Hey guys so I published this story years ago and then took it down. I honestly don't know why but I just felt like reuploading it so I hope you enjoy :)
Embre beamed at her letter. THANK GOD! Embre can get out of this hell and most importantly SHE'S A FLIPPIN WITCH! She did a sort of dance but stopped at the sight of her mother's disapproving scowl. "Very well, next week we will go to Diagon Alley to purchase your things. Go to your room now, I don't want to see you again today." she said coldly. In true pureblood tradition, she stiffly walked out of the room with her nose in the air. Embre skipped up the stairs making her way to her room, a grin on her face.
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Two weeks later Embre was sitting in her empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express, gazing into the large, empty, fields outside. There was a knock on the door and Embre saw a girl with dark red hair shyly open the compartment. Behind her was a dark silhouette that Embre could not see clearly. "Sorry there aren't any other empty compartments, do you mind?"
"Of course not" Embre replied.
She stepped in and sat down opposite Embre. She was shortly followed by a pale, black, greasy haired boy with strong cheekbones that gave him an almost vampire-ish look to him. "Hello, I'm Lily Evans and this is Severus Snape. What's your name?"
"Embre Graceling".
Soon they were accompanied by a boy with sand-coloured hair and blue-green eyes. He was shortly followed by another boy with unruly black hair and round glasses and by a boy with long, dark black hair and grey-green eyes. There reasoning for being there was that they were "bored and decided to take a walk". The sand-coloured haired boy, whose name was Remus Lupin, was more polite and asked if we minded joining them. The boy with the glasses was James Potter and the boy with the handsome face and grey-green eyes was Sirius Black. Soon, a short, stubby looking boy, whose name was Peter Pettigrew, wandered in and joined them, at which point the compartment was full and they were sitting shoulder to shoulder.
Embre really like the people she met on the train, Severus was very quiet so she didn't really know him but he had an ever-present scowl on his face which somewhat bothered her. Sirius Black and James Potter seemed hilarious. Remus Lupin was also very funny and seemed really nice, the kind of person you could tell anything to. Lily Evans was also very kind, she and Embre got along well. Peter Pettigrew was very quiet and only contributed to their conversation with nods and one-worded answers.
Now, Embre stood between to Lily Evans and Sirius Black while Professor McGonagall spoke about the school houses. "Which house do you want to be in?" whispered James from behind them. "Not Slytherin. I would love to be a Gryffindor though, that would really tick my family off." Sirius replied.
"Are you proper purebloods?" Embre asked, keen to know if she was alone in loathing the sickly pureblood traditions she was forced to follow.
"Yes, but-" he started but was cut off when his name was called by Professor McGonagall. He walked up to the stool and sat down. The hat called Gryffindor. The same for James Potter. The same for Lily Evans, and Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin. Severus Snape was put in Slytherin the moment the hat touched his head. Embre's name was called and she shakily walked up to the stool. The hat pondered for while, debating silently and strongly between all four houses. "SLYTHERIN!" it called. Embre was devastated and relieved. On one hand, she had escaped a slap from her mother and on the other, she was in Slytherin. As she walked towards her table she could see the disgust in Sirius's face and the sympathy in Remus's, Lily's and James's. Peter Pettigrew looked as lost as always.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
Now, she sat upright, 6 years later in her bed, sweating and shaking from her recent nightmare which involved that memory and some rather terrifying ones from her childhood, most including her dear mother. She took deep, shaky breaths to calm herself. She turned her pillow over and buried her face in it's coolness. She figured she would not be getting back to sleep and went to the common room to read. It was dark, cold and depressing there, as always, so she decided to read in the owlery. She sighed and made her way towards it. It was there first day back. See, when Embre first received her Hogwarts letter, she was thrilled. She could finally leave her mother, father and two siblings who worshiped pureblood tradition and despised muggleborns, muggles, blood-traitors and the lot. She couldn't stand it. How they would wander about making loud, snide comments such as 'filth', 'mudblood', 'traitor' and 'scum'. She sat reading her 'defense against the dark arts' book with owls chirping around her. When she checked the time and found it was 7:30 she decided to head back to her dorm. On the way there she encountered nobody but swore that she heard hushed voices from thin air saying "They won't know what hit them" and a reply was heard saying "Shut it ,Padfoot" as she walked by. She was sure she imagined it but she didn't doubt the fact that she was going mad. Padfoot. Who's Padfoot? The voices sounded like they were coming from the dungeons. She would bet anything that somebody played a prank on the Slytherins. Padfoot. Padfoot. Padfoot...It sounded familiar..yes she'd definitely heard it before...Padfoot… A shriek coming from the dungeons interrupted her train of thought. Embre wasn't sure if she should go laugh at the other Slytherins or follow the pranksters to congratulate them. She figured the people behind this were probably long gone in their common room and decided it was a lost cause. She came into the common room to see everything in the room as normal except for the hair of Lucius Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Regulus Black and Severus Snape which was now bright pink. A crowd of girls which included Narcissa and Bellatrix Black was surrounding them. Embre bit her lip to stop the laughter and hurried up to her dorm. Halfway up the stairs she heard a cold voice that belonged to Lucius Malfoy say "You! Gorilla! Did you do this?!".
"No, I didn't and it's Graceling by the way" Embre replied.
"Whatever, but how do I know you're not lying?"
"Do you really think I'm stupid enough to do that and walk right in here? Go ask some Gryffindor, it was probably them"
"Maybe,...but I think I will punish you just incase"
Embre raised her eyebrows."Look it wasn't me, you can use Veritaserum or whatever but it wasn't me." she said truthfully.
