Saying goodbye to her mother was tearful enough, yet the real test stood yet before her.

Rome stood now at station 9 and three-quarter, she still could not believe that today was the day she would first set foot in Hogwarts. Her father stood of course by her side, standing impressively, a gift Rome still fought to attain.

Her mother promised to write her at least three times a week and to send her goodies from home. Her father expected a weekly report of her conduct which he would, in turn, answer.

And now Rome was standing proudly beside her father, a house elf had already carried her luggage on the train and she watched the flocks of wizarding families: she witnessed tearful good-byes, happy good-byes and proud good-byes. But not once did she notice a goodbye of the like given to her by her father.

"Now Rome, I expect you to show everybody what it is to be a true Malfoy, and if anybody harasses you in anyway, report to me. Understood?"

"Understood, Father. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

He stiffly kissed her cheek, as he did so, Rome gave an involuntary shudder, for his lips where like ice, and held no real sign of love. Only expectancy.

And so, Rome walked to the train, her chest stuck out and glancing straight-forward, aware of curious looks and nervous smiles from her future school mates, yet pointedly ignoring them. She did not look back to her father, for she knew he would not have wanted that.

She went into the train, sat in an empty compartment and awaited the future.


***


The train ride to Hogwarts had been rather uneventful for Rome. The same group of teens that had been at her birthday party had sat in her compartment, and after having cooed and questioned her for about the first hour or so, they ignored her and talked only to each other.

Sitting in the compartment Rome couldn't help but feel nervous, the Slytherins had given her encouraging words such as, "Don't worry- You're a Malfoy, my father says they always get sorted into Slytherin."

But these words made her fret more inside. As much as she understood Draco, and as much as she was, in a way, like him, she wasn't sure if she carried the same qualities as him. As a matter of fact, she didn't at all know which qualities she carried, as she had not yet been able to let them shine, having had a rather unremarkable life with her nanny to keep her out of any trouble.

Draco, on the other hand, had always been allowed free range. Draco had only had a tutor, and was allowed to do much more by his father than Rome would ever be allowed to do.

Rome felt that Draco had been allowed to get to know himself before getting to Hogwarts, to develop a character, whereas she had been treated like a doll, dressed up and told what to do and say.

As she arrived at Hogwarts she, as the other first years, could not help but to be awed by the huge castle and the apparent magic it withheld. The moment of awe was interrupted as a loud, thunderous voice shouted for the first years to come to the lake. Looking to see the owner of the voice, Rome's eyes landed on the biggest person she had ever seen.

He looked lethal, ferocious. He looked like a giant.

Rome knew from her brother that this beast was Hagrid, Groundskeeper and teacher at Hogwarts. She knew from her brother that Hagrid bore no sense whatsoever, and that he was a poor excuse for a teacher.

She headily made his way over to where he was standing by the lake. He looked at him challengingly and gave him a smile best described as a "smirk".

"Ach, another Malfoy, eh?" He asked noting the blonde hair and pale skin, "Heard yer brother's up te Durmstrang, issee? And yer startin yer firs' year?"

"Yes," replied Rome, her eyes glowing maliciously and her words laced with irony, she made a point to use her snobbiest accent, as well as to hold herself accordingly, "I am Rome Malfoy."

She made a move to turn away from the beady-eyed giant, but stopped as he said, "It's er pleasure ter meet ye, Rome."

Rome didn't bother hiding her revulsion, and spat out, "Charmed, I'm sure."

With that, thought Rome, the impression she had planned to make on Hagrid was to be branded. It wasn't necessarily that she didn't want the big oaf to like her, but it was because of the fact that she knew that her father wouldn't want her to associate with such riffraff. She turned to go, but-

"Now, look here, missy, don't ye go bein' all nasty-like. I've 'ad enough Malfoys in my time ter know what ye think o' me. We're goin' ter be seein' each other fer the next seven years an' I don' wan' 'ere te be no bad blood between us. Un'erstood?"

Rome blinked, yes, she understood, yet remained silent. She looked around, to make sure nobody had been listening. A few children were looking their way, but they weren't exactly causing a commotion. She then smiled sweetly at Hagrid, and walked off, silently.

