Draco Malfoy

A week passed faster than I expected, and with that came my reunion with my familiar, Soren.

Soren is a raven, who ended up being my devoted companion, but I couldn't say that my meeting with him was a very pleasant one, while I tried different spells, from my father's books I came across a spell, or better said a curse, at the time I didn't know what it was, and curiosity won. I had to try the spell...but after using it, apart from being hard to control, the only feelings it made me feel when using it were hatred, disgust, and the desire to do harm... and because of my carelessness I hurt Soren. it was quite difficult to win his trust, but I can say that time helped with that.

the connection between me and Soren is very great, so great that I could say that Soren is my Familiar. on the day of my reunion, it was a rainy day, but nothing could have taken the smile off my face, seeing how he flew without any problems...maybe one day I will be so free too...looking at the book in my hand named quidditch through the ages, my smile had grown,

Arthur: "But not today."

the next day came and with that, my day started with Herbology, you see, for me, Herbology was a double-rated level of nightmare. Allergies to plants were one thing, but being allergic to magical plants was on a level all of its own. My eyes burned and teared up repeatedly throughout the lesson, even though the greenhouse itself didn't seem to contain much in the way of pollen, it was pretty clear I'd have it bad when Spring came around.

"Oh dearie, it must be Puffapod allergy," Professor Pomona Sprout was actually quite kind about it. My ordeal wasn't an unfamiliar one, apparently. "Let's see if this helps you a bit," she added, swishing her wand in front of my face. She had the looks of a gentle matron, and clearly, she was a saint when compared to everyone else. No wonder she was the head of house Hufflepuff; the good guys' par excellence. I ended up with my head inside a bubble of air. A bubble of fresh, clean, pollen-free air that made me breathe like nothing ever made me breathe before.

"Just come to me if the air gets too bad or the bubble pops," Professor Sprout added with a gentle smile. "I'll fix you with a fresher bubble-head charm."

"Thank you, professor," I said with all of my heart poured into it. She was a saint. I returned to my spot with the bubble around my head, happy to finally be able to breathe. Though seeing things through the bubble was slightly complicated, it was still a way better solution than having my eyes constantly in tears.

"Let us continue our lesson on the properties of the Asphodel, both magical and non-magical," Professor Sprout said cheerfully. Her lessons were theoretical at first, but we'd soon need to use our gloves eventually and manage fertilizer of the dung kind.

With my airflow secured, I had little trouble following the lessons, and even less taking notes. Sure, the air grew stale after a while, but as soon as the bubble popped, Professor Sprout quickly applied another without as much as stopping her lesson. She had grown accustomed to it, apparently. Maybe there had been quite an amount of students sneezing in her greenhouses, and with this charm, she had managed to keep them from dying.

I didn't put it past the school to persist even in the face of adversities as some way of 'forming the character'. I mean, physical punishment was still functioning with the past headmaster, if I didn't remember it wrong. Even Filch commented about it! at one of our meetings

The lunch break went uneventfully. I barely noticed the presence of my classmates by then. It wasn't that I didn't exchange words with them, but I knew little to nothing about Quidditch championships, and I had no Chocolate Frog cards to exchange.

Still, lunch went by uneventfully.

I had prepared for the next lesson. The timetable did not lie, and Professor Binns appeared punctually like a clock in our assigned classroom. I glanced briefly at the light of interest for the history of the wizardry world die in the eyes of my fellow classmates, and then proceeded to pull out my own interests. I kept scribbling for my Transfiguration homework, utterly ignoring the lesson at hand.

By the time the lesson ended, I had pretty much finished my homework.

The last lesson of the day required our presence in the dungeons, for a theoretical lesson that dealt with the most common antidotes and means to cure boils.

"What would you apply to a burn, Mister Finnigan?" Professor Slughorn asked with the same cheerful voice as usual, full of expectations

"A burn-healing potion?" Mister Finnigan said. Professor Slughorn shook his head disappointed at the answer he received and then turned his eyes toward me.

"Mister Prince?" the cheerful voice returned to its place "Maybe you can help us, to find an answer to this question." Professor Slughorn asked

After my meeting with my aunt, I found out that this teacher can be useful in the future, luckily I know his way of thinking and thus proceeded to read the chapters ahead. Not only had I done that, but I had also quickly skimmed to the pages dealing with healing potions while he had queried Finnigan, and read through them quickly.

"An essence of Dittany to make the skin heal, a Wiggenweld Potion, a Burn-Healing paste if the burn is quite severe, but if the wound has already formed boils then a boil-healing concoction made with dried nettle"

"As expected, a very good answer 10 points for Slytherin," said Professor Slughorn, smiling

after the class ended I was asked by the Professor to stay.

Professor Slughorn smiled, and a few moments later an older boy entered the laboratory.

