CHAPTER ONE
'Oh boy, something must have happened at the office.' I thought as I saw mom run around trying to gather her stuff at the last minute. It was probably the Brits about what's-his-face, Voldemort.
"Something happen at work mom?" I asked.
"Abbi." she replied shortly, throwing me an apple. I rolled my eyes as I caught it, what has she done this time? There's one thing everyone must remember about Abbi. She doesn't care. She pranked the American Ministry, of which my father is Auror Samuel O'Hara and my mother is Ministress, Ministress, Alanis O'Hara, a total of fifty times in one month before. And not once did she admit to feeling guilty. The Ministry is lucky they only have to deal with her for three months. I took a bite of the apple and walked into the living room. I sat down on the couch and waited for Dad and Abbi to come home. The fireplace suddenly turned purple. Oh boy, she must be running else she would have come through the closet.
"Hey Rache, Sam home yet? I think he saw me use my Port to get away, do I have time to hide it?"
Yep, what'd I say. She's running.
"Run." I stated. I saw a flash of green out of the corner of my eye. Where the closet is.
"Very fast." I added. She sprinted to her room as I chuckle.
"ABBI!!!" a deep baritone voice yells.
"Hello to you, too, Dad!" I yell.
"Sorry. Hi sweetling," he says as he walks into the room and kisses me on the cheek.
"Why are you home so early?" I ask, hoping to stall. Abbi hadn't picked up any of her inventing tools. Not to mention her fresh batch of Port, her personal Floo Powder, accommodated to work for us and only us.
"Abbi," he said, "Did you see her?"
"I never saw her leave her room." I said. I saw him glance at his Truth Eye. When will he learn that I don't lie? I just. . .go around. . .the truth.
"Oh really." he replied sarcastically, then he went to Abbi's room. I hope she got everything hidden in time, else we'd BOTH be in trouble. . . .again. I look back towards the stairway leading up to our rooms and practically choked from holding back my laughter. There was Abbi, listening to her CD player, being levitated into the living room by me dear-old dad. She was supposedly completely unawares of what's going on, but I know better. Dad summons her headphones and she looks at him in surprise.
"Sam! What're you doing home right now?" she asks, shocked.
Abbi should definitely be an actress.
"There was an -- incident -- in our Department of Mysteries today." he replies. I quickly smother my grin as I watch Abbi raise her eyebrows and slightly drop her jaw.\
"It seems a few important documents caught afire," he continues, "and the fire, although it doesn't spread, it doesn't even destroy the documents, will not go out." At this I hastily turn my laugh into a hacking cough.
"Sorry, must have caught some hairball in my throat." I said when my dad glared at me. Turning to Abbi he said, "Well? What do you think happened?"
"Well, it sounds like some kind of accident. Some messed up hex or curse, mayhap even an incorrect charm." she replied without blinking. Ahh, so that wasn't her intention. I hope she remembers what she did, that'll be useful against Freeman. Speaking of which, here comes the school owls right now. . . . .but I thought they weren't supposed to come till next week? The owl drops two letters on my lap, and then flies away. One for me and one for Abbi. I look up at Dad to see if he noticed. No, he's busy ranting on about something or other and Abbi's in that daze she always goes into when getting lectured. I hope she doesn't fall asleep like last time. The end result of that particular lecture was not pretty. Not pretty at all. I start to open my letter when I look a little closer at the crest on the back. It's some shield with a lion, a serpent, a raven, and a badger in it. Weird.
Dear Ms. O'Hara,
We are pleased to inform you that your
Request to be transferred into Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and Wizardry. . .
Transfer!? WHAT transfer!?
"DAD!!" I yell.
"Rachael. . ." Dad starts but I cut him off.
"What is the meaning of this?" I ask holding up this, this Hogwarts letter.
"What's that?" Abbi asks, snapping out of her daze. Finally.
"Here." I say, tossing her letter to her. She rips it open quickly and reads it. I watch apprehensively as Abbi slowly lifts her head and glares at dad. I feel very sorry for my dad right now. Abbi's normally, well, unmorally really, bright green eyes have gotten a silver-ish tinge to them.
She's pissed.
Thankfully, Dad notices this.
"It's because Freeman is always making an example of you two." he says.
"Everyone is always making an example of us, Samuel." Abbie replies coldly. Her eyes are even more silver now. He better get her calm quick. When her eyes turn completely silver, she's usually beyond reason and even I don't know all that she's invented.
"I mean he keeps blaming you two for things you haven't done. And that's wrong. Albus Dumbledore won't do that."
Abbi's eyes keep turning silver.
I get behind the couch. Just in case.
"Um, Harry Potter will be there?" he says in a last ditch attempt to try and calm her.
The eyes are fully silver.
I duck and close my eyes.
It suddenly feels very warm and I hear a loud roaring sound. Then nothing. I open my eyes. There's no couch, it's just a pile of ashes now. All the furniture are just a pile of ashes.
"This better be worth it." I hear Abbi mutter as she walks back toward her room. I hear the door slam shut, then another explosion. This is going to be one long summer. I feel very, very sorry for the ministry.
I look around the circular room impatiently. Apparently we aren't going to get sorted along with the 1st graders.
"I must say it is a pleasure to have two American transfer students at Hogwarts again," says the Headmaster, Dumbledee or something, "You will sorted into one of four houses: Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin." Ravenclaw sounds cool. That's the house I'd like to be in. There's a reason I was top in my class at Dragonfire.
