Chapter 4

Hogwarts was a castle. A REAL castle, big enough to fit my whole street in it. It felt like I was in the middle of a movie or something because a place this amazing just couldn't exist. Could it?

Dumbledore was great. He showed me directions to most of the basic places I would need to go, and he did this cool spell on my suitcase which made all of my stuff rise out and pack itself into my new trunk. I didn't have to carry anything because everything was getting sent up into my dorms once I got sorted… which I was pretty nervous about because Dumbledore had told me that all the houses were equally great… but I knew that if this was anything at all like my old school, each one would definitely have a reputation. He walked me down the massive corridor, explaining to me about how the sorting worked…. And I was practically shitting myself because once I walked into the great hall, everyone just looked at me. I didn't really feel like sitting there in front of everyone but it would all be over soon. I just had to keep calm before I passed out. I walked right up to the front on my way to sit on the rickety stool. I felt at least a couple hundred pairs of eyes on me, coming from each of the four long tables. For some reason though, I didn't feel intimidated anymore. They were whispering things, but I could tell that it was out of curiosity, not meanness. They were obviously aware that I was coming. It had probably been explained already. I sat down and looked around the huge room… and holy flying shit… there was no roof. My sight was blocked a second later by a dusty old hat. Ok so how the hell does this get me sorted into a house?

'Ahh… an Australian… never seen one of those….'

What the hell? I swear that hat just spoke to me… I was going mad.

'You're far from mad. Very brave I see… observant… kind… but where to put you?'

'Ummm well It's not like I know anything about the different houses, so anywhere will do really…' I thought to myself, knowing that the hat would hear me, although I still didn't understand how.

'I see what you're capable of. You'll make some excellent changes to this school… Ah, I know. Better be… SLYTHERIN!'

The hat shouted my house out to the whole of the great hall, and everyone clapped like mad, especially the people on the last table which I was guessing to be the Slytherin one. Some people looked a bit worried, but none of them looked judgemental or anything so I smiled optimistically on my way past everyone before sitting down in a gap at the table between a small brunette girl and a tall, chubby black-haired boy. Once I sat down, everyone went straight back to their meal, except a few random people who glanced back at me every now and then.

I didn't know whether or not to introduce myself, but I was HUNGRY, so I helped myself to the food before I thought about deciding what to say. I grabbed a piece of bread roll and looked around for a jar of vegemite but I couldn't see one anywhere.

'Hey… Is there any vegemite?' I asked, still looking around. The people around me shot me some strange looks before the girl next to me asked 'What's Vegemite?'

'Never heard of it. Probably some muggle stuff.' The blonde boy sitting across from me answered her.

'Wait, ARE YOU KIDDING? THERE'S NO VEGEMITE?'

He looked like no one had ever raised his voice at him before, shocked for a minute before slumping into his chair and muttering '…don't know how a mudblood got into Slytherin.'

'Draco! Don't be mean!' The girl next to me snapped at him.

'What's a muggle?' I asked, ignoring his attempt at an insult or whatever he was trying to do.

'Non-magic people' Said another boy at the table.

'Well obviously I'm not a muggle if I'm sitting here right now. And what the hell is a mudblood?'

'It means… dirty blood. Someone who isn't from a wizarding family… it's a really mean thing to say to someone…' Said the girl next to me quietly.

I looked at Draco before laughing. 'Dirty blood? Come on. Are you kidding? That's meant to be insulting?'

Everyone that had heard me swivelled their heads and looked at me in confusion. I guessed that insults in this world were different to the ones in the 'Muggle' world. I laughed again. Seriously… mudblood. That didn't offend me at all. I thought it sounded hilarious. It rhymed too.

Draco had nothing to say after that. He looked at me with confusion for a while before shrugging and going back to his food. I hoped I'd earned his respect. I didn't feel like being 'insulted' by the people I had to be around constantly for the next term.

'I like your accent!' The girl next to me complimented.

'I don't have an accent, you do!' I laughed before realising that I was in a different country and everyone in this whole room talked completely differently to me. She smiled at my look of realisation.

'I'm Nicki' She introduced herself.

'I'm Lara' I smiled back.

'I know… I mean… Hi Lara, welcome to Hogwarts.' She laughed again.

I liked Nicki already. She was nice to me. Not many people had ever been nice to me before.

'So… there's seriously no Vegemite?'

'Nope.'

'Aw, nooooooooooo' I whined before shrugging and eating the bread roll by itself.

'Next time I go home, I'm gonna come back with like 100 massive jars. What's there to drink? Is there any Pepsi? Aw there's not… What's this stuff?' I held up a jug of orange liquid.

'Pumpkin juice' Draco said blankly.

'Really? Wait, so it's like liquidised pumpkins. Does it taste any good? I've had carrot juice before and that was all right but I've never liked pumpkins that much, they're too pumpkiny… pumkinish… is that a word? Hmmm…'

I ignored everyone's funny looks before taking a drink of the juice.

