To say that Minerva had been surprised to get a letter from Alexandra Potter was an understatement. She really hadn't anticipated it.
But here it was a letter from Alexandra. As McGonagall read the letter once more she turned even pale. This couldn't be right, could it? How could the girl-who-lived not know about the wizarding world? And what exactly did she mean when she said: "adopted"?
Minerva sighed and took a swig of her red wine. Well, there was only one thing to do about it, she thought. Slowly, with long strides, she bagan walking towards Albus' office.
"Twizzlers," she murmured, Albus was eccentric that way.
"Come on in Minerva."
She swung open the door, "good afternoon Albus."
"Well, good afternoon to you too Minerva," Albus smiled.
"Not exactly Albus, not exactly," Dumbledores smile dimmed a bit but his everlasting eye twinkle was still present. "Now Minerva sit down please, lemon drop?"
"No thank you, Albus," Minerva smiled at the eccentric old man, yes, he would know what was going on.
"Fine. Now tell me, my dear, what is troubling you?" He folded his hands.
"Well Albus I've received a letter from one of our new students," she gave him the letter.
As he read the letter his brows furrowed.
"I see,this truly is troubling. I believe you'll have to pay miss Potter a visit…"
"So you don't know what's going on?" He looked apologetically at her.
"I'm afraid I do not. I was convinced Alexandra lived happily with her relatives in Little Whinning."
Minerva almost scowled, how could he not know? Alexandra had been his responsibility, he was supposed to know such things.
"I see, I will go see her tomorrow then, goodnight Albus."
"Goodnight Minerva."
.
.
As the door shut behind McGonagall, Dumbledore's eyes lost their twinkle. This was an unforeseen obstacle. he had placed Alexandra with her family to m ake her a humble young lady who he could rescue and thereby bind to the light side. This was not a part of his master plan. But then again maybe it wouldn't matter, Alexandra had still lived with the Dursley's for the first six years of her life. Yes, she would be humble, he would still be able to manipulate her.
Reassured of his plan Dumbledore smiled. Everything would go as he planned for it too.
.
.
The very next day Minerva stood outside what looked like a luxury apartment complex. She had just pressed the button saying C. Miller since she recognised the last name.
"Yes?" An impatient voice asked.
"Am I talking to Ms Miller?"
"Yes, yes that's me, but I must ask with whom am I talking?"
"My name is Minerva McGonagall, can I please be allowed into the building?"
"Well yes, of course. I'll send my daughter to get you."
The door gave a high pitched beep and opened. Minerva, a little unnerved by all of this muggle technology, went inside the building. Shortly after she could hear footsteps, a tall slender girl with long curly black hair sashayed down the stairs.
"Deputy mistress McGonagall I assume," the girl declared in a surprisingly husky voice. Minerva simply nodded her head. Whoever this girl was, she was beautiful. Her raven hair framed an aristocratic face with high cheekbones, a button nose, pouty red lips and uncanny avada kedavra green eyes surrounded by long eyelashes.
"I'm Alexandra Miller, I presume you are here to tell me about my further education?"
So this was Alexandra Potter, Lily and James kid. She was not what Minerva had expected. In fact, she was quite the opposite. McGonagall had pictured a girl with unruly hair and a mischievous glint in her eyes just like James, with freckles and a vivacious personality like Lily. The girl in front of her possessed none of those traits, her hair seemed soft like feathers, her eyes seemed to be calm, her posture was perfect and her ivory skin didn't have a single freckle.
"I am."
"Very well," Alexandra sent her a lopsided smile that made her seem more like James, more childish. Minerva couldn't help but smile back.
"Follow me."
They went up the stairs, Alexandra opened a door leading Minerva into the hallway. She then turned to look at the deputy mistress, "Please, leave your shoes and outerwear here."
Her words were perfectly polite, but the tone seemed a tiny bit derogatory as if she was talking to a child. Minerva, however, did as she was told looking around in wonder, the walls were covered in paintings that apparently was supposed to look unrealistic.
"It's Picasso," Alexandra stated, seeming to think that was answer enough for McGonagall's questioning glances.
As they walked into the house the paintings were switched out for pictures of models in all kinds of attire. They moved towards a black painted door, which Alexandra gently knocked.
"Yes, yes Alex bring her in, I'm almost finished anyways."
