Clash of the Houses
"Hullo there." Blaise said as she plopped down in front of Bonnie. Bonnie pause her drumstick halfway to her mouth and looked up to see a tall, dark-skinned young man with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes that puts a chill in the air.
"What's crackalackin'?" She asked and at his curious stare she put down her food and sat up straight. "That would be American for what's up. I think I have an idiot's guide to American slang if you want it." She challenged with a smirk. She was always one to test the waters. Blaise stared at her before a charming smile appeared on his face.
"Sense of humor, and backbone that's good; I'm Blaise Zabini." He held out his hand expectantly and she shook it, the coldness staying present as their skin connected. One down, many more to go, she thought to herself as she smiled warmly at the boy in front of her.
"Bonnie Tanon which I'm sure you already knew. ." Bonnie commented dryly as she went back to eating.
"What part of America are you from? I took a few trips there with my mom." Blaise commented idly.
"West coast, California. I lived in Wizarding Malibu, but I've been all over the US. This is my first time out of the US actually."
"Malibu huh? Sounds like you're a rich girl." That made her eyes roll, making Blaise laugh. "I've been to New York City mostly. Have you been?" Bonnie nodded and looked at the goblet of orange liquid wondering what it was while she spoke.
"Yes, many times. I love Broadway; I know almost every musical by heart. Wizarding New York City isn't as great though. I prefer going to the mundane city." Blaise smiled and nodded confirming that I wasn't in fact lying where I had come from.
"You call muggles, mundanes'?" Blaise questioned with a raise of his brow.
"You call the bathroom a washroom?" She shot back with a smirk.
"Fair enough; how do you like Hogwarts? That's pumpkin juice by the way." He commented as she continued to look at the goblet. Her cheeks flushed slightly and she poured some to try. It wasn't bad but she opted out for water instead.
"It's nice, haven't met a whole lot of people yet, but they all seem nice enough." Bonnie watched as the entrées disappeared and were replaced with desserts. Blaise took the time to explain what they all were. She tried the treacle tarts and a few other things before she stopped eating. She didn't want anyone to get suspicious or think she was a pig. She watched as people began leaving and wondered where they were going.
"Do you know where your classes are?" Blaise asked not bothering to get up just yet.
"No, but Professor Snape said I would wait until Monday to start them. I get today to settle in." Blaise nodded at that and got up grabbing his book bag.
"Alright, so I'll see you in the common room?" Blaise flashed that charming smile of his and she just rolled her eyes.
"Sure, sure." She waved goodbye to him and he walked away. That was when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Harry standing behind her.
"Well, well, we meet again broken nose." Bonnie commented with a laugh. Harry rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless.
"Ha, ha. You're hilarious you American. Want to come sit with my friends and me? We have a free period you could spend with us. I do owe you for fixing my broken nose after all." They both laughed but she nodded and followed him over to the Gryffindor table, all eyes that were still in the hall watched her.
"Oy, what's a Slytherin doin' at our table." A Irish boy called out.
"What, you don't mind if I slither in do you?" Bonnie commented and a few boys started choking on their food as they tried to laugh, others were snickering and some were gaping.
"A Slytherin with a sense of humor never thought I would see the day. Didn't you hear we're supposed to be rivals?" The same Irish boy commented after the snickering died down. She sat in between Harry and him once he made room for her. Seems her joke broke the ice.
"Really; In American the only thing people rival over is who the best at Quid-Pro is. They could careless who you are until you show off your skills on the pitch." She laughed at their facial expressions. Harry nudged her and quickly introduced everyone.
"That's Seamus you're sitting next to. That's Dean, Neville, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, my girlfriend." Bonnie smiled at the courses of hellos before Dean, spoke up.
"What's Quid-Pro?" He asked curiously when the bushy haired girl Hermione answered.
"I believe that's what they call Quidditch in America, is that right?" Bonnie nodded, and suddenly all the boys were interested in the conversation.
