Chapter one, Transfer Student
Professor McGonagall tapped a spoon on her glass. "Pay attention please, thank you. Professor Dumbledore has a few announcements." "Welcome to Hogwarts, first years!" Albus Dumbledore addressed the new students standing in front of the Sorting Hat. "I would like to say that The Forbidden Forest is out of bounds, to all students." He said his eyes darting towards the Weasley twins. "And, Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you to not do magic in the corridors. We also have a transfer student here from the United States, she also happens to be the granddaughter of Professor McGonagall." The Doors to the Hall opened and everybody's head turned to see what was going on. A girl of about fifteen stepped into the hall and started walking towards the Head Table. She was wearing an emerald cloak and black boots. Even beneath the heavy flowing cloak her slim waist and slightly broad shoulders stood out noticeably. Her hair was just below her shoulders and raven black with curls at the bottom. She had remarkably violet eyes, small nose and mouth, and fair skin with good complexion. At the head table, Professor McGonagall was positively beaming, she was very proud of her granddaughter.
The girl had finally reached the Head Table and acknowledged Professor Dumbledore with a slight bow of her head.
"Good evening Professor, Grandmother, I am pleased to be here." She said with an American accent.
"We are pleased to have you Brianna." Said Dumbledore. The Great Hall was completely silent. McGonagall was still beaming. "Welcome to Hogwarts, dear, you are a transfer student so you will have to be sorted first, if that's alright with you." McGonagall said, still beaming. "Of, course." She sat down on the stool lightly and put her hands in her lap confidently. "Hmmm, lets see, you have some qualities of Slytherin, and you have the qualities of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, difficult, very difficult. Lots of courage, you'd die defending your friends, a caring heart, and the cunningness of a Slytherin, ah, well, hmmm, yes, I think I shall put you in, GRYFFINDOR!" The hat told her. There were a few claps from the Head Table and some from Gryffindor, but for the most part it was silent. Brianna got up with a small smile on her face and sat down at the Gryffindor table. More students were placed, Professor McGonagall called up, Conan McBride went to Ravenclaw, Shina Collins went to Hufflepuff, Alodie Clark went to Slytherin, Rider Johnson went to Gryffindor, Christian Denson went to Hufflepuff, Chablis Harrington went to Ravenclaw, Nicole Lacy went to Gryffindor, Harvey Martin went to Slytherin, Adrienne Wilson went to Ravenclaw, Rhiannon Howell went to Slytherin, Dawn Jones went to Hufflepuff. After they were all sorted into their houses, Professor Dumbledore stood up and said, " So, before we begin our feast I have a few words to say, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" He waved his hand and food appeared on the table and he sat back down again. Brianna stared as the other students dug into the food. She looked around at the table trying to find someone to talk to, she noticed a girl sitting across the table reading a book. Brianna got up and went to sit in front of the girl. She looked up and smiled and looked back down and began to read again. "Um, hey, I'm Brianna." The girl looked up again, "Hi, I'm Hermione Granger. You're from America then?" she asked setting down her book. "Yes, but my family and I were born England. Professor McGonagall is my Father's mother." "Really, wow, so how old are you?" "I'm fifteen, you?" "I'm fifteen also. We'll be sharing the same dormitory." "Are they nice? The ones in America are just beds and a small night table." "Well, yes, kind of, we have four poster beds with drapes and a night table." Hermione answered. "What are you reading?" Brianna asked, noticing the book. "Oh, it's the charms book, I insist on knowing the books by heart." "Really, me too!" Hermione looked over at two boys deep in conversation. One was very tall with red hair and freckles, the other wasn't quite as tall, he had messy black hair, and an interesting scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. "Ron, Harry, this is Brianna, she's McGonagall's Granddaughter." The two boys looked at her and then at Brianna and smiled and introduced themselves as Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. When the feast was over, Brianna followed her new friends to the dormitories. Brianna was surprised to find out Hermione was a house prefect, Ron and Harry told her that Hermione was at the top of her class. That piece of information didn't surprise Brianna at all, how many students insisted on learning the entire book at the start of the term. When they got to