The whole Summer following his 3rd year, he was thinking about these mysteries surrounding the Golden Trio, but especially Potter. "How did he get the dog? Was it a gift from someone else? or Dumbledore? And why would he need one anyway?" Since Draco never had a pet, he himself only owned an owl at home, to send letters for him and everything, so he couldn't really understand the need for somebody to have one and he couldn't know it was Sirius Black, an unregistered Animagus and Potter's Godfather, in a dog's form. If he knew that, he could have easily gotten Potter tried and put in Azkaban for it.

As he was putting his childhood behind, he had much to think about this Summer, almost no time to play, not only about Potter's new pet, but also about his own path and his complicated feelings for a certain Muggle-born in school. In his mind, he let himself call her that, but in front of his parents, he always called her "Mudblood". He still thought Pure-Bloods were superior, but that particular Muggle-born, Hermione Granger, surpassed him in everything : moral standards, intelligence and grace. She acted like a real noble Gryffindor lady. "If only she weren't a Muggle-born… the possibilities would have been endless between us. But I mustn't think about what could never be, that will only make me go crazy."

He had now a fortnight before going back to school. One week-end's evening, his Mother called him downstairs for a very important talk concerning his future and something else when his Father was out meeting some clients.

"Yes Mother, what did you want with me?"

"Come and have some pumpkin juice with me, Draco. I'm here to tell you we'll be going to the Quidditch World Cup this Summer. Now, I want you to behave there, don't be an embarrassment to the whole family."

"Yes Mother. You're starting to sound more and more like Father, what happened to you since last year? Last year, because Father said he'd disown me, you told him you'd divorce him."

"That was to see how he'd react. And he sure reacted as I imagined he would. So with that said, I want you to think about your future. There's just one year before you decide if you want to be a Death-Eater or not. I know Lucius won't give you a choice about it, but I as your Mother, want to give you the freedom to choose. I'll always support you no matter what you decide to do, son, I want you to know this. I don't want you to be your Father."

"Thank you Mother. But I haven't thought about it, just yet. And it'll be fun at the Quidditch World Cup."

"I guess it will be, yes, only behave, please. Don't cause any trouble or your Father will beat me up for it, understand?"

"Yes of course, I understand, love you too Mother."

He was abashed his Mother would be so open about his not wanting to be a Death-Eater, but he knew he didn't have a choice, as a Malfoy and a Pure-blood. Thinking about this made him moody, and so he thought more about the upcoming Quidditch World Cup, just in a few days. He was so excited that every night before the event, he was sleeping so lightly that a slight noise could wake him up. "I mustn't show it on my face, or else Father would punish me for it."

And then before he knew it, it was the day for the Quidditch World Cup, he was going to see the world famous teams play against each other. "Who wouldn't be excited about it?" As he was readying himself that morning, his Father called him down to breakfast.

"Got everything, Draco?"

"Yes, Father."

"Let's use the Portkey."

"Why the Portkey, why can't we just Apparate or something like that?"

"Ministry's orders, son. We mustn't let the Muggles see us. So, we're going to use the Portkey."

"Oh, all right, then, the Portkey it is."

"1,2,3!" And then they were, on the Quidditch World Cup's grounds. To be very honest, Draco didn't expect to see the Golden Trio to be there, and especially not the half-wit Weasel and his family, since they were so poor. "How in Merlin did they get their tickets at the top?"

"Well, Weasley, it must have cost you your entire family fortune to buy those top seats."

"Malfoy, what are you doing there?"

"Enjoying the World Cup, just like you."

"Well, sod off, Malfoy. Leave us alone for once. I'm not in the mood to fight with you."

"That's no way to greet your fellow schoolmate, Weasley." said his Mother.

"Mrs. Malfoy, your son started it first." Harry chimed in Ron's defence.

"Well, Potter, isn't it the famous Harry Potter? Should I bow down to you or what?" His Mother said in mockery.

"Draco, Narcissa, let's go to our seats." Lucius said, not wanting his wife and son to put his public image into jeopardy.

"But Father, he was ridiculing Mother, you could have done something about them—" Draco whined as a spoilt brat would.

"No, son, it's better to not do anything in public, to ruin our public image, no matter how humiliated you feel, don't let your enemies see it and learn how to be resilient, how to wait for your chance."

