Everyone in the castle, with the exception of most of the teachers, were utterly convinced that he had opened the Chamber of Secrets. It was good at first, most of his housemates were glad that someone was going after the muggleborns, but then a student got petrified, and the hype quieted down. Envious glares turned to wary, and he found himself somewhat excluded. Then he sent a snake towards Potter in Dueling, and it nearly attacked the kid who was Petrified the next day.

Even Crabbe and Goyle had been becoming distant, and Pansy Parkinson had started pining elsewhere. Crabbe and Goyle at least stayed in the castle with him during winter break, and other than them and a few seventh years, the Slytherin common room was empty.

Christmas morning left much to be desired. His father had just wrapped up a newspaper about Mr. Weasley getting an inquiry at work, and a note to keep his head down if he didn't want to be wrongfully expelled. His mother however, had sent a thick velvet sweater, black with a thick white lining on the inside, with a note that it was enchanted to keep the wearer warm. He quickly shrugged on the sweater before noting another present under the tree with some rather shoddy handwriting that could only belong to the alchemy professor. There were two other similarly packaged presents under the common room tree.

He'd been doing well in the class, he hadn't been focusing as much as he should've been, and nearly hadn't passed the wood exam, but he just slinked by and got his permission to do the alchemy out of class. He unwrapped it with a skeptical eye, finding a note and an Alchemy notebook like the ones they had for out of class notes.

Draco Malfoy,

I've been working on a basic alchemy textbook, don't worry, Alphonse did the text not me, and i've sent them along to all of my students who are staying in the castle this Christmas in case they wanted to get a head start.

I've also added a section on ice alchemy since you seemed rather interested in it when Al brought it up in class. If you need any help I'll either be in my office, or hanging out in the library or transfiguration classroom

-Professor Edward Elric

He flipped through the notebook now that he'd finished reading the note, and found that it was exactly what it said it was, in Alphonse Elric's nearly robotic handwriting. The section on Ice Alchemy, at the very end of the book, was denoted with a blue swirling snowflake that must've been enchanted to spin around the margins of the page.

There were extremely detailed descriptions about how the alchemy worked, with drawings of specific runes and line patterns that were used to do certain reactions, along with several blank, partially completed, and fully completed transmutation circles to explain how everything worked.

There were only eight types of transmutations in the section even though it explained that there were many more that could be done, starting with how to transmute the moisture in the air when there was no water available, all the way down to how to form the ice into specific patterns or types.

He was still reading the section when Crabbe and Goyle stomped up the stairs, and began opening their own presents. When they got to the alchemy texts they didn't look all that interested, and instead stomped off to breakfast. Malfoy put his own book down and leafed through theirs, to find that no extra sections had been added. Their notes were similarly brief, and apparently Professor Elric didn't expect them to study it at all, and the entire second half of his note wasn't on theirs at all.

He rather smugly tucked his own book away in his robes after putting them on, before heading down to the nearly empty Great Hall for breakfast.

Professor Lockhart wasn't there, he might've gone home for the break to escape the castle, and so the staff table for once seemed to have all of the rest of it's Professors, with Alphonse Elric taking Lockharts seat.

Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were nearly empty with just a few international students crowded towards the staff end. Despite missing ninety percent of its population, the Gryffindor table seemed just as active as usual, with all of the Weasley's, Potter, and Granger sitting at the staff end, enjoying breakfast like nothing was wrong in the castle. The twins, apparently having been given a small amount of alchemy materials, were showing off their 'firework alchemy' under the watchful, but not overbearing eyes of the alchemy professor from the staff table.

Crab and Goyle tried to casually slide down the bench as he sat down, and he rolled his eyes, serving himself breakfast and pulling the alchemy book back out.

He was heading back from the library when he caught Crabbe and Goyle being interrogated by Percy Weasley.

"Are you idiots just getting back from the feast? Honestly how much dessert can you eat," he grumbled to himself, relieved as the pair didn't step away when he approached. "Can I help you Weasley?"

"I've got an eye on you," the prefect warned, before turning in a rather Snape fashion and stomping away. Crabbe and Goyle began to follow him as he walked towards the common room.

"He's been sneaking around down here a lot… Like he's going to catch the heir in the act or some nonsense," he grumbled, pausing at the entrance, "Pureblood."

