Erasing Time's Tracks
Chapter 8

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

- - -

Harry Potter sat in the compartment on the Hogwarts Express, looking from Hermione Granger to Ron Weasley. He mentally reviewed what he already knew about Draco Malfoy.

He had met the boy in Madam Malkin's and had been quite nervous and shy around the blond who clearly seemed to be at home in this amazing new world where magic existed, hidden from the everyday Muggle world. But the boy had been kind, if quite voluble about Kwidditch – no, Quidditch; he remembered seeing the name of a book in Flourish and Blotts.

Harry had been surprised to get an owl letter from Draco, and recalled exactly what he'd been doing – it had been a few days after he'd gone to Diagon Alley with Hagrid. He had been reading his Transfigurations text in his bedroom, the window open to let in the summer breeze. Hedwig was sleeping, her head under her wing while on her perch in her cage.

So it was with understandable puzzlement and a bit of alarm that Harry had noticed a dark brown regal-looking, if a bit on the small side, eagle owl swoop in the window, bearing a letter for him. He had cautiously taken the envelope, relieved that it hadn't caused any harm to him, and watched uncertainly as the owl flapped his wings, left his bed, and perched on the windowsill near Hedwig's cage. The white owl had perked up, looked at the eagle owl, then hooted softly. The eagle owl hooted back, and it appeared the two owls saw no harm in each other.

Reassured that Hedwig had given her stamp of approval, Harry opened the envelope and began reading.

He had been a bit put off initially by the formal tone and what seemed a bit like presumptuous behaviour regarding exactly what he knew or did not know. Nonetheless, he had been guardedly happy about being able to write back and forth with the blond, and sympathised when he read about how the young aristocrat had to be somewhat careful around his parents. It reminded Harry all-too-well of his own situation with regard to the Dursleys before he had discovered that he was a wizard.

So Harry had told the eagle owl he could go home, as he didn't know how long the reply might take. He then commenced to write his reply letter, and had enjoyed making smart remarks about his relatives. He imagined that was what boys, with proper parents and real friends sometimes did with their friends. However, he hadn't been too willing to be entirely forthcoming about how his relatives really treated him, and was about to end the letter when Hedwig had swooped down, clearly prepared to snatch the letter up and whisk it off to Draco. Impressed, Harry had quickly appended a comment praising Hedwig, and then sealed the letter in an envelope and addressed it to Draco.

It was a new feeling to know someone out there actually cared enough to address correspondence to him.

- - -

Nicking some of Dudley's money had almost felt like second nature to him, although it had been something of a risk doing so; Hagrid's cowing of his horrible muggle relatives had been a bit of a boost to Harry's self-confidence. Anyway, if Draco could not bear to be parted with an important book, then far be it from him to selfishly keep the book longer than needed. Luckily, it had looked like a fairly ordinary tome when he had slipped into the local library to photocopy all thirty pages of fairly dense printing, plus diagrams. Otherwise it would have been quite the job explaining the book to any curious passers-by.

But…him, a wizard! It was still so hard to believe – Sorting Hats! Brooms! Houses! Harry had to damp down a sudden nagging fear that he would be brought to Hogwarts, and told there had been some horrible mistake and, so sorry, but he would have to be sent back to Number Four Privet Drive. Uncertainly, he gave his wand an idle flick, and was rewarded with a small burst of warmth in his hand; it felt reassuring.

Harry was filled with conflicting feelings about his parents; so many people who were complete strangers had praised his parents, and yet… some people had had problems with his Dad. What made it worse was that it sounded like some people in this world he hadn't known a thing about held some very long grudges, and he knew from his time at the Dursleys that people who held grudges could be quite petty about them.

Yet a voice nagged at the back of his head, that defying expectations by consciously striking out on a path different from his father's would give him a slight advantage, because people would not pigeonhole him. He was about to mention something like this when Ron spoke up.

"Blimey! That Malfoy is one weird one, isn't he?"

Hermione replied quickly, "Well, you should know him better than I do, seeing as you're one of those pure-bloods he talked about. But I got the impression he was honestly trying not to talk down to us, and particularly wanted to be Harry's friend, but is that just because Harry's the Boy-Who-Lived?"

Harry, about to reply, paused and frowned.

"I don't think so, Hermione," he said with some thought. "Look, most of the people I met at Diagon Alley wanted to fawn all over me and wouldn't shut up about all these great things my parents did or that I supposedly did, even though I barely remember anything except this green light."

Ron looked ill, and after a moment or two he asked in a strangled whisper, "Green light?"

Harry was perplexed by the reaction his friend had. "Yeah, it was green. Why?"

The redhead choked out quite loudly, "You survived a Killing Curse, Harry! Nobody's ever lived to tell what one feels like!"

Somewhat grumpily, the other boy replied, "It's not like I remember anything useful, Ron. Anyway, look – Draco didn't fawn over me at all at Madam Malkin's, where I first met him, and he wrote back and forth to me like I was a normal person, although he was frank about how much people seem to have written about me in books and such.

"Anyway, I would give him the benefit of the doubt."

Ron replied guardedly, "I don't know, mate. His father's pretty wealthy and powerful, and my Dad says the Malfoys didn't need cursing or enchanting to follow You-Know-Who. But… well, I just can't see Malfoy being much different from his Dad."

