A/N; Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me. Absolutely not. Read, enjoy, and review!
Draco's POV
He saw Potter and his friends get up and walk towards the entrance of the hall, Granger chatting endlessly with Lera. He felt a twinge of annoyance and sadness that she had made fast friends with them. Befriending her was now definitely out of the question. He quickly got up and followed behind them, his entourage of fellow Slytherins trailing closely behind. He wasn't about to miss out on an opportunity to torture Potter even further.
The Golden Trio had barely walked a few steps out of the hall when Draco called out to them.
"So tell me, did it hurt when your face got stamped on? Or… Did it hurt more when you saw that mutt of a godfather die in front of your eyes? Hmmm, I don't think I've congratulated my Aunt Bella for that yet."
Her smirked as all four of them stopped in their tracks and turned back to face him. Weasley had whipped out his wand and now had it pointed at his face. The only thing stopping Weasley from cursing him was Granger's hand on his arm, trying to force it down. Potter had paled considerably and his lips were pressed thin with fury, hands curled into fists beside his body. A sense of satisfaction filled him, until a quick glance at Lera made him regret his words immediately. She was staring at him in open-mouthed shock, her expression a mix of rage and deep hurt. He mentally kicked himself for mentioning the death of Potter's godfather. It was tantamount to gloating at the death of Lera's parents. But it was too late to withdraw his words.
"That's because she's in Azkaban, where she belongs. Perhaps you could have a little reunion with her there someday. Feel free to take your time there, no one would miss you anyway."
Her words were cutting, but what was worse was the hatred dripping in her voice as she uttered each word, anger flashing in her eyes. Not wanting to remain there any longer, he quickly stepped past them. He could feel four pairs of eyes burning into his back as he hurried away. This year was going to be harder than he thought it would be. He was fine with hurting Potter, Granger, or Weasley. It was Lera he could not bear to harm.
It did not occur to him that he was showing an unprecedented concern for another being's feelings until late that night. He tossed and turned for the entire night, unable to erase Lera's words and expression etched in his mind.
Lera's POV
The next day dawned early and bright. Though she had not slept a wink the past night, she was feeling awake and ready for the first day of lessons.
She followed Hermione down the stairs into the common room, where Harry and Ron sat waiting for them.
"Listen, I overheard something yesterday when I went to Malfoy's compartment," Harry lost no time in recounting his experience, as well as his thoughts on the subject.
"But he's just boasting for Parkinson's sake, isn't he? What could you-know-who want with him anyway?" Ron interjected, looking to Hermione expectantly, waiting for her to agree with him.
"Well…I don't know," Hermione said uncertainly. "It would be like Malfoy to make himself sound more important than he really is but…it still is a big lie to tell…"
"Maybe it's something that only Malfoy can do, something to do with his family, or something related to Hogwarts…" Lera voiced out her opinion.
"Exactly," Harry said, but could not press the point because people had started to crowd around, trying to listen in and whispering behind their hands.
"It's rude to point," Ron snapped at a particularly miniscule first-year as they joined the queue out of the portrait hole.
He squeaked in surprise and toppled out of the hole in alarm. Lera fought down a small giggle.
The ceiling of the Great Hall was serenely blue and streaked with frail, wispy clouds, just like the squares of sky visible through the high mullioned windows. As they tucked into porridge, eggs and bacon, a giant-sized man came up to them.
"Harry! Ron! Hermione! And our new student, Kylera! Great to meet you all, I've missed you all over the holidays. So did Buck—I mean, Witherwings."
"Hagrid!" The three of them seemed happy to see him.
"We've missed you too," Hermione continued, smiling sweetly at Hagrid.
"Yea, well, got to go prepare for my first lesson now, you'll be surprised to see what I have prepared for you. See you soon! Lesson's right after breakfast, first thing in the morning," he walked off, cheerfully whistling a tune.
Silent descended and the three of them adopted sheepish looks.
"You're not taking Care of Magical Creatures, are you?" Harry asked Ron.
Ron shook his head.
"Neither are you, right, Hermione?"
