After Defense Against The Dark Arts, Rebecca couldn't help herself but to vent.
"If I hear one more thing about my family, or me being here in a bad way, I'll kill them." Rebecca said.
"Whoa, easy, easy, Rebecca." Andrew said with a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, don't say things like that." Morgan added. "You can get thrown out for saying that you know."
"So then send me back because at least there are some people there wanting me." Rebecca exclaimed.
"Well, we want you here." Morgan said, also placing her hand on Rebecca's other shoulder. "You are our friend now."
"Thanks... I'm just so sick of this." Rebecca exclaimed.
"You'll be okay." Andrew reassured her.
The day got worse for Rebecca though. During Herbology, Rebecca overheard whispers coming from Vanessa's table, but every time Rebecca looked over, they would stop and she knew Professor Hussey heard them, but he didn't bother to try to stop them. He actually pretended to look preoccupied when he walked past their table.
Rebecca didn't find out what it was they were whispering about until No-Maj Studies. Rebecca was trying her best to understand what Professor Barnes was talking about with the Internet. She now understood why few students took this elective. Professor Barnes took the class far too seriously.
During his lecture about something called social media, Rebecca overheard a group nearby.
"Yeah. She's got a horrible attitude. I guess it comes with the face..."
"The way Professor Stetson put her in her place was fantastic. Maybe she'll make sure Warren gets booted out of here along with her sister."
"She must be dumb. I mean how can you grow up and not have learned one nonverbal spell?"
It was the first day of classes and she was fed up with it all, but she kept her cool. She knew she had to, but not being able to do anything made her feel depressed.
Fortunately, Rebecca did not hear a single rumor during Culinary Arts In Magic. There were only twelve fifth year students who signed up for it. She and Morgan were in this class and Albus Potter had signed up for it too.
For the first time, Rebecca found a class she enjoyed. Professor Aires was a very enthusiastic cook and she was more than happy to have Rebecca and Albus in the class. Mostly because it was so difficult to get people to sign up as the students, depending on what time of the day it was, would cook the foods provided for the rest of the school and for this class, it would be their job to cook dinner every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Rebecca had some experience in cooking with her mom, but never done it with magic, which intrigued her. Despite her mother growing up in an all magical pureblood family, she preferred muggle cooking when it came down to family meals.
Professor Aires decided to put everyone into pairs, but she was going to select the pairing for them. Rebecca was placed with Albus.
Rebecca had only spoken to Albus a few times at Hogwarts. Most of them were in the library during quidditch matches because neither of them liked the sport and didn't attend games. The library was the only place that had anything interesting during that time.
Rebecca walked over to Albus' table. At least this was better than someone she didn't know at all. Albus appeared to be grateful too. He greeted her with a smile but Rebecca did not smile back. She wasn't happy that he walked out on her on the train ride.
"Hey." He greeted. "Looks like it's you and me."
"So it would seem." Rebecca said as she sat down beside him.
"Now." Professor Aires began. "Today you will be learning how to prepare dinner. I know it's been some time since this class has done this time of the day, but it's all the same. You won't be cooking today. Our pukwudgies will take care of it for today and Wednesday, but I expect everyone to be five star chefs on Friday."
Rebecca wasn't sure if she could even be ready by then. However, she looked over at Albus who looked worried.
"What's wrong?" Rebecca asked.
"I'm terrible at this." He trembled.
Rebecca was confused. "Then why did you sign up? It was an elective."
"It was this or arithmancy." Albus said.
"Good point, but you can't be terrible at this. It's just following the instructions." Rebecca said as she opened her book.
"I definitely do not have a good reputation for doing that." Albus said with a laugh.
Rebecca said no more to him and looked over wand movements to prepare a cake, but Albus did not stop talking.
"I'm sorry about yesterday."
"Sorry about what?" Rebecca asked.
"Well, it was pretty rotten of me to leave you just because of Lucy being your friend." Albus said, now making himself look busy in his book.
"You think?" Rebecca said.
"But you do understand why I didn't want to hang around, right?" Albus asked.
"I don't." Rebecca said bluntly.
"Well... Scorpius had told me Lucy thinks her father is his dad. She hates Scorpius and Draco."
"And?" Rebecca had heard this rumor before from Lucy.
Albus scratched his head. "Well, you wouldn't want to be in the same room with someone who hates your friend's guts, would you?"
"What about what Rose said?" Rebecca asked, now placing the correct ingredients on their table. "She isn't very fond of me."
