Looking over the rest of the Great Hall after sitting, Draco noticed the DADA seat was still empty. Well, along with the McGonagall's and Hagrid's seats. But they were busy. Who was the new DADA teacher?

Just then, the doors opened, and the timid first years filed in, following Mcgonagall. There were a couple of students strutting about like they owned the place. Slytherins, then.

The Sorting Hat gave off its song, and everyone applauded as the song finished. (AN: Can you believe that I've never actually read the Sorting Hat's songs. I absolutely hate poetry.) The sorting then started, and Draco applauded Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs politely, and the Slytherins a little more excitedly. There was no point in clapping for the Gryffindors.

"I have only two word to say to you all. Tuck in!" Dumbledore said after 'Whitby, Kevin' became a Hufflepuff.

After a filling meal, Draco sat back contentedly. "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, for the following notices.

"Mr. Filch has updated his list of banned items over the summer, and it now includes Screaming Yo - Yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever - Bashing Boomerangs. The full list, composed of four hundred thirty seven items, I believe, can be found in Mr. Filch's office for those of you who wish to check it." Dumbledore gave a wink at the end, knowing that no one would ever check it, and even might bring in the following items to bother the grumpy man.

"As I do every year, I wish to remind you that the forest on the edge of the grounds is forbidden, as is the village of Hogsmeade to all those below third year.

"It is also my painful duty to tell you that the Inter - House Quidditch Cup will not be taking place this year."

There was quite the cry at those words. Draco had assumed that it would be the case with the TriWizard tournament happening, and just rolled his eyes.

"This is due, students, to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year. Taking up much of our teacher's time and energy, this year we are honored with hosting -"

A deafening blast of thunder cut Dumbledore off, and the doors to the Great Hall banged open. A man stood in the doorway, with a big, chunky stick and a large cloak covering his face. Lowering his hood, Draco saw him shake out his hair, and start walking up to the teacher's table. His gait clunked every other step, as if he had a wooden leg. Actually, if this was who Draco thought it was, then it was a wooden leg.

With another flash of lightning, the man's face was visible for a second. It was Mad - Eye Moody. The one magical eye spun about the room, checking, looking, and then the light was gone, and Dumbledore continued his speech.

Well, he really started a new one.

"May I introduce you to our new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher? Professor Moody."

A few whispers broke out in the hall, and Draco noticed that only Hagrid and Dumbledore himself clapped for the new teacher.

"As I was saying, we are to have the honor of hosting the TriWizard Tournament here at Hogwarts this year."

"YOU'RE JOKING!" Fred (or George) Weasley shouted out. It was the only sound in the entire hall. Well, it was until the laughter and giggles started.

"I am most certainly not joking, Mr. Weasley. Though, now that you mention it, I have heard a wonderful one over the summer about a troll, hag, and leprechaun that went into a bar -" Mcgonagall cut him off with a sharp cough, and Dumbledore refocused. "Where was I? Oh, of course, the TriWizard Tournament." Dumbledore went on to explain what the tournament was, and Draco tuned out, instead looking over the new students and the teacher's table, especially looking over the DADA teacher. Moody. Hm, what to do to convince him. They would cross that bridge when they got to it.

The students were dismissed to bed, and Draco slipped away to the Room of Requirement as soon as he was able, which was actually a lot sooner than he had thought it was going to be. Making sure he wasn't seen, he ascended the staircases until he reached the seventh floor, and paced in front of the door for their usual set up. Hermione didn't show up for another half an hour or so, and immediately went to the snack table that was in the corner of the room. It was an addition that they had thought up once they started spending a lot more time there. Draco stood up and hugged her again, and she distractedly hugged him back. "I knew that there were house elves in the kitchen, but I just made a huge scene about it. You've told me what happens if they're freed, but it still seems wrong to have them."

"You ok? You were fine on the train."

"Yeah … Yeah. I'm fine." She waved him off and started pacing, around and around the room. As she passed Draco for the fourth time, he grabbed her shoulders and dragged her to the couch.

"What's wrong?"

