An American in Hogwarts

An American in Hogwarts

Afterwards, it was hard to remember what it had been like without her. Blaise considered this as he sat, bored, in History of Magic. She was different, that was certain. He remembered when he had first seen her...

She had been there the first day of his third year, calmly sitting at the Ravenclaw table. She had not taken part in the Sorting, and no one had seen her before. She was dressed normally, then, in the robes of all students, hat on her head and, presumably, a skirt on under the table, since girls rarely wore pants. She got several curious looks, he remembered. They wondered why she hadn't been sorted, but Dumbledore stood up after the Sorting and announced in a grave tone, "Students, we are pleased to welcome an American student this year. Miss Susan Hawkins, would you please rise? She has just transferred from the U.S. under very special circumstances which she would thank you to ignore. Miss Hawkins will be a member of Ravenclaw house, and I feel sure you will all make her feel welcome."

There was a polite round of applause, and she had promptly been forgotten. Until a few months later. She had developed a reputation then, not much of one, but a start. She didn't really have friends. She seemed to be a fairly nice person. But no one really knew her. She acted, in general, like a nobody. Her housemates could find nothing about her in those first few months that hinted at what she would become...

It was late October when it happened. She had suddenly shown up to all her classes one day dressed in Muggle clothes. She seemed perfectly comfortable in them, smirking a little at everyone. He had seen her in the hallway, walking assuredly by all the shocked stares and faces, dressed in jeans and a navy-blue sweatshirt. He had stared, too. The surprising thing was that the teachers had not commented. They had been waiting for something like this to happen. At lunch, she calmly took her food away from the table, sitting curled over a book in a corner without a care in the world. At supper, it was reported that a pair of kittens had followed her into her classes and slept in the pockets of her sweatshirt without a single comment from her teachers, not even Snape. She ate, at the table this time, with a cat perched on her shoulder. Suddenly, people remembered her. Oh yeah, isn't she American? Of course, her accent gives it away. But she hardly ever talked before, so I didn't notice. That's probably why she's so weird. Why is she allowed to wear Muggle clothes? What's with the cats? What's she like anyway?

Blaise had, at this point, gotten bored with her, since he hated whatever was popular, and since she would probably turn out to be boring anyway. But he was wrong. She had continued to put people off by not talking to them when they asked her direct questions, and basically refusing to acknowledge any of the attention they gave her. The students in general got bored and gave up on her. Although it was now noted that she had friends. Kitty Mulligan, the Ravenclaw beauty, ate with her, and they were joined by a few other girls. She seemed to be best friends with Kitty and Amanda Roker, both third years. She was one of the best students at Hogwarts, rivaling even Hermione Granger for busting the curve. But other than her brief fame, she subsided and became a fairly normal girl. Nobody knew much about her, and, for that matter, nobody much cared. In that manner, she got through the year, unknown except for being "that girl who doesn't wear the uniform", or "oh yeah...her."

But now it was sixth year.

Blaise wondered how it had happened.

He had hardly noticed her before, and then one day she had turned around and smiled at him, just at him, a soft, quiet smile. And it had shocked him. And she had haunted him ever since. He had started watching her in the Slytherin-Ravenclaw classes, at lunch, whenever he saw her, discreetly so she wouldn't notice. She, for her part, ignored him utterly. It made him angry, how much she ignored him. She wasn't supposed to ignore him--he was Blaise Zabini, for the love of all things evil! One time he had even tried to talk to Draco about her. He had first had to explain who she was, and when Malfoy remembered, he wasn't helpful.

"Come on, Zabini, can't you do better than that?"

"Shut up."

"I mean, look at the possibilities here! You could have practically anyone, they're all throwing themselves at you, and you pick her? Can't say I compliment your taste..."

"Shut your lousy trap, Draco."

So much for Advice from Friends.

After a while, he got bored. Zabinis hated sitting around uselessly, and Blaise was no exception. He began to formulate a Plan. When he went home for the winter holidays, his Plan was formulated even more. After a lot of Planning and some trips to the library and extensive Zabini attics, he returned to school in January with his Plan all ready to be set in motion.