A/N : So I'm not really sure where this is headed, I had an idea so I carried it out. So far this is crap, but if you want me to improve/continue, gimme a shout and I'll come running (I got nothing better to do). I don't really know if this is any good, I just know that I had what I thought was an awesome idea and I thought it would be good on paper but then this mess happened. If you think you can do it better, give it a try and leave a link in the review I'd love to see this idea properly carried out. Here goes ...
I was lost. There was no doubt about it. I'd walked to Kings Cross all alone in the pouring rain, arrived here with a burning stitch in my side, and now there wasn't even a platform for the train I was supposed to be boarding.
"Excuse me, sir." I said, tapping a man in uniform. "Do you know where I could find platform nine and three quarters?"
"Platform nine and three quarters? You're having a laugh." said the steward, a burly man with barely any hair and very large nostrils. "Never heard of such a place in my life. Doubt it exists. Stop messing about and find your parents."
"I wish." I muttered, turning away. If my parents were still alive I wouldn't be in this mess. I'd have known all about Hogwarts and magic and all that jazz. But no, they had to go and die, didn't they? Leaving me with 'poor aunt Bellatrix'. Poor aunt Bellatrix indeed, forcing me to live in the cupboard beneath the stairs even though there were two perfectly good empty rooms upstairs. You'd think with her having no children and no other family members she'd be grateful to have such a bundle of joy in her life, but did I get a scrap of respect? If you guessed no, you're correct.
When I got my Hogwarts letter she couldn't be happier to get rid of me. She bargained with me that I could go to Hogwarts if I stayed there for every holiday, excluding the summer holidays where I'd be home for four weeks before I'd return. I thought she'd have reacted differently, hiding or even burning the letters to stop me from going to a school where "demons like her sister learned sorcery". But no, she was ecstatic to learn that I'd be leaving. However, she wasn't so happy when a very tall man called Hagrid knocked the door down.
"Oops. Dunno my own strength." he chuckled, speaking in a deep voice.
"You're paying for that!" Aunt Bellatrix screeched.
He took me to a place called Diagon Alley, where I learned about my parents and their untimely death. We went to Gringotts bank, run by goblins would you believe, and I received a small fortune my parents had left to me in their will. We bought loads of school supplies, which was easier than you'd think considering I'd never bought a non-muggle object in my whole life. I met a bespectacled boy with sleek black hair and green eyes who told me of Hogwarts and its four houses. He said he was hoping to get into Slytherin, and the very word sent a shiver down my spine. I'd never heard of Slytherin before, but I seriously hoped I wasn't chosen to be in that house. The name gave me the creeps.
"PLATFORM NINE AND THREE QUARTERS IS RIGHT THIS WAY BOYS." A loud voice tore me from my thoughts. A pleasant looking red-haired woman was guiding similar-looking children towards the wall between platforms nine and ten. I followed close behind, keeping completely out of sight. I watched with wide eyes as four ginger haired boys ran at the wall, passing right through, leaving only a small girl and the woman smiling nostalgically at the place the boys had just been. "Your turn next year, Ginny." the woman said, squeezing the little girl's shoulders.
I waited until they'd walked away to inspect the wall myself, tapping it with my knuckles. Yep, definitely solid. I took a deep breath, and walking a few steps backwards, braced myself for what was about to come. I was going to crash, I was sure of it, but with my eyes closed I ran at the wall anyway, and to my surprise I passed through what felt like a blanket. I opened my eyes to see a large red train and dozens of children saying goodbye to their family.
Having nobody to kiss and hug, I boarded the train, heading for the carriage at the very back. After what felt like hours, the train whistle sounded, and a boy entered my carriage.
"Can I join you?" It was one of the ginger boys, the youngest.
"Sure." I said, as I didn't know anybody yet and Hagrid had told me that the best place to make friends was on the train.
The boy sat down on the other side of the carriage, and it was then that I noticed his clothes. They were worn down, as though they'd been passed down through a long line of people. His shoes were starting to wear holes in them, and his trousers were slightly too short for his legs. His jumper was far too big for him, and in his breast pocket was a large rat. It squeaked at me before climbing out of the boys pocket and onto the seat beside him.
"I'm Ron. Ron Weasley." the boy said, holding out his hand for me to shake.
I shook it, and saw his eyes gaze over me before looking above my eyes. I knew exactly what he was looking at.
"Blimey! You're Draco Malfoy!" He gasped in awe. Damn that stupid scar, giving me away all the time. It had happened before, in Diagon Alley with Hagrid. People stopping to congratulate me, though what for I didn't have a clue.
I gave him a weak smile, waiting for the questions, though none came.
There was a knock on the carriage door. "Have either of you boys seen a toad?" A girl with frizzy brown hair and large front teeth was stood at the door, looking from me to Ron and back. I shook my head, and saw Ron do the same.
"Only, a boy called Neville's lost one." she continued. I looked at Ron, who had an amused look on his face. The girl, still standing at the door, suddenly made a noise that sounded oddly like a hiccup. "You're Draco Malfoy!" She rushed forward and sat in the seat opposite me. "I've read so much about you!"
I blinked at her, unsure what to say. She continued speaking. "I know that you were raised by a muggle! How odd that we should meet, as I'm raised by muggles too! My parents are dentists. It's really nice to meet you, you know."
