Draco

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.

Draco blinked several times. He had expected all sorts of sentences, but certainly not this question.

"What?"

"Did you happen to see a toad? Neville lost his."

She pointed to a chubby boy sniffing against the train window behind her. Then she turned back to Draco, obviously waiting for an answer.

"No." he replied, confused.

"Tell me if you see it, then."

She had a high-pitched voice, it was a bit annoying. From the sound of it, you'd have thought she'd already been a prefect for two years, when she was definitely a first year like him.

Draco only widened his eyes a little more and walked around the strange girl, who put the question to someone else.

He found the sweet cart and bought a blueberry muffin and a pumpkin juice which he gulped down on the train ride home. When he returned to his compartment, the conversation was over and everyone was silent.

Pansy was lying against his jacket but she wasn't asleep, Draco could see her half-closed eyes gazing out of the train window. Blaise was just sitting and staring at a fixed point in front of him, Nott was reading a book and Crabbe and Goyle were still devouring their mountain of sweets.

Draco sat in his seat from earlier and looked at the scenery. After a few minutes, Pansy moved from the bench to rest her head on his lap, and he let her.

He was used to this kind of gesture from his best friend, she had always had great difficulty falling asleep alone. No one in the compartment seemed surprised, and thankfully so, because Draco would have been really upset if anyone had dared to make a comment.

After a long moment, Nott read aloud:

"Harry Potter, the famous wizard who survived the Dark Lord's attack on October 31, 1981, is one of the most beloved figures in the wizarding world."

Everyone looked at the boy without understanding why he had wanted to share this information in the carriage that had been plunged into silence for hours.

"And?" asked Pansy who woke up a little.

"1981. That means he's here." explained Nott quietly.

"Yes, he's coming to Hogwarts this year, my father told me," Draco replied.

"Then that means he's on the train right now. Don't you think it's strange that no one knows what he looks like?"

Blaise shrugged, very uninterested in this conversation. Draco surmised:

"My father thinks it must be a Death Eater, maybe even stronger than the Dark Lord."

"How can anyone be stronger than You-Know-Who at one year old?" asked Pansy, not convinced.

"I don't know, maybe he has some extra powers..."

"That's impossible," Nott pointed out. "No one is born with more magical powers than anyone else."

"What do you know?" asked Draco coldly, who didn't like Nott much.

He held up his thick book with his hand, as if reading gave him an answer to everything.

"I've read it. That's why they accept Muggleborns, they think everyone is equal at birth."

Draco, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle laughed dismissively at this. It was impossible to be equal with a Muggle-born when you had grown up your whole life as a wizard.

"By they, you mean Dumbledore?" asked Pansy.

Nott nodded. Pansy stood up, obviously sore from her nap and stretched. Draco took the opportunity to stand up:

"I'm going to go meet this Potter guy, see if we can get him into our compartment. It might be a good thing to have him around. Crabbe, Goyle, come with me."

If he was going to meet an evil genius, he preferred to look just as threatening with two bodyguards at his side. The boys stood up, happy to be part of something, and Draco slid the train door open again.

They walked up the corridor. By now, nearly all the students were wearing their wizarding robes.

"Have you seen Harry Potter?" asked Draco of several people.

"Yes, over there." said a boy pointing to the door of one of the compartments.

"He's sitting there." said another older girl pointing to the same door.

Draco stopped in front of it and opened the door without knocking. He turned immediately to the dark-haired boy, and was surprised to see that he had in fact seen him before: it was the skinny, withdrawn boy from Madam Malkin' shop.

"So it's true? They say everywhere that Harry Potter is in this compartment. Is that you?" asked Draco.

"Yes." he said.

Draco looked at the strange boy. He didn't picture Harry Potter like this at all. He had heard of him as a mysterious and extremely powerful being from his father, but he didn't look threatening at all like this. Still, Draco could see a bit of his lightning bolt scar under his messy hair.

He saw that the boy was looking at Crabbe and Goyle, who looked far too burly compared to them all.

"This is Crabbe and the other is Goyle. My name is Draco Malfoy."

