Can't Go It Alone

Chapter 4

Cnorth

Disclaimer: All HP stuff belongs to JKR.

Credit: Pawn for the Powers that Play and whitv.

A/N: No, Destiny, it isn't a stake. And Regina, let's just say I live with it every day.

When Whitney, Hollie, Chelli, and Stacy woke up the next morning, a heavy looking trunk sat at the end of the 5th bed in the room. Chelli looked at Hollie, an eyebrow raised in surprise.

"Hermione?" she guessed, before moving over to inspect the trunk, finding the name written on the side was indeed Hermione Granger. "Cool, we get to room with the smart chick!"

"Free notes in sleep….study….grades…yay…"Hollie mumbled, before turning over and starting to doze off. She then randomly jumped up and screeched, "Steal her brain!"

"Hollie, what did we tell you last time you tried to steal somebody's brain, it's messy and it doesn't work." Chelli laughed, unsure of whether the girl was at all aware of her surroundings.

"Well, I don't mean we should actually take it out of her head this time, just, you know, illegally download it…"she whined, and it was now clear that she was wide awake.

After Stacy hid Hollie's new wand, which looked remarkably like a riding crop, her plan royally backfired because the wand jinxed her (Hollie had bought an anti-theft wand), they headed down to breakfast, the last to arrive.

"Now, the other students will arrive around 6 tonight. You will be introduced to the student body right after the sorting ceremony, and after dinner, I need you to go to my office to meet with the tutors who will be bringing you up to the right knowledge level for your year." McGonagall explained, as Lupin and Snape fought over a slice of toast.

McGonagall had already lost Chelli and Hollie's attention, however, because they were immediately entranced by the lack of melanin in Snape's skin.

"That man needs a tan, damnit. Get some sun!" Chelli mumbled through a mouthful of muffin.

Hollie nodded, and quoted, "Say it with me now…sunlight…" while doing the little zen master hand motion. Ashley half expected Hollie to start saying "ohm….ohm….".

Snape turned and glared at the girls, who instantly smiled angelicly and turned back to their food.

As a group they decided to explore the castle. The "together" part didn't last very long though, and before long, Lori had buried herself in the library, the Gryffindor girls went back to take over their room, not leaving Hermione much room to meddle. Ashley and Joe disappeared until lunch, though several people wagered guesses that they were in the Astronomy tower. Sam disappeared into the dungeon, and Shaylin went down to Hagrid's hut for tea and to see some animals.

They all met back up in the Great Hall for lunch, and it seemed like everybody had a story to tell.

"At least this is better than Thomson," Lori mumbled, not too happy about the food. Then again, when one cooks a lot, and has dreams of becoming a chef, she can afford to be a little bit picky.

"Better than Thomson? Are you INSANE? This stuff is better than RED LOBSTER!" Hollie and Chelli exclaimed in perfect unison, and then turned to look at each other, saying "Nice…" while nodding their heads in a hippieish movement.

"So what did you do today, Shay?" Chelli asked her former roommate, since she hadn't seen the girl at all yet today, at least not since breakfast.

Shaylin smiled, "I spent the whole day helping Hagrid with a pack of Crups who have taken up residence on the edge of the forest. He's gonna use them in our class! You guys are taking Care of Magical Creatures, right?" Most of the group looked away guiltily, and Shaylin, who had been a pre-vet major, huffed in frustration.

They continued discussing their schedules for a while, then McGonagall pulled them aside for a question and answer session to get them more accustomed to some things in the wizarding world. After giving a basic overview, she asked if anyone had any questions.

"Excuse me, but how exactly am I supposed to blow dry my hair if, ya know, electricity doesn't work here? Is there, like, a spell or something, cuz that would save me like ten minutes in the morning…"Chelli inquired, playing with her hair as unditzily as possible as she asked.

McGonagall smiled, since she too was a muggleborn, and was probably one of the few witches on staff who would know what a blowdryer was in the first place. "There's a spell that has the same effect: siccus saeta. It's a simple charm, one you could probably cast right now." The questions continued for almost two hours, and then it was almost time for dinner. They were hurriedly rushed into an unused classroom to await the end of the sorting ceremony, when they would be introduced to the school.

Once the first years were done being sorted, they took seats around the house tables and waited for the feast to begin. When it didn't, they looked up towards the staff table and watched expectantly, not sure why she was putting off the feast.

McGonagall stood, and while the ten American students walked in, she introduced Luna and Kevin as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professors. They progressed unnoticed until right before they reached the teacher's table, and the other students began whispering, loudly wondering who these people were, assuming they couldn't be new students because of their age.

"It seems Lord Voldemort managed to find out something we ourselves didn't know. America has, apparently, quite a concentrated population of witches and wizards. He targeted one muggle college where almost a whole floor of people were witches, and we just barely got them out in time. They have had no magical education prior to this, and we have selected several tutors to help bring them up to seventh year level in this year. They have already been sorted, and after a short introduction for each of them, they will be seated at their house tables and proceed to my office after dinner to meet their tutors."

