Believe

Year One

Chapter One: Witches? Wands?

Alicia Jamie Copper was not a normal little girl, and that was how she liked it. To most, she was merely an enigma, a mere slip of a girl with a bright smile and pretty dark eyes. This was a girl who could bat her long, dark eyelashes at anyone, be it her parents, a friend or teacher and become excused from any crime she had committed. This in fact, was something Alice prided herself on greatly. The young girl had this thing, that her mother called 'natural charisma', or something like that, that she thought she had. Alice just thought she was amazing. She was right about that too.

She had never in all her eleven years of living, thought herself as anything other than extra-ordinary. Though, with the strict-looking woman sitting in front of her, these tumbled words escaping from her lips, she was beginning to rethink her life. After all, she liked to play practical jokes but she wasn't an idiot. If she was one of these so-called 'witches' then she wanted to see proof, and she wanted to see more than she'd been given. Turning her check to the old lady, Alice glanced at her mother's thinned lips and unamused expression.

"I don't particularly want to send my daughter to your school," her mother said, clear blue eyes glinting with a sort of unamused humour. Her mother wasn't the sort to pay around with jokes, she was very strict and very serious, this old lady – seemed to be getting on her last nerve.

The lady looked extremely cross with the blonde woman, and Alice felt it was a look that could normally send her hiding in her bedroom. "Your daughter needs to be trained to take care of her gift. Magical binds to exist, but are very dangerous to place on one so young," she said, her voice sounding like it was able to cut steel. "It more often than not, can result in Miss Cooper's death."

Alarmed for her general welfare, her head shot up and threw her mother a pleading look. Her grey eyes widening to expose one of her most trusted methods of convincing. The puppy dog eyes. "I don't want to die…"

"You won't die, don't be silly Alicia," her mother snapped angrily. Alice winced with the tone she used against her.

"I want to learn about magic and stuff though," Alice argued, even if this was against her better judgement. There was something about this ladies words that rang true. It felt like a piece of her that had been missing was finally found. "It sounds really cool."

"No."

"Sarah…"

"No, Nick. No. She's not going. Can you imagine what will happen in that place? She's not going off without us," the blonde argued, though now with the tanned man sitting next to her. Nick Cooper was a tough looking guy, with bountiful muscles and not very many brain cells.

"Sarah," her farther reaffirmed, glancing down at Alice his face a carefully blank canvas. "She wants to go. It's what's best for her to have this kind of freedom."

Her mother's face twisted into a scowl, and Alice could sense the argument brewing between them. Her parents had a strange way of actually parenting. Her father was likely to let her do whatever she wanted, but her mother made up for that fact by never letting her do anything. Alice rolled her pretty eyes, and turned to the Professor, ignoring the whispered argument between the other two adults.

"What do you learn at this Hogs warts?" Alice asked, voice curious but toned down a few notches as to not attract the attention of her parents.

The lady gave her a very stern look, before righting the glasses sitting atop her nose. "It's Hogwarts. You will learn a verity of things; everyday charms, how to transfigure objects, about magical plants, the stars, how to brew potions-," her voice was just as soft as Alice's had been.

"What do potions do?" she quarried, a dangerous thought brewing somewhere in the back of her mind.

"Many different things, it will be more in depth during the class of course."

"How about something like, growing horns? Or say, turn the hair on your head a different shade?" she pressed, finding it difficult to keep her voice down.

"Pranking is not accepted at Hogwarts," the Professor warned. How had she known? These things couldn't be related to pranking that easily, could it? The sharp warning from the Professor though, seemed to catch the attention of her blonde parents. It made her wonder, actually, how she could have two blonde parents and have black hair?

"It won't matter, because she's not going, dammit."

"She's going, Sarah!"

This was going to take quite a long time. Though she was certain that she'd get what she wanted, in the end. She always did.

To her disappointment, the trip to this place called 'Diagon Ally' was not taken on a flying carpet, or a flying anything. Actually, they took the train. When they had finished, the Professor (McGonagall was her name), had guided them through the stores of people to a dank sort of pub, that looked like it'd seen better days.

Her mother was frowning rather heavily when they waked up to the building. "It's an abandoned house, Nick."

Her farther just shrugged his tanned shoulders, not at all bothered by the woman's assessment. Alice rolled her eyes, flicking a stray curl over her shoulder. Honestly, the little pub didn't look that bad.

