"C'mon, Tara! We're going to be late!" Draco called over his shoulder. I ran through the wall to Platform 9 ¾, barely arriving in time. I caught up to Draco, following him into the already-crammed Slytherin car. At the sight of Draco and I, the car's occupants squished together to make space for us.
"How was your summer?" Pansy Parkinson asked.
Draco and I exchanged a glance, thinking of everything we had learned over the holiday. We had spent it mostly alone, as Lucius and Narcissa were almost never home. At the end of last June, Lucius explained to us that the Dark Lord had risen again, and it was now our duty to serve him in any way he pleases.
The thought of the Dark Lord's return makes me quiver with excitement, as he seems to be the only one who can unite my family. My parents have been in prison for my entire life, and the only thing I want is to be with them. The thought of a real family excites me. I spent my childhood being raised by muggles, until Lucius found me when I was nine and took me in.
Apparently I had been born inside of Azkaban Prison, yet the healers had been ordered to lie and declared me dead. The ministry sent me to live with muggles, hoping I would not turn out to be a dark witch like my parents. Lucius found my file in the Ministry nine years later, and I've been living with the Malfoys ever since.
"Summer was fantastic," Draco's voice snapped me back to the present. The other Slytherins were now giving us their full attention. The lives of Draco Malfoy and Tara Lestrange were something that they all wanted to be part of, even if all they could get was the juicy gossip.
Draco continued on in stories about parties and firewhiskey. I wondered how long he had been thinking up these lies for. In truth, we had spent our summer sitting in dreary Malfoy Manor, whining about how bored we were.
We had had a few small adventures, the firewhiskey story was partly true; we had snuck into the Malfoy's cellar and snitched some of the whiskey in there, but the taste had been so horrid that we put it back almost immediately.
I began to drift into a light slumber as Draco gloated about a vampire we had met at a certain party in a certain 'bad area' of town.
I awoke just as the Hogwarts express pulled into the station at Hogsmeade, barely giving me enough time to change into my robes.
As our horseless carriage stumbled up the path to the brightly lit Hogwarts, Pansy and Millicent chattered about the classes they were taking and how Pansy was a prefect and Millicent thought maybe Crabbe was kinda sorta cute. I remained silent, as my only thoughts were how hungry I was and what was for dinner.