1991

SABRINA FAWLEY LOVES TO COUNT. It is an odd pastime, especially for a little child. It started with just one, two, three, but as time passed and the girl grew, the numbers lengthened and the things to count increased.

Her and Draco's shared toys, cookies eaten, the shops on Diagon Alley, the days her mother, Blythe Fawley, was nowhere to be seen.

The last is rather grim, don't you think? It helps that Sabrina learned to grow numb to that sort of pain a long time ago. Blythe is barely her mother, anyway—though she was outraged when baby Sabrina, only three at the time, called Narcissa "Mama," an act of emotion the girl still does not understand. If the woman wanted to be called Mama, she should have raised her, right?

However, the longest thing Sabrina Fawley has ever counted was the days until she was eleven. August 7, 1991 was a blessed day in the books of the little girl, who waited patiently at an opened window since midnight. Four thousand and seventeen days, all leading up to this.

Sabrina Fawley

The first bedroom in the hall

Malfoy Manor

Sabrina doesn't break the seal for a long while, instead staring at the letter in blurry visioned joy. She had to wait sixty-three days since Draco got his letter, on his eleventh birthday. She uses Narcissa's letter opener carefully, making sure to keep the wax fully intact. She is going to treasure that envelope with the dark green calligraphy.

Dear Miss Fawley,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Twenty-one words and Sabrina's life is changed forever.

∞

Sabrina doesn't cry when she bids Blythe farewell. She gets a rather short hug (three seconds) along with an order to behave and put respect behind the family name. Narcissa took longer, with ten seconds to hug and another six to uselessly adjust Sabrina's quite straight robes and inspect her perfectly done braids.

"Be very careful, children," Narcissa warns before bidding them farewell, "Hogwarts is more than meets the eye."

Sabrina and Draco walk into the Hogwarts Express, hand in hand. At this age, they are vaguely aware of their future—wedding bells, matching rings on matching fingers, as many children as needed to gain an heir—but that is no matter to them. The time to come is trivial when there is a much bigger worry ahead of them: where to sit in the train.

Draco leads, looking for their childhood friends, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle; though, they were more his friends than hers. In fact, if it were up to the little girl, she would rather sit with anyone else. It is no fun speaking to boys who just agree, agree, agree with her best friend. Their fingers slip from each other's grip as Sabrina slows down. She plans to drag her feet until she meets her inevitable boredom.

Sabrina glances at each of the closed compartments. Faces pass her by in blurry succession, varied in ages and clothes. Draco slows, peeking through an opened door at the end of the car. He shakes his head. "Where are they?"

"Don't ask me, you know them better than I do," Sabrina answers, looking at the compartment closest to her.

She meets green eyes by chance. A little boy, somehow smaller than the already tiny girl, swimming in a loose gray shirt and a comically large flannel. Broken glasses sit unsteady on the bridge of his nose. She gives him a small smile and sees the boy's face change—

"There you are! Where were you?" Draco exclaims, looking up at the two bulky children. "Well, come on, let's snag a compartment. This whole car is full. Do you see how many have muggle clothes on?" The boy turns to the girl, waving her over. "Sabrina!"

"Slow down, Draco," Sabrina orders. "It's not as if the whole train will be filled up anytime soon."

She does not give the compartment with the lone eleven year old a second glance and hops to it, following the three boys in a steady yet meandering pace.

They found an empty chamber in the next carriage, thank Merlin, because if she was the one who trapped them in a compartment filled to the brim with new and returning students, she would never hear the end of it. She takes a seat on the right bench, sitting dainty and proper as she stares at the landscape outside the window. It is going too fast for her to count the trees or the cows, sadly, but it is truly the destination that matters.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Sabrina cannot wait.

The door opens and a scrawny boy with a head of shocking red peeks through the opening. "Um, hullo. Mind if I sit here? I can't find anywhere else."

