An American Hogwarts III

"What was Quidditch like at Huntshrow? Did you play at all? Do you still play?" Daphne asked, while her eyes were glowing.

I inhaled a deep breath and let out a sigh that ruined the enthusiasm of the question. I rubbed my chin, and leaned my head against the window of the train cabin, gazing down the empty aisle. The three of them shared a rapid exchange of glances with pursed lips and apologetic eyes.

"Sorry I asked, I didn't mean to offend or anything," Daphne said in a low voice, just a step above a whisper. She was looking down at her shoes.

"You know," I croaked. "I'm really sorry, it's just hard for me to talk about how things were back where I'm from. Please, you did nothing wrong. Neither of you have. If I feel up to talking about it, you three will be the first to hear my story and all about Huntshrow, I promise."

All three of them nodded at the same time in silence. Both Edna and Daphne looked off to the side of the cabin but Bran stole a glance at me and said, "Not to pressure you, or anything, or make it seem like I want to trade information, but if you want to ask us anything about Hogwarts we would be happy to answer. It must be hard moving to a new school, heck moving to a new country! I'm sure you're probably wondering about a few things,"

I chortled but it mostly sounded like an exhale. "You know, I do have some questions. The first one I have is, what can you tell me about Zita Wattle? Anything and everything."

The trio grinned across their faces and they squeezed the edge of the seats with their hands.

"Oh my gosh! Zita Wattle is the best!" Edna shouted.

"C'mon, Edna, looking for better information than that," Daphne groaned. "Well, if you don't know, Zita is the headmaster at Hogwarts. She has been the past 15 years, she's currently 120 years old, former Gryffindor back when she was a kid, used to be good friends with Dumbledore, and came out of retirement to be an Auror when Neo Death Eaters started popping up. She single handedly stopped the new movement, or at least, she was given a lot of credit for it, and now we're lucky to have her as headmaster! She gets to know all of the students, she memorizes all their names and everything. You can always see her somewhere on the castle grounds or in a classroom or still even flying around her broom over the weekend to practicing quidditch with those who aren't as good. I've never heard her raise her voice, but she's one of those people where she's so nice and kind, that you're almost afraid of what she would look like angry."

"She doesn't get angry," Bran dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"Are you serious? Do you not remember what happened last year with Leon?"

"Wait, Leon, I think that's the name of one of the boys that was picking on me earlier when I tried finding somewhere to sit on the train," I said.

Daphne eye rolled and nodded. "Doesn't surprise me. He's this jerk from Slytherin. He really needs to be careful this year. If he has one more slip up, even if it's minor, he could get expelled."

"Did something happen?" I asked.

They all stared at each other wide eyed and motionless.

"Yes, and that's when Zita got angry for the first time any of us students have ever seen," Daphne said.

"She didn't get angry, she didn't even yell."

"Bran, just because she didn't yell doesn't mean she wasn't mad," Edna tightened her brow.

"What happened?" I interjected, they all looked at me and then glanced at each other.

"Hold on a second," Daphne reached into her robes and drew out a black cube that shined in the light like a crystal.

"Daphne! Put that away!" Edna whispered.

"Why?"

"We can't just go inside your portable pensieve while we're sitting on the train," Bran said in a low voice.

"Quick, let me just show Rollie, the two of you can stand watch, you were there, so you don't need to see it again," Daphne said, silence filled the cabin for a few moments.

"Fine," Bran and Edna both gruffed at the same time.

Daphne and Bran swapped seats, clambering over each other and trying not to entangle their robes. As soon as Daphne sat down next to me, I felt my heart skip a beat, while blood rushed to my chest, and my lips tightened. A scent of flowers greeted me that was so pleasant I got goosebumps. She was sitting so close our knees had grazed each other.

"Have you used a pensieve before?" Daphne whispered.

I shook my head and she placed it in my hands.

"That's okay, they're usually much larger," she slid out her wand from her robes and caressed her head with the point until a white, wispy, sphere emerged and she stored it inside the portable pensieve. "Just lean your head forward and I'll be right there."

I dipped my head down towards the pensieve to see what was happening, it was emitting a liquid fog but as I got closer everything around me started to disappear, distort, and stretch out of reach. My senses felt overloaded until I was numb. The floor shifted in front of me from the train carpet to cobblestone. Yanking my head up I inhaled and exhaled to try and gather my mind together. A group of students who were all dressed in robes were bunched up by the windows, I was sitting on a bench in the hall of a castle.

"Hey," Daphne said to my left.

I spun towards her breathing in an out as if I just ran a mile.

"It's okay. We are just in my memory that's all, Bran and Edna are on watch for us back on the train. This will only take a second and we'll be right back. I just wanted to show you what Zita is like when she's not happy."