Disclaimer: I don't own any of JK Rowling's characters and story plots or any of the WB movie rights, alot of dialogue which includes Draco in the movies have been used and i do not claim it as my own.
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CHAPTER 3
The Ugly Side of Malfoy
The morning came sooner then expected as Chloe pulled on her new school robes of black silver and green. There was a grey pleated skirt and white collared shirt with a matching grey cardigan that had trims of the house colours with a green and silver striped tie. Finally there was a floor length black robe which possessed the Slytherin house shield. This uniform was quite different from her old Beauxbaton uniform of luxurious light blue silk dresses, matching cropped capes that came to only the top of the elbow and their blue felt hats shaped like Hershey chocolate kisses. Chloe had loved that uniform and now she felt so drab in what she was now wearing. More traditional she guessed. Combing her hair she tied half of it up finishing it off with a black ribbon tied into a bow.
Checking her hair in the mirror she made a minor adjustment to her fringe before she was satisfied enough and set off to breakfast in the Great Hall who's table was now covered in breakfast foods of all sorts, quite a opposite of the foods on offer last night with toast, bacon, eggs, porridge, milk and cereals. Back at Beauxbatons every meal they had was cuisine all prepared for them by each house's personal chefs, all presented exquisitely and tasted absolutely delightful. The Hogwarts breakfast menu looked quite bland compared to her French toasts, fruit pies and eggs Benedict but not wanting to seem picky she continued to pile a few selected items onto her plate. Taking a sip of orange juice she saw Draco enter the hall with his two personal bodyguards, walking to the Slytherin table Draco whispered something into Crabbe's ear which was then followed by him grabbing the Slytherin boy which sat next to Chloe, replacing him down the table some where else.
"Morning sweets, have a good sleep?"
"It wasn't that bad."
"I hear Hogwarts is nothing like Beauxbatons, which i believe is a lot more luxurious then this old place."
"Quite, it'll just take some time getting use to that's all." And before Malfoy could continue their conversation the sound of wings, hoots and squawks could be heard through out the Hall as owls began to fly around everywhere dropping packages and letter to their intended receivers.
"Good, mail's here. Wonder what mother's sent me." And just like he said an eagle owl swooped down next to Draco and landed a heavy and large looking package besides his plate which sent Goyle's eggs catapulting into the air and landing on Crabbe's head, who just seemed to eat them right off his own face. Laughing at the situation before her Chloe was soon distracted by her own mail landing on her lap, delivered by a white furry owl who's facial features resembled a Persian cat a great deal. Looking down she saw letter's from her Beauxbaton friends as their envelopes had French written on them and smelt of Lavender, her best friend Genevieve's favourite flower. Draco in the mean time was ripping into his box to find what treats his mother had sent him for his first week only to find that most of the space was occupied with confectionary and sweets while only a small space was left for some other little goods like magazines, comics and a new wizard's chess board. Taking a pink iced cupcake out of the cake box he leaned over to Chloe who was now nose deep in her own letters inscribed with French words.
"Care for a cupcake?"
"Bit early for sweets isn't it?"
"Very well, more for me then. But i must warn you these are my mother's special.."
"RONALD WEALESY!!! HOW ARE YOU STEALING THAT CAR!!" A women's voice suddenly erupted through the hall causing everyone to stare at the source of it, at the Gryffindor table. It was a red envelope known as a howler and it seemed to have been sent by Ron's mother. "I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER IS NOW FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOES OUT OF LINE WE'LL BEING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!" The envelope screamed before destroying it's self and bursted into flames. After a moment's of silence the hall erupted in laughter which came especially loud from the Slytherin table where Draco's gang sat. Chloe sat there quietly not laughing at what she was sure a very humiliating moment for Ron and did not looked amused when Draco looked over her still laughing and commenting on Ron with rude remarks, but before she could say anything further about the matter Professor Snape came walking down the table and handed out the class timetables and saw she had double Herbology with Gryffindor first.
Walking back up to her dormitory Chloe packed all that she would need for the day, books, gardening robe and some parchment she wandered down the corridor to find this greenhouse place. Wandering around like a little lost puppy in the halls she eventually bumped into Professor Snape.
"Miss Maritallow, you should be in class."
"Yes, i know professor i can't seem to find the greenhouse."
"Oh Herbology, right." Snape looked around the hall before spotting a student he needed. "Longbottom!" A stubby boy walked over looking scared out of his socks with his head hung low as he greeted Snape. "Longbottom you have herbology with Slytherin, take Miss Martiallow to the green house with you."
