AN: Sorry for the break, hope every ones having a good week! So lost of questions about her making friends, hmmm I wonder if she will. And as for who she will be romantic with, i will give you one hint. Its an OC. I hate it when FanFic writers change cannon characters to fit their story lines, so i try to keep everyone really in character and just make up new characters like Mia to live out the changes in the story.
Hope you like this next chapter!
I don't own anything
Updated 6/18/16
Chapter 9
As the next few months passed at Hogwarts Mia began to fall into a bit of a rhythm. Every morning she would wake up super early before anyone else and would sneak down to the great hall avoiding as many students as she could. With late night astronomy classes and the other students sleeping in she found once again that morning was the most peaceful time she had. She would take a quick breakfast in the great hall eating as much as she could till she was stuffed, and then usually didn't come back for any of the other meals. Eventually she stopped taking her meals in the great hall all together when she found the entry way into kitchens. She made friends with a house elf named Kiki who loved to provide Mia with food. She wasn't afraid of the other students she just didn't like the negative attention she received, and didn't want to start any fights. She may not have had any friends, but the opportunity to be at the school was enough encouragement for her to check her attitude and try not to stand out or cause trouble.
Once or twice she had been attacked by an older student and she got so angry the spell rebounded onto the caster 10 times as strong as the original. Thankfully each time this had happened, the caster had been a Gryffindor student who was too noble to lie or admit they had attacked their own housemate, so Mia managed not to get into trouble. With how angry people were with her presence she knew most students were just waiting for her to mess up bad enough so that they could rat her out and get her expelled, but Mia wasn't going to be sent back to the orphanage so she avoided as much confrontation as she could. Sometimes even the library wasn't safe for Mia especially from the older Slytherin students who knew she wouldn't fight back, so Mia began looking for alternative places to read and do her homework, and then one Saturday morning she found it. The Quidditch Pitch.
The Quidditch season hadn't started yet so Mia found comport hiding up in the Quidditch stands 50 feet in the air. Up there she felt safe and after creating a few warming spells could spend all day. Sometimes when Mia was up there reading she would just stop and listen to the wolves howling. As Mia sat listening to the song of the Wolves, Mia realized their song wasn't their normal song of family and play and the bond of the pack.
Come, come and play,
Join us as we hunt and eat,
Join us as we play and run.
Come, come and play with us,
Daughter of the forest,
Come to us Witch Pup.
Mia spent most of her time reading. She did her homework quickly and well, and then would find books in the library filled with things she really wanted to learn, like advanced potions techniques or defensive spells. Professor Snape made it abundantly clear he didn't want to teach her as he more often sabotaged her potions than finding ways to challenged her to be better.
She also didn't seem to be any good at attack magic but she tried to start learning defensive spells so that she could protect herself. So far she thought she had mastered two spells. The Expelliarmus charm and the Knockback Jinx. Mia had only tried the magic on rocks and other small objects she placed on the edge of the stands but she hoped that when faced with a student ready to hex her that she would be able to stand strong. Mia couldn't go on hiding from her enemies, it made her feel weak. And weak was the one thing Mia was not.
In Mid September a notice appeared in the common room telling the first years they would be starting flying lessons. Mia wasn't too fond of this idea but she joined the other Gryffindor and the Slytherin first years obediently. When all of the students collected on the grass the flying instructor had all the students line up next to a broom. They were told to reach out and call 'Up!' to the broom and much to Mia's dismay her broom flew straight into her hand. She may of loved heights but she had no desire to fly. She wasn't a bird who waited for the day she could spread her wings and fly through the air; she was a land animal who loved to climb to high unreachable places and rest, basking in the rays of the sun, with her footing safely anchored on a wall or a tree branch. Not a flying broom.
The students were told to climb onto the broom and on Madam Hooch's whistle kick off hard, hover for a moment and land. Mia was nerves, but apparently not as nerves as Neville, who afraid he would be left on the ground at the whistle blow, kicked off early and in fear pulled up on his broom. Madam Hooch started yelling for him to come down but it was no use. Neville went flying into the sky and straight into the wall of the castle. He bounced off the wall, losing his grip of his broom and landed on the ground with a crack as his broom went flying off free towards the Forbidden Forest.
Madam Hooch went to take him to the hospital wing for a broken wrist and threatened the other students on penalty of death not to leave the ground. Not a moment after she was out of sight Draco stepped forward and picked something up off the ground. "Looks like Longbottom dropped his remembrall. Maybe if he had given this a squeeze he would have remembered to fall on his fat ars." Draco threw a small glass ball filled with gray smoke into the air and caught it again.
