AN:- Embarassing internet confession time
In a time when the world was young and the Harry Potter fandom stood only at 50,000 fic written instead of half a million, I was a Harry Potter fanfiction writer on . In that short time between 2004 and 2005 I was responsible for the absolute drek that was Draco. The story is still there if you want to find it, but I'm not going to help you by listing a username or anything.
About four years ago I left the HP fanfiction community entirely, it was too bloated, too angry and too unfriendly for my liking. There was no reason to stay, and I quite happily left it behind for all my years at university.
But then, one dark night the planets alligned, the elder gods stirred in their sleep, and I returned. Something brought me back, call it what you will, fate, destiny, a horse, but I wanted to be part of that community once again, and so I started writing this.
Chapter One: The Journey from Platform 9 3/4
Lily Moon stared out of the window and tried to ignore the other people in the compartment with her. They were being loud and raucous and in her opinion, rather silly. She understood from their conversations that at least one of them was muggle-born, but surely the other three should have known about Hogwarts. And what was there to find exciting about it when you were a wizard? You wouldn't get excited about going to Chatham-upon-Trent Primary and Middle School would you? What made Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry worthy of such exuberance?
She slipped a hand under her robes and tapped her wand lightly with one finger. Pine and unicorn tail-hair, ten inches long. Ollivander had described it as 'an individual wand, but in the right hands highly creative.' She had no idea what he meant; she had never been creative before.
A boy with flaming red hair walked past and poked his head round the door, his face falling when he saw there was no room there. He was carrying a rat and looking very forlorn in slightly baggy clothes, his nose smudged with something indeterminate. She fixed him with a glare until he had left and then returned to staring out of the window as they left London properly and were out into fields.
The noise level was increasing as the others realised that the journey had properly begun, and it was becoming impossible for her to think at all. Just as she was beginning to wonder if she could work the hex she had looked up in her older cousin's Defence book someone burst into the carriage and yelled, "There's an acromantula got loose in the prefects' carriage!"
As if they had been waiting for the boy's arrival, the other kids in the carriage jumped up and rushed out into the corridor, followed by another mass of screaming and whooping students, some of whom looked much older than first year. She sighed and took her fingers off her wand.
"Oh good," The voice was far too cheerful, and Lily looked up in shock to see a girl with stunningly blonde hair standing in the doorway. She was dressed in muggle clothing and hauling a cat basket in one hand, and a heavy looking book in the other. "I was beginning to think I would just have to sit in the corridor."
Without invitation she hauled the cat and the book into the compartment and dumped them both in the seat opposite Lily, sitting and smiling far too broadly as she extended a hand, "I'm Sally-Anne, it's nice to meet you…"
"Lily," She took the other girl's hand gingerly and shook it, "Lily Moon."
"That's a very pretty name," Sally-Anne declared, "Mine's awfully dull isn't it?"
"I wouldn't know." Lily was used to her cousins, who were all named after absurd things like constellations and star signs. She supposed Sally-Anne was dull when compared to that, but she wasn't about to say that out loud.
"Do you know anything about Hogwarts?"
There was something in the slightly unfamiliar way she pronounced the name, like she was still getting used to saying it, that caught Lily's attention, "You're a muggle-born?" She asked.
"What's a muggle?"
"Are either of your parents magical?"
Sally-Anne shrugged, "I don't know. My mum seems like she has eyes in the back of her head sometimes but I don't know about magic magic like I say in Diagonalley." Again, the pause, the mispronunciation, "My daddy left when I was only two."
"A muggle is someone who doesn't have magic," Lily explained, "And a muggle-born is a witch or wizard who is born to muggle parents."
"Oh." Sally-Anne processed that information for a few seconds, then asked, "Are your parents muggles?"
Lily snorted, "No, both of my parents are magical. My entire family are magical actually. Well, I think there's one or two in there with a little less talent, but we don't talk about them."
"Wow." It seemed that Sally-Anne thought she was fascinating, but before she could ask any more questions another girl walked in and sighed in relief.
"Thank heavens," She said; sinking into the chair next to Lily, "I only just got away from that mob around the prefects' carriage. I didn't think I'd be able to find another free carriage."
Lily wanted to point out that the carriage wasn't free, only the seat, but she refrained and tried to return to looking out of the window. Sally-Anne was still curious though, "Are your parents magical?" She asked the newcomer, who blinked a few times.
"Hello," She said dryly, "I'm Lisa Turpin; it's nice to meet you."
"Oh, sorry," Sally-Anne didn't sound very sorry, but she held out her hand again anyway, "I'm Sally-Anne Perks, and this is Lily Moon, her parents are magical, mine aren't."
Lisa blinked again, "My mother is a witch, my father is a muggle," She turned and smiled at Lily, "It's nice to meet you both."
Lily nodded non-committaly, but as she realised that her new carriage-mates weren't going to be making the sort of ruckus her previous ones had she decided to at least try and interact with them. "So have you heard of Hogwarts before?" She asked Lisa.
The other girl nodded, "My mother always talked about it. Apparently she told my father when she was about to have me, and he's been looking forward to being able to see it all ever since then."