"Mmm.. yes but I need to take out my anger on somebody." One of the girls around him loyally held out a pillow from the couch but he of course refused. Embre was beginning to become scared now, she was totally outnumbered. "Try the person that did the prank" Embre said and quickly walked up the girls dormitory knowing she would have to come down eventually and receive her 'punishment'. She put her books in her bag and went back down to peek around the corner to see if they were still there. Luckily they had left and she was safe for the time being. She dreaded having to sit with the Slytherins, they already made life hard enough without being accused of prank. Embre decided to grab a piece of toast and eat in class, as to avoid any risk of sitting with the Slytherins. She knew nobody would help her if fight broke out and though she was a very good witch she doubted she could take on so many angry gits and come out unharmed . She did this quite often, she was quiet and didn't have any friends except for Anna back at home, but she's a muggle and thinks Embre goes to a boarding school. She doesn't even know Embre is a witch and she is her best friend..well, only friend. What happened to Lily, Sirius, James, Remus, Severus and Peter you ask? Well, she was immediately off-bounds when she was put in Slytherin. Whenever Gryffindors passed (particularly Sirius and James) their faces filled with looks of distaste although she hadn't spoken to them. Ever. She thought they were almost as bad as her family. They were just assuming that all Slytherins were half-blood hating, pureblood, self-loving, superior, prats. Just like most purebloods assumed that all non-pureblood families were a waste of space, not that it would have changed their opinion too much if they bothered to get to know muggle-borns. Of course, the Gryffindors weren't as bad and Embre really wished she could have some friends that weren't caught in a frenzy of pureblood mania.
She sat down in class and looked over the timetable Slughorn had given her. She had potions with Slughorn now...with the Gryffindors. She groaned out loud. This was going to be an unnecessaraly terrible double period and she would have to go through it for the rest of the year. She took her usual seat in the top left corner of the room, furthest away from everybody and their taunting. It really sucked. Not being accepted by the Slytherins and her parents (not that she really wanted to) for not being in a pureblood frenzy and not being accepted by the rest of the school (especially Gryffindors) for being a Slytherin. It was an inescapable circle in which she was stuck in the middle. The rest of the school formed the circle and never stepped out to let her join it, she knew they never would too.
She started to doodle on her workbook, munching on pieces of toast. Time wore on and Gryffindor and Slytherin students along with Professor Slughorn started to file in. The lesson bore on as usual with snide comments exchanged between Gryffindors and Slytherins, Professor Slughorn being unfair to the Gryffindors, Embre sitting in the corner and only speaking when she was spoken to by Professor Slughorn. Students went up one by one to hand their potion to Professor Slughorn. James and Embre went up at the same time meeting one another at Professor Slughorn's desk. She opened her mouth to speak to Professor Slughorn but James scowled at her and she took a step back to let him hand in his potion-filled-vial first. She made her way back to her desk and packed up her belongings. The bell rang and as she was making her way out of the classroom she heard Remus say "Hurry up Padfoot, I want to get my book from the library before somebody else borrows it, it's really popular. Come onnnn.". Embre stopped and turned her head sharply, gazing at the Marauders intently. "Moony listen,A. it's a book so it can't be popular and B. If you want then it definitely can't be popular." Remus scowled and Embre continued to stare at them, things coming together in her mind. They didn't seem to notice her. It was only when the four boys started to make their way out of the classroom did they notice her. "What?" Sirius barked aggressively. "You're Padfoot?" The boys exchanged a look. "What's it to you?" he asked a little quieter.
"Not much...it's just that next time you play such a good prank on idiot purebloods A. don't get me and trouble and B. like your friend said 'Shut it'. But I have to say it was a very good idea, Kudos to you." she smiled a little and walked quickly out of the room, quite proud of herself for speaking up with a cheeky remark. She ran to her dorm to grab her books for her next lesson.
'The first day hadn't been too bad' she thought, looking up at the ceiling from her bed. She kept replaying her encounter with the Marauders, understanding different emotions from the looks on their faces every time. All this interaction was so confusing and she'd barely spoken for a minute. She sighed pushing all thoughts away from her tired mind. She turned over in her bed to let sleep take her in. Little did she know Sirius was lying awake in his own bed thinking about the very same encounter.
Of course, Sirius remembered Embre from their very first day at Hogwarts. He really liked her but then she was put in Slytherin and that was all he ever wanted to do with her, though she did try to talk to them a few times but gave up when they answered with snappy, mean comments. He barely saw her again since, other than this morning when he couldn't see her properly because the other Marauders were in the way. He noticed how she'd well..blossomed. She now had womanly curves in all the right places. Her sparkling, bright green eyes were surrounded by long, thick, black eyelashes that appeared to be natural. Her shoulder length blonde hair had streaks of black and brown giving her a kick-ass look. Where her hair ended it looked as if somebody had burnt the edges, contracting ever so nicely with it's dead straightness. He continued to notice changes since first year, her lips were thin like always with freckles dancing around her tiny nose like before. He remembered her comments which the Marauders found hilarious. "Guys, what do you think she meant don't get me in trouble?" Peter had asked. James shrugged and Remus frowned. "I hope the gits didn't think it was her and hurt her or something," said Remus worriedly. "I'm sure she was fine," said James. Sirius kept envisioning her new image in his mind until his eyes traveled down to the green and silver tie hanging loosely from her neck and he scrunched up his face. He shook his head to clear it and closed his eyes.