Tears and Tears One: A New Beginning

Raef Wolfe Senior snorted as she looked up. Well, typical celebrity. Always drawing attention to themselves, always acting like idiots. She herself was a mini-celebrity. Mini. She shook her head and closed her book. What with all these people running around, it wasn't like she could get anywhere in it anyway. Fighting hard with both of her arguments (one was saying 'you'll see him at school, leave!' and another was saying, 'introduce yourself, listen, be polite!') she decided to go with the second one. She didn't want to be rude, so she decided to listen to whatever that fool Lockhart had to say.

Hearing 'It can't be Harry Potter?' she sighed. Poor bloke. He was always getting recognized, never got any peace. 'Course, she felt very similar; there were a few parts of her life where she wasn't getting peace either. She tuned back in:

"...He and his schoolmates, will in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure in announcing to you that on September first this year, I will have the honor of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" There was a great uproar of cheering at his words, and poor Harry was given all of Lockhart's books. Raef calmly walked towards him, hoping to distract Lockhart from poor Harry, or even steer Harrys out of here-who was he with?

Fortunately, Lockhart was soon busy again with book signing and didn't notice her. Thank God. Still, she'd better go and make sure Harry wasn't wandering around alone.

She sighed, relieved, when she saw Harry was dumping the books in a bright orange-haired girls cauldron. Knowing that he wasn't alone, she felt her chest lighten. Harry Potter walking around alone and unattended-that was something hardly anyone wanted. But when a small, pale, blonde boy began talking with them, Raef knew something was up. She'd seen that hair before. Raef only heard a snippet of their conversation when her ears heard big, big trouble.

Lucius Malfoy.

"Well well well now, Arthur Weasley."

"Lucius." This was, indeed, major trouble. Raef's nose could smell trouble coming faster than a farmer could smell rain. Arthur Weasley never, ever got along with any Malfoys, let alone Lucius himself. And the feeling was more than mutual.

"Busy at the Ministry I hear? All those raids...and I do hope they're paying you overtime?" He reached into the Weasley girl's cauldron and pulled out a battered book. "Obviously not. Dear me, what's-" Crap. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, so she stepped in.

"Good day, Lucius. Hello, Arthur and Molly. Having a nice little chat now?" she asked, extending her hand to Mr. Malfoy. "I've heard there was trouble at the school last year. Did you fix it out?" She glanced to the Weasleys; Molly looked relieved, and Arthur just kept glaring at Lucius.

Lucius smiled-though it was more of a smirk-and shook her hand. "Ahh, hello Raef. Yes, it's all fixed. Nasty problem with the Sorcerers Stone, but I'm sure you heard of that. The stone's been destroyed, thank goodness." But she could tell, from the look on his face, that he wasn't pleased at all to hear it. Deciding to change the subject fast before Malfoy could talk about getting paid overtime or some such crap, she asked, "Is this your son? Looks a lot like you, he does."

Mr. Malfoy smiled again. "Yes, he is. Draco, meet Raef Wolfe." Draco extended his hand and she shook it. He didn't say anything, just watched her a bit nervously. But he looked rather smug, too.

"Bit quiet, are we Draco?" Turning to Lucius, she said, "He has his fathers looks." Raef knew Draco wasn't quiet; if he had inherited anything from his parents, other than his father looks (Lucius looked even more smug) then it would be a big mouth.

Draco smiled. A forced smile. "Yeah, well, I'm kinda stunned that He'll" he motioned to Lockhart, "be teaching us this year."

She snorted. "Stunned that he'll be teaching cause you're happy to hear it, or that a stupid bloke like that even can teach?" Everyone stared at her. Harry, the Weasleys (not counting Mrs. Weasley, who looked abashed as well as the Grangers) and the Malfoys looked shocked. A few of the Weasley brothers giggled.

"Well, it's nice to know you can still speak your mind out, after all these years." Arthur looked quite pleased, and Raef decided this was a good time to tell them something else about Hogwarts.

"Well, he's not the only one that's a new teacher there. I'm going there to sub-teach, or student teach I think it's called."

Draco looked stunned. "Really? You are? Which teacher are you studying under? Please tell me it's McGonagall, I can't stand her classes."

