Pulse

  She arrived at the train station alone. King-cross was the loudest place she had ever set foot in. With a clear goal in mind though, she didn’t let that bother her, moving through filthy muggles and nosy redheads she stalked her target, he seemed lost in his own world.

  When he came to a stop between platform 9 and 10 she hid behind one of the big pillars. Knowing the blood-traitors would soon reach them, she whispered and waved her hands in his direction. A small white dove quickly darted from her hands and stopped on his shoulder.

  “Watch for the red-heads, they will guide you but be wary… Through the wall…” The dove chirped.

  Startled, the boy looked with wide-eyes at the dove trying to make sense of how it could talk. Not wanting to spook the bird he remained still. Seeing as the dove did not move or made any other sound again he let it be and started looking out.

  As on queue, the family made its appearance, moving between the platforms, nosy as they can be, complaining about it being filled with muggles. She waited behind the pillar, as the boy watched the entire family go through the brick passage, she was glad he trusted the dove as he did, not engaging with them at all.

  She saw his determination to start running and quickly hurried behind him. She had to stop herself running onto him as soon as she crossed the layer, no doubt in his amazement frozen on the spot. Once he started heading to the train she followed. A butterfly flying fast behind her at the same pace.

  The blood traitor twins were approaching him from the side, maybe half recognizing him. She couldn’t allow them to interfere and put ideas in his head. Moving swiftly she collided with them on purpose. Sending one of them to the floor.

  “Ow… Watch it!”

  “Slow down ickle firstie-” George stopped talking once he turned around to take a good look at her.

  “What do they feed you…? You sent me flying and I didn’t even move you.” Fred complained while caressing his butt.

  “Apologies” She said with a small bow of her head. “Greetings, Mr and Mr Weasley. I didn’t see where I was going, I’m sorry.”

  They both stared at her shocked. Not only because her voice sounded broken but both twins couldn’t help but notice her arms. She was wearing prosthetics.

  Someone so young having lost both her arms was something traumatic to see, even if odds things happen in the wizarding world. She waited a few seconds staring at their wide eyes.

  “What-?” they both blurted at the same time.

  She didn’t let them finish, opting to retreat as quickly as possible, she darted to the train leaving them behind.

  She roamed the long hallway until she found him, moving slowly by the train looking for an empty compartment. She observed the thin dark-haired boy with sharp green eyes, his glasses crooked and broken, he looked nervous. His clothes, a mixture of worn, torn and old, too big for his size.

  She moved silently following his pace. Once she saw him enter a compartment pulling his trunk, his owl cage and other materials left behind in the luggage compartment, she quickly followed. As she entered he stared at her with curious eyes expecting her to talk first, his hand caressing the dove. His eyes scanned her from top to bottom, looking at her with the same shocked eyes as the twins although with curiosity instead of pity.

  She said no words, having gone with the plan in his head multiple times, rehearsing her introduction over and over again, now she found herself speechless. Instead, she just upholstered her wand in a swift motion, and whispered faintly, levitating his trunk into the top overhead racks. With another swift motion the dove returned to her and turned into a small hair clip.

  “Wow. Eh… Thanks?” Mumbled the now confused and shocked boy.

  She motioned him to sit down and soon after she motioned her wand and started chanting with a soft mumble. The wards should keep others from noticing them, unwanted attention was not a distraction she could afford right now.

  She was going to introduce the boy-who-live to the wizarding world and the matter of his fame. It was a very delicate and important matter

  Chapter 1 - Prototype

  He stared at her expecting her to say something, explain or otherwise offer a smile like everything was fine, but instead he got light-brownish eyes staring at him as if trying to devour his soul.

  She fixed her blond hair behind her ear and sat at his side. He tried her best to not stare at her arms, her fingers had a metallic shine on her palms while it looked like ceramic on her backhand and arms.

