For those of you who don't know, this chapter's readers was a result of a poll I had. Here was the last AN where I talked about it.

Thanks so much for participating in the little poll I had, group 1 ended up winning. But next chapter we will be reading with Hermione, so I hope that makes people feel better. For reference, here was the tally by the time I had started writing the chapter.:

Group 1: 15

Group 2: 14

That being said, as I was writing, more people voted in reviews, tumblr, and on AO3. It was tied for a while but the last vote I got, which was yesterday on tumblr, was for group 2. So the final tally was this:

Group 1: 17

Group 2: 18

Of course by then the chapter was basically finished and I wasn't going to rewrite it, but I just thought you'd be interested in the results. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer, I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters and this is not a way for me to criticize the books. It's just how I believe the characters would react if they read JK Rowling's brilliant work.

In this chapter: Harry is introduced to the wizarding world for the first time, and meets the first wizard his age. Their meeting doesn't go very well, as Harry realizes there are 'Dudleys' even in this world.

Chapter 5

"There's got to be a way out of this." Ron said again.

"When Umbridge said she was assigning reading & discussion groups did you think it would work out well for you?" Hermione asked. "That being said, this doesn't have to be the end of the world."

"That's easy for you to say, you're not with bloody Malfoy." Ron grumbled staring at his list. "And who are these other people?"

"Well Michael Corner, you remember him. He's in the-" she looked around her. They were meeting the others in the courtyard, so they were in the hallway on their way there. "DA."

"He's the bloke dating my sister in't he?" Ron flared up. "You mean I've got to read with him too?"

Hermione sighed and turned to Harry. "You're being quiet."

"Well, you know why she did this right?" Harry asked.

"I know." Hermione sighed. "But try to make the best of this situation, it's just chapters five, six, and seven."

Harry didn't think there was a best of this situation, he spotted Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy and Blaise near the entrance. "Oh hello, Potter, glad you've finally decided to show up. I could be wrong but I believe we planned to meet here at three?"

"We're five minutes off, you'll live." Harry sighed deeply. "Let's just get this over with."

Hermione glanced at Pansy, who looked just as sour faced to be paired with her. But Hermione smiled at Dean, who was also in her group. She walked towards him and Pansy let out a huge groan and walked away as well.

"Hi guys," Hannah Abbott, Michael Corner, and a girl he had honestly never spoken to before approached their group. Hannah was the one to speak to him.

"Alright, where do you want to do this?" Michael asked. Ron glared at him, so he looked at the others.

"The study hall?" Hannah asked.

"There'll be about twenty groups in there, we're not going to hear anything." Blaise pointed out.

"Then maybe one of our common rooms." Michael suggested.

"That's not technically allowed." Lisa said.

"And anyway, I have no interest in going to any of your common rooms and you're not going into mine." Malfoy said.

"Alright then, what do you suggest?" Ron turned on him.

"I suggest we walk in the same direction, go our separate ways and then tell everyone we've done what we were supposed to do." Malfoy said.

Harry raised an eyebrow. It was likely the one time Malfoy said something he could get behind.

"I don't think that's a good idea." said the girl he'd never seen before. "If Professor Umbridge finds out we'll be in a lot of trouble, and I don't want to get on her bad side because of your rivalries."

"Who the hell are you?" Malfoy asked, arms crossed.

She took a step back. "Er... I'm Lisa." she looked around to blank looks. "Lisa Turpin. I've shared classes with all of you."

"I know who you are." Michael said. She ignored him and turned to Harry.

"We have History of Magic together." she said.

"Er... right!" Harry said. Ron let out a snort.

"Anyway," Malfoy said turning to Harry. "Do we have a deal?"

Harry was going to agree, honestly it wasn't a good idea to put him in an unsupervised room with Malfoy while he was already on edge about the books in the first place. But something stopped him. Someone, actually.

"Hem, hem." all of them jumped at the sound of Umbridge's voice. As he turned to look at her, he noticed her focus seemed to be on him.

"Are you looking for a place to read?" she asked kindly.

"Oh no, mam." Lisa said. "We've just decided to go into the Ravenclaw common room."

