A/N: Welcome in the realm of my second HP fic! I hope you enjoy it as much as you're enjoying the first one. Ok, a few things have to be said. First, this is slightly AU I guess. It takes place in 6th year, war context. Rated R because I've got this tendency to describe abuse rather graphically and I never know how far it can go. Read and review, please.

For people who don't know me already, I'm FRENCH and never went more than one month in an English speaking country so deal with my apocalyptical way of writing, I do what I can and my beta too!

Disclaimer: I own Alithea, my computer and my ff.net account. Isn't wonderful? (read it with a Petunia intonation) Lol, I guess I forgot to say that I own a rather imposing amount of insanity. *innocent smirk*

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Chapter 1: Alithea.

The moon was shining gloomily in the dark sky. There were no stars, they were hidden by clouds, but the moon somehow still shined through the fog. A girl was sitting on her bed, staring absently through the window. There was no noise in the room, just the wind that was rushing against the window, making the century wood crack. Her silver blonde hair was hanging loosely on her shoulders and the curls were stuck to her back. At this place, the silver had been tainted in red. She moved slowly and felt the wounds on her back burn. She wanted to cry, but no tears were coming. She was just sitting there, alone in the dark room. Feeling empty and worthless.

The door opened slowly and revealed another blonde kid. At first, she nearly thought it was her father again, but it was only her twin brother. He stepped silently in the room and closed the door behind him. He then turned around and came to sit next to his sister, afraid that his touch would hurt her more.

Both the teenagers said nothing. They just sat there through the night, feeling safer than during the day. They were kids of the night, afraid of the light and of its dangers. They were lonely and cold. Nobody loved them, most of them feared or hated them, and it was their father's fault. He had destroyed their childhood, they had grown too fast and too coldly. Sticking up for each other to assure their survival and not caring about anybody else.

The girl snuck her arm around her brother's waist. She wanted warmth and love, she wanted to be comforted. He was still scared of hurting her, but she didn't care, she wanted to hug him with all her strength. Tomorrow, they were going to be separated. It was the beginning of a new school year and their boarding schools were far from each other. It was killing them to be left separated with no friend.

The girl sighed. Another year in that snotty prep school. She knew her mother had done her a favour to send her to that boarding school: it was far better than staying at home or even in that world. She was different and the failure of the family. She was worthless because she was inferior to her parents and brother. She was a squib. Not such a disgrace, when you think about it. She was a muggle and muggles were extraordinary. They managed to do plenty of things without magic and were intelligent. This argument is valid when you're living in a normal wizard family. When your linage is pure blooded and your blood the pride and honour of your family, things are different. When your name is Alithea Arranz Malfoy, you're a disgrace to your family.

The war context was only making things worse. Death Eaters were killed everyday and her brother was among them. It sounds like a contradiction, him being a Death Eater and her being a muggle, but the Malfoy kids were contradictions. Scared and dominant. Slaves and masters. Their story and personalities were complex and they didn't want to think about the hell their lives were.

As the sun was raising, Alithea broke the silence. Day was making her nervous and today especially. Light fell on the trunks pushed in a corner of the nearly empty room. Her heart tightened.

"Draco, will you write to me?" she whispered in her brother's ear.

He smirked playfully. "Do you deserve my attention?"

As she started to pout, he softly elbowed her and laughed. "Of course I'm going to write to you! Long letters in which I'll tell you everything happening around. Maybe I can even manage to sneak in Hogsmeade to buy you a box of chocolate frogs."

"Can you tell Pansy that she has to write too?"

He sighed and frowned in annoyance. "Honestly, how do you put up with her? She's such a chatterbox, she's really a pain in th-"

"Hey, she's also our cousin, and she's one of the very few who doesn't look at me with disdain. And it's always fun to read her rambling about you," Alithea replied, smirking widely.

"Please, don't remind me," Draco pleaded, rolling his eyes.

The looked at each other and burst in laughter. Life isn't black or white and they always managed to be in the shades of the deepest silver. Fragile balance that they managed to keep with their good sense of humour and their complicity.

Draco left to finish packing his things and Alithea definitely needed a shower. She furiously washed the blood clots stuck to her hair and dried the curls quickly. She cautiously looked at her reflection in the mirror: no trace of the previous evening had to be seen. A bruise slightly marked her porcelain cheek, but people wouldn't pay attention to that.

