s.h.a.d.o.w.p.l.a.y
by Faye Valentine
(faye@gundamfan.com)

contains: SLASH D/H
contains: cussing (well, not in this chapter)
rating: PG-13 (will get lemony in the future chapters...)
you have been warned... o.o;
(oh yeah, r&r, please kthnx!)

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*prologue*



Walking in shadows
Feel like I'm drifting away
Never able to touch a heart
Too cold to live this way...





Draco Malfoy doodled mindlessly in the margin of his workbook. Counting back, it has been a long while since this had all began (three bloody years) and the young Slytherin could hardly focus. This, that... it had been enough to drive one insane. Surely however, any Malfoy -- and most certainly the direct descendant of Lucius himself -- would rise above the flames and succeed ...

... Right?
Wrong.

Drifting back off into space, Draco began staring at the warthair growing on Professor Snape's left nostril. How far had Slytherin gotten in the past? Ever since that overrated 'hero' Harry Potter had arrived in Hogwarts as a part of Gryffindor, Slytherin had gone downhill. Why was it that Slytherin had to be the antagonistic house? /Potter had betrayed us!/ Draco fumed, /It was even declared that Slytherin would direct him to greatness!/

Dropping his quill onto his desk, Draco leaned back into his seat and breathed an abormally rude, rather audible sigh that the entire class as a whole gasped; it was taboo that anyone would show even the slightest hint at being bored in Professor Snape's presence...

Snape narrowed his icy eyes and sliced right through Draco, whose normally pale cheeks where quickly blooming into a rather crimson blush.
"Is there something boring his highness?" the facetious potions master questioned.
Nervously glancing around, Draco could catch a glimpse of that wicked Potter boy smuggling giggles with his groupies: that perfectionist of a witch that the Grangers had brought up-- Hermione was it?-- and the Weasley boy Ron. Granger and Weasley were certainly getting a kick out of this -- the infamous Draco Malfoy, evil and twisted, perfect Slytherin (well, as perfect as a Slytherin could get)-- getting cut down and embarrassed in front of Potter, Slytherin housemates, and by the head Slytherin himself (loved only by Slytherins of course) -- Severus Snape!

"...sorry sir.." Draco mumbled his respons and tried to melt under his seat. Snape was loving this, however. Torturing students was actually a pastime of his. "Excuse me, Malfoy, but could you speak up? I seem to have gotten a mandrake tear inside one of my ears, and I'm hard of hearing." Draco Malfoy, tough and unbreakable, was never sorry, and most certainly never _ever_ acted up in Snape's classroom.

At this point, Malfoy had gone through the entire colour spectrum. Clearing his throat (which caused some hoodlums in the back to snicker wildly), Draco Malfoy said once again, "I'm sorry, sir."
Severus Snape's eyes thinned even more, and as the corners of his mouth slyly curled up, he smiled a demonic smile.

A high-pitched, girly shriek tore across the tense air, and everyone turned to look at Ron Weasley, who had collapsed into a fit of giggles and -- painfully aware that everyone was now laughing at him instead of at Draco-- mirrored Malfoy's action and tried to sink under his seat.
After a breif minute of silence, the class erupted into laughter-- even Draco managed to let a wicked giggle come from inside him.
The professor, however, did not get out unscathed. He, too, managed a short period of laughter -- only, from a man as deep and powerful as him, it came out as a deep chuckle sounding like a cow, and stood out even more than Ron had.
Upon this, everyone stared for half a second and then began to rhythmically roar with the humour of it all.
Trying desperately to recollect himself, Snape coughed loudly and cleared his throat in an attempt to snatch the class' attention.

"Malfoy, maybe you had better excuse yourself if you're going to find this course unsuitable for you, hmm? Or, perhaps, do you have something else in mind?" Snape barked at the blond Slytherin. Now ignoring Ron, twenty-two pairs of eyes now burned into the back of Draco Malfoy.
Looking up helplessly at his professor, Draco pleaded with his eyes.
Severus tossed his ebony hair over one shoulder and said, "If you are going to continue to act up like that, then I'll have to get you a tutor. Hmm, maybe a tutor would be a bloody good idea. After all, not just everyone in here is making a thirty-two, whereas _you_ are?" At this, Draco stood up in silent protest, his mouth hanging slackly open in disguist.
Severus stared him down, looking at Malfoy like he was a disease.
"Sit," he ordered.
Draco could feel his cheeks burning and he could hear the hushed giggles of the troublemakers in the back row.
Malfoy collected what was left of his pride and shuffled back down into his seat.
"Now let's continue..." Snape droned onward.

Glaring at his drawing, Draco burned with rage.

/I hate them all./