Draco's Wife

The Coward

I was not going to lie to anyone; Hogwarts was pretty fantastic, especially to a first year. My first glimpse at the castle was astounding, it illuminated against the dark night sky and was possibly one of the largest castles I had seen at the time. My sister wasn't with me when we rode up to its shores. A teacher named Hagrid had led all the first years into boats that seemed to know exactly where to go. Any other year was put on a different path; I saw my sister walk towards a carriage that pulled itself. My guess was that the professors wanted to make Hogwarts seem exciting to the first years by letting them see the castle in all its glory. If they didn't make it fun and exciting no one would want to come back, but even if they didn't make it fun and exciting, I think I would still want to go back.

We got to the school's doors after the long boat ride and a short walk to the entrance of the castle. I marched up to the front of the crowd where a nice old lady with silver hair topped by large hat was giving us instructions. She talked about all the possible houses we could be sorted into and that we were to be served dinner after we were sorted. She also reminded us to make good friends with the people in our houses because they would be our friends for life.

We then continued up multiple flights of stairs. I didn't appreciate the walking because I didn't want to get sweat on my new robes, but I endured the pain. I let my attention go elsewhere; the castle was too beautiful to complain about how many stairs it had! Each portrait and painting moved, the architecture was amazing, and the stones looked beautiful enough to lick; it was hard to take it all in. When we got to the top of the stairs and I spotted my sister hanging in the crowd that was waiting to go inside the dining hall.

"Daphne!" I shouted. She half turned around to look at me, but her facial expression showed that she didn't want to talk. I stopped my attempt to go towards her. She was talking to one of her friends in another house. He came over sometimes. I was pretty sure he was in Ravenclaw, but all I knew was that my parents didn't really like him because he wasn't from Slytherin. I was surprised that my sister befriended someone who wasn't in Slytherin, but again, I didn't know the dynamics between the houses yet. I looked around the hallway for perhaps more people I knew. I didn't happen to see my 'friends' on the train or anyone else that I recognized. There were so many people there. All of them seemed to be waiting to be let into the Great Hall. I had heard that it was one of the coolest rooms at Hogwarts, and that the food was amazing. I started listening to my surroundings, eavesdropping on conversations, and getting a general sense of the mood from the other students. I slipped into casual people watching and heard somewhat informative information. Most of them were talking about what happened on the train, what was on the train, and how the creatures left the train. There were lots of theories about what truly happened; I was right next to the main event and the only thing I knew was that we actually saw a dementor. Others were talking about the houses they expected to get into and how their summer went. As I was intently listening to the conversations I overheard a familiar name from earlier.

"Oh, wonderful another year with bloody Potter getting special treatment. I hope this year I can expose him for what he really is, a pathetic..." a sarcastically harsh voice said. I looked around and tried to zone in on who was talking about this 'Potter'. I needed to know where I had heard that name before. It had seemed so obvious, but I really did have a bad memory. Finally, I found the distinct voice. Judging by the way the guy was standing and facial expressions this man was not happy to be there. This was the moment where I made one of my worst and best mistakes of my life. I decided to walk up and ask the voice about this 'Harry Potter'.

"Potter, the 'Boy who lived'," the guy said sarcastically, "pathetic, too bad his parents didn't," he said again with his harsh tone. His friends giggled. I hesitated, but this seemed to be my only chance to relieve myself of the pain of not being able to remember.