Whitney, Hollie, Chelli and Stacy stepped forward first. "Hi, my name is Whitney. I'm a 20 year old Gryffindor. I'm interested in healing, I like theatre, and awkward is the best word to describe me. I'm single and looking for a man. I'm hoping my chances are better here than at Winthrop, where half the guys are gay." She giggled, and waved to the school.

Stacy stood there bouncing on her feet while eagerly chewing away at a piece of Droobles Best Blowing Gum. "So, yeah, I'm Stacy and I'm also in Gryffindor and I'm absolutely crazy, especially while on colored crack, also known as Fun Dip which I don't think you guys have here, but you should really get it cause it's, like, the best thing in the world, just ask Hollie. Oh yeah, and I like to play with fire……Fire Fun. Hehehehe (semi-evil laugh)."

"Ooh..umm..I'm Hollie, ummm…I'm a Gryffindor, uh…and…uh, um….if Stacy is nitrogen, then I'm glycerin, which means watch out if you find the two of us together. Umm…I love the beach, and hot rock stars, and hot cars. Ummm…I love movies so much that I make up my own in my sleep….and I have a wand that very closely resembles a riding crop…tee hee hee…" Suddenly, the blonde looked up, realizing she was still in the limelight. "Oh, Chelli…your turn…"as she tried to back away. She felt the hot stare between her shoulder blades, and turned to see Malfoy staring intensely at her from the Slytherin table.

Chelli's hair fell over her eyes, and she continuously tucked the stubborn strand behind her ear. "Uhhh…'m Chelli. I have no clue what I'm supposed to say here…So, yeah," Chelli threw her hands up in the classic rocker pose, "GO MAGIC! WU!" The brunette turned bright red and quickly sat down as silence filled The Great Hall. The sounds of crickets prevaded. From the other end of the Gryffindor table Fred couldn't help but stare. "Wow…now, that's my kind of girl." He mumbled to himself as he and George started to cheer.

After the cheering subsided, Hollie leaned over to Chelli and whispered, "Chelli, we don't go to WU anymore, you can say woot…"

Next, Lori, Sam and Shaylin stepped forward.

"Hi, I'm Lori. I'm 19, I'm TOTALLY going to take over the kitchen, I'm a Ravenclaw, if you're looking for me and can't find me, try the library." Lori joked, before smirking and stepping back a little so that Sam was the focus of the attention.

"I'm Sam, I'm a Slytherin, for some reason it really bugs me when most people call me Sammy, so don't try it. Ham is just about the grossest thing in the world, so please don't come near me with it, cuz it's really freakin' creepy. Also, I have severe ADD. Ooh, fire…."she said as she noticed the floating candles for the first time.

"I'm Shaylin, I'm a magical creatures major…oh, that doesn't exist? Oh well. I'm a Hufflepuff, I just wish I was in Gryffindor with everybody else. My parents are non-magical, although I swear my dad is evil and my mom has eyes in the back of her head…"

Lori, Sam, and Shaylin went and sat down at their respective house tables, and Ashley and Joe, who currently looked like a scene out of a Disney movie they were so cute, stepped forward.

"I'm Ashley, and this is Joe, my boyfriend. We're the only not single people out of this group, everybody else is completely available. I'm a Hufflepuff, and he's a Ravenclaw. But that won't be too bad…being in separate houses, I mean. We can handle it, right?" she looked up at Joe with her big eyes, which teared up a little when he nodded, and wrapped his arms around her in a hug before they split up to go to their house tables.

The 4 new gryffindors had sat down in a row across from Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Hermione obviously hadn't yet seen what they had done to their room, because she greeted them with enthusiasm and seemed like she was really looking forward to having some close female friends to talk to other than Ginny, since most of the other 7th year Gryffindor girls didn't understand her. Harry and Ron, however, were more interested in finding out why the Dark Lord was after the girls. They explained, and then, after dinner, walked with Hermione (who was, naturally, one of the tutors) to the Headmistress' tower. When they arrived there, they realized that none of them had the password. The other new students arrived shortly following them, and they all stood outside the door waiting, unsure of what to do. Finally, the gargoyle moved, revealing the staircase, and they made their way up to the office, finding that all the tutors except Hermione were already there.

"Alright, now that we are all here…"McGonagall said, transfiguring several pens into extra chairs, "let me introduce your tutors, the top 5 students in Hogwarts, and not all of them are even 7th years…Ms. Granger, of course, Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Lovegood, Ms. Jones, and Mr. Zabini. Now, Hollie and Stacy, Mr. Malfoy will be your tutor. Chelli and Whitney, you will have Ms. Granger. Lori and Joe, you will have Ms. Lovegood. Sam, you will have Mr. Zabini. Ashley and Shaylin, you will have Ms. Jones. Now, I have paired you based on what house you are in except for Mr. Malfoy, who, since he is the 2nd student in his year, yet you only have one Slytherin amongst you, agreed to take two Gryffindors at the last minute." Hollie could have sworn at this point that Malfoy's eyes flicked towards her momentarily, but when she turned her head to look, he was studiously watching McGonagall.