I rose early. I mean way to early. It was four o'clock in the morning. That's my normal wake up time, I usually go and take a bath right now and then go for a walk in the garden out side in the courtyard with Midnite, my cat. I remembered that I wasn't home when I looked over my shoulder and saw Hermione in the bed across from mine. WOW. What a hair-do. I could let her borrow my Madame Brognar's Sleek and Smooth Solution. That's the only reason my hair doesn't look like a muskrat's nest. I tugged out my wand. The sleek cherry-oak wood gleamed as I slid it from my hung up robe.
"Lumos" I muttered. A small glow of light came to my wand tip as I walked over to Hermione's four-poster. Her trunk was unlocked and slightly opened. It was so tempting to just look inside it, to see what kind of person she really was. No, I yelled at myself, If you get caught then she wont be your friend and you need her to help you get to Potter and Weasley. If you screw up now, Father will not give you a welcome home. You'll be dead along with Potter and his friends. I hurriedly sprinted backwards. I turned quickly and fell right over my trunk at the end of my bed.
"Ahhhhhhh!" I shrieked and plummeted to the floor. The noise was like a gunshot in the silence. Screams came up all around, Midnite and another cat screamed and candles were lit.
"I was looking for the bathroom and tripped over my trunk. Sorry about the noise." I lied. Hermione hurried over and helped me up.
"Its ok. Are you all right?" Hermione asked. She actually sounded like she cared.
"Yeah. Im fine. Thanks." I muttered, completely embarrassed. She had actually sounded like she cared. I felt like crying. No one had ever really cared for me. They looked after me out of fear, and my Father. Well, Father does love me in his own way, I thought to myself. A tear rolled down my cheek. I looked down and saw I had skinned my knee, I could see it through the white silk gown I was wearing.
"Oh. It'll be ok. It stings but its fine." I said more to myself then to Hermione.
"At least you didn't hit your head Anna. Then you'd miss out on all the fun in the classes." Hermione said with a laugh. The other girls were already in their beds, trying so hard to go back to sleep.
"Thanks Hermione, for everything." I said as I pulled the covers back over me, but this time as I settled in, a large gingery cat jumped up onto my bed next to Midnite.
"Crookshanks! Get off Anna's bed! Honestly." Hermione said half scolding half laughing.
"Its ok. I don't mind." I said. And the cat walked right up to my face and purred. The purr was like a mountain falling down. And Crookshanks curled up right next to my head and went to sleep.
I woke up at about seven thirty. I got up and got in the shower. It was a nice relaxing shower. It made me almost forget the whole mission I was on. All most. And trust me, I wanted to forget already.
"Anna! Anna, come on! Its 8 o'clock! That means one hour for breakfast and you'll wish you had gone down earlier." Hermione yelled up the stairs angrily. Even the first years didn't take this long she thought to herself. I apperated to the spot behind her.
"Hermione, Im right behind you," I continued, "So the next time you think Im taking to long, look around." Hermione jumped at the sound of my voice.
"Oh my god! You scared me. How did you…?" Hermione wasn't so smart after all, anybody would know that I had apperated to that spot from the small pop. But you couldn't even hear anything from the noise of the passing First years on their way down to the Great Hall.
"It's a little magic of my own. Nothing serious though, don't worry. It's a trick." I muttered down at my feet. Now that she had started to wonder about it, it would be a problem easy to solve. We waltzed down talking about teachers. Snape was an interesting subject that we lingered on for to long.
"Snape? He works here?" I demanded, instantaneously arising Hermione's suspicions.
"Well, yes. He's potions master and the Head Teacher of Slytherin. Why? Do you know him or something?" She knew that I had to have had connections at that point.
"Yes. Old…old friends of my Father's." I muttered thoughtfully thinking of my Father and the Death Eaters. I thought of how Bellatrix and I would be playing some type of game by now. She always loved playing a game. I thought of that old question I had finally left behind after my Father had nearly killed her. The old thought of her being my Mother came to mind.
