a/n: I wrote this just after I finished w/ OOTP so it takes place afterward…you've been forewarned if you don't want spoilers.

Part II – The Entrance Hall

Draco woke groggily in the dark and pushed himself upright into a sitting position. For a moment he wondered where he was supposed to be… "Fuck," he mumbled as he tried to find the seam in the bed hangings, remembering that he had had detention. He hoped that it wasn't with Hagrid, that miserable oaf. Potter, Weasley and Granger were his favorite students and he hated Draco who constantly made snide remarks about his methods of teaching.

Draco spent two minutes fumbling stupidly around for his clock. This was one of those times when he would have liked a muggle artifact, particularly a large-faced glow-in-the-dark digital clock. Exasperated he said "Accio alarm clock-sss!" emitting a hiss when his hands slipped off the edge of the bed, causing him to lose his balance. A second later four alarm clocks hit him hard in the stomach.

"Bloody hell, Draco, you stupid git…Lumos!" A soft light at the end of his wand illuminated the room. He read the clock…six fifty-seven –

Draco swore loudly. He had missed dinner and had detention at seven o'clock.

Jumping off his bed, Draco sprinted for the door. Failing to show up at detention would definitely mean more detention, and possibly even more strict punishment. Then he wouldn't have time to do his schoolwork, and every assignment counted. He couldn't be behind Hermione Granger, his father would be disappointed. Of course, none of his friends knew this.

Draco stopped running five feet short of the common room, ran his hand over his gelled white-blond hair to make it lie smooth on his head and sauntered in, sticking his chin out slightly. He tried to avoid eye contact, his gray ones fixed determinedly on the common room entrance. But it was no use.

"Draco!" cried Pansy Parkinson, a sixth year Slytherin girl who had a HUGE crush on Draco. "I heard about this afternoon – are you okay? Do you need anything?" she crooned as she flew swiftly across the crowded room to his side. "Ooh, where are you going? Whatever it is I can get it for you- You shouldn't go out."

"I have to. Detention." Draco grunted quickening his pace.

"Are you sure…" Pansy purred seductively, looking up at him, her eyes wide and watery blue.

"Sorry, Pansy. Not today." And Draco pushed past her and out the common room door. He felt a slight twinge of guilt knowing he would never really be with her the way she wanted him to, no matter how hard she tried. 'But seriously, after all these years wouldn't you think that woman could take a hint?'

As soon as he heard the common room door slide shut behind him he took off, flat out running down the corridors to the entryway.

***

A few minutes later, Draco shot out of the side corridor leading to the entrance hall and looked wildly around for Weasley, his unfortunate detention buddy. He had always been able to infuriate Weasley so much, that Weasley practically shook with rage every time they met eyes, the heat rising to his face. Draco had always made a joke of this to his cronies Crabbe and Goyle, to which they laughed, like usual, stupidly. Draco then spotted, quite quickly, the half-giant Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Hagrid, who towered several feet over the already very tall Weasley.

Trying to look as though he'd just walked in casually, Draco started towards them.

"What next Hagrid? Going to torture us with any other rabid monsters?" he said, although his stomach had given a funny flip when he saw Hagrid. If there was one thing Draco was afraid of, it was the Forbidden Forest on the Hogwarts grounds, where Hagrid frequented and many dangerous magical beasts were rumored to live. When he had gone in there on detention in his first year - with Potter, Granger and Weasley in fact – he had seen something that had terrified him out of his wits. The dark hooded figure, turning to him and Potter from a motionless white body, silver blood dripping down its front…the memory of it made him give an involuntary shudder, and suddenly the doors leading out of the castle stood threateningly ahead of him.

"Funny thing," said Weasley. "The only thing I remember being rabid was you."

"I find it much more likely that you were," retorted Draco, who was snapped back to the entryway and stopped to stand face to face with Weasley. "Since I do not hang around filthy mutts, unlike yourself." By this, of course, he was referring to Hermione Granger, who was born to muggle parents and whom Draco delighted in calling "mudblood". Also, however, he meant Sirius Black, Potter's god father and good friend of Weasley's who had the unusual ability to turn into a large, shaggy, black dog. He had the ability, that is, until he was killed the previous year in a small battle between The Dark Lord's death eaters and Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix. Draco's dad had been there to see it through the eyes of his death eater mask.

However, Dumbledore - headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry which Draco was standing in at that very moment – had shown up and saved the day, rounding up the Dark Lord's workers easily while the Order of the Phoenix members dueled with others. The death eaters had been turned into the Ministry of Magic who put them in the wizard prison, Azkaban. There was yet another glitch in this plan though. The very creatures the Ministry had employed to guard the prison were the ones quickest to return to the dark side. So, Lucius Malfoy had escaped, along with all the other death eaters that had been jailed.

In an attempt to avenge his father somewhat, Draco, along with Crabbe and Goyle (whose fathers had also been jailed), tried to attack Potter (the Dark Lord's arch rival) on the train back to London. Unfortunately for Draco, a number of students who had been practicing defense against the dark arts with Potter spotted his antics and attacked, leaving the trio quite unable to do much of anything. This hadn't gone over too well at home.

With a laugh, Draco began to walk towards the door and smirked at Weasley, who was already turning red.

"All right then," said Hagrid gruffly, shouldering his crossbow and following in Draco's footsteps. The sack which he always took with him into the dark and dangerous forest, no doubt containing useful 'supplies', was bouncing alongside the crossbow. "Let's go. But follow me Draco, cos we're not goin' into the forest."

Looks of great surprise crossed both Draco's and Weasley's face as Draco fell behind Hagrid. Without thinking they exchanged a look which asked, "…then where?"