The World Hidden Away From Him

Harry had returned to his food, having lost interest in the Malfoy boy when his meal was rudely interrupted by that annoying scratchy sound of someone clearing their throat. He'd heard that sound many times before. He slowly lifted his head from his mashed potatoes to find Pansy Parkinson smiling over at him… Wait… Smiling? What the fuck?

"Hi?" Hermione asked from beside him, one of her thin eyebrow's raised. "What do you want?"

"I came to introduce you to a close friend of mine," Parkinson purred, easing Malfoy forwards a bit, seeing as he was standing farther away from the table than she was. He came into view a little more clearly and stared around at them all unsmiling.

God! What would his father say if he knew he'd been in the presence of Harry Potter? He would want to kill him. But Draco couldn't turn away from his curiosity of the boy he was supposed to be mortal enemies with.

They all stared at him expectantly and he got slightly nervous standing there having them all look at him that way.

"I'm-" he began unsteadily, looking down at his feet. "I'm Draco Malfoy."

Pansy put two small fingertips under his chin and pushed his head up. He remembered his father's words:

"You look down to no one. You are a Malfoy."

He stood a little taller, hoping he looked at least a little intimidating. He took a bit more time to take in Potter's friends. The one on the left had longer red hair, but at the top it was shorter and spiked in all different directions. He was wearing eyeliner and a bit of eye shadow. It was a dark color of course, but Draco didn't want to stare, trying to figure out what the exact shade was. He then moved down to find he was wearing a black T-shirt with a band logo on it. He had heavy looking bracelets around his muscular wrists that had spikes on them, the band made out of dark black leather. From the looks of it, they didn't come off.

He moved his gaze onto the girl. She had her hair straightened and she was twiddling it around her fingers, trying not to stare at him. She wore an off the shoulder shirt that was black and fit snugly like a corset, and it looked like one in the front too. It was deep red down the middle, and it was tied with a black ribbon, crossing all the way down her body until it met her pants.

Then his eyes finally met Potter, who seemed to be watching him with equal interest. Potter with his sleeveless shirt and tattoos. From here, he could see that one of them was an anti-Death Eater tattoo and he felt his stomach twist a bit. The one on his bicep was a grim reaper strangling a serpent with its skeletal fingers. Draco found that one slightly amusing although he wasn't quite sure why…

"See something you like Malfoy?" came Potter's voice interrupting him from his thoughts. Draco looked up meeting Potter's gaze.

"I was admiring your ink work," Draco said smoothly. Perhaps he could get a hang of this social thing. Potter looked down at his arms.

"Is that a sarcastic remark?" he asked, his emerald green eyes darkening.

"No," Draco said, his face emotionless. If he'd learned anything from his father over the years it was how to hide his feelings and thoughts. "Are you always this defensive or is it because I'm a Malfoy?"

Potter seemed to be caught off guard.

"I was simply remarking upon the style of the art work," Draco said. "It's fascinating. Who ever did it was really talented."

"Well, Harry drew that tattoos. Then he had a professional go over it," the red head piped up.

"Not bad Potter," Draco replied with a small smile. Pansy seemed to be getting a little agitated by the mere friendliness of this conversation. What had she expected? To introduce him just so he'd be rude? That wasn't Draco's manner… It wasn't logical.

Harry stared at him for a long time before he said or did anything. Then he grinned back politely.

"Thanks," he replied genuinely.

The girl smiled, leaning towards Harry and putting her petite hand on his shoulder.

Hermione was merely happy that he hadn't decided to be rude to Draco Malfoy. Harry was a bigger person than that and she knew it would be out of character for him to be so petty.

"Malfoy, this is Hermione and Ron," Harry said.

"Hello," Draco said nodding at both of them.

Ron nodded back as did Hermione.

"It's nice to meet you three," Draco said. Ron held out his hand and just before Draco took it a waitress came.

"Have you two been seated yet?" she asked.

"No," Pansy said quickly. "Would you give us a booth please? I'm starving!"

And with that she yanked Draco away from the trio, leaving all four of them quite confused as to what had just happened.

"What was that?" Draco asked after they were settled in.

"I should be asking you the same thing, Draco!" Pansy snapped. "What the hell were you doing?"

"I was introducing myself!" Draco replied. "Isn't that what you took me over there to do? I wasn't going to start trouble with people I didn't even know. And they seemed nice enough. Why do you hate them so much?"

"Because, Draco! They're traitors. They work with the Order to bring down your Dark Lord! To bring down my Dark Lord! Don't you see? I wanted you to know what you'll be going up against when the time's right!" Pansy hissed.

"Well, thank you so much Pansy. You're such a great friend," Draco whispered sarcastically. "You were looking to make waves!"

"I was not!" Pansy said quite defensively.

"You were too," Draco replied. "You were trying to get me into a fight!"

Pansy leaned forward to retort, but was cut off abruptly by a waitress coming to take their orders.

"Sorry," Draco murmured, not looking away from Pansy. "We need more time."

"It's no problem sir," the waitress said flirtatiously. "I'll come back in a few minutes."

Pansy glared after the waitress.

"Whore," she murmured.

"What did you just call me?" Draco snapped.

"I didn't call you anything!" Pansy snarled.

"Yes you did! You called me a whore!" Draco said in disbelief.

"No I didn't!" Pansy whispered dropping her voice. "I called the waitress a whore!"

"Why?" Draco asked, his brow furrowed.

"Because she was checking you out!" Pansy replied.

"Really?" Draco inquired, turning around to get a better look at this little waitress. Pansy reached over the table, knocking over the salt and peppershakers, to make Draco turn around. He glared at her.

"I haven't got a look at her yet!" he snapped.

"You don't need to!" Pansy snapped. "She was ugly anyways!"

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"What do you suppose they're talking about over there?" Ron asked curiously leaning forward slightly.

"Arguing would be the operative word there, Ron," Hermione mumbled, folding her napkin.

"Well, what do you suppose they're arguing about?" Ron inquired.

"Probably that he was getting too friendly with us," Hermione replied nonchalantly with a shrug of her shoulders. "He is supposed to be Harry's enemy after all."

"Really?" Harry asked. "He's the one I'm supposed to kill before I kill Voldemort?"

"So the prophecy said. One who has the appearance of an angel but a heart as black as the devil's… Remember Harry?" she asked.

"And they certainly aren't talking about Lucius Malfoy," Ron whispered. "Because any one who can get close enough to get a good look can see that he's no angel. His nose is what gives him away you know."

"Why his nose?" Hermione asked.

"Because it's huge!" Ron said.

The three of them snickered.

A/N: Alright. Thank you all for the reviews. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm hoping to get more reviews. We'll see! Make sure to review if you liked it and want more.