Viper

August 23 1991. 11 years old.

I had been woken up once again by my parents’ incessant rambling. Every morning they would start arguing. It was like a tradition at this point. And just when you thought they would run out of topics to argue about, they would prove you wrong. One would shoot the other a dirty look, and then the fights began. It was a very unpleasant form of an alarm clock and had I not had something to look forward to in the mornings, I would have hated my life.
Judging by the sound of plates clattering and parents yelling, I could tell I had overslept and the guests were to be here any minute.

I pushed myself hesitantly off the bed and my vision blackened before me. In a hurry, I continued running to my bathroom not paying attention to how my body needed a couple seconds to adjust before I could walk.

Left and right, I pulled open the bathroom drawers to get what I needed. I quickly grabbed the toothpaste that was next to the sink. The cap slipped through my fingers and it fell to the floor. “Fuck.” I cursed. I bent down quickly and grabbed the cap and ran it under the water. After brushing my teeth, I lowered myself to the sink. The feeling of cold water on my face brought awareness to me immediately, bringing me out of my groggy state. Reaching for the towel next to me, I patted my face and proceeded to my giant closet. Grabbing the first thing I saw, a pair of leggings and a sweater, I quickly shoved the black sweater over my head while pulling on my leggings. Half rushing to tie my hair, my feet slipped into the dragon-hide loafers and on my way out I reached up to the rack and grabbed my black robes. I threw them on me and practically flew down the stairs.

When I arrived at the dining room, I realized my assumptions had been wrong. Draco, Theodore, Pansy, and Blaise had already been seated and were quietly sipping their cups of tea.

A man cleared his throat. “Late, are we?” My father spoke.

I muttered a quick “Sorry Father.” Before going and sitting down at the empty seat next to Draco. I reached for the eggs and sausage before me and filled my plate.

Breakfast at the Rosier estate was always something to look forward to. The house elves would cook the most amazing food. For such a small event there were varieties. The sweet aroma of toast and various jams, and the salty savory smell of sausage would bring joy to my senses. Fruits were always laid out on the table in intricate designs, and the tea found its home in the most beautiful china. I hated a lot of things, but breakfast at the estate was not one of them.
The past year has been a hectic one. Every day we would rise with the sun. My parents would rush me out of bed and throw clothes at my face and yell at me to get dressed and to at least “try to make yourself look less like a disgrace.” “You must look presentable, no matter where you are or who is around you. You are part of the Sacred 28.” They would spit. “Start acting like it.” And judging by the side glances my mother was throwing at me, my choice of clothes did not fit her taste or her standards.

I started eating quickly, shoving food in my mouth. Theodore, who sat across from me, laughed. “Woah slow down Lex, save some for the rest of us.” Blaise laughed at his joke and then snorted when suddenly Theodore sent food flying toward me with a swish of his hand. I stopped it before it even got to me and sent it back toward his way, spilling all on his front. I gave Theo a sneer and Blaise wasn’t laughing anymore.

The room went silent. “Alexandria Elain Rosier. How dare you make such a mess.” My mother hissed.

“Though we raised you to be a lady.” My father joined.

I snapped my fingers and the table and Theodore were hit with a Scourgify Charm. “There,” I smiled. “All clean.”

My father rolled his eyes and then cleared his throat. “Your tutors will be here any minute, go wash up.”

We got up to wash our hands and freshen up but my father stopped me by grabbing the neckline of my robe. “Must you always make a fool of yourself? This is not how we raised you.” He growled and looked towards my mother who was busy fixing the houseplants. She didn’t pay him attention and continued watering and placing them equally amongst the dining room.
Swallowing my attitude and pride, “May I please be excused?” I asked softly.

He released my robes and I quickly straightened them before walking out to go meet up with Draco and the others. I found them down the hall, from the washroom and I leant up against the wall. A high pitched girly voice filled the air. “Do you know what we’re going over today?” The voice belonging to none other than Pansy Parkinson.

“Defense and potions.” Draco scoffed. “I'm getting quite tired of doing mostly defense.”
“It’s because you’re not good at it mate.” Blaise Zabini replied. “Look at little Rosie over here, she kicked Theo’s arse today. Isn’t that right Rosie.” He smiled and reached to mess up my hair but I slapped his hand away before he got close. Rosie was the nickname Blaise had invented from my last name. I hated it.

