The sun was shining brightly in Scotland as a horseless carriage containing three girls rolled down the dirt path leading to a large and seemingly-abandoned manor. Jayden Millsap looked dully out the window of the carriage, praying it would about-face and return her to the United States where she belonged. Despite the beauty of the countryside, she already missed the tall skyscrapers of New York City and the Statue of Liberty which was in plain view of her grandfather's video game shop.
Next to Jayden was her half-sister, Sirenity Cortez, and across from the two was Jayden's and Sirenity's long-time best friend, Kismet Vangley. Jayden studied her to companions' expressions to gauge their thoughts.
Kismet wore a bored, indifferent glare and seemed to be studying the opposite window from the one Jayden had been seated next to. Her light-brown, curly tresses fell an inch past her shoulders, but seemed slightly more frazzled than normal. The light green eyes positioned perfectly above her high cheekbones held a fiery determination, and her chin was placed high in defiance in accordance to her pushed-back shoulders.
Sirenity's face showed immense excitement, and her light blue eyes shone with only slightly suppressed anticipation for their arrival. She sat next to Jayden, occasionally uncrossing-and then re-crossing-her long legs and tapping her sandaled foot with impatience. Flicking her long, dirty blonde hair back behind her shoulder, she turned to her sister.
"When are we going to arrive?"
Jayden smiled slightly in answer and patted her sister's knee softly.
"Calm down, Siren," she said, "It shouldn't be too long."
"We've been on this road for hours, and I'm hungry!"
Kismet snapped out of her thoughts and turned to her friends, "We're currently in a foreign country, on our way to a different school, and all you can think about is food?"
"Technically, we're the foreigners, here," Siren pointed out unhelpfully.
"And it's not like it's a new concept, Kiss," added Jayden playfully, "Siren is almost always thinking about food.."
"And males," said Kiss with a smirk.
"And clothes."
"And alcohol."
"Anything illegal."
"Or morally wrong."
"And-"
"Okay! I get it! I'm a bad person. Can we please stop emphasizing my wrong-doings?"
The other two shared a glance, turned to Sirenity, then-
"No."
"Woah," the three girls chorused as they stepped into the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts.
"Nice place," said Jayden appreciatively.
"Very nice," said Siren as she stared at the bum of a passing boy. Said boy was dumb enough to turn around and wink at Siren whilst Kismet was paying attention. She quickly sent a tickling curse at the idiot.
"I'm afraid there will be no magic in the halls here at Hogwarts," said a stern feminine voice behind Kismet. Kiss turned quickly to face the woman.
"Uh..."
"I am Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts School and Head of Gryffindor House. I ask that you stow away your wands and follow me," she said with a last piercing gaze at Kismet, who glumly complied. The stern-faced woman had a head of greying brown hair pulled behind her head in a strict bun, and carried herself with an air of distinguishment.
As she led the three witches into a hall filled with tables and chattering students, she continued, "There are four Houses in Hogwarts, and each is like your family during your stay here. They are: Gryffindor (for the brave and bold), Hufflepuff (who favor loyalty and devotion), Ravenclaw (which houses the intelligent), and Slytherin (which prefer cunning and ambition). Your dormitories will be shown to you after the Sorting."
Jayden's eyebrows raised at this, "Sorting? Into what.. uh, ma'am?"
"Professor, if you please. The Sorting will put you into the House which best suits you."
"Wait," said Siren, holding up a hand as if in class, "you're saying that we might possibly be...separated?"
"Yes. And please refer to me as Professor McGonagall."
As McGonagall turned to walk to the Head Table, the three girls turned to each other with identical, stricken looks.
"What are we going to do?" Siren's eyes were now filling with tears, "I don't want you guys to be in another House without me."
"We may not," said Jayden with a glint in her eye.
Kismet turned to her red-haired friend, "What do you mean?"
"Didn't you hear what McGonagall said? The four houses had specific traits that each of them search for in a student. All we have to do is concentrate on the same one, and we get in!"
Siren nodded slowly, "So, which one do we choose?"
"Easy, Gryffindor," said Jayden at the same time Kismet responded with a, "Slytherin, of course!"
"Wait. Which one?"
"Gryffindor!"
"Slytherin!"
"Slytherin sounds so ridiculous, Kiss!"
"No, Gryffindor sounds so stupid, Jay!"
"But, really? Slither-in? I wouldn't be surprised if they were all evil parslemouths!"
"Griffin-door? A stupid bird of all things! Worse: the door to a birdcage! What a bunch of idiotic childish freaks with no self-preservation what-so-ever!"
Siren stopped the argument as soon as she could, "Well, I kind of like the idea of loyalty..."
"No one asked!" chorused the two girls as they began feverently arguing about the merits of their chosen houses.
"But Gryffindors are apparently brave-"
"And stupid. Slytherin students actually want to go somewhere with their lives!"
"And step on anyone and everyone along the way! Probably cower in the face of danger, too..."