  He wanted to ask, his curiosity getting the better of him. He didn’t know if it was normal in this world and asking would make it uncomfortable or awkward, maybe she wasn’t expecting that or it would be rude. Maybe she was just shy…

  “Hi… Uhm, I’m Harry”

  “It’s my pleasure, Harry Potter. Apologies, I would use your title but you seem unaware of it…I’m Lynne Volant. You can call me Lynne.”

  He was shocked again, there was something wrong with her voice, it was like a whisper and the sound was broken, a mixture of a grunt and a cough.

  “Titles…? I suppose I don’t know. Nice to meet you, Lynne. You can call me Harry obviously. What was the spell you used to get my trunk up there? And where is your trunk?”

  He wanted to ask so many things, why warn him to be wary of the red-heads, what title, and why was it important enough to be used in an introduction, but he didn’t want to come off as nosy or annoying. Concern showing at his face.

  “The levitation charm, I can teach you or you can wait to learn it this year. This is my trunk.” She pointed to the butterfly that was now stuck to her hair slowly beating its wings.

  “I love magic. Would you teach me…?” He squealed with excitement.

  “Of course, in exchange, I would like to be your… friend”

  “Sure!” He beamed happily, he was worried he wouldn’t make any friends as he never had any in the past. Here was the first wizard his age to talk on his way to the school and now a new friend! Although it also raised a concern… what if his new friend was sick. Not to mention her missing limbs…

  “Sorry if this is rude… but are you sick?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your arms…a-nd and… your voice. I’ve heard of diseases that affect the whole body-”

  She chuckled although it sounded more like a croak. She finally smiled, a small one but one at last. She was not used to someone looking at her so worriedly. She didn’t know about diseases like that but she couldn’t really explain to him what happened to her.

  “I’m not, you don’t have to be concerned about me. In fact worrying about me is a waste of your time.”

  He frowned at her, confused. Did he upset her in some way? But she laughed, maybe it was not as serious.

  “Well, friends care for one another, right?”

  “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had one so it’s new for me”

  Oh. Maybe she was like him after all, and now that he thought about it, it made sense, it would be difficult for her to make friends. Looking at her, it was hard not to stare and make her uncomfortable. He thought of all the pity looks she may occasionally get and how tough it would be to make true friends and not someone who just was nice to her because of her circumstance. He wouldn’t like to be friends with someone just because they took pity on him.

  “That makes both of us new at this! We shall be the best of friends. And I think friends should take care of each other.”

  She seemed to be thinking about it but with a slight nod she agreed.

  “Then as your best friend in the 9 hours we have until we arrive, I will teach you everything you need to know for now. You grew up with muggles, I can see that clearly, so we need to get you up to speed, boy-who-lived.”

  “Ugh… of course you know more about me”

  “Everyone knows yes, I’m sure you’ve noticed, but do you know why? The story about your parents, what happened that night and your fame?” He shook his head. “I think first we must buy sweets. Be right back, the trolley lady won’t stop in our compartment”

  She spoke quickly and Harry could only watch as she chanted again with a side motion, the wand lit up and she opened the door and closed it behind her. He waited for a few minutes anxiously, he wanted to know more about his parents, about the looks people gave him as soon as he entered Diagon Alley.

  There was also another concern… not knowing what a trolley lady was or what sweets they could get and his imagination was running wild. Maybe magical candy was way different, he never had one before.

  It seemed ages when she returned. She had a smile on her face and a lot of different boxes and wraps floating behind her. With a wave of her hand all of the packages went flying and sat besides him on the train seat.

  The butterfly followed as she moved inside of the compartment resting on her hair again. He wondered what type of spell or charm was in use for that.

  “My apologies, Harry. It took so long because I had to summon a toad for Heir Longbottom and there was this girl that was bombarding me with questions about the charm.”

  “A toad? Heir…? Summon?”

  “Sweets first! I bought one of each so you can try them all.” She beamed at him sitting in front of him, she took a purple cardboard box.

  “Oh… I have money I can pay you if you tell me how much it costs”

  “I would expect you to have, your family is one of the most ancient and noble wizard families, although you could have bought yourself better casual clothes. But this round is on me. You can get the next one. Here, bite the head first.”

