Maria
was standing on platform nine and three quarters; she had just gone
through the barrier to the magical platform where she would be
boarding the Hogwarts Express. It was her first year attending
Hogwarts, though she was a sixth year. She had attended Durmstrange
for five years before she found out she had a brother who went to
Hogwarts. She got on the train and walked down the corridor and found
herself an empty compartment. She had come to the station alone
because her foster mother, Minerva McGonagall, was a teacher at
Hogwarts and had to be at the school. Maria was about to sit down
when a tall boy with blond hair came in with two rather large and
stupid looking boys behind him.
"May I ask why you're sitting
in my compartment?" he asked rudely crossing his arms.
"Oh
sorry I didn't know, you see I'm a transfer from Durmstrange, so I
didn't know, I'll just leave," she muttered, looking down, which
caused her long, wavy, sliver hair to fall in front of her face. The
boy looked her up and down then smirked. His friends sat down as he
walked over to her.
"No, you don't have to leave. I'm Malfoy
by the way, Draco Malfoy." he introduced himself, holding out
his hand.
"I'm Maria McGonagall, I've heard about you from
Victor and his friends. Though you seem a lot nicer then how they
described you." she told him shaking his hand.
"Oh, how
did they describe me?" he asked looking confused.
"Well
to be honest they said you're a pompous jerk who thinks f no one but
himself. Though I think they're wrong, you seem nice," she
stated.
Malfoy laughed and sat down gesturing for her to sit
beside him. His friends sat across and continued to look large and
stupid. She sat down and glanced out the compartment door as three
kids walked by. A girl with brown bushy hair, a red haired freckled
faced boy, and another boy with jet-black hair and round glasses.
Malfoy was saying something but she didn't hear him, she was lost in
her thoughts. They boy with the black hair had looked familiar, but
she hadn't met anyone from Hogwarts yet except for Malfoy and his
goonies.
"Hello, earth to Maria, are you in there?"
asked Malfoy loudly breaking her chain of thought.
"Oh, sorry
I didn't hear what you said I was just wondering who that boy with
the black hair was, he looks so familiar," she apologized
turning back to Draco.
"Oh him, that's Saint Potter. Trust me
you don't want him hanging out with you. He has near death encounters
at least once a month. Stupid scare head," Draco told her, his
voice filled with hatred, or jealous, Maria wasn't sure.
"You
mean that's Harry Potter?" she asked then muttered under her
breath, "No wonder why he looked so familiar."
"Yep,
a blood traitor, along with that red headed weasel, and bushy haired,
mudblood Granger." remarked Draco.
"I'm going to change
into my robes, I'll be back in a few minutes." she smiled,
grabbed her robes and left.
She walked down the corridor, Harry
and his friends were just a little ways ahead of her. She wanted to
go say hi but decided she would after she changed; she saw them turn
into a compartment and made a mental note of it as she walked by.
After she changed she headed back when she ran into...
After
she changed she headed back when she ran into Harry himself.
"Sorry,
I didn't see you," she apologized getting up and holding out her
hand to help him up.
Harry gladly took her hand and stood up. He
smiled faintly then gave her an odd look.
"I don't know you,
do I? You look familiar," he questioned.
"Ummm...actually
you do. It's kind of hard to explain. Do you think we could go sit
down and I'll tell you," Maria shyly answered.
"Uh I
guess so, my compartments just there we can sit down and you can
explain how you know me," he told her pointing to the
compartment, where he and his friends were sitting, giving her
another odd look.
Maria nodded and let Harry lead her. He opened
the door and sat down on the empty seat, his two friends on the other
one. They smiled when Harry came in, and then gave questioning looks
when they saw Maria.
"Harry, I think you have another fan
following you," blurted the red headed boy.
"Ronald
honestly, be nice," snapped the girl, "can we help you?"
she added sweetly.
