AN: Thanks, as always, for reading. Thanks for clicking on this, really. I love to watch the traffic graphs for my stories. So far this one chapter every weekend thing is working, but this is only the second weekend... Remember when I thought that this story would be only seven chapters long? Silly me!

Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Letter

Having never seen a Hogwarts letter before, Harry expected something even more simple than the post cards that Aunt Marge would send Dudley from her voyages with her dogs. While Uncle Vernon may have scoffed at the "overdone" gilded edges and the "dull" cream color of the paper but to Harry it was more valuable than the History of Magic would later be to Hermione. He stroked the gold border as he read the calligraphy thanking Merlin that he had Draco to explain all of this magic to him seeing as that the only word he understood 100% percent was Hogwarts-a magical place where him and Draco could skate to their heart's content.

He hid the letter under his shirt, tucked into his belt, with Draco's old skates stashed under the hydrangea bush. His uncle still walked around in a daze with his aunt merely fretting around in Harry's absence while Dudley dozed off in front of his television. Leaving hsi aunt to make dinner himself, took advantage of their disadvantagement to put the letter under his pillow before sneaking back outside to test out his skates again.

Mrs. Pince watched Harry from his garden where she was over-watering her plants by getting distracted by the Boy Wonder while he flailed his arms as he gained speed, not caring for the first time since he had started skated how he looked because the totally cute Draco was not watching. To turn around, he wrapped his arm around a tree and spun a 180 before skating down the straightaway with his arms in tight this time and his knees bent more as he pushed off with each foot with greater force each time than ever before.

After one last spin around the tree, he let himself glide towards his house to the applause of Mrs. Pince with his arms spread wide.

When Harry skated up the door, green strobe lights were already flashing inside as Draco and his friends chatted in a circle in the middle of the rink. Harry coughed and in an instant Draco scrambled to his feet and barely managed to make it to the entrance without falling. He cleared his throat and wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders as they skated to the group. "Death Eaters, may I introduce to you the famed Harry Potter."

Pansy rolled her eyes because she had already met the boy the other day and mostly viewed him as competition and had already allotted all of her preteen affection to Draco.

Draco pointed out Crabbe, Goyle, Millicent, and Blaise, all of whom raised their eyes to the pair in disbelief.

"The Harry Potter?" Millicent stuttered, her being the last to close her mouth because she was the most dim of the group-only admitted because her parents were rich, but she would lose her place on the team once Harry was added.

"No, the other one," Harry chuckled as Draco's arm fell from his shoulder and he shrugged with his hands in his pockets and his feet slipping back and forth underneath the gaze of the other.

Pansy sent death glares to Crabbe and Goyle who bowed their heads and hunched their shoulders in hiding, but Blaise sprung up in a second without even kneeling down and shook the Boy Who Lived's hand. "Zabini. Of the Italian Zabinis. You have heard of us?"

Harry let his hand fall from the other boy's grasp before admitting that he had not and looking away as Blaise's face fell. "I'd love to hear more about you sometime, though. I'm sure you're great, it's just that I only found out that I was a wizard a few days ago. I didn't even know that my parents had died in a car crash."

"Oh," the Death Eaters chorused, refusing to add anything to the story of the Potter's death.

"Shall we skate?" Drawled Pansy. "I've had enough of our gossipping. I'd like to see how little Potter has progressed. Draco has been coaching him," she explained to the others as they fell into line with each other and Draco called out warm up commands. Harry hung at the back but kept in stride with the others as they cycled through backwards skating and figure eights with their eyes open and closed, arms out and in. At the end of the set, Pansy droned, "I guess you're pretty good, Potter."

Millicent skated up behind her and almost fell before catching herself to sneer, "Are you fast? Bet you're not as fast as me."

"Oh, Bulstrode, shut it. You could not skate backwards until a month ago and you still cannot do it with your eyes closed. I know, I watch you." Millicent showed off her new skills but ran into a wall as the others gathered on the line at the edge of the rink to start a race.

"Singles or teams, Draco?"

"Singles. I haven't gotten the chance to show Harry how to crack the whip or anything yet."

Crabbe shrugged and hopped up on the edge with Goyle and Millicent as the better half of their team toed the line with Potter.

"On your count, Goyle."

"On your marks, get set, go!"

In one push, Draco was ahead with Pansy close on his tail, the two of them passing each other as Pansy tapped Draco's shoulder each time she got close enough. Zabini twirled around in circles, knowing that he would lose to Draco and also sure that he was faster than Potter.

However, Harry set his arms in and crossed and uncrossed his legs around the corners and glided through the straightaways, managing to stay in line with Pansy but far enough away so that she would not be able to trip him.

Millicent started cheering before Pansy screamed at her to shut her "frog mouth." Draco rolled his eyes at the rudeness and swooped around a turn as Harry gained on him.

"Oh no, you don't, Potter," Pansy growled as she bent down and stuck out a leg in the penultimate straightaway. He dodged it and sent himself going at an even faster speed as Pansy recovered from her stunt and Draco fell in behind him.

Taking a moment to laugh at the idea, Harry thought about how much slower he would be going if Draco were not there, and he found himself presented with the dilemma of letting his crush win and showing off his new speed. Before he could make up his mind, Pansy had started screaming again, this time at Draco as the blond let his arms hang limp and stopped skating, letting Harry skate across the finish line to the sound of an angry Slytherin.

"I won," he muttered. "I beat the Death Eaters."

Draco continued his slow skating and clapped the victor on the shoulder, letting his fingers linger and spread across the boy's back for a second longer than what was considered normal. Blaise joined them and made an excuse about having to help his mother with dinner and would see them all tomorrow, but Pansy was not quite so pleasant.

"How did you beat me? I have been skating since I could walk and might as well be some mudblood you're such a novice. I deserved to win this race, and you know it. You probably cheated. Cut corners. Didn't go around the rink."

"Pansy!" Draco pushed her away but she only shuddered a bit before regaining her balance and skating away from him. "Don't call Harry a mudblood or a cheater! We were all watching him the whole time and he did not cheat!"

"Fine, then I'm leaving, and do not expect to see me here tomorrow to man your stupid ticket counter. Let's go guys." She waved her and Millicent ran out ahead of her as she grabbed the other two boys by the ear and dragged them towards the door without so much as a goodbye.

Draco sighed. Harry had never seen porn, but he was sure that Draco's sigh was similar to what the actors sounded like. "Sorry about that. She's just really competitive. It will be better when we're all on a team together next summer because she doesn't compete with her teammates like that."

"It's fine."

"Um, can you stay a bit longer? I wanted to show you partner skating. It works best when the two people are the same height and the others are either shorter or taller than me." He let his eyes linger on Harry. "But you're perfect."

Harry hid his blush by turning around but nodded and let Draco take the lead. The blond grabbed his hips and they started off skating. Harry smiled at not only their proximity but also at the thought that a week ago, he would have fallen on his face if someone had started pushing him like that.

"The best part about partner skating is that not many other people do it, so you don't have to be any good to make the qualifying rounds. It's just that a lot of people don't know how to do it, but you're a natural. We'll be like your parents in no time if we keep this up."

"I would like that," Harry murmured to himself.

TBC: Up next, Diagon Alley, here we come.