Slowly I walked down the corridor in the train looking for an empty booth. I found one about half way down the train. I walked in and set my trunk down. Soon after I sat down a few chattering girls walked in. "Oh!" one with long light brown hair exclaimed, "Hi. Er- I have never seen you before. But you look too old to be a first year. Who are you?" Clearly she was the leader of the group. "Hi. Um, my name is Anastasie Martin." I replied as nicely as I could have managed, I hate going through this year after year. "And are you new or something?" asked a second girl with a short blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes. "Yes. I am a transfer from Beauxbatons." They all studied my appearance. I knew what they were thinking, 'She's not the typical Beauxbatons girl.' I will be the first to admit, I am not the typical Beauxbatons girl- with my shoulder length layered wavy black hair and bright green eyes that have always tended to change shade with the season, even my body type wasn't right I am slender but don't have an athletic body- so I could understand their shock.
"I didn't know that we had transfers!" exclaimed the girl that had first spoken, as she ran in to take the vacant seat next to me. "I am Haze Campbell. Slytherin." The other two took the seats across from us and introduced themselves. The one with the blonde hair was Leah Gardener, and the third girl with a short pixie cut and bright pink hair introduced herself as Nikkole Vasquez. All of them were in Slytherin. "So which house are you in? Or do you know yet-Anastasie?" said Haze. "You can call me Ana. And yes, I do know my house." I calmly replied. "Well?" asked Haze. "Slytherin." Was all I said and a sly smile spread across her face. "Why did you transfer here?" asked Leah. "Well, it's a long story." I replied. "I'm sorry I was just wondering because you don't have a French accent so… well never mind." She stuttered at the last part. I felt a little bad for her so I managed a response. "I was a transfer there too. I was born in France. Then I moved to the U.S. and lived there until my third year in school. Then my family moved to Australia for my fourth year. For my fifth year I went to Beauxbatons." There was a short silence and then the third girl, Nikkole, who had only spoken to introduce herself said "We have never had and American before." "I know. Professor McGonagall told me." I replied.
As we rode I had to go through every detail of my life for them. Professor McGonagall told me that Slytherins had a tendency to be bitter and cold to new comers. I took that as a challenge. I neglected to inform my new found friends that I was greatly considered for Ravenclaw. I took a guess and decided that they would not like me quite as much if they new that small detail. They had a lot of Slytherin pride. They did however dislike one person very much, I didn't know his first name but his last name was Malfoy. I had heard that name before but I didn't know where. "Oh my god, I totally know what you mean-" –CRASH- The door flew open and in walked a relatively cute blonde haired boy. "Well, well, well what do we have here Nikki?" he said this in a slimy tone that no one except me seemed to notice. "It's nothing Malfoy! Just leave me and my friends alone!" she said to him. 'Oh! So that's Malfoy' I thought. "Ok. I will. But what is this?" he said as he gestured his hand towards me. "Leave her alone!" yelled Nikkole. She pushed Malfoy down and kicked him hard in the ribs. "Fine. Fine. I'm going!" he said getting up. "Goodbye love!" he said as he stroked Nikkole's cheek. She quickly moved his hand away and then he turned to me, "We will meet again soon." He slid the door closed. "Wow." was all I could manage after that encounter with the boy who was hated by so many people. "He is such an ass." Leah said as she leaned over to put her arm around Nikkole. "Nikki, are you all right?" asked Haze. "Yes. I'm fine. I just hate him so much!"
When the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station we got out and into a vacant horseless carriage. We sat in silence listening to the rain hit the roof of the carriage. Very carefully we walked into the Great Hall so we didn't slip. We heard many people around us fall and wild laughter followed each crash. All the students seemed to be avoiding one side of the entrance though. When suddenly everyone stopped and someone walked over to me. I recognized the person as Professor McGonagall. She stopped me and all the girls around me stopped as well. "Hello Anastasie. I'm glad you decided to come after all. One of the girls will need to show you to your common room before the feast and to see Professor Snape after. Ah…Yes Haze why don't you show her?" she said without really looking at me or Haze but at Nikki. "Sure Professor. See ya gals. Save us seats!" she said as she grabbed my arm and pulled me away. "You know Nikkole that hair color is not school policy." Nikki let out a chuckle and soon I heard more laughter behind me, but never got to see what made the others laugh.