Regardless, they walked through the little pub and made their way through the back, where the Professor tapped a brick wall with a shiny stick (sorry wand), in a strange rhyme. To her astonishment, the bricks wriggled out of the way, until only an archway was left. Glancing through the moving bricks, she spied a cute little village, bustling with people wearing little dresses.

"Come along now," The Professor said, voice suddenly hurried, like the bustling of the crowed was enough to cajole her into moving around faster. Her feet hit the heavy pavement below her, and there was a point where she wished she had about a dozen more eyes.

Everything was so interesting, and there was an owl perched on a building. A child was throwing a Frisbee at a cat, only to have it snarl and rebound back to him. She swore it had teeth too, when she glanced down at the object. Before she knew it though, the small group had arrived at a place that was completely made out of white marble, and faintly resembled a castle. "This is Gringotts, the Wizarding Bank. A place to exchange money and, in the future, create an account."

Walking through the wide sweeping archways that encased the doors, she suddenly had a feeling of de ja vu. It was almost like she'd belonged here, not just in the bank, but this ally made her feel more at peace with herself than she ever had. It was like things were right. Glancing around the interior, and trying to ignore the small thing glaring at her, its pointed teeth gleaming, she was shocked by just how much white marble there was.

Now this, this was a bank. Though, she had been slightly curious as to why they only appeared to hire short, fat, ugly people with pointed ears, and sharp teeth to work. Was it a sort of cult-based thing? Purposefully waiting until her mum and Professor McGonagall were distracted by one of the ugly, short men, she slipped away from them, grey eyes glinting wildly around the room.

Free at last! With her wide scan, she managed to pick up on this massive family of red-heads, and she figured if anyone knew anything, then it'd be them. "'Sup?" she chimed, popping up next to the youngest boy, who looked like he could be her age. He jumped, throwing his arms out wildly before he saw her.

"Huh, what?"

"I said hello," Alice commented dryly, eyeing the boys confuse face like it should offend her. "Just wanted to ask; do you know what these short people, are? They are people right?"

"The… Goblins?" the boy asked her hesitantly. "Err, hello to you too?"

"Do you make everything sound like a question?" Alice asked with an arched brow, quite enjoying the way she made this red-haired boy flounder just a bit.

"I dunno, not really?" the boy was really looking like he was struggling for answers. "Are you a Muggle Born?"

"Yes?" Alice responded in a question, hoping that perhaps, this would annoy him, like it did for her. She made sure to sound challenging though, like she was accusing him of something he hadn't done.

"Uh, names Ron? Ron Weasley," he said slowly, like he wasn't sure why she sounded so put out.

"Alice, Alice Copper. Pleasure to meet you Mr, everything-is-a-question Weasley."

Ron opened his mouth, obviously to defend himself a bit, when two boys a few years older than them, with equally red hair, both grabbed one of Ron's shoulders. "Oh Ronnie~!"

"Has Ickle Ronnikins~!"

"Actually done it~!"

"So sweet~!"

"So young~"

"We're so proud!" They finished together, tears of amazement falling from their eyes. Alice blinked slowly, those tears, had to be fake. What were they on about? Ron slowly starting turning the same shade as his hair.

"Shut up."

"I'm Fred,"

"No, I'm Fred," the other twin argued with the first one.

"No, no, I'm Fred today, remember?"

"Oh yes, well then I'm George and this is my twin Fred. Oh lovely friend of Ickle Ronnikins!" George, or was it Fred? Said, his voice bright and chipper enough for him to get a glance of distain from another red-haired brother.

"Alice," she responded after it looked like they'd finished their interesting twin-speak. "I-."

"Alicia Copper, you are not allowed to walk off like that!" an angry voice could be heard, a figure that matched the voice storming over to the tiny group. Alice sighed.

"Gotta go! Nice meeting you," she called before she ducked away, not quite wanting to face the humiliation of being told off in front of anyone. Especially Fred or George, they both looked pretty cute, actually. Alice made sure to give her mother her best innocent, 'I didn't do it' smile as she approached, but that only still the look of anger for a brief moment.

Ah, mothers. Protective little morsels. The Professor, didn't even look surprised.

Shopping with something that should be revered as something both fun, and tiring. On one hand, she loved getting new stuff, but on the other hand, she hated all the walking, and long hours it took to get all that stuff. That's why she liked Christmas so much, tonnes of presents and no actual shopping.