"I just bumped into her in the corridor,
she says she knows me," Harry told them glancing at Maria, "you
can sit down if you like, I'm sure your arse hurts you fell pretty
hard," he added laughing slightly. Maria sat next to him.
"Like
I said in the corridor, it's kind of hard to explain. I only just
found out at the end of school last year." she said to
Harry.
"Found out what?" he asked.
"I'myoursister,"
she slurred fastly.
"Sorry, didn't catch that."
Marie
took a deep breath and spoke slowly, "I'm your..."
Before
Maria could finish...
Before
Maria could begin Draco came in.
"Maria I thought I
warned you about Potter, or did he drag you in here to tell you to
stay away from me?" he asked. He didn't exactly sound mad but
almost disappointed.
"She doesn't need someone like you as a
friend Draco, too bad we didn't meet her first, so we could warn her
about you," the girl said standing up so she was between Maria
and Draco.
"No one was talking to you Grander, you filthy
mudblood," sneered Draco.
Maria stood up and moved around the
girl. She grabbed Draco's hand.
"I was just apologizing to
Harry for running into him. Come on Draco, I don't want to be causing
any fights on my first day," she said pulling him towards the
door.
He was shocked that such a pretty girl was holding his hand
so he followed silently. After they left the girl turned to Harry and
Ronald.
"That was odd; hopefully we can talk to her again and
find out what she was going to tell you."
"I agree with
you Hermione. It's too bad she met Malfoy first though, I'm sure he's
been saying loads of nasty stuff about me," Harry said.
Maria
pulled Draco into their compartment then sat down. He sat down beside
her still shocked. He was blushing slightly and Maria had
noticed.
"My that's a surprise, such a tough guy like you
blushing slightly over a girl holding his hand," she
laughed.
"I'm not blushing I'm just red cause I'm... mad,"
he said quickly, lying through his teeth.
"Who are you
kidding, you're blushing and you know," she teased.
The train
suddenly started to slow down, and a few seconds it came to a halt.
Everyone started to walk past and get off the train; they had arrived
at the station in Hogsmead. Maria smiled and got up turning to face
Draco.
"Well are you going to show where to go or do I have
to find out on my own?" she asked smiling.
Draco smiled back
and got up; he led her out of the compartment and down the corridor.
His friends followed slowly feeling like they'd been ditched, Draco
ignored them and brought Maria outside. Once they got off the train
Draco led her to a bunch of large carriages that seemed were going to
be pulled by nothing more then magic because there was nothing hooked
to them, he got them an empty carriage. When his friends started to
get in he stopped them, and whispered something. They glanced at
Maria, gave her a dirty look and left.
"You didn't have to do
that; they could have sat with us." Maria told Draco.
"I
wanted to get rid of them they've been following me everywhere, it's
quite annoying really," he laughed.
He sat down beside her
and smiled, he looked so much better when he smiled. Maria had just
started to notice that he was quite attractive. His blond, almost
white hair looked soft and silky, and it seemed to frame his face
making his elaborate ice blue eyes stand out. She smiled back and
realized she hadn't let go of his hand since they'd left Harry's
compartment. She was about to let go of his hand when Draco leaned
over, and kissed her, blushing madly afterwards.
"What was
the kiss for?" she asked blushing as well; she moved her hand
and lightly touched her lips where Draco had kissed
her.
"I...I...just because," he stammered.
The carriages
stopped, so everyone got out and headed into the castle. Before Maria
could reply, Draco let go of her hand; opened the door of their
carriage; got out; then held out his hand to help her out. People
around him were surprised to see that the 'Slytherin Prince' was
being so kind to someone, most of them had even stopped to see who it
was he was being nice to. Maria took his hand and allowed him to help
her out of the carriage. When the people, who had stopped to watch,
saw her, their eyes widened, she was dazzling. She had long, wavy,
silver hair that was so long it reached past her waist, so long in
fact that she sat on it even when she had it out into a high
ponytail. Her sea green eyes shone with kindness, knowledge, and
patience. Her face showed how gentle and helpful, yet shy she was.
