First Day of Sixth Year...
Malfoy sat rather impatiently at the Slytherin table. All the bloody first years were looking so freakin' terrified… as they should be if they didn't hurry up doing the sorting. He was starving. Draco had lost all of his appetite after the Death Eaters paid him that kind visit the previous night and hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch. The warm buzz of excitement drew in comfort to the boy and now that he wasn't worried that dear old Auntie would pop up every five seconds, his stomach was prodding at him to eat. He sat grumpily through the Sorting Hat's song, tuning out the words completely- blagh blagh blagh students must unite and stay together, Slytherin house is ambitious and Gryffindor are brave, pansy Hufflepuff took all the left over crap kids who weren't smart, brave, or cunning. Whatever, he had heard the same general idea five times previous and he didn't even look up when the hat finished, staring resolutely at the empty table instead and willing plates upon plates of food to appear. God, why must they do the sorting like this? Ten new eleven year olds would be in each house, big fricken whoop…
"Malfoy!" Crabbe elbowed Malfoy lightly, nudging him to look up.
"What?" Malfoy snapped.
"I think I see the new girl." He muttered in excitement, "Over there." Malfoy saw that his brain dead friend would not cease in bringing up this new person unless Malfoy indulged him, so he sighed and glanced in the direction he was gesturing. He caught sight of a girl who indeed did not look as if she were eleven.
"That's great, you've found her, I saw," Draco rolled his eyes, drumming his fingers against the table.
All the little kids were finally cleared off into there separate tables and Dumbledore made to stand up. Draco, used to the Headmaster saying just a word or two before the feast, instantly grabbed a fork and knife in preparation but he decided to show some respect and gave the Headmaster his gaze. Hey, if he was going to rely on the man to keep away the Death Eaters, Draco would be better off not insulting him before the year even began.
"We are starting yet another year at Hogwarts. To all those who are new, welcome. To all those who are returning, welcome back." Dumbledore said. Malfoy glanced at the table. Still nothing. "I know how hungry you all must be-" Draco got a small smile from Dumbledore at this point-"So I will try to keep this brief. This year, we have a new Professor, please welcome Professor Slughorn." –He paused to allow the school to applaud politely. "And we have a new student joining us who will not be going into first year. Rachel Mallory here is joining us from Onsdale Academy and will be starting in sixth year. I trust this will be a difficult position to be in, as few of you have started fresh midway through the seven year course at Hogwarts, and I know you will all help her feel welcome." Dumbledore smiled kindly at the girl, who rather looked like she was wishing she could sink into a corner and hide- she didn't seem pleased that Dumbledore had called the entire school's attention on her.
McGonagall gave a little nudge to the last student standing up, indicating for her to have a seat to be sorted. Draco peered at the girl with a bit more interest. He hadn't heard of Onsdale, and he did have a fair knowledge of the respectable schools in the area. So either she wasn't from Europe, highly unusual if that were the case, or her school was some grungy little shack. Sixth year, though, what a time to switch schools…
"Gryffindor!" the hat called after what seemed like an eternity. It did take longer than usual for the hat to make up its mind, and the girl had looked fairly agitated.
"It figures." Goyle sighed miserably. "Gryffindor. I guess that means we don't have any one new to go out with." Draco considered laughing that no one in Hogwarts had yet gone out with the goon, and no girl in their right mind would, but the food had finally popped up.
A good while later, Draco leaned back and wiped his mouth, feeling a good deal better. People were starting to leave the Hall and head to their dormitories. Draco looked at his cronies, but unsurprisingly they were both still stuffing their faces and probably wouldn't come up for air for another half hour, at least. With a snort, Draco recalled the year four feast, in which he had walked down into the Hall the next morning to find the two laying fast asleep at the table, their faces coated with pudding and their hands clutching their goblets.
Shaking his head and wondering how useful his friends would be against Death Eaters wanting to kill him, Malfoy told the pair that he'd see them later, to which he got a grunt and a squelched burp. Not too many people had left the Great Hall yet; Draco had a fairly small appetite even when he was ravished with hunger.
He strode through the ancient doors and was about to make his way to the Slytherin common room when something caused him to turn his head and go towards the flight of stairs that lead directly to the astronomy tower and that would be completely unused that night. Draco frowned in surprise as he saw a girl crouched on the bottom step, alone and silent.
