****A/N: I'd really appreciate if more people reviewed, that way I can find out what's good/bad (in your opinion) about the fic....or I can be pessimistic and say that no one reads my fic....:-( ::cries::
To everyone who did review, **MUAH** u deserve a kiss! lol
I changed the rating so more people would be able to view my fic (used to be R now its PG13). Don't freak out, I'm not gonna go all creepy and explict on ya, so I think the new rating suits the fic better. (the only ::bad:: stuff is the language, but hey, we've all used that kind of language at least once in our lifetime!)......i think that's it. k, here's chapter 4!
Chapter 4
After Draco left, the conversation gradually drifted back to Quidditch and what everyone did that summer. They also thought that they should inform me some more about how horrible or 'wicked' the classes were (again). Everyone loved Care For Magical Creatures, and despised Potions. I still couldn't see why they all hated Snape. He was nice to me, despite what they said. Oh well, I guess I'd soon find out for myself. I've met way too many two faced people in New York to ignore their comments about him completely.
Speaking of New York.....I thought of Trent for maybe the first time since we got here. Wonder what he was doing right now....
"Allie?" someone said.
"Hmmm?" I looked to see who said my name. It was Hermione.
"We'll be at Hogwarts soon so do you want to go change into our robes now?"
"Um, sure....where are we going to change?"
"The loo, since there's more guys than girls in here." I was about to ask why the guys couldn't go change in the loo but Hermione must have read my thoughts. "Believe me, if we tried to even suggest that they leave, it'll take longer than if we go ourselves."
I smiled, guys are the same everywhere, lazy as hell. "Okay then." I gathered my stuff with Hermione and Ginny and followed them to the girls bathroom. It was surprising to see a full school bathroom with stalls and everything on a train. I pictured it to be a lot smaller. They must have done some kind of charm to make it all fit. The only problem was, there weren't enough stalls for the 15 or so girls that were waiting to change. We arrived a bit late and were the last three in line. Well, I was the last in line acctually. I hated being last at anything, restroom line or whatever.
What was really annoying though, was this group of girls a few people ahead of us, who kept on turning around and giggling when they looked at us. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Ignore them," she told me,"That one there-" she pointed at the ugliest girl in the group."Is Draco Malfoy's girlfriend."
"You got to be kidding me!" I was surprised, that Draco guy didn't have the best personality but he was pretty hot. This ugly girl just didn't fit in with all his handsome glory.
"Nope, thats her..." Ginny smiled at my reaction. "I know what you mean by that....every girl at our school thinks the same thing. He's hot and she's hedious, but beleive me, they compliment eachother with their *wonderful* personalities."
Soon, everyone in front of me had a stall, even Hermione and Ginny. At least people here were more polite, they seemed to understand that there were others waiting to change too. I know if this was NY, we'd have been in the bathroom for two hours. I told Hermione and Ginny not to wait for me, what would be the point in that? I am perfectly capable of walking a few yards to the compartment by myself.
I was the last one to get a stall and the last to get changed. By the time I was dressed, everyone had already left the bathroom. It was kinda creepy. Anxious to get back to the compartment, I checked my hair in one of the mirrors and opened the door to leave.
"OWW!"
Just my luck, open a door and whack someone in the face. I panicked and looked around to see who I hit. Some guy was holding his nose, his back to me, and mumbling some profanity. As sorry as I was, this was kinda funny.
"I'm so sorry! Are you oka-" I started apologizing, then the guy turned around and glared at me."Oh, it's you."
"Yeah, it's me." Draco said venomously, rubbing his nose.
"I was worried I hit someone worthwhile for a second. But since it's you, I can only say that I wish I had done more damage." I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm. I spun around, "Let go of me." I said forcefully, my anger rising. Between checking me out, pissing me off, and grabbing me for no reason, I was starting to see why no one liked him.
He ignored my command. "I see Pothead and Weasel have been putting ideas in your head about me."
"No, acctually truth isn't considered and 'idea' it's more of a fact." I smacked the hand that was binding me hard and he immediately let go. Not as strong as he looks....."And anyway," I continued "I would have figured what kind of person you are myself in no time."
Draco crossed his arms over his chest and cocked an eyebrow, "Oh really? What kind of person am I, then?" He shot me a malicious glare.
