~Everything's Not What It Seems~

Alex and Justin are siblings sent to Hogwarts to learn about magic just like their father. There they meet new friends, fall in love, and find out that truly everything is not what it seems.

Disclaimer: J.K Rowling and Disney Channel own the right to all these character. I am only borrowing them :)


Alex walked quickly out of the hospital wing, making her way down to the dungeon for her first class of the day, Potions. She was finally discharged from the hospital wing that morning only to be stuck listening to Madam Pomfrey drone on and on about post-discharge care of her head. By the time she was done giving her instructions, Alex realized she barely had a few minutes to get herself down to the dungeon and in her seat. Normally she wouldn't have cares about such a thing as punctuality, but she'd heard a lot about Professor Snape's dislike for tardiness from her classmates. She didn't want to risk detention on her second day at Hogwarts.

As Alex rounded the corner, she collided with another body, falling back onto the floor after bumping on impact. Luckily her head avoided the collision, but her jaw definitely felt the damage. She sat herself up on the ground, groaning as she rubbed her jaw with the arm she wasn't using to support herself. Whoever collided with her was about to be in for one reckoning. She turned to look at the poor soul who was about to feel her wrath but shut the idea down when she realized she'd run into the one person she was trying to avoid, Harry Potter. Just her luck.

"I'm so sorry Alex! I'm running late for Potions and didn't see you!" Harry said quickly as he stood up off the floor. Like a gentlemen, he extended his hand to help her to her feet.

Don't be friendly Alex, that's easy enough for you to do. "I can stand up myself, thank you very much." She said to him, ignoring the hand in front of her.

A look of hurt passed over Harry's face as he pulled his hand away. Alex picked herself off the floor and brushed the dust off her robes before turning in the opposite direction. That should do it. She didn't make it one step before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Spoke too soon. She turned back to face Harry, raising an eyebrow at him as she looked at him with irritation.

"What now?"

"Er, sorry to stop you Alex, but Potions is this way." He pointed in the opposite direction from where Alex was headed.

Alex nodded and made her way past him. She walked quickly, ignoring Harry's stare as they both walked in the same direction. Damn her terrible direction! She would have never run into him if she hadn't gone the wrong way. She probably wouldn't have been late for class if she knew where she was going.

When she finally reached the door, she quickly reached the handle and pulled it open herself. She noticed Harry had reached her at that point and she didn't want to give him another opportunity to be a gentlemen and her a jerk. As soon as she was through the door, she made her way to her seat, avoiding the angry stare she was sure was coming from Professor Snape. She quietly unpacked her bag, praying that class would start without any attention to her and Harry.

"Mr. Potter and Ms. Russo." Of course...

Alex sighed, looking up to see Professor Snape standing in front of the table she shared with Harry, Hermione and Ron. "You both are precisely eleven minutes late to class." He focused his stare on Alex. "I've been informed that Ms. Russo was in the infirmary but seeing that you came in with Mr. Potter, seems like your reason for being late is not what I expected. I will excuse you this one time, Ms. Russo, since it is your first time. However, Potter, you just earned yourself detention"

Alex nodded in relief as Professor Snape started to walk away from them. As he passed Harry, he stopped and turned slightly to address him. "One more thing, Potter. I believe it would be best that you inform your girlfriend that it is not acceptable to be late to my class." He shot them both a glare before turning back to the black board.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Alex yelled quickly. She immediately lifted her hands to cover her mouth, more than surprised of herself by the unexpected outburst. Justin said don't bring attention to yourself, pretty sure this was the exact opposite of what he meant...

"Excuse me?" The Professor turned back around, narrowing his eyes on her.

"Ummm... I- uh- Um." Alex stumbled over her words as the entire class stared at her. By now she was sure her cheeks were flushing red in embarrassment.

"Are you daft?" Snape asked her, anger flaring in his eyes.

"No- I- I just wanted to clarify... that Harry is not my boyfriend! Actually... i only just met him yesterday so we aren't even really friends. I just happen to run into him in the hall on the way to class... because I was lost. And then he directed me to the correct room." Don't look at Harry. Don't look at Harry.

