Lazuli - Harry Potter Fan Fiction (Draco Malfoy)

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

5 Years Later

There's a gentle cooing in my ear that brings me out of my slumber. My eyelids fly open and I instinctively grab the wand that's been lying at my side. My eyes scan the room for the source of the noise, scared that one of my brothers has tried to play a cruel prank on me.

But it's only my owl, Athena. The small tawny owl with a large beak and playful eyes perches on the chair beside my narrow bed, watching me and waiting for me to get up and let her out. I can almost hear my name in her coos; 'Juliet, Juliet.'

I try to shut my eyes again and go back to sleep, but Athena doesn't seem to like this idea. Her screeching grows louder and the pitch heightens. Downstairs, someone screams up at me "SHUT THAT OWL UP!"

It's evident that I'm not going to get to go back to sleep. With a deep sigh I climb out of bed and undo the latch on the tiny window of my attic bedroom. Athena gratefully pecks my cheek in a kiss-like fashion before jumping out of the window. She drops downwards, but just before she hits the ground, she opens her wings and begins to fly away. I watch as she soars into the air and into the early morning sky of London, never once turning to look back.

I wish I could be as free as Athena. She has no worries or concerns, the only thing that she ever has to think about is how she's going to get her next meal. How glorious it would be to be able to leap from a window, spread your arms and sail through the air, soaring and gliding, never once having to gaze back.

My eyes flicker towards the broom in the corner of my tiny bedroom. It's a Nimbus 2001, something that my family could never afford but the kind benefactors of Slytherin's Quidditch team could. I've missed not being able to jump on it and soar up towards the skies. But my mother had a strict no-flying rule, and despite how horrible she'd been to me for the past 5 years, I couldn't bring myself to defy her.

Still, today is the day that we return to school. Hogwarts has been like a distant fairytale in my mind after the events of the summer. Since everything that happened at the end of last term with the Triwizard Tournament and the death of Cedric Diggory, someone who had always been kind to me and ignored the fact that I was in Slytherin, not being in the mighty Gryffindor himself, our family moved from my childhood home of The Burrow and were forced to relocate here, in 12 Grimmauld Place. For the entire, torturous summer, I've had to endured the constant arguments between my siblings, the confinement and inability to step outside and go for a walk whenever I wanted. I've been trapped to my mother's silence, my sister's whinging and the hushed yet obviously important discussions between the Order down in the kitchen.

Some taps on my door. "Juliet, it's time to get up." A voice says coldly. I shut my eyes when I recognise instantly that it belongs to my previously darling little sister, Ginny. Ginny would once show me so much affection and would hardly leave me alone, now she barely talks to me, and when she has to, she would never show me any affection.

Ginny is gone before I can open the door and greet her. I shut the door again as across the landing, Hermione emerges from her own room, already dressed and with her hair pulled back into a french braid. I remember once when my own mother used to braid my hair.

It doesn't really hurt anymore. When I was first sorted into Slytherin, I couldn't bring myself to write to my parents and tell them the news. I had to beg Percy - who doesn't speak to me either now - to do it for me. Once I knew that the ice had been broken and they knew the truth, I managed to write them a letter apologising for the disgrace that I'd brought the family. I risked the eternal hatred from my Slytherin classmates if they found out that I'd written such a blasphemous letter, but I did it anyway.