Authors Note:
Hello all! I just wanted to quickly stop by and say a big hello to all of my beautiful viewers! I am so excited to be on here and to have such a wonderful creative outlet. I am so excited for you guys to check out the story. As of right now I am still on summer break so I will be trying to post a new chapter every few days or so (with the help of my amazing editor, of course ). I can't possibly thank you all enough for stopping by, I really hope you enjoy the story. As well as that, if you have any comments, questions, concerns or feedback please feel free to PM me or leave a comment! I own nothing in the Harry Potter universe and I am definitely not trying to be sued, heh.
With all that said, thank you again so much for checking this out! It means the world to me,
Have a fantastically wonderful day,
Much2spicy 3
Isla hastily grabbed her trunk, briefly scanning her quaint room as she did so. New robes, check. New textbooks, quills, parchment and wand, check. "Alright then, let's get this show on the road." She muttered to herself. Isla Oulette was at the ripe age of 16 and was heading into her 5th year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As Isla rushed down the stairs, she nearly tripped over her younger brother's chew toys; yes, that's right he's like a bloody dog but she'd much rather have that teething toddler chomping down on a plastic doggy bone as opposed to her arm.
"Hey love." Her mom called once Isla had successfully made it down the stairs. Isla's mom was an impressive lady to say the least. She had to deal with 4 children, Isla's older sister, Heather, Isla, and her two younger brothers tommy and max. Isla's mom and dad were both muggles, as were Heather and Tommy (Max was still too young to tell whether he was a wizard or not). Setting down her trunk, Isla went over to the kitchen nook, and took a seat beside her father. "You all packed up Isles?" Her dad asked. "Oh of course, I've got just about everything I could possibly fit in that bad boy." Isla responded, tapping the trunk twice on its side. Her dad playfully ruffled her hair while saying, "That's what we like to hear, eh." She laughed; the Canadian accent was really coming through. Isla's family was originally from Canada. 'Well then how on earth is she attending Hogwarts?' one may wonder. See, Isla's mom received a commission from a very wealthy British family to paint the family's home as a still life. They paid for her to fly out to England and when she came back to Isla's family in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, she begged Isla's father to move out to England, claiming the English countryside would serve as great inspiration for her paintings. Six years later, the family was living in a large four-bedroom home in Northeast London. Isla's grandparents on her mom's side are also from England so it felt as if she were at home there, whereas her dad has his roots set deep in Italy making Isla quite the genetic mix. Isla snapped out of her thoughts about family lineage when her sister Heather gave her hair a good yank and told her it was time to head to the platform.
The car ride and mini farewell party to the platform was always bittersweet. Isla loved her family and missed them dearly each time she went off to school, but at the same time she was excited since she would get to see all of her friends from Hogwarts again! Her best friend in the whole wide world was none other than Neville Longbottom. Isla loved him like a brother and wouldn't trade him for the world. Though he was rather forgetful and just as clumsy as she was, he always had a positive attitude and reminded her to laugh even when it was far from what she wanted to do. Neville was a consistently positive light in Isla's life, and quite honestly, she wished everyone else around her could match Neville's positive energy. Isla's outgoing personality allowed for her to make friends very easily. Isla had sat with Neville on the train their first year and they bonded over his ginormous toad, Trevor. She laughed, thinking back on the memory fondly. Isla also became friends with a rather quirky girl named Hermione Granger, after all they had quite a similar situation with them both being muggle born. The pair of them had done enough research on the school to run their own history class. "Alright dear you've got everything on you, yeah?" Her mom asked. Isla nodded and gave each of her siblings and parents a long, tight hug. "I've got to go find Neville so we can get a compartment." Isla said as she scanned the platform. "Always on about him, aren't ya?" Heather teased "Oh c'mon Heather he's like a brother to me, buzz off." Isla responded, annoyed. Her dad nodded vigorously and proudly stated, "Now that's what we like to hear squirt, keep up the amazing work." Isla had a good laugh at her father's joke and glanced toward the clock which read, '10:57.' "Ah bugger." Isla sighed, "Well I suppose you guys have to go drop off Heather and Tommy for their classes as well." Her mom looked at the clock and gasped, "Oh! We are certainly running late." She cupped Isla's cheek and said, "Oh love I'm going to miss you so much, please be safe, be smart, and have fun, okay?" "Not too much fun though of course" her dad joked. "Oh please, I'm practically 16, I can definitely handle myself." Isla responded in an over-confident tone. Heather scoffed and gave her one last hug, "Bye Isla." She said and they disappeared through the wall.
