The muggle portion of King's Cross was bustling full of businessmen as absorbed in their own worlds of numbers and finances as purebloods were in the world of magic and high society. Amused by the lack of differences between Lucius and some of very same muggles that Lucius was glaring at in disdain, Draco turned away from his parents and moved towards the barrier.
He felt a little guilty about abandoning his mother to the manipulations of her husband, he knew how bad it had gotten, but right now there was little he could do and he had more important issues. Right now he needed to find Potter and apologize for that fateful meeting in Diagon Alley that had presumably still happened. It was a pity he hadn't controlled exactly when the time turner sent him, but it could have been worse he supposed. Actually worse was an understatement, he should be dead.
Draco patted the device in thanks before confidently walking through the barrier to begin his search for potential allies. He could picture them clearly, Blaise Zabini for his cunning and the influence he would develop in Slytherin, Daphne Greengrass for much the same reason, Neville Longbottom for who he would become, Susan Bones for the connection to her aunt, and most importantly the Golden Trio.
Potter would be essential and while the two had never become closer than a grudging respect after Draco had switched sides, he should be invaluable this time around if he could curb the foolish Gryffindor behavior. As for Granger, she had certainly never forgiven him for how he had treated her (he winced at the cold looks she had given him during Order meetings), but a fresh start would make another solid ally. Weasley was the question though, his anger towards Draco's entire house would be a problem and would drive a wedge between him and Potter.
Ron would be an obstacle to his plans, that much was certain, how to deal with him was the real question. He was interrupted from his thoughts by the pet gorillas Lucius had bought him, to which he sneered at to mask his face and then dismissed them with a wave of a hand. They would have their uses but today he needed a more subtle approach than the two could provide.
Still scanning the crowd he boarded the train and made his way towards the back where he remembered finding Potter last year. Remembering who he was supposed to be Draco resisted the urge to smile at the sight of Granger dragging Neville across the train, checking endlessly for that idiotic toad the poor boy had been given. He merely nodded at the pair and politely told them he didn't know where the toad was but he hinted that summoning charms should work inside the train.
The girl had merely frowned at him, clearly upset to realize that her charms book hadn't covered something and thanked him before hurrying off to no doubt pester older students for the charm. Neville merely sighed and dutifully trailed along after her, nodding at Malfoy suspiciously and no doubt remembering what his grandmother had told him about certain families. Draco too sighed but then set off again thinking that it was at least a start and certainly better than haughtily calling her a "mud blood".
Finally he neared the end of the train and looked in on the familiar carriage to see Ron pestering the black haired boy about his scar. Evidently he reached them quicker this time and it might give him an edge in gaining Potter's trust. Stepping into the carriage he smiled at the sight of the third boy, tall, with long brown hair and a lazy grin, he was a welcome sight. So far so good...
Upon realizing that he was staring, he shook his head and turned to Potter who was clearly uncomfortable with both Draco and Ron."Pleasure to see you again, I just wanted to find you and apologize for how I acted earlier this summer, I'm not usually so arrogant, you just caught me a little on edge." Draco said smoothly.
Ron stared at him with a mixture of shock and suspicion but Harry, after some initial surprise took the apology much better. The third one merely looked on with a bemused smile.
"That's fine, I hardly noticed, I was a bit too lost trying to understand this whole place" Harry replied slowly, gesturing around as if to suggest the entire wizarding world."I'm Harry and this is Ron and Scorpius" he continued with a gesture the at two others.
Draco offered his hand to the three boys who all accepted it with varying degrees of suspicion but the awkwardness soon fell away as the four began to talk of Quidditch as Draco and Ron took turns explaining the game to Harry and then Scorpius who claimed to be a muggleborn. A half hour into a debate about how badly (or how well if you were as delusional as the Weasley boy) the Chuddley Cannons would do, Draco explained he had to go deal with pureblood politics.
Harry raised an eye at that, "What's that mean? Didn't you say Ron was one of those too?" Draco sighed and then slid back into the seat he had just been standing up from, as much as he didn't want to explain the intricacies of blood status and politics to anyone, this was his best chance to prove his own stance.