"Lost or something?" Malfoy questioned. His curiosity and full belly put him in a good mood. "If you're in Slytherin I suppose I have to show you where to go-"
The girl had looked up and Malfoy realized she was the new girl going into sixth year that Dumbledore had introduced. "Gryffindor." Her voice was hoarse and almost too quiet to hear.
"Right then." Malfoy shrugged, starting to turn away. He'd never been one to give a rats about anyone else... With a sigh, though, Malfoy continued to prod. "I'm actually quite happy to go to bed now, so if you would stop slouching and get up I'll fetch Weasel-Bee or Granger to show you where to go."
The girl took a deep breath, and Malfoy, who had been carelessly glancing around to see if any Gryffindor had left yet, took a closer look at her. Her face looked tear-streaked and puffy. Malfoy was in an unusually chipper mood from the feast and the safety of being back here under Dumbledore's watch but that was hardly enough for him to play counsellor and ask what the prig was wrong with the girl. "Are you going to say something?"
"I wouldn't want to put you out," the girl said, her voice hard and clearly saying that she had detected the impatient and not exactly kind tone in Draco's voice.
"I'm not going to offer again. Do you want someone to show you where the bloody Gryffindor common room is?" Malfoy asked.
"I'm fine." She shook her head and drew in a bit closer to the stairs.
"Whatever. Suit yourself." Malfoy muttered, without wasting another second he turned and headed to his common room.
Malfoy woke at five am the next morning and realized to his amusement that Crabbe and Goyle's beds were still empty. Snape had rolled his eyes the year the two had been found drooling on the table the morning after the feast and had said something about making them sleep there every night if it happened again. Though that would be quite funny to witness, Malfoy remembered his father's urge to keep Crabbe and Goyle out of trouble, as their parents had ties that were beneficial to Lucius. Oh well, Draco thought, he was awake anyways…may as well check on the bumbling goons. If he didn't, there was a good chance he'd find them drowned in their pumpkin juice.
The sun had not risen yet so Malfoy grabbed his wand, said lumos and strode towards the Great Hall. The things he did for his friends, honestly…
On his walk there, Malfoy decided to turn in on the stairs again and saw to his surprise that the girl was still sitting there.
"What the bloody hell-" Malfoy exclaimed. "Oi! Are you planning to go to your blasted room anytime this year?"
"Leave me alone." She mumbled.
Malfoy rolled his eyes and smoothly took her arm and steered her towards another flight of stairs, and marched her up.
"What do you think you're doing?" she hissed, snatching her arm away and stopping.
"Giving you a detention for wandering after hours and berating the people who were supposed to make sure no Newbies crawled around this school after hours." Malfoy sighed, "Now hurry up, if you don't walk yourself I'll levitate you-"
"Detention? You can't-" she protested, crossing her arms.
"Prefect. Yes I damn well can and you are bloody annoying!" Malfoy steered her a bit further until they were standing directly in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Hey, Potter!" Malfoy called in a whisper as he spotted the boy a few feet from them.
Harry turned; he had left the common room a moment ago to head to the washroom to wash his face, as he had been haunted with an unpleasant dream. The last person he expected to see was Malfoy in front of the Fat Lady.
"What are you doing here?" Harry frowned.
Malfoy gestured to the girl who was now giving him a thoroughly disgruntled and all around dirty glare. "Gryffindor. Found her huddled on a staircase. You people don't look after yourselves, much do you? Your friends are wonderful prefects. Here, steer her to her room, won't you?"
"And you are such an amazing prefect, leaving Parkinson with all the first years-" Harry rolled his eyes.
"Whatever scar face." Malfoy turned away. "And you, if I catch you lurking again I'm going to hex you."
"Oh go stick that wand of yours-" the girl vehemently responded, finishing her sentence in a mutter under her breath.
As Malfoy walked away, Harry turned to the girl. "I see you've met Malfoy. He's a right git, best to ignore him. Did he actually show you up here?"
"Show me? More like shoved me." She snorted.
"Surprised he would take you up here, rather uncharacteristically nice of him." Harry frowned.
