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February 1942
"Why in God's name did I think this would be a good idea? This is all your fault, Dumbledore!"
Sarah scowled at the man beside her as he turned to look at her incredulously.
"I simply asked you if you wanted to learn witchcraft. It was Professor Dippet that accepted you." He made a slight tsking sound, watching in amusement as her left eye twitched. He always did know how to push her buttons, even when they were younger.
"Yes, well, now I'm thinking what a bad idea this was." She sighed before adding, "Why do I have to wait outside the doors? Why didn't I just arrive like any normal student?"
"Because Professor Dippet wants to introduce you to the school. It is slightly unorthodox having a student become a fifth year, out of the blue. Professor Dippet wants to explain to the pupils what you are. We also need to sort you into a house. We discussed this already, Miss Andrews."
She glared. "Don't you, 'Miss Andrews' me; we're nearly the same age. And yes, that's a brilliant idea. Let's make everyone know that there will be a new school freak from now on." She sighed. "I should have started in September. Not in bloody February."
Dumbledore gave her a small smile as they both heard thunderous applause from the Great Hall.
"We did offer you to join in September but I think your response was limited and vague. Something about a vampire gang in Romania."
Sarah's eyes suddenly lit up. "I remember that. It was quite a large gang and tough too. About fifteen of them, if I can recall correctly. That was fun…"
Dumbledore smiled at her as she adorned that far-away look in her eyes. He heard the doors creak, ready to open and both of them started. She threw him a frightened glance.
"Do not fear, the school will love you, Miss Andrews."
Sarah raised an eyebrow but said nothing, looking straight ahead and nodded determinedly.
She then heard Professor Dippet say something and the Great Hall doors swung open, revealing her to the whole school.
As she gave a timid smile to the extremely long four tables, she walked briskly beside Dumbledore, feeling completely humiliated. Eyes were burning holes into every part of her body as the pupils and staff attempted to drink the sight of their new student. As embarrassed as she was, Sarah resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Yeah, yeah. It's just a damn face, people. You might not get used to it but be prepared to see it quite a lot.
Sometimes she disliked the way she looked. No one, apart from a very select few, tried to see past her features. No one tried to get to know the person underneath the strength and mystic. If she had to answer why she ever went to Hogwarts in the first place, it was probably for that reason. She really wanted some good, honest-to-God, true friends.
When she finally reached the top of the Great Hall, she turned swiftly on the spot and looked out at her fellow pupils. Professor Dippet appeared beside and gently put a hand on her shoulder.
"Hogwarts, I'd like to introduce our new student, Miss Sarah Andrews, who will be entering fifth form this term. I hope you all make her feel welcome." He turned to her, smiling. "Now, let's get you sorted, yes?"
She grimaced slightly but nodded all the same. Placing herself on the small tool in front of her, Professor Dumbledore carefully sat the hat on her head.
"Hmmm….interesting…a Hunter at Hogwarts; never seen your kind here before. Well you have strengths that will do well in all of our houses."
Not in Slytherin Sarah thought dryly.
"No?" The sorting hat asked casually, "And why is that?"
Because I'm not a full-blood. I'm not really anything.
"I beg to differ, Miss Andrews but if it's not Slytherin you wished to be placed into, better put you in…RAVENCLAW!"
A thunderous applause roared through Great Hall as Sarah grinned and slid off the stool, handing the hat back to Professor Dumbledore. Giving Sarah a wink and gesturing to the Ravenclaw table, Dumbledore went back to his seat.
The moment she sat down, a girl with flowing black-hair and sparkling blue eyes smiled at her kindly.
"Hello, welcome to Hogwarts." She said, taking Sarah's hand and shaking it vigorously, "I'm Hollie McHart, one of the Ravenclaw perfects. I'm also in your year."
Sarah smiled back at her. "Nice to meet you."
"I can't believe the Hunter has come to Hogwarts! I thought you were a myth!"
Sarah laughed, feeling a bit more relaxed. At least one person likes me; that's a start. "We don't exactly make our presence know a lot. We don't really do well with other people."
Hollie stared at her, mouth agape. "You're…very pretty."
Sarah resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "It's an invitational kind of thing. Attracts monsters to my kind. Every hunter who has ever existed looks like this."
Hollie nodded in awe. "You must have loads of boys after you. How lucky."
