Pure-Blood? I'm B Positive

It was morning, I was awake before everybody else, as usual. I could hear snoring from other dorms and slowly and quietly decided to get ready before the Slytherins awoke. I crept down the old staircase and sat myself down in the large bottle green leather arm chair and started to realise how uncomfortable I felt in this tie and skirt; it wasn't exactly my usual attire. It was silent and finally I was truly alone, just me and my thoughts; and I had many many thoughts to keep me company. What classes would I taking? When do I get my class schedule? How was I going to manage to navigate myself around this huge castle - I was dopey at the best of times. The worst thing about this common room had to be the fact it had no windows at all. Everything was tinged with green and although the fire was glowing warmly it felt cold. I heard a small bang, followed by a few others. People were waking up and venturing down into the common room. It was a group of all girls, coming from the boys dorms, returning to their own beds before anybody noticed. Their giggles were promptly silenced when they saw me sat in the chair.
"Morning." I smiled at them, knowing they didn't expect to see anybody up at this time.
"M-Morning." The blonde one who seemed to be the ring-leader spoke, looking at me through her green eyes with disgust as if I was wrong for being here. I wasn't intimidated by girls like these; they're a dime a dozen in my old school. They walked past me, still silent; as they reached the bottom of the stairs I shouted to them.
"Hope you had a great night." The small girl who seemed to be younger than the rest was the only one who looked back, she looked shocked by my 'bravery' and 'stupidity'. At this point I took it upon myself to leave the common room before they came back, I was about the push the portrait open and leave until someone called my name.
"Araina. Where are you going? It's only like 7." Meredith walked across the room towards me wearing a skirt that was about the length of my belt.
"I woke up, everyone was in bed, so I thought I'd explore."
"Yea, 'cause this dump is worth exploring." She scoffed, grabbed my arm and headed near the fireplace and sat down, dragging me with her.
"You're dressed in your robes already? Breakfast isn't for like another half an hour and we don't get our timetables until like an hour after that." I looked down at my knee length black skirt with a crisp white shirt tucked into it, over that I was wearing a dark grey cardigan and my loose robes.
"You say like too much." I sighed as she laughed at my last comment.
"Araina, you're such a square. If you're gonna make it here, you need to seriously relax and stop with all this silence and tucked in shirt." She pulled at me for a good five minutes before deciding my skirt was acceptably short and my hair acceptably big.
"I'm here to learn, Meredith. I really appreciate everything you're trying to do but I just want to blend, I don't wanna be the 'hot new kid'."
"Blend in? you're not exactly gonna do that when you're all mysterious and being a loner. Araina, you need me." Meredith flicked her hair as she spoke, She was a nice girl, but we valued different things.
"New kid." Both me and Meredith turned to find the group of girls from earlier stood looking down at us, now fully clothed.
"Yes?" I was expecting them to give me the whole 'don't come in our school and ruin the order of this, i'm the boss around here' speech - but it never came.
"This morning, nothing happened. Got it?" The blonde one spoke.
"Oh, you mean when you all sneaked down from the boys dorms? I almost forgot, thanks for reminding me." I knew I was treading into murky waters but the look on their face was just too funny to let this moment pass with a little sarcasm.
"Are you trying to joke? We're not joking. You, don't talk back to us, you just got here." She narrowed her eyes, and began to walk away as I shrugged my shoulders in response.
"Just back off. You're a bunch of forth year sluts - you don't run this place. I do. If you're gonna start playing the 'naughty rebel girl-gang' card, I expect you to dress better while doing so." Meredith strutted over to the group of girls and stopped in front of the blonde one who was now speechless and looking to her brainless companions for support.
"Thought so, play nice." Meredith turned away from them as they hurried out of the common room unable to speak or respond in anyway due to the shock of the confrontation.
"Wow Meredith. I didn't know you had it in you. That was priceless." I laughed as Meredith sat back down.
"Well, somebody had to tell them. They're been trying to prove how cool they are since the beginning of last year, but they're harmless - I kinda feel sorry for them. After me, they have a lot to live up to." Meredith joked as we watched various people get up and leave the common room.
"We should head down to the great hall." Meredith rose and as before strutted, as I followed. I thought I must have looked pretty pathetic, as if I was desperately following the 'head-cheerleader' as an attempt to let some of her coolness rub off on me. We sat down and I began eating some toast, I looked across at the teachers table, but Neville wasn't there. I thought about asking Meredith as she seemed to know the business about everybody, but felt she would start asking questions of her own if I began inquiring about the Herbology Professor.

