Disclaimer - Don't own HP.

A/N - I excerpted a lot out of HPB1. The change in plot would not, I believe, change what something looks like and so forth.

A/N 2 - Draco may appear to be a bit OOC in the chapter, this is what I imagined him to be under these circumstances.

A/N 3 - Draco and Harry never met in Diagon Alley.


Dark Ascension

Chapter One

The Ride to Change


Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something he had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley, or maybe he had to wait until the clock reached a certain time, after all, he was early by all standards. He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between the platforms nine and ten.

At that moment two people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"—bloody Muggles--"

Harry swung round. The speaker was a tall man with grey eyes, who was talking to, what Harry assumed, was his son, for he had the same eyes, and both had pale blond hair. The boy was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him – and in a cage, was an Eagle owl.

Heart hammering, Harry pushed his trolley after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what, he assumed, the father, was saying.

"You remember what I told you Draco?" asked the man.

"Yes, father," said the pale boy. "Walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. And don't be scared and don't stop or else I'll crash and embarrass us."

"Yes, very good."

Harry recognized that they must be talking about the platform nine and three-quarters and relief flushed over his body.

"Excuse me," Harry said to the grey, pointed man.

"And who might you be?" he asked. His eyes seemed to be judging Harry at that very second, as if he was contemplating whether or not the boy was even worthy to be spoken to. Suddenly becoming very aware of the muggle clothing and his slight slouch, straightening up, Harry answered.

"Harry Potter, sir," he said.

The tall man's, along with his son's, eyes bulged with recognition. The boy was the first to speak.

"Do you actually have the scar then?" said the boy, his voice almost hiding away his excitement. But this quickly faded as he father gave him a stern look.

"Yes, if you wouldn't mind showing us the famous scar, just to make sure you are who you say you are. After all, Harry Potter is famous," asked the man.

Harry agreed to show them, wondering just how many would treat him like this. He lifted up his bangs to reveal the lightning bolt.

The grey-eyed man seemed to smirk grandly, as if he just won a prize but cheated while doing so. The boy too, mimicked that same smirk.

"Harry Potter. What a pleasant surprise. Sorry for the rude introduction, as it is not every day one of the most powerful wizards walk in the station wearing… muggle clothes, after disappearing for nearly eleven years. Please forgive my rudeness," he apologized with a slight bow of his head.

Harry hesitated, not being used to politeness being pointed in his direction does that to a person. But he nodded in acceptance.

"We are the Malfoys, this is my son, Draco, and you can call my Lucius. It's a pleasure to meet you." Both of them held out their hands and Harry shook them.

"Yes, pleasure to meet you too. I was just wondering how to get on to er, the platform," said Harry.

"Oh, well there's not much to it. Just run straight between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't hesitate, just be confident. My son will be right behind you to help you from there on, if you need it."

"Er—okay, thanks," said Harry.

"Do not worry about it, and good luck at your term, Mr. Potter," he said.

He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid.

His hands began to grip the trolley more tightly and they were beginning to sweat as he walked towards the wall. He was going to smash right into it. Mr. Malfoy told him to be confident, and so he tried to be, his shoulders squaring up a bit more, he took a deep breath. Don't stop and don't hesitate he echoed in his head. The barrier was coming nearer and nearer. Surely there'd been stranger things in the past month, why not a wall you can walk through? He was a foot away. He closed his eyes waiting for a crash.

It didn't come… he kept walking… and opened his eyes.

A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead read Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway with the words Platform Nine and Three-quarters on it. He had done it. There really was no going back now.

Just then the boy, Draco, if Harry heard right, came through the archway. Harry waved to him as he collected his bearings. Draco smiled, or what seemed like a smile, it was always somewhat of a smirk, and walked briskly towards him, pushing his trolley.

"Hey Harry," greeted Draco "Sorry about my father, he can be a bit intimidating sometimes."

"Oh, its fine, after all, he did help me," said Harry.

"Well, regardless, I invite you to sit with me and a couple of friends on the train to make up for it," said Draco.

Harry by no means had ever been invited to sit with someone. Dudley ruined that chance by scaring off all the other kids. The boy seemed nice enough too, and who was he to deny it? He never had a friend before, and he desperately thought he needed one in this new, odd world.

"Yeah, I'll sit with you, thanks," replied Harry. Draco grinned in delight.

"Speaking of friends, where they anyway?" wondered Draco as he looked around.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over-seats.

"They'll just find us then," said Draco, giving up his search.

They pressed through the crowd with Draco in the lead, his head held high. They found an empty compartment near the middle of the train. They put their pets inside first and they started to push and shove their heavy trunks up the steps leading towards the train's door. That is until Draco called over a "Slytherin prefect", he called him, and demanded, yes demanded, him to help them with their trunks.

