~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 :)


By end's week, Alex was happy to find that things had returned to normal... or as normal as it could be at a wizarding school anyway. Things with the Fat Lady had blown over and a new weird-looking wizard took over her post at the entrance of Gryffindor tower. Alex still had no clue what happened there but apparently Professor Dumbledore had prohibited any discussion on the matter moving forward. This frustrated both Alex and Justin, who were determined to find out how the attack on the Fat Lady was related to them. And while things did return to normal, the siblings faced the struggle of convincing their classmates that they were in the great hall with everyone else. Many accepted that they must have missed them due to exhaustion, but those close to them were not fooled. Fred, George, Cedric and Max had been asking them a lot of questions. Alex was only able to get them off their back with the help of Professor McGonagall.

With the week finally coming to an end, the school had something new to look forward to. The quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. Alex was seated in the Gryffindor stands with Neville and her brother. Alex looked at the sky, smiling at the dark cloudy sky. She loved a cold, foggy day. It meant that rain was coming, and Alex loved the rain. Alex looked across the field, the fog making it hard to see clearly. She squinted her eyes as she noticed a bit of movement on the other side of the field. She blinked, looking again, but no movement came after that. You're just imagining things Alex.

"When does this thing even start? I want to see Cedric in action." Alex complained. Justin shrugged beside her, his eyes not moving from the book in his lap.

Alex was really only there because of Cedric. Alex had barely seen her boyfriend that week because of all the busyness of preparing for the quidditch match. The few times they did see each other, he was questioning her about her absence from the great hall. It always turned into a little argument between the two and Alex hated it. She hated lying to Cedric and hated even more that it was causing a momentary strain on their relationship. Would it be so bad to tell him? It's not like she knew why they were in Professor Dumbledore's office instead of the great hall with the other students.

With Cedric's absence, Alex found herself spending time with her favorite pair of troublesome twins. Despite having to participate in the same quidditch match that week, Fred and George had made sure to leave time for mischief with their favorite Russo. Fred had somehow managed to acquire the password to the Slytherin common rooms, allowing the three friends to sneak in during classes and steal all the robes from the Slytherin dormitories. Needless to say, a quarter of the students were in a really bad mood, and only a few of them bothered to show up to the match that day.

"I think it's starting." Justin said excitedly, pointing to the field. Alex looked to see the Gryffindor team making their way out. Fred and George entered together, waving their brooms in their air. Alex was fairly surprised when she saw Harry come out behind the twins. As Harry looked up to the stands, Alex turned her focus away from him, searching the field for the Hufflepuff team.

"Which direction does Cedric come from?" Alex asked her brother.

"Probably from the other end. From the area we can barely see due to the fog." Justing pointed into the field.

"I don't see him." Alex frowned.

Alex stared at the other end of the field, hoping for the fog to clear or at least for the Hufflepuff players to move closer to the center of the field. As she stared, she didn't notice that some of the players were already on their brooms, lifting up over the field. Cedric was one of said players, flying himself over to the Gryffindor stands and stopping in front of Alex to send her a wink. Alex smiled at him as he appeared before her.

"Welcome everyone to today's quidditch match, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff." The stands erupted into cheers. Alex looked at Justin to see him covering his ears nervously. Always a dork.

"Players take your positions as Madam Hooch comes out to begin the game."

Alex looked to the middle of the field to see an elfish-looking, gray-haired woman make her way to the middle of the field. She was in a black and white robe and stood in front of a shaking wooden chest. She looked up and yelled something to the players before approaching the box and unlatching it to reveal three figures. Madam Hooch reached for the smallest one and threw it up in the air as a whistle blew. From the box emerged the other two other figures, which quickly flew up and dived in random directions in the sky.

"Those big iron balls are called bludgers. They are bewitched to knock the players off their brooms during the game. It's the beaters job to keep the bludgers from getting to their teammates." Justin explained to Alex.

