─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Clara had gathered her prefect instructions from Slytherin's head girl and strutted down the train hall looking for Luna. She was getting quite nervous as she was almost at the end of the train and there was no sight of the short blonde so far.
She reached the last carriage and opened the door. Inside sat Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and another brunette Gryffindor who had his back turned to the door.
"Sorry, I thought- have any of you seen Luna Lovegood?" Clara asked.
"Oh yes, I think she's in the carriage opposite this one." Ginny said with a stiff smile.
"Thank you, I've looked everywhere. I thought I was going mad!" Clara said with a laugh.
Ginny did not return the laugh and instead visibly gulped and gripped her books. Clara cringed at herself and made a note to not joke about being insane around people that actually thought she was insane.
Neville Longbottom also looked terrified and clutched his toad tighter than ever. The other Gryffindor turned to face her and looked up at Clara. Immediately Clara recognized the boy as Harry Potter. The boy who lived. Harry Potter wasn't just popular at school, he was famous worldwide. When he was just a baby he had escaped death at the hands of Lord Voldemort. This was an achievement that had always made Clara curious, but she hadn't ever talked to the boy before, let alone gotten close enough to him to ask about the most traumatic part of his life.
She met his green eyes with her own and could tell he was registering her presence. She shifted a bit and opened her mouth for words that didn't come out.
"Right, I should go. Wouldn't want to let her go on a mad streak without me." Clara said as she continued to search the eyes of the curious boy in front of her. His look of curiosity shifted into a look of disgust and she suddenly felt very offended. She returned his cold glare and closed the door to the carriage.
She walked to Luna and sat next to her. The blonde looked up from her newspaper and a bright smile came across her face.
"Clara! I was wondering when you'd show up. How was the prefect meeting?"
"It was alright, they've got Granger on Gryffindor. Let's just say she better not try to beat me out again this year for top marks. Things will get messy if she does."
Luna put down her newspaper and turned to face Clara.
"Well I certainly think you can beat her like you have every year before, but I don't think of Hermione as the type to just let someone get the top spot without a competition."
"That's true, Luna. Godric, I've missed you! You'll never believe the look that Potter gave me just a minute ago. Truly ghastly, it's as if no one taught him proper manners."
Luna chuckled and quickly pulled Clara into a tight hug. The pair pulled away from each other and smiled.
"So, what's the news of today?" Clara said as she leaned her head on Luna's shoulder.
Luna pulled up her copy of The Quibbler and started reading out the articles. This was Clara's favorite part of every day. It usually happened right before curfew on the great lawn under the stars. Luna would read The Quibbler to her and they would discuss anything and everything. Luna never judged Clara, and the same courtesy was given to Luna by Clara. There was no one in the world that she would ever consider telling secrets to, and why would she need anyone else? The only person Clara needed besides her father was sitting right next to her. As long as that stayed the same, there was no doubt in her mind that everything would be alright.
The peace resting in Clara's heart lasted only a moment before the carriage door opened. The three Gryffindors from the carriage over were staring at the two girls with scared looks. Well, Neville and Ginny looked terrified, but Harry still wore a mean glare. Clara picked her head up off of Luna's shoulder and glared back at him again.
"Er- Malfoy's kicked us out of our carriage. Would it be okay if we sat here for the rest of the ride?" Ginny said after a moment of awkward silence.
"Oh yes, as long as you aren't bringing in any nargles!" Luna said in her singsong voice.
The three students shifted themselves into the carriage and huddled together as if they would be attacked. Luna stared at the three the way she always stared at things and they visibly became more uncomfortable by the minute. Clara rolled her eyes and grabbed The Quibbler from where Luna had placed it.
"You know, you're Harry Potter." Luna said.
"I know I am." Harry replied which made Clara glare at him again.
Did he think he was funny or something? 'I know I am', what kind of smart mouth response was that? The more she learned about this Harry Potter figure the less she liked him.
Luna continued to be friendly to Neville and Ginny like she always did. Harry had decided to return to glaring at Clara, which she gladly reciprocated.
Suddenly a wad of stinksap landed on Harry's face and a portion of it had entered his mouth. Clara stifled a small giggle and covered her mouth with her hand to conceal her laughter.
At that moment a Ravenclaw arrived at the door who Clara recognized as Cho Chang. Harry spit out the stinksap and looked up to the girl. His face flushed red and he wiped his mouth clean. Clara turned her head to the side so that no one could see the now overwhelming amount of laugher that was threatening to escape her mouth.
"Oh, hello Harry, bad time?" Cho said in her quiet voice.
"Hi." Harry said blankly.
"Um, well, just thought I'd say hello. bye then."
With those parting words, the door to their carriage closed again and Clara was able to calm herself. Harry lightly punched the wall and put his head in his hands. A scoff escaped Clara's mouth as she turned the page of the newspaper.
"Have something to say?" Harry said. He looked infuriated. The tips of his ears were bright red and his hair had somehow become even messier.
"She is so out of your league." Clara said, not daring to make eye contact. A small smirk played on her lips and she decided to let it sit there. Usually being mean to people didn't become her, but Harry had done nothing but be negative since she'd met him. Why shouldn't she return the favor?
She could see Harry's fists clench and unclench. She received immense satisfaction from the thought of making this boy mad. Hopefully she would have more opportunities to do so.
An hour later Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger showed up at the carriage.
"What took you so long?" Harry whispered to them.
"We got caught up talking with Fred and George, sorry mate." Ron said.
The pair squeezed into the same row as the others. They all silently argued with their eyes before Ginny stood up.
