Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter and the characters and events described therein are the copyrighted creations and property of Joanne "J.K." Rowling. While I will take tremendous liberties with the characterization and plot, I take no credit for the names and basic premise. This work of fanfiction is written only for the sake of entertainment, and as a homage to Rowling's work.

Notes: In regards to plot continuity, I will basically follow the movies rather then the novels. (To the extent I actually plan to follow Rowling's original plot, anyway.) I have, however, borrowed some of Rowling's wording for this chapter in an attempt of emulating some of the mood of the book. I expect this will fade out quickly as my story diverges from her, though. Anyway, the reason I rely on the movies for my narrative structure isn't because I prefer them to the books, but rather because the movies compress the plot a lot more, meaning less writing for me. Since I'm both lazy and doing this for fun, I'd rather not attempt to rewrite Rowling's entire creation. For the same reason, I will skip parts of the story I find uninteresting or unimportant, for example the bits with the Dursleys. I think we all know how those parts go anyway.

Having only recently started to recover from a very long (ca two years) period of serious writers block, this is the first story of any real substance I've been able to produce. With that in mind, I hope you'll all forgive me if I take it a bit easy to begin with, and then we'll just have to see where all this ends up. :)


Harry Potter and

THE HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

Book 1: The Element of Surprise

Chapter 1: The Boy Who Smiled


September had gotten off to a good start. It was half passed ten and a rather pleasant day at the Kings Cross Station in London, where an eleven-year old boy with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead pushed a trolley loaded with luggage plus one caged snowy owl in front of him. Next to him walked an enormous bearded man named Rubeus Hagrid. The boy's name was Harry Potter and so far this day had been the strangest, most amazing day of his entire life.

As they walked, the huge man pulled a pocket watch from out of his rustic and somewhat eye-catching coat. His eyes widened as he looked at it.

"Blimey, is that the time?" he rumbled and turned to the boy. "Sorry, Harry, I've going to have to leave you. Dumbledore will be wanting his..." he patted the package hidden under his coat, then apparently remembered it was supposed to be a secret. "...Well, he'll be wanting to see me. Now, your train leaves in fifteen minutes. Here's your ticket." He handed Harry a train ticket. "And stick to it, Harry. That's very important. Stick to your ticket."

Harry took the ticket and looked at it. It read: London to Hogwarts, for one way travel. Platform 9¾.

"Platform nine and..." Harry frowned. "But Hagrid, there must be a mistake. This says platform nine and three quarters. That doesn't make any..." But when he looked up, Hagrid had vanished without a trace. Harry stood there blinking for a moment, then sighed. "I wish he wouldn't do that."

In truth, Harry was still curious about the contents of the mysterious package Hagrid had picked up from the bizarre bank they'd visited earlier. However, he now had more pressing matters to worry about, such as finding his train before it left without him. So he kept walking, pushing the trolley in front of him, until he found himself facing the platforms. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it.

Right, Harry thought to himself. The platform I want should be somewhere in the middle, then. Only, they don't seem to have built it yet. He sighed again. "Brilliant." It dawned on him that he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trolley full of heavy stuff, a pocket full of wizard money and a large owl that was starting to attract him a lot of funny looks. He had an inkling that approaching a guards and asking about a non-existent platform wouldn't end well, but according to the large clock over the arrivals board, he now had ten minutes to get on the train and he had no idea how to do it.

The owl – who's name was Hedwig, by the way – gave him a squawk of sympathy.

Still, he had to try to find the right platform or he wouldn't get anywhere, least of all Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was just about to speak to a one of the guards after all when he heard a voice behind him: "You know, I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself. You're drawing the attention of the muggles."

Harry spun around. The speaker was a boy in his own age; pale, slender and neatly dressed, with platinum-blonde hair. He was overseeing a serious man in a dark suit pushing a trolley loaded with even more luggage then Harry's own, and on top of the luggage was a cage with an eagle owl even bigger then Hedwig.

"Um, excuse me," Harry tried.

The boy turned to him and smiled. "Oh, hello there. Nice owl. Are you going to Hogwarts too?"

"Y... Yes," Harry said. Looking past the boy, he found that the man with the luggage had mysteriously vanished. "Ah, only I can't seem to find the platform."

