I own only unrecognize characters, the rest belong to J.K. Rowling.
Author: What do you think so far?
Chapter 3. Train
Author: Milkycat147
Later during dinner, Narcissa did not give them any sweet as she said. The kid was given fresh fruits which wasn't pleased them. They both had a sweet tooth but they didn't say anything.
"I have to go somewhere later." Lucius finished his meal, he wiped his mouth and started to talk.
"Are you going to meet godfather?" Draco asked after swallowed a piece of broccoli, "Can I see him too?"
"No." Lucius stopped for a second, he wasn't in the right mood, "Not tonight. And finish your spinach."
"It's not even mine!" Draco raised his voice, clearly turned to Marianna.
Marianna grinned at him, knowing he'd eat those 'way-too-soft' vegetables for her anyway.
"Finish your vegetables too, Mariann." Lucius spoke to her with serious expression. Marianna lowered her head. She looked at him with puppy-dog eyes, "But uncle Lucius, I hate spinach, it's too soft. Food not supposed to be that soft…"
"…Just today." Lucius continued. Narcissa couldn't help but breamed, "Every time, Lucius." She reminded, as the previous moment had happened so many times.
Lucius used his fist to cover his mouth, slightly coughed and changed the topic, "Remember to prepare your luggages. We'll go to King's Cross stations at 10am tomorrow. The train will be leaving at 11."
"Do we have to go to the same station with the muggles?" Draco asked, he finished his plate even though he didn't enjoy those spinaches much.
"I afraid so." Narcissa called the house-elf to clean the table, Lucius had gone through fireplace, "But we don't have to care about them. That's the Ministry of Magic's job for forced students to go by train which was made by muggles." Narcisssa had never liked that muggle-made train.
Marianna squeezed the spoon on her hand.
"Why isn't there any portkey or floo network, mother?"
"You weren't reading your book probably right, Draco?" Narcissa wasn't happy about what she found out, she marginally nagged her son, "Read carefully next time." Then she continued, "There is no portkey or floo network in muggle places, at least at the station. They can accidently enter our world. But we can apparate straight to platform 9 ¾. There isn't many muggles there. "
"Young mistress, can Dobby clean your plate?" The house-elf held its own hand in tremble, "Mistress Narcissa had ordered Dobby to clean the table."
"Oh…Of course." Marianna sighed a relief and loosened her hand, "Sorry."
"It's not your fault. You don't have to sorry Dobby…"
"Enough Dobby. You're loud." Narcissa didn't even raise her voice, her voice wasn't strict, and she turned to Marianna, "Are you alright dear? You look pale."
"I'm fine." Marianna forced herself to straighten her back, "Just sleepy, can I go back my room, aunt Cissa."
"Are you sure? Tell me if anything happen, ok?"
…
In a strange but yet familiar yard somewhere, there were a young couple and one little girl.
The male had just came back. He was wearing a suit, he took out his vest and hanged it on the back of a chair before sat down. He was statuesque. His hair was shiny blonde, if not to say silvery.
The female wore a beautiful silky white maxi dress. She sat on the chair next to a black wooden table. She had straight blonde hair and pinky fair skin. She was indeed a gorgeous woman. The little girl was about 3 or 4 years old. She sat on the female's lap. It was not hard to tell that they are a family based on how alike they are. The little girl was a perfect combination of the two. She had straight hair like her mother but its color was like her father and her skin, it was fairer than her mother's but also more pinky than her father's .
Not an exactly copy of them but the shape of her face, her eyes, her nose…was similar.
"She likes your hair." The male said after seeing his daughter twisted his wife's hair, he seemed to be relaxed.
"She'll do the same…" The female glared at her husband, knowing he was envied of how close their daughter toward her, "If you raised your hair long."
"…That isn't a good idea, I afraid that our little girl may mistake me for one a Malfoy, they always keep their hair long…" He pretended to wince his eyebrows, stared at his little girl, "Right, Gemmie? Do you think so? Do you like daddy's hair short or long?"
