Beauty and the Beast [Draco Malfoy]

Chapter One

Lizzie's POV:

"Lizzie! Come on! If I miss the train this year because of you, you'll regret it!" my older brother, Grayson, called up the stairs at me. I jumped on top of my overflowing trunk in an effort to force it shut.

"My trunk - won't - shut!" I yelled back at him, emphasizing each of my words with a jump. I didn't think that I had actually packed all that much, but my trunk was telling me otherwise. The latch wouldn't lock due to all of the items inside.

My bedroom door opened and Grayson waltzed in with an aura of authority. "Honestly, Lizzie, you won't need all of this," he sighed, removing several of my books and articles of clothing.

"No! Stop! I need all of those books! What if the house burns down while we're away?" I launched myself at him and wrenched the books from his grasp. He just did not appreciate the art of writing in the same way I did.

"The house will not burn down, Liz," he sighed at me.

"You don't know that. You know how mum forgets she's cooking," I sassed back. It was true. Our mother was known in our family for forgetting the stove on when she leaves a room, only to remember when the smoke alarms began to wail.

"Fine, how about you choose half to take and half to leave."

"Half?! Grayson!" I protested in astonishment.

"Half," he confirmed sternly. I stared at him in awe. I love my books like they are a part of me, so leaving even half of them behind was like leaving half of my soul. "Choose them now because we are leaving."

I looked down at the books in my hands and the books in my trunk. How was I ever supposed to choose half? "Hurry up or I'm going to pick them for you," Grayson threatened.

"That's impossible!" I protested, my jaw on the ground.

"Alright here, you're taking what's in your trunk, and the rest are staying here. That gives you room to shut it and still lets you take quite a few of your books." He grabbed the books from my arms and threw them on my bed. "Now let's go!" Grayson grabbed my arm and charmed my trunk to follow us down the stairs.

"There you two are!" our mother sighed with a hand on one of her round hips. "If we don't leave now, you'll miss the train. Get your bums in the car!" We all hurried to the car and stashed our trunks in the cab. Mum rushed her way through the hectic traffic to Kings Cross. We arrived with barely any time left until the train was to leave.

"I swear if this happens every year, I'm going to make you two stay home!" she shouted, stacking our trunks onto the trolley. Grayson pushed the trolley and mum and I followed him towards Platform 9 ¾.

Since Grayson is now a seventh year, he knows how to get onto the platform. My mother was not so excited to run straight into a brick wall his first year, however. As a muggle, she didn't believe in magic until the Ministry of Magic representative came to our house. Up until then, she was convinced Grayson's letter was just a prank.

After we had pushed our way through the wall, Grayson left us to load up our trunks.

"Alright dear, you have to promise me you will write me as soon as you can and tell me all about the school. I want to know what the food's like, how the professors treat you, what your bed smells like, everything," she told me with a large smile on her face, holding my hands in hers. I could see the gleam in her bright blue eyes signalling the beginning of the rush of the waterworks.

"But mum, you already know what Hogwarts is like. Grayson's been going there for seven years now," I smiled at her.

"Yes, but that's Grayson," she whispered. "I want to know what it's like from your perspective."