Harry stepped forward to challenge Draco. "Give it here Malfoy." Draco didn't seem like he was going to comply. Instead he climbed onto his broom, rising gently into the air and doing tiny laps around the class.
"How about we play a little game instead. Oh dear cousin of mine?" Draco looked over at Mia as everyone in the class looked at Mia with betrayal. They thought she was friends with the Slytherin's and had seen Draco show kindness to her on a few occasions, but the thought had never occurred to any of them that she was actually related to Draco. "Come play a game of catch with me Cousin Amelia." Draco tossed the small glass ball to Mia who caught it carefully. Draco seemed to know what he was doing to his cousin, making her choose and become completely hated by her class mates or loose the only family she had. It wasn't a hard choice.
Mia took the remembrall and reached to hand it over to Harry. "Yeah right Draco, like I would ever want anything to do with you! Your classmates can spread as many lies as they want but I am nothing like you!" Draco looked at her with contempt and a look of shock crossed over the rest of the classes face. Were they really lies? Just before Harry grabbed the remembrall, Draco swooped in and took it from her outstretched hand.
"Fine then. Why don't I just leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find it then. Maybe on the roof? Catch me if you can Potter!" and with that Draco was off. Harry climbed onto his broom much to the horror of Hermione who tried to tell him to get down, but Harry took off after Draco. He was a little bit shaky at first but it was clear he was a great flyer in instinct.
After being chased by Harry for a few minutes, Draco seemed to grow worried they might be caught so he decided to ditch his prize and head to the ground. So after yelling a taunt at Harry, Draco threw the remembrall at the wall of the castle 50 feet below them and Harry took off chasing it. The class started screaming as Harry took a nosedive towards the ground and stopped just before hitting the wall right in front of a classroom window. Draco silently made his way to the ground as all the class cheered and ran to Harry as he landed. Just as the cheers died down, Professor McGonagall walked out of the castle. "Harry Potter! Follow me." And with that Harry turned down his face in shame and walked away. Draco was besides himself with joy as Harry was taken away.
They discovered later that Harry hadn't seemed to have gotten in trouble at all from the incident. No one knew what the professor had said to him but he seemed happier than usual when he returned to the common room later that day.
A few nights later Mia noticed as she was laying in bed, that Hermione never came to bed that night, she didn't know why but she stayed awake much longer than usual and finally well after midnight an irate Hermione came into the room and went promptly to bed. Mia wondered what she was up to, but decided getting involved with other people's messes probably wasn't a good idea. Especially when that student hated her already.
As time passed it was clear Harry was struggling with his school work. No one was supposed to know but Harry had been offered a spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Mia only knew because she spent so much time in the tall stands studying that she had seen him. Luckily as the house teams had been practicing, no one had seen her up there yet. One evening Mia was in the library returning a book for their Charms essay that was due the next morning and saw Harry poring over a stack of books trying to write his essay. Ron was in a detention with Professor Snape so Harry was trying to do his essay on his own. Mia felt bad for him. With all the extra Quidditch practice he was having a hard time, and he was really struggling. Mia saw it as an opportunity to make a friend.
Mia wandered over to Harry and read a bit of his scribbled essay over his shoulder and sat down. "No, that's wrong; transfiguration is the alteration of the object's form or appearance. A Charm is any spell that adds or changes the properties of an object; it focuses on altering what the object does as opposed to what the object is. See, there's a slight difference." Harry looked shocked when Mia sat down and he looked completely stunned when she started talking. "Here, you can read over my essay if you would like to get some ideas." Mia slid her paper out of her book bag and handed it to Harry.
"Why?" It was the only word the confused boy could get out. Mia had seemed to be on his side during the flying lesson, and she was usually quiet, but Harry had seen her explode angrily on a few students before. She was also related to the Malfoy family who he knew was evil so he was sure to watch her closely and be on guard.
Mia smiled sweetly. "Well I know Hermione sometimes helps you, but she seems pretty mad at you right now, plus with Quidditch practice I know you've been really busy."
"How did you know I've been practicing Quidditch?" Harry looked accusingly at the girl.
"Well given the fact that over the last few months people have been hexing me left and right, I've had to find places no one goes to study. So I've been using the Quidditch stands." Mia smiled. "Now I tell you this knowing you are a trustworthy person and won't go blowing my study spot. Now do you want to read my essay or not?"