'That's actually pretty good. I understand why you drink it… but I can't believe you don't have Pepsi or Fanta or anything. That sucks. Oh well. There's good food here.'

I grabbed a chicken wing and scoffed it down, not wanting to look up because I knew I was getting stared at by a lot of confused witches and wizards.

'You're very…. Different.' Nicki told me.

'Is that good or bad?' I got a bit nervous.

'No it's good, It's just… different. Good though. You're funny. I like you.'

'Epic …No one's ever said that to me before.' I blushed a little.

'Yeah. I thought you would have had plenty of friends back at your house.'

'Nope… I've never had a friend…' I admitted, but straight away wished I hadn't.

'Honestly?' She looked shocked. 'Why not?'

'No one liked me…'

'Oh… well I don't see why they didn't. Don't worry though, you'll be well liked here. You already are. Everyone's been talking about you.'

'They have? Wait… seriously? What have they been saying? How do you know if they like me or not?'

'Don't stress, It's only been good things. Everyone is excited because we've never gotten a student from another country, and because you were practically a Muggle until a couple of days ago they're all dying to know how your magic came through without blowing up your school or house' She laughed.

'Well… I did blow up my Science classroom and hit some bitch in the head with a stool…' I'd tried to say it quietly but I'd failed because the people around me were now staring harder than ever, waiting for me to tell them more.

'I didn't mean to… I didn't do it on purpose or anything, I just… well I did hate her but I never wanted to really hurt her, she just said something heaps mean and it just happened… and then I got expelled and everything and my dad was really really angry and said mean stuff so I ended up knocking him out somehow and then I got this weird letter and my brother's a real dick so I thought he was doing a crappy prank on me but then Dumbledore rocked up and yeah…'

'I'm surprised you didn't kill her' said the boy next to me.

'I'm glad I didn't. I mean don't get me wrong, I hate her guts and she's a real bitch! But I didn't want her to die…'

They were all looking at me dumbstruck, like I was some sort of celebrity.

'I suppose Dumbledore hushed it all up' Draco assumed.

'Yeah he told me something about the Ministry so that's good, because I don't feel like getting sent to a mental ward anytime soon.'

'Old prat…' he muttered.

'Who, Dumbledore? No he isn't, you're the prat. Who says 'prat' as an insult anyway? He's really nice. He came and picked me up and took me to Diagon alley, and he gave me money and took me to get all my school stuff and everything. And he had to cover it up otherwise my dad would have had to pay heaps of fines and stuff.'

'I like Dumbledore' Nicki added.

For a second, Draco looked a little intimidated before giving a sneer and having another drink of his pumpkin juice.

'He's not always like this, he's just being a git.' Nicki whispered in my ear.

'Good because I don't feel like putting up with him everyday if he's just going to be a dick.'

She laughed. 'He's not. It's just because he doesn't know you, Not to mention, no one ever stands up to him, And the way everyone keeps talking about you, he says you're the next Harry Potter.' She laughed again.

'Who's Harry Potter?' I asked.

'Who's Harry Potter?' Draco had overheard, and repeated my question.

'I'm serious, who is he? The guy in the wand shop mentioned him as well.'

'Harry sodding Potter… The Boy-Who-Lived…'

'Lived from what?'

Nicki looked at me. 'Well about fourteen years ago… There was this really really bad wizard… we call him You-Know-Who… and he went around killing all these people… something about a prophecy and … and he was just terrible… until he tried to kill Harry Potter but couldn't, and instead his magic backfired and everyone thought he'd died. But since then, Potter's been famous for it because no one has survived the killing curse.'

'Yeah, he's famous for it, and he bloody well loves it too.' Draco huffed.

'Aw, he so doesn't. I got paired with him in Potions once, and he was actually really shy and nice'

Nicki replied.

'He's a foul git!' He snapped.

'Sounds like someone's jealous!' I teased, sounding scarily like Jake.

'Why would I be jealous of Harry stinking Potter? I'm a Malfoy!'

'What's a Malfoy?'

He looked frustrated. The guy next to him laughed hard.

'I bet Harry is probably really nice. Don't be so judgemental.' I said.

'Don't worry, we all know that the only reason they hate each other is because he rejected Draco's friendship back in first year.' Nicki announced, causing Draco to blush the slightest bit.

'See? He is a prat! He rejected me. Nobody rejects me.'

'I would too if you'd introduced yourself to me like that. You were a stuck up pig to him, Dray!'

'Yeah well I was hoping he'd befriend me instead of going off with the Weasel.'

'Do you think he really would have wanted to? At least Weasley was nice to him. You were mean. Admit it.'

'Yeah, well…'

'Defeated!' The boy next to him shoved him jokingly.

'Shut up Greg! I regret nothing. Potter's a prat.'

'You're so stubborn. Have you ever tried being nice to people? It might get you somewhere' Nicki said flatly, but smiling a little as she looked at him.

'I'm a Malfoy. This is how I roll.'

'What the hell is a Malfoy?' I asked again.

He sighed and put his hands to his forehead.