A/N: Okay, so this is basically my old version of Survivor, but totally redone. I guess you could look at that as like a prequel to this story. I know you were probably expecting an update on the old one, but i realized that starting in the first year was inpractical and would have taken forever to get to the actual plot. Some things might change from the original story, but you can expect it to be pretty much the same. And i will have updates out faster because restarting this in a different way has definitely shown me that this story CAN go somewhere, just not from where it was in the other version.
Anyway, let me know if you like this better, and I will definitely continue with it. I have a very good idea of what i want to do :)
Enjoy!
"Mrs. Potter!" The shrill voice of Professor McGonagall spliced through my day dreaming, causing me to snap up and look towards the front of the class.
"Yes Ma'am?" I questioned steadily, my expression neutral.
"I asked you, five times- what is the incantation for vanishing an object?" She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at me through her square spectacles.
"Evanesco, Professor." I replied, starring steadily into her disapproving eyes.
"Correct." She nodded stiffly and turned her back on the class again to write something on the black board about vanishing spells.
"What was that all about?" I heard a whisper to my left and glared at the person next to me.
"I just spaced out for a second, Draco." I kept my voice low, not wanting to give McGonagall another reason to yell at me today. She'd probably give me another detention. She wasn't spare with those, especially with me.
Draco clicked his tongue in fake disappointment. "You're just so determined to prove everyone right, aren't you Seph?"
"What is that supposed to mean?" My voice raised the slightest and my eyes flickered quickly to the front to make sure McGonagall hadn't heard. She was still droning on about the vanishing spell, back turned to the class.
"They all wanted you to be their hero," he replied, making it sound like the most obvious observation ever. "And you're turning into the next candidate."
"Candidate for what?" I hissed, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"The next Dark Lord." He smirked and leaned away just as McGonagall turned back around.
I scowled to myself and picked up my quill, swiftly jotting down all of the notes she had written down. What did Draco Malfoy know? These people never wanted anything from me, they've never expected anything. Why should I do anything for them? Especially people like McGonagall. She hated me on principal, with no specific reason other than me being in Slytherin and her being the head of Gryffindor. Even so, I hardly ever did a thing wrong, except when Draco drug me a long for some elaborate scheme. I got excellent marks in her class, which she seemed to detest, and I swear she switched all the questions on my tests to more advanced ones to try and fail me. And people wonder why I favor Severus. At least he treats me like a respectable person and not some Death Eater in training.
I realized I had been spacing out again as the bell rang, signaling the end of class. I gathered my books and walked out with Draco, trying to get my mind off of McGonagall.
"I'm starving!" Draco exclaimed, nearly running down the stairs.
"Well then you're lucky it's lunch time." I stated, smiling slightly at my best friend as he shoved a first year out of the way and then was immediately shoved back by a seventh year. I caught him by the shoulder as he sneered at the older teen.
"I suppose so," he replied. "But that also means we have Defense Against the Dark Arts soon."
My brows furrowed in confusion. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Don't tell me you've already forgotten, Seph!" He rolled his eyes and punched me lightly in the shoulder. "We've got that new, sickly looking teacher, what's his name?" He looked towards the ceiling in thought.
The first night back at the castle came back to me and I remembered Dumbledore's speech. "Lupin. Remus Lupin." I supplied and he nodded.
"Yeah, that's the one," we wove expertly around the large crowd of students as we made our way to the Great Hall. "He doesn't seem like much fun. And my dad told me he's a blood traitor." He pulled a face of disgust, but I had known him long enough to determine that it wasn't quite genuine. I'm sure he could tell my distaste for 'mudbloods' was authentic either, but that was one of those things that you didn't speak about. If you knew, you should never tell. It was the most secret of our secrets, not even spoken between us.
"Well, I'm sure he'll be horrible." I declared, smiling playfully at Draco as he laughed.