"Oh honestly." she said and took a seat next to Luna.
"Hello, Ginny. How was your summer?" Luna asked, looking past her shoulder.
"Quite alright, and yours?"
"Oh I suppose it wasn't too bad."
A moment of silence passed over the odd group.
"So tell us about the prefects, Hermione." Harry said, finally breaking the awkward silence.
"Well, there's a boy and a girl for each house. Ravenclaw's got Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil-"
"Oh! I know Padma." Luna said to the sky, "You went to the ball with her, Ron."
"Er- yeah I know I did."
"She didn't enjoy it very much. She doesn't think you treated her very well, because you wouldn't dance with her."
Clara raised her eyebrows and looked out the window. She wasn't particularly interested in Ron's dating life.
"You'll never guess who's a Slytherin prefect." Ron said quietly.
"I'd bet my socks it's Malfoy." Harry responded.
"'Course it is."
The two boys sighed and rolled their eyes.
"What exactly do you have against Draco?" Clara asked.
The two boys looked up in shock. Clara crossed her arms and stared at Harry as she waited for answer.
"Well, umm, he's not very nice. He's a bit of a bully, you know?" Ron said.
"Perhaps you just never took the time to get to know him."
"I didn't mean, er- I forgot that you two, didn't mean to offend you or anything." Ron said as his cheeks turned bright red.
"The two what?" Harry said with a puzzled look on his face.
"Mate, they er-" Ron started, but quickly hushed his voice a low whisper, "They were together last year, remember? They're apart now apparently, I'm not quite sure what happened."
It was true. Last year after Draco had asked Clara to the Yule Ball and they had started going steady. The pair had been childhood best friends but had decided to call it quits after their schedules got too busy.
"Alright, well who's the other Slytherin prefect?" Harry asked.
"That would be me." Clara said sitting up straighter.
The title brought much pride to her, and anytime it was mentioned she immediately felt uplifted.
"You? You can't be serious."
"Excuse you?"
"Well," Harry was intensely glaring at her and she could feel her spirit draining, "They only pick the best of the best to be prefects."
"I'll have you know that I've been the top of our class every year. I'm perfectly qualified to be prefect, and I won't have you telling me otherwise. At least I have enough sense to keep myself out of trouble."
Clara was, of course, referring to the many adventures that Harry had gone on over the years. Each journey seemed to become more and more dangerous each time.
Before Harry could reply to her, the door to the carriage opened for the third time. A tall blonde boy stood before them and smirked. Draco Malfoy. Clara took in his appearance. This was only the second time she had seen him since they'd split up. He had grown taller and his hair was significantly longer.
"What?" Harry said quite aggressively.
"Manners, Potter, I could give you a detention for that."
Draco paused to look around the carriage before his eyes landed on Clara. He looked her up and down and smiled at her.
"Clara." he greeted with a nod.
"Draco." she said, returning his nod.
"I trust you had a good summer?"
"Yes, and you?"
"It was tolerable."
He turned his back to her again and looked at Harry.
"See, Potter, unlike you I've been made a prefect which means that I have the power to hand out punishments."
"Yeah, but you, unlike me, are a git. Now get out!" Harry said.
"Tell me, how does it feel to be second-best to Weasley?"
"Get out! Get out!"
"I seemed to have touched a nerve, well watch yourself, Potter. I'll be keeping my eye on you."
Draco turned back to Clara once more while he grabbed the handle to the carriage.
"See you at school."
Clara waved as he shut the door and picked The Quibbler back up. After a few minutes of silence she could feel something was off. She brought the newspaper down below her eyes and looked at the students surrounding her. Everyone was looking at her, besides Luna who was inspecting the wallpaper.
"What?" she barked at them.
"I thought Ron said you two broke up?" Harry said.
"We- we did. And didn't anyone ever tell you to mind your business?"
"I'm sorry, it's just we've never seen Draco be that..." Hermione paused, as if trying to find the right word, "civil with anyone before, besides Crabbe and Goyle of course."
Clara looked to her and Hermione immediately lowered her gaze to the floor.
"You clearly haven't been paying much attention to him then."
The rest of the train was spent in uncomfortable silence and it seemed to be the longest hour Clara had experienced. Once the students arrived at Hogwarts they were quickly ushered into the great hall where Clara sat in her favorite seat at the Slytherin table. It was at the far end, and no one ever sat next to her. Some might think of this as lonely or maybe even sad, but Clara would rather be alone than with people whose company she didn't truly enjoy.
The rest of the evening was mostly uneventful and somehow Clara had managed to get through the sorting ceremony without dozing off. There was a frightening new professor named Dolores Umbridge that Clara could already tell she wouldn't get along with. Somehow it was already almost midnight, and Clara jumped into her bed. She grabbed her blanket and wrapped it around her body. Her cat, Smoke, hopped onto the bed and curled up right by her feet. Clara bent down and slowly petted the small cat's head before laying down and closing her eyes. Most of the thoughts in her mind were off her new classes and how nice it felt to be back at Hogwarts, but one thought kept pushing itself to the front of her brain.
This thought was of the boy who lived. Harry Potter was not at all what she had expected. He seemed to be rude, selfish, and quite frankly just an awful person. How so many people worshiped him as a hero she didn't think she would ever understand.
She turned over and focused on her first day of classes. She needed to make her father proud, and there was no way she would do that by wasting time on thoughts about an idiotic classmate.
A/N
I did it, the first chapter!
I hope this
isn't too boring, I promise it will get better. Happy
new year! I'm hoping that this year doesn't
totally suck.
xoxo