Going off to Hogwarts

Several days passed before the Averys and Malfoys went to King's Cross Station. The Averys were reluctant to let their daughter and son leave, since once again they would be left alone at the Hiding Place with the Dark Lord. The Malfoys, on the other hand, couldn't be prouder. Their children, going to this grand school! Before their children embarked, the parents had a few things to say…

"Caly, please remember to write," Svana said sadly. "Please."

"Yea," Caly said. "I will, mum." Svana kissed her cheek.

"Draco," Lucius said seriously, "remember that Bella is fragile. Protect her."

"Yes, father," Draco said.

"You're strong, remember," Lucius said. "You both are purebloods. You both are the best."

"Yea!" Draco said proudly.

"And I'll be Caly's friend," Bellatrix whispered, staring at the ground.

"Yes, O that's just darling," Narcissus said. "I do rather like your daughter."

"And Draco, remember, if you need anything, just write to us, ok? And Bella, my little Bella, same to you. And tell Draco if you feel uncomfortable around all the new people, ok? Or Caly. You all stick together, ok?" Narcissa said.

"Yes, mum," the Malfoy children said.

"Listen to her," Svana said. "If you get uncomfortable with all the new people, stick with Bella." Caly nodded.

"Anything for me?" Griffith said.

"Yes," Narcissus said. "Don't make fun of your sister. Be nice to her."

"Right," Griffith said breezily. "So that is better behavior this time?" Narcissus raised an eyebrow and nodded.

Draco strutted into the train, taking Caly and Bella's arms as he did so. "Out of the way!" he said loudly to the others in front of him. "Coming through! Oi let me through!" then muttered, "Protect her? Grr fine…"

"Sorry, sorry," Bella whimpered to the people they edged through.

"WHY do you do that?" Draco muttered. "Who taught you that?"

"Well, it's much less rude," Caly sniffed.

"Oi Crabbe! Goyle!" Draco called. "Come on!"

Two burly kids taller than even Draco and much taller than Bella lumbered over. Their mean faces scared Bella, who was nearly above Draco's shoulders in height, to hide behind him.

"They're nice to purebloods," Draco said lazily, wincing as she clung to the back of his robes. "Akk get off!" Caly pulled her back, away from Draco's swinging elbow.

When they had all found a compartment, (Crabbe and Goyle on one side and Draco plus the girls on the other) Draco took the chance.

Crossing one leg over the other, he said grandly, "You know Caly, your family is old. Pretty old. Respectably old."

Caly nodded stiffly.

"Good purebloods go in Slytherin," he continued. "That's where I'm gonna go. I bet miss pretty perfect little Bella is gonna go there too," he said, ending with a slight mock in his voice. Bella appeared engrossed in the task of staring out the window.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with Bella," Caly said coldly.

Draco sneered. "O sure," he drawled. "Just because she's proper and lovely and all that, doesn't mean she's better than me! Mum and Dad go on and do something fun with me—only to have to stop before I want to, to take care of little missy Bella." Bella was frowning. Before Caly could stop him, he went on, "I'm the best boy there is but Mum and Dad seem to think of her more than me. Just because she's frail."

"Well, I get sick more often than you do," Bella growled.

"Well, there's a ton of stuff we couldn't go to since you wanted to go but couldn't," Draco snapped.

Bella sighed. "Not like I could be left home by myself."

"Come off it," Caly interrupted. "Let's talk about something else."

"Fine," Draco said. "So about your family. You're pretty lucky. You're better than anybody else, too."

"No, I'm not."

"Geez, Caly. Who raised you? What's wrong with you? Anyway, you had better go in Slytherin along with me or else you're a disgrace."

Caly scowled. "Who cares? Muggles raised me and I don't care if I'm a disgrace."

Crabbe and Goyle stared at her as though she turned into a rabbit right in front of them.

"Are you...mental?" he whispered.

Caly snorted. "No. Not like I was raised by purebloods long enough to pick up whatever trash or otherwise they teach their kids over there."

"Well, you better learn or else you'll be disowned," he spluttered. "You know," Draco began, almost thoughtfully, leaning back in his seat. "Bella's shy and I'm not and the other day I got to show Mr. Avery my broom riding and he said it was fabulous…" and off he went, Bella sighing softly and sadly at mention of all the things she couldn't do (broom riding included). Crabbe and Goyle listened intently so obviously it was dumb, while Caly would interrupt him from time to time for Bella's defense.

And so they were until half past twelve. An old woman with a trolley of sweets came by. She opened the door and inquired if they were interested.

"Yea, I'll take some," Draco said. He turned around and wrinkled his nose slightly at Bella when he heard her stand. "You aren't allowed to have any." Sighing, Bella sat again. She watched wistfully as Crabbe and Goyle went and bought treats. Caly almost did, but then thought better of it and sat by her friend. When they were finished, the trolley moved on.

Draco sat, scrutinizing the wrapper of a jelly slug. "Bella, I want you to sit next to me," he said imperiously.

"Why," Bella whimpered. She shrank away.

"You're my sister," he said, as though it was obvious. She gave him an odd look he didn't see since he was unwrapping a chocolate frog.

Bella whispered to Caly, "He's mean to me when no one is around."

"That's awful," Caly gasped.

"If you sit next to me," Draco said importantly, "then I will let you have one of these candies." He looked up at her, an excited, almost hungry look on his face. Cunningly, he continued, "And I won't tell Mum and Dad." Crabbe and Goyle gasped in unison.

"Why, would that be bad?" Caly said primly.

Bellatrix looked hopeful. "Would you?" she said wistfully. "Just once? Dunno if that's ok…I mean, Mum and Dad don't let me have those because they don't want me to get sick, sugar lowers my immune system's defenses…"

"Just once," he said. "You can't get sick if you have just one."

