Who are you and what are you?

Disclaimer: I own nar! I do not own the world of Harry Potter, if I did this wouldn't be called fanfiction.

Chapter 2: Diagon Alley

The professors had been told about the new arrival to their school during the evening. The Headmistress had not given much detail as to why a student was staying during the summer holidays, even if it was near the end of said holiday. Students where not allowed to stay at the castle, so why was this new one different? Was there something different about this student that would cause the need for the protection behind these walls? Would there be a chance that whatever the reason for them staying in the castle could lead to another war? If this had been the case wouldn't they have been taken to the order's headquarters or another place of secrecy?

This had been the excuse that Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy had made to actually come to breakfast the next morning. Most of the Professors had also come to breakfast that morning also curious about why this student had been allowed there. A good number of them would have been in the Great Hall for breakfast anyway because this is a chance for them to catch up over what happened during the summer.

"So Severus, are you here because you actually want some fresh air, or is it because you are curious about this student?" asked Madam Pomfrey as she took a sip of her tea, taking a glance at the two professors that normally didn't show up during the summer. She honestly thought that young Draco spent too much time with Severus, to the point that he was becoming like the Potion's Master. Then again Severus benefited with a colleague whom he could have an actual conversation.

"Poppy, I was under the impression that you had an inkling as to my habits after all of these years." He said with a raise of his eyebrow before he ate some of the scrambled eggs on his plate. He wasn't one for eating too much, during the war you never knew when you would be called and a revel was not a good place to have a full stomach.

"No he just decided to grace all of us with his appearance." Said Draco with his famous smirk on his lips. He liked using this against his students, and it was always interesting to use against his fellow Professors when he felt like it. He really couldn't pull a Snape; he had the affect of Lockhart too much in order to do that. This was very apparent when it came to the female and some of the male population of Hogwarts. Snape graced Draco with a sneer before he speared his sausage.

"Good because she and Hagrid already left for Diagon Alley this morning." Replied Professor Granger as she stood up and headed toward the door leading to the entrance hall. She held a small smirk of her own as she walked out, after spending so many years with Malfoy some things rubbed off on her.

Snape still didn't like the fact that the know-it-all Granger was now one of his colleagues. What was worse was that she was the head of the Gryffindor house. She was the current Transfiguration Professor for two reasons, McGonagall could no longer teach the subject since she was the Headmistress, and the other reason was that the person whom had been teaching the subject before Hermione had died in the war.

Professor Granger wasn't the only one added to the staff over these most recent years. Flitwick had decided to retire and had asked Professor Shomak to take over not only Charms, but also the position as the head of Ravenclaw house. This was his first year doing this without Flitwick around to guide him since his training as a head of house had been completed. It had been teary for the old wizard to finally leave Hogwarts for good, but he knew he needed the rest and was no longer able to handle the stresses that where required at being both a Head of house as well as being the charms professor.

Draco glanced at his mentor for a moment. Severus returned the gesture with a slight nod, one that wouldn't be noticed by their colleges. They had to see what kind of child they would be living in the castle with. They would also have to see if any of their 'contacts' would also be keeping an eye on the child while Hagrid escorted her though Diagon alley.

Snape finished off his sausage before he stood up and excused himself from the table. He headed toward what most would have presumed to be the dungeons, making use of his robes; even during a holiday with no students around he had to make sure that he was both remembered and never noticed when leaving a room. Malfoy gave a slight smirk and gave a nod to his fellow professors before he stood up and followed suit. Snape was waiting by the front doors of the castle.

They had both needed to head to Diagon Alley to restock their supplies anyway, and if they just happened to run into Hagrid and this new student while they where there. Well they would just have to see, they where sorted into Slytherin for a reason.

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Earlier that morning…

Hermione had headed toward the Great Hall early that morning; she had wanted a quick breakfast before triple-checking her lesson plans for the next couple of months or so. She opened the doors to the Great Hall and found that someone was already there.

She didn't look like she was older than a first year, but she was sitting at the only table that was in the Great Hall, the High Table. It was strange to see a student in the Great Hall, by herself, at the High Table with no one else present. Even when Hermione had gone to breakfast by herself during her years at Hogwarts, hoping to get to the library early, there had always been at least one Professor.

