Disclaimer: You know the drill by now; unfortunately I'm not JKRowling so deal with it.
The rest of the feast seemed to pass in a bit of a haze for Alice; Hermione and the three boys from the train followed her into Gryffindor. She remembered little about the actual meal other than that it had appeared onto the plates from nowhere and tasted quite good. A rather pompous prefect, who turned out to be Ron Weasley's older brother, began to reel off exactly what they, as first years, would be expected to do this term. She was just beginning to fall asleep into her pudding when there was a sudden clamour as everyone got to their feet and began traipsing out of the Great Hall. Alice was so tired and focussed on getting to bed that she barely even noticed when a poltergeist began pelting Percy Weasley with walking sticks and by the time she had collapsed onto her bed in the dormitory she was barely conscious. The last thing she was aware before sleep claimed her were the other girls in the dorm exclaiming excitedly about the day.
Opening her eyes the next morning it took Alice a few moments to recall where she was. The scarlet canopy above her was nothing like the cracked and faded paint of the orphanage, and back there her bed certainly hadn't been as large and comfortable as it was here. Sitting up she stretched luxuriantly before pulling apart the curtains and swinging her legs out of bed. For a moment she just sat there letting her memories of the previous day wash over her trying to savour each one.
"Are you alright?" A high airy voice interrupted her reminiscing.
Alice sighed as the memories slipped away and she opened her eyes to find a girl with dull blond hair and bright pink pyjamas staring at her curiously.
"Yes."
"Oh, you just had your face all funny like you were in pain or something." The girl seemed unaware that this might be rude.
Considering her for a moment Alice finally asked, "you're Lavender Brown aren't you?" She wished the girl wouldn't stare at her as much, she could feel the blush rising to her cheeks.
"Yes, I can't remember your name though," Lavender stated bluntly, "what was it again?"
Alice duly supplied it as she began to gather her robes and wash bag before going to the bathroom to get ready. By the time she was done, Hermione and the other two girls had woken up as well. Hermione of course was in a state of high excitement at the prospect of classes today, as Alice walked back into the room she seemed to be listing off all the spells she had learnt much to the obvious annoyance of the other girls. This continued as the other girls got ready and Hermione only finally fell silent as they made their way down to breakfast as she had to concentrate on not getting lost.
As everyone else ate their way through a mound of toast, eggs and bacon Alice slipped her hand into the pocket of her robes to check that her wand was still there. She still felt uneasy when she remembered the strange old man who had sold it to her in the shop. After what felt like an age she had finally found the right wand for her: willow, ten and a quarter inches with a phoenix feather core, at which point Mr Ollivander had looked her over closely with his wide, pallid eyes and muttered something about curious similarities. She was considering taking the wand out and trying to replicate the shower of sparks it had let off in the shop when she had picked it up when Professor McGonagall who was now also their Head of House came round to hand out the weeks schedule.
"Ooh!" Hermione whispered excitedly to her, "look we've got Herbology today… and a History of Magic; I should think that would be exciting."
Alice smiled lightly at her friend who continued pouring over the parchment commenting now and then on the different subjects.
As it turned out History of Magic was probably the most boring class she had ever been to. The ghostly professor droned on for so long that soon Hermione was the only one who appeared to be listening. The highlight of the lesson came when Ron Weasley fell asleep at his desk and slid sideways off his chair, despite the fact that he landed quite loudly on the floor and shouted out when his friend Harry kicked him awake Professor Binns didn't seem to notice. The other classes were much more captivating but they had so much work to do that Alice soon found that her first week at Hogwarts was over and had turned into the second before she knew where she was. She decided that Charms and Transfiguration were her favourite subjects; the tiny professor who took the former spent their first lesson explaining wand movement and its importance in casting the correct spell and then demonstrated by casting a laughing charm on the entire class. Professor McGonagall, though very strict, became something of an idol for Alice. "I want to be like her when I grow up," she whispered to Hermione after the teacher had finished explaining the complexities of her subject. When McGonagall praised the two of them at the end of the lesson for managing to affect their matches Alice blushed to the roots of her hair.
The Potions Master however was perfectly horrible, Alice kept her head down in the class so as not to attract his attention, but he ignored all Hermione's attempts to answer the questions and was outright mean to both Harry Potter and Neville. At the end of the lesson she saw tears in her friend's eyes and decided on the spot that she hated Professor Snape.
"It's alright Hermione," she put her arm round her friends shoulders as they walked up the stairs from the dungeon, "I don't think it was anything personal he just picks on all the Gryffindors."
