I: Come A Little Closer

His view of the boy with the very blonde hair was blocked by two large boys who's body language shouted cronies. He didn't look like the kind of boy who'd want cronies. He didn't in that one second a while ago when his cold grey eyes warmed as they met Harry's. They sparked with interest. Then he looked away. But Harry didn't forget. He turned to his new friends Ron and Hermione who were having a discussion – if that word could even be used since the latter was doing most of the talking – about the failed spell Ron had just attempted to cast. Eleven year old Harry Potter turned his interest to the matter and ignored his questioning thoughts about the ice-eyed boy.

The red train brought the children to a large castle unlike Harry had ever witnessed. The towers seemed inhumanly precarious andthere were so, so many of them. The lake before it offered a perfect mirror image the magnificent building. Before he knew it he was on the lake being swallowed by the reflection, becoming a part of it. Next he was inside the castle, taking in the stone walls that looked like they should be cold but weren't, even though the only visible sources of heat were the tiny torches hung irregularly upon the high walls between tapestries and portraits and windows that were almost invisible.

The chatter Harry had tuned out previously died down and the cause of this caught his attention as well. A tall witch in purple robes and a tall hat strode out of one of the doors and addressed the young newcomers. Apparently they were to be sorted into four different houses. This he already knew thanks to Hermione's banter on the train. These houses were famous for how different they were, and each of them only took a specific type of person. Gryffindor took the brave, and its crest was red with a lion on it. Ravenclaw took the studious, and was blue with a raven. Hufflepuff was the home of the loyal, its colour yellow and its animal the badger. Lastly, Slytherin - home of the cunning - green with a serpent. Harry didn't know where he was going to be sorted. He didn't really care. He didn't know enough about them to.

The blonde boy suddenly came up to him and held out his hand.
"My name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Harry stared at him. Ron laughed. He turns to the boy.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. Red hair, and a hand-me-down robe? You must be a Weasley."
Ron looked away. Draco turned to Harry.
"You'll soon find that some wizard families are better than others. I can help you with that."
It didn't seem like the type of thing he would say. His boisterous manner seemed rehearsed. People who didn't have the observational skills of Harry Potter wouldn't have noticed.

"Oh," was all he said.
Draco eyed him, seeming slightly disappointed. Then he turned and started gloating about something to his cronies. Ron looked annoyed at Harry, but didn't say anything. In fact, he continued to not say anything to Harry for quite some time. Harry didn't care as much as he should have.

The witch in purple who had introduced herself as Professor McGonagall called them into the Great Hall. There were five tables: one for each of the houses, and the head table for the teachers. The first four were parallel to each other, and the last perpendicular to them. In front of the head table there was a three-legged stool on
which was resting an extremely old hat. As the professor called the children's names they sat on the stool and the old hat decided which house they belong to.
Ron was put in Gryffindor with the rest of his siblings. Hermione, not to anyone's surprise, was sorted into Ravenclaw. Draco was immediately given to Slytherin. A few others were sorted into Hufflepuff. When Harry's turn came, he had no idea where he belonged. The hat thought for a long time. Harry was looking at the children looking at him. Interesting, the hat thought.
"Slytherin," it said decidedly.
The green table cheered and Ron and Hermione looked aghast. Harry shrugged at them. He was secretly pleased. That meant he would have a lot more time to observe Draco. Right now he was already socializing with some of the older Slytherin boys. Harry walked to the table and sat down, waited through the rest of the sorting and enjoyed his feast, without speaking to anyone.

"Disappointed you're not with your little friend, Potter? I'm not. I knew you were Slytherin material," was the next thing Draco said to him. They were in the Slytherin common room in the dungeons. Harry was too thrown by the compliment and who it came from to remember to defend his first friend.

"I could fit in anywhere really," he mumbled in reply.

"Nevertheless, the hat put you in Slytherin, which means you are destined for something great."
It seemed that this pureblood-proud wizard has taken Harry under his
wing. Harry didn't mind at all.

He looked at Draco in his serpent green silk pajamas, and felt butterflies in his stomach. He didn't know what people thought was so bad about Slytherin.