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Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 30: The New Term

"I don't want to."

"You have to."

"I don't want to."

"You have to go."

"Everyone there hates me."

"Why?"

"Why do you think? I almost killed their Headmaster."

"It doesn't matter. They can't hurt you."

"I don't care of they hurt me! I hurt them!"

"I know." A pause. "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing!"

Silence.

"I'm-"

Draco slammed the door in his mother's face. He dropped to the floor and hugged his knees to his chest.

No, this couldn't be happening. He didn't want to go back. He couldn't go back. Not back to Hogwarts. Not where everyone knew what he was and how terrible he was.

Draco didn't want to go back to that castle and walk down the corridors made of the bricks that reminded him of what he had done. All he wanted to do was forget.

But how could he when Voldemort constantly kept having him use Unforgivable Curses on Death Eaters he didn't even know?

Draco let out a deep breath. He waited for his head to stop pounding before standing up and pulling out his school trunk from his wardrobe. He threw it onto his bed, where it fell open. He tossed his clothes, robes, books, and the notebook from Hermione into the trunk. Draco didn't bother trying to keep the trunk neat.

Once everything was in the trunk, he slammed it shut. The sleeves of some of his robes were sticking out of the trunk. Frustratedly, Draco opened the trunk up again and stuffed his robes back into it. As he was doing so, the notebook from Hermione fell open. Draco stared at the blank pages following his last letter; Hermione still hadn't written him anything. She could be dead for all he knew.

Finally, Draco heaved his trunk off the bed and stumbled out of his room. He headed downstairs and disposed of the trunk in front of the front door with a loud thump.

Narcissa Malfoy came running into the room, apparently quite alarmed.

"What-?" She asked, stunned. She glanced from Draco to the trunk. "Are you going?" She asked in a relieved sort of voice.

Draco snorted. "Like I have a choice."

Narcissa's face fell, but this time, she didn't try to apologize. She bowed her head and returned to the drawing room.

Draco trudged back upstairs, where he found an owl tapping on his window. He opened the window and the owl flew in and perched atop his desk. Draco untied the letter from the owl's leg and unrolled it.

It was his Hogwarts letter, but something was different. The list of books contained a new selection of Dark Arts books, and a book about Muggles that Draco had never seen before.

Draco thought that was strange. With Dumbledore gone, he had imagined that the entire Muggle Studies class would have been ended. They didn't even have a teacher for the class; Draco had seen Charity Burbage die before his own eyes.

Draco scanned the letter for any clues about the new textbook, but couldn't find anything. However, he did notice something else that was new. Draco figured that there would be a new headmaster, seeing as Dumbledore was dead. But he did not expect it to be...Snape.

Draco almost cried out in frustration. He couldn't even look Snape in the eye anymore! And now, instead of Snape being Draco's teacher for one class, he was the headmaster! With more power, Draco knew Snape was bound to corner Draco and discuss what had happened at the top of the Astronomy Tower.

Going back to Hogwarts was going to stink.

On the morning of September 1st, Draco stood on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters by himself, his trunk in one hand, his wand in the other. The Death Eaters had dropped him off there so early that the Hogwarts Express hadn't even arrived yet. For this, Draco was glad, because it meant that he would be one of the first people to board the train and get a compartment to himself.

A while later, the large scarlet train chugged into sight. Smoke filled the platform, causing a dense gray curtain to fall before Draco's face. He waited until the smoke cleared before lifting his trunk up and walking straight toward the train. Draco hopped onto the scarlet engine and walked slowly down the long corridor. He stopped in front of the compartment at the very back of the train. Pulling open the glass door, he heaved his trunk up and tossed it onto one of the seats.

Draco plopped down onto a different seat and turned his head to stare out the window. He watched the platform fill up with people and then gradually become emptier as students filed onto the train. Draco spotted some of the Weasleys at the station looking extremely worried. Draco noted the Ronald wasn't with them.

The train lurched forward and began moving away from the platform. Parents desperately waved goodbye to their children as the train pulled away. The rocking of the train slowly began to lull Draco to sleep.

A sharp tapping noise woke Draco up. He raised his head groggily and saw the sneering face of a Death Eater behind the compartment door. The man's rotting yellow teeth and filthy hair looked quite out of place surrounded by the rich red of the velvet curtains framing the compartment door window. Draco raised an eyebrow at the Death Eater, who waved once at him before turning away.

Draco assumed that the Death Eaters must have been doing a search of the train, and he was very glad they had left him alone. He'd had enough of them over the summer.