"Rose keeps her own opinions and I have mine."
"So you're fond of me?" Rebecca asked.
Albus stumbled upon his words. "I didn't say- meant it like that."
There was a pause as Rebecca started on the cake batter. Then Albus continued.
"Look, I don't think you're a bad person, but I don't see why you're friends with Lucy. She's so... manipulative. I know she's always made you do her homework-"
The batter nearly spilled when Rebecca turned on Albus. "She's not my friend, thank you very much. In case you haven't noticed, we haven't spoken since last night."
Albus was taken aback. "How am I to know that?"
"You clearly seem to know everything else about our friendship." Rebecca snapped.
For the rest of the evening, Rebecca and Albus worked silently in class. If the first day of classes weren't rough, the next day was certainly looking so.
Transfiguration was first and its teacher, Professor Farnsworth, was a don't-take-no-rubbish type of teacher. However, she had a seating chart, and the most unfortunate thing to happen was that Rebecca had to sit beside Sheila Waldgrave but the third seat was occupied by Morgan and the fourth seat was settled by a boy named Roman Winters from Thunderbird.
"This is a complete outrage." Sheila said to herself.
"Is there a problem, Miss Waldgrave?" Professor Farnsworth asked sharply.
"No ma'am." She said quickly.
Luckily on the other side of the room were Vanessa and Cassandra, but Andrew had the most unpleasant time as he was at their table along with Rose.
During class, Sheila asked Rebecca, "Do you even comb your hair?"
Rebecca did not in fact tidy up her hair at all that morning, though she tried. She had such a rough time yesterday that when she got back to the Wampus tower, she nearly tore it out of her head and this morning it was such a mess that brushing didn't do any good so she had given up. She didn't even shower or brush her teeth. It took Morgan to get her out of bed.
"Lay off her, Waldo." Morgan said.
"Can't even tell if I'm smelling the cow crap from Wolfe here or if it's Warren." Sheila said in disgust. "And you're considered royalty over there?"
Rebecca put down her quill and said, "You won't even be considered to exist any longer if you keep talking."
"Oh, was that a threat?" Sheila asked. "Because I'm pretty sure all I would have to do now is tell Professor Farnsworth what you just said and you'll be packing to go home in the next hour." A grin spread across her face and Rebecca was confused as to how she knew about that.
"My father was the one who wrote your refugee papers. I'm perfectly familiar with how it works." Sheila said.
"Even if you said something to Professor Farnsworth, she wouldn't believe you anyway." Morgan spat.
"Even so, Vanessa, Cass, and I have Warren in our pockets."
"Come on, Sheila." Said Roman Winters who was being quiet the entire time.
"Come on, what?" Sheila snapped. "Don't put yourself in the middle of this Winters. I'll make sure your father gets out of jail early."
And just like that, Roman returned back to his work.
Rebecca clinched her fist. She felt like strangling Sheila right now, but Morgan must had seen Rebecca's expression and placed her hand on Rebecca's shoulder which calmed her down.
"I hate them!" Rebecca cried to her friends after class.
"Welcome to the club." Morgan said. "Trust me, there's more than just the three of us who can't stand them, but there are few who will stand up to them. I was surprised Roman interjected himself in."
They walked into the Magizoology classroom, which was located on the grounds North of the castle.
Rebecca took a seat at the front, but she soon regretted it. She could hear other students talking about her appearance behind her.
The professor came in finally. He had curly blonde hair and blue eyes. He also had a long navy blue overcoat on and he looked tacky. He also carried a brown suitcase with him too, which he sat it down on his desk. He turned to the class awkwardly and said with a grin, "Good morning class."
"It's three o'clock." someone said in the back, which Rebecca recognized as Vanessa's voice.
"Right then." Said the professor still smiling. "Good afternoon."
Rebecca noticed he had a British accent, which she thought was odd, but she then heard Vanessa say in a low voice, "He's such an idiot." The professor didn't seem to had noticed it.
"Ah, I see we have a fellow Brit in this class." He smiled towards Rebecca. "Rebecca is it?"
Rebecca didn't understand how he knew who she was or why he was talking to her like he had met her before.
He looked around and also spotted Albus, Scorpius, and Rose which he also knew them by name.
"It's good to see a few of my friends from across the pond again. My name is Rolf Scamander." He grinned. Rebecca liked the professor so far, but with her day, she didn't care to crack a smile and Professor Scamander noticed this and so he turned to the class.
