Readers of Black Roses may recognise some parts of this chapter =D

Andromeda Black

Carolina Zabini

I was pulled into a bone-crushing hug for the tenth time that morning.

"Mama," I protested futily. Again.

"Oh, my Pretty-Girl! My little Carolina! Off to Hogwarts at last! Oh, I could cry!"

Mama blew her nose loudly making Benji giggle. No sooner had I gotten rid of Mama's arms, than Papa pulled me into another embrace.

"I'll miss you Pretty-Girl," he whispered.

"Me too," I whispered back.

"You'll miss yourself?"

I joined Benji giggling.

His face suddenly turned serious and he knelt to look me in the eye. When he spoke he had changed from English to Italian. Unlike Mama, he had a purely English accent at all times, except when he slipped back into his mother tongue. As Verdette once said "When Papa sounds Italian you better start to listen."

"Carolina. No matter what anyone says, no matter what the other children do, I want you to remember that you are just as good as them."

He paused to make sure I was listening. I was.

"You are every bit as pure as your classmates. In fact your blood is probably purer than most. It's shameful the scum that has been let into Hogwarts."

He broke off and glared into the distance for a few seconds. Then he returned his hand to my shoulder.

"You are a pureblood, Carolina. Being-, being not well off, that means nothing. Do you understand?"

I nodded solemnly.

"And you won't let anyone tell you different, yes?"

I nodded again, grinning.

"Poor but pure, right Papa."

"That's my girl! Give me a kiss."

I pecked his cheek and was, once again, pulled into an embrace.

Finally the whistle blew and Mama gave me a shove in the direction of the train.

Standing on my trunk, I hung my head out a window and waved 'til my arm was sore. Benji strained against Mama's hand, waving frantically. And then-

And then they were gone.

And I was alone. For the first time in my life I was completely on my own. No family. No friends. Not a single person I knew.

I was scared. Snakes slithered in my belly. But not just from fear. No, only a tiny bit from fear. Mostly they slithered with excitement. I was on my first big journey. This was the first step to me becoming great. I couldn't wait!

Grabbing my heavy trunk, I surveyed the empty train corridor. All the other students had disappeared into their compartments, which would mean I would not get one alone. Slowly I trudged down the carriage dragging my trunk, with considerable difficulty.

I had not gone far when a curly haired girl, a few years older than me flung open the door of her compartment and strode, almost skipped, down the corridor, head held high, and entered another compartment. In the few seconds I watched her, I became instantly aware that this was a girl who would do what she liked, and hang anybody in her way! I was sure if I hadn't pressed myself against the wall she would have barrelled straight over me. Her entire appearance screamed confidence.

I decided, then and there, that from now on I would exude that kind of confidence. Though perhaps skipping was not quite me. It was a bit childish. And I was eleven after all.

Squaring my shoulders, and holding my own head high, I stepped through the door the girl had come from.

There was another girl there, identical to the first, but clearly younger. My age. A younger sister perhaps. She stared at me as I crossed to the luggage rack.

"Do you want any help?"

I studied her for a second. She had her wand in her hand . It looked comfortable in her fingers. And the older girl... no mudblood could be that confidant surrounded by wizards, even if they had been at Hogwarts before. It was obvious they came from a wizarding family.

I moved aside to let her grab a handle, but she didn't move from her seat.

"Wingardium Leviosa."

My eyes widened as I watched my trunk float lightly above my head. It landed without so much as a creak beside her's and her sister's.

"You can do magic already?" I breathed more than a little impressed. And more than a little jealous.

"Yeah," she smirked haughtily, twirling her wand between her fingers again. "Daddy wouldn't teach me that one, said I was too young, but Bella, that's my sister, she reckoned I would need it and taught me when Daddy wasn't looking."

Bella? That must be the older girl. So we had that in common. An older sister called Bella. I sat down slowly opposite her. She remained standing, looking a picture of cool. She was intriguing. Instinctively I knew she and I would be great friends.

Finally I allowed a giant smile to flash across my face and thrust my hand at her.

"Carolina Zabini."

"Andromeda Black."

She sat down still shaking my hand. I giggled and tried to pull it back. Laughing she refused to let go. Then she tried to get her hand off me and I refused to let go. We almost pulled eachother off our seats in a human version of tug-of-war. It was silly, childish and ended up with us giggling like crazies, for no reason. I'd never had anyone I could act like this with. I liked it!

As our snorts subsided, someone else barged into the compartment.

"Evan!" Andromeda shrieked, flinging herself at the new boy. He was much older than us. A Fifth year at least.

I watched as he mucked around pretending to collapse as she jumped on him, and telling his friend, who leaned against the door, to run while he could.

There were some resemblances between him and Andromeda, so it was no surprise when he said,

"Hows it going baby cousin?"

"I'm not the baby cousin," she pouted back. "Cissy's the baby. I'm just the little cousin."

Cissy? Another relative?

"Can't argue with that logic," he smirked. "Who's this?" he asked pointing at me.

Before I could answer myself Andromeda said offhandedly

"Oh this is Carolina. She's my new best friend."

I raised an eyebrow at that. But I couldn't stop the feeling of warmth that spread through my tummy. I knew we were going to be friends.

"And this Carolina, is my idiot cousin Evan, and his friend...?"

"Rodolphus," the leaner stated. "Rodolphus Lestrange."

