*These lovely characters are J. , only Lilly and Demetri Knight belong to me! Thanks J.K.R!*

Year Six

As the students settled into their places in the great hall at the start of the new school year, they chatted quietly as the incoming first years were sorted rather evenly into their respective houses. Draco sat with his usual two ruffians and Pansy. She was leaning all over him in her usual annoying style and Draco tried his hardest to zone out for tonight's dinner. He was rather uninterested with his friends and his mind kept pulling him back to the awful nightmares he had been having since he was branded with his dark mark over the summer. As his thoughts drifted to the violent scenes of a mysterious female he had never met, his hand fidgeted with his fork absentmindedly and Dumbledore took the stand for his usual round of welcome speeches and teacher introductions for, surprise! another defense against the dark arts teacher. He must have been pretty zoned out because it took a rather forceful elbow in the gut from his friend to shake him back into reality.

"Did you hear that? Some new kids in our year." Goyle laughed. Crabbe snickered "Wonder if they`re any mudbloods worth pushin` around."

The doors to the Great Hall opened again and in walked two students. A boy and a girl. Twins. When Draco saw the girl he froze in his seat. She had long brown hair to her waist, a light coating of freckles across her nose and upper cheeks, piercing blue eyes that screamed 'you don't want to fuck with me', slightly less than average height and she walked like no one could touch the queen. She was radiant and seemed so powerful with the most fragile build. Her brother was exactly the same. The only difference was the colors they sported. She proudly strode into the hall in her Ravenclaw uniform and he did the same for Gryffindor. Dumbledore introduced the pair as Lilly and Demetri Knight. Draco couldn't stop staring and Pansy was growing irritated beside him. There was something about that girl. He had seen her before and he knew it. The twins went to sit at their respective tables, quick to introduce themselves and blend right in as if they had attended the school as long as their new peers had. Draco shook it off when Pansy sighed so loudly in his ear e thought someone was deflating a balloon next to him.

"Jeeeese Drakey it's not like she's important or anything. Just another useless mudblood."

"Yah…" he turned his attention back to his friends and scolded himself for paying attention to the new girl in the first place.

When the chatter had settled Dumbledore drew the rooms attention again as he introduced the only thing that actually got Draco interested enough in the nights events to pay attention. Apparently, it was Hogwarts turn to host the Triwizard tournament. After a small rendition of the history of the games, he introduced Minister Fudge. Fudge addressed the students by announcing the arrival of the two other competing schools, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons Academy. The two schools entered in dramatic and theatrical stunts and sat at reserved tables.

"Hey man those French chicks aint so rough on the eyes, eh?" Blaise commented. Draco ignored his friend.

Fudge then opened the casing that protected the Triwizard Cup. It was the most magnificent thing in its glowing blue glory and there was excited chatter all throughout the room.

"Settle down now! Each of you will have two weeks time to submit your name, should you decide to do so, to the goblet of fire for selection. But do not do so lightly, for, if chosen, there is no going back." Dumbledore warned before dismissing the nights dinner.

After terrorizing some first year Gryffindors and sending some first year Hufflepuffs in the opposite direction of their dorms, Draco and his gang decided to retire for the night.

"Puttin' my name in tomorrow" Goyle announced. Draco just laughed it off, knowing his friend would never actually do it. He flopped down on his bed and let out a long breath. It felt better to be out of his house and somewhere where he didn't have his father or the dark lord breathing down his neck. He kicked off his shoes and stared up at the cover of the canopy on his bed. He was the last one awake, as usual, and for some reason that he was growing increasingly frustrated over, he could not shake the image of that Ravenclaw girl from the front of his mind. What is wrong with you? Just forget about that pathetic know-it-all. But she seems so familiar…hmph. Probably just some snobby brat you ran into in Diagon Alley or something. Eventually he drifted off.

Lilly finished organizing her things and hopped into bed in her fancy tower dorm room. She loved the view from the window because you could see the entirety of the school grounds and part of the lake. "Hey." She looked to the bed next to hers at a petite bleach-blond girl whispering to get her attention. "My names' Luna. Welcome to Hogwarts."

Lilly smiled back "Thanks! Its nice here."

"So where are you from? You sound American."

Lilly nodded "I`m from America but I was born in Greece."

Luna perked up and came to sit on Lillys bed. "And your brother?"

"Same. We usually follow each other so when I decided to try a real school he decided to tag along."

The two of them talked all night. Luna got Lilly all caught up on the more important social regulations of Hogwarts and some other basic rules to follow. The two shared stories and slept an approximate total of 5 minutes. In the morning, Lilly followed Luna down for breakfast in the morning. They were laughing and Luna had made Lilly tell her about the time that she visited Washington D.C. Neither of them were paying very much attention. Draco was exiting the Great Hall after a run in with Potter when he opened the door and walked right into Lilly, knocking her books out of her hands and dropping the muffins he was sneaking out.

