CORDELIA

Sienna Lynox was truly a girl who didn't go unnoticed, and that was maybe the part of her that Cordelia liked the most. She didn't care what others said and thought about her, starting with her look. Sienna wore mostly black or very dark colors. Her skin was pale, and her hair and makeup were black, too. Even at Hogwarts, her lips were always dark. Her look was really different from her colorful personality. 

"The concert was massive," Sienna said, eating her ice cream. "You should come next time." 

"They didn't let me," Cordelia said, enjoying the taste of her ice cream. "Too many Muggles." 

"What do they think? That they'll die if they get touched by them?" Sienna snorted. "My mom has been harmless so far; my father is fine." Cordelia laughed, thinking of a very scared Lucius running from Giselle Lynox. That woman was the sweetest person Cordelia had ever met. 

"It's still a miracle that they let me come to your house sometimes," Cordelia said, bending over and petting Charm on the head. The little dog waved his tail happily. 

"No," Sienna said, laughing again. "The miracle is that they hadn't still understood that you lied to them." 

Cordelia shook her head with a satisfied smile. "I never lied; I just omitted some parts, not that they care that much." Sienna stared at her, still eating her ice cream. 

The two girls had become friends in their first year at Hogwarts. They both had been sorted in Gryffindor and Cordelia already felt out of place and she wouldn't talk a lot with her classmates, being a Black gave her some problem at the beginning. But Sienna hadn't cared about her being reserved or her surname, she just came at Cordelia and start talking. Cordelia remembered the first time she had seen Sienna; with her look and her make-up, the young Black couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy, but it was impossible not to appreciate Sienna's personality. Her look was part of her, she was daughter of artists after all, she had to be creative too. It didn't take long for them to become friends. And thanks to Sienna, Cordelia found the courage to open up to her classmates. 

"You're coming for Christmas, right?" asked Sienna suddenly. 

"Are you already thinking about Christmas?" Cordelia said with a laugh. 

"I have to prepare my mother if it's a no," Sienna said simply. "We got used to you by now." Since her last Christmas at Hogwarts, she had spent it with the Lenox. She didn't want to go back to the Malfoys, so she accepted Sienna's invitation. For the first time, she had a glimpse of how a normal family was supposed to be—full of laughter and love, something very different from what she had been living with the Malfoys. 

"Have you received any owls this summer?" Cordelia asked with knowing curiosity, earning a glare from her best friend. 

"Yeah," Sienna said, "Dumbledore's. He wrote to me about the new books." Cordelia shook her head with a smile. 

"He must be cheating on you because he wrote to me too." 

Sienna scoffed playfully. "I should have known." 

"You are not changing the subject, you know?" Cordelia said with a curious smile. 

"If you want Fred Weasley to write so bad, why don't you ask him to write to you?" Sienna said. 

Cordelia looked at her with a knowing look. "Are you seriously so bothered by his attentions?" 

"Of course I am!" Sienna argued, shaking her head and moving her long black hair. "He is annoying with all those stupid jokes. He can't shut up for a minute." 

"So, he's not so different from you," Cordelia said before bursting into a loud laugh, looking at Sienna's expression. 

"Shouldn't you go look for your---what is he, again?" Sienna asked in an attempt to change the subject, and this time, she did it because Cordelia looked at her friend's watch. She had to go to Draco, he was buying his robes. 

"Right!" the girl exclaimed, getting up. "Come on?" 

"Do I have to come too?" Sienna complained. 

"I would do it for you," Cordelia said, putting her hands on her hips. 

"But Steve is not annoying." Steve was Sienna's brother. He was one year younger than them, and he went to Hogwarts, too, but he had been sorted into Hufflepuff. 

"I need you to look after Charm," Cordelia said, and she saw her friend looking down at the little pet. 

"You know I can't say no to him," she said, finally standing up. 

The two girls walked to Madam Malkin, passing by people and shops. In August, Diagon Alley was always full of families running to buy everything to get their children ready for Hogwarts. When Cordelia did her first shopping for school, she went for her wand just with Narcissa. The following days, she had gone with Dobby, who had been ordered to bring everything alone. He didn't even let Cordelia take the parchment. 

"Cordy," Sienna said, stopping her by the arm. "Isn't that Miss Harvey?" Cordelia stopped and looked around. 

"What?" she asked. 

"Miss Harvey, over there," Sienna said, pointing. Cordelia saw the woman; a strand of her dark hair was behind her ear. She was wearing her usual muggle clothes and looking at cauldrons. Cordelia wondered why Hogwarts' councilor needed one of those. 

"Come on, let's go say hi," but before Sienna could move, Cordelia stopped her by the arm. 

"She looks busy," the girl said, but her friend looked at her confused. 