"He wasn't nice." The girl stated. "Stupid prat gave me a detention."
"He's got a tendency to do that, be glad you weren't here last year, he was given the rights to take off house points, too. You know how that works, don't you?" Harry said.
"Not really. I was too embarrassed by Dumbledore's introduction to really hear much else." She flushed.
"Oh. Well, we have another three and a half hours before lessons starts, come on, let's get into the common room and I can explain some stuff." Harry grinned. "I'm Harry Potter, by the way."
"Alexa Mallory." She nodded back. As Harry said the password to the half-asleep Fat Lady, Rachel quickly and quietly muttered a spell to clear up her puffy eyes so that the boy wouldn't realize she had been crying once they reached the lighted common room.
"I thought Professor Dumbledore said your name was Rachel?" Harry questioned, settling into a comfortable looking sofa near the fireplace, and gesturing for her to sit beside him.
"Ugh. It is. But I can't stand it. Alexandra is my middle name," the girl answered, looking around the common room.
"Out of curiosity, why were you on a staircase at 5 am?" Harry ventured. "You couldn't possibly have gotten lost for that many hours."
"I wasn't lost." She admitted. "So, what year are you in?"
Knowing all too well the feeling of being prodded constantly about a topic you'd rather not talk about, Harry dropped it and answered, "Sixth." Was there actually someone in the wizarding world who didn't know all the basic facts about him?
"Cool." Alexa nodded. "So, have you been going here since first year?"
"Yeah." He said. "Okay, about the teachers, we've had the same ones every year except for Care of Magical Creatures and Defence Against the Dark Arts."
"Are all of them hard-asses?" she questioned.
Harry laughed. "Eh, McGonagall who teaches Transfiguration and whose head of Gryffindor can be strict, but she's fair. Binns of History of Magic doesn't notice anything; honestly I haven't taken in a word he's said in five years. Snape, the Potions Master is…well; pretty much everyone outside of Slytherin, his own house, hates him, I'd steer clear of him if you can because he hates Gryffindors and I think people in general, slimy-" He cleared his throat. "Anyways, Trelawny of Divination is a fraud, but she's not that bad, just predict a bunch of painful things for yourself and she'll be happy. Hagrid, Care of Magical Creatures, is great, he was the one who told me I was a wizard and he's a great friend. Sometimes his, uh, choice in creatures is a little eccentric, but he's great. Flitwick, head of Ravenclaw and Charms professor, is pretty good, too, good-natured. And Slughorn is new this year so I wouldn't know too much but he seems a bit pompous from what I've seen. What NEWT courses are you taking?"
"My school was different than Hogwarts, it didn't offer as many courses, so I wasn't able to get the OWLs necessary to attend a few of the NEWT classes offered here. I'm taking the basics, Transfig, Potions, DADA, Divination, Charms."
"Divination? I'm guessing your teacher was an actual seer then?" Harry smiled.
"Yeah, she knew what she was doing." She agreed.
"So Dumbledore said you came from Onsdale Academy… where is that?" He asked. "You don't sound British."
"I'm not. Onsdale is a Canadian school." She told him. "I'm from North America."
"Whoa." Harry raised his eyebrows. "Why'd you move all the way to the UK?"
"Blagh, blagh a load of events really." She said evasively.
"I see. Where do you stay during vacation?" Harry asked.
"Here and there." She muttered. "I used to stay with my Aunt back in Onsdale days… I think I'm with my other Aunt now."
"You think?" he prodded.
Alexa gave an odd nervous laugh, "Heh. If she'll have me. Look, it's a long story and I'd really rather not bore you with it. So, where do you go during the summer?"
"My Aunt and Uncle's place. They can be right arses but the feeling of dislike is mutual." Harry grinned. "Sometimes I go to my friend Ron's place, he's a sixth year prefect here."
"Your Aunt and Uncle's place, huh?" she fiddled with her wand.
"Look, this school is pretty huge so you'd better find someone you know in every class and stick by them, it's quite easy to get lost. We get our schedules tomorrow at breakfast." Harry advised.
'Well I know a total of one person, two if you count being dragged by Blondie. Malfoy, did you say his name was?" she smiled.
