*** I don't own anything relating to Harry Potter. All recognizable characters belong to the original author, JK Rowling.***

Conversation 4 part A: Meeting Malfoy

And so Harry began recounting the longest conversation out of all of them. He knew that amongst his friends Ron still harbored some ill feelings but still, there was no turning back. He knew revealing all was key.

Perhaps one of the most difficult conversations he endured. It was very tense at first. The first steps were clearing the air of past grievances. Getting to the root of their mutual dislike. This entailed for Harry to reveal his childhood. It entailed listening to Draco's, of removing the adjective enemy from his reference to the Malfoys. The victory that day was partly due to them. It was a conversation of righting old wrongs. It had been many years since that fateful May night. In fact, before the hearth of the fireplace no longer sat two young adults but two men nearing their late 40s. Men who had grown and matured, who neither had simple beginning and each still struggled with their own demons even after all these years. But Harry was still in some respects a changed man. He learned long ago what keeping old house prejudices could do and how detrimental they can be, dangerous even. So they sat, in a neutral place, isolated from prying eyes and ears, and they conversed. They cleared hours away from everyday life. Although these conversations originally began to heal himself, they inevitably ended up working both ways, the recipients of these conversations also healed old wounds and tied up loose ends. It took a while for Harry to write those words onto that parchment and deliver the words to his childhood nemesis. At first he didn't know what to write or how to say it but in the end he went with the simple.

Malfoy,

This might come as a great surprise but I write this note in request of some of your time. There is something I wish to discuss with you and its best done in person. Let me know at your earliest convenience.

Harry Potter

P.S This conversation, if you agree to it, is probably gonna take a while so clear out a whole afternoon.

Once the request was agreed upon and a place agreed upon, they sat across from each other they began. The difficult part was agreeing on a place with privacy and neutrality and so they chose the upstairs room of the three broomsticks, with three separate charms to aide against eavesdropping. The conversation began with the first meet and they inevitably delved into their childhood. It didn't start out with awkward pleasantries or quidditch or the kids at Hogwarts but with Draco's no mess attitude.

"So potter, what is the point of this gathering? I'm assuming there is one," Draco immediately said once he set his belongings down. He was a busy man and his free time short in between, this meeting was cutting into that free time.

"So straight to the point then?" Harry acquiesced. Draco nodded his response.

"I want to talk," he said leaving his response purposely vague.

"About what," Draco immediately questioned.

Harry paused and tried to find the words that would encompass his overall purpose for this conversation. It was harder to explain in words than it was to understand in his mind. He knew from others that Draco Malfoy had certainly matured since his days at school but it was strange applying that to the person in front of him since the only reference of mind of him was the insufferable git he once was. To prevent having this conversation end before he had his answer he gave enough of the truth so as to not scare him away but also just enough to keep him interested. "I've had a long time to think about everything, and there's some questions I want answers to," he settled for.

Draco looked at him from across where he was sitting, and considered these words for a while. "If this is about the past, you're opening up things that I've long put to rest. I don't need you opening up old wounds," Draco answered on the defensive about what he assumed this was all about. It felt like this was an interrogation of sorts to him.

Harry noticed this; he didn't want a defensive Malfoy. He had no need for an argument; he really wanted to ease old rivalries. "I don't come here to argue, really Malfoy, I was just hoping that we'd be able to talk like adults. It is about the past, but in some way I only want closure. That's all I want, to get my answers and let it go."

"What do you want to know," he said still slightly on the defense with guarded measure to his features.

"I just want some answers about Hogwarts and I guess since I am meddling into your past as well, you have the same courtesy, now's your chance to answer anything you wish to ask"

Malfoy was slowly easing into the idea of this conversation. He was still cautious but Potter was right. There had been many articles and things about the life of 'the boy who has yet to die.' He knew from personal experience that most published things couldn't be relied on to be true and he was curious about some things. He nodded his consent. "Ask away," he stated simply.

"I guess my biggest question has always been why? We always had our fair share of mutual hostility but after some years it just became part of the routine. I never wondered why we hated each other, how did it start?"

"From my recollection it was a two way street," Draco reminded him.

"Yeah I know. I had my reasons to remain hostile to you. Do you want to start or shall I? I'll just start by saying that I'm not looking to hand out blame or vindicate anything, I just want to understand your point of view."

