warning: this chapter contains direct dialogue from the HP books and/or movies (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)

First Book

September 1st, 1991
Third Year

Lucius Malfoy had come to say goodbye to his children this school year, but Ara knew it was only for Draco's sake. It was his First Year after all, Lucius would put aside any problems he had with Ara to say goodbye to his darling son.

Ara didn't see much of her brother once on the train, she had been to busy catching up with all the other, now Third Year, students. Once almost at Hogwarts, she'd decided to abandon Adrian and the rest of her Slytherin friends to check on Draco.

Upon realizing he wasn't in the train compartment he'd told her he'd be in, Ara had quickly gotten worried and gone looking for him

"You're going to fight us, are you?"

"Unless you get out, now,"

"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food, and you seem to have some-"

"Excuse me?" Ara gasped once she reached the compartment where the voice of her brother, and his friends, was coming from. She'd slid the door open and stepped inside.

There stood Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, her curse, Draco, and two other boys Ara did not recognize.

"Ara-" The boys eyes widened upon seeing her, and, in that moment, a fat, rodent-like creature bit into Gregory's finger as he was reaching for a sweet, that clearly did not belong to him.

"Salazar's sake," Ara covered her mouth at the scene.

She watched in shock as the boy screamed and began thrashing his hand around. When the rat finally let go of Greg, it was, in turn, flung into the train compartment window with a thud.

"What's going on?" A small, bushy haired witch burst into the compartment, and stood next to Ara.

The blonde Third Year shot her a curious look, but then brought her attention back to a more pressing matter, which was the commotion her brother and his friends had caused.

Once free of the rat, Gregory fearfully turned to Ara. The girl knew his mother, and well at that, he was scared stiff she'd write her about this.

"It bit me so hard-" He tried to save his arse by feigning being hurt.

"Serves you right!" Ara hissed, feeling no sympathy for the boy as he tried to use the injured card to get out of the earful she was about to give him, "-All three of you, you should be ashamed of yourselves! You haven't even stepped foot in Hogwarts and are already causing trouble! Scram to your own compartment, now!"

"But-"

"Shoo!"

The three boys scampered off, rightfully ashamed to have been caught misbehaving by the older girl.

Draco, who was stuck behind his two friends, was the last to leave the compartment, he hoped Ara would let him go without causing any further embarrassment. That, unfortunately, was not the case. His sister grabbed his shoulder, stopping him just before he left.

"And you, little boy, you should know better than to be picking fights! Do not let me catch you misbehaving again or you'll get the hexing of your life!"

"But Ari-" The boy nearly whined and then abruptly stopped, turning a few shades pinker as he glanced back at the three strangers in the compartment.

"What? To grown up to call your sister by her nickname?" She teased softly, just so that he could hear her, and before Draco could saying anything back, she gently pushed him out of the compartment.

Shaking her head, Ara turned back to the two boys left. One had raven hair, and the other was a redhead. She shot the only other girl in the compartment, who was still standing beside her, a glance as well.

They all stared at her curiously.

"Now you two, don't think you're off the hook! What was all that commotion about?" Ara asked, crossing her arms.

The two boys glanced at each other nervously and began to stutter. Ara rolled her eyes and looked over each boy as they tried to come up with an explanation, she suddenly came to a realization upon analyzing the redhead.

"Ronald?" Ara dropped her cold demeanour when he nodded, unfolding her arms, she began to laugh.

"So you're the blessing then?" She joked, although the boy did not understand what that meant, "-I assumed you'd look a bit more like the twins. But, I guess you took after some other Weasley?"

"Actually, everyone tells me I look like Charlie," Ron mumbled awkwardly, Ara smiled widely.

Ron was much more timid than she remembered the twins being during their First Year, but then again, maybe he was just intimidating to be talking to an upperclassman?

"Ah huh, he was quite a bit older than me, but if my memory is accurate then I do believe that's correct," Ara nodded.

She'd never interacted with Charlie Weasley much, he was a Gryffindor, and much older than her, so she'd never had much of a reason to. But from what she remembered, he was kind, Quidditch crazed, and one of the few people who could out-tease the twins. She chuckled under her breath, remembering the shenanigans the Weasley siblings, including the second oldest, got into together.

"He's in Romania right now, he's researching-" Ronald began to rant, the raven haired boy beside him gave him an awkward look, while the bushy haired girl next to Ara seemed more confused than anything.

Ara nodded along and let the boy finish his story about his older brother, although she already knew practically everything he'd told her due to the twins.

