New Girl

3. Arriving

     The summer air wrapped around Clea as she stepped out of the train. She could see Hogwarts in the distance and an excited tingle popped up in her stomach. She had always dreamed of going to school at Hogwarts and would always soak up Dracos stories when he came home for the summer, although most of the stories was either him annoying the famous trio or vise versa. But now she was here and could make her own stories. "You're kinda standing in the way," some fifth year pushed by her with his friends in toe. Clea smirked and followed the crowd. A huge man with a beard was leading the first years in a different direction. That must to be Hagrid, she thought back to one of stories from Draco when she asked how he had gotten bitten by a hippogriff. She smiled at the image of Draco standing before a confident Hippogriff and trying to annoy it. The crowd led her to an entrance in the woods. 

      Groups of students were gathered around carriages pulled by creatures she had never seen before. They reminded her of a horse, only with a short sharp beak and thin almost transparent wings. The body was pitch black and the skeleton of the creature could be seen under the too thin layer of skin. The first carriages have already been filled with teenagers and had started to head farther into the woods. Clea looked at the carriage that was closest to her. There were only three girls in it, talking about something very excited. Clea climbed into the carriage and smiled at the trio. "Oh hey Clea! I'm Ginny Weasley, we saw each other shortly in the train," said the girl with flaming red hair and freckles. It is obvious that she's related to the two twins that she had met in the trick store. She had also already met Ron Weasley and their mother, she asked herself how many Weasleys actually exist. She had heard from Draco that it was too many to count. "Oh ya, I didn't recognize you in the dim light," said Clea as she sat down next to Ginny. "Hey I'm Hannah Abbott, I'm in Hufflepuff," said one of the other girls. The other quickly introduced herself, too. Her name was Lavender and was in the same year as the golden trio. "Hey, I'm Clea Zabini. Slytherin," "Oh, Zabini and in Slytherin... cool," the two new girls exchanged a judging look. Clea inwardly rolled her eyes. The carriage started moving. "A lot of people probably ask you this, but why did you move?" asked Ginny, as she noticed that the other two showed no interest in the new girl and started whispering with each other. "A lot of private reasons and family problem," admitted Clea, for some reason she felt as if she could tell Ginny the truth. "Oh, I have a huge family, so there is always some fight between two," exclaimed the red head. "You have three brothers don't you?" Clea asked. "That would still be ok, I have six. It was crapped in our house as we all still lived at home. We definitely don't own our own villa or something like that," she explained, laughing looking at her feet. "Ya, but I can imagine it being nice always having some one to talk to," said Clea. Ginny smiled and shrugged. The two sat next to each other for a while without saying anything. Ginny watched Clea as she was lost in her thoughts. For a Slytherin she seems actually pretty nice and the idea of her being friends or even sometthing more with Draco is actually pretty hard to believe.

       "Did you hear about the incident where Draco got turned into a Weasel?" asked Ginny wanting to start a new conversation. Clea laughed. "Ya, I had to prey it out of Draco, he was really embarrassed. But I have to say the story with the hippogriff is almost better," commented Clea. The two girls laughed and reminded each other of the highlights of that event. "So, are you and Draco together?" asked Ginny after finding her breath after laughing so hard. Clea looked at Ginny and raised her one eyebrow, it reminded her of the famous Slytherin squad. "No we're just friends." Ginny nodded once. A few minutes past without any conversation. The quiet whispering of the duo sitting on the other side of the carriage and the breeze moving lazy through the woods was the only sound to be heard. "What creatures are these?" asked Clea at once. Ginny looked over to Clea. "The ones pulling the carriages?" "Ya." "They are thestrals, you can only see them if you've seen death, before the war only a few could see them, but now..." Clea nodded slightly. "So you've seen death too?" Clea asked. "Ya, a close friend of mine." "Did she die in the war?" "Ya, she tried fighting Greyback, she wanted revenge for killing her mother." This time Clea didn't answer at all, just looked back into the woods. After a few minutes, they reached the front gates of Hogwarts. The carriages lined up next to each other on the open meadow. About half of the students have already arrived and started walking through the entrance. Clea stepped off of the carriage and decided to come the thestrals a little closer. She let her hand glide over the black bony skeleton of the huge felt the ribs moce as it breathed deeply in and out. Next to her appeared Ginny. "Most people are scared of them," commented Ginny, who touched the the creature a little above the beak. "They may be a symbol of death, but are still somehow calming," murmured Clea, then shrugged her shoulders and went through the front gates. As she had before, she let the crowd guide the direction. The high ceilings and dark long hallways with old portraits, illumenated by faint torches, fit exactly to her imagination of Hogwarts.

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New friends? :D