A/N: "quote" means speech.
italics means emphasis.
'italics' means thoughts.
"italics" means spell.
Destiny's Games
-The Sorcerer's Stone
Chapter Two:
Meeting Potter
Sevti walked down the aisle, searching for a compartment that was not already full. She had almost abandoned hope when she got to a compartment near the back of the train that was occupied by two boys and no one else.
One had red hair and a spattering of freckles. He had a dark smudge on his nose that looked like it had been rubbed at, but wouldn't come off.
The other had untidy jet black hair. She couldn't see his face from her position. They were both lacking house crests, so she assumed they were first years. She knocked politely on the door and stuck her head in.
"Mind if I sit here?" she asked with a smile. "Everywhere else is full, I got kicked out of the compartment I was sitting in." she pulled a face.
The black-haired boy turned around to look at her and she gasped. Her jaw dropped fractionally. In a turn of luck, she had found her way directly into Harry Potter's compartment. If the green eyes weren't proof enough, the lightning-bolt scar poking out from under his fringe of hair was.
"Wow, Harry Potter." She quickly regained control of her jaw and smiled.
The boy blushed scarlet and didn't quite meet her eyes.
That answered one of Sevti's questions. The boy wasn't really letting all of the attention go to his head. That was always a good thing.
She turned her attention to the redhead behind him. "What's your name?" she asked the lanky boy.
"Ron Weasley," he said. He smiled tentatively at her.
"Cool. My name's Sevti, Sevti Sheikh."
Potter smiled. "Nice to meet you Sevti," he said cordially.
Weasley, however, looked at her with horror.
"You… you're a Sheikh?
"Yes. I'm a Sheikh. What of it?" she asked. She knew where this was going, but she put a puzzled expression on her face anyway.
"You're a Dark Witch, that's what!" the redhead exclaimed.
Sevti glared. "Ron, I suggest that you don't make baseless accusations. I am not, and nor will I ever be, a Dark witch." She said in a dangerously low voice. "I'll leave that to the rest of my damned family."
She then regained control of her temper and berated herself for letting it slip. Slipping in front of Dray was one thing, but slipping in front of a stranger was another.
"I'm… sorry I lost my temper, Ron." She quickly apologized. "…I should be used to people saying things like than by now."
The redhead nodded, his face mix of emotions that Sevti couldn't quite decipher.
She saw Potter eye her, and then Weasley, trying to find a way to diffuse the situation. Finally, the green eyed youth made a weak attempt at changing the subject, to which Sevti obliged.
"So, you're from America?" he asked, referring to her accent.
"Yeah, the good old US of A." Sevti proclaimed. She gave Potter her best 'charming American hothead' smile. "England is beautiful, really. A bit damp, and a bit cold, but otherwise perfect." She continued.
He smiled. "I'll be agreeing with you once winter sets in at Hogwarts, about the damp and cold part that is, unless it's to the south. I honestly don't know where we're going."
"I don't think anybody but the headmaster and the staff knows the exact location of Hogwarts, but I can tell you that we've been heading north this entire time," Sevti said.
"Oh, well, I guess it'll be cold then," he said.
Sevti smiled. "It'll be absolutely freezing. I hate cold weather."
Just then, they were interrupted by the arrival of a little witch with a cart full of food. Sevti got up when the witch asked if anyone wanted anything. She made a few selections, but nothing with chocolate. She didn't like it. Potter, she watched in amusement, seemed to want one of everything on the cart.
She retuned to her seat, letting the black haired boy finish. She opened one of the pumpkin pasties she had bought. They weren't healthy, and she didn't particularly like them, but they were something. It wasn't as if the government would remember to give her something as unimportant as a lunch for the train ride.
She tried to remove her thoughts from the battle with the government that she was waging right now. Everyone wanted to use her, but she never let them, and some of the people who she had crossed were royally pissed at her.
She snapped back to reality when Potter dumped his purchases on an empty seat and proceeded to cajole Weasley into shucking his homemade lunch and eating the array of junk food before them. Sevti would have greatly appreciated the corned beef sandwiches as she couldn't remember the last time she had had a home cooked meal, but she didn't ask.
