Standing Together

Chapter One

On Her Way

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The train compartment was full of strangers. That in itself was enough to set Aubrey on edge. She was not the type of person to strike up an instant, lasting friendship with someone she had known for half an hour. If she had been home, going to her own school, there would be no strangers on the train--she would have been sharing a compartment with her four best friends from her old school, Adams, back home. In Texas. Where you could understand people when they spoke, and where it wasn't raining nonstop, and where you could get decent Mexican food, and where it wasn't cold in September. Everyone thought she was crazy, because she was wearing a sweatshirt on the first of September. She'd like to see how long they'd last in the hundred-degree heat of her home.

But here she was, in England on a brilliantly red train chugging steadily north in the rain, on her way to a school where she knew exactly two people, her cousins Owen and Skyler. Whom she hadn't had time to find on the train, because there seemed to be an inordinate amount of students who were in a hurry in the corridor. She and Elizabeth had simply let themselves into the nearest compartment, introduced themselves, and hoped that the three occupants wouldn't kick them out. They were all returning Hogwarts students, but surprisingly nice and polite ones, even if the blond girl reading the magazine was a little...strange. The redheaded girl had pulled out a book of crossword puzzles and her brows were knit in concentration as she tapped a quill against the book. A boy with dirty blond hair was staring out the window, stroking a cactus-like plant absently.