"I'm sorry to disappoint Potter, but I will not be divulging my life story to you. We can go home if that's what you were expecting."

"No, that's to what I want. I guess if you can explain why the initial hostility, why the hate for so many years. Like I said, I'm willing to explain myself as well."

"Alright Potter I concede to answering your question. You want to know why we got off on the wrong foot. I'll tell you. We'd all been told that the famous Harry Potter would be joining us mere mortals at Hogwarts that year. At least this holds true for the Wizarding world, I can't speak for the muggle side. We'd been plagued with the stories of your exploits even those who fought on the other side as my family once did. Yes, even I grew up knowing who you were although for all that was spoken of you, not much was actually known besides the facts of those event so long ago when, as a toddler you brought down the Dark Lord."

Harry sat there in silence absorbing all the words, trying to absorb in the information he never thought to ask in his youth.

"So imagine my look at meeting this celebrity. I guess there is some back story of mine required and I'll concede to willingly giving it. Just know that I will definitely be returning the favor. You know I grew up an only child of a well known pureblood family. Naturally I was pampered; use to getting things my way, being the center of attention and so being second was not something I ever had to contend with. Keep in mind that for the most part I led a normal childhood. There weren't Death Eater reunions every holiday. The ideals I grew up with are common amongst elite pure-blooded families, that's why so many of them sympathized with the Dark Lord. This was the environment I grew up in, I had no other frame of reference. Slytherin traits were and continue to be a way of life, I knew before school started that no one could compete with you for that attention so I went for the next best tactic, to befriend you. Yes Potter, when I offered my hand all those years, it was genuine, I was honestly willing to befriend you. Well as much as we Slytherins knew how to be friends."

Harry sat back, honestly surprised. He thought back to those events he spoke of when Draco Malfoy initially offered his hand. He didn't know what to think but kept on listening.

"So imagine my surprise, a boy who was used to getting what he wanted when you so publicly slighted me. For my immature mind, that was a declaration of sorts. The rest of my time would be dedicated to the retaliation of that initial offense. After some time, however that irritation was mostly gone and sad to say it, my actions were just fueled by an obsession to not be outdone. In other words, I was bullying you and your friends, mostly because it was gratifying to try to bring down the great Harry Potter and you gave a prejudice pureblood plenty of ammunition. You and your friends stood for everything I had been indoctrinated to hate; it was almost natural to regurgitate everything that had been taught to me from an early childhood about status and entitlement."

Harry chose this moment to speak up. "I think I understand from your point. It was stupid but I at least know where you're coming from." Harry said this honestly, he truly could see how the situation had been set up to pin them against each other from the start.

"Now it's your turn. Finally I can find peace for all those nights I cried myself to sleep now that I get to know why you declined my handshake," Draco added sarcastically. "You know for the boy who liked to mock death you sure could be closed minded," he finished.

"Well although you want to avoid divulging your background, I'm afraid you're going to have endure my history for my side of the story. Before that, though, I have a question to ask."

"Not fair Potter, you answer mine and then I'll answer yours," the man across chastised with hints of childlike petulance.

"I was just going to ask how much you knew about my early life, to avoid repeating information you already know." Harry stated simply.

"Oh, in that case, not much. I know what's widely known, that you were raised by muggles. I must of missed that particular issue of my prescription to your fan club magazine Potter, sorry to disappoint," Malfoy teased, with mirth evident in his smirk.

Harry laughed at this and the atmosphere calmed, no longer lingering with twinges of tension. "Well in that case I have more explaining to do. It'll be hard to explain since you grew up with magic but try to imagine my scenario back then. Imagine growing up not knowing you're a wizard. Imagine only realizing this a month before we were set to start our first term at Hogwarts."

"You can't be serious, you must have known," Draco quickly cut in, completely flabbergasted. "Surely it's common for children to experience spontaneous burst of magic. You can't have not known, how did you explain your parents' history then?" Malfoy asked confused by this confession. It was hard to imagine that the Chosen-dolt didn't know what he was famous for. Things didn't seem to add up, there must be more to his once nemesis than he ever gave a second thought to.