"House elves."

"What about them?"

"Dray, why are they treated so unfairly? How can anyone be mean to them?"

Draco just shook his head and hugged her to him, pulling her onto his lap. "Mya, people … people can be mean. Imagine what it would be like if I never met you? Imagine how rude I might have been to you. And then, I also would have meant it. So, we can't free the elves, but maybe we can do something to give them better living conditions. Let's think this through. Okay?"

And for the rest of the night, they went over conditions and things they could do for the Hogwarts elves, and, eventually, for the rest of the elves. With a parting kiss and a much happier Hermione, the two of them parted ways for bed.

.

The next morning, at breakfast, Draco opened Ares' package, the mean owl sitting over his shoulder. Draco couldn't help but say that he was a wonderful owl, if only he was a bit kinder. At least no one would ever intercept this owl. The package in question had sweets made by the house elves. Later that night, he would leave the package sitting in the Common Room for Goyle and Crabbe to eat. And, hopefully, a few others would be able to get in there before they were all gone.

After a simple Transfiguration lesson, the fourth year Slytherins went down to Care of Magical Creatures.

Catching the last bit of Hagrid's sentence, Draco knew he had to make a rude remark. Though this time, he almost meant it.

"And why would we want to raise them? I mean, what do they do? What is their point?" He could see Hermione rolling her eyes.

Hagrid obviously hadn't thought that far, and hesitated coming up with an adequate response. "Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Fer now, yer jus' gonna feed 'em. Now, yeh'll wanna try a few diff'rent things, cause I've ne'er hed 'em 'fore, don't know wha' they eat yet. I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' things like tha', so, uh, get to it!"

Draco rolled his eyes and stalked over to look in one of the boxes. It was a hideous creature that looked like a mix of a Fire Crab and a Manticore, almost. There were a few things that still confused him though, and he didn't want to be anywhere near them.

After Brown almost got stung or whatever, and Hagrid had explained what he thought were the suckers and stingers, Draco spoke up again. All he wanted for this year was to get away from these creatures that Hagrid had probably bred somehow.

"Well, I can certainly see why we're going to be keeping these alive. Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once."

"Just because they're not pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful. After all, you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, now, would you? But the blood is dead useful, and magical too."

"Says you."

"Oh?"

Draco shook his head and looked wide eyed at her. They could not do with exposing themselves here. And if they kept arguing, it was bound to happen.

The rest of the lesson passed quickly, and the skrewts did not find anything they liked.

Hermione ate her lunch fast then signaled to him to meet in the RoR as soon as possible. They had a few things to do for the new school year, and could practice the way they wanted to. Even if it was only for half an hour.

He finished up his lunch and practically ran to the RoR to meet her. They wanted as much time as possible together.

They worked their wandless magic for almost the whole time, and got a small blast out of the Reducto curse. It was barely enough to blast back a pillow, but it was still more, and it was difficult to do too. They quickly set off to Arithmancy, separately, of course. It would be bad if they arrived together.

After a good lesson that was really spent going over what they learned last year, the class was dismissed to dinner. Draco grabbed a paper that was sitting on the desk, this teacher had them for the student to have if they wanted them.

Picking up Crabbe and Goyle from the Common Room, Draco started to read it as he walked, knowing the two of them had orders from his father to keep him safe. And to report any funny business to him too.

Reaching an article under the title 'Further Mistakes at the Ministry of Magic', Draco paused his skimming and started actually reading. This was good. Well, for his purposes. Not that those purposes were any good themselves, but -

"Weasley! Hey Weasley!" Catching sight of the other teen, Draco called out to him. It was a Skeeter article and therefore trash, but Draco knew that Weasley senior was going to be in it, he had skimmed it on the way to the Great Hall.

Ron turned around and Harry and Hermione followed. "What?"

"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" Draco shouted, knowing he was embarrassing the teen. "Listen to this!" Draco started reading the paper, laughing when he got to the name, Arnold Weasley. It was Arthur, Skeeter, sometimes a Quick Quotes Quill was bad. They often got things wrong. And there was a lot of paraphrasing. A lot.

