Chapter I: Friends and Enemies
Alisha Everwhirl stepped tentatively into Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occassions. Being a Muggle Born, she had only just discovered she was a witch and was still getting used to the idea of magic.
It's bloody brilliant all the same! She thought to herself as she remembered her encounter with Mr. Ollivander, and his proud proclamation of, "Unicorn Hair, Hazel, twelve inches!" Smiling happily to herself, she absently reached into the pocket of her Muggle jeans and withdrew the baby blue-coloured wand, stroking its side lovingly.
Suddenly, she was roused from her reverie by a woman's voice with a thick accent. "'Ello, dearie! Welcome to Madam Malkin's, 'ow may I 'elp you?"
Jumping at the sound of the voice, Alisha scurried up to see a tall, slender woman with long, straight, light brown hair, brown eyes, and a brilliant smile. She looked to be in her mid-forties, was clad in black robes, and wore a black witch's hat.
"Oh!" Alisha exclaimed, grin broad. "Hello…Madam…er…Malkin! I was just wondering if I could get some robes for my school, you know, it's called—"
"Another 'Ogwarts student?" the woman inquired in a squeaky little voice, "right this way, please! Oh, and call me Millie, that's my full name, Millie Malkin." She smiled and led the girl across the blue-carpeted floor.
All around her, Alisha saw scissors, pins, sewing baskets, wool, yarn, strips of material, ribbons, and virtually anything else you could imagine would be used in robe-making. A few of the objects were even working by themselves, she noticed! Over in the corner, some scissors were cutting off a strip of long, brilliant blue, starry material, and then a needle and thread sewed it carefully to the inside of a midnight black robe. "Brilliant!" she whispered to herself as she walked. "Amazing little shop you've got here!" she exclaimed with a smile.
The woman grinned. "Why thank you," she said. "Now, why don't you go and sit over there with that other girl, on one of the stools, and I'll get you some robes and try to get you fitted."
Alisha nodded, watching the woman leave, but as she approached the stool, she immediately froze. Suddenly the woman's words sunk in. Over there by that other girl. Alisha was an all-around anti-social person and she didn't fancy hanging out with other people her age.
All her life, she had been rejected and shunned, even by her family. She had never had anyone she could call a friend, and her parents seemed merely ashamed of her. Unlike most people, she couldn't relate to them at all. They looked different, acted different, and didn't have the same last name. Her mother was a 'social butterfly,' often getting invited to cocktail parties and get-togethers, while she herself was the exact opposite. Her father was just a drunk. His sole purposes in life seemed to be fighting with her mother, making Alisha's life difficult, drinking, and going to work to complain about it.
She sighed, shaking her head. It had been such a relief to get her letter from Hogwarts. At Muggle school, she had merely been teased and excluded, liked by no one. Alisha knew that it was because they found her different, and feared her. But what could she do about it?
However much she hoped that life in the magical community would be different, she was afraid she might end up the same way she always had, and was reluctant to take the plunge and socialize with anyone just yet. So far, she had been fortunate enough not to have run into another student, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it now.
Taking a deep breath, she walked over to the stool, and, in order to avoid glancing at the other girl, she pretended to become very interested in examining it. Unfortunately, this soon grew boring. It was not a very exciting stool: it was made of wood, was very stubby, and had three legs. There was nothing else to examine. At last, biting her lip, she thought to herself, suck it up! Swallow your fear and at least try! So she did. Slowly, she cast a glance over at the other girl.
She was surprised to see that this girl was, according to appearances, almost the exact opposite as she was. They had the same hair style, but Alisha's was blonde, which in the light appeared silvery, while the girl's was dark brown and in the light, held a tinge of red. Alisha had pale skin, but this girl had a dark, olive skin tone. The girl was only a little taller than her, and the only thing they seemed to have in common was their eyes: both dark brown.
She realized this only as the other girl turned to look at her, and their eyes locked. She stared at the other girl for a moment, then, not wanting to appear that she was challenging her, pulled on a small smile. Much to her surprise, the girl returned it, hers warmer and bigger than Alisha's. Feeling hopeful, Alisha returned an equally large smile. For a moment she almost felt a connection between them. Their eyes seemed to spell out an unspoken greeting, and a wordless welcome.
Madam Malkin returned in a hearbeat, carrying a large roll of smooth, black material. She was quick to fit it around Alisha, just as she had done with the other girl, and begin to carefully pin and sew her up. Quite suddenly, she said, "wow! We're quiet today, aren't we, girls?"
"Mmm," Alisha murmured, and she heard the other girl say something like, "uh-huh." Madam Malkin tried to get a conversation going by talking about her time at Hogwarts, and the four Houses, and all about what it was like, but neither of the girls really listened. Both were lost in their own thoughts.
