Draco's chest rises and falls rapidly in anger, and she grips the folding fan at her waist.

The fir handle of the fan makes a soft click.

Draco blinks rapidly, bites her lower lip, and with great difficulty, a sentence pops out.

"I'd be more careful if I were you, Harry Potter."

Draco deliberately slowed her tone to an even keel, worried that she wouldn't be able to contain her anger and lose her temper in public.

"I'm sorry about your parents. But also, for that reason, you must be more careful. If, for example, you are always trying to hang out with rude hunting grounds keepers, or degenerate families like the Weasleys. What would they think, if they knew?"

Draco tried to calmly state her honest thoughts.

After all, it would be a shame for the children of a powerful family to be caught fraternizing with a Hogwarts Gamekeeper.

Furthermore, how could Harry Potter, being an orphan and knowing nothing about the wizarding world, be left in the care of the fallen Weasleys who were willing to sympathize with the Muggles?

"How dare you insult my family."

The red-haired boy stood up as well and spoke menacingly to Draco.

Draco, however, didn't care.

What made her frown deeply was that Harry Potter was also holding his arms across his chest in a supportive stance towards the red-haired boy.

"You wouldn't want to get rough on the express, would you, Weasley? Surely you don't have any semblance of upbringing."

Draco narrowed her eyes in disdain.

Only to be met with Harry's throwaway retort.

"Unless you leave this compartment now, Malfoy. Otherwise, we're going to have to take it easy on you."

Harry stepped in front of Ron and Draco could clearly see him clench his fists.

Intuitively, she guessed that, perhaps, Harry Potter was more than just an orphan of the wizarding world.

Worse, he might have been raised by Muggles to be so rude and impolite and to be so easily attracted to the Weasleys' aura.

Draco bit her lip again indignantly, the handle of her folding fan folding gently once more.

"Miss Malfoy..."

It wasn't until Vincent's reminder came from behind her that Draco snapped back to her senses.

Out of the corner of her eye, she swept her surroundings, and outside the compartment, a tide of students gathered and murmured.

It seemed that word of her argument with Harry Potter had spread all over this train.

It was a bit chagrining to Draco that she had become the center of public opinion in such a manner before she had even officially enrolled.

She paused and gave Harry a hard stare, ignoring the Weasley boy.

"You were the one who said you wanted to meet me at Hogwarts, weren't you, Potter?"

"I didn't know you were so arrogant, Malfoy."

Unwilling to give in even to the last lip-sync, Harry's gentlemanly demeanor made Draco grow more and more exasperated.

"Very well. I'll make you regret your choice today."

Draco said as she turned to leave, but couldn't hold back the depression in her chest.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Uttering the first profanity of her life to the wide eyes of Vincent and Gregory in surprise.

"Stupid Potter."

...

Draco returned to the compartment in a huff, and Daphne and Pansy greeted her worriedly as soon as they saw her appearance.

"Draco?"

"Why are you so angry?"

Draco, however, just waved her head, as if trying to forget all about the upset she had just felt, along with the jeers of the others such as "Miss Malfoy hit on Potter and got a closed door."

Without a word, Draco sat down in the plush seat of the compartment and stared out the window at the darkening scenery.

"Harry Potter... Is a bad guy?"

"It's not one of those idiots who thinks he's great, is it?"

Daphne asked timidly and Pansy guessed to herself.

Draco forced a smile toward the concerned pair and rubbed gently between her eyebrows.

The two, naturally understanding their best friend's temperament, just stayed quiet and gossiped with Draco.

That is until the sky darkened away and a slow glow slowly lit up in the distance outside the darkened windows and Daphne alerted in alarm.

"It's almost here! Shouldn't we hurry up and put on our robes?"

The trio hastily rose to their feet and removed their robes from their luggage on the rack.

Draco endured the slightly rough robes from Madam Malkin's shop on one side, while looking down at the folding fan placed on the seat that had been creased by the force she had pressed against it.

Finally, Draco couldn't help but speak softly again.

