Tired

Draco had gone through his inheritance early, and seeing how he was given everything he could ever need and most of what he wants, that meant that his mate was the one who needed help. Contrary to how many muggles thought mates worked, your mate wasn't necessarily someone you would fall in love with, or have an intimate relationship with, it's the person that the people involved's magic decides is the best fit for what's needed. Draco could feel that the role he needed to provide was protector.

He was getting onto the Hogwarts Express after having left his parents. Assuring them that he wouldn't immediately reveal his inheritance, which would have caused them all problems. He had noticed two red heads helping a small person whose hair was honestly atrocious get their things onto the train a short while ago. The smaller person can't really think that's a reasonable hairstyle, right? Their head was completely shaved except for their fringe that covered their forehead and fell into their eyes.

Draco was looking for an empty compartment when he felt a pull to one that was empty except for a person with very messy black hair who was resting their head on the window and holding a snowy owl close to them very gently, as though scared to hurt it. Draco took note of the dark bags under their eyes, as well as how they didn't even look nearly old enough to attend Hogwarts, looking more like they were six.

The person had no response to Draco entering, although their owl did keep her eyes on him and let out a soft hoot. The bird seemed very protective of the child, perhaps she saw them as her child, it happened sometimes when bad sellers sell birds that had recently lain their eggs to younger people. It was clear to Draco the child was asleep.

Although he had, unfortunately, been expecting it because of the pull to them, the child was not collected by any parents or siblings before the train started moving, meaning they were, in fact, 11 and attending Hogwarts themself.

It was gone lunch by the time the child woke up. Draco had to work hard to stop himself from gasping at how green the child's eyes were. They were rather pale for their skin tone, as though they didn't get much sunlight, or were scared or shocked, their black hair doing little but making them look less healthy, but their eyes were bright, almost like the only living part of them.

When they settled on Draco the child jumped slightly, immediately standing up, owl still in their arms and headed towards the door.

"Sorry, I didn't realise you were here." They mumbled quietly, struggling a little with the door. "I'll just go."

"It's fine, stay. You were here first. Besides, I doubt there are any compartments left." Draco said, laughing a little.

"Ah. Sorry." The child mumbled, sitting back down, their owl grooming their hair a little, making them pull a strand from towards the back of their head into their view. "Oh, it grew back."

Deciding to ignore the last comment, Draco tried to start a conversation going. "I'm Draco Malfoy, you are?"

"My letter said Harry, but Mr Vernon and Mrs Petunia call me Freak." They mumbled into their owl's face, making Draco worry.

"Why do they call you that?" Draco asked, a little concerned.

"Weird things happen around me a lot, I'm always getting in trouble and I can never do my chores right." Harry said, with a small shrug, sounding disinterested.

"I'm a boy, what about you?" Draco asked, making a mental note about what Harry had just said.

"Boy." Harry said quietly.

Draco nodded, staying quiet for a while, hoping that Harry would initiate some conversation, but it was quiet now he wasn't asking anything. Looking up at him, Harry seemed to be nodding off slightly again, but he seemed to be trying to stay awake.

"Have you eaten anything yet?" Draco asked, realising that Harry hadn't had lunch. Of course, he knew that the only food Harry could have eaten would have been quite early, due to having been in the same compartment as him for a while, and he didn't seem to fall asleep that quickly, but he was clearly exhausted, so probably travelled quite far to get to the train.

"Uh, yeah. I ate." Harry said, nodding, but not meeting Draco's eyes, yawning, opening his mouth much wider than before, Draco able to see some cavities in his teeth, one looking like it must be extremely painful from how bad it looked. How did the people looking after him never get them fixed? Even if they were muggles then he should have been taken to a dentist.

Harry seemed to notice that Draco had looked at his mouth, covering it with a hand and closing it again, mumbling an apology Draco couldn't understand. There was nothing to apologise for after all.

"When?" Draco asked with a sigh, he still had enough food for Harry to eat before they got to the feast.

Harry looked up at him with wide, surprised eyes as though he was confused, but he didn't ask anything, almost as though he couldn't.

"When did you last eat?" Draco asked, clarifying himself.

"Lunch!" Harry said, louder than he had before this point, looking startled with his eyes wide and looking Draco in the eye for the first time. The eye contact didn't last long, though.

"Lunch? As in yesterday?" Draco asked, startled.

"Uh, no. I had lunch today." Harry went back to mumbling, his hands trembling slightly, making his owl hoot at Draco angrily.

"How early do you consider it to be lunch for you to have had lunch today? I was sitting here since before the train started, and you were asleep and couldn't have eaten." Draco said, leaning further back into his seat, crossing his arms and fixing Harry with a judgemental look, aimed less at him than at the people taking care of him.

Harry looked at him, shocked and scared, clearly not expecting that. His owl flew out of his arms and swooped at Draco, sharp talons reaching for his face, scaring the pale boy into putting his arms over his face, preferring being badly scratched on his arms than face.

"Hedwig, it's fine." Harry said, Draco only feeling a gust of wind breezing past him, no pain from any scratches. He lowered his arms to see the owl back on Harry's lap, but her eyes were coldly fixed on Draco, giving him shivers.

"I wasn't trying to accuse you of anything, just point out you hadn't eaten." Draco stammered, heart still beating too fast from fear of the owl.

"I'm fine. I ate." Harry mumbled again, holding Hedwig a little tighter, not wanting her to attack Draco again, but he wasn't holding her tight enough to stop her taking flight again.