Alexandra, or Alex, opened the door. McGonagall tripped after her, unsure of what to do. This was like a whole new world, never before had she felt so little and insignificant. She tried to shake away the feeling, she was a grown woman and wasn't supposed to be all nervous just because of a house visit! It was simply silly.
"Please do sit down Mrs McGonagall," a blonde woman smiled frigidly, "would you like some tea?"
"Well yes please, that would be very nice. No sugar and a bit of milk, thank you."
The woman who McGonagall assumed was C. Miller turned to prepare her tea.
"So," Alexandra sent her a warm smile, something Minerva really needed at that moment, "you were going to tell me about Hogwarts." It sounded more like a demand than anything else, but at that time McGonagall was more than happy to comply and get this visit over with.
It took hours to explain everything mostly because of Alexandra's boundless curiosity. The girl had wanted to know everything, her eyes shining with childish excitement. Minerva had seen Lily's curiosity in the child and had to admit that she had taken quite the fancy to young Alexandra. The was charming. She had, of course, explained how Alexandra had become the girl-who-lived, but they had mostly talked about wizarding traditions and the different kinds of magic one could do. She had found that both Alexandra and her adoptive mother, Caroline, was of reasonable intelligence and fully capable of holding a conversation. Caroline, albeit a bit cold, also seemed to care a great deal about her adopted daughter. The time had, finally, come for her to leave, yet she had a question that she had wanted to ask all day long.
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you adopt Alexandra Ms Miller?"
Ms Miller seemed to stiffen up, then her eyes filled up with resentment.
"Those relatives of hers," the words were spat out as if they were pure venom, "they abused her, and that poor child didn't deserve such a horrible life."
"I, I understand Ms Miller," McGonagall nodded solemnly. This was deeply disquieting, Albus had always said that the girl had loving relatives.
"Well, we'll see you tomorrow Mrs McGonagall. Alexandra is excited to go shopping for school supplies."
"Yes, I'll see you two tomorrow."
.
.
The next morning after yoga Alexandra was excited, but she, of course, didn't show it.
Today was the first day of her new life as a wizard. Caroline had taken it all fairly well. It wasn't every day you found out your adoptee daughter was a wizard, but Alexandra had expected no less of her. She was after all her plaything. A twisted smile spread across her face. Of course, she had some kind of relationship with Caroline, but she knew the blonde loved her way more than she loved her. The woman was, therefore, hers.
As she brushed her hair in silence her thoughts wandered off to the day before. McGonagall had been hard to read, but she was fairly sure she understood how the older woman worked by now. She obviously had known both of her parents and was searching for traces of them in Alexandra. She was also strict, yet brave and spontaneous. Alex smirked, too easy. All she had to do was to find out how her parents had behaved. She already knew that one of them must've been pretty mischievous since McGonagall responded well to her when she displayed that emotion. She didn't want McGonagall to love her unconditionally, though, that was Caroline's job. She wanted a mentor, and what she wanted she would get.
Alexandra put on a black cut-out wool dress from Versace and slipped into a pair of nude Louboutins. She looked classy.
Downstairs Carolina sat hunched over her computer, she only looked up when Alex walked into the room.
"Alex dear, I don't think I'm gonna make it today, Chanel have just asked to get a photoshoot with you and I've got to arrange the details."
"That's okay Caroline I can take care of myself you know," Alex answered with a playful wink.
"I know dear, believe me, I do."
McGonagall rang the doorbell at exactly eight o'clock. To be honest she was a bit worried she had come too early since it was a Saturday and people usually slept in on the weekends. It turned out she had been worrying for nothing though as Caroline's voice was heard the next second.
"The door is open, come on in."
This time she knew where to go so she didn't need to wait for Alexandra to show her the way. As soon as she stepped inside she was greeted by Alexandra who seemed to be ready.
"Alright then," McGonagall smiled warmly, "let us go get your school supplies."
.
They strolled down the streets of London while Minerva told Alexandra about the four houses of Hogwarts and quidditch. Soon they reached a small pub called The Leaky Cauldron, a name that sounded so cliche Alexandra almost cracked a smile. The key word being almost. Inside the bar sat a few people dressed in robes. Alexandra cringed, she suspected that she never would get used to wizarding fashion. She had to admit the so-called muggles were better at making clothes than the wizards.
But she still hated muggles. The way they treated each other was simply abominable.
