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Chapter Five
LETTERS FROM THE UNKNOWN
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The summer didn't fly by like I had hoped it would. Instead, it seemed to drag on. I had hardly received any owls from any of my friends and I had sent them one at least once a week. I feared that I was annoying them so eventually, I stopped writing to them and wrote in my journal instead.

My parents didn't have a lot of money, but my father had convinced my mother that we should all go to the beach. I never realise how much I was not a fan of the ocean until I got there. I didn't like how the fish would swim near me, or how I didn't know what lurked beneath the water.

Finn, on the other hand, absolutely loved the trip. He spent most of his time surfing and flirting with the local girls that were there. I spent my time sitting on the beach under a palm tree writing. I was either writing in my journal or a letter to my friends that I wouldn't send. I wasn't sure if I could still call them my friends. The last letter I received from any of them had been from Sebastian saying that he and Anne were traveling around the wizarding world. It had been a month ago.

After the trip and we were back home, I found myself looking through the mail, hoping to see something with their handwriting on it, but there was nothing. Finn had found me one night after that sitting at the kitchen table late at night staring out the window, but all I saw was my reflection. It showed me a girl crying over friends that had forgotten her.

"Li, what's wrong?" he asked pulling out a chair beside me and taking a seat.

I didn't bother to turn my head and look at him, I just shook my head trying to tell him that I didn't want to talk. But he persisted. "They haven't written me," I whisper, afraid that if I spoke louder then my voice would break as I was already on the verge of tears.

A look of guilt crossed over his face. "Maybe they've just forgotten." he tries to cheer me up.

I shake my head, "No, I wrote them every week." I say, thinking that if they did forget and they saw my letter then they would remember me. "I guess not all friendships can last."

I don't give my brother a chance to respond before I get up and hurry off to my room. I throw myself onto my bed and stare up at the ceiling. I remember the prophecy I got a few months ago. It mentions having a terrible childhood, I don't know if this counts but at the moment it makes me not excited to go back to school in a few weeks. It makes me not excited to see the three of them again.

I feel my eyes growing heavy and just as I was about to fall asleep there was a tapping on my window. I ignored it, turning over in my bed and facing away from the window. The tapping only got louder and I let out a huff. I get up and make my way over to the window. In the dark of night, I could see an owl perched in the window.

I immediately feel my heart start racing, did they write me? I didn't even stop to ask why an owl was coming to me so late at night who to question whose owl this was? I flung open the window and the white owl dropped the letter and flew off.

It was too dark in my room now for me to read it and I can't use magic outside of school. It will have to wait until morning.

I lay the letter on the table beside my bed and crawl onto the bed. I didn't mean to dose off but when I opened my eyes again the sun was just starting to peak out. It was still pretty dark but I grabbed the letter quickly. I ran my fingers over the seal on the paper. It almost looked like the Slytherin serpent but it was a snake with it was wrapped around a wand.

I didn't recognize it.

I ignore the strange symbol and open the letter. Inside was filled with unfamiliar handwriting.

Lila,

They are searching for you.

I only know this because I was a part of them before I escaped. You need to hide, they will find you. They are ruthless and will stop at nothing to get what they want.

I can only lead them astray for so long. You must be ready for a fight because they won't back down even if you are only a child.

When they find you they will take what they want and then they will kill you. I'm sorry, I wish there was another way. But it is the only way. That's why I had to leave.

For now, stay hidden.

There wasn't a name at the bottom of the letter informing who this was. I felt my heart rate rise as I read over the words.

Someone was hunting me.

I couldn't think of a reason why someone would want to hunt me. There was nothing special about me, I was just a normal twelve-year-old girl fixing to start her second year of Hogwarts.

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I take a seat in an empty car on the train, which reminds me a lot of how last year started. I think to my friends and about the letter, I've written them but never sent them. I wasn't sure why by I had grabbed them and stuffed them into my trunk before I left my house.

I pulled one of them out now and read over it. This one was a letter to Sebastian. I was telling him how my mom had taken me to visit her parents. How they actually were happy to see me but showed a more distaste for Finn. And how happy I was to finally have grandparents.

