Disclaimer: The characters used in this fiction are not mine and belong solely their lovely creator and her affiliates. The situations however, are the product of my (possibly) deranged imagination.
Author's Note: I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this story, but I hope you enjoy it!
Harry Potter stared down at the envelope before him with mixed emotions. The insignia stamped on the upper left corner made it perfectly clear as to the origin of his parcel, and with that established, all logical deduction pointed in one clear direction.
His fingers played nervously with the seal, gently prying at the corners until he remembered that he really didn't want to know what was in it. Who would have thought something as simple as opening an envelope could be so stressful?
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Harry!" Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation and grabbed the white envelope out of the boy's hands. "If you're going to be so fickle about it, let me open it!" The bushy haired seventeen year old had absolutely no intention of actually opening the letter on Harry; she firmly believed that she had no right to take away Harry's glory of being the first to know, but all her previous attempts "I'm sure it will be fine.." just hadn't worked. And Ron's: "doubt they'll put you with a mass murder, man." had only made matters worse, and now the 2004 valedictorian of Rockport High was forced to use drastic measures.
"No, wait!" A terrified expression jumped onto Harry's face and he reached desperately for the envelope, which Hermione was holding just out of his grasp. With a sigh, he slumped back into the kitchen chair. "I'll do it."
"Promise, Harry?" Hermione gave the defeated boy one of her patented stern looks. "Because we can't take another hour of you fiddling with it!"
"I will!" His voice came out sounding slightly annoyed, all he wanted was to have his letter back in his hands where it would be safe and unopened. "Just lemme have it!"
Wisely keeping her mouth shut, Hermione threw Ron a 'why the hell are we friends with this nut case' look and laid the letter down before him. The white of the envelope stood out starkly against the black table cloth, and only succeeded in making the bright red Clark University insignia stand out even more.
Knowing that he was being absolutely foolish, but unwilling to actually admit it out loud, Harry bit his lip and tore into the envelope. After that, it was like the flood gates had been opened, and he had no problem tearing through the contents. Tossing a cheesy 80's micro-fridge ad over his shoulder, he had no problem zoning in on the one piece of paper which held the one thing he most wanted: his roommate assignment.
"Well, man, who is it?" Ron's voice tore Harry's gaze from the piece of paper. And Harry felt a bit of guilt for having kept them in suspense for so long. They were his friends and he was sure they wanted to find out and make sure his roommate was cool just as much as him. Next time, Harry reminded himself, just open the fucking envelope. He was such an idiot sometimes.
"Uh," he glanced back down at the paper, "Draco Malfoy." He looked at Ron and shrugged. Now that he knew who he would be sharing a room with for the next year, all the anxiety he had associated with the one name had vanished, and excitement was slowly beginning to fill the void. He could not wait until August 20th.
"Draco Malfoy?" Hermione's voice, interrupted his daydream which involved lots of partying..
"Yea, so?" To Harry, the voice rang no bells whatsoever, but apparently Hermione had heard something. Or at least she was doing a damn good job of acting like it. He glanced at Ron to see if the name sounded familiar to him, but the red head was wearing an equally confused expression.
"As in Lucius Malfoy's son." Hermione gave the two boys a look and shook her head. "Honestly, you two should try reading the paper sometime, maybe you'd learn something."
"Hermione.." Harry and Ron, chirped in unison. They hated when he got on their case to do work, and the though of reading a newspaper, in the middle of the summer, was just wrong.
She completely ignored them and went right on. "Lucius Malfoy is one of the richest men around! The Malfoy family has been ridiculously rich for generations, and it's rumored that Mister Malfoy has nearly doubled their wealth in the past ten years alone!" Hermione paused to let the information set in.
"Do you realize what this means?" With one look she realized they didn't. "You're going to be sharing a room with a boy whose family is worth billions. Not to mention, it's know that he's a wild child. But with his looks, it's no wonder the girls throw themselves at him."
"Now wait a minute," Ron wasn't liking the direction this was turning. Ron and Hermione had never gone out, or even talked about dating, but it was well known to anyone who watched the two that they had a thing for each other. Well, well known to anyone who wasn't them. "How do you know all of this?"
Harry had been wondering the same thing.
"They're huge in the U.K. When I went to London to compete in that Math tournament in the Spring they were all over the tabloids. The legitimate papers too."
"Oh.." There really wasn't much else Ron could think to say.
Hermione mentally rolled her eyes Ron and then gave Harry a serious look. "You should be careful around him Harry. I don't want him to drag you into do anything bad."
"Oh, don't worry 'Mione!" He gave her a carefree grin, "I doubt it's gonna be nearly as bad as you think it will. Besides, if my roommate's good with the girls, that only means good things for me." The words felt sour leaving his mouth. He had been feeling for a while now that he, well, swung the other way. But he hadn't felt the need to share it with his two closest friends. Especially when he wasn't sure...
But despite Hermione's worries, Harry was feeling good and didn't want to dwell on anything that would alter his mood for worse. "What do ya say we take a drive up to the cupboard and get us some icecream?"
"I dunno, man.." Ron checked his pockets, and came back with nothing but lint.
"Don't worry about it, I've got plenty of cash. Been saving all my checks this summer for books and stuff. But I definitely owe you guys for hanging around, so I'll treat."
"Awsome." Ron was already making plans to get the biggest thing he could get his hands on.
"Thank you Harry." Hermione smiled warmly, and pushed her worries to the side. For all she knew the tabloid had been entirely wrong about the Malfoy heir, and she didn't want to ruin the rest of Harry's summer with horror stories about his future roommate.