Raef just grinned at this. "I don't blame ya. Transfiguration's hard. It's Divination that fries my cheese, though. Really gets me PO'ed when someone mentions Sibyll Trewalney, she's a crock of-" Raef stopped, then quickly shook it out. "Well, she's not very good, let's just say that. But I'll be studying under the Potions teacher. Forgot his name, though." She racked her brain trying to remember.

The youngest Weasley boy spoke up. "You mean...you're studying under Snape?!?!" He looked shocked and awed, then said, "Cool!!!" The other Weasley children began to speak up their own thoughts.

"He's so unfair-"

"He's always favoring Slytherins over everyone else-"

"I hope you can knock some sense into him to be fair-"

Harry snorted and said, "Yeah, that's likely to happen."

Something was bothering her, though. Something about that name... "That wouldn't happen to be Professor Severus Snape would it?"

"Urm...yes. Why?" said one of the twins.

Raef groaned. "Oh, him. Why couldn't I just stay home and write a book? Why'd I have to go and mess around with teaching? Back to Hogwarts? Why am I such an idiot? Why why why?"

Lucius spoke up. "I wouldn't worry about it. He favors the better students, perhaps they're not such good students, unlike my Draco here." He gave them a direct look, and Raef resisted the urge to snort.

Feeling the tension rise, however, she said, "Well, look, Lucius, it's been nice seeing you again. I hope I'll see more of you and Draco later, and Narcissa too. Haven't heard from her in a long while."

"Well, I'll be seeing you too. Goodbye, Raef. Come along Draco." She watched them leave till they were out of sight, and then dropped her friendly act towards them. "Goodbye yourself, sir. I'll give you the goodbye of this world if you end up being correct." She then seemed to notice the Weasleys and the Grangers.

"Sorry about that, Molly and Arthur, you know how I am, to damn friendly and kind and trusting for my own good."

Arthur grinned and shook her hand. "For a moment I thought you'd gone off your rocker. You actually looked like you were enjoying talking to him."

Molly had a similar reaction. "I can't believe it. Girl, you have still got that fast tongue and sharp brain. But...I could have sworn you said he inherited his fathers good looks?"

"Hey, no insults! I said he inherited his fathers looks-never said they were good!" There was a lot of laughter coming from them.

"Come on, let's go outside. I'm stuffy, it's too crowded." Indeed, she didn't like crowds, she preferred open areas. And this little store was about as crowded as Hogsmeade around Christmas.

"You know" she said, after they got outdorrs, "I never asked your chiildrens names."

"Oh! Yes, here they are. This one here's Percy. He's a Gryffindor prefect at the school." She patted a tall red-haired boy with glasses, who said, "Hmm? Oh, yes, hello." He then turned back to the book he was reading. Raef read the title (Prefects Who Gained Power) and giggled, then said, after a dark look from Mrs. Weasley, "Yes, that's Percy. Who else?"

"Well, this one's Fred-"

"No mother, I'm Fred. That's George."

"No, no, you've got it wrong. I'm Fred, and you're George."

Raef was now thoroughly confused, but a quick look at the two of them made it easy enough to tell apart. "George is next to Harry, and Fred's next to...ahh...what's you name, Young Miss Weasley?"

"G-Ginny, mam." Raef giggled and said, "Mam? You can call me Raef till school starts, then call me Professor Wolfe." Ginny giggled too and said, "Ok, Raef."

That settled, she looked to the other girl with her family and the youngest Weasley boy. "Who are you four?"

"Well, I'm Hermione Granger. These are my parents." She pointed to her parents, who looked out of place. Raef thought for a moment, glacing at the odd clothes, and then it hit her.

"Oh, Muggles! You're a Muggle born! Wow, I'll bet it was hard, not knowing any magic when you first came here. I'm fascinated with how Muggle things like electricity work, it's amazing how they've managed without magic!"

Arthur looked excited. "We'll have to talk later! I just love Muggle things to! I work at the Ministry for the Muggle Protection Act-"

"Can you guys talk later? Please? I have to hear enough of it at home. Name's Ron, by the way." The one whom she hadn't talked to had spoken. Raef felt like a heel. "Oh, sorry...quite sorry. I have a daughter your age; she's just buying her wand now. When she returns, why don't we have lunch? My treat."

