Not Gryffindor, Not Gryffindor...

That was all of his shopping done, except the school robes. Harry was still slightly shaken by the episode in Ollivanders but he could not wait to try out his new Holly and Phoenix Feather wand.

As Harry made his way into Madam Malkins to get fitted for his new Hogwarts robes, he spotted a pale, blonde haired boy who was already being served. He looked about Harry's age but perhaps a little taller and with a definite look of a child who had been well cared for. Harry was guided to stand next to the boy while he waited his turn.

"Hogwarts?" Asked the boy. His voice was something of a slow drawl.

"Yes, are you?" Asked Harry. He had never spoken to another wizard child before and he was a little bit nervous that he wouldn't have an awful lot to say to him.

"Of course." Said the boy. "Father did consider sending me to Durmstrang. They teach a lot more useful combat spells rather than the defence stuff that old codger Dumbledore has them teaching at Hogwarts, but Mother didn't want me to move so far away."

"Mmmm." said Harry. He had never heard of Durmstrang let alone how far away it was so he didn't really know what else to say.

"I'm sorry, my name's Draco, Draco Malfoy and you are?" The blonde boy, Draco, was now holding his hand out to shake Harry's hand, much to the annoyance of Madam Malkin who was trying to measure from his armpit to his ankle.

"Oh, yes, I'm Harry, Harry Potter. Nice to meet you Draco." Harry held out his hand but Draco seemed to hesitate slightly before taking it. It was only for a second though and Harry assumed this was because Draco was from one of these old wizarding families Hagrid had told him about and would have grown up being taught his name.

"Really? Well of course I know all about you, Harry. I'm going in to my first year too. I hope to be in Slytherin, like my father." Draco raised his head in a proud manner at this. Harry was a little bit shocked that Draco even seemed to know his age. He also had no idea what Slytherin was, some kind of difficult assault course by the sound of it, so again he was a bit lost for what to say. "Which house do you hope to be in?" Draco asked. Now it dawned on him what Slytherin was, but Harry didn't know any other houses.

"Umm Yeah, me too, Slytherin." He said hoping the boy didn't question him further on the subject.

"Really?" questioned Draco. "But I thought you would be..." He stopped mid sentence. "You should write to me, so we can arrange to sit together on the train. I can introduce you to some of the others from our year that I already know, a really good bunch!"

This show of friendship took Harry a little off guard. He had never been allowed by Dudley and his gang to have any friends at school or out of school. Just as he was about to answer however, there was a tap on the window. It was Hagrid and he was waving to Harry while holding up a cage. Inside it was an all white owl and Hagrid's deep voice boomed "Happy Birthday Harry!". Harry's first ever birthday present!

"Perfect!" Said Draco. "Now that you have an owl too it will be easy to write to each other!" Harry looked at Draco and the blonde boy definitely seemed pleased about this. He wasn't sure if it was just because this was the first person his own age to ever want to be his friend but Harry couldn't help but smile at the boy.

"Right, that's you done Mr Malfoy. I'll have your robes sent to your address by tomorrow for you." Said Madam Malkin. "You next my dear." She added smiling at Harry.

"Ok, Harry, remember to write to me. Just put my name on the envelope and your owl will know where to go. See you." Draco Malfoy jumped off his stool and walked out of the door where he met a slim blonde woman. Harry thought the blonde woman must be his mother, they had the same exact hair colour and the same, slightly upturned, nose.

Once Harry was back with the Dursley's, there was a definite difference in his home life. If he wasn't mistaken, Dudley was scared of him! Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia just completely ignored him, which was a marked improvement on their normal treatment. After a week of them ignoring him and once Dudley running from any room Harry walked into started to get a bit boring, however, Harry was spending most of his time in his bedroom with just Hedwig (for this was the name he had chosen for his snowy owl. He had read the name in one of his new text books and liked it) for company. It wasn't until he was sat talking to Hedwig, one particularly boring day, that he remembered Draco's offer of writing to each other to arrange to meet on the train to Hogwarts. Harry got a piece of parchment from his new school supplies and a quill and ink and started to write a letter to his new school colleague. It took him a few attempts to write a letter without leaving ink splodges all over the paper (surely this would be easier with a ball point pen?) but once he had finished he was quite happy with his letter.

Dear Draco,

I hope Hedwig gets this to you safely. You mentioned we should write to arrange to meet on the train. If it's OK with you, could we meet in the station as I am not completely sure which way to go?

I hope the rest of your holidays have been fun so far.

Yours Sincerely

Harry

He read the letter several times before he put it in an envelope and addressed it to "Draco Malfoy". He opened Hedwig's cage and started to wonder how he should attach it to her when Hedwig hopped on to his desk and held out her leg. This was her first delivery too and she seemed determined to look professional. Harry couldn't help but laugh at her statue like pose. Once he was done tying his letter to her, Harry looked her in the eyes and said "OK, now it doesn't have an address on it but this is for Draco Malfoy, do you understand?" Hedwig stared back into his eyes and then gave Harry an affectionate nip on the finger before making her way to the window and soaring into the distance. Harry watched her until she was a tiny speck and then laid back down on his bed with "A History of Magic" by Bathilda Bagshot to keep him company. Harry was never too interested in History at his muggle primary school but the wizarding history seemed fascinating. He was reading about a dark wizard named Gellert Grindelwald and how Albus Dumbledore had defeated him in the most legendary duel in wizarding history, when a knock on his bedroom door made him jump and drop the book right off his bed.

