My son
It brings me joy to know that you're doing excellent in your studies. The news brought great pride and joy in both your father and me. We are both doing quite well.
As for your request to meet, I will come to see you this Saturday. I haven't told anything of this to your father as I'm sure you meant this part only for me. I will pick you up on Hogsmeade days feigning some family emergency.
Be well my son,
Mother
Draco smiled as he read the reply before moving to his table and quickly writing a small reply.
"Dobby" the boy turned to the elf that had been standing beside his bed for the entirety of Draco reading the letter and writing his reply. He was fidgeting on the spot, wringing his hands.
"Yes, Master Draco?" the house-elf jumped a little.
"Give this to my mother and my mother only" he held out the letter and the elf took it with a shaky hand. "Understood?"
"Yes, master Draco" the house-elf nodded furiously.
"And Dobby?" the elf froze midway of popping out of his room and back to Malfoy Manor. "Please start taking care of yourself as well. You look weak."
The house-elf stiffened and Draco saw his eyes widen just a bit. But the elf nodded furiously once more before popping out of the room.
Draco stared at the spot his house-elf had been on. He wasn't sure why he had said that. He didn't particularly care about the elves that worked under his family. But the memory of Dobby jumping in to save Potter and his gang had popped up in his mind every time he had seen the elf at home, this time had been no different.
Loyalty like that sounds nice, he thought as he dressed for class. Maybe Dobby could be his trump card in some circumstances. Or maybe even his eyes and ears in the shadows.
The Great Hall was less empty compared to the previous day. Draco sat in his usual spot and the food appeared before him. Unlike the previous day, Pansy had come in earlier and had taken the seat beside the Malfoy heir. Crabbe and Goyle were sat on his other side. Draco paid them no mind, focused solely on the food before him. He only showed any sign of change in expression when Daphne had greeted him, greeting her back with a smile, oblivious to the effect that had on the Parkinson girl who sat beside him.
Herbology had been a repeat of what they learned yesterday. A rerun of the fire-making spell and then a theoretical discussion of Venomous Tentacula, a green, spiky, toothsome magical plant with mobile vines that try to grab living prey. Thankfully, none of them had to deal with that nightmare until their sixth year. Unless he drops Herbology for his NEWTs. Then he didn't have to deal with this at all.
The real exciting time of the day came when it was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was not because of what Draco was going to be taught that got him excited. It was who was going to join him that made him excited. The Gryffindors and Slytherins had their first class together. Normally these houses did not get along with one another at all, but Draco was hoping that would not create too much friction between Potter and himself.
The Slytherins were at class first, finding the Professor readying his notes for class. Quirinus Quirrell was a young man with pale skin. He wore purple robes and a purple turban to match it. When he had seen the students come in, he had at first jumped in fright and then greeted them with ha shaky welcome. All in all, Draco never thought of the man as being capable of teaching the class he was teaching, not in the last life and not in this new one. He was too nervous and jumpy to teach them anything practical.
But Draco also knew the man was a fake through and through. With who his father is, Draco knew perfectly well as to why Quirrell is the way he is. Draco knew perfectly as to who was under that turban.
The Gryffindors filed in not long after the Slytherins had and took a seat on the row beside the Slytherin's, a path in between them for the teacher to walk. Draco smiled at Harry but the Potter heir just looked away with a frown. That in turn made Draco frown. What had those damned Gryffindors done now?
"Welcome, first-year students to your first class of Defense" the Professor spoke with little stutters in between, a surprise for Draco. But the surprise went away right after the man began to stutter as he got into the topic of today's class.
The class began with a theoretical explanation of werewolf bites and how to cure them, such as with a mixture of powdered silver and dittany. Draco mentally scoffed at that. The best they could do was stop the bleeding. There was no way anyone could be cured of that affliction.
The topic then moved on to spell casting, the Knockback Jinx. It was a simple spell that would knock the target backward. Like last time, Quirrell got into the theoretical aspects of the spell, starting from the incantation to perfecting the pronunciation and then details on the effects of the spell and what could be expected of it.