So with some apprehension he gave an explanation on all the various views and how despite Ron being from an old house, he wasn't the heir like he himself was and how he had to keep up appearances for the sake of any future political career. Harry was having trouble understanding why an eleven year old was practicing politics and Ron was was still wide eyed over the neutrality of Draco's voice when explaining blood purity. Scorpius merely nodded and said that he'd been reading about pureblood customs over the summer.
With that Draco stood up and stretched before nodding his goodbyes to the trio only to be stopped on his way out by a mumbled comment from behind him. He turned around an raised an eyebrow at Ron only to hear him say, "Er.. I said- sorry Malfoy, I guess you might not be as bad as I had expected; based off your father, ya know?". Draco nodded thoughtfully and left the carriage deep in thought. Perhaps he could still work with the Weasley.
When he passed the pair of toad hunters again in the corridor he was about to ignore them before he thought about it, groaned in frustration and called out, "I get the feeling you'd find the charm eventually- you seem like the type- but just because you're driving me crazy with your pacing, it's 'accio'" Waving off Granger's slightly haughty thank you he turned into his carriage from the first time around and closed the door behind him.
Seeing that it was just Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Pansy he sneered at them and waved off their questions about where he had been before lying down to get some rest. He would have to make his introductions to the more subtle Slytherins at another time, he was far to tired to search for them or deal with politics right now anyway. With that he fell asleep before he could be kept awake by the two gorillas attempting to wake the entire train with their snoring.
-That Night After The Sorting-
The plan was simple, create two personalities using the time turner and then use them to gain allies on both sides of the war. One for Slytherin, Draco himself, and one for Gryffindor, who he'd name Scorpius in honor of his great-grandfather who had rebelled against Slytherin House.
Draco glanced around at the sleeping figures in his dormitory and after making sure they were all asleep he pulled out and unconcealed his time turner before turning it back a full twenty four hours. He then snuck out of castle and once beyond the wards he apparated to the Leaky Cauldron.
If Tom, the owner, thought it was odd for an eleven year old that looked suspiciously like the Malfoy heir to be showing up in the middle of the night he didn't say anything. He had certainly seen stranger pass through. Having cast a quick notice-me-not charm Draco ignored the other patrons and requested a room for the night, his charm would have to do until he had the privacy to create a decent illusion.
Once in the privacy of one of the back rooms he began his work, starting with a magical dye pick-pocketed on his way through the bar to turn his hair brown and then continuing with a hair growing charm. From there he used the best illusionary magic he knew to add height, a bit of shoulder width for vanity and then he darkened his skin tone from its pale colorless shade to a light tan.
It was certainly overkill in most situations but he could only hope it would be enough for Dumbledore. Snape had taught him the magic from some questionable books so hopefully Dumbledore wouldn't check an eleven year old for dark magic when he still had the magical signature of a child. It would have to do he thought as he locked the door and set up some simple detection charms before turning in for the night. His plan was in motion, he thought with a smile.
After using muggle transportation to reach King's Cross as would be expected for a "muggleborn", Draco- no, he should get used to thinking of himself as Scorpius for the day. Anyway, he was looking forward to being away from muggles and getting back into the comfort of Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
Just as Draco had done upon seeing Scorpius, Scorpius smiled at the sight of his alter ego entering the platform. He himself waited on the outside, doing his best to appear lost until he could spot the Weasleys or Potter. Sure enough Mrs. Weasley took the bait,"Off to Hogwarts you two?" said a motherly voice from behind him. He glanced to his right to see Potter standing there nodding nervously at the woman before he too nodded saying, "Yes ma'am, I'm not sure where the platform on my ticket is."
After listening to the explanation and then the chatter of the red-headed clan he introduced himself to Harry and then followed him through the barrier. He did his best impression of being overwhelmed and seeing that Potter didn't have to fake it, he suggested that they try and find a carriage to share.