"Harry, it's your Uncle Vernon. Is it alright for you to come downstairs and talk to me and your Aunt Petunia quickly?" His voice was different to how Harry had ever heard it. It was a polite tone and it was definitely a request not a demand. Harry was not too sure how he felt about this change of tact from his Uncle but he called back "Yes Uncle Vernon, one minute." He put all of his school things away carefully and then made his way down to the living room.

"Harry, my boy!" said Uncle Vernon as he jumped to his feet upon Harry's entry. "Please, have a seat, would you like a cup of tea? Custard Cream?" If the way his Uncle was speaking to him wasn't strange enough, the smile on his face was making Harry really uncomfortable. But Harry sat down and took the tea and biscuit. He didn't say anything though, just waited for his Uncle to continue.

"Harry, obviously you need to go to Kings Cross Station to get the train to your new school." Uncle Vernon was beating around the bush but Harry knew if he remained silent his Uncle would get to the point eventually. "We also need to go in to London to see about getting Dudley's tail removed. We thought we could take you at the same time, you know, kill two birds with one stone." Again Harry remained silent knowing his Uncle was getting there. "Of course, this operation could be very expensive...and your Aunt Petunia has found, by accident, this bag in your possession." Harry looked up at his Uncle's hand and saw his money bag, the one he had filled at Gringotts with Hagrid. Inside this bag were Galleons and Sickles and Knuts. Of course his Aunt and Uncle had no idea what money this was, they couldn't have, but even they would know a Galleon was a large solid piece of gold.

"That is mine, it was all that was left to me by my parents and if you take it then you will be required to pay for my education." Harry lied easily. Of course his parents had left him a small fortune which was probably more money than his Aunt and Uncle would ever own in their entire lives. This small bag was merely to get him by a couple of terms at Hogwarts for anything he wanted to order like extra potion ingredients. Uncle Vernon's face had turned that impressive tinge of purple it would turn when he was not getting the answer he wanted. It looked like it was about to explode.

"WELL I DON'T CARE POTTER, MY SON HAS A BLOODY PIGS TAIL AND IT'S YOUR FAULT! IF YOU WON'T GIVE ME THIS GOLD THEN I SHALL SIMPLY TAKE IT!" All false niceness was gone. Clearly his Uncle had thought that there may be a lot more where that came from but now he showed his true colours. "AND GOOD LUCK GETTING US TO PAY FOR YOUR EDUCATION! IF YOUR GOOD FOR NOTHING PARENTS HADN'T GOT THEMSELVES BLOWN UP THEY COULD PAY FOR IT THEMSELVES AND OUR DUDLEY WOULDN'T HAVE A TAIL!" He finished.

Harry was losing his temper now. This slight on his parents had hit home. He glared at his Uncle's purple face, and his purple neck and his purple hands, he then noticed his Uncle's purple legs. In fact he was turning completely purple. His piggy eyes were looking worried and he opened his mouth to say something but his tongue had expanded and turned purple too. Harry was scared, he had never made anything like this happen before, and he ran from the room back up to his bedroom. As he got there he heard a knock at the front door. Nobody had answered it but it opened anyway and two men in long robes came running through the door. Harry watched from the landing as they ran straight to the living room with, unmistakeably, wands held aloft. Harry ran back downstairs to see what was going on. As he arrived in the living room his uncle was normal size and colour, asleep on the armchair. His Aunt Petunia was also asleep on the sofa and Dudley was sat next to her asleep with his head rested on her shoulder.

"Wh-Who are y-you?" Harry asked. He felt stupid to have forgotten his own wand, although he had only read about half of his defence text book so he wasn't sure what he could do against these fully trained wizards. They both turned around and Harry knew, somehow, that these men were friend not foe.

"Mr Potter. My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt. I am from the accidental magic department at the ministry of magic. We were alerted to come here to aid you with a spot of accidental under-age magic. We have completely removed your families memories of the incident and when they wake they will not remember anything that has happened." Harry was relieved.

"What about my money? This started because they had found my money bag and wanted it to pay to have my cousins tail removed." Harry wasn't sure if he should mention the tail in case Hagrid got in trouble. But he figured if he didn't say Hagrid gave Dudley the tail they couldn't possibly know.

"Yes Mr Potter, we have removed all traces of the tail from your cousin. Before we wake your family up I will get my colleague here to remove the memory of your gold. I recommend you keep it safe so they don't come across it again." Shacklebolt was smiling and Harry instantly trusted the man with his slow deep voice. It had a calming effect on Harry.

"Thank you, for everything Mr Shacklebolt." Harry sincerely meant this. He had only known of the wizarding world for a couple of weeks but he was very impressed with the ministry employees, not to mention how quickly they arrived without needing to be called. Shacklebolt finished up his spells and left after telling Harry his family would wake up within the next thirty minutes and believe they had fell asleep watching the news. Harry used the time he had to go and hide his wizard gold properly, which he concealed beneath a loose floorboard under his bed until he was ready to leave for school. His only worry was that his Uncle would still be willing to take him to Kings Cross Station, now he had no reason to go to London for Dudley's tail.

TBC...