Kari walked next to the girl as she showed him to the Ravenclaw dorm. Her name was Heather Breton. She was petite and every time she laughed, Kari felt warm inside. It was too hot in this castle, Kari thought, definitely too hot. They approached a red-feathered plumed suit of armour, Heather stopped as the suit sprang to life, drawing its sabre in a challenging stance.  “Ice clad Ocean!” She said with a smile. As the suit saluted and moved itself to one side. Heather went up to the torch bracket the suit of armour had been guarding and pulled it down, with a scraping of stone a section of the wall swivelled round revealing the common room.

 The Blue room was filled with people all eagerly exchanging stories of their summer holidays. As Heather and Kari entered, most of the room fell silent, then to whispers sounding like a wind through reeds.  “…Look at their eyes…”

“ I heard he’s from another country!”

“…. Sorting hat, how arrogant…”

“… Dyed hair, cannot be natural!”

A beaming boy with eccentrically curly hair stood up and walked towards them.

“Heather, darling! How were you hols?” His swaggering step led him up to heather, where he kissed on the cheek. Heather giggled.

“ salut Erik! My holidays were unbearable with out you!” She teased him back, in a heart broken voice before giggling again. Erik winked at Kari and in a loud pantomime whisper:

“ She dotes on me! Can't bear to be out of my sight like all the rest of the gatherers here!” His sweeping gesture incorporated the whole room. Which erupted in jeers, and swoons happy to go along with Erik’s tirade. Heather rolled her eyes at him. “ I am Erik De Chagney, I am a viscount and your new friend!” A couple of people laughed good-naturedly and Kari smiled bemused.

“What’s a viscount?” some one squeaked from the back of the room. Erik lost no time in bounding across the room and picking out the first year.

“A viscount is the brother of the count. An heir and a spare. That is the way it is in noble families!” A burst of laughter interrupted him. ”My brother the count is the heir, I being the second born the spare! So as you see I have my future planned out already! Whilst my brother, whom has no magical ability at all is lording it up, I get to be the evil wizard manipulating him by his side, so one day I may overthrow him!” More people laughed at Erik as he gave his speech in a theatrical manner jumping from sofa to sofa, landing next to Kari. He put his arm around kari’s shoulders and tapped him on the chest. “And I need you by my side to look evil and scare the court! What say you?” He grinned at Kari. Kari looked at the crazed individual unsure what to make of him. Erik held out his hand still grinning. Kari heard his fathers voice in his head “They don’t trust you, they are all scared, pick your companions wisely, for they will never be your friends…”

Erik’s voice penetrated his thoughts “come! Be my friend!” Kari looked at the hand and grasped it firmly.

“I am Kari Karisson.” The tension in the room that had been building since the offered hand had been blown away by the cheering of Heather and another blonde haired boy.

“Pleased to meet you Kari.” Erik said.

“I thought I was your right hand man!” came a drawling voice. The blonde haired one had suddenly stopped cheering and advanced on Erik and Kari. Erik’s grin broadened with his other arm he drew the boy nearer.

“Kari this is Laurie, my right hand man. Laurie this is Kari my left hand man!” Laurie also erupted in to a smile. As Erik with his arms around both of their shoulders patted them then let them go.  "Hmm Laurie and Kari, it doesn’t sound quite right, too similar. I’ll have to call one of you Pip!” Both Heather and Laurie rolled their eyes at Kari, Kari smiled, amused. The rest of the room broke back up into thier little groups. It was clear that their curiosity of the new boy was quashed for the time being. A small group remained around Erik. Heather told Kari that they were also in his year; Kari smiled and greeted them all.

“ So Kari, Do you have a familiar?” Erik chirped on after he had teased the rest of the group.

“Pardon?” Kari wrinkled his brow.

“A familiar! Bring me chaos!” Erik bellowed authorial, a girl who was introduced as Ivy scampered off. “ Chaos is my familiar. My companion. Supposedly Witches put their souls into their familiars to keep them safe. Chaos is the meanest familiar there is!” Ivy came forward carrying a small terrier with the same scruffy hair as his master had. The little dog growled once as he was put on the floor then rolled over as Heather rubbed his tummy. “ My truly ferocious familiar!” Erik said dryly. “So do you have a pet, a cat, a toad, an owl? No? Not at all? Well we shall have to do something about that!”

“Please Go up to your dormitories now and try to get some sleep. Erik take that hairball up with you!” A voice carried over the room.

“That’s Ryan Benson, The Ravenclaw prefect. He doesn’t respect the social hierarchy!” Erik said laughing as he and Kari walked past Ryan up to the dormitories. "Come on it's this way! The house elves will have bought up your things and laid out your new uniform."