Sighing, Aubrey mimicked the boy and stared out the window, remembering the day her parents had thrown her world on its head. It had all started on the last day of June, at the end of fourth year....

~~~~~~~~~~

"You will write, you hear me? If I don't get at least one letter a week, I'll curse you! I mean it!" Rhianna Bourbon said for the hundredth time, as she enveloped Aubrey, Gwyn Salamanca, Rosalind Armini and Kiyanga Angula in a hug again.

"Okay, okay! We promise!" Kiyanga said, also for the hundredth time. Rhianna let go of them and Aubrey turned around and scanned the crowds. She quickly spotted her parents; her younger sister Elizabeth, who would be a first-year in September, stood with them.

"Bye, y'all! I'll write as soon as something interesting happens!" Aubrey called to her friends, before picking up the end of her trunk and wheeling it over to her family. As she neared them, she dropped her trunk and put the carrier containing her tabby Graymalkin on top of it. Aubrey threw her arms around first her mom, then her dad, even sparing a hug for Eliz. However, as she looked at her parents over Eliz's shoulder, she noticed that their happy expressions were masking sadness, even fear. Unnerved, she let her arms drop from around her sister and turned back to them.

"Mom? Dad? What's the matter? Has something happened?" A feeling of apprehension grew in Aubrey's stomach. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear what they had to say.

"Perhaps we should wait until we're in the car," her dad said uneasily, glancing around at the crowded platform. He grabbed the handle of Aubrey's trunk as Eliz picked up Graymalkin. Her mom put an arm around Aubrey's shoulders and started to rub her shoulder, never a good sign. Her mom was anxious about something.

Aubrey could tell that Eliz knew, also. She kept sneaking glances at Aubrey, looking away hurriedly and pretending to be very interested in the top of Graymalkin's carrier when Aubrey caught her. She wasn't talking a mile a minute, either, as she normally did when Aubrey came home. Oddly, too, she kept sneaking wistful glances at the train. Aubrey supposed that she must just be wishing the summer were over so that it was finally her time to climb on board.

Glancing around at the other occupants of the platform, she could tell that many parents and family members also bore expressions of concern; some had clearly already told their children--at least, she surmised so, looking at two third-year girls sobbing openly on each other's shoulders and one of the two's stony-faced fifth-year brother rubbing his sister's back.

What happened? Aubrey thought. What could have been so awful? She increased her pace, almost pulling her mother along. Her feeling of dread grew with every possibility that ran through her mind. The Oklahoma City bombing was only a year and two months ago...did something happen again? Another terrorist? Was it something relevant only to the wizarding world? She was pretty sure nothing had happened to a relative, since it affected so many people, but....

After what seemed like an eternity, they reached the blue pickup. Aubrey helped her dad heave her trunk into the bed and scrambled into the backseat. She took Graymalkin from Elizabeth and let her out, holding her in her lap. As Mr. Lawson turned the key in the ignition and backed out of the parking space, her mom turned around from the front to look at her, but remained silent until they reached the highway leading from Austin to Dallas/Fort Worth.

"Aubrey, I know this will upset you, so I'm going to tell you the lesser bad news first. This news is more personal, will have a greater impact on you."

Aubrey's stomach tingled dreadfully with anticipation.

"We've decided that in September we're sending both you and Elizabeth to stay with Owen and Skyler, and to go to school in England."

"What!" Aubrey exclaimed. Her mind reeled as she tried to process this unpleasant information. It was too much. She was being sent away to the other side of the world, to her cousins in England, away from her friends and everything she knew...It was too much, her mind babbled. This couldn't be happening. She clutched Graymalkin to her chest until she yowled unhappily and scratched Aubrey's hand. She loosened her grip and shook her hand as Graymalkin stalked away across the cab. "How--why?"

"This is the worst part. It's unthinkable, it's terrifying, but it's true. The British Ministry of Magic has declared that You-Know-Who has returned."

Instead of babbling, Aubrey's mind seemed to go numb. You-Know-Who is back. Her parents had decided long ago that there was no way You-Know-Who could have truly been killed, but this...this was real. It had actually happened. Suddenly, the ramifications of this statement hit her. Voldemort is back. People will die.

"Mom...Dad...no one's...died, have they?" At her parents' and sister's silence, she repeated her question, more forcefully. "No one's died yet, right? Right?" At their continued silence, she realized the truth. Unknowingly, tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Tell me!" she demanded.

"Honey...a school was attacked. Yesterday. Salem Institute. Over five dozen students were killed. It was Death Eaters."

No no no no no, her mind said. This cannot be happening....not schoolchildren, not kids, how could they attack kids? The most prestigious wizarding school in New England, destroyed...families shattered... unbidden, an image came to mind. Daniel Adams School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, its buildings destroyed, corpses littering the ground....No! her mind shouted. She tried to push the image away, but it wouldn't leave. She saw herself walking towards her dorm, Sage; saw the bodies of her friends, of Elizabeth and her parents.... Fresh tears fell as she began to sob. Eliz slid across the backseat and put her arms around her older sister, rocking her back and forth, back and forth, until the crying stopped nearly half an hour later.

Aubrey hiccupped a few times, dried her eyes on her sleeve, and cleared her throat, trying to return to a rational train of thought. Something struck her.

"But...why does this mean that we have to go away to England?"

"You'll be going to Hogwarts," her dad replied in an uncharacteristically soft voice. "We want you to be at Albus Dumbledore's school. We feel it will be safer. We've already arranged it with him, and we are not the only foreign parents to feel this way. Many others are sending their children to Hogwarts."

"But England is where the attacks are heaviest!" protested Aubrey.

"Yes, but now that Death Eaters have begun to attack schools everywhere, we've come to the conclusion that Hogwarts is the safest school anywhere. Albus Dumbledore has placed so many wards around it that it's virtually impossible for Death Eaters to attack the place. You'll be back at Adams as soon as this crisis passes, which hopefully will not be too long." Her father's voice was conciliatory.

"Aubrey, I don't like it either," Eliz said reassuringly, "but it's okay. We're each getting an owl so that we can stay in touch with our friends more easily."

"Really?" Aubrey felt that this gesture of compensation was paltry when she compared it to all she was leaving, but at least it was something. "Are we really each getting our own owl?"

Her mother answered her. "Of course, honey. I know it's awful for you to have to move like this--remember, I was raised in the Air Force, moving every few years until I got my letter from Colorado Academy of Magic. I know what it feels like to leave friends and everything familiar behind."

Aubrey had forgotten about that. She supposed she shouldn't be so angry with her parents: they were only trying to do what was best for her and Eliz. She sighed. "Okay, I'll go along with you on this. Not that I like it, though. I'm still angry with y'all."

Her mom smiled at her in the rearview mirror. "You have every right to be."

~~~~~~~~~~

Aubrey sighed again. She and her friends had had a teary going-away party the thirtieth of August, the day before she had to leave for England, and she already missed them terribly. Thinking about it, she realized that this must've been why Eliz was looking so longingly at the Adams train at the end of last term--she knew she wouldn't be boarding it come September first.

Aubrey had just taken Graymalkin out of her carrier when the compartment door slid open, admitting two boys and a girl. They flung themselves into the three vacant seats along one side of the compartment before the girl noticed Aubrey.