He wondered if Harry Potter had ever heard of his name (probably yes, he was very well known too), but before he could observe his reaction, the boy next to him had a mocking laugh. Draco turned to him: he was tall with flaming red hair and had freckles all over his face.

"My name makes you laugh?" asked Draco. "No need to ask yours. My father told me that all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles and far too many children to feed."

He looked up and down at the redhead, and especially at his oversized, patchy clothes.

"Be very careful who you associate with, Potter. If you want to avoid shady people, I can give you some advice."

Draco held out a friendly hand, but Harry Potter did not take it.

"I don't need anyone to tell me who the dodgy people are."

His tone was the same dry as it had been in the clothes shop. He was nothing like the boy his father described. If he refused Pureblood help and hung out with Weasleys, it meant he was no better than the Muggleborns.

Draco felt a sudden surge of anger. Harry Potter didn't want to be friends with him, and he was just rejecting Draco's help. He decided that he didn't like him at all.

"If I were you, I'd be a little more careful, Potter. If you're not more polite, you'll end up like your parents. They were careless too. If you hang around with scum like the Weasleys or that Hagrid guy, they'll eventually rub off on you."

They both stood up, Weasley as pathetic as Harry Potter. How could such a frail boy have defeated the Dark Lord his father had always praised? Crabbe and Goyle looked even more menacing against the two boys. Draco felt a certain pride in having brought them with him.

"Say that again," said Weasley.

"You two want to fight?"

"You'd better get out of here," Potter said hesitantly.

"Oh, but we have no intention of leaving at all, do we guys? We've finished all our supplies and you look like you still have some."

Draco looked at Potter and Weasley nastily as his two bodyguards approached the sweets on the bench, and Goyle stifled a scream. Draco watched in horror as a large rat was furiously biting his finger.

He instinctively backed away and when Goyle managed to get rid of the rodent, Draco rushed out into the corridor. He nearly collided with the shaggy-haired girl as they returned to their compartment to tell Pansy and Blaise all about it.

Hermione

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.

"What happened here?" asked Hermione as she entered the compartment.

The two boys she had seen earlier looked at the mess around them. The tall, freckled redhead, Ron, was holding his rat by the tail and examining it closely:

"I think he's knocked out," he said, and then, after looking at him again for a few seconds, he exclaimed, "That's amazing! He's not knocked out, he's just asleep!"

Hermione observed the sweets spread out on the floor. These two boys looked dissipated, Hermione wasn't too sure if she wanted to be friends with them.

"Did you know him before, that Malfoy?" asked Ron to Harry Potter, referring to the blond boy she had passed in the corridor.

Harry Potter put his glasses back on his nose properly. They were round and encircled his deep green eyes. He had dark hair that was tousled all over. Hermione was surprised to have come across such an important figure in the wizarding world in just one day, but she was equally surprised by his looks. He was nothing like she had imagined when she had read those books about him.

Harry Potter told of the first time he had seen Malfoy on Diagon Alley. Ron's face darkened:

"I've heard about his family. They were among the first to come back to our side when You-Know-Who disappeared. They claimed they were victims of a curse, but my father doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father doesn't need a curse to get on the side of the evil forces. Can we help you?" he added to Hermione who flinched.

"You'd better get changed. I went to see the engine driver in the locomotive and he said we were almost there. You didn't get into a fight, did you? You're looking for trouble before we even get there!"

"It was Scabbers who fought, not us. Would you mind leaving us alone while we change?"

Hermione held Ron's glare. She didn't really like his attitude, he must have been a dunce.

"Alright, I'm leaving." she said with a haughty tone. "I came to see you because the others are just being silly, running around the hallway like idiots and you have a dirt on your nose, if you must know."

She walked away. As she walked down the train corridor, she thought back to Ron's words about Malfoy. If she believed him, that meant Malfoy was one of those families that didn't like Muggleborns, which meant her. She decided not to trust appearances, she had only seen this boy for five seconds, and she wasn't even sure if she liked this Ron.

As Hermione walked back to her compartment, she bumped into Neville again. His eyes were red.