Malfoy flashed Lisa a really dirty look that Harry almost missed. Umbridge tapped her fingers on her hand. "Hmm. I don't think that's a good idea, after all if we wanted everyone going into each other's rooms we wouldn't have any passwords. You can sit in my office."

"Oh no, we're okay, mam," Malfoy said politely. "We'll find a place to go."

"I think," Umbridge said as she tapped her chin and her eyes continued to linger on Harry. "It would benefit you all if you read in my office, I'll make sure it's quiet."

They were silent as they walked to her office, Malfoy consistently sending mean looks to Lisa and Harry. As they entered the soft pink room, he saw Ron make a face like he smelled dung.

"Here we go, cosy right?" Umbridge said to no answer. "Well, I'll leave you to it."

As her door closed Ron shook his head slightly. "I thought Ginny's room was too pink."

Malfoy took a deep breath and went to bring out his book, once again sending Harry a nasty look. "Problem, Malfoy?" Harry finally asked.

"Do I have a problem?" he asked incredulously.

"Well if you have something to say out with it." Harry said. He held himself back from saying 'With that look you're beginning to resemble your sour faced mother' as he was going to be stuck with Malfoy for a bit. Plus he was likely being watched.

"For one thing, you," he looked at Lisa. "If you had any brains, and I mean any at all, you would have said a better place to meet than one where most of us literally are not allowed to go. And now we've been dragged into Potter's mess and we have to sit in this room together-"

"So let's get it over with then?" Blaise cut in with an impatient look at his friend.

They all seemed to finally be on the same page as they opened their own books. Harry's was quite obviously in the worse condition, as he had no qualms about flinging it around.

Just the sound of Malfoy's voice would be enough to put Harry on edge, he knew it would be the same for Ron and honestly likely the same for Malfoy if he or Ron read. Hannah must have realized this because she quickly said, "I'll read. I want to."

Hannah was flipping to the correct page as Lisa said, "This is sort of exciting! To hear of your first time in Diagon Alley! I was thrilled to be there!"

"And see you interact with the wizarding world for the first time." Michael agreed, ignoring Ron's side eye. "See you fit into robes and get your wand."

Draco started to get an itching feeling at the mention of the robes but ignored it. Meanwhile, Harry was mentally cursing himself. He really, truly, did not want the truth about his wand to come out. As if the school wasn't quick to call him a dark wizard as it was, they'd love knowing about his wand's connection with Voldemort.

Ron could see that something was bothering Harry, but thought he maybe wouldn't ask until after the chaper. If one thing was true, it was that Harry's business was not private enough. "What are you doing?" Michael asked Blaise. They all turned to see him taking out parchment and a quill and ink.

"He likes to take notes while we read." Malfoy said. "He tends to have a lot to say, but doesn't like to interrupt the reader. So he writes it down to make sure he says everything he wants to bring up."

"Do you always talk for him?" Ron asked annoyed.

Blaise and Malfoy looked at each other and smirked briefly before Malfoy turned to Ron and said, "No."

"I think that's a brilliant idea." Lisa said. "Michael?"

"Yeah, a great one." He said as the two Ravenclaws went into their bags and pulled out paper for themselves. Finally, Hannah got to the page and opened her mouth to speak, but Harry stopped her.

"Erm-" Harry began. "Wait, er, I have to... uh... say something."

Hannah paused, her mouth open a bit, but lowered the book again.

"Okay..." he said. "You're going to find something out right here. And I can't really help what's coming up. I don't know how everyone else is going to react but I ask that you don't treat me different because of it."

He wasn't addressing Blaise and Malfoy at all in this, he didn't care what they thought. But he felt if he put it out there before it was revealed by the book, he could possibly have more than just Ron and Hermione as allies.

"Well you know I won't treat you any different." Ron assured him, though he kept glancing at the book curiously.

"I'm sure it's not that bad." Hannah said, pulling the book up. It was obvious she was now wondering what the book was about to reveal.

By the end of the chapter, the entire group ended up taking notes on the chapter just like Blaise, despite the strange looks they gave Blaise when he first pulled out his parchment, all of them had gotten their own for note taking by the end, except for Harry. He refused to take notes on his life.