"Oh, how rude of us! We've just been all up and down the train saying hello to the new students, with the rest of the prefects, and we missed the two of you in our own compartment!" She stood and walked over to Aubrey, offering her hand, which Aubrey shook. "I'm Hermione Granger, and these two lazy gits are Ron Weasley--" the tall, freckled redheaded boy nodded to Aubrey-- "and Harry Potter." This time the short black-haired boy grinned at her. It took a large amount of self-control not to stare at him. She had never met anyone even slightly famous before, and here she was, sharing a train compartment with Harry Potter!

"I'm Aubrey Lawson, and this is my sister Elizabeth. I'm glad to meet y'all," Aubrey said, "all of y'all. I'm probably being very rude, but could y'all introduce yourselves again? I guess I'm just too jetlagged to be quite awake."

They conceded, and Aubrey learned that the strange girl was Luna Lovegood, the redheaded girl was Ginny, the tall redhead's sister, and the plant-boy was Neville Longbottom.

"So, let me guess," Hermione said, upon regaining her seat, "you're from the States...Texas, judging by your 'y'all.'"

"Yep, we're Texans through and through. We're from Daniel Adams School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, at least I am. Eliz would have started there today. I'm in fifth year--what years are y'all in?"

"I'm in fifth also--Gryffindor." Ginny said. She had put away her crosswords when her brother and his friends came in.

"We're all sixth years in Gryffindor," Harry added, "all except Luna, she's fifth in Ravenclaw." The blond girl had yet to put away her magazine and pay attention to the people in the compartment.

"Gryffindor? Ravenclaw?" Eliz asked. Aubrey too was puzzled.

The sixth-year girl--Hermione--launched into a detailed explanation of the four Hogwarts houses, a lecture accompanied by much eye-rolling and impatient finger-tapping from Ron and a resigned look from Harry. Ginny pulled out her crosswords again.

When Hermione was finished, Ron spoke up with some unnecessary advice: "Never, ever, ever ask Hermione about anything that could provoke a lecture. She's memorised the entirety of Hogwarts, A History and randomly spouts it at innocent bystanders such as yourself, whenever they ask a simple question." Hermione mock-swatted him and everyone laughed. The ice was broken, and despite Aubrey's unease with strangers she found herself liking these English people. Granted, they weren't her own friends, but they would do.

"So, do you know anyone here at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Actually, yeah, we do--cousins. Owen Cauldwell, he's a third-year, and his little sister Skyler, who's going to be a first-year like Eliz. Do you know him?"

"Er, can't say I do...his name sounds a little familiar, probably from the Sorting, but I don't know him. What house is he in?"

"I don't know...dunno if he's ever said. Oh, well. Hey, I just remembered something...anyone want some soda? Eliz and I have got some in our bags."

It was sometime late that afternoon when Luna glanced out of the window and announced, "We're getting close to Hogwarts now."

Aubrey and Eliz crowded against the window, just glimpsing the castle in the distance. "Really? Neat! One second, I want to call someone before we get close enough that my phone doesn't work." Aubrey pulled her new silver cell phone from her purse. Looking up, she noticed Ron staring at the thing in her hand.

"Is that a telephone? But it doesn't have any wires, and you said that both your parents were magical--is it a phone run by magic?"

"No," Aubrey replied, "it's just a normal Muggle cell phone; my mom's Muggle-born, and we use a lot of Muggle things. Harry, can you explain it to him?" she asked as she ducked into the corridor, remembering Ron's warning about Hermione's speeches.

Aubrey called Gwyn at home; Kiyanga was at her house, and they put Rosalind and Rhianna on three-way calling, so that they could all talk. Aubrey told them that she was getting close to Hogwarts, so they'd have to rely on the slower owl post from here on out. At Adams, there had been a few places surrounded by magic-repelling charms, so that students could use electronic devices. By the time she finished saying her last spoken goodbyes and entered the compartment, Hogwarts loomed close outside the window. Aubrey gasped as she say the castle in all its splendor--it was breathtaking, its towers and spires silhouetted by the setting sun.

"Gorgeous, isn't it? It's my real home, more than the Dursleys' house could ever be." someone whispered, only a few inches away. Aubrey jumped; she hadn't known Harry was coming up behind her. "I always feel safe here, despite what all's happened."

