Draco

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Draco was in shock. With Theo's arrival in the chimney, his questions about his parents practicing dark magic, and his hectic second year at Hogwarts, Draco hadn't thought about the girl thing at all. He thought he still had time to think about it, but now that Blaise had already done so, that changed everything.

Draco hated being at the bottom of any competition, no matter what it was. And if he had to fight to get to sleep with a girl before Theo, he would. Being the least experienced of the group was out of the question.

As he mentally listed the girls he knew he could ask, Crabbe and Goyle entered the compartment. Draco ignored the amused look Theo gave him.

"Good summer, guys?" asked Goyle as he sat down next to Draco.

"Great." replied Theo sarcastically, which made Blaise and Draco smile.

Goyle turned to Pansy and the latter arched an eyebrow:

"Guys? Because I'm a guy, to you?"

"Uh..."

"Never mind." she said, setting her magazine down hard on the train shelf. "Between the comments about your shaggings and this... I'm going to see Daphne."

She stood up masterfully to exit the compartment as Blaise shouted in protest:

"Pansy! Keep it down, I don't want the whole fucking train to hear about it!"

She walked out ignoring him. Thankfully, Crabbe and Goyle didn't seem to have caught her phrase, because they turned stupidly to Draco and Blaise without understanding. Neither Theo nor Blaise seemed to want to make conversation, so Draco stood up in turn.

"Crabbe, Goyle, come on. We're going to go and see what Potter and his friends are doing."

Theo exaggeratedly rolled his eyes:

"Isn't this obsession over?"

"It's not an obsession."

"Yeah, it is. Say hi to Granger for me, and tell her I'm going to do everything I can to crush her in the rankings this year." Theo snapped.

Draco walked out into the corridor, Crabbe and Goyle on his heels. In truth, he didn't really want to go bothering only Potter. Sure, it was always tempting to make fun of him and Weasley, but what he was most interested in at the moment was seeing Granger. He needed to see her to regain that angry feeling he always felt when he saw her.

They arrived at the front of the compartment and Draco glanced inside. Granger was there, reading a book with that pink duvet on her lap, the same one she'd had in the hospital when she was petrified. Just before he opened the door, Draco noticed that there was also a cat next to her. It was horrible: ginger, and with a squashed face that made it look like a bulldog. It was probably the ugliest cat he had ever seen in his life.

"Well, look who it is!" he cried as he entered. "Potter and Weaselbee."

Crabbe and Goyle laughed beside him.

"So, Weasley, I hear your father finally managed to get some gold this summer. I hope your mother didn't die of shock?"

Weasley stood up and dropped the ugly cat basket as he passed. Only then did Draco notice that what he had taken to be a pile of cloak at the back of the bench was moving.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"A new teacher." replied Potter with a cheeky smile. "What did you say, Malfoy?"

Draco squinted and looked at Granger out of the corner of his eye. She was still reading her book and ignoring him completely. It was as if they weren't even there. It annoyed him, but not in the usual way. He wished she'd retaliated and that he'd felt that surge of anger and adrenaline inside him, the only one that could make him feel that hate so quickly. The fact that she refused to do so in front of the precious Potters and Weasleys annoyed him.

"Come on." he muttered to Crabbe and Goyle as he exited the compartment.

He returned to the compartment and Crabbe and Goyle left to fetch the lady from the sweet cart. Apparently, no one had warned them that she was stopping at every compartment and that they shouldn't chase her around the train, but Draco wasn't in the mood to explain. He preferred to nibble on the sandwich his house elf Cooky had made before leaving, looking at the grey landscape behind the window.

As night fell, the train began to slow down. Draco frowned: through the window, it wasn't Hogsmeade. They had come to an abrupt stop in the middle of a bridge. Pansy opened the compartment door just then, followed by Daphne Greengrass who leaned on the edge of the door.

"Ah, here we are at last!" exclaimed Pansy, picking up her magazine.

Her arrival woke up Theo who had fallen asleep with his book on his face. He pulled it free with his hand and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his jumper.

"Great, I'll put my dress on," he said as he sat up.

"We haven't arrived." cut in Blaise, who was looking out.

"How can you tell? The glass is black." commented Daphne.

