Only Half-Weasley

Chapter 5

A/N: Alright, you must forgive me! I have been working on this chapter for several weeks and it has taken me forever to get it to my satisfaction. I hope you enjoy it and thank you to all who reviewed!

The first day at Hogwarts is usually an exciting day for most students. Most is the key word here. For Holly Miller, this was far from exciting as she could get.

After the feast, Holly had been introduced to her four new roommates and their own dorm. It was very apparent by the way that the other girls were talking that they must have known each other for a very long time because the other four immediately dove into a long conversation about their lives and Holly found herself on the sidelines just listening. She had nothing to say and could not even possibly relate to anything the other girls mentioned. It was obvious that the other girls were very acquainted with the wizarding world as they mentioned books, magazines, etc. that were clearly not from the other world. After an hour, Holly finally dozed off. The other four girls looked at Holly's sleeping form with odd expressions on their face.

"What is her problem?" said one girl defensively.

Another shook her head. "Maybe she thinks we're boring."

"Well, then she must not live in the wizarding world," a third piped in. "Anyone living in the wizarding world would know exactly what we're talking about."

"Perhaps she just stuck up. There's a girl in Ravenclaw that I have know for a few years who acts just like that. Every time I talk to her, she just zones out," said the fourth.

"Either way, that's not very friendly of her," the third commented. "Maybe she just doesn't want any friends."

"She could be shy," said the second.

"She could be," the first said thoughtfully. "But I'm not about to go making friends with her if she doesn't want them." The other girls agreed in unison and went back into another flow of conversation that lasted way past midnight and into the early hours of the next morning.

The most successful thing that Holly accomplished that morning was getting to her first class on time. First, she had slept in too late and when she did awake, the other girls were gone. Now she was late getting ready and when she tried to hurry, she accidentally put on her robes inside out and never found this out until she got to breakfast and some third year Ravenclaws started to laugh at her. By the time she had fixed the mistake in the bathroom on the fourth floor, the bell rang for their first class and Holly was forced to find it by herself as the girls in her dorm seemed to be avoiding her for some reason. This was definitely not turning out to be what Holly expected…

"My name is Professor Bones," their History of Magic teacher introduced herself. "History is such an interesting subject!Oh, you will love this class! Does anyone know anything about wizarding history? How about recent events?"

A few of the Ravenclaws (who were teamed up wit the Gryffindors in this class) mentioned bits and pieces about Goblins, Warlocks, Werewolves, but nothing seemed to satisfy Professor Bones until Michael Weasley raised his hand.

"Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort, ma'am," Michael announced.

Professor Bones' eyes sparkled with glee. "Precisely!" she exclaimed and went into a full depth story about he own role in the war.

"You see?" she concluded. "History isn't just the past- it's the future, too! We all have a part to play and everything that's happening now will be history!" The bell rang just in time because no matter how interesting that lecture was to her, Holly seemed to zone out like a hippo on a hot day.

After the students exited the classroom, Holly went on a mission to find Michael and Daniel, but both brothers had disappeared. In fact, in a matter of minutes, Holly was walking by herself to her next class: potions.

The dungeon where the potions class was held was dark, cold, and damp. During her entire walk to class, all Holly could think of was mold, allergies, and impending death. "This place is like a mold-bomb waiting to explode," Holly whispered to herself. "This should be illegal? Don't they know that mold is bad for you?"

"Aye! We've been telling that to Filch for years!" a painting to Holly's left laughed. Holly screamed in fright and ran down the rest of the way to the classroom. Once again, Holly was sliding in after the bell and took a seat in the last row. The instructor in front of her glared before turning back to the rest of the class.

"If you don't already know, let me remind you. The class begins at the bell, not after it," said the teacher, shooting Holly an annoyed look. "Now, this class is not about spells, charms, or any magic that you can see with your eyes. This is about the magic bonding between elements…" And so the teacher droned on. Holly was just thankful that she was in the back of the classroom. It was less likely that the teacher would catch her sleeping.

Lunch was a lonely event like the rest of the day had been and no matter how good the food was, it still couldn't make her horrible feelings go away. It seemed like everyone was avoiding her, even Michael and Daniel who she had befriended the previous day. What was going on?

Casting an eye down the table, she saw the twin brothers laughing and talking with the rest of the first year Gryffindors and some older students as well. It was quite evident by the sound of their conversation that Michael and Daniel were liked a whole lot better than herself. That was probably because they were famous…or their parents were famous…or their parents' friend was famous! Well, who cares? The point was that Holly was sitting miserably alone while everyone else around her proceeded to ignore her. Great. This was just the perfect first day of school!

Before leaving the Great Hall after finishing her lunch, Holly read the rest of her schedule. It looked like she was quite booked between today and eternity (eternity meaning that weekend). Stuffing the schedule back in her book bag, she was finally early to a class: Charms. However, even this thought wasn't very comforting when there seemed to be no one in the world to share her joy with.