"Yeah, we got word of that back home...the Chamber of Secrets and the Triwizard Tournament and all the rest...you have rotten luck, if you ask me." Aubrey glanced around the compartment and saw that everyone else was similarly watching the castle loom larger in the window. Everyone, that is, except for Eliz, who had broken herself away to start putting the compartment back in order. Aubrey grinned; it was a bit of a mess. Wizarding and Muggle playing cards lay intermingled on the floor; candy wrappers covered the spare seat, and various half-drunk cans of Muggle soda lay strewn around. Aubrey knelt to help Eliz sort out the cards as Neville found a bag for the candy wrappers and Hermione gathered the soda cans and returned them to whoever had been drinking them, to finish later that night.

"So, Eliz, how much soda have you got in the bottom of your trunk? I'm trying to figure out how long it will last."

Eliz looked contemplative for a moment before replying, "A dozen each of Dr. Pepper, Coke, cream soda, and Big Red. I don't think you can get Big Red in England; we'll have to be careful with it."

"Oh, good. None of what I have. We'll have to see if Skyler and Owen brought any."

Aubrey realized that the compartment was silent; she and Eliz looked up to see everyone looking at them.

"You each have four dozen cans of soda in your trunks." Ginny's voice was a perfect deadpan.

"Well, yeah," Eliz replied, "we were warned that all they serve here are healthy and nutritious beverages such as milk and pumpkin juice. No way can we go ten months on just pumpkin juice. You English people are so strange, and it's a wonder you aren't all orange. Once my cousin Skyler got hooked on V8 Splash, and her skin started to turn yellow. It's a banned beverage in my aunt's house now."

"I didn't know that was possible," Ron mused as the others started to laugh. Aubrey and Eliz assured them that it was all true, which it was.

Thus it was a jovial band (due in part to the sugar high and the caffeine running through their systems) who got off at the Hogsmeade station. Aubrey left to walk with Eliz over to the rather intimidating giant-man who was calling the first-years over to him. Skyler was also a first-year, so Aubrey thought she stood a good chance of running into Owen, a third-year, and she did. Owen was a Hufflepuff; she had already met Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw, so all she had to do was figure out what Slytherins were like, although from everyone's description there weren't very nice.

"So, Skyler, what house do you hope to be in?" Aubrey asked. She personally was thinking about Gryffindor. The one Ravenclaw she'd met was a little...eccentric, and she was too lazy to be in Hufflepuff. From what she'd heard Slytherin was out of the question.

"I guess Hufflepuff, to be with Owen," Skyler mused. "Gryffindor will be great, if I can get in." Abruptly her mood changed, and she said brightly as the other first-years began to follow the giant-man away, "I guess I'll be happy wherever the Sorting Hat puts me! I'll see you at the feast! Bye!" She skipped along after the other eleven- and twelve-year-olds.

"Bye!" Eliz called as she turned to follow Skyler. Aubrey waved, then turned with Owen to follow the tide of older students.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"All students above first-year ride through the front gates and up to the castle in horseless carriages. I guess they somehow magically made more of them to fit all the extra students. I dunno. I guess we'll see." he replied. "There's my friend Jacob, over there...I'll see you later! Hope you like Hogwarts!" He shifted his owl's cage in his hand and walked off, leaving Aubrey alone.

Holding her head high, she allowed herself to be engulfed in the tide. She climbed into a carriage with several other students; unbeknownst to her, the carriages had been magically expanded on the inside to comfortably fit ten people. She watched breathlessly as Hogwarts grew in the window, and when the carriages finally stopped she climbed out and stood gaping at the castle until someone jostled her and she almost lost her balance and slipped. She climbed the front steps and entered what must be the entrance hall.

Aubrey stopped short when she saw the Great Hall. She saw that the entirety of the huge room was taken up by five long tables, which the hundreds of students almost entirely filled up. A smaller table ran the width of the head of the Hall, and the side facing the students was filled with teachers. An elderly man in the center, seated in a--she blinked and looked again--a throne? no, just an ornate chair--must be Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Feeling lost, she looked around for a second before a brown-haired girl came up to her, asking, "Feeling lost?"

Aubrey smiled at the girl--she looked about her age--and said, "Actually, yes. Is there anyplace where I'm supposed to sit? Everyone seems to know where they're going."

"Well, let's see...that must be the table for all the new students; it doesn't have any house's banner above it." She pointed to the table right in the middle. Aubrey glanced at it before looking at the colorful tapestries hung one above each table. From there her eyes rose to the ceiling, and she gasped.

"Takes everyone by surprise the first time they see it. It's enchanted to always look like the sky outside."