"Just by how you acted now and 20 minutes ago in our compartment, I can tell you are a selfish snob, who thinks of himself as all high and mighty. You think that you have power over anyone who is not pureblood, has less money than you, or has more potential in life than just winding up in Azkaban before they're 20." I answered simply, and started to walk away.
"What exactly are you trying to say with that last sentence there?" Draco inquired dangerously and began to walk closer to me.
Ok, I admit it. For about 5 seconds I was freaked. I mean, this guy is 6 feet tall, thats like 10 inches taller than me (I'm only 5'2)! And here he was ganging up on me like some creepy stalker. But then I realized, what could he do? I was the so called "new girl" at the school and he was in deep shit because of his dad. If he did anything out of line, (esspecially harrassing the only daughter of the American Ambassadors) he'd be expelled in faster than he could blame it on something else.
"What did I mean by that?" I repeated in an equally dangerous tone. "I think you know exactly what I meant by that."
He stood there, not saying anything, his cheeks flushing a bit. Deciding that I had done enough damage (for now) on his over blown ego, I started to leave for the third time, hoping he's leave me alone this time. But he didn't.
"You'll pay for that, you nasty little American bitch!" he said to my back.
I turned around and gave a him a smirk to rival his own. "I'd like to see you try. Although I wouldn't advise you to, because you see, unlike some people, my dad is still around. But before my parents get to you, I sure as hell will take care of you myself, because I , unlike you, can take care of matters without crying to my parents." And with that I left.
I hated acting like I just did to Draco because I normally wasn't like that. But he totally deserved it. Finnally someone had the guts to give him a taste of his own medicine.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Draco stood in the train corridor, watching the American girl walk back to her compartment. How dare she do that?! Draco just couldn't understand it. It seemed like every girl at Hogwarts loved him...well his looks anyway, his attitude was a different story. Once he thought about it, he was just as famous at Hogwarts as Harry-fucking-Potter. The only girls who seemed immune to his 'charms' were that Mudblood Granger and Weasley's little sister, but they weren't his type at all. Granger came off as a lesbian sometimes (to the Slytherins anyway) and that little Weasley....well, she's a Weasley, let's just leave it at that.
Draco walked back to his own compartment still fuming about what the American new girl said. How could she be such a bitch when she didn't know half of it? She didn't live his life. She hadn't gone through what he had gone through practically his whole life....and she probably never would, either. Lucky bitch, Draco thought storming into his compartment.
As soon as he entered, Pansy jumped onto him. "What's wrong, Draco? Was it that Pothead again?" she giggled stupidly at the nickname, automatically attaching herself to his arm.
"No, it was that new girl..." Draco said, prying his arm away from her leechlike grasp.
Pansy seemed to take no notice of this and continued babbling. "Yeah, I saw her in the bathroom....she's so tiny and omigod, don't you think that her hair needs to be cut? I mean, it's like halfway to her elbows! She looks like a total hippie." As if to punctuate her comment, she patted her own, short scraggily hair. All the other girls in the compartment nodded in agreement.
Draco ignored her airheaded comments most of the time. The only ones that were worth hearing were 'You're so hot!' or 'No one plays Quiddich like you do!', things of that nature. Honestly, he didn't even like her like the whole school seemed to think. They all thought that since he and Pansy came from the same kinds of families and were in the same house, that they were an item. The truth was, this all started the summer before 3rd year when Draco's parents invited the Parkinsons for a formal dinner. He would have done anything to get away from her, but under his parent's instructions he was to play the perfect little gentleman throughout the night. So Draco spent the night politely flirting with her, and in turn got 'flattering remarks' from Mrs. Parkinson about how "he was the spitting image of Lucius". It was never meant to go farther than that, but Pansy seemed to think that all that polite flirting meant that Draco fancied her and ever since found it her personal ambition to be Draco's own human-leech.
Draco frowned that the memory of that dinner. He didn't think of Mrs. Parkinson's comment as a compliment....and he sure as hell didn't think that her daughter was the love of his life.
"Draco?? Hello? Are you ok?" Blaise Zambini waved his hand in front of Draco's face.
"What?" Draco snapped.
