The second the feast was over Raven shot out of the Great Hall as fast as possible. There was no way in hell she would give Cassius a chance to even approach her, let alone talk to her.

She manoeuvred her way through the crowd and headed straight to the Ravenclaw Common Room. When she arrived, it was no longer the silent, deserted tower that it had been earlier in the morning. Students were chatting away to each other on some of the blue sofas or discussing a piece of homework around a table.

Raven stopped at the entrance, gazing at all the people, and all of a sudden it hit her that she was alone and she had no idea who any of these people were. She wished her brother was there.

'If only I had been in Slytherin.' She thought to herself with a sigh.

A gentle tap on her shoulder threw Raven out of her thoughts. She spun around to see a stunningly handsome boy standing behind her. He had short, curly, light brown hair and beautiful bright green eyes that she would have loved to lose herself in. Raven felt her cheeks redden and she mentally chided herself for thinking such a thing.

"You must be Raven Malfoy. I'm Theo Cogswell, one of the sixth year Ravenclaw prefects."

The boy stuck out his hand and Raven shook it, suddenly aware of how his large hands felt in hers.

"Professor Flitwick asked me to help make sure you get settled into Hogwarts alright and since we have some of the same lessons together, I can show you where a few of the classrooms are and explain what we've already studied so far."

Theo's eyes glistened in the light coming from one of the tall windows in the common room. Raven coughed, realising she had yet to say anything.

"It's nice to meet you," She said.

Theo gave Raven a cute grin and led her over to a round table in a corner of the common room where three girls were passing around and talking amongst themselves.

"Hi you three," Theo called as we approached them and they all turned their heads in greeting.

"Who's this?" A girl with shoulder-length, blonde hair motioned towards Raven.

"I'm Raven Malfoy,"

"Malfoy? Are you related to Draco by any chance?" She said with a strange excitement.

"Yeah, he's my twin brother," Raven told her.

"That's so cool!"

The girl sat on the blonde's right rolled her eyes. She had dark brown hair that cascaded down her back in natural curls and she was wearing a pair of glasses that accentuated her chocolate brown eyes.

"Tessa here has a crush on him." She gestured to her short-haired friend.

Tessa slapped the other girl on her arm.

"Cassie! Why did you tell her that?" Tessa exclaimed with a pout.

Cassie and Tessa began quietly arguing and the third girl turned to Raven, shaking her head at the two girls.

"Ignore those two, they're always like this. I'm Helen Littlefair by the way, but I prefer to be called Nellie."

Nellie had bright blue eyes that were the colour of a clear summer sky and mid-length hair that was dark brown at the roots and faded into a light brown at the ends.

Next to Raven, Theo cleared his throat, the sides of his mouth quirking up. She had almost forgotten he was there.

"Well, I'll just leave you girls to get to know each other. Professor Flitwick asked me to tell you that you'll all be sharing a dormitory since yours is the only one left with a spare bed. If you ever need to find me, Raven, I'll probably be somewhere in the common room or in that room over there." He pointed to one of the dormitory doors and walked away with a smile on his handsome.

Nellie tapped the chair on her left and Raven joined the three girls at the table. Tessa and Cassie had finally stopped arguing and turned their attention towards the new addition to Ravenclaw.

"So... why don't tell us a bit about yourself," Cassie said, resting her chin on her left hand.

They talked for what seemed like hours. Raven told them about Draco, which Tessa was particularly interested in, and what it was like to have a twin brother. She found that girls were so easy to talk to; all of them listened with keen ears and didn't once give her a judgmental look, even when she told them about some particularly devilish pranks she had pulled in France. One thing was for sure, Raven never imagined Ravenclaws to be so accepting, even if it was one their traits.

Later that night when all four girls had adjourned to their dormitory, Tessa randomly pointed something out as they were getting dressed for bed.

"I just realised how ironic it is that your name is Raven and you're a Ravenclaw."

