warning: this chapter contains direct dialogue from the HP books and/or movies (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)
First Book
October 31st, 1991
Third Year
Ara, true to her word, had not uttered a word to Adrian, or any other Slytherin, about Harry Potter making the Gryffindor Quidditch team, although everyone had somehow managed to figure it out themselves, so she had no need to.
Having given the situation more thought, Ara had realized that it was actually quite unfair.
Mostly because she noticed, even though he had not voiced it, that Draco was incredibly sad he hadn't gotten a chance to join the Quidditch team too. And because she remembered how anxiously the twins, Cedric, and Adrian had waited for Second Year to come around so they could to be given so much as a chance to try out of their respective teams.
Now, Harry Potter, was given a free pass to play as a First Year, Adrian and Cedric definitely wouldn't have been given that opportunity, no matter how good they were. The boy had been given a brand-new broom that he hadn't had to pay for, no one ever offered to get the twins new brooms, even though they were in desperate need of them. Much more need than good old Saint Potter was in.
Yes, it was quite unfair.
Ara remembered how the twins had barely managed to scrape up enough galleons to get themselves proper brooms when they first joined the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And well, technically they never had, but they didn't know that. Ara and Cedric had joined forces that year, together they'd sneak just the right amount of galleons into the twins wallets so that they could afford new brooms without noticing the extra inflow of money. Unbeknownst to Cedric, it had turned into a bit of a habit for Ara.
It's not like I don't have money to spare.
"Ara, there's a First Year crying in the bathrooms, I think she might be a Slytherin," Nereza Zabini, Ara's roommate, and Blaise Zabini's cousin, told Ara worriedly in the middle of the Hallowe'en Feast.
Nereza, unlike her flirtatious cousin, was usually a quiet, reserved, in-different girl. Her family was not part of the Sacred 28, but they were respectable enough for Lucius not to throw a fit if he found out Ara was friends with her. To bad they weren't friends, perhaps acquaintances, but only because they were forced live together.
Ara didn't even really have anything against her, apart from the fact that even after three years, Nereza seemed to be frightened of her most of the time.
I'm that scary, am I?
Along with that, Ara always had a hunch that Nereza fancied Adrian and was a bit jealous of her friendship with the boy.
"I'll handle it," Ara mumbled while she stood up from the Slytherin table, she saw Nereza nod and make her way back to where she'd been sitting.
Ara sighed and walked out of the Great Hall. She made her way towards the female lavatory.
Upon entering it, just as Nereza had said, Ara heard faint crying.
She groaned quietly.
On Hallowe'en night?
Not a moment of peace.
The bathroom was empty, apart from the crying girl, and now Ara. The blonde followed the sound of the whimpering until she got to the stall it was coming from.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked on it softly.
"Open up, it's Ara Malfoy, what's wrong?" Ara asked gently, waiting for a reply. The whimpering immediate came to a stop, and there was silence.
Just as Ara was about to knock again, the stall door flew open.
Definitely not a Slytherin.
"Oh,"
It was that bushy haired witch she'd seen on the train when she first met Ron and Harry.
What was her name?
Granger! Ara struggled to remember her first name.
Henrietta? Hana? Hermione!
Hermione Granger.
Draco complained about her quite a bit, claiming she was nothing but a swot. But he was just mad he was not as smart as her, which Ara found amusing.
"Well, why're you crying?" Ara asked, deciding that if she had already left the feast, she might as well resolve this problem, even if it didn't involve a Slytherin.
Hermione gave her a timid look, and looked down. Ara sighed and outheld her hand, when Hermione grabbed it, she pulled her out of the bathroom stall and towards the sinks.
Turning the tap on, Hermione watched curiously as Ara pulled out her own handkerchief and placed it under the running water.
Ara gently grabbed the First Years chin and held her face still while beginning to blot her tear ridden cheeks with the cool, wet, cloth; relieving some of the redness and heat that was coming off her from crying so hard.
Hermione, for the first time since she arrived at Hogwarts, felt cared about and comforted, by a small, wordless task, no less.
"You know, you're much to pretty to be crying, tell me, what's got you down?" The older girl asked quietly, Hermione smiled at the compliment.
Oh, how she wished this girl was in Gryffindor.
"Thank you," Hermione practically whispered, "-And, well , there's this boy-"
Ara's smile fell and she gasped, pulling away from the First Year.
"You're upset, on Hallowe'en night, with a feast as grand as the one in the Great Hall, because of a boy?" She asked, then proceeding to flick the wet handkerchief on young girls wrist.
Hermione giggled, she could tell Ara was teasing her.
"No, no, that simply won't do, I know you're a Gryffindor and all, but you've got to be a bit cunning, my dear," Ara began to lecture, Hermione watched her with delight.
"I think Gryffindor is by far the best house,"
"With that opinion, I can tell you've talked to the twins," Ara thought back to all the times the twins had said those exact words to her, "-Those two aren't the ones causing your crying, right?"
