"No." Thomas and his daughter were once again sat in his office arguing. "It's too dangerous."
"But you said I could go! I've packed and everything!" Adrianna was furious. Due to the Dark Mark making an appearance in the sky at the Quidditch World Cup her father was now refusing to send her off to Hogwarts that year.
"I forbid you from going." He sighed, stern faced with no sign of a change of heart. "I never promised that I would let you go." His daughter's face screwed up in rage.
"I'm going. That's final." He knew that tone of voice, he knew that face. Adrianna's mother, Cathryn, would do the same. She had one of the kindest hearts but if you crossed her in the wrong way you would pay for it and she would make sure of that. The phrase 'like mother like daughter' sprung to mind. "Whether you take me or not is negligible. I am going."
A few days later Adrianna was waving goodbye to Thomas as she slipped through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾, a ridiculous amount of luggage accompanying her. Her trunk appeared to be almost twice the size as that of a younger, ginger haired girl and she briefly worried if she had overpacked, but realised it wasn't the end of the world and it was better to be over prepared than under prepared. Unbeknownst to her, Draco made an attempt to call her over to where he, Crabbe, and Goyle stood. He had taken advice from his father to get on Adrianna's good side, the Barkridges were powerful and you'd be a fool to not attempt to make friends. Adrianna, not hearing him, continued to coo at Danger as he glared at her, clearly not happy about the noise the other owls on the platform seemed to be making. Two red-headed twins seemed to have taken notice of her and went in for the kill, linking their arms around hers on both sides.
"We couldn't help but notice that we haven't seen you around before." One twin grinned from her right hand side.
"A pretty face like yours would be impossible to forget." The other twin continued from her left side. Adrianna felt surprisingly at ease with the twins, it was quite clear that they were only there to tease her rather than harm her.
"And you look too old to be a first year.." Twin number one looked up at twin number two with a glimmer in his eye as they seemingly communicated without words.
"So who are you?" They asked in synchronisation. Before she had the chance to respond a woman who must have been their mother called over to the boys.
"Fred! George! Don't pester the poor girl!" She scolded before turning back to the various other teens and young adults around her, most of which were clearly related.
"Barkridge." She responded to Fred and George, although which one was which was a mystery to her. "Adrianna Barkridge." They stiffened and their eyes widened in recognition of the name. They didn't have time to react or say anything more as their mother called them over, presumably to say her goodbyes. Adrianna stood and watched as they all boarded the train, unsure on what to do next herself. She had already said goodbye to her father and she didn't yet know any levitating charms to help carry her luggage onboard. Well she knew them but with the absence of a wand most of her life she had never practiced them, and she'd rather not accidentally blow up all of her clothing and books in front of her potential classmates.
"Are you okay dear?" Adrianna tried not to seem too shocked as she was drawn from her own mind by the mother of the twins. "You seem a little lost." The woman had a sweet smile and she couldn't help but smile back.
"Ah yes…" Having not spoken to anyone with such motherly tendencies, Adrianna was overcome with a feeling of bashfulness as she didn't quite know how to act. "My father doesn't like large crowds so he left before I could ask him for assistance with my luggage and whatnot so I'm at a bit of a loss.." She found herself trailing off as the woman was joined by two men she assumed were her older sons. She wasn't used to talking as much as she was, let alone to multiple people at once.
"Oh you poor thing! Charlie, would you be a dear and help-.." She trailed off, realising she hadn't yet asked for the young girl's name.
"Adrianna." She provided with a small, hesitant smile, purposely avoided using her last name this time.
"Help Adrianna get her luggage onto the Hogwarts Express? I'm sure Ron, Harry, and Hermione won't mind if she joins them." With a grin, the man Adrianna assumed was Charlie lifted her luggage and hauled it over to the train. The woman turned back to her with a gentle smile. "My name is Molly Weasley by the way dear."
"It's lovely to meet you. Thank you for your help." Adrianna wasn't too sure who she was supposed to be thanking but Molly smiled sweetly at the gesture. "I'm quite new to this."
"You look too old to be a first year." The remaining son pointed out with slight confusion as Charlie emerged from the train.
"My father has only just allowed me to attend, I'll be joining the current fourth years." She explained, trying not to come across as being too alienated. The last thing she needed was for more unwanted attention to drawn to her, she would have more than enough of it due to her last name.
