September 1st, First Year
"It can't be true," Draco said to Crabbe, who walked behind him with heavy steps. Goyle looked just as skeptical as Crabbe did. "Which compartment did he say?"
"The kid with the toad said this one down here," Crabbe pointed to a compartment off to the left side.
Draco took the time to look briefly in the window, examining the people inside. There were three of them; two redheads and a black haired boy. The black haired boy seemed to be very interested in whatever it was the other boy, a ginger, was saying to him. The black haired kid was leaning forward, his glasses almost sliding off his nose. The ginger was using large hand movements, explaining something or other to the two across from him. The girl in the compartment - the only girl in the compartment - had darker red hair and was...she was...was she petting a frog?
"Are you sure it's this compartment?" Draco asked, turning to Crabbe. He didn't understand why there would be three people behaving so strangely in a compartment if they were apparently so important. Weren't famous people supposed to be cool, collected, and interesting? The larger boy looked over Draco's shoulder and shrugged, as sure about this as he was about arithmetic.
Oh well, Draco thought, opening the compartment door while feeling no need to knock.
"-it's the keeper that keeps the rings safe. He's..." the redheaded boy with the wild hand movements stopped speaking when Draco made his appearance in the doorway. The black haired boy looked up at the sound of the door opening, the dark redhead beside him did not look up from her frog - which he now realized was a chocolate frog...one which she apparently didn't deem appropriate to eat.
"Is it true?" Draco found himself asking, looking at the black haired boy curiously. He remembered him now that he saw the round rimmed glasses and unkempt hair. "They're saying all down the train that the Potter's are in this compartment. So it's you two, is it?"
The girl looked up from her chocolate frog at this, which he was now positive she was petting, and glared at him. It was strange, how unalike the two Potter twins looked save their green eyes. He tried to look under the boy's thick fringe to see the lightning shaped scar he'd heard of so much, but from his angle and the length of his hair it was impossible. It was almost silly how easy it was to see the girl's in comparison - jagged and glaring at anyone who wanted to look. It was exactly like it had been described: a vulgar and serrated 'X' carved into the left side of her neck. It was disgusting.
She had pretty eyes though. Or at least, they were pretty on her. It's not like he didn't realize they were the exact same as her brother's. It was just that there was so much more to them. Draco had been forced to meet so many people and hear so many stories from his gossiping parents - he knew who had stories. His father had told him early on that it was impressive how he could see the things that were hidden behind people's eyes. Draco had always been proud of it. He didn't know how he learned, but it wasn't something that he was taught and he wouldn't be able to teach someone else. It was just something that he could recognize, when someone had secrets hidden behind their eyes...and this girl was one of them. She had a story. She was doing something else besides seeing with those eyes of hers. They were still intense and annoyed, another something he could easily tell, and they clashed with her hair that was too red to be called auburn...but they were seeing things in a way her brother's weren't.
When he pulled back, looking away from whatever was behind her eyes, he realized he had seen these two before. It had been back in Madam Malkin's shop during his trip to Diagon Alley for his school supplies. This was the boy who had talked back to him and the girl who had ignored him.
"Yes," the boy with black hair - who he now knew must have been as Harry Potter - said to him tightly. His eyes flickered to Crabbe and Goyle behind him, but Draco was distracted by the glare that the girl - who must have been Audrey Potter - would not let off of him.
"This is Crabbe, and this is Goyle," Draco couldn't even pretend to care. The girl's eyes narrowed. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Audrey Potter rolled her eyes before she looked away from him, back to her chocolate frog - which she seemed to whisper to. Was this girl insane?
The laugh is what distracted him and brought his eyes back to the ginger sitting across from the two twins. The ginger was identifiable thanks to his father's cutting words that he had heard so many times in preparation for this year.
"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles and more children than they can afford." He sneered at the ginger, noticing when he looked back to speak to the other two that Audrey Potter's face was burning red - was it in annoyance or insecurity? He had kind of just described her...accidentally, but he had. It was obvious the Potter's had not come from the money it was rumoured: her hair was crookedly cut and dry, the freckles on her nose looked to be from staying outside for too long, and she was wearing oversized muggle clothing that did nothing to hide her protruding bones. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others. You two don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
He held out his hand, waiting for Potter to take it. It seemed right to make good with the Harry Potter first before he tried to detangle the thoughts behind his twin sister.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," and he looked away. Did-did Harry Potter just reject him?