"Yes, for sure. And if he's not, we'll make him so." I laughed happily as we stepped into the Great Hall and made our way to the Slytherin table on the far right. I scanned the teacher's table, seeing Lupin sitting in Lockhart's old spot, looking pale and sickly. If anything, he had to be better than that egotistical loon. Lockhart had been fired after I had researched some of his works, curious about all of his 'accomplishments', and finding something about all of the elaborate tales mentioned to be off. Especially after he set those pixies on us and ran away, not even able to control them. Anyway, some of the timelines in his books didn't match up quite right and I took the matter to Severus, who managed to slip him a Veritiserum. Needless to say, he spilled the truth about how he stole the stories from much braver witches and wizards and was immediately let off, much to the disappointment of some of the sillier girls here.
"Ahh, turkey!" Draco's eyes lit up at the sight of a turkey sandwich among the food at our table and I rolled my eyes.
I pulled out a long roll of parchment as we sat down and extracted a quill from behind my ear.
"You're not going to do homework now are you?" Draco whined at the sight of my supplies. "It's only the first day of classes!"
"And yet we already have homework. I don't want to get behind like you, Draco." I declared as I dipped my quill in my special red ink that corrected any mistakes automatically.
"You are such a nerd." He stated as he ate nearly half his sandwich in one bite.
"You're just a slacker," I accused, scratching something down as I grabbed for a roll from the nearest basket. "And for heavens sake, think of your manners," I snapped, looking pointedly at his full mouth. "What would Narcissa say?"
"Who cares? My mother doesn't get to tell me what to do at school." He replied, taking another huge bite for emphasis. "Besides, you know she'd be telling you not to work so hard."
I smiled to myself and rolled up my half-written paper. "You're right, no more homework for now."
"Let's not do any homework at all today," Draco proposed. "And after classes we'll just go out by the lake."
"A day of skipping homework?" I looked at him with fake shock.
"Yeah, why not?" He implored. "It is just the first day. And half the stuff we've gotten isn't due for two days."
I thought about it for a second before nodding. "Alright, sounds good to me."
"I knew you'd agree." Draco smiled and I didn't doubt him. He tends to get the way I think better than I do. He must have figured that I wasn't really in the mood for homework anyways.
"Hey," Draco started, suddenly becoming very interested in his late bite of sandwich. "Did you get your aunt and uncle to sign that Hogsmead permission slip?"
"Yeah, no problem." I replied, laughing at his shocked expression.
"Seriously? When you owled me it sounded like there was no way." He stated, letting his bit of sandwich drop onto his plate, forgotten.
"Well, I'm a Slytherin," I declared, looking proud. "And if anything I pride myself on manipulation."
He smirked crookedly at me and punched me in the shoulder. "And that's why you're my best friend."
People were beginning to trickle out of the Hall, so I gathered my books from the table and motioned for Draco to do the same before standing up.
"Off to DADA." I smirked, grabbing an apple off the table before heading out of the Hall and up the grand staircase.
"Oh, joy." Draco rolled his eyes. I knew he was just kidding around; defense against the dark arts was actually one of his favorite classes. I was pretty sure he was more interested against the dark arts part, but so was I. I just hoped they had managed to find someone who wasn't completely off their rocker for the job this time.
"Hey, do you know when Quidditch tryouts are yet?" I inquired casually as we made our way up our third flight of stairs.
"No, I'll have to talk to the new captain- I think it's Rambini," he thought to himself as I munched on my apple. "Why, you thinkin' about trying out this year?" He suddenly asked, looking hopeful.
"Probably not," I replied, watching his optimistic expression fade. "I just wanted to make sure I was there to cheer you on."
Draco scoffed. "More like cheer Blaise on, right?" He glared at nothing in particular as we made our way down a long, dimly lit hall.
I burst a short shout of laughter, making it echo down the corridor. "Blaise Zabini?" I clarified, trying hard to control myself from laughing hysterically.
"Yes, Blaise Zabini," Draco replied stiffly, not looking amused. "He has quite the thing for you, you know?"
