No Draco, it won't kill you
It is clear to everyone that Draco Malfoy is horribly out of his element. He is surrounded by unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar place, and seems almost afraid of the things and people he is surrounded by.
Most of the other students, and especially the older ones, seem wary of even looking at him. That does not mean they completely ignore him, especially not when his breathing hitches sharply and his grey eyes well with tears as he is almost dragged into the common room by Ron and Harry. It takes several lengthy conversations to calm down Draco once they reach the Hufflepuff Common Room.
It takes a lot of convincing to get him to even agree to stay put, having almost immediately requested to be let back outside so he could sleep in the halls as opposed to finding his bed here.
Unsurprisingly, it is not their prefects but rather Cedric Diggory who convinces Drace that he will be okay.
Cedric also convinces Draco that the sunlight streaming into the common room will not be the death of him, that the plants covering most of the tables and shelves and hanging from the walls also will not kill him, and that no one has any intention of killing him in his sleep and that in general his Housemates also will not kill him. Cedric also reminds Draco that their common room and dorms are technically in the basement which, in a way that Draco seems mollified but also unconvinced by, technically makes them similar to Slytherin.
By the time the other first years have been led to their rooms Draco seems to have been effectively talked down from a panic attack, and Cedric considers this a win.
"Why don't we get you all set up in your room now?" Cedric asks with a small smile as he politely avoids drawing attention to the fact that at some point Draco had clutched Harry's hand in his own and now seemed unlikely to release it.
"Yeah! Let's go!" Ron says amicably as he also ignores the point of contact between the other two boys. He looks around excitedly as Cedric leads them down a warmly lit hallway and towards their new room.
"You'll be five to a room mostly," Cedric explains as he walks ahead of them, "Like you saw before we don't have the routine password, but we also don't have an evil riddle producing bird, so you three shouldn't find yourselves locked out. Although, as I'm sure someone's explained by now, if you do mess up the password you're in for a rude surprise." He seems to be just babbling at this point, offering unimportant details to keep the three younger boys calm, "Your other dorm mates ought to be inside already." Cedric comments when they reach the perfectly round door that apparently leads to their room.
As predicted there are already two other first years waiting in their room. Both boys hardly glance up other than to offer a distracted wave to Cedric when he calls out a greeting.
Draco allows himself to be tugged along by Harry and ends up sitting on one of the four poster beds facing the wall with a dull look in his eyes. His parents are going to kill him. His father has probably already sent the Howler announcing that he's been disowned and his mother had likely planned his funeral by now.
"They're going to be so mad," Draco finally murmurs. He speaks so softly that at first he doesn't think anyone had heard him.
"Who's going to be mad?" Harry asks from the next bed over.
The other three boys freeze and glance over as Draco shrugs helplessly, "Everyone. My father. My mum. The whole family."
"Sirius won't be mad, if anything he'll be quite pleased," Harry points out with a smile, "And I think-"
"The Blood Traitors do not count," Draco says miserably, looking more upset as opposed to being soothed as Harry had hoped he would be. He flings himself back onto his bed with a groan that starts to sound almost like a sob as he runs out of breath.
"My mother isn't exactly thrilled either," one of the other boys offers with a shrug, upon realizing that Draco obviously has no clue who he is he adds, "I'm Justin. I was supposed to be at Eton this year, and Mother is at the very least disappointed. Can't say I feel the same though. It's so exciting being here!"
"Yes I'm sure it is for a mudblood like you this is all very exciting, but for those of us with higher pedigree this is Hell!" Draco says in a petulant and almost hysterical manner, "Generations of Malfoys have been Slytherins. We are a pureblood family! We do not rub elbows with halfbreeds and mudbloods and blood traitors!" He screams in frustration as he buries his face in his hands.
The boys all freeze at this outburst, and exchange worried glances. Between the blatant use of crude slurs and the fact that Draco is clearly regurgitating hateful words he overheard from his family all four of the other boys seem seem be struggling to piece together how someone their age, someone who is a child just like they are, can spew such nonsense.
