She remembered the time when she first laid eyes on him. The very beginning of first year, on the Hogwarts express where she knew hardly anyone. She had no idea what she was getting herself into, going to a magic school. She had no idea what was in store for her, and was overflowing with nervousness. And then he walked straight past the compartment she was seated in. 'Wow,' was all she thought, and all other nervous thoughts evacuated her mind. A small boy with nearly white hair and bright eyes, a gracious looking young man he was, being followed by a couple others. The boy's friends were twice his size, tough looking and burly, like bodyguards.

The second time she saw him was on the very same day, in the Great Hall of a magnificent castle, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, when the first years were being sorted into four different houses. In front of the whole school was a stool with an old, ragged hat resting on it. Everyone silenced, and to both her horror and her surprise, the hat started to sing. She was certainly not used to magical, animate objects.

Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your tops hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell brave of heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet wise old Ravenclaw,

If you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And you won't get in a flap!

You're safe in my hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!

There was loud applause as the old hat finished his song, and an old woman cloaked in green, Professor McGonagall began calling out names to be sorted.

His strange name was called before hers. He stepped up and sat on the stool and was placed in Slytherin before the hat was even set on his head properly. Slytherin appeared to be the worst house, with the little knowledge she had. She wondered how such a handsome, gracious boy could be called cunning and selfish so proudly. He looked very content being placed in Slytherin.

Towards the end of the sorting ceremony her name was finally called. She could feel herself shaking as she stepped up to the stool. She was never good at presenting herself to a body of people. She felt like she'd been up there forever that night.

The hat did a lot of thinking out loud. It was reading her thoughts and listing her values. "A quiet one I see... reserved, and a thorough thinker. You keep complications to yourself and, ah! Quite independent you are, but a very emotional one. Hmm... Adapts to new situations easily, therefore gets along with people quite easily... very just. And a keen learner..." At this point the Sorting Hat was deciding between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.

The hat paused, silent for a short moment, and then finally continued,

"A half-blood I see, but very brave when you have to be. Intelligent! You know what you need to know..." The hat seemed to think about it a little more, and by then she was getting quite embarrassed with the amount of people who were actually now looking in her direction, either paying attention to what the hat was saying or wondering what was taking so long for one little first year. Besides Harry Potter, of course. But no one knew who she was, and so it was unusual.

The hat kept on talking, seemingly talking about her more happy side.

"Humorous, always looking for something fun to do, a happy person. Your first impression on people is happy and bright..." The hat laughed, "But you do get hurt easily... weak emotion, but determination, a little bit of cunningness, and great ideas... but where's the courage? Just when I thought definitely not a Slytherin..."

She remembered how she felt her face heat up as she realised the Great Hall was so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop.

She raised her eyes slowly from the floor to the rest of Hogwarts. She remembered the exact words of the Sorting Hat,

"You are a unique person, someone with the right qualities for every house… I haven't come across this for quite a few years… Ah! I see it now! The courage will come through. I think you should be proud to call yourself… A GRYFFINDOR!" And the Gryffindor house went up in an uproar. But she remembered thinking right before the hat told her she was a Gryffindor that she wanted to be a Slytherin, just like that boy. She remembered looking out at the crowd and finding that boy, seeing his white blonde hair and looking at his grey-blue eyes, when she noticed them looking right back at her bright blue ones. He flashed her a very small, nervous smile, seeing the very small gleam in her eyes… but as soon as the word Gryffindor was spoken, his gorgeous smile almost literally slipped right off his face and his eyes were not blue-grey, but just grey. She remembered feeling the disappointment, and she hasn't seen Draco Malfoy smile like that since, nor the small sparkle in his eyes. Nobody has.

But that was exactly five years ago to the day. The sorting ceremony evokes those early memories every year. She hadn't done anything over the past five years to be noticed or gain recognition. It left her wondering why the hat made her seem so special that night, and she bet the years above hers thought so too. She wasn't another legendary hero to come to Hogwarts. She was her plain, half-blood self who arrived at Hogwarts with little knowledge of the magical world. She still awaited the time for her courage, for whatever reason, to come through. The Sorting Hat said it would, like it was destined.

It was now the beginning of her sixth year at Hogwarts. She was sitting in the Gryffindor common room by herself late at night, wondering why Draco Malfoy had been so mesmerising. In fact, she was wondering why he was still so mesmerising.

She now knew Draco quite well, knew what type of unkind and taunting person he was. He was a nasty person. He was destined to be a follower of the Dark Lord, as she learned about death eaters, dark magic and more in depth history about the Hogwarts houses over the years. Now with all the knowledge she had, Slytherin was still, by far the house that withheld the worst traits, and she now understood why Draco was placed there.

She had also learned about Harry Potter's story, and how he became a part of wizard history by unknowingly defeating Voldemort as a baby. A lot of strange things happened at Hogwarts that usually involved Harry. Harry was a classmate of hers, but also a good friend. Most of the Gryffindors in sixth year where good friends to her. Unfortunately, Draco had taunted, teased and insulted a large handful of them, and was directly Harry's arch nemesis.

There was an ongoing rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. This rivalry was just about ancient. Naturally, without even knowing each other personally, Gryffindor and Slytherin students held a strong dislike for each other from day one. It was basically expected. So, over all the years spent at Hogwarts, Draco was meant to be her enemy. Though, they'd hardly ever interacted before. The only taunting she'd ever received from him was when she was in a group of Gryffindors. She thought that hardly counted, but somehow he always looked down his nose at her in disgust. Draco is some low kind of scum to Gryffindors. He is from a rich, pureblood family, and therefore is 'superior' to the rest. His whole life he has been expected to behave in a manner higher than those of high society standard, like he deserves more. His family lives by it. Strong magical heritage like that is a major trait in Slytherin.

She hears people talking about him all the time, what kind of low act he's committed lately and what he called who. But she's never said anything about him, good or bad on her own accord. She just simply supports her friends.

This part of her life at Hogwarts made the last five years a long five years. But she could never work out why. There was just something about Draco Malfoy that kept her wondering. She was determined, she was convinced if she had the chance she could make him a better person, make him realise there was much more to life than being pureblood and making everyone feel lesser.

"Bec? It's late, what are you still doing down here? Never mind, first day of classes tomorrow, come on." Rebecca was startled by Hermione Granger. She was one of the girls who she shared a dorm with. Hermione was one of her closest friends. They met at the beginning of first year in their dorm and have been friends ever since. She was one of Rebecca's first friends at Hogwarts.

"Right, I'm coming." She said quickly, nearly afraid Hermione had caught her not doing anything productive. Rebecca willed herself out of the comfy armchair she had settled into and followed Hermione back to their dorm. Before she knew it, she was falling asleep dreaming of the boy, with the white blonde hair and the grey eyes, Draco Malfoy.