long and lost | malfoy fanfiction

chapter three | first year

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valeria            
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The train journey to hogwarts didn't take long, not with a new friend to talk to. It seemed like we'd only been talking for five minutes but before we knew it, the sky outside the window had darkened and it was time to change into our robes. Mable and I walked down to the first year changing rooms which were located at the back of the train, talking the entire way down. I had started to laugh at something that Mable had said when I caught a glimpse of white blonde hair and two chunky figures. 

I panicked and went to turn around not wanting to face them after I'd called Draco out. "Oh my god. No, we should go back. There's a que we'll just get changed later." I tugged on Mable's hand but she didn't budge. 

"Um, Val, we're arriving in ten minutes. We have to get changed now, what's panicking you so much." She asked, pulling me back towards her. I bit my lip and looked around to see if anyone around me was eavesdropping. 

I lowered my voice into an almost whisper, letting my red hair fall around my face to shield me from view if anyone were to look over and said, "Fine. You see the boy with the blonde hair?" 
Mable looked around and caught sight of Draco, her face lit up and she said, "Yeaaah?" 
"I sat with him on the train. He's so small minded it was disgusting. So I kinda called him out and then left and that's when I ran into you." Mable's concentrated face broke out into a huge smile, revealing her pearly white teeth. 

"No way! You called out Draco Malfoy, of all people! That's brilliant, that is." 
We talked about for a long amount of time while we were getting changed and stepping of the train. I let Mable do the talking and took in my surroundings. We seemed to be standing on a platform of some sort, one path took you down a steep flight of steps and towards a huge ink black lake and the other into the forest where a group of carriages, pulled by interesting looking creatures where pulling other years along. 

Up ahead across the lake, on a cliff stood a magnificent castle, with its many turrets and towers and branches of rooms coming off in all directions. It's small windows were lit warmly and from the outside looked very inviting. Mable was just about to start talking again when she was interrupted by a voice that had suck a thick accent you could barely understand it, "Alrigh' now, firs' years, follow me down to the boats, come on don't be shy now." I followed the voice and was confronted by a man at least three times the size of an average man. He stood towering over us with a warm smile that was barely visible behind his thick curly pufts of beard and long hair. In one hand he held a lantern that lit the way down to the boats. 

"Huh, Cedric never mentioned this when he told me about Hogwarts." I said, climbing into one of the rickety boats and sitting down, joined by Mable, a girl with a short black bob and fringe and to my unpleasant surprise Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. 

Without warning the boats starting along the lake by themselves. The weather was so calm that not even a breeze ruffled the water, we stirred though it with ease, guided by the big man who was clearly in charge of getting us up to the castle. I felt the familiar burn of eyes into my back and turned slowly being met with three pairs of eyes. Draco's cold grey ones, man if looks could kill and Crabbe and Goyle's that looked confused and almost out of it. 

I turned around so quickly I ended up rocking the boat and making a small wave. Why couldn't I have just not said anything and made an excuse? Why do you always have to open your mouth and say something, Val? 

I looked over to the other boats, thinking that I'd not yet met anyone else from my year yet. In the boat with the big man was a small girl with big bushy brown hair, a boy with freckles and bright red hair much like my own and next to them both was a boy I recognised immediately. Harry Potter. His scar, identical to mine was covered in thick dark hair. Propped on his nose was a pair of round glasses that had been sellotaped together so many times it was if he'd been punched in the nose, under his glasses were a pair of blue eyes (i know in the book he has green eyes, i have read them, i'm just going off the movies) very similar to my own.