Chapter One.
"Here we are!" my mother said in a sing song voice as we arrived in front of a modern day mansion. She turned her bright hazel eyes to me, "Well? What do you think, Allison? Isn't it wonderful?" she gushed, looking around at the shrubbery.
I really didn't want to spoil her moment, so I looked at my father instead. I knew he didn't want to move from New York, just like I didn't, so I hoped he would say what I wanted to scream at my mom. To my disappointment, he looked just as happy as Mom was. I wanted to yell at them and tell both of them that I would do anything to go back to NYC, to go back to my school, to go back to my friends,....to go back to Trent....
NO. You can't think about him. It'll just make you more homesick, you know it. I told myself that same thought over and over again, from the moment I got on the plane to come here. I felt guilty, like I abandoned him. And abaondon him you did... an evil voice said from somewhere deep in the back of my head.
But he wouldn't understand....I don't even understand, so how could he? I tried to justify my actions of not telling Trent where I was going or for how long I would be gone for. I simply told him that my parents wanted to travel Europe for a while and that I had to go along with them. Which was true in some sense. I was going to Europe...but not for traveling. This "trip" had a bigger meaning. And Trent would never understand that.
I still felt guilty, but somewhat releived that I had convinced myself that what I had done wasn't all bad. I turned my attention back to my parents. They were lifting things in the air and instructing them where to fly to in the house with their wands. Too bad I couldn't join in. I would have been able to at home, but the British had different rules for their underage witches and wizards, so I wasn't allowed. Instead, I had to manually pick up some of my stuff and carry it to my room.
It was easy to tell which was my room. My parents already made glittery lines of powdery dust-like stuff that led to different rooms. A different color for every room. Furniture marked with the same color wizzed into its matching room, landing perfectly unharmed. I immidiately followed the silvery blue line since it was the only one of my favorite colors out of all the other glittery lines. The others were all hot pink and bright oranges, you know, the really bright colors that sometimes came off as tacky. "My color" stood out from all of that.
Ducking a cream colored leather couch and matching futon, I walked up the staricase. As much as I wanted to hate this house (since it wasn't the 16 room urban penthouse I grew up in), I had to admit to myself, it had style. From the outside it reminded me of a postcard. From the inside, it reminded me of those perfect houses you see in movies.
I reached the second story of the 3 story mansion and followed my line to the last door at end of the sunlit hallway. The room I walked into was more than perfect. It had huge walk in closets, its own gigantic bathroom, and (best of all) a balcony! I always wanted a room with a balcony, but New York balconies were nothing compared to this one. I stepped out into the golden sunlight, to overlook my view. It was spectacular. For as far as I could see, all I saw were rolling green hills, trees, and even a sparkling creek behind one of the tall oak trees. With a view like this, I could learn to like this place, after all.
I was disrupted by a loud BANG. It turned out to be my bed. It just flew in and started assembling itself in from of me. I turned back to the balcony. After a few more minutes, I was disrupted again.
"Beautiful, isn't it, honey?" I heard my mother say from behind me.
"Yes, it is."
"Good. I knew you'd like it." she sat on the bed. "Look Allie, I know you didn't want to move. None of us did. But we had to, you know it. We're needed here on the Order and we have new jobs at the Ministry. You, have a bigger jo-..." she cought herself in midsentance.
"What were you saying, Mom?" I inquired. Was she trying to keep something from me?
"I was just saying..." she said slowly, looking for the right words. Oh yes, she was definately keeping something from me. Right now, I didn't feel like interrogating her, so I made a mental note to do that later. "I was just saying that I can understand how hard it is for you to move. It's hard on me and your father, so I imagine it's twice as difficult for you." she paused, apprently waiting for me to say something. I didn't, and she moved on. "Honey, I'm sure you'll make new friends here. And the school is just like Tavington...except it's sort of like a boarding school."
Again, I think she expected me to protest or something, but I didn't. There was no point in it. Britain only had one wizarding school, and I knew there was no way that my parents would send me back to Tavington in New York, so why bother agruing? I just looked at her and said, "Yeah. It can't be that bad, I guess..." and turned back to the green hills.
I heard my mother sigh. "Allie..."
"What?" I said harsher than I meant to. I looked back at my mom. "Sorry Mom, I didn't mean to. I'm just kind of ....upset about things."
"I'm sorry, honey. It's because of all this you have to leave your friends and boyfriend behind..." she looked like she suddenly realized something. "You didn't tell Trent about this whole thing, I hope?"
"No, I just said that we're gonna travel Europe for a while."
"Oh...alright. I was just worried since he's....you know..."
"A Muggle. I know, Mom. Beleive me, I didn't tell him anything."
"Good....I'll leave you to your unpacking, then..." she turned to go. "Oh and Allie?"
"Uh huh?" I was starting to make my bed. Unfortunately, it didn't do anything except assemble itself.
"Tomorrow, we're going to meet with the headmaster of Hogwarts."
"Is that the name of the boarding school?"
"Yes."
"God, what and ugly name. Hope it's better than it sounds."
My mother smiled, "I know. So do I."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I woke up at 6, the next morning. Cursing the time change, I took a shower and began to carefully choose my outfit. As a Manhattan socialite, from the time I was 5, certain rules were drummed into my head. One of them being, always look your best. And if it's an important meeting of some sort, that goes double. So from 6 to 7, I tried on various outfits.
