Chapter 1

"Well this is all new, and I'm feeling my way through the dark."

Through The Dark – KT Tunstall

Emmeline took a deep and needed gasp of breath as she got to the top of the hill that held up Hogwarts Castle. God, the sight was satisfying. Scaling the gate she wandered through the dark grounds. Lights shone through the evening from what she could only assume was a huge dinner hall lit up by candles and cheerful gossip. As she entered the huge building, a kid in a black cloak as she had seen her brother wear trotted past, not paying any attention to her presence. He had a red tie around his neck.

"Oi!" yelled Emmeline. When the kid turned round. She toughened up her face and rounded her shoulders, making herself look as hard as was humanly possible. "I want your cloak." She said. When the kid gave her a look as if she was mad, she quickly walked over to him and loomed over his small person, a hint of a threat in her tired eyes. The kid instantly removed his cloak and gave it to her. It only just fit. Looking pleased with herself, she continued.

"And your tie. Yeah, I need the tie." The kid hastily removed the red striped tie from around his neck and put it in her hands, shaking. She was truly quite terrifying when she wanted to be.

"Thanks," she said, placing it around her neck. "Now. Shoo." The child willingly obliged, scuttling through the doors into which all of the chatter was coming from.

She stepped into the hall and studied her surroundings. Four tables of students in different coloured ties were in front of her. And one big long one at the top end of the hall housed all of the teachers, she assumed. It was all on big assumption to her, this place. New, overwhelming and exciting. If rather nerve-wracking. She sauntered up to the staff table, an illusion of confidence masking her uncertainty, her eyes fixed on an... interesting, looking teacher with greasy black hair and the biggest nose she had ever seen. She walked straight up to him and said

"Hi! How's the party?" she motioned to the hall behind her. This question was directed to both the greasy haired, big nosed teacher and a rather kinder looking one sitting immediately to his left. He
had a kind, but worn face and brown hair. When both of them looked puzzled and then the greasy teacher began to look infuriated to say the very least, she scuttled away from the table before she could be handed over to the head, or punished somehow. She didn't like the look of the greasy teacher and she certainly didn't really want to hang around him when he looked that angry. She spotted a table with all the red striped ties and found a seat in front of a huge platter of sausages. This was in fact the most food she had ever seen in her life. Never mind just the plate of sausages, which was almost unreal to Emmeline by itself, but around her was a feast like no man could possibly have ever seen before.

As she reached for one of the sausages in front of her and ran her eyes slowly down the line of staff at the top of the room, she was aware of the eyes of the small group of people sitting around her settling on the stranger in their midst.

"Um. Hi," she said, her eyes flicking to meet each of her spectators'. "Emmeline." She resumed watching the teachers after this statement of her name, thinking that it would be enough to satisfy. Ugly, interesting, awesome, old, cool, Ah! That one's looking back at me! The judgements ran through her head, one for every adult that she set eyes upon. The one who had looked at her sat directly in the middle, with a long white beard and hair and a bright cloak and hat. His eyes settled upon her in puzzlement as he saw her. Emmeline's eyes fell back to her plate, and she realised that she was still being stared at by the people sitting directly across from her.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Who are you?" said a girl with curls and a rather snooty look about her.

"I just told you." said Emmeline plainly, "My name is Emmeline. What about all of you?" she enquired, pointing her fork at the three who were watching her. On one side of the girl was a red haired boy still tucking in to his dinner without even taking his eyes of her, on the other was a boy with dark hair, glasses and a funny mark on his forehead. All three for some reason looked astounded at her question.

"Well," said the girl in the middle, "I'm Hermione Granger. This here is Ron Weasley." She indicated to the boy with the red hair, who saluted her with his fork, which still had a bit of Yorkshire pudding on the end of it. "And this is-" The girl was cut off by the other boy, who said

"Wait a minute. Not to sound full of it or anything, but you really don't know who I am?" he asked

"No." said Emmeline. "Why? Should I?"

"Huh," considered the boy "Ah well, it doesn't matter anyway." He said this even though all three of them still had an air of surprise hanging about them. "My name is Harry Po-"

"Pothead" the voice came from slightly to their right, and all of their heads turned to see a girl with dark curls strutting towards them. The Gryffindors knew her well enough; Morgan Le Fet: Slytherin royalty/b*tch/whore and her presence did not often bode well to those who were outside of her house. Her curls bounced in perfect synch with the swaying of the short skirt on her hips, and her confident stride. Her face was decorated with a striking sneer, perfectly accenting an air of certainty and faux-authority. There is no way on this planet that this girl doesn't hang out with my brother, thought Emmeline. The girl was clearly also curious of the mysterious girl sitting at the Gryffindor table, but her face also showed a hint of outrage.

"Morgan. Just get lost." snapped Hermione.

"No. I don't think I will." Morgan snapped back. "Who's your friend then, freaks?"
Emmeline didn't like this girl already.

"The name's Emmeline," she said, a dark dislike added to her voice, trying to simply scare the girl away.

"Morgan." she said "Morgan Le Fet."

"Alright, Luh Fett." said Emmeline.

"Le Fet." corrected Morgan.

"Luh Fett," continued Emmeline, "Are you going to go away now, so we can get on with our dinner?"

"Not until you pronounce my last name right." said Morgan, a pinch of irritation in her smooth voice. "Which reminds me; I haven't heard yours." She smirked. The rest of the group perked up, suddenly aware that they did not know her last name either. Emmeline looked alarmed for a second, then resumed her cool, calm air.

"I don't see why that's important." she shot back with a smile.

"Well…" butted in Hermione, breaking the silence of the three Gryffindors. "It kind of is, we've all told you ours. We only want to know who you are. Why shouldn't you tell us yours? What does it matter?" she questioned.

"Yeah, Emmeline." said Harry, Ron and Morgan. Morgan had a hint of triumph in her voice that only made Emmeline dislike her even more. Emmeline sat in hard silence, determined not to give them the answer. If she told them, Le Fet would have won and she simply couldn't let them know who she was related to. Anyway, if they knew her full name, then she might be turned over to a member of staff and stuck back where she was before, and after all she went through to get to where she was now, she was not going to let that happen. She sat like stone through about 15 minutes of nagging from 4 different directions before she cracked.

"No!!" she yelled. A few heads turned, and then the few nosy spectators returned to their dinner. She would have stormed out then and there, but she wouldn't know where she was going, and it'd attract even more attention. She was lucky HE hadn't noticed yet. She shot them all a look and returned to her meal. Bored, Morgan returned to the Slytherin table. Emmeline watched her go and she found she was right, the girl sat right next to her brother.