The next morning, Draco received a note by owl that his detention for Professor Colton would be at nine o'clock that evening. Draco was kind of glad to be getting it over with tonight; he didn't have Quidditch practice until tomorrow evening. He figured he'd probably have to serve it with Lupin, the werewolf. Thoughtfully, Draco took another bite of toast. He bet no one in school knew about it. It sure would be interesting if that little tidbit had gotten out...
"You look really pleased with yourself! What's going on?" Lestrange asked.
"Nothing yet, but believe me, Dolph, if anything does happen you and Severus will be the first to know..."
"Say, did you know Severus before or something?" Lestrange asked, "because you seem to have taken to him really fast. Faster to him than anyone else..."
"And what if I did?" Draco frowned slightly.
"How did you know him?" Lestrange pressed.
"I can tell you no more than that he was a family friend. I'm worried if I tell you too much more that I might change something I shouldn't. I could accidentally change the future if I'm not careful..." Draco said, giving voice finally to the biggest fear he'd had since arriving in this Hogwart's of the past. "But I'll tell you this; I had no idea that Severus had ever played Quidditch. He never mentioned it to me or my father in all the years we've known him."
"Hmm..." Lestrange mused. "Well, anyway, he had to have been a grown man when you knew him, then. Was he a big shot in the Ministry or anything like that?"
"I told you, I can't tell you what he will do. For all I know, it might have changed anyway."
"Couldn't have been too close to him if you didn't know that he used to play Quidditch..." Lestrange pointed out. Draco tried to ignore the comment, and what Lestrange way trying to imply. He looked up at the teacher's table. Colton paid him no attention, but was scowling at some other student at the Hufflepuff table. Dumbledore was speaking to McGonagall. She had a very becoming shade of blue on today. She was head of Gryffindor House even in these times, wasn't she? It was then that Draco realized that he hadn't even met Slytherin's Head of House. He had no idea know whe he or she was! He'd ask Severus in Divination today what was going on...
As it had in Draco's day, Divination took place in the top of the North Tower. The teacher was not Professor Trelawney, but among the mist and incense, a very aged old witch drifted into the class. She did not bother to introduce herself to Draco, nor did she bother that a new student was in her class. She told everyone that today's lesson was simply to resume working on their dream interpretations.
He sat with Severus, and was glad that Lestrange had not taken this class with them. For a few moments, they just sat there. Some of the class began speaking softly to eachother. The professor was at the front of the class, gazing into her crystal ball very quietly. For all Draco knew, or cared, she could have been asleep.
"Hey, Sev?" Draco asked.
"Hm?" Severus muttered. He seemed to be paging through his dream journal quite intently.
"Who is our Head of House?" Draco asked.
"It's Professor Foxworth, our esteemed Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He's a bit too busy vampire slaying to be bothered with the likes of us. But that's fine; we Slytherins take care of ourselves."
Draco was dying to say to Severus, No, you took care of us! But instead, Draco clamped his mouth shut and took out his journal...
After a very short lunch, Draco followed Evan and Lestrange to Care of Magical Creatures. This was the one class of his that Snape wasn't in. As they walked past Greenhouse Three, Lestrange rambled about how he most likely flunked his Arithmancy test, and how Avery, if it was possible, had probably screwed it up even worse. Draco began grinding his teeth as he listened.
"And then, at the end of class, Professor MacKay finally said, You're as hopeless at this course as the Pettigrew boy! Boy was I pissed!" Lestrange concluded. Evan smirked and nudged Lestrange. With apathy, Draco followed thier gaze as some of the Gryffindors approached.
"Look Remus, it's El Strange and the new kid..." Sirius Black smirked.
"Did you get the note about detention at eight o'clock this evening?" Remus Lupin asked Draco in his usual quiet way. He looked pale and a bit ill, but then again, Draco couldn't recall anytime he hadn't seen Lupin looking like death warmed over.
"Yeah, he did, no thanks to you, Loser Lupin!" Lestrange cut in.
"Butt out, Dolph!" Draco spat, then turned to Lupin. "You're just lucky that I don't have Quidditch practice tonight," he added loftily.
"Oh, so you're the one who's going to replace Rosier, eh?" Sirius asked with a bit of sarcasm in his voice. "Well aren't you just the little Wonderboy of Slytherin?"
