Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to JK Rowling… I'm just a fan who likes happy endings!

Chapter 1: Family and Friendship

For many the problem was the rain in England. But Alexis loved rain. The raindrops that dropped from a mutinous grey sky, one would think that it would angrily splat on the surface, but in reality it creates a sound so magical…plop!

Alexis giggled as the hand that was outstretched from the window, wriggled the fingers and watched the raindrops bounce on the surface of her skin, as if they forgot their purpose and tap dancing was what they were made for. Again and again they bounced and Alexis watched mesmerized, with a silly grin on her young face.

Sitting on the bay window, cross legged Alexis was at ease until the voices drifted in her ears.

"… expect me to do? Ask her to stop? When you and I both know that it is impossible to ask that of an eight year old Ted!"

Her mother, Andromeda Tonks, stepped in the living room, her beautiful face marred by the indignant scowl, as she brandished a piece of paper, which by the looks of it had been crushed several times.

"I know Dromeda! Just calm down, love! We will work things out. In fact-" came the utterly calm voice of her father, Ted Tonks who had followed his wife, still dressed in his work clothes. But as angry as Andromeda seems, Ted seemed to be the utter contrast of her.

"work things out?" Andromeda spun and looked at Ted in what Alexis thought was a strange combination of fury and shock.

"I don't think we can work things out this time Ted. This is the sixth school in four years. Sixth school! We are running out of places to send our daughter to school. Accidental magic is accidental not when it happens every two weeks!"

"Whoa, I haven't seen her that angry in ages." came a voice and Alexis turned her head to see her sister, perching in front of her. She sat cross legged, her hair a shiny purple bob, and her face full of mischief.

"Last time being my third year" a satisfied smirk on her face as Nymphadora sagely nodded her head. "Timothy Baker so deserved that engorged skull"

There was a crack of thunder, lightning flashed across the sky, reflecting the current mood of the Tonks household.

Both the sisters automatically looked towards the sky. The hand that was still outstretched, looked way too pale in the grey light of the afternoon.

"That's cool!" and Alexis glanced at her sister to see that she was looking at the tapping raindrops, and Alexis sighed. With a wiggle, the raindrops stopped tapping and her hand was immediately soaked through.

"It's weird" Alexis mumbled, crossing the wet arm tightly across her skinny frame, a scowl marring her otherwise animated features.

Alexis sometimes hated magic. Because it was magic that resulted in the disasters that made the Principal of each school she had gone to, shake their heads and tell her parents to take her to some other school.

Every teacher and every principal of those six schools that Alexis has been to, could never comprehend what the situation was, had been very happy to point at Alexis and dub her as the problem child. What everyone understood was that Alexis was different. There were many such instances to attest to.

The very first happened when Alexis was in kindergarten.

They had shifted to a small village in Guildford and Alexis had been four then. It was a common thing that people came to visit the new members of the neighborhood. At first the family of four was simply normal, there really was nothing out of the ordinary. Ted Tonks went to London every morning, where he worked at a news channel. Andromeda was a housewife, polite if slightly aloof, buying the groceries, taking the kids to play in the park. And then there were the two daughters.

The elder one, Nymphadora, was not much seen. Word had it that she went to a posh boarding school in Scotland. So she had barely any contact with the people of the village.

The second daughter was the one they noticed and they didn't like what they saw. Alexis was silent most of the times and preferred to keep close to her parents. Okay, many kids were silent… and they were clingy, but it was those solemn eyes of the child that made them uncomfortable.

But such is the human mind. What makes them uncomfortable is classed as odd.

In kindergarten, one day the children were playing on the merry-go-round. Of course the teachers were present, and they were overseeing everything. Everyone in the village knew that Dan Phillips was a very loud boy, and had the perfect makings of a bully. So that day, along with other kids, Alexis gripped the rails tightly as their teacher, Ms Mallory, pushed the rails to go round, all the while encouraging them to sing.

