𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝙺𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚎,

𝙷𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚍𝚊𝚢! 𝚂𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚛, 𝚖𝚢 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚢 𝚘𝚠𝚕 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚙𝚜𝚎𝚍, 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚍 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚊𝚌𝚎, 𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚕𝚢.

𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛. 𝙸 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝙸 𝚊𝚖. 𝙻𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗, 𝚖𝚢 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚒𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝙻𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚗 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚆𝚎𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚕 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚏𝚏. 𝙳𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚞𝚜? 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎. 𝙷𝚎'𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚠. 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘𝚘. 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚔 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚞𝚙 𝚊 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕, 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚜 𝙸 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚗'𝚝 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚎. 𝙸 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚒𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚖𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚢 𝚜𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛, 𝙶𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚢. 𝚂𝚑𝚎'𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙷𝚘𝚐𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛. 𝙰𝚗𝚍, 𝙼𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚗! 𝙼𝚞𝚖 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚖𝚎𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚙𝚜 𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞. 𝚂𝚑𝚎'𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘𝚘.

𝙻𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐,

𝚁𝚘𝚗.

Katie received this letter from her friend Ron Weasley some time after her birthday. She read it at the breakfast table with Chris, her older brother, peering in over her shoulder.

"Who's Ron?" he asked protectively. Katie rolled her eyes but giggled nonetheless.

"He's my friend, Chris." she replied, emphasis on the word 'friend.'

"Which one is he again?" Chris continued to interrogate his little sister. To her relief, he finally stopped breathing down her neck and took a seat at the dining table.

"The one that's not Harry Potter. I only have like, three friends, Chris." Katie snorted. She took a long drink from her sweet cup of tea that had been cooling for many minutes now.

"Harry's the one that you should be worrying about, Chris." Mrs Blair teased, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. Katie felt her face heat up rapidly. She hid her rosy red cheeks in her hair. Chris slammed his glass of juice down on the table.

"I don't care if he's the bloody Chosen One, if he lays a single finger on my little sister I—"

"Chris," Katie cut across her brother, "Relax, he's also just a friend."

"And what about that blonde-haired boy?" Niall, Chris' friend who had come to stay with the Blairs for the end of summer cut into the coversation. Katie's eyes snapped up to meet Niall's, who was smirking. He knew exactly what he had done and he did it on purpose. Katie discreetly but frantically shook her head at Niall. Her eyes were blown wide.

"Blonde-haired boy?" Mr Blair said, peeking out from behind the newspaper he had been reading. "You never told us anything about a blonde-haired boy."

Suddenly, all eyes were on Katie as the conversation at hand sparked everyone's interest, including her little brother, Leo.

"That's because there is no blonde-haired boy." Katie stated clearly and calmly while shooting threatening looks at Niall. The Irish boy, however, did not seem to care about her enraged eyes. He continued to tease her.

"Sure there is!"

"Niall." Katie warned sternly.

"That Slytherin boy."

"Niall!"

"What's his name? Err — Malfoy! That's the one!"

There was a clang of dishes as Mrs Blair dropped her fork and it collided with her porcelain plate. She started at Katie with her mouth agape.

"Do you mean Draco Malfoy? Lucius Malfoy's son?"

Katie shrugged. "I guess so. It's not a very common name. Why?"

Mrs Blair made tense eye contact with her husband. The room filled with a lingering silence as Katie awaited an answer, which did not come because Chris knitted his eyebrows together in confusion and turned to face his sister.

"Hang on... is Malfoy not the guy that you hit?" he quizzed, oblivious to the fact that there were others in the room and he had promised not to tell a soul about how Katie had slapped Draco. Katie's eyes were crazed and she slapped her brother's arm with the back of his hand. Mrs Blair gasped.

"Damn it, Chris! I knew I shouldn't have told you that!" Katie snapped.

"Katerina, you hit a boy?" her mother screeched, horrified. Katie was about to defend herself when her father done just that.

"I bet he damn well deserved it. You know what the Malfoys are like, dear." he grunted.

***

Katie had written back to Ron and they arranged to meet at Gringotts Bank on Wednesday morning. Mrs Blair urged Katie to take Chris and Niall with her, to which she reluctantly agreed.

So there she was, standing on the steps of Gringotts with her brother and his friends, awaiting the arrival of the Weasleys, the Grangers and Harry. Niall had just cracked a so-called joke about Katie's friends not showing up when a high-pitched, feminine voice called out her name.

"Katie!"

Katie looked towards the bottom of the steps to see Hermione Granger speedily heaving herself up them, her bushy hair dancing behind her. As soon as Hermione reached the top, she hugged Katie tightly.

"Oh, it's so good to see you. Have the others arrived yet?" Hermione said.

