The Great Hall was buzzing with excitement. Thousands of students all eagerly talking at once, all discussing the announcement Professor Dumbledore had just made- That the top three Seventh Year students in Muggle Studies would be going on exchange for six months, and not just on exchange to the Salem Institute of Magic, the three lucky students would be going on exchange to a muggle school in America, in a town called Forks, well known amongst the magical community for being equal to the Bermuda Triangle in terms of unexplainable occurrences. During the six months they spent there, the selected three students would live entirely as muggles, where their classes studied would count as their NEWTS. They would be provided with a house, and a weekly allowance for food, clothing, and anything else that takes their fancy.
Dumbledore smiled indulgently, watching the students talk amongst themselves, giving them a chance to get the excitement out of their systems before continuing.
" I won't keep you all in anticipation for any longer than necessary, so, without further ado, the students selected are- Hermione Granger, from Gryffindor House!" There was a tumultuous cheer for Granger, who grinned and blushed at the many pats on the back she received. Dumbledore again waited a moment before continuing.
"The second student going to America will be Alana Wilde, also of Gryffindor House!" There was cheering once again, and a thin pale girl with short spiky blonde hair and startling grey eyes grinned, although inside she was not without trepidation. The strong dislike between Alana and Granger was well known throughout the school, and if the next name announced was not someone Alana was friendly with, the trip could be very unpleasant indeed.
The anticipation was almost unbearable as Dumbledore began to speak a third time, and Alana listened to his announcement with a beating heart.
"And last, but by no means least, Imogen Snape, from Slytherin House!" The cheering for this girl was quieter, although Slytherin House did its best to make up for the less than enthusiastic applause from the other three houses.
Imogen Snape was a tall thin girl, with long dark hair sitting between Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. She had the dark, penetrating eyes of her father, Severus Snape, and sharp features. She was lucky that she had inherited only her father's eyes and demeanour, and not his hooked nose or sallow skin. Even her hair, while as dark as her father's, was thick, and shining, rather than oily or lank.
She gave a quick smile to Alana, who was grinning and cheering, feeling thoroughly relieved that her closest childhood friend had been selected to go with her.
Imogen herself was thrilled, although to look at her, one would not detect anything but a mild happiness. She'd grown up in a thoroughly magical household in Spinner's End, but her fascination with muggles had been long embedded in her, ever since she had been four, and Alana's muggle father had taken the two of them to the muggle cinemas.
"Alright, Snapey!" Draco was saying to her, as the food magically appeared. "Way to go beating all the Ravenclaws! Shame about Granger, though." He added as an afterthought, as he began serving himself.
Imogen smiled. "Well yes, but hardly any Ravenclaws take Muggle Studies, Draco. It's apparently beneath them." Draco's pride as a Slytherin tended to present itself as competitiveness between the other houses, and Imogen was occasionally guilty of the same competitive flaw. The meal went rather quickly, Imogen, Draco and Blaise discussing what they knew of Forks, and making plans for letters, visits, and the like. They continued talking as they entered the dorm, and Imogen began sorting out what she was going to take to Forks the following day.
Meanwhile, Alana was curled up in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, listening to everyone discuss the trip, all happily unaware she was there, as she was so often in the Slytherin common room with her friends. As it was, she could hear every word they were saying.
"You were always going to get a spot, 'Mione. You can't really say you're surprised." Ron Weasley was saying.
"It's a great honour, Ron, and I was never sure." Granger responded prissily.
"What about the other two though? I mean, I guess Alana's smart, that's fair enough, but what about the Slytherin? I didn't think any of them were even taking that class." Weasley spoke again.
"Oh, there are a few, Snape, and that Zabini boy. There's Greengrass too, although she's quiet, unlike the Snape girl." Granger said, this time scrunching her nose up with disapproval.
"I still can't believe she'd his kid. I mean, I know it's been like, six years or whatever, but I can't see him caring about anyone enough to have a kid." Weasley again.
"There's a lot about the Professors you wouldn't know." Granger said archly.
"Yeah yeah. Still, what is it with those two anyway? Alana and Snape junior? I mean, Alana's a Gryffindor, you'd think she'd know better."
"They grew up together, since Alana's dad died." That was Harry, and his pronouncement spawned the same stunned expression from the two bickering friends.