"Evan Rosier," Evan said leaning over to shake my hand. "Sorry about Dromeda, she never does things properly. Always leaves the introductions half-ars- Hey!"

Dromeda had jumped on him again. There was a brief, playful tussle with many playful insults.

"Okay! Okay! I lied!" Evan proclaimed at last. "You're the most brilliant witch in the world and you never do things half arsed and everything you do do is perfect and your my favourite cousin in the world and-"

They collapsed in a heap onto the seat.

"As I was saying Carolina, she's bloody mad. Attacks all round her, the flipping maniac. It's the Black blood in her you know."

Dromeda threw her wand at him and it smacked him in the face.

"Ah ah ah Dromeda!" He shook his finger in her face. "Number one rule of duelling. Don't throw your wand away. There are much better uses for it. Like so."

A flash of light and Lestrange had a full handlebar moustache.

Very funny Rosier," he spat as Dromeda and I collapsed into laughter. We were still laughing as he stormed out the door and down the carriage, Rosier following him.

No sooner had we gotten over that set of giggles when the door was slid open again .

"Evan?" Dromeda turned with a smile. But it wasn't her cousin. It was yet more people I didn't know. And from the look on Dromeda's face, neither did she.

A boy and a girl, our age, blinked back at us. They were both on the wrong side of chubby. And plain. And untidy.

"Do you mind if we sit here? Some older kids came in and stole our carriage as soon as we'd set off. Horrid of them wasn't it?"

With out waiting for an answer, the fat girl plonked her fat little behind on the seat beside Andromeda, not noticing the look of distaste shot at her.

"I'm Alice," she burbled. "Alice Maddison. And this is Ted."

The fair boy, smiled shyly at us and sat beside me. I edged closer to the window. The Ted boy's appearance screamed dirty. Was that jam on his face? Mama would have killed me if I'd left the house looking like that!

"We've had an awful time trying to find another carriage. Everywhere's full! And I'm so clumsy. I kept tripping over my own feet. So did Ted. It's the darn movement of this train."

I gave her a bored look in the hope she would shut up. She didn't. Dromeda looked as if she was restraining herself from punching Madison.

"... older students running up and down as well. It's a wonder I haven't broken my leg." She gave a loud braying laugh that hurt my ears.

" I can't wait to get to Hogwarts. I wonder which House I'll be in. I'd like to go to Gryffindor, obviously. Mum and Dad went there and they say it's the best. What about you?"

Dromeda turned up my nose at her in disgust.

"Slytherin," she stated. "My whole families gone there and it sounds by far the best."

Madison was either too deaf or too stupid to hear the threatening tone in her voice.

"Oh no! I've heard it's full of horrid witches and wizards in there. I think it sounds awful!"

Dromeda jumped to her feet, now fully intending to slap the face off the annoying little slug.

"I don't think Slytherin sounds the best," I spat from the corner. "I know it's the best. The rest are filled to the brim with blood traitor filth. Are you a pureblood?"

The dopey smile slipped off her face. Her eyes widened in shock then narrowed in anger. Her mouth flopped open and closed like a fish. Dromeda looked close to laughing again.

"What's a pureblood?" A voice near the door asked. The Ted boy glanced at each of our faces in turn. "My parents are muggles see..."

"Oh your parents are muggles?" I smiled sweetly at him. This would be fun. "Then you wouldn't know. Here, I'll explain." I scooted closer to him, trying not to show how reluctant I was to go near him. "A pureblood is someone who has no muggles in their family. You on the other hand," I shot him a motherly look for good measure,"Are what's known as a 'mudblood'. It means you have muggle parents."

The Ted boy gave a little 'oh' of comprehension and nodded his head. Madison jerked like she'd been hit with a stinging hex and gave a squeak of indignation.

"And some purebloods think they're better than mudbloods," I continued standing and smirking at Dromeda, who grinned back. "You know why?"

"Why," the Ted boy asked. Eager to learn more about this new exciting world he had entered.

"Because we are better than you," I snapped spinning round to face him. His face barely had time to fall before I grabbed him by the tie and hissed my next words straight into his face.

"You. Are Filth!"

As a final touch I shoved him away from me and he crashed into the door. Alice rushed to his side with a howl of fury.

"You are horrible!" she shrieked. "That's a horrible thing to say! It's all lies Ted, don't listen to them!" The Ted boy looked shocked beyond belief.

I sneered at her.

"Leave would you please. You're creating an awful stink in here Mudblood." Dromeda said imperiously, enjoying every second."And take your blood traitor friend with you. She's a right bitch."

The Ted boy looked at her in disbelief. Showing the first sign of intelligence yet he silently led the spluttering Maddison out, where we heard her promptly burst into angry tears.

Dromeda and I smirked at eachother.

Not two seconds later, the older girl from earlier, Bella, poked her head round the door.

"There's two firsties crying out there, Dromeda." She smirked, face full of pride. "What did you do?"

Andromeda giggled and related the tale to her older sister as I retook my seat. The tiny bit of fear that still lingered in my stomach had all but disappeared. Andromeda was the friend I'd longed for. My sister's were too old, my brother too young, but here was a girl my age, that I could have fun with. Mentally, I was already crafting a letter to my family about how wonderful Hogwarts was. And we hadn't even arrived yet!

Review pretty please =D