"Yeah, he's a real prat. Don't worry, you'll probably make friends really quickly, the Gryffindor lot are decent people. Loads of fellow sixteen year olds to see."
"Actually, I'm 15. My old school did things differently, there were only 5 years and I had just finished year four. Professor Dumbledore thought that translated into the equivalents of five years here so he put me into sixth."
"Oh, right. Just 5 years? That must've been cramped."
"Yeah it wasn't a boarding school like this one but we had nine hour days and attended half days on Saturdays too. Not to mention break neck pace." She shook her head.
As Harry brushed his fringe out of his eyes, the girl spotted the thin scar on his forehead and curiously asked, "How did you get that scar?"
Harry thought his jaw would drop. She seriously didn't know. Deciding to let it remain that way and relishing in the fact that he wasn't being treated like some sort of celebrity for one of the rare times in the wizarding world, he murmured something about a curse gone wrong and changed the subject.
The two talked for a good while and by the time people started coming down, the girl felt a bit less like a Newbie and was much more in the know about the way things worked at the school. Not to mention the fact that she was warming up to Harry quite well and sincerely pleased that she had at least one friend. No one had seen her pathetic weepy self on the staircase except for Malfoy and he didn't seem to care much…No one had to know about her past.
When Seamus Finnigan strode down to the common room from his dorm to find the pair of them falling over each other with laughter, he couldn't help but smirk. "So that's where you ran off to so early. I was wondering why your bed was empty, you who always sleeps in. Way to flirt with the new girl before any of us get a chance!"
Alexa laughed as Harry turned slightly pink and threw a cushion at his friend. "I'm Seamus," he told the girl with a wink.
"Devilishly handsome. You were right, Harry, I thought you were exaggerating but no-" she laughed, her eyes twinkling.
Harry chuckled and shook his head, "Seamus, this is Alexa, or Rachel-"
"Alexa."
Just then more footsteps were heard and a fifth year Harry recognized groaned, "Geez. The famous Potter strikes again. Do you get everything, mate? The Boy Who Lived and entrances all the girls, leave some for the rest of us who don't have lightening bolts on our foreheads."
"That didn't sound bitter at all, missing your girlfriend now that she's dumped you, do you?" Hermione Granger rolled her eyes as she excited her dorm at the same moment. "I'm Hermione, and I'm a prefect if you have any questions."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Alexa Mallory." She smiled warmly but turned to the fifth year, cocking her head.
"Come on, we'd better get to breakfast. Ron is coming now, so we can get a move on." Harry gestured at the redhead striding down the stairs looking as if he had left his brain in his bed.
The lot of them made their way to the Great Hall, introducing Alexa to the various Hogwarts students they passed.
"That's Colin-" Harry pointed.
"Harry's one man fan club." Ron sniggered.
"And there's Justin-"
"An idiot who thought Harry was trying to kill him when he actually saved his life." Hermione rolled her eyes.
"As if you guys didn't." Harry shook his head.
"It's too bad you don't get to meet the Weasley Twins, Fred and George-" Harry said wistfully. "They're bloody brilliant in inventing pranks and stuff. They've even got their own joke shop. But they left last year. They're Ron's brothers."
"There's Ginny, Ron's sister." Hermione waved at the girl.
"She had a massive crush on Harry for years." Ron grinned.
"Crabbe and Goyle, Malfoy's brain dead troll-like friends." Hermione said, her face scrunching as if something very unpleasant was placed under her nose.
The schedules were soon handed out and to her relief; Alexa found that she had Charms first with Hermione, Harry, and Neville. After that would come Potions with the whole trio. The afternoon held DADA with Harry, and then Divination. So far the last period was the only subject where she didn't have a friend with her.
The morning was great fun, though the trio nearly had a cow when they discovered Snape wasn't teaching Potions, but Slughorn was. Heading to the Hall for lunch, Ron and Harry were gaping at the girl.
"Did you see that potion? And those charms? You caught on faster than Hermione!" Ron exclaimed in awe.
"I was raised by a Potions Master and an Auror." She shrugged. "And I have a sort of weird hobby, I love reading up new spells and incantations in Charms."
"So you're good in DADA too? I think we have a second Hermione," Ron laughed. He quickly shut up upon catching the glare Hermione sent his way.