the Dormitories, they explained that the portrait of the fat lady in pink was the guard for the dormitories and that there was a password to get in and if you didn't know the password you were stuck until somebody went in or came out. Brianna followed Hermione up to the girls' dormitories and the boys went up a little farther. The next morning Brianna got dressed in plain black robes and took her large book bag. A month before she had gone shopping with her grandmother to Diagon Alley and bought brand new robes, quills, ink, books, a new cauldron, and her grandmother had bought her an owl for her first year at Hogwarts. Brianna already had a wand, when she was little she had gone to Diagon Alley and bought her wand, her grandmother had insisted on it, and though she hadn't been able to use it yet, she had kept it well polished, and taken care of. The wand was Dragon Heartstring, Cedar, and thirteen inches. They had History of Magic with Professor Binns, the only ghost teacher there at Hogwarts, he turned out to be very boring. They also went to Transfiguration; they took notes that day because it was the first of the term. That night, just as Brianna was falling asleep, she wondered if anyone else was an animagus yet. An auror friend of the family taught it to her when she was fourteen, her animagus form was a Leopard. Brianna had a hard time keeping it from anybody, especially her grandmother, who would have been amazed that she had learned it. It had taken a lot of hard work and two years to accomplish it. Brianna was lying awake most of the night and got bored, so she decided to go exploring. Another thing nobody else knew about was the fact that she had an invisibility cloak. One of her friends in America got expelled from the other school for blowing up half of the dungeons, and was made give it to someone, and she decided that she should give it to Brianna. Brianna got up quietly and grabbed the invisibility cloak and put it on, she didn't want anybody seeing her leave. She walked out and closed the door quietly behind her. She climbed down to the common room and was surprised to hear voices but see no one. "Ouch, Ron, stop stepping on my foot!" Came a voice near the stairs. "Well it's not my fault I'm too tall for this cloak, Harry." Came another voice. 'Ron and Harry had an invisibility cloak too, wow, I wonder where they got it?' Brianna thought to herself. "Hello, Ron, Harry." She whispered. They took their invisibility cloak off and looked around the room. "Hello, who is that, where are you?" Ron asked turning around wildly. "Stop twisting, okay, just stay put and don't turn around." She told them. Ron immediately stopped turning about. Brianna got behind them and took the cloak of and went into her animagus form. She walked slowly in front of them and sat down. Ron had his mouth open in a silent scream, Harry, however wasn't so silent. Harry screamed so loud, Brianna's ears were throbbing with pain. Everybody came out of their dormitories to see what was going on. Hermione came out with her wand and told them to quiet down. "What is going on out here?" Hermione asked Ron and Harry pointed at Brianna. Hermione looked at the leopard and squinted her eyes, seconds later they became wide with amazement. "If I didn't know any better I'd say that was. but it couldn't be, could it?" she said aloud. She kneeled in front of the leopard and looked into it's eyes and gave a squeak of excitement. "Everybody, go back to your dormitories except Harry and Ron." Hermione said in a commanding voice. Everybody went back to dormitories reluctantly, they wanted to know what was going on. Harry and Ron, however, did not want to stay. Hermione let out a small chuckle and Brianna purred. "That's great, how did you learn it?" Hermione asked the leopard. "Hermione has gone mad," Ron muttered to Harry. Brianna growled at him. Ron looked frightened. "Does your Grandmother know?" Hermione asked. Brianna came out of her animagus form and laughed at Harry and Ron's surprised faces. "No, I haven't told anybody but you three. My parents don't even know." Brianna gave Harry and Ron a small smirk. "So, you mustn't tell ANYONE, clear?" They shook their heads yes. "Good." Brianna walked over to the cloak and put it on. "I bid thee a goodnight then, come on Hermione." She called to them. Hermione followed her, smiling, and they left Harry and Ron standing there with their mouth's hanging open. Brianna could not fall asleep easily that night, but when she finally did, her dreams were invaded by a boy about her age with ash-blonde hair, light blue eyes, and the palest skin she had ever seen on a boy. He was just staring at her, as if she had done something wrong and he had watched it all in disgust. He was half a head taller than she was and his face looked somewhat