Disclaimer: JK Rowling and a few other people own everything, I don't.

Come Take My Hand

Chapter 5

Collision of Worlds

Harry struggled back to his feet and hurridly replaced his glasses back upon his nose.

"What were you running from, anyway?"

Moving into the dim illumination of the streetlight, the previously shadowed figure became more easily visible. The voice was coming from a boy of around the same age as Harry himself, hardly any taller and only slightly thicker set.

The stranger eyed Harry curiously, taking in the thin baggy clothes, the bent glasses and the messy dark hair that almost concealed his eyes.

Harry lowered his head to stare at the pavement. He felt intimidated by the confident attitude of the boy and was not enjoying the feeling of being judged in comparison. Then, suddenly remembering the urgency of the moment, his face shot back up to look at the other boy.

"Have to run, being chased...some people-" Harry stammered as he spun around to check that they hadn't caught up with him yet.

There was no sign of anyone behind him, but that didn't necessarily mean anything, they could still be coming, he had to keep moving...

Harry tried to dart around the young stranger, with the intention of keeping on running, but the boy stepped in front him, blocking the way.

"You might want to run also, they looked rather angry." Harry attempted to explain, now feeling rather unsure about the situation.

"Me, run? Malfoys don't run from people like you, muggle."

The boy said this in a boasting voice, standing up as straight as he could in order to complement his tone of superiority.

Harry looked at him, puzzled. Perhaps this boy was older than him afterall, or at least a fraction smarter. Harry had never heard the word 'muggle' used before; it sounded like an insult. Embarrassed slightly by his own lack of knowledge, he didn't question it.

He decided that it probably meant something along the lines of 'freak'.

The other boy didn't seem surprised by Harry's blank expression.

"I'm not allowed to tell you why, but I'm better than you, you see. If I were you, I'd be afraid of me. I bet you those people chasing you were."

He grinned as he pushed a lock of straight blond hair that had fallen down into his face back behind his ear.

"Oh."

Harry wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. While it seemed easy for the exhausted boy to understand that the other may indeed be better than him, he still didn't seem nearly as scary as Uncle Vernon could when in one of his rages.

However, there was a question entering his mind that he couldn't help but ask.

"Are-are you playing dress-ups or something?"

For the strange boy was indeed dressed in rather unusual garments. He was wearing a dark green cape of some sort, made from thick, expensive looking material and so long that it sweeped against the ground. The cape was clasped with a gold metal emblem with the letter 'M' at the centre - 'Malfoy', Harry could vaguely remember the boy saying. Visible under the cape was something that to Harry appeared to be a black cotton bathrobe.

Harry thought back to the fancy dress days that the younger students had once a year at his school. Dudley and him had been kept home from school on the last occurance of this - Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon strongly disapproved of the 'imagination nonsense'.

This boy standing in front of him looked like he had tried to dress up a king or something...but he'd forgotten a toy crown.

The Malfoy boy lost his superior demeanor for a second as his face showed evident bewilderment. This was quickly replaced, however, with a smirk, though he didn't verbally respond to Harry's question.

Harry checked behind him again. It now seemed to be unlikely that the people he encountered had continued to follow him. For a split-second he wondered whether the other boy was right in believing others would be scared of him, but Harry still thought it unlikely that grown-ups would cower before someone so small.

There were a few moments of silence, and the other boy began to look bored.

"What are you doing out at night, then?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"Waiting." Was the non-commitive reply he received.

"Better than running away, like you were doing, muggle." The boy then elaborated, when Harry didn't comment.

Harry blushed, ashamed of himself for being such an afraid 'muggle'. He felt it was time to leave, the boy didn't seem a terribly pleasent person, but he was also aware that there was nowhere that he could go to, except carrying walking in hopes of stumbling upon some forgotten family member.

"Well, good-bye then." Harry mumbled, again attempting to continue walking.

Again his path was blocked.

"I'll show you why I'm better than a muggle like you!" The boy said suddenly.

"Alright." Harry responded reluctantly, seeing no other way to leave.

"You know what? I got onto this street from a door that you can't even see, because you're just a muggle!" He continued enthusiastically.

The boy with the glasses looked back at the second boy, now faintly curious.

"A secret door?"

"Yep, it's over there between those two shops, and it's shiny and black and you can't see it!" He announced proudly, pointing at the an area on the other side of the street.

The darker boy turned in that direction.

Harry was now forced to doubt this boy's sanity, for he could clearly see this door that he was being told that he couldn't see. It was off to the far side of the street, black and polished as the pale boy had said. Harry couldn't work out it's function - the shops on either side of it left barely enough room for the door, let alone a shop or anything.

But he could see it quite clearly. Was the other child saying otherwise in an attempt to tease him about his glasses? He supposed that it was a miracle that he could still see through them, they had been broken a number of times.

Or maybe he was making fun of the way Harry's messy hair got in front of his eyes all the time.

Harry stood up straighter, now determined to show that he wasn't the coward he had presented himself as. He shoved his hair flatter against the side of his head, and pushed the hair that fell over his face back to the sides. This was a wasted effort, as it quickly went back into its previous position.

Noting that the Malfoy boy had tucked his hair behind his ears, Harry tried to do the same, hoping it would make him look a fraction tidier.

In doing this, another unusual thing was brought to his attention.

The boy's eyes were widening as he stared in the direction of Harry's forehead.

"You - you're Harry Potter!"

And at that moment, Harry Potter wasn't sure what he was more afraid of - the fact that a stranger he had met on the street knew his name, or the tall man in similar emerald robes who had emerged from the black doorway and was striding towards the two of them.

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A/N - I'm really sorry for the EXTREMELY long wait between the last chapter and this one.

Anyway, I would like to thank you all who have been reading and even more those of you who have been reviewing. I hope to get the next chapter out more quickly, of course...