Dispite the sunny weather the day before, today it was raining cats and dogs. I hoped it wouldn't keep up, rain did hell to my hair. Rain or no rain, this was a "meeting" so by my family's rules, I had to wear a skirt. I decided on a tan suede one and paired it with a white, button down 3/4 sleaved shirt, and matching suede knee high boots. As I was pulling my long, straight, dark brown hair into a pony tail, I heard my mom yell for me to come down and eat.
While I was chewnig my Pop-tarts, my parents decided to share another little peice of information with me.
"After the meeting with the Headmaster, we're going to take you to meet the rest of the members of the Order." my father informed me. Good. Maybe there would be people my own age...?
"And then, we're all going to go shopping at Diagon Alley, together." my mother added. YES! I really liked this.
"That's the best thing I've heard you say in the past 48 hours, Mom." I told her, smiling.
"Good... You finally sound like yourself again. Glad to know my daughter has returned form her 2 day depression!" my father got up," So, I guess we should go. We have to be there at...what is it again, Lucy?"
"8:45" my mother replied, holding her mug out to the coffee pot which began filling it up.
"Right, 8:45. And it's already 8:10."
So with that, I left my new "home" to meet a bunch of people, who I had a feeling would have a big impact on my life.
Chapter 2
Harry sat in the corner of the dark kitchen in #12 Grimmuald Place. He rembered how happy he had been, three years ago, when he found out that somewhere out there, there was someone who was as good as kin to him. The whole house reminded him of Sirius, and it also reminded him that, once agin, he was a true orphan. Watching the Weasleys together wasn't helping either. They were all such a close family, and as close as Harry was to them, he couldn't help but feel out of place sometimes....like he didn't belong there.
The whole summer he was haunted by images and memories of Sirius. How he, Ron, and Hermione brought him food in Hogsmeade a few years ago. How they all talked to his head in the fire. How they saved him from being killed their third year......
We can't save him now.... Harry thought sadly. He felt his eyes tear up again, as they always did whenever he thought of Sirius. But he had to be strong. Thats's one thing I've learned from the Dursleys, at least. he smiled slightly at the irony, since the Dursleys never gave a damn about his emotions, or how he handled them, as long as he didn't get them involved. Blinking a few more times, he made the tears go away.
The past month at thier house was better than his past summers, he had to admit. The Dursleys left him alone more and didn't mind if he sent messages out every day, or stay out in the streets later than Dudley. In fact, they seemed scared of him. More than usual anyway. Perhaps the thought of Voldemort, triggored some unhappy memories in Aunt Petunia's mind because she was more kind (however strange that was of her) to Harry. Both Uncle Vernon and her didn't even protest when the usual owl from the Weasleys arrived telling Harry that they would pick him up by floo powder again. In fact, it almost seemed as though the nicer they thought they would be to Harry, the least likely it was for them to get involved in his life outside of their home.
"You know, Harry," Harry looked up at the source of the voice. He had been too into his reveries about Sirius, to notice that Hermione had come inside the room. She sat timidly beside him, "Don't get mad or anything, but....it's better to let it all out than to hold all of your sadness in all the time."
Harry sighed, "I guess you're right...but I still feel aweful. If only I had listened to you and to Snape and to everyone else, he'd be here now...this is all my fault." he buried his head in his hands, trying to hide the tears that were now freely running down his face.
Hermione leaned over and hugged him. When Harry looked up from his palms, he saw that she was crying too. "Harry....there are millions of 'if onlys' we could sit here and discuss, but that won't help us, will it now?" she said quietly. Then in an even more muted and saddened tone she said, "As much as all of us don't want to let go...we have to. We all just have to move on." she wiped a tear away and then smiled slightly, "At least now you know that somewhere you have your personal gaurdian angel."
Harry smiled sadly. "Yeah....and it'll always be in the form of a big black dog..."
The two friends looked at eachother and with unmentioned empathy, hugged again.
"Harry? Hermione?" Ron had walked in the room, obviously looking for them. "Hey, I hope I'm not inturupting anything..." He broke of at the sight of his friends' faces. "Harry....I'm so sorry, mate..." he walked over and joined the hug, everyone in the house knew about Harry's tense emotions and offered hugs,words of kindness, and other warm, friendly gestures at him whenever possible.
"What did you want, Ron?" Harry finally asked, more happily than he normally would.
"Mum said that we have to get ready for some guests. I dunno who it is, but she was being all secrety about it." Ron answered in an equally bright way, sensing his friend's sudden exuberance. "Hope it's not Snape..."
Harry hoped so too but for other reasons. Ever since he found his way into Snape's Pensive thoughts, he found it hard to look his Potions master in the eye. He could only imagine what kind of hell his 6th year would bring. While most Gryffindors abandoned Potions, he had to take it for the whole duration of his Hogwarts years if he ever wanted to be an Auror. The only comfort in the whole situation was the thought of Ron taking the class along with him. But knowing Snape, he would do anything to make both Ron and Harry's "learning experiance" as terrible as possible.
"Ron, you know it won't be Snape. Your mum would never even makes us sit in the same room as him. I think she knows our feelings tawrd eachother are not at all friendly." Hermione said in her, I-am-totally-and completely-sure-that-I-am-right-so-don't-argue-with-me voice. Ron did nothing except cast her a look of annoyance because he was corrected.
"Yeah, I agree with Hermione. We've never seen Snape except for glimpses once in a while." Harry said.
