(AN: OMG HERE IS THE ACTUAL SUMMARY: On that fateful night in Godric's Hollow, Lily Potter escaped with her infant son, who would be raised for his place in the prophesy. Far away, Draco Malfoy would lay orphaned in his crib, to be raised by a cruel Uncle that wants his fortune. The two begin as unlikely friends, and each becomes the only thing that can save the other.) (I spent forever shortening that to make it fit, which I hated passionately, just so you know. Okay, on to the story now.)
Chapter One: Blissful Ignorance
(This chapter is from the point of view of Harry Potter)
I bounced on the balls of my feet, fidgeting with the sleeves of my robes as I watched my mum scanning the rows of books with a deeply involved look on her face. And since my mother loved books, I knew we'd be here even longer than we already had. We had already gotten my school books, and I was still waiting on her. I was never much on books, although I could usually manage to read one when I absolutely had to sit still, which really wasn't that often.
"You are such an impatient thing," Mum laughed, glancing at me and rolling her eyes. "Here, go get your robes," she said, pulling a small pouch of galleons out of her pocket and holding them out to me. I had the pouch and was halfway to the door when she yelled after me to go straight to the robe shop and back, no detours. I decided that I'd gotten far enough away that I could pretend later that I hadn't heard her.
I stopped outside the robe shop, considering whether or not I ought to actually go ahead and get the robes before I went to Quality Quidditch Supplies and possibly Sugar Plumb Confectionary. I peered through the window and saw a boy that looked about my age stepping up on a stool to be sized, and decided that I might as well go on in while at least there was someone to talk to and I didn't have to occupy myself with watching out the window. That was severely unentertaining.
"Hogwarts?" Madam Malkin asked me when I stepped inside. I nodded, and looked up at the boy being sized. He was about my size, which meant he was either younger than me or also small for his age. His hair was silvery blonde, and I wondered if he had perhaps bleached it. I knew a Muggle girl that did that to her hair, although I could scarcely understand why.
"Hi. My name's Harry. Are you starting Hogwarts this year as well?" I asked him curiously as another woman came out of the back of the shop and ordered me up onto another stool to be sized.
"Oh. Hello. And yes," he said, blinking at me in surprise. His eyes were pale gray, and kind of silvery like his hair. Which meant his hair was probably like that naturally. His skin was pale, too, like he wasn't outside much. I doubted we had much in common then, since I couldn't stand to be locked up in a house, but I was still sort of entertained by the slightly frightened look on his face as I studied him.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Draco," he said uncomfortably, and I frowned, trying to remember why I should know that name. He sighed tiredly and looked away from me.
"You ride a broom much?" I asked him, and he looked back at me in surprise, like he hadn't expected me to say anything else to him. And I might not have if I'd remember where I'd heard his name before.
"Er…what?" he said, looking confused.
"I was just wondering, since you look like you could use some sun," I said jovially, and he smiled in a way that was more sad than happy.
"I'm not allowed-I mean, I just don't spend a lot of time outside," he said with a self-depreciating quirk of his lips. I stared at him for a second, horrified by the idea of being forced to stay inside all day.
"Can you ride a broom?" I asked in morbid fascination.
"I've never tried," he admitted.
"That's terrible. Do you want me to teach you, when we get to Hogwarts?" I offered, feeling extremely charitable toward this poor little prisoner boy.
He looked at me, eyes wide and full of a kind of desperate hope that made me feel kind of sad for some reason. "If-I mean, you would-I mean yes," he said haltingly, nodding emphatically and earning a glare from Madam Malkin that he didn't notice.
"Okay. I guess we'll have to use school brooms, since first years aren't allowed to have their own brooms. I hate that rule. And we can't have dogs at Hogwarts, either. Just nasty old cats. I hate cats," I told him, and he smiled and nodded, his head tilted slightly to the side as he listened to me. "Which do you prefer? Or do you have a rat instead?" I asked him.
"I've never had a pet, but I'm getting an owl today," he told me, his face suddenly bright.
"I have a snowy owl named Hedwig," I told him, and he smiled, looking wistful. "What kind of owl are you going to get?" I asked him.
"I don't know yet," he said, and I got the impression that he'd only just stopped himself from shrugging. "That doesn't matter very much to me."
"You're all done," the woman told Draco, pulling the robes off of him and beginning to pack them into a box, which went into a bag. I watched him pay for it, but he stopped just short of leaving and turned around to wave shyly at me.
"See you, Draco," I said, and he smiled as he left. I was still watching him walk by outside the window when the woman told me my robes were done. I paid for them quickly and then hurried out of the shop. I bounced on the balls of my feet, full of nervous energy and a wild desire to run after the boy I'd just met and follow him around until my mum found me.
"Hey, Draco, wait up!" I called without further thought, and he froze and turned around, the shocked look on his face from before. "Sorry," I laughed as I ran and caught up with him. "I've got time to kill, since my mum's going to be in the bookshop forever, I just know she is. Care if I tag along with you for a bit?" I asked rapidly.
He blinked a couple of times and then nodded, a small smile on his face. "I'm just going to get my wand," he said.
"Brilliant. I have some galleons left over, and I haven't gotten mine yet, either. We can go do it together," I said, grinning and starting toward Ollivander's. Draco jogged a couple of steps to catch up with me, and then fell into step beside me.