The two boys were soon going through a bag of some sort of beans. Sevti didn't really know what they were. They seemed to be entertained though. Both would periodically spit one out, making a gruesome face, and then they would both laugh their asses off.
Sevti watched and periodically joined into the conversation and laughed at the faces they were making. The earlier tension quickly dissipated and Weasley seemed to be under the impression that a Dark witch couldn't laugh. Well, as long as he was satisfied that she wasn't Dark, it was a start.
Soon the camaraderie between the three was interrupted by a round faced first year.
"Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?" he asked in a thick accent.
Sevti shook her head and saw the two boys doing the same.
The round faced boy exclaimed that he had lost his toad and that the toad kept on getting away from him.
"He'll turn up." Potter said comfortingly. Sevti smiled in approval of his response. The kid really was sweet.
The boy muttered something about telling him if they saw the toad and left the compartment.
"Don't know why he's so bothered," Weasley said. "If I'd brought a toad I would lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."
Sevti had noticed the rat that was on his lap, but she hadn't known its name. She took the opportunity to look at it more closely, so as to be able to recognize it.
It was fairly easy, because the rat was missing a toe on one paw.
The redhead proceeded to lament his lack of an interesting pet. He seemed to know a spell that would turn a rat yellow. Sevti sat up straighter. That kind of transfiguration was advanced for a first year. She wanted to see this.
He pulled a battered wand out of his trunk. Sevti could see that the auras didn't match perfectly, as if the wand was someone else's. She shrugged mentally. Some families preferred giving their children used wands, particularly the parents' childhood wand, until the child reached their majority when they needed a wand change.
He raised his wand, and right at that moment, a girl with bushy brown hair burst into the compartment. Without preamble, she announced,
"Has anyone seen a toad, Neville seems to have lost his."
Sevti's mouth quirked, amused. The girl had just barged in and seemed to be oblivious to the fact that she was being decidedly rude.
However, she seemed to notice that Weasley was about to perform a spell.
Her expression changed to one of rapture. 'muggle born' Sevti though to herself.
"Oh, are you doing magic, let's see then," the girl said.
Sevti watched attentively as the redhead cleared his throat, but had to resist the urge to snort and roll her eyes when he began a chant that no doubt someone had told him was a spell.
"Sunshine, daises, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid fat rat yellow."
The look of dismay on his face was priceless when the rat didn't turn yellow. Sevti really had to clamp down on herself to not laugh her ass off. None of the people there would appreciate just how funny it was until they started learning actual incantations.
She pushed the scene from her head and refocused on the scene playing out before her.
The brunette had started to chatter. "…Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tired a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased of course, I mean it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard…"
Sevti gave herself a mental score because she had been right about the girl being muggle born. She smiled.
The girl, oblivious to everything but her own voice, continued to chatter. "I've learned all out course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
Finally, the girl's attention seemed to fall on something other than herself.
Potter had a slightly overwhelmed look to him, and Weasley was much the same. The redhead mumbled his name. "Ron Weasley."
"Harry Potter," said Potter, following suit.
Granger completely ignored Sevti when she recognized Harry's name.
"Are you really?" said Granger. "I know all about you, of course –I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century," Hermione continued.
Sevti blocked her out as Potter, with a dazed look on his face, asked if he really was in all of those books. The poor kid, but he was supposed to know about all of this. According to British Ministry of Magic reports, his relatives were to have told him of his past. She frowned. She would have to get to the bottom of that later. If there was one thing that she disliked, it was being kept out of the loop on missions that she was on. She needed to know all of the information that was out there in order to be able to make decisions in the field. And why didn't he know about being in books. He must surely know exactly how famous he is.
Well, she was scheduled to have a meeting with the Headmaster later that night, after the Sorting and the Feast. Doubtless, she would get it all sorted out then.
Granger was discussing the houses. She listened as the girl listed what she seemed to think were the best houses, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. She gave the most asinine reasons for wanting to be in those houses as well.
Sevti supposed that she was entitled to her opinions, and Potter was receiving a positive impression of Gryffindor, which was good. But really, the girl was grating on her nerves.
Soon Granger left, leaving two slightly confused boys behind. Sevti acknowledged that Hermione was a bright girl with a lot of potential, but she would need to work on not being obvious about it. No one likes it when they are bettered by others and then belittled for it.
