Rebelling

Draco Malfoy was walking down the corridor with his "friends," when who should come along but Harry Potter, gang in tow. Draco tried to be a good student, tried to please the teachers and be friendly to the Gryffindors, but they always spat out his advice and made fun of his questions. Eventually he had given up, and slowly settled into the stereotype he had always been painted with. Harry Potter was the worst of all the Gryffindors. Potter was always aggravating Draco's pride, and was the main reason Draco had given up his misunderstood martyrdom for the mask of a stereotype. Still, all Draco wanted was a chance to get even.

"Oh, look!" Draco remarked loudly to Crabbe, "It's Potter's gang. Granger will be on a broomstick nest and of course then she'll be the new Gryffindor star, despite the fact that she wouldn't be able to get off the ground." Okay, it was pretty lame, but lately there had not been anything much to remark upon anyway. Then, just as Draco knew would happen, Harry gave a casual flick of his wand and Draco felt what seemed like a lead fish hit his stomach. It had been going on for the last few weeks but, according to noble McGonagall, there was "never any proof." Draco had no way even to defend himself, as convention as shields did not block the spell.

That night Draco fell asleep in his cold-but-too-squishy-for-comfort bed. He woke up in the middle of the night with sirens and alarms screaming in his ear.

"Harry Potter has been expelled. I repeat: Harry Potter has been expelled. Please exit the building immediately."

Outside on the chilled, dewy grass, students—Potters 250-person-minus-the-Slytherins fan club—ran every which way in a panic. Draco asked everybody he saw, "What happened? What did Potter do?" It must have been supremely evil to have gotten Dumbledore's precious Potter expelled!

Then he saw Pansy sobbing and some one shouted, "Malfoy is dead!"

When Draco woke the nest morning, he realized slowly that it actually had been a dream. However, it was quite a good idea. If Potter "murdered" somebody, he would have to get expelled. Draco began to plan.

Finally, four months later, Draco was ready to put his plan into action. Before potions began, Draco walked up to Potter in while Professor Snape watched curiously from farther down the hall.

Taking a deep breath, he recited, "Your mum's as fat as a water buffalo just with twice the smell. You can't deny it because you don't remember yourself. She only passed her exams because your paternal grandparents were millionaires. Your dad was no better, and you can't say mine is wicked because yours just did his work undercover." Then Draco whispered "Pyropotamus pseudoincinerato," pointing his wand at Potter's. A stream of fire erupted from Potter's and streamed towards Draco, who preformed a quick but potent memory charm on Potter. Then the fire hit, and Draco crumbled to a pile of ashes.

Pyropotamus pseudoincinerato is a very difficult spell. It reduces the caster to cinders for up to one whole day before they "un-burn" themselves back to normal. Draco did so four hours later, popping out of a box labeled with his name in Dumbledore's office. Draco snuck back to the empty classroom where his packed suitcase awaited, escaped past Filch out the front doors, and hitched a ride on the Knight Bus to an inconspicuous little inn located in Knockturn Alley. Here he could hide out until Potter's expulsion was complete, his wand broken, and the damage irreversible. Draco would wander back half-a-year later with no memory of the incident, thanks to a new memory charm that allowed one to wipe only specified parts of memory.

But it was not to be. A short two weeks later saw Draco back in Hogwarts with Potter. Crabbe's father had been at the inn when he saw and "rescued" Draco. The new self-memory charm had worked, at least, so Draco was not expelled, but Potter was back, proven innocent by the discovery of Draco, alive and well.

Draco Malfoy sat on his dorm bed, wondering if he'd ever learn. Apparently the answer was no, as he was still determined to rebel against those who had stereotyped and molded him into what he was today, and to get revenge against Harry Potter. Would Draco ever be truly free of Hogwarts and its memory?

Dedicated to my dear friend Anu