"Your trunks and your owl are in the compartment just to the left of the door." Charlie informed her with another grin to which she politely nodded.
"You'd better get on the train yourself, wouldn't want to miss your first day! Just tell Ron, Harry, and Hermione that I sent you to sit with them." Molly gently nudged Adrianna, a gesture she wasn't used to but she tried not to look too affected by it.
It wasn't difficult to find the compartment and the trio looked up at Adrianna curiously as she pried open the door, waiting for her to introduce herself to them. Without speaking to them, she sat herself down between the window and the bushy haired girl she assumed was Hermione. They all stared at her in confusion, not knowing what to do as a book floated down from her luggage and into her lap. The book in question was the worn copy of Hogwarts, A History, she figured that as she was finally attending the school it wouldn't hurt to re-read the story of it's history, even if she could practically quote it cover to cover.
"You just did wandless and speechless magic!" Hermione gasped, looking at Adrianna in slight awe. "We don't learn any of that until at least sixth year!" The trio seemed to be looking at her in hopes of an explanation.
"I didn't have a wand until about a month ago, and my father never liked me practicing magic in the house so I learnt quite quickly that I had to keep quiet about it." She didn't look up from her book as she spoke, more out of habit when Thomas would come to speak to her in the library than out of disrespect.
"Are you muggleborn?" The redheaded boy she could only assume was Molly's son questioned to which Adrianna shook her head and let out a soft snort. There wasn't a drop of muggle blood in her system, her ancestors had made sure of that when traversing the world in order to find more pureblood families to marry into, carefully trying to avoid incest unless completely necessary.
"Well then why have you only just gotten a wand?" The remaining boy asked, Adrianna looked up briefly and took note of the scar peeking through his messy hair. Harry Potter. Interesting. "And we've never seen you at Hogwarts before but you look like you're our age?"
"Wait!" Hermione suddenly called out causing everyone to jump slightly. "Charlie mentioned that you were called Adrianna when he dropped your luggage off... You wouldn't happen to be Adrianna Barkridge would you?"
"I see you've read the Pure-Blood Directory." Adrianna responded, flipping the page of her book. "It's quite biased honestly, for example the Potters were excluded due to Henry Potter's outspoken pro-muggle ideas, yet the Ollivanders were left in despite having a muggleborn married into the family at the time of publishing."
"How do you know all of this?" Hermione asked, seemingly slightly starstruck although Adrianna wasn't too sure if it was over her heritage or her knowledge, the latter appeared to be more likely. Adrianna shrugged and drew her book closer as if to say 'leave me alone now'. Thankfully, the trio got the hint and refrained from questioning her any further, though that didn't stop one of the owls in the compartment from hooting quite loudly and erratically at Danger who had been so silent she had practically forgotten him. Ron opened up his trunk and threw some maroon dress robes over the cage to keep the other owl quiet before striking up a conversation with his friends. He was quickly shushed by Hermione who seemed to have picked up on a voice somewhere outside the compartment.
"Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore - the man's such a Mudblood-lover - and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do." The stuck up tone was easily recognisable as that of Draco Malfoy, Adrianna continued to keep quiet as Hermione closed the compartment door to block out the noise.
"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" She scoffed, clearly quite angry. "I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him." It seems Draco wasn't quite as popular as he had made out to be in Diagon Alley.
"Durmstrang's another wizarding school?" Asked Harry. Adrianna had read up on Durmstrang although there wasn't quite as much history there as Hogwarts, at least not enough to fill up an entire book.
"Yes and it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts." Hermione responded, this was mostly true. It had a 'horrible' reputation amongst students and teachers at other wizarding schools as each believed that they were the superior wizarding school and all others are completely atrocious. If you were to ask students of Durmstrang what they thought of Hogwarts they would probably have a similar reaction.
"I think I've heard of it. Where is it? What country?" Ron inquired.
"Well, nobody knows, do they?" Snorted Hermione like it was completely obvious, which honestly if you had done even the slightest bit of research, it was.
"Er why not?" Asked Harry. Clearly he had not done any research.
"There's traditionally been a lot of rivalry between all the magic schools. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons like to conceal their whereabouts so nobody can steal their secrets," Hermione answered once again. Adrianna knew a little more about Beauxbatons than she did Durmstrang but that was largely due to the fact that she had found the diary of a great great aunt who had attended the school a couple of hundred years ago. Though, she didn't doubt that there had been other Barkridges who had attended Durmstrang but she was yet to obtain a long forgotten diary to solidify it.
