Disclaimer: yada, yada, yada. You all know the deal by now.
By the way, because this story is my version of the Harry Potter series told from someone elses oint of view, some of the conversations I use will be directly from the book. Again, this all belongs to JK Rowling, I'm just borrowing it.
Chapter 3: First Day Jitters
The first day of classes started out horribly. The first years had to share a bathroom that would normally be big enough for all the girls to use at the same time, but Pansy locked down the bathroom for half an hour while she was in there preparing for the day. She left the bathroom with only ten minutes before breakfast began. The other girls and I had to scramble; showering and brushing our hair and teeth at record pace. I threw my clothes on as quickly as I could before leaving the dorm and I made sure to set my alarm back an extra half hour. While I love my sleep, I also like having time in the morning to take care of the necessaries.
Hurrying through my morning routine, I was afraid that Draco had forgotten that he had promised to meet me at the bottom of the stairs in the morning so that we could go to breakfast together, or that he would be annoyed that I was taking too long and leave without me. But when I finally rushed to the bottom of the stairs, there he was, Pansy fawning over him and trying to get him to notice her. When he saw me coming down the stairs, he brushed Pansy off his arm and came to my side, grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the common room.
When we were out of sight of the common room entrance, he let go of my hand and leaned against the wall. His otherwise perfect hair was slightly disheveled and he pulled a mirror from his pocket to fix it.
"Sorry I was so rough pulling you out of the common room, but I couldn't stand another minute with Pansy. If she does that all year, I might have to kill her. Does my hair look ok, by the way?" There was one strand that was hanging funny, messing up the whole look. I just had to fix it.
"Hold on….perfect. You look beautiful darling. I'm sorry it took me so long; Pansy locked everyone out of the bathroom while she prepared. Has she always been like that?" Draco just snorted; I guess I'm supposed to take that as a yes. "So, what is the first class we have?"
"One that's sure to be your favorite, History of Magic." Draco said, dripping sarcasm.
"What's so bad about that class?" I have always loved history; I don't see how a history class could be boring.
"Oh, just wait and see."
By this point, Draco and I had made it to the Great Hall and still no sight of Pansy. I sit down next to him and we start talking about Quidditch. Last night at the Sorting Feast, Dumbledore had said something about talking to some Madam Hooch lady if you want to try out for the team. Draco said that a first year hadn't made the team in 100 years, but he was willing to try and break that streak if I was too. I agreed and we checked our schedules to see when our first flying lesson would be, disappointed when we found out it wouldn't be for another two weeks.
When Pansy arrived, she realised that I was sitting in the only seat available next to Draco. She huffed at me and sat across from him, shooting me death glares the whole breakfast. I couldn't understand what her problem was, so I kept talking to Draco and ignored her. Soon, I felt a foot start to creep up my calf. I was a little surprised, seeing as Goyle was sitting across from me. I was about to smack him, when I looked at Pansy, who had what I assume was supposed to be a seductive look on her face. I almost burst out laughing; an 11 year old girl cannot pull off a seductive face. Looking under the table, I realised that Pansy was rubbing my leg and thought that I was Draco. Chuckling, I looked at Pansy with utter disgust and said quite loudly, "Pansy! I don't swing that way!" Pansy got a look of complete horror on her face and looked under the table. When she realised what had happened, she ran screaming from the table as Draco almost fell over, he was laughing so hard. Still clutching our stomachs, we made our way to History of Magic for the first class of the year.
Draco had been right about History of Magic. It was easily the most boring class we had. The teacher, apparently, had died one day, but still insisted on teaching. I couldn't understand why he didn't just give up and move on already, but he just kept droning on and on and on and on and you get the drift. I almost fell asleep in his class, but Draco kept me awake by drawing weird caricatures of the people in the class. He's a pretty good artist. I almost laughed out loud when I saw the one of Harry Potter. He had made the scar on Harry's forehead cover almost his entire face, leaving only the eyes. It looked like some freaky kind of snake. My favorite though, was the one of Pansy. He had drawn her head on a fat pug dog and made every word that came out of her mouth a bark. I almost fell out of my seat, I was laughing so hard.
