This story has been my baby for the past few years. My original thought was just to show everything that Harry went through but from the Slytherin point of view. So I've tried to keep it as close to canon as possible. There are roughly about 15 chapters left now until it's all finished and I've got to let it go, and in the end it won't follow canon all the way (if you allow JKR's interviews to be canon) in the sense that Draco will most certainly not marry Astoria Greengrass, for she is merely a friend of Pansy's here. Also, the Death Eater named Wilkes apparently died in the first wizarding war, but in this story he is alive. I just want to say thanks so much to everyone who's reviewed so far! It means more to me than you know.


Better Be Slytherin
XXXVI
Birthday Trouble

On the first morning of school, the second of September, headlines regarding the Muggleborn Registration Comission as well as how Potter had broken into the Ministry to free some Muggleborns bore the front of the Daily Prophet. The Great Hall was chattering loudly about this, until the Carrows shouted at them all to be silent. Draco glanced at the Prophet over his pumpkin juice.

"Did you notice who was missing from the start of term feast?" Nott muttered.

"Potter!" Crabbe and Goyle said in unison. Pansy laughed shrilly while Nott and Draco rolled their eyes.

"Obviously," Nott sneered. Crabbe's cheeks went an ugly shade of pink.

"You mean the Mudblood and their Bloodtraitor?" Pansy asked Nott who nodded.

"Wonder what they're off doing," pondered Zabini.

"Probably just hiding," said Draco knowingly, "from the Dark Lord."

"And rightly so!" smirked Crabbe and shook his fist.

"Yes, probably," Pansy agreed with Draco, "I can't imagine what else they could possibly be doing..."

Draco shrugged, he honestly hadn't a clue.

They could really sense the power shift that had been at Hogwarts – the fact that the Dark Lord lay behind all the changes was obvious. The most profound change was the fact that the student body was smaller than ever, due to Muggleborns staying home or hiding for not being able to prove blood heritage.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was now simply Dark Arts, Muggle Studes would be compulsory for all students, the Carrows were in charge of discipline and punishments, and the new curfew was nine o'clock. There were also 84 new items added to the list of banned items.

Draco wasn't sure he liked all these new changes. It had gotten too serious and there was no way of stopping it, slowing it down, or going back. He was only going to get more in over his head, and he knew this for a fact and could not do anything about it.

It was too late to switch sides.

Draco knew a lot of students were surprised to see him back at Hogwarts – he knew of the rumours that had circulated regarding him and the night Dumbledore died, and nobody knew what had happened but people seemed to have figured he'd been there. His fellow Slytherins respected him but his yearmates in the other Houses disliked him greatly, it was quite obvious – and the younger ones seemed to fear him.

Hogwarts wasn't the same as it had been for the past six years – and Draco could see both ups and downs. One of the ups was that this year there were actually a few teachers that cared for Slytherin. Nobody'd believed them before – they'd only had Snape, with the rest of the staff as well as the students against them.

Slytherin had always been the smallest house at hogwarts, Slytherins had always been the ones everybody avoided. But now, as so many Muggleborns (and halfbloods as well) had gone into hiding suddenly Slytherin was the biggest house. And the most powerful one.

Draco found it strange to have Alecto Carrow as a teacher. On the night Dumbledore died her brother derisively flattered him for having Dumbledore wandless, and Alecto had been over to the Manor quite a few times over the summer, and hadn't been very polite. And now they were to be his teachers.

From the Hufflepuff table behind him, he overheard several conversations in hushed voices.

"Where is Potter?"

"I actually thought he was braver than to go into hiding..."

"Don't you think he's off fighting You-Know-Who somehow?"

"I heard he was the one who killed Dumbledore, I s'pose he's on the run, or in hiding somewhere..."

"He couldn't have, he and Dumbledore were like grandfather and grandson, he wouldn't have..."

"Then why's he wanted at the Ministry?"

"No, that's rubbish, Potter would never do anything like that. I reckon You-Know-You's behind it someway."

"Yeah, it's got to have been You-Know-Who. He's infiltrated the Ministry, it's obvious isn't it? The Carrows are using Unforgivable Curses, and the Ministry has a register, they know when someone is using illegal curses and where, and they're not doing anything, are they? Because He's in charge. How do you reckon Snape got to be Headmaster?"

"You think he's one of them?"

"Dumbledore always said..."

"Well, Dumbledore's dead."

"Is it true Potter infiltrated the Ministry?"

"But the Ministry is well protected! They have all the Aurors and Unspeakable and even Trolls, I heard, it's no way he got in... He's wanted for Merlin's sake..."