"Nothing, you just kind of spaced out.....anyway, I bet you told that American off, didn't you? What did you say to her? She's probably off crying her head off to Pothead now."
Pansy's group of followers snickered idioticly.
Draco didn't want to admit the he was the one who got told off, not the American. "Oh that....yeah I just told her not to mess with me, you know, the usual stuff, and she just kind of got teary eyed and ran off crying." Couldn't be farther than the truth.....he thought to himself.
Blaise, and everyone else in the compartment guffawed, and then one of Pansy's followers spoke up. "Hey, does anyone know her name? Aren't her parents the Ambassadors for the United States over here?"
Pansy nodded, "I think so, I read it in the paper a few weeks ago....I know the last name is Arden and I think her name is Allison. Anyway, I don't like her already, did you see how her and Granger were sniggering at us in the bathroom? Ugh, tasteless manners!" she made an overexaggerated face of disgust.
She and Blaise were now in a deep conversation about how American wizards and witches were Mudblood lovers and were as good as Muggles themselves. Their cruel comments were inturrupted now and then with more stupidly-sounding giggles from Pansy's lot. Draco chose to divert himself from this converstaion by pretending to be asleep. The only problem now was, whenever he closed his eyes he saw Allison's pretty face furiously glaring at him. Wait.....did I just call her pretty? Draco thought, She's not that pretty, she's pretty bitchy....yeah that's what I meant....pretty bitchy... Soft rain began to patter and with the peaceful sound of it hitting the window, he dozed off.
No sooner had Draco fallen asleep than Pansy awoke him with piglike squeals about how the rain would ruin her hair, unless she could use his hooded cloak. Draco willingly handed over his cloak-anything to make her shut up!- and hurried out of the compartment.
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So, this was it. The famous Hogwarts. It was pretty grand,but nothing like Tavington's modern appliences and Muggle inventions. Everything here was as basic as it could get. It even looked like the only source of light were candles.....I began to wonder how I would survive for the next 9 1/2 months here, but then Hermione and Ginny pulled me away to meet some more people in Gryffindor. Everyone was really sweet and welcomed me politely. They all asked what the US was like and if it was true that the magical people had to use Muggle things and used practically no magic at all. I answered all their questions, while we all waited for a carridge on the platform.
As we entered Hogwarts, I was the one bombarding everyone with questions. The thing that really amazed me was the ceiling in the Great Hall. It was so cool to see droplets of water fall and just as you thought they were going to hit you, they vanished. Hermione was the one who explained everything and told me that if I read Hogwarts, A History, it would all make better sense. I made a mental note of doing just that after dinner.
Professor McGonagall sorted all the first years out and then Professor Dumbledore got up to make a speech. Uh-oh, I hoped he wouldn't call any attention to me. I didn't feel comfortable being stared at by 500 or something strangers.
"Ahem," all eyes were on him,"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts everyone. I must again inform you of the usuals, no one goes into the Forbidden Forest, no magic in the corridors, and please check Mr. Filch's list of things that potentially may cause danger to students- Dungbombs and the like." his crystal like eyes sparkeled in my direction. Dammit! He was definately going to mention me. "And lastly, I would like to welcome Miss Allison Arden to Hogwarts. I hope everyone welcomes our new student graciously and makes her experiance here as pleasent as possible." I felt myself blushing as someone began to clap and more and more people joined in. There was a faint 'boooo!' from the farthest table, which I took to be the Slytherin table, and saw Draco's girlfriend and her clique laughing. He seemed unfazed by all of this and was leaning into his chair with his eyes partially closed. My anger tward him somehow decreased a little, at least he wasn't booing me, like everyone else around him. But why should I care about him? He meant nothing to me,....right? Right, I thought to myself, I don't care about him, I care about Trent....
~*~***~*~
The next day I awoke early since the sun was shining right into my eyes. I looked over at the clock on the wall- 7:00.....too early.
"Oh good , you woke up. For a minute I thought I would have to wake you up myself..." Hermione mumbled as she pulled on her robes.
I smiled sleepily, "You might have had to if it was still raining...damn sun...." I began to put my own robes on and went to wash up in the bathroom. After 15 minutes, I gathered my stuff and headed down to breakfast with Hermione, Ron, and Harry.
