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Chapter One

What's Wrong With A Malfoy

The Hogwarts Express blew another billow of steam. Parents, and children jostled around with trolley's of trunks, and animals. Ara Malfoy pushed her trolley until she became level with the train, her dad heaving her trunk, and Jewel (her silver speckled Pygmy owl) up, and storing it in the undercarriage beside Uncle Harry who was storing his own sons belongings in.

"Owl us when you get there."

"I always do, mum."

"Watch out for your cousin, Albus. I think he's more nervous than he lets on."

"I will."

"Say hi to Professor Longbottom for us."

"Of course," Ara groaned sliding a strand of hair behind her ear, the wind blowing it across her chin anyway. "Mum, this is my fifth year, not my first! I'll be fine!"

Her mom brushed invisible lint off of her shoulder kissing her cheek. "I know you will... You're just growing up so fast..."

Her dad shook his head rolling his eyes. "Hermione, please, not here." He pecked his daughter's other cheek. "Don't forget to send us your exam results. Try to get your classmates as well. We want to know how much better you did than them."

"Draco! Don't encourage that behavior!"

"What's the point of having a daughter with your brains when we're not going to gloat about it?"

Her mom glared, her dad sneered frustration sparking between them, but their eyes spoke something very different. It was an invariable, the part in a random yet useless experiment that didn't change no matter what other alterations took place. That was her parents.

Ara sighed, and kissed her dad. "I will." She turned, and kissed her mom. "I'm not taking him seriously."

"Good," her parents said together.

Another jet of stream erupted with the sound warning them to board. She hugged them both, and hopped into the train finding a compartment that wasn't occupied. A ways down she found a nearly empty one with James, and Albus Potter. Her pseudo cousins.

"Ara!" Albey, the miniature clone of his father leapt up, and hugged her around the middle.

"Hey there, Albey." She nodded to the recluse, "hello, James."

"Good, you're here," he jumped up happily. "Now I can go sit with my friends. See ya, Albey," he laughed narrowing his brown eyes at him before disappearing out of the compartment.

Albey narrowed his green eyes back after his brother, but Ara rushed him to his seat. "Ignore him," she advised for the hundredth time.

He threw himself in his seat crossing his arms over his chest. "He's a bully!"

"Mum said he gets that from Uncle George, and Uncle Ron." She peered out of the window waving goodbye to her parents as the train moved forwards. She waved until she lost sight of them, and sat in her seat across from Albey.

"You don't have to sit here with me, you know," he told her quietly, his eyes on his trainers. "You can go see your friends... I won't mind."

She smiled kindly. "I like sitting here with you, Albey."

He grinned, becoming a lot more talkative. He talked about Pig, Uncle Ron's owl, his new broomstick that he wasn't allowed to bring. The way James teased him through the summer.

She let his chatter go on, her gaze out the window thoughtfully watching trees fly by. The truth was she didn't have any friends. Not one. None of the kids wanted anything to do with her, and she didn't understand why. Her first year she was treated as a criminal. Her second year, and so forth she was ignored. This year wouldn't be any different...

Her parents never knew this, of course. Her mother would cry, and her father would be angry. She imagined he would send off rude letters, and storm into the school to talk to every professor there as if they had anything to do with it. They've been curious at how she never mentioned friends, and ended being concerned until explaining that work came first. This didn't make them happy, but they didn't question her further seeing as how they thought it was her choice.

Being unpopular wasn't too bad. Ara had become used to it. She was at the top of her class, though like her dad had mentioned she inherited her mother's brains, so because she memorized every one of her course books, and read most of the library she had a lot of time on her hands. She used quite a bit of that time helping Hagrid the gamekeeper. Despite her top marks there was the joke that she was going to be the future gamekeeper. One day they would eat their words. She would work in a highly respectable position at the Ministry. She would show them all.

Albey was interrupted in his speech of the more recent Quidditch match by the door sliding open revealing a lanky stick-of-a-girl, and a burly boy with thick eyebrows. Janice Higgs, and Michael Pritchard. Slytherin bullies.

"Oh, look, Michael, the future gamekeeper of Hogwarts with... A Potter. How quaint."

"I see what you mean, Janice," he said in mock enthusiasm. "Look at the poor outcasts."

Albey's eyes widened with shock that anyone could be so rude. His parents did shelter him from harsh reality, but these students were lying. The Potters were very well respected, and liked. They were popular by the best sense of the word.

Ara shot out of her seat. "Albey is not an outcast! Get out of here!" Her hand itched for her wand in her back pocket.

"A Malfoy protecting a Potter. Wow, a time-warp," Higgs commented.

Pritchard shook his head. "No one thought a Malfoy would marry a mudblood either, and produce little half-bloods! A Malfoy in Gryffindor?! The world's gone mad." Sarcasm. Funny.

Ara breathed through her nose, her jaw clenched tight. She suspected that her parents were the cause for the hatred everyone seemed to feel for her. So what if her parents fell in love at school? So what if it wasn't expected - a Slytherin, and a Gryffindor? What did it matter? It wasn't that big of a deal! Then Pritchard, and Higgs made a big deal of everything. They bothered her at the beginning of every year, and every year she hexed them. It was routine.

"Two filthy half-bloods. What do you think about teaching them a lesson, Michael?"

"Love to."

Ara withdrew her wand at the same time they did, and she sidestepped in front of Albey's. It was one thing for them to hex her, but to hex a scared first year was entirely different, and she wouldn't have it.

