A/N: Hey everyone. Thanks again for reading. Enjoy and please review! (I can't wait to write the next chapter-Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts coming up.)

Disclaimer: Although I do not own Harry Potter, there are places with an asterisk (*) to mark pieces of dialogue I have taken from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I own nothing of her work but chose to use these snippets of dialogue to tie my story with the book.

Chapter 2: Friendship

Draco had walked away with a sense of satisfaction. As he shoved students out of his way to catch up with his lot, he even found himself smiling for the first time that day.

"Draco. Over here!"

Draco looked ahead to see Pansy waving her hand. He quickly dashed to them before the carriage could pull away. He didn't want to be stuck with random losers.

"What took you so long?" huffed Goyle. Pansy, who found her way next to Draco. folded her arms and nodded.

"Some business," he replied coolly. Draco was going to tell his friends eventually, but it was much more amusing to him to watch his friends coax the story out of him.

"What business?" Crabbe asked.

"I won't say."

"Please," Pansy pleaded with her sweetest voice. Draco mentally gagged a little.

"Oh common, Malfoy. Just tell us already. You are covered in blood. I'm sure you are dying to tell us what you did to some poor bloke," Zabini said rather bluntly.

Pansy emitted a high squeak. "Drakie, are you okay? Let me wipe the blood off. Are you hurt? I'll murder the prat who did this to you."

'Girls,' thought Draco.

"He's fine, Parkinson. That's not his blood. There isn't a scratch on that perfect body of his," Zabini said, emphasizing or rather taunting Draco with his last sentence. "Now go on with the story."

"I never said I would tell you," Draco said with a pretentious tone, "But fine, since you guys are so curious." Pansy looked delighted. "When Zabini came to the compartment, I noticed a little, nosy intruder enter our room, and that intruder was no one other than precious Potter." He sneered as he said Harry's name, gaining some laughs from his friends. "Anyway, it just so happened that Potter believed that he could get away after spying on us. Of course, I couldn't let that happen, so I waited until everyone got off the train. Luckily for me, Potter did not dare move, so I put him in a full body bind." Draco proceeded to mimic Harry falling from the luggage rack. The carriage roared with laughter for Draco's imitation was perfect – wide eyed, hands clutched around his body. Of course this was all exaggeration, but Draco couldn't help himself.

"And?"

"Well, you know how Potter has that cloak? Well before covering him so no one could find him, I gave him…" he pointed to his nose.

"A nose?" asked a confused Goyle.

"No you idiot. A broken nose. Now Potty is lying on the floor with his nose pointed in a different direction." Draco's story did not come out as elegantly or as dramatically as he would have liked it to have, but that didn't matter. They were howling with laughter as Crabbe and Goyle were mocking the nonexistent Potter. Draco had to admit that although Crabbe and Goyle were fools, their imitations of the nose stamping were flawless. Draco himself laughed along. True camaraderie was hard to find in the Slytherin house, but Draco was glad he had this lot to call friends. At least they had similar ideas of fun.

The ride went by rather quickly. Any hesitations Draco had about attending Hogwarts this year dissipated. When the carriage stopped in front of the castle gates, even Draco felt nice and helped Pansy out almost like a true gentleman. Crabbe and Goyle snickered, but Draco was fine with that. With her arm looped in his, the two lead their group as they walked to the entrance. While walking by, Zabini nudged Draco in the ribcage. Before he could yell at Zabini, Zabini pointed at another happy pair making their way to the castle.

"Let's have some fun," Draco announced. The guys smirked while Pansy looked on eagerly.

"Mudblood. Weasel."

Hermione quickly turned around and glared at Draco. "What do you want, ferret?"

"Ouch that hurt," he said sarcastically as he put his hand over his heart. After Pansy had stopped laughing so loudly, he continued, "Well well Granger. I think it is what you two want. I mean it doesn't matter to me," he ended nonchalantly.

"What is it, Malfoy?" Ron scowled. He was ruining a perfectly good first day.