At that moment Neville joined them to sympathise with Hermione. As she protested that he hadn't deserved to be picked on because he was rubbish at everything Alice saw Ron and Harry walk past talking excitedly about going to visit someone. In their wake they left a trail of students pointing, some less discreetly than others, and whispering behind their backs. The name Potter seemed to be on every pair of lips and Alice suddenly felt really sorry for him. She knew from personal experience what it was like to have no parents, but to know they had been murdered and to have everyone talk about you because of it on your first week at school must be hard. Hogwarts was complicated enough without teachers picking on you and pupils gossiping because you were famous.
As she had been musing the three of them were walking along a third floor corridor on their way back to the Gryffindor common room. Suddenly Alice stopped short, what was that noise? She looked around for the source but it seemed to have stopped and she couldn't locate where it had been.
"Alice, are you alright?"
She turned to see her friends standing a little way down the corridor looking back at her in concern.
"Yes, I'm fine, but did you…" she frowned as she realised where they were.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, "you know we can't hang around here, that's the corridor that's forbidden," she pointed in the direction Alice had been looking. "Come on we'll get into terrible trouble."
Reluctantly Alice followed her friends up to the common room but her mind was still on the mystery of the forbidden corridor. She was so preoccupied that she almost walked right past the gaggle of first years crowded round the notice board in the common room, it was only when she realised the Hermione and Neville had fallen back to join them that she stopped.
"What's going on?"
One of the girls turned to her, her face flushed with excitement, Alice remembered from the Sorting that her name was Parvati Patil. "The flying lessons start next Thursday, I can't wait it's going to be so exciting!"
"Flying lessons?" Alice echoed, a tiny part of her was terrified at this news but the group's enthusiasm was infectious and she suddenly couldn't wait for Thursday. Despite the dangers it posed being able to fly somehow felt right; it was a dream she'd had since she was little, soaring through the sky under a blanket of stars, the only thing she would have to be careful of was not to fall off and make a fool of herself. Spotting her friends lurking at the back of the group around the notice Alice walked over, "so, flying lessons that should be fun, all I'll need now is a black cat… you know a witch with a broomstick and… are you two alright?" Hermione and Neville just stared at her, both looking confused and horror-struck.
"I've never flown before," Neville's admission was so quiet that she barely heard him.
"I'm sure you'll be fine, I've never flown before either and I'm sure Hermione hasn't." Alice turned to her friend for confirmation and noticed that she looked distinctly green. "Hermione are you sure you're okay?"
The brunette took a deep breath before exhaling with a rush, "I need to go to the library, I'll see you later." And with that she turned on her heel and dashed back out through the portrait hole the way they had come.
"Well, um…" Neville seemed to be trying not to cry, "I might just go and write to Gran. I'll see you later Alice." With that he sloped off dejectedly and left Alice standing alone feeling thoroughly deflated at her friends' lack of excitement about the impending lessons.
With the rest of the afternoon free and no family to go and write to herself she briefly considered following Hermione to the library, but she probably would be so anxious about finding books on flying, which was what Alice assumed she was doing, that she wouldn't want to be disturbed. Suddenly Alice remembered the noises she had heard from the forbidden corridor, perhaps… surely it wouldn't hurt to go back and listen from the part of the corridor they were allowed in. If she could work out what the noise was then she could let her mind rest having solved the mystery. She couldn't get into trouble for just listening could she?
Dashing quickly up the stairs to the girls dormitory she stowed her book bag in her trunk and then raced back out of the room, nearly colliding with Lavender, Parvati and another girl in the doorway. Stammering an apology she stepped around them and continued on her way, their giggles echoing down the stairway behind her. Once out of the common room Alice paused a moment to try and remember the way to the forbidden corridor. There were so many different staircases and passages within the castle that it was easy for a seventh year to get lost if they weren't paying attention never mind a first year.
After two unsuccessful tries which led her to the Astronomy Tower and down a staircase which went nowhere she eventually found herself back in the corridor where she had heard the noise earlier. A solid looking wooden door sat at the end of the passage, surely the reason for the corridor being forbidden must be behind there? Checking there was no one in sight, they were probably all outside enjoying the last of the summer sunshine, she began to make her way stealthily along the corridor.
"Psssst!"
Alice froze every sense on the alert trying to locate the source of the sound. She could feel her momentary confidence and daring drain out of her as realised that someone had spotted her, but where were they?
"Over here."
A heavy embroidered tapestry hanging just to her right twitched slightly as though moved by an unseen hand. Glancing around once more to make sure that this wasn't a trick Alice walked over to the tapestry and pulled it aside. Crouching in a passage set halfway up the wall and concealed by the fabric of the tapestry were two identical red-headed boys grinning at her their faces full of mischief and lit by the light of their wands.
