"Well, my name is Earnest in town and Jack in the country."- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest.
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Where You Belong
Chapter 2
Andrea felt like she was flying all for about five seconds before she was forcefully thrown to the not so soft ground. She lay there for a few minutes allowing the pain in her back to attempt to lessen and make the dizzy feeling go away. When she finally opened her eyes she realized that it was just as dark with her eyes opened as it was when they were closed. 'Must be around dinner time.' Andrea thought to herself. Slowly getting up Andrea looked around her and realized that she fell in almost the exact place she was standing earlier. As she sat there Andrea recalled the conversation that Wormtail and Lucius Malfoy were having before she was hit with the spell.
"Shit!" Andrea exclaimed as she realized exactly what had happened to her. "Way to go Ang! You try so hard to stay away from this shit and the moment you come across it you play hero and get sent god knoes how many years into the past! Just Great!" Andrea sarcastically berated herself. "Oh well may as well see who's the headmaster and try to find a way home."
Andrea picked herself up off the ground and grabbed he bag and began her trek up the grounds to the castle of Hogwarts.
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Dinner was the quite the usual affair of loud chattering and peals of laughter drifting from the student body. Most of the school was in a joyous mood for it was Friday which meant no classes the following day. The students were in such a good mood that it even took Dumbledore quite a bit to silence them, so it was no surprise that very little attention was caught when the doors of the Great Hall began to squeak open. In fact no one noticed until the doors slammed against the walls. The whole hall looked up to see a petite figure standing with arms still outstretched from forcing the doors open. Slowly the arms fell to the figures side and they began to walk up the middle isle to the Head table.
The students fixed their eyes on the person to try and get a better look but it was to no avail, the person had their hood up shadowing their face and moved too swiftly for anyone to get a good look. Once they reached the head table the mystery person stood in front of Dumbledore, finally standing still long enough for the whole school to figure out that it had to be a girl by the height and figure. She lifted her hood from her head and let it fall back along with her hair. There stood a girl about five foot three in height with flowing, silky hair that shimmered red and gold down to her mid-back. Only the staff of Hogwarts could see the fair complexion enhanced by the pale pink lips and the determined look in the glittering blue-green eyes.
"Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm Headmaster Dumbledore, how may I help you?" Dumbledore greeted.
"On orders that cannot be discussed here I have been sent as a transfer student and am to be sorted." The girl replied with no emotion in her face beside her ever strong determination.
"Very well." Dumbledore snapped his fingers twice and a stool with a ratty old hat on top of it appeared. "Please state your full name and place the hat on your head."
"Andrea Ivy Taylor."
Her name was barely out of her mouth before she plopped the hat on her head covering her face. Andrea idly listened to the hat as it rambled on about sorting her before and that she was a hard one to place.
"Well my dear you do have a lot of courage, especially what you did today." The hat complimented.
'Yea look where it got me.' Andrea thought becoming once again slightly angry and frustrated with herself, not knowing that it would cause her more trouble later.
"Dear me your mood changes which qualities are most prominent, that could be a problem." Andrea didn't hear this as she was still berating herself for her foolish stunt earlier in the day. "Well dear I've got to put you some where so I'll place you where you'll best fit at the moment in …SLYTHERIN!"
The hat's outburst of her house name brought Andrea out of her musings in time for her to regret ever beginning them.
The school overall gave a collective sigh, as Andrea gave a groan of displeasure, there had never been a sorting that had taken as long as hers had. At the announcement that their house had received the new mystery girl the table of green grew a superior look as the other houses sighed, once again, in defeat.
"Well now that, that's done Ms. Taylor would you kindly join the Slytherin table as we finish dinner?"
Andrea nodded her head to Dumbledore and grudgingly made her way over to the Slytherin table knowing that she would, and already did, regret letting her mind wander during her sorting. She dreaded the conversations that were bound to be brought up by the green snobs but sucked it up anyway.
Andrea found a seat at the end of the table near the teachers; it was surrounded by some timid looking first years. Andrea decided that sitting next to them would be the best option.
When Andrea had been heading up to the castle from her landing spot she had formed her plan. She had realized that it would be quite some time for them to find a way to send her back to her own time, if they even could do such a thing. So she had decided to act as if she was being transferred here, change her name, and be resorted. What she hadn't planned on was being put in Slytherin. After dinner she planned on catching Professor Dumbledore and explaining her situation to him and then take it from there.