"It's true. I, as you know, was raised by muggles, my aunt and uncle. I was left on their doorstep the very same night my parents died. My mom's sister, my aunt and her husband took me in, I had no other family. They were muggles who feared and cast away any semblances of magic. To them, the only experience they had with magic was the negative side. They had only had the reference to death when magic was involved," Harry said feeling like he needed to defend his relatives. He didn't completely agree with their actions but he understood them more.

"They were determined to keep all semblance of normality and so they fed me a different story of my past, one in which magic wasn't in the picture. When your in that world, in that mentality, something as normal as magic to you or any other witch or wizard becomes more like fanciful dreaming than reality."

Harry had never really spoken this candidly to anyone about that time period in his past. Even with Ron and Hermione these conversations had been short, sparing most of the details. But here, with Draco, he felt a need to divulge all of it. To help Draco and himself understand, to tell him things he hadn't thought about in a long time.

"So while you like any other person in the Wizarding world knew the details about their death, the date, the place of their last stance, I knew nothing up until my eleventh birthday. I never knew what happened at Godric's Hollow that Halloween night, I never saw their graves until a few months before the final battle at Hogwarts, and I didn't even know their last resting place. While many visited those sites, built stone statues in their honor, I never knew what they stood for and eventually died for. The muggles told me my parents died in a car accident... a sort of muggle transportation device" Harry added anticipating the confused that might arise. The emotions of the situation were getting to him. He took a few moments to recompose himself.

"Any time I asked questions I was punished, they hated it when I asked questions," Harry finally finished being able to regain control of his emotions. He didn't think he'd be this upset this soon into the conversation.

"What kind of punishments?" Draco asked with a hint of curiosity hoping to dissipate the intense emotional tone that had seeped into the conversation. He might have changed the topic to avoid Potter's evident oncoming train of emotions, but Draco was still left reeling from his admissions. It was true he had his own issues with his family but he couldn't even begin to contemplate what it must have been for the Wizarding World's hero. From how he described it, it must have been an unimaginable lonely place. He would never bring himself to say these things out loud, but he could feel the twinges of regret ebbing closer to his conscious.

Harry could sense that perhaps his former nemesis would make light of the details but at this point he really didn't feel like stopping. He needed to say these things out loud, even if it was for the sake of saying them.

"Well mostly they recurred to their favorite punishment, locking me in the cupboard under the stairs/my room and no dinner. They especially like the second part; I spent most of my time hungry than anything else.

"That would explain your almost scrawny standing," Draco couldn't help but add, hoping to lighten the fact that it sounded close to neglect.

"We were 11 you git, we were all scrawny and inadequate," Harry joked back.

"Ah, so we were, except Crabbe and Goyle, they seemed to breathe pastries," he replied settling into an easy banter.

"Well I guess you're right, but it is hard to be anything but scrawny when they think starving you will prevent you from doing things like setting a snake on your cousin, or re-growing your hair magically. It was so disconcerting doing things that you had no clue how to explain, I frightened myself sometimes." Harry said looking intently down at his hands.

"You see the evidence of your magic but without knowing your background it becomes surreal. No one was there to tell me it was normal or expected, I half-imagined that most things I made up in my mind to distract the situation I lived. It wasn't all bad though, I took my revenges where I could, mostly directed at my cousin who weighed the proper weight of a small whale. Although to my constant disappointment he always retaliated, he wasn't the sharpest but he made it up with brute strength, and I mean it, he was a right brute. When no one was looking much my cousin loved to indulge in one of his favorite hobbies, using me as a punching bag along with gang of friends. Other than that, my punishments consisted mostly in doing the chores around the house no one else wanted to do, the garden, even cooking sometimes. They also enjoyed a bit of mental punishment here and there. They didn't mind reminding me that it was out of their kindness that I even had a home. They also like to work in lies about my parents, being dead beat, drunk, lazy people who brought about their own demise. If there's one thing I was never as a child was entitled or arrogant, far from it," Harry said changing the conversation again from light to being completely overwhelmed in anger. Anger he hadn't tapped into in a long time and one which he didn't know he still carried within him.

"They hoped punishment coupled with my ignorance of my heritage would stifle the magic out of me," Harry detailed feeling an inexplicable need to defend his relatives brutal actions.

"I didn't really have anyone back then, no one I was close to. School in the muggle world was difficult. I didn't know what it was like to have friends until Hogwarts; most students were scared to approach me for fear of being beaten by my cousin."