"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Weasley.
Sevti nearly burst out laughing and couldn't prevent a slight twitch of her lips.
"Stupid spell –George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud." he continued.
"What house are your brothers in?" Potter asked, diverting the redhead.
"Gryffindor," said Weasley. His face seemed to fall. "Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."
Sevti smiled. Such obvious house rivalries would be to her benefit. But it was cute that the kid wanted to be in the same house as his family. But seriously, he was getting too stressed about it.
"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You Know Who was in?" Potter asked suddenly.
"Yeah," Sevti said, putting in her two cents worth. "Slytherin has a reputation for being the house that has turned out the most Dark Wizards. My entire family, all those who went to Hogwarts, went into Slytherin. I don't know what I'll do if I'm put in Slytherin as well."
"Why?" Weasley asked. He didn't seem to be able to understand why you wouldn't want to be in the same house as your family.
Sevti looked him in the eye. "Ron, I don't really get along with my family."
The redhead seemed to comprehend the fact that the way that Sevti had vehemently denounced the Dark Arts wouldn't be kindly taken to in a Dark household.
"Oh, sorry," said Weasley. The tips of his ears turned pink in embarrassment.
Sevti smiled easily. "It's all right Ron. It's not like it's anything new."
Potter was examining Scabbers with a critical eye, and said seemingly out of the blue, "You know, Ron, I think his whiskers are a bit lighter."
The redhead's expression lighted up and he closely examined his rat, declaring that Potter might just be right.
Sevti caught Potter's eye and smiled at the messy haired kid. She knew that he had saved Weasley yet again from an awkward situation.
Potter blushed slightly and looked down. Sevti smiled even wider, 'modest kid' she thought proudly.
"So, what do your oldest brothers do know that they've left, anyway?" Potter asked Weasley.
"Charlie's in Romania studying Dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," Weasley replied. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't' suppose you get that with Muggles –someone tied to rob a high security vault."
Sevti had heard of the attempted robbery at Gringotts and it worried her. There had been some suspicious activity reported by various informants that she was paying close attention to, but right now nothing was concrete.
She listed as the redhead explained what had happened to Potter and then resisted the urge to roll her eyes when they started talking about quidditch. 'Boys!' she thought to herself.
She lay back in her seat to rest a bit as Weasley went over the game rules and how quidditch is played. He got into a long discussion about how the Chudley Cannons were his favorite team. Sevti smirked. The Chudley Cannons had been in a slump for years.
The redhead seemed to go on and on about a relatively simple game. Sevti had not been able to actually ever play the game, but she had read books on it and had listened to American wizards and witches talk incessantly about it.
The redhead was taking Potter through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again. Sevti expected either Granger or Longbottom to be standing in front of her, but was surprised to see Draco stride into the compartment.
He sauntered in with a sneer and looked at Harry with interest. Crabbe and Goyle followed him in, looking generally intimidating.
"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"Yes." Potter said, eyeing Crabbe and Goyle.
"Oh, this is Crabbe, and this is Goyle," said Draco, noticing the dark haired boy's glance. He looked utterly careless, a pose that all purebloods could effortlessly pull off. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Weasley disguised his snigger as a cough. Draco looked at him.
"You think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children then they can afford.
Sevti snorted. "You know, Malfoy, your name is just a tad funny. And I've been informed that all you have to do to spot the Malfoy heir is to look for a blonde little snot that uses appalling amounts of hair gel."
Draco didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared on his cheeks.
To the boys, he seemed to have just noticed Sevti, but she knew that he had taken notice of her being in the compartment before he had entered.
He smirked. "Sevti Sheikh, well, isn't this a surprise," he bit out. "I thought I had seen the last of you after you disgraced Ehsan Sheikh."
Sevti smirked. "I'm not that easy to get rid of, Malfoy. I'm afraid the world is stuck with me being for quite some time." She noticed the amused glint in Draco's eyes.
He turned back to Potter, seeming to give Sevti the cold shoulder. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter," Draco said, looking down at Weasley with an expression of contempt. "And even the best of families have their share of pathetic disgraces," he said, sneering at Sevti.
"You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." Draco held out his hand.
Sevti inwardly prayed that Potter would have enough sense not to take the blonde's hand.
