"Who's that?" asked a nearby sixth year, as Draco settled down in his place at the Slytherin table, impatient for the Sorting Ceremony to be over with. He looked up, curious to see what everyone at the table was murmuring about. Off to the side of the Great Hall, Professor Snape was talking to a rather tall girl in what appeared to be an instructive tone. Draco couldn't see her face because she had her back to everybody. What he could see was long, full curls flowing down her narrow backside. She nodded her head once and followed Snape through a door off to the side, still denying the onlookers a glimpse at her face.

~*~*~


Draco sighed as he found himself once again back in the familiar Slytherin common room, a home away from home. As he absent-mindedly watched Crabbe and Goyle "break in" a few first years, he began thinking about that girl who Snape had been talking to. He had heard a fellow seventh year saying that the girl was a seventh year who was now attending school because the rise of Voldemort had her parents to preoccupied to bother with hiring tutors anymore. But no one knew her name. As if in response to his thoughts, the common room door opened to reveal a positively gorgeous girl with beauty that surpassed anything magical contained in this castle full of spells and charms. Draco immediately recognized the tall, curvy but slender figure and long, brown curls. She looked about the room before her eyes, alight as they reflected the nearby fire, fell upon none other than himself. As if to affirm a question in her mind, she nodded her head and approached him. Without thinking, he jumped out of his plush armchair and stood straight and tall before her.



"I assume you're Draco Malfoy," she said, looking him up and down with a bit of interest mingling with coldness in her large, bright green eyes, dotted with specks of brown and a darker shade of green. "I am," Draco said, forgetting time and place as he stared, mesmerized, at the radiant beauty standing before him. "Are you a Slytherin?" he asked, rather stupidly, considering that she stood before him bearing the Slytherin badge and a green and silver necktie under long, loose, brown curls and a fair-skinned face. She smiled, or perhaps smirked, at his pointless question and replied, "I am indeed, my less-than-observant one. My name is Faeris Narlyle." Draco snapped back to reality at the snide remark. "Well, Faeris, you certainly don't look evil or vile enough to belong amongst myself or any of my fellow peers in the very coveted house of Slytherin," he sneered, fully back in his place now. She didn't seem the least bit perturbed by his retort as she began slowly circling around him.


"Ah, but you see," she began in a cutting voice, growing in intensity, "evil can come in many forms. The best kind, in my opinion, is the one that no one sees or even consciously notices. All they know is fear, awareness, without a clue as to what it is that makes them tremble so. Tormented by their thoughts of seemingly paranoia, they fall into a torture of their own making. This evil is like the draft that slips so mysteriously, so surreptitiously, under the bedroom door of the sleeping child. Asleep, the child puts no immediate thought into the sudden coldness of the room, but shivers all the same." As she spoke, a light but icy breeze had begun to pick up around them. By the time she had ended and had stopped her circling to stand before him once again, the breeze had grown to a high wind, stinging Draco's face like thousands of tiny pinpricks. The entire time, amidst all the confusion, Faeris only stared deep into Draco's gray-blue eyes full of confusion with her own tempestuous, speckled ones. Finally, the wind died, and Faeris released Draco from her piercing gaze. The cold calmness left her face, and she flashed a dazzling smile before saying, "I trust I'll see you again soon enough. Perhaps you could even help me find my way around this confounded castle. After all, you are a prefect, aren't you?" This last sentence was referring to the bemused stupor that had taken over Draco's usually calm and cool demeanor. With that, she walked away, ostensibly oblivious to the gawking stares of those lounging in armchairs and on large cushions set by the fire, overwhelmed at the beauty of "the new girl."