"It would seem we took her by surprise George," one of the twins said.
"Either that or she has some goldfish blood in her," said the second.
Alice realised she was gaping at them and shut her mouth with a snap. Colour filled her cheeks as she scrambled for something to say. "Are - are…"
"Maybe she's just a bit slow?" The first twin winked at her as she scowled at this remark.
"No Fred I think your initial diagnosis of surprise was correct. Here." One of the twins reached down and pulled her up into the space before she could protest. "Wouldn't want to get spotted hanging around where you shouldn't by Filch."
"Not that we set much store by rules mind you. Rules are there to be broken just as Filch is here to play tricks on. I'm George Weasley by the way, this is my brother Fred."
"Weasley? Are you Ron's brothers?"
"Aah ickle Ronniekins, our dear baby brother." The twins both sighed with mock sentimentality at the same time causing Alice to giggle. "You've met him then?" the one called Fred asked.
Alice nodded, her usual fear around strangers eased slightly by the twins ridiculous manner. "He's in my class."
"So what's your name then acquaintance of Ronald?"
"Alice Evans." She looked behind them into the gloom of the passage noticing several boxes down by their feet. Suspicion began to form as she wondered what the twins were up to. "What are you doing down here?"
"We could ask the same of you."
"In fact we will," said Fred.
"I was… I was just…" Alice tried to think of an excuse as to why she would need to be in the forbidden corridor but couldn't think of one. They seemed like nice enough people, they wouldn't tell on her would they? After all they had been there too. "I was just curious, I wanted to see what was down here. You're in the forbidden corridor too." She glanced at them with a mixture of nervousness and defiance.
"Well technically we aren't in the corridor so we're not breaking any rules. Yet."
"Although we wouldn't recommend you being down here much longer."
"Why not? What's in those boxes?" Suddenly both boys looked shifty and Alice knew her guess was right, they were up to something.
"It's a surprise." George sidestepped her question.
"You wouldn't want to spoil the surprise would you Evans?"
"I - I guess not." It was only fair after all, if they weren't going to tell on her then she shouldn't snoop. She had a funny feeling she probably didn't want to know what they were planning anyway.
"So you want to see what's behind door number one then do you?"
Alice looked at the twins in confusion for a second before she realised they were talking about the forbidden corridor and not the boxes.
"Maybe we should keep an eye on her Fred. Can't let her go off on her own it would be irresponsible."
"You're right of course, a person as little as that might get knocked over by a doxy or a billywig."
In the second it took Alice to decide whether to complain about being called little or point out that you didn't get billywigs in Britain the twins had jumped back down to the main corridor leaving her alone behind the tapestry.
"Come on," she couldn't be sure which twin was speaking, "we can't keep an eye on you if we can't see you."
Gathering up her courage she dropped down after them, she couldn't remember why she had thought this was such a good idea. Now that the initial rush of excitement had faded she could hear a voice in her head, which sounded remarkably like Hermione, telling her that this was a stupid idea. The old Alice Evans who was pathetically normal and boring would never have broken any rules like this; if the corridor was forbidden then surely it was for a reason. Then again, she reasoned, she wasn't normal any more, being a witch was about as far from normal as you could get.
Curiosity won out over caution and she walked over to the twins who were waiting for her by the door with a glance over her shoulder to make sure no one had appeared whilst they had been talking. As she approached one of the twins raised his wand and looked at her, she thought it was Fred but she couldn't be sure.
"Are you ready?"
She gazed steadily at him for several seconds before whispering, "Dumbledore said whoever went through here would suffer a painful death…" She let the unsaid question hang in the air as the twins considered her.
"I reckon he just said that to scare everyone."
"Not us." A wide grin spread across the other twins face.
"What's the worst that could happen?" They chorused.
Alice tried not to imagine, took a deep breath and nodded at Fred to continue.
"Alohomora."
The lock clicked and Fred grasped the handle as a soft grumble sounded from within. As the door swung open Alice gasped softly. Of all the things she had expected to see this had never crossed her mind. Squashed up in a space much too small for it was the biggest dog she had ever seen, bigger than a dog had any right to be. Not only that but the animal had three heads and all six pairs of fevered yellow eyes were gazing right at the three intruders. Taking a reflexive step back as the twins whistled in what she could only assume was admiration she flicked her eyes over the rest of the dog; her quick mind took in the trapdoor under the dogs enormous paws even through the fog of fear at seeing something so utterly impossible. Suddenly the dog rumbling growl grew much louder as it took a step towards freedom and Fred quickly swung the door shut and muttered the spell to lock it again. As he finished he sprang away from the door as the giant body within thudded against it barking frantically.
