Owl's Flight

Bianca Whitehall recklessly threw clothes and toiletries into a suitcase that lay open atop her bed. Once her drawers and closet were empty, she managed to zip it closed, and dug an old backpack out from her closet. She hadn't used it since fifth grade, but then, she hadn't gone to school since. Once her mother had found out she was a wizard, Bianca had never seen another non-wizard, or Muggle, child again-and as a result, had few friends. She wanted to be a normal girl, but of course, that would never happen.

With a great sigh, Bianca tossed her portable CD player into the backpack, along with her huge CD collection. Though her mother, Nascha, was from London, they had moved to America when Bianca was a newborn. Bianca had no idea who her father was, and couldn't get her mother to tell her anything about him. None of her mother's friends had known Nascha before they had come from London.

Bianca added pencils and her sketchbooks to the backpack, and then closed it shut. She was packing for England, and, truth be told, was rather excited. Even if she had no desire to leave the good old US of A, she was curious about her roots. The problem was that Bianca was going to have to go to some wizarding school-because her mother was one of the new teachers.

Apparently, this school, Hogwarts or some odd name like that, had steadily been loosing Defense against the Dark Arts teachers over the years. And because her mother was convinced that Bianca could use some rounding-out of her education, she was forced to take seventh year again at Hogwarts. She had concluded that it was better than staying here with Aunt Mabel-whose strange obsessions with foreign animals made for a rather smelly house-and had consented to go with her mother.

Bianca looked in her mirror, hung on the wall. She was seventeen, rather short, with a round face and a pale complexion she had never liked. Her haunting amber eyes were large and framed with dark eyelashes. Her straight hair hung to the middle of her back, a very pale blonde, almost white.

She turned away from the mirror as she heard her mother's British accent from the bottom of the stairs: "Bianca, we're leaving now! Get your things down here!" Bianca began to heave her suitcase down the steps, and started preparing herself for a long and boring year.

* * * * *

"I assume you want your own compartment," Bianca's mother said as they walked briskly towards the wall between Platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross station. "You wouldn't want to sit up with me?"

Bianca gave her mother a glare. "Of course not," she said, acutely aware of her non-British accent. Ever since she'd stepped off the plane, she'd felt horribly stupid and embarrassed about her American-ness.

"All right then," her mother said with a sigh as they walked right through the barrier. Suddenly all around them was a bustling train station and many wizards, hauling cats and rats and owls. Her mother handed her tickets.

"Here-now then, I'll see you at the Great Feast-just follow the other seventh years-"

"Yes mom, I know. See you later."

Blushing, Bianca headed up to the train and handed in her ticket and baggage, then went on board with her backpack to find a seat. Not many compartments were empty, but she managed to find one somewhat near the end of the train, and made herself comfortable.

Almost as soon as she had sat down and turned on her headphones, the door of the compartment burst open. Bianca started as two red-headed teenagers who looked exactly alike stared at her in surprise.

"Oh-er, sorry," one said, looking sheepish.

"No, that's okay," Bianca said, again cursing her accent and removing her headphones.

"You can sit here, as long as you don't mind me being here too."

"Of course we don't mind, my dear," the other said smoothly, taking up her hand and kissing it lightly. Bianca fought the urge to roll her eyes. He continued, "My name is Fred Weasley, and this, as you can plainly see, is my twin."

"George," the first said with a grin. Even if they were horribly pathetic charmers, Bianca had to admit they were cute.

"Bianca Whitehall," she replied. "Nice to meet you."

They sat down as Fred said, "Wait a moment-are you American?"

"Obviously," Bianca answered shortly, but with a slight smile.

Fred grinned crookedly at her. "Then you've never been to Hogwarts before, hmm? Or else we'd have known you."

"But you're not a first year," George added, looking at her.

"I'm a seventh year. And no, you wouldn't know me. My mother is the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher."

"I see. Then that would mean that you're in our year. Splendid!"