Second class of the day was Double Potions. It was obvious from the very beginning that Potions was going to be fun for the Slytherins. Professor Snape had already taken points off Gryffindor and had been praising Draco and me the whole class. I even earned Slytherin a point for grinding my snake fangs to a fine enough powder without causing them to lose their magical properties. Draco clapped me on the back for that one and I earned a small, almost invisible smile from Professor Snape that was quickly erased as a cauldron behind me exploded and sent potion spewing everywhere. The potion burned through everything it touched and the boy who it hit the hardest was covered in boils. Without hesitating, every person in the class was on their stool trying to avoid the potion. Snape yelled at the boy for a while, sent him down to the infirmary and took another point off Gryffindor.
The days passed slowly (with more caricatures in the boring classes) until finally one day after lunch was going to be flying lessons. Draco and I ate as quickly as we could, devouring whatever was on our plates without tasting it. He somehow managed to look classy doing it, but I didn't have the energy for that; I was saving all my energy for flying. I wanted to prove I was good enough to be on the house team.
We raced to the pitch and grabbed the best brooms from the rack, so that we wouldn't be hindered by the brooms. Madam Hooch didn't bother to give us a speech explaining anything, she just told us what to do and set about making sure that we did as we were supposed to. Draco and my brooms jumped right into our hands and we mounted with the skill that comes with practice. I had been riding a broom since I was 3 and I could tell Draco had been too.
Just as we were supposed to kick off from the ground, a Gryffindor boy shot up into the air. We all watched in shock as he shot almost twenty feet into the air before falling to the ground sans broom. The poor boy landed with a loud clump and a snap, apparently he broke something when he landed. Madam Hooch ran the boy off the the hospital wing, but not before telling us that no one was supposed to fly. I could tell by the look on Draco's face that he was livid that he wouldn't have the chance to prove he should be on the house Quidditch team.
"Did you see his face, the great lump?" Drao was pissed all right and decided to take it out on the poor boy who had been injured. I glared at him for a second, mad that he would take his anger out on someone else like that, but he wasn't paying attention; he was too busy making more jokes about that Gryffindor kid and taunting Harry Potter with something the boy had dropped when he fell. He jumped on his broom and soared into the air, daring Harry Potter to follow him which of course happened seconds later. They got into some kind of a snit which no one on the ground could hear, and Draco ended up throwing the object into the air. In an impressive display of skill, Potter caught the ball seconds before it could hit the ground. Draco had landed by that point and I really lit into him.
"Are you crazy? Madam Hooch just said that anyone that touched a broom while she was gone would be expelled! I thought you said you liked being away from your father. Why the hell are you trying to get back home so quickly? Besides, you could have been hurt or Potter could have crashed and then you would have been in major trouble!" At that very second, Professor McGonagall walked onto the pitch, face angry. Draco paled slightly, but looked relieved and even happy when she shouted, "HARRY POTTER!" and dragged him after her, much to the protest of the Gryffindors and the amusement of the Slytherins.
Madam Hooch returned minutes later and dismissed class. I walked away from the pitch with Draco, but my mind was elsewhere. Why would he be so cruel to that boy after the kid (I heard his name was Neville) fell so far and probably broke his wrist? He didn't even know the kid and he was harassing him. I was pretty sure that it was the same kid who had exploded the cauldron in Potions and if it was, that kid needed encouragement, not harassment. Or was this what Professor Snape meant when he told us to stick together? That the only way to survive would be to hurt others before they could hurt you? Confused, I sat through dinner and almost didn't notice when Draco left the table and approached Potter with Crabbe and Goyle. Coming up behind him, I heard Draco challenge Potter to a wizard's duel. Was Draco really going this far to mend his wounded pride? He caught me staring at him and smiled at me, but I just glared at him and stormed down to the dungeons. If he was going to act like such a child, I was willing to let him do it on his own.
I ignored Draco for the rest of the day and went to bed without having talked to him after his idiocy at dinner. I couldn't fall asleep and found myself back in the common room towards midnight curled up in "my" chair and staring into the flames. I hadn't realised I had company until I heard Draco getting ready to leave for his duel. Before I could think about what I was saying, "Don't go" was out of my mouth.