The other girl was done first, but Alisha almost felt the words forming in her mind as the girl shot her one final glance. Everything about her told her, goodbye! Alisha merely grinned, returning the gesture, and her eyes widened as she saw the reaction of the other girl when she seemed to hear Alisha's thoughts, which told her, likewise! As the girl walked out the door, Alisha made a promise to herself that she would try and see her again, try and befriend her. She was done shortly after, and took her new robes as well as a pocket-full of her remaining three Galleons, fifteen Sickles and twenty Knuts to the last stop, the book shop, Flourish and Blotts!
This was her favourite place, because she loved to read. Recently, she had managed to pre-order all of her school books and had read them front-to-back during her free time, memorizing their contents by heart. With her remaining money, she intended to buy as many other books that interested her as she could. She meandered through the store, relishing the fact that she had all the time in the world and dreading leaving the shop. The reason for this was that her parents, not caring about her at all, had dumped her over at Diagon Alley with a bit of spare Muggle change (she'd exchanged it for wizarding money at Gringotts, and had opened an account there as well), instructing her to find an inn to stay at overnight. Alisha had been afraid that there would be no inn, and was therefore relieved to come across the Leaky Cauldron. Unfortunately, she still had to stay alone overnight there, and she was very nervous to do so.
Suddenly, she was roused from her thoughts as she caught sight of a new form enter the shop. It was the girl from the Madam Malkin's!
Feeling excited, she took a deep breath, grin broad. Slowly, she slid the book she was holding back onto the shelf and scurried over to the girl. "Uh…" she said slowly, "hi."
Immediately, the spontaneity that had gripped her earlier evaporated, leaving her standing, rooted to the spot, feeling embarrassed an idiotic. At last, she said, "my name's Alisha, and I saw you today…over in the robe shop?"
Much to her relief, the girl pasted on a smile, and immediately took to discussing with her. She laughed. "Oh, yeah, Madam Malkin's! That woman is quite something, isn't she?"
Alisha laughed, realizing for the first time how true it was. "Definitely!" she exclaimed, "She has a squeaky voice and a thick accent. Honestly… 'Ello dearie!" she exclaimed in imitation. She laughed at her comment, grinning broadly when she saw the other girl do the same. "I mean…wow! She is pretty nice, though," she admitted.
The girl nodded. "She can be annoying, though. Like when you're just trying to think and then she interrupts you and tries to make a conversation."
Alisha grinned in agreement. "Yeah," she said at last, "I don't know, I found that, too. She's probably just not used to people not talking, but still!"
Their conversation continued for quite a while, until the girl finally extended her hand and smiled.
"Well, it was nice to meet you, Alisha! I hope to see you at Hogwarts—I'm Serena by the way, although you can call me Ren if you like. But now, I have to get my books and talk to my mother, to figure out what to do about tonight. You see, I live in Liverpool and we have to figure out how I'm going to get back to London in time to catch the Hogwarts express. We came to London just for the day, but we can't make it in time for the train at eleven o'clock…"
Alisha paused, hesitating. "Here," she said, "I love to read. I've been in this shop for the past two hours, and I know where the school books are. Come with me," she said, leading the way.
They arrived at a large book shelf which was in the 'Schools' section, and titled, 'Hogwarts.' There were seven shelves in total, one for each year. At the very bottom were the First Year books. Alisha knelt down on her knees, handing the girl all the books she needed, until at last Serena stood, hidden behind a large pile of books that she could hardly hold up.
Alisha laughed. "Need help?" she asked.
"No," Serena replied, "thanks for showing me where the books are! I hate reading! Ugh!" She laughed, then continued, "but it's OK if you like to read. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it. I just don't really like school and trying to pull off good grades and everything." She shrugged, then continued, "anyway, I'd best be off," and headed towards the counter.
"Wait!" Alisha said at last.
Ren turned to face her, surprised.
"I—I—" she froze, at a loss for words. Alisha sighed. She really, really wanted to ask Ren if she would stay with her in a room at the Leaky Cauldron, but she wasn't sure the other girl would agree to it, or even want to. After all, they had just met, and yet, Alisha felt something about this girl that she'd never felt with anyone else: a connection.
"I was wondering if…" she averted her eyes, gazing at the ground. "Well, you see, I have to stay in a room in the Leaky Cauldron all by myself tonight." She paused, and snorted. "Obviously my parents don't care about me much if they just dump me over in Diagon Alley with some money and a wave goodbye for the rest of the school year. But anyway…just, I don't know if you'd even want to, but if you do, you're welcome to share a room with me overnight…that is, if you still haven't figured out anything to do."
Much to her surprise, the girl's face lit up. "Oh, gosh! Alisha, that's so nice of you, I—I—wait here!"
