Hannah Grace and the Dark Arts

~Chapter Two~

Year One 

"By the way, you've got dirt on your nose, you know." And with that, Hermione Granger left their compartment.

"Bloody hell," mumbled Ron, scrunching up his nose.  "Well, whatever house she's in, I hope I'm not!"

The  train thundered on, the outside world flying past them.  Ron began to fiddle with his wand,   and Harry sat, his mind spinning excitedly about the days  to come. 

Both boys looked up as the compartment door slid open a crack.  A girl wearing a shy expression peeked her head inside. She had long , dark red hair,  more  of a  reddish-brown, tied in a plait which draped over her shoulder and a  blush appeared on her olive  cheeks when she saw them looking  at her. 

"Excuse me, may I share your compartment?"  she asked. Her accent was Londoner mixed with a European accent - perhaps Italian? "Everywhere near where I got on is full."   

"Of course," said Harry, sliding over to make room for her on the seat.    

She smiled her thanks and stepped inside with her trunk and a cage with a black cat inside. Harry helped her lift her trunk up onto the shelf above them. She gave him another smile as they sat down, this one a larger smile. "Thanks. I'm Hannah." She gestured to the cat in the cage.  "And this is Midnight."

 "Ron Weasley," said Ron.  He  pointed to the sleeping rat in his lap. "Scabbers."

"Harry  Potter," Harry introduced himself  when  she turned to him. He nodded towards his owl. "Hedwig."

Hannah  smiled happily  now. "A pleasure to meet you both."  She  was also already dressed in her set of school robes.   Harry was also pleased that she hadn't made such a big deal and such a fuss over his name and meeting him, as everyone else had so far. It was honestly getting rather tiring, and he still didn't completely understand it. 

One thing was for sure, and that was that she had made a better first impression  than Hermione Granger had. 

 "What are you looking forward to the most at school?"   she  asked them.

"Definitely Quidditch,"  Ron answered right away. "My older brothers have told me that school games are brilliant."

"I grew up with Quidditch," said Hannah. 

"Big fan, are you?"

"You could say that." She leaned in and spoke in a soft whisper, "My dad used to play professionally."

Ron's jaw fell open.  "You're kidding! For which team?"

 "For Team Italy."

"No way! Really?!"

"Yeah.  Started when he was at Hogwarts, and never stopped. Not until he got injured, and had to stop playing."

"Wait, what's your surname?"

"Grace."

 "Is your Dad Matthias Grace? The famous Chaser for Italy?"

Harry had no idea what they were talking about, but listened intently.

Hannah nodded.  "Yeah, that's him.  He was a Chaser for Slytherin when in school. Both my parents were  Slytherins.    I guess we'll see what house we'll be in, won't we?" 

Harry wasn't completely sure, but he thought it seemed as though Hannah was trying to move the conversation away from her family and back to the excitement of school. 

Ron, however, wasn't about to let the subject drop just yet. "That's wicked! I have his card!"

"Nice. I could ask him to sign it for you."

"No way, really? Could you?"

"Sure."

"Brilliant!"

Then she turned to  Harry, again, perhaps trying to shift back the topic of conversation. "And what about you, Harry?"

Harry was about to answer with the many things he was looking forward to - everything, really - when the compartment door slid open again. This time, three boys stood there, the two taller ones standing on opposite sides of the blond boy, looking like bodyguards.  

"Hannah, what are you doing here?" the blond boy asked. 

"I came to find a seat. Every seat where we got on was full. What are you doing here?" 

"We came to see him." The boy nodded to Harry.   "Is it true you're Harry Potter?"

"Yes, I am,"  said Harry. Here we go again...

"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron made a half-cough, half-snorting sound, trying to cover up a laugh.

Malfoy looked sharply in his direction. "What's so funny,  Weasley? Yes, I know who you are. My dad told me all about the Weasleys. They all have red hair, freckles, and not enough money to support  themselves."

"Draco-" cried Hannah, but he cut her off by turning to Harry.

"You'll find,  Potter, that making connections here is very important. I can help you there. He held out his hand.

 But Harry didn't shake it.   The grin fell from Draco's lips. "Foolish move, Potter.  You associate yourself with people like the Weasleys and soon enough you'll be just like them."

Both Ron and Harry sprung to their feet. 

"Stop it,  Draco."   Now all eyes turned to Hannah.  She had risen to her feet as well.  Her warm and kind smile was gone now, replaced by a firm scowl 

Now Draco addressed her. "Same goes for you, Hannah. What are you doing sitting with these two?"

"All the seats  where we got on were full, and you ran off to be with your new friends. Or have you already forgotten?"

"Well come back and sit with us. It's better in the front of the train anyway, and it's away from the likes of these two."

Hannah didn't budge. "I'm fine right here."

"You can't be serious-"

"Well I am. I said I'm fine here - thank you,"  she said again. "Now I think you should go back to your seats." 

He scowled; she scowled back. 

"OW!"

 The cold silence was suddenly  broken as one of Draco's companions gave a cry, startling them all.  Ron's rat, Scabbers, had awoken and had bitten the boy on the finger.  

The boy shook his hand violently until Scabbers flew off and the three boys took off, presumably back to their seats.

"Huh, serves you right," Hannah mumbled.  Then she turned to Ron. "Is Scabbers all right?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, he's fine. Look, he's already asleep again." 

"I'm sorry for the way he spoke to you both," she apologized, sitting back down.  

"You know him? You sure knew how to shut him up."

She nodded.  "Yeah, he's my friend - or at least he was." 

(Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))