Screening part 2

Standard disclaimer continues to apply: Harry Potter and related indicia belong to JK Rowling, publishers and Warner Bros, no infringement is intended and no money being made. Ya happy?

WARNING: contains MAJOR spoilers for the movie; don't read if you haven't seen it, unless you're not pressed to do so.

"Well," said Malfoy consideringly, "they got Diagon Alley more or less right. I'm not too happy that they haven't shown me yet. You met me for the first time in Malkins, remember?"

"How could I forget?" Harry scowled at him, stuck his nose in the air and said in a nasal drawl, "Play Quidditch at all? I think it's a crime that first-years aren't allowed their own brooms. I'm going to bully my Daddy into buying me one anyway. Nyeah nyeah nyeah."

Malfoy hit him, but not very hard. "Your acting ability is on a par with your choice of friends, Potty. I don't know, I'd have thought they'd be dying to put me in as soon as possible."

"That's because you're a conceited git," said Hermione comfortably. "Shut up. We've got to Ollivanders." Ron was seething quietly beside her, but eased off a bit when she handed him a sizeable piece of chocolate.

On the screen, the Harry-character was looking apprehensively around a large dusty shop. The walls were stacked high with wand-boxes of all different colors. Out of the stacks in the rear of the shop, a man who was clearly Ollivander slid into view mounted on a set of library steps.

"Huh," said Harry. "Sort of looks like him. He hasn't got those weird silvery eyes though."

"They are Muggles," Ron reminded him. "Probably can't make their eyes look like that."

"So much for verisimilitude," sighed Malfoy.

'Harry' was given a wand, which he waved and caused a bunch of the stacked boxes to fly chaotically off their shelves. Harry, in the audience, snorted. "Haven't they got any clue as to how wands work? If it's not the right one, it won't do much unless you actually use a spell. All that kid did was wiggle it about a bit."

"Made that vase blow up all right though, didn't it?" said Ron, eyes bright. "Cool!"

Ollivander handed Harry a third wand, which made the air around him swirl and fluttered his hair. ("What? No sparks?") The screen-Harry looked with wide eyes at Ollivander as he murmured something about the wand's brother.

"Was he really that creepy?" Ron whispered. "I mean, I got my second wand from him, but he didn't go all weird and intense on me like that."

"He was pretty strange," said Harry. "Wait, what the hell? Where are we supposed to be now?"

The screen showed Hagrid and Harry eating at a long table in what looked like a back room of the Leaky Cauldron. "That's not what happened! We went to McDonalds!"

"Don't tell me you'd rather eat fast food than Leaky Cauldron food," Hermione muttered. "I'd be gravely disappointed."

"No, it's just....oh, and now we're skipping over the ENTIRE rest of the summer with the Dursleys. Great. No one gets to know about that misery."

"They're just moving the plot along," Malfoy told him. "Hush. I should be coming up soon."

Harry gave him a look, but subsided. On the screen, Hagrid was leaving Harry with his trolley of school supplies all alone in Kings Cross. Lost, he ended up pushing his trolley to the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and asked a guard about platform 9 ¾. Ron was leaning slightly forward in his seat with anticipation.

"...packed with Muggles," said an acerbic female voice from the speakers. Ron blanched, gripping the armrests, as the screen-Harry pushed his trolley forward to see a clump of red-haired people following a small dumpy woman towards the barrier. Malfoy snorted.

"That's your mother, Weasel? My, my."

"You shut up, Malfoy," he muttered, but he too was frowning. "Is that me?"

"I think it is," said Hermione. "Ssshh." The woman was directing 'Percy' to the barrier; as they watched, he ran full tilt at it with his trolley, and disappeared. All four of them sat back in their seats in shock.

"Did you just see that?" Malfoy asked. Harry flicked a glance at him, looked back at the screen.

"I think it's called special effects, or something. Making stuff look like it's happening when it's not."

"Illusions, you mean?" Hermione frowned as the putative Weasley twins followed Percy through the barrier.

"Nonmagical ones."

"Dumbledore's going to be interested in that," said Ron. "Oh, look, that must be me."

Malfoy burst out laughing, eliciting a storm of "Hush!"es from the surrounding seats. "Weasel, you're priceless," he snorted. "You look like you're about to be sick!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Ron hissed. "I'm looking forward to seeing you."

Mrs. Weasley was directing Harry through the barrier. A moment later they were staring at a very familiar gleaming red locomotive wreathed in clouds of steam. "D'you suppose they used the real Hogwarts Express?" Hermione muttered. "It's uncanny."

"Dunno. The inside's a bit too modern, though. Should be worn red velvet." Harry squinted at the screen. "Look, Ron, it's you again."

Malfoy was seized with a sniggering fit. Harry smacked him. "Pay attention, idiot. Your big debut scene should be soon."

Harry and Ron appeared to hit it off quite well, especially after Harry produced a pocketful of money and purchased the entire food trolley's contents. ("What? Jeez, that's obnoxious," muttered the real Harry. "What's everyone else supposed to eat?") Scabbers the rat was introduced ("Hi, Pettigrew!") and a girl who could only be Hermione appeared in the doorway. The real Hermione stared, her eyes wide.

"My, my," said Malfoy dryly, "they didn't do much for your hair, did they?"

"I was eleven," hissed Hermione. "I wasn't much for hair potions back then!"

"And you seem to be a thoroughly objectionable young lady," Malfoy remarked.

