Very Bad Things

Chapter One

“Look, Ron, over there,” Ginny pointed into the crowd in a vague direction. Ron glanced at his best friends, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, shrugging, and looked, seeing nothing out of the ordinary at all, or, at least, out of the ordinary for platform nine and three quarters. “What?”

“The girl, the one next to Malfoy. Who is she?” Ginny asked impatiently. She didn’t know why Ron was being such a fool; the girl was only the most unusual looking person on the platform.

She had unnaturally pale skin, and light blonde, almost white hair. She had high cheekbones, and a long, graceful neck. A wisp of a girl. She looked more like a ghost or fairy than human.

“Malfoy’s sister?” Hermione suggested, following Ginny’s gaze. She did have a point, Ginny had to admit. The girl did bear a striking resemblance to Malfoy, her brother, Ron’s, worst enemy.

Ron made a noise of disgust. “Malfoy doesn’t have a sister,” he said incredulously. The rest of the group of friends paid no attention to him whatsoever.

“She does look like him,” Harry said slowly, “remarkably so, in fact.” “And look how he stands next to her, like he’s protecting her, almost,” Hermione whispered, though she needn’t have bothered; the noise of the platform was loud enough to cover their conversation.

“I told you Malfoy doesn’t have a sister!” Ron interjected again. This time Hermione was annoyed. “How would you know,” she demanded impatiently, “been inside the Malfoy manor recently?”

Ginny giggled. “Yeah, Ron’s been buddying up to Malfoy,” she joked, “he knows all the family secrets.”

Ron muttered something about how little sisters were the bane of the earth, or as close to that as Ginny could make out.

******************

Karina Malfoy watched a small group of students, in particular a redhead that was talking to who looked to be her brother.

“Draco,” she touched her brother, lightly on the arm, “Draco, who are they?”

Draco turned at the sound of his sister’s voice, and glanced to where she was pointing. His face grew scornful when he caught sight of the quartet.

“Two of the Weasleys, I’ve told you about them, and their friends, Potter and Granger,” he replied in the utmost contempt.

Of course, Karina thought to herself, how could she have missed the flaming red hair and patched robes. She knew about the Weasleys from both her father and the stories Draco brought home with him from school. The youngest was just about her, Karina’s, age.

Granger, or Hermione by her first name, was another, inferior student, a Gryffindor and a Mudblood no less. Not even worthy of her attention.

The last, Harry Potter, she knew best of all. What witch or wizard didn’t? However, unlike many others who hailed him as a hero, she had been brought up to believe exactly the opposite; that he was no better than his Mudblood mother, and had been the cause of a substantial, although not horrible, decline in the power of the Malfoy family name. That, and the fact he was her brother’s arch-rival was reason enough to put Potter on her “avoid” and, if the opportunity came up, “antagonize” list.

Karina sighed in boredom as Draco once more scanned the crowd for his cronies. She wished she could be allowed to look around, there were so many interesting things here. She was stuck at home so much of her life, that when she was allowed out she wanted to make the most of it. But then again, she was going to spend a whole year away from the Malfoy manor, one whole year of glorious and absolute freedom at Hogwarts. She could practically feel the excitement coursing throughout her body.

If only Draco wasn’t going to be around so much. She loved her brother, but she always felt suffocated by him when they were out together. Always looking out for her, it seemed all he did was worry. He never had fun with his friends, not that he had many of those, anyway. Even now, on a platform coursing with classmates, he chose to stay with her, watching her like a hawk.

Karina knew her parents put him up to it. She knew that he felt responsibility as the older brother to take care of her, watch out for her. He had ever since The Accident, nearly ten years ago......the accident that had changed everything.

**********************

Draco looked over at his sister, and felt the urge to smile. She was desperately trying to appear indifferent and aloof, but failing horribly. The way her eyes were shining as she took it all in, and the way she stood on the balls of her feet, craning to see everything gave her away

Draco was glad she was coming with him. He knew it would mean looking out for her, being constantly on his guard, but somehow that all seemed such a minuscule price to pay, compared to the crime he had committed....

He would always take care of her, this he knew. And he had been doing a good job of it too...until the past summer. God, she hadn’t done a thing like that since The Accident. And it had been so close too....one more minute and she might have died....might have died like she nearly did ten years ago, ten years ago when The Accident happened, ten years ago when her life was changed forever....

It had been his fault. Draco knew that. Knew he should have taken better care of her, knew he shouldn’t have blamed her for a crime she didn’t commit, and for the pain she didn’t cause....but still, it had hurt. And then, when Draco had learned of her curse, it had hurt even worse....

That’s why he was always so protective of her. He didn’t want something like that to happen again....another pang of guilt to add to a list long enough already. The Accident was his fault, and no one else’s.

His fault, but Karina had paid for it dearly.