Prologue
Draco Malfoy was an outcast.
There were many things Draco Malfoy had done, many things he could say he had been in his life, but an outcast was definitely not one of them.
And why would Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, heir to the Malfoy fortune, be an outcast? Because of the snake and skull tattooed on his forearm. The tattoo that he thought would have kept him from finishing his schooling at the very least, but now just left a big, great, dark mark of shame for himself and all his peers to see, and all thanks to Potter.
After the war, Draco assumed his schooling was through. The Malfoys, while losing all respect from the wizarding community and all influence in the ministry, had been as close to forgiven as they could get when they switched sides last minute. (Bah. Last minute? Draco knew what he was doing. The Dark Lord wasn't anywhere near what he was cracked up to be, but when his headquarters was your house, what were you supposed to do if not follow him? His parents, well, they still looked at his fall as a great horrible disaster. Lucius switched sides only for himself, and Draco very well knew that.)
But no, his schooling wasn't through, because the great Harry Potter, Chosen One, Boy Who Lived, had to step in. Precious Potter, trying to forgive everyone and make everything alright in the world.
And that is how Draco came to be an outcast to the entire school. When he ate, he'd only make brief appearances in the great hall to grab a roll and jam or a sausage before disappearing again to eat alone in some secret passageway or other. He tried to hide in the Room of Requirement sometimes, and found a nice little room with a table and a window, but felt sick when he thought of the fire and his dead friend. Only a week into school and he was already missing classes, hiding from the people he once saw as friends, or even from the people who once cowered when they saw him.
To Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws he was an outcast for being the son of a Death Eater, for being a Death Eater himself. To Slytherins he was an outcast for switching sides, for renouncing the Dark Lord, and for praising the end of a war that the Slytherin purebloods seemed to feel had been 'lost for the worse.' And to Harry Potter, Quidditch Captain, Head Boy, the Chosen One, what was he? A pity case. Yes, Harry Potter was looking at him with pity, an emotion Draco would never have expected. Harry Potter's pity mixed into the confusion left inside of the hollow Malfoy boy, filled his head with a sense of hurt pride and butterflies. Yes, butterflies.
There were two things Draco was still certain of:
One. He was not supposed to defy the Dark Lord or his father, but he had.
Two. He was not supposed to fall in love with the Boy Who Lived, but he had.