"Eh. Not really, I dropped History of Magic after my first year. Well, they kicked me out more like, I pretty much spent those hours there drooling on the desk and failing tests." She sheepishly admitted. "And I'm just glad we don't have to take dance classes here, god I have less coordination and grace than a duck in the mud."
"No one's good in History of Magic," Harry consoled. "I'm so glad we don't have to take it any more."
"Well, except for Hermione, of course," Ron smiled at the girl, obviously attempting to settle her temper. "She's good at everything. Brilliant. Should be a Ravenclaw."
"Oh stop sucking up Ronald I'm not mad at you," she rolled her eyes, though a pleased glow radiated from her.
The afternoon was a lot of fun as well; there couldn't have been a better first day for Alexa. After DADA, she had to suppress her glee and the bounce in her step after Harry praised her during the class. Even with a Professor she already seemed to hate teaching the subject, she still had loads of fun. Being raised by an Auror had placed her a few notches ahead of most of the class, and she and Harry were the only ones in which Snape could find nothing to criticize about, much to his displeasure.
"You've got to show me how you do that!" Harry gaped as with a flick of her arm, without even opening her mouth, she sent a force field wrapping around her and all the cushions within five feet of her flying across the room.
"Only if you show me how to do a corporal Patronus, I can't seem to get more than a wispy white smoke that disappears after just a second." She bargained, fighting the urge to laugh at the amazed look in his eyes.
"Look at Snape, he can't bear the fact that you already know how to do silent spells." Harry muttered, smirking at the tic that was forming on Snape's eye as he frowned at them.
"I'm trying wand less magic but it's friggin hard," she sighed, "Want to give it a try? You're the best DADA student I've ever met and I could use pointers."
"Sure. It'd probably be dead useful." He said thoughtfully. The two left the classroom as class ended and went their separate ways.
"I've got Divination." She told him.
"Ah. Free period." He grinned. "Have fun with Trelawny."
"She can't be that bad." Alexa said.
"Uh huh. I'll see you in the Great Hall." He shook his head and laughed as he strode in the opposite direction.
Still grinning from the unbelievable day that was better than she could have imagined, it took about three minutes for her to realize that she had no idea where the Divination classroom was. Harry was gone. Taking a look around her, she didn't see anyone familiar. Walking up to a random person she tapped them on the shoulder.
"Hi, do you know where the Divination room is-?" she asked.
"Nope, don't take it." The person shrugged apologetically, turning back to their friend.
Three tries later, she was starting to get desperate. Random guy #5. "Excuse me, do you know where Trelawny's Divination room is?"
The person turned around. Blondness. Lovely blondness. Pale, Sex God-y face. Must not melt…
"I don't take it but yeah, I do." He answered, giving her a once over. Upon hearing his voice, she suddenly realized whom she was talking to.
"Oh crap. It's you." She hadn't recognized him. Last night it had been too dark and she had been too preoccupied to get a good look at the wanker who dragged her up to the Gryffindor room but his voice was clearly that of Malfoy's. Damn though, jerk he may be, but a hot one.
"That's a rather nice welcome. Do I know you?" he said, a cross between a flirtatious smile, a confused frown, and an arrogant smirk on his face.
"You only pulled me up four flights of stairs at 5 AM." She rolled her eyes.
"What? You're the new girl?" he blinked. Obviously, she wasn't the only one who didn't see very well that night. He stared at her in disbelief and awe. "You look different. You clean up well."
Torn between disgust that the slimy jerk was so obviously checking her out and pleasure that a complete Sex God was hitting on her, she settled on raising her eyebrows. "Look, I'm late for Divination. Could you show me where it is?"
"This means you're Gryffindor, doesn't it?" he sighed.
"I'm in Gryffindor, yes." She nodded, "I'm late-so can you show me Trelawny's room?"
"Who in their right minds would talk Divination with that bat?" Malfoy shook his head.
"Even you don't like her?" she exclaimed. If both Harry and Malfoy were in agreement that she was a fraud, then she must be horrid. "I happen to like Divination."
"I don't have anything against the subject, hell I like it too, but the professor can't do shit in that subject. Which is why I'm with Firenze, instead."
