The Teaser
By: Dirty Reid
A.N.: I went back and fixed a few things at the behest of someone who actually spoke Italian and was gracious enough to correct my mistakes. Cheers!
Chapter 2: Nicoletta Imperioli
Alone again on the Hogwarts Express.
This wasn't anything new to Harry. It had happened in his first and fifth year; first because he was friendless, and fifth because Ron and Hermione had their Prefect duties. This year, they had their Prefect duties and Ginny was off with her friends.
This year though, Harry was having an even harder time finding a compartment without zealous fans in it. All of them seemed to want to bask in the presence of 'The Chosen One', and there was nothing he hated more than attention focused on his fame. He had been searching for nearly ten minutes, winding his way towards the very end of the train. There seemed to be no end to compartments filled with annoyingly supportive fans, terrified firsties or suck-ups. This was getting really irksome, really fast.
Luck though, seemed to take pity on Harry again and cut him a break. He was about to walk past a door in the third last compartment when he stopped and saw no one sitting on the couch facing him. He stepped back to look at the other side and found a single occupant.
There was a girl in there, staring out the window. The angle at which she had tilted her head left her face a mystery to him. He was however, able to see the tone of her skin suggested she was of a Mediterranean persuasion. Her brown hair had an undercurrent of dark red, making it look the colour of a very fine, aged wine. Another aspect of this girl that gave Harry pause was the clothing she wore. Everyone else on the train was dressed in shirts and pants or skirts, or casual magical clothing. This girl was dressed in a suit. A very expensive Muggle pinstripe suit with a short skirt that showed off her long legs, he noted with a more careful look. The high heels on her feet weren't particularly fancy-looking or shiny, but they were probably expensive nonetheless. He didn't know why, but the girl's attire made him even more apprehensive as he gently rapped on the sliding glass door. The girl languidly rolled her head and set a cool gaze upon him.
She was around his age and absolutely beautiful. Her face was formed into the shape of a soft-sided diamond, and her chin, cheek bones and nose were not unattractively sharp. Harry didn't know why, but he felt strangely naked as her chestnut brown eyes stared at him while he opened the door.
"Err, sorry to bother you, but could I sit here?" Harry mumbled, cursing his inability to speak clearly in front of attractive women. The girl stared at him for a few seconds. Just when Harry thought she was about to say no, she graced him with what could only be described as a half smile.
"Sure," she answered in a soft voice slicked with an Italian brogue. "C'mon in." she added a gesture as Harry closed the door and sat down opposite her. For a few seconds, silence reigned as jade green eyes stared into chestnut brown.
"I don't remember seeing you at Hogwarts before." Harry finally broke the silence.
"I'm a transfer student. Name's Scaletta; Nicoletta Scaletta." Nicoletta answered, holding out her hand. Harry hesitated for a moment when he saw the black glove she wore. The main body was made of thinly cut dragon hide, and there were small cables running from a thin casing along the underside, connecting to pea-sized nubs on the pads of her fingers and a Shilling-sized circle in the palm of her hand. Nicoletta clearly picked up on his hesitation and skeptical gaze.
"Ah, don't worry 'bout this. It won't hurt'cha unless I cast a spell at you." Nicoletta reassured him, but removed it nonetheless. Only afterwards did Harry shake her hand.
"Harry Potter," he likewise introduced himself. When he expected a gasp and immediate gushing, he was pleasantly surprised when Nicoletta simply raised one of her thin eyebrows.
"So you're the one everyone and their brother's makin' noise about. Nice to finally meet ya." She said with another half smile. Harry couldn't help but return it.
"You don't seem all that thrilled to meet me." He noted aloud. "Not that I'm complaining," he added quickly. Nicoletta shrugged.
"Figured what with all the hype everyone else has goin' on, you got enough problems without the exchange students kissin' your ass." Nicoletta explained dismissively as she reached into one of her inner suit pockets. "You thirsty, Harry?" she asked as she pulled down the folding table that came in every compartment.