"Quite interesting, now I take it he, Freddie and Georgie, have told you about how painful the sorting ceremony is?" Ara mused, crossing her arms and holding back a smirk.

If she knew Fred and George, she knew they'd try to pull some trick on their younger brother.

Ron's eyes widened upon hearing Ara say 'sorting ceremony' and 'painful' in the same sentence. He'd thought his brothers had just been trying to scare him with the story of how much being sorted hurt, but perhaps it was true?

Must be, if this pretty, older witch was saying it was.

Ara shook her head once she sensed Ron's fear, and decided to pull his leg.

"They weren't joking, you know, I think I'd rather die then have to go through it again," All three First Years in the compartment gave each other panicked looks.

That is, until Ara laughed that loud laugh of hers.

"You'll be fine, don't worry!" Ara assured, dropping the frightening act, "-It's nothing you can't handle, you're all here for a reason, after all!"

Ara shoot each of the three First Years a warm look, before softly laughing to herself once more, she went to walk out of the compartment.

"Wait!"

Ara stopped in her tracks and turned her head, the raven haired boy, who, she now noticed happened to have bright green eyes, had called her.

"Yes?"

"What house are you in?" He asked, almost timidly.

Ara laughed again and shook her head, she gave him a small, closed mouth, smile.

"Take a guess," She said smugly, giving the First Year a wink before walking out of the compartment.

The trio stared at the spot where she'd been standing, bewildered.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy! Stop that at once!"

Upon hearing her shriek, the three eleven year olds snapped out of their dazed state and gave each other confused looks.

"Who was that?" Harry Potter, or the raven haired boy, as Ara referred to him as, asked curiously.

"I'm not quite sure," Ronald mumbled, "-But, I'm pretty sure it's Ara Malfoy, the twins talk about her quite a bit, Fred the most, but he always says it's because she's fun to tease,"

"Who could possibly find a way to tease her?" The bushy haired girl, Hermione Granger, asked, while in clear admiration of the older witch she'd just been in the presence of.

"I always thought that it was rubbish, and he just said it to stop us from thinking he liked her," Ron shrugged, "-It didn't work though, it's sort of an inside joke now, that he's- like in love with her,"

"I would be too," Harry whispered, dazed.

She was no doubt one of the prettiest girls he'd ever seen, and she wasn't even mean!

"She's to old for you, mate," Ron shook his head, before placing his attention onto Hermione, and asking her what business she had in their compartment.

Ara quickly learned that the raven haired, bright green-eyed boy, that had been particularly curious about what house she was in, was Harry Potter.

The Harry Potter.

In the nicest way possible, she'd expected more.

He'd been a small, confused boy, who'd fallen pray to her menacing little brother. Not in any sense what she guessed 'the Chosen One' would be like. In fact, she hadn't even believed it was really him until the twins managed to get him to show her his scar, which had been quite awkward.

"Ara! Ara! Stop!" The blonde Slytherin quickly spun towards where her name was being called hysterically.

Was someone dying?

No. Definitely not. It was just the twins, dragging a small boy towards her, he looked embarrassed. Hell, Ara was embarrassed.

"What-"

"Go on, Harry, show her!" The twins cut her off.

Ara raised an eyebrow at the small boy in front of her, he timidly lifted the hair from his forehead, and let her get a good look at the lightning shaped scar on his head.

"Fred! George!" Ara hissed, pulling the boy out of their grip, and quickly taking his hand away from his forehead, "-Leave the poor boy alone!"

Ara bent down to Harry's height, and held his shoulders comfortingly.

"That was completely unnecessary, my apologies for their rudeness," She mumbled, looking the boy in the eyes as she spoke.

Harry was quite small, Ara refused to believe she, or the twins, had been his size in First Year. Cedric definitely hadn't been.

Harry didn't say anything to the blonde, he just stared at Ara, seemingly starstruck.

"You're quite nice, for a Slytherin, pretty too," He mumbled under his breath, clearly thinking she wouldn't hear him, Ara raised her eyebrows and the twins started laughing uncontrollably.

"Excuse me?"

Harry's eyes widened upon realizing what he'd said, he quickly wiggled out of Ara's grip, and proceeded to run away.

"Believe us now?" Fred asked smugly, Ara shook her head at him.

"You two are idiots,"

She did believe them, but only because she couldn't find a reason to justify doubting the pair anyone.

The Boy who Lived had been placed in Gryffindor, unsurprisingly.

"All hero's are placed in Gryffindor," The twins would tease her.

Unlike the twins, Ara's father didn't refer to Harry as a hero, Lucius took a better liking towards the word menace instead. Luckily for Harry, the blonde had never agreed with daddy's opinions, and she wasn't planning on starting now.