"And don't think I'll let you make chopped meat out of me like you did to Snape, because it isn't going to happen," Draco declared.
"When are you Slytherins ever going to let that go? It was an accident!" Sirius told Draco.
"Yeah, go tell it to someone who believes it, Liar!" Lestrange snarled.
"Lestrange!" Draco complained. Then, when Lestrange was reduced to glaring evilly at the two Gryffindor boys, Draco continued, "Who's your Seeker? Him?" he asked, sneering at Lupin.
"Oh, no, I don't play Quidditch..." Lupin shook his head. Of course, Draco thought to himself, if Lupin had to play a Quidditch match on a day when he might turn into a werewolf that night...it would be a disaster if the game went into overtime. "A second year, you probably don't know him. His name's Lockhart."
Draco burst out laughing. "What? Gilderoy Lockhart? Are you serious?" he bellowed.
"Why? How do you know him?" Sirius demanded. But Draco was too busy laughing hysterically to answer them, or to even notice that the teacher, Professor Kettleburn, had arrived.
Sirius wasn't going to let the Slytherins have the last word, however. "How do you know if he's good or bad as a Seeker? He hasn't even had a chance to play a full game yet with the way the schedule's been."
"Yeah, well who's fault is that, you fucking murderer!" Lestrange spat.
"Mr. Lestrange! That will be ten points from Slytherin for your language! Now, tell your hystrical classmate to get up before he gets run over by our Streeler..."
"Huh?" Draco gasped as he sat up and saw a gigantic snail-like creature with a shell that looked like it was cut from a glittering emerald. And it was poised right above him...
For the rest of Care of Magical Creatures, Draco wondered just how he was going to get this slimy Streeler Juice off his robes. Later, when he returned to Slytherin House, he complained bitterly to Severus and Lestrange about the injustice of his detention when he had done absolutely nothing wrong. He railed about the benign neglect that Slytherin House experienced at the hands of Professor Foxworth. Lestrange shrugged indifferently, and Severus shook his head unhappily. Draco thought he might have gotten through to at least one of them. And it was with this bit of hope in his heavy heart that he reported to the Potions Dungeon at nine in the evening.
When he got there, Professor Colton was there already with Remus Lupin. Draco watched the other boy fidget and fret, like he had to go to the bathroom and was trying to hold it. "So good of you to join us Mr. Malfoy. I thought I'd have you and Mr. Lupin scrub the area of the floor where his cauldron melted. With these," he grinned evilly, as he handed Lupin and Draco old dirty toothbrushes. "Courtesy of Mr. Filch..." Colton added.
"But, Professor, I can't do this tonight! Professor Dumbledore won't let me stay here..." Lupin pleaded.
"Stop carrying on, Lupin. You'll be just fine down here. And I'm quite sure Mr. Malfoy can help you with your cleaning; he seems to Slytherin's newest star. I'm sure he's got plenty of tricks for taking care of himself..." Colton smirked. Then, he swept past them. Lupin stood there with a slack jaw, and Draco didn't seem to be feeling much better. "I am not going to sit here and bore myself to absolute death watching you two scrubbing . Therefore, I'll be locking you in here, just to make sure you don't leave here before that spot is immaculately clean. I'll have Filch check on you two later..." he said, then departed. the door shut with a terrible thud, and Draco ran over to try and open it. To his chagrin, it was indeed locked.
Behind him, Draco heard someone gasping for breath. He turned around and saw Lupin in the throes of what looked like a panic attack. "I can't stay in here! Please let Dumbledore be on his way down here..."
"Listen, just calm down. I don't like getting locked in this classroom any more than you do... Hey, let's not act like a spaz about it..." Draco frowned as he saw Lupin's panic attack grow worse and worse. What could be bothering him so much?
"Dumbledore...has to get here..." Lupin breathed while twisting the edge of his robes with apparent fright.
"Why does Dumbledore have to come down here? What the hell's gotten into you?" Draco demanded. Lupin dashed off into a corner, as far from Draco as possible. "What are you doing going over there?" Draco asked Lupin.
Lupin called, "Stay away from me, don't come any closer!" He was silent a few seconds, then, he said in a strangled sort of voice, "I'm sorry! So sorry..."
"Sorry about what?" Draco asked, and then, it dawned on him with horror. "Oh God! Tonight is the night of the full moon!"