II
"It's awful to have your best friend sorted into Gryffindor isn't it?"
Alice snapped her gaze from the back of her brunette friend's head to one of her fellow Slytherin's. He was a young boy with wide brown eyes, a long straight nose, and had dark brown hair that fell just above his shoulders and she had to admit, he was quite adorable. Her eyes glanced back to the back of Charlie's head before she met the boy's gaze, narrowing her eyes at the boy ignoring the color that flared in her cheeks from being caught staring. She hadn't even filled her plate with food while Charlie had been eating and laughing with James and two other friends of his: a light brown haired boy and the black haired boy she had decided she didn't like earlier.
"It's okay, mine was too." He said as he glanced down at his plate, moving his fork around in the mashed potatoes. Alice wanted to scoff at the boy, he didn't understand; she needed Charlie to function properly.
"So what are you? A mudblood?" Alice blinked at the boy, she remembered Charlie saying that word was the one word you were never supposed to say; ever.
"I suppose I could be," She murmured, ignoring the derogatory term. "I've bounced around the foster care system, you do know what that is right? Or is your blood to pure to know how the filthy muggle world works?" Alice sneered with a raise of her brow at the boy. She watched as his face twisted like he ate something sour, before he grinned slightly and chuckled.
"Actually I'm a halfblood…" He mumbled dejectedly, glancing to the side with a small pout. "But no. I don't know what that is." He told her, beginning to grab at the food laid on the table in front of them. Alice blinked at the boy, unsure by his tone if he still wanted anything to do with her; and hesitantly began to grab the items of food recognizable to her.
"But I'd like to." He mumbled behind his juice filled goblet, his wide brown eyes shimmering with curiosity as he took a sip.
"Oh my god, please tell me they have something here besides pumpkin juice. Please. I hate that stuff. Who in their right bloody mind looked at a pumpkin and thought 'Yeah mate let's put that in the juicer like em' apples and oranges. Ugh." Alice shivered in disgust, but heat rose to her cheeks as she noticed the boy's small amused grin on his face.
"Right, um. What happens when a kid loses their parents?" Alice asked quietly, her previous grin slowly falling from her lips as she wrung her hands in her lap and stared down at the mashed potatoes she had slapped on her plate.
"They go to their next closest family member of course." He scoffed before shoving his meat filled fork into his mouth.
"What if there's no other family members?" She all but whispered, scanning the table for something other than pumpkin juice.
"That's absurd. Everyone's related to someone somehow, second cousins twice removed and all that." He scoffed, his eyes wide and unbelieving.
"In the uh muggle world if a child has no family, is unwanted, or is taken away from their family they end up going to a children's home. An orphanage. Normally couples who have problems having kids will go there to adopt children, babies and young children go the quickest. Hah." Alice explained with a bitter laugh while reaching for a large golden pitcher of what she hoped was milk and poured it into her own chalice like cup. Her face lit up in a bright smile as she watched the pitcher of milk start to refill itself. Alice laughed softly to herself, knowing by the books she's read that it was just a never empty charm; but the simple spell still amazed her after seeing it on Mrs. Thorn's kitchen table so many times.
"Did your parents die?" He questioned glancing at Alice and interrupting her childlike glee
"Way to be blunt,"she scoffed and rolled her eyes."But i'm not sure. I was a rare case they called it. Barely 2 months old and left in front of the entrance. I got adopted pretty fast, but the couple brought me back you know. New Mum's in Hysterics because her brand new baby girl was singing the drapes when she cried and floating her toys when she played." Alice sneered, cutting her porkchop a bit roughly and scraping the plate. "It happened more times than they cared to admit to me. So eventually I was put into foster care. Family's will volunteer to take in children, give them a home: A foster home. Most do it because they get money from their local government and it ends up being horrid. But there's also good homes and good families out there. I was bad at controlling my accidental magic so I bounced around family's allot. It's hard at a...muggle school, kids start to notice when your parents aren't there to pick you up everyday, you know? I'd get picked on and have outbursts, it wasn't pretty." Alice grimace shaking her head at the memories and took a sip of milk.
