One No Longer

Chapter 2-School

Harry Potter entered the Great Hall with a sigh. It was once again raining outside the school, and the hall was a dangerous, slick place to tread. Of course, the sigh was one of apprehension. He entered the hall alone because his two dearest friends--Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger--were prefects and in charge of maintaining the order of the younger students.

Then he saw her. She was unmistakable, this girl that was the source of his apprehension. She was sitting at the head of the Gryffindor House table. Harry's heart skipped several beats. This was his sister...his sister...that he was looking upon.

Waving half-hearted hellos as he went, Harry made his way to the head of the table. He was on the opposite side from her, and once he stopped in front of her, he let out a slight cough to announce his presence.

She looked up at him. The color of her hair and eyes were instantly recognizable. A Potter's raven hair and an Evans's emerald eyes. She blinked--nervously?--up at him.

"Harry, I presume?" she said, her lips trying to grin despite the unidentifiable emotion.

"Yes. Then you are June?" he replied, realizing it was stupid.

She nodded, then made a gesture to the seat across from her. He sat. After a moment's silence, Harry glanced up at her.

Her eyes were sweeping the High Table where the teachers sat. It seemed as though she were marking them each for something or another.

"Uh...So, you're in Gryffindor?" Harry asked, trying to find a common ground between him and the sister he had never known.

"Yes...in a way," she replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I wasn't sorted by the Hat. My sorting was based on...other things," she said, smiling although Harry could not find the humor in it.

Ron and Hermione finished their errands and took their seats on either side of Harry. He introduced them to June, who smiled and nodded politely to them. She seemed so preoccupied with something.

"Where are you from?" Ron asked, also trying to make small talk.

"I've visited, and lived, in many places, but my last Wizarding school was the Salem Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry," she said, seeming to be genuinely interested in this topic.

"Really? What are all the places you have been to?" Hermione asked.

"Well, all over America. I've lived in Brazil and Rome as well. My...uh...guardian had the kind of job where he traveled a lot,"

"Wow, you must of learned all kinds of things," Hermione said, somewhat jealously.

"Yeah, but none I think I'll have to put to use in a career-type situation,"

Their conversation was cut off by Dumbledore standing and making the usual pre-feast announcements. And of course the introduction of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and June were not paying attention...at first. Then he said the new professor's name.

"Professor Igor Karkaroff!" Dumbledore said.

"What?!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione replied in unison. Some of the other student's in the hall seemed a bit perplexed too.

"Who is he?" June asked, staring at Karkaroff taking his bow. One of her eyebrows were raised.

"He used to be Headmaster of Durmstrang Academy," Hermione said.

"He's also an ex-Death Eater who ran two years ago when You-Know-Who was brought back," Ron said.

"Death Eater? That's what the Dark Lord's followers call themselves, right?" June asked.

Harry nodded. The feast, at that moment, was started, and the group fell silent as they ate. At the end of the feast, Ron and Hermione excused themselves so that they could lead the first years to their dormitories. Before Harry could even think to offer June an escort to her room, she stood.

"I must go now. I'll see you tomorrow, Harry," she said.

That's odd, Harry thought. Did I say something to offend her?

He shook the thought off and began to leave the Great Hall. Outside, in the Entrance Hall, however, he noticed something strange. June and the Headmaster stood in front of the doors leading to the outside of the castle. They seemed to be talking quietly together. Finally, Dumbledore opened the doors, and June slipped outside, unnoticed by anyone except Harry and the Headmaster.

Why does she have permission to be outside after hours? Harry thought.

He decided that these inward questions were never going to be answered unless he asked them aloud. He approached the Headmaster.

"Professor Dumbledore! Professor!" he called through the bustle.

No matter how loudly he shouted it, it seemed that Dumbledore simply could not hear him. The headmaster proceeded up the marble staircase and out of sight.

"Something strange is going on here," Harry thought aloud. He shrugged, knowing that he could learn nothing tonight, and continued to bed.

----------

June walked as silently as possible down the stone steps in front of Hogwarts castle. She hugged herself, as the night was cold and she had forgotten to grab a cloak. Inwardly scolding herself, she pulled out a small, wooden stake and began to make her rounds.

Buffy had taught her to call these rounds "patrols." It was what a Slayer did every night before she slept. It had to be done in order to ensure her safety and the safety of all those around her. June, as Buffy had taught her, had to make sure that there were no vampires on campus. She allowed herself a small laugh as she remembered Buffy's stories of her days in high school.

Well, June thought, there's not much of a difference between me and her.

She decided to search the grounds counter-clockwise, heading away from the lake. There was no particular reasoning to this. It just seemed like the thing to do. She wouldn't be searching the Forbidden Forest this evening, Dumbledore had forbade her to do so. She was still a student after all. The patrol around the back of Hogwarts proved clear of vampire infestation, but as June rounded the corner of the castle closest to the lake, she saw something odd.

The girl Harry had introduced her to--Hermione--was sitting alone by the edge of the lake. June knew that students--ordinary students, that is, not Slayers trying to keep normal students safe from the Dark Lord's new vampire allies--were not allowed outside after dark. She remembered because it had seemed like a good rule to her, considering the situation.

She knew what she should do. Report the girl to the Headmaster, or some other professor. Tell them that she was out after dark. It was a danger to the girl, in any case. However, Hermione just looked so serene. She also looked as if she needed this time to herself.

Well, there aren't any vampires out here anyway, June thought.

And without saying a word to Hermione or to a superior of any sort, June reentered the castle and made her way to the Owlery to send a report to Buffy.