  He hummed and stared at the chocolate frog that seemed to be alive in his hands. He took a bite and smiled. It was sweeter than regular chocolate and the taste was good. But the feeling of confusion did not sit that well for him and every time Lynne spoke it was like a million questions were prompt in his head.

  “What do you mean with ancient and noble families?”

  “Well… I have a lot of explaining to do and many things I want to teach you. To prepare you for what is to come. You deserve it after all. Although we will need more time than what we have.”

  A flicker of emotions changed his face until his determination shined through his eyes. He swallowed what was left of the chocolate frog and looked at her, chin up high.

  “I’m ready then, teach me.”

  “I will do my best.” She pointed her wand to his face and without saying a word his glasses, that were once crooked and cracked, were repaired instantly. In awe he inspected the glasses as if they were now a precious gem and put them on again. He could see clearly for the first time in what seemed like forever.

  “The mending charm, Reparo.” Another thing to learn then. He thought it was starting to be a long list indeed.

  He had spent most of the trip quietly listening to Lynne, her words slowly arranging themselves in his mind, filling the gaps in a world he had almost no understanding of.

  He learned about the second wizarding war against a Dark lord, about what happened with his parents, what he did to him as well. About his probable inheritance and what the Potter family left behind. Inventions, potions and businesses.

  He was left feeling anxious knowing that there would be a lot of expectations because of silly stories spread around and lies about his heroic deeds.

  He learned that there are different types of spells, charms, curses, jinxes, hexes and elemental spells. That magic could be cast through other means like rituals and runes, he learned about wards and potions.

  He felt a headache was fast approaching with the amount of information he was drilled with, but luckily not everything had been information. He could put up with a bit of annoyance if it meant he could learn new spells and charms.

  He had learned a few charms and even though it took him a few tries, he eventually got Lumos, Levioso and Reparo working for him.

  She also transfigured his hair to be a bit longer, and although it was still the untamable beast, he could hide his scar behind it now and maybe blend in a bit. He hoped at least.

  Lynne explained the charms behind her trunk, a combination of the shrinking charm and insect transfiguration, as well as the one that worked for her hairpin, how she had discovered that she could combine it with a variation of the protector charm to send messages.

  He was amazed at her brilliance but secretly hoped she was just a genius and not all his classmates would be at that level already.

  One thing was certain, he was quite happy to have met Lynne. He learned so much already and knew that if he ever had any questions she would happily answer, wouldn’t look down on him for not knowing and most of all.

  She seemed kind enough to teach him. Even things she couldn’t fully grasp with how she would go out of her way to have him understand everything he was curious about.

  Hopefully most students would be like Lynne, but he doubted that after his encounter with the blonde student while getting his clothes. Malfoy, he had mentioned his name was, talking to him like it should have been obvious.

  “Which house do you think you are going to be sorted into?” he blurted out while remembering his conversation.

  “I will go to whichever house you go, my mentor taught me that you have a bit of a choice if you manage to convince the one who sorts you.” She said without a sliver of doubt.

  “I don’t want to lose my only friend out of sight just yet and I don’t really care about something as silly as a house. Although if I don’t manage to convince the one who sorts, we will still be friends.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  He felt a warm feeling in his chest, no one had ever cared for him like that.

  “What if you get sorted first…?” he asked nervously. He also didn’t want to be separated from his first friend, even if they could still see each other eventually.

  “You will be sorted first, they call by surname. I’m a Volant, Harry. You have nothing to worry about.”

  He sighed in relief and also blushed a bit embarrassed at himself having asked such a silly question, but if she thought it was something dumb to ask she didn’t show any signs of it.

  “We are almost there, I’m going to leave you change into your school robes”

  While Harry was still wondering how she knew that without even looking through the window she exited the compartment again dismantling the wards he now knew of and was almost certain were a very advanced piece of magic.

  He quickly changed into his black robes and prepared his trunk and things. When Lynne came back, she had a very foul face. Behind her he saw Malfoy and two bigger students at each side of him.

