"Roxie Barker!" the stern looking teacher called McGonagall called out. Roxie felt all eyes on her as she made her way to the stool. She saw Hermione and Ginny give her encouraging smiles and then…black. She sat there waiting for the hat to call out the house that she would be in.
"Hmmm…. I sense some darkness and hostility, perfect for Slytherin," the hat seemed to be thinking aloud. Roxie didn't remember the hat talking about anyone else. Was it that only she could hear the hats "thoughts"? Great I'll have to be with that Malfoy character. Roxie thought. She had seen him sitting at a long table with other sinister looking students. Most of them were wearing silver and green scarves, which Hermione had told Roxie, were the Slytherin colors. "Well not if you don't want to," the hat said, reading her thoughts. Good because I most certainly don't want to. Maybe you could put me in Gryffindor. I've already made friends there. "You are brave. You could do well in Gryffindor. If that's where you want to be... GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted the last part to the whole Hall. Roxie yanked the hat off her head, placed it on the stool, and made her way to the table where her friends where sitting.
"Congratulations! I knew you would make it in!" Hermione smiled, patting her on the back. To her it seemed as if Roxie had done something extremely difficult.
"Erm thanks Hermione," Roxie mumbled distractedly. She had mistakenly glanced up and had locked eyes with none other than Mr. Hero himself, Harry. Roxie bent her head down, tearing her eyes away.
"Yeah, it's great that you're in our house," Harry brightly concurred, acting as if nothing had happened between them. But Roxie had seen it. She had seen the look in his eyes and, unless she was much mistaken, it had been something relating to.. could it be?...love. She hoped that it wasn't. She couldn't have him falling in love with her. But he wasn't, was he? She had been so mean to him. How could he just sit there and take it? Roxie was glad that a distraction came. The headmaster had stood up.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our first years and, to our returning students, welcome back. It has been once again requested that I inform you that the Forbidden Forest is, well, forbidden. Other items have been forbidden, for the complete list please see Mr. Filch. At the end of last year we once again found ourselves in the position of being one staff member short. The position has been filled and I would like you all to give a warm welcome to Ms. Pravus. She will be our Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher for this year and, hopefully, next year." A woman with long black hair stood up at the end of the table. She smiled at the students around her. Roxie let out a gasp, but the Hall had broken out in applause, so no one heard her.
"Who wants to take bets on why and how she leaves? I bet she gets trampled by rampaging hippogriffs," Ron snickered. Ginny giggled.
"Well you better hope not because then Hagrid will be blamed and probably fired and every single one of those hippogriffs will be beheaded," Hermione bossily said, but she couldn't hide the slight smile that had crept its way onto her face.
"Everyone eat!" the headmaster commanded. Plates full of food appeared on the plates. Goblets filled with pumpkin juice. Roxie looked hesitantly at the food, it was very different from the food that she had had back home, in America. Everyone else seemed to be filling their plates and, after a loud rumble from her stomach, Roxie followed their example.
"I'll take you up on you're bet Ron! I bet a Galleon that she gets knocked out by a Bludger while passing by the Quidditch field, and then she's dragged off by centaurs," Ginny held her hand out revealing one Galleon.
"So is anyone going to tell me why you two expect this teacher is going to be gone before next year?" Roxie asked, slightly confused.
"Well you see," Hermione spoke first, "none of our Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers have lasted for more than one year."
Harry spoke out, ticking the teachers off on one hand. "Yeah our first got possessed and then killed, the second's memory was modified, the third resigned after it was revealed that he was a werewolf, the fourth was a Death Eater," Roxie shuttered, " who was given the Dementor's kiss. And last year's teacher was carried off by centaurs, hence Ginny's theory." Roxie couldn't help but look at him as he spoke. Immediately she knew that she had made a mistake, his startling green eyes bore into her. They seemed as if they were trying to read her soul. Fearfully, Roxie brushed a piece of hair from her eyes and then turned down to her plate.
"So what's with this ceiling," she mumbled to her plate.
"It's bewitched to look like the outside sky. I guess you've never read Hogwarts, a History," Hermione sounded disappointed.
"Nope, only you," Ron said.
"Hey guys, have a good summer?" a round-faced boy appeared next to Hermione. He held a plate of food and a goblet. As he set the goblet down, it turned sideways. With a casual flick of her wand, Hermione returned all of the pumpkin juice to its goblet. "Thanks," the boy muttered sheepishly.
"Mine was pretty good," Ron sputtered his mouth full of food as usual. Roxie had already grown accustomed to brushing the flecks of food off her clothes. "Mostly it was quiet, but then Bill brought Fleur, his girlfriend, home and mum and he had a row. It was mostly over Fleur, but I did hear the occasional 'Too long' probably referring to his hair."
"I spent the summer in France with my parents. I got a delightful book on Ancient Runes for my birthday," Hermione answered. Roxie was surprised that anyone could call a book on Ancient Runes delightful, much less be happy that they had received it for their birthday.
Harry was the next to answer, "I spent the summer being a slave to my awful aunt and uncle. Occasionally, I did get a break from that though and I got to be a punching bag for my overly large cousin, Dudley." Roxie didn't make the mistake of looking up this time. She simply sat looking down at her food hoping that the meal would be over soon. "How bout you Rox?"
"My name is Roxie and I would appreciate it if you would call me so," Roxie spat coolly. Harry blushed slightly and apologized profusely. "How was my summer, well let's see. Everyone I care about was threatened if I didn't…" Roxie stopped herself. She had almost revealed her task to the group. "…didn't move, if I didn't move," Roxie thought quickly.
