NOTE: As mentioned earlier, the OC has two muggle-born parents. The blood status of a person with this type of family is not explained in canon, so I have decided to keep the OC as muggle-born. I am aware that there are varied takes on this matter (i.e., they can be considered half-blood) and this is a minor oversight on my part, but please do understand that I started this book in 2015 and it is now complete, so I will not be changing this anymore. Thanks and I hope you enjoy reading! :)

EDITED 7/10/21

The sun was shining down on the Black Lake, the light reflecting off of the still water and making it look like it was glowing. The birds that soared past the windows of the castle chirped heartily, even when they swooped down to fly just above the Forbidden Forest. Students of all ages and houses chatted with one another as they walked down the corridors on their way to classes or their breaks. In essence, it was a typical, beautiful day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Jessica Hawthorne was one of its admirers that breezy afternoon of October 1991.

But the fourth year Gryffindor must have spoken too soon, because the peace she had been relishing in was broken not long after when a high-pitched scream caught her off guard.

"Jess!"

The familiar voice from behind Jessica caused her to halt abruptly in the middle of the hall. Suddenly, somebody rammed into her side, making her stumble and drop her book in the process.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry," the culprit said in a rush, not bothering to look back at her before he took off running to wherever. His scarlet training robes and broom in hand were enough to reveal that it was Oliver Wood, a boy from her house in the year above.

"What a gentleman," Jessica grumbled sarcastically, picking up her things.

"Oliver Wood may be cute, but I swear, there's probably nothing else in his head except for Quidditch," said a female voice that was now in front of her. Jessica sighed and looked up to find her blonde friend that had just spoken.

"Still, Alista. The least he could've done was sound genuine and help me out. Anyway, why did you yell for me in the first place?"

"Oh, right!" Alista clapped her hands excitedly. "I finally talked to Roger Davies."

"The Ravenclaw?"

"Yeah!"

Jessica fought back an amused smile. Alista had always been such a social butterfly — or, if she wanted to be more realistic with her description, a flirt. But she had always done it in good taste and without any bad intentions, so all Jessica could do was support her escapades and indulge her stories.

"Haven't you two already talked before? I mean, you have classes together, don't you?"

"But this was a real conversation, Jess," Alista stressed. "I'll tell you everything later with Beth so I don't have to repeat what happened."

"Weren't you just with Beth earlier?" Jessica raised her eyebrows. She was sure that the third piece to their puzzle of a friendship, Bethany, had already been with Alista almost the entire day because of the classes they shared together.

"She left me for Tyler Roden."

"That's because they have a project to work on together."

"Yeah, but the boy gave me a disgusted look."

"No offense, but you are a Slytherin," Jessica said slowly. "It's kind of the norm that Slytherins and Gryffindors don't mix. I suppose we're one of the few exceptions."

"But you're a Gryffindor and a muggle-born. I seriously don't see what the problem is," the blonde pouted. Although Alista was a half-blood, she managed to get into Slytherin because of her ambitious personality. Still, she was surrounded by purebloods who were more than likely to be blood purists, which had initially worried Jessica when they met. But she was grateful to find out early into their friendship that Alista and her family, despite coming from a line of mostly Slytherins, did not care about blood purity or house supremacies. It was clear that she was in no way a horrible person like most people would assume, no thanks to the stigma that all of Slytherin's witches and wizards became evil.

Nevertheless, life as a witch still wasn't easy for muggle-borns that constantly have to deal with the prejudice that the magical world continues to hold towards them. Frankly, life was even harder when one is from a family full of muggle-borns who somehow managed to get past that prejudice and make their names known in the wizarding community — and that was exactly Jessica Hawthorne's life. Her father, Ian, became an Auror at a young age and quickly climbed to the top due to an impressive amount of dark wizard and witch catches early into his career. Her mother, Katherine, currently held the highest position under the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Their non-magical relatives knew nothing about their feats, but for Jessica, this meant that she had a lot of expectations to live up to — to prove that even as someone who did not come from a pure, magical family, she could be just as talented as any other witch out there.

"Where are you headed?" Alista continued, bringing Jessica out of her thoughts.

"Oh, just the Quidditch Pitch."

"Of course," she rolled her eyes teasingly. "I don't get why you stay there. It's not comfortable at all."

"It's quiet and I have it all to myself — sometimes."

Like many people her age, Jessica was a big fan of Quidditch and actually pretty good at playing it, too. But she never had the guts to tryout Gryffindor Quidditch Team despite her friends' encouragement. Why, exactly? Well, there was yet another case that added to her dilemma of having to live up to certain expectations: she had a cousin by the name of Charles Hawthorne who miraculously turned out to be a wizard as well, and he ended up playing as Chaser for the professional Quidditch team, Puddlemere United. With only four individuals having magic in both sides of her family, they all proved themselves of being worthy to be a wizard or witch, and Jessica was the last one with the pressure to do so. As silly as it might sound to others, she wanted to do it her own way — she didn't want to just copy or follow in the footsteps of the ones before her by working in the Ministry or playing Quidditch. She felt that there had to be some other way to show just how capable she was.