As they bounded up the stairs to go meet the guests, the twins Apparated in front of them.
"Hello, young ones!" Fred greeted them.
"What are you doing here?! I thought you were supposed to be 'hard at work' in your joke shop." Ron answered, unfazed by his brothers sudden appearance.
"Just thought we ought to be here to show the new Hogwarts student around to the best shop in Diagon Alley." George replied nonchalantly. "He-"
"Or more hopefully she-" Fred cut in, grinning.
"Will be in your year, you know." George finished.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchnged a look. A new student. Hogwarts never recieved new students.
"No, we didn't know! How come no one ever tells us stuff?" Ron cried out after the small shock the trio recieved.
"Because, everyone loves us more!" the twins said in unison, before Disapperating.
"I hate when they do that! They always know stuff before me! And this is important too!" Ron said in an upset tone.
There was a small pause after Ron's last comment, as the group soaked in the information.
"All I want to know is why..." Hermione thought out loud, breaking the silence.
"What?" Harry and Ron were used to being puzzled by Hermione's way of thinking.
"Nevermind....I could be wrong."
"Wrong at wha-" Ron never finished his sentance because just then, the doorbell rang and Mrs. Black began screaming her usual "FILTH, SCUM, HALF-BREEDS, MUDBLOODS! BEGONE FROM THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS! YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!"
"HARRY! RON! HERMIONE! Could you three please come here?!" Mrs. Weasly somehow made herself heard over all the noise.
"Come on, that must be them." Harry started walking up the stairs again.
"Yeah, I want to know ask her why Fred and George knew before we did anyway."
"Ron!" Hermione said in an annoyed voice.
"WHAT? It's not right! This concerns us more than them! We should heve been the first to know."
"Yes, but I don't see why you are making such a big deal out of this."
"Hmm...let's see, MAYBE BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT THEIR JOKE SHOP UNTIL NOW AND THEY GOT TO KNOW BEFORE WE DID!"
"Do you realize that you just reiterated what you said 10 seconds ago?"
"SO? Your point is?"
"My point is that it doesn't matter who knew first! It just matters that you behave yourself in front of the guests, instead of going on and on about who knew first!"
"Who are you, my mother?"
And on and on it went, accompanied by: "HOW DARE YOU ALL BEFOUL THE HOUSE OF BLACK?! YOU DIRTY,FILTHY THINGS!" until they reached the top of the stairs.
As soon as they were in the main hallway, Mrs. Weasley ushered them into the dingy living room. "What took you all so long? I must have called for you 25 minutes ago!" she scolded under her breath.
Since the room was a bit on the smaller side and there were about 10 people in it, it took a while for them to notice exactly who the 'guests' were. When Harry finally could get a clear view of the guests he was shocked to see Professor McGonagall standing next to the prettiest girl he'd ever seen and two people who appeared to be her parents.
Ron nudged Harry in the ribs,"Do you reckon veelas can be brunettes?"
Harry smiled, "I don't see you jumping out the window,so I guess that would be a no."
"Acctually, I was thinking more along the lines of wacking myself in the head with a candlebra."
"Would you two behave like adults? She's not the first pretty girl you've ever seen." Hermione hissed under her breath.
The girl was now looking around the room and meeting everyone with her parents. With every person they met they were getting closer and closer to Harry and his friends. Harry felt his palms get sweaty and his face was getting hot. He looked at Ron, his cheeks were getting pinker and pinker by the second. Only Hermione seemed totally unfazed by the whole thing.
"Ah, Hermione, I see you are letting the jealousy monster come after you....and technically we aren't adults yet."
"No, I'm not Ron. And besides, even if she is pretty, it doesn't mean that she's intelligent."
"Intelligence isn't everything to guys, you know." Ron relpied not taking his eyes off the girl.
To this, Hermione only sniffed grudgingly.
In a few minutes the girl and her parents came around to them, accompanied by Professor McGonagall. "These are the students I told you would be helping Allison around at school." she began introducing them,"This is Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter." Harry wasn't surprised when at the mention of his name, Allison's parents' eyes widened slightly. Unlike the usual 'Good Lord, wow, you're some child, young Harry.' he was used to recieving, her parents only held out their hands and introduced themselves to all three of them, instead of singling out Harry in some way.
"Nice to meet all of you, I'm Claire Arden and this is my husband, Charles. And this is my daughter Allison." Mrs.Claire Arden said gesturing to each member of her family as she introduced them. Mr. Arden gave them a smile and shook each of their hands. Allison gave a bright smile and did the same as her father.
Professor McGonagall then continued the introduction. "Mr. and Mrs. Arden are here to work for the Order. They have also recently been appointed American Wizarding Ambassadors. Since they moved from New York City to London, you understand that it would be impossible for Allison to go to her school this fall, so she will be attending Hogwarts. She has been Sorted into Gryffindor so I'll leave it to you three to get her accustomed to our school, alright?"
They all nodded.
"Alright then, we still have to meet a few more people so we have to hurry if we ever want to get to Diagon Alley before sunset.... But perhaps, you would like to get better aquainted with your new class mates, Miss Arden?" Professor McGonagall turned to Allison.
"Of course." Allison replied.
"Alright, honey, we'll leave you four to yourselves then." Mrs. Arden said before she and her husband went off to meet another group of people.
Allison watched her mother and father walk away and then turned back to Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Hi, guess you know who I am now, ecxept, please call me Allie, I hate using my full name. I've heard a lot about you three."
