"It's okay, Charlie," Gennyfyr said as she pet her unicorn, "I'll be back at lunch to see you. I hope they like me here at Hogwarts." She tossed her silvery blond hair behind her back, biting her lip nervously. "I'll meet him today, the boy, Harry, who I'm supposed to defeat Voldemort with. What if he doesn't like me?"
Gennyfyr took a deep breath. "There's no use getting worked up, my powers could get away from me again. I'll just remember the tips that Dumbledore told me to keep them in check. I hope that the students don't mind having someone two years younger than them in class."
Charlie neighed comfortingly. Gennyfyr kissed him lightly on the snout. "Thank-you old friend. Hopefully I will start a new life here, one where people like me and don't try to use me for their own benefit."
Gennyfyr slung her book bag over her shoulder gracefully and turned from the stables. The groundskeeper, Hagrid, had become her close friend over the summer. She had nowhere to go when there was no school, so she had stayed here. The giant had grown to love her as a daughter.
She walked up to the castle, biting her nails.
When she entered the hall she was confronted with a tall, fit boy with silvery blond hair that matched his eyes perfectly.
Gennyfyr knew him instantly. He must be Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius, the death eater.
Draco took one long look up and down Gennyfyr's body and smiled in an all-too familiar way.
She sighed, she was used to people looking at her this way. Gennyfyr was tall and slender. She had perfectly sized breasts and silvery-blond hair. Her eyes were silvery purple with lightening-like streaks through them. They were rimmed with gold. In fact, most of Gennyfyr was silvery. Her skin was even pale. It was that one touch of gold you had to watch.
Her eyes changed colours with her emotions, and now they deepened with annoyance.
Yes, Gennyfyr was used to this. She had once been asked to be a Victoria's Secret model, whatever that was.
"Hello beautiful, you must be new, or I would have noticed you before," Draco said smoothly.
Gennyfyr flicked her hair and responded cooly. "Hardly, you seem to have rather weak deduction skills."
"And how is that?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow seductively.
"You couldn't figure out that I would never, ever go out with you, no matter what lines you used. So don't embarrass yourself."
Draco's face feel astronomically. "But-but... I-I-I... Please..."
Gennyfyr walked away without another word. She turned back to say, "Sorry, hon, try someone more in your league."
She would have felt bad, but she knew Draco's reputation. He was a womanizer, a death eater, and didn't care how others felt. She could see it in his eyes that he just wanted to use her. That should show him.
As she continued on her path to the Great Hall she noticed that she was getting some approving glances from a trio to the side.
"That was impressive," a red-headed boy said.
"Yes," a bushy-haired girl added in, "we always like to see Malfoy get what's coming to him."
The final boy stayed silent. He had jet-black hair and glasses. His face was chiselled and his body was obviously lean and muscular. Gennyfyr's eyes were instantly drawn to the scar on his forehead, partially hidden by a fringe of hair that hung across his eyes.
Her breath caught in her chest. This was Harry Potter. This was the boy who she was to help save the world.
Had Gennyfyr been someone else she would have found herself at a loss for words. But Gennyfyr was not someone else.
"I'm Gennyfyr Luminetoile Cullen," Gennyfyr replied, "but you can call me Gen."
"I'm Ron," said the redhead.
"I'm Hermione," said the girl.
The boy, Harry, looked deep into her eyes. "I'm Harry Potter," he said, in a pleasant baritone.
"I know," Gen said.
Harry looked a little startled, "You're not going to scream and ask me for my autograph?"
"Of course not," Gen looked startled, "do you want me to?"
"No," Harry said thoughtfully, "it's a refreshing change."
Gen smiled, "Good, because I wouldn't have even if you wanted me to."
Harry laughed a little and gestured towards the large set of doors before them. "After you," he said.
Gen grinned and walked out in front of them, aware of their eyes watching her go.
A teacher dressed in green with her hair in a bun rushed up to meet Gen as she entered.
"Come dear," said Professor McGonagal, for it must be her, "you have to be sorted."
"Sorted?" Gen asked, confused.
But the woman wasn't listening. She just ushered the teenager onto the stage.
"You'll go first," she said, "seeing as you're new."
