Chapter 2: Familiar Faces

"CRUCIO!" The dark voice rang out through the corridors. His chest felt as if it were splitting open down the center. His breathing came in short gasps, but he did not cry out.

"Cry, you pathetic little rodent." Lucius snarled at his son, kicking him for effect as his master continued the curse. A smirk developed on his face as the boy's unemotional face began to falter into an expression of discomfort. Draco Malfoy still refused to cry. He would not give these two men that satisfaction.

After coming to the conclusion that the boy would be dead before he made a sound, the Dark Lord lowered his wand. Draco continued to twitch on the floor, with the pain continuing to course through his veins like a spreading wildfire. The pain subsided, but he knew that something far worse was waiting for him. He had been told that he had been the object of his father's Lord's fancies for quite some time.

Draco shivered in the cold while waiting for the carriages to fill. It had been a surprisingly mild night, so Harry did not understand the sudden movement from Draco's direction as they stepped into one of the awaiting carriages. This time, Harry had the opportunity to sit next to Draco, while Hermione and Ron took the opposite seats. The three made the move to look out the window in silence again, but Harry refused to let them do that. He blindly groped for a way to spark up a conversation.

"So, Draco," he started, but paused to clear his throat as his three companions turned to face him. "Uh, how was your summer?" Harry felt like an idiot. 'The kid's depressed, you stupid git,' he thought to himself. 'Obviously it had something to do with an occurrence over the summer.' He mentally slapped himself repeatedly.

Draco simply stared at him for a moment, and the boys' eyes locked momentarily. Harry could read into those eyes very clearly, much to his surprise. Draco was not one who could be read easily unless he willingly let his guard down. This look he gave, it was a look of "Help me, Harry. I've been broken and I need you to fix me."

"It was fine." He said with a nod and a small smile as the carriage came to a halt and he hopped out, to be simultaneously tackled to the ground by two Slytherins. The golden trio each whipped out their wands to help their new friend, (Ron retrieved his slightly slower than the other two, for it took him a few moments to realize what was going on.) but a sigh of relief escaped each of them as they realized who these attackers were. Harry saw Draco smile genuinely for the first time as he greeted his two best friends, Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini. Harry couldn't help but feel a weight lifted off of his shoulders. Maybe Draco would be okay.

Together, the two newcomers turned to face Hermione, Ron and Harry. "You rode the train with Potty, Weasel, and the Mudbl-" Pansy began, but was cut off by an icy glare from Draco. "Sorry. Are they… your friends?" Pansy asked in surprise. Draco simply nodded. "Oh, boy, sweetie. You must have really missed us!" and with that, she threw herself at the blonde boy, and they laughed together.

Hermione snarled at the three that stood before her. "So I guess it's clear that you in fact have not changed. Once a ferret, always a ferret, you selfish, slimy little cockroach." Draco was taken aback by this sudden outburst from his new friend. He broke away from his older friend's grasp and was able to catch Hermione's shoulder as she tried to spin on her heel and storm away.

"What are you on about?" he asked, looking hurt.

"You know very well what I am on about!" she shouted. "I guess you just felt the need to have little fill-in friends on the train, no matter who they were, so you gave us this little charade that you're this poor, broken little boy who lost everything! That is the last time that you fool me, Malfoy." By now, her finger was inches from his nose.

"That was not my intention at all, Hermione." He began. "Pansy was just joking. You'll get used to it with time. It's just her sense of humor."

"I will never get used to it. I will never take the time to get used to it. Because as far as I'm concerned, we're still enemies, and we always will be." And with that, she stalked away, leaving even a confused Harry in her wake. Draco's shoulders slouched.

"I never considered her an enemy. I never considered any of you enemies." He said with a sigh and stared at the ground sadly. Harry couldn't help but want to hold the poor boy.

"She'll get over it. Listen. We never really considered you an enemy either. We saw you as more of a rival." Harry said with a reassuring smirk. Ron looked at him like he belonged in St. Mungo's. Draco smiled at him and Harry could practically feel his heart melt.

"Thanks, Harry… for everything that you did today. Thank Hermione for me too?" Harry nodded and led Ron into the castle, leaving Pansy and Blaise very confused.

"So what is all of this about you pretending to be so hurt?" Blaise asked bluntly, earning a hard stare from Pansy in disapproval.

"I think you should answer my questions first. Where were you two all summer?"

"I was in America with my family. They have a great summer program there for-" Pansy began, but was interrupted by a very apologetic Blaise.

"Draco, I wanted to come see you so badly. Believe me, I did. My father simply would not have it. All of a sudden he was opposed to me having any sort of contact with you. I've been really worried. I thought something had happened to you and he was trying to hide it from me, but now that I see that you're ok, I guess I was overreacting." He paused and looked into his best friend's eyes. "You are alright, aren't you?" Draco simply stared ahead and said nothing.

"Oh, Merlin," Pansy began. "What happened?"

Draco wasn't entirely sure if he should disclose what had happened to him just yet. After all, they three of them had just taken their seats in the Great Hall. Draco did not need to protest, however, because Dumbledore rose and greeted the students. 'Saved by the old geezer' he thought. Pansy still looked quite concerned.

Dumbledore's speech seemed to drag on for years for Pansy and Blaise, but to Draco, the longer it lasted, the longer he could wait to tell his friends about his… unfortunate summer. He went over how to tell his best friends in his mind, mentally crossing out the ways that he knew would never work. 'Guys, I was abused…' That wasn't right. 'Something happened to me, but don't worry, I'm fine…' No, that wasn't right either. He wasn't okay, and his friends could see right through him. They were the only two people who knew when he was lying.

His attempts at productive thinking were interrupted by a hard poke in his side. He looked up to find Pansy glaring at some Slytherins a few seats over. "Why are they glaring at you, Draco?" she whispered, while Blaise made what he thought were intimidating facial expressions at the group. Draco just shrugged. He knew that that was not a good enough response and further questions would be asked.