She thrust the many books into Alisha's arms and disappeared out the door. Just when Alisha thought she wasn't coming back, Serena returned, wearing an ear-to-ear grin. "I can come!" she exclaimed, "I talked to my mum and she said it was probably the best idea and easiest thing to do!"
They both bought their books, and then Ren followed Alisha as they walked together to the Leaky Cauldron.
Alisha's heart hammered wildly in her chest. Wow, she thought excitedly, she's rooming with me. Like…a sleepover. Often times, back at her public school, Alisha had heard talk of invitations and such to large groups of friends' houses and their sleepovers and slumber parties. Of course she herself had never been invited, but the other kids enjoyed rubbing it in her face that they were going to something like this, something that she could only dream of. If only they could see me now, she thought, a mischevious glint in her eye.
As they arrived at the inn, an orchestra of sounds filled her ears, accompanied by a gallery of sights and a restaurant of smells. (A/N: Do pardon the poor, metaphoric descriptions, sorry about that). The Leaky Cauldron had a strange, sort of eerie and smoky feel to it, yet at the same time, it was bright and happy. Every corner of the inn seemed to be bustling with activity. For a moment, the two girls just stood, breathless, exploring the room with all five senses. At last, Serena spoke.
"So, umm…what now?" she asked. It may have seemed a strange question, but it was perfectly fitting. Both just stood rooted to the spot, uncertain of what to say or do.
"Uh…" Alisha said, pausing for a moment before walking over to the counter. "Over here…" she said slowly, "I think we have to talk to the—"
"What do you want!" a crude voice interjected.
At the sudden sharpness, Alisha faltered, already feeling awkward and shy. "We—we just…were…" she broke off, feeling beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
She stared at the floor, not even bothering to look up and face a short, hunched over little wizard with a long, white beard and a matted, shoulder-length head of white hair. He was hunched over on a cane and his skin was so rough and wrinkly it looked comparable to sandpaper. "Thought yeh'd just pop in fer a little Firewhiskey, eh?" he growled in a gravelly tone, "well you ain't gettin' any, so yeh'd better be off b'fore I—"
"Stop!" Serena yelled, recovering faster than Alisha and immediately coming to the rescue. She hurried forward, her long, brown hair swaying behind her. "We just wanted to see about getting a room to stay in overnight."
Immediately, the man's face quickly softened. "Err…righ'…" he said gruffly, peering down at them with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. "Sorry 'bout that," he grunted, "yes, well…how long will yeh be stayin' fer?"
"Only a night," Alisha replied, at last recovering from her earlier state.
"And that's all?" he asked, still sounding suspicious.
"That's all," Ren replied confidently.
"Righ'," he said slowly, "five Galleons please." With that, he held out his wrinkled hand, waiting for the money.
Alisha fished around in her royal blue change purse, her face going white. "Uh-oh," she said, "I—I don't have enough!" Sure enough, despite her frantic attempts to find another one, her satchel produced merely three large, round, golden coins.
"Here," Ren said, fishing around her own, scarlet wallet and pulling out two more Galleons.
"Are you sure?" Alisha asked, but Ren nodded firmly and dropped the coins in her hand. Knowing it was only polite to accept and promising herself she would pay the girl back later, she dropped the Galleons on the counter with a clang and waited for the wizard's response.
The old man carefully picked up the Galleons, counting them one by one on his fingers as he placed them in the cash register (Alisha was quite surprised and immediately classified him as being dumb-witted). When he had completed the task, he glanced slowly at them with a strained look on his face, as though fighting an internal battle, and at last sighed, handing them a room key. "Righ'," he said, "room 216, yeh got that?" When both girls nodded, he continued, "and don' yeh get any ideas 'bout sneakin' some Firewhiskey, the answer is still no."
Once again, the two girls nodded. Alisha extended her hand and took the key from the man, then led the way towards an old, wooden staircase, which led to the rooms. Apprehensively, Serena pursued her, her long, dark brown hair flowing gracefully behind her.
The steps were evidently not in as good condition as they used to be. With every step the girls took, they would creak loudly. Two floors later, Alisha stepped off of the staircase and leaned against the wall, panting from the long climb. Ren soon joined her, equally exhausted. Once they had recovered, they exchanged glances.
"That old man was really something," Alisha finally said.
"Tell me about it. He seemed to think that we wanted to sneak some Firewhiskey. Honestly!"
For a moment, they just stood there in an uncomfortable silence. Then, suddenly, they burst out laughing.
When at last they had recovered, Alisha said, "right. So, room 216. That should be just along here, and on the right side…" Within seconds, she had located their room and brandished the key. "Here we go," she muttered, sliding it carefully into the keyhole. It was then that she noticed that it was quite unlike the keys one found in your average Muggle hotel. Those were usually thin, credit-card-like slips of plastic that were slid into an electronic lock to open the door. The key in her hands, however, was a standard, old-fashioned, bronze key with a rusty handle.
