Mandy wanted a reason for everything. That wasn't so bad, Draco Malfoy knew Ravenclaws needed those. So he explained carefully why you needed to know which fork to use, and why you never rotated your pie.*
Justin was a different matter. He already knew his manners, or so he thought, and didn't take kindly to anyone telling him otherwise. Draco privately thought he'd be a good son to Madame Dragon Parkinson, but he'd committed to at least teaching them.
Luna solved that problem, eventually. She looked at Justin and said, "It's so nice of you to want to make everyone comfortable by breaking the rules!"
Justin smiled back shyly at that.
"But wouldn't you rather know what the rules are, before you break them?" Luna asked.
Abashed, Justin nodded, and they had no further trouble from him.
Others, though... Gracie was a complete klutz, and Draco Malfoy could only do so much in two weeks. He had to heal fifteen injuries in that time period. Prior to this, he'd been unaware that anyone could be that klutzy.
*Continental style. Americans rotate. This got a spy caught, at one point. Remember it well, chicklets.
[a/n: CriticalPerson wrote a review good enough to deserve a response here. Yes, it's true that Draco Malfoy falls in 'love' with Hermione quickly here. I'll fess up and say that's a lot of hormones, and a good heaping of Forbidden Fruit, with a smattering of "we're honestly compatible people."
One of the inspirations of this story was someone writing Draco Malfoy as an "I've been in love with Hermione since the first moment I saw her."
Hello? Were you in love with anyone at age eleven? A young eleven? And if so, was that a permanent thing?
The other inspiration for me was downright wrath at JKR's misunderstanding of Slytherin, and what it means to do a Nazi analogue in your story.
I mean, come on. They're Slytherins! Of course they're hiding Muggleborns - isn't that the sneaky thing to do? Germans in Nazi Germany did it, remember. Bend but do not break is a good Slytherin motto.
Up Next: Meeting Narcissa. ]