It was the first day of term, and Draco had been sulky all morning. His breakfast had been cold, his father was in prison, and his new robes did not look as good on him as they should have.
His mother somehow managed to hold her head high when she walked down Platform 9¾. There were jeers coming from some of the train carriages, mostly the ones containing Gryffindors. Draco tried to walk as haughtily as she did, but he accidentally stumbled over some first years. The same first years he had mowed down in Diagon Alley, in fact. That earned him some unappreciated laughs.
He bowed to his Mother in a respectful gesture of farewell, unlike the riff-raff that hugged and kissed each other. She gave a slight nod, and he was off to find his friends and his minions.
"Draco! It's so good to see you again. How have you been, darling?" Draco turned wearily towards the high-pitched voice. Sure enough, it was his "girlfriend" Pansy Parkinson. She was a petty mooch, but he had to keep up appearances at school. Pansy was a rather rich girl, not that she ever used her own riches, and not bad looking if you squinted in the right light.
"Hello, Pansy, dear. My summer went quite well, aside from… Well, I suppose you heard the news?" Draco feigned weariness, hoping it would set Pansy off on one of her sympathy rants.
"Oh, yes, Drakkie-kins, I heard the news. I've been meaning to talk to you about it. It must be so horrible, having to deal with all the bad publicity on your family. I've even been dragged into it. People accused my father of being in league with the Dark Lord in public, can you believe it? Drakkie-kins, I don't know how you ever held up against all this pressure. It must be so painful, watching your father rot away in prison, wasting his life in a dirty cell in Azkaban." Draco had been right, for Pansy continued on in this fashion as Draco searched for Blaise Zabini, Gregory Goyle, and Vincent Crabbe.
After what seemed to be hours, but could have only been minutes, Draco found them sitting in a carriage all to themselves. Draco sat down leisurely across from the three of them, hoping to have the seat all to himself. Pansy trashed this hope by sitting down by his head. She stroked his hair, murmuring what she thought were words of comfort.
They sat like that, with Draco and Pansy on one side of the carriage and Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle on the other side. They were in deep conversation about their plans for the year, and the events of the summer.
Their conversation was abruptly interrupted by the opening of the carriage door. A small, timid third-year girl stepped in. Her eyes grew wide when she saw Draco, and she uttered a few incomprehensible words before she finally stuttered out "I'm supposed to deliver this to B-b-blaise Zabini…." She trailed off as Blaise stood up to take from her hand a scroll of parchment tied in a violet ribbon.
"Thank you, miss." Blaise spoke regally, frightening the girl even more. She scampered out, nearly tripping over the doorjamb. The Slytherins shared a snicker before Blaise opened the scroll.
"What is it?" Draco demanded.
"An invitation," Blaise replied.
Blaise,
I would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch in compartment C.
Sincerely,
Professor H. E. F. Slughorn
"Who's Professor Slughorn?" asked Pansy, a confused look adorning her face.
"Probably a new teacher. There are a few slots open." Draco sighed exasperatedly at Pansy. Why had he ever agreed to date such a stupid girl?
"What do you suppose he wants from me?" Blaise seemed perplexed, probably due to the fact that most people invited Draco to events, not Blaise.
"Who knows? You should go…Free food is always good." Gregory Goyle spoke up for the first time, a rare thing in any situation. Everyone looked at him for a few moments, shocked.
"Well, that decides it. I'm off to lunch with Professor Slughorn. I'll see you later, Draco." With that, Blaise stepped lightly out the door.
The hours passed slowly for Draco. Without Blaise in the compartment, there was very little in the way of intelligent conversation. The small group wheedled away the hours by making crude jokes about Dumbledore's Chosen Triumvirate, better known as Granger, Potter, and Weasley. Crabbe had learned a new word over the summer, and exclaimed loudly about it for an hour at least.
Finally, Blaise returned. He turned to close the compartment door behind him, only to have the door refuse to close. Draco sniggered as Blaise struggled with the sliding door. Suddenly, and quite violently, the door slid itself open. Blaise, who had been holding on to the handle, toppled over sideways into Goyle. In the ensuing ruckus, most of which was caused by Blaise and Goyle snarling at each other, Draco could have sworn he saw a trainer whip itself up into the luggage rack.
Goyle slammed the door shut, flinging Blaise off of him in the process. Blaise sat down in his own seat looking very ruffled. Draco rearranged himself to be more comfortable, placing his head in Pansy's lap. Pansy smirked happily at this turn of events, stroking his sleek blond hair with a renewed zeal.
"So, Blaise," said Draco, "what did Slughorn want?"
"Just trying to make up to well-connected people," said Blaise, who was still glowering at Goyle. "Not that he managed to find many."
This information did not please Draco in the least bit.
'Who else had he invited?" he demanded.
"McLaggen from Gryffindor," said Blaise.
"Oh yeah, his uncle's big in the ministry," said Malfoy.