"Come on," he grabbed Alice's wrist and pulled her back towards the tapestry his twin following closely, "someone's bound to hear that we shouldn't hang about." With the twins help she managed to climb back into the passage, where they all sat for a few seconds before George, his face covered in a gleeful smile, laughed softly. "Well that was interesting!"
"Very illuminating," his twin agreed, "I'm surprised a huge thing like that hasn't escaped already, it must get so bored just sitting there all the time."
"No!" Alice spoke before she could stop herself, she could see the twin's brains beginning to cook up some plan and she had to stop them. Who knew what havoc a beast like that could wreak if let loose in the school. "Please promise you won't go near it." She would consider being embarrassed later. "Please?"
"Here that Fred I think she's concerned about us." He elbowed his twin who was gazing thoughtfully at Alice. "What do you say?"
Fred mouth quirked upwards in a lopsided smile, "alright then we promise not to release the dog… or do anything to it," he added seeing Alice's sceptical expression.
"Promise," echoed his twin.
"You have green eyes you know."
Alice started at this unexpected change of topic and blushed as she always did when someone took too much interest in her. Where had that come from? "They're not proper green; they're brown more than anything."
"Nah," he disagreed, "you've got green eyes."
"Hazel at least," George said. "Anyway you better scoot, better not to be found hanging around here in case a teacher comes looking."
"Just go down there," Fred pointed down the black passage.
"Take the first left -"
"Then go down the stairs -"
"And you should come out behind the portrait of Paracelsus on the first floor near the Hospital Wing."
"Do you know how to make a light?"
Alice looked at Fred scathingly, what sort of fool did he take her for? She obliged by showing him that she did in fact know such a basic spell.
"Well bye then, thanks for not telling…"
"Likewise." The twins beamed at her again. "It's always nice to meet a fellow explorer. We'll be seeing you Alice."
Turning away she crept along the dark passage using her wandlight to alert her to any sign of the turning. As she walked her mind turned back to the dog behind the door, what was anyone in their right mind doing keeping that thing in a school? Without fear clouding her mind she let her mind turn over the mystery of the trapdoor. Did that mean the dog was guarding something? It made sense, she couldn't think of any other reason why Dumbledore, who seemed like a sensible wizard by all accounts, would have a dangerous animal in the castle otherwise. Finding the right turnoff she began to walk along it and was just beginning to think she must have gone the wrong way when she reached the steps and padded down them.
As soon as she reached the bottom she found herself behind the portrait the Weasley twins had told her about. Pushing it gently aside at first to check no one was coming she slipped out and then raced to the library to find Hermione.
Ignoring the looks of her fellow students as she careered up the final flight of stairs to the fourth floor she ran flat out along the passage and skidded to a halt in front of the first table in the library at which Hermione sat.
Her friend looked up at her red face in bewilderment. "What -"
Alice put her hand up to stop her as she gulped in deep breaths as quietly as she possibly could having just had the librarian glare at her as though running were a capital offense.
"Give me - a - second," she finally managed to gasp out. She pressed at hand to her hammering heart and took a last deep breath before starting. "Hermione you are never going to believe what I've just seen."
Hermione's bewilderment turned to a frown and she shut her battered copy of Quidditch through the Ages, marking her page as she did so. "What's going on?" she repeated.
"After Potions, do you remember I stopped to listen to something and -"
"You didn't go down the third floor corridor did you?" Seeing the guilt on her friend's face she looked appalled, "oh Alice, you could get into such trouble, you could get expelled!"
"I didn't get caught," well, not by a teacher she added mentally, "but you'll never guess what's down there."
"I don't want to know." Hermione sniffed and picked up her book again.
"Oh come on Hermione," Alice wheedled, now talking to the cover of the tatty green leather book, "if you don't want to know about a giant three-headed dog then that's fine by me." She whispered this last bit so the fourth years at the next table wouldn't hear her.
The book lowered slowly to reveal Hermione's startled expression, her eye's bugged wide. "A what?"
"Three-headed dog." Alice grinned at her friend's shock, "but that's not all; it was standing on a trapdoor, it's guarding something."
"What do they think they're doing keeping something like that locked up in a school?" Hermione echoed her earlier thought. A thought seemed to occur to her and she glared fiercely at Alice, "you could have been killed," she accused.
"But I wasn't," she pointed out, secretly pleased that her friend was so protective of her. "I only saw it for a second and then we locked the door again."
