AN: I'm so sorry this update has taken forever! Trying to make this story just right is very time consuming and I've had very little time to give this fic recently. I'm really sorry it's taken this long. Thank you to Concolor44 for the wonderful reviews you've given me! (and to all of you others for reviewing, following, favoriting, or simply just reading)

No one commented about this but just to make it clear, Amby's parents are Luna Lovegood and Lee Jordan! (which isn't conventional, but it's my fic and I'll do what I want to)
Also, I kind of hate the first bit of this chapter, but it's rather important to the story later on. This chapter is still a lot of build-up but we are finally getting into the story a little in this chapter. (I think so at least)

Disclaimer: Don't own the world or any of Rowling's characters. I do own: Lizzie, Alex, Yo-yo, Jilly, Andrew Andrews, Viola, and Leon Obnox. (and the plot) I apologize for any OOC Draco or Minerva. Their relationship will be further explained in later chapters which will probably make the characters seem less OOC.
I'm also betaless so if you could point out large (or not large) errors that I've missed, that would be appreciated! Enjoy!

The door to the train's lavatory opened and Lizzie stepped out. Alex was waiting for her, leaning against the wall. Lizzie smoothed a wrinkle in her plain grey pleated skirt. She began fidgeting with the stiff white dress shirt. It just didn't feel right.

"Okay, you need to stop." Alex said. "Seriously, you've had it on for all of ten seconds and you're already going insane over how it fits and how it looks. We're all going to look the same. We're going to have to switch uniforms once we get there anyway. They'll be more specific to our house. "

Lizzie bit her lip and heaved a sigh. "You're right, you're right. I just can't help it. It truly is rather uncomfortable."

"It'll be fine. You'll get used to it, I'm sure."

Lizzie and Alex started walking down the hall back to Amby and Romeo. They took their time with Alex peering into the other compartments to see what everyone else was up to. "Hey, that guy is a hunk," Alex muttered as they passed a compartment holding three 6th year boys. She looked over to Lizzie. "Oh, really? Again?"

Lizzie kept on fixing and re-fixing her hair. Tucking it behind her hair, then taking it out from behind her ear. Pulling it over one shoulder, then flipping it so it was behind both. She continued to do so until Alex's comment. She paused and began to twirl one strand around her finger. "I'm sorry. I just can't help it. I'm nervous." She said, then more quietly, "I'm not sure I really belong at Hogwarts. I'm more of a muggle than anything."

Alex stopped and studied the girl beside her. She was young, you could tell, but she certainly did look more mature than most 11 year old girls. Alexandria thought it was because of her eyes. They were large gorgeous brown orbs, but there was something behind them. It seemed as if they reflected hurt and pain and that they had seen far too much in their few years. Alex could relate to that and she felt like perhaps Lizzie was a kindred soul. Lizzie and Alex would never be able to pass themselves off as sisters though. Lizzie's hair fell in soft blond waves with a slight frizzy wildness to it and she had pretty bangs that kept her looking her age. Her skin was very pale. Lizzie lacked the prominent cheekbones that Alex had, but she didn't have the pudginess of Jilly or Yo-yo. She was pretty. It was obvious to Alex. She had seen how the boys had reacted to her. James Potter seemed especially captivated by her and if the way Amby and Rom's eyes shone when they met Lizzie was any sign of how their future classmates would perceive her, then Alex was sure that Lizzie was heading into a world she wasn't ready for. Looks could be deceiving, but the brunette had always found that the way you physically presented yourself not only affected how others would perceive you, but also your own opinions of yourself. Lizzie was comfortable in her muggle clothing. Just a few moments ago she had been a walking billboard for a muggle band, but on the train when she was surrounded by wizard teens she had suddenly felt inadequate. Now that she appeared to be like them she was having second thoughts about all of this. She didn't feel like herself in these clothes and it seemed to Alex that Lizzie was simply afraid that she would lose who she was now by becoming a member of wizard society. Alex knew what she was going through. She had also been there. Trying to blend into the world you haven't grown up in makes you feel like an outsider with no hope. There was no way she was going to let Lizzie go through that alone.

Alex grabbed Lizzie's soft pale hand from where it had hung by her side. She grasped it tightly and smiled reassuringly at Elizabeth. "You belong here. You belong here just the way you are and you're going to get through this just fine. And I'll be here for you. Even if we're not in the same house I'll be around to help you. This is all new to me too, but we can figure it out together." Alex smiled again. "You're strong and smart. I can tell. It doesn't matter that you didn't grow up around wizards and witches because sometimes what's really needed is someone who understands the muggle way of doing things. Not the magic way." Alexandria smiled again and gave Lizzie's hand another squeeze.

Lizzie offered back a shaky smile. "Okay."

"Let's go back to the compartment. We should make sure all our things are ready before getting to Hogwarts." Alex started walking down the train with her hand still gripping onto Lizzie's.

