Ooh, new story! My first story on this website :) Hope you like it; this is a pretty basic first chapter. You know, first introductions and stuff. Read and review? Thanks!

1: Crime Scene

I'm sitting in Compartment 11 of the famous Hogwarts Express with Joslynn Reinhardt. Now this girl is nothing like me. In a way, she's my most loved friend and my most hated enemy. Jos, as I call her, was sorted into Gryffindor in her first year. She's the most caring person I know, loyal, and friends with people I hate.

I was placed into Slytherin due to the fact that I was "ambitious, absolutely requiring everything that I ever wanted," as the Sorting Hat pronounced. It also told me that I could get "vicious, especially when I got upset or angry."

"So, how was your summer?" Jos asked, peeling her eyes away from the window.

"It was fine, I guess. Mother took me up to France for a trip to Paris."

"What about your father?"

I shook my head, "He didn't want to come. But it was still nice there. I'm kinda thinking maybe I'll live in France when I grow up and get out of this bloody school."

"You don't speak French." Jos pointed out.
"Yeah, so?" I rolled my eyes.

Jos laughed, "I expected nothing less."

Before I could even bother to ask Jos about how her summer went, I heard the door of the compartment slide open.

I recognized that pale skin and steely, grey eyes immediately.

Draco Malfoy spoke, "Why are you with Reinhardt again? You told me you weren't friends anymore."
"Maybe I lied to get you off my back about it." I retorted.

He glared, "Maybe I don't like being lied to."

"Maybe I don't care." I snapped, meeting his cold stare.

"I think I'll go," Jos interrupted with obvious contempt in her voice. She stood up abruptly and fixed her own apathetic stare at Draco. "It's crystal clear that he doesn't want me here."

Jos took off without another word. This was what made our relationship more complicated than it should be. The door slammed shut behind her, leaving me alone with Draco.

"What do you want?" The tone of my voice wasn't exactly warm, but it wasn't dripping of ice either. Sometimes I liked just being in Draco's presence.

"Not much," He replied, surprisingly without too much harshness, "Just got sick of Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy. They argue way too much."

Draco sat down across from me, directly underneath where my trunk sat on the luggage rack. A white head popped out of my trunk, filled with my robes and Hogwarts books of all sorts, and of course, my dear ferret. During my first year at Hogwarts, I had watched all my friends and other classmates play with their pets. I complained to my parents about how much I wanted a pet like them and the next year, my mother let me have one. So I bought a ferret.

"Rayna, what are you looking at?"

My eyes had wandered to the white ferret. The one with 3 black spots that flawed its snow white coat; one on its back, its left ear, and its right leg. He scurried precariously along the side of my trunk, dropped to the railing of the luggage rack, and then once again on top of Draco's head.

"Draco!" I tried to warn him.

"What the-" His hands automatically reached for his head, scrabbling to remove the ferret. But Azrael sunk his claws in deeper, trying desperately not to be thrown off only to no avail. With the chaos that Draco was causing, he slipped off of his sleek blond hair and tumbled onto the empty seat.

"Bloody hell! That ferret tried to murder me!" Draco shouted, looking very disheveled.

"Azrael was only trying to get down!" I protested, reaching over to pick him up gently. I reached into my pocket where I always kept a few ferret treats for him and fed Azrael one.

"I've always hated that thing."

Azrael growled as if admitting that he didn't like Draco either.

"Well, he doesn't like you either so I guess you two are even." I scratched him behind the ears and smiled fondly down at him.

Draco turned away, disgusted.

Eventually, Azrael got bored and slinked out my lap to wander around the compartment.

I kept a close eye on him to make sure I didn't lose him and that he wouldn't attack Malfoy either. When I was convinced that Azrael had settled himself down into a cozy nook to nap, I asked Draco, "How's life?"

He took a minute to answer but finally said, "Not too bad. Besides the fact that I'm heading back to Hogwarts." He spoke its name with evident dislike.

"A school full of uptight teachers, Mudbloods, and blood traitors? I've heard."

"Father wanted to send me to Durmstrang; they don't admit Mudbloods there, you know?"

"Well, why didn't you go?" I asked.

Draco scowled, "My mother didn't like the idea of me going far away to study."

I felt something wrong as I looked out the window again. The scenery wasn't passing by anymore. "Um…is it just me or has the train stopped?"

