New chapter! Hurray for me!
ApocalypticSquirrel: Thank you for writing some feedback :) I must say I agree that Alex has become a bit too sexualized for her age, and it'll be toned down a bit until her 3rd year. As of your concerns about the manipulation: It'll become harder for her to manipulate others over the course of the story both because she'll demand more from them and because they'll learn more about her.
Zeronaru: Thank you, I'll do so!
- formalkitty -
Halloween was supposed to be this great occasion for students of all ages and houses to bond. Alex, however, thought it was a display of carelessly tossing away wizarding traditions, in this case, Samhain. She had discussed this with Alastair, whom she had grown closer to over the last few weeks. He had agreed with her, and it turned out he wasn't the only one, Theo had also added in with his opinion once when she had walked to herbology with Draco. As it seemed, most of the Slytherins were sceptical about Halloween replacing Samhain.
She had, of course, asked George, Fred and Lee about their opinion on the topic, but they hadn't really given it a thought before she brought it up. George and Fred actually hadn't known what Samhain was, a fact that had made her insist on them reading a book on wizarding traditions.
But even though she didn't appreciate the act of wiping out wizarding holidays she appreciated the effort that went into preparing the Halloween party. She appreciated the way the whole castle had been transformed into something mystical and eery. She knew that it must have taken a long time for the ancient runes professor to create the incandescent runes that flew around the castle's hallways, she knew Professor Snape had spent a lot of time filling big cauldron that stood in the great hall with Draught of Peace, heaven forbid the man would fill it with something that was simple to brew like a forgetfulness potion! She knew Hagrid had spent a lot of time growing pumpkins and that Flitwick and McGonagall had used a good amount of time making them fly around.
All that was jolly good, as Fred and George would have said. It just annoyed her to no end that there were no rituals where they thanked Lady Magic for their abilities or their good fortune.
This was the reason Alexandra Miller had spent all day scowling, sneering and snapping at anybody brave enough to go near her, be it teachers or fellow students. Now dinner was nearing and she still looked like a thundercloud. This made Blaise flinch visibly when she plopped down beside him.
"Blaise, if you react like that they might think I abuse you." It was a playful remark, but she didn't sound amused, no she sounded demeaning. He just moved farther away from her.
"Fine, fine be that way Zabini!"
That statement made the rest of the first years desert her too. GREAT! She would just eat alone, might as well go die in a dumpster while she was at it.
"Pumpkin soup," she sneered at the menu card. My sneer is really impressive today, she realised, might even rival Snape's. Nah, who was she kidding, no one could rival Snape when it came to being an intimidating bat creature. The thought made her feel marginally better, well so did the pumpkin soup that had appeared before her. Merlin thank the houseelfs, they were fantastic creatures.
Consumed by her own thoughts she didn't realise that the door had swung open before Professor Quirrell screamed.
"Troll! Troll in the dungeon!"
This caught her attention and she turned her head to see the professor utter his last words before he 'fainted': "I just thought you ought to know."
He clearly hadn't fainted just pretended to, she face-palmed. How come, nobody, except for her, could see this? Well, she guessed his overall pathetic behaviour made it easy to think that he would be the type to faint…
"Silence!" Dumbledore's deep voice boomed across the hall making everyone shut up, "now, I want all of you to remain calm, prefects will lead their houses to the common rooms and the teachers will follow me to find the troll." What was the senile old man thinking? The Slytherins recited in the dungeons, but that didn't matter, did it? Why would it matter when they were the evil ones. Still, she stood up and readied herself to go into a potentially dangerous area with a troll. Stupid old coot.
Her eyes travelled across the hall and stopped at Weasel and his friend Dean Thomas, they looked suspiciously uneasy. Convinced that something was going on she silently cast a charm that allowed her to listen in on them.
"…go looking for her? I mean it is our fault that she is not here…" The voice belonged to Thomas.
"Nah mate, I mean, sure we were a little harsh on her but it isn't our fault that she chose to be a crybaby. She's usually such a know-it-all, and she hangs out with Potter too which means she is basically a snake!"
Alex turned off the charm and sighed. From what she could gather Weasel had been an insensitive little snotty brat, as per usual, and had said something mean to Hermione which had sent her off crying to somewhere unknown, and now a troll was roaming the halls… Well, it was nice knowing Granger, she supposed this was goodbye.