Now that the brunette mentioned it, Aubrey noticed that many of the occupants of the center table were staring transfixed at the ceiling. She grimaced; if she'd been a bit more observant, she could have picked this table out as the one full of newcomers. A voice in the back of her head brushed this thought away. You're new, and confused, and shy, and scared, and excited, and there were plenty of other things to notice. Aubrey smiled inwardly.

"Thanks so much--I don't know how I'll ever manage to find my way around a castle; I'll be too busy gawping at things. I don't know what I'll do."

"Oh, it's okay; plenty of people here are more than friendly. They'll help everyone out around here. Just avoid those people wearing the green-and-silver serpent crests on their robes; that's Slytherin House, and they're none too happy about this so-called 'invasion of the school.' But everyone else will help. Ask me anytime--I'm Hannah Abbott, one of the sixth-year prefects from Hufflepuff." She offered her hand to Aubrey, who shook it, replying with her own name and year, before seating herself near the end of the nearest table, the one under the yellow-and-black badger banner.

Well, now to throw myself into the crowd. Something I never like doing. Still, she did it anyway, finding a place in the middle table between a group of older girls and a bunch of what looked like second-years. She just barely had time to gape at the golden plates and goblets before Professor Dumbledore stood up and raised his hands for silence. The hall quieted itself fairly quickly.

"Professor McGonagall," he said, his voice resonating through the hall, "bring in the first-years."

The students had swiveled in their seats to look at an elderly witch standing near another set of doors, not the ones that led to the entrance hall. She nodded and raised her wand, and the doors opened slowly of their own accord. She returned her wand to wherever it had been, picked up a three-legged stool and a patched, dirty hat, and turned to lead the first years into the hall, up to the dais where the teachers' table stood. With reverence, she placed the hat on the stool and stood to face Dumbledore.

"Let the Sorting begin." He sat back in his ornate chair.

Professor McGonagall turned to the first years and said, "I am going to read your names off this list," she raised a roll of parchment, "and when your name is called, you will come to the stool and place the hat on your head. Understood?" The first-years nodded; Aubrey could just see her sister's light brown head next to their cousin's blonde one. "Right!" She unrolled the parchment and called "Applebaum, Alyson" to the stool. Trembling, the girl, tall for a first-year, lifted the hat, sat on the stool, and placed the ratty thing on her head. To Aubrey's amazement, a tear in the hat opened and a voice cried out, "RAVENCLAW!" She assumed it was the voice of the hat; even though she wasn't Muggle-born, some aspects of the magical world still surprised her.

The Sorting continued, through names of all nationalities; she took notice when "Cauldwell, Skyler" was called; she cheered when her cousin was put in Hufflepuff. Not so very long after that, Professor McGonagall came to "Lawson, Elizabeth!" Aubrey waited with bated breath. She was intrigued when Eliz was put in Gryffindor. She didn't think of her sister as being particularly brave or strong, but then again, she was probably only remembering all the times her sister had been annoying.

After Professor McGonagall had called the two girls she knew, the Sorting became boring very quickly. Relief (and hunger) flooded through Aubrey as the last boy ("Yeats, Miles") became a Slytherin and Professor McGonagall took away the hat and stool. She almost groaned when Dumbledore stood again, but all he said was, "I would like to welcome all of our new and returning students to this most excellent Welcoming Feast. Tuck in!"

Aubrey cheered heartily with everyone else as food appeared on the golden platters; she immediately helped herself to some shepherd's pie. She had scarcely finished that when she saw something she had never expected to see in England: a bowl of crawfish gumbo! Coming from an enthusiastically Cajun family, one of the things she thought she would miss the most was her granny's cooking. She helped herself to a generous bowl as she noticed all the other foreign foods along the table: quiche, paella, sushi, wonton soup, tortillas, gumbo, shrimp fried rice, crepes, baguettes, chicken and wine broth, haggis, pate, menudo, carne asada, omelettes, lamb, and roasted hog. Just as diverse as the foods on the table were the languages echoing in her ear; most of them, she couldn't identify, although Spanish she could easily pick out. Two dark-skinned girls across the table were conversing in a low, guttural language that mesmerized Aubrey; she assumed it must be Arabic. She tuned out everyone else, and fell into a half-trance as she listened to the girls' chatter. She had been following their speech for a while as she slowly spooned up the rice and roux from the bottom of her bowl, and she was startled when they switched to English.

"...and that redhead girl across from us, I mean, look at her glasses! Hasn't she ever heard of contact lenses? Those frames are just awful for her face! Not that anything would become her."