Against all odds, they managed to get through this chapter with minimal interruptions. There was the scoff and the scowl that happened here and there, but no one commented on them. There were only two major breaks in Hannah's writing. The first one was when Harry met Malfoy in the book. But other than Malfoy saying, "That was you?" but they didn't go on further about it. The second interruption was when it came up that Harry's wand had the same core as Voldemort's.

He saw all eyes look either at him or at his wand, a few mouths were open.

"Is that what you were talking about?" Ron asked, not able to hide his shock. Harry nodded and looked down at his knees. But then he felt Ron clap him on the back. "It's not that bad, mate. Evil may he be, he's still a good wizard right?"

Harry glanced at Ron, his best friend's words reminding him of what Ollivander said. "Ollivander said basically the same thing."

"He did? Creepy..." Ron said.

"Yeah no kidding." Harry said.

"But that means I was right, doesn't it?" Ron grinned. "Even Ol' Oli agrees with me! Besides, the wands may be 'brothers' but so are me and Percy. And look how he turned out."

"Or your mum and her sister." Lisa said quietly with a slight smile.

Hannah smiled too. "It's really not that bad."

Draco was thrilled. He realized revealing to the Daily Prophet that Potter used to live like a house elf would only get him more sympathy. However, sending this kind of information would be perfect. This was just what he was waiting for, he was already writing his letter to them in his head.

"Let's finish," Hannah said. "We're almost done anyway."

Harry nodded and relaxed now that the worse was over. And when Hannah said she finished the chapter, Harry said, "So, you all want to hurry and get to the next chapter? So we can be done?"

That was not a popular decision, as everyone complained that they had points they wanted to discuss.

"How come I remind you of your dumbass cousin?" Malfoy spat out at Harry. Blaise looked like he was trying not to laugh.

"How could you not." Hannah muttered.

"If it's any consolation, I think I like you a little less than Dudley." Harry said.

"On what regards?"

Harry shrugged. "I mean the two of you are different, for sure, first impressions aren't entirely accurate. Like for example, you have a brain."

Ron was staring at Harry, but Harry wasn't done.

"I realized a while back that Dudley's just repeating what his parents have been enforcing. You're a bit more intelligent." Harry continued to more stares. "So you're just a bigoted piece of shit in your own right."

"Oh," Ron said with genuine relief. "I thought I lost you for a second there."

Blaise watched him. He actually thought Draco might copy what his father said more than Potter realized. Blaise never had a real problem with it, he liked Lucius, but he was aware of it.

"That was so strange!" Hannah said. "I think that was the most civil you two were with each other."

"I can't believe you forget you'd met the boy who lived." Blaise said.

"He never told me his name!" Malfoy shot back. "And believe me, I didn't expect Harry Potter to walk in with baggy ass clothes and a giant following him!"

"Doesn't matter now," Harry said. "What you should have been doing was taking notes on why I didn't shake your hand on the train."

Malfoy glared at Harry. "Believe it or not, Potter, I've moved on from that day and couldn't give a damn why you didn't shake my hand." But he did seem to give this some thought and immediately contradicted himself by asking, "Wait, you didn't shake my hand because I made you feel stupid about the wizarding world?"

Blaise started sputtering. "What? Draco, did it occur to you that maybe he didn't shake your hand because you literally insulted the first person who was ever kind to him?"

Malfoy frowned. "Well I didn't know..."

Blaise stared at him. "You do realize now, though, that you did everything wrong... right?" he said. "I mean you didn't even sound apologetic when he said his parents died. And speaking of that, you didn't take that as like... I don't know... a clue as to who he was?"

Malfoy said nothing. Harry and Ron looked at each other, quite amused with this turn of events.

"I mean, you asked him if his parents were our kind!"

"You wouldn't ask the same thing?" Malfoy countered with disbelief coloring his tone.

"Not right after hearing said parents are dead. It's tacky." Blaise frowned. "And if you asked better questions, like say, what's your name, you would have gotten the answer anyway."

"Alright well shame you weren't in there with him then," Malfoy snapped, obviously annoyed. Harry, thoroughly pleased, looked to his best friend. "What did you take note of?"

