1After the holidays Alley spent more time with her mentors and began training her abstinimaige powers more fully. The basics of magic had been mastered and it was becoming obvious that private tutoring was more than ever needed for the girl. Professor Flitwick and McGonagall traded off and on with working with Alley. Although each had a very different teaching style Alley loved both of them. Each was impressed with how fast the girl learned and how much she seemed capable of.
Others too saw the special attention that Alley seemed to get. Especially the Slytherins, in which a certain group of students seemed to make it their personal mission to make Alley's life miserable. One night, after a particularly nasty incident in the halls in which two Slytherin students were still recovering with Madam Pomfrey, Alley was in the common room attempting to finish up an essay for McGonagall's transfiguration class.
"Alley?" Percy Weasly had approached the girl with a slight swagger. It was fairly well known that she had been involved in an altercation earlier and anything that made Alley looked bad seemed to excite Percy Weasly. "Professor McGonagall wishes to see you in her office." He said with a slightly smug expression. Alley rose and simply left through the portrait and went through the well known halls towards McGonagall's office.
Once there she found not only the head of her house, but also Dumbledore and Snape seated in the office.
"Miss Ashford, please have a seat." Alley had hesitated at the door when she saw the solemn looks on her mentors. At the invitation from McGonagall she headed over to the wooden chair and sank into it.
"We are very interested in knowing what happened in the charms corridor today." McGonagall continued.
"I was walking down the corridor towards the charms classroom when the two Slytherins came out and began to harass me." Snape made a noise of disbelief and Alleyne smiled sweetly at him. "Of course, I would be more than willing to take some veratiserum since it sounds like the stories are conflicting."
Severus's eyes narrowed and he said, "I do not doubt that the students were harassing you this time Miss Ashford, however you seem to have a way of getting into trouble with these students. I have a hard time believing that you are as innocent as you say." His tone conveyed contempt and before Alleyne could respond Dumbledore intervened.
"I suppose it is possible that Alleyne somehow upset these students in a prior engagement. However, as we have no proof of such a thing and a corridor full of witnessers saying that Antony Degenroot and Howard Crooz did indeed attack her from behind I find no reason to continue in this line of discussion. Snape looked as if he was bitting back a furious diatribe he longed to throw at Dumbledore. After being bid goodnight she walked from the room, knowing that Snape was staring at her she did not scurry instead she paused to give Fawkes a gentle stroke (and be cooed at in return) and then headed down the long spiral stairs. She strove to send the message that she would let neither the members of his house nor him, Snape, intimidate her.
Her first year continued much in the same vein. The wind whistled through the halls on the way to potions and most of the students went at a near run through the corridor to get to their classes for some measure of warmth. Teachers like Flitwick or McGonagall kept their rooms toasty, while Trelawney perhaps too much, however the dungeon that potions was held it remained like an ice box. Icicles had actually began to form on the upper parts of the dingy window sills.
Potions class was something of torture for most of the students. Snape spent as much time taking points off of Gryffindor as he did teaching. Alley, who was easily the most advanced student in the class, spent much of the period fielding questions thrown at her. At first these questions truly stumped the girl, she had no idea of the answers and Snape would sneer at what he called her ignorance. This attitude, instead of making her feel worse, fueled her to simply pick up a few extra potions books and soon she was able to answer all the questions he threw at her. After awhile he stopped because instead of making her seem to be a spoiled brat whose 'talent' was all due to her connections it was only proving the point that she could keep up with the best of them.
Percy Weasly continued to resent the girl and was one of the people who looked particularly smug about whenever Snape got the better of her. One day Alley came back to the common room after a particularly disastrous potions class where her partner had taken it upon himself and added knarl quills at the wrong moment although it was (rather largely) written right on the board not to do so until after the cauldron was removed from the flame and stirred five times in a counter clockwise direction. Snape was in a towering rage over it because the potion exploded and melted the two front feet, closest to the Gryffindors, of his desk completely off causing the whole desk to tip into the potion and dumping all the contents that had been on top of it into the potion where they too were melted.
