Diagon Alley
On the 4th of July, Draco was in Diagon Alley shopping for his school supplies, being accompanied by his mother. Looking at them, you'd think Narcissa was there to look after Draco. She thought she was as well. The actuality of the situation was Draco chaperoning Narcissa and holding her hand so she wouldn't wander off. He had been ticking down the items on his list one by one and had just finished buying his wand. The man in the shop, Ollivander, had gone on quite a bit about the unicorn hair core and how special it was. Draco appreciated the sentiment in trying to make a first wand exciting but Mother had almost had one of her turns from boredom, so he'd had to politely excuse them both. She was now quite restless.
The next thing on his list was to buy his robes from Madam Malkin's, and while he got them fitted he wanted a quick break from Narcissa. He searched for something to busy her with that wouldn't endanger or anger anyone.
Then he spotted the ice cream shop.
"Mother, could you get us both some ice cream while I get my robes fitted over there at Madam Malkin's please?" He pointed to the robe shop so she wouldn't get lost. He handed her a small pouch full of sickles and galleons.
"Oh I do love ice cream! What flavour would you like?" She snatched the pouch excitedly. One of her more childlike times then.
"Could I have one scoop of chocolate please? I'll see you in ten minutes, meet me outside the robe shop." He directed her, giving a quick kiss to her cheek. He felt like a parent but that was fine. It made him feel responsible.
Narcissa nodded, delighted, and ran to the ice cream shop, nearly knocking someone over in her rushed. Draco sucked in his teeth.
"She'll be fine." He told himself, before heading to the robe shop.
The lady working there was very kind, and got him set up right away for being fit at the back of the shop. He stood on a footstool and waited patiently while another witch pinned his clothes. He heard some footsteps behind him and turned around to face the intruder.
Another boy was being set up on a footstool, a large robe covering him alike Draco. He looked scrawny and nervous, with circular glasses and the messiest black hair Draco had ever seen. He had dark skin which made him bright green eyes stand out. He made eye contact.
Draco flushed at the sudden attention and fumbled over something to say. He had to settle for a quick "Hullo," before fiddling with his hands.
"Uh, hi?" The boy replied anxiously, cowering in on himself a bit. "My name's Harry."
"I'm Draco." He said, straightening his back. "Are you going to Hogwarts as well?" The boy blinked up at him through dirty glasses.
"I, uh, suppose I am. Do you know anything about it?" Ah. So the scrawny boy was a muggleborn then. Must be a shock for him. Draco stared at the boy curiously. A source of new information.
"Yes, I know plenty about Hogwarts. But tell me, are you a muggleborn?" He questioned, mentally preparing parchment to take notes on.
"A what?" Ah, very new then.
"A muggleborn. It means someone who was born in the muggle world but they have magical abilities."
"O-oh, right, that. Uh, I suppose my parents were magic but I was raised by my aunt and uncle. They're muggles." His parents 'were'? Ah, an orphan then. His parents probably died in the war.
"So when did you learn you were magic? Did you experience many bouts of accidental magic as a child? Who told you that you were a wizard? Did you choose to go to Hogwarts or did they tell you to? Did you even get the option of going international with your magic schooling? How difficult did you find the conversion of muggle money into galleons? Am I the first wizard you've met? On a scale of one to ten, how exciting is the magical world compared to the muggle one?" That last question could have a biased answer, but Draco didn't care.
The boy looked frazzled and took a step back as Draco realised he'd been leaning forward.
"Uh, I learnt I was magic today, so I haven't had that much time to adjust. Um...I guess some accidental magic happened, but I didn't know it was accidental magic. I just thought it was because natural disasters or birth defects. Hagrid, the Hogwarts games keeper, told me I was magic. He's with me now. They, um, sent me a letter saying I'd been accepted into Hogwarts? So I really want to go. I don't know about the next question because I don't know about international anything? I didn't need to convert muggle money into galleons because my parents left me some magic money to use. Hagrid was actually the first wizard I met, but you're the first wizard around my age who I've met. At least, I think you're around my age...you're not an elf or something, are you? And definitely 10 out of 10! The magical world is so interesting! And I've only seen Digon Alley!" He finished in quick procession. Impressive.
"It's actually Diagon Alley," Draco corrected quickly, mentally writing up the boy's answers. "And I'm not an elf. I'm a human." The witches were done with both of their robes by then and were gently shoving them towards the front of the shop.
"So, um, you're also going to Hogwarts?" The boy asked. Draco nodded. "What is it like?"