Molly and Arthur looked a little troubled, but the others didn't.

"Yeah!"

"Right-o, lunch!"

"Thanks, Raef!"

"You da bomb!"

"FOOD!"

She grinned. This was going to be an interesting year, all right. And she liked the sound of it.

The Weasleys, the Grangers, and Harry all walked to the Leaky Cauldron while Raef went and got her daughter.

"She seemed really nice, I hope she eases Potions up a bit."

"If Snape's still teaching? Nah, that won't happen. Definitely won't happen."

"Yeah, but we can hope, can't we Fred?"

"Well, I personally think that she sounds like a fine teacher. Once she got past Lockhart, anyway, she was really nice!"

Everyone laughed as Hermione said this, except for Mrs. Weasley, who said, "I do agree. I was wondering if she'd flipped, saying that right in the bookstore he was in!"

But Ron was thinking. I know I've heard that name somewhere, I just can't remember where. Raef Wolfe, Raef Wolfe...WHERE have I seen it?!?! Gahh, I'll never be able to concentrate with those two around! "Fred and George, it's hard enough to think without you popping fireworks and other weird things. Would you PLEASE stop that?"

"Sure Ron."

"Oh, no problem, Ronnikins."

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Ron tore after them as they bolted, nearly knocking some people down, and he did knock one person down. He sighed. Wasn't like I was going to catch them anyway, he thought bitterly. Looking down he saw he'd knocked a girl slightly taller than him down, with black hair and dark skin. "Here, lemme help you up." He extended his hand. She watched his hand for a moment, then grabbed it and pulled herself up, nearly dragging Ron down. Dang, she's strong. Wonder what House she's in.

"So, ermm...what's your name?"

She looked at him blankly. He scratched his head, wondering if she was deaf. Or hard on hearing. She too scratched her head and looked as puzzled as he did, her black eyes looking about nervously.

At that moment however, the other Weasleys arrived, much to Rons thanks and the others distress. "Ron! There you are, you looked ready to kill. I told you never to let them get to you, and that you'd never catch them anyways. I-oh, hello there." Mrs. Weasley had noticed the girl standing there. However, she just stared blankly at them, clearly not understanding.

Hermione stepped forward, and said, "Erm...maybe she doesn't speak English? Umm...Hel-lo. I am Her-mi-one Gran-ger. What is your name?" She said it slow and clear, pointing to herself when her name was said, then pointed to the girl, whose black eyes widened. She understood.

Pointing to herself, the girl said, "Rraef Volfe." She then said quickly, "Bonjour! J' mappelle Raef Wolfe.Comment t'applles tu?"

Hermione looked a little desperate. "Oh dear...I don't know much French. Do any of you?"

They shook their heads.

"Well, I get her name...Raef Wolfe. This must be Professor Wolfe's daughter, she should stay with us."

"Comprenez-vous le français?"

"Umm...no?"

"Ha ha ha ha, les Anglaise non comprennent pas le Français, ha ha ha ha."

"You know, I get the feeling she's making fun of us."

"Elle mieux ne pas être." They turned and saw Raef Senior coming towards them. "My daughter wasn't giving you trouble, was she?"

"Erm...I have a feeling we were giving her more trouble, except for when she laughed because we couldn't understand her."

"Ahh, playing that game again. Well, she can't speak or understand what you're saying to her in English that well, she has very bad broken English with hard R's. However she can read it fine."

Percy looked amazed. "She can read it but not speak it?"

"And, what do you mean by broken English and Hard R's?" asked Fred.

"Yet, Percy, yet. I have a feeling that, like me, she will learn English from friends at school. My friends would write a word in French, then in English. They'd tell me to pronounce it before they told me how. That's how I made my friends, apart from being Quidditch Seeker. I didn't speak English well, so my friends -in Slytherin, mainly, as I was theirs- helped me along and taught me English. And Broken English means that she has very bad grammar, and mixes up words, and speaks words from other languages too. Hard R's means that she says the 'r' sound a lot, and for a longer period of time than normal."

"YOU were in Slytherin?"

"Yes."

"Umm...you don't really strike me as a Slytherin or a Seeker. More like a Keeper Ravenclaw."

"You know, that's what everyone says. But a Seeker and Slytherin I was, and that's how I hope my daughter goes."

