As much as I love the books, I regret to say that all of Harry Potter belongs to J K Rowling. This includes all of the characters except for Ryua (who's mine) most of the places, and an awful lot of the spells. Oh, and if you see something that looks like one of your stories, I'm really, really sorry. I don't mean to plagiarize. I've just read a lot of really cool fanfics, and they melt into my brain, but I'll try not to use any of it. Tell me if I do, okay?

An Interesting Start to School

Dobby wasn't there to say good morning and goodbye to Ryua when she woke up. Kind of odd, she thought. Dobby had always been friendly to her, even after Parsil had tried to eat him the first night she was in Ryua's room. Ryua shrugged, pulling on her school robes and twisting her hair up in a bun for the last time for the entire school year. Parsil wasn't impressed with being in a carrier, and Ryua didn't mind hiding her under her robes, but it was against school policy to have loose pets on the train, especially poisonous ones. She did keep the carrier to herself, however, even when the house elves and then manservants at platform 9 ¾ carried her other things. She sat on a window seat watching the other students arrive. Well, there goes the Weasley clan, she thought, But I don't see what's- his-name, Ron, or Potter for that matter. They've only got a few minutes left... And sure enough, the train pulled away at exactly 11 o'clock, leaving Potter and Weasley behind.

They reappeared during the sorting. Ryua's seat at the Slytherin table faced out to the north grounds, and she noticed a peculiar thing in the sky. It appeared to be a set of headlights. Yes, headlights, like on a car. Why there was a car in the sky, Ryua had no idea, but it was definitely flying towards the school, now highlighted faintly by the glowing tower windows. By now, a few more were watching, and she noticed Professor Snape get up and storm out the door. Suddenly, the car jerked, and started into a nosedive. Ryua flinched as it hit the Whomping Willow, which promptly started to whomp. The car backed out of range of the flailing branches, opened its doors and sent two figures sprawling onto the grass, followed by two pet cages and trunks. It then drove angrily (how could a car drive angrily?) into the Forbidden Forest, leaving Potter and Weasly to trudge up to the castle.

She tore her gaze away from the window again, as Dumbledore was introducing the new teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. He promptly started into a long, intensely dull speech about his books and how he was planning to teach the students to defend themselves "as he had done on countless occasions..."

Draco summed it up perfectly: "Blah, blah, blah, doesn't this guy ever shut up?" Ryua suppressed a snort of laughter.

"That's exactly what I was thinking. Hey, you sounded intelligent for a change! Well, weirder things have happened, I suppose..." Draco elbowed her in the ribs, trying to act angry underneath an actual smile. They may have hated each other at times, but there was no denying that they fit with each other, like moon and stars.