Harry Potter and the Dreamer of Fears

Chapter 5 – Exchange Students

The next couple of weeks past by real quick for Harry, as he read a few of his books that he had gotten and watched as Professor Lupin disappeared somewhere into the deep corridors of Hogwarts, transforming into a docile wolf as Sirius also went with him to keep him company.  Sometimes during the night, howls echoed through the hallways, startling some of the ghosts, but many others didn’t even pay attention to it.  But for a couple of weeks before the new school year started, Harry had been kept inside Gryffindor’s dorm rooms, no explanation given to him, except for a contingent of four Aurors (all who were fiercely protective of him) who stood around the Common Room in stoic silence.

It was getting very lonely, until he checked the calendar to see that the next school year was about to start.  That had cheered him up quite a bit.  Finally, Dumbledore said that he was able to leave Gryffindor Tower and wander the grounds, but Harry had a funny feeling that the Aurors assigned to him were guarding him from a distance.  Now, he sat in the Great Hall waiting for the others to come in.  He drummed his fingers impatiently on the table…finally he heard the voices of other students entering the Entrance Hall.

They started to pour into the Great Hall, some staring at him while others were chattering with friends, not really paying attention to him.

"Harry!  Harry!" Hermione’s voice came from the surge of students dressed in black robes pouring into the Great Hall.  Harry watched as Hermione and Ron emerged from the sea of black robes and made their way towards him, all smiles.  They both sat down on either side of him and Ron started to blab away.

"Did you hear about the recent activities in London?  Also in Liverpool?  They’re saying that someone or someones have been burning Dark Marks everywhere, spray painting it and shooting those lights of fire up in the air."

"Also, its been happening all over the world.  China had its first Dark Mark sighting in 500 years.  Also in Egypt, the Sphinx made a prediction about You-Know-Who!" Hermione burst in, and Harry looked at them incredulously.

"How do you know all this?  Oh wait," he slapped himself on the forehead, "Daily Prophet…never mind.  And no I didn’t hear cause I was holed up in my room.  No one would let me out until yesterday.  You think me being kept in Gryffindor Tower has anything to do with Voldemort?"

Both Ron and Hermione had flinched at the Dark Lord’s name and even a couple of people sitting near Harry looked at him with odd looks.  "It could be…" Hermione started but trailed off as she saw Dumbledore enter the room, followed by the teachers of Hogwarts.

Each one of them sat down in their respective spots facing the students from the High Table.  Harry noted that Professor McGonagall’s seat was empty, her being the person that led the new First-Years in for their Sorting.  Then he spotted the two new Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers…Marion was dressed in a dark red robe, her hair wavy and flowing down her back.  Her brother (Harry had found that out during his time stuck in Gryffindor Tower since Marion was one of the Aurors assigned to guard him, or whatever they were doing in the Tower), Marius, had opted for a black robe that looked a bit like Snape’s, but was cut fashionably and made him looked a bit older than he was supposed to be (he looked a bit to be in his early thirties).

"Oh wow…is she a Veela?" Ron whispered to him as Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"No…" Harry whispered back and caught a glimpse of Ron’s surprised look before he paid attention to what the Headmaster was saying.

"I welcome all of you back to another year at Hogwarts.  Now we will begin the Sorting…"

Professor McGonagall walked in, followed by apprehensive, curious, and small looking eleven-year-olds.  As they passed by the tables, Harry noticed that in the back, there were two tall girls, one with light blonde hair and bright purple eyes, and another who was Asian looking…  They couldn’t be First-Years, he thought to himself as he watched the two girls stopped in back of the rest of the First-Years, they look too old to be…

"Hey!  Who are those two in the back?" Ron asked as whispers flared up within the Great Hall, students talking quietly to each other while pointing or staring at the two girls who easily towered over the First-Years.

The whole room silenced as the Sorting Hat cleared its voice.

I tell you of a tale

One of which back when you see

Hufflepuff the engineers

Ravenclaw the tacticians

Slytherin the commanders

Gryffindor the knights

Of a great battle

All worked in together

Planning their battle

They planned…planned

On that day of fateful

Battles were fought

But our heroes prevailed

Hufflepuff, building walls of encouragement

Building hope and fortification

Ravenclaw, planting hope in strategic points

Whispering multiple words of desire

Slytherin, leading with brave hearts

Shouting words of support

Gryffindor, bravely wading in

Silent, but steady to the end

It is they who found me

They who made me

They who now sit me on your head!

