“Watch out, Slytherins incoming,” Alexa said as she tossed the frisbee to Ginny. They had spread out a bit as they played and talked. Ginny caught the disk and looked behind her. Three boys in Slytherin robes were approaching, looking at the orange disk in Ginny’s hands in disgust. The one in the center was a blonde one and the two other boys were massive as they trailed behind him.

Ginny, Jack, and Alexa gathered together and other people on the great lawn turned to observe the brewing confrontation between the two groups.

Jack glanced at Alexa, “You know them?” He whispered, “From class?”

Alexa shook her head, “No, they must be one of the older years.”

The group of three Slytherins stopped a distant aways and stared at them.

“Enough of this muggle display,” The blonde haired boy said in a nasal tone, “I’ve had enough of tolerating you throwing that… disk around where I am forced to watch.”

“Why?” Alexa asked in confusion, “We were just tossing around a frisbee. What’s the problem?”

The boy sneered at Alexa and her red Gryffindor robes, “I wouldn’t expect a mudblood like you to understand, Alexa. Or you, Ravenclaw… Whoever you are.”

The boy said while gesturing at Jack.

The three of them looked at each other, knowing that they had been insulted. But not exactly what for.

The boy waited for their reaction, and seemed annoyed when they didn’t immediately react to his insults. He looked at Ginny, “And your whole family are blood traitors. Even in a few months, they should have taught you better than this.”

Ginny opened her mouth to angrily respond, when she was interrupted.

“Heya, Draco Malfoy!” Eric Potter’s voice called out from behind the blond haired boy. Draco turned along with his two friends, his face flashing with annoyance as he did so.

There Eric Potter stood, grinning wide along with Ron and a bushy haired brown haired girl that was standing stiffly and holding a textbook to her chest.

“Bullying the first years, are we?” Eric said as he came over, his friends slowly trailing behind and looking surprised by the boy’s movement, “Sounds fun. Has he mentioned that he’s a Malfoy yet?”

Eric looked expectantly at the three of them, and after a second Jack shook his head.

Eric’s eyes lit up as he turned to Draco, “Really?! You didn’t mention your family name even once in a whole minute? I’m so proud, you’ve learned so much since last year! What’d you hit them with? Mudblood, blood traitors, all that nonsense?”

Draco shifted uncomfortably and looked like he’d rather be anywhere else at the moment.

Eric nodded sagely as he noticed Draco’s discomfort.

“I see, I see. You’ve got to be more creative than that! I mean, how many times have you rolled out those old things? C’mon. It got stale after the first three or four times. Go on and insult them. Let it rip, show me your creativity!”

Draco shook his head, “Just piss off, Eric. What are you even doing here?”

“Just enjoying my day like everyone else. Why wouldn’t I be here? Just thought I’d spice things up a bit. Scared you can’t come up with anything? That’s the best the Malfoy family has for insults? How are you going to insult ministers and presidents to their faces one day if you can’t even take on some first years?”

Draco reluctantly turned back to them and raised his nose at them, “I have no need to trade insults with any of you. I was simply stating facts.”

“Excellent!” Eric cheered, “Simple, but effective. Alright, now their turn. You, muscles. You first.”

He pointed at Alexa who looked put on the spot. Draco went to turn away, but suddenly Eric had his wand out and was pointing it at Draco.

“C’mon. You got a turn. They sat and took it, didn’t they? Now it’s your turn. You have to sit and take it too. Doesn’t that sound fair?”

Draco reached for his robes, but Eric’s arm twitched and Draco flinched and stopped. Draco let his hand fall to his side and he and Eric turned to look at Alexa.

Alexa looked stumped as she stared at Draco.

“Need an assist?” Eric said, “Go straight for insulting the family. Usually effective, but it's supercritical on Draco in particular.”

Alexa looked at Draco, “You’re… Your family… How much money does your daddy give to your mom to make her stay?”

Draco reeled back shocked and Eric cheered, “Yes! Muscles, with a strike right to the heart! Good job, you’re a natural.”

