Harry Potter and the Star of Adara

Harry Potter and the Star of Adara

Chapter 4- Home Away From Home

The rest of the holidays passed well enough, sunny days playing Quidditch in the orchard, cold nights spent in front of the fire. All too soon, however, it was time to leave for Hogwarts.

Harry awoke that morning to find six trunks in the hallway in front of the door.

"Good morning, Harry dear," smiled Mrs Weasley as she bustled past. "breakfast's ready!"

Harry followed her into the kitchen where beautiful smells were wafting in his direction. The table was already piled high with plates of hot, buttered toast, waffles, pancakes oozing with maple syrup, jam tarts, cereals, jugs of milk and orange juice, and steaming pots of coffee. Harry really didn't know where to start, but he suddenly found himself ravenous, and so he took a bit of everything.

"Well I suppose we're going to have to take the car to the station then?" asked Mr Weasley, sounding extremely disappointed.

"Aww dad!" said Fred thickly, through a mouthful of pancake, "can't we take the c..."

Fred stopped abruptly because Mr Weasley was making frantic hand gestures at him across the table, shaking his head vigorously and indicating Mrs Weasley.

"Car it is then," sighed Fred.

"It's not even my carpet." Mumbled Mr Weasley under his breath.

Straight after breakfast, the trunks, along with Hedwig, Ron's tiny owl, Pig, and Hermione's bow-legged ginger cat, Crookshanks, were packed into Mr Weasley's old banger of a car. They all crammed in, and it was a very tight squeeze because Mrs Weasley had forbidden Mr Weasley to perform any charms on it. They trundled off to King's Cross station, and made their way through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 as inconspicuously as possible. They found a compartment on the scarlet Hogwarts Express, loaded their things on, and came back out to say goodbye.

"Have a good year my dears!" Mrs Weasley smiled fondly, as she hugged each one of them, "And keep in touch!"

"We will mum, don't worry." assured Ron

The whistles sounded and steam started to billow out from the train's engine. The Weasley children, Harry and Hermione made their way to their compartment, and stuck their heads out of the window.

"Thanks for everything Mrs Weasley!" called Hermione.

"Yeah, thanks a lot," added Harry.

Mrs Weasley smiled and waved as the train pulled out of the station.

"See you next year!"

The train snaked through the lush, green countryside, The Weasleys, Harry and Hermione occupied themselves by playing a very exciting game of Exploding Snap, which culminated in Crookshanks singeing his fur and Fred loosing his eyebrows completely. Their friends came to visit them along the way. Neville Longbottom,

Harry's clumsy fellow Gryffindor, came to say hello, as did the twins' friend, Lee Jordan. Then, about half an hour away from the school,

"Well well, if it isn't little Potter!" came a drawling voice. It was Draco Malfoy.

They all looked up.

"What do you want Malfoy?" growled Ron,

"Oh, Crabbe, Goyle and I just happened to be in the area," Malfoy smirked, Crabbe and Goyle chuckling heavily either side of him..

"Either tell us what you want or clear off!" snarled Harry through gritted teeth. Malfoy's expression soured.

"What if I don't want to..."

"Rigido Corpus!"

Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, without a change in their expressions, fell backwards. Everyone turned to see who had cursed them. Hermione had her wand pointing in their direction.

"That took care of them!" she said triumphantly.

"Nice move, Hermione!" said Ron, thoroughly impressed.

The train came to a shuddering halt a few minutes later, in Hogsmeade train station. Everyone got off the train, eager to get back to their home away from home. Ron took a deep breath of the fresh, clean, mountainside air.

"Ah, it's good to be back!" he sighed contentedly.

They crossed the first years, who were making their way towards the lake, to sail to Hogwarts in the boats, as was traditional. Harry instinctively raised his head to look for his friend, half giant, and Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid. Over the holidays, he had been sent on a secret mission by Dumbledore, Hogwarts' headmaster. He had been accompanied by his new lady friend, Madame Olympe Maxime, also half giant, and headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy, the French equivalent of Hogwarts.

"Hey! Hagrid!" Harry bellowed over the crowd.

Hagrid's head of bushy, black hair raised itself to see what the noise was. His mouth broke into a grin under his equally bushy beard.

"All righ' Harry?" he yelled back, waving a huge hand, "I'll speak to yer later!"

Harry nodded and headed to one of the large, horseless coaches that were waiting for them. He, Ron, Hermione and Neville boarded one themselves, and, with a jolt, it rolled up the winding tracks of the mountain where Hogwarts stood.

The fifth years arrived at the gargantuan, carved front doors of the Hogwarts castle, where Professor McGonagall was standing. She was a stern looking woman, thin and fragile looking, her black hair drawn painfully tightly into a bun, her thin-rimmed spectacles at the end of her long, straight nose, and her bottle-green robes billowing in the cold night breeze.