"Bloody Hell, mate, who put that load of shite in your head?" Ron asks, as eloquent as ever, with a look of pure astonishment and pity.
Draco removes his hands from his face to glare at Ron, but before he can say anything Harry has to put his own two cents in, "Well I think it's quite late and we should all just go to bed. Deal with this in the morning."
"Deal with what? The fact his parents are total and complete-"
"Ernie!" Justin shouts at the same time that Harry cuts in with, "In the morning!"
"Fine! Sorry!" The other boy grumbles at being interrupted, he pointedly lays down in his bed and turns away from the other boys.
Harry nods to nobody in particular and then flops over onto the bed he had claimed between Draco and Ron's. He crawls under the blankets and stares up at the ceiling for a while as he listens to the other boys doing the same. It's strange, being here in the student dormitories so far from his family.
He hardly remembered the time when he had lived with McGonagall in her private quarters here, but Harry had spent the occasional week or month with her on and off when he was younger even after he was released to Sirius and Remus's custody. The castle itself was not unfamiliar, Harry had spent a long time roaming the halls when he was younger and McGonagall had always been soft on him which meant he spent plenty of time in her office or her study with her even after she was no longer his legal guardian.
There has hardly an inch of the castle that he hadn't at the very least caught sight of. The Hufflepuff Common Room and dormitories was one such rare location. They took pride in the fact that theirs was the only common room which had not been seen by an outsider in many years. This part of Hogwarts had always been a mystery to him. He had seen plenty of Gryffindor thanks to McGonagall, he had spent the occasional evening in the Ravenclaw Tower over the years watching the students there do a confusing mix of studying and experimenting with magic, and he had even seen a rare few glances into the Slytherin Common Room during the Holidays when some of the students insisted he come celebrate with them (although Remus had, initially, protested the idea of his nine-year-old attending any celebration with students several years older than him, he had eventually been convinced that there was nothing to worry about and Harry had enjoyed being doted on by the Slytherin students).
He's itching to get out of bed and explore this newly revealed expanse of space, but he knows that he needs to just wait for another time. Still, he wants nothing more than to wander over every inch of the Hufflepuff space.
Harry finally drifts to sleep while imagining all of the questions he'll ask the older students and all the places he'll want to explore once he has time.
Unfortunately, when he next wakes up it is not for the opportunity to explore his new surroundings. It is to the sound of someone, who he quickly identifies as Draco, screaming.
By the time Harry has tumbled out of bed and scrambled over to Draco the other three boys are awake as well. Ron, who seemingly wasn't entirely asleep based on the fact that he hardly looks as dazed as the other two boys, has already made it to Draco's bedside by the time Harry has freed himself from his tangled sheets.
"Hey," Ron whispers sharply as he shakes Draco's shoulder, "wake up. Draco!"
Draco, who had stopped screaming at that point but was clearly still caught in a nightmare suddenly sits upright and looks around with wide panicked eyes.
"Draco?" Harry asks softly as he moves to stand next to Ron who is sitting hesitantly on the edge of Draco's bed.
Draco's grey eyes are wild and frightened as they dart towards Harry, "Harry," He says quietly, acknowledging the other boy as he resists the urge to curl up in a ball and cry.
"Nightmare?" Ron asks as if it's not the most obvious thing in the world.
After a moment of hesitation Drack nods, "Nightmare. Sorry."
Harry notices the scratchy frailty to Draco's voice and instinctively moves closer to the other boy. Draco's eyes, which had briefly focused on Ron, dart back towards Harry again before moving away to stare intently at his hands.
"Nothing to be sorry about," Ernie says with an eye roll, seemingly content to roll back over and sleep.
Justin is more hesitant to do so, but he also worries that crowding Draco will just make him panic so he leaves the other two boys to handle it.
Harry crawls further into Draco's bed and sits next to him, curling his knees up to his chest and knocking his shoulder against the blond's. Ron remains seated on the edge of the bed but offers a smile when Draco's eyes dart up to look at him.
"Ginny, that's my sister, she gets nightmares sometimes," Ron says, avoiding eye contact with Draco, "Usually Mum gets her some water after, sweets if it's really bad."
