Harry Potter and the Crystal Dagger

Aubrey walked along platform 9 and three quarters with only Kaze by her side. Since all three of the dogs at her house were trained as seeing-eye-dogs, her mom had allowed her to take Kaze with her. She had even written a letter to Dumbledore so that she could bring her.

Just then she heard someone from behind her calling her. She turned around to find Harry and Hermione smiling right behind her with a boy with flaming red hair that was only about an inch taller than her.

"Hi you guys," she said.

"Hi," Hermione replied. "This is our friend Ron. Ron this is Aubrey. We met her when we were on vacation in America."

"Nice to meet you," Ron said. "Are you Hermione long lost twin by any chance?"

Aubrey giggled. "No. Well, at least not as far as I know. "

"How about we find a compartment before we end up with Malfoy."

"Who's Malfoy?"

"You don't want to know."

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"Miss Yelantes!"

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Aubrey all turned around to find Professor McGonagall calling her over from the side of the Entrance Hall.

"I'll see you guys later I suppose," she said as she made her way over.

"Don't worry you're not in trouble, you just have to be sorted into your house."

"Is there something strange about her?" Ron asked as they sat down at the Gryffindor house table.

"What makes you think that?" Harry said.

"I don't know...she's just weird."

"Shhhhhh they're starting!" Hermione whispered.

Professor McGonagall was at the front of the Great Hall in front of the staff table with the first years and Aubrey waiting in line to be sorted.

"She isn't a first year is she?" Neville asked as he pointed to Aubrey.

"Nope. She's from America. She's here in some exchange program," Hermione told him.

"Who did she exchange with?"

"I don't rightly know. Who all is missing?"

They all began looking around the great hall, ignoring the sorting song.

"Look at how many Slytherins are missing!" Ron exclaimed as he came to look at their table.

Sure enough, there were only about half as many Slytherins as usual.

"Who's betting they all went to join you-know-who?" Seamus asked.

"Can't be," Ron said.

"Why not?" Harry asked him.

"Malfoy's still there," he replied.

Professor McGonagall's voice interrupted their conversation, "When I call your name, sit upon the stool and I will place the hat on your head. It will then sort you into your house."

Harry expected that Aubrey would be somewhere near the end of the list, and she was last.

"Yelantes, Aubrey!"

Aubrey walked up and Professor McGonagall put the sorting hat on her head. It took a few minutes for it to decide. It seemed to be thinking hard where to put her. But finally it shouted, "Gryffindor!"

Harry stood up with everyone else in Gryffindor to congratulate Aubrey as she sat between Harry and Ron.

"What took so long?" Seamus asked.

"It was deciding whether to put me in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor," she said simply.

When all the rest had been sorted into their houses Dumbledore stood up to make his opening speech.

"There are a few of our number missing this year for one reason or another-" he looked over at the Slytherin table "- and we regret the loss. But there is one student gone for a different reason. Hogwarts is proud to announce that it has taken part in a student exchange program! As you all have probably noticed by now, Miss. Aubrey Yelantes is here while Dean Thomas is taking her place at Salem Academy in America. But don't let me stall you all from eating dinner, so let's dig in!"

The plates magically began to fill themselves and several of the first years gasped in surprise.

"I should have noticed that Dean wasn't here," Harry said.

"I'm sure he's having a great time at my school," Aubrey said sarcastically.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I still think you two should do something better with your time than Divination," Hermione said as she passed Harry and Ron their schedules.

"I wonder what Aubrey is taking," Ron said.

"We can ask her when she gets here," Harry replied as he helped himself to the bacon.

Just then they heard loud music coming from the entrance of the great hall. Everyone looked up to see what it was.

Aubrey walked in with a set of headphones on that must have been blasting in her ears because they could almost make out exactly what the words were. She was absentmindedly walking up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables flipping through what looked like a copy of Witch Weekly. Her robes weren't the plain black ones she had been wearing the day before either. They were black, but from about her knees down they were red, orange, and yellow to form flames. As she got closer they could also see that instead of having the Hogwarts crest on her robes there was a picture of a pure black cat sitting down in front of a purple background. Underneath it were the words: "Salem Academy".

She didn't seem to notice that everyone was looking at her as she sat down next to Hermione and started to fill her plate with food. But as she was about to take a bite of her toast, she noticed all the eyes upon her. She pulled off her earphones and let them rest on her neck.

"Is there something wrong?" She asked Hermione.

The people in the hall slowly started going back to their food and whispering about her. After a while only Harry and Ron were still staring at her.

Aubrey just shrugged and started to examine her schedule that was on the left side of her plate.

"Goody, I have Potions first!" she said. "What about you?"

Ron and Harry were still staring at her like mindless idiots so Hermione said, "Here, let me see your schedule."

Aubrey handed her her schedule.

"We have the same schedule!" Hermione said after she finished comparing hers and Aubrey's.

"Good then I'll just follow you everywhere."

"Hey, I thought that muggle electronics didn't work on Hogwarts grounds," Hermione said.

"I got my mom to charm it so that it runs on magic. I just love music to much to neglect it the entire school year."

They heard the bell ring as though very far away.

"Why do they have to start term with such a disturbing sound?" Aubrey asked. "Well come on we better get to Potions."

Ron groaned.

"What don't you like Potions? It's one of my favorite subjects."