"You haven't found your toad?"

Neville shook his head sadly, sniffing. She wasn't sure if it was because of his chubby cheeks, but he reminded her of Danny. Hermione put a friendly hand on his back to comfort him:

"Don't worry, we'll find him. Come with me if you want, we can get off the train together."

Draco

.

.

When he returned to the compartment, Pansy was gone, and Blaise and Nott were silently putting on their robes. Draco opened his trunk to put on his own.

"So, this Potter guy?" asked Blaise.

"He's exactly the opposite of what we said. He's all skinny and he doesn't scare anyone. Plus, he hangs out with a Weasley." scoffed Draco.

"Did you ask him to come?"

"I reached out to him but he declined. He said he'd be fine on his own without my help. Pff. When you're hanging around with a loser like Weasley, you've clearly got a problem, in my opinion."

Nott and Blaise nodded in agreement.

"Did he have the scar?" asked Nott as they exited the compartment.

"Yeah, under his hair, I saw it, a little bit. Otherwise, I never would have thought it was him."

The train stopped and Draco jumped onto the platform. He heard Hagrid's voice calling to them in the distance but he searched the crowd for Pansy. He found her in the company of Millicent Bulstrode, a square-jawed and rather imposing girl.

They followed Hagrid at a distance and boarded one of the boats, in which he found himself with Pansy, Blaise and Millicent. In the distance, they could see Hogwarts glowing in the night on top of a small mountain. Draco looked up at the castle towers and felt a rush of excitement and anxiety.

He looked around and noticed that almost all the students in the boats were looking at the castle as he was. He saw Harry Potter in the distance, along with the chubby boy who had lost his toad, the Weasley and the curly-haired girl he had seen on the train. She was looking at Hogwarts with wide eyes, dazzled. He wondered why she hung out with such people.

Pansy must have followed his gaze because she asked him what he thought of Potter, and he told her everything that had happened in the compartment. At the end of his explanation, Blaise sighed:

"I don't think we should be interested in this Potter guy, he seems to be really weird."

"Yes, let's focus on the Sorting instead." called back Pansy, her voice a little shaky.

Draco nodded, but turned his attention back to the boat with Potter in it. Why did his father want him to be friends with these kind of weak people?

Hermione

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.

When McGonagall opened the large, solid wooden door to the castle, Hermione felt relief wash over her when she saw someone she knew. McGonagall swept her gaze over the crowd of first years, and her gaze lingered on Hermione for a moment, but she made no sign to show that she recognised her.

They entered the Castle Hall, which was even bigger than she had imagined it to be when she had read 'Hogwarts : A History'. They made their way to one of the doors in the huge hall and entered a small room where they all huddled together. Hermione was so anxious that she could hardly breathe, and the fact that the room was so narrow didn't really help. She looked at the frightened faces of the others to reassure herself.

McGonagall spoke up to explain the workings of the Sorting, just as she had done at the Granger house a few weeks earlier. None of the information she gave helped Hermione understand how one could tell which House one belonged to, the one thing she hadn't found in her books. Her hands were sweaty by the end of the teacher's speech.

"I suggest you take advantage of the time you have left before this ceremony begins to get your outfit right," she said before leaving the room.

Hermione automatically gathered her thick hair in an attempt to flatten it, to no avail. She had never managed to style her curls, she knew it was a waste of time. Instead, she ironed her skirt with her hands in an attempt to calm herself.

"How do we get selected?" asked Neville in a small voice.

"I don't know, I haven't read anything about it," she replied. "I've memorized a lot of spells, I wonder which one they might ask us to cast."

Neville looked even paler than before, and Hermione decided to keep quiet rather than make him more anxious. She recited the spells she knew in her head. She was so focused that she barely noticed the ghosts passing over them.

"Let's go, now, the ceremony is about to begin," announced Professor McGonagall once she had returned. "Line up and follow me."

Neville stood next to her and they walked in silence into the Great Hall. Hermione knew that the Repartition was taking place in this room, but that didn't stop her from being impressed when she saw it for real. It was huge, long, and contained four tables in the colours of the Hogwarts Houses, illuminated by magic candles that flew over the students.