Lily frowned, "He couldn't just go along beforehand?"
"He said he wanted it to be a big 'family thing.'" She rolled her eyes, "We had to wait until I was going to Hogwarts, then we'd both get to experience it properly together."
"I didn't know anything about it until I got my letter," Sally-Anne blurted, "This woman came round with the letter and said she had to talk to us about it, because it meant I would be going to a special school. My parents didn't believe her until she changed a teacup into a mouse. When my mother came round they had all sorts of questions."
"Did you go to Diagon Alley on your own?" Lily asked.
"My dad came with me; mum said it would be too much for me. The goblins were a bit freaky to be honest." She admitted sheepishly, staring at her shoes. "But getting my wand was cool."
"And you got a cat as well?"
She nodded, turning the basket a little so they could both see the tabby inside, "He's a bit useless really. I'm calling him Tabby after a book I read once."
The cat regarded them with sad eyes and curled up into a ball, peeping out from underneath his tail. Sally-Anne turned him back again, "Sorry about that, he hasn't really taken to anyone."
Lily shrugged, she wasn't really interested in pets, even if it was 'traditional.' "So what about your wands?" She asked.
Lisa pulled a long box out of her small rucksack and opened it reverently, "Elm and Dragon Heartstring," She said softly, "Very powerful." She took the wand out and waved it once, sending a spray of blue and silver sparks across the carriage, causing Sally-Anne to erupt into a wild round of applause. Smiling faintly, Lisa returned the wand to its box and left it on the seat next to her.
Lily drew her own wand from its inner pocket, "Pine and unicorn tail hair." She flicked the end slightly and a ring of smoke erupted from the end. She managed to conceal her own look of surprise, not having known that that would happen, and returned the wand to its pocket.
They looked expectantly at Sally-Anne, who reached into the book she had brought and extracted the wand, which had been acting as a makeshift bookmark. Lily felt her eyebrows rising at the use of a wand in such a way, but Sally-Anne gave it an exuberant wave before she could say anything.
The door to the carriage slammed open, then closed again, as a gust of freezing air rushed through. Lily bundled her robes closer to her chest and tried to look unruffled, which wasn't easy when her ponytail had come loose and left her unable to see through the thick mass of hair that had fallen over her face.
"Wow," Sally-Anne was practically bouncing on her seat as she stared at the wand, "It didn't do anything like that in the shop."
"Maybe you should put it down," Lisa said delicately, edging away slightly as the tip of the wand veered dangerously in her direction.
"Yeah," Sally-Anne slid it back into the book, "Dogwood and unicorn-tail hair," She said proudly, "Mr Ollivander just gave me a funny look when he gave it to me, he didn't say anything about it being powerful or anything."
Lily knew a little about wandlore, but she had never heard of a dogwood wand before. She resolved to try and see it in action when Sally-Anne was a little more trained.
"So, Sally-Anne," She said with a slightly forced calm, "What book are you reading."
"Call me Sally, Sally-Anne is a bit too much of a mouthful." She turned the book over so they could see the title more clearly.
"Hogwarts, a History." Lily smiled, "You're really trying to get through that thing?"
"I've already read it twice," Sally said excitedly, "I think it's incredible. Is the ceiling in the Great Hall really enchanted? Does the whole layout change? Doesn't that get confusing? Like how would know if you were going down the right hallway to get to a class from one day to the next? And are there really ghosts for each house? And what are the houses anyway?"
Lily exchanged a look with Lisa, who looked just as bug-eyed at the volley of questions.
"Well," Lisa said slowly, "For starters, yes, the ceiling in the Great Hall really is enchanted to look like the sky outside."
For the next few hours Lily and Lisa tried to keep up with all the questions Sally could throw their way, and without even noticing it they shared quite a lot about themselves as well. Sally was more than willing to reciprocate, telling them all about how incredible it was to suddenly go from being a regular person going to Cringleford CE VA Primary and Middle School to walking round a part of London that shouldn't exist and buying a wand and robes and everything.
In return Lisa told them about how her mother had often regaled her with tales of all the things that had happened to her at Hogwarts, and how there had been a group of younger boys who were well known troublemakers, and had often caused mayhem by causing all the toilets on odd-numbered floors to reverse when flushed, or setting off fireworks in the Great Hall in the middle of breakfast. "They called themselves the Marauders," Lisa recalled, "And they were the greatest pranksters Hogwarts has ever known.
Lily stayed quiet about her family, and about her family's previous experiences at Hogwarts. Instead she talked about what it was like to grow up with magic all around. She found herself getting fascinated by Sally's description of hairdryers and telephones, while Sally was prodding for more details about Floo Powder and Owl Post.
"The castle doesn't change all at once." Lisa explained patiently, "It's more like one or two staircases might lead somewhere different on a Thursday, and you learn which ones are which pretty quickly. I've heard that sometimes the dungeons do rearrange themselves completely, but not the paths to the classrooms, more like the bits on the outside that no one goes to except the teachers anyway."
The conversation moved on to the houses, the one subject Lily had been dreading the most. She had a more than sneaking suspicion about where she was going to end up, and despite feeling like she could be friends with these girls, she didn't think they were going to be there as well.
