"I WANT TO GO THIS YEAR! I'VE WAITED LONG ENOUGH!" Draco screamed, wand floundering about as if looking for someone to jinx. He had already jinxed me once so that my hair turned a pretty turquoise color. I actually quite liked it and planned to not undo it.
"You still aren't old enough, sweetie." Mother tried to calm him down, patting his shoulders and pushing down his wand hand.
"She's old enough!" He pointed at me. I shrugged.
"She's older than you. Next year you'll go."
He pouted. Thought for a while. "I want a wand holder like she has!" He pointed at the black leather holster attached to my belt with a silver clip, moving onto his next want.
Mother looked relieved. "We'll go to Diagon Alley as soon as she leaves to get you one." She smiled at me, and then waved her hand, dismissing me. There was a black broom leaning against one column in the vestibule of Malfoy Mansion. I had learned how to fly in the summer. There hadn't been much else to do, besides listen to Draco whine about what he hadn't gotten for his birthday. I mounted the broom awkwardly and zoomed off.
King's Cross was crowded, and I could barely find the small house elf standing beside my already transported bags. I hoisted them onto a baggage cart and thanked the house elf. It blushed and then Disapparated away with a loud crack.
The enchanted wall separating the Muggle side of King's Cross and the magical Platform 9 ¾ was no trouble for me. I ran toward it, disappearing. Smoke filled 9 ¾, and I could barely see, but someone yelling my name caught my eye-or should I say ear? "Titiana! Titiana!" It was one of the Weasley twins. He was wearing a red wool sweater with a golden G on it, so I guessed it was George.
"Hello," I said, still taking in the general excitement of the platform.
"Had a nice summer?" Fred asked.
"Er...yes…no." I grasped for an explanation.
"Too bad," George sympathized before I could say anymore. "Your foster brother being a brat again?"
I nodded. "And next year I'll have to deal with him all year long. Gah!" I thought about what I had said. Harry Potter would be old enough to come to Hogwarts, and if his lineage was any indication, he would definitely be accepted. My protecting duties would begin. I couldn't let anyone know, because that would mean telling them the whole story, and that would mean they would know I was the daughter of a convict and prisoner of Azkaban. I fingered my tooth necklace, a present from my dad last Christmas.
"I had forgotten about that." Fred looked thoughtful. "And you're in the same house. That'll be a ghastly experience."
"But we'll find a way to deal with him," George cut in, waggling his eyebrows. I laughed, but abruptly stopped when another red-headed presence loomed over me.
"Who's this?" one of the Weasley brothers asked.
My nervous instincts kicked in. "I could ask the same of you," I said haughtily. Too many years in the Malfoy household had made me haughty and "better-than-you" in the face of humiliation.
"Percy Weasley," he said stiffly. "And you, as I have already asked?"
"Titiana-Titiana Malfoy." I said, stuttering.
"Hmmm…." Percy sized me up, and then shook his head as if he had a bad headache. "Fred, George, are you going to get on the train?" He looked back at me and sniffed.
Both George and Fred looked rather deflated, as if someone had crashed their party. "First one to go," George mouthed to me.
Fred nodded, and mouthed, "You haven't seen the worst of it." I tried to contain my laughter, but broke out into a fit of it.
Harvest walked up to me and thrust her hip out pettily. "Really, Titiana, I thought you had learned last year. Houses don't mix. At least that Weasley boy knows that." She had grown taller in the summer, and looked more than her age of twelve. She had grown her hair out and wore it in a puffy bun, only a few strands of hair escaping. Her clothes were mostly a bright green, shocking your eyes. "Whatever," she continued. "Let's just get on the train."