"I know what it's like to be the new guy here. It's not always a smooth sail, but trust me, things will get better. Soon enough, they'll forget you're from somewhere else."
Professor Scamander was a cheerful person, but very awkward and it didn't keep Vanessa from making fun of him. Scamander had been teaching at Ilvermorny for about a year, transforming the way Care of Magical Creatures was taught at Ilvermorny, now named Magizoology.
They used the book, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, by Newt Scamander, Rolf's grandfather, however, Rolf pointed out he and his wife had added some new and updated information in the five most recent editions of the book.
It was after class when Rebecca started for the door that Professor Scamander had asked her to stay behind. Vanessa said something under her breath which made Cassandra and Sheila laugh.
Rebecca waited silently by his desk until the rest of the class left. Professor Scamander said, "Rebecca, I couldn't help but notice you seem troubled by something. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Rebecca said quickly. She didn't want anyone to start feeling sorry for her and she didn't want Vanessa becoming more of a problem if Rebecca told on her. Rebecca would rather deal with her problems on her own.
Professor Scamander then said, "I know how you're feeling right now about home. My family is also wanted by Mathias. My grandparents are over there in hiding and I have no idea how to get them out, but last I heard they were with your family and they're all doing well."
It wasn't what Rebecca expected to hear, but it made her happy to hear it. "Thanks." she said with a small smile.
The smiles didn't last though. As soon as Rebecca arrived in US History of Magic, Vanessa was cracking jokes about British speaking, which really Rebecca and her siblings didn't have as strong of an accent as others from Britain. Her father spoke with the accent only when talking about the magical world. He was born and raised in America for 10 years in the muggle world beforehand. And of course Rebecca's mother was pure French who attended Beauxbatons. Rebecca wasn't completely exposed to the traditional British accent until she started school at Hogwarts. It did not matter to Vanessa though.
"I mean, it's such a terrible way to speak. I think I'd off myself if I spoke that way. I guess it's no wonder Warren has issues-"
Rebecca had enough. Instead of going to her seat, she turned to face Vanessa, who was shocked to see it. Rebecca shouted in anger, "You listen here you little manky, minging, munter." Rebecca was right in her face. Vanessa was shocked and there was a hint of terror in her eyes.
"If you have anything else more to say about me, say it to my face, but you best be ready for what's coming the moment you open your twat of a mouth, you worthless cack!"
"Miss Warren!" Called out Professor Attwood. She looked frustrated more than mad. "Go sit down now before I have you in detention on your first day."
Rebecca did not move. She was still staring Vanessa down, who had moved back in her chair as much as possible.
"Miss Warren!"
Rebecca felt a hand fall onto her shoulder. It was Andrew. It was he who finally got Rebecca to leave the spot. Professor Attwood waited a moment to make sure things were back to normal before she began her lesson.
Rebecca walked back to the Wampus common room with Morgan and Andrew. Morgan was applauding Rebecca for standing up to Vanessa.
"I never knew the British had a wide vocabulary on swear words." She said. "You need to teach me a few."
"I admit, it was certainly an interesting scene you made." Andrew started. "But you have to be careful. Everyone in class, including Attwood, saw it and heard what you said. This could be bad if Vanessa can use that scene to get you kicked out."
"Attwood is too nice to have someone kicked out. Besides, Rebecca did listen to her." Morgan said.
"Only because Andrew helped me." Rebecca spoke up. "If it wasn't for him, I'd probably be on a plane by now. Thanks by the way."
"Well, if anything, you did get Vanessa to shut up. I haven't heard her since you stood up to her." Morgan said. "Not a lot have stood up to her out of fear of what her parents could do."
"But you two have." Rebecca said.
"Not like you did." Andrew said.
Morgan tried to put her arm around Rebecca's shoulder, but with their height difference, as Rebecca was much taller, made it difficult. "What do ya know, Andy? Our metaphorical cavalry has arrived to rid us of our troubles from the treacherous Vanessa Bancroft."
Andrew cracked a smile and pushed opened the door to the common room where they were met with an applause by their housemates. They were cheering "Way to go!" and "Good job!" Rebecca didn't understand until she heard someone say, "You sure showed Vanessa!"
There was only one person in her house who didn't clap and that was Lucy. She sat away from everyone. Rebecca thought she was jealous and decided to ignore her.
After all of the congrats and thank yous, Rebecca made her way up to bed. Personally, she didn't like all of the attention, but at least this type was for good reasons.