Chapter 4:

…I mark…

A/N: So, I bet most of you were thinking I would never return. Well here I am. Life just caught up with me for a bit. Sorry! I cannot guarantee that it will not happen again. It ain't summer chickadees! This is a WIP.

My head was pounding. The noise and all the social cues that I was expected to keep up with were giving me a headache!

Summer was officially over and I was starting up with school again. My mother took extra care in getting me ready for going off to Hogwarts Boarding School. She made sure the uniforms I got were pristine and all of my clothing, bath supplies, school supplies, etc. were up to par. My father did not care as long as I maintained a grade point average of 3.5 or better.

Now, I am boarding the train off to my new path. My mother is teary eyed; we spent almost every waking minute together but it just does not seem like it was enough. My father looks exactly like his cold hard self. No love shining through his eyes, I am just a Potter heir to him; not his son.

The final boarding call is sounded. I wave with dignity back to my parents and then turn around to find a place to sit.

This is where the headache comes in. All of the students were happy and overjoyed to be with each other and making new friends. I have not made a friend since I was about eight years old.

Therefore I just kept walking until I found an open compartment in the very back of the train. I automatically shut the door so that the noise would be muffled. It technically is rude to do this; my compartment is not full and I should be making friends. But, honestly my mind could not take any more pressure.

I am supposed to not embarrass my family and I already feel like it is going to be a losing battle.

I just rested my head against the back of my seat and closed my eyes. I was content feeling the train start to move and feeling the sun on my face. I was finally relaxing. Until…..

The compartment door opened. My eyes automatically shot open and my body sat rigidly up in my seat. I almost let my eyes snap up to see the person or persons face(s), but I caught myself in time.

I let my eyes rest towards their, it turns out persons, shoulders and quickly counted up who was entering. It looked to be a total five people. All of them were male except for one, though she looked very tough next to all of those young men.

Now I felt awkward. Technically I was here first, but I am sitting all alone. Maybe I should move for them so that they can sit together and be in peace just talking amongst them. But then again, where would I go? My mind was playing out every scenario and I would have continued to do so until I was interrupted. The first young male approached me with his hand out.

"Hello, my name is Draco Malfoy."

My mind screeched to a halt and went into its more political mode. I started doing searches and cross-references of the name Malfoy in my head. What I found within those few seconds of mental search was immense.

The Malfoy family lives in the Slytherin province of England. They appear to be a wealthy up-and-up family, but rumor has it that the father deals in some of the more "shady" businesses.

Keeping my face relaxed and eyes settled away from his eyes I held out my hand to shake his.

"My name is Harry Potter, it is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Malfoy." His body tensed slightly indicating he was aware of whom I was now. Given the way his eyes automatically shifted I am pretty sure he knows exactly what kind of person I am as well.

But he continued to be polite. "These are my close friends. The one on the left is Crabbe, to his right is Goyle, and then the last two are Blaise and Pansy. We, unfortunately, were unable to find a place to stay and hoped that we could stay with you. If that is alright?"

Polite people always get to me; it has been so beat in my head to be kind that if someone said "Could I please steal some of your cash?" I would probably let them.

So I found myself sitting here with five new companions. But I doubt they will ever befriend me. They will be polite and just use me until I am unnecessary. Which basically is, once we get to Hogwarts they will never speak to me again.

"So Mr. Potter; how was your summer?" Pansy, who was sitting to the left Draco (who is sitting directly opposite of me), asked.

I did not look to her face; I was going to follow protocol to the letter at school. Instead I looked to where her neck and shoulder met. She must be a lovely girl; from what I could see, her pale skin was accentuated with perfectly curled blonde hair.

"My summer was enjoyable, thank you for asking. How was yours?" My response was well rehearsed. It had to be; otherwise my father would have been embarrassed many a time. I would much rather ask more detailed questions, or give much more detailed responses. But these political games! They are…infuriating! These rules dominate my life and force me to wear a mask all the time, as if I do not have enough problems to deal with.

But Pansy is satisfied with my response, "It was well thank you." And gave me the standard response back. The look on her face is one of happiness; I can tell she feels pleasure because she was the one to follow protocol first. She takes pleasure from silly insignificant things.

"Is it true that you can turn people to stone with a single glance?" That question threw me off. I turned to my left side, Crabbe was the one to break protocol and ask the most impolite question.

This group does not seem to do anything "half-assed".

I was kind of flabbergasted. My mind was seeking a good way to respond to this and I was simply going to say "yes" when another broke into the conversation.

"Crabbe! That was out of line! You have embarrassed yourself and caused harm to Mr. Potter's reputation! –Mr. Potter, please accept my apology on my friends behalf. I am in your debt." Spoke a passionate Draco.

He shocked me.

He. Shocked. Me.

He just took over Crabbe's blame. Crabbe made a huge social blunder and was technically in the wrong. He would have had to make it up to me for belittling my name, and inadvertently, my family's name. I would have had to collect the dues for such a blunder.

That is a terrible position to be in. To be in debt to someone over a social blunder like that! It is so shameful that some very strict families disowned their children for such acts. But those cases were rare.

But Draco Malfoy was going to take the blame! Unthinkable! And his friends agreed with my notion. Pansy immediately jerked in her seat and snatched Draco's arm with a breathy "NO!" Blaise looked at Draco sharply but otherwise went back to reading his book. Crabbe looked like a kicked puppy and Goyle just seemed to not be sure what to do.

"Mr. Potter, I will find a way to rectify this situation; be it money, status, or anything that you or your family demands."

He shocked me again! He was allowing me to specify what was to be the price, he was not even going to negotiate this!

What was going on!

A/N

Hey, so I will try to update more regularly. No fear. Like I said before, I really really like this plot.

Review please.

WMBE