Chapter 2

Who was she?, was all he could think of, while he made his way back to his new Head compartment, where his good friend Blaise Zabini was waiting for him.

He opened the compartment door to see Blaise looking at himself, in the mirror he carried around in his pocket, and laughed at the scene that he had walked into as he sat down opposite him.

"Did you get the Jelly Slugs I wanted?" Blaise asked, without taking his eyes away from the mirror.

He had forgotten all about the trolley and his empty stomach, he was thinking about that stupid redhead who dropped her money everywhere, most probably a mudblood he thought, to clumsy to be pure. She looked new; she was about their age so she had to be new. His trail of thought was interrupted.

"Helllooo? Earth to Draco." Draco snapped his eyes up from looking at his fingers; he forgot that Blaise was there. "So, did you get my Jelly Slugs?"

"Oh, no." Draco replied, realising that Blaise was now looking at him oddly. "Go get them yourself if you want them so much, I'm not your bloody house elf." He was still looking at him oddly, Blaise was his closest friend he knows everything about him.

"No need to snap, I'm just hungry and you said you were going to the trolley in the first place…" Draco hadn't noticed Blaise starting to talk again he was lost in his thoughts. Blaise stopped and turned to him as he saw Draco staring blankly at his fingers again. "Are you oright mate?"

He didn't know how to answer that, he felt fine in himself but his head was spinning and his thoughts were all jumbled up, but then he felt perfectly normal at the same time, but why couldn't he get that girl's face out of his head?

...

The train pulled into Hogmeade station and hundreds of students poured out of the Hogwarts Express, Christie and her new friends gathered their belongings and left for their awaited carriages to Hogwarts, they stood in the middle of the platform looking for Hermione, who had to leave half way in to the journey to see to her Head Girl duties.

Christie had been very grateful that they didn't question her further about boarding the train alone but that didn't mean they had anything less to talk about, the whole journey was full of laughter and stories of the times they had had in Hogwarts together.

Even though the whole journey had been filled with Christie getting to know her new friends, she still had the image of the stranger's eyes at the back of her mind the whole way there. Christie didn't notice Hermione re-joining them until a large voice boomed over the crowd.

"Hermione!" the voice echoing loudly, across the crowd of students that covered the platform. A tall scruffy man with a big beard which covered his whole face made his way towards the group.

"There yeh are, I've bin lookin' all over for yeh." He said almost out of breath, smiling and giving a wave to the other students which stood behind her, then pausing for a moment at the site of a new face. "Professor McGonagall told me ter come get yeh, so yeh could take a new student ter her office, I thin' she said there names Chris or something."

"Oh right, Hagrid this is Christie," the two said their hellos then Hermione said. "Well then, we better get going, don't want to leave are new Head teacher waiting do we" she said looking at Christie smiling. "Thank you, Hagrid, we'd better get going." Without saying another word she started walking towards the castle.

"Uh..Okay..I guess I'll be seeing you at the feast then." she said while walking backwards in the same direction Hermione went. "Nice to meet you, Hagrid." she said while waving, he gave a small little wave with his large hand.

She sharply turned around and banged straight into someone's back.

"Oh my God", Why am I so clumsy? I shouldn't be, not now. "I am so sor-"

The victim of her clumsiness turned around and there stood the blonde stranger who helped her on the train, he looked like he was going to speak but nothing came out.

His pale grey eyes staring down at her as if they could see right into her mind, she laughed at the thought, if he could he would have run a mile by now she thought. They both stood there in silence, none of them making a noise, both waiting for the other to speak.

Christies mind was spinning thinking about what to say, All I need to do is talk, go on open your mouth, it's not that hard to do I've been doing for most of my life. But all that came out was…

"-ry… I mean, um, I'm sorry I didn't see you, I was following my friend and I think she's gone now, she'll probably go nuts at me." His eyes snapped back into focus. He hadn't noticed how close they were standing; they were almost toe to toe.

