Author's note: To new readers coming across this story or anyone who might have decided to reread it, I strongly recommend you go read it on AO3 instead, where it is also posted under the username Mymlen (idk how to make this site not delete url's, but if you google "mymlen aftershocks ao3" it's the first thing that comes up).

Fanfiction . net is really hard to work with/super inconvenient in so many ways, so even though I've edited the chapters of this story a lot (fixing spelling mistakes, wonky dialogue, plotholes and inaccuracies), I haven't had the patience for uploading these edits on here, but I have updated them on AO3. Also, on AO3 I'm usually better at replying to comments, if any of you happen to be interested in that/in talking to me.

Anyway, thanks for showing interest in my fic.

- Mymlen

Chapter 1

Shafts of sunlight fell through the arched ceiling windows onto platform 9 ¾. The station was crowded with noise and bodies, trollies with precariously balanced suitcases were pushed between parents jostling owl cages and trying to keep track of their children. In fifteen minutes the Hogwarts Express would be departing so most of this year's students had arrived and none of their families had left yet.

Draco Malfoy stood just to the right of the iron archway over the entrance from King's Cross. He was watching the scene with an uncomfortable sense of having stepped into and old memory. Being back at the station for the beginning of a new school year felt more like sinking into a Pensieve than a real experience. It was like watching the past unfold before you in real time while being only an invisible observer yourself, even to the people who pushed right past you. Except Draco didn't feel invisible. He was acutely aware of his own spine, of his hands and how he had nothing useful to do with them. His robes were impeccable, he had spent thirty minutes spelling them creaseless that morning, but he still had to stop himself from running his hands over the fabric to straighten it out. He knew he was only imagining the itch on his left arm, but that didn't make it any easier to keep himself from scratching at it. He hadn't been around this many people since the end of term and now it felt like his senses and his brain were being assaulted by too many impressions to take in. He had been holed up by himself in his room in the manor between and after the trials, trying to pull himself back together, trying not to think about what he would do with himself now that it was all over. Then he had received the letter that called them all back to retake their seventh year. His first reaction had been relief over getting one more year before he had to make any real decisions. Then he had realized what it meant – that it wasn't just him; the rest of his year would be returning with him. He didn't look forward to seeing any of them again.

He had noticed Theodore Nott at the station earlier and it looked like he had arrived without his parents, just as Draco had. That had been somewhat comforting. He thought he had spotted the Greengrass sisters and Blaise Zabini, but they must have disappeared into the train by now.

He glanced at his watch.

He could still just leave. No one had noticed him yet, no one would stop him from simply slipping back out the portal-

"Draco!" someone called and he started, every nerve in him screamed run.

Then he caught sight of Pansy pushing her way towards him. He straightened up and waved to her, trying to look composed, like he hadn't almost bolted at the sound of her voice. If she had noticed his flinch, she didn't show it. She was grinning at him.

"I can't believe you're here! You look good," she said.

He managed a smile, though not quite as bright as hers.

"Thanks," he said. "You do too."

"How are you?"

He shrugged.

"Holding up," he said.

"Merlin, it was strange to get the letter, wasn't it? I really think we're too old for Hogwarts, but it's not like they gave us much of a choice…"

"How was your summer?" he asked.

"Good," she said. "Uneventful, apart from… you know, all the mess."

She looked around.

"You're here alone?" she asked.

He grimaced.

"Yes, mother wasn't really fit for going out."

"Oh," she said and lowered her voice. "How is she doing?"

"She's… better."

"Will she be okay while you're away?"

"She said I should go. I wasn't doing much good at home anyway. And the house-elves are there."

Pansy nodded.

"That's good," she said.

"Are your parents here?"

She gestured vaguely towards the archway entrance to the platform, and he spotted Mr and Mrs Parkinson standing to the side with an immense amount of luggage. It looked like Pansy had packed absolutely everything she owned.

"They wanted to come and see us off," she said.

"See you off," he corrected her.

"Don't be silly. They've really been worried about you, Draco. My mom would love to talk to you, Narcissa hasn't written her a lot this summer, she wants to know how the two of you are getting on."

The Parkinsons were too far away to be able to hear them, but Mrs Parkinson waved when she noticed he was looking. He smiled and waved back but then quickly turned towards Pansy again.

"I'm sorry, but could we maybe… save it for another time?"

She frowned, but then nodded.

"Yes of course," she said. "I guess it's a lot today. I'll tell them you're good."

"Tell them not to worry," he said.

The shrill call of the whistle pierced the air and both of them looked up.

"We should probably go find a compartment before they all get too crowded," he said.

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But when they finally made their way onto the train, all of Pansy's luggage included, it turned out that despite the number of people on the platform, the train was far from full. Even with the returning seventh years added to the pool of students, it didn't make up for all the missing ones. Pansy told him they had reported it in the Prophet that a lot of students wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts after the horrors of the previous year when Snape and the Carrows ran the school. Many had moved to other schools abroad or they had been pulled out to be home-schooled. And of course there had been casualties amongst the students too. She didn't know exactly how many it was.

"A lot," she said.

The students starting their second year were the smallest class in Hogwarts history.

