Red dragon

7

Harry sat beside Draco with Ron opposite them at breakfast. Hermione was beside Neville. They were distracted with conversation when the owls came in. There were a few muggleborn screams as the owls hunted down their owners.

Hedwig swooped down beside Draco's owl Keres. She perched on the side of the table and dropped a tiny letter. Harry gave her some toast as he read.

"Hey girl can you wait whilst I write a letter to Gran." She hooted and settled to peck at the toast. Harry wrote a quick letter about the sorting. He gave Rons complements on the sandwiches and promised he would write again soon. "Here we go girl, take this to Mrs Figg." Hedwig sored up in the air and headed out of the window towards England.

"Wait, I thought you had a cat." Ron asked looking over at Hedwig as she left the hall.

"I do."

"And an owl?"

"Yes."

Ron looked at Harry then back up before shaking his head. "Why?"

"They were both gifts. Gran gave me Zana and Hagrid brought me Hedwig so I can keep in touch with Gran."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I didn't want an owl very much and Gran wouldn't let me say no to a cat." Harry explained. "I had no choice, technically Hedwig lives at home with Gran."

"Hey our timetables." Hermione reached excitedly for the paper. "We have Herbology first." She grinned and Neville looked down at his own paper with what could be a smile.

Harry's memories easily guided him through the school. This place was more familiar than the back of his hand. Everyone stuck close to him and his amazing sense of direction.

In Herbology Harry made sure to stand between Neville and Ron. He really wanted to be working with Neville in this lesson. They didn't do much in that lesson as they were being given a talk on health and safety. It could be a very dangerous class depending on what type of plants were used.

Harry sat between Draco and Ron in defence against the dark arts and spent the whole class insuring his mind was protected from that parasite. It was a sorry excuse for a class but luckily Harry already knew the material front and back.

Harry chose to sit by Hermione in history of magic and just copied out of his text book the whole lesson whilst Draco and Ron, who were sitting in front of him, were trying to stay awake. The ghost was worse at teaching than Quirrall.

That evening as Harry sat once again with Ron and Draco with Hermione- who was reading- sitting beside Ron. Part of the way through the meal a few owls flew in to the hall. Hedwig wasn't with them. One of the owls was dark grey, it came to Draco and dropped a small red letter on his plate before fleeing.

"He's got a howler." Seamus whispered and in a moment the room was silent. A few people at the Slytherin table were smirking.

"Draconis Lucius Malfoy! You are a disgrace to this family!" The cool voice of Draco's father came out before the paper burst into flames and ruined his meal.

A large amount of the Slytherin table began to snigger as everyone moved slowly back to their meals. Most of the Gryffindor table was looking at Draco with pity. He was now more trustworthy than he was last night. His father had practically disowned him; just for being a Gryffindor.