The Last of the Malfoys (on hiatus)

Chapter One

The day started abruptly. A scream. She woke up. She was still alive.

These days, you could be killed in your sleep any second for any reason if only you seemed like a threat. You wouldn't know. No one would ever tell you until you were dead. You would never find out unless someone from the ministry told you, which was highly unlikely. But it was like this since she remembered and Jeanine became used to seeing a list of seven more deaths in the Daily Quibbler. It was an everyday thing, however very gruesome. She knew that, because her grandparents always told stories about the times their grandparents were kids.

They were free and had no worries. They could go into a park without having to go through the memorised rules to check if you won't break any of them. They could walk out of the house without having to look around the neighbourhood to see if there weren't any Aurors to look out for. They were allowed to be interested in the world and explore. It was the Freedom Century. At least that's what the kids called it.

These days, it was very different. You could be put into Azkaban for anything. There were many rules that make no sense. There were also things no one could ever talk about. It was dangerous to be alive.

But she was still here. Her heart was pumping blood, she could think, speak and hear. Jeanine's room was the same as it was when she fell asleep. The school textbooks for school were piled up in random places on the floor. The clothes she threw off before she went to sleep were still on the chair. A purse with an Undetectable Extension Charm was hanging on the door knob. On the wooden desk in front of the window was the girl's own message machine. It was a small beige box with a screen and a pen attached to it. To use it, you had to pick up the pen, write the name of the person you want to send a letter to on the attached screen and then write the letter. It was sent the second you signed the letter. The other person was alerted by a green light and could read it straight away. It was very old and very few people use the Owlers anymore.
These days everybody had a WizPhone. It was way better than the Owler. You could do many more things than just writing letters. You could call the person on the Howler, you could check where you can Apparate on iApparition. You could also have the Daily Quibbler on the WizPhone or research anything on Accio. It was very useful, but Jeanine was too young to be allowed to own it so her and her friends communicated by the Owler.

The young girl stopped daydreaming and crawled out of bed. It was the last day of PreWizarding School and she had two hours to get ready. Jeanine clapped her hands twice and a small House Elf appeared in front of her with a pop. It was Ani. He wore an oversized Crimson sweater, blue shorts and AnySize Trainers. He loved these shoes a lot. It took him three years to raise enough money to buy them. They could fit any size and made you jump higher.

"Hello, Jeany!" Ani smiled at the girl. His face was covered with flour, as he worked in the kitchens.

"Hi, Ani." Jeanine said. "Could you, please, make me a sandwich?"

"Sure! With what should the sandwich be?" Ani asked.

"A ham, cheese and tomato sandwich, please."

"I'll be back soon!" Ani disappeared with a pop just as he appeared.

An hour later, Jeanine was fully dressed in her best ironed clothing, fed and her platinum blonde hair was tied in two braids at her sides. Her school bag was packed and the room looked quite clean. Quite clean, meant that all the dirty laundry was under the bed and the boxes and books were neatly put against the wall. One of the elves would probably clean up the mess during the day.

***

The sun was falling behind the horizon, as Jeanine threw her school bag onto the bed and threw off her shoes. She looked around the room and realised it was spotless. The wooden floor was shining and the books on the floor were put back onto the shelf. The mountain of dirty clothes from under the bed were clean, ironed and nicely hanging in the closet. A plate of freshly cut fruits and lemonade were put on the desk next to the big window that looked out onto the beach. The girl smiled, took the food, sat on the bed and ate the delicious fruits, while celebrating the start of summer.

The sun peaked through the window and gently touched her forehead. Jeanine looked up from the book she was reading and closed her eyes imagining what some of her friends could be doing right now. Lyla is probably packing to go to her family in France. Harold is most likely playing Fillerin with his older brother Josh, who just came back from his 4th year at Hogwarts and Angie is at dance practice. They were all doing something fun, while she just reread 'The Official History of Pottem and Hogwarts'.