She chuckled and nodded, putting on her headphones again and looking out the window as Mogget stretched on her lap.

Fred and George exchanged glances. "What's on your head?" George asked.

She didn't answer.

George cleared his throat. "What are those earmuffs on your head?" he repeated in a louder voice.

Again, there was no answer.

George leaned over and tapped her on the shoulder. "What're you wearing on your head!?" he said, almost shouting. Bianca jumped and gave him a cold look, slipping the headphones to her shoulders. They could hear some sort of blasting noises coming faintly from them.

"What did you do that for?" she demanded.

"Somebody's a mite touchy," George muttered.

"He wanted to know what those earmuffs you were wearing are…" Fred said with a glare at George. Bianca burst out laughing. Fred and George shook their heads, confused and exasperated.

"Earmuffs!" she said between laughs. "You mean you people have never seen a CD player before?"

They looked blankly at her, which only made her laugh more. She moved to the other side of the compartment, sitting next to Fred, and slipped the headphones over his head. Fred yelped and frantically clawed them off.

"Ouch!" Fred exclaimed, rubbing his ears and peering at her.

"What happened?" George asked, amused. Bianca handed them to George, who put them on.

"What's supposed to hap-ow!"

Bianca giggled and explained to them how to work the CD player, explaining that it was something Muggles used to play music. After a while she couldn't pry it away from them, and once she showed them her extensive CD collection, they were hooked for good.

Then the door slid open again. At the door this time were two young boys, and one girl. The first had red hair and bore an obvious resemblance to Fred and George; his face, however, was a slightly more boyish. The other boy had messy black hair and glasses, and the girl had long, rather bushy brown hair.

"Fred, I think you've got my lunch," the red-haired boy said, giving Bianca, who was still sitting on the other side of the compartment with the twins, a weird look.

"Er, are we interrupting something?" the black haired boy asked.

"Um, no," Bianca said, moving to the other side.

"Nice job, you two," Fred said. "Kick a pretty girl off her seat next to me! Thanks a lot!" Bianca blushed, avoiding the gaze of the three newcomers.

"This is Bianca, and Bianca, this is Ron, our brother, and his friends, Hermione and the famous Harry Potter," George told Bianca with a grin. The girl with bushy hair rolled her eyes, and the black-haired boy shifted uncomfortably. "You in the States have heard about old Harry, haven't you?"

It was Bianca's turn to stare blankly at them. "Er… no… Should I have?"

"Of course you should have! He's defeated You-Know-Who at least ten times now!" George replied, laughing. "It was only three," Harry muttered. "And the first doesn't really count."

"You-Know-Who who?" Bianca asked, confused.

They all stared at her blankly.

"You… don't know?" Fred asked.

Bianca rolled her eyes and leaned back into her seat. "If I did, why would I be asking?"

The girl, Hermione, crossed her arms, and began speaking in a rather bossy and condescending voice. "You-Know-Who, also known as the Dark Lord, is and evil wizard who terrorized all of Britain fifteen years ago. However, when Harry was a baby, he tried to kill him but couldn't and that's why Harry's got a scar. And… he has another name…" Her confidence depleted slightly and she glanced at Harry.

"Voldemort," Harry said with no emotion in his voice. The rest shuddered.

"Voldemort?" Bianca echoed. "Sounds like a funny name to me."

Harry smiled slightly at her as the rest stared at her in horror. She shrugged and Hermione shook her head sadly. Harry looked her in the eye. "When I was a baby, Voldemort killed my mum and dad. No one really knows why he couldn't kill me."

"I'm sorry," Bianca said softly, looking at him with true pity.

"It's alright…" his voice trailed off, and he looked rather unfocused for a moment.

"Show her the scar," Ron said.

