Thank you again to those who reviewed. (Those of you who didn't-shame on you for not reviewing! jk! I am guilty of not always reviewing. I should start though because I know how nice it is to get reviews.)

Chapter 6: Everybody Hates Buffy

The train finally stopped. Harry watched Buffy closely as they got off, wondering what on earth was her story, forgetting his personal sorrows for a moment, Sirius. How did the American school overlook her? And how did they finally find her? She was decidedly a strange girl. She was an American, Californian no less, who didn't know magic going to Hogwarts. She seemed ditzy at times but Harry suspected she wasn't. Also, she would not elaborate on how she burned down her gymnasium. Generally, gyms don't accidentally get burned down. Maybe it was accidental magic, like when he blew up his aunt. Or maybe it wasn't an accident. Why wouldn't she just explain, unless she was hiding something? As he watched he noticed her attention focus as the carriages came out. It looked like she was looking at the horses.

"Strange horses, huh?" Harry asked trying to see if he was correct in guessing that she could see them.

"What are they? They're beautiful, in their own creepy way," she quickly added the last part.

"You can see them?" asked Hermione. Buffy gave her an odd look.

"I know I can seem a little spacey sometimes but I'm not that gone," Buffy replied, annoyed. "Of course I can see them." She rolled her eyes.

"They're thestrals. You can't see them unless you've seen someone die. Most students can't see them, but Hagrid, the Care or Magical Creatures professor, taught us about them so we all know they are there. But you can actually see them?" Hermione questioned.

Buffy thought carefully before she answered. Of course she's seen death, she's a slayer! She had seen tons of people die, people she wasn't able to save. She also was the deliverer of death to countless demons so had seen many demon deaths. She wondered if it was only human deaths that counted, not that it mattered. Plus, she herself had died. Not that she could tell any of them this.

"My cousin, she died in front of me when I was younger. I watched her die." Buffy didn't like that memory, but it was the only one she could think of. At the time it had traumatized her and it was the beginning of her hospital hatred. She also felt guilty over the death, like she somehow should have been able to stop it. Geez, even then she had the hero complex! The group accepted Buffy's answer and offered their sympathies, although Harry gave her a sideways glance. Harry confused her. One minute he would seem all sullen and then it's like he would come to himself. The red head she saw with Ron earlier brought Buffy back out of her thoughts.

"Hey, I'm Ginny. You're Buffy right? I couldn't help overhearing you talking with 'the trio' earlier."

"Yeah, and you're Ron's sister?" Ginny nodded in confirmation. Harry and his friends had gone on ahead to talk to Hagrid. "The trio, huh? I'm guessing they have a bit of a rep? And what's Harry's deal? I swear he broods like a mini Angel." He really did remind her of Angel, Buffy realized after she said that. He had that same brooding quality she quickly had deduced and he was a hottie too. He had the dark and handsome thing going for him, although he wasn't nearly as filled out as the vampire. But still, there was a resemblance that startled Buffy and made her wonder why she didn't notice it before.

Ginny ignored the Angel reference for now. She would have to ask about it later, and she would because she liked Buffy immediately for some reason. While Ginny had come out of her shell and grown into an outgoing and pretty girl, she still didn't have any really close female friends. She and Hermione were good friends, but she was Ron's friend primarily. But this was all cast aside in her shock.

"You don't know who Harry is? Harry Potter?" she squeaked emphasizing the Potter. Buffy just looked blank. "The Boy Who Lived!" Buffy still didn't know, although she recalled Ron saying something similar and Ginny gave a brief overview of Harry's fame the rest of the way to the castle (effectively summarizing the first 5 HP books). Buffy felt a stab of understanding towards Harry. Life sucked sometimes. He was too young to have some evil wizard after him. At least it seemed attacks on him came pretty much the same time once a year, instead of vamps and demons going after you every night. Maybe this year she could help. How ironic, the Boy Who Lived and the Girl Who Died. With that they reached the castle and McGonagall led Buffy and the first years away to be sorted.

The hat sang again about House unity. (AN: I won't even try to make up a good hat song. Readers, be my guests to try and if you come up with a cool one, I can put it in and give you credit!)

"Honestly," said Ron. "We're never going to have unity as long as the bloody Slytherins and Malfoy are around." He glared over at the Slytherins. Harry agreed with him about that. He felt anger rise within him at the thought of Malfoy. Hermione just clucked her tongue at their antics as Harry too glared over at the Slytherins, focusing his attention on Draco Malfoy. The boys' gazes locked. Malfoy sneered.

"I hope Buffy gets Gryffindor. I liked her," Ginny spoke up, making Harry finally shift his gaze away from his glaring contest with the Slytherin boy. "And we never really get new students. I wonder if she'll want to play quidditch?"

"She seems nice," Harry said cautiously. "But there is something weird about her."

"Oh Harry, stop being paranoid," Hermione chided. "She's a 16 year old American muggle-raised-until-now girl. Not exactly a prime candidate for a Death Eater spy. Besides, she appears a little empty headed to me. She was a perfectly nice girl, even if she dresses completely inappropriately. Does she want everyone staring at her? And I feel bad for her. I know I get homesick sometimes during the year, but can you imagine how it is for her? She's in another country, far away from home, in a new school with no friends. And she doesn't know hardly anything about magic!"

Hermione was right, Harry realized. "That's what she wants us to think," he mumbled reluctantly, feeling bad for being suspicious of the new girl. He watched her as she stood in the front waiting to be sorted, looking out of place among the younger 1st years, yet completely confident and assured of her self, except for the fact that she was wringing the life out of her hands.

"I think she's a fantastic dresser!" Ron put in.

"Who is she?" said Neville, joining in their conversation.

"That's Buffy, the new American girl," Ginny answered him.