Harry had mixed feelings about Draco; it seemed he was only nice to the people he deemed worth of, and to other people, he put off this arrogant attitude. Harry wasn't sure which one was truly him, but as Draco was his first friend Harry had at his age, he shrugged it off.

And Draco's family had to be powerful, or at least something along those lines to have people actually listen to his demands. And it's good to be friends with those types of people right? Better than not being friends with them, decided Harry.

Once they had found an empty compartment, Draco flopped down on one of the seats while Harry sat across from him. Draco sighed and went off into his own world for a moment, obviously thinking of something important, as his gray eyes seemed intent on staring at the ceiling.

Harry took this moment to take in his surroundings. He looked out the window to examine the platform; everything was still new to him. Outside, Harry noticed a group that stood out from the crowd; maybe it was their drab ragged clothing, or perhaps their shocking red hair, whatever it was, they caught his eye. He watched as the mother of the five or six children frantically hurried them onto the train and at the same kept them longer than necessary.

Harry suddenly felt a pang in his stomach. His parents should be here, waving to him goodbye as he left to face his first year. But no, that wasn't going to happen, and he knew that. It all hurt the same though.

"Are you okay?" asked Draco. It had slipped Harry's eye that the boy had sat up straight and was now looking at him, almost studiously, like he was taking notes for future reference.

It was awkward to Harry to say the least.

"Yes," answered Harry, "I'm fine, just wishing something that'll probably never happen."

"Well, maybe my father could help you with that, he is very influential," said Draco.

Harry smiled at his new friend's obvious dependence on his parental being. "No thanks, I don't think it's something he can help with."

"Oh," Draco simply said, as if he was wondering what possible problem his father could not solve. "Well, I'm here if you need any help with anything. But I'm sure you don't after all, you defeated you-know-who."

"No," Harry sighed, "I bet I'll need help with lots, everything is still so new to me." He finally voiced, for the first time, something that had been worrying him a lot lately. "I bet I'll be the worst in the class."

"You won't be. Tons of Mu- people from Muggle families will be, I bet. Besides, you already accomplished something wizards and witches have been trying to do for years. Speaking of which, where have you been all these years?" asked Draco, curiosity getting the better of him.

Harry, now a little more reassured and confident that he was supposed to be here, told Draco of how he didn't even know he was a wizard until about a month ago, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to depress Draco, as if he felt sorry for him. He kept muttering about how awful muggles and such were.

"… and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about magic or about my parents or Voldemort—"

Draco scoffed.

"What?" said Harry.

"Figures, you at eleven years old, can say his name, while some full-grown adults can't," explained Draco

"Well, I'm not trying to impress anyone, but I just never learned not to say the name," said Harry.

"Yeah, being brought up by Muggles must've been harsh." Draco sounded disgusted.

"It had its ups and downs, I guess." Harry shrugged.

While they had been talking, the train apparently had started moving and had carried them out of London to the country side. The two were quiet for awhile, watching the fields and lanes past by on fast forward.

"You miss your parents don't you?" said Draco, "I saw you, watching the Weasleys earlier, the odd bunch they are."

Harry, who had nothing against the Weasleys, agreed on both points to an extent.

"I guess," Harry admitted, "it's not so much the fact that I miss them, I never really knew them anyway, but more or less the… figure of them. See? I've got so much to catch up on, without having my parents there to teach me, I still think this might be some sort of dream, I guess. I just wish Voldemort hadn't…"

"Harry, I told you, you'll do fine. Plus, you have me and my friends, really," reassured Draco, again.

Harry let himself smile. He was going to have friends, such as Draco, who already was the closest person he'd known, and maybe his friends too would become Harry's. It was a great day.

"And about the Dark Lord though, do you know anything at all about the war?" said Draco.

"No, only that Voldemort was a Dark wizard and he went bad, as bad as you could go," said Harry. Seeing Draco frown, he quickly finished with "atleastthatswhatHagridsaid." He didn't want to lose his first friend over something that happened years ago.

"Many witches and wizards have their own opinions and ideals. And few take action upon them…" Draco went on about how Voldemort was a powerful wizard who believed that England, or the whole entire wizarding world, was getting weaker by the moment due to "muggle filth." And Voldemort wanted to put a stop on that. Some people just didn't agree with his ways of going about it and that's where the war came into the picture.

Harry was silent throughout Draco's lecture, listening and deciding which ideal he believed in. It was hard, he agreed with Voldemort on some of his points, but what would his parents say, if they were here, weren't they on the other side of the war? Is it wrong for him to agree that muggles were in fact filth, from what he experienced under a cupboard? I'm too young for this, he thought.