Sarah pulled a face as she placed some chicken onto her plate. "Not really. Like I said, I'm not the most sociable of people. I tend to blend into the shadows. I've never even had a boyfriend."
Hollie snorted. "Well, I can tell you one thing- you won't be blending into the shadows here. Every boy in his room has his eyes on you." She paused, turning her head towards the Slytherin table. "Well, not every boy."
Sarah followed her gaze and found herself staring at a black-haired boy about her age, with perfect pale, white skin and lovely cheekbones. He was quite beautiful in a mysterious kind of way; if Sarah had to pass comment and felt a little upset he wasn't looking at her. Jeez, Andrews, you don't even know him.
"Who's he?" Sarah asked, trying (and failing) to sound indifferent.
Hollie smirked slightly. "His name's Tom Riddle, he's in our year, he's a prefect for Slytherin and the school heart-throb." She paused before looking at Sarah. "I'm sure you can see why."
The Hunter nodded slowly. "He is…very nice looking."
"Don't waste your time. He doesn't date. He never taken any interest in the girls here and let me tell you, our year has a plentiful supply of pretties."
"Pretties?" Sarah snorted, munching happily away at her chicken.
"You know, good-looking girls." She turned and pointed further down the Slytherin table to a very beautiful girl with long, blonde hair and blue eyes. "That's Olive Hornby. She's being chasing Tom Riddle since first year and he hasn't even batted an eyelid in her direction. I mean, she's a complete cow, but she's gorgeous. And a full-blood. They're perfect for each other."
Sarah scowled. "Well, if he's a massive purist, he's going to hate me. I'm not really anything."
Hollie smiled at her. "Don't worry, Sarah. I'm sure the rest of school will love you. Nearly all the boys do already."
Sarah grinned at her before turning her gaze on Tom Riddle once more. Only this time, her eyes locked immediately with a pair of deep blue ones. And they looked completely furious.
"Woah, what did you do?" Hollie gasped, having noticed what happened.
Sarah tore her eyes away from his and whirled around back in her seat. "I dunno. As I said, maybe he doesn't like me because I'm not from a wizarding family." She shrugged slightly. "I honestly couldn't care less. It's not like I'm going to have to spend any time with him anyway."
"What do you mean, private lessons?!"
Sarah gaped at the headmaster of Hogwarts in outrage. Sure, it was going to be difficult for her to catch up with everyone else but she fought demons on a daily basis, she was pretty confident she could catch up on some measly school-work!
"You heard me, Miss Andrews. As you are joining fifth year and have never used a wand in your life, you will need training. OWLs are also this year so you need to be prepared. So we have hand-picked certain students in your year who are going to assist you." He gave her a small smile, "This also means you will meet more people. Isn't that nice?"
Sarah scowled. "Yeah, it's just peachy."
The headmaster, however, paid no heed to her sarcasm and quietly called in the students who would be helping her. Initially she beamed when she saw Hollie, who bounced into the office, grinning like a mad-woman. Her heart then plummeted when in walked Tom Riddle and Olive Hornby among one other student that she didn't know. Great. The two biggest purists in the planet are going to be tutoring me. Bloody brilliant.
"Miss Andrews, may I introduce the two prefects for Slytherin; Mr Tom Riddle and Miss Olive Hornby."
Sarah decided it might as well suit to be nice. "Hello, nice to meet you."
Olive stung her nose up in the air and sneered. "Charmed, I'm sure."
Snobbish cow.
Tom, in contrast, flashed a smile and bowed slightly. "A pleasure, Miss Andrews."
Sarah raised her eyebrows in surprise. Maybe he's not so bad after all…
Behind them Hollie was shooting daggers at Riddle and mouthing 'He's an asshole!' to which Sarah burst out laughing.
"I assume you've met Miss McHart then?" Professor Dippet asked, throwing a stern glance at Hollie.
Sarah stifled her giggling and nodded at the Headmaster.
"The last person to introduce is one of the prefect's for Gryffindor; Miss Minerva McGonagall."
The girl glanced timidly at Sarah, who gave a wave and a polite smile in return.
"So, Miss McHart will be helping you with your studies in Charms and Herbology, Miss McGonagall will be tutoring you in Transfiguration, Miss Hornby will be helping you with History of Magic and Mr Riddle will be assisting you with Potions."
Sarah nodded while Hollie looked confused.
