Chances To Come
Chapter Six
Sorting and Flying
Draco rubbed his temples, trying to ward off the oncoming headache, before turning to stare at the small house elf again.
"Let me get this straight… you heard the noise and you hid, then you saw my father rummaging through his closet for something and he tossed aside several items and you caught a sock…" He paused and waited for Dobby to nod before continuing. "After that you left and ran until Dumbledore found you and brought you here."
Dobby nodded again, "Yes, Mr. Malfoy, sir," he squeaked.
"And why do I get the feeling you're leaving something out?"
"Dobby does not know, sir, that was what happened, sir!" said Dobby.
Draco sighed and looked at Harry. "What do you think?"
Harry shrugged and looked at Dobby. "Why haven't we seen you before if you've been here so long?"
"House elves are not supposed to be seen, Mr. Harry Potter, sir, but Dobby heard tell that the great Harry Potter was in Hogwarts – Dobby had to come see, sir!"
"Well, now you have. It was wonderful to meet you and everything, Dobby, but I'm sure you must have plenty to do," said Harry.
Dobby nodded and disappeared with a faint pop.
"I don't like his story very much. It's not hard to imagine him hiding from danger, but what would my father have been looking for in his closet?" said Draco more to himself than Harry.
"Spare wand, maybe?"
"Maybe… it still feels like there was something he left out."
"It didn't sound all that suspicious to me," Harry shrugged slightly. "I just hope he won't tell anyone else I'm here."
"He's a house elf and like he said, house elves are not supposed to be seen, not to mention it's probably another house elf he heard it from – who does he have to tell?"
"Good point."
"Besides, half of Diagon Alley just heard about it, I'm sure they're still there gossiping, swapping ideas, starting up rumors…"
Harry groaned.
Draco smiled slightly, "And by way of encouragement… it gets worse from here."
"Thanks."
A few months later, Harry and Draco found themselves in the Great Hall, waiting for their turn to be Sorted.
After Morag MacDougal got Sorted into Ravenclaw, Malfoy's name got called and he half-ran to the stool and shoved the hat onto his head. The reaction was instantaneous.
"SLYTHERIN!" screamed the hat and Malfoy grinned widely, joining the Slytherins at their table.
Harry stood uneasily amongst the small crowd of students as they pushed and shoved whenever their names were called. He got shoved right into Ron Weasley.
"Ouch! Sorry… Oh. Ron, right?"
"Yeah. Harry, right?" Ron gave him a small grin.
Harry felt himself relax a little. "Yeah. What House do you think you'll be in?"
"I have no idea. You?"
"I have no idea."
"I hope I get into Gryffindor though."
"To be honest, I kind of do, too, but overall, any House will do really."
"I suppose," said Ron with a small shrug then he gave an odd look to Harry. "How do you know about the Houses anyway?"
Harry smiled slightly, "Well, that's a secret."
"Ah," Ron nodded. "Well, good luck, hope you don't get Slytherin."
"Slytherin wouldn't be so bad, although I must admit I don't think of myself as very cunning so I don't think I have much to worry about. Oh, I'm next. I'll see you around, Ron."
"Yeah, see you around."
Harry swaggered up to the stool and gave a glance at Draco before sitting down and putting the Hat onto his head.
"Very interesting…" the hat whispered in Harry's ear. "Very interesting… I see there is no particular preference of which House you end up in, that always makes things difficult, but you are very courageous and very smart… very much like your parents."
Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, huh? Harry thought. Well, I'm not that smart…
"I take it you fancy Gryffindor over Ravenclaw?" said the hat.
Well, if you must put it that way.
"I see… Well, then, it'll be – GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry took off the hat and glanced at Draco, who looked crestfallen. He gave an apologetic look to his friend, then took his seat at the Gryffindor table, trying to ignore the raucous cheers from all the Gryffindors.
Soon Ron joined him and thumped him heartily on the back.