The girl looked up from what she had been eating, it looked she had piled some eggs, sausage, bacon, with some butter and gravy on some toast to make it a strange kind of sandwich. She seemed to blink a few times and placed the sandwich down on her plate before she stood up.

"I am sorry, I wasn't sure as to where I was suppose to go to meet…" she started before Hermione held up her hand to stop the young girl's apology, shaking her head slightly. This had to be the girl, and the accent told her that she was American. There had to be a good reason why an American witch would be sent here to start her training as a witch.

"Don't be, now I take it you are the student joining us for the summer." Hermione said with a smile, the girl smiled and gave a slight nod.

"Yes Ma'am… I guess I would have to call you Professor." She said with a slight tilt of her head, and a small smile on her lips. Hermione nodded and headed to a chair next to this new student, "I had figured that it would be nice to have breakfast before going and…"

Hermione gave a slight smile as the student had gotten slightly quiet, you could tell that she had more she had wanted to say. Since she was talking to someone that she knew she should respect she didn't to say it. It was strange, sure even witches and wizards had kind of stereotypes for people from different countries, and she had been raised by muggles so this also played a factor; but she seemed polite as well as she didn't attempt to imitate a British accent.

"You figured that since Hagrid is of the male persuasion that you would have the best chance meeting him where you could smell food." The student gave a sheepish grin and a nod, not really sure if this was a good sign or a bad sign. This Professor didn't seem angry about what she had said so far.

"I have a brother, so I had assumed…" The student shook her head slightly, "Sorry, but may I ask as to what you teach, or should I not worry about it until school starts?"

Hermione smiled slightly and resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow; she had been around those two Slytherin professors for too long. "How about you tell me your name and why you are here and I will tell you my name and what I teach."

"I am sorry I have been very rude, I apologize…" Hermione held up a hand, "I know apologizing too much. My name is…"

The doors to the Great Hall opened and Hagrid came through them. Even under the mass of hair known as his beard you could tell that he was smiling. He walked over to the table and noticed the new student sitting there, eating what could have been described as a breakfast sandwich.

"Hello Hermione," he said with the same grin and a nod to the young professor, "I take it yer tha' new student. Wasn' told wha' yer name was."

"As I was about to tell Professor… erm…" she looked at Hermione for a moment before looking back at Hagrid, "My name is…."

A couple of clouds could be seen on the enchanted ceiling as this new student told the two professors her name and some of the things she could say since, she explained, there where many things she couldn't tell them; not yet anyway.

"I s'ppose we be'er get goin', see yeh later Professor." Hagrid said with a nod to Hermione as he and the student stood up, she waved and said a quick good-bye Hermione as she followed the half-giant out of the Great Hall and out of Hogwarts. She had time to say a quick hello and good-bye to some of the other professors in this process. All could tell she was nervous and excited about this day of shopping.

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It would be a couple hours later that would find Severus and Draco standing outside one of the many shops in Diagon Alley watching their newest student picking out scales with Hagrid. So far they could tell she was spoiled, and a slight perfectionist from the fact she took longer to pick a caldron than Snape would have. It even looked like she had wanted more than one but Hagrid had dragged her away from them saying in amusement that they wouldn't have time if she continued like that.

"I take it from the fact that you are keeping an eye on the oaf and his current charge that that would be the student you had written to us about." Said a voice to the two Professors' right, they glanced at the man whom had spoken. He had been one of the lower ranking Death Eaters at the time of Voldemort's death, but he had enough ambition that he would have moved up in the ranks in a few months to the point that Draco and Severus had been.

The man didn't look out of the ordinary, black hair, tan skin and brown eyes that just seemed both innocent and alluring. Voldemort had been planning on using the man to see if any of his higher-ranking officers where thinking of trying to take over once the hard part of this war was over. The man was arrogant, like his wife, both of them believing their son would become the next Voldemort. The Professors' knew he would have wanted to know about this new student soon because of that.

