Note: As you can see, I do NOT own Harry Potter (obviously, who actually DOES?) but I do own the screwdriver that can take your eyes out... sooo, REVIEW! .
It was the third day of my 5th year at Wingates and I had just heard my owl's wings flutter when I opened the letter from my mom. It was written in my mother's usual messy font. I eagerly broke the seal and read it, hoping to hear some juicy gossip on what had happened with her last boyfriend. I froze. All time had stopped and it only regenerated when Eileen tapped my shoulder of my dark purple robe.
I stared at her and realized what I would have to tell her. "I…I…." I stuttered. "I have to……move……"
"What? Come on. Don't joke, the last thing I need to hear is some prank from you." She said. "Besides, The school year just started, who would move now!"
"I'm not lying to you Eileen…I really have to move...overseas" My exasperated face must have given the fact away that I wasn't lying…and the fact that I couldn't lie at all even if I tried. Eileen's face turned from disbelief to one that slightly resembled a bright red tomato. Her scarlet hair didn't help.
"That's not right. Wha….what…..when did you find out!" She stammered.
"This morning, it was exceptional of my mother to tell me now." I stared at my post. At the near end, I could just make out a date that was smudged in coffee. "September 26." I murmured. Wait, it couldn't be. September 26 was four days from tomorrow. That meant… I scanned the sheet up and down. "I'm moving in, four days." I did the math. I would have to travel to my mom for two days and would have to pack in one. That left one day to organize and I expected my mom to pick the two of the cheapest plane tickets; the ones that took off in the middle of the night. That left me with the fact that I would have to leave Wingates today.
Eileen gaped at me. "Four days……..four days? Not four weeks! Not four months? Four friggin DAYS!" It seemed as if it was taking really long for her to take all this in. As she screamed, more and more people started to stare at us.
"Ummm, Eileen? Maybe you should calm down." I kept on negotiating with her as she bawled on until she calmed. Eileen's bright red hair was awry as she wiped all the tears from her wet cheeks, primarily from the screaming.
"You can't go!" She pleaded me. I stared at her in that way that said "what do you think?"
"Fine…. But first tell me where you're going. I'll send you mail everyday! We can still talk over mail!"
"Thanks Eileen, but I don't think Vervine (Her old, rusty owl) can handle it. I'm going all the way to London. And I'm probably leaving tonight, thanks to my mom." It was nearing 8:00 P.M and I saw Professor Morram walking this way with a few white documents in hand. I suspected that they were for me. She strode up to me and crisply said to Eileen: "Ms. Amber, I'm hoping that you don't break down in front of us today due to Ms. Williams but please do try to maintain a bit quieter reaction. Ms. Williams? Come this way." She swiftly turned around and started walking down to what I suspected was her office. I quickly stood up and rushed down to Professor Morram while casting a gloomy look to Eileen as she sat there, totally alone, looking miserable.
"I understand, Ms. Williams that your mother has sent me a letter informing us that you are transferring to London?"
"Um, yeah. I mean, yes." I said.
"So, you are clear on when you will leave I presume?"
"Um, yes. I think I leave today."
"Exactly, at exactly ten o'clock tonight, you will be escorted to the train which will take you to the station. Your mother has already purchased the tickets which are in this envelope. Do not lose this." She enunciated with a warning look. "It also seems that your mother has acquired your muggle 'plane' tickets for you. They are also in the envelope. Along with your tickets, there are papers which will inform you of your new school. It is very prestigious with a different culture than ours, so try not to leave a black mark on Wingates for them. Ms. Williams, your new school is Hogwarts led by Professor Dumbledore. Any questions?" It was there when she left off with a satisfied look that seemed to be as if she had quenched my thirst for knowledge of my new school.
I had hundreds, thousands of questions but I just couldn't bring myself to say anything. That which led Professor Morram to believe that I was content to the point that I didn't need to ask anything.
"Alright then Ms. Williams, out you go." She shooed me out of her classroom while I had on a bewildered look on my face. "So then, you remember everything?" She asked once again for good measure when we stopped at the doorway.
"Ye…Yeah…."
