She || Drastoria

9 - First Crushes

september first, nineteen ninety three
* ten years earlier *

A sadness clutched at Astoria's heart as she watched her parents grow smaller into the distance as the train trundled away from the platform, eventually disappearing entirely from view.

"Come on, Torie," her sister said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "you'll be fine. Hogwarts is great, really. Well, teachers with You-Know-Who on their heads and deadly monsters being let out on the loose aside, it's the safest place in the world!"

Somehow, this did not fill Astoria with much confidence, and so it was with some trepidation that she followed Daphne to go and find the Slytherin 'gang' ("They're lovely, really. Just don't make out that you like Muggle-borns or show you are afraid of anything else they'll all eat you alive, especially Malfoy. In fact, it's probably just best that you don't even look in his general direction because he'll probably take offence or accuse you of fancying him and then Pansy will scratch your eyes out and turn the rest of Slytherin against you, but other than that they are all complete pussy cats.")

As it was, the only Slytherin who bothered to look up and say hello when Daphne led the way into the compartment and presented her little sister was Theodore Nott.

Blaise Zabini remained firmly hidden behind a magazine, and Draco Malfoy, the boy with alarmingly bright hair, was deep in conversation with two terrifying looking burly boys whom Daphne introduced as Crabbe and Goyle.

Astoria placed herself in the corner, watching warily as Daphne started squealing in delight at being reunited with Pansy, Tracey and Millicent, girls whom Astoria had already met from the occasional summer visit to their home.

There were no other first years in the compartment, and Astoria started to feel very out numbered amongst these cocky, self-assured third years. She needed to find someone else who shared the same fears and anxieties as her, someone who could understand what she was going through.

So, out she went, with not one of them saying goodbye when she announced that she was leaving. She doubt they had even noticed she had been there in the first place.

Walking down the train, morosely dragging her trunk behind her, Astoria made her way along the corridor, peering into compartments as she passed them by.

Her heart raced when she thought she saw Harry Potter in one of them, but she couldn't be sure and anyway, he was sat with a teacher (albeit a sleeping one) and therefore she was too terrified to go in and introduce herself.

Eventually, she came across a compartment with just a single person inside, a terrified looking girl of around about her age. She wore glasses and had long dirty blond hair tied up in high bunches which swung wildly whenever she moved her head.

"Hi, I'm Lyra," she beamed when Astoria slipped inside and took the seat opposite her.

Her smile literally warmed Astoria's heart and even then she knew that she had found a kindred spirit in this girl.

Lyra too was a first year and not only that, Astoria was fascinated to discover that she was from a Muggle family and hadn't even heard of the wizarding world until she received her letter only a month earlier.

The whole journey Astoria spent listening to Lyra in rapt silence as she told her all about her parents who were both doctors in a Muggle hospital, and her little brother, Benji who used to be cute but now was annoying since he turned six and has started to go through her things.

"I will miss him though, very much," she said, her voice wobbling as her great big blue eyes filled with tears. "Even if he did decapitate my Barbie. You see, he still likes me to read him a bedtime story and I'm not entirely sure if he is going to be able to sleep tonight without it."