Half a month later, Draco was discharged from the hospital and returned home. He had recuperated completely and had been blessed by the fact that his magic had been refined after this magic riot.
The Malfoys threw a salon for the occasion and invited many people, including the Parkinson family.
Draco knew it would hurt Pansy just as much as it had last time, better a little loss than a long sorrow. So let them be friends forever this time.
Malfoy Manor was lit up like daylight.
Downstairs, in the hall, came the dignitaries. They were talking in small groups, shaking their glasses, and every now and then someone would come up to the Malfoys. The food was removed from the table and immediately restored, obviously the work of the house elves, but they were not allowed to be present in this elegant occasion.
Draco, the star of tonight's feast, was being served upstairs by Dodger. After dressing, Draco put on more hairspray and wore a big back haircut. Looking at himself in the mirror, Draco whispered a self-deprecating smile. Without a word, Dodger silently gathered his things and then led Draco downstairs to the entrance of the banquet hall, where he bowed deeply before disappearing.
Draco took a deep breath then pushed the door open and for a moment all eyes were on him. And Draco face unchanged to meet these eyes towards his parents, before he may be nervous, but for him now these eyes are nothing. He had endured those more malicious ones in his previous life, let alone these.
"Dray." His mother held out her hand to him.
He stepped forward to take his mother's hand, gave a kissing salute, and then turned to stand in front of his parents.
Lucius and Narcissa placed their left hands on Draco's left and right shoulders respectively, and Lucius announced aloud to the guests, "Thank you all for coming today, this feast is to celebrate the acceptance of my son, the future heir to the Malfoy family, Draco Malfoy, into the three great European schools and his eleventh birthday. My wife and I will follow the Malfoy tradition of sending our son to Hogwarts to study. Let us all raise a glass to the bright future of this young man!"
Everyone raised their glasses in their hands, "To Draco!"
"Let's raise a glass to shared health!"
"To health!"
"Draco!" A delicate female voice came from a distance and called out to him.
Draco turned to see Pansy running towards him, carrying her skirt.
"Pansy." When she came up to him, Draco returned the call politely, gesturing for her to speak as she walked.
"Congratulations, Draco, it's amazing to be accepted to three schools at once!"
"Just lucky."
"That's what you were meant to be. By the way, did you get my present? I originally wanted to give it to you myself on your birthday, but who knew ... As soon as I knew you woke up I wanted to come over to see you, but was told you had to recuperate, so I had to ask the owl to send it to you. How's that, do you like it?"
"Pansy, I appreciate your gift, but I can't take it."
"Why?"
"Pansy, we grew up together, so it's normal for you to get your feelings wrong. We are friends, but only friends, do you understand?" Draco said and took Pansy's gift out of his pocket and handed it to her.
Pansy was shaking with anger, she had never been humiliated like this before. She snatched the gift from Draco's hand, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it hard. Then turned around and walked away without looking back.
Draco stood watching Pansy's departing figure as she walked away, raising her hand to wipe her face.
He stood in place for a long time, before crouching down and picking up the pieces into a handkerchief and wrapping it up.
In the distance, a tall, dark-skinned figure with high cheekbones murmured, "How pathetic, but interesting."
Time flew by and in the blink of an eye it was the 30th of July. It was an unusually exciting day for Draco, still as he had been in his last life, as the family prepared to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow to purchase the things on the list of admissions notices.
One more day to meet Harry! Just the thought of it made Draco roll straight in bed with excitement.
Merlin's beard, calm down, Draco! Think hard about what you're going to say when you meet Harry. Don't ever do like you did in the last life! Draco sat on his bed with his hair in disarray, thinking hard: not to feel offended or flattered, but to make a good impression at the same time.
Draco thought back over his first conversation with Harry in his last life, deliberating, mentally typing and practicing several times.
Oh, yes! In his last life Harry had grown up in the Muggle world and could be completely ignorant of the wizarding world. If I was good, I could be his guide in the wizarding world! No, I almost forgot, there was the half-blood giant, Hagrid, who had accompanied Harry to Diagon Alley earlier. Thinking of Hagrid, Draco remembered another acquaintance - Ronald Weasley, the poor red-haired mole rat. He had been Harry's best friend in the last life, and Harry had rejected Draco in front of him on the train! Although there might have been an element of rudeness in my own words, at the root of it - it was the poor, unseen Weasley who had laughed at my name first and I had hit back! But Harry took his side, and then Weasley and that mudblood... No, it was Granger who had become good friends with Harry and stayed by his side jump through a lot of hoops ... I couldn't go and change that, dammit! They still had a huge role to play in the future, and they were roles that he couldn't replace.
