The Girl Who Lived (Draco Malfoy x OC)

The Castle

September 1st 1991

The train slowed right down until it finally came to a stop. Harper quickly gathered her things, following her new friend, Ron Weasley, out onto a dark platform. She was thankful to have finally found someone on the train who was knowledgeable in all of this magic stuff and happy to answer any of her silly questions. There was something about the simpleminded boy that felt comforting and the jittery girl was drawn to it like a moth to flame. The feeling seemed to be mutual after Harper shared all her lollies with him. After all, she'd never had the chance to offer someone something else and now that she could afford treats, she wanted to give them to everyone!

She shivered in the cold night air, but was delighted to see Hagrid's familiar face illuminated by a lamp in the distance.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" He called and the youngest students piling off the train made a bee-line for him.

Slipping and stumbling, they followed him down a steep, narrow path. It was heavy in shadow on either side of them, thick trees obscuring the area. There was something horribly ominous about it that made Harper step a little closer to Ron.

The narrow path slowly expanded and they soon found themselves walking along the edge of a great black lake. It's water was as flat as any mirror, glimmering with the reflection of starlight. Perched atop a high mountain, Harper could just make out the outline of the vast castle which would soon become her new home.

"All aboard!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.

Harper and Ron helped themselves into one on the end, soon followed by two other students from the train, a curly-haired girl and a round-faced boy. Harper offered them both a kind smile, but was put off when she realised the boy was holding back tears.

"Is everything alright?" She asked.

The boy sniffed. "I've lost my pet toad, Trevor."

"We'll find him, don't worry, Neville," the girl assured, then looked to Harper with a gracious smile. "I'm Hermione Granger, this is Neville Longbottom."

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron smiled.

"Harper Potter," she introduced.

"Are you really?" She gasped. "I know all about you! I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

Harper's smile slowly melted, she felt very vulnerable as everyone seemed to know more about her than she knew about herself. It was starting to get irritating being three steps behind everyone else. "Oh, I am?" She didn't mean to ask out loud.

"Goodness, didn't you know? I'd have found out everything I could if it was me!" Hermione said.

"Everyone in?" Hagrid shouted, a boat all to himself. "Right then — forward!"

The fleet of little boats moved all at once, gliding across the lake. Silence befell them and Harper was struck by the approaching sight of the great castle overhead. The castle was bold on the cliff, as if conjured from a storybook Harper read as a child. Even from here she could feel the magic emanating from such a structure. She briefly wondered how long it had been there for, what history had walked through those walls and felt a hot excitement wave over her. She was extremely blessed to have this birthright, to have this opportunity to escape her morbid reality and immerse herself into a new world.

"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled and they all bent their heads.

The little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. Blackness shrouded them as they were carried along a dark tunnel right underneath the castle. The anticipation was thrashing in Harper's chest, she couldn't wait to see the castle in all its glory, she couldn't wait to see her new home. They reached an underground harbor where they all began to clamber out onto rocks and pebbles, following a smooth, rock path in the shadow of the castle.