Chances To Come

Chapter Five

Confrontations

Harry giggled slightly after he'd caught up to his friend, then he said in a singsong voice, "Draco and Kendra, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…"

Draco frowned, taking a moment to figure out what that spelled, then he growled and slapped Harry across the arm.

Harry laughed, "It's just a Muggle song, Draco."

"And?"

"And 'first comes love, then comes marriage…'" Harry giggled again then ducked.

Draco glared at him. "You better start running."

Harry grinned at his friend for a moment, then bolted.

Harry stopped and looked around to take account of where he was. Well, crap, I'm lost… "Draco?" he called out. No response. "Draco!"

His voice echoed slightly then faded. Harry sighed and looked around again, trying to find anything that looked familiar to help him find his way.

Turning around, he ran right into something very solid and fell back. Looking up, he found himself staring at a tall old man. Harry blushed with embarrassment, "I'm very sorry, sir, I didn't see you there or hear you walk up…"

The old man smiled kindly and outstretched a hand to help Harry up. "It is quite alright, Harry."

Harry frowned with confusion for a moment, wondering how he knew his name, but then he remembered Draco telling him about being famous. Well, at least I know he's a wizard.

He took the offered hand and stood up then dusted himself off. He hesitated slightly, but he felt like he could trust this man. "I'm lost, sir, could you tell me how to get to the Leaky Cauldron?"

The man looked faintly surprised but then he nodded. "It is this way," he turned and walked off, Harry trotting along beside him.

"Thank you," Harry muttered.

They walked in silence for what seemed like a long time before the old man led Harry around to the shabby pub again. Draco was in the lobby and he jumped up when he saw Harry.

"Harry! Where have you –" Draco froze when he saw who Harry was with. "Dumbledore."

Harry looked up at the old man, Dumbledore?

Dumbledore smiled kindly at the young boy in front of him. "Hello, Mr. Malfoy. What may I ask are you doing here with Harry? He's supposed to be with his aunt and uncle."

Draco scowled, "They mistreated him, Dumbledore, I don't know why you left him there in the first place, they're horrible."

"And how did you come to find out about this?"

Draco hesitated, "I… ended up in Surrey after the attack…" he mumbled, knowing it would be no good to lie to Dumbledore, but not wanting to volunteer too much information.

Dumbledore nodded slightly, still smiling.

Draco hesitated. "You're not going to make us go back, are you?"

Dumbledore considered him for a moment. He looked uncertain suddenly, as if seeing them brought a sense of doubt to the pre-conceived answer he'd most likely already thought up. Draco began to squirm under Dumbledore's gaze and Harry stood to the side, keeping a respectful silence. There was a tension that hung thick in the silent air – or at least, silent to their ears, having blocked out the noises of the pub. Then, finally, Dumbledore spoke.

"Harry's relatives can protect him in a way that nothing else can."

"From what?" said Draco abruptly and, he almost cursed to himself at the thought, rudely.

"Voldemort."

"But he's gone, Dumbledore, that's already been taken care of," Draco crossed his arms for a moment, then fidgeted slightly and let them fall to his sides again. "Please, Dumbledore, if anything, Harry needs to be protected from them not by them."

And what could a Muggle do against Voldemort anyway? Draco thought, but decided against saying it.

Harry finally broke in. "Mr. Dumbledore, sir, I don't want to go back, I like it here."

Dumbledore raised one eyebrow at the shabby pub and wondered to himself exactly how much he might have missed when it came to the Dursleys if Harry preferred the Leaky Cauldron over them.

Finally, he relented. "I will not make you two go back to the Dursleys, however, you can't be staying in the Leaky Cauldron either. This is no place for two young boys such as you. I will take you to Hogwarts, on one condition: That you both shall make yourselves unseen, unheard and overall unknown by anyone residing in the castle, especially during the school year."

Both boys let out long breaths that neither had realized they'd been holding.

~*~ Four years later… ~*~

"Harry! Letter!" Draco called, clutching two envelopes in his hand.

Harry stumbled out of the bathroom, his pajamas nearly swallowing him whole and tangling him up. The inevitable happened: he tripped and fell with a dull thud onto the thick carpet floor. Unfazed, he got up, brushed himself off, and took his letter.

"Oh, gee, how unexpected," he said sarcastically, after glancing over the front.

Mr. Harry Potter

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Third Floor Secret Chamber

"I wonder what that could be…" Draco replied with equal sarcasm while opening his own.

"I almost wonder why he bothered sending them when we're already here," Harry muttered, casting a quick glance over his supplies list.

Draco shrugged, "Who knows how that old man's mind works sometimes. Get dressed then we'll head to Diagon Alley for all this junk. This is going to be a boring year, I think, I mean, we already know half or more of the spells we'll be 'learning'."

Harry grabbed an outfit out of his wardrobe then went back into the bathroom. "You never know, Draco. Surprises happen."

"Yeah, yeah, not all that often though," Draco sat down on his bed and bounced impatiently until Harry reemerged from the bathroom. "Are you ready, finally?"

"Shove it. That took no more than five minutes."

Draco grinned slightly, moving over to the fireplace and grabbing a handful of Floo powder from a vase sitting on the mantel. He tossed it into the flames and yelled, "Diagon Alley!"