Draco dropped his hand quickly, looking at Harry and feeling his face heat up. He noticed that Audrey Potter's face was still red, while she slid down further in her seat, glaring at the chocolate frog in her hand as if it had wronged her.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he couldn't help but threaten. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."
And finally he got a reaction, Audrey Potter stood from her seat. Tiny in comparison to him, barely four foot while he was well over since his eleventh birthday. Her face was nearly as red as her hair, making her eyes clash in an unnatural looking chemical reaction.
"If all you value are the things you've just offered, I think this conversation is over." Her voice was quiet, but nonetheless effective.
"No, he should say that again," Ron threatened, his face just as red as hers as he stood up beside her. Malfoy pushed out a laugh, averting his eyes from the vibrant green of the Potters.
"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?"
"Unless you get out now," Harry Potter offered with a stubbornness that upset him. He had a terrible feeling that he may have just ruined one of the most important things he was told to do when he got to school this term. His father had told him: get into Slytherin, befriend Harry Potter, and uphold the Malfoy name. But neither Potter seemed to want anything to do with him now - they'd fallen for the blood traitor's tricks. He'd have to make up a story for his father that made him seem like he tried a lot harder - but he didn't actually want to. There was something about Harry Potter that just didn't smell right to him. There was something...off about him.
Goyle made a reach for the chocolate frog boxes left beside the Weasley, grabbing onto one before letting out a cry. When he pulled his hand back, dropping the box onto the ground, there was a mangy old rat biting into his knuckle. He let out another yell, swinging the rat around to try and dislodge it and was finally able to toss it at the window.
Crabbe let out a curse, grabbing onto the chocolate frog that Goyle had dropped and followed Draco as he backed out of the compartment with a scoff. When they were all in the hall, Goyle complaining about his throbbing knuckle the whole walk back, Draco hissed at them and grabbed the chocolate frog from Crabbe's pocket.
"This was worth you two making me look bad?" he hissed, shaking the chocolate frog in his hand. Both boys looked at it longingly, they had already eaten all of their sweets from the trolley, but Draco shoved it into his pocket. He'd save it for in his dormitory when he needed one of them to do him a favour and unpack his trunk for him.
"Who brings a rat, anyway?" Goyle mumbled. "Rats are dumb."
"You're dumb," Draco pointed out, walking back into their compartment and looking out at the darkened sky. He was glad that this blasted train ride was almost over and he wouldn't have to worry about people trying to make friends or people going through compartments to look for a toad.
His thoughts went back to the girl in the compartment when he thought back to frogs and toads. It was hard not to think about her for too long, she was just so strange. First she ignores him in Diagon Alley, then she doesn't listen to him in the train, then she is petting a chocolate frog, then she doesn't side with him...then again she didn't really stick up for her brother, did she? No matter, she did stand up for a Weasley.
Clearly there was something terribly wrong with the girl.
The train began to slow and Draco easily managed to convince Crabbe and Goyle to carry his trunk for him, not that it was a difficult task. While Goyle lugged both Draco and his trunk , Crabbe pushed people out of Draco's way. The platform that they got off on was exactly like his father had described: he'd been to Hogsmeade before, but his mother had always been very close to the idea that he shouldn't ruin the experiences and surprises of first year.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" It was that obnoxious giant who had chaperoned the Potter twins to Diagon Alley...he noticed they were even talking to them now. Harry Potter was talking between he and Weasley and Audrey Potter was even smiling up at the giant. It was strange, he didn't expect her smile to look like that. He couldn't have explained what he had originally pictured it to look like...but it wasn't like that.
He followed the crowd, listening to Crabbe and Goyle bicker over whether or not they would all get to be in a boat together. These blokes were so overwhelmingly fat that the boats may not be able to support their mass and as they walked over toward the edge of a large lake - the Black Lake, as his father had told him - they realized it was four to a boat. Draco just couldn't help hoping that they'd be allowed to sit without another, thanks to their bulk, at least.
They climbed into the boat, snapping at a mousy little boy who tried to get in the boat with them. It was easy to avoid questions after that, it had caused enough of a stir in the group of first years that no one else wanted to try sitting with he, Crabbe, and Goyle.
