Chapter Two
The next morning, Draco awoke with the sun in his eyes. His roommates were just stirring, so he took his chance and grabbed his clothes, heading into the bathroom before anyone else was alert enough to contest his claim on the room.
About ten minutes later, he walked quickly down the stairs, taking two at a time. He emerged into a humming common room, his hair still wet. He scanned the room for Ariana, but didn't see her. Maybe she's already at breakfast, he thought, so he left the common room and went up to the Great Hall, looking up and down the Slytherin table. Suddenly, he caught a flash of red hair out of the corner of his eye near the Ravenclaw table. An involuntary sneer crossed his lips. She was talking to "Loony" Lovegood and the mudblood, Granger.
He waited a few seconds, debating over what to do, but Ariana turned and started walking towards her house's table. Draco pushed through a knot of third years, ignoring Pansy Parkinson, who tried to grab his arm, and was nearing Ariana's seat when Blaise Zabini slid into the last seat next to her, forcing Draco to sit several benches down.
Dumbledore stood, which was unusual for breakfast, and turned towards the Slytherin table. "I am afraid I must impose upon one of our sixth-year Slytherins. I would like one of you to please show Miss Rivers around the school until she can find her own way."
Draco's eyes lit up. Here was his chance! As he stood up from his seat, Blaise rose quickly and called, "I'll do it, Professor."
Dumbledore looked over his half-moon spectacles. "Thank you, Mr. Zabini. I believe you and Miss Rivers share all your classes, which will make things most convenient." He turned and sat back down, tucking into what looked like a mushroom and onion omelet. Blaise smiled charmingly at Ariana who gave a friendly smile back.
After breakfast was cleared, Blaise helped Ariana up and walked her out of the hall. With a hasty excuse to Pansy, Draco ran out after them, just in time to see the two turn towards the Slytherin common room. He ran to catch up and called out, "Ariana!"
At the sound of her name, Ariana turned, green eyes searching. When she caught sight of Draco moving towards her, her tired smile turned into an open-mouthed expression of wonder.
"Draco?" she asked disbelievingly. She ran to meet him and grabbed him in a hug, almost knocking both of them down. Laughing, Ariana let go and pushed her hair out of her eyes.
"I don't believe it! I was just thinking about you on the ride here!" Draco exclaimed.
Ariana's grin grew. "Me, too!"
With a grin that rivaled Ariana's, Draco walked with her down to the common room, talking and laughing, leaving a scowling Blaise to follow in their wake.
Once in the common room, Draco and Ariana sat down on one of the sofas to chat and catch up as best they could during the thirty minute break between breakfast and their first class. "Why did you leave" was the first thing out of Draco's mouth.
Ariana smiled ruefully. "Mum's job. Money got a bit tight, so she accepted a position that required her onsite in France. Then, when I turned 11, I got an owl from Beauxbatons and started school there. I think it was quite a shock to Mum. She let me go, but she made me go to a Muggle summer school during the breaks.
Draco snorted.
"What?" Ariana said. "There are some very interesting things to learn in Muggle schools."
A thought came to Draco, and he blurted out, "Why didn't you come for the Tri-Wizard Tournament two years ago?"
Ariana laughed, a bit sheepish. "Oh. Well, for a start, it was mostly only the girls who were old enough to compete who traveled here. Also, I got sick the day before they left. And, Draco, you've got to remember, I didn't know what had happened to you. I didn't know that you went to school here or even that you were a wizard."
"So why did you come now?" Draco asked.
Ariana merely shrugged, but her face showed pain. "Mum died three years ago in a train accident, so I did what I could with the money she left me, but I'm not a legal adult, Wizarding or Muggle. Anyway, I had to stay in a boarding school orphanage thing whenever I wasn't at school. It wasn't a very nice place, so I stayed at Beauxbatons as much as possible, but the head of the orphanage started asking some inconvenient questions, so Madame Maxime had to have a few words with the woman." She looked at Draco significantly.
Draco gave a small smile and then said quietly, "I'm sorry about your mum."
"Thanks," Ariana replied. "It's all right though. If she hadn't, I might never have come here. Madame Maxime was the one who suggested I try an exchange program. I chose Hogwarts because… well, I think I held out a hope that you might still be next to my old house. I had been planning to go up there on a weekend."
"Well, we still live there," Draco informed her. "We'll probably be there forever; it's a family property. But…"
Blaise Zabini cut him off with a quickly uttered "It's time for Charms now. Come on, Ariana."
Ariana shot Blaise a look of barely disguised frustration and curtly replied, "Yes, thank you for reminding me. Come on, Draco, you can walk with us." Now Blaise shot her a dirty look. Draco just smiled and grabbed his bag. Blaise offered to carry Ariana's, but she refused.
The group reached the Charms classroom quickly and sat down as the diminutive Professor Flitwick called roll. When he had finished, he addressed Ariana and welcomed her to the school, hoping that she would like it there.
"Thank you, Professor," Ariana replied. "What I've seen of the school so far is wonderful." She shot a secret smile across to Draco who grinned back and gave her a thumbs-up.
The class went smoothly and quickly and the trio was soon on their way to Transfiguration. They sat down with several minutes to spare, but Ariana received from Professor McGonagall, not only a welcome, but a warning. "I'll let you know now, Miss Rivers," she said, "that I do not practice favoritism. I reward good, hard work."
Ariana nodded. "I understand, Professor. The teachers at Beauxbatons were the same way."
"Good," the sharp teacher replied and began the lesson. About halfway through, Ariana proved herself one of the best students in the class when she was one of five students out of twenty five who managed to properly change a guinea pig into a handbag and back. While not able to perform the spell himself, Draco noticed satisfactorily that Blaise had also been unable to do it.
After receiving the usual homework (practice!), Draco, Blaise, and Ariana moved on to their other classes. It was much the same process in every class, until they got to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Snape was particularly proud of having such an advanced exchange student in his house, so he made Ariana stand and introduce herself, putting into practice his usual five-points-to-every-Slytherin-who-answers-a-question-correctly. And Ariana got many questions correct.
By dinner, Blaise was fed up with Draco and Ariana and left them, instead pursuing a pretty fifth-year. The two friends ate dinner together and reminisced over times gone by, reminding each other of their various escapades. Returning to the common room, they stayed up later than they probably should have, only saying good-night at 12:30.
That night, Draco again had trouble sleeping, the dark thoughts that had faded during that day talking to Ariana coming back in full force He promised himself that he would start work the next day and lay down. When he finally slept, his dreams were filled with cabinets and black cloaks, pale faces and jets of green light.