Crabbe and Goyle weren't interested, instead they discussed Quidditch the rest of breakfast.

Zabini was bragging haughtily about his summer to Daphne, Tracey, Queenie and Millicent.

Draco sent Pansy a look that clearly said 'we're surrounded by idiots'. Pansy sniggered at once and so did Draco.

"What are you lot laughing about?" Crabbe said indignantly.


"I wish we'd learn something useful in Charms, ever," complained Pansy after finishing their first lesson of the morning, and heading towards Muggle Studies. "Like Beauty Charms or something."

"Well, you would certainly benefit from that," drawled Zabini, earning a murderous glare from Pansy and a snigger from Crabbe. Just then Hufflepuff Justin Finch-Fletchley passed them with Hannah Abbott, and accidentally bumped into Pansy on the way.

"Pardon me!" Pansy exclaimed loudly, staring angrily at the Hufflepuffs. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Sorry, Pansy," Finch-Fletchley commented at once in a low tone. Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly, and the Hufflepuffs walked on.

"The nerve!" Daphne Greengrass emphasised, glancing at Pansy.

"He's a filthy Mudblood," Pansy sniggered. "Should be illegal for them to even look at us Purebloods."

Daphne and Queenie Wilkes laughed cruelly along with Pansy. Millicent grumbled in agreement, and Crabbe grunted very affirmatively, but Theodore saw half-blood Tracey Davis rolling her , Malfoy, Goyle and Zabini said nothing.

"Probably be a new law against that soon enough, don't you think," Crabbe leered.

"Well, you really hit the nail on the head there, didn't you," Pansy smiled contently and casually waved her wand, making a couple surprised second years part magically, as if something invisible had shoved them aside. Pansy made her way through to the Muggle studies classroom and the rest followed in her wake.

The class was dead silent from the beginning. Alecto was a hysterical woman, she sort of reminded him of Bellatrix Lestrange. She spoke roughly and facilely about killing Muggles. Their first Muggle Studies lesson was peculiar, to say the least.

'Mudbloods and Blood-Traitors' was the headline she'd written on the black board in large fat letters. Alecto Carrow waved her wand and underneath the first line another appeared, scribbling itself onto the black board.

'Scum, filthy, unclean, dirty, tainted," it read. Theodore saw Malfoy frowning at it, and the Ravenclaws on the other side of the classroom began raising their voices and protesting angrily.

"Silence!" Alecto bellowed and hit them with a Silencing Charm. Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot were gasping soundlessly, mouths wide open, obviously trying to shout at her. Theodore glanced at Malfoy and Zabini whose faces were expressionless. Crabbe was sniggering. Goyle looked slightly afraid.

The Ravenclaws sat down again, grumbling.

"I've prepared a slideshow I think you'll enjoy," Alecto then smiled evilly and waved her wand.

"In the fourteenth century, Muggles prosecuted and burned whom they believed to be witches. They were frightened by us. We have always been more powerful than them, than they ever could be, no matter how we differ in number."

A picture of a seemingly screaming woman in midst of a big fire was shown – she was being burnt alive.

"Therefore, they tried to get rid of us. It drove us, our ancestors, into hiding."

The next slide showed the document of the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy, established in 1692.

The images changed yet again, to the faces of Squibs, vampires, werewolves, half-giants and other part-humans. All of them looked twisted, ill, and deformed.

"This is what the Wizarding community has become. And it's only getting worse."

The entire class was staring silently at the pictures. Theodore noticed that Pansy was barely visibly nodding her head, her full attention on the professor.

"We've become polluted. Everything our ancestors fought for, after being persecuted and threatened and burned and viewed as freaks," she paused and there was another image of Muggles chasing a group of four presumably witches with torches. "They only wanted to be left alone. Was that so much to ask for? Seeing as it's the Muggles who should be afraid of us!"

Theodore glanced at his classmates. Crabbe and Pansy looked fascinated. Draco was eyeing the pictures with crossed arms and a slight hint of disgust on his straight but obscure face.

"Why should we have to hide? Hmm? Aren't we proud of what we are, and our ancestors? Does Blood not mean anything anymore? Shall we live in this dirty oppression? Why?"

A Ravenclaw raised his hand, a tall boy Theodore recognised as Kevin Entwhistle. "The Statue of Wizarding Secrecy was established for our safety, professor." He was beet red in his face, clutching his desk in anger. Alecto turned slowly.

"Oh, was that so, Mr…?"

"Entwhistle," Kevin got out through gritted teeth.

"Entwhistle," Alecto repeated. "An old, pure, Wizarding family, that is, eh?"

Vincent Crabbe grinned scornfully. The class was dead silent. Kevin stared at her, shocked. "How is my family relevant?"

Alecto gave a short laugh and walked back to her desk as she called out: "It's relevant because you know nothing of our Wizarding community's history, Mr Entwhistle."

"He's gone to Hogwarts for six years, just like the rest of us!" Terry Boot interrupted, aggravated. "He's read just about as much about it as me, we've had as many History of Magic lessons, all of us."

"Excuse me," said Alecto coldly. "but Wizarding ancestry is not something you read about and then think you know all about. Isn't that right…" She searched for someone with her eyes, and then fixing her eyes on the particular student she added: "Mr Malfoy?"

The class turned to look at Malfoy, and so did Theodore. He was sitting next to Pansy but was clearly not as attentive as she was. He looked up slowly. He cleared his throat. "No, professor… It's in our blood."

Vincent sent him an appreciative, sneering look, as the Ravenclaws seemed to have problem staying in their seats. The Ravenclaw boys looked like they could kill Malfoy. But Malfoy did not return Vincent's look, nor did he visibly react to his classmates' loathe, he just looked down again, silently.

"Indeed, Mr Malfoy. To return to our subject after this lovely interruption," Alecto went on. "The magical blood is being polluted. Soon there won't be any left, it will all be spilt on Squibs and Muggleborns and finally the magical ability will be lost..."

After another three quarters of an hour of lecturing, the lesson was coming towards its end.

"I want a thousand words on how to save our magical community from its pollutions and mend whatever injuries that has been caused. On my desk next lesson."

The Slytherins left the classroom and discussed the lesson all the way back towards the Entrance Hall. A narrow stone staircase led down to the dungeons, and they stepped down it, reaching the dungeon corridor made entirely out of stone and lined with torches on the walls.

"She's quite scary isn't she," said Gregory Goyle, shaking his head, his eyebrows furrowed.

Pansy snorted, chewing gum loudly. "Whatever. She does have some points though, don't you think?" She was mostly directing the question to Malfoy, glancing at him but adressing the group. "About our blood just getting mixed up and soon there won't be any magic left... if you mix it out too much..."

They all murmured in agreement, not really looking at each other.

"Definitely," said Crabbe assertively.

"I mean it is frightening, isn't it," Pansy went on, "to think that our world might die out... become extinct..."

"You better make sure you marry Pure then, Pans," Tracey Davis muttered shortly.

"Of course I will," snapped Pansy at once, as if anything else were simply preposterous.

"But I hardly think we shouldn't be left with the choice," Davis carried on in a chilly tone. Pansy gaped at her as if she'd threathened to take her first born child away, but seemed to find nothing to say. Daphne Greengrass looked between Pansy and Davis unsurely.

Queenie Wilkes cleared her throat. Theodore noticed Malfoy looking away – the coward didn't dare speak his mind?

"Although," commented Blaise in his usual haughty tone and referring to the pictures Alecto had been showing them, "I haven't noticed the Mudbloods are any uglier than the rest of us - most of them are quite a bit more good-looking than Crabbe and Goyle."

Vincent and Gregory shouted out in protest, shooting Zabini murderous looks, while Pansy and Queenie Wilkes laughed loudly and Malfoy, Bulstrode and Theodore sniggered. Greengrass looked pleased Blaise had broken the tension, but he noticed that Davis wore an expressionless face and looked away, silent.

"Hermione Granger too, yeah, Blaise?" Pansy teased.

"Sod off, not her," he commented shortly. Pansy, Gregory and Vincent laughed.


Pansy practically bounced into the Slytherin common room after her shower that evening. She jumped down on the sofa, her eyes completely glistening, spilling Zabini's cup of tea – and at once Draco couldn't hold back a genuine smile.

It was Pansy's birthday and as usual they had a party for the occasion. The party was smaller this year however – only sixth and seventh years were invited, Draco had sent the rest off to bed, commanding them with his Head Boy badge smugly. The music was low and Pansy's eyes glistened in the green light.

Pansy licked her Hocus Pocus Pop, a bubblegum flavoured lollipop, seductively from the sofa, keeping her eyes on Draco who suddenly felt warm.

Daphne Greengrass was trying to get Zabini's attention as usual, by flirting ostentatiously with Timothy Morcott, who had been good friends with Miles Bletchley and the older Slytherin boys. Naturally Zabini didn't even notice. Crabbe and Goyle were munching on pumpkin pastries, occasionally offering one to Millicent Bulstrode; and Pansy went up to dance with Queenie Wilkes, Tracey Davis, Astoria Greengrass and Mathilda Greenford.

Pansy was coming of age, turning seventeen, and she was the centre of attention all evening – and clearly basked it wondered briefly how she could have many of the younger boys drooling over her despite her evil eyes and upturned nose. Objectively Daphne Greengrass was prettier, with her long blonde hair and fair skin, but there was something about Pansy's radiance and the way she carried herself; you couldn't help but to look at her.

He moved to grab his bottle of Butterbeer and noticed out of the corner of his eye that Theodore Nott was looking at an oblivious Pansy dancing. His jaw clenched. He would kiss Goyle with passion before ever admitting to being jealous, but he really didn't like it when Nott looked at her in that way.

He wanted her to come closer. He needed to touch her again, it'd been too long. Memories of what they'd done when she came over to the Manor with her parents that summer flooded his mind until he needed to take a sip of Butterbeer to cool down.

"Pansy," he called, "Come here."

As she sauntered over, she passed Theodore Nott.

"The only way he could mark his territory more is if he'd actually piss on you."

It had been Nott who spoke up maliciously to Pansy as she passed. Her mouth flew open and she threw him a glare but didn't reply. Draco had just risen from his seat in the dark green sofa subconsciously, and if it hadn't been for the fact that Pansy sat down next to him and placed a hand on his thigh in a lightly restrictive manner, he would've jumped at Nott.

"Don't mind him," Pansy muttered quietly so only Draco could hear her. "Honestly, Draco, it's not worth it."

"Who does he think he is?" Draco snarled with his eyes still fixed on Nott who had buried his head in a book, looking sour.

"Did you want to speak to me?" said Pansy quickly, to get him thinking about something else. Draco tore his eyes off Nott, reluctantly sat down again and leaned back against the sofa, placing a hand on her upper thigh. Her hand was still on his. He couldn't restrain himself from touching her, but said nothing. Then he moved his hand up to her waist and stroked it.

"What?" She finally asked, with her crooked smile, when he didn't say anything but just looked at her.

"It's good seeing you," he said, looking intensely into her eyes, the corners of his lips curled just slightly.

She gave a laugh. "It's good seeing you too," she replied, looking at him teasingly.

"Haven't spoken to you all summer practically, have I," Draco said.

"And whose fault is that?" she said sarcastically.

"Yes, I know," he half-heartedly returned her grin, and looked away.

"I don't even know what happened," she then said, feeling her mask of grins and aloofness wearing off. She finally felt as if she had a right to ask, a right to get answers – which she had not felt like that one time they met during the summer. "I hadn't a clue you were leaving, or anything you were doing, all year." She had managed to restrain herself that one evening at the manor during the summer, but she was dying for answers about what had happened that night when he left Hogwarts, and all the time left alone had made her obsess over everything. She needed answers – she might not have cared that evening at the manor, but now she needed to know.

He didn't reply. It made her a little upset if she were to be honest, and she couldn't stop herself going on: "I just reckon I deserve some sort of explanation. For last year."

He was still looking away. "I know but I could hardly tell you could I? And I didn't know what would happen that night. I told you everything I could. I told you I might not be there the next morning. Not that you were even my girlfriend or anything, but..."

Pansy snorted, suddenly irritated: "Oh, it's important to point that out is it?"

Draco sent her a look finally. "If you'd let me finish I was going to say that I still would've told you all of it if I could, even though you weren't my girlfriend. I still would have."

Pansy frowned. "Oh, I'm thankful. Really," she said sarcastically.

Draco rolled his eyes. "You must be really dumb if you can't understand what situation I was in all year. You know I couldn't tell anyone anything, that's—"

"But you could tell Moaning sodding Myrtle all right," she muttered.

"Yeah bring that up again – lovely. Thanks. Just get over it Pans." It was Draco's turn to be irritable.

She crossed her arms and looked away stubbornly.

"I did what I had to do and you'll know that if you'll just stop being so bloody childish and selfish. And I did miss you, all summer. I had absolutely nothing to do, stuck in the manor..."

She gave a shocked half-laugh. "So you missed me because you didn't have anything to do? So if you hadn't been so bored you wouldn't have given one thought about me?"

"Is that what I said?" he said, irritably rolling his eyes.

"Bloody well sounded like it," she muttered. He shook his head.