"Who's going to be helping her with Defence against the Dark Arts, Professor?"
At this both the Headmaster and the Hunter began chuckling lightly.
"I don't think that'll be a problem, Hollie." Sarah replied, "Since there's not a wand on this earth that can harm me and I'm pretty much invincible."
Hollie nodded her head in understanding. "Oh yeah, forgot about that."
"Maybe you should actually listen when Professor Dippet is talking, McHart." Olive muttered.
"Was I asking you, snake?"
"Ladies." Dippet warned before turning back to Sarah.
"I assume when you get your timetables tomorrow, you will be able to converse and find out which evenings it's best to study with each of these students, yes?"
"I guess." She answered, looking to the other pupils who all nodded.
"Excellent." Dippet said, happily, "Now, if there's nothing else, you can all return to your common rooms."
And with that, the five students left the office.
The moment they got out into the deserted hallway, however, Olive pulled her wand out.
"So you immune to any spell, right?"
Sarah turned to see Olive pointing a wand in her face and smirking. Hollie stepped forward.
"Don't be stupid, Hornby."
"I wasn't talking to you McHart so shut your trap."
Sarah looked blankly at the beautiful girl and nodded.
"That's right." She confirmed loftily. She already knew where this was headed.
"So even the unforgivable curses?"
"Olive, not only are you not allowed to use spells on students, the unforgivable curses are illegal."
"Stay out of this, teachers pet." Olive spat at Minerva.
"It's fine, Minerva." Sarah said softly to the Gryffindor before replying to the Slytherin. "Yes, even those."
She quickly glanced at Tom Riddle who was watching her with an unreadable expression. But something dark was swirling around in his eyes. He was looking at her almost like she was a prize or trophy. It unnerved her. However, Olive's whiny voice brought the Hunter back to the present.
"Well then, you won't mind if I give one a go and see what happens, do you?"
Sarah raised an eyebrow. Enough of this. "As much as I would love to see you get expelled because clearly you have some grudge against me even though I barely know you, no, you cannot curse me because nothing will happen. It's a waste of your time and energy and frankly I don't want to have to watch you being dragged off to Azkaban, okay?"
Olive's arm went slack and she gaped at the girl before her.
"Now, if you're quite finished, I want to get back to my common room, alright?"
Olive nodded mutely and put her wand away. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Andrews." And turned on her heel before giving her a 'this isn't over look' to which Sarah pulled a face. Immature, yes but she was old enough to do that sort of thing and get away with it.
Minerva gave a sigh of relief and grinned at Sarah. "Thank God for that! I thought I was going to have to jinx her or something. Look, I'll come see you tomorrow, okay Sarah?"
Sarah grinned. "No problem, see you then!"
Minerva flashed her and Hollie a smile before sprinting off down the hallway.
"So…." Sarah turned her gaze on the remaining student, bar Hollie. "Tom, correct?"
"Tom is fine…or Mr Riddle if you prefer."
Sarah shot Hollie look to which she sent one back that screamed told you so.
"Considering you're younger than me, I'll go with Tom." She smiled but apparently he didn't seem to think that age was an important factor.
"While that may be true, Miss Andrews, you look the same age as myself." He eyed her critically before stating, "And considering your intellect is slightly below par, I would think I have the upper-hand when it comes to our relationship."
It was Sarah's turn to gape. The nerve! Who did this guy think he was, talking to her like that? Did he have any idea who he was speaking to?
"Listen here, buddy." Sarah barked, marching towards him so they were face to face, "I don't know who you think you are-"
"As we have already established, I'm Tom Riddle." He rolled his eyes when her jaw dropped again. "This is getting tiresome so I must be off. I shall speak with you tomorrow, Miss Andrews."
Sarah could clearly see the amusement in his eyes. He was laughing at her! What an absolute prick!
"Until tomorrow, Miss Andrews." He bowed low before turning on his heel and sauntering off down the corridor, twirling his wand in his fingers as he went.
After a moment of silence, Hollie moved forward and gave Sarah a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"And now you've properly met Tom Riddle." She sighed. "Come on, let's go to bed, I'm seriously tired."
Sarah nodded wordlessly and began walking towards the Ravenclaw tower.
Well, there was one thing she was definitely positive of.
If anything, this year was going to be far from boring.
There you go! Reviews please! Thanks.