"They got what they deserved." The boy said flatly, his eyebrows furrowed together.
"Mmm yes, I guess they did." Alice giggled behind her cup of milk before taking a drink.
"But then in the middle of my third year, i'm terribly excited to get home. My fosters at the time had just gotten a puppy you see? So there I am a mess with my pens floating up off my desk and having to slap them back down before anyone notices. And get this! This little girl, smiling like she knows something, comes up and snatches a pen out of the air right by my face! I was horrified! 'I think this belongs to you' She says to me. Well I bloody well know it belongs to me!" Alice exclaimed. A large smile plastered across her pale, freckled face.
"That was the day I met Charlie. She's my Gryffindor." Alice laughed, her wild emerald eyes shifting from the boy at her side up to find Charlie.
"Her name is Lily. She's a muggleborn and... She's my Gryffindor." He confessed. His voice lowered to barely a whisper as a tinge of pink dusted his cheeks. Alice glanced to the boy beside her and smiled softly before turning her gaze back to Gryffindor table.
"My name is Alice Kent, but none of that last name business yeah? Just Alice." She told him, sighing when she'd fail to catch Charlotte's eye and directing her attention to Jeremy, who had crawled his way back into her lap.
"Severus snape." He said and Alice gawked at him for a second.
"Wizarding names sure are wild. It's 1971 but you'd think the whole wizarding world is stuck in the dark ages. No offense." Alice laughed. "If it's worth it I think your name is nice." Alice watched as the soft pink tinge bloomed across Severus' face again and she laughed, giving Jeremy a small piece of cheese.
"You know I sent him over to get Charlie for me earlier but instead he ended up scaring the pants off of some boy. If I didn't see him scream myself I would have thought it was another girl who screamed." She teased, grinning at the memory and watching Severus laugh as well.
"Yes that was pretty funny. That boy is Sirius Black: A pureblood and the first in the Black family to be sorted outside of Slytherin. It's a shame he didn't bite the bloody git," Severus frowned "It's also shame that your friend has gotten caught up with him and James Potter." Severus mused and Alice craned her neck to see around students until she could find Charlie again.
"James talked to me at the station you know. He seemed pretty nice I guess. And that Back bloke. He gave me the stink eye and I haven't said a word to him! He can't be mad about Jeremy, how was I supposed to know he's scared of a rat? Besides Jeremy's harmless as a fly and he's so cute." Alice cooed, petting the rat in her lap and forking more food into her mouth with her other arm.
"You know, I think this is the start of a wonderful friendship Severus." Alice grinned, pointing her fork at the black haired boy next to her.
"Oh really?" Severus snorted and Alice rolled her eyes.
"Yes really." She taunted, stabbing a piece of meat in her plate with more force than necessary.
"What makes you say that?" Severus asked, grinning.
"It's quite obvious. Charlie's also a half blood." She explained him, flashing the same shit eating grin that she had given Charlie this morning and laughing at the bewildered look he had given her.
Charlotte laughed as she quickly leaned back to avoid the spoonful of peas that James catapulted down the table. James had introduced her to the boys he shared his train compartment with earlier: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew; and unsurprisingly she found herself sat between James Potter himself and Sirius Black, with Remus and Peter in front of them. Her table was filled with loud infectious laughter that kept a smile on her face a she enjoyed her meal. Charlotte still didn't know how to feel about Alice's sorting, the bloody girl had ended up in Slytherin for Merlin's sake. Charlotte didn't know how the poor girl managed to do it, the hat had barely been on her own head for 3 seconds before it sent her into the lion's den. But Alice had sat there probably having a bloody chit chat with the hat, she wouldn't put it past the girl.
"Chit chat." Charlotte scoffed to herself, shaking her head and chuckling around the filled fork she had stuffed into her mouth.