"Wait!" Siren called the two bickering friends to attention again. "They have to have mascots, right? Let's just look and see what they are. Where's that damn seal?" She turned to glance around her for the Hogwarts seal.
"Oh, this is pointless!" Kismet snarled as she gripped the arm of a nearby passing boy, "Excuse me, but which is the best House?"
"Slytherin, of course," the blonde boy sneered as he attempted to shake off Kismet's grasp. Kismet turned a triumphant glance to Jayden just as the boy continued, "Let go of me, you filthy piece of... filth!"
"Wow, great comeback," said Jay as she rolled her eyes.
"Ha! I'm a thousand times greater than you could ever aspire to be, toad spawn," said Kismet with a grimace as she quickly released the boy's arm and began to wipe the non-existant germs from her hand onto Jayden's robes.
"Filthy Mudblood!"
"Uh oh, now he's done it," Jayden smirked as she watched Kismet's reaction.
Suddenly, Kismet and the blonde were an inch apart, and for a wild second, Jayden was sure they were going to kiss. Then-
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?"
The blonde smirked, seemingly unphased by the close proximity of the shouting brunette.
"Filthy. Mudblood."
Seconds later, the blonde boy had fallen to the ground and was bleeding perfuously from his nose.
"I'm a pureblood, thank you," said Kismet as she turned and walked the rest of the way to the Head Table.
Jayden smiled slightly and handed a nearby napkin to the boy on the ground, just as Siren came to Jay's side and looked down.
"Uh.. Kismet?"
"Yup."
"Figures."
Arm-in-arm, the two girls followed their angered friend to the front of the Hall where Kismet stood with McGonagall next to a stool on top of which an old, ragged hat sat.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Sirenity was very surprised as she hopped off the stool and quickly walked to join her new House. She was so sure there was no way the Hat would choose her for Gryffindor. She wasn't even brave, but the Sorting Hat had told her something that would stick with her for a while:
"Bravery isn't the absence of fear. It's merely facing what you fear head-on."
She sat next to a boy with wild black hair and round glasses. As she looked across the table, she noticed a girl around her age with bushy brown hair extending her hand in greeting.
"I'm Hermione Granger. Sixth year. Gryffindor," she said quickly and with purpose.
Sirenity smiled in return, taking the offered hand, "Sirenity Cortez. Apparently, also a sixth-year Gryffindor."
"That's Harry Potter and this twit-" she hit a red-haired boy with freckles upside his head "-is Ronald Weasley. Also in sixth year."
Siren shook the Potter boy's hand and waved to the freckled boy across the table.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Suddenly remembering there was still a Sorting taking place, the four Gryffindors turned back to the front of the room as Siren's sister joined them.
"This is Jayden Millsap, she's my sister."
"Funny, you don't look much like sisters," said Ronald tactlessly.
"We're half, and you don't look much like an attractive male, but I'll forgive you for that," said Jayden whilst smiling sweetly.
The redheaded boy looked affronted as Hermione worked to hide a snigger, "I'll have you kno-"
"SLYTHERIN!"
Jayden and Siren turned quickly to the Head Table as they saw Kismet jump from the stool and walk slowly to her new House table.
Jayden sighed and began to drink from the goblet in front of her.
"Wait. What the hell is this?"
A black-haired boy just on the other side of Siren turned to Jayden's sudden exclaimation. "That's pumpkin juice," he said, sounding surprised.
"Why would anyone drink from a pumpkin?"
Siren took a sip. "It's alright," she said shrugging.
Jayden growled in response and turned her eyes to the Slytherin table, noticing whom Kismet was currently sitting next to. She nudged Sirenity and nodded her head to the blonde boy that Kiss had punched just moments ago.
"Hey, Harry? Who's that pale, blonde boy at the Slytherin table," asked Siren.
"That's Draco Malfoy. He's an aspiring Death Eater."
"What's that?"
There was a sudden commotion at the Slytherin and the new friends looked over to see Kismet Vangley dump pumpkin juice on the head of Malfoy and then storm from the room. Sirenity leaned closer to Harry in order to listen to his explanation. Jayden decided she could get the details later and began to wonder what had caused her normally cool-headed friend to simply storm from a room full of students during lunch.
"Padfoot, ge'roff!"
"Sorry mate, someone's arse is in my face."
"That would be mine, so quit biting me! Wormtail, could you please remove yourself from on top of my shoulder?"
"I can't, Remus! James's legs have made mine into pretzels."
The four entangled bodies began struggling in the dark room, each attempting to disengage itself from the mass of limbs. Suddenly, a door opened and light from the outside poured into the room, blinding the subjects in question.
"Oh look what we have here, Mrs. Norris," Filch the caretaker said in a sneering voice as he rubbed the ugly cat in his arms. "Yes, yes. You boys are in for it now." Behind Filch, two suits of armor were dressed in womens' lingerie and throwing dungbombs at unsuspecting third years.
A collective groan was heard from the four as one managed to finally free himself from his friends.