"I told you I missed you when you came to the Manor! If you happen to have forgotten – you didn't say anything back."

Pansy grumbled but didn't respond.

"Well, what do you want me to say?" he sighed exasperated. "I've already said sorry."

She shook her head, looking away and putting on an irritated smile. "I don't want you to say anything, trust me." She rose to leave.

"You're mad!" spluttered Draco after her, but she was already gone.


He watched her dancing happily and joking around with her friends to a cheerful song on the WWN. He knew that she had no idea that her visit to the manor in the summer had been practically the only thing keeping him sane.

When she and her girlfriends came to the sofas to have a rest he eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Have you seen his Mark?" he heard Greengrass giggle in a whisper to Pansy, who smirked but said nothing.

The two Greengrass sisters along with Queenie Wilkes and Tracey Davis had conjured up a birthday cake for her and their fellow Slytherins gathered round for a drunken Pansy to blow out her seventeen pink candles.

She swayed and laughed loudly as she took time to blow out her candles, relishing the attention.

"What did you wish for, Parkinson?" Bulstrode taunted.

Pansy only giggled mischievously. Greengrass laughed loudly and Wilkes wooed. "She wished for a bit of birthday action, didn't she," Greengrass joked.

"Perhaps," laughed Pansy.

"Perhaps a bit of birthday action from Malfoy," said Wilkes in a quiet voice intending for only the nearest girls to hear, while grinning.

"Shove off," Draco muttered, and the girls collapsed in a fit of laughter.


Of course Pansy drank too much, like she usually did and he felt a slight responsibility over her, the silly cow. He danced with her and when she swayed too much he had to take her in his arms so she wouldn't fall. Pansy just laughed.

"You all right?" he murmured in her ear. His heart was thumping quickly again, and he hoped Pansy didn't hear it. She was leaning against his chest, still swaying to the music and humming drunkenly. Her hair smelled like Honeydukes. He couldn't stop himself from running his hands up her sides. She responded by snaking her arms around him and grabbing his robes on his back with one hand.

"That's comfy," she mumbled and he could hear that she was intoxicated, but he didn't care, he'd had quite a few Butterbeers himself. She kept her arms around him but pulled away her face to look at him. Her hair was slightly dishevelled and she was smiling in that way she always did when she was drunk, her eyes slightly squinting. He gave a genuine smile when their eyes met – the smile he only gave her and nobody else, he couldn't stop himself.

"I missed you," he breathed again, and for a second time she didn't say the same thing back. She giggled.

"I know."

She grabbed his hand, intertwining her fingers with his. He enjoyed the feeling, quickly forgetting that she didn't say it back. She stopped dancing and still holding onto his hand, began walking through the common room, leading him after her. Finally they reached the stone staircase leading down to their year's dormitories. His heart was beating quickly. She was still holding onto his hand and he dared to hope they would end up in bed together. When they reached the landing with the two doors – one for the boys' and one for the girls' dormitories, she stopped and turned to him, still grinning. She stepped closer at once, before he had time to think, and placed her hands on his shoulders and reached up to kiss him.

He reacted quickly; he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer to him with a rough movement. She gave him sweet little kisses but his want took over – he shoved his tongue in her mouth and ran his hands up and down her body. She placed both arms around his neck and giggled through their kissing. She pulled her face back for a split second and he tried to follow her movement but she pushed slightly on his chest. He snaked his hands inside her shirt just over her hips, and felt her warm skin. She giggled again. She leaned in for another kiss, obviously wanting to be the one in control, and kept teasing him with small kisses on his mouth, cheek and neck.

He groaned. He barely even noticed Greengrass, Davis, Wilkes and Bulstrode hurrying past into the dormitory, sending the two of them glances, and giggling. Pansy stumbled slightly when they broke apart. He was warm from Butterbeer and saw only her. She laughed and slapped his chest softly, mock-pushing him away.

Then she smiled, still swaying around and teasingly said: "Goodnight, Draco."

He replied her teasing smile and said, "Goodnight, Pansy," in the same tone she'd used. She giggled again and turned around. She went into her dorm and he was still standing there.
He felt intoxicated by her scent and the way she kissed him, he wondered if it was the Fire Whiskey or just her… The door closed and he suddenly realised he was standing there by himself.

He could not shake the feeling that she had him wrapped round her finger.

From inside the girls' dormitory he could suddenly make out Greengrass' amused voice through the door.

"Why didn't you sleep with him, then?"

And then, a derisive voice could just barely be heard through muffled giggles.

"Because I can have him whenever I want."