Harry lifted his unruly bangs, as if he were used to this question, to show a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead. "I've had, um, quite a few adventures concerning Voldemort. In my first year he came back, trying to get a stone that gave him eternal life. He almost killed me, but Dumbledore saved me. In my second year-well-that's a long story… Um, and last year, my fourth year, he came back. Now, he's 'at large'-but no one's seen much of him since last June…"

Harry finished with a shrug of his shoulders. Bianca nodded, interested, but didn't say anything.

Fred cleared his throat. "Onto happier notes-Ron, here's your lunch."

Ron peeked inside the bag and scowled. "Damn it. Mum packed me the wrong lunch again! Four years in a row-you'd think she'd get it right…"

"That's nice. Now get out, I want Bianca to sit with me again," Fred said, making a shooing motion with his hand.

"But Fred, don't you have a g-" Ron started to say as Fred reached over and slid the door shut in his face.

"Now, Bianca, my dear," Fred said with a grin, patting the space on the seat next to him. "What other Muggle gadgets have you got in that backpack of yours?"

Bianca rolled her eyes but smiled, and moved to sit next to him, enjoying the sport of flirting. Perhaps this year wouldn't be so bad after all…

* * * * *

Bianca stepped off the Hogwarts Express, laughing. Fred was perhaps the funniest person she'd ever known. She liked him a lot; there was no doubt about it. George, on the other hand, was rather quiet. Halfway through the train ride he'd moved over to the other side, much to Fred's delight, but Bianca had felt bad-but as she didn't know what to do about it, she sort of

Now the three clustered in a group outside the train, waiting to go into Hogwarts.

"You'll love it here," Fred was saying.

"It doesn't seem to be as bad as I thought it would be," she said, looking straight at Fred. George rolled his eyes, but neither saw.

Fred grinned. "I - er, George and me, we know all the secret passages around here… I'll have to give you a tour."

"Sounds great," she replied.

Bianca suddenly noticed a group of three girls who looked to be about her age, seventeen or so. One of them, a pretty black girl, was looking at Fred fiercely. Bianca raised an eyebrow and Fred noticed who she was looking at.

"Oh-that's Angelina-oy! Angelina!" he shouted. "Come here!"

The girl made no move to come over, simply glared at Fred, but Fred grabbed Bianca's hand and ran over, and George had no choice but to follow. Bianca felt uncomfortable as Angelina looked at her with contempt. Her eyes narrowed even more, and she looked at Fred.

"What do you want?" she said coldly. Fred seemed to take no notice.

"Bianca, this is Angelina; Angelina, my dear, this is Bianca," he said grinning.

"Fred, you prat," George muttered under his breath.

The other two girls looked extremely worried as Angelina's eyes grew wide and rather wet.

"You - you… you jerk!" she shouted, drew back a hand and slapped Fred hard.

Fred put a hand to his cheek and looked stunned. Bianca gasped; George only shook his head sadly.

"How could you?! Not even a month and you're already out parading with some girl?! And then you have the nerve to come over and-and flaunt her to me?!" She was shouting, but didn't seem to care.

"I thought we-Angelina-what… I only just met her!" Fred said defensively.

Angelina opened her mouth to say more, but tears began to stream down her cheeks.

"Come on, 'Lina," one of the girls said, nervously. Angelina's friends led her away, leaving Fred staring after them, still looking stunned.

George glanced at Bianca, who shrugged helplessly. Before George could say anything, a black teenager, who looked their age too, sauntered up to them.

"Hey, guys-I was looking for you on the train, but I couldn't find you…" He looked at Fred, who was still staring after Angelina. "Er-Fred, what's wrong with you? You look like someone just slapped you.

"Someone just did," he replied, turning away and facing the new guy, but not offering any more information. George was silent.

"Er…okay," the guy said after a pause. He glanced at Bianca. "And who are you?"

"Bianca Whitehall," she said absently.

"Lee Jordan. I haven't seen you around before," he commented, falling into her step as she, Fred, and George followed the throng of students heading up the path to the school.

"That makes sense," she said, turning her full attention to him. "I've never been here before."

His eyebrows rose. "You're a first year?"

