BANG

The door to the Great Hall opened, just as the last first year was sorted. I whipped around to see, and six people walked in. Three boys and three girls.

"Ah, here are our special guests!" Dumbledore exclaimed, standing up and opening his arms in welcome. "Students, we have started a bit of an exchange program with another school, Fairy Tail's School for the Gifted. The students we have staying with us this year are Lucy Heartfilia," I looked back to the people at the door, and a blond girl with a white flowy dress waved. I noticed a weird pink tattoo on her hand. "Natsu Dragneel" The boy with strange, pink spiky hair waved. He looked like he was going to throw up any second. He had the same tattoo on his upper arm, but in red. "Erza Scarlet" A girl with extremely long, scarlet hair (Fitting to her name) and wearing what looked like armour. She had the tattoo on her arm in dark blue. "Gray Fullbuster" A guy with Shaggy black hair nodded. He did not appear to have the same tattoo as the first three. "Jellal Fernandes" A guy with blue hair (which was weird enough) and a strange face tattoo around his right eye waved. "Juvia Lockser" A girl, also with blue hair, but it curled at the bottom, and wearing a winter coat looking dress (In summer? Was she crazy? Maybe all of them were). "And Mirajane- wait, where is the last exchange student?"

"Oh, she had some family problems. She'll be here in a week." The blonde girl said. Already I was forgetting their names!

Overall they were the strangest group of people I had ever seen. I looked at Harry and Ron, who shrugged, and then back at Dumbledore. "We will welcome these students with open arms, and they will be sorted in houses, as any Hogwarts student would. Please come forward, Lucy, Natsu, Erza, Gray, Jellal, Juvia and I don't see Mirajane." He said. The group obliged. As they got closer, I realized they were all about fourteen. My age. The redhead-Erza-seemed angry about something. Then I noticed that the raven haired boy had No clothes on and the girls are screaming. Erza whispered something in his ear, he looked down, and turned bright red.

When they got to the front, Professor Mcgonagall beckoned them forward one at a time, and placed the sorting hat on their heads. First, the pink-haired guy. Was his name Natsu? The hat hadn't been on his head for more than five seconds, when it yelled 'GRYFFINDOR!" He took it off, and sauntered down the aisle, and plunked down right across from me. The rest of the group also got sorted into their house, and before they were done, Natsu was already complaining, along with Ron, of course, about how hungry he was.

"Now, enough talk." Dumbledore announced, and clapped his hands. Immediately, food appeared on the golden plates, like it always did.

The exchange students' eyes widened. "Natsu, this is your dream come true." The blonde said, smirking, but Natsu wasn't listening. He was already stuffing his face, along with Ron.

"What are your names again?" I asked quickly.

"I'm Erza, this is Lucy, Natsu Juvia, Gray, and Jellal." The redhead answered, indicating her friends.

"Nice to meet you." Harry said, reaching his a forward to shake. "I'm Harry, this is Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville."

The other group nodded. Ron finally looked up from his food, and seemed to notice the exchange students for the first time. His eyes scanned the group, stopped at Jellal and his eyes widened.

"Where'dya get that tattoo?" He blurted. I elbowed him, but Jellal smirked.

"No it's okay. I've had this ever since I remember." He answered.

Harry nodded. "So, how's the school you guys are from?" He asked, making an awkward attempt at conversation.

"It's good. Juvia loved learning there." Juba sighed, clinging onto Gray, who has found his clothes again. Gray noticed what she was doing and scooted away from her, although there was something in his eyes that told me he didn't exactly mind the attention.

Ron frowned. "I thought you were Juvia."

"Yeah, she is." Natsu explained, finally taking a break from eating. "She talks about herself in third person."

Ron raised an eyebrow and subtly made cuckoo motions in Juvia's direction, and went back to eating.

"You know, you're lucky to get food at all tonight." Sir Nicholas (Otherwise known as Nearly Headless Nick, but I liked to respect his wishes and call him Sir Nicholas) said, coming up behind them, making all the new students jump. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" He exclaimed. "I haven't introduced myself! I'm Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington! You must be the new students! I must say, I am very proud you all made it into Gryffindor!"

"Nick is the ghost of Gryffindor tower." I explained, and Erza nodded, the others still too shocked.

"Why are we 'lucky to have food at all tonight' Nick?" Harry inquired.

"Peeves caused a bit of a ruckus, throwing pans everywhere, sent the houselves into a tizzy!" Nick explained. I was shocked.

"House elves are here?" I was horror-struck. "Here at Hogwarts?"

Nick seemed surprised at my reaction. "Of course! There's the largest amount in one dwelling in Britain, I believe-over a hundred, I hear." He said.

"I've never seen one!" I exclaimed.

"Well, that's the mark of a good servant, isn't it? You never see them!" He answered back.

"Do they get paid? Do they get holidays, and sick leave, and-and pension? " I asked.