The little girl carefully considered, she then put a serious expression on her face, ""Better keep it short."
The couple couldn't help but burst into laugh.
"You are too cute, Gemmie." The male laughed and held her from her mother's arm.
The little girl wasn't understood why did her parent laughed, she had that serious look on her face, mumbled something.
She decided to interrupt her parent with question, couldn't let them continue to laugh like idiots, "Who is the Malfoy?"
"They are friend of us in England. Your uncle Lucius and aunt Cissa have a boy, just half year older than you." Her mother answered, "I met that boy once, he is a sweet kid. Do you want to play with him?"
"Really?" The girl opened her eyes widely, curious and excited, "I can play with him?"
"Yes, of course, dear. When we travel back to England." Her mother cuddled her face, she then pointed at the sky, "Gem, look, it's sunset."
The sky was mixed with blue, purple and pink.
"Just like my eyes." The girl said. Her eyes color was exactly like the sky but in details it looked more resemble to some sort of gem.
"Alike, but not as beautiful as." Her mother smiled at her and held her hand, "Our Gemmie has the most special eyes."
The female reached her hand out to hold the little girl, suddenly, the view changed.
They were in a square, or more like a station. The view was blurred, could barely see anything but people, a lot of muggles.
They all looked frightened to one direction, it was so bright that almost nothing can be seen but yellow light. There was an explosion. Both the male and female only had time to cover their child. They quickly hid her between them.
A second later, everything collapsed in black.
…
Marianna immediately sat up from her position, her whole body was shivering. She tried to stand up from the bed, failed two times until she could stand with her hand leaned on the small table next to her bed.
She breathed heavily, unable to control her heart's beat. Marianna walked barefoot to a room, knocked and asked with wobbly tone, "A..aunt Cissa…."
Narcissa opened the door right away, she was asleep but the house-elf woke her up just a few seconds earlier to inform her about the girl.
"What's wrong dear?" Narcissa hugged to comfort the girl. "Did you have a nightmare? It's ok dear. Don't be scared." She gently patted the girl's back, "I'm here. Aunt Cissa is here."
Tears rolled down Marianna's cheeks, she held Narcissa until she calmed down.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Narcissa asked, used her finger to wipe off the girl's tears.
Marianna shook her head, she kept silent for a few minutes. Narcissa commanded the house-elf to bring her towel and warm water. It was another house-elf, female and older than Dobby.
Marianna cleaned her own face and hand, she thanked the house-elf.
"It's Donly's pleasure to serve young mistress." The female house-elf didn't talk much, she bowed down before snapped her fingers to take away the used towel and warm water. Donly quickly disappeared as Narcissa's ordered.
Marianna was able to smile but she refused to leave Narcissa, "Aunt Cissa…Can I sleep with you?"
Narcissa was surprised but she nodded her head, gently held her as they lay down.
"Do you remember when you and Draco read about werewolf?" Narcissa pulled blanket till Marianna's shoulder.
"Yes." Marianna giggled, "Draco dreamed about being chased and got bitten by a werewolf. He even pretended to be a werewolf to scare me the next day."
"His dreams always seem livelier than others." Narcissa grinned too, "He didn't tell any of us but he couldn't sleep for days. The house-elf told me he was walking around the house at night, checking all the entrance."
"Really?"
"Really." Narcissa confirmed, she smiled, pointed her wand to the roof and whispered a spell, "I made this for him. He still couldn't sleep though, but because of excitement." The ceiling started to change, it looked like the sky with million stars, those stars started to move into place which appeared to look like a dragon. The star-dragon stretched it wings and began to spit twinkling star-fire.
It was absolutely amazing.
"I love it, aunt Cissa." Marianna hugged Narcissa as the female kissed her forehead and they both fell asleep.
The next day, Marianna woke up, another blonde figure stayed in place of Narcissa, stared at her, "You finally woke up. It's 9am already." Draco poked her cheek, "Woke up, we are late for breakfast."
