"I can't believe that I'm living with these people." Aurora mumbled under her breath as she stepped into Diagon Alley; following her aunt, uncle, and cousins, who were all shoving some type of food into their mouths. "They are so disgusting. How can I possibly be related to them?"



Aurora turned away in disgust when she saw her younger cousin Melody looking at her. Melody treated Aurora all right when they were alone, but whenever Melody's parents or brother were around, she turned into a spoiled brat who looked down her nose at her cousin.



"Mum, why did we take her in again?" Melody's older brother asked, looking at Aurora. Pure dislike was seen in his dark eyes.

"She's my older sister's only child." Aurora's aunt Elenore said sighing with annoyance. "Besides we're her only family and the Ministry of Magic left us no choice."



Aurora turned away from her aunt and rolled her eyes. *You'd swear I'm here by choice,* she thought to herself.



As the sun shone down, Aurora pulled her shoulder length black hair back into a ponytail. Her forest green eyes were full of hurt and anger towards her aunt and family. Aurora fingered her small silver heart shaped locket. It was a present from her parents on her last birthday. It was Aurora's favorite piece of jewelry. The silver heart was simple, except for a small piece of a green emerald fused in the center.



Aurora turned around when she felt eyes on her back, and found her aunt staring at her. When her aunt caught Aurora's eyes, she turned away in disgust and envy. Aurora knew that her aunt had always hated her and her mother because they had both been extremely thin and beautiful. Aurora also knew that the new red halter top she was wearing made her aunt very jealous. The top stopped just above Aurora's belly button and showed off her flat stomach perfectly. Her dark blue jeans hugged her body tightly all the way down until just below her knees where they began to flare out and partially covered her black boots.

"Aurora come on, hurry up. We still have to buy your robes and books," Aurora's cousin said in an annoyed tone, "and I have to meet my friends in an hour and I don't want to be late because you're taking forever with your shopping!"



"You'd better shop as fast as you can," Melody warned Aurora, "his friend is very important and hates to be kept waiting. If he tells his father that my brother kept him waiting, his father will take it out on my dad, and my dad will take it out on you. I'll see you later. Mom and I have to go get the rest of my stuff including my wand since it's my first year."



"Thanks for the warning." Aurora said still trying to figure out how Melody could be so mean and hateful to her one minute and caring and concerned the next.

One hour later, Aurora's cousin dragged her back to the Leaky Cauldron.

She tried to finish her shopping as fast as she could, but apparently it wasn't fast enough. Her cousin dragged her in and out of each shop as quickly as he could.



"Goyle!" A voice yelled out.



Aurora turned at the sound of her cousin's last name and found herself face to face with the coldest, and definitely one of the cutest guys she had ever seen. She stood admiring the way his gray sweater hugged his body and showed off his well-developed upper body muscles. She also loved the way the pants seemed to hug his legs to make them look like they had been made especially for him. What Aurora couldn't stop looking at were his eyes. They were a steely gray, and looking her over, which made her a bit nervous because of the cold emotions that seemed to be emanating from his gaze before they turned back to her cousin.



"Goyle, what took you so long? Crabbe and I have been waiting here fourteen minutes already. I thought I told you not to be late."



"Sorry Malfoy," Goyle replied, giving Aurora a dirty look, "I had to take my cousin shopping to buy her school supplies, and boy did she take her sweet time about it."



Aurora shivered as those cold gray eyes were once again focused on her. She noticed that his eyes strayed a little longer this time as they traveled up the length of her body, taking her flat stomach and all her curves



"What's your name?" Malfoy asked as he focused on her chest for a few moments longer than she liked.



Aurora held her head up and waited until Malfoy had finished looking her over, and had focused on her eyes before answering.

"My name is Aurora Kenzil. What's yours?"



"Draco Malfoy," He responded sticking his nose into the air. "Well Kenzil aren't you a bit old to barely be starting Hogwarts. We're all entering our sixth year," Malfoy replied haughtily.



"I'm transferring into Hogwarts this year from The Salem Witches Institute." Aurora responded.



"Well," Draco said looking her over once more, "with any luck, you'll be sorted into Slytherin. Although, anything is better than Gryffindor. That house is full of goodie goodies who think that they're better than every one else, even when it's clear they're not the best house in Hogwarts."



"Malfoy," Goyle interrupted looking a little nervous, "we still have some 'supplies' to buy ourselves. You know we ran out of a few things last year."



"I know Goyle," Malfoy said in a patronizing tone, as he turned on Goyle. "What do you suggest we do. We can't exactly go buy the stuff we need with your cousin hanging around."



"I actually wanted to explore Diagon Alley for a while. I thought I might get some ice cream," Aurora said hating the fact that she was being talked about as if she wasn't even there.



"Fine," Goyle said turning to his cousin, and giving her a few Galleons. "Don't get into any trouble. We'll come looking for you when we're done."



With that Goyle turned to Malfoy and said, "All right we can go now." Then Goyle, Malfoy and Crabbe turned and left.



*What could I possibly do to get into trouble?* Aurora asked herself as she turned and headed down Diagon Alley.

*********

"Hey Ron." Harry said as he turned, trying to get his best friend's attention. They had already finished buying all their school supplies and had been looking at the new quidditch supplies. "Who's that sitting outside of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor?"