Alex watched intently as Fred and George began to hit the two bludgers aggressively with their beater sticks. She could see why Fred and George enjoyed their positions on the Quidditch team so much...

Alex could see Harry looking around intently from the side of the pitch. As the snitch zoomed by him, Harry quickly flew after it, disappearing into the fog. Alex searched the sky, frowning when she didn't see Cedric anywhere in sight.

"That's the golden snitch. Harry's job as the seeker is to catch it. The game doesn't end until one of the seeker catch the golden snitch. In addition to ending the game, the team that catches it earns an addition 150 points on their score." Justin explained beside her. The players continued to zoom around the pitch. She lost sight of the players multiple times through the thick fog. She continued to search the field but still couldn't spot Cedric.

"Who's the seeker for Hufflepuff?" Alex asked. When Justin didn't respond, she turned to him with a questioning look. He was staring at her in confusion. "What?"

"Alex, you're kidding right?" She shook her head. "Cedric! The Hufflepuff seeker is your boyfriend Cedric" Alex nodded in embarrassment as she returned her focus to the match. She did remember Cedric mentioning that a few time.

As the fog continued to thicken, Alex found herself listening more to the commentary and less following the movement of the players. Alex became concerned for her boyfriend and two friends as the weather seemed to worsen. Alex jumped slightly as a thunderous sound came from the sky. Her brother gave her a momentary strange look but didn't say anything to her.

Harry flew by them another time in attempt to catch the snitch. Alex watched as he flew away from the Gryffindor stands and dove into another blanket of fog. As he disappeared from sight, Alex sweared she saw movement in the fog. She narrowed her eyes as the moving figure became clear. It was a hooded figure. But not just any figure, the one Harry's boggart transformed into. That's when Alex noticed, there wasn't one of them, there was many of them.

"Justin, look over there!" She pointed in the direction of the hooded figures.

"Where?"

"Look at Harry, what is that surrounding him?" She looked at her brother to see him squinting his eyes towards the field. Alex looked back to see Harry plunging down from the sky as the rest of the crowd bursts into screams of horror. She quickly jumped up, her heart suddenly racing faster than normal. She heard a loud voice projecting from the stands as Harry hit the bottom of the field.

~~~~~

Harry woke up with great throbbing to his head and a familiar feeling of dread. It only took Harry a few seconds to realize that he couldn't remember the end of the quidditch match, causing him to immediately sit up, opening his eyes eyes to search his surrounding. As his eyes adjusted to the light and his vision became clear, Harry was disappointed to find that he was in the hospital wing.

"Harry, you're awake!" Ron exclaimed in relief.

Harry found his friends and a crowd of Gryffindors around him, all of them looking at Harry in relief.

"Harry, how are you doing?" Hermione came forward with concern.

"You gave us a scare right there, mate." Fred said, taking the seat closest to the bed.

"What happened, with the match?" Harry asked, looking around at them. The group averted their gaze, looking away sadly.

Hermione got up to place a hand on his arm and looked at him sympathetically. "No one blames you Harry, the dementors aren't supposed to come on campus. Dumbledore was furious and sent them away."

"And…" He looked at Ron to see him approach sadly with a bundle in his arms. "Your broom sort of blew into the Weeping Willow." George uncovered the bundle to reveal his broom, broken into pieces. Just wonderful.

"Wait, so… we didn't win?" They all shook their heads sadly in unison. He looked around questioningly as everyone stayed silent. "Is anyone going to tell me what happened?"

The group looked to each other until finally Fred signed and looked at Harry. "Well you see, right after you fell, Cedric caught the snitch, which gave the win to Hufflepuff." Of course it was Cedric. Harry groaned in defeat.

"Maybe we should let you rest, you must be in pain. " Hermione said as she stood up and started to shoo their friends away.

Harry opened his mouth to protest, but stopped as his eyes fell on another Gryffindor sitting across the infirmity. Alex. Alex looked at him, their eyes meeting momentarily before she quickly turned away. Harry noticed a few Hufflepuffs lingering around the bed Alex's was seated next to. He got the win and the girl.

