A:N/HIYA! My sister and I made yet another story. This time with real people...kinda. This story takes place during the fourth year (year, book, whatever) with the main characters as none other than me and my twisted friends. Just so ya know, our names have been changed so don't get any ideas, but our personalities are just like how you'll read them! So um...yeah. Hope ya like it!

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The train chugged along, carrying the four students to their new school. The beautiful scenery was lost on the four girls, however, as they resolutely ignored the countryside. After only a moment one of the girls gave up on her decision to remain silent and be a good sport about the whole deal that she'd made just minutes ago and opened her mouth.

"I'm bored, fix it" she sighed, looking around the compartment once again. No one reacted to her words and kept going with what they were doing. Emi looked back down at the rubber band she'd been playing with for the last hour and sighed again.

"I'm really, really, really bored. Doesn't anyone care?" she asked, mostly to herself. Her friend didn't look up from her book as she curled up more comfortably on the seat.

"Yeah, Emi," she said calmly, "we heard."

"I want to do something."

"So do something."

"I don't know what to do." (If anyone recognizes this discussion they can fully understand how you don't actually have to pay attention to the whiner to fulfill your part of the conversation.)

"Sorry."

Ravan apparently didn't care in the least that her friend was suffering the agonies of boredom. She went on with her book as if the compartment was empty. Out of desperation Emi glanced over at the other two girls traveling with her. Jewl was also buried in a book, and had been for the last hour or so. Finally Emi got up to explore the train once again, this time dragging Lizi along.

It was obvious that the train was designed to carry many more students than it currently held; there were signs of wear and tear in all of the compartments and they didn't think that the trolley was designed to feed just four girls, not even girls with as large appetites as they had. But this conjecture didn't keep Emi and Lizi from boredom and they soon returned to the compartment to stare disappointedly out the rapidly darkening window. Soon after it fell dark Lizi went back to her game of solitaire and Emi was left with drawing pictures on the window with her breath.

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The cart lady was very nice to them the entire trip. She helpfully explained what all the candies she carried were and didn't laugh at their disgust or confusion over the foods. Once they'd arrived at the station they thought it was very odd when she told them to get straight into the carriages and head for Hogwarts without so much as an explanation why. But, as far as Emi was concerned, the woman's real crime was in not warning them about what pulled said carriages. She nearly had a heart attack when she saw the Thestrals pawing the ground. Her friends watched in astonishment as Emi jumped back a good two feet and latched onto Lizi and Ravan's arms.

"Holy crap!" Emi screamed. "What the hell are those?"

Jewl looked at her oddly. "What are you talking about?"

"Those, those-" clearly at a loss for words the teenage girl just gestured, not letting go of her friends. "Those things right there!"

Unfortunately the other three girls didn't see anything and they dragged her into the carriage over her protests. They thought she was succumbing to her overactive imagination again. Despite her repeated descriptions of what was in front of the carriage none of the other girls believed her.

"They're monsters!" Emi yelled over and over.

"I told you she shouldn't have been allowed near the TV before we left," Lizi muttered under her breath. Emi shot her a dirty look and continued her rant.

After a little while of traveling and calming Emi down they arrived at the castle. Unbeknownst to them the arrival of students such as these was unheard of at Hogwarts. They had their share of misfits, Fred and George Weasley at the moment, but never had they played host to other schools rejections. These students had come to Hogwarts with quite the reputation.

The four girls stepped out of the carriage and walked up the steps to meet two of their new teachers: Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall. The four girls instinctively arranged themselves in a line before the teachers. It was a showdown. After a moment Professor McGonagall started her welcome speech, which was remarkably similar to the speech given to the first years at the beginning of term, but the girls weren't the least bit interested in the lecture. They constantly whispered to each other during the entire bit.

Snape, they noticed, grew more and more unpleasant looking as the introduction went on and the girls didn't listen. McGonagall didn't look any more pleased but she hadn't expected much else. Finally they moved on to the actual castle. The girls stopped in the doorway and looked around solemnly. For an instant the teachers thought that they were impressed with the building and were secretly proud of their new school. Then the conversation took a little twist and left them, once again, confused.

"Is the whole castle made of stone?" Jewl asked, glancing at the teachers. McGonagall couldn't see why that was important but told her that was the case.

