4 Birthday Party

In the evening of the very same day the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoys held a birthday party for the young boy who just turned seven.

Draco was bored out of his mind. He was standing at the entrance to the huge ballroom, greeting the arriving guests. Some arrived via apparition, portkeys or fireplace traveling, others were more creative and came with carriages which were led by abraxans, hippogriffs, pagasi or even thestrals.

This was the day that Draco found out he could see thestrals, the flying horses that reminded people of skeletons with flesh, which could be seen only after witnessing death. Draco supposed that dying and being reincarnated also counted as 'witnessing death' experience.

Today was also the first time that Draco was participating in any kind of official event with his parents. In pureblood society, children were introduced to others at the age of seven because that was when their magic settled and they were considered to be more mature. Until then children were raised in their families without much outside contact. Often times there was one more reason - until the child was seven-years-old it was hard to tell whether he or she was magical. What would happen if a child in question was a squib, someone without an ability to use magic? So, in cases that a child turned out to be a squib, it was easy for the family to say that the child 'died' somewhere between being born and the age of seven or that there was no child to begin with.

Magical society was cruel because every witch and wizard always carried a weapon with them and didn't hesitate to use it when they were in need. A magic wand allowed them to use magic not only to travel, make light, cook or help with other practical things. It was also a powerful weapon and people learned how to use it at school, when they were children. Magic wand couldn't be restricted like weapons in the muggle world, so magic people faced more danger and, naturally, were more inclined to be cruel.

Draco was spacing out, contemplating philosophical questions, while standing between his parents with a stiff smile. He honestly couldn't remember many people who introduced themselves, though some were familiar to him. He remembered greeting Vincent Crabbe and Greggory Goyle, the two 'bodyguards' of Draco Malfoy from the book. They were both quite fat, however, they weren't as stupid as Draco imagined. They conducted themselves with some semblance of pureblood manners, politely introducing themselves and wishing happy birthday.

Draco also remembered greeting the Greengrass family, the Parkinsons, Notts and Bulstrodes. Those were all the families which had children Draco's age who would also go to Hogwarts with him and be in Slytherin house. However, those families weren't the only familiar ones.

On the invitee list there were also Bones, Abbotts, Macmillans, Smiths and even Browns (Draco remembered Lavender Brown being in Gryffindor in Harry's year). There were, of course, more familiar names and surnames, all of them pureblood, however, Draco couldn't be bothered to care. He just wished he could sit down.

After greeting and introductions, Draco was finally allowed to go to the children's game room. This was an additional space created for children to party away from their parents and away from the boring talks. Draco was expected to play the host there.

His initial impression of children being well-behaved was quickly challenged when he entered the game room. True, some children, mostly those of Hogwarts age, were sitting in various corners of the room in groups and discussing whatever, not bothering others. However, the younger children were rather noisy, running around and wiping their dripping snot on their own clothes, laughing happily as though they have never participated in a party.

Draco wanted to quit.

But duty called and as the only responsible 'adult' in the room, as well as the host, he had to make rounds and chat with everyone.

He found, unsurprisingly, that the most bearable were older children who would be going to Hogwarts soon. He could chat with them about rumors, magic and other quite interesting subjects. Younger children invited him to games, few of which Draco participated in.

Among the younger children he liked Daphne Greengrass, Theodore Nott, Susan Bones and her best friend, Hannah Abbott, the most. They were a rather quiet and intelligent bunch. Zacharias Smith, who was also playing with them, was an arrogant boy and Draco couldn't bear to be within three meters of him. Same could also be said about Ernest Macmillan.

Levander Brown, future Gryffindor princess, was getting along very well with Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode, both of whom would later sorted into the Slytherin house. Draco was surprised. He supposed that children, who weren't sorted into different houses and haven't yet learned of different ideals, could interact very well between themselves, without any differences. After the sorting they would, sadly, drift apart and house prejudices would prevent them from being close.

Draco resolved himself to ignore house differences when he went to Hogwarts and to get along with these, for now, little people. All of them would grow up to be powerful forces and he didn't want to give up the connections, especially considering that if everything went according to the books, Voldemort would rise again, be defeated and the Slytherin house's reputation would be in ruins. Draco still wanted to be a Slytherin, however, he didn't want to become the Dark Lord's servant and be labeled with the 'evil, to be avoided' tag.

Thus, he tried to play and interact with everyone and establish himself as the leader of the group. He didn't find it very easy as he was the youngest amongst the children participating in the party. All of these children already had their seventh birthdays, which meant that most of them already met their peers and even had friends. Draco was born on the fifth of June, so he would be one of the youngest in their year when they went to Hogwarts. He only knew that Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter were younger than him as they were born in July.

However, these were children, they were still very trusting, so it also wasn't hard for Draco to integrate himself among them. He even found himself a dance partner for the Etiquette class. Daphne Greengrass agreed to come to the Malfoy manor once a week to assist him in dancing lessons and learn dances herself.

Draco could only be glad - it was awkward trying to dance with his stern tutor while he could only reach up to her stomach. However, he suspected that his mother made the house elves take some really memorable photos out of these events - he sometimes heard suspicious snapping sounds whilst dancing. Even though Daphne was also a bit taller than Draco, he could still tolerate it - anything was better than trying to lead a female partner when you were only half as tall as herself.

Surprisingly, at the end of the party Draco found himself enjoying the children's company. The last few months were spent mainly by himself and any kind of prolonged human contact was nice. But that was not all.

Draco also enjoyed behaving like a child, something that he couldn't do as an adult. Growing up means that you cannot run around playing games, get dirty while wrestling others on the ground, prank people and do other childish stuff. Adults lose their freedom and usually not because someone else tells them that they are childish, but because they themselves feel that it would be 'unseemly' to act in one way or another as it would create rumors, make other people lose respect and other nonsense. Now Draco was free of all these considerations and could allow himself to completely relax in the presence of others.

In the end, Draco's seventh birthday celebration was also the beginning of many friendships and new connections that he formed. Later, when Draco looked back to his second childhood, he didn't regret making these friends at all, even though many of them created so much trouble for him over the years.