A/N; I do not own Harry Potter and everything that is from the Harry Potter books. Enjoy, and review please, thanks a lot!

Draco's POV

He had kept his eyes fixed on her for the entirety of the Sorting ceremony. The song the Sorting hat sang did not interest him in the slightest, neither did the first-years and the houses they were sorted into. Her, on the other hand, interested him greatly, for reasons even he could not explain. He tried telling himself it was only because she had appeared out of nowhere, and no one knew of her background. But he knew that was not all. There was something else that drew him in like no other did. It could be the vulnerability she had let through as he sat by her during the nights in the Astronomy Tower, yet pulling herself together and presenting a strong front when others were around. It could be the way her presence comforted him, the way it seemed like she was the only one who knew him, who cared for him. It could be the way she blushed prettily and bit her lip nervously, keeping her eyes downcast as she stood before the whole school. He did not know.

When it was her turn to be sorted, he listened intently as McGonagall introduced her to the school.

"DRAE, KYLERA!"

His mind kicked into overdrive. The Draes were a very old and respected family, Astin and Parissa Drae were widely known to be a pair of very powerful and talented purebloods. Voldemort had tried several times to recruit them into his Inner Circle but had failed each time. After losing several Death Eaters who had been sent to convince them, Voldemort had finally given up and sent his Death Eaters to get rid of them. It had taken twelve of his fully trained Death Eaters, but they were at last killed and their house set on fire. It had been a large display of power for Voldemort, and was soon a hot topic of hushed conversations after the story appeared on the headlines of the Daily Prophet the next day. There had been, however, no mention of a daughter of the Draes. That must have been the work of Dumbledore, not wanting a distraught Kylera Drae to be subject to the hounding of the bloodthirsty reporters. He realised now why she had been in so much pain. He felt an overpowering sense of guilt that he was associated with those who had caused her such hurt. He hoped that she was sorted into Slytherin. Perhaps he could make it up to her, perhaps he could befriend her and help lessen her pain. His wishes fell on deaf ears as the hat shouted,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

She broke into a smile and her face visibly lightened up, obviously happy with the hat's decision. Several seventh years sitting around him groaned at the loss. Nott was more vocal about his disappointment and Draco felt a wave of irritation at his slanderous comments.

"Shut up," he snapped. The Slytherins looked at him in shock. "She's a Gryffindork, why would you be disappointed that she isn't in Slytherin," he continued weakly. It seemed enough to placate them as they turned back to their own conversation and ignored him. His eyes followed her as she walked past several guys who tried to get her to sit with them, finally settling in next to Weasley. Her choice was obviously deliberate. Lost in his thoughts, he was startled when he felt a hand tugging on his sleeve.

"Did you hear anything I said?" Parkinson asked him, annoyance evident in her tone.

"No." He replied her coldly.

She pouted and adopted a hurt expression. He turned back to his untouched food. He really could not bring himself to care.

Before she could say anything else, a loud BANG reverberated around the hall as the doors were thrown open. In walked an irate-looking Snape, cloak billowing dramatically behind him. But it was the person following behind who commanded the attention of those in the hall. Potter.

Whispers of the Chosen One and the fight in the Department of Mysteries broke out all over the hall. Then people started noticing his bloody face and soon everyone was talking about the apparent duel Potter had just had with 'two, no, five, wait no, ten!' Death Eaters.

Draco laughed. He would have much fun disabusing them of this notion. He leaned back in his chair and began to tell his story.

Lera's POV

Harry's eyes searched the Gryffindor table for his friends, and he visibly relaxed when he finally saw them. His face red with embarrassment, he all but ran over to them, gratefully slipping into a chair next to Hermione.

Hermione gasped as she saw his broken nose.

"What happened?" She almost shrieked at him.

"Malfoy," Harry muttered under his breath, as though that was explanation enough. It probably was, given the looks of understanding that appeared on Ron's and Hermione's faces.

"Reparo, Scourgify," Hermione quickly fixed Harry's nose and cleaned up the blood.

Malfoy, she recognized that name. The family was from a long line of purebloods and every one of them was known to be staunch supporters of the dark side. Lucius Malfoy had recently been convicted as a Death Eater. This one they were talking about must be his only son, Draco Malfoy.

