Chapter One: Meeting

"Bye, Royal! Don't get into trouble!" Mum said as I walked into the Leaky Cauldron. I was going to be staying there until September 1st, when I would be going to Hogwarts for the first time.

"I won't," I replied, the door swinging shut behind me. I walked up to the bar, and waited for the barman to notice me.

"Hello, may I help you?" the barman asked, and I paused for a second.

"Room for one, please," I said, remembering what I was there for.

"Follow me," the barman said, leading me up the stairs to room 13.

"Thank you," I said, walking into the room and setting my things down.

Next day

"What to do, what to do," I said, sitting on my bed, bored.

"Eh, I guess I'll just go explore Diagon Alley," I decided, getting up, grabbing my purse, and leaving the room. In the process of going to the stairs, I crashed into someone. We both fell to the ground, and I inwardly scolded myself for not watching for other people.

"Sorry, I was a bit distracted," the other person, a boy about my age, said, getting up and holding out a hand to help me up.

"No, I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," I said, taking the offered hand and allowing myself to be helped up. Normally I would have denied the help and gotten up myself, but in this situation, I figured accepting the help was the right thing to do.

"I'm Harry Potter," the boy introduced himself.

"RJ Mason," I said, using my preferred name instead of my given name. I dropped his hand, blushing slightly, and started down the stairs. Harry followed.

"Don't you have any friends?" I asked, curious as to why he was following me.

"They're not around," Harry replied, continuing to follow me out to the entrance to Diagon Alley. I stood in front of the brick wall, confused, as I hadn't been told how to make the entrance appear.

"Here," Harry said, taking out his wand and tapping a brick with it. The bricks moved around to form an archway leading to Diagon Alley.

"Thanks," I said, walking to Ollivander's to get a wand, as I didn't have one yet, even though I was two years overdue for Hogwarts.

Half an hour later

"Have you been waiting out here for the past half hour?" I asked upon seeing Harry standing by the door of Ollivander's.

"No," Harry said, raising an eyebrow.

"So, where to next?" I asked as if there was a plan. Harry just gave me a blank look.

"It's, what, ten thirty now? So, hmm, how about the bookstore?" I suggested, and Harry shrugged, so I headed toward the bookstore.

"Whoa, books that kill each other," I said, in awe at the books that were ripping each other apart.

"Let's look at something else," Harry suggested, moving slowly away from the monster books.

"Okay!" I said happily, going towards the back of the store where the more interesting books were located.

Half an hour later

"Unh," I grunted, holding my stomach as I felt hunger pains.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked, concerned, looking through a gap in the books.

"For now," I replied, knowing that I had about another half hour before I really needed to eat.

"Okay," Harry said, going back to looking at books. I resumed reading a book on advanced potions.

Half an hour later

"Let's go get lunch," I said, dragging Harry out of the bookstore and back to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch.

"I thought you didn't want me around?" Harry asked, and I rolled my eyes.

"That was two hours ago," I said, walking through the archway and into the bar.

Three days later

"Booklists are here," I called, walking into Harry's room, which was conveniently located right next to mine, and tossing his envelope onto his bed.

"Morning," Harry said, walking out of the bathroom.

"Yeah, morning. We need to go buy books and stuff!" I snapped, impatient.

"I know," Harry said, sounding rather bored.

"Good. Let's go," I replied, grabbing Harry's arm and dragging him from the room. After we had gone down the stairs, Harry pulled his arm from my grasp and led me out to Diagon Alley.

Two hours later

"Two weeks till term starts," I said, staring off into space. Well, more like staring at Harry's right ear.

"Why are you staring at me?" Harry asked self-consciously.

"I wasn't really staring at you. I was just staring into space by way of your ear," I replied, absently scratching my forehead.

"Oh," Harry said, sounding totally confused.

"Yeah, oh," I said, resuming my staring into space.

One week, six days later

"Morning, Harry," I said, walking into his room and sitting on the bed.

"Morning," Harry said, sounding upset.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Ron and Hermione haven't showed up and term starts tomorrow," Harry explained, sitting down next to me and staring at the wall.

"Well, let's go and look for them! I'm sure they'd show up for the last day before school!" I said, hoping to cheer Harry up.

"Sure," Harry replied, standing up and walking out the door and down the stairs. I followed.

Three hours later

"Harry!" someone yelled from the ice-cream shop. Harry immediately turned and walked towards the people, and I followed along.

"Who's she?" I heard one of them ask.

"RJ Mason," I said, introducing myself.

Three hours later

"Is it just me or are there a whole lot of red haired people here?" I asked, seeing a lot of red haired people in the bar.

"It's not just you," Harry said, not seeming surprised at the amount of them.

"How come I'm the only one who's shocked at the large number of red haired people?" I asked, very confused.

"They're Ron's family," Harry explained, and I nodded, feigning understanding.

"There's still a lot of them," I muttered, sitting down at the table the Weasleys were occupying.

Next Day, 11:05 AM

"So, RJ, how come we've never seen you at Hogwarts before?" Hermione asked after we had found a compartment. I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"My mum kept me at home instead of sending me to Hogwarts last year and the year before," I explained, leaning against the wall, my forehead on the cool glass of the window.

"Why?" Ron asked.

"No idea," I replied, glaring at him. He was really the only one of the Weasleys that I disliked, except Percy the prick. I found Fred and George very entertaining, even helping them mess with Percy's Head Boy badge the night before, Ginny was rather quiet, Mrs. Weasley was very kind and loving, and Mr. Weasley had also been entertaining, with his constant questioning on Muggle things. The night before, I had explained basic Algebra to him, and some Science, along with a bit of American history. Ron, however, was annoying, and Percy was too.