"Yes Professor." The boy known as Longbottom agreed allowing Snape to leave them to go ahead to class.
"By the way I'm Chloe, and you are?"
"I'm Neville."
"Are you in my year Neville?"
"I think so. You're the new girl in Slytherin aye."
"That's correct." She smiled at the boy who seemed a quite nervous talking to her, scared even.
"You sure don't act like them lot." Chloe was glad to see that her smile had relaxed Neville, showing him she wasn't the prude he might have through she was.
"I hear that alot."
"They're a horrid bunch that lot."
"I've been hearing that quite alot too."
"You'll see what we mean in time i guess." Neville trailed off as they arrived at the green house which was located at the back of the school next to the vegetable patches. Upon entering the Greenhouse everyone changed into gardening robes to prevent their uniform getting covered in mud or what not, before long Madam Sprout entered and greeted the class. The topic for today's lessons was Mandrakes, funny little plants who's roots possessed a face that cried continuously which is apparently fatal to anyone who hears it according to Hermione. Madam Sprout went over the basics of how to repot Mandrakes before everyone pulled on their earmuffs and began on their given task.
"1..2..3..Pull." And on that command everyone tugged their baby Mandrakes out of their pouts sending the Greenhouse filled with the brawls and wails of their cries, causing Neville to pass out stone cold. Looking around to see how everyone was doing with their Mandrakes she saw that Neville was still passed out on the floor, while Ron seemed to have got himself a rather fat chubby baby Mandrake, Draco how ever found the wrinkled little thing quite adorable and decided to give it a little scratch under the chin to get his finger bitten in return. Chloe laughed as she watched Malfoy try to retrieve his finger back from the little Mandrake who seemed to have taken a liking to him as it refused to let go. Finally pulling his finger out of the Mandrakes bite he looked at it angrily and seemed to want to beat the thing to a pulp but stopped when he saw Chloe laughing at him which actually made him smile return, seeming pleased that he made her laugh.
After Herbology was Transfiguration with McGonagall, the class was pretty plain just trying to turn beetles into buttons which she had great success of doing while Ron failed miserably and killed his bug instead. Chloe was looking forward to having a break between her next class until Professor McGonagall asked her to stay behind in class and announced that the Headmaster would like to see her in his office immediately. Scared that she had done something wrong she quickly followed McGonagall to Dumbeldore's office. Coming to a giant Griffin statue Professor McGonagall gave the password 'lemon sherbet' and the stairs began to move upwards taking Chloe with them. Arriving at Dumbeldore's office door she knocked lightly and let herself in. Seeing the Headmaster at his desk Chloe proceeded up the steps to him.
"You wish to see me Professor?"
"Ahh Chloe, i am sorry i have not had a chance to speak to you sooner. I wanted to see how you are doing, is Hogwarts to your liking?"
"I'm doing alright, might be feeling a little home sick but."
"Yes, homesickness is a funny illness which I'm afraid that even Madam Pomfrey can not fix." Standing up from his chair he walked around to the front of his desk where Chloe stood, he gently placed his hand on her shoulder as a sign of comfort.
"You know Chloe, your father asked me as a special favour to accept you into Hogwarts, when he came to this school as a young boy when i was still only a teacher." Dumbeldore instantly recognised the pain that flashed across Chloe's face. "Chloe, do understand why your father wanted you to come here. He believes happiness will be brought upon you in this very school and i believe the same, you need to give it a chance."
"I understand Professor, it's just i don't know why that is. I was already happy at Beauxbatons."
"You will soon come to learn why this is so, funny thing about fate, it falls into place all on it's own piecing our lives together in odd ways. In the end we see what was meant to be and why our paths have been set like so.""Just like how the hat said things are destined for me in Slytherin?"
"You have doubts about Slytherin?"
"Everyone says that i shouldn't be in Slytherin and I'm starting to believe them. I don't fit in there."
"Chloe, the hat never places wrongly, you will see what he means in time. I assure you."
"Alright."
"Very well, off you go then."
"Good day Professor." Chloe said as she turned and headed for the door.
Pulling out her timetable she saw that she would be having Defence Against the Dark Arts with Gilderoy Lockhart next, no wonder nearly all the books i had to buy were by him Chloe thought to herself. Looking at the time she saw she only had about 10 minutes left of lunch and decided to quickly pop by the Great Hall and grab some food anyway. Walking past the overcast courtyard to reach the hall she saw that Draco was walking past Harry and suddenly stopped which meant that trouble was bound to be ahead, in hopes of maybe being able to intervene with yet another confrontation Chloe ran up to where the pair stood.
