Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Harry Potter, or anything Harry Potter related. The Wizard of Oz isn't mine either. Too bad, eh?

.:)4(:.

.:) Chapter 4: No Wonder He Hasn't Got Any Friends (:.

By the time they'd reached the edge of the fields, Harry and Ron had slowed to an easy pace. Around them, the fields of corn gave way to orchards of trees.

While the two friends talked and joked loudly, Hedwig sat silently brooding on Harry's shoulder. She was still not sure what to think of this strange straw creature that her boy had been so quick to befriend. As the trees grew thicker and wilder, becoming more like a forest than an orchard, Hedwig was distracted from these thoughts. She ruffled her feathers nervously, and swivelled her head to look in all directions. Though she saw nothing, she could not help feeling that they were being watched.

Unnoticed by the three companions as they travelled deeper into the woods, a dark figure watched their passing with cold eyes before retreating into the shadows.

"So I said to him," Harry was telling Ron between snorts of laughter, "I said to him, 'No way, you stupid, greasy git!' "They both burst out laughing.

"You said that to him!" Ron exclaimed, gasping for breath. "He must have… Blimey Harry, was that your stomach?"

Harry glanced down as his stomach protested loudly against the lack of food. He thought longingly of the breakfast at the castle that seemed like a distant dream now.

"I'm so hungry, I could eat a hippogriff," he moaned. Then something up ahead caught his eye. "Look there!" Dashing up the path, he stopped in the shade of some large trees. He gazed up hungrily at the rosy apples hanging from their branches. Picking a nice, juicy looking one, he shined it on his robes and prepared to take a bite.

Suddenly, the tree snatched the apple from Harry and took a swipe at him.

"Get your own apples!" growled the tree.

"But you've got plenty of them," argued Ron, coming to stand beside Harry.

"Oh yeah?" called a second tree. "How would you like it if someone picked something off of you?"

A third tree said nothing, but waved its branches threateningly. Although it too had plenty of apples, it really looked more like a willow tree than an apple tree.

Harry and Ron backed away from the angry trees.

"I know how to get some apples," Ron whispered slyly. He stepped forward and spoke loudly. "We don't want any apples from those crab-apple trees, Harry. They're probably full of worms!"

The trees cried out in rage. Grabbing handfuls of apples, they threw them at the scarecrow. Dodging a barrage of apples, Harry and Ron made a hasty retreat.

"Nothing to it!" Ron laughed, picking up an apple that rolled to his feet. He and Harry started searching the area and collecting the stray apples.

Leaving the road, Harry got down on his hands and knees to recover his lunch. Spotting more apples, he crawled farther in amongst the trees to retrieve them. As he came around the trunk of a large tree, he was startled to find himself facing a pair of legs. He stood up quickly and found himself facing the back of someone's head. Someone with slick, shiny hair. So shiny in fact, that it almost looked like… metal…

Harry moved to get a look at this strange person's face. He groaned softly. The pale, pointed face was identical to that of Harry's school nemesis, Draco Malfoy. The similarities, however, ended there.

His body appeared to be made entirely of metal. Harry rapped his knuckles against the hard body and was rewarded with a hollow echo from within. By the look and feel of him, Harry suspected that this fellow was made of tin. It was obvious that he had been there a very long time. Mosses and vines had begun to climb his legs, and a sparrow had nested on his shoulder. His raised arms held an axe, as though he had been frozen in mid-chop. Seeing that the tree already bore the marks of an axe, Harry guessed that at one point, this tin man might have been alive.

"Having any luck, Harry?" Ron came up behind him with his arms full of apples. "Did you find… whoa…" He let the apples fall to the ground in his shock at the sight of the odd, metal figure. "How long do you reckon this bloke has been standing here?" he asked, peering at him closely.

"I dunno…"

"Mmmmm mnnnnn…"

They jumped back in surprise.

"Did that metal bloke just say something?" Ron whispered.

"Mmmll mnnn!"

"I think," Harry whispered back, "that he wants us to get that oil can." He pointed to a nearby stump on which sat an old oil can. He and Ron looked at the can, looked at the tin man, looked at each other, then looked back at the oil can before finally picking it up.

"Mmrr-eh uh, eh-ee-uh!"

"Sorry, didn't quite catch that. What did you say?" Harry asked, pouring some oil along the tin fellow's jaw.

With much creaking and squealing, the tin man ground his jaw left and right, until he finally forced it open with a sharp squeak.

"I said," he snapped, " 'Hurry up, idiots!' Standing there gawking while I'm rusting away. Do you think I'm standing this way because I like it? Honestly! Now quickly, oil my joints, for goodness sakes!"

