A/N: Hey friends, I am sorry, I couldn't write for so long, I just couldn't keep up with writing my personal blog, Job, writing my scientific blog and stuff. I am free for a while, so took back to writing this story. If you have been reading from the first chap, thanks for bearing with me, And thanks to Jes for inspiring me to continue my fiction story.

As usual the canon storyline and all characters belong to J. . I own only my characters and plotline.

Chapter 10: Houses and friends

Previously: "Ah! Ms. Thomas, or should I say Ms. Malfoy, I think you would be delighted to be sorted into Slytherin like all your family? Or maybe.… Let's see, you are a very powerful witch, Ah The Shield I see, Hmm, how about placing you in Gryffindor, you are very brave. Or maybe Ravenclaw would suit you as you have a yearning for knowledge and are very Clever. Hufflepuff would suit you as well, you are very loyal and hardworking. Now, which house to put you in? Oh yes! I know, better be….."

Continued:

….Ravenclaw"

'What? Ravenclaw? At least I am not in Slytherin or Gryffindor! Thank you Mr. Cap'

I rush over to the Ravenclaw table wondering how the cap knew about the shield. I wish I could ask the cap about what the meaning of the shield was, but I was too afraid that the other people in the room would hear it. I pushed all thoughts of the conversation to the back of my mind and focused on my surrounding and my new house. Unlike the other houses, I didn't get any hugs, or welcome handshakes, not even a hello. Just a few nods, and then they turned back to look at the high table. As if they were in a classroom. Not a great start. But hey, at least they are not being fake. I go down the table looking for a place to sit, finally find a seat empty near a first year.

"Excuse me miss, May I sit here if you don't have an objection?"

The first year turns around to see me and I meet familiar and comforting silver like eyes, and a kind face, "Of course you can, Welcome to Ravenclaw. You are Arianna aren't you? "(I nod), "Hello, I am Luna, Luna Pandora Lovegood. I hope we can be good friends in the future, seeing that we are in the same house?"

"Of course Luna, I would love to be friends with you. " I said

By this time, Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. 'Hahaha! Dumbledore reminds me so much of Papa. Hmmm… I miss him.'

As soon as the Headmaster sat down, the dishes magically piled up with a variety of dishes like roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, also peppermint humbugs.

I put some fries and lamb chops and veggies onto my plate, and turned to look at Draco. I wanted to see his reaction because according to him 'the food at Hogwarts would be drab compared to what we ate at home'. Although we had amazingly delicious food at home, we did not have so many varieties of dishes at once. And the food here tasted almost the same as home. There was a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. The Bloody Baron, Luc told us so many stories about the bloody baron, when we were kids, he would frighten us saying, if we did not listen to him, the Bloody Baron would come and take us away to a dark dungeon inside Hogwarts. I saw that the ghost was seated right next to Drak and I could understand the reason for him feeling uneasy.

As soon as the desserts too disappeared, Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.

"Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of two redheaded (Probably Weasleys) older students, who looked like twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

And finally, I must tell you that, this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.

And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore.

Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which was raised high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

"Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

And the school bellowed:

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,

Teach us something please,

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,

Our heads could do with filling

With some interesting stuff,

For now they're bare and full of air,

Dead flies and bits of fluff,

So teach us things worth knowing,

Bring back what we've forgot,

just do your best, we'll do the rest,

And learn until our brains all rot."

Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the redheaded twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

All of us, Ravenclaw first years followed an older student through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up a set of staircases, yawning and dragging our feet, suddenly we came to a halt in a hallway decorated with many suits of armor. The prefect went to the fifth suit of armor and suddenly two of the iron soldiers drew their swords and the portrait on the wall behind them spoke "Before you pass answer this riddle" I was too sleepy to pay attention to the riddle, but obviously tomorrow's riddle would be different from todays, so I just walked along with everyone when a door which was not there seconds ago opened into a hall or homeroom.

The prefect directed the girls to the left side stairs and the boys to the right. At the top of the stairs, we found the first years rooms. Unlike other houses, Ravenclaw had only two students per room, and I was glad that I was in the same room as Luna. She entered the room a second after me and said "I am very happy that you are my roommate, but I am too sleepy to discuss roommate rules, can we do that tomorrow". I agreed with her and let her chose her side of the room first, there were two four-poster beds hung with royal blue, velvet curtains. As promised, our trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, we pulled on our pajamas and fell into bed.

I woke up early the next day, almost too early, but was surprised to find Luna already up and dressed and ready for classes. She was standing beside her bed, with a mirror and painting in hand and a box full of girly decorations at her feet, and staring too seriously at the wall. I got out of my bed and standing beside her asked her what was wrong. "I am not sure where to put these decorations. I don't care much for decorating, but dad says they were my mother's. But I am very bad at decorating rooms.