"Draco Malfoy? He's in, what…? Sixth year?" she inquired.

Harry looked at her, surprised, as if noticing her for the first time. Hermione whispered to him, ostensibly explaining her existence while Ron launched into a tirade about Malfoy, calling him a "junior Death Eater", before finally getting distracted by a bowl of pudding which had appeared on the table.

She did not know much about him but she already hated him. Junior Death Eater…

They soon finished with their food and got up to walk to the Gryffindor common room.

"Lera, you can come with me. I think you'll be sleeping together with us in the sixth year dormitory. There's me, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, …" Hermione began chatting with her happily as she listened, asking questions once in a while.

Suddenly, a voice rang out behind them, "So tell me, did it hurt when your face got stamped on? Or… Did it hurt more when you saw that mutt of a godfather die in front of your eyes? Hmmm, I don't think I've congratulated my Aunt Bella for that yet."

She froze. She knew he was talking about Sirius Black, the wrongly-accused mass murderer, godfather of Harry, the only parental figure Harry has had since his own parents had died when he was one. It was a little known fact that Sirius had been killed in the battle the previous year but her father had told her about it. This jab cut too close to her own life. She had just lost my parents, and here was someone making fun of Harry's godfather dying.

She turned around, and saw that beside her, Harry's fists were clenched, his nails almost digging into the flesh of his palm. He was doing all he could to stop himself from beating the offender into a bloody pulp. She looked at the person who uttered those despicable words, and her heart almost stopped. She felt breathless, like she was about to faint any moment. Because there stood the boy who had been sitting with her every night in the astronomy tower, behind him standing a few other Slytherins, who laughed at his statement. There was something different about him, and with no small amount of surprise she realised that it was because his face was set into a sneer, his eyes cold and mocking, his head inclined at an angle, defiant, challenging. He did not pay any attention to her, as if they were strangers who had never met before.

Ron had pulled out his wand and was shouting at him, and Hermione was frantically pushing down his wand, no doubt trying to avoid trouble.

She felt a need to stand up for Harry and she ground out, "That's because she's in Azkaban, where she belongs. Perhaps you could have a little reunion with her there someday. Feel free to take your time there, no one would miss you anyway."

To her surprise, Draco completely ignored her and did not even acknowledge her words, instead choosing to brush past her without a second glance.

The Slytherins cast one last disdainful glance at them and pushed past them on the way to the dungeons. Lera was stunned, and for the entirety of the time it took to walk to the Gryffindor common room she said nothing. Harry was still pale with fury and Ron was venting his frustrations on the young ones who had the misfortune of being in his way, snarling at a group of second-years for 'walking too slowly and blocking the way'. A particularly shy-looking girl burst out in prompt tears, earning Ron a disapproving glare from Hermione.

In truth, she was hurt. Even though he had never talked to her nor shown any inclination of wanting to be her friend, she had begun thinking of him as hers. She had thought that there was a kind of silent understanding and empathy between them, and now the way he acted showed that he treated her like she was nothing, someone not even worthy of being noticed. But most of all she could not reconcile the fact that the vulnerable boy who showed her concern on that first night was the same boy who showed such cruelty to Harry, who was obviously still distraught over the death of his godfather. It was all too confusing.

"Malfoy! That… that…idiot!"

She tuned back into the conversation only to hear Hermione utter this statement. Three people stared at Hermione incredulously. Two of which due to the reason that Hermione had cursed Malfoy. The last of which was Lera.

"He is Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes," Harry replied darkly, hatred dripping from his words.

She had deduced from the… conversation, for lack of a better word… that he was related to Bellatrix Lestrange, yet another Death Eater that had been captured, but she had no idea that he was the Malfoy she had heard so much of. Well, at least that explained his hatred for Harry.

That night she lay awake, thinking. She wondered if she should feel pity for Draco; he was obviously facing some really big problems. Yet his actions were unforgiveable. After a long night, she finally reached a decision. No matter what problems he had, regardless of the vulnerable side he had shown her, he was an enemy. After all, he was a junior Death Eater.