We rounded the corner and walked down a corridor that I never saw was there. After walking down a flight of stairs and another corridor blocked by a tapestry, we stood in front of a stone wall. "Salazar" said Haze softly to the wall. Slowly a room materialized in front of us. "This" said Haze, "is the common room." She walked in and I followed awe struck. "Wow" was all I could say. "Its pretty nice" she said as she took a seat in a black leather sofa. "It's nicer then all my rooms at home combined!" I said. "And you haven't even seen the upstairs yet!" she said with a chuckle. She got up and motioned for me to follow down a short corridor. "Boys dorms" she said pointing to the left. She winked at me. "Girls dorms" she said taking the staircase to the right two at a time. I walked up after her. I saw doors labeled in varying sizes getting bigger as we walked down. The first door was labeled 'First' and it was the smallest and then the next was 'Second' and so on. Haze stopped at the one labeled 'Sixth' it was the second largest door in the corridor. We walked through and a trunk was placed at the end of each bed. The sheets were a bright green with a black snake on the top of each one and there were dark green curtains around each bed. "Oh this is my bed" she said pointing to the bed by the window and "There is yours! Right next to mine!" I looked around and I heard a voice. "You lot betta' get a move on!" it was a high squeaky voice that I had never heard before. I looked around quickly for where the voice had come from. "Down 'ere!" said a small voice near the next bed. "Oh!" I exclaimed, "A little person!" "She is a house elf." said Haze now standing next to me. "Go! Go! Go!" said the elf. We left as fast as we could and ran down to the Great Hall just in time to make the feast. As we walked in no one seemed to notice but I could have sworn I felt a pair of eyes following me the whole time.
We quickly made our way to our seats at the Slytherin table. "We will go see Snape after the feast." She whispered as we took our seats across from Leah and a girl I didn't recognize. "Let the feast begin!" yelled Dumbledore. Food filled all the empty plates on the table and pumpkin juice filled the goblets. "Nikki I love the new hair." Haze said to the girl sitting across from her. I looked closer and sure enough the girl with black hair and dark green highlights was Nikki. "Oh my God, I didn't even recognize you!" I exclaimed. All the other girls laughed. "Yeah, I decided to go back to my natural color!" Nikki said. "You had green highlights?" I asked. "Ha. Well almost my natural color." She replied running her hands through her hair.
"Are you done eating?" Haze asked me when I had taken a five minute pause from eating. "Yes. I suppose so." "Okay then. Lets go! See ya girls!" Haze said standing up. I stood and followed her out of the Great Hall still feeling like I was being watched. "Wait!" I called to Haze. "Isn't Professor Snape at the head table?" "No, he wasn't here when we came in and he isn't here right now either." She replied. "Oh" I said as we exited the Great Hall. "Can I ask you something?" I asked. "Sure. What's up?" she said. "Well I was wondering… why does Malfoy pick on Nikki like that, like when we were in the train?" she paused and thought about it. "She used to live down the street from him. She moved after her first year here. Her parents don't like the Malfoys either. He has been picking on her since they were little. He asked her out fourth year and she turned him down. He has been sour ever since." "Oh" I said. "Here we are." Haze said walking through a door and into a classroom. "Hullo Professor!" she said in a cheery tone to a man sitting behind the desk in the front of the classroom. "Good evening ladies." He said without looking up from the papers on his desk. Then he looked at me his eyes piercing through mine. "How do you like Hogwarts so far- Anastasie?" he asked. "Its fun, I guess I like it. But, I haven't started classes yet." I said while looking at the stone floor. "Well, I am your head of household if you have any questions feel free to come to me. I hope you like it here and I am glad you decided to come." He sat down and started where he had left off on the paper on his desk. "Do you need anything else ladies?" he said without looking up. "Er- well no I guess not" said Haze. She pulled on my arm and we walked out as fast as we could.