Meanwhile, Buffy looked out over the Great Hall. She found Hogwarts to be very impressive. It looked magnificent on the outside and just as cool inside. Plus it was huge! While it was difficult to shock Buffy, she did find it all amazing. And the ceiling looked like the sky! She wasn't used to such awesome supernatural stuff. Normally, it was all just evil stuff trying to kill her. She glanced around the Hall again. There were so many students! Facing the forces of darkness with a good pun and a confident grin she could do. An entire hall full of students staring at her and whispering was a whole other story.

"Summers, Buffy!" McGonagall shouted. "Miss Summers is a new American student for those of you who don't know already. She is new to not only Hogwarts, but the wizarding community too. I expect you to welcome her warmly." Minerva inwardly sighed. She knew some students were going to give the girl a hard time, no matter what she said. Buffy didn't exactly look tough, and Minerva hoped the child would manage. Rupert was quite fond of her, after all.

Buffy sat on the stool like all the other first years. Despite her petite stature, she felt rather large on the little stool meant for 11 year olds. The worn looking hat was placed on her head.

'What have we here? A slayer. Oh my, how interesting. You will be quite a powerful witch in addition to a powerful Slayer if you can harness and control your power. But, what house to put you in?' Buffy didn't say anything. She just waited to hear more.

'Hufflepuff would not be for you, I can see that already. You may fool everyone else, but not me. You're smart enough for Ravenclaw, but you aren't much into school work are you? And not nearly cautious enough for a methodical Ravenclaw. No, no. You aren't Ravenclaw material. Slytherin. You have the drive, ambition, cleverness, and even ruthless of a Slytherin when need be. You have to in order to still be alive! And you're a bit of a rebel, not one to follow the rules. You aren't a born wizard, but a Slayer's blood is prized and pure. It always has to be blood, Salazar had known. He would value you. And Gryffindor? You're a warrior, a fighter. You're a fiery one, and have a Gryffindor's passion and bravery, lots of bravery, and a lot of heart. You would make a fine Gryffindor, but do you belong there? A slayer's power comes from darkness, even though you are a champion of the light. Slayer is another word for killer, you know. You belong with the shadows; you could never be a Gryffindor.

"Slytherin!" shouted the hat. Buffy was shocked. Darkness, shadows? The words echoed in her mind. How dare it say that stuff about her! From what it said about Slytherin, she did fit the bill, but still. And killer? Was she just a killer? No, she saved the world! How's that for bravery and heart, stupid hat. Why couldn't she be a Gryffindor? She had liked Ginny and the others.

Before she took off the hat, it whispered one last thing. "You think you know, but you've only just begun." Buffy didn't know what to think, so she marched off towards the green table, too deep in thought to notice how silent the hall had gone as she was put in Slytherin. Everyone was shocked. Even Dumbledore looked surprised. She was muggle born, wasn't she? How could she have been put in Slytherin? She didn't even know magic!

"So much for being our friend," said Ron. "She's evil." Ginny just looked disappointed.

"How can she be in Slytherin? They have always only selected pure blood wizards. Always. It just doesn't make sense," Hermione said.

"Unless I wasn't just paranoid," said Harry. "What if it was all an act? What if she isn't muggle born and she's a Death eater spy?"

"But Dumbledore-" Neville started.

"Oh yeah, Dumbledore never misjudges people," Harry said sarcastically. "Remember Quirrell, the Moody impersonator, or Lockhart? Not to mention Snape"

"She could be adopted and no one knew she had wizard blood," Hermione pointed out, after giving Harry a look her lumping Professor Snape in with Quirrell and the others. "Most wizards have wizard children so if they gave one up for adoption-"

"Like a pure blood wizard would give their child up to muggles!" exclaimed Ron. "Really, Hermione. You should know that. Besides, talk about a stretch!"

"Unless she was half blood," stated Ginny. "Then she could have easily ended up in a muggle home. Here's a scenario: A wizard and a muggle have a baby. The wizard father does not want the child of the muggle, so the muggle gives up her child because she can't raise it on her own. The child ends up in a muggle family, but has wizard blood. She somehow goes unnoticed or her parents throw away her letter and now she finds out somehow. We don't know Buffy's background story. And a half blood can be put in Slytherin. Tom Riddle was a half blood."

Everyone was surprised by Ginny. Not only in her logic, but that she mentioned Tom Riddle. She never spoke of what happened her first year.

"He Who Must Not Be Named was half blood?" asked Neville. "I never knew."

"Similar to Hitler in a way," said Hermione. "He was part Jewish, yet wanted them exterminated. And Ginny does have an excellent point Harry and Ron. You needn't jump to conclusions.

"She's a Slytherin though now. She can't be trusted," said Harry as Ron nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Buffy ate her food in silence. No one talked to her. One pug nosed girl had even sneered at her. All the other students got cheers from their tables. She knew already that they did not like anything to do with muggles. She was not a muggle or even just a muggle born person, or mud blood as had been explained to her earlier, although that was a derogatory term not to be used. She was the Slayer, and soon to be a witch to boot. But they couldn't know that. She looked over to the Gryffindor table where the nice people she had met earlier were. She especially liked Ginny. They had clicked and Ginny's hair made her think of Willow, even though Harmony or whatever was closer to Wills in personality. Now those two would make a team! Harry and Ron caught her looking over and glared at her. She knew the Houses had issues, but that was ridiculous. They had gotten along fine before and now they were giving her death looks. They hated her for being a Slytherin. Someone threw a roll at her which she batted away without even looking over. This was going to be a long year.

Reviews are very, very much wanted. I LOVE reviews. And feedback. (And they encourage quicker updates, wink wink.) I was cool and put up this chapter pretty quickly, so now it's your turn to be cool.