Isla quickly found Neville, fumbling around with his trunks and Trevor's cage just outside of the entrance near the caboose of the train. Isla was taken aback for a second, she hadn't seen him since last June as her family went back to Canada for the summer, and boy, had he changed. He had grown considerably taller and his hair had lengthened a touch to create a rather windswept style, it certainly suited him. Though upon further reflection Isla had changed a fair bit herself. Her once short untamed hair had grown rather long and had adapted a nice wave to it. She discovered a muggle contraption she wasn't familiar with pre-Hogwarts called an eyelash curler and holy cow it made her dark eyelashes frame her serpent green eyes beautifully. She had also taken advantage of being back home in British Columbia to visit her old friends and practice soccer, or football as they say here in England. This really made her athletically lean figure come into fruition. As for her skin, it was a medium toned olive. With a very Italian father and a Canadian-English mother there were many possibilities for her skin colour, and she was incredibly pleased with what she had received. She had a few freckles on her nose that really popped when she was outside, but that was about as exciting as she got. Neville most certainly looked like he could use a hand, so Isla rushed over to help.
Neville and Isla spent the first 4 hours on the train catching up about each other's summers. Neville told Isla stories of how his grandma was getting battier by the day and at one point he had Isla rolling on the compartments bench clutching her stomach from laughing, "god I've really missed this" she thought to herself. The fifth and final hour of the train ride she was summoned to go to the prefect's cabin as she had been elected one. This opportunity excited her greatly and she was hoping someone like Harry Potter would end up as her prefect duty partner though she doubted Professor Dumbledore would put that extra pressure on him, what with the trials and all. As Isla headed to the prefect cabin, she stopped by the golden trio's compartment to see Hermione. Hermione's house was a thirty-minute drive from her own, and the two had had a sleepover early July, something Isla was quite ecstatic about. In those situations, the two could leave the wizarding world and all the drama it entailed and talk about simple muggle things, like the new shows on the tele, or sciences and maths. "Hey Mione!" Isla exclaimed. "Oh, Lala I've missed you a bunch!" Hermione said getting up to hug the girl. Hermione sat down and Isla hugged Ron and Harry as well. She was nowhere near as close to those two as Hermione was, but she had been invited over to the burrow for Harry's belated birthday party this year which was quite the treat. The four of them chatted briefly and soon Neville entered their compartment as well. After a mere 10 minutes Isla mentioned the prefects meeting and was rather disappointed; none of that lot would be joining her. "Alright then, I'll see you at the feast tonight!" She said, exiting the compartment, and headed over to the prefect meeting.
There were two things Isla noticed upon entering the compartment for the prefect meeting: 1. Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were representing Slytherin (isn't it hard to believe that's the best the house could present), and 2. The other prefect from Gryffindor was none other than Seamus Finnigan. "Oh, whoopee." she muttered under her breath. Seamus had quite the fascination for his "Foreign little lass." Yes. That is what he referred to her as, and it drove her insane. Isla was a rather patient person but being referred to not only as 'foreign' but also 'little lass' was frankly not only patronizing but just plain rude and she's snapped on the topic a plethora of times. "'Ello to my lovely foreign little lass, I was only prayin' to see ya here today." Seamus said. Isla scowled at him "The pleasure is all mine." she said in her most condescending tone. Draco Malfoy smirked at her response with the smallest little scoff. Confused, Isla looked at him to confirm that that did in fact just happen, and Draco cockily raised an eyebrow back at her. Semi-disturbed, Isla returned her gaze to studying her fingernails and waited for the meeting to begin.
Usually Isla was a very apt listener, however at this moment she was rather preoccupied thinking about Malfoy. Don't get her wrong, she didn't like him in the slightest, it's just that similarly to herself and Neville, Draco seemed to… well he seemed to have "glown-up" a fair bit as well. His hair was no longer slicked back with 5 pounds of gel, rather it was a little messy and had grown longer as well. It framed his face in this sort of effortless model way. His cheek bones and jaw had grown much stronger and he had sprouted up to about 6'2" Isla estimated. Not only that but he had filled in quite a bit, and she could see his toned muscles through his sweater, and his skin was as clear and porcelain like as ever. Though his eyes looked tired, like he hadn't been sleeping. It gave him this sort of rugged look- "Oh how bloody ridiculous this is." Isla thought. "Now the ladies would swoon even harder than they did before." And his shirt wasn't fully buttoned and- Isla's train of thought was abrubtly cut off. "Isla Oulette are you still with us?" Professor McGonagall questioned her. When had she even entered the compartment? Had Isla really been that dazed out by bloody Malfoy of all people? "Yes professor, sorry about that." She said hastily. "Back to what I was saying," McGonagall continued, "This year we are trying to promote interhouse-inclusivity, and this will start with you lot." She paused for what could only have been for dramatic effect, and continued on, "Now with that said I will post the list of partners and your nights of patrol. There will be no tolerance for changes of mind, you get what you get and you don't get upset." She chuckled, and whilst walking out with a subtle wave of her wand, she conjured a list with the names of partners and the patrol schedule. Searching down the list Isla found her name and scrolled across to see who her partner was. For a 1/8th of a second she was relieved to see that her partner was not Seamus. Then she was snapped back to reality as she began to comprehend what the name she was staring at represented. Isla looked up at her new partner and sighed as she saw Draco Bloody Malfoy staring squarely at her.