DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter

Yeah, I'm including small lines and stuff from the movie in my chapters. This is cause I'm gonna be doing a lot of skipping through the years and I figured if I tied in some dialogue from the movie, y'all would assume whatever I didn't write about happened like in the movies. And I do say movies instead of books only cause I have the movies at hand here at school while the books are way back at home. This way I can at least be true to one form of the story. But don't worry, I'll always let you know of a year change at the beginning of the chapter. Now read, enjoy, and review!

Excited chatter filled the Great Hall as all the students of Hogwarts filled their friends in on all the details of their summer adventures over flowing plates of delicious and colorful food. The Hall was decorated beautifully, each house table themed with their respective colors. The ceiling had been bewitched to reflect the true night sky which was clear of clouds, stars sparkling brightly. Even with the darkness of the ceiling the room was very brightly lit with hundreds of floating candles. Everyone seemed thrilled to be back at school. Well, almost everyone…

"Crabbe!" Draco slammed his cup down, whipping his head around to glare fiercely at the large boy sitting beside him. "I swear on Merlin's grave if you don't start chewing with your mouth closed I will personally hex you so your mouth never opens again you disgusting pig!"

Crabbe just shrugged his shoulders and threw a few more pieces of chicken on his plate. Draco stared at him in utter disgust.

"Do they feed you at home?"

"Hey, Draco, lay off him." Draco glanced across the table at who he considered to be his only real friend, Blaise Zambini.

"Have you been watching this?" he asked in disbelief, gesturing a hand towards Crabbe who had somehow managed to shove a whole slab of chicken into his mouth. Blaise just shook his head and smirked.

"Calm down, man. His lack of table manners hasn't changed since last year."

Sighing, Draco stabbed a chunk of steak with his fork. "Guess the summer killed my desensitization against it" he grumbled.

As he brought the fork to his mouth he paused, noticing that his other "sidekick", Goyle, had stopped eating. He was staring at something with an odd expression on his face. Draco watched him for a few seconds before clearing his throat. Startled, Goyle jumped and turned toward Draco who raised an eyebrow at him.

"What, your brain stop working again?"

Goyle stared at him, confused. Draco rolled his eyes. "What were you staring at, idiot?"

"Oh," he replied, realization suddenly hitting him, "nothing. I mean, I – um, Potter's not here" he stammered with a finger waving towards the Gryffindor table.

"And?" Draco retorted. Goyle looked down at his plate.

"Maybe the Golden Boy finally got himself killed" Blaise snorted. Crabbe and Goyle laughed quietly before stuffing more food into their mouths. Draco glanced over at the table decked out in red, chewing on his piece of steak thoughtfully.

The Weasel is gone too…what a surprise.

He shook his head. What should he care what Potter was up to? Still, he gave the Gryffindor table one last look before turning his attention to his plate.

That night after finally getting all of his stuff settled, Draco laid on his bed in one of the Slytherin boy's dorm rooms. The rooms were cold and simple, the walls made of cracked ancient stones. The only color to be seen in the room's decoration was the emerald green drapes that hung around each of the bedposts. A black iron heater sat in the corner but didn't seem to have much effect on the temperature in the room.

Arms folded behind his head, Draco watched his roommate Blaise brushing his short black hair in front of one of the steel mirrors. He smirked and cocked his head to the side.

"Blaise, even I'm not so vain as to get my hair perfect before going to sleep."

"And this is why I'm the better looking one out of the two of us" he answered matter-of-factly as he ran his fingers through his hair one last time, throwing his brush on his bed.

"Hah!" Draco exclaimed with a grin. "You'd like to think so."

Blaise walked past Draco's bed to his own, giving him a smirk and a look of superiority. "And how many girlfriends have you had?"

Giving him a scoff, Draco turned over on his side to face Blaise getting into his bed. "What, and you're thinking you're going to magically get lucky tonight? You only go through so many girls because you're trying to convince everyone you're not gay."

"Metrosexual, Drake" he said with a wink. Draco snorted, laying on his back again.

"Whatever makes you happy."

A moment of silence passed between the two boys before Blaise spoke.

"You wouldn't mind?"

Draco turned his head to face his friend again. "Wouldn't mind what?"

"If I were gay."

Draco sighed. Way to make things awkward, Blaise…

"No, I don't suppose so." He saw Blaise nod before turning over again. A couple thickly tense minutes passed.

"…Are you?" Draco finally asked.

"Nope" was the other wizard's simple reply. Draco nodded at the darkness in a sort of approval. It was true, he wouldn't have minded, but the thought made him extremely uncomfortable. He could barely stand the sight of the straight couples making out in the hallways, but if he saw Blaise and a guy…

The thought made him shiver and he quickly crawled into bed, forcing himself to sleep before any other images invaded his mind.

Yeah I know…pretty low-key and not much going on. But hey, you gotta have a few leading chapters! What fun would it be if you got right to the good stuff? ;)