"You call it Quidditch, we call it Quid-Pro, though it's a little different. We Americans are badasses to the core." She pretended to dust off her shoulders and fake flipped her hair.
"What's so different about American Quidditch? Harry is seeker, or at least he was last year." The red haired Ron asked leaning forward intensely.
"Well, we have two teams of seven people; Three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper, and one Seeker. It involves four balls, a ticking Quaffle, two exploding Bludgers, and a Golden Snitch."
"Exploding bludgers!"
"A ticking quaffle?"
Were chorused throughout the table. Bonnie snickered thinking her time here was at least spent with amusing people.
"Apparently some Quidditch teams thought the game got too easy so they wanted to make it harder. They made the quaffle with a timer so you only had so long to hold it and pass it before it vanished and appeared in the opposing teams' hand. We call the quaffle the time bomb at our school. Bludgers hit you, but when they do, they explode flour on you, before refusing together and finding another target to attack. If you get hit with a bludger, you have a time out for a certain amount of time. It's the worst when you have your seeker down on the ground for sixty seconds and the other team finds the snitch. Otherwise, pretty much the same. I played for a while in my old school, seeker position." Bonnie smiled as they discussed Quidditch a little more before they decided to go outside. Bonnie found Snape waiting expectantly at the door. She didn't miss Snape and McGonagall talking during dinner. She could practically feel their stares boring into her skull.
"It was nice meeting everyone, but I have to go with Professor Snape. See you guys on Monday." Bonnie waved at the chorused goodbyes, and then they all rushed past Snape like he would lash out at any given moment. Bonnie chuckled once again gaining Snape's attention.
"Find something humorous Ms. Tanon?" Snape drawled out as she followed him, and noticed they were heading away from the dungeons and going up the freaky staircases.
"I just find it funny how you strike fear into the entire student body, yet I have yet to find anything remotely frightening about you."
"I'm sure your opinion will change fairly soon." Snape drawled as I followed him down a long hallway and made a right.
"I seriously doubt that." He put his hand up to a blank stone wall and knocked. The wall opened revealing a door that wasn't there before. McGonagall had opened the door, but when she walked in, she found a very large open room that could easily have been half the size of a Quidditch pitch. There was nothing that really stood out in the room, but she already knew what she was doing in here. They wanted her to demonstrate her powers. That didn't bother her except she felt the new surge of power after the change.
"This is the Room of Requirement. It's for all students to use, but this will be a more secluded place for you to control your magic rather than outside where everyone would be able to see you." A punching bag dropped from the ceiling on a heavy chain off to the right in the room. A smirk appeared on her lips as she saw it.
"That was perfect. What would you like me to demonstrate?" They spent the next few hours watching her and testing her strengths and weaknesses. Snape sent curse after curse and she had to keep her shield up. McGonagall wanted to see her powers with the curse. She was sweating for the physically effort of everything, but magically it felt like a good work out. That was until Sir Lander came into the multiple empty portraits McGonagall had set up around the room.
"Well tha' was cute. Now les' really start pushin' her limits." He said smirking, which immediately made her cringe. While his workouts made her stronger, they hurt like hell. They made her mentally, physically, and magically tired.
"Lassie, I wan' cruciatis cream on your arms an' shoulders." He commented and she shot him an intense glare.
"Big mouth," Bonnie growled through her teeth.
"What is he talking about Ms. Tannehill?" McGonagall pressured after she had turned her back to them.
"Part of the curse is to relive your worst memory. To go through the pain that makes you weak. The curse wants to cripple you, to fill you with darkness, to eat you alive." She conjured up two punching gloves and walked over to her punching bag. She began punching the bag praying they would leave that sensitive spot alone. Just leave it be.
"What exactly does this memory have to do with one of the unforgiveable curses Ms. Tannehill?" Snape pressed, and she noticed they moved closer to her.
"Your father; I'm not your father. Your mother killed him." My memory was close to the surface, those daunting words echoed in my mind.