"I'm free," said the one called Wormtail, sounding surprised. Just as he began to crawl away from his friends, however, Mrs. Norris jumped from her master's embrace and hissed at the pudgy boy.
"Ah!"
The boy stood quickly and backpedaled again into the broom closet, tripping over his friend Remus who was presently kneeling on the ground, glaring at the other boys.
As Wormtail fell backward, arms flailing, he rolled over Remus and was suddenly in the same position he'd been in before.
A collective sigh, then-
"Oh, Peter."
Finally able to relax in the sixth-year girls' Gryffindor dormitory, Jayden and Sirenity began conversing about the new school. Thankfully, their dorm-mates-Hermione from lunch, a girl named Pavarti Patil and another named Lavender Brown-had left a few minutes ago to spend some time in the common room.
Just as they were arguing the looks of the Gryffindor boys they'd met so far, Sirenity cut in, "Hey, I wonder whom the girls we'd exchanged for were?"
"Hermione was apparently supposed to be one, but she asked Dumbledore if she could please stay at Hogwarts for this year. Something about being a 'supportive mate' for Harry as he goes through 'the loss of his godfather'. 'Was replaced by some Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff, I think."
Siren looked confused for a moment, but shrugged it off, "Well, that was nice of her."
"I suppose."
There was a moment of silence in which neither girl quite knew what to say, then-
"Want to go bug Kismet?"
"Definitely!"
"I HATE HIM!"
Kismet was not in a good mood. In the last few hours, she'd been called a-shudder-Mudblood, thrown into a different house than her two best friends, subjected to a rant by the pompous Malfoy boy at lunch which resulted in her spilling a nearby goblet of juice all over his blonde head, and was forced to listen to three high-pitched giggling girls gossip about how adorable the new couple in the common room was. Curious to see what had transpired to throw her dorm-mates into such a fit of girlishness, she'd stormed into the common room to find Draco Malfoy in the arms of some blonde witch she'd never seen before in her life.
Well, that wasn't going to bother her. She'd left the Slytherin common room as soon as possible with her head held high, and promptly tripped over a cat skulking by the wall which hid the room behind her. Angry at the feline, she cast a stinging hex at the animal before standing and brushing off her robes in order to stalk away from the scene. She allowed the painful yowls emmitting from the cat's mouth to fade behind her as she all but marched up the stairs to the Great Hall.
Luckily enough, Sirenity and Jayden chose that moment to run down the stairs of the Entrance Hall, looking about themselves for something. Upon spotting her, Jayden nudged Siren and they ran to Kiss with wide smiles on their faces. Something about their bright faces sparked something inside, and Kismet found herself smiling back.
"Kismet!" Siren squealed, throwing her arms around her friend's neck.
"How's Gryffindor, ladies?" asked Kismet as she followed the others through a door on the side of the Entrance Hall.
"It's amazing, Kiss! There are so many cute wizards and our dormitory is so warm and cozy!" Sirenity was obviously very excited. Kiss nodded with a smile and turned to Jayden for her opinion.
Shrugging, she said, "It's alright."
"Alright? How are we even related? It's greatest thing to ever happen!"
"Siren, everything is the greatest thing ever to you," responded Kiss with a smirk.
"Well, maybe I just like living life to the fullest," she said with her hands on her hips.
Jayden chose that time to bend down to pick something up from the ground, which Kismet disregarded. At that moment, Draco Malfoy came through the same door they had, and was now standing there glaring at the three girls in an abandoned corridor.
"What are you doing here?" Both Draco and Kismet had decided to ask the exact same question at the exact same time, irking each other to no end. The air between them was electrically charged, and Kiss stared the blonde boy down, her eyes filled with anger.
He relented. "Well, it's none of your business, but I am scheduled to meet someone in this very corridor in a few moments. So, if you could please bring your unimportant selves to do so, I'd appreciate your departure," said Draco with his arms folded.
"You don't own the school! I can be wherever I want, whenever I want!" The brunette girl was dangerously close to losing her temper as pictures from earlier this afternoon entered her mind.
"Hey, Kiss?" Jayden asked as she took her hand. Kismet ignored her friend in favor of listening to Draco speak.
"I do own the school, as a matter-of-fact. My father pays for most of the teachers' salaries, and gives random, generous donations to the school board."
Kismet began to poke the blonde boy in the chest, and move him backwards. "Well, that doesn't matter much. You're still-" But whatever Draco was, he never found out.
Kismet was cut off in the middle of her sentence by a blinding light and a rushing sound in her ears. She glanced around at her friends, watching other students walking backwards very quickly down the same corridor in which they were situated.
Looking, she noticed Jayden's wide, horrified eyes were trained on an hourglass-shaped necklace she held in her hands.
The world stopped spinning, suddenly, and Kismet removed her hand from Draco's chest, blushing.
"Where are we?"
"I think the question is, when are we," drawled Draco as he took in the sight of Jayden, "that's a TimeTurner, and we have been shoved back in time pretty far, judging by how long it took to get us here. Good job. I applaud your idiocy."
Jayden growled in response, as Siren held her back.