A brief background:
I wanted to create my own Hogwarts student. I've used my Pottermore account as an aid to writing my story (the house I was sorted into, and the wand I received). Auriga, Volans, and Hydra are all constellations in the night sky, and Strangway is the surname of one of my grandmother's ancestors. I've stayed completely true to JKR's original story, only adding Auriga in the gaps. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! :) xx
The Strangways were a family not too different from their neighbors, the Malfoys. Both lived in Wiltshire, South West England, in manors sitting side-by-side and far-set from the road. The Malfoy and Strangway families both consisted of three people. Abraxas and Abril Malfoy with their son Lucius, and Volans and Hydra Strangway with their daughter Auriga. Both families were that of pure-blood witches and wizards – held highest by those most cunning and ambitious, and feared by those most weak and foolish. It is said that the Malfoys and Strangways cared more about their name than those who shared it with them.
Auriga Strangway and Lucius Malfoy had become very close over the years. They were the best of friends and spent most of their days together. Their parents were thrilled by this: that their children were enjoying the company of fellow pure-bloods and not fraternizing with mud-bloods or muggle-borns.
The two often set out on their own, leaving their homes far behind. While alone, Auriga and Lucius talked about everything; they fantasized about the magical world, insulted the muggle world, and had intense conversations about the Dark Arts.
One Sunday afternoon in June 1965, Auriga and Lucius took an hour long journey by foot. This had been the farthest they had ever traveled from home, and when they decided they were too tired to walk any further, saw that they were in a freshly-mowed field.
Auriga sat down the picnic basket she had been carrying which had an extension charm put on it by her father. She opened the top flap and carefully pulled out a blanket, two sandwiches, crackers, and two jars of butterbeer. After setting up, the two sat down, tired, and talked about what they had seen so far in Knockturn Alley. Midway into their conversation, a barn owl swooped down near their settlement on the grass, dropped two envelopes on their picnic basket, and hurried off into the brightly lit sky.
"A bit early for mail, don't you think? It's only nine," Lucius said.
"It's probably from our parents; we told them that we wouldn't be far from home..."
She picked up the envelopes wearily. Their current whereabouts were written on each envelope in emerald-green ink. The handwriting was unfamiliar to her.
She looked up at Lucius, who was curiously staring at his envelope.
"Go on," he said.
She turned both over in her hands, and was greeted by a coat of arms: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake, surrounding the letter H.
"It's our Hogwarts letters!" Auriga said with a sigh of relief, tossing the envelope marked 'Lucius Malfoy' at him. "Rather exciting is it not? I've been waiting for ages!"
"My father informed me that we would be getting these soon," Lucius stated, matter-of-factly, "So really, it's no big deal to me." However, when Auriga looked up at Lucius she saw a look of hunger in his eyes.
The two children tore their envelopes open at the same time and took out two bits of square parchment, one being the letter and the other the school supplies list, and read theirs aloud to each other. When they were done, they set their letters and torn envelopes down on the grass and started to eat the sandwiches they had brought.
"This is going to be great!" Auriga exclaimed. She hastily finished eating and stood up, towering over Lucius.
"Where are you going now?" he said, raising his eyebrows.
"Nowhere!" She pirouetted barefoot a few times, her red and pink flowery dress flapping in the wind. Lucius watched her inquisitively. She suddenly stopped, her face bright with childhood innocence. Giggling, she held out her hand to her friend. "C'mon!"
He couldn't resist her smile. Auriga pulled him up with all her strength, and once he was standing, grabbed his other free hand with hers.
She spun him around and not long after, he too started to laugh. For the first time, Auriga saw color in his gray eyes, and his skin didn't seem so pale. The pair continued to spin under the cloudless sky in a blissful ignorance of the world around them. The two friends smiled at each other and let go, falling seemingly endlessly onto the hard ground blanketed with soft grass.
Auriga rolled onto her stomach, and Lucius imitated so that they both lay facing one another, a few feet apart. Auriga uprooted a dandelion and closely studied it, unaware of Lucius staring at her. "Hey Lus," she said softly, not taking her eyes off the feeble flower, "What do you want most in life?"
She startled him with her question, and he looked far off into the distance. For a moment or two he didn't respond, but upon looking back at her, the same look of hunger flared in his eyes.
"I want to be powerful and rich like my father," he lied. "Why, what do you want?"
She smiled and gently returned the flower to the earth. "I don't know. I guess the most I can get out of it. It's almost noon. We should head back."
The two stuffed their letters back into their envelopes and hid them in the bottom of the picnic basket, then set off together towards the two lonely manors.
For a while the two walked in reticence, the picnic basket swinging soundlessly between them. Auriga stared down at the ground, only once or twice looking up to see where she was heading. The ground crunched beneath the four feet, slightly muffled. Butterflies and bees kept their distance, the wind and children not bothering them. When twenty minutes had passed them by, Lucius finally broke the silence.
"Rules..."
Auriga looked up at him in confusion. "Sorry?"
"It'd be better if we could just apparate," he grumbled. Auriga smirked.
"We don't know how, silly. Plus – it's beautiful outside," she said, smiling.
"Why do you have to be so different?"
The two stopped walking. Auriga's hair stirred lightly. Lucius looked agitated.
"Why are you not?" She retorted.
Lucius merely glared at her, frozen. Auriga turned away, continuing on the path home. When Lucius had regained control of his legs, he ran to catch up with her.
"I don't mean anything bad by it, Auriga. I just don't understand. You'd rather walk than apparate. You're a witch, you can do these things. Why don't you want to?"
"I never said I didn't want to, Lucius. We don't know how to apparate. I'm only using my head."
Lucius decided to let the matter be. As he was mentally deciding to bring it up another time, Auriga was thinking about Hogwarts and the adventures that lay ahead of her.
"I want to be sorted into Slytherin. I won't take no for an answer," she said, this time breaking the silence.
"With an attitude like that, you probably will be. Anyways, c'mon. I can see our houses from here."
Auriga nodded. "I told my parents that we'd be in your yard. They're going to have a fit."