Ms Mallory was looking the other way when, Dan Phillips who was standing right next to Alexis, pinched her hand… painfully.

The shock and the pain made her lose her grip, and Alexis fell of the merry-go-round into the dusty ground, scraping her knees and palms. Ms Mallory tried to stop the swing, but it was hard since it was in its motion.

Her eyes filling with tears at the pain and burning sensation of the scrapes, looked up just in time for Dan Philips to give her cruel smile.

Ms Mallory, when later asked by the Principal said that she saw nothing, only that she was walking towards Alexis Tonks, when an ominous creak sounded behind her and just as she turned to see the swing topple sideways and all the kids fell. And Dan Philips broke his right arm, the same he pinched Alexis with.

No one could explain, but Ms Mallory shared with her best friend that evening over a glass of wine, that she swore she had never seen a kid look that furious as Alexis Tonks had looked just before the swing toppled.

And the news travelled.

Six months later, Alexis changed schools, and the neighbors avoided Mrs. Tonks, who, it seemed did not agree with most of the mothers of the village about her daughter… for she was the one who had cleaned those bloody knees and palms and noticed the blue bruise on the back of Alexis' right hand.

Since the borough was small, each school had known about Alexis beforehand, and each one of the staff had been forewarned… and each of them had formed opinions even before meeting her.

And incidents followed.

"I don't care Ted!" Alexis glanced at her mother, who looked as if she could tear into somebody and Alexis shivered. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Nymphadora biting her lip and looking on with concern as their parents argued.

"Those people are bullying hypocrites! Yes, Alexis is different because she is magical! She is no common muggle, and those worthless people should know better than to judge a child, for Merlin's sake! They are running a school… those kids are vicious!"

"Andromeda!" Ted's exasperated tone, made Andromeda halt, but she continued to glare, and Alexis felt something hard form in the pit of her stomach and she bowed her head.

More times than she could count, Alexis had witnessed scenes like this. When teachers complained, when she was 'asked to find a more suitable school', when neighbors thought to needle in a word or two…

And every time this happened, Alexis felt as if she was the cause of this. Mum could control her magic, couldn't she and so could Dad… and she heard Mum once saying to Dad that Nym never did so much accidental magic, so… why her? Why was she the only one cause of whom, Mum and Dad argued?

The first time when the swing broke, and Dan Phillips broke his arm, Alexis had felt so scared and so bad, that she refused to go to school. But as Dad looked on and Mum cleaned her scrapes, she explained in the same kind manner as she told bedtime stories, what accidental magic was. And it happened to be no fault of Alexis.

And Alexis had believed but as it started to happen more frequently… she didn't know what to believe.

She hated causing her parents so much trouble… but Nym said, once she got to Hogwarts, all would be sorted…

"Hey…" a nudge made her lift her head to see Nym frowning at her "…how come you never told me that you were bullied?"

Her tone was louder than the whispers of earlier and it gave away their position as their parents turned to look at them, as if shocked to see both the girls sitting on the window seat.

"Girls, what are you doing here? I thought you were in your room" Dad said sighing

"Don't change the topic" Nym said loudly and stood up and Alexis tried to huddle in on herself. "You said it was accidental magic, you never said anything about bullying" her tone changed to accusatory, and her hair turned red as she turned on Alexis.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

Alexis shrugged and played with the hem of her soaked sleeve, a frown on her face. Truth was… when Nym always talked about her friends and school, Alexis had always felt jealous. Nym could talk to anybody… she talked to all their cousins while Alexis always stuck to Mum when they went to Grandma's birthday parties or any other family function. While Nym had so much to talk about, Alexis didn't know how to share the fact that she had no friend with her sister.

"I'm not bullied. They just don't like me. Nobody ever does"

The words may have been soft but the impact was huge, that it shook the two adults in the room, right down to their soul. For a few moments the only sound that could be heard was the rain which was falling down harder than ever…

It could have been a simple eight year old being melodramatic, but that wasn't the case here. It was the tone and tenor of the little girl's statement that shook them.

