The 11 year old pulled herself through the crowds at the station, following the read-heads that were leading her. A boy her age was right in front of her, his head turning to see if she was still behind every once in a while.
She followed them quietly, afraid some may dare say. Henrietta stayed quiet even when all of them stopped and started to go into the train. When she saw that the mother did not let them go, she decided to enter on her own. Not wanting to intrude or to stay there any longer, she felt uncomfortable seeing all that affection.
Roaming her way through the compartments, she found one that was fairly empty, except for a kid, who seemed her age, with nearly white hair and very pale. He looked at her, and without saying it explicitly, invited her to sit with him.
She said nothing and sat, putting her things in the space above her head with a bit of difficulty.
“What is your name?” she tried to do polite small talk, smiling softly at the boy who she sat in front of.
“My name is Draco Malfoy, Hair Draco Malfoy” he said, with a cold yet soft tone, not leaving room for discussion but being sweet.
“I’m Henrietta Potter” as soon as she said her name, the eyes of the boy changed. They had more respect now in them. He titled his head, as if questioning himself the question he wanted to ask.
“Did you come here alone?” for the tone he said it in, she could deduce that something was not right if the answer to the question was going to be yes. So, to avoid any confrontation, she decided to just nod her head.
He nodded back, before asking her more things. “Did you have trouble finding the platform?”
Yes, she wanted to say, nobody told her where it would be. Instead, she just nodded, before adding “But a red-headed family helped me”
“Red-heads?” he asked, now rather disgusted with the thought of her being with them.
“Yes? Is there something wrong?” confusion found its way onto her face, making her make a face.
“You will see, Hairess Potter, that there are different families in this world of ours. Some of us are more afines to some things and others to others, that, for itself, does not mean anything bad, but we have some traditions that ancient families, like mine, follow. These traditions help our magic grow stronger and more powerful. Despite being part of this family, the red-heads, Weasley’s, do not follow these traditions and are not seen as good amongst the ones that do” he explained.
They stayed in silence after that, her thinking about his words. Everything in this world was new to her, she knew nothing about it. Was she not good enough because of it? Would that mean that she would be expelled because she couldn’t do something others could?
Wait-
“Did you just call me ‘Hairess Potter’?” she asked, not understanding if it was just because he was accustomed to talk to the ones with the same status as he or if he really meant it.
“Did they seriously not teach you anything? Do you siriusly not have any idea?” he queried “ Are you telling me that they told you nothing about our world?” he was perplexed, how come they did not teach her anything?
“No?” it was more of a question than an answer, but she said it nonetheless. Sensing the tension his question created between them, the boy calmed down.
“Ok, do you want to know something?” now, the boy was calmer, and more focused on answering her questions rather than the other way around.
“Yes, could you tell me about the school? I read a couple books about it, but they mostly said the same that the person who came for me told me, so I did not learn something new or interesting”
Like that, their trip to the school was rather comfortable, with her asking questions and him answering them. All was good, and the tension that once existed between them was long forgotten.
Suddenly, a girl opened the doors, and asked “Has anyone seen a Toad? A boy named Neville lost his” she said.
“No, we did not, but if we do we will tell you” he said, wanting the girl gone as soon as possible, that way, he will be able to return to the conversation she just interrupted.
“How have you not changed yet? We will be arriving soon” she said again, ignoring the way the boy was staring at her.
“We were going to, before you barged in here” Henrietta said, swiftly. This girl reminded her of her aunt. The two of them did not have anything in common physically, and she did not know the girl enough to judge her completely, so she does not know why she talked to her the way she did.
The girl looked at her puzzled, as if she was not expecting anything like that. Exiting the compartment the girl closed the door softly, not like before. Henrietta and the boy returned to their conversation, like nothing happened.
The train was slowly stopping, and all the alumni were together at the front. She stood close to her, now and first, friend. Trying to not be overbearing, but not leaving his side.
“Right, then. First years, this way, please!” she heard someone, and by the tone, she deduced that it was Hagrid “ Come on, now, first years, don’t be shy!”
She returned his greeting, still walking alongside Draco. They walked together, and with the other first years, towards what seemed to be a lake. Then, they stepped onto the boats, and they guided them towards the castle.
The boats were for a maximum of four people, and she was with Malfoy and another girl their age. Upon recognizing that she did not know her companion, the other girl presented herself as Hairess Pansy Parkinson.
She and Pansy chatted all the way to the castle, with occasional comments made by Draco. She learned that the two of them have been friends since childhood, and that the boys in the boat next to them were part of their group of friends.
Upon arrival, she stayed chatting with Pansy, who has been nothing but sweet to her. And both of them left Draco to talk with the other boys, much to their amusement.
Once they were outside the door that led to the Great Hall, a professor was standing there. She was wearing a green robe, a black dress —on the neck of the dress, the teacher had a gold decoration that kind of reminded her of a cat’s paws, and a black hat.
She positioned herself between Pansy, who was in front of her, and Draco, who was behind, and all their other friends stood around them.
The professor began talking and presented the school, the houses of this, and the system the school had to ensure that the students were well behaved.
As soon as she ended, the red-headed boy, a Weasley as she had found, approached her. He tried to step closer to her, but the boys did not let him.