It was then that Hermione broke in.

"He seems to be trying, though, Ron," she said. "I have no idea how applicable this is, but my parents are dentists and we're certainly not hurting for money, so we live in a nice area and other people live much like we do. This one girl in the house next to mine, who house-sits when my parents go out for dinner, goes to a rather expensive public school, and she's constantly going on about how she wants to be nothing like her parents, but it's hard because if she pushes too much they could punish her, or make her life difficult while she's still living with them.

"And in the wizarding world, I have no idea what kind of punishments there could be for disobedience, but they cannot be very nice, especially if you can kill someone with just a wand."

Ron seemed to realise something and muttered, "Blimey!"

Harry was still puzzled. "What?"

His freckled friend gulped again. He said, "Mate, I just realised… there's these curses that can really hurt you, you know? What if Malfoy's dad used them on him if he disobeyed?"

An appalled silence descended around the compartment as the three processed the implications of Draco Malfoy's punishments, if his father chose to employ those methods.

Harry didn't know why he said it, but he said, "I don't know about you two, but if I can possibly help it, I'm sticking by Malfoy. He's the first person besides you two that treated me like a normal human being, instead of like rubbish, or some god. Where he goes, I'm going."

Hermione, in fifth year, in another world, would have referred to it as a "nascent saving-people thing."

Ron looked rather outraged. He spluttered, "But… Slytherin!"

For his excuse he found himself fixed with a penetrating green gaze, as Harry said, "What about it? If someone like Draco, who, according to you, should be acting like a right spoiled brat, can be a Slytherin, then who's to say I should go into Gryffindor just because that's what everybody else thinks? Doing what everybody else thinks is what my cousin Dudley does, not me."

"All right…and I can't believe I'm saying this, but… I guess we're still friends, right?"

Harry grinned and said, "Sure we are, Ron."

"Well then, if you can stand it in Slytherin, I guess I can."

Hermione broke in bossily.

"That's all very well and good of you two to stand by Draco Malfoy, but what if it backfires on you? If what he says is correct at all, then there's likely to be quite a few people who wouldn't hesitate to make life miserable for you. From what I can tell of wizarding society, it's much more conservative than Muggle society, which means that people who are considered inferiors are generally expected to just shut up and take it; he even said you're a half-blood, Harry. I can't see any difference between you two except for the hair and all that, but for some idiotic reason these people seem to think who you had for parents is so important."

Ron, a bit confused, said, "What are you getting at, Hermione?"

Exasperated, she said, "What I am trying to tell you blockheads is if this Draco Malfoy is the exception rather than the rule, what makes you think he won't succumb to pressure from his father and bail out on you two when the going gets tough? People don't get disowned much in the Muggle world anymore, but if wizarding society is, as I said, more conservative, then that rather archaic and barbaric tool of forcing children into line might be quite common."

Harry and Ron had looked daggers at their Muggle-born fellow when she called them blockheads, but as she had quite the lung capacity, she had simply driven on to her inescapable conclusion and the two settled back to think.

Finally, Harry said, "Disowned or not, I am not going to drop a friend just because it's inconvenient for me. I'm sticking by Malfoy and that's that. Show me anyone else you know of, Ron, who wouldn't just fawn over me right away, other than your twin brothers."

Hermione, who would have never admitted to herself or anyone else that she had something of a "helping-people thing", said, "Fine. If you two can rush ahead into unknown waters, then far be it from me to dissuade you. Wherever you're Sorted and wherever I'm Sorted, I'll try to stay your friend."

Harry smiled again, and said, "I'd be glad to, Hermione."

Ron flushed a bit, and said, "Me too."

The three tentatively looked at each other, and then sighed in some relief as the candy witch came around again. Harry didn't splurge like he had the first time the woman had come by, but just for fun he tried a Steaming Whizz-bang, which was supposed to make steam come out of your ears for a few seconds and turn your face a bit red, while Hermione tsked disdainfully at the sugary confections still littering the seats.

The three young children began chatting about other things, but Harry occasionally thought about that unusual boy, Draco Malfoy. His grey eyes had seemed to light up a bit when he talked to Harry, and Harry had felt an unusual surge of… something… each time he'd shaken Draco's hand. Maybe it was just something to do with magic, but Harry didn't have any idea what it could be.

Author Notes:

Here's what Harry was thinking and doing after that meeting in Madam Malkin's. Thanks go to Maddevillechilde and Kirinin for their excellent help and suggestions. :) (And yes, the Sorting will be next chapter) The Steaming Whizz-bang is the name I gave to the candy Harry eats in the movie of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

A word on this chapter. I realize that it has Ron assuming Draco's punishments are very severe. Remember that (from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) that assumptions are the brother of all f-ups. :) Just as we know Harry makes assumptions that turn out to be untrue, so can Ron. The funny thing is, it's little twists like just how Hermione sees something in Draco and draws it out by analogy that leads Ron to see "the other side of the story", so to speak and can legitimately sympathize with Draco... and the rest is (changed) history. ;)

iamanevilgenius caught a minor mistake in this chapter. That's been fixed. :)