The matter of fact observation made Ted Tonks angry. And he was a man who rarely got angry. He was a calm man who thought things through with a level head but when his eight year old kid states that people didn't like her with a kind of resignation that no eight year old should know, it made him mad.

"What?! How can you say that? Of course everybody loves you" Nymphadora burst out, looking at Alexis in astonishment, which only made Ted wince and exchange a glance with his now quiet wife.

"Dora…" Ted started only to be cut off by the thirteen year old.

"You are polite, do your chores, you get top marks . You can play the piano, speak French better than Mum and you love math and science! And your score is always higher than mine at Contra" And she shook her head, and her eyes took on a hard edge.

"You are smart, intelligent, funny and good. And those people who treat you differently are nuts and jealous!"

At that Alexis reacted, her scowling face took a curious look.

"Jealous?"

"Yes" came the vehement reply as Nymphadora pointed at her "they are jealous of you and when people are jealous they do weird things. Why are they jealous, because they want to be like you. It makes sense doesn't it?"

At that she turned to look at her parents for support and immediately Ted moved to stand next to her and looked at looped his arm around Nymphadora's shoulders.

"Of course they are. That is what I've been trying to tell your mother all along… but once she starts, you know…"

He made a hand gesture bringing his four fingers and thumb to show the yapping, and it earned a giggle from Nymphadora. He looked at Alexis and found her lips pressed, as if curbing the urge to grin.

"Now that your mother is rolling her eyes at me…" all three of them looked at Andromeda and found her in the process of doing so.

"Let me tell you something…" removing his hand from Nymphadora, he moved forward and took Alexis' hand and urged her to stand on the window seat, so that they were eye to eye.

"There are all sorts of people in the world. Some are kind, some are polite and some are not. It is us who we chose to be… you, Alexis, are a good girl and if people choose to treat you differently, then it is their loss because they have no idea what a special person you are."

"I'm special?" and the innocent question made his heart ache.

"Of course you are, sweetheart…" and those black eyes widened with amazement and then her face crumbled.

"Then why doesn't anybody wants to be friends with me?" and this time it was Andromeda, who came on the other side and placed a hand on the little girls cheek

"Because it takes a good person to find another. And let me tell you this darling, there are many good people in this world… all you have to do is find them"

"Which happens to be easy…"Ted waggled his eyebrows "…because you have been accepted in a new school"

And Ted Tonks believed that nothing… nothing could beat seeing the utter happiness on a little girl's face. Alexis' face split with a huge smile and she launched herself at him, and he easily caught her skinny frame in his arms.

"Really Daddy. New school? I'm accepted?" he laughed at that enthusiasm and looked at his wife, who had a peculiar expression on her face.

"See, I told you. Any school would take you" Nymphadora chirped in, grinning and her hair back to shiny purple.

"Alright now… enough school talk. It makes me feel like an old man" a silly chuckle erupted from the girls and Ted tried to keep himself from smiling.

"That's because you are old Dad" Nymphadora said with an eye roll and Ted faked a growl.

"Oi… I'm not old."

"His hair is golden, like Rapunzel" Alexis supplied making both the girls laugh hard and then Ted made to chase them and suddenly only squeals were heard…

Andromeda watched with a fond look at her husband and girls. It pained her to see Alexis being hurt again and again, and she sincerely hoped that what she had said to the little girl was true. Because Andromeda knew… because of who Alexis is, she will definitely need good people in her corner, cause in a few years time, she will have to face the magical community, and only Merlin himself knew what difficulties that alone will raise.

….

After a week full of happy preparation, for Nymphadora's fifth year at Hogwarts and Alexis' new school, the girls said a cheerful goodbye. Of course Alexis was sad that Nym would be gone for months but her excitement at going to a new school was greater than her sorrow.

Just like they had always done, Dad went with Alexis and Mum went with Nym. After giving each other tight hugs, Alexis went with Dad in the car to the new school.

