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Chapter One - The first day.

Mina looked down at the toes of her Converse. Her mother was kneeling in front of her, her make-up starting to run down her cheeks like little black rivers.

“Now, you have everything you need, don’t you?”

“Yes, Mother,” Mina replied politely.

Her mother dabbed at her pale grey eyes again with a dark green handkerchief, “If you need anything you just write home, ok? Use one of your brothers’ owls.”

Mina nodded and her mother burst out into another wave of tears. Casting her dark grey eyes around the platform, Mina saw quite a few other mothers were doing the same thing and breathed a sigh of relief. Her mother had never acted like this when they’d dropped her brothers off for their first year at Hogwarts. Then again, Mina’s father had come with them that time. Mina scowled. She obviously wasn’t important enough for her father to lower himself to coming here to see her off like he had her brothers.

Mina’s mother seemed to have calmed herself a little, and was starting to fuss over Mina’s appearance.

“Are you sure you want to go in your muggle clothes dear?” Her mother asked, looking down at Mina’s ripped jeans and black hooded jumper, “I can send for a House Elf to bring you a nice dress robe.”

“No thank you mother,” Mina replied, “I have my uniform to put on before we arrive at Hogwarts anyway.”

She’d already decided that if she was going to have to be stuck on the train for hours, she’d rather be comfortable.

Mina’s mother started fussing over her hair, which was an unusual orangey colour and hung in soft curls down her back. Mina had tied it up as she usually did, in two high pigtails. Her mother reached into her handbag and extracted another dark green handkerchief and Mina took a quick step back before her mother could do the whole, “you have dirt on your face” routine. But her mother pressed the green silk into Mina’s hand. Mina noticed it had coins in it.

“For the trolley on the train,” she smiled sadly, “They even have chocolate frogs.”

Mina smiled and gave her mother a hug as a loud whistle sounded from somewhere. Her mother tried to compose herself a bit, and stood up.

“You’re brothers have your trunk with theirs,” she said, as Mina stepped up into the door of the train, “And don’t forget to leave your backpack with your trunk, ok? They all get moved to your dorm rooms for you. Don’t take it into the Great Hall.”

Mina nodded and the door to the train carriage slammed shut. Mina pulled the window down and her mother stood on tiptoes to speak to her through it.

“And Willamina,” she said in a hushed voice, “Please don’t worry about making it into Slytherin for the sake of your father.”

Mina felt a lump rise in her throat, and nodded as she didn’t trust her voice not to betray her.

The window of the door started to roll itself back shut and Mina stood and waved to her mother as the train pulled out of King’s Cross station. She stood there for a while, watching the backs of the buildings turn into the suburbs of London before turning into the leafy green countryside. There was no going back now.

“Hey! Squirt!”

Mina cringed and turned away from the door, seeing her brother, Darwin, waving at her from 3 doors down the corridor. He motioned for her to come to him, and sighing, she slung her pink rucksack over her shoulder and made her way down the swinging corridor.

Entering the compartment, she saw her eldest brother, Nyklus, was already there with his girlfriend Devonah draped over him. Regulus Black, one of her brothers’ friends was also there, all of them already wearing their Slytherin uniforms. There were two boys not wearing uniforms, who Mina knew by sight because of her father’s connections. Lucius Malfoy was pale, with white blonde hair slicked back from his face and an arrogant air about himself. Severus Snape was skinny with chin length black hair, which always looked greasy and almost always covered most of his face. Severus was wearing muggle clothes like Mina; black jeans which appeared almost too short for him, and a jacket that seemed two or three sizes too big. Lucius however looked like he was wearing his very best dress robes, although Mina knew from the times she’d been dragged to the Malfoy’s mansion by her father that they were just his normal wear.

Devonah wrinkled her nose up at Mina. She was a Slytherin through and through and despised Mina’s like of muggle clothing. Mina knew this was why her father allowed her brother to see Devonah. She was pure-blood.

Devonah smiled sweetly at Nyklus, although it still looked like she was about to torture a small animal, “I’m going to find Bella and Cissy,” she cooed, before pushing past Mina roughly on her way out of the compartment.

