Disclaimer-I OWN CHARACTERS!!! I don't own anyone you would know, but I DO own Ali, Kelsey, Amma and Sorenna and I'm very attached to them so don't steal them or you will die.
Ha!!!!!!! People reviewed meee!!!!!! I'm so happy!! Thankyou tons and tons and tons to
Mooncheese, who is not only my bestest friend but also my FIRST reviewer. And also thanx to
Elrin Eruwest (that IS right isn't it?) for being my first reviewer who ISN'T my best friend. I love cliffes, but only when I write them cos then I know what's gonna happen next! Mwahaha!.
Child-of-scorpio for being a great author and still reviewing my story even tho hers is way better.
DANZ!!! Your review was sooooo nice THANKYOUUU! I was so happy when I got it!
Chloe!!! You stupid person! You are supposed to READ my story! That was NOT a proper review. And you need to get a life. As in, one that doesn't revolve around Nathan. You obsessed person.
THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO NANCY, BECAUSE I STOLE HER MACHETE AS A THREAT! THE MACHETE BELONGS TO NANCY!!!!
And sorry it took me a while to write this, cos the teachers at my school have never heard of compassion, and decided to load ten tons of homework on our innocent selves.
By the way, the first bit of this chappie is WAAAY boring, but I kinda had to put it in as a filler thingy. So sorry if you get bored.
Anyhoo, second chappie!
Life, death and the Hogwarts ExpressDuring the next few days Aliothe found that time seemed to be doing the oddest things. It would sort of lurch. At some points she felt like it was going so fast all she would see was a blur of colour, whilst at others the time would drag, leaving her to much to her own thoughts for her own comfort. She hated mulling over what'd happened and it was worse when Susie was around.
While Ali had tried everything she could to keep busy, Susie seemed to do the opposite. She had not washed or changed, as far as Ali could tell, since the funeral several days before. She would sit around, her eyes, puffy and red, groaning slightly, drinking copious amounts of firewhisky and mulled mead and growing shabbier by the day. The loss of her husband seemed to have made her lose the will to live and she was relying solely on her foster daughter to look after her.
Ali wasn't sure how much more she could take. Jack had been the only person she had ever really got close to, the only one who had ever really known her, the only person she had known she could completely confide in. Sure, she had always had Susie as well, but she had never had quite the same connection with her mother as the one she had associated with her father. Not only this, but she seemed to be running the whole house at the moment. She hated the thought of asking Susie to help her, the woman was completely heartbroken. She had had to practically dress her for the funeral, and had tried to be strong all through her own pain, which set on her heart like some sort of huge weight. But she knew she wouldn't be able to hold the act for much longer.
Dumbledore arrived three days later.
Aliothe had never been so glad to see anyone in her life. There was something comforting about the tall, powerful wizard that gave her a huge sense of hope.
"Ahh, miss Lestrange," he smiled warmly at her. Dumbledore was the only one who called her by that name. "I was wondering if I could come in? I have some urgent business with your mother, and I must admit I was rather worried about you both."
Ali invited him in, puzzled. What urgent business could he have with Susie? Of course- Ali's eyes filled up- her father had been murdered, but Lord Voldemort had returned. Of course there would be deaths. She had expected him to have come to pay his respects or to give his condolences , but urgent business?
Intrigued, she followed him through to the living room where Susie lay, bottle of firewhisky still in hand. She jumped up when Dumbledore walked in.
"Ahh! Err... Dumbledore! I mean sir.. I mean....I didn't know you were coming... err....." she trailed off, blushing. Dumbledore smiled kindly.
'there is no need to call me'sir' Mrs Coombes. I did not expect you to be looking your best- you have just lost your husband- you cannot be expected to have recovered. Let me first offer my full condolences. I am terribly sorry for your loss."
Susie sniffed. 'Thank you sir.'
"Please don't thank me" Dumbledor smiled sadly. "Now I must tell you something. I hate to have to spring this on you at this horrific time, but I must. The death of your husband was- as I'm sure you already know- the work of Lord Voldemort." Susie shuddered slightly at the mention of his name. "and, though it pains me to tell you, his death may not have been just a one off killing."
Susies eyes widened in horror. "You mean he might have been targeted?!"
Dumbledore looked grave. "I am afraid that is a very real possibility. You.." he looked at Ali, whose blood felt cold as ice as the headmaster's words began to register. Her brain felt as if it was working exceptionally slowly, "are the child of Voldemort's most powerful and faithful supporters. It is very likely that he wants to use you. Possibly he wants to recruit you as a death eater, but he may have other uses for you. Our intelligence does not know anything else at the moment"
He paused, waiting for this revelation to sink in before he continued
"Therefore I think it is wise that you do not stay here. Mrs Coombes, I wish you to go into hiding. I know a safe place you can stay. Have you been made aware of an organisation known as 'The order of the phoenix?' I believe you were alerted to it's existence by myself earlier this year?" Susie nodded mutely. Dumbledore continued. "I think it would be wise if you would stay at the headquarters. It is one of the safest places I know. There is no pressure to join the order, though if you wish to you are quite welcome."