Their boat was obviously lower as they floated toward their new school. It looked like Crabbe was afraid of falling in, but not as afraid as a boat three up.
"Just don't look, Drea," Harry Potter's voice, one that he doubted he would ever be able to forget after what he had heard him say on the train. He dismissed him, Draco Malfoy! What would his father say when he found out?
"I'm not looking but that doesn't mean I don't know I'm on water," another voice, a shaky voice, snapped in response. "I'm going to be sick. We're going to tip-"
"Audrey, we're fine!"
"Potter's afraid of water," Goyle chortled, "what a git."
"You're afraid of missing your next meal," Draco found himself drawling. He didn't know why he had the sudden urge to defend her, but it was nice to think that the larger-than-life Potter twins had something they were afraid of. It humanized them in a way he liked. "Don't be too cocky."
The crowd of first years all fawned over the sight in front of them while they waded in their boats. The castle was exactly like what he'd seen in his father's pictures, some of the windows illuminated in the dark of night. It had all the turrets and towers - all the space needed for more than seven floors, a courtyard and a Great Hall...and all those other little nooks and crannies his father had decided was best to keep quiet.
"Everyone here?" the giant checked when everyone had clambered up onto the damp grass of the shore. "You there, still got yer toad?"
Crabbe and Goyle groaned, Draco knew instinctively that their minds had wandered to the chocolate frog still in his pocket that he'd taken from them after they'd been stupid. He couldn't believe that after buying out half of the trolley on the train they were still hungry at all.
The giant knocked on the grand wooden doors of the castle, bolts and locks behind them clinked as they began to unlock to let the students in. When the door opened itself, Draco got a glimpse of what he was sure was his first professor: a tall, bifocaled, emerald-robed woman with a pinched face that he had a feeling stayed that way. He had enough family members who had the same problem to know the signs.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid introduced to her, while her eyes raked over the crowd in front of her.
"She's the Transfiguration teacher, head of Gryffindor." Draco added to Crabbe, not finding it in him to care that the boy probably knew already.
"You know everything, Malfoy," Crabbe smiled, sounding genuinely impressed. Then again, maybe that idiot never paid attention to anything he'd been taught.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." The door widened when she turned to lead them into the entrance hall. It had a high ceiling and lit with torches all along the walls and marble staircases that lead to the higher floors. Draco made a note to remind Crabbe and Goyle that they moved.
He was near the head of the group when McGonagall led the students across the entrance hall. Behind the door to the Great Hall - or what he thought was the Great Hall - he could hear the hundreds of voices that could only have been from the rest of the student population. She continued leading them to a chamber off the hall where they crowded together so that they could all have a chance at fitting. Draco moved to the back, just so he didn't have to worry about people touching him constantly.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," the stern woman began. It was obviously a well rehearsed speech of hers. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin-" Draco could not stop the pull on his lip when he heard the name of the house his father had urged. He tried to ignore the flop in his stomach that warned him of the pressures for getting into that house. "Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."
Under her scrutiny, most people tended to fidget to make themselves look more presentable. Draco didn't find the need to move, his father had taught him how to make his hair stay perfectly and his mother had procured him the nicest robes. In front of him, the Weasley was rubbing furiously at his nose and the two Potter's were fixing their hair: the boy flattening it and the girl fluffing it - it looked like she was trying to style it to curve around the scar on her neck. She had little success, he noted, her hair was a mess.
"I shall return when we are ready for you," Professor McGonagall stated. "Please wait quietly."
She left them waiting to get into the Great Hall to be sorted. Draco was not necessarily worried about how they would be sorted - like many people were whispering about - but he was worried about what would happen if the sorting went wrong. If he didn't get into Slytherin, he didn't know how his father would react.
What if he got into Ravenclaw? He knew he was smarter than most of the students around him. He'd had the best tutors Galleons could buy - but he didn't want to be the stupid person in the smart group. It would humiliate him.
What if he got into Hufflepuff? Merlin, he didn't want to be considered leftovers. He was a Malfoy and Malfoys were not 'hard workers' and he hated having to play fair, that was boring, and people like him didn't need to do anything like 'hard work' to reap the benefits.