Draco’s face became slightly red and he reached into his robes and pulled out his wand, but Eric quickly twirled his wand and cast a spell and Draco’s body stiffened and he was locked in place. Only his head could move, his eyes furious as he glared at Eric, but seeming unwilling to speak, his lips pressed so tight together that they were white.

The two large boys behind Draco went for their own wands, but Eric hit them with another two petrifying spells and froze them completely in place where they stood alongside Draco.

“Now, you next,” he said while pointing at Jack, “A hard act to follow, but do your best.”

“Uh… Uhm,” Jack stammered, “You’re… Your mom’s fat,” He said lamely.

Eric grinned wider, his lips extending to show his teeth as his eyes gleamed slightly. “Weak. But since Muscles did so well that it hardly even matters. Look at him nearly frothing at the mouth right now!”

Draco’s face was beet red and it looked like he was almost holding his breath as he struggled to not explode and yell at them, his eyes constantly darting towards Eric. Eric turned to Ginny and his smile extended wider, something that Ginny didn't know was possible.

“And for the finale,” He said, “What’s your creative insult, Ginny?” What do you have to say?”

Ginny realized that her hands were curled into fists and shaking slightly as she looked back at Eric. She looked into his eyes and looked for a hint of recognition, a clue that he knew about what really happened to her. About what happened to Harry. But there was nothing, he just seemed amused about what was happening. Happy with his new life he’d gotten by taking over Harry’s body.

‘Was this who Harry thought he’d become if he killed me?’ Ginny wondered as she looked at Eric’s far too wide smile.

“C’mon, don’t hesitate now,” Eric said, “Draco’s already so mad. Can you push him farther?”

Ginny looked at Draco for a moment and thought about it. Dad had mentioned Lucius Malfoy occasionally, they were enemies at work. Should she insult him? She didn’t want to give Eric the satisfaction. But she looked at Alexa and Jack. Even if she didn’t know what ‘mudblood’ meant, she could roughly guess based on what the Aurors had said about muggleborns while she was at the hospital. And from what her dad had explained afterwards. Just because none of them understood what it meant didn’t mean Draco hadn’t said it just because they were throwing around a frisbee… Ginny decided to do her worst. She didn’t have racist insults to use against Draco, but there was one detail that her Dad had told her that she could use.

“Your father was under the imperius curse during the war. Or that’s what he said. You think if someone did it again, they could force him to pretend to love you?”

Everyone froze, even Eric who was blinking in shock at Ginny’s calm statement.

“Whoa,” Eric said, “And with the finishing move, Ginny slams Draco’s family pride into the dirt! Ah, he’s frothing at the mouth now! Oh, better seal him up to let things stew.”

Eric waved his wand and said another spell and Draco froze head to toe, only his eyes able to move.

Eric walked up to the frozen Draco.

“There, all balanced now aren’t we?” Eric said to the frozen Draco, “Insult for insult on both sides. Let’s not escalate this, ay? If you attack them then it’ll be so difficult to think of what would be an even exchange. Right, guys?”

Eric glanced back at them, still with the unnaturally wide smile plastered over his face.

“Y-Yeah,” Jack stammered.

Eric turned back around to stare at Draco again.

“Right. You get it, Draco,” He said, “Petrification should wear off in an hour or so. Have fun being frozen until then. Or whenever a teacher decides to come along to punish me, I suppose. Bye!”

He turned and waved to Alexa, Eric, and Ginny, his eyes lingering on her for an extra moment.

“And you’re welcome, firsties! Eric Potter saves the day yet again! See ya around.”

His smile dropped until it was a more casual level with closed lips and then he walked off.

Ginny heard the bushy haired girl scolding Eric.

“What?” Eric said loudly, “It’s called a deterrent. I stopped him from bullying those first years, didn’t I? Seems to have worked out fine to me.”

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The bushy haired girl looked annoyed, but after glancing around to all the observers that had drifted towards them from across the Hogwarts lawn, huffed and went silent.

