Weakness

Platform 9 3/4 was abuzz on the morning of September first. People chattered, trolleys and trunks scraped and bumped along, owls were hooting, and a scarlet red steam engine billowed thick grey smoke over all of it. Ellietta noticed the excited grins of the students clambering aboard the locomotive. They all seemed so happy for the start of the term. Ellietta felt quite indifferent about it. She looked around making note of a large family of redheads, a boy with dreadlocks and a box in his arms, and the parents of the little boy from the wand shop. He wasn't with them.

"Now you have a good term," her mother placed a soft kiss on her cheek, "I'll miss you terribly and owl you often."

"Yes, mother," she replied in monotone and lugged her trunk toward the Hogwarts Express.

After a few failed attempts Ellietta managed to find an empty compartment and tucked her trunk away in a corner. She sat for a while, staring blankly out the window at the platform and twiddling her thumbs. The door to the compartment suddenly burst open and the pale blond boy she'd seen in Diagon Alley let himself in. He put his trunk in the corner with hers and then turned to face her.

"You were in Ollivander's when I got my wand," he declared, "Your hair was pink though. I liked it better like that."

"Today seemed like a good day for blue hair," Ellietta shrugged.

"Father says your mother is a blood traitor and your father is a mudblood," the boy spat the last word if it tasted bad on his tongue.

"Rubbish," she replied evenly, "My mother is nothing of the sort."

"Then your father is a pure blood?" his slate grey eyes were icy cold.

"I don't know," Ellietta admitted, "Mother doesn't speak of him often. She doesn't remember him, only what he did."

"What did he do?" The boy's face softened a bit.

"Slipped Mother a dose of amortentia when she was out at the Leaky Cauldron one night," she explained, "I am the result. Theoretically, I could be a pure blood. I suppose we'll never know."

Though he had been told all his life that a blood traitor was every bit as abhorrent as the mudbloods and the muggles, the little boy didn't find the blue haired girl to be abhorrent in the least. He thought she was rather pretty, though he was not about to voice that thought by any means. He also felt bad that she didn't have a dad. Certainly his own father was not the greatest, often times cruel and unrelenting, but it was better than not having a father at all he supposed. And she was right. Since the identity of her father was unknown, she very well could be a pure blood. He decided he was going to make an exception, just this once and never again, to befriend a girl whose blood status was questionable. He wasn't sure exactly why but he felt strangely pulled toward the little witch.

"Draco," he extended his hand, "Draco Malfoy. I hope you don't mind but my friends Crabbe and Goyle will be along shortly. There's plenty of room in the compartment for all of us."

"Are they as rude as you?" Ellietta asked nonchalantly.

"I am not rude," he contended, "Curious is a better word for it, I think."

"Call it what you like," she directed her focus to the window.

"You didn't tell me your name," Draco pointed out as he crossed his legs.

"Ellietta Widdersham," she was still looking out the window, "I'm surprised your father didn't tell you that too."

A few more minutes passed in silence before the compartment opened again and two beefy boys stuck in their heads. With a quick wave in Draco's direction they began shoving their trunks with the rest. The rounder of the two boys sat with a thud next Draco while the (ever so slightly) smaller one sat next to Ellietta. The train lurched forward and she watched the platform disappear.

"They're saying Harry Potter's on this train," the rounder boy spoke animatedly.

"We didn't see him though," the other one added.

"Harry Potter," Draco said disdainfully, "It's all a bunch of bollocks. Famous for nothing if you ask me."

"Did anyone ask you?" All three boys turned their heads in the direction of Ellietta's calm, cool drawl.

"Who's the bird with the bad attitude?" the roundest one asked.

"Ellietta," replied Draco, "And I kind of like her attitude."

"She your friend?" asked the smaller one.

Draco ignored the question and instead officiated introductions, "Ellietta, this is Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. They're only useless oafs most of the time."

"You treat your friends just lovely " she observed.