It was a bit far away but Dad said it was alright. Dad maintained a steady chatter, talking about everything and Alexis felt herself relax and watch the scenery as the car ate up the miles.

Soon they were in front of the school and Dad was hugging Alexis a goodbye. Hugging him fiercely, Alexis realized that Dad was hugging back just as strongly.

"Be good and don't be scared. Okay?" his blue eyes, as he pulled back were a bit tensed and Alexis could only nod, her stomach felt as if it was full of hopping frogs.

"I love you Al. Go have fun" Dad told her like he always did before school.

"I love you too Dad" she mumbled and then a tall lady with red hair came forward and took her. Looking back she realized that Dad was still standing there and she waved at him, but lost the sight of him as someone else came in front of him.

In the big classroom, Alexis stood with everyone as their teacher, Miss Bethany called out their names and made them sit in pairs, one boy and one girl. They did not do that in her last school, Alexis noted, already feeling her excitement slowly churning to dread, and it didn't help a girl with golden hair kept giggling with her friend. Any minute now, the teacher would look their way…

"Alexis Tonks" Alexis started at the teacher's call and realized her worst fears were already coming true. She was only standing next to the girl, she wasn't giggling!

"Why don't you go sit in the second row, Alexis?"

Huh?

The teacher smiled at her and led her to the desk and Alexis could only stare. She was sure that the teacher would scold her. That is usually what happened in the last school… maybe Mum was right, Alexis thought, as a small smile began blossoming on her face, there were good people.

Suddenly, the class didn't seem big and scary. Alexis noted the 'welcome back' drawn on the blackboard with colorful chalks, a pot of brightly colored hand-made flowers near the window sill, Miss Bethany's smile that looked so benevolent… and Alexis smiled.

The class started and Miss Bethany began and she specially made Alexis stand up and introduce herself, because all the others had been coming here since they started school. Which made Alexis a bit scared but she did it, and everyone said a loud 'hello' to her.

When Miss Bethany asked to take out their English book, Alexis did so and grinned at her new school book. Maybe this was the first time she was that happy, and all the while grinning she realized she had a seat partner.

He slowly removed his book from the bag and placed it on the desk they shared, and Alexis noted that the edges were frayed and so many pages were dog eared, that the upper right corner of the book was thicker than the entire book.

Then he slowly removed a plastic pencil case, which seemed to be cracked, but otherwise it looked new. Why would the case be cracked if it looked new? The pencil case when opened contained one pencil and an eraser. That's it… Alexis had five pencils-all sharpened, eraser and a ruler. As she saw him take out the pencil, she realized it had been chewed from the top.

Slowly she took in the boy sitting next to her. His blue long sleeved top had so long sleeves that he had to fold them many times over and they rested in a thick band on his wrists, his jeans were big and his trainers were dirty.

He carefully took out his lone pencil and began writing the date on the corner of the paper, and Alexis frowned. Why would he wear a t-shirt that was too big on him?

And suddenly as if sensing her scrutiny, the boy turned and looked straight at Alexis through his messy hair that fell on top of his glasses. And when Alexis looked carefully, she saw that the bridge of the frame was rolled in a lot of cello tape.

"Why do you do that?" she asked pointing to the cello tape and the boy went cross eyed looking at it and then he flushed.

"Er… I broke them" came the stammering reply and Alexis frowned as she realized that the boy was now hunching on himself and with a jolt, Alexis realized that Miss Bethany was speaking. Not wanting to be caught, she went back to her work.

After a few moments, from the corner of her eyes she saw that the boy was not writing. Looking at him she realized that he had broken his only pencil and was now staring at it dejectedly. Looking at the teacher's desk Alexis saw the big sharpener fixed at the corner but the boy didn't go there.

And with a clarity that many grown-ups lacked, Alexis saw the similarities. The reason she carried five pencils was that in her previous schools, she never had the courage to go to the desks and ask the teacher to sharpen her pencil. And it seemed as if the boy was also facing such trouble.