Sabrina begins to accept, but is hastily interrupted by Draco's laugh, harsh and cold. She turns to the other boy, brow furrowed.

"No thanks, we aren't in the mood to give you a handout," he says haughtily. Crabbe and Goyle snicker obnoxiously, as if that sentence was in any way funny.

The boy purses his lips, anger flashing behind his eyes. "Well, alright then." He lets the door slam shut behind him as he leaves.

"Why'd you do that?" Sabrina exclaims, agitated by the boy's cruel words.

"He's a Weasley, 'Ina, he's not our sort," he says confidently, confusing her further.

"He is part of the Sacred Twenty-eight, then. That makes him exactly our kind. Are you telling me you didn't read the only piece of decor in our room?"

Draco rolls his eyes, "he is a blood traitor."

"But he's still our blood."

"What're you saying, then?" Draco snaps.

Sabrina shrugs, feeling rather defeated. She slumps into the padded backing of her seat as she gazes out the window. "Just that you were being cruel and unbecoming."

∞

Sabrina finds herself in a different boat than Draco when they are escorted off of the train. He sits proud with his goons, leaving no room for the one person he is legally obligated to leave room for. In the back of her mind, that voice that nags her, that reminds her of the future, wonders if this is what married life will look like. Him off with his friends, her all alone.

But that's a lot for an eleven year old to handle, so she begins counting, going through every little boat until she finds one with less than four. When she does so, she breaks into a sprint, robes flying behind her as she makes her way to the vessel with only one.

"Hello, would you mind if I sat with you?" Sabrina asks politely, though slightly out of breath.

A girl—with bushy hair and robes all prim and proper—gives her a small smile. "Of course," she replies, just as polite.

She sits down next to the girl in the middle, giving her a hand to shake. "Sabrina Fawley, pleased to meet you."

The girl accepts, their fingers sliding together. "Hermione Granger, the pleasure is all mine."

Two other first years pile in—Seamus Finnigan and Susan Bones—before the ship sets sail. Hogwarts is a sight to see, that Sabrina is sure of. She wonders how much time of the seven years will be spent just looking upon her second home. Excitement seizes her throat so harshly that she can barely breath, least of all speak.

When the boats dock, the hoard of children make their way into the castle. Sabrina had long since separated from Hermione—though she wishes she didn't, the other girl was just as excited as herself—and joined Draco and his strong-arms. She twists a braid between her fingers, a nervous habit she's been trying to kick. She's in Hogwarts now, after all. She's basically an adult and adults don't play with their braids.

A woman stands at the top of the stairs, tapping at the stone railing next to her. Sabrina feels the need to blush under her stern gaze.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you can take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now while you're here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points. Any rule breaking, and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup."

"Trevor!"

Sabrina jolts from her stupor as a boy pushes past, grabbing a lone toad. He's obviously embarrassed, his head hung low as he apologizes and returns to the crowd.

Sabrina turns to Draco to speak, but realizes, to her horror, that he's walking over to the Weasley boy. The girl clenches her fists, gearing to tug him to the ground if needed. She is already tired of this new bullying nature of his.

It's true then, what they're saying on the train. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts," Draco proclaims. He motions to the three he left behind. "This is Crabbe and Goyle and Sabrina." Well, lovely, now I'm trapped in this predicament, Sabrina thinks as she subtly tries to glare at the blond. The thought of being tied to bullying almost buries the name that he had spoken. Harry Potter. "And I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

The redhead snorts.

"Think my name's funny, do you?" Draco snaps at the boy. "I've no need to ask yours. Red hair, and a hand-me-down robe? You must be a Weasley." The hate in his voice makes Sabrina slightly jolt from shock. She watches helpless as he turns once more to Harry Potter. "You'll soon find that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." Draco holds out his hand and Sabrina secretly hopes that it is left untaken. She would rather have no friends than have friends who act like Draco at the moment.

Harry Potter cooly states, "I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks."