Professor Snape stared at her silently as she felt the stares of the entire class on her. Why the hell couldn't she just keep her damn mouth shut!

"Very well then. Rather a good choice by you to stay away from… certain students." He glanced in Harry's direction before nodded at Alex. She sighed in replied when he turned his attention back to the black board to resume the lesson.

~~~~~~~~~~

It had been almost a month since the Russos had joined Hogwarts and Alex had concluded that being at Hogwarts was not the amazing, life-changing experience she had imagined it would be. Alex spent most of her time either in her classes or studying for her classes. When she wasn't in class, she was doing all she could due to avoid Harry Potter. Being that they were in the same year and house, this wasn't an easy task... not to mention one of Harry's best friends, Hermione, tried to pull Alex into their friends circle constantly. At first, Alex thought she could be discrete about it. If she avoided Harry for a few days, he'd eventually forget about her and the connection they had when they first met... because there definitely was a connection. But as the days went by and she kept getting pulled into conversations with Harry and Ron by Hermione, Alex learned that her plan was not going to work. There would be times when Alex would be in the middle of a conversation with someone and she would see Harry making his way over to them. Alex's immediate reaction would be to excuse herself from the conversation before he could join them. If she ran into him anywhere on campus, she would divert her attention to a book or to the floor and pretend she didn't see him. And when she did somehow get roped into a conversation that included Harry, she did everything in her power to acknowledge every person there but him. She felt terrible for what she was doing, but she had no other choice. Per her brother's instructions, she needed to distance herself from Harry.

Alex looked across the Gryffindor table to see Harry surrounded by his fellow third years. He chatted and smiled, laughing along to something Seamus said. It wouldn't have made a difference to him if they were friends or not anyway. Alex sighed as she turned her attention to the entrance of the great hall again, waiting for her brother to appear. It was odd for her to be the first to get to dinner. Justin would usually beat her there and reserve them a spot at the end of the table. Dinner was usually the time they spent catching up, since they didn't always see each other at breakfast or lunch. Her lunch period was spent with Fred and George or occasionally Cedric. Sometimes Cedric would ditch his fellow Hufflepuffs and join Justin and Alex for dinner at the Gryffindor table. She wondered if maybe Justin was with Cedric. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't seen him enter the great hall yet either.

As if reading her mind, Justin and Cedric appeared at the entrance of the great hall. When they spotted Alex they made their way over to her.

"What took you so long?" Alex raised an eyebrow towards her brother as the two joined her at the Gryffindor table.

"Sorry Alex, Justin's tardiness was actually my fault. I was picking up the permission slip my father owled to me. I asked Justin to tag along." Cedric replied apologetically.

"Permission slip? What do you need a permission slip for?" Alex looked questioningly between Justin and Cedric.

Cedric stared back at Alex with confusion. "The permission slip for the Hogsmeade trip. There's one this weekend and another before Christmas Break." He explained.

No way! Alex turned to her brother in excitement, her head already running though all the different activities she could partake there. Hogsmeade was at the top of her must-visit list. They had to go! "Are we going to Hogsmeade too? I want to go!"

Justin shook his head dejectedly. "Sorry Alex, dad said we can't go."

"But why?" Alex complained. She noticed a few Gryffindors eyeing her oddly, but ignored them.

"I know, I'm just as bummed as you. Dad had already decided we wouldn't be going to Hogsmeade from the beginning. Max is a first year anyway so he can't go either. Maybe the three of us can do something else together this weekend?" Justin suggested.

"This isn't fair!" She whined, crossing her arms over her chest. "We never get to do anything fun."

"Can't you convince your dad somehow Justin?" Cedric looked sympathetically between the two.

Justin shook his head sadly. "I really want to go to Hogsmeade as much as Alex does, but we can't go without dad's permission. Alex, maybe I can talk to dad about it in the summer and see if he'll allow for us to go next year?"

"Whatever." She rolled her.

Turning her attention to the long forgotten plate of food in front of her. She dejectedly stabbed her chicken with a fork, her mind going to her earlier thoughts of how lame Hogwarts had been so far. Ever since they got to Hogwarts it had always been, 'don't get in trouble' and 'don't attract attention.' She didn't understand why they had all these restrictions. She wasn't even this restricted when they were in Waverley Place. Why now?

