Hello to all! New story yay! This should be a good ride (hopefully!) Would love to hear from all of you! The Next chapter should be out around the 28th! By the way anyone wanting to beta read this please get in touch!
Chapter one - The Two Families.
The four members of the Malfoy family stood together in silence. Lord Lucius Malfoy, the head of the family, was standing proudly. His platinum blonde hair glinted in the bright sun. His prominent cheekbones and thin long nose made him look every bit the aristocrat. He glanced around and looked down his nose at those nearby him, a slight sneer of disgust on his face. His wife Narcissa was standing next to him, looking as beautiful as ever. His son Draco was standing beside her. The three of them only had a small amount of emotion on their faces as they regarded the others on the Platform, making them look harsh when compared to the other families surrounding them.
The fourth member of the family was Sadie Amanda, and she was currently watching people, a look of contentment on her face. She was enjoying watching other families say goodbye to each other on Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Sadie would have enjoyed walking through the Muggle part of the station. She longed to see the Muggles going about their own lives. However, her family was one of the few who Apparated straight to the Platform, and therefore she had so far not been lucky enough to be granted this wish .
As Sadie looked around, she could see the Muggle families regarding the platform with awe. Even Sadie had to admit that the sight of the glorious scarlet steam engine was awe-inspiring, and she had grown up in Malfoy Manor. The Muggles always had the same frightened look on their faces, as though someone was going to attack them and they would be completely defenceless. Sadie could not help but sympathise with them knowing that they must think that they were crazy to believe in magic.
The half-blood families on the whole looked a lot more comfortable and at home, however Sadie could tell that they didn't feel as though they belonged as completely as the Malfoys did. The Malfoys were a pure-blooded family and so the children had always known that they would be attending Hogwarts, which was one of the best schools of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the world. They also were used to using magic or seeing magic used everywhere. Neither of the Malfoy children would have the first clue about living in the Muggle world, a fact that Lucius would pompously proclaim.
The families around them seemed to be waiting for the Malfoy's to move or hug, just to show some kind of emotion. The wait however would be in vain. The people who had seen this family before had noticed that the only member to show emotion was the dark eyed young lady.
"Sadie, Draco" Lucius addressed both of his children. Although most people believed that he favoured his son as he was spoilt rotten, the family knew that Sadie was very much the favourite, despite her Hogwarts House. With his daughter, he only wanted her to be happy - not that he would admit that to anyone. "I hope you both have a good year." The tone of his voice did not betray the fact that he was upset to see his baby daughter leave him once more, especially as this was her last year at Hogwarts. "Draco, I will see you at Christmas ." His stern voice left no room for argument and Sadie could not hold back a smirk. Draco understood the order and nodded his head in response.
"Sadie." Lucius' voice softened so slightly that no one other than Sadie would have been able to notice. "I will send your Christmas presents to you. Hopefully you will get them in time." Sadie nodded her head and wished momentarily that she could hug her father, like she had the night before. As her father inclined his head to both of his children Narcissa was busy saying her goodbyes to her son. Sadie had long ago gotten over the fact that her mother barely registered her existence so she wasn't particularly bothered when she only looked coldly at Sadie. There were no hugs or kisses, just a few briefly exchanged parting words. Though Sadie had not even received that from her Mother.
Draco looked at Sadie with sympathy in his grey eyes. Sadie, who was more than used to this behaviour, shrugged it off. "So it is just us." She announced, attempting to dispel the awkward moment between them. She forced a smile onto her face. There was silence for a moment before her younger brother spoke.
"Actually, I can see my friends." he informed her "I'd better go." Draco placed his hands in his pockets and Sadie knew that he was feeling awkward about leaving her standing alone on the busy platform.
"It's fine." she told him truthfully. They went through this every year. He acknowledged the statement with a nod of his head and started to walk away.
When he was about ten feet away he turned and spoke to her once more. "I will ask Professor Snape to go easy on your detentions." Draco told her jokingly a teasing smirk on his face. In truth, they were the only detentions she received.
Once her younger brother had disappeared into the crowd Sadie started looking for a loud mass of redheads. It did not take long to find them.
Sadie approached the family of red-heads cautiously. Due to the fact the Weasley's were accompanied by Harry Potter although she could see they had a few Auror's with them she knew there would most likely be some others dotted around the area. The –Boy-Who-Lived was once again in danger as the Dark Lord had been resurrected, not that the Ministry of Magic would admit it, if Dumbledore knew anything though he would not let Harry Potter out of an Auror's sight.
When Sadie saw Harry enveloped in a hug by Mrs Weasely, she could not help but smile, which softened her harsh features. Mrs Weasley was a plump woman with slightly untameable hair. She looked like every mother should, a smile was almost always on her face and her eyes were deep pools of kindness.
