Lowly Beginnings
DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter et al. belongs to JK Rowling
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AN: Hope you enjoy.
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Chapter 3: Draco Malfoy, Pleased to Meet You
Draco Malfoy was having a very bad day.
'Ah, come on Draco, it'll be all right. I mean, what else would you be doing with your time?' reasoned Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy's best friend. 'It's not like you need to work today… or ever!'
The Draco Malfoy in question was in fact, 19 year old Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, founder of Lucius Inc. an exclusive real estate business that grossed billions of dollars each year.
'But I don't want to… I'm Draco Malfoy. The last thing I want to do today is go to a snobby school just because Father's given permission for them to borrow some paintings from our art gallery. I mean, why can't he just send a security guard to watch over the paintings?' bemoaned Draco leaning back on a plush and extremely expensive white leather couch, leaning his head back against the seat with an air of sulking.
'Well, Draco,' started Blaise as if lecturing a child rather than his best friend, 'Firstly, your families art collection for one is worth multi-millions of dollars… do you really think your Father will trust just a security guard? Secondly, it's always good for the Malfoy reputation to have the Malfoy heir attend a prestigious school such as Hogwarts, especially when the words 'multi-million' and 'ridiculously expensive and famous oil paintings' are in the same sentence. And lastly, apart from your dad you know the most about all of the pictures, so he volunteered you to lead the lecture to the Art History class. And you never know, you need a permanent boyfriend before your dad will ever let you take over the business and let's face it- you love your work at the company. You never know… you may find your little lover boy at the school!'
'Noooooo….. I may love my dad and usually he's great but this is just stupid. I could be spending my time doing something constructive- like, well, like, you know, just something constructive. And anyway, I doubt I want some little spoilt brat as a boyfriend.' Draco moaned, as Blaise snorted at the 'spolit brat' comment.
'You are a spoilt brat Draco!' laughed Blaise. 'Hypocrite!'
'Shut up,' Draco said conversationally and shut his eyes in trepidation and expectation of the next day. He stood up to his full height of 6'1 and stretched luxuriously. He had very handsome features, and the toned and sculptured body of a God; his white-blonde hair, straight nose and blue-grey eyes were all inherited from his father. 'You know I'm not going to do it Blaise. I'm not! And nothing you can say or my Father can say will make me go!'
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'Good morning. My name is Draco Malfoy.' Announced Draco Malfoy loudly over the noise of the students who were busily settling down into their respective seats in the lecture hall. He had arrived that morning after finally caving in and agreeing to go. He recalled himself going to schools like this… very prestigious and full of many rich snotty teenagers, although he knew in all honesty that there were still a lot of decent people contained within the school. He looked around the class, surveying the students faces- he noted they were not much younger than him, only a year or two younger, but even at 19 he cut an impressive figure and could appear quite intimidating when desired and his stance demanded respect. Most of the pupils looked quite intelligent and pleasant enough. Draco's eyes lingered a while on the occasional boy, weighing them up- it wasn't well known, except by Draco's parents and friend's that his interests lay far more in the male species than in the female one- however, whilst many of the boys were handsome, they all appeared identical; all jocks or preppy kids. He noticed a group of friends that consisted of a bushy haired girl who was sitting to attention, and was hushing the 3 boys that sat next to her.
'Hello. My name is Draco Malfoy' he repeated, and it became silent. 'I am here on behalf of my father to talk you through some of our family's art as I happen to know a great deal on its history. Now, since you've already done your exams and so don't need to focus on one era, I felt I should give you a talk on a variety of different pictures from different periods. First, where does Professor Binns keep his register?' he looked around and some helpful pointers from the class led to him to pull the register out of the desk drawer, before Draco sat on the edge of the desk. 'Alright… Susan Bones?'
A timid blonde girl put up her hand and answered. Draco glanced at her briefly to associate the name to face for future reference, before he continued through the register. He paused when he called out the name 'Hermione Granger' to take another look at the girl he had spotted earlier. Although there were 3 boys next to her, whom he later identified as Dean, Neville and Seamus, there were 2 empty seats on her other side, and she was glancing nervously at the vacant seats. In contrast, the 3 boys were sniggering mutedly as they too glanced at the space- apparently their irregular time keeping appeared to be a regular thing Draco surmised.
'Harry Potter?' Draco called. There was no answer. 'Where is Harry Potter?' he asked as sniggering broke out.