Gen felt extremely awkward, standing up on the stage with a bunch of young children. She could hear the people in the Great Hall muttering, their eyes running over her curiously.
A boy from the left side of the hall gave a wolf whistle. Several of the others seemed too awed to even do that.
Gen found herself plopped down on a stool with an old hat on her head.
"Well, well, well," said the hat, "what do we have here?"
"Excuse me sir," Gen said, "but I don't know what I'm being sorted into."
"The houses, my dear," the hat said. He gave a brief history of Hogwarts.
"Oh," Gen said, "well then, what house am I in?"
The hat tutted. "That, my dear, is a problem. You don't seem to fit into one house. You have qualities that belong in each. You are cunning and clever, but at the same time vastly intelligent. You are humble, loyal and wise. You are brave, also. And I'm not sure what house fits you best."
Gen fidgeted a little. "What does that mean?"
"It means," the hat said, sounding delighted, "that you get to choose your own house. Which will show more of your personality than anything else."
Gen furrowed her brow. She could barely remember what houses did what. She had been too nervous, too preoccupied with the stares of her classmates.
She looked around the room at the colours of each. The Slytherin banner was green. Her favourite colour was green. She had an emerald green dress that was once her mother's, though she had never had an occasion to wear it.
"Slytherin," Gen said.
Gen thought that if the hat had eyebrows it would've raised them.
"Very well," he said, "SLYTHERIN."
A gasp emanated from the room. Gen looked up and met Harry's eyes from across the stage. There was disappointment there. She smiled apologetically and Harry grinned back at her, his eyes lighting up in a strange way. He wasn't, she didn't think, angry at her choice. He just wanted her in the same house as him.
Which was good. Gen now almost wished that she had chosen Harry's house. As she walked to the Slytherin table she noticed that Draco Malfoy was among its occupants. She winced, she didn't want to have to deal with this boy. She had snapped at him earlier out of nervousness.
Great, Gen thought, she now started her school year on the wrong foot. Draco seemed to be some sort of King of the house. All her house mates were going to hate her
Gen couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as she sat down a girl, Pansy, jumped into conversation with her about her fangs.
"I'm part vampire," Gen explained.
"Ooh," Pansy said, "does that mean that you, like, want to eat me?"
"No," Gen said, "I don't have to drink blood. I'm actually a vegetarian. I'm only part vampire. "
"Cool," Pansy said. "Can you go out in the sun?"
Gen smiled secretively. "Kind of, I guess." But she wouldn't say any more on the subject.
A boy on the other side of her sidled up. "Hi, I'm Blaise."
Gen held out her hand. "I'm Gen."
He gave her the look and she almost turned away from him to avoid it.
"I can, you know, show you around sometime." He took her hand and held it gently to his lips.
Gen smiled politely. "Thanks, but I have a map."
Gen thought lovingly to her map that was hidden in her bag. It had been her father's. It moved and showed everyone who was in the castle at the time. It would help her out a lot when she wanted to sneak out at night.
Blaise looked confused. Gen was used to that too.
Later, in her rooms, Gen took off her cloak.
And she had prepared herself for the chorus of gasps as her wings unfurled.
"You have... wings?" Pansy said.
Gen thought that that fact was pretty obvious. "Yes, I'm half angel."
"H-half angel?" Another girl exclaimed.
"It's no big deal, I don't know who my parents are, really."
The wings were a beautiful sight. They were pure white tinged with silver. Silver glitter fell softly from them when she removed the piece of clothing that had obscured them before.
The girls went to bed in awe.
Gen sighed, looking out the window to where her beloved unicorn, Charlie, sat. Maybe Hogwarts wasn't going to be that bad. People seemed to be being nice to her.
At her old school, the school of Mordor, she hadn't been loved. So many of the people were jealous. Gen was much more powerful than most, and the teachers favoured her. Though they hadn't really loved her either, just been afraid of her.
Gen shuddered. She didn't want to think of that place. It was too painful. She should focus on the happy future that lay ahead of her. She liked Harry already, and the Slytherins were well-meaning, if dumb. She hadn't lost control of her magic yet today.
Nobody was calling her a freak. Nobody was hiding from her. Nobody was hurting her or lying to her. For now it was good.
From this day forward things were going to get better.
If only Gen knew what lay in store.