OtR and Inidgo-

I hadn't included your names because I didn't know how old you were. I didn't want to put you with the older kids and then suddenly find out you should actually be a first year. Sorry if it caused any misunderstandings.

Okay! Thanks OtR! Let's just say all three of you were mysteriously ill in one way or another and arrived late.

_______

All of Hogwarts sat in the Great Hall eating breakfast. This was mostly because last night, there had been a large sign saying "ALL STUDENTS ARE TO REPORT TO THE GREAT HALL AT TEN O' CLOCK TOMORROW" on the billboard. The early risers were entertaining themselves talking, doing magic, reading, and doing homework, and some children, including St.Owl, were still working on their breakfasts. 

Then the Headmaster stood up.

The room fell silent.

"By an extraordinary coincidence," he said, his soft voice magically magnified through the hall, "Two first year students fell ill, and are now fit to come to school. Thus we will be having a feast in their honor this evening, as well as an extra Sorting.

"Now, if you stayed here just to hear this, as it is obvious most of you did, you are dismissed. Your next classes will start in ten minutes."

St.Owl ate her bacon a little faster.

~~~~~~~many classes, free period, and a lunch later~~~~~~~

Yet again, the whole school was clustered in the Great Hall. Just like before, some were reading, some were doing magic, some were talking, and some were doing homework. St.Owl was practicing the Hover Charm on her empty goblet.

She was forcing every particle over her body to lift this insignificant goblet into the air.

The doors to the Great Hall opened.

St.Owl watched them and her goblet fell back to the table with a dull crash.

Two eleven-year-olds were walking behind Professor McGonagall, staring at the hat she had in her hands. St.Owl couldn't read their expressions, but she was pretty sure that they were only slightly nervous, like her, and were just embarrassed to be doing this in front of everyone.

"Indigo!" McGonagall shouted. Indigo walked up and put on the Hat.

It paused for a few moments, then shouted, "RAVENCLAW!"

St.Owl, Dragonrider, and Brookiera applauded with the rest as Indigo sat down at the end of the table. A few people leaned over and asked her a question. She answered, and the students nearest got up and moved a few seats away. She put her chin in her hands.

"Over, Rainbow!" 

Quite a few people started to laugh at this strange name. Rainbow pulled the Hat over her head. The Hat stalled for a few seconds, then shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

St.Owl watched Rainbow walk over to the Hufflepuff table. Booksy was applauding her. She, too, sat down at the far end, and Booksy walked over and asked her a question. She answered, Booksy nodded, and the latter walked back to her seat.

"Now, let us eat!" cried the Headmaster. A few people cheered and started to dig in.

St.Owl turned around and leaned over to where Booksy was sitting. "What do you ask her?"

"What illness she had," Booksy replied. "She said Spattergroit."

"Oh," St.Owl replied. She didn't know much about this illness except what Ron Weasley had told Harry in the books. Apparently it was bad, though, because the people nearest to her were slowly edging towards other seats. "And she's still contagious?"
"The Healers said no, but it looks like no one's taking chances," Booksy replied, simply.

St.Owl couldn't help feeling sorry for the two, surrounded by the empty chairs. She hoped people would get used to the fact that they had two used-to-be-sick students at Hogwarts.

Somebody stood at the back of the Slytherin line, not joining in with the jeers that were coming from both lines. This would be her third Potions class, and while she didn't mind the subject, the Slytherins and Gryffindors seemed intent on preserving the rivalry between houses, which she found petty and childish. They had no reason to hate each other, so what was the point of trying?

The Potions Mistriss, Professor Marchbanks, ushered the class in, and Somebody took a table to herself. Five days and she'd already made it known that no one was to bother her-- she may just be a first year, but she learned a few tricks from her brother.