"Bonnie!" Snape's voice whipped through her clouded mind and her next punch exploded the punching bag. It slowly began going back together piece by piece.
"I was ten when it happened. The man you raised me, he wasn't my father. My mother killed him and married a man who was under a glamor. One night my parents and I were fighting over the curse. I wanted to get rid of the magic, to be a squib; it was better than dying. That's when he slipped and spoke of the harvest. They made it sound so divine, like I was fulfilling some great purpose for dying. My magic lashed out and hit my parents because I was so angry and I didn't have any control over it. So to punish me, he bonded my twin brother Scott to me. Nothing huge, just a stronger sibling bond that if we went separated over a large enough distance it would break. However, after he bonded us he cast the crucio on me. Through the bond, he was also affected. I heard his screams from the other room. The man hated me so much that even though he barely had me under the spell for a minute, it felt like days. They treated my brother but since the bond was through me, I was left convulsing on the floor without any help. My brother secretly brought me the potions and creams but I had severe nerve damage in my arms. I had to have both arms stripped of the nerves and had the re-grown. Ever since then, I refused to let myself be bullied like that. A cousin helped me track down the book, and everything about the curse. I came here to break the bond with my brother, get away from those people, and to find my mate. The rest is in the past." Bonnie finished and looked up at a portrait to see Sir Lander standing there, a proud smile on his face.
"You've don' good, now, give me twenty." She got to the ground and began doing push-ups. If she would have looked up she would have seen the tears pricking at McGonagall's eyes and Snape's unguarded expression of rage. Snape now understood why this child was here. He cleared his throat, and cooled his expression to his usual demeanor.
"Better. Now relax, take a deep breath, an' let it out. I think that's enough exercise for today. The other thing professors, her magic will be unstable until she finds her mate. It's bes' to keep 'er calm." Bonnie was led back to the back to the Hospital wing where Pomfrey checked her over before she took a cat nap before she went to the great hall to eat. Blaise came to eat with her again which helped keep her mind of everything that transpired earlier. She looked to see Snape studying her carefully. She smiled and went back to discussing whether or not the Golden Gate Bridge is better orange or a bright gold. After dinner she waited for Snape who seemed to take up the job of being her chaperone.
"Oh come on Professor, no quick retorts?" At his silence as they walked to the Slytherin common rooms, she figured her memory his close to home. "You know the centaurs were right. I'm tough; I was able to survive a curse that killed everyone else in my family. Don't treat me any different. Besides if not, I'm going to have to spread a rumor that you're a total softy. I believe everyone here says it's turning into a Hufflepuff." Snape scoffed and gave her a sideways glare.
"Do as such and I will personally see to it that your life here is more miserable than those I've taught for eight years," Snape threatened, but Bonnie's smile merely brightened so he continued. "I don't believe you are fond of scrubbing floors, or cauldrons caked with failed potions?" She shook her head, biting back a laugh.
"Don't worry; I'll keep your soft side a secret. Hey do you think you could teach me how you get your robes to billow in the wind? Everyone says you look like a big bat, but I just don't see it. You look more like a stuck up rich kid." That earned her a smack upside her head, but she didn't miss the flicker of a smirk on his lips.
"Another word out of that smart mouth of yours, and you will be spending a week in detention with Flich."
"Who's Flich?" Bonnie asked before Snape sighed heavily muttering about Americans and their lack of knowledge. She took no offense and followed him into the portrait. He walked away to yell at some students who were wrestling in the 'common room' as they called it. She unlocked her room and set and automatic re-locking charm on the door so she wouldn't forget. She yawned and realized how tired she had actually become. She stripped and changed into pajamas before climbing into bed. She sighed contently as she cuddled under the covers. For the first time in a very long time, she felt safe. When she closed her eyes, there were no more nightmares, there was just dreams of her mate whose face she couldn't see.
On the other side of the world, her mother was barking out orders.
"Find her, whatever the cost! We have to find her before the harvest moon!" She looked at her son in disgust. He wasn't going to give her power, not the power she wanted.