He opened his mouth again but bfore he could say anything. Someone tugged hard at his arm.

"We've got to go, or do you want to walk to the castle." A dark skinned boy whispered, Draco broke his gaze and looked at the boy behind him.

He nodded at him then turned to look back where the girl stood but there was no one there, he turned his head looking for her, searching for red hair in the distance but none. There was no sign of red hair except for Weasley and his sister. She can't have gone without him noticing. …

...

The carriage ride to the castle was a quiet one, as Hermione sat there puzzling over McGonagall's decision to see Christie before the feast and every now and then unknowingly talking out loud.

"…normally new students get sorted with the first years so it's not that…"

Christie didn't notice Hermione, her mind far away thinking about of the day she had had, but most of all she couldn't stop thinking of the blonde boy she met on the train.

"I wonder why Professor McGonagall wants to see you." Hermione asked, as they approached the school.

Christie didn't hear Hermione she was busy taking her first glances at her new school. Her first impressions on the Hogwarts was that it was big, a great big castle, that was basically it from her point of view. Her line of thought of interrupted as she heard a small voice.

"Christie?" Hermione said, Christies head turning to face her. "I was saying, why you think Professor McGonagall would want to see you?"

"Um…well…it's probably just too…er… give me a warning or something; my behaviour in my last school wasn't exactly the best." She ended with a cheeky smile.

Hermione laughed, and looked up to Christie in the dim light coming from the candles. "I would of sworn your eyes were brown earlier." Hermione said moving her head closer to Christies to take a better look. "They look black."

"It's…uh…" Christie's eyes now flickering round the carriage, and then stopping to stare at the floor. "It's just the light from the candles, that's all." She said, again with a smile but this time, the smile didn't quite reach her eyes as she stared at the floor.

Hermione nodded. "So what do you think about Hogwarts so far?" Hermione asked.

"It's big," Christie answered. "All the other schools I've been to were so small; there were about 20 people in every year, so it was generally quite quiet, most of the time."

"Don't you mean there are 20 people in each?" Hermione said, her nerdy side taking over.

Christie was quiet for minute before saying slowly, "Well, after the war, not many of the schools I went to were able to recover fully from the damage that was caused." She stopped for a moment, and then with a shaky voice she said, "Even if they did open there's no one left to fill them."

The rest of the carriage ride was silent after that; Hermione didn't know what to say, she hadn't thought about the other places around the world that had been affected by Voldermorts rise to power.

They reached the castle entrance before any of the other students; the corridors were empty as they walked up the large staircases, to what was Dumbledore's old office. They had reached the end of a long corridor, where Christie had expected a door marked "Heads Office" but instead, they came to a halt in front of a large stone statue of an eagle.

"The Montrose Magpies." Hermione said, unable to control her smug smile, she was very happy over the fact she would know things before any other students. Christie just laughed at Hermione's face as the statue turned around and they made their way up a spiral staircase.

"Here we are." Hermione stopped in front of a large wooden door, then knocked gently on the door.

"Come in." a female voice shouted from behind the door. Hermione pushed open the door and took the first step into the Headmistresses door. "Ah, yes." She said, looking at Hermione, then moving her attention on to Christie, who was walking silently behind Hermione's. "Thank you, Miss Granger; you may now join the rest of the pupils for the feast." Her eyes never leaving Christies for one moment.

"Are you sure, Professor? I can wait here, Christie won't know her way back to the Great Hall" Hermione said.

"Thank you, Miss Granger but that won't be necessary, as I will personally escort Miss Jones on my way there." Professor McGonagall said to Hermione, only taking her eyes off the girl which stood next to her for a split second.

Hermione gave a nod and turned around, before giving an encouraging smile to Christie.

"Oh and well done for making Head Girl, Miss Granger, you deserved it." McGonagall now looking at Hermione, smiling.

"Thank you, Professor." And with that Hermione walked out leaving the two alone.