"So what are the houses?"
"Well there's Gryffindor," Lily said, carefully neutral, "And that's where people who are brave and courageous and all that go."
"And then there's Ravenclaw," Lisa eyed Lily with curiosity in her eyes, "Which is for really smart people."
"And Hufflepuff, who take the loyal, and the hard working, and basically anyone who wouldn't fit into one of the big three houses."
"And Slytherin?" Sally asked, innocent of the tension that was beginning to form between Lily and Lisa.
"Slytherin has a reputation." Lisa said neutrally, "The ambitious get sorted there, but it's mostly pure-bloods."
Sally looked confused, "Hogwarts, a History mentioned there being Dark Wizards, and it said that a lot of them came from Slytherin."
"That's true," Lily said, knowing she sounded bitter, "But it's not like every wizard from Slytherin has turned into a Dark Wizard."
"Well I think I'd rather be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw," Sally decided, "Hufflepuff sounds quite nice as well. I don't know if I'd be smart enough to get into Ravenclaw, and I don't know what feeling brave would feel like."
"No one does," Lisa smiled, "My mother was sorted into Gryffindor, but she said that she didn't feel very brave when they put the hat on her head."
Sally nodded at that, and went straight on to asking more questions. Lily stayed quite while Lisa answered. How exactly was she supposed to explain that her entire family had gone into Slytherin? They were almost as Pure-Blood as the Malfoys or the Weasleys for heaven's sakes!
As the light began to dim outside, Lily nodded to the other two, "You'll want to change into your robes soon."
The food trolley had been and gone, leaving them with a small pile of goodies to work their way through. Sally had insisted they get one of everything, even though Lily could have done without having Bertie Bott's in the carriage. She had never yet had one of the supposed 'nice flavours.' Sally seemed to love them though, and even when she bit into one that made her gag and cry out, "Mud!" She seemed to enjoy it.
She pulled the blinds down on the carriage as the other girls pulled their robes on over their muggle clothes. Lily wondered if they knew the robes were supposed to be worn on their own. After all, wearing full body black robes over anything else tended to make one unreasonably hot in summer. She returned to her seat and was about to resume eating her way through a small mound of chocolate frogs when the door was shoved open and three boys came in.
"Excuse you!" Sally huffed, "Girls changing in here!"
The leader, a small mouse-faced boy with white hair, ignored her, "We're looking for some food," He sneered, "You got any?"
"For us, yeah," Lisa straightened, looking absolutely furious at the intrusion.
"Surely there's enough to share?" Behind the mouse-faced boy, his two friends flexed their shoulders and cracked their knuckles.
"You think you can threaten us into giving you food?" The scorn in Lisa's voice would have made Lily quail if she'd been on the receiving end of it, but the sneering boy shrugged it off.
"Why is everyone making such a big deal out of this today? Goyle?" He snapped his fingers and the taller of the boys stepped forwards, "Go get us some chocolate frogs."
The hulking boy stepped forwards and Lily stood as well, reaching inside her robes, wondering just what she was thinking.
Lisa got their first, jabbing her wand into the side of Goyle's nose. "I don't really know what I'm doing with this," She said, her voice a little shrill, "But I know it can shoot sparks, and I don't think that'd be good near your nose."
Goyle's mouth had dropped open and he looked very much like a large and stupid dog suddenly confronted with the wrong end of a rolled up newspaper. Lily drew her own wand and stepped next to Lisa, staring down the boy in charge, "Blonde hair," She said quietly, "Bigger friends doing what you want. I take it you're Draco Malfoy?"
Sally snickered and the boy flushed pink, "What of it?"
"Just wanted to make sure," Lily waved her wand and it puffed smoke again, which made the other ape nervous, "Why don't you take your cronies and get lost?"
Draco's jaw stiffened, but he nodded to his goons, "Come on boys, let's find someone a little more sane."
As the carriage door closed Lily and Lisa both slumped in their seats, looking first to each other, seeking the note of approval, and then to Sally, whose eyes had gone as wide as saucers, "That was brilliant!"
AN:- Okay, enough being melodramatic in Author's Notes. I really was the author of Draco, it really is still available to read, if ou want to go and find it, don't let me stop you, but don't expect anything even reasonably good.
This story was founded and written on one principle. 'What about the rest?' In the course of JK writing we have discovered a lot of information about a lot of characters, but what interest me is that out of those hundreds of fleshed out or at least mentioned by name characters there are still some who are not. I wanted to tell the lives of characters so unimportant to the story that JK gave them less characterisation than Angus Fleet and Hetty Bayliss. After all, 'nobody is nobody,' so who were these students and what might they have done at Hogwarts?
A note on names: JK identified the names of some students who were never mentioned in the books in Harry Potter and Me, holding up a class list. All the names in this story not taken directly from the books will be taken from that list unless otherwise specified, including the names of the three main characters. They were assigned pretty much randomly (Although I decided that Sally-Anne Perks sounded like a 'fun' name so I gave Sally her personality) and also Lily had to be in Slytherin, for rather obvious reasons.