"How'd you know that, mate?" Ron asked.
Harry shrugged. "Our parents were friends. They went to school together. Apparently my mum even introduced her mum to her dad."
"Oh, Harry! How did you even find that out? I didn't think you knew much about your parents before.. I mean, did Sirius tell you? Or Remus?"
"Bit of both really. And Dumbledore gave me all the stuff saved from the house over the holidays; there was some old school stuff, a few old pictures. There's a picture of mum and Alana's mum together at school, a picture of both our parents together, just before mum and dad got married. There's even some of Alana and me as babies. We were supposed to be friends, but then they died, and I got sent to the Dursleys.."
Alana felt a tear falling down her cheek, and hastily wiped it away, even though she knew no one could see her in her dark corner. Alana had always known that she and Harry had been raised basically as siblings, up until they turned one and everything went wrong. Even though she herself couldn't remember any of it, her mother frequently reminisced about Lily, the woman who had basically been her surrogate sister, and remained to this day the closest friend Elspeth Wilde had ever had. She also knew that her parents had appealed the decision to give Harry to the Dursleys, and that her parents had even offered to adopt Harry themselves. Elspeth still resented Dumbledore for refusing them.
In first year, Alana had tried her hardest to befriend him, but she'd heard him talking rather badly about the Slytherins, and she knew that there was no way she could be friends with him without loosing Draco, Blaise, if not Imogen, as her friends, the fiercely proud Slytherins that they were. But now, hearing Harry talk about them, a spark of hope leapt in her chest. Maybe she still had a chance of them being friends?
"Oh, Harry.." Granger said in a pitying voice, breaking Alana's train of thought. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Yeah mate, that must have been hard for you." Weasley said.
Harry shrugged again. "I dunno.. I just didn't know what to say."
"I'm sorry Harry. I didn't mean to pry. I- I should go pack." Granger said, not meeting Harry's eyes as she rushed off to the girl's dorms.
"Yeah. Look mate, I'm sorry. Wanna do rounds with me? Scare a few first years and stuff?" Weasley asked his friend as he stood. Harry shook his head. Weasley shrugged, and wandered out the portrait hall.
Harry sat and watched his friend leave, and he caught sight of her. They looked at each other awkwardly, Alana knowing that she should say something, but was coming up blank. Harry turned and walked to the male dorms silently before she had a chance to even move.
Alana ran out of Gryffindor tower after that, trying to keep her tears at bay, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. She ran down and down and down, until there was no more down to go, and she reached the cold stone wall she was looking for. She paused a moment to collect herself further, feeling better knowing that her friends were close at hand, and that she'd be comforted soon enough, should she continue to need it. She wiped her face, drying it of the few tears that had managed to escape, despite her best efforts. "Orpheus" she whispered, the wall sliding open at the password. She had been coming to the Slytherin common room since her first day at Hogwarts, and if she were honest, it felt more like home to her than Gryffindor tower ever would.
Alana walked straight into Imogen's room, knowing she would find her three best friends there. Sure enough, Imogen was standing over her trunk, arguing with Draco and Blaise over what of her things she should pack. Draco was saying to just shrink her things so she could pack everything, while Blaise was only packing the short, leather or lacy things that Imogen owned, while Mimi herself was throwing everyone else's suggestions out and only adding her own, rather eclectic selections of clothing into the trunk.
Alana laughed at the sight of them, already feeling better. They looked up at her at this. "What?" they said in unison, each wearing a very similar expression saying 'You'd better not be laughing at me, girly.'
"I love you guys. Really." Alana laughed and shook her head at them.
The boys ignored her at this, and resumed packing Imogen's clothes, while Imogen herself quirked an eyebrow and said, "What happened? And why aren't you packing?"
"No need. Already packed." Alana said, plopping herself onto Imogen's bed, nonchalantly inspecting a discarded light blue and cream lace corset that Blaise had clearly overlooked. "When did you wear this?" She asked Imogen coyly. Imogen glared, while Blaise looked over at Alana and snatched the garment out of her hands with an "Ooh!" eagerly tossing it into Imogen's overflowing trunk.
Imogen glared quickly at Alana, and fished the corset out of the trunk and hurled it at Alana's head.
"You are so not helping." She told her blonde friend.