All the students were facing them, Hermione almost pressed up against Neville. At the far end was a large table, perpendicular to the others, overlooking the Great Hall, where the teachers sat.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in the centre, but Hermione didn't have time to detail him because she found herself facing the hundreds of students with her back to the teachers' table. McGonagall walked away through a back door.

Hermione was so stressed that she could have fainted right there in front of everyone. She dug her fingernails into the skin of her hand to contain herself and caught the look on Harry Potter's face as he stared at the ceiling. He too looked anxious, which reassured her, even a wizard as good as him would get anxious at times like this.

She looked up and saw the ceiling, which was black as night with thousands of stars twinkling on it.

"It's a magical ceiling," she whispered to Neville and Harry Potter. "It was made to look like the sky on purpose, I read about it in Hogwarts : A History."

McGonagall returned with a stool and placed a worn, pointy hat on it. Hermione ran through her mind all the things she could be asked to do. Being in front of hundreds of students wasn't helping, she was bound to panic and drop her wand, or pass out.

Suddenly the hat unfolded a little and began to sing in a throaty voice. The whole Hall listened to the wise words of the Sorting Hat. Hermione analysed his poem about the Houses without understanding. Was there a riddle to be solved?

Then she understood. She simply had to wear the hat on her head. She felt the weight on her shoulders lift a little and she carefully put her wand back in her pocket.

"When I call your name, you will put the hat on your head and sit on the stool. I'll start: Abbot, Hannah!"

A girl with blonde pigtails stepped out of line and placed the hat on her head. Hermione felt sorry for her, going first in front of everyone... She probably would have had a nervous breakdown if she were in her shoes. There was a silence, where poor Hannah waited, the hat falling over her eyes. Then he suddenly came to life and chanted:

"Hufflepuff!"

The girl smiled widely and went to join the yellow and black Hufflepuff table, where all the students were clapping. She sat down at the end of the table among the other students who made room for her.

One by one, the students came forward. Hermione thought about her parents' predictions, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. Inwardly Hermione preferred to go to Gryffindor, it was the house she had liked the most when she had read about it in the books, and she really liked McGonagall as headmistress, but she wasn't sure if she could handle it.

After what seemed like an eternity, and in even about ten seconds, McGonagall announced:

"Granger, Hermione!"

She walked over quickly and sat down on the stool. She thought she saw the shadow of a smile pass over the professor's face before she placed the Hat on her head, and she was plunged into darkness. There was a brief moment of silence, and then she heard the guttural voice of the hat again just behind her ear:

"Very difficult, very difficult... You have all the characteristics of a Ravenclaw, a thirst for learning, an appetite for reading and study, an incomparable seriousness... you are eager to prove yourself, in this world you have only just come to know..."

Hermione thought loudly "Gryffindor, Gryffindor..."

"Gryffindor, eh?" guessed the Sorting Hat. "I see... It's true you fit in well too, hidden courage, strength..."

She felt like she'd been under this Hat for far too long, what if she was a Hatstall ?

"No, no, I've made my decision, don't worry... I'm going to put you in... GRYFFONDOR!"

The House name exploded around the room, as did Hermione's head as she bubbled with fear. She let out a sigh of relief, returned the Sorting Hat to the teacher and ran to the clapping red and gold table. She sat down between two students and smiled.

"Happy to be in the best House at Hogwarts?" asked a redhead across from her.

She looked up and saw two twins, who were perfectly identical. They had the same features as Ron, but they looked taller. They were probably related.

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

"Welcome." said one of the twins, holding out his hand, which she shook. "I'm Fred, and this is George. We hope you like it here."

He gave her a big friendly smile and Hermione replied, before turning her head to see Neville's spell as he had just put on the Sorting Hat in turn.

Draco

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.

"GRYFFONDOR!"

Draco watched as the girl, Hermione, removed the Sorting Hat with a smile. He grumbled, he had hoped she was in Slytherin. She joined the Gryffindors table and shook hands with one of the umpteenth other Weasleys at Hogwarts.