Ara wasn't quite sure what to make of the boy, she definitely didn't see him as a hero, or a menace, but instead, merely child. A child who could rarely stand up for himself successfully, that is.

Since the first day on the train, Draco had been up to no good, and whatever mischief he was planning nearly always involved Harry. Mind you, it wasn't the type of mischief Ara didn't mind, the Weasley twins funny, good-hearted type of mischief.

No, it was the mean, uncalled for type of mischief, that drove Ara mad.

And she'd be shocked if she wasn't put in an insane asylum by the end of the year due to her brothers mischief.

"Guys, I don't know about this,"

"Cedric, stop moaning about it! It'll be fun!" Fred and George scolded as the three of them, plus Ara, snuck around the school to go take a peak at the First Year flying lessons.

"He's right, it's cold and I-"

Fred and George groaned loudly.

"We'll be watching our Ron, your Draco, and the wizarding worlds Chosen One make a fool of themselves, this is too good of an opportunity to miss!" Fred explained, Ara rolled her eyes but did not object.

It would be quite funny. She couldn't help but remember her own flying lessons. What she'd pay to rewatch the buffoonery it had taken to get everyone in the air, including herself.

"We don't know that they'll make fools of themselves," Cedric was clearly scared of being caught, and kept looking over his shoulder anxiously.

The four leaned against one of the walls that had a great view of where flying lessons took place, but also hid them due the shadow it produced.

"Relax, you're putting me on edge with that constant head turning," Ara mumbled softly, and then shivered.

She couldn't care less about being caught, but she was freezing.

Ara felt something drape over her shoulders, and she felt considerably less cold. Turning her head swiftly to the left, she saw Fred, missing a robe, but not complaining a lick about the cold.

Before Ara could whisper a thank you, a loud scream forced her to snap her head towards the First Years.

A boy, whose name she couldn't quite remember, had taken off on his broom, zipping past the four Third Years. They quickly stepped further back into the shadows to avoid being seen.

Ara covered her mouth in shock, Cedric had a similar reaction, and the twins turned red from holding back their laughter.

"Poor Neville!"

Neville Longbottom! That was his name.

Neville had fallen off his broom and hit the ground with a thud, Cedric had almost left their secluded spot to go check on him, but Ara grabbed the back of his shirt collar.

"Madam Hooch has got it, we're not supposed to be here, you'll only get yourself, and us, in trouble by making yourself known," She muttered, gently pulling him back and shaking her head at his lack of self-preservation.

The twins proceeded to tease Cedric for getting the scolding from Ara, since they were usually the only ones to experience it.

"How's it feel to be lectured by the Slytherin Matron?"

"Do not call me that!" Ara gasped, and spun around to the three boys, who giggled at her outrage.

As the four, actually, mostly Fred and Ara, bickered, quite the scene had began unfolding among the First Years. Draco and Harry seemed to be arguing about something, on their broomsticks, in the sky.

"Ara," George interrupted Fred and Ara's squabbling, "-What's your daft brother doing?"

Ara gave the redhead a confused look, before turning around to see Draco throw something, a remember ball that certainly didn't belong to him, across the sky.

"Draco! You-" Just as Ara was about to step out of the shadows and yell at her brother for treating others property so poorly, she felt a warm pair of hands pull her back.

"You'll only get yourself, and us, in trouble for making yourself known, Ara," Fred teased, while holding her back from going to yell at her brother.

She rolled her eyes at his cheekiness.

Using my own words against me.

Bringing her attention back to the scene with her brother, Ara saw Harry Potter rush after the remember ball, with a speed she'd never seen before at that. She felt her anger towards Draco disappear, and be replaced with curiosity. The boy had been broom control then some Seventh Years.

He caught the ball at just the right moment, and suddenly something dawned on the twins.

He's got the perfect skills for a seeker.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team was in desperate need of a seeker.

"We've got to tell Wood!" Both boys gasped, referring to their team captain.

"And I've got to warn Adrian," Ara quickly turned her heel, on her way to tell the boy that his team might not have much luck winning the Quidditch cup if Gryffindor managed to get Harry playing.

"You will do no such thing!" Fred gasped, and followed a now running, Ara.

"You'll have to stop me then!"

And he did, Fred caught her before she could even make it into the school, he cornered her and then swore her to secrecy.

"Ara, dear, darling, Ara," He'd pleaded teasingly, but Ara could tell he was desperate.

Slytherin had a good team, they'd won last year, and the year before, they probably didn't even need the warning about measly Potter being an expert flier.