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Well, it's right over here." He walked over to the broad brick barrier separating platform nine and ten, not stopping even as he was about to hit the wall. Then, as Harry watched in amazement, he just vanished.

"See? Nothing to it," said his cheerful disembodied voice. "Well, see you on the train, then."

"Ah, o-okay," said Harry gaping slightly while trying to comprehend what he just saw.

At that moment a group of people approached from behind him, and he heard a female voice saying: "Packed full of muggles, of course. What's the station number, again?"

Harry turned to see a plump woman followed by four boys and a girl, all of them with flaming red hair. The children all brought luggage along and they too had an owl. As they came near him, the plump woman gave him a curious look and a smile. "Hello there! First time at Hogwarts? Ron and Ginny are both new too." She pointed at her two youngest children. The boy was tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet and a long nose. The girl, however, had graciously only inherited the freckles, as well as the red hair that seemed to be a family trait.

"Yes," replied Harry. "The thing is, I'm not quite sure how..."

"How to get on to the platform?" the woman interrupted kindly. Harry nodded. "Not to worry. All you have to do is walk straight at the wall between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it. Better do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous about it. Go on!"

"Good luck," the girl named Ginny added.

Harry hesitated, common sense telling him that this was madness. But common sense hadn't been much use lately and he didn't want to keep the family behind him waiting, so he summed up all his courage and pushed his trolley around towards the barrier. Then he started to walk towards it, picking up his pace as he went. When the menacing brick wall didn't vanish in front of his eyes like he had hoped, he closed his eyes and ran, expecting to collide with it at any moment.

But there was no collision. He slowed down and opened his eyes. In front of him, a huge scarlet steam engine waited next to a platform packed with chattering people. Cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs and owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and scraping of trunks. Overhead, a sign read: Platform 9¾: Hogwarts Express.

He had done it!


Before long, all the students had boarded the train and soon the Hogwarts Express shot through the English countryside, powering on northward at a steady pace. Looking for a place to sit, Harry came upon a compartment that was empty save for one passenger whom Harry recognized as the polite blond boy from before. He was reading a newspaper, having already changed into the black Hogwarts robes, and didn't seem to notice Harry at first.

Harry coughed to get his attention. "Hello again. Do you mind if I sit here?"

"Hm?" the boy looked at him and fired off a friendly smile. "Oh, we meet again. By all means, have a seat. I was getting a bit lonely all by myself anyway."

"Thanks," Harry said and sat down on the seat in front of the boy, who was still reading the newspaper. Taking a closer look, Harry was surprised to see that the people in the pictures were moving about.

"Hang on, the people in the pictures are moving about!" he said out-loud, before he could stop himself.

"Well, of course. You can't expect them sit still all day," said the boy with a chuckle. He folded the newspaper up and gave Harry a curious look. "Let me guess, you're a muggle-born?"

"Well, something like that," Harry said. "Only, not exactly. That's to say, I'm..."

But before he had time to explain his situation, the red-headed boy from before appeared and stuck his head into the compartment. "Anybody else sitting here?" he asked nervously. "Everywhere else is full."

"Not at all, the more the merrier," the blond boy said, turning to Harry. "Right?"

"Of course," Harry agreed.

Giving them both a thankful smile, the newcomer took a seat next to Harry. "I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley."

"Name's Malfoy," the blond boy said. "Draco Malfoy."

Ron failed to hold down giggle. "Sorry," he said sheepishly, realizing he'd been rude.

"No, its alright," Draco said. "My parents are a bit old-fashioned, see. I know it sounds rather..."

"It's not so bad, is it?" Harry said in an attempt at diplomacy. "It's kinda cool. Sounds like a name out of a comic book."

"Thanks," Draco said. He frowned slightly. "I think."

"Anyway, I'm Harry," said Harry. "Harry Potter."

Ron and Draco stared at him, then they looked at each other, then stared at Harry again.

"The Harry Potter?" Draco said.

"So... So it's true?" Ron said in amazement. "Do you really have the... the..."

"The what?" Harry asked.

Draco made a gesture to his forehead. "You know, the scar?"

"Oh, yeah," Harry lifted his bangs, giving them both an eyeful of the lightning-shaped mark.

