Always (A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

Chapter 5: Malfoy and the Compartment

Val sat on the plush seat in her compartment on the Hogwarts Express. In her hand, she turned a wand over and over again, slipping it nimbly through her fingers.

She remembered the feeling of pleasure when this wand had chosen her. The way she had felt complete, holding it tightly in her grasp. Invincible. As if she could do anything she wanted. It was made of yew and threstral hair, ten and a half inches, and quite flexible, she was told.

Val thought back to the look of amazement that Mr. Ollivander had worn when Harry had picked out his phoenix feather wand. His emotion had only increased when he realised that her wand was made of yew and thestral hair.

"Use that wand wisely, my girl," he had said, "It's power is immense. Two siblings with such unique wand cores...my, my...thestral hair...only two wands like it in existence...curious...how, curious."

Confused and somewhat frightened, they had left the wand maker to his mumblings.

Val stored the wand in her pocket and pulled out her book of spells. She had barely been able to put it down since she had first bought it. She loved magic. And if she said so herself, magic seemed to love her.

It came naturally to her, the spells. They would just pour out and she found that she could say pronounce it quite accurately, with the correct hand motion, even without much concentration. It was absolutely marvellous, especially since in the muggle school, she had been a less than stellar student.

She had spent the holidays staying up late, hiding under her duvet and practising the spells again and again – sparking little lights, making objects fly around her room, transforming rocks into flowers with a flick and a whisper.

She flicked to a page about changing skin colour.

Harry watched her read, warily. "When did you become such a reader?"

Val grinned and semi-stuck out her tongue. "You should look at it too. It's actually really interesting."

Ron looked over at her reading as well. Val was quite pleased to have met him. Ron was nice enough, a funny fellow, and it was great having someone who could explain the wizarding world to her.

"Are you reading about magic?" he asked. Before Val could answer he said, "I've practising a spell myself too, want to see?"

Val nodded.

It was at the exact moment that Ron had pulled out his wand, that a girl with unkempt brown hair walked into the compartment.

"Have you seen a toa...", she trailed off. "Oooh! Are you practising magic? Well, show us then!"

Ron looked uncomfortable at the attention and cleared his throat. "Well...alright, I guess."

He said in loud voice, "sunshine, daisies, butter mellow. Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

Val stared at him blanky. So did Harry and the girl. Nothing seemed to be happening.

Val felt sorry for Ron. It was obvious that someone had been trying to deceive him. A spell like that would never have worked, she could tell that there was no magic clinging to it.

"That's not a very good spell, is it?" the girl said breaking the silence. "Are you sure its real? Well...if you wanted to do some actual magic, you should read the textbooks. I've memorised all of them." She tilted her head up proudly. "I'm Hermione Granger, and you are?"

"Ron Weasely," muttered Ron.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Valerie Potter," said Val, "But call me Val."