74Chapter One: That American Girl
Alyssa Bennington stood at the train station thinking this day could not possibly get any worse. She was just dropped off by her brother, Brad, who practically split immediately to get back to Romania. Her mom was supposed to have brought her over but she could hardly be bothered with doing such tasks. Her job as an Auror demanded pretty much every hour of her life so she could've been across the entire planet by that time.
Obviously her dad was out of the question. Brian Shepard was happily married, father of two turned Death Eater. Her family had been in Scotland watching a Quidditch match when her dad met none other than Lucius Malfoy. They became quite the pair of friends and within a year, Lucius had turned her father into a mini version of himself; they hadn't seen him since.
So Alyssa stood in front of the Hogwarts Express, alone, and watching families kissing and hugging their children goodbye. She sighed, grabbed her trunk in one hand – her empty owl cage in the other and stepped onboard. There was a compartment of trunks to her left and she struggled hard to get her own in when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to meet a boy's striking green eyes.
"Do you need help with that?" He offered; her eyes glanced briefly to his well-known lightning bolt shaped scar before nodding and letting go of the trunk. He lifted it up with ease and put it into the compartment followed by his own trunk and owl cage. Afterwards they stepped further into the train and pushed themselves against the wall as more students got onboard.
"I'm Harry by the way, Harry Potter." He held out his hand and she shook it evenly.
"Alyssa Bennington." She replied. He turned to move down the aisle and looked through the doors of a few as he went.
"You must be new here," He said, moving past another full compartment. "You certainly don't look like a first year."
Alyssa laughed and nodded even though his back was turned. "Yeah, I just transferred from Beauxbatons… but I'm really from America. We move around a lot." She explained.
"Ah, I see. So I take it you're a seventh year?" She nodded, "Yea, me too. C'mon, let's find a compartment before they're all filled." They headed further down the aisle and didn't find an empty compartment until they neared the end of the train. They slid opened the door and slipped in taking a seat. It was barely minutes later when the door slid opened again and a red headed boy walked in looking out of breath.
"Harry!" He exclaimed, he took a seat and let out a whoosh of air. We've been looking all over for you; Hermione's probably on the opposite end of the train by now."
"I figured she'd have some Head Girl stuff to do now." Harry replied. Ron shook his head before his eyes landed on Alyssa.
"Hi," She said.
"Oh, sorry," Harry spoke up, and pointed his fingers at them. "This is Alyssa Bennington, Ron. And this is Ron Weasley."
Alyssa held her hand out for him to shake, "Nice to meet you," She said, and smiled a bit when Ron blushed slightly and slowly raised his hand to shake hers. Harry laughed at the encounter and rolled his eyes. He reached down to his pocked and sorted around for some money before standing up.
"Y'know, I think I'm gonna search for the trolley." He rubbed his hand over his stomach before sliding the compartment door opened and walking out.
"Do you have a brother?" Ron finally asked, breaking the somewhat awkward silence.
Alyssa nodded, "How'd you guess?"
"Your last name sounds a bit familiar… Does he work with dragons? In Romania?" Alyssa nodded again, "He must work with my brother Charlie, then."
"Oh, yeah!" She said and briefly looked up as a girl with extremely curly brown hair came in the compartment and sat down. "Yea, he mentions a guy named Charlie a lot; that's probably him."
"Finally!" the girl scoffed, she also seemed to be out of breath. "I've been up and down these aisles at least four times! The first years are way too excited, it's unnatural, really."
"You were the one who decided to become Head Girl, Hermione." Ron replied rolling his eyes. She scoffed again before she realized Alyssa was sitting next to her. She looked her up and down before bouncing in her seat.
"You must be Alyssa Bennington!" She raised her hand to shake it and Alyssa took it slowly, "I'm Hermione Granger."
"…And you know me because?"
"Well, I'm Head Girl," She said as if it were no big thing, "I guess you had late arrangements attending Hogwarts this year so you'll be sharing a room with me." She paused furrowing her brows, "Didn't you know that already?" Alyssa shook her head, "Well… now you do."