Immediately Ravan turned to Emi and grinned. "Hey Emi," she said. "It won't burn!" To the teachers shock Jewl and Emi did a high five at that pronouncement. The fourth girl didn't seem affected by the outburst and calmly continued her observations of the room.

"So there's no wood in the castle at all?" Lizi asked finally.

"The doors," Snape told her, "the stairs, some furniture." Clearly, thought the teachers, they had a pyromaniac in the castle. And they knew who it was immediately as Emi snapped her fingers and said, "Damn."

"You know," Lizi continued after a moment, "this looks a lot like the halls back home. They were great wind tunnels."

"NO!" all three girls yelled, spinning and bracing themselves instinctively.

"If I can't you can't," Emi added. The other two girls nodded in agreement and Lizi sighed.

"Alright." Then Lizi smiled at the teachers. "What next?" she asked.

The teachers hurriedly gave them their room assignments and class schedules, then hustled off to their various dorms. McGonagall took the precaution of informing them that the location and passwords of the dorms were not to be shared with students of other houses. The girls appeared to be in shock.

"How will we visit?"

"We're being separated?"

"What are we going to do?"

"Why can't we?"

"What if we plug their ears when we say it?" They were the questions pelted at the two poor teachers as they tried to explain the structure of the school. Eventually the teachers settled for escaping without ending the discussion and fairly hid for the rest of the day. The new students were something else.

Eventually the girls went their separate ways, although very reluctantly and with plans to meet up as soon as they were awake the next morning to explore. They weren't exactly pleased with being all alone in the dormitories in a strange castle with no one nearby. This term was off to a smashing success.

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The next morning, much later than they had planned, all of the girls met up in the Great Hall to get breakfast and start exploring. All of them had gotten lost. Sitting down at the Hufflepuff table (they didn't understand the seating arrangements yet) they tried to find something familiar in the food.

"I think this is oatmeal," Jewl said, spooning up a scoop and letting it dribble back into the bowl.

"Hey, something we recognize," Emi exclaimed.

"Yeah," Lizi said, "too bad it's oatmeal mush."

"Hm," Jewl agreed and dropped the spoon.

"Is this sausage?" Emi asked, poking the patty cautiously.

"I don't think so Emi." Ravan laughed at her friend as Emi hastily pulled her fork back. Ravan held out a plate. "Fruit anyone?" she asked.

"What kind?" Jewl asked, all of them looking interested.

"Well, we have pears and cantaloupe, and I'm not sure what the rest of this is."

"This is an encouraging start to the new year," one of them sarcastically. Unbeknownst to them Dumbledor had joined them and was watching their breakfast from the teacher's table. They hadn't met the Headmaster yet and weren't going to that day.

Ravan sniffed cautiously at one of the drinks on the table. "Anyone know what this is?" she asked frowning. Emi reached over for the glass and smelled.

"Coffee," she said immediately. "Really, really bad coffee."

"That is really messed up coffee," Ravan said. Emi shrugged.

"In Britain the big thing for a long time was tea," Jewl told them. Emi rolled her eyes and grinned at her friend.

About ten minutes later the girls had picked at the various foods and drinks enough to know that they weren't going to eat anymore. Wishing devoutly that someone had considered their differing tastes as Americans they gave up on breakfast and headed out to explore. It had been dark by the time they'd gotten to the castle last night so they had only gotten an impression of the size of the school. Now they were getting a real experience with the large building. After a few minutes they were feeling very small.

They wandered for several minutes before one of them (they would never recall who) suggested that they split up to cover more ground. There was a small disagreement over who went where before they finally divided, agreeing to meet back in the Great Hall in one hour. Ravan and Lizi headed down the stairs while Emi and Jewl started trying various doors.

Ravan and Lizi wound up in the dungeons and carefully peeked around the corners. Something was smelling rather weird and there were odd sounds everywhere. Both girls were walking with their wands out though they didn't notice, and they were secretly starting to get freaked out.

"Where are we Ravan?" Lizi asked quietly. The other girl shrugged. Ravan's talent was finding her way back, not in knowing where they were. They went around another corner and stopped dead. "And what is that smell?" They both smiled although the question was justified. Something reeked down here.

"What is that?" Ravan stated, not really wanting an answer. The door was half open in front of them and was decorated in a very unusual way. Since when did a wizard-dominated world use fuchsia and lavender as stylistic colors? And behind the door was-

"What are you doing here?" At the sound from behind them both girls jumped clear off the floor and screamed their lungs out. Spinning they found one of the Professors that had met them the previous day. They were too terrified to think of his name.

