The following Friday Alexandra went to Dumbledore's office once more.
"Lemon drops," the gargoyle swung away revealing the corridor.
She knocked the door to his office
"Come on in Alexandra."
"Good afternoon, Albus."
Last time Alex visited she had been focused on not falling into his mental traps, now that she had willingly gone head first into one she had the time to observe his room. It was big and circular, there was a constant background noise coming from several silver instruments. All around the wall hang pictures of the former headmasters. The most eye-catching thing in the office, though, was a beautifully ornamented bird perch where on a phoenix sat. Dumbledore must have seen her looking since he chuckled lightly.
"He's quite dazzling, right? He's named Fawkes."
Alexandra's eyes were still glued to the bird, "yes, he's magnificent."
"Now Alexandra, we shall get started soon, but first, lemon drop?"
Alex nodded, sat down and took a candy. Popping it into her mouth she began looking through the books Dumbledore had picked for her. Not surprisingly they all were about the light arts, except maybe… Oh, this was good. She doubted Albus knew it but he had picked up a book on the dark arts. One on animagus transformations. Her fingers lingered at its leather cover, then she moved on. No matter how magically talented she was she knew she wouldn't be ready to undergo an animagus transformation. Even if she was she wasn't going to do it under Dumbledore's watch. Deciding on a thin book on the basics of healing she turned to look at him.
"Albus," she tried her best to look innocent, "do you know that you have just exposed a vulnerable student to the dark arts?"
For a short moment Albus seemed scared, then his face went back to its calm grandfatherly folds.
"My de-, Alexandra, I'm afraid I do not understand what you are implying."
Alex pointed towards the animagus book, "animagus transformations are inherently dark magic as the process of turning into one requires the wizard to put himself through physical and mental harm. For some reason the ministry hasn't banned the practice but they still regulate it."
She then sat down to read in her chosen book.
They each went their own ways just before dinner was served in the Great Hall and as Alex left the office only one thought remained in her mind: She really hated lemon drops.
.
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Albus knew that he had taken a chance by mixing in the animagus book but he had wanted to see if she would choose it. Had she been attracted to it and chosen it, she would probably have an aptitude for dark magic, she hadn't. Her hand, however, had still lingered at it which could still imply an aptitude: A theory that had been further strengthened when she revealed that she knew it was a practice of Dark magic to become an animagus.
Her words had been like an echo from the past, a mirror imitation of a boy with golden hair. A boy that had led him astray once. Albus was worried, Alexandra Potter was not to be trusted.
But there was one thing that concerned Dumbledore more than anything else. If Alexandra really was geared towards dark magic she would have a very hard time doing light magic… Most of the spells that were taught in school were grey by nature even though the ministry marked them 'white' so he wasn't worried about her academic welfare, he was worried that she wouldn't find the power she sought on the light side and join the dark instead. It was indeed very plausible, and very scary, but not all dark wizards were evil, there was still hope. Dumbledore distinctly remembered a certain group of students from that had turned out perfectly fine even though they all went through an animagus transformation at an early age. Minerva was also proof of this, albeit being more grey than actually dark.
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At the Slytherin table, Draco was waiting impatiently for Alexandra. She had been somewhat distant these last few days. He supposed it had something to do with his own, and Zabini's, commentary on her relationship with the Weasley twins. Draco could see that he might have been overdoing it just a bit, but still, she was talking to the blood traitors!
The only thing that matters is power…
Alex's voice ran through his head and he remembered something important that he had almost forgotten: Alex wasn't a pureblood heir. It was hard to remember sometimes as she behaved like one almost all the time, still, there were some moments where her muggle upbringing shone through. Her blatant disregard of the Slytherin hierarchy was one of them, her friendship with the redheads and the mudblood, Granger, was another.
Draco knew he wasn't going to change his perspective on the world any time soon, and therefore, he was surprised to realise that he was prepared to overlook some of Alex's flaws to stay friends with her. The thought was disturbing…
Well speak of the Devil, she had just entered the hall. Draco inwardly scoffed at her fashion choice of the day, while her clothes fit her frame they were still very much muggle. Yet another reminder that Alex came from another upbringing than him.
"Draco, Blaise, Theo," she nodded at them, "How have your afternoons been?"
She sat down across from him quickly tying her hair up in a ponytail before she made herself a plate.
"Fine, thank you," Zabini replied. He was a man of few words, Draco thought, but not as few as Theodore Nott: He just nodded as if that was all Alex needed to know to understand him. Draco himself enjoyed talking, he enjoyed it a lot.
"I've been doing some research on a potions essay, that is, before I was physically assaulted by Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode. So, overall it has been a normal Friday afternoon, but wait, I saw something unusual today: Granger alone in the library, and here I thought you were supposed to be with her." Draco glared at Alexandra trying to intimidate her into giving him an answer, she just stared back at him with a blank face.
"That arrangement had to be cancelled, I had something more important to do."
