1 (6 y/o)
Florence knew from past experiences that life on the street was not easy or fun. However, she also knew she would not have been able to stand staying in Mother’s house for another day after the reveal from the night before. At least, she thought to herself, with Felicity by her side she would never be alone again.
Not wanting to linger close to magical territory, Florence looked over her bag to make sure she had the essentials and pulled Felicity through the streets with her.
“We don’t have long before Mother notices us missing, so we need to cover a lot of ground tonight,” Florence told her sister.
Florence knew her sister had never experienced the harsh reality of street life, having grown up in a decently wealthy family. Knowing this, she also knew that their survival for the next few years would rely heavily on her past experiences. She would try to let her sister keep her innocence but also knew she would eventually have to drill in the fact that they could not rely on anyone other than each other.
Hopefully, she thought to herself, they would not face too many challenges before their Hogwarts letters came in a few years.
2 (10 y/o)
Alyssa never liked school in her last life, only seeing it as a necessary evil. However, now she concluded that muggle primary school in the UK was developed as a punishment.
First of all, the forced interaction with other children who were “her age” by adults who looked at her and saw a feral street child was not in any way productive. She would much rather be elsewhere making money for the future.
Second, she already knew everything they were teaching her in math, English, and science. In fact, most of what she knew was more advanced than what they were teaching her, and quite a few things she found to be a bit too outdated for her taste. While she would admit her history knowledge was not up to par (could you really blame her though, she was raised in the US, not the UK), she still did not need to be wasting time away in this school.
Lastly, when her teacher noticed how little difficulty she had with the work assigned to her, she was handed harder and longer assignments. She had overheard the teachers discussing bumping her up a grade or two (which she really would have preferred), but they decided against it because she was not “interacting with her peers” and “that poor child and her sister need to learn to just be children”. Eventually, they decided to compromise and give her higher-level work while keeping her in the same year.
To top it all off, they kept giving her harder and harder work because she could not force herself to perform below her capabilities after years of working for everything she had.
Why was it that when she wanted her teachers to notice things about her they never did and when she didn’t want them to pay her any attention, she became their focus?
Her time since being “rescued” from the streets continued to show her just how useless it was to rely on other people. If only Daisy could just start to see the world the same way she did.
3 (1st year)
Alyssa liked to think that she was good at adapting to new environments. After all, it did come with living on the streets and constantly moving. However, after multiple years spent avoiding the magical world, she was utterly unprepared for Hogwarts.
After making connections during the train ride (not friends, they had many more years before she would even consider calling anyone other than her sister a friend) and being sorted into Slytherin, she found herself in a world she was both prepared and unprepared for. While she had been a prelaw student in her last life, politics was a subject she did her best to avoid. Now, she could not do that if she wanted to have any influence in Slytherin.
The inner workings of Slytherin embodied politics. Your power was determined by how well you could play the game. She had to play and establish herself as the top of her year or risk others having power over her. Unfortunately, the tops of the upper years would still have power over her, but only being under a few people was better than everyone having power over her. Especially because she was not some pureblood with a name that demanded power.
She had already seen the start of a hierarchy forming among the other first years, likely because they had all been raised together and already created their pecking order. Based on her observations, Malfoy was at the top (as expected). He was followed by Greengrass, Nott, Parkinson, and Bulstrode (all members of the Sacred 28 if she remembered Mother’s lessons correctly). Finally, Crabbe, Goyle, and Davis brought the end of the pre-established hierarchy. The other first-year Slytherins seemed to not care as much for having a position, preferring to be loners. Those would be the ones she would convince to be her informants.
For now, though, she would work for her place above Malfoy. After all, having to listen to the every whim of a spoiled 11-year-old was not on her bucket list.
4 (3rd year)
Blood, why is there so much blood?
Even before the year started, she knew what to expect. What would be on the train. What would be surrounding the school grounds. This did not mean she would be prepared for what it would mean for her.
Screams, why is everyone screaming?
When they boarded the train she knew what she saw would not be pretty. For once, she was happy to be near the Golden Trio. Lupin managed a patronus before the visions could become too much, but it was still not anything she wanted to relive.
Pain, why was there so much pain?
For a few moments, she entertained the idea of learning the patronus charm. Quickly, she dismissed the idea. While she had created happier memories in the last few years, she didn’t think any were happy enough. She would leave the happiness to Daisy, who had still not seen the true darkness of the world.
Where were her parents?
She would just need to avoid leaving the castle unless it was a Hogsmeade weekend. It was not like any of her classes required her to go outside.
Why does that body look familiar?
She also had to figure out how to hide the effect the dementors had on her from minions (friends? No, she did not trust them enough to give them that title).
She knew time had passed but why did she feel so numb?
Yeah. Following that plan could get her through the year.
Gone. They were gone and she was alone.
5 (4th year)
She knew this year would help her plan tremendously. The addition of foreign students on Hogwarts grounds gave her more chances to make connections (if only she had learned Bulgarian, at least she knew French from primary and Dra-Malfoy).
She could at least trust her followers (maybe they are friends, no don’t go down that route) to help her get close to the foreign students. After all, it would also benefit them in their own goals.
The only thing she had not taken into account was the fallout that would result from Potter’s name being drawn from the Goblet of Fire. She could not allow Malfoy to create the badges this time as it would harm her image and impact her plan. This left her in a slight dilemma, she could not express too much displeasure with the situation, but at the same time being happy with it would not help. There was no good way to do either without alienating one group.
Maybe after the first task was completed it would be easier. When people saw that the tournament was nothing more than a death trap for Potter, tensions between the schools would fade.
Until then, she would focus on those from Hogwarts and the occasional foreign student who had no care for the tournament.
+1 (5th year)
For the past week, Alyssa had just been going through the motions. The presence of Mother in the school had left her on edge since the start of the year and after her argument with Daisy, she struggled to find reasons to continue with her plans. Why couldn’t her sister just see things from her point of view? She couldn’t stand the pain of losing another sibling. She barely made it through the loss of her entire family the last time, another loss would leave her broken.
“Alyssa,” the call of her name brought her out of her spiral. “I know you are hurting, but you need to remember you are not the only one relying on your plans working.”
“I know,” she replied. “But I can’t bring myself to do anything now. These plans were mainly designed to keep her safe and if she refuses to play along then what is the point?”
“While you may have been focused on her safety, your plans will still help more than just her,” Blaise told her. “If you can’t do it yourself, at least let me know what you were going to do next so that I can follow through. I won’t let your plans go to waste because your sister could not see what is in front of her.”
Alyssa thought to herself about what would happen if she agreed. She would be relying on someone other than her sister. She would be fully putting her trust in someone new.
“Ok,” she told him. “I will let you in on my plan, but promise me this. If you break my trust you will never even attempt to speak to me ever again.”
“I agree to your terms,” he replied. “I look forward to working with you.”
She smiled for the first time since leaving her sister in the hall after their fight. Maybe it would be ok to trust someone else, she thought to herself. Just this once.