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Alex Danvers is known for many things, she’s a genius, top of her class, one of the most talented duelers to have ever set foot in the school and to top it off she was a superb Quidditch player, already having beaten half of the Keeper records even though she was only barely a fifth year. She was known for her quick temper and general disdain for human interaction in general and had found herself raised on some sort of pedestal, she was considered untouchable. She was the kind of person so shrouded in mystery that people were overly intrigued despite her obvious disinterest. She was the kind of person who, somehow, was well known and she hated it. She really did, because most people in her shoes would have been set, would have had a perfect life set up for themselves, with friends and normal gossip and a great job lined up. Alex has none of those things.
Alex Danvers is known for many things, but none of it’s any good. Because she was a Danvers, a family known for always being in Gryffindor, who was, for some reason completely unknown to her, sorted into Slytherin. Naturally most of the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs automatically didn’t trust her (“imagine what must be wrong with her if she was put into Slytherin with a family like hers”) and her classmates in Slytherin hated her because she came from a family of Gryffindors. So Alex had spent her entire school career fighting tooth and nail to be the best (and not just to prove to her mother that she was still worth her time) and she was well adjusted by the time she was starting her fifth year, she had no friends and went to a school when almost everyone hated her. (Her only saving grace had been when Kara finally got to come to Hogwarts her second year, then at least she had her little sister around sometimes, and to some extent her sister’s friends, who she liked and would hang out with during the summer, but refused to bring into her issues at school).
Alex’s life is completely turned upside down when she walks into her first potions lesson and finds (for the first time since she started school) someone sitting in the chair next to her normal seat. She blinked and glanced around the room, noting that all of the other seats are taken she quickly moves to her seat and pulls her things out as Professor M’orzz writes the instructions for the year’s introductory lesson on the board. Nothing really happened that day, she simply spent what time she wasn’t working on her notes observing the girl.
She doesn't recognize her (not that she paid a lot of attention to her classmates), the other girl’s skin was slightly darker than Alex’s and her hair was long and dark, and her eyes (from the brief glance she’d gotten when she girl had asked to use some of her ink to write with) were glassy and rimmed black from a lack of sleep and Alex felt a strange urge to pull her into a hug and never let her go (Alex blamed her hormones).
She found out later that evening from Kara that the girl’s name was Maggie Sawyer and that she transferred to Hogwarts from Ilvermorny and was in Hufflepuff with Kara. “I spoke to her when she first got here, she didn’t really give much away but I know something happened with her family and she was forced to move.”
Alex had felt a spark of something akin to excitement when she learned the girl was new to the school, no wonder she didn’t seem freaked out talking to me, but she quickly deflated. “You think you could… I don’t know… Convince her not to be around me?” Kara’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion, “She sits next to me in class and I don’t want her thinking that means we should be friendly or anything.” Kara raised an eyebrow at her, “I mean, you know how people feel about me and if she’s having trouble already I don’t want to accidently make it worse by befriending her…” Kara rolled her eyes at her but agreed anyways.
Which was why Alex was surprised the next time that they had potions when the other girl immediately turned to her when she sat down and started talking about the potion the class was brewing like it was a normal thing. She must have noticed Alex’s confused, deer-in-the-headlights look because she abruptly stopped, crossed her arms and fixed Alex with a stern gaze. “Look, I don’t care what people have to say about you, I’m going to talk to you cause I want to and if anyone has a problem with that then I’ll show them why people at my old school didn’t mess with me.”
After that she sort of accepts that for some reason the other girl wanted to be friends with her and she found herself enjoying not being alone constantly. She had five classes total with Maggie, potions, herbology, defense against the dark arts, care of magical creatures and astronomy, and she finds herself looking forward to those classes more than her others now. (And there’s a little part of her that starts to look forward to seeing her for reasons beyond just finally having a friend, not that she’d admit it).
One of the downsides of having a friend is trying to hide some of the more… Interesting aspects of being hated by the majority of the population of the school. And while hiding the notes and occasional bruises were a bit of a pain, the real issue was trying to sneakily make her way to bed. This wouldn’t be hard, if she hadn’t been forcibly removed from the Slytherin dorms her first year and not been allowed back since (she hasn’t known the password to get into the common rooms besides the first week of school every year). She sleeps in a alcove in the Astronomy Tower where she keeps all of her belongings and even though she’s used to it she’s pretty sure Maggie would flip out and hex somebody if she found out.