"Signed photos? Your giving out signed photos Potter?" Chloe heard Draco sneer at Harry as she approached them. "Everyone queue up! Harry Potter's giving signed photos!" He yelled to everyone at the courtyard in a mocking tone.
"I am not! Shut up Malfoy!" Harry spat back angrily.
"You're just jealous!" A little first year boy said standing up to Draco, this was going to prove to be an interesting conversation. Chloe was about to stop what was about to unfold but found her intentions were too slow compared to Draco's reflex to produce a come back.
"Jealous? Of what? I don't want a foul scar right across my head, thanks. I don't think getting your head cut open makes you that special myself." Suddenly out of no where Ron stood up for Harry.
"Eat slugs Malfoy!"
"Be careful Weasly,you don't want to start any trouble or you're Mummy's have to come and take you away from school." He sneered and twisted his voice into a high pitched shrill. "If you put another toe out of line!" Causing the large group of gathered Slytherins to laugh except for Chloe who looked apologetically to Ron. "Weasly would like a signed photo Potter, it'd be worth more then his family's whole house." Draco smirked. Ron then pulled out his Spellotaped wand at Draco before Lockhart's voice was heard pushing through the gathered crowd.
"What's all this? What's all this? Who's giving out signed photos?" He said curious to what all the commotion was all about. Draco not wishing to stop snarling mean remarks at the Golden trio was about to spit out some more venom until he felt Chloe's hand pull him back, wishing to impress her he listened and followed her back out of the crowd but gave Harry a sly smirk before doing so.
"Draco i really wish you wouldn't be like that to Harry and Ron."
"Like what sweet?" He smiled sweetly at her which made her roll her eyes and turn to walk off to Defence Against the Dark Arts class with Draco running to chase after her.
Defence Against the Dark Arts was quite a bore if you didn't count the silly test that Gilderoy had set them all about his favourite colours and all these trivial things about himself. Not to mention he soon released a bunch of Cornish Pixies upon to the classroom causing total chaos with students plummeting beneath desks and inside cupboards. Looking for cover Chloe hide under a large table on the side of the room which usually held books and some artefacts which were now all sprawled over the ground. Lifting the table cloth that hid her under the table she saw her class in panic and Neville getting lifted up into the air by two pixies by the ear and hung up on a candelabra, what a mess. Chloe was soon joined by a blonde streak that dove straight under her table.
"You alright Draco?" She asked as he seemed a little out of breathe.
"Never better. That Lockhart is an oaf. Setting those things upon us!"
Then the sound of the bell rung out through the classroom setting off a rampage of footsteps running out the room.
"You wanna make a run for it?"
Chloe barely got out a nod of response before Draco grabbed her hand and pulled her out from under the table and they both ran out the door dodging a few pixies along the way. Arriving safe outside down the corridor they stopped running and tried to catch their breathe, it wasn't until their heartbeats had calmed down that Chloe noticed Draco was still holding her hand in his, only to cause her heart to start beating at a quick pace again.
"You alright?" Draco asked with Chloe only nodding silently in return. Gazing down he saw that he was still holding her hand and quickly let go before an awkward silence fell upon them.
"Well ummm... i should get going. To find Crabbe and Goyle, make sure they're not shaken up to bad."
"Yeah that would be a good idea, i need to lie down anyway. Too much excitement for me." And with that they both began to walk in opposite directions, blocking each other by both walking on the left side and the right side at the same time which added to the awkward feeling between them. Before finally was able to untangle themselves from each other and walk in their own directions.
For a couple of days after that Draco and Chloe seemed as if they were trying to avoid each other not wanting to be met with that same uncomfortable silence again. There was the occasionally wave or hello with they passed each in the corridors or saw each other at meal times and classes. It was only four days later that Chloe found it ridiculous to avoid him seeing that they just lived right next door to each other and will have to face one another for the next 5 years to come so she decided to sort it all out herself. Walking down to the common room she saw Draco lounging in front of the fire
"Chloe!" He said spotting her heading towards him he sat back upright and fidgeted with his robe
"Hey Draco, is there something wrong? Some sort of misunderstanding maybe?"
"What do you mean?"
"Things haven't exactly been normal with us lately if you haven't noticed."
"Oh that, it's just..."
"It was the other day wasn't it? After the whole pixie thing? The awkwardness?"
"I suppose it was."
"I thought as much..look Draco. You should know that i really do like you..." Draco's heart took a leap of joy once he had heard. "..as a good friend, a brother even so you don't really need to worry about it." Wait she thought i was afraid she WOULD like me? He thought.
