First Year

Draco hadn't shown it, but the fact that he was actually going to Hogwarts had made him giddy ever since he had received his letter earlier that year. Not that it had come as a surprise, but having the letter in his hands made the future feel very real, and very close. Having been homeschooled, Draco's only interaction with other people his age had been the boring 'play dates' his parents occasionally organised, and even he knew that surely those weren't real life. Part of him was slightly apprehensive, if not scared, of the apparently cutthroat Slytherin house (for he would be in Slytherin - he had to be), but the other half couldn't wait. For the first time in his life, he would be around people his age. And while Slytherins weren't exactly the friendliest of people, at least they were like him.

Draco took a deep breath and walked purposefully onto the Hogwarts Express after saying goodbye to his parents, pulling his trunk behind him. The train hummed with energy as hundreds of students battled their way to their respective carriages. He had only ever seen so many people at the yearly Christmas Ball at Malfoy Manor, but the feeling of this crowd was very different. Instead of the reserved - almost suspicious - way the guests carried themselves, this crowd pulsed with excitement. The friendly hopefulness of the train was tangible as magic in the air, and it filled him with a happiness he wasn't used to feeling.

The Slytherins always sat towards the back of the train, according to Draco's father. The carriage would no doubt contain many children who had been raised similarly to him, including the closest thing Draco had to a best friend - Blaise Zabinni. However, after considering a moment, Draco decided not to visit the Slytherins just yet. He probably wouldn't have the time to be alone with his thoughts for some time (considering he would be in a dorm with lots of other people until the Christmas holidays), so instead of heading to the expected carriage, Draco found the compartment with the fewest people within to sit in, at least for a while. The best he could see was a compartment containing two boys who looked to be his age, one ginger and freckled, one with a mess of black hair and glasses. The latter had just burst out laughing at something the ginger said. Draco knocked on the door hesitantly, before pushing it open and asking quietly:

"Uh, do you guys mind if I sit in this carriage?"

0o0oHarry0o0o

"No, not at all," said Harry smilingly, studying the boy as he closed the door quietly and sat down lightly on Ron's side, a good distance from him. He was striking in a way, maybe because of his bright hair, and he carried himself proudly, with his chin up and his back straight. He didn't say anything as he sat down, so after a few seconds, Ron concluded his story.

"So, anyway, to cut a long story short, the twins told Percy that they would jinx him because of it. No one took them seriously, but we should have because next day he woke up with his head swollen to at least three times its usual size! We could barely get him in the car to bring him to St Mungo's." This made Harry laugh again, before realising that, once again, he didn't understand something.

"Wait, what's St Mungo's?"

"Just a wizard hospital." Ron shrugged. "Sorry, I thought you would know."

Harry was very aware of how little he knew about the Wizarding World, and felt relieved that Ron didn't make fun of him for it. There was now a break in the conversation, during which time Harry resolved to engage the blond boy in conversation. He knew how it felt to be left out, and he didn't want the other boy to feel like that.

"So, you excited to go to Hogwarts?"

It took a second before the boy realised that Harry was talking to him. He looked vaguely surprised, but replied steadily;

"Yeah, I guess. Bit nervous. I was homeschooled, so I don't really know how this sort of school works."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. I was raised in the Muggle World, so I don't really know much about magic or anything."

A flash of wariness crossed the boy's face. "So... you're muggle born?"

"No, Just muggle raised."

The boy looked relieved, but whatever he was about to say was lost when a girl and a boy suddenly appeared outside their carriage and the girl stuck her head around the door. "Has anyone seen a toad?" She asked, in an articulate sounding accent. "Neville's lost one."

The boy behind her, who must have been Neville, looked very upset. His face had gone a funny shade of red in his distress.

"Sorry," said Ron "no toads here,"

"Well if anyone sees him, do tell us. Neville doesn't want to lose him. Do you, Neville?."

The boys got back to talking, and Harry soon found himself laughing along with the other two, feeling oddly included by them. It wasn't a sensation he was used to. At some point, the girl - apparently called Hermione - burst in once more and decided to fix Harry's glasses to show that she could do magic properly. It wasn't that Harry was ungrateful, but she was very precocious. The boys ate sweets from the trolley as the sky outside darkened, and before anyone knew it, the train was pulling in at the station. As the boys gathered their trunks and donned their robes, it occurred to Harry that he hadn't actually found out the other boy's name. So he asked.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," The boy said, making it sound like he thought the name should mean something to Harry and Ron. "You?"