Harry paused, taken aback. He had half a mind to drop the oil can and leave, but instead he grudgingly went about oiling the tin man's joints.

"Ahhhh…" the tin man sighed, lowering his arms. "I've been holding that axe up for ages. About a year ago, I was chopping this tree when it began to rain. Before I knew it, I was rusted stiff, and I've been standing here ever since. And as for you!" he cried, swatting at the sparrow on his shoulder which flew off in alarm.

"I don't suppose that your name might be Draco?" Harry ventured.

"No, it is not!" the tin man answered sharply. Harry and Ron waited for him to elaborate. He didn't.

"Then what is your name?" Ron asked.

"I - I don't have one… What would I need one for anyway?"

"Well, what do your friends call you?"

A sad look crossed his tin features.

"I… I don't actually… have… any friends…" His sneer suddenly returned. "What of it?"

Ron turned to Harry and whispered, "He's a nightmare, honestly. It's no wonder he hasn't got any friends!"

The sparrow returned and tried to reclaim his nesting spot on the tin man's shoulder.

"Get lost!" he cried, landing the sparrow a blow with the back of his metal hand. Ron caught the dazed sparrow and turned to the tin man angrily.

"How could you do that? He's just a little sparrow! Haven't you any heart at all?"

The tin man scuffed at the ground with his toe and looked down sheepishly.

"Actually, no. When I was made, they forgot to give me one."

"So you'd be nice if you had a heart?" Ron asked.

"Would I? Why…"

He jumped out into the middle of the road and music began to play.

"Not again…" Harry groaned.

"I'd be tender, I'd be gentle,

And awful sentimental,

Regarding love and art.

I'd be friends with the sparrows

And the boy who shoots the arrows

If I only had a heart!"

This sounded unlikely to Harry, but it presented an intriguing idea. Get Malfoy a heart and make him nice, hmmm…

He turned to Ron who seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"Go on, Harry," he urged. "Why not ask him to come with us? I'm sure he'd be a pleasant fellow, once he got a heart."

Harry contemplated this with a sigh, then addressed the tin man.

"We're on our way to see the Wizard of Oz, to get Ron a brain and to get me home. If you want a heart then you'd better come with us. Oh, and you're going to need a name first of all."

The tin man looked as though he were about to make a scathing remark, but then thought better of it. Instead, he said, "I suppose you can call me Draco, it's rather catchy. But what if the wizard won't give me a heart?"

"I'm sure he will!" Ron voiced, encouragingly.

"He'd better," Harry added. "We've come such a long way already."

Suddenly, cold, menacing laughter sounded from behind them. They started and whirled around.

There, on a rise not far from them, stood the Wicked Wizard of the West, watching them disdainfully.

Harry was particularly startled. He had never heard Snape laugh before. He gave an involuntary shiver. It was a sound he hoped that he'd never have to hear at Hogwarts.

"You call that long?" Snape sneered. "You've barely begun. And you two, helping the boy, are you? I could stuff a mattress with you," he said to Ron.

Draco snickered.

"And you," he said, glaring at Draco, "I could make a beehive out of you."

Harry's companions looked wary, but stood their ground.

"Well." Snape snapped his fingers and a ball of flame appeared in his hand. "Why don't you try this on for size?" With a flick of his wrist, he sent the fireball flying towards them, then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The fireball landed at Ron's feet. He jumped back and cried out, alarmed. Harry and Draco quickly stomped the fire out before it could spread.

"So that's the Wicked Wizard," Ron said, after the fire was out. "Harry, I'll make sure you get to the Enchanted City, even if I don't get a brain! Hmph, make a mattress out of me!"

"And a beehive out of me, pfft!" scoffed Draco. "I'll help you too. I'm not saying that I like you!" he added hastily. "But I like that wizard even less!"

"Then we're off to the Enchanted City!" cried Ron.

As if they had rehearsed it, Ron and Draco each took one of Harry's arms and set off at a fast skip.

"We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz!"

Harry sighed and allowed himself to be carried farther into the woods.

"What a crazy pair of characters," Harry thought to himself.

Nonetheless, it encouraged him to know that whatever he faced in the trials ahead, they'd be there to face it with him.

So it's Malfoy, surprised? Congrats to Rowan Lily Roarke for guessing him!

I'd also be interested to hear your guesses as to who the other characters will be played by. I've already decided them all though (unless you've got a much better idea! I'll credit you if I change my idea to yours).

Please review, thanks!

.:) PotentialDarkWizard (:.

MWA HA HA HA HA!