AN: I do not own any of the Harry Potter world, wish I did but I do not. On another note, the OC in this story is completely mine, thank you. Also, if this story goes over well I may be publishing one of my original works. :-) I want to thank my sister and one of my best friends for helping me out. They've been doing a lot to inspire me and help with grammar and spelling checks. Also thank you to my first followers, Lorna Roxen and lovebookstwilight. Thank you so much. Seeing that you had favorited my story has given me umph to get more written. Hope you guys like it!
Chapter one
The sun made light tracks across her eyelids as she lounged near the trees in her grandparents orange grove. Oranges were her favorite and she would always love the way the blossoms brought back the memories of her favorite grandpa, even if he was the only one she really ever knew.
"Lissa, there is a letter here for you." Her grandmother, Coral called. Coral smiled when she saw where Lissa had been, knowing her husband would be happy knowing he'd left behind something so wonderful for his favorite grandchild.
Lissa jumped from her hiding spot and dashed for the door. She snagged the letter as she sat in the armchair next to the fireplace. The envelope read, Lisabet Stewart The guest room, 7725 Loma Circle, Anaheim, California, United States of America. "Why would anyone specify that I was in the guest room?" Lissa remarked before slipping the letter opener through the envelope.
With Regards Ms. Stewart,
We humbly regret that your acceptance letter was lost between us and you on your eleventh birthday, but we would like to remedy such a horrible mistake. Therefore we are extending your invitation to you now.
You are hereby accepted into Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed is all of the school supplies you will require. We understand that you have no history with the wizarding world thus a Mr. Hagrid will be coming to escort you to the school and to help with acquiring your school needs.
I do hope that our transgression can be forgiven and that you will join us for your seventh year of education.
Headmistress McGonagall
Lissa looked up, "Grandma, have you ever heard of um... Hogwarts?" She heard something shatter as it hit the floor in the kitchen. "Grandma," Lissa raced into the kitchen, "what happened?"
Coral turned and looked at Lissa, she had gone completely white, "Well, you should probably take a seat." Lissa and Coral sat down at the table. "Lissa, darling. My mother wasn't from the U.S., she was from England, but she decided to leave her life behind when she met my father. My mother told me before she passed that if any of my grandchildren ever mentioned Hogwarts to give them a special book. I have the book and I'll go get it in a few minutes, but when you were very young some very strange things started to happen. I had some strange visitors that came by asking if any of the Armitage heirs had shown any promise. I never understood what that could possibly mean so one day I pulled out mother's book and read it myself. I'll go get it now and hopefully it'll make sense of some of the oddities in your life." She smiled with a forlorn look in her eyes as she got up from the kitchen table and walked to the office.
Lissa got up and followed her trying to put the puzzle together in her head. A lot of strange things had happened in her life. There was the time when she was six at Disneyland, a girl tried to cut in front of her in line and something had picked her up and deposited her at the very end of the line and wouldn't let her back in line until another ten people had joined it. And there was the time when she was eight and the boys in school had made fun of how she would push her glasses up her nose, they were always slipping down, saying that she was making her hair go all staticy. They'd all been hit by lightning as they turned to head back to class. And the time when she was eleven when... She stopped thinking about those times, there were too many and she never understood how those things had happened, she would think about them happening and then they did.
"But grandma, this says 'School for Witchcraft and Wizardry', I thought magic wasn't real?"
Coral's only answer to that was to hand her a large tomb with a black and white photo of a smiling family waving on the front cover, but it wasn't just that you could tell they had been waving when the photo was taken, they were literally waving.
They are moving! How is it doing that. Lissa thought as she turned the book over and tried to find where the projection was coming from. Then she flipped it back over to the front cover and stared at them for a few minutes.
"It won't bite you, go ahead and open it up." Her grandmother's voice made her jump as she was startled out of her stupor.
Lissa opened the front cover and was immersed into her family's history. The Armitages were a long line of wizards, but her great grandmother had been the last when she had chosen to leave the life behind her and marry a non wizard.
Time lapse
Lissa found an empty seat in one of the train cars hoping to have some space to herself. She'd spent the last six days finding out all about the wizarding world and getting 'caught up' in her education. McGonagall used memory spells every hour to give her the information she needed to learn the magic she had. She had gotten blistering headaches from those spells. McGonagall let her know that she would be having pop quizzes during the school year until she proved that she knew what she was doing when using her magic. She'd found out that not only were the Armitages a long line of wizards, but super rich to boot. Lissa had been given access to the family accounts at Gringotts the wizarding bank, bought all her supplies, including a beautiful snow owl and a black cat with emerald green eyes, and gone through the process to change her last name. The owl she had named Athena, and the cat she had named Selena. Selena had curled up on her lap and was purring at the moment, keeping Lissa very calm. Lissa still didn't understand why she had to change her name to Armitage, but she didn't mind carrying the name on since there wasn't anyone else to do the job.