Susie nodded again. She seemed to have lost her voice. Ali however, had not failed to notice the fact that she had not been not been included in Dumbledores invitation. She opened her mouth to question it but he got in first.
"And Miss Lestrange. No doubt you are wondering why you were not included in this invitation?" Ali wondered, not for the first time, whether Dumbledore could read minds. "I think it advisable that you would enrol, rather late I must say, but no matter, at Hogwarts"
Aliothe was completely disorientated. She had never been to such a busy place! She had arrived early at Kings Cross, and the morning rush hour (or three) was hardly over. She had been almost knocked down at least three times by various groups of tourists and business men all seemingly in a huge rush to get to wherever they were going. Looking round, she vaguely attempted to spot someone who looked like they were about to get on an invisible platform and be whisked off to wizard school for a few months. She failed. Reading Dumbledores instructions again, she tried shoving her way towards platforms 9 and 10 and silently cursing her guard, a young witch with vivid pink hair who kept stumbling over peoples feet and getting left behind.Finally she reached the barrier between platform 9 and 10. The pink haired witch was already there, and looked exceptionally relieved to see Ali.
"Ahh! Thank MERLIN!" she exclaimed, "I thought I'd LOST you!! Dumbledore would've murdered me! Now, I'll just see you onto the platform and then I REALLY have to go, you'll be ok from there wont you?"
Ali nodded and leant on the wall, feeling herself fall through.
Suddenly she was there, on the platform, surrounded, for the first time in her life, by people just like her. She stood there for a while, letting it all soak in. To her left a wailing mother clung to her small first-year daughter, who looked very embarrassed and was gingerly patting her mother on the head, making vague promises to write.
On her other side, a group of fourth of fifth year girls were examining a group of photos which were apparently very entertaining judging by the fact they were all shrieking hysterically. A disembodied announcement floated through the air.
"The time is ten forty-one. Will all students please make there way into the carriages. The train will depart in approximately nine minutes."
A porter hastily took Ali's suitcase from her, leaving her free to get on the train. Just as she got near the door, a tall blonde boy shoved past her.
"Watch where you're going, bitch" he snapped at her. Ali was taken aback. Who the hell did he think he was?! She snapped back.
"Oh, I'm sorry" she began sarcastically. "But I thought it was rude to shove innocent bystanders out the way and then swear at them when they haven't done anything. Obviously I was wrong. So sorry." She glared at him. The boy looked scandalised.
"Are you taking the piss?" He snarled. Ali was glaring daggers at him. She wasn't used to people being so rude to her. And judging by the look on the boys face, he wasn't used to people standing up to him. Other students, alerted by the shouting, had stopped to watch. "You little bitch!" he took a step towards her, reaching inside his pocket. Ali was to quick for him.
"Petrificus Totallus!" She shouted. The boy froze. His arms and legs sprang together and he keeled over backwards. Ali smiled triumphantly as a couple of students cheered, and stepped onto the Hogwarts express.
She had thought she had got there early, but apparently not. All the compartments already seemed to be full of chattering friends, all sharing their summer holidays with close friends. Eventually she found an almost-empty one. There was just one girl in there. Ali recognised her as one of the girls who had been laughing at the photos.
"Erm, excuse me, d'you mind me sitting here? She asked nervously. The girl looked up from the magazine she was reading, looking slightly surprised and a little annoyed at the interruption.
"What? Oh, no, I mean, yeah, I suppose so." She didn't sound to enthusiastic Ali sat down. The girl was looking intently at her, frowning a little.
"Sorry, but do I know you? Only, I haven't really seen you around Hogwarts, and I know most people above forth year."
"Oh," Ali felt a little uncomfortable, hoping the fact she was new wasn't going to attract a lot of attention. She hated being in the limelight. "I'm new into sixth year. My parents decided not to send me to Hogwarts because, err, they thought it'd be, err, better for me to be home schooled and stuff." She lied.
The girl sneered slightly. Aliothe cursed her lying ability. Home schooling better than Hogwarts? Now the girl would probably think her parents were nutcases. Ali tried not to think about her parents. It was too painful. The girl seemed to have lost interest in the subject. They sat in silence for a few minutes, the train pulling away from the station and making it's way slowly through the north of London. Then the girl spoke again.
