A NEW SCHOOL
Chapter One: Enter The Canuck
Disclaimer: I wish I owned them, but alas I only own Gwyn.
A new school.
A new school with new rules.
A new school with new rules and new people.
A new school with new rules and new people in a new country.
Spectacular, just fucking spectacular.
"You'll love it." My mother assured me for the hundredth time.
"I hate you for doing this to me." I replied in kind. It shut her up for the time being. "I thought we had to take a train."
"The train is only at the beginning of the year." She explained pulling my trunk into the middle of the street with her.
A new school with new rules and new people in a new country in the middle of my seventh year. Wow did I ever hate life right about now.
"Come on, no need to dawdle." She said. I moped into the street taking as much time as I could. My mother checked her watch and waited for a few seconds before there was a loud BANG and a bright purple double-decker bus appeared.
"Hogsmeade please." My mother said and stepped onto the bus. We sat on a bed and waited through the awkward silence. "This is the Knight bus." She said with a fake cheery voice.
"Yeah whatever." I said rolling my eyes. I could give a flying one about another stupid British thing. What seemed like an eternity later, but was in fact only an hour or so we got off the "Knight Bus" and stepped into a small town.
I lugged my trunk for a half-hour until we reached the school grounds. My mother assured me that if was only the trunk that was slowing me down and the walk wasn't usually this long. I ignored her as best I could.
We walked up to the massive front doors and were greeted by an old man, who could've been at least 300 years old if I had to guess.
"Ms. Braddock I presume." An old man said with a small smile, half hidden by his beard. I nodded and shoved my hands in my bunnyhug pockets as my mom greeted him.
"Ah Lisa, it's been too long." The old man said, embracing my mom. I stood idly by while they chattered away for some time.
"Gwyn this is headmaster Albus Dumbledore." Headmaster? This was going to be weird.
"Pleasure." I mumbled obediently.
"Thank you for doing this Albus, I know it's not usual…" my mom sputtered.
"It's fine, what kind of godfather would I be if I didn't help you out?" he mused. Well that caught my attention. "Well Gwyn, you missed the sorting ceremony but you will be placed in Griffyndor, as that is where your mother was." He explained popping a candy into his mouth after offering them to us.
"That's fine sir." I said robotically.
A door swung open and an extremely proper looking witch marched in.
"Ah Professor McGonagall, perfect timing. If you would take Ms. Braddock to the Great Hall and find her a suitable guide." The Albus guy said.
"Of course headmaster." The woman said.
"Okay honey, be good." My mother said pulling me into a hug.
"Yeah whatever." I growled into her shoulder. "Feed Puck."
"I mean it Gwyn, stay out of trouble this year. Please." She said pulling away and releasing me. I just nodded reluctantly and followed the witch from the giant entrance.
We walked up some stairs and to a huge set of doors, reassuring me that I would indeed be lost almost all of the time.
'Would you like to wait here?" she asked in a stoic tone.
"Yes ma'am." I said scuffing my feet on the floor. She nodded curtly and spun on her heel, throwing the doors open and stalking into the room.
I looked around in the entrance. Four banners hung from the rafters a snake, a raven, a badger and a lion. Slytherin with the snake, adorned with silver and green; Ravenclaw with the raven, decorated with blue and bronze; Hufflepuff the badger decked out in yellow and black; and, Gryffindor with the lion festooned in scarlet and gold. I shuddered as it sunk in that I would be wearing scarlet and gold. My colors had been light blue and silver for my entire life.
The woman returned with a girl my age.
"Miss Granger this is Gwyn Braddock." Prof. McGonagall said motioning to me as I continued to gaze at my surroundings, this place sucked. "Miss Braddock?"
I spun around to look at the two people. I cracked a smile and nodded in the young girls general direction. She looked me up and down in the nicest way possible before turning to the scary lady.
"Oh, I was expecting………a err………first year Professor." she whispered in a shocked tone, an attempt not to upset me I was sure.
"I transferred." I explained walking towards the stunned girl. "Gwyn Braddock." I said and extended my right hand. The girl shook it and smiled. After a curt handshake we turned to Professor McGonagall.
"Hermione is one of the top student's here at Hogwarts, I'm sure the two of you will get along splendidly. Hermione, Gwyn is also in Gryffindor, so if you would kindly show her to the tower, the house elves have set out a robe for her to wear." Professor McGonagall said before turning on her heel and walking out.
"So you transferred?" Hermione asked as she led me to Gryffindor tower. I nodded and followed Hermione gracefully up the stairs.