The whole hall burst out with cheers and a hearty round of applause for the Sorting Hat as he finished his song of the year.  Harry clapped too, but he felt as if the song was a warning of things to come…it certainly didn’t help that Voldemort was on the loose…

"Atwood, Melanine!" Professor McGonagall called out and a small, petite girl stepped from the crowd of First-Years and sat on the stool and placed the Hat over her head.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Byron, Trenton!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Driscoll, Colleen!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Floyd, Bridget!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

And so the name list went on as each of the forty kids in the new First-Years were Sorted into their respective houses, each kid receiving a warm and loud applause.  Harry watched as the last of the forty First-Years was Sorted into Slytherin.  Then a hushed silence followed as the two girls who were standing by the back of the First-Years were now the only ones standing in the middle of the steps that led to the Sorting Hat.

Dumbledore stood up and he noticed that there were twinkles of amusement in his eyes, "It looks like you two are not really First-Years…"

Twitters of laughter ran along the four tables and Harry just smiled slightly as Dumbledore continued his speech, "Allow me to introduce all of you to our new students.  Morgan Chang is an exchange student from the United States of America Salem School for Witches.  She’s here to study abroad before returning to America with some knowledge of the British wizarding ways."

Applause resounded in the Great Hall as everyone welcomed the petite Asian girl with shoulder length black hair and almond shape eyes.  Harry wondered if she was related to Cho Chang, his crush…then noticed Cho by the Ravenclaw table grinning madly and waving.  The girl named Morgan had also spotted Cho and waved back.  Must be cousins or something like that…

"And," Dumbledore continued, "This is Lina Smith, a transfer student.  She was in Romania for her first three years and has returned to join us at Hogwarts."

Another round of applause echoed within the Hall and Harry watched as Morgan approached the stool where the Hat sat and sat down, putting the Sorting Hat on.  A few seconds later the Hat took a deep breath and yelled, "GRYFFINDOR – FOURTH YEAR!"

Harry felt himself rousing to the roaring of cheers that erupted from Gryffindor table and grinned like an idiot as Morgan sat down next to Ginny Weasley and another Fourth-Year somewhere in the back of him.  Eventually the table quieted down as Lina walked up, her expression one of placid and all smiles.

A few minutes passed and the Hat looked undecided but then took another deep breath and bellowed, "RAVENCLAW – FOURTH YEAR!"

Now was Ravenclaw’s turn to crank up the volume in the Hall, some standing up and cheering.  Harry grinned as some fourth years from the Ravenclaw table made a spot for Lina to sit down.  He noticed that she carried herself with a slight regal air, but instead of the snobbish look on her face, it was one of friendship and smiles.

"Ahem…" Dumbledore spoke up, the Hall quietly lapsing into silence, "Before we serve the food, I’m sure you’ve noticed the increase of different people around Hogwarts (the whole room suddenly plunged into silence), and this is due to a security precaution that your parents and guardians wanted me to install in Hogwarts.  Once again, I assure you that the school is very safe from any harm.  Aurors and some Dementors are stationed everywhere and there is nothing to fear.  I’m sure that all of you have read the papers, and yes, even those rumors are true, but," Dumbledore held up a hand to quell the sudden spurt of talking, "remember that you are safe as long as you obey the rules.

"On a lighter note, I like to introduce our two new Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, Miss Marion Sadow and her brother Marius.  We, the staff at Hogwarts are very pleased that they could join us on such short notice since Professor Moody retired to the background following the end of the last school year.

"Now…tuck in."

With that, food appeared all over the four tables and Dumbledore sat down, taking food onto his own plate while starting a conversation with Marius Sadow.  Harry took his eyes off of the High Table and began to pile food onto his plate, frowning all the while.  He didn’t like the eeriness of the whole thing and he knew that there were a few questions that he wanted answered but also knew that Dumbledore would not give it to him.  Besides, he didn’t know that Dementors were on the grounds; he didn’t even sense one for all the time he was here. They must have been kept far away…

"Harry…you going to eat or sit there with your fork hovered over your mouth?" Ron poked him in the ribs and Harry snapped out of his thoughts.

"Oh…" he said before he stuffed the piece of steak into his mouth.  He quickly cut up the steak into bite size pieces, to make it look like he was eating instead of thinking.

