Title: Keep me Safe 5/34- Biggest Emptiness

Author: Harmoni

Category: HP-BTVS

Rating: T for teen...cuz I like to swear hehehe

Chapter Summary: Suspicions have arisen in the ever clever Hermione but justa s soon, squashed. Her and Alexa are off to Hogwarts where Alexa and Draco once again meet. A pity their 2nd meeting wasn't as nice as their first.

Disclaimer: the OC's belong to me… Harry Potter to Rowling, Buffy to Whedon

Spoilers: Doubt it, this takes place after Season 7 and book 5

Feedback: Please

Author's Note: Yes so this is being revamped.. why? Cuz parts of it make me cringe… and I'm waiting out my current writers block…so bare with me, and give it a chance please and thank you, and review…and this is also my first one ever so things may not be superb… but I'm still proud of it… most of it…

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Destiny is everything

Reality's replaced you with

The biggest emptiness

You've ever had in life

Bet you say that I don't care

Bet you say that I don't even think of you

But god knows how wrong you are

Set Adrift on Memory Bliss Backstreet boys

--- --- ---

'I can't do this.' Alexa thought to herself, huddled at the top of the stairs. 'There's so many of them. The memories, they're too much.'

"Lynne?" Harry called, coming up the stairs towards her. "you okay?"

"Fine and dandy." She chokingly replied

"You don't look fine and dandy."

"It just hurts, so much. All those people, then the Weasley's, and especially the twins. I miss them Harry, I miss them so much." She put her head in her hands as she rocked back and forth.

"Lynne, what happened to them?"

Her body stiffened up.

"I told you they died."

"How?" he pushed, thinking it better if she opened up.

"What does it matter?" she angrily cried. "They're gone Harry, they're dead and they are not coming back."

"You're right but it helps to talk about it." He quietly told her.

"Talk about what? There's nothing to talk about." She got up and stomped down the hall, trying to find her room, the problem was, she didn't remember where it was.

Harry grabbed her arm as she was opening a door.

"Lynne." He begged, turning her around. "I'm sorry, I was just trying to help, I didn't mean to upset you."

Alexa turned to go off on him again but stopped when she looked into his eyes. They looked so sincere, she couldn't stay mad at him.

"No, I'm sorry." She told him. "Again. I just keep going off on you, don't I? You don't deserve it. I have a bad temper."

He smiled at her and asked "Do you want to try again? You must be hungry."

"I will Harry, just not right now. If you can just show me which room is mine."

"If you're not going back neither will I. I'll show you how to play Wizard's chess."

"No." she protested. "Don't let me stop you. You've done enough for me. I'm not hungry but I'm sure you are."

But Harry waved her protest away. "Forget it, we'll grab something later. For now, we play."

He led her to his room where they spent the rest of the night playing chess.

--- --- ---

"Hermione?" Ron called waving a hand in front of her face.

Hermione blinked and looked at him. She had a feeling he had been trying to get her attention for awhile.

"Sorry Ron."

"What were you thinking about? Don't tell me school, please. There's still another month left."

"For you maybe." She retorted. "But I start next week, and no, I wasn't thinking about school."

"Not school?" Ron asked feigning a look of horror. "Are you sick?"

There was silence for a moment and finally he asked "Alright Hermione, what were you thinking about?"

"It's just something I heard on the Muggle news. It was about this family that was all murdered, except for one of the daughters, who's missing. I don't remember where it happened or what the girl looked like but the name Conners sounds familiar"

"Surely, you don't think."

"No Ron, don't you dare jump to conclusions. From what I understand, Lynne's parents have been dead for awhile, this news was quite recent. Conners is a common name, I'm sure it is just a coincidence."

Ron shrugged, but didn't look totally convinced.

Hermione rolled her eyes and stood up. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight Ron."

"Goodnight, Hermione." He called after her.

She walked upstairs to her room but Lynne wasn't there. She frowned and figured she would be in Harry's room and walked down the hall. She softly knocked and opened his door, stopping when she saw Harry and Lynne on the floor, her head lying on his chest. They really looked like a nice couple. They had both been through a lot and hopefully could help each other heal. She grabbed a blanket off the bed and covered them both. She closed the door and returned to her room, hoping they would both be able to sleep peacefully.

--- --- ---

The next week past in a blur, Hermione's suspicion about the Conners murder case was soon forgotten. On one of their walks, she had found a muggle newspaper and discovered the girl's name was Alexa and had Blonde hair and dark brown eyes, she looked nothing like Lynne. Too bad she only looked at the picture, if she had read the article she would have seen many things that linked Lynne and Alexa together. But Hermione decided to forget about it, thinking it was unfair to Lynne.