"How did I not notice that before?" Raven asked and all three girls shrugged their shoulders. Seconds later they all burst into a fit of giggles.

By the time Raven had fallen asleep under her thick blue duvet, the thought of seeing Cassius in DADA the next day was merely a fraction of everything she was thinking about.

The next morning, however, Raven woke up with a sense of dread. Her chest felt heavy; like someone was constantly stomping their feet on the top of her rib cage, desperate to snap every one of the bones.

She reluctantly walked down to breakfast with Nellie. On the way, the blue-eyed girl explained to Raven that Cassie and Tessa had already headed down to the Great Hall because they needed to talk to Professor Flitwick before their first class of the day about something urgent.

The Great Hall was full of students already, all of which looked as if the energy had been sucked right out of them. The buzz from last night had dissipated and the room was now filled with students who all seemed to be trying to find enough motivation to go to their classes today.

Raven sat opposite Nellie at the Ravenclaw and began tucking into the delicious smelling food that the house-elves had prepared for breakfast. At the exact moment that she was placing a piece of toast into her mouth, a tall shadow appeared, looming over the plate in front of her and casting her into darkness. Raven tensed but the sound of Snape's deep voice calmed her slightly.

"Miss Malfoy."

She turned around to face the Potions Master, having to crane her neck up to look into his ebony eyes.

"Yes Professor?" She said after chewing her toast.

"I thought it was prudent to inform you that last night when I was in the middle of brewing a potion, I received a particularly inconvenient Floo call from your mother. She is troubled because she has yet to obtain a reply from you regarding the letter she sent yesterday morning."

Raven glanced around the room to check if anyone was listening to what he said but the rising noise of the Great Hall easily hid their conversation from prying ears.

"I would suggest you write back to your mother as soon as possible. I do not want to act as a messenger between you and Narcissa. I have better things to spend my time doing." Snape continued.

"Of course sir," She said and with a sharp nod of his head, Snape strode off to the High Table.

Amongst the excitement and anxiety of yesterday, Raven had forgotten to reply to her mother. She made a mental note to write back to her later today after her lessons.

Nellie looked at Raven questioningly, one eyebrow raised. She had heard the whole thing.

"Why was Professor Snape talking to you about your parents?" She asked.

"He's... a family friend, although I'm not supposed to tell people that I know him as well as I do. He thinks it will make students believe they have a right to call him by his first name or something ridiculous like that. To be honest, he rarely lets me do that anymore either."

A brief look of understanding passed across Nellie's face.

"That's typical of Professor Snape. I'm guessing you're going to be surprised when you see how he acts in the classroom." Nellie added.

"What do you mean?" Raven said.

"Professor Snape isn't a man to mess with when he's teaching potions. He takes it very seriously and the second somebody messes about or is not working to his standard, he'll chuck them out of the classroom before you can say Merlin's Beard. I mean, it's understandable since potions is a dangerous subject and he can't risk exploding cauldrons with highly volatile ingredients just lying around, but he rarely gives students a chance to actually get better if they aren't as good as he expects."

Raven thought about what Nellie said. It did sound like Snape to be a strict teacher. When she was younger, Snape used to how her and Draco how to brew potions and he had always seemed rather stern and serious. He would rarely let them help him with brewing until they reached a certain age and would make them sit and watch the whole process before he tested them on it. Only when they reached the age of ten did he allow them to attempt to brew a potion by themselves, even though he would oversee our every movement extremely closely.

'I suppose some things never change' Raven thought, her mouth tugging at the sides ever so slightly.

Before she knew it, breakfast was over and the two girls made their way out of the Great Hall. They bumped into Cassie and Tessa in the entrance hall and tall four girls headed to class together. It was time for Raven's first lesson at Hogwarts and to make the matter worse, it was Defense Against the Dark Arts and Cassius would most likely be in the classroom with her. Raven swallowed a large lump in her throat, not entirely sure how she would make it through the next hour.