He marched through with the two right on his back, earning suspicious glares from his housemates as he walked in, "I brought your stuff up to our room since you just left it down here earlier," he added. Crabbe eyed the newspaper that his father had sent him, picking it up in an oddly shaky hand, maybe they were still wary of him. "Dad sent it to me, thought it would raise my spirits or something. Surprised there's nothing about the attacks though, Dumbledore's probably trying to hush the whole thing up."

"Why would he-" Goyle began to question.

"Because it looks bad on the school," he explained, "I've seen more than enough howlers fly in from parents, if the entire general population of wizarding Britain heard about it, this place would be shut down."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Crabbe asked.

"You know I wanted to go to Durmstrang," Malfoy mumbled, "But if it goes on, the suspicions keep getting pushed on me, if I get expelled my wand'll be broken and father might lose his job, not to mention his position at Hogwarts?"

"You aren't... happy?" Goyle questioned somewhat unbelievably.

"I'll admit, it seemed like a good thing at first, get rid of all the mudbloods, make the school better, I might've even helped the heir if I knew who they were… But now… I want whoever it is caught like everyone else does."

"You have no idea-"

"Honestly Goyle how many times are you going to ask? I have no idea who the heir is, and I can't even figure out what happened the last time other than a mudblood died and someone was expelled. It was fifty years ago, and even back then the headmaster kept almost everyone from publishing about it. It's just a matter of time before someone gets killed, and I'll probably get expelled or worse," he ranted angrily. The other Slytherins were eavesdropping, but doing a rather good job at keeping up their conversation to make it look like they weren't.

"Worse?"

"Azkaban you idiots, if they think I'm a murderer even father wouldn't be able to stop them, Barty Crouch couldn't help his son either-"

"Azkaban?" Goyle questioned.

"Wizard prison, with the soul sucking dementors? Do you have a screw loose?" Draco raved. "The ministry already raided our manor last week, they didn't find anything, but Father's angry, it won't just be Weasley facing an inquiry at work- are you alright Crabbe?"

Crabbe looked, off to say, face turning pale, Goyle looked off too, and both of them bolted from their seats, "Sick, must be the dessert," Crabbe grunted, and they both ran off towards the common room exit, completely out of sight. Malfoy frowned at their odd behavior, but wasn't surprised as he headed down the staircase to the common room.

The next morning they were both back to their usual anxious selves, except today they wouldn't even look at him. When he looked around the room, everyone but Potter and Weasley were staring at him, and Hermione Granger and Professor Elric were nowhere in sight.

From what he'd managed to overhear, Hermione had had a rather bad transfiguration accident, and Professor Ed had somehow had a minor mental breakdown, and him and his brother had locked themselves in their room. Luckily people stopped blaming him for that. Rumors still spread, and apparently only Potter and Weasley were being allowed into the Hospital wing to visit her.

Luckily for him, the elder Elric ghost, who had so far given zero inclinations that he cared about secrets, and didn't seem to believe the rumors of him being Slytherin's Heir just like his sons, was gladly willing to talk.

"Hermione looks like she tried doing the thing that Professor McGonagall does… Animagusing or whatever it was," the ghost told as they sat in the library.

"So she looks like a giant half-cat?"

"Rather basic explanation, but yes. I'd heard rumors that Ed and Al were staying with an alchemist who transmuted his daughter with the family dog… If it's true I can't imagine Edward took seeing her well," he explained. Draco frowned at the explanation.

"I thought you couldn't do transmutation on living things?" he questioned, and the ghost looked at him curiously.

"The creature died shortly after I believe, there was no way to bring her back to the way she was. It's not that you can't do it, you just shouldn't," he warned. "I can see why Edward told you it wasn't even an option though, I would prefer you kept that information to yourself."

"Right, I will. Thanks Mister Elric," he shuffled his books away.

"It's Hoenheim, my sons took their mothers name," the ghost admitted.

"Oh, bye Mister Hoenheim," Draco waved off, and the ghost just sank back through the floor.

It made sense that Professor Elric had never brought it up, it was seemingly dangerous and evil, much like dark magic. Considering how alchemy could rebound, (Goyle once accidentally fused the tip of his finger to the desk) Human transmutation must carry an even larger risk.

