Rare Illusions ~ Ron Weasley

prologue

(prologue takes place in first year)

Lorelei Elizabeth Grey waved to her parents as they left Platform 9 3/4 five minutes before the train was to leave. Eleven-year-old Lorelei turned and pushed her trolley to where the other ones were waiting to be put on the train and boarded the Hogwarts Express for the first time in her life.

Her short frame pushed through the bodies of the older year students who were already with their friends going to compartments. She went to the back of the train and sat in a booth, dropping her bag with her robes on the table. Lorelei took her book out of the bag and immediately immersed herself in the writings of the author. Older students walked by, occasionally murmuring about the predictions they have about what houses they thought the First years would be sorted in. She heard a Hufflepuff say that she thought "the small blonde reading in the dining car" would be sorted into Ravenclaw, and smiled to herself. If only they knew who Lorelei was. It was her destiny to be sorted into Slytherin. Her parents were, and their parents before them.

The young Lorelei was a pureblood, and her parents believed that that made them better. The Grey family was distantly related to the Black family, so Lorelei and Draco were some form of cousins. Most of the family events consisted of Draco pouting about this or that and Lorelei silently mocking her cousin.

The train started to leave the station and Lorelei could hear people yelling goodbye to their families and she ignored it, shaking her head and refocusing on her book. She sat in peace with her book for about an hour before being interrupted.

Draco and his goons sat down on the opposite bench from Lorelei, making the blonde girl look up.

"Draco." She greeted.

"Lorelei. These are my friends, Crabbe and Goyle." He stated smugly, smoothing back his gelled hair.

"Mhm, good morning." She looked back at her book.

"Cousin, be civil, at least. Put your book away, you're not a Ravenclaw." He snatched her book away, shoving it into the bag he assumed was hers.

"Leave me alone, Draco. Go find someone else to annoy." She rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag, standing up to find a bathroom to change into her robes.

"She is such a twat." Lorelei heard one of the idiots sitting with her cousin say as she walked away and then a groan of pain from the exact person who insulted her.

"Shut up, Crabbe." Draco sneered. The girl smiled because her cousin at least cared for her, even if it was in some messed up "protect her because she's family" way or because his father told him to not let anyone make them feel belittled.

Lorelei changed into her plain robes and didn't go back to find Draco and his "friends". Instead, she went the other way, towards the compartments. As she walked, she noticed a short girl with very frizzy curled hair that was extremely messy standing in the doorway to a compartment. She then went into the small room and started to talk to whoever was inside. As Lorelei walked by, she caught a part of the conversation before the girl got up again.

"-I expect we'd be arriving soon." The girl walked to the door of the compartment and then turned, talking to a boy with bright ginger hair. "You've got dirt on your nose by the way, did you know? Just there." Then she touched her nose where the smudge on the boy was, and then turned to walk away. Lorelei felt the need to say something when she heard that. The girl was being rude to him for having dirt on his face.

"Excuse me, I couldn't help but over-hear. You're worried for the boy with dirt on his nose while your hair looks like you have just blown up a cauldron? Sorry if that's rude, but it doesn't seem fair to judge others for how they look if you don't look much better." The blonde girl heard the two boys in the compartment gasp and the girl she was talking to looked as if Lorelei had just punched her. "I'm sorry again." She said before walking away from them.