Chapter 1- The Journey Begins
It was a cold September morning in Chestnut Avenue. Melody sat up in bed only to hear the usual wake up call from her mother.
"Hurry up Melody, we've got to get to 'Dagon' Alley soon, before it gets to busy!"
"It's Diagon Alley," Melody remarked to herself. She wouldn't dare say it to her mother; she was in enough trouble already. She walked over to her dresser, picked up her neatly folded jeans and top, and hastily put them on. She retrieved her hairbrush from the shelf behind her door and walked towards her mirror. A small, brown haired girl, with a heart-shaped face and piercing blue eyes was smiling back at her. She brushed her hair back into a neat ponytail, and fixed it into place with a blue ribbon.
"Melody your breakfast is getting cold" her mother shouted up the stairs. She hurried out of the room, thrusting her brush onto her unmade bed.
" Good morning mother," Melody said grinning.
"So do you know how to get to this place, where we can purchase your… things?" her mother inquired as she ran her eyes down a list of items, needed for her daughters attendance at Hogwarts, including potions and cauldrons. Melody took a bite out of her toast, and threw it onto the plate into disgust, she was a fussy eater, and her mother didn't have the energy to try and persuade her to eat it.
"Come on! I have to change these pounds into gold coins." Her mother said pointing to her purse.
"Yeah you can do that at Gringotts" Melody said, all her research over the summer had paid off. They got into the car, put Melody's trunk into the boot and followed a map that she had received from the school.
An hour later they found themselves outside a dusty old pub. "Are you sure this is it?" her mother asked as they walked towards the door.
" Well the map says were here," Melody answered, placing the folded map into her jean pocket. They pushed the door opened and after five minutes found the back door which the map had told them to look for. To their dismay they were standing in front of a brick wall.
" This is a bloody joke!" her mother remarked.
"Are you lost?" a voice echoed behind them. They spun around, only to find themselves in the company of a tall blonde haired man, and a younger version of the man. Except the boy's features were more distinguished, on his perfect, pale face.
"Em. Yeah it's my first time," Melody said shyly. The man stepped forward and tapped the bricks in a sequence with his umbrella. The bricks shifted and formed an archway. Melody was astonished and found her feet were carrying her through it. Her mother however was not as keen and told Melody she'd wait in the car. " Don't be too long or you'll be late on your first day"
"I'll see you in Borgin and Burkes in an hour." the tall, silvery haired man told the young boy.
"Yes father. See you then." His son replied. Melody watched the man leave until he was lost amongst the crowed.
"You should go to Gringotts first, otherwise you wont be able to buy anything." The boy suggested.
"Which way is it?" Melody asked looking around.
The boy pointed towards a towering building. " I'm heading that way myself, so we can go together." The boy replied.
When Melody got inside she exchanged her pounds into gold coins and set up an account with the help of a strange, unfriendly creature.
" So what year are you in?" the boy asked as they left Gringotts.
" I'm going into my fifth year," she replied still amazed about where she was.
"Cool me too" the boy said grinning.
" What's your name?" Melody asked looking into his moonlight eyes.
"Oh my name's Draco Malfoy, and you?"
"My name is Melody," she said smiling. He was about to ask her surname, but was interrupted by a pretty, blonde girl who bashed into Melody's shoulder, nearly sending her flying.
" Watch were your going!" the girl spat at Melody as she walked away.
" Who was that?" Melody inquired
" I don't know she's probably a new student. I haven't seen her around before." Draco said shrugging his shoulders.
They went to all the necessary shops and then sat down in a small café, as Melody was complaining about her feet. They began talking and Draco told her all about the different houses. How Slytherin was the best, and Gryffindor was the worst house.
"They're bad at everything, and if they are good it's only because they cheat or suck up to the teachers."
He also kindly mentioned that Professor Snape was the best teacher in the school. He then he told her about the sorting hat but was interrupted by Melody who told him that she had researched Hogwarts over the summer. Draco blushed.
"So who do you like in your year, and who don't you like?" she asked the boy who was still slightly red.
"I hang out with Crabbe and Goyle. Most Slytherins are decent, but I despise all of Gryffindor, especially Hermione Granger, all of the Weasleys, and most of all Harry Potter."
Draco looked at his watch. " The train leaves in an hour!" he said jumping up, "See you there, platform 9 and ¾… bye," and with that he was gone. Melody grabbed her bags and her chocolate brown owl, which she had named Twix. It hooted as she ran through the archway, she found her mother reading a magazine in the car. Melody pulled the door open and thrust her bags into the boot; she placed Twix onto the back seat.
" Come on mum, we need to get to get to Kingscross station before eleven!" She threw down the magazine and drove as fast as she could. Along the way her mother frowned at Melody's choice of animal, but after hearing her half an hour- long speech on why an owl was the best animal to have, she was convinced. They reached the station, ten minutes before the train was supposed leave.
