For Better or For Worse

"Did you feel like you belonged at Hogwarts, or did they make you feel like an outsider?" the reporter questioned like all reporters tend to do.

"No, not exactly like an outsider. They were more curious about why I had been let transfer in, unlike the millions of other students who had asked." I thought it was an obvious answer.

"Do you remember your first reaction when you found out what house you were in?"

I laughed remembering. "I didn't know what the hell they were talking about." I laughed again…

Flashback

"Will you look at yourselves, so nervous, waiting for what I'm about to say..." The hat joked; I didn't find it very funny. It seemed that the hat was trying to have a sense of humor, but he failed terribly.

"Will you get on with it already?" I half yelled as I caught my breath again.

"…and edgy." he added. I held my breath again; it was fun being so dramatic over something so silly, and no one around to tell me I was acting immature. "So as I was saying before I was so ruefully interrupted," I rolled my eyes again. "It seems you belong in the Ravenclaws house."

I let out my breath and wiped my forehead, "Whew I'm glad that's over with." I looked up at Dumbledore trying to see his expression to the news; since I was completely clueless as to if the news was good or bad. His face curved into a small smile, I could tell it was forced he must not have expected the news. "Well…" I finally urged him to say something after a long silence.

"Oh yes!" he snapped out of his trance-like state, "Well you can take the hat off now, and I'll get your schedule."

Happily I took the hat off and reached as high as I could to put it away on its top shelve. The hat seemed disappointed and told me to come back and visit. But I knew that wouldn't happen anytime soon.

Dumbledore was searching through the stacks of paper on his desk when he finally found what he was looking for. "This is your schedule Miss. Runey; it would be helpful to memorize it." He gave me the paper than seemed to have another thought and started searching through all his papers again. I took a glance at the paper, folded it and put it in my pocket. "Oh where did I put that?" Dumbledore mumbled to himself more than anyone else, "Yes this is it!" He held up a blank piece of parchment, "This is a map of the grounds you may make a password and the map will only show when you use it; there's only one other like it, but I lost it many years ago." I took the map and put it with the other parchment in my pocket.

"Wonderful… so can I see where I'll be staying now?" I said and Dumbledore finally seemed to get my hint that I didn't care much about the history of some map.

"Yes, yes right this way." Dumbledore started walking towards the door; I followed closely at his heels. We stepped out of his office and down the stairs. I admired the beauty of the building and all its wonders.

I tried very hard to remember the way we came, but it soon became a fog. "Two lefts, then a right, up a flight of stairs… where we made another…" I mumbled to myself.

"What was that dear?" Dumbledore interrupted and stopped waiting for me to catch up.

"Nothing."

He led me up to a painting of a dove; in its claws it held an olive branch. "This," Dumbledore motioned toward the door, "is the entrance to the heads dormitory. The password is 'Odd truce'. Can you remember this?" I nodded as I watched a door knob slowly from the right side of the painting.

I walked to the doorknob and carefully placed my hand on it, I looked over to Dumbledore for permission and reassurance. He nodded and I turned the knob, slowly and gently as if I thought I would break it. The door seemed to swing open and I walked in, not knowing what to expect.

End Flashback

The reporter was making his way down his list of questions. "Do you recall the room you stayed in? Or by any chance do you recall your roommates?"

"Ah, but I do. Like it was yesterday in fact…"

Flashback

I looked around we were in an entrance hallway. Off to my sides there were two open hallways to different rooms. My head swung from side to side; the two rooms looked nearly the same except one was a golden color as the other was more a deep crimson. I reluctantly chose the crimson room to see first. I ran into the room, it had a ceiling that was very high above my head it had carvings of all kinds of intricate designs. The carpet was soft and I instantly kicked off my shoes. The carpet as well as the upholstery was the beautiful crimson color; the wooden tables, bookshelves and such were a red tinted wood complementing the crimson perfectly. There was a couch facing a lit fireplace with an overstuffed chair to the side.

The room was circular and had a single door on the opposite side of the room and elegant staircase against the wall leading to two doors on an upper balcony. I squealed with excitement at the thought that I was going to live here for the rest of the school year. It seemed as though I had been standing there marveling the room for hours.