Inside, Alexa was silently cursing herself for being so stupid. If she was going to change her first name, it probably would've been smart to do her last too. There was nothing she could do now, and thankfully nobody pushed it, not paying full attention to the picture. Alexa was able to finally breathe a small sigh of relief.

On the plus side, she was finally starting to feel something other then that unpleasant numb feelings. She was getting to know Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny a bit better and was talking more. They even had her smiling and laughing a few times.

Her sleeping was still awful. She only had a few hours at best a night. The few hours she got only when she snuck into Harry's room. She would lie in bed for hours, staring at the ceiling, finally she would get up and creep over to Harry's room. Then she would climb into bed and put his arms around herself and snuggle up to his chest, that was the only time she slept peacefully.

Everyone became worried though. Lynne was due to go back to Hogwarts and Harry was not allowed to go. He put off telling her as long as he could, he didn't want to hurt this fragile girl anymore, but finally, the day before her and Hermione were to leave, Harry waited up for her.

"Lynne?" he softly said as she walked into his room. "we need to talk."

"About what?" She asked, growing nervous.

"Hogwarts. You see tomorrow, I can't go back with you." He looked at her, waiting for her reaction.

She sighed and sat on the bed. "I know, I overheard you talking to Ron and Hermione. I was just hoping that maybe you would find a way."

"Sorry." He said, shaking her head. "I even asked Dumbledore and he said no."

"Don't worry about me." She told him, trying to shrug it off. "I'll get by. Besides you're probably annoyed with me by now."

Harry just stared. "How can you say that?"

Alexa shrugged.

Harry laid down, pulling her with him. "Lynne, I'm glad you're here, and I know you'll be just fine at Hogwarts. If anything happens, just owl me alright?"

"Okay." She told him, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for being here."

They talked a bit longer and eventually drifted off to sleep.

--- --- ---

"You know, I'm not really liking this whole fireplace thingy. Can't we like, drive there or something?" Alexa asked, warily eyeing the fireplace.

"We did that once." Harry told her, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Then why can't we do that now?" she pouted.

"Because there aren't any roads."

Alexa looked at him like he had gone mad. "Then how did you get the car there?"

"It flew." He told her straight faced.

"It flew? Oh yeah magic, I get it, funny." She sarcastically told him.

"You better go though, Hermione's waiting."

"Yeah." She turned to Ron and Ginny. "Well, I guess I'll see you guys in a few weeks." She told them with a wave.

She turned back to Harry, giving him a hug and a small kiss on the cheek. "Bye, I'll see you soon."

"Bye Lynne, remember what I said."

He let her go and she stepped into the fireplace a small smile on her face.

She threw the floo powder, yelled out her destination and was gone.

--- --- ---

"Finally." Hermione huffed as Alexa came out of the fireplace. "I thought you would never get here."

"Yeah, well fireplaces aren't my choice of travel." Alexa told her.

"come on. I'll take you on a tour of the castle then we'll go see Dumbledore." She barely paused as she grabbed Lynne's luggage. "This is the Gryffindor common room. You'll be staying in the sixth year dorm with me until your year and house has been decided. Hopefully you won't have to move." She told Lynne with a smile.

Hermione led Lynne outside watching her as she took in everything. The tour lasted about an hour then Hermione told Lynne that although they only saw a fraction, they had to go meet Dumbledore. She led Lynne to a gargoyle statue and gave the password

"Cockroach clusters."

The gargoyle moved aside and Hermione ascended the stairs, Lynne right behind her.

"Come in Ms. Granger, Ms. Conners." Alexa heard Dumbledore call before they even knocked.

They entered and Alexa almost fell over in shock.

"Draco?" She happily cried as she saw the blonde sitting in a chair in front of Dumbledore.

Hermione raised an eyebrow as she looked between Lynne and Malfoy. Lynne seemed happy to see him and even Malfoy looked happy for a split second, but she saw it, then he made his expression look bored as usual.

"Granger, Conners." He said with a nod to both.

Alexa was confused but then turned to Dumbledore who waiting for them to settle down.

"Now that you are all here we can begin." Dumbledore told them. "Ms. Conners, there is three weeks until the new term starts, for the next two weeks, you will receive tutoring from both Ms. Granger and Mr. Malfoy. Your subjects will be split between the two and they will do what they can to help you. The last week will be spent with the teachers, who will go over everything and give you a test. Then your year will be decided. Is that understood?"

Alexa nodded, glancing at Draco, who seemed to be looking everywhere but at her.

"No time like the present, I say. How about you get started? I believe you will be working with Mr. Malfoy this afternoon."

The three teenagers stood and walked towards the door.

"Oh and Ms. Conner." Dumbledore called. "I would like a meeting with you before school starts."