"Okay. Now it is my turn. I need to ask you something." Haze said as we walk down the winding corridors. "Okay. What is it?" I stopped walking. "Everyone keeps saying I am glad you chose to come to Hogwarts after all. I just want to know why?" she asked concern in her voice. "Oh! I had a choice to either come here or Beauxbatons. I wasn't sure if I wanted to try a new school. But I really didn't fit in at Beauxbatons and my French is kind of rusty." I said the last part with a chuckle. Haze laughed. "I thought it was something more serious!" We both laughed and we walked back to the common room together. When we arrived there were first years all around the room talking and meeting each other and there were a scattered few of second and third years. Most of the older students had gone to bed. We walked over to Nikki who was sitting by the fire on the floor. "Hey Nikki" Haze said as she sat down on one side of her. I sat on the other side. Nikki didn't say anything she just stared into the flames. "Nikki? Are you all right?" I said softly. "What? Yeah! Sorry I was just thinking." She said in an unnaturally calm tone. "I'm going to bed!" Nikki announced. "Me too" said Haze following her lead and walking toward the staircase. "Hey Ana, you coming?" she said over her shoulder. "No I am going to write a quick letter to my parents." "You can use my owl." Nikki said pointing to a grey owl on a perch by the only open window. They both disappeared up the stairs.
I sat looking into the flames that were slowly dying thinking about what to write. 'Hey Mom and Dad, I am having fun here. Hogwarts is great! I met a few girls right after I got on the train. They are nice. The Slytherin common room is beautiful! Classes start tomorrow and I can't wait! Well it is getting late and I am tired so I will write again soon! Love, Ana' That sounded okay. I wrote it in the worst handwriting I could manage- my handwriting gets worse the sleepier I am. I wasn't really tired, the day had been quite boring if I do say so myself. But I had thought that about every school since my time in the U.S. Where was all the gossip? Where were all the annoying girls that talked non-stop about their boyfriends? Why were there no chattering girls talking about their summer love? What was the latest gossip on all the girls that had done something a little scandalous over summer break? The common room was almost empty now. I walked over to Nikki's owl and tied my note to her leg. The owl gave a hoot and took off into the night. I went over to a comfy looking chair by the fire and sat watching the flames die off.
Soon I was flying over the castle I swooped into Professor Snape's office and knocked him over. A bunch of little first years cheered then –CRASH- a book fell to the ground right next to my chair. I opened my eyes in surprise. There he was, the greasy little boy who had come into the car on the train, Malfoy. I sat up straight and started to get up. He grabbed my arm and said "Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. Whatever those stupid girls told you was a lie. I just want to talk for a minute." He gave a small smile and led me over to the couch. I sat down at one end hoping that he would sit at the other, but he didn't he sat right next to me and stared straight into my eyes. "What do you want?" I asked in the most bored tone I could manage, but really I was fascinated by him. "What is your name?" He asked not looking away from my face. "Anastasie Martin, call me Ana." I said looking right back. "Draco Malfoy." He said holding out his hand for me to shake. I shook it to be polite "I already know who you are." I replied. "Are you a sixth year?" he said looking away from my face and at the rest of my body. "Yes." I said watching him look at me. "Good." He said "Okay I think you should go to bed now. We have plenty of time to get to know each other during classes." He stroked my cheek and got up and strode to the boy's stair case without looking back.