Harry didn't seem ready to trust her just yet. "Why are you helping me?"
"Maybe because I'm not the evil person everyone thinks I am. Mind you, no one ever asked, they just assumed the worst of me before I even opened my mouth. I'm hated for reasons I could never control."
"But you hexed that girl!"
"Oh please! Don't tell me you believed all of that! It was the first week of school! I still can't even perform those hexes! I will admit I have a bit of a temper, but my bark is much worst than my bite. I've never lifted my want against a student since I've been at school." Mia didn't think Harry needed to know about the incident on the train.
"But your Malloy's cousin!" Harry just wasn't giving up.
"And tell me Harry, you used to live with your cousin and family right? So are you exactly the same as them, or does just knowing who they are make you want to be different and better in every way?" Mia had heard Harry tell Ron about his aunt and uncle before when she was hiding in the library studying. She didn't want to hold something like that over his head, but she also wanted an ally. Harry seemed to be thinking hard. "Look, you don't need to change your mind about me tonight. Keep the essay, that was my rough draft and it might help. Have a good night Harry." And with that Mia got up and left the library.
It was Halloween night and Mia had been ordered by Professor McGonagall to attend the feast. The teacher didn't like seeing the girl hide away from the school and she wanted her to just try to mesh with the other students. So Halloween night Mia made her way to the Great Hall and walked to the Gryffindor table sitting at the end near the empty seats. To her surprise Harry sat next to her not saying a word and began eating his food. Ron seemed to protest, but one glance from Harry made him shut up and start his usual pastime of cramming food into his mouth. About half way through the meal, Professor Quirrell ran threw the doors of the great hall screaming. "TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!" and then he promptly fainted on the ground.
All of the kids in the room started screaming and it took a loud BANG coming from Professor Dumbledore's wand to quiet them. "Prefects, please escort all students to their dormitories immediately, and teachers follow me to the dungeon." The students all got up and started pushing towards the mix. Mia got up and joined the rush but broke off as they reached the hallway. She was going to the girls bathroom on the first floor. Mia had found Hermione in there earlier crying. Apparently Ron had said something stupid to her earlier and she had been in there crying ever since.
Mia ran to the bathroom and threw open the door. "Hermione!" Mia didn't see anyone in there but started looking under the stalls until she saw Hermione's shoes. "Hermione open up! We have to go now!"
Mia heard a sniffle. "Go away! You're the last person I want to see right now!"
"NO! Hermione, there's a troll loose in the castle and we are in danger! We need to get to somewhere safe!"
"A-a troll? But how did it get in?" Hermione's curiosity out beat her fear and seemed to be poking through her tears.
"It doesn't matter! It's dangerous and we need to go!" Mia banged on the stall door and finally Hermione opened up. Her face was red but she had stopped crying. "Now let's go before it makes its way up from the dungeons." Just then there was the small squeak of the bathroom door being opened and the most horrible smell made its way to the two girls. "Eww what's that smell?"
Hermione was looking over Mia's shoulder and had seen what it was. Hermione screamed and pulled Mia into the stall with her. The troll had been annoyed at the high pitched scream and swung his club taking out the rows of stalls. Mia pulled Hermione to the ground as the club took out their stall and most of the wood with it leaving them uncovered. Mia saw the opening and pulled Hermione with her to hide under the sinks. The troll, seeing the girls run, took a swing at the sinks and knocked a few of them off the wall, breaking open a pipe and causing a bit of a rain shower in the bathroom.
Then to the girl's' relief the bathroom door opened again and in ran Harry and Ron who looked rather horrified at the giant troll. The two unlikely heroes rushed in and began throwing broken wood at the troll trying to distract it from its game of smash the small girlies. Finally Harry hit the troll in its head and managed to get its attention and the troll raised its club to smash Harry. Mia suddenly remembered she was a witch and pulled out her wand. Ron followed her cue. With a muttered Flipendo Mia shot the Knockback Jinx at the club and it hit its owner in the face.
The troll gave his club a betrayed look and Harry took the opportunity to jump onto the trolls back. The troll recovered his friendship with the club and started swinging it around the room happily smashing up the rest of the stalls and trying to hit Ron. At this point Harry forgot that he was a wizard and stuck his wand up the troll's nose. The troll hadn't noticed Harry's light form on his back but he did notice the wand in his nose. He started thrashing around and managed to pull Harry off his back, holding him up by his leg. The troll raised his club in the air and Ron, with the help of Hermione managed to levitate the club out of the troll's hand and dropped it on his head. With a loud clunk, the troll swayed for a moment and then smashed into the ground. Ron was looking very smug with himself as Harry pulled himself up off the ground and pulled his wand out of the troll's nose. That was when Ron noticed Mia standing next to Hermione. "What's she doing here?"
