The very next day Alexandra was the first one to rise. She slipped into a blue oversized t-shirt and a pair of loose shorts. Now, this was an outfit she would normally scoff at: it was in no way flattering, but she really couldn't bring herself to care very much at the present time. The outfit was comfortable and she wanted to be comfortable when she worked out. As she sneaked down the staircase she skillfully avoided the creaky steps. A small smile spread across her face, she had been watching Fred and George when they climbed the stairs yesterday and memorised which of the old wooden steps would make a noise if stepped on. Once she got downstairs she opened the front door and hurried out into the snow. It was cold, very cold. The snow underneath her feet made them feel like they were burning, but to be honest, she didn't mind, the snow wasn't nearly as cold as her. She could withstand it. With that thought in mind, she began her usual exercises. Breathe in, then out, slip into a downwards dog, then a handstand, breathe in, breathe out.

About halfway through her routine Alexandra finally managed to clear her mind, she welcomed the familiar feeling of nothingness. Not the uncomfortable nothingness she sometimes felt, no this was a peaceful and calm nothingness. Due to her current state of mind, Alex almost didn't realise that she was being watched. She did though and while switching into a warrior position she glanced towards the Burrow and caught a glimpse of red hair. She switched position, this was interesting. Still, she pretended not to notice the small girl who was watching her from behind her curtain inside the warm house. Alex breathed out and switched position once more, gone was the blissful nothingness she had just experienced and its replacement was nowhere near as pleasant. Thoughts about the Weasley girl popped into her head. The child had stared at her during dinner last night and now she was looking at her from her window, that much was clear. Alexandra just didn't understand why she was staring and that bothered her, a lot. Alexandra Miller was controlling and that was, to put it mildly. In reality, Alex was not only controlling but manipulative. She had few qualms if any and it annoyed her to no end that she couldn't understand the child fully.

With a heavy sigh, she finished up her exercise and strolled back into the house. Here she went to take a long bath, but not with hot water. No, it wouldn't be appropriate if she used the family's sparse earnings on hot water. Besides she wasn't in the mood to feel warmth.

.

.

Fred woke up early. Or as early as one could expect of him, which actually wasn't very early at all. He then woke George up… Or, tried to wake him up? His twin-brother blinked owlishly at him and Fred couldn't help but think that he looked extremely stupid.

"Get up Feorge," he nudged the red haired boy's side, "if we get up now we can sneak up on Alexandra and wake her up."

This got George attention, the boy swung his legs out of the bed, "well then, I guess we should hurry?"

A mischievous smile spread George's face. Fred himself nodded eagerly, this was going to be fun: today was going to be fun.

They hurriedly dressed while chatting about the best way to surprise their younger friend. Then they sneaked out, they quickly dashed towards Alex's room and opened the door.

There was no Alexandra… Fred shot his brother a questioning glance but Feorge only shook his head, he didn't know where she was either.

"What are you boys doing?" A raspy voice made them both jump up in surprise.

Fred turned to look at his friend, "hello there! Just the witch I was looking for."

"And here I thought we were supposed to surprise her…" George seemed dejected yet amused at the same time. A feat Fred had thought impossible, but hell Alexandra had a way of making the impossible possible.

Alex just looked at them, her face blank. George frowned, why was she up this early anyway? She was already dressed in an off-white oversized sweater, that somehow managed to both swallow her up and make her look pretty at the same time and a pair of black trousers. Her hair was still wet which indicated that she had just taken a bath.

He turned to his brother and threw his hands in the air while sighing in an exasperated manner.

"I guess we can never win dear brother of mine…"

"I'm afraid you are right dearest brother, our opponent is simply too mighty," George continued.

Alexandra sent them a small smile, "come on, let's go get something to eat."

.

.

Mr and Mrs Weasley found the twins in the kitchen drinking tea with Alexandra. While Mrs Weasley cooed over the sight, and went on to cook breakfast while humming an especially catchy muggle Christmas tune, Mr Weasley scowled. He suddenly didn't feel like eating breakfast at all, that girl was just… unnatural. She seemed intriguing on the outside but he could tell that she was completely rotten. Rotten to the core. It reminded him of a muggle fairytale he had heard once: one about a princess and a poisonous apple. Alexandra Potter, no Miller, the girl was nothing like her parents, wasn't the princess, she was the apple. Delicious on the outside but poisonous on the inside.

"Mr Weasley," the husky voice sent chills down his spine, "aren't you going to sit down?"

