ethereal {draco malfoy romance}

1.

  Rain hammered the train window, outside the dark British countryside moving quickly. On the other side of the window however, were three teenagers, talking fervently about criminal Sirius Black, ignoring the sleeping adult next to them.

A knock on their carriage door sounded and snapped them out of their conversation. One of the teenagers, Harry Potter, went to open it. Two tall, brightly-red boys climbed into the carriage, knocking Harry back into his seat.

"Allo Harry!" the first lanky ginger exclaimed, shoving a box in the boys face, "chocolate frog?"

"Erm, no thanks Fred." Harry stated, "but uh... uh?" gesturing randomly to the twins' companion, to whom he didn't have a clear view of. The other ginger caught on and decided to explain,
"Oh yeah! Well, our favourite third-years, and Ron, may we introduce you to our NEW favourite third year! She's pretty cool and we would keep her for ourselves, but Fred made some 'new years resolution' to be nicer people or some bollocks, and he said we should let you all show her the ropes."

At the trio's confused faces, George moved to let the girl into the, now very crowded, compartment. She stepped in with a bright smile on her face, and something pleasant seemed to wash over them all.

"Hi, I'm Faye" she stated almost nervously, and it took Hermione the least amount of time to quit staring and remember her manners.

"Pleasure to meet you! I'm Hermione Granger, and these two boys with their mouths open and Harry Potter and Ron Weasley" she shook Faye's hand and as she went to shake Ron and Harry's hands, Hermione quietly approved of her handshake. Her parents had always said to never trust someone with a bad handshake, after all.

Seemingly happy with their introductions, the twins got up, "well it was lovely -" George started,

"and we should really do this again sometime -" Fred continued,
"but I have to go watch Fred make googly-eyes at Angelina, so we best be going." George slipped out of the carriage, his twin following, until a moment later when from down the hall came a "hey! I do not make googly-eyes, you oaf!".

The remaining passengers settled down in the carriage, Faye sitting next to Harry and opposite Hermione, the three Gryffindors still trying hard not to stare at their new addition. Hermione thought it was time for some answers.

"So..." she started, still slightly put out by the feeling that washed over her when Faye's blue eyes made contact with her own, "why are you just starting this year? I'm assuming, since you're not wearing any house colours. We're all in Gryffindor, ourselves. How much do you know about Hogwarts?" Hermione tried desperately to stop herself from babbling, distracted by the white ends of Faye's hair she had just noticed.

Faye giggled, having noticed Hermione's nerves.

"There seemed to be a mix-up with my acceptance letter, Dumbledore wasn't aware of it till recently, so he said I should start at the beginning of this year. Fred and George told me a bit about Hogwarts and the houses and stuff, I think I'm being sorted tonight."

Faye sounded confident, but truly she was shaking a little bit. Starting two years after everyone else was scaring her, and she didn't want to mess up her first interactions with possible friends in her year. These three seemed nice enough though, and they all smiled warmly at her. The black-haired boy finally spoke.

"Terrible about your letter, but at least you're here now! You'll love it at Hogwarts, no matter what house you're sorted into."

Ron snorted, "yeah unless you're sorted into Slyther- ooph" he keeled over after Hermione elbowed his stomach, a smug smile on her face.

"I'm sure Faye will love any house she is sorted into, Ronald."

Ron just squeaked in response.

The four spoke for a couple hours, and the trio quickly became comfortable with Faye's presence. They spoke about everything from Hogwarts, to Quidditch, to guessing Dumbledore's age and at some point Ron remembered to explain why there was an unconscious middle-aged man sitting next to them ("oh yeah, that's a teacher. He's sleeping... um, I think.").

In the presence of their new friend, the trio completely forgot about the murderous, raving lunatic after Harry's blood and instead chatted inanely until the rain had grown worse and the sky was dark with night.

In the middle of a heated debate about whether or not Ron could feed his rat, Scabbers, chocolate frogs, Faye stood up.

"I'm just going to pop off to the bathrooms, okay? Won't be long." and after opening the compartment door, turned around to add, "and Ron, try not to kill your rat while I'm gone."

Leaving a very red-faced Ron blustering about how 'rats aren't dogs!' for Harry and Hermione to solve, Faye slid the door closed and began walking down the carriage. She had an odd feeling, like leaving them was a bad idea, but dismissed it as a few remaining nerves for her new school.

Finally reaching the end of the carriage, she turned into the last, larger compartment, thinking it was the bathrooms, and finding it was the coat room instead. Clearly she had the wrong end of the carriage. Turning around to leave, she felt the train slowing down, which was odd, and a sudden jarring stop threw her back into the room, along with someone else from the corridor.

They landed on the floor just as all the lights went out.