"I don't know." Ron said as he turned away from Hermione who was talking about how many O.W.L's she had gotten the previous year. Hermione continued to talk to the air about what she hoped would be covered in their classes for the upcoming year and about all the responsibilities of a prefect. "She sure is pretty though." Ron commented.

"You noticed that to." Harry said smiling, unable to take his eyes off of the unknown girl.



"Why don't you go and talk to her Harry?" Hermione asked rolling her eyes. "She looks like she's alone and I'm sure she'd like someone to talk to."



"No, I couldn't just walk up to her and talk to her. I wouldn't know what to say." Harry replied



"Well, I think we should all go over to talk to her." Hermione said.



With that she turned away from her friends and headed towards the girl. Harry and Ron just looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They were smiling as the followed Hermione.

*********



Aurora looked around as the feeling of being watched spread over her. When she looked up she saw two guys and a girl starring at her. *I wonder what they want?* Aurora thought to herself, as the threesome headed towards her.



"Hi" the girl said cheerfully. Her wavy brown hair was held back with a pair of butterfly clips that matched the dark blue tank top and black skirt she wore. "My name is Hermione. These two are Ron and Harry."



Aurora looked at the boy with red hair and freckles whom Hermione had introduced as Ron. The black shirt and blue jeans showed off a well-muscled body. Aurora then turned to the boy that had been pointed out as Harry. His brown hair was slightly messy but Aurora was transfixed buy the depth of his green eyes under his glasses. She also noticed that the red shirt and black jeans also showed off a tone and well-muscled body.



"Hi." Aurora replied, "my name's Aurora."



"We've never seen you before." Ron said. "Where are you from?"



"California." Aurora replied sighing, "I'm transferring to Hogwarts this year from The Salem Witches Institute."



"That's great." Harry said.



"Why are you transferring from The Salem Witches Institute?" Ron asked as the three friends took the empty seats at Aurora's table. "Did your family just move here or something?"



"Well," Aurora said as she paused thinking about everything that had transpired over the summer. "My parents died a few months ago and I had to come here and live with my aunt and uncle."



"Oh," Ron said as he started to turn red. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."



"It's okay." Aurora said smiling. "There's no way you could have known."



"So," Hermione said trying to change the direction of the conversation. "What's it like living in California."



"Actually it's not all that people think it is. It's pretty much like anywhere else, except we have a few muggle movie stars out there." Aurora said laughing because she knew that people expected California to be crawling with muggle stars. "You don't really see a lot of them though."



"Why did you go to The Salem Witches Institute if you lived in California?" Harry asked. "Aren't there any schools in California?"



"None that my parents liked." Aurora said truthfully. "They wanted me to go to school at Hogwarts because that's where they went to school, but since we lived in the United States, it just made more sense for me to go to school there. I'm sure Hogwarts is a great school but I'd rather be back home with my friends from Salem."



"Why didn't you stay there?" Hermione asked. "It can't be that much of a trip to send you to your old school so you could be with your friends. Especially after everything that happened to you. You need people that you know and trust right now."



"I don't really have a choice. I'm living with my aunt and uncle." Aurora said with a disgusted look on her face. "Rather than send my cousins and I to separate schools, my aunt wants us to attend the same school so it's easier when the school year starts."



"Oh." Ron said. " Who's your cousin?"



"I am." Goyle said coming up behind the group and catching them off guard. He turned to his cousin and asked, "What are you doing talking to these three?"



"They came up and started talking to me." Aurora replied as she stood up and placed her hands on her hips. "Besides I can talk to whoever I want to talk to Greg. I am a big girl."



" Look Aurora," Goyle said "I'll overlook your mistake this once, and I won't tell Mum and Dad that you were associating with Gryffindors, but this'll be the only time."



"Look Greg," Aurora said. " I'm gonna talk to whoever I want and there's nothing you can do to stop me."



"Ms. Kenzil," Draco said softly as he placed his arm around her shoulders and led her away from the group. "You can't associate with Gryffindor trash like these three. Granger is a Mudblood, need I say more? Weasley is a member of one of the poorest wizarding families in the world, and Potter, well Potter is so full of himself because he's "The Boy Who Lived" that he thinks he is better than everyone else, even the upper class wizards."





Harry watched as Draco dropped his arm on Aurora's shoulders and led her a small distance away from the group and leaned in to whisper in her ear. *God* Harry thought to himself, *why does she have to be standing that close to Malfoy? She's too good for him.*



"What do you think that Malfoy's telling her?" Ron asked Harry.



"He's probably telling her a bunch of lies." Harry said. "You know Malfoy, he hates us. He's probably making up things as he goes along."





When Malfoy finished talking to Aurora she pulled away and looked at Harry in a new light. She of course knew who Harry Potter was. Who in the wizarding world didn't? *So this is the famous Harry Potter.* She thought to herself. *I hope I have a chance to get to know him better. Maybe this year will be better than I thought it would be.*



"I have to go." Aurora told the Gryffindor trio. She knew that she would not be able to talk to them at that time. "I'll see you guys around Hogwarts."



With that, she turned and headed back towards the Leaky Cauldron. Malfoy, Goyle and Crabbe looked at Harry and his friends and smirked.



"See you at Hogwarts." Malfoy said to Harry pure hatred glowing in his steel gray eyes. Malfoy turned and headed towards the Leaky Cauldron behind Aurora, with Crabbe and Goyle trailing behind him like well trained dogs.