Draco could see that this had piqued the interest of his classmates as all conversation around them suddenly seemed to come to a standstill. It was, weirdly enough, Nott that broke the quiet.
"And that would be…?"
Alexandra took her time cutting through a piece of meat and chewed on it for just as long before eventually answering the question.
"I had a meeting with the headmaster."
Well, that was not what Draco had expected, he waited for her to continue but she didn't. Knowing that she wouldn't tell them anymore for the time being he sighed. Alexandra was slowly making them all go insane. How exactly had he become friends with her again? That was one more mystery he didn't know the answer to.
.
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The next day Alexandra had decided to bury herself in books with Blaise and Theo. She had left Draco to the mercy of Pansy Parkinson... whoops? And they were now sitting in the library working on their homework when she heard something that sounded suspiciously like Hermione Granger. The girl had continued to meet up with her in the library but behaved like Halloween never happened. Alex was in no rush to get her to talk, she was convinced the other girl would spill soon, just not now, and that was enough for her.
Hermione had also begun hanging out with Neville. Alex smiled at the thought, the pair was really a sight to behold. Hermione, being Hermione, couldn't stand anything less than perfection and Neville, being clumsy, was nowhere near perfection, the brainy girl, however, seemed to have taken mercy on him and they had formed a weird companionship: Alexandra wouldn't call it a friendship yet.
Now back to the noise she had heard, Alex stood up and walked towards the place she had heard it come from. There stood an irate looking Hermione in front of a scared Weasel. A sneer adorned the Gryffindor girls face and twisted it into something ugly, almost nonhuman. The girl pushed Weasley harshly so he fell to the floor and pulled out her wand.
While Alex wanted to enjoy the show she knew it was more important to get the other girl away from there.
"Hermione," she moved slowly towards her, "Hermione?"
The girl turned her head and looked deep into Alex's eyes and for once, Alexandra Miller felt fear. This was a feeling she didn't want to have. It reminded her of a belt slamming down on her back, of being helpless and small and a closet underneath a staircase. Then the fear became anger, a burning pit of anger. How come she couldn't even control her own emotions? She had a task that she needed to finish.
"Hermione, your facade is cracking." This seemed to get to the girl as sanity slowly seeped into her eyes once more.
"Oh, my…"
"Yes, Hermione, 'oh, my' is a perfect response." Alex chuckled, only Hermione would say something like that in a situation like this, "now let us get you out of here before anyone else comes running."
Hermione nodded and began walking towards her. Good, she was normal again. Then the girl stopped and Alex readied herself to jump in between her and Ronald. Luckily that wasn't needed as the girl only turned her head to send Weasley another evil glare.
"Don't you dare tell anybody about this or there'll be consequences." Alexandra could tell Hermione meant it by the tone of her voice.
They walked away from a stunned Ronald Weasley.
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Hermione peeked at Alexandra, the raven haired girl seemed to be thinking about something very intensely: She had a deep furrow in her forehead and her eyes were distant, far away.
"Hermione," she said after a couple of minutes, "what happened?"
This was a question Hermione had known would come but had hoped not as she couldn't explain it very well and really didn't want to.
"I guess I just snapped, Ronald was being his usual nasty self and I just had enough and then, and then I cracked."
Alexandra looked at her intensely, Hermione knew that look, it was the same Mr Henderson gave her when she visited the white room in the clinic, she gulped, next came the questions, always the questions.
"I get it if you aren't ready to let me know why you 'snap', but for your own good you must try to control it." Alexandra's voice was level-headed as if she was simply talking about the latest boring news in Witch Weekly.
"And you think I haven't tried that?"
This statement made way for a moment of silence where they just stared at each other
"If that is so, find me when you feel yourself slipping."
Alexandra began walking away, and that was when it hit Hermione: The other girl hadn't asked a single question.
"Wait, Alexandra!" The taller girl stopped, "aren't you scared of me?"
A creepy Cheshire grin spread across the other's face and at that moment Hermione swore she saw a fallen angel stand before her.
"Yes, Hermione, I'm scared," Hermione felt her heart fell, of course she was scared, everyone was scared, "but that doesn't matter all that much to me. Just make sure it isn't contagious, I don't want to catch your crazy."
Hermione smiled at Ethel's back as the other girl left.
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"Interesting," a boy commented.
"Very much so," another boy replied.
They had just seen a highly curious scene play out from behind one of the library's many bookcases. Now they weren't sure whether to feel pissed of or highly amused and therefore this whole incident was just confusing. Together they left the library, their heads filled with the new information they had just obtained: So Hermione Granger wasn't just a teacher's pet, surprise, surprise, and Alexandra Potter were involved: That girl always seemed to be involved when something strange happened. She was a node for turmoil.
Who might the boys be? Nobody knows... Except for me of course x.x
Btw I have a new story out called 'The oddities surrounding Ethel Lestrange' (It's set a Marauders era fanfic). If you are interested go check it out, if not that is entirely okay too :)
- formalkitty -