52 Arrival Part 2

"We haven't met since the tournament! It feels like an eternity, doesn't it?" Susan asked cheerfully.

"Yes, it does-" As I was answering her, Tracey chimed in. "What tournament?"

Right, I guess Daphne didn't tell her? She wasn't there with me, so she had no reason to do so, and while I did keep contact with them during the summer, I didn't tell them every little detail of my life.

"The annual Chinese youth tournament." I answered, though now she was glaring at me? Did I say something wrong?

"Why didn't you tell me? I was there too, we could've met!" Tracey asked, rather hurt for some reason. Probably because I never mentioned it in any of the letters I sent her. Did she think I didn't consider her a friend?

"I didn't go there for fun." I said rather coldly, albeit it was unintentional. It brought back some bad memories. Tracey's eyes widened at my words, and she seemed even more hurt now. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way." Damn, me and my stupid mouth. I never lashed out at any of my friends, and even Tracey with her endless teasing, I never admonished her for it once. I rather enjoyed her personality, honestly. It must have come as shock to her, hearing me say such words.

"I-it's alright. I understand." She replied with a soft voice, uncharacteristic of her. Daphne wanted to say something comforting, but Tracey stopped in shock at the sight that greeted her eyes. "W-w-what the hell are those?"

Following her line of sight, I noticed the beasts that drew her attention: The thestrals.

"So those are the thestrals?" Susan asked out loud. Since when can she see them? Oh right, I forgot there were a few deaths during the tournament, that explains it.

"Wait, those are real?" Tracey asked incredulously.

"Well yeah. We did kind of tell you about them, didn't we?" Daphne asked, puzzled by her friend's reaction.

"I thought you were making fun of me!" We facepalmed. Really, what's so difficult to believe about skeletal creatures that can only be seen by those who have seen death? You'd think after witnessing the things magic can do, it would influence her tolerance.

"Well, they are very real I assure you." Michael reassured. "Though I can't see them, unfortunately."

"Fortunately." I corrected. Being able to see them implied having seen death before, and that's not something I'd wish for him to experience any time soon.

"Right."

"Can we pet them?" Susan asked, almost jumping from excitement.

"I suppose. They are harmless unless attacked." I offered. We all approached the beasts, who were now eyeing us curiously. They resembled a horse very much, except their skin hugged their bones so much it was almost visible. Their wings could hardly be noticed when folded. Even the sounds they made resembled a horse neigh, albeit lower pitched.

Susan immediately went ahead, slowly petting a thestral's neck, before hugging it. "So cute!" the thestral in question was obviously a young one, judging by its size compared to the others. It also seemed to be female? I'm not entirely sure, magical creatures were never my thing.

She then took Hannah's hands, guiding it through the beast's neck. Tracey joined them too, soon followed by Michael. Daphne and I stayed behind, watching them fussing over them sitting comfortably in the carriage. Once they were done, they joined before it started moving.

"We should definitely do this again some time. Maybe we can could feed them!" Hannah said happily, while Susan was nodding crazily. The others shared the sentiment apparently.

"By the way, are you finally going to tell us what your big secret for this year?" Michael asked with a raised eyebrow. The big secret he was referring to was my plan for this year to counter the death eaters. It was a long term one, but it would lay a solid base, especially since we won't be able to destroy all the horcruxes soon.

Now I know what you'd say: I've already handled all the horcruxes, except the Cup, Nagini and Harry himself, but no. It's not as simple as that. My knowledge from the books and the movies isn't infallible, and this is the real world where anything can happen. And did I mention that the Gaunt ring has already been taken care of? No? Well, now you know. I didn't even have to do anything to get it, it was child's play, especially since no one was guarding the place. All one needed was enough time and resources to break in, which we had more than enough.

Regrettably, we didn't get anything else of value from the house. Definitely no books. Wizards guard their knowledge fiercely, and as soon as someone tries to enter or tamper with the wards around their library, it immediately destroys all books, which is why no one even tries. But I'm sure there is a copy of the library at Gringotts, but that's not saying much, since they'd be guarded even more, with more wards on top of them.

"I was planning on telling you guys tomorrow." I informed them, turning my attention to Hannah and Susan. "Can you guys ask Cedric to meet us tomorrow after classes? I'll ask the twins, along with Harry, Ron and Hermione to join us too."

"Definitely, count on us." They both nodded, making me smile.

"Come on, don't act all mysterious now. Tell us, what is it?" His inner Ravenclaw is getting the better of him as he couldn't hold his curiosity. Especially Tracey, but for her case, it was more her excessive curiosity than just her Ravenclaw side. She even gave me the puppy eyes, voicing: "Pwetty pwease?" Which would've worked, if not for my Occlumency.

"Sorry, it wouldn't be fair to the others. It's just one more day." I shook my head with a sigh, she wouldn't drop this any time soon, would she?