"I came to find Hermione, someone had to tell her the troll was about."
"Yeah and that's what we came in here for!" Harry had decided Mia wasn't the enemy but Ron hadn't been convinced yet. Just then the bathroom door burst open and Professors' Quirrel, Snape and McGonagall came rushing in. they stopped when they saw the massive troll on the ground.
Professor McGonagall was the first to find her voice. "Explain yourselves immediately!" Harry and Ron just looked at each other in fear. Had they really lost more points for Gryffindor? But it was Hermione who spoke.
"It was my fault Professor. I went looking for the troll. I've read about them and thought I could handle it. Harry, Ron, and Amelia came to help me when they knew I was in trouble. Without them I would be dead." It was sort of the truth, but the fact that Hermione had lied to a teacher at all was shocking.
"Well Miss Granger, I am very disappointed in you. Five points from Gryffindor for your foolish behavior. And as for you three. She looked at Harry, Ron, and Mia in turn. "Five points each, will be added to Gryffindor for dumb luck. Now all of you get up to your rooms before I take more points away!" The smiling students ran from the room and up to Gryffindor tower. That night before they closed their bed curtains, Hermione gave Mia a short 'Thank you' before she hopped into bed.
Hermione still didn't like Mia, she was jealous of her seemingly effortless knowledge, but they had come to an understanding. They were on the same team, even if they had different learning styles. Hermione preferred to put her all into a project, going above and beyond at all times, whereas Mia just did the assignment. You couldn't get more than an A+ so why spend the extra time on it when Mia could be reading up on other stuff she wanted to learn. Mia loved to learn, but not for the same reasons as Hermione. Hermione just wanted to be the best at everything. Mia wanted knowledge so she could be more independent, and maybe she could use her knowledge for her own personal gain. The only time Mia went above and beyond was in Potions. Mia wanted to learn as much as she could about the subject, and had already read most of the books in the library. Professor Snape clearly didn't want to teach her, so Mia was taking her education into her own hands.
Hermione even sometimes chose to sit next to Mia in class before all the chairs were filled up. Mia greatly appreciated this since it meant she didn't have to partner with Neville and have her potions ruined as much anymore. Harry Ron and Hermione had seemed to bond instantly through their battle, but it was clear their little group only had room for one smart know-it-all witch, even if Mia didn't flaunt her knowledge all the time. Mia sometimes would join the three war partners in the Great Hall for a meal every now and then, although no words were usually passed between Mia and Ron. And whenever one of the three came to the library, they would usually join Mia at her favored table. Slowly but surely the other students began to hate her less and less. They weren't friendly to her, they just simply left her alone, and for that Mia was thankful.
It was mid November when Mia was in the library reading up on her favorite subject. She had been pulling out a big thick book called 'Every Potions Ingredient Known and How to Use it: at least the ones the Ministry lets you know about'. This book was one of Mia's favorite books because it taught you the tricks to each ingredient commonly used, and ways to prepare them that would act as shortcuts or get you the most powerful potion possible. As she pulled down the heavy book, a super small thin book Mia had never seen fell out from behind it. This book was called '10 Potions That Are Too Dangerous To Make.' Mia thought it looked interesting so she brought it along. Mia loved the funny names of the books she found in the wizarding world. They were always overly descriptive and a bit exaggerate. She dropped the large book on the desk with a loud thunk and sat down opening the thin book she had found. The opening page of the book explained that the following potions were listed as dangerous for either the complex process the potion required, the dangerous unintended results of the potion or the amount of danger the brewer faced in handling the ingredients or potion. Mia chuckled to herself. She had read about different ingredients in the large book, and some of them just seemed so impractical to harvest. The following 10 pages listed a single potion each page and the reason why it was known to be dangerous. Mia read the beginning of the first entry.
Exploding potion. A very volatile mixture. One wrong move in the ingredient preparation and the added ingredient causes the potion to explode in your face.
Mia laughed. Of course an exploding potion was dangerous to make! This book didn't include any real information about any of its potions; it only warned you of the dangers. Mia read the next page.
