Chapter 6

 After the other students had finished their lessons, the bell rang for dinner and Harry, Ron, Hermione and Buffy went down to the Great Hall to have dinner, once again being greeted upon arrival by whispers and stares. The four sat down and waited for dinner. When the hall was filled, Professor Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands, capturing the attention of all the students.

"You have all probably been wondering about our new addition to Hogwarts," he said loudly, looking around the Hal. "I have heard many rumours about who she is and I would like to lay them to rest. Her name is Buffy Summers and she is an exchange student from a magical school in America. She is not a member of the Ministry or a spy for Voldemort. She is just an ordinary student." He sat down and the tables filled with food. Conversations filled the Hall with noise.
 "That should settle things then," Ron said, helping himself to mashed potatoes. "Now Dumbledore's said who you are, people are going to lose interest." Buffy grinned.
 "I hope so," she said. "I'm sick of people looking at me like I have three heads. Its kinda freaksome." They finished their dinner, and then left the Hall.
 "Want to go to the training room?" Harry said, looking at Buffy. She sighed.
 "No, better go to the Common Room," she replied reluctantly. "Got to face people sometime." They reached the common room and all climbed through the portrait hole. About twenty Gryffindors were in there. They looked up and smiled in greeting, then went back to their work.
 "Nifty," Buffy said happily. The four settled themselves on chairs and sofas in front of the fire.
 "Wanna play some exploding snap?" Ron asked eagerly. Buffy looked at him quizzically then nodded.

Much later, when they were getting ready for bed, Ron and Harry discussed Buffy.
 "She's nicer than I thought she'd be," Harry admitted. "Maybe it won't be too bad having someone watching over me."

 "Plus she's really pretty!" Ron laughed. Harry grinned.

The next morning, Buffy was able to sleep slightly later, then after getting dressed, she Ron, harry and Hermione went down to breakfast. Buffy munched on toast; while Hermione read the Daily Prophet and Harry read a short letter from Hagrid.
 "He's invited us for tea this evening," Harry said, looking up. "You too Buffy. What does that say?" He gestured to the Daily Prophet.

Oh nothing really," Hermione said, folding it up. "Finally acknowledging the return of Voldemort, frequently apologising to you and Dumbledore. But nothing about what the Ministry is doing, or what Voldemort is up to. I swear without the Order, there would be no hope."
 "That little idiot Fudge," Harry fumed. "If he could have just accepted what we had said, then maybe it would all be over by now." The bell rang for first lessons, and hastily they grabbed their bags. Harry's first lesson was Transfiguration, which Ron and Hermione were both doing. He hadn't given up on being an Auror, and consequently was taking NEWTs in Transfiguration, Potions much to his disgust, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Herbology.
They arrived at the Transfiguration a few seconds before Professor |McGonagall, and took seats near to the back of the classroom, where they decided it would be easiest for Buffy to pretend to be doing magic.
 "Today we are going to be performing invertebrate to vertebrate transformations," Professor McGonagall announced. "Each come up and takes one of these jars with a worm in, and attempt to transfigure it into a kitten. You have the whole lesson." Buffy, Ron, Hermione and Harry all approached the front of the room and took a jar.
"This is going to be really difficult," Ron said to Buffy "When you do invertebrate to vertebrate transfigurations, you have to form vertebrae and some times people don't do enough, so you get half a kitten or whatever."

"Got to be better than this worm though," Buffy said, examining it and wrinkling her nose. "Complete yuckfest." They took their worms back to their seats and tipped them onto the table. The three others began to attempt the transfiguration while Buffy just poked at the worm with her wand.
After ten minutes of this, Professor McGonagall approached her.
 "I know you haven't got any Transfiguration experience other than what Hermione may have shown you, so try and transfigure the worm into a toothpick," she said quietly. "It's still fairly difficult but not so much so as making it a vertebrate." Buffy nodded and Professor McGonagall swept away to another table. Buffy began to work hard at her Transfiguration and by the end of the lesson she had managed to achieve a toothpick. Likewise, Hermione had made a ginger kitten which she and Buffy played with. Harry and Ron had been slightly less successful: Ron had indeed made a kitten with not enough vertebrae so it couldn't use its back legs properly, and Harry had managed to form a kitten but it had no whiskers, tail or ears and so it looked very strange.
Professor McGonagall came around the class with a basket, collecting up what people had achieved.
She congratulated Hermione on a 'perfect Transfiguration!' then collected Harry and Ron's attempts.
 "Not bad either of you," she said fairly. "Try to concentrate on forming a kitten as well as vertebrae, harry. And Ron, work on the forming of vertebrae itself." Then she turned to Buffy.
 "Very impressive, Miss Summers," she said, with a rare smile. "Third or fourth year transfiguration at least."

They left the classroom and headed down to the dungeons, while Harry told Buffy about Snape and what a nightmare his lessons were. They entered the dungeon, where several Slytherins, including Draco Malfoy were already seated, awaiting Snape. As they entered, Malfoy scowled.
 "Why it's our new mudblood," he sneered at Buffy. "And an American too, even worse than Granger." Buffy stepped forward angry at hearing her new friends insulted, but Hermione grabbed her arm.

"Don't mess with me, little boy," Buffy said quietly. Malfoy laughed and turned away.
 "Wow when you said he was a jerk, you weren't kidding," Buffy said to Harry and Ron. "He'd better be careful. People like that really make me wish Slayer powers were for everyday use."

Harry opened his mouth to reply, but Professor Snape swept into the dungeon and began firing instructions at them for a sleeping potion they were to brew. Once again, Buffy felt like the odd one out, sitting with her cauldron and appropriate ingredients in front of her, as Harry, Ron and Hermione concentrated on their potion making, as it was a particularly difficult and precise one. Professor Snape beckoned Buffy over.
 "Miss Summers, you will be unable to do anything like this, I d not expect you to be even at first year level," Snape said vindictively. "Personally, I do not think it worth while sending you to lessons, you are a muggle girl and will not be able to do magic at the same level as any of my other students. But Professor Dumbledore insists, so I will remind you not to cause any disturbance in my lessons, to just sit quietly and do not make a nuisance of yourself."

Buffy was incensed at his patronising words, and stormed back to her seat. She looked up at the board which described the method and decided to try it. Carefully she measured out her ingredients and followed the method accurately. Ten minutes before the end of the lesson, Snape called for them to tidy away and so she and the other students did. Buffy was pleased; her potion was pale green, like Ron, Harry and Hermione's. She filled a flagon with it corked it and put it on Snapes desk. He tested the potions on a rat in a cage on his desk, feeding it the Potion, and waking it with another drop of his own potion. When he came to Buffy's he looked up at her with a sneer. He fed the rat a spoonful of it, and it dropped into a peaceful slumber. Buffy grinned and Snape slip curled in disgust.
 "Not bad," he muttered.

The four left the dungeon for lunch shortly after and Harry, Ron and Hermione all congratulated Buffy on her success.
 "My best friend Willow is really good at science so it's kind of down to her," Buffy said modestly. She looked away, her eyes welling up as she thought of Willow and Xander, and Giles, and Cordelia and Oz. And then her mom, and then Angel. All the people that she had left behind her. The others fell respectfully silent for her to compose herself.