Draya Malfoy

1 - The Girl Who Was Not A Boy

"That's alright," I said lazily, feeling a flutter of hope that I could escape from this riff-raff. "I can go on my own."

She reluctantly agreed, so long as I went straight there and straight back without talking to anyone but Madam Malkin herself.

Of course I broke that rule the second a boy came into the shop and hopped up onto the empty stool next to me.

"Hullo," I said, eyeing the bespectacled raven haired boy with curiosity, "Hogwarts too?"

"Yes," he answered in a small voice. I deduced he must be a first year as well, and so I was keen to make friends.

"My mother's next door buying my books and Father's up some place called Knockturn Alley," I said in my best drawl. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."

I couldn't seem to stop talking. Even when the boy looked at me with obvious contempt, I felt the need to bluster on in an attempt to impress him. What was wrong with me?

"Have you got your own broom?" I went on, desperate to engage him in conversation.

"No."

Silence.

"Play Quidditch at all?"

"No."

Merlin. This boy was giving me nothing. So, I tried again.

"I do - Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"

"No."

I felt utterly frustrated. I thought making friends was supposed to be easy, but somehow, by the non-reaction of this boy, I wasn't doing a very good job. However, I refused to give up.

"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they," I continued, "but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I'd think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

"Mmm."

I was tempted to bash my forehead against the mirror before me. Instead, I looked around for inspiration. And then I saw a great big giant-like man at the shop window. His appearance startled me at first, but when I saw he was holding two ice-creams and trying to garner the attention of the monosyllabic boy, I finally felt saved.

"I say, look at that man!" I said enthusiastically, thinking surely this boy would at least have something to say about that. He didn't disappoint.

"That's Hagrid," he said, suddenly sounding pleased with himself. "He works at Hogwarts."

"Oh, I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"

The boy's face fell. Clearly I had said the wrong thing.

"He's the gamekeeper."

"Yes, exactly." I said quickly, feeling a rush of relief. "I heard he's a sort of savage - lives in a hut in the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed."

I was hoping this little anecdote would make him laugh like it had done me when Father told me about it. But instead, the boy gave me a cold look, his green eyes narrowing.

"I think he's brilliant."

"Do you?" I couldn't help but feel irritated by this boy's unfriendliness towards me. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"

"They're dead."

"Oh, sorry," I said, wondering how one responds to such an answer. When he did not expand on this, I searched my head for something to say. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"

"They were a witch and a wizard, if that's what you mean."

Ah, so he was like me. Perhaps that's why he was being so cold - maybe he thought I was a Mudblood? I decided to reassure him.

"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you?" I rushed out. "They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"

But before he could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and the boy hopped down from the footstool without even a second glance.

"Well," I called after him as he began to walk away, "I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose."

He threw me a strange look over his shoulder and then left without saying goodbye.

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