What if he got into Gryffindor? The suggestion made him cringe. That house was beneath all other houses, it was something that he knew would not be allowed in his family. He was sure that he would be cast out just like his mother's cousin had been - he'd made it into Gryffindor and he had been shipped off to Azkaban thanks to making friends with the wrong sort. And his father had told him quite clearly that the wrong sort were the ones who got themselves into trouble just for some shred of nobility.
No, he was meant for Slytherin. Slytherin was for the cunning and sly, which was far a much more prevalent kind of nobility than real nobility. Father had always told him that nobility can be bought by the knights you can hire as guards, that you couldn't be brave and live at the same time. Draco had taken the advice to heart, Draco had also taken to heart that Gryffindors were brave and noble and because of this, stupid.
Before he could think and worry anymore, twenty ghosts appeared from the back wall. Flying through the hard stones, transparent and white as snow, the ghosts wandered and went about their business ignoring the students as they passed.
"New students!" the Fat Friar, the ghost most known with the Hufflepuffs, smiled at them all. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"
A few people nodded in response, Goyle being one. Draco hit him upside the head.
"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" the Friar smiled. "My old house, you know."
"Move along now," McGonagall's sharp tone cut through the excitement some of the mudbloods felt about seeing their first ghosts. Filth. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Now, form a line and follow me."
Walking through to the Great Hall was unlike anything even he could have imagined. No matter how many stories or descriptions his mother and father could have given him, he would never have been able to imagine all the intricacies of the Great Hall. The four house tables, long and coloured with gold plates and house colours, were what drew his attention first. Gryffindor on the far left, Ravenclaw beside that, Hufflepuff beside that, and Slytherin taking up the right side of the hall. The staff table, up at the head of the room, was placed width-wise to look at all of the students as they ate.
The students in their seats, with spaces open at the ends closest to the teachers for their new first years, were all watching them file in. Some seemed to be taking bets. Some were waving to friends. Draco didn't want to be any of those people, so he kept his head firmly up to the front, where a four legged stool was placed under the moon - or the bewitched moon that happened to hang in the bewitched ceiling.
McGonagall put a frayed, tattered hat on the stool. It didn't look fit to be on so much as a halfblood's head, but he wasn't about to try arguing with it. Who knew what the professors would do in rebuttal - use legilimency and put him in his least favourite house? Knowing Snape, who sat up their proudly, it was the least they would do to deal with arrogance.
Draco watched as the house, it's face demented with age, ripped itself open to sing.
"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,
But don't judge on what you see,
I'll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There's nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can't see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands (though I have none)
For I'm a Thinking Cap!"
The hall clapped more than it probably should have for its song. It wasn't that impressive and it hadn't said enough about Slytherin for his taste, but he joined in while McGonagall came up to speak, just so that he wouldn't be singled out if someone happened to take offense.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted...Abbott, Hannah!" the girl that went up was nothing magnificent. It looked like her four year old sister had styled her hair into those ridiculous pigtails and her red face made her look like she was choking on a sweet. When the hat was placed on her head it only took a moment before the hat shouted:
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Figures," Draco couldn't help muttering. Crabbe and Goyle laughed.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Great, we have a row of berks this year." Draco said again, feeling pleased when the two boys behind him laughed again.
"Boot, Terry!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
Now the blue table took to clapping, more polite than the excited applause the earlier two girls had gotten from the Hufflepuffs.
A few others were called, no one that Draco really cared to catch the names of. Not until Millicent Bullstrode, a hairy-armed girl his mother had introduced him to years before, was made the first official Slytherin. They cheered loudest, something almost close to jeering, to try and beat the others for the loudest table.
"Crabbe, Vincent!" Crabbe stopped chuckling at something Goyle had said as if he had forgotten that his name would eventually be called. He walked up to the stool with his mouth hanging open, as if he were winning some award and still stunned. McGonagall had to usher him to the stool to make him move faster.
"SLYTHERIN!"
Draco clapped for him, watching as Crabbe nervously went over to the Slytherin table - apparently he didn't know what to do now that he didn't have someone to obey for a few minutes. Pathetic.
After a few names "Goyle, Gregory" was called. Luckily, Goyle had the sense to at least try and look somewhat put together as he made his way to the stool - which almost buckled when he sat on it. It only took a moment for the hat to make its decision.
"SLYTHERIN!"