"Your assumption is correct." Replied Severus, this man always annoyed him but he did have to make it seem in jest with his annoyance. Draco and himself where the only ones whom really could keep him in check since none of the others seemed to notice the man's ambition, they sooner assumed Draco would be the one to take over after the Dark Lord after all. His name was Dorado Horologii; it was a strange name even by wizarding terms. Once one discovered what it meant, you almost felt sorry for him.

They glanced over toward Flourish & Blotts where Hagrid had taken the student, looking like he was getting ready to drag her away from one of the books but she had sighed and put the book back before she headed toward the front and paid for her books. As the student and Hagrid left the shop, heading toward the stationary shop for her parchment and other such items, Dorado pulled out what looked like an ordinary pocket watch and seemed to fiddle with it for a moment before putting it away.

Nearby walking out of the Quidditch supply store was a young man whom looked like he would be starting his first year at Hogwarts as well. Severus recognized the boy as Dorado's eldest child, whom looked almost nothing like him. He had a lighter complexion, like his mother, with dark brown hair was the only indication he was Dorado's child. His eyes where a kind of blue that seemed cold, calculating, waiting to find a weakness; actually they seemed to try to do that but seemed out of practice.

Draco and Severus shared a quick glance, Severus giving a quick nod to indicate that this was the son that Dorado always spoke of. Snape remembered when those eyes hadn't been so cold, it hadn't been so long ago, and perhaps it was just in time that the youth went to school and away from his parents. The boy had a twin sister, but their parents didn't have high hopes for her. Draco never had a chance to meet the twins but Severus had, she was bubbly with the same blue eyes that her brother once had, she had the same skin, but she had strawberry blonde hair.

When Severus first met them they where so alike, if it wasn't for the hair, and the fact that they where dressed for their gender he would have thought them the same person. He almost wondered as to what happened to the boy since the last time he had seen him.

Draco had a slight gift to be able to predict what house a child would be put in when he had a chance to talk to them for a few moments, if he had met the twins, he would have said that both of them would have been in Gryffindor. It would have been amusing, but from the look of it Dorado had noticed the same thing in his son and had decided to take things into his own hands.

Severus shook his head, when it came down to it the boy wouldn't last in Slytherin, but he wasn't sure if he would be safer in another house. No matter what Dorado had done to his son, it couldn't change that fact. Then again he had thought the same thing about Draco, the young Malfoy had been exposed to the inter-workings of the society that was against the muggle-borns at a very young age. Dorado never introduced any of his children to anyone outside of the immediate neighborhood, and himself.

If Dorado had started on his son when he was very young then he might have had a chance to mold him into what he wanted. That had been his mistake; he didn't seem to know a thing about children and how to get them to do what you wanted out of them. It was like the man didn't remember what it was like to be that young, or he never was.

That is an advantage that Slytherin tends to have over the other houses, the children already knew each other thanks to their parents. That was what had made Draco the leader; he had an influential enough father, as well as the fact he had known most of his fellows. How long he had known them varied depending on how important his father had felt for him to know them.

"He doesn't look a thing like you." Commented Draco as they watched the young man head into the stationary store. Dorado gave a chuckle, and a smirk; it wasn't hard to tell as to what the man had up his sleeve. They watched in silence, just to see if the younger Horologii would actually do what his father required of him.

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Hagrid didn't know what to think about this young girl, all of the Professors where going to be asking him about her. They where wondering just as much as he did about why she was staying there. A space had appeared on their lists the night before, but the name never appeared. It was like until the sorting ceremony, her name wasn't to be written. She had told him and Hermione what her name was, but he doubted that the name would have showed up on her or any Professors' lists.

He smiled slightly as she picked up a bottle of color changing ink, every first year tended to have at least one of those. One thing he knew for sure, she was hyper, and stubborn, and therefore she was perfect Gryffindor material. The girl tilted her head as she was looking at the different quills, out of the corner of Hagrid's eye he noticed a boy walk into the store that was near the girl's age.

Hagrid glanced out the window and noticed the group watching them; he had known the Professors would have been watching. He could only guess about the third man in the group, Draco and Severus knew what they where doing so he didn't worry about it.

"You know I find the eagle quills don't quite write as smoothly as falcon ones." Said the boy as he stood near the girl, reaching over to grab one of the slightly smaller falcon quills. The girl glanced at him with a raised eyebrow, a smirk playing on her lips.

