I have a scar on my forehead, like that Potter boy, but it's lighter and more faded. Father told me it was because I had gotten into an accident when I was a baby, he never told me what accident it was or why it was so jagged and sharp in shape, but I have never really felt the need to know. A part of me will always be curious - I assume it must have been really horrible for everyone to keep it from me - but I'm content not knowing for now.
That's not the only thing that sets me apart from the rest of my family, they all - apart from my lovely mother - have beautiful blonde hair. Mother's is only blonde underneath, with black on the top. I've also got black hair and I adore having that in similar to my mother but it makes me stick out like a sore thumb whenever I'm with them. Not only that, my eyes are green whilst everyone else's is blue, a cold blue that demands respect and power. A blue I'll never be able to possess. Call me crazy but I feel like I don't actually belong to the house of Malfoy, I feel like I'm always being observed and whispered about amongst the servants. Every time I tried to tell Mother or Father, they would cry out, "those stupid house elves need to learn their place, we punish insolence then and there, we don't tattle first." I've never felt comfortable hurting another creature, especially not one whose sole purpose is to serve me - that's cruel. Draco, my dear twin brother, prefers to spit venomous words at them and use his words to kill, rather than inflicting any physical harm.
But now, years later, I'm about to start my sixth year at Hogwarts. Father and Mother are proper death eaters again and there are regular meetings with swarms of them (way more than I thought there were) at the manor. I hate being there with them all, it's like I can feel them itching to kill me. Father always tries to get us out of the house, and down at Diagon Alley for the day, when such things take place but he is not always able. And anyway, he can't deny the dark lord his wishes.
Draco and I are to be deatheaters by the end of the year.
For the rest of the summer, hardly a word was muttered outside of meetings and ordering the house elves about, all of us terrified of what was coming.
Before we had time to properly digest the news, we were standing on platform 9 3/4s, luggage being carried onto the train, and goodbyes being murmured - the exchange between Draco and Father was long with many glances in my direction so I was quite relieved when we were told to get onto the train. Once on the train, I had managed to slip away from Draco's watchful eye after distracting him with a snide remark about Dumbledore. I listened to his whining for only a moment then walked down the train to find my friends. They were in the same compartment as last year and smiled at me as I entered. Harry moved to let me sit next to him, Ron and Hermione were opposite us.
We all became friends very quickly, even after Draco's pathetic introduction to Ron and Harry before our sorting ceremony. Things were a little tense at first, I'm the only Malfoy to ever have been sorted into Gryffindor - Father was furious and I'm sure Dumbledore received a very stern and threatening letter. Draco didn't speak to me much around school because of this and that was fine by me! No one wants their twin sniffing around after them.
We were in the midst of a lovely conversation about what happened over the summer; I was dodging questions or replying vaguely, when the door flung open and then bounced back, to be stopped by a foot. At the door stood my idiot brother and his two favourite goons, Crabbe and Goyle.
"You should come sit with us, dear sister. We have a lot we need to discuss and I don't think your friends," he scrunched his nose in disgust, "can help you."
"No thanks. I'm ok here. Tell Pansy I'll give her jumper back when we get to Hogwarts."
"That wasn't a question, Y/n. Let's not make a scene." I could see his growing impatience - it always amused me. It's so easy to get under his skin: I make a sport of it. As his face got red, I noticed the grimace Crabbe and Goyle exchanged and a frightening look on his face. A look that told me to follow him through the train. A look that told me I was very lucky he hadn't dragged me out by my hair.
Hurridley, I stood and, to add effect, sighed, "fine. I'm right behind you." After giving a quick apology and a small smile to the trio, who hadn't moved, I walked slowly to meet Draco's furious expression and a stony silence amongst everyone sat at the booth. I'm not an idiot, I know he would prefer me to sit with other people who understand our situation and that he and my parents seem to have an allergy to all things Potter but it's never bothered Draco this much.
I sat next to Crabbe - opposite Blaise, Pansy, and Goyle - then Draco slid it and blocked me from exiting. His voice was just above a whisper (loud enough that we could hear him without attracting any other prying ears), his fists were clenched, and his face was going back to the sickly pale colour, "this year, you stay with us at every possible moment. Potter, his blood traitor, and mudblood friends are not good influences. You need to be with people who can help you. You Know Who is expecting a lot from us and I will not fail because of your," his voice became mocking, "feelings."
