For 16 Galleons

Chapter Two

The carriage was weird. Harry had never seen a carriage before, but he was pretty sure there were supposed to be horses in front. It was huge and black with some fancy writing on the door. Draco jumped in and Harry followed cautiously. Draco's father climbed in after them and closed the door. He tapped the wall over their heads with a stick and the whole thing began to move. It was different from Uncle Vernon's car, smoother and there were no windows to look out of, but it smelt better.

"So, Draco, what are you going to call your new friend?" the father asked.

"I don't know," answered the boy.

"My name is Harry," he said shyly.

Draco's father looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Your name was Harry. If my son chooses to rename you then you will answer to a new name."

Harry gulped and tried to make himself smaller in the seat. Draco looked at him for quite a while before saying, "I think Harry fits him, Father. Can I keep calling him that?"

"If you wish," Lucius shrugged uninterestedly.

Draco kept looking over at Harry and smiling. The blond boy's face lit up when he smiled and it was like looking at a ray of sunlight, or rather moonlight since his eyes were that bluish grey colour and his hair was so pale. Soon Harry found himself smiling back a little bit. It was hard not to with Draco being so enthusiastic about him being here.

"When we get to the Manor I will have Mrs. Carter take Harry to his rooms and get him cleaned up. He can wear some of your old robes until he is well enough behaved to take out into public. I will arrange for a trainer to begin working with him this week. Until he is deemed safe, you will not be allowed to be alone with him. Do you understand, Draco?"

"Yes, Father," the boy said meekly. "How long will it take before I can play with him?"

"I have no idea. You chose an undomesticated mudblood, Draco. They are unpredictable. If he learns quickly then you should be able to play with him under supervision in a few days. If he does not... well, I don't know."

"Will I be able to take him to Hogwarts with me?"

"Draco, that is four years away. You may have gotten rid of him by then."

"But Father, he's going to be my best friend. I will never get rid of him," Draco said with the earnestness of an all-knowing seven year old.

Lucius just laughed quietly and shook his head. "If you still have him by the time you go to Hogwarts, he will go with you. You will need a personal servant there even more than at the Manor."

Harry took all this in quietly. He really didn't understand what was going on at all. What was Hogwarts? Was he going to be Draco's servant? What did a servant have to do? Would the trainer teach him? Would he learn games to play with Draco? He didn't really know any games to play with other kids. He was going to get new clothes? That would be nice. Draco was only a little bit bigger than him so maybe they would fit him better than Dudley's and no one would laugh at him when he wore them. What did Draco's father mean when he said Draco might get rid of him? And Draco wanted to keep him? What was he, a puppy?

"Ah, before I forget..." Lucius said as he pulled out a length of something black. "We need to put his collar on before we get to the Manor." Harry stared wide-eyed. 'Oh my God. I am a puppy,' he thought. He looked down at himself, half expecting to see fur and paws. But no, he still had skin and hands and feet. What did Draco's father mean about the collar then? Before he could say or do anything, Lucius leaned forward and slipped the piece of material around his neck and tapped it with the stick. Harry gasped. It felt like metal but it had moved like fabric. It was snug around his throat but not uncomfortable. He reached up with tentative fingers and touched it. It really felt like metal. He looked up at Draco's father questioningly but the man just smirked at him.

"See, Harry?" Draco said with a huge smile on his face. "Now you're mine."

"I don't understand..." Harry began.

"You belong to Draco. He owns you," Lucius began to explain. "You are a slave, Harry. We own you and you will do what we tell you or you will be punished."

Harry's eyes widened with fear and he reached up to try and tear the collar off.

"You can't remove it, Harry. You will wear it for the rest of your life with us. When Draco tires of you, we will sell you to another owner who will replace it with their own collar. If you had been found at birth like a normal mudblood you would understand all this," Lucius said accusingly.

Harry looked fearfully over at Draco, who reached out to lay a hand on Harry's arm. "Don't worry, Harry. I'm going to keep you forever and ever." Then Draco smiled at him again.

To be continued