CHAPTER 1: THE RESIDENTS OF NUMBER 33

Summer had finally come to an end as its last warm crisp breeze blew into the window of number 33 Levy Road. It was a small caped home coated in a light blue paint, which lay in the middle of London. A tall man with dark hair and eyes stood in front of a large fireplace located in the living room. He was dressed in a long green cloak that nearly covered his battered black boots and mix matched red and orange socks. He had reached over to a small brown pot, which seemed to contain powdered dirt. He grabbed a handful in his large left palm and stepped carefully over the hearthrug and into the fireplace. "Diagon Alley!" He yelled clearly with a deep muffled voice as the substance in his hands hit the stone floor. Green flames erupted all around him, covering his entire body and licking his appearance away. The house was totally empty now, nothing but the dieing sound of a crackling fire echoed and soon came silence.

The cobbled streets of Diagon Alley bustled with the voices of hundreds of witches and wizards shopping for last minute supplies. It was a small area filled with crooked buildings and zig zagging streets that led to different shops containing potions, wands, robes, owls and broomsticks of the sort. A young girl around 16 stood outside Flourish and Blotts, a tiny popular bookstore across the emporium. The breeze swept the dark brown curls of her long hair out of her purple eyes that glimmered in the bright orange sunlight. She was standing on the tiptoes of her black buckled shoes searching for something in the crowds. She was clad in a bulky red sweater (much too big for her thin shape) that was pulled a little over her gray ruffled skirt and white nylons. A black cloak was tied tightly around her neck and lay open at her shoulders. A symbol of the Ravenclaw shield was sewn on and rested on her left breast; a Head Girl badge pinned on her right.

"He hasn't arrived yet?" An older woman made her way across the street carrying a navy blue purse. She was much taller than the young girl who was about 5'3 and had long auburn hair that was slightly wavy. It fell in front of her hazel eyes the same way though and she began to look up the alleyway. She wore a cloak also, that of the color crimson covering her whole a tire and ending just a few inches above her red high heals clipped fittingly to her thin ankles. "No. I don't know what's taking him so long! Are you sure you told him how to travel by floo powder mum? I mean it's not that hard...even for a muggle." "Now now Christmas dear! You know your stepfather tries his hardest to fit in with our kind, he's not accustomed. I just hope he didn't venture off in Knockturn Alley, they'll see right through his tatty disguise." She bit her lip worriedly as the man who once resided in the living room of number 33 appeared from the tight circle of teenaged boys lurking near the window of the quidditch shop.

"Joseph we're over here!" They both began to wave their hands flagging him over tops of pointed hats and boxes of equipment. "Autumn dear I'm sorry I'm late. Got a little taken a back down by the sports corner, couldn't see a bloody thing with those kids crowding around me!" He wiped the sweat off his brow and smiled at the 2 of them. "That's quite alright dear, they must have gotten a fresh supply of brooms." She dusted off his robes and took a list out of her own. "Are we ready to get your Hogwarts materials Chrissy? We should get a move on it's quite packed today don't want the left overs now do we?" "I have been ready for nearly 20 minutes mum." She looked at her stepfather and rolled her eyes as he grinned uncomfortably.

She led them inside the building they were waiting at and squeezed through the aisle of people. It was a very tight fit in the small shop not just with bodies but with piles of books from left to right, up to the ceilings and down to the dusty wooden floors. Cobwebs hung in the corners of the windows and under the stairway to the left of them. "Christmas dear I don't think there is enough room for all of us." Her mother grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her into the secluded corner. "Take this and some money. Keep it safe in your pocket. Get the spell books you need and meet us down at the small cafe past Gringotts ok?" She gave Christmas the list she once held in her hands and stashed coins in the pocket of her robes. "Alright. I'll be there in a little while." The pair walked back into the streets of the alley leaving her there alone to buy the things she would need for the start of the new year.

She made her way to the back of building and into an empty aisle. She looked down to the book list and skimmed the titles with her fingertips. There were many students there hunting for their readings but none stopped and talked with her. Christmas had no friends, she didn't really try to make any but it was the same way with the other kids. Most of them were afraid of her. She was the bossiest student in school not to mention the smartest. Rules were her number one priority and those who didn't obey them were her enemies but she didn't despise anyone as much as..."Snow! Should have known you would be here alone, no one can stand to be near you!" From around the corner stood Draco Malfoy a 5th yr like her leaning against the bookcases with his 2 large sidekicks Crabbe and Goyle. He was fitted in all black, his cloak blending in perfectly hiding his crossed arms making the appearance of a floating sneering head. A Slytherin badge was sewn onto his robes as well as Crabbe and Goyles. He was thin and tall but much smaller than his muscular croonies. His blonde hair was slicked back, greased and stuck to the nap of his neck bringing out his cold blue gray eyes.