“Watch those grubby hands of yours, Zabini. Or you’re next.” I threatened, and he rolled his eyes and flashed his pearly white straight teeth.

“Feisty today aren’t we Lex? Wake up on the wrong side of bed?” Draco smirked.

“Extra pale today aren’t we Malfoy? Did you forget your blush? I have some upstairs. Want me to run up and get it for you?” I raised my eyebrows challenging him, and he turned even more white.

Malfoy’s color was brought back to his face. “Shove off, Rosie.” He snapped. He turned to address the group, turning his back on me. “Let’s go, Snape is here.”

We left the large dark hallway and headed down to the training room. “Welcome children.” The monotone voice belonging to Severus Snape greeted us. “Shall we begin?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We spent half the day training. It was half past three when we finally finished. Snape was heavily proud of my achievements. He congratulated me on several of my hexes that I was able to perform without a wand. Draco was practically fuming with jealousy, and Nott couldn’t even seem to counter the curses.

Nott was exceptionally weak compared to the rest of us. He often zoned out during training.Theo was a mystery to be solved, we had grown up together with the others but during training he was very closed off. He would only talk to Zabini and agree to train with him. Even though we were all close friends, Theo and Blaise had a different bond.

Zabini had a knack for goofing off, and loved to make Pansy the most uncomfortable by hexing her with jelly-legs or a tongue tying curse. And Pansy would absolutely rage at this and try to get him back. He would also attempt to set Pansy’s hair on fire, and after one successful attempt, she would rather be caught dead than with her back turned toward him.

Draco would try to show off his spells and run around trying to gain Snape’s approval, while Snape would dismiss him with his unfazed expression. “Mister Malfoy I thought we established we don’t play favorites here.” He would say. In which Draco would deliver a reply with his infamous smirk, “Let’s say we were. I’d be the favorite right?” Snape would smack him with a roll of the Daily Prophet, and revert his attention back to us.

We had said our thank you’s to Professor Snape quickly and ran back up the multiple flights of stairs, heading back to the drawing room. With him trailing behind us. The Malfoy’s were there to greet us.

“How did it go, children?” Lucius Malfoy asked.

“Good.” We all replied looking up at the tall man.

Lucius took a look at all our faces and then said, “Who earned the most points today?”
We had a point system, whenever we would perform a spell correctly we would earn a point. There was no reward to this, it was just there to measure our daily progress. It was Professor Snape’s brilliant idea.

Pansy smiled and nudged my shoulder. “Lexie did.” She smiled.

Lucius' eyes averted to Draco’s rather pale face. Then met Snape’s dark cold gaze. He raised his eyebrow and spoke, “Is that true?”

Snape nodded. “Always Lexie isn’t it? Your parents must be very proud.” He smirked.

At the sound of that sentence my parents walked up behind him. “Oh indeed we are Lucius!” The cheerful and feminine voice belonging to my mother remained soft and happy as she spoke. The tone of disgust didn’t go unnoticed by me, but everyone else didn’t seem to pay much attention.

“Keep it up like this Lexie, and you will soon be the Dark Lord’s favorite!” Narcissa Malfoy said as she squeezed my shoulder and smiled.

My mother tried very hard not to cringe as she plastered a fake smile on her face. “What do you say Lucius, Abel,” Looking at both Draco’s dad and mine. She walked over and placed her red manicured fingers on my fathers shoulder. “Why don’t I bring some Ogden’s down to the study, and you guys can share a drink with Severus? He deserves a drink after dealing with our monsters.” She flashed her pearly white teeth once again.

“That sounds lovely dear.” My father spoke lacking emotion behind his voice. While heading to the study, he asked the men what type of cigars they would prefer.

My mother and Narcissa swiftly and gracefully made their way to pick up the crystal whiskey tumblers and followed and set them down in the room.

Blaise and Draco looked at me and smiled. “How quick can you get to the fridge before your mother notices Rosie?” Blaise asked, his face held a devilish expression.

“That depends on how fast it will take for Draco to run up and get the card deck and chess board.” I replied.