"Ron Weasley," said Ron, but despite his shaking Draco's hand, Harry noticed a change in Ron's tone. He sounded colder.

"Harry Potter. Nice to meet you". Harry went to shake Draco's hand, but it was pulled swiftly from reach. Draco suddenly looked very guarded, and said carefully,

"You're not actually Harry Potter, are you?"

"He is!" Ron nodded excitedly. "Show him your scar, Harry,"

Harry pushed back his hair to reveal the lightning scar on his forehead, and Draco gawped for a second and looked a little scared. Then he straightened his back and lifted his chin a little.

"I'm sorry Potter, Weasley, but I don't think its possible for me to be friends with you. My father would never allow it. But it was nice talking to both of you." Draco then picked up his trunks and swept out of the carriage. Harry and Ron looked at each other in bewilderment.

"What the hell did he mean by that?" Asked Ron. Harry just shook his head.

0o0o

The feast was amazing, and Harry often caught himself transfixed, staring at the stormy bewitched ceiling of the hall, and the floating candles which never burned out. He had watched Draco being sorted into Slytherin with a sense of disappointment, before getting sorted into Gryffindor himself, alongside Ron, Hermione, and the boy called Neville (who had found his toad, apparently), and was halfway through a conversation with Fred and George when he noticed that Draco seemed to be staring at him, though he looked away when Harry looked over at him and engaged the dark-haired girl beside him in conversation. At this point, Harry was beginning to think that Draco might be a little crazy.

As the food magically disappeared from the plates, leaving them spotless, a very old wizard, whose pure white hair and beard brushed the floor, stood up and began to talk in a kind but authoritative-sounding voice. "To all our new first years," He began, arms outstretched in an open gesture, "welcome. To our returning students, welcome back. Now, before I allow you all to go to your sleeping quarters, I would like to remind you all that the forbidden forest is out of bounds. We do not want a repeat of the shenanigans of last year," Harry saw Ron's older twin brothers exchange glances. "Also out of bounds, as of this year, is the third-floor corridor, unless you wish to die a painful death." The old wizard's face looked seriously down at them for a moment, and Harry felt as though each of them had been examined individually in the brief pause. Then, a smile broke across the wrinkled skin, and the feeling was gone. "Thank you, sleep tight!"

Harry and Ron, as well as many of the other first years, looked at each other worriedly. However, none of the other students seemed phased. Apparently, imminent death was something you grew used to at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron and the other first years followed one of Ron's brothers, Percy, to the Gryffindor dorm, and soon found themselves in their new four-posters. Harry lay in the bed next to Ron talking quietly through the curtains. They discussed the feast and the threat about the third-floor corridor before the conversation turned to Draco. Harry was still confused, but Ron didn't seem bothered.

"To be honest, it doesn't surprise me." He said sleepily. "He seemed nice at first, but he's a Malfoy, and everyone knows that Malfoys are one of the most stuck up pureblood families in our world. My dad always complains about his dad, because he causes so many problems for dad's department in the ministry. And now he's been sorted into Slytherin. I think it's a sign that we shouldn't hang around him anyway."

"He seemed really nice on the train," Said Harry sadly, "Funny, too."

"Yeah, well. Sometimes people are disappointing. I'll tell you what wasn't disappointing, though,"

"What?"

"The food. Best feast ever."

0o0oDraco0o0o

Down in the Slytherin dorm, Draco couldn't sleep. This wasn't a strange occurrence, however - Draco had struggled with insomnia since he was very young, and hadn't even slept well as a baby. He was thinking about the two boys he'd met on the train - Harry and Ron. Honestly, could his luck be any worse? Usually, he wouldn't even have to think about being friends with people like that, but now, a sliver of doubt had found its way into his mind. They had seemed so nice. He was sure he had done the right thing, though. His father could be rather... severe... when Draco did something he didn't like. And surely fraternising with the boy who'd brought about the Dark Lord's downfall would be one of those things?

All his life, Draco's only experience with other children was with stuck up, spoilt kids. They never let their guard down or spoke freely, and neither did he. It simply wasn't the done thing. He thought that was just the way it was. But Harry and Ron put him at ease, to the point where he found himself talking about his personal life like it was nothing. Usually, he never felt like he could trust someone after only a few hours of knowing each other, but Harry and Ron were different, and it confused him.

But none of that mattered. He was heir to the Malfoy family, descended from the purest blood you could find anywhere in Britain. He didn't care about trust. He cared about control, and power. That was what Malfoys cared about.

Maybe, he thought, if I tell myself that enough, I'll start to believe it.