"No," she said.

"She's a seventh year-the daughter of the new Defense against Dark arts teacher," George explained. Bianca nodded.

"Ohh," Lee said. "I understand. Wait-are you from the States?"

"Yes," Bianca said, beginning to realize she would soon be tired of answering this question.

"What house are you in?"

Bianca stared at him. "What?"

"Oh-don't you know? Hogwarts is divided into four houses… Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin," Lee paused, giving her a measuring look. "We're-" he indicated the twins and himself-"in Gryffindor."

Bianca nodded, hoping that whichever house she was in, she would be with them.

Lee opened his mouth to say something else, but Fred interrupted.

"I don't get it! I thought she was okay with breaking up!" he growled, obviously frustrated.

Lee gawked at him. "What-you broke up? With who-oh no, don't tell me-not 'Lina!"

Fred avoided his gaze and didn't answer.

"Yeah," George said, eyes on Fred. "I told him it'd break her heart-but he didn't want to listen."

"But why?" Lee asked, incredulous. "You've been together for what-three years?"

Fred nodded. "But-she kept-I dunno. It didn't seem like she was interested in me any more. She was always talking to other guys, didn't seem to really know I was there-I thought she wanted to break up. She showed all the signs!"

"You idiot," Lee muttered. "Well, from the way she looks right now, doesn't look like you'll have a second chance."

Fred heaved a great sigh and they entered the huge doors to the Great Hall. Bianca was immediately taken aback. The ceiling was huge, and lit with thousands of floating candles. Four long tables were lined back to back vertically along the floor, and the teacher's table at the front.

"Amazing, isn't it?" George smiled at her. "I never seem to get tired of it."

She nodded, in awe. But suddenly a voice she didn't want to hear floated to her ears, and her mother walked briskly up to her.

"Bianca? Thank goodness. I had no idea where you'd got to-I was looking for you after the train ride-" she glanced at Fred, George, and Lee, and cocked an eyebrow. "I see you've already made some friends," she commented stiffly. Bianca felt herself blushing deeply.

"Well, we've got to get you sorted-come here-you stand behind the first-years."

"Mom-" Bianca began, but her mother whisked her away from Fred, George and Lee, leading her off to stand in the line of eleven year olds, extremely embarrassed.

The Sorting Hat sang a little song about the Houses. Gryffindor was for brave people, she noted, and Slytherin for cunning people-but glancing at the Slytherin table, she noticed they all looked rather evil. She watched as the first years were "sorted": they each walked up, alphabetical order, put on an old hat, and the hat called out the house they were to be in, with huge applause from the House table. Soon, Bianca was the only one left in the line of first years. Professor McGonagall, a strict teacher, glanced at her list, perplexed, and then nodded curtly.

"Bianca Whitehall," she said. Bianca walked forward to the stool as the Great Hall was filled with murmurs and whispers. She sat down and put the hat on her head-it fell over her eyes and she could no longer see.

Hmm… now this is quite interesting, a voice inside her head said. She jumped, and realized it was the same voice that had come from the Sorting Hat when it sang its song.

The hat paused. My, this is a tough decision.

She thought of Fred and George, who were in Gryffindor, and the hat caught the thought.

Ah, the Weasley brothers, it "said". Quite the pair, quite the pair. But they were not as hard to sort as you are. Well, there are two obvious choices-Gryffindor, or Slytherin. Ah, and you have your father's potential-a great Slytherin, he was… It chuckled inside her head. Funny, you seem a lot like Harry Potter…

Harry Potter-the boy on the train? Bianca's father, in Slytherin? Well, that certainly was interesting, though it didn't mean much to her now. Yet for some reason, she didn't want to be in Slytherin-it was an innate feeling, one she couldn't explain-

Not Slytherin, hm? Ah, you could be as great as your father, Bianca… And he is one powerful wizard!

Who? Who was-is-her father?