"Alright then, pack your bags and you'll meet Ms. Bennede out in the Main Hall." She gave me a reassuring looked and said something I would ponder during the journey to Hogwarts: "Ms. Williams, it's a tough world out there. There are differences that even some of the greatest wizards won't accept. Don't be too distressed if that happens; just remember that life has its ups and downs in this world of ours."
Wow. That was……fairly deep. But I still didn't get it. Professor Morram nodded me a last goodbye as I walked down the hall to my room to pack my bags.
It wasn't the fact that I would have to move away from Eileen that bothered me. It also wasn't the fact that Hogwarts seemed like a pressurizing school. It was the fact that I would have to travel to London, the one place where my exiled memories would unlock and plummet out into my mind. I sighed. Why did my mom have to pick London! Of all the places to flee to, as if it wasn't the place that we ran away from to escape…
My suitcases were at the train station and I was shivering, even though it was fairly warm. What would happen? Why did I have to go? I already said my goodbyes to Eileen and Derlin's cage was tucked under my arm. Derlin was my owl. He was deep russet with big flecks of pure white. Slowly, the train chugged up to me and the station manager put the suitcases up on board. I got on board and it was forlorn with no people. "Of course you idiot!" I thought to myself. "No one else should be onboard except for me. I am the one moving after all." With a sigh, I sat on a couch and started going through the papers that Professor Morram gave to me.
Hogwarts? What kind of name was that? I skimmed through the sheets over and over. Apparently, it was some school for witchcraft and wizardry and….in scribbles, it was written that some "Harry Pottir" went to school there. No wait…it was "Potter." Who was he? I distinctly remembered in my history of magic classes that some Potter boy was the first to survive the Avada Kedavra curse. "Wowwwwwowowowowww! Auuuuuggggh!" I screamed as I rolled off the seat and onto the floor. The train had come to a crashing halt. "OH MY GOD!" I screamed and rolled down and down the aisle and crashed onto the front end of the train. I stood still and silently regained the knowledge of the fact that I was upside down against a wall. While righting myself, I checked myself over to see if there were any bruises or broken bones. "OW!" There was a large bash on my shoulder and it was the color of a ripe plum.
"Anbruxio." I whispered as I held my wand out at my bruise. Immediately, the purple slowly began to fade away and there was a slight tingling sensation. I sighed and started walking out the train.
So this was England. It was almost the same as I remembered the same blustery wind and weather. And I would have to live here for the time being. "Sigh" Well, now to find my mom. Or as they say, 'mum.' I was outside the airport and was holding all of my bags on the sidewalk. I was looking about and I got a glimpse of a white blond head. Well, seeing as this is part of my story, a flashback has to happen at some time…right?
Flashback
It was the last month where I would stay at England. My mother and I were shopping for clothes and I wandered off. I was ten years old and I was playing outside the shop while my mother was inside. While sitting on a chair, I saw this incredible white blond head of hair. Who was he? I asked myself. "Hi." I said, running up to him.
"Who are you?" He asked. He looked about my age. He had a pale face and, like I said, had a shock of white blond hair on his head. "I'm Emma, who are you?" I asked eagerly. "I'm….Draco." "Draco? That's a weird name. It sounds like dragon!"
"Well……." He mumbled. All of the sudden, "BAM!" A rock that was kicked from the curb flew right at me and bashed right into my head. I was completely bowled over. How would you feel if you had a rock smashed into your head? Well, not the greatest sensation in the world is it? I was lying on the curb and blood was pouring out of my head. Malfoy was standing over me with a shocked look on his face. I couldn't feel any pain...and I couldn't figure out why. Shouldn't I be screaming in pain? But Malfoy kneeled by me and put his fingers over my wound. Aah! What was he going to do? "Don't hurt me…" I whimpered.
Suddenly, I felt a slight burning sensation. What was happening? I felt my head and scrunched my eyes. It was….healed. For a second, I wondered if all that ever happened. But I felt the warm blood on the cold concrete. So I looked up and around for him but Draco was gone.
I snapped back to reality when my Mom came up and hugged me.
"Emma! I missed you so much!" She cried. I hugged her back and said a bit dazedly "Hi Mom!"
"Okay Emma, I found this great new house and there's that fantastic school! It's going to be a permanent place to stay now Emma, it's going to be the best." While my mom chattered on and on about the place, I didn't even bother to ask her 'why' we had to move here. All I wanted to do was to transfer and get adapted to everything before the rush took me in its jaws and never let me go.
