Chapter 3

She was shown to her dorm and her room. The common room was too cozy to be real. The secret passage, the planters everywhere, the decadent underground feeling, it all felt so comforting, like the rooms were giving her a hug, and Ea loved it. She could get down with the House animal, the Badger; he totally lived well. 

She shivered at remembering what the Slytherin House animal was. Ea wouldn't be okay with an animal that was as cold and calculating as the snake. No, she much prefered the warm Badger or even the brave and loyal Lion of Gryffindor. She was mildly surprised that that boy with such a jovial warmth would be from Slytherin. He didn't seem evil or even remotely foul, like Shirley had earlier described. 

Determined to not let preconceived notions of anyone cloud her mind, she went straight to bed and hoped that this year would be much quieter or even just calmer than her last year. With that at the forefront of her mind, Ea curled into a small ball and made sure that the hot pan was securely on her bed before drifting off to sleep.

Ea walked quietly through a large garden. The blossoms from different trees danced through the air, scenting it with a gentle fragrance of sweet flowers. Light filtered lazily through the plants and enhanced the mysticality of this beautiful place.

Feeling a soft weight against her leg, Ea looked down and saw the most precious looking kitten rubbing on the length of her dress. Startled that she would wear a dress at all, she took a better glance at it. 

The end of her skirt was a gorgeous green, like that of an emerald, but spun by spiders. The beauty stretched up to her hips, and as the fabric flowed over them, it slowly faded into a rich brown that sharply accentuated her pale skin and her own brown hair. The dress stopped below her arms and held itself there, as if it had been spun onto her body.

Her wrists were adorned with delicate, silver serpentine bracelets that wound around them, and they both had deep jade eyes embedded into their wolf-like heads. She noted how warm they were against her skin. 

Reaching up, as she had noticed the lack of hair on her neck, Ea felt her hair, which was piled on top of her head with small little pins. She walked over to a small bird bath and looked into it. The pins made her hair look like it was covered in dew, the crystals at the end of the pins catching the warm rays of sun and projecting them like mirrors. 

Ea took hold of the pendant around her neck. It looked simple compared to the rest of her get-up. It was a small golden crystal that looked to have naturally shaped into a small bird. The bird seemed to have its head under its wing, as if sleeping. 

Sleeping.

The realization leaked into Ea like lead. Of course this wasn't real. She would never look like this outside of her dreams. Sighing, she moved away from the bath and looked around again. 

What she hadn't expected was a woman to be standing there when she turned around. She jumped a foot into the air and gasped.

"Who are you?" She asked quietly.

"My name means little, but if you so desire, little firebug, you may call me... Dusk." The woman was beautiful. She was also very tall, taller than Ea by several inches. 

"What are you doing here?"  She almost felt bad for the hostility in her voice, but she certainly did NOT dream this woman, which meant she invited herself.

"For now, I simply watch. You will have questions, and I am to provide answers." 

"You're off to a dreadful start." Ea said gloomily. Even her dreams wouldn't listen to her. 

"We have little time," Dusk said as she moved closer and grabbed Ea's hands firmly in her warm hands, and looked as if she was going to say something, but noticed the bracelet and frowned. 

"This is going to complicate things," she said cryptically. Staring intently at the jewelry, Dusk began a soft chant, and the pieces of metal slowly lost their heat. 

She released Ea's hands and moved to the birdbath, and closed her eyes. Upon opening them, she exhaled over the water, causing it to freeze over, then melt right back to its previous placidity.

Turning back to Ea, she sighed before saying, "When you enter this garden, you must dip your bracelets in this water. Do not forget," cutting herself off, she looked around, and her eyes grew large, and Ea felt a sinking feeling in her gut, as if an icicle had wormed its way into the pit of her stomach.

Dusk rushed back to her and grabbed her arms roughly, "You must wake up, Ea! You must wake up!" She shouted at her, and Ea felt herself being sucked away from the garden. 

She kept her eyes trained on Dusk though. With a final glance around, Dusk yelled up to her, "Beware of Dawn, Ea!" It looked as if she was saying more, but Ea couldn't hear it. She felt her world begin to shake violently and she whirled around ready to face her foe,

"Woah! Hey, watch it!" Her roommate, Cynthia, yelled and jumped out of the range of Ea's rogue fist that swung through the air.

Ea's lungs burned and she was covered in sweat. Her back itched and burned, and she had kicked off all of her blankets.

"I'm sorry, Cynthia. I had a bad dream." Was all she rasped out. Her roommate frowned but shrugged, her thick mane of hair falling over her shoulders now that it wasn’t in its normal native styling, and continued about her morning routine. 