"No," I burst out, snickering loudly. "No I didn't know that."
"Stop laughing like a fool." He suddenly demanded, stopping dead in the hall.
"Why?" I questioned, but stopped nonetheless.
"Because there is no way you didn't know that he likes you," Draco smiled himself now. "He practically throws himself on you whenever he can. You are the thickest person I have ever met, Seph!" He declared, laughing loudly. He began walking again and I followed.
"I am not." I replied, but it fell on deaf ears as he continued laughing to himself. Was it true that Blaise liked me? I guess I just never really paid attention to that kind of thing like Pansy did. She was always trying to analyze every little thing a guy said to her, like they talk in code or something. But Draco was a hypocrite for calling me thick, since he has yet to realize that Pansy has liked him since first year. She told me in confidence though, and I didn't plan on putting myself on Pansy's bad side anytime soon, so I didn't bring it up.
"Here we are." Draco mumbled to himself after he'd stopped laughing and we stopped in front of a large, wooden door.
"Well, go on then." I motioned for him to open the door and he stepped in ahead of me, holding the door.
We seemed to be pretty early- there were only about five other students in the class so far. Three were Gryffindors, sitting on the right side and the other two were Slytherins, sitting as far left from them as they could. Draco and I sat at a table in front of the two Slytherins, at the front of the class.
"Hello!" A cheerful voice called and I looked up to see Professor Lupin stepping out from the door that led to his office. He looked even paler and shabbier up close, with patched up robes on and a distinctly second-hand briefcase. I hoped he wouldn't keel over before the end of the year. "I'm-"
"Professor Lupin." I supplied for him and his eyes shot to me, widening almost comically for a moment before he smiled, slightly nervously.
"You are correct, Mrs.?" He asked and I could feel the strange looks he was getting from the few students in the classroom, even the few more that were starting to walk in.
"Uh, Potter, Sir," I replied, looking at him somewhat incredulously. "Persephone Potter."
"Ah, right," he blushed slightly as he stood in front of his black board. "You look so…" He mumbled to himself, so quietly that I almost didn't hear over the rapid crescendo of student's voices as they entered the room.
"Weird." I whispered to myself. Draco glanced over at me.
"What?" He asked, pulling out his new DADA book. I did the same as I shook my head.
"Nothing." Draco shrugged and turned his attention back to the Professor as everyone was finally in the class and seated.
"Everyone can go ahead and put their textbooks away, we won't be using them today." Lupin smiled at the elated looks on our faces.
I closed my book and looked at Draco with amusement. He shook his head back, smiling slightly. Lupin took us down to a room where he had some sort of animal caged in some sort of a tank. He talked about the creature all hour as it made faces at us and beat uselessly against the glass encasing it. He also taught us an incantation to use if we even encounter a creature like it. All in all, it was one of the best classes I've ever had in my three years at Hogwarts.
As the end of class was drawing near, Lupin led us back up to his classroom so we could gather our books. Draco and I were silent as the bell rang and we left the classroom with a group of students. It wasn't until we had made it to one of our secret passageways to Charms that we started to talk.
"Well, that was…" Draco started, looking reluctant to say anything until I had spoken first.
"Incredibly enjoyable?" I supplied, smiling cautiously at him. We both understood how this sort of thing worked. Lupin was a person that neither of us should like, considering his social status as a blood traitor. We had both basically broken an unwritten rule of the Slytherin house, and, though I hate to admit it, I felt kind of bad. I knew Draco did too; his face was riddled with worry and anxiety.
I took a deep breathe before continuing. "But did you see his clothes? It looks like he could barely afford to hire Madam Malkin to tailor his robes."
Draco smiled, though it wasn't a true one. "Well obviously he can't. Didn't you see all the homemade stitching in them? That was definitely his own handiwork."
And that's the way it was. Even in private we couldn't be honest with the rest of the world, even if we were really being honest with each other. This made it easier, though, to poke fun of the man. We both knew what the other truly thought, so it wasn't really vindictive. Just playing the role.