"Faveur?" said Raef Junior.

"Oui?" Replied Raef Senior. Turning to the others, she said, "She said, 'favor?"

"Traduisez au Français?" Raef Junior again.

"She said, 'Translate to French?'"

"Non."

"What'd you say, Raef? She looks furious!"

"I said 'no.' She'll have to learn it on her own. I'm not helping her, my mother wouldn't help me and look at my English, and it's almost perfect. Besides, if I taught her, I'd teach her things from way back in my era. I have a feeling she'd be very embarrassed if she didn't learn it through kids her age." There were some giggles to this.

"Uh-oh...don't tell Fred and George that, they'll teach her the worst parts of the English language."

"Hmm...speaking of Fred and George, where are they? Oh, they're probably waiting for us at the Leaky Cauldron, come on then."

Fred and George stopped outside The Leaky Cauldron, grinning and panting.

"Wonder where Ron went to? Hope he's in trouble," said George breathlesly.

"Yeah, well, he probably knocked someone down: he's such a clod, you know?" commented Fred, looking for his family.

"I suppose, but then where's everybody else?"

"I was just wondering that myself. Oh look, there. I see dad. Hi dad!" He waved.

George stared. "You idiot! He's probably mad at us and looking for us and you've just alerted to him where we are!"

"Erm...oops. Well, there are the others anyway. But...who the heck is that?" Fred stares at the girl next to Raef Senior.

"That's probably her daughter. Look a lot alike, eh?" It was somewhat true. They both had dark hair and dark skin. However, Raef Senior's was long and more of a dark brown, whereas her daughters was pure black, and short and spiked. Raef Wolfe Senior had brown eyes to match her hair, and Raef Wolfe Junior had black eyes. Not those of Snape, they weren't evil, but they weren't as friendly as Hagrids. She just looked kinda nervous. However, both were tall and thinner than average for their age. Lanky, really.

"Yowza. Whoever she is, she looks kinda cute." George was staring at her.

"I...uhh...think her mom heard you." Fred looked amused.

"Huh? How? With all these crowds..."

"Well, look at her." This seemed to be true. She grinned at George and winked. George groaned and said, "Oh gods, she'll be tormenting me about it all through the school year! Arg, WHY did she have to hear me?"

"What I wanna know is, how? And, at least Raef Junior didn't hear you." commented Fred.

"She probably has selective hearing, you know how some people have that? Or maybe she has me bugged. Don't ask me why, though. Thank Gods to that, though, I couldn't bear it if they both heard me."

"I guess..." But at that moment, the Weasleys, the Grangers, the Wolfes, and Harry came within normal hearing range. Ron didn't look happy. No surprise-they'd just beaten him again.

"You two are such idiots, you know that? I went chasing after you and I knocked Raef Wolfe Junior here down. Can't believe y-"

"Did you say Raef Wolfe Junior?"

"No, Fred, I said The Minister of Magic. Yes, I said-"

"Well, whatever. I thought those two looked similar. Didn't I George?"

"Uhh...yeah, whatever." He was being careful not to look at either of them-Senior or Junior.

"Well, let's go inside. We're blocking the exit." Raef Senior said. She led them all inside. They had to sit at two tables, which was probably for the best. Percy, Mr. and Mrs. Granger, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Ms. Wolfe Senior sat at one. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, the twins, and Wolfe Junior ended up at another.

"So...I don't believe I've introduced myself? I'm Fred Weasley." He held out his hand, but Raef just stared.

"And I'm George Weasley. Nice to meet you." He too held out his hand. She stared blankly at them. Fred and George looked at each other, back at Raef, and over at the others. "Hey guys? We got a problem."

"Just make it simple. Point to yourself and say your name, then extend you hand," called out Hermione.

"Fred Weas-ley." He extended his hand, and she lit up and shook it.

"George Weas-ley." She shook his hand too.

"Rraef Rvolfe." She sat down in-between Ron and George. Looking around the table, she saw it sat like this from counterclockwise: Raef, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George.

"So...why couldn't she understand us?" said Fred after deciding what to order.

"She's French. She can't understand English...though she can read it." Said Hermione a-matter-of-factly again.

"Wow...French huh?" He looked pointedly at George, who scowled.