Alyssa paused in thought wondering if she would be able to handle spending the entire year with Hermione; she seemed a bit… for lack of a better word – psychotic.
"So, I hear you move around a lot." Hermione said, sparking up conversation.
Alyssa nodded, "Uh, yea. With my mom's job we've been moving around all over the place."
"She's an Auror, right?" Hermione asked; Alyssa nodded. I've heard loads about her; capturing a lot of Dark Wizards… she must be brilliant." Hermione pondered aloud.
"Yea, she is." Alyssa said smiling.
The compartment was taken over by another moment of silence. The train rocked back and forth and the sky outside looked like it was darkening. Alyssa looked at her watch wondering when they were supposed to make it to the school; she was practically aching to see it.
Suddenly there were loud shouts coming from outside the compartment and through the aisle. Hermione and Ron shared a look of panic before standing up and hurrying to the door. Just as they opened it, a quick whisk of blue shot past and in a rush to get out of the way they both fell over backwards. Alyssa stood up, stepped over Ron and stood directly in the middle of the aisle. On her left was Harry, looking as angry as ever, and on her right was an absolute gorgeous looking blonde who, Alyssa realized taking a closer look, was Draco Malfoy. They both had their wands raised in midair Harry gave her a look to get out of the way yet she stayed put, and seconds later a crazy old woman came practically running down the aisle, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"POTTER! MALFOY! We haven't even reached the school and you're ALREADY causing trouble. Potter, get back in your compartment! Malfoy, I would've expected better from HEAD BOY!" She paused and looked over at Alyssa who still hadn't moved, and as she let out a deep breath she said, "You must be Alyssa Bennington. "I'm professor McGonagall; I'll be your transfiguration professor as well as your Head of House." She held her hand out pointing to the other end of the train, "Follow me."
Alyssa willingly obliged and headed down the aisle, Draco on the other hand, was practically thrown down the aisle by professor McGonagall. They walked all the way down to the other end of the train and slid into a compartment that was at least twice the size of the one Alyssa had originally been sitting in. There were red couches pushed up against the walls with a small wooden coffee table sitting in the middle. McGonagall stood in front of the table and gestured for them to sit down.
As they sat down she began to speak, "Now, I'm sure Ms. Granger has told you about the sleeping arrangements?" Alyssa nodded. "Good; we would've put you in a regular seventh year dormitory but these were last minute arrangements so we figured it'd be much easier to have you share a room with Ms. Granger."
Alyssa shrugged already deciding she didn't mind too much. "That's fine, thanks."
McGonagall nodded, "And this is Draco Malfoy." Alyssa noticed the slight glare she sent his way, "He's the Head Boy and will be showing you to your dorm since Ms. Granger will be attending a meeting right after dinner." She glanced out of the window before looking back at the two students.
"You can return to you're compartments; I expect we'll be arriving soon."
Alyssa and Draco stood up and left the compartment. They walked silently down the aisle, side by side, and Alyssa couldn't help but make glances at him. He was much taller than she was; probably 6 foot two against her 5 foot 5 – she felt incredibly tiny. His blonde hair looked ridiculously soft and he had amazing gray eyes.
She silently scolded herself into not looking and instead glanced outside the window. Nothing but tall trees and steep hills could be seen, and the sky was darkening even more even though it had been a beautiful day outside that afternoon. She suddenly got goose bumps realizing that soon enough she'd be inside the Hogwarts castle – her new home. Her nerves picked up and the butterflies in her stomach started fluttering until she began taking deep breaths in through her nose, and out through her mouth.
Draco broke her trance, "So you're new here?" His voice was deep and smooth, causing the already present chills down her spine to increase violently.
Alyssa nodded quickly, "Yep."
She noticed him look her up and down and he said, "You'll like it here." And she wondered if she should take that in some weird perverted way or if he actually meant it. But that thought was cut short when someone shouted his name from down the aisle.
A black haired boy who Alyssa thought was also rather good looking came walking towards them. He laughed at Draco before they both shared a hug yet still managed to look manly. They broke apart smiling at each other before the boy turned to Alyssa and raised his hand.
