September 1st, 1994

Kit didn't hesitate to walk out the door when eight in the morning hit.

She yanked her trunk out with a muffled 'goodbye' to her parents and trudged out to the road, hoping a Muggle taxi would stop by soon. She just didn't want to go with anyone else.

It was about nine when the taxi finally arrived, and Kit shoved her trunk inside before climbing beside it and sitting back for the ride.

She arrived at King's Cross at half past ten and gave the cabby a generous tip aside from the fee before going to the platform and striding straight through to 9 ¾ , where she boarded the train and managed to find a compartment for herself. Blaise would possibly arrive soon and find her.

Instead, she found that at exactly eleven, those who piled into her compartment were none other than Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter.

"Hello," greeted Kit, a tad confused.

"Sorry, we were running late," Hermione huffed. "This was the only place open. Is it okay if we sit here?"

"Sure," Kit said. "If Blaise comes, can he stay?"

"Um, yeah," Harry replied. "You got the compartment first. Plus, he's never been foul to us."

"Blaise is cool," Kit agreed, leaning back.

The train began to move steadily, and she hummed to herself.

The little owl Ron had brought in began to hoot as thick rain splattered over the windows. Kit seemed displeased that she wouldn't be able to see out. "What's your owl's name?" She asked.

"Pigwidgeon," Ron sighed. "Ginny named him. Terrible name— I call him Pig."

"He's cute," noticed Kit. "Teeny. Efficient."

Hermione offered her a smile. "How are you? After that whole forest thing."

"Oh, I'm okay. I just wish I could have gone with you. Draco's terrible."

"We saw Bagman in the woods," Harry recalled. "It was really strange. Then— well you saw the spell, right? We had a whole problem on our hands because some bloke cast it with my wand!"

"Bloody hell, that's terrible!" Kit said.

"What makes it all worse is we're being kept in the dark about things," added Ron grumpily. "They keep saying some special thing is happening at Hogwarts."

"So I heard," mused Kit. "My parents stopped telling me things after the Sorting, they decided I had to learn to suffer in silence like everyone else."

"Blimey," said Ron. "I wonder what—"

"Shh!" Hermione whispered suddenly, pressing her finger to her lips and pointing toward the compartment next to theirs. Kit, Harry, and Ron listened, and heard a familiar drawling voice drifting in through the open door.

"... Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore— the man's such a Mudblood-lover— and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do..."

Hermione got up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out Draco's voice.

"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" she said angrily. "I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."

"Durmstrang's another wizarding school?" said Harry.

"Yes," said Hermione sniffily, "and it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts."

"My godfather and father are unbelievably obsessed with that," Kit muttered.

"I think I've heard of it," said Ron vaguely. "Where is it? What country?"

"Well, nobody knows, do they?" said Hermione, raising her eyebrows.

"Er— why not?" said Harry.

"There's traditionally been a lot of rivalry between all the magic schools. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons like to conceal their whereabouts so nobody can steal their secrets," said Hermione matter-of-factly.

"Come off it," said Ron, starting to laugh. "Durmstrang's got to be about the same size as Hogwarts— how are you going to hide a great big castle?"

"But Hogwarts is hidden," said Hermione, in surprise. "Everyone knows that... well, everyone who's read Hogwarts, A History, anyway."

"Just you, then," said Ron.

"Not true, I read it," argued Kit. "Of course, I tuned out often, but I was bored when I picked the book up."

"Well, then how d'you hide a place like Hogwarts?" asked Ron, as if challenging Kit.

"Witchcraft— duh." Kit patted her temple as if it should be obvious. "Muggles see old ruins when they look at it. Sign in front of it says something like 'UNSAFE, DO NOT ENTER, DANGER.'"

"So Durmstrang'll just look like a ruin to an outsider too?"

"Maybe," said Hermione, shrugging, "or it might have Muggle-repelling charms on it, like the World Cup stadium. And to keep foreign wizards from finding it, they'll have made it Unplottable—"

"Come again?"

"Well, you can enchant a building so it's impossible to plot on a map, can't you?"

"Er... if you say so," said Harry.

"But I think Durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north," said Hermione thoughtfully. "Somewhere very cold, because they've got fur capes as part of their uniforms."

"I mean, Krum goes there... or went there," Kit added. "And he's Bulgarian. Maybe somewhere near there? Could be Russia. I never read up on those magic schools, I didn't care enough."

"Ah, think of the possibilities," said Ron dreamily. "It would've been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident... Shame his mother likes him..."

Kit giggled. "I don't know about glaciers but maybe big hills of ice like there are in the desert. He could roll down and get stuck."

"See, she's got it all sorted out," said Ron. "Say, why don't you and Malfoy get along? Didn't you grow up together?"

"He's an arse who thinks like my parents. Ravenclaw was unacceptable, and now I'm shunned. Boohoo for me."

"Pity," said Hermione sincerely. "Sorry, Kit."

"S'okay," she said. "I'm over it. I have you all, now. And Su, and my dorm mates, and Blaise. Who needs Draco?"

The rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved farther north. The sky was so dark and the windows so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday. The lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor, and Harry bought a large stack of Cauldron Cakes for them to share. Several of their friends looked in on them as the afternoon progressed, including Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Neville Longbottom. Kit didn't know them too well, so she and Hermione began their own conversation about Arithmancy and Runes, among other things. But when the conversation turned to Quidditch, Hermione buried herself in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4, while Kit argued her opinions with Seamus.

Neville listened jealously to the others' conversation as they relived the Cup match.

"Gran didn't want to go," he said miserably. "Wouldn't buy tickets. It sounded amazing though."

"It was," said Ron. "Look at this, Neville..."

He rummaged in his trunk up in the luggage rack and pulled out the miniature figure of Viktor Krum.

"Oh wow," said Neville enviously as Ron tipped Krum onto his pudgy hand. "We saw him right up close, as well," said Ron. "We were in the Top Box—"

"For the first and last time in your life, Weasley."

Draco Malfoy had appeared in the doorway. Behind him stood Crabbe and Goyle. Evidently they had overheard the conversation through the compartment door, which Dean and Seamus had left ajar.

"Sod off, Draco," Kit muttered.

"Exactly. We don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," said Harry coolly.

"Weasley... what is that?" said Draco, ignoring Harry, and pointing at Pigwidgeon's cage. A sleeve of Ron's dress robes was dangling from it, swaying with the motion of the train, the moldy lace cuff very obvious.

Ron made to stuff the robes out of sight, but Draco was too quick for him; he seized the sleeve and pulled.

"Look at this!" said Draco in ecstasy, holding up Ron's robes and showing Crabbe and Goyle, "Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean— they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety..."

"Eat dung, Malfoy!" said Ron, the same color as the dress robes as he snatched them back out of Malfoy's grip. Malfoy howled with derisive laughter; Crabbe and Goyle guffawed stupidly.

"So... going to enter, Weasley? Going to try and bring a bit of glory to the family name? There's money involved as well, you know... you'd be able to afford some decent robes if you won..."

"What are you talking about?" snapped Ron.

"Are you going to enter?" Draco repeated. "I suppose you will, Potter? You never miss a chance to show off, do you?"

"Either explain what you're on about or go away, Malfoy," said Hermione testily, over the top of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4.

A gleeful smile spread across Draco's pale face

"Don't tell me you don't know?" he said delightedly. "You've got a father and brother at the Ministry and you don't even know? What about you, Kit Kat? I'm betting your parents didn't tell you either.My God, my father told me about it ages ago... heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then, Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry... Maybe your father's too junior to know about it, Weasley... yes... they probably don't talk about important stuff in front of him..."

"Or maybe your parents didn't want to deal with you being obnoxious and asking about it, so they shushed you up quickly," Kit snapped, finally sick of their presence. "Fuck off!"

Laughing once more, Draco beckoned to Crabbe and Goyle, and the three of them disappeared. Ron got to his feet and slammed the sliding compartment door so hard behind them that the glass shattered.

"Ron!" said Hermione reproachfully, and she pulled out her wand, muttered "Reparo!" and the glass shards flew back into a single pane and back into the door.

"Well... making it look like he knows everything and we don't..." Ron snarled. "'Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry'... Dad could've got a promotion any time... he just likes it where he is..."

"Of course he does," said Hermione quietly. "Don't let Malfoy get to you, Ron—"

"Him! Get to me!? As if!" said Ron, picking up one of the remaining Cauldron Cakes and squashing it into a pulp.

Ron's bad mood continued for the rest of the journey. He didn't talk much as they changed into their school robes, and was still glowering when the Hogwarts Express slowed down at last and finally stopped in the pitch-darkness of Hogsmeade station.

Kit bade the others farewell and put on her robes before skirting down the train to look for Blaise. She found him with Theodore Nott in the hallway, having been alternating between playing Exploding Snap and Gobstones.

"Kit, where were you?" Blaise asked.

"Hermione and crew ended up joining my compartment," she chirped before beckoning him to join her.

As the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. The rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were being emptied repeatedly over their heads. Blaise and Kit practically sprinted to the carriages. Kit almost slipped, but got lucky enough that Blaise caught her.

As soon as they got off the carriages, they raced to the Great Hall, which looked its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-term feast. "They better start soon," said Blaise before they parted ways. "I'm starving."

"Me too. See you!"

Kit then trotted over to the Ravenclaw table and plopped down beside Su, who was fiddling with strings on her blouse. Mimi was trying to stop her younger sister Isobel from braiding her hair at that very moment. Mandy and Lisa were a bit down the way with most of the boys and Padma,  but Terry soon sat next to Kit.

"How was your summer?" He asked. "Also, happy late birthday."

"Thank you. It was alright."

"I discovered a new way to steal books from my mother's library," Su said, eyes wide. "Now she can't stop me from going into her version of the Restricted Section."

"Su, those books are probably concealed for a reason," said Terry with an awkward grin.

"Or maybe I'd learn too much and she's scared!"

"She's a single parent," Kit stated. "She's probably just more cautious."

"See?" said Su triumphantly to Terry. "It's probably nothing evil. Can't be worse than what Kit's read."