"Everyone's busy in Diagon Alley," Sienna argued. "But it's not kind not to say hi." Cordelia watched her friend walking to the woman, and taking an unsure breath, Cordelia walked in Sienna's direction. 

"Hello, miss," she heard Sienna greet the woman, who turned with a surprised smile. 

"Hi, Sienna," she said before her eyes fell on Cordelia, and for a moment, she saw something different in the woman's gaze. 

"Hi," Miss Harvey said. 

"Hello, miss," Cordelia greeted with a small smile. 

"You spent a good summer, miss?" Sienna asked with a bright smile. 

Miss Harvey looked back at Sienna. "Yeah… yeah. You?" The question was for both of them, but the woman didn't look at Cordelia again. 

"All good, miss," Sienna answered. "For the both of us," she added, noticing that Cordelia wasn't talking. 

"Good," Miss Harvey said. "Sorry, girls, I really need to go now, but I'll see you at Hogwarts. Yeah?" she said sweetly but in a hurry. "Have a good day, the both of you." 

"You too, Miss," Sienna said, looking at the woman walking away. "She sure was in a hurry." Miss Harvey was loved by most of the students if not all of them. She was there for every student every time they needed her, but Miss Harvey was always in a hurry. Cordelia had noticed it. 

"I wonder why she was here," Sienna thought out loud. 

"I don't know," Cordelia said, turning her head to try to spot Miss Harvey again, but she had already disappeared. 

Then, the two girls walked to Madam Malkin again. They entered the shop, and the short woman greeted them with a smile. 

"Do you need something, dears?" she asked. 

"I'm here for my nephew. Name's Malfoy; he got an appointment," Cordelia said. 

"Of course. Of course," the woman said nodding her head "Come with me" Cordelia looked over to Sienna, who nodded to tell her she would wait outside with Charm. Cordelia followed the woman to a side of the shop, where a curtain was stopping them from entering the room. 

"I'll go take the robe" the woman said "Wait here" Cordelia nodded with a kind smile. 

"That's Hagrid," she turned, hearing another voice. "He works at Hogwarts." Why was Hagrid there? 

"Oh," Cordelia heard Draco's voice. "I heard of him. He is something like a servant, isn't he?" At those words, Cordelia got closer to listening better. 

"He is the gatekeeper," the other boy said. 

"Yes, exactly," Draco exclaimed. I've heard he is a sort of savage. He lives in a hut and sometimes gets drunk or sets something on fire." Cordelia shook her head. Hagrid was so sweet; he didn't deserve those awful words. Lucius' viciousness never ended; something so mean could have been said just by him. She was sure that Narcissa didn't even lose her time talking about someone she probably didn't care about. 

"I think he is brilliant." The boy's answer made her turn to the curtain. Who was this boy? He surely was of the first year, to be in that room, but how did he know Hagrid? She was happy though that Hagrid was being defended. 

"Do you?" Draco said in an almost surprised voice, "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?" 

"They're dead." Cordelia's heart dropped for the boy. She didn't even know him, but she felt sorry for him as if he were one of her friends. Maybe because she didn't have parents either. 

"Oh, sorry" but Cordelia wasn't sure if Draco really mean it, it was impossible to understand it by the sound of his voice "But they were our kind, weren't they?" Cordelia looked over at Sienna, who was laughing and playing with Charm just outside the shop. What was so terrible about Muggles? What was so wrong with them that wizards couldn't get close to them? She had never understood. When she arrived at Hogwarts, she had the chase of meeting a lot of them, and they were as normal as the wizards. 

"They were a wizard and a witch if that's what you mean." By the sound of the other boy's tone, she was sure that Draco hadn't made a new friend that day. 

"I really don't think they should let others sort in," Draco kept saying. "They are just not the same; they don't know our ways." And they were lucky, according to Cordelia; she hadn't seen many pureblood happy families. Not the oldest and richest, anyway, the ones that were more attached to the blood status. In contrast, Sienna's family was so different and better, even if they weren't purebloods.

"I think they should keep it in just the old wizard families." It was really sad hearing him talk like that; it was like listening to Lucius say, "What's your name anyway?" 

But before the other boy could answer, Madam Malkin entered the room, telling Draco he could go. 

"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," Draco said. When Madam Malkin opened the curtain, Cordelia saw the unknown boy. He was skinny, with messed-up black hair and round glasses. 

"Oh," Draco said, noticing Cordelia. "You're here." 

Cordelia stood silent, shaking her head. The words he used were Lucius's; she just wished for Draco to use his own words. 

"What?" he asked, noticing her look. 

"Let's look for your mother so that I can go," she said, walking ahead of Draco. At that moment, she just wanted to go away from her "family". She and Charm would have spent the rest of the holiday with Sienna and her family, and Cordelia really couldn't wait. Maybe she could have had a real vacation away from the Malfoys.