I am terribly sorry for the wait. my computer deleted all of the files. I had the next 5 chapters all ready aswell! . :|

anyway, please enjoy this chapter. it is a bit longer than the others… :P

Alex suddenly found herself in an old house, looking at a magnificent grandfather clock. But it wasn't the style that she found interesting, it was the fact that instead of numbers on the clock, there were various things such as 'work', 'home', 'travelling' and even 'mortal peril'. Alex knew that she was safe from that, though. She was as far from mortal as possible. She then moved away from the 'numerals' and focused on the hands of the clock. There were about seven of them, all with a different name on them, like 'Fred' and 'Molly'. All hands were pointing to the 'home' numeral. At least it wasn't raining yet. Alex highly doubted that this family would like her if the first time they saw her she had a tail.

Not that long after she'd arrived, a kind-faced, plump woman came through the door.

"Oh, hello! You must be Alex." She greeted Alex with a warm smile, "I'm Mrs Weasley, but you can call me Molly. I'm Ron's mum. We're very pleased to have you here."

"Hi Molly. Uuh..is there anywhere I can put my stuff?" said Alex, trying to seem as human as possible.

"Oh, yes. Right this way dear." Mrs Weasley led her up a huge staircase untill she came to two doors, standing only a short distance from eachother.

"You'll be staying in Ginny's room. We would have offered you the spare room, but my other sons are over for the World Cup, so it's already taken, I'm afraid. But I'm sure you'll get along well with Ginny and Hermione. Ron is in the next room, along with my other sons Fred and George. Hopefully we'll be collecting Harry today, so I'm sure you wont be lonely." Mrs Weasley saw Alex looking at the door. "I'd go in if I were you, get yourself comfortable while I cook the dinner. You must be hungry. What would you like?"

"Actually, I've literally only just had a Meatball Sub, so I'm kinda full. It's roundabout lunchtime in New York. but I'll probably want something in a minute!"

"Ok. yell if you need anything."

"Thankyou, Molly," Alex said. "I'll just get settled." And with that she went through the door, just as Mrs Weasley walked down the stairs.

As Alex walked in, she was greeted by a bushy-haired girl reading a book and a red-head drawing shapes in the air with her wand. She was expecting to find something different, a pillow fight or even a long girly chat, but no. wand shapes and a book.

"Hi, are you Alex?" the red-head asked, putting down her wand.

"Yea. uuuh…are you Ron's sister….?" Though Alex already knew the answer, she knew humans couldn't read other people's minds. At least she knew she had put on a good first impression, Ginny (yes, she already knew the name) was thinking very positive thoughts, including one very nice one about her eyes. Indeed, Alex did have an unusual colour eyes, completely different to the golden-brown of the normal vampires, her eyes where a deep turqiouise when thirsty, and almost purple when satisfied.

"Yes, I'm Ginny," said Ginny, "and that's Hermione. She's in the same house and year as you. I'm sure you'll get along with her. She would talk to you, but she's trying to learn the summoning charm."

"Oh, that's easy. I learned that ages ago." And as if to demonstrate, she summoned up the book beside Ginny's bed.

"Wow. But she's learning the verbal version. We don't start non-verbal till sixth year. Indeed, we don't start non-wand till seventh year." Ginny explained in a surprised voice. (a.n. dunno when they learn hand magic at Hogwarts)

"Oh. I do know some verbal spells. like…Piggly Wiggly get in the decided not to use her wand for that, just saying the spell was enough, she didn't want to trap Ginny in a cube of jelly.

"Well, that is completely different to our spells. Our's are more…uuh…latin-based." Ginny told Alex.

"Oh, right," Alex already knew that aswell. She also decided to not learn the english spells, after all, if she could do the magic surely the teachers should leave her alone.

"So, what's it like in New York?" Ginny asked, sitting down on her bed, and gesturing to a comfortable looking mattress on the floor next to Hermione's.

Alex put her trunk on the dusty floor and sat down the mattress was very comfortable. Too bad it would neve be slept on.

"Well, it's really a matter of opinion. I love it, there are loads of shops, there's the park, and you are never bored. There's always something going on." Alex explained to Ginny, who looked very interested.

"Are there any magical stuff in New York?" asked Ginny.

"No, but there's always some sort of Wizard Fair going on in Texas, and places like that." Alex said.

"I heard your family owns a sandwich shop. Do you have to work there all the time?" Ginny asked, whilst examining Alex's eyes, wondering if they were contacts or a spell.