Then again, she couldn't really bring herself to just leave Hermione in such a situation.
Oh, screw it all.
As quietly as possible she sneaked away from the Slytherins, a deed that really wasn't that hard to execute since most of them were still panicking about going to the exact place where the troll had been spotted.
She cornered Weasley shortly after.
"Now spit it out Weasel, where did she go?" She hissed tipping her head a bit to the right, just for the creepy effect it had.
"I don't know okay. She just left."
Alexandra really had to fight her urges to punch him in the face.
"You know what Weasel, it is your kind of people that are the trouble of this world: People that doesn't have a brain and therefore doesn't know how to filter what comes out their mouths."
"Hey, what is that supposed to mean?" He sounded so confused it was almost funny.
"It means," Alex said, stretching out her words, "that you are stupid for saying dumb things to one of your betters, also known as Hermione Granger."
She turned around and stormed out the room.
Well then, she supposed it was just a game of hide and seek now. Where would she go to be alone? Honestly, she had no idea and just decided to roam the halls freely.
Then she heard a scream of… anger? That didn't seem quite right, wasn't people supposed to be terrified when they screamed?
Following the sound of the scream she arrived at the first-floors girls bathroom, she took a deep breath, drew her wand and opened the door only to find a highly unusual sight. There stood Hermione Granger looking completely crazy, screaming at a fully grown mountain troll.
"Now, you listen up, you fucker, my day has been miserable and I certainly do not need you to make it worse, do we understand each other you fucking cock sucking arsehole?" Despite her impressive efforts, the troll didn't seem very intimidated and just roared.
"I guess not, great, just fan-fucking-tastic!" Hermione threw her hands up the air seemingly giving up on arguing with the troll. A smart move, Alex nodded approvingly, a smart move indeed.
Then the bushy haired girl smiled a wicked smile.
"Reicio," She screeched pointing her wand at the troll.
Alexandra knitted her brows, this definitely wasn't a light spell. She recognised it, though, it was an old dark Gaelic spell, made things explode, as proof one could just look at the giant hole Hermione had just blasted through the stomach of the now dead troll.
"Well," she drawled capturing Hermione's attention. A panicked look crossed the Gryffindor's eyes.
"It seems your true colours are showing, not that I mind, but the teachers are bound to find this troll at some point and I don't want to be at the crime scene when they arrive. What do you say we get out of here?"
Hermione looked at her as if she was crazy.
"You do know that that is not a normal reaction to this?"
"Says the crazy girl, now come on they'll be here soon."
Alex hurried down the hallway making sure Hermione actually followed her. As soon as she deemed the distance between them and the troll long enough she stopped moving.
"I'll go to the Slytherin dorms now so I'll see you at the library tomorrow."
Hermione was left wondering why Alexandra still wanted to talk to her after seeing what she just did…
.
The next day started off as it always did, but changed when Alexandra bid Blaise and a groggy Draco farewell in the great hall and went to sit with Hermione Granger at the Gryffindor table."
"Good morning, Mione." She had decided to switch to a pet name since it would make Hermione believe that they were closer than before after yesterday.
The other girl just looked at her dumbfounded as she plopped down on the bench. Alexandra ignored her stares completely and began humming a tune while pouring herself a cup of tea. Their moment of peace was broken by, surprise surprise, Weasley.
"Hey, you! Snake!"
"No, me, Alexandra" Alex pointed at her herself, then at Ronald, "you, Weasel!" Ending the sentence with excitingly clapping her hands might have been overkill but it resulted in the other Gryffindors chuckling.
"You are not supposed to sit here, you know? why don't you go back to your slimy snake pit and do whatever you filthy misfits do down there!"
Alex sipped on her tea, "So let me get this straight: You'd rather I go to the common room where I supposedly am brewing up some kind of plan for world domination? Hmm, that isn't a bad plan! and here I thought you were stupid, Weasel. My sincerest apologies. You have, however, not been angry at me when I sat at the Gryffindor table before, I mean it's not like you care when I sit with your brothers, and.."
"You eat with my brothers?" Weasel sounded surprised. The look on his face was nice too: like the weight of the whole world had just landed on his shoulders. Alexandra chose to avoid replying since she had just told him the answer, and that was barely a minute ago.