That day, they were working on the rather simple Vomiting Drought, which, as the name supplied, was a potion to make someone regurgitate. 

Somebody was delicately chopping up her daisy roots, not paying much attention to what was going on around her, when someone cleared their throat just above her cauldron.

"Clear off," Somebody said without looking up.

The person "ah-hemmed" louder.

"Go away," Somebody said.

"What's making me?"
Somebody looked up. That voice was vaugly familiar, she just couldn't quite place it....

"Hey. Nice to meet you."
Leaning on Somebody's cauldron was a person. At least she thought it was a person. It was outlined with a kind of misty substance, and it seemed completely unbothered by the heat that the caudron had absorbed.

"I'm Sands," said the person, tipping a hat that had not been there a second ago. "Shifting Sands. Hm, no, actually, make that Shifting Sands the Returned of the Continuity. Miss Shifting Sands the Returned of the Continuity to you."

Shifting Sands! Somebody remembered now. She was one of the imaginary friends Somebody had at school. And home, for that matter. But why would she turn up now? And why wasn't she in Somebody's head?

"Hey, Volcano! Get over here! Come on!"

"But Shiiiiftiiing, look! This is so fun!"
Volcano Flame! Another of Somebody's friends. She whirled around and saw Volcano looming over a Gryffindor student that looked exactly like Hermione Granger.

"Watch, watch! Pleeeeeeeaaaaaase!" said Volcano in a voice that Somebody thought was too loud and too exaderrated. "See? See? If I drop a few porcupine quills into the boiling hot bowl of water, it changes color!"

Completely true, it did. Mini-Hermoine's potion turned a terrible, booger green.

"And that's not the best part!" cried Volcano, bouncing on her toes. "Watch what this girl does!"

Hermione's eyes widened angrily. She started chopping up her daisy roots frantically, and watched in horror as five of them slipped off of the table and into her cauldron. Giggling madly, Volcano said, "And oooh, SHIFTING! GUESS WHAT?!"
"I DON'T KNOW AND I DON'T CARE JUST GET OVER HERE SO WE CAN FINISH THE PLAN YOU IMBICLE! (everyone playing take another bite of donut.)"

"But Shiiiiiftiiiiiiiiing..... I just had..... AN IDEA!!!"

"GREAT! NOW WILL YOU GET OVER HERE, IMBICLE! (keep nomming your donut.)"

"But Shiiiiiiiftiiiiiing.... waaaaaiiiiit! Pleeeeeeaaaaaaase?"
"NO! THE CLASS IS ALMOST OVER!"
"It'll only take a moooooment....."
Somebody was watching with horrified facination as the two non-corpreal people argued. Her potion, completely neglected, had turned blue, and Hermione was frantically trying to fix her mistake as her potion hissed and spitted.

Finally, Shifting seemed to give in. "Fine, just be quick about it!"
Smoothly and quickly, Volcano tipped Hermione's cauldron over.

She shrieked and jumped onto her stool as the acid-like contents started to destroy her shoes. All around the classroom, students were jumping onto stools as Hermione's potion filled the room.

"All right, all right, settle down, class!" said Professor Marchbanks. "I can take care of this easily!"
"Now let's see if this potion is flammable," said Shifting under her breath. "Good job, Volcano. For once you actually thougt of something helpful. VOLCANO! NOW!"

Volcano ran over, seemingly unaffected from the acid on the floor. Somebody, like all the others, was standing and her stool, and from this hight she took out her wand.

"One move," she warned, "And I'll jinx you-"

They payed her no attention. Volcano carelessly flicked her hand at Somebody's cauldron.

At this point, two things happened at once: Somebody's fire went to hights heigher than her cauldron and started sreading about the room (turns out the potion was flammable) and Somebody's Stinging Hex went right through Volcano and hit another Slytherin in the back.

"Somebody!" Cried Professor Marchbanks angrily. "Watch your fire! And an unprovoked attack on a fellow student! Ten points from Slytherin and a detention!"
"But... but..." Somebody had no real excuse, because, as everyone knows, imaginary friends aren't real.

"Tut, tut, tut," tsked Shifting. "Never jinx a non-corpreal being, don't you know anything?"
And with that, she and Volcano vanished.