That was one of those rare life-lessons he learnt from his Father. And with what his Father said in mind, he found he had a great time at the World Cup and didn't think about these 3 goons at anymore all, who initially ruined his mood for the day. But before the World Cup could finish, Draco and his family saw the Dark Mark in the sky. Wizards and Witches were fleeing the stadium, but not his Father, he was openly going towards it. "Has he gone mad? Does he want to get in Azkaban?" Draco was thinking. But the panic in the crowd saved his Father, as no one else saw him running towards the Dark Mark, and so he wasn't incriminated for this and neither for the torture and humiliation of the Muggle organizers for the World Cup.

After the disastrous World Cup, it was going back to Hogwarts time for him. He thought this was going to be a regular normal year, but he didn't know he'd have abundance of chances to avenge himself against these 3, namely when his Father told him about Hogwarts hosting the Triwizard Tournament. And he was much disappointed when he learnt that the Quidditch Inter-House Championship was to be cancelled due to it when Dumbledore announced it in his welcome speech at the beginning of the year.

But his Father didn't know about one crucial thing : the Dark Lord had Barty Crouch drink the Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself as Alastor Moody, the DADA teacher this year. And so he wrongly deducted Alastor Moody was on the Golden Trio's side, since he was hostile towards him in class and even gave him detentions whenever possible, and knocked points off from Slytherin whenever a Slytherin student misbehaved or disrespected any other students. And in one of his DADA classes outside, when he was trying to stealthily attack Potter from behind, Professor Alastor Moody saw him with his moving eye and Transfigured him into a white ferret, Bounced him up and down, making him the class's clown. "Moody will pay for it." Everyone in class, he saw, except for his fellow Slytherins and Hermione Granger, laughed their heads off at him and the Weasel gave him the nickname of "The amazing bouncing Ferret" It was Prof. Mcgonagall who ended his nightmare.

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration on a student as a punishment, no matter what he or she has done."

"But Malfoy was trying to attack Potter from behind, Potter didn't see it, I did, so I—"

"Transfigured him into a white ferret? There are many other and better ways to discipline students, Professor Moody, like for example, give them detentions, take off Housepoints from their Houses, and etc."

"All right, I'm sorry, Minerva, Malfoy. I promise never to do that again." His DADA Professor said a bit sheepishly.

"And you're to come with me and to explain yourself to the Headmaster, Moody." Moody, to his satisfaction, couldn't do anything else but to follow her to back the Castle.

"Ron, are you in a daze or what?" He heard Granger ask the Weasel, who was noble enough to not publicly laugh at him, which made him like her even more for her internal qualities. He didn't know she had that many and was this kind-hearted. And it comforted him to see she wasn't laughing at his humiliation. "I underestimated her. I thought she'd hate me enough to want to avenge herself against me, but she's above that. She's definitely a Gryffindor."

"No, but I want to picture the amazing bouncing Ferret's image in my mind forever."

"Ron, you're so immature." said his secret love, disgusted by her best friend. "It's like her defending me against one of her best friends." He said to himself after they were gone.

After he was nicknamed "The amazing bouncing Ferret", by Ronald Weasley, it was a surprise for him too, just like everybody else, when Potter's name was out of the Goblet of Fire, since he didn't know it was Barty Crouch, disguised as Professor Alastor Moody, who put the Golden boy's name in the Goblet of Fire. After the Triwizard Tournament's opening ceremony, he made "Support Cedric Diggory, the real Champion" badges to aggravate Potter and the Golden Trio even more. Potter on the surface, didn't seem annoyed by it in the slightest.

"He has grown, my immature tactics won't work on him and the rest of them anymore, and if want the Mudblood to react as much as possible, I'd have to come up with something new. "

Although he was teen, he was still a boy, he didn't linger too much on his feelings for her. All he knew was that he didn't want to see her dead, like he did for 2 years. In his 3rd year, he realized he confused his secret feelings for her as hate, but was baffled as to if it were a crush, an obsession or was he really in love with her? But since he thought love was the most foolish thing ever on this planet, as taught by his Father, thus he dismissed those feelings. And now he didn't know how to take the butterflies in his stomach or whenever he saw her face going red. "Ever since I shrank her teeth, she has become more beautiful than ever, with her bushy brown curls." Though he admitted he was physically attracted to her, but he didn't know he was head over heels in love with her. "But she's just a Mudblood, that's never going to be possible for us, maybe in another lifetime." Filled with the idea that Pure-bloods were superior and better than Muggle-borns, ever since the cradle, and with his Fathers' upbringing and teaching, he couldn't think of her as anything else than a low-class, dirty Mudblood. He even thought her blood was as dirty as mud, and not as red as his, and that was where the insult came from : mud and blood.