Four Weeks Earlier

"Andrew," the voice of the headmistress called. "Andrew are you here?" Her voice echoed off the stone walls of the large classroom.

"I'm here Minerva, I'm here!" came a shout from behind a sizable mahogany desk. The voice was followed by a shuffling sound and then a large bang. "Oh, ow" sounded a pained voice.

"Really," headmistress McGonagall muttered under her breath, "I don't know why I keep them on as teachers here."

A small smile played on the lips of the pale young man standing beside her. "Perhaps it's for the same reason you decided to hire me,"

She turned to him. "Draco, I surely hope you do not plan on rummaging through papers underneath your desk and then receiving a concussion when you have such a lack of observance that you manage to knock your head against the blinking desk."

He raised one thin pale eyebrow at her. Over the past few years he had remained in touch with the Hogwarts headmistress and they were friends of sorts. He had learned that she could be an irritable perfectionist, but also quite patient and understanding if she chose to be. The McGonagall before him now was of the irritated sort. She had seemed a bit frustrated all day and in place of her usually calm and collected seriousness was a hurried demeanor with mild curse words corrupting her speech.

"Oh, calm yourself down Minerva," a young man said as he stood up slowly from behind the escritoire. He was rubbing the side of his head and in the process his light brown hair had been ruffled around resulting in it landing in complete disarray. He shook his head slightly to whip the long strands out of his hazel eyes. "I dropped some important papers and had to pick them up. I'm not about to use my magic for that kind of small task and let all that muscle I got from years of quidditch classes at ABF atrophy. Surely you feel the same Minerva. It would be such a tremendous pity, would it not?" he joked.

"All I can say is that it is a good thing Viola is still teaching or else all the heads of the houses would be as young and foolish as you."

"Fine," he sighed. He placed a stack of disorganized pages on his desk. "What is it that you needed?"

"Andrew, this is our new head of Slytherin and Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Draco Malfoy. Draco, this is Professor Andrew Andrews. He teaches Arithmancy. He's also the head of Ravenclaw."

Draco stuck his hand out to shake the other professor's and Andrew mirrored the gesture.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Minerva's been telling us she was getting a teacher to replace Drawling, but refused to share anything else. I better warn you Malfoy, I may not have come to Hogwarts as a kid, but I sure as hell root for my house. For Ravenclaw. There's no way I'm letting Slytherin beat Ravenclaw without a fight."

"I wouldn't expect you to," Draco replied with a smirk, "but I'd hate for you to do all that fighting for nothing."

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Cocky are we?" he let out a small laugh and smiled at the new professor. "You ever need anything, I'll be here."

"Thanks," he said with a nod of his head. "So you went to the Academy of Broom Flying? I always wanted to take courses there, but my father would never allow it. He always thought I spent too much time in the air and not enough focusing on the skills that would be valued during the war."

"Yeah, I went there. Not as my primary school though. If you go solely to ABF you better be damn good at quidditch because you're not going to learn anything else that will get you a job. My sister and I both attended the Salem Witches' Institute and then I took classes at the Academy during the summer."

"You're from America then?"

"Well, um, not exactly, but I spent most of my childhood there." Andrew forced a smile as he spoke his answer and his eyes grew out of focus as he avoided direct eye contact with Draco.

Malfoy decided not to push the question and decided to continue with the subject of schooling instead. "I went to Hogwarts myself and was as Slytherin as you could get." He chuckled a small bit at the memories that statement brought to the surface. Those first few years at Hogwarts he had loved being in Slytherin and had been a complete git if you came right down to it.

"Adelpha, she's my younger sister, was always making theories about what houses we would have been in had we gone here as kids. My grandfather went here and used to tell us stories. Adelpha was always a little bitter about going to Salem instead."

McGonagall cleared her throat. "I hate to break up this pleasant conversation, but Draco and I really must be going." She turned to the blonde, "You have many more staff member to meet and a lot has changed here at Hogwarts since you left. You'll need to catch up with the new school standards. The two of you can talk later on. There'll be plenty of time I assure you."

The two men exchanged a look. They both knew how bossy Minerva could be. "I'll catch you later Malfoy. Maybe we can talk about quidditch or just commiserate over how similarly horrible I'm sure both of our school experiences were. You know, compare the weirdos and such," Andrew said.

"Professor Andrews," Minerva said sharply at his comment.

Draco laughed and nodded his head at the Arithmancy teacher. "Yeah, I'd like that. As soon as I get through all these bloody introductions we can spend some real time getting to know each other. Figure out our competition for the house cup,"

Andrew laughed as the headmistress and his new coworker left his classroom.

"So you like Andrew?" Minerva commented. "I thought you would. The two of you will get along quite nicely I think."

"I do as well," Draco said softly. "It's been some time since I had any real friends. I'm assuming that's why you're doing all of this?"