"Oh." he paused for a minute. "Of course, me too." He quickly covered up his disappointment, as if he would ever should weak emotions to anyone let alone a girl. Chloe gave a smile of relief.
"I'm glad we've got all that sorted out, so are we good friends then?"
"Sure. Even better then good, we're great." He sounded a bit overly enthusiastic about it but luckily Chloe didn't noticed. So from then on they were as Draco would call them "great friends" with pulling out the occasional tease to get her all worked up and something it was even the other way round. Harry, Ron and Hermione on the other hand weren't extremely happy with the fact that Chloe was becoming such good friends with Malfoy especially after Chloe had a first hand witness to how Draco treated them, but yet they did not make it a huge issue and kept their mouths shut for Chloe's sake.
She was choking, her tears drowned her, she couldn't breathe. It was all so painful. Looking down on her hands she saw they were stained with blood, it was all over him, she couldn't stop it from happening.
"PLEASE!" She begged holding onto the now lifeless person on the ground, suddenly a flash of green light gave her such a fright she awoke up in bed covered in sweat, tears stained her face. There was no blood on her hands, it was all a dream. Wiping off all the tears and sweat she looked over to the clock it was quite early, morning had barely hit not too long ago. Deciding that she could not possibly sleep anymore she decided to write to her friends back in France. After she had freshened up and changed into her school robes Chloe wandered down into a currently deserted common room, taking a seat at one of the wooden tables and began to unpack some pretty parchment from her bag. Picking up her quill she was soon disturbed by a crowd of people rushing into the room making a big fuss over something, without even lifting her head she knew it was Draco and his posse by the shrieking laughs from Pansy Parkinson. Suddenly someone slumped down in the chair right beside her.
"Kind of early for you lot to be up isn't it?" Chloe said as she began to scribble away.
"Good news sweets, guess who's the new Slytherins seeker then." Taking her eyes off her parchment she was met with Draco dressed in a royal green robe which she guessed
was the Slytherin Quidditch uniform.
"Hmmm, Crabbe?" Chloe smirked at her own little joke.
"I wish you wouldn't say that, puts an awful image into my mind. Crabbe on a broom?"
"I wish you would stop calling me sweets."
"I think not, i like calling you that, suits you quite well really. Well come on then you haven't congratulated me yet."
"So seeker aye. Are you any good?"
"Of course! And look what father brought me for it." He said holding out a black wooded broom with a highly polished handle, spotting the little golden letters on the handle her eyes widened just a little.
"Is that a Nimbus 2001?" Chloe read about the Nimbus broom lines in some magazine before when she was in the waiting room at the hospital, something publication Which Broom. They were apparently the best thing on the market, it wasn't even out yet when she had read about them.
"Sure is, I'll take you for a ride on it some time, what do you say?"
"I don't like flying very much. I'm actually pretty scared of heights."
"Is that so? Well you know what they say, best way to conquer a fear is to face it."
"If you think I'm getting on that thing, you're crazy.
"Well atleast come to Qudditch practice and watch me play, they're training me today."
"Draco, i really got alot of work to do and..."
"Please come, i would really like you there." He pleaded with a puppy dog face which made Chloe give in with no other choice, dam that look she thought as she packed her bag as Draco smirked at his easy victory.
Arriving at the Qudditch field it was quite chilly with a light layer of fog that hovered over the grass pitch, looking out to the field a group of maroon clad players could be seen hovering in the sky on their own brooms, they were clearly the Gryffindor team. Chloe furrowed her brow at the sight before her and knew that another fight was about to break up between the two rival houses, hoping that it might have a slight effort she grabbed onto Draco's arm and held him back behind everyone else as they continued to cross the field to where the Gryffindor team had just landed.
"Flint, this is our practice time! We got up specially, you can clear off now!" The captain of the Gryffindor team bellowed at Marcus clearly not happy with the situation of Slytherins intruding on them.
"Plenty of room for all of us Wood." Chloe stood with Draco behind the large bodies of the Slytherin players as Wood continued to rage on.
"Wood is a bit of a Quidditch nut, mental if you ask me." Draco said to Chloe as she held onto his arm as if to prevent him from doing anything drastic.
"But i booked the pitch! I booked it!" This Wood boy was definitely not happy.
"Ah, but I've got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape." Marcus retorted calmly with a smug look on his face as he handed him a small rolled up piece of parchment. Wood looked up after reading the note and seemed sort of surprised.