"What was that Thorn?" James asked, glancing down to the small girl next to him.
"Ah nothing. It's just…Alice…" Charlie sighed with a grimace, searching for Alice's dark blond hair among the Slytherins.
"Well the way I see it, she's fallen prey to the snake pit." James declared through a mouth full of food with a shrug of his shoulders. Charlie's eyes widened at the gesture.
"I'm not abandoning her! She may be a right git sometimes but just because she got sorted into Slytherin doesn't mean i'm abandoning her! Honestly, Gryffindor's act like their so much better than Slytherin's just because they're in a different house. You don't even know her, bloody hell you guys talked at Kings Cross and you're still condemning her to this?! This makes you no better than them." Charlie snapped at him. Just how thick could he be?!
"You fraternizing with the enemy, potter?" Sirius joked out between the food in his mouth. Charlie was starting to question if anybody knew not to talk with their mouths full.
"Not on purpose I swear! You shoulda seen it Black. Two girls standing in front of the train looking like lost muggles I tell you. Kent was standing there shouting her bloody head off! ' A bloody talking hat!'" James mocked Alice and Charlie furrowed her brows. That wasn't very nice.
"Yes but didn't you come up to her agreeing with what she said? Besides, Black is basically a manifestation of her beliefs: The first in the family to not be in Slytherin. You knob it's because he does not share the same characteristics that the house of Slytherin value. Look, everyone assumes Gryffindors are just a bunch of thick headed idiots who run into everything. That's the courage and nerve showing. Everyone thinks Slytherin is for the dark arts and everyone must be evil. Slytherin values ambition, cunning, shrewdness. It makes sense that someone who has Slytherin characteristics is going to do something big, they're just that kind of person even before they get sorted. Being among multiple students who are alike who is to help you grow as a person and become a better you. Voldemort has done nothing but scare people away from a perfectly fine house, Merlin was a Slytherin...For Merlin's sake!" Charlie huffed, her face now beat red and the two boys next to her laughing at her accidental joke.
"Where you,"they cleared their throat."where you contemplating Ravenclaw?"
Charlie looked up to see Remus Lupin staring at her with a teasing smile on his face. His thick light brown hair was messy on his head but not nearly as bad as James. He was pale with healed scars scattered on his face and dark circles under his eyes, with a scarred button nose in the middle of it all. He was rather cute.
"I thought about it." Charlie teased, smiling at him softly. Remus opened his mouth to respond but instead was cut off with a loud shriek that happened to be right next to her ear.
"What is it?" Charlie rubbed her ear and looked over Sirius to see what the problem could have been, and then she saw it. A small white rat had crawled up Sirius' robes and onto the bench they all sat on, but the poor thing scurried around trying to find somewhere to hide.
"It's only Jeremy. Sirius Black is scared of a rat." Charlie teased as she picked up the small rodent and stroked his back with her fingers. James couldn't keep himself together and from the stifled laughter from across the table Charlie could tell Remus was having a tough time as well..
"You know that bloody thing?!"
"Shh. He's already frightened enough you're making it worse. His name is Jeremy, Alice just got him from Diagon Alley this past week." Charlie informed him, peeking around Remus' head to find Alice waving like a mad woman from her table, her mouth open in a large excited smile. Sirius and James followed her line of sight to see the blonde haired witch then looked at eachother, a knowing glint in their eyes and looked back at Alice with matching glares.
"That little slimy git."
"We'll get her at breakfast mate."
Charlie's smile faltered. Oh dear.
A/N: How do you guys like it? Please Review. I'm trying to get this as accurate as I can, I found a pretty nifty hogwarts student guide thing on AO3 and it's helped out allot. I'm worried i won't be able to get the characters to my liking. Reviews give me warm fuzzy feelings and motivation. I also just really want to know thoughts and opinions. Anything to help better my writing. I'm trying to keep this as 1970's as i can but i'm also wanting to add modern things to it, muggle electronics and music and whatnot. Let me know what you guys think!