"Here, let me help you" I say taking the mirror and painting from her hand and positioning them on the wall. I bend down looking in the box, taking out the pieces one by one, I manage to decorate her side of the room. The end result looked really pretty. Her wall was covered with a collage of her mother's pictures of when she was in Hogwarts, a few weird paintings, trophies for being the weirdest student in Hogwarts, Best inventor, most likely to succeed at inventions, and such things, Then came a few beautiful trinket boxes which contained lots of interesting jewelry pieces, Carrot earrings, gnome lockets, etc,.

Luna hugged me thank you and sat down on the bed writing a letter. This reminded me that I had completely forgotten to write a letter to Cissa and Papa.

I rushed to take a bath, get ready and started writing a short letter to Cissa saying I was in Ravenclaw and Drake was sorted into Slytherin. Then I wrote to Papa, saying the same, but a bit more detailed.

The whole day, wherever I went I heard people whispering about The Boy Who Lived:

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."

"Wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

Whispers followed Harry Potter wherever he went. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring.

Luna and I had the same classes and we stuck together the whole day. We had to study the night skies through our telescopes every Wednesday at midnight along with the Gryffindors, and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets.

Three times a week we went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a plump witch called Professor Sprout, where we learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while we scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.

Professor Flitwick, our head of house, and the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. His classes were the most fun.

Professor McGonagall was again different, strict and clever. she gave us all a talking-to the moment we sat down in her first class.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. We were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized we weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, we were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only I had successfully turned the match into a needle (I remembered practicing transfiguration with mother and how difficult it had been to master it without a Wand), and Hermione had made some changes to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione and me a rare smile.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA), turned out to be a bit of a joke because of Quirrell's lessons. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but we didn't believe this story because, when Seamus Finnigan, a Gryffindor, asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather.

Then there was potions, the class where almost all Ravenclaw first years were trying their best to impress the teacher, Professor Snape. Although Severus knew me at home, in class, he treated me like any other student, if not stricter. He expected more from me because he knew my interest in potions, and because of all the potions lessons he had given me throughout my stay at the manor. He had become more of a father figure to me. He taught me everything I knew about this magical world. He was the only one who knew about my Wandless magic. He taught me not only Potions and DADA, but also Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, etc. He took me to the muggle world, although initially Drake accompanied us, he was not that taken by it. He encouraged me to study about every topic in the Wizarding world. Sometimes even the forbidden topics provided he was there to monitor.

I knew about his past as a dark wizard, but I still trusted him more than I trusted anyone else, even my own father. Although he had the dark mark on his wrist, his heart belonged to the light. Now, I am not saying he was perfect and totally good, but who is? The world is never black and white, nothing ever is, and Severus had his flaws. He would hold grudges to the grave, difficult to gain his trust, always glum and serious, appeared conceited and showed favoritism, and I believe also has obsessive compulsive disorder, but he also would be grateful for one small help till the end of the world, once you gained his trust, he would defend you till his last breath, he had a great sense of humor/sarcasm which most people didn't appreciate, he was loyal beyond anything, and his OCD made him the perfect potions master that he is. He was the father I never had, because although papa was my real father, our relationship was more grandfather-grandchild like due to the age-gap.

The week was over, in all the excitement. Adjustment, making new friends and learning, before anyone even realized. We didn't have many assignments, although this didn't stop all the Ravenclaws from studying as if preparing for OWLS. Luna and I spent the Friday afternoon helping each other officially unpack our suitcases, discuss classes and our lives at home. Although I didn't exactly tell her I was a Malfoy, I did tell her I was from a pure blood enthusiast's family, although I didn't believe in all that rubbish. She told me about her mother's death, and all the interesting facts about nargles and such creatures which sometimes sounded too made-up/unusual to really exist. But this was a Wizarding world where magic existed, so what was to say that all the things she said don't exist?

On Saturday, I woke up to a familiar tapping sound, which as I suspected turned out to be Prince with 2 letters. He waited patiently while I untied the letters tied around his foot and seeing my name on both, went to my bed to read them.

A/N: Hey guys, once again sorry my chap is late. But as I already told you, I write when and how inspired, although I have a basic skeleton ready for the story. Also as some of you asked, I could have made Lucius her father, but there is a very good reason for Abraxus being her father. Thanks to those who have been patient with my not so constant schedule. I always wondered and sometimes even got impatient when my fav stories had not been updated regularly, but now am looking from the other side of the coin. Hats-off to all those authors who are posting stories punctually.