He didn't take it. "I think I can tell the wrong sort myself, thanks," he said coolly.
Sevti smiled in approval. This was a good kid, and then smirked at herself. How many times had she thought that since meeting him?
Draco didn't seem to be fazed, but his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."
Sevti made sure that Potter and Weasley weren't looking at her, and then sent a smile in Draco's direction. She hated doing it, but she needed him to keep faith in her.
Then she let her true feelings rise up.
"Shut your mouth, Malfoy," she said in a dangerously low voice. She stood up in a fluid movement and stood in a dangerous pose. Potter and Weasley drew themselves up beside her. Weasley's face was as red as his hair.
"Oh, you're going to fight me, are you?" Draco said with a smirk. But his fear at her sudden anger showed in his eyes.
"Unless you get out now," said Potter, who suddenly looked at lot older and a lot stronger than she knew him to be.
Sevti drew her wand threateningly.
"But we don't feel like leaving, do we boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some." Draco announced, eyeing Sevti's wand cautiously.
Goyle reached towards a box of Chocolate frogs near Weasley, and the redhead started to lunge forward, but before he had touched the kid, Goyle shrieked.
Scabbers was locked onto Goyle's knuckle, and Sevti couldn't help the snort of laughter that escaped her.
Goyle started trying to shake the stubborn rat off, and when he failed, started swinging the poor thing in circles. Finally, he succeeded and the poor rat flew off of his finger and hit the window with a solid thud. Sevti winced.
Sevti noticed footsteps coming rapidly towards their compartment, and so did Draco. The blonde beat a fast retreat, pulling Crabbe and Goyle with him.
A second later, Granger came in. "What has been going on?" she said, taking in the scene before her. Potter was looking on as Weasley was picking up Scabbers by the tail, and Sevti had collapsed against the side of the compartment in silent laughter.
"I think he's been knocked out," Weasley said to Potter and Sevti. He looked more closely. "No – I don't believe it – he's gone back to sleep."
Sevti laughed all the more.
"You've met Malfoy before?" Potter asked Sevti.
"Yeah." She affirmed, shaking off her mirth. "I'd rather not remember the little albino, but our families are allies."
"You've met him as well?" Sevti asked in turn.
Potter explained about his first trip to Diagon Alley, and how he had met the blonde in Madame Malkin's.
"I've heard of his family," said Weasley darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You Know Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says the Malfoys didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to Granger, who was still in the compartment. "Can we help you with something?"
"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"
"I think Scabbers did all of the fighting," Sevti said, motioning towards Weasley's rat. "That's a priceless pet there, Ron," she added with a charming smile.
The redhead gave her a bright smile.
"I'll get out of here so you can change, and then I'll come back in when you're ready and kick you out to change myself," Sevti suggested.
The boys nodded, and Sevti left the compartment with Granger.
"I don't think we were properly introduced." She said to the brunette. "Sevti Sheikh." She held out her hand for the girl to shake.
"I'm Hermione Granger. I've read all about your family. They're the most powerful Wizarding family in the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and Africa," she announced. She shook Sevti's hand vigorously.
"Family isn't everything. Actually, I'm in disgrace right now, and pretty close to being burnt off of the family tree."
Granger looked at her blankly.
"All pureblood families have family trees that they display in their ancestral homes. When a member of the family is disowned, their name is burnt off of the tapestry," Sevti explained.
"Oh, that's horrible! I just couldn't imagine being disowned." The brunette exclaimed.
Sevti just gave her a strained smile.
Right then, the boys knocked on the compartment door signaling that they were done.
"Well, I have to change, so, I'll see you later, okay," Sevti said.
Granger nodded and made her way up the train.
Sevti entered the compartment, and smilingly shoed the boys out. She stuffed her leather jacket into her bag, and then pulled out a nice pair of robes. She pulled them over her black silk shirt and black pants and then quickly conjured a mirror. She looked as she should, a young witch from an upstanding pureblood family. She straightened her hair and checked for any fold or wrinkles in her robes. Finding none, she banished the mirror and called the boys back in.
A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train. It will be taken to the school separately."
Sevti filed out of the compartment with Potter and Weasley and prepared to face her new life.
A/N: The little button is waiting… It wants you to review.