It wasn't all bad, she guessed. She had gotten these robe things, which were really just long dresses, though it looked like it would kind of be uncomfortable. The rest of the uniform was kind of boring, and private-schoolish, but she didn't overly mind that. The Book Store was filled to the brim with bright coloured novels that she had little to no interest in, even if they did get piled high into her arms.

She hoped that she wasn't expected to read all of these things. Then they had walked into this shop that smelt terrible, but held her attention for more than a few brief moments. A potion shop! This is the ingredients she'd use to make a potion to turn someone's hair green! Or sprout antlers, or, or…!

The next stop, wasn't nearly as interesting as the previous because all they did was buy this thick looking paper, parchment, she thought it was called. And these Quill things, pared with little ink wells, secretly, she wondered how to write with things like these, outwardly, she asked for the most outrageous and obvious colour Quills that she could find. Plus, the ink that could change colours was pretty neat.

Coming up to one of their last stops, they passed by a pet store, and after brief begging, an explanation on how the mailing system works, and an impromptu lecture, Alice was now the proud owner of a black owl. The bird was beautiful, his dark feathers were shiny and clean, he had these amber eyes that were slowly watching everyone that passed by. She had chosen him for one reason, other than he was a majestic looking bird. Every time someone walked past him that wasn't looking at him, he'd hoot until he held their attention, then he would preen.

She liked his, 'shut up and look at me' attitude. Though, she did hope that he didn't go the same way as that pet goldfish of hers did…

The very last store they walked into, Alice had to be reassured that this was the last store at least four times, was tiny. Dusty too, and rather boring, with only one old rickety chair, a tiny counter and heaps of boxes, that kind of looked like shoe boxes, dazedly placed everywhere.

"Welcome to Ollivanders!" A scratchy sort of voice called, though it was said so quietly, that it couldn't have only been more than a whisper. He was right in front of her so suddenly, and his misty blue eyes were staring right into hers. He was terrifyingly close.

Taking a brief step back, she demanded; "How'd you get there so fast!?"

"I thought I'd fitted the last of your family, tell me, which branch is yours?" The man, was his name Ollivander? Asked her. What the heck was he going on about? Last of her family? Her family of Muggles? Branch? Was she some sort of tree?

"I'm Alice Cooper," Alice replied, crossing her arms over her chest stoutly, glaring at him for confusing her, before tilting her chin arrogantly. "And I'm not a tree. I don't have branches."

"Mr Ollivander isn't calling you a tree Miss Cooper," the aging Professor deciding to intervene, her lips pressed together to form a tight line, her glass encased eyes twitched slightly. "He was merely enquiring of your heritage. You do resemble an old family, which has no direct members left."

"Oh," Alice responded, not really feeling all that much better. Honestly, she rather being called a tree.

"I see, what's your wand hand, young Miss?" The misty-voiced man asked, his eyes looked faraway. He looked like he was thinking. About what?

"Right?" she asked, wondering if this was a question on what hand she used to write with.

"Splendid," the man cheered, clapping his hands together like this was the most amazing thing in the world. His hand reaching out to grab a tape measure, the silly little thing moving about on its own, taking strange measurements – like the bridge of her nose. "Now, I'll have you know that it's always the wand which chooses the Wizard, not the other way around. Here, try this," he said, pulling out a random lightly coloured wand out from a box before pushing it onto her. "7 and a half inches, maple wood with the core of a single Unicorn hair," he finished with a smile.

Alice took to offered wand and flicked it as a box, causing it to set itself on fire. The old man snatched the wand right out of her hand, muttering, 'by Jove no'. "Next! This one, 9 inches, Elder wood, with a Phoenix feather core."

Shrugging the black haired girl reached over and grasped the lightly coloured wood, flicking it again, she accidently managed to explode a small pertain of the man' desk. She didn't have to look back to know it was her mother that was gasping in fear. "No, I think not," Ollivander muttered, again taking the wand off her. "13 inches, Ash wood with the core of a Dragon Heartstring," he continued before handing her over another shiny wand, this time, it was light brown.

Giving a wave of her wand encased hands, she thankfully didn't explode anything else in the store. Instead, they were showered with an array of sparkles that gathered around all the dust in the room for a pretty whirlwind dance before they banished the dust, leaving the room looking clean. Ollivander was clapping; "Oh yes, that's the right one over there. This Wand is rather charming, good for offensive spells and rather sturdy. That will be eight Gallons, please."

How could a wand be charming? Alice scoffed at the thought. Maybe he meant that she was charming? Did her wand and her share traits? Obviously, if the wand was charming of all things, than it did.