The Great Hall was already bustling with semi-sleepy students yelling good mornings at one another. I was eager to go to my classes, and compare them to Tavington, I mean, not to sound snobby or anything, but from statistics, our school showed more progress on OWLs and NEWTs. Professor McGonagall was already passing out schedules and was making her way over to us.
"I hope the first day won't be as bad as last year!" Harry said to no one in particular.
"Well you know that we'll still have Care of Magical Creatures and Potions with the Slytherins so why bother getting your hopes up?" Hermione said simply, helping herself to some eggs.
"You've got a point...." Ron agreed. "Hello, Professor!" he said cheerfully a minute later, taking his schedule from McGonagall.
"Good morning Mr. Weasly..." she replied as she handed me and Hermione our schedules.
Ron scanned his paper and chuckled,"You're right Harry, it IS as bad as last year...double of everything! Divanation, then Herbology-that's not so bad..." he read on, "then Double Potions to close the day...yep, 2 out of 3 horrible classes..."
45 minutes later Hermione and I headed off to Arithmacy and Harry and Ron went to Divanation. The class was pretty much the same as Tavington and I made it through the first lesson with ease. Harry and Ron were not so lucky.
"How many times am I supposedly going to die, again?" Harry said sarcastically.
"I think today was the 500th time she told you that,Harry, if not more." Ron replied.
Herbology was alright too, the Hufflepuffs were some of the nicest people I had ever met, not the brightest, but nice none the less. I was dreading Potions for some reason the most. With all the talk of how horrible the Slytherins and Snape were, I was very jittery by the time we headed to the dungeons for the last lesson of the day.
We took the last four seats in the back row just as Snape came in. Looking around the room I saw Pansy and Draco in one of the front seats looking back at where we were and giggling. In my opinion, they seriously needed to get a life. However, as soon as Snape came up to the front of the class, they all shup up.
"Congradulations, so far most of you have turned out to be not as dumbwitted as I thought," (he said this staring straight at the Gryffindors) "However, in this class, you will find it more difficult to slip by with an 'acceptable'. To make sure that as many of you as possible can pass this year, we will be spending the first month reviewing everything we did last year. Since this is a review, I expect your potions to be better than they were last year. With that in mind-" he pointed to the chalkboard and the directions to making a Sleeping Draft appeared."You have your work, now get started."
I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Snape seemed alright...So with that the first day wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The real shock came at dinner, when some 7th years came by and told us that a Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers hasn't been found and Dumbledore has hired Lupin again. At the thought of this, Ron and Harry brightened and took off for the DADA classroom in hopes of seeing their old teacher and friend again.
So the month passed by rather quickly since we were all kneedeep in homework, and with most people being procratinators, barely anyone (except Hermione) got it done on the first day, so everyone gathered in the common room to help eachother out every night. It wasn't until October had rolled around that things started getting ugly.
On the first Monday of October, Snape dropped the big bomb. We were to have assigned Potions Partners for half the year and if we chose to could swich for the second half. Apperently he wanted to teach us to 'get along' ("Right, and he knows a lot on that subject." Ron muttered under his breath). I hated working with partners. I always was a control freak and I had to have everything done the right way. I hated having other people in my way, when I could get the job done so much faster than working with them.
Snape began pairing people up. I (and pretty much everyone else) noticed that there was an odd number of Slytherins and an odd number of Gryffindors....which meant that someone from both houses would be paired up. God help them. Pretty soon Hermione, Seamus, Draco and I were the only ones left.
Oh no.
NO WAY. *please don't let this happen!*
"And the next pair is Miss Granger and Mr. Finnigan...."
DAMN YOU!
"...and the last pair is Mr. Malfoy and Miss Arden, alright, that's it, your work is on the board, move next to your partner and get to work!" he barked at us.
I looked at Draco. Ugh, no way in hell would this work. Reluctantly I started moving my things over to his desk. Of all people.....it just HAD to be HIM. I ignored the jealous looks I was getting from the Slytherin girls, if I had the opportunity to switch with them I would in a heartbeat. But unfortunately, I couldn't so I was slowly, step by step walking up to what was sure to be 4 1/2 months of hell.
