Stepping foot onto the Hogwarts Express the next morning filled Draco with immense relief. He'd be away from the Death Eaters, away from his father and the Dark Lord. Hogwarts had never harmed him, never given him reason to be scared, and he was never more thrilled to be returning. He would be safe there… Yeah, except for the fact that he was supposed to be spying on the Headmaster and Potter and giving regular reports to their enemy, the evilest foulest most terrifying wizard to walk the earth. How safe was he going to be staying in a place where he was betraying the most important people in it! A great deal safer than I would be at home with Death Eaters popping up every two days… Draco thought, unable to hide a smile from showing on his features as he blended in with his peers, his flock, his safety. No matter what Draco did, he was confident in the fact that understanding, patient, compassionate Dumbledore would not hurt hum. As for the person whom he was to be serving…now that was an entirely different matter. Wishing a bit that he wasn't working for someone who would thoroughly enjoy killing him, Draco continued walking. As soon as the thoughts flitted through his mind he felt a pang of fear grip him. He must not think like that, the Dark Lord had ways of finding and weeding out people who thought like that…
"Malfoy, hi!" Pansy skipped up to him and nearly knocked him over with a huge hug. "I missed you!"
"Hi, Pansy." Draco patted her back but pushed her off.
"Crabbe hasn't come yet but I think Goyle already saved us all a compartment," she continued, oblivious to the fact that she had just been snubbed.
"Right. You go on, then." Draco said, giving her a little push.
"Aren't you coming?" she pouted.
"Later." He muttered in a non-committal fashion. He had to shake his head as she slid away. Pansy and him had a sort of Friends with benefits thing going on… Well, really, just benefits. Sometimes he wondered if the girl understood what that meant, he had caught her giggling before about how they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Oh well. It was nothing like good old Pansy Parkinson to get him fully immersed in Hogwarts again. He would be at Hogwarts for a full year… Voldemort wouldn't be able to get him at all… He wouldn't even be able to contact Draco if Draco chose not to initiate it… But of course, then there was summer. Two months that spelled his end if he didn't do what Voldemort wanted. And a horrifying thought struck him. His mother was still at home, twenty four seven. If he disobeyed there was no question who would pay the immediate consequences.
"Are you going to move anytime soon or am I going to have to run you over with my luggage bag?" a disgruntled and familiar voice demanded. Glancing behind him, Draco was face to face with the Gryffindor trio- Ronald Weasly (hack, hack Weasel-bee), Hermione Granger (cough Mudblood), and of course the famous Harry Potter, or as Draco fondly preferred, Scar face.
"Move, Malfoy." Ron rolled his eyes.
"Bad moods this morning." Draco commented. "Eh. You know, I really was hoping that you three would have dropped out this year, or at the very least I didn't think Weasel-bee would make it this far. You don't have much behind that red hair of yours, and another two years of schooling won't change that so why don't you try to save up money for you family? Though I guess it's not as strained anymore since Pruny disowned you all for Fudge."
Ron looked murderous and for the umpteenth time, Harry was forced to hold him back. "My, my, you do get insulted easily don't you?"
"They really ought to lock you up with your dad." Hermione hissed. "As if you aren't in league with what he did."
"Yeah, probably got that mark tattooed to your arm when you were born," Ron snapped. Draco shrugged back his sleeve and waved his completely clean and unblemished forearm in their faces.
"Is the Dark Mark invisible, then?" he sneered. "I'm innocent, kiddies. But you-"
"Butwe what?" Hermione raised her eyebrows, as Draco had stopped speaking and was staring out the window with a look of fear splashed across his features. "What are you staring at you git-"
Draco shuddered. He had seen a flash of Bellatrix Lestrange, smiling evilly at him behind the same cloak she always wore. She had apparated and disapparated so quickly no one else noticed. He took her smile and the slight wagging of her finger as the sign that yes, they would be keeping tabs on him, and yes, they would know if he wasn't doing what he was supposed to.
"Malfoy?" Harry frowned.
Draco didn't reply but merely gulped and slipped past the trio.
"Someone's acting weirder than usual." Ron looked after Draco in bemusement.
"Did you see the colour drain out of his face?" Hermione sounded suspicious. "What spooked him?"
Harry shrugged, his frown becoming more pronounced as he saw the Slytherin student stumble slightly and shove a few third years across the train.