'Please sir, but Harry and Ron are here today, they're just, well, they're just not here right now' Hermione said as she thrust a hand up in the air. Draco looked down at her grades beside her name on the register: straight A's. Good, he despised stupidity. He also wasn't fond of lateness. He peered at the grades besides the names 'Potter' and 'Weasley' and to his surprise he found them too as straight A's.
Suddenly from the back of the hall, the doors burst open and 2 boys flew in,
'What time is it? Professor Binns is going to blow his nut!' said one to the other as their eyes went to their vacant seats, completely ignoring Draco standing at the front.
Draco stepped forward, vaguely amused, 'Actually, I am going to blow my nut. Welcome to Art History…' He paused and looked at his watch. 'You're late.'
'Oh shit!' exclaimed the tall red headed boy who must have been at least 6'2". The whole class laughed, but Draco was fixated on the much smaller boy beside him; he was stunning. He wasn't dressed conservatively as was the majority, but was dressed in clothes that shouted 'Punk!' But the boy seemed so comfortable in them that they almost became less extreme. The boy's messy raven hair was in his eyes, but that didn't stop the bright green colour of them being brought to Draco's attention and Draco found the almost effeminate features and stature of him made him all the more good looking… Draco liked guys smaller than him- he liked the idea of a boyfriend he could look after and protect. He could already imagine the way this boy, this 'Harry Potter', would look in bed, completely ravished with his hair in disarray. Well, even more in disarray than it already was. The sexy British accent the boy had spoken in upon arrival was also a real turn on for Draco. He raised his eyes heavenward and thanked God his father and Blaise had convinced him to come.
After Harry had laughed along with everyone else at Ron's exclamation, he noticed the teacher had been silent. He immediately stopped laughing. He saw the teacher raise his eyes heavenward as if in annoyance and exasperation and started to worry. He started to fidget nervously as he took in the teacher; he was extremely good looking with chiselled features and smouldering grey eyes- or were they blue? He was tall, probably just shorter than Ron and he had on a pair of dark blue jeans and a silky white shirt that was un-tucked. Harry felt a flicker of interest in him.
'I'm Draco Malfoy. Your days teachers.' Announced the man standing at the front of the class.
Upon hearing the name Harry felt the flicker die. This was Draco Malfoy, next in line to inherit Malfoy Inc. Here in front of him stood one of the richest people in America. Even if he did feel any feelings towards him, there was no way that one, Draco would have any interest in him and that two, even if he did, that Harry would ever be able to date this sort of rich person. It would never last.
'Please. Make your way to your seats. Don't let me stop you' said Draco sarcastically.
Harry flushed and he and Ron made their way down to sit with Hermione. He could almost see Hermione wanting to reprimand them but she kept quiet for which he was thankful. The lesson then began.
Draco showed slide upon slide of pictures and many beautiful portraits were brought in by various orderlies. Beautiful portraits that Harry recognised from text books and that he thought he would never ever see 'live'. Draco recited the past and history of the portraits and Harry found himself enraptured. This man knew his stuff, and was very captivating in the way he spoke and presented the information, rather unlike Professor Binns.
'And that's all we've got time for. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves and taken what I said in. I expect the bell will ring any second now.' Announced Draco about a minute before the end of class.
'Ooh. Wasn't that interesting? I didn't know half the stuff he was telling us,' said Hermione to Dean and Seamus. 'And it didn't hurt that he's gorgeous too!' she added with a giggle.
Ron scowled, 'Hey… your gorgeous boyfriend is sitting right here listening!'
Hermione laughed and gave Ron a quick peck on the lips and he became slightly pacified,
'Well, it will teach you a lesson for turning up late.' she lightly scolded.
'It wasn't our fault Hermione. We were delayed.' Insisted Harry.
'Harry, by 'delayed' do you mean you were too busy getting your stuff from your locker because you were too busy smoking during break to do it then? And Ron, were you too busy strolling here with Harry, because strolling isn't a reason for being late.' Hermione said knowingly, with a look of amusement on her face as well as fondness for both her best friend and her boyfriend.
Ron laughed to avoid the question and left the hall after Dean, Seamus and Neville. Harry blushed a little and made to defend himself to Hermione, but a voice cut in,
'Ah, Miss Granger. On your way.' Came the voice of Draco Malfoy. Both Hermione and Harry went to leave, but Draco stopped Harry, 'Not you Mr Potter.'
Hermione gave Harry a worried look before turning and leaving.