Ea layed in bed for a few minutes, allowing the adrenaline to release her, before getting up herself. She dressed herself after a shower and drying her hair, witch style. Her other roommate, Lindsey, had used it on herself and Ea had easily remembered it.

Excited to receive her first schedule and begin the year off right, she ran through her morning ritual and flew down to the great hall. There were students already there, mostly older looking students, and breakfast was already in full swing.

Heading over to her table, Ea inhaled the intoxicating smells that swirled around the room. The mix of bacon, eggs and oranges almost made her dizzy in a wonderful way. She sat down and pulled a plate toward her and began piling it high with foodstuffs. 

As she began to inhale the food that sat so unaware in front of her, a familiar sound reached her ears. Looking up, she noticed many owls beginning to filter into the hall. Easily spotting Hiroto, Ea stood and held her arm out, pushing away the desire to cast her usual charms on him. He was so breathtaking when they performed, but she knew it was a bit too soon to show off those particular talents.

Hiroto landed easily and she set him on the table next to her. He began picking at her plate while she untied the message carrier on his leg. When it was detached, she noticed it felt a little more full than normal. Her curiosity piqued, Ea opened the extra-dimensional tube and tipped it. Her heart almost burst out of her chest. She had forgotten that she had applied for a Time-Turner! She opened the official looking letter, setting the one that looked to be from home aside, and read the warnings and terms of use. Signing the attached agreements, she re-tied the letter to Hiroto's leg, and stuffed the other into her bag, promising to reply to her parents later.

"No rush buddy, you eat what you want." She told her owl absently while she petted his feathers gently. A shadow fell over her plate and she was stunned when Hiroto spread his wings threateningly at whatever was behind her. Standing and turning fast, Ea came face to face with the grey eyed boy from the train.

He smiled at her, and her knees started to sink out from underneath her, but she didn't feel as if the breath was being sucked from her lungs. That was an improvement.

"Sorry about that," he began, his smooth Scottish lilt running over her spine, "Most animals have that reaction." Ea looked behind her and Hiroto was still trying to scare him away. 

"Hiroto! Adduc!" She grabbed a chunk of country fried steak and launched it into the air. Her owl took off, easily grabbing the meat and flying away from the hall. Shaking her head at her best friend, she turned to face the now puzzled looking boy.

"Did you just yell at your owl in Latin?" He asked skeptically.

"Of course. Our spells are mostly in Latin, so why not?" She asked.

"Why not indeed." He smirked at her, "I do believe, however, that since your friend was so rude, I deserve a name of such a fair Lass." 

Oh, he's good, Her brain said.

"Ea Dursley," her mouth said, but never one to be outdone, she added, "And if you were really interested in my name, you would have remembered it from the sorting." 

So suck on that! 

He laughed, "I do believe that sounded mighty familiar to a particular telling off you gave a certain Prefect while on a train," bowing comically, he introduced himself, "My name is Brogan MacLeod. Potions prodigy and Werewolf extraordinaire." 

Ea rolled her eyes at him, and was about to tell him how full of it he was, but a teacher passed between them and silently handed her her schedule. She looked over it, her excitement growing.

"Yes!" She shouted in jubilation, then, "No!" in shock as Brogan snatched her schedule from her. She tried to grab it back, but he was very nimble in keeping it from her. 

"What have we got here? Let's see... Your middle name is Madden? That's cute. Classes... Ahh! You have both Charms 3 and DADA 3 with Slytherin. I hope you're prepared. But hold on..." He paused in his reading, "It says here that you're only a second year. Why would they misprint your schedule?" 

While he was distracted, Ea snapped the paper away from him and shoved it into Bob. Stepping over the bench, she walked away quickly, leaving Brogan MacLeod staring after her with a bemused look on his face. 

Looking over the map that had accompanied her schedule, she made her way to her first class. Charms was one of the classes she was really looking forward to, regardless of who she shared the class with. 

Ea arrived at her class to see several of her upperclassmen and several more students that seemed to be from Slytherin. The Hufflepuffs looked to be in good spirits, chatting excitedly amongst themselves, while the Slytherins looked gloomy, almost depressed, although many of them hid small smiles at the warm house’s antics.

Ea inserted herself in her classmates' conversation, and quickly learned that this was normal behavior. Once they were in their class, the other House would liven up at the chance to show off or knock someone on their rear. Ea quickly decided that she would not accept that fate. Her attention shifted to the other students when she heard a small eruption of chatter behind her. 

Brogan MacLeod was very popular apparently. And he was in her Charms class.