"My biggest note is, where the hell did Hagrid go after you got on the train? He can't apparate and he's the size of a tree!" Ron snorted. "My top theory is that he ducked down onto the floor to seem more magical and mysterious."

That got some laughs from a few people. "I don't know, would he do that?" Harry asked laughing.

"I would if I were him." Malfoy said. "It's not like he's got much else he can do with himself."

"Malfoy!" Blaise snapped as Harry tapped on his wand.

"Oh sod off, Blaise." Malfoy snapped, obviously still annoyed with his friend for him chewing him out in front of everyone. Blaise had a look that plainly said he wasn't stepping in anymore.

"Hagrid loves his job and everything he gets to do for Hogwarts and Dumbledore." Harry said.

"Oh yes I'm sure he has a great time cleaning up Unicorn shit in the forest." Malfoy scoffed. "Everything he took pride in doing are the same tasks I would use my house elf for."

"What house elf?" Ron asked. "Last I checked you don't have one anymore."

Malfoy sneered while Harry was aware that the others looked curious about that . "Just because your family is too poor to afford a wooden spoon doesn't mean mine can't get itself another bloody elf."

"How about buying yourself another personality?" Ron quipped. "Hagrid's great, any decent sort of person knows that."

Malfoy scoffed again.

"I think Hagrid's brilliant!" Lisa said heatedly. "He was so sweet to Harry and did everything he could for him. Hagrid even told Harry he could send him a letter if Harry's relatives tried anything, and Harry needed that!"

Harry never contacted any of his wizard friends about his home life. Something satisfied him about leaving those worlds separate. And anyway, it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

"Maybe he needed that at one point, but what does he need the giant for now?" Malfoy asked.

"Maybe Harry just likes his company," Hannah shrugged. "Not all relationships are about how it benefits the people in them, you know. Hagrid did a lot for Harry."

Harry nodded but Malfoy scoffed. "Hufflepuffs."

Hannah frowned. "There's nothing wrong with being a Hufflepuff."

Malfoy scoffed, like there were a million other things more important than the conversation this seemed to be leading to.

"And I suppose being a Slytherin is better?" Hannah flared up. "Having a head of house who's awful and biased and having everyone dislike you because you're entitled pricks? That's better?"

"Sit down you unappealing bag of hot air." Malfoy said. "We're trying to get through this so we can get out of each other's hair, aren't we?" Harry hoped she continued to put him in his place, but she simply glared.

Harry said loudly, "Those were great points, Hannah." Malfoy rolled his eyes, and unbeknown to him, so did Blaise. But Ron, who was the only one to see him do this, didn't think he was actually rolling his eyes with Malfoy... but at him.

"You know the whole 'no one bad hasn't come out of Slytherin' thing isn't true right?" Blaise cut in.

"Yeah, I know." Harry said. "Believe me, I've got personal experience with that one."

"Good. Well anyway, Hagrid may have been helpful at the end of the day, but I think it's weird that you just went out and followed the bloody giant you met yesterday." Blaise cut in.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"At the start of the chapter." Blaise clarified. "He said, yer comin'" Blaise gave a pitch perfect impression of Hagrid that had all of them let out a surprised laugh, even if they didn't want to. "And you were like 'I haven't even known you for a full twenty-four hours but sure!'"

"He seemed trustworthy, and I gather myself to be a pretty good judge in character." Harry said glancing at Malfoy quickly. "Anyway, would you stay with my aunt and uncle?"

"Er... no. But he could have been a murderer for all you knew!" Blaise insisted.

"Maybe he thought it was still a dream." Michael said. "I mean he wanted the night before to be a dream."

"He didn't want it to be!" Ron spat. "Why would he?"

Michael huffed, annoyed. "Yeah I know he didn't actually want it to be a dream. But he sure sounded like it in the beginning. He had decided it was one before he even fully woke up."

They all looked at Harry.

"Of course I didn't want it to be a dream." Harry said but left it at that. Truthfully, this was something he'd done often while living with the Dursleys. They didn't always treat him this way. Harry had distant memories of Aunt Petunia almost looking at him fondly, of having his own toys and actually playing with Dudley, not just as his punching bag. At some point he supposed something switched or snapped for his aunt, and that's when he got a cupboard instead of a bed. Most likely it was after some showing of magic that caused this. Either way, Harry hadn't known why the change took place when he was that young, and hoped for a long time that it would go back to the way things were.

