Note: I do not own the Harry Potter series or any characters, ideas, etc. that originate from them.

Chapter 1

"Oi! Get out of the fucking way!"

I quickly stepped to the side of the busy corridor, trying to stay out of the way of students that were rushing to dinner in a mass of robes and voices. The boy who had snapped at me now turned to glare, looking at me as though my running into him was the largest inconvenience to have happened to him all day. His eyes gave me a shock, as they were the post peculiar shade of gray I'd ever seen- and also the most cold and calculating. He looked me over and a smirk appeared on his face. But this wasn't the smirk of a teenage boy checking out some girl. No, I wasn't conceited enough (or stupid enough) to think that. This was a look of appraisal, of judgement, one that was clearly meant to convey that he was superior and had the right to evaluate my worth. And I wasn't sure he liked what he saw. Before I had a chance to apologize or do anything more than stare back, he had swept down the hallway and disappeared into the crowd.

I took a deep breath and kept walking towards the gargoyle I could see up ahead. I had been told earlier that morning by Professor McGonagall, a stern looking witch apparently assigned to help me with the transition, to make my way to the third floor and give a password to a gargoyle there. I finally reached it as the crowds began to thin. I looked up at it hesitantly, then down at the paper that listed the password.

"Umm….peppermint toad?"

The gargoyle jumped to the side, revealing a spiral staircase which began to move as soon as I stepped on it. My apprehension grew as the staircase twisted upwards. I knew I was going to meet the Headmaster, but I had no idea what to expect. Would he be angry, a crotchety old man? Annoyed at having to expend the effort for a transfer student?

Walking into the office, I forgot my feelings of nervousness in the face of the incredible scene around me. I had grown up in the wizarding world, but never had I seen so many fascinating objects in one room. I was so busy looking around me that I didn't even notice the man sitting at the desk, so I was startled when he cleared his throat. This man was nothing like I had imagined, with long silver hair, spectacles, and the kindest, brightest blue eyes I had ever seen. For a moment, I was struck at their contrast with the harshness of the boy's eyes from earlier. Shaking thoughts of him from my head, I walked quickly to the desk and stuck out my hand.

"Headmaster. My name is Eleanor Mousseau, thank you for seeing me."

He smiled and shook my hand.

"Professor Dumbledore, please. Now Eleanor, I understand you wish to transfer here to Hogwarts from Beauxbatons. May I ask why this is?" He steadily gazed at me over the spectacles, giving me the impression he already knew my answer before I gave it. I cleared my throat.

"Yes sir. You see, my father died almost five years ago. He was a wizard. My mother is a Muggle. She had mostly left the care of my magical abilities to my father. I think as proud as she is of me, she's still slightly afraid of magic. My father had only told her he was a wizard when she became pregnant. He died just as I was the age to come to Hogwarts. I hadn't even received my letter yet. My mother married a wizard who was friends with my father, mostly to have someone who could deal with a young witch and care for me as I began my schooling. This man, my stepfather, was not who we thought he was. He forced us to change our name to his and move from London to Southern France, away from our family and friends. When I began attending Beauxbatons, my mother was left alone in a country where she knew no one, as my stepfather left home frequently. He was harsh, bordering on abusive, and refused to let her make friends while he was away.

"Last year, when Hogwarts hosted the Triwizard Tournament, my friends returned talking about how wonderful and welcoming Hogwarts had been. Before that, I had all but forgotten I was meant to attend Hogwarts in the first place. I wanted desperately to try and come here, not necessarily to leave Beauxbatons, but to leave France and my stepfather. I wrote to my mother and told her how I felt, reminding her of my original place at Hogwarts, and the next thing I knew, she had left my stepfather and moved back to Britain. She told me she would have years earlier if she had known I was unhappy as well. Sir, I'm sorry to be an inconvenience by wanting to come here. But now that my mum has left my stepfather, we can't go back to France, and I don't have a school, and I don't know where to go or what to do or —"

Professor Dumbledore held up a hand to stop my ramblings.

"Eleanor, we would be honored to have you here at Hogwarts. The arrangements can be made with no trouble at all. We simply need you to be placed in a House so we can begin the preparations."