"No, we're not French. We're English, all right." Said Raef Senior on overhearing their conversation.

"Then...then why can't she speak English?" asked Ginny.

"Well, I'll give you the abridged, blunt version. My family teaches their own kids how to do magic. They don't send them off to schools or anything. However, I got a Hogwarts letter, and after much arguing they sent me. However, they taught me on their own for a year, so I started second year at Hogwarts. They didn't know I would be going till I got my letter, so I had to learn English from school. In teaching me themselves, they were hoping I'd want to stay with being taught by them. Same with Raef Junior. They thought she might be going, but didn't teach her English in case she didn't need to or didn't want to. We can commune just fine in other languages, why bother learning one more when you can pick it up later in life? However, I secretly taught her how to read and write it. Don't tell me mum, she'll be furious." She grinned guiltily.

"So...so your family doesn't like being wizards and witches?"

"Oh no, they enjoy it. Almost too much." She looks like she's thinking for a moment, as her eyes are glazed over. But she snaps out of it. "It's just that they think that since they've been through it all -and they have, trust me- that they'll do better than some school teacher."

"Oh. So, what languages does she speak?" asked Ginny again.

"Very many. Mainly Earthen, languages of the forest type, but some more common Human languages."

"Bonjour! J' m'appelle Raef Wolfe. Comment T'appelles tu?" Raef Junior points to Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione. They looked blankly at her. She looks disappointed, but spoke up again in another language. "Hola! Mi nombre es Raef Wolfe. ¿Cuál es su nombre?"

"Spanish, anyone?" commented George. They all shook their heads. Raef sighed and thought.

"I think she wants to know our names," said Ginny quietly.

"Rrrowrr kr luarg grrrrrr surar?"

"Huh?" said Ron. Raef just grinned slyly. "You get the feeling she's toying with out minds?"

"Gee, when'd ya figure that one out?"

"Buon giorno?"

"What was-" Ron began.

"That was Italian. The one before that that you thought she was messing around is actually a language. Lanolf." Raef overheard their distress again.

"Lanolf? What's that?" asked Ginny, curiosity getting the better of her. Again.

"Eh? Oh it's a language." She looked back to the adults and shrugged.

"Well, that helped us," said Ron darkly as he watched Raef Senior turn back to the adults. "That helped us a lot. It's a language. Why doesn't she tell us what it is?"

"It might not be a good language. I mean, there are some languages-like orcish, troll, ect. - That don't sound too bad but have some creepy meanings."

"Oh. Well, I really don't think they'd teach Junior here those languages. Not yet anyways. And Raef Senior doesn't appear the type to teach them to young kids."

Raef Senior Grumbled. "If she learned any of those things, it'd be from her uncle. I'm not the riot or war or rebellion leader, I don't need to learn vicious tongues. He is, so he did learn them. I can only pray she doesn't learn them and say that to kids in school, she'll be in enough trouble as is." A silence followed this little outburst, and everyone looked nervous. No one could help but thinking, Riot or war or rebellion leader? Wow, I wonder who this brother of hers is? And Hermione added She's so lucky to be from such a History Rich family!

"Hallo?" said Raef Junior uncertainly.

"Umm...well, I know she was saying 'hello', but I don't know what language it was," commented George.

"Deutsch."

"Dutch?" asked Ginny.

"No, Ginny, not Dutch, German. Dutch..." Hermione looked amused.

"Well, it sounds like Dutch. And anyways, I noticed you aren't communing with her very well," Ginny pointed out

"Well...well I don't have a piece of paper and a quill!"

"Why would-oh yeah, she can read it. And write it. That helps. Maybe she has some?" They all looked at Raef, who blushed and looked at the ceiling. Evidently, she didn't like being watched. Either that or she was playing dumb and could hear them.

She was saved however when their meals came, ands breathed a sigh of relief. Fred noticed. Evidently, she was uncomfortable. Well, so long as we don't push her too hard. He thought. She might not like it if we're all trying to help her learn it and we're teaching her differently. And she may feel left out, all of us speaking in a language she can't understand. Besides, maybe she knows other languages, hopefully of the area. But oh well. Best leave teaching her to Hermione. Just hope she goes in Gryffindor.

________________________________________________________________________