The Second Potter

Paradise

Phoenix tried to stand but once again felt lightheaded. She sat back down and put a hand over her eyes. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a flicker of movement and took her hand away to see that the boy had outstretched his hand to her. She furrowed her eyebrows but took his hand as he led her out of the blank white room into what seemed to be Hogwarts.

Phoenix looked around and saw that the building was no longer destroyed; there was no debris, no holes in the walls, no paintings that had been rattled to the floor, just students milling around with their books in hand and smiles on their faces.

The students all smiled at her and bowed their heads as she passed. There was a loud clattering sound and she found herself squeezing the boys' hand tighter as a natural reflex. She turned around and one of the students had dropped their books. The other students around the little girl with curly brown hair clambered around her to help pick up the fallen books.

Every student here was in their robes, but none of them had their respective house colors. There was no green and silver for Slytherin, no red and gold for Gryffindor, no yellow and black for Hufflepuff, no blue and bronze for Ravenclaw. The robes were just plain black with the Hogwarts logo on the left breast pocket.

Phoenix remembered the boy next to her and looked to him for answers. He smiled and gestured to continue, "We're almost there. Come on now." Phoenix glanced back at the students helping the little girl once more before following after the boy whose hand she couldn't let go of.

The boy smiled back at her occasionally as the two of them ran down the halls of Hogwarts. She trailed behind him, a smile growing on her face. "What's your name," Phoenix called up to him.

"Cedric," He called back, panting, as they stopped in front of the doors of the Great Hall, "Cedric Diggory."

Phoenix' eyes widened as she realized who the boy was and how she knew him. "I saw you in my brother's dream! You died!" Phoenix whisper-yelled to him seeing as she didn't want to draw that much attention to herself.

Cedric smiled and looked down, "Yes."

"So does that mean..." She trailed off, knowing the truth about her fate.

"But hey," Cedric smiled and rubbed her triceps gently, "that's alright because you're safe now and out of danger. There's no more suffering here."

Phoenix sighed and nodded. A moment of silence passed before she spoke again, "So why are we at the Great Hall?"

Cedric grinned and opened the doors. "Someone wants to see you." Phoenix smiled at Cedric, there was something about his smile that made Phoenix feel like the happiest person in the world; it was so contagious. Cedric bowed, very princely, and followed Phoenix into the Great Hall.

Phoenix saw people crowded around the podium at the front of the Great Hall, they were talking and laughing about something. She inched closer to them, wondering who was in that group that would want to see her. There were students seated at the tables doing their work and looking happy about it. One of them stood up in a hurry and turned to rush out of the Great Hall.

The young girl accidentally bumped into Phoenix and her books fell. Phoenix turned and dropped to the floor to help pick up the books. "I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," The girl stammered. Her dark brown hair fell in her face as she grabbed her books.

Phoenix laughed, "It's no trouble, I should've seen you and moved out of the way. My apologies...Er...What's your name?"

The girl looked up and her face shocked Phoenix, "Alyssa?"