"Mr Malfoy? Mr Malfoy? Will you focus, please?" the new Transfiguration professor slammed down a textbook. The sound tore Draco's eyes from the stained glass window above the professor's head. The red and blue glass depicted Merlin in a forest. It was raining outside, the raindrops ran down the window making it looked like tears were running down his apple red cheeks.
Draco watched the frowning middle-aged woman. He was supposed to be in potions now, with that idiot Slughorn. He hated potions class. He was seated behind Hermione Granger, her big bushy head blocked the chalkboard. Everywhere he went he couldn't escape the bloody 'Golden Trio.' And to top it all off, Slughorn always had something negative to say to him, he was heating his potion wrong, the texture was wrong, his attitude was wrong and apparently not wearing his Slytherin tie was wrong too. So whoop-di-do!
The professor slammed down the book again. "Mr Malfoy, can you concentrate for ten seconds?" What was her name? Bigfoot or Bigot? He couldn't remember. "Can you repeat back to me what I have said?"
"Work harder," Draco answered automatically. "And I will."
"No." The professor put a hand to her face and sighed. "I said, multiple times, you are failing Transfiguration. You can't even turn a beetle into a button. I understand this has been a rough year for you but the NEWTs are in eight months. Without at least an Exceeds Expectations you will not be able to study potions further- that's what you wrote on your career form. Is that what you wish to do after school? Seek further education?"
Draco didn't reply to that.
"I have assigned you a tutor, Mr Malfoy."
"I don't need one. Everything I need to know is in the textbook."
"Quoting the textbook is not going to get you very far in the NEWTs, Mr Malfoy." The professor clasped her hands together. "It's too late now, I have already arranged a time and a tutor."
"I don't need some Hufflepuff-"
"Slytherin." She corrected. "Ms Greengrass says you know her-"
"No way." Draco was on his feet.
"Mr Malfoy, that is not the way you speak to a professor." She said coolly. "You rarely come to my class and when you do show up you only stare out the window. Do yourself a favour. Ms Greengrass will be in the Slytherin common room on Saturday at nine o'clock."
"In the morning?" Draco asked, standing behind the chair, with a sneer.
"It's a tutoring session, not a party what do you think, Mr Malfoy?"
Draco had his back turned to the professor and was walking out of the room. He didn't see her reaction he only heard. "Ten points from Slytherin for disrespect."
Draco went to the Slytherin common room instead of potions class. He threw himself into an armchair and waited. Astoria would eventually have to pass through the Slytherin common room and when she did he and his boiling blood would be waiting.
She wanted to make a joke out of him, some interesting story to tell her brain dead friends. He could hear her now, 'The Draco Malfoy- the one who was put on trial during the summer, the one who almost ended up in Azkaban but was saved thanks to the heroic mercy of Harry Potter- asked me how my summer was.'
Draco had enough of people. It was 'people' who forced him to go back to Hogwarts, he should be at home making sure his mother and father didn't fall down the stairs or blow the entire Malfoy fortune in Knockturn Alley or Twilfitt and Tatting's in his mother's case.
It was meddling people like Greengrass that made him draw the curtains permanently around his bed.
"Draco?" A voice came, timid but at the same time gruff.
Draco's head snapped towards the source of the sound that interrupted his thoughts. How long had he been sitting there thinking? A minute, an hour? He felt like he was going more insane with every day that passed.
"What, Goyle?" Draco dug his nails into the arm of the chair. Fire. Heat. Sweat. 'Draco, help!' 'What have you done, you idiot?!' Crabbe screaming as he fell and disappeared into the flames. Draco's own grip loosening.
Draco shivered.
"There's a quidditch practice later." He said, pulling at a loose thread in his robes. "I thought you liked to come, you don't have to play, you could just sit-"
"For the tenth time this month no." Draco snapped. "Tell Parkinson to stop sending you over."
Goyle shuffled off again. Draco ran a hand through his hair, his Malfoy ring got caught in a strand. He sighed and pulled it loose. People either feared him, hated him or felt sorry for him. Most of the wizarding community all over the world hated him. Crabbe and the rest of his old gang felt a mixture of sympathy and fear. He had a bad temper that was getting worst and he knew it. He liked it though. It kept people away.
"I don't understand what I did wrong." An all to familiar voice shrilled. Greengrass. Draco picked himself up from the seat and marched over to the entrance of the common room.
A group of four maybe five girls surrounded her.
One girl, with her hair tied back so tight it made her eyes bulge, started. "Greengrass, can you stop being annoying for five seconds?" She raised her wand. "We gave you chances-"
"It was a first year! Why would you do that to a first year?!" Astoria was nearly screaming now. Draco took a step back. Her face was red and she was wearing an expression that read 'I will kill you.'