~~~~~~~~

It had been nearly a month since school had started and also nearly a month since Harry had spoken to Alex. The last real conversation he remembered having with her was when they were walking back to the great hall after Hagrid's class. Alex was telling Harry about her life in New York and Harry told Alex about his life in England with his Aunt, Uncle and cousin. He felt like he had made a new friend that day. But it seemed like since then, Alex was doing everything in her power to avoid Harry and his friend. For some reason, this greatly disturbed Harry. They'd only spent a few hours together, but in those few hours he felt a connection with Alex. In their smile time together, he was positive Alex felt the same way. He was both hurt and shocked when by how much Alex worked to avoid him, and even more hurt when she told Professor Snape and the rest of their class that he and Alex were not friends. He thought they were. Harry kept thinking about his interactions with her on the first day, trying to find one thing that he could have done that would have caused Alex to be upset with him, but he couldn't think of one thing. What did he do? He'd even tried to talk to Alex a few times, to find out from her if he had somehow offended her. He wanted to ask her why she was suddenly distancing herself from him. But every attempt was thwarted. Alex always found a way to get out of talking to him.

"Harry! Hey, Harry!" Harry snapped of his thoughts to find his two best friends watching him with concern. "Blimey Harry! You've been out of it all week! Is this about Alex?" Harry looked at Ron with a frown as Hermione smacked him on the back of his head. "Hey! What did you do that for?"

"No, it's nothing. It doesn't even matter." Harry shook his head.

"It's quite strange, really. I thought she had a liking for you. But now she can barely stand being around us, let alone you, Harry." Hermione said as she looked at him sympathetically. He could tell it bothered Hermione as much as it bother him. She had been trying her best to include Alex in their friend group since the first day. Despite Alex's recent cold behavior, Hermione didn't seem to want to let up. But he could tell Alex's rejection was starting to get to his friend.

"It's alright, we barely know her. And I didn't fancy her that much anyway..." Harry shrugged. "What were you two talking about anyway?"

"Oh right, I almost forgot. You've gotten your Hogsmeade permission slip signed?"

"I forgot." He groaned. "With everything that happened with Aunt Marge, it completely slipped my mind… not that they would have signed it for me anyway." Harry frowned.

"Maybe you can get someone else to sign it?" Ron suggested, giving him a hopefully look.

Harry nodded. "Maybe… you think Professor McGonagall would sign the permission slip for me?"

