Alex entered the grand entrance after his long journey from Europe. His clothes choked him as the heat of the sun peeked over the Forbidden Forest. His eyes met the eyes of the students passing. Alex was nervous. How long would it be until he was moved on again? He wasn't someone who made friends easily. He sighed, this was going to be a long year. He dropped his heavy case on the stone floor and looked around. 'This is nothing like Durmstrang' he thought to himself as more and more people filtered through the crowds around him. He crouched on his belongings waiting for the one person who would help him begin his new life.

Faith was walking through the grounds towards the Entrance Hall, a book under her arm - a muggle book to that fact and she was running late from an errand for Dumbledore. She had too meet the new boy whom was placed in Ravenclaw, as he was in her year and she was a Prefect for Ravenclaw - she felt it necassary to show him around seeing as Hogarts was a big place after all. Soon enough she saw him standing there, walking over she held out her hand with a large, heart-melting smile, "Hello, Im Faith Liquin, Im Ravenclaw's prefect and I was told by Dumbledore to show you around, hope you don't mind." She continued to smile, letting her book disspear.

Alex stared at the girl infront of him. He took her hand and shook it gently. "Alex," he said, "Pleased to meet you." Although the expression on his face was far from pleased. He didn't want to be at Hogwarts. He wanted to go home. But home was the reason he was here in the first place. He took his bag and began to follow Faith.

Esmé crossed the entrance hall scowling. Not only did she have to leave the warmth of the castle for an Herbology lesson, but she'd also just caught sight of Faith Liquin, one of her least favourite people in Hogwarts. Faith didn't know Esmé, of course, but Esmé disliked her all the same; she was always patronising and charmingly shy, eagerly trying to capture all the boys' hearts. It wasn't fair, really, just because she was half veela and everyone knew it. And she was a prefect, and she had perfect grades. Everything just seemed to fall into her lap. Esmé wasn't failing her lessons - on the contrary, she was passing with flying colours - but she didn't like people who were arrogantly casual, the way Faith was. She rolled her eyes and tossed her curly hair, eager to show her distaste at Faith's behaviour without saying anything. Faith could win the admiration of as many people as she wanted - she was the so called 'Queen' of Hogwarts - but Esmé would never fall into her trap. Funny, the boy behind Faith looked just as unhappy about being in her presence as Esmé did. He looked new, too - his uniform was very clean, and it didn't have any individuality yet. Esmé herself had tied her tie around her waist, and always wore her sleeveless jumper instead of her cardigan. She scowled again, but glanced at the boy, interested by his disinterest.

Alex scuffed his new shoes along the stone floor, half-heartedly listening to his new instructions, and looking into the new classrooms he would be spending the next months in. As Faith continued to describe each detail of the castle, Alex let his attention wander. He smelt the aftermath of a dungbomb and saw the havoc it was causing at the opposite end of the corridor. He smiled to himself as his eye continued to trace the old building that was laid out in front of him. His gaze dropped to a girl standing before him, scowling. Her uniform was a lot different to the potato sack he seemed to be parading. Her expression startled him a little, but then he began to notice other girls has the same look, all directed at Faith. He sighed in relief, for a moment he though the dark looks were at him. No one could hate him that quickly, could they?

She stopped and leaned against the wall. It was very unlike her to be out of the common room, even between lessons. She just liked to stay there and read and not have to talk to anyone, because talking to people made her either angry at how wrong or self-absorbed they were, or just plain bored by either of those two qualities. There was no one who interested her, except maybe for that Slytherin boy in the year above who also spent most of his time reading in the common room, and this boy in front of her, who she'd never seen before. There was something quite intriguing about him - something that made her think he would be different to other people. Maybe that was just wishful thinking. She ran a hand through her blonde curls and bit her lip, wondering why she was waiting here instead of going straight out to the greenhouses.