"…It's stopped." Draco stared out the window. "Ugh, what is this? More dementors just like last year?"

"Maybe Potter will faint again." I pointed out the incident from our third year. "That'd be a good show."
"Ha, precious little Harry Potter gets light-headed over a couple of dementors."

I was still smirking about that when the door to the compartment slid open once again.

"E-excuse me? Are you Rayna Alma?" The man was short and stocky and by the way he dressed, I figured he was the conductor of the Hogwarts Express. For such a strong-looking build though, he spoke with quite a small, hesitant voice. "I was informed that I would find you in this compartment."

"Yes, I'm Rayna. Why?" I asked warily. I didn't usually take well to authority figures, especially ones that asking for specifically me. That usually meant I was in trouble.

"I have some unfortunate news. You see, the train has stopped."

"Oh, really?" Draco cut in. Sarcasm colored his lips.

The conductor flushed and I saw him start to fidget with his hands. Personally, I don't think he enjoyed his job very much. "Uhm, yes, it has stopped because somebody blew up the engine."

"I thought the engine ran on magic." I said.

"It does but magic has nothing to run if the engine is broken. And if the engine is broken, the train will not move."

"Well, I figured that much. But what does this have anything to do with me?"

"This young girl," The conductor stepped aside, revealing a pretty girl with eyes narrowed and a smug look on her face. Once I recognized Pansy Parkinson, I knew where this was going, "claims that you are the culprit."

"Of course she does." I muttered under my breath. Then in a louder voice, I said, "What if it wasn't me?"

Pansy spoke, stopping the conductor in his tracks of answering, "I know it was you; I even saw you blow the thing up. And of course, I never lie."

"Except for now you're lying." I pointed out.

I stole a quick glance at Draco. He was sitting, pretty relaxed, with a look on his face that simply said this-is-interesting.

"Miss Alma, if I may, can I see your wand?" The conductor asked. He had moved on from fidgeting with his fingers and was now pulling at his hat.

A look of alarm passed across Pansy's face. If the conductor managed to pull out the last spell my wand had performed, I would be proved innocent. The smug look on Pansy's face had now transferred to my own.

The second my hand twitched towards my wand, Pansy started her hopeless babbling, "Uh…how dare you question me? I told you I was telling the truth and you have the nerve to ask her for her wand like you don't believe me?"

"W-well, it's just I-I need solid evidence that Rayna has committed the crime." The conductor stammered, intimidated by Pansy's tone of voice.

"Here you go." I handed him my wand; made of Hawthorn wood with a dragon heartstring core and precisely 11 inches long.

He placed the tip of his own wand on mine and whispered, "Prior Incantato," Then he slowly drew his wand away from mine and the misty image of a swirl of water was lured out the tip of my wand. It looped around both wands before evaporating into the air.

"It seems that Aguamenti was the last spell you used. Proves you innocent seeing as that couldn't possibly blow up an engine."

As he handed me back my wand, I glanced around for Pansy. But she had already disappeared. I rolled my eyes; Pansy always giving up when she knew she was going to lose.

I had one last question for the conductor, "While you go and blame other people, you do have someone fixing the train, right?"

"Oh, uhm, yes. Of course we do. We should be up and running shortly."

"Sure." I muttered before slamming the door shut again.

"That was…quite entertaining." Draco remarked.

"I'll take that as a compliment so thank you, Draco. Do anything fun over the summer?"

"Our family went to the Quidditch World Cup. My father, with his position at the Ministry, got us tickets for the top box with the Minister himself." Draco's voice had been tinged with pride but dropped to bitter resentment, "Only Potter was there with the Weasleys, and that Mudblood Granger."

"Ha, that must've ruined your day. But I'm still jealous. I'd rather have gone to the Quidditch World Cup than Paris, even though it was wonderful there."

"You hate Quidditch."

"I hate playing Quidditch,"

"'Cause you have the athletic ability of a slug," Draco interrupted.

I reached over with my hand to where he was sitting and whacked him on the head. He let slip an "ow" and rubbed his head while I continued, "But watching Quidditch is fun."

About 20 minutes later, the Hogwarts Express gave a mighty blow of its horn and set off again, better than ever. I heard in the halls that some first year tried to impress their friends by showing them that he could perform magic only failed disastrously at it. He blew up the engine instead.

Prat.