familiar, she had seen those same blue eyes, and that same smirk a long time ago, but she just couldn't place it. She walked up to him and asked, "Who are you?" He gave a snort of indignation, "Who am I? Draco Malfoy, who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" Malfoy, that was it, she had probably met his father, and if that was true. oh dear God, help. "Brianna McGonagall. Would your father happen to be Lucius Malfoy?" "You've heard of us?" He seemed slightly pleased. "Us? Are you telling me you still have a mother, or is it just you and your dad? Because I would have figured that he would have beaten her to death." Draco went very red and his hands were clenched into fists, "Do not - talk - about - my - mother!" "You're right, I shouldn't talk about your mother." She admitted. Draco looked at her suspiciously. "I should probably talk about your father instead. You know, he's a real jerk. He must've put some sort of charm on your mother to make her marry him, he's horrible." "Shut up! Don't talk about my family!" Draco's face was bright scarlet. "I'm being easy on them, they deserve a lot more." Draco swung his fist at her face, but she caught it quickly. "Obviously, your father didn't tell you about me, otherwise you would have known that I can stop almost any physical abuse." "Let go of me!" Brianna let go of his hand, and raised an eyebrow, "For someone with so handsome a father, your pretty scrawny." Draco looked appalled, " I thought you hated my family." "I don't hate anyone, I just have a severe dislike for them. And just because I don't like your father doesn't mean he isn't handsome." "You're a bitch." Draco spat. "Mudblood." Brianna spat back. Draco looked at her with confusion and rage. "What did you call me?" "You don't know what a Mudblood is? What kind of Malfoy are you?" Brianna looked at him with amusement. "I know what it means, you idiot, and I'm pureblood." "I know that, you dolt, all the Malfoys are pureblood." Brianna rolled her eyes, good thing this was only a dream, otherwise, she'd be in real trouble. "Did you say you were a McGonagall?" "Yes, why?" "You're actually related to a teacher? That's completely pathetic." "Why? It means she'll go easier on me, when I get enough bombs to blow up the potions lab, I will, and since I'm in her house, she gets to choose whether or not I stay, and I bet she'll let me stay and she won't take as many points off." "She will not. McGonagall's like ice." Draco sneered. "Not with me. I'm her only granddaughter, so, naturally, I'm her favorite." "If you're the only granddaughter she has then of course you're her." But he stopped and in a flash, he was gone. "Well, that was a little rude, he could have said good-bye." Brianna's thoughts went back to black and she woke up to Hermione shaking her out of bed. "Brianna, let's go, it's almost time for breakfast." Brianna groaned and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. "Hermione?" she asked. "Hmmm.?" Hermione was untying a knot in her shoelace. "Do you know if a Lucius Malfoy has a son?" "Yes," Hermione said distractedly, "His name is Draco, he goes here. He's in Slytherin, have you met him?" Brianna Paled, "Kind-of. He was in my dream last night." Hermione looked at her confused, and reached for her wand, "I'm sure it's just coincidental." "No, I don't think it was." Brianna murmured, as she got ready for breakfast.
Professor McGonagall tapped a spoon on her glass. "Pay attention please, thank you. Professor Dumbledore has a few announcements." "Welcome to Hogwarts, first years!" Albus Dumbledore addressed the new students standing in front of the Sorting Hat. "I would like to say that The Forbidden Forest is out of bounds, to all students." He said his eyes darting towards the Weasley twins. "And, Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you to not do magic in the corridors. We also have a transfer student here from the United States, she also happens to be the granddaughter of Professor McGonagall." The Doors to the Hall opened and everybody's head turned to see what was going on. A girl of about fifteen stepped into the hall and started walking towards the Head Table. She was wearing an emerald cloak and black boots. Even beneath the heavy flowing cloak her slim waist and slightly broad shoulders stood out noticeably. Her hair was just below her shoulders and raven black with curls at the bottom. She had remarkably violet eyes, small nose and mouth, and fair skin with good complexion. At the head table, Professor McGonagall was positively beaming, she was very proud of her granddaughter.
The girl had finally reached the Head Table and acknowledged Professor Dumbledore with a slight bow of her head.
"Good evening Professor, Grandmother, I am pleased to be here." She said with an American accent.