"They didn't even pick up on the fact that they were being insulted," he laughed, "What does it matter?"

Ellietta did not answer him as the compartment door jiggled and a smiling woman with a trolley full of treats asked them if they'd like anything. Draco withdrew some coins from his pocket and got a package of Ernie Botts Every Flavor Beans, two chocolate frogs and a pumpkin pasty. Crabbe spent every cent he had on cauldron cakes; he'd gotten twelve of them. Goyle was a bit more conservative, purchasing only four cauldron cakes but also several chocolate frogs and a couple of licorice wands. Ellietta's mother hadn't given her any money for sweets ("They'll feed you at school" she'd said) so she simply sat quietly while the boys emptied the trolley.

"Want a frog?" Draco held one out to her and both Crabbe and Goyle gave him strange looks.

"Okay," Ellietta saw the round boys' looks of amazement as Draco placed the Chocolate Frog in her palm, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied and Crabbe's and Goyle's bottom jaws fell to the floor. "What?" he sneered at them.

"Nothing," Crabbe answered a bit too quickly, "We should go find Harry Potter. Make sure he knows who's boss around here. Probably thinks he's leaps and bounds above the rest of us."

"Yes, let's go introduce ourselves to Potter," Draco's voice was cold and calculating, "See if he knows what's good for him. Coming Ellietta?"

Ellietta's head snapped up in surprise. She wasn't used to being included in conversations she hadn't purposefully inserted herself into. As a small child she hadn't been allowed out of the house much for fear that a muggle might see her hair magically grow five inches while simultaneously changing color. There were memory charms of course, but her mother preferred to keep her hidden until she could control her abilities. And even when she had gotten a bit older and only transformed at will, she was still constantly under her mother's watchful eye. As a result she'd often alter her appearance just to infuriate her mother. She'd walked around with a pig's snout for a nose for entire month once when she was eight. As a result of her solitude, Ellietta had never had much in the way of friends. The girls her mother set up carefully supervised playdates with never liked her and usually didn't come back. Ellietta supposed this because she was never happy, with them or for them. She did not express sympathy when she should have. She was never cruel or mean-spirited, just unwaveringly neutral. This apparently, did not a good friend make.

She would not go so far as to call Draco Malfoy her friend, not yet anyways. She had just met him after all, and he seemed a bit obnoxious for her tastes. There was something about him though. That warm fuzzy feeling she had felt in the wand shop had returned to her stomach when he offered her his chocolate frog. The first time she had managed to convince herself it must have been something she'd eaten, her mother was a particularly awful cook even when she used magic to help, so it was plausible enough. This morning she hadn't touched her mother's cement (porridge) though, so it had to be something about Draco that was making her feel like she was wrapped up in a most comfortable sweater. Besides sharing his sweets, which seemed to be horribly out of character if his friends' reactions were any indicator, he hadn't really been all that nice to her. He only sat in her compartment because there were no more empties. Draco seemed to have accepted her into his little group though, which had to be somewhat nice of him, Ellietta supposed.

"I'll stay here," she answered after a slight hesitation. She knew who Harry Potter was, but she didn't care about him one way or the other.

"Okay," Draco shrugged, "At least you're not fawning over him like the rest of the googly eyed gits around here."

He turned and Crabbe and Goyle followed closely behind him. The compartment door slid shut and the warm cozy feeling Ellietta had been rather enjoying wooshed out of her. She sat quietly for a while, swinging her legs, twiddling her thumbs, rereading the Agrippa card that come in the chocolate frog, anything to keep her busy. The compartment door slid open and a girl with rather bushy brown hair popped in, followed by a terrified looking little boy.

"I'm Hermione Granger," the bushy haired girl said, "And this is Neville Longbottom. He's lost his frog. You haven't seen it, have you?"

"No," Ellietta told her, "I haven't."

"Well if you should see it, please let us know," Hermione went on and the boy nodded.