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Draco pushed open the door to an empty compartment and Pansy levitated their suitcases onto the rack. He sat down in the seat by the window and looked back out at the platform.

"Look," he said. "The entire Weasley-clan has managed to arrive late. Most of them graduated years ago, why on earth did they bring the whole litter?"

"I think everyone is doing that. I swear I've never seen this many parents and siblings on the platform."

"Blaise was alone."

Pansy let herself fall into the seat across from him as if exhausted.

"That was probably his own decision, to show us all how adult and independent he is now. I heard he was pissed that we have to come back."

"Do you know how his family is handling the new… political situation?"

"Oh yes, they're doing excellent," she said.

The engine awoke and they felt the train shuddering to life.

"Well, then that's as expected," he said. "I haven't been keeping up. What about Nott?"

"His father has disappeared, that's all I know. I assume he's fled abroad. Theo lives with his grandparents now."

"And Daphne, I saw her on the station?"

Pansy shrugged.

"I haven't talked to her, but you know, lots of change in the Wizengamot these days so I assume the family is fighting tooth and nail to claim as many seats as they can," she said, sounding bored with it all. "Did you hear Goyle has been pulled out? Do you two still keep in contact or…?"

"We don't talk anymore, but mother told me. What about-"

She cut him off:

"Draco, seriously, can we stop the political briefing for a moment?"

"I want to be updated before we reach the castle."

"Well, then you should have kept in touch," she snapped.

"What?"

"I haven't seen you in months! It's so nice you're back and that you're doing alright, you have no idea how relieved I am, but it would be nice if you would at least acknowledge that you have been ignoring my letters the whole summer. I was worried about you."

He looked out the window again just as the train started to pull out of the station. The platform was a sea of faces and waving hands. In fact, he hadn't even opened most of the letters she had sent him. He hadn't wanted to deal with the world, and that had meant Pansy too.

"Sorry," he said.

"What is that supposed to mean? You know, when it had been three weeks since your trial and I still hadn't heard from you, I actually went St. Mungo's to see if you were being treated for dementor-exposure or something and–"

She shut her mouth abruptly when the door to their compartment was pushed open. A tall, red haired boy stuck his head inside.

"Hey, is there room in – oh. Never mind."

Draco nodded curtly at him. Pansy had her lips pressed together in a hard line and was staring past the boy at the other Weasley standing right behind him.

"Let's see if there's room further down," said the boy over his shoulder.

He moved on down the centre aisle of the train. After Ronald and Ginny Weasley followed Hermione Granger and Harry Potter, both of whom shot quick glances at the Slytherins as they passed. They left the door open. Pansy had turned to the window looking even more annoyed now, so Draco got up to close it. He heard the voices of the Gryffindors continuing further down the train and resisted the urge to stay by the door and eavesdrop. He slid the door shut. He hesitated with his hand on the handle.

"I wasn't expecting the heroes to be returning with us," he said.

"No? It said so in the Prophet this week."

"Weren't they all given impressive job-offers?"

She let out a sharp, little laugh.

"Yes, the DMLE and the Auror Office have been headhunting all of "the resistance" for jobs, but they don't want them until after they've taken their exams, apparently. I almost feel sorry for Granger – all that hard work and it turns out they're just going to hand out high profile jobs in the Ministry to every mudblood who tried to die in the battle."

"I would be a bit more discreet with the bitterness."

"Oh, you would? Is that your plan this year? Keeping your head down and hoping they forgive you?"

She was stabbing at him, but he tried to appreciate it. It would only get worse when they arrived at the school, so he might as well try to get used to it.

"Yes, that is the plan," he said.

"Is that also why we're not sitting with the others?"

He shrugged.

"They might have met over the summer and we could go sit with them, but I want to be sure they've had time to work out the new hierarchy between them before I try to fit myself in. Keep the tension low."

She was quiet. He hadn't sat down again and was still watching her from the door.

"Draco," she said slowly, patiently, as if speaking to a child, "you're not in that game anymore."

The look on her face was so pitying it hurt.

"I didn't think I would hear that from you," he said.

It sounded terribly whiny.

"The others will be saying it too," she said.

"You should know better."

"You should have moved abroad if you wanted to start over."

"I couldn't."

"I thought you said you were going to keep your head down. How does that fit with clawing your way back to the top of their stupid hierarchy?"

He dropped his hand from the door and went back to his seat.

"Keeping my head down doesn't mean I plan to disappear," he said.

The corners of her mouth twitched.

"You're impossible," she said.

She turned to look out at the scenery rushing by outside. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He remembered that his mother used to talk about how well he and Pansy matched, her jet-black hair and his white-blond, his paleness to her darker colours. He remembered how she had stopped when it became clear that Pansy wouldn't grow up to be pretty. She did look pretty to him, though she always got pissed when he tried to tell her. He realized how much he had missed her and her meanness. She was hard and sharp and would never be nice, not even to him, but their friendship was one thing he didn't need to spend his time mending.

"I never thought I'd be here again," he said.

"I know. It's weird."

"They seem to think it's all over, don't they?"

"Yeah."

"It isn't, though. It won't be an easy year. Not for any of us."

She sighed.

"I know, Draco."