Chapter 4

Draco Malfoy stood at the entrance to the Great Hall, awaiting his best friend, Isabelle Potter so that they could go inside for the Halloween feast that was currently starting to take flight.

The two young wizards had grown rather close in the few months they had known each other, and both could easily say that they were each other's best friends.

He stood with his arms crossed and his foot tapping impatiently, she was fifteen minutes late and he was starting to get a little worried about her; he had told Crabbe and Goyle to go ahead and eat the feast with Pansy Parkinson, a fellow Slytherin girl who honestly got on his nerves a lot more than he wanted to admit. Sure, he knew she had a crush on him, but agreeing with every word he said and practically obsessing over him was a bit too far.

He hated how Pansy couldn't seem to grasp that he liked girls who thought for themselves and didn't go pining after one guy, especially when he's made it clear that he didn't want to date her in the first place.

Now, Izzy, man; she knew what she wanted, and she wasn't afraid to say what's on her mind no matter who she was talking to, whether it were him, or a teacher. That was one of the many qualities he liked most about her.

He turned his head towards the direction the Gryffindor tower was, only to come face to face with some sort of ghost mask that looked like it was screaming, a black cloak was covering the body and the hood was covering the head.

He jumped back with a startled yelp at the sight of the being that just magically appeared there, before he scowled at it when he heard girlish laughter from behind the mask, "Izzy!" he exclaimed.

Isabelle laughed even harder at him as she reached up and raised the mask above her face, a huge smile on her lips, "I was too tempted, Draco, sorry." though she didn't sound sorry in the least.

He grumbled a little bit as he straightened up and brushed out his robes, "Good thing no one else saw that." he said simply before he opened the door for her and ushered her inside so that they could finally get something to eat.

Izzy quickly pulled her mask back over her face as she walked in before Draco before heading over to the Gryffindor table, and he headed to the Slytherin table. They both turned their heads to look at each other one more time before Izzy accidentally ran into a Hufflepuff girl that had stood up to move.

"Oh, my bad, I-" the girl started before she screamed as Izzy whipped her face around to look at her through the eye holes of the mask.

Izzy waved her hands around frantically in the air, "Wait, no, it's only me!" she said in reassurance as she ripped off the mask and looked at the girl apologetically.

"You should put the mask back on, Potter, I think you look better that way!" Pansy Parkinson called from the Slytherin table after seeing Isabelle and Draco look at each other again.

Izzy hunched her shoulders in slight anger as multiple laughs erupted from the Slytherin table while she hastily made her way around the Hufflepuff girl and to her own table, the mask hanging limply from her hand.

Draco watched her go, before he turned to Pansy and glared at her, "That was uncalled for." he said rather loudly as he sat down between Crabbe and Goyle, who were still laughing a little bit.

Pansy simply smiled and shrugged her shoulders at him, "She shouldn't have made it so easy, then." she said before she went back to drinking the pumpkin juice in her golden cup.

Izzy walked over to sit down in an empty seat beside a girl with short, blonde hair, "Don't feel bad, Pansy's just jealous because Draco seems to be paying more attention to you than to her." she said in reassurance before she went back to eating the food in front of her.

Izzy blinked at the girl before she looked over to catch Draco's eye at the Slytherin table.

'Are you okay?' he mouthed at her with a slightly concerned expression, he needed to keep Pansy thinking he wasn't worried about the Gryffindor girl, if he didn't want Pansy to make fun of her again.

Izzy smiled at him and nodded, 'I'm okay.' she mouthed back before she too started eating, noticing for the first time that Ginny wasn't anywhere to be seen.

She looked all around the Gryffindor table, and then throughout the Great Hall, but the red headed girl was no where to be seen no matter how many times she turned her head.

She was a little startled when she felt someone tap on her shoulder, turning around, she saw Neville Longbottom sitting there with a curious expression on his face.

"Have you seen your cousin, or Ron or Hermione?" he asked her.

Izzy grimaced, "No, I haven't seen them since this morning." she said as she went back to eating the pumpkin cake on her plate.

Draco, meanwhile, was battling with himself. While he wanted to sit and eat his own treats for Halloween, he also wanted to sit with Izzy and spend the holiday with her instead of Pansy or even Crabbe and Goyle.

He looked down at his plate for a moment, ignoring Pansy when she tried to grab his attention, and he stood up, looking like he was about to embark on a dangerous mission.

"Draco, what on earth are you doing?" Izzy looked up at the sound of Pansy's cry, only to see Draco Malfoy swagger over to stand on the left side of her.

She raised a finely shaped eyebrow, "What are you doing over here?" she asked him curiously, turning her upper half around to look at him fully.

Draco looked a little unsure of himself, "Well, I thought, maybe we could eat this together? At the same table, I mean." he added when she was about to protest.

Izzy smiled and nodded at him in agreement, moving over slightly for him to take a seat next to her, to which he took graciously with a smile on his pale face.

Professor Dumbledore smiled at the sight of a Gryffindor girl and a Slytherin boy sitting at the same table, turning to Professor McGonagall, he was slightly amused to see her agitated expression, while Professor Snape's was a little happy.

