"Draco, please" Narcissa mustered under her breath, very quietly so her husband wouldn´t notice. "Listen to your father, and gather your things."
Although the Malfoy residence could probably accommodate the triple of the people that lived there, it had always been very empty and unfamiliar. No one would be surprised if it was in fact abandoned or had been for the past twenty years. Not because it wasn´t taken care of, Lucius Malfoy liked to keep the appearances and his house was, of course very clean and tidy, however no family pictures could be found, nor were Draco´s childhood paintings hung on the wall.
Draco took one last look at his house before following his mum´s instructions and walking towards the car with his last few bags. A few house elves were spurting around, but everything seemed ready for his fourth year at Hogwarts.
Hogwarts, he thought, and the name resonated in his mind bringing back all the memories from the previous years. In a weird way, he felt safe at Hogwarts in a way that he did not at home. Being away from home meant not having to deal with his father comments and scrutiny. He much preferred Hogwarts classes to the private ones his father made him take at home, where he was continuously humiliated.
"Hopefully this year you won´t allow Potter and his cohort of mudbloods humiliate our name – again." He said.
Lucius hadn´t been able to let go the fact that a mudblood had punched his son. A female mudblood.
"And about Elizabeth…. I hope you will know to stay away from her from now on. Her family would have been highly ashamed of her." He continued.
"She is in my house. I-"
"We will see about that, I will speak to professor Snape. Slytherin can´t allow …" Lucius voice was mumbled by Draco´s thoughts.
'Elizabeth' he thought, 'Ellie'. That was what he was struggling with the most, not talking to her again, but he knew his father would find out if he did talk to her. He felt a soft knot in the pit of his stomach. It was not like they had ended in the best terms, but still, he couldn't just ignore her. Talking to her was natural, even if he decided he wouldn´t, he would always end up picking on her, the same way she would pick on him.
Without time for a real farewell, or interest from any of the parts, Draco was left alone in the train station, Narcissa had kissed his forehead and asked him to be careful, but soon left following Lucius´s requests. It was always like that, Lucius´s orders were not to be ignored.
Draco strolled past the busy families, finishing up their goodbyes and hugging and kissing – he couldn´t understand what the big deal was, it was just school. He managed to find Theodore, who had also just been left by himself.
"Draco!" he first exclaimed.
Draco half smiled without much excitement.
"What a surprise, we thought you had been like kidnapped by your father or something. Where were you all summer?" he said.
"Just busy, I guess." Draco answered, his mind was somewhere else, looking through the crowd, trying to find a familiar face. Not just any, one in particular.
"Right, of course. Well, the boys and I tried to get hold of you…"
He hadn´t even realised he was doing it, but he was looking for Elizabeth. It was 'normal' that he really wanted to see her - he thought - they were good friends, right?
"Are you looking forward to this year?" Theodore continued talking.
What a fucking stupid question – Draco thought. Sometimes the conversations with his friends were less stimulating than counting dragons to fall asleep. He didn´t care what Theodore had to say, to be honest. He wanted to ask if he had seen her, or if they had hung out. Which he doubted, but he knew was a possibility too.
"So, who have you been hanging out in the summer, Nott?" He asked, trying to be discrete. It´s not like Theodore would know to put two and two together.
"You know, the boys and a few other people from school."
"I didn´t know you had that many friends." He said trying to get names.
"I wouldn´t call them friends, just people we know from Hogwarts that were around"
"I see." He gave up. He didn't want to sound too curious.
A few feet away he noticed Potter arriving with the Weasley family, that were saying their goodbyes with difficulty, trying to decide what bag belonged to whom. Not like any of their belongings was worth anything – he laughed. Elizabeth wasn't with them either. That calmed him. He would hate that Elizabeth´s friendship with that band of losers had become closer, that would mean something else that Potter had on him, although he would never admit it, he was jealous.
One of the things he found absolutely unacceptable was that Elizabeth, as a Slytherin was not afraid of associating with those Gryffindors, and even defended that moron of Longbottom.
"I told Goyle to save us a seat, maybe we should get in, this is starting to get busy" Theo said, with a soft tone. Draco´s friends respected him in the same way Draco respected his father or Draco liked to think they did. He ruled Slytherin, he knew that.