"We are pleased to have you Brianna." Said Dumbledore. The Great Hall was completely silent. McGonagall was still beaming. "Welcome to Hogwarts, dear, you are a transfer student so you will have to be sorted first, if that's alright with you." McGonagall said, still beaming. "Of, course." She sat down on the stool lightly and put her hands in her lap confidently. "Hmmm, lets see, you have some qualities of Slytherin, and you have the qualities of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, difficult, very difficult. Lots of courage, you'd die defending your friends, a caring heart, and the cunningness of a Slytherin, ah, well, hmmm, yes, I think I shall put you in, GRYFFINDOR!" The hat told her. There were a few claps from the Head Table and some from Gryffindor, but for the most part it was silent. Brianna got up with a small smile on her face and sat down at the Gryffindor table. More students were placed, Professor McGonagall called up, Conan McBride went to Ravenclaw, Shina Collins went to Hufflepuff, Alodie Clark went to Slytherin, Rider Johnson went to Gryffindor, Christian Denson went to Hufflepuff, Chablis Harrington went to Ravenclaw, Nicole Lacy went to Gryffindor, Harvey Martin went to Slytherin, Adrienne Wilson went to Ravenclaw, Rhiannon Howell went to Slytherin, Dawn Jones went to Hufflepuff. After they were all sorted into their houses, Professor Dumbledore stood up and said, " So, before we begin our feast I have a few words to say, Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" He waved his hand and food appeared on the table and he sat back down again. Brianna stared as the other students dug into the food. She looked around at the table trying to find someone to talk to, she noticed a girl sitting across the table reading a book. Brianna got up and went to sit in front of the girl. She looked up and smiled and looked back down and began to read again. "Um, hey, I'm Brianna." The girl looked up again, "Hi, I'm Hermione Granger. You're from America then?" she asked setting down her book. "Yes, but my family and I were born England. Professor McGonagall is my Father's mother." "Really, wow, so how old are you?" "I'm fifteen, you?" "I'm fifteen also. We'll be sharing the same dormitory." "Are they nice? The ones in America are just beds and a small night table." "Well, yes, kind of, we have four poster beds with drapes and a night table." Hermione answered. "What are you reading?" Brianna asked, noticing the book. "Oh, it's the charms book, I insist on knowing the books by heart." "Really, me too!" Hermione looked over at two boys deep in conversation. One was very tall with red hair and freckles, the other wasn't quite as tall, he had messy black hair, and an interesting scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. "Ron, Harry, this is Brianna, she's McGonagall's Granddaughter." The two boys looked at her and then at Brianna and smiled and introduced themselves as Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. When the feast was over, Brianna followed her new friends to the dormitories. Brianna was surprised to find out Hermione was a house prefect, Ron and Harry told her that Hermione was at the top of her class. That piece of information didn't surprise Brianna at all, how many students insisted on learning the entire book at the start of the term. When they got to the Dormitories, they explained that the portrait of the fat lady in pink was the guard for the dormitories and that there was a password to get in and if you didn't know the password you were stuck until somebody went in or came out. Brianna followed Hermione up to the girls' dormitories and the boys went up a little farther. The next morning Brianna got dressed in plain black robes and took her large book bag. A month before she had gone shopping with her grandmother to Diagon Alley and bought brand new robes, quills, ink, books, a new cauldron, and her grandmother had bought her an owl for her first year at Hogwarts. Brianna already had a wand, when she was little she had gone to Diagon Alley and bought her wand, her grandmother had insisted on it, and though she hadn't been able to use it yet, she had kept it well polished, and taken care of. The wand was Dragon Heartstring, Cedar, and thirteen inches. They had History of Magic with Professor Binns, the only ghost teacher there at Hogwarts, he turned out to be very boring. They also went to Transfiguration; they took notes that day because it was the first of the term. That night, just as Brianna was falling asleep, she wondered if anyone else was an animagus yet. An auror friend of the family taught it to her when she was fourteen, her animagus form was a Leopard. Brianna had a hard time keeping it from anybody, especially her grandmother, who would have been amazed that she had learned it. It had taken a lot of hard work and two years to accomplish it. Brianna was lying awake most of the night and got bored, so she decided to go exploring. Another thing nobody else knew about was the fact that she had an invisibility cloak. One of her friends in America got expelled from the other school for blowing up half of the dungeons, and was made give it to someone, and she decided that she should give it to Brianna. Brianna got up quietly and grabbed the invisibility cloak and put it on, she didn't want anybody seeing her leave. She walked out and closed the door quietly behind her. She climbed down to the common room and was surprised to hear voices but see no one. "Ouch, Ron, stop stepping on my foot!" Came a voice near the stairs. "Well it's not my fault I'm too tall for this cloak, Harry." Came another voice. 