Damn it, damn it!
There was only one possibility now, and that was I to join them myself.
The thought of being friends with that poor bastard and the mudblood when the time came could not have been more painful for Draco. But it was the best thing to do right now.
Pull yourself together, Draco, at least it wouldn't be any harder than the task the snake-faced man had given you - to kill Dumbledore. He psyched himself up.
"Mum, can't you take me with you by apparition? I don't want to go to the Leaky Cauldron with floo powder, the fireplace there is too dirty!" Draco said as he tugged on Narcissa's sleeve next to him at the table, half pouting, half pleading.
"Draco, do you want me to rehire the etiquette teacher for you, let go of your mother's sleeve!" Lucius snapped, sitting in the main seat.
"Luke." Narcissa put her hand on Lucius' forearm before turning her head and touching her another hand over Draco's small head, "I'm sorry, Draco. It's too dangerous for you to be able to apparere at your age now. How about this, mum will go with you to the Leaky Cauldron with floo powder?"
"Okay."
Lucius, on the other hand, grimaced.
Inside the Leaky Cauldron.
Tom, the owner, was standing behind the bar, humming a little tune and wiping glasses with a towel in his hand. He was enjoying this immensely.
A green flame erupted violently from the fireplace to one side, then Narcissa stepped out with her son in her arms. Then another burst and Lucius Malfoy apparere shifted close behind.
"Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy, and Mr. Malfoy junior, what a rare guest!" At the sight of the visitors, Tom immediately dropped what he was holding and greeted them. He was a bit sheepish, looked like a deflated pecan, and was a bit sycophantic, but was indeed a decent man.
"Hello, Tom, it's good to see you." Lucius had a fake smile on his face, "But unfortunately, my wife and I have to take my son to Diagon Alley. We'll talk another time when we have the chance, so please excuse me."
"Of course of course, you please. You please" Tom said, moving away as he bent over repeatedly.
Lucius maintained his fake smile as he walked past first, Narcissa nodded towards Tom, while Draco stole a glance at Tom then said as whisper, "Thank you," as he followed his mother past.
Soon, the Malfoys' figures disappeared off the Leaky Cauldron, and Tom, the owner, gave a puzzled glance at the young Malfoy's back before smiling in relief and then returning to his work behind the bar.
The Malfoys took Draco to Ollivander's Wand Shop first to buy a wand while the crowd was small. Draco missed his old mate so much that he hoped he would meet it again this time.
It took a long time to try out the wand, but fortunately the old wand chose him in the end and Draco was so moved that he cried. It had been too long, too long! He hadn't had the chance to hold it in his hands since it had been taken from him by Potter in his last life, and now it was back with him, wonderful, wonderful!
After carefully placing his hawthorn wood wand in its box, Draco clutched it tightly and wouldn't let go. Finally, after much persuasion from Narcissa, he gave it to his mother to put in her handbag for safekeeping.
The journey then began to overlap with the previous life, Narcissa going to the Flourish and Blotts to help him with his books, and Lucius going to the Potage's Cauldron Shop to get him the tools he needed for his potions class, while he went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.
As soon as he walked in he was greeted by Madam Malkin. After telling her what he wanted, Madam Malkin stood him on a footstool and then waved her hand for the tape measurements to come over and measure his measurements while Madam Malkin recorded them. Once the measurements were all taken, another witch came over with a robe of similar size. As soon as it was close enough, the robe was automatically put on itself. It was just the right length, just a little wider at the waist, and that witch took the pins and pinned the robe.
Draco stood stillon the footstool, letting them do the work, and his mind began to wander. By the count of time, he was about to meet Harry. Draco's heart raced at the thought, and he admonished himself to calm down, mentally working through the sentences he had prepared.
Just then, Madam Malkin's voice came from the front.
"Hogwarts, clear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here - another young man being fitted up just now, in fact.
A small, thin boy, his whole body looking like it was in an elephant's skin, came in after Madam Malkin. The boy had short, messy black hair and a thin face, which made his bright green eyes even bigger, except for the round-rimmed glasses wrapped in lots of tape on the bridge of his nose, which did their duty to keep the green almond eyes firmly in place.
At Madam Malkin's direction, the boy stood on the footstool next to Draco.
"Oh, Merlin's beard! Harry! It's Harry! Calm down, Draco!" Draco's cheeks turned slightly pink and his eyes darted uncontrollably to the side, "Come on, Draco! Say something!"
"Ahem," Draco cleared his throat as Harry looked over towards him. "Hello, also a new student at Hogwarts?"
