Chapter 1
It was a particularly hot autumn day, even for September. Faye sat hunched on her trunk waiting for her parents to bring the rest of the luggage. Kings Cross was alive and bustling; people, children, animals, and scolding parents. If you looked closely enough you could pick out the families with the curios owl, or the everyday clothes that weren't quite right. Faye tallied in her head how many wizards she had spotted so far, a few seemed close to her age.
According the principal of this new school her parents were sending her to, Faye was the first student to ever transfer to Hogwarts from another school. When her family moved from Australia she was forced to find magical education at another academy, so the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry now awaited her arrival.
At 16 Faye still hadn't outgrown her medium height, her face hadn't quite outgrown her large either. They were wide and catlike, green with tinges of yellow. Golden hair fell gracefully down her shoulders, the fringe just brushing her eyelashes. She was very pretty, in an odd sort of way.
"Faye? Faye, oh there you are. Here take your things, don't forget Millie, do you have all your robes? Your wand?"
Faye sighed as she relieved her mother of the little grey owl and fumbled around for her wand to reassure her mother. Faye stood facing the small expanse of bricks; she knew of course that getting to her platform required nothing more than walking straight through what appeared to be a solid brick wall. A little more nervous than she would like to be. Faye paced slowly forward stopping just centimetres from the bricks. With a deep breath she closed her eyes and pushed forward meeting no resistant from the wall. She emerged into chaos. Steam billowed from a large scarlet train while a chorus of croaking, meowing and hooting mingled with the usual family farewells. The tear-streaked face of Faye's mother greeted her as she turned to make her own farewells.
"If you need anything just send Mil"
"I know...Mum" Faye cut her off mid-sentence. After a brief embrace with her father and a rather embarrassingly passionate hug from her mother Faye stepped onto the train to her new home.
Compartment after compartment housed curious students, Faye was pretty sure she knew exactly what each person was thinking. As she got near the end of the train she spotted a compartment that only had a single occupant so far. It was a boy, tall and blonde storing an expensive looking trunk in the overhead compartment.
"Do do you mind if I sit in here?" she stuttered uncertainly. The boy's head snapped around to face her, an oddly hostile expression on his face.
"Who are you?" he demanded roughly
"Fa-Faye Abbeton" Faye mumbled, backing away from the door.
"You look far too young to be a first year. Why are you here? Sit will you you're making me nervous."
Shakily Faye took a seat as far away from this hostile stranger as she could.
"I'm a sixth year, my parents moved to England so I had to transfer here. Your professor Dumbledore says I am the first student to ever transfer to Hogwarts."
"Interesting." The boy seemed to be talking more to himself more than to Faye,
"A new sixth year. Odd." He broke off as two burly looking boys entered the compartment, each looking like some relation of a troll. Their grunting cut off as soon as they spotted Faye's anxious form in the corner.
"New sixth year. She's transferred or something. Name's Faye. I'm Draco by the way." He addressed Faye with at the end. The two boys sat down either side of Draco, Faye thought they said their names were Vincent and Gregory it was hard to tell however.
Soon a conversation started regarding houses. Having read Hogwarts a History the previous week Faye was familiar with the four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.
"Of course you'll want to be in our house, Slytherin." Said Draco
"Although Ravenclaw isn't too bad, I don't see why Hufflepuff even exists. What good comes out of a house whose foundations are based on the rejected students of other houses? My father's always said those Hufflepuffs will never last."
Faye just sat and listened hoping whole-heartedly that she would not be placed in Hufflepuff. She has read a lot about Slytherin in Hogwarts a History. She did not fully understand why its reputation was so bad, although Faye was quiet and outwardly sweet she could not help but feel drawn to the nature of the Slytherins. Quietly deadly was how she thought of them, it was a thought that inspired her. She relished being underestimated because of her apparent shyness.
Outside the sky had darkened rapidly. Faye was sure the train was starting to slow down, and sure enough in a matter of minutes glowing lamps illuminated the train from the outside and Draco reached for his cloak from the compartment. Faye followed her fellow pupils as they exited the train at the Hogsmeade train station and made their way to what appeared to be a large number of carriages. A tug on her arm guided her to one of these carriages and she got in beside her new companions, a rather tight fit with the size of Vincent and Gregory. Leaning back Faye closed her eyes for the first time since the morning and tried to imagine what her new home would be like.