September 2nd, 1991

Cali's POV

I woke up rather early, and headed down for breakfast. I would like to get some food in my system before I inevitably get my father's owl telling me what a disgrace I am to the Malfoy name.

I sat down and noticed the Weasley boy from last night. He had one foot on the bench and leaned into the table, while his brother sat across from him. He was tossing an apple in his hand, just like my brother does.

I started to eat and soon my fellow classmates started to fill in to the Great Hall. I noticed my brother and his Slytherin friends, Crabbe and Goyle, sat down at their house table. I rolled my eyes at some of the idiots my brother chose as friends. Then someone sat next to me.

I turned to look over at her, she had bushy hair and chocolate brown eyes. I had seen her yesterday at the sorting. What was her name? She lifted her books onto the table, and her wand next to them and picked up a piece of fruit. She turned to me.

"Hi I'm Hermione Granger. I hope no one was sitting here." She smiles.

"No not at all. I'm Cali Malfoy." I smiled.

"Nice to meet you Cali." She says, just as my father's owl, Canis, flew into the Great Hall. He dropped a red letter on my plate and I gulped.

"Look, Malfoy's got a Howler." An Irish boy down the table calls.

"Cali!" I heard my brother call as he rounded the tables, and came over to stand next to me. Crabbe stood up to watch and Goyle just kept sitting eating his food.

When I felt Draco behind me, I looked over to see Hermione leaning on my shoulder. "Open it."

I looked down the table and saw that the Weasley boy was looking at me too. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, and ripped open the letter.

"LCALYRIA NARCISSA MALFOY!" My father's voice ringed through the halls.

The letter flew out of my hands "WHAT HAVE GONE AND DONE NOW? I HAVE TO MARCH DOWN THERE AND FIX THIS YOU IDIOT! GRYFFINDOR! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF! AT LEAST DRACO COULD MANAGE TO DO ONE THING RIGHT! MERLIN!"

The letter disappeared into a burst of flames, and I didn't feel the tears that were falling on to my face, as Hermione placed her hand over mine and Draco placed his hands on my shoulders.

"What's wrong with Gryffindor?" A Hufflepuff sixth year shouted.

"Why its a horrible thing for the Malfoys." A Slytherin shouted.

A yelling match ensued and I quickly left the Great Hall, walking the corridors finding myself near the Astronomy tower. I heard footsteps behind me, and turned around to see the Weasley boy.

"Can I help you?" I asked more rudely than I meant to.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay." He says, tracing his foot across the floor.

"Thanks, Fred. But I'm fine." I say, sliding against the wall onto the floor.

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" He asked, not moving his eyes from the floor below his feet.

"No, I don't mind." I say, motioning for the spot on the ground next to me. He sits down, and scoots against the wall, and then turns to me.

"So." He says.

"So what?" I ask, slightly amused.

"I don't know." He laughed.

"Me neither." I laugh.

After a couple moments of comfortable silence between us, I heard Draco's voice and he came running to me. Fred stood up, and stared at my brother.

"What are you doing here Weasley?" Draco snorted.

"He was talking with me Draco, do you have a problem with it?" I asked calmly.

"Yes!" My brother shouted.

"Fred, can I talk to you in the common room later?" I turned to the redhead and asked. He nodded enthusiastically, or at least I think he did, as he left the tower.

"You're not helping your case by talking to those blood traitors, you know." Draco said.

"Well I am a Gryffindor, might as well live up to it." I chorused.

"Just be careful." Draco warned. For an eleven year old, he was awfully protective.

Later that day, I was sitting in Potions class with my godfather. I sat next to a dorkier boy by the name of Neville. Hermione kept raising her hand to answer every question, but clearly Uncle Sev wanted to test Harry Potter, and took joy in the fact that he didn't know any of the answers.

That's when a knock was at the door. We all turned to see Professor McGonagall standing there, she looked awfully disturbed. I turned back to see Uncle Sev removed himself from his previous position of leaning into Harry's face.

"Dumbledore requests the presence of you and two of your students, Professor Snape." McGonagall said, looking in the direction of our table.

"Which students, why does he request my presence?" He asked, in a serious tone.

"Mr. and Miss Malfoy." McGonagall said as if our names brought some kind of bad taste to her tongue.

Uncle Sev looked to Draco first as he was in the row in front of me, and then lifted his head to eye me. We both stood at the same time, and I parted Neville with a smile. As we reached the door, Uncle Sev shouted some kind of assignment at our classmates remaining and they all groaned as the door shut behind us.

As we walked, Draco would occasionally glance at me with worrisome eyes. When we reached the steps up to Dumbledore's office, I felt something on my shoulder and looked up to see Uncle Sev give me a small smile. I swallowed a lump in my throat as McGonagall pushed open the door.

Inside, Headmaster Dumbledore sat calmly in his chair behind a very large desk. My father was pacing the room, and by the looks of it, he was fuming. The four of us stumbled into the office, and my father's head snapped in my direction.

I sucked in a breath. Avada Kedavra would have been the nicest thing my father would have given me. I looked about the room, anywhere not to meet him. My eyes landed upon the headmaster. His eyes were kind, and welcoming.

"Miss Malfoy, I have just informed your father about the fact you may not be switched from Gryffindor." He said with a smile, I felt myself breathe.

"Oh well, if that is all, may my students and I return to class?" Uncle Sev asked, obviously not wanting to face the wrath of my father any more than Draco or I did.

"Yes of course, Mr. Malfoy, McGonagall will show you to the floo." Dumbledore said, and with that Uncle Sev rushed Draco and I out of there and back to class.

"Thanks Uncle Sev." I said, breaking the silence.

"Don't thank me yet. I can do my best to protect you here, but at home I'm sorry is out of my control." Uncle Sev said as he opened the door classroom and all of our classmates straightened up.

"I expect those assignments on my desk tomorrow morning." Uncle Sev as we went to sit down. The groans of our classmates were silenced with a simple glare from my uncle.

That night, I sat with Neville by the fireplace. I was helping him with the book assignment that Uncle Sev had given him, and well I had to do it as well.

"So why did Professor McGonagall take you out in class today?" Neville asked.

"My father wanted to talk to us." I said brushing off the question.

"About?" Neville asked.

"I really would prefer not to talk about it, Neville. If you don't mind." I asked nicely. He nodded and we continued to work on the assignment in silence. By about eleven we both called it a night.