Eat Me, Drink Me

Alice managed to get to the train station just fine. She remembered the details from the movies so she didn't need to wait for the Weasley family to demonstrate with their carts. She just walked right in without a need for a reckless charge. She kept her luggage close on hand.

She needed to come earlier than the main cast. She didn't want to interact with Harry or Ron since she didn't want to change the story. Alice's main goal didn't need to interfere with a story that was just going to work out on its own. Plus, as a lone girl with no witches or wizards as friends, she intended to grab a compartment with some peers fairly early.

"Are there any bags that you would like me to take care of?" asked one of the train helpers.

"No, thank you," Alice said with a slight bow of the head. She gestured to her lone pink carry on that was now enchanted to hold many more items inside. "I would like to keep this one on me. Could you help me up inside instead?"

The helper raised an eyebrow, but he helped Alice with her bag. He thought that the bag would be very light, but instead, it weighed more than a normal carry on should be. It felt like he was lifting a trolley full of suitcases with one hand, so he had to resort to lifting it with two hands.

"Thank you," Alice said with a smile as she took out ten sickles to tip the man. "I don't think I could have could have lifted that on my own."

"Ah one of those enchanted suitcases," the helper said with a huff and puff. He pocketed the tip gratefully and straightened out his uniform. Perhaps he needed to get back into shape. "Why didn't you get it enchanted to be lighter?"

"I did," Alice answered as she tilted her head. "Perhaps I packed too much. I'm just very excited."

The helper pat Alice on the head. "Well, this is only the start of the journey. Why don't you head on inside?"

The train was fairly normal for Alice. The only thing that stood out was the number of robed minors, moving through the narrow hallway.

Alice made it through a good part of the train without incident until some of the smaller children, in their excitement, pushed past the older ones in a hurry to grab a nice compartment for their friends. The 6th year had to react quickly as he tried to balance his carry on that he was trying to place in the overhead. This loss of balance caused Alice to almost get smacked in the face by a leather suitcase.

"Oi! Watch it!" called out the 6th year. He looked down at the small girl and put his luggage up properly. "You alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you," Alice said, frowning at the lack of space. She felt that she should have maybe left her carry-on with the help now. "Excuse me."

"Oh right, here you go," the 6th year said as he moved into a compartment, freeing up the path for Alice. She thanked him and moved forward. She stopped as she encountered an area to the right of her was giggling quite a bit.

"Instead of getting crushed by idiots, why don't you just come in here?" a girl with a more squished up nose said.

Alice looked down the hallway that held a chaotic amount of students in robes trying to get into order before the train departs and sighed. She reluctantly conceded and joined the young girl in her compartment.

"You're right," Alice said, silently cursing at the lack of efficiency that the train ran on. "Hello, my name is Alice Blair. Thank you for offering a seat."

She did a little curtsy out of habit, but apparently, it went well with these other girls since they did their little greetings.

"My name is Pansy Parkinson," the pug-nose girl said with a smile as she bowed her head slightly. It appeared that she was the leader of the group of girls here.

"I'm Daphne Greengrass," a fairly fair girl, sitting across from Pansy said.

"Millicent Bulstrode," the curt greeting came the hefty girl who was sitting next to Pansy.

Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent were familiar to Alice because they were the trio of Slytherin girls that would consistently show up in the movies as bullies. Alice did know that they also weren't destined to directly become Death Eaters since they were present before the final battle of Hogwarts on the student side. They were safe for Alice to befriend since she needed connections and what better connection then a bunch of gossiping pureblood witches.

Alice took her spot next to Daphne after the introductions were done.

"Thank you so much," Alice said, looking at Pansy. "It would have been a nightmare if you didn't offer this seat to me."

"It's what we girls have to do!" Pansy asked, puffing her chest out. "If we witches don't look out for each other, then who will?"

"Don't lie," Daphne said with a sneaky smile. "You wanted to sit next to Draco, but you didn't have the courage to so you're stuck with us."

"W-well what if I don't make it into Slytherin?" Pansy asked. "Then I'd have all of the hope, but none of the chance. Everyone knows that Draco will be a Slytherin."

"Pfft, like you'd be in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw," Millicent said with a giggle. "Maybe you'd be sorted into Gryffindor."