"Our timetables." Meredith handed me a small bit of parchment she was holding in her right hand, whilst concentrating on an identical piece that was in her left.
"I have potions, and then I'm free all morning. What do you have?" Meredith peered over my shoulder as I looked over my timetable.
"Geez. You're taking a lot. You only have like, one free period today." She huffed and slouched onto the table bench.
"Define a lot. How many subjects are you taking?" I looked at Merediths timetable.
"Four. Potions, Transfiguration, Divination and Charms."
"Well we have Potions, Charms and Transfiguration together - too bad potions is only one out of those three on today. I have Potions, Astronomy, Free Period, Lunch, Astronomy again, and then Herbology."
"Herbology?" Meredith laughed.
"I know... I had no choice really. Uhh, I'm gonna head back to my dorm, I have to pick up my books for today. I'll meet you back here in 15?" I headed back down into the dungeons and through the common room. I reached my empty dorm and got several large heavy books out of my trunk - I had no idea I would need all of these at one time. My bag only just managed to fit the books for Astronomy and Potions in here. My herbology books (which had notes in from when Neville used them at school) I held in my arms as I hurried back to the great hall to meet Meredith.
"All those books. You sure you're not in Ravenclaw?" Meredith laughed.
"Where are all your books?" I looked at Meredith as she walked empty handed with no bag or any means of carrying, anything.
"You seriously think I would have books? It's not like i'm gonna listen to what they have to say anyway." Meredith stretched out her neck and smiled like a Cheshire cat, walking like she just stepped onto a catwalk.

We sat down at a round table which had three small empty cauldrons on the desk. The room was filled with various students from different houses, but no teacher. I sat down beside Meredith and got out my potions book, I stared silently at the front of the classroom while Meredith moved throughout the tables telling everybody about her summer.
"Can I sit with you?" Isobel put her satchel on the table as I nodded frantically.
"Please. I'm not sure how much more of Meredith I can take. She won't leave me alone." We both looked over to the dark haired girl who was chatting to a fair haired boy on the opposite side of the classroom.
"She's a bit in your face, I know. Poor you." Isobel sat down beside me and the class slowly quietened down as the door opened and a young blonde haired man sat down. Every girl stalked his movement with her eyes until he reached the front of the classroom.
"Welcome back, and well done in your O.W.Ls. You all worked hard, and you deserved the Outstandings and Exceeds Expectations you must have received in order to get into my class." I watched him intently as he spoke, he was undeniably handsome - then again, all the males I've met here have been.
"Professor Malfoy, half the girls here only take potions because of him." Isobel whipsered in my ear as he continued to talk to the class about their O.W.L grades.
"Araina is it?" I looked up, he was standing exactly infront of my desk, looking down at me through his steely grey eyes. I nodded.
"Professor Longbottom tells me you got an Outstanding in your O.W.L? For a new student, that is really impressive." He spoke with sincerity and nodded at me as I sat silent, unable to thank him or say... anything. I nodded again, as everybody turned to look at me, even Meredith.
"Well done, I think you'll enjoy what Hogwarts has to offer." He smiled before swiftly turning and taking his place at the front of the classroom. I turned to Isobel who was looking at me with a slight angry look, I mouthed 'what?' to her, she looked at Professor Malfoy and back to me. I scoffed and opened by potions book.
"No need for books today, we will be making Poison Antidote, using Golpalotts Third Law. Use your own knowledge to decide what ingredients are necessary, you may work in pairs. Begin." The class began to clatter and fuss around attempting to find partners and ingredients.
"Isobel, you're not seriously mad at me because of your crush on the Professor."
"I'm not mad, just jealous. I was the only other person who got an Outstanding, and yet he didn't say anything about me!" She huffed and seemed genuinely hurt by her hard work going un-noticed.
"Well, lets show him that we're both the best today. Now, where does he keep Bezoar?" I looked at Isobel and grinned, I didn't want to fall out over something so trivial as she was the first friend I'd made, and was the only friend I wanted to keep. We both worked endlessly searching through books and cupboards finding Bezoar and mixing it with a few other things to make it easier to consume.
"Hey, Is. I found this." I walked back to the table with a small glass bottle with a small label reading 'Phoenix Tears.'
"Is? My new nickname?" Isobel laughed and then looked at the bottle. She seemed to mull it over in her mind before responding.
"We can give it a shot, and by the looks of things, nobody else has used it." We dropped a few drops of the liquid into the cauldron which was now bubbling violently.
"Let's hope it doesn't kill anyone." I joked as we sat back down, confident in the thought there was nothing more we could think to add to the potion.
"Times up. Let's check these out." He slowly walked around the classroom peering into every bodies cauldron's inspecting the work, most pupils had used grounded bezoar with Honeywater, as we had expected - nobody had touched the Phoenix Tears.
"Isobel, Araina. What do we have here?" Malfoy hovered his head over the cauldron and looked curiously at the bubbling grey liquid.
"Our main ingredients were grounded Bezoar-" Isobel was interrupted by the Professor.
"And Honeywater? It seems to be the most popular choice this morning." He looked up at us both, straight faced.
"No. We used Phoenix Tears." Isobel stirred the potion as I picked up the small, now only half full bottle of Phoenix Tears and showed it to the Professor. Malfoy looked over the bottle and back to our cauldron, a smile growing wider and wider in his eyes.
"Brilliant. Great thinking girls. 25 points to each of you." His eyes were filled with excitement as he was telling the class how brilliantly minded we must have been to think of Phoenix Tears, I allowed Isobel to take all the credit in an attempt to make up for what happened at the beginning of class.