"It's great to see you too. And, no, they haven't." Katie turned to her brother. "Hermione, this is my brother Chris and his friend Niall. Guys, this is my friend, Hermione Granger."

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Nice to meet you."

The small group engaged in conversation about what shops they needed to visit. Their casual discussion was interrupted, however, by the sound of a woman's cry and a frantic red-haired boy dashing up the steps toward them

"Ron, it's great to—"

Hermione's greeting was instantly cut off. "Have any of you seen Harry?"

Katie's blood ran cold. She instantly feared the worst.

"No... I-I thought he was with you." she spoke cautiously. Ron ran a stressed hand through his vibrant hair and bit down on his lip out of agitation and nerves.

"He was," Ron began, "But he got lost in the Floo network and—"

Hermione interrupted Ron's sentence just as he had interrupted hers only moments before. "Harry!"

Katie and Ron's heads whipped around so that they could gaze in the direction in which Hermione was looking. Sure enough, Harry was walking through Diagon Alley with the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid, by his side. Only, he looked quite a state. His clothes were bathed in soot, his glasses were cracked and his face was so filthy that he was barely recognisable.

"Harry!" Katie mirrored Hermione's squeal, only she began to run down the Gringotts stairs, skipping up to two steps at a time. As soon as she was close enough to Harry, Katie flung her arms around him. Harry let out a huff that was followed by a small laugh of glee. He wrapped his arms around his friend.

"You had me worried for a second." Katie told the boy.

"You're going to get yourself covered in soot." Harry chuckled.

"Oh, shut up." Katie scoffed jokingly. Their hug was broken when the Weasleys appeared at their side.

"Harry, thank goodness you're all right!" Mrs Weasley practically screeched as she whipped out a duster and started brushing the soot off of Harry. Mr Weasley quickly fixed up Harry's glasses for him.

Ron stepped up in front of Katie and gave her a huge grin.

"All right, Katie?"

"Hi Ron. It's so good to see you."

"You too. Listen, I'm really sorry about your birthday." Katie tried to tell Ron that everything was okay, but he continued to babble. "I promise I'll get you something today. What do you want?"

Katie rolled her eyes in a playful manner. "A hug will do just fine."

Ron raised an eyebrow, glanced around aimlessly and then shrugged.

"I mean, if that's really what you want..." The red-haired boy opened his arms and Katie stepped into them. Ron was much taller than Katie, so the hug made her feel safe and secure. When Ron and Katie ended their hug, Ron called his little sister over to introduce the two girls to each other.

"Katie, this is my sister, Ginny. Ginny, this is my friend Katie."

The two girls got to talking, with occasional input from Ron. A few minutes had passed when Chris and Niall strode over to join the gleeful gathering.

"So, Katie, which one is your boyfriend?" Niall asked teasingly.

"Excuse me?"

"Come on, Kat, those hugs seemed pretty heavy." Niall wiggled his eyebrows and nudged Katie with his elbow, who let out an annoyed scoff and hit Niall's arm.

"Well, certainly not Ron—" she began.

"And certainly not Harry, either. Ginny has a thing for him." Ron finished. Ginny's face lit up a flaming red and she hissed angrily at her brother.

"I do not!"

To Ginny's relief, her moment of embarrassment was ended by her twin brothers walking over.

"All right, Murray? All right, Blair?" Fred and George said in unison. All of them broke into some sort of dorky, four-way handshake. Katie and Ron stared on in bewilderment.

"Hang on, do you lot know each other?" Katie asked.

"Sure we do," Chris nodded, "We're housemates. Same year and all."

***

An hour of shopping went by extremely fast, Katie thought. Soon, the group found themselves at the last stop of the day — Flourish and Blotts. A sign on the window told them that Gilderoy Lockhart, the wizard who had written all of their schoolbooks for the year, and celebrity of sorts in the wizarding world, was inside the shop. That explained the flurry of women trying to force their way inside.

Making sure that they didn't get separated in the bustling crowd, Katie grasped Harry's hand, Ginny held on tightly to Katie's, Ron protectively grabbed his sister's hand, and finally, a reluctant Hermione gripped Ron's hand. The group finally found Mrs Weasley and were free of each other's grasp.

A loud cheer erupted as Gilderoy Lockhart stepped out into the clear, his golden locks bouncing and his bright smile sparkling. Katie almost threw up as he boasted about himself.

"Bit big-headed, don't you think?" she whispered to Ron.

"Just a tad." he replied.

It all happened so fast. Lockhart caught Harry's eye, dragged him into the spotlight, announced that he was going to be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts (much to Katie and Ron's disgust) and shoved free copies of his books into Harry's arms. Finally, a relieved looking Harry Potter was set free. He staggered over to Ginny, who's entire face shone pink in his presence, and tipped the books into her cauldron, muttering something about buying his own. Katie smiled at the act of kindness.