"Yes." Harry said.
"My name is Draco, Draco Malfoy. May I know your name?" Draco asked cautiously looking Harry in the eye.
"Harry, Harry Potter."
For a moment, Draco didn't know how to describe the feeling he was. He felt so content that he had finally done it...
The witches who were altering the size of the two of them showed good qualities, they acted as if they hadn't heard anything, which went a long way in easing the atmosphere between the two.
Harry became curious at the thin blonde boy in front of him, he didn't become different at the sound of his name like the others, just like the two ladies next to him, it was as if he was hearing a common name.
"You..."
"You..."
Both of them vocalised at the same time.
"You first." Draco spoke.
"Well, maybe this sounds a little offensive, but... I mean, why is your name Draco? Do you like dragons?"
"Well, it's a tradition on my mother's side of the family, they used to name their children after constellations. So, when my parents named me they followed that tradition and named me after the constellation Draco. Probably for that reason too, so I'm quite fond of dragons."
To be honest, what Draco had just done was actually quite rude. To some traditionalists, Christian name is not to be called by non-close friends, let alone easily informing someone you've just met of the meaning of your Christian name, which is just plain out of line!
To one side, Madam Malkin and the other witch bowed their heads in disbelief as they secretly exchanged a look from behind the two boys and together they decided to keep their mouths shut about what they had heard today.
"Really? Then you must get on well with a friend of mine, he likes dragons too."
Draco knew that this friend Harry was talking about was Hagrid, but given that Harry hadn't specified who this friend was, Draco pretended not to know and raised a smile on his face, "Oh, I do hope I get the chance to meet this friend of yours in the future. By the way, have you ever heard of Quidditch?"
"Sorry, can you say that again?"
"Quidditch."
"No, I've never heard of it."
"What?" Draco pretended to be surprised, "You don't know? Are you kidding?"
"Yes, I really don't know."
Draco pursed his lips, "Well, then let me start at the beginning for you." The rest of the time was spent with Draco rambling on about Quidditch to Harry, who listened intently, occasionally responding to a few words.
As he was talking, Draco glanced towards the window out of habit and noticed Hagrid standing there, as he had in the previous life, holding up two large ice creams. Thinking that he had about finished talking, Draco said to Harry, "Hey, look at that guy."
Harry glanced over and saw that it was Hagrid, who was grinning at himself and gesturing with his finger at the two large ice creams he was clutching to show that he couldn't come in.
"That's Hagrid, the friend of mine I was just telling you about."
"I heard my father mention him, said he worked at Hogwarts, like he was some sort of ... gamekeeper."
"That's right, that's what he does." Harry's eyes grew bright and dazzled Draco all of a sudden. Harry was about to say something when Madam Malkin spoke up and interrupted them, "That's you done, my dear."
Thinking that Hagrid was still waiting for him outside, Harry hesitated or jumped off the footstool.
"Wait a minute, can you tell me your address? That way we can talk to each other for the rest of the holiday too."
"So, do you have a telephone?"
"What's that?" Draco gave a puzzled look.
"Well, it's a communication tool invented by muggles."
"Oh, I don't. By the way, do you have an owl?" At the word muggle, Draco frowned, very slightly, and it was immediately hidden.
"No."
"That's okay," Draco spoke after a moment of silence, "I'll give you mine, and when you have owls write to me. All you have to do is tell them the address and they'll find me."
Harry's face flushed a little, he thought this boy was so strange, yet not annoying.
"Ma'am, could you lend me some paper and pen?" Draco continued to stand on the footstool and leaned slightly over to Madam Malkin to request it.
"Of course, my dear." With a wave of her hand Madam Malkin beckoned for a pen and paper. Draco hurriedly scribbled his address down on the paper.
"Here, remember to write to me for sure, don't forget." He finished writing hastily and hurriedly handed the paper to Harry.
Harry took the paper in his hand and glanced at the address: the Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire. He looked up at Draco again and found his eyes full of expectation.
"I will. Good-bye, Malfoy."
" Good-bye, Potter. See you at Hogwarts."
"What's up?" Hagrid asked Harry, who had been eating ice cream with his head bowed and silent all the way.
"Nothing." Harry hadn't quite decided how to tell Hagrid what had happened.
They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry looked thoughtfully at a bottle of ink that changed color when he wrote. As they left the shop, Harry told Hagrid everything that had happened in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, except that Draco had given him the address.
"Yeh mean the Malfoy boy accosted you, answered yer questions about his Christian name, and explained Quidditch to yeh?"
"Uh-huh."
"Wonder, when did old Malfoy raise a son like that?"
