• Camille Malfoy •

„Our dreams were lost
inside the nights
we never spent together."

Camille Malfoy had her head resting on her clasped hands and her turquoise eyes fixed on the window of the Hogwarts Express. As yet, she could see nothing but the platform of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and the numerous families saying goodbye to their children, but as soon as the train began to move, the different landscapes would blur before her eyes.

A knock jolted her out of her thoughts and only seconds later did the blonde realise that the knock was coming from her compartment door. But the visitor was not waiting for an answer, but was already standing in the compartment when Camille looked over at the door.

"Oh thank Merlin you reserved a compartment, I was starting to believe we'd have to sit with Goldilocks and the other second years next door." Emma Vanity had breathed a sigh of relief and was already heaving her heavy trunk onto the rack along with all her Quidditch equipment. While she merely tossed most of it carelessly and almost indifferently into the tray, she placed her broom on the red bench as carefully as if it might break like a branch at any moment. The dark-haired girl was captain of the Slytherin team and quite fond of the sport, which she made no secret of.

"It's nice to see you again too," Camille smirked, while Emma was still talking heartily about Gilderoy Lockhart. "How can you be so incredibly annoying at twelve? It can't be healthy to have that big of an ego. He's seriously going to ask Dumbledore to start one of those Muggle school newspapers. He just wants to read his own name anyway, that's all!"

"Unfortunately, the first years seem to think his curls are quite fabulous, which must be why he actually has an audience," said a high-pitched voice from the direction of the door. Emma turned with a grin and gleefully took in her other friend. "Lorraine!"

Camille sighed, for indeed, at the age of twelve, he was already as well known at Hogwarts like a sore thumb. Though probably not in the way he would like to be. "How was your summer break?" she then asked gently, as she hadn't seen her best friends in weeks and didn't want to waste their time together gossiping about that twit from Ravenclaw.

Lorraine started talking about her vacation with her family the moment the Hogwarts Express finally picked up speed. They had been in a village somewhere in the north of Sweden, but by now Camille had long since stopped listening to her, because all the little blonde had told her in fifteen minutes was that it had been just as you would imagine; quite cold.

"And how was it with you?" she asked then, brushing the light curls out of her face. Lorraine Avery probably looked what one would imagine an angel to look like and was now looking at her with interest with her green eyes, which made her squint slightly and seem a little naïve. Admittedly, she wasn't the brightest candle on the cake, but she was by far the warmest. At least among the Slytherins.

"A little boring," Camille sighed, rolling her eyes. "Everything's just been about Lucius and his upcoming wedding to Narcissa."

"I don't understand why weddings always have to be so hyped up," Emma yawned, stretching as Lorraine looked at her in amusement. "After all, a wedding like this is quite an honour," the blonde then returned, which merely made the Quidditch captain grimace.

"Lorraine's right," Camille agreed with her friend for once, looking thoughtfully at the slender silvery ring on her left hand that adorned her family crest. "They'll play it up quite the same way with us."

At that moment, a sound probably resembling that of a horde of elephants just rampaging through the corridor rang out. Leading the way, as you might expect, was James Potter, leading his little group, who proudly called themselves the marauders. Simply childish, Camille thought.

However, their loud march seemed to achieve exactly what they wanted, because they probably got all the students' attention. Even the three Slytherin girls couldn't help but glance through the compartment door as the boys passed it. It seemed to be the same principle as when there was an accident. You didn't want to look and yet you did.

Potter, of course, promptly grimaced as he felt the pairs of eyes on him, which was immediately matched by Black, who was right on his heels. For a split second, his grey eyes met Camille's turquoise ones. The Slytherin couldn't interpret his gaze, only that he immediately averted it. It had been a long time since she had sworn the childishly naïve oath with Sirius Black to remain friends forever. He had broken it the moment he had turned his back on her and his brother Regulus when he had come to Gryffindor.

But contact had been broken for good at the latest when neither of them had followed suit and had gone to Slytherin as they were expected to do. Sirius never seemed to have forgiven them and it was probably the same the other way round.

Finally, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, the little appendages of the two, brought up the rear of the troupe. Even though Lupin was probably quite useful because of his intelligence, Camille didn't understand why they kept dragging Pettigrew around. It seemed like a bold-faced lie to her, at least, that these idiots should be nearly seventeen years old. At least the Slytherin could enjoy the fact that she herself was a year younger and thus didn't have to put up with the idiots in class as well.

Lorraine giggled behind her hand, which earned her a stunned look from her two friends. "Oh, come on," she chortled, "they are kind of cute."

And right there was the proof. If Lorraine was smart, she wouldn't say things like that. She was just too good-hearted to recognise Potter and his gang for anything other than what they were; idiots.

Camille sighed and, without commenting on the whole thing, pulled a book out of her bag and began holding it up to her face. Which was usually a sign that she didn't want to be spoken to. Her friends respectfully complied, but the one who pushed open the door at that moment did not.

"Hey, can we join you guys? The only other empty seats are with the first and second years." Alaric hadn't even waited for an answer, but was already sitting opposite the girls on the velvet red bench. Apparently he had been confident that his sister could not refuse him this request and indeed she had merely shrugged her shoulders with a smile.

Alaric hardly looked like Lorraine with his reddish-brown hair and brown eyes, despite the fact that they were twins. In fact, they didn't even look like siblings.

"You could have asked us first," Emma grumbled, who didn't seem to like the fact that his friends were now pushing their way through the door too. Lorraine looked at them apologetically with her green eyes and with that look even Camille couldn't blame her.

"Lighten up, Em," Evan Rosier grinned, who was in the process of dragging all his Quidditch equipment into the small compartment. "We'll get you the cup for that this year! Right Reg?"

"Mhm..." the addressed boy merely made, letting his stormy grey eyes glide around the room unconcernedly. His noble features, so often found in the lines of pure-blooded families, seemed transfixed, and though he looked so much like his brother, they were both as different in character as brothers could have been.

Even though Camille had long since turned back to her book, she couldn't help but sneak a peek at the last of them out of the corner of her eye.

Regulus. The youngest of the Blacks, the little brother who always had to be double perfect because Sirius was not. But the Gryffindor wasn't the only crack in the family's otherwise perfectly guarded and cultivated image. Andromeda Black had also fallen from grace after marrying Ted Tonks. The perfect image of the Blacks had been shattered and so had Camille's friendship with Regulus.

According to her father, the members of this family were not good company for her and her eleven-year-old self had believed him, which was why she had tried to distance herself from the youngest of the Blacks. With success, because they certainly could no longer be called friends. Part of her was sorry, but another part of her saw that it had been the right thing to do. Even if she had always had a little weakness for Regulus.