Instead, Hermione replied, "Ronald, do you not have eyes or something? Alexandra has been sitting with Fred and George every lunchbreak from the semester started to now, they even eat together on weekends."
This statement made Ron Weasley look physically sick. He stood up abruptly.
"Ron, mate. Where are ya going?" Dean seemed concerned about his friend's welfare. A rather impressive accomplishment if one took Ronald's bad attitude into consideration.
"I'm going to owl my mother about the twins, she's really good at howlers."
Alexandra just raised an eyebrow and sipped on her tea. How lovely…
Standing up too she turned to Hermione.
"Thank you for the wonderful company, Mione. I must say that I, unfortunately, has lost my appetite, though. And please call me Alex, Alexandra just seems too formal."
The corners of Hermione's mouth fell down a bit, "but that's what Malfoy and Zabini call you…"
"And Draco is my friend too, Mione. He might be a bit snobby and spoiled but he's still a great friend. Zabini might seem vain but he's a really deep guy too, you know? If you still do not feel comfortable then feel free to find a name yourself. Just don't call me Alexandra, you are my friend and my friends do not call me what everyone else does."
.
.
At the head table, Albus Dumbledore furrowed his brows. Young Alexandra had just blown of Ronald Weasley, a boy he had hoped she would become fast friends with. Maybe she wasn't as close to him as he liked to believe, but he was not one to fret: The situation might not be ideal, but all he needed to do was to create a relation with the girl. It was time to talk with her in private.
.
.
"Alex, why were you talking to the mudblood?" Draco sneered at her.
"She has the potential to be great, maybe even greater than you two."
Their conversation stopped as they walked into the greenhouse. Professor Sprout sat at a stool and concentrated intensely on a plant in front of her, it looked like a purple bulb with a bunch of leaves growing from its top. Alex recognised it as a bouncing bulb, clearing her throat she brought the teachers attention to the students.
"Students," the square shaped woman exclaimed, "today we're going to relocate bouncing bulbs! Now be careful with these small devils, they are, as the name implies, good at jumping around. If one comes to close to your face you must simply hit it with a knockback-jinx."
Alex looked around, maybe she should use this as an opportunity to get to know some new people. Her eyes stopped at a fidgety Neville Longbottom, she hadn't talked much to the boy, except for the times he joined her and Hermione to study of course, but knew he was good at herbology.
"Hey Neville, want to partner up?" Beside her, she could hear the Slytherins collective hiss of indignation, but Alex chose to focus entirely on the awkward boy in front of her. For a short moment, it looked like he was going to say no but then nodded his head.
She smiled, "alright Neville, let's get started!"
It turned out Neville was able to hold a conversation once he got over his nervous tendencies.
.
.
Professor Sprout looked at her favourite student with a sense of pride and happiness. How that boy hadn't ended up in her house she didn't know, he was as honest and loyal as one could be. She was both happy that he had finally found a lab partner and a bit unnerved by his choice. Alexandra Potter, or Miller: A name she insisted on being called, was indeed a good student, that was something every staff member could agree on. She scored straight O's, nothing less than academic perfection, but there was something off about her. Nobody's perfect, it was only human to have flaws and Sprout highly suspected that Alexandra's flaws were psychological. She had seen glimpses of it over the time she had spent with Alexandra: The way everyone would avoid her when she was in a bad mood, Draco Malfoy carrying around her backpack and her apparent union with the red-haired troublemakers more commonly known as Fred and George Weasley.
And now this Slytherin girl was hovering above her Neville. Pour Neville, an easy victim since he was isolated by most of his Gryffindor peers. He would play into her plans entirely too easily.
Sprout shivered, Alexandra almost seemed like a predator watching a delicious bunny.
Then the girl turned and looked straight into Pomona Sprout's murky brown eyes, a smile lit up her porcelain doll face and Sprout found herself smiling back. Oh, she was dangerous, a little too dangerous.
.
.
Potions were, well, potions were potions. Snape sneered at everyone and hovered above them making the Gryffindors feel uneasy.
The lesson was going smoothly, or as smoothly as a potions lesson that involved Ronald Weasley and Neville Longbottom could go, when it was interrupted by an uneasy looking second year Hufflepuff boy.
"Mr, sir, I mean Professor Snape, Headmaster Dumbledore has asked me to bring Alexandra Potter to his office…"