She finally put on her uniform. She found it ugly, but well, she hadn't got a choice after all. Maroon and orange, with some stupid flat hat called a boater. The plaid skirt looked terrible in this shade of dirty orange and on top of everything, girls had to wear some knee-high maroon socks. Boys carried knobbly sticks and used them to hit each other or lift the girls' skirts. Alithea often wished she could make some of them swallow their bloody sticks.

Draco met her in the hall and they flooed to Diagon Alley. While Draco hated floo powder, Alithea loved it. She loved everything that she could use in the magic world. Even if she was a squib, she had some magic inside her and she could do small things, though she had no wand and hardly any control on them.

From Diagon Alley, they took a bus to King's Cross station. Although nobody in school would believe that they had seen Malfoys in a modest muggle bus, they didn't mind. Lucius would never bring them to the station. Well, truth to be told, he wouldn't mind bringing Draco and show off a bit on platform 9 3/4, but the boy would never let him leave Alithea behind and Lucius would never accept to be seen with that excuse for a human being. Besides, nobody knew that he had a daughter.

The twins knew they had to go their different ways as soon as they would step in the station. They hugged each other tightly, as if it would be the last time and Draco finally broke it and turned on his heel. He walked straight to the magic platform without looking back to Alithea who was also heading to her platform. They would never look back at those moments, it hurt too much.

The first person Draco saw when stepping on platform 9 ¾ was Granger. He hated her with all his heart. She was the cause of his last beating, because he was second behind her in the year. Then, she was a muggle-born. She had powers that she didn't need and wouldn't have known of if she had stayed with the muggles, but people like Alithea had to suffer a lot because they didn't belong to the magic world that they knew. He sneered at her and she looked back with disgust before turning back to Potter and Weasley.

Alithea stepped in the train early. She wanted to be alone and she wanted a compartment for herself. She sat at the end of the train and pulled out her sketch book and some pencils. Both Draco and her loved drawing, it was one of the only ways they had to express themselves when the other wasn't around. At the end of the year, they would show the other their draws and the comments written beneath. In fact, their sketchbooks were like diaries.

She had started to draw their separation and to write her feelings under it when someone opened the door. This immediately drove her mad. People didn't like her and wouldn't bother her, so who could it be? She first thought of Dursley, the school bully, because he was the only one daring to taunt her, but soon, a soft voice broke her hypothesis.

"Sorry to disturb you, but can I sit there?"

Alithea lifted her gaze and put the Malfoy icy face on. "Aren't they enough other seats in this train?"

The girl took a step back and Alithea thought that she would leave, but she only started to laugh in a scary way. "Gosh, what an annoying bitch you are! I can sit here if I want to and that wouldn't be your bloody business. Be happy I'm polite enough to ask your permission!" And with those words, she plopped in the seat opposite to Alithea.

"Why do you ask if you don't give a damn about people's opinions? No shut up, I don't want to know." Replied Alithea, angry and at the same time, slightly amused.

The girl shook her head in disbelief and opened a book. Alithea took a closer look to the new girl. She had brown hair and brown eyes and pale skin with freckles. She was quite neutral, thought Alithea. She suddenly decided to draw her and to observe her very closely. The other girl had seen nothing and was still engrossed in her book. An hour later, Alithea was done. She was proud of her drawing, she even had managed to draw the fire in the girl's eyes. But when she tried to write something under the drawing, she didn't know what to put. Enemy? Potential friend? Just girl on the train? She decided to leave it like that, thinking that she would add a comment later and went back to her first drawing.

When the train came to a stop next to Smeltings, a huge crowd of maroon and orange came out and started to go in direction of the school, dragging their trunks behind them. Alithea smirked when she saw Dudley Whale puff like a chimney, pulling an enormous trunk. She passed in front of him easily pulling her own trunk, thanks to Draco. He had put a charm on it and it was quite light now.

With her light trunk, she was one of the first kids to arrive in the school buildings and lost the new girl in the chattering crowd. She didn't care, she only wanted to hide in her dorm and scare the bimbos out of it.