They found one right where he had expected it to be, and (surprise, surprise) they were soon joined by Ron who apparently couldn't find an empty carriage. Scorpius thought that was fairly suspicious but then he remembered he was supposed to be giving the boy a chance. With an only slightly forced smile he replied, "No problem, take a seat."
Scorpius then turned to turned to Harry, "So, tired of the staring yet or has it hit you that you're gonna have to deal with this for the rest of your life?" Ron winced and averted his eyes but Harry smiled, saying "It is pretty annoying, all this boy-who-lived nonsense, I mean honestly I was one when it happened and it's not like I remember anything."
Scorpius nodded at that and was about to ask where he'd lived but he was interrupted by the arrival of Draco. Shaking his own hand was even stranger the second time, perhaps he was more aware of being time traveler on this end. He remained fairly quiet as he re-watched the exchange thinking that it would be useful to watch himself from an outside perspective. It gave him a chance to rethink what he should do in future scenarios.
Actually, he realized that he was going to live twice as long as anyone else and by the time he was eighteen again he would mentally be thirty two. That was half terrifying and half amazing, he would have even more of an advantage than he'd originally thought. So far so good though, both his characters were in place and ready to begin. If he couldn't stop Voldemort and take over the Ministry with this much time then he was a disgrace to the Malfoy name.
After playing the role he had remembered Draco seeing, he began to improvise once his doppelgänger left the room. "So he said he'd met you before and acted differently? What's that all about?" Harry frowned, clearly thinking, "I'm not sure, it's like I met two different people, one an arrogant git who acted like my cousin and another who could have passed for an adult politician in a child's body..."
Scorpius winced at that comparison and quickly went on damage control and laughed, "Come on, based on what I've read a lot of pureblood heirs grow up that way, he didn't seem too bad considering who his parents are." Ron who had been muttering some stupid fake spell in direction of a particularly ugly looking rat looked up and nodded, "It's true, my family doesn't take tradition that seriously but the Malfoys would, it's a miracle he's not miniature version of his father like my dad warned me might happen."
Ah, so that explained the instant resentment... Not entirely unfounded Scorpius supposed. Looking back on how he had acted the first time Arthur Weasley had hit the nail on the head as a muggle would say. He picked up way too many of those stupid sayings during the war... He still wasn't sure what a nail was or why it was a good thing to hit it. Perhaps Granger would know, he wondered if she'd show up again on the trip.
He was interrupted from his thoughts by the arrival of the trolley and Potter's buying of the entire cart. Gryffindors... Ron looked at his sandwich in disgust and causing Potter to instantly look guilty and say, "Here, we can all share, it's not like I gave you guys a chance to get anything. Ron's eyes widened, "Woah, thanks mate." Scorpius too was a surprised by the generosity, "Thanks.. Tell you what, ride back I'll buy it and we'll see if we can hoard the entire cart away from everybody else."
Harry just laughed at that, "Better study up in defense class then, we might cause a riot." Scorpius smirked and sat back as they continued to talk about upcoming classes, Quidditch and chocolate frog cards. He was beginning to think that actual friends might not be so bad instead of just political allies. That wasn't an unfamiliar idea but the idea of being friends with a Weasley was still hard to wrap his head around.
Scorpius did realize that Granger and Longbottom had never come into their carriage and they didn't because Draco had interfered. While this wasn't a terrible consequence he did need to become allies, if not friends, with the pair with both versions of himself. The entire plan relied on a united group of pureblood and muggleborn. He couldn't be so reckless in messing with time in the future, he had to stop and consider each doppelgänger's effect on the other. With that thought he returned to the conversation and before long the train was pulling to a stop in front of Hogwarts.
Author's Note: Okay, slightly longer chapter and you got the idea for what the format is going to be like for the rest of the book. One half of the chapter for Draco and one half for Scorpius. Chapters should get longer as I get better at writing this and hopefully the dialogue will improve also, right now it's not my strong suit. As soon as I can I'm going to be moving away from the sequence of events from the book so that I can actually write something new instead of just following the same old formula. I want to use Rowling's world but not her storyline.
Anyway, let me know what you think, next chapter will be about the sorting.