A little girl, about eleven years of age, was running down the small town of Wiltshire's streets, occasionally bumping in to people as she went. She muttered apologies and kept her head facing the stoned walkways. There were cars zooming past her, and the air smelt slightly of coconuts. She wasn't sure why it smelt like it did, but it made her somewhat queasy.
Aware of the fact that she was not only in a rush to start with, but the smell was probably going to lead to a sneezing fit, she sped up her pace. Within moments she was at the crosswalk and had to skid to stop. Looking left, and then looking right, the girl didn't see any cars coming so stepped out on to the road cautiously. Slowly and steadily, she began to cross the road. Halfway through her journey, she saw two bright headlights coming closer and closer to her. She halted, unsure of what to do, and it wasn't until somebody ran from the side she was aiming for and dragged her to the sidewalk that she realized that the car wasn't going to stop – and was going to hit her.
She lifted her chin up slightly to thank her hero but stopped short when she noticed the pale complexion and noticeably platinum blonde hair. He was, undoubtedly, a Malfoy - a member of the family that her mother instructed her to visit and become acquainted with before school began. Her mother had been childhood friends with Narcissa, after all.
"What're you doin'?" the boy who saved her said, in a somewhat annoyed tone. "You almost got yourself hit with one of those Muggle toys." She couldn't help but notice that when he said muggle he scrunched his nose up slightly.
"I got scared. Mommy or Daddy would always help me cross the streets," she tried to explain. "You're Draco, aren't you? Draco Malfoy. Mommy said you and me would stick together when school started."
"She did, did she?" the boy looked her up and down. "My name is Draco, and that must mean that you're Elizabeth. C'mon, our house is this way. Follow my lead so you don't get ran over."
Elizabeth nodded and reached to grip on to his hand. He flinched at first, but after a moment held on nevertheless. Draco led her through what seemed like countless dampened streets before he stopped in front of what looked to be a castle.
"Whoa," Elizabeth whispered. Her family was wealthy and had many luxuries, but they preferred to live in a modest home. Or somewhat modest, despite what it looked like, it definitely was not a castle.
"Pretty great, huh?" Draco grinned, flashing her a perfectly white smile. "My father paid what must've been billions for this. We have to have loads of house elves just to keep the place looking magical. Can't imagine what only one wizard would have to do to clean it. I guess that's what the house elves are for, right Elizabeth?"
She didn't like the way he was practically describing house elves as their slaves. Her family owned a few house elves, but they considered them almost family (she did, anyway). She forced herself to give him a shy smile and said, "Shall we go in? I want to see if you have my prince charming inside."
"We don't, sorry." Draco nudged her and winked, "He's outside."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes before squeezing on his hand, making him drop his smile and cringe. It only lasted a moment, within the next he was smirking. He tugged on her hand and led her down the ever long driveway towards the castle. On either side of them were hedges that seemed to reach the sky (it might've been just from the eyes of a tween though). They were a deep, grassy green and were speckled with small raindrops from England's rainy climate. As Draco led on, she let herself breathe deeply. The smell after a rainy day had been her favourite ever since she could remember. She couldn't ever explain it, but it just smelt fresh.
Draco stopped suddenly, causing Elizabeth to bump into him. "Ow," Draco mumbled. "There should be a house elf coming to open up the doors."
Realizing they were in front of the castle, Elizabeth gazed up at the roofline and the many windows on the walls. "How many rooms do you have?" She asked curiously.
"Enough to house a big party, including the unwelcomed guests," Draco said quickly. He examined her for a moment, his gray eyes flittering around her face. "You're a girl alright," he announced. Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at this comment, causing Draco to go on. "And you seem cool. Not me cool, but cool. If you're lucky, I might begin to consider you my sister."
She smiled at him, "And maybe one of these days you'll be as lucky as a leprechaun to find out that I consider you my brother."
ϟϟϟ
A Week Later...