"A-and h-he just p-pushed me off his lap and said he didn't want to s-see my face a-again!" Pansy Parkinson was sobbing uncontrollably as the Hogwarts students filed out of the train.
Draco ignored the wails and stonily walked on with Crabbe and Goyle. He had pushed her off of him an hour ago and she was still crying. Clingy, much? He just felt an overwhelming need to get away from the source of the high pitched squeal that had become characteristic of Parkinson, she wouldn't give him one moment of silence since he returned to the compartment she had saved. Weaving a bit closer to the middle of the pack of students with his bulky body guards, Pansy's voice soon became lost in the chatter of the students. Glancing at her tear-streaked face once more, Draco felt only the slightest twinge of guilt. He supposed he could have been a bit more gentle but the girl had known him for five years, you would have thought that she would actually know him by now. He didn't have time for any twittering girl following him around, any ways. This year was different than the others, much as he wished it wasn't.
"Finally got tired of his groupie, has he?" Harry blinked, his ear drums aching from the shrieks, as he walked alongside his friends.
"You should have seen how quiet he was in the Prefects compartment. Didn't say a word to anyone," Hermione whispered.
"Like that's a bad thing." Ron rolled his eyes.
"You've got to feel some sympathy for him… his father did get thrown into prison…and I heard the only time his mom left his house all summer was to escort him to the train station." Hermione said.
"His father was a Death Eater, he deserved to get thrown it!" Ron exclaimed indignantly.
"I know, I know, but just because his father deserved what he got doesn't mean Malfoy and his mum did." She shrugged.
"You and I both know Malfoy's as bad as his dad! I can't believe you're feeling sorry for Malfoy-" Ron shook his head angrily.
"Just because I can have sympathy for people whom I don't like-" Hermione snapped.
"He's been the person who has caused us hell for five years and you-you" Ron exasperatedly ranted. "Honestly, SPEW and Kreacher is one thing, Malfoy should be made a House elf, he's such a git, you're way too soft, next thing you know you'll be saying how You-Know-Who is such a poor unfortunate person who didn't deserve to get wiped out and nearly killed-"
Upon realizing that yet another row was upon him, Harry quickly muttered that he'd catch up with them at the feast and darted ahead to catch a ride with Neville, Luna, and Seamus on the carriages, leaving the two to have their first ever arguement about Draco Malfoy.
"So do you reckon Pansy's upset?" Goyle guffawed.
"The look on her face…" Crabbe laughed.
"Do you think she'll ever drop it?" Draco rolled his eyes.
"You were the love of her life," Goyle grinned. "Who are you going to go out with next, then, now that you're single again?"
"Not you, if that's what you're asking." Malfoy couldn't help but snap. "Now shut up for once, you oafs are giving me a head ache." They settled into a carriage themselves. "-Try it and I'll you a detention and I'll hex you to go along with it." Draco warned moodily as a younger boy tried to grab a seat next to Malfoy.
"What's with you, Malfoy?" Goyle asked as the boy gave a scared yelp and scuttled away. "You seem to be pretty sour lately."
"All of our fathers got thrown into prison, you seem a bit too cheery if you're asking me." Draco retorted. "And didn't I tell you to shut up?"
The other two boys quickly closed their mouths, but not before exchanging looks.
A few minutes passed and Goyle couldn't help himself. "Malfoy..."
"What?" he sighed, not removing his gaze from his lap.
"Well, this might cheer you up- I heard there's a new girl this year-" Goyle tentatively continued.
"No, really? You think so? There are only a new batch of first year girls every bloody year I can't imagine how you knew there would be one new one." Malfoy snorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"That's not what I was talking about-" Goyle said reproachfully. "No, this year there's a girl entering Hogwarts for the first time who is going into fifth year."
"The school doesn't do that, does it?" Malfoy frowned.
"They're doing it this year." Crabbe shrugged.
"How do you know and why would I care?" Draco leaned back in his seat, giving the pair a slightly irritated look.
"Well you don't seem to be satisified with the girls in our school right now, I just thought it was interesting!" Crabbe said, sounding injured. "Anyways, I saw her on the train and she isn't ugly."
"Have you suddenly become the gossip king, or something? Honestly..." Draco shook his head and jumped out of the carriage as it pulled to a stop and he hurried inside the school, actually giving McGonagall a small smile as he walked inside the enchanted walls. There would soon be food and he would be in the company of the most powerful wizard of all time, for the time being Malfoy knew he wouldn't be seeing Lestrange soon.