~~~~~

As soon as the fall season came, it went. And that brought the winter season. Alex couldn't believed that it was already December. She and her brothers had been at Hogwarts for over three months but for some reason it felt like it had been longer. Alex's life in Waverley Place almost felt like a former life, one that she could barely remember. As Alex sat in Defense Against the Dark Art, she thought about how much things had changed in her life since she had come to Hogwarts. She didn't feel like the same carefree, troublesome person she was a summer ago. In Waverley Place, it was so much easier to ignore who she really was. She was used to living the life of a abnormal human, but in Hogwarts, it didn't feel right to think of her non-magic life. Is her life at Hogwarts how her life would have been if she didn't live in the muggle world?

"Beautiful drawing. You are quite talented." Alex snapped out of her thoughts, looking down at the notebook sitting on her desk. While she wasn't paying attention, she must have started sketching. Alex smiled as she studied the picture of Buckbeak.

"Thank you Professor." Alex looked up at Professor Lupin, who was still studying her sketch.

He had maneuvered himself so he was seated at the edge of Alex's desk, holding a mug of coffee between his hands. He looked at Alex with a smile. "You've inherited the talent, you know."

Alex look at him questioningly. The Russos aren't even the slightest bit artistic. "What do you mean Professor?"

"You can call me Lupin, Alex. No need to be so formal." He ignored her question, returning his eyes to the drawing.

"Alright, Lupin it is. Now, do you mind explaining to me how exactly I inherited my talent."

As the door to the classroom opened, he stood up and looked at her. "I think you know exactly what I mean." Professor Lupin said to her with a wink.

As he walked away, students began to make their way into the classroom. Amongst the first few students were Harry, Hermione and Ron. The three took their usual seat, Hermione beside her while Ron and Harry took the seats behind them. Alex didn't make any notice of them, instead she watched as Professor Lupin made his way to the front of the class, holding a stack of papers in hand.

"Today class, you and I will both be sad to know that there is a pop-exam. Apparently I should have had one by now… you all can thank Professor Snape when you have the time."

As the rest of the class groaned, Professor Lupin began to pass out the exams to the class. When he reached Alex, he whispered a 'good luck' before contining on to the next person. If Alex was going to investigate what exactly was being hidden from her and her brother, she had a feeling that Professor Lupin was the best way to start.

~~~~~

Alex sat and waited as Neville, the last student to finish the exam, finally walked up to Professor Lupin to hand in his exam. Alex pretended to be stuck on a question as Professor Lupin stood up and made his way to her desk. Taking a seat in front of her, he picked up the exam from her desk and placed it on the desk beside him.

"Alex, I believe you finished your exam half an hour ago, and yet you sit here and stare at the exam as if you are still stomped by a question." Lupin looked at Alex questioningly.

She smiled. "Yes Lupin, you're correct. I've actually been done for forty-five minutes. It was a surprisingly easy exam."

"Then do you care to explain why you are still here?"

She smirked. "I think you know exactly why I'm here. I also think you've been waiting for me to come to you since that day we chatted in the hospital."

Lupin smiled back. "I don't know what you mean, Alex."

"I think you know exactly what I mean. But lucky for you, I'm late for my next class." Alex stood up and collected her things. Before she left she stopped to look at him again. "I'm going to be quite bored tomorrow with all my friends off to Hogsmeade. By any chance were you planning to attend the trip tomorrow?"

Lupin shook his head. "No, I was not. Why?"

"Then I think tomorrow will be the perfect opportunity for us to chat. I'll be waiting for you in the quad after everyone leaves." Alex turned and walked straight towards the door. In twenty-four hours Alex could possibly be a step closer to finding out what was going on.


Updated!