgusted looks on their faces. Most of the other three houses stayed in the Great Hall, to get to know the new students.

"So," Hermione said turning to Emily and Kristy. "Where are you two from?"

"United States." Emily said at the same time Kristy said "Mars!"

Emily shook her head sadly. "Don't mind her. She's the stupid one." she lowered her voice. "And they don't have pills for her problems."

At this, Kristy started cracking up hysterically. Hermione glanced back and forth between them.

"Inside joke." Emily said grinning.ont>

"Oh." Hermione said, at a loss for words.

Kristy glanced over at the Hufflepuff table towards Mike. She leaned over the table and whispered something to Emily. They both started laughing.

"Girls..." Ron muttered. Hermione gave him a look that told him to shut up. He did just so.

"Anyway," Hermione said, turning away from Ron. "I'm Hermione Granger. That git is Ronald Weasley. You can usually tell who the Weasley's are by their red hair. And that," She indicated towards Harry. "is Harry Potter. You get used to them after a while. Oh, and if you want to get caught up with things around here, you might want to read Hogwarts, A History. I have a copy one of you can borrow if you want."

"Yeah." Kristy mumbled. "I'll get right on it..." She yelled down the table. "HEY, SPAK! LACEY! COME HERE!"

Kourtney walk over, with Lacey following behind her. "What the heck?" she said. "You just yell down to me and Lacey, not caring what anyone thinks or anything..." She grinned. "Rude Americans all the way!" She gave Kristy a high five and sat down. "So, what's up?"

~*~

Later that night, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Emily, Kristy, Kourtney, Lacey, Ray, and Phil were sitting in the Gryffindor common room, chatting easily. The three wizards found out about all of them, while the six muggles listened to all of the adventures that the trio went on at Hogwarts.

"So," Kourtney said to all of them. "When do you ghave Potions? I can't wait! It'll probably be just like Chemistry, only better! Blowing things up is awesome!"

"Uh, Spak..." Phil said, tuning his guitar. "We don't even have Chemistry..."

"Oh, right, I knew that!" Kourtney said grinning.

"Right," Lacey said. "So, who is the Potions teacher anyways?"

Harry made a face. "Snape," he said with a look of disgust on his face.

Kristy dropped the quidditch book that she was reading. "The greasy haired sleaze bag that was sitting at the staff table doing the 'if looks could kill' thing at you?&rd she said with all of the American in her that she could muster. Ron nodded and Hermione gave her a 'you-shouldn't-talk-about-your-professors-in-that-way' look.

Emily laughed. "Nice use of words."

Kristy grinned and went back to reading the book she borrowed off of Harry. "Thanks."

Just then, Percy walked in with a stack of papers. "Make way, head boy coming through." He handed a piece of paper to each of the seven people that were sitting together. "Your new schedules." He turned around promptly and started handing out papers to the other Gryffindors.

"Now that I found out that Snape is the teacher," Kourtney said. "Yay, we've got potions on Monday and double potions on Friday ..." she finished un-enthusiastically.

"Look on the bright side," Lacey said. "The only normal class we have tomorrow is gym."

"Yeah," Kristy mumbled. "You don't know how sick I am of all that crap."

Hermione looked at her schedule, and then at everyone else's and smiled. "While you guys have to go to Divination on Wednesday, I get to go to French!"

"Lucky you." Kristy said sarcastically. "Since were not actually first years, because were 15, and were taking classes with you guys, does that mean we can try out for the quidditch team? I mean maybe brooms won't actually work for us since we don't have any magical blood in us, but if they do work and even if we are 'technically' first years, you got on the quidditch team when you were in your first year didn't you Harry?" she took a deep breath and looked at everyone. They were giving her strange looks.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Kristy?" Emily asked.

"I did some background reading earlier today, so what?" Kristy said defensively. "Do you find it funny that I read? Huh? Do ya? DO YA!?"

"Nope..." Emily said quietly, holding back a laugh.

~*~

"Kristy!" Emily exclaimed early Monday morning. She shook her and Kristy groaned. "I don't want to go to school. We have Magdalinski today." She pulled the covers back over her head.

"You idiot, we're at Hogwarts!" an annoyed Emily said.

Kristy jumped out of bed. "Oh, right. I knew that."

"Right," Emily said. "Now it's time to wake Spak."

Kristy grinned mischievously. "I'll get her up." she walked over to the four poster bed that was occupied by Kourtney.

"Spak, it's time for school." Kristy said sweetly.

"Go away! I'm not going to school!" yelled Kourtney.

Kristy climbed up on Kourtney's bed and started jumping on it. "KOURTNEY-LYNN-SERENA-SPAK GET-YOUR-BIG-BUTT-OUT-OF-BED-NOW!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs between jumps.

Kourtney got up immediately. "Damn! You don't have to yell at me!" she pushed Kristy off of her bed.

Kristy toppled over and landed on her head. "I'm okay..." she said weakly.

Emily laughed. "Real smooth, now hurry up and get ready of we'll be late for class. Hermione, Lacey, and the boys are waiting for us."

"Gee, wouldn't want to be late for class, now would we?" Kourtney said sarcastically as she ran a brush through her hair.

"Only if it's a muggle class," Kristy stated. "Now come on!" she dragged Kourtney downstairs.

"It's about time!" exclaimed Ray. "You girls are so slow."

"Well, look who decided to join the group." Emily said.

"Obviously the boy's did some 'bonding' last night." Kristy said as she hoisted her bag on her shoulder.

All the girls, except Kristy, burst out laughing. "What?" she said innocently, but grinned.

"Don't even play innocent..." Emily said laughing. "Anyways, let's head down to the Great Hall. I'm starving!