Hermione shook her head at them. "I don't think so… but it doesn't hurt to try."

~~~~~~~

Alex looked on bitterly from the corridor, scowling as she watched her classmates gather in the quad for their impending trip. She envied them, talking in excitement as they discuss their plans for Hogsmeade while Professor McGonagall collected permission slips. She could see Fred and George fooling around with their friends. She really wished she could have joined them.

As Alex scanned the crowd of students, her frown deepened. At the edge of the crowd she spotted Harry walking away from Professor McGonagall, a dejected looked on his face. She noticed Hermione and Ron were standing a few feet away from them, watching their friend as he made his way back into the building. He must have not received permission to go either. Just her luck that the only person who was staying back was the one person Alex was avoiding.

She sighed, deciding to head back to the common room for a nap. It's not like you have any other plans. She thought to herself as she made her way into the building. Just as she turned a corner, she found herself plowing straight into a hard body. She released a breath of relief as the person grabbed onto her, preventing their bodies from colliding. When she looked up to thank the person, she was happy to find Cedric's familiar face looking down at her.

"Sorry Alex, didn't mean to bump into you like that." He said as he looked down at her with an apologetically smile.

She smiled back, shaking her head at him. "No worries, at least I didn't fall this time so you didn't have to catch me... well not completely." She joked, earning herself a laugh. "What are you still doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be making your way to Hogsmeade with everyone else?"

"Yeah... I should be..." Cedric replied with a nervous laugh. Alex stared at him with an odd expression as he scratched the back of his head and looked around them. She realized he was checking to see if anyone else was around before his eyes returned to hers. "I actually decided to sit this one out so I could spend time with you."

Alex felt her cheeks go hot as she looked away from Cedric in embarrassment. Did a fifth year really just tell her that he would rather spend time with her than go on a trip with his friends? This had to have been a prank. With how shitty the past couple weeks had been, she wasn't sure she believed anything good could come her way. Alex looked at Cedric again, noticing the slight embarrassment on his face.

"Unless you had other plans. It's okay Alex, we don't have to do anything. I can just catch up on-" Alex quickly stepped forward, covering Cedric's mouth with her hands to shut him up.

"I like the idea of spending time together." She replied with a smile. She stared at Cedric, seeing his eyes light up in response. It took her a moment to realize her body was really close to his. She quickly moved her hand off his mouth and took a step back, dropping her head to hide the redness she knew were now on her cheeks. "So uhh... what do you want to do?"

"I was thinking maybe we can go for a walk. The weather is great and there is a really great view from the lake next to the Forbidden Forest. I have a picnic blanket so we can sit and just talk, maybe take a dip in the lake if you're up for it. We should be back in time for supper. What do you think?"

"You had me at 'forbidden forest." Alex smiled.

~~~~~

"So then Justin and I flashed back home to our parents and that's when we realized we flashed back with the Mars Rover and forgot Max on Mars." Alex recalled to Cedric as they walked.

Cedric let out a laugh, shaking his head in amusement. "Sounds like you get into a lot of trouble, don't you Alex?"

"Yeap, that's me, Ms. Troublemaker. One of the reasons why I wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade today." Alex frowned, kicking a rock she noticed on the ground.

"If it's any consolation, I'm enjoying spending time with you more than any trip I've taken to Hogsmeade."

"You're only saying that to make me feel better." Alex blushed.

"Are you implying that I'm lying to you?" He raised his eyebrow at her as her, his expression one of feign disbelief. He held a hand over his heart to feign hurt. This only made Alex laugh at him. "Are you seriously laughing at me right now?"

"Yes I am, because you can't act to save your life. The least you can do is actually look offended. If you could see your face, you'd seriously be laughing at yourself right now." Alex replied with a giggle. She quickened her pace a bit, turning so she was walking in front of Cedric.

"Careful Alex." He warned her as a mischievous grin appeared on his face.

"Don't worry about me, worry about yourself. You just walked the troublemaker out of a perimeter where there could be witnesses. I'm not responsible for anything I do from here on out."

"Oh really?" He asked with a smirk. His eyes grazed over her, mischief flashing in his eyes.

Alex responded by shooting him the same smile. "You know-" She stared, cutting her own self off as she felt her foot catching on something behind her. A rock? She flailed her arms in an attempt to keep her balance but knew she was a gonner. As she prepared herself for the impact of the floor, two hands firmly grabbed her waist, pulling her back into an upright position. Alex sighed in relief, hugging onto her savior as he held her tightly to his chest. Oh Alex, when will you learn. When her heart had finally slowed down, she became very aware of her newfound proximity to Cedric. She pulled her head way from his chest, leaning her chin up to look at him.

"I told you to be careful." He whispered, staring down at her with a teasing smile. His eyes made their way to her lips, where they stopped for a moment before returning back to her eyes. Cedric gulped as he stared at her. "Alex, I-"

"Kiss me." She interrupted him.

Surprise flashed in his eyes momentarily, but it was quickly replaced with relief and then joy. He flashed her a appreciative smile. "Gladly." He moved his hand to rest it on her cheek before dipping his head down and pressing his lips to hers. Alex found her arms automatically moving around his neck as her hands found their way into his hair and she deepened the kiss. This, this was better than Hogsmeade.


Updated! Changed up the ending scene with Cedric as well.