"Are these seats taken?" A masculine voice drawled at her, startling her from her thoughts.
"Oh, um. No one else in this car." Lissa smiled shyly at the white blonde boy standing in the door.
"You sound like a Yankee, how did you get on the train?" He quirked an eyebrow at her.
She held up her train ticket. He looked it over, "Interesting. You must be new, because I don't remember any Yankees before now." He looked her up and down. "What year are you in?"
"Um, I think they said I'd be going for my seventh year... I've already been caught up, I just missed my letter when I was eleven."
"But you must have parents who were wizards?"
"Not that I know of." Lissa replied.
He tilted his head, "you really don't look seventeen." Then he smirked, "the names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. Pleased to meet you..."
"Lissa Ste... I mean Armitage."
Draco's jaw dropped "Did you just say Armitage?" Lissa nodded. "But they've been missing since before Vol..." He looked at her again. "Well, it's nice to meet you Lissa. Do you know what house you will be in yet?"
"Oh, yes Mrs. Mcgonagall had me sorted when I first came to Diagon Alley." She made funny faces while trying to say the words 'sorted' and 'Diagon Alley'.
Draco laughed as she said them.
"What? What's so funny?"
"Your accent. It's hellacious." He wiped a few tears from his eyes, and then noticed her scowl. "Sorry, so which house are you in, please don't say Gryffindor."
Lissa smiled making Draco wince, "what house are you in?"
"I'm a proud Slytherin. The best house there is." He grinned widely.
Lissa smirked a smirk that rivaled the smirk Draco had used earlier. "I guess you'll just have to wait and see."
A girl with messy, brown curls popped her head in the door. "We are almost to Hogwarts, please change into your school uniform." The girl said kindly before passing a glare over Draco.
Lissa walked into the Great Hall and stared in wonder at the breathtaking view before her. The ceiling was more amazing in person, her great grandmother's book had a few pictures of Hogwarts. She could just imagine how the room would look during a grand event, but it saddened her that this was also the room that had seen so much death. She'd learned about the war and the battles that had been fought here just the last year. She also realized that some of the seventh years were actually retaking their seventh year so they were older than her. Looking over the Great Hall she saw the four house table and the teacher's table at the front of the room. Noticing that most of the students had already sat down, Lissa caught Draco's eye as he watched her, curiosity written all over his face. She smirked at him again.
"Which house?" He mouthed at her.
Laughing Lissa walked up to him, "is this seat taken?"
He smirked, "I knew you would be a Slytherin." Gesturing for her to take a seat he turned to the rest of the table to make the introductions.
"Lissa? Is that really you?" Theo interrupted Draco.
Lissa turned, "Theo! What are you doing here?"
"This is where I go to school." He chuckled at her. "What are you doing here?"
"I just started. Apparently my letter got lost first year." She smiled.
Draco looked between the two, "how do you two know each other already?"
Lissa smiled, "Theo's family owns a house near my grandmother in California."
Theo smiled at her, "they have an orange grove in the backyard so I wanted to take a look. Never knew the muggle would end up a witch."
Draco's head snapped backed to her, "is your family all muggles?"
"Well, I'd never heard of Hogwarts before now, but my great grandmother attended. What's a muggle?" She said with a confused look on her face.
The table all looked at each other and Lissa heard the girl next to her whisper, "how did a mudblood make it into Slytherin?"
"Welcome students," Headmistress McGonagall's voice boomed through the room, and then quieted back down after the hall had grown silent, "to another year at Hogwarts. This year will be different from the last few years. We have students returning to retake their seventh year as it was interrupted last year, also we have a student who will be joining us for her seventh year from the United States. Please make sure she has a warm welcome." She smiled and made the rest of the usual announcements, "Thank you and have a wonderful feast."
Everyone began eating their food. The girl that had whispered turned to Lissa, "so what is your name?" She said with a slight sneer, appearing to try to be civil.
"Oh, my name is Lisabet Armitage, but everyone calls me Lissa." Lissa smiled. She'd been taught that you are always kind and respectful and if someone doesn't want to return it you just don't associate with them.
The girls eyes widened. "You are an Armitage?" She appeared to lose any ability to speak.
Theo whipped his head back up and stared at Lissa, "I thought you said your name was Stewart?"
"Oh, um the goblins had me change my name to my great grandmother's name when I got here. Something about making it easier…" Lissa shrugged.
"Well then I'm super glad we already met." Theo winked at her with a smile.