When he checked his textbook later, he confirmed that nothing of the sort was even written into the textbook, and would probably be impossible to do without knowing any of the runes or pattern in the transmutation. He tucked the thought into the back of his head, to mostly, never resurface.

The Weasley twins apparently managed to drag the Elrics out of their room by the time a week had passed. Both of them looked extremely tired, and rather than a braid, the Professors hair was in a rather ratty bun. They both talked from what he could tell, but they refused to look towards the staff end where the other two thirds of the Gryffindor trio were sitting.

Crabbe and Goyle were sitting all the way down at the other end of the table, claiming that he'd knocked them out and left them in a closet. No-one seemed to believe them since they'd all seen them that night in the common room, but the idiots stuck by their story. Knowing his housemates, none of them would back him up when everyone arrived back at the castle, and he would end up even more ostracised than before.

Professor Snape was frowning at him from the Staff table, which was another low blow. He gave up on picking at his food and got up with his alchemy book, storming out of the Great Hall, giving no care if it looked suspicious or not.

Peeves was unfortunately out today, floating around mischievously. "Looks like snake-boy came out to play today, too bad Professor Midgets locked up in his room-"

"YOU CALLIN' ME SO SHORT THAT I COULDN'T REACH THE DOORKNOB?" Professor Elric burst out of the Great Hall acting very much like himself, transmuting the floor into a giant fist that sent Peeves flying through the ceiling. The Professor panted, calming himself down, "Oh, hey Draco. Sorry about… me. I saw you reading the alchemy book a few times though."

"Yeah, thanks for that," Draco said genuinely.

"Don't worry about it, you won't be able to work on it during class-" Draco frowned, and the professor frowned too, "There's no moisture in the air from the fireplace, there's another fifth year Slytherin learning ice alchemy who had to choose something else to learn during class, and now we do Ice alchemy down in the dungeons in the mornings." He explained, and Draco sighed with relief. "What did you think I'd say?"

"Everyone thinks I'm the heir of Slytherin… A lot of the teachers are keeping a close eye on me," Draco admitted.

"Well that's stupid," he said rather bluntly. Draco was actually shocked. "I've done a lot of reading, the Malfoy family goes back to Salazar Slytherin's time, but they came from France. And the Black family can be traced back just as far, not to mention that one of them, even if he is a murderer, got sorted into Gryffindor. I don't think anyone related to Salazar Slytherin himself would get sorted into Gryffindor."

"Oh," Draco mumbled.

"Not to mention you're twelve, and unless a muggleborn killed one of your parents the whole idea seems a bit ridiculous, don't you think?" Elric added.

"Right… thanks…" Draco said passively.

"Don't worry about it," he added, rubbing the heavy bags under his eyes. "I'm gonna go take a three day nap to get ready for classes," he waved goodbye before tiredly stomping up the stairs. Draco took one last look at the strange professor before heading back down the common room.

Unfortunately Lockhart returned with the rest of the students, and the looks he was getting were nearly unbearable. McGonagall lightened up a bit on him, probably after a conversation with Professor Elric, but the only teacher who refused to let rumors fly in his classroom seemed to be the strange professor himself.

"You're letting Malfoy learn Ice alchemy?" Pansy asked rather haughtily from the next desk over, (she now refused to sit with him, apparently almost murderers weren't in.)

"Anyone's allowed to learn Ice alchemy out of class if they want," Professor Ed countered, "You're allowed to learn most kinds of alchemy out of class if you want actually as long as you have one of us supervise you."

"But Professor-"

"Don't make me take points away," the Professor sighed. Pansy bit her lip, but let the Professor teach on. The Gryffindor duo was just as gossipy and secretive as usual, but from what he heard, it didn't have anything to do with him.

The desks were all moved out of the way when the practical half of the lesson began, and they instead sat on pillows on the floor, which had been smoothed flat for stone alchemy purposes.

"So, remember that stone is a lot denser than wood, and that there's a lot more of it here than in your desks. Also if you all use too much the floor will destabilize and we'll rather hilariously crash into Professor Goldilocks classroom," Professor Elric instructed, and most of the students snickered. "While I'm sure it would make their class more interesting, I don't think Dumbledore or Madam Pomfrey would be too happy with me, so let's keep the destruction to a minimum."

