"Ugh, this totally sucks." Samantha spoke to no one in particular from her place in the busy subway station. She sniffled at the unique (especially in their dress) English people at the station, each person a different picture perfect portrait out in public. Samantha sighed, England, London in particular, was a very confusing place to be.
Her first week spent there was flawless, fun and sun with her lunatic parents. It was summer and they had dropped off their 11 year old daughter at the front of the Leaky Cauldron, one having just come to learn of its existence and the other too ignorant to believe in such things.
Samantha had never really been in contact with any other witch or wizard, her being adopted. Her personality wasn't the most welcomed, being a rebel and a prankster. She was a troublemaker, not one who beat up little kids or first year students, but just about anyone else she could get her fists on.
She had walked in, not expecting there to be many people there. But alas, there were, and being the short person she was Samantha was very wary of where she walked. A crowd had gathered around three people; a gruff looking man, a kid, and some weirdo in a lavender turban.
Samantha had laughed, wondering what was so important about some kid. She had sat down, asked for a burger and was given questionable looks. The man serving her handed her the smallest menu she had ever seen and she looked it over, spending the rest of her day explaining what real food was.
Every year since then they had spent another week in England. The second year, two weeks, third year, three weeks, and so on, until her parents finally told her that-
"Hey! What are you doing just standing there? Get moving, solicitor!" A man in a blue costume shouted at Samantha.
"'Solicitor?' Who the heck uses that word anymore? Gah…" Samantha mumbled as she wandered off under the cops watchful eyes.
She looked at her ticket "Platform 9 ¾ , who do they think they're kidding?" Samantha stuck the tickets in her mouth and watched as kids filed along, 'inconspicuously', towards one end of the station. Samantha ran to catch up with them, her small backpack of fun unsuitable as compared to their large, massive trunks and cages.
She walked up to one cute kid, tugging on his shirt sleeve and looking up with her large, hazel eyes glaring in the dim subway lights, "Excuse me, but do you happen to be a wizard?" She asked, eyes large and smile innocent.
"Er… maybe… ?" the boy said, taking a hand off his trunks wheely-thing and scratching his red hair.
"Dude, it's not that hard to figure out," Samantha snickered, "you've got an owl and enough trunks to last you a life time!"
The boy laughed, embarrassed, "I suppose so." His thick English accent made Samantha laugh.
"Anyways, I'm lost. How do you get to Platform 9 ¾ ?" Samantha adjusted her backpack and brushed a stray auburn hair behind her ear.
"Just stick with me." he motioned for her to follow him and his train of English witches and wizards. Samantha nodded, following the boy and grinning as he ran to catch up with a large mass of red heads.
As she approached them all she burst out laughing and smiled, "What is this? Red Heads Anonymous?"
Most of them smiled politely, two of them laughing outright. She explained her dilemma, not knowing how to get to her platform. As the leader of RHA, a pleasingly plump woman, explained how to get to the platform. Her sons and daughter showed her how, the youngest one going last.
"Now you,"
Samantha jumped out of her daze of watching the youngest child go through a brick wall.
"Oh, I'm sorry, and thanks again!" Samantha smiled, shouting, "It was nice meeting you!" before going through the wall herself, swearing to herself that she had heard the woman tell her husband, "See? Not all Americans are rude,"
Samantha smirked and closed her eyes as she walked briskly into the wall, gasping once she opened them again. The sight that met her was 'flabbergasting', as many an English person had said.
She ran to the first open door she saw, hoping to get a room to herself. She noted to herself how different it was from her American school's transportation of airplane. She hopped up the steps of the train, nearly knocking the welcoming guy back on his knickers, whatever knickers are.
She opened every single sliding door on her quest to find an empty one, not even bothering to say sorry when intruding upon something. Finally, towards the end of the train, she found an empty shelter. Letting out a sigh of relief, she stumbled into the room, quickly shutting the door and pointing her finger at it.
With a small flash of green, she heard the door lock, even though there was no lock on the door. She smiled, thanking everyone she could think of for American wizardry and witchcraft.
Samantha plopped down on the seats, glad that the ones in the back were strangely larger than the rest. She lay back on the three seats, smiling because there were no arms to the chairs.
Now, to finish her story. As it turned out, her parents had been warming her up to England before telling her that they were moving there. Samantha had to leave her home, her friends, her life back in America and head back overseas to her forsaken home.
Not that she would be spending much time there anyways, as soon as they had settled in it was time for her to head off to this Hogwarts she had heard so much about. She glared at the ceiling, ignoring the random tugs at her door and some incessant knockings and thinking how in heck she had wound up on the train to this 'bloody' school.
At the ripe old age of sixteen, she had finally lost her mind. Sixteen…
Samantha closed her eyes as she thought about her sixteenth birthday, her first birthday in England. Friendless and alone, she spent it at the Leaky Cauldron, downing a butterbeer every few minutes until she fell asleep on the table, remembering her friends at home.
