"Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College--Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky. Now the real training begins, and Violet's already wondering how she'll get through. It's not just that it's grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it's designed to stretch the riders' capacity for pain beyond endurance....

Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in an atmosphere of uncertainty, as the magical world begins to face the fact that the evil wizard Voldemort is alive and active once again.