For 16 Galleons

Chapter 4

Between bites of sweet biscuits and sips of tea, Harry told Mrs. Carter about his last two weeks. He told her about the men who came to the house and that led to him telling her about his aunt and uncle being glad to get rid of him. He told her about snooty Terence and him not being afraid of the boy, which led to him telling her about Dudley and his friends. He told her about the slave traders trying to get him to eat more because he was so small. That led to him having to tell her about his cupboard and Dudley getting more food than him. Eventually, she had managed to get a pretty good picture of his life before being sold as well as what had happened over the past two weeks and this morning.

Afterwards, Mrs. Carter had taken Harry to her quarters. She had shown him pictures of her three sons, who were now grown. Master Malfoy had provided them with good references and they now had good jobs in the wizarding world and two of them were married. Harry had been a bit shocked at first because the pictures moved.

"Oh dear me," Mrs. Carter mumbled. "It will take a while to get used to you not knowing anything about magic."

"My aunt and uncle said magic doesn't exist."

"Well, how would you explain some of the things you have seen so far today?" she prodded him.

"Umm, magic, I guess?" he said unsurely.

Mrs. Carter chuckled. "Yes, dear, it's magic. Here, let me show you a bit." She led him into the bathroom, pulled out one of those sticks, waved it and said some funny word. The bath tub began to fill with steaming water.

"Master Malfoy has one of those sticks, too," Harry commented as he watched in astonishment.

"It's called a wand, Harry. All witches and wizards need one to cast spells. When you get older you'll get one, too."

"I'll get one? Why would I get one?" Harry said, confused.

"Because you're a wizard, Harry. You're a Muggle-born wizard but a wizard none the less."

"I'm a what?" Harry exclaimed, looking astonished.

"You're a wizard. You'll learn to do spells and fly and all sorts of magical things."

"Really?" he asked softly. "I'll get to fly?"

"Yes, dear, you will. But now you need to get ready for a bath." With another wave of her wand, the running water stopped.

"I don't need a bath," Harry said quickly. Like any other seven year old boy, bath time was far down on his list of things to do.

"I beg to differ," Mrs. Carter said with a mock stern face. "You smell like you've been riding hippogriffs."

"What's a hippogriff?" Harry asked with big, innocent eyes.

"I'll tell you after your bath. Now get in there and get clean. You can't play with Draco unless you take a bath."

Harry dejectedly trudged over to the bath and started to lift off his shirt. Then he looked at her questioningly.

Mrs. Carter smiled. "If you need anything I'll just be out in the other room." She turned and left, leaving the door slightly cracked open so she could hear if Harry had any trouble.

Thirty minutes later she was knocking on the door, trying to get Harry to hurry up and get done. Just like most seven year old boys, once you forced him to get into the bath you had to drag him out. "I thought you wanted to know what a hippogriff was?" she called through the door.

"I'm coming," he called and got out of the tub accompanied by vast amounts of splashing. Soon there could be heard the splatter sound of wet bare feet and a very pink, towel-clad little boy exited the bathroom.

"Here are some robes you can wear for dinner. They're Draco's from last year. I think they will fit you decently." She handed him one of those dress looking things that Draco and his father had been wearing. Harry looked at it a bit and finally figured out how to slip it over his head. He wondered what he was supposed to do about underwear, but wasn't about to ask.

Mrs. Carter pinned him in place and attacked his hair with a brush. He struggled a bit, but not too much. He really quite liked all the attention but didn't want her to know that. He didn't want her to think he was a baby, after all. She looked down at him, cleaned his glasses and finally gave a nod of approval.

"Come on then. I want you to watch the Malfoys in the dining room during dinner. I'll explain to you what you are going to be doing once you're trained. Then we'll eat in the kitchen and I'll see if Master Malfoy will let you play with Draco for a bit before bed time."

So Harry got to meet more members of the Malfoys' staff. An hour later he still had no idea who most of them were or what they did. It was pretty much all a blur. Mrs. Carter planted him in a chair behind a wooden screen from where they could see the table and she could explain what was happening. Watching the Malfoys eat was a cross between boring and torture. The Malfoys didn't seem to talk much while they ate. Draco sat there, carefully cutting his food and quietly eating it. Every once in a while he would begin to swing his legs, catch himself and stop. The servants placed dishes on the table, took dishes off the table, put more on the table, poured drinks and offered anything the Malfoys seemed to want. Harry wanted to go eat now. He was hungry.

When the family finished their meal, Mrs. Carter led him back to the kitchen, where they sat with the other staff for supper. Harry started to eat quickly until a hand on his arm stopped him. "Mind your manners, Harry. You're not a Muggle. You should eat like a proper wizard," the young man said.

