Hallows Game || HP X Squid Game (Draco Malfoy)

1 - The Mysterious Stranger

My name is Alia Patil and this is the story of how I came about to become player 199 in Hallows Game.

With Voldemort having won the war, the survivors of the Battle of Hogwarts were living in a post apocalyptic world where every man, woman and dog were out for themselves. It was terrifying, lonely and, above all, ugly.

Despite my sisters and I having been accepted into Hogwarts, our parents, being Muggle-born, were run out of the country. It didn't matter that I had been top of my year group, the brightest witch following in Hermione Granger's footsteps. It didn't matter that me, Padma and Parvati were born and raised as witches in the UK, we were still considered scum of the earth and were constantly being told to go back to where we belonged.

But we belonged here - in good old England where the winters were crap but the summers were crapper. When it rained we complained, but we complained harder when the heat hit over twenty-four degrees for three consecutive days. Day one of a rare snowfall we would laugh and build snowmen, on day two we would distress about the cold getting to our fingertips so that we couldn't help with the household chores. We ate ice-creams on the beach the second the sun came out (despite it still being cold) and we always had fish and chips on Fridays just because.

In other words, we were British through and through.

But our skin said different, our blood said otherwise.

As a result, I felt I did not really belong, not like my white, pure blooded friends.

Wandless, Knutless and homeless, I was living in a den at the time that I received the invitation - a dug out below the markets that lined the streets of London. Who am I kidding? - I was living in the fucking sewers, and it was only time until I caught a nasty illness that would send me to my very early grave.

I owed money to people no one should be owing money to. I ran in circles with people my parents would have had heart attacks over. In a fit of desperation, I even sold my body one night just so that I could eat a fucking meal.

But, as I said, this is my story of how I came about to be in Hallows Game, not of my pitying life preceding it. More of my back story will come in time.

For now, all you need to know is about the woman I encountered one night. An encounter that changed my life.

I stole a fish. I'm not proud of it. But I was hungry. And if I didn't eat, I would die.

In my lethargic and malnourished state, I wasn't stealthy enough, and the market teller, an old, fat, balding dude, spotted what I was doing.

"THEIF! SOMEONE GET THAT SKANKY BITCH, NOW!"

I ran. I ran as fast as I could, which was pretty fast considering the state I was in. But it was survival instinct. My adrenaline always knew when to kick in at the right time and it'd never let me down.

Until now.

"Hold it."

I stopped in my tracks as a woman dressed in a sharp black suit and carrying a briefcase stepped out of a side street, blocking my path. I didn't recognise her, although she looked at me as though I should do.

I tried to push past her, but she was surprisingly strong, reaching out a hand to restrain my arm.

"Play a game with me."

My eyes widened. What the fuck?

"Uh- I'm kinda in a hurry right now," I said quickly, looking over my shoulder for the disgruntled fishmonger.

"He won't bother you anymore." The woman said with confidence. "He's already got another customer."

I looked at her now. Properly. She had a sleek black bob that fell around her heart shaped face without a hair out of place. She was quite beautiful in a non-conventional way. Her green eyes burned hypnotically into mine and I found myself inexplicably wanting to stay by her side, needing to know more.