Thanks to all who have reviewed so far! I gladly welcome constructive criticism and suggestions, so don't be afraid to tell me.
By the way, Arra's name is pronounced like the letter 'R' and then 'uh'. Someone asked me and I just thought I would throw it in here for all of you.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Arra stared incredulously at the old man. Her, a Gryffindor?! He was off his rocker if he thought she would stand for this.
"WHAT?!" She and Harry both screeched. Apparently he was just as outraged as she was. Arra continued, "You can't do this! Are you even allowed to do this?!" She asked as she flailed her arms around in exasperation.
Harry was shouting the same time as Arra, "She can't be in Gryffindor! The sorting hat put her in Slytherin! Her family is all from that house and she doesn't even have any Gryffindor like qualities! She's just like the rest of those pure-blood loving snakes."
Dumbledore then stood up as his smile vanished and he said sternly, "Stop yelling. Sit down and I shall explain."
Both students sat down at the headmasters sudden change in attitude. "To answer your questions Miss Black, while this type of punishment has never been used before, I am allowed to do this. Why, you ask? I'm the headmaster, I make my own rules." He smiled at her with a twinkle in his eye. Arra glared at him. "As for you Harry, while the sorting hat did place her in Slytherin, she still possesses some Gryffindor qualities. She has the nerve to stand up to me, and that to me displays bravery. Also, she has Gryffindor in her blood." Arra's eyes widened as she knew what he was going to say next. Harry, on the other hand, looked shocked. "Both of her parents were in Gryffindor and happened to be quite good friends with your own parents, Harry."
Harry was speechless and Arra had recently become very interested in the ceiling as she attempted to avoid eye contact with either of them. Dumbledore continued, "The point of this is to show you both that while Gryffindors and Slytherins have been sworn enemies in the past, you can overcome your differences and learn to accept one another as friends," he said. "And I trust you will do your best to prove me right." The last bit was added with a serious tone. "Miss Black, you will go back to the Slytherin dormitories and pack your things. When you arrive at the Gryffindor common room, you will be provided with new robes and a new schedule."
"And what if I don't go?" She asked fiercely.
"Then expulsion is the only choice I have. Although if neither of those options appeal to your liking, I'm sure the House of Hufflepuff would accept you as well," he said with a smile as Arra stood up to leave.
"Gryffindor will be fine, thanks." She growled through her teeth and left. She would rather be in Gryffindor than Hufflepuff. She'd rather be known for her bravery than her loyalty, she thought the last word with sarcasm.
Harry was left in the office completely bewildered by what had just happened. "Sir," he asked, "this is going to be impossible. There's no way she'll ever fit in our lives."
"Harry this is not a request, but an order. You will do your best to make sure she fits in with the Gryffindors, or the same punishment will go for you as well." Harry nodded his head. He didn't want to be expelled. He got up to leave as Dumbledore said, "And in my own personal opinion Harry, you have a long and adventurous journey ahead of you, and before the end of it," he looked up into Harry's eyes, "you will need her."
***
Arra slammed the door to the common room as she entered to see an anxious Draco waiting on the couch for her. He immediately went to her as he could tell she was upset.
"What happened?" He asked seriously as he looked into her eyes.
She looked at him for a full 5 seconds before answering quietly, "He moved me to Gryffindor."
If Arra was mad when she heard the news, Malfoy's anger was 10 times worse. He placed his hands tightly on her shoulders and his face warped into complete and utter fury. "What?" He asked with a shaky voice as he was obviously trying to keep from blowing his temper.
Arra escaped his grasp and flopped down on the couch as she explained what had happened to her best friend. She looked at Draco once she finished and saw that he was breathing quite deeply attempting to stop his flaring anger. Finally he gave up and began to shout, "What do you mean he just transferred you? That's unheard of! He's obviously out to get you, why else would he do this? Anyways he won't get away with it. My father is on the school board of education and they're more powerful than that old crazy man!" He then sat down next to Arra and looked into her eyes. "I promise you. I will fix this."
