Draco

After telling Crabbe and Goyle to go on to the great hall for breakfast; which both were happy to do as food was their favorite thing in the world, Draco decided to take a look in the mirror. He had to resist the urge to hug Crabbe once, thinking about how he had lost him in the seventh year; even if it had been Crabbe's own fault. He glanced around the dormitory to find that he was alone now; Blaise Zabini, the fourth boy who had shared the dormitory, had already gone for the breakfast.

A fourteen-year old boy with blonde hair and a thin outline stared at him from the gilded mirror. No trace of white was visible in his thick blonde hair, neither the slight bulge in his stomach and nor was the thick layer of beard that had almost covered his face, from the last time he had looked into a mirror. Still in awe, he instinctively checked his arm. No trace of the Dark Mark showed anywhere. His old hawthorn wand was lying at his table. He picked it up curiously and a warm wave of magic passed through him as the wand bonded with him for the second time. This made him finally resolve that he had indeed been sent back in time. But to his dismay, there was no time-turner hanging in his neck which could return him back to his time.

A parchment was hanging on the side of the mirror frame. Draco looked into it to realize that was the timetable for their fourth year. Luckily that timetable was bewitched to show only that day's routine as he had no idea what day of the week it was. He took a sigh of relief seeing that the Slytherins only had History of Magic after breakfast; other classes were after the lunch. He recalled that this subject was taught by a ghost Professor Binns; the ghost wasn't likely to miss him even if he didn't show up at the class. So, he decided not to skip History.

Now that he had free time till lunch, Draco sat down on his bed. He still had trouble believing that it was all real. He looked down at his legs; even his pyjamas looked foreign to him. He perfectly recalled the forty years of his life's memories as well as his magical knowledge; he took it as a good sign that he had not gone insane. Now that he thought about it, endless new opportunities were opened to him. All the things he had done wrong; all the words he wished he had never said; and all the lives that could still be saved. He remembered that their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Moody was being impersonated by a Death Eater; the loyal group of wizards who had served Voldemort. Yet, he couldn't think of a way anyone would believe him if he told them. Harry Potter and his two friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger thought him to be the same Draco that he was in his fourth year, and there was no chance they would believe anything even if he told them.

Yet, the more troubling problem was he wasn't sure what had happened with the time-turner and if he was still in danger of any other after-effects. When no solution came to his mind, he decided to have a look in the library. He hoped he would be able to find his answer amongst the innumerable books that were housed in the school library.

With this positive thought, he got up and dressed in his school robes. He felt a wave of pleasure in putting on his house uniform; he had missed this feeling of belonging somewhere. He had always been sure, just as the Sorting Hat of Hogwarts, that he belonged to the Slytherin house since the beginning. It had been his greatest pride, except for his name and his family name had lost its charm for him these days.

After he was ready, he took his wand and came out of his dormitory to his familiar Slytherin common-room.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire used to be crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, which was now empty and quiet. Just a few Slytherins were lounging in high-backed chairs, who probably had their first lessons off. They were giving him sympathetic looks, and then Draco remembered about the ferret incident.

That was perhaps one of the worst memories of his school days, he had felt so much anger, resentment and most of all embarrassment. He remembered how he had written to his father immediately and gotten a brief reply to just avoid Professor Moody's eyes. Yet, now so many years later, it seemed a trivial incident to him. He nodded curtly to his housemates before heading towards the library.

The passages and the stairs of the old castle seemed to welcome him as a long lost friend. Taking in the atmosphere, filled with the buzz of students talking and laughing; the smell of parchments and ink, he continued towards the library. The few people he had been on good terms with (mainly Slytherins) seemed to wave at him kindly while the Gryffindors had a hard time suppressing their laughter. When he saw a group of Gryffindors belonging to his own class; Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom coming towards him from the Great Hall; he hurried towards his destination. Even now, he couldn't bear to be laughed at by Neville of all people.

In his rush to get inside the library, he bumped hard into someone who had been entering the library at the same moment. He was slightly alarmed that the person must have been the librarian Madam Pince, as he couldn't think anyone else would come to the library so early in the morning. He instead was greeted with a pair of brown eyes looking at him from the bushy brown hair that seemed to cover her face. A pile of books were somehow balancing between them. When the girl recognized who she had bumped into, her eyes became wide, she dropped the books and lost her balance. Draco put his hands around her waist before she could fall. Her eyes grew wider at his action, and Draco couldn't help but smile. Hermione Granger saved by Draco Malfoy! Even his fourteen-year old self wouldn't have believed it for a thousand galleons.

As Hermione was now dangling in his arms which held her waist, her hair had left her face exposed. Draco noticed that she was really pretty even without any makeup; she had clear skin, a perfect mouth and her brown eyes complimented her face very well; although at the time they were wide open in surprise. Hoping there still wasn't anyone in sight, Draco pushed her back onto her legs; but instead of finding her footing she stumbled again, clutching his shoulders for support.

Their faces were very close now. Too close, Draco thought. He could now smell her brown tresses which were now on his face as her face rested on his shoulder. She hesitated to leave his shoulders, but eventually let him go. As there was still no one else in view, he pointed his wand at her scattered books and put them in a neat pile beside her. He didn't wait another second and hurried over to find the time-related section of the library, leaving Hermione stunned at his casual display of non-verbal magic.

Author's Notes:

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