Draco rolled his eyes and turned back to the Sorting, where Neville Longbottom, the boy with the toad, was sent to Gryffindor as well.

"That hat is broken." commented Pansy with a mocking laugh as she saw Longbottom run off without removing the hat from his head.

"Gryffindors are just the dumping ground for all the morons," Nott remarked as he observed the table in question.

Malfoy's name was called, and he approached with all the pride he possessed not to show his concern. The Sorting Hat brushed the top of his head and he had just enough time to hear "a Malfoy..." before he shouted "SLYTHERIN !" without even being fully placed on his head.

He heard Pansy exclaim and went over to the Slytherin table. He sat down next to Crabbe and Goyle, greeting the other students around him who he didn't know yet. Nott arrived just after and sat down opposite Draco.

"Parkinson, Pansy!"

Pansy approached the stand. She looked really elegant in her dress, moving gracefully to the small stool where she sat down, eagerly. The Sorting Hat took a little longer than he did, and Draco clenched his fist under the table. If she wasn't put in...

"SLYTHERIN!"

Draco sighed loudly in relief. Pansy removed the hat, jumped to the floor, and went to sit down, a smile wide to her ears:

"We've been taken! Slytherin! I told you so!"

She threw her arms around his neck as she sat down and Draco burst out laughing against her hair. All that was left was Blaise to make everything perfect.

"Potter, Harry!"

Murmurs rose in the Great Hall, and the Slytherin table was plunged into silence. Everyone watched as the boy sat on the stool. This went on for quite a long time, the entire Great Hall held its breath waiting for the choice of House. Draco noticed that Dumbledore had straightened up in his chair.

"GRYFFONDOR!"

Some of the Slytherins swore around Draco, and he did the same. Pansy sneered:

"No wonder, considering what you said about him. He deserves his place among the Mudbloods and traitors."

She watched with disdain as Harry Potter sat down, legs shaking, ignoring the applause that had redoubled in the Great Hall. She chuckled as Weasley, Ron, joined him, backing up her words.

"Zabini, Blaise!"

He was the last in line. Unlike everyone who had gone before, he didn't seem stressed. He slowly sat down on the stool. He was so tall for his age that the Sorting Hat didn't even fall in front of his eyes.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Draco's best friend stood up, not showing the slightest expression on his face, but when he sat down, he smirked:

"I knew it. All we have to do is think of the House we want and it sends us there. Silly test."

At that moment, Albus Dumbledore stood up from his chair. He was old, with a long white beard and hair of the same colour. When he stood up, silence fell again.

"Welcome! Welcome, everyone, to a new year at Hogwarts. Before the banquet begins, I would like to say a few words. Here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

The old man sat down to a standing ovation from the students, apart from those from Slytherin. Pansy arched an eyebrow:

"My father wasn't wrong, he's a total freak."

She picked up a fork and stuck it into a fried potato in front of her. The buffet had appeared before their eyes, just like at the Manor. Draco helped himself to each dish and began to eat, realizing at that moment how hungry he was.

The first years showed up around him. A girl named Tracey Davis, who had long brown hair that fell over her shoulders, caught Draco's eye because he had never seen her before. Pansy chatted with her during the meal, but the boy preferred not to join in the conversation.

He ate until he couldn't swallow anything, not even a scoop of mint ice cream. With his stomach full, he only half listened to Dumbledore's speech, except for the part where he referred to the Quidditch teams.

Then the whole school sang the school hymn and Draco laughed at the horrified look on Pansy's face. Finally, Gemma Farley stood up a few seats away from Draco's and said:

"I am the prefect, first years, please follow me!"

Pansy, Draco and Blaise stood up together and walked behind the prefect who proudly tackled her badge as she walked past everyone. Draco knew that the Common Room was located in the dungeons thanks to his father, so he wasn't surprised to go down all the stairs to the basement.

They arrived at a large grey brick wall. The prefect cleared her voice and announced clearly so that everyone could hear the password:

"Viridis viperae!"