"Really from who?" Hermione said a bit harshly.
Allie seemed ok with her attitude," Well,of course I've read about you in the magazines and newspapers but I thought all of that was a bunch of crap. I mean really, you all have been through a lot. The authors of those articles had no right to poke fun at you, because if they realized it or not, you guys were the ones who saved everyone for the past 5 years from Voldemort returning....ooops sorry! I forgot about how European wizards hate when his real name is said."
Hermione seemed to soften up a bit after this comment. "Don't worry, it's ok. We're all trying to get over that."
"What classes are you taking?" Ron asked.
"Well, the subjects are a little differant here than they were at Tavington, my old school. Like we have Potions, Transfiguration, Herboblogy, and all those, but we don't have Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures,and Astronomy, since it's kind of hard to see the stars in New York. So I've taken up Care of Magical Creatures, along with Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Astronomy, Arithmacy and Defense Against the Dark Arts, I mean that one is probably the most important class to take right now, given the circumstances and all."
"That's cool, you're in all of my classes." Hermione said happily, all of her negativity completely gone.
"Yeah and in all of mine and Ron's, except Divination...have you ever taken that class?" Harry found himself saying. He immediately wished he had taken that back, there had to be something Allie would like to talk about that would seem cooler and more interesting than subjects and classes.
"Acctually I have...and I quit the same week I started. How can you stand it? It bothered me so much, because my teacher would predict something, and then if it was something bad, I would get all stressed out about it and then it would never happen, which was good, but I wasted all those nerves on nothing. And if it was something good, I would get wound up in it and be happy and then I'd find out that the prediction never came true, so I would be upset."
"Oh my gosh, I quit it too! But mostly because our Professor is a complete fraud." Hermione gushed.
Ron gave Harry a look and said in an undertone, "I thought Hemione was against her..." Harry smiled, and nodded.
"What were you saying, Ron?" Hermione glared at him, telling him that she heard his comment.
"I was just saying that I agree with you, Hermione, but Divination is the easiest subject to pass-you tell her a bunch of nonsense and she says its exactly what she predicted." Ron answered.
"You know, she's not always wrong, though." Harry couldn't help but say. Again he regretted it. He couldn't possibly tell Ron, Hermione, and someone he just met that she predicted that he would have to kill Voldemort or the other way around for one of them to survive.
"Come off it Harry, all she ever does is say is that you will die soon. And if I'm right, you're still alive." Hermione retorted.
Allie laughed, "Oh my God, does she really? Sounds like a fraud to me!"
"What's so funny?" Ginny Weasley joined them. Noticing Allie she immideately introduced herself, "Hi,I'm Ginny, Ron's sister, you must be Allison."
Serena smiled that perfect smile of hers and said, "I prefer Allie, but yep that's me, nice to meet you, Ginny. Harry, Hermione and Ron were just telling me about your Divination Professor."
"Oh yeah, her. Can't stand her, I took up Arithmacy like Hermione after Ron told me about her."
"Doesn't have a good reputation, I guess."
"Nope. I'm guessing that you are in their year, right?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, what year are you in?"
"One year younger than you four."
"Oh....but you're in the same house...?" Allie asked hopefully.
"Oh yeah! I got stuck in the same house as everyone else in the family!" Ginny laughed."So have you all warned her about Snape and Malfoy?" she asked the rest.
"I was just about to." Harry lied. He had no intention of that, for now he was mesmerised by Allie's sparkly smile.
"Warned me? Professor Snape was really nice, I met him when I was being Sorted." Allie said incredulously. "He was impressed with my Potions scores but still....he was nice, what's wrong with him?"
Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry were all staring at her in disbeleif. Finally Ron chose to tell her.
"What's wrong with him?! He hates Gryffindors. He's always keen on finding a way to get anyone in trouble, and he lets grudges stand in the way of giving out grades. He hates Hermione just because she's always getting good graes, she hates Harry because he and Harry's dad were enemies, and he hates me and Ginny because we're friends with Harry." he ranted.
"I find that hard to beleive, but I'll take your word for it. And who's Malfoy? That's a weird name, I've got to say." Allie said, smiling as she said Draco's sur name.
"He's-" Harry was just about to get all his angry feelings about Draco out when Mrs. Weasley came to get them.
"All right, you lot, we've all got to get to Diagon Alley sometime, hopefully sometime today, but everyone seems so happy getting to know eachother I'd hate to spoil it. " she said to them. "But things have to get done sometime, of course, so we'll be leaving now." she turned to Allie. "Have you ever traveled by Floo Powder before, dear?"
"No,...is it hard?" Allie said nervously yet politely.
"No! Not at all! I'll just have you travel with someone to avoid getting you lost..." Allie looked horrified at this. "Harry, how about you? Could you go at the same time as Allison?"
"Sure." Harry tried to seem nonchalant, but he was really thrilled with his luck.
Everyone started following Mrs. Weasley, but Allie waited for Harry. "What's Floo Powder?" she asked curiously.
Harry grinned as he remembered the first time he traveled by Floo Powder. "You have to see it to understand. Don't worry, it's nothing complicated." he reassured her.
So one by one everyone took a handful of the powder and dissapeared in the fireplace.
"Ready?" Harry asked Allie, holding her hand.
"Yeah...bring it on!" she smiled her sunny smile again.
With that they both disappeared too.