Mina dropped herself into the seat next to her brother and placed her rucksack between her feet. Lucius, who was sitting opposite her, looked at her with the same look of disgust that Devonah had just given her. Mina stared back at him coldly and he returned to talking to Mina’s brothers and Regulus.

There was a scuffling from Mina’s hood, and a black and white rat, with small black leathery dragon wings, hovered in front of Mina’s face.

“Ok, ok!” She said quietly, smiling as she pulled a small green leather pouch from a pocket on her bag.

Severus watched as she picked a small chunk of dried meat from the pouch and threw it into the air. The rat swooped slightly and caught it in its mouth, appearing to swallow it in one go.

“Are you allowed to have that at Hogwarts?” He asked, looking a bit wary behind his hair.

“Kroger?” Mina asked, putting the pouch back into her bag, “Well the list said owl, cat or rat, and he IS part rat.”

“What about the rest of him?”

Mina smiled, “Dragon. One of the small breeds. Had him for about 3 years, this is as big as he’s gotten.”

Severus shifted in his seat as the rat fluttered over to him and hovered in front of his face, sniffing at the tip of his nose.

“Mina, why do you insist in having that mongrel of a creature?” Edward sighed, “Father offered to buy you a perfectly good owl for coming to school.”

Kroger fluttered back over to Mina and perched on her shoulder, hiding in the waves of her hair. Mina sighed and reached into her bag, extracting the new book her mother had bought her in Diagon Alley for the journey.

When Mina looked up again it was dark outside and the rain was splattering against the windows of the carriage.

“You better get your uniform on, Squirt,” Nyklus said without looking up from the copy of the Daily Prophet he was reading, “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Mina noticed that Severus and Lucius were also absent, most probably putting their uniforms on somewhere. Mina picked up her backpack and made her way to the nearest toilet to change.

When she came back out, she noticed the train was slowing to a halt as they pulled into Hogsmede Station. Putting her bag back in the carriage, which was now empty of her brothers and the others, Mina made sure that Kroger was locked safely in his cage before leaving the train.

“Furst Yers!” Furst Yers!” A booming voice was shouting as she placed a shiny black leather shoe onto the platform.

Mina looked around the crowded platform and noticed it was the half giant that her brothers had told her about. She made her way through the crowd towards him and caught sight of Severus talking to a girl with straight auburn hair. Well, Severus was looking uncomfortable while the girl chatted away at him.

“Follow me Furst Yers!” The huge man bellowed, and the first years started to make their way towards Hogwarts.

Not much later they were lined up and filed into the Great Hall. Mina looked around, but hated all of the faces looking back at her, and so settled instead to looking at the ceiling, which was full of huge black clouds, and the candles which floated there unsupported.

“The ceilings enchanted to look like the sky outside,” a voice whispered behind her.

Mina looked over her shoulder and saw the auburn haired girl smiling back at her.

A teacher, who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, explained about the sorting hat and produced a scroll of parchment from her robes. Mina watched nervously as the Professor started calling names out in alphabetical order and placing the hat on their heads.

Mina took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, remembering her mother’s words about not worrying if she didn’t get placed in Slytherin. But she couldn’t help but worry. She was already her father’s least favourite child. He made it very obvious and had called her a mistake on many occasions. He was always shouting that she was too much like her mother and not enough like himself. Mina sometimes wondered why her mother stayed with him.

The auburn girl stepped forward when the Professor asked for Lily Evans, and was sorted into Gryffindor house. Lucius and Severus were both sorted into Slytherin. Mina cursed her surname, realising that she was going to be one of the last ones to be sorted. But when Professor McGonagall called for Willamina Wentz, Mina noticed there were still two people behind her.

Stepping up onto the platform, Mina hoped she looked calmer than she felt. She didn’t need her brothers ridiculing her for anything. She had hardly sat down on the rickety stool when the hat was placed on her head and over her eyes and everything went black.