'Ron and Harry had an invisibility cloak too, wow, I wonder where they got it?' Brianna thought to herself. "Hello, Ron, Harry." She whispered. They took their invisibility cloak off and looked around the room. "Hello, who is that, where are you?" Ron asked turning around wildly. "Stop twisting, okay, just stay put and don't turn around." She told them. Ron immediately stopped turning about. Brianna got behind them and took the cloak of and went into her animagus form. She walked slowly in front of them and sat down. Ron had his mouth open in a silent scream, Harry, however wasn't so silent. Harry screamed so loud, Brianna's ears were throbbing with pain. Everybody came out of their dormitories to see what was going on. Hermione came out with her wand and told them to quiet down. "What is going on out here?" Hermione asked Ron and Harry pointed at Brianna. Hermione looked at the leopard and squinted her eyes, seconds later they became wide with amazement. "If I didn't know any better I'd say that was. but it couldn't be, could it?" she said aloud. She kneeled in front of the leopard and looked into it's eyes and gave a squeak of excitement. "Everybody, go back to your dormitories except Harry and Ron." Hermione said in a commanding voice. Everybody went back to dormitories reluctantly, they wanted to know what was going on. Harry and Ron, however, did not want to stay. Hermione let out a small chuckle and Brianna purred. "That's great, how did you learn it?" Hermione asked the leopard. "Hermione has gone mad," Ron muttered to Harry. Brianna growled at him. Ron looked frightened. "Does your Grandmother know?" Hermione asked. Brianna came out of her animagus form and laughed at Harry and Ron's surprised faces. "No, I haven't told anybody but you three. My parents don't even know." Brianna gave Harry and Ron a small smirk. "So, you mustn't tell ANYONE, clear?" They shook their heads yes. "Good." Brianna walked over to the cloak and put it on. "I bid thee a goodnight then, come on Hermione." She called to them. Hermione followed her, smiling, and they left Harry and Ron standing there with their mouth's hanging open. Brianna could not fall asleep easily that night, but when she finally did, her dreams were invaded by a boy about her age with ash-blonde hair, light blue eyes, and the palest skin she had ever seen on a boy. He was just staring at her, as if she had done something wrong and he had watched it all in disgust. He was half a head taller than she was and his face looked somewhat familiar, she had seen those same blue eyes, and that same smirk a long time ago, but she just couldn't place it. She walked up to him and asked, "Who are you?" He gave a snort of indignation, "Who am I? Draco Malfoy, who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" Malfoy, that was it, she had probably met his father, and if that was true. oh dear God, help. "Brianna McGonagall. Would your father happen to be Lucius Malfoy?" "You've heard of us?" He seemed slightly pleased. "Us? Are you telling me you still have a mother, or is it just you and your dad? Because I would have figured that he would have beaten her to death." Draco went very red and his hands were clenched into fists, "Do not - talk - about - my - mother!" "You're right, I shouldn't talk about your mother." She admitted. Draco looked at her suspiciously. "I should probably talk about your father instead. You know, he's a real jerk. He must've put some sort of charm on your mother to make her marry him, he's horrible." "Shut up! Don't talk about my family!" Draco's face was bright scarlet. "I'm being easy on them, they deserve a lot more." Draco swung his fist at her face, but she caught it quickly. "Obviously, your father didn't tell you about me, otherwise you would have known that I can stop almost any physical abuse." "Let go of me!" Brianna let go of his hand, and raised an eyebrow, "For someone with so handsome a father, your pretty scrawny." Draco looked appalled, " I thought you hated my family." "I don't hate anyone, I just have a severe dislike for them. And just because I don't like your father doesn't mean he isn't handsome." "You're a bitch." Draco spat. "Mudblood." Brianna spat back. Draco looked at her with confusion and rage. "What did you call me?" "You don't know what a Mudblood is? What kind of Malfoy are you?" Brianna looked at him with amusement. "I know what it means, you idiot, and I'm pureblood." "I know that, you dolt, all the Malfoys are pureblood." Brianna rolled her eyes, good thing this was only a dream, otherwise, she'd be in real trouble. "Did you say you were a McGonagall?" "Yes, why?" "You're actually related to a teacher? That's completely pathetic." "Why? It means she'll go easier on me, when I get enough bombs to blow up the potions lab, I will, and since I'm in her house, she gets to choose whether or not I stay, and I bet she'll let me stay and she won't take as many points off." "She will not. McGonagall's like ice." Draco sneered. "Not with me. I'm her only granddaughter, so, naturally, I'm her favorite." "If you're the only granddaughter she has then of course you're her." But he stopped and in a flash, he was gone. "Well, that was a little rude, he could have said good-bye." Brianna's thoughts went back to black and she woke up to Hermione shaking her out of bed. "Brianna, let's go, it's almost time for breakfast." Brianna groaned and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. "Hermione?" she asked. "Hmmm.?" Hermione was untying a knot in her shoelace. "Do you know if a Lucius Malfoy has a son?" "Yes," Hermione said distractedly, "His name is Draco, he goes here. He's in Slytherin, have you met him?" Brianna Paled, "Kind-of. He was in my dream last night." Hermione looked at her confused, and reached for her wand, "I'm sure it's just coincidental." "No, I don't think it was." Brianna murmured, as she got ready for breakfast.