Draco thought a moment. "Well, I've only ever seen it in illustrations and pictures, but it's supposed to be a large castle surrounded by grounds and a lake." Harry focused onto Draco, wonder in his eyes, urging him to continue. "It has large towers and turrets, as well as dungeons, and it's apparently supposed to be chock full of secret passageways! I learnt all about them from my book, The Many Mysteries of Hogwarts Castle!" Draco boasted proudly, before getting self conscious. As his father always said, liking books is a sign of being educated, but talking about said books is a sign of blabbermouth tendencies. Still, the green eyed boy, Harry, continued to look enthralled with what he was saying.
"It's also supposed to have many ghosts to wander the castle, but the book always described them as adding character to the place rather than being scary. It's all quite medieval, and hasn't really changed since the original Hogwarts House leaders."
"Hogwarts Houses?" Harry asked.
"I suppose you wouldn't know. Long ago, the 4 settlers of Hogwarts decided that the students be divided by their characteristics, going into 4 houses named after each of them. Ravenclaw house, for the intelligent, witty and creative. Slytherin, for the cunning, ambitious and resourceful. Gryffindor, for the daring, brave and chivalrous. And lastly Hufflepuff, for the dedicated, patient and loyal. Many have also argued that Hufflepuff's are particularly good finders." He explained in summary. Harry smiled.
"I rather like the sound of Hufflepuff house. They sound like they have great traits!" Draco knew his father would kill him if he were to ever go into Hufflepuff. He didn't hate them as much as Gryffindors, but he viewed them like house elves, useful for labor and little else. Draco didn't think that was fair, but kept quiet on the matter.
"I wouldn't mind being in Hufflepuff house, but I should be in Slytherin house." Draco said.
"Why? Are you very cunning ambitious and resourceful?" Truthfully, he wasn't. He tried to be ambitious, but he wasn't very cunning. He didn't really have much drive for what to do once he was older, since he knew he'd just continue the Malfoy line and have many little Pureblood babies and sit on top of his fortune doing nothing. It was bland but he'd accepted it. He was quite resourceful in the sense of gathering knowledge to further his own tasks, but other than that, he didn't think so. He hoped that his Pureblood heritage would be enough to shoehorn him into Slytherin. His ancestors had.
"All my family was in Slytherin, so I have to continue the tradition. Many people mistake Slytherin for being the 'evil' house, because You-Know-Who was in it, but I don't think that's fair. It's not Slytherin's fault he decided to become a crazy psychopathic murderer. His ambition just happened to revolve around taking over the world."
"You-Know-Who was in Slytherin?"
"Oh yeah, I suppose you may not know about him, since you were raised by Muggles. He was an evil racist who started the first Wizarding War and tried to take over the world by killing muggleborns. But don't worry, he was defeated by Harry Potter..." Draco's eyes snapped to the other boy. "Wait a minute..." He took a step closer and held up the boy's dark and messy fringe to reveal a lightning scar messily covering his forehead in multiple bolts.
"You're Harry Potter..."
"Uh, yeah...hehe."
"You're Harry Potter! Holy Hell, I have so many questions! The explanation about how you defeated You-Know-Who has always been vague, especially since you were a baby...you wouldn't happen to remember how you did it, would you? My gosh, how advanced is your magic? How deadly were your accidental magic spurts? How did you only find out today? You survived the killing curse when you were scarcely an infant, how was that possible? Could it be due to some birth abnormality, or maybe a peak in your magic from a younger age? I have so many theories! You're the boy who lived and you were raised by muggles, you're like an infinite fountain of knowledge!" He rapid fired with an excitement he hadn't felt in a long time. The other boy was beginning to cave in on himself a bit, awkwardly trying to shuffle away from the blonde's advances.
At that point they both heard a tap at the window. They turned towards it to see Narcissa and a large hairy man, both with two ice creams in their hands and both smiling widely.
"Mother?"
"Hagrid!"
They both spoke at the same time. They turned back to each other before rushing out the door to meet them.
"Are you alright Mother?" Draco began looking her over slightly. She nodded and handed him an ice cream.
"Just what you wanted! Peaches and Apricots!" He'd asked for chocolate. He put on a smile and thanked her.
"Just what I wanted. Can I have the money pouch back please?" She smiled and shook her head.
"I lost it!"
"You lost it?" He asked, bewildered.
"I couldn't pay for the ice cream." She shook her head, her golden hair flowing this way and that.
"So you stole them?!" Draco exclaimed, nearly dropping his ice cream. This was just grand, now he'd have to go back and pay double and apologise and there was now a chance of getting banned, and he couldn't get his precious answers from Harry Potter!
"Nope!" She popped the 'p'. "This tall man paid for it!" She gestured to Hagrid, spilling ice cream on her dress by accident.
"You paid for our ice cream?" Draco asked the large man, getting a handkerchief out of his pocket to clean up the stain.