It sounded polite, but her facial expression asserted that this was more of a scornful demand than an innocent question. Nevertheless, he sat down, it would be weird if he didn't. A satisfied grin made Alexandra look like an actual child, he still didn't like her, though. He knew she didn't like him either.

Shortly after Ginny came down the stairs. His daughter sent Alexandra a nervous look and then sat in the seat beside him. This only made him more depressed, of course, Ginny would look up to Alexandra, her mother hadn't exactly given her a choice. Scratch that: They hadn't given her a choice. Ginny had been brought up with stories about Alexandra and at the time it had seemed reasonable. How was supposed to know that Alexandra wasn't all that he had hoped for? Still, this was his fault and now there was nothing he could do about it. Arthur's eyes bore into his almost empty coffee cup as if he could find the answers to all of his trouble in the bitter black substance. He couldn't, he thought and downed the last bit of liquid in one go. Then, Percy, Bill, Ron and Charlie joined them, and he sat in silence, watching Bill as he continued yesterday's conversation with one Alexandra Miller.

.

.

Alexandra was, for once, genuinely happy. The Weasley family had adopted the muggle tradition of giving gifts to one another and even though it nagged her that they didn't celebrate Yule she wasn't exactly opposed to the idea of gift giving. She had, therefore, bought gifts for each and every one of the Weasley family members. Even the annoying git named Ronald. He only got a basket of candy, though, nothing too personal.

Now they were sitting in the living room opening packets and Alexandra couldn't help but feel at least a bit of genuine happiness when she saw how the twins lit up once they opened her gift. It wasn't anything special really, just two notebooks. They weren't expensive but unique, something she was okay with as she wanted to be unique. A gift was not about money, but about intent. Fred looked up from his notebook and sent her a smirk.

"I gotta say, I was almost touched by your gift but it was ruined once I read the inscription."

"To Feorge Weasel, troublemaker and menace of society," George read solemnly.

"I wish your skin would turn Slytherin green and your hair silver," Fred continued.

"Best regards, A. M." George ended the sentence.

Alex just shrugged her shoulders.

"What can I say? I'm more spice than sugar I suppose."

This made the twins laugh.

Alex just watched on as Percy received a new pen, Ronald a basket of candy, Bill a pair of black leather booths charmed to always fit their owner, Charlie a pair of dragonhide gloves, Mrs Weasley a real muggle cookbook and Mr Weasley a couple of muggle magazines. Judging by their mostly happy expressions she supposed she hadn't done half bad. She then turned to the younger Weasley. Alex had almost forgotten her.

"Here," at her voice, the girl looked up, Alex handed her a small gift. To be honest she had had no idea about what Ginny would like so she had just decided to go with a trinket. It wasn't expensive but it might make the girl happy.

Ginny seemed surprised.

"Now, Ginny," Alex started, "I wouldn't forget you, now would I?"

A small hand grasped her gift and carefully removed the wrapping paper as if it was worth more than gold. Alex seemed emotionless, but on the inside, she was laughing.

Oh, this was good, better than she could have ever anticipated. She finally understood the girl: her constant staring, the way she ever so carefully opened the gift! Ginny adored her. Why? That was but a mystery but it didn't matter. The girl adored her even before talking to her, even before getting to know her. A small insane giggle escaped her lips making everyone look cautiously at her. She just covered it up by smiling: a wide toothy grin that she knew they would fall for, at least for the time being.

She watched in glee as the younger girl finally got to the trinket.

.

.

Ginny was bursting. In a very good way that is. Alexandra had gone through the trouble of giving her a gift. The older girl had actually used her time and energy on finding a gift for her. It was amazing. Ginny looked at the trinket in her hand. It was shaped like a snake, a small brown snake. Normally Ginny didn't like snakes, not at all, but if Alexandra like them she supposed they were okay.

George nudged her shoulder to get a quick glance at the gift.

"Hey, Alex," her brother sounded playful, "doesn't that look an awful lot like Oswald?"

Oswald? Ginny looked at Alexandra in confusion, who was Oswald?

"My pet snake," Alexandra answered her unasked question, "and to answer your question Feorge dearest, it does look an awful lot like him."

Alexandra smirked, "but for your sake Ginny, I hope the trinket won't be as grumpy and bitchy as Oswald."

At this, the twins laughed and Ginny couldn't help but smile widely. This was the best day of her life, the very best day.

.

.

