A/N: Sorry that it took me so long to post this. You know, life happens. It's also very short, but I'm hoping that the next one will be longer. Enjoy

My Dad couldn't handle the concept of Platform nine and three quarters, so he said his goodbyes when I was standing between platform 9 and platform 10, then watched me disappear through the barrier.

I boarded the train and went off to find my friends, who were sitting in a cabin at the end of one of the carriages. After lots of hugs, we sat down and the train set off.

I was a rather odd student really, it wasn't normal for a Slytherin to be friendly with people from other houses, but here I was with a couple of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. Hannah, Terry, susan, Mandy and I had been good friends since the start of last year, when I had helped them find their way to classes after the staircases played a couple of nasty tricks on them.

When the train arrived, I slipped out of the door to find Draco, who gave me a quick smile before looking away in the hope that no-one would notice. I laughed to myself. A smile from Draco Malfoy. How special I must be.

The sorting hat ceremony reminded me of when I had got up there and sat under the old, grubby hat. It had taken a long time to make a decision about me. I daresay it took longer than me than with Harry Potter, but thankfully his being famous drew the attention away from me.

"This one is interesting," the hat had murmured so low that only I could her, "Loyal, very loyal, and so adventurous too. Smart, yes that is certain. Could fit in to any of the houses. But the power, oh the power that radiates from your bones..." The hat seemed to take a while to think, before muttering, "Not power-hungry by any means, but there is a darkness. Well hidden, under all of the loyalty and bravery, but it's there. With power like that, there's no way to avoid it. Therefore, you will be...SLYTHERIN!"

I remembered how the Slytherins had cheered and clapped, and how everyone else looked at me as if I had just become evil. I didn't feel evil. I wasn't evil. But wearing green at Hogwarts seemed to mean that you were one of the worst people around. Even so, I took on my new house graciously, although to this day I still puzzled about what the hat had meant by my power.

Throughout the feast, we heard rumours that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had been expelled from Hogwarts. Draco was loving it. I doubted the story, but it was still a bit of entertainment, I mean, flying a car into the wimping willow? That's gotta make the front page of the Daily Prophet.

Finally, when we decided it was time to leave, Millicent Bullstrode and I got up and walked out of the Great Hall. A glance behind me showed Draco hanging with Crabbe and Goyle, who seemed to be snickering at the Gryffindor table, or perhaps, the absence of some of the Gryffindors...

That night I dreamed of voices which moved through the walls of Hogwarts, as if a secret passageway had been found and a noisy kid had decided to walk through there, only, I couldn't understand a word that was being said. The words were in another language, though not one which I recognized. Images flashed before me, there was a sword, which had been lost for so long, and a bird which had red feathers and healing tears. And a scar. A scar in the shape of lightning.