“Already on it.” Draco ran up the stairs to my room.

“Meet us outside!” I yelled and me, Blaise, Pansy, and Theo raced to the kitchen.

Our kitchen was huge. It had a black marble island, which had accents of gold. Above it hung a magical chandelier, it had gold accents that would compliment the crystals. The chandelier would turn on when you would walk into the kitchen. And would adjust the light based on your preference by just speaking to it.

The several cabinets were black with gold handles. They were built into the black wall. When the sun would shine through the giant window-walls, the kitchen would sparkle.

I ran through the slippery marble floors and opened the giant cooler that was for drinks only. I grabbed some frozen butterbeers and ran out through the sliding door to the yard.

I was met with smiles as I handed the frozen drinks to my friends. Draco took a sip and said “Now that's what I'm talking about.” We all burst out laughing.

“Did you get the games?” I asked

Draco took another sip and ran his tongue over his top lip to clear his butterbeer mustache. “Yes I did.” He placed the deck on the table, and suddenly I noticed him meeting Blaise’s eyes and their expression had trouble written all over it. He turned his head back to me and spoke. “While looking for the deck I couldn't help but come across this.” He pulled out my small white lace bra. His devilish and rogue smirk appeared on his face as he raised an eyebrow. “Who are you trying to impress Rosie?”

Theodore, Pansy, and Blaise all lost it and were in tears from laughter. “Merlin’s beard Draco! Give it back you weasel!” I reached up and banished it from his hands and then proceeded to smack him upside the head.

“Oooo Rosie wears bras.” Theo and Blaise said simultaneously. Pansy couldn't help but giggle.

I tried to suppress my own laugh. “That's the closest you're ever going to get to even see one.” I retorted.

We all burst out laughing. We played games of Exploding Snap. Theo and Draco were in a serious game of Wizard’s Chess. Theo’s brows were furrowed as he tried to concentrate while Blaise kept poking him. Pansy had brought a couple issues of Witch Weekly and we were currently going over all the new styles of robes and gossiping about the older pureblood girls who had just gotten married.

“So in a couple days we’re going to Hogwarts huh?” Theo spoke.

“Honestly, my father didn’t even want me to go to that school. He said Durmstrang is better.” Draco said.

“What changed his mind?” Pansy asked.

“My mum of course, she didn’t want me too far from home.” Draco shrugged.

I leaned my arms on the table and spoke. “Well if it was up to my mom, she would’ve sent me off to Beauxbatons, but my father disagreed and said it would be better if me and Draco went to the same school.”

“You think we’ll be in Slytherin?” Pansy asked.

“As if we’d be anything else.” I smirked

Blaise snorted and Draco chuckled. “Hufflepuff yellow would clash terribly with Draco’s skin tone, it would make him look like vomit. And I can't imagine myself in Gryffindor red, ugh that color is disgusting. Can you imagine how ugly it will make me? None of the chicks will spare me a glance!” Blaise said enthusiastically.

“Calm down Blaise, it's just a color. I'll gift you red robes this Christmas. They will look great on you.” I added with a sneer.

Blaise scrunched his face in disgust. “I would rather be caught snogging a Hufflepuff than be seen in red!” He put his hand on his chest and pretended to take offense.

“Oh shut up Blaise, you're acting as if we have the luxury to look good in everything we wear. Not all of us have flawless skin like you.” Pansy pointed to her light brown freckles scattered around her nose and cheeks, then to his beautifully smooth, chocolate-brown shiny skin.

“What can I say, Pans.” Blaise shrugged. “Salazar Slytherin definitely favored me.”

“Oh get over yourself Zabini.” Draco interrupted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We walked back to the estate and said goodbye to Pansy, Theo and Blaise as they floo’d back to their manors. Me and Draco waved goodbye as the green flames rose, and made our way to the drawing room where our parents were chatting about their years at Hogwarts and the staff there.

“Ah kids.” Narcissa greeted us in surprise. “We were just talking about Hogwarts! I believe we should make a trip to Diagon Alley tomorrow to buy your supplies for school.” Narcissa’s warm smile lit up the room. Me and Draco looked at each other and smiled. “I can take the kids, since it’s not right for Alyona to be on foot for too long.” Narcissa said softly while implying my mother’s pregnant belly.