"Flint, I'm glad you came, "said the professor

"Sir?" The massive sixth year, who had been wondering why he had been summoned, had looked curiously at me and then at Professor Slughorn. I could see his name was Marcus Flint.

"Clarisa Higgs has a contender for her job as Seeker". The Professor said

"Who? Him?" Flint asked incredulously.

"Prepare the match this weekend. I'll talk to the Headmaster. If Prince isn't allowed to play, then Mrs. Higgs will still play, and Mr. Prince will be the Reserve Seeker."

"She won't like this, sir." Flint said

"Then she better not lose the title challenge," said Professor Slughorn.

Ah, that was about it, so Marcus Flint must be captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team.

"I hope you're ready," said Flint, "I don't like wasting my time, not even for you Prince."

I nodded

"Then it seems we have something in common," I said

"You can head back, oh and before I forget, I hope that next time your essay will be better written. it would be a shame not to receive an invitation to the party because of such small things ," Professor Slughorn had said to the boy.

Marcus Flint nodded anf left us alone in the laboratory again.

"Sir, I've never played Quidditch before..." I consumed a few Quidditch books that Hermione recommended before flying class but I don't think that qualified me to play an important job like the Seeker on a Quidditch team.

"Then I expect you'll have to train hard, Mr. Prince." Professor Slughorn said, the smile hadn't left his face

"I will try not to disappoint," I said in a confident voice

"Good, well then that's all for today Mr. Prince you are dismissed, "Professor Slughorn said

"Yes, sir," I said

Entering the common room, I collapsed into an empty seat on the deep black couch by the fire, needing the warmth to drive the frigidity from my fingers and toes.

"Well," Malfoy drawled next to him. " I noticed that you spend more time with mud bloods lately, especially in the library"

"I thought I made myself quite clear last time, that it's none of your business whom I choose to hang out with, but I'm still quite surprised, I thought you wouldn't have the guts to talk to me anymore..." I said with the same kindness I would ask a dying horse to bring its head near the gun.

"I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only—no contact." Draco said

I started laughing when I heard this

"Whom do you think you are fooling, you tried the same trick with Potter. and you didn't go, I want to believe that you were afraid of him, and now you're trying to trick me" I said between laughs

I could see that he didn't like what I said but before he could say something he was interrupted by Anne

"You shouldn't have illegal duels in the middle of the night."

They looked up. It was Sally-Anne Perks.

"You'll lose us House points—"

"You say a word about this, Perks—to anyone—and I'll make you regret it," Malfoy said hotly.

my smile had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared

"Malfoy," I said through gritted teeth. "I would pay attention to what you say, if not. you know all too well the consequences"

"Ahem," Samantha Pitts cleared her throat, smiling. "Is there a problem, gentlemen?" She asked cheerfully, looking from face to face.

I saw that the other sixth years were streaming into the common room.

neither of us spoke up.

"Arthur was defending my honor from Malfoy, Prefect Pitts. He threatened me," Sally-Anne said.

Though the prefect's smile grew wide, she narrowed her eyes at Malfoy, and he wriggled a little in his chair. "You have detention with Professor Slughorn tomorrow night, Draco Malfoy, seven-thirty sharp," she said lightly brushing her Prefect badge as she spoke.

"What?! what about Prince?"

Pitts smiled broadly. "No, Prince is serving detention in another form."

"With who? Gilbert ?" Malfoy said snootily.

"No, with me," came Marcus Flint's deep voice.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed as he thought. "Why does he have any business with the Quidditch Captain—NO!" Malfoy swung around violently, shoving himself to his feet. "You're not allowed to play! You're a first-year!" He yelled at me.

"Once Professor Slughorn gets permission from the headmaster, Prince will challenge Higgs to be our next Seeker—" explained Flint.

a loud "Tch," can be heard among the various voices of the common room, I think it was Higgs

"YOU?!" erupted from Malfoy so viciously that Harry thought he was going to get hexed. "You must be joking!" He shouted,

"WHEN MY FATHER HEARS OF THIS—!"

"What's the matter, Malfoy? Jealous of a Muggle-raised Half-Breed like me?" I said and that's when Malfoy's tantrum became a wordless roar of anger

Malfoy grabbed his wand from the belt of his trousers, but I was faster.

with a simple flick of my wand, a red spark flew from it hitting Malfoy in the chest. Malfoy flew backward, knocking a high-backed chair down behind him, right into Crabbe. I stared at my wand and then at Malfoy, amazed that the spell had hit him so hard...as usual my magic only works well when she wants to... at least she chooses her moments well

Not a moment later, Malfoy's pointed face popped up off the ground. It was red with fury. "Let go. I'm fine!" He yelled at Crabbe as he forced himself up.

