NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response
As the train starts to make its way into the last hour of the journey towards the school, the compartment is filled with my friends' laughter and talk. A smile graces my face as I look out of the window and look at the beautiful green hills that are quickly going past us. In the back of my mind, a quiet voice keeps nagging me on how I need to know exactly where my brother is and see if he is alright. Honestly, I am still completely worried about my brother, but it is starting to get annoying when that is the only thing your brain will let you think about.
The sliding of the compartment door makes the entire room quickly fall silent, and I turn away from the window with the hope that the person coming into the room is my brother. Unfortunately, the person that opened the door is actually a girl and not my brother. From the nervous look on her face, my immediate thought is that this girl must be a first year. As I continue to observe her, I quickly notice that there are fresh tear stains on her face, and an overwhelming sadness creeps its way into my heart. Why has she been crying? Another thing that is plainly obvious to me, and most likely to everyone else, this girl is way too small for an eleven-year-old. In fact, she seems to be as tall as a six-year-old. Smiling gently at her, she continues to look around at everyone while giving them a hesitant smile.
"H-Hello," she nervously says, and I grab my notepad.
"Hello, little one. Is there something that you need?" I ask her, and she messes with the hem of her large shirt. After reading my question, the girl nods her head while she continues to play with her shirt.
"Y-Yes, can I sit with you guys? I was sitting by myself, but then these people came in and started to make fun of my height," the sweet girl asks me, and she honestly looks like she might cry if we say no. Before the rest of my friends can say anything, I quickly nod my head and I nudge Draco into moving until he is sitting next to the door. I also move to my left and pat the seat next to the window. This is most likely her first time at Hogwarts and that gives her the right to have the window seat. I can't wait to see her reaction when she sees Hogwarts for the first time!
Once the door is closed and the girl is sitting down, I decided that now would be a good time to ask her what her name is. Of course, I don't want to keep calling her girl within my mind. So, I neatly write down my question before passing it to her.
"O-Oh! My name is Christine Leandra Almar, but people call me Kitty," the long-haired brunette says, and I nod my head. I smile and start to write my name down when Draco puts his hand on my shoulder. Stopping my movements, I look up at my honoree brother and he shakes his head.
"My name is Draco Malfoy and this is Anastasia Potter. The two gingers are Fred and George Weasley. Finally, the other girl with her nose in a book is Hermione Granger," he introduces everyone, and everybody says hello. Well, Hermione quickly says hello before continuing the book that she has been reading for the last two hours now.
"Is this-," George says and the other twin finishes the sentence.
"Your first year?" after the sentence is spoken, Kitty starts to nod her head albeit with some hesitancy. A bright smile consumes my face as I quickly write my excited response to your admission.
"Oh, you'll just love Hogwarts! The staff is very friendly and helpful! Students are really nice, especially the Hufflepuffs and you already have five friends!" I tell her and she gives me a questioning look at the last sentence, but she quickly understands when I motion at all of us. Her nervous demeanor quickly disappears and a happy smile appears on her face. A thought crosses my mind, and swiftly write down my thought before showing it to my new friend. "If you keep looking out the window, Hogwarts shall appear in a few moments."
Taking my advice, the small girl presses her face against the window without any hesitation. Quietly giggling at her behavior, I turn towards Draco and lean against him as my mind starts to become foggy from drowsiness. As the minutes continue to roll by, my eyes slowly close but right as I fall asleep I hear a gasp coming from the girl next to the window.
Someone shaking my sleeping body makes me slowly come back to reality from dreamland. Furiously blinking my sleep away, I look around and notice that Hermione and Kitty are no longer in the compartment. Slowly moving my head up, I look up questioningly at big brother Draco, and he smiles gently at me before gesturing for me to get up.
"We are almost there, Ana. You should go and put your robes on," he tells me softly, and I slowly get up while nodding my head. Groggily, I grab my uniform from my trunk before heading towards the girl's restroom on the train. Hermione and Kitty must be getting their uniforms on.
As I am about to step into the restroom, a girl with short black hair and Slytherin robes swings the restroom door outwards, which almost hit me in the face. Pansy looks at me and smirks as she steps out into the hallway.
"Sorry about that, freak," she sneers, and my eyes widen with shock. W-Why would she call me a freak? She must have noticed my shock, because she smirks again and, without any hesitation, pushes me against the wall. Pain passes through my left shoulder and all the way down into my left wrist. A yelp escapes my lips as I try to stop my body from hitting the wall, but I think I might have ended up spraining my wrist. Tears pool up in my eyes which only makes Pansy laugh at me.