Sabrina lets out a quiet sigh of relief. Good to know that the Boy Who Lived isn't a total twat. Draco is shooed back to his position by the lady who talked to them before. Merlin, Sabrina should probably know her name by now, shouldn't she?

"We're ready for you," the lady says. "Follow me."

As the Great Hall doors open, Sabrina hits Draco's shoulder. He flinches back, dramatically rubbing his arm.

"What was that for?" Draco hisses

"Are you going to act like this all year?" Sabrina snaps under her breath.

The crowd surges into the room before the boy can reply. The two of them separate, shifting through the crowd as they stare in awe at the Great Hall. All thoughts fly out of Sabrina's mind as her eyes meet the sky.

"It's not real, the ceiling," Hermione says, coming up from behind to walk beside her. "It's just bewitched to look like the night sky. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

"It's beautiful, even if it's not real," Sabrina replies, looking over to the other eleven year old, who smiles.

"All right, will you wait along here, please?" the possible professor asks. "Now, before we begin, Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words."

Sabrina's mind fuzzes over, her heart beating a kilometer per second. Four thousand and forty-two days, all leading up to this. She glances over to Hermione, searching for comfort in a total stranger. Instead, her eyes meet a boy's. Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived, also known as the Boy She Smiled At. She does so once more, trying her best to channel every apology she feels she needs to give him due to her future husband. This time, Harry has time to smile back before—

"Fawley, Sabrina!"

Sabrina is not shocked when she is sorted into Slytherin. It is written in her blood, the ways of Salazar Slytherin. There is ambition in her heart and cunning in her mind. Why, she's worn green just about her whole life! She gives Hermione one last wave before heading over to the table to the far right.

Having no one to sit with, Sabrina finds herself a rather large gap, hoping that Draco isn't too angry at her for telling him off. Daphne Greengrass slides into the empty space next to her.

"Does this mean that we're going to share a dorm room?" the blonde girl asks. The two had known each other for a very long time, both stemming from the Sacred Twenty-eight. She still has a sister yet to come of age, two years Daphne's junior named Astoria, who Sabrina loved to bits.

"Oh, Merlin, I hope so," Sabrina replies, as if the two girls hadn't imagined this specific moment for years.

Draco is sorted into Slytherin—a shock to no one—and finds his place across from Sabrina. The girl gives him a quick smile and is incredibly relieved to receive one in return.

Bellies full and ears talked off, the Slytherins made their way down stairs upon stairs upon stairs. The thought of going up for classes—where the path could change at any given moment—is incredibly daunting for the quite dainty eleven year old. The common rooms are so deep into the castle, it is submerged into the Black Lake.

Sabrina's eyes widen as she looks at the dark green nothingness. There's a squid in there, along with loads of other things she doesn't even know yet. The windows are so large, it makes her wonder who is viewing who. Daphne clutches onto her friend's arm with a white knuckled grip. She is deathly afraid of water. Sabrina remembers when they were only six and Daphne wouldn't dare look upon their looking glass fountain for fear that she would drown.

The two blonde girls are in the same dorm, along with Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and Tracey Davis. Daphne pulls Sabrina to the beds farthest away from the lake window. The girl goes willingly, not necessarily partial to those beds anyway.

It takes Sabrina a long while to actually fall asleep. Her mind rarely falters from its cycle of uncontrollable nerves and loud excitement. It has grown too dark to count things in her surroundings, so she reverts back to the basics: her fingers.

She taps her right index onto each of her left fingers. One, two, three, four, five. She switches hands. One, two, three, four, five. Again. One, two, three, four, five. Again. One, two, three, four, five. Again. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three...

author's note

hello again! we finally got to sabrina! she's eleven at the moment, and has been taught to hate others her family deems inferior, so she's not perfect by any means, but she's also a sweet girl who doesn't want to deal with bullies. hopefully i'm putting that across haha

thoughts? hope y'all liked it! vote if you can <3