"Um, a little." Harry answered. Nicoletta nodded as she continued to frisk around in her inside suit pocket. It took her a few seconds, but she finally pulled out a pair of snifters, and soon after, a good-sized bottle of Muggle Cognac. Nicoletta quickly popped the glass cap off the bottle and poured a decent amount of amber liquid into both the glasses.
"Um, Nicoletta, should we really be…"
"There's no rule against drinkin' on the train Harry." Nicoletta overrode him gently, handing him a glass, which he took after a second of thinking. Nicoletta sat back in her seat after placing the Cognac on the table and took a sip. Harry sniffed the strong drink and hesitantly raised the glass to his lips. For some reason, his lack of drinking experience made him feel unsettled in front of a girl who was clearly no slouch when it came to her tastes in alcohol. He sipped a small amount of the drink and winced as it burned his throat on the way down. Nicoletta grinned a little bit.
"Don't drink a lot?" She asked, raising the glass to her lips and taking another swig.
"Ugh! Not really. My experience's mostly limited to Butterbeer." Harry admitted. Nicoletta sniggered just a little bit.
"Pussy drink." She snorted, seemingly not caring about tossing swears and insults around. Harry said nothing and took another sip of his Cognac.
"So Nicoletta, what made you decide to transfer to Hogwarts, if you don't mind me asking?" Harry opened up another conversation after his next sip. Nicoletta took a pull on her glass before setting it down on the table.
"Well, padre is tryin' to expand the family business and figured that Britain might be a good place to go to. That being said, we got a place in London and started nosin' around for business opportunities." She replied. Harry gave a small nod and took another sip of his drink; it was starting to burn a little less, and his stomach felt pleasantly warm.
"What kind of business?" Harry asked before he could stop himself; he really wanted to know where Nicoletta got the money for a suit and hooch like she had.
"He deals in technology and security, both wards and personnel, Mundane and magical. Just finished a prototype ward that lets simple electronics work in a magic area actually, so the whole company's real excited 'bout that." Nicoletta explained. 'Hermione is gonna go mad when she hears about this.' Harry thought.
"What kind of simple electronics?" He asked after taking another drink from his nearly empty snifter.
"Anythin' more complex than a radio and you got a problem. Like I said, s'just a prototype." Nicoletta answered. For some reason, thinking about Nicoletta's father's business dealing with technology brought an image of the dragon hide glove she wore to the forefront of his mind.
"What was that glove you were wearing? One of your father's products?" Harry asked. Nicoletta cocked an eyebrow sharply.
"What are you, a reporter?" she teased. Harry had the decency to blush. "I'm just yankin' ya. No, I got it from a little place just outside Madrigal del Monte in Spain. Probably would've been cheaper to give the guy my goddamn firstborn than the cash he asked for. It's called a Focus Gauntlet; FG for short." She picked it up and held it out to him. The glove was surprisingly smooth for looking so rough.
"What does it do?" Harry asked as he returned it to the Italian.
"With any luck, this baby'll replace wands in a couple decades. Works pretty much the same way, just point, incant and watch the show. For example, repelo (Lit. 'Fill up again')!" Nicoletta pointed at her snifter, which had only a few drops of brandy left in it, and the glass was immediately half full of the fine spirit. "Refill?" she asked. Harry shook his head. "Suit yourself," she shrugged and took another drink.
"Anything else you wanna know?" she asked. Harry became thoughtful for a moment.
"What part of Italy are you from?" He finally asked.
"I was born in Napoli. When I was four, padre e madre packed us up and moved to America. New York specifically, which 'splain's my muddled accent." Nicoletta offered. Harry, not knowing the difference between an Italian and a New Yorker accent, simply nodded.
"Our business really picked up there with the help of a couple Technomages, and when I was eleven we moved to Firenze so I could attend-"
"Wait, wait, wait, hold on a tic. What's a Technomage?" Harry interrupted quickly.
"Witches an' wizards who combine magic with Mundane technology. Most of em' you find in the American military, but a few high end businesses and organizations employ em' as security." Nicoletta elaborated. Harry was still confused.
