"Ah, another Malfoy," the hat sounded amused. "You are not what you seem, or what your family and peers see, are you? Your heart is double. A Malfoy in name, but your true lineage is hazy, which makes you quite tricky to place. You would do well in...
The Monster Book of Monster's was a formidable thing, and opening it without it ripping your clothes to shreds was something I learnt once Draco had opened his copy.
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Mother had signed our permission slips for Hogsmeade, somewhere I loved going to, because we didn't go very often.
Everything was packed and ready to go for our third year, and I'd stayed away from my parents and Draco as much as I could. Things had shifted quite a bit since I came home after second year, and mother and father, even Draco had begun distancing themselves.
At first, I thought it had to do with the incident, - well, it was much more than an incident - with the chamber being opened and myself, along with many other students having been petrified. Trying to ease any nerves they might have had wasn't really in the cards.
Fleck came and got me when it was time for lunch, and I see that there's a newspaper on the table which I pick up. There was a headline which showed a man, named Sirius Black, a murderer who had been locked up in Azkaban prison had managed to escape.
I didn't even notice mother was already seated at the table dunking her teabag in her cup.
"Are you all packed?" She asks.
"Yes, just made sure that I had everything I'll need," I tell her.
She nods. "And your friendships with the Granger girl, Mr Potter, and Mr Weasley? I think you should focus more on creating friendships with those that are in Slytherin house, don't you?!"
"Must I?" I sigh, and take a seat.
"Draco has been keeping us informed, and it won't do you well to hold onto those friendships," she says.
Ignoring her, I flicked through the paper and saw a moving picture of the Weasley's who had all won a holiday to Egypt. They all looked so happy, and I was over the moon for them; they deserved it.
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Ron or the twins hadn't mentioned a thing about it in their letters, but I assume it's something they're going to tell me once we're back at Hogwarts.
***
On the platform I went ahead, spotting my favourite twins and followed them onto the train. They told me everything about their trip, and they even brought a few things back for me.
"Odd," I say when the train suddenly halts its journey. "We're not anywhere near Hogwarts yet."
The rain outside was torrential and I get up off my seat and went out to see what's the matter, and that's when I bumped into Draco.
"Ally, let's go," he looked worried; it soon went very cold and I could see our breath forming clouds as we hurried into an empty compartment.
The lights were flickering as we dropped down into the corner, Draco pushed up against the window as I curled into him. Something was wrong, it was starting to feel like all the light and joy was being sucked out of the world around us.
Draco and I had both matured in more ways than one, but it didn't stop the creeping fear we both felt as we shrank into each other.
The compartment door clicked and slowly, it began to open on its own, and that's when we saw it. A floating, cloaked figure completely obscured, all we could see was the mottled, greying flesh of its hands and pointed fingers. It felt as though it was searching for something and once it had checked our compartment it was gone.
"Draco, that was so scary," I mumbled. "What do you think it was searching for?"
"I don't know Ally," he shrugged, still holding onto me, his pale blue-grey eyes as clueless as I was. "I'm surprised they were even allowed on the train. Father will know about this!"
I roll my eyes, and sit up. "I'm going to find Mione, Ron, and Harry. See if they're okay."
He doesn't argue with me about it which caught me off guard, I half expected him to bar me from leaving our carriage, but he didn't move; but, we were all too rattled really to remember ourselves. I came across Neville first who was clutching onto his toad, Trevor; he was still shaking.
"Hey Neville, did it check your carriage too?" I ask him, sitting down in front of him.
"Y, yeah! I feel so cold," he murmurs.
"That's how I felt too, like all the joy had seeped out," I close my eyes. "You're on your own, too! Come with me, I'm going to find Mione and the others, and I'm certain they'll let you sit with them."
"Thank you, Ally," he stands up and follows me out, gratefully.
We have to hold back because we couldn't get into their apartment, but when the man says, "I'm going to have a word with the driver," and leaves, we go in.
"Do you know what those things were?" I ask upon sitting down.
"No," Hermione said. "But the man we were just talking to, that was Professor Lupin. He told us that they are Dementors. One of the guards of Azkaban. Gone now, though. It was searching the train for Sirius Black. Whatever it was doing though, it affected Harry a fair bit, he fainted."
"You did?" I glance at him.
"Yeah," he looked pale. "Someone was screaming. A woman."
"No one was screaming Harry," Hermione told him.
I didn't go back to Draco, I stayed with my friends and as I glanced out of the window, seeing a blur of blue flash past. It had gone out of sight again before I could get a proper look.