"I am not a child," he responds with a frown, "I do not need to be babied."
Even so, his breathing still feels quick and Harry had a feeling that Draco very much could do with being treated like a very young child. He looks small like this. Draco is curled up tightly as if taking up as little space as possible will save him from whatever it was that had haunted his sleep. Harry can't remember a time when his reaction after a nightmare was to become small and to hide. He always had someone to run to. It's strange to think that Draco did not have the same experience, but it's clear from his current behavior that he is used to handling things differently.
"Did you know there was a portrait of Sirius's mum up in the manor? Nasty thing she was apparently, because Sirius spent a fortune getting the thing destroyed," Harry says with a small chuckle, hoping to distract Draco from his nightmare, "Remus thinks we'd have been better off just covering her with a sheet like an especially nasty parrot and hoping she fell asleep, and I think sometimes Sirius misses arguing with her because he's mentioned it before. She was long gone by the time I moved in, but Remus claims she haunts the place. Not really, of course, but he means it the way muggles do. Metaphorically or something like that."
Harry says the word 'metaphorically' like someone who had only just learned the word and this is what prompts a small laugh from Draco.
"My mum hated Walburga," Draco mumbles after a small stretch of silence, "said she was just awful, but good for an argument if you needed one."
"Your mum would have loved to help destroy the portrait then! Remus claims the thing argued with them up until they permanently shut her up!" Harry says with a small grin.
"Well, we may be blood traitors but at least my family doesn't have verbally abusive paintings lying about!" Ron cuts in with a grin.
Draco rolls his eyes, "At least my family has money."
"And yet they couldn't pay for a better hairstyle!" Ron bursts out, having wanted to comment on Draco's hair since they had met.
"Oh yeah? Well at least I didn't get my hairstyle as a hand-me-down from my older brothers!"
"Both of you shush!" Harry cuts in, "Ernie and Justin are going to ask for a new room at this rate," he chuckles as he speaks, entirely incapable of remaining entirely serious.
Ron glowers at him playfully before relenting, "Alright, let's get back to bed."
Harry nods and playfully bumps his shoulder against Draco's once more before slowly moving back to his own bed.
Draco seems less tense now as he drifts back to sleep and thankfully all five boys stay asleep until morning.
The morning, unfortunately does not offer much peace for Draco. He sits anxiously awaiting what he's sure will be a terrifying Howler from his parents. He had disappointed their family after all, surely that would warrant at the very least a reprimand.
When a Howler does finally arrive he's shocked when it isn't for him but instead is for Harry.
Draco shrinks as it arrives, only to perk up slightly with a sharp curiosity when it spits out the thrilled notes of Sirius Black's strange brand of excitement. The letter seems to be fighting itself to convey Sirius's excitement over the usual angry tone that Howlers are intended to convey. Still, as Sirius raves about the excitement of Hufflepuff House and the pride he has in his godson, the Howler more amplifies his excited shouting than anything else. Perhaps the most shocking part is that once Sirius had tired of gushing over Harry and his proclaimed perfection, Remus's voice cuts in.
"Draco, you're welcome in our home anytime!" Remus's voice calls out, somehow even quieter and almost soothing despite still emanating from the Howler, "We'll speak with your parents about it if necessary! We're proud of you! And- er your cousin Tonks says hello!"
Before the letter bursts into flames there is a voice, sounding farther away, which can be just barely made out.
Two words ring out in the voice of one Nymphadora Tonks.
"Blood traitor!"
As the letter catches flames her laugh can be heard trailing off.
"Well then," Cedric says abruptly interrupting the silence that had fallen as the Howler delivered its contents, "It's good to know Tonks is doing well."
Draco drops his head onto the breakfast table, "At least someone is."
Harry offers a consoling pat on the back and Ron pushes a plate of food closer to him, muttering about 'skinny purebloods' and how 'the rich shouldn't look half-starved' as he does so.
Eventually Draco lifts his head and accepts the food from Ron, and slowly everyone drifts back to their own conversations as breakfast carries on.