Draco Malfoy and the Girl Who Hid

2

Yn stood at the pane of glass until she could no longer see them. Then she sighed closing her eyes and slumping slightly to the side, and leaning on the mahogany that basted the walls. That was it. No going back now. She was officially a student of Hogwarts once more.

Yn had joined Hogwarts in first year along with her peers. She had stood at this very door and waved to her mother and father. And it had all gone swimmingly. That was until two days prior to her returning home for the summer. She had been lounging in the meadow that grew in the east courtyard in the summer with her friends, when Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall had drifted through the hordes of students and called her inside. She rolled her eyes at her friends and hopped up from the ground, expecting it to be something to do with the state that her room was in considering she was supposed to leave in just two days.

turned out to be the worst day of Yn's life. She was summoned and escorted into Professor Dumbledore's office. Bad sign number one. Where her father sat hunched over in a chair anxiously tapping his foot. Bad sign number two. When he heard her enter. He shot out of the chair and hurtled over to Yn gripping her shoulder at arm's length, taking a long look at her then pulling her into his arms and holding on so tight that no spell could have pulled them apart. But Yn had seen his eyes. They were red and swollen. But more prudently she had seen into his vacant eyes. Into his head. She knew instantly. He did not need to say a word. She saw the bloody images that were imprinted in her father head. Her mother's lifeless, tortured body, laying at the foot of Yn's childhood bed.

Yn had been frozen. Unable to talk. Unable to scream. Unable to cry.

Yn left Hogwarts that day and had not anticipated to ever return. Not after her father's outburst. She should have known better than to assume anything.

She opened her eyes and was now meet with the rolling fields that the train chugged through towards the Scottish Highlands. She could faintly see in reflection in the glass. She flipped one side of her hair back, behind her shoulders. It suited her better that way she thought. She switched the hand that held her small bag. It went with the outfit, Lucinda had insisted. She used the now free hand to tug gently at the hem of her black and white tweed skirt. It wasn't too short, and the sheer black tights were helping but it felt like she was drawing attention. Her legs had always been long, as she had been told on many an occasion. She switched back the hand she was holding her bag in and know began to ensure that her black knit jumper was properly tucked into the skirt. She knew what she was doing she was just trying to bide her time. But she had to face the students at some point. was going to be living amongst them for the rest of the year.

Yn looked to her right through the glass cut outs in the door and saw the students that lined the carriage corridor, bustling with excitement and gossip and the occasional student ducking out of one compartment and into the next. It dawned on her that she had to walk through that. It was either that or she had to stand all the way from London to Hogwarts. She considered it for a moment. Before scolding herself for how stupid and incompetent that made her look.

Yn's knuckles were strained as her grip on the handle of her bag tightened but she used the other hand to through open the door between the carriages and step inside, gently closing it behind her. She noticed the difference immediately. The carriage, as expected with filled with riot. But those closest to the carriage door and had fallen into silence, eyes fixed on Yn. She took one more breath and turned to face them. Behind them the corridor seemed infinitely long. She forced the corners of her mouth into a sweet smile and precariously stepped forward, whispering excuse me as she side stepped around and stepped over student feet, sliding past them, often having to step to the side to avoid passing them too closely. She made an extra effort to avoid eye contact with anyone. The silence had grown and spilled form one person to the next. It felt like every eye was on her now. Some people had begun to emerge from carriage to take a look, craning their necks as they piled on top of each other. The silence did not last long. It was replaced with layers of whispers.