The first week of school went by as quick as a turtle on a winter's night. By the time Friday came around, Holly had been introduced to all of her classes and found that she was not doing well in any of them. Perhaps this could be because she was always sitting in the back, but Holly was convinced that it was because her mother had lied to her and she really wasn't a witch after all. This could also be the reason why she would dare spend her Friday afternoon in a secluded corner of the Gryffindor Common Room reading "Standard Book of Spells Grade 1" while all of the other students were outside enjoying their first afternoon off.

When dinnertime came around, Holly still could not master any of her spells, although she had finished her three foot-parchment essay for her Charms class. Finally giving up and spending another lonely meal at the Gryffindor table, Holly decided that it was about time to write a well-worded letter to her mother.

Holly entered the empty dorm and sat on her bed (the first bed on the right if you were walking in) and pulled out a piece of parchment. Dipping her quill into the ink bottle and hovering over her paper in contemplation, Holly slowly began to let her thoughts flow on the page in front of her.

Dear Mum,

I just finished my first week here at Hogwarts. I'm sorry I haven't written sooner, but I've been quite busy. I was sorted into some house called Gryffindor, but it's not that great of a house. The people here are extremely rude. I don't think the girls in my dorm have said one word to me since I got here.

At that moment, the other four girls came waltzing into the room, laughing and joking, paying no attention to Holly whatsoever. They each sat at the end of their beds and began discussing what they were going to be doing that weekend and with whom. By the sounds of it, Gryffindor was going to play host to a huge dorm party…if that was even allowed. Either way, this news just angered Holly more as once again, she was left out of the conversation and after a few minutes of listening to it, she went back to the letter she was writing with more anger and annoyance than before.

In fact, I am positive that they don't even know my name. They sit there, talking about everything under the sun and not even once look at me. I, of course, know nothing about what they are talking about and there's never any room in their conversation to say anything. These girls are brats!

On top of this, I swear the teachers hate me. Professor Vane, the potions teacher, picks on me at every class. Ever since I was late to that first class, she thinks that I'm stuck up and whenever she asks a question, her eyes drill holes into the back of my head and calls on me to spit out the answer. Of course I don't know the answer! She's supposed to be teaching the class, not us teaching ourselves! Then, my the first potion I tried making caught on fire, then caught the desk next to me on fire, which caused someone else's book-bag to catch on fire…and next thing I know it, I'm being doused with a fountain of water (which I swear Professor Vane aimed at me with the pure pleasure of torture). I'm not even on fire, here!

Then there's astronomy…I have this really had teacher, Professor Laumie, who thinks assigns us a mountain of homework each week. The book she assigned us tells us NOTHING about the stars, constellations, planets, etc. that we are supposed to research, so I make everything up. Then, I'm getting horrible marks in her class because I have to make everything up and now she thinks that I'm supposed to be this wise-crack! How am I supposed to know which planet Jupiter is? I'm supposed to be a doctor, not an astrologist! I have never believed in divination, anyways.

Professor Potter isn't as great as everyone thinks, either. He decided to start us off learning about basic defense. So far, the only thing I've learned so far is that he must have eyes in the back of head because he seems to know when you're falling asleep…

This place is boring, Mum! I've never been so miserable in my life. I miss everything- my friends, shopping, having conversations about stuff that I understand- everything! This place is like prison! Even the portraits laugh at me every time I walk by! Why did you send me here? Sure, you had a fun time, but I sure am not! Get met out of here!

-You're Daughter

Holly

Holly put down her quill which was smoking now and blew on the ink to make it dry faster. Once she was satisfied, she sealed it shut and put it on the table next to her bed and resolved to send it off early the next morning before everyone else was up. The other girls were still talking amongst each other (what in the world could they be talking about for five days straight?) when Holly shut her eyes and drifted off.

Around six the next morning, Holly crept out of bed and made her way to the Owlry where her owl, Yaelim, was perched high up in the rafters. Upon seeing her young mistress, the owl swooped down and landed on Holly's shoulder. At least one thing was glad to see her!

"Hey girl, want to take a letter to my mum?" the owl hooted happily and Holly was about to give her the letter when she saw that it was blank. Taking out a muggle pen from her pocket (which she always carried around just in case), she wrote her mum's name across the front: Ginny Miller.

Footsteps on the stairs behind her caused Holly to freeze and her heart to pound ten times harder. Holly stood stiff and waited until the person entered the room and then collided with her, knocking her to the ground and her letter out of her hands.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the man apologized. Holly looked up to see Professor Potter holding a hand to help her up. She grabbed it and pulled herself off the ground and was about to pick up the letter, but Professor Potter picked it up first. He was about to give it to her when he noticed the name on the front. "Ginny?" he looked at Holly curiously.

"No, my name is Holly. Ginny is my mother," Holly explained with a shrug. "Why?"

Harry waved a hand and shook it off. "I knew a Ginny a long time ago. Well, her name was Ginevra, actually. Anyways, it just startled me, that's all," Professor Potter confessed. "She's supposedly dead now."

"Oh," said Holly sympathetically. Professor Potter smiled sadly and then turned to his own white began tying a letter to his owl's leg. Holly turned to her own owl, doing the same, and then sent her off. When Holly left the Owlry, Professor Potter's owl was gone, but he was staring off into the distance in thought. Holly decided to creep out quietly in case he remembered that students were not allowed to be out of their dorm at this hour…