“I didn’t see you in the train Henrietta, I thought you were going to sit with me” he said, almost sounding angry, but she did not know if it was because abandoned him upon entering the train, because of her companions or because he could not get close to her.
“I sat with Draco, and we became good friends, so I stayed with him” she did know why she was telling him so much when she did not have a real or important reason, but the shame appeared anyway.
Before the boy could say anything more, the professor appeared again, this time behind the boy, and after giving her a heated glance he went back to where he was before.
She followed her friends —Draco, Pansy and their friends, through the door and she was met with the most beautiful hall she had ever seen. It was precious — the ceiling was enchanted, as Draco said in their conversation in the train, and she was bewitched by it.
Their short walk came to a stop much faster than she would have liked. Now, they were in front of the object that would decide their future. It surprised her that said object sang a song, however, this was a wizarding school and she was a witch, things like that should not surprise her.
The professor started calling names, the first being the girl that talked to them in the train. Then went a red-head, though she was not a Weasley. And, before she knew it, it was Draco's torn.
He sat in the stool they put there, and as soon as the hat touched his head, it screamed: “Slytherin!”
“Henrietta Potter!” said the professor. All the room stayed quiet, exchanging glances with one and other, and she saw that the director shifted in his seat, suddenly more interested in her torn than in the others.
She walked to the stool, and sat on it. From there, she could watch all the room, but she focused on her friends in front of her and Draco, now sat in his seat.
They all sended her a reassuring smile —Pansy with a thumbs up, which made her laugh, and she sent her own smile back.
The hat sat in her head for quite a while, but she did not hear anything. Then, she heard it said that she belonged in Slytherin, and said house exploded with euphoria at having her.
She took the hat out of her head, handed it to the professor and went running to her assigned table, all with a smile on her face. Once she was there, she started to talk with Draco, until they heard the name of Pansy being said.
Of course, she went into Slytherin, just like all their other friends, that were named after her. All of them were excited to be in the same house, especially Pansy and her. They were going to be roommates, and Pansy was already dreaming and telling her about all the things they were going to do.
When professor McGonagall told all the room to be silent, they did, and they listened to the words professor Dumbeldore said before food appeared on the table. After that, all of them started to chat happily.
“Henrietta, I don’t think you know our friends” Draco said, referring to his childhood friends “Boys, please, present yourself” he said, with a grin.
“Hello Hairess Potter, I am Hair Blaise Zabini”
“I’m Hair Theodore Nott”
“Hair Crabbe”
“And I am Hair Goyle”
“A pleasure to meet you all” she said, smiling at each of them.
“Henrietta is a very long name” Pansy said suddenly “I want to give you a nickname, I can, right?” she asked, now preoccupied that she overstepped.
“Of course you can Pansy” she answered, looking fondly at the girl besides her “And please, boys, once Pansy finds me a nickname please call me that, until them you can call me Henrietta” all of the boys smiled in her direction, and she did the same. She was convinced that they would make a fine group of friends.
They continued their chit chat, changing the topics of their conversation as if they were ice cream flavor.
“Draco, you said that your father works at the Ministry right?” her question let him kind of off for a second, before he answered.
“Yes he does, do you need something?” he replied, internally questioning why an 11 year old girl needed the Ministry.
“You see, when we went to Grimgotts, the key to my vault was in the hands of the person that went with me, Hagrid, and I suppose that Dumbeldore gave it to him, so he had my key” by now, all of their group was listening, trying to understand and come up with a solution all together “when we exited Gringotts I supposed that they would return me my key, but they did not, and I would like to speak with your father to know if there is a way for me to acquire that”
“I can ask him about that, can you tell me who you went with besides Hagrid? So I can say it to him”
“It was only Hagrid” she said, looking in his direction before looking back at her friends.
“What? Hagrid? You lived with Muggles? You did not live with a magical family?” Blaise asked, shocked. Everyone in their group shared the same sentiment, because they were led to believe that she was, in fact, placed with a magical family.
Draco, on the train, assumed that she had a bad relationship with her family mostly because of the way they talked and the amount of questions she had — the Malfoy library has a surprising amount of psychology books, but every time he was sure that she was with a magical family. So now, not only did she have a bad relationship with them but she was also in danger because of who they are and who she is.
“Yes, I live with my Mother’s sister, her husband and their son” Henrietta’s face was speechless, confused even. Why would they think that she was placed under the care of a magical family?
Their chat was cut short because of the appearance of the Bloody Baron, the house’s ghost. He wore ancient clothing, and chains made from silver.
“How are you children? Adapting well to the change?” the baron asked.
“Yes, my Lord” Henrietta answered, knowing very well that the way to talk to aristocracy, unless they tell you another thing, is by title.
The Baron made a surprised face, but quickly changed it for a smile. He said goodbye to all of them, but bowed to Henrietta. She smiled at him and did the same.
Before they knew it, it was time to go to bed and they all went together, following the head of the house. They arrived at the dungeons, were let inside and after a brief explanation, they were led to their respective rooms.
Pansy and her shared room with another three girls, Millicent Bulstrode, Daphne Greengrass—who Pansy knew, was acquainted but not friends, and Tracy Davies. She thought the girls were very friendly, and was excited for tomorrow.