'So Mr Potter. Can I call you Harry?' Harry nodded dumbly. 'Well, Harry, I want you to go out with me this Friday.' Draco said charmingly. He hadn't planned on asking Harry out, but he felt drawn to the boy, almost infatuated in the short time he'd known him and he doubted he would have seen him again otherwise.
'What?' Harry exclaimed jumping backwards. 'No! You're Draco Malfoy.'
'Thank you for that observation, I had almost forgotten.' Draco laughed. 'So, how about it? He smiled enticingly at Harry. 'We'll have fun.'
Harry calmed down and thought about it logically, 'No.'
Draco's eyes widened. His charm wasn't working! Here he was, Draco Malfoy, hot property with a bank account to match, asking out a boy 2 years younger than him, and he was refusing! This had never happened before. Come on! This was a school full of people desperate to get even richer and to mix with the higher society and a small boy dressed to offend was refusing him!
'Sorry.' Harry apologised before he turned and walked out of the hall to meet his friends, Draco's startled eyes following him the whole way. Now it was his turn to be mute.
As Harry left the hall, he felt a pang of regret. Draco had seemed truly upset that he had been turned down. Mind you, Harry reasoned, it was probably the first time he had been refused but Harry couldn't help the little flutter in his stomach as he thought about Draco. He quelled the feeling and ran to catch up with his friends.
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A rejected and therefore even more intrigued Draco sat silently in the empty classroom and pondered. There was something different about Harry Potter and if he let him go now, he'd never know what it was. He wasn't going to let him go without a fight; he bet there were dozens of people vying for Harry's affection. Maybe Harry already had a boyfriend? He discarded the thought. Anyway, even if Harry did, it was going to be him who walked away with Harry at the end of the day, thought Draco possessively.
He saw a teacher he recognised upon his introduction that morning called Professor McGonagall pass the open door to the hall and he called her,
'Excuse me. Professor McGonagall? Could you direct me to the office with all the details of the school… and it's students. I'd um, just like to look something up.'
She narrowed her eyes and her lips pursed into a thin line but apparently he passed her test as she replied,
'Well, just go straight on down the corridor, and turn left. Carry on walking until you get to Dumbledore's office. It's the room on the right of that.' She looked into the empty hall, 'I trust your lesson went all right. I know Dumbledore was most excited at the prospect of having you and your paintings in the school.'
'It was most satisfactory,' Draco replied. 'I found the students and quality of attention and enthusiasm most enjoyable. Perhaps I shall come here more often.' He added with a sly smile.
'Well, I must be on my way dear. I hope you find what you're looking for.'
'Me too.' Draco replied quietly, almost under his breath. 'Me too.'
Draco followed the directions past the headmaster's office and stood almost guiltily in front of the door. A sign saying 'No admission' was posted on the door. He knew he really shouldn't be looking for Harry's personal file but he couldn't help it. He entered the room and carefully shut the door behind him and switched on the light.
He rifled through the first filing cabinet, and found nothing. As he opened the second cabinet he murmured, 'Potter. Potter… Potter, Potter, Potter' as his fingers ran over the files which were vaguely in alphabetical order. He paused as he heard a noise outside the door, and looked up startled. The door handle was being pushed down! He glanced down for a final look and saw the name 'Potter, Harry' upon one of the files. He didn't have time to read the information in the file and so just grabbed the sheet with personal details such as Name and Address and shoved it in his back pocket. Just as the door opened and the long bearded Dumbledore stood framed in the doorway.
'Ah. Mr Malfoy. Fancy seeing you in here. Lost are you?' Dumbledore asked in an amicable tone. 'I too find the school often hard to navigate. Only the other day I took a wrong turn and found myself in a store room full of the most fascinating stationary supplies which I had never set eyes on. Most peculiar indeed.'
'Ah, yes. That's right. I don't know my way around. That's it.' Draco got out. For some reason, the twinkling in the old mans eyes and the way they darted to the filing cabinet marked 'Students: J to P' seemed to suggest that Dumbledore knew exactly what Draco had been doing but was giving him his approval. Draco shook his head as he walked past Dumbledore, nodding thankfully at him on his way out. Of course there was no way Dumbledore could know about Draco's new interest in Harry. It was ridiculous.
Still, even as Draco walked down the corridor and out of the school towards his expensive black car patting his pocket where he had hidden the sheet, he felt it would probably be better if he didn't come back to the school, and instead wooed Harry outside of it.
Yes, Draco decided. He would woo Harry very soon now. Very soon.
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AN: Please Please Review!
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