"Just Because I'm Different."
**Disclaimer: Yeah, yada, yada, Harry Potter and all of the wonderful things inside of it do not belong to me.**
Chapter 4: Getting to Know You.
Harry and the others walked nonchalantly into the Great Hall. Luna left to go to the Ravenclaw table, and Ginny went of with some other fourth- years. Harry sat down next to Ron, Neville and Hermione sat across form them. Seamus and Dean joined them. After Dean came over, Ginny returned.
"I thought you were going to sit with your friends?" Ron asked angrily.
"What are you talking about Ron?" Ginny asked, giggling fakely. "You guys ARE my friends." With that she scooted closer to Dean and he put an arm around her waist.
Before any actual conversation could happen the first years filed in, all with scared looks on their faces. They looked up at the starry roof, and around at all of the students.
Professor McGonagall sat the Sorting Hat down and it began to sing, but Neville didn't notice. He was too surprised at the recent events. He hadn't even known that Bellatrix Lestrange had a daughter. And one who was like him to boot. He found himself absent-mindedly looking at her.
There she was cuddled up with Malfoy, looking at the first years being sorted. She had a very bored look on her face. Stands of her reddish- brown hair were falling into her face, but she didn't move them. One fell by her eye, and the contrast between her light eyes and red hair was astounding. As he looked at her eyes, he had thought that he saw a hint of disgust. Maybe it was a trick of the light. No, he was sure that's what he'd seen. He looked back at them, yes that was it.
Rachel felt eyes on her, she looked around. There was that boy from the train; the quiet one, Longbottom. He was staring at her, she met his gaze, and she blushed. But then she caught herself acting un-Slytherinly. She shot him a challenging glance just as Draco looked at her. When Draco looked back up at the students she shot Longbottom a slight smile and a wink. She didn't know why. He blushed and looked at his plate. She laughed at his shyness.
Draco turned to her and gave her a strange look. "What?" She asked challengingly.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing." She trailed off; she had been horribly tempted to say "Your face" but she had restrained herself. She looked on as the final student "Zandella, Cleopatra" was sorted into Ravenclaw.
Dumbledore stood up and gave his obligatory speech. He introduced the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. Rachel wasn't paying any attention. She would hear all about him when she got into his class. Of course, that was until she looked up at him. He had curly black hair and shocking sapphire eyes. He stood about five foot six or five foot seven from estimation. He smiled and showed perfect white teeth. She knew that her mouth was hanging open, but she couldn't seem to show it. He spoke with a clear jesting voice, and had a trace of an American accent. She couldn't seem to make out what he was saying though. Suddenly her plate was full and everyone around her was eating.
She looked across the hall again and caught sight of Potter, the Weasleys, Granger, and Longbottom. They were in a conversation, completely oblivious to the fact that she was looking at her. She lightly pushed some mashed potatoes and chicken around her plate with a fork. She wasn't really hungry. She couldn't help it, she kept thinking about the train. She felt tears pricking her eyes, she had been almost positive of making friends. She'd hoped someone would have followed her out of the compartment, but what could she have expected. Potter was completely over the top about something that she had no control over and could never change. Ginny was disgusted by the fact that she was going out with Draco. She didn't know Granger or the male Weasley. Luna was just indifferent to everything, well everything but The Quibbler and Ronald Weasley. She couldn't expect anything from that Longbottom kid; she thought that what her mother had done to his parents was one of the worst things ever. Of course she only heard stories about it off of Draco's father.
She'd eaten about three bites when some of the people around her walked back up to their common rooms. She decided that she didn't want to go to the common room. So she headed toward the library.
At the Gryffindor table the meal ended with Ginny, Ron, Dean, and Harry walking up to the common room discussing the dos and don'ts of Quidditch. Hermione headed up to the library to get in some extra studying so that she could look better in classes. Neville decided to accompany her, he could look up things about potions, maybe get in some extra studying so that he wouldn't be completely horrible; like that would ever happen.