She shook her head too.
They all turned to Lera. Perhaps she was taking the subject. Their hearts sank even further as she, too, shook her head. They sighed in unison. Exactly what Hagrid would think when he realised his three favourite students had given up his subject, they did not like to think.
After they had eaten, they remained in their places, awaiting Professor McGonagall's descent from the staff table. She cleared the first through fifth-years before starting on the sixth-years. The distribution was more complicated than usual, for Professor McGonagall needed to confirm that everybody has achieved the necessary O.W.L grades to continue with their chosen N.E.W.T.s.
Hermione was cleared to continue with Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Potions. Harry and Ron were then cleared for their respective choices, barring a change as they were now able to take Potions. It was then Lera's turn and she felt slightly embarrassed as the three of them looked at her with open mouths as Professor McGonagall informed her that she could take anything she wanted to since she had received Outstandings for all her subjects. She settled on Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Potions. Then with slight hesitation, she decided to take Astronomy as well. The rest were subjects that would give help her with the battle against the dark. Astronomy, however, was a subject that she was rather interested in. She allowed herself to take this one subject for interest's sake.
She and Hermione rushed off to their first-period Ancient Runes class without further ado, reaching the classroom just as the professor arrived.
She soon found out that it was no fun sitting with Hermione. The lesson bored her for she had already learnt much of it before, and any attempts to talk to Hermione were met with a harsh 'shush' and a fierce glare. She picked up her quill and used the feather to tickle her cheek. She bit the tip of the quill. She stared out of the window at the clear blue sky beyond. Still, time passed agonizingly slowly.
An hour later, the lesson finally ended and she followed Hermione to the Defense classroom.
"We got so much homework for Runes," she complained, anxious. "I wonder if I can finish it on time!"
Lera tried to look equally pained. She would have no problems completing the work for there was nothing much new. Furthermore, she had already read the assigned book long ago.
They met up with Ron and Harry who were waiting outside the Defense classroom. The lesson passed without much incident. Though she was apprehensive of the lesson, having heard many horror stories of Snape, she was pleasantly surprised that he was quite a good teacher. It was one lesson she would be challenged in, she thought, as she tried to concentrate on casting a non-verbal disarming spell at Hermione. Half an hour later, Hermione managed to wordlessly cast a Jelly-legs jinx at Lera, and she, too, without uttering a word, deflected the spell. They beamed at each other, while Snape swept past, pretending that he had not noticed their accomplishment.
After the lesson, they packed up their bags and walked over to the door. The doorway was, unfortunately, blocked by Malfoy and a few of their cronies, who were laughing and showing no intention of getting out of the way. As they approached, Malfoy glanced over at them and raised a perfectly arched eyebrow.
Lera could stand his annoying smugness no longer and stalked out of the door, angrily shoving Malfoy out of the way as she passed. Caught off guard, he fell heavily against the door.
She was soon joined by Ron, who chortled merrily.
"Did you see his face? Hah!" he continued laughing. Even Hermione could not stop a smile from touching her lips, though she tried to look disapproving.
"Harry! Hey, Harry!"
Harry looked round; there was a boy running towards him, holding out a roll of parchment.
"Professor Dumbledore asked me to pass this to you," he said breathlessly. He hurried away as Harry took the message and opened it.
"It's from Dumbledore," he said, then read the message out aloud.
"Dear Harry, I would like to start our private lessons this Saturday. Kindly come to my office at eight p.m. I hope you are enjoying your first day at school. Yours sincerely, Albus Dumbledore. P.S. I enjoy Acid Pops."
"He enjoys Acid Pops?" Ron frowned perplexedly at the piece of parchment.
"It's the password to get past the gargoyles outside his office," Harry replied.
They retreated to the common room for their break and spent the whole time speculating on what Dumbledore would be doing with Harry during their extra lessons. They came to a conclusion that Dumbledore would be teaching Harry a variety of offensive and defensive spells that would be useful in a duel. Lera made a mental note to get Harry to teach her the spells. That settled, the bell rang and they got up to go for their double Potions class.