My Sacrifice

1 The Train Ride

I looked at him at the station. It was the day after summer vacation and I was standing there all alone. I could feel the cold morning air travel through my throat to my lungs. He must off felt me stare because all of a sudden he looks at me. When his grey eyes meet mine my heart starts to pound faster and I can barely breath. He looks terrible, there are dark circles under his eyes and he looks paler than ever. I try to read the expression on his face, but there is no emotion to be seen. I can't explain it, there was just something about him. Something helpless. Our eye contact breaks when a small girl bumps into him and he looks at her with an angry expression. This snaps me out of my thoughts and I look at the tracks and see the train appearing from the skyline. I take a few steps towards the train, but was I stopped by something, or rather by someone.

'I think you forgot something,' I hear an emotionless voice say behind me. I looked around and see the boy with my bag in his hands. I meet his eyes again, but this time I look away.

'Oh god, you're right,' I say with a soft voice, while blood rushed to my cheeks in embarrassment. 'Thank you.' I grab my bag and turn around and walk away, hoping that he didn't see me blush. It was rather strange that the Draco Malfoy did something like that. Sure it wasn't that special, just a boy giving a girl her bag which she had forgotten, and the look he gave me wasn't exactly warm, but it is Malfoy we are talking about. That he even looked at me, an Hufflepuff, was weird.

When I arrive at the train entrance I shoot the platform one last look, everyone is saying goodbye to their family and loved ones, but I am here all alone. No mom or dad to tell me goodbye, no sister to say she won't let me go because she'll miss me too much. I feel a sad feeling bottle up in my stomach and I look away before can cry. My mom and dad weren't the nicest people on earth. They always preferred my younger sister, their little princess. I was like a pet, they cared for me, but not as much as their real daughter. I was always just... there. So when my sister died last year, they turned dark. Their lack of love for me turned into hatred, which I had to deal with all summer. It felt like they blamed me for everything that went wrong, including my sister's death. I couldn't blame them though, they lost their daughter. I push the sad feeling away and step in the train. I search for an empty compartment and wait there for my friends to join me. The first one that enters the compartment is Evie. She walks up to me and pulls me into a hug.

'I missed you so much Rose! Oh and you will never guess who has been sending me letters over the summer,' she yells when she pulls away from the hug. 'Blaise Zabini, he suddenly sent me an owl and told me he wanted to know me better.' She jumps up and down. She always has way too much energy. Before I can reply Scarlett comes in.

'Look who's back!' Scarlett yells with a singing voice, still standing in the entrance of the compartment. Rose runs towards her while she grabs my arm and pulls me with her. We hug each other tight before sitting down in the seats. 'How was everyone's summer? Mine was great, we went to Rome and even to Paris it was beautiful,' she said as soon as we sit down.

'Oh my that so cool,' Evie exclaims. And we continue to talk about our summers, though I don't tell them much about mine. They both know my sister died, but they have never met my parents. No one really has actually. So I tell them that we decided to stay home and nothing special happened. I wasn't totally lying, it was pretty normal for me to help everyone, so it wasn't that special. When we arrive we walk out of the train towards the carriages before I realize that forgot my bag, again.

'Oh no, I forgot my bag!' I panic and I stop walking. 'I need to go back.'

'I walk with you Rose,' Evie says and smiles at me with her green eyes. It is really sweet of her to offer that, but wouldn't want her to go with me, I would feel guilty and there was a chance that if we came back all the carriages would be gone and then she would have to walk me all the way to the castle. Besides, I could clear my head while walking alone and with Evie's energy that would not be possible.

'No, you don't have to. I'll be fine. Go to the castle with Scarlett and safe me a seat,' I say and I walk away before she can protest. As I walked back the road with students became much quieter, because almost all the kids had arrived at the carriages and only a few were still on their way. When I passed all the students it became completely silent and could hear my footsteps on the cobblestone ground and the wind brush through the branches of the trees and leaves. And something else...? I look up to see Draco angrily walk past me. He doesn't look at me, but only stares at the ground. I continue walking to the train confused. Why was he still in the train? Everyone already got out? I shake the thoughts out of my mind as soon as I reach the train. I walk in searching for my bag until I see someone laying on the ground. I run towards the person and when I get closer I can see that it is Harry. His nose is crocket and bleeds intense. I help him sit up and ask 'Oh my, Harry are you okay? What happened?'

'Malfoy happened,' he says and looks at me frustrated. I can tell that he is upset about it and he clearly doesn't really want to talk about it. I decide that I will let it go and ask him later about it. I am starting to get worried about both Harry and Draco.

'I can try to fix your nose if you want,' I tell him. My sister used to break a lot of things so I have used the reparo spell countless times before.

'Yes,' he replies 'thank you.' I take my wand and say the spell. His nose shoots back in the right place and it looks completely normal again, besides the fact there is still blood dripping out of it. I wipe the blood away with my thumb and look help him stand up.

'All the carriages have left. We have to walk to the castle, but first I have to grab my bag. I'll be there in a second,' I say and hurry to find my bag. When I find my bag I can see Harry waiting outside, so I walk out of the train and Harry and I walk towards the castle. 'Hey Harry, how have you been. You know, with the whole Voldemort drama,' I ask him, breaking the uncomfortable silence. He looks slightly shocked when I say Voldemort's name.

'I'm managing,' he answers 'it's not easy, but I have a lot of people who care about me and help me.'

'That's nice,' I say 'you know, I am also always here for you. If you ever need anything you can just ask me. I won't judge, whatever it is.' I smile at him and he smiles back.

'I know Rose, I really appreciate it,' he assured me. We talk together until we arrive at the Great Hall. 'Bye Rose, thank you again,' Harry says as he walks up to the Gryffindor table.

'It was no problem really, just try to stay in one piece for the rest of the year,' I joke 'goodbye Harry.' I walk towards the Hufflepuff table and sit next to Scarlett and some boy. I can see that all the first years are already sorted and everyone was eating the food that had appeared on the tables the second Harry and I walked in.

'There you are we were getting worried about you,' Scarlett says when I sit down.

'And tell us, why was Harry Potter with you?' Evie asks from across the table, she gives me a questioning look before stuffing her face with smashed potato's.

'Oh, he had an incident and I found him on the floor in the train so I helped him and fixed his broken nose,' I explain. 'So what were you guys talking about?'

'We have a new defense against the dark arts teacher, that pink toad there,' Scarlett says while she points at a woman in all pink clothing sitting at the total left of the teachers table. She had an evil smile plastered on her face as she looked around the Great Hall. 'She gave a speech before you came in, it was awful,' she continued "she said things like 'Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected and prune practices that ought to be prohibited' which means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts and I have a feeling it's not going to be good."