"A letter a day keeps the cooties away."
✧
A young man with black hair and emerald green eyes was running fast towards a red train. His owl cage was bumping into people and he kept tripping over his untied shoe laces.
You're probably asking yourself who this young man is and maybe the green eyes gave it away. Yes, you guessed it right, this young man who is tripping over himself and running quite fast was none other than Harry Potter.
Now your wondering why Harry Potter is running fast towards a red train (You've probably figure that out too).
Well, today Harry had woken up rather very late after remembering that it was September first which was the very first day of his eighth year at Hogwarts.
After showering quickly, changing, and running out the door with his school trunk Harry made his way to Platform 9 and 3/4.
When he arrived there (he had exactly five minutes with 23, 22, 21 seconds) it was still crowded with families waving their final good-byes to the children.
Not fancying people to start making a big deal out of him, Harry ran the rest of the way to the red train that would take him to his beloved school. He pushed his way through the group of students into the compartment where his friends would surely be waiting for him.
"Blimey! Finally mate, we were all worried you wouldn't make it." Ron exclaimed to a flustered Harry.
Harry smiled sheepishly, and sat down opposite his two best friends, trying to regain his breath after running. He tried avoiding Hermione's face because Harry knew without even looking that she was scowling at him for his late arrival. Speaking of late arrival it didn't take long for Harry to hear Hermione's scolding lesson.
"Harry, you are an eighteen year old already, I can't believe you would be late especially considering what today is! Your lucky you made it just on time, I'm greatly disappointed in you Har-"
Before Hermione could bring more misery to Harry, Ron jumped in. "Mione calm down, I mean the poor bloke probably stayed up late with nerves. You can't really blame him."
Hermione made a 'mmphm' noise and stared at Ron in disbelief, "Ron it's not that. Harry has to become a responsible adult. This year is all about our final careers and if Harry is still-"
"Yes, but Mione you know how Harry can be a bit lazy," Ron began.
Harry stared gaping at his supposed best friend (he's supposed to back me up, not insult me!) and interrupted them, "Hey! I'm still here!"
He was met with twin glares and then Ron and Hermione went back to bickering about who knows what. Harry rolled his eyes and looked out the window waiting for the cart of candy to pass by so that he could enjoy some chocolate frogs. Not knowing how to pass time Harry got himself comfortable and went to sleep.
Harry awoke to someone shaking him harshly, "Mhm, what? Le... me sleep." He tried to block out the hands that were still shaking him and he vaguely heard a voice saying his name.
"Harry, Harry, HARRY!"
Eyes wide, Harry bolted from his sleep, confused with his surroundings. He looked up and saw Ron staring at him and Hermione sending him a glare.
"Harry, hurry and get up. We're going to be the last ones if you don't start getting up now."
Standing up and following his two best friends, Harry entered the carriage that would take them all to Hogwarts.
It was somewhat occupied already though and seeing as it was the last one the golden trio sat inside. Inside of the carriage was Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, and Draco Malfoy.
They all nodded politely at them and Harry returned the gesture, turning his head to the side and looking out of the small window.
Feeling eyes on him Harry turned to see who it was that was staring at him. Ron and Hermione were whispering to each other furiously next to him while Zabini and Parkinson stared at each other with moony eyes.
Besides them Harry saw that it was Malfoy who had been staring rather intensely at him, realizing that Malfoy had been caught staring he blushed a rosy pink and smiled shyly at Harry.
Harry of course was in great shock, what do you do with the boy who was your supposed enemy, then turned out to be a great help during the war, and now is blushing (which looks rather cute - No it doesn't!) with an adorable (adorable, really?) shy smile? Harry blinked twice and Malfoy blushed harder (if it was possible) and quickly looked down.
Still in shock Harry felt the carriage stop in front of the gates of Hogwarts. The six students stepped out and made there way inside of the school to inside the Great Hall.
They parted to there respective tables and Harry sat next to his two friends who were still bickering over something (I bet it's about food). Tuning them out Harry realized that this was the first year in which no Voldemort would be chasing after him.
It was a great relief to know that this school year would be finally be the normal one that Harry had been hoping to have since starting there at Hogwarts when he was eleven.
He observed the first years who were being sorted, and he saw the respect that the four houses had towards each other. Hogwarts had been destroyed during the war with the dark side, but thanks to the four houses Harry was able to defeat Riddle.
It had been a great shock, Harry remembers, when he and the other three houses of Hogwarts found out that the Slytherins would be fighting with the light side to protect thier child home.
The biggest surprise that hit Harry (it literally hit him) was when Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Malfoys announced there allegiance towards Harry.
It was pretty obvious that the news was not predicted and with the Malfoys on their side the Slytherins didn't have to stay behind and they encouraged Harry to defeat Voldemort and his death eaters.
(Harry later admitted that maybe the main reason his confidence was boosted was because he was quite glad that Draco was on their side).
Now that the war was over with, the house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin wasn't such a big deal. It was still there, but now just out of the fun of it, just friendly teasing (or flirting). Harry couldn't help how his chest filled with warmth and the great emotion of happiness hit him right there in the Great Hall.
Harry joined his friends in conversation and relished the peace and calm that came with the relief of no dark monster chasing him or his school.
Once dinner was over the golden trio made there way up to their Gryffindor tower and sat down with the other eighth and seventh years.
They played for an hour and talked about their plans for the future. Harry noticed that Ginny was trying to corner him, but he wanted to avoid her for now because he didn't really want to pick up where they left off during sixth year.
It was past midnight when Harry was tucked in his bed, curtains pulled and the moon shining in the still darkness, that his mind brought up the image of Malfoy blushing and smiling that shy smile that made the blond look innocent and carefree.
Not even noticing the way Harry's eyes drooped and the small hint of a smile plastered on his face, Harry fell asleep thinking of shy smiles and bright grey eyes. (It's called Malfoy, Harry, Malfoy)