"Draco, who's this gorgeous looking friend of yours?" He asked; Alyssa smiled.
"This is Alyssa, she's new here."
"Ah, very nice to meet you; I'm Blaise Zabini," He grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it charmingly, winking as he did.
"Nice to meet you, as well." Alyssa replied smothering a blush. Her eyes ran over him; Blaise seemed a lot more laid back then Draco did. He was wearing jeans and a long sleeved T-shirt, when Draco was wearing black dress pants, a button up shirt, and a black cloak. Thinking of the clothes reminded her how they were nearing the castle, and she still hadn't changed yet.
"Well, I'm going to get changed if we're pulling up soon." She said.
Blaise looked somewhat disappointed but smiled anyway, "All right, we'll see you at dinner." Alyssa smiled and walked past them to return to her compartment. Harry, Ron and Hermione were all in there so she grabbed her duffel bag that had a change of clothes and headed to the changing rooms. She quickly slipped out of her jeans and tank top and put on her Hogwarts uniform that consisted of the usual skirt, button up, sweater, and cloak. She looked at her reflection to adjust her cloak and brushed the lint of the Gryffindor crest. She had been sorted in the middle of the summer and after learning only a bit about each House she was glad to be in Gryffindor.
She looked in the mirror again and ran her fingers through her hair and fixed her makeup. Alyssa's most prominent features were her jet black hair and her violet eyes; both traits were passed down from her father. Other than that she had full red lips and tanned skin.
As she shoved her clothes back into her duffel bag she could feel the train slow down to a stop and heard the students rushing through the aisles excited to get off the train.
She followed the rest of the students and was surprised to see the major turn in events in the weather. When she was dropped off at the station it had been a bright and sunny day; now the sky was dark and cloudy, and pouring rain clouded her vision. Thunder and lightning sounded above everyone as she sloshed through the thick puddles of mud.
A carriage raced by her and a wave of mud came splashing towards her. But just in time someone grabbed her wrist and yanked her out of the way. She turned around to see Harry's amused smile; a much lighter look from when he had looked so furious earlier that day.
"You're a life saver, Harry." How ironic.
He laughed and shook his head before nodding at a carriage. "C'mon, Ron already found a carriage that's empty." He grabbed her hand and led her towards the carriage. Alyssa willingly agreed and let him lead the way, but her eyes left the back of his head to look at the creatures that were leading the carriages. They were what Alyssa thought as awful looking horses; they were gangly and winged, with every bone visible through their dark bodies.
Alyssa didn't let her attention stray for too long and continued to follow Harry and climbed into the carriage. Ron and Hermione were already in there and introduce Alyssa to Ginny, Ron's sister. She was really nice and seemed like the only normal one out of all of them besides maybe Harry.
The oddest, obviously, were Ron and Hermione. All they did during the whole ride to the castle was argue about anything – big and little - imaginable. It was getting rather annoying.
When they finally pulled up to the castle, Alyssa was the first one to jump out. Immediately her jaw dropped. Hogwarts was so beautiful – not to mention gigantic. Her eyes could barely get past the front door as everyone dashed up the steps and into the Entrance hall. Ginny laughed at Alyssa's expression and grabbed her hand, leading her inside and out of the pouring rain.
Yet once inside Alyssa could only stop short again and didn't even try stopping her mouth from falling opened. The tall angled ceiling was lit up with gold candlelit chandeliers. Long gothic styled windows lined the walls from nearly the top of the ceiling to the very bottom of the stone floor.
"Great, isn't it?" Harry said from behind her. "This is pretty much home for me."
She smiled, unable to comprehend what she was thinking into words, and followed Harry and Ginny into the Great Hall. There were four different tables but the two of them led her to one which must've been the Gryffindor table. She couldn't help but notice the amount of pairs of eyes that looked her way and she wondered if it was because they weren't used to getting that many transfer students. She looked up to the staff table noticing that they were all also watching her and she couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated.
Alyssa finally sat down at the table in between Harry and Hermione; Ron and Ginny were sitting across from them. Golden plates and goblets littered the table and delicious looking food sat in the middle lining up side by side from one end of the table to the other. But before any temptations took over, Alyssa and the rest of the students had to wait for the Sorting ceremony to finish… which took forever.