"We?" Hermione picked up on her slip of the tongue instantly.
Alice blushed so furiously that she swore her face was probably the same colour as her dark red hair. "I might have run into Ron Weasley's brothers, the twins." She waited for Hermione's inevitable explosion.
"Alice! Those two are trouble, they're always getting points taken off by the teachers," she seemed to regard this as worse than the fact there was a giant, triply vicious dog lurking just one floor below them.
"They're not that bad," she protested, "I'm sure you'd like them if you met them. We didn't get caught," she added in an attempt to pacify her friend, whose bushy hair seemed to be quivering in indignation.
Eventually she convinced Hermione that no trouble would come of her escapade no matter how dangerous it had been at the time and the two girls spent the rest of the weekend either finishing the homework they had been given or discussing what the dog could possibly be guarding.
Before she knew where she was her second week of her new life was almost over and the Gryffindors made their way down to the school grounds for their first flying lesson. Standing waiting for the teacher to arrive she noticed a Slytherin girl with short dark hair lean across and whisper to the blonde boy she had seen on the platform. Whatever she had said made the boy glance across at Alice and Hermione with a cruel sneer on his face suggesting to her that he was every bit as horrid as his father. Turning her attention to the teacher as she arrived and began the lesson Alice tried to put them out of her mind and concentrate on flying. It was with undisguised delight that she watched the broomstick jump up into her hand the first time she told it to, unlike poor Hermione's whose just rolled about on the ground a bit.
"I'm sure you'll get it eventually," she sympathised knowing how long Hermione had spent pouring over any book linked to brooms in the library. She had spent so long in there this week that even Alice who loved books devotedly got fed up and left her to it.
As they were all about to actually fly for the first time, Neville seemed to lose control of his broom and began to rise quickly from the ground.
"Neville!" Alice tried to make a grab for his foot to pull him back down, but he had spiralled up out of her reach. The teacher began shouting at him which only seemed to increase his fear and his height from the ground. Abruptly several people screamed as he fell sideways off the broom and landed with a sickening crunch on the grass.
The two girls rushed over to him in concern, but were brushed impatiently aside by Madam Hooch who deftly checked him over before pronouncing a broken wrist and helping him off to the hospital wing.
"Do you think he's going to be alright?" Hermione gazed after him in concern, "he fell an awful long way."
"I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will look after him," Alice assured her though she too was concerned for Neville, he seemed nice and she was beginning to count him as a friend.
"Give that here, Malfoy," the quiet, steady voice seemed loud in the sudden silence as the class around them silenced.
Turning around she saw Harry Potter and the blonde - Malfoy - facing off as the latter held something small and round in his palm. Alice recognised it as the Remembrall Neville had received from his grandmother that morning.
"Give it here!" Harry yelled as Malfoy took off on his broomstick and taunted Harry from the top of a nearby oak.
"No!" Hermione stepped forwards to intervene before Alice could stop her, "Madam Hooch told us not to move - you'll get us all into trouble." Harry ignored her and kicked viciously off the ground. "What does he think he's doing?" she muttered sullenly, "he'll lose Gryffindor points at this rate."
Alice nodded absently as her friend continued to rant, she was too busy admiring how effortlessly Harry seemed to fly, if only she could fly half as well as that then she would be happy. Several people screamed again in shock as Harry began to hurtle towards the ground, but he wasn't falling as Neville had been, Alice could see him speeding after the Remembrall on his broomstick as though he had been born there.
Before anyone was quite sure what had happened Harry was back on solid ground being thoroughly berated by a livid Professor McGonagall who seemed to have sprung from nowhere.
"How dare you - might have broken your neck -" She was almost incoherent so great was her fury.
Stung by the injustice Alice piped up, "It wasn't his fault Professor -" Even as her favourite teacher told her off and Ron Weasley spoke out in his friends defence, Alice marvelled that she seemed to be losing some of her shyness, perhaps there was something in the air at Hogwarts.
"Potter, follow me, now." She returned her attention to events in front of her in time to see Harry slouch off after McGonagall looking miserable.
Malfoy on the other hand looked elated. "Well I didn't think Potter would last long, but to not even make it two weeks before getting expelled; that must be a record."
"Shut your face Malfoy," Ron grunted as the Gryffindors turned and went back to the castle having totally forgotten the excitement they had left with half an hour ago.
A/N: So what do you think? Please R&R (and thank you to everyone who did for the last chapter too.) Also, I love the Weasley twins so they will probably feature more in this than they do in the books :) just thought I would mention it…
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