It took a while but I finally got to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Of course I did have some troubles. Why the hell did they have to have a brick wall between the stations! I mean, why not doors like normal people or a separate train station? Anyway, I crashed, once again, into the Platform wall and my suitcases all spilled down onto the floor. How would I get through? So I picked up all of my stuff and started pacing. I'm sure I looked like freak, pacing around a brick….thing, and muttering to myself on how to get through. I finally gave up and started carting my carting away but…somehow, I wanted to try again. The papers had said to think of going through when you walked through. Why not try again, one…last…time?
"One…two…" I muttered under my breath as I was gripping my handlebars of my cart like a racing go-kart's. "THREE!" I screamed as I sprinted right at the bricks. "OHHHH MY GOD!" There was a swooshing sound and a feeling that could only be described as smooth mud, sucking you into its depths. And, there I was, in Platform 9 and ¾.
Whoa. The whole train was covered in scarlet and gold. Nice color choice.
But the train was starting to leave so I quickly jumped onboard with my bags.
Inside, it was seriously…clean. Way better than the other train I took. I could remember the gum in my hair when I crashed into the wall. Ugh, gross.
But it was so lonesome and even the cleanliness of it all couldn't match up to the fact that I wanted to talk to someone, somebody other than a train conductor or an annoyed flight attendant. But I was finally relieved that I could practice my magic openly in public now that we were in the surroundings of witches and wizards, or at least in Hogwarts.
"Nuruinient." I flicked my wand and shaped a plate in the air to land a newly conjured cheeseburger on it. 10 hours of just 3 tiny packets of honey roasted peanuts left me ravenous.
"TWEET…TWEET!" The intermittent whistle of the horn or whatever it was woke me up startlingly. I must have fallen asleep during the long hours of the ride. With crumbs in my hair and mussed up clothes, I stumbled to the bathroom to get ready. I opened my bag and found a complete set of Hogwarts robes inside. Silently thanking my mom, I changed out of my Green Day T-shirt and jeans into the black uniformed robes. Quite the difference.
"Now, where to get to…" While murmuring to myself, I walked around the landing station and tried to find out how to get inside that massive castle up ahead. Of course, having a huge lake around it would make it considerably easier. I fumbled around in the dark and found a small wooden boat with two paddles. Hmmm…
Why not? It couldn't hurt…
Turns out, it can. What seemed like a short paddle to land turned out to be an hour's worth of oaring in the dark with who knows what in the foreboding waters underneath shaking my boat. Not good. Any blowhard that says that rowing a boat is easy, tell him to paddle around in the conditions I was in for an hour or two, then report back to me.
Soaked in water and with seaweed in my hair (Don't ask) I stumbled up to the welcoming castle. I saw a witch in green come up to me. With her hair in a bun and her lips creased tightly together, she looked like a serious professor who didn't take crap from anyone.
"I'll assume you're Emma Williams? I am Professor McGonagall. Come with me." She commanded crisply. She turned around and started walking inside the castle which obviously was a motion for me to follow. I really didn't need the motion. Fueled with the need for warmth, I sprinted haltingly into the big wooden doors of the fortress.
"Williams, though I understand about your need for warmth, do try not to run so hard into the castle. Many have gained bruises on their bottoms that way." I nodded sheepishly and practically melted from the fireplace in front of me. "Come this way Williams." Professor McGonagall ordered me once again. I nodded a yes and scuttled up to follow her. Hogwarts was….so different. Though Wingates was a castle, it had no suits of armor or ghosts that skimmed the halls of Hogwarts. But Hogwarts and Wingates were both very warm and bright. For that, I was very grateful.
Taking in all of the sights around me, I followed Professor McGonagall up to a statue of a griffin. All right then.
"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans!" She chanted. Nothing happened. I glanced at the statue skeptically. But I noticed that dust was somehow shaking off of the marble. Then…the whole griffin suddenly turned upwards and started mounting up. I could hear the stone grating on the wall. Whoa. Professor McGonagall stepped on the steps that showed themselves while the statue slowly curved on up. Worried that I would be left behind, I leaped on with my robes billowing before me.