"Isn't that a breach of the Statute of Secrecy? Like, on a colossal scale?" He asked. Nicoletta blinked at him for a moment before her eyes displayed a dawning comprehension of something.
"Sometimes I forget how closed-off you Brits are from the rest o' the world. The Statute of Secrecy hasn't applied to the States for almost fifty years, not since the magicals involved in the success of the Manhattan Project went public in '48." Nicoletta told him. Harry's mouth opened a little bit.
"You're saying that magicals helped create nuclear weapons?" He gasped, and was treated to the details- some of which he was pretty sure were classified- of how magic aided in the creation of the most powerful weapon known to man, and the subsequent revelation of the magical faction in the United States.
"Wow… that's all I can say, just wow." Harry murmured, still dazed by the story Nicoletta had told him.
"I pretty much said the same thing." The Italian witch agreed, draining her snifter and reaching into her suit jacket. "Mind if I smoke?" she asked as she pulled out a good-sized box ('Her pockets must be expanded,' Harry thought), opened it and pulled out a large, light brown cigar. She didn't wait for him to say if he minded or not.
"A cigar?" Harry asked; he had fully been expecting her to pull out a pack of cigarettes. Maybe a pipe.
"Hell yeah! Cigarettes are nasty shit; they have fuckin' formaldehyde in 'em! That shit's used to preserve dead bodies, an' that's just one of the chemicals they put in there!" Nicoletta spat vehemently as she cut off the rounded end of the cigar, poked a small hole clean through it and stuck it into her mouth. She flicked the thumb enclosed in the Focus Gauntlet, and a small flame burst from the nub. Nicoletta rotated and lit the end of the cigar before taking a long pull and exhaling a thin cloud of smoke. Harry had to admit, the tobacco didn't smell half bad.
"Want one?" Nicoletta asked, holding a stogie towards him. Harry hesitated again. Nicoletta noticed.
"Cigars ain't that bad for you, Harry. You only risk throat cancer if you smoke em' constantly, and you can't get addicted to them. Plus, these ones leave a nice taste in your mouth afterwards, and they're only good for a couple more months. I won't be able to go through all of em', and you look like a guy who's needed to say 'Fuck you, conformity' for a couple years now. So whaddaya say?" Nicoletta ended her spiel, which believe it or not, had made sense.
"What the hell," Harry shrugged as he plucked the smoke from Nicoletta's hand and used a charm to poke a small hole through the tightly wrapped tobacco.
"There ya go!" She grinned, lighting her finger again to start up his cigar. "You ever smoke before?"
"No."
"Okay then, with a cigar, you don't inhale the smoke. Just take it into your mouth, hold it for a few seconds and then release." Nicoletta instructed, demonstrating for his benefit. Harry slowly took the cigar between his teeth and inhaled gently. When barely any smoke entered his mouth, he began to pull harder. His second attempt worked better than his first as the smoke rushed back into his throat. He removed the cigar and held his breath. A few seconds later, he released a small cloud of smoke, leaving a not unpleasant taste in his mouth. Nicoletta was staring at him again.
"Not bad for your first pull. Burned myself when I had my first cigar." She chuckled half-heartedly and took another pull. "But enough about me. Care to tell me a little bit about yourself?"
Over the next twenty or so minutes, Harry told Nicoletta Scaletta a few stories of his life. He tried to downplay some of his school adventures and shied away from where he spent the summer. He didn't say it, but he was grateful when she didn't press him for details. She would stop him every once in a while to ask him to clarify something he said, but didn't push if he refused information. She would toss a few zingers in there to lighten the mood, and Harry laughed at every one of them. He had just finished telling her a choppy version of the Ministry battle the previous year when the door opened.
"Hey Harry, we've-" Ron cut himself off when he noticed the girl dressed in the expensive suit sitting opposite his friend, holding a glass of brandy in one hand and a half-finished cigar in the other, surrounded by a fug of smoke. Hermione picked up where Ron's words failed.