That never happened, and once he realized it would never happen, life was a little simpler. It was a little easier to expect to be looked down upon... like a disgrace... than to hope maybe that was the day things would get better because there was no let down.. There were days where his aunt maybe didn't look at him as filth, and when he was younger those were the times he'd have the most hope. When he got older, in order to not get this same hope, he'd have to tell himself he imagined it. It became fairly easy practice, and he supposed he'd started doing it with all good things before he'd even realized it.

"Do we know how these books came to be?" Blaise asked. They all shook their heads. Harry said no bitterly. This was the cause of many sleepless nights. Sometimes he was afraid to even think, it was like someone was always inside his head. "I only ask because I think it's extremely well written. The imagery is fantastic! The part about the storm having ended, for example..."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "The storm had ended."

"Yes but it was when you realized something good was happening to you." Blaise said and mentally added for once. "It was poetic."

Ron looked around and then back to Blaise. "I think you're the only one who cares about that."

Blaise slumped in his seat and crossed out his note. Malfoy smirked a little. "Fine, question for Potter then." Harry turned his head at him. "What do you take us for? Savages?"

Harry was definitely surprised by that. "What?"

"We have no bank and no government, is that right?" Blaise asked.

"I think he's referring to the fact that you were actually so stupid as to believe your parents kept gold in their house." Malfoy said.

"Oh, yes, of course, you're right, my extensive experience with money in the past should have told me otherwise." Harry deadpanned.

"You don't have to have experience with money you just need to use your brain." Blaise said. "And how come you didn't think we had a government either?"

"Not that there hasn't been evidence of this in the past, but you lack common sense, don't you?" Malfoy asked.

"Hey, maybe take your judgement and shove it up your arse, yeah?" Ron asked almost politely.

"The lack of common sense may be a side effect of who he's been living with." Blaise said ignoring Ron's statement. Ron was unsure of what to make of that. They were insulting Harry, but they were also insulting his relatives, and Ron honestly had no problem with that one.

"I had no idea what went on in the wizarding world!" Harry defended himself. "In the wizarding world, some vaults are guarded by dragons!"

"Oh those are rumors." Lisa said. "Started by the Goblins to keep people from trying to break in."

The Malfoy family had one of those high security vaults, and Malfoy knew for a fact that it was not a rumor. "They're not rumors."

"Sure they are." Lisa said. "I read about that."

"You, and whatever book you read, have it all backwards." Malfoy said. This is why her kind shouldn't mix with our kind.

Lisa frowned. "Why would a book be wrong?"

"Probably because it hasn't been proven that there actually are dragons down there. The goblins like to keep the dragons secret cause it's not super legal." Blaise cut in. "I mean, it's not exactly illegal because the goblins run by different rules, but they don't want to risk it. The only ones who know for sure are those who have the really old vaults that said dragons are guarding. They don't say anything because they like having a dragon protecting their possessions."

Blaise didn't have old money, like the Malfoys, but every time his mother married, they needed a larger vault. The largest vaults tended to be towards the bottom, where the dragons were.

"And why are you telling us?" Michael asked. "We could report the dragons."

"Yes, go against the oldest wizarding families why don't you." Malfoy said. "That will work out well for you."

"I suppose that makes sense..." Lisa said thoughtfully. "The book did say the dragons were most likely rumors... and I guess I thought the entire thing was so ludicrous it had to be. And it even said in the book Harry thought he saw a burst of fire when they were in the cart."

Every so often, when he would read the book, his classmates talked about eleven year old Harry as if fifteen year old Harry wasn't right there. It was really strange to hear. Hannah started giggling.

"Harry and Hagrid's ride in the cart was pretty funny." she explained when she got odd looks. "Although, did you really try to remember the direction of the maze?"

"Er... yeah." Harry shrugged. "And I figure I was doing quite well for a bit. I still remember it being about two more lefts a right and another left after that."

"But why?" Blaise asked.

