For the umpteenth time, I'm terribly sorry for the collosal delay in getting this out. I hope it was worth the wait.
Disclaimer: Anything recognizeable belongs to the brilliant JK Rowling.
Slughorn seemed very much as he was described in the books. He greeted Alanna but didn't seem overly impressed with her. Alanna sat down next to Sarah, and Lily and Emily sat in front of them. The marauders were sitting toward the back and all with the exception of Remus, were already unfocused.
Alanna looked around to see that they shared this class with the Slytherins, and rolled her eyes. Sarah nudged her and glanced at a blonde boy who was sitting next to a greasy haired someone with whom Alanna was already acquainted.
"I'd stay away from them if I were you," She whispered, "They're the worst kind of sleaze. Lily won't talk bad about them but I don't like them one bit." Alanna nodded, then glanced at the marauders. Sirius gave her a venemous look which made her stomach twist. She had liked him. Not only as a person, but she thought he was easily the best looking guy in the year. She looked back to Sarah, slightly depressed.
"Why does Sirius look like he wants to kill me?" She asked, trying not to look back at him. Sarah shrugged.
"They can be pretty weird sometimes, you never know." Sarah sighed.
Slughorn cleared his throat, "Right then, something new this year! Now that I've known you all for four years, I know your groups of friends. This year we're going to work on expanding our horizons. I shall pair you each up with somebody that you do not normally socialize with. I should hope that new friendships will bloom." There were collective groans and eye-rolls from both of the houses. "Oh-ho! You don't seem so enthusiastic! You may well be thanking me later... I'm going to read the names off of a list. When your partners are called, gather your things and find an empty table for yourselves. Right then!" He looked to his paper for a moment with a slight squint as if to aid his sight. Without looking up, he went straight to his list.
"Remus Lupin and Sarah Marino," Alanna heard Sarah sigh gratefully from beside her. She mouthed 'Good Luck' to Alanna before getting up and sitting next to Remus at a desk in the front.
"Lucius Malfoy and Rodolphus Lestrange, Marcus Goyle and Severus Snape, Bellatrix Black and Emily Sullivan-" Alanna heard an exaggerated sigh from Emily in front of her, and something that sounded almost like a growl coming from the Slytherin. Alanna began to space out, slightly amused at some of the pairings, but she started to grow more and more nervous with each name. most of the marauders were still available, as well as several Slytherins, suddenly she heard her name"...Alanna Reese and Antonin Dolohov, James Potter and Lily Evans..."
Alanna and Lily both said "What?" at the same time, but Lily's was in a much more violent manner. Slughorn had gone on to finish with Sirius being partnered with Abby, and Peter being paired with a cocky Slytherin boy whose name was Amycus Carrow.
Alanna's stomach dropped and she looked around, trying to figure out which one was Antonin Dolohov. She bit her lip and scowled. All she knew was that this guy was going to be a Death Eater, who knew what he was capable of by this point? Finally she asked Remus, who gave her a sympathetic look and pointed to a tall eastern Eastern European looking boy across the room.
Alanna swallowed dryly and tried to smile; maybe she could try and be friendly to him. "Hi, I'm Alanna-" She put her hand out to shake, but was greeted with a sneer.
"Don't touch me, Mudblood," He growled. Alanna scowled, and dumped her books on the desk. This just made her day. She glanced at Sirius and Abby. They seemed to be getting along all right enough. When Alanna caught Sirius' eye, she smiled at him but recieved another death glare in return.
-
Meanwhile, Lily was about ready to have a full-blown fit. Professor Slughorn knew that she and Potter didn't get along! Ignoring Potter's self-satisfied grin, she stalked up to the professor's desk the moment he finished calling names.
"Professor Slughorn, I'm sorry, but I can't see how Potter and I could possibly work together..." She tried to keep her tone even and polite, but it was a struggle.
Slughorn smiled at her. "Miss Evans, you are one of my brightest students, you know that? Mister Potter here happens to be fairly good himself. You could make a very good pair if you put your minds to it."
Lily wanted to scream that she couldn't EVER possibly work with Potter. She felt her face growing red and began tapping her foot anxiously but silently on the ground. "But sir, he's not serious enough... We don't work well together..."
Professor Slughorn simply smiled again. "The object of this is to help you learn to work with other students, Miss Evans. I'm sorry, but Mister Potter is going to be your partner for the remainder of the year."
"The-the year, sir?" Lily mentally cursed every person who was at fault for creating Potter, starting with his great great grandparents.
-
When Potions was over, everyone was happy to be out of the room. Alanna ran over to Lily, as Sarah was still chatting with Remus, and Emily had feigned a sudden illness halfway through class. All she got for the first few minutes though were rants about James, starting with how he chopped the Sneezewort, and ending with an approxamate guess of how many times he asked her out and how many ways she wanted to kill him.
Alanna sighed. "I'd switch with you, but Dolohov is definately worse. He kept... looking at me strangely, and... ew. He's an arse."
Lily nodded sympathetically, seeming to have finally finished her rant about James. "I dunno about worse than Potter, but I wouldn't hang around him. He's a perverted creep. But I suppose that's not a surprise? I hate to stereotype..." She shook her head.
-
Transfiguration went relatively uneventfully. McGonagall made a ravenclaw girl named Stacy Alanna's "tutor" to help her catch up on transfiguration. Stacy seemed interesting, with purple and black dyed hair, a pierced tongue and a very dry sense of humour, so it shouldn't go too badly. Alanna went down early to lunch, and as she walked to the Gryffindor table, she couldn't help but notice that a great many people seemed to be sniggering at her and staring. She looked around, embarassed, and tugged at her skirt to make sure it wasn't stuck in her underwear or something. She kept her head down and stared at the floor as she walked briskly to the table and sat down, where the staring continued.
She looked up at a second year who was goggling with the others. "What are you looking at?" She demanded.
He immediately began to blush, "Er.. well... your face... and your shirt..."
Alanna hurriedly looked down at her shirt. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. And her face? She julmped up and ran back through the Great Hall and to the nearest bathroom and gasped when she saw her reflection in the mirror. Her face was completely... orange.
"When did this happen?" She muttered, frustrated and embarrassed. "Why do they hate me so much all of a sudden?" She knew who was probably behind this, and was more hurt than angry. She had so many mixed feelings about all of this. Why had she even wanted to come here? Why did this happen? She remembered that the boy had mentioned her shirt. She turned around, and tried to see in the mirror what was on it, but it was impossible to read the large letters. Not caring if anybody walked in, she ripped off her shirt to read it. In large letters as orange as her own face, it read: "TANNING SPELLS: NOT TO BE ATTEMPTED BY IDIOTIC FOOLS."
Alanna scowled and turned the shirt inside out before putting it back on. She turned on the sink and tried to wash off the orange-ness, but it was to no avail. She let her dark wavy hair down from its ponytail and attempted to cover her face with it. Without further ado, she left the bathroom and took off at a run out of the castle. She didn't stop running until she was at the far side of the lake, where she collapsed behind a tree to cry angry and embarrassed tears. After a few minutes, she calmed down and started to think about ways to get up into the Gryffindor tower without being seen. She finally decided that she would have to just wait until everyone was at class and pretend she was sick when she got caught late.
I know, I know; the end is really half-assed and it's a crappy place to stop, but I just couldn't delay this any longer. Please review, it will make me want to update this more often.