"Did you study magic?" Hermione asked, referencing the years I hadn't been at Hogwarts.

"No," I replied, thinking back on the past two years.

"What did you do then?" Ron asked, skeptical.

"Continued my Muggle education. Learned advanced math, advanced science, little details of American history they never speak of in History classes, that sort of thing," I said, getting bored of the current subject of conversation.

"And you just… stopped when your mum brought you to London?" Hermione asked, curious.

"No, I still have the textbooks," I said, standing up on the seat and reaching for the bag I had put those books in. I pulled it down, set it on the empty seat space between Harry and me, and opened it. Hermione stood up and looked into the bag, amazed.

"They're just- oh, wait, you're obsessed with books, my bad," I said, remembering that Hermione loved books.

"What have you learned? Anything really interesting?" Hermione asked, practically glowing with excitement.

"Harry, go sit over there. Hermione, sit down," I said, and was obeyed.

Five hours later

"Wow," Hermione said, not even noticing that the train had come to a halt.

"We must be there already," I said, looking out the window.

"We aren't," the man in the corner said, finally waking up.

"Okay," I replied, continuing to stare out the window as I closed the book bag.

Ten minutes later

"What the fuck was that?" I asked, completely in shock from the… thing that had just left the compartment.

"A Dementor, one of the guards of Azkaban, the wizard's prison," the man, Professor Lupin, explained.

"Oh. There's only one?" I asked, confused. There were thousands of Muggle prisons, why have only one for wizards?

"Yes. Like your Alcatraz, only bigger and more secure," Lupin said, and I nodded, feigning understanding.

"Or… any other high-security prison?" I asked, giving Lupin a confused look before continuing, "Or just the one on the island in the San Francisco Bay?"

"Azkaban is on an island in the North Sea," Lupin elaborated.

"Oh. So just Alcatraz," I said, answering my own question.

"Yes," Lupin agreed, offering me a piece of chocolate.

"Hm, does only milk chocolate work? Or any kind of chocolate?" I asked, pulling a candy bar from my purse.

"Any kind, I guess," Lupin replied, confused.

"Might dark chocolate work better? 'Cause Harry still looks a little out of it," I said, unwrapping the chocolate bar. It was dark chocolate.

"I have no idea," Lupin said, sitting down and looking at me with interest.

"What you lookin' at?" I said, the words slightly muffled by the chocolate in my mouth.

"Who are your parents?" Lupin asked sharply.

"My mother is Heather Mason, I don't know my father," I replied, looking at Lupin confusedly as I held out a bit of my candy bar to Harry. Dark chocolate seemed to work quite well on Dementor shock.

"I knew Heather," Lupin muttered, staring off into space.

"Yeah, dark chocolate works really well on Dementor shock. You should try it!" I said in an attempt to change the subject.

"I will," Lupin said, not really paying attention.

Twenty minutes later

"I'll go get you some chocolate," Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, said, turning to leave the room.

"We've already had some. Did you know that dark chocolate works really well, even better than milk chocolate?" I said, still eating my candy bar.

"I did not," Pomfrey said, surveying me with the same look of interest that Lupin had used, and McGonagall was too.

"It's just the result of the genetic sequence I got from her," I said, referencing my mother.

"The resemblance is uncanny," Pomfrey muttered, and I rolled my eyes.

"Again, genetics," I said, closing my eyes and leaning against the wall.

"Sorry," both of the women said, embarrassed.

"Now. Are we going to the feast or not? I'm rather hungry," I said, walking out the door.

"You need to be sorted first!" McGonagall said, remembering suddenly.

"Thought so," I muttered, stopping and turning back to face McGonagall.

Ten minutes later

(Harry POV)

"And, another new professor to introduce. Assisting with Care of Magical Creatures," Dumbledore started, and a woman who looked nearly exactly like RJ stepped out from behind Dumbledore.

"Professor Heather Mason," Dumbledore said, gesturing towards the woman.

"Oh, no," RJ groaned, her head in her hands.

"Is that your mum?" Fred asked, looking confusedly at RJ.

"Yes," RJ groaned, standing up and going to leave.

"Wait!" Professor Mason said, spotting RJ going to leave. RJ turned and walked up to the raised platform the Staff table stood on and sat down on the edge.

"What?" RJ asked, looking up at her mother.

"Why were you leaving?"

"Avoiding embarrassment. Sadly, I was spotted before I could escape."

"Emba- Oh. Go on then, leave. I think I may just do the same myself."

Both of them left hurriedly. The whole hall burst into hysterical laughter.

A week later

"Care of Magical Creatures, with the Slytherins?" RJ said, groaning as we spotted the Slytherins waiting down by Hagrid's hut.

"RJ, could I talk to you for a moment? Uh, you too, Mr. Malfoy," Professor Mason said, pulling the two aside.

Ten minutes later

"What. The. Cheese," RJ said from where her mum was talking to her and Malfoy.

"She's- You're- My- My father will hear about this!" Malfoy snapped, turning away. He was grabbed by Prof. Mason, who turned him back around and held his face inches from hers.

"Dear Lucy already knows about this, Draco," she hissed before letting go of Malfoy in disgust. Dear Lucy?

"Uh, Mum," RJ said apprehensively.

"You may go. Both of you," the professor replied, and RJ walked over to where Ron, Hermione, and I were standing.

"Guess what I just found out? My mother is Lucius Malfoy- I mean, dear Lucy-'s sister! So Malfoy's my cousin!" RJ said, still in shock herself.

"That's horrible," Ron said, glaring at Malfoy.