***A/N: yeah i know it wasn;t that long. sorry! this wasn't the most interesting chapter either, so stick around for more! and PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!! if you review I'll post the next chapter sooner! :-D
To everyone who did review, **MUAH** u deserve a kiss! lol
I changed the rating so more people would be able to view my fic (used to be R now its PG13). Don't freak out, I'm not gonna go all creepy and explict on ya, so I think the new rating suits the fic better. (the only ::bad:: stuff is the language, but hey, we've all used that kind of language at least once in our lifetime!)......i think that's it. k, here's chapter 4!
Chapter 4
After Draco left, the conversation gradually drifted back to Quidditch and what everyone did that summer. They also thought that they should inform me some more about how horrible or 'wicked' the classes were (again). Everyone loved Care For Magical Creatures, and despised Potions. I still couldn't see why they all hated Snape. He was nice to me, despite what they said. Oh well, I guess I'd soon find out for myself. I've met way too many two faced people in New York to ignore their comments about him completely.
Speaking of New York.....I thought of Trent for maybe the first time since we got here. Wonder what he was doing right now....
"Allie?" someone said.
"Hmmm?" I looked to see who said my name. It was Hermione.
"We'll be at Hogwarts soon so do you want to go change into our robes now?"
"Um, sure....where are we going to change?"
"The loo, since there's more guys than girls in here." I was about to ask why the guys couldn't go change in the loo but Hermione must have read my thoughts. "Believe me, if we tried to even suggest that they leave, it'll take longer than if we go ourselves."
I smiled, guys are the same everywhere, lazy as hell. "Okay then." I gathered my stuff with Hermione and Ginny and followed them to the girls bathroom. It was surprising to see a full school bathroom with stalls and everything on a train. I pictured it to be a lot smaller. They must have done some kind of charm to make it all fit. The only problem was, there weren't enough stalls for the 15 or so girls that were waiting to change. We arrived a bit late and were the last three in line. Well, I was the last in line acctually. I hated being last at anything, restroom line or whatever.
What was really annoying though, was this group of girls a few people ahead of us, who kept on turning around and giggling when they looked at us. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Ignore them," she told me,"That one there-" she pointed at the ugliest girl in the group."Is Draco Malfoy's girlfriend."
"You got to be kidding me!" I was surprised, that Draco guy didn't have the best personality but he was pretty hot. This ugly girl just didn't fit in with all his handsome glory.
"Nope, thats her..." Ginny smiled at my reaction. "I know what you mean by that....every girl at our school thinks the same thing. He's hot and she's hedious, but beleive me, they compliment eachother with their *wonderful* personalities."
Soon, everyone in front of me had a stall, even Hermione and Ginny. At least people here were more polite, they seemed to understand that there were others waiting to change too. I know if this was NY, we'd have been in the bathroom for two hours. I told Hermione and Ginny not to wait for me, what would be the point in that? I am perfectly capable of walking a few yards to the compartment by myself.
I was the last one to get a stall and the last to get changed. By the time I was dressed, everyone had already left the bathroom. It was kinda creepy. Anxious to get back to the compartment, I checked my hair in one of the mirrors and opened the door to leave.
"OWW!"
Just my luck, open a door and whack someone in the face. I panicked and looked around to see who I hit. Some guy was holding his nose, his back to me, and mumbling some profanity. As sorry as I was, this was kinda funny.
"I'm so sorry! Are you oka-" I started apologizing, then the guy turned around and glared at me."Oh, it's you."
"Yeah, it's me." Draco said venomously, rubbing his nose.
"I was worried I hit someone worthwhile for a second. But since it's you, I can only say that I wish I had done more damage." I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm. I spun around, "Let go of me." I said forcefully, my anger rising. Between checking me out, pissing me off, and grabbing me for no reason, I was starting to see why no one liked him.
He ignored my command. "I see Pothead and Weasel have been putting ideas in your head about me."
"No, acctually truth isn't considered and 'idea' it's more of a fact." I smacked the hand that was binding me hard and he immediately let go. Not as strong as he looks....."And anyway," I continued "I would have figured what kind of person you are myself in no time."
Draco crossed his arms over his chest and cocked an eyebrow, "Oh really? What kind of person am I, then?" He shot me a malicious glare.
