A/N: I know that Paige was not as affected as Harry was when Voldemort attacked when they were babies, but I wanted her to have some sort of trait of Voldemort's.

I DO NOT own Harry Potter!

Chapter 3

Paige woke up the next morning showered and dressed for the day. She went downstairs to see Hermione, Harry and Ron down there. Paige was surprised. They looked up and smiled at Paige.

"Don't let me interrupt," she said. "I was just leaving."

"Don't be silly," Hermione said. "I wanted to wait for you, but Harry and Ron came down, so we talked. I was waiting for you."

Paige smiled and put her hands over her heart in a funny way. "You guys are just, like, too amazing," she said fluttering her eyelashes. The three of them laughed. Paige felt at ease already and felt herself rise out of the shell. She was making jokes as they all walked into the Great Hall. Paige turned for just one moment, when she walked right into somebody.

"Oh! I am so sorry!" she exclaimed. Her green eyes locked with the cold, gray ones that belonged to a tall boy with longish blond hair. He was about to say something when Harry grabbed her arm.

"You don't want to be caught up with him," he whispered. She opened her mouth to ask who he was but Professor McGonagall came over to the Gryffindor table to discuss the N.E.W.T. level courses each student is taking. Paige sat quietly until Professor McGonagall came over to confirm her classes. She was extremely impressed with Paige's transfiguration ability. She was looking forward to having her in class.

Their first lesson was Potions with Professor Slughorn. The Gryffindors and Slytherins marched in to see a plump, bald, cheerful man at the front of the classroom.

"Good morning class!" he said.

"Good morning, Professor Slughorn," the class replied. After a long speech of who he was and the many different potions to make, when he announced that everyone would be splitting up in partners.

"Ah, Ms. Matthews, you may sit over with Ms. Macnair. She will not be working with Mr. Malfoy," Professor Slughorn said with a smile. Paige nodded.

Paige got off the stool and went over to a dark haired, aqua blued eyed girl sat. When she saw Paige come over, she gave her a nasty look. The same guy from breakfast was sitting next to her. He smiled at Paige and left to sit with Harry, an arrangement Harry wasn't thrilled with.

"Hi," Paige said, trying to be friendly.

"Hi," Taryn replied in a dead voice.

"I'm Paige."

"Okay. I'm Taryn, a girl wanting to get this over with." She collected the ingredients and used Paige's cauldron. They started to talk more, she seemed better than before, but it didn't last long.

"If you don't mind me asking, but who was that gorgeous guy sitting next to you?" Paige asked.

"Draco Malfoy...why?" she asked.

"Oh, I was just wondering...he's really cute. Do you know if he has a girlfriend?"

Just then, Taryn looked up and gave Paige a spiteful look. "Yeah he does. ME."

"Oh," Paige said dropping her gaze. They finished the potion in silence for the rest of class. During that time, Taryn continued to give her dirty looks.

Finally, the bell rang, signaling for class to end. Taryn threw Paige one last look and clung onto Draco's arm as they left the room.

"Well, I made my first enemy at this school," Paige announced to Harry, Hermione and Ron.

"Who?" They asked in unison.

"That girl Taryn," she replied.

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

"I asked her about Draco Malfoy. All I said was that he was cute and asked if he was available," she said.

"You fancy Malfoy?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Well..."

"No. You can't! That would be so wrong!" Harry exclaimed.

"Um, you do know that I can do whatever I feel like, right?" Paige asked. "You're not the boss of me."

Harry looked at Paige. "You're right Paige. I'm sorry, it's just that he's not the best person to mess around with."

"It's okay..." she replied. It was silent for a moment. The others talked among themselves. "You don't like him much, do you?"

"No, I don't. We've been enemies since first year."

"Wow..."

"Hey Potter. Quidditch tryouts are today. Tell anyone who is interested to come to the pitch alright?" a handsome Scottish boy with longish brown hair and fierce blue eyes said to Harry.

"Okay Wood. Oh, by the way, this is Paige. She's new to Hogwarts," he introduced.

Wood leaned against the wall and gave her an astonishing smile. "Hello Paige. I'm Oliver Wood, captain and Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Do you fancy playing?"

"Yes I do. I was actually the captain and Beater at my previous school," she said flirting back. She leaned in further as if to tell him a secret and said, "The bludgers don't stand a chance."

Wood laughed. "You are charming. Come today. Harry will show you where the pitch is, won't you Potter?" he said, his eyes fixated on Paige.

"Sure Wood..." Harry replied in an odd voice.

"Bye Wood!" Paige exclaimed waving. He waved back and winked. She turned back to Harry and the others were long gone.

"Flirting with the captain...that's a sure spot on the team!" Harry said sarcastically.

"Whatever it takes!" Paige said, laughing. The two of them walked toward their next lesson, which was Defense Against the Dark Arts with their new teacher, Professor Snape. Again, Gryffindors were with the Slytherins. Snape glared at Harry and Paige as they walked into the room. She had an uneasy feeling about the teacher. His eyes were fixed upon Paige, in a very cold, evil stare. His expression did have a flicker of surprise and anger. Paige looked away to see another person stare at her. It was once again Taryn. She flipped her hair back and nuzzled to Malfoy. Could this girl be any more pathetic?