He was interrupted out of his reflection by a smiling, dimpled woman who slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Both boys jumped to their feet, and with their combined wealth, almost filled their compartment with different sorts of candy.

Draco and Harry had a blast with all the assorted sweets and toffee ranging from experimenting with Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and chasing down Chocolate Frogs. It took Draco almost half an hour to explain the card game and list off every single card he had.

The countryside had progressively faded, replaced by woods, winding rivers, and dark green hills.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a girl with bushy brown hair and large front teeth poked her head in.

"Sorry," she said, "but have any of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one." She had a bossy sort of voice.

They both shook their heads and she sighed.

"Well if any of you see him…"

And she left.

"Why in the world would you bring a toad? Honestly, at least bring something dignified like a snake," said Draco. Harry couldn't agree with him more.

There was another rap on the door, causing Draco to groan. A pretty girl, Harry thought, with dirty blond hair and a round face entered their compartment with her Hogwarts robes already on. Following her were two thickset boys with bulky faces that stood on either side of her, they looked like body guards.

"Finally, I found you, Draco!" she said, enveloping him into a hug and then sitting down. The bodyguards went outside, apparently guarding the compartment door. Her eyes finally traveled to Harry.

He shifted in his seat. It wasn't very often he was under the scrutiny of a girl, let alone a pretty one.

"Yeah, well if you met me on the platform like you were supposed to," said Draco. The blond girl just shrugged and continued to stare curiously at Harry. "Oh, yes. Tracey, this is Harry Potter. Harry this is Tracey Davis, one of my friends. And outside the door are Vince Crabbe and Greg Goyle, they don't talk much."

Tracey tilted her head sideways and did a small wave in which Harry returned.

"I thought I recognized you," she said. Her voice had an intelligent feel to it, almost like what Harry imagined Hedwig's voice to be, only younger.

"Um, well, thanks…"said Harry, he shifted in his seat again. She smiled.

"Anyways, it's very nice to meet you. How did you and Draco meet?" she asked.

"I was raised by Muggles that dropped me off at the station, so I didn't really know how to get onto the platform," explained Harry.

"And my father and I were there to help him," said Draco.

"That would explain it. I read about you, you know," said Tracey. "You're in about three books along with your parents…Not to make this awkward or anything."

"Don't worry," Harry smiled, even though he was tad dazed. "Stranger things have happened to me."

"I wouldn't doubt it," said Draco with a hint of amusement. "Anyway Tracey, how was the rest of your holidays? I haven't seen you since you came over for the trip to Romania."

"The same old, nothing I haven't told you in the owls," she answered. "Oh, did you guys hear about what happened at Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, someone tried to break into a high security vault."

Harry stared. Didn't Hagrid say it was one of the safest places outside of Hogwarts?

"What happened to them?"

"Nothing, that's why everyone's making a big deal about it, they haven't been caught and they also didn't take anything," she leaned in, "Some people think the Dark Lord is behind it."

Harry reviewed this news over in his head. If Voldemort was behind it, wouldn't he or one of his followers come and finish the job that he failed to do? He started to think he should be worried every time someone said that name too.

"That's a load of rubbish," said Draco. "My father would've told me if he was he's one of the first people to hear what they say at the ministry."

"Just telling you what I heard," Tracey shrugged.

There was yet another tap on the door, and a boy, who looked to be about fifth year judging by his acne and his prefect badge, poked his head through.

"We're nearly there, better get changed," he said and then left.

Harry viewed the scenery out the window, it was getting dark and he could barely see the mountains and forests under the sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.

He and Draco took off their overcoats and pulled on their long black robes. Both were of the finest silk, their wealth apparent.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."

Harry's palms were sweaty again; his stomach felt like it was filled with butterflies.

After much bustling and jostling Harry, Draco, and Tracey filed into a small group consisting of first years, led by Hagrid.

The wary first years followed Hagrid down to a steep, narrow path, lined with thick trees. Harry could swear he smelled a lake somewhere, but it came and went as the forest overtook it. Nobody spoke much, as there wasn't much to say. They turned a tight corner and Harry found himself staring at a castle straight out of the middle ages, only bigger with many more turrets and towers.

And near them, was a shore with a fleet of boats sitting in the water. Draco led Harry and Tracey into their own boat.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then, forward!"

The fleet of little boats moved forward in unison, gliding across the glassy water. Everyone was staring up at the vast castle before them in silence. It seemed it got bigger and bigger until it was all that they could see.

They boats reached an opening in the cliff face and were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to take them to an underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? Good," said Hagrid.

He raised his enormous fist and knocked three times on the castle door.