AN: hello everybody! Thankyou very much for choosing to read my story! So this, like listed in the credentials, is a story with a romance between an original character and a Mister Draco Malfoy. I am trying to do my best to base/follow along the lines of the Halfblood Prince movie, for those of you have not read the book, but will obviously be changing things because of the original character. I am hoping to also do a sequel along the lines of The Deathly Hallows, but we will see how this one goes. Anyways, thankyou all so much for reading this and please please please review!

Also, I don't have a beta, so I apologize if there are any grammatical mistakes and throngs along that line.

Chapter 1

The sky was the color of ashes, and the clouds within it, the color of smoke. Rain poured down from them in vast amounts, yet even in the rain, the icy weather that filled the streets was bearable. It was not a numbing cold, no, it was the type of cold that welcomes you as you leave the heat of a fire. The strange weather had caused students to stay in their dorms and common rooms during the autumn holiday, but one walked the streets of Hogsmeade. Mareen had hair that was long and curly, the dull color of stormclouds, with the same blue grey tint the deepest part of the ocean has, and her eyes were a dangerous shade of blue. Her chin was round but dainty, her jawline, perfectly pointed. She wore a light grey tee shirt tucked neatly into a navy blue skirt that ended just above her knee cap. Her calves were covered by white stockings, her small boots lacing up to her ankle. There was no way to explain the way she walked as she sheltered her head from the rain with her school robes, but there was serene about it. Slowly rain soiled her clothes, but she did nothing but smile softly.

"You're going to die of hypothermia." an all too familiar voice called out across the street. Without opening them, she rolled her eyes

"Since when do you care?" she questioned, the same amount of sass in her own voice as in his.

"Since you are my Potions partner and I don't want to do the work." He said sluggishly walking to a lamppost and leaning up against it, a small umbrella covering him from the large droplets of rain. She opened her eyes slowly and glared at the boy, watching as his feathery hair blew across his face. She bent over and picked up her robe, throwing it over her shoulder, knowing it would serve no use over her head. The blond's mouth curved into a sly smirk as he trailed behind her "If you die I get your notes."

"if I die, it would be after I permanently transformed you into a ferret." she said unamused, the comment being completely true.

"You don't have the stomach." His breath was sharp against her neck. "You would crush under the pressure."

i"At least I'm not afraid of my father." She smirked just a little.

"At least my father is alive." His words stung. She spun around to meet his angry, but worried eyes and smirked. She had built her walls up so high it would be almost impossible to break them down, nothing could catch her off guard, nothing could hurt her, and she was safe behind those walls.

"Clever." She smirked. Her voice turned to a whisper and she pointed her wand, unnoticably, at Draco " Avis."

Birds flew all around Draco's head, pecking at his hair and ears. He did his best to swat them away, cursing at both her and the birds. She chuckled and continued to walk down the path, her smirk slowly fading as the distance between Malfoy and herself grew. She wrapped her arms around herself, and looked up towards the sky. The clouds had started to roll back towards the south, and the rain has stopped. Stars peaked through the haze of tired storm clouds, and she smiled at them. When she reached the school, diner was just being served. She rushed over to her usually spot at the Gryffindor table and sat between Harry and Hermione.

"Where have you been all night?" Hermione spoke as Mareen took her place at the table. She lifted a pot of hot water and poured herself a glass.

"Down in Hogsmeade at Madame Puddifoot's Tea Shop." She pulled out a small package of herbs and placed it into the water.

"Should have guessed." Ron spoke through a mouthful.

"Did you run into anymore of the English Rose tea that I love?" Ginny chirped

" I did not." Mareen sipped the tea. "But I did run into Malfoy."

"What was he doing in Hogsmeade?" Harry folded his copy of the Daily Prophet and made himself a plate.

"I couldn't care less." She chuckled. "I did however leave him with the birds."

"You what?" Ron's voice came out both confused and curious.

" I left him in the middle of High Street with a bunch of blue birds around his head, plucking at his hair and chirping in his ears." She giggled and took another gulp of her tea. The others had a good laugh then continued to eat. " Oh, Hermione, I finished that book of yours."

"Oh, thanks." She took the book and flipped through the pages. Sections were marked off by small sticky notes of many colors. "Seems you liked it."

"Loved it. I can not believe there are so many muggle herbs that I have never heard of." She smiled and reached across the table, flipping pages and pointing out the different colors. "The pinks are all for medical purposes, the greens are for culinary use, and the blues are all herbs that can be used to make teas."

"Wait." Harry gulped down his water and stared seriously at them. "You spent the past two days reading a book about nothing but muggle herbs?"

" Yes. It started off at a project for Muggle History, but then I actually found it very interesting." Ron stared at her as if she had said she loved spiders. "At least I do not find Hogwarts a History intriguing." Mareen smiled at him as he made a gagging noise.

"I swear you guys are the most boring people I have ever met." Ron rolled his eyes

"You have a point though Mareen, Hogwarts a History is definitely not a good read." Ginny giggled and took a small bite of some sugared carrots. Hermione proudly turned her cheek and held her head high while everyone choked down laughter

"Well if you like it some much, you can keep it." Hermione rolled her eyes, folded the book and slid it across the table back over to Mareen all with a small smile on her face. Harry and Ron both exchanged looks and rolled there eyes, then noticed Maren's plate had still not been touched. Ron swallowed his food. "Maren, aren't you eating anything?"

"No, do you want it?" They all looked at her with confused eyes. She smiled and tried to reassure them as she pushed the plate over to Ron. "I'm just not hungry, that's all. I had a rather large muffin at the tea shop."

"Then dont mind if I do." Ron reached over and took her plate from her, looking at its contents as if he hadn't already eaten the whole of his own. Mareen giggled and opened the book up once more." You know, I'm kinda glad you haven't been here from the beginning. I mean, I would be fat."

"Wait, so your parents just decided to not allow you to go to Hogwarts?" a first year spoke softly from down the table, the full story on her late arrival to the school had not been spread yet.

"My mother was a muggle teacher, so she raised me in Muggle studies. My father had kept all of his books from Hogwarts when he was a boy and taught me magic on the side. " She smiled at the boy who looked at her with eager eyes. "We lived in the countryside of Sheepscombe so there was plenty of space for me to practice."

"I bet it was more fun than being here." The first year's words rolled quickly off of his tongue

"Sometimes." She winked at the young boy and turned back towards her friends.

A voice pounded in her head. Over and over and over, until she could no longer ignore it.

" Mareen!" A voice yelled up the stairs and large pops followed the voice "Get down here! You are never going to believe this!"

" Fred!" Mareen yelled pulling the covers off her body She quickly smiled at the memory from last year , but then turned to yell back the the voice who woke her from the dream. " I swear if you have turned one more thing of mine into a bird I will curse you!"

She ran down the steps, ignoring the fact that she was wearing her rather short powder blue sleeping shorts and a tight tank top. Her hair was still in the messy bun she had fallen asleep with about an hour ago. When she had safely reached the bottom of the stairs and finally looked up, she realized it was not Fred who was yelling for her, but Ron. There he was, standing there with a sly smirk spread across his face.

"What did you do?" She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I didn't do anything!" His smile grew wider.

"Then why would you…"She was interrupted by a shallow chuckle that she knew all well. She spun around quickly and smiled widely at the chuckler.

"Glad you could get out of bed." He smiled. She wrapped her arms around her and he squeezed her tight.

"Harry!"