"What's your name anyway?" She asked in a bored way. She was still peering at Aliothe in that odd, distracted way. Ali was beginning to find it annoying.
"Aliothe Lest....-Coombes" she replied "Ali. and you are?"
"Antonia Readling. I'm in sixth year too. My friends have all gone off somewhere. Pansy has prefect duties. You will love Pansy, she such a darrling" she replied, as if it were some sort of honour to be introduced to her and her freinds. Ali noticed that she spoke a bit snottily, as if she was some sort of superior being. She was beginning to like her less and less. Footsteps were pounding up and down the corridor outside and the compartment door was flung open by a sixth-year girl who Ali thought looked uncannily like a giant pug.
Antonia squealed loudly, making Ali jump, and the two girls air-kissed in the most over the top fashion. She was completely ignored by them both as they began to gossip about some poor unsuspecting people.
"PANSY!! How was your summer? Did you enjoy Paris? I did practically nothing all holiday! It was sooo dull..... OhmigoshUgh! Did you hear about Granger?"
"Noo?! What happened? Fill me in girlfriend!"
"Ugh, the skanky bitch got all outstandings on her owls, right? And went round Weasel-faces to celebrate, and, like, stuff happened!"
"EWWWWWWW! That is sooo skanky! They are, like, the skankiest couple!"
"I know, innit?"
"And Weasleys sister is soo rude! I was like, getting on the train and she was all pushing me so I was all, move it! And she was , like, move yourself and then she shoved me and I thought she was gonna, like jinx me or something!!"
The other girl gasped in indignation at the apparent mistreatment of her 'girlfriend'.
"ahh, RUDE!"
Aliothe found herself warming to this 'Weasley Girl'. Pansy could do with a few jinxes. Ali was strongly doubting whether any of the 'hot gossip' had even the tiniest grain of truth in it. She was just dreaming about stomping out and going to find more enjoyable company when her thoughts were interrupted by yet more high-pitched squeals of what Ali guessed was delight, or though it sounded more like half a dozen piglets being strangled. She looked up to see the cause of the disturbance. Ali's heart dropped like a stone.
A tall, lanky blonde boy stood in the doorway, shielded by two other, rather less lanky boys who looked unquestionably like body-guards. It was the boy she had jinxed. He didn't seem to have noticed her, so she took the time to have a proper look at him. She supposed she would've called him good looking, had it not been for the greasy hair and self-satisfied smirk he wore on his face. And the fact that she had a pretty good idea of who he was. A Malfoy, she'd bet money on it. His father had been sent to Azkaban just a few short weeks ago. Photos of the family had been plastered on the front page of the Prophet for days. The boy still didn't seem to notice her, instead he headed straight for Pansy, who wound herself boa-constrictor like around him. The smirk widened.
"Alright Babes?" Ali wanted to puke. Babes? Jeez, what does she call him, honey bunny or something? Then he spotted Ali. And did a double take.
"You again?!" he spoke as though Ali were a particularly ugly insect. "Who the hell are you anyway?!"
"Aliothe Coombes." Ali did not meet his eye.
Suddenly a tiny glimmer of recognition flashed in his eyes. He knew she was lying. She could sense it in the way the corners of his mouth flicked maliciously, the way he held her gaze in what she could only describe as a silent threat. Ali stared stonily back at him, but his gaze made her feel uncomfortable. They seemed to be having a conversation through telepathy.
"Coombes eh? Funny that, you really remind me of someone else." His look says
"Why would that be. Family resemblance maybe?"
"You even THINK about telling people who I am...."
"Whats gonna stop me, Lestrange?. See I know. Lestrange Lestrange Lestrange! Jinxing me wasn't a very good idea, was it? Bet you're regretting it now, eh?" Ali broke eye contact.
She needed to escape. Fast.
Gabbling something about needing the toilet, she grabbed her bag and scooted out of the compartment, but not fast enough that she didn't catch what Malfoy said to her retreating back, his voice dripping with malice.
"It's been lovely to meet you Miss Les- I mean.....Coombes"
Ali wandered up the corridor, her heart pumping. Malfoy knew. Malfoy knew. Her mind was in turmoil. The hopeful side of her brain told her there was nothing to worry about. "So what if Malfoy knows? He didn't even know her! Why would he tell anyone? Its not like he has anything against me, is it? I only jinxed him! He knew it was in self defence. He wouldn't do that to someone he barely knows, would he?"
The pessimistic, and, Ali thought, probably the more realistic side of her argued back.
"He's a Malfoy, do you think he needs aproper reason? He'd do it out of spite, he wouldn't give a damn whether you wanted anyone to know or not. You don't exactly fit into his little gang, anyone can see that. You cursed him. He's gonna want to get revenge. And even if you were his best mate, if he's anything like his father he'd stab you in the back without even thinking twice about it."
