The rest of the summer went by. The Order adjusted to Draco being around. The Weasleys and Mad-Eye Moody were weary at first, considering Draco's parents are Death Eaters.
"My family were supporters of the Dark Lord too, and my brother was a Death Eater." Sirius reminded them all one night on the dinner table, "if you're gonna punish him for it, you should punish me too."
This was the first time Sirius spoke of his brother. Or his family. Harry remembered vaguely reading about his brother in one of the Daily Prophets he found in the library two years ago, when he still thought Sirius was a dangerous murderer out to get him.
Tonks, on the other hand, greeted Draco warmly, and welcomed him. "Bring it in, cousin!"
"You're cousins?" Harry did not know that.
"Yeah, how's aunt Andromeda?"
Draco and Tonks did not grow up close, given their parents' different political backgrounds.
Soon enough, it was time for them to go back to Hogwarts. There, Harry has turned into a social pariah.
In Slytherin, his own house, most people were children of Death Eaters, and thus turned away from him and, essentially, exiled him.
Students in other houses mostly followed the Daily Prophet, and hated on him for an entirely different reason.
"It's stupid!" Harry complained to Draco, Ron, and Hermione in their train compartment. "Ignoring Voldemort won't make him go away."
"I know," Hermione agreed, sympathetically, "but fear is irrational."
"Irrational my as-" Harry was saying when he was interrupted by a voice coming from the door.
"I believe you." They all turned to the voice. A young witch stood there, with long wavy blonde hair and dreamy look in her eyes, wearing an eccentric pair of glasses and holding a magazine in her hand called the Quibbler.
"Thank you," said Harry, trying to remember if he had ever met her.
"This is Luna," Hermione introduced her. She was a Ravenclaw too.
"My father wrote all about it in the Quibbler," she said, as she entered the compartment and took a seat right next to Hermione, who did not seem to be Luna's biggest fan.
"The Quibbler?" Ron asked, and she handed him the copy she had.
As they got off the train and made it to the enchanted carriages, Harry froze in his place. "What are these?"
"What?" Draco asked.
"These," Harry pointed at the carriages, Draco turned around.
"I can't see anything." Ron said.
"These are thestrals." Draco answered.
"What are?" Ron said.
"The winged weird looking horses." Harry pointed at the thestrals again.
"Ron can't see them because he has not seen death," Hermione caught up to them, "I can't see them either."
"Can you see them?" Harry turned to Draco, who simply nodded.
They got in the carriages, and the thestrals took off.
"When have you witnessed death?" Harry, during the ride, turns to Draco.
"I don't want to talk about it." Is Draco hiding something?
They reached the castle and made it to the Great Hall. The first-year students get sorted, Dumbledore's giving a speech, everything happening as usual, until…
"Hem hem," a toad-like lady in an aggressively pink outfit, whom Dumbledore introduced as Professor Umbridge, cleared her throat, interrupting Dumbledore's speech, who stopped and turned to her.
She then proceeded to make a whole speech filled with Ministry propaganda. It took Harry every ounce of self-control he could muster to remain quiet.
Once she was done, there was a weak round of applause. Some were more enthusiastic than others.
Harry turned to Draco: "I hate her. I hate her. I hate her."