MILESTONE: FIRST MEETING
You close the door to the Prefect's Compartment on the Hogwarts Express and wearing your newly acquired mask of indifference, which hides your true melancholy feelings, you follow Pansy Parkinson to locate your usual compartment towards the rear end of the train. Your pale, moon-like face is bowed down in shame, with the sole cause of you fearing the many sniggers and unwanted attention from onlookers, just as you do the disgrace of your family name, which you strive to uphold.
You try your best to ignore the seething pain in your left arm, which burns your bare skin like hot iron and shoots pangs of anguish up towards your shoulders and neck, but you are unsuccessful in doing so. You grit your teeth and clench your fists, in a vain attempt to try and stop the torment, and as you are doing this, an involuntary moan escapes your thin, pursed lips. Your companion turns her head and looks back at you in concern, but you determinedly fix your dull sky grey eyes on the floor beneath you and pretend to be unaware of her sympathetic glances and continue to walk ahead.
After a few more minutes of brisk walking, you finally enter the section of the train that's mainly occupied by Slytherins and your companion soon comes to a halt. Straightening her robes, she pulls open the door to the compartment on her right and enters it with a look of pride tattooed across her face. You make no such attempt to look so dignified, but obediently go after her all the same. On closing the door behind you, you lift your gaze up for a moment and see your two thuggish friends, sitting together in an unruly way, trying to devour all they can from the large pile of food in front of them.
From the corner of your eye, you then catch sight of a petite, small statured girl seated in a polite manner at the extreme end of the opposite seat. Her nose is buried in a potions textbook and her eyes are moving around rapidly as she reads. You stare at her intently, trying to get a gist of her features, but none of it stuck in your mind beyond an impression of astonishing beauty. Her hair, dark as the shadows of twilight, reaches her shoulders in soft, beautiful ringlets and freckles cover her pale skin. Only one solid look at her tells you that she is not a person to be underestimated.
"Ahem," you suddenly hear Pansy say crossly, glaring at the girl intimidatingly, demanding her attention. You look at her in disapproval, but say nothing at all. You have long passed the stage of picking on those smaller and weaker than yourself.
The young Hogwarts student looks up from her book in surprise. "Yes?" she asks innocently.
Pansy places her hands on her hips and narrows her eyes angrily. "This," she says, "is our compartment. And that," she adds, pointing towards where girl is currently sitting, "is my seat."
"I'm sorry," the girls says, with a defiant glint in her eyes, "I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you are trying to say."
Pansy gives her a look of pure disgust. "I happen to be your prefect, little girl; not a person to be trifled with. Now, do as I say and leave this instant, or I will be forced to hex you," she threatens, her nostrils flared outwards in anger.
The young girl smiles wryly, and picking her suitcase from beneath the seat, she leaves the compartment without further ado.
You stare after her and as soon as she is out of sight, speaking voluntarily for the first time that day, you keenly ask, "Who was that girl?"
Pansy eyes you curiously for a second and with a smug expression on her face then sneers, "Astoria Greengrass."
