Draco was sick of it.

Positively sick of it. There was nothing he could do about it though, because it was between his parents. Luckily, in a few months, he would be able to get away from it all, at Hogwarts. But currently, all he wanted was to get away.

Hearing his father's voice, he cowered, hoping beyond hope that he wouldn't come into Draco's room. His father was not a desirable man when he was angry. He tended to throw curses around.

His hoping was to no avail, however, and his father shoved the door to Draco's room open. It hit the wall, emitting a loud bang. Draco flinched and curled up on himself, eyes squeezed tightly shut, waiting for something to happen.

Nothing did. In fact, there seemed to be a slight breeze. He cautiously opened his eyes, but stayed tensed up. Seeing no danger, he lowered his arms from around his head and looked around a bit more.

It seemed the accidental magic had picked up on his fear. He didn't know where he was.

Well, he was on a muggle street, with small houses placed evenly apart. A muggle street. This was no better than his father's manor, Draco's home. This might actually be worse.

But if his magic brought him here, then there must be a reason. Someone must be able to help. Draco trudged down to a house, one with a but of a garden, where he walked up to the door and knocked. A girl, about his age, perhaps a little older, cautiously opened the door a few minutes later. "Are you here to make fun of me too? At school isn't enough?"

Draco was taken aback, she was mistreated? He was oddly protective of her, and he hasn't even said anything to her yet. "What?"

"I get that the freaky things I do are weird, but I really just want a friend. Who are you, anyways?"

"My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." She let out a bit of a snort, and he looked at her funny before continuing. "What things do you do?"

"Well, when Ashley stole my pencil, it seemed to float back to me, and when she looked at me funny, her hair turned green. I didn't mean to do it, but I was sent to the office." She had tears in her eyes, but to Draco, it sounded like magic. Was she a Mudblood? Er, Muggle-born. He didn't want to be like his father, and that was going to start to change now. Be her muggle, Muggle-born, Half-blood, or Pure-blood, he was going to be friends with this girl.

"You know, where I come from, that's normal. I think I know what it is. Is there a park or something where we won't be disturbed?"

"I - I think so. Let me just tell my mum really quickly." She disappears into the house, which Draco catches glimpses of through the door. There were a lot of photos all around the small entryway of her and people who must be her family.

A minute or so after she left, the girl came back. He was going to have to stop calling her that. He wasn't really paying attention to how she looked last time, still out of it from his accidental apparition. She had really bushy brown hair that seemed to float around her head. Her teeth were a little bucked, but it wasn't too bad, nothing a little magic couldn't fix. Looking at her, Draco really wanted to have a friend, someone who he would be able to talk to about practically anything.

"I never did catch your name."

"And I never threw it. Hermionie Granger." Hermione. That was nice.

"I like it."

"Thank you. Now, why did you want to take me here?" Draco looked around and saw they were surrounded by apparatuses, things he didn't know the names of.

"Oh, um. I believe you are a witch." He waited for her outburst. 3...2...1-

"A what?"

That actually wasn't as bad as he feared it would be. "A witch. Someone who can wield magic. You have magic in your blood."

"Magic isn't real." So she was one of those. Alright, time to see if some accidental magic will come up on purpose. But then, would it be accidental?

"Yes it is. You know how the pencil came back to you? How could it have possibly done that? And hair doesn't change color by itself. It's magic. You're magic."

"And why should I possibly believe you?"

"Because I'm magic too."

"You are a witch too? But aren't witches female?"

Draco sighed. This was going to take a while. Lets just hope his father didn't find him soon. " The males are called wizards, and the females are witches. I am a wizard, like my father before me, and his father before him. Actually, I am considered a Pure-blood, for my entire family is magic. There is a special school, just for witches and wizards, called Hogwarts-" Suddenly, Hermionie started giggling. "What?"

"Sorry, it-it's just, hog is another word for pig-" she started giggling again. "-and warts are a skin disease. So it sounds like the school is not a place you would want to go."

Draco tilted his head. It is a perfectly respectable name, what is wrong with it?"

"Nothing, it is just funny."

Draco nodded hesitantly, then continued. "You can get into the school at the age of eleven, and everyone there is sorted into houses. The houses are Slytherin, which you will most likely not get into, Gryfindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Slytherins are cunning, ambitious. They also have a deep hatred for anyone not Pure-blooded, so a quite racist house, to be honest. That's where I will most likely end up, and I have been ready for it for a long time. Most who end up in that house arent the best type, and they were often Death Eaters back in the day, ten years ago."

"What are Death Eaters?"

"Uh, the Dark Lord's followers. Just don't say the Dark Lord, cause that might mark you as a Death Eater. Other people say You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
"Why don't they just say his name?"

"People are afraid. Even now, ten years later, there are still followers of him around. And he placed a Taboo on his name, so those who said it were often captured and most often killed a few minutes later. It was not a good time.

"Anyway, Gryfindors are brave, courageous, and often throw themselves headfirst into a situation without thinking of the consequences. These were the main opposers of the Dark Lord. You-Know-Who. Whatever.

"Hufflepuffs are the huggable, loyal, fluff balls that are honestly not good for much. Ravenclaws are smart, wise, and intelligent, which are not all the same thing. They are the book huggers."

"So, me." Hermione stated. "I often get ignored or teased at school for reading a ton. Ashley is the worst about it."

"It's all right. I haven't gone to school yet. My father hates muggles, and refuses to send me to a muggle school. Not like I want to go - er, muggles are different. I have been trained in the ways of hating muggles, but I believe they have things to teach us."

Hermione giggled again at his words. Draco, defensively, asked what was funny.

