Life as I Knew It

Chapter 11--Transfer Students

Pansy sat down outside the entrance to the Slytherin common room. She had no idea where her room or any of her stuff was, but she could not go back into that room where Draco was reciting Muggle poetry to Moonshyne.

Pansy was still sitting there, wondering about her options, when Hermione walked up to her with a strange girl.

"Oh my god, Pansy, hi. I was just, like, looking for you. I thought that as, like, head girl, I should, like, help you find your room. And here you are sitting, all ready for me and stuff."

Pansy stood. She was a bit relieved to see Hermione. "And who is your friend?"

"Oh my god, I'm so stupid. This is Melpomene Gothika. She was a transfer student last year, and I thought she could, like, help you make the transition."

Pansy held out her hand, but Melpomene only looked at it. "God, Parkinson. I didn't expect to see you here."

Pansy dropped her hand to her side. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, good!" said Hermione. "You two have met. I'll leave you two alone to catch up then."

Pansy had never seen this person before in her life, and did not particularly want to be alone with her. Melpomene was particularly scary looking. Her hair was long and black, which made her nearly white skin glow eerily. Her black eyes--not just dark brown, but black--were rimmed in half an inch of black eye liner. Her lips were also black. Everything about her was black, with the exception of the crimson corset she was wearing.

Pansy felt helpless as Hermione walked away. She was saddened by the fact that the only person who readily knew her was a stranger. She turned to her companion. "I'm sorry. I don't remember where we've met."

"No, I suppose you wouldn't. God, you're such a freaking prep! So where were you last year?"

Pansy had no idea what a prep was, but she instinctively did not like this pushy girl. She had an American, or possibly Canadian, accent. "I was in school."

"For your sixth year?"

Pansy nodded.

"So, you were there when Dumbledore bit it, then?"

Pansy started. "How do you know about that?"

"I read the book." Melpomene seemed to find this highly amusing, but Pansy did not know what she was talking about.

"So, you're some crazy girl from America who--"

"I'm from Canada!" Apparently this was a sore subject for her. Pansy was glad she had guessed wrong.

"Crazy girl from North America who read some book and knows how it's supposed to be, but lives in this... alternate universe?"

Melpomene sighed dramatically and raised the back of her hand to her forehead. This was when Pansy saw the violent red scars that went down her wrist, disturbingly parallel. "Pansy, don't you see that this way is better? Everyone is alive and happy. Sure we all have to kowtow to Moonshyne from time to time, but this year, I'm definitely going to get my chance."

"To do what?" Pansy asked.

"To make Sirius Black fall in love with me," Melpomene responded defiantly.

"I'm guessing, nay hoping desperately that he's still alive." Pansy smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand. "Oh, of course he is; Moonshyne took his death scene for the Dark Lord."

"Oh, you noticed that? Yeah, he's alive, and Moonshyne got him cleared of the whole murder thing, so he's good to go. But you don't belong here, Pansy. It's time to make sure people know that."

With this dramatic statement, Melpomene turned to the blank wall and said the password. (It was Salazar, which Pansy found to be incredibly uninventive.) As soon as she was out of sight, a dark skinned girl came around the corner.

"I thought she might do something like that," said the girl in an accent that Pansy could not place. She was either Hispanic or Middle Eastern. "She is going to tell Moonshyne who you really are."

The girl held out her hand, and Pansy shook it. "I am Zahara. I am the transfer student for Ravenclaw. I will show you to your room."

Pansy wanted to like this girl, but after Melpomene, she was wary of transfer students. Zahara was at least dressed in normal robes. "I had many people offer to do that, but I'm still here."

Zahara smiled. "Then let us go, and we will at least get closer to your destination. There is much I need to tell you."

Pansy followed Zahara, mostly because it was getting late and she needed to know where her room was. This girl was more innocuous than a lot of other people she had met that day. "So are you going to tell me the secrets of being a transfer student?"

Zahara looked back at her. "In a way, yes. I know that you are not a transfer student. I am going to tell you the secret of the real transfer students.

"Melpomene and I come from another world, a different one than you do. In this world, we can read about the wizards of the United Kingdom, but we cannot access your world. We can come here to Scotland, but we cannot see this building. We can go to the Leaky Cauldron, but we cannot access Diagon Alley. We are closed off from your kind.

"Or we were, until one day a portal opened. Thirty-eight girls were able to cross through before it was closed. We were the transfer students. Melpomene and I are the only ones who remain. She was wrong about you; we do not belong here.

"I came from Lebanon. I miss it, and I miss my family, but I don't know how to return. I went through the portal because I wanted to learn magic, which I cannot do there. If the time comes when I am able to go back, then I will have a choice to make, but until then, I can only continue my education."

Pansy did not know what to do with this information. It answered some of the questions she had had, but not many. "But you know things as I remember them?"

Zahara nodded. "I do. It was a dark time that you came from. Melpomene was right that everyone is happy now. I do not like Moonshyne, and I do not know if things have worked out for the best, but it is easier for me to learn magic under these circumstances. It is all a paradox."

They arrived at a door on the fifth floor, just around the corner from the library. "This is your room," said Zahara. "There is no password. You must create your own. You will know how to do that, because you are a prefect."

Pansy was pleased that Zahara knew that. She did not bother to tell Zahara that prefects did not set the passwords because she did know how to do it. She thanked Zahara and went into her new room.

As Pansy was about to close the door, Zahara said, "If you want to restore your world, I will do anything I can to help you." She turned and walked away.