Alex blinked a few times, wondering why the girl was still looking at him. He turned to see if she was actually looking at someone behind him. There wasn't anyone there, well, excluding Faith. Back at his old school, no one paid any attention to anyone. You didn't have 'friends' at Durmstrang. You were either a leader, or a follower. He had always been a follower. He nodded his head in a reply to Faith, not listening to a word she was saying. Pulling slightly at his new robes he smiled tentatively at the girl. He felt foolish. There he was, the new boy, his hair needed cutting and his posture was appalling. He could feel everyones eyes burning into his skin, attention was not something he enjoyed.

Ginny was walking down to the entrance hall. She had heard that a new student was coming today but didn't know what house he was going to be in. Ginny looked around and saw that everyone was looking at two people walking together. Ginny looked over to see who it was and saw that it was Faith with some boy she had never meet. Ginny really had talked to Faith ever she had just heard what was going around the school. Ginny looked away from Faith and to the Boy behind her. She had never seen him before. He looked like he really didn't want to be were he was at that moment. Ginny realized that this boy must be the new kid that she had heard about,He was a new Ravenclaw. She guessed since Faith was with him.

Esmé glanced between Faith and the boy and, making sure Faith was preoccupied with some historical detail of the school, she made a mime to suggest that the boy took off his robes - no one wore them in school anyway, unless it was a special occasion. It was odd that she was telling him, though - Esmé, the girl who never, ever socialised with anyone, because it seemed to her to be a waste of time. Well, most socialising was. People only ever wanted to talk about themselves, so why bother. She'd got to sixth year without friends, so why should she start needing them now? And as for boys... Well, that was entirely different. If truth be told she was just waiting to be swept off her feet by someone interesting, but then again she was scared of it. She'd read about and seen from afar too many girls getting hurt for her to have much trust in the male species.

Alex smiled in relief and pulled off his robes as fast as he could. His robes reveled a new pair of black trousers, a smart new jumper and a crisp white shirt that, unfortunately, had been pulled loose and lay scruffily under the jumper poking out at the edges. He couldn't be bothered with keeping smart any longer. It wasn't like him. His father had asked him to make a good first impression and that's what he had done. Alex ran a hand through his hair and stowed his robes roughly into a bag. He opened his arms to the girl as if to say, 'Better?' and then smiled. He chucked to himself slightly as Faith continued to try to grasp his attention.

She nodded and smiled for what felt like the first time in about a month. His uniform was messy already, but that didn't really matter, seeing as even Faith had her shirt untucked and no one cared about looking smart in uniform anyway. It was at the balls where you had to be neat and smart, not in lessons. Esmé glanced about and made sure no one else was looking, then raised a finger to her lips to suggest this was a secret. Then she seemed to change. She grew a little taller, her hair became brown and longer, her skin darkened ever so slightly, and her legs and waist were all a little more feminine. In all, she was now the spitting image of Faith, but the way she had transformed made it seem as though she had barely changed. In the next second, she had changed back into her normal pale, fairly short, blonde self and was leaning against the wall again, anxious to know whether she'd done the right thing in showing this new boy her metamorphmagus powers. It didn't matter, she never used them, but still... He could tell anyone, and then she'd be a freak show. She hated people looking at her as it was, let alone if they were expecting something fantastic.

Alex's eyes widened in shock. 'Wow' he though, and quickly looked away. He'd realized he was staring. He turned to see if she really had changed, and sure enough Faith was still twittering on about the castle walls. Alex has never seen a metamorphmagus before, it was quite an experience, especially as he didn't even know who she was. He knew he preferred the blonde the way she was though, one Faith was quite enough. He looked back at her. Her expression told him that she didn't do this often, or maybe she was worried he would tell everyone, so he ran his fingers a long his lips as if to zip them shut. So what if he was acting like a bit of a dork, he did it back home so he might as well continue the tradition. Alex pulled his brown hair out his eyes and tried tucking it away, but it just fall back to where it was before. He bit his lip slightly, he wasn't sure if his powers were worth even mentioning. Sure, being able to hear pretty much anything around you was good for some things, but in a school it was just gossip and lies. Not very helpful.

