At only 22 years old, Draco Malfoy is one of the youngest professors that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has seen in years. The only son of the well known Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy, Draco once thought that he would follow his father's footsteps and become a man of business. After all, that is the nature of a family business. Following the Battle of Hogwarts, however, Draco had a change of heart and opted to return to school. He's hardly left it since.

Term begins again in less than a week, on the first of September, but we were able to catch up with the young professor for a chat about his sly ambition, cunning ways, and the witch that every girl wishes was herself.

You obviously left Hogwarts during what would have been your last year there, and we've heard from a few people that you almost didn't return after the war. Is that true?

[laughs] "Oh, yeah. That's definitely true. I was at the top of my year - among the Slytherins, anyway - when we were in our sixth year, so I really wasn't happy to have to leave. After all, I didn't want to let anyone beat me. I didn't have much of a choice, though, as you can imagine. After the war, though, my parents really had to work to convince me to go back. Everyone knew what I had done in the war, so I was terrified that they would all hate me. I really wanted that education though…"

How did your return go? It takes a brave sort to do that!

"I don't know that I would use the word brave. It was more of a pride thing. Slytherins have to look out for our own interests, you know, and I would be letting myself down if I stayed away from school just because of other people. That's what I told my mum, anyway. She didn't want me to come back. Overall, things went smoothly. Nobody tried to run me out of the castle, anyway, so I considered that quite a victory. After a couple weeks, everyone seemed to figure out that I wasn't going to whip my wand out and curse them, so they relaxed around me after that. It was easier with the younger students, since hardly any of them actually knew what I was like prior to the war."

We know that a lot of people who left school returned, and we were wondering how that worked. Did you have to repeat many classes or did you just pick up where you left off?

"Professor McGonagall sent everyone an owl once she was officially appointed headmistress, and the letter said that we were welcome to return. The only catch was that she wanted anyone who stayed to repeat their current year, so anyone who was a sixth year when the war started had to take sixth year over again. It was smart, really. There was so much going on that people didn't absorb what they needed to know, so everyone was thankful. I didn't repeat sixth year, just went for seventh... Just because I wasn't at Hogwarts during the war didn't mean that I had forgotten everything."

Did everyone in your year return?

"No, of course not. There were many people who couldn't face returning, and I don't blame them. School isn't for everybody anyway, I suppose. Hermione Granger came back, of course, and Harry Potter. Weasley. I didn't pay much attention to the others, honestly."

Why do you think people came back when they would have been able to get satisfactory jobs without graduating?

"Ah, you're clearly talking about the Golden Trio there. I can't see Hermione doing anything besides going back to school. She wouldn't be happy until she graduated, even if she hated Hogwarts. That's just the sort of person she is. So far as the other two go, I'm clueless. I assume that with Potter, it's because he loves Hogwarts itself so much. He could care less about the classes, but the atmosphere of the school is just home for him. Weasley goes along with whatever Potter wants him to, so I wasn't terribly shocked about seeing him."

I notice that you refer to Harry and Ron by their surnames, but Hermione by her first name. Is there something going on there?

"Maybe."

We'll come back to that, then. So, after school, we all expected you to...do...well, whatever it is that Malfoys do. But you decided to become a professor. What prompted that?

"Without the pressure to live up to my name, I found that I enjoyed learning even more. School was a way to escape the real world, so to speak. I want to help other people find that escape, and the best way I could think of to do that was to become a professor. Being a librarian is a little too quiet for me, and a little too boring. I do like to listen to myself talk, so at least in my classroom, nobody can tell me to quiet down."

And what exactly is it that you're teaching?

"This will be my third year as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. I initially wanted to teach anything at all, but then I decided that I may as well go for Defense. I know it the best, having used so many of the spells included in it. I almost felt that trying to teach anything else would be like me applying a varnish - nice gloss, but not really too substantial."

We know you're busy, and we really have no room to pry, but if there's nothing going on with Hermione Granger, that means you're available. Right?

"Okay, okay, I fold! I'm not available. Definitely not. Hermione and I have been dating for a year now. If you'd told me even two years ago that that would happen, I would have laughed at you. In fairness, I was arrogant, cruel, and I wanted to pretend like everyone just hated me. Hermione was angry with me, for sure, but she didn't act like I was the worst person on the planet. We started making small, kind gestures toward one another, and there you are. Now I wouldn't have it any other way. There's a quote from author JRR Tolkien, and I really like it. "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." I'm tired of wasting time with things that really don't matter in the long run. I want to focus on what is important, and what I know Hermione thinks is important. We spend our days trying to enjoy each other. So, I don't see myself becoming available any day in the near future."

Hermione couldn't help the smile that spread across her face as she set down the latest issue of Witch Weekly. Naturally, Draco had told her that he'd done a short interview with the magazine, but she was afraid they would twist it into something ugly. It wouldn't be the first time that someone did. But this time, they stuck to what he told them: the truth.

And the truth made her smile.

She stepped out of their flat in Hogsmeade and looked toward the castle, where she knew the wizard was cleaning up his office. There were birds on the window sill, little black ones with white patches. She recognized them as magpies, and almost without noticing, she began to count them. One, two. One for sorrow, two for joy. Two meant joy.

The ring around her finger had never felt so wonderful as it did a year after it first made it's home there.

A/N:

I know that I will be penalized for not having reached the word count... Sorry everyone. :(

I write as Beater 1 for the Montrose Magpies.
Prompts:
4 - varnish
5 - "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." - JRR Tolkien