Where We Will, We'll Roam
A crisp breeze blew across the grounds of Hogwarts the night its many inhabitants returned to its hallowed halls. The windows blazed with torchlight, flooding the grounds immediately surrounding the resplendent stone castle with a warm glow. The great doors lay open to welcome the students second year and above to their home away from home. The chatter in the great hall was alive already, and Allison Napier privately though, a little bit invasive. She sat in a small room off the great hall, and she could still hear through the thick stone that separated her from the rest of the students, the gossip and speculation about who she was, and why her robes held no emblem. None of them recognized her, which was a point in favor already. Most schools she had attended, the students were either shaking in their boots or immediately aggressive just upon seeing her face. She didn't get it, she thought she was quite pretty. At 5'8 with waist length blonde hair and arctic blue eyes, she was what the boys back in America would call 'a knockout'. Add in the . . . special bits and she was a perfect ten. Aside from one itsy bitsy detail. Her father happened to be Jack Napier, otherwise known to the world and Joker- Gotham City's own Clown Prince of Crime. She had originally hated it, but the moniker followed she and her mother around like a dense fog. At this point, her mother was happy with anything that got her out of Jersey. Even if Ilvermorny had sent her a letter stating that her daughter's problematic behavior was unacceptable in their elite institution and suggesting a mind healer. She had gotten her Hogwarts acceptance letter within 24 hours. Shortest grounding ever.
Across from her sat a boy, with ocean blue eyes, warmer than her own icy hue, and dark hair. He looked like the intelligent type at least, but he made no attempt at conversation. Instead, he just muttered under his breath. Something about lazybones older brothers and cloak pins that poked him in the chest. She just did her best not to laugh at his amusing little monologue and waited for their names to be called. The sound of the doors to the room opening sounded, and a group of shivering eleven year olds trooped in, still soaked by spray from the lake and probably a run-in with the rumored giant squid. Poor kids. Hopefully they'd have something to warm them up inside. The door to the room creaked open, and she and the strange boy she had kept company with for the last little while straightened and led the shivering children through and into the Great Hall, where she did her best not to gawk like the children behind her. Four long tables, color coded with the emblems on the robes of the students sitting there, stretched down the length of the large room. Up above, numerous candles floated and lit up the dark corners, the ceiling looking as though there weren't one at all. The night sky showed clearly, the moon passing behind a cloud as she looked up briefly. She was amazed at the display of magic and wonder, but she was also trying to be a good role model to the children behind her.
She heard the booming voice over all the chatter, which quieted down almost immediately.
"Thank you students. Now, I am so very pleased to see all of you again! I hope your summers have been great fun, and your heads sufficiently emptied. We have much to learn this year! To begin, we have a most unusual occurence. Two transfer students, one fourth year, and one sixth. Professor McGonagall, if you would?"
It was then that Allison noticed the severe looking woman. Her dark hair was pulled tightly into a bun, and her deep green robes made the blonde feel quite underdressed. She stood a bit straighter in response as the professor began to speak.
"Ladies first, if you please. Allison Napier, please step forward."
And she did. She watched the professor pick up the tattered old hat from the stool, which she then sat upon and gave a thumbs up to the children who had followed she and the boy, apparently two years her junior, into the hall. The hat settled over her head, blocking her vision slightly as it drooped its brim over her eyes.
"Hmm, quite curious, aren't you? And plenty of loyalty in you. Where shall we send this new curiosity."
The blonde puffed up her cheeks in annoyance, sniffing importantly.
"Mister Hat, I am certainly no curiosity. I should like to be put wherever I will be stared at the least."
The hat chuckled, apparently finding her mild annoyance quite amusing.
"Alright then Better be-"
The entire hall was quiet the few moments the hat was on her head, though she had answered it aloud. A couple of students flushed red and ducked their heads, a bit embarrassed to have been heard. Timothy Drake shook his head. Of course- even here the girl couldn't help but draw attention to herself.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat yelled before it was taken off her head. She looked down to her robes in time to see the collar turn yellow, and a badger emblem appear on her chest. She grinned and bounded off like she hadn't a care in the world. Far from him, who trudged up as McGonnagall called "Timothy Jackson-"
"Let's just get this over with, please ma'am? I'd really just like to eat and sleep for a week."