"Here we are!" my mother said in a sing song voice as we arrived in front of a modern day mansion. She turned her bright hazel eyes to me, "Well? What do you think, Allison? Isn't it wonderful?" she gushed, looking around at the shrubbery.
I really didn't want to spoil her moment, so I looked at my father instead. I knew he didn't want to move from New York, just like I didn't, so I hoped he would say what I wanted to scream at my mom. To my disappointment, he looked just as happy as Mom was. I wanted to yell at them and tell both of them that I would do anything to go back to NYC, to go back to my school, to go back to my friends,....to go back to Trent....
NO. You can't think about him. It'll just make you more homesick, you know it. I told myself that same thought over and over again, from the moment I got on the plane to come here. I felt guilty, like I abandoned him. And abaondon him you did... an evil voice said from somewhere deep in the back of my head.
But he wouldn't understand....I don't even understand, so how could he? I tried to justify my actions of not telling Trent where I was going or for how long I would be gone for. I simply told him that my parents wanted to travel Europe for a while and that I had to go along with them. Which was true in some sense. I was going to Europe...but not for traveling. This "trip" had a bigger meaning. And Trent would never understand that.
I still felt guilty, but somewhat releived that I had convinced myself that what I had done wasn't all bad. I turned my attention back to my parents. They were lifting things in the air and instructing them where to fly to in the house with their wands. Too bad I couldn't join in. I would have been able to at home, but the British had different rules for their underage witches and wizards, so I wasn't allowed. Instead, I had to manually pick up some of my stuff and carry it to my room.
It was easy to tell which was my room. My parents already made glittery lines of powdery dust-like stuff that led to different rooms. A different color for every room. Furniture marked with the same color wizzed into its matching room, landing perfectly unharmed. I immidiately followed the silvery blue line since it was the only one of my favorite colors out of all the other glittery lines. The others were all hot pink and bright oranges, you know, the really bright colors that sometimes came off as tacky. "My color" stood out from all of that.
Ducking a cream colored leather couch and matching futon, I walked up the staricase. As much as I wanted to hate this house (since it wasn't the 16 room urban penthouse I grew up in), I had to admit to myself, it had style. From the outside it reminded me of a postcard. From the inside, it reminded me of those perfect houses you see in movies.
I reached the second story of the 3 story mansion and followed my line to the last door at end of the sunlit hallway. The room I walked into was more than perfect. It had huge walk in closets, its own gigantic bathroom, and (best of all) a balcony! I always wanted a room with a balcony, but New York balconies were nothing compared to this one. I stepped out into the golden sunlight, to overlook my view. It was spectacular. For as far as I could see, all I saw were rolling green hills, trees, and even a sparkling creek behind one of the tall oak trees. With a view like this, I could learn to like this place, after all.
I was disrupted by a loud BANG. It turned out to be my bed. It just flew in and started assembling itself in from of me. I turned back to the balcony. After a few more minutes, I was disrupted again.
"Beautiful, isn't it, honey?" I heard my mother say from behind me.
"Yes, it is."
"Good. I knew you'd like it." she sat on the bed. "Look Allie, I know you didn't want to move. None of us did. But we had to, you know it. We're needed here on the Order and we have new jobs at the Ministry. You, have a bigger jo-..." she cought herself in midsentance.
"What were you saying, Mom?" I inquired. Was she trying to keep something from me?
"I was just saying..." she said slowly, looking for the right words. Oh yes, she was definately keeping something from me. Right now, I didn't feel like interrogating her, so I made a mental note to do that later. "I was just saying that I can understand how hard it is for you to move. It's hard on me and your father, so I imagine it's twice as difficult for you." she paused, apprently waiting for me to say something. I didn't, and she moved on. "Honey, I'm sure you'll make new friends here. And the school is just like Tavington...except it's sort of like a boarding school."
Again, I think she expected me to protest or something, but I didn't. There was no point in it. Britain only had one wizarding school, and I knew there was no way that my parents would send me back to Tavington in New York, so why bother agruing? I just looked at her and said, "Yeah. It can't be that bad, I guess..." and turned back to the green hills.
I heard my mother sigh. "Allie..."
"What?" I said harsher than I meant to. I looked back at my mom. "Sorry Mom, I didn't mean to. I'm just kind of ....upset about things."
"I'm sorry, honey. It's because of all this you have to leave your friends and boyfriend behind..." she looked like she suddenly realized something. "You didn't tell Trent about this whole thing, I hope?"
"No, I just said that we're gonna travel Europe for a while."
"Oh...alright. I was just worried since he's....you know..."
"A Muggle. I know, Mom. Beleive me, I didn't tell him anything."
"Good....I'll leave you to your unpacking, then..." she turned to go. "Oh and Allie?"
"Uh huh?" I was starting to make my bed. Unfortunately, it didn't do anything except assemble itself.
"Tomorrow, we're going to meet with the headmaster of Hogwarts."
"Is that the name of the boarding school?"
"Yes."
"God, what and ugly name. Hope it's better than it sounds."
My mother smiled, "I know. So do I."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I woke up at 6, the next morning. Cursing the time change, I took a shower and began to carefully choose my outfit. As a Manhattan socialite, from the time I was 5, certain rules were drummed into my head. One of them being, always look your best. And if it's an important meeting of some sort, that goes double. So from 6 to 7, I tried on various outfits.