Draco looked suspiciously between the two of them, "I guess you already know Theo," he nodded at Theo, "this is Pansy Parkinson," he gestured to the girl next to Lissa, "This is Blaise Zabini," he leaned back so she could see the boy sitting next to him, "And these girls are Daphne and Astoria Greengrass." He finished pointing to the girls on either side of Theo.
"It's very nice to meet you." Lissa smiled at each of her fellow students. They finished the rest of their meal in relative silence, but Lissa noticed people staring at her and whispering to each other. When she went to get up from the table Theo offered her a hand to help her out of her seat. "Thanks Theo. That was some really good food."
He smiled widely at her, "yeah. But nothing can top those burgers and chips at the place you showed me." He winked at her.
"That's because In and Out is the best, but honestly I've never had pumpkin juice before and that was pretty amazing." Theo slung his arm over her shoulder as they walked out of the Great Hall.
"Want a personal tour of the school?" He asked her.
"Sure. But only if it's a short one. I'm beat and could really use some sleep."
Neither of them noticed that Draco was following them.
Theo showed her the whole school and to her rooms. Lissa said goodnight, found her bed and snuggled deep into it with Selena curled at her feet. She dreamt of her family back home. Her mom and dad were standing in the kitchen of their small home and there was a strange light coming through the windows. Slowly, she entered the kitchen remembering the many times before that she had had this dream. 'How could you keep that letter!' her mother shouted at her father. He glared back, 'She doesn't need to go to a boarding school.' he replied coldly. Lissa looked back and forth between them, finally knowing what the letter was that her mother yelled about every time she had this dream.
"Hey, Lissa." Someone called, shaking her awake.
Lissa blearily looked at the person shaking her, "Yeah, I'm awake." She tried to roll back over when the person shook her again.
"Come on Lissa, we have to go down for breakfast." Astoria whined, shaking her some more.
Lissa sat bolt upright. "Breakfast! I love breakfast…" she paused, "Will there be cereal?"
Astoria chuckled, "Probably not the kind you are used to. But the stuff is really rather
good. Just don't forget your books because classes start right after."
Lissa climbed out of bed and began to gather her things to take her shower, after her shower she got changed into her school uniform and put her dark auburn hair up in a tight bun. Once she was done she noticed that everyone else had already left for breakfast, so she walked out to the common room hoping she could remember the way.
"Hey, so want to walk to breakfast together?" A voice behind her said startling her.
Lissa turned around seeing Draco lounging on one of the armchairs by the fireplace, "Didn't see you there. Sure we could walk there, not a problem."
He led her out the door, "So what classes do you have today?"
"Um," Lissa scrounged in the bottom of her messenger bag for her schedule that Professor Flitwick had given her when she arrived at the school. "Looks like double Potions this morning, lunch, then Herbology and Transfiguration before dinner."
Draco smiled. "I can take you to every one of those classes."
She looked up at him as he slipped his arm around her waist making her jump a little from the contact, but she didn't make him move his arm.
When they got to the Great Hall, Theo waved for Lissa to sit next to him, but Draco steered her to the other side of the table and sat down next to her. "Good morning, Theo. Didn't see you in the dorms last night, did you find another warm bed?" Draco sneered, hinting at something more.
Lissa looked at Draco curiously, "Morning Theo. Thank you for the tour last night."
"Of course." He passed her a goblet full of something orange. "I got you orange juice in for breakfasts. I know it's not quite the same, but I thought you might like some."
"Wow, thank you!" Lissa smiled brightly. Then she took a sip and promptly spit it out.
"Let me guess, you transfigured something else into orange juice?" Draco said snarkily at Theo.
Theo went red. "Well, yeah. But I didn't think it would be that bad."
Draco rolled his eyes, "You've never been very good at impressing girls with your magic, mate. I'd just stop trying." Draco laughed trying to make it seem like a joke, and then glared at Theo trying get his point across.
Lissa just smiled and grabbed a glass of water instead, as she looked for the cereals. After realising they didn't have any she settled for some pancakes and eggs. After a few minutes she smelled something that made her mouth water. Her head snapped up and after not seeing what she smelt in her near by vicinity she stood up. Her eyes searched and searched until she saw the platter being passed between two Gryffindors across the hall. Lissa was out of her seat like a bolt. "Um, hi." She said shyly to the two boys. One had unruly black hair and one was the gingerist ginger she had ever laid eyes on. "Could I possible have some of that bacon?"
The black haired boy chuckled, "You must be the new student."
"Sure. Here you can take the whole platter I think we're done with it." The ginger said passing it over.
"I know you!" a new voice said from beside the red head. "I saw you on the train with Malfoy." It was the girl from the train, the one with messy, brown curls.
"Oh, um yeah. Hi. My name is Lisabet Armitage, but everyone calls me Lissa." Lissa shrugged.
