Malfoy's Slave (discontinued)

Chapter 8 Hogwarts At Last

Today's the day. Hogwarts. Finally.

A lot has happened these past weeks. So much I almost can't be bothered to explain. I am fully healed, well sort of. I know a whole lot more about the wizarding world now. Again, sort of. And now I stand, feeling slightly dazed and confused, on platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station.

Moments ago, I had run for the first time onto this platform, scared but eager to see other people like me, witches and wizards, the people I had been hidden from for so many years. Well, apart for the Malfoy's.

Speaking of the Malfoy's, I am no longer their slave. They... well, t-they... w-well... never mind.

~
I sit in the Hogwarts Express, staring out at the beautiful countryside as it flys by. I am alone in my compartment, everyone else sat with their friends. I tell myself I don't mind, that I will make friends. I convince myself of that much.

Suddenly, my compartment door slides open, and standing there is a girl with firery red hair. She is shorter than me, and freckles cover her face. But she is beautiful.

"Hello!" she says and extends her hand to mine. I take it gingerly, and shake it. She smiles brightly. "I'm Ginny Weasley." the girl says kindly. She drops my hand and says, "What did you say your name was?"

"I didn't." I say. "But it's Cherry. Cherry Potter. Ginny's eyes widen. She appears to open her mouth to say something, but then thinks better of it and shuts her mouth again.

Ginny noticed me staring at her shocked expression, so she quickly snaps out if it.

"Oh... I haven't seen you around before...what year?"

She seemed suddenly very on edge and nervous, but I just decided to ignore it and go along with whatever she was saying.

"Sixth year." I say.
"Oh...I'm in fifth year."
I get a weird feeling that she already knew that somehow...

Ginny comes and sits next to me. She peers at my face, reading my expression. I smile. She smiles back and laughs a little. She was acting a little strange.

"What are you doing here alone anyway?"

"Um... I don't really have many friends... I haven't really been here before..." I trail off.

I expect her to be surprised, because everyone is supposed to go to school from age eleven though to age seventeen, not start with just two years to go! But Ginny is not surprised.

"Well, uh, that would explain why I haven't... haven't seen you around here before..."

"Yea." I say, looking at my feet. Ginny shrugs and gestures for me to follow her with her fingers.

"Come one!" she says.

"Where are we going?" I ask curiously, standing slowly.

Ginny laughs, and it might have been the only thing that sounded natural, real, that had come from her mouth in the last five minutes.

Ginny tucks a loose strand if her long, straight and orange hair behind her ear and takes my hand.

"Cherry..."

"Yea..?"

She giggles and leads me out of the room. She is excited about something. Someone. One of her friends, maybe. I internally shrug, and follow her down the long train as it chugged along through the countryside.

~
Cherry Potter's trunk sat, deserted, on the seat of a now empty compartment. She was busy following her new friend down the train to know that a certain trio of tricksters were sneaking into her compartment, taking her trunk, and along with it her most prizes possessions. How was she to know that she would soon be in major trouble, with or without the help of the people who would become her mortal enemy's.

~

I followed Ginny until we came to a compartment. I heard murmuring voices. They immediately stopped when the door slid open.

The compartment was full to the brim with people. There was a boy with the same firery red hair as Ginny, and the same speckaling of freckles. I guessed he was her brother.

But everyone else looked completely different. There was a girl with bushy brown hair and a toothy grin, a girl with white blond hair, radish earrings and a sort of dreamy look apon her face.

Their was a boy with short brown hair and a cosy looking jumper. He was nursing some sort of plant in this hand, it looked a bit like a cactus.

And in the corner, sat next to the red headed boy and across from the kind but distant faced girl, was someone who looked like me. A lot like me. He had messy black hair and emerald green eyes.

I had never met this boy, nor seen a picture of him, yet I knew immediately who he was. The one they all talked about, the famous one. I felt hot tears well up in my eyes. I couldn't believe it...

Harry Potter. My brother.