The evening was still and warm, the group of first years had no problem crossing the lakes. Rome remained to herself most of the time, not whispering excitedly as the other children were to each other. She looked straight off at the ever larger growing castle, awaiting the Sorting.


***


Now was the moment Rome had been dreading. She stood in line with other first years, deaf to the world, ears perked only to hear her name. Every minute seemed like an hour, and though the castle was relatively cool, she cool feel the heat of anxiety inside of her.

She looked out into the see of faces that was carefully watching the Sorting. A few of the Slytherins that she already got to know gave her small smiles. Finally came the moment she had been waiting for the whole summer.

"Malfoy, Rome," called the sorting hat. At the mention of this name there was a bit of commotion from the crowd, especially from older students, who first looked at the blonde girl and then looked around the room for Draco Malfoy, who, of course, was not to be found.

Yet Rome was oblivious to this. She was also oblivious to the scattered claps coming from the Slytherin table, something no other student out of her year had gotten.

She got one more glimpse of the sea of faces looking at her before the hat was placed over her head- and then, the hat spoke: "Ah, another Malfoy... I always know where to put those..."

"Slytherin?"

"Yes... all of them... But not you."

"Wh-What do you mean, not me? I am a Malfoy."

"Oh, yes, that you are, no doubt, through and through. Yet... Your only ambition is to prove yourself to your father, and this will change within time. You have qualities of Slytherin, but I see other qualities in you... Ah, yes, I see."

"What do you see?"

"What you are yet to see, but this causes me to want to sort you in Rav-"

"No! It'd... But my family- I'm not- WHY?"

"Ravenclaw... Ah... Pretty and fair,
Clever, refined,
These were the students
Ravenclaw devined."

"But... What does that have to do with me?"

"Your love of knowledge, your manner of being... Given, you are a bit ambitious, but are you cunning? How far would you be willing to go for your goal? I have the feeling that you are too clever too ever have to be cunning."

"Oh.. I, I understand... ehm..."

"Deep inside, do you really want to be with people who wouldn't understand you- just to appease your father?"

"I just want to make the right decision- long-term," said Rome. She had no idea where these words came from, had no idea why she said them. What Rome did know, though, was that they came from the heart.

"Then I hope you trust me to make the right decision by placing you in- RAVENCLAW!"

Rome pulled the hat off her head. What had just happened? It wasn't supposed to go like that, she was supposed to be put in Slytherin.

She felt all the blood rush from her face as she looked around the room. Scattered applause from the Ravenclaw table. Stunned looks from both the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables. The only table that really clapped was the Hufflepuff table, relieved that they wouldn't have another Slytherin tormentor.

And it was like this, dead white, standing before the audience of students that Rome allowed the tears to roll down her cheeks as she made her way to the Ravenclaw table.

She sat down at the table, wiped off the tears and looked straight off into the distance, trying not to catch anybody's eye in fear of breaking out in tears. This was so embarrassing, incredibly humiliating. Not only the fact that she wasn't put into Slytherin, yet also the fact that she cried in front of the whole school, and to make matters worse, she caught pitying looks from more than one person, including Hagrid!

She would not be pitied!

To her great relief, the Sorting was followed by a feast, and her mind was not solely concentrated upon how she would break the news to her father, yet on filling her empty stomach.

She looked to the girl next to her, who sat next to the potatoes. Rome then asked, putting on her sweetest smile, "Would you please pass me the potatoes."

The little girl with brown hair and brown eyes then did so, and then she gave Rome a sunny freckled smile and said, "Oh, I was wondering when you would speak! My name is Emma, Emma Hagen."

"Rome, Rome Malfoy. This is also your first year, is it not?" asked Rome, struggling to smile, for she was not up to conversation with the brunette who's smile she was beginning to detest more by the minute.

"Yeeeees! You're right! This means we're going to be roommates. Listen... You may not want to... Never mind," said Emma with a smile.

