Leaning my face against the cool windowpane I allowed myself to be swept away by the lulling rumble of the train's wheels. I reflected on my less than average day. I received my letter a week ago, and my mother and father swelled up twice their size with pride. I went to Diagon Alley with my best friend, Ginny Weasley, who happened to come from a whole family of witches and wizards, who knew!

So here I am, on the Hogwarts Express where I shall be whisked off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A school full of crackpots, mess-ups and odd balls, all full of hogwash, like me. The compartment's door flew open as I snapped my in the direction of the sound to see a bleach blonde boy with ice chip blue eyes looking down his nose at me. I was glad of my short haircut, which hid my bespectacled eyes from view as he surveyed me, the only occupant of the compartment, coldly.

I think I looked shady, with my hair in my face and black cat perched on my lap. But he sighed in resignation and said, "You'll do." Do for what? His girlfriend? I hope he knows I am an extreme feminist. I would have pointed it out if I didn't have a sore throat. He stepped into the compartment and shut the door behind him. It shut with a soft click he took a step forwards he was right in front of me he held out his hand and said "Draco Malfoy." I took it and shook it, " Angeline Porter" I croaked. The first words I said to this wizard would not be my last.

The second I said my name he pulled his hand back. What was he surprised about? I just said my name. I sounded normal, minus the after effects of my sore throat, but anyway he sounded funny with his odd voice that seemed like it should be coming from an evil villain in a Saturday morning cartoon.

"You're American!" he said, either taken aback or surprised.

"You're British, your point is?" I inquired, hoping to gain some knowledge from this boy, my cat hopped from my lap to the red velvet seat across from me, where he, Draco Malfoy was sitting. I brushed cat hair from my robes and dug through my bag for a knut or a sickle, I heard the trolley's squeaky wheels coming up the hall to it's last stop, here, this compartment. Instead of one of the lesser coins I found a galleon. I looked over at Draco Malfoy, "What do you want from the trolley, Britan?" and thus, our friendship began.

It is hard to explain how we became friends. He is a pure blood, I'm not. I guess he was just looking for an innocent, or someone to talk freely around. I cannot speak for Draco Malfoy, but I think it began because he wanted to be alone and a girl who prefers cats and books to people would probably be the best choice.

When the trolley came by the sweets woman looked at me quizzically with her had cocked when I asked for two sugarquills, a licorice wand and a Chocolate Frog. I received my candy and some bronze knuts to go with it. I asked Draco Malfoy if it was the right change by holding out the hand with the knuts, he nodded. I handed him a sugar quill and the chocolate frog. I sucked on the remaining sugar quill for a while until Draco Malfoy spoke, pointing out the window as he hid so-" Hogwarts, the place where I'd rather not be."

"Why not?" I asked, crunching my quill.

" The teachers are terrible, except Snape and..." he trailed off.

"Out of ideas." I asked, he nodded his head, shame faced. "Is that really what you think?" he shook his bleach blonde head. "That's what I thought, you never dislike a school that strongly." When I finished speaking in my halting, abrupt sort of way, the train stopped. He left the compartment as far as he could go into catching up with his father's "friends" sons. The opinions he told me were not his own, I knew, they could not have been, they were told to him, and he was convinced they were his, I put my bag in my trunk, pulled it off the rack, and along with Draco Malfoy I walked out of the compartment into a gaggle of kids of varying ages.

Before I was two steps from my compartment a girl with long blonde hair, with a faraway look in her eyes, and a Quibbler under her arm whispered in my ear, "Leave the trunks in your compartment, they'll be in your room when you are sorted. Oh and watch out for gnargles." I was slightly confused but whispered my thanks. She nodded already lost in thoughts humming to a song only she could hear.