“Wouldn't want to tire the baby now would we?” My mother cradled her stomach and laughed.

“That's very generous of you Narcissa. I'll give you the galleons for Lexie’s shopping.” My father put his hands in his pockets and just when he was about to take out a pouch of galleons, Narcissa and Lucius interrupted.

“Oh nonsense Abel! You know we consider Alexandria as our own.” Lucius said. “It would rather be informal to take money from family.”

“I agree with Lucius.” Narcissa responded to her husband. “lll even buy Lexie something of her taste.” Narcissa faced me and held my hands. “What do you say Lex?”

Her smile warmed me and I looked for approval from my parents before speaking. “If it’s alright with my father.” I spoke, trying hard not to choke on the words.

My father put his hand on my shoulder and I did my best not to flinch. “Of course, it’s alright.” His lips formed a line on his rough face. “What is family for?” He raised his shoulders and a lazy grin appeared on his face.

“To family.” Lucius said as he raised his glass of fire whiskey.

“To family.” My parents and Narcissa responded as they raised their glasses. My mom raised her glass filled with pumpkin juice and brought it to her lips. She gracefully took a sip and placed the cup back down on the mantle of the fireplace.

“Are you trying for a boy?” Narcissa asked my parents.

“Oh yes.” My parents looked at each other and smiled. “An heir to the Rosier name.”

“Oh please.” Lucius interrupted. “Lexie is heir enough. For such a young age she certainly holds more power than we did, and she certainly holds more power than her peers as well.” He nodded in Draco’s direction.

My father inhaled and took a minute to properly form his thoughts into words. “Well yes, Lexie is our heiress, but she can’t pass on our legacy. Plus, what is a pureblood family without a son?” My father laughed.

“I suppose you do have a point there.” Lucius smiled.

Narcissa raised her glass and made a toast. “To sons.May they always brighten our worlds.”

My parents repeated and they hugged Draco. They knelt down to reach his height, as my parents were quite tall. “You will do your parents the great honor of carrying the Malfoy name.”

Draco smiled but I could tell from his stiffened posture, he felt uncomfortable. He took in their compliments and smiled.

Our parents continued to talk until it had gotten quite late. Me and Draco were trying not to fall asleep on each other while sitting on the couch. The Malfoys said their goodbyes and left, and just as I was about to go up the stairs to my wing of the estate, my mother stopped me. “Being stronger than your male peers isn't ladylike, you abomination.” My mother hissed at me. “Why couldn't you be normal like Miss Parkinson or at least had some sort of feminine qualities about you.”

My mother’s words stung but I covered it up quickly. “Pansy cant even counter a curse. When I work for the Dark Lord he most certainly won’t be looking at my hostess skills.” I rolled my eyes and ran up the stairs as fast as I could in order to escape my mother. I removed my robes and fell onto the bed. Sleep engulfed me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fireplace in the bedroom roared, and out stepped Draco Malfoy. He looked down at his robes and made a face of disgust, as they were covered in floo powder. He reached down and dusted his robes and then cast a quick Scourgify, before jumping onto the bed in the middle of the room.

I was woken up by Draco jumping on me. “Hey Lex! Get up!”

I turned around to face him. “Malfoy it's like 9 in the morning. What do you want?” I growled.

Malfoy took off his perfectly polished dragonhide shoes, before sitting on my bed. I moved to the side so he could have room. He climbed up and slid under the covers with me. He turned his soot covered face toward me and smiled. “Why Rosie, did you forget? We are going to Diagon Alley today.”

I rolled my eyes at his excitement and rolled over to the other side. I pulled the blanket over my head and closed my eyes. “Malfoy.” I said. “Get your soot covered face away from me before I hex you. No one said we were going at 9 in the morning.”

“I do not have soot on my face!”

I wandlessly summoned a mirror and handed it to him. He let out the most girliest scream and I burst out laughing. Malfoy stared at his reflection in utter horror at the mess. The blonde locks dangling across his forehead were coated in gray, his pale eyebrows were three shades darker than normal, and his long blonde eyelashes were covered with gray ash, as if snow had landed on them. “Now you believe me?” I said choking on my laughter.