"Yea. It's ok, though. I mainly bribe my brother with a new pair of sneakers or something." Ginny looked interested at that part, which Alex found kinda strange.

"You bribe your brother? What do your parents say?"

"nothing. I don't tell them. Though Justin normally does. He's one of those know-it-all brothers who have to be perfect." Groaned Alex.

"sound's like Percy. So, you have two brothers. Are they all Wizards? Your parents too?" Geez, these questions are getting annoying, thought Alex.

"my brothers are. My Parents aren't though. Well, my dad was a wizard, but my mum isn't."

"what? So…uuh…" Ginny was now very confused.

"basically, because America is so big, we have to cut down the number of wizards, so when the youngest child is about 15, there's this competition, between the siblings to see who gets to keep their powers. One kid will win the other kids powers, but the kids who lost their powers can still have children who are wizards. But, if you win the competition and fall in love with a mortal, non-wizard, you have to pass your powers down to one of your siblings. My dad won the competition, but fell in love with Mum, so he had to give up his powers. So his brother, my uncle, got them and has been creating mischief ever since." Wow, that was one long paragraph, thought Alex. If I were human, I'd be panting by now!

"like what?" great, more questions.

"Well, uuh…..the best one he's done is create Shakira." Alex noticed Ginny go in for another question "Not a replica or anything. He's the real Shakira."

After even more questions, the talk then moved onto relasionships.

"I've never really gone out with someone," confessed Ginny. "but I would love to!"

"it is really fun, untill they get sick of you and rip your heart apart."

"So how many people have you gone out with?" Ginny asked.

"uuh…well. Riley and Dean, both mortals, (sees a confused look on Ginny's face). Non-wizards. Ronald Longcape Jr, wizard, son of Ronald Longcape, evil guy. uuh…oh, Manny Kin, he was a mannequin I animated to get back at Riley. And…oh. Mason. He was a werewolf. He was then turned into a wolf." Alex started to look sad, and she reckoned that if she was human, she would be in tears by now. "he gave me this necklace. (points to it)."

"wow, is that a True Love necklace?"

"yes. He told me to take it off, so I could forget him, but I couldn't." Alex was almost crying now, though she can't.

Ginny was looking uncomfortable, like it was all her fault. She glanced over at Hermione, who was still reading her book.

"Anyway," Alex changed the subject, noticing how uncomfortable Ginny was, "what tricks do you normally play on your teachers?"

"oh, we don't. we always work hard, especially in fourth year and above, cos that's when you work for your O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. but we do get to play around in the last lessons of term, except History of Magic, Transfiguration and Potions. We are getting a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, though, so I'm not sure about that."

"what?" Alex asked, though she still knew the answer. At least they thought she was human. As Alex glanced outside, she noticed the sun was shining brightly. No rain though, which was an upside, but she still glowed. The advantage of being only part vampire was not only the pretty eyes, but the fact that when you step into the sun you don't sparkle, you just have a magical glow, but people rarely spot it.

"oh, I forgot that you don't know anything about the school. We'll tell you on the train, it will take up the time."

"Oh, ok. Sounds great. Anyway, wanna hear what I once did to my math teacher?"

"yea, ok!" Ginny started to wonder how Alex would get away with using the wrong spells at school.

"so, I walked in late, and my math teacher, Mr Gregors started to yell at me for being late, so I turned him into a golden retriever!"

"Oh My God! That's so much better than what Fred and George do. Haa haa!" Ginny laughed so much she fell of the bed, which Alex found weird, seing as she hadn't even started the funny part.

"What do we do?"

standing in the doorway were two boys who looked excactly like one another. They seemed identicle to the last freckle. Alex already knew how to tell them apart, George smelt of socks and cheeseburgers, whilst Fred smelt like old Cologne and toothpaste.

"hi there," said Fred. "You must be Alex."

"yea. And you are…" Alex asked, laughing silently to herself. George was having a lot of fun staring at her chest.

"We're Gred" they said together.

"anyway, what do we do?" George had finally pulled his eyes off Alex.

"Oh, that time you locked all the teachers in the staff room, and then you realised Dumbledore was standing behind you and you all had a good laugh." Ginny explained.

"oh yea! Heh, that was funny." Said Fred.

"so, what did you do, uuh…." George stood there trying to remember Alex's name.

"Alex. And I turned my math teacher into a golden retriever. We played fetch a lot in class. It was fun," repeated Alex.

"well, you wouldn't get away with that at Hogwarts. Unless your names are Fred or George Weasley." said a voice from the corner.

