I guess I was never a "normal" Hogwarts student. For one I wasn't British. I was from the South Side of Chicago. MACUSA and the British Ministry of Magic had an arrangement for kind of a student exchange program. One of their students would go to Ilvermony and one kid from here would go to Hogwarts. The only requirement is that the students had to be from poor families with little to no financial means to pay for anything. Our government did a kind of lottery to choose who would go to Hogwarts and I got picked. Every year a MACUSA official would come to my house and we would Apparate onto Platform 9 ¾ . I would then make the normal trip by the Hogwarts Express. I had to stay at Hogwarts during the holidays but my mom was constantly sending me letters and pictures of my siblings. All, of my schoolbooks and everything were paid for by MACUSA and I was given a stipend because I was going to school so far away from home. I was a Muggle-born, the only one in my family who had shown any magical ability. I assumed that my dad wasn't a wizard but I didn't know. He was barely around when I was growing up so my mom raised me, my older brother, and my younger twin brother and sister, all by herself. Even though I had just turned eleven I had already gotten gang tattoos. Every time I came home I would run with my old gang, maybe get another tattoo, but it just wasn't my thing anymore. I guess my gang tattoos confirmed everything everybody thought about me, I was an 'uncivilized' American who had been sorted into Slytherin for the right reasons. But there was one inconsistency in what they thought. They could imagine a Slytherin American gangbanger being a guy but I was a girl. People thought I should be different, girly even. All I was interested was getting good grades so I could get a good job and help make a better life for my family. I was a sixth year now, I had turned 16 last spring. When my O.W.L. scores had come in it had shown that I had gotten Outstandings in Wizarding Literature, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Potions, and Exceed Expectations in everything else. I was taking a full course load but had no extracurriculars.
This year was a little different than previous years. Just like other years when we got to the platform I pulled my trunk to a compartment at the end of the train. I pulled my robes and money bag out of my trunk and then pushed my trunk into one of the luggage racks. I shut the compartment door and flopped down into the seat next to the window. When other students passed by and looked like they wanted to come in I shot them a venomous and moved to show them a better view of my tattoos. All of a sudden a boy who looked about my age with a Gryffindor emblem on his trunk completely ignored what I was doing and tossed his trunk up into the luggage rack. He flopped down into the seat across from me.
"What the heck are you doing?" I asked harshly (I only cuss when hanging around with my friends).
"I wanted to. You don't seem like you have that many friends." he answered with none of the same venom.
"How would you know?" I fired back with even more venom.
He laughed as he responded, "I've been in your classes for the last five years. I passed you in the halls. I was in the library when you were studying."
I crossed my legs up on the seat and when I replied with more curiosity and amusement than venom, "You've been watching me?"
"Yeah, you're interesting. Everybody thinks that you are just some punk-ass kid but I can see that you are really dedicated to your schooling. Every moment you're not in class you're in the library studying."
I was speechless for just a minute and then tried to respond, " You've really been paying attention to me haven't you? I'm sorry but I don't really notice my classmates, what's your name again?"
He held out his hand to me, "Timothy Julian,Gryffindor fifth year."