"That maybe so, but until I can get used to writing with a quill and become confident enough to handle a smaller quill, I believe my best bet is with the eagle." She said with a cheerful smile as she grabbed a few of the eagle quills. She turned and looked the boy over, "You know I figured you would go for the eagle quills."

"Now why would you think that? You think I would be too clumsy to handle a smaller quill?" he asked, wondering what her angle was. She seemed to smirk more, were they sure she wasn't related to the Malfoys? She didn't have the hair for it, but she seemed to like to smirk a lot.

"Because most guys of any age feel that bigger is better." She said in such an innocent way that you either believed it was innocent or it was down right improper. Whichever way she meant it, it seemed to have the effect she wanted because she gave a grin and turned heading toward the parchment that she would need for the year.

The boy seemed to blink a few times before looking at the quills again, his father wouldn't mind him getting a few quills to make it believable as to why he was there. He seemed to shrug before grabbing another quill as well as bottle of ink. Hagrid just shook his head, he wasn't sure if Hogwarts was going to be ready. If she was this much of a smart aleck at this age, she was going to butt-heads with the two Slytherins on the staff. He walked over and made sure that she didn't end up buying three years worth parchment that she seemed adamant on taking.

"Well you see my handwriting is so big that I would have to write longer essays to make up for how much space it takes up. So one person's year would have to be a few years for me, plus I am a slight perfectionist when it doesn't involve my penmanship." She said as if it was a common thing, she gave a slight shrug, but she did put some of it back.

"D'yeh know if yeh'd wan' a pet yer firs' year?" asked Hagrid as she went up and paid for her supplies, this was their last stop, she had insisted that the first place they go to had been Ollivander's. It had been reopened after the war, so most of the Hogwarts students had Ollivander's wands once again. She had wanted to do that first so she could get used to having it around, well that was what she had told Hagrid.

"It's a bummer er… sorry, I mean it's a shame that we can't have more than one. " she said with a slight shrug, "Oh well, I would say my best bet would be an owl."

Hagrid gave a nod and a slight smile before leading her to Eeylops Owl Emporium, the boy that had been watching them remained behind for a little longer before heading back into the Quidditch supplies shop. He at least knew what the girl looked like, that was something to go on. Just one thing at a time at this point, he would find out more on the train when he saw her again. Even if his father didn't wish it, it might be good to get his sister involved in this; he would always need a partner in crime.

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"It might be best if we part ways, the oaf should be taking her back to Hogwarts after she gets herself an owl." Said Severus as the young Horologii headed toward the Quidditch shop, Dorado nodded with a slight frown on his face.

"Yes, I should stop my son from buying something from that infernal shop." He said before he gave a slight nod to the Professors and heading toward the shop. Draco raised an eyebrow for a moment before glancing at Severus.

"I take it the man doesn't like Quidditch." Said Draco as he and Severus headed toward the Apothecary, they doubted Hagrid was that brainless that something would happen during getting an owl and getting the girl back to Hogwarts.

"He doesn't like the idea of flying, and the fact that his children would be able to get away from him if they had a broom." Said Severus with a slight shake of his head, "Scared of heights and wants to be able to control everything about his children."

Draco raised an eyebrow, "Doesn't seem like he can do that much very well, no wonder the Dark Lord didn't worry about him, no one else would either."

"Yet we should for that same point, something seems off about him when it comes to why the Dark Lord didn't kill him. I can tell you it wasn't just because he seemed expendable and perfect for what the Dark Lord 'claimed' him to be there for." Draco had nodded in agreement to Severus's statement. Draco didn't know the man very well but he could tell he wasn't stable; they would have to wait and see as to what his children would be like in school.

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Sorry it took me so long to get this next chapter up, my comp kept on crashing and erasing everything every few weeks. It no longer does that; I guess a virus was pre-installed on the darn thing. Since I don't have Internet when I finished this I will end up starting chapter three and I might even have that chapter done by the time I get Internet again. Thanks for reading; hopefully I will get into the habit of being ahead a few chapters in my writing than my posting. Until next time!