  “So this is where you were hiding… Are you really Harry Potter?” the blond asked.

  “Yes, it’s my pleasure Draco Malfoy.” He extended his hand carefully and Malfoy hesitated but shook it all the same.

  “And who are you?” He said to Lynne looking disgusted by her arms.

  Lynne had that same blank expression at the beginning of the ride.

  “I am Lynne Volant, last of my line.”

  Malfoy was stunned for a bit, probably because of her particular voice.

  “I thought your family name fell under the Lestrange. I welcome you though, we need more pure families in Hogwarts.”

  With a small bow she didn’t bother with an answer. Harry had already assumed Lynne was from a wizard family so that was not a surprise, but what Malfoy said did catch him by surprise for another reason.

  She had made a small list of family names earlier that he should be wary of, Malfoy was there and the Lestrange as well, loyal to the Dark Lord. Did she say that because of her own experience with the family?

  Malfoy decided that the bow was enough, it seems because he turned to him while he was caught up in his own thoughts.

  “This is Crabbe and this is Goyle, I thought you were not aware of anything when we met the first time, why did you pretend?”

  Putting his focus on the question he tried his best to remember what little he learned from Lynne into effect.

  “Well… you can’t expect me to show off, I have enemies out there, right?” He said trying his best to feel confident.

  “Right… of course. How silly of me. I would offer help but I can see you are in good hands. Remember, Potter, some families are better than others. We will help you.”

  “Thanks… Thank you, Malfoy. If we are in the same house I will be glad to have your guidance.”

  He gave a small smile. “Great, I think we are almost there so I will leave you to it.”

  With a short bow, Malfoy and his grunts exited the compartment and he saw Lynne finally relax, and wondered what could have happened if things didn't go well.

  He didn’t want to end up anywhere near Malfoy though, someone who looked at his friend like that was not worth being friends with. But she had said previously that antagonizing any of the list was a bad idea.

  She gave him a small smile, her wand appearing on her hand and with a small motion the butterfly flew to the overhead compartments and transformed into a small trunk.

  “The staff at Hogwarts will take our trunks and luggage inside. We just leave them here.” He nodded, still amazed at how much she knew.

  As if part of a script, there came an announcement from the train’s speakers telling them to leave their luggage behind.

  “Engorgio” She muttered and her trunk suddenly became as big as his. He made a mental note to ask her about the charm and about her family later.

  “Before we leave… here.” She handed him a small notebook. He opened it briefly and saw that it was empty. “You can use it to write down important things you want to remember, it is enchanted to only let the person who writes on it to read its contents.”

  Before he could even respond, she fixed her robes, wand disappearing on her sleeves and exited the compartment. He quickly followed behind, pocketing the notebook, on the way they met a stream of students that were also descending the train. They followed a few of the younger looking students that all had the black robes as well.

  “First years! First ‘ears over here!” Hagrid was motioning everyone close. He was happy to see him again.

  “Heya ‘Arry! Excited aren’t ya. Already making friends. Well come ‘ol over here.” They followed Hagrid through a clearing leading to a small port.

  Hagrid guided them to the boats and then told them they would cross the big lake 4 students per boat. Lynne was close to him glaring at other people who would look their way, almost as if he had a guard dog, he found this strange but maybe she was taking this friendship different from what she should because she never had any.

  He made a mental note to talk about it with her later as well, aware that the list was growing. They floated through the lake and as he took the sights of the castle he felt like it was all worth it in the end, it stood at such a magnificent level, and it really felt magical.

  He descended from the boats and followed Hagrid, they then were greeted by Professor McGonagall, she briefly informed them that they would be sorted right away, she gave information on the houses and their traits although Lynne had already explained how it worked.

  The professor told them to wait while checking if the Great Hall was prepared. He was about to ask Lynne about what to expect when a bushy girl that wouldn’t stop giving facts about the castle to a shy chubby boy answered his questions.

