Chapter Text
Chapter 1: A New Beginning
It was 8 am on September 1st, Alexandra Byrne was sitting at her family's dining table finishing her breakfast in silence. This summer had been… complicated to say the least. Her family had always been very open about their pureblood status and their disdain for Muggle-borns. However, at the end of her fifth year, Alexandra had noticed a change. Her parents seemed more secretive, were attending more ‘meetings’ with other families, but it wasn’t until she returned home for the summer that they truly explained what was going on. Her parents had sworn their allegiance to the Dark Lord. It wasn’t what she was expecting, and she still truly didn’t understand. Over the course of the summer, her parents had begun taking her to these meetings and teaching her the ways of the Dark Lord. Most of the people there were adults, people she recognized from social gatherings or headlines in the Daily Prophet, but there was one who stood out the most. Draco Malfoy. His father had recently been imprisoned in Azkaban, so it was well known about the Malfoys’ involvement with the Death Eaters. It was different to see Draco there, though. He and Alexandra had been good friends in their youth. Their families were quite close and they used to spend weekends and holidays together. However, when first year came around and she was sorted into Ravenclaw, Draco had decided he no longer wanted to be associated with her. This wasn’t a huge loss for her, she made her own friends and eventually forgot about him altogether. Until that night. The Byrne family had arrived at Malfoy Manor for a “special dinner.” It was the first time Alexandra had seen the Dark Lord in person; her whole body felt cold and frozen with fear. She couldn’t keep her eyes off Draco, who sat on the opposite side of the table, head slightly down. He looked… numb. As if this were a regular, boring family dinner.
Over the next few weeks of summer, Draco and Alexandra had begun to talk again. He was so different and yet so familiar to her. He had grown into his looks, his light blond hair wasn’t so gelled back anymore. His jaw, more chizzled, but his eyes were the same. The light grey colour had always been so difficult to read. She wondered if he would speak to her at school or if he would continue to act like they never knew each other again.
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With her trunk packed, Alexandra and her parents made their way to King's Cross Station. Once they arrived, she began to say her goodbyes to her family, when a familiar voice appeared behind them, it was Narcissa Malfoy. “Good morning, Alexandra, dear,” she said in her calm, soothing voice. After some light conversation, Draco had appeared beside his mother. “Hello, Draco,” she said softly. He didn’t look at her. It had been three days since they last saw each other, but by the way he was acting, you would have guessed they were strangers. “Hello Alexandra,” he said. His voice was distant, soft, he seemed anxious. He wore a black suit; he looked very mature and very attractive.
A few awkwardly silent moments passed before the train whistle blew, alerting the two families. She turned to give one last hug to her mother, when she turned back around, Draco was gone. His mother held her hand and whispered, “Please watch over my son.” She looked at Narcissa and nodded, unsure what the reason was for this request, only that it must be serious. Alexandra walked to the train, seeing her friends Leá and Callie Ambrose waiting for her further down the platform. “What did the Malfoys want? Did you hear about Lucious?” Said Leá, linking her arm around Alexandras. “No clue, our families are old friends. Anyways, how was France you guys!?” she responded cheerfully, trying to deflect the conversation away from the topic of the Malfoys and Dark Arts, which had surrounded her summer. While walking through the train and searching for an empty cart, they passed Draco. Alexandra glanced at him, and he looked back. It was one of those moments where time seemed to stop; any details of the beaches of Nice told by her chatty friends had been drowned out by the short eye contact held between them. Maybe this year would be different. Maybe this year they would be friends.
We were nearly at Hogwarts when suddenly we heard screams coming from the cart next door. We stood up and peered in to see that the entire carriage was filled with a black smoke. We assumed it was some first-year playing around, but Draco, who stood up to search for the culprit, looked much more panicked. He was scared. Narcissa’s works began to play on loop in my mind. “Please watch over my son.” Something was very wrong. I will find out no matter what.
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The train arrived at Hogsmede station, Leá, Callie, and I had gotten our bags and made our way towards the exit. I turned back to see Draco still sitting at the table, unmoving. “Strange,” she whispered to herself, but nevertheless, she turned around, leaving him there alone.
The castle was lit with floating candles, welcoming students back for another definite, chaotic year. They took their seats at the Ravenclaw table when Dumbledore stood to make his usual start-of-year speech. He introduced the new potions professor, Professor Slughorn, and announced that Professor Snape would be taking over as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year. Professor Snape was one of the adults that Alexandra had frequently seen at Death Eater dinners. She had always liked him as a teacher, but now there was a sense of tension between them; she knew what he was, and he knew who she would become. Dumbledore continued his speech, Alexandra looked behind her to see if Draco was there, he was, he was sitting staring at the table, his chin resting on the palm of his hand. He didn’t notice that she was staring at him, but Callie did. She nudged her in the arm, bringing her back to reality. “Once, there was a young man, who, like you, sat in this very hall, walked this castle's corridors, slept under its roof. He seemed to all the world a student like any other. His name? Tom Riddle.” Said Dumbledore, Alexandra felt her body tense at the mention of the name. Everyone around her was whispering about him, little did they know, three people in the room they themselves were sitting in would have met him personally just last week. After that, Dumbledore sent everyone to bed. Alexandra watched as Draco snapped out of his trance to stand up and leave the great hall silently.
She decided she would talk to him soon.
She would talk to him tomorrow…