McGonagall continued walking through the pub until she reached a stone wall. Here she took out her wand and touched several of the stones in a pattern Alexandra quietly memorised. The wall then revealed an entrance into a busy street.
"Welcome to Diagon alley, do you like it?"
Alexandra nodded her head, yes she liked it very much. It felt as if the air was filled with magic.
"We'll start with a visit to Gringotts."
Alex nodded once more, she recognised the name of the wizarding bank.
They arrived shortly after to be serviced by an acrimonious goblin named Griphook. Alex was glad when they finally left the bank to go look for potion ingredients and a size two cauldron. This task, however, proved to be extremely mundane.
Then they went to buy books, here Alexandra promptly tried to buy the whole store. This greatly amused the otherwise stoic deputy mistress.
Alexandra, however, paid no attention to the chuckling McGonagall and continued to search for books.
In the end, she bought:
Numerology and Grammatica
Fantastic beast and where to find them
All editions of The standard book of spells
Qiuntessence: A quest
Confronting the Faceless
The Dark forces: a guide to self-protection
Defensive magical theory
The essential defence against the dark arts
One thousand magical herbs and fungi
Flesh eating trees
Ingredient encyclopedia
A history of magic
Magical draughts and potions
Advanced potion-making
Spellman's syllabary
Ancient runes made easy
A beginners guide to transfiguration
Intermediate transfiguration
A guide to advanced transfiguration
She figured that would be enough to keep her satisfied. Unbeknownst to her, she had bought all of the books that would be on the Hogwarts curriculum.
Minerva had just watched her fondly, not wanting to disturb the child who for once looked her age. Her glasses made her seem very bookish, something that didn't go together with her outfit. But Minerva had to admit that even though her clothes were a little too adult-like, they fit her slender frame nicely.
Next, they went to buy a trunk, here Alex stubbornly demanded that they'd buy the one made out of dark blue leather.
As they went out onto the street again someone yelled at them.
"McGonagall, just the witch I was looking for!" A little man strolled towards them, "could you give me a moment of your time? I need to discuss something important…"
"I think I can buy the robes by myself professor."
"Okay then," Minerva sounded dubious but a reassuring nod from Alexandra was all it took for her to give in, "run along then, I'll meet you in an hour at Ollivanders."
Alexandra managed to find Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions fairly easy and soon she was being measured.
"Madam."
"Yes, my dear?"
"Could I only get the outer robes? or is there a rule that you have to wear the whole uniform?"
The plumb witch looked confused, "I don't think there's such a rule, but are you sure you don't want the inner robes?"
"I'm quite sure."
.
.
Draco Malfoy had been left by his parents to go get school robes, a task that seemed boring and trivial. Therefore he hadn't been expecting to run into someone interesting today, so when he did it came as a shock.
He hadn't really paid attention to her at first, she hadn't seemed important, but then she had begun talking. She had a surprisingly husky voice he thought, turning a bit so that he could see her.
She was really pretty, dainty and all, yet tall for a girl her age. He had been puzzled when she asked for only the outer robes. Why would anyone do that? Then her conversation had ended, and she had turned around, catching him looking at her.
He could practically feel his cheeks heat up.
"My name is Malfoy. Draco Malfoy," he blurted out trying to diffuse the awkwardness he was beginning to feel.
"Alexandra."
"Well Alexandra, are you going Hogwarts too?" Stupid question Draco, of course, she is. He would have face-palmed but that would just be weird, and Malfoys didn't face-palm.
"Yes, I'm going to start my first year this season."
"Do you know what house you're going to be in? I just know I'm going to be a Slytherin, no Malfoy has ever been anything else." Her head snapped in his direction; he finally had her full attention, something he felt strangely proud of. Why would he feel proud for catching a stranger's attention, Malfoy's were supposed to be in the limelight!
"I do not know but I'm hoping for Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff."
Hufflepuff? Somehow he just couldn't see her being a puffer.
"I get Ravenclaw, but why in the world would you want to be a puffer?" A calculating glint entered her eyes and a feral grin adorned her pretty face.
"Imagine how many followers one could get in a house filled with extremely loyal and gullible people!" He smirked, yep she wasn't a puffer but a snake.
"You're a Slytherin if I know one."
At this, she pouted, "no fair, I want my loyal followers."
And for the first time in a very long time Draco Malfoy laughed. It wasn't the mocking laughter he used when he used towards people he deemed unworthy or the fake laughter he used when Parkinson told one of her dreadful jokes, but a real happy laughter.