  Some red-head was telling other students how they would have to fight a troll, not realizing he was being pranked by his brothers which led to Malfoy starting an argument with him. He called him Weasley so he tried to remember what Lynne had said about them.

  The Weasleys were allies of Albus Dumbledore, Lynne said to be careful with them as they would have ulterior motives to ally themselves with the so-called savior or boy-who-lived. He wanted genuine friends, not someone who would just approach him because of that.

  There was so much to learn, so little time to adjust, and he started dreading having lived with the Dursleys yet again, why couldn’t he have gotten a family that would have taught him what he needed to know.

  He was brought back off his thoughts when a few of the students upfront let out small shrieks as ghosts came to greet them. They gave their introductions while some students whispered in awe. As they left professor McGonagall returned and led them into the Great Hall.

  “...it’s enchanted to make it look like the sky above… read it in Hogwarts: A history.”

  It was quite pretty, a night sky full of stars, while candles floated in the ceiling. He observed 4 long tables and the banners of each house with their colors. They walked through the students seated in each house until they were all in front of a long table of professors. There on a stool lay a hat, it seems Lynne didn’t lie in the end.

  As part of the welcoming, the hat started singing, he didn’t catch much of the lyrics, his mind just taking the entirety of the castle, but everyone was respectful and made no sounds until it finished. Once everyone was settled they started calling by last name. One by one all the students in the first year were called. He wasn’t feeling nervous or anxious anymore, choosing to trust Lynne to follow him into whatever house he was sorted somehow. She had been on point with everything so far.

  He was sure that whichever house he ended up in, he would have someone to ask questions and have answers, hopefully a friend as well. He saw Malfoy get sorted into Slytherin and knew that if he was indeed going there he would have someone who could help him out as well. The bushy girl and the shy boy pair both went into Gryffindor, from his name he concluded he was the one who lost the Toad that Lynne summoned.

  “Harry Potter.”

  At the call of his name, he stepped forward trying to ignore the whispers and people staring at him. He settled nicely in the stool and felt the hat being placed on his head.

  “Ah, Harry Potter. Interesting… Mmm, yes, a lot of courage and bravery but also a thirst for knowledge, you don’t like being in the dark. Difficult… Very difficult.” He was amazed at the voice of the hat, but he didn’t comment, he was quite certain he could influence the decision from the hat otherwise Lynne wouldn’t have been that confident in saying she was going to follow him but he had no preference either.

  Opting to remain quiet, the hat continued. “You would make a nice Ravenclaw, I see you are quite intelligent but easily overwhelmed. The fear of expectations have made their way into your head as well now, and in Slytherin you would do well to meet them head on, you could do great things there.”

  “You have loyalty for friends enough to get into Hufflepuff and courage and bravery enough to defy the most terrible of Dark lords… You would do well in any house I’m sure.” At this point the hat was taking so long people were whispering and speculating. It made him nervous so he decided to break the silence to focus on something else.

  “How can students influence your decision?” he asked.

  “Well it depends, I wouldn’t say they have a choice but they can convince themselves after they talk to me and I support their decision… you are a curious boy.”

  “How would I have known that before coming here?”.

  “You feel that you are ignorant of many things, things you think you should know… Why is that?”

  He was annoyed, the hat was not answering his questions completely.

  “I feel that people around me know my place in this world better than I do and that is frustrating. I’m also lacking common wizardry knowledge that I have no way of knowing how to get.”

  “Well, if you are so sure knowledge is what you want… better be… RAVENCLAW”

  He removed the hat and handed it to the professor before stepping down, the ravenclaw table was cheering and clapping while many in the Gryffindor table looked confused. He sat down beside an Indian looking girl that was sorted just before him. Her twin was looking at her from the Gryffindor table with a glare.

  He was greeted by other Ravenclaws and he focused hard to remember their names with their faces from the sorting so far. Boot, Brocklehurst, Corner, Goldstein, Li, MacDougal, Patil. Then came Turpin after him.

  “Lynne Volant.”

