I do not like this chapter, this entire story is suffering from pacing issues so I'm hurrying it along to Hogwarts and making this a bridging/exposition entry to get the dialogue kick started. I've gotten more than a few complaints about the fluff and dragging their early years out and since I honestly am more interested in writing the Drarry relationship in their mid-teens than rehashing the books I'm going to cheat here.
This is a weak chapter, I realize that, but we're trying to get out of the quagmire that had me spinning my wheels, and sometimes that just requires you to run past it with both middle fingers in the air and not looking back.
Regardless, as ...condensed? Yeah going to go with condensed as this chapter is, I hope you all enjoy it, the next one will be their first year and, much to my amusement, Dany's outright exasperation at the wizarding education system.
"What the fuck!? I thought Hermione fixed this when she made Neville Headmaster! Why the hell do we have five days of herbology yet only one of potions! I...shit...right...in the past...oh sweet Circe if my year is going to pass their NEWTs I'm going to have to tutor them all..." *Whimper*
Should be fun, enjoy!
The month leading up to their departure to Hogwarts was thankfully, for Dancia's sanity at least, interesting and new rather than a rehash of Draco's old life, which was something she'd been seriously ruminating on quite a bit lately.
At the beginning of her life she'd thought of herself as Draco Malfoy reborn in a girls body but...but the more she thought about it, the more she realized she felt like Dancia Malfoy growing up with an ancient wizards memories to use as a cheat sheet.
These thoughts as always gave her a migraine so she shook her head slightly to clear her mind, that along with her and Harry's wands were puzzles to ponder when she had time to daydream, such as Binn's history class or whenever her father bothered to speak to her.
Regardless Harry had invited Hermione to his and Neville's joint birthday party but insisted she not bring a gift, he just wanted to be friends and introduce the muggle born girl to his family to show off the more moderate magical world.
When Hermione had broken down into tears Harry had just stood there stunned and it took his sister going up to the Grangers and giving Hermione a hug and slowly rubbing the girls back while whispering to her parents to calm her down.
Eventually they got the Cliff Notes version of how shitty the girls school and social life had been from her parents, which had led into another minor lecture from Dora about how magicals tended to repel normal people simply by existing. After that they had all exchanged numbers, Hermione had shown up for Harry's party, and Dancia had gifted her best friend with his familiar, even suggesting that he name her Hedwig.
Why his comparing the snowy white owls plumage with her own hair as he nuzzled the bird of prey made her cheeks burn was something Dany was not even going think about.
Still, it had become pretty clear in her month of corraspondence and visits with Hermione and the extended family that her mission had been accompolished, Hermione Granger was now tempered to the point where she was no longer an insufferable know it all.
Dany snorted at that thought while rolling her eyes, side stepping a group of muggles in the process as the ever crowded Kings Cross Station hummed about her. Seriously even she could not have planned the catalyst for all this any better, but it made sense in the end really since Hermione had not quite been broken of her worship of authority figures.
After all, Nymphadora Tonks was the Head Girl, elder sister to her first friend Harry Potter, and designated chaperone to the Hogwarts express, so why wouldn't she latch onto the more experienced Half Blood witch?
Aside from the fact that she was a pervert, magically dark inclined, had the sense of humor of a twelve year old, and her mother was considered to be one of the top five most terrifying witches living and or undead at the time.
Goddess damn it all did Dancia's head hurt.
"We're here kiddos!"
Their collective group, consisting of Harry and Dany, obviously, along with Neville, Susan, and the practically vibrating Hermione stopped behind Dora as she stared at a pillar between platforms 9 and 10.
Smirking the violet haired teen winked at them before she broke into a run, "Best to give it good charge, tallyho!" With that she vanished into the brick and brack pillar, Harry, not to be out done pecked Dany's cheek lightly, causing her to blush scarlet as he laughed out loud and charged after his sister.
"See you on the other side!"
She screamed "HARRY!" in reply before chasing after her friend, her laughing companions not far behind and moments later she was on the platform 9 3/4's and quickly came to a stop beside her best friend.
Sure, Draco had seen this cherry red train dozens of times in his long life, but Dancia...well...
She didn't even notice the tears running down her cheeks until she felt a hand wrap around her own, glancing to her side she saw Hermione's near mirrored visage as the girl tightened her grip and whispered quietly.
"It's real. It is honestly real, isn't it?"
Dancia squeezed her hand in turn and nodded, "All of it, for good or ill, magic is well and truly real, terrifying, and absolutely brilliant."
"Brilliant, yes, it is." Hermione muttered as Dancia pulled her along and headed to the train with their family.
As it stood, Harry, Hermione, Dancia, Neville, and Susan all took a cabin together that Dora had blithely declared was 'Little Cousin Storage' and were only joined by Sue's best friend Hannah during their journey north. Harry wearing his blonde disguise used Dany's lap as a pillow and napped through the multiple intrusions of people trying to find the Boy-Who-Lived.