The professor chuckled and settled the hat over his head.
"Goodness. That's a mind I haven't seen in a while. You're going to be quite fun. Welcome back, I'm certain you don't remember yet, but you would have my stitching if it wasn't-"
"RAVENCLAW!"
The hat yelled its decision within moments of sitting on his head. His robes turned blue, and Allison gave him a thumbs up from the apparent Hufflepuff table. She watched with a small grin as the first years began to be sorted, having a smile for each if they happened to turn her way. The ones in green, "Slytherins", she had learned, seemed surprised. But after the first few went and she didn't waver, the children in green started to look her way on purpose, knowing the smile was waiting. The rest of the hall was, and she couldn't believe this crap, booing at these children when the hat yelled their house. They were just kids, and in this magical place where they had to have been so excited to go (goddess knows that she was!) people were booing at them! She was livid, but she kept a tight hold on her temper. No need to scare them with violent wild magic. So she just kept smiling, giving little waves or thumbs up and glaring down the other tables in between. Over the coming days and weeks, though she couldn't possibly know it, she would be added to the list in the Slytherin common room of acceptable people to go to if one is in need and there are no Slytherins immediately available to help. She would make friends with half of the Slytherin Quidditch team by accidentally passing the practice pitch when she got lost on the way to Herbology (her favorite subject, which she was running late for but was excused due to her newness) and casting several cushioning charms and a very overpowered "Arresto Momentum" on a falling child who was trying out and was knocked off his broom. She would also find herself making plans with several girls in both yellow and green to go to Hogsmeade (thank the goddess her mother had signed her permission slip!) and to gossip and braid hair in the common rooms or by the lake. She hexed anyone she saw so much as look at a child below third year the wrong way just because their tie was the wrong color, and she aced every question Professor Snape could think to ask her. By and large she had become a friend of Slytherin House.
The Gryffindors didn't take to her so quickly. She did hex more than one of them for trying to trip the younger Slytherins up. She hated bullies! But she met a pair of twins by chance in the halls of the seventh floor corridor. She had found out about this little castle secret from the portraits and stood half in the new bronze lined door, staring at two identical faces down the hall.
"Uh, hi?"
One of them looked down to the parchment in his hands, and frowned. The other peeked over his shoulder and shook his head, beaming her way in what she knew from her cousins usually meant trouble. But at least it was the kind the would prove to be fun, or interesting, if not both and she was getting bored too quickly. She was bound to get into trouble if she dallied too much, and slipped through the door with a shrug. The identical redheads followed her in and seemed to look around with quiet awe. She couldn't blame them, this place was beautiful. She had asked for somewhere peaceful to spend some time, and the room had delivered. A large garden with flowering bushes and tall trees awaited, and she thought the ceiling must have a similar enchantment to the great hall, because the sun was visible. It was warmer than she expected, and Allison took off her outer robes and bent to take off her shoes and socks, humming a little tune to herself as she headed towards what looked like a lake. She assumed it would be closer to a swimming pool though. There was only so much that magic could do, after all.
She chuckled softly as she walked into the shallows, turned with a grin to the redheads behind her, and raised a singular brow.
"Coming?"
And with that, she dove into the water. Now the question was left to the Weasley twins. To follow, or not? Without ever speaking, they decided that if they were going to find out just what this room was exactly, and where she had heard about it, they had better follow her in. Taking off their outer robes, socks, shoes and shirts, they dove in after the mysterious transfer student. And what they found, they hardly believed.
Tim's first few days at Hogwarts were mostly spent trying to follow Allison and being stone walled by the Slytherin Quidditch team, whatever that was. He was getting tired of trying to talk to her, and eventually settled for bugging her bag, bedroom, and the places she frequented outside of classes. They had all the same subjects, but seeing as he was in a different year, they didn't share any. The only places he could get anywhere near her were the village the students frequented, and at schoolwide events. This mission was becoming more of a pain every moment. He hadn't had any time to meet anyone aside from a girl called Astoria Greengrass and a couple of muggleborns from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff who invited him to study with them. And honestly? He was getting really tired of trying to follow someone who hadn't even caused any trouble yet.
He decided the best course of action at this point was just to keep a diligent eye on what his bugs picked up, and try to blend in. Maybe then the Slytherins would stop jeopardizing his investigation.