Chapter One: Madame Mavis' School for Girls
Genevieve walked down the hallway towards the girls bathroom. She had no intention of walking into that foul bathroom even though she had told her teacher, Miss Borge, that she was going there. She was really going outside. To get away from the Math Chanting, Latin reciting school. Where Madame Mavis drilled you into a young lady. She taught you table manners, traveling manners, how to walk right, how to sit right, how to talk right. She told you how to do everything right. It amazed Genevieve that she didn't teach the girls how to trip right or how to be sick right.
Finally she reached the disgustingly Mauve door to the outside. Once outside, Genevieve ran as fast as she could down to the forest behind the school. She would wait there for a little while…until her longing to yank Mildred's hair out subsided…although if she waited for that to go away she would never go back inside. Mildred was the rich girl. She acted as though she owned the world. Sometimes she said she practically did. She made fun of almost everyone, including Genevieve…but not her friends. She had a small group of admiring girls who followed her everywhere. They wanted to be just like her. They all wore their hair the same.
Genevieve was the only orphan in the school, Mildred picked on her about that, all the time asking where her parents went…if they couldn't stand the sight of her so they left her in the gutter. But the truth was…Genevieve didn't know. She lived with her older cousin for a while, until she couldn't handle Genevieve anymore, but even she didn't know how her parents died. She hardly even remembered what they looked like. All she remembered was that they died when Genevieve was four months old, leaving Genevieve in the care of her mother's mother's grandmother. But at that time Great-Grandma Birtha was eighty, so Genevieve lived with her until she was ten…and then she went to live with her cousin when Birtha died.
Genevieve hated Birtha's house…it was crawling with cockroaches the size of quarters, you could hardly walk about without hearing on squish beneath your foot. You could never walk around barefoot.
So Birtha turned her over to Madame Mavis' school for girls where they would keep her until she was eighteen, and then she could go wherever she pleased. That was forever away…three years.
Genevieve waited underneath the tree looked at the huge stately mansion before her, wishing she was eighteen…thinking about staying here another three years was a nightmare. She didn't think she would live.
Harry nudged Ron in the shoulder. "Girl-Alert." He whispered. Ron dove underneath the table as the blond nightmare, Beatrice Hadkaf walked over to them smiling and tossing her hair out of her eyes. Looks can be decieving…Beatrice looked nice…but once you dared talk to her…
She had taken a liking to Ron. She followed him around everywhere…smiling and finding things to drop in hopes that he might pick them up. At first Ron had been flattered…but after he talked to her…things changed. She sent him love Howlers! And rather then let the whole school hear some weird girls love poems, Ron went racing down the hall towards the large doors, running faster and faster until he was in the middle of the large lawn of Hogwarts. He threw the letter to the breeze and with a bang, the letter exploded into a burst of fire. He then walked all the way back, singed robes and fingers, sat down and ate the rest of his breakfast as if nothing had happened. Hermione walked over to Harry. "What's going on?" She asked glancing at Ron's visible leg from underneath the table. She didn't have to wait long for the answer.
Beatrice walked over to them, smiling (which was a great feat indeed, since her lips were weighed down with lipstick). "Has anyone seen Ronny-Boy?" She asked fluttering her eyelashes. "He's….um…busy at the moment actually." Harry said. Beatrice stared at him for a moment…trying to figure out whether he was telling the truth or not. Finally she walked away leaving them with a message written on a piece of paper for Ron. "Bye bye!" She called.
Hermione snatched the letter from Harry and read it loud enough for both Ron and Harry to hear.
"Dear Ron, I have missed seeing your flame red hair…I get the feeling…from our last visit, that maybe you had something on your mind…you seemed a little more mad at me then usual. I miss our hurried chats before school starts…you make it seem like you are trying to get away from me when really I know that you are just trying to mask your undying love from me…because you are a boy…I just wanted you to know…that I know how you feel and I feel the same way too. Below is a poem of how I feel…
"Ronny your in my dreams…day and night…
life without you is surely a fright,
your hair is the color of the flames of my heart,
Hurry soon back to me, I can't bear it when we're apart."
Tell me how you liked it…after breakfast…'
Love, Beatrice Weasley ( How does it look?)"
Hermione started laughing so loud some people turned and stared at her. Harry was holding his hand over his mouth trying not to do the same. Ron grabbed the paper from Hermione exclaiming, "Your lying! SHE DID NOT SIGN HER NAME BEATRICE Weasley….she did." He said, his head falling back and his mouth falling open. Harry punched him in the arm, "Don't worry about it, Ron. Let's just go to breakfast." He said trying as hard as he could not to crack up. Ron nodded as he shoved the note into his pocket and hung his head, trudging into the dining room.