"Where is aunt Cissa? Why didn't you wake me up?" Marianna softly spoken, she was still sleepy.
"She is with father. He is back." Draco kneed up from the bed, helped to pull her up, "Mother told me to let you sleep more. Did something happen yesterday?"
Marianna stared at him, her mind was blank for a moment, "It's nothing." She sat on the bed with her feet on the floor, "I…dreamed about my parent. We were at a muggle's station and there was an explosion…"
She stopped talking and the room became silent. Draco suddenly dragged her out of bed, "It's just a dream…Platform 9 ¾ is a wizard's place. Basically it is. Nothing'll happen."
"Wait, let's me wear my slipper." Marianna said, she wasn't prepared for Draco's action.
He stopped for her to wear her slipper and dragged her again, his strength didn't hurt her, they both just walked faster than normal, "Mother made a dragon chocolate cheesecake. I'll let you choose the first piece."
The meal went fine. The dragon chocolate cheesecake was delicious. Marianna took a few second to decide to use the Acacia wand. They had their luggage sent to Hogwart express by Malfoy's house-elf. And Narcissa was emotion for leaving her child soon.
Marianna changed in to white shirt with black high waist pleated skirt and lace diamante flat dolly shoes.
"Very decent." Narcissa said, hand-braided her half halo braid with pastel pink ribbon. "I can't believe I have to leave both of you in the next 6 months." She turned to Draco, fixed his necktie and collar, then she hugged both of them, "I'll miss you guy a lot."
Lucius stood next to them, didn't say anything, a few moment later, he checked the time, "We should go."
Narcissa quicky wiped her teary eyes, she held Marianna's hand. Lucius held his son's hand. They both side-along apparated to platform 9 ¾. It was full of wizards and witches of all ages. Marianna could notice muggles around but there weren't much of them.
" , ." A flat voice spoke behind them, there was a prudent-look men with his son.
" , not surprising seeing you here." Lucius Malfoy said, introduced the kid, "This is my son, Draco and daughter of the Dechaprode, Marianna."
nodded at them two, introduced his son Theodore Nott in return.
He looked somewhat weedy and clever.
Draco whispered to her, "Theodore Nott, pure-blood, I told you about him."
"A loner, you said." Marianna continued, then she turned to Theodore, polite smiled, "Hello, nice to meet you, I'm Marianna Dechaprode."
"I'm Theodore Nott, you can call me Theo." Theodore said, the boy had his father's appearance, he had blonde hair and blue eyes. "I saw you several times at Malfoy's manor, you don't hang out much, do you?"
"I guess I don't really fit in the crowd." Marianna replied, kind of curious about the boy, he was a rare one who Draco considered equally.
"Why do you have to fit in…When you can stand out." Theodore smirked, "It's nice to meet you too, Dechaprode."
"Marianna is fine." She said before Draco put a cat on her shoulder and interrupted them, "Oh, Diamond…"
"The house-elf brought it just now. He said Diamond refused to stay on a cage." Draco answered even before Marianna asked him to.
Diamond wasn't seemed scared but also didn't seem to care about anything but her owner. Marianna received a small cat-cookie from Draco and fed the cat.
Draco smirked at Theodore, his eyes were telling something. Theodore didn't really care, he smirked back. The two boys had their own silent conversation.
The adults decided to leave before the platform got any crowder. Narcissa couldn't hide her feeling, she hugged the two one last time before leaving. Marianna didn't say anything, she held Diamond and followed Draco to an empty compartment.
"What's wrong?" Draco slightly hit her with his elbow.
Marianna looked around, Theodore was by the compartment's entrance talking with a boy, black hair and dark skin, pretty unfamiliar.
As they didn't pay attention, she whispered her feeling to Draco, "I just wish my grandfather is here."
Draco didn't know how to comfort her, he tried to come up with something, wasn't even related to their topic, "Do you want to know a secret?"