At the end Dumbledore clapped his hands together and chatter exploded through the hall as students dug into their food; it was absolutely delicious. Everything, Alyssa thought, tasted much better than it looked, which was pretty damn good.
Harry and Ron took the pleasure in introducing Alyssa to a bunch of the other students that were sitting around them – mostly seventh years. They were all extremely nice, much nicer than she could've expected, and welcomed her with opened arms as if they'd known her all along.
"So when did you leave America?" Hermione asked while serving herself a plateful of seconds.
"Well, we moved to France when I was fifteen," Alyssa explained. "I went to school there for two years and in the middle of this past summer I came here."
"Why did you move?" A boy named Seamus asked. He was one of the people that she had just met.
Alyssa sighed, knowing already that she'd be explaining this a bunch of times. "My mom's an Auror so she moves around a lot. I guess she just wants to keep me close since my brother lives in Romania… so I just go with her."
Everyone nodded with interest and she wondered why they seemed so fascinated. Alyssa had always just wanted to stay at home in America instead of following her mom around, especially since when it came to her mom – just because they were in the same country didn't mean they ever saw each other anyway.
There was a moment of silence before Hermione shot up from the table. "I almost forgot!" She said, ducking under the table to grab her things, "I've got a meeting to go to; I'll see you later!" She turned and practically ran from the table and out of the Great Hall.
"She never quits, that girl." Ron said shaking his head.
Alyssa's eyes glazed over the Great Hall, watching the students as they enjoyed their meals. She figured that this would be a great year; if that evening was any judge on what was to come then she'd definitely take back ever wanting to return to her old school. Her eyes eventually landed on Draco as he stood up from his table and left the Great Hall; she thought it'd be a good idea to follow him seeing as he was the one showing her to her room so she grabbed her duffel bag and moved to stand up.
"Well, I must be going. I've got to find my room eventually." They all bid her farewell and she walked out of the Great Hall.
Draco was standing just outside the doors seeming as if he was waiting for her.
"Hey," She called as she approached him.
He pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning against, smirked at her and said, "How was your dinner?"
"Great," She replied smiling, and as if to add emphasis she licked her lips.
He nodded curtly and took off down the hall and towards the staircase which Alyssa took as her cue. Although it was hard to keep up with his extremely large strides, she followed closely behind him as they walked through a nearly empty corridor. At the end of it was a clearing with who knew how many staircases that led to different floors. They ascended the closest one but about halfway up Alyssa found herself stuck.
She looked down to see that her foot had literally sunk into one of the steps.
"What the hell?" She muttered, and at that same moment the staircase swung sharply to another direction. She let out a "Jesus!" and scrambled to the side of the staircase grabbing hold of the railing.
"Yes, the staircases move." Draco drawled from above.
"No, it's not that." She said, trying and failing hard to remove her foot. He turned around to look at her and a smirk rose to his lips, "I seem to be a bit stuck."
"All right, well… good luck." And with that he turned and headed up the stairs.
"Draco!" She shouted, "Don't you dare leave me here,"
He turned back around, rolling his eyes and chuckled softly. He took his time walking back down the steps to where she was standing, hooked his arms underneath hers and with ease lifted her off of the step. With a sigh of relief her foot broke free and he placed her on the step above it.
"Thanks a bunch," She replied sarcastically, and moved past him to continue up the stairs.
They stopped at a portrait not too far from the staircase. It was an enormous portrait of an older, extremely skinny woman wearing a long, blue, silk dress. Her hair was brown and pinned into a bun at the back of her head.
"Password?" She asked in a rather deep voice for a woman.
"Lemon Drops," Draco replied. He turned to Alyssa briefly and at her quizzical expression mentioned not to ask. The portrait swung opened and they walked in. The room was huge; the walls were an auburn color, with gold and silver designs decorating them. There was a long couch with a small coffee table in front of it, and against the wall was a stone fireplace, and two large chairs beside it. The floor was wooden, but there was a very large off white carpet lying under the couch, chairs, and up to the fireplace. There were opposite doors on the right and left sides of the room, and another to the right and left of the fireplace. They stopped and Alyssa looked around, taking everything in. So this is where she'd be living for the year, not bad at all, she thought.