"Just by how you acted now and 20 minutes ago in our compartment, I can tell you are a selfish snob, who thinks of himself as all high and mighty. You think that you have power over anyone who is not pureblood, has less money than you, or has more potential in life than just winding up in Azkaban before they're 20." I answered simply, and started to walk away.
"What exactly are you trying to say with that last sentence there?" Draco inquired dangerously and began to walk closer to me.
Ok, I admit it. For about 5 seconds I was freaked. I mean, this guy is 6 feet tall, thats like 10 inches taller than me (I'm only 5'2)! And here he was ganging up on me like some creepy stalker. But then I realized, what could he do? I was the so called "new girl" at the school and he was in deep shit because of his dad. If he did anything out of line, (esspecially harrassing the only daughter of the American Ambassadors) he'd be expelled in faster than he could blame it on something else.
"What did I mean by that?" I repeated in an equally dangerous tone. "I think you know exactly what I meant by that."
He stood there, not saying anything, his cheeks flushing a bit. Deciding that I had done enough damage (for now) on his over blown ego, I started to leave for the third time, hoping he's leave me alone this time. But he didn't.
"You'll pay for that, you nasty little American bitch!" he said to my back.
I turned around and gave a him a smirk to rival his own. "I'd like to see you try. Although I wouldn't advise you to, because you see, unlike some people, my dad is still around. But before my parents get to you, I sure as hell will take care of you myself, because I , unlike you, can take care of matters without crying to my parents." And with that I left.
I hated acting like I just did to Draco because I normally wasn't like that. But he totally deserved it. Finnally someone had the guts to give him a taste of his own medicine.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Draco stood in the train corridor, watching the American girl walk back to her compartment. How dare she do that?! Draco just couldn't understand it. It seemed like every girl at Hogwarts loved him...well his looks anyway, his attitude was a different story. Once he thought about it, he was just as famous at Hogwarts as Harry-fucking-Potter. The only girls who seemed immune to his 'charms' were that Mudblood Granger and Weasley's little sister, but they weren't his type at all. Granger came off as a lesbian sometimes (to the Slytherins anyway) and that little Weasley....well, she's a Weasley, let's just leave it at that.
Draco walked back to his own compartment still fuming about what the American new girl said. How could she be such a bitch when she didn't know half of it? She didn't live his life. She hadn't gone through what he had gone through practically his whole life....and she probably never would, either. Lucky bitch, Draco thought storming into his compartment.
As soon as he entered, Pansy jumped onto him. "What's wrong, Draco? Was it that Pothead again?" she giggled stupidly at the nickname, automatically attaching herself to his arm.
"No, it was that new girl..." Draco said, prying his arm away from her leechlike grasp.
Pansy seemed to take no notice of this and continued babbling. "Yeah, I saw her in the bathroom....she's so tiny and omigod, don't you think that her hair needs to be cut? I mean, it's like halfway to her elbows! She looks like a total hippie." As if to punctuate her comment, she patted her own, short scraggily hair. All the other girls in the compartment nodded in agreement.
Draco ignored her airheaded comments most of the time. The only ones that were worth hearing were 'You're so hot!' or 'No one plays Quiddich like you do!', things of that nature. Honestly, he didn't even like her like the whole school seemed to think. They all thought that since he and Pansy came from the same kinds of families and were in the same house, that they were an item. The truth was, this all started the summer before 3rd year when Draco's parents invited the Parkinsons for a formal dinner. He would have done anything to get away from her, but under his parent's instructions he was to play the perfect little gentleman throughout the night. So Draco spent the night politely flirting with her, and in turn got 'flattering remarks' from Mrs. Parkinson about how "he was the spitting image of Lucius". It was never meant to go farther than that, but Pansy seemed to think that all that polite flirting meant that Draco fancied her and ever since found it her personal ambition to be Draco's own human-leech.
Draco frowned that the memory of that dinner. He didn't think of Mrs. Parkinson's comment as a compliment....and he sure as hell didn't think that her daughter was the love of his life.
"Draco?? Hello? Are you ok?" Blaise Zambini waved his hand in front of Draco's face.
"What?" Draco snapped.
"Nothing, you just kind of spaced out.....anyway, I bet you told that American off, didn't you? What did you say to her? She's probably off crying her head off to Pothead now."