"Come off it," Ron laughed with a sense of disbelief. "Durmstrang's got to be about the same size as Hogwarts! How are you going to hide a great big castle?"
"But Hogwarts is hidden," Hermione pointed out. "Everyone knows that! Well, everyone who's read Hogwarts, A History, anyway."
"Just you, then," Laughed Ron and Adrianna could no longer bite her tongue.
"I've read Hogwarts, A History, in fact I'm reading it again now." She chimed in, holding up the book for them to see, and once she started talking she couldn't stop herself. "Also, Durmstrang is a Scandinavian wizarding school. They're willing to accept international students however they don't accept muggle-borns. Durmstrang was founded sometime during the Middle Ages by the great medieval Bulgarian witch Nerida Vulchanova who served as the first head of the school, followed after her mysterious demise by Professor Harfang Munter who established Durmstrang's reputation for emphasising martial magic as an impressive part of its curriculum." The trio looked shocked as though they had completely forgotten Adrianna's presence in the compartment. "The castles are most likely hidden by advanced concealment charms, much like Ekrizdis placed on Azkaban in the 15th Century so he could torture muggles in privacy."
After this little knowledge outburst Adrianna returned to reading her book, ignoring the following conversations between the trio and their various friends who would pop in to the compartment and give her weary looks. It wasn't until a familiar voice crept up that she looked up from the book.
"We saw him right up close, as well," Exclaimed Ron in excitement as he showed another boy who had joined the compartment a little figurine. "We were in the Top Box-"
"For the first and last time in your life, Weasley." Draco cut in, followed by two large boys Adrianna could only assume were his 'backup'. She looked back at his book, trying to ignore him as her father had told her to but she could feel his piercing gaze on her.
"Don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," Retorted Harry, but he was completely ignored as Draco grabbed the dress robes off of the owl's cage.
"Weasley . . . what is that?" He laughed, holding up the robes and showing them to his goonies. "Look at this! Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean they were very fashionable in about eighteen ninety-" He couldn't finish what he was about to say as he was cut off by Adrianna who had been taught absolutely no restraint when it came to insulting people as she was never around anyone to insult.
"At least it was fashionable, it's not like you can say the same about whatever.. that is." She gestured to Draco's outfit. "But honestly, it's very sweet that you care about how Weasley dresses." He seemed almost furious about this.
"Care? I-" He was once again cut off before he could say what he intended to.
"I mean why else would you bring it up in the first place? Why would you take your time to seek out this compartment and join in with the conversation?" She smirked ever so slightly, knowing full well that he couldn't muster up any comeback that wouldn't just dig him deeper into the little hole he's buried in.
"You'd better watch who you socialise with Barkridge." He spat. "You wouldn't want people to think that you make a hobby of hanging out with blood traitors and mudbloods." Adrianna's smirk only grew.
"Who are you to know what sort of a reputation I want or not?" She retorted, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "In fact.. Who are you? Have we met before? If so you clearly did not make an impression." With that she returned to her book, blocking out the outraged responses coming from Malfoy. Of course she recognised him, but she thought back to his 'I assume you've heard of me' introduction and couldn't help but tease him and wound his sense of pride, much like he had just attempted to do with Weasley.
Adrianna once again went back to ignoring the conversation until she heard a loud crash and looked up to find the glass from the compartment door had shattered. Hermione fixed it within seconds which impressed Adrianna.
"You'll have to teach me that." She chimed in. "I have a terrible habit of breaking most things I come in contact with."
"You don't know Reparo?" Hermione gasped. "It's a first year spell!"
"Despite being a fourth year this is my first year." Adrianna pointed out. "And like a said before, I didn't have a wand until about a month ago."
"I don't mean to be rude, but how are you going to catch up to the other fourth year students if you can't do basic first year spells?" The other girl asked, it was a fair question really and Adrianna wasn't too sure on the answer herself but she was sure she would find a way, she always found a way to get what she wanted.
"Oh come on Hermione! Half of the year can't do some of the first year spells!" Ron exclaimed, she somehow doubted that this was true.