Unfortunately, Draco wasn't left alone for long. Once the Death Eaters had vacated the train, Crabbe and Goyle sidled into Draco's compartment, looking shaken. They hesitated in front of the door for a moment before dropping into the two seats in front of Draco.

Draco glanced up at the two hulking boys for a moment before turning his attention to the book he had just pulled out of his bag.

Crabbe and Goyle fought silently with each other for a moment. Draco listened to their whispered argument, amused.

Finally, Goyle cleared his throat and said, "Hi, Malfoy."

"Hello," Draco said simply. He turned a page in his book and smirked, still staring at the book.

Crabbe whispered something to Goyle, who hesitated before saying, "We would like, er, to ap-apo-apologize for, uh..." He looked at Crabbe, his brow creased with worry.

"Uh, for, uh, mistreating you last year?" Crabbe finished awkwardly.

Draco didn't reply. He knew what they were getting at, but didn't want to help them say what they were attempting to say.

Goyle raised his eyebrows, looking scared. "We, uh, think it was wrong of us to, uh, abandon you?"

"Is that a question or a statement?" Draco asked boredly.

"Uh...a statement...I think," Crabbe muttered stupidly.

Draco rolled his eyes and turned another page of his book.

"Well, Malfoy, what we mean is," Goyle nudged Crabbe.

"We're sorry we ditched you," Crabbe said.

"Okay," Draco said. "That's fine. Will you leave me alone now? I'm trying to read."

Crabbe and Goyle looked confused; Draco's response wasn't what they were looking for. Draco knew this, and he chuckled softly to himself.

"Uh...well...we'd like to be your friends again," Goyle said slowly.

"Were you ever really my friends in the first place?" Draco asked coldly, no longer amused by the conversation. "Are you really going to be my friends now?"

Crabbe almost choked on the Cauldron Cake he was stuffing into his mouth.

"We weren't your friends?" Goyle asked, stunned.

"Was I your friend?" Draco retorted.

Crabbe and Goyle stared at him, wordless.

"That's what I thought," Draco said quietly. He stared intently at the book in his hands, the words swimming before him. The yellow paper almost glowed in the lamplight.

The sky outside the window grew darker as the train approached Hogwarts. Crabbe and Goyle hadn't said another word to Draco, but were still whispering to one another.

When the train came to a halt, Draco pocketed his book and wand. He threw his trunk onto a rack, then stepped out of the compartment. Behind him, Crabbe and Goyle got up nervously.

Draco pushed through the throng of students hurrying off the train. When he finally reached the line of carriages, he came to a stop.

He knew he would be able to see them now, but it was still quite a shocking experience. The skeletal thestrals shook their heads and turned their sunken eyes toward the students, many of whom were now also able to see the eerie horse-like creatures. Small groups of students huddled near the carriages and staring at the thestrals caused a delay in the loading of the carriages. Draco stood in front of his carriage for almost a full five minutes, staring at the two thestrals that were harnessed to it.

Eventually Draco was shaken out of his reverie by a large fifth-year stomping past him. Draco hopped on to the carriage, only to see Crabbe and Goyle following him into it. The carriage lurched when Crabbe sat down heavily onto one of the seats.

Draco didn't say a word to Crabbe and Goyle during the whole ride up to the castle. WHen the carriages came to a stop in front of the huge castle, Draco got off of the carriage as fast as he could and headed right for the Great Hall.

In the Great Hall, Draco kept his head down. He couldn't bear to look up and see Snape sitting in the Headmaster's chair. He didn't want to see the effect his actions had had on Hogwarts. It was as if the second he re entered Hogwarts, a wave of remorse and regret had crashed over him. Draco felt as if every student was staring at him and whispering about him behind his back. Every brick in the walls of the room seemed to have a face that was frowning down at him.

Halfway through the headmaster's speech, Draco couldn't take it anymore. He stormed out of the Great Hall just as Snape was introducing the two new teachers, Amycus and Alecto Carrow. Of all the Death Eaters Snape could have hired to teach, he chose two that had been at the top of the Astronomy Tower with him and Dumbledore.

Draco hurried through the halls, heading for the Slytherin Common Room. When he reached the stretch of stone wall, he realized that he didn't know this year's password. Fuming, he turned around and headed up to the seventh floor.

Once inside the Room of Requirement, Draco realized his mistake in going there. The room had become the same room he had spent countless hours with Hermione in last year. Draco slipped Hermione's notebook out of the pocket of his robes and opened it to his last was stil no reply from Hermione.

"Answer!" Draco cried out in frustration. He threw the notebook onto the ground and sank to his knees. He felt as if all the books on the bookshelves were falling down onto him. He dropped his head into his hands.

Being back at Hogwarts really did stink.