"Harper, Zara!" drawled Professor McGonagall's voice. Getting up from my seat, I couldn't help but notice the giggles and spiteful whispering from a table of blue, otherwise known as the Ravenclaw table. Stiffly, I walked towards the sorting chair. I shifted uncomfortably as I sat down on the stool and listened to the hat's contemplating voice, "Oh what a tricky case… brave, smart… loyal, sly… you could go into any house you wanted and be very successful… " Not Ravenclaw, I thought, those girls would tear me apart. "Oh? Not Ravenclaw? But such a smart girl like you…" it sighed. "Well then, I suppose it better be…"

"SLYTHERIN!"

An eruption of cheers belted out from a green table in the right-hand corner. Having only cared it not be Ravenclaw, I shrugged dismissively at the decision. "Green's my favorite colour anyways…" I couldn't help but mutter as I walked away, earning strange looks from the other tables I was passing by. I glanced up, and noticed that one of the people warily eyeing me was the nice girl I had sat with on the train. I smiled timidly as I passed, but she only furrowed her eyebrows and quickly turned away. Bewildered at the action, I slightly faltered in my step on my way to the Slytherin table. Her rather cold attitude though was nothing compared to the chill I was getting from the judgmental stares of my fellow Slytherins, especially the girls. I was already unsure about how I would fit in, having been adopted and not knowing if I was "pureblood" or not, the stares only proved to weaken my resolve further.

Nervously taking a seat at the end of the row, I let out a sigh of relief as most everyone's attention quickly moved on to the next name called; the exception being two boys sitting on my left that continued to stare at me. 'Vincent and… Gregory, I think they were.' I vaguely recalled their sorting in my head as I tried to ignore their poorly hid glances. Finally seeming to grow tired of the newbie, they simply turned their backs to me and continued talking. I slumped in my seat, surprised to realize how sore I had gotten from sitting so stiffly under their criticizing gazes, and rested my head on my hand, brushing off their curiosity as easy as they had brushed off me.

The sorting continued to drag on, with many cheers, most notably from the Gryffindor table. "Herks, Sally Anne!" McGonagall called. Automatically, I perked up at the name- recognizing it as being the same girl who I sat with on the train. Her earlier reaction to my sortment had been disheartening but she was the closest thing I had to a friend in this place so I eagerly leaned in to listen. The moment the hat was on her head it bellowed, "GRYFFINDOR!" I clapped quietly and beamed at her as she went to sit down at her table. I jumped when the boy next to me, the Vincent fellow, swiftly turned to face me, glaring hard. I was really fed up with these looks people seemed to keep giving me today.

"What, Vincent?" I fiercely hissed at him, returning his glare.

His eyes grew big in surprise, whether it was from my sudden attitude change or the fact that I knew his name, and he faltered. Turning to face me, the other slytherin, Gregory, lowly said, "You do not clap for a Gryffindor, nor do you refer to him as 'Vincent'. He's Crabb and I'm Goyle. We don't go by our firsts names."

"Oh-!" I blushed, embarrassed at both snapping at Crabb when I was the one in the wrong and being called out for it. I turned to Crabb, "I-I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to offend you or anything…"

He faltered a second time, taken aback. "Uh I-it's okay." He stuttered, meeting my gazing. His face quickly turned beet red, and he turned away just in time to hear "Malfoy, Draco!" being called.

The boy sat on a stool and not a second passed before the hat yelled out, "SLYTHERIN!" We all cheered as he made his way over to us. He sat across from Crabb and Goyle and didn't even glance my way, so I took this time to examine him. Slicked back blonde hair, high cheek bones and sort of 'I'm-better-than-you' kind of smirk on. Hearing him snark over there, talking about his wealth and status over other other people's names being called out I could already tell I had my work cut out for me to teach a weasel like him a lesson or two. He caught my gaze and we locked eyes. My auburn-brown eyes hitting his cold gray ones. They looked pained, misunderstood, forced. They were changing into a confused, questioning look. He mumbled, looking me up and down, "Who's this?" I stuck my hand out to shake and said, "My name is Zara Harper." He rather sneered at my hand and I pulled it away. "Draco Malfoy." "Hmm, doesn't ring a bell." He looked disbelieving at me. I just ignored him and listened to the sorting hat. Professor McGonagall's called out, "Potter, Harry!" and the whole room was filled with excited, "That's Harry Potter!" and "He's the boy who lived!"

"Let me guess, you haven't heard about him either." I glared at him. "In fact, I have heard of him Draco, but only a little. He defeated some dark wizard or something like that. Sounds more like a rumour to me," I lied. Who DIDN'T know Harry Potter? He chuckled lightly, not catching my dishonesty. "I'm starting to like you, kid." I stared at Harry as he sat in the seat. "But you know, you got to admit. He is pretty good-looking…" I winked at Draco as his cheeks got bright red.

I'm such a weirdo.

A few other names were called, ending with some red haired guy, when Dumbledore stood and spoke, "Let us eat!" I mumbled a 'thank god' and grabbed some chicken off the platter that magically appeared and put some mashed potatoes on the side. I took a sip of water and started to eat. The feast didn't last very long. Dumbledore stood again and introduced us to the teachers for this year, and we all sung the Hogwarts school song. After that we followed our prefect back to the dormitories while I had a… strange chat with the Bloody Baron.

I met some of the girls in the dorm, and I found that there wasn't very many of them. I asked them some questions, they gave me little answers. When I asked about Draco, they eagerly told me all about him. I was interested, but they weren't very satisfactory for me. I wrote down what had happened today in a little journal that my mum gave me. We decided to not buy an owl for writing, instead I would write for only emergencies and the rest would be kept in the journal. I drew my curtains and turned off my light. I went to bed, dreaming of the family I never got the chance to know.

Sooo what'd you think? I thought it was pretty good, but really long to write. Please tell what I need to improve on and what you think of the story so far. I hope you're not toooo confused. By the way, Zara is a made-up character. My sister helped me re-write this, but she started to go on and on about Malfoy (her favorite character), like how Zara and him had love at first sight, but it's not that kind of story. Trust me. Oh, and if you're reading the first book along with this, which I am, you might have noticed Sally Anne's last name isn't Lerks, but Perks. I only changed it because Perks is after M and P, so I had to change it.

Disclaimer: I may own Zara, but Draco Malfoy and the Harry Potter wizarding world is all J.K.'s.

Cheers! :{D