"We're on a bridge. And it looks like people are getting on the train."

The moment Draco had said that, they heard the doors to their carriage open and close, and the lights went out one by one. Nothing could be seen in the compartment. Pansy, who was next to Draco, clutched his hand.

"What's going on?" she whispered.

"Have we broken down?" asked Daphne's voice from somewhere further away.

Blaise and Theo pulled out their wands at the same time and cast "Lumos" simultaneously. They were both sitting on the opposite bench, their wand tips lighting up their faces. Draco tried to pull his out of his pocket too, when he heard the door open again.

The compartment was suddenly plunged into freezing cold. Theo and Blaise pointed their wands at the door, and Draco saw a hooded creature with a black hood that almost touched the ceiling. His hand was sticking out of his long cloak, it was grey and covered in foul scabs. His face was completely covered by the hood.

The air around him froze, as if it had been iced over. Suddenly, the creature let out a guttural rattle, which sent shivers down Draco's arms, and came closer and closer, as if it were sliding above the ground... Draco was both terrified and miserable, as if he were reliving the worst moments of his life slowly, agonizing... Pansy clutched his hand even tighter...

Suddenly, Theo's wand stopped glowing, and Draco heard it fall to the ground. The creature stepped back, took one last look inside the compartment, and slid down the corridor to open the next one. Draco pulled out his wand and whispered "Lumos" in a hoarse voice.

"Theo!" cried Blaise.

Draco looked down and saw Theo on the floor with a hand over his heart. His eyes were blank and he was extremely pale.

"Theo, are you all right?"

He shook his head vigorously. Draco could see his jugular pulsing against his neck.

"Go get help! Quick!" shouted Pansy who had knelt down beside him.

Draco obeyed and quickly exited the compartment. He looked around for an adult, anyone, but there was no one in the corridor, so he went to the next compartment. Inside were the Weasley twins, Lee Jordan the Quidditch match commentator, and Crabbe and Goyle standing shakily.

"What was that?" asked Crabbe, turning to Draco.

"A Dementor, Azkaban's Guardians." replied one of the twins. "Can we help you, Malfoy?" he asked, looking down at him with an evil eye.

"We need help, quick! And you, what the hell are you doing here?" asked Draco, addressing Crabbe and Goyle.

"We ducked in here when the lights went out, we thought it was your compartment!"

"Theo, he..." began Draco.

"Here, take this." said one of the twins, handing him a piece of chocolate, lit by Lee Jordan's wand. "Tell him to eat it, it will do him good."

The other twin must have thought Draco looked terrible, because he gave him a sympathetic look. Draco tried in vain not to give in to the panic that had contracted every muscle in his body, he had to help Theo first.

Draco grabbed the piece of chocolate and walked out to return to his compartment. Theo was still lying on the floor, but his eyes were open and he had calmed his breathing.

"Here, eat this!"

Draco gave him the piece of chocolate and slowly bit into it. Everyone waited to see his reaction for long seconds, until he breathed out:

"Thanks, that feels good."

Pansy breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the floor.

"What the hell happened? What was that creature?"

"A Dementor." replied Draco gravely.

Everyone fell silent. Like him, they must have heard of these demonic creatures that guarded the prison in Azkaban. His father had told him about them before, but had never gone into detail so as not to scare him too much. Now Draco understood why.

Blaise helped Theo up and sit on the bench.

"Thanks." he said slowly, still eating his chocolate.

"How are you feeling?" asked Pansy.

"I don't know, it's a bit of a blur... I don't remember falling on the floor, it's weird. I felt like I was being pulled in, and I heard..."

Theo finished his sentence in suspense as he stared at Daphne, who was sitting closest to the door. She was livid. Draco had completely forgotten she was there, and he understood that Theo didn't want to talk about what he had experienced in her presence. She must have caught on because she whispered, embarrassed:

"I'm going to go and see how the girls in the next compartment are doing."

She stood up and walked out of the compartment. Draco lit up Theo's face, which was slowly regaining its colour.

"I heard my father's voice." Theo finished in a frightened whisper.

Blaise patted the back of his hand, the one that wasn't holding his wand.