Pansy's group of followers snickered idioticly.
Draco didn't want to admit the he was the one who got told off, not the American. "Oh that....yeah I just told her not to mess with me, you know, the usual stuff, and she just kind of got teary eyed and ran off crying." Couldn't be farther than the truth.....he thought to himself.
Blaise, and everyone else in the compartment guffawed, and then one of Pansy's followers spoke up. "Hey, does anyone know her name? Aren't her parents the Ambassadors for the United States over here?"
Pansy nodded, "I think so, I read it in the paper a few weeks ago....I know the last name is Arden and I think her name is Allison. Anyway, I don't like her already, did you see how her and Granger were sniggering at us in the bathroom? Ugh, tasteless manners!" she made an overexaggerated face of disgust.
She and Blaise were now in a deep conversation about how American wizards and witches were Mudblood lovers and were as good as Muggles themselves. Their cruel comments were inturrupted now and then with more stupidly-sounding giggles from Pansy's lot. Draco chose to divert himself from this converstaion by pretending to be asleep. The only problem now was, whenever he closed his eyes he saw Allison's pretty face furiously glaring at him. Wait.....did I just call her pretty? Draco thought, She's not that pretty, she's pretty bitchy....yeah that's what I meant....pretty bitchy... Soft rain began to patter and with the peaceful sound of it hitting the window, he dozed off.
No sooner had Draco fallen asleep than Pansy awoke him with piglike squeals about how the rain would ruin her hair, unless she could use his hooded cloak. Draco willingly handed over his cloak-anything to make her shut up!- and hurried out of the compartment.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So, this was it. The famous Hogwarts. It was pretty grand,but nothing like Tavington's modern appliences and Muggle inventions. Everything here was as basic as it could get. It even looked like the only source of light were candles.....I began to wonder how I would survive for the next 9 1/2 months here, but then Hermione and Ginny pulled me away to meet some more people in Gryffindor. Everyone was really sweet and welcomed me politely. They all asked what the US was like and if it was true that the magical people had to use Muggle things and used practically no magic at all. I answered all their questions, while we all waited for a carridge on the platform.
As we entered Hogwarts, I was the one bombarding everyone with questions. The thing that really amazed me was the ceiling in the Great Hall. It was so cool to see droplets of water fall and just as you thought they were going to hit you, they vanished. Hermione was the one who explained everything and told me that if I read Hogwarts, A History, it would all make better sense. I made a mental note of doing just that after dinner.
Professor McGonagall sorted all the first years out and then Professor Dumbledore got up to make a speech. Uh-oh, I hoped he wouldn't call any attention to me. I didn't feel comfortable being stared at by 500 or something strangers.
"Ahem," all eyes were on him,"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts everyone. I must again inform you of the usuals, no one goes into the Forbidden Forest, no magic in the corridors, and please check Mr. Filch's list of things that potentially may cause danger to students- Dungbombs and the like." his crystal like eyes sparkeled in my direction. Dammit! He was definately going to mention me. "And lastly, I would like to welcome Miss Allison Arden to Hogwarts. I hope everyone welcomes our new student graciously and makes her experiance here as pleasent as possible." I felt myself blushing as someone began to clap and more and more people joined in. There was a faint 'boooo!' from the farthest table, which I took to be the Slytherin table, and saw Draco's girlfriend and her clique laughing. He seemed unfazed by all of this and was leaning into his chair with his eyes partially closed. My anger tward him somehow decreased a little, at least he wasn't booing me, like everyone else around him. But why should I care about him? He meant nothing to me,....right? Right, I thought to myself, I don't care about him, I care about Trent....
~*~***~*~
The next day I awoke early since the sun was shining right into my eyes. I looked over at the clock on the wall- 7:00.....too early.
"Oh good , you woke up. For a minute I thought I would have to wake you up myself..." Hermione mumbled as she pulled on her robes.
I smiled sleepily, "You might have had to if it was still raining...damn sun...." I began to put my own robes on and went to wash up in the bathroom. After 15 minutes, I gathered my stuff and headed down to breakfast with Hermione, Ron, and Harry.