Her 17th birthday was fast approaching, seemingly running to catch up with her matured mind. She smirked at the thought, she acted about as immature as they got but she was mature and knowledgeable on the inside.
Samantha lived her life by her music, letting it mold her until it felt she was ready to face the world. It was her shelter in the gray storm that was life. She snickered, remembering a saying her great grandmother, her only true friend, had said, 'Life is short, eat dessert first!'
17... the word was foreign to Samantha. It even tasted weird to say. Just like whenever you say a food group you don't like, you get the taste of it back as you say it.
She sat up indignantly as a knock at the door continued after a few minutes. The knock became harder as she sat up. Samantha walked to the door and slid it open.
"What do you want?" she asked, brushing her hair out of her face.
"Excuse me, but we called this room specifically before everyone else got here," one out of the three boys stepped forward and spoke to Samantha.
"Ugh, if there's one thing you learn in America, it's that can't call things. Trust me, I had about a zillion friends who were more like my siblings. You can't call things anywhere." Samantha started to close the door when the first boy's friend held it open.
It was then that she looked up and was met with a gruesome sight. She sniffled her disgust and bared a fang at the large boys behind the scrawny blonde.
"Hey, are you looking for a fight, dork?" Samantha challenged, slapping the boys hand off the door.
Heads immediately popped out of the sliding doors. Whispers were exchanged.
"You actually think you can fight my friends?" the blonde spoke.
"Sure can blondie," Samantha spat back, "both at the same time!"
"Do you know who you are dealing with?" blonde boy asked.
"No, and don't tell me because I don't care," she smiled sweetly.
"What's this about Draco Malfoy and his goons?" came a loud whisper.
People slapped their foreheads as three more heads stuck out of their little compartment.
"Draco is it?" Samantha looked at the blonde.
Draco puffed up his chest, ready for an apology.
"Who's that? That's you? Yikes! What kind of parent names their son Draco?" Samantha burst out laughing, "And let me guess, you guys are something like Brick and Victor?"
"Crabbe and Goyle," Draco said, glaring daggers at the girl.
"That's even worse!" she teased as Crabbe launched a punch at her.
She smiled and dodged a few more before cracking her knuckles and punching back.
"They didn't have my school disguised as a military school for nothing!" Samantha eagerly pointed out.
Badly beaten, Crabbe and Goyle retreated behind the master of verbal abuse.
"Wha? That's it? jeeze, you guys are pansies." Samantha shrugged her shoulders and walked back into her room, closing the door behind her, slamming it on Draco's hand as he reached to get her himself.
"Oopsy daisy, was that little 'ol me? So sorry dearie," she opened the door a bit more and kicked his hand out of the way, smiling and waving goodbye before closing and magically locking it once more.
She heard some grumbling and shouts, then silence as they gave up and walked away. "Finally! You'd think those babies had never lost a fight before!" she smirked and fell upon her little couch once more.
She reached into her backpack and took out a chocolate chip granola bar, opening it eagerly and grabbing on to it with her teeth, the rest of the bar sticking out her mouth. Samantha hummed a little song as she rummaged through the rest of her bag for more provisions as a knock sounded at the door.
"Heavens to Betsy!" she voiced her foster mother's favorite saying and ran to the door.
"If its room service I don't want any, and if you're a nasty, blonde hair little prick, I don't want to hear any more of your bull-"
"It's rather the opposite really," came a voice.
Intrigued, Samantha opened the door.
"Do you mind if we sit with you? The rest are packed tight," a girl with brown hair spoke up, her brown eyes flashing with an obvious air of intelligence and magic, but her essence was different than that of the wizards' beside her..
"Naw, who cares anyways," Samantha sighed and wondered who 'we' were.
Two boys walked in after her, one having met Samantha previously smiled and waved.
"I guess I never properly introduced myself," the red head sniffled indignantly.
"Oh please, shock me," Samantha turned upside down in her seat, her head near the floor and her feet on the wall.
"Are all Americans this weird?" the girl whispered to the other boy.
"Ne, only the ones you meet," Samantha said, glaring at the bushy haired chick.
"Well, anyways, I'm Ron Weasely," the red head leaned forward to shake her hand.
Samantha high-fived him instead, "Great to meetcha' Ron," she couldn't help but think of her favorite comedian, Ron White.
"I'm Hermione Granger," the girl spoke, not bothering to try and shake hands.
"And I'm Harry Potter," the last boy said, smiling along with his happy green eyes.
"Wow! Harry Potter! Really?" Samantha grinned.
Harry nodded, blushing slightly at the recognition.
"Eh, never heard of any of you before."
"WHAT!" all three spoke at once.
"You've never heard of Harry Potter before?" Hermione said, looking at Samantha as if she were insane.
"Na, but it's not like you saved the world or something right?" Samantha said, obviously confused.