"There are two Divination professors?" Alexa questioned.
"Oh yeah, but Trelawny is supposed to teach the sixth years, I go to Firenze anyways when he teaches the seventh years. Snape and Dumbledore don't care much."
"You take Divination with the seventh years?" she raised her eyebrows.
"It's much better than anything Trelawny could do."
"You can actually keep up?"
"I happen to be quite good in Divination," he said, somewhat defensively.
"Can you just show me the bloody room?" Alexa exasperatedly sighed.
"All right, fine. Actually, I was going there anyways, Firenze doesn't start until next week, he's been ill."
"You've made this long drawn out conversation when you're actually going there anyways?" she almost punched him. Instead, she looked around and demanded. "So where the fuck do we go? We must be twenty minutes late by now!"
The Divination room was a ten-minute/ walk up far too many stairs and by then half the class was over.
"You are such a git." She glared at him as they stood outside the door. Giving him one last dirty look, she opened the door.
"I showed you here didn't I." He whispered as he slipped into the heated room.
"You were coming here anyways, toad," she muttered back. The two shifted awkwardly as they saw that Trelawny's back was turned to them and the class was nearly silent as they were peering into their books. A few people looked up and smirked when they saw that Malfoy and Alexa were together, most notably Parvati and Lavender, both of whom had giggled upon seeing her with Harry earlier.
Malfoy cleared his throat impatiently and slung his book down on the nearest empty table, effectively causing the professor to turn around.
"Hello, hello, I knew you two would be late. Come on then, sit down, you'll be needing a partner in a few minutes," Trelawny gave a little nudge at Alexa and plopped her down beside Malfoy.
The class was completely boring and plain bad. Trelawny decided to recap on the things she had previously taught, then she assigned some lucrative task in which every partner in turn would read the first sentence in their text book out loud and their partner was to listen to the hidden subtext and tone and be able to decipher what the person was feeling. It was, all in all, stupid.
"You're feeling horny as hell for me," Malfoy concluded upon listening to the words she spoke. Alexa rolled her eyes and gestured for him to read, choosing to ignore the fact that she was just staring at how wonderfully full his lips were.
He read the same sentence and Alexa decided to give it a go. "You're tired, bored with Trelawny, and…you're feeling alone."
"Going for the tragic hero vibe? Try Potter." Malfoy laughed. She stared at him closely and saw that his eyes did have a slightly haunted look in them, as if the shutters were shut. They were emotionless and cold.
Class ended and Malfoy chose to talk to her as the two left the tower.
"You were right, Trelawny is a total fraud."
"Transfer out, I'll show you Firenze's forest room next week, he's pretty cool for a centaur."
"Centaur? We get to get taught by a centaur?" she gaped.
"I'm assuming you've made friends with the Gryffindor hero?"
"Hero?"
"Potty." Malfoy said.
"Do you two hate each other or something, honestly. You are a jerk and I swear to God if you leer at me one more time I'm going to hex all your beautiful blonde hair off."
"Beautiful, eh?" he flashed a grin. Muttering something under her breath, Alexa waved her wand and a moment later Malfoy was feeling the top of his head in horror. "What the hell! Bring it back! Bring it back!" his voice was panicked.
Laughing in spite of herself, she patted his back. "But you look so much more like the naked mole rat you are when your hair isn't in the way."
"Rachel, bring it back please good god woman-" his eyes darted around the hallway as he attempted to hide his head from view.
"I told you not to be such a sick jerk." She was thoroughly enjoying this. "You're really quite vain if you care this much-" She laughed and with another flick his hair was restored. "All right, all right, don't worry."
Relief seeped through his eyes as he felt the hair slip over his eyes again.
"Why didn't you hex me back?"
"I don't attack girls."
"I think I can handle myself." She raised her eyebrows. Sexist git who thinks girls can't take him… Kind of sweet and gentlemanly, in a superior, girls are weak kind of way. But by this time she had caught sight of Harry and Ron walking towards them. She grinned at them and turned to Malfoy, "See you later mole rat." Smirking at the look on his face, she turned and ran to meet Ron and Harry.
A/N: This is about the single longest chapter I've ever written for anything lol. This story will be a Draco/OC not a Draco/Hermione, sorry.