"Just eat this, you were asleep the whole journey this far, so you probably don't know how long it's been, but you need to eat something." Draco said, tossing Harry a pumpkin pasty. Harry caught it, but looked at it in surprise rather than eating it.

Hedwig let out a quiet hoot, and flapped her wings, poking the pasty with its beak, clearly trying to prompt Harry to eat it.

"Um, thanks." Harry muttered, taking it and opening the loud, magical wrapping to get at it.

"No worries, what house you hoping to be in?" Draco asked, leaning against his armrest.

"Uh, I don't know." Harry mumbled, it looked like he was unsure about something, Draco didn't know if it was that he didn't know what he meant by house or the fear he had heard that some people had that they would be kicked out due to lack of a fitting house.

"Everyone in existence has a house, but if you don't fit nicely in one then you'll go to the one you like more. Even muggles can be placed in a house if they manage to get to the sorting. The four houses are Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor, I'm sure we'll get an explanation of them all at Hogwarts, but Slytherins are often looked down on, and are always close to Hufflepuffs and sometimes Ravenclaws. Gryffindors are one of the few houses they tend to stick to their own house, they hate Slytherins and think we're all evil because there are a lot of recent dark wizards from Slytherin." Draco explained for Harry, it seemed as though Harry didn't want to ask questions.

"Oh, you know a lot about Hogwarts." Harry mumbled, Hedwig letting out a gentle hoot, tugging at some of his hair with her beak fairly gently. Harry's hair was surprisingly untangled for how messy it was.

"Well, yeah, I'm a pureblood and both my parents went to Hogwarts, so they've told me about it and I've read Hogwarts: A History a few times. My godfather is also a teacher at Hogwarts, but he doesn't really like people, he's the Potions Master. Don't be too worried if he doesn't like you, there's pretty much nobody he likes." Draco said, smiling awkwardly. To be honest, Snape didn't even like him very much even though he was his godfather.

Godparents were rather important in the wizarding world, as they are like secondary parents to the child, and are expected to spend a lot of time around their godchild and be there for every important occasion unless there was a very serious reason. The godparent was expected to be a figure that the child could see as another parent even when they still had their parents, someone who loved them and someone they loved, but that wasn't Snape. Snape would use any excuse possible to avoid meeting with Draco, especially for birthdays. Draco even saw him drink poison once to avoid meeting with him. That was why even Snape wasn't told of Draco's early inheritance.

"I'll remember that." Harry said, his eyelids drooping again as he turned to look at the scenery rushing past again.

"Are you going to finish?" Draco asked, gesturing to the pasty in Harry's hand that was far from fully eaten.

"Oh," Harry said, jumping slightly, clearly nodding off again, "right, thank you."

"You should finish that and get changed now, then you don't have to worry about falling asleep again. I'll make sure to wake you up when we get there, we're near Scotland now so it shouldn't be too long." Draco said, turning to look out the window himself.

"Um, sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep." Harry said, looking downcast.

"No need to apologise for being tired, under your eyes look dark, so I can tell you probably haven't slept well recently." Draco said with a light chuckle, hoping to ease the tension, but failing.

"Sorry." Harry mumbled again, slowly nibbling on the pasty.

Both boys sat in silence after that, Draco not knowing how to respond to so many unnecessary apologies, mostly looking out the window, but occasionally glancing at the other boy. Harry ate very slowly and always glanced at Draco before he took a nibble, almost looking afraid, but Draco made sure not to look at him after Harry had jumped and not eaten the first time he had looked at Draco like that.

Once Harry was finished he got up and got his trunk down. It was rather barren for someone going to Hogwarts, especially for the first time, and rather messy. Most of the clothes in there were crumpled, and at least half of the parchment was torn. Harry's school robes and books seemed to be at least alright, but they were also quite battered. Draco could have sworn that he had seen blood on one of them before Harry had snapped the trunk shut.

"Your trunk seems pretty empty, are you sure you have everything you'll need?" Draco asked out of genuine concern, but it did come out rather brattier than he had intended, perhaps he shouldn't have talked about the contents of the trunk, and just ask if Harry had enough.

"I brought everything I've got." Harry mumbled, turning his back to Draco and leaving the compartment with his robes, leaving Hedwig and Draco behind him.

Hedwig swooped gracefully up to sit on the handle to Harry's trunk, looking down at Draco coldly, as though daring him to try to open the trunk and judge Harry. Clearly Hedwig didn't like him, and Draco supposed he could live with that, but seeing how Harry was his mate and cared deeply about his owl, Draco thought it would be best if Hedwig liked him.

"I wasn't trying to make him feel bad, I was just worried about him. He's my mate, and because of something I went through my inheritance early to protect him." Draco whispered to the bird, not that he knew why he felt the need to whisper. "You hating me will not help me protect him, he clearly loves you, so if you could please help me help him?"

Hedwig's eyes glinted, and she let out a soft hoot. Draco looked at her, his eyes desperate, and after a moment she swooped down to sit on his shoulder. While her sharp talons dug into his shoulder enough to hurt and not bleed, she rubbed her face against his. Draco took this as her sceptically trusting him for the time being.

Draco hoped they could get along while looking after Harry together.

Harry looked surprised and like he wanted to ask a question when he walked in to see Hedwig on Draco's shoulder, but she immediately flew over to him when he walked in. Harry went back over to the seat he had been sitting in the whole time, and slumped against the window, looking outside again.

"You don't have to stay awake. I'll wake you up when we're there." Draco said, noticing Harry's small jumps which implied he was falling asleep and waking himself up again.

He didn't get much of a response though, as Harry was already pretty much asleep when Draco was talking.