MARY-SUE AND GARY-STU DO HOGWARTS
CHAPTER TWO: THE NEW THREAT TO THEIR SANITY

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After laying eyes upon the travesty that would have awaited them in the Great Hall if they were to venture in, Hermione, Harry, and Ron made their way back towards Gryffindor quarters. Hermione's head still spun as she considered the sickeningly perfect appearance of the girl sitting next to Malfoy at the Slytherin table. How could this possibly be happening? They had just managed to be rid of the last one a mere three weeks ago, when she had dramatically thrown herself from the North Tower after Blaise Zabini had refused her his hand in marriage.

And so Hogwarts had been left to recover from its latest misfortune. The lack of her kind was very rare anymore, and any break that they could get was welcomed with open arms. They had grown progressively worse over the years, and their presence hung more persistently upon the castles' walls than the one that preceded them. She hadn't minded them so much when they first began to appear, for they had been a minor detail in the tragedy that she and her two best friends seemed steered towards to by Fate. One would appear, attempt to pull off something with which they would always be remembered for, and then would be gone again. It was always the same thing.

However, none yet had managed to produce a legacy for themselves. The last had been close, but not quite there. The students remembered her name for a few days afterward, but she soon slipped from their conversations as they turned their minds to more important manners. Besides, they had such long, ridiculous names. How could anyone possibly be expected to remember them when they had three or four middle names, and about a dozen nicknames?

"So, what do we know about this one?" Hermione hesitantly asked as they reached the Gryffindor common room.

"She's Malfoy's cousin," Harry filled her in on what he had learned from his brief time in her presence. "Bellatrix's daughter. From the way she was looking at me, I would say that she's here on some sort of a mission from Voldemort."

Hermione nodded as she digested this information. "And she was sorted into Slytherin, of course?"

"Of course-" Harry confirmed.

"No," Ron cut him off. "She was placed into Slytherin."

"Ah," Hermione remarked, and then subsided into thought. "Do you two feel normal?"

Such was the power of her people, they actually managed to cause unwarranted personality changes in those that they wished to leave the strongest impression upon. In fact, with the last one, Hermione and Harry had had to deal with Ron as he struggled with his placement in a love triangle between himself, the girl in question, and Zabini from Slytherin. It was only when Ron had seen the girl and Zabini snogging in an empty broom closet that he had decided he deserved better, and snapped out of the trance she had cast him into.

Ron and Harry both nodded in response to Hermione's question, and then she asked another one. "So, then, who's her romantic interest?"

Ron and Harry thought about it for a moment before Harry answered for the both of them. "Not quite sure, yet. She kind of showed a little interest in me, but I don't know if that means anything-"

"I think that she's into Malfoy, actually," Ron suddenly spoke as it dawned on him, and he cast a disgusted glance at Harry and Hermione as a shudder ran down his spine. "She does seem like the kind that'd be into her immediate family, that one."

"Great," Hermione offered her thoughts in a monotonous voice. "We haven't dealt with one of these in a while, ever since Neville's twin sister showed up. What's her name?"

Ron stood from the chair he had sat down in, and reached into his back pocket. "Hold on, I wrote it down here..."

Neither she nor Harry laughed, for this had become a very common occurrence with these people. Their names were very easily forgettable anymore, and seemed to become more and more so as time wore on.

Ron located the crinkled piece of parchment within his pocket, extracted it, and then unfolded it. "Raven Moonchild Alexandria Black."

Hermione raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Wow. Only two middle names."

"I know, I was surprised, too," Ron replied as he shoved it back into his parchment. "I thought that there'd be at least three, by the looks of her."

"I was leaning towards five," Harry offered his input as he too stood up. "Well, we might as well make our way to class, I guess. We have Snape first, with the Slytherins. That figures."

"Damn," Hermione swore under her breath as she made to follow Ron and Harry towards the Dungeons, and towards her first encounter with the new exchange student. "No wonder it's always Wednesday that these people show up."