"Dear you're finished, here's your outer robes."
Alexandra paid for her robes and sashayed towards the door. There she turned around looking at the Malfoy Scion.
"Well bye Draco, it was nice to meet you."
The door closed behind her before he'd got to answer.
"You too Alexandra, you too." And that's when it hit him, she'd been wearing muggle clothes. She was most likely a mudblood, but somehow that just didn't matter.
.
.
Alexandra was in no hurry, so she decided to take a look inside a store called Magic Menagerie. It apparently was a pet shop filled with fascinating creatures like bright orange snails, giant jewel entrusted tortoises, pink cats and owls. The most captivating creatures though were by far the snakes, they came in many different sizes and colours.
And they talked, well more like hissed, but somehow she understood them. It, however, wasn't one of the colourful snakes that caught her attention, but a brownish-reddish snake. It was quiet, unlike the others.
'Hello, Serpent'
The snake looked intrigued.
'A speaker? I thought they were extinct.'
'Well I'm obviously alive'
'So you are Human'
'Well, my name's Alexandra what's yours Serpent'
'Snakes do not have names. But I can tell you my species if you would like that'
Alexandra was intrigued by this, the platter on the snake's cage clearly said "Oriental rat Snake, non-venomous".
'No you stupid Human, they got it all wrong! I'm an inland taipan'
Alexandra almost gasped, almost. From what little she knew, that was a very venomous snake.
'Buy me human'
She smirked, 'what will I gain from that?'
'I'll stay with you, protect you.'
'Alright'
5 galleons later she had a sleeping snake twisted around her waist.
.
.
Minerva was relieved when she saw Alexandra Miller walk down the street towards Ollivanders. She couldn't really let go of her uneasy feeling, Alex was but a kid, she could've easily gone astray. She hadn't though and that was all that mattered. The closer Alex came the more obvious the snake that was twisted around her waist became
"Hello Alexandra, I see you got yourself a pet," McGonagall gulped.
"Oh yes, I have indeed gotten a pet. I think I'm going to call him Oswald," Alexandra smiled and for a second Minerva thought she saw pure sadistic pleasure light up the child's eyes. But it disappeared as soon as it came. Minerva blinked maybe it was just the light playing with her there's no way that could've just happened. She turned around and opened the door. Alexandra followed.
It really wasn't the light, for a split second Alex's mask had slipped: The thought of naming her snake after JFK's supposed killer simply was too funny.
Inside the store, it smelled like resin, smoke and dust. It was a charming little shop.
"Ah, Miss. Potter," an eccentric looking man blinked at her, "finally come to get your wand have you?" The man didn't let her answer.
"Which hand is your wand hand?"
She blinked once, "well I'm right-handed if that's what you mean."
The man didn't answer but instead scurried of coming back with a wand.
"Try this one, mahogany and phoenix feather, 12 inches springy."
She gave the wand a swing… and the vase that stood on the table exploded.
"Nope, nope, nope definitely not," the man mumbled and then went off to find a new wand.
"Maybe this one, 9 inches walnut and unicorn hair, flexible."
This time it was the lightbulb that exploded.
This process repeated itself: The man brought out a new wand, Alex tried it, something exploded.
"Well, it's worth a try," the man mumbled, probably to himself. He came back with yet another wand.
"Holly, 11 inches with a phoenix feather core, nice and supple," he looked extremely proud of himself. As soon as she picked up the wand she knew that it wasn't the one, but she still gave it a swing. The window glass exploded.
Ollivander, she assumed that was the man's name, seemed really disappointed. Then he lit up.
"It couldn't be now could it?"
He came back with a new wand.
"10 inches, rigid, pine and dragon heartstring." She picked it up and felt an instantaneous surge of power.
"Well come on Miss. Potter give it a swing."
Alex did as she was told and out came white sparks.
"Wonderful, bravo Miss. Potter!"
McGonagall had been very patient, but they were running low on time so as soon as Alexandra found her wand she excused them, paid for the wand and hurried outside.
They returned to the penthouse shortly after. Alexandra plastered on her most childish expression and turned to face the deputy headmistress.
"Thank you for magical day Mrs McGonagall." Minerva could almost feel her heart melt.
"Don't mention it, Alexandra, now go inside so you can get a good nights sleep."