"Professor" Draco raised his hand and the man looked at him. "The theoretical aspects are I understand good and important. But why don't we have a practical aspect for this lesson as well? There's still time before class ends."
"M-Mr. M-Malfoy" the professor stuttered. "I-I think i-it's un-unnecessary to g-get into p-practical j-just now" the teacher stuttered.
"Professor" Hermione Granger had her hand raised high, "I think a practical class would be a splendid idea! It'll help us learn faster as well!"
Draco pushed away from the surprise of a Gryffindor agreement and pushed down an eye-roll that would have come up. He instead watched as the rest of the students too chimed in and Quirrell had no choice but to agree in the end.
With a flick of the Professor's wand, the desks and chairs were pushed aside and against the walls. The Slytherins and Gryffindors parted but Quirrell stopped them after a pause.
"G-Gryf-ffindors and Sl-Slyth-therins pa-pair up" he called, much to everyone's surprise. But nobody spoke up to protest. The chances of this whole thing getting canceled were on their minds after all. But this did present an opportunity for Draco to have a chat with Harry and see what the damage was.
As planned, Draco paired up with Harry while Daphne went to pair up with Hermione, and Ron was paired up with Crabbe. He didn't get his hopes too high, but he wanted Crabbe and Daphne to put those two in their places. That would be fun. Completely ruining the relation between the two houses, but still fun. Besides, it was not like the two houses were that close, to begin with.
"You look nervous, Potter" the Malfoy heir spoke softly as both he and his opponent took center stage.
"I'm fine, Malfoy" the Potter heir spoke and the frown on Draco's face only deepened. Yup, definitely something happened.
The Professor called for the match to begin, the first one to flip five of the table that was brought upfront would be awarded a point. And the team with the most points wins 5 points for their House. Draco was the easy winner for the obvious reason that he already knew the spell and his experience with dueling.
"Talk to me" Draco muttered when both he and Harry were told to stand aside and make room for the next contestants. "You're suddenly giving me the cold shoulder and looking at me like I killed your cat or something."
"No, but you did kill my parents" the accusation made Draco stumble on his feet and look at Harry with no hidden surprise.
"I did not such things" the boy scoffed, "I was your age when that happened."
"No. But your father was with You know who in the war. Your father and Slytherin fought for the man that killed my parents. Your whole family was part of it. Why should I even talk to you?"
"So, you're going to bring the sins of my father on to me?" Draco asked, his voice cold and hollow. "Yes, my father willingly fought for Voldemort, my aunt fought for that thing and so did my uncle. Half the people in Slytherin have parents who did the same. But don't lump us all with the kind of shit our parents pulled."
"And besides" he looked at the bespectacled, "Slytherin wasn't the only house that gave birth to Death Eaters."
"You're lying" the boy hissed.
"Take it as you will, but Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had their share of Death Eaters and followers of Voldemort. My father still boasts about it to his friends whenever they meet. That Slytherin house took the brunt of the hit for producing dark witches and wizards, but it also hid the darkness of the other houses. The Death Eaters from those houses got out with no problems and the law never even thought to look there. Some even managed to outsmart everyone."
"Who?" the boy who lived looked at Draco intently. He wanted to know, which was a welcome sight for the Malfoy heir. It meant that the boy was listening to him.
"Doesn't matter now. Even if I speak, there is no proof on my end" he whispered. "But, don't judge someone based on what house they are in and what you hear. Don't be a mindless sheep and form opinions for yourself. I'm not my father and I know people who are not their parents. We don't go blindly following some man who claims to be Slytherin's heir. We think and we make our own choices. You should try that too."
Harry looked thoughtful, his eyes now fixed on the matchup taking place before him. Ron and Crabbe were facing off and Ron was on the back foot with Crabbe flipping over three desks.
"And Harry," the scarred boy looked back at the blonde stood beside him. "Use his real name. Fear of a name only makes him stronger. Don't give him the pleasure of showing that you're afraid."
"I-" Harry hesitated for a minute before giving a nod just as Ron and Crabbed made their way to them. "I'll be sure to do that, Draco."