The Great Hall was already bustling with semi-sleepy students yelling good mornings at one another. I was eager to go to my classes, and compare them to Tavington, I mean, not to sound snobby or anything, but from statistics, our school showed more progress on OWLs and NEWTs. Professor McGonagall was already passing out schedules and was making her way over to us.
"I hope the first day won't be as bad as last year!" Harry said to no one in particular.
"Well you know that we'll still have Care of Magical Creatures and Potions with the Slytherins so why bother getting your hopes up?" Hermione said simply, helping herself to some eggs.
"You've got a point...." Ron agreed. "Hello, Professor!" he said cheerfully a minute later, taking his schedule from McGonagall.
"Good morning Mr. Weasly..." she replied as she handed me and Hermione our schedules.
Ron scanned his paper and chuckled,"You're right Harry, it IS as bad as last year...double of everything! Divanation, then Herbology-that's not so bad..." he read on, "then Double Potions to close the day...yep, 2 out of 3 horrible classes..."
45 minutes later Hermione and I headed off to Arithmacy and Harry and Ron went to Divanation. The class was pretty much the same as Tavington and I made it through the first lesson with ease. Harry and Ron were not so lucky.
"How many times am I supposedly going to die, again?" Harry said sarcastically.
"I think today was the 500th time she told you that,Harry, if not more." Ron replied.
Herbology was alright too, the Hufflepuffs were some of the nicest people I had ever met, not the brightest, but nice none the less. I was dreading Potions for some reason the most. With all the talk of how horrible the Slytherins and Snape were, I was very jittery by the time we headed to the dungeons for the last lesson of the day.
We took the last four seats in the back row just as Snape came in. Looking around the room I saw Pansy and Draco in one of the front seats looking back at where we were and giggling. In my opinion, they seriously needed to get a life. However, as soon as Snape came up to the front of the class, they all shup up.
"Congradulations, so far most of you have turned out to be not as dumbwitted as I thought," (he said this staring straight at the Gryffindors) "However, in this class, you will find it more difficult to slip by with an 'acceptable'. To make sure that as many of you as possible can pass this year, we will be spending the first month reviewing everything we did last year. Since this is a review, I expect your potions to be better than they were last year. With that in mind-" he pointed to the chalkboard and the directions to making a Sleeping Draft appeared."You have your work, now get started."
I didn't see what all the fuss was about. Snape seemed alright...So with that the first day wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The real shock came at dinner, when some 7th years came by and told us that a Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers hasn't been found and Dumbledore has hired Lupin again. At the thought of this, Ron and Harry brightened and took off for the DADA classroom in hopes of seeing their old teacher and friend again.
So the month passed by rather quickly since we were all kneedeep in homework, and with most people being procratinators, barely anyone (except Hermione) got it done on the first day, so everyone gathered in the common room to help eachother out every night. It wasn't until October had rolled around that things started getting ugly.
On the first Monday of October, Snape dropped the big bomb. We were to have assigned Potions Partners for half the year and if we chose to could swich for the second half. Apperently he wanted to teach us to 'get along' ("Right, and he knows a lot on that subject." Ron muttered under his breath). I hated working with partners. I always was a control freak and I had to have everything done the right way. I hated having other people in my way, when I could get the job done so much faster than working with them.
Snape began pairing people up. I (and pretty much everyone else) noticed that there was an odd number of Slytherins and an odd number of Gryffindors....which meant that someone from both houses would be paired up. God help them. Pretty soon Hermione, Seamus, Draco and I were the only ones left.
Oh no.
NO WAY. *please don't let this happen!*
"And the next pair is Miss Granger and Mr. Finnigan...."
DAMN YOU!
"...and the last pair is Mr. Malfoy and Miss Arden, alright, that's it, your work is on the board, move next to your partner and get to work!" he barked at us.
I looked at Draco. Ugh, no way in hell would this work. Reluctantly I started moving my things over to his desk. Of all people.....it just HAD to be HIM. I ignored the jealous looks I was getting from the Slytherin girls, if I had the opportunity to switch with them I would in a heartbeat. But unfortunately, I couldn't so I was slowly, step by step walking up to what was sure to be 4 1/2 months of hell.
***A/N: yeah i know it wasn;t that long. sorry! this wasn't the most interesting chapter either, so stick around for more! and PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!! if you review I'll post the next chapter sooner! :-D