"Wouldn't you?" Harry asked. "I didn't know how magic worked but if it ever crapped out on us like Dudley's toys and such likes to in the muggle world, I liked to have remembered my way."

Blaise whistled. "That's mad."

Harry was starting to get annoyed. "It's not mad, it's-"

"Ease up, Potter." Malfoy said giving Blaise an annoyed look. "He was paying you a compliment. Blaise seems to think most things that are mad are often brilliant."

Harry paused and looked at Blaise, who was narrowing his eyes at Harry as if he was reading him. "Oh."

"Yeah well," Blaise said looking down. "We'll call it selective memory, since you can't remember to mind your manners."

Ron was watching Blaise the same way Blaise had been watching Harry. If Harry knew Ron, and he felt he did, he knew Ron was calculating. He was trying to figure Blaise out.

"I think the greatest crime was that you didn't bother to get new clothes with any of your newly discovered fortune." Blaise said.

"Clothes have never been that important to me." Harry muttered.

"Obviously." Malfoy said. "Well lend some to Weasley then, he could certainly use it."

Ron held back a groan, he was really tired of Malfoy's jokes about his family's income. Of course, everything out of Malfoy's mouth was rubbish, but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a sensitive topic for him. He glanced at Harry. Earlier in the chapter, young Harry had worried about not being able to afford Hogwarts.

Harry never had problems with money when in the wizarding world. But suddenly he realized just how different Harry's life in the wizarding world is compared to his life with muggles. Ron always knew to an extent, but it was different when it was right in his face like this. Suddenly, Ron looked back to every time he'd been jealous of Harry feeling a bit idiotic. Harry didn't even think he'd be able to go to Hogwarts, and Ron knew all too well the feeling of sacrifice because he didn't have enough.

Malfoy was still going. "And it's a shame you didn't know Weasley before you realized you had gold, he could have given you some tips on being dirt poor!"

Ron's hand hovered over his wand, but he didn't actually need to pull it out.

"Merlin's pants, Draco, shut up!" Blaise said.

Malfoy scowled. Blaise never had a problem with him talking like this before. "Don't want me insulting your new friends?"

This actually caught both Harry and Ron by surprise. What was Malfoy on about 'new friends'? Harry hardly noticed Blaise Zabini before this year. He was one of those Slytherins who didn't hang around Malfoy, until halfway through this year. The few times he did notice Blaise, the Slytherin was busy giving him dirty looks. So how could Malfoy consider them anywhere near friends, even sarcastically?

"We're stuck in a room with them." Blaise said. "Stop antagonizing them! For God's sake!"

Malfoy crossed his arms and leaned back, silently glowering at the floor. Ron and Harry were practically beaming at their enemy being shut down like this.

"Anyway, Potter, I have another question." Blaise said. "Sort of off topic but whatever. I'm sure you're aware you could get likely anything you wanted just by saying your name, have you ever used this to your advantage?"

Harry gave Blaise a once over. It was strange, the guy seemed alright. He even seemed like the type of bloke Harry could get along with in different circumstances. But he was a Slytherin and not only that, but he was Malfoy's friend. Plus, Harry wasn't certain, but he thought he might share the same ideologies as Malfoy about muggles and muggle borns. But the question seemed genuine.

"Er... no. I've never wanted to." Harry answered.

Malfoy snorted.

"Hmm." Blaise said. "Okay then, those are all of my notes."

"I have a question." Michael said. Ron let out an exaggerated sigh. "Do you know if Hagrid's umbrella-wand-thing is authorized by the ministry?"

"Who cares?" Ron spat.

Michael huffed with annoyance. "It's just, he could get in trouble with the ministry now that the ministry is informed of this stuff."

Harry's blood ran cold and he glanced at Ron, who looked just as surprised. Apparently the thought hadn't come to him either. He knew Umbridge had it out for Hagrid anyway.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist." Malfoy said. "I doubt she cares so much."

And, in a backwards way, this actually did help to ease their nerves.

"Does anyone else have anything left to add?" Hannah asked. No one spoke up. "Then we managed to get through our first chapter with no casualties. Just two more chapters and we can all get out of each other's hair."