"I transferred from a school in Canada. But we moved to England after my parent's split up. My mother went to Hogwarts so………by default I go here now." I said putting my hands in the pockets of my bunny-hug. I looked around at the castle, it wasn't what I had expected. I was now convinced that her last school was far superior to this dingy old castle.
"I'm sorry to hear about your parents." Hermione said quietly. I snorted in a very unlady-like way, catching Hermione's eye I smirked.
"Why? My fathers a drunk bastard." I said letting anger flash through my ice blue eyes. We stopped in front of a portrait of a fat lady and Hermione said the password and the portrait swung open. I reluctantly stepped through, noticing the abundance of red and gold, Gryffindor's colors. I sighed and followed Hermione deeper into the common room.
"This is the common room. The boys dorms are to the left, and our room is this way." Hermione said and took me up to our dormitory. "You can take that bed, just change into your robes, we get house-points off if we're caught without one."
I sighed and took off my bunny-hug, laying it care-fully on the bed. I stood in my tank top and glared at the robe that was in front of me. To me it was disgusting. A black heavy robe with colored trim and a badge made of red and gold, just looking at it made me quite homesick, so I glared even harder.
"It won't bite." Hermione said as she suppressed a giggle.
"It might." I shot back with a grin in place. Finally I picked up the heavy robe and looked at it closer. Holding it up to the light. Put it on the bed and rubbed the back of my neck gently, sighing with the realization that I'd have to wear it.
"You have a pretty interesting mark on the back of your neck." Hermione said as I inspected the robe. I ran my hands overtop the back of my neck, gracefully touching my tattoo. I grinned at the memory of it, simply done to piss off my mother for making me leave my school and all of my friends, it still stung a bit, but it was worth it to see the horrified look on my mother's face.
"It's a tattoo." I explained. " A muggle indulgence that I enjoy."
"Yea I've heard of those, never seen one up close though." Hermione said. i shrugged. "It's moving." She noted, with a bit of surprise in her voice.
"It's nothing to write home about." I said. Turning to face Hermione again. "It's enchanted. Sort of a permanent mood ring, the background behind him changes, and he randomly moves around, every once in while he'll have an instrument…I don't know where he gets it, but it shows up."
"May I ask what it stands for?" Hermione asked. I turned my back again and pushed up the back of my hair.
"It's a traditional kokopelli man…its Australian actually, all of my friends have one, each is a little bit different." I explained and turned back to see a perplexed expression on Hermione's face. "What?"
"He seems to be scowling at me." She said. "Are you upset?"
"Not upset," I assured her. "Uncomfortable." Upon seeing her face I elaborated. "At my old school the houses weren't animal based, they were element based. Earth, Ice, Sky and Fire. I was in Glace, or the ice house. So were all of my friends. Going from light blue and silver to red and gold…it's a step." She just nodded her understanding.
I could feel a wave of sadness wash over my features before I turned her back and finally pulled on the robe and followed Hermione back to the common room. We were met with stares of a large group of kids and two stunning young men who were waving us over.
"Hey 'Mione, who's the friend?" Harry Potter said looking me up and down. Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived. Well isn't he special…. Hermione hit Harry in the stomach and found her way into the other guys arms.
"Boys, this is Gwyn Braddock, she's new. Gwyn this is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley." Hermione introduced.
"Pleasure." Harry said kissing my hand. I choked down a laugh and gave Harry a weird look.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me." I said pulling my hand away. Making Ron laugh. "Nice to meet you Ron."
"You too, it's great to finally meet someone who can put Harry in his place." Ron said extending his hand, I shook it and nodded. I had a feeling that Ron was going to be a good guy to hang around with. But I wasn't so sure about that Harry kid.
"I have to show her to the classes now, do you have your schedule?" Hermione asked.
"What year are you in?" Ron asked overtop of his girlfriends question. Hermione poked him in the ribs before turning to me for an answer.
"Seventh." I said. Hermione smiled bigger.
"So are we, this should be easy." Hermione said pulling out of Ron's grasp, they kissed briefly. "Let's go."
We chatted as we walked through our classes. Until we got to the dungeon's.
"Just to warn you we have the worst Potions professor ever. And on top of the fact that he's evil, he hates Gryffindor's." Hermione said stopping in front of the doors. I nodded, and we walked into the classroom, I was half-expecting some sort of monster.
Professor Snape sat at his desk with his head down, not noticing as we walked in. Hermione was about to say something when I cut her off.
"Well I'll be damned."
A/N: I'm A Review Junkie...feed my habit!
ALSO Read the companion piece TIMM's by JSparrow