"Okay," Ellietta replied flatly.

Hermione gave her an indignant look and shut the compartment door. Ellietta found herself wishing Draco and his cronies would return so it at least wouldn't be so quiet. She returned to staring out the window watching the countryside fly by her. She caught sight of her blue hair in her reflection in the glass and twisted a lock of it around her fingertips. Pop! It was pink again.

"That insufferable little weasel!" Draco huffed as he opened the door, "Lucky I didn't finish that dumb rat off!"

"Nearly took off my hand!" Goyle exclaimed as he shuffled in behind him, cradling his left hand in his right.

"Let me see," Ellietta pulled her wand from her pocket. "Episkey," she muttered over the small wound and it closed itself up, "Tergeo."

"Thanks," Goyle told her, though he didn't sound much like he meant it.

"You know spells already!" Crabbe looked almost as shocked as when Draco had given her a frog.

"Some," she said and returned her gaze to window.

"Your hair," Draco seemed to have taken a moment to notice, "It's pink again."

"Metamorphmagus," she didn't bother to look at him while she spoke, as though it was nothing special at all.

"Can you turn into an animal?" Goyle clapped his hands together excitedly.

"She's not an animagus you twit!" Draco hollered.

"Not fully," Ellietta ignored Draco's outburst, "I did parade around with a pig snout for a while, and a duck bill once, oh and an elephant trunk."

"Wow," Goyle grinned.

"But why did you change your hair?" Draco frowned.

"You said you liked it better pink," her green eyes met with his grey ones.

Draco didn't say anything. Crabbe and Goyle started arguing about Quidditch teams and when he was sure they were not paying attention, Draco shot her a bright smile. At once she was wrapped up again in that wonderfully warm, soft sweater-y feeling. Crabbe and Goyle continued to banter back and forth and occasionally Draco would butt in to call one of them a bugger or a sod. Ellietta just watched silently. After a few minutes a loud voice echoed throughout the train, informing them that they would be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes and to leave their luggage on board. Crabbe and Goyle were back at it again as soon as the voice was finished with it's announcement. Draco just shook his head. Then the compartment opened with a clang and three girls appeared. The one in the front looked a bit like a pug, Ellietta thought, the way her nose was pushed into her face.

"Draco! Finally!" the pug faced girl shouted and threw her arms around him, "I've been looking all over the train for you!"

"Hello Pansy," he grumbled, freeing himself from her grip.

"You've met Daphne and Tracey before haven't you?" Pansy asked as she took a seat next to Draco, forcing him to be uncomfortably close to both she and Crabbe.

"Possibly," he sighed dismissively and didn't acknowledge the two girls standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Who's this?" Pansy pointed at Ellietta, "Has no one told her that hair looks dreadful?"

"Ellietta," Draco informed her, "And I like her hair."

"Hmm," Pansy leaned even closer to Draco, "Perhaps I shall make my hair pink then. "

The train lurched to a stop and Draco stood up almost immediately. Pansy, Daphne and Tracey flitted away and he breathed a sigh of relief. He waited for Crabbe and Goyle to lumber out of the compartment before holding his hand out to Ellietta. She took it and he pulled her up off the bench. He gestured toward the door in an 'after you' sort of motion so she trotted out ahead of him and made her way out on to a small dark platform. Rubeus Hagrid called for the first years to follow him. They did, mostly in silence, trying not to slip and slide on the steep narrow path the large man led them down.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," he told them, "Jus' round this bend."

And sure enough when they turned the corner an expansive black lake was the only thing separating them from the vast castle in the distance. Ellietta took a moment to take it in, with all it's towers and turrets stretched high into the sky. She must have stopped moving because Draco nudged her from behind.

"Are you excited?" he asked, as they walked toward some small boats on the water's edge.

Ellietta shook her head, "No."

"Why not? With any luck, you'll be in Slytherin with me," he beamed.

"I don't get excited about much," she shrugged.