"Nice to meet you Lissa. The names Harry," The boy with black hair said, then pointed at the ginger, "this is Ron," then he pointed to the girl, "and this is Hermione."
Lissa stared at them. "Wow!"
Harry paled a little, "Please don't start." he whispered under his breath.
Lissa looked at him and then at Hermione, "Were you named after a Shakespearean play?"
Harry brightened as Hermione nodded her head, "Yes I was as a matter of fact." She looked at Harry, "He thought you were going to start in on the whole hero worship thing."
"Hero? Did you save someone?" Lissa asked, looking over at Harry again.
Ron and Hermione started laughing, "Thank you Lissa. It's nice not having people talk about it all the time." Harry said smiling at her.
"Um, ok." Lissa replied before heading back to her seat.
"I guess you just met the golden trio." Draco sneered, with a look of hatred on his face.
Lissa looked at him and then across to the three people she had just met, "I guess so. What did they do?"
Draco just looked at her like she had said the most audacious thing ever, "You don't know about the war?"
"No I know about the war. There was a man and he was trying to get muggle born witches and wizards banned from using magic and what not and the Order of the Phoenix stopped him." Lissa shrugged.
"Ha! Someone gave you quite the shortened version." Blaise laughed.
Draco pointed his fork and him and gave him a menacing look, and then turned back to Lissa, "That is Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger. They are the three that brought him down." Draco's voice dripped with venom as he said their names.
"Oh." Lissa said, shocked.
"Time for classes!" Astoria said in a sing song voice, as she got up and skipped out of the Great Hall.
"Welcome to your first Potions class." Draco said grandly, as he ushered her into the room.
"Wow! This looks like it is going to be really cool." Lissa gushed as she surveyed the classroom. She sat down in the seat next to Draco. They continued to chat quietly as they waited for the professor to start class.
Professor Slughorn swept into the room, "Welcome students, Welcome." He said jovially. Looking at each of the students he began his lecture. "As you all may have guessed we have combined both the seventh year students and the returning seventh year students, for classes this year. Now today we are going to go over the properties and uses for these three potions." He indicated three small bottles on his desk. The first was a clear potion that was in a teardrop shaped bottle, the second was in a green glass bottle so Lissa couldn't tell what color it was, and the third was a silvery potion that slightly glowed. "Can anyone tell me what these are?" Slughorn turned to the class once more.
When it looked as though Hermione was the only one with the hand raised Lissa decided to give it a shot and raised her hand too. Noticing this Slughorn smiled widely, "Ah, our new student may have the answer. Miss Armitage?"
"The first one looks like it might be Felix Felicis, I don't know what the second one is, but the third looks like the Daught of Peace. At least they do to me." Lissa said, the last bit being almost a whisper.
Slughorn beamed at her, "You are absolutely correct. Can anyone guess what the middle one is?" Hermione still had her hand up. "Miss Granger?"
"That one must be Veritaserum. A truth serum that forces the taker to tell the truth." She replied in a rather smug voice.
Slughorn smiled a little less happily, "good job Miss Granger. ten points to Gryffindor, and ten points to Slytherin." He turned to the blackboard to the side of his desk, pointing his wand at it he said, "For the next few months we are going to brew each of these potions in pairs. The person you are sitting next to will be your partner for these potions. The first potion will be the Felix Felicis. While everyone is getting their ingredients I have a pop quiz for Miss Armitage. If you could please step into my office." Slughorn walked to his office and Lissa followed behind, nervous for her first quiz.
In his office Slughorn had a small cauldron set up and a small cupboard of ingredients. "Miss Armitage I need you to brew a Cure for Boils and a Forgetfulness Potion." he looked up at her, "do you think you can do that?"
Lissa nodded quickly as she got to work pulling out the ingredients for the cure for boils. She got out the snake fangs and crushed them into a fine powder, then she added four measures to the cauldron and started to heat it to two hundred fifty for ten seconds. Once that was completed she waved her wand over the cauldron.
"Very good Miss Armitage, go ahead and transfer to the second cauldron to complete the second potion." Slughorn said, very impressed with how well she had performed so far.
Smiling to herself, Lissa began the Forgetfulness Potion by dropping two drops of lethe river water into the cauldron. She then gently heated it for thirty seconds. After that she added two valerian sprigs and stirred it three times clockwise. Lissa waved her wand over the cauldron and left it to brew. Once she checked the Cure for boils she set an alarm on her wand to go off in twenty minutes to come back and complete each of the potions.
"Very nice Miss Armitage. Let us return to the classroom. Everyone should be ready for the next set of instructions." Slughorn smiled again proudly.
As they came out of the office, Lissa noticed that everyone was chatting together with all the ingredients laid out on the tables. Draco gave her a questioning smile and she nodded back smiling because she knew she had done well so far.