When I stepped off of the stairs, I could see an office. It was warm and bright with yet another set of stairs leading up to a private small library of some sort. An old man with twinkling eyes quite like a child's, came up to me and introduced himself as Headmaster Dumbledore.
"Quite the good afternoon isn't it Williams? Well, we must hurry and use the sorting cap before the year is wasted away." He walked over to a shelf where all sorts of silver thingamabobs were modeled. Professor Dumbledore skimmed the shelves with his hands until he landed upon a tattered black hat.
"Aah, here it is." The Professor said content with what he had found.
"This, Williams, is the Sorting Hat. This will determine what house you are in."
He held it out to me.
"Umm, sure." I haltingly took it and put it on my head. When I put it on, all was silent until……a quiet voice crept into my mind.
"You are Emma Williams. Welcome to your sorting." The sorting hat began to poke through my dreams and memories while I struggled not to reveal them. I could almost see myself making a clenched face and making unintelligible noises.
Finally, after almost half an hour of poking and prodding, the hat had come to one conclusion.
"You, Emma Williams, are in SLYTHERIN!" That one last word rang out in the open air. Then, silence. Okay…umm, what was Slytherin?
I looked around and saw another professor in the office. His hair was greasy black and he had a disapproving look etched on his face.
"This is Williams…correct?" He looked down at me and slightly sneered. "I am Professor Snape. I am the Head of Slytherin. Follow me." He whisked out and down the statue stairs. I followed after him with a puzzled look on my face. Yeah, I was being confused most of the time here. But what was his problem? Was it my face or something? I ran my hands over my robes to make sure there weren't any fuzz lumps or anything nasty: Nothing, okay then. I followed Professor Snape until I came upon a huge dungeon door.
"This is the entrance to the Slytherin common room. The password is 'pureblood.' Do not forget the location and the password or you will suffer the consequences." He glared at me as if he was daring me be a nuisance to him by doing something like forget a password. "The girl's dormitory is the stairs to the right. Your bags will be on your bed with your schedule. Good night Williams, I trust you can get help from the other students if you need any." With that, Snape whisked away, leaving me in front of the gloomy dungeons.
"Pureblood." I enunciated. Suddenly, with the sound of heavy stone grating together, the great walls opened and I was looking into a world of silver. The walls looked like pure molten silver. And the chairs and couches were draped with luminescent silvery sheets. Cool. After gaping at the room, I dragged myself up the stairs and I leaped onto my bed.
That was really stupid. Like Professor Snape said, my stuff was on it. The edge of my suitcase jabbed my back as I rolled myself off the bed. I changed out of my clothes which had mysteriously become crisp and dry and got into my jammies. Stumbling up to my bed, I hauled my bags off of it and packed my stuff away. The bed was green and silver with drapes around it. I tossed myself on and dug myself under the downy sheets and pillows. Fatigue overcame me and I gladly accepted it.
"So, you're the new Slytherin girl. You don't seem like one of us. Where're you from?" A girl whose name seemed to be Pansy was sneering down at me.
"I'm from the States."
"Hmph, figures, you have that accent." She enunciated the word accent with disdain.
We were in the girl's dormitory and Pansy Parkinson was cornering me.
"Uh, what accent? Well excuse me, but for all you know, you're the one with the accent, Miss. Paaansy Paaahhkinson." I retorted back, emphasizing the A's.
"HMPH!" Miss 'Paaansy Paaahhkinson' walked off in a huff.
"God, what an idiot." I muttered to myself as I picked up my books and parchment that I dropped on the floor. It was half an hour until I had to leave for class. As far as I knew, there were four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and of course, Slytherin. From the way things were in the girl's dorm, either the whole school was like this or Slytherin was seriously conceited. Either way, I was getting considerably nervous. I would have to deal with all this for a whole year and more, just my luck to get stuck in this house.
I walked out of the dorm and into the common room. There, I saw an assortment of people. It was intended to be relaxing but as a new Slytherin, you might as well have stuck silver up my butt what with all the snobs. Even though all of them were pretty much haughty, there was one person that seemed to be the most arrogant of all. And he was in the middle of the common room, lounging on a couch.
"You there, you're the new Slytherin 5th year aren't you?" He scrutinized me with his glaring eyes. The rat had white blond hair and was a good 5 inches taller than me. Why God, why did he have to be all fit and tall?