“Well then, friends,” Eric said, “What were we doing again? We got distracted. Hermione, you were saying something about divination class…?”

The three of them walked off, Ron giving Ginny an awkward wave before following after Eric and the girl. Ginny stared after them for a moment before shaking her head.

“Should we… tell someone?” Jack asked hesitantly as they all looked at the completely frozen forms of Draco and his two friends, only their eyes moving around to dart around and focus on whoever was speaking.

“Let’s get out of here,” Alexa said, sounding vaguely disturbed, “That’s so creepy how they’re just watching us as we’re frozen.”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Ginny agreed.

They all quickly retreated to the castle, the three frozen forms of the Slytherins left behind on the lawn.

“That guy was so creepy!” Alexa said when they were back inside the castle and walking through some of the abandoned hallways. They seemed to have collectively decided to randomly roam the castle without saying anything, just taking random turns to see where they would end up.

“Did you see his smile?” Alexa continued, “I saw him this morning. I can’t believe someone like that’s in Gryffindor.”

“I mean, he did technically help us,” Jack said cautiously, “Maybe it was an act to scare Draco?”

“I hope so…” Alexa said, “I’m just glad that it’s over. Your mom’s fat, Jack? That was the best you could think of?”

“I… I was under pressure! How did you come up with that insult on the spot, Alexa? You just had that at the ready!”

Alexa shrugged, “Ehhh. He reminded me a lot of those spoiled rich kids at my prep school. Lots of their moms only married their dads for money. One of my old friends said that to one of them at my old prep school and they got really mad. It was just the first thing I thought of. But what about you though, Ginny? That was crazy, you totally slammed Draco! That was a good insult based on how furious he looked after you said it.”

Ginny shifted uncomfortably, “I don’t want to be good at insulting people,” She muttered to herself.

“Oh, C’mon!” Alexa said, and Ginny startled as she realized that both of her friends had heard her.

“He had it coming, the jerk.” Alexa said, “That was total verbal self defense. We don’t have to feel bad about it. Where are we, again? I think I’m lost. Want to show me Ravenclaw tower? What’s your common room like?”

“Sure, let’s go,” Jack said, “You’ll have to solve a riddle though, Alexa,” he said, “So it might take you a while to get in.”

“Shut up, it can’t be that hard.”

Alexa paused, “Is it?”

Ginny shrugged, “We don’t know. It’s our first time back too,”

“Oh, right,” Alexa said, “We just have a normal password for the Gryffindor common room. I’ll have to whisper it to the painting so people don’t get mad at me for sharing it with you two when we go…”

They were very lost, and it took them over twenty minutes of wandering and asking random living paintings scattered around the castle for directions that they found themselves in front of the door to the Ravenclaw common room.

Jack stepped forward. And the Eagle turned its head towards him.

“Hmph. I always hate it the first couple weeks,” the Eagle grumbled, “Don’t know enough to give you a good challenge. Alright boy. You know any math?”

“I mean, some?” Jack said, “But is that really a riddle?”

“It’s a riddle to you if you can’t solve it,” the Eagle said, “You’d be surprised how many wizards don’t know even the basics. What’s nine times eight?”

“Seventy two?” Jack answered immediately, “Is that it?”

“Want a harder challenge, do you?” The eagle said, “Most of you children struggle even with something that easy.”

Ginny stepped forward next feeling rather nervous. Harry had learned some math, but Ginny wasn’t him. She could probably pull up the memories of how to do things, but she wouldn’t instinctively know how to do it. She knew what multiplication and division was at least, but actually doing it in her head might be hard.

“You look more nervous,” the Eagle observed, “Not strong in math? Let’s go to a logical puzzle then. Which came first, the Phoenix or the flame?”

Ginny blinked. What kind of question was that?

“Obviously the flame?” She said, unsure of what trick she was missing, “Or… Hmmmm.”