Alex was curled up in her thin silver and green blanket, wishing that she’d thought to grab the comforter off her bed at the beginning of the year since it was starting to get a little cold come December (okay it was really cold and it had been for the last like six weeks but she wasn’t about to go out of her way to find a warmer blanket cause that would cause people to ask questions that she didn’t want to answer). And unfortunately her mother had once again thrown a fit prior to the school year starting about her daughter being in Slytherin and had decided that she wasn’t going to give Alex her money for her school supplies which had left Alex scrambling to get together her books and supplies, not leaving her any money for the comfort items she normally was able to buy to make her stay in the Astronomy Tower more comfortable. (The only reason she’d been able to buy her school books in the first place was because Kara had realized what Eliza had done and split her money with Alex, which meant that they both had cheap secondhand books this year instead of the brand new ones they normally did. Alex didn’t even want to think about how her moth would react if you found out she’d spend her precious Kara’s money on herself like a selfish brat ).
She hadn’t even bothered changing out of her school robes in an attempt to keep herself warm and was so busy trying to huddle farther into the corner that she didn’t noticed the pair of footsteps walking towards her until suddenly Maggie appeared in front of her, her star charts and telescope clutched in her fingers as her eyes widened in shock at the sight of Alex laying there.
Alex froze, as if it would suddenly make her invisible and silently wished the ground would swallow her up whole. Instead she had to watch as Maggie’s eyes narrowed in understanding and her nostrils flared in anger.
“Danvers, please tell me this isn’t what I think it is.” Alex choked as she tried to find the words to reply.
“What… No… Just… Like… I’m… Just doing homework…” Alex winced at herself, knowing it was about as believable as her claiming Kara could shoot lasers out of her eyes or fly without a broom. Maggie seemed to agree with her.
“Alex you are the worst liar I’ve ever met… Seriously… What the hell? Why didn’t you tell me?” Alex pulled her blanket tighter around herself as Maggie glared down at her, feeling very exposed all of a sudden, like Maggie might have just pieced together just how much her house hated her. “You know what? I don’t care… Just…” Before Alex really had a chance to figure out what was happening Maggie had stomped off, leaving Alex alone once again.
Alex stayed there frozen for several minutes before a couple of tears finally fell. She knew that, eventually, something would keep Maggie from wanting to be friends with her, but she never imagined that this would be what drove the other woman away. It wasn’t until about thirty minutes later that she heard the door to the tower open again and she froze. Before she could do anything however Maggie suddenly appeared in front of her again, this time toting her giant Hufflepuff comforter in one arm and a couple bottles of butterbeer in the other.
Without a word she handed Alex the drinks and unwrapped Alex’s blanket from around her body, quickly sliding in next to her she pulled her own, much warmer, comforter around them and Alex sunk into the warmth readily. Maggie pulled out her wand and tapped the sides of the butterbeer bottles to warm them up.
Maggie didn’t ask any questions that night, she just pulled Alex into her side and held her until they both fell asleep. And the next morning (which was Saturday) she’d asked one of the house elves to bring them up some breakfast and she spent the entire morning listening to Alex as she finally gave in and told her everything, about exactly why she was so disliked in school, about how she was treated and Maggie just wrapped her arms around her and didn’t say a word. And for the next two months Maggie crept up to the Astronomy Tower every night and curled into Alex’s side to fall asleep. (And Alex melted every time, her little crush developing more quickly than she’d normally be comfortable with).
Then suddenly the castle was abuzz with excitement, and Alex managed to catch that the Sorting Hat was, for some reason, going to be making an appearance in the Great Hall for dinner. Alex shrugged it off, figuring that they probably had a student transfer in the middle of the year that was just going to be sorted (she ignored the voice in the back of her head pointing out that Maggie hadn’t been involved in a public sorting).
She sat down to eat at her spot at the Slytherin table (in the far back, where no one else ever sat) that evening and found that she couldn’t seem to get Maggie to look at her for some reason (they sat directly across from each other so they could try to pretend that they were eating together). Before she really had a chance to get to worried about it the Great Hall suddenly went completely silent as the Headmaster stood up and gestured for the room to be quiet.