They walked the 7 flights down to the Great Hall. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ray, Emily, Lacey, Kristy, and...

"Hey where's Spak?" Kristy asked suddenly.

"Oh, no! We've lost Spak!" Lacey screamed. "Oh well..." she started putting bacon and eggs on her plate.

Kourtney walked through the door, huffing and puffing. She said down between Kristy and Lacey. "Damn. Where's the elevator in this place?" she joked.

"Muggle devices don't work in here." Hermione said seriously. "Televisions, radios, cell phones, nothing like that works here."

Kourtney dropped the plate that she was filling with food, splattering bacon grease in Kristy's eye.

Kourtney screamed bloody murder. "No cell phones!" she started to hyperventilate. "Oh my god, I'm going to faint."

Kristy rubbed her eye and laughed slightly. "Inhale, exhale."

She took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay." Kourtney said shakily. "I think I'm good now..."

"Spak's on crack." Emily stateobvious to everyone.

Everyone laughed and finished their breakfast.

~*~

They walked out of the Great Hall with full stomachs, laughing and chatting with each other.

Hermione pulled out her schedule. "Well the first thing I have today is...Physical Education. How about you guys?" she looked around at everyone as they pulled out their own schedules. Slowly, one by one, they all nodded.

"Great! Let's go." Hermione started walking.

"Where exactly would that be?" a perplexed Ron asked.

"The quidditch pitch, honestly Ron, don't you ever read?" Hermione pointed to the spot on her schedule.

"Oh, um..." Ron said, his ears turning red.

"God, Hermione! Leave him alone! What did he do to you!?" Kourtney yelled at Hermione. "Come on Ron." She grabbed his arm and they walked out the door.

"Ooh! Spak's got herself a British boyfriend!" Ray shouted after them.

Lacey looked confused. "I t she didn't like British people..."

"You never know with Spak." Kristy said. "Come on guys, we're gonna be late for class."

They all walked down to the quidditch pitch and caught up with Ron and Kourtney. They were talking to each other very fast and excitedly.

"They must be talking about quidditch." Harry said. "That's the only subject Ron can actually talk about for a long time, especially with a girl."

Sure enough, they were talking about quidditch. "Hey guys, guess what! Me and Ron were talking about this quidditch thing and it sounds really awesome and Ron is going to let me ride his broom!"

Everyone burst out laughing, but before Kourtney could object to anything, the Slytherins came out onto the field, followed by Madame Hooch.

"Now class," Madame Hooch said. "Some of you may know me as your quidditch referee, but I am also now your gym teacher. Today we will be learning and playing an American sport called baseball. There will be about 10 or 11 players on each team, and we'll have two teams. Now, Miss Barner and Mr. Malfoy you will be the team captains." She made a baseball field appear.

Kristy and Draco stepped forward and everyone else waited to be picked.

"Now Malfoy," Kristy said with a grin. "I'm not gonna go easy on you." She flipped a coin in the air. "Heads or tails?"

"Tails."

The coin landed on the ground, tails up.

"Damn." Kristy muttered. "Okay, you pick first."

"Crabbe"

"Emily"

"Goyle"

"Harry"

"Pansy"

"Ray"

"Robby"

It went on for a few minutes like that until everyone was picked. The teams went like this: On Kristy's team: Emily, Harry, Ray, Ron, Kourtney, Phil, Hermione, Lacey, Dean, and Parvarti. On Draco's team: Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Robby, Millicent, Blaise, Malcolm, Lavender, and Neville (much to Draco's dismay).

Madame Hooch explained the rules and then the game started. Kristy's team went on the field first.

"Okay, Em you catch. Ray you can pitch. Phil, take first. Ron, take second. Harry, you play shortstop. I'll play third. Kourtney, Hermione, and Lacey, you guys pispot in the outfield. Dean and Parvarti will sit out for this inning. Is that okay with everyone?"

They all nodded. "Good. Then let's play!"

Everyone went to their spot on the field. The first batter up was Malfoy. Ray pitched the ball and Malfoy hit it out towards Kourtney.

"I got it! I got it!" she screamed. She stuck her glove out and the ball hit her on the head and knocked her out. The Slytherins started laughing.

Madame Hooch sighed. "Parvarti, would you take her to the Hospital wing please?" Parvarti levitated Kourtney and walked with her out of the quidditch pitch.

"Hey Dean,ess you're in right field now!" Kristy said, laughing.

The game continued for a while. The Gryffindors won eight to two (which the Slytherins were not very happy about). They went back into the changing rooms to change back into their robes. When they came back out, the boys and the girls met up again.

"Well, we don't have a class now," Ron said. "So maybe we should go see how Kourtney is doing."

"Yeah, maybe Ron could go see how- OW!" Kristy screamed, considering Emily just elbowed her in the ribs. "What was that for?!"

"Don't make fun of them, and don't tell me you weren't gonna because I know you too well."

"Well, I wasn't going to make fun of them..." Kristy muttered.

"Whatever you say...." Emily said.

"I WASN'T GOING TO MAKE FUN OF THEM!!" Kristy shouted at her.

"OKAY!" Emily screamed back.

"Jerry! Jerry!" Phil and Ray chanted together.

"It looks like there going to rip each other's faces off..." Ron whispered to Lacey.

"Nope, watch this they do it all the time..." Lacey whispered back.

They both stared at each other for a moment and the started laughing. "Come on; let's go see how Spak is doing." Kristy said.

They all walked to the Hospital wing and went inside. Madame Pomfrey looked up from a bottle of medicine that she was measuring into a smaller cup.

"I'm glad you're all here..." she said with a look of concern on her face. "I have something very important to tell you about Miss Spak..."