Arra smiled at her friend's concern. "Draco," she said slowly, "even if your father does do something, he's only one part of the board. The rest would agree with Dumbledore. They're all about inner-house bonding and such." She stood up to begin packing.
"There has to be something we can do!"
She turned back around and gave Draco a hug as she whispered in his ear, "There's not."
***
Arra lugged her trunk across what felt like the entire length of Hogwarts before she finally reached the Gryffindor common room. She recited the password and slowly entered. This is so unfair. Obviously the Gryffindors thought so too. She looked around to see every last face in the room scowling at her. She ignored them and went up to her dormitory. Inside the room two girls were talking quickly and suddenly stopped when Arra entered. Arra looked up at them to notice two pairs of eyes looking at her with interest.
"Can I help you?" Arra asked tersely.
"Umm, I'm Lavender and this is Parvati and we were just wondering…" She trailed off as she noticed Arra who looked ready to throw them out a window.
"Whatever you were 'wondering'. Cut it out. I am not here to be buddies with you. Just stay out of my way and I won't shave your head in the middle of the night." Arra finished as the two girls scurried out of the room and away from her. As they left another girl entered--Hermione Granger. "Oh just fantastic!" Arra said sarcastically. "I get to room with the smartest mudblood in all of Hogwarts!" Arra clapped her hands together in fake excitement as Hermione walked past her and flopped onto her bed.
"Ok, look. Obviously your stuck here with us so you might as well get used to it. And I don't want to tell McGonagall that you've been being impolite to us or else you'll get detention." Hermione warned in all seriousness.
Arra laughed heartily at the girl and cracked up even harder when she saw Hermione's confused look. Hermione soon left after not being able to get an answer out of Arra. Soon, the ex-Slytherin had fallen asleep praying to God that when she woke up, it would all be a dream.
Much to her displeasure, though, no such miracle was going to occur.
Hermione's chirpy voice woke her up on Friday morning. She had lasted a week in Gryffindor and nobody had bothered her enough to curse, so in her opinion it wasn't that bad. After all, she did appreciate her time to herself. She rolled out of bed and walked over to the mirror, her roommates were silent as they were afraid she might curse them just for breathing. She examined herself in the mirror. Even in the early hours like these, Arra was undeniably beautiful. Her dark brown curled down to the middle of her back and her dark eyes gave her a mysterious, yet gorgeous look. Her skin was pale but the rosiness of her cheeks made her look not quite so…dead. She pulled on her robes and looked at herself in the full length mirror. Arra wasn't as skinny as Hermione, but she also wasn't overweight; she had curves and she liked it that way. She was also tall. Much taller than a lot of the girls she knew, but not as tall as most of the boys. It was this physique of hers that also added to her menacing nature. After frowning at her new Gryffindor robes consisting of crimson and gold, she headed down to the common room. When she entered, Harry was waiting and quickly walked over to her when he noticed.
"Hey." He said as Arra looked at him questioningly. "I was wondering if you might want to get some breakfast with me before flying lessons." Today was their first lesson with Madam Hooch.
"Why?"
"Because, Dumbledore says we have to get along, or we'll be expelled."
Arra laughed. "Potter if you want to hang out with me, you're going to have to get over the fear of being thrown out of school." Harry looked confused. "Let's just say, I'm not known for following the rules." She explained.
"Oh," he said as she continued to walk away. He quickly caught up with her. "Ok, Arra, I don't think you fully understand the pickle I'm in." She looked up at him with her eyebrows raised. "I can not be expelled." He stressed to her as if trying to get her to understand Quantum Physics. "The place I live outside of here, it's hell."
"I heard you live with muggles."
"I do. I hate them."
"Oh well that's understandable," Arra said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Her muggle-hating nature working to Harry's advantage at this point.
"So…breakfast?" He asked hopefully.