“Hmmm,” said a voice in her head, “Quite a bit of bravery. Clever, very clever indeed. There’s a nice bit of cunning here too, and a great need to prove yourself, to prove yourself by any means, hmm? Well in that case… SLYTHERIN!”

There was a cheer from one side of the room while the rest clapped politely. The hat was removed from Mina’s head and she quickly made her way over to the Slytherin’s table on the far side of the hall, slipping into a space beside Severus.

Professor Dumbledore was next to introduce himself, and Mina gazed around the hall while he started what she was sure was going to be a long winded speech. Luckily, it was not, and the tables were soon full of food which seems to appear from nowhere. Mina picked up a chicken leg and wrapped it in a napkin, placing it in her robes for Kroger to have later. She turned to speak to Severus, but noticed the blank expression under his hair. Following his gaze, she realised he was staring at the auburn haired girl, Lily Evans.

“She talks too much,” she said matter of factly.

Severus jumped slightly, “Who does?”

Mina motioned with her head to the Gryffindor table, “The Gryffindor girl.”

Severus held his head up high and reached for a pumpkin pasty, “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

Mina giggled and raised an eyebrow at him, “I mean the girl you’ve been staring at since we got off the train.”

“I have not been staring at her!” He frowned.

Mina spooned some boiled potatoes onto her plate, “She’s quite pretty, for a muggle, I can understand why you like her.”

Severus didn’t reply, but snatched the spoon for the potatoes from Mina’s hand and started roughly plonking them on his own plate.

“Severus,” He looked up and saw Mina looking right at him, “She’s a Gryffindor. No offence, but you don’t stand a chance.”

Severus almost threw the spoon back into the bowl of potatoes, causing a couple of other Slytherins to look up at him. He didn’t speak to Mina for the rest of the meal.

After the meal, the first years were directed to follow their house Prefects to their common rooms. Mina joined the line behind Severus, who was still ignoring her. They seemed to walk for ages, going deeper and deeper under the castle. Mina remembered her brothers telling her that the Slytherin common room was under the school’s lake. They came to a halt at a plain stone wall and all of the first years were craning their necks in order to see what was going on.

The male prefect took a step towards the wall and said in a loud clear voice, “Veritaserum.”

“Truth potion,” Mina heard Severus mumble under his breath, as the first years followed the prefects into the doorway that opened up in the wall.

After a quick look around the common room, which was decorated entirely in silver and green with lots of shadowy corners, Mina made her way straight to the dorm rooms. She had noticed that a lot of the first year girls had already formed their little gangs. Most of them obviously knew each other through their families. But Mina was rarely taken to other Pure Blood’s houses by her father, who seemed to prefer taking her brothers, leaving her and her mother at home like some terrible secret that he should be ashamed of.

Whoever, or whatever, had brought their belongings upstairs had placed an extra table beside Mina’s bed at the far side of the dorm room, on which sat Kroger’s cage. She opened the little door up and sat down on the bed, taking the chicken leg from her robes and giving it to Kroger. He seemed to have incredible strength in his little jaws, because he took hold of the chicken leg in mid-air and fluttered down onto the napkin to eat it.

“What on EARTH is THAT?!”

Mina looked over her shoulder towards the doorway and saw a thin blonde girl standing at her own bed, pointing at Kroger and looking disgusted.

“THAT,” replied Mina in the same snotty tone of voice, “is my pet rat. Any more questions?”

The blonde girl pulled a face, “You must be Mina then. Lucius and Devonah mentioned that you had some half-breed pet.” She smirked and held her thin nose high in the air, “When I saw your hair, I thought someone had put a Blood Traitor Weasley in the wrong house.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, Narcissa,” Mina replied, putting emphasis on the girl’s name, “My blood is as pure as yours, if not more so.”

Narcissa squealed as the lid of her trunk slammed shut, narrowly missing her thin pale fingers. She looked up towards Mina, but Mina had drawn the green velvet curtains around her bed closed and disappeared behind them. Narcissa settled for giving the curtains a dirty look, before disappearing back down to the common room.

