3 points of the compass

Sweet Hope.

It was the first day of the third year at Hogwarts, And Lynn Gray knew it was gonna be a long year the moment she stepped on Platform 9 3/4.

Her last visit home hadn't gone as planned, her father was still struggling with alcohol, and his job at the Ministry of Magic didn't make it any better. When she arrived home she tried her best to sneak into her room making as little noise as possible but as soon she stepped into the kitchen she couldn't help but notice her father laying on the ground with bottles of fire whiskey around him, his eyes were barely opened when he spotted her, words of disdain crossed through the kitchen as he started yelling at her, blaming her for every misfortune in his life.

This is why... I can't be promoted.. how can anyone take me seriously, just look at you! You are a disgrace to our family... if your mother saw you she would be ashamed! He said still struggling to keep his balance, trying his best to make eye contact without puking a little in between words.

She gave a quick glance at her uniform before getting any closer, kneeling down, wiping away the puke in his clothes putting up with all the screams, trying her best not to vomit for all the rotten smell that came out of his mouth. She knew the only reason why her uniform looked like that was his fault, his habit of spending all of their money on booze instead of groceries, books, or even clothes for her was getting out of hand.

He hadn't always been like that, two years ago, when her mother was still alive they were the perfect example of a traditional family, picnics every Friday, dinner time always on schedule, the house always spottles, small house parties with some families of the ministry every now and then. In fact, during the last few years without her mother, Lynn had realized everything was too "Traditional" for her to understand at first, now that she was getting a little older she started realizing all of the members of the ministry if not most of them hated the fact that muggle-borns could have the honor of assisting Hogwarts, even the fact they had mud bloods walking around them made them feel disgusted, of course, she didn't felt compliance with all of her father's ideas, but she couldn't do anything about it, she remained silent every time he started one of his hate speeches, when one of those lectures began she did her best to find a safe place on her head, disconnecting from reality imagining her mother was still around, taking care of everything, keeping it all in line.

That day, just before stepping out of the house and making her way to the train station, her father stopped her giving her a list of names, stating she should do her best to befriend all if not most of the students on that list.

As soon as she arrived at the platform, she gathered a little courage and opened the list, the list started from least to most important and had over 50 names, she started reading it and noticed some familiar names, a sigh of relief came out of her mouth as she read her friend's names, 18.-Theodore Nott, 19.-Blase Zabini, she never mentioned their friendship to his father, and now it would look like she befriended them just for him, but she knew he wouldn't be happy if she got no friends from the top of the list, she dreaded herself as she arrived at the first positions, in them a single name marked in red ink differentiating from all of the others, the writing in the name felt even immaculate making it look sharper.

1.-DRACO MALFOY.

She crumbled the piece of paper with her hands, how could his father think she could ever befriend someone like Draco Malfoy, he was just a bully that occasionally made fun of her, he probably wouldn't even remember that, the hole idea seemed even more stupid now, maybe her father wouldn't mind if she only befriended some other students outside the top 10, she knew that was impossible but still felt the need to retain the idea as she grabbed her luggage and stepped on the train.