"A mudblood Raven-what's-it with greasy hair and pimples to match it." The girl chuckled.
Another girl joined in. "So fat I expected him to take off like a balloon."
"So you made him vomit blood," Astoria said, bewildered and enraged.
Something in Draco's stomach churned.
"We can't all find mudbloods sexy." There was a roar of laughter from the group and from everyone in the common room.
Astoria turned a darker shade of red. "You are a mean bitch. This is the best thing that'll ever happen to you. Enjoy it."
The common room fell silent. The leader clapped her hands together and beamed. "Okay, who wants to see what colour Astoria's blood really is? Does anyone want a re-enactment?"
The common room started cheering.
The girls raised their wands at Astoria. "Open wide-"
Before Draco could control himself or remember to return to the wallpaper he was in front of Astoria. She drew her wand and raised it over his shoulder.
"What the fuck, Malfoy?" Someone called.
Draco's heart was pounding. Battle of Hogwarts. A group of Death Eaters. Wands drawn. Surrounding a body torn apart by a werewolf-
Bile rushed into the back of his throat. He swallowed it and took a breath feeling dizzy like the coward he knew he was. His wand-free hand reached for support, he accidentally grabbed Astoria's hand. Like on the train she refused to let go.
Someone wolf whistled.
"Leave her alone or you will regret it." Draco thundered.
There was a chorus of 'ohhh's.
The girls paled. Fear was a great tool in situations like these. Draco almost smiled.
"I might just call in the Death Eaters and we'll-" There was a sharp yank on his hand. He stopped.
Astoria dragged Draco out of the common room, making sure to shoulder the girls on the way out. Once in the cold corridor of the dungeon, still red in the face, she kissed his pale cheek. Draco backed away like a nervous animal.
"No-"
"Thank you." Astoria cut across him. "You saved me, Draco Malfoy."
Draco blinked. No one had ever said that to him before.
"I am not a damsel in distress but you saved me from a trip to the hospital wing. Who the hell does five against one? That's barbaric."
"But not as barbaric." Draco found himself saying. "As making someone vomit blood."
Astoria nodded. "But no one can see that all they can see is a muggleborn. I'm not a muggle-lover for the record." Astoria held up her hands and added. "I just have a heart- Merlin, when was the last time you slept the bags under your eyes have bags."
And just like that, such a simple comment made Draco start laughing and forget why he was searching for Astoria in the first place. He pressed a hand to his face, he felt something sticky on the side of his face. His hand came away dark red, her lipstick.
"I don't know. Everything's a blur." Draco laughed harder. It took him a second to realise Astoria wasn't laughing with him. Instead, the corners of her mouth were pulled down and her eyes were boring into his.
"I think you need to sit down," Astoria said quietly. She held his hand again and led him down the dungeon corridor to a bench. She put both her hands on his shoulders and forced him to sit down. Astoria pressed a hand to his forehead like his mother used to do him when he was younger… now the house elf does that to his mother.
Astoria had a feather in her hair, this time it was pink with a purple tip. Draco tried to focus on that, her eyes were too intense.
"Why did you sign up to be my tutor? I don't want one and I don't need one." He said coldly.
"I didn't 'sign up'," Astoria said matching his tone. "I tutor other students you are just a new addition to my list."
Draco was taken back he had expected her to start rambling about her tutoring experience and the unicorn bullshit she was planning to force down his throat.
"You know," her eyes softened. "Sometimes I don't sleep either."
Draco pretended he didn't hear that. "Greengrass, you should stay away from me."
"Oh, because you're so bad." Astoria mocked. "If I recall correctly you threw yourself in front of me. I had no intention of meeting with you face to face until Saturday." She straightened her skirt. "Do you want me to take you to the hospital wing? You look paler than a ghost."
"I'm always pale." He stood up. She reached for him, he ducked away from her hand just in time. "I don't need a tutor. I don't care about Transfiguration-"
"What do you care about then, Draco?" Astoria stepped up on the bench, she was a couple of inches taller than him that way. She peered down her nose at him, her eyebrows joining together.
Draco reached up to loosen his tie forgetting he had abandoned it a couple of weeks ago at the start of the year.
"How about you mind your own business, Greengrass? Does that sound so hard?" Draco scowled at her. Merlin, she was annoying.
"I'd find something to care about if I were you. My mother always said, 'life loses meaning when you have nothing to follow.'"
Draco snorted.
Astoria said, "Us Slytherins- proper, decent Slytherins- have to look out for each other. I'd hate to be the only one with a brain left in this house."
Draco threw his hands in the air. "Then you better start enjoying it." Draco marched off down the corridor.
"Nine o'clock Saturday morning, Draco," Astoria called after him, her voice echoed through the silent dungeon.
Draco shut his eyes, praying for patience.
"It's Malfoy to you, Greengrass."