Dragon Poison. This potion is classified as extremely dangerous because it requires the brewer to extract the saliva from a Pregnant Hungarian Horntail dragon the same day as the potion is prepared. Most attempts in dragon saliva extraction result in the potions maker being flayed on the hormonal dragons spiked tail.
The reasoning behind this entry was so blatantly obvious it made Mia feel like the writer of the book just wanted to write a book so he just thought up the first idea he could. But then Mia turned to the next page and immediately her attention was captivated.
Potion of the Animagi. This potion is required for the initial human transformation into an Animagus form. It is listed as dangerous because the process of becoming an Animagus is extremely difficult and dangerous in itself. Also if the brewer takes more than the first 30 doses produced in the original position, the 31st dose will cause the immediate mutation and death of the brewer.
Mia couldn't believe it. She knew what an Animagus was because Professor McGonagall was one and had given a basic explanation, but she knew the process to become one was extremely difficult and illegal to do unless registered with the Ministry of Magic, so the process was kept very secret. But here was just a passage on the subject. Apparently there was a potion required for the first step of becoming an Animagus. Mia wanted to learn more, and she decided to make it her goal to learn as much information on the process as possible. She wasn't planning on trying to become one or anything, she just thought the process of making the potion would be great experience. It was listed as an advanced level potion and according to the book, actually making the potion wasn't the dangerous part. It was only if you intended to take the potion that you would be in danger.
Mia usually focused on the potions section when looking for reading material, but over the next few weeks as she spent every free moment in the library looking for reference of the Animagus potion, Mia thought it made more sense to start through the Transfiguration section. Mia found many books referencing the ability but none of them went much farther than explaining the differences in human spell work transformation in comparison to an actual Animagus ability. Finally about two weeks out from Christmas break, and just before their mid-term tests, Mia was reading a book called; 'Transfiguration outside of the class room.' This book explained very simply that the process of the Animagus required a potion to begin the initial transformation and to help complete any beginning transformations thereafter in which the potential Animagus was not able to morph back. This made absolutely no sense to Mia but she added the paragraph word for word to her notes on the subject.
Mia dropped her head onto the page and sighed. She should have been studying for finals. The library was packed with students trying to cram as much information into their heads. But Mia just couldn't bring herself to study her class work. She had a great memory that was just a few shades short of photographic, so she remembered most everything she had ever read, plus she was already doing great in most of her classes. The only class she worried about was transfiguration. She knew almost everything to do with the subject, especially after reading all of the books over the past few days, but when it came to the actual process of the spell work, she just didn't seem to get it.
As Mia's forehead rested on the page, Mia opened her eyes staring at the text centimeters from her face when she noticed something. The small reference number at the end of the paragraph. 183! Mia flipped to the back of the book and looked at the Index. 180, 181, 182, 183! Reference; 'Transfiguration of the Mind, Body, and Soul', by Fritz Feltly. Mia scribbled down the title and author on a piece of parchment and went to the libraries book index. She skipped through the cards until she found the 'F's. Fably, Feltbottom, Feltly! Feltly, Fritz. There were two books listed under his name that the school library had; 'Mixing the Arts' and 'Transfiguration of the Mind, Body, and Soul.' Mia was excited; she had never gotten so close to finding her answers before. She looked up the call number and scribbled it down. It followed the usual numbers system but the call number started with an 'R' Mia hadn't seen this before so she went up to the Librarian who was busy filing back books in the Care of Magical Creatures' section. "Madam Pince? I know you're probably busy but I was wondering if you could point me in the proper direction of a book."
Madam Pince didn't even look up from her work. "No problem dear, do you have the call number?"
"Yes Ma'am, it's R153.4."
Madam Pince set down the book and stared directly at Mia. "That book is in the Restricted Section. No students are allowed in there."
"Well if no students are ever allowed in there then why do they even have it? Please Madam Pince, I really wanted to read this book to further my studies for the exams!"
"Well first of all, there is one way to get access; you have to have written permission from a teacher. But it's not likely you will be getting that! There's nothing on the first year exams that you wouldn't be able to find in the rest of the Library." And with that Madam Pince picked up another book and stuck it on the shelf. Mia knew a lost cause when she saw one. It was clear Madam Pince wasn't going to help her get the book she needed.
Mia went back to her table and picked up her notes for Charms and began studying for her test. Now all Mia needed was to find a way to get into the restricted section.
AN: Hmmmm Mia is going through a lot of work to get information on a potion she's not going to use.
Reviews are to me as the Wolfbaine Potion is to Lupin
