His Hidden Side - Draco Malfoy

1- Hogwarts Express

The train glided on the tracks all in its crimson and black glory, with the 'Hogwarts Express' sign at front. It's white cloudy steam pulled back, seemingly trying to escape the train. With the last few clicks the train stopped, now waiting to be embarked on.

I, despite standing right at the platform am finding it impossible to believe. This couldn't be a dream could it? Me travelling to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry...

Up until a few months ago, I had no knowledge of magic itself. Travelling through the wall with my trolley does kind of confirm it's existence I suppose.

I look around the busy platform. It was filled with excited students, clutching their luggages while their parents were all teared up, anxious to let them go. I knew nobody of course. I'll just be a new girl starting Hogwarts in the 4th year, with hardly any knowledge of anything. I knew the basics of magic of course, my mother had taught me.

She is here with me now, all dressed in a navy pan suit and a white blouse. Her silky blonde hair curled up.
Of course she wasn't dressed up for me, but for her important job as a lawyer.

She had a fake smile plastered on and had a handkerchief in her hand, occasionally dabbing away the invisible tears in her eyes.

"Now Lilith, this will be a stressful year for you, but I want you to succeed in everything. I didn't put you into this school for no reason right?"

"Yes mother."

"Also." She dabs at her eye before placing her hands on my shoulders and leaning in. "Get chosen into a good house, like Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, I don't even mind Hufflepuff. But do not get into Slytherin."

"Why do you judge them so much?"

"Lilith, it's the evil house." She emphasized 'evil' with hatred, obviously trying to make a point.

"Not everyone is evil."

She clenches her jaw "Lilith, please understand, that I am right!"

Unfamiliar faces turn their heads to see the commotion. She awkwardly turns to them and smiles sweetly. She straightens up, smoothing out her pan suit.

"Well, since the train is here, I should get back to my muggle job."

"What's a muggle?" I ask genuinely confused having not heard that word. She ignores my question.

"I'll write to you when I can." She scoffs with a grin and turns on her heels, without another word. I can hear her heels clip clopping on the wooden floor slowly receding. I listened to each step before they couldn't be heard anymore by the loud surroundings of parents and students shouting their goodbyes.

The doors flung open, welcoming the students and I to another year at Hogwarts, well my first year. As everyone stepped into the train, I couldn't help but feel anxious and alone. My mother left me here to be alone now. I had to make my own way in a world where magic exists with no body. Looking around people hugged their guardians or at most blew a kiss before jumping into the train with their friends.

Yes, my mother is not one for being maternal. Physically, I got everything I need food, water, shelter. Emotionally she lacked the love to give me. I don't believe her that she would write to me, at most maybe a letter at Christmas.

I however cannot be selfish. My mother has a deep hatred for all things magic, despite the fact that she is a half-blood herself. As a young girl she attended Hogwarts and excelled in everything. She apparently was a very confident, fun, smart Gryffindor, but it all went wrong when she had fallen deeply in love with a Slytherin, who then broke her heart, hence her hatred for Slytherin.

She went on to marry my father - Alexander Roswell - a pure blood a few years later. He is unfortunately dead, but I didn't know him so it's not like I can mourn a stranger. My mother on the other hand renounced everything to do with magic when he passed away from a failed experiment of magic. That's what she says anyway, I don't think someone as skilled as my father would 'blow' himself up.
It's been 13 years since his death, my mother says she's doing alright but I don't think changing her identity to just a human is 'alright'.

She hoped I would be normal, nothing like my father, a normal human. But when I began to show signs of magic - making things move and disappear in my emotional state - her wish was not commanded. She made excuses for each 'occurance'. "Oh it was the wind.","You are imagining stuff again you silly girl." She couldn't hide the truth for long though.

"You're not going." she said in her serious voice, more serious than often as her eyes were glued onto the words on the parchment and her hands clasped on her head.

"Going where?"

"Hogwarts. It's not real anyway. Probably just one of your stupid friends playing a prank on you." She knew I didn't have friends, not real ones, but she said it anyway. She speaks her mind.

"May I at least read it?"

Without a word she gets up from her favourite leather chair and approaches our ignited fireplace, letter in hand. She outstretches her hand, ready to watch it go up in flames.

"If it's just a measly prank, why burn it?" Though not obvious I can see her hand the one holding the letter shaking ever so slightly. I walked over and gently took the letter from her frozen shaking hand before the sparks hit

. I read it over in silence - 'We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry'. The bottom signed by Minerva McGonagall.

"Is this... why I can sometimes do ma-"

"Magic." she shouts out unexpectedly. "Yes you're the a witch Lilith. Congratulations!" she scoffs sarcastically. My own two legs seemed so heavy and weak. My breathing was ragged and strained. I was baffled to a point where words couldn't explain. My mother couldn't get out of this one now, she had confirmed everything herself. She told me what she could from her Hogwarts experience, my father and what I was to expect.

A few months ago that was, things were happening for real now. I clenched my large luggage in one hand and my tabby cat's - Cinder, that's her name - carrier in the next and hopped onto the train. It was like I finally left reality and I was on my way to a brighter but scarier future. A future at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.