I looked at him, concerned. This was what I was worried about. I had heard the stories of the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, and how it looked into your mind to decide where to place you. How could this hat know where to place me when my mind had been a jumbled mess since I first decided to come to Hogwarts? How would it know where I belonged when I had been at a different school for four years and a different country for a good part of of my life?

I felt a sense of rising panic as it finally dawned on me what I was doing. I wouldn't know anyone, and these people had been friends for years. Houses are tight-knit, no one would want me to intrude. I had only given Professor Dumbledore the basics of my reasons for coming here. My stepfather was a fucking monster, not the typical disliked family intruder I described him as. I hadn't even talked about my brother, because every time I thought about him, I felt a chunk missing from my heart that seemed like it got bigger every time. Professor Dumbledore interrupted my thoughts by bringing over the frayed hat, preparing to place it on my head. His reassuring smile again gave me the impression that he knew what I was thinking.

As the hat was lowered onto my head, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to block out the feelings of nervousness. I didn't know if there was a House for weaklings, but I didn't want to be put there, even if I belonged. A moment later, I was shocked to hear a small voice.

"You don't have to try to be brave for me, you know. I can still see your nervous thoughts."

Fake it until you make it, I thought. The voice gave a tiny chuckle.

"Oh yes, but you aren't faking it as much as you think. Standing by your mother for all these years, coming to a new school and different country, and especially the situation with your brother….ah yes, you're much braver than you think."

My heart constricted at the mention of my brother. Don't you dare talk about him, I thought furiously, my pulse quickly rising. The hat chuckled again.

"You've got spunk, too. Yes, I think you'll be a good match for GRYFFINDOR!"

The last word it spoke aloud, and Professor Dumbledore pulled the hat off my head.

"So it seems you are to be in the House for the brave," he said, looking at me over his spectacles. "If I am as good at judging my students as I ever was, I would say you'll do quite well there. Now, off you go," he finished with a smile. I had a sneaking suspicion that if he was to be honest, Gryffindor was his favorite house. I just hoped that for whatever reason he liked it, I would like it too.

Professor Dumbledore had given me directions to the Gryffindor common room, as by now the students had finished with dinner. He offered to have food sent up to me, but I wasn't hungry at all. I had finally reached Gryffindor tower and was then staring up at a painting of a very large woman. She peered down at me with confusion.

"Who're you?"

"I'm Eleanor. I'm….new."

"New? We never have new students. You aren't a first year."

I sighed. This was going to be a recurring conversation, I already knew.

"No, I'm a fifth year. I transferred here. Professor Dumbledore told me the password was hippogriff?"

With that, the portrait swung forward, and I stepped through the hole that led inside. The moment I entered the common room, all conversation stopped. I stopped too, uncertain of where to go or what to do. The silence was becoming unbearable, and I could feel my face turning red from embarrassment. I opened my mouth to speak and realized I had no idea what I should say in a situation like this. Finally, some girl took pity on me and stepped forward with a friendly smile. She had large amounts of brown hair and was holding several books in her arms.

"Hello there. I'm Hermione. Can I um, help you?" I smiled back greatfully.

"Hi, I'm Eleanor. I just transferred here from Beauxbatons."

A murmur ran around the room and I was reminded just how many people were listening into our conversation. Hermione's eyes grew.

"From Beauxbatons? Really, that's fascinating! You'll have to tell me all about it, what is it —"

"Damn, 'Mione, lay off. The poor girl's not even in the room all the way, you can make her your personal Beauxbatons research library later."

A tall boy with flaming red hair and freckles had walked up to us as well. I spotted a few other heads with this bright color scattered throughout the room, and assumed that they were the boy's siblings. I felt a pang of jealousy.

"Hullo. My name's Ron, sorry about our inquisitor over here."

I grinned at him.

"Oh, it's alright, any friendly face can ask as many questions as they'd like."

"Well, it's a good thing you didn't get Sorted into Slytherin, friendly faces are hard to come by there."

I smiled politely, unsure of what to say. I assumed Slytherin was another House, but I didn't want to show just how little about Hogwarts I knew. Another boy walked up then.

"Slytherin is our least favorite house," he said with a half smile, "so if you're from Beauxbatons I'm guessing you don't know much about us. How'd you end up here?"

I had just started to answer him when I noticed a strange scar underneath his mess of black hair. I stopped short, forgetting for a moment how rude it was to stare. He chuckled at my surprise.