Harry soon followed, cringing at the thought of traveling by Floo.

Harry tumbled out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron and landed at Draco's feet.

Draco smirked, "Graceful."

"Shove it."

"Make me."

Harry snatched the wand out of Draco's pocket with practiced ease and muttered, "Silencio!"

Draco scowled and mouthed the word, "Mature."

Harry grinned and gave his friend his voice back then gave him the wand. "Well, you did say to make you."

"Yeah, and the last time it was vice versa. If I hadn't done it to you, you never would have gotten the idea. Thief."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Drakey."

Draco shuddered at the horrible nickname. "Call me that again and I will hex you."

"Kendra calls you that all the time."

"That's Kendra."

"Oh, I see…" Harry grinned and struck up the song he'd never abandoned. "Draco and Kendra, sitting in a tree…"

"No! It's just that she's a girl. My father taught me not to hex girls unless they hex you first – then it's fair game."

"Sure, Drakey."

"Shut up, Harry!"

They bought ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor after they got their books and other supplies, including Harry's wand.

"You finally have one of your own. Hallelujah for that, you've been driving me crazy, borrowing mine," said Draco as they sat down with their ice cream.

"Oh, shut up, I didn't even borrow it that much, you were normally too busy putting some spell or another on me with it."

"Yeah, and you can finally fight back now."

"Yeah," said Harry off-handedly, fingering the wand in his pocket.

"What's the matter, Harry?"

"I was just thinking about that old man in the wand shop."

"Mr. Ollivander?"

"Yeah. He kind of creeped me out a little."

Draco laughed, "He can have that effect, that's for sure."

"Yeah…" Harry smiled slightly then started into his ice cream.

After they finished, they started to head back to the Leaky Cauldron but an exclamation from a redheaded boy nearby caught their attention.

"The Nimbus 2000!"

"It's out already?" Draco blinked. "I heard it wasn't in stores for another week."

He looked at Harry, who shrugged then they both headed over to Quality Quidditch Supplies.

"Blimey, it's beautiful!" breathed Draco, his nose pressed to the glass.

Harry nodded in agreement. "It's too bad first years aren't allowed our own brooms."

"Hogwarts, too?" asked the redheaded boy beside them.

"Yep, first year, too?" said Harry.

"Yep. I'm Ron Weasley, who are –" he stopped mid-sentence, getting his first good look at Harry. "Harry Potter!"

Harry blushed and tried to duck behind Draco to stay unnoticed but Ron's exclamation had been heard and everyone crowded around, pushing and shoving to try to see Harry. Then a sudden hush fell over the crowd as everyone recognized the person Harry was standing by, the one person who was not trying to get a closer look at him.

"Malfoy," said Ron, his voice dripping with contempt.

"Weasley," said Draco coolly.

"You two know each other?" said Harry, bewildered.

"You know him?" said Ron, equally confused. "You're supposed to be with those Muggles aren't you? And you," Ron spat at Draco's feet. "You're supposed to be dead."

"So sorry to disappoint you, Weasley," said Draco, sounding bored. "Next time, I'll do my level best to just stick around while my house is attacked and wait for someone to kill me."

Draco and Ron took to glaring at each other for several long moments.

"Draco…" Harry muttered, casting a wary eye over the crowd.

Draco sighed softly then muttered something to Ron that Harry couldn't make out before shoving a path through the crowd, heading for the Leaky Cauldron. Harry quickly followed him, casting a glance back at Ron before he was gone from sight.

"Out of all the people, we had to run into the Weasley boy," said Draco, grabbing a handful of Floo Powder.

"What's so bad about him?"

"His family and my family never got along well, they always called us rich snobs and such, jealous I think, because they don't have two Galleons to rub together."

Harry felt a tinge of sympathy for the Weasleys at that statement, but that quickly disappeared when he remembered the way Ron had been talking to his friend.

"Don't know why he was looking at the Nimbus, he can't afford a single twig off the tail."

"Doesn't mean he can't look at it, Draco," said Harry, shrugging. "None of us could get it anyway, seeing as how we're all first years."

"Yeah, well…" Draco shrugged also. "I hope we don't have to be around him too much in Hogwarts. We probably won't, he's fit to be a bloody Gryffindor."

Harry didn't reply. He'd always fancied the thought of being a Gryffindor, but with Draco's pride of Slytherin, he never said anything. He simply nodded, and that was enough for his friend.

When they got back to their room, a very strange sight met their eyes. A small, gangly creature was fixing up their beds they'd neglected to make that morning. Draco's eyes went as wide as saucers and he whispered one word.

"Dobby?"

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A/N: The chapter is a bit short, again, but I couldn't resist leaving it there! Sorry! :: Hides ::

Dumbledore's decision to take them to Hogwarts just seems… wrong, somehow. Uncharacteristic and unbelievable, to say the least, but I couldn't send them back to the stupid Dursleys. And Dobby's appearance will be explained fully, I promise!

DreamingToThis: Here it is. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks a ton for your review.

Kaaera: Now you know. ^.^ And see? It's not too bad that Kendra called Dumbledore.

~Sabre Black.