  He watched as a few whispers were heard as well, probably because of how she looked. He awaited eagerly as she sat down and let professor McGonagall put the hat on her head.

  “Oh another hat stall” Murmured an older Ravenclaw by his side.

  “What do you mean?” Asked Harry without taking his eyes off the blonde girl.

  “When the hat takes more than 2 minutes it’s called a hat Stall, you took the longest so far. We can talk later about it if you want. I’m Marcus Belby by the way.”

  “Nice to meet you, Marcus.”

  “RAVENCLAW!”

  He jumped a little bit but again not completely surprised that Lynne would stay true to her word. She walked gracefully and sat beside Harry after he moved a bit to let her sit.

  “I’m glad you could convince the hat to join me, Lynne.” he said. In fact he couldn’t have been happier, having a friend already was all he had hoped for, especially one who had so far answered every question he had. She gave a slight nod and a small smile.

  The headmaster started his speech, giving a welcome to all of the first years. Then shouted a few funny words that made no sense whatsoever at least to him. Lynne turned to the table all of a sudden. At that moment food appeared out of nothing, the entire table filled to the brim with food. Harry had never seen so much in one place before, much less eaten anything from there. The Dursley had denied him to taste most foods only leaving him with scraps or things he could sneak away with.

  “Is he a bit… mad?” he asked, watching Dumbledore.

  Marcus eyed him carefully and let out a small chuckle. “He is a bit barmy, yes… peas, Harry?”

  He started piling a bit of food on his plate, not sure what to eat first, but making sure to at least try a bite of everything. As he was doing this he noticed that Lynne made no moves to even pick up anything from the table and frowned.

  “Did you not find anything you like?” he asked.

  “I’m fine, I’m not hungry right now. Don’t worry.” Came the reply in a whisper. Sue and Anthony were watching curiously but said nothing.

  “Already keeping secrets, Harry?” Marcus asked his side, gaining a glare from the girl.

  He ignored the question entirely, hoping that if he acted innocent enough, the older boy would leave it be. Which he did, no one followed it up either so he just shrugged and continued eating. When watching the tables of professors his scar started hurting terribly. So much so that he couldn’t hide the pain.

  “Are you okay?” Lynne said, looking at him worried.

  “Yes, just a headache.” He tried to ignore it. But he saw clearly that one of the professors was staring at him. He averted the gaze instinctively.

  After dinner the headmaster spoke again.

  “First years, please note... that the Dark Forest is strictly forbidden to all students.” He thought that having a forest close by could have been a cool adventure, despite the name.

  “Also, our caretaker, Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you that the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death.”

  He saw several different surprised and scared faces. He was surprised as well, but he didn’t know if things like that were normal. He turned towards Lynne, it seemed that she was calm and just reading a small book which she had pulled out of nowhere somewhere in the middle of the feast.

  “Is it normal to have something that could kill students here…?” he asked in a whisper.

  “Not that I know of…” came the answer without her lifting her gaze at all.

  The prefects started rounding up all first years, and they left behind the Great Hall to head for their common rooms. Ravenclaw was up the castle near the astronomy classroom and it was quite the trek after dinner.

  The entrance to the common room was located on the west side of Hogwarts at the top of a spiral staircase that started on the fifth floor, and was a door without a doorknob or keyhole, but a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.

  Penelope Clearwater was the prefect leading them to the entrance, and the group followed her closely. After the introductions were made she explained common rules like curfew times or how detention and point losses work for disciplinary actions.

  “You will have to answer a logic puzzle or riddle to enter the common room. If you failed it, you will have to wait for someone else to answer theirs to enter. But you can also ask a prefect if they can help you in.” She explained.

  “Seas with no water. Hills with no earth. Roads never stepped on. What am I?” said the eagle.

  “A map.” Penelope answered.

  The door opened and the prefect made a wave motion for everyone to step in. The Ravenclaw common room was a wide, circular room, airier than most rooms Harry had ever seen. Graceful arched windows punctuated the walls, which were hung with blue- and-bronze silks. The ceiling was domed and painted with stars, which were echoed in the midnight-blue carpet.