"That's what I get for not introducing myself. But I guess you realize by now that I'm Harry Potter."

I continued to look at him. This was the boy that my brother had….no, I couldn't think about him right now. It still hurt. I realized I had been staring just a moment too long, so I laughed too.

"Sorry for staring. It's just not every day that your whole world flips upside down and then you meet the famous Harry Potter."

I swallowed my feelings down and tried to keep my face in a neutral smile. Harry opened his mouth to object and Ron snorted with laughter. A short boy with sandy hair walked up to join us.

"Don't go sayin' that now, eh, or you'll make his head even fuckin' bigger than it already is," he said, nudging Harry. He stuck out his hand and introduced himself as Seamus, and I smiled at his thick Irish dialect. A boy that had walked over with him shook his head at Seamus's jab and said, "Oh come on, you know you were surprised when you met Harry too. Eleanor, was it? I'm Dean."

I nodded at him and smiled, but before I could say anything, three more people walked over, all with the same bright red hair as Ron. The girl introduced herself as Ginny, tilting her head at Ron and confirming my belief that "this one" was indeed her brother. The other two boys were twins, identical in every way. I couldn't find anything to distinguish them at all, and was amazed. They both radiated energy, and I liked them immediately.

"Hullo there. I'm Fred, and this is —"

"George. Nice to meet you, Eleanor. If you need anything at all —"

"— particularly any type of help with troublemaking —"

"— or just want to have a bit of fun and fuck things up —"

"We're here for you," Fred finished with a grin. I told them I'd keep that in mind, and with winks, they said their goodbyes. By this time, half of the House had made their way over to us to introduce themselves. I met so many people within the next half hour that all the names and faces became a blur, but I had never been happier. All of my fear about not being accepted was gone. These people were wonderful and so interesting. I think I was as amused by them as they were by me. After ages of introductions, Hermione let out a small gasp.

"Merlin, it's late."

She looked around and then yelled over the chatter and laughter, "first years, think about getting to bed!"

I was mildly surprised. Hermione was kind and had a maternal nature, but I didn't think it extended to checking on the younger students' bedtimes. Harry laughed at the look on my face.

"She's a prefect. She's supposed to enforce the rules no one gives a damn about," he explained with a wink in her direction. Hermione humphed, "Ronald is supposed to do that as well, actually."

I laughed at the utterly unconcerned air about Ron as he lay sprawled across an armchair by the huge fireplace and gave Hermione a look that clearly showed how little he did in fact care about the rules, let alone enforcing them.

Hermione just shook her head, standing up and stretching.

"Well, in any case, I'm going to bed as well. Eleanor, would you like me to show you to the dorm?"

I nodded and stood as well, stifling a yawn. It had been a long day even without meeting the entire Gryffindor House. We said our goodnights to the boys, and I followed her up a staircase. We entered a circular room with large canopy beds, one of which had my trunk at the foot. We got ready for bed, and by that time the other girls had entered the room. We all chatted for a bit before drifting off to sleep one by one. Soon it was just Hermione and I talking quietly. I told her all about Beauxbatons, and she told me about her early years at Hogwarts. I was amazed at all the adventures she, Harry, and Ron and been on. I could tell they were all talented and had been aptly placed in this House for the brave.

She avoided asking me why I had come to Hogwarts, and I was grateful. I wasn't prepared to give that explanation again, or answer the questions that would certainly follow. We both became very sleepy and our talking slowly stopped. When I closed my eyes, an image of a piercing gray stare flashed across my lids. My eyes popped open in confusion. Why was I thinking of this boy? More accurately, why of his eyes, as I could barely remember what his face looked like. Who the fuck was he?

"Hermione…." I began, but then realized I had no idea what to ask. Out of all the boys in the school, there was no way she would recognize one by his eye color, and that was the only description I could provide. That and the way it felt when his eyes swept over me, like they saw everything at once, but that wasn't something I was sure I could say out loud. I had a nagging feeling that he would be in Slytherin based on the way other Gryffindors described the other House. Yeah, his cool, calculating stare hid something, and not something good. Hermione mumbled something, and I wasn't sure if it was a reply to me or if she was even awake. I rolled over and tried not to think about those eyes, and instead tried to concentrate on counting hippogriffs.