She stared longingly at the suspended frog Draco held. "I've always wanted to know what that stuff tastes like," she whispered. She abruptly stood and motioned for Caly to scoot. She did reluctantly. Bella sat in between them, and hopefully held out her hand. Draco feigned handing it to her—then tossed the frog to Crabbe. He caught it. The boys laughed. Bella's lower lip trembled.

"That's not nice!" Caly growled, standing. Draco smirked.

"Yea but Mum and Dad are going to be mad if she gets sick," he said carelessly.

Caly curled her friend into a hug. "You're not sitting next to that git," she whispered. Bella's shoulders were shaking. "Don't think about it. Sit next to the window." Sniffling, Bella got up and moved farther away from Draco, shooting him a glare while doing so.

A couple older students squeezed their way past the compartment window.

"Did you hear?" one whispered.

"Yea, Harry Potter! He's on the train!"

Draco stood. "Well, I'm going to see about that," he said importantly. He scanned the compartment. "Dunno if there will be room for him in here. O well. Crabbe. Goyle." Both stood when called, then left, trailing behind their boss.

After a really annoying search, Draco and his cronies finally came to a compartment with just a redhead and a boy with black hair. He had already talked to most of the first year boys (and set most of them against him, though he didn't know that). Thoroughly irritated with the difficulty of the search, Draco marched into this last compartment.

He took one glance at the redhead. "Weasley, aren't you?" he sneered. "I can tell-you got red hair and nasty old clothes."

"That's not nice," the boy said, staring consciously down at his fraying sweater. "Just because you got nice clothes doesn't mean you have to shove it in everybody's face!"

Draco had already moved on. He stared at the other boy. "Hullo scrawny," he said, beating the boy to talking first. "What's up with your family? Do they feed you at all? Do they care about you?"

The boy appeared unfazed. "No," he said softly, simply.

"No wonder, you're ugly," Draco went on. The boy sighed, quietly picking at a chocolate frog wrapper as though such insults were normal. "I'm Draco Malfoy, son of an important wizarding family. Weasley, get that look off your face. Boy, have you seen Harry Potter?"

The boy looked up. "I'm Harry Potter."

Draco stared. He immediately turned pink. "I-I, sorry," he stammered. "I-I just had a hard search for you-I didn't know it was you, th-that's all!" Harry stared in utter shock. The Weasley boy snickered. Draco turned red.

"You new, Harry? Because I can easily give you some tips on who to spend time with...and who not to," Draco said, pointedly glowering at the Weasley. That boy went on smugly munching a jelly slug. "Some people aren't worth our time," he went on, wrinkling his nose. "The Weasleys for example." He turned to look hopefully at Harry. "We can be friends. We can be powerful, you and I. Doesn't it sound great? What do you say?"

"No, thanks," Harry said carelessly. Draco's shoulders lifted. "I can do that by myself, thanks. I can take care of myself."

"Fine," Draco spat. Scowling, he slammed the door shut. As he stormed off, he heard faintly Potter say, 'Blimey, he's awful! Glad he's gone.'

For many blissful minutes, Caly and Bella were alone. Bella was comforted by Caly's talk of her Muggle relatives. It made her really sad, though, but Bella was saying, "Well, write to your parents asking if they could let you see them again," when Draco sulked in, slamming the door behind him. He flopped onto his seat, arms crossed. His minions came in.

"What the heck," he pouted angrily. "He didn't accept! Why wouldn't he want to watch who he hangs out with? I don't get it!" Glaring at Crabbe's feet, Draco helped himself to a Berty Botts bean. He offered it to Crabbe. "You try it first." Crabbe bit off a corner. He made a face. "You have it," Draco said lazily, tossing it at Crabbe. Goyle caught it and ate it. "Gross," Draco muttered, making a face. "Well, I guess you are good entertainment."

For the rest of the train ride, all they heard from him were angry mutters or indignant shouts about how ridiculous Harry was. Bella was secretly on Harry's side. She wanted to meet him…he sounded much like her...maybe he could help protect her...maybe he would end up in Slytherin...maybe she would get the chance to meet him, that would be so brilliant…she was jerked to reality as a stray wrapper Draco was tossing to his minions somehow ended up in her hair.

"Oi," Caly said darkly. "I don't think that was an accident."

Bella didn't need to see his face to know he was laughing at her.

Finally, finally, they arrived. They had already changed into their robes, Bella and Caly doing so after she kicked the boys out and shut the blinds. Filing out of the train was hard for the small and delicate Bella. Caly had a tight arm on her.

"Firs' years! Firs' years!" a man twice as tall as a normal man with a giant black beard called. The eleven-year-olds shuffled around him.

"There's Harry Potter," Draco muttered bitterly, staring at the boy, as Hagrid went through his usual speech. He led the group up to the lake. The students gasped at the sight of Hogwarts.

"Alright! In the punt now!" Hagrid said. Caly seized Bella's arm and led her away from Draco before he noticed. She stopped by a short boy with black hair.

"Have you seen my toad?" he asked softly.

"We'll tell you if we find it," Caly said. "Quick—let's all get in a punt before Draco notices we're gone." She glanced over her shoulder into the crowd as Draco called for Bella. They were all in when a girl with long nearly tan colored hair ran up and jumped in.

"Oi sorry I'm Mafalda Nightshade," she said.

"Neville," the toadless boy said.

"I'm Caly. This is Bella," Caly said.

The fleet of punts made their way across the lake. Draco reached down and touched the water. Caly whispered she felt like the punts were moving by magic.

"I can't wait," was the first thing Bella ever whispered on that trip.

Author's question: So, are you as excited as I am to begin the journey of our heroes? Because I am jumping off the walls like I had too much coffee.