"Hello?" I heard someone say from the other end of the room. There was Leah poking her head around the edge of the stair case. "Oh good it's just you Ana!" she said softly walking towards me. "Was it you making all that noise?" she asked sitting down next to me. "What noise?" I asked forgetting about the book that had woken me up. "A first year came wandering into our room, she was really scared. She said she heard a loud thudding noise and then a scary voice saying 'Don't worry. I am not going to hurt you.' Did you hear anything?" she explained. "Yes I did. I fell asleep in that chair" I said pointing to the chair that I was in. "then I heard a book slam on the floor and when I opened my eyes Draco there staring at me and then he told me he just wanted to talk." She stared at me with pity in her eyes. She hugged me and told me she was sorry. "Come on! Lets go to bed it is late and we have classes tomorrow." She said standing up. I followed her and fell asleep before I had time to turn out my light.
I woke up after what seemed like five minutes of being asleep to Nikki poking me saying slowly "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up." I sat up and she said "Come on! Or we are going to be late." I got up dressed, brushed my teeth and ran down to the common room where the other girls were waiting. We all ran out of the common room and into the hall. We hurried down to the Great Hall and sat in the seats we had before and started to eat. "When do we get our schedules?" I asked to anyone who was listening. Haze answered "Any minute now." Soon a flock of owls came soaring through all the windows. They dropped a small piece of parchment in front of every student. I picked mine up and started to read it. But then it was gone, it was in Nikki's hand along with Leah's and Haze's. "We all have Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures together. Then Ana and I have Divination together. And Leah and Haze, you have Divination together. Leah, Haze and I have Charms together and Ana you have it without any of us. Sorry." She handed us back our schedules. We ate in silence for a while and then Leah said "We better get going we have Potions first." We stood up and we walked out of the Great Hall passed a bunch of lost first years in the hall who thought that Care of Magical Creatures was inside. We got to the dungeons and stood outside waiting for Professor Snape to get there. The door swung open and he let us in. Haze and I took a seat at one of the two seating desks and Nikki and Leah sat behind us. "Open your books to page 105 and read the directions. Then get started." We all worked on our potions and near the end of class Snape yelled "STOP!" Everyone except me and Nikki quickly added the last ingredients to their potions. He walked around with a grade book and wrote down a grade for everyone's potion. He stopped at Nikki's "Perfect" he said to the class. "Nikki's is perfect!" He walked to Haze's potion. "Close, you didn't add enough wolfbane." He walked to mine. "Another perfect" Snape said. He continued his rounds and when he had finished with the last student he waved his hand at the door and it opened "Class dismissed."
After most of my classes it was time for the one I had been dreading the most, Charms. I walked into the Charms class and there he was, Draco Malfoy. I had been hoping that he wasn't in the class but the day had been almost too ideal, I knew something was bound to mess it up. I looked around the room for someone else I recognized. There was no one and to make matters worse, there were no seats left except for the one next to Draco. "Ms. Martin will you please take your seat next to Mr. Malfoy?" asked Professor Flitwick. I walked to my seat moved my chair to the edge of the desk and sat down. Professor Flitwick started teaching about Protection Charms- something I had covered last year at Beauxbatons. I sat looking at my paper, doodling hearts and stars. I thought that I felt something move closer next to me. I looked over and there was Draco- sitting right next to me as close as he could get without touching me. "Hello again Love." He whispered into my ear. "Shouldn't you be paying attention?" I whispered back. "Shouldn't you?" he said while he looked down at my paper. "Please practice your Protection Charms with your partner. Use ONLY non-life threatening charms!" announced Flitwick. "Let's see what you've got Martin!" said Draco standing up. I stayed in my seat. "Oh, were you talking to me?" I said in a slightly annoyed tone. "Yes, of course I was talking to you! Your name is Martin isn't it?" he said back in a confident tone. "No actually it isn't." I said as I watched his smile fade. "My name is Ana. My last name is Martin. But I go by Ana." I stood. "I'll go first." I put my wand on top of my head and quietly said "Defendo." Nothing about me seemed to change about me and Draco's confident smile came back. He waved his wand at me "Expelliarmus!" a jet of white light shot out of his wand hit me and bounced off and hit Draco causing him to fall backwards into the wall. His wand flew out of his hand and into mine. He coughed and yelled "That wasn't fair! You didn't use the one that Flitwick was teaching! You used the one no one can see!" "So?" I replied calmly. "Ugh! That wasn't fair you know!" he said in a high pitched voice I could hardly recognize as his. "Whatever." I threw him his wand and said "Your turn." He pointed his wand at the top of his head and said "Contegu" under his breath. I flipped my wand and said "Expelliarmus" without as much gusto as he had. He flew backwards and his wand flew to me. I walked over and offered my hand to help him up. He took it and I handed him his wand. "You did it wrong. It is contego not contegu. Want to try again?" I offered. "No. You first, but do that one, not the one you did before." I placed my wand on top of my head and said "Contego." He flipped his wand up unenthusiastically- he already knew I had done the charm right. His wand flew to my hand and he caught himself against the wall. I threw him his wand- he did it wrong again. After about ten more minutes of Draco falling against the wall and me catching his wand class was dismissed and I went to the last class of the day, Divination.