"Harry James Potter, are you drinking and smoking?" Hermione's voice rose significantly when she saw the drink and the smoke Harry was holding. Harry was about to hesitantly explain his reasons when something Nicoletta said came back to him:
"… you look like a guy who's needed to say 'Fuck you, conformity' for a couple years now." With those words in mind, Harry raised his calm gaze to his female friend.
"Yes, Hermione Jean Granger, as a matter of fact I am. Is there a problem with having a vice every now and then?" Nicoletta grinned and raised her glass to him just a little bit. Hermione looked completely taken aback by his boldness.
"I… Smoking's bad for you!" Hermione finally scolded. As if in defiance, Harry took a pull on his cigar.
"There are no nasty chemicals in cigars Hermione and you only run the risk of throat cancer if you smoke them constantly. This one is my first, so I'm good." Harry explained as smoke oozed out of his mouth. "And, given what I've been through, I think I'm entitled to a little self-indulgence." He added as an afterthought. Hermione did not look happy as she followed Ron and sat down beside him.
"Who's she?" Ron asked, pointing at the Italian transfer student.
"Nicoletta Scaletta, transfer from the Il Collegio Magico di Firenze." Nicoletta introduced herself. Whether she liked it or not, Hermione immediately began to consider the girl friend material, if only for the wealth of knowledge she could provide.
"Where's Sally-Anne?" Hermione asked Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown as she entered their dorm. She had just finished herding the firsties up to the room with Ron, and had developed a small eye tic because of the unusual rowdiness of this year's batch.
"Her parents withdrew her." Lavender said simply. Hermione stared for a moment before blinking and regaining focus.
"Okay… Well, who's our new dorm mate?" she asked. On cue, the door opened.
"That would be me," said Nicoletta Scaletta, her high heels oddly quiet as she entered the dorm. It had been quite a surprise, seeing the sixteen-year-old girl walking behind the group of firsties. She wore only the outer robe as well, her Giorgio Armani suit standing out quite nicely. Most of the tables had erupted into whispers, although a couple nasty comments came from the Slytherin table. Nicoletta had waited until after McGonagall had finished her Sorting spiel to reach into her pocket and pull out a makeup kit to pass the time. Despite her surname beginning with an 'S', Nicoletta was not called to be Sorted until after all the firsties and Dumbledore gave her an introduction and a welcome. Nicola had sat under the hat for almost three minutes before it had shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"
"Oh, hi Nicoletta." Hermione greeted with a smile. Nicoletta gave the bushy-haired girl a nod and quickly proceeded to peel off her pinstripe suit.
"How much did that suit cost you?" Parvati asked. "It's a very nice suit."
"Grazie," Nicoletta thanked her. "Hmm…" She looked up into the air, pondering. "'Bout seven million Lire." She answered. All three of the girls gasped.
"That's one expensive suit!" Lavender exclaimed. Parvati nodded her agreement.
"Magical Italy still uses the Lira?" she asked with a raised brow. Nicoletta nodded.
"All the magic parts of the countries in the European Union use the type o' money they had before the Euro came into play; 'cept Britain, that is." Nicoletta smirked a little. Hermione's face was scrunched up as calculations ran through her head.
"What are you thinking about, Hermione?" Parvati asked. Hermione didn't respond for a moment.
"So… seven million Lire would be about two hundred and twenty Galleons?" She asked. Nicoletta nodded as she finished unbuttoning her shirt and started to slide her skirt off. Parvati, Lavender and Hermione tried not to take notice of the Italian witch's silky black underwear as she pulled off her bra and slipped on a set of pyjamas. Without another word, Nicoletta jumped into bed and pulled the curtains closed.
Just as she was about to get into bed herself, Hermione noticed something rolling along the floor and under Nicoletta's bed. She frowned; for a second, she could have sworn it was in the shape of a bullet…
"Couldn't be," she mumbled and extinguished her light.
And that's the revised Chapter 2. Please...
-1- Tell me whether or not you liked this teaser
-2- Tell me what you SPECIFICALLY liked about this teaser
-3- Tell me what you DIDN'T like about this teaser
-4- Recommend a suitable improvement
Peace,
Dirty Reid