Chapter One, An Awkward Encounter

August 31, 1995

Draco POV

"Draco, love! Hurry up! We're going to miss our Portkey!" My mother called up the to me from the foot of the starts. Finally, my last year at Hogwarts had come. I was sick of school, sick of classes, and most of all, sick of my life as a student. Ever since the Order of the Phoenix defeated the Dark Lord at the Weasley's house, my family and I have been looked down upon because we were known to support him. Rite Skeeter published an article on my family's involvement with the Dark Lord and on my father's arrest, and ever since it had come out in the papers, we were being avoided like the plague. Less people were willing to talk to me and spend time with their friends if I was going to be there. Less girls had been swooning over me than usual, which was definitely new. I mean, who wouldn't be drooling over such an angelic face as mine? Now, instead of confidence and swagger, all that I felt was loneliness and sadness. Everywhere that I went in the Wizarding world, I could feel hateful, angry eyes on my back. To tell the absolute truth, I had never really wanted to be a Death Eater, anyway. My father put me up to the job, nevertheless, and from the on I, was stuck in shoes that were not exactly my size, if you get my drift. I do have morals, contrary to what the majority of the Wizards think. I never wanted to be a killer, and I still have no desire to kill. But, like I said, its not like I had a choice.

I stuffed the last thing that I would need for school, Hogwarts, a History into my trunk and squeezed it shut. As I grabbed the trunk and the strap of my rucksack, I paused, my eyes catching on a glint of silver on the floor in front of me. I stooped down closer to it, examining what it was. It was a button, fallen off my winter coat. I sighed, but knowing my mother, it would be back on my coat in a matter of seconds.

"Mum," I said softly as I approached her. "This fell off my coat. Do you think that you could put it back on?" she examined the button and the coat that was draped over my arm.

"Yes, I think I can fix that. I'll just need a needle and some thread…"She trailed off distractedly, looking around the room for some.

"Uh… mum? What about your wand?" I asked her tentatively.

"What? Oh, yes! My wand! How could I have forgotten about that?" She gave a nervous laugh. Mum had been very forgetful and absent- minded ever since the Dark Lord had fallen and my father had been arrested. Whenever I asked her about it, she simply responded with 'Oh, I'm fine, love." or "You don't need to be worrying about me…". her excuses were not very believable, and, being the Slytherin I was, remained skeptical of her.

"Reparo." Mum said softly, and the button reattached itself to my coat. "All right then!" she clapped her hands together and looked back up at me. She literally had to look up at me because I was about four inches taller that her. "Let's be off!" She grabbed my arm and disapparated. I got the uncomfortable sensation of being squeezed through a tight, airless tube that had by now become familiar due to the constant apparating that we had been doing lately. I was still too young to apparate, only 15, so I had to have her apparate me whenever I wanted to go somewhere.

The silence of my house had been replaced with the bustling of the Muggle train station. I saw the pillar that we usually walked through to get to the platform some 50 paces away. I grabbed Mum's hand and pulled her in the direction of it, dragging my luggage with her. Looking all around us so that we would not be seen by Muggles, we simply fell through the pillar and into the Hogwarts Station.

The familiar sight of the Hogwarts Express brought back a million memories, as if a mental flood gate had opened and let my thoughts spill out to every corner of my brain. Pushing the nostalgias to the back of my mind, I turned to face my mother, who was staring at the wall, her eyes glazed over, remembering as well.

"Mother." I said quietly as I pulled her into a tight embrace. We broke apart quickly after. "I'll write to you at the first chance I get. I love you." I said.

"I'll miss you. Love you too, son. I will see you at Christmas break." Giving me one final smile, she departed, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. I sighed, lugging my bags to the wizard who was putting them away.

Hopping on the train, I scanned the corridors for any sign of my few Slytherin friends. Finally, I spotted Crabbe and Goyle lumbering down the narrow corridor.

"Oi! Crabbe!" I called, causing him to turn around. Locating where the sound of my voice came from, he gave a half-smile and waved awkwardly. I caught up with the two of them.

"Hey, Malfoy. How was your summer?" Goyle asked softly, his voice oddly mature sounding. It seemed that he had finally smartened up.

"Eh, not so good, mate. Too quiet around the house without our elves and father. I couldn't have any of you guys over for the summer because my mother was… well she's been having a hard time. You can understand that." I finished softly, looking at their faces for some signs of understanding. They nodded at me.

"I saw that awful article that Skeeter person published. Half of it was lies, and the other half was badly worded." Crabbe said, sounding irritated.

"I know, mate. It's awful. Now everywhere I go, I get dagger eyes from everybody." I paused, letting my train of thought to wander. "Do you guys remember Claudia?" I asked them. She was my old girlfriend, before the war. She was absolutely gaga over me, but as soon as she found out about my family's views on it, she completely ignored me.