Her velvet skin was perfect; it glowed without a blemish in sight.
Maria noticed that people were watching her, so she smiled and walked
past with Draco, her fingers intertwined in his. They walked into the
great hall when Professor McGonagall stopped them.
"Hello
mister Malfoy please precede into the great hall, Maria must wait out
here with the first years so she may be sorted," said Minerva
sternly. Maria guessed that she disapproved of Maria being with Draco
because of his history. She sighed when Draco nodded and let go of
Maria's hand.
"I'll see you later," he called walking
into the great hall.
Maria stood and waited for the rest of the
first years, which wasn't a very long wait as they had arrived only
minutes after everyone else. She smiled to them as they came up the
stairs and stood around her. Minerva informed them what was to happen
when they got into the great hall and told them she'd be back when
they were ready for them. She left them and went into the great hall.
A small girl standing beside Maria pulled on her robe; Maria looked
down at her and smiled.
"You're very pretty. How come you're
not in there with everyone else, did you get in trouble?" asked
the little girl shyly.
"Thank you you're very pretty too. I'm
not in trouble I'm a transfer student and I need to be sorted too."
Maria told her, as McGonagall came back out.
"We're ready for
you now, please follow me," she turned her back and lead them
into the Great Hall; as they walked Maria whispered something to
Minerva.
"Mum, please just call McGonagall. I don't know how
people are going to react and I don't really want anyone to know
yet."
When they got to the front McGonagall stopped them, and
walked up to a stool in front. She explained to them what to do then
started calling out names; slowly each student was sorted until
finally it was just Maria and the little girl she had talked to on
the stairs.
"Hanna Perkins," called McGonagall.
The
little girl sat down on the stool and the sorting hat was placed on
her head, it was so big on her that it fell down past her
nose.
"Hufflepuff!"
shouted the hat.
She took the hat off, handed it to Professor
McGonagall and went to sit at the Hufflepuff table. Maria braced
herself to finally be called, instead Dumbledore stood up and
addressed the school.
"I would like you all to welcome a
transfer student for Durmstrange, Maria. Now before she is sorted I
would like to tell you that Maria is here only because she just
recently found out that she has a brother who goes to school here at
Hogwarts," he said, "who is her brother you may ask? Well
he is none other then Mister..." Dumbledore began, but was
interrupted by the doors opening and a tall man with hair like
Draco's; except shorter, walked in.
"Sorry I'm late sir, had
some trouble at the ministry," he shouted, his deep voice
echoing across the hall, Dumbledore merely nodded.
"No
problem Robert, please have a seat. I was just introducing Maria here
to the school."
Robert got to the table but instead of
sitting down he stood in front of Dumbledore and spoke quietly to
him. Maria being so close overheard him.
"About that sir, the
ministry think it unwise to announce to everyone that Maria is in
fact Potters sister. They believe that it could be dangerous."
The teachers who heard him as well turned their heads quickly to
Maria.
"The ministry has asked me to tell you that we should
keep her identity secret until it is safe for her and Harry, or at
least until her and her brother have sufficient protection," he
continued.
Dumbledore shook his head, and waved away Robert's
warning.
"Nonsense Robert, she will be in no more danger then
she is now, she's in as much danger as everyone else no matter who
she is. Besides I thought that was why you were hired, to protect
them? Now please sit down and let me finish," he added in a tone
that meant the conversation was over.
Robert sighed but went and
sat down anyway. He kept glancing at Maria as if he expected her to
vanish or drop dead or something.
"Now as I was saying,"
Dumbledore said calmly addressing the school again as if he had not
been interrupted, "Maria's brother is Mister Harry Potter."
At that the entire school seemed to turn to Harry, who was sitting at
the Gryffindor table in shock. Someone had even shouted "You're
kidding right?!"
Dumbledore laughed, "No mister Brill,
I'm not. You see the Potters knew that Voldemort only knew about
Harry and so Maria was staying with
