Fear is fleeting
Dobby left him at King’s Cross Station in London, saying he would visit him to check on him. Draco had his giant trunk and stumbled along the platform of nine and Three-Quarters. It was large for his small body to carry but he was determined to make his way.
At a wall nearby he spotted a group of redheads and a boy with brown hair appear between them coming out of the wall. He gaped in surprise and the boy looked right at him with piercing green eyes. Draco immediately looked away but could not help but feel the boy with green eyes seemed as lost as he was.
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Harry made his way on the train following his new (hopefully) friend Ron. Ron seemed like a nice person, and best of all knew where he was going. His family had found him trying to figure out where the platform was at Kings Cross station. Harry’s dad had to go to school early to prep for class, so his aunt and uncle had to take him. They had no clue where Harry was going. And they seemed happy to get away from the whole experience of taking him.
They found an empty compartment and settled in. Ron told him all about Hogwarts. All his older brothers had gone, he told him. Then when the treat cart came around Harry, seeing Ron had no money, splurged to show off for his new friend.
“Do you mind if I join you?” The white-haired boy with grey eyes from the platform earlier interrupted Ron and Harry’s laughing.
“Sure.” Ron said cheerily. “I’m Ron Weasley.” He reached his hand out to shake his hand.
“I am Harry Potter,” Harry said reaching his hand to shake Draco’s hand.
“Draco Malfoy.” A pleasure.
Ron turned to Harry turning sheet white, staring. Harry and Draco sat down. But Ron seemed flabbergasted. In the rush to make a new friend Harry had forgotten to introduce himself. Ron just gaped, “Your…your…Harry Potter.”
“Yeah mate, what’s the look for?”
“…I had heard that you were coming to Hogwarts but…” Ron said sitting down.
Harry was looking at Draco who just shrugged just as confused. “How did you hear? I just found out.” Harry said smirking between Draco and Ron.
“It was in the papers man.”
“The papers? I think I would have seen that.” Harry said still cocksure.
“Magical papers. You said you grew up in muggle London?” Ron asked.
“Yeah, when to muggle school and all.”
“Well in our world you are famous. You killed you-know-who when you were a baby.” Ron explained.
“Oh well Dad said the guy who killed my mom blew himself up. It is not that big of a deal. I really do not remember.” Harry said coolly. He knew all about the jack-wad who was bad at magic killing his mom and trying to kill him. What a strange thing to put in the papers.
“Oh well you know the papers are always looking for a story… Sorry about your mom mate.” Ron said kindly. Draco shook his head in agreement.
“My parents are gone too.” Draco said.
“Man, that is rough…, I’m sorry guys…Hey maybe this Christmas you guys can come to the burrow. We have loads of room, magical house, and all.” Ron said clearly trying to cheer up his knew friends.
“Yeah maybe.” Harry said. Draco smiled in pleasant agreement.
They chatted about magic and compared wands. Everyone agreed Harry’s looked the coolest making Harry’s head swell to the size of a pumpkin. “Olivander had a tough time finding something that did not blow things up when I grabbed hold of it. Holly wood, dragon heartstring core, 11 inches long.” he said proudly. Just then another visitor stopped by.
“Are you practicing magic?” The girl with long chocolate curls said excitedly.
Harry, Ron, and Draco all gaped. The boys were unprepared for such a pretty girl coming into their compartment. She was small for their age, but it may have been because her hair was so large that it offset her height. She had large auburn eyes that seemed to swirl. Her smile was kind and encouraging, so much so that Ron of all people shot up to introduce himself before Draco or Harry got the chance. “I’m Ron Weasley, this is Draco and Harry,” he said a little too quickly.
“I am Hermione Granger. What were you doing?” She chuckled a bit, Ron was turning red, so he sat.
Draco spoke up cool as a cucumber, “we were comparing wands.”
“Oh, well that is disappointing. I guess we will have to evaluate our skills at Hogwarts. “She said smiling as if she wanted to try her skills out on them.
“Suppose we will.” Draco said.
They all spoke for awhile about the spells they wanted to try at school. Harry and Hermione seemed to know the most. Laughing about all the things they read in preparation for Hogwarts. Draco felt out of his element but decided he would never let on. He had to uphold family traditions.
“Well, we had all better get our robes on we are almost there.” Hermione started pointing to the windows where a great castle was approaching in the distance. The castle Draco saw the castle was surrounded by a great dark lake. In the darkness it was glowing like a beacon. Draco’s stomach rolled.
Draco was determined, thinking as he looked at the castle that he would make his family proud no matter how afraid he became. Unknowing to Draco, Harry looked at the great castle, and thought the same thing.