"Imagine them not even getting his name right." Draco continued reading. By the end of the article, Weasley was red in the face and shaking in fury. "And there's a picture of your parents outside their house, if you could call that dump a house. Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, now, couldn't she?"

Personally, Draco loved the house. Perhaps it was a bit beat up, but it sure beat the cold, impersonal manor he lived in. It was lived in. And Mrs. Weasley wasn't that overweight, just enough to make her feel like a mother. His own mother was almost just a stick, she wasn't all that healthy. She ate well, but she just didn't put it on all that well. Mrs Weasley was beautiful, and probably made a wonderful mother.

"You know your mother Malfoy? That expression she's got, like there's dung under her nose? Had she always been like that, or was it just because you were with her? I bet that's why you don't have any siblings, because you were so horrible as a toddler."

Draco's mother had a bit of trouble with children, and Draco always wanted a little brother or sister. But it wasn't much of a chance of it happening. Draco actually had an older sibling, they just didn't make it.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter." Draco sent off a spell, he didn't even know fully which one. It was wandless too, his wand was up his sleeve, in his holster. One of the things he had bought that summer. Much safer than a back pocket, not that they had those on the school robes. He heard the bang with the spell, then heard another, and then everything grew bigger. Goyle was a giant, and Draco felt smaller. He looked at himself and started shaking. He was a … a ferret.

This was humiliating. This was horrible. Crabbe went to pick him up and he shrunk away from the giant hand that was reaching for him. His hearing was much better, and he heard the footsteps as Moody made his way over to him. He ran as fast as he could with the new appendages towards the dungeons, but Moody practically summoned him, sending him flying to the ceiling, where he bounced back to the ground. Draco felt his ribs, the fragile things they were, creak under the pressure. They might have been stronger, but they were still freakishly weak. He bounced up and down a few times, hearing the Gryffindors laughing, and Pansy (When did she show up?) shreking for Moody to stop.

He was thrown even higher, and this was getting even more painful. It was almost as bad as the Cruciatus. Not quite, but he was glad his father had never thought of this. Draco tried to put a Cushioning Charm on the stone underneath him, but the stupid ferret form he was in wouldn't allow it.

"Professor Moody!" Professor McGonagall was here. Perhaps she would save him. He was in a lot of pain, and probably had a broken bone somewhere.

"Hello Professor McGonagall." Moody threw him even higher, not caring that the ceiling was getting quite close.

"What - what are you doing?" She seemed so confused. It made sense. Who expected to walk in on a teacher throwing a ferret in the air, even if they didn't know it was a terrified teenager? Draco started chattering at her, hoping she would save him, even if she was the Gryffindor head of house.

"Teaching." How in the world was Moody so calm?

"Teach - Moody, is that a student?" The books she was holding onto spilled all over the ground in her haste to get her wand out.

"Yep." Still as calm as could be.

"No!" McGonagall ran down the stairs and turned him back into a human, and he collapsed on the ground, wincing in pain. Something was most definitely broken. He wanted to lay on the floor forever, but knew his reputation would force him to get up. So he did, wincing as he put weight on his arm. That was most likely broken. "Moody, we never use transfiguration as a punishment. Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He mighta mentioned it, yeah. But a good sharp shock never hurt no one." Obviously it did. Draco thought the pain wouldn't stop coming. It was terrible.

"We give detentions, Alastor. Or speak to the offender's Head of House!" McGonagall looked over to him, slight worry in her eyes, before turning back to the teacher.

"I think I'll do that then."

"My father will hear about this." Draco muttered. Not that he wanted to, but it was going to reach him some way or another. Unfortunately, Moody heard him.

"Oh, yeah?" The teacher limped over to him, "Well, I know your father, boy. You better tell him Moody's gonna be keepin' a close eye on his son, now, you tell him that. Now, your Head of House would be Snape, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Another old friend. I've been lookin' for a nice chat with old Snape. C'mon, now." Moody grabbed his upper arm, the injured one, jostling it.

This was going to be a long night.