"Oh come on! Immy, that was sexy!" Blaise protested.
"Blaise, shut up!" Imogen growled at her friend. As unfriendly as the dark haired girl acted towards her friends, everyone present in the room knew that Imogen loved everyone of them like family, and that there was very little she wouldn't do to help them.
She turned back to Alana. "And you, don't change the subject. What happened?"
Alana shrugged. "Just the Golden Trio, having a go at Slytherins again. Wondering why I'm friends with you, why you're going on the trip, blah blah blah." Alana waved a hand, dismissing the topic. "Not important, just annoying."
"So you came down here to spread the annoying?" Imogen said, playfully now that she knew her friend was ok.
Draco was about to say something, but Imogen, already knowing that it was going to be something disparaging about Potter, elbowed him sharply, and gave him a look that told him clearly that to speak would cause his painful downfall. He stayed quiet, knowing that Alana was a bit touchy about Potter. However, it was open season on Granger.
"Was Granger being completely unbearable? Thinking she was the smartest little beaver in the whole wide world?" Draco said.
Alana groaned. "She still thinks she's Merlins gift to magic everywhere. She's freaking ridiculous!"
The four in the room knew that Alana and Imogen were both singularly intelligent, easily more so than Granger. Alana was purely instinctual, learning and perfecting her magic purely by the feel of it, while Imogen had a mind like a flytrap. She could remember facts from ten years ago just as easily as she could from ten minutes ago. She could read things once, and remember them forever, which was how she was number one in both History of Magic, and Ancient Runes, second in Potions (she maintained it was just because her father didn't want to show too much favouritism) and Muggle Studies, and was in the top ten of her other subjects.
Alana was coming first in DADA, second in Transfiguration, third in Muggle Studies, and coming fourth in Charms, although she had been accelerated a year in that particular subject. She was, however, completely dismal at Herbology and History of Magic, due to her short attention span and her penchant for drifting off to sleep halfway through classes. She should have been first in Divination, as her mother was a renown seer who had passed her talent over to her daughter, but Alana's obvious disdain of Trelawney meant that the teacher marked her as low as was possible.
"You know, I bet that she'll struggle to find even one friend at that school you go to. Not with you two there. Even the novelty of her being an exchange student won't help her out there." Blaise said, talking about Granger. "Although, Immy, you could probably make more friends if you didn't pack so many things made of fur." Blaise said, as he held up a tan coat, with chocolate brown fur trimmings.
"Faux fur, thank you." Imogen said, snatching the coat out of his hands and packing it lovingly into the trunk. "And I happen to love that coat."
The four chatted for a while, and the boys eventually retreated to their own room, leaving the two girls to their girl talk and Imogen to her packing. As they changed into their pyjamas, the two boys talked.
"I'm worried about them." Draco said what they'd both been thinking for the last five hours. "I don't know how they'll cope. Imogen has never spent that much time around muggles, and I know 'Lana will help, but I'm worried. Who'll look after them? Or the people she'll attack when she gets pissed off at Granger?" Draco and Blaise both thought of Imogen's explosive temper, but Blaise shook it off.
"They'll be fine, Drake. Really. Severus will have provided for them at the house, they'll have money, they'll have the amulets, and besides, they're more than capable of looking after themselves. Imogen's had to deal with Death Eaters even before puberty, I'm sure a couple of muggles will be no problem."
"I know.. I just, I dunno.. I don't want them to go. I'm gonna miss them."
Blaise laughed and put his arms around the smaller boy. "Am I not enough then?"
Draco looked up at him and smiled. "You know that's not it." Draco returned the hug. "They're our best friends, and we've never been at Hogwarts without them. Its just gonna be the two of us." He sighed, and breathed in the scent of the boy he'd fallen in love with over the summer. "Should we tell them about us?"
Blaise smiled and kissed the top of the blonde's head. "Not yet. I want to keep this between us for just a little longer. But we'll tell them soon. First chance we get to visit them. I promise."
Draco smiled, and leaned up to press his lips against Blaise's. "Okay." He mumbled as Blaise deepened the kiss.
Blaise broke off for a moment to look into Draco's molten silver eyes. "I love you, Drake."
Draco melted just a little more into his lover's embrace. "I love you too Blaise."
The conversation could be finished tomorrow.