The boy was about the same height as her, but was wearing nice robes and had blonde hair.
"So. You're Harriet Potter." He said, almost accusingly.
"I prefer Harry." Harry responded
"Prove that you are who you say you are."
Harry showed the boy her scar. He paused for a second, before seeming to relax.
"When my father told me that he had captured Harriet Potter, I thought he might be joking. But here you are." the boy said.
"Lord Malfoy is your father?" Harry asked
"Yes; I am Draco Malfoy, heir of the most noble house of Malfoy. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." the boy - Draco - responded pompously
"I am Harriet Potter, heir of the most noble house of Peverell. The pleasure is all mine, heir Malfoy," Harry said, responding in kind.
Draco pauses for a second. "How do you know all of that?" he enquires, surprised at the girls knowledge of the ancient wizarding traditional greeting.
"I read. Your gracious father has allowed me books, and so I discovered a love for them." Harry commented, gesturing tomawrds the towering bookcase.
Draco pauses again. "Why are you so ... fine, with being kidnapped?" he asked; this was something that had been bothering him since his father mentioned that Harriet Potter was allowed to roam free on the Malfoy land, yet hadn't attempted to escape.
"I'm not fine with it, but it is much better than where I was before. I'm can go outside, read books, and the food is so regular. Not to mention that I don't have to work, and no one is telling me that women only exist to serve men. Even if I went to Hogwarts, I would still have to go ... home every summer. Also, I bet everyone would stare at me, like they did when I was introduced in the Leaky Cauldron. All in all, I think I'm better off here. Besides, you-know-who is the one who had me captured; according to all the books I've read, he is very powerful; I highly doubt that he would just let me walk out. Therefore, I have to decided to accept my fate." Harry said, barely taking a breath. It was clear that she had made this argument before, internally; her points were too polished and precise for her speech to be a spur of the moment thing.
Draco was unaccustomed to such fluency from an 11-year old - they didn't have English lessons at Hogwarts, after all, and commented "that was impressive", before something that Harry had said sunk in.
"Wait! This means you don't know any magic, do you?" he asked quickly, surprising Harry
"No I don't. But..." Harry paused, blushing, " ... Lord Malfoy said you might teach me some of the magic you've learnt at school." She finished, for the first time shy.
"Fine. But you have to call me Professor Malfoy!" Draco said playfully
"No way!" Harry replied
"Okay, call me ... 'milord'"
"I'll call you my little dragon, then"
"Mordred, no." Draco paused for a long time, thinking.
"Call me Draco," he finally said.
Harry recognised this for what it was: an ancient, pureblood offer of friendship. Such bonds were very rare amongst purebloods; most lords had at most one or two true friends in their whole lives.
"I'm honoured." Harry responded, truthfully, "but you have to call me Harry." She replied, accepting his offer. They shook hands, before Harry grinned, "are you going to start, of what?"
o - o - o - o - o
After a week of little progress with her practice wand, Harry was slumped on the floor of a large room (Draco called it the 'second dining room'). Normally, Draco would have frowned at an heir of a noble house behaving in such a way, but they were friends, and also because he, too, was slumped on the floor.
"Why am I so bad at this?" Harry whined
"Maybe you're just useless at magic." Draco responded, jokingly
"Maybe you're just useless at magic" Harry said back, equally jokingly. But how Draco tensed for a second after she said it didn't go unnoticed.
"Wait, you don't actually think you're useless at magic, do you?" She asked incredulously
"It's just ... I have to be very weak ... I'm always struggling with the spells I'm learning, and ... it just feels like they're ... pushing against me, I guess", Draco replied morosely, his head hanging down.
Harry sat in silence for a bit, before standing up.
"I don't know what you're going on about! I mean, I don't know about the spells you're trying, but you're obviously very powerful; I would be able to feel your magic dancing with mine from the other side of them room. Lord Malfoy's magic barely registers, and those wizards in the leaky cauldron, for the most part, couldn't be felt at all. That's why I was so surprised when you said that the Weasley boy - you know, the one you complained about -, challenged you; your magic practically screams 'don't mess with me'." Harry ranted, seemingly not realising that Draco was gaping at her.
"You can't feel magic? I've never heard of anyone who can do that." He paused for a second, contemplating what Harry had said. "I'm going to trust you on this, but please can you try and find out why I then have trouble with such basic spells?" He finished.
"Sure; it's not like I have anything better to do. I'll read about it while you're back at Hogwarts." Harry replied, nonchalantly.
o - o - o - o - o
Draco left for Hogwarts the next day, the Malfoy's Yule ceremony having made little difference to Harry; Draco left for the evening, but nothing else changed.
Once Draco had left, Harry continued practicing with her new wand, but was making no progress.
She was practicing one February evening, when her frustration with the magic finally got the better of her; she screamed and threw the wand against the wall. It bounced on the floor, and then lay there, sparking. Harry turned around to face the feather that she had been trying to make float.
"Stupid feather! Why won't you just fly already!" She shouted at it, a month and a half of staring at the feather finally catching up with her. She started to curse the feather, her language colourful.
And then suddenly, the feather started to rise, shakily, from the ground. Harry stopped and gaped at it for a a few seconds, before blinking, and it fell.
"But ... how?" She asked the empty room, too shocked to fully formulate a sentence.
After what could have been a minute or hour, Harry seemed to awaken from her daze, and pointed her finger at the feather. "Wingardium leviosa!" She shouted. Once again, the feather began to rise, but far more steadily than before. Harry quickly deduced that verbal magic was stronger than non-verbal magic. But putting that aside for a second, Harry acted her age, for once; she jumped up and cheered.
o - o - o - o - o
Lucius Malfoy knew that his precious Draco and the resident girl-who-lived were friends; proper friends, as well, not just allies. He also knew that the dark lord would separate them when he returned, but for now he let them be young.