NOTE: Okay, fixed up some spelling and grammar issues, nothing too major…

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but I do own my ideas, as crazy as they are… Please don't steal.

Warnings: Not too sure on these yet, but expect OOCness all around, probably slash, and AU.

AN: Okay, so it's my second shot at a long running fiction with the HP universe. This time I've gone insane. It will be AU, as I do not have the books with me and I will deviate from them. It's a one of those 'what if' ones… sort of. I can't really explain the concept…

Key:

"Speaking."

'Thinking.'

-POV change-


Chapter One: Robes and Run-ins


'God, I am so bloody bored.'

This was the only thought bouncing around in my head as I stand here, on this stupid pedestal thing. 'Wait, isn't this a stool?' I glance down and realize, yes, I am standing atop a stool, rather precariously I must say. 'Ah whatever, It's a pedestal to me, so there.' I think rather juvenilely.

I was waiting, rather impatiently, for Madame Malkin to come back and finish pinning up my robes so I could just go already. The bell over the door had rung and she'd bustled off to see who had entered her little shop. 'Probably more students like me.' I thought to myself, wondering how long it could possibly take to answer a door.

I glance out the window, watching the other shoppers bustle about their day. 'Lucky… They get to wander around while I'm stuck waiting on the slowest tailor in the world.' I think rather dramatically to myself.

Hearing voices, I perk up a bit. 'Finally, she's coming back.' Listening closely, I realize there is an extra voice along with hers and her assistant, Vanessa (1). A boy I think, young, probably my age judging by the tenor of his voice.

Finally they step through the curtain, or whatever the hell that is supposed to be, and I glance over. Leading is the Madame herself in all her rushed glory. Stumbling along behind her is a boy my age being dragged along by his elbow, looking harassed and worse for the wear. Totting along behind them is Vanessa, a youngish girl around twenty who was apprenticing to the Madame. She was carrying another robe and more pins. What catches my attention is the boy.

His hair is dark, it might even be black but this light gives it a blue sheen (2), with gravity defying spikes sticking out at odd angles on his head. The thing that catches my attention, though, are his eyes. A shade of emerald I had yet to see in a person's eyes before, they were quite fetching. He was staring back at me, curiosity written plainly across his face as he stumbled along behind the Madame.

"Here we are, up you go. Stand on this," Madame Malkin said, all business as she pushed him up on a stool next to me and pulled the robes on over his head. It ruffles his hair even more and I have to suppress a chuckle at his harried expression. The two women ignore him as they bustle about, pinning and measuring our robes.

Tilting my head to the side (3), I speak quietly, catching his attention. "Hogwarts?" I ask, watching his eyes look away from the women pinning and measuring him.

-Harry-

Well, this has been an odd couple of days… Well, more crazy than odd.

First, my uncle goes all batty over those weird letters I kept getting in the mail and such. He drove us all over the place and finally settling on getting a rowboat and setting us up in this shack on some rocks. Then this giant bursts in and tells me I'm a wizard.

Of course, I'd thought at first I'd lost my mind. Then I assumed the man himself was batty. But no logical mind can ignore magic being done before his eyes, and no matter how pig like Dudley may be, I know he never had a tail.

Now I'm out shopping with him, Hagrid was his name, in this magical alley. We entered said alley through a brick wall behind an odd old pub that no one seemed to notice.

To say I'm overloaded would be the understatement of the century.

Now I'm being dragged around by a witch named Madame Malkin to get my school robes because I've apparently been accepted into a magical school called Hogwarts, horrid name for a school if you ask me.

Dragging me into a back room she bides me to stand on a stool while her and her assistant, a girl named Vanessa I think, go about pinning up my new robes so they'll fit me. I just stand here, trying not to breathe so they don't stab me when I hear a rather musical voice sound from my left.

"Hogwarts?"

For a moment I think the person standing on the stool to my left is a girl. Long silvery blond hair brushed back to reveal an equally pale face, where two gray eyes are staring back at me, a slight tilt to her, his?, head.. I blink and try to remember the question.

"Yeah, I've just got my letter," I add the last part as an afterthought, hoping to excuse my curious expression as I shift between looking at him, because now that I look closely it is indeed a him, and the two witches using magic to maneuver a tape measure around. "You?"

He smiles at me, surprising me with his open personality and honest smile. "Yes, I'm also a new student there. I assume you're school shopping, are you all alone?" he asks, swatting at the tape measure when it got in his face, attempting to measure him from ear to ear. Vanessa calls it off, blushing slightly before getting back to work.

"Well, I came here with someone but he's gone off to get a pint," I roll my eyes a little, annoyed that he'd abandoned me in this new world alone. I mean, I didn't know what half of the things on my school list were, much less where I'd go to get them.

His smile waned slightly and I couldn't help feeling kind of saddened by that. "That's most irresponsible of him or her. I mean, you look a bit lost to me. Have you ever even been to Diagon Alley before?"

I blushed, embarrassed he'd noticed my obvious lack of knowledge. "No, I've never been here before. I honestly didn't know I was a wizard at all. Both my parents were magical but they died when I was just a baby." I felt a slight pang of sadness at the memory of my parents but I didn't want him to think I was a muggle-born. Hagrid had said some people didn't like them and hated them, sounded like biased racism to me but I didn't want to lose this friendly kid because of some stupid ideals his parents stuck in his head.

He blinked, surprised at my honesty no doubt. "Wow, I'm sorry for your loss. Where have you lived that you didn't even know of the wizarding world?" he seemed genuinely curious, I was relieved he wasn't put off by my lack of knowledge of his world. Funny how I thought of this as 'his world' when it was mine now too.

"My aunt and uncle, they're muggles and they hate magic." I couldn't help the note of animosity in my voice as I talked of my relatives. I was still angry they'd lied and perverted my parent's deaths to suite their own biased needs to keep me from my heritage. I pictured Uncle Vernon's frightened face. 'Gits, served them right.' I smirked to myself.

-Draco-

I was surprised at the kid's honesty. He surprised me when he admitted he was all alone, that his escort had run off and abandoned his charge to have a pint, probably at the Leaky Cauldron. 'What an ass, leaving the poor guy here, when he's obviously never been here before.'

"Oh, well, I'm here by myself too, so if you want… I could help you with your shopping. I mean, I have to get the same things and I've been here loads of times." I said the last part in a rush; I couldn't help the blush that crept onto my cheeks. It was silly but I was taken with this boy and his wild hair and bright green eyes.

I blinked, suddenly realizing I hadn't even introduced myself. "Oh, I'm Draco Malfoy, by the way." I add, offering him my hand, since the women seemed to be almost done, working on the hems now so I was in no danger of being stabbed.

He smiled and, after seeing he could without danger of bodily harm, stuck out his own hand shook mine firmly. "I'd like that, my name's Harry, Harry Potter."


To be continued...


(1) I originally just called her 'the assistant' but got tired of having to spell-check it. So she now has a name! One of the few OCs you will see. And don't worry, no OCs will have any real significance in this fic.

(2) Well, as my fiancé has pointed out to me before, truly black hair has blue in it, so his hair has a blue tint under bright lighting, like fluorescent. I'm assuming the robe shop has bright lighting because they don't want to poke the poor customers in the wrong place. -.-;

(3) This is a mannerism I have. I can't help it and I'm trying to give him more of a human air than the books do.