"God you pathetic little oaf watch where you are walking." He spat at her, shoving past her and blending into the crowded hallway.

"Who the bloody hell was that?" Lilly asked, flustered and rubbing her shoulder as a different boy with black hair and glasses helped her pick up her books.

"Here. And that was Draco Malfoy by the way. Don't let him bother you, he's a cold shoulder to everyone." He offered her a friendly smile and her books. As soon as Lilly spotted the scar on his forehead she knew who she was talking to.

"Thanks Harry." He nodded, obviously used to people just knowing who he was. He asked if Lilly and Luna wanted to sit with him, Ron and Hermione for breakfast and the two Ravenclaws agreed.

After Ancient Runes with Hermione and Herbology with Ron and another boy named Neville, Lilly followed her new friend Ron to meet up with Harry and the others for Defense Against the Dark Arts. She took a seat next to Luna as their professor introduced himself as a Mr. 'Mad-Eye' Moody. He started a lesson about the dangers of Doxies and Lilly zoned out, doodling in her notebook. Whenever he asked a question, however, Lilly was always the first to respond and she always had the correct answer. The class was slightly surprised since the role of resident encyclopedia had already been occupied by Hermione.

Over the next few weeks things continued on normally. Lilly and Demetri grew accustomed to their new school and Lilly scored a chaser position on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. She was fast and so ruthless that she knocked two seventh years off their brooms and scored a record setting number of goals in her very first game. She had grown to be quite the name-to-know around the school. She and Hermione had regular tudy sessions in the library every week but since Lilly had a rather difficult potions test coming up she decided to stay after Hermione elected to turn in for the night.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"

"No, Hermione it's alright, I just want to go over a few more potions. Nothing I can't handle, but thanks for the offer." She gave her friend a smile and waved as she left. Lilly had finished with two books and got up to put them back while reading a third. Though, walking while reading probably wasn't the best idea she had ever had, she bumped into someone who proceeded to smack her books out of her hands.

"Bloody freak. It`s no wonder you don't have any friends." The blond haired Slytherin scoffed, kicking one of her books away.

She picked it up and tried to unfold the bent pages. She didn't tolerate stuck up snobs back in America and she certainly wouldn't tolerate entitled rich boys here either. She stacked her books back on the shelf and responded coolly. "I have 6 more than you'll ever have and I don't have to be rich to keep them around."

Draco seemed slightly dumbfounded that someone had talked back to him after a run-in. She was the one to shove past him this time and then walked off down the small flight of stairs and out of the library with the same confidence she had when she first walked into the great hall. Draco watched as she walked off, feeling a strange rush come over him that was an emotion he was rather afraid of. He shook his head and stormed out into the hall and into the 'out of order' bathroom. He undid his tie and leaned against the sink. That bloody girl who on earth does she think she is? He sighed and splashed water on his face. He had developed some rather unattractive eye bags from a lack of sleep. Over the past month he had been unable to shake her from his head and almost every night he had been cursed with the same damned dream of a bloody, cut up girl on the floor of his mansion living room. Both images haunted him and no matter how hard he tried they found him every time he closed his eyes. A singing burn shot up his arm and his mind started to switch into worry mode. He rolled up his sleeve, looking slightly disgusted at the mark that branded his forearm. He gripped the edge of the sink, biting his lip through the pain as the stress washed over him and for the first time in years he allowed a few tears. He had been so consumed by thought that he failed to hear the door open behind him. Lilly was slightly surprised to see him leaning over the sink, she set her books down and approached carefully, afraid that he was sick. He noticed something move in the mirror and whipped around, the tip of his wand pressed hard under her chin. She held her hands up.

"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you. I heard crying and I figured I would check it out because it didn't sound like Myrtle."

Draco was stunned and struggled over several reactions to the situation he found himself in. He was angry at himself for crying and even angrier that she of all people in this damned school had to have been the one to find him. He shoved her onto the floor and turned back to the sink, quickly tugging his sleeve back down and wiping his eyes; trying to make it look like he hadn't been crying though she had clearly heard him.

"Shove off, Knight." He spat her name like it was a poison.

"Hey I'm just trying to see if you're ok. Don't have to be so rude." She picked her book bag back up off the floor and put it on her shoulder. She nodded towards his arm. "Is there something wrong..? Because I'm a very good healer and if it's an injury I could probably hel…"

"No! Just go away!"He turned and pointed his wand at her, his arm shaking slightly. His mask was back on. Any sign of vulnerability vanished when he fired a jinx at her. She blocked it quick enough, the shot hitting a sink faucet and spraying water everywhere.

"Alright. Jeesh." She decided to leave. Draco sank to the floor, his head throbbing. Why did she offer to help me? Why should she give a damn. He sighed and put his head in his hands, silently submitting to the rain wetting his clothes from the sink he broke. Though he could never admit it out loud to himself, he hadn't wanted her to leave.