Lost Along the Way {Draco Malfoy Love Story}

The House She Was Destined to Get

The Great Hall was beautiful, and frankly, enormous. Janelle trailed inside behind a girl with dark, stringy hair, avoiding eye contact with anyone. She'd read in the book about the houses, but she didn't know how they'd get put in one.

They all stood at the front of the Hall, waiting. Professor McGonagall began calling first years up and placing an old hat on their heads. The head screamed out one of the houses, and the students went over to join the house they were placed in. So this is how her future would be determined? Strange.

Janelle caught her breath in her throat when McGonagall called out, "Draco Malfoy."

Draco had been standing near the front of the line and carelessly strutted up to the stool, where McGonagall waited with the hat. Janelle watched him very carefully. The two were very alike, so it was very likely that they'd get the same house.

The hat was only on Draco's hat for a millisecond before screaming, "SLYTHERIN!"

A loud cheer rose out from the Slytherin table as Draco smirked and joined them. The next few people went by quickly, and before Janelle knew it, Hermione had been called up.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Sorting Hat squealed.

Janelle froze. She was much like Draco, who was a Slytherin, but even more like Hermione, a Gryffindor. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley were placed in Gryffindor as well. By the time McGonagall got to the two students whose last names began with 'Z', Janelle was more confused and nervous than ever.

She watched as Blaise Zabini was placed into Slytherin, then took a shallow deep breath, knowing who was next.

"Janelle Zisky," McGonagall called.

Janelle slowly walked up to the stool, aware of all four of her friends watching her. She sat, and McGonagall placed The Sorting Hat on her head.

"A Zisky, eh?" the hat said loud enough for the Hall to hear. "Your parents were both Slytherins, I see... Hmm... But you are different from them... You are intelligent, and courageous, and trustworthy, and most of all, adventurous... Hmm... Very well, my decision is... GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table broke into cheers. Janelle smiled as she saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione cheer, too. She rose and started towards her new home. As she passed by the Slytherin table, Janelle was aware of Draco gaping at her. She sent him a small, apologetic grin and sat beside Harry Potter at the next table over.

All throughout Dumbledore's speech, Draco kept staring at Janelle. Every now and then, she'd look over and meet his gaze, and he'd quickly look away. She blinked at him. He seemed very disappointed that she'd gotten Gryffindor. Why was that such a bad thing?

Janelle decided she needed to talk to him about it.

So later that night, after following Percy Weasley to the common room with the rest of the Gryffindor first years and everyone had settled in and gone to sleep, Janelle crept out of bed over to where her tabby cat (who was striped grey and black), Cura, sat sleeping in the shadows of the room. Upon hearing her coming, Cura opened an illuminating yellow eye and stared.

Janelle bent down beside her feline, giving her a neatly folded note.

"Cura," she whispered so softly she wasn't sure the cat even heard her. She feared waking Hermione, or the other two girls in her dorm with her, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. "Take this to the Slytherin common room. Please."

Lazily, the feline took the note from Janelle and suddenly darted out of the room, her footsteps silent. Anxiously, Janelle had crawled back into her four-poster bed and laid in the darkness, waiting for a possible response from Draco. She knew she could count on Cura to find the supposedly well hidden Slytherin common room. And naturally being the dark colors of grey and black, no one would see the cat in the hallway if they had still been out of bed.

Janelle had no idea how much time passed after that. She was too tired to care. But yet she forced herself to stay awake by sitting upright and leaning her head against the window at her bedside. Eventually, there was a soft hiss at the doorway and Cura reappeared, agilely jumping onto her bed. This time, instead of clutching the white sheet of paper she had been given, she held another note, this time on a green sheet. Janelle had no doubt it was from Slytherin house.

Relieved and satisfied, she gave her feline a quick stroke before taking the note from her. Cura laid at the foot of her bed and was asleep again in just a few moments. Janelle took out her wand, hornbeam with unicorn core, and quickly muttered, "Lumos" (a spell she'd learned in Hogwarts: A History) to cast a small light so she could read. After she put it away she anxiously flipped open the note and almost smiled when she saw Draco's extraordinarily neat writing scrawled across it.

She read to herself quietly in the dark:

"I was just as shocked as you were.

But you know what? We're in rival houses. Therefore we're rivals now. Which is a shame, since I actually kind of liked you. And you would've made a great Slytherin.

I suppose your parents don't know you're a Gryffindor yet. I wish you the best of luck for when you have to tell them. But I'm afraid that's all I'm going to do for you.

Like I said, we're rivals now. Not friends.

And I'm not saying it's your fault. I guess Gryffindor was just the house you were destined to get. We're different, Zisky. Very different.

Goodbye,

Draco L. Malfoy"

By the time she finished the note, Janelle found that her eyes prickling with tears that had formed halfway through. She thought they could've gotten along. And they really weren't that different. They understood each other. But he was willing to abandon their friendship just because of the house she was put it. Because it risked his "beloved reputation".

The tears quickly vanished, and a hint of annoyance rose up from the depths of her heart. Her family. The Parkinsons. The Malfoys. For them, it was reputation this, reputation that. Honestly, she couldve cared less about the other Ziskys at the time. She was irritated.

Janelle wanted to live a simpler life from that moment on, and perhaps make Gryffindor her new home. She didn't care what her Slytherin parents thought of that. She would be friends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione (and maybe Parvati and Lavender since they shared the same dorm) and find out what her future holds without houses being a care in the world to her.

And she had to admit that there was some truth in what Draco had written.

Gryffindor was the house that Janelle was destined to get.