"That's normal, you've been through the most trauma of all of us. That's what the Dementors do, take the worst memories and bring them back again and again. They suck up everything happy to weaken."

Theo nodded several times, then muttered in a shameful tone:

"I'm the only one who fell to the ground..."

"No, Theo." interjected Pansy. "I nearly fell too, I felt things..."

She shuddered and Draco wrapped his arm around her to reassure her.

Hermione

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.

"Harry! HARRY!"

Hermione saw Harry's eyes roll back into their sockets. Before she could make a move, he fell to the floor and spasms shook his body. Hermione knelt on the floor next to him, trying to think of a solution despite the cold that had crept into the compartment.

"Harry, wake up!"

She shook him, but he did not respond. His eyes closed, Hermione could feel the frantic beating of his heart against the thin skin of his wrist. Ron joined her on the other side of Harry and called out to him in the same way, patting his arm:

"Harry?!"

Professor Lupin had conjured flames in the palm of his hand, the only source of light in the compartment, and it dimly illuminated the hooded figure still standing at the door. Lupin drew his wand from the other and stepped up to the creature.

"No one is hiding Sirius Black here. Go away." he said calmly.

Harry was still passed out. Ron was shaking him more frankly now, calling to him in a panicked tone. When Hermione turned, pleadingly, to Lupin, something silver was coming out of his wand, and before Hermione could see what it was, the creature was gone.

The cold around them dissipated, and Hermione found herself gulping the air as if she had been holding her breath the whole time. The lights came back on, and Professor Lupin stepped over Harry again and brushed the flames from his hand.

Suddenly the boy's eyelids twitched.

"Harry, Harry! Are you all right?"

Ron patted his face and Harry finally opened his eyes.

"Wha... What?" he whispered.

Ron helped Hermione hoist him into his seat.

"How are you feeling?" asked Ron in an anxious voice.

"I'm fine. What happened? Where is that... that thing? Who screamed?" he asked in a jerky tone.

"No one screamed." said Hermione in a small worried voice.

"But I heard... Screaming..." continued Harry, unconsciously massaging his head.

Professor Lupin broke off pieces of chocolate and handed them out to everyone in the compartment. Hermione noticed that at that moment that Ginny had folded her legs and laid her head on her lap, covering her ears, and Neville was livid.

"What was that thing?" asked Harry.

"A Dementor." replied Lupin. "It was one of the Dementors of Azkaban. Eat, it will do you good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go tell the engineer something..."

He stepped out of the compartment, looking worried.

"Are you sure you're alright, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"I still don't understand... What happened?" asked Harry.

"That... that thing... the Dementor... just stood there and looked around, well I guess he was looking since you couldn't see his face at all, and you... you, you..." she stuttered.

"I thought you were having a stroke or something." Ron continued, startled. "You went all stiff and then you slipped on the floor and started to spasm..."

"At that point, Professor Lupin stepped over you, walked over to the Dementor and pulled out his wand," Hermione continued. "And then he told him, 'No one is hiding Sirius Black here. Go away." But the Dementor didn't move, so Lupin mumbled something, a silver thing came out of his wand and the Dementor turned around and went off like he was sliding on skates..."

"It was horrible." interjected Neville in a high-pitched squeak. "Did you feel that cold when he came in?"

"I had a weird feeling..." said Ron, shaking his shoulders. "Like I was going to lose the urge to laugh forever..."

Ginny let out a sob and Hermione rushed to her side and hugged her, slowly stroking her back.

"That was awful." she mumbled against Hermione's robes. "I felt like I was possessed again..."

"Shhh, don't worry... It's over, it's gone."

Hermione tried to piece together what she knew. That creature was guarding the prison in Azkaban. She had read about the Dementors before, but she had never imagined that they could be so terrifying. They seemed to attack those who had suffered the most fear, or trauma. Hermione had felt the cold, and an anxiety, but she didn't know if it was from the Dementor, or from seeing Harry faint.

Professor Lupin entered the compartment again and Hermione gently cradled Ginny who had started to cry silently.

"We'll arrive at Hogwarts in ten minutes." Professor Lupin announced. "Are you alright, Harry?"

"I'm fine." replied Harry under his breath.

Hermione glanced at Ron, who looked as distressed as she was.

Draco

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.