Draco clapped again, trying to reign in his look of surprise - because he was almost surprised. Though both Crabbe and Goyle had the personalities of Slytherins, it was hard to think that Crabbe or Goyle had the mind power to be anything but Hufflepuffs.
"MacDougal, Morag!" McGonagall called, looking over the crowd to find the boy who had been called. Draco didn't recognize the short boy who made it on the stool, but couldn't help clapping a little more enthusiastically when the hat called out Slytherin.
"Malfoy, Draco!"
This was it, the moment that he had been waiting for since he was old enough to wait for anything besides being taken care of. He tried looking as confident as he could when he went up to the hat, shooting the crowd a confident face - he needed to be a Slytherin to make all his lifelong plans work. He would never get away with the things he had dreamed of if he were in something awful like Gryffindor.
The hat was going to be lowered on his head, he thought about everything he'd ever done. Everything cunning, everything sly - stealing his father's wand when he slept and trying to unlock the pantry, going into his mother's diary to figure out what her favourite flowers were, trying to learn Latin so that his tutor couldn't read his homework and mark him poorly-
"SLYTHERIN!"
He fought hard keeping his face close to impartial as he slipped off the stool and made it over to the Slytherin table. They were all cheering, including the Slytherins that had already been sorted. After trading a few words to show how confident he was in himself, he turned back to the crowd of first years, the list slowly getting lower and lower while Lillian Moon, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson were sorted. He couldn't help moving with the school as they all took a breath, knowing whose name came next.
"Potter, Audrey!"
It was a strange mix of whispers and silence that met the great hall - it was like the whispers were carrying such an undertone that there weren't any whispers at all. The girl he couldn't help noticing constantly from Diagon Alley and the train and even the boats walked up to the hat. She looked less confident than Pansy had, before her. But she sat straight on the stool, gripping the seat with white knuckles.
The hat did not make up its mind quickly. Whatever it had decided to dig through in her mind, it seemed there was a lot of - which was exactly like Draco had thought there was. Girls with eyes like that didn't have trivial thoughts about schoolwork.
"SLYTHERIN!"
When the hat was finally pulled over her head, everyone was in shock. At first, the Slytherins forgot to clap for her, starting into a slow clap that lead to howls and whistles. Even the head of house, Professor Snape, looked shell-shocked by the results - he even dared to clap for his first student of the eve. The redhead walked nervously down to the Slytherin table, keeping her eyes on her brother the whole time, who shook his head and shrugged innocently - he didn't know what it meant.
It meant that Potter was more interesting than Draco had initially thought.
Harry Potter went up as his name was called, still with the undertone buzz of whispers that seemed to ring in your ears like intense silences did. Audrey had made it to the far side of the hall by now and had taken a seat there, her eyes firmly placed on her brother.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
The whispers worsened. Now all he could hear was a subliminal buzz that informed him that twins are rarely separated and in such different houses. How would the Potter twins be together in feuding houses? How would-
Who cares? He found himself thinking, looking over to the new - and only - redheaded member of their first year Slytherin class. She wasn't anything special. She obviously didn't have much money even though her robes were new, she didn't know magic so she must be muggle raised, and her scar didn't have powers even though she hid it like it did. She was nothing special, just another insecure little kid who wanted to join the big, bad, wizarding world.
Though Draco Malfoy had to admit, the new development of Audrey Potter and her brother's separation made her much more interesting now. What had made them so different that they were polar opposites? What made her eyes so much more shrewd than his?
By the time that the sorting was done - earning Ayla Rivers and Blaise Zabini a Slytheirn ranking - and Dumbledore had made a nonsensical speech that Draco was thankful he'd been warned about, the feast had begun. The golden dishes in front of him had piled themselves with food, every food, any food - all the foods that he had ever eaten and then some that he had never been allowed to.
"Oh come on," Pansy Parkinson urged the red headed girl who was still staring aimlessly in front at the food. "Pick something to eat and get on with it. You're too thin."
"I've never seen..." Potter breathed, "is this how it always is?"
"Not so grand," a second year Draco didn't recognize voiced in. "But pretty much. Special occasions always have more option."
"But I can eat as much food as I want? Whenever I want?"
"What's wrong with you?" Pansy asked her with a snort, pulling a chicken leg off the chicken in front of them and putting it on the other girl's plate. "Were you bound and tortured by muggles your whole life? Haven't you ever eaten off a refillable plate?"
