Half-Blood (Draco Malfoy)

My friends try to read my mind

I open my eyes and I am violently shaking, descending from the sky in front of Kings Cross Station, resting on the back of a giant. Honestly, how do muggles not see this? Sometimes I wonder if the mist helps me too, because there is no way that they don't see this insanity.

The mist is the invisible veil that masques my world from the mortals. Mortal as in normal person- not related to an immortal figure of Greek mythology. Although, not to be confused with muggle- as most wizards are mortal, but some muggles are demigods. It's a lot to remember, I know. I accidentally mixed up the words a few times in my first years at Hogwarts and everyone looked at me like I had two heads. 

Anyways, the mist has to be helping me out here, unless muggles truly see nothing. I will never understand it.

So after a long journey we land at Kings Cross Station, where I will board the train and go back to school for the year. I was so excited yesterday, but now I am not so sure. A lot has changed since yesterday, but I should still go, right? I have to go. 

I thank Hagrid about a million times for picking me up and taking me to the station, and he hugs me and says that he will see me at school. Hagrid has been helping me out since second year now. At first I took a boat over the ocean to get to school, but that was too dangerous for me to go alone because of the monsters. Chiron couldn't leave camp for long enough to escort me, so the next best option was Hagrid flying me to the station. It was rather nice, Hagrid is very pleasant to be around. He is one of the few at Hogwarts that really knows about me, and I know I can trust him with that. 

After Hagrid leaves, I hear familiar voices behind me. It can't be. I see them and all of my worries fall away. I know that I am exactly where I need to be. Approaching me are my best friends Ron and Hermione. 

Ron is like a brother to me. After all, his parents are the friends of my mother's who took me in. Seeing him is like a breath of fresh air. We give eachother a tight hug as he asks me about my summer. Unfortunately, even Ron doesn't know my full story. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley decided that it is too dangerous for the kids to know just yet. They promised me that I could tell him when I am older. I wish I could tell him now.

Hermione wraps me in a tight hug and starts to tell me about how Harry had a trial with the Ministry of Magic. He apparently used magic to ward off some dementors that were after he and his cousin. I'm not really sure why he would try to save his cousin. From what I've heard, the guy sounds like a total jerk. But the fact that dementors were out roaming muggle neighborhoods is the exact type of darkness that I was nervous about heading into this year. 

"Never mind all that, tell me about your summer Lilia! I've barely heard from you!" Hermione said, changing the subject. 

See, messenger owls sometimes have a tricky time navigating camp's borders. Sometimes I don't receive letters at all, and sometimes the letters I send don't make it past the edge of camp. I can't really explain any of this to Hermione. With how smart she is, she would figure out that something is off immediately. So I just don't mention it.

"I'm sorry, this summer was so busy for me. I was working basically every day." I said, which isn't exactly a lie. I did spend a lot of time in the infirmary.

We continued catching up as we strolled toward platform 9 and 3/4. Ron had a lot of my belongings with him that I needed to bring to school. I missed them so much. Then a thought occurred to me.

"Where's Harry?" I ask. 

"He'll be along. Was a bit delayed this afternoon talking to Sirius. Order stuff, you know." Ron replied.

"Order? What do you mean?" I ask, confused by what he was saying.

We boarded the train and found an empty compartment before Hermione gave me the full run down on what the Order of the Phoenix is. I always miss out on the cool stuff. Totally unfair. 

I had some more questions about what has been going on that I've missed, and Hermione did her best to catch me up-to-date on everything. This world is crazy. I'm not disappointed that I got to have a relaxing summer when all of this was going on.

Our conversation is interrupted by a knock on the door, just the person I was waiting to see. 

"Harry!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him immediately. I missed this, I know I did the right thing by coming back... Right?

"Good to see you, Lilia." Harry said with less enthusiasm than usual. I pulled away and looked at him. He looked thin, and pale. I guess this isn't saying much, but he looked thinner and paler than normal. 

"I heard that a lot has been going on, I'm sorry to hear that. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you Harry." I say while Harry shuts the door and finds his seat across from me in our compartment.

"Thanks," Harry replies, "It's good to have you back." 

I smile at him gently. This poor kid. He has been through so much already. My friend Percy has been through some similar things, but poor Harry has had such a hard life. Sometimes I wish that they could meet and talk through everything with eachother. 

My friends continue catching up and talking a bit about their classes and nerves for going back to school. I start to zone out a bit, replaying the events of last night in my head. I know I am in the right place right now, I know it. But how can I leave after that, not knowing what it was? I'm definitely overthinking it. I just need to get through these next few months, then I will talk to Leo when I see him again. I promised him I'd come back to camp when I could. I will worry about that when it comes. Right now I have to worry about what my friends and my world are dealing with.

"Lilia?" Hermione asks. She had a small playful grin on her face. Oh gosh, it looked like she could read my mind.

"Yes?" I replied skeptically.

"Oh nothing," Hermione said. "You just zoned out there for a bit and you've got a bit of a blush."

This made me blush even more. What do I say?

"Uh... sorry, yeah." I mentally facepalmed. Could I really not think of anything better to say? Based on the intrigued looks of my friends, I knew there was no way I was getting away with this one without a good excuse.

"What's on your mind, Gooden?" Ron says playfully. 

"Perhaps something that happened this summer?" Hermione tags along. 

They look at me expectantly, but I don't know what to tell them. I start to look around the compartment in search of any ideas that can help me out of this. I guess I could tell them, but I would have to leave out some details, and I'm not sure if I really want anyone to know until I process it for myself.

"Well?" Harry asks expectantly, after realizing I haven't responded in almost a minute.

What else can I say? I will have to give them something. They are my best friends at school after all. Plus, Harry looked slightly less stressed since he started listening to this conversation. "I may or may not have been thinking of something that happened this summer, although it's not like it is any of your business." I said teasingly. 

"Well, what happened Lilia?" Hermione asked curiously. 

"Yeah," Ron joined in, sounding slightly annoyed. "I'd like to know if someone's out snoggin my sister." 

Harry and Hermione laughed as I turned an even deeper shade of red, but couldn't help a smile on my face. 

A knock came to our compartment door. Saved by the bell, I thought, relieved that I didn't have to share a recap of my encounters from the previous night. I assumed that it was the trolly coming along to sell us candy, so I stood, ready to buy some chocolate frogs to keep my friends quiet for a bit. But what I saw when I turned was not the trolly. It was Draco Malfoy standing outside of our compartment.