"Well..." said Ron...."we did sort of, um, not like you a lot when we first met."

"No kidding," said Hermione. "Was I really that bad?"

"Close," Harry said. "Your voice was a bit lower though."

"Good."

"Gaah!" Malfoy clutched at his bag of Gummi Bears. "What? You can't do that! You can't skip over my scene!"

The Hogwarts Express had just pulled into Hogsmeade and Hagrid, lantern held in one huge hand, was bellowing "Firs' years! Firs' years over 'ere!"

"Awwww," said Ron nastily, "is ickle Draco disappointed that he didn't get an entrance?"

"I repeat, Weasel," said Malfoy as coldly as he could, "you look like you're about to be sick. I'd rather not show up at all than show up like that."

Ron lunged at him, but Hermione held him back. "Shut up!" she hissed to both of them. "We're going to get kicked out!"

The castle of Hogwarts appeared, huge and complicated and glowing with a million candlelit windows. Ron, in the boat with Harry, mouthed something like "Wicked," eliciting a snort from Malfoy. The scene cut to the interior, a staircase with a horde of black-clad students hurrying up towards where McGonagall stood. A blonde boy separated himself from the group and leaned against the banister at the top of the stairs, joined by two largish dark-haired students. Malfoy swallowed.

"Is that..."

"Ssshhhh!"

McGonagall was telling them about the Houses. The shot changed to a closeup of the blond boy leaning on the banister. He had an unpleasantly smug smile on his face, which (Harry had to admit) was rather more attractive than the others'; he nodded as McGonagall said "Slytherin."

"It is you," he hissed. Malfoy had his head on one side and was regarding the screen thoughtfully.

"Not bad," he said after a moment. "The hair's too yellow, but not bad at all."

Ron gave him the Look of Death again. McGonagall, on the screen, disappeared, and the shot returned to Malfoy.

"So it's true," he said. His voice was rather high, but clear and well-bred. "What they were saying on the train. Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts. It's you, is it?" He detached himself from the banister and approached the Harry boy. "This is Crabbe, and that's Goyle. I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."

The Ron boy sniggered. Eleven-year-old Draco stared at him for a moment.

"Think my name's funny, do you?" He gave Ron a considering glance. "No need to ask who you are. Red hair and a hand-me-down robe...you must be a Weasley."

The real Malfoy crowed with delight. "Well said, me!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," said Harry, Ron and Hermione in unison. The younger Malfoy was continuing.

"...I can help you there," he finished, and held out his hand to Harry, who didn't take it.

"I think I can work out who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said. Malfoy's eyes narrowed. Just then McGonagall returned and announced that the Sorting was to begin.

"What an ill-mannered little git you were, to be sure, Potter," said Malfoy, turning to Harry. "I offer you my friendship, and you totally blow me off."

"Well," said Harry, "at least they got that much right." He smiled widely at Malfoy. "Ooh, look, more illusions! I mean special effects." The Great Hall, its four student tables already packed with kids, spread out before them. They watched Hermione, Draco, Ron, and Harry being Sorted ("Didn't even have to touch my head! Hah! I was so born to be in Slytherin!") before the scene skipped to Dumbledore's announcements and the beginning of the Feast.

"Oh my God," said Hermione weakly, plucking at Harry's sleeve. "Look."

The screen showed them a closeup of a man with tousled black hair and an unpleasant expression on his chiseled features. "Is that..."

"...Professor Snape," said the screen-Percy.

"Hermione? You okay?"

"I'm fine," she muttered. "Just....whoa. I wasn't expecting that."

"He does sort of look like Snape," said Malfoy, thoughtfully. "Not greasy enough. But the face is rather close."

"Give me a Gummi Bear, Malfoy," said Hermione hoarsely. "I need one."

Malfoy arched an eyebrow at her, but handed over the bag. "You've gone mental, Granger," he said easily. "It's just Snape. You've foiled the real Snape before."

Hermione didn't answer; she was staring at the screen. Malfoy exchanged a puzzled glance with Harry, and even Ron. In due course, the Feast ended, and the Gryffindors were led by a thoroughly officious Percy up to their common room. Everyone agreed that the common room was rather frighteningly accurate.

"Your eyes are wrong, Potter," Malfoy mused. "They're green, right? Famously green. Like emeralds. Or....as one famous poet put it....like fresh-pickled toads. A thoroughly evocative simile, I've always thought. But your eyes there—" he waved at the screen—"are not. They're sort of bluish-green. You'd think that the Muggle illusionists would've picked up on that one."

"I didn't know you'd made such a study of my eyes, Malfoy," said Harry mildly. "Should I be flattered or frightened?"

Malfoy made a disgusted noise and redirected his gaze firmly at the screen.

"I think your eyes are okay," said Ron loyally. Harry grinned at him.

"At least I don't look like I used an entire vat of Sleekeazy Potion on my hair," he agreed, with a look in Malfoy's direction, which was met with steely disdain. Hermione, still clutching the armrest of the seat, bit off the head of a Gummi Bear with surprising force, staring at the screen. She was muttering something under her breath that sounded like "more Snape, more Snape, more Snape."

Again, TBC when I've got time and energy. Went to see the movie again today. Heh. I think we scared the people at Sheetz when we arrived fresh from the theater at one in the morning and demanded chocolate and coffee....still in our Hogwarts robes. Oh, well.