Ginny thought about it a bit more. In her magic sense, Fawkes was a big ball of flame. He didn’t even look all that bird shaped. Wait, was that his real form? A big ball of magical flame? Wow, this was actually a hard one. How would anyone else ever be able to figure it out?

“Neither,” She said after she figured it out, “The Phoenix and the flame are the same. So they both happened at the same time.”

The Eagle stared at her.

“Was I right?” She asked hopefully.

“Yes. But that is not the usual answer,” the Eagle admitted, “There are no single right answers to my riddles. Only well and poorly reasoned ones. What is your reasoning for your conclusion?”

“My familiar is a phoenix,” Ginny said, “And he feels like a big ball of flame. Not even a bird like a ball of flame, just fire. So it makes sense that they’d have to be born at the same time for Fawkes to still be himself.”

“Oh, that was you?” the Eagle said, “Can’t believe that old bird bonded with a human child of all things. When I bonded with Rowena, she was already powerful and worthy of our bond.”

“Aren’t you a statue?” Ginny asked, “What do you mean?”

“I was not always a statue,” the Eagle said, “When I was bonded to Rowena Ravenclaw, I was a thunderbird. In one of our battles after sacrificing myself to save her life by intercepting a hostile spell sent towards Rowena, I lay there dying at her feet. Instead of letting me die, she preserved my mind in this statue to watch over her precious Hogwarts in the future. Even after her death. Now I spend most of my time trying to think of new riddles that you little cheaters don’t already have the answers to. Just when I come up with a good one, someone copies the answer and I can’t use it again for decades at least…”

“You were really the familiar of Rowena Ravenclaw?” Jack asked the Eagle statue in wonder. The Eagle turned its head to him, “Yes. I don’t spread it around, I just thought the one that Fawkes ended up bonding to should know. I can tell you all the embarrassing stories that Fawkes wouldn’t want to tell you.”

“You knew him? All the way back when Hogwarts was founded?” Ginny asked.

“Oh, yes,” the Eagle said, “He had his own territory over in Switzerland, as it’s called now, back then. The two of us would fight over cattle sometimes if Rowena ever went too close to there while the four founders were traveling. I was quite the fighter in my prime, caused Fawkes to reincarnate nearly a dozen times when he tried to fight me off from my prize!”

“Reincarnate?” Alexa asked, “What do you mean?”

“Oh, yes, yes. The Gryffindor. Well, to your question… Phoenixes don’t ever truly die unless all of their flames are completely snuffed.” The Eagle said, “I defeated him enough that he was reduced to a single wisp of flame and forced to flee. After a while he nurtured his flame to grow back enough that he was able to rebuild his physical Phoenix form like he has now. Not truly reincarnation, but it ends up looking that way to most. Hoh hoh, I’ve heard that he reverts himself to a chick every couple years now so he’ll look cuter and get more food from the humans. Now over the centuries they even think that he has to do it every time and it's not just a trick so they’ll feed him more! Bet he wouldn’t tell you that. It’s been a rather successful con, if I do say. But don’t let him trick you if he tries to pull it on you.”

“Thanks, Eagle,” Ginny said, “Do you have a name?”

“I was known as Amvatroz when I was a thunderbird. But most students simply call me Eagle as you just did.”

“Amva-traaz?”

“Amvatroz”

“Am-va-troooz?”

“Amvatroz”

“Amvatroz?”

“Yes, that’s it. Say it one more time.”

“Amvatroz.”

“Good.”

“Thanks for telling me, Am-Amvatroz. I probably would have fallen for it. Fawkes is rather cute even as an adult bird. Can we go in now?”

“You’ve still got one more to answer their riddle,” Amvatroz said, “Come forward, Gryffindor.”

Alexa stepped forward and Ginny walked to the side to join Jack.

“Your riddle is…” Amvatroz said, “I have three apples and three oranges. I eat one apple and two oranges. How many apples and oranges are left after I am done eating?”

Alexa looked vaguely insulted, “Two apples and one orange. What the heck was that? That was baby stuff!”

