Disclaimer: DON'T SUE ME!! NOTHING BELONGS TO ME!!! LEAVE A DUDE ALONE!!

A/N: for all you Californians out there, cause I know that we're NEVER in fics!! i know its slow at first, but it WILL get better, trust me! =)

Chapter 1: A New Beginning

It was the first day of school at Hogwarts, and people were streaming into platform 9 ¾. But, one stood out from the rest. She was alone, and not dressed in robes like the rest, but in Hawaiian shorts and a colorful tank top. She was a rainbow of color amidst dark robes. She smiled to herself, took out her wand, and magically clothed herself in a long, slim black dress and a conservative dark green shirt. Still smiling, she clipped her long dark brown fading to blonde hair with a black clip into a half ponytail. Her hair trailed down to her knees, where it was a platinum blonde. She had never dyed her hair, and loved it, for her hair certainly looked as if it could never be natural.

Harry Potter and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger looked at this new girl in surprise. Of all the transfer students to Hogwarts, this was certainly the strangest. She noticed them staring at her and walked over to them.

"Hey dudes," she said, "I'm Jenny Holly. What're your names?"

Overcome by the shock of being called a "dude", Harry said, "This is Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and I'm -"

"Oh I know who you are Harry Potter."

"Then why didn't you..."

"I believe that just because someone's famous doesn't mean that he gets to be king for the day."

Harry smiled, he was beginning to like this girl already. "So," he said, "where are you from?"

"Sunny Southern California. You know, in America?"

"So you are an American," Hermione said with disgust.

"Well duh."

"Americans are disgusting and revolting, and they deserted us Brits. You should be ashamed to call yourself an American."

Shocked by Hermione's disgust of Americans, Jenny walked up to the Hogwarts Express to talk to Professor Dumbledore about certain ... problems. She sat next to him in his compartment.

"Professor Dumbledore," she said, "I have no robes at all."

"Well, didn't your previous school require them?"

"No, because most of us go there after Muggle activities such as soccer (football to you Britains) and, well, school."

"You mean, you went to a Muggle school as well as a wizard school?"

"Yeah, and we were allowed to use time-traveling spells to get enough sleep at night and finish all our homework."

"Both schools had homework, right?"

"Yeah."

"All right then, your robes will be taken care of. You're too good of a student to be thrown out because of a silly thing such as robes. Anything else?"

"Not really...."

"Good. Now I suggest that you go mingle among the other 5th years. I understand that you've already met Potter and his trio," he said with his eyes twinkling kindly.

Jenny blushed in embarassment and moved to an empty compartment just as the train started to move. She felt lonely, but reminded herself that it was all for the best. She fell asleep leaning against the window, only to be woken up 5 minutes later by a tall, pale guy knocking on the glass door.

He asked, "May I share this compartment with you?"

Because she was still feeling lonely, Jenny replied, "Sure dude. Get in here."

Once inside, he sat across from Jenny and said, "Hello. My name is Draco Malfoy. What is yours, and where are you from? You don't look like you are a returning student."

"I'm Jenny, and I'm a transfer student from sunny Southern California."

"In America, right?"

"Well, yeah."

He smiled at her and said, "I never knew Americans could be, well, so different."

"Heh, only Californians. It should be it's own country. Anyways, where are your friends?"

"I try not to hang around them too much...."

Jenny looked at him sharply, seeing the pain in his eyes. "Is there something you need to talk about...?"

"Yeah, I might as well...it's not like anyone knows you here...my father....beats me for not doing what he wants me to. And my friends? They tell him if I'm doing anything against his wishes."

"You means your parents beat you too?"

Draco looked at her shocked. "But...I thought..."

"That only your parents beat their children? It's not true. If you read Muggle newspapers, you'd find out that many parents beat their children, and are convicted of child abuse."

"Were your parents..."

"Convicted? No, my mom almost kicked me outta the house when a social worker came to my house about scars on my face. I don't dare tell an authority about it, well, except for Dumbledore. The reason he allowed me to come here when my parents live in California and that it's so far away is because he knows about my parents (more like my mom cause she's Chinese) beating me and he knows I'll be safer from them here, for all the wizarding schools in America are normal schools, not boarding schools like Hogwarts. My parents were convinced to send me here by the fact that many good wizards and witches came out of this school."

"Didn't they know that many bad wizards, including Voldemort, also came out of this school?"

"No, I didn't mention it. I didn't want to ruin my chance to get away from my mom." Jenny looked out the window deep in thought, then exclaimed excitedly, "Hey! We're almost there! That's Hogwarts, right?"

"Yes, it is."

"Hey, I'll see ya after the sorting. Is it true that you have to battle a mountain troll? Not like it's a problem, but...?"

"No, it's not true. You just put a hat on your head, and it tells you what house you go in. There's Hufflepuff, where everyone is, well, nice and whimpy. There's Ravenclaw, where people are wise and crafty. There's Gryffindor, where bravery is the strongest quality, and last there is Slytherin, where all wizards and witches turn out to be bad."

"What house are you in?"

"Slytherin"

"...Oh....I see..."

All of a sudden, the train stopped, and Jenny stepped off to see a large, beautifully antique castle which she found to be Hogwarts, and a lake separating her from the castle. To her right she could see Hogsmede, the only wizarding town left. She could also see boats on the shore of the lake, and red horseless carriages waiting to take students to Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore spotted her and motioned her into a boat with a large, burly man at the helm. She couldn't help but noticing that she was the oldest student in the boat. Jenny spoke to the man, and found that his name was Hagrid, he taught Care of Magical Creatures, and that the reason the students in the boats are all younger than her is because they are all first years while she was to become a fith year.

After a nice, peaceful boat ride (spent mostly with comforting the first years about the giant squid and how it wouldn't try to eat them while they're in the boat), Jenny was led into the Great Hall along with the younger ones. She was astonished to see candles floating in the air, a ceiling enchanted to look like the sky above, all starry and dark, and all the other students already there sitting at the four long tables. She assumed that they had come in the carriages. The tables were decorated differently for the four houses. At the table decorated with red, gold, and lions, she could see Harry and his friends. To her far left at the table decorated with green, silver, and serpents, she could see Draco desperately trying to ignore the people around him. He noticed Jenny staring at him and gave her a reassuring smile, causing her to blush. She quickly turned away at sat at the Ravenclaw table with the first years.