"I'm fine, stop standing next to me like I'm going to fall!" shouted Theo from the Hogwarts Express corridor.

Blaise stepped back slightly.

"Sorry for being worried." he grumbled.

"I told you, it was just the Dementor. Now I'm better."

Draco didn't quite believe it. He himself was still shaking, even though the Dementor was long gone. His hair was still bristling along his arms, and his breathing was ragged. Pansy, on the other hand, did not speak, and her dark eyes were hidden under her fringe.

In the queue of students hurrying to get off the train, Draco spotted Longbottom a little way off. He was talking to a girl whose first name he didn't know, whose twin sister was in Ravenclaw.

"That was terrifying." he heard Longbottom say. "Harry totally fainted when he entered our compartment!"

Blaise arched an eyebrow and Draco took the opportunity to try and reassure Theo:

"See, you're not the only one who fell. Potter is even worse, he fainted!"

"Yeah, I don't know if that makes me feel better. You spent the last two years saying he was a wimp." he replied with a shrug.

"I didn't say he was a wimp, I said he was a show-off. He's all bragging about how he's a hero who saved the world from wizards, but he faints when he sees Dementors. Fainting! You, you just fell."

"That just means he's been through some traumatic stuff too." Theo argued.

Despite what he was saying, Draco could see that it made him feel better that he wasn't the only one who had fallen because of the Dementors. They walked down to the platform in silence and walked to the carriages that were patiently waiting for the students.

"Great, another creepy creature!" exclaimed Theo, pointing to the front of the carriage.

Draco looked in the direction he was pointing, but saw nothing. The carriages were still being pulled by themselves.

"Are you going mad?" asked Draco.

"What? No, I'm talking about this horse here."

He climbed into the carriage and Draco looked again, but all he saw was night and the edge of a forest along the road. He preferred not to say anything so as not to annoy Theo, who must have been completely dazed, and got into the carriage.

Pansy was sitting and looking at the road, pensive. She hadn't spoken since the train.

When they passed the entrance to Hogwarts, there were still two Dementors guarding the gate. Theo shrank further into his seat, and Pansy stiffened a little, but neither of them made any comment.

Once they arrived, Draco jumped down and spotted Granger, who was making her way up the stone stairs. She didn't seem affected by the Dementors. She'd never seen anything traumatic in her life, that girl. She was just frowning and glancing anxiously at Potter.

He thought that maybe messing with Potter would cheer up Theo, who was right behind him, so he approached him.

Hermione

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.

As she approached the stairs to enter, she felt someone gently shove her. She looked up and met Malfoy's two icy grey eyes, which scanned her for a second before settling on Harry.

"You fainted, Potter? Is it true what Longbottom says? You actually fainted?" he said in his drawl.

Hermione noticed that he was looking over his shoulder. She saw Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson waiting beside the carriage. Both of them had large dark circles under their tired eyes and were looking at Malfoy.

"'Shove off, Malfoy.'" Ron said through clenched teeth.

"Did you faint too, Weasley?" snapped Malfoy in a sonorous voice. "Did the scary old Dementor frighten you too?"

"Is there a problem?" asked Professor Lupin, who had appeared from nowhere.

Malfoy smirked.

"Oh, nothing... er... professor." he replied sarcastically.

Malfoy walked away to find Nott, Parkinson, Zabini, Crabbe and Goyle climbing the steps of the stone staircase. Hermione had to admit to being a little intrigued by this group of friends. Malfoy seemed to be the leader, because he was the one giving orders to Crabbe and Goyle, but never to the others, which she found rather odd.

Nott, especially, was the most mysterious. He didn't talk much, and always had a book in his hand, yet he seemed to be very friendly with Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson.

She urged Harry and Ron up the stairs and when they reached the Great Hall, Hermione heard someone call out to her:

"Potter! Granger! I'd like to see you two!"

Hermione felt her heart pounding against her chest. Professor McGonagall was approaching the two of them, her face barred in a stern crease. She was so intimidating and comforting at the same time.

"There's no need to look so worried, I just wanted to talk to you in my office." she said, looking at them over the top of her glasses on the tip of her nose. "You can stay here, Weasley, I don't need you."