Hogwarts was the Jeanine's dream school. Her whole family attended it since centuries back. Except the time during The Change. That was when Hogwarts was closed for rebuilding and the whole educational system was changed. That was when all the wizards in Great Britain had to go to Pottem. It was built two years before Hogwarts was closed to give more students a chance to learn. When Hogwarts was finally opened again, half of the students transferred, however not her ancestors. The rest of the family went to Hogwarts and it was always her dream to attend Hogwarts. She was nearly twelve and during the first two weeks of summer she could get an acceptance letter to Hogwarts or to Pottem.
She was hoping not to be accepted to Pottem. It was considered a school for the Wizards with less abilities and the educational system was rubbish. But some of the poorer families had to send their kids to Pottem, as it was a free school and to go to Hogwarts you had to pay 15 Galleons per year to be able to attend or you had to get a scholarship, but that was very rare.

Jeanine looked back at the thick book that she had read multiple times already and heard a faint ring of the doorbell. It's probably mum and dad coming back from work, she though. The girl looked at the page number and repeated it in her head, so that she could remember it for the next time reading this book. Page 394, 394, 394. Closing the book, she jumped off the bed and ran to the living room to greet her mum and dad.

***

It was two week after school has ended and Jeanine was lacking sleep, because of the anxiety that she wouldn't get her Hogwarts letter. The minute she fell asleep, she would have a nightmare about going through the dark corridors of the Pottem school and all the poor kids looking at her out of their cells (that was how she imagined the school looked like) or her close friends laughing at the girl as she leaves for Pottem and they catch the train to Hogwarts. She usually woke up with a scream. She feared going to sleep. When the night came, she would make as many excuses as she could to avoid going to bed. Jeanine would stay in the shower until her skin got wrinkled or cook very complex dinners at 11pm, even though Ani, Kai and Lexi could cook it for her if she wanted to. She didn't read or watch any shows anymore, as it made her sleepy and she would fall asleep without noticing.
When mum and dad were out for work she stole a potion from the cabinet that mad you very energetic for a few hours and used it at night, but after the side effects (very bad fever, lack of appetite and eye redness) hit her, her parents realised what she was doing and they grounded her for two weeks and locked the cupboard with the potions. Since then she received anxiety medication, sleep potion and Lula, who was one of the elves in the house, was told to stay with her all day. It soon became annoying, but she didn't listen to Jeanine when she asked the elf to let her be alone for a while.

It was very dark outside. Lula was humming an old Trouble Titans song called 'Never wake up'. It was the song that Jeanine's parents first danced to after they got married. It was THEIR song. Every time they heard it, they would look at each other as if they were back in their 20s. The girl sometimes found it annoying, but this time it was calming. She stood up from the bed and walked over to the Owler. The green light that signified a delivered message was lit up for the past three days. With her trembling fingers, she clicked the small ON button and waited for the screen to load. The light was on for a long time, but she was too worried to check her inbox. Too worried that the Hogwarts letter would never come and that the letter the girl got was an acceptance letter from Pottem.

The screen flickered and slowly revealed the homepage. There was an icon names Inbox, another named Write a Letter, Library and Sent Letters. Jeanine picked up a thin, white pen and rolled it in her fingers. Then, she clicked on the white icon with a purple letter on in. It was the Inbox. She closed her eyes, hoping for the message to be about the newest book in Korper's or the Hogwarts Acceptance Letter. She opened her eyes and saw that the inbox was loading. Her heart was beating faster than a drum beat in 'Very Many Memories' by the band Americons. She tried to take a deep breath, but her throat was blocked. She tried to swallow but she couldn't. Tears were piling up against her eyelids, forcing themselves to come out and fall from her cheeks. The inbox opened and Jeanine's eyes fell on the unopened letter. The title said: Pottem, School of Advanced Magic. The tears fell from the girl's eyes and everything went black.