The mere sound of her voice pained her in such a way that she wasn't sure she would be able to go through with this. It was just too soon. Astrid wasn't ready.

She tried to busy herself the best she could to take her mind off of the hurt she was feeling at the moment and then Anna said her name. Oh no! She could feel the tears threaten to come again. "Hey." she said flatly.

When Anna heard the tone of Astrid's voice, she blinked a few times and then looked over at Astrid. "Are you okay?" Anna asked, knowing good and well that her friend wasn't. She'd been around Astrid long enough to know that something had caused Astrid to be down in the dumps. "I can tell something's wrong...what happened?"

Anna smiled and looked up for a fraction of a second as Cale ran back into the room. When he sat back down, Anna shoved the book halfway to him and kept the other half for herself. "Actually, I've just been flipping through the book just to see what we're in for. There are sixteen letters, and not all of them are from the same person. It looked as if four or five people were writing these letters. There's a lot of big words in here, too, so we'll need all of us working together to find a clue in this!" Anna explained.

Allie walked into the common room.
"Hey guys. Whats up?" she said, seeing Anna, Cale, and Astrid.

Astrid was just about to look over at Anna, even though she knew that the tears when come for sure if she did, when she heard Allie enter the room. Oh Thank God! she thought and ran over to Allie.
She looked her in the eyes closely, knowing that she would understand how she was feeling and said, "We need your help actually. Maybe Cale can explain." she offered.

Usagi also pulled some parchment and her favorite albino peacock quill out of some pockets in her robes to join in the work of taking notes. Looking at Astrid out of the corner of her eye, she could easily tell that something is wrong with her friend. But still, she said nothing and held her quill steady in a ready position to start writing at light speed.

Nathaniel saw an open seat next to the fire. And yay! It was a squishy seat at that. Nathaniel took out his drawing pad and started to doodle. Thinking of the next thing to sketch out to draw on himself later tonight. After a few minutes the owl he had sent off to his father had returned with a letter and his things. Nathaniel took the letter from his father.

Nathaniel,
I'm so glad that you take time to send me a letter. I hope that all the things you wanted are included in the package.Hope all is well.
Love,Father.


Nathaniel opened the package and inside was his skateboard,a few decks, some extra wheels, 4 pairs of new jeans, a few baseball caps,10 new t-shirts,4 new hoodies, his backpack that had a place for his skateboard and some new beanies. About time! thought Nathaniel to himself. He couldn't wait until tomorrow to start skateboarding around the grounds.

Lucas entered the common room.He had been on a leave for some time and really missed Hogwarts,since they were getting back to it again.

He stepped inside and waved his hand to say hello to everyone."Hey all."

He could see a lot of new people there but where would he find his old friends.

Astrid heard the voice of the one person that would make her feel all better. She quickly turned around and ran up to Lucas, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. "Oh my God, Lucas!" she said. "Where have you been?"

Chalice noticed that someone had sat in the chair next to her. She stopped gazing into the fire and looked over. It was Nathaniel. "Hi." CHalice said.

Feeling as if he'd been away from the Gryffindor common room for too long, Travis entered through the portrait hole, his dark wavy hair falling in front of his light gray eyes.

He made his way to his favorite comfy armchair and sat, cross-legged, and reached into his pocket to take out a strawberry sweet. Travis popped it into his mouth.

Kairi walked into the common room, her red hair hanging freely round her shoulders, and her black and white checkboard converses scuffed the floor as she walked.
A light rain pattered the windows, and an occasional boom of thunder filled the sky. She looked out for a second, then took her place sitting in front of the fire, it's warm light, illuminating her vibrant, purple, blind eyes.

Travis' sensitive ears perked up at the sound of shoes scuffing the floor as someone walked by, taking a seat close to him in front of the fire. He raised his nearly transparent gaze and caught sight of a girl with red hair.

Without thinking, he spoke, "Hello, there. I'm Travis Cobain. You must be a first year am I wrong?" Travis held out a slim hand for the girl to shake.

Kairi looked up as she heard a boy's voice and gave him a small smile, "Kairi's the name, and you are not wrong, Travis Cobain, I am a first year," she said, shaking his out-stretched hand, "Nice t'meet you,"

Travis gave her a small smile, suddenly reminded of his best friend Caitlin. He winced internally. "Pleasure to meet you, Kairi. You're lucky you weren't here last term." He shook his head at the memory, his hair swaying with him.