A door materialized before their stunned eyes and the prefect opened it to let the group through. They walked into the room: it was large, long, and filled with green sofas and armchairs. Several wooden tables lined the length of the room with green lamps on top, adding green to the subdued lake light already coming from the windows. The rough stone, the dampness and the huge fireplace gave a cold atmosphere, similar to the one Draco knew in his Manor.

He liked this room, he could already see himself studying on the tables or lying on one of the sofas.

"This is the Common Room. This is where all the Slytherins gather, to study, hang out or party. Downstairs are the dormitories, on the left for the girls, on the right for the boys." said Gemma, pointing to a marble staircase that went down, at the end of the hall.

She walked away and the first years scattered around. As they did so, the door opened to let the older students through. Draco yawned:

"I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow?"

Pansy nodded and followed the boys until they reached the divide between the girls' and boys' dormitories, then left to join Millicent, Daphne and Tracey Davis. Draco followed Blaise and when he entered the room he saw Theodore Nott already settling into one of the three beds. Draco recognised his trunk under the bed nearest the window and Blaise took the last bed. The room was very large, it could have held many more beds, but strangely there were only three.

"Good thing we're not sharing with Crabbe and Goyle." commented Draco as he opened his suitcase.

He took out his pyjamas and changed out of sight. The room was so large that Draco almost had a space all to himself, bounded by small steps that separated him from the other two, and which contained a desk. The bathroom was adjacent to their room and was shared by all three. After finishing his toilet and putting away a few things, Draco slipped into the sheets and curled up against the thick pillows of his bed.

"Good night!" he called out to Blaise and Nott as he pulled back his curtains.

He did not hear the reply. He stared at the green curtains of his bed for a long time, replaying that first day in his head, before falling asleep.

Hermione

.

.

Hermione chatted with Percy, one of Ron's other brothers, during the meal. He seemed very serious, unlike the other three brothers she had met before. He told her about the classes and was able to answer some of the questions she had after her readings this summer. At the end of the meal, Hermione happily sang the words to the Hogwarts anthem, which she had memorized from 'Hogwarts : A History', and followed Percy as he led them to the Gryffindors' tower.

The climb up there was hellish, Hermione felt as if her legs weighed ten tons each. They climbed an endless number of steps until they finally arrived at the portrait. Hermione heard Percy say the password, Caput Draconis, and then climbed the hole in the portrait that led to the Common Room.

The Common Room was as comforting as Hermione had hoped it would be. It was round, and pleasantly warmed by a fire in the fireplace, around which were many armchairs. There were large burgundy rugs on the floor, shelves with books and tables for studying.

Hermione inhaled the smell of the wood fire in the room and all the pressure she had been feeling since the morning seemed to evaporate at once.

Percy pointed to the two doors that led to the girls' and boys' dormitories and left them in the room. Neville wished Hermione a good night and went up the stairs, followed by the other first year boys.

Hermione explored the circular room. From the windows she had a view of Hogwarts Park which was so large that she couldn't see the boundaries. It was pitch black outside, and only a few owls flying in the sky disturbed the silence. She inspected the names of the books on the shelves, then the large notice board next to the entrance to read any new information she could find.

After examining everything she could, she returned to the shelves and took one of the scrolls that was available to her, along with a quill. She sat down at one of the tables and began to write a letter to her parents. Of course, when she looked up, she realised that the end of the parchment was now touching the floor because she had written so much. She reread her letter, where she had written all the details of her first day and the announcement of her House, and then cut the parchment.

Then she took the least yellowed paper and wrote two short letters, one to Danny and one to Mary, which she then folded carefully and stuck on two French stamps she had bought in a London newsagent's. She wanted her letters to look as real as possible. She put the three pieces of parchment in her pocket and finally went up to her dormitory.

She found the room without difficulty and entered quietly. The two girls who shared her dormitory were already asleep, the curtains of their four-poster beds closed. Hermione changed and washed as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the sleep of her neighbours, and finally got into her soft bed.

She pulled the blanket up to her chin and looked at the burgundy curtains of her bed, replaying the first day in her head, before falling asleep.