Changed (Drarry)

Chapter 2

Harry's first day at Hogwarts went fine, and despite Malfoy who attempted to talk to him, it was one of the most enjoyable first days he ever had.

Day two was less pleasant. He had Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration and Charms.

The last two went great, but Potions and DADA were sucky in the least.

First of all, Harry finally explained to Slughorn that he'd used a special book in his sixth year, causing the potions master to be considerably colder towards him.

Slughorn set them a task to brew Polyjuice potion, something they'd be working on for the next month. And even though Harry's potion looked fine, Slughorn still appeared disappointed, causing Harry to leave with a big knot in his stomach.

Defence Against de Dark Arts was worse. Professor Snow was very qualified for the job, being an ex-Auror. The problem was his assistant.

When McGonagall had first said Professor Snow would be assisted by 'miss Chang', Harry had been too overwhelmed by the feast to think about it.

But when he saw Cho Chang, his old girlfriend, standing in front of the class, his jaw dropped, just like Ron, Hermione and Ginny's.

Professor Snow filled the first half of the lesson revising spells they had learned in their previous year, and the second half telling them about what he called 'mind hexes', basically milder versions of the Imperius Curse, that could only affect your mind on small points.

When he told them to spend the last fifteen minutes trying to do proper spells while under the influence of one of those particular hexes, Harry realised how hard it was, despite his ability to resist the real Imperius curse.

Hermione and Ron seemed to have a more difficult time than he had, Ron accidentally sprayed Hermione with ice when he tried to summon water, and Hermione's summoned birds looked more like mice and fell apart within a few seconds.

But that wasn't the problem. Cho had a serious dislike towards both Ron and Hermione, something she clearly showed. By the end of the lesson, neither of them had any courage left.

The rest of the week, Harry's homework began to pile up, though because there hadn't been Quidditch tryouts yet, he managed to get it done.

He had not visited the shared common room yet, and neither had Ron and Hermione.

On Thursday evening, the special lesson for the next day was announced, as it turned out they were teaching how to bewitch instruments. This exited Hermione and Ginny, and even Ron tagged along, but Harry, who didn't want to do homework at weekends decided to use the time to study.

Therefore, after a long lesson of Charms, Harry made his way back to the common room, where he started on a long essay about human Transfiguration.

But Harry soon realised he had trouble concentrating. A first-year girl was talking to someone in the fire, a boy played Wizarding Chess with rather noisy pieces and in one of the dormitories, music was played way too loud.

Therefore, he packed his books and decided to go to the shared common room, through the new portrait hole the prefects had described.

The room was one of the most Hogwarts-like places he'd ever seen.

The roof was enchanted to show the sky, just like the one in the great hall. There were no paintings, the walls themselves were works of art, resembling the founding of Hogwarts, the creation of the sorting hat, professors and students performing magic and, to Harry's astonishment, the Battle of Hogwarts.

In the centre of the room, there was a fireplace, though it looked more like a campfire. Comfortable chairs and couches were placed around it, a few desks were put against the walls and bookcases were to be used as side-tables. In every corner of the room stood a statue of a Hogwarts founder, and the song of a phoenix seemed to enter through the big windows.

Only one of the armchairs was occupied, by a boy in muggle clothes, who covered his head with the cap of his hoodie.

He looked up for a moment when Harry entered but then focused again on his books, muttering indications while flicking his wand.

Harry sat down in another armchair and dipped his quill into the ink.

From that day forth, Harry did nearly all his homework in the shared room, sometimes alone, occasionally accompanied by Ron and Hermione.

However, the boy was always there, he never said a word, but always looked up when Harry entered.

After nearly a month of studying, watching Cho be rude towards his friends, ignoring her attempts to flirt with him, making Slughorn less and less disappointed and sneaking out of the castle with Ginny, the boy finally greeted him.

Harry had once again decided to spend his evening in the shared Common room. As always, the boy was there, caught up in his work.

This time, however, he kept staring at Harry, twirling his wand around in his hands.

'Hey,' he finally muttered.

Harry didn't look up, being caught up in the diagram he was drawing for Astronomy.

'Hey,' he muttered, 'how are you doing?'

The boy sighed, 'I'm fine.'

Harry looked up, but the boy avoided his eyes, 'What's your name?' he asked.

The boy muttered something he couldn't understand. When he asked him to repeat his name, he was finally able to make eye contact.

'Draco,' Malfoy said, startling Harry, 'How are you?'

Harry dropped his books, 'You? But why? You seemed so-'

'I try to be nicer. I'm not good at it, but I try. Listen, I've been trying to tell you-'

Harry jumped out of his chair and stepped back when Malfoy took a step towards him.

'I just want to talk!' Malfoy shouted, hiding the sadness and pain in his eyes behind anger, 'I just need someone to listen to me, without disgust or pity! I want to tell people I'm sorry! I came here to hide from my father, who now thinks he made a mistake running with me and my mother!'

Harry looked away from him, 'I'm sorry too,' he said, 'but I can't talk to you yet. The wound is still too fresh.'

He packed up his books and walked towards the entrance to the Gryffindor tower.

'When will it heal?' Malfoy asked.

Harry sighed, 'I don't want to kill you anymore, see that as a start.'