I'm Coming For You, Draco Malfoy!

Hogwarts Again

Harry re-set the compartment's Wards after Granger and Weasley departed. However, there was also a sudden awareness that a new year at school fast approached and that it was going to be very different.

'Nervous,' said Harry softly, as if reading my mind despite my outward appearance of being utterly calm and collected.

'I suppose,' I said with a deep breath.

'Me too.'

I looked at him in surprise. 'Why would you be nervous?'

'When I came back to Hogwarts over the summer, I talked a lot with Minerva about life and the future. I want things to be different. The war, everything we've been through, it shows things need to change. This summer has only proven how disappointing the Wizarding legal system is and the necessary changes people are less than willing to embrace. I've already explained my disenchantment with the behaviour of the Wizengamot and those at the Ministry the week after the battle. I want to make changes, I want the deaths and the sacrifices to actually mean something, and that means starting with things at the school. Living up to the expectations of others is not going help that. I refuse to be a voiceless poster boy but nor do I want to spend my life making sanctimonious speeches. The Wizarding World needs its arse kicking out from under it, I just need to find the right way to do it.'

I watched him for a moment, absorbed by his resolve. His strength astounded me.

I shuddered, mostly at the potency of Harry's determination, but also the chill of the Autumn evening as we sped further into the Highlands.

'What is it?' he asked with concern.

'I left my coat behind; I'll have to ask mother to send it.'

'How d'you manage that?'

'Father was having a moment as I was trying to leave, he'd refused to take his medicines this morning and got one of his moods on. He was trying to lock me in the house. I managed to make a break for it, but I only got to grab my trunks and not my coat.'

I couldn't bear the sympathy in his eyes. 'Don't look at me like that, Potter.'

'Life's really not fucking fair sometimes, you have so much to deal with and no one gets it,' he muttered and he reached across for his smart coat which he'd left on my side of the carriage before Granger and Weasley had turned up. He pulled his two shrunken trunks from the pockets and then flung the coat at me. 'Borrow that for the time being.'

I shrugged it on and was immediately wrapped in that smell of pine, parchment, and polish. The wool felt soft and supple and very fine quality. 'If you steal my jumper, I'm stealing this,' I smirked evilly. 'Now, which robes are you going to mock us all with?'

Harry raised an eyebrow, his pierced one that I stared at on more than one occasion. He resized one of his trunks and clicked open the lid. He carefully lifted out a long black robe-coat carefully wrapped in protective cloth and laid it on the seat. I was immediately intrigued. The only material that showed was a sleeve of two-tone black jacquard with a cuff of deeply patterned purple and gold embroidery. It looked truly magnificent. I was, in truth, keen to see Harry wear it.

'That one's full-on dress robe for the Valentine's Ball.' He pulled back a piece of the protective covering and flipped open the skirt of the coat, smirking. 'The purple lining matches the ribbon on my Order of Merlin medal to really take the piss. You know, for Muggles, purple is symbolic of royalty and wealth because the dye was difficult to produce.'

Why did he always give me too much information to process? I opted for, 'what Valentine's Ball?'

'Oh, Minnie's going to announce it at the end of this term. Don't tell anyone. It's just I intend to stay here for Christmas, last one and all that so I had formal robes fitted and packed them already. So, there's the one with the green lining and one with the silver lining is more dramatic. But I've got a new one too. One that will make a very overt statement about "fuck the House system", plus it'll match my t-shirt. I'm going with that one.'