"Come on, Susan, convince him. Use your charms, it's his weakness!" She said with a smirk. A little vein made itself known in my forehead, while Susan face was slowly gaining a red hue. Of course, Tracey of all the people wouldn't drop it, should've known.

"Err…. I don't think we should pressure him to- "Susan didn't get the chance to finish her sentence when she was interrupted by Tracey.

"You know, don't you?!" Tracey's eyes widened in realization. "Of course, he'd tell you before everyone else. I should've known." She scoffed. Again, another vein could be seen on my forehead. What the hell is she implying? I told her out of necessity, not for any other reason.

The carriage slowly pulled over, signaling arrival to the castle. We were the last group to arrive, so there was no one in sight. Every is most likely at the Great Hall by now, eagerly awaiting the sorting and the feast. The feast the most actually, famished people hardly pay any attention.

We made our way through the empty corridors, and I found myself wondering if Hogwarts would ever need a makeover. The building was more than two thousand years old, and everything about it was already out of date, except its security.

The only thing Hogwarts lacked in terms of security was ears and eyes, which I very much intend to give her in the next two years. If she did, no one could get away with any excessive bullying or more severe crime like that rape a couple years ago. Remembering that incident brought a somber look to my face. I already feel like I failed Hogwarts by not noticing it earlier. I had the map on my person after all. I should've paid more attention. Though now that I have access to Slytherin and Rowena's library, I was able to make my own version of it. I even added alarms for when two people were in close proximity after curfew, which would alert me immediately, or professor Flitwick, who now has a similar map. I could probably do even better, but it would take too much time, something I don't have at the moment.

"Kai? Are you alright?" Susan, who has apparently been paying attention to my expression noticed the difference, her eyes filled with worry.

"I'm fine. I just remembered something unpleasant. Don't worry about it." I waved off her concern, but she didn't look convinced. She frowned for a second, before nodding weakly. Thankfully the others were engrossed in their conversation and didn't notice.

Once we reached the Great Hall, we bid goodbyes, and made our way to our respective houses. I could spot Fred and George waving at us with exaggerated gestures from Gryffindor's table, and winking while a few of their friends snickered for some reason. I just shook my head, and quietly made my way to my place.

I made small talk with my year-mates, since I'd need their cooperation for my plans. Though they were already friends with Michael, so I didn't really need to, but it never hurt to have more friends. I never bothered earning more "friends", and I'm not speaking about acquaintances. Those I had a lot of. I meant genuine friends whom I could count on. For the simple reason it would require a lot of time to build our relationship, time I already give to my current friends. Time I'd rather spend furthering my skills and preparing for the coming war.

The first years soon entered, guided by professor McGonagall. They were all nervous wrecks, which was understandable. The Great Hall is amazing, and a bit overwhelming. The surreal night sky, along with the floating candles lighting the room, aided by the moon light was an amazing sight to behold, especially for the first time. And honestly, it is something I would never get tired of admiring.

"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty, but don't judge on what you see…" The sorting song began, and I found myself grinning widely. It never ceased to amuse me, watching A HAT singing, how its top would crinkle to form its mouth and eyes, and even facial expressions. Even its voice was a perfect match. If someone ever made me listen to this voice, even if I didn't know Hogwarts was real, I'd definitely say it's a hat's voice, you know what I mean? Meh, probably not. It's weird, I know, but it's real.

The song ended, with a clap from both old and new students. I for my part clapped as hard as I can like a little child, which earned me an elbow from Daphne, and her signature loud eyeroll. I just shrugged.

The sorting then began, and I hardly paid attention afterwards, until the feast began. I ate in silence, my attention drifting to my unfinished projects. Speaking of which, I developed two new spells. The first one was a result of my research on sensory magic. When I apply it to an object, I can clearly feel the atoms vibrating each to their own tune, which gave me a new perception of temperature altogether. It's as if I was blind my whole life, and suddenly I could see. But you know what the problem with a spell like that is? Yeah, you guessed it.

If you didn't, here is a hint: even the tiniest object in the macroscopic scale, is made of millions and millions of atoms. Which means that I'm getting the feedback from every single atom, which quickly overloads my senses, and makes me dizzy. I had to stop the spell several times, otherwise I would've fainted. But the spell has limitations, and interesting ones at that. The most important one, which actually is a good thing, is: it doesn't work on conjured or transfigured objects. And not transfigured objects that only had their shape changed, not I'm talking about objects that had their "nature" changed.

You'd ask what that would be interesting? Well, you need to think of the implications. That means that my set of theories and perception of "temperature" when it comes to transfigured objects is wrong. I couldn't even feel a single atom, which means there were none. Because, if there were any atoms, it would've given me a feedback since it had a temperature by definition, since it only refers to its vibration in time, which was what I set as a basis for the spell. Meaning that transfigured objects are something new entirely.