BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS ｢DRARRY｣

PART 3

Out of the staff, he really only knew Draco and McGonagall. Maybe if the circumstances were different, he'd want to sit at one of the tables and make new friends, but he found he'd rather not as most of them were staring at him. He'd be spending a lot of time with Draco in the future, so why not take the time to get more comfortable with him?

"I'll sit beside you, thanks," he whispered back, and that was that. Draco led him up to the table and to two empty seats. Draco sat in the left one, directly next to a rather attractive man with a round-ish face and a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead, and Harry took the next seat, which was beside a blonde lady.

He glanced at Draco, wanting to see if he could take food off the table yet, and to his delight he saw Draco grabbing a strip with bacon. Harry then proceeded to grab bacon, a few fried eggs, and a piece of toast. He was absolutely starving; it was a wonder no one heard his stomach grumbling.

He was halfway through a strip of bacon when his left side was nudged. He quickly swallowed and looked to Draco, who was trying to get his attention.

"This is Professor Longbottom," he said with a rare smile, gesturing towards the handsome man he sat beside. The man, Longbottom, grinned at Harry.

"Hello, you must be the Harry I've been hearing about?" He asked, sticking his hand out. Harry took it, shaking it firmly, and grinned back at the Professor.

"Nice to meet you, Sir," Harry said after they pulled away, smiling politely.

The Professor waved his hand in dismissal. "No need for formalities; just call me Neville!" He insisted, grinning, and went back to chewing on a piece of toast.

"He teaches Herbology," Draco said to Harry, a ghost of a smile lingering on his face. Neville and Draco must have been good friends, Harry realized, since Draco was openly smiling, even if it was just a little bit. Harry also realized that it was easy to tell when Draco was happy, which did prove useful; he generally hated people that were hard to read.

Harry didn't know how much time passed—probably around 20 minutes—before he felt stuffed. Draco clearly noticed that Harry was finished and got up from the table. "Are you ready to go?" He asked, and Harry nodded in reply.

They left the Hall, and soon enough, Harry was standing in front of very large doors. He gazed up at them in awe; they were massive.

"We'll be Apparating today," Draco said, escorting him through the doors. Outside of them, he saw a large field sort of thing, and far in the distance, there was a large gate. "We can't Apparate on Hogwarts property, so if you don't mind too much, we'll be walking to the gates."

They set off, the rocks crunching under their feet. Harry couldn't help but glance at Draco a few times; somehow, he was intriguing. He walked with such confidence; his back was perfectly straight and his shoulders were back. His head was held high, and he seemed to exude an atmosphere of importance. They walked in comfortable silence; the gates definitely weren't close by, but they weren't too far, and Harry quite enjoyed their little stroll along the Hogwarts grounds.

"What's Apparating, by the way?" Harry made a point of asking. He knew whatever it was couldn't be dangerous—he barely knew him, but somehow he knew that Draco's intention wasn't to hurt him—but he was interested in this world. It was so vastly different from his own and it seemed almost a blessing that he appeared here.

"It's basically the same thing as what you Muggles call teleportation," he replied, and Harry hummed in reply. Teleportation, huh? It sounded so cool, and Harry found himself giddy with excitement.

"What's a Muggle?" He asked, having heard the term several times on his first day.

"It's our term for non-magic humans," Draco replied. They had already walked quite a bit, but the gate was still a few minutes away.

Harry looked around at the world, and found himself smiling. This place was really quite beautiful—so much greenery, so much opportunity, so much magic. It was scary to think that he might have not ended up here. After all, all he had to do was say a few words in order to appear at Draco's feet.

Please take me somewhere where I can be happy.

Harry thought he still had a long way to achieve happiness, but he really did believe that if he was going to find something to live for, it would be here.

"Tell me more about Hogwarts," he insisted, looking at Draco just in time to catch the corner of his lips turning up.

"A long time ago, there were four founders—Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, Godric Gryffindor, and Helga Hufflepuff. Together, they created this school. They created four houses, each named after themselves. The house of Gryffindor is known for bravery. Ravenclaw is known for wisdom. Hufflepuff is known for loyalty and Slytherin is known for ambition. Every first year is sorted into their proper house by what we call the Sorting Hat, which was invented by the founders themselves centuries ago."

Harry smiled at him. "There's a lot more to Hogwarts than that, isn't there?"

Draco glanced at him. "More than anyone will ever know."

They soon reached the gate, and Draco opened it with a flick of his wrist. Harry stepped outside of it recently, about to ask Draco where to go from here, but the teacher cut him off.

"Hold on to me tight," he said, holding out his arm. Harry obeyed, gripping onto it. "You might want to throw up."

Before Harry could ask what he meant, he felt something foreign and very unpleasant, like he was being squeezed through a tube. He wanted to yell but he couldn't open his mouth; it was shut tight. His eyes were clenched shut with fear.

Before he knew it, it was over.

He opened his eyes. He was in a completely different area, one with bustling wizards and shops all across the sides. Everything seemed so... chaotic, really, but Harry loved it. It had a sort of excited feeling to it; he'd never seen anything quite like it.

He looked over to Draco, who was slightly smiling, the sun reflected in his silver eyes.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley."