New Year, New Dorm

We were being pulled across a cobbled road, but the coaches that took us to the castle were pretty comfortable. Grant, Tim Seamus Dean, and I sat in one as we made our way to Hogwarts.

"So, mates, excited for the speed quidditch tournament?" Seamus asked, with his own obvious excitement.

I blinked at him. 'I totally forgot' I thought, "Yup, that should be grand," i said with false confidence

"I convinced my parents to buy me a broom," Dean said. "Told them it was only sport in Hogwarts." He smiled, showing his excitement as well 

"Yeah, mum got me one after I explained how we made the rules," Seamus said proudly.

"I bought one too, but I think Quidditch is a bit out of my capabilities," I said. "Maybe I could ref," I said in thought.

"Doubt it, only teachers ref games," Grant stated.

"Well, at least another 28 students get to play the game," I said with a sigh.

"If you don't count subs," Seamus added.

"Anyone come up with team names?" I asked because I knew I hadn't.

"I was thinking we could go with animals," Dean said, "like the lions or eagles."

"too close to the houses, with those two suggestions but the animal idea is good," I said

"Yeah, animals work; magical creatures would be better." Said Seamus.

"So magical creatures?" I lean back. "I'm going to suggest the Nifflers." With a goofy smile, I loved Nifflers, those cute little thieves.

"Hypogryphs," Dean said after thinking

"Acromantulas," said Grant, with a smirk on his face

"Pegasuses," Tim said, then "Pegasi?" asked with a dumbfounded face

We laughed at Tim as he made a face.

"Pegasus was the name of the horse, not the breed; actually, there are many breeds of winged horses," I explained. "Actually, two of them are pulling us right now."

My friends looked at me like I was dumb. "There's nothing pulling the carriage." Dean said, "its just magic."

"wrong! We are being pulled by Thestrals," I said, "also known as the winged horse of death." I smirked at the shocked faces. "their invisible, to those who have not seen death."

"Cool, so I change my suggestion to Thestrals," said Tim. We all laughed again.

"So are we going to see a return of Arcane Rhythm?" Dean asked.

"Yup, of course," I said.

"I would be worried," said Seamus.

"About?" Asked Grant

"People are trying to join or compete," Seamus explained.

"Really?" I said, "Maybe we should hold auditions."

"Why? We're good together," Tim said.

"Yeah, but we're missing some stuff," I said.

"Like?" asked Grant.

"I'm a bassist for one, and I have some songs that kind of need a female vocalist," I said.

"We don't need a bassist; Grant's been doing that," Tim said.

"Yeah, but a bassist would be helpful," I said.

"You wrote some songs?" Dean said.

"Yeah, but like I said, some need a woman's voice." I sighed.

"More rock?" Asked Tim.

"Some of it else I would consider pop or R&B," I told them.

"Okay, cool," said Tim

"So auditions and speed quidditch tournaments," Grant sighed, "were going to be busy this year."

When we got to the castle, I dismounted the carriage and walked up to the front of the carriage and patted the thestral. I couldn't see it, but I could guess where it was My hand was greeted with a leathery feel as the creature's hide. My friends saw me patting the air and joined me; they each reached out and felt the creature.

"You weren't lying," said Tim, "invisible horses." He giggled at the oddity of that statement

Professor McGonagall pulled us aside before we entered the great hall. Neville was also there. "Ah, now your all here," she said. "Tomorrow after classes, you are to report to Madame Hooch's office to go over plans for the upcoming speed quidditch tournament."

"No problem," I said, and the others nodded.

"Now off you go before the first-years gets here."

The welcome feast was pleasant, the sorting went smoothly, and with Dumbledore giving his usual warning about the forbidden forest and spells in the halls, he also welcomed Gilderoy Lockhart as our new defence against the dark arts teacher. I understood why Dumbledor invited this man into the school; he was the perfect example of the pitfalls of fame.

We were soon walking down to the Slythrin common room, a new-year dorm. I thanked God that the welcome feast was uneventful because the other slythrins just ignored my friends and me. As we reached the common room entrance, I said the stupid password "Pureblood." The common room opened, and if I didn't hate Slythrin so much, I would brag about how cool our entrance was as I watched the stone snake create the magical arch. My friends and I did not linger in the common room and headed straight for the second-year dorms. We found that once again we were bunking together, which was a blessing, but we were still at the end of the hall. <services unseen> I cast the helpful housework spell to start unpacking my stuff; Grant and Tim did the same; soon our clothes and personal items were unpacked from our trunks, and I was pulling things out of my satchel. The big difference between first- and second-year dorms was that the room was a little bigger and we had a window into the black lake. I was placing my extracurricular books on the window shelf. "Hey guys, these books are here," I said, gesturing at what I was doing. "Communal library; feel free to read any of them." Among the collection of books were Curses and Counter Curses, Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed, Easy Spells to Fool Muggles, Runes Dictionary, Spellman's Syllabary, Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts, and One Minute Feast—it's Magic, just to name a few.

I kept my personal library in my satchel. but I did pull out my cassettes and a racked display for them. "I'm going to test my runes, so if everything goes correctly, you will be able to use your walkmans.so feel free to grab a cassette."

I pulled out my speaker and checked the drawings I had made on them. I used a special chalk used for rituals; it didn't smudge or rub off; you had to use a spell or enchanted cloth to get it off. The good thing was that it channelled magic, so when I used the inscribing spell, it would follow the chalk. <Scribere devotio> The spell followed the chalk, leaving golden runes in their place. I smiled; it looked successful. I plugged in the speakers into my Walkman and made sure they had batteries. Going over to my cassettes, I slid my finger down the racks and stopped tapping one, then pulling it out. *Click* of my Walkman as it shuts. "Okay, here we go," I whispered, then hit play. There was a crackle from the speakers, and Dr. Dre's voice came out of the speaker. • Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A. •

♫You are now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.♫

I smiled and bopped my head, I loved all music.