Then there was two flashes of light, and when Ara opened her eyes Pritchard, and Higgs were lying flat on their face at her feet. Albey gasped, and Ara stared at the too-handsome boy in front of her.

Dark cinnamon hair, dark gray eyes like an oncoming storm, chiseled features, a strong jaw line, and prominent cheekbones. He stole her breath.

"Are you all right," he asked worriedly, and she noticed the yellow, and black tie of his uniform. A Hufflepuff.

"Y-yes, I-I am."

He smiled dazzlingly. "Good. I'll get them out of here for you."

She watched as Albey bounced forth to help him drag out the Slytherin's into the hallway. She was glued in her spot. Guys had smiled at her, they did it a lot. She had her mother's chocolate hair, but unlike her wild mane hers was baby-soft like her father's. She had his eyes, light tempest, his fair skin. She had her mother's gentle features. She was beautiful, and was used to the attention by boys that didn't know her last name. This boy obviously had no idea who she was.

"T-thank y-you," she stuttered lamely.

He smiled again standing straight. "You're welcome." He held out his hand. "My name's Thomas Diggory. What's yours?"

She bit her lip unsure if she should tell the truth. What if he wanted nothing to do with her? She waited a beat too long. Albey answered for her.

"Her name's Ara Malfoy!"

Thomas' hand dropped. "Oh... Malfoy..."

"Yes," she said coldly, her stutter gone with offense. "My parents are Draco, and Hermione Malfoy. I'm a Malfoy, a half-blood, and a Gryffindor. You've probably never seen me because of that!" She wondered idly why she never seen him. Surely she wouldn't miss someone that looked like him. Then again, she might. She tried to avoid the looks people gave her. If she looked once around her she would see a lot of new faces that she had unknowingly been sharing classes, and rooms with.

"So you are..."

"A Malfoy," she finished.

"Right... Well then... Goodbye," he hunched his shoulders, and left shutting the compartment door quietly behind him.

Albey looked up at her curiously. "Why did he act like that? What's wrong with a Malfoy?"

She continued to stare at the door where the handsome boy left from. "I don't know, Albey..." She intended to find out. For the first time in her life she cared why that boy didn't like her.

As soon as Albey broke out of his reflection he jumped right in with where he left off in his story. Something about the Chudley Canon's increase in dropped Quaffle's for the year. She acted like she was listening as he rattled on for the whole train ride. It was odd as much as he annoyed her she preferred him, and his sister Lily to their brother. Anything was better than that trouble-making brat. In all honesty they were all trouble-makers, but James was too much like their uncle's.

She was very thankful when the train was getting ready to stop at it's station at Hogwarts. Albey left her briefly so she could change into her black robes. She was straightening her scarlet, and gold tie when he came returned, but they parted once more when he with the other first years took the boats across the lake. She took the horseless carriages.

It was routine. In the Great Hall every chair was filled, but the ones nearest to her was scooted as far away as possible. Everyone paid no attention to her. She was invisible. A nothing. The chair could be empty as far as anyone was concerned.

Ara watched as Albey became sorted into Gryffindor. No surprise, every one of the Weasley's, and Potter's were Gryffindor's. A long standing tradition that would become a scandal if broken. It worried Albey all summer of what house he would be placed in. James jested with him throughout that he would be sorted into Slytherin. Even after the war their parents endured in their school days Slytherin remained the house of evil. So when the old worn patchwork hat was sat on his head, and it screamed "Gryffindor," he never looked happier, and immediately joined his brother to gloat.

She went straight to her dormitory after the meal. The girls pretended as if there wasn't another bed in the room, and she preferred that. She took a bit of parchment, a quill, and ink bottle with her closing the curtain.

She thought of what she would write to her parents. They always meant the best for her, but she was fifteen-years-old... Wasn't it about time that she knew the truth whether there was a boy involved or not? Whatever that truth was... There was something missing in everything they told her of their past. They fought in the war with the rest of her family, and they won. What else was there to know? It would be easier to understand why the Slytherin's hated her, because everyone knew they were made up of Death Eater's children, and ones that were plainly with the idea that they were better blood. Her dad had been in that house, but he said nothing about being a Death Eater. She assumed he was different. He had to be to marry her mom. Her mom was muggle-born, and the best friend to the wizarding world's heroes, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley. She was hero herself. Though no one said this about her dad, she assumed... She assumed a lot.

Ara carefully dipped her quill into its bottle, and pressed it to the parchment watching as it soaked it up.

Mom & Dad,

I'm here at Hogwarts. Albus was sorted into Gryffindor. He's so proud. I think James will never hear the end of it. It serves him right for being so cruel during the summer.

I've asked you many times, but how did you two meet? I know you two aren't telling me everything. I'm old enough to know it all now. Don't treat me like a child, I deserve to know what happened.

I suppose I'll hear from you soon. Love you both.

With Much Love, Ara

She folded, and slipped it into an envelops writing her parents names on the front. She blew on the ink for it to dry, and hid it beneath her pillow. She set her supplies on her nightstand wondering if they'd really tell her the truth this time. She doubted it. Like the Potter's sheltered their children from who they were in society, her parents sheltered her from their relationship.

She was a Malfoy. A Gryffindor. A half-blood. She was Ara Malfoy daughter of Draco, and Hermione Malfoy. She was beautiful, and proud. But what else was she?

A/N: I highly suggest that if you haven't read Letters of Forgiveness you do so before continuing to read this story. I'm not sure how much sense it'll make otherwise.

In some background information, Thomas is after part of Robert Pattinson's name. If you don't know who he is he's the man that plays Cedric Diggory in the fourth Harry Potter film.