Down The Rabbit Hole

Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter' or 'Glee'. All recognisable characters, content or locations belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary: "There's a fine line between persistence and harassment." A fresh start in Lima, Ohio, spirals out of control when William McKinley High's 'New Directions' decide to adopt - and convert - Hadley Potter as one of their own. "Consider it crossed. Thoroughly." Goblet of Fire/Order of the Phoenix fem!Harry AU.

Rating: M for language, violence and mild adult themes.

Author: tlyxor1.

Chapter One: The Resolution

"Do you regret it?"

Hadley Potter smiled, shook her head, and answered in the negative. In turn, Sirius Black's smile was sad, and his melancholia was almost tangible. He hated that she couldn't enjoy magic as most teenagers her age had, but it seemed as though she'd opted to embrace the life she'd chosen for herself, and Sirius couldn't begrudge that.

"Are you ready, then?"

"Yes," Hadley confirmed. She drained the last of her tea, brushed her fringe out of her eyes, and followed her godfather towards the garage. "I'm nervous, though."

It would be her first day at William McKinley High School. She'd spent the last six months engrossed in the arduous task that was catching up on her muggle education, and it had all finally culminated with her enrolment into the tenth grade class of an American secondary school.

"I understand that's fairly normal," Sirius acknowledged. He settled himself in the driver's seat of his new Audi, Hadley clambered into the passenger seat, and as the garage door rolled up behind them, he continued, "But you'll be fine. You're Hadley, after all."

Hadley chuckled, relaxed in her seat, and watched as the scenery passed them by. They'd moved into the old Potter house in Lima, Ohio, near the start of August, and though the small town was slowly but surely becoming familiar to her, it was still a novelty enough for Hadley to be occupied by the sites around her, uninteresting as they happened to be.

Before long, Sirius pulled up at the drop off zone at her new school, and after a brief hug for her godfather, Hadley clambered out of the car, closed the door behind her, and shouldered her bag. She cast her gaze over the parking lot, and the fields and building beyond it, and decided she appreciated the fact her new school was a complete antithesis to Hogwarts. She'd learned to love and hate the castle and all of it's wonder, so as she strode towards the main school building, Hadley could also recognise that there was a part of her that anticipated the total normalcy this new opportunity presented.

At William McKinley High, she wasn't Hadley Potter: saviour, martyr, villain, or any other such title she'd never wanted or appreciated. Here, she was Hadley Potter, English transfer student, and entirely normal besides. It was amazing, really, and more than she could say, Hadley looked forward to the opportunity to be judged by her own appearance and actions as opposed to the legend of the thrice damned 'Girl Who Lived'.

She reached her locker without incident, emptied most of the contents of her bag within, and closed it with a click. She had nothing else to do though, and without a desire to wait in the classroom, Hadley made her way to the quad, sought out an empty table, and brought out her art journal to pass the time. It was filled with drawings, and mindless song lyrics - original and not - and for Hadley, it kept her occupied until the bell sounded for her first class.

Her morning passed. She met a variety of people, had probably forgotten half of their names, but on her way from her locker, she stopped by the sophomore notice board, withdrew a pen from her bag, and signed up for soccer and debating. She'd contemplated the cheerleaders and the show choir, but it hadn't taken Hadley three hours in her new school to determine that it was a bad idea. Both teams were in the spotlight for the worst reasons and the transfer student would prefer to avoid the attention if she could help it. In any case, she could join gymnastics in the winter term, and it wasn't as though she'd be deprived of the opportunity to sing and dance elsewhere.

"Hadley, did you want to sit with Sunshine and I?"

Hadley turned her head, and smiled at the sight of one of her fellow transfer students. His name was Sam, blonde and green eyed, kind of clueless, but nice enough. He'd moved from Texas, he was eager for the football tryouts, and as Hadley agreed, and his smile lit up his features, she found that the expression was contagious.

"Sure, Sam. Lead the way."

Their path to the quad was disturbed by a blatant display of bullying. Students watched, or turned their heads, but in the centre of the hallway, a girl she recognised from her Algebra class, wearing a black ballet tutu over black and pink striped leggings had just been met with a slushie shower, courtesy of a jock whose letterman jacket read 'Azimio'.

