Tired (QPR Drarry, mates, ace arospec Harry)

Chapter 2

Harry made a small noise when Draco woke him, Hedwig flapping her wings at him for doing so, and the light outside dim due to the late hour. Draco was already in his robes, which looked rather different to Harry's although they were obviously for the same school.

"Harry, it's time to get up, we need to leave now to get to Hogwarts." Draco said, his hair neater than it was last time Harry was awake.

"Okay." Harry mumbled, getting up with Hedwig in his arms and reaching up for his trunk.

"Oh, no, leave everything here. Hedwig will be taken to the owlery and your stuff will be sent to your dorm." Draco said quickly, as soon as he noticed Harry was taking his things with him.

"But, we were allowed to have pets." Harry said quietly, looking downcast.

"Oh," Draco said, realising where Harry was coming from, "I see what you mean, but owls aren't usually seen as pets, they're simply used to take letters to people. If you carry her around with you all the time people will think you're always writing or receiving letters, or judge you for thinking of an owl as a pet."

Harry looked sad, and Hedwig let out an outraged hoot, glaring at Draco. Hedwig took flight around the compartment, hitting Draco round the head with her talons while he winced, after circling the compartment twice, hitting Draco just as many times, she swooped to Harry and landing on his arm, tugging on the sleeve of the other arm to indicate she wanted him to hug her.

"Look, I'm sorry, but there won't be the necessary equipment for her in your dorm. They can deal with cats and toads, and even some other, more rare pets, but an owl isn't going to have a good time in a student dorm, especially if you're Slytherin or Hufflepuff, as they're really low down and may not have windows the owl can fly out of." Draco said awkwardly, his eyes flicking to the station out the window and back to Harry quite often.

"Sorry Hedwig." Harry said, looking down at Hedwig sadly. "I'll see you every day, I promise."

Harry walked over to the empty cage he had pulled down with his trunk, it was rather small for an owl, but given Harry was worried about Hedwig he left the door to the cage open for her. It was a cage of the style that many wizards and witches bought, and it wasn't good to keep them in for very long, but they were normally only used for travel, and would usually be let out on the journeys as well, especially on journeys the owls and owners had been on before.

"We should really get going if we don't want to be late." Draco said, grabbing Harry's hand and rushing out the compartment with Harry in toe, not really able to keep up, and stumbling more than once.

"Oh, 'ello 'Arry!" Hagrid said with his large, bushy beard hiding his mouth, and most of his face covered in hair, but the glittering of his dark eyes were still visible, and from that Harry and Draco guessed he was happy.

"Hey, Hagrid." Harry said so quietly it was obvious Hagrid wouldn't be able to hear him.

"How do you know Hagrid?" Draco asked, leaning into him as they headed towards the boats with everyone else.

"He's the person who took me around Diagon Alley." Harry mumbled, stepping into the boat after Draco, looking scared and shocked when the boat shook under him, looking like he was about to fall over.

"Why didn't your family take you there? It's a pretty big thing for the wizarding community to get everything for the first year of magic school together, together with your godparents." Draco said, confused. Even muggles would normally go with the children to go shopping, even if they weren't the direct parents of the child.

"My parents are dead, Mr Vernon, Mrs Petunia, and Mr Dudley don't like me, I don't have any other family, and I don't know about any godparents, I don't think I have any." Harry said simply, as though it was more than normal for that situation.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know. Were either of your parents wizards?" Draco asked.

"Hagrid said both of them were, but before my birthday I thought they died in a car crash." Harry said, looking down. The boats hadn't set off yet and they were waiting for anyone who wanted to join their boat.

"Well, if that's the case then you probably have at least one godparent. I have 2 godmothers and a godfather. One of my godmothers is in Azkaban, the wizard prison, and the other lives in Italy, but she does visit quite often, and my godfather is the potions master here and.. Doesn't like people. I can help you look for your godparent?" Draco said, 2 rather large 11 year olds joining them in their boat.

Harry was feeling extremely small, Draco was already sufficiently bigger than him, but these two boys were large enough to make Draco look fairly small, but not completely dwarfed. Harry was, of course, used to being the smallest person in the room, but usually if he was surrounded by people like the two boys that had joined them, he was going to get hurt.

"I- um- ah- uh- I- w- wh- thank you." Harry stuttered, wishing Hedwig had been allowed to be there with him. He wanted to ask why Draco wanted to help him, but he knew he wasn't supposed to ask questions.

"Of course." Draco said with a smile, the boats setting off with only the four of them in the boat, the boat tilting so that Harry and Draco were raised in the air slightly.

Harry heard a sound from under his seat on the boat so, although he hated the movement of the boat whenever any of them moved, he crouched down to see what had made that noise. It was a rather large, green, grumpy looking toad. Harry managed to coax out the toad, and quickly sat back down on the bar that he shared with Draco.

"Whose toad is this?" Draco asked, looking at the toad in Harry's hands, his face contorted in confusion.

"It's not ours." One of the other people said, their voice very deep, but it sounded like they had a cold and sore throat.

"I guess we should ask if it belongs to anyone when we get to Hogwarts." Draco said with a shrug, Harry nodding, holding onto the toad securely.

Harry really hated being on the boat, and was almost too glad when they reached the shore. It was pretty easy to find whose toad Harry was holding, because they saw Harry first and rushed over, grabbing Trevor from Harry's hands, gleefully calling out the toad's name. Harry stood stiff as a statue, though, as the person who had come for the toad looked remarkably like Dudley.

A stern looking woman with tartan robes and her hair tied back into a tight bun took them into the Great Hall for the sorting.