Slytherin!Golden Trio x Gryffindor!Pureblood Squad
Harry Potter sneers at the outstretched hand. He’s been warned about wizarding families like the Malfoys, ambitious and grasping and snobbish.
It’s something of a surprise, then, when Draco Malfoy - who had bravely proffered friendship - gets sorted into Gryffindor.
“Couldn’t bear being in the same house as a Mudblood,” Blaise Zabini murmurs in the queue for the hat. He goes to Gryffindor too. Harry thinks maybe things have changed since his parents’ day. Then it’s his turn. The echo of his name whispers student to student to student.
“Hmm. Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that’s interesting. . . . So where shall I put you?”
Harry thinks of Hagrid, thinks of Malfoy. Not Gryffindor, not Gryffindor.
“Not Gryffindor, eh?” said the small voice. “Are you sure? You’re full of chivalry, you know, it’s all here in your head. Gryffindor could help you on the way to daring deeds. No? Well, if you’re sure — better be SLYTHERIN!”
Harry takes a seat next to the sharp-eyed brunette he’d met on the train. Hermione Granger, first Slytherin Muggleborn in decades. He meets the black-eyes of a Professor at the high table, who looks stunned.
He wonders if he’s made a mistake. Then Ron Weasley joins them. The Great Hall is so quiet by this point only Ron’s own brothers’ boos carry over the thrum of shocked whispers.
[Hermione works out there's something funny about Quirrell about two weeks into term, and goes to Professor Snape. He's condescending as usual, she tells them after, but he says it's being handled and they're not to worry. Snape is cold but always fair. They have no reason not to trust him.]
The first time he's really jealous of Malfoy is when the blond boy flies out for Gryffindor, the first First Year in generations to do so. His parents watch from the stands next to Professor McGonagall. They look uncertain and snooty, but they relax as the game continues.
[He's jealous of him a few times after that, but Malfoy seems - bafflingly - jealous of him too. They duel it out one night and no one wins, and the animosity fades a little.]
That match, Harry learns a great many years later, changes almost everything about the world he's entered.