The Gryffindor duo almost immediately began creating a stone duck army, armed with mini bayonets and sunglasses. Draco began to create a large stone goblet, although it didn't seem to want to harden, instead swirling around loosely like it was made of liquid. He let it drop back into the floor rather than risking a rebound.

He refocused for a moment and double checked his circle before trying again, and the goblet reformed, stabilizing at a slightly smaller size than he'd intended. When he looked over at the other Slytherin's they were making snakes with his face on them. Professor Elric responded rather maturely, by turning the stone under them into a rather large swirly slide, and dumping them all in Professor Lockhart's class. He then resealed the floor, and acted like no-one was missing and continued the lesson, to the amusement of everyone left in the room.

The disgruntled Slytherins walked back in five minutes later, right when the bell rang, and they grumpily grabbed their bags and left. The professor gave the duo some notes, presumably for Granger, and everyone funneled out of the room together.

He later realized it was the only class he had a good time in.

Draco was in the library minding his own business when suddenly the youngest Weasley girl threw her precious diary against a bookshelf across from where she was seated, tears streaming down her face. Madam Pince yelled about the noise, but stayed at her desk.

The girl quickly jumped up from the table, flipping open the book to see if it was damaged. From what he could tell, the pages were completely blank, but the girl glared angrily at the pages anyway, grabbing her things and running off.

Draco, with nothing better to do, and no reputation left, packed up his things and followed after her, treading lightly. He followed her to the second floor girls bathroom, ducking behind the corner so she hopefully wouldn't see him when she came back out. She ran back out just a moment later, missing her diary, storming off in the opposite direction. Like magic, the bathroom quickly began to flood, and Draco checked both ways before ducking into the seemingly abandoned bathroom.

Moaning Myrtle, the infamous ghost, was bawling her eyes out more than usual. "Who are you, coming to throw something else at me?"

"I came to see what got thrown," he insisted. The girl, still sniffling, handed over the diary. Just like he'd thought, the diary was empty with the exception of a name scrawled out on the cover T.M Riddle . He could've sworn he'd heard the name before, although he couldn't think of where. Suddenly the wonder duo burst into the bathroom, glaring at him.

"What'd you do to upset Myrtle?" Potter blamed.

"It wasn't me, his nimrod sister threw her diary at her," Draco defended, and Myrtle nodded to back him up. Weasley swiped the diary from his hand, flipping it open.

"Ginny doesn't have a diary, besides it doesn't even have her name in it, let alone anything written in it."

"I watched her throw it at the bookshelf in the library, and then I followed her here-"

"What were you following my sister for-" Weasley started, but Potter grabbed him by the waist and held him back.

"She was acting weird and I had nothing better to do," Draco amended.

The duo took another look at the diary, although Weasley looked closer. "T.M. Riddle, didn't he get an award for something?"

"Why on earth do you know that?" Potter questioned, and Draco nodded in agreement.

"It was one of the shields I had to hand polish before Professor Ed showed up and saved us."

"Why's it got no ink though. If Ginny's been writing in it for the last… I dunno four or five months, it should have something in it, right?" Potter questioned.

"Maybe it's dark magic?" Draco guessed.

"Why would my sister have a-"

"I'm not saying your sister you idiot, maybe Riddle cursed his stupid journal," Draco cut Weasley off.

"Well, let's go see what that stupid award was for then," Potter decided. Him and Weasley took off, not particularly caring that he was following them.

The trophy room was only one floor up, and Weasley was quickly able to find the plaque, "See award for Special Services to the school, from like fifty years ago."

"Wasn't that when the chamber was opened last time?" Potter pointed out.

"So Riddle caught the guy who did it?" Weasley questioned.

"Or he pinned it on someone else, took the credit," Draco shrugged, and the two looked at him suspiciously. "I dunno, ask your stupid sister, it's her diary."

"Hey, the only person who can call Ginny stupid is me!" Weasley argued, storming off with Potter in tow.

"Honestly how do these idiots keep getting involved," Draco sighed to himself, leaving through the other door, and heading back to the library.

Author's Note: Look at me giving Draco character development like four books early, ooh boy does that fuck up a lot if I end up writing another book