“Good evening students, before we eat our meal this evening I’m sure you already know we have a special guest making an appearance tonight. The Sorting Hat has asked to be brought down to make an announcement, so I’ll turn it over.” Professor J’onzz sat down and then the Sorting Hat suddenly began to speak.
“I’m over 1000 years old now… And not once have I ever made a mistake when sorting a student, so I guess you might say I’m a little overdue.” There were a few chuckles but overall everyone simply looked confused. “A few years ago I sorted a student who I had a lot of trouble deciding where they belong and in the end, I went against my gut instinct because I thought they might logically be better placed in a different house. However, after watching them for the last several years I realize I was wrong and am now going to fix my mistake.” The Great Hall immediately erupted in confused whispers and the Headmaster had to step in and silence the room before the Sorting Hat was able to continue. “Thank you Headmaster. Now I already have a pretty good idea of where this student is going to be going. However, I think I want to have an actual sorting now so I don’t accidentally make the same mistake twice.” Professor J’onzz stood back up and walked over to the Sorting Hat and picked it up off the stool.
“Miss. Danvers if you would please come up here.” Alex met Kara’s eyes at the Hufflepuff table and her sister shrugged, neither of them knowing which one of them he was talking about but secretly hoping for the same one. Professor J’onzz seemed to realize the problem after a couple of seconds of silence. “I meant Alex.” He clarified. And the next thing Alex knew she was standing in front of the Headmaster in front of the entire school, not completely remembering walking up there in a daze of merlin’s beard what’s happening???
Then she was sitting on the stool and the sorting hat was dropping on top of her head and suddenly the whole world came to a stand still.
“Well… We meet again Alexandria. Yes I see what she meant now… Yes, things do need to change…” Alex felt confused, unsure of what exactly was happening.
“I… I don’t understand… What are you talking about?” The Sorting Hat hummed audibly but continued speaking directing into her mind.
“You’re friend Margaret, she came it me in a fuss a couple of weeks ago, broke into the Headmaster’s office for the sole purpose of giving me a piece of her mind. J’onn was so amused to walk in on it he didn’t get get upset with her.” Alex’s mind spun, Maggie had done this? “Yes, she was very mad and seemed determined to take it out on me… Not that I blame her.” And then Alex understood, cause Maggie had been pissed a couple of weeks ago, Alex had been jumped after Quidditch practice by a group of Gryffindors and had to spend several days in the Hospital Wing with several broken bones and a severe concussion.
“Mags… Did this for me?” Alex asks, disbelieving.
“Oh yes… She’s quite taken with you, much like you are with her I might add.” Alex blushed but froze when she realized was it meant.
“You mean…”
“Yes… Now however I think it’s time to finally put you where you belong… I hope the rest of your time here at Hogwarts was better than it has been previous… RAVENCLAW!” The last word was shouted out loud and suddenly the room was filled with thunderous applause and the second the hat was removed from her head she found Kara’s Ravenclaw friends standing in front of her waiting for her to stand so they could hug her and glancing down she saw her tie changing color, the green turning bright blue and the silver fading to bronze. And then she was crushed by Winn and Vasquez and soon after the rest of Kara’s friends.
“Now you don’t have any excuse not to hang out with us!” Winn shouted above the ruckus in the hall and Alex laughed, happily hugging them back and trying to keep her tears at bay (she knew it wouldn’t fix everything, that a lot of this people had treated her terribly for years, but at least she could spend time with the SuperFriends as they called themselves without feeling bad).
And then Maggie was standing in front of her and before Alex could really think about it she grabbed her roughly by the tie and drug her forwards, kissing her deep and hard in front of the entire school because she was so happy and Maggie kissed her back just as ferociously until they were forced to part by Kara shouting that she didn’t need to see that.
And that was the scene on the front page of the Daily Prophet the next day. Alex dragging Maggie into a kiss followed up by the little picture Kara yelling at them to knock it off… It was hung on their fridge for the rest of their lives, because not every couple manages to get a picture of their first kiss and they weren't going to let it go to waste.