He immediately started to rub his face but made the dirt smear. His face was practically covered in dirt by now and watching him get frustrated was very entertaining. He let out a frustrated groan. “How many times do I have to tell you to fix your dirty fireplace. You can never floo here without getting dirty!”

I looked at him up and down and met his angry expression. “It's so I can keep you out.” I smirked. I got up and walked to the bathroom.

“Hey!” He yelled. “You can't just leave me like this!”

I got in the bathroom and ran a towel under the water. Without peaking my head out the bathroom I threw the towel at him and slammed the door. “You're welcome!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We went downstairs and greeted my parents, who were sitting around the coffee table reading their copies of the Daily Prophet. My fathers eyebrows raised as he noticed it wasn't just me who settled next to them. “Oh hello Draco, I didn't know you would be joining us for breakfast this morning.”

Draco stood up from his seat and made his way to my father. He shook his hand firmly. “Good morning Mr Rosier.” He greeted. “I floo’d to her room around 9ish. My arrival was quite unexpected really, I found her asleep.” He let out a small laugh.

My father’s smile didn't reach his eyes. “Well that's Lexie for you.” He shot me a glance. “Always asleep.”

Obviously this wasn't true. I wasn't “always asleep.” My father just had a tendency to over exaggerate things. The one time I would be able to oversleep was on the weekends, since we didn't have any training. And my parents loved to make me feel like crap about it. They would call me lazy and tell me that it is not “ladylike” to sleep until noon. What did they know about hard work? If they knew the amount of energy it took to train 8 hours everyday for the past year and a half, they wouldn't be attacking me every second they got. They would constantly complain. I'd like to see how they’d manage if they were training the same amount we were. And just because we were 11, it didn't change the fact that our tutors/teachers weren't easy on us. With Professor Snape it was relatively easy. Get on his good side and try your best. Make a limited amount of mistakes. But when Draco’s dad would teach us Occlumency, we would be in tears a couple minutes through.

Of course to my father’s approval, I didn't say anything about his comment and reached for a cup of tea. I poured some for Draco first before pouring mine. He thanked me, and we drank in silence.

After finishing our tea, we said goodbye to my parents and ran to the fireplace in the drawing room. We floo’d back to Malfoy Manor. Once we appeared, we ran to their drawing room where Narcissa was currently chatting with Lucius about the different composers of wizarding piano pieces. She was sitting cross legged on the piano stool while Lucius stood with his arm draped around the grand ivory piano, staring lovingly into his wife’s eyes. Their smiles didn't falter as they drifted their gazes onto us. ‘Oh hello darlings!” Narcissa greeted. “What brings you here so early Lexie?”

“Good morning!” I practically beamed. “Draco decided it would be nice to wake me up at 9. He floo’d to my room unannounced and jumped on me to get me out of bed.”

Lucius let out a laugh. “My my Draco, that's no way to wake a lady.” He said in a mocking serious tone.

I absolutely loved coming to the Malfoy’s. It was basically my second home and Lucius and Narcissa my second parents. Honestly they could've even qualified as my first parents since they took care of me far better than my own blood.

Lucius Malfoy was a stern man who was very set in his ways. His cold and calculating eyes could bring anyone to cower, but when it came to his son and to his daughter of choice, he was kind. He would spoil Draco. Whatever Draco wanted, Draco got. He would never let his eye remain stuck on something he wanted. If Draco asked for something, he would have it within minutes. He often bought me gifts as well. He treated me equally to Draco, even though I wasn't his daughter. There was no limit with his kindness towards us, or to his wife.

Lucius loved Narcissa. He spoiled her even more than he did Draco if that was even possible. His eyes would light up when he would see her, and hers would do the same. They loved each other deeply and would go to the ends of the Earth for one another. Something my parents would never do.

My mother married my father young. She had just graduated Hogwarts when a marriage contract had been brought up by my grandparents. My father was a few years older than her but he was relatively handsome and rich, which is why she agreed. He lavished her in jewels, and expensive gifts. But he only ever did so because that is what was expected of him. He ran a vineyard where elves would work for him. The company was a success and it contributed to our wealth greatly. My mother had never worked a day in her life or was expected to. That's the luxury of being a pureblood wife.