Aubrey was shocked; why would they switch to English to insult her? And these weren't her favorite frames; she had had to leave the country before her new glasses were ready. Her parents were sending them to her.

"Just so that you know, in most of the world, people are raised to be polite," Aubrey replied.

The girls looked up and stared at her. The smaller one said, "Your accent reeks. Who taught you to speak?"

Now it was Aubrey's turn to gape. Without a word, she picked up her bowl and spoon and swung her leg over the bench. She didn't look back as she stalked off to the other end of the table, near the High Table. She settled herself amidst another group of second-years and helped herself to more gumbo--for some reason, there was another serving-bowl right near her. The rest of the meal seemed to drag on forever; finally, Dumbledore stood up again and again raised his hands for silence. Now that they were well-fed, people were more anxious to gossip and chat, and the quieting took longer. It was a moment before Dumbledore began to speak.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. I want to introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher: Professor Weasley." A man in his twenties stood at the High Table; he was so freckled he looked tan. He must be related to Ron somehow, Aubrey thought. "He has graciously come from Egypt to fill the post. I also want to particularly welcome all of our new students, and I would like to take the time to explain some things. You will be Sorted into houses; we will Sort one year every day at dinner, finishing with the seventh-years six days hence. Until then, you will attend classes and share a dormitory with all of your fellow new year-mates--girls in the Astronomy Tower, boys in West Tower. When you are Sorted, your things will be moved to your new dorm. At that time, all new third-year students and above will also meet with their heads-of-houses to discuss their class schedules.

"I would also like to remind you that at this time more than any other, unity is vital--both inter-house and international unity. We need to stand together as a school and as a world. I expect every one of the returning students to be welcoming and accepting, and any discrimination will not be tolerated.

"On that note, I dismiss you to your dorms. Prefects, lead your students to their dorms. New students in second-year and above, follow the Head Boy, Alex Taylor, or Head Girl, Cho Chang," he gestured to a pretty Asian girl standing at the Ravenclaw table and a blonde boy with a ready smile standing at the Hufflepuff table, "to either the West Tower or the Astronomy Tower. Good night!"

There was a general ruckus as everyone stood and tried to make their way to the doors. Aubrey once again let herself be swept up into the crowd. Once she was in the entrance hall again, she found the Head Girl and carefully placed herself on the other side of the group from the Arabic girls. She tried to pay close attention to the way to the Astronomy Tower, so that she wouldn't be so dependent on everybody else, but she was lost within moments. Everything was so strange, the grand next to the gaudy, large next to small, new next to old, that she was too distracted to really pay attention to the way to her temporary dorm.

They stopped outside a plain wooden door on the "second" floor; back home, it would be called the third floor, but not in England. There the Head Girl turned to face them, saying, "Until the seventh-year girls are Sorted, this door will have a password: Lady Macbeth. You will get to your Astronomy classes by way of this door;" she gestured to another plain door, "just walk through it without opening it, like the barrier at King's Cross. You will be transported to the classroom at the top of the tower." She turned to face the door, saying clearly, "Lady Macbeth!"

The door swung open to reveal a cozy room decorated in neutral colors, with large, squashy armchairs and sofas and thick, plush carpets. A spiraling stairway led to the dorms.

"This is your common room; you can relax here, do schoolwork, whatever. There are plaques on the dorms, identifying them. If you have any questions, come to my house. There's a map on the wall. Good night!" she called as she left.

There was a general shrugging of shoulders as she left; as a group, they all started to drift towards the dorms. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had told her and Eliz to leave their cats in their baskets on the train; they had said they would be transported to their dorms shortly. Aubrey was eager to check and see that Graymalkin had gotten to her dorm okay; she climbed the stairs impatiently until she came to the fourth door, labeled Fifth-Years. She pushed open the door; all the other fifth-year girls followed her. She was surprised; there were almost thirty girls. She hadn't expected that many. The dorm was very big compared to the Sage dorm back home; there were fifteen sets of bunk beds.

At the foot of each bed were two trunks; Aubrey spotted hers fairly quickly. There was another girl already on the top bunk, so Aubrey sat down on the bottom one. She bent down to take her shoes off, and as she put them under her bed, she came face-to-face with her tabby cat.

"Graymalkin, I will never understand you," she said. "Thirty empty beds, and you sleep on the floor."

She had meant to at least introduce herself to her bunkmate, but as she stretched out on her bed after putting on her pajamas, she promptly fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~