With potions over, it was off to Astronomy. Isobel was taking Astronomy too, so luckily I acted as her shadow through the numerous corridors and staircases.
"We're going to the large tower, it's not far now. I doubt we'll be doing any star gazing, considering it's 10am." I nodded through pants as we headed up a large staircase to a tall tower. After an hour of how to recognise different stars from our books and being told the history of astronomy we were freed from the dark tower.
"What lesson do you have now?" Isobel took our her timetable, which was filled twice over.
"I have a Free Period actually, then Astronomy and Herbology this afternoon. Why are you taking so many subjects?"
"I want to do everything, I couldn't bear dropping anything after my second year, so I did all 12 until last year, now I just do 11. I dropped Divination." Isobel said this in a very matter of fact manor that made it seem like it was the norm, when in fact she was the only person in our entire year to be taking more than 9 N.E.W.Ts. I headed to the Library, guided by various people in portraits, it was pretty empty, which I was glad for; with 3 sides of parchment to write for Astronomy already I wanted to keep on top of my work. I didn't want anybody to have a reason to question why I was here, which was something I felt everybody was thinking. The time passed quite fast as I finished my rolls of parchment and headed to the Great Hall for lunch. There were plates of food laid out already and many people were already seated, well into their meal.
"Araina! Sit here!" Isobel stood up and waved her arms so I noticed where the voice was coming from, I hurried over to the table and sat between Isobel and a younger Raveclaw student.
"Enjoy Muggle Studies?" I mocked as I picked up some Pasta and piled a few grilled tomatoes onto my plate. We sat quietly eating until we were satisfied that being 10 minutes early to class, wasn't too early. We set off back toward the stuffy Astronomy tower, we were the first people there and as students began to slowly wander up the staircase and into the top of the Astronomy tower. Another hour passed and I realised what lesson I had next. Herbology, My heart thudded and I became excited, and also nervous about seeing Neville again. Neville was my teacher now, my professor, things would be different, but how different? I wouldn't even be able to call him Neville anymore. Would we be able to laugh and joke how we used to? Would we be able to connect the way we did in Diagon Alley? Every question that entered my head left by head being answered with 'No'. I didn't want to lose the only person who understood everything about me. I was keeping secrets from everybody, from Isobel, Meredith, Keeran. I just didn't know how to be honest with them. How do you go about telling your friends that you're related to the very person who destroyed so many lives, and probably was responsible for the death of many of their relatives? The truth is, you can't.

We headed to greenhouse 2, equip with Dragon Hide gloves and the pile of books Neville had given me at the end of the Holidays.
"Why are you books so old?" Isobel looked at the book where the spine was splitting.
"Uhmm, they were given to me." I hurried to find a seat at the front of the class, while everybody else opted to find a seat that was as close to the back as possible.
"Why are we sitting at the front? In Malfoy's class this is understandable, but Longbottom's I don't see it."
"Well, I want to make a good impression, and everybody was rushing to the back, we wouldn't have been able to find a seat." I lied again, masking that I really just wanted to be as close to Neville as possible. Herbology went smoothly, we sat popping the zits on maturing Mandrakes.
"Isobel, please tell me the properties of the Mandrake root?" Neville took off his dragon hide gloves and began wandering around the classroom seeing how each student was getting on.
"It has the ability to return anybody whom has been petrified to their original state, it was used here when the Chamber of Secrets was opened for the second time, and-"
"That's enough, Isobel. 20 points to Ravenclaw." I smirked as I saw the expression on Isobels face change drastically. I looked up at Neville who also wore a smirk in his eyes, those beautiful caramel eyes. I melted on the spot; now I just wanted Herbology to end, the awkward feeling I wore after realising the hold this young man had on me made me feel vulnerable, and I don't want to be around someone who makes me vulnerable, I didn't want to get hurt. The time seems to pass slowly, each second lasted a minute in my head. I mindlessly popped zits and waiting until 'Professor Longbottom' to dismiss us, I was itching in my seat as the clock arm got closer and closer to the four.
"You've all done great, Before the next lesson I want you to read chapter 5 of your books, you may go." As soon as Neville stopped talked I jumped from my seat and ran out of the door and through the grounds back towards to main entrance of the castle, Isobel attempting to catch up behind.
"Araina! Araina, wait!" I stopped reluctantly, and slowly turned as Isobel clambered up the staircase where I was stood.
"Yea?" I tried to act as casual as possible, but I was never good at hiding my emotions.
"You're upset. What's wrong?" Isobel put her hand on my shoulder and guided me toward the Library where we sat quietly at an empty table.
"I know something is wrong, you didn't say a word in Herbology, and then just ran off. What is it?"
"I'm just, it's nothing."
"It's a guy, I know that much. I'm not stupid, I can tell in your eyes." Isobel looked straight into my eyes and I knew lying would be impossible.
"Okay." I huffed trying to figure out how to tell her without getting either of us into trouble.
"I like a guy, and he's... considerably older, and we kissed. But now, he's all off bounds and he get's me so angry because he just ignores me and it makes me think if he liked me at all in the first place and-" I spoke with a speed that was unusual to me and then stopped at a hault.
"And no matter what, you're still crazy about him?" Isobel spoke softly, I nodded and put my head on the table. I'd been defeated.