Shaking her head with a shrug, she pulled open the door and slid the key out of the lock. Just as she had turned to Serena and said, "hey, Ren! C'mere, look at our room!" she heard footsteps further down the corridor.
Serena quickly approached her, and they exchanged glances. Quickly, they disappeared inside their room and pulled the door shut, standing on tiptoe to view what was happening out of the peek hole.
Two girls walked down the red-carpeted floor. They were exactly the same height, and they both had auburn hair and green eyes, as well as similar facial features. Then, Alisha did a double-take. No, wait! They had identical facial features! In fact, as she looked them over, they appeared exactly the same! The only difference was one in jewelry. Both wore expensive-looking silver chains around their necks (which Alisha was sure must have been real silver, the way the light caught it), both had letters on the bottom which spelled something, and at the end of the word, both were encrusted with a single emerald. But one of the girl's (that on left) necklaces said, Prissy, and the other one (on the right), said, Cissy.
Her mouth hung open as she watched the two girls—which she figured must have been identical twins—and listened intently to what they were saying.
"Wow! I can't believe we tricked mother into thinking we wouldn't get into trouble!" the girl on the left, whose name Alisha assumed must be Prissy, said.
"I know!" the other exclaimed, and they turned and did some sort of high five or hand shake. Shaking her head in confusion, Alisha continued watching.
"And to think, all this time she thought we were just going to sleep over at Cynthia's! Ha! I bet she never guessed she would find us all the way in London, at the Leaky Cauldron! Sharing a room all to ourselves after a hard day's work!"
"And tomorrow," Cissy continued, "we have school! Free from our family until Christmas! Yes!"
Alisha's eyes widened. Why they would want to be free from their family was beyond her. Of course, she herself had an awful family with horrible parents, but they were wearing expensive-looking clothes and were obviously well treated.
The girls' discussion continued, becoming increasingly cold-hearted. Alisha noticed a distinctive smirk on their faces and a gleam in their eyes that immediately turned her against them. There was a strong sense of coldness in their eyes, and it made her cringe at the thought. When at last their conversation ended, she caught the last few words spoken:
"Right. And what room did that old crook say we were?" Prissy finally asked.
"Uh…Room 218, I believe…right here…"
As the girls walked up to the door, they escaped Alisha's range of vision, but her face paled. Right next to us, she thought worriedly. They would have to spend the night right next to those two awful girls. And somehow, she had a bad feeling about it.
Alisha and Serena had both taken a few belongings with them: clothes for the next day, all of their school supplies, and a few other necessities. All of them were stuffed inside their Hogwarts trunks; Serena's was a scarlet with gold borders, while Alisha's was a royal blue with silver borders. While she felt sheepish noticing that Serena had more possessions than she, Alisha shrugged it off with a sigh. That was to be expected.
Each of them arranged their baggage carefully at the end of their beds. The room was set up with a large, round, red rug with gold patterns set on the floor, and two twin four-poster beds side by side, with a small, simple wooden chest and the end of each. Carefully, they set their trunks inside the chests and got comfortable. Both girls chatted eagerly. Around eight o'clock, they decided to go for an evening stroll.
Careful not to lock themselves out of their room, they took their key and headed off. But just as they heard the soft click of the door closing behind them, they heard an identical sound from directly beside them. Whirling around, Alisha's heart sank as she discovered it was exactly what she had expected: Cissy and Prissy seemed to think that it was a good idea to go for a walk as well, and were just locking up and getting ready to go.
Serena and Alisha exchanged glances, then took a deep breath and headed for the staircase. The two girls strolled briskly past the twins, feeling the breeze as they walked quickly by, but before they had reached the staircase, one of them—Prissy—had extended a hand, bringing them to a halt.
"Well, well," she said slowly, "what do we have here? Hogwarts as well?"
Slowly, the two girls nodded. "Yes," they said in unison, "First Years."
"Us, too," said Cissy. "And your names are?"
Reluctantly, Alisha began. "I'm Alisha Everwhirl, and this is—"
"Serena. Serena Coalchard," the other girl interjected, "but my nickname's Ren."
"Pleasure," Prissy said, in such a tone that Alisha was sure that it was not a pleasure at all. "I'm Priscilla DeSerpent and this is my twin sister—"
"Narcissa DeSerpent. But you can call me Cissy, everyone does, and most people call her—"
"Prissy," Priscilla interrupted.
"I see," Alisha murmured, gazing at the ground.
"Right," Serena continued, "we'd best be off."
"See you at Hogwarts," the twins chorused.
"Yeah," Alisha muttered quite forcefully, "you, too."
As she and Serena started off together, Alisha had the feeling that this was the start of something. Give it two or three years, she thought to herself, and I could end up with a best friend and two worst enemies. And she was right.
