Letters To Harry | Harry Potter

Chapter Eleven

 The platform was crowded with students making their onto the Hogwarts Express, which would bring them to King's Cross Station, where their families would be waiting for them.

 After everything that had happened that year at Hogwarts, Harry couldn't help feeling a little relieved to have some time away from the wizarding world, at least for some of the summer. He needed space to breathe, to think. Now that Voldemort was back and everyone knew it, nothing was going to be the same.

 "Harry!"

 Harry turned to see Luna Lovegood skipping towards him. He had met her at the beginning of the year, and despite being a little out of the ordinary, she had proven to be a great friend. Walking besides her was a tall, dark-haired boy who looked incredibly nervous.

 "Here you are, Harry," said Luna. "I want you to meet someone. Harry, this is Declan Septimus Malfoy. He's a Hufflepuff, and I think he's in the same year as you. See?" she said to the boy. "This is him."

 This other boy, Declan, looked at him was a pair of frightened blue eyes, and said, "Hello, Harry."

 Harry stared at him. Declan Septimus Malfoy. Another Malfoy? Where had this one come from?

 But wait. Declan Malfoy. D.M. There was something about the way the boy was looking at him...

 "Are you all right, Harry?" Luna asked. "You look frightened."

 "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

 Harry turned and hurried onto the train, not looking back at them.

~~~~~~

 The worst part of this was that Harry would have the entire summer to play it over and over again in his head.

 He tried his best to think of other things, something else, anything else. And his mind continued to go back to that encounter on the platform.

 He had finally met D.M. Declan Malfoy. A Malfoy.

 When Harry had shown the letter to Draco on the Hogwarts Express that day, Draco looked as if he recognized something about it. He must have known who it was, and simply chosen not to tell Harry.

 Now that he knew the truth behind D.M., he remembered. His first year, the sorting ceremony. The name Declan Malfoy was called. He was a small child who looked as if he would run away the first chance he got. When the Sorting Hat was placed upon his head, there was only a short amount of time before the hat cried, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

 A Malfoy sorted into Hufflepuff, and a Hufflepuff in a family of proud Slytherins. No wonder he didn't go home for Christmas.

 Harry had always been so busy with Draco Malfoy that he had forgotten there was another Malfoy at Hogwarts. They weren't brothers, so Declan had to be a cousin. But the boy had probably tried to make himself scarce, make himself forgotten after that ceremony except to his fellow Hufflepuffs.

 It didn't change the fact that he was still a Malfoy.

~~~~~~

 When Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express that September, he heard a voice say, "Harry?"

 He turned around. Declan Malfoy was standing there in the corridor, just looking at him.

 "So, you've decided you want to talk to in person?" Harry said. He was surprised at the venom in his own voice.

 Declan visibly flinched. "I know. I wasn't sure we would ever get to talk in person. I...I've wanted to talk to you. Just walk up to you, and say what I wanted to say."

 "Well, why didn't you, then?" Harry asked. "You've had plenty of chances to talk to me, to introduce yourself, to tell me about you. Instead, you...you just didn't. No, don't," he said when Declan opened his mouth to speak. "I really do not want to talk right now."

 Harry turned and went to go find Ron and Hermione. He couldn't bring himself to talk to Declan Malfoy. He didn't know what to think. He was a Malfoy, after all, so knew how trustworthy he was?