Nick chuckled, so much, in fact that his head fell right off, and was hanging by only a stitch of skin, much to the horror of Juvia. "Sick leave and pensions?" He asked, in between gasping breaths. "They don't want sick leave and pensions!" I didn't believe him. I pushed my plate away.

"C'mon, Er-my-knee!" Ron said, his mouth packed with food. He swallowed. "You won't get them sick leave if you starve yourself!"

"Slave labour." I muttered, breathing shallowly. "That's what made this dinner."

The rest of the meal passed in silence, I refusing to eat anymore, while everyone else was trying very hard to make me do so. Natsu seemed as unaffected by the fact that slaves had made the food as Ron and Gray were, but Lucy and Erza were a little reluctant to eat, but eventually did. Juvia didn't seem to have noticed anything that was said in the little encounter, as she was still staring at the spot Sir Nicholas had been, and Jellal seemed to be in his own world, not taking in anything but food.

The rainstorm continued on, as hard as ever, until the door banged open once again. It revealed a figure hidden under a cloak with a terrible limp. The whole school fell silent, and lightning lit up the entire hall for a second. I gasped. He was a rather grisly man, mismatched eyes. One was small and black, and the other was round, electric blue, and whizzing around all over the place. The one time it focused on something, it was looking directly at us. He hobbled to the front of the Great Hall, in a stunned silence, before Dumbledore finally stood up.

"Please welcome Professor Alastor Moody! Students, Professor Moody will be filling in the Defence against the Dark Arts position." He announced.

"That's Mad-Eye!" Ron hissed. The exchange students looked at him with confused looks. "Mad-Eye Moody. Ex-Auror." He explained, but this only made them more confused, including Harry.

Meanwhile, the new professor was taking a swig from his flask, and then he stabbed a piece of meat with his hunting knife, sniffed it, and apparently deemed it worthy to eat-he devoured it.

"So what's an aura?" Natsu asked Ron seriously.

"A what?" Ron asked back.

"Natsu, I think you mean Auror." Ezra said.

"Dark wizard hunters." Neville explained. The others nodded.

"So, Why's this guy and ex-auror?" Juvia asked.

"They say he started getting a little kill-happy, suspecting everyone." Ginny implied in a low voice. It was the end of the meal, and the golden dishes had been cleared of food.

Dumbledore stood up, and everyone fell silent. "Now that we're fed and watered (Thanks to slaves, I thought), I have A few start of the term notices." He announced. "Mr Filch would like to remind students that no magic is allowed in the corridors, and the list of objects also against the rules grows ever longer and it is hanging outside Mr Filch's office if anyone wishes to consult it. First years should know the forest is forbidden to enter unless accompanied by a staff member or prefect. The inter-house quidditch championship is canceled this year-"

And he was cut off by an explosion of yells, insults and arguments. We all looked at each other, bewildered.

Dumbledore raised his hand, and silence fell. "However, we will be welcoming two schools, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons to our school to play in the Triwizard Tournament."

This time, there was an explosion of cheers, whistles and a "YOU'RE JOKING!" From one of the Weasley twins.

"No, I am not, Mr Weasley." Dumbledore stated, smiling benignly. "We have made a few changes to the rules. You must be seventeen years of age to enter, and because this is the first one in a long time, we will be accepting two applicants from each school." Rather than outrage at the idea that only 17 year olds could enter, there was shock that six people would be in it. "Now pip-pip! Off to bed you go!"

We all stood up, and raced towards the Gryffindor tower, with the exchange students following closely behind us. Half-way there, I looked back, and noticed, that once again, Gray had somehow lost his shirt, revealing the tattoo Erza, Natsu and Lucy had on his chest. "Um, Gray..." I said, kind of shocked.

He looked down, and seemed outraged "Where the hell is my shirt?" He screeched, and his friends all chuckled, meanwhile Juvia seemed unaffected, clutching Gray's arm.

By the time we made it up to the common room, Gray had managed to get fully dressed again.

"Password?" The Fat Lady asked, as we approached.

"Balderdash" announced one of the Weasleg twins, coming up behind us. The portrait swung open. "Asked a prefect downstairs."

We all climbed through the hole, into the common room, full of squashy armchairs and a blazing fire-more slave labour! I set my jaw and stormed upstairs. Within a few minutes, Ezra, Lucy, Juvia, and the other Gryffindor fourth year girls arrived too.

"Goodness, what's got your robes in a knot?" Lavender asked.

"She found out house elves cook food and clean here." Lucy informed her.

I changed into my pyjamas and closed the curtains of my four poster bed, and went to sleep, a dreamless sleep.

I was abruptly awakened by a hair-raising shriek, coming from a few feet to my right.

Yay a cliff hanger! Don't worry, nothing super bad will happen. Until next time, Vote, Comment, Subscribe

-Lindsay