"Just because you can't do some of them doesn't mean you have to drag everyone else down with you." Harry elbowed Ron who was now pouting. He was still in a bad mood after being made fun of and this didn't exactly help.
Adrianna watched the rain hit the windows as the Hogwarts Express pulled into the final stop at Hogsmeade station. Thankfully, Hermione informed her that she could leave her luggage on the train and it would be taken up to their dorms separately, but that she should bring her owl with her. As she slid her copy of Hogwarts, A History back into her trunk, she pulled out the black umbrella which had been packed into her bag last minute by Topsy the house elf who she was now suddenly very thankful for. She followed the trio off of the train, opening her umbrella to protect not only herself but also Danger who ruffled his feathers when they took a step out into the cold. Upon the advice of Hermione, perhaps the only person thus far she's trusted the logic and intelligence of, Adrianna joined the flood of first years following a very large man to the lake. Despite the complaining of the younger students around her about how cold and wet it was, she was excited as she had never been on a boat. Admittedly she had always pictured her first boat ride being on a lovely sunny day while swans happily swum around her, but this would do. As she settled down into one of the boats she smirked at the glares she, well more her umbrella than her, was receiving from the first years. It wasn't her fault they were unprepared.
The boat ride was uneventful save one kid falling into the lake, although from the nasty laughing she wasn't too sure if he fell or was pushed. Hogwarts was bigger than anticipated and Adrianna resigned herself to the back of the crowd while filing into the entrance hall. Ahead of her, she could see what appeared to be a poltergeist firing red water balloons at unsuspecting students. Thanks to her umbrella, Adrianna had managed to stay practically bone dry throughout the trip, and she wasn't about to let herself get soaked now. As one of the balloons made its way towards her head she lifted her arm up, the balloon stopping in mid-air mere inches away from her hand. Her eyes locked with the poltergeist who seemed to have been frozen himself, although it was probably more out of shock than due to whatever Adrianna had done to freeze the water balloon mid-air.
"Don't even try with me." She hissed out at the poltergeist who became slightly more transparent and flew off up the stairs without so much as muttering a word of apology. She took a step forward and let go of her hold on the water balloon, allowing it to hit the first year girl behind her who shrieked loud enough to be mistaken as a banshee.
Adrianna managed to slide right to the very back of the line as a woman who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House lead them to the Great Hall. The Professor placed a rather old looking hat onto a stool in front of everyone and thanks to her extensive reading Adrianna identified it as the Sorting Hat. She bit back a snort of giggles as a couple of the first years jumped when the hat began singing, some of them showing that they were clearly muggleborn as they gasped and pointed, clinging onto the arms of their friends excitedly at the fact an item of clothing was singing.
"When I call out your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool." Professor McGonagall announced once the hat had finished it's song. "When the hat announces your House, you will go and sit at the appropriate table." She proceeded to call out names in alphabetical order, when her name wasn't called out along with the other B's Adrianna assumed that she would be last as she would not be joining the first years so took the time to examine her surroundings. She watched as the twins she had met on the platform, Fred and George she believed their names were, hissed at first years being sorted into Slytherin. Evidently there was some sort of house rivalry going on between Gryffindor and Slytherin as whenever a student was sorted into Gryffindor the Slytherins let out huffs and puffs.
Students became antsy as McGonagall slowly got to the end of the alphabet and the line of first years with varying degrees of fright and curiosity dwindled down.
"Finally, joining the students in the fourth year, Barkridge, Adrianna." She barely had time to comprehend that her name had been called out before people in the Great Hall started mumbling. She couldn't quite tell if it was because she'd be joining the fourth years or if people just recognised the name, either way she made her way up and sat down on the stool as the Sorting Hat was placed on her head.
"A Barkridge? Interesting.. Interesting.. We haven't had one of you for a very long time." She tried to hide her shock as the hat spoke to her thoughts.
"That's because they're all dead." She responded almost bitterly.
"Where to place you.. You're very witty, perhaps a Ravenclaw? No, no.. While you seek out information it's for your own benefit, not because you have the desire to learn." Adrianna wasn't sure if she should be offended by the observation, but no matter how she perceived it she couldn't deny that it was right. "Gryffindor maybe? You're not afraid of anything are you? But not being afraid does not mean the same as being brave.. I know exactly where you belong."
With one final word from the Sorting Hat, Adrianna's fate was sealed.
"SLYTHERIN!"