“Gryffindors are not exactly known for their brains,” Amvatroz said drily, “Thought I’d start with something more on your level. Your answer is correct. Congratulations on all three of you for making it through your first day of classes uninjured.”

Before anyone could respond to that, there was a rumble and the wall behind Amvatroz’s statue swung outwards revealing the Ravenclaw common room behind it. There were a few people milling about inside, who looked up at the sound of the opening door only to look away again as they saw Ginny and Jack leading the way inside and Alexa trailed behind them.

They walked inside and Alexa looked around with interest as the door shut behind them.

“This place is nice,” Alexa said, “The little reading nooks and little corners look good. The Gryffindor common room is much more open. Although we have a fireplace, which seems like it’ll be good to sit around once we start getting into winter.”

As Alexa spoke, the other people in the room looked up and did a double take when they saw Alexa’s red Gryffindor robes.

“Hey,” An unpleasantly familiar voice said, “What are you doing bringing a Gryffindor in here, Weasley?”

Ginny looked at Preston who was staring at them with an annoyed expression on his face.

“Are we not supposed to?” Ginny asked, “Olivia didn’t say anything like that last night.”

“Er, well. Technically you’re allowed to,” Preston said, “But you shouldn’t. What if she tells the others how to get in?”

“Should she not be able to?” Jack asked in confusion, “Amvatroz gave her a pretty easy riddle to solve so she could come in. He didn’t seem to mind too much.”

“Who?” Preston asked.

“The Eagle that gives the riddles,” Ginny said, “Amvatroz.”

“Never heard it called that before…” Preston said, “Eagle let her in? Well…”

“Oy! You causing trouble again, Preston?” Olivia’s voice suddenly sounded from the girl’s dorm corridor. The girl stepped out, looking annoyed. “I was enjoying a good book when I heard your racket down here again. This better be worth it.”

“Ginny Weasley brought her Gryffindor friend into our common room!” Preston said, “That shouldn’t be allowed!”

Olivia looked at the trio, “Did Eagle give you all a riddle?”

They nodded and Olivia looked back at Preston.

“What’s the problem then? Eagle wouldn’t let anyone with bad intentions in. Little Gryffindor can look around as much as she likes so long as she’s not bothering people. Are you bothered Preston?”

Preston looked like he was going to protest, then sat back down, “No, Olivia.”

“That’s Prefect Olivia to you,” the girl said before pulling out her wand and twirling it without saying any words.

Ginny watched a spell shoot out and hit Preston on the forehead and his head snapped back like he’d been flicked hard on the forehead.

He rubbed the spot where the spell hit where the faintest outline of a bruise was already beginning to form.

“Ow,” He said sullenly.

“Just relax already, Preston,” Olivia said, “It’s only the first day, I’m gonna be pissed if I’ve got to waste my time dealing with all of your messes like last year.”

“Yes, Olivia…”

Olivia turned to them, “Anyway, I’m Olivia, Ravenclaw’s prefect. And you are…?”

“Alexa! I’m Alexa.”

“Alexa. Nice to meet you. Now, I’ve got a good book to get back to. Don’t mind Preston, Ravenclaw pride and all that. Just don’t hex anyone in here and you’ll be alright with me.”

With that Olivia turned around and walked back into the girls corridor to presumably return to her room.

“I can barely even cast a levitation spell…” Alexa said as Olivia rounded the corner and disappeared. The Ravenclaws observing the drama turned back to their own conversations and mostly ignored Alexa, Ginny, and Jack. Even Preston surprisingly.

“Anyway, this is the Ravenclaw common room,” Jack said, “What were you saying about the differences with the Gryffindor common room?”

“Oh yeah, we’ve got a fireplace…” Alexa began and they started discussing the differences. Over time, several of the surrounding Ravenclaws drifted in and started asking Alexa questions of their own. It seems that none of them had seen the Gryffindor common room themselves. People going to other houses' common rooms was pretty rare it seemed.