As Sadie moved closer she noticed that Fred and George were already being scolded by their mother, who had yet to let go of Harry, most likely warning them not to get into trouble and to actually study or she would be the one causing trouble. Sadie stopped levitating her heavy trunk, and the noise of it hitting the ground was enough to grab Mrs Weasley's attention. The lecture stopped and Sadie was enveloped in a warm hug. Sadie looked at the twins over their Mother's shoulder a look of 'you owe me' on her face. The Twins smiled and walked off hoping to avoid another lecture before their departure.
It worried Sadie slightly that the Weasley family was so different from the Malfoy family. When she was married and had children she wanted a family like this, a family that was not worried to show exactly how much they loved their children, rather than the stiffness that the Malfoy's showed in public.
"Now Mandy how are you?" Mrs Weasley asked Sadie while she was lost in her thoughts. She shook her head to clear them, pasting a smile on her face once more.
"I am well thank you Mrs Weasley. I hope you enjoyed filling your children's stomachs during the holidays as much as they enjoyed eating it!" Sadie said knowing from experience that Mrs Weasley loved to feed everyone.
Molly Weasley looked at the girl before her closely. Sadie's eyes glittered like hematite, and Molly noticed that some of her fringe had escaped the clip that usually held it back and was now tickling her cheekbone. The young lady before her looked well fed and happy, if a little melancholy which was expected when someone leaves their family for any length of time.
"Now Mandy, how many times do I have to ask you to call me Molly?" Sadie laughed loudly, causing many people around them to look at her, there was something about the Weasleys that just made her want to smile. Sadie was saved from answering the question by a tapping on her shoulder. Sadie grinned instantly knowing exactly who it was and turned around.
"Mandy!" the two girls in front of her said in unison. Hermione carried on speaking while Sadie was busy hugging Ginny. "How have you been? I am sorry I didn't reply to your letters, I was worried our owls could be tracked" When Hermione stopped talking to breathe Ginny addressed the blonde, moving away slightly so Hermione could hug Sadie also.
"How was your holiday?" Ginny paused for a moment and Hermione opened her mouth ready to start speaking once more, Ginny however was not going to let that happen, after all it had been six weeks since the pair had spoken to her. Growing up in a house with six older brothers came in useful sometimes, either with learning hexes or learning to speak over others. "You should sit with us on the train." Ginny stated not even bothering to ask if Sadie wanted to. Hermione finding a gap in the conversation started speaking once more.
"That Ginny is a wonderful idea, it will give us time to really catch up." Sadie shook her head at their antics, even though she was two years older than Hermione and another year older than Ginny they were each other's confidents and conversationalists when a female opinion was needed.
"Fine I will sit with both of you on the train." Here Sadie paused and allowed the girls a moment to celebrate before continuing. "Under the condition you tell Fred and George." The celebrations stopped as quickly as they had started and the girl's eyes widened in horror, after all the twins were known to get revenge. Sadie smirked she had a feeling they would not mind too much.
"Tell Fred and George what?" Sadie grinned hearing the twin's voices from behind her. It had been too long since she had last seen her best friends after all it was not like she was allowed to visit them often during the summer, if at all officially. This summer she had only seen them once and it was about five weeks ago, the visit was short, it was simply them explaining that they could not see her for the rest of summer due to the situation and that they wouldn't be able to write either. Sadie hadn't believed that they couldn't write, she believed they had just said that to have an excuse for the lack of writing.
"Hey Fred, George. How have you been?" Sadie politely inquired, while she had been growing up her mother had trained her to be the perfect pureblood , she remembered the majority of her lessons and continued to follow them without any thought. With people she did not like she did not listen to the reply she just nodded along with a polite smile on her face, everyone in the pureblood circles did that, it was just the way things were done. It was after Sadie mastered these lessons that Narcissa stop acknowledging her, it had taken many years of tears before she realised that there was no way crying was going to make her mother start noticing her again.
"We are good" they said together identical smiles on their faces. Sadie grinned back, and opened her mouth about to reply when she was interrupted.
"Mandy is sitting with us on the train." The pair of girls said as quickly as humanly possible, Fred and George's eyes narrowed on them, this was not acceptable in their eyes. Hermione crossed her arms, making Sadie notice the Prefect badge for the first time. Ginny just looked at her brothers, not at all intimidated. After all she lived with them. The twins looked back towards Sadie without saying anything and the girls disappeared into the crowd.
"You said you would sit with us!" they complained. Sadie looked at the pair apologies written on her face. She ran her hand through her hair and decided to speak.
"I am sorry but-" Sadie's apology was interrupted by Fred.
"Princess it's ok." The momentary sad look on his face was quickly masked by a smile and she was not even sure that there had been a sad look there. She smiled at him for using her nickname, she had not heard it from him in a long time. In truth it had annoyed her when she was younger, but she had come to miss it over the past two years.
"You are just allowing us to cause more trouble on the train." George stated taking the attention off Fred a mischievous smile graced his face. Sadie smiled and levitated her trunk once more and got on to the train. She did not know why but she felt slightly down, George's statement not making her feel any better.