"My name's Esmé," she mouthed, glad to know that he was vaguely trustworthy. How odd that she should spend her whole school life avoiding people, and yet she trusted someone she didn't know the name of and had only seen for five minutes with her biggest secret. She doubted he'd be able to work out what she'd said, but it was more for her sake than his. The walls were beginning to break, it seemed, even if it was only bit by bit. She smiled again - the way he played with his hair reminded her of someone she'd forgotten, or maybe someone she'd never known before. It was all very confusing.

"Alex," he replied, hoping that she could understand him. He had heard the way her lips formed the words she was trying to say. At least acute hearing was good for something. Alex was a common name though , maybe she would be expecting something more...foreign? He was from Bulgaria after all. Not that he knew any of the language, no one learnt Bulgarian so they just learnt English instead. He retuned the smile hoping that she would be one of the first friends he'd be able to make at this school.

Rolling her eyes at the girl, she soon took Alex's hand and walked him away from Esme, muttering words under her breath. "Come on we don't have all day yunno," She soon walked him out into the grounds, "Well this is probably the most beautiful place here, the grounds are spectacular and I'll take you to the lake, it's my most favorite place in the whole world." She giggled and played with some of her hair, as they soon walked through the grounds, as she looked back to his bag, with a flick of her wand it was gone, "Don't worry its safe in the common room," She assured him.

So he was called Alex? And he'd understood what she was saying. Maybe this was the start of what other people called 'friendship'. Yes, she decided it was. She was about to say something else when Faith grabbed Alex's arm and whisked him away out of the doors into the grounds. Esmé frowned and glared at Faith's back. She was tempted to stick her tongue out, but that would have been incredibly immature. And Faith was doing her stupid flirting now, laughing girlishly and playing with her hair. Anyone could do that, so what was so special about Faith? And besides, wasn't Faith going out with that Cullen boy in the year above? Esmé folded her arms and bit her lip, considering what to do now. She could just go to her lesson, or she could... Well, what could she do?

Alex let himself be pulled away sending a sort-of sad smile towards Esmé as he left. He looked out into the Hogwarts grounds, it was the first time he's seen grass with no snow in a while. He went to grab for his bag as they began to walk again, and realized it was gone, "Are you sure it's safe?" he asked tentatively, he didn't want anything to be lost or stolen on his first day. He tugged at his shirt to try and make himself look less bedraggled. Faith was being kind to him, the least he could do was look nice, and not ruin what reputation she seemed to have acquired.

"Of course it's safe, its on your bed." She smiled and pushed some of her hair out of the way before straightening her tie, looking to him she then nodded, she couldn't help that immature little Slytherins' were jealous of how she looked and acted, jealous - Faith couldn't help the way she was, it was natural, unlike them - mostly fake. She could feel the girls eyes burning her back but it just made her laugh more, it was funny how much that she could wind them up with a bit of harmless flirting, just because she could get friends easily and they couldn't.

Alex chewed on his lip, he didn't like it when he didn't know exactly where his things were. But he would have to get used to it. "Esmé seems nice..." he began, wondering if that was really the right topic of conversation. But it was too late to take it back now. His hands wondered into his pockets as he stood admiring the view. He supposed Hogwarts wasn't all bad. It wouldn't be like Durmstrang. 'Stop!,' Alex thought to himself, 'Stop thinking about that other school, you're not there anymore, you're not going back any time soon.' Alex let out a small sigh, 'Lets hope it's not the same...'

"Im not sure about that," She rolled her eyes as she looked to him with a soft smile, "Want to go to the lake or the forest?" She asked with a charming smile, in no way was she flirting with him - just because she was pretty and liked to laugh and twirl her hair, everyone took it in the wrong way. She was devoted to Edward and in no way would she cheat on him for some boy whom she hardly knew.