Alexiana Sioux stood in front of the full-length mirror, straightening the barrettes holding back her golden hair. It fell across her shoulders in perfect spiraling curls, which she loved - but hair in her face drove her crazy, so the front always had to be secured. Satisfied with her hair, she turned and appraising eye to the clothing she had selected for the first day of school. She had moved over the summer, and wanted to make the best first impression possible on her new classmates.
Not that she was too worried about her popularity. Her attractive face, curvy body, and mature sense of style were generally enough to make her the center of attention as soon as she entered any room. She had an added advantage in this situation - they had just moved from California to London so that her mother could accept a position as the new Minister of Magic. She imagined she'd probably attract a load of "friends" on her first day on the power of her name alone.
She pulled her school robes on over the trendy - but understated - outfit she'd spent so much time putting together. It was really a shame about the robes at this school - her wizarding school in California had allowed students to wear any robes they wanted. This uniform black robe did nothing to add to her outfit, only to cover it up. In Cali she likely would have chosen something turquoise to match her belt, or possibly a nice shiny transluscent material so that the clothing underneath could stay just visible. But no, at Hogwarts all of the students wore black. Opaque black, at that.
An hour later, she was climbing out of the Ministry limousine at King's Cross Station with her mother. This, at least, was familiar - her school in America was located far from prying muggle eyes as well, and they had also ridden a train to get to it. However, the wizard train station had also been hidden from muggles; using a hidden platform at a muggle station was a new experience.
She felt all eyes on them as her mother walked her to the train. Most people wanted to get a look at the new Minister, and then noticed that she was sending a daughter to Hogwarts and had to get a good look at Alexiana too. Mrs Sioux stopped to talk to a few other Ministry wizards whose children were also headed to Hogwarts.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville had managed to find a compartment all to themselves. Just as they settled in, though, a knock came at the door. A pretty girl with wonderfully curly blonde hair poked her head in.
"Hey, anyone sitting there?" she asked, pointing to the empty spot between Neville and Harry.
"No, go ahead," said Harry, "Are you... new? What year are you?"
She answered as she worked to get her luggage onto the rack. "Yeah, I just moved to England over the summer. How did you know?"
The others looked at each other incredulously while she pushed her last bag into place. "Er, the American accent does make you stick out a bit. No offense," Ginny finally said.
Alexiana sat down in the empty seat and laughed. "Accent? Come on, I'm the only person here who doesn't have an accent! I'm Alexiana Sioux, and I'll be a junior." She watched them carefully when she said her name, and was disappointed to see only recognition on their faces rather than awe. The possible exception was Neville, but it was difficult to tell as he had to dive under the seat a split second later to retrieve his runaway toad.
"Heh, good one," Harry said, hoping that she was joking about the accent. "Junior... That means sixth year, right? So you're in the same year as all of us except Ginny there. She's fifth year. I'm Harry, by the way."
The rest of the group introduced themselves, and after a short but awkward silence Hermione finally asked, "So how is your mother liking her new job? I'm sure things must be run quite differently in America, is she adjusting well?"
Alexiana gave Hermione an appraising look. "She doesn't need to adjust," she finally said in an annoyed tone, "You don't get a job like that by taking your time adjusting to things. She's made some major changes already."
"Oh yeah, Dad was talking about that," Ron chimed in, "He's the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, Arthur Weasley? He said your mom is disgusted with Fudge's reaction to Voldemort, and she's already sacked three of the people who were responsible for trying to keep Dumbledore quiet."
"That's right, I read in the Prophet that Umbridge was gone!" Neville exclaimed A rousing discussion of the housecleaning being done at the Ministry ensued. Alexiana seemed quite pleased to keep the conversation on her mother's position, especially since the others were expressing their approval of the changes.
When they got off the train, an older witch with a tight bun approached Alexiana.
"I am Professor MacGonagal," the witch said, taking her arm, "Since you're a new transfer, you'll need to be sorted into one of the four Houses. I won't make you walk in with the first years, though; follow me."
They went to the head of the Great Hall, where Professor MacGonagal told Alexiana to sit in a chair to one side until her name was called. She then led in the first years. Once they had all been sorted, she explained Alexiana's situation to the students and led her to the Sorting Hat's stool.
Alexiana wrinkled her nose as she picked up the hat. She was glad she'd only have to wear it for a few seconds; she couldn't believe she was even touching such an out-of-date, dirty, old piece of clothing, let alone wearing it.
"Hmmmmmm... Well, I certainly don't think you quite have the right qualities for Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, I can say that much. Slytherin, maybe... But I daresay that the usual Slytherin's ambitions reach beyond the simple short-term goals I see in your head... Well, I suppose for lack of a better match we'll have to go with - HUFFLEPUFF!"
Alexiana wrinkled her nose again as she ripped the ugly hat off of her head. She had the feeling that she'd just been insulted - by an ugly, nasty, HAT of all things - but she wasn't entirely sure. Her mother had warned her away from Slytherin, so she thought that the hat's passing it up would be a good thing... but the hat hadn't quite made it sound so good. As she strode to the Hufflepuff table, she beamed at her new Housemates. One thing she knew for sure - if she was going to be living with these people for the next two years, she wanted them to adore her from the first day.