The sun shined vividly through the windows of Hogwarts, calling out a brand new day. Harry rolled around on his four-poster bed, doubting that the night had flown by so quickly. He sat upright on it, and pulled aside the fancy hangings. Ron had already woken up; he was already pulling on his robes and grumpily stuffing his wand into his pocket.
"Mornin'," Harry muttered under his breath. A full day awaits for him, filled with classes and homework. How fun.
Harry felt his forehead for his scar. He could barely make out the imprint of the lightning bolt shape etched in. After he destroyed Voldemort last year, no pain or aching ever seared through it ever again.
Ron and Harry left the boy's dormitory together, walked down the stairs, and into the immersive Great Hall wafted with the smells of eggs and tea. The boys found Ginny and Hermione sitting together, and reading The Daily Prophet with absolutely no interest at all. Assembling themselves next to the girls, Ron instantly grabbed a forkful of bacon and started to devour it all down his esophagus. Harry saw Hermione give him another look of displeasure.
"So… anything new on the Prophet?" Ron asked unenthusiastically.
"No, just some articles about Voldemort being destroyed and some Death Eaters going to Azkaban is all," Hermione responded bluntly.
Ron gave another shudder from hearing the name.
After breakfast, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny walked together straight to Potions class, which was taught by Professor Slughorn. Right as they entered, whispers and gasps broke instantly with students gaping right at Harry. Ron was puffing out his chest and very amused to see that some of the attention had turned towards him too.
While the four of them awkwardly scoured around the room, managing to find seats, Professor Slughorn and his big round circle of a belly had already casually walked in.
"Hello!" Slughorn exclaimed in his usual cheerful tone, with an avid smile spreading across his face. "I suspect all your summers have been well! We finally got rid of the Dark Lord! Hurrah! Hurrah!" Harry gave Ron a rather distressed look. "I suppose all of you have looked through your potions book over the summer, have you not? Today, as a rather fresh start of another year, we are going to be making the very famous and powerful truth serum, Veritaserum!" Animated chatter waved through the classroom. "Now I know that this type of potion may take weeks, possibly months to brew, but everyone is this classroom are seventh years. I reckon that we are old and mature enough to take on such a hard task. The instructions are on the board." Slughorn pointed his wand at the vacant chalkboard and fancy writing suddenly appeared on all over it. "Get along, get started now."
Suddenly, the rustling of papers and the creaking of cauldrons could be heard throughout the classroom, with students sprinting everywhere (mostly Hermione), trying to obtain the ingredients for the potion. Ron turned around and glanced at Hermione a few paces away from him and eyed her with envy; she was already on the fifth step.
As Harry cut up his roots and drowned them down his cauldron, Ron's potion seemed to have backfired a little. With his flaming red hair sticking up and together on the ends of his scalp, his face squinted together in frustration, Hermione seemed to have accomplished much. Her cauldron had no color at all to it, and minuscule bubbles were coming from the top of it. She clapped her hands together in satisfaction, and skipped off to Professor Slughorn in delight.
"Professor Slughorn! Is my Veritaserum coming off well?" Hermione asked hopefully.
"Ah—yes! Mrs. Granger here has set a perfect example of how the potion is made; the colorless color, the odorless smell, absolutely perfect!"He was beaming and seemed just as happy and pleased as Hermione.
As everyone struggled with the Veritaserum, with smoke everywhere and peculiar sounds coming out of many cauldrons, Slughorn finally dismissed all his students of Potions for the day. Everyone but Hermione sighed with great relief. The students quickly dropped their cauldrons at the front table and walked outside to their next class.
"Harry, may I have a word with you?" Slughorn whispered to him urgently.
"Of course sir, what is it?" Harry asked in the nicest tone he could use.
"It's about the Slug Club…well, I reckon we are having a 'back to Hogwarts meeting' and I would like everyone to in the club to share their personal experiences…" Harry had lost him at 'Slug Club'. If only he could get out of this tedious conversation…
Then he saw him. All in one swift movement, out of the corner of his eye, he saw him. A very recognizable face was behind a table, gathering up his books …Then Harry shook his own tiresome head to get the image out.
It can't be. It can't be. No. I'm just hallucinating. It's not possible… Harry repeated this over and over multiple times in his brain; trying to let it soak in and understand.
"Harry, is everything all right?" Slughorn asked in a very concerned voice.
"Yes, everything is good Professor. Now if you'll excuse me…" Harry walked around him and left the classroom hastily, leaving Slughorn staring back at him, not yet done finishing what he was about to say.
"Harry, are you okay? You look quite pale." Hermione asked as she, Ron, and Ginny were waiting for him outside.
"Er… yeah. I'm great..." Harry lied.
