Thanks a lot to Anna for beta-reading this chapter so I could finally finish it.

Chapter 3

Draco Malfoy cautiously removed the stopper, which was set with rubies, from a little polished glass bottle. Since he was Slytherin's prefect this year, he shared a room with George Marstod, prefect of Ravenclaw, which was separate from the dormitory of the other Slytherins who lived in the dungeons.

He hadn't talked much to his roommate yet but he considered him to be quite a decent wizard. His father, Theodor Marstod, worked in the Ministery of Magic. He had always been on Lucius Malfoy's side but probably only because he was afraid of him and not so much because he was convinced of his ideas.

George was short and pretty plump; however, surprisingly enough, his girlfriend, Gina Tallin, was one of the best-looking Ravenclaws. She was a slim beauty with long brown hair. As far as Draco knew, they had been together for almost two years and shared every second of their spare time. More than once Draco had considered destroying their relationship by seducing Gina. But he was aware of the fact that this would only get him into trouble. Until now George had always respected him and left him alone but you never know what a lover might do if he is upset.

Draco had darkened the room and had locked the door with a spell. He began to dab his closed eyes carefully with the light red liquid from the small bottle. Though it felt as if his eyes had been iced up and hurt terribly, Draco continued without flinching. After that he muttered a complicated spell and repeated it ten times. Then he slowly opened his smarting eyes. He felt the urge to rub them immediately, but once again Draco Malfoy ignored what he felt like doing. He had learned that a long time ago because he had often been beaten up by his father and even been punished more severely in his childhood.

When he was able to see clearly again, he shrank the small glass bottle, which was only half-full now, to the size of a pea and put it into his siutcase. After he had taken a brief look at himself in the mirror, had brushed some unruly strands of hair out of his face and had taken out the creases of his cape, he went to the great hall.

Draco Malfoy was sitting in the library, feeling depressed, and staring into space. When he had cast a spell to identify virgins by their aura this morning, he hadn't been able to foresee what he would be in for. He had not really been surprised when he had seen that Pansy Parkinson and her crowd of giggling girls were surrounded by a dark red shimmer. But after he had studied the other Slytherin-girls at his age, he had been shocked because there hadn't been a single girl with a light or bright aura, which would have signified virginity. Though Draco had to admit that it was he who had deflowered most of them.

Although he had preferred his girl to be a Slytherin, he still had been sure that he would find a suitable one in Ravenclaw. But the women of Hogwarts were obviously not as innocent as they always pretended to be. In return Draco had seen lots of boys surrounded by a bright aura. He hadn't been surprised at all to see that James Lewis, a Slytherin in seventh form, was still a virgin; James had always showed off with the large number of girls he had allegedly conquered but Draco had looked through him from the beginning.

In the end, however, this knowledge was of no use to Draco because he had been looking for a girl that was a virgin, not absolutely ugly and also not as thick as two short planks all day and hadn't found one.

That was why Draco was sitting on one of the comfortable armchairs in the library, waiting for a miracle to happen. He shuddered at the thought of telling his father. To be honest, Draco had not even taken into account that he might not be able to find a girl.

At that moment Hermione Granger came up to Draco, carrying some books. She put them on the table in front of Draco and sighed with relief. She didn't notice him but took a seat opposite him and opened a book with the title "The trickery of muffolonians".

Draco was about to snarl at her when he realized that she was surrounded by a light yellow aura. That was actually not surprising; he couldn't imagine any boy who would voluntarily go to bed with the bookworm. Maybe St. Potter or the weasel might be willing but they didn't seem to be that enthusiastic about their friend anymore.

Hermione was pretty short, definitely two heads shorter than Draco, and not exactly well-proportioned. Apart from her hair, her face was not ugly, nevertheless she couldn't keep up with most of the girls at her age. On the other hand, she was quite intelligent; Draco had stopped trying to deny that. So she actually was quite suitable, the only problem was that Draco couldn't bring the Lord a mudblood! They had never talked about it but the Lord probably considered it a matter of course that Draco should bring him a pureblood.

Although he was quite aware of the risk of this choice he had chosen Granger as his victim without thinking too much about it.

When he stood up, bursting with energy, Hermione looked up to him startled.

"Granger", he said, nodded at her and set off to the owlery to tell his father about the choice he had made. He could feel her eyes staring at his back, which made him grin triumphantly.