Soon we were in charms class, listening to Flitwick's squeaky voice tell us all about what we would be covering this year. Charms had always been my easiest subject, so I didn't listen too much of what the Professor had to say. I instead spent the hour making a paper airplane fly with Draco and seeing who would mess up and let it hit the ground first.
The hour after Draco and I didn't have class together. He had Arithmancy while I had Astrology- all the way up in the North tower. I wasn't entirely pleased to discover that I there were no Slytherins in this class that I was friends with. There actually wasn't many Slytherins in the class at all- mostly Gryffindors. I recognized a few of the Gryffindors, but I didn't know any of their names. I had no idea where to sit, and ended up behind a frizzy haired Gryffindor girl and red-headed boy. This was definitely going to be my least favorite class of the year, since I'd probably spend it virtually alone with no one to talk to. Or maybe that would be a good thing since I wouldn't have Draco whispering in my ear, distracting me from my work.
Classes were over for the day after a long, boring class of reviewing some of what we did last year and what we would be covering the first half of this year. I almost fell asleep halfway through, but the Professor made sure to call me out, and that kept me awake the rest of the hour.
I met Draco in the Great Hall, sitting in our usual spot at the Slytherin table.
"You look beat." Draco observed as I sat down, grabbing some chicken and a piece of bread.
"I am. Astrology class is going to be awful this year." I explained as he poured me a goblet of pumpkin juice.
"Why's that?" He inquired, looking interestedly at me. One thing I admired about Draco- he would really listen to you when he sensed that you needed it.
"I don't know anyone in the class, and it's mainly Gryffindors." I rested my face in my palm as I took a bite of my chicken and swallowed it down with my pumpkin juice.
"Damned Gryffindors." Draco glared across the room at their table and I chuckled a little.
"How was Arithmancy?" I asked, sitting up a bit and stabbing my food with my fork.
"Uneventful." He shrugged, and then looked up at me. "Probably about the same as your Astrology class. Though Crabbe and Goyle are in it."
"Well then, at least you have some friends." I pointed out, chewing my food slowly.
"Yeah, but they're not exactly the friends I'd choose to have." He explained, looking pointedly at me.
I laughed loudly and he looked confusedly at me. "We need more friends." I stated and he cracked a smile.
"Nah," he replied. "If I needed more friends, I'd have them. I think we're fine the way we are."
"People probably think we're very anti-social, stuck up people." I glanced around our table to find that not many people were still left there. I must have showed up later than I thought for dinner.
"No," Draco shook his head, disagreeing. "We're also friends with Pansy and Milicent and Blaise." He shot me a sideways glance at the last name, but I ignored it.
"Yeah, they're all okay." I conceded.
"See?" He crossed his arms and gave me an 'I told you so' look.
"Alright, whatever." I replied, rolling my eyes. "Are you done?" I nodded towards his plate.
"Yeah. Let's go to the lake." We both got up and made our way outside, past our four large hourglasses that kept track of house points. It was plain that Gryffindor was already in the lead, but we weren't far behind.
Draco led me down to the lake side, and we sat cross-legged on the grass. I was afraid that Filch would come out soon and yell at us for being on the grounds past curfew, but Draco pointed out that it couldn't be much past seven and we weren't supposed to be in our dorms until eight. I let his reasoning relax me, if only for this one time, and laid back to look at the sky. It was slowly darkening, and the heavens were ablaze with a fiery orange that steadily bled into the dark blue of night.
We stayed out so long, not even talking, that I almost fell asleep. When Draco shook me suddenly though, we must have been out for almost two hours, I jolted up and grabbed him by the arm. I berated myself for losing track of time as I snuck us back inside and to our dorms. There was nobody left in the common room so we quickly said good-night and headed to our separate rooms.
Don't forget to review!
And let me know if there were any mistakes, I was pretty tired when i wrote this and i will go back and fix them if it's really bad.