"No, I haven't," she looked over to the raven haired girl with a glare. "And yes, I was."
"That's not funny," Pansy began, even though she let out a laugh. "You're the Audrey Potter, you can't lie about your upbringing. We all know you would only get the best."
"I did," she said with another glare to Pansy. "I got the best muggle education, lifestyle, and block to magic there is. Now, if you'd stop teasing me about it and get your fat fingers off my plate, I can get on with my night."
Though Pansy Parkinson, who Draco's mother had always said to be nice to, normally kept him entertained, Draco Malfoy could not deny how nice it was to see the nosey brat be put down a peg by someone like her. He watched her as she rifled through the food, picking a bit of this and a bit of that, though looking overwhelmed by it.
"I'm Daphne Greengrass," the blonde girl beside her shook her hand. "Pureblood."
"Oh," Audrey looked confused. "I'm Audrey Potter...er, redblood."
"No, no, no," Daphne laughed at her. "You're a halfblood."
"I am?"
"Of course. Your mother was a mu-u-uggle," he could hear Greengrass' mind shift from saying 'mudblood', "and your Dad was a full wizard. You're half and half. It's alright though, it's not something the kid can control, that's what my Mummy says."
"Oh, then I guess I'm a halfblood," she blushed, her face going pink as she started looking through all the food again - even though she had yet to touch her plate. "I guess I need to get used to everyone knowing more about me than I do."
"Yes, we all do," Draco piped in. "Except I still don't see why you haven't been eating."
"Er-" she paused, looking down at her plate. "I was just looking for something specific."
He furrowed his eyebrow skeptically. "Like what?"
"Er..." she shrugged, picking at the food she'd placed on her plate. "Some sweets. I was hoping, maybe, for some chocolate frogs..."
"What?"
Every food from every culture and every corner of the world was in front of her. Belgian chocolate, swiss chocolate, pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, chocolate truffles, cupcakes, candy kabobs...and she wanted a chocolate frog?
"Oh," Daphne looked just as shocked. "You must like them a lot..."
"Well, you see the last one melted when I got mad," Potter gave Draco a cool stare that he didn't have enough time to try and strip down. "I didn't get a chance to free it."
"Free it?" Pansy repeated, her voice shrill.
"Free it, Ron told me it was just a charm but it was so lifelike - I wanted to let it try to live on its own and see what happened...but it melted," she frowned a bit, sinking slightly in her seat. Between the look of disbelief from Draco, Daphne, Pansy and the others who happened to be sat around them, Potter probably had enough to worry about. But Pansy decided that the situation wasn't bad enough.
"Mother always tells me not to play with my food," she said haughtily. "So I guess that makes sense why you don't know that rule."
Even Draco raised his eyebrows, watching as the Potter twin's face began to burn as red as hot embers. Pansy seemed to have noticed her mistake because she was slowly inching away from Potter as if she was going to catch on fire.
"Well - Pansy, was it? - all I have to say to you is thank you for that," the redhead said simply, turning in her seat to look back at her plate.
"Thank you...to me?"
"Yes," she said, not even dignifying her by looking at her. "It's nice to know who my enemies are early on; it leaves me to sort out your weaknesses. And I can already tell by your fat fingers - which likely comes from how you like stuffing your face like you are now - what is one of yours."
Pansy looked particularly victimized, looking around at any of us for help, but none of us could keep the smiles from our faces. Daphne, who seemed to have been friends with Pansy long before today, cast a worried glance between the two.
"You know what, Potter," Draco couldn't help but say, a smirk lining his lips at the thoughts fluttering through his mind. "You're not half bad. I think with the proper education and company, we could get along."
"I don't get along with brats like you," she said simply. Daphne looked wide eyed between them.
"Audrey, that is Draco Malfoy!"
"I've heard," she said simply, looking from her to him and back to her food impassively.
"Draco Malfoy is famous...kind of like you," she muttered lowly to her, though everyone knew what she was saying. "He's not someone you want to cross."
"He's also not someone I want to be friends with," she said simply. "He's done nothing for me but be rude - friendships aren't one way streets. I'm not one of his goons, there."