She took a deep breath before looking at the black haired boy. "Look, I don't want to be here, and I know you don't want me to be here. So let's just make this as painless as possible: we're not friends, but we're not enemies" she proposed to him as a solution. "Sound good?"
"I don't think--"
"Good," she cut him off with a nod of her head as she turned and walked through the portrait hole. Harry looked after her baffled. He shook his head as if trying to figure out what had just happened.
Ron then joined Harry, "What the bloody hell were you doing talking to her? I mean I know Dumbledore says you have to get along but it's not like you have to worship the ground she walks on."
"I'm not worshipping her," Harry said in a defensive tone. "It's just something Dumbledore said to me that makes me feel like we're supposed to be friends or something."
Ron frowned and shook his head as they walked down to breakfast together.
***
After breakfast, Arra met Draco and the other Slytherins down at the Quidditch Pitch and the Gryffindors soon joined them. Harry sent Arra a friendly smile which she returned with a puzzled look. Why was he being nice to her?
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" Madam Hooch said briskly. "Stick out your right hand over your broom and say UP!"
After a few tries, Arra's broom met her hand in the air and after several more minutes, everyone else had gotten their brooms up as well. She told them all that they were to mount their brooms and rise into the air and then come right back down. But Neville was far to nervous and didn't want to be left on the ground alone while everyone else was flying, and he accidentally caused his broom to rise several feet above the ground. Madam Hooch yelled for him to come back but he was too scared to move so the broom just continued to escalate into the air, higher, and higher, and high--CRACK. Neville had slipped sideways off of his broom and fallen all the way to the ground.
"Broken wrist," Madam Hooch said as she helped Neville up. "Now I expect all of your feet to stay firmly on the ground or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch'".
As soon as Madam Hooch and Neville were out of site, Malfoy spotted Neville's remembrall sitting on the ground. Arra had seen Draco try to take it away from him at breakfast. He held it up for everyone else to see and all the Slytherins snickered. Arra couldn't help but join in.
"Give it here, Malfoy," Harry said quietly and Arra turned to give him a surprised look. He was standing up to Malfoy; that took guts.
"Hmmm, I think not," Draco said as he tossed it into the air and caught it again. "I think I'll leave it somewhere Longbottom can find it" he grabbed his broom and soon started to fly into the air, "how about up a tree?" Arra laughed as her best friend began to show off his broom riding skills. "Come and join me Potter!"
Harry grabbed his broom and was about to take off when the shrill voice of Hermione momentarily stopped him.
"Harry! If you go up there, you're going to get us all in trouble!" She warned.
"Oh put a sock in it, beaver!" Arra yelled at her as Ron was burst out with laughter at Hermione's nickname. Harry looked at Arra in surprise, not sure whether to thank her for shutting Hermione up, or to frown at her offensive remark. "Well?" She asked Harry. "Go on!" She said gesturing to the sky where Draco was waiting.
As Arra watched Harry fly up to get Neville's remembrall she noticed a few things. One, he really was a great person. He was willing to risk being sent back to his aunt and uncle's just to make sure Malfoy didn't do something mean to someone else. Two, he obviously wasn't scared of Malfoy, as most people were. This in itself was enough to make Arra smile. The only other person in Hogwarts who wasn't afraid of him was her. And three, he was a damn good flyer! Wow, this was his first time on a broom? Wait!-- did he just catch that thing out of a fifty-foot dive? Holy shi--
"HARRY POTTER!" Rang Professor McGonagall's voice. Uh-oh, Arra thought.
After Harry left with McGonagall, Draco and his pack mules came to stand with her as they instantly began to laugh at Harry's present predicament. And while Arra laughed with them, she slowly began to realize something. Maybe, Potter's not so bad after all, she thought as her eyes followed him up to the castle with the angry professor.
Author's Note: Ok, so this is the last chapter I will updating for a while as I will be on vacation without internet access. I will continue to finish some chapters but I won't upload them unless I come home to find LOTS of reviews!!!
See you all in 10 days!
-Maverick