Chapter - 6 : Pleasure Part - 2

Hagird cheered. Mr. Ollivander's eyes bugged out.

"Curiouser and curiouser" the old man muttered.

After that Harry's day went pretty much as expected except for their trip to the shop where Harry had originally bought his trunk. Instead of buying the standard trunk that Hagrid pointed out, Harry borrowed a quill and a bit of parchment from the shop owner and jotted down a very specific list of requirements. Some of them were rather ordinary like adding a feather-light charm but others were a bit more eccentric like adding a cavern level like the false Mad-Eye Moody.

"Have you got anything like that?" Harry asked.

The old man frowned and scratched his whiskery chin. "This'll have to be a custom job" he said at last. "Especially since most of the locks require your blood or your blood and magical signature to unlock."

Harry nodded. "How much?"

The old man quoted a steep price but he seemed earnest, even a bit excited, over Harry's trunk requirements.

When Harry and Hagrid left, the old man was rubbing his hands together gleefully.

"That's an awful lot to pay for a trunk" Hagrid said doubtfully as they left the shop.

Harry shrugged. "It'll be worth it." He grinned up at Hagrid. "I plan to do a lot traveling after Hogwarts."

Hagrid nodded his large, shaggy head. "It's good to have dreams" he said gruffly.

Harry wondered what the half-giant dreamed of. He did not get the chance to ask since Hagrid's face brightened.

"Have I told ya 'bout my sweet Miriam?"

-------------------------------------------------------

Draco was frowning and staring out of the window when Narcissa and Lucius returned from their personal errands.

"Is anything wrong?" Narcissa asked, a little burst of worry clutching at her heart.

'I knew it!' she thought fiercely. 'We never should have left him to pick out his school robes by himself! Something went wrong! Lucius was wrong that he needed to be more independent and I'm never –'

Draco slowly shook his head. "I met the oddest boy. He said to say hello to you for him. Well, he actually said 'say hi to your mum for me!' but that can't be right because how would he know you?"

A little frisson of interest and relief jolted through her heart. Nothing had gone wrong!

"A boy?" Narcissa asked aloud. "With dark messy hair? Dressed in over sized rags?"

Draco nodded. "He called me Malfoy."

"What did he say?" Lucius asked as he shrunk Draco's things and paid the shopkeeper.

"Not a lot. But at the end he said that he didn't care what my father thought about Hagrid." Lucius stiffened. Narcissa closed her eyes. Of course Harry would take after his parents and Bella and Sirius. Of course. She should be resigned to such thoughtless displays of –

"He wanted to know what I thought" Draco continued, sounding confused.

Narcissa's eyes snapped open.

"Why would he make such a distinction?" Lucius asked, still clearly miffed over Harry's dismissal of his opinions.

"Because – Because –" Draco slid an uncertain look to his father then deliberately focused all of his attention on Narcissa. "He said he was trying to decide if he wanted to be friends with me not my father."

This was clearly an astounding concept for Draco. All of his friendships and alliances were made on the basis of his parents' friendships and alliances. As far as Narcissa knew, Draco had never been confronted with someone who was completely uninterested in his parents' opinions and solely focused on Draco himself.

"What did you say then?" Narcissa asked as she gently ushered her son through the doorway and onto Diagon Alley's high street.

This might be good for Draco.

"I didn't say anything. Madam Malkin said he was finished with his fitting. The boy said that he liked Hagrid because Hagrid had been kind to him and that Harry Potter was the most powerful wizard in the world and a half-blood." Draco frowned up at her. "Is Harry Potter a half-blood?"

Harry was starting to get an inflated opinion of himself. It would be good to have a word with him before it went too far.

"No" Narcissa said before Lucius could. "He's as wizardborn as you are. His mother was a muggleborn though."

Draco nodded. His little chest puffed up. "So he didn't know what he was talking about after all!"

"He was not entirely wrong" Narcissa corrected. "He just doesn't entirely understand what 'half-blood' means. This all must be very confusing for the poor dear."

"You know him?" Draco gaped up at her. It was a dreadfully unattractive expression in general and yet it was absolutely adorable on Draco. "How could he not know what a 'half-blood' is?"

"Harry Potter has been raised by muggles" Narcissa said carefully. "He's only just rediscovered our world so it's all very confusing for him."

"Harry Potter?" Draco shouted. "That was Harry Potter!"

Oh dear.