He walked in and picked up one of the books that had been required for potions, 101 Ways to Manipulate People through Potions. The title itself gave Neville the idea that he wasn't going to like this year of potions at all. He slumped down at a table and sighed heavily. He rested his face on his hand and stared at the first page. He was seeing it, but for some reason he just could not read it. He gave up after trying about seven times and just laid his head on his arms and closed his eyes.
"Can I sit there?" A female voice that sounded vaguely familiar asked.
"Huh?" He asked sitting up suddenly, and almost falling out of his chair.
Rachel giggled and sat down anyway. "Hey," she paused, as if wanting to say something, but lost her nerve "what are you reading?"
"Oh, just something for potions." He said, showing her the cover.
"Well, it doesn't look as though you've managed to read much." She giggled again. He blushed, "Well." He began to defend himself but broke off.
An uncomfortable silence followed; finally Rachel thought that she would go insane. "I- I saw you looking at me in the Great Hall."
Neville blushed and mumbled something.
"What?"
"Oh, I was just surprised that Bellatrix Lestrange had a daughter. And one like you to boot." He was obviously trying to be calm and casual about the subject but the grimace on his face at her mum's name showed Rachel otherwise.
"Oh, look I don't know if you feel the same way as Harry did. If you blame me for- for-" She couldn't bring herself to say it, and just looked down at the table. "I'd like to have a friend." She commented quietly, looking up at him a little.
Neville didn't know how to respond. Of course it wasn't her fault said the rational part of his brain. but still, he couldn't seem to overcome that fact. He felt so uncomfortable around her. Almost as if he always had to have his guard up. Oddly enough he could sympathize with her. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny were polite to him, even sometimes friendly, but he was hardly ever included in what they did. "But, don't you have any in your house?" He asked trying to avoid what he knew was coming; he already knew the answer to his question anyway.
"Not really. They tolerate me, it's a long story. I can't stand them for the most part though. I don't feel like I belong there. You know what I mean?"
"Exactly, I don't even feel like I belong in this school. The only thing that I'm really good at here is Herbology."
"Oh I'm awful at that. Plants are plants to me. They're pretty, and they're all different, I know that, but there are just too many names to keep it accurate"
"But it's not like that at all." He stated, and began off on a long talk about all of the different species of plants and what they did. Rachel looked at him as he talked. He was opening up to her, she smiled thinking that she might be on the way to making a friend. He was smiling and waving his hands animatedly as he talked. He was actually kind of cute, in a little-kid way. It was adorable how into this he was. She tuned back into what he was saying, "And then there's the Devils Snare which we learned about in first year."
"Oh I know that one, that's the one that crushes you to bits if you don't find heat or light."
"Or relax." He laughed at her description. She looked at her watch, and was startled to see how late it was getting. "Gosh, look at the time; we don't want to be caught out of bed by Malfoy or any of the other prefects. Ooh, I can just image how much he'd love that."
"I thought you two were going out." Neville said, deciding to not bring up the whole "betrothal" thing.
"Well, we can't stand each other."
"Wait."
"Just let it go!" She hissed, since they were in a library and she couldn't raise her voice. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Well, of course, they happened to take a wrong turn and ended up in a completely different part of the castle than they'd intended. Then of course, Neville got stuck in that one dumb stair that he always forgot to jump. They had to spend time getting him out. Finally when they were back on track to where they could figure out how to get to their houses, they were stopped by a certain red-headed prefect.
"Hey! You two, stop right there. You should be up in your rooms." Came Ron's voice from behind them; he obviously didn't recognize them. He caught up with them and couldn't help but let a chuckle escape his lips when he saw Neville. "Wow Neville, I didn't know you had a girlfriend." He was obviously having a hard time controlling his laughter.
"I'm not his girlfriend." Rachel said, turning around and glaring at Ron, who burst into loud fits of laughter upon seeing who the girl was.
"Really," He asked amusedly, "then where what were you two doing?"
"Studying" Neville said. At the same time that Rachel said "Talking." So of course it sounded like they were lying.
"I thought you were going out with Malfoy." Ron said, quizzically raising an eyebrow suggestively. "What are you doing with Neville here?"
"I already told you, we were just talking." She said clenching her fists. "And don't bring up Draco," her voice grew quieter, "I hate him, okay?"
"Wow, Luna got something accurate for once." Ron commented.
Rachel ignored him, and skipped to the chase. "So, are we getting detentions or what?"
"Naw, I think I'll let you off the hook this once. Seeing as it is you, Neville, it's about time you found yourself a girl."
"So, that's a no?" Rachel asked, feeling both grateful and annoyed at Ron. "Then I guess I'll see you guys later then." She said, looking from Ron to Neville. She gave Ron a smile that looked totally forced and Neville a genuine beam. Then turned around and walked back to her common room.
"Nothing happened, you say?" Ron asked again, looking at Neville intently.
"No."
"Well, I was serious about you needing a girl."
Neville rolled his eyes and walked back to the common room. "See you tomorrow morning Ron."
Rachel walked into the Slytherin common room, and sat on the couch. She picked up one of her Muggle novels, and began reading. About an hour later, Draco walked in. "Hello." She said formally.
"I thought you were going to do something about your hair."
"I like it." She crossed her arms defiantly, and walked to the stairs to the girls dormitories. "Goodnight Draco." She said, but didn't make any moves to turn around and walk up the stairs.
Draco walked toward her and kissed her on the lips, it wasn't an uncomfortable peck, but it wasn't the kiss of two people in love. "Goodnight Rachel." He told her.
It was routine, they'd been doing it since they were twelve. Of course, the part of the routine that Draco hadn't known about was that she'd go and wash her mouth afterwards.
Okay, I had fun with that. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry that I haven't updated, I've just been on vacation and my printer wouldn't print the whole story so I had to wait until I got back to finish this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Review please. Thanks so much!
**Disclaimer: Yeah, yada, yada, Harry Potter and all of the wonderful things inside of it do not belong to me.**
Chapter 4: Getting to Know You.
Harry and the others walked nonchalantly into the Great Hall. Luna left to go to the Ravenclaw table, and Ginny went of with some other fourth- years. Harry sat down next to Ron, Neville and Hermione sat across form them. Seamus and Dean joined them. After Dean came over, Ginny returned.
"I thought you were going to sit with your friends?" Ron asked angrily.
"What are you talking about Ron?" Ginny asked, giggling fakely. "You guys ARE my friends." With that she scooted closer to Dean and he put an arm around her waist.
Before any actual conversation could happen the first years filed in, all with scared looks on their faces. They looked up at the starry roof, and around at all of the students.
Professor McGonagall sat the Sorting Hat down and it began to sing, but Neville didn't notice. He was too surprised at the recent events. He hadn't even known that Bellatrix Lestrange had a daughter. And one who was like him to boot. He found himself absent-mindedly looking at her.
There she was cuddled up with Malfoy, looking at the first years being sorted. She had a very bored look on her face. Stands of her reddish- brown hair were falling into her face, but she didn't move them. One fell by her eye, and the contrast between her light eyes and red hair was astounding. As he looked at her eyes, he had thought that he saw a hint of disgust. Maybe it was a trick of the light. No, he was sure that's what he'd seen. He looked back at them, yes that was it.
Rachel felt eyes on her, she looked around. There was that boy from the train; the quiet one, Longbottom. He was staring at her, she met his gaze, and she blushed. But then she caught herself acting un-Slytherinly. She shot him a challenging glance just as Draco looked at her. When Draco looked back up at the students she shot Longbottom a slight smile and a wink. She didn't know why. He blushed and looked at his plate. She laughed at his shyness.
Draco turned to her and gave her a strange look. "What?" She asked challengingly.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing." She trailed off; she had been horribly tempted to say "Your face" but she had restrained herself. She looked on as the final student "Zandella, Cleopatra" was sorted into Ravenclaw.
Dumbledore stood up and gave his obligatory speech. He introduced the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. Rachel wasn't paying any attention. She would hear all about him when she got into his class. Of course, that was until she looked up at him. He had curly black hair and shocking sapphire eyes. He stood about five foot six or five foot seven from estimation. He smiled and showed perfect white teeth. She knew that her mouth was hanging open, but she couldn't seem to show it. He spoke with a clear jesting voice, and had a trace of an American accent. She couldn't seem to make out what he was saying though. Suddenly her plate was full and everyone around her was eating.
She looked across the hall again and caught sight of Potter, the Weasleys, Granger, and Longbottom. They were in a conversation, completely oblivious to the fact that she was looking at her. She lightly pushed some mashed potatoes and chicken around her plate with a fork. She wasn't really hungry. She couldn't help it, she kept thinking about the train. She felt tears pricking her eyes, she had been almost positive of making friends. She'd hoped someone would have followed her out of the compartment, but what could she have expected. Potter was completely over the top about something that she had no control over and could never change. Ginny was disgusted by the fact that she was going out with Draco. She didn't know Granger or the male Weasley. Luna was just indifferent to everything, well everything but The Quibbler and Ronald Weasley. She couldn't expect anything from that Longbottom kid; she thought that what her mother had done to his parents was one of the worst things ever. Of course she only heard stories about it off of Draco's father.
She'd eaten about three bites when some of the people around her walked back up to their common rooms. She decided that she didn't want to go to the common room. So she headed toward the library.
At the Gryffindor table the meal ended with Ginny, Ron, Dean, and Harry walking up to the common room discussing the dos and don'ts of Quidditch. Hermione headed up to the library to get in some extra studying so that she could look better in classes. Neville decided to accompany her, he could look up things about potions, maybe get in some extra studying so that he wouldn't be completely horrible; like that would ever happen.
He walked in and picked up one of the books that had been required for potions, 101 Ways to Manipulate People through Potions. The title itself gave Neville the idea that he wasn't going to like this year of potions at all. He slumped down at a table and sighed heavily. He rested his face on his hand and stared at the first page. He was seeing it, but for some reason he just could not read it. He gave up after trying about seven times and just laid his head on his arms and closed his eyes.
"Can I sit there?" A female voice that sounded vaguely familiar asked.
"Huh?" He asked sitting up suddenly, and almost falling out of his chair.
Rachel giggled and sat down anyway. "Hey," she paused, as if wanting to say something, but lost her nerve "what are you reading?"
"Oh, just something for potions." He said, showing her the cover.
"Well, it doesn't look as though you've managed to read much." She giggled again. He blushed, "Well." He began to defend himself but broke off.
An uncomfortable silence followed; finally Rachel thought that she would go insane. "I- I saw you looking at me in the Great Hall."
Neville blushed and mumbled something.
"What?"
"Oh, I was just surprised that Bellatrix Lestrange had a daughter. And one like you to boot." He was obviously trying to be calm and casual about the subject but the grimace on his face at her mum's name showed Rachel otherwise.
"Oh, look I don't know if you feel the same way as Harry did. If you blame me for- for-" She couldn't bring herself to say it, and just looked down at the table. "I'd like to have a friend." She commented quietly, looking up at him a little.
Neville didn't know how to respond. Of course it wasn't her fault said the rational part of his brain. but still, he couldn't seem to overcome that fact. He felt so uncomfortable around her. Almost as if he always had to have his guard up. Oddly enough he could sympathize with her. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny were polite to him, even sometimes friendly, but he was hardly ever included in what they did. "But, don't you have any in your house?" He asked trying to avoid what he knew was coming; he already knew the answer to his question anyway.
"Not really. They tolerate me, it's a long story. I can't stand them for the most part though. I don't feel like I belong there. You know what I mean?"
"Exactly, I don't even feel like I belong in this school. The only thing that I'm really good at here is Herbology."
"Oh I'm awful at that. Plants are plants to me. They're pretty, and they're all different, I know that, but there are just too many names to keep it accurate"
"But it's not like that at all." He stated, and began off on a long talk about all of the different species of plants and what they did. Rachel looked at him as he talked. He was opening up to her, she smiled thinking that she might be on the way to making a friend. He was smiling and waving his hands animatedly as he talked. He was actually kind of cute, in a little-kid way. It was adorable how into this he was. She tuned back into what he was saying, "And then there's the Devils Snare which we learned about in first year."
"Oh I know that one, that's the one that crushes you to bits if you don't find heat or light."
"Or relax." He laughed at her description. She looked at her watch, and was startled to see how late it was getting. "Gosh, look at the time; we don't want to be caught out of bed by Malfoy or any of the other prefects. Ooh, I can just image how much he'd love that."
"I thought you two were going out." Neville said, deciding to not bring up the whole "betrothal" thing.
"Well, we can't stand each other."
"Wait."
"Just let it go!" She hissed, since they were in a library and she couldn't raise her voice. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Well, of course, they happened to take a wrong turn and ended up in a completely different part of the castle than they'd intended. Then of course, Neville got stuck in that one dumb stair that he always forgot to jump. They had to spend time getting him out. Finally when they were back on track to where they could figure out how to get to their houses, they were stopped by a certain red-headed prefect.
"Hey! You two, stop right there. You should be up in your rooms." Came Ron's voice from behind them; he obviously didn't recognize them. He caught up with them and couldn't help but let a chuckle escape his lips when he saw Neville. "Wow Neville, I didn't know you had a girlfriend." He was obviously having a hard time controlling his laughter.
"I'm not his girlfriend." Rachel said, turning around and glaring at Ron, who burst into loud fits of laughter upon seeing who the girl was.
"Really," He asked amusedly, "then where what were you two doing?"
"Studying" Neville said. At the same time that Rachel said "Talking." So of course it sounded like they were lying.
"I thought you were going out with Malfoy." Ron said, quizzically raising an eyebrow suggestively. "What are you doing with Neville here?"
"I already told you, we were just talking." She said clenching her fists. "And don't bring up Draco," her voice grew quieter, "I hate him, okay?"
"Wow, Luna got something accurate for once." Ron commented.
Rachel ignored him, and skipped to the chase. "So, are we getting detentions or what?"
"Naw, I think I'll let you off the hook this once. Seeing as it is you, Neville, it's about time you found yourself a girl."
"So, that's a no?" Rachel asked, feeling both grateful and annoyed at Ron. "Then I guess I'll see you guys later then." She said, looking from Ron to Neville. She gave Ron a smile that looked totally forced and Neville a genuine beam. Then turned around and walked back to her common room.
"Nothing happened, you say?" Ron asked again, looking at Neville intently.
"No."
"Well, I was serious about you needing a girl."
Neville rolled his eyes and walked back to the common room. "See you tomorrow morning Ron."
Rachel walked into the Slytherin common room, and sat on the couch. She picked up one of her Muggle novels, and began reading. About an hour later, Draco walked in. "Hello." She said formally.
"I thought you were going to do something about your hair."
"I like it." She crossed her arms defiantly, and walked to the stairs to the girls dormitories. "Goodnight Draco." She said, but didn't make any moves to turn around and walk up the stairs.
Draco walked toward her and kissed her on the lips, it wasn't an uncomfortable peck, but it wasn't the kiss of two people in love. "Goodnight Rachel." He told her.
It was routine, they'd been doing it since they were twelve. Of course, the part of the routine that Draco hadn't known about was that she'd go and wash her mouth afterwards.
Okay, I had fun with that. I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry that I haven't updated, I've just been on vacation and my printer wouldn't print the whole story so I had to wait until I got back to finish this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Review please. Thanks so much!