"Yeah. Oh, god- you're not going out with her again, are you?" Crabbe asked, panicking slightly. Claudia scared him, and annoyed him, too.

I chuckled, remembering one particular instance when Claudia was right behind Crabbe, and he didn't know that she was there. She had laugher loudly at something, causing Crabbe to spin around and hex her. When she was revived, she almost bit his head off.

"No. but she was sending me letters. They were… weird. She kept asking me to hang out at her place… I made excuses, of course. But still…" I shuddered. The only reason why I went out with her in the first place was to get Pansy off my back. It worked, but as soon as she found out that we were split up, she resumed following my around everywhere I went and standing offensively close every time I stood up.

We stopped when we arrived at our compartment. We were actually pretty lucky to have found a compartment that was empty, because most of the students had already boarded the train. We plopped down on the long, cushioned benches in the compartment. Within five minutes, the train had begun its journey from the station to Hogwarts.

The three of us were in the middle of discussing the Quidditch World Cup that Goyle went top see over the summer when we were interrupted by a rap on the glass door. Standing on the other side of the glass was Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson.

"Oh god, hide me!" I squeaked at the sight of Pansy. I did not want to be bothered by the presence of that awful girl. Too late. She had already spotted me.

"Drakie! Did you miss me?" She exclaimed in a pitchy voice as she ran up to strangle me… I mean, hug me. I tried not to vomit at the sickly sweet tone that she had taken on over the summer. Maybe she thought it was seductive. Well, she was very wrong on that count.

"Hi, Pansy…" I said, not bothering to cover up how bummed out I was that she was here. Couldn't this girl take a hint? Apparently, she was very bad at reading people, because I had been giving her these little hints that her presence wasn't wanted for months, and her behavior stayed the same, if not gotten worse.

"What's wrong, Draco? Are you ill? Did you have a bad day?" She said. Still holding on to me. I shook her off a little roughly, and sat back down on the bench. There was an awkward silence as Pansy's question remained unanswered, the echo of her words suspended in the air like mist. Blaise cleared his throat loudly.

"Crabbe, Goyle. Glad to see you again." Blaise said loudly to cover up the awkwardness.

"Oh Blaise, it was great. I went to see the Quidditch World Cup! Ireland had the greatest win I've seen yet." Goyle said even louder, making wild gestures with his hands.

"Did you, now? I wish I had attended it, but we were in Egypt all summer." Blaise shouted. Pansy sighed loudly, realizing that I had absolutely no desire to talk to her. She flopped down on the seat across from me, crossing her arms tightly and glaring out the window.

"So, guys, have you heard about the partnering project?" I asked conversationally.

"Oh, god, mate… have you gotten all the details yet? It's supposed to be… very intense." Blaise breathed, as though he was afraid of being heard. We all leaned in closer so we could hear him.

"How so? Are we supposed to, like, live with our partners?" Pansy snorted, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Well… yes." We all gasped, and then leaned in closer. Blaise continued, "You're required to sit next to your partner in every class. You have to do every project with that person, and, yes, Pansy, you have to share quarters. Oh, and I haven't even gotten to the best part, yet."

"What's the best part?" Crabbe asked excitedly. We all knew that by 'the best part', Blaise really meant the best part. We all held our breath, waiting for the answer.

"You have to get partnered with a girl, well, except for Pansy, who'se gonna have to get paired with a guy. And keep in mind that you're sharing quarters with them." He said smugly, watching for the reactions we had.

Chuckles erupted from everyone's mouth, except for Pansy's, who looked downright horrified. All of the guys, myself included, were totally excited to share a bed with a girl.

"I wonder who we'll get, as a partner, I mean." Goyle said rather dreamily, picking at a string on his sleeve.

"Well… Cho wouldn't be too bad. Neither would Padma, though she's a Ravenclaw… that might not boil over too well 'cause she was Harry's mate…" I trailed off, glancing out the glass pane to the hallway, where I saw Carmen Gray walking by.

I had always thought that she was pretty, with her curly brown hair and her misty ocean eyes. She was very popular, I guess because of her quick wit and kind heart. It's also probably because she's from America. We stereotyped anyone who came from there a git, but I guess she proved us all wrong, because she's probably the best one out of all of us. She was a Gryffindor, though, and that had been the cause of our strained friendship. She really was a decent girl, but sometimes she was oversensitive and took things way too seriously. Especially things I said regarding Gryffindors in general, and mudbloods.

She caught me staring at her and gave a little half-wave and smile. I smirked back at her. Harry Potter, who she was walking with, started and touched her arm softly as he locked eyes with me. I snapped out of my very out-of-character daydream and my hatred for Potter returned, not that it had ever left, but had just been temporarily forgotten. I never looked at a Gryffindor like that. Never. Why was I looking at her like that? I threw my head in my hands in disgust. What was happening to me?