Dispite the sunny weather the day before, today it was raining cats and dogs. I hoped it wouldn't keep up, rain did hell to my hair. Rain or no rain, this was a "meeting" so by my family's rules, I had to wear a skirt. I decided on a tan suede one and paired it with a white, button down 3/4 sleaved shirt, and matching suede knee high boots. As I was pulling my long, straight, dark brown hair into a pony tail, I heard my mom yell for me to come down and eat.
While I was chewnig my Pop-tarts, my parents decided to share another little peice of information with me.
"After the meeting with the Headmaster, we're going to take you to meet the rest of the members of the Order." my father informed me. Good. Maybe there would be people my own age...?
"And then, we're all going to go shopping at Diagon Alley, together." my mother added. YES! I really liked this.
"That's the best thing I've heard you say in the past 48 hours, Mom." I told her, smiling.
"Good... You finally sound like yourself again. Glad to know my daughter has returned form her 2 day depression!" my father got up," So, I guess we should go. We have to be there at...what is it again, Lucy?"
"8:45" my mother replied, holding her mug out to the coffee pot which began filling it up.
"Right, 8:45. And it's already 8:10."
So with that, I left my new "home" to meet a bunch of people, who I had a feeling would have a big impact on my life.
Chapter 2
Harry sat in the corner of the dark kitchen in #12 Grimmuald Place. He rembered how happy he had been, three years ago, when he found out that somewhere out there, there was someone who was as good as kin to him. The whole house reminded him of Sirius, and it also reminded him that, once agin, he was a true orphan. Watching the Weasleys together wasn't helping either. They were all such a close family, and as close as Harry was to them, he couldn't help but feel out of place sometimes....like he didn't belong there.
The whole summer he was haunted by images and memories of Sirius. How he, Ron, and Hermione brought him food in Hogsmeade a few years ago. How they all talked to his head in the fire. How they saved him from being killed their third year......
We can't save him now.... Harry thought sadly. He felt his eyes tear up again, as they always did whenever he thought of Sirius. But he had to be strong. Thats's one thing I've learned from the Dursleys, at least. he smiled slightly at the irony, since the Dursleys never gave a damn about his emotions, or how he handled them, as long as he didn't get them involved. Blinking a few more times, he made the tears go away.
The past month at thier house was better than his past summers, he had to admit. The Dursleys left him alone more and didn't mind if he sent messages out every day, or stay out in the streets later than Dudley. In fact, they seemed scared of him. More than usual anyway. Perhaps the thought of Voldemort, triggored some unhappy memories in Aunt Petunia's mind because she was more kind (however strange that was of her) to Harry. Both Uncle Vernon and her didn't even protest when the usual owl from the Weasleys arrived telling Harry that they would pick him up by floo powder again. In fact, it almost seemed as though the nicer they thought they would be to Harry, the least likely it was for them to get involved in his life outside of their home.
"You know, Harry," Harry looked up at the source of the voice. He had been too into his reveries about Sirius, to notice that Hermione had come inside the room. She sat timidly beside him, "Don't get mad or anything, but....it's better to let it all out than to hold all of your sadness in all the time."
Harry sighed, "I guess you're right...but I still feel aweful. If only I had listened to you and to Snape and to everyone else, he'd be here now...this is all my fault." he buried his head in his hands, trying to hide the tears that were now freely running down his face.
Hermione leaned over and hugged him. When Harry looked up from his palms, he saw that she was crying too. "Harry....there are millions of 'if onlys' we could sit here and discuss, but that won't help us, will it now?" she said quietly. Then in an even more muted and saddened tone she said, "As much as all of us don't want to let go...we have to. We all just have to move on." she wiped a tear away and then smiled slightly, "At least now you know that somewhere you have your personal gaurdian angel."
Harry smiled sadly. "Yeah....and it'll always be in the form of a big black dog..."
The two friends looked at eachother and with unmentioned empathy, hugged again.
"Harry? Hermione?" Ron had walked in the room, obviously looking for them. "Hey, I hope I'm not inturupting anything..." He broke of at the sight of his friends' faces. "Harry....I'm so sorry, mate..." he walked over and joined the hug, everyone in the house knew about Harry's tense emotions and offered hugs,words of kindness, and other warm, friendly gestures at him whenever possible.
"What did you want, Ron?" Harry finally asked, more happily than he normally would.
"Mum said that we have to get ready for some guests. I dunno who it is, but she was being all secrety about it." Ron answered in an equally bright way, sensing his friend's sudden exuberance. "Hope it's not Snape..."
Harry hoped so too but for other reasons. Ever since he found his way into Snape's Pensive thoughts, he found it hard to look his Potions master in the eye. He could only imagine what kind of hell his 6th year would bring. While most Gryffindors abandoned Potions, he had to take it for the whole duration of his Hogwarts years if he ever wanted to be an Auror. The only comfort in the whole situation was the thought of Ron taking the class along with him. But knowing Snape, he would do anything to make both Ron and Harry's "learning experiance" as terrible as possible.
"Ron, you know it won't be Snape. Your mum would never even makes us sit in the same room as him. I think she knows our feelings tawrd eachother are not at all friendly." Hermione said in her, I-am-totally-and completely-sure-that-I-am-right-so-don't-argue-with-me voice. Ron did nothing except cast her a look of annoyance because he was corrected.
"Yeah, I agree with Hermione. We've never seen Snape except for glimpses once in a while." Harry said.
