By the time that the lunch trolley had arrived, Ron and Hermione joined our compartment, but Harry received a letter from Slughorn along with Neville, asking them to join him for lunch.
After a long while, Neville returned to the compartment, but Harry wasn't with him anymore.
I knew this meant that Harry had sneaked off to Malfoy's compartment with his invisibility cloak, trying to eavesdrop on him.
But when night fell upon us and still he hadn't showed up, we got up and changed into our Hogwarts robes.
As we finally reached the Hogsmeade station and got off the train, I stood with Ron and Hermione as they waited for Harry, not telling them anything about how Malfoy had jinxed Harry.
"You can go, Lexi. You don't have to stay with us," said Hermione kindly. "We'll wait for Harry."
"I think he might've just gone to the castle without us," said Ron.
"Then we'll wait until the last person comes off the train," said Hermione firmly. "If he didn't come by then, we'll assume that he's gone off without us and then we'll go."
"Fine," Ron sighed, turning to look over at the train hopefully.
"You go on, Lexi," said Hermione again. "Almost all the carriages are gone. If you hurry, you can catch the one with Neville and Luna."
"You sure you don't want me to wait with you guys?"
"Of course," she said earnestly with a smile, and so I nodded.
"See you later, guys," I waved at them, walking away.
I lost sight of Ron and Hermione as I reached the carriages, which only a few of them were left, and saw that Neville and Luna were already gone.
In the distance by one of the only empty carriages which was left, I saw Pansy Parkinson, probably waiting for Draco.
Even though her other Slytherin friends were already, she stood there alone, staring off at the distance.
Not in the mood to have to deal with her, I tried to walk silently towards one of the carriages.
But I stopped in my tracks when she called louldy behind me, "Where are your stupid friends, you little Mudblood?"
I frowned in confusion at first, but then remembered that I had told everyone last year that I came from a Muggle family.
Rolling my eyes as I was not in the mood to bicker, I decided to ignore her and keep on walking.
But in a quick motion, she paced towards me and grabbed onto my upper arm firmly, causing me to hurtle back.
"I'm talking to you," she snarled.
"Oh, did you now?" I said mockingly, jerking my arm away from her. "Sorry, I didn't understand you. You see, I don't speak cow."
"What did you just call me?" she hissed and in a blink of an eye drew out her wand.
But before she could get the chance to even open her mouth, I took out mine as well, pointing it at her.
"Oh, so the little Mudblood likes to play, does she?" she said, sneering at me.
Although, before either of us could do anything, a voice startled us as it said sharply, "Leave her alone, Pansy."
Turning around, we saw a blond and slim boy walking towards us in his Slytherin robes.
"Draco," she said breathlessly, lowering her wand as she smiled at him sweetly, while mine was still pointed at her.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked Pansy coldly as he reached us, his lip slightly curling upwards.
"Just teaching this filthy Mudblood how to show some respect," she said, shrugging.
"I'll deal with her. You go in the carriage," Draco told Pansy, his cold grey eyes then falling down on me.
"But I —"
"I said leave," he snarled at her, his eyes still glued on me.
Huffing loudly, Pansy rolled her eyes and turned on her heels, walking away and toward one of the carriages, getting inside.
I finally lowered my wand, giving a Draco blank look before turning around and starting to walk away.
"You're welcome, by the way."
I came to a halt as I heard him say behind me, and so I sharply turned around to face him, my teeth gritting together.
"What?" I snapped.
"I just pretended like you had thanked me — like you were supposed to — and for the answer to that I said you're welcome."
"And why on earth would I thank you?" I said, breathing heavily in fury.
"I just saved your arse, that's why."
"Excuse you?" I scoffed. "In case you didn't notice, I had my wand raised. I could handle her."
"You?" He smirked at that. "You couldn't even turn a needle into a beetle two years ago, Hooper. How were you going to handle her?"
"You'll be surprised to know what I can or can't do, Malfoy."
"Go ahead, then," he sneered, walking closer to me as he whispered, "surprise me."
My jaw clenched and I glared daggers at him as he smirked down at me, his face just a few inches away from mine.
I've been telling myself that I would try to help him, but it even shocked me how he could this easily set my teeth on edge and piss me off.
I was tempted to hex him right there on the spot, but I didn't want to spend my first night at Hogwarts in detention, when I could go and try out my wand for the first time and practice real magic all night.
So mustering all the self control I had together, I just said, "Screw you, Malfoy," and with that, I walked off.