  There were tables, chairs, bookcases, some instruments like telescopes and globes lying around, and opposite to the door stood a tall statue of white marble.

  “Alright boys on the right hallway you will find your quarters, they are divided by year and usually 3 per room. Same for the girls on the opposite hallway.”

  After the long day Harry was feeling quite tired and wanted to see who he was paired with. Being honest with himself, he wanted to ask a million questions to Lynne but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t stay awake to keep the answers in his head. He walked to the right hallway to find his room.

  He found his initials alongside Anthony Goldstein. It seemed his room was only for the 2 of them and the rest of his classmates were in the other room. He flopped to the bed that had his trunk closest to it. Anthony started unpacking beside him.

  Once both of them finished unpacking and settling in for the night, he closed his curtains and thought of all that transpired that day. It was a lot to take in, he made the decision to gather everything he needed to know. He took out the small notebook that Lynne had gifted him, and wrote down what he wanted to ask for tomorrow.

  He let himself rest his head on the soft pillow, having a bit of an emotional overload at having his first bed. Having changed into run-down clothes to sleep, he was feeling quite comfortable and sleep took him quite quickly.

  He awoke early. The curtains did not let a lot of light through but he knew it was around 6 or 7am. He quietly changed clothes to his robes. Then exited the room trying not to wake up his roommate. He entered the common room and saw in a corner of a table Lynne’s blonde hair. She was reading again, maybe that is how she knew so much.

  By day, the Ravenclaws had a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains and he took a moment to take in the sights, then went to sit beside her.

  “Good morning, Lynne. Slept well?” he asked cheerily.

  “Good morning, Harry.” Frowning she took out a small circle watch from one of her pockets. “It is still quite early, what are you doing up?”

  “Already slept enough, I used to wake up early to make breakfast for my relatives.” He wondered how useful a watch would be, and why there wasn’t a spell for the time. Surely if there was, Lynne would know about it.

  “I see, well we can go for early breakfast, the Great Hall still should give us food if you ask for it.”

  “Before that, can I ask you a few things?” She nodded slowly. “Yesterday Malfoy said your family was part of the Lestrange family. They are on the list you told me to be careful about. Should I be worried?” He asked half-jokingly.

  “The Lestrange family was very loyal to the Dark Lord in the war. They carried his will and were ruthless. That is why you must be careful with them, although I believe all of them are in Azkaban Prison. A pureblood family that married to the Blacks as well.”

  She shifted a bit on the chair.

  “The Longbottoms suffered the most to them. My family joined the Lestrange a long time ago, back when they were in France, around 300 years ago. I was born of a squib and a muggle.”

  “The Volant family used to cast away squibs so there are branches of the family lost that they do not know about. And sometimes magic just finds its way again.”

  “What is a squib…?” It sounded awfully like a freak and he was not liking that at all.

  “Occasionally, a child born to magical parents lacks any magical ability. Those people are called squibs. They are quite rare.”

  “If the Lestrange are in Azkaban, and your family is in France, who took care of you and why did you come to Britain?”

  “I was raised by a friend of my father once they noticed I could wield magic. They lived here. I took the family name so that I could be more independent.”

  Harry had a lot more questions now, but it seemed like Lynne was not fond of the topic so he didn’t want to make his first friend uncomfortable. He could see that it made her move on the chair and her eyes looked anxious.

  “Well… I had another question. You kept glaring at people that got close to me when we were approaching the castle. Is there someone who I should be wary of?”

  “No, I was being paranoid, the amount of magic that hit me approaching the castle messed my thoughts. I will try to be more subtle.” He was happy with that answer. He wanted to make more friends and he didn’t want Lynne to push people away from him.

  “Let’s go have breakfast now, I’m getting hungry.”

  She got up and pushed the book into a small satchel he now noticed she had on her. Hidden below her robes. There was no way that satchel could hold the book but it seemed to swallow it when the book was close to it.

  “Wicked.”