"What are you doing!" Ravan yelled at him, still trying to catch her breath. Lizi nodded in agreement, likewise panting.

"I believe I asked you first," he said coldly. Lizi gave him an odd look and sniffed.

"Oh," was all she said. (If you're confused, check the above questions.)

"We're exploring," Ravan told him, "not breaking and entering. Why'd you sneak up on us like that?"

"Perhaps, if one is to go exploring in a castle, one would be advised to let others know where they are." Professor Snape wasn't amused with their theatrics.

"Perhaps when one comes across some students a teacher shouldn't scare the living daylights out of them," Lizi suggested.

Ravan straightened slightly and looked archly right in his eyes. "Besides, we told Emi and Jewl where we were going. And since when are students confined to their rooms?"

"As soon as I can clear it with the Headmaster," he ground out. "Walk." With that he pointed back the way they came and followed the two girls away from the door and the very interesting room. Ravan and Lizi had no choice but to head back to the Great Hall.

Emi and Jewl were having better luck, in avoiding teachers that is. They'd found nothing, not even old boring stuff. And all the doors were locked. With a disgusted kick to yet another door Emi backed away and gave up trying to pick the lock.

"This is ridiculous!" she exclaimed. "Who the heck went around locking all the doors?"

"They probably did that when they found out we were coming." Jewl grinned at her friend's scowl.

"Well that's very rude of them. We should sue."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

They walked on and found, surprise, yet more doors. Without much enthusiasm they walked along the walls and tried each knob. They'd almost used up the possibilities when the door Jewl was trying jerked open and pulled her in. Unfortunately it wasn't a room exactly.

"Jewl, are you alright?" Emi called from the edge of the pit. Her friend was several feet down sitting rather disgruntedly on a floor of sand.

"Yeah," she called up. "The floor broke my fall." Emi thought about that for a second then shrugged. Whatever.

"Can you get out?" she tried. Jewl pulled herself to her feet and walked to the wall. It moved away from her.

"Oh this isn't fair," they both chimed. Then they broke up laughing.

Emi waved her wand sarcastically in the air. "Give some magic a try," she suggested.

Jewl used several spells before something took and she could finally clamber out of the hole.

"Great, now I'm hungry and dirty."

"But at least you're in one piece." Emi's words of consolation earned her an elbow to her side.

"Ow," Emi complained, but not too loud.

"When are we supposed to meet the others?" Jewl asked as she had no watch.

"Oh, in about five minutes."

"How far away are we?"

"An hour or so. Assuming you remember how to get back."

"Oh." They turned around and headed back. Almost as a last thought Emi reached out and tried one more door. To their surprise it opened. They stared at what was inside for a moment before they began to grin.

"Oh, this is more like it," Jewl said. "Much more like it."

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Snape had insisted that he accompany them back to the Great Hall and was now waiting for the other two girls to arrive. He intended to have a nice long talk with them before taking them to the Headmaster. Ravan and Lizi were sure this was a record for them. In trouble at school before the term even began.

Both girls stiffened when the heard the 'whoop' in the distance. Snape didn't seem to hear it. When it came again, but louder, they looked at each other. Something crashed in the distance and Snape looked up from searching Ravan's bag. Both girls turned to stare at the door and gritted their teeth.

"YAHOOO!" Emi yelled as she came barreling around the corner on the broom. Right behind her was Jewl on her own broom doing twisted loops around the back of Emi's broom. Ravan and Lizi immediately dove for cover below the table. Snape was in too much shock to move until they nearly ran him over. They pulled up the nose of their brooms as hard as they could and slowed to a stop just in front of the teacher's table.

This would be the last time they ever saw Professor Severus Snape speechless. He just pointed towards the hall and finally sputtered at them to go straight to their dorms and stay there. Their Head of House's would deal with them. Emi winced as she remembered that Snape was the head of her house. They silently left the room, walking past the stunned faces of McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, and Hagrid. (Hagrid snuck them a secret smile.)

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A:N/ Yay! Now review time! REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! Let us know if it was good, bad, or inbetween. Oh, and if ya have any ideas for sumthin to happen, let me know and I'll get it to my sister. We do have a whole year to cover. l8r!