"Wicked!" Ron exclaimed.

Draco nodded. "So, that's where You-Know-Who...?"

"Yes," Harry nodded, letting his hair down again. "But except for a lot of green light, I don't remember any of it. Honestly, a lot of people have been making a big deal of it but I didn't even know about Voldemort until today."

Ron gasped. "You said his name! I would have thought you of all people..."

Harry sighed. "Look, I'm not trying to be brave or anything," he said, "I just never knew you weren't supposed to say his name. Like I said, all this wizard stuff is new to me." He sighed. "I bet I'll be the worst in the class."

"Oh, don't worry," Draco said. "You're still pure wizard, same as Ron and me. I'm sure you'll learn fast."

"Yeah," Ron said, "and besides, lots of muggle-born go to Hogwarts every year and they usually pick it up well enough."

There was a clattering outside in the corridor and an older woman with a cart full of what seemed to be wizard candy stuck her head into the compartment."Anything off the trolley, dears?" she asked.

Suddenly, Ron looked awkward and his ears turned slightly red as he produced a sad, lumpy package of sandwiches "No thanks," he muttered. "I'm all set."

Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, now recalled that his pocket was full of precious metals and he was just contemplating buying everything the woman was carrying when Draco pulled out a handful of silver coinage from his own pocket. "Let's have some of everything, shall we?" he said.

When the lady with the trolley moved on, Draco had amassed a great pile of pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, licorice wands, Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, chocolate frogs and a number of other strange things Harry had never heard of in his life. Ron stared at Draco with almost as much amazement as he had just directed at Harry. "Hang on," he said. "I knew I recognized your name from somewhere. You're Lucius Malfoy's son, aren't you?"

"The one and only," Draco replied.

"What does that mean?" Harry asked.

"It means," Draco said with a grin, "that I can afford to buy a great big pile of sweets for myself and two others whenever I feel like it. Here you go, Weasley, have a pumpkin pastie on me!"

Ron took the pastie with an awed expression. Then he smiled broadly. "Draco, I think you are my new favourite person!"

And so they ended up eating their way through the sortiment of cakes and candies, Ron's sandwiches soon forgotten. Harry, who had never had friends to share candy with before, found it an almost blissful experience. As they were eating they spoke to one another. Ron pulled out a large, sleepy rat whom he introduced as Scabbers, and Draco explained that his owl – whom he had named Mordred – had been a gift from his father to commemorate his enrolment as Hogwarts. Harry soon found himself telling them both about his life with the Dursley's and the events that had lead him to where he was now.

"...and then Hagrid turned to Uncle Vernon," he told them, "and he said: Dry up, Dursley, you great prune! And then he bent the shotgun so the shot went straight through the roof!"

Ron and Draco both roared with laughter. "Oh, he did not!" Ron said, holding his sides.

"I would have liked to see that," Draco said, wiping a tear from his eye. "I really would."

"It was pretty funny," Harry said, picking one of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

"You'll want to be careful with those," Ron said. "When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour. There's chocolate and peppermint, marmelade, toffee..."

"...strawberry, coffee, tomato," Draco filled in, grabbing a handful of the colourful beans, "onion, spinach..."

"...liver and tripe," Ron finished. "And my brother George swears he got a bogey-flavoured one once!"

Harry and Draco both paused and looked down on the beans they were each about to put into their mouths and then, as one, they put them down again.

Harry decided to change the subject. "So, if the two of you are both from wizarding families, you must know loads of magic already, right?"

Draco hesitated. "Well, we're not really supposed to learn magic ahead of time. Aside from minor everyday stuff, anyway."

"Fred gave me a spell as to turn Scabbers yellow," Ron offered. "Want to see?"

"Yeah," Harry said, and Draco nodded.

Ron pulled a worn old wand out and cleared his throat in a dramatic way. He was just about recite a spell when compartment door slid open and a girl with rather bushy brown hair and a determined look on her face stepped inside. She gave the compartment a brief look and sighed. "Has anyone seen a toad?" she asked. "A boy named Neville has lost one."

The three boys shook their heads and Ron, who seemed a bit peeved he'd been interrupted, added an annoyed: "No, there aren't any toads here."