I walked to the ladder going to the Divination room and found Nikki sitting at a table alone. As soon as she saw me she waved her hand for me to come and sit with her. "Hey. How was Charms?" she asked. "Er- Interesting" I replied looking around the room. "Uh-Oh, that doesn't sound good," she said chuckling a little. "Yeah, Draco is my partner. He is really bad." We both cracked up laughing. When the laughter had died she leaned over and whispered, "I'm not very good at this whole Divination thing." "Me either." I said. Professor Trelawney walked into the room, the whole room went silent. "Today.. we will be looking into the beyond… with our palms. Please open your books and take your partners hand. Read their palm, see their future!" She said in her airy tone that made me feel at ease. Nikki looked at me and offered her hand "You first." I took her hand pointed my wand at my book and it opened to the right page. "Woah! How did you do that?" said Nikki in surprise. "It's a simple spell. All you have to do is point your wand at something that can be opened and say 'Directus.' OK, now let's read your palm." After I 'read' her palm and Professor Trelawney came over and asked me to tell her what Nikki's future was. I told her Nikki was in store for some hardships but overall will lead a happy life. Professor Trelawney approved and Nikki read my palm. She told Professor Trelawney that my life will take a dramatic change and I will have a long life but it will be packed with hardships. She said, "100 both of you!" and walked away. We talked until the end of class then went to the common room before dinner in the Great Hall.
I took my bag up to my bed and lay down. The day had been exhausting. I had so many thoughts running through my mind. "Er- Ana?" a small voice near the door was asking. "Yes" I said without turning my head. "Some girls downstairs asked me to come up here and get you." The small voice said in a worried tone. I rolled over to look at the small person containing the small voice "Who are the people? Do you know their names?" I asked the first year girl staring back at me. "I think their names are Nikkole, Leah, and Haze." She said to me, then she turned on her heel and ran down the hall and I heard her stomp down the steps. I put on shoes, turned to the mirror and fixed my hair, and turned off my lamp and slowly walked down stairs. As soon as I hit the floor of the common room something was strangling me. Two strong lines of crushing hurt were around my waist I had a wispy, stringy substance in my mouth. A shrieking noise was coming from somewhere around my ear. "OK Haze. That's enough hugging for today." said Nikki while pulling Haze off me "A simple 'Hello' would have been nice." I whispered catching my breath. Haze started laughing. "I'm sorry I was just so happy you made it through your first day!" she jumped up and down. "Was I not supposed to make it through the day?" I asked. "We know people who have had mental break-downs on their first day back. Or their first day ever, some teachers are a little irritable on the first day." Leah said in an unemotional tone. "Oh" We left the common room and walked down the corridor to the Great Hall.
