A/N:

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise. I only own the characters, items and locations that you don't recognise.

Summary: When shy and intelligent Ariella Potter and Quidditch hotshot Lucas Malfoy get paired together for a school project, Ariella knows that she shouldn't feel anything but hatred towards him. So why does she feel attracted to him? And what will Ariella do when Lucas returns her affections? Will they ever break free from their cliques and parents' rivalry so they can be together?

This is my 4th full length fic on here. This has nothing to do with the One Night Trilogy. It's apart of it's own trilogy which has been named the Breaking Free Trilogy. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

Now onto our feature presentation. Here's Chapter One! All I ask of you is to enjoy and please leave a review at the end of the chapter.

Breaking Free.

Chapter One - The Project.

Sixteen-year-old Ariella Potter wasn't your usual girl. Firstly she had possibly one of the most famous people alive as her father and secondly she was a witch. At first glance you would think that she was completely normal for she was around five feet, three inches tall and was quite slim. She also had a heart shaped face and large, almond shaped, hazel eyes. Her shoulder length, chestnut brown, wavy hair framed her face perfectly. She looked like any other child her age and you wouldn't know that she possessed magical powers until you saw her perform a spell or she told you her secret.

Ariella came from a perfectly normal family too. She had a father named Harry and a mother named Ginevra or Ginny, as she was informally known. Her parents had been together since her father was sixteen and her mother fifteen. Sure they had had their rocky moments, after all no relationship can run smoothly because the world isn't perfect. Her parents had even broken up for over a year so that Ariella's father could fight in the Great War however once he had come to his senses he told Ariella's mother that he loved her and after quite a bit of awkwardness they got back together. They had now been happily married for eighteen years.

Ariella's parents' first child, Ember, was born a year after their marriage. Ember stood at five feet four inches tall and had wavy, fairly short hair that was mostly light brown with streaks of blonde in it. Her hair sometimes turned a copper colour in different lights and she had a black patch of hair on the back of her head. She also had big; almond shaped greyish-turquoise eyes and a curvy body. Ember was seventeen and in her last year at the school that she and Ariella attended.

The Potters' second child, Ariella, was conceived two months after Dessy was born. She came into the world just after her mother had been pregnant for thirty-five weeks; this had made her five weeks premature. Ariella was currently in her sixth year and had just started her classes that would get her ready for the tests that she had to take in her seventh year. Ariella was shy and intelligent whereas her older sister was confident and outgoing.

The Potters' third and final child, Felicity, or Fliss as everyone called her came along when Ariella was six years old. She stood at four feet, nine inches tall and was a skinny child. She was set to become the tallest of the Potter children. She had emerald green eyes and mid back length, auburn hair. Fliss was ten and would be joining Ariella at school the following September.

Most of Ariella's friends called her Ari, in fact everyone called her Ari, even her teachers would call her Ari unless they were scolding her which wasn't very often, it was only her father that would use her full name. He thought that she should use the name that she had been given when she was born and not shorten it. It was the same with her siblings too; in fact the only informal name he would use was her mother's name.

At the beginning of our story, we find Ariella sitting in her Muggle Studies lesson at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As usual Ariella was taking notes while her friend, Dawn, was staring into space. Ariella looked at Dawn and noticed that she was staring at a boy with dirty blonde hair. Ariella nudged then glared at her friend before looking back at her notes.

"Stop it," Ariella whispered as she furiously wrote down everything that her teacher was saying.

"I can't help it! He's gorgeous!" Dawn replied quietly.

Ariella shrugged her shoulders then continued her note taking. Sometimes she just wished that people wouldn't be so into the boy. He was just another lunk head Quidditch hotshot that only cared about himself. It seemed that all the attention he got from the girls in the school seemed to make his overly large ego swell even more. She hated this boy with every bone in her body. She had to hate this boy because she had been brought up to hate him and his family. You see, Ariella's father and the boys' father had been enemies at school and they still were to this day. Her father wouldn't talk about the family at all. Her mother had told her why she had to hate the boy. Apparently, the whole of his family had been connected to Lord Voldemort. Even after that discussion, she didn't know the whole story.

Ariella now found herself gazing at the boy. She could see the December sun beating down on his head and she marveled at the way that it made his hair shine. He ran a hand through his hair then leant his head on his hand. He looked so bored but he didn't need to pass his NEWTs as he was tipped to become a Quidditch player when he left school. Ariella shook her head and focused her attention back to her professor. She looked down at her piece of parchment and realised that there wasn't any point in trying to catch up with her notes because she could quite easily borrow them from someone later that night to finish them. Instead Ariella paid attention to the teacher.

"Now, I won't bore you about the different types of Muggle technology. That would take far too long," her professor was saying.

Ariella sighed and held her head in her hands because she knew what was coming next.

"Instead I'm going to assign you a partner and you shall research five different types of Muggle technology together as a team. I will want to know what they are called and what they are used for. I will also be looking for a reason why Muggles use each type of technology and how it helps them with their everyday lives. Now your partners are as follows…"

Ariella zoned out and stared out of the window until she heard her name.

"Ari, you will be partnered with Lucas."

Ariella looked up at her professor and gasped.

"Is there a problem Miss Potter?"

The professor seemed to be searching Ariella's should with her eyes to find out what the problem was.

"Lucas? I have to work with Lucas? I can't work with him Professor," Ariella replied whilst thinking that this whole situation was just a huge joke.

By now everyone in the class, including the boy named Lucas was looking at Ariella. They all stared at her in a state of disbelief; they couldn't believe that the shy Ariella Potter was backchatting a teacher. Lucas ran his hand through his floppy hair and glared at Ariella, which she returned.

Her professor looked at Ariella then said, "Ari, you will work with him whether you like it or not. This is supposed to be promoting house unity as well as teaching you about Muggles. I have paired everyone with a person from a different house and you will be no different."

Ariella sighed then put her chin in her hand. She looked over at Lucas and saw him smirking triumphantly at her. Oh how she wished that she could wipe that silly smirk off his face. Ariella smiled at the thought of this and looked back at the teacher.

"Now, as I was saying. I will give you two weeks to complete this task. Good luck! You are dismissed."

Ariella started to pack her things away and noticed that Lucas was smirking at her while he gathered his things together. She shook it off and out it down to him being his usual arrogant self. She continued to put her various pieces of parchment into her bag and found that her thoughts had now turned to her father. This project wasn't a good idea at all. She just hoped that her father wouldn't go on the warpath when he found out whom she was working with. He would hate the fact that his daughter was working with that boy.

Hope you liked it. Please remember to review!