I had stopped updating for a while because I got really overwhelmed with school and work and I had a hard time trying to find time to sit down and write but I am winding down with stuff for the next month or so I have decided that I am going to update all the earlier chapters and fix some issues that I felt was really holding the story back then I will get to posting new chapters soon!
It had been a less than a year since the Battle of Hogwarts. I had been a sixth year, and I was terrified despite having lived through all the shit Harry Potter had brought on our school for my entire time at Hogwarts. I lost many friends and I had known so much pain in the months that followed. My parents had both been members of Slytherin House, and I had been deeply distrusted in my house of Ravenclaw. When the fighting had started some of the other students had suggested that I should be locked up with the other Death Eaters. My family weren't Death Eaters but that didn't seem to matter to them. I made it out of the fighting alive, but we all suffered from the invisible wounds that always afflicts the victims of war. I watched as slowly people began to recover, but I had continued to be tormented. My family's ties to the house that breed the dark arts loomed over my head every day. Maybe that was why I understood him so well, his struggle with the Dark Lord and everything that he had been forced to do. He hadn't returned to the school like many of the other seventh years had, but I remembered the pale blond hair of the boy that used to harass Harry Potter. The pale eyes that were so haunted that last year. I remembered him flinching as the Carrows would beat the students in front of him and encourage him to help. I understood him, and that was our downfall.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was my first class of the day. Everyone wondered why we even still had the class after Harry had defeated Voldemort, but McGonagall insisted that it was a vital part of a young wizards training and that we never knew when we would need to know the things that were being taught. I dreaded the class, as everyone always gave me side glances anytime the Death Eaters were mentioned, even before the war it had been like this. Every year it was new teacher to deal with, and every year I hoped it would get better, but it never did. So, I suffered in silence. I hung my head as I walked into the class, hoping to see one of the few friends that I had been able to keep. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought back to that awful night, remembering my best friend motionless on the floor of the Great Hall. He was the only one who had never said a single negative word to me about my family. I never found out what had happened to him, but the pain stayed.
I sat down in the far right back, hoping that no one would see me back there. A few girls that I used to be somewhat sociable with walked into the class giggling about something but fell quite as they saw me. So much for my stealth plan. The class sat for several minutes chattering, I began to wonder where whatever insufferable teacher they had hired this year was when I heard poorly muted yelling coming from the hallway outside. It sounded like McGonagall.
"I have given you this chance, against my better judgement. If you so much as even make me suspect that anything is up with you, I will have you on the train as fast as you can say pumpkin juice." This was McGonagall, and I wondered why she was yelling at someone like that. A male voice said something that I wasn't able to understand, then the door burst open to reveal a red-faced Headmistress and a pale blond head behind her shoulder. As she moved to allow the person through, the whole room let out a collective gasp. He seemed to be sick in some way, paler than he ever was when he was at school, but it was him. He awkwardly shuffled past McGonagall, and walked into the room with his head hung down. McGonagall slammed the door and he started. I pitied him, but at the same time I knew how he felt.
He slowly made his way to the front of the class where he quietly said "My name is Draco Malfoy, I am to be your professor this year." He brought his head up and made an effort to look tall. His eyes locked on mine, and my heart dropped into my stomach.