Chapter Two:

I sit myself down beside Brinley and across from Grayson at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall. I had finally made it to the castle on one of the last carriages. Thankfully there were still a few left when I got there so I had no guilt over leaving Malfoy there by himself at the station.

"Took you long enough." Grayson commented. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"I don't care what you think Grayson. You're opinions can—"

"Why is Harry Potter walking into the Great Hall late with blood on the front of his shirt? He isn't even changed into his robes." Brinley cut me off, seeing the late arrival.

I turn and see just what she said. Harry was making his way over to the Gryffindor table. I watched as he sat down, his friends crowding around him immediately asking questions.

"I have no idea. I didn't see him down by the train and I was one of the last people off." I said. "Maybe he tripped getting off of the train or something."

"Somehow, I highly doubt that was the case." Grayson said with his eye brows raised, basically saying it was an idiotic idea to think in the first place.

"I was just throwing out ideas." I stick my tongue out at him. He just rolls his eyes before turning toward Dumbledore who had started to get the attention of the Great Hall for his annual speech.

"If only we knew the inner workings of Harry Potter and his friends. Then we would at least have a little bit of a warning when things would happen around here." Brinley whispered to me. I laughed quietly, nodding my head in agreement.

"I mean, I am kind of-sort of friends with Ginny so does that count at all?" I ask with a snicker. I've only been friends with Ginny since last year during the DA, so I do not know much about her or any of the others closely associated with Harry Potter. I was never really interested in all of that madness. I know some people who are just so fascinated in Harry Potter and the inner workings of his friend group but I've never wanted to intrude. I've just wanted to get by as successful as I can in the wizarding world, to be able to get a job and show that wizards and witches who are raised by muggles can be just as successful as a Pureblood.

I'm not a muggleborn, not that there is anything wrong with that, but everyone thinks I am one because my mother is a muggle. She tells me that my father was a wizard but left when I was just a baby. He didn't want the stress of raising a family when he wanted to further his career in the wizarding world. I think it's just because my mother despises anything to do with magic and wizards. She says it's unnatural, like I chose to be a "disgrace" just to spite her. In all honestly though, if I had had a choice and knew of my mother's thoughts and feelings on it all, I probably would have still chosen the wizarding world just to poke at her and say, "Guess your perfect family isn't so perfect now".

She used to tell me that my father would write letters once in a while when I was growing up but they grew further and further apart until they finally just stopped all together. I'm sure she thinks that he either completely gave up on us or passed away from something pertaining to his job. I like the latter of those two thoughts and imagine that he worked for the Ministry as an Unspeakable and went on some secret mission and didn't come back from it. It means that he was a hard worker and didn't just stop contacting us for no reason. It would also explain needing to leave your family for your career. I don't know how likely that even is but if I had the choice to know that he just left because he was a horrible person or believe in my imagination, I'll take my imagination any day.

I say glancing back at the Gryffindor table. I see Ginny, who was sitting next to Harry, glaring daggers past my head. Confused, I look behind me and try to see what or who she looking at. It really could have been anyone but the only person that really made sense was Draco, who was sitting almost directly behind me at the Slytherin table.

"So I think I figured out why Potter was late tonight." I say as I turn around. "It seems like Ginny thinks Malfoy had something to do with it."

"Wouldn't surprise me if him and Malfoy got into it on the train." Brinley said as she turned back around from looking at Malfoy as well. "Again."

"I mean, I did bump into Malfoy getting off of the train but like I said, I didn't see Harry at all." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"What do you mean you bumped into Malfoy!" Brinley asked, her eyes wide. She grabbed my arm, shaking it like I wasn't paying attention to her. "Why didn't you tell us?! What happened?!"

"Nothing happened!" I told her, hissing in pain. I pull her hands off of my arm and put them back into her lap so she stops cutting the circulation off to my arm.

"Why do I highly doubt that?" She asked while crossing her arms and raising her eye brows. "You two were awfully cozy last year, wouldn't you agree Grayson?"

"Don't get me involved with this." He stated, putting his hands up in surrender as I turned to glare at him.

"Seriously, nothing happened. I just ran into him as I was looking for Rylan. He actually was in the compartment that he was in, which was really weird."

"I'd say that was out of character if I really wanted to look into it. Did he say anything about it?"

"Well, I asked him about it. But he acted like he had no idea why my cat was in the compartment, alone with him. He said something about him probably sneaking into the compartment as everyone left and then made some snide remark to me about it. I didn't think much of it seeing as he was just in a pissed off mood." I told them honestly.

"He had probably already ran into Harry by that point then, if something did happen between those two." Brinley said.

"Wouldn't surprise me" I say, rolling my eyes at the thought. Everyone knew that Draco and Harry have had it out for each other since first year. It was no surprise when those two got into a fight.

I sat there in silence, waiting for the speech to be over before digging into the dinner that appeared in front of us.

Everyone in the Great Hall talked with their respective friend groups and nothing seemed out of place. Everything just seemed like an ordinary start to a school year. I sit there, Brinley and Grayson going on about the Quidditch team this year. I try to pay attention but my mind wanders. Why couldn't our lives just be normal? As normal as they could be for teenage wizards and witches. I just don't understand why all of this stuff keeps happening every year and after being involved to a degree last year because of the DA, I learned that I really just want to stay out of it all.

I'm pulled back into the Quidditch conversation by Grayson asking me who I think will take the extra Chaser position for us. I told him my thoughts, saying that I think Cho will just end up picking one of her friends. He agreed with me, saying that I was going to have a tough time making up points for us this year since I was the only decent Chaser on the team now. I rolled my eyes, but whole-heartedly agreed.

Soon, we were dismissed from the Great Hall and we slowly made our way to the Ravenclaw Common Room. It took a few minutes to get up to the entrance and to answer the riddle. Once the door finally opened, I quickly made my way through the common room and up the stairs toward my room. Once upstairs, I quickly head to the restroom and pull my pajama's on. As I'm doing so, I glance at my arm in the mirror across from me. The same arm that Brinley had grabbed onto and shook like a mad fiend. The slightly purple and blue bruise marks still present from a few days prior to our arrival back at school. Nothing new for myself, I pull my sleeve back down and head back to the dormitory to crawl into bed. I pulled the curtains shut around me, casting a silencing charm and a sticking charm to keep the curtains around me closed at all times. Once checking that everything was in order, I roll onto my side hoping to be able to get some sleep tonight.

I hadn't been lying when I told Grayson on the train I hadn't slept well the night before…. I hadn't slept well in months.