"Congratulations!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah, thanks. You too, Ron," said Harry.
Dumbledore stood up after Blaise Zabini joined the Slytherins. "Welcome!" he said, beaming at all the students. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!
"Thank you!"
He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry watched the plates until the food appeared then they all began to eat. During the meal, he struck up several conversations with different people, but since half or more just stared at his scar while he talked, he only made a real conversation with a few.
After everyone was finished, Dumbledore stood and made a few notices then had everyone sing the school song.
Afterwards, as everyone was leaving, Harry and Draco made their way to each other.
"Gryffindor?!" Draco half-screamed. "GRYFFINDOR?!"
"Draco, calm down – I didn't choose Gryffindor over Slytherin, it's just where the Sorting Hat placed me."
Draco sighed, "That stupid hat. It just had to make us rivals."
"Oh, come on, it's not that big of a deal. We'd already assumed we wouldn't be able to hang out as much when we started school here anyway, and just 'cause we're in different Houses doesn't mean we're rivals personally."
"I suppose, but still, bloody Gryffindor…" Draco muttered.
"Look, we need to go, or everyone is going to leave without us. I'll see you around, Draco," said Harry, giving an apologetic look to Draco before running off to catch up with the rest of the Gryffindors.
The next time Harry and Draco got the chance to talk again was Friday, right before Potions.
"Hey," said Harry, greeting his friend with a smile.
Draco mumbled a "hello" before pushing past him into the dungeons.
"Draco, what –"
"Nothing. I'm sorry, Harry, I've just been brooding a bit," said Draco, raking a hand through his white-blonde hair that stuck out in a way it hadn't before, suggesting that Draco had run his hands through his hair more than once in the past few days.
"Draco, you're not really that upset that I'm a Gryffindor, are you?"
"No!" said Draco quickly, then he hesitated. "Well… I don't know. I guess it just surprised me a bit."
"More like you didn't think of the possibility that we might get put into different Houses."
"Yeah, well…" Draco trailed off.
"It's okay," said Harry, giving a small smile. "Don't worry about it."
"Thanks."
"That's what friends are for. Now c'mon, the bell is about to ring."
They headed into the classroom and chose seats close to the back. Professor Snape started with a role call then wrote the ingredients for the potion onto the blackboard.
Malfoy and Harry made their potions in a manner that seemed haphazard to most, though it was a potion they'd practiced many times and it was simply force of habit that moved their hands. They were grateful for the "entertainment" – as Draco crudely put it – when another Gryffindor boy, Neville Longbottom, messed up his potion and it spewed everywhere.
However, by the time the class had ended, they were already bored again.
"At least we have this afternoon off," said Draco. "I think if I had any more classes, I'd scream."
"Me too," groaned Harry. "This is all so… rudimentary."
"But on the bright side, we have flying lessons next week! I'm probably a bit out of practice so it couldn't hurt and it'll be something new for you."
"I can't wait, it's going to be so much fun."
"You bet, there's nothing like flying."
Thursday of the next week proved Draco right and Harry found he had a natural ability for flying.
"Place your right hand over your broom and say 'up!'" said Madam Hooch, their instructor.
"UP!" yelled everyone simultaneously.
Harry and Draco's brooms flew to their hands immediately, along with a few others, but most had a harder time of getting their brooms to obey. Harry couldn't help but notice that more Gryffindors had their brooms in hand than the Slytherins, but he pushed that thought away quickly and waited until Madam Hooch would show them how to mount their brooms.
The rest of the class passed rather uneventfully, but Harry couldn't get over the exhilaration of flying. He was particularly proud when Madam Hooch told him he'd flown as good as some of those she'd seen on the House teams.
That night, Harry stayed up late in the common room, waiting for everyone else to go to bed, then he sneaked out. After four years of having to stay unnoticed, he knew many of the secret passages in Hogwarts and he used several of them to get to the entrance hall. Just when he thought the coast was clear, he bumped into something and there was a muffled, "Ouch!"