"Missing someone, aren't you? Or are you too busy with each other to notice." Draco gagged. "Mudblood and blood traitor. What a perfectly horrible match."

Ron, who was always quick to be angered, grew even redder and clenched his fists, for he still hadn't quite calm down from the earlier incident. Hermione, however, remained calm. "No, we did not forget about Harry. He's with Neville and Ginny. And I'm sorry. We were busy with each other, until you showed up that is. It's called friendship. I know someone like you can't possibly understand this hard concept."

Everyone waited for Draco to respond; however, he was still trying to string insults together in his head. When nothing came out, Crabbe said, "We're his friends."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Inwardly, Draco cursed himself for taking so long to come up with a response. "Oh yeah, Granger. I'd rather not understand friendship if that means hanging around with people like blood traitor weasels or Looney Lovegood or skill less wonder Longbottom. And at least I can say I have somewhere to go other than the library."

"You arrogant git."

"Aw. Did I hit a nerve?"

"Sod off, Malfoy."

"Fine. We don't want to be around you filth anyway. But I'm serious about Potter." Draco smirked. "I thought the Golden Trio would know when one was hurt." His group snickered.

"Come on, Hermione. We don't need to listen to his rubbish," said Ron as calmly as Hermione did before she was irritated. He put his arm around Hermione's waist and led her away.

As his friends hooted and wolf whistled, there was something that didn't feel right. 'Friendship,' he thought. 'Sure I have friends. Zabini, Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy. And no girl except for the mudblood could possibly refuse me.' But Draco continued looking at the pair as they walked off, as Weasley said something to Granger that made her smile. Draco shook his head. Almost snatching her, Draco violently grabbed Pansy around the waist. He regretted it right away. Pansy was over delighted and began to ramble with many "Drakie"s and "sweetie"s blended in. Draco groaned. He wondered what that weasel told Granger.


New students filed into the dining hall. Some were smiling confidently. However, most of the students were either distracted by the floating candles and all too realistic sky-ceiling or nervous. After the Sorting Hat had sung its song (of which Draco only caught the word "unity" because it came up so many blood times) the hall had grown deathly silent. The words "unity" and "friendship" floated in Draco's head. 'Hah. Like hell I'll every become friends with the likes of mudbloods.' What bothered Draco more, however, was the fact that one particular mudblood continued to weave in and out with his thoughts.

Wondrous applause broke out in the room as the Sorting Hat yelled the first student's house, Gryffindor. Immediately, Draco stood up and booed. He sneered in Hermione's direction, not thinking he would be seen. But it must have been instinctive for her to assume the first to boo would be him, so his eyes were met with a fierce stare, scary he almost had to admit. Draco did not want to break the stare, so he was glad when his fellow Slytherins followed suit and booed the poor child. Hermione quickly turned around defeated. Draco smiled. He gained as much satisfaction from her defeat as when he kicked Potter's face.

"Enough!" exclaimed McGonagall. She was always a stickler for fairness and the rules.

The sorting resumed, but Draco only booed or cheered on occasion. He was still relishing the look on Hermione's face as she looked away. 'That's right, Granger. Serves you right for…' He mentally slapped himself. Pansy should have been making him feel happy. Or Zabini. Quickly, he made small talk with Zabini, for he had grown tired of taunting the other houses.

At long last, the sorting was over. After Dumbledore's few words, a magnificent feast appeared before the students' eyes. Unlike Crabbe and Goyle eyed the food greedily and started grabbing everything they possibly could, Draco poured himself pumpkin juice and a turkey leg. He wasn't particularly hungry.

"Duf you wanch schum?" Crabbe stuck out the pot pie at Draco, who waved his hand.

Bored out of his mind, he watched his friends stuff their faces with food. The hall was full of gaiety and joy. It was tiring. Then, for some reason, he turned to look at Potter's lot. Although there was plenty of laughter at the Gryffindor table, Potter's lot looked rather subdued. Weasel wasn't eating as voraciously as he normally would have, and Granger was picking at her food.