"I would not!" Pansy insisted. Her face fuming red.

"Wouldn't that be like a Romeo and Juliet situation?" Alice chimed in, wanting to get involved with the group's dynamic. If she stayed quiet, then the trio would simply go on and on throughout the train.

"What's that?" Pansy and Millicent asked. "Who is this Romeo and Juliet?"

Daphne sighed deeply at the two sheltered pure-bloods. Parkinson's and Bulstrode's probably didn't have a single muggle book in their library. The Greengrass family has a few romance novels because they were a favorite read for her younger sister Astoria.

"It's a popular play where the two stars are born in rival houses, but love each other," Daphne explained. "It's nice because it's a forbidden love."

"Oh so even if I were to be sorted in a different house, you're saying that Draco and I would be fated to be together?" Pansy asked, looking up in a hopeful way.

Ignoring Pansy's fanciful daydreams, Daphne looked over to Alice. "I didn't think I would meet someone with that taste in literature," she complimented. "I think you would get along with my younger sister. How did we not meet before?"

"Enough of that, the train started," Millicent said with a whiny voice. "Doesn't that mean that the trolley witch is going to make her rounds soon?"

"Are you really going to buy more sweets?" Pansy asked, lightly jabbing at Millicent's rounded figure. "You don't exactly need anymore."

"They are overpriced anyway," Daphne said. "You should have just packed some."

"But the chocolate frogs are the best things to scare the other first years sitting over there," Millicent said, as she gestured to the compartment across from theirs through the compartment window. Alice looked over to see a familiar busy messy-haired, Hermione Granger. "I heard that one of them is a muggle-born so I bet they haven't seen a chocolate frog before. Plus chocolate frogs are just delicious! Two birds, one stone."

Daphne shook her head in disapproval, while Pansy was a little bit amused by the prank, but a little disgusted at the idea of eating chocolate that has been hopping around in this train. Yes, the train should be relatively clean, but that's still chocolate that's been on the floor.

"What if one of them eats the frog?" Alice asked. "The other girls could probably really like chocolate frogs and misunderstand your prank as a gift. Then you're out of a frog."

Millicent looked at Blair as if something just clicked in her head. "Ah, I don't want to share my sweets," the girl said with a nod. "She's not worth it."

A knock came from the door and an elderly British woman opened the door. She saw who was inside and sighed a little bit.

"Oh finally!" Millicent said as she clapped her hands together. Alice looked and saw that the Trolley Witch had no trolley. She must have past by the compartment that Harry was already.

"I'm sorry girls," the Trolley Witch said. "Somebody bought all of the sweets this time. Would you girls like some tea or juice?"

"Tea or juice?" Millicent said, puffing out her cheeks in disappointment.

"I'd like some tea for the four of us," Alice said as she broke out her coin purse. "I'd like a black tea if there's a choice."

"Of course deary, I will be right back with the tea," the elder lady said. "No charge since we ran out of sweets for everyone."

Alice smiled and thanked her. When the door closed, she started opening her pink carry on that she had.

"I didn't want tea," Millicent said, pouting.

"Yes, I don't know why you asked for four teas," Pansy followed. Daphne was quiet, but she was also judging Alice's choice and actions.

"But tea goes well with the sweets my father gave me," Alice said as she reached deeply into her luggage. Her whole torso had to dive in so that she could take out a box of cakes that were neatly packaged with plastic.

"You have your own enchanted luggage?" Daphne asked. "My family won't let me have one until I can sort my room properly. It's really easy to get things lost in those."

Alice smiled, as she looked into her carry on that had different labeled luggage inside like it was a matryoshka doll. The cake box came from one in the back that was labeled, "Bribes". Adam Blair was always keen on feeding people to make them favorable to you, but he might have also taken to heart himself as he was a little heavier than his doctor wanted him to be. Alice knew from experience, the best way to seal a deal was some drinks and good service, but since they were eleven tea and cakes.

"I can't eat all these by myself," Alice explained. "They go well with black tea."

Millicent hugged Alice tightly with a squeal and exclaimed, "Oh I like you!"

"Well played," Pansy said as she took one of the cakes from the box. "This is the best way to pay us back for the empty seat."