Kairi cocked her head, his vibrations had winced, but his face had shown no sign of pain. She shook her head, perhaps she'd read the vibrations wrong, but she had never read vibrations wrong, oh well, it wasn't her bussieness, she wouldn't pester him.
She looked at him curiously, "Tell me, Travis Cobain, why am I lucky I wasn't here last term?"

Catching Kairi's slight shake of the head, Travis wondered what she was thinking. He inconspicuously checked to see if his glamour was still in place. It was.

His attention went back to Kairi, "Hogwarts wasn't Hogwarts." His near transparent eyes went to the window where the rain was pattering lightly. Travis explained, "There where two seperate school's. Cooper's for the males and Belle's for the females. It was very hard on the students."

Kairi nodded slowly as Travis spoke, "Wow, I'd be really mad if that had happened to me, its wrong to keep guys and girls separate,"

She noticed Travis check he still had his glamour, she grinned, "Don't worry, hun, I wasn't shaking my head about your looks,"

"Yeah, a lot of students got in trouble for sneaking into the other school's. It was crazy." He froze at Kairi's next words.

You weren't? Is it possible she had seen through his glamour and caught a glance at his real form? Travis began to panic, but kept his face free of expression. No, he watched Kairi for a small moment. You would have ran screaming from the common room if you had seen through my glamour. He waited for her response. When she didn't give any, he figured he hadn't spoken aloud.

All this in the frame of about a second, he chuckled, "Oh, okay. Just making sure." His light gray eyes twinkled, no longer panicking.

"Oh, Cale!" Anna exclaimed. "I meant to tell you---I have an idea that just might help us. Instead of us rushing through the reading of these letters in a short three-hour time period, let's divide up the letters and spend our time copying them down word for word! That way we can always have a copy to look at even when the book self-destructs!"

"Oh, hey, Allie!" Anna greeted, smiling at her good friend. "You should sit down and take a look at this. It's a clue dealing with that treasure everyone's been gossiping about." Anna held up up the book, flipping through it and showing Allie and Astrid both a quick view of the many letters it contained. "We have to hurry and read, though. Nico Toussaint put a charm on this book, and it's supposed to self-destruct in three hours. Cale and I have already had it for about thirty minutes."

Anna didn't fail to notice the fact that Astrid never replied to her questions. Whatever happened must be pretty bad if Astrid didn't want to tell Anna. They'd always been close enough to share secrets. "So, Astrid," Anna once again said, "are you okay? You just don't seem like your usual happy self."

Kairi looked at him again, there was something there, something that she couldn't quite catch, he was different, and his vibrations were ever changing. There was something behind his longish dark hair and transparent grey eyes, something he was afraid to reveal. It brought back memories, memories of Kairi's...gift? Well it certainly wasn't a gift, she hated herself for having it, it was a burden she didn't want to carry. She pushed the thought from her mind.
"Do you like fire-dragons? Fresh from Honeydukes," Kairi asked, pulling out four, red, dragon-like sweets.

Travis sat up a little straighter at her question. He grinned, I love sweets! "I've never had them before! What do they taste like?" He watched her excitedly as she pulled out some red sweets.

"Fire-dragons, well...let's just say they're a little...hot," She grinned and placed one into his hand, "Good luck, ma friend," she said popping one into her own mouth. As soon as it touched her tongue, her mouth began to burn like it was on fire, and smoke began to puff out of her ears. Only fire-dragons gave her this satisfaction, she grinned.

He watched, fascinated at the effects of consuming one of these fire-dragons. Travis looked down at the one on his hand, gathering up some courage to place it in his mouth. He smiled at Kairi and popped the sweet into his mouth.

Whoa! His mouth began to burn like it was on fire and his mind immediately locked, memories flooding back to him. Memories of Irial taking out his blade. Memories of their blood touching. Memories of the intense pain, the burning waves that had gone through his small figure not one year past. And then the sudden clearing of the pain, the memory of standing in the middle of Caitlin's living room in his new form.

He took the fire-dragon out of his mouth, his heart racing, his jaw clenched.

Kairi looked suspiciously at Travis, "You ok, Travis?" He seemed...upset, angry, confused.

"Yes, I'm quite alright," Travis cautiously drove his mind away from past memories. He looked angrily at the fire-dragon and, in an act of some defiance, he placed it back in his mouth, trying to ignore the burning feel.

His heart began to race again, but he held on. After a few second he looked at Kairi and gave her a smile. "There." He waited until his breathing had relaxed and smoke seized to puff out of his ears. "I did it."

Great, now she must think I'm weird. Travis shook his head.