Home, Where The Brave Ones Roam| Draco Malfoy

7

The end of summer had been so much fun. Just being surrounded by such fun-loving and caring people was a breath of fresh air, sure people were nice back home and all that, but here, it was just different. From running around with the girls, pulling pranks with Fred and George, or just chilling with Ron and Harry talking about Quidditch or whatever we wanted to at the time it was great. But unfortunately, the time of year that everybody dreads came quicker than I had hoped. I finished packing everything in my trunk and sealed it, the excitement erupting in me as much as my nerves. Fred had sat me down a few days earlier and explained in detail each Hogwarts house to me, of course, he put in a lot of effort to make Gryffindor sound the best, as I was expecting but after hearing him talk about them a feeling of dread washed over me when I learned about Hufflepuff and what it stood for.

Of course, they stood for great things like loyalty, hard work, patience, and fair play which are all great but as there has to be more than just keeping your head down and working surely? Patience has never been a very developed skill of mine and having that be one of the core values scared me a little bit meaning I'd have to master it very quickly, also fair play? I'm a Quidditch player for crying out loud you really think that it's gonna be a value of mine? Ravenclaw didn't sound horrible, but I think I'd drown if I had to live up to those academic standers they hold. Of course, there was the obvious Gryffindor where the brave dwell. That one seemed the most appealing to me, maybe because it reminded me the most of Thunderbird or the fact I've been surrounded by only Gryffindors could also play a part. Something about it just seemed to call out to me in a way that the others didn't it held something of a promise for me, but I could be just reading way too far into it. Last but not least Slytherin, Fred hated talking about this one, nothing but bad blood I recalled him saying. But in all honesty, the house didn't seem as awful as he tried to make it sound, sure there was a high rate of dark wizards coming from that house and they were seen as evil but what they valued wasn't bad, cunningness and ambition were things I've never seen as harmful in healthy doses. A soft knock on the door brought me out of my thoughts as I turned to see who was entering. Fred walked in and sat next to the trunk on my bed, examining my room.

"You almost ready?" I nodded as I grabbed a sweater out of my drawer and slipped it on over my head and taking my shirt off underneath it. I flung the shirt across the room and looked at myself quickly in the mirror, I was wearing high-waisted blue jeans and a grey knitted sweater, I did a small french tuck and made sure my slight makeup was done okay and breathed. I closed my eyes and soon felt hands on both my shoulders, I opened them to see Fred standing behind me with a smile on his face. "Athena, you're going to be fine, you'll have all of us with you and people are going to love you, I promise" I studied him in the mirror, he sounded sincere which was comforting, but I was still terrified.

"It just sucks being the new kid" was all I could manage to say, he chuckled slightly 

"I know, but you'll get through it" I rolled my eyes and looked at myself one last time before leaving. My red hair was nice and clean after my shower and stuck in its natural waves, while my green eyes just sat ready and waited for what was to come next. "If you're checking to see if you're ugly the answers yes" I elbowed him as I let a smile creep on my face.

"Let's go loser, Hogwarts awaits." as if on command my trunk zoomed out of the room and down the stairs, assuming my mom had summoned it, I took that as a sign none the less to make my way down the stairs with Fred close on my heels. When we reached the bottem we were met by everyone waiting. 

"Everything alright dear? I know you must be anxious about your first day" Molly said with a smile on her face, she was such a kind women. 

"I'm doing okay, I'm just as nervous as I am excited"

"Well, that's a good combination" Ginny smiled at me, I returned a slightly less confident one 

"We better get going!" my mom rushed us all out the door and off we went to Kings Cross station. I zoned out most of the way there, tuning in now and again to hear Fred tell me a stupid joke, but for the most part, I was just soaking it all in. This year everything changes, I'm not quite sure if it's for the better or the worse, but I guess I'm about to find out. While everything was a blur we arrived at the station, quickly getting out and collecting our belongings from the cars. It was massive, I've never seen a place so full of hustling people it was quite a thing to take in. 

"Bloody crazy isn't it?" Ron asked, noticing how shocked I looked, all I could manage to do was nod as Molly, Arthur, and my mother lead us through the crowds of people to where we needed to go.

"The train ride is relaxing if you have stuff on your mind" Harry popped up beside me, I went to ask how he knew what I was thinking. "I know things seem crazy, I always do a lot of thinking on the train too" I smiled at him. He seemed to get what I was experiencing more than the others, his eyes were almost the same shade green as mine, only his were slightly darker and fewer flakes showed, they were nice none the less, but it was cool to see how different they were even when they were the same colour. We came to a stop at a wall which had a sign that read 'Platform 9' isn't our platform 9 3/4?  I thought. Then they just started running through the wall and I lost it

"The hell?" I earned laughs from everyone around me. 

"Here we can go together Athena" Hermione rolled her trolly over to mine and looked at me with an amused face 

"Oh come on don't tell me your scared" George teased.

"Of course not, I just would have enjoyed a warning before seeing people run through a wall" I growled at him as I looked over at Hermione "okay 3,2,1 go!" we started jogging toward the wall and before I felt any impact of hitting the wall, we were through onto platform 9 3/4 holy shit it was the only thing in my mind as right before my eyes laid the Hogwarts express.