Redemption - A Draco Malfoy Story

year 1 part 2

I walked along the narrow corridor of the train, looking for an empty compartment. As I was rather late to boarding, most of the compartments were already full. Just as I was beginning to wonder where Iderius had gotten off to, my stomach rolling at the thought of having to resort to sitting by my brother, I happened across a compartment with only two boys about my age sitting inside, one of them with a fat brown rat in his lap.

"Hello," I spoke politely, pausing their conversation and turning their heads towards my voice. "Could I sit with you two?"

As I got a better look of their faces, I observed two jarringly different ones. The boy to my right, with the rat in his lap, had a blank expression on his rosy, round, incredibly freckled face, his vibrant head of red hair styled plainly. The boy to my left looked to be his exact opposite; a crop of messy black hair sat atop his rather slender face, covering his forehead, and two brilliant green eyes glimmered from behind round spectacles. They both looked rather lanky and somewhat awkwardly built, but then again, what boys their age didn't?

"Oh, yeah." The redhead remarked nonchalantly, gesturing vaguely around the compartment. I took a seat next to him. "I'm Ron by the way, Ron Weasley. This is Harry Potter."

I tried to stifle my surprise as I locked eyes with the black-haired boy across from me, but rather unsuccessfully, as he seemed to notice my slight change in expression. I'd heard of Harry Potter, of course--you'd have to have been living under a rock for the past decade to not know who he was. The Boy Who Lived; the only person to have ever survived the Killing Curse, left only with a scar on his forehead. When my parents had spoken of him, it had always seemed subdued, so I wasn't sure what they thought of him. And here he finally sat, bespectacled Harry Potter, in front of my very eyes. However, my personal opinion had always been that Harry Potter had never chosen fame, and probably preferred to be treated like a normal human being, rather than a symbol. Therefore, I decided against making any particular comment.

In any case, making assumptions about people is generally not conducive to friendship-making.

"My name is Lilith. Lilith Waters."

This time it was Ron's turn to react; a slight change of expression crossed his face, but only for the smallest moment. I could not tell what his exact emotion had been. The reaction was probably to my family name, as I knew my Father held an important position in the Ministry of Magic and my family was a very ancient one, but I was slightly surprised that the Waters family was known even to one student I happened to meet. As if nothing had happened, however, Ron smiled gallantly and reached out his hand. We shook firmly. Harry gave me a shy smile and a small nod. I felt relieved--whatever Ron's reaction had been, it surely could not have been bad.

Ron then resumed what I can only assume was the previous topic of conversation before I intruded.

"Anyway, I only know one spell that my brother taught me. It's supposed to turn Scabbers yellow. Do you want to see?"

Harry grinned and nodded enthusiastically. I nodded as well, curious. Ron held his rat, who must have been Scabbers, outstretched in one hand and gripped his wand somewhat haphazardly in the other. Ron pointed his wand towards Scabbers, but just as he opened his mouth, the door to our compartment slid open forcefully and in the doorway stood a somewhat frazzled looking girl with full, bushy brown hair and dark brown eyes.

"Have any of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one." The three of us shrugged in unison. She looked at all of us somewhat sternly before fixating on Ron's wand. Her eyes lit up.

"Are you doing magic?" she said rather brightly. "Well, let's see it then."

Ron looked at her expressionlessly for a moment before seemingly agreeing and resuming his position. He lifted his wand.