"No!"
"Good, now, what kind of boy are you dealing with then? The jealous type, perhaps? More importantly, what house is he in? That'll practically tell me all I need to know on how to get back at him. If he's a Slytherin, just say the name and I'll be dealing with him myself!" Hermione smiled as Ara ranted comically.
"It's not like that! It has more to do with the fact that, with a feast as grand as the one in the Great Hall, I've got no one to share it with," Hermione said sadly and Ara curiously tilted her head to the left, "-I heard Ron, a boy in my house, telling people that I'm so boring, it's no wonder that no one likes me,"
Ara gasped.
"He is right you know, I must be to boring for friends, when I couldn't even successfully make any at a school as grand at this," Hermione now became teary eyed again, and let out a small sob.
Ara paused for a moment, debating what to do, she then sighed.
"You know, when I started Hogwarts, I didn't have many friends either," Hermione's tears stopped and she looked up at Ara curiously.
"You probably don't know this, since you're muggleborn," Hermione was shocked that Ara knew, and was still treating her politely, that was rare, "-But the Malfoy's are a very well-known family, and I guess becoming friends with me seemed like a daunting task, so everyone knew me, but very few people attempted to be close with me,"
"So, what did you do?"
"Nothing," Ara shrugged, "-This school is like no other, it may seem hard now, at the start, but eventually you will meet the right people, you will make connections within your house, and Hogwarts will feel so much like home that you'll be sad to leave when the breaks roll around, you've just got to be patient,"
Ara smiled softly at the girl in front of her and nodded her head.
Yes, that's what had happened to her.
"-Besides, if you really are unable to find any friends, you're welcome to come sit with me at the Slytherin table, I promise we're not as mean as we let up to be, especially my year,"
"I'll try my luck with the Gryffindors first," Hermione made a face and Ara shook her head while smiling softly.
"Good luck then, and I suspect that soon enough your dear Ronald will learn to be smarter with his words," Ara smirked, she'd definitely tell the twins their brother had forced a girl to waste half of her night crying in the bathrooms because he chose to be mean to her.
They were tricksters at heart, but even something like that was bound to make them mad.
Ara left the First Year in the bathroom to collect herself a bit more before she went back to the feast, but she warned Hermione that if she was not in the hall in five minutes, she'd be getting dragging out.
You simply cannot spend your first Hallowe'en at Hogwarts in the bathrooms!
As Ara made her way into the Great Hall again, she heard that stupid blundering fool, Professor Quirrell, run in right after her
Ara knew she shouldn't despise him so much, he was her superior after all, but she couldn't help it.
"If he's so bloody scared of his own subject, why'd he take the position?" She mumbled angrily as she stormed out of Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Fred and George shook their heads at her frustration.
"He's such an idiot! I can't believe Headmaster Dumbledore even hired him!"
"Ara Malfoy, talking badly about a teacher, openly, what has the world come to?" Fred teased, Ara rolled her eyes.
"You know that he's completely incompetent! Quirrell would probably faint at the mere sight of something dangerous! The coward! And he's got us doing no practical work! Only papers, he can't possibly expect me to know what to do if- say, a Vampire attacks me, from writing an essay about it!"
George and Fred nearly gasped upon hearing Ara call him Quirrell instead of Professor, out of the three of them, she'd always been the most respectful when referring to adults.
"Ara, he's really driven you mad, hasn't he?" George asked, shaking his head.
"Yes, he has!"
Upon being asked if he thought he could best a troll from the Forbidden Forest, the man came to the frightening realization that there very well could be trolls in the forest next to the school, and that forced him to cower behind his desk for the entire class, not teaching his lesson, and mumbling to himself anxiously.
It had Ara fuming.
Ara stayed standing at the corner of the Slytherin table and stared at him curiously, the feast came to an abrupt halt upon seeing him, his flushed face made a cold chill run down the blondes spine.
Was it possible that something serious had actually happened to the coward?
"Troll!" Ara gasped softly upon hearing that, "-There's a troll in the dungeon!"
The man paused for second, Ara quickly turned her head towards the Slytherin table, looking for her brother.
"Just thought you outta know,"
And then, Quirrell fainted.
Right there, in the middle of Great Hall.
This is literally his area of expertise. Is he not supposed to be the one to deal with it?
Ara thought angry thoughts as she practically sprinted towards her brother, students screams echoed in her ears.
"Up, Draco," Ara hissed, grabbing the boy by his robe, he was frightened stiff. She quickly placed him under her arm and began guiding her brother out of the Great Hall.
"Silence!" The headmasters voice forced everyone's attention onto him.
Ara patiently waited for him to finish his orders, which entailed something about following the house prefects, when he was done she proceeding to guide her brother out of the Great Hall. His friends seemed to follow her too, along with Adrian and Nereza.
Ara guessed the current Slytherin prefects weren't very good at giving orders.