"The instructions are on the board please begin." Slughorn said to the class.
Lissa joined Draco again, "Did you get everything okay?"
"Yep." He replied while looking up at the board, "Looks like we need to add the ashwinder egg to the cauldron," Draco pointed at the egg sitting on the table, "then the horseradish and then we heat it." Draco looked slightly confused.
"No problem." Lissa said kicking right into brewing gear and going through all the motions not skipping a beat.
Draco watched her shocked, as she just kept going and doing as many things as she could.
"Can you stir this slowly while I go finish the other potions I'm doing?" Lissa asked, looking up at Draco.
Slowly he closed his mouth, which had fallen open while he was watching her. "Sure, no problem."
Lissa got up to leave, "oh, you might have to continue without me to I don't know how long I'll be."
Professor Slughorn saw Lissa get up and went to open the office door for her. Lissa finished both of the potions beautifully and Slughorn made sure to tell McGonagall.
"Wow, Lissa you were amazing." Pansy and Daphne gushed to Lissa as they all headed to lunch.
Theo and Draco both flanked her, glaring at each other over the top of her head. Draco slipped his hand around her waist and Theo tried to put his arm around her shoulders causing Lissa to stop and pull away. "Sorry guys, can I just walk today?" She asked cautiously.
Both boys nodded to her and put their hands in their pockets, trying their best not to look dejected. They all walked into the Great Hall and sat down at the Slytherins' table each of the boys sat down on either side of Lissa as the girls and Blaise sat on the other side.
"Ooo! Cold cuts and rolls for lunch. This looks really good." Lissa smiled, making herself a sandwich of ham and swiss with some fresh veggies.
They spent the lunch chatting about many of the things that had happened in potions class. And about how surprised they were with Lissa's abilities.
"So what class is next?" Lissa said once she had finished her sandwich and a bowl of potato wedges.
"Herbology. Right?" Draco asked looking at her.
"Oh, yeah. Herbology, lets go." Lissa got up smiling at everyone. She had a garden and a greenhouse back home and loved taking care of the plants. Her smile slipped as she realized she wouldn't be going back to her parents home.
Draco led her out to the greenhouse for Herbology. Professor Sprout was already puttering around in the greenhouse, setting out pots and things for the class.
"Good afternoon, class." Sprout sang over her shoulder.
"Good afternoon, Professor Sprout!" The class sang back to her.
"Today we are going to start a year long project for you." She turned to class, "You are going to start planting your own plants in each of these pots. You will work in pairs. You will also be keeping a journal on each of the plants and how they are growing, which you will turn in every week on Fridays and I will return to you every week on Mondays." Everyone started pairing off and Theo grabbed Lissa's hand before Draco had a chance to pull her aside.
Each pair stood behind a workstation and looked back at Professor Sprout as she passed out seedlings to each of the student pairs. Lissa looked at hers and then looked at Theo. "Do you know what plant this is?" She asked him, slightly puzzled.
Theo shook his head, "do you?"
"Not a clue."
Professor Sprout finished passing out the seeds and turned back to everyone again. "The seeds in your hands are of the Snargaluff plant. You will be caring for these plants until winter break. By then you should have a sizable sprout from the seeds. If your plant dies for some reason you will get an automatic T." She gave each student a warning look, lingering on Ron and Harry. "Thank you and please begin."
Lissa turned to Theo, "Did you bring an herbology book by any chance?"
He shook his head again, "Sorry."
"It's all good. I've got mine. Let's see if we can find the…" She paused flipping pages, "ah, here the Snargaluff plant." Lissa read off the title of the page she had turned to.
They made sure to fill the pot with the appropriate soil and embedded the seed at the appropriate depth. They gave it the fertilizer that it required and made sure it had plenty of water. Then they began to write in their journal about what they had done so far.
"That is one interesting plant." Lissa said as they all began the trek to Transfiguration.
Theo gave her a funny look, "Interesting? How are they even remotely interesting?"
Lissa stared at him, "they have glowing pods the size of grapefruit once they are full grown!"
He chuckled, "Right, not something you are used to."
They climbed the stairs to where Transfiguration was taught. The class wasn't long but it didn't feel very interesting to Lissa, probably because while everyone else was working on human transfiguration she was doing a pop quiz. She turned a desk into a pig, a match into a needle, performed the switching spell, turned two mice into a snuff box and a matchbox, and performed the Avifors spell on a chair. "Very well done Lissa." The professor praised her before she scurried over to Ron and Harry's desk. "What do you two think you are doing?" She nearly screeched at them. "The rest of you are dismissed."
