Chapter one: The Half Blood Prince

~Allison Mayhem~

When I saw the train, I wasn't sure if I was ready. It was my sixth year at Hogwarts, which meant one more year and I was done. And that definitely is a scary thought considering Hogwarts has been my home for quite some time now. I mean six years? That's a long time. It was weird trying to imagine my life without it all, honestly. It had truly become my home, and the thought of never returning, was pretty terrifying. Ever since I was sorted into Gryffindor, always found that strange because both of my parents are dеath eaters and werе in house Slytherin. But nope, guess me good always comes out of the bad. They weren't too thrilled with the idea of their daughter not carrying on their legacy in the school, but I didn't care, I was proud of my house and what we stood for, and maybe I was a little biased, as most Slytherin's could be, well, not the greatest toward others, but truthfully, Gryffindor was perfect for me.

As I climbed aboard the train, holding my robe in my arms, I walked over to the Ravenclaw section. Immediately, I began to search for my best friend, who happened to be a Ravenclaw, so I constantly found myself more on that side. It was easy to spot her, as her long golden hair waved behind her just as she popped her head out to see if I was coming.

"Hey Luna." I smiled as I approached the cabin door, entering and taking my seat inside next to her.

"Allison!" She cheered as she reached over and hugged me in a warm and welcoming embrace. Luna truly gave the best hugs. The type of hugs you crave when everything in the world feels so upside down. The two of us talked for quite sometime, mostly about our summer and what was to come with Hogwarts, since it seemed surprises were always in store. Shortly after we talked for a while, Harry, Ron and Hermione joined us. Piling in and sitting across. Harry looked as though something was bothering him. I mean, don't get me wrong, he kind of always had that look on his face, but I could definitely tell something more was going on.

"Hey guys." I smiled, excited that we were all reunited once more. My parents always hated the fact that I knew them. Even if they didn't know how close we all truly were, they still didn't even want me to be civil. But that was typical for my family. Kindness was weakness in their minds, and as they loved to say, lions never concern themselves with the opinions of sheep. Which also made me laugh, considering Gryffindor's whole sigil is a lion.

"Hey." They all greeted in unison as the train began to depart from the platform. The five of us conversed throughout the ride. At first, it was playful, as Ron and I threw food at each other, attempting to catch whatever was thrown our way, in our mouths, and we both were known for the amount of food we could shovel in at once, but we had no shame ror it. It didn't take long though until the conversation had grown uncomfortable when Harry began to make accusations about Draco being a deatheater.

"What would he be doing in Borgin and Burkes then? Browsing for furniture?" He asked us all, as I began to shut down. This was usually how it went when conversations of death eaters and Voldemort were brought up. I never knew what to do in these situations, as I could never say too much, and holding back the truth from my friends was a difficult task.

"It's a creepy shop, he's a creepy bloke." Ron shrugged, still unconvinced, as I tried to act as normal as I possibly could by tossing a jelly bean in his direction, laughing as it bounced off his chin and onto Hermione's lap.

"Ronald, seriously?" She remarked, annoyed at, as she would say, our childish behavior.

"Look, all l'm saying is it's oddly suspicious." Harry continued on, sitting pretty firm in his beliefs. Which, he of course, wasn't entirely wrong of his accusations, but was I going to announce that to them all? No. "I'll be right back." He told us, as he stood from his seat.

"Where are you possibly going?" Hermione questioned. My roomie was of course Hermione. I never had a problem with that because she and I were both the brains of the school. Even though I liked to hide it with my sense of humor, which seemed to sometimes drive her nuts, but I couldn't help it. I liked to make jokes in uncomfortable situations AndI was definitely known for mouthing off and getting detention, but McGonagall loved me anyways.

"To get some fresh air." A simple statement sufficed for him, as he left the cabin and wandered off to wherever, as it didn't make much sense as to how he would get fresh air when he's stuck inside a train. And the train ride had felt longer than usual, especially since Hermione kept questioning where Harry could have gone, but we all knew he was always wondering off to do something peculiar, as he'd usually rave about it later on.

By the time we arrived at Hogwarts, I was more excited than when we left. Something about seeing castle in the distance made it even more real to be there. But, Harry hadn't returned so we just tried to assume he was chatting with others, or got off before us. Luna decided to stay back, as she usually did after each train ride because she claimed she liked to look for the unseen, whatever that had meant. So it was just Ron, Hermione and I, making our way to the feast.

As we entered into the castle, I felt someone shove past me. Draco Malfoy. Him and his obnoxiously uptight family had been at my house nearly every other day this previous summer, due to the fact that we're all deatheater families. Which now, Draco was a death eater. So, like I had said, Harry wasn't in the wrong. And I've been told that I'm next. But I had a plan to escape that. "Watch it, Malfoy." I scoffed over at him, as he turned to me, with a smug look on his face.

"What're you going to do about it, Mayhem?" He snickered in response, before prowling off like the creature he was.

"Allison!" Hermione shouted. "Come sit!" She demanded, as I stood in the isle of the tables. I obliged, walking forward and seating myself between Ron and Ginny.

"Where's Harry?" Ron asked as we all began to look around.

"He should have been here by now, no one else was on the train when we got off." Hermione commented, growing worried, as she usually did. Ron began to stuff his face with the turkey legs in front of him, causing Hermione to hit him gently on the shoulder, in disgust. "Your best friend is missing and you're eating!" She shouted at him, annoyed.

"I'm hungry!" He exclaimed as food covered his face. "And look, he's right there, calm down." He pointed to the front of the great hall as we all turned to the side, noticing him with Luna.

"See, he's all taken care of." I commented, before beginning to pig out, myself.

"Why does he always have blood on him?" Ginny sighed as he approached the table. And then I realized I hadn't even noticed the blood stained clothes. Harry took a seat next to Hermione without saying a word. We all gave him awkward glances throughout the remainder of the meal, but the only thing I could focus on was the sound of Draco and his stupid friends being rude throughout the entire thing, when suddenly, I felt something hit the back of my head and I picked up the balled up piece of paper to see Draco had drawn an animation of Ron and I kissing. I dropped it to the middle of the table, as everyone took a quick glance at it and I glared back at him.

"Just ignore it, Alli." Hermione told me. "He's not worth the stress."

"I dont care. His immaturity is really starting to get under my skin." I clenched my teeth and felt my fists begin to ball up. "We're in our sixth year now, maybe it's time to grow up." Emphasis on the growing up part. I looked over to see Snape glaring at me from the professors table near the podium. I knew he would go crawling back to my mother with everything I do or say just like he always does. He always had something for my mom, it seemed. He told her absolutely everything and anything that I did, and it wasn't earning me many points with the family. I reached my hand up and waved to him with a sheepish grin. Harry began to laugh a little, as I always liked to mess with him, because I just wasn't afraid of him like everyone else seemed to be. Why should I be? I knew him personally, and he just gave me this feeling that it was all a front. Something about him felt off, but I could never quite place my finger on it. I took a quick glance around the great hall, noticing the laughter of the students, as Fred threw a turkey bone over at me. I couldn't help but throw it back. Maybe we were still a little immature, so I had no room to judge Malfoy, but he just irked me in every which way. On the other hand though, I am so ready for this school year.