And she walked away. Hermione quickly apologised to Ron, who entered the Great Hall alone, and followed her teacher to her office. She motioned for them to sit down.

"Professor Lupin sent me a special owl mail to inform me that you were unwell on the train, Potter." she said without preamble.

Just then Madam Pomfrey entered the room in turn. Harry's cheeks flushed slightly:

"I'm fine!" he cried. "I don't need anything..."

Madam Pomfrey examined him quickly as Professor McGonagall explained the circumstances of his fainting. Of course, Harry was quick to say he was fine to avoid the nurse's full examination, though Hermione secretly hoped he would at least go and check that his blood pressure had come down.

"Are you sure you're feeling all right, Potter?" asked Professor McGonagall dryly.

"Yes!" assured Harry.

"In that case, wait for me outside, I have something to say to Miss Granger about her schedule, then we'll go downstairs and join the feast."

Harry and the nurse left the office, and McGonagall leaned over her desk. For a moment, she simply looked at her over the top of her glasses in complete silence. Perhaps she was waiting for Harry to get far enough away from the office that he couldn't hear their conversation. Hermione waited, her heart racing, until McGonagall took a paper from her desk drawer.

She handed her the form that Hermione had completed, at the end of the previous year.

"Miss Granger... I saw on your form that you wished to join all the options offered by the school. I wanted to check with you that it wasn't a mistake."

Hermione looked at the paper, where she had written down all the options. She frowned.

"No, it wasn't a mistake." she said.

"You can imagine that it's very difficult to be able to take all the classes at once." the teacher replied with a slightly amused tone.

"Yes, but I promise you that I can do it. I passed all my tests last year, if the exams had been upheld I probably would have..."

"Miss Granger, I am in no way questioning your intellectual ability to keep up with so many options." McGonagall cut in. "I am absolutely certain that your curiosity would flawlessly annihilate any learning problem you might encounter. I was speaking more from a... logistical point of view."

Hermione looked down at her form.

"Is there an option or two that you would like less than others? So we can fit all your classes into one week?" the Head of House asked.

"No... I like them all."

McGonagall sighed, without losing her slight smile. Then she reached into her drawer again, and pulled out a necklace with a long gold chain, at the end of which hung a gold hourglass in a sphere.

"I thought you might say that. Do you know what it is, Miss Granger?"

Hermione looked at the necklace in wonder.

"A Time Turner?" she offered.

"Exactly. Five points for Gryffindor." the teacher replied, raising the necklace so that it was at eye level. "They are extremely rare, and they are held by the Ministry of Magic. I sent hundreds of letters, along with your school records and the previous year's general classification to get one back. They finally relented."

"I don't understand, Professor..." risked Hermione, staring at the necklace. "What does this have to do with my options?"

"I'm getting to that. Let me show you."

McGonagall wrapped the chain around her and Hermione's necks, who had to bend over the desk to be able to put her head in it, then, she took the hourglass in her hands, and spun it once on itself.

Suddenly, the room around them disappeared in a swirl of colours that made Hermione's head spin. She closed her eyes as she felt her body rise slightly, and then suddenly she fell back into her chair. She was still in McGonagall's office, which looked exactly the same except a little brighter from the sun setting behind the window.

"Ah, there you are!" said a voice to her left.

Hermione turned and froze as she saw McGonagall standing next to a secretary on the left wall of the office. There were two McGonagalls, one sitting opposite her at her desk, and one standing to her left. She blinked several times, alternating between the two McGonagalls who were waiting for a reaction with two small amused smiles.

"Did we... go back in time?" said Hermione in a small voice.

"Exactly." replied the seated McGonagall from the desk. "We went back an hour precisely, so I could have time to explain this necklace to you."

"Very well, I'll go downstairs and prepare for the arrival of the first years. If you'll excuse me." announced the secretary McGonagall, as she walked out of her office.

Hermione watched the second McGonagall walk away, dumbfounded. Of all the extraordinary phenomena she had seen in her time in the wizarding world, this was by far the most breathtaking.

McGonagall placed the necklace on the table for Hermione to see:

"As I told you, Time Turners are extremely valuable. I know that you are capable of working in this way, but I would like to warn you. Anyone who toys with time can face terrible consequences. Magic has its limits. You must be very careful, and above all, never let anyone see you."

