Draco answered very reluctantly as though this man were also a poisonous plant, "No, I didn't sign up… Professor."
"That's quite alright your father told me, last night, that you might be dropping by this morning," he said giving him a wink.
Draco only looked very angrily at the man as though he had just confessed to killing his father instead of mentioning a memo he had received.
"Everything has been arranged for you and," he began, now turning towards you, "Ms McKnight, is it?"
"Yes," you replied and then added a quick, "sir." And smiled.
"Yes, yes. All is good. I hear you are going on an exchange program from one of the North American schools for Witchcraft and Wizardry," he said and gave nod to himself, as though he were telling himself about the school instead of you.
You began to protest, "Well, sir, you see--"
"No need to explain, Ms McKnight, all the paper work has been taken care of," he concluded, "Luscious has required you stay with Mr Malfoy here and take up board in the Slytherin house during your stay. I think that is a wise idea." Here he paused and looked at Draco as he sent you a smile. You rolled your eyes at Draco as the Professor continued, "However I do believe a tour is in turn and so I have asked another student, Mr Longbottom, to show you around."
"I can show her around… Professor," Draco stated.
"No, Mr Malfoy that will not be required. I'm sure Mr Longbottom will prove to be an excellent guide," he said to Draco a little sternly, then he turned to you and said, "After your tour Ms McKnight you will report to the dungeons where Professer Snape will give you your schedule for your stay and then Mr Longbottom will take you to the great hall where you will find Mr Malfoy and I think the two of you can take it from there for the rest of the day," the Professor gave a bit of a nod to you.
You nodded back.
"Alright then," he said as he began to turn to go. "Oh," he interjected turning around to face you again, "how very impolite of me. I'm Professor Dumbledore, Ms McKnight. If you need to discuss anything about school or anything of that sort you may find me by using that name." And with one smile the Professor Dumbledore was gone.
"…I mean who does he think he is telling us where to go," finished Draco as you reached the castle.
"Perhaps the Head of the school," you said, "Besides I thought he was rather nice."
"Nice! Nice? Phff," Draco replied, "What do you know about nice?"
"Obviously more than you," you replied a little bitterly.
"And now your going to have to walk around with Longbottom," he complained.
"You mean that Neville guy? What's wrong with him?" you asked.
"He's a total klutz – Here comes the idiot now," laughed Draco.
You turned and saw a boy with dark hair and rather protruding teeth walking towards you.
"Shut up," you muttered to Draco as he continued to laugh at the poor guy coming towards you. You elbowed Draco in the ribs as hard as you could as Neville came up to you.
"Uh, h-hi. Are you Amanda McKnight?" he asked.
"No, she's – she's not," said Draco while he was doubled over, "Just a menace to my health now get out of here, Longbottom. When I need a moron we can talk." He stifled another laugh at Neville's expense and then tried to shove you along.
"Uh -- Oh, alright then. I'll – I'll just go… I'm sure she's around here –uh- somewhere," Neville said as he begun to shuffle off.
"No. Erm, Neville? I am Amanda McKnight. Draco here was just joking."
At the name "Draco" Neville began to look around, "Oh, right, Malfoy." Neville put on a very large smile and you thought to yourself that he looked very cute when he smiled.
"So, Mr Longbottom, are you going to show this Canadian lady around or what?" you asked.
"Of course," he replied, giving a little bow and extending his arm, "Madame?"
You took his arm, playfully and looked back at the rather loathsome looking Draco. You blew him a kiss and waved, "See you later… cousin," you said.
"…And finally this is the dungeon," concluded Neville presenting the door.
"Wow," you said, "very… in with the atmosphere. Do you guys keep peasants in jail cells and stuff?"
Neville grinned at you, "not that I know of."
"And… what happened to you here?" you asked. Neville had a story for almost every single room in this school. He'd had an accident almost everywhere and had had every kind of accident from fainting numerous times to being dropped 15 feet from the sky and shattering the bone in his leg.
Neville flushed, "You don't want to hear about this…"
"Yes, I do," you coaxed, "c'mon be a good tour guide. Let's hear about experiences."
He glowered, finding pride in all his injuries and began, "Well it was a year or so back and we were in Potions with Snape and Seamus and I were making a--"
Suddenly the dungeon door swung open and you jumped. Neville however got smacked in the face. You quickly kneeled down.