"Miss O'Hara, you first if you please." says Dumbledore. He has twinkling eyes; he reminds me of Santa Clause. I walk over to this ratty-looking old hat and put it on.
'Well, well. I haven't seen an American in Hogwarts in quite a while. Hmm, let's see, where to put you. . . .You've certainly got the brains for Ravenclaw but I'm afraid it wouldn't suit you.'
'Oh come on,' I thought, 'You sure?'
'Yes, I'm sure. But not to worry. I'm positive you'll do quite well in SLYTHERIN!'
The hat thing shouted the last word so all could hear. I got up and gave the hat to Abbi. Her eyes still have that thin silver line around the iris. I hope she doesn't destroy that hat thing and get detention this quickly. Though I suppose the detention part is inevitable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I still can't believe Sam made us do this. Why couldn't he just let me handle Freeman my way? It would be much more effective, methinks. I look around the principal's office, no wait, the headmaster's. I gotta do something about remembering the Brit culture. I glance at Rachael. She looks calm enough but she's fiddling with that Amethyst necklace of hers, so she must be slightly nervous. Or just bored. I look to my right and almost jump. That dude wasn't there before. He scowls down at me. His eyes are unnerving, they look like black bottomless pits. I focused on my anger and felt the slight change when my eyes go from green to silver. Then I let go of my anger and felt my eyes go back to green. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Sir Scowl-a-lot didn't do a thing. I scowled. Great. I just gave myself a headache for nothing. I glared at him along with my scowl. He smirked at me in return. Victim number one has been targeted.
"SLYTHERIN!" yells the sorting hat. I turned back towards Rachael. What have I missed? She gets up and gives me the hat. I glare at Sam one last time before I put in on.
'Another American, eh? This should be quite an interesting year. Let's see, my my, that's quite an imagination. Your own personalized Floo Powder? Ingenious, really.'
'Hey, watch it. Don't way anything about that or I'll rip you thread by thread then burn each and every one.' I say. My headache has put my into a snappy mood at the moment.
'Take it easy, I won't way anything. You've definitely got the makings of a Gryffindor in you. It's in your blood.'
'You knew my folks! Who were they!?' I ask, headache forgotten.
'Hmm, you've got quite a bit of Slytherin n you as well. That's n you blood also.'
'Who were my parents!' I demand.
'I really think you'd do good in Gryffindor, but you're deviousness outweighs your bravery. Besides, you and your friend will be good for your house. Somebody needs to bring the honour back to the house of SLYTHERIN!'
I wince when the hat yells. I take off the hat and give it back to McBillaball or something and rub my temples. I get a bad enough headache from purposely turning my eyes silver, I don't need some stupid hat yelling into my thoughts and my ear!
"Congratulations!" the headmaster said in delight, "Slytherin in a find house." I saw Rachael frown and cross her arms. Her heart was set on Ravenclaw.
"Girls, this is Professor Snape, the Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House." he pointed to that greasy haired scowling guy. He looked to be annoyed about something -- but that just gave me an idea. Hmm. . .
"If you ever have any questions, he can answer them all. But my door is still always open. . ." Blah, blah, blah. . .heard the same crap from Freeman the first day I attended Dragonfire. Mind you, his door was always open to me because -- well, because closing it just wastes time to give me my punishment and sending me out again.
I took another look around the decorative office. Yes, I would come to know that office well.
Ooh, a phoenix! Yes, I would come to know that bird well also.
"Abbi!" Rachael's annoyed hiss brought me back to consciousness. Everybody was looking at me. Oops. I clear my throat, "What?" Rachael and Snape both rolled their eyes. Scary.
"Get your uniform." Rachael said to the ceiling. Huh? Oh! Mc-Mc-Oh, the old hag was holding out a black uniform to me. I caught a glimpse of the plaid skirt and tie and thought, 'Hell no!'
"Excuse me?" I gave the clothing a sour look, "Uniform? You think I'm putting my behind in that?"
"Abbi!" Rachael said sternly.
"Rachael!" I said back, "I wouldn't wear that uniform Freeman made us wear! What makes you think Hogwarts is going to be --"
"Put the robes in your hand and shut your mouth!" Rachael said between clenched teeth. Robes? Well, the robes looked cool. I guess I'm just going to have to deal with the skirt later.
"Thanks." I smirk, snatching the robes from the witch. She rolls her eyes too. Dumbledore's eyes twinkle behind his horn-rimmed glasses. Eww. . .what possessed him to wear those?
"Professor Snape," Dumbledore said to the scowling dude behind us, "If you could please escort these two ladies to the house and explain to them any of the rules that come to mind."
"Um, Professor Dumbledore," Rachael said suddenly, "I read in Hogwarts, A History, that my father had bought for me previous to this trip, that there is a Sorting Ceremony the first day followed by a feast."
"You read correctly, Miss O'Hara." Dumbledore nods.
"Are we to join after we unpack then?"
"I would like that very much so, but I'm afraid your father finds it - er - safer if you don't join in with the other students on the first day."
"WHAT!?" both Rachael and I explode.
"Oh, come on!" I yell, "I'm not going to explode anything the first day!"
"As I insisted to your father that you wouldn't," Dumbledore agreed, "but he just wouldn't have it. Your mother agrees."
"Oh fine!" Rachael spat, "I'll starve. Merlin knows I need to lose weight anyway. Professor Snape? We can go to that house of yours now."
Snape rose an eyebrow and -- what was that? A trace of a smile? Ooh, this one was going to be fun!
"Have a nice year!" Dumbledore calls after us. Right. A nice year in Britain? Crazy.