Genevieve was sitting in bed waiting for sleep to take her over…and she waited…and waited…and waited. She quietly got out of bed, she walked over to the window and opened the curtain. She stared up at the stars and waited some more. She couldn't take it any longer. She put on her robe and walked quietly down the hall down two flights down to the door. She opened it quietly and walked out onto the stone courtyard.
She walked past the dance floor and the little gazebo with flowers growing all over it, into the forest. She kept on going this time. She didn't have to be back at the school for a long time. She smiled…she had never gone past a certain point in the forest, a rock that looked like a nose…but she had just past it. She all of the sudden had the urge to run. She ran and ran laughing at the crazy giddiness that came over her whenever she was doing something Madame Mavis would disapprove of.
She must have been running for about fifteen minutes when she finally had to stop, her lungs were burning as she bent over to catch her breath. When she looked up she was startled to see an old mansion. Even though most of it was broken down it possessed a certain beauty…Genevieve could tell that when it was new…it must have been a breathtaker. She walked up to the front door of it…it was enormous. There was a sign warning of it being condemned but Genevieve didn't pay attention to that. She opened the doors…it opened loudly, making a loud noise that echoed through it's huge halls. Genevieve wondered how something so big, that it could be safely be called a Castle, had escaped the demolition crew.
Genevieve felt so small in the hall, it was huge, there were about a million doors and stairways. Her heart beat a little faster…she didn't know why exactly.
They were in the middle of Transfiguration with Professor McGonagal when Hagrid came bursting through the doors interrupting their changing a thumbtack into an ant…a little boring in Harry's opinion…so the interruption was welcome.
"Professor Dumbledore needs all teachers to report to his office immediately. It's an M.I." He said.
All student heads turned from Hagrid to McGonagal, everyone wondering the same thing. "What's an M.I.?" Neville actually dared to ask. McGonagal looked at him sharply. "Never you mind, Longbottom." She said "Hagrid, would you mind staying with the students?" Hagrid nodded and held the door open for her. Everyone watched as McGonagal walked out, they could tell by the way she walked out, that this was an emergency.
"What do we do?" McGonagal asked as calmly as she could. Everyone but Dumbledore and the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Melinda Dejhad. She raised a heavily penciled eyebrow at McGonagal and said, "Well it's not like it's disturbing anything Professor…" She said softly. McGonagal looked at her unbelievingly. "I think that the students might find it a little distracting, Melinda!" She said sharply. But Dumbledore held up hjs hands. "Now, now…I believe that Melinda is in the right frame of mind, it is not hurting anything to let her be. Right now, all we shall do is keep an eye on her. Bring all the students to the Dining room where I will explain the situation and how we are going to handle it."
Everyone was whispering loudly as they walked single filed into the dining room and took their usual seats.
Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers were sitting at the head table waiting for everyone to take their seats and quiet down.
Finally everyone was silent, and Dumbledore stood. "Students of Hogwarts, do not be afraid, nothing serious has happened no matter how hysterical your teachers have seemed. Well, nothing too serious. A young muggle girl has wandered into Hogwarts,"
Immediately there was a loud wave of whispers. Harry turned to Hermione and whispered "I thought you said no one could come into Hogwarts?" Hermione looked extremely perplexed as she shrugged. Dumbledore cleared his throat and the whispers died down. "She is now standing in one of the main halls. We have decided to let her be…" "Let her be? She's a muggle inside our school! She's bound to tell others about us!" Draco Malfoy yelled standing up so fast his chair fell over backwards with a loud bang. "Draco, calm yourself please." Dumbledore said. "I was getting to that. Most of us thought that the sign would do the trick,…we didn't think it would be necissary to put any other spells on the school…except one. This spell was cast by the first headmaster here in Hogwarts. Hogwarts would be protected from Muggle eyes, all they could see was a broken down mansion, once inside…they couldn't see any of us but we can see them. No one has ever came into the school however, so I guess it's safe to say that the spell worked because the girl is visible, but she can't see us or the real condition of the castle. I don't want any gapers though. I want you to keep on your school, and if you see her, please ignore her and continue with whatever you are doing, thing of her as a ghost."
"Yeah, that will be real easy." Muttered Harry to Ron who nodded. They were dismissed…and lucky for the Gryfindors the next class was Herbology…which was "Outside…and past the so called ghost." Hermione said smiling. They walked out of the Dining room, books in their arm and made their way to door. And then they saw her…she was curled up beside the door, alseep. Hermione gasped, and Ron and Harry just stared like the rest of the students.
"Weird….she's all transparent like a ghost." Ron said walking out the door. "I wonder what she's doing here?" Hermione wondered aloud.