Alex turned to see that the bushy haired girl had abandoned her book and was staring at them. She had also noticed Alex's eyes. "and if you even tried to do that at Hogwarts you'd get detention."

"Oh, I've had my fair share of them. Infact, when I went to Wiz-Tech I had to bang the board rubbers together. Those j's are evil! I'm Alex, by the way."

"Hermione," said Hermione, "and I love your eyes. Are they contacts, or a spell, or what?"

"no, I was born with them. They're really unusual, but I love them." That wasn't a lie, she was born with them…when she became a vampire.

"wow. If you were older, I'd hit on you right now!" Fred exclaimed.

"not before I would!" retorted george.

"sorry boys, I'm kinda still getting over a serious relationship" Alex said.

"oh. Sorry." Fred apologized. George, however was wondering what happened, while staring at her breasts.

"Oi guys, mum says Dinner is ready and who the hell are you?" Ron Weasley had arrived, and spotted Alex.

"Hey, I'm Alex, the new girl. You must be Ron?" Alex extended a hand, whilst zaping on a monecle and a mustache.

"hey, cool. Yea, I'm Ron. Mum wants you lot down now, Charlie's started on the chicken."

As they desended the stairs, Alex caught the scent of six other people. One she already knew, Molly, with her warm and homey smell. She scented someone who smelt of burns and dragon hide, who she guessed was Charlie, who worked with Dragons. Another smelt of sand, biscuits and underground tunnels, who was Bill, the Code-Breaker at some wizard bank. One person smelt of pristine offices and suits, Percy. There was another scent of offices, only more messy, and shabby robes, who must be the Weasley's Dad, Arthur. The final smell was unlike anything Alex had encounterd before, a mix of musty air, freshly cut grass and a haunted history, which could only be one boy, Harry Potter. All Alex knew about him was that he was famous for something.

"Hello, you must be Alex. I'm Ron's Dad, you can call me Arthur." The moment she walked through the door her hand was shook by a balding red-head. "This is Bill, my son who works at Gringotts in Egypt." Bill gave her a small wave and said 'Hey.' . He looked quite cool, he had an earring, his hair was tied back into a loose ponytail and he had a big bulky ring on each finger. "my other son Charlie, he works with Dragons in Romania." Charlie was stuffing bread into his mouth, so he didn't speak, but he nodded towards Alex. "my other son Percy, he works for the Ministry."

Percy stood up, walked over to Alex and shook her hand like she was the president. "I'm sure you'll love Hogwarts. It's the best Wizarding school in Britain." He said.

"It's the only Wizarding school in Britain, Big Head." George shouted across the table.

Everyone, including Alex, broke down into laughter, mainly because Percy had turned purple, and mainly because Mrs Weasley was laughing too. Which was odd, because she never laughed at Percy.

"Hi." Came a voice from Alex's left. She turned to see Harry Potter. Harry was one of those boys who everyone would class as a handsome geek back in New York. He had messy black hair, startling green eyes hiding behind a pair of round glasses, and a kind smile. Looking towards his forehead, Alex saw a lightning shaped scar just above his left eye.

"I'm Hedwig. I mean, Harry. My owl's Hedwig." Harry blushed a little, and Alex heard a snigger from Ron.

"I'm Alex. I have no owl." She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

"sit down dear, and help yourself" Molly had come back into the kitchen with a new plate of bread, as Charlie had eaten the previous one.

After a wonderful Dinner of roast chicken, potatoes and other amazing foods, Alex excused herself to the bathroom, where she called Harper. This took a while, 'cos there was barely any signel.

"oh my gosh hi Alex!" Harper sounded happy.

"hey. I have to keep this short, cos they think in in the bathroom. Basically, I cant."

"can't what?" Harper had evidently heard the tone of Alex's voice.

"stay here. They all remind me too much of Mason, except I'm the only dog."

"Alex, you have to stay there. Imagine what that professor guy would do."

"I know. It's just too hard. Harper, have you heard anything?"

"no. but I promise I will let you know if I do. How do I get in touch with you when you're at school?"

"send an owl. God. Why can't they just use cell phones? It would be so much quicker!"

"dunno. I have to go now Alex."

"ok. I'll pop round soon."

"cool. see ya"

if you're thinking this was long, it used to be longer. untill my computer failed.

Please review. I would give you a preview, but ive got too much work at the moment….sorry xxx

I promise the next chapter will be along faster!

Hatselena