"You've always been too perceptive for your own good, Draco. Except when it came to yourself," She looked to him from the corner of her eye as they walked side by side. "I'm going to introduce you to our head of Gryffindor next. And you are going to make every effort to get along with him. Do you understand?"

Draco let out a small groan in frustration. "I'm not a child, Minerva. I'll try my best to tolerate him, but I make no promises that we'll get along. It is partially up to him you know."

"He went to Hogwarts like you did. He was a Gryffindor a couple years younger than you. I don't believe the two of you ever formally met." The older woman stopped in front of a closed classroom door. The two entered and she strode with purpose to the desk at the back of the room. Draco trailed a few steps behind her as he looked warily at the man sitting at the desk.

He had dark brown hair that had been carefully groomed with the use of magic and probably a lot of hair gel. It had been slicked back away from his forehead and it was almost impossible to determine where the part of his hair was because it was so far on the left side of his head. The style reminded Draco of his own in second year. He was pretty certain that was the age at which he'd been the largest jackass. The Gryffindor head also had thick framed glasses precariously perched upon his sharp nose. He wore black wizarding robes that had obviously been pressed so often that it was impossible for them to even become wrinkled anymore. 'Oh yes,' Draco thought to himself, 'Minerva had more reasons than him being a Gryffindor for asking me to be civilized around him.'

The man finally looked up from a paper he was staring at when the headmistress was a mere four feet from his desk. A blatantly forced grin spread across his face. "Is there something I can help you with Minerva?" His voice was grating with a false trace of willing helpfulness.

"Leon, this is our new professor, Draco Malfoy. " She turned back to Draco, "This is Professor Leon Obnox. He's the History of Magic teacher in addition to his duties to Gryffindor House."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Leon, I'm sure," Draco said pleasantly despite his inner unease.

Leon slowly stood from his seat and removed his reading glasses. "Draco. Malfoy." He murmured. "So you're the one McGonagall scraped up for the open position." A menacing smile took over his face. "I suppose you don't' remember me?"

Malfoy frowned. "I'm sorry, but I don't. Minerva did mention that you were only a couple years younger than me, but I don't recall ever running into you during our years here."

"Of course you wouldn't, but what does it matter now? We're adults. Let bygones be bygones and such, yes?"

Draco was even more distrustful of the stiff professor now and watched him, his grey eyes narrowed slightly. "Exactly. The past's in the past. I'm sure we've both matured a great deal since our initial Hogwarts days." He pasted a polite smile on a lips. "I suppose we'll be seeing each other quite often knowing how disruptive Gryffindor and Slytherin students can be, but right now Minerva and I really must be going. She's still got most of the staff left to introduce me to."

"Of course. We'll be seeing each other again soon, Malfoy. I'm sure of that." His words sounded especially menacing to Draco's ears.

Minerva had been carefully observing the two heads and only said her goodbye to Leon and started following Draco out after he had walked more than halfway through the classroom without her. She found him waiting in the hall for her. It was easy to tell he was nervous for some reason. "What is it Draco?" she questioned.

He looked to her, his eyes boring into hers. "Honestly? I don't know." He shook head and short humorless laugh escaped his mouth. "He just, there's something about him. It worries me." He was quiet for a moment. "Minerva, I appreciate everything you've done to try to help me, but I'm not sure I'm right for this job. I don't know the first thing about teaching and I was never all that great a student. I'm not sure Hogwarts is really where I belong anymore. In fact, I do not believe Hogwarts was ever where I was meant to be. "

McGonagall looked sadly upon the pureblood man standing before her. He had been through so much and at such an early age. He had made so many mistakes over the years and those mistakes along with the ones made by his ancestors was what led so many people to ostracize him from society. They were right, choices Draco had made had led to people getting hurt, but Minerva trusted him with her life. "Draco, with my influence I could have easily gotten you a job at some obscure business where you would never have contact with anyone knowledgeable about your past. I did not though. I chose you as the Slytherin head. I chose you for a reason. I want you as a professor here and I you choose not to accept the position then that is up to you, but I wouldn't have offered it if I believed you couldn't handle it. "He didn't respond, so she continued. "Leon's a muggleborn. You probably made him think of days at Hogwarts where Slytherins would bully him because of his blood status. I merely said that you had to try to get along, not that either of you have to like the other."

Draco stood silently for a moment, absorbing the woman's words. She had meant all of it and he wasn't sure how that made him feel. There had been very few people in his life that thought he was capable of doing anything right. He would probably let her down, but he had to try didn't he? He looked up at the headmistress and smirked. "So? Who's next on the meet and greet list?"

I really hoped you enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think! My AN from last chapter still stands. Any theories or requests are awesome! I'm hoping to have chapter 5 up soon, but no promises. I should also have a one-shot or two up soon hopefully, if you'd like to check that out! I can't possibly express how wonderful and important you guys are to me and to this fic! Thank you so much for the support. {Review? Follow? Favorite?}