And without further ado, she took out two of her pencils and placed it in on the boy's book. His head whipped up to her, shock in those eyes as he stared back at Alexis, who looked uncomfortable with the stare.

"Uh…I –"

"Take it" Alexis blurted and looked back at the blackboard, and started writing her own fill in the blanks.

"Thank you" came the soft whisper and Alexis smiled to herself, feeling the hopping frogs in her stomach fade away.

At lunch, the class was taken out in the ground and everyone went off to eat their lunch. Alexis stared at her own brown bag and then at the ground which was now spotted with her classmates and also the other students.

Everyone was laughing and talking and Alexis realized that she would have to eat alone… again. She took a few steps dejectedly when her eyes fell on a figure sitting away from the crowd, his back to a tree and rummaging in his brown bag.

Alexis took a deep breath and started marching towards him and didn't stop till she was right in front of him. He looked up and his mouth dropped open as his eyes widened behind his spectacles.

"Er…"

"Do you always start your sentences like that?" and Alexis grinned when he flushed and sat down in front of him.

"No. do you always talk to everyone like that?" he countered

"No. And what do mean, like that? How do I talk?" Alexis asked curiously and looked as the small boy in front of her shrugged.

"In questions" and Alexis grinned.

"No. I don't. I don't even talk much. Back in last school I think I talked thrice" at his disbelieving look Alexis smiled and shrugged.

"Last school? Why did you leave there?" he asked curiously and Alexis felt anxious for a moment.

"Umm… people didn't like me there" she mumbled, afraid of his reaction. But he simply nodded, and gripped his bag tightly.

"I know how that feels" Alexis blinked and looked at her brown bag. How would he know? But instead of asking him that and making him look more uncomfortable, Alexis shook her brown bag at him.

"Want to share?" she offered and the boy smiled hesitantly, but Alexis was already taking out the sandwich that Mum had packed and carefully dividing it into two and giving him one half.

"So… wait. I know even know… never mind" Alexis wiped her hand on her skirt and offered it to him "I'm Alexis Tonks"

It was funny how he looked at the offered hand and then hurriedly wiped his own to shake it.

"Harry. Harry Potter"

"Nice to meet you Potter" Alexis grinned and once again he flushed and then they went back to their respective halves of the sandwiches, and Harry's brown bag lay forgotten beside him.

Together they went to the class, and when it was time to go home, they went outside together. Alexis waved him bye, which he returned and went to a tall lady who looked like she was trying to smile through toothache at a fat blonde boy, standing next to Harry.

"Al!"

Alexis turned to see Dad standing there and…

"Mum!"

Both her parents were there and Alexis was feeling very happy. This school really was good. Hurrying up to her parents she hugged them, while her father laughed out loud as he picked her up in his arms.

"Will look at that Andromeda. Looks like our Alexis finally found her school"

"I'll say" Mum was smiling and her eyes were shining but Alexis was bursting so she started talking miles a minute …talking about everything. From English, to math and lunch break and how she shared her lunch. By the time she came up for a breath, she was buckled in the seat, the car was speeding away and both her parents were chuckling.

"My… seems like you had a good day."

"Yes Mum" Alexis kept smiling looking out of the window, now finally that she had stopped bouncing.

"So, guess this call for a treat" Dad looked from the mirror and winked, making her giggle. Dad was funny that way…

"I don't think why that should be a problem" and Mum never had a problem with ice cream treats…

"Honey, you didn't say what was the name of your new friend" Mum suddenly asked, curiosity shining in her eyes as he turned her head in the seat to look at Alexis.

And Alexis smiled, remembering her thin friend with broken glasses and big clothes.

"His name is Harry. Harry Potter" she told them with a big smile in the same manner like her new friend introduced himself.

There was a beat of silence where her Mum's face froze and Dad…

And Dad crashed into the car in front of them.