Draco took in these details, they were hard to hear but he imagined even harder having to live through. He was secretly admiring the innate character his once nemesis must have possessed to take what he did and find the strength to carry on with what life at school threw at him. He was through and through a Gryffindor with all his bravery and part of him envied him for that trait. While he himself had his share of childhood trials, they were meek compared to Potter's. It wasn't something he'd willingly confess, but at the moment he felt pity towards the world's hero although if he read him correctly, it wasn't something that would be gratefully accepted. He'd found in life, people rarely contented well with being pitied, hated or adored were manageable but nothing worse than being pitied so he stopped.

"Dam Gryffindors," Draco muttered just loud enough for Harry to hear. The words didn't come out with the venom he thought they would but more of a resigned respect towards the individual sitting across from him.

"What does that have to do with anything," Harry responded back feeling defensive that they were back to old school prejudices.

"You heard, you damn Gryffindor with all your courage and bravery, bloody fools," was all Draco cared to explain. His facial expression stated simply that he wasn't going to elaborate and Harry couldn't be sure but it almost felt like a compliment in a weird convoluted way.

"Well needless to say that when I was told I was a wizard I had no clue," Harry continued on with his story. "I'd survived on hand me downs from my older cousin and now I was told I had a vault full of gold with my name on it. I'd never even seen a goblin until the day I went to Gringotts and to Diagon Alley to do school shopping. Things were changing, things I had no clue existed were being revealed and this new world only made me question my sanity at first. It was surreal to be introduced to magic like that. I'd lived a life without knowing anything. I was caught unaware. And here I was told I'd be starting a new school where once again I'd feel undoubtedly out of place. The day you met me at Madam Milkins was my first true introduction into the Wizarding world. It was all new to me, those were the first set of robes I ever wore. I had a month before school started to try to catch up to everything I missed out on. To tell you I had to ask Mrs. Weasley who was a stranger at that time how to get on the platform." Harry remembered his panic at the minutes inched towards eleven o'clock and he feared that his greatest fears that this was all a big hoax would be realized. He laughed at his own reaction back then, realizing how far he'd come.

"And so we get to that fateful day. You see, it was Hagrid who first told me my story. When he explained everything about who I was and why I was famous he also gave me a brief explanation on what and who Voldemort was, and what it was the war that claimed my family was about. He explained the role of blood status and he told me what a pureblood was. So on that day I had just spent time with Ron on the train, a pureblood but for all likeliness, a blood traitor in the eyes of Wizarding society, he was more like me, living a life of scarcities. It was then that you approached us before we were to be sorted, before we even knew that we were supposed to be house enemies. From the perspective of a boy who had to endure a life without so many things, not just material but a family, what you represented in that moment wasn't something I could easily accept. I was Harry Potter but I didn't know what that weighed in the Wizarding world. I felt completely overwhelmed thinking people expected me to have some great power when the only experience life had given me was on how to survive through extended periods of hunger. Your speech about some Wizarding families being better than other might have worked if I in any way believed myself to be better than anyone else. At that time I felt inadequate with huge expectations that I didn't think I'd be able to live up to."

Malfoy sat across listening and dissecting all that Harry had just told. It was hard to believe that the boy who lived started from there. "I guess you were right, we were destined to hate each other from the start," were the only words Draco could bring forth.

All Harry could to do was shrug and agree. "It seems like it."

As he sat there dissecting everything he had been told, Draco thought back to all those years they spent at Hogwarts, trying to add this historical context to the memories he had of the Boy-who-lived. This didn't prove to be helping; his mind was having trouble getting around the fact that life hadn't been fair for either of them. Instead he decided to side track with questions he was curious about but weren't entirely the main preoccupation of his mind.

"Where you seriously that unprepared? I wonder why Snape made you out to be the most insufferable arrogant git like he did," Draco asked.

"Yeah, I never understood where he got the whole thing about me strutting about the place. Then I found out he was in school in my dad and let's just say there was some mutual dislike between them. It seems Snape couldn't separate between us and took his out past frustrations on me. Apparently I looked too much like my dad for his liking. Although I'm no longer angry about it, I guess I just understand him more."

to be continued

-(This conversation is the longest so I cut it into sections. It's written out, I just have the editing to do. I'll be posting them up as I finish reviewing them. I don't know the total number of parts its going to have but it's the one I enjoyed writing the most.)