Being around my parents was suffocating, which is why I spent most of my time with Draco, or at the Malfoys. Me and Malfoy had been friends since birth. Our birthdays were only a few days apart and our parents had known each other for years. My mother and Narcissa were in the same Hogwarts year, they had been friends growing up. I was forever blessed to have them in my life, and I would forever be in their debt to how they saved me. Of course they didn't know about my family’s abusive tendencies, but some things are meant to remain behind closed doors.

We waited on Narcissa to finish her morning tea and then we floo’d to Diagon Alley. The second we stepped out of the fireplace me and Draco turned and looked at eachother. What went unspoken was clearly understood between both of us, as he was just excited as I was. Hogwarts was starting soon.

“Okay children, you have to get your books, cauldrons, robes, pets if you desire.” Narcissa said, pausing at the word pets and raising a sly eyebrow. She turned to look at me. “Now Lexie, if anything catches your eye, please don't hesitate to tell me, whether it's the most beautiful owl, or the greenest toad.” She flashed me a warm smile and I smiled back, feeling wholly content. “You guys also have to get wands! Even though you're trained well enough without one, but Hogwarts doesn't know that.”

Ever since the Dark Lord had walked into the Malfoy Manor a year ago, we had been training our magic. Obviously every single wizard had a wand, but we were underage and our family had decided to train us without them for the sake of us having an advantage over everyone else. They wanted us to learn how to control our magic before having it channel through a wand.

We made a stop at Ollivanders first, and me and Draco were both a bit nervous as we stepped into the shop. Ollivander greeted us with warm smiles as he saw Narcissa behind us. “Oh, hello!” He said warmly. “I believe these two are here on a very special occasion aren't they?” He smiled toward Narcissa.

She met his smile. “I believe they are.”

He took a breath and wasted no time in saying, “Right. Let's get to work then.” He turned around toward his cabinet and pulled out two wands. “These might be a safe bets. 10 inches unicorn hair core, chestnut.” He handed us both a wand and told us to try. Draco hesitantly looked at my face before he swung his. He caused the chandelier above us to rumble and set the wand down on the counter, with caution. I took a go and a couple of boxes flew off the wall. I followed Draco’s actions.

Mr Ollivander took out another two wands. “I think this one might be a good fit for Draco, try it out.” He handed Draco a wand and Draco waved it and his hand started glowing. A smile reached Mr Ollivander’s mouth. “Oh how interesting. Hawthorn wood, 10 inches, and unicorn hair core. Quite a beautiful wand, simple, but beautiful.” Draco turned to me and smiled, he was very pleased with the way the wand looked.

“Here, Miss Rosier, try this wand. Elm wood, 9 inches, dragon heartstring core. I believe youre mother has an elm wand.” He said as he handed me the wand. Right off the bat I knew this wasn't going to be it. But I attempted a wave and when I accidentally set a patch of my robe on fire, I immediately put the wand down and extinguished the flame with wandless magic. I tried to do this quickly but my action did not go unnoticed by Ollivander who was staring at me with a hint of confusion. But whatever his thoughts were, he didn't say as he went to the back room and came out with a box.

He placed the black box in front of me and opened it. I already knew this was going to be my wand. He didn't say anything but raised an eyebrow as if challenging me. I accepted his challenge and took the wand. I noticed the empty bowl on the counter. I took my wand and pointed it in the direction of the bowl. “Aguamenti.” The bowl filled with water before me and I knew this was my wand.

Mr Ollivander raised his eyebrows in surprise and I couldn't tell if it was for his judgement on choosing the correct wand or the fact that I successfully performed a spell and wasn't even in Hogwarts yet. “12 and a half inches, fir wood, dragon heartstring core. I believe you have found your match.” He waved Narcissa over to the register. She paid for our wands and as we were about to head out Ollivander spoke. “I wish you two luck at Hogwarts.” We smiled and thanked him and left.

After Flourish and Blotts, we went to Madam Malkin's robes to get fitted. Narcissa greeted Madam Malkin and then left to wait. She left me in the lobby of the shop while she took Draco in to take his measurements.