Fred and George were eager to give Alex their gift. It had been insanely difficult to find a suitable gift for her. In the beginning, they had thought it would be easy: Alexandra was after all their friend, how hard could it be? As it turned out they had no clue what to get her. They had suddenly realised that they didn't really know the real Alexandra. While she knew them quite well, they had never bothered to get to really know her. Sure they knew Gryffindor Alex, they knew the mask she put on in front of them. They simply didn't know her at all. This made them feel guilty. How could she know so much about them while they knew so little about her?

Then it had hit them: Alex had never really wanted them to know about her. She had never initiated a conversation about herself. She had never told them about her day. When they asked her something personal she would brush them off and redirect the conversation.

Suddenly it had been easy to know what to give her, they would give her the only thing she wanted.

Alexandra opened their present, it had was wrapped in forest green paper and looked rough, but she didn't seem to mind at all. Not that they had expected her to anyway. Inside the packet was several slips of paper. Alex's green eyes slid over a slip, George supposed she was reading it. A hungry glint entered her eyes before she crumpled the piece of paper up into a ball and elegantly threw it into the fireplace. She then placed the rest of the slips in a pocket in her jeans.

"Thank you, boys."

Her voice was sincere which made the twins happy. The way she looked at them, though… She looked at them as if she was a spider that had just caught them in her web. Fred shook his head. They hadn't written anything to intimate. They weren't stupid.

At least they had gotten the gift right. They had given her what she desired most: An ounce of power. An ounce of power over them. It was comparable to a drop in a vast ocean, but it was nevertheless a drop. Fred's inner ranting was broken when his older brother Charlie sheepishly scratched his neck.

"I'm sorry we haven't gotten you a gift, Alexandra."

Bill nodded in agreement.

George looked at the two of them. He hadn't expected them to say something like that, then again he hadn't expected that Alex would bring gifts for everyone. He peeked at his sister. She seemed to still be on cloud nine because of the trinket. He grinned, that ugly thing was… well, it was very Alexandraish. Unconventional yet classic and trendy. It really was ugly. He had always hated snakes but Oswald seemed to be the exception to the rule. The snake was funny like it had a mind of its own.

Maybe he could eventually learn to like the trinket in all its hideousness.

"I don't mind," Alex sounded sincere, "You barely know me after all. I hope we can grow closer so that I, next year, can get a present, though."

Fred bit his lip in amusement. Alex was at it again, masterfully manipulating his relatives. He knew this should disturb him, yet he couldn't really bring himself to care. Besides, he argued, it isn't as if she is harming them in any way. If that was the case he would not stand for it.

.

.

Over dinner, Alex struck up a conversation with Charlie. His work was fascinating, and, as it turned out, he wasn't as prejudiced as the rest of his family. He, in fact, was working with dragons at the nature reserve Theo's dad was visiting in Bulgaria and didn't seem to mind the Nott-family's reputation.

.

Alex arrived at home late that night and went straight to bed, it wouldn't do if she looked less than perfect tomorrow. The Malfoys were, after all, quite fond of perfection. She smirked a bit.

.

.

While Alexandra was wandering around the apartment, seemingly apathetic towards the ball that was supposed to happen that night, Caroline was low-key having a panic attack. As far as she was concerned Alex was almost supposed to meet up with the wizarding version of royalty tonight.

Lots of thoughts swirled around inside of Caroline's head. She, for an example, knew that her adoptive daughter looked stunning in her dress yet she didn't know if it was too muggle. Wasn't wizards supposed to have their own fashion or something?

"Alex dearest," she tried to make her voice sound calm but when Alex looked at her she knew it hadn't worked.

Her daughter's eyes clearly showed amusement.

"Yes, mother?"

"Are you sure, absolutely sure, we haven't picked out a muggle attire?"

Alex grinned, "No."

Caroline gaped at her… What? Oh god, she knew it. She had failed. She sat down in an empty chair just to stare out in the empty air in front of her.

"Listen, mother," Alex melodic voice made her look at her daughter, "I know my outfit is muggle. I quite like that way as it makes me stand out."

Caroline just shook her head, leave it to Alexandra to calm her down by saying seeming a bit too full of herself. She supposed that was one of Alexandra's weaknesses. They were few and far in-between but they were there.

"Besides," Alex continued, "I want to see how they react." Her daughter giggled wickedly and her eyes shone with mirth. Caroline couldn't help but feel happy that she wasn't spending time with Alexandra tonight.

Well, no matter what she still loved her. Unconditionally. That was a mother's job anyway, right?

"Come on Alexandra, we have to get you dressed."

Since they weren't connected to the floor system Draco Malfoy had promised to pick Alex up an hour before the ball started and Caroline wanted her daughter to look impeccable.