"Hey. I have to go. I have Transfiguration next. Don't want McGonagall hexing me for being tardy, do you? Ginny said sarcastically.
"No… of course not. Bye, love." Harry kissed Ginny's head quickly, and she ran down the corridor gracefully, with her bright hair trailing behind her. Harry watched her, fully mesmerized.
"Harry. Harry… HARRY!" Hermione snapped and rolled her eyes.
"What? Don't roll your eyes towards me like that; you would've done the same thing to Ron!" Harry scoffed.
Ron answered back by flaring his nostrils.
"POTTER! WEASLEY!" A familiar voice suddenly appeared through the corridor—too familiar in fact…
And just in that instant, a handsome boy with white-blond hair and expensive robes came into the sight of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"Bloody hell," Ron muttered tactlessly. "He's back." Then he seemed to have finally realized what was going on and erupted immediately. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE, MALFOY?"
"Ron, be quiet." Hermione said tranquilly.
"M-M-Malfoy. Why—are—you—here…?" Ron asked, his whole body literally shaking in rage.
"I'm back for my eighth year of course!" Malfoy responded in a jovial voice that no students in Hogwarts would have ever expected.
"What happened to you?" Hermione asked shockingly.
"What do you mean by, 'What happened to you?'?" Malfoy replied, looking at Hermione delicately.
"You're…so nice all of a sudden. What happened? Cheering Charm? Liquid Luck?" Harry requested. Ron looked as if he was about to have a temper tantrum.
"No…" Malfoy said in a confused tone.
"THEN WHAT IS IT, YOU PRAT?" Ron shouted while most of the students in the corridor started to look at him curiously and wonder what was going on.
"My father is currently serving a life-sentence in Azkaban." Malfoy said shamelessly.
"And we have something to do with this because…" Ron snapped rudely.
"I'm telling all of you this because he was put into a Hearing just last week, and the Ministry of Magic declared him a life-time sentence in Azkaban for being a Death Eater," Draco said as simply as ever.
"We don't care about your petty father, Malfoy," Ron snarled.
"No… I never meant that. What I was meaning to say was that my father is now out of my life and has no control over me anymore," He said, looking around from Harry, to Ron, to Hermione with his grey, calm eyes. "Since he cannot take over me anymore, I've decided myself to come back to Hogwarts for my eighth year so I could—"
Suddenly, Ron immediately threw his hand into the pocket of his robes and took out his wand. Hermione and Harry tried to haul him back with all the strength that they could gain.
"YOU LIAR! YOU FILTHY, BLOODY LIAR! YOU DON'T MEAN WHAT YOU SAY!" Ron shouted as loudly as he could. His face was turning a deep shape of crimson to match his hair, and his hands turned as white as ever from clenching them too hard. "PETRIFICUS TOTA—"
"I am not lying at all," Malfoy whispered softly.
Ron stopped instantly. He dropped his wand back into his pockets and glared at Draco intimidatingly. Hermione muttered something to Harry that sounded like, "Am I the only one the feels like Malfoy is the victim here?" More confused than before, Harry shrugged and turned his attention towards Draco once more.
"Wait. What do you mean, Malfoy?" Harry asked questioningly.
"I wanted…" Draco tried to finish. "I just wanted—"
"JUST SAY IT, YOU GIT!" Ron shouted. Draco pretended that Ron didn't say a word to him and continued with his sentence that was so hard for him to say.
"I've never got the chance to say this. I'm…s-s-sorry for e-everything I have e-ever done to all of y-y-you…" Draco said intently, shaking between every single syllable he was saying aloud.
As Hermione widened her eyes, Harry blinked, and Ron gaped, the three of them stood in complete, awkward silence as Draco stood there, tapping his polished shoe, waiting for an answer from one of them.
"What did you just say?" Hermione asked, leaning towards Draco a little closer and narrowing her eyes.
"I'm sorry." Draco pronounced the words very precisely and carefully. Suddenly, he eyed Harry, Ron, and Hermione one last time, and walked away without another word from his mouth.
AN: Hey guys! So... This is my second chapter. Thank you guys for all the great reviews! Three in ONE chapter! Haha. That's pretty good for a beginner, you know(;
Anyways, I apologize for the many mistakes. You know, I'm not the best writer in the world and I really wanted to post my second chapter by the end of this week, so I did it in a kind of a rush... I'm also kind of sorry for this chapter not being as intriguing and good as the first one, but hopefully it will get better and better throughout each one. I ran out of ideas on this one so I made it revolve around Draco. But basically, this whole story is about Draco- well, you'll see :)
Thanks guys and don't forget to keep reading my stories!
~HeirOfHufflepuff394
P.S. Check out InventorOfFirebolt's Fanfictions...