"Harry…you’re going to choke, then I’m going to laugh," Ron said in a deadpan voice and he stopped his cutting and looked at Ron shrewdly.

"So laugh," he replied sarcastically.

"I can’t believe Dementors are here again at Hogwarts," Hermione piped up next to Harry, bringing their gazes towards her.  She looked a bit pale at the prospect of the unearthly creatures hooded and dark hanging around the grounds.

"Wait…weren’t Dementors originally following You-Know-Who?" Ron asked.

"Of course," Hermione shook her frizzy blonde-brown hair and stared at Ron, "Didn’t you read The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts over the summer like you were supposed to?"  She gave him a pointed glare to which Ron returned equally.

"No I didn’t because you were too talkative about your trip to Romania with Viktor Krum," he sneered.  "Oh Viktor took me here…took me there.  Oh Viktor and I had lots of fun watching the wild dragons…Viktor this, and that…I was sick to my stomach hearing about your trip!"

Hermione looked as if she was going to explode with anger and Harry interceded, giving both fuming parties a weak smile.  "Er…uh…Hermione, can you tell me about your trip to Romania?  I thought your parents went to the Bahamas…"

"Harry, don’t get her started.  You’ll never hear the end of it."

"Shut up!" Hermione yelled at Ron, but thankfully with the loud noise of the Great Hall, her shout wasn’t comparable to any of the noises, but a few people sitting across from them and next to them glanced at them, curious to hear what kind of fight was going to start.

"Ah…er…" Harry never got to finish what he was saying as barking noises sounded over the din of the people eating and talking and some heads turned towards the door to the Great Hall to see a big black dog racing in, tail wagging happily while it ran towards the High Table.

"Is that Snuffles?" Ron whispered in his ear, his fight with Hermione forgotten as he also watched the great black dog pad up to where Dumbledore was sitting.

"Yeah…" Harry replied then noticed that Snuffles was carrying some kind of package in his mouth.  He watched as the package was given to Dumbledore then the headmaster gave a piece of meat to Snuffles who gladly accepted but then had an irate look on his face as Marion reached over and patted him on the head, murmuring something.

Then Snuffles proceeded away from the table and to Harry’s chagrin, some people from the other tables got up, most of them girls, holding bits and pieces of food in their hand they clucked and made noises to get Snuffles towards them.

He watched as Snuffles stopped where he was then looked around and his mouth actually drooped a bit and his tail stopped wagging.  Suddenly he took off, running out of the Great Hall with a bunch of girls following after him.  Harry burst out laughing at the sight of Sirius in his dog form, being chased by girls.

"Please sit down, ladies of the various Houses.  That dog is not to be fed.  He’s only a messenger," Dumbledore’s amplified voice brought the girls to a halt and they meekly obeyed, some whispering to others about the "cute, cuddly black dog".

Harry tried to stifle another bout of laughter that was threatening to erupt from his mouth.  He was going to have to remind Sirius of this incident…and grinned, his mind temporarily forgetting about the extra security around Hogwarts and the Dementors lurking around.

* * * * *

After finishing dinner, Harry waited for Ron and Hermione (Ron who was being held up by his twin brothers about something, Hermione wanting to talk to Professor McGonagall about something) near the staircase that would take them to Gryffindor Tower on the seventh floor.  It looked like Katie Bell, a Gryffindor Quidditch Chaser was one of the Prefects of the Gryffindors this year and she had given him the password, which was "swordfish".

He watched as Professor McGonagall lead the new group of Gryffindors up the staircase, nodding to her in a greeting as she passed by.  A couple of the children whispered and pointed to him excitedly, but Harry ignored all of that.  By now, he was used to people pointing him out as the famous boy who survived an encounter with Voldemort…twice by their records; when he was just a baby and last year during the Triwizard Tournament.

But he knew that eventually those First-Year students would learn that he also had two other encounters with Voldemort during his past school years.  His First-Year with the spirit of Voldemort inhabiting the late Professor Quirrell’s form, and his Second-Year with the malignant and vengeful Tom Riddle.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Harry," Ron hurried over to him a bit winded and breathless, "but guess what?!"

"What?" Harry asked, curious as to why Ron looked all jumpy as if he ate too much of the chocolate frogs just in a split second.

"I’m the new Keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team!" Ron spilled in a hurry, grinning from ear to ear.

Harry felt his jaw drop open a couple of centimeters and then he grinned, "Great news indeed!"  He clapped his best friend on the back in congratulations.