"Good morning Harry." I smiled at him with my I am a millionaire smile. He looked surprised then smiled back at me and laughed. His laughter filled the Great Hall with a ring of joy and happiness.
"Oh look its popular Potter and the lovers. And who's this? A new addition? Introduce us Potter." Draco sauntered over with a malicious grin. He winked at me just as Harry looked up, I knew it was just an act by then. Just play along was the wink.
"Never mind Potter, you were always to slow for anything. I'm Draco Malfoy and you are?" Draco leaned over and took my hand smiling.
"Anna. Anna Silverstone. I am very pleased to meet you…Draco." He kissed the back of my hand as I blushed to a sunburned color.
"Anna. What a lovely name for a lovely face." Draco whispered as he turned slowly and walked away with Pansy clutching at his arm. Pansy looked over her shoulder at least five times to just to glare at me. I giggled.
"Draco seems…um…nice." I giggled like as if a poodle had just walked in with a neon pink pair of trousers on. Hermione stared, jaw down to the table, eyes wide at what she had just seen.
"Oh my God! Was that really Malfoy or his slightly nicer evil twin with manners?" Hermione gasped.
"Have you ever met Malfoy before? Maybe it's the fact that you were nearly put in Slytherin that he likes you. But I swear he looked like he knew you. Do you know each other?" Ron asked as he finally turned his attention from his brothers to me. The first time he actually looked me dead in the face with his eyes. And his eyes were breathtaking.
"No. Draco and I have never met until now. He is a bit cute, don't you think so Hermione? Even a little bit?" If I had gotten a "Yes" answer out of that, I would have gone straight to Draco and told him myself that his most hated rival in Hogwarts liked him. But I always want the opposite.
"Me and Malfoy? You're joking, right? I mean, you cant be serious?" She looked at me with the most dumbfounded expression. "Your serious aren't you?"
"Yeah, of course. Why not?" I asked reaching out to pour milk into the bowl in front of me.
"ITS MALFOY THAT'S WHY NOT!! MALFOY HAS CALLED ME MUD-BLOOD SINCE SECOND YEAR! THAT'S WHY NOT!" Hermione spat across the table where she was sitting next to Ron, her words so heated that they would fry an egg in less than a second. The smile disappeared off my face. I'd blown it ever being friends with her. I failed being friends with her then I fail with being friends with Potter. Failing with Potter means failing Father. I will not do that. Never will I fail my Father.
"Hermione! I am so sorry! I honestly didn't know! I swear I didn't know until you said something. I am so sorry. Will you please forgive me?" I pleaded. I pleaded with her to let me take back what I had just said. I had only ever done that once before in my life to take back what I said. I had a fight with Draco when we where little. I was over at his family's mansion. I had said to him I wanted to be left alone after he said that I could live a life without being a secret. That I could marry him and become a Malfoy and get a different name and pretend that I was some one else so that I could live a life that would be known. I told him twice to leave me alone and that I wanted to go home to my Father and grow up the way he wanted me to. Draco did not leave me alone. I told him he would regret having told me this, that his Father had heard and in some strange way I knew his father and Father had heard everything and that they wanted us to fight. I took out my wand and told him to leave me alone for the last time. I was sick of listening. I heard my fathers hissing voice inside my head with Luscious Malfoy.
"Shouldn't we…" Malfoy began.
"No! No. Let them fight. I wan to see how it ends." Father hissed. And with that I hit Draco with my first ever hate hex. He was blown backwards into a painting that hit the floor and shattered with a clash. Draco was panting.
"Ricta-sempra!" He screamed at me. I knew that one, that was the spell that made a snake evaporate out of thin air to bite your opponents. If Draco wanted an accomplice then he had looked the wrong way.
"Accio serpent!" I screamed and in my hand what I thought would be his only means of attacking me. The serpent vanished into smoke as I threw it at him. Draco laughed.