I gave her a forced smile. "I'm Hermione Jean Granger," she said in an excited voice, "but you can just call me Hermione."
I cleared my throat. "Er, yeah. Okay." I smiled at her again.
"He doesn't have a very extensive vocabulary for a celebrity, does he?" she asked Ron.
Ron glanced at me, then said, "Erm...I dunno."
Hermione gave a small 'hmph', and got up to leave. Before she left, she turned to Ron and said, "By the way, you have dirt on your nose." and gestured to where it was. Ron rubbed it with his sleeve until it was raw.
The train slowed down to a stop, and we grabbed our trunks before stepping off the train. The first thing I noticed in the almost-darkness was a looming figure with a booming voice. Hagrid. He took us up to the Hogwarts castle and we entered, waiting outside two large oak doors. He left, chuckling to himself about some joke he'd told a second year student.
"I hear we have a celebrity in our midst." came a sharp voice from the right of me. The crowd parted to reveal the green-eyed boy from Diagon Alley. "Draco Malfoy." he sneered, and I heard a few gasps around me.
"Is that really Draco Malfoy?" a brown haired girl whispered to the person beside her.
Ron subtly grabbed my arm, and was about to pull me away from the boy when he spoke again. "I'm Potter. Harry Potter." The boy held out his hand for me to shake. Ron tugged on my sleeve again and Harry looked at him in disgust. "Red hair and hand-me-down clothes? You must be a Weasley." My eyes widened.
"Look, Harry-" I started, not keen on how he was treating Ron.
"FOLLOW ME." A booming voice called, and a lady with a wrinkled face and greying hair appeared at the doors, opening them and walking through them. Potter scowled at me, and the group of first years began to follow the woman through the doors.
"Who's Harry Potter?" I whispered to Ron.
"Richest kid here, I reckon. He'll get sorted into Slytherin, no doubt." Ron answered, glaring at the back of Potter's head as he strode towards the front of the crowd followed by a short stout boy and a taller, slightly slimmer one.
The crowd stopped and in front of us I could see a table full of adults, as well as a stool with a hat perched upon it. The woman, who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, jumped straight into calling out names, and the people named made their way up to the stool and had the hat placed upon their head. It shocked me when the hat yawned and started to talk, saying words such as Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The first person I recognized was one of the boys who was stood by Harry Potter, the short stout one.
"Vincent Crabbe!" Professor McGonagall called, and he waddled over to the hat.
"SLYTHERIN!" The hat yelled. Crabbe grinned and made his way to the table full of people with green and black ties.
"Seamus Finnigan!" McGonagall called, and he was sorted into Gryffindor. The taller boy from Potter's clan, whose name I found out to be Gregory Goyle, was sorted into Slytherin along with his friend. Hermione, the girl on the train, was sorted into Gryffindor. Neville Longbottom went to stand by the stool, and after shrieking in excitement (he'd found his toad), was also sorted into Gryffindor.
Then it was my turn. "Draco Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall gave me a withering look as I made my way to the front of the crowd. I sat shakily on the stool and the hat was placed on my head, heavier than I'd expected. The hat just sat for a minute, debating which house to put me in, and the weight was starting to make my neck ache. My mind wandered to what Harry Potter had said to me in Diagon Alley about Slytherin being a house for purebloods.
"Not Slytherin, eh? In another life you'd have been just what Salazar Slytherin was looking for. Such a shame." I sat upright in shock. How had the hat read my thoughts? I hadn't even thought them myself yet! I was about to question this when the hat yelled "GRYFFINDOR!" almost deafening me.
A loud cheer came from what I presumed was the Gryffindor house. Professor McGonagall removed the hat and gestured for me to go, so I wandered over to the table where Hermione and Neville were deep in conversation, and sat down next to a red haired boy who I was certain was one of Ron's brothers.
I wasn't sat down for long when I heard Harry Potter's name being called. I raised my head, hoping he wouldn't be sorted into the same house as me. He didn't seem like someone who'd forgive and forget after I rejected his friendship.
I had no reason to worry though, as the hat yelled "SLYTHERIN!" before it had even brushed Harry's hair. I breathed out a sigh of relief and soon got talking with a boy called Dean Thomas who also got sorted into Gryffindor. When I looked up again, there were only two people left. Professor McGonagall groaned as she looked at the next name on the list.
"Ronald...Weasley." She said his last name with an outward sigh. The red haired boy beside me chuckled. When the hat announced that Ron was in Gryffindor, all the ginger people on our table cheered, and Ron sat across from me with a huge grin on his face. After the last student, Blaise Zabini, was sorted (into Slytherin no less), a bespectacled man with a grey beard down to the floor began to speak.
He told us how the third floor corridor on the left hand side was forbidden for all who didn't wish to die a long and painful death, which made me more than a little anxious. He then told us that the forbidden forest was well, forbidden.
As he said his last sentence, the tables all filled with every food and drink you could possibly imagine. I grabbed one of everything that I could reach, and enjoyed my first meal with the people I would be spending the next seven years with.
End notes : so yeah that's it I guess. Unless you guys thought it was decent? I could carry on...idek haha this was originally supposed to be a Drarry fic, but they turned into enemies again for some reason. Like I say, if one of you guys wants to give it a try then go ahead, don't forget to let me know if you use my idea because I'd love to read it ! Leave a like if this was good it really helps thankyouuuuuu :)