Alice grinned and silently thought, "Oh, just a small investment on some high-end customers is all."

The rest of the train ride to Hogwarts was uneventful. Alice didn't participate in the gossip very much, but she learned some new info about the side characters in the movie, like that Blaise Zabini's mother was rumored to be a black widow. She was widowed seven times and got richer each time. Alice was silently surprised that the seven Horcruxes in Harry Potter weren't just that witch's seven dead husbands.

When they arrived at the location, the girls went to the closest boat and waited for Alice to join them, but she was stopped by one of the train workers.

"Miss, your luggage would sink the boat," he explained. "Let me at least have it carried to the castle with the carriages."

Alice nodded since there wasn't anything useful in there for a simple boat ride. She quickly joined the girl in the boats and casually put herself on autopilot as it felt like the establishing shot of the movie was playing in front of her. It was pretty surreal as they continued to the school through the fog.

Even the encounter of Harry rejecting Draco's hand played out like it was in the movies. The only thing worth remarking was that Harry was a lot punier than in the movies. It was clear that he was malnourished and would need some proper time to grow up to the savior of the wizarding world. It was laughable that this frail child would get rid of Voldemort. The fuming Malfoy was just as amusing.

"How dare he," Pansy whispered to Alice which prompted a mental eye-roll.

The children were quickly escorted to the hall where the sorting hat was on display on a stool by Professor Minerva McGonagall. It sang it's tune fabulously and before Alice knew it she was called. She was distracted because she was busy examining Quirrell that was sitting on the teacher's table. It also didn't help that Blair was practically top of the list.

Alice reluctantly approached the stool and sat on it. She crossed her fingers and hoped that her past life's memories wouldn't cause her any trouble. She knew she could have tried protecting her mind with magic, but Alice didn't know how to. She only remembered vaguely that Snape knew how to protect the mind. Alice couldn't even find a book on it when she was book shopping with the man.

"Don't be nervous," Minerva said as she lowered the hat onto Alice's head. "Everything will be just fine."

A voice echoed into Alice's mind.

"Oh, what do we have here, what do we have here," the hat said, repeating the phrase over and over. Alice was glad that he wasn't screaming her thoughts to the rest of the world. "A peculiar mind you have here. You know so much, yet you're not a seer."

"I don't know everything," Alice admitted in her mind. She had only seen the movies, it's not like she had the time to read the books. Alice only spent time on things that were trending because of her work, not because she sought out the series. "Like I don't know if this 'sorting' has some nondisclosure agreement, because I would like it if you don't tell anyone else about my memories."

"Alice, I've seen many minds and few are like you. They can change the fates in strange ways," the sorting hat said. "I won't tell a soul about you."

"It seems like you know a lot, but don't care to seek out answers. So definitely not a Ravenclaw." the hat continued. "You are generous, but with some selfish intentions, so you can't be a Hufflepuff."

"Oh please not Gryffindor," Alice thought. She didn't want to deal with the Golden Trio since any small actions by her could change the story and her information would be useless.

"You don't belong in Gryffindor anyway," the hat said. "I can definitely say with utmost confidence that you are..."

"SLYTHERIN," the hat called out and the whole table of Slytherin cheered.

"Be wary though Alice," the sorting hat said. "This will be a lot more difficult of a journey than you think."

Before Alice could ask the hat by what it meant, Professor McGonagall had removed it off her head. She gave Alice a look filled with pity and shooed her off the stage since others needed to be placed. Her train buddies congratulated her before Alice reached the long table filled with green robes and ties.

"I haven't heard of the family name Blair before," said one of the older students. "Are you from abroad or are you a half-blood?"

The sudden interest in Alice's background was strange and offputting. To her, it came out of nowhere. Alice didn't know what to tell him since she vaguely remembered that muggle-borns weren't exactly common. Luckily the students were distracted as another was sorted into Slytherin. It was Millicent Bulstrode.

"Alice, I'm glad we can be in the same house," Millicent said as she clung to Alice's arm. "Only you know the true value in a good meal."

The older Slytherin's question finally made sense because of the portly young girl. Alice was in a house that was filled with muggle-hating wizards and witches, and the group that considered Alice as a friend was basically a bunch of mean girls. The hat was right, the journey was going to be harder than she anticipated.