"Nothing, just, you quoted a movie, quite a famous one. It came out a few years ago."

"What is a movie?" Hermione gasped, and grabbed his hand and dragged him back to her house. She asked him to wait on the doorstep for a minute, and Hermione rushed inside. He heard her talking to her mother, then footsteps coming to the open door.

"Hello, dear. You must be Draco. Hermione's not one to bring her friends over, are you able to stay for supper? Oh, I'm Monica, by the way." Draco just slowly nodded, a bit overwhelmed by all that had just happened in the past two minutes.

"Yes, Ma'am. I'm Draco, and I don't know if I would call Hermione a frie-" He cut off, seeing Hermione shaking her head behind her mother with wide eyes. He supposed he could try to be friends with her. But when his father found out, it was going to be a catastrophe. He was in a muggle house, but who cared. He was going to stand up to his father, and that would be that. "And Hermione is my friend." He said with a genuine smile toward her.

"Well, come on in, Draco dear. It's nearly six o'clock." Mrs. Granger said with a kind smile.

"Mum, can we put in the Star Wars movie? Draco's never seen them."

Mrs. Granger practically gasped, and exclaimed, "Never seen Star Wars? What cruel household do you live in!" But she said it with a smile, so it seemed she was just joking. If only she knew. Draco thought wistfully. I've only been here for a few minutes, and I already want to stay forever!

As soon as Mrs. Granger disappeared into the kitchen, Draco turned to Hermione. "Star Wars?"

"They are very good. Pretty much the best thing since sliced bread!" She said with a giggle.

"Sliced bread? What is so great about sliced bread?"

"Just an expression."
"A muggle one." With that, Draco perched on the couch with perfect posture, and Hermione threw a decorative pillow at him. "Hey!" he cried out indignantly.

"You can relax, we don't belong to a high society here."

Draco let his back slump a little and carefully scooted back on the couch, still keeping up a nicer posture than the one Hermione had, with her legs tucked under her. As Hermione used what she called the 'remotes' to manipulate the 'television', Draco watched in fascination and confusion. Muggles made these? Perhaps they were a little more civilized than wizards thought.

Pretty quickly, Mrs. Granger had plates of food waiting for them on the table, where Hermione ran off to the bathroom to wash her hands. Draco followed at a much slower place, but when he got to the table, he looked on in slight confusion. There were plates of dishes he had never had before, and he wasn't sure he would like them. Hearing the 'television' still on in the background, he turned his head to it. Apparently, it played music and showed moving pictures. Not unlike the magical portraits, but still different. They didn't seem to be able to hold independent conversation though.

After a supper of shepherd's pie, which was something he decided he liked, and would probably never be having again, Draco and Hermione went back to the couches and started the movie. When the blue letters disappeared, and the yellow ones suddenly appeared along with loud music, Draco jumped. Both Hermione and Mrs. Granger giggled at his startling. He smiled sheepishly, and sunk down in his seat a little.

Close to an hour and a half later, another man came in, and when Mrs. Granger went to greet him, he assumed it was Mr. Granger. The man was a little surprised to see Draco, who was a strange boy, sitting on the couch, but seemed to get over it quickly. He flopped onto the couch himself, and Mrs. Granger brought over a shepherd's pie that Mr. Granger eagerly dug into. Once the movie was over, Draco had a smile over his face, and was glad that Han had decided to help his friends. The 'droids' were a bit odd, having never seen something like that before, but Draco liked the 'movie' overall. He just wondered how everyone kept safe whenever they got close to the Dark Vader, who seemed a lot like the Dark Lord, from what Draco had heard. These 'Jedi' were a lot like wizards. Perhaps they had spelled themselves invisible to get the moving images of Darth Vader.

Course, when Hermione asked him what he thought later in her room, he answered enthusiastically "it was great!" and asked his questions. She giggled again and started explaining that it was all fake, staged,a dn no one was ever killed in the filming.

Draco was embarrassed, but got over his burning cheeks quite quickly. "Wait, you thought it was all real?"

"Well, yes. It was quite convincing."

"Almost all movies are fake, except if they say they were based on true events, and even then, they were staged. Only documentaries are filmed as they actually happen."

Draco ducked his head. Suddenly, there was an owl knocking on the window with it's sharp beak, leaving minute cracks in the glass. Hermione screamed, and Draco had a spike of fear go through his chest. It was his father's owl, Ares. He was a mean old thing, and ofen pecked anyone not of the Malfoy family. "Hermione, hide in the closet for a second. This owl doesn't like anyone, not even me. He will hurt you." She scurried over to the closet and shut herself in it, and Draco opened the window. Ares dive bombed Draco, and He covered his head carefully. Once the owl had left it's long scratches on Draco's arm, He picked up the letter the owl had in its talons. Reading it, he gulped.

Draconis Lucius Malfoy,

Where are you? Your mother is worried sick. You have breached the wards, and we had to get a master goblin out here to fix them. He said nothing was wrong with them, so therefore, you are to take this portkey back to the edges of the wards where Dobby will be waiting to take you back to the property. Expect to walk all the way back, for I expect you have been to the Zabini home where you have been eating on your lazy butt the entire time it has taken Ares to find you.

The portkey will leave three seconds after you read this.

Get home now.

Father

When the letter started to glow, Draco quickly dropped it, and Ares picked it back up. Grabbing hold of Draco's arm, Ares dragged him into the Portkey. With a worried "Hermione!" Draco disappeared.

Hermione saw the flash of light through the crack in the closet door, and stepped out just in time to see Draco looking at her with a devastated expression before he disappeared with the owl on his arm.