"Hurry up, you're going to get left behind," Lucius Malfoy yelled backwards towards her. They were passing through the bad part of London, a part where smugglers and pickpocketers were at their finest. The streets were almost as dark as they were narrow, and Elizabeth could've sworn she saw a two-headed rat.
"If you don't hurry up, we'll leave you behind and let the trolls get at you," Draco teased from a good few feet ahead of her. Elizabeth gasped and ran to catch up, slowing her pace when she was right beside Draco and grabbed on to his hand. Draco pretended to scowl, "Now you're gonna get us stuck in this alley."
"Better than being eaten by trolls," she countered.
"If we get stuck, we're both gonna get eaten."
"Better together than apart."
She could almost see Lucius smile at her remark. They were both pureblood families, so maybe Lucius was hoping that her and Draco would end up together and keep the line pure. She scuffed at that thought, as if.
Lucius led them into a store that had two mugs clinking together on its sign, a pub. The place smelt heavily of body odour, and Elizabeth tried to ignore the stares they were getting, or rather glares. As they were passing through, she couldn't help but whisper to Draco, "Why is everyone glaring?"
"Must be afraid," Draco whispered back, "Father is quite powerful in the ministry and can send all of them to Azkaban with a snap of his fingers." He glanced at Elizabeth and added, "Not that he would. Says they're a whole lotta mudbloods and half-bloods – not worth his time."
"What do you say to that?" Elizabeth asked.
"I don't say anything," Draco admits. "But I think judging half-bloods before knowing them is dumb. You-Know-Who was taken down by a half-blood baby, and it isn't half-blood's fault that their pureblooded parent turned into a blood traitor."
Elizabeth nodded, not sure what to say. It had become obvious that Draco didn't always agree with his father's way of life, but he did what he did so he would hopefully get approval from him. For instance, just the day before Draco had started to beat up a muggleborn who scuffed at his last name. Elizabeth had to drag Draco with all of her might away from the poor boy.
There was a tapping sound as Lucius began to, well, tap, a section of the brick wall. Elizabeth was just about to ask what he was doing that for, but stopped herself when the wall opened up like a door. She gaped, her brown eyes sparkling with wonder. Draco laughed quietly and pushed her through the opening, making her almost fall face first on to the courtyard's cobblestoned floor. She caught herself with her hands stretched out in front of her, stopping her face from tumbling and scraping the cold floor. She got up and dusted herself off, stopping to glare at a smirking Draco.
"That," She said with a slight yawn, "is why when we get to Hogwarts I'll be your only friend."
Draco's smirk dropped faster than you could say "oh". He muttered something that sounded like, "Let's keep going before father leaves us behind." Even if that wasn't what he ended up saying, Elizabeth pretended like it was. She began to trail behind Lucius again, with Draco behind her.
Lucius turned to the two kids and said, "I have... business to attend to. You two run along and purchase what you need. I'll meet you at Madam Malkin's in a while to pay for your robes." He started to walk away from the confused kids before adding, "Oh, and stick together, will you?"
Elizabeth and Draco stood side by side as they watched Lucius walk away, practically abandoning the two in a strange place; strange for Elizabeth at least, whose parents were testing if they could survive with limited magic. It turns out that they can, and very well. But that's off topic, so Elizabeth spoke up, turning to Draco with a mischievous glint in her eye, "So, Draco... Where to first?"
ϟϟϟ
Elizabeth was waiting for Draco outside of the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ when a nice family of gingers with freckled faces began talking to her. Deciding they were friendly enough, she kindly replied back and she learned that one of the family's many sons, Ron, was starting his first year at Hogwarts as well. The twins, George and Fred (or was it Fred and George?) annoyed the hell out of her but she kept her annoyance to herself. They didn't seem like the pair who you'd want on your bad side, with their clever ways of thinking and probably even tricking.
She noticed a boy with messy black hair wandering towards them. He had very circular glasses and has a rather, lost, expression upon his face. She tilted her head, she knew she recognized his description from somewhere, but where? My gods, she thought, that's Harry Potter.