I sat down on a chair and picked up the copy of her catalogue where she had displayed her designs. The bell on the door rang and someone walked in. I looked up from where I was sitting and saw shaggy hair and broken glasses. He looked around, as if looking for someone but judging by his expression, he didn't find it. He turned and met my gaze before shyly coming and sitting down in the chair next to me. I broke the silence. “You look confused.”

“It's my first time here, but I'm not sure if it's the robe shop.” He said.

“Did you see the sign before entering?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Then you're in the right shop.” I rolled my eyes and went back to my catalogue.

He silently shifted toward the door, obviously set back from my attitude. We waited in silence as Madam Malkin finally made her appearance. She saw me and smiled as I walked up to properly greet her. “Ah, if it isn't Alexandria Rosier, pleasure to see you dear. How’s Alyona and Abel? I haven't seen Alyona in here for a while but she placed an order the other day.”

“Likewise Miss Malkin.My parents are well thank you, they send their regards.”

“Sorry Mister, but I have to measure Lexie first.” She turned to the weird boy next to me and spoke. “My assistant can get started on your measurements. Please follow me this way.” She led him to the room where I believe Draco was and then took me to a private sector.

She used her magical measuring tape and her pen wrote down the sizes as she fussed with the hem of my robes and said “Oh, dear how you’ve grown! Judging by your height now your Hogwarts robes might end up a little short on you toward the end of the year. I'm going to make them a bit longer. I can charm them to not get under your feet, if that's alright with you dear?”

I smiled and told her that it was okay with me and she continued measuring and taking sizes. She made me try on two different styles of robes, one had a higher neckline and the other was more boxy. I picked the higher neckline and she wrote down the information. Madam Malkin smiled when she said, “They're all done dear. I believe Draco will be done as well. I can take you to him.”

I nodded my head. “That will be nice, thank you Madam Malkin.”

We walked through the hallway where there were robes displayed on mannequins everywhere. The mannequins were charmed to twirl and move their robes. Each one had a different style of gorgeous dress robes. All my robes were hand designed by Madam Malkin as she was a friend of the family.

We finally reached the room Draco was in. I saw he wasn't alone and he was talking to the shaggy boy. Draco had a strained expression on his face and the boy looked equally confused as I caught a glimpse of Draco talking about pureblood societies. Draco then proceeded to talk about Hagrid and the boy looked even more astonished at what he was saying.

Draco turned around and saw I was watching. He raised his eyebrow. “I believe he will be attending Hogwarts with us.” He said with an unphased expression on his face.

I looked at the boy and raised an eyebrow. “I know, we already crossed paths.”

The boy scratched the back of his head and took off the robes Madam Malkin had draped on him. He put his jacket on and turned to leave. He didn't say anything as he walked out with his robes.

We picked up our robes and then left after chatting with Madam Malkin a bit.

“Strange bloke, huh Lexie?” Draco said.

“I suppose he was a bit odd but who knows.He is probably a muggleborn or something.” I shrugged.

“Where were his parents? He literally walked in alone and left alone. Was carrying a big pouch of galleons too.” Draco said.

“Merlin knows.” I shrugged and led Draco to the Leaky Cauldron. We greeted the barman and sat down on the two stools.

“Two butterbeers please.” I took out 4 sickles but Draco slapped my hand away.
“I got, Rosie chill.” He quickly took out his sickles and paid the barman.

I set the coins back in my pouch as the barman brought back the drinks. Draco raised his glass to me and smiled. “To Hogwarts! May the Gryffindors cower when they see us!” He delivered with a devilish smirk.

I rolled my eyes at his statement. “How chivalrous of you to get my drink for me. Careful Draco, you might just end up a Gryffindor.” I teased.

He scrunched his pointed nose and spoke with disgust. “Blegh, as if I'd be a Gryffindor. Everyone knows I look sexy in green and silver.”

I rolled my eyes again. “You don't look sexy in anything, don't flatter yourself.” I reached out and ruffled his hair and he slapped my hand away.

“Dont touch what you can't afford to fix.” He scowled.

“Draco, I will shave your head, don't mess with me.”

We drank our butterbeers in silence, quietly enjoying each other’s company. Hogwarts seemed promising.