Of Apples and Oranges

I: iv: New Friend

"Oh! Okay! Let me just ask my brother if I can slip away too first!" Aurum excitedly exclaimed. Draco was taken aback, though she didn't know why.

With a skip in her step, Aurum bounded towards her brother. She tugged on his sleeve until he paid attention to her. When she asked if she could shop with her new friend, he nodded briefly and turned back to business. Draco's father looked at his son with a sly smile. Draco groaned and rolled his eyes.

Out of the door and towards Diagonal Alley they went, hand-in-hand because it wasn't safe to walk the streets separately. Use the buddy system, Ole Pearl Creste used to say. Draco wasn't reluctant, but he certainly wasn't expecting it.

"So how was your first year at Hogwarts?" Aurum asked. She thought it best to talk to her new friend about things he might be interested in. If he really was interested in her, he'd ask. She need not offer.

"Well, I was pretty popular. I got myself a girlfriend—"

Aurum audibly gasped. "At eleven! I'm not even allowed to date until I'm fourteen!"

"Yes, well, I was allowed. Anyway, it would have been perfect if not for one wizard."

"Who?"

Draco's grin flattened. "Harry Potter."

"Oh, I like him. He seems really cool. If it wasn't for him, Voldemort would still be around. Harry destroyed Voldemort." Aurum informed him. Draco stared at her. She wondered what for. It was true.

"So he did. Doesn't make him a good person. He was only a baby. It could have been any baby. It could have even been Longbottom. I only wanted to make friends with him, but that idiot, Ronald Weasley, got to him first. Turned him into a right prat I think."

"You shouldn't say that about people."

"And why not?" Draco abruptly stopped walking to answer her question.

"How would you feel if someone called you that?" Aurum looked up at him innocently. "You should treat people the way you'd want to be treated."

"I don't care if anyone calls me anything." Draco rubbed his arm and began walking again. Aurum followed obediently. "Potter calls me rubbish names all the time."

"They shouldn't be calling you anything," Aurum said. She grabbed for his hand and he grabbed for hers. It was like magnets. "I won't let them."

"Thanks."

The two made their way to the bookstore for their school-ordered books. Aurum wanted to look around for some slice of life novels whilst there. The whole store was packed into one line, though. Crowds were there just to see a man named Gilderoy Lockhart. He was a famous adventurer and wrote based on his adventures.

"My gramma really likes his books." Aurum said as she passed.

"I don't particularly care for him. I'm a fan of Quipote. In Cold Castles is one of my favorites." Draco smiled, probably thinking of those books. "I want to write like him. I'm trying."

"I like to write as well. I'm more of a Leeds fan. To Kill a Hippogriff is my favorite book of all time."

"Would you ever want to collaborate?" Draco asked, his grin growing wider.

"Of course! I'd love to!"

"Let's shake on it."

Draco held out his hand, but before Aurum could shake it, he seemed to have spotted something or someone. It was an ebony-haired boy with round spectacles.

"Is that—?" Aurum shrieked. She ran to the balcony and would've fallen over to look at the boy if not for Draco pulling her back.

"Harry Potter! I should've expected you to be here and on the day that I am!" Draco announced from the top of the stairs, gaining his attention along with a few others.

Slowly, Draco descended down the stairs, not taking his eyes off of Harry. He smirked at the bottom when they finally got face to face, but that intimacy was quickly interrupted when Aurum shoved her way through the two boys to talk to the bespectacled one.

"Hi! You're Harry Potter! Hi, Harry Potter!" Aurum giddily laughed at the fact that she was actually meeting Harry Potter! She couldn't believe it!

Harry blushed and looked away. "Hello," he said. "What's your name? You—you obviously know mine." he looked up at her with a shy grin.

"Aurum Tiffany Creste!" Aurum exclaimed. She pulled a fuming Draco towards her in front of Harry. "And this is my friend, Draco."

"Hello, Malfoy." Harry smirked, looking up and down at Draco's outfit consisting of khakis and a turtleneck.

"Potter." Draco grunted. He peered through slits at the group of gingers now surrounding Harry. "So you're with the Weasel's now, are you?" Specifically, he pinpointed a younger girl with straight red hair. "A new Weasel girl, huh? I could tell by the hand-me-down clothes and orange face."

"Leave her alone, Draco. Treat people how you want to be treated." Aurum pleaded. Draco huffed and turned away.

A boy her age held out his hand to Aurum who barely turned around to see him. You could barely see his freckles through his red face.

"I'm Ronald Weasley, by the way," he said. Aurum smiled and shook his hand.

"I already know you, Ron. Your mum is friends with my gramma. The Order, remember?" Aurum smiled.

"And I'm Hermione Granger," a bushy haired girl stepped between them. "Pleasure." she crossed her arms.

"Don't hang out with him and that sadistic Crabbe and idiot Goyle. Come with us." Harry smiled. He extended his hand, but Aurum took hers behind her back and walked towards Draco.

"I appreciate your concern, but if you really wanted to be my friend, you'd include Draco too." Aurum shook her head. Draco's face visibly lightened as she grabbed for his hand whilst saying this.

The two walked away when Draco's father came in and began talking to the man who seemed to be the Weasley father.

"You're so much nicer than I could ever hope to be, Creste." Draco admitted out of Harry's earshot. "I do have to give the Weasley's something; at least they're pureblooded."

Aurum nodded. Her heart seized when she realized she had forgotten that she was not pureblooded.