As they bounded up the stairs to go meet the guests, the twins Apparated in front of them.
"Hello, young ones!" Fred greeted them.
"What are you doing here?! I thought you were supposed to be 'hard at work' in your joke shop." Ron answered, unfazed by his brothers sudden appearance.
"Just thought we ought to be here to show the new Hogwarts student around to the best shop in Diagon Alley." George replied nonchalantly. "He-"
"Or more hopefully she-" Fred cut in, grinning.
"Will be in your year, you know." George finished.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchnged a look. A new student. Hogwarts never recieved new students.
"No, we didn't know! How come no one ever tells us stuff?" Ron cried out after the small shock the trio recieved.
"Because, everyone loves us more!" the twins said in unison, before Disapperating.
"I hate when they do that! They always know stuff before me! And this is important too!" Ron said in an upset tone.
There was a small pause after Ron's last comment, as the group soaked in the information.
"All I want to know is why..." Hermione thought out loud, breaking the silence.
"What?" Harry and Ron were used to being puzzled by Hermione's way of thinking.
"Nevermind....I could be wrong."
"Wrong at wha-" Ron never finished his sentance because just then, the doorbell rang and Mrs. Black began screaming her usual "FILTH, SCUM, HALF-BREEDS, MUDBLOODS! BEGONE FROM THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS! YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!"
"HARRY! RON! HERMIONE! Could you three please come here?!" Mrs. Weasly somehow made herself heard over all the noise.
"Come on, that must be them." Harry started walking up the stairs again.
"Yeah, I want to know ask her why Fred and George knew before we did anyway."
"Ron!" Hermione said in an annoyed voice.
"WHAT? It's not right! This concerns us more than them! We should heve been the first to know."
"Yes, but I don't see why you are making such a big deal out of this."
"Hmm...let's see, MAYBE BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING EXCEPT THEIR JOKE SHOP UNTIL NOW AND THEY GOT TO KNOW BEFORE WE DID!"
"Do you realize that you just reiterated what you said 10 seconds ago?"
"SO? Your point is?"
"My point is that it doesn't matter who knew first! It just matters that you behave yourself in front of the guests, instead of going on and on about who knew first!"
"Who are you, my mother?"
And on and on it went, accompanied by: "HOW DARE YOU ALL BEFOUL THE HOUSE OF BLACK?! YOU DIRTY,FILTHY THINGS!" until they reached the top of the stairs.
As soon as they were in the main hallway, Mrs. Weasley ushered them into the dingy living room. "What took you all so long? I must have called for you 25 minutes ago!" she scolded under her breath.
Since the room was a bit on the smaller side and there were about 10 people in it, it took a while for them to notice exactly who the 'guests' were. When Harry finally could get a clear view of the guests he was shocked to see Professor McGonagall standing next to the prettiest girl he'd ever seen and two people who appeared to be her parents.
Ron nudged Harry in the ribs,"Do you reckon veelas can be brunettes?"
Harry smiled, "I don't see you jumping out the window,so I guess that would be a no."
"Acctually, I was thinking more along the lines of wacking myself in the head with a candlebra."
"Would you two behave like adults? She's not the first pretty girl you've ever seen." Hermione hissed under her breath.
The girl was now looking around the room and meeting everyone with her parents. With every person they met they were getting closer and closer to Harry and his friends. Harry felt his palms get sweaty and his face was getting hot. He looked at Ron, his cheeks were getting pinker and pinker by the second. Only Hermione seemed totally unfazed by the whole thing.
"Ah, Hermione, I see you are letting the jealousy monster come after you....and technically we aren't adults yet."
"No, I'm not Ron. And besides, even if she is pretty, it doesn't mean that she's intelligent."
"Intelligence isn't everything to guys, you know." Ron relpied not taking his eyes off the girl.
To this, Hermione only sniffed grudgingly.
In a few minutes the girl and her parents came around to them, accompanied by Professor McGonagall. "These are the students I told you would be helping Allison around at school." she began introducing them,"This is Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter." Harry wasn't surprised when at the mention of his name, Allison's parents' eyes widened slightly. Unlike the usual 'Good Lord, wow, you're some child, young Harry.' he was used to recieving, her parents only held out their hands and introduced themselves to all three of them, instead of singling out Harry in some way.
"Nice to meet all of you, I'm Claire Arden and this is my husband, Charles. And this is my daughter Allison." Mrs.Claire Arden said gesturing to each member of her family as she introduced them. Mr. Arden gave them a smile and shook each of their hands. Allison gave a bright smile and did the same as her father.
Professor McGonagall then continued the introduction. "Mr. and Mrs. Arden are here to work for the Order. They have also recently been appointed American Wizarding Ambassadors. Since they moved from New York City to London, you understand that it would be impossible for Allison to go to her school this fall, so she will be attending Hogwarts. She has been Sorted into Gryffindor so I'll leave it to you three to get her accustomed to our school, alright?"
They all nodded.
"Alright then, we still have to meet a few more people so we have to hurry if we ever want to get to Diagon Alley before sunset.... But perhaps, you would like to get better aquainted with your new class mates, Miss Arden?" Professor McGonagall turned to Allison.
"Of course." Allison replied.
"Alright, honey, we'll leave you four to yourselves then." Mrs. Arden said before she and her husband went off to meet another group of people.
Allison watched her mother and father walk away and then turned back to Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Hi, guess you know who I am now, ecxept, please call me Allie, I hate using my full name. I've heard a lot about you three."
"Really from who?" Hermione said a bit harshly.
Allie seemed ok with her attitude," Well,of course I've read about you in the magazines and newspapers but I thought all of that was a bunch of crap. I mean really, you all have been through a lot. The authors of those articles had no right to poke fun at you, because if they realized it or not, you guys were the ones who saved everyone for the past 5 years from Voldemort returning....ooops sorry! I forgot about how European wizards hate when his real name is said."
Hermione seemed to soften up a bit after this comment. "Don't worry, it's ok. We're all trying to get over that."
"What classes are you taking?" Ron asked.
"Well, the subjects are a little differant here than they were at Tavington, my old school. Like we have Potions, Transfiguration, Herboblogy, and all those, but we don't have Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures,and Astronomy, since it's kind of hard to see the stars in New York. So I've taken up Care of Magical Creatures, along with Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Astronomy, Arithmacy and Defense Against the Dark Arts, I mean that one is probably the most important class to take right now, given the circumstances and all."
"That's cool, you're in all of my classes." Hermione said happily, all of her negativity completely gone.
"Yeah and in all of mine and Ron's, except Divination...have you ever taken that class?" Harry found himself saying. He immediately wished he had taken that back, there had to be something Allie would like to talk about that would seem cooler and more interesting than subjects and classes.
"Acctually I have...and I quit the same week I started. How can you stand it? It bothered me so much, because my teacher would predict something, and then if it was something bad, I would get all stressed out about it and then it would never happen, which was good, but I wasted all those nerves on nothing. And if it was something good, I would get wound up in it and be happy and then I'd find out that the prediction never came true, so I would be upset."
"Oh my gosh, I quit it too! But mostly because our Professor is a complete fraud." Hermione gushed.
Ron gave Harry a look and said in an undertone, "I thought Hemione was against her..." Harry smiled, and nodded.
"What were you saying, Ron?" Hermione glared at him, telling him that she heard his comment.
"I was just saying that I agree with you, Hermione, but Divination is the easiest subject to pass-you tell her a bunch of nonsense and she says its exactly what she predicted." Ron answered.
"You know, she's not always wrong, though." Harry couldn't help but say. Again he regretted it. He couldn't possibly tell Ron, Hermione, and someone he just met that she predicted that he would have to kill Voldemort or the other way around for one of them to survive.
"Come off it Harry, all she ever does is say is that you will die soon. And if I'm right, you're still alive." Hermione retorted.
Allie laughed, "Oh my God, does she really? Sounds like a fraud to me!"
"What's so funny?" Ginny Weasley joined them. Noticing Allie she immideately introduced herself, "Hi,I'm Ginny, Ron's sister, you must be Allison."
Serena smiled that perfect smile of hers and said, "I prefer Allie, but yep that's me, nice to meet you, Ginny. Harry, Hermione and Ron were just telling me about your Divination Professor."
"Oh yeah, her. Can't stand her, I took up Arithmacy like Hermione after Ron told me about her."
"Doesn't have a good reputation, I guess."
"Nope. I'm guessing that you are in their year, right?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, what year are you in?"
"One year younger than you four."
"Oh....but you're in the same house...?" Allie asked hopefully.
"Oh yeah! I got stuck in the same house as everyone else in the family!" Ginny laughed."So have you all warned her about Snape and Malfoy?" she asked the rest.
"I was just about to." Harry lied. He had no intention of that, for now he was mesmerised by Allie's sparkly smile.
"Warned me? Professor Snape was really nice, I met him when I was being Sorted." Allie said incredulously. "He was impressed with my Potions scores but still....he was nice, what's wrong with him?"
Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry were all staring at her in disbeleif. Finally Ron chose to tell her.
"What's wrong with him?! He hates Gryffindors. He's always keen on finding a way to get anyone in trouble, and he lets grudges stand in the way of giving out grades. He hates Hermione just because she's always getting good graes, she hates Harry because he and Harry's dad were enemies, and he hates me and Ginny because we're friends with Harry." he ranted.
"I find that hard to beleive, but I'll take your word for it. And who's Malfoy? That's a weird name, I've got to say." Allie said, smiling as she said Draco's sur name.
"He's-" Harry was just about to get all his angry feelings about Draco out when Mrs. Weasley came to get them.
"All right, you lot, we've all got to get to Diagon Alley sometime, hopefully sometime today, but everyone seems so happy getting to know eachother I'd hate to spoil it. " she said to them. "But things have to get done sometime, of course, so we'll be leaving now." she turned to Allie. "Have you ever traveled by Floo Powder before, dear?"
"No,...is it hard?" Allie said nervously yet politely.
"No! Not at all! I'll just have you travel with someone to avoid getting you lost..." Allie looked horrified at this. "Harry, how about you? Could you go at the same time as Allison?"
"Sure." Harry tried to seem nonchalant, but he was really thrilled with his luck.
Everyone started following Mrs. Weasley, but Allie waited for Harry. "What's Floo Powder?" she asked curiously.
Harry grinned as he remembered the first time he traveled by Floo Powder. "You have to see it to understand. Don't worry, it's nothing complicated." he reassured her.
So one by one everyone took a handful of the powder and dissapeared in the fireplace.
"Ready?" Harry asked Allie, holding her hand.
"Yeah...bring it on!" she smiled her sunny smile again.
With that they both disappeared too.