"You have a secret?" Marianna curiously stared at him.
The boy blushed marginally, "I was about to tell you this morning but I forgot…" He admitted and quickly continued before she could remember their conversation this morning, "Just as we expected, this morning, father told me to 'Be friend with Potter'" He said with his father's tone, then changed back to his, "Can't you believe that? The Potter is not even Sacred Twenty-Nine."
But one again, he succeeded in changing the topic, Marianna couldn't calm herself at the information. It was really rare for Lucius to ask his son to get to know anyone. They didn't have to do such thing, people wished to acquainted the Malfoy. Draco had only tried to be friend with someone once and it was Marianna, "Really? Did…"
"Hello." A voice interrupted them, the tall dark skin boy by the entrance spoke, "Let's me introduce myself. I'm Blaise Zabini."
Marianna stopped a second, "And how do we have to know you?" Draco, however, spoke exactly what she thought. The boy was arrogant and somewhat vain in front of them. Draco didn't enjoy that, he was a Malfoy anyway.
"Not you." Blaise replied, didn't change his attitude, he didn't seem to care about what Draco think, "But you, beautiful. It's rude not to introduce yourself to a pretty lady like you before leaving."
Marianna forced herself to draw a small smile, her body moved back a little as the boy walked toward them.
Theodore stepped back to his seat, "Don't mind him, he is always like that, arrogant and vain."
"That isn't how you suppose to talk about your friend, Theo." Blaise spoke to his friend while he fixing his short hair, "I have condition to be vain. Anyway, pleased to meet you beautiful, hope we'll meet again."
Draco stared strangely at Theodore as the dark-skin boy left, "I didn't know you have such unique taste, Nott."
"He isn't that bad." Theodore defensed for his friend, he hesitated added, "At least, most the time."
Draco didn't believe Theodore, Marianna, in the other hand, asked them, "Did he say Zabini? Is he son of a famously beautiful witch who has been married several times?"
"So you have heard about his mother?" Theodore asked her in surprise, even Draco looked at her.
" is one of our loyal customers, she is always the first one to buy our product." Marianna explained, "I have read about her."
"Talking about that, Udefrode is always out of stock. Have your family ever considered to creat more items?" Theodore was curious, he looked carefully at her, waited for the answer.
Marianna didn't give him what he wanted right away, "What do you think about our store's price?" She asked, quiet amused by his question.
"Above affordable." He replied firmly, "If not to say understandable expensive."
"Well, what do you expect, Nott?" Draco smirked at him, he was somewhat proud of her...family's store based on his attitude, "Its price worth its quality."
"That's why i said..." Theodore blushed, "Understandable expensive."
Marianna chuckled, there was no point to explain U stood for unique now, "We have no mean to increase the quantity. However, i can make you to prior list, the store's employee will inform you when we restock." She made sure she said 'you' instead of Nott family, even though it was 'the Nott' that she wanted to be acquainted with.
The boy himself wasn't a bad candidate to be friend with.
Draco glared at her, decided to say nothing.
"That'd be great." Theodore smiled, more honest than he was before.
The two boys then started to talk about quidditch. Marianna didn't join their conversation, she looked outside the window. There was a group of flaming-red hair.
A plump woman, who seemed to be their mother of four boys and a young girl beside her.
There was an identical twins, one of them was talking to the oldest one of the boy.
"Oh, are you a Perfect, Percy?" His voice was filled with surprise, "You should have said something. We have no idea."
"Hang on. I think I remember him saying something about it." The other one of the twins said, "Once..."
"Or twice..." The first one continued.
"A minute..." Said the 2nd one.
"All summer..." back to the first one.
"Oh, shut up." His brother Percy demanded, quite annoyed by the twins.
"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" Said one of the twins.
"Because he's a Perfect." The plump woman told them, she seemed proud of the oldest one.
"Weasley." Draco looked out the window to see what she was looking at, "Noticeable as their second-hand robes." He underestimated them, it all showed through his voice.