Harry recognized the voice immediately. "Draco, what are you doing?"
"Harry?" Draco blinked a couple times, trying to get his eyes to focus in the darkness. "What are you doing?"
"I asked you first."
"Alright, if you must know, I was sneaking out to go flying a bit more."
"Same here."
"You rebel."
"You should talk."
They both rolled their eyes then pushed open the front doors and crept out in the direction of the Quidditch stadium.
Instead of heading to where the brooms they'd used earlier were kept, Draco headed into the locker room area.
"What are you doing?" asked Harry.
"I want to use a good broom," said Draco shortly then proceeded to find out what types of brooms the people on the House teams had. Harry watched him for a moment then shrugged and followed him.
"I bet the Slytherins have the best brooms."
"Oh, yeah? I bet you the Gryffindors have better brooms than the Slytherins."
"Put your money where your mouth is then."
"Fine. Five Galleons."
"Sounds good," said Draco, heading into the Slytherin locker room while Harry went into the Gryffindor.
Draco stared in disgust at the brooms in front of him. The best one was a Cleansweep. "Well, I'm out five Galleons," he muttered, then picked up the broom and headed outside to wait for Harry, who came out a minute later, holding a Nimbus 2000.
"I wonder who's that is," said Draco, trying to sidestep the fact that he'd lost the bet.
"I dunno, but I'm using it. And you better dish up," said Harry.
"I will when we get back to the castle – I didn't carry my money with me to go flying and I doubt you did either."
Harry answered with a shrug as he mounted the broom.
"Hey, Harry! Catch!" Draco called, throwing a small golden object up into the air. Harry instinctively reached out to catch it but it took on a mind of its own and avoided his grasp.
Harry chased it, not letting his gaze falter from it, until it was within his arm's length. He reached out quickly and grabbed the small item out of the air. He went to the ground, clutching it tightly in his hand.
"Draco, what were you thinking? What if we had lost this? We'd be in so much trouble!"
Draco didn't answer, but stared over Harry's shoulder for a moment, then gulped. Confused, Harry turned around and found himself face-to-face with Professor McGonagall.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
A/N: Just to make sure there is no confusion about a few things, I want to clarify. At the very first of the chapter, I had originally intended to have Dobby tell his story but it wasn't working out too well – Dobby's dialogue is very, very hard to write in mass. Sorry, everyone, I couldn't pull it off, so I made a small jump there and had Draco tell us in English what had happened.
Ron asking Harry's name seems… off. But it was a joke, naturally, and I didn't want Ron and Harry to be uncomfortable around each other or anything and a small joke like that seemed to lighten the tension. At least, that's what I intended. Tell me what you think on that one, please.
Also, Draco's reaction to Harry becoming a Gryffindor, I really hope that's believable. With Draco, I figured he'd be a little upset about it… Ack. I dunno, something doesn't seem to want to fit right.
And, of course, that golden object was the Snitch. Obvious, I know, but the sad truth is, I've known people who would not have put two and two together and figured it out. Not mentioning any names of course.
All right, I've rambled long enough. Please review everyone! I love feedback!
Kaaera: Thanks a lot for your comments! And I believe this chapter should answer your questions, though I'm not sure if it answered more than it will spring up. Heh, heh.
Drusilla: Sorry, but since this story was kind of laid out already (stupid dream) I couldn't put him in Slytherin.
IcyPanther: Of course. ^.^ Harry and Ron will be hanging out with each other, too, but Harry will still be closer friends with Draco.
Sweet Sorrow1: No, no, no, I'm not a slasher, sorry, they're only going to be friends. I hope you enjoy the fic anyway!
DreamingToThis: Yay! Fave reviewer! :: Grins :: Here ya go, hope you enjoyed it, and I really hope Draco's reaction to Dobby wasn't too lame.
Thanks to all my reviewers :: hands out cookies to the reviewers :: Bye now!
~Sabre Black.