I didn't even hear the door open but I looked up when someone sat next to me. Anne sat there staring at me, her brown hair was curled and fell to her shoulders. Sebastian and Ominis took the seat across from us. The blind boy's hair was neatly combed and his clothes were wrinkle-free. Sebastian's hair was messy as if he didn't comb it and it looked like he just threw on clothes.

"What are you guys doing here?" I ask trying my best to sound cold but my voice wavers.

"You made us promise to write you, but you never wrote us," Anne says.

I turn to her confused, "I wrote to you all every week. You were the ones that never sent anything."

"Well, I don't know about them," Ominis says gesturing in the general direction of Sebastian and Anne, "but I never received anything. But I sent you a few."

Sebastian nods his head at him, "Yes, and I know for a fact that Anne and I both wrote and sent some but we only got letters from Ominis."

I stare at the three of the in confusion. "That doesn't make any sense," I say as I try to rack my brain as to why I didn't receive any letter or why they didn't get mine. "My brother and I share an owl..." I trail off. "I gave him my letters to send, and my guess is that he never sent them and he got your letters before I could."

I stand up and walk out of the cart before any of them can stop me. They don't try though, instead, Sebastian follows me down the narrow hallway of the train. I peek into the carts looking for my brother, and I find him in the second to last one with a few of his friends.

"Finn!" I yell as I open the door.

He looks up at me shocked to see me here. "What do you want?" he asks annoyed. I hear one of his friends whisper something to another next to him and they snicker at each other.

"Why didn't you send my letters? Why did you keep the letters from my friends?" I ask him trying to sound angry, but every time I do get angry I cry. I could feel my eyes tear up.

One of his friends looks up at me, "What are you going to do, cry?" he asks and Sebastian steps out from behind me and throws a punch at him. He didn't hit him very hard and it was in the chest, but I could see the anger in his eyes.

"This is why, Lila," Finn says drawing my attention back to him. He eyes Sebastian with disgust. "You'll find that certain wizarding families think they are better than others. They'll only hurt you. I'm trying to protect you."

I was angry at him and I felt a tear fall down my face. "I can make my own decisions, Finn! I can be friends with who I want." I yell at him. I turn to leave him and his friends with Sabastian following closely behind.

"I'm sorry," he manages to say.

The rest of the ride was uneventful. We spent it catching up with each other. I told them about my trip to the beach but I don't say anything about the letter I received. Ominis was quiet as we shared what we did over the summer and I feared that his parents made him do something that he wasn't proud of. I don't pressure him to talk about it though, I figure that he will share when he is ready.

The train arrives at the castle rather fast and the four of us get off. Since it is only the first years that get to take the boats across the lake, we all pile into a carriage that seems to be pulling itself. I push the thought of the prophecy and the letter aside, I was going to enjoy this year.

The carriage pulls up to the castle and we all scramble out of it and through the bid double door that leads to the great hall. We quickly take a seat at the table, with me sitting beside Anne. We sit there as the sorting ceremony of the new first years takes place and then wait through Professor Black's welcome back speech and then food appears on the table.

When dinner was over we all headed down to our common room that was located in the dungeons and I bid farewell to Sebastian and Ominis as I make my way to the girl's dormitory, Anne follows behind me. I collapse on my bed, exhausted from the journey here.

"There's a letter on your thunk," Anne says causing me to sit up quickly, thinking that it was the letter saying that I was in trouble and I didn't want her to know.

I look down at my trunk and sure enough, there was a letter, but it was laying on top whereas the other one had been stuffed inside, between my clothes to conceal it. This was a new letter.

Lila,

I'm sorry to be writing to you instead of speaking in person. I wanted to but I know by now you'll be at Hogwarts. There are so many things I wish I would have done differently. One of those things would be being in your life.

I've been informed that you are wanted by a dangerous group. I must advise you to stay inside the castle at all times this year. You are in danger, my dear.

You probably don't know much about me, but I have learned something and it made me want to reach out to you. And then I found out about the danger. Please be careful. Don't trust anyone, you never know who will betray you.

- Azalea Malfoy

"Who was it from?" I hear Anne ask.

I look up at her in shock, "My grandmother."