"What's your name?"
"I'm Emma Williams. What's yours?" I asked warily. I didn't trust him or his evil little minions.
He stood up off the couch. "I am Draco, from the Malfoy family." He glanced at me as if I should know who they were. Sadly, I disappointed him.
"My father is part of the Ministry of Magic. Lucias Malfoy…perhaps you heard of him? No? Hmmm… What do your parents do?" Malfoy said that as if he was daring me to say a job better than his father's.
"My mother's a writer."
"Hmm..." He looked at me with contempt. "And your father?"
"My father happens to be dead." I shot back. Who was he to pry into my life?
"It's a wonder why that hat puts riffraff in Slytherin." He wondered with great self pity.
WHAT? RIFFRAFF? WHAT KIND OF SHIT WAS THAT? WHO WAS HE TO CALL ME RIFFRAFF?
I glared at him with rage. "Well excuse me if I'm riffraff to you arrogant snobs."
Malfoy ignored me and sniggered. "It's so pathetic, it's almost like your parents were muggles."
"Well FYI, yes they were muggles." I snapped. He stopped laughing.
"Your parents are…muggles?" "Yes."
"That means you're a mudblood." He glared at me and his voice rose into a crescendo. "The hat let a filthy mudblood in? In the pure lineage of Slytherin? We'll never live it down. NEVER! A simple girl will ruin the name of Slytherin." Malfoy hissed. He stormed out of the common room and slammed the dungeon door shut. I stood there, speechless of what I had heard. What kind of people were they? Everyone stared at me. Some were scared…most angry.
I ran out of their sight as quickly as I could. Draco Malfoy had just ruined my chanced of ever having at least one friend in Slytherin. It seemed that he was their utter role model. Well, I suppose it wasn't a huge loss.
I ran out into the Great Hall and hissed out my breath. That idiot! A mudblood? What the heck was a mudblood? I mulled over what he said and it dawned on me.
I was muggle born. Soooo….. That was a mudblood. Well, it seemed like an insult and I took it like one! Filthy blood….why that foul little…………. I muttered a symphony of curses under my breath while I sat onto a Slytherin table. I was angrily plopping orange marmalade onto my piece of toast when I heard a voice behind me.
"Hello, are you the new Slytherin?" I turned. There was a chestnut haired boy behind me. He looked just about my age with a funny looking scar on his forehead. Behind him were another boy and a girl all around 15. The boy had a mass of orange hair and the girl had bushy brown hair with an arm wrapped around a thick book.
"Uh, umm. Yeah, I'm Emma Williams. Wh...who are you?" I stammered as I wiped the splattered marmalade off my front. It was a shock that anyone would even talk to me civilly after what happened in the common room today. It was then when I noticed their emblem on their robes. With gold and scarlet hues, there was a big G on the medal insignia. A G that stood for Gryffindor. I suppose they hadn't seen the spectacle.
"Er, I'm Harry Potter and this is Ron Weasley." Harry pointed at the other boy. "And this is Hermione Granger." He turned and motion to the girl. When he turned back, I saw eyes that were shockingly emerald. I shook my head free of the daze and smiled. Maybe, life in this castle won't be so bad after all.
"Hi. Um, while you're here, could you help me with my class schedule? It's driving me crazy."
"No no no, you add 3 drops of fermented liquefied heartwood. Not the paste! Honestly Ron, it says so right here on the list." Hermione was lecturing Ron in potions class. We were told to brew the Giddiren Draught. It supposedly made the drinker exceedingly animated. While Ron and Hermione were bickering over Ron's incompetence and Hermione's bossiness, I was silently wallowing over my potion. The board in front said it should be a clear smooth blue. I looked at my brew and saw that it was murky and… eerily green. Ewwwww. It looked like pulverized caterpillars. Yes, I was sorry to say that it was chunky. And I didn't even want to know what it smelled like.
"Umm, Hermione? I need your help. Her…Hermione? The… the potion's really starting to boil…HERMIONE?" When I last called her name, my potion suddenly overflowed onto the flooring. From one minute to the next, the dungeon's clean ground became the most disgusting floor I had ever seen. Professor Snape strode over and glowered at me.