"That's terrible! Your parents wanted you to move that badly huh?" Ginny said soothingly.
"Oh I don't think that they would have actually done anything to anyone, but they were really desperate. I was putting up a pretty good fight." Ginny gave a shrug and returned to her food. "My parents are pretty calm people. They aren't really violent. My mom's a housewife and my dad works in business, not real sure what kind though. Hey! Maybe he's in the Mafia. Maybe he isn't as calm as I thought he was." Roxie chuckled at her own joke, but she was the only one. Looking at the confused faces around her she tried to explain, "Well the Mafia is this group of people who go around and kill people, but they…never mind. So what do your parents do?" she asked the table at large.
"Well my parents are dentists. They're Muggles," Hermione explained.
"My mum stays at home and my dad works at the Ministry in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office," Ron stated.
"I never knew my parents. They died when I was only a baby," Harry uttered solemnly. Roxie felt a pang of guilt. She shouldn't have brought up the topic of parents knowing that he had lost his at such a young age. She could hardly imagine what she would do without any parents.
Before she could stop herself she whispered, "Sorry." Harry seemed to brighten up at this. She saw a smile break across his face. He was happy that she had at last been nice, or at least some what tolerable, to him. The horrible memory of his parents' deaths had vanished from his mind. Now he only thought of other ways to get Roxie to talk to him. Before he could put any of his plans in to action however, Roxie had turned away from him and had returned to giving him the cold shoulder. The smile vanished and he once again sat morosely.
Roxie couldn't believe what she had just done. She had been nice to Harry. She had let her feelings show and had made him happy, if only for a fraction of a second. She had to think of something to say to him quick. Something that would make it clear to him that she had no wish whatsoever to be friends. "And yet another reason why we should worship Harry, we all feel bad for him. He has no parents and the relatives he does have treat him like dirt. All hail the fabulous, parentless Potter!" Ginny and Hermione let out gasps of shock, and Harry looked, if possible, even worse than he had before.
"You don't mean that, do you?" Hermione quietly asked. In reply, Roxie simply shrugged. Feeling that it was best to change the topic, Hermione started talking about the new Defense Against the Arts teacher. "I hope she knows what she's talking about. I don't want another control freak like last year. Umbridge was horrible! I also hope that we get to do practical things. I hate it when teachers tell us 'These are the facts and you just must accept that'"
"Oh yeah me too! I'd much rather never have to see a book again! I just love when we get to actually do magic rather than read about it," Roxie tried to make her voice sound normal, without a hint of guilt. But what did she have to feel guilty about? It's not like she had to like Harry. She could choose who she wanted to be nice to and who she wanted to scorn. At the same time she realized that Harry hadn't really done anything to deserve her hatred. Ever since she had met him he hadn't been anything but nice to her and how had she repaid him, by insulting and avoiding him. But she couldn't be friends with him, she just couldn't.
"The teacher seems nice," Ginny piped up, "She doesn't seem near as awful as Umbridge!"
"Oh yeah, she's real nice. She'll steal things that are assigned to you and then take the credit for it, or she'll disobey orders and then she'll blame you! That's how nice she is!" Roxie shouted.
"You ok, Roxie?" Harry asked soothingly. Why does he have to be so nice to me?
"Yes I'm alright!" Roxie snapped. I guess this is as all right as I'm going to get. At least until I complete the task. Then I'll be more than all right. I'll be free. "I'm just kind of tired," she sighed a little more nicely. "I think I just want to go to bed."
"I'll show you where it is!" Hermione jumped up from the table.
"No. I can find it. Finish you're dinner," Roxie argued.
"I'm done anyway. I'll show you where your dorm is. I'm pretty sure that you're in my dorm. We always had an extra bed."
"I'll come with you," Ginny said, stuffing her face with the final bites of her dinner. The three girls walked out of the Great Hall amongst many stares and hisses. Most people wanted to know who the girl was. Most of the boys wanted to know if she had a boyfriend because she was, after all, an extremely beautiful girl. "Occlumency!" Ginny yelled at a painting of a woman in a pink dressed. Roxie was confused, but not for very long. The woman woke up.
"And who might this newbie be?" the woman in the painting asked.
"This is Roxie. She's a sixth-year, but she's a new transfer," Ginny explained impatiently.
"Well welcome to Hogwarts!" With these final words the painting swung forward to reveal a room filled with cozy chairs and a fireplace. Roxie barely had time to take it in, because at that moment Hermione grabbed her arm and dragged her to a staircase which, Roxie assumed led to the dormitories.
"Good night!" Ginny called as she pushed her way through a door with a plaque on it that said 'Fifth Years'. Hermione and Roxie continued on up the stairs until they reached a door with a plaque that said 'Sixth Years'. Hermione opened the door and sure enough Roxie's things were at the end of one of the beds.
"Good night!" Roxie said and then she collapsed on her bed. She pulled the hangings on her four-poster closed. She heard Hermione moving around outside, in the room. Then she heard the sound of the door close, she assumed that Hermione had decided not to go to bed after all and had returned to the common room. With a wave of her wand, Roxie was changed into her pajamas. She hesitated when she saw that she was wearing short-sleeves, but after assuring herself that the curtains were closed securely, she sank back down onto her pillow. Suddenly the pain seized her, she clutched her arm. "I'm too tired right now. I'll give you a report later!" she yelled to absolutely no one. As if convinced that whoever the words had been intended for had heard her, she sank onto her pillow again and she succumbed to sleep. She only hoped that no one could see the dreams that she was having as most of them illustrated dates between her and a certain someone with jet-black hair and deep, green eyes.