Ali was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice the person coming the other way until she whacked straight into them. A yelp of pain followed and she looked around desperately to see who she had injured.
"Great Ali, you aren't even at Hogwarts yet and already you've met the only person who knows your secret and is likely to tell the school about it AND you've concussed one of your fellow students. WELL DONE."
Ali looked at the floor. A skinny girl with bright blonde messy hair was rubbing her head dazedly. Ali panicked.
"I am so so so SORRY!" she gasped, "It was an accident! Are you ok? I am really really sorry! I didn't mean to! Do you want me to help you up?" The apologies were pouring out of her mouth and she burst into tears. She did NOT want to make any more enemies. The blonde girl grinned up at her.
"WHOA! Chill out, I'm ok already! No need to get so upset about it. You seem pretty worked up. Are YOU alright? Wanna come sit in our compartment?" Ali nodded mutely and followed the girl up the train to where a group of three other girls and a boy were sitting. They smiled at her as she came in, not in the slightest bit worried at the fact that a complete stranger had been led in and was now blubbing to herself in the seat opposite them with no introduction or explanation. The blonde girl looked at Ali sympathetically.
"Do you wanna tell us whats wrong?"
Then Ali let it all out. How her Dad had been killed, how she had come to Hogwarts to escape from the death-eaters, her mum, Malfoy being so horrible and how she'd cursed him (They all cheered at that bit) and how she thought she'd concussed the girl. In fact, she told them everything about her. Well, except the bit about her real parents. She didn't want them to judge her on two people she barely knew.
They were a very good audience. They gasped at all the right places and patted her sympathetically- getting very angry when she told them what Pansy and Antonia had been gossiping about. The red-haired girl in the corner was steaming, and Ali had a sneaking suspicion that she was one of the people they had been talking about. They all waited until she had finished before introducing themselves. Ginny Weasley (Ali's suspicions were correct, she was the Weasley girl they had been gossiping about) Dean Thomas, Sorenna James, Kelsey Leverage and Amma Osenda. They all seemed pretty nice, donating chocolate and making her eat it, claiming it was the cure to all things sucky and she thoroughly deserved it. The journey, which had started off so slow, now seemed to be flying by, Ali couldn't believe it when Ginny's older brother Ron came and told them to change into their robes. They had had quite a few visitors in the afternoon- Ron's friends had popped in to say hi and steal some sweets ("Oh come on, we're starving here!") and Dean's friend Seamus had come, according to him, to 'lighten things up', which involved him telling some horrendously bad jokes and generally making people laugh. Ali was so content, she almost forgot about her Voldemort. It seemed to be a sort of unspoken agreement that no one would mention him. It was dark by the time they arrived at Hogwarts.
Aliothe's first impressin of the castle was the sheer size of it, it's turrets and towers loomed impressively on the mountainside. She began to feel sick. What was she supposed to do? How would she be sorted? Would she have to go up with all the first years? She hoped not. She didn't want everyone to stare at her. Would she know anyone in her dormitory? Sorenna, Kelsey and Dean were all in her year but Amma and Ginny were the year below her. She was terrified at the thought of having to make a whole bunch of new friends if she wasn't in anyone she knew's house. She didn't know any Hufflepuff's OR Slytherins, except Pansy and Antonia and she definitely didn't want anything to do with them.
They had stopped. Outside she could see students milling around, some had got on one of the hundred horseless carriages that waited there. She stepped out into the cool, breezy night air and her long black flicked around her face, tousled by the wind. She had lost sight of her newly made friends. She felt alone and frightened. The realisation that this was the first time in her life that she had been so far from her home had hit her, and she felt lost and disorientated.
She could vaguely hear someone calling her name, and a thin woman with grey hair and a faint Scottish accent was guiding her into one of the carriages by herself. She vaguely took in the landscape around her; the vast forest on the banks of an equally large lake where dozens of tiny boats sailed, seemingly powering themselves. She saw the grand iron gates with their stone gargoyles, leering at the students as they trundled along.
She was finally at Hogwarts
PHEW that took AGES!!!!!!!! I hope you didn't find it too boring/ confusing. I know it was well crap in comparison to the first chappie but I had to kind of explain why she was suddenly sent to Hogwarts and why Malfoy might tell people and then I felt sorry for her and decided to give her a few friends etc etc. This was supposed to have the sorting in it too but I didn't want to delay it any further so that will be NEXT chapter, Ok? If there was anything you didn't understand or bits you found confusing/ rubbish, tell me I wont be offended as long as you're nice about it. LOVE YOOOU!!
xxRockabillyxx