"Are you okay, Neville?" you asked.
"Yeah – Yeah. I'm – I'm fine. Just a bruise," Neville got up.
You shot him a quick smile, "hey there's another one to add to your list, I guess."
You both laughed a bit and he nodded, rubbing the back of his skull.
Both of you now put your attention on the cause of all the commotion and saw a figure clad in black robes that could only be described as stringy, long, black and greasy and that was just his hair! The man's skin looked clammy and very pale. He had a large nose and eyes that were black like a shark's. He gave you what could be called a grin and, you supposed, in his case was one.
"Ms McKnight, I presume. Yes, I have your schedule," after stating this man drifted back into the dungeon or –er- classroom. You and Neville followed him. "I'm Professor Snape, by the way."
You and Neville were on the way to great hall as Neville told you about how he had had his rememberall stolen first year. You weren't frankly listening but you nodded and smiled as you looked at your timetable.
You had Muggle Studies, Potions, Divinity and Herbology. Muggle Studies would be a cinch since you were a Muggle or… Person Without The Privileges of Magic. Potions sounded pretty easy all you had to do was mix stuff together. You had no idea what Divinity was but it didn't sound very easy and you weren't happy to hear that you would have to take something so difficult. Herbology sounded mediocre. It would be like any regular science course, you assumed. After all Herbology was just another term for study of herbs. Right?
"Amanda… were you… listening? I stopped talking about five minutes ago but you just kept on nodding and smiling at your timetable," Neville asked.
"Yes. Of course I was. Remberall and stuff. Right?" you lied.
Neville looked doubtful.
"No, sorry," you said, "I wasn't. If you want to tell it again I'll listen. I was just thinking so… yeah."
"What were you thinking about?" he asked.
"Oh –uhm- just this schedule thing. It's just at my school we don't have the exact same –uh- subjects," you replied.
Neville nodded. All was silent for a moment. And then Neville asked, "Is Malfoy really your cousin?"
"Well--" you began trying to quickly think up a lie when a very good-looking distraction interrupted your thoughts.
He came from two very large doors in front of both Neville and yourself. He had dark short hair and rather stunning blue eyes.
"'Oy! Neville, s'at you?" he asked rushing towards Neville. You noticed he had a slight Irish accent, which only made him sexier in your opinion.
"Yeah," Neville replied.
"Where've you been?" he asked.
"I was giving Amanda here a tour. Dumbledore asked me too and everything. Amanda McKnight this is Seamus Finnigan. He's in the Gryffindor house I was telling you about, like me," Neville introduced.
"Pleasure's all mine," you said, giving Seamus a huge smile.
"Nice to –uh- meet you," Seamus replied seemingly breathless. You realized he was as tall as you with your pumps on, whereas Draco was about an inch taller. You don't know why but that seemed to have some sort of significance at the time.
You remember Draco suddenly and thought you should probably bolt. "Is that the great hall, Neville?" you asked, not looking away from Seamus.
"Uh – yeah," Neville replied.
"Okay well I better get to Seamus. I mean, Draco. I better get to Draco," you corrected flushing red, "Well now that I've totally embarrassed myself," you said with a nervous laugh, "It was nice to meet you, Seamus. See you later, Neville." And with that you dashed off to the great hall red as a beet, in the face.
Seamus watched Amanda run off.
"Well," he said, "she's different."
"Yeah," replied Neville, "she is. She wasn't even wearing robes, eh?"
"Frankly I'd rather date that than an old pair of robes," Seamus said.
"I s'pose," said Neville, "but I'd watch out if I were you. She's Draco's cousin."
"Yeah, yeah," said Seamus, dismissing the point.
"It's true, you know. Dumbledore told me so," Neville said as he and Seamus walked back into the great hall.
"She's a little nice to be Draco's cousin and not at all impish. Doesn't really add up. But they sure seem friendly. Don't they?" Seamus asked, suspiciously.
Amanda was trying to snatch a chair to sit beside Draco but Draco was making chair after chair disappear and Amanda began to laugh and shrugging took a seat on Draco's lap. She let her head fall back a bit and nuzzled his neck.
"Yeah," said Neville, a little alarmed, "talk about weird family relations."
Seamus nodded, still staring at the cousins as they came to they're table and took a seat with Harry, Hermoine, Ron, Ginny and a few other Gryffindors.