"Did that… did that just happen" Hadley was incredulous."

Sam nodded, expression grim. His lips were pursed, his gaze followed the trail of purple slushie to the puddle on the floor, and Hadley, as she told Sam that she'd meet him in the quad before she followed the girl into the nearest restroom, was left to wonder what kind of academic institution allowed such an abhorrent display of harassment among its students.

"I don't know what the hell that was, but do you need help cleaning up? That can't be pleasant."

The girl glanced up from where she'd bowed her head over a basin, and her smile was tinged with an entirely justifiable bitterness. She was pretty though, with long hair and a thin face, and Hadley had to wonder about the reason behind why she'd been showered in slushie.

"Thanks, but no thanks. My friends will be here any moment. That was a slushie facial, by the way. It's the jocks' favourite tactic in their mission to humiliate us losers, up there with dumpster diving and swirlies."

Appalled, Hadley could only stare, until the silence was disturbed by the bathroom door. It swung open violently, crashed against the wall, and the person who'd entered had to raise his hand to stop it from slapping him in the face. He was tall, thin, and effeminate, with dirty blonde hair and stylish clothing, followed directly afterwards by a curvy black girl with an outfit of bright colours and a bulging handbag.

"This is a girls loo," Hadley said absently, and the pair scowled at her, as though Hadley had said something wrong.

"Don't mind Kurt," her Maths classmate interjected, "He's one of my friends. I'm Tina. The girl behind Kurt is Mercedes. Your name is Hadley, right?"

The green eyed girl nodded her confirmation, stepped back as the pair set to work, and watched in silence as Tina was efficiently sorted out, fresh clothes and all. There was soon no sight of the 'slushie facial' with the exception of her damp hair, but that would dry within a few hours. Hadley was left watching the trio of strangers as they watched her, but she remembered Sam, pulled her bag higher on her shoulder, and with a wave for Tina, Hadley exited the restroom, headed once more for the quad.

"What was that all about?" Sam queried. Hadley had already settled herself across from the blonde and had withdrew her lunch from her bag, so between mouthfuls of the potato bake she'd made the night before, she explained what she'd learned to an attentive Sam and Sunshine,

"That's disgusting," said Sam flatly, "How have the teachers not done anything about it?"

Hadley shrugged cluelessly, Sunshine nibbled at an apple slice, and the silence that fell between them was contemplative. She'd informed them that it was apparently a rite of passage suffered by the alleged 'losers' within the school, students who failed to conform to the status quo, and it had left them each inclined to think about their eventual place in the social hierarchy.

Hadley herself had no real desire to be 'popular'. In Hogwarts, she'd learned that role carried too many expectations, and far too much attention as well. In saying that, she didn't want to be relentlessly bullied either. She'd suffered through that enough in primary school, and with Pansy Parkinson as well, and Hadley wasn't particularly keen on reliving the experience. She wanted simply to blend into the crowd, but in an entirely new country, where things were different enough from Britain to leave her confused, Hadley was afraid it would be far easier said than done.

Particularly when she was violently opposed to bullying in any of its many forms. Hadley hated it, wouldn't tolerate it, and she could almost guarantee that she would attempt to do something about the problem in McKinley High soon enough. Maybe she'd be unsuccessful, but she'd be as bad as the bullies themselves if she didn't try, and Hadley would be damned if she willingly let people suffer the same misery she'd endured for too damn long on Privet Drive.

"There's not much we can really do about it, is there?" Sam asked, though the enquiry was rhetorical, and Hadley didn't have an answer for him anyway. Instead, she shrugged helplessly, finished up the last of her lunch, and stirred her straw around her can of pop. Sunshine didn't have much to say on the topic either, and they sat in a strained, guilty silence until the bell sounded across the courtyard.

Hadley herself gathered her things, threw her rubbish in the bin, and walked with Sunshine towards the English class they shared. Sam had gym, blessedly not co-educational, but as they settled in seats near the middle of the room, and as Tina settled two seats in front of her, Hadley's mind wandered back to the sight of her covered in purple slush, and she decided that it was an experience Hadley never wanted to repeat.

She'd make sure it wouldn't.