"Was no problem really, this one 'ad lost 'er purse an' was close to cryin'. Was the leas' I could do." He answered bashfully, taking a lick of his ice cream and getting some in his beard. Draco put away his handkerchief.
"Well here you go then. Thank you for your help." He said while handing Hagrid 4 galleons.
"Oh no, this is far too much, this is. It's fine, 'onestly!" Hagrid tried insisting, but Draco insisted more and shoved the coins into a large open hand.
"Thank you for your service. Come along Mother, we really should be going home now." He grabbed Narcissa's hand and steered her away from the others.
"Uh, goodbye!" Harry yelled after them. Draco turned back around.
"I'll see you on the train 1st September! I'll be expecting my answers!" He called before focusing on getting his mother out of there. He squeezed her hand as they flooed back to the manor, ice cream dripping everywhere.
When they made it to the other side he dropped his bag dull of supplies by the fireplace. He then walked Narcissa up to her room, taking the dripping ice cream away from her before sat down on the bed. He threw it into the bin, along with his own, before washing his hands in her en suite. After washing the ice cream from them he sat behind his mother on the bed and began to plait her hair.
It was the favourite part of his day, playing with her hair. It gave him something to do with his hands. He was always needing to keep them busy one way or another, something to focus on and to quench his need to focus onto something. He was always plaiting anything he could find, from Great Aunt Walburga's antique scarves to his favourite sweet, Strawberry Parchment Rolls. He liked plaiting Narcissa's hair because he think it made her look younger, more carefree, and after he undid the plaits it would give her golden curls.
He would like curly hair. Or at least hair that wasn't supposed to be slicked back all the time. He thinks it made him look like his father, and it gave him terrible cow licks after he washed the gel out. He preferred Narcissa's long hair to Lucius'. It was lovelier, less harsh and perfect.
After he was done with twin french braids, he tied the ends with light blue ribbon. It made her look like a little girl, like more of a sister than a mother, and lately he supposed she was. He kissed her cheek goodbye and left her to her own devices, leaving the room.
In the hallway a house elf Apparated in front of him, giving him a nasty shock. She was smaller than most who worked at the manor, and was wearing shocking red rags, looking to be from a Christmas socking.
"Master Lucius is looking for Master Draco, and has sent Dim to call for him. Master Lucius would like Master Draco to meet him in the third floor drawing room please sir." She saluted.
"Could you Apparate me there please Dim?" He asked her, not wanting to walk all the way to the other side of the mansion. The house elf looked surprised, but nodded and grabbed onto Draco's trouser leg. She then clicked her fingers and Draco felt a great lurch in his stomach as they Apparated. Once he was there, he nodded a thanks before she scurried off.
"Draco, how kind of you to meet with me." Lucius Malfoy's voice cut through the quiet. Draco quickly fit his hands behind his back and stood up straight, imagining a pile of books on his head. He would not let one fall.
"What did you need me for Father?"
"Where were you today Draco?" His cold voice asked in a careful tone. Draco knew better than to trust that voice.
"I was shopping for my Hogwarts school supplies in Diagon Alley."
"And where was your mother?" Oh no.
"Sh-she was with me." He stuttered. Damn it, no stuttering!
"And why was she with you Draco?" Lucius tapped a book onto the boy's head. He looked like he was going to put it back onto the shelf, but instead balanced in on the boy's head.
"She a-asked to come with me. She w-wanted to go ou-outside." He straightened his back further and puffed out his chest slightly. Stay strong. No one likes weaknesses.
"And why did you let her go with you?" Lucius' voice had taken on an angrier tone. Her picked another heavy book from the shelf and slammed in onto Draco's head with force. Draco wavered.
"B-b-because she w-wanted t-to a-a-a-and..."
"A-a-a-and what Draco?" Lucius mocked. "How stupid can you be?" He slammed another book on the boy's head. "You know she shouldn't leave the grounds!" Another book. "What were you thinking?!" Another. "She could've gotten hurt," this book was heavier, "or taken advantage of," the books were piling up precariously, "she could've had one of her fits right in public Draco!" The book was used to batter his forearm before it went on top of his head. "Do you realise what could have gone wrong?! Stupid boy!" This book was thinner, but still hurt as it was used to slap Draco across the face. Not a single book fell from the violent assault of their carrier.
"I-I'm s-s-sorry Fa-Father, I-I-I d-did-didn't th-think." Draco stuttered out fearfully.
"Well that much is obvious enough." Lucius took his head in one hand and sighed before sitting down on a chair.
"You are excused to study your new books. I have shown you mercy this time, the least you could do it gather any intelligence or common sense."
"Y-yes Father." Draco took off the pile of books and fled to his room.
He couldn't wait until Hogwarts.