"Why I cried?" asked Rome, "Because I wasn't planing on being sorted in... Ravenclaw. But that... Sorting Hat, it had... used its means of persuasion. I'm sure father won't be pleased."

"But... What does your father care what house you are in? My brother is in Hufflepuff? So what? He clapped with all the others when I was sorted into Ravenclaw. You shouldn't worry about it!"

"I really don't want to talk about it right now," stated Rome icily.

This silenced the girl, yet Rome was feeling increasingly more guilty about it, and everything the girl said made a little more sense once Rome's mind had time to digest it.

Rome then stated, quietly, looking down in her lap, "He was really expecting me to be sorted into Slytherin, my father, all of the Malfoys were in that house... Can you now tell me that it is not half so bad? That I have not in some way dishonored my family?"

After Rome had finished her statement, not only Emma, but also three or four other students that had been sitting around Rome were listening to her sorrows. Rome looked up and blushed.

"Oh... Is that why you were crying earlier?" Asked a boy out of a higher year who sat across from her. Rome nodded silently.

Then her audience all started talking at once: "Oh, don't worry about it!" "He'll get used to it!" and "Well, honestly, don't cry about it! At least he can be happy that you weren't sorted into Gryffindor!" The last statement was followed by laughter by some of the older students.

Rome had heard her brother complain about the Gryffindors enough to chuckle hesitantly at that comment herself. Once she had broken the ice with the people around her, she began to have a nice evening as well, pushing all thoughts of her family out of her mind.

***

Rome awoke the next morning with a small smile of contempt on her face. She thought about the evening before, about the discussions they had had, the jokes that were made, and the all-around feeling of happiness that seemed to be in the air.

Her smile faltered as she thought of the task that lie before her. She was to write a letter to her father this morning, she thought with dread.

Slowly getting out of her bed, she realized that all of her roommates were still sleeping. It was still dark outside, and she wanted to write the letter without the heads of her new-found friends poking over her shoulder.

She made her way down to the common room, taking with her her quill and paper. She sighed as she sat before the blank piece of paper, wondering what to write.

'Dearest Father and Mother,' Rome wrote, 'I have been sorted into Ravenclaw. Father, I am sorry if this has displeased you, please forgive me. Best Wishes, Rome Malfoy'

It was a short letter, but Rome didn't know what to write.

The sun was slowly coming out, and Rome made her way down to the Owlery, where she had visited Merlin on the evening before. As she made her way past the entrance of the Great Hall, she heard somebody call her name.

Rome turned to see a tall, slender redhead rushing towards her. When the redhead got to her, she spoke in a ragged voice, "Rome, I- I have a qu-question... C-come over here," said the redhead, leading her to a secluded hallway.

The girl was older than her, Rome noted with a brief sweep of jealousy, as it always was when she saw older girls. She was pretty, too, thought Rome, noting the auburn hair and the light brown eyes.

"Rome," said the girl, "Is it true? Did Draco go to Durmstrang? Please tell me, I have to know."

Rome looked the girl over, she pitied her, she looked like she was on the brink of tears.

"Yes, he did," stated Rome coolly.

A sob escaped the redhead's lips, "Did he... Did he mention a Ginny to you? Did he?" The girl's eyes searched Rome's hopefully.

"No," said Rome softly, "I can't say he did."

The girl was crying freely now, using Rome's shoulder for support. "Dammit, dammit," she kept repeating.

"D-Don't cry," whispered Rome rather helplessly.

"You'd cry too," sobbed the girl, "He... He promised me he wouldn't... That he wouldn't become a Deatheater."

Rome backed away suddenly. She looked the redhead straight in the eyes, "He is not a Deatheater."

The girl now smiled slightly, she nodded. "That's good... That's great. Were are you headed to, Rome? I, I would like to talk to you about some things..."

"The Owlery. You may come if you like."
The girl nodded, she had started feeling inferior to this girl who had only just started her first year at the start of their conversation. But she needed to get some things off her chest, and Rome seemed like the perfect person for that.


A/N: I hope you enjoyed that. Haha, Mary Sues are so cool.

Read my "Loser" story.

Review.