Her teacher's gaze was fixed in hers, and she didn't bat an eye at all.

"That rule is the most important of all." she said. "If you ever get seen by someone in two different places, it can have terrible consequences, altered fates, and the person who would witness it can get a shock. That's why they are controlled, you have to be extremely vigilant. It is also why I will ask you to use the Time Turner only in the classroom, and within the Castle grounds."

Hermione nodded sharply.

"There's also something else." her teacher continued, stricter than ever. "No one knows that you have such an object, except the Minister, Professor Dumbledore, you, and myself. You must not tell anyone. Not even Mr. Potter or Mr. Weasley." she added, emphasizing both names.

"But, Professor, they'll realise eventually if I disappear all the time, won't they?"

"It's going to take some dissembling and lying techniques, but I'm not too worried. They trust you, and I'm sure you'll be able to convince them that you were there every time. Hide in empty classrooms or wardrobes to alter the time, that way you're sure no one will notice you going back."

McGonagall sighed lightly and took the Time Turner's chain between her fingers:

"I have faith in you, Miss Granger. You are an excellent student, probably the best witch of your generation, no doubt about it. I always knew you would be, ever since the day I arrived at your parents' house to tell you that you were a witch. You already knew that, didn't you? You figured it out yourself, alone. You have your qualities, and I don't want a scheduling problem to hold you back from expanding your knowledge. But, Miss Granger, I insist. If you think it's too difficult for you, or the pace is too exhausting, or you're afraid you won't be able to handle it, I'll understand if you stop. Is that understood?"

"I'm sure of it." she said in a confident voice. "I'll be fine."

Draco

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.

Pansy did not say a word throughout the Sorting Ceremony. She was obviously preoccupied. Draco noticed that she frequently looked up at Theo, as if to check on him. He was still very pale, and not looking at the Sorting Ceremony at all, his eyes were blank. Both had looked really affected by the Dementors. Draco wondered how Pansy had felt, but he suspected she wouldn't want to talk about it, or else she would do it in private in Draco's bed.

The first word that passed Pansy's lips all evening was in a rather irritated tone:

"Tell me this is a joke..."

Draco, who was deep in his observation of Potter and Granger who had arrived late to their table, turned to her:

"What?"

Pansy pointed to the stage with a jerk of her chin. Draco hadn't noticed that Dumbledore had started talking, let alone that everyone was clapping. He was pointing at the fat, lumbering Hagrid, who had turned crimson and was crying into the tablecloth that covered the teachers' table.

"What's wrong with him?"

"He's a professor, apparently. Care of Magical Creatures." said Blaise, slightly disgusted.

Draco grimaced:

"Huh? Him, a professor?"

Then Draco thought for a few seconds, and suddenly exclaimed:

"Oh no, don't tell me we signed up for his class?!"

"You did." Pansy pointed out. "So we'd have 'less homework'! If I'd known, I never would have listened to you!"

"I had no idea! I thought it was a course, not a jungle! How did he get appointed as a teacher?"

"Now I understand better that bloody book that bit my arm." Theo grumbled.

Pansy and Draco rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Merlin! Of course it was! It had to be that idiot who would put that on a school list. Great, two exemplary teachers, with Cooky on the other side..." said Draco, pointing at the new teacher, Lupin.

Everyone around him burst out laughing at the comparison.

While Blaise began to discuss with Theo the schedule he thought he would have the next day, Draco glanced over at the Gryffindors' table again. He saw Granger, who was giving Hagrid two thumbs up from his table with a big smile, while Potter and Weasley were bent over their plates.

How could this girl sink to such a low level? Why did she hang out with such stupid people? He would never understand her. She was supposed to be the smartest girl in the fucking school by Merlin, hadn't she already noticed that they were all completely stupid?

To top it all off, Granger started to eat while talking to Longbottom, who was listening intently. She was overexcited: she waved her arms around when she spoke, she looked like she was telling a great story. Longbottom listened to her as if she were the most interesting person he had ever seen in his life. Draco almost wanted to get up and listen quietly.