Harry looked around him and realized that everyone was eating slower and neater than the Dursleys. He tried to do what they did. One flung piece of meat, two spilt forks of peas and a knocked over glass of milk later, supper was finished. Harry was embarrassed. He really didn't mean for his knife to slip and shoot the piece of chicken across the table into Mr. Arieta's lap and it wasn't his fault that he had always used a spoon to eat his peas before and he was sure that if his chair was just a little taller he wouldn't have knocked over his milk when he reached for another roll. He sighed. Would he ever get the hang of this?

Mrs. Carter grabbed a damp cloth and rubbed at his face and hands. Harry squawked indignantly at being treated like a little kid but didn't fight. Finished, she looked him over and smiled. "There we go, Harry. You're all clean and ready to go play with Draco."

By the time they got to Draco's play room, Harry was very excited. Mrs. Carter had said that Draco had toys and would let Harry play with them too as long as he was good. When Mrs. Carter opened the door, Harry stepped in and stopped. He was amazed. There were lots of toys, lots and lots of toys. There were toys that were doing things that Harry didn't know toys could do. It was ever so much more interesting than Dudley's second bedroom.

He was standing there looking around with his mouth open when he heard "Harry!" and was tackled by an excited blond. "You get to come play with me!"

"All right boys, play nicely," said the stern looking woman sitting across the room.

"Yes, Ma'am," Draco replied. "Come on, Harry. I'll show you my dragon collection."

Harry followed him over to a set of shelves on one wall. On it were dozens of little dragon figurines made out of all sorts of things. Some of them moved and seemed to breathe fire.

"You have an awful lot of dragons, Master Draco. Why?"

"Silly," Draco laughed at him. "My name means dragon. Isn't that cool?"

"Yeah, it is. My name just means, hairy, I guess." Draco looked at him funny and scrunched up his nose. Then they both giggled.

In a box on the floor next to the shelves were a whole bunch of stuffed dragons. Draco was pointing to various dragons and telling Harry what they were made of and where they came from. Harry kept looking at the toys in the box. Some of them looked very realistic but a couple looked soft and squishy. He really wished he could touch one of them.

"Do you sleep with any of these?" Harry asked with awe.

Draco looked around sheepishly to make sure the two women couldn't hear what he said. "Sometimes, but don't tell anyone. Father probably wouldn't like it."

"Wow!" Harry exclaimed softly. "My cousin Dudley had a teddy bear once but he pulled the nose off. I've never had a sleep toy," he sighed.

"Really? I had dozens to sleep with when I was a baby," Draco said, sounding stuck up. Harry was tempted to smack him. Then Draco settled back down. "Now I just have Crunch." Draco lowered his voice, "I keep him hidden behind the headboard so no one finds him."

The two boys played with a small army of dragons and wizards and chatted about various things. Draco seemed surprised to learn that Harry had had a life before he'd been bought by Draco. He asked questions about Muggles and Harry answered as best he could. Harry, for his part, was amazed at the things Draco told him about magic. He wasn't altogether sure that some of it wasn't made up, but he wasn't going to call Draco a liar. The two women gossiped about their charges and speculated about the future.

Soon enough it was time for both boys to go to bed. Draco whined and pouted and once again Harry thought he was a brat. Harry wasn't at all tired and calmly informed Mrs. Carter that he was sure he wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Both women just laughed and took their charges by the hand to lead them off to bed.

"Oh wait!" Draco suddenly exclaimed. He dropped his governess' hand and ran over to the box containing the stuffed dragons. He pulled out a blue one with a pattern of stars, planets and moons on it that was just big enough to hug comfortably. He looked at it for a moment, then ran over to Harry and Mrs. Carter. "Here, Harry," he said with a smile. "You need a dragon to guard your bed, too."

Harry took the dragon and was happily surprised to find that it was just as soft and squishy as he had always thought a teddy bear would be. Of course this teddy bear had big teeth, a bright red felt tongue, blue velvet wings and claws, but it was, for all intents and purposes, a teddy - his very first, very own teddy. He hugged the dragon tightly and grinned at Draco. "Thanks, Master Draco."

Mrs. Carter led a skipping Harry back to her quarters. After a bit of a fuss, Harry was finally in his pyjamas and in bed. He assured her that he wasn't at all tired. Mrs. Carter told him that was fine; he could just play quietly with his new dragon in the bed for a bit while she did something in the other room. Five minutes later, Harry snuggled closer to his new toy, Puff, and began to snore softly.

To be continued