She quickly excused herself from the Weasley family, and pushed her cart through the pillar. Elizabeth was assuming that Draco would find her eventually (hopefully). She was puzzled on why her immediate reaction from Harry was to get out of there as fast as she could. She was usually a friendly person, or so that's what her parents always told her. Deciding now to think much of it, Elizabeth handed her cart over to a man who was loading other people's luggage on to the train. She smiled nicely and asked him if he had seen a boy with platinum blonde hair anywhere.
He had nodded, replying with, "If you're talking about that Malfoy boy, he's already boarded the train. He was with these two other boys, Goyle and Crabbe, I believe. If you're going to go looking for him, I suggest looking near the back of the train. Boys like them tend to stay back there."
She gave him a questioning look but decided not to bother. He seemed busy enough as it is, why annoy the poor man with more questions? She went on her way and entered the train. The rooms of compartments seemed to go on forever, and yet in none of them she found Draco.
Slightly annoyed, she plunked herself down in a compartment with a bushy haired girl and a rather nervous looking boy. "Hi, I'm Elizabeth," she said tiredly, "if you happen to see a really pale blonde boy anywhere, wake me up."
She fell asleep without learning that their names were Hermione and Neville.
ϟϟϟ
About a half an hour or so later, there was a knocking on the door. Draco stepped in and looked from a whimpering boy, to a serious looking girl, to Elizabeth, who looked pretty out of it. He ignored the other two people and tapped on Elizabeth's shoulder, causing her to jolt awake.
"Huh? What?" Elizabeth asked, slightly dazed.
"C'mon, Lizzie, I got some people I want you to meet."
"I do, too!" Elizabeth said all excited. She looked towards the two others in the compartment. "Draco, meet... um..." She stopped, realizing she fell asleep without ever learning their names.
"I'm Hermione," the girl said, as she talked you could see her slightly larger front teeth. Draco let out a slight snicker beside Elizabeth, causing her to nudge him with her elbow. "And this is Neville. Would you mind helping us look for his toad? He seems to have lost it."
Elizabeth right away nodded as Draco shook his head. "I'll be in the compartment next door if you need me. Have fun searching for your frog." After he left, Elizabeth turned to Hermione eagerly.
"I'll start looking on this side of the train, you start looking on the opposite side?" Hermione suggested. Elizabeth agreed, and they went their separate ways.
After searching compartment after compartment, Elizabeth was about to give up. She was on the very last one on her side of the train and was exhausted of asking random strangers if they've seen a frog. She opened up the door and immediately regretted it. Inside were Ron and Harry, munching on some wizard sweets.
"Umm..." Elizabeth said nervously. "Have either of you seen a toad around here?"
Harry's eyes jolted to her, making direct eye contact that made her uncomfortable. It was almost like he was trying to look into her soul, and that was not a good feeling. They were also so hauntingly green, a brighter green than even the most carefully watered and planted grass. It, for lack of better words, made Elizabeth feel really uncomfortable.
"Hi Elizabeth," Ron said as he swallowed a mouthful of some sort of sweet. "We haven't. But you're welcome to stay. Right, Harry?"
Harry's eyes flickered to Ron for only a moment before returning them to Elizabeth. He nodded slowly. She swore that he heard Ron whisper to him, "What's wrong, Harry? Cat got your tongue?" but it could've just been her imagination.
She cleared her throat before saying, "No, I should probably find my friends. Thanks though, maybe I'll see you guys at the sorting?" Elizabeth tried to sound hopeful, but under Harry's intense stare she knew it lacked any genuineness to it.
That very first day of Hogwarts wasn't only the start of a wonderful education filled with friendship and many new memories to come, but it was the start of a change in Harry. He felt like he had to know Elizabeth, no matter the costs. While Elizabeth, well, she was preparing for the most enjoyable but also the most irritating years of her life.