Ron had some how managed to give Harry a pigs nose and dogs ears. Lissa gave them a worried look as everyone shuffled out of the room and the professor began grilling Ron on what he said and what he did trying to fix whatever he had done.
"I can't believe that happened." Lissa said for the fourth time since leaving Transfiguration class.
Draco, Blaise, and Theo all laughed, and Astoria, Daphne, and Pansy giggled.
"It's actually pretty common for Weasley to mess up like that." Draco said, once he'd stopped laughing. "He's always messing up something. And Granger is always getting them out of it."
Lissa looked over at the Gryffindor table, "She's a know-it-all isn't she?"
"Yep." Daphne said, popping the p.
Lissa looked at Hermione sitting at the table with a worried look on her face. The two boys still hadn't come back yet. "I'll be right back guys." Lissa announced as she got out of her seat and walked to the Gryffindor table.
"Hey, are you doing okay?" She asked once she had reached Hermione.
The girl looked up quickly, and Lissa noticed a red headed girl across from her give her a glare. "Oh, um. Yeah I probably will be." Hermione answered.
"Can I sit with you for a little?"
"Sure." Hermione shifted over to give Lissa a seat next to her, while doing that she noticed the glare the other girl was giving to Lissa, "Oh, Ginny stop that. She's new and hasn't done anything to warrant a glare like that."
Lissa looked up at the girl, "Hi, my name is Lissa Armitage. It's nice to meet you." She stretched her arm across the table to shake Ginny's hand.
Ginny looked at her hand for a second ,then back at her face."The names Ginny Weasley." She answered as she stopped glaring and gave Lissa a small smile.
"So, Lissa how are you liking Hogwarts so far?" Hermione asked her, trying to sound upbeat.
"Oh, it's amazing. I think Potions is my favorite class so far, but it's only been one day so I guess I'll just have to wait and see." Lissa gave the girls wide smiles.
Ginny laughed, "That's Ron and Harry's least favorite."
"Really?" Lissa looked at Ginny again, "are you related to Ron?"
Ginny and Hermione laughed, "Yeah I'm his sister." She answered wiping a tear away."
"Hey guys." Harry said as him and Ron joined them at the table.
Ginny jumped up and gave him a big hug. He patted her back in a smoothing motion, while Ron sat down on the opposite side of Hermione.
"Hi, Lissa, right?" Ron said, acknowledging that someone new was sitting with them.
"Yeah. Hi." Lissa blushed a little and then looked at Harry as he and Ginny sat back down, "are you okay?" She asked a little worried.
Harry looked at her questioningly, "Uh, yeah. I'm fine. Ron's got nothing on a Death Eater."
Lissa's eyes got big for a second, "Oh, that's right you guys fought in the final battle, right?"
They all gave her a look like she'd turned into a flying monkey, "Yeah where have you been living under a rock?" Ron said, completely flabbergasted.
"Oh, um no. I've been living in the states, and I kind of just got a really short version of the whole war and stuff." Lissa blushed again.
Hermione looked at her, "You aren't from the wizarding world are you?"
"No, not really."
"What do you mean not really?" Harry asked her.
"Well, my great grandmother was a student here at Hogwarts, but as far as I know no one else was a witch or wizard in my family after her."
Hermione's interest was peaked, "What was her name?"
"Adele Armitage. As far as I know she didn't have a middle name, but yeah Adele was her first." Lissa told her without hesitation.
"Ooo, that's a pretty name." Ginny said smiling.
"Thanks." Lissa looked over at the Slytherin table where Draco and Theo were trying to wave her back over, "I think I need to go finish eating now. It was nice talking to you guys though." She gave them all another smile and walked back to her seat.
"Why were you talking to them?" Draco sneered, as she sat down to finish her dinner.
Lissa looked up, "Oh, I was just worried, because I saw Hermione looking pretty worried. And I wanted to keep her company and maybe cheer her up." She looked at each of her new friends and found them all gaping at her. "What? Is there something on my face?"
Astoria shook her head, "No. It's just we grew up being taught that you don't associate with her kind."
"Huh? Her kind? What kind is she? Is she a magical being or something…"
Draco cut Lissa off with a chuckle, "No she's a mudbl… muggle born. Purebloods don't get their hands dirty with their kind."
Lissa gave them each a confused look, "So just because she was born in a different circumstance than you, you won't try to be friends or even civil with her?" All her friends nodded, Theo looked a little ashamed of himself for it though. "That's is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I can't believe anyone would be that idiotic." They each gave her incredulous looks again. "You do realise that I am most likely a 'muggle born' as well." She put air quotes around muggle born, "I'm just the same as her and yet you've all been friendly to me. And even after only knowing you since last night I think of you each as my friends. What is so different between her and I?"