"What platform is it?" her mother asked, looking around for any other students. She felt uncomfortable being in a place where there were people walking around who had the gift of magic. She was a muggle and thought that magic was silly and useless. When Melody was born her mother did consider that her daughter could be a witch as there was magic in Melody's dad's side of the family, but she just didn't want to admit it. She found excuses for all the strange things that Melody could do. Until Melody's mum realised that Melody wasn't any normal kid, she was a witch, and should be taught how to use this gift. So it was decided that Anna (Melody's mother) would send her daughter to a magical school, but only at the age of fifteen. Anna knew about magic, as her husband had been a wizard. Before Melody was born they had discussed whether they should bring their daughter up around magic, but her husband had died before they had time to make this decision. So Melody was only told about her gift at fourteen, so that she could lead a normal life.
" I think it's this way," Melody said pointing at both platforms nine and ten.
"What how can it possibly be two platforms?"
"Oh mum" Melody said laughing " Don't worry I know what to do" Melody was slightly nervous and hoped that she wouldn't be noticed running through a brick wall.
"Okay, well as long as you're sure you know where you're going, I'll leave you here, have you got everything?" Melody nodded, hugged her mum, walked towards the wall and prepared herself for the biggest adventure of her life. She turned and gave a quick wave to her mum, closed her eyes, and ran straight through the wall.
" It worked!" She exclaimed. She picked up her luggage and Twix who hooted loudly. She looked around, the platform was busy with people bustling around, saying their goodbyes. She hurried towards a red gleaming train, with 'Hogwarts Express' written across the side of it. She got on and she walked down a corridor full of doors, searching for a carriage to sit in. She slid one open and was quickly told to "shoo" by a group of sixth years. She wondered from carriage to carriage and was so used to being told to "Get lost" or "Go away" she didn't hear a girl invite her to sit in her carriage. As Melody turned to leave and continue her quest to search for another carriage, the girl asked her again. "Would you like to sit down?" Melody looked bewildered and sat down opposite the girl. The girl had frizzy brown hair, but had a glowing look about her.
" My name's Hermione Granger," the girl said smiling. Melody remembered what Draco had said, but thought it was better to find out what Hermione was like for her self. Best not to believe hearsay, she thought as she shook the girl's hand.
" My name is Melody," she gestured putting down Twix.
" Where are you from, you're new here? I've never seen you before."
"Yeah I transferred from a muggle school, I only recently found out that I was a witch, my mum's a muggle so we had no idea."
" Oh I'm muggle born too!" Hermione exclaimed.
" No I'm not muggle born, my father was a wizard."
"Was?" Hermione asked looking perplexed.
" He died in a car crash before I was born."
"Oh I'm sorry" Hermione said quietly.
The silence was broken when three chattering people entered the carriage.
" Hi guys!" Hermione said grinning. The two boys sat down next to Hermione and looked at the stranger, the girl however sat down next to Melody.
"Hi I'm Ginny Weasly, and this is my brother Ron," the girl said pointing to a tall ginger boy who had freckles, and who Melody thought looked like an exact replica of his sister. 'It was coming' Harry thought to himself, 'she would look at me strangely, then ask if I was really Harry Potter then ask to see at my scar', but to Harry's amazement she just nodded at his introduction. 'This is the guy Draco must have been talking about', she thought to herself, 'he looked like a nice guy, but looks can be deceiving.' Harry Potter where have I heard that name before?' She rolled the name over in her mind but couldn't place it, so she began thinking about his surname, "Cool" she said allowed and blushed as everyone looked at her.
" What's cool?" Harry asked
Melody didn't have time to answer as the same girl that Melody had encountered at Diagon Alley interrupted them. Melody folded her arms and frowned at the girl who had turned to shout at the trolley lady for wearing clothes that clashed.
" Like it's her choice to pick her uniform," Melody remarked under her breath. The girl turned to the group and looked horrified at the people that she was in the company of. She stepped into the carriage and in a calm voice asked " Have any of you seen a small black cat? It escaped from my carriage whilst I was in the toilet," her sweet voice rung round the room and made Melody feel sick.
"No," Melody retorted, and the girl left slamming the doors behind her.
" She seems nice, can't wait to get to know her" Ron said sarcastically. The group laughed.
" Three guesses which house she's going to be in!" Harry said smirking.
"Gryffindor!" Melody shouted, but no one was laughing instead frowning.
" What! Have you been talking to a Slytherin?" Ron exclaimed
"Well yeah and he told me that Gryffindor was the worst house," she said still not knowing what the problem was.
" I bet it was Draco!" Harry retorted.
"Yeah I think that was his name."
The four of them then went on to explain all the mean things that Slytherin have done to Gryffindor, and what Draco had done to them. They pulled up at Hogwarts and Melody had decided that she defiantly didn't want to be in Slytherin. She knew that listening to hearsay was bad, but these people seemed much more genuine than Draco, they also had a lot more proof. There was something about these people that caught Melody's attention, 'especially Harry', she thought.