"Is that all you ever thought me capable of? Is that all that you have ever thought of me? Well then you thought wrong. Avada Ked-" I cut him off before he said one of the unforgivable curses
"Stupefy!" I screamed hitting him; it looked like, in the stomach with the jet of colored light. He fell backwards to the ground.
"I told you not the mess with me Draco, and I am truly sorry." I reached out to him as I muttered the counter spell.
"Then you think Im a fool." He said it so matter-of-factly I almost hit him in the face for being so smug.
"I guess so. Ya." I said as he took my hand to get up.
"Then… I guess I have a chance to get you back. Incarcerous!" He yelled and I lay on the floor like a sack of potatoes. I struggled yelling insults at him for cheating. My bounds were so tight that I could barely move and the only spell I had in my head was…
"Crucio!" I yelled through the bounds. At the end of the hallway, I heard hurried footsteps and I knew we were in for trouble. Draco was on the floor, screaming in pain as I muttered the counter curse for the incarcerous charm. The door flew open as I flicked my wand towards the ceiling letting a green line slip from my wands tip and made the shape of my Father's mark. It glowed as it circled around up on the ceiling. Luscious Malfoy was glaring at his son.
"Draco! You could have killed Anna! I forbid you to ever say that curse until you are out of school and a recruited Death Eater. You nearly shamed the family's name." Luscious bellowed at Draco.
"Father, please." Draco pleaded, still in quite a lot of pain from the curse and his pride at being yelled at in front of me. Then I left the room. I couldn't believe that I, Anna Silverstone, had hurt my best and only real friend. Later that same day Draco came to apologize for nearly killing me. I sat under the tree in the courtyard looking down at the flowers when he approached.
"My father is quite proud that I used his favorite curse today. That's the first time I have ever used it and he was so pleased. What I wanted to know is what he was pleased about. I didn't even mean to hurt you Draco and I am so sorry that I did it to you of all people. I swear I will never use that curse again. I swear." I murmured into his shoulder as he pulled me into a hug. I cried into his shoulder for a few minutes. Then Draco pulled me away by the shoulders and looked me in the eye.
"And I am sorry. I could have killed you in there and I deserved the pain. If you had died by my hand, I would never forgive myself." We hugged at that.
"Draco. I take it all back with my life Draco, I swear by my Fathers life that I take it back." I cried.
"So be it then" we muttered in unison, not knowing that our paths, that had at that moment corresponded with each others, would lead a different way in time. We've laughed about it since then.
"Anna, ummm are you ok?" Harry asked me.
"Ya. Im fine. Just remembering things that have happened." I murmured into the bowl of cereal I was now engulfing. I made a mental note not to mention Draco again like that.
"It's care of magical creatures then herbology and then double potions before lunch. It's a good morning at least." Harry was trying to stray from further arguments and Ron nodded in agreement to its double meaning. Hermione, Ron, and Harry all stood up. I followed their lead. I walked over to Hermione when we were far enough away not to be over heard by Draco. If Draco heard what I would say next, he would call me soft hearted and stupid and he might tell my Father I wasn't doing my job right.
"Anna, listen. I am sorry. You couldn't have known about…well you couldn't have known and I am sorry. I didn't mean to be angry. Please forgive me." I was amazed that she had to say it and not me.
"And im sorry for upsetting you." I said taking her into in a friendly hug. I saw Draco over Hermione's shoulder and he gave me the utmost disgusting look. He looked like he was going to be sick. I stuck out my tongue at him and we both laughed. Hermione laughed thinking that it was what we were just hugging about was what I was laughing at.
"Friends?" Hermione asked, she looked like she really wanted to be friends. I could use some if I am going to be staying around here, my evil side thought.
"Friends." I agreed and we hugged again.
"Come on." She laughed. "We have care of magical creatures next and its time you met Hagrid."