We were laughing when we left the shop, helpless little giggles that we tried to muffle with our hands. Me breaking half the things in the shop while trying to find a proper wand, paired with the owlish little man behind the counter mumbling about how strange I was, had for some reason become extremely amusing as we were taking our leave.
"That was so bizarre," Draco said once we could both breathe again.
"Did you see the way he looked at me? Mad, for sure," I said, and Draco grinned. "But at least we got our wands. What do you have left to get?" I asked.
"Um…I need my owl," he said. "I left it for last," he added as he gingerly placed his wand into the satchel he wore that I realized now must be much larger on the inside than on the outside, to have all his things in it already.
"Excellent," I declared, practically bouncing down the sidewalk toward the pet shop.
"How do you hold all that energy inside yourself?" Draco asked happily as he hurried to catch up with me. "How do you not explode?"
"Oh, I don't. It's spilling over all the time. You've gotten it all over your shoes," I
I informed him, and he laughed. I grinned; I felt a bit of odd pride when I made him laugh. He looked like he didn't do it very often. We spent a lot of time in the pet shop, talking to owls and petting cats until Draco discovered a pale barn owl with dark eyes and a quiet temperament.
"What do you think of the name Archimedes?" he asked as we left the shop, glancing shyly at me, looking for approval. I grinned, and his gaze went back to the owl he was carrying.
"Like the philosopher?" I asked, and he nodded, smiling brightly. "You read a lot, right?" He blinked and nodded again. "I thought so. That's excellent. I'll teach you to fly, and you'll help me pass History of Magic," I announced.
"Okay," he agreed quietly, his smile soft and happy.
"I say we seal the deal with ice cream," I decided aloud.
"Ice cream?" he repeated in surprise.
"Sherbet. Frozen yogurt. Whatever flies your broom. I've still got some sickles left over from the money Mum gave me for my robes, so I'll buy. Get whatever you want," I said generously, throwing my arm around his shoulders and dragging him into Forchesco's ice cream shop.
No one else was at the shop, except for a few people sitting at the picnic tables outside of it, so I bounced directly up to the counter. The elderly man, probably Mr. Forchesco, smiled warmly at me. "Can I get something for you boys?" he asked us.
"I would like two scoops of treacle pecan ice cream in a chocolate cone," I told him at once. Draco wasn't so quick, spending an endless moment staring at the wall of different flavors. "Can I have a scoop of the raspberry?" he asked, and I felt like it was directed more at me than Forchesco.
I grinned and nodded, but the old man frowned thoughtfully as he scooped our ice cream and I paid for it. I ignored him and led Draco out to the bench in front of the store where we ate our treats in the sunshine and watched the people pass on the sidewalk.
"I have to be in Slytherin," he told me after a stretch of comfortable silence. "Does that matter?" he asked in a quieter voice, and I knew at once that he'd avoided mentioning it for fear of driving me off, as he'd had a three-in-four chance of doing.
"Nah. I'm not heading anywhere in particular, not worried much about it. Mum wants me to be in Gryffindor, like she and my dad were," I told him, and he nodded as if he kind of figured that, taking a bite of his ice-cream cone. "But like I said, it won't matter either way to me," I said, and we went back to eating our ice-cream in silence.
"I should go. Uncle Silas will be expecting me home soon," he said after I'd finished my ice-cream; he'd had less and had been done for a little while. "I don't want to get in trouble."
"Okay, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express then?" I asked as he stood up.
"Yeah," he nodded, smiling his little sad smile. "Thanks for the ice-cream." I nodded, and he turned and walked into the crowd.
"I figured I'd find you here. Who's your friend?" Mum asked, walking up beside the bench from the direction opposite where Draco had gone.
"Draco. I met him in the robe shop," I said, standing up and gathering my bags from Madam Malkin's and Olivander's shops.
"Draco Malfoy," Mom muttered, frowning after him. And then I realized why his name had sounded familiar. It was because his father had been a Death Eater, who'd been with Voldemort then night they had come to kill me. His father had cast the killing curse that killed mine, who in turn had somehow returned the favor. And during this altercation, my mother had scaled the latticework on the side of the house, ran down the block to the home of Berthilda Bagshot, and flooed to safety.
And without either of us realizing who the other was, we had been perfectly happy as friends.
(AN: okay, so a bit of explanation for this story. I love fanfictions where Harry is hurt and innocent and Draco is spoiled and exciting, and they become friends and eventually fall in love. I've read several. So I decided to reverse their rolls in a bid for originality. And also because I love my completely and totally out of character Draco. He needs to be cuddled. So leave reviews and tell me what you think :) please)
(AN2: oh, and like in my story A Twist of Fate, the point of view is going to hop around a little. Just between Harry and Draco this time. I'm going to switch every chapter, in an actual pattern this time, so the next chapter is going to be from Draco's point of view. Enjoy!)
(AN3: in case you couldn't tell that it's a bit suckish, I spent forever trying to figure out what the hell I wanted to name this story. Nothing was coming to me. So I picked a song off of the playlist I made to listen to while I write this story and made its title the title of my story right before I posted this story. It's semi-appropriate. Black and Blue by Counting Crows.)