"I like your accent." Harry said, "Are you from the states?"
Deja waved away his compliment, "Yeah, I'm from New Orleans. My parents and I moved to North Yorkshire four years ago."
"So, you're a first year?" Harry realized it was a stupid question, as she seemed just as unfamiliar with the wizarding world as he had been at age eleven, in his first year. However, Deja was quite tall and would easily tower over any first year.
"Yeah . . . I'm the oldest one in my class, though." She sighed.
"How do you mean?" Harry asked, not considering that to be a big deal.
"I'll be 16, this April."
Harry felt his jaw drop. "B-blimey! How does that happen?" he sputtered.
"I've gotten the acceptance letters for years, but my parents were afraid. It's not just a boarding school, after all—it's a magical one. They thought it was a prank, at first."
Harry cocked his head, intent on hearing the rest of the story that Deja omitted, "What made them change their minds?"
"Well, I've blown up the fuse box a couple times by accident, and they blamed it on faulty wiring." She pouted pensively, "I think my parents finally came around when they woke up to an indoor snowstorm."
"Oh." Harry said eloquently.
"The hail was much worse."
Harry let out a much lower "Oh" and tried to empathize with her, "I freed a boa constrictor from its zoo enclosure, once. He wanted to go to Brazil." He saw the incredulous look on Draco's face and shrugged, "It seemed reasonable at the time."
Deja took this as a joke told in light-heartedness and laughed. She stopped when she realized Harry wasn't laughing with her. "Oh, you're serious?"
"Harry's always had an affinity for snakes." Draco elaborated, regally.
Harry tried to telepathically communicate to Draco to remind him of his rule which forbade them from using their first names in public, but it went unregistered. He felt like a weirdo in the silent, one-sided exchange.
Deja eyed the twinkling flitter of fairies, chipperly returning to Draco. "I can't believe I've been searching for fairies my whole life in the Muggle world, and you can find them so easily here!" She smiled, "If you won't go with me, then yell if you need anything." She skipped away with avidity to get a closer look.
Once they were alone, Harry raised his brow at Malfoy, "What the hell was that? Did you forget about your own rule?"
Draco insisted with a stern defensiveness, "Deja is the only person who heard it, and I know she wouldn't judge us for it. With zero magical background, she has no idea who I am," Draco loosened his folded arms, "or what I've done in my past." Something sparked a complacent joy from Draco. "Hell! She didn't even know who you were!"
"Yeah, I guess that's refreshing." Harry agreed, "But . . . what would your parents say?"
"Doesn't matter. My father's in Azkaban." Draco chuckled darkly.
Harry sensed tension in the air, as he didn't find humor in that fact. He tried to ease the uneasy atmosphere with dignity, "What about your mum? She was pardoned by the Wizengamot. . ."
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Rivals Not Enemies (Drarry Slowburn)
Fanfiction(Comedy/Drama/Fantasy/Wholesome) Because of the academic interruption caused by the Second Wizarding War, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco return to Hogwarts to finish their final year. When Harry revisits the Chamber of Secrets, he starts to see Dra...
DRACO MALFOY AND THE HARRY POTTER EFFECT
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