Alley and her partner were both given detention and shouted at for a good quarter of an hour before released from the dungeon. Needless to say, Alley was in a towering mood of her own since her partner had seemed to deem it all her fault for not being there at that moment and was whispering about her to his friends. The rest of the class was just as irritable because Snape was making them re-write the essays that had been collected earlier and piled on his desk. They had been the first things to fall into the potion.
"Gradercoff Hedwig" Alley muttered the password to the large picture of the fat lady. Thinking as she did so she would be as old as that wizard before Snape would ever let her live down that it was her cauldron that had issued not a simple headache cure but the most potent acid ever know.
"Ahh Alley," Percy Weasly said with the distinct air of having come out the best in a situation, "such a pity. Detention during the first Quidditch match of the season and zeros for the day. I suppose there goes your top grade in the class."
Before Alley could throw the scathing remark that was on the end of her tongue at Percy his brother Bill rapped him upside the back of the head.
"Ow! Bill, what the..?"
"Leave her alone or as Head Boy I can make sure that you have detention at the same time for harassing her." Percy sputtered at Bill for a few moments but Bill had already turned around and went back to his arm chair and chatting with his friends. Alley took that moment to go flop on her bed. She half giggled to herself as she remembered the time that Percy had been tricked into following her up the spiral stairs to the girls dormitory. The stone slide that had formed dropped him primly right back into the common room and all dignity was lost as the whole common room laughed at him.
She didn't want to cry. All her life it felt like people were just waiting on her to cry and though she was so frustrated with the complete unfairness of her punishment she lay on her bed just pushing all of it away. She thought of going to Dumbledore or McGonagall but she knew that no matter if they did something or not she would face more trouble by students saying that she was undermining her professor... not to mention confirming that she really was just a favorite and not doing any work herself.
Alley didn't know when she fell from thought into slumber but she didn't wake until the other girls came back into the dormitory after dinner. Only Clara came in first. Her long blonde hair brushed carelessly from her face. When she saw Alley she gave her a smile and came over and sat down.
"How are you feeling?" Clara's warm voice made some of the anger in Alley evaporate. Clara was one of those people who never really did anything unless she believed completely in it. She was a very loving girl and she was also very quiet.
"Alright, I can't believe how tired I was." Alley said, sitting up.
" I was sent by Professor McGonagall to tell you she wants to talk to you in her office." Alley sighed, wondering what else could go on today she rose. Ran a hand through her hair and straitened her robes.
"Here" Clara walked forward and helped Alley get her robes on strait and then went down with her to the common room. It was still empty. Apparently dinner was still in progress. Alley knew that McGonagall would be in her office though, just like she had said. Sure enough, once she had gotten down there the professor looked up from a pile of parchment on her desk.
"Miss Ashford," she motioned to the chair in front of her. " I wanted to speak to you. Bill Weasly recently informed of a rather unusual potions class that occurred this afternoon." Alley looked up rather surprised, McGonagall took no note of this and went on, "I have spoked with Professor Snape and it is decided that all of the punishment be lifted." She offered no reason for either the punishment or the revoking of it. "I wanted to let you know in person that it was done. I also wanted to tell you," She paused, "that I am rather disappointed that you would not have come to me yourself and told me what was going on."
Alley, who had been staring at the fire as she listened looked up again, "I... I am sorry, Professor... I only thought, that given everything else..."
"Alley," McGonagall interrupted kindly, "all of us are aware that you have no parent to appeal to. We are also all aware that going to Professor Dumbledore about problems is not the easiest given your... unique situation her. However, I wish you to know that I will be here to listen to you if you desire to talk." Alley was so taken aback by this that she didn't know what to say. McGonagall however didn't need a response and wished her a good night and mentioned that she may be able to catch pudding if she hurried to the great hall.