"Whatever you say," said Alista. "Since it was technically my fault that Oliver Wood bumped into you, I shall give you a peace offering." She dramatically unwrapped her Slytherin scarf (Jessica honestly did not understand why she was wearing it since the weather was still warm enough to go on without it) and gently wrapped it around the other girl's neck.

"You're just too lazy to put this back in your dorm before your next class, aren't you?" Jessica said knowingly. Alista could only grin as she was caught in the act.

"You know me too well. It's getting hot, anyway, so I don't wanna carry that thing around."

"So, you dumped it on me instead?"

"Exactly."

The two friends finally parted ways. Alista decided to search for her housemates, while Jessica made her way to the Quidditch Pitch. She would sometimes go there to watch the Gryffindor Quidditch Team train with her fellow housemates, but other times, she simply liked going to the pitch whenever it wasn't booked because it was most likely empty and away from everyone else. She needed that time to be alone once in a while, especially in a castle filled with students, teachers, and ghosts in every corner, not to mention the academic requirements that were starting to pile up already.

As Jessica crossed the grounds and approached her destination, she didn't hear the whooshing sound of people flying on their brooms, so she rightfully assumed that nobody was in there. She casually walked into the stadium and took a seat at one of the lower levels of the bleachers, not bothering to conceal herself in the slightest because it didn't seem like anyone would be training soon.

Meanwhile, Oliver Wood was in the locker room at that very moment, preparing for training. He had booked the field for his team and wanted to do as much as they could today since Slytherin somehow always managed to steal their spot. Ever since he became captain, he made it a point to keep his team's training schedule a secret that even his own housemates couldn't watch, but somehow, Slytherin always found a way. He didn't want to admit it, but he really hated that house; they were full of cunning and sly pricks from what he had experienced.

He walked out of the locker room wearing his gear and clutching his notebook of Quidditch plays in high spirits, determined to get a lot of training done that day. He just had a good feeling about today's session — that it would be productive despite not having a complete team yet. His good mood lasted only until he was halfway down the field, because that was precisely when he noticed a girl wearing a Slytherin scarf sitting in the bleachers.

Already fuming at her presence, Oliver shouted, "Hey, you!"

Jessica jumped, startled. When she noticed it was just Oliver Wood, she relaxed, even though she was annoyed at him for bumping into her earlier. She was a little surprised that she had been caught, but what did it matter? She was a Gryffindor, anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.

"Uh, yes?" the dark haired girl reply.

"What are you doing here? I had this place booked for my team. Have you come to spy on us and make sure you win the Cup again?"

"W-What?" Jessica replied, utterly confused.

"Don't play dumb. You've been caught spying on us for the Slytherin team."

And then it dawned on her. She looked down at the Slytherin scarf around her neck, mentally cursing.

"Oh, I'm not a Slytherin," Jessica stood up to explain as Oliver neared her.

"Don't lie —"

"What's going on here?"

Jessica and Oliver looked to the direction of the voices. The Weasley twins had entered the Quidditch Pitch, curious expressions etched upon their identical faces.

"Are you two having a lover's quarrel?"

"What?" Oliver said heatedly. "I wouldn't go near the enemy!"

"Enemy?" one of the twins repeated.

"She's a Slytherin, lads."

"She's from our house, Ollie," the other Weasley twin said — Jessica still couldn't tell which of them was who.

Oliver frowned and looked back at Jessica, taking a few more strides closer to where she sat on the bottom of the bleachers. When he realized who she was, he turned red, but refused to let his humiliation show.

"Oh, it's you, Hawthorne," he mumbled in realization.

"Yeah, that's me," said Jessica awkwardly.

"Gosh, Ollie, she's a Gryffindor and just a year below you," Fred tutted.

"I understand why he'd get confused, though," George added thoughtfully, turning to look at the girl. "Why are you wearing that?"

"It's a bit of long story," Jessica began. "My best friend gave it to me because she was too lazy to go back to her dorm to return it before her class and..." She sighed when she realized she was starting to ramble. "I'll stop talking now and leave. Er, bye."

She was quite embarrassed about being caught by the Gryffindor Quidditch Team Captain and that he even accused her of being a spy for the Slytherin team. This was the first time she had been called out like that, and now she wasn't confident about returning to the Quidditch pitch during her free time anymore. Jessica knew that she was probably overreacting, but she couldn't help but rush to the Great Hall in the hopes of finding her two best friends so she could tell them about what was possibly the most eventful thing that happened to her in the school year — so far.