Suddenly the diving hall grew quiet. The grand doors which had been shut now cracked open as a scrawny figure entered after being not so politely shoved in by Professor Snape, whom Harry loathed. Draco watched as Hermione dropped her fork and hit Ron on the shoulder. He thought he saw her mouth something along the lines of, "Can you stop eating for once?"

When they looked at the Slytherin table, they saw how Draco and his fellow friends were imitating both Harry's fall and broken nose.

"Bloody hell, Harry. What happened to you?" Ron exclaimed.

However, Harry was wary of the others sitting around them at the Gryffindor table, so he kept his response short.

"It's okay, mate," said Ron, putting his hand on Harry's shoulder. At least you made it for the feast. "Here, eat some treacle." Hermione gave up her seat next to Ron and moved across to sit next to Ginny. They smiled at each other with understanding looks that read "Boys."

After more feasting, the deserts disappeared and the tables seemingly cleaned themselves. The wonders of magic. Then suddenly, all of the talking and laughter died down as Dumbledore rose from his seat. "The very best of evenings to you! Nothing to worry about. Now…"*

Draco, uninterested in an old man's rambles, looked down at the table. With the mention of Professor Snape as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, he looked up and applauded but resumed glancing downward almost immediately. His mind began to drift. He didn't care about uniting with fellow students. He did not honestly care about any of his lessons this year. He had better plans, one of which he had to fulfill this year. If a stranger was looking his way, that person could have said that Draco looked tense. He gulped and looked forward with a blank face, not looking at anything or anyone in particular.

By chance, a pair of eyes caught his. Draco, who was very quiet after the sorting, blinked several times. Needing to do something, he pointed to his nose and gave his most insincere smile. Hermione simply looked away. She realized that indifference was sometimes as rewarding as yelling back. A quick look up proved her theory correct as Draco seemed slightly disappointed due to the lack of response. But when she looked up for the second time, she could have sworn that he his smirk had vanished and was replaced by nervous.

"Let us therefore say good night. Pip pip!" ended Dumbledore.*

With the usual deafening scraping noise, the benches were moved back and the hundreds of students began to file out of the Great Hall toward their dormitories.* With a commanding voice, Draco barked out, "Slytherins, follow me."

The Slytherin house waited for the other houses to leave. Not out of gallantry, though. Draco could not miss out on bother the Golden Trio all at once. As the Gryffindors filed out with Hermione leading the way, the Slytherins jeered. Unheeded by all except the first years, who seemed utterly petrified even without spells being casted on them, they left. However, it seemed that Weasley and Potter were lagging behind. It was a tad anticlimactic for Draco, but it was worth a shot.

With quick footsteps, he led his house downstairs to the dungeons. The warm glow from the Entrance Hall transformed into cooler shades of blue with candles emitting a white-ish glow against the walls. Finally at the portrait hole, Draco said, "merum sanguis." The portrait swung open.

Standing in the common room, he listened as students clambered through. In no mood to give further directions, he shouted, "Boys, this way. Girls' dormitory to your right." Draco then proceeded to quickly ahead find his room.

The Slytherin dormitory was quite different from that of the other houses. Because it was located far below the castle, the dormitory had no winding staircases or large windows. The interior was more or less minimalist with green furnishings against the gray-ish white walls. The common room was centrally fixed with hallways branching out in all directions. Down the corridors were large, wooden doors with the Slytherin crest engraved on each. The doors were already bewitched to engrave the names of the current owners of the room.

Draco walked down the leftmost hall. Finding a more secluded section, he opened one of the doors. He was sure that his friends would find him eventually, so he claimed one bedroom. He was first in so he took the bed furthest from the door. Dumping his belongings beside his bed, he sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the blank wall. With a sigh, he laid down on the green comforter with his arms folded behind his head. He pretended to be asleep when Crabbe, Goyle, and Zabini entered, but for the rest of night, he remained awake with his eyes open in nervous anticipation of the year to come.