"They said that they were going to choose me last year, but with the Triwizard Tournament and all…oh yeah, don’t worry about Hermione, she knows-and she said not to wait up for her, she was talking with Professor McGonagall when she told me that I had been nominated as Keeper and our Captain agreed."

"By the way, Ron, who’s our Captain this year?" he asked as they made their way up the seven flights of stairs, being careful as to miss the trick step and holding onto the rails as some of the stairs moved.

"Angelina Johnson," Ron replied just as they stopped by the Fat Lady’s portrait and waved at her.

"Swordfish," Harry said then the picture swung open and he stepped through along with Ron…to a room full of clapping people.  It took him a second to realize that they were cheering for Ron, especially the hastily painted banner by Dean Thomas with Ron in a picture as a Gryffindor Keeper.

He watched as Ron was pelted with confetti of different colors and a few fireworks were set off.  Lee Jordan was opening a bottle of Butterbeer and serving it around, all the while hollering at the top of his lungs along with Ron’s twin brothers.  He followed Ron at a slow pace, letting his best friend drown in the cheering before he was yanked along and shoved into what looked to be a group picture.

"Smile!" Seamus Finnigan cried out and Harry stared at the camera he had in his hand then grinned just as the flash went off.  "The new Quidditch Team that will beat Slytherin back for another year!"

"Harry!  Harry!" two youthful voices shouted over the din and Harry grimaced slightly to see Colin Creevey and his little brother Dennis running over to them.

"Isn’t this cool Harry?  I mean with Ron being the new Keeper and stuff…you guys will beat Slytherin won’t ya, Harry?" Dennis piped up, jumping up and down rapidly.

"Yeah!  I’m sure Harry and his team will beat them!" Colin added in then exclaimed, "ohh…they’re serving Canary Creams!  Come on!  Let’s go get some!"

Harry watched as the Creevey brothers ran off to the table in front of the fireplace of the Common Room then he spotted Neville Longbottom making his way towards them, his face all grins.

"Hi Harry, Ron," Neville greeted, holding a mug of Butterbeer, "just wanted to say ‘Congratulations’."

"Thanks, Neville," Ron replied and Harry watched Neville walk off, enjoying the festivities, but plaintively avoiding the table with the Canary Creams.

"So, want to-" he started then never got to finish as he felt a blinding pain flash across his forehead, coming from his scar.  His hand automatically went up to it and he winced, as the pain grew stronger.

Just as the same time, the whole Common Room suddenly went quiet as a piercing scream echoed loudly in the room.  It was as if the whole room plunged into a deep-freezing cold as people shivered involuntarily against the scream.  Everything was silent except for the fire crackling in its hearth.

As soon as the scream ended, whispering popped up around them, but Harry still felt the residue pain from his scar.

"Harry?  You all right?" Ron’s concerned voice broke through the pain and Harry let go of his scar and noticed that he was beaded in sweat, not to mention that a few people nearest to them was staring at him.

"Yeah," he replied, and waved Ron’s hand away, "just a twinge, nothing real bad…"

Suddenly the portrait door to Gryffindor Common Room opened and everyone hushed up again, but it was only Professor McGonagall coming through, along with a few Gryffindors, Hermione and the new girl Morgan included.

"Professor, what was that?"

"Professor?"

"Who screamed?"

"I’m scared!"

Voices popped up with their own questions, but Professor McGonagall waved her hands for the noise to die down, "Nothing is wrong, don’t worry.  That was just a Dementor performing a Kiss to someone who might have been a potential threat to Hogwarts.  You’re all perfectly safe, don’t worry.  Now, I suggest you get to sleep."

With that, she departed, leaving more questions and a racket of noise in her wake.  Hermione made her way towards them after Professor McGonagall left, her hair a bit of disarray since she had to push her way through people.

"I don’t trust what she says," was the first words out of her mouth.

"You think anyone does after that scream?"

"She’s only trying to help us," Harry defended their head of the house, "who knows…I’m going to sleep."

"You okay, Harry?" Hermione asked as he stopped by the foot of the staircase to his dorm room.

"Yeah, I’m fine," he replied then headed upwards.

When he got to his dorm room he found that everything was still the same, his four-poster bed nicely arranged and his trunk, half slipped underneath his bed.  Immediately, sleep came to him as he fell onto the bed.  Sleep and dreams.

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