Andrea reviewed her plan as she sat picking at her meal here and there, but soon enough the older Slytherin's were too curious and began to drift over to her. She answered all their questions without really speaking and was grateful when Dumbledore stood up and announced that it was time to leave. Before she could be dragged off to the snake pit she escaped to talk to Dumbledore. While making her way up to the head table again she ran into the most notorious Slytherin hating, prankster group in Hogwarts, the Marauder's. Andrea took a second to force herself to forget all that she knew about these four friends before facing them.
The Marauder's had been hoping to run into Andrea because Remus made them promise to meet her before pranking her.
"Is the new slimy Slytherin lost already?" Sirius tauntingly inquired.
"Nope, just making my way to Headmaster Dumbledore." Andrea replied paying Sirius no mind.
"Why would you need to see him?" Peter nastily snapped.
This comment combined with the harshness of Peter's voice, along with what Andrea knew about him, caused Andrea to snap her head around to see him. The four boys saw Andrea's eyes flash from their calm blue-green to a startlingly cold steel grey. Before emotions could be identified in her eyes the grey color melted into a blue grey and Andrea spoke.
"I have matters to discuss with him that I don't feel you need to know because I do not know you. Now if you four will excuse me I must be going."
With that said Andrea twirled around allowing her hair to flow behind her as she set off for the headmaster again.
"Excuse me, Headmaster?" Andrea spoke as she reached the head table.
"Ahh yes, Ms. Taylor I was awaiting your arrival." Dumbledore declared, Andrea gave him a slightly skeptical look before he continued. "Shall we go up to my office to discuss your arrival?"
"Of course."
Andrea followed Dumbledore down what felt like hundreds of stairs and halls before stopping in front of the stone gargoyle that she knew guarded the entrance of his office. Dumbledore stated the password causing the gargoyle to slide to the left revealing a slowly rising staircase. They both jumped onto the staircase allowing it to glide them up to the top to a think wooden door.
"Well Ms. Taylor why don't you tell me what really brought you here because I would have been warned before hand if any transfer students were coming, as I would've had to approve of them."
"Headmaster Dumbledore…oh where to begin?" Andrea mumbled.
"I find that starting at the beginning is always a sure bet." Dumbledore jovially stated.
"No I can't start there because that would be telling you too much. See what my problem is Professor is that I'm from the future."
"Yes that could be a problem. Would you mind telling me how you happened to be in the past?"
"I was, well you need to understand that in my time we're at war and a few of my fellow classmates are targets in this war. Anyway I was out on the grounds when I overheard someone plotting to send my friend into the past to get rid of him, I think they wanted to get rid of him before he was even born and change…everything. In blind courage, stupidity, bravery, whatever you want to call it, I jumped in front of the caster and got hit with the spell and landed right where I was only in the past."
"Interesting. Do you know how many years in the past you are Ms. Taylor?"
"Roughly twenty years."
"And may I inquire as to how you know this?"
"Many of the students at the moment are the parents of my fellow classmates. What is they year by the way?"
"The year is 1973."
"Thank you. Twenty-two years exactly."
"Well Ms. Taylor I do not know how far you have come in research in time travel but in 1973 we are only just finishing time turners. However I will do the best I can to set everything right. First I need to alter a few things. I assume that your name is already changed?"
"My first name is the same but the rest of my name is changed."
"Why did you not change your first name?"
"I figured that it would be easier to remember my lie if I kept it as close to the truth as possible."
"Very well. I will need to give you a potion later that will keep you from telling too much about the future once I have it made."
"Yes Headmaster."
"Well I believe that we have covered all that we need to tonight so I'll have Casper show you to the Slytherin common room. Remember you must act lost since technically you've never been here before." Andrea nodded her head in agreement and was startled by a pop sounding next to her as a house elf appeared. Andrea turned to follow the elf out of the office when Dumbledore called her back one more time. "Ms. Taylor what house were you in before?"
"Gryffindor."
"Ah yes, well good night."
Andrea silently followed Casper through the various halls and stairs not really paying attention as she already knew her way around. She had wanted to ask Dumbledore if she could switch houses but somehow she knew that asking would be in vain unless she spent some time there because she knew that was what he wanted. Andrea was soon brought out of her thoughts as the house elf squeaked out that they had reached the common room entrance and that if she needed anything all she had to do was call for Casper. Andrea thanked the elf before it popped away and she was left staring at the entrance. 'Well here goes nothing.' Andrea thought as she entered.
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Alright to clear up the whole date thing, in The Order of the Phoenix it is given that Lucius Malfoy is 41 so I simply decided that the Marauders, Lily, and Snape were all a year behind him so that's where I came up with my dates so don't shoot me if you feel that the date should be different.