The group found this far funnier than it likely had a right to be.
Their arrival at Hogsmeade was a subdued affair, all of their group already having been dressed in the school uniform they made their way towards Hagrid and the small boats awaiting them. Dany, Harry and Hermione took one boat as they were joined by an Asian witch by the name of Su Li who seemed a bit shy, while Neville joined Susan and Hannah along with a dark skinned boy with an Italian accent that Dany could only assume was Blaise Zabini.
The rest of the song and dance went the same as it had for Draco so Dany didn't really pay attention until names began getting called for sorting, and that's where the divergence's began.
Namely, Hermione was sorted into Ravenclaw, where she had bloody well belonged to begin with, and then she had been called out and caused a hat stall.
Heh, Draco had always wanted to do that, Dany figured she could scratch it off the bucket list now.
"My my Miss Malfoy, you have traveled a great distance to be with us today haven't you?"
Dany smirked, "You know it."
"Any regrets from your previous life?"
She grimaced, "More than I'd like, fewer than I expected."
The hat seemed to nod at that, "You're very honest with yourself, which is to be expected of a special operative of the ICW, still you manage to lie about the things that matter most."
Frowning she queried the hat not really sure she wanted an answer to her question, "What do you mean by that?"
A few moments of silence later the hat eventually let out a sigh, "Miss Malfoy, how do you feel towards Mister Potter?"
Slightly flustered she quickly snapped back with, "What the bloody hell does that matter?!"
Chuckling slightly the hat made a mental motion that resembled placation before responding, "When you're finally willing to be honest about your feelings Miss Malfoy you'll understand, until then-
"RAVENCLAW!"
Huffing Dancia handed the hat to a bewildered Mcgonagall and took her place at the Ravenclaw table beside Hermione who grinned at her winningly.
Well, at bare minimum she could content herself with keeping the brightest witch of their age safe under the Malfoy aegis, she figured that was something at the very least.
Harry was called up, the hat was placed on his head, and he just sat there for damn near five minutes, face flushing and hands clenched into trembling fists until the hat finally let out a resigned sigh.
"RAVENCLAW!" If Dancia didn't know better, the hat had seemed exasperated as Harry quickly tore it from his head and sprinted over to his friends. The girls seperated and gave him room to plop down between them, as the sorting continued Hermione leaned in and whispered just loud enough for the two to hear her.
"What was that all about Harry?"
He let out a mirthless laugh while shaking his head before replying, "The rudding thing wanted to put me into Slytherin but had been told to put me into Gryffindor, while I demanded to be put in Ravenclaw."
Well...fuck.
Dancia cleared her throat slightly to get his attention while muttering, "How did you convince it to place you here?"
Harry smirked as he gripped her hand under the table causing her to raise a brow in question as he simply stated, "Threatened to find a way to destroy it permenantly, and since I'm so ambitious and cunning, I'd obviously find a way to get my revenge if I didn't get my way."
Hermione shot him a glare, glanced at the boisterous Gryffindors, then the stoic Slytherins before turning back to him and shrugged, "While I don't think threatening what amounts to death to an ancient magical artifact was your best course of action...I also cannot really blame you."
Dancia was far more to the point, "Ah, I love you and your inability to back down Harry, don't let it kill you though, k?"
Harry nodded dutifully, grasped her hand and squeezed it lightly while muttering, "Love you too, oh headmaster's speech."
This once again went like it had for Draco, Dumbledore proving without a doubt that he was insane, presentation of the feast, eating, then getting escorted to their new dorms.
After changing for the night, crawling into bed, and realizing that she was in fact back in the first place she had ever felt as a home, Dancia Malfoy smiled to herself as she fell asleep.
Tomorrow was the first day of the rest of her life, and maybe, just maybe, she could leave Draco Malfoy's baggage behind for good as she guided her friends to a future that hopefully did not involve meddeling old men and batshit insane dark lords.
Though much to her chagrin there would eventually be dragons involved, obviously. She was best friends with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger after all, and with those two boredom just wasn't on the menu.
So currently have 1.5k words written for 'Through the Looking Glass, 600 for 'Apparently Videogames Really Are Bad For Your Brain', and roughly 700 for 'Reincarnation Roulette'. On top of getting this fucking speed bump out of the way, I think Lily and I got a nice bit of work done this weekend considering I had two computer crashes through the course of it all.
Regardless, I know this wasn't up to my normal standards, but like I said, I needed to get it out of the way so we can actually have fun. Because really, what do we care more about, rehashing second year or teenage Harry and Dany dragging Hermione and Neville out for a night on the town?
Anyway, back to the grind hoping to get Looking Glass out tonight so please review, and peace!