"You've got a new seeker? Where?"
After standing at the back of the crowd and listening to the argument Draco decided it was finally his time to shine and walked from behind his team to show them who the new seeker pulling Chloe along with him. Chloe felt Harry's eyes on her with a look of slight anger causing her to look down on the floor not wanting to meet his eyes.
"Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?" Asked one of Ron's older brothers.
"Funny you should mention Draco's father, let me show you the generous gift he's made to the Slytherin team." Marcus said as Chloe watched him hold out a shiny new broom, the same one that Draco had shown her before in the common room. It was a Nimbus 2001, looking around all the boys on the team had one also. Marcus continued to boast about the greatness of their new brooms and shot out comments to put the models the Gryffindor team had down. Chloe stood there helpless to what she could do, she definitely believed she didn't belong in this house at that moment, she wasn't like these people who could be so cruel and unkind to everyone else.
"Oh look, a pitch invasion." Marcus stated causing everyone to look up to their left where Ron and Hermione was running across to where they all stood.
"What's happening? Why aren't you playing? And what's he doing here." Ron said as he glared at Draco clad in his new green Qudditch robes.
"I'm the new seeker Weasly." Draco smirked with pride. "Everyone's just admiring the new brooms my father brought us." Which caused Ron to gaze open mouthed at the polished equipment in their hands. "Good aren't they?" By now Chloe had let go of Draco's arm as a sign of not wanting to have anything to do with him.
"Draco, stop it. Please." Chloe finally spoke up with a slight of annoyance in her voice, everyone on the Slytherin team instantly shot her a look.
"Sweets, if they just raffled off those brooms I'm sure they could raise some gold to buy some new ones. I expect a museum will bid for them." Everyone on the Slytherin team howled with laughter except for Chloe who stared at Draco angrily. "Aw come off it sweets." Draco said still laughing spotted Chloe's disapproving look.
"Atleast no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in, they got in on pure talent." Hermione said sharply causing Draco to instantly stop laughing and glare directly at her.
"No one asked your opinion, you filthy little mudblood." Draco sneered which created an uproar at his words, Chloe's eyes widened unrelieved at the words that just came out of his mouth.
"HOW DARE YOU!" A Gryffindor girl shrieked as Ron pulled out his wand and pointed it directly at Draco.
"You'll pay for this one Malfoy!" BOOM! A surge of light exploded from the end of Ron's wand which sent him flying back across the grass field and landing on his back. The Gryffindor team ran up to Ron to see if he was alright, including Chloe who began to run towards Ron before Draco tried to hold her back but she shot a sharp glare to him which made him let go. Kneeling besides Ron alongside Hermione they asked if he was alright only to be met with a reply of slimy slugs burbling out of his mouth causing the Slytherin team to topple over in a gigantic fit of laughter.
"I think we better take him to Madam Pomfrey." Chloe said gently stroking Ron's back. Hermione and Harry lifted Ron up arm by arm and supported him to his feet.
"I think Hadgrid will know what to do with these cases, he's closer." said Harry as they began to walk off the field.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Ron, Hermione. Draco was way out of line there calling you that." Chloe said with a shameful look on her face.
"Don't worry about it now Chloe, let's get Ron better first." Harry spoke up knowing that Hermione was too upset to reply to her.
"Hermione would you mind if i came along, i want to make sure you're both alright."
"Of course." Hermione nodded with a light smile. The four helped Ron towards Hadgrid's until they heard Draco shout.
"CHLOE! Where are you off to?" But she chose to ignore him and kept walking. Draco not wishing to be looked down upon by the rest of his team mates ran up to her and caught her by the arm. "Come on then, no need to care about these people, everyone's waiting." he continued to pull her back to where the Slytherin team were. Chloe opened her mouth to protest by was already quite a distance from Ron, Harry and Hermione. "Come on then!" Draco was so persistent.
"I'll come see you all later. Sorry." Chloe said with a sad look as Draco continued to pull her away. As they walked back to the group, Draco still pulling her along the way Chloe spoke out.
"I can't believe you said that to her."
"What? That's what she is."
"Hermione is the smartest witch i know, blood has nothing to do with it!"
"Why do you care so much? Associating yourself with such a filthy person like her."
"HERMIONE IS MY FRIEND." Chloe shouted as she pushed Draco's grip off her as she ran off leaving Draco open mouthed, Draco stood there for a moment thinking what he should do next and decided to go after her but was prevented from doing so as Marcus called him to begin training, reluctantly he did as he was told. She'll be fine he told himself, she'll get over it. Right?