"– someone else called Belby, from Ravenclaw – "
"Not him, he's a prat!" said Pansy.
"–and Longbottom, Potter, and that Weasley girl," finished Blaise. Draco sat up very suddenly, knocking Pansy's hand aside.
"He invited Longbottom?"
"Well, I assume so, as Longbottom was there," said Blaise indifferently.
"What's Longbottom got to interest Slughorn?" Blaise shrugged in reply.
"Potter, precious Potter, obviously he wanted a look at 'the Chosen One' " sneered Draco, "but that Weasley girl! What's so special about her?"
"A lot of boys like her," said Pansy, watching Draco out of the corner of her eyes for his reaction. "Even you think she's good-looking, don't you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!"
"I wouldn't touch a filthy little blood traitor like her whatever she looked like," said Blaise coldly, and Pansy looked pleased. Draco sank back into her lap and allowed her to resume petting his hair.
"Well, I pity Slughorn's taste. Maybe he's going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favorite if his. Slughorn probably hasn't heard I'm on the train, or – "
"I wouldn't bank on an invitation," said Blaise. "He asked me about Nott's father when I first arrived. They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he'd been caught at the Ministry he didn't look happy, and Nott didn't get an invitation, did he? I don't think Slughorn's interested in Death Eaters."
Malfoy looked angry, but forced out a singularly humorless laugh. "Well, who cares what he's interest in? What is he, when you come down to it? Just some stupid teacher." Draco yawned ostentatiously. "I mean, I might not even be at Hogwarts next year, what's it matter to me if some fat old has-been likes me or not?"
"What do you mean, you might not be at Hogwarts next year?" exclaimed Pansy indignantly, ceasing grooming Draco at once.
"Well, you never know," said Draco with the phantom of smirk. "I might have – er – moved onto bigger and better things."
Crabbe and Goyle gasped audibly, apparently they had no inkling of the fact that their leader might be moving on to bigger and better things. Even Blaise allowed a look of inquisitiveness to mar his haughty features, while Pansy forced herself to continue stroking Draco's hair.
"Do you mean –– Him?" she whispered. Draco shrugged.
"Mother wants me to complete my education, but personally, I don't see it was that important these days. I mean, think about it…When the Dark Lord takes over, is he going to care how many O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s anyone's got? Of course he isn't…It'll be all about the kind of service he received, the level of dominion he obtained through you." Draco smirked, thinking 'And once the Dark Lord approves of me, my father will too.'
"And you think you'll be able to do something for him?"said Blaise scathingly. "Sixteen years old and not even fully qualified yet?"
"I've just said, haven't I? Maybe he doesn't care if I'm qualified. Maybe the job he wants me to do isn't something that you need to be qualified for," said Draco quietly.
Pansy gazed down at Draco as if she had never seen anything so awe-inspiring in her life. Crabbe and Goyle were just staring into space, the mouths open like gargoyles.
"I can see Hogwarts," said Draco, relishing the effect he had created as he pointed out of the blackened window. "We'd better get our robes on."
Goyle reached up to the luggage rack to grab his trunk, and as he swung it down Draco heard a gasp. Draco frowned up at the luggage rack, trying to figure out where it had come from. Draco shook his head; he must have been imagining it. He pulled on his robes like the others, locked his trunk, and fastened a thick new cloak from Twilfitt and Tatting's around his neck.
The train came to a lurching stop, and Goyle threw the door open. He muscled his way past a group of second years, punching them aside; Crabbe and Blaise followed. 'What if I hadn't imagined that noise?'
"You go on," Draco told Pansy, who was waiting for him with her hand held out as if she wished he would hold it. "I just want to check something." Pansy left and Draco closed the compartment door. He bent over his trunk, opening it again. Without warning to the mysterious thing in the luggage rack, Draco pointed his wand up towards where the noise had come from.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Draco watched with smug satisfaction as Harry Potter fell out of the luggage rack and hit the floor with a sick, floor-shaking crash. Potter landed at Draco's feet, his Invisibility Cloak trapped beneath him. Potter could not move, only gaze up at Draco, who was smiling broadly.
"I thought so," he said jubilantly. "I heard Goyle's trunk hit you. And I thought I saw something white flash through the air after Blaise came back…" His eyes lingered for a moment upon Harry's trainers. "You didn't hear anything I care about, Potter. But while I've got you here…"
He stamped, hard, on Potter's face. There was a slight crunch as the bone gave way; blood spurted everywhere.
"That's from my father. Now, let's see…" Draco dragged the cloak out from under Potter's immobilized body and threw it over him.
"I don't reckon they'll find you till the train is back in London," he said quietly. "See you around, Potter… or not." Treading carefully on Potter's fingers, Draco left.
A/N: Pansy is my favorite right now. I remember writing this and just being so happy as I got to understand Pansy a little better. She's so obsessed. It's kinda fun.