Christmas turned her head sharply while pulling out a heavy leather bound novel entitled "Advanced Charms for the Challenge Takers". Her eyebrows were furrowed and her lips were perched together. "Malfoy! I should have known that foul stench was coming from you!" His lip curled as the light bounced off his hair nearly blinding her sight. His sidekicks snickered slightly. "What are you 2 laughing at!? You wouldn't know a good joke if it looked you in the mirror, which let me remind you, It does!" They both shut their mouths quickly and stared at the ground. Christmas didn't know why Crabbe and Goyle put up with Malfoy, probably because they were to thick headed or Draco's father had something to do with it. Lucius Malfoy was once a supporter of the evilest wizard that ever lived, he's also one of the richest pure blood families.

"Watch it this year Snow! Now that you Head Girl you'll be roaming the halls alone a lot. Oh wait... you always have done that." He said looking up at the ceiling pretending to be contemplating. He grinned as he saw her face turn red with anger. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the bindings of the book tightly. "Smart remarks will get you no where! Not like your going places anyway." "My father could easily get me a job at the ministry of magic right now if I asked him to! And what about your dad? Oh right he's dead! Your stepfather couldn't do no better though, doesn't even dress well to fit in." "Leave my family alone. Money will never prevail over brains Malfoy! And you haven't got any." He laughed and stepped in closer to her, his nose nearly touching her forehead. "You're wrong about that Snow. Money will get you everything, but you don't have it..." He eyed her up and down looking at her over large sweater. "Clearly you have nothing not even friends or a father." He said in a bare whisper and smirked as she looked directly into his eyes. Hers began to grow red and puffy filling themselves up with pools of water. Her real father (Jacob Snow) had died when she was only 3. He was killed by a deatheater; supporters of the dark lord like Lucius Malfoy. She hardly knew him, she hadn't even remembered much except for his screams the night of his murder. Memories flashed back now. Her ears engaging in the horror that once took place 13 years before. Her lips were trembling as she stared him in the face. His expression went limp; his mouth hung slightly open gawking at her sorrows.

"It was people like your dad who killed my own. I don't see how you can get pleasure out of that, destroying peoples lives." The tears rolled down her cheeks landing on her quivering chin. She pushed by Draco hard, nudging him in the shoulder making him stumble back a few inches. Crabbe and Goyle were smirking, obviously he had said something really good according to them but it didn't seem to him he did as he stared blankly to where the spot Christmas had been standing. His gaze moved towards the floor as the sound of the shop door slammed shut and he turned slowly to see her wiping her eyes and making her way down the cobblestones.

A tiny gold bell rang as Christmas opened the door to the cafe and laughter arose to her ears. She squinted her eyes looking past a tall bearded man sitting at the middle table with a wide plump woman eating raspberry tart flavored ice cream. She made her way across the floor wiping the remaining tears that clung to her long eyelashes. She spotted her parents in the corner booth looking out of the tinted windows and chattering. "Chrissy back so soon? Did you get all the books you needed?" Asked her stepfather who was clearly enjoying his charmed ice cream that changed flavors every time he took a swab at it. She sat down to the left of her mother fixing the ruffles of her skirt. "No, there were to many people in there I couldn't get by for anything I supposed it will clear later on in the evening then we can try." She stared at the table as she spoke not wanting them to see the redness that still surrounded her eyes. "Yes I suppose your right. Everyone wants to get their supplies early it should die down pretty soon. Looks like the lot are starting to go home anyway. The streets are less crowded." Her mother took a sip of her pumpkin juice and then passed the goblet to Christmas. "No thanks mum I'm no thirsty... or hungry." She said as Joseph tried to hand her his ice cream.

As night fell the sky became a velvet black blanket knitted with a thousand tiny sparkling stars. Diagon Alley was almost empty now as Christmas got her things and the shops closed their doors. They headed back to number 33 using the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. The small blue caped home greeted them silently as they arrived in the living room. Pictures of them on the white walls smiled and waved as they walked across the gray carpets and past the yellow sofas to the polished wooden staircase that let to their sleeping quarters. Christmas said goodnight to her mother and step dad as she went in to the last door on the left. It was a small room that she slept in with an inclined ceiling that glowed the colors of the rainbow, a black bureau that opened its draws automatically as she made her way to it to place away her things and a body length mirror where her reflection talked back. She had a white canopy bed, the silk shawls draping on the tall posts and over the ebony wood which the mattress rested upon. She untied her cloak and placed it on the small green chair that sat in the corner of the small window to her right. She placed her shoes under the bed a long with her wear and dressed in her white sleeping gown. She crawled into her bed pulling the silk sheets over her and resting her head upon the white pillows. She tried to dream of pleasant things but Draco Malfoy's face popped into her mind with the words he had spoken... "Clearly you have nothing not even friends, or a father." It echoed in her ears as she turned over in her bed knowing that tomorrow she would have to face him again, tomorrow was the day she went back to Hogwarts on The Hogwarts Express through Platform 9 and 3 quarters and there she would have to spend 9 months facing him.