"Oh, that's easy." Ginny smiled, licking a lollipop she'd brought with her. "My two oldest brothers, Bill and Charlie? They've graduated now so you won't meet them at school, but Bill was Head Boy and both were prefects. They told me all sorts of things about how the school works, and they should know. Anyway, Percy had to write a letter once we'd started saying we were all on the train, including a list of the first years. Charlie says that Professor McGonagall, who reads the names in, should go get the master copy written by a magic pen of who is really expected, but she hasn't done that in dozens of years. She just reads off the list the Prefects send because it's easier than climbing twenty sets of stairs. So I caught my brother's owl before it left and added my name to the list. Easy really. It knows that if it sees me waving it can expect a treat, and it flew right over to the window I was hanging out just as Percy released it."
"Wow." Harry once again grew impressed.
Kodachi loftily smirked with the young girl. "But Ginny dear, how do the teachers know if a student is missing? Surely this McGonagall should do some checking. After all, is that not the point of the prefects sending in a list? To perform a count, or some other safeguard?"
Ginny removed her sucker with an audible 'pop', clearing her mouth to speak. "Oh she just casts a charm for that. The owl drops her the prefects' list and she says a spell over it. Any new students who should be on the list but aren't are written in the air in red, that way they can send out search parties or whatever to find out how they got missing. Older students are expected to be able to notify the school if something goes wrong."
"But the charm doesn't tell if there are too many students, does it?" Harry was catching on. "An ordinary faker wouldn't know how to put his name on that list, but when McGonagall calls attendance you'd be on it. After all, you aren't a missing student, so her spell wouldn't say a thing, would it?"
"That's what Bill and Charlie said." Ginny popped the lollipop back into her mouth and resumed sucking, trying to hide a smile of glee. "The prefects get their own copy of who should be on the train, and they do the checking for that. An extra student would be left off the first list and they'd send a special notice of any person who shouldn't be attending. But that hasn't happened in ages anyway. So no one is looking for it."
The trio shared a grin.
With a sudden blur of motion Hermione barged into the compartment, planting herself down in the spare seat. "Can you really talk to snakes?"
"No. Her snake just talks people-talk." Harry corrected. "Couldn't you hear?"
The Granger girl cocked her head curiously. "What do you mean?"
Harry just shrugged. "I heard her say normal words to it, and it spoke back just the same as you or I could have. Didn't you hear the same?"
Hermione regarded him strangely. "But all I heard were hisses. I was wondering, because a person who can talk to snakes is called a Parselmouth, I just looked it up, and it's among the rarest of all magical gifts. Supposedly only three known Parselmouths have ever attended Hogwarts in all of it's long history, and one of those was a Founder."
Ginny was shaking her head. "Magical gifts travel in family bloodlines, and all Parselmouths were dark wizards. Harry couldn't be related to any of them. It's just wrong."
"Harry?" Hermione asked, confused by the turn of conversation. She'd been asking about this Kodachi girl talking to her boa.
"Oh, you haven't met?" Ginny sat up straighter in her chair. "This is Harry Potter, and his sister Hecate Kodachi Potter. I got the middle name right, didn't I?" Ginny turned to ask. "It's ever so hard to say."
Hermione's eyes grew wide and she sparkled. "Harry Potter? I read about you! You're in..." The litany of books she was about to recite got cut off by Ron's reappearance in the door.
The youngest Weasely boy gave a look at the compartment full of girls, then Harry, and plainly his mind was on the last things he'd heard from this compartment before he'd left. "Blimey, Harry! You don't mean to say you changed clothes with all those girls? A sister I can sortuv understand, but how did you get the others in on it?"
He gave a wondering look to his friend of short acquaintance. "You sure work fast.""
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(Posted Thu, 03 Mar 2005 13:27)
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