"I don't read anything terrible," retorted Kit. "It's just descriptive, and insinuates something a bit more mature."

Su coughed, though it sounded like she was mentioning The English Patient as one example.

Kit smirked at the girl and then turned to observe the staff table. "I really will miss Professor Lupin. He was amazing."

"I liked him a lot," Su agreed. "Called me in for tea that first week after my Boggart turned out to be a series of dead animals. He was really understanding when I mentioned my irrational fear of any pet I have dying on me."

"Well, your fear wasn't that irrational," said Terry. "It stemmed from bad prior experiences with your pets."

"Alright, don't become a shrink," chided Su. "I was just saying."

"It's a shame they had to fire him," Terry notes. "I actually learned from him. Lockhart the year before..."

Kit shuddered at the memory. "Creepy. And Quirrell? I slept that entire year and still passed the final, what does that tell you?"

"We all passed the final," Su said. "We're smart."

"No! It means that his teachings were useless."

"Of course," replied Su as she rolled her eyes, "but you forgot the part that he had a little parasite under his turban."

Terry and Kit let out a laugh. "Do you all know who the next Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be?"

"I heard it's someone no one wants," Mimi piped in once she got Isobel to leave her damp hair alone. "My mum said that it's some bloke that only Dumbledore trusts!"

"Leave it to Dumbledore to hire random people to teach," sighed Su. "Lupin was the only competent one in our mix— who knows how horrid the ones before Quirrell were."

"Think he does background checks?" asked Terry. "My dad's a Muggle preparatory professor and he says that they have to do an investigation on them."

"I don't even think Dumbledore knows what a background check is," Mimi said.

"Maybe it's Snape at last, and I'll get to bother him where he wants to be!" Kit said joyously. "It'll be grand."

"Kit, I'm starting to worry that Snape will slip you poison one of these days," Isobel said in a small voice. "All you lot talk about is how you go after Snape."

"Ah, it's just fun to argue," Kit said. "Don't worry, I'm not going to get expelled."

"Besides, Snape would lose his job," Terry added. "If Kit dropped dead, we'd all point fingers at him and it'd make sense."

Finally, the Great Hall opened and silence fell. Professor McGonagall was leading a long line of first years up to the top of the Hall.

They appeared to have swum across the lake rather than sailed. All of them were shivering with a combination of cold and nerves as they filed along the staff table and came to a halt in a line facing the rest of the school.

Kit and Terry both fought snickers as Mimi and Su 'awed' in pity at the poor, wet little first years.

Professor McGonagall then placed the three-legged stool on the ground before the first years and, and on top of that the Sorting Hat.

Kit tuned out for its song, as she did every year. Someone like Su and maybe Mimi would be enraptured trying to decipher any hidden meaning, but Kit didn't care.

She didn't start paying attention until the Sorting really began.

"Ackerley, Stewart!"

A boy walked forward, visibly trembling from head to foot, picked up the Sorting Hat, put it on, and sat down on the stool.

"RAVENCLAW!" shouted the hat.

Cheers erupted around Kit as Stewart was welcomed by the Ravenclaw table.

"Baddock, Malcolm!" "SLYTHERIN!"

The table on the other side of the hall erupted with cheers. Kit could see Draco clapping as Baddock joined the Slytherins.

"Oooh, our cousin is coming up!" Isobel exclaimed after a long wait.

"A cousin? How much family do you have?" Terry asked.

"A lot," chimed in Mimi.

As "Quirke, Orla!" was called and placed in Ravenclaw, Mimi and Isobel cried out and waved her to sit with us. The drenched little girl shivered, and Kit removed her robes to hand them to her.

"I have only two words to say to you," Dumbledore told the students once it was over, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. "Tuck in."

Kit didn't hesitate. The rain was still pounding once they had all comfortably finished their meals.

"So!" said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has this year been extended to include Screaming Yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever- Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed in Mr. Filch's office, if anybody would like to check it."

The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched. He continued, "As ever, I would like to remind you all that the forest on the grounds is out-of-bounds to students, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

"What?" Kit shrieked, along with several other Quidditch players across the Hall. "N-No Quidditch? That's a crime against humanity!"

"I assure you it's not a crime, Miss Thompson," Dumbledore said with a light chuckle, making Kit turn pink as everyone turned to her. "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy— but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts—"

But at that moment, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning upon a long staff, shrouded in a black traveling cloak. Every head in the Great Hall swiveled toward the stranger, suddenly brightly illuminated by a fork of lightning that flashed across the ceiling. He lowered his hood, shook out a long mane of grizzled, dark gray hair, then began to walk up toward the teachers' table.

A dull clunk echoed through the Hall on his every other step. He reached the end of the top table, turned right, and limped heavily toward Dumbledore. Another flash of lightning crossed the ceiling. The lightning had thrown the man's face into sharp relief, and it was a face unlike any Kit had ever seen, but familiar nevertheless.

"Mad-Eye Moody!" Kit breathed.

"You're joking!" Su said as the man finally sat down.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" said Dumbledore brightly into the silence. "Professor Moody."

It was usual for new staff members to be greeted with applause, but none of the staff or students chapped