"That room," Draco said pointing to the right "Is your room. That one's mine," He added pointing to the left "And the door to the right of the fireplace is a corridor that leads to the prefects' quarters and to the left leads to the kitchens."
Alyssa couldn't help but smile brightly and feel giddy at the thought of having access to the kitchens; especially one that created such delicious food. It was practically like having her very own kitchen. She skipped happily to her room and gasped when she opened the door.
The room was rather large; two queens sized four-poster beds sat on opposite ends of the wall. Past the beds was a long, fat, red couch that was C-shaped. In front of the couch was a round coffee table followed by a white marble fireplace. There wasn't much of a source of light, but the fireplace was lit casting a dim lighting onto the room. The windows on the sides of the room also let some light in; maroon colored curtains parted spilling moonlight into the room and the present lightning that had continued since Alyssa had arrived at Hogwarts.
The carpeted floor was a rich auburn color, and the walls were made of gleaming wood that had a lining of golden lions patterned around the ceiling. Against the walls and on either side of the couch were two wooden desks that were now void of any sort of school supplies she and Hermione would be using.
In front of their beds were their trunks; Alyssa recognized her black trunk in front of the bed that was on her left.
Alyssa took her cloak off and tossed it over the bottom of her bed. She then realized that she also had her own closet. She opened the two wooden doors and smiled at the wealthy amount of space that she was provided for her clothes.
She moved on to the only other door that was in the room and figured it could only lead to the bathroom.
She wasn't surprised to see that nearly everything was marble, except for of course the cabinets which were made of wood, but alas only the doors were made of wood. The rest was marble. It was white with a hint of pink color; the floor was marble, the walls were marble, and even the ceiling was marble. In the center of the bathroom was a mini pool sized bathtub with many tiny different colored faucets surrounding it. A large shower was on the other side of the bathroom and in the cabinets Alyssa found towels, shampoo, soap and the rest of the bathroom necessities.
The counter on the side of the room was also made of marble but was a darker shade of pink. There were two separate sinks made for each of the occupants and above the counter was a long, spotless mirror that stretched the length of the counter top.
"You look lovely, dear." The mirror said as Alyssa looked into it. She froze; the mirror had spoken to her, a damn mirror. She paused giving her reflection an odd look before she could hear the door to her room being opened and left the bathroom to see who it was.
"I see you found your way here just fine." Hermione said smiling. She looked around the room admiringly before crossing it to her trunk and dropping her bag and cloak.
"Yes, I absolutely love it." Alyssa replied enthusiastically. "Much better than I imagined," She added. She yawned as she made her way over to her trunk and kicked it opened. The first thing she saw was her favorite picture that she had always kept with her whenever she moved around.
It was a picture of her fifteenth birthday. Her brother Brad had reserved the entire top floor of an amazing hotel for Alyssa and her friends to party in all night long. The picture was of Alyssa, Brad and her ex boyfriend Jason. Jason was holding Alyssa's arms tightly behind her back and she was half screaming half laughing. Brad had been spraying chocolate syrup all over her, smearing it over every inch of her body that he could reach. It had been her happiest memory; all of them laughing happily together. She couldn't think of anything better.
Alyssa smiled at the moving picture before taking it out of her trunk and placing it on her nightstand. She made sure it was facing her pillows and looked at her watch yawning again. It was 9:57.
"Well, I'm going to bed I think." Alyssa said to Hermione. "I might as well get an early start." She changed into her pajamas and slipped into her bed which enveloped her almost instantly; there must've been a heating charm cast on the bed and she was prepared for a good nights sleep.
"Good night." She heard Hermione say, but it was faint… Alyssa was already drifting off.
A/N: Went back to this chapter to do some serious editing... Since I'm almost finished with the story now I'll be doing that a lot more for a bunch of the chapters probably, but anyway!