"Funny, I find her physically very pretty and very intelligent, yet I can't get pass the fact that she's a Mudblood." Of course, since he was indoctrinated by these thoughts ever since he was baby, he couldn't possibly get out of it all by himself, hence why he needed external help. "But who's? Oh I know, Uncle Sev will help me, he said he won't judge me on that, time to go and see if that's true. But after Potter's first task." And ever since the Champions' names were announced, he found out something else about her : she was starting a campaign to free the House-Elves. "Such a smart girl like her should know no respectable Witches or Wizards will want to free their House-Elves, and much less participate in her silly campaign. But this is none of my business, it's hers and only hers."

Potter, these days in class, he observed, was overly nervous, since he had the burden to be a Champion as well. "Saint Potter, always in the spotlight." If he knew The-boy-who-lived well, however, he would have known the raven-haired boy didn't like being in the spotlight in the least bit. And the Mudblood was of course, encouraging him whenever she could, and helping him with the first task. But he didn't know it was the false Professor Alastor Moody who gave his arch-nemesis extra lessons on the Summoning Charm and told him to play with his strengths. So at the beginning of his first task, he was taunting his school nemesis, as usual :

"You know what, Potter, Father and I made a bet; I said you'd last 10 minutes, and he said you wouldn't last 5."

"Malfoy, we could care less about what you think of him. Now if you don't have anything better to do, then please get to your seat, and let us enjoy the first task."

"Mudblood, don't you dare speak to me this way."

"Don't I dare? Oh, you don't scare me anymore Malfoy with your threats. And I don't care about it if you call me a Mudblood or what, so call me that as much as you want." said Granger the Mudblood, in his face. "Damn, she has matured too, and I must grow up quickly or I'll be humiliated by those 3. Though that makes her even more attractive." He shut the voice off in a corner of his mind though.

"Well whatever, you two enjoy the show." If he was unsatisfied she didn't take his bait, to make up for it, most of the school wore his "Support Cedric Diggory, the School's real Champion" badges proudly on their chests. But after the first task, he wasn't gloating so much anymore, Potter and Krum got tied, both first place, Cedric Diggory second, and Fleur from Beaubaxtons 3rd. He wanted Potter to be the last one, so he could taunt him about it, and maybe make Hermione Granger go red in her face again, but alas, he couldn't have everything he wanted in this world.

Because the first task went so extremely well for Potter, he wasn't quite in the mood for studying, wanting to humiliate him some more. He just couldn't stand it, when he was seeing Saint Potter's face light up with a smile. And Hermione Granger was there for him, cheering and rooting for him, making him even more furious. And that was why he wasn't paying too much attention in class either, when the teachers announced the Yule ball. After class though, he heard the Slytherin girls talk about something in the Slytherin Common room.

"Hey Pans, what's all the commotion about?"

"Didn't you hear about it in class, Drakie-Poo, we're going to have a Yule Ball. And you must have a date! Please take me, pretty please with a cherry on top, Drakie-Poo?" Pansy Parkinson was pleading with him in her girly and screeching high voice.

"No me, me, ME!" protested Daphne Greengrass, who also wanted him with a passion and unknown to him, competed against Pansy for his heart.

"Girls, girls, I haven't thought about who I'll take to the Ball just yet, please calm down and let me decide on my own."

"But you must have a date to the Ball, Drakie-Poo!"

"Yes, Pans, I know, but let me think about it." He found Pansy to be goddamned infuriating, sometimes, even more than the Golden Trio. But to add further to his frustrations, a few days later, his Father sent him an owl ordering him to take Pansy to the Ball. "She must have written to Father about it." He thought. "Fine, I will, just for Father's sake. And I know I don't want her that way, I want to ask Hermione Granger out to the Ball, but she'll think it's a joke if I did that." He thought sadly about it.