"Why Williams, you seem to have gotten half of the draught wrong. Well since you made the mess, you should clean it up. A fitting operation I presume? And 5 points from Slytherin…" Snape walked away with a satisfied look on his nasty face.
"Errrrggghhhh." I groaned. The foul mess in front of me was actually starting slowly pulse.
It was after the class and when I was decked out in dragon hide gloves and a sponge as an accessory. While kneeling on the floor and trying to scour the goop off with a sponge, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Malfoy fume up to me with two of his henchmen: Crabbe and Goyle.
Groaning, I sighed "What do you want?"
Malfoy started howling.
"You're going to be the downfall of us all! Are you happy? Sure, a filthy mudblood like you wouldn't understand. Just…just stop!" He waved his hands madly. "You…you- just-!" His talking didn't make much sense and he seemed to be at a loss for words.
"I suppose you're furious because I got into Slytherin and since I'm not perfect and I made a mess of the floor and I lost as much as (Oh my God) five points from Slytherin in the first few weeks of Hogwarts, that I'm going to be the "downfall" of Slytherin and it's oh so pure lineage?" I sighed and batted my lashes. Again, he was at a loss for what to say. I imitated his wild hand motions with a look of innocence.
"Arrgghhh!" He bellowed, resembling a constipated gorilla. My God, I was so glad that there weren't any teachers around right now…
"Will ya stop yelling? It's gonna get the professors here." I yawned distastefully obviously cutting the last straw.
Finally, Malfoy's stupefied pale face turned bright red which was a great accomplishment considering how fair he was. In a rage, Malfoy once again stormed out on me. I winced when I heard the clanging of heavy dungeon doors banging together.
Ooh, that's been twice.
Was it just me or did Malfoy have a really small capacity for anger? I seemed that whenever he started to yell at me and I answered back, his face blew up and he ran away. Oh well, did it matter? No. He was just a dumbass that just had a short fuse. God, why do all the good looking people in this world have to be huge jerks?
I mulled over this during the next day's breakfast. Well, I suppose Harry was pretty good-looking. But he wasn't good boyfriend material. I would bet anything that if he ever got a girlfriend, Harry would lose her before the end of the month. And Ron…lets not talk about Ron.
"You there. Here, now." I heard Malfoy call for me with intense loathing in his voice. Something I learned that he reserved strictly for the Trio and now, me.
"What?" I groaned. I waked over to where he was motioning for me.
"You…are going to stop this. So become as small as possible. Just be invisible. We don't need rats like you in Slytherin. Just shut up." He stared at me like I was supposed to follow him and be his little slave.
"Well, for your information, I may be a rat but at least I'm not a parasite! You thick, stupid idiot!" I stomped off and left him standing there.
"Wow, you really let one on him!" Hermione congratulated me.
"Funny you're saying that." Ron scoffed. "You actually called him a cockroach and punched him in our third year!"
We were sitting in the library and "studying." The librarian whisked over with a death glare.
"No talking in the library! Out! Shoo! Shoo! Out!" She shooed us out of the deathly quiet library. Our books came crashing down on our heads as we stumbled out.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Ron yelled in pain.
"Hmph, stupid librarian." I muttered. We weren't that loud…
After many months of torture and ranting of Malfoy, it was finally time to go home for Christmas break. Though it was only 2 weeks, it seamed like a lifetime of happiness compared to a day stuck with Malfoy… Brr, I could only imagine a horror like that. The thought shivered through my veins. Thank God I had my mother, no matter how flaky she was. Of course, I just had to get a letter from her a day before the break.
Dear Emma, I have good news. I've met a guy! Him name is Ethan and he's taking me to Rome for the winter break! I'm sorry honey but he already paid for the tickets and they're not refundable. So I was talking to this man I met in a bookstore and he seems like an intelligent man. Turns out, he has a son who's in the same grade as you are. He said that they're going to their winter villa during break and he offered for you to stay with them for the break. Isn't that great! So to go with them to their villa, you're going to have to go with his son. Meet him when everyone's boarding out of the school. Hope you have a fun time with the Malfoys!
Well, that was the first chapter! Forgive me for the cheesiness. bow Well, anyway, that all I've written for now, I don't know what to write next... damn you writer's block! Wait for the next chapter!