บท 68: Diagon Alley III

[previously]

The old worn door of Madam Malkin's shop creaked open as Theodore shook my hand.

"Ravi de faire votre connaissance Tom!" (Delighted to make your acquaintance Tom!)

"Et moi à vous" (And I to you)

Draco P.O.V.

Both madame Malkin and her assistant came out from the back of the store and greeted their newest customer.

It was an all too familiar young boy with perpetually untidy black hair, a thin face, and knobbly knees wearing Windsor classes with some tape wrapped around the bridge. And truthfully, at that exact moment, I wanted to strangle the boy. But I also felt peculiarly tearful. There was a dryness in my throat as I stared at the boy who was forever stuck as an 18 year old in my memories.

My melancholy was broken when Theodore spoke to him. I hadn't realized that he had already made his way to the last foot-step and was being measured for his robes.

"Hogwarts as well?" Theodore asked. The new boy's eyebrows were raised in surprise and his fingers were nervously wrapped around the corners of his sleeves.

I noticed things about the boy that I hadn't noticed before. For one, his clothes were absolutely dreadful. They were loose, frayed, and the colors were all slightly grey as though it had been washed so many times the colors had all lost their vibrancy. Lastly, he stared at Theodore for a couple seconds as though he'd seen an unexpected sight, before looking around like he was looking for something or someone.

I glanced towards Theodore and noticed that he was facing the front again, the assistant had continued working on measuring him (probably for more dress robes) as magical pins were working their way into the robes that were fitted on me.

"Yes… Hogwarts."

Is this… déjà vu? I swear I've experienced this exact moment before. I sunk into my own musing as I filtered their chatter into the background.

Truly strange. Why have I met both 'h' Potter and Theodore in Madame Malkin's this time? I recall that last time, I hadn't met anyone aside from that one pureblood kid. Of course, I can barely recall who that was, I simply remembered that his parents were both wizards.

"Your parents were our kind aren't they?" Theodore asked.

"What do you mean?" The other kid replied.

"I'm asking if they're both wizards." Theodore continued to interrogate.

"Yes, they were."

Yes… just like that… Hold on a blooming second. I closed my eyes and filtered through my memories with the help of occlumency. Our conversation went just like this!

I urgently turned to face… potter… and asked him a question while taking a quick glance at my watch which I slid down my forearm, still hidden from sight.

"My apologies for interrupting, but before we continue, I believe some introductions are in order. I am Tom Stark."

[July 31st]

The same day I fitted for a new wardrobe for my first year at Hogwarts.

In one smooth moment, I slid it back far up my arm and held out my hand for Potter to take. Potter stared at my face with wide eyes as though he'd seen a ghost, and it had taken him a couple seconds to regain his bearing and take my hand.

"Harry."

We shared a quick hand-shake then I released his hand and leaned backwards to give enough space for Theodore to make his introductions.

"Nott, Theodore Nott. By chance are you 'that' Harry?-" Theodore firmly grasped Potter's hand and gave a firm shake.

"Umm… yes." Potter seemed to glance away and uneasily shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Harry Potter" he continued.

"Might you reckon which house you'll be in Harry? May I call you that? By your name? or would you prefer your last name?"

Theodore excitedly spoke while resuming his original position to allow the assistant to properly measure his robes.

"N-no, I don't know. But yeah, you can call me Harry... Wait…"

'h' Potter turned to face me with knitted eyebrows. After a quick glance at my face his eyes widened into saucers before shifting his attention towards… my hair?

"I'm sorry what was your name again?" Potter voiced in an alarmed tone.

. . . I cautiously eyed Potter - feeling inclined to poke his mind using legilimency, yet deciding not to do by reason of 'h' Potter still being a minor.

"Tom Stark"

Potter continued to stare at me before Madame Malkin asked him to face the front and properly stand still. Even then, I could still feel his gaze as he continued to 'sneakily' steal some glances.

From that point on, Theodore attempted to enthusiastically talk to Potter and ask him some questions. But Potter's rather distracted attention put Theodore off, and made Theodore scoff at being ignored.

Not long after that, Theodore turned his attention back to me, and we shared a discussion in French about which of the purebloods would most likely be sorted into which of the four houses.

In a way, it was quite beneficial to me as I had now learned that the Nott's were most probably the strongest 'Slytherin' house as of the moment. The only other houses competing for the role were Bulstrode, Greengrass, Parkinson, Carrow, and Rosier of which only Rosier had a male heir, "Felix Rosier" [1]. Avery and Crouch were heir-less and dwindling in influence. And Slughorn, Yaxley, Travers, and Burke were basically extant unless the old Slughorn and forever-single Lord Avery would somehow create heirs.

Soon, 'h' Potter had finished his fitting and had gone out to greet Hagrid who had apparently been waiting outside with two melted cones of Florean's icecream. We hadn't noticed he had been standing there almost the entire time as we had been quite deep in discussion.

After Nott's offhanded remark about Hagrid, (something that sounded eerily like what I had spoken in the past : "Look at him blubber! Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?") We conversed for a couple more minutes before my fitting had finished.

Dad came right on time. I saw him right as I had left the store. Quite interesting how things came to be in this "alternate" timeline. For one, after getting my wand, I should research why Lord Nott now lives in France.

[1] omg guys, I love Felix. He's so nice. He's like, one of the only 2 good thing about Slytherin if you were a Slytherin in the late 1980's. (The other one is Bernaby Lee ( >w< )~<3 ) Otherwise, the only thing you would receive is hate lol.