"Draco! You can't call someone a... you know. That's so rude. I think if you just gave them a chance you'd realise that they are lovely people." As I'm saying it, I know this is pointless, no one else at the table thinks the same as I do. And they don't want to.
Furious, Draco turned to me and got inches from my face, "Y/n, now is not the time to mess around. This year could literally decide whether we live or die. Keep acting like this and you'll get what's coming to you. Stay away from them." He spoke through gritted teeth, and I must admit, I got a little scared. He's never spoken to me like that before - I feel like he's hiding something from me. But what?
-
No. This cannot be happening. I haven't done anything and yet here they are, refusing to look at me, hands crossed over their chest and eyebrows furrowed in distaste and anger. Moving through Gryffindor Common Room always earned me a stare or two but never have I had everyone refuse to meet my eyes. Harry stood in front of me - Ron and Hermione behind him looking like I've just spit in their faces - holding a piece of parchment tightly in his fisted hands.
Instead of cowering or shrinking into myself, I stood, arms folded, and asked as calmly as possible, "what's that?"
"You tell me." He closed the distance between us and handed me the parchment.
On it was my handwriting: and a message I was sure I hadn't written:
Draco,
It's working well. No one knows, some are suspicious but those pathetic excuses of friends are helping to shoot them all down. You're right, they're fools. I'm ready to complete my mission now and take our rightful places at his side.
I read it twice over, not quite understanding what it was. I would never write to Draco during school hours - or at all - when I could just find him and speak to him face to face. Even if I did write to him, I wouldn't be so obvious about everything. As I look back up to my friends, I smirk slightly, they can't seriously think this is real can they?
"Think this is funny, do you?" Ron's words are vicious and sharp. They do think it's real.
"Are you serious? This wasn't me, I don't know who it was but you honestly think I would say something like this?" I want to move towards them but I don't, everyone has their eyes on me. Movement towards the trio could be seen as aggression.
No one says anything so for only a moment I stay looking at them before muttering, "ok then," and leaving the common room.
My heart is racing, my hands are shaking, and I'm on the verge of tears as I move through the halls - hiding whenever I heard a noise. Unfortunately, I didn't hear McGonagall coming down the hall way so I nearly collided into her. She saw my distress and grabbed my shoulders to stop me moving past her, "is everything okay, Miss Malfoy?"
I looked at her and sniffed, nodding my head; I had calmed down quite a bit but I didn't dare speak in case my voice betrayed me. Honestly, I knew that she would see straight through me but I didn't want to say anything anyway: retain a bit of dignity.
"Do you want to come to my office and have a chat?"
I took a deep breath and whispered, "It's nothing, Professor. Just family stuff y'know? And no one likes me anymore. Your run of the mill stuff." Smiling, I met her eyes. I had to look away almost instantly because I could feel my tears itching to fall down my cheek.
"If you ever want to talk, come find me or another professor you trust. It's not healthy to keep things to yourself, Miss Malfoy. As for no one liking you, I doubt that's true. Whatever has happened, it'll blow over and people will move on. I promise."
I kept her words with me for the rest of the year. I thought about them constantly. Not many people did move on; some people are still afraid to be near me in the common room. But Harry, Hermione, and Ron forgave me and listened to my side of the story - it was very rushed and I had to take great care to not give out sensitive information. Despite this, Draco was still furious and kept me with him during lessons, during break and lunch (where we had free roam of the castle), and when walking to lessons. We spent our nights and mornings in the library discussing business and the next stages of the plan. We had rehearsed it so many times it had infiltrated my dreams.
Then came the day it would all happen. Draco was terrified but he attempted to mask it by being unnecessarily cruel to everyone and anyone who dared breath in his direction. When he went into the room of requirement, we all sat idle in the library. All silent in anticipation, there was no more running from this. Our futures were inevitable.
-
As Draco and the other death eaters went to finish off Dumbledore, Pansy and I went to his office to ransack it and make sure that any secret plots against the Dark Lord were found and dealt with appropriately.
A while later, we heard the door swing open and panicked, no one else was supposed to be in here, not yet at least. Pansy and I exchanged a worried glance and hid as quickly as possible. Whoever had come in spoke, I knew that voice. Ron?
I couldn't see Pansy from where I was hidden but I saw as Hermione walked over to Dumbledore's desk and exclaimed, "someone's been here." I heard a gasp and then her voice changed to a whisper, "I don't think they've left."
How could she know that? No matter, now I just needed to figure out a way to leave without being spotted... and Pansy. Where was she? I needed to find a way to get her out too. It was better for me to be caught than her, perhaps I could've tricked them and slipped her out whilst they were focused on me. That seemed the best course of action. However, I didn't have time to do anything because the trio were casing Dumbledore's office and quickly found me crouched behind a pillar. It was by no means a good hiding place but I was put on the spot and had to think fast.
They all seemed shocked to say the least. I stood up and smoothed out my jumper, "what are you guys doing in here?"
My attempt to shift the focus off myself was laughable, they immediately began to question me, why was I here? What was I doing and why was I crouched behind the pillar? Am I the one who trashed the room? My replies were pathetic: I was just trying to give Pansy time to slip out and warn the others.
Once I saw her disappear out the door and rush soundlessly down the stairs, I began to move slowly towards the door but as I did footsteps were coming from behind me. I began to panic, I'll be sent to Azkaban for being a death eater; I pulled down tightly on my right hand sleeve to hide the giant mark that had been seared onto me. Thankfully, Draco and the others appeared behind me - the adults were running around the school - and pulled out their wands. The trip did the same so I was stuck in the middle of opposing sides who wanted each other dead.
Hermione seemed to get an epiphany and spoke loudly, looking me dead in the eye and breathing heavily, "Y/n, Harry discovered something about you, you must listen to us, it's important."
"Yeah? What is it?" My voice was sarcastic but I was fascinated to hear what she would have to say: whatever it was I prayed it would cause everyone to walk away unharmed.
"I think it would be better to speak to you alone."
"No way, Granger. Whatever you have to say you'll say it here." Draco's growing frustration was lacing his voice but thankfully Hermione didn't argue.
"Y/n, you aren't a Malfoy. You're a Potter. You were taken from your crib the day your parents died, you were stolen by the Malfoys against You Know Who's knowledge because they wanted another child."
"Shut up, mudblood. Before I make you." Draco stepped forward, he was seething but he didn't deny it.
"Draco, did you know?" My heart was racing and my breathing was shallow as I waited, dreading the response.
"Course I knew. Did you really think that you were a Malfoy? How pathetic, sister." His next question was addressed to Harry, "how'd you figure that out? Did the mudblood somehow figure it out? Think you're smart do you?"
Harry spoke confidently as he too stepped forward, "Dumbledore told me, before you and Snape came and killed him. You're a coward, Malfoy."
At that, Harry fired a spell and hit him straight in the chest, knocking him down onto the floor. He howled in pain so Pansy ran over to him as I stepped away. I needed to leave, to think carefully about the bombardment of information I had been not so kindly given.
But I didn't have that time. I was whisked out of the room by Ron and ran after him down the corridor. We were shortly joined by Harry and Hermione. The shock had taken over my body, all I could seem to do was stand. My breathing was shaky and my head was spinning as Harry grabbed me gently and moved my head so I was looking at him.
"Can I hug you?" Unlike Draco, his voice was kind and I couldn't make out any malice behind his words: so I nodded. He hugged me tightly and rubbed his hand on my back to calm me down.
As he pulled away he spoke with sincerity, "I'm so glad you're my sister, Y/n. We can spend the rest of our lives together, you're so much better than the Dursleys."
"Promise we'll always be there to protect each other." I pleaded, this all felt so unreal but I needed to know that he'd be there.
The people we'd been living with for 15 years hadn't given us that security that a good, loving home provides. It was reasonable we'd want it from each other.
"I promise. Now let's take down Voldemort once and for all and show everyone that Potters are strong and we won't be stopped. Let's make Mum and Dad proud."