Only then did he realise that the food had arrived on the table and that everyone was eating, except for Pansy, who was poking limply at her plate without swallowing a thing, and Theo, who hadn't even bothered to put anything on his plate. Even when the desserts arrived and Draco helped himself to a huge slice of carrot cake, Pansy ate nothing.

"Are you on a hunger strike to show your displeasure with the new teachers, Pans'?" he tried.

The girl smiled a little, but still didn't eat anything. Just before the desserts disappeared, he took some cookies and stuffed them in his pocket, so that she could at least have something in her stomach before going to bed. Then all the Slytherins stood up to follow the prefect, who was leading the way to the Common Room in the dungeons.

"Follow me, follow me!" he called out to the first years. "The password is 'Clematis'!"

"Arrggh." lamented Crabbe as he walked. "Why do they always use incomprehensible names for passwords? How are we supposed to remember them afterwards?"

"It's a flower." said Theo. "You've been supposed to use it in your Potions concoctions since first year, you idiot."

He rolled his eyes and walked a little faster past Crabbe and Goyle and spoke with Pansy, who was further along in line.

Crabbe frowned:

"He's really not nice, Nott."

"He's had a bad day." Draco said to ease the tension. "He's on edge, that's all."

"So what?" interjected Goyle. "That's no reason to insult us!"

"It's not an insult." said Blaise calmly, who was standing next to Draco. "It's the plain truth: you're idiots."

"Clematis!" enunciated the prefect facing the stone wall of the dungeons.

The door materialized in the wall and each of the students entered one by one. The Common Room was strangely even more welcoming than in previous years: the sofas looked more comfortable, and the coldness in the room didn't bother Draco at all, on the contrary, it reminded him a bit of the Manor.

"I'm going to bed." Theo called out as soon as he had stepped into the room.

Without saying anything, he escaped towards the dormitories. Draco arched an eyebrow at Pansy who nodded in turn:

"Shall we go too?"

He nodded and headed for his dormitory. His suitcase was already set up under the bed. Pansy brought hers and started to get into her pyjamas in the bathroom while Theo was already closing his curtains and wishing "good night" in a small voice. Draco exchanged a worried look with Blaise.

Once she was ready, Pansy cast a discreet silence spell around the curtains of Draco's bed and settled herself against the pillows. She was as pale as ever.

"Here, I got you these." he said, handing her the two cookies.

"Oh! Thank you."

She took them in the palm of her hand and gently bit into each piece that had broken off.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

The bed was plunged into darkness, but he could see her eyebrows furrow and her mouth quiver from here.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Stop it, I can see that something's wrong, from the train. It's the Dementor, isn't it?"

She turned to him and her dark eyes flashed:

"Don't say anything. Don't make fun of me, please."

"What? Why would I make fun of you, Pansy?"

"You told Potter. You made fun of him."

"It's not the same! I did it because he's always acting proud, saying he fought You-Know-Who, and he fainted when he saw the Dementor. And besides, you were smiling when I made fun of him!"

She didn't answer, but seemed calmer. This girl was an enigma, he could never figure out how she really felt. He insisted:

"I did it to cheer Theo up, I thought if I showed him that for Potter it was worse, he'd forget what happened to him."

"I don't know if it worked." she said in a small voice. "It's hard to forget."

"Why? How do you know?"

She ate the last of the cookie, and turned her slightly misty eyes to him:

"I've felt things, too... Horrible..."

Pansy shuddered, but continued, as if immersed in her painful memories:

"I was so worried about Theo that I didn't realise that I too was going to fall. When the Dementor left, I was short of breath and I couldn't stop seeing..."

She paused, as if ashamed.

"Seeing what?"

"My mother. It was like seeing my mother leaving, abandoning me, over and over again, even after the Dementor was gone."

A tear rolled down her cheek.

Draco could count on the fingers of his hand the number of times Pansy had spoken to him about her mother. He knew she'd abandoned her when she was five, that she'd run away to France and that Pansy had never heard from her since, that was all. She never brought up the subject. He understood better why she was so shaken up.

He didn't know what to say to reassure her, so he just gently stroked her hair. She wiped away the one tear that had fallen and looked at him one last time:

"Promise me you won't tell the others, please." she begged in a small voice.

"No, Pans', I won't say anything. I promise."