Her fork pointed crudely at Crabbe and Goyle, who were too busy getting third plates of food to take notice of the gesture. Draco's cheeks tinged pink, he didn't like the idea of being shunned once by her brother and a second time by her. Even as she went back to picking at her food, it insulted him. It was as if she didn't realize - no, she didn't care - that she had just insulted him. Him! Draco Malfoy!
"Audrey," Daphne could see Draco's annoyance rising. "Please, just - why don't you try again? I'm sure he'd be very nice to you now - now that - er..."
"Now that your brother isn't here," Draco said quickly, watching her reaction. It was a slight wince and a quick glance over in the direction of the Gryffindor table. The girl looked at her plate again. "It'd be nice being friends with the better Potter. Only the best get in here and we only get the best of everything in the school. So obviously, only the best Potter could get into Slytherin and that you got in and your brother didn't just means you're the most powerful."
She raised her head a bit. "Houses aren't chosen by power...are they?"
He smirked, he couldn't help it while he watched her play right into his hand. I guess ignorance really could be bliss, for both of them. "Of course they are, the teachers just don't like to admit it. And Gryffindors aren't even second to Slytherins - Ravenclaws are. They're the smartest, you know. But Slytherins? We rule the roost. Everyone knows it - even the professors."
She turned her head up to the head table, pausing for a long, drawn out moment.
"Who's that?"
"Who's who?" Daphne asked, trying to follow her gaze.
"The man with the black hair at the teacher's table," she said slowly. "He looks..."
"Greasy," Daphne giggled. "That's Professor Snape. He's head of Slytherin house and Potions master - he's a genius but he's gross."
"Gross?"
"Look at him," Daphne giggled again. "Tell her Draco, you know him."
"Professor Snape is a great man," he said firmly, listening as Daphne's giggles died out. "He's the best here and he's ours - hates the Gryffindors, cause they're all so stupid. Are you any good at potions, Potter?"
"I don't know," she mumbled, stabbing into her meal before dropping her fork onto her plate. "Can we leave now? Can we just go when we're ready?"
"No," Montague, a second year, smiled at her. "Have to stay here until the prefects take us back."
"This is going to be terrible," Potter sighed as she melted farther down into her seat, peeling something away from her palm with a scowl. When Draco moved slightly - and unnoticeably enough - to look, he saw she was rubbing chocolate from her palm.
"Here," Draco said quickly, hoping to mend bridges and get on her good side - at least one Potter's good side - while he took the chocolate frog out of his pocket. True, it had come from her compartment and true, it had technically been stolen - but it was a chocolate frog and he could offer it to her.
She looked at the box while he placed it on her plate - which had cleared itself as if it knew she wasn't eating anymore. It was just the box, but her eyes were lit up with such an excitement that it was like it was Christmas day. Slowly, she raised it to eye level, cracking the box open to look into it and taking a deep breath when she felt the box tremble. Slowly she took out the chocolate frog and placed it on her hand - surprisingly, it didn't even try to jump away.
"Hello," she said to it distantly. Daphne looked at her nervously, probably worrying that the new friend she had made, who just-so-happened to be Audrey Potter, may be insane.
"Glad you like it," Draco said simply, almost amused by the childish innocence that it brought out in her. He hadn't expected that kind of innocence from someone with eyes like that. To surprise him even more, the redhead looked up from the chocolate frog in her hand and threw him a smile - a large, toothy smile.
"Thank you," she told him...it sounded sincere.
"Only the best," he echoed, watching as her smile fell slightly and her gaze wandered back over to the Gryffindor table. She watched what must have been her brother for a long moment before some stray thought that flashed behind her eyes made her smirk - a confident, dry smirk that didn't need an explanation.
Draco was already planning to owling his father that very night and talk about his eventful evening. His father would be proud - he'd made it into Slytherin, he'd upheld his family name because of it, and better he'd made friends with a Potter. Sure, it was not the Harry Potter that his father had suggested, but something told him that Audrey Potter would be more interesting to befriend. It was particularly easy to tell while he watched her giggle over the reactions of the girls sitting beside her while her chocolate frog jumped around her plate.
Yes, Draco almost smiled too. Audrey Potter was very interesting, indeed.
Based off of my story Green Eyed Monster.
This was edited by Angel of the Night Watchers. I do not own the Harry Potter universe or its characters. I do own Audrey Potter, her ridiculously vivid potion-making skills, and her wicked nicknames.
Enjoy the flashbacks and please review :)