"What?"
"Oh, nothing. Now that yeh know what Quidditch is, Harry, I'd like to tell yeh about the School houses at Hogwarts."
From Hagrid's description, Harry learned that there were four houses at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Harry hated Slytherin the most, because Hagrid had said that all the wizards who had gone bad had come from Slytherin, including his parents' murderer, Voldemort, You-Know-Who. Meanwhile, as soon as he learned that his parents had graduated from Gryffindor, his heart began to swell with longing for the house.
He couldn't help thinking of the blond boy, Draco Malfoy. What house would he be in? Ravenclaw?
"That's impossible, why would Malfoy be in Ravenclaw? All their families are Slytherins." Hagrid answered As Harry had said what he had been thinking.
"A whole family of Slytherins? Are they bad wizards then?"
"Yes, old Malfoy used to be a follower of You-Know-Who, but when He fell, Malfoy switched sides with us right away, claiming he was under the Imperio. What nonsense! He then bribe Fudge, now minister of Magic, a sum of money to secure a position at the Ministry. Hum! Who else does he want to deceive?"
Harry turned pale at this-he had not expected that the first person of his age he had ever met in the wizarding world would be born into a family like this. He could not accept it for a moment, but came over and asked Hagrid in a trembling voice.
"So, is his son, Malfoy Jr., as bad as he is?"
"I don't think so. Yeh know what, Harry? When we were in the Leaky Cauldron earlier, and yer were being greeted by all those people, old Tom took me aside and told me that this morning old Malfoy had taken his wife and son through his pub to Diagon Alley. Old Malfoy was smiling, but his voice was still cocky. Although Young Malfoy had been hiding behind his mother, slightly disgusted by the dirt. However, Young malfoy was the only one to say 'thank you' to old Tom as they left. I don't think he's a bad boy, though he's been pampered by the Malfoys. Malfoy notwithstanding, he was supposed to be a kind boy."
"Take his reaction when yeh mentioned him to me. If he heard about me from his father, how could he not remember what his father said about me? Why stutter? From what I know of old Malfoy's hand, he'd say I was a servant. But this boy he didn't say that, he said I was gamekeeper. HA, HA, HA. I have to be honest with yeh, Harry. I'm starting to like him a little. It's not easy to have a boy like that from one of their pure-blood families." Said Hagrid, as though remembering something, and checking Harry's shopping list again.
"Just yer wand left - A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."
Harry felt himself go red again.
"You don't have to -"
"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at - an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."
Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.
"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now - only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."
"There you go, dear. Your robes have been altered, and the rest will be sent to Malfoy Manor when we've finished." Said Madam Malkin, smiling at Draco as the witch dropped the last stitch.
"Thank you, Madam Malkin, and this lady." Said Draco to the witches behind him as he sprang down from his footstool.
Mr. Malfoy, entered, exchange of conventional greetings with Madam Malkin, paid the deposit, and left with Draco.
When the last life came out of Madam Malkin's, he dragged his father first to his mother, then dragged them to the Quality Quidditch Supplies to look at brooms and grind them to buy him one, but without success. And now that he had secured his much-desired Nimbus 2000, and that he had just met Harry, Draco's face was beaming.
"What's the matter with you, Draco? Didn't I tell you not to look happy out there?"
"I'm sorry, father. But I'm so happy, I've just met Harry Potter in the fitting shops!" Even being scolded by Lucius did not affect Draco's good mood.
"Harry Potter? The boy who lived? How do you know it's him?"
"He told me himself!" Then Draco told Lucius what had just happened in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, with some embellishments. "I thought he was as good as they say, but he didn't even know Quidditch. Fortunately, I remembered dad's advice, 'Don't show your feelings freely,' so I kept my manners and patiently told him. Then we exchanged addresses, but he didn't have an owl, but he promised that he would write to me. Now it seems that the Savior is not as powerful as the legend."
Lucius laughed at Draco's words. Do you really think I can't understand what you're thinking, boy? Remembering that the boy had stolen Cissy this morning in front of him, Lucius felt his back socket was a little tight. Good to give the boy a hard time.
So Lucius opened his mouth and said, "You can arrange it yourself, but don't give me trouble at school. I won't pick up your pieces at that time."
"Yes, father."
"Well, now go to your mother." Leaning on his snakeshead cane, Lucius reached out and carried his son away from the crowd.
On the other side, Harry had his own Holly wand, in the wand box on his hand lay the address Draco gave him. With Mr. Ollivander bowing, Harry and Hagrid waved goodbye to him and headed off toward the Leaky Cauldron.
-TBC-