Chapter 1

Harry tugged at his trunk, trying in vain to lug it across Platform 9 ¾ to the Hogwarts Express. He still wasn't very strong. Although Quidditch had given him fast reflexes and lots of stamina, it hadn't built up his muscles. You don't really need strength to be a Seeker.

He paused to wipe the sweat off his brow, and lifted his eyes to sweep the chattering crowds. With a shock, his emerald eyes connected with another pair- beautiful, silver/grey orbs.

Harry flinched, and quickly lowered his gaze again. He could feel his cheeks flushing, and cursed inwardly. 'Dammit! Why can't I just act NORMAL around Malfoy? Why is he looking at me anyway? Why, oh why, do I have to have a crush on my enemy? Stupid hormones.'

With these confused thoughts tumbling through his brain, Harry picked up his trunk absently and started to drag it over to the train.

"Harry!" He jerked upright (dropping his trunk gladly), and grinned when he saw his two best friends hurrying towards him.

"Hermione! Ron!" Harry cried joyfully, and slung his arms around their shoulders. "God, Ron, you've grown even more over the holidays!"

Hermione laughed. "You're happy today, Harry. Anything we should know?"

"Nah, I'm just going home! Say, Ron, you're much stronger than I am. Could you get my luggage on the train?"

"No problem," answered Ron, and hefted Harry's trunk.

So the three friends wandered over to the Hogwarts Express, talking and laughing, and all thoughts of Draco Malfoy slipped from Harry's mind.

At the same time, the aforementioned Slytherin was watching 'The Dream Team', as he had nicknamed them. His look of cold disdain and signature smirk masked his true thoughts. While any casual observer might have thought he was merely planning more painful ways to murder Harry Potter and his friends, that person could not be more farther from the truth. In fact, Draco Malfoy's thoughts went something like this:

'IhaveacrushonHarryPotterIhaveacrushonHarryPotterIhaveacrushonHarryPotter… oh crap!'

Suddenly a voice interrupted Draco's hysterical inner ramblings.

"So, Draco, still spying on Wonder boy?"

He turned to the blonde girl and drawled, "So, Parkinson, still stalking me?"

Pansy Parkinson squealed and ran over to her friend. "Still as biting as ever, Drake!"

Draco grinned, his first real smile in weeks. "As much as I hate getting sentimental, Pans, I have to admit I missed you."

Pansy smiled at him, and leant against the brick wall beside him, assuming a serious air. She looked in the direction that Draco was once more staring in, and studied the view. She pursed her lips, and began with a very straight face, "Well, he does have a nice ass…"

"Pansy!" yelled Draco. "I can't believe you are still thinking that I like Harry-bloody-Potter, the-Boy-who-bloody-well-Lived! You are SO wrong!"

"Yeah, whatever." She muttered. "Face it Drake, you are in deep."

The only answer the boy had for that was a look that could freeze fire. He turned away from her, and stared back into the crowd.

'By Salazar's beard! He is hopeless.' Thought Pansy.

All of a sudden, there was a commotion. A ripple of unrest was moving through the milling students and families, all crowded onto the platform.

"Who are they?"

"I've never seen them before."

"They must be new."

"Merlin! She is hot!"

"Not just hot- beautiful."

"Ohmigod! The little one has blue hair!"

"I wonder where they came from?"

The causes of the disturbance were six girls, who were all very interesting-looking, and who were huddled together with their luggage and their Hogwarts robes already on.

The hordes of students whispered, and stood on tiptoes to peer at the strangers. Draco frowned and jumped on a bench to get a better look.

There was a coolly elegant blonde with extremely long hair, a tall muscular brunette whose eyes seemed to be a gold colour, a sleepy looking girl with pretty brown ringlets, a tall thin brunette with dark bottomless eyes, a small skinny girl with electric blue hair, and… whoa! The most amazingly beautiful girl Draco had ever seen, and he had seen some.

Pansy heard him gasp, and asked anxiously, "Are they prettier than me?"

Draco looked down on her in disdain, with a look that said, 'Grow up Pansy.' He stepped off the bench, and said, "Maybe we'd better board. The train will be leaving soon."

Harry stared out the window at the strange students. He saw them, and all the other kids boarding the train, but his attention wasn't focussed on them. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Draco Malfoy talking to Pansy Parkinson. Harry assumed that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and he was insanely jealous. He watched the two Slytherins chatting and laughing. 'I wish I could make Malfoy laugh like that… no, not Malfoy, Draco… it's so weird calling him by his first name, even in my thoughts…'

He was roused as Ron yelled out his name in exasperation.

"What?" Harry asked, annoyed. He turned to face the other two people in the compartment.

Ron shook his gingery head in amazement. "Honestly, Harry, sometimes you just live in your own little world. Did you hear what I was just saying?"

"Nope," answered Harry. "Honestly, Ron, sometimes you sound just like Hermione."

"Hey!" Hermione protested, her face looking up from her book indignantly.

Harry grinned his apology, then turned back to Ron. "So, what were you saying?"

"Did you see those new girls, Harry? That red-headed one is hot…" Ron enthused.

Hermione rolled her eyes, and leant back in her cushioned seat. It seemed Ron had forgotten Harry's sexual preferences.

The Boy who Lived sighed, and gently reminded his friend, "Ron, I don't like girls, remember?"

Harry had realized that summer that he was gay, and had immediately owled Ron, Hermione, and his godfather, Sirius Black. Hermione had adjusted quickly to the change (she wasn't too surprised), but Ron took a bit longer to get used to it.

"No, no, Harry!" Ron exclaimed. "That doesn't matter. You should still appreciate the ass on that."

"God, Ron!" broke in Hermione, disgust written all over her face. "Females are not choice pieces of, of… meat for you to rate and sample at your leisure!"

"You don't understand, Hermione!" interrupted Ron earnestly. "You're a girl, you don't truly understand the beauty of the female form…"

"And what if I was a lesbian?" cried an enraged Hermione.

"But you're not!" the redhead told her.

"How do you know that?" she challenged.

"Because." Said Ron smugly.

Smiling serenely, Harry switched off from his two arguing friends. 'Honestly, those two squabble like a married couple.' His smile grew broader. 'Maybe one day they really will be.'

It was quite obvious to Harry how much Ron and Hermione liked each other. Unfortunately, neither of them seemed to realize it. In fact, they were probably the only two people in Gryffindor who didn't know it.

With these thoughts in mind, Harry gazed out the window, searching for a certain blonde Slytherin. But Malfoy was nowhere in sight. He looked wildly, but all he could see were gaggles of nervous first years getting on the train (all the older kids had boarded already).

Finally Harry gave up, and moved his eyes away from the station. The dark-haired boy resigned himself to a whole trip of listening to Hermione and Ron debating woman's rights, as the train gave a toot and moved away.