Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Harry Potter.
Written for Assignment 1 for History of Magic.
They were friend's best friends for a while at least, him shy and clumsy, Draco cocky and snobby; two eight-year-old boys who knew nothing of real hatred, two boys who liked jumping in mud and laughing at the other.
They once built a fort right in the middle of woods that connected Draco's family summer mansion and his permanent home. The Longbottom family once had many houses and mansions, but a great many had been destroyed in the war and the ones that weren't Neville had never seen.
Once they made a pact to be friends forever, no matter what happened in the future, but the promise was never kept not after his Gran found out about their friendship.
She forbade him from ever having anything to with Draco again, swearing she would disown him if he did.
At first, he couldn't understand why she hated Draco as much as she did and continued in secret to send Draco letters. Draco told him in one of his letters that his parents didn't want Draco to be friends with him either.
One afternoon they even managed to sneak out and meet in the woods again. Neville bringing chocolate frogs for them to share and Draco bringing a big basket full of food he made a House Elf make.
That afternoon had been great the sun shone, the many different foods the House Elf had packed were delicious and the cool bottles of pumpkin juice were just what they needed to wash down the food.
The subject of not being allowed to be friends was avoided instead they made bad jokes and laughed like the jokes were the funniest thing they had ever heard.
That afternoon was the last they would ever spend as friends not that either boy knew as they said good-bye and made their way home.
Not because they didn't want to be but because both bowed down to family loyalty.
Neville was made to feel guilty about wanting to be friends with the nephew of the woman who one of four responsible for driving his parents to insanity.
Draco was made to feel that it was unfair to be friends with the boy whose parents were one of the main reasons his aunt was in Azkaban.
The letters stopped. Neither boy went into the woods because they thought that they might run into each other.
The next time they saw each other, they were eleven years old, one a Gryffindor and the other a Slytherin. Neville still clumsy and shy, Draco changed from the boy who told bad jokes to a bully.
Neville never forgot how they had been friends and didn't believe Draco had either not really no matter how badly Draco treated him.
Their friendship was a victim of something that neither boy had any control off, a hatred created by others and taught to them by the people who loved them.