"So I see you are pleased with your accommodations?" I twirled around quickly, frightened; I had forgotten that Dumbledore right behind me.

"Pleased is an understatement." I finally shut my mouth which apparently had been hanging open since I first walked in. I twirled back and began gliding around the room, looking at everything I could get my hands on.

"Your dorm will be upstairs, the door on the left I believe. This is one of two common rooms; you can go in either one when you wish. We changed it to prevent any mishaps and due to house rivalry reasons, but no need to get into that. The door next to yours belongs to Mr. Malfoy. And the other common room leads to the other two rooms, which belong to Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter."

"And when will I meet them?" I can't say that I wasn't excited but I wasn't exactly thrilled either. I wasn't the best when it came to making new friends.

"When their classes are over they will most likely come back to put there books away, but that will be in a few good hours. I assume you can do the introductions alone?"

"I believe I can."

"Great, until then you may wonder the halls or the grounds. Have you talked to Filch like I have recommended?"

I nodded remembering my talk with him wasn't what I would call a pleasant one. He had been the only staff at Hogwarts that I have yet to find decent enough. He just told me all of the forbidden places, rules I shouldn't break, blah, blah, blah. "Yes, I have." I muttered. Dumbledore looked please and left the room.

I had plenty of time to wonder so I decided to have a look out on the grounds. I took out the map and tried to think of a fitting password. I decided on 'Pluie' it meant 'rain', my favorite weather, in French. This was my second language. I tapped the parchment and said the password. Black ink ran over the parchment, where I had tapped my wand, slowly but surely forming the map of Hogwarts.

I wanted to explore the grounds further, so with another glance at the map I slowly made my way outside. When I had finally found my way out, I didn't know how I actually did it, I was sure I was going to get lost! The great doors where Dumbledore and I had entered earlier were already open, letting the fresh air wash over me.

Now that I was outside I didn't know where to go first the grounds were so enormous. I didn't want to miss a thing so I decided to start at a lake I thought I saw earlier. The wind whistled around me gently picking up my long flowing skirt and then bringing it back down. I loved the feeling of wind in my hair, it made it feel… weightless. I looked at my feet and realized I had forgotten my shoes back in the room, but I loved the feeling of the soft, cool grass beneath my toes.

I was walking along the building, just to be sure I wouldn't get lost. I noticed far away over by the forest there was Hagrid's hut. I was considering going to visit when I noticed him and a class behind his house. There were a few students who seemed to have wandered away from the class; they were instead leaning against Hagrid's hut, obviously bored. It seemed to be a snotty looking girl, an overly pompous blonde haired boy, and you can't forget the two goons towering over him.

I noticed the blonde hair boy looking over in my direction; I didn't want to be seen. I saw the lake straight ahead, so I decided to make a run for it…

It was a much longer run than I'd expected, panting I found a shady weeping willow tree and climbed underneath. There was a beautiful bench by the trunk of the tree, so I knew I wasn't the only one to know about this spot.

I sat down and gazed out over the lake. The breeze made ripples in the water; they sparkled when the light hit them. I was so enticed with the beauty of the view I must of lost track of time, before I knew it I heard Hagrid's voice from across the grounds dismissing his class.

I needed to get back to the dorms, but without anyone seeing me, but how? I looked down at the map, almost everybody was heading inside, but there were a few people who seemed to be heading for the lake. They would see me for sure.

I heard a rustling in the tree behind me, without thinking I got up and crawled out the side of the tree. As I looked around I saw that everyone was mesmerized by the beauty of the lake, thus no one was looking in my directing. Perfect timing to make another run for it…

As I neared the grand door I decided it was safe to look back, I looked at the tree and saw a blonde head disappear into the tree behind the two body guards I had seen earlier. They were looking for me. Glad that I left when I did I turned around and took another breath of fresh air before I began walking to the dorm.

A/N- I had a whole bunch of chapters written, and since HBP is out and no one is reading these I decided to just put all the chapters I'd written out, now. A great BIG 'Thank you' to my 2 reviewers!