We sat down in our regular spot at the Slytherin table. Again I felt as if someone was watching me as I went to my seat. "Ooh, Hello Leah!" cried a girl with a very shrill voice. This particular girl was very unattractive and her voice annoyed me more than it should. "Hi Pansy" said Leah in a very sarcastic tone. Pansy walked on accompanied by Millicent Bulstrode, a girl in my divination class. She talked incessantly about her cat; she asked Professor Trelawney if her cat was well at least five times. "Attention, Attention! I trust everyone's first day went well." Assumed Professor Dumbledore as everyone clapped and cheered. I looked around the room to see if anyone wasn't cheering, I wanted to see one of those so called 'break downs.' There it was a small girl, a first year I guessed, was sitting at the Ravenclaw table being comforted by her friends as she cried. I also assumed Snape was the culprit for making this girl cry, he seemed to have that affect on people. I hardly noticed anything else around me as I wondered what could have happened to that girl to make her have such a reaction. "Let the feast begin!" were the words that interrupted my reverie. I started to shovel potatoes onto my plate when Leah grabbed my hand and said, "Stop!" "What? I'm hungry! And I want potatoes!" "No silly," she laughed, "there is a note on your plate. Blaise put it there. Didn't you see him?" "Oh! I guess I didn't." I replied. I looked down at my plate and saw that one corner of the note on my plate was covered in mashed potatoes. "Who is Blaise?" I asked as I pulled the note out from under the potatoes. "Blaise Zabini. He sits over there next to Malfoy. He is the one on his left." I looked at him and realized I had had a good reason to think I was being watched; because I was. Draco, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Theo Nott, and Blaise were all staring right back at me.
I looked down at the note blushing slightly. I opened it and it read: 'Ana, I think I might need a charms tutor. Will you help me? See you in the common room later. Give me your answer there. –Draco-' I couldn't believe that he had written me a note. How childish! I thought. I pulled a piece of parchment and a quill out of my pocket and started to write. 'Draco, It was rather childish for you to write me a note instead of just asking me in person. Also if you must write me a note; please deliver it yourself. I will see you in the common room. –ana' I folded the note into fourths and pointed my wand at it. Immediately the words 'Draco Malfoy, Slytherin table, Great Hall Hogwarts' appeared there. "Wow! You know how to do a spy-proof spell! That's so cool!" said Haze impressed. "Yeah" I said as I tapped the paper twice with my wand and looked down at Draco to make sure he was watching -he was. I tapped the paper a third time and this time it disappeared in a minuscule cloud of purple smoke. Draco looked confused but Haze, Leah and Nikki all looked at me as if I had done something incredibly amazing and advanced. "Look" I said pointing down at Draco. They all looked down at Draco and as they did all of the faces looking at us turned to face Draco as well. "What!" he hollered down in my general direction. "What are you lot looking at?" "Nice hat." I said calmly pointing to the top of my own head. He reached up on top of his head and pulled down the note that I had sent to him. Leah reached for the note Draco had sent and I quickly pointed my wand at it and summoned it into my hand. I stuffed the note and my wand into my pocket.
After dinner we walked back to the common room chatting about the day's events. "We need to get to work on our potions papers." Said Nikki, I couldn't be sure but I think I detected a hint of glee in her voice when she said it. "Ugh," Leah and Haze groaned in unison. We all sat down at one table and started to write our papers on Changing Potions. "I can't believe that it is the first day and we already have a paper to write!" I exclaimed. "Snape likes to give out papers on the first day back. But this is nothing! Only one scroll, normally he gives three to four scrolls on one subject." replied Nikki. She was writing at an incredibly quick speed, she rarely even looked down at her book. We wrote our papers for about 10 more minutes then Nikki exclaimed, "I'm done. I'm going to go to bed. See you in the morning." She disappeared up the staircase and Haze and Leah looked at each other and laughed. "What's so funny?" I asked. "Nikki, she isn't going to bed. She is just going up stairs to change clothes. Seamus Finnigan and Nikki sneak off campus every night." replied Haze. "Oh. Well where do they go and how does she expect to get by us?" I asked. "They go to Hogsmeade and she gets by us by using her invisibility cloak." explained Leah. "Oh, I understand." We went back to work on our papers and pretended to not notice when we heard and saw the portrait hole open and close with no one entering and leaving.