Weasley, pure-blood, seven childrens. It was hard to find any family had that much of children but them. Anyway, it was graspable of Draco's attitude. They couldn't afford for their children. It was also something peculiar to most wizard family.
Draco didn't really hate them but it was sure that he'd never thought of be friend or even tried to be friendly with a Weasley. Their family status was different from the beginning.
Marianna didn't see anything wrong about it. That was how Draco was taught, that was how she was taught.
There were only eternal interests.
She didn't give any excuse for stranger she barely met, however, "The twins aren't bad." Marianna commented.
"What?" Draco asked, he didn't hear it clearly or maybe he just didn't believe what she said.
Marianna didn't repeat, she gave him a mysterious smile.
"Malfoy." Two voices talked at the same time. There were two big figures at the compartment's door. Both of them have black hair, black eyes and fair skin. The shorter one was chubby, he looked naive in spite of his big body. The taller one looked more cunning than his friend.
"Come on in. What are you standing there for?" Draco was somewhat arrogant and his tone was slightly demanded.
"Yes." They replied, one next to another. They came in and sat down, their action wasn't as heavy as they look.
"Crabble and Goyle." Draco introduced the two, couldn't be more careless. It was different than how he introduced Theodore, at least Nott had his name announced.
Draco turned to Marianna, "Marianna, Marianna Dechaprode and Theodore Nott."
"Hello." Marianna gave them a small smile, a polite one, "I believed we met."
"Hello, Ms. Dechaprode." They replied, kind of awkward, they were hesitated as how they should react.
"Dechaprode is fine." She patted Diamond, the cat was sleeping on her lap, "Or you can call me Marianna. I don't mind."
"Oh..." The boys didn't dare to talk to you or perhaps they were shy. Marianna lost patient and Draco interrupted their 'conversation', he started to talk with them.
It wasn't hard for him to be the centre of the crowd, Draco simply enjoyed it too. Marianna didn't mind to be a listener if the conversation between the boys didn't too bore. Theodore wasn't talked to them, he politely nodded at the two, then focused on his book.
Hogwarts express left at 11am, it ran fast, there was nothing but trees outside the window anyway.
It wasn't the first time she went on a train. Her parent loved travelling around. They took her to Muggle's world. There was bicycle, car, bus, train and plane. Her father and her mother didn't dislike muggle as much as her grandfather did.
They were inspirited to create new magical items and spells. They enjoyed not using magic one in a while. Her mother said it gave her the feeling of having a family, cleaning and cooking with her father, instead of having house-elves do it all.
"Gem, do you want something?" Draco patted her shoulder, he frowned his eyebrows, slightly annoyed because she didn't pay attention. He nodded at direction to the door. There was a trolley and a woman outside in the corridor waited for them.
It seemed that she had been waiting for a while.
"Oh, sorry. I don't want anything." She smiled, at least that was what she thought she did.
Draco, however, bought almost everything on the trolley. He picked several sweets, left all other to Crabble and Goyle. Theodore was reading his book, he didn't take any. Draco gave Marianna a honey-flavoured lollipop despite the fact that he was annoyed because he had to call her so many times. He had a box of Frog chocolate for himself. His chocolate frog wasn't moving much, "They must think of some different images. A frog, doesn't it disgusting?" He pulled his wand out, turned it to a small dragon.
It wasn't complete. The dragon was chubby, it had tiny wings waved in a cute way.
Marianna was sure that he didn't mean to turn it out like that. Draco always loved powerful dragon. The compartment went silent for a second.
"Can i have it?" Marianna asked, she honestly added, "It's great, i love it."
"Of course, it's great." Draco pretended to look vain as if it did turn out exactly as he wanted, "Here, as you want it that much."
His action was slower than normal and his face was red. He blushed because of the embarrassment. Marianna chuckled as she received the dragon. It was cute, she carefully put it back to its box, didn't want to eat it.