The girl didn't seem to listen, though, having caught sight of Ron's battered wand. "Oh, are you doing magic?" she asked and, not bothering to wait for a reply, took a seat in front of Ron. "Let's see then!"

Ron appeared a bit taken aback, but cleared his throat again and chanted: "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow! Turn this stupid fat rat yellow!"

He waved his wand but nothing happened – Scabbers remained a dull brownish grey and quietly fell asleep in Ron's lap.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" the girl asked. "Well, not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and they all worked out fine. I must say, I was ever so pleased when I got my letter. I mean, it's the best school for witchcraft and wizardry there is, or so I've heard. I've learnt all our course books by heart, naturally, I just hope that will be enough. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. Who are you?" She said all this in one go.

Harry looked at Ron and Draco and was relieved to learn from their stunned expressions that they hadn't learned all their course books by heart either.

"Um, Draco," Draco stammered. "Draco Malfoy."

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Harry Potter," Harry introduced himself, "pleased to meet you."

Hermione's eyes went wide. "Holy cricket! Are you really? Harry Potter, I mean. I've read all about you, of course. I got a few extra book for back-up reading and you're in Modern Magical History and in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the 20th Century!"

Harry felt slightly dazed. "...I am?"

"Goodness! Didn't you know?" Hermione exclaimed. "I would have found out everything I could if it was me! Well, no matter. Do any of you know what House you will be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor. I hear Dumbledore himself was in it. But I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad either. Anyway, I better go look for Neville's toad. You two," she indicated Harry and Ron, "have better change, I expect we'll be there soon." Then she left, leaving the three boys still trying to digest what she had said.

"What was that?" Ron asked.

"A bit bossy, wasn't she," Harry said.

"I like her!" Draco said. Noticing Harry and Ron giving him funny looks, he frowned. "What?"

"You're a bit of a queer fish, you know that?" Ron said, stuffing his wand back into his trunk. "Well, whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it."

"What house are your brothers in?" Harry asked.

"They're all Gryffindor," Ron said, looking gloomy again. "Well, except Fred, he's Ravenclaw. That didn't please mom at all, let me tell you. It was the first time a Weasley didn't get into Gryffindor in generations, so now everyone's really getting their knickers in a twist wondering if me and Ginny are going to make it or if Fred jinxed us somehow."

"Are you and your sister twins?" Draco asked.

Ron shook his head. "Nah, that's Fred and George. Me and Ginny are just born on the same year. Though, Ginny was born on December 30. Came out two weeks early too, and mom says she's been rushing into things ever since. But it's really just luck she gets to go this year."

"Think she'll make it into Gryffindor?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I know she will," Ron sighed. "It's me I'm worried about."

"Don't fret, I'm sure you'll do fine no matter where you end up," Draco said. "It's not really that important, anyway. As for me, I expect I'll end up in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat seems to have a fondness of putting us Malfoys in Slytherin for some reason."

"Isn't that the house Vol... I mean, You-Know-Who was is?" Ron said. "I heard there wasn't a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin."

"Oh, don't be silly," Draco said, rolling his eyes. "If that was true, they'd just refuse to teach anyone sorted into Slytherin and send them all back home, wouldn't they?"

Ron considered this. "I hadn't thought of it that way."

Draco continued: "See, people are just overreacting because You-Know-Who was in Slytherin, that's all. It makes as much sense as saying nobody in Gryffindor can possibly go bad just because of Dumbledore. This may surprise you, Ron Weasley, but history is full of accomplished Slytherins who didn't turn into mass-murdering lunatics. Let's not forget that Merlin himself was in Slytherin too, and they put his face on a medal!"

"Okay, okay," Ron said, putting his hands up as if to fend off Draco's rant. "Sheesh. I'm starting to see why you fancy that girl."

Draco fell silent and turned slightly less pale. "I never said I fancied her," he mumbled, looking out the window.

Ron grinned. "Of course you didn't."

"Um, Ron?" said Harry, who had already started digging through his trunk. "The robes?"

"What? Oh!" Ron gasped. "Blimey! Harry, we have to hurry! We're almost at Hogwarts!"

While Harry and Ron rushed to put their robes on, Malfoy kept gazing out of the window as woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills flew by. Unseen by the other two, a smile had appeared on his face.