Draco sputtered, "But you're an Armitage…"
"So just because I have a different last name you are going to treat me differently. What if you had been born a Weasley, Draco? Or if Theo was actually adopted? That most like wouldn't change who you fundamentally are. Where you're born doesn't affect where you'll be or the kind of person you will be! God, I can't believe I'm having this kind of conversation again."
Daphne raised an eyebrow, "again? What do you mean again?"
Lissa waved her hands indicating the whole room, "This is basically a race issue. I had the same kind of conversation with some friends of mine back home when they found out that my family hires migrant workers to work the orange groves."
Pansy scrunched her face up, "Migrant workers? What are those?"
"They are people who move from one place to another for work in order to support their families. Most of the time they aren't citizens either."
"So, like house elves?" Blaise asked.
Lissa looked at him confused. This prompted them to all tell her about house elves and a bunch of other things that mirrored each other across the muggle and wizard divide.
As they walked back to the common room each of her friends contemplated the things that Lissa had talked to them about. Before they got too far Lissa pulled up short, "Hey, I have to go to the Astronomy tower for some tutoring, see you guys in the morning." She turned and started up to the tower.
"Hey, Lissa wait up. I'll walk you there. If that's okay?" Theo called, jogging up to her.
"Sure." She said, smiling up at him. Draco saw this and felt something tug in his chest.
"What kind of tutoring are you going to get tonight?" Theo asked her, trying to fill the silence.
"Oh um, I don't really know. Professor Sinistra just said to make sure I had a quill, parchment and my astronomy book." She continued up the stairs.
Once they had reached the top of the tower Lissa gazed around at the open view of the sky as the stars started to come out. "Ah, Miss Armitage. Thank you for joining me." Professor Sinistra looked at Theo, "Thank you Mr. Nott, you can return to your common room now."
"If it's alright I'd like to wait for her…" Theo said, shyly.
Sinistra looked him over, "Sorry, she is probably going to be pretty late. I'll make sure one of the Heads is here to walk her back, thank you though." She turned giving him a silent dismissal.
'Sorry' He mouthed to Lissa, she just shrugged and then turned to listen to what the professor was telling her.
She spent the next three hours going over the stars and pointing out which ones where planets. Sinistra had her plot the movements of random planets and their moons if applicable, and by the end it was almost midnight and Lissa was utterly exhausted.
"Very well done, Miss Armitage. You have passed with flying colors and you won't be needing to take anymore tutoring time with me." Professor Sinistra smiled happily at her. "I believe one of the heads is waiting to take you back to your common room. Have a wonderful night." With that she went in a trapdoor that led to the professor's offices and left Lissa to go back down the stairs.
"That took you long enough." Lissa heard as she noticed a familiar head of white blonde hair.
"I thought one of the heads was coming to pick me up?"
"Yep, that's me. Head boy at your service." Draco smirked at her.
"Oh, cool." Lissa blushed as Draco wound his arm around her waist and walked her down to the dungeons.
Once they reached the wall to the Slytherin common room he looked at her and asked, "Lissa, would you be interested," he paused looking away from her, "would you like to go with me to Hogsmeade this weekend?"
"Sure." She answered smiling back up at him.
He gave her a huge smile and kissed her on the forehead, "See you in the morning little Bet."
Lissa smiled climbing under her covers, she liked the new nickname he'd given her.
The next few days passed much the same as the first. Lissa went to her classes, took her pop quizzes, and passed tutoring with flying colors. She found herself becoming more and more of a friend to many of the other students around her, she also noticed her Slytherin friends becoming more civil towards their fellow classmates.
"Lissa, how do you do it!?" Astoria moaned again. It was Thursday and they were in Apparitions class, only her and Astoria were in class together.
Lissa looked over at her, "Honestly, I don't really know how I do it. I just think about where I want to be until I feel like I'm already there, and then pop I'm there."
Astoria furrowed her brow concentrating on the corner opposite them in the room.
"Try thinking of how it smells in that corner and how it feels, and picture what it looks like from that corner looking back at me," Lissa coached her.
Astoria's face scrunched up even more and then, 'POP!' She disappeared and then reappeared in the other corner. Her face lit up, "I did it! I did it, Lissa!" She skipped back over. "Thank you so very much!" Astoria grabbed Lissa into a bear hug.
Lissa smiled, "Oh of course Astoria. I love to help."
Once class was over they walked to the Great Hall for lunch. Lissa was very happy with the group of friends she had found, although she wasn't happy that they weren't all friends together. She found herself having to split time between her Slytherin friends and the other group of friends. Harry, Ron and Hermione had introduced her to Neville, Seamus, Dean, Padma, Parvati, Luna, and the rest of the DA that were still around, but the Slytherin crowd still would have nothing to do with them. Lissa just wanted everyone to get along or at least try to. Mostly because her birthday was coming up and she wanted 'all' her friends there, not just some.