"Ah. Mr. Potter and his new companion, Ms. Matthews. I'm so glad you two could join the rest of the class. Your tardiness is inexcusable. Ten points off of Gryffindor…EACH," he said in a deadly voice. Harry scowled and Paige was taken aback. She opened her mouth to say something, but Hermione kicked Paige to stop her.

"Now, I tolerate no foolish antics as your other dense professors may have allowed. I will work you and this will soon become your toughest course yet. This course is NOT to be taken lightly. Now, Pair up into partners. You will try to curse and block curses from each other…NONVERBALLY. NOW," he said glaring at them. The class immediately split up. Hermione and Paige worked together. Taryn threw Paige a smirk as her and Malfoy partnered up. Paige rolled her eyes and Hermione seemed to know who about.

"You're lucky he has a girlfriend. He's nothing but a scoundrel," Hermione told Paige. She shrugged and the two girls started on their assignment. This was a little tough for Paige. She didn't get the hang of it immediately. She was trying hard not to mutter the incantation. At one point, Hermione did the full body bind on Paige. She didn't block it in time. Before she fell straight to the floor, Malfoy caught her. Hermione reversed the charm. Paige smiled at him as did she.

"Thanks for catching me," Paige said.

"No problem," he replied, smiling back. He helped her off of the floor.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," he said shaking her hand.

"I'm Paige Matthews," she replied.

"Too bad you're in Gryffindor..." he said. Where the hell did that come from? Paige wondered.

"Excuse me?" Paige asked.

"All those mudbloods..."

"Those 'mudbloods' happen to be my friends," she argued.

"True Gryffindor..." he sneered. "And American."

"True Slytherin," she responded. "True ass." Paige turned away from him infuriated.

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

"Nothing. Let me try this one more time," Paige said.

"Okay," Hermione said looking confused. Finally, Paige blocked a curse AND said a spell without speaking. She was delighted. Soon enough, class was over and Paige, Harry and Ron joined Ginny and Dean outside for free period.

As they walked along, Paige was making her usual jokes and imitations, when she almost stepped on a little garden snake.

"Oh!" she bent down to pick it up. It was cute. It was green, with red, white and black stripes.

"Hi, little guy!" she squealed. "You're so cute! I'm going to keep you!" When Paige looked up, she noticed the lot of them staring at her in shock.

"What? I know it's weird that I am talking to a snake, but I love them-"

"You speak parseltounge?" Harry exclaimed.

"No..."

"But we heard you. You were speaking snake!" Ron said.

"I was the only one who understood you. You said 'hi little guy! You're so cute! I'm going to keep you!' but it sounded more like this:" Harry looked at the snake and spoke in a language Paige had never heard before.

"Sssiya ich nosss...amoresssesss salsssass oussssss..."

"That's what I sounded like? No wonder they always responded back..." she said.

"This is too strange," Ron said shaking his head.

"I'll name him...Howard," Paige said laughing. The others did too, but looked uneasy. They made their way outside, where they sat out by the lake for their free period. Paige could've imagined, but it looked like Harry was saddened by the vision of Dean and Ginny together. She shook her head and was soon time for their next class, which was transfiguration.

Transfiguration was Paige's favorite class because she loved it and she had a knack for it. When she's old enough, she wants to be an Anamagi. Professor McGonagall was tough, but Paige soon impressed her with her skills when she turned a book into a cage for her snake. Herbology followed, and then came Charms to finish off the day. Again, they had to levitate objects without saying a word. Finally, the day was over and it was time for Quidditch tryouts.

"Paige, get into something you can play in, your broom if you have one and meet me in the common room in 10 minutes," he said when we got to our dorms.

"Okay." Paige ran upstairs and threw on black track pants, red tank top, arm guards, sneakers and threw her hair in a ponytail. She opened her trunk to obtain her Firebolt, Paige's pride and joy. She ran downstairs where Harry was in his Quidditch robes.

"You don't have to tryout?" She asked. Harry shook his head.

"Ready?" He asked. She nodded. They went to the Quidditch pitch. Paige saw Wood and smiled.

"Potter, good you're here! And you are too!" he said happily. "Sign here and what position you are trying out for." Paige did and the tryouts began. The chasers played by trying to get by Wood. Then they split into teams and played. To make a long story short, they played 3 rounds of Quidditch. Each round, people were eliminated. (Wood was only look for 2 beaters and one chaser. The Weasley twins apparently left the school because of a tyrant named Umbridge.) Finally, 2 beaters and 1 chaser remained. Those three people were Violet Presentation as a Chaser, Kevin Willie for Beater and Paige Matthews for Beater.

"Yes!" she yelled, pumping her fist in the air. She dirty and sweaty, but didn't care: she was a Beater!

"Congratulations to Violet Presentation, Kevin Willie and Paige Matthews for making to team. Here is your uniform and again, Congratulations!" Wood said. From there, life was good!