Theodore seemed to notice. He tried to hold his laugh knowing that the Malfoy boy wouldn't go easy on him as the boy to Marianna. "Excuse me." He coughed and left the compartment with his Hogwarts robe, "It's about time soon."
Goyle and Crabble weren't that precise or they didn't really pay attention. Goyle started to clap his hands first. Crabble looked at him and followed him.
"Anyways," Draco stopped them, "Did you mention Potter?" He picked card from chocolate frog, "Another Dumbledore." He mumbled, asked Marianna if she wanted it and threw it to Goyle when she shook her head. He was bored. Draco leaned backward, reached his hand and played with Diamond as he waited for their answer.
"Uhm, they are talking about him..." Crabble spoke first, but he was interrupted, someone knocked the door, it slid right after the knock.
"Excuse me..." A young boy with round face, black hair and fair skin came in. His eyes was teary, "Have you guy seen a toad?"
"Oh, look at who it is. Neville Longbottom." Draco smirked, he teased the boy, "Are you going to cry?" Crabble and Goyle started to laugh at him.
The boy's face turned red, he was really about cry.
"We didn't see any toad." Marianna answered, her soft voice managed to calm the boy even though she did not mean to, "Thank you..." His voice was still wobbling, "But if you see any..."
"Are you deaf?" Draco straightened his back from the seat, annoyed by the boy, "She said she didn't see any."
Marianna looked at him with surprise. Draco's tone was unnecessary harsh. But she chose not to judge or say anything at the moment. Draco seemed to realize it too, he mumbled something as he stood up, "Better get change."
The boy left, Theodore came back with his robe on. Marianna asked him to take care of Diamond for her. She hurried followed Draco, "What's wrong?"
The boy didn't want to talk but he didn't want to ignore her, "That Longbottom always cries. No wonder why his grandma always keeps him inside." Draco was upset somehow, Marianna couldn't understand. She had no excuse for the black haired boy anyway, "Why do you care about him. It's not like we have to play with him. Just keep it polite."
"I don't know...Why are you so nice to them today?"
"I wasn't going to talk to them any further. You see, Crabble and Goyle didn't even dare to talk to me as usual and i was just answered Neville's question. You almost made him cry." Marianna explained, she grabbed Draco's hand to slower his speed.
"It wasn't my fault that he cried. About Crabble and Goyle, father said it's their job to be friend with us, I introduced." Draco meant he did his job well.
Marianna chuckled, "Maybe you should start with their full name next time."
"As if any of you will care." He pouted with disbelief.
"But that's how introducing works." Marianna laughed at his expression, they split and went to their changing room.
Marianna wore her robe on, she looked at herself in the mirror. Small and weak. She sighed and drew a thin smile, "Keep it on, Marianna. Make your grandfather proud. Make the Dechaprode proud."
Marianna didn't have to fix her hair, the spell which Narcissa put on still worked. She came out of the changing room. Draco and the two boys were in another apartment.
"Is it true?" Draco said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"Yes," She came near the compartment, she could hear a voice answered, he was the stranger at Madam Malkin .
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," Draco said carelessly, as if he was mentioned because he had to. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Marianna saw another red hair figure, the youngest boy of Weasley, he gave a slight cough, tried to hold his laugh. Draco looked at him, "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
He turned back to glassed boy. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it. Marianna interrupted the intense conversation, "Does it hurt?"
The whole compartment looked at her, Crabble and Goyle stood aside and gave her a way in. Draco didn't say anything, he stood there waiting for her to come. "Your scar. Does it hurt?" Marianna came closer and asked again.
The boy pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar, "No, it isn't hurt." It looked like a completely healed scar.
"I see." Marianna expression was brooding for a second and she quickly hid it with a broad smile, "So, nice to meet you. My name is Marianna. Marianna Dechaprode."
The boy stopped for a moment, he was hesitated, but Marianna had her patient this time, she kept her hand in front of him for a while. The boy finally decided to shake her hand, "Harry, Harry Potter."