"Sure." She replied and walked out after Hermione and Draco.

Hermione was waiting just outside the door, but Draco had already started walking towards the library.

"Lynne, do you-" Hermione began, but was cut off.

"Not right now, Hermione." Alexa said as she went to follow Draco.

"Draco." She called , trying to get his attention but he ignored her and kept walking.

"Hey" She said , grabbing his arm and gently pulling him to face her. "What's the big idea?" She asked a hurt look on her face.

"What are you talking about?" he drawled, giving her a blank look.

"You do remember me, right? We met in that broom shop?"

"I remember, you acted like you were a pureblood witch, not some stupid mudblood."

"What are you talking about?" She asked, clearly confused.

"We were talking." He told her. "I was asking you about brooms and if you flew."

Alexa laughed as she looked up at him. "Yeah, I was wondering why you were asking me such weird questions. I thought you meant an airplane and cleaning broom. I thought you wizards were obsessed with being clean or something. Luckily, Harry set me straight."

"Potter? It just figures you would already be in with him and his gang."

"What?" Alexa asked taking a step back.

"Probably put you up to this huh? Let's make Draco fall for the new girl. We'll pretend she's a pureblood too." Draco said with a sneer.

"Fall for me?" Alexa asked

"Yes fall for you. For the first time in my life someone looked at me like I was real, like I actually meant something."

"I-I don't understand." She stammered

"You can quit the games all right?" He snapped at her, making her take another step back. "Take your ruddy assignment and do it yourself, you're nothing but a filthy mudblood."

He threw a piece of parchment at her and walked away.

She barely knew this boy but it hurt a lot and she couldn't figure out why.

--- --- ---

"Lynne, if you don't want to be with the first years, then please concentrate."

For the past few hours Hermione had been trying to tutor Lynne, but she was distracted. No matter what Hermione said, she couldn't get her to pay attention.

"Hermione, what's a mud-blood?" Lynne asked her.

Hermione gasped at hearing the world, but then realised where she had heard it from.

"Malfoy called you that, didn't he?"

Alexa nodded. "I don't know why. I met him in Diagon alley and we got along great." She went on to tell Hermione about their meeting. How she was confused about all the weird questions he kept asking and how she thought what the brooms were for and how Harry explained it all later. Then she told about her meeting with Draco in the hall and what he had said.

"Malfoy said he fell for you?" Hermione asked, an incredulous look on her face.

Alexa nodded.

"Wow, I didn't think he was capable of nice feelings."

"What?"

"It's just the whole time we've known Malfoy, he's been horrid. Lynne, mudblood is a bad word. One of the biggest insults. It means someone who was muggle born. Malfoy is one of the few pureblood families left. He believes he is above everyone else because of that. If he's not helping you, just let me know alright?"

"Thanks Hermione." Alexa said looking down at her watch. "I gotta go meet him now." She picked up her books and left the common room, leaving Hermione staring after her with a thoughtful expression on her face.

--- --- ---

When Alexa got to the library, Draco was already there. He gave her a new assignment , while looking over the old one. Every attempt she made at conversation was quickly shot down. She figured he would eventually get over it but this went on for two weeks.

Everyday, Alexa woke up, did her work with Hermione in the morning and her work with Draco in the afternoon. During the evening, she studied because she really didn't want to be with the first years. The day before she started with the teachers, Alexa made one last attempt with Draco.

"Draco" She began.

"Conners, you know the rules, just do your work, minimal talking."

"No." she cried, slamming a fist on the table. "I want to talk to you. What happened in Diagon alley was an honest mistake. No one put me up to anything. I had no idea who you were until I met you. I want to get to know you but I can't if you accuse me of stupid things. Look I only know Harry because he saved me in London from some people who were trying to hurt me. I wouldn't be here if he hadn't helped me. So can't you at least give me a chance?" She finished, her face flushed as she stared at him.

Slowly, he stood up and leaned in towards her so their faces were inches apart. "I don't interact with mudbloods." He fiercely whispered.

Before Alexa knew what she was doing, she brought back her fist and punched Draco Malfoy in the face. He went flying back at least five feet. He would've went more if he didn't slam into a bookcase.

He lay dazed on the ground. Somehow still conscious, staring at Lynne.

"What the." he mumbled.

Alexa was too mad right then to notice what just happened or how she was able to make someone so much bigger than her go flying back. All she was focused on was his harsh words and her white hot anger.

"I know what mudblood means, you asshole. I'm not stupid. I tried to be nice, I tried to get along, why 'cause I liked you. I thought you were nice, I guess I was wrong."

She gathered up her books and went to leave. She paused, turning around to glare at him.

"Don't ever come near me again. Stay the fuck away from me."

She turned and left, leaving Draco more confused then ever.

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