The much older wizard clapped McGonagall on the shoulder, "Who is that girl?" he asked her.

Minerva McGonagall grimaced, "That is Isabelle Potter, headmaster." she said, looking down at the smiling pumpkin shaped napkins that Professor Lockhart had insisted upon using, and used her transfiguration spell to change it into a real pumpkin, which she promptly placed on the edge of the table top and used her wand to light the inside of it.

Dumbledore hummed to himself he turned and watched Isabelle laugh a little bit at something that Malfoy said, "And I'm wrong, correct me," the headmaster of Hogwarts addressed the two house leaders to his left, "Isabelle is Harry Potter's cousin, right?" he asked them.

Snape nodded at him, "You are correct, headmaster. Her father is Richard Potter, James Potter's brother." he said, looking over and smiling proudly as Draco offered her some of his pumpkin cake when she had finished her own.

Dumbledore smiled, "Well, since Draco and her cousin don't exactly get along, I'm guessing Harry's a little less than happy about it." he said, catching McGonagall off guard because she never thought the headmaster of Hogwarts to talk about a pair of student's relationship.

Snape just went with it, "He hates it." he said, speaking of Harry Potter, before he took a drink from his golden cup.

Almost an hour later, the Halloween feast was over, and it was time for all the houses to get to bed.

Izzy walked with Draco, talking animatedly about what position he played on the Quidditch team, before they were stopped abruptly when they both slammed into the backs of two Ravenclaw students.

"What the heck?" Izzy said out loud, getting ready to go up to the front to check it out, when Draco placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Allow me, my dear." he said with a smile as he pushed his way through the crowd of Hogwarts students, Izzy following after him to see what the commotion is.

What they saw astounded them.

On the wall, dangling by a torch holder, was Mr. Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, hanging by her tail with a horrified look on her feline face.

Behind her were the words: THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE. Written in red.

And standing, not two feet away, was Harry, Ron, and Hermione, looking like they got caught in an act of burglary.

Izzy blinked while Draco smirked, "Well, what do we have here?" he managed to get out before the Professors came forward and looked just downright mad at the sight.

Izzy watched as Filch came forward and looked outrageous at the sight of his beloved cat, Izzy didn't catch what he was saying, because she was looking right at Harry.

Harry looked at her for a fleeting moment, a look that screamed 'help' on his face, before he was being told to got to Lockhart's office with Dumbledore while everyone else was told to go to their houses.

"Well, it might be a publicity hoax just to get everyone's attention on him." Draco said to Izzy as they walked up the stairs.

Izzy looked at him, "What do you mean?" she asked him suspiciously.

Draco smiled, "He gets all the attention since he survived the attack of You-Know-Who, and the suspense of Harry Potter coming to Hogwarts has started dying down to a simple flame, he needs to do something to get his publicity back, so he goes and writes a spooky message on the wall while we're all down at dinner. But, he doesn't finish until it's too late, and everyone has seen it, so he gets in trouble with all the teachers and gets the wrong kind of publicity." he said, and he should have shut up after this, but he kept going, "Just like a Potter." Izzy stopped dead in her tracks, alerting Malfoy to do the same.

Izzy regarded him coolly, "What is that supposed to mean? 'Just like a Potter'? Are you implying something, Draco Lucius Malfoy?" she said in a threatening voice, making him flinch at the sound of his middle name; he suddenly wished he hadn't told her his full name.

He looked at her as if she might have been a bomb about to explode, "You know, total attention hogs." he said it simply, though at the sight of her angered face, he wish he hadn't said anything.

Izzy pursed her lips as she started walking now, a little faster than he was so that she could be ahead, "So, I'm an attention hog, then? Hm?" she said as she started following the other Gryffindor students towards the tower.

Draco face palmed himself, "I forgot you're a Potter, Izzy, I'm s-" he suddenly started choking on that word and Izzy rolled her brown eyes at him.

As the portrait of the fat lady swung open and Gryffindor children started filing into the room, she followed them to it, turning around to look at Draco, who had followed her there, "Goodnight, Draco." she finished the discussion rather coldly before the portrait slammed in his face.

The fat lady looked at his green, silver, and black robes, "I am not to open this door for any students unless they were from Gryffindor." she said haughtily.

Draco rolled his grey eyes at her, "I don't care." he said as he turned around and started walking down to the dungeon area where the entrance to the Slytherin house was.

When he was a little ways there, he stopped and looked over his shoulder sadly, 'I need to apologize to her.' he thought to himself, 'But, how? She probably won't be ready for me to apologize to her until a while..' he suddenly became a little saddened to know that she probably won't talk to him until she wasn't angry anymore.

He would talk to her as soon as she would look at him without anger anymore, but he had to steel himself, because he knew that would take a while yet.

I'm sorry if this chapter doesn't live up to your standards, but my throat is killing me and all I wanted to do was submit this chapter for y'all to read.

Please Review. No Flames.

-Zabby