Description
Chapter One - The first day.

Mina looked down at the toes of her Converse. Her mother was kneeling in front of her, her make-up starting to run down her cheeks like little black rivers.

“Now, you have everything you need, don’t you?”

“Yes, Mother,” Mina replied politely.

Her mother dabbed at her pale grey eyes again with a dark green handkerchief, “If you need anything you just write home, ok? Use one of your brothers’ owls.”

Mina nodded and her mother burst out into another wave of tears. Casting her dark grey eyes around the platform, Mina saw quite a few other mothers were doing the same thing and breathed a sigh of relief. Her mother had never acted like this when they’d dropped her brothers off for their first year at Hogwarts. Then again, Mina’s father had come with them that time. Mina scowled. She obviously wasn’t important enough for her father to lower himself to coming here to see her off like he had her brothers.

Mina’s mother seemed to have calmed herself a little, and was starting to fuss over Mina’s appearance.

“Are you sure you want to go in your muggle clothes dear?” Her mother asked, looking down at Mina’s ripped jeans and black hooded jumper, “I can send for a House Elf to bring you a nice dress robe.”

“No thank you mother,” Mina replied, “I have my uniform to put on before we arrive at Hogwarts anyway.”

She’d already decided that if she was going to have to be stuck on the train for hours, she’d rather be comfortable.

Mina’s mother started fussing over her hair, which was an unusual orangey colour and hung in soft curls down her back. Mina had tied it up as she usually did, in two high pigtails. Her mother reached into her handbag and extracted another dark green handkerchief and Mina took a quick step back before her mother could do the whole, “you have dirt on your face” routine. But her mother pressed the green silk into Mina’s hand. Mina noticed it had coins in it.

“For the trolley on the train,” she smiled sadly, “They even have chocolate frogs.”

Mina smiled and gave her mother a hug as a loud whistle sounded from somewhere. Her mother tried to compose herself a bit, and stood up.

“You’re brothers have your trunk with theirs,” she said, as Mina stepped up into the door of the train, “And don’t forget to leave your backpack with your trunk, ok? They all get moved to your dorm rooms for you. Don’t take it into the Great Hall.”

Mina nodded and the door to the train carriage slammed shut. Mina pulled the window down and her mother stood on tiptoes to speak to her through it.

“And Willamina,” she said in a hushed voice, “Please don’t worry about making it into Slytherin for the sake of your father.”

Mina felt a lump rise in her throat, and nodded as she didn’t trust her voice not to betray her.

The window of the door started to roll itself back shut and Mina stood and waved to her mother as the train pulled out of King’s Cross station. She stood there for a while, watching the backs of the buildings turn into the suburbs of London before turning into the leafy green countryside. There was no going back now.

“Hey! Squirt!”

Mina cringed and turned away from the door, seeing her brother, Darwin, waving at her from 3 doors down the corridor. He motioned for her to come to him, and sighing, she slung her pink rucksack over her shoulder and made her way down the swinging corridor.

Entering the compartment, she saw her eldest brother, Nyklus, was already there with his girlfriend Devonah draped over him. Regulus Black, one of her brothers’ friends was also there, all of them already wearing their Slytherin uniforms. There were two boys not wearing uniforms, who Mina knew by sight because of her father’s connections. Lucius Malfoy was pale, with white blonde hair slicked back from his face and an arrogant air about himself. Severus Snape was skinny with chin length black hair, which always looked greasy and almost always covered most of his face. Severus was wearing muggle clothes like Mina; black jeans which appeared almost too short for him, and a jacket that seemed two or three sizes too big. Lucius however looked like he was wearing his very best dress robes, although Mina knew from the times she’d been dragged to the Malfoy’s mansion by her father that they were just his normal wear.

Devonah wrinkled her nose up at Mina. She was a Slytherin through and through and despised Mina’s like of muggle clothing. Mina knew this was why her father allowed her brother to see Devonah. She was pure-blood.

Devonah smiled sweetly at Nyklus, although it still looked like she was about to torture a small animal, “I’m going to find Bella and Cissy,” she cooed, before pushing past Mina roughly on her way out of the compartment.

Mina dropped herself into the seat next to her brother and placed her rucksack between her feet. Lucius, who was sitting opposite her, looked at her with the same look of disgust that Devonah had just given her. Mina stared back at him coldly and he returned to talking to Mina’s brothers and Regulus.

There was a scuffling from Mina’s hood, and a black and white rat, with small black leathery dragon wings, hovered in front of Mina’s face.

“Ok, ok!” She said quietly, smiling as she pulled a small green leather pouch from a pocket on her bag.

Severus watched as she picked a small chunk of dried meat from the pouch and threw it into the air. The rat swooped slightly and caught it in its mouth, appearing to swallow it in one go.

“Are you allowed to have that at Hogwarts?” He asked, looking a bit wary behind his hair.

“Kroger?” Mina asked, putting the pouch back into her bag, “Well the list said owl, cat or rat, and he IS part rat.”

“What about the rest of him?”

Mina smiled, “Dragon. One of the small breeds. Had him for about 3 years, this is as big as he’s gotten.”

Severus shifted in his seat as the rat fluttered over to him and hovered in front of his face, sniffing at the tip of his nose.

“Mina, why do you insist in having that mongrel of a creature?” Edward sighed, “Father offered to buy you a perfectly good owl for coming to school.”

Kroger fluttered back over to Mina and perched on her shoulder, hiding in the waves of her hair. Mina sighed and reached into her bag, extracting the new book her mother had bought her in Diagon Alley for the journey.

When Mina looked up again it was dark outside and the rain was splattering against the windows of the carriage.

“You better get your uniform on, Squirt,” Nyklus said without looking up from the copy of the Daily Prophet he was reading, “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Mina noticed that Severus and Lucius were also absent, most probably putting their uniforms on somewhere. Mina picked up her backpack and made her way to the nearest toilet to change.

When she came back out, she noticed the train was slowing to a halt as they pulled into Hogsmede Station. Putting her bag back in the carriage, which was now empty of her brothers and the others, Mina made sure that Kroger was locked safely in his cage before leaving the train.

“Furst Yers!” Furst Yers!” A booming voice was shouting as she placed a shiny black leather shoe onto the platform.

Mina looked around the crowded platform and noticed it was the half giant that her brothers had told her about. She made her way through the crowd towards him and caught sight of Severus talking to a girl with straight auburn hair. Well, Severus was looking uncomfortable while the girl chatted away at him.

“Follow me Furst Yers!” The huge man bellowed, and the first years started to make their way towards Hogwarts.

Not much later they were lined up and filed into the Great Hall. Mina looked around, but hated all of the faces looking back at her, and so settled instead to looking at the ceiling, which was full of huge black clouds, and the candles which floated there unsupported.

“The ceilings enchanted to look like the sky outside,” a voice whispered behind her.

Mina looked over her shoulder and saw the auburn haired girl smiling back at her.

A teacher, who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, explained about the sorting hat and produced a scroll of parchment from her robes. Mina watched nervously as the Professor started calling names out in alphabetical order and placing the hat on their heads.

Mina took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, remembering her mother’s words about not worrying if she didn’t get placed in Slytherin. But she couldn’t help but worry. She was already her father’s least favourite child. He made it very obvious and had called her a mistake on many occasions. He was always shouting that she was too much like her mother and not enough like himself. Mina sometimes wondered why her mother stayed with him.

The auburn girl stepped forward when the Professor asked for Lily Evans, and was sorted into Gryffindor house. Lucius and Severus were both sorted into Slytherin. Mina cursed her surname, realising that she was going to be one of the last ones to be sorted. But when Professor McGonagall called for Willamina Wentz, Mina noticed there were still two people behind her.

Stepping up onto the platform, Mina hoped she looked calmer than she felt. She didn’t need her brothers ridiculing her for anything. She had hardly sat down on the rickety stool when the hat was placed on her head and over her eyes and everything went black.