"Welcome back, fifth years!" her strong voice rang clearly, "The Sorting will begin shortly, but first, you must all file into the hall in an orderly fashion."

With that, she pushed the doors open, striding up to the teacher's table at the front of the Great Hall. The fifth years broke apart to join their fellow pupils at their respective house tables (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin,), a keen buzz of chatter echoing around the light-washed, stone walls.

"Oh! I wish they'd hurry up! I'm starving!" groaned Ron, massaging his stomach eagerly. Harry and Hermione glanced sidelong at each other, grinning at Ron's cheek. Finally, Hagrid burst through the doors, the first years trotting behind him, looking absolutely terrified. Professor McGonagall brought out the stool with the ancient, frayed, tattered Sorting Hat, and placed it in front of the staff table. She stood back, and, after a moment, the brim of the hat opened up, and started to sing:

"For many year's I've sorted

The students of this school,

But why, I hear you wonder

Am I not easily fooled?

Good Godric with his noble mood

Fair Helga worked so hard,

Sweet Rowena with her wit and style

Sly Salazar's cold heart.

A little bit of each of them

Was put inside of me,

So when I'm placed upon your head,

Then I can truly see

Which of these groups do you belong

It's up to me to choose,

But if one thing is certain,

Nobody here will loose!"

The last quavering note rang out around the hall, and everyone cheered, clapped, and whistled as the hat fell silent.

"When I say your name, you will sit on the stool and put the hat on your head." Ordered Professor McGonagall, unrolling a long scroll and proceeding to read from it.

"Acton, Robin!"

A small, blonde-haired boy stumbled out of the line and sat on the stool-his feet didn't even touch the floor. The hat was placed upon his head-although it seemed to consume him completely.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" yelled the hat.

The Hufflepuff table erupted with cheers as Robin stumbled over. And so it continued:

"Bromin, Helena!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The Ravenclaw table was now on it's feet, roaring as Helena came down to join them. Harry caught a glimpse of Cho Chang, the pretty Ravenclaw Seeker, smiling and clapping. He had to turn away quickly, for fear of going red again.

"Elliot, Jasmine!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

All around him, Harry saw his fellow Gryffindors getting to their feet and screaming their heads off. Before Harry knew what was happening, he had been dragged up by his elbow by Hermione, who was jumping up and down, and waving her hands in the air like a lunatic.

Once the sorting was finished, ending with "Balantrio, Zagreb!" put in Slytherin house, ("I'm not surprised, with a name like that!" muttered Ron) the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, rose slowly to his feet from behind the centre of the staff table, to which everyone fell almost immediately silent. He raised his hands in a welcoming manner.

"My friends, students, and ghosts. Another year, another chance to learn, and yes..." he paused, looking meaningfully at the children in second year and over, "a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Everyone squirmed excitedly, hanging on Dumbledore's every word.

"Please welcome, Miss Arabella Figg!"

Harry started. He was sure he had heard that name somewhere before... Figg... Harry was distracted by a young woman, no older than 30, striding into the hall. She had waist-length, straight, black hair, olive skin, and piercing, bright blue eyes. Again, Harry thought those eyes were familiar...

"Harry...are you alright?" Hermione whispered over his shoulder,

"Yeah..." mumbled Harry vaguely, "yeah, I'm fine."

Miss Figg now spoke on a clear voice which easily carried across the hall.

"I'm very pleased and honoured to be given this position, and I hope that you'll enjoy me teaching you." She ended with a bright smile, showing off her perfectly formed, pearly white teeth.

"You can teach me any time you like!" muttered Ron, entranced by Miss Figg, his fork about to fall from his fingers

"Oh honestly! " snapped Hermione, reaching across the table and wrenching the fork away.

"One more thing before we start the feast," Dumbledore said, "We must announce this year's prefects and Head Girl and Boy. For Hufflepuff, the prefects are Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan. Slytherin: Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, Ravenclaw: Terry Boot and Orla Quirke, and for Gryffindor, Hermione Granger, and Seamus Finnegan!!

The hall erupted with applause and screaming. Hermione sat in absolute disbelief, whilst being repeatedly patted on the back and having her hands shaken. Harry and Ron whooped and cheered the loudest (they were half expecting Hermione to be a prefect anyway).

Dumbledore again began to speak, to which the hall fell immediately silent.

"Now that the formalities are over... Let the Feast begin!"

Everyone cheered again as the golden plates and goblets were magically filled with food and drink of every kind.

"Finally!" smiled Ron, rubbing his hands together eagerly and piling his plate with everything in sight,

"Steady there Ron!" exclaimed Harry, "You might give yourself a heart attack!"

"Or even worse...indigestion!" giggled Hermione, as she helped herself to steaming tomato soup.

As the three friends laughed and ate (Hermione wearing her shiny, new Prefect badge), they had no idea that some thing was about to go terribly, terribly wrong...