The three looked dubiously at each other.
"We'll explain later, but until then, don't go around spouting to ever bugger you see that you don't know who Harry Potter really is." Ron said quietly to Samantha.
"Eh, anyways my name is Samantha Raine. Y'all can call me Sam, Samantha's too much of a mouthful after a while," Sam waved a hand in front of her mouth, as if dismissing the name.
Samantha ate the rest of her granola bar, finally remembering that it was there. She tried to swallow whilst still upside down but started to choke. She sat up and laughed once she finished swallowing.
"What brings you to England, and Hogwarts nonetheless, so far into the seven years we spend here?" Hermione asked, being her usual nosy self.
"I moved here from America, obviously." Samantha said, smiling with her hands on the seat and her legs in a pretzel.
"Well, have you had your basic wizarding training? What year are you in?" Hermione persisted.
"Well, if you have to know, yes I've had wizarding training, have since I was ten or eleven, and I'm in this so called 'sixth' year. We don't have these years you speak of, or grades public schools go by, in wizarding military school." Sam smiled at the thought of her home.
"Wizarding military school?" Ron inquired.
"Cha." Sam answered in a bored tone.
Another knock reached the teen's ears and Sam looked up hopefully.
"Ooo! Somebody told me that the snack cart was simply amazing!" Samantha quickly opened the door.
Samantha quickly opened up a small wallet in her pocket, its décor that of numerous turtles and foxes, an interesting combination and opened the door wider for the cart witch.
"I'd like one of those, one of those… definitely one of those…cha definitely one of those…" Samantha continued to point out food till she had a little of nearly everything, telling herself not to run out of money too fast, though it was hard to, she had racked up enough money to buy a state. But then there was the whole thing about sickles, knuts and galleons and whatever else there was out there. So then she had to work a million times harder at a job in the wizarding world. If she had a day off, she did extra help for another person, helped people carry their bags, anything she could.
Considering her foster parents were 'muggles' as the English called them, or just non-magical folk in America, they didn't care much for wizard money, and one didn't even know that she was a witch.
Samantha handed over the money to the witch, stepping aside with an armload of candy. She grinned savagely at the stacks of food and began to dig in, offering what she didn't like to the others in her compartment.
They ate in silence until Sam began to pack away most of the food, saving out some Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Jelly Beans. Though she was quite wary of the flavored beans, for she had gotten quite a few… ridiculously disgusting ones… She had gotten a good laugh out of her experience though, and silently admitted to herself that sharing the compartment with her present company was more interesting then being alone, though that was her usual preference.
Hermione left a while later with a small bag in her hand, looking at the American expectantly, but leaving soon after the look. Once she came back, the boys left. Sam watched this ritual interestedly. After the boys returned they all looked at Sam.
"Aren't you going to change?" Hermione asked.
"Change what? Don't you like me just the way I am?" she joked, half smile dancing across her face.
"Change into your robes, I think she means," Harry tried translating.
"Ne?"
"Robes, the things that everyone else is wearing," Hermione continued in a sarcastic voice.
Sam smirked slightly. The two wouldn't always be getting along, of that she was sure.
"I don't wear robes." Sam said, crossing her arms in front of her chest, closing her eyes and pouting, "They can give me any sort of punishment they want, I simply refuse to wear a musty old robe. I'll say I'm allergic or something, who cares what."
The others smiled, thinking to themselves how many detentions she would get, and the reaction of their strict teachers.
She sat in her seat, across from the three students which was earlier revealed in the same year as herself. Samantha reached into her backpack and searched around the candy and granola bars for her headphones and CD player.
"That won't work, Hogwarts is spelled against electrical objects," Hermione said in her airy, intelligent voice.
"Says you!" Sam grinned and put the headphones on her ears, laying down on the four seats with one leg hanging off and the other stretched out across the chairs.
"'Night!" she waved her hand at the three before pressing a button on the player and settling her head into her arms.
Once they were sure her obnoxiously loud music was loud enough so that she couldn't hear them, Harry, Ron and Hermione began to talk.
"What's her problem anyways, are all Americans this rude?" Hermione let out as soon as they were sure of her being asleep and unable to hear.
"She wasn't being rude," Ron said, looking at Hermione strangely.
"Maybe she's just like that, everyone's different." Harry said, exchanging glances with Ron.
"But you have to admit, there's something quite odd about her," Hermione whispered, despite their occupants heavy doze.
Harry nodded. He had noticed it, just her presence was calming, but at the same time chaotic and insane. It was something he had never felt before.
Hermione huffed as Harry got a slightly dreamy look in his eyes. She glared at the slumbering girl laying before her, heavy metal pouring out her ears.
It became very chilly as Hermione's controversial presence mingled with Sam's awkward one.
Ron shivered as he saw Hermione's cold glare, but he had a feeling it wasn't the only thing that was making the room cold. It was very strange…
Very strange indeed…