Lissa sat down at a table in the Great Hall, shaking her head, "What's the matter, Lissa?" Theo asked her noticing how down she looked.
She looked up at him, "Just thinking about things."
"Like what?" Daphne asked.
"Well," Lissa paused, seeing Hermione.
Hermione came rushing up to the table and cut Lissa off before she could go further. "Lissa, I found something in the library and you really need to come take a look at it." She rushed, grabbing Lissa by the arm and pulling her out of her seat.
"Okay, Hermione, okay. Not so rough." Lissa smiled over her shoulder, "see you guys later."
Hermione and Lissa rushed through the halls to the library, "Hermione, what is this about?"
"It's your family. I found some information out about them and I found a spell to see if your family were witches and wizards too." Hermione quickly said, almost stumbling over the words.
They reached the library and Hermione stopped running to slowly walk through the library to a table that was piled high with books. She grabbed a chair and sat down in front of an open book. "So, this book shows all of your family tree of the Armitage side." Lissa looked at the page and saw a large tree with many people going pretty far back, but once it got to her great grandmother you could tell that none of her relatives had had children or their children hadn't lived long.
"That looks like a bunch of sad stories." Lissa whispered pointing to all the dead ends. Where as Adele Armitage had a question mark under her name and then Lissa under that. "Wait how did they know about me?"
Hermione giggled, "It's a magic book so it updates itself whenever a new person is added to a specific family tree. See," She flipped to a page that was labeled 'Potter' put a finger there and then flipped to 'Black', "Harry's name is on both of these. Potter because that was his father's line, and Black because his godfather left him all of that."
"That's really cool, thank you so much for finding this." Lissa looked at her family tree again, "Wouldn't this have my parents and grandparents since they added me?"
Hermione just shook her head, "It would only have them if they were added to the magical populace."
"How would they do that?"
"Well, if they came to Gringotts and proved that they are witches and wizards, or there's a blood spell you can do." Hermione pointed at another open book on the table.
Lissa eyed it suspiciously, "It's not going to do anything weird, right?"
"Well," Hermione picked up the book, "it looks like it will basically give a family tree type thing and any names that aren't blue and don't continue going back, well those ones won't be magical." She shrugged. "Doesn't look like anything else should happen, but that once the names that are magical come up they can be added into the Gringotts archive."
"Okay," Lissa hesitated, then decided that she should just go for it, "let's do it. What do we need for it?"
"A piece of parchment," Hermione grabbed the parchment, "and some blood." She held up a needle.
"My blood?" Lissa blanched.
Hermione nodded, "it shouldn't hurt."
"Alright." Lissa braced herself while Hermione pricked her finger.
As Hermione dropped a dab of blood on the parchment she waved her wand over it and whispered something under her breath. After doing that they both stared at the parchment waiting for something to happen and then slowly Lissa's name scrawled itself across the bottom of the page in vibrant blue. A line appeared leading the eye to the names of her parents, both in blue making Lissa and Hermione gasp. Then came her grandparents' name, blue on both sides. The names kept going back and back generations upon generations, all blue names. When the parchment was filled and there was no room for anymore names the girls looked at each other with stunned looks on their faces.
Hermione opened and closed her mouth and then opened her mouth again.
"Please don't tell anyone." Lissa said breaking the silence. Her eyes pleading as her stomach churned. What am I going to do? Why didn't they tell me? I don't know if I can handle this on top of the Armitage titles and fortune. Her mind continued to go in circles making her stomach churn more and more.
"Why not?" Hermione asked cocking her head to one side.
Lissa looked around them, "Because I don't want to deal with the drama right now. I'm already working so hard to get everyone talking I don't want this to be added to it. Oh, and it doesn't help that I have more money and titles then Malfoy, even though no one has mentioned it I can still tell it's there."
Hermione nodded, "I'll keep it just between us." She rolled the parchment up and handed it to Lissa. "Here, you might need this one day." The two girls smiled at each other as Lissa helped Hermione put all the books back with a levitation charm.
After everything was put away Lissa and Hermione walked back to lunch together. Once they reached the Great Hall they parted ways and hurried to eat something before their next classes. Draco and Theo tried to talk to her about what Hermione wanted, and Lissa just kept answering, "Nothing to worry about, just some class stuff."
AN: This is the first five chapters of my story merged into one. I hope you all like it. I'm currently working on the next set of chapters and I hope to put them up soon. Thank you all and please R&R! Oh and the first five to follow and favorite get a personal OC in the story for an undetermined amount of time. :-) Three spots have already been taken by lovebookstwilight, Lorna Roxen, and MZami.