"I want you to stay away from my Dracy. He shouldn't be spending his time with a freak like you," she says before walking away leaving me to silently cry in the hallway. Without even caring at this point, I run back to the compartment that holds Draco and the twins.
Throwing the door open, my blurry eyesight briefly shows blonde hair before I throw my arms around my honoree big brother. His bare skin underneath my face brings me back to the reality that they were probably getting dressed and I am bothering them. I am about to pull away from Draco when I feel his arms hug me back while asking me what is wrong. Unfortunately, sobs are consuming my body making it hard to even think about writing down the events that just happened. Dra must have noticed my problem because he carefully sits us down and two more pairs of arms hugging make me feel safer. Fred and George rub my head while Draco continues to rub my back. Eventually, my sobs turn into sniffles and I can finally start to breathe normally.
"Now, do you want to tell us why you were crying?" Fred and George ask me at the same time. Sighing, I nod my head while shakily grabbing my notepad and pen. I scrawl down what happened before showing it to the three boys. After giving the paper to the boys, I keep my head down and focus on the carpeted floor. The compartment is filled with silence that seems to progress for a few minutes but is probably most likely just a few seconds. I am just waiting for the explosion of anger, but nothing came. Slowly, I look up from the floor and I glance at their faces.
Fred and George look as red as their ginger hair, and they look like they are ready to blow their tops off. I gulp slightly but then I remember that they aren't angry at me. Before I can look at big brother Dra, he grabs a shirt and runs out of the compartment with the sliding door slamming shut behind him. Where is Dra going? Did I make him made for some reason? I write down these questions to the twins, and they immediately shake their heads.
"No, of course not. You can never make anyone angry-," George says as he sits next to me and pulls me into his side. Fred calms down a little bit more before sitting down on my other side.
"I bet that he is on his way to go deal with a certain black-haired girl," Fred says with a mischievous look in his eyes. I nod my head but then I feel material still in my hands. Glancing down at my hands, I realize that I still need to put my robes on. The twins must have noticed the same thing because they get up and grab the rest of their robes before telling me that I can change here, while they got to the boy's restroom. After they leave, I fall to the ground and just think about everything that has happened today.
Maybe, if I try to spend more time with Pansy she will like me and want to be my friend. She probably had a bad day and is misunderstanding the relationship between Draco and I. If I explain that Draco is my honoree big brother, maybe she will apologize, and we can all be friends. With my mind made up, I slowly get back up and put on my Slytherin robes.
My friends and I are sitting in the Great Hall waiting for the first years to arrive in the boats. I am glancing across the hall towards the Gryffindor table hoping that I will find that familiar mop of black hair that my brother has, but no such luck. Big brother is still not here. Now, I'm going to start having a panic attack! Draco notices my look of panic and quickly puts his arm around my shoulders while whispering that everything will be alright. Before I can explain to him that my brother is still not here, the Great Hall's doors slam open and Professor McGonagall leads the first years down towards the sorting hat.
Once the sorting hat sorts everybody and Dumbledore give his normal speech, the food finally appears on the tables. Even though I'm not really hungry, I start to put at least some fruit on my plate. Draco stays silent, but I notice that he keeps glancing at my plate with worry. As I continue to play around with my food, my eyes keep glancing up towards the doors. Finally, during one of the countless times that I'm looking up, I notice that Professor Snape immediately stands up and quickly walks out of the Great Hall with a look of anger on his face. Well, I'm going to assume that my brother and his friend have just arrived. A sigh of relief escapes me, and I finally start to enjoy my dinner.
Hey, everybody! I was not expecting to publish today after giving y'all that author's note. Honestly, after writing that note and reading about all of the excuses that are true, but are still excuses, I really tried to finish this chapter.
I hope that y'all like this chapter, and I hope y'all liked my surprise! Okay, it wasn't a huge surprise but this is the first time I'm adding a character that isn't from Harry Potter ( well, besides my own character). Kitty is the nickname to a friend that I have in real life and she is a huge fan of Harry Potter like me. Fun Fact: in real life, I'm a Slytherin and I'm friends with a Hufflepuff.
I hope that y'all will enjoy this character, and I hope my friend loves her character too. Please, comment and tell me what y'all think, and please tell me what y'all think is going to happen in the future! I really do enjoy reading each and every comment! I hope y'all have a wonderful day!