* * * * * * * * * *

*Meghan O'Donnell's pov*

While this condescending man talks to me, I can't keep my mind off the strange girl I met on the train. Well, ok, met is not exactly the word I would use because meeting includes some sort of talking and it wasn't really the case. Anyway, all this to say that while the headmaster of this hellhole rambles, my mind rambles somewhere else.

"Smeltings is a first rate school, Miss O'Donnell. Failure is not part of this academy and you'll have to remember that during your time here. You are extremely lucky. Scholarships are rare. I assume you know that here, you'll meet the elite of society, so I hope you won't bring dishonour on this school. Is it clear?"

"Crystal, Sir."

"You may go then. Here is your timetable. Your dormitory number is 17. You may also read the school regulations."

Damn, this thing must be at least 300 pages. What am I doing here? How do people survive here seven years? I assume this school is a cause of their turning into cold and annoying people. I leave the headmaster's office and head to my dormitory, trying to pull my trunk all the way. Exactly at the same time that I pray that I don't have stairs to climb, they appear. Great. Just wonderful. Maybe I'm just going to sleep in that hall, I'm sure it's comfortable. Yeah, right. Ouch! A big mammoth has just bumped into me, and I sort of flew down the stairs. Tears are prickling my eyes; I think I've twisted my wrist. However, I stand up. The boy glares at me as if I were some sort of slug.

"You'd better watch where you're going, or you might regret having come to this school."

Argh... I hate this kind of bastards who think they can rule the world. They're just so... off with their heads. But even if I hate them, I love to annoy them. Insert innocent smirk.

"Hum, if your hair wasn't so greasy, it wouldn't fall in your face and you would see where you are going."

"Oh, looking for trouble, aren't we?"

"Certainly not, I wouldn't steal your only skill and occupation. See you around."

I plaster my best smirk on my face and this time, I manage to pull my trunk to the top of the stairs. No way I show some weakness in front of him. I don't know how I feel when I face the girl of the train. Her silver eyes are lit with anger when I step inside. The other girls are not there and since their trunks are still locked, I assume they spent about two minutes in the dorm.

"Don't tell me you're in that dorm," snaps the blonde girl.

"Afraid I am. Sorry to burst your bubble. Now just forget me, ok? I already used most of my comebacks on that stupid killer whale and sarcasm is low tonight." I sigh and collapse on my bed. I'm just exhausted and all I want to do is sleep soundly and for long hours. I close my eyes and start to relax.

"Have you shut his face?"

I turn my head to face the girl. She's smiling a bit, it's so small that I'm not sure if I'm imagining it or if it's actually real.

"Yeah, so easily, it was rather disappointing." I sigh. The girl stands up and come to me. She extends her hand and I take it nervously.

"Congrats. I'm Alithea Arranz Malfoy. You've shut Dudley Dursley's face, you have my respect," she says in a very serious voice.

I laugh a bit. "I'd rather have your friendship, but respect is already good. I'm Meghan Leigh O'Donnell."

The word 'friendship' has a strange effect on her. She totally loses her snobbish attitude and it's like a mask falling to reveal a shy and unsure girl.

"You want to be my friend?"

"Yeah, I like you. You've got a lot of comeback, sarcasm, and you seem to be intelligent. And you don't have a fluffy purse like the girls whose trunks are in that dorm." I gesture toward the trunks lined up against the beds. All of them but one has a fluffy purse, preferably in flashy colours.

She laughs heartedly. "I never had a friend before. Forgive me for the 'annoying bitch' attitude."

"Forget about it, I don't mind. Where does your name come from? It's strange."

This is typically me. I ask questions that I shouldn't to people that I hardly know. Well, this one is not impolite, but I guess there are other things to ask about before this one. My mom always says that my head is messed up, what can I say in front of blatant proofs like this one?

"Alithea is the Greek for truth, Arranz means silver in I don't know which Celtic language. My father has a liking for very strange names."

"He must be funny."

I see her face darken considerably and I quickly understand I've made a big mistake. Her smile has completely disappeared and pain is flashing through her eyes. I don't know what to do so I try to look cheery, as if I had seen nothing. She progressively calms down and looks more comfortable when she realises that I'm not going to ask further. We talk about school and countries till dinner time. I'm glad I've got a friend here.

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