You're not yet ready to know… but I think it would be best if you were in…

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The Hat shouted the last word out loud, and the Gryffindor table burst into applause. She noticed Fred, George, and Lee standing and whooping, and walked self-consciously over to them to take a seat next to Lee. The Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, stood, and waved his hands to get the school's attention.

"Welcome to another wonderful year at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said with twinkling eyes. "I would like to introduce you to our new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Nascha Whitehall."

Bianca's mother stood, and the people in the Great Hall clapped politely.

"Professor Whitehall brings a concept that is entirely new to Hogwarts with her," Dumbledore continued. "Her daughter, Bianca, who was just sorted as you may have noticed, is a new seventh year here. Never before has Hogwarts accepted students past first year, so I entreat all of you to welcome her accordingly."

George and Lee turned to her and grinned, and Fred smiled at her, still rather lost in thought.

"Now, onto slightly more depressing matters." Dumbledore's merry face grew serious. "I would like to assure all of you that, though Voldemort is still at large, you are all completely safe here. And yes, we will still be visiting Hogsmeade, though there will be some new rules-which will be explained at an appropriate time."

He smiled again. "As usual, no one is permitted in the Forbidden Forest-yes, that includes you, Fred and George Weasley," he said, glancing at the twins, who both grinned. Fred seemed to be cheering slightly.

"And now-feast!" Dumbledore threw his hands into the air and a lavish feast appeared on the table. With no hesitation, the students dove in.

* * * * *

That night, the Gryffindor common room was filled with students, chatting away. Bianca had been helping her mother with her office and room, and had been away for most of the time after the feast.

As she walked in through the portrait hole, she noticed Fred sitting alone in front of the fireplace. "Hello," she said, sitting in a vacant chair next to him. When he didn't reply, she tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Fred?"

Fred seemed to snap out of something, and realized she was there. "Wha? Oh-Bianca-hi."

"Good, you're Fred. I wasn't sure if maybe you were George," Bianca said, trying to make a joke. Fred laughed lightly but it was obviously forced.

"Are you still depressed about…that girl?" Bianca asked gently.

"Angelina," he replied automatically, then sighed deeply. "Yeah, her. . . Girls, I just don't get them." He glanced at her wryly. "No offense," he added.

She smiled. "None taken." She glanced over her shoulder and noticed Angelina coming toward them.

"Er-" She began, as Angelina walked up to them.

"Fred," the girl said coldly.

Fred jumped up, with a grin. "Hi, 'Lina! Have you decided to be nice now?"

She glared at him. Katie and Alicia, the girls behind her, gave each other nervous looks.

Angelina let out a great breath and said rather grudgingly, "I came over here to tell you that I guess we can still be friends."

Fred grinned widely. "Great! And, er, I'm sorry for whatever I did," he added, trying to make her look a bit happier.

Angelina stared at him for a second, then retorted, "Oh, Fred's sorry, the world can start turning again!"

"'Lina!" Katie hissed.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," Angelina said, looking away from Fred.

"What-?" Fred looked confused.

"You're a prat, Fred," Angelina snapped.

"What do you want me to say, then!? What should I do, 'Lina!" He was shouting by this time, and most of the common room was looking at them. Bianca felt out of place and tried to shrink away.

Angelina only glared back at him. "Damnit!" Fred exclaimed in frustration, "Do you want me to get on my knees?! What do you want?!"

She snorted. "I don't really care what you do, Fred."

"Then why are you acting like this?!"

"Why am I acting like this!? You're the one who breaks my heart and then goes around acting like everything's exactly the same! Except for that girl!" She glared accusingly at Bianca, who didn't say anything, but looked her straight back in the eye.

"Leave Bianca out of this!" Fred shouted back.

She sputtered, then mumbled something like "I don't want to see you anymore" and ran up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. Katie and Alicia followed her.

Fred watched after her, then collapsed into his chair, hands over his face. Bianca didn't think he was crying, but he looked troubled. She patted him awkwardly but reassuringly on the back, and went to bed.