The first day of classes came, and Venice had woken up with a start. Her owl had flown in through the window and started scratching in her hair. Who the heck would be sending her a letter a day after arriving at Hogwarts? Venice sat up in her bed and took the letter from the leg of her little owl, and began to read:
Venice! I hope you get this, but I would like to invite you for lunch today in my room!
Prof. Slughorn
Ugh! That bloke just wanted to get to know all the famous people in the school. But Venice wasn't that famous, was she? She was just an oxygen wasting wizard, who happened to have a dead family. Was it because of who killed her family? It was said to be Yaxley, a well known Death Eater. But, he was known for killing a lot of other people too, including Muggles like Venice's parents.
Venice got up and got dressed to go down for classes. She decided to skip breakfast today after looking in the mirror. Running down the steps, she heard the voices of Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle coming from the halls. Venice ran to his behind a suit of armour (who looked at her a bit frightened), and hid behind it. "Crabbe, shut up! Of course I know where it is, you knucklehead!" Venice heard Draco say. She stiffened her body as they walked past her. She successfully went unnoticed and came out from her hiding spot. What did Draco know? Where was he taking them? Surely he had classes today, but maybe he had a free block.
Venice went to Professor Snape to pick up her time table from the great hall and saw that her first class was Muggle Studies. Professor Burbage was looking a little hasty, and was pale as a piece of paper. Venice grabbed one of the textbooks as she went inside and sat down beside Padma Patil, who was in Ravenclaw. Muggle studies went by fairly easily, because she obviously knew everything that Professor Burbage was teaching (because she had been living her life with Muggles all her life).
Her next class was Charms, and she had it with some of the Gryffindors. Venice walked in and took a seat beside Dean Thomas, who was known to be dating Ginny. Charms went by fairly easy too, and they practiced turning things into stone. Venice was horrifically reminded of the time during last summer when she turned the snake that had been taunting her into stone. The only difference was that she wasn't in a forest, and Draco wasn't there with her.
Potions was her last class of the day, because she was scheduled a free block after. Venice went to take a seat, and saw Professor Slughorn sitting in the desk at the front of the class. "Ah, welcome Venice!" He said as she walked in. She looked around for an empty seat, and found one beside Hermione. Venice looked around, and saw that Draco was in her class. He looked at her with his blue eyes for a brief second before looking away. "Welcome, class! Please pull out your textbooks!" Professor Slughorn called. Harry and Ron went to go find a spare textbook, and Venice flipped it to page 14 as instructed. Venice found out that this year in potions was no better than the others. She was horrible, and made a foul smelling green potion. Luckily, all Slughorn said was "Well, just put your mind to it and I can expect great things from you, Ms. Evans!" He said, patting her on the back. Venice looked over at Draco once more and saw him staring at her. It seemed as if he had been looking for a while, so when she looked at him he abruptly turned away.
When Venice walked into that potions classroom, he thought he felt a different feeling flood through him. It was a feeling of extreme sadness. Draco felt the urge to go up to her, but he knew that he couldn't. He would make a fool out of himself, and get himself into even more trouble. Draco's tasks for the dark lord were already complicated enough that he didn't need to throw in Venice as well, even though he so desperately wanted to.
Draco knew that Harry Potter and Venice Evans were now Slughorn's favourites. It didn't matter how much he boasted about his Pure-Bloodedness or his family tree, he didn't seem so interested. At one point he even said, "Ah, fascinating. But, I do prefer the enhancements of the muggle world! It's really amazing you know, Malfon. I've talked to Ms. Evans about the muggle world, and from her it seems quite interesting. Alrighty, pip pip!" Malfoy was furious. As much as he loved Venice, he didn't like Mudbloods. If only Venice was pure, he wouldn't have a problem. But, of course there had to be a twist in everything.