"Mark my words, arrogant, insolent fool."

In the reflection of the car window, Draco's handsome willowy eyebrows fell back, not noticing that she had uttered the profanity for the second time today.

Outside the car window, Hogsmeade Village, the light and shadows were intertwined.

Vaguely visible in the distance, somewhere on a hill, was the castle with its towers clustered around it.

Hogwarts was close at hand.

"Freshmen! Freshmen come here! All right, Harry?"

Only just stepping onto the platform of Hogwarts, they heard the gruff shouts of the giant figure.

A cry of "Harry" caused another commotion on the platform.

"Harry? It can't be Harry Potter, can it?"

"He knows Hagrid already?"

"Wow! Can you see him?"

"I heard he had a run-in with Miss Malfoy?"

"Malfoy? Is that the Malfoys?"

"Are you just finding out now? I heard a lot of twenty-eight nobles this year."

"Oooh wow sounds like an obnoxious..."

The platform was bustling with people and Hagrid just kept shouting to try and keep order.

"So it's true, yay, the keeper of Hogwarts is a giant!" Pansy said excitedly as she stepped off the train and pulled Draco along.

Daphne just frowned quietly from the sidelines, looking somewhat timidly at Hagrid's tall silhouette.

"He's the keeper of the hunting grounds. The castle doors are magically protected and don't require a keeper." Draco explained as she took Daphne's hand slightly and spoke again slowly, "His name is Hagrid."

Upon hearing Draco's words, Pansy and Daphne coincidentally looked surprised.

"Do you know him?" Daphne asked with some hesitation.

Draco, however, hesitated slightly. Thinking of her first encounter with Harry at Madam Malkin's, she also remembered the unpleasantness of the two meetings.

"No acquaintance. It was Dad who warned to watch out for his rudeness."

And then, indignantly, Draco added.

"Only a coarse and rude fellow would want to know such a man."

Daphne nodded, but Pansy rolled her soulful eyes and looked at Draco, wanting to speak.

The students had begun to walk out of the station with Hagrid, a downhill stretch ahead.

"Just round the corner and you'll see Hogwarts!" Hagrid said aloud.

The first years were loud and noisy with excitement.

Pansy, Daphne & Draco looked at each other and the corners of their mouths couldn't help but rise.

What came into view was the crystal clear lake reflecting the starry night, with gentle ripples and a statement of water, accompanied by the soft thumping sound of the evening breeze caressing the wooden boats.

Starlight dotted, decorated with wooden boats, scattered torches swaying.

Looking towards the far side of the lake, towering above the standing rock, was a huge castle with guard towers, and stone windows warmed by candlelight, seemingly welcoming the students back to the city.

"Only four people can sit in a boat!"

Hagrid reminded aloud once more as the trio of Draco, Daphne, and Pansy stepped gingerly into a small boat.

Draco bobbed her head gently and looked over to the canoe not far away, where Harry's gaze with his round-rimmed glasses was on her.

He was still accompanied by the Weasley boy.

Draco couldn't help but frown at Harry and turn her head sideways.

Instead, she still inadvertently kept her eyes peeled for a girl with curly brown hair in the same boat as Harry, along with a mousy boy with a round face.

--

Crossing the lake and stepping off the boat, the seniors and the freshmen respectively took different paths.

The seniors were skillfully seated in the carriage and were not much surprised to see the front of the carriage, without the appearance of a mount pulling it.

On the contrary, the freshmen were very curious about the strange appearance of the carriage.

It was not until Hagrid greeted them once again that the freshmen stepped across the grass in front of them under his guidance.

Before they could walk up the stone steps, the auditorium door opened with a loud "Bang".

Walking towards them was a tall witch in a turquoise robe, looking at the new students with a serious face.

Seeing the visitor, Hagrid stepped forward and greeted him, "Professor McGonagall, they are freshmen this year."

"Thank you, Hagrid. Leave them to me from here on out."

Professor McGonagall said, turning around without a word and leading these freshmen into the auditorium hall.