“Hmmm,” said a voice in her head, “Quite a bit of bravery. Clever, very clever indeed. There’s a nice bit of cunning here too, and a great need to prove yourself, to prove yourself by any means, hmm? Well in that case… SLYTHERIN!”

There was a cheer from one side of the room while the rest clapped politely. The hat was removed from Mina’s head and she quickly made her way over to the Slytherin’s table on the far side of the hall, slipping into a space beside Severus.

Professor Dumbledore was next to introduce himself, and Mina gazed around the hall while he started what she was sure was going to be a long winded speech. Luckily, it was not, and the tables were soon full of food which seems to appear from nowhere. Mina picked up a chicken leg and wrapped it in a napkin, placing it in her robes for Kroger to have later. She turned to speak to Severus, but noticed the blank expression under his hair. Following his gaze, she realised he was staring at the auburn haired girl, Lily Evans.

“She talks too much,” she said matter of factly.

Severus jumped slightly, “Who does?”

Mina motioned with her head to the Gryffindor table, “The Gryffindor girl.”

Severus held his head up high and reached for a pumpkin pasty, “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

Mina giggled and raised an eyebrow at him, “I mean the girl you’ve been staring at since we got off the train.”

“I have not been staring at her!” He frowned.

Mina spooned some boiled potatoes onto her plate, “She’s quite pretty, for a muggle, I can understand why you like her.”

Severus didn’t reply, but snatched the spoon for the potatoes from Mina’s hand and started roughly plonking them on his own plate.

“Severus,” He looked up and saw Mina looking right at him, “She’s a Gryffindor. No offence, but you don’t stand a chance.”

Severus almost threw the spoon back into the bowl of potatoes, causing a couple of other Slytherins to look up at him. He didn’t speak to Mina for the rest of the meal.

After the meal, the first years were directed to follow their house Prefects to their common rooms. Mina joined the line behind Severus, who was still ignoring her. They seemed to walk for ages, going deeper and deeper under the castle. Mina remembered her brothers telling her that the Slytherin common room was under the school’s lake. They came to a halt at a plain stone wall and all of the first years were craning their necks in order to see what was going on.

The male prefect took a step towards the wall and said in a loud clear voice, “Veritaserum.”

“Truth potion,” Mina heard Severus mumble under his breath, as the first years followed the prefects into the doorway that opened up in the wall.

After a quick look around the common room, which was decorated entirely in silver and green with lots of shadowy corners, Mina made her way straight to the dorm rooms. She had noticed that a lot of the first year girls had already formed their little gangs. Most of them obviously knew each other through their families. But Mina was rarely taken to other Pure Blood’s houses by her father, who seemed to prefer taking her brothers, leaving her and her mother at home like some terrible secret that he should be ashamed of.

Whoever, or whatever, had brought their belongings upstairs had placed an extra table beside Mina’s bed at the far side of the dorm room, on which sat Kroger’s cage. She opened the little door up and sat down on the bed, taking the chicken leg from her robes and giving it to Kroger. He seemed to have incredible strength in his little jaws, because he took hold of the chicken leg in mid-air and fluttered down onto the napkin to eat it.

“What on EARTH is THAT?!”

Mina looked over her shoulder towards the doorway and saw a thin blonde girl standing at her own bed, pointing at Kroger and looking disgusted.

“THAT,” replied Mina in the same snotty tone of voice, “is my pet rat. Any more questions?”

The blonde girl pulled a face, “You must be Mina then. Lucius and Devonah mentioned that you had some half-breed pet.” She smirked and held her thin nose high in the air, “When I saw your hair, I thought someone had put a Blood Traitor Weasley in the wrong house.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, Narcissa,” Mina replied, putting emphasis on the girl’s name, “My blood is as pure as yours, if not more so.”

Narcissa squealed as the lid of her trunk slammed shut, narrowly missing her thin pale fingers. She looked up towards Mina, but Mina had drawn the green velvet curtains around her bed closed and disappeared behind them. Narcissa settled for giving the curtains a dirty look, before disappearing back down to the common room.