"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice that the four second years on sight instantly recognised. They all whirled around to see Draco Malfoy strutting toward them. Though the others didn't seem to notice, Katie took note of how Malfoy briefly stiffened upon realising that she was there.

"Famous Harry Potter. Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page." Malfoy said. Ginny spoke in front of Harry for the first time.

"Leave him alone." she growled fiercely, surprising both Katie and Harry.

"Look, Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" Malfoy drawled. Katie finally intervened. She stepped forward and grabbed onto the thick material of Malfoy's jacket.

"Lay off him, Draco. We don't want any trouble." Katie said in a hushed tone. Harry, Ron and Ginny did not pick up on what she had said. For all they knew, Katie could be saying anything to Malfoy. Hermione, however, heard what Katie had said, but still thought it was odd that she used nice tones with Draco.

"Trouble?" Malfoy said loudly. "Who said I was looking for trouble?"

"When are you not looking for trouble. Malfoy?" Ron scoffed with an eyeroll. Malfoy's attention was suddenly drawn to the red-haired boy.

"What are you doing in a shop, Weaselbee? I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for that lot." Malfoy retorted.

"That's it," Ron lunged forward, "Let me at him." He was grabbed by the jacket and stopped by Harry.

"What's going on here? Oh, it's you." Chris had come to the rescue of the second years (and single first year). Malfoy looked Chris up and down through squinted eyes.

"Who are you?" he questioned sharply, sounding disgusted, as though Chris was something foul that stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

Chris placed a protective hand on his sister's shoulder. "I'm Katie's brother. Now, you better clear off before she hits you a slap again."

Malfoy's lips slightly parted. As he was so pale, his blush of embarrassment was easily noticed. Harry, Ron and Hermione's faces all twisted into the same expression — shocked and impressed.

"Katie, you—" Ron began, but he was quickly silenced by a cold, "Well, well, well, if it isn't Harry Potter."

It was Mr Malfoy. Katie didn't need the man to introduce himself to know that he was Draco's father. He had the same, slender, pale face, platinum blonde hair and cool, grey eyes, and he held his pointed nose up like a pompous snob. Katie suddenly felt her whole body go cold in the presence of Mr Malfoy, and although Flourish and Blotts was busy and bumbling, the space around her seemed to be plunged into an eerie silence.

"Such an honour to meet you." Mr Malfoy said, faking his awe. Suddenly, he grabbed Harry, pulled him towards him, and used the staff that he was carrying to push the tousled hair from Harry's forehead. "Your scar is legend. As of course was the wizard who gave it to you."

"Voldemort killed my parents." Harry said, his eyes narrowing. Mr Malfoy shoved him away at the speed of light. "He was nothing more than a murderer."

"You must be very brave to speak his name." Mr Malfoy responded, slowly eyeing the Boy Who Lived.

"Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself." Hermione finally spoke and both of the Malfoys averted their eyes to her.

"And you must be... Miss Granger." Mr Malfoy glanced at his son, who nodded while glaring at Hermione. "Yes, Draco's told me all about you... and you're parents. Muggles, aren't they?"

Hermione did not respond.

Suddenly, Mr Malfoy reached into Ginny's cauldron and pulled out a book — one that Harry hadn't given her. His eyes danced between Ron and Ginny. Out of fear, Ginny grabbed her brother's hand and Ron squeezed it defensively.

"Lets see," Mr Malfoy began, "Red hair, vacant expressions, tatty, second hand books. You must be the Weasleys."

Both of the Weasleys glared at Mr Malfoy.

"Miss Blair." Mr Malfoy called her name so suddenly that Katie jumped in fright. Chris, who's hand was still on Katie's shoulder, tightened his grip. Katie didn't respond. She was too taken aback by the fact that Mr Malfoy was so certain as to who she was. Mr Malfoy noticed this and his mouth twisted into a coy smirk.

"You're wondering how I know who you are." Mr Malfoy stated. "I could spot a Slytherin from a mile off."

Chris let out a small growl of anger and Draco raised his eyebrows at Katie. He was sporting a smirk identical to his father's.

"Miss Blair, you disappoint me. Associating with muggles. I would expect more from a Slytherin like yourself."

Along with Harry, Katie was the only other person who would stick up to Mr Malfoy, because he had hit her weak spot.

"Actually, Mr Malfoy, I think it is you that we should expect more from. A great wizard like your self should know something as simple as a bit of respect, wouldn't you say?"

Chris gave Katie a proud pat on the back.