And before long, for Draco, it was the Yule Ball's night, also Christmas Eve. Girls were in colourful dresses of red, blue, pink and other colours, instead of their usual colours. Their hairs were done fashionably as well. At the Ball, he noticed the Weasel was sulking, not even looking at his date, Padma Patil. "Why?" And at the Ball's opening, he saw Hermione Granger dancing with Vicktor Krum, the Champion from Durmstrang, Fleur was with Roger Davis, the Ravenclaws' Quidditch captain, Cedric Diggory with Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw's seeker in his 2nd year, and finally, Harry Potter with Pavarti Patil. Potter was a dunce at dancing, and embarrassed his date and he was secretly laughing at him for stepping on his date's feet many times, irritating Pavarti Patil. But Hermione he saw, was so gorgeous that his mouth was agape as she descended the stairs to the ballroom's floor, looking radiant on her face. It was then, he knew he was truly in love with her since he wanted to go and snatch her away from Krum, jealousy boiling in him, but he forced him to restrain himself : "Don't go, you'll just make a fool out of yourself if you did that. And think about what Father would do about that."

"Drakie-Poo, what are you looking at?"

"Just the Mudblood, I thought Durmstrang Institute's people didn't take Muggle-filths to Balls. Dance with me, Pansy?" This seemed to satisfy his Pure-Blood date.

"Yes, sure, with pleasure, Drake." She said, completely oblivious to the fact that her date was falling for Hermione Granger, the Mudblood.

"There's no denying it now I am in love with her, otherwise I wouldn't have pined after her so much, while she was with Viktor Krum. And I am going to protect her in the shadows, doing the best I could for her to live through the inevitable war." Even though he admitted to himself now that he was really in love with her, and that he didn't hate her, he still didn't know just how precious she was to him. Whereas, in his previous year, he was thoroughly baffled about his feelings for her. "I am going to help her side, as a double agent because I love her. I know it now, after seeing her with that Victor Krum." He decided the night after he saw her at the Yule Ball with another than him, so stunningly beautiful and so far out of his reach.

"About 2 months still before the 2nd task. I have enough time to go see Uncle Severus." And so he went to his Godfather's private study, to ask him advice about his feelings for Hermione Granger, the Muggle-born girl.

"What brings you here, Draco?" asked his Uncle Sev.

"Why, can't I visit my favourite Godfather?"

"Your only Godfather and don't you play innocent with me, Draco. Sit down, I know what you've come about. Hermione Granger, isn't it?"

"How did you know?"

"I am not as blind as you, Draco, you don't even know you've fallen for her and hard. Don't think I don't know how you looked at her at the Yule Ball, while you were dancing absent-mindedly with Miss Parkinson."

"I know it now, Severus, I was being stupid the last 3 years, and because I was only a boy, I first thought I hated her, and then I got confused about my love feelings for her, but as she went with Victor Krum and I with Pansy Parkinson at the Yule Ball, my love for her was clear for me. And I've decided to stop fighting for it. I've fought against my feelings for her uselessly for 3 years, and even successfully made her hate me, but you know, it was all for her and her friends' sake."

"Yes I know, Draco. You know loving someone on the opposite side of a war, isn't easy. I too, loved someone who was Muggle-born."

"You too, who was it, Uncle Sev? And how did you deal with it?"

"I can't tell you, because then your Father would know and it'll put me in potential danger. I know your Aunt Bellatrix Lestrange has trained you in Legilimency/Occlumency, but I don't think you're ready for him, as he has learnt a few tricks from his real Master."

"Yes Severus. And I do plan to help the Light Side, should I tell Dumbledore about it?"

"No, the less people knowing about it, the less people will be in danger, Godson. Now go, and never let your Father know about your true feelings for her. Understand? Make her hate you for her life, and protect her in the shadows sneakily like a true Slytherin."

"That's all I can do for now?"

"Yes, for your life and hers and your Mother's, do you want her to die for it too?"

"No, but my Mother said she'd support me no matter what I do."

"Good, but still do nothing about it, and help the Light Side whenever you can, secretly, report to me, and I'll report everything you know to Dumbledore, saying it was I who discovered all these things while spying for them."

"Thank you, I just hope my love would live. I don't care about myself."

"I promise you with my life she will, Draco."

He was more at peace now, during these 2 months before the Champions' second task, after he talked to his Uncle Sev. He never thought his Uncle Severus understood and knew about his feelings for her. And he was often wondering in his 14 year-old's mind : "Who could Uncle Severus's secret love be?" All the while, he was trying to know what the 2nd task would be, but the teachers wouldn't let any student know, it was the staff's secret.

"It is now time for all Champions to complete their 2nd task and the 2nd task will be that each and every one of them will have to rescue something very dear to them." Dumbledore was saying, but he was only half-listening to the old Headmaster. However, he watched the 2nd task with interest, and was predicting with his Slytherin friends about who'd be the first to rescue the hostages. He as the rest of the crowd, didn't know why Harry Potter was last this time, and what took him so long. Hermione Granger, he saw, was also frowning for him. "Normal, it's her best friend. I'm not jealous, nope." But he couldn't deny he was jealous of anyone who got his secret crush's affections, and Potter wasn't an exception. He was perhaps more jealous of Ronald Weasley, who sometimes got too close to her physically to his taste, but he never thought he'd stoop so low as to be jealous of Harry Goddam Potter. "Calm down, it's only her friend she's worried about. If I were her one of best friends, she'd be that worried about me too." And then, everybody knew why Harry Potter was last in the 2nd task, it was because he took extra time to rescue all the hostages, not only his own. This he saw, made Fleur Delacour admire him, because he rescued her little sister, Gabrielle Delacour. And because Potter did that to save all the hostages, so he got the second place, instead of the 3rd one, like he was supposed to. And that made Potter tie with Cedric Diggory, who got the first place in the 2nd task, and Krum was second and Fleur was last, again.

"Hey, that's favouritism to Potter!"

"No Malfoy, because he showed moral fibre!" Weasley leapt to his best friend's defence.

"And besides, you're not the one deciding, it's the judges' job." Granger, defending Harry as well.

"Well, if my father were one, he'd put Potter in the last place for sure."

"Yeah yeah, whatever, Malfoy. But your Father ain't one, so you can't do much about it. What are you going to do, sulk about it?"

"Of course not. See you in class, Weasel." Ouf of all 3 of them, Ronald Weasley was the most reckless and unintelligent one, so that was why he always fell for his tricks, no matter how many times he used the same ones, over and over again on him, they still worked like a charm on the Weasel.

"Well, well, even my Mudblood insult doesn't seem to affect Granger anymore, but that half-wit Weasley is still like an immature child, always taking my bait. I just hope someday she'll leap to his defence, and I'll be able to see her angered face again, I just love it, when her face is red with fury." He was commenting to himself, alone in the Slytherin boy's dormitory, some nights after the 2nd task. She was now Granger to him, when he was talking to himself and thinking to himself. And of course, he was careful to not let this slip, because his "friends" would report to his Father and he'd get disowned maybe for it. "Why is my life so difficult?"

All this time, before the 3rd task came along, he was trying to investigate about Potter's black dog along with his lessons and beating his crush in every test, yet he had no success with finding more about it. "Why am I so obsessed with Potter's black dog? Logically, maybe someone gave it to him or maybe he bought it, just like Granger did with Crookshanks last year?"

And then, as usual, it was Dumbledore who announced what the task would be. Draco wasn't really paying attention to his speech, in fact, he was almost dozing off, and so he didn't know what the final task would be. All he's heard was the Champions will have to go through some kind of maze, and the first one to come out of it, will be the whole Tournament's Champion. As he watched in the stadium, he wondered what in Merlin's name was happening. He didn't know it was the Dark Lord's plans all along to kidnap Potter during the last task when he was the least protected and to have his Death-Eaters resurrect him and that the Cup was the Resurrection Stone, one of the Deathly Hallows, and Cedric Diggory was murdered during the 3rd task by Wormtail, Lord Voldemort's servant. And Barty Crouch, still as Alastor Moody, abducted Potter in his office while he was carrying Diggory's body back to Hogwarts, but for a short while only, because he got rescued by Professors Dumbledore, Mcgonagall and his very own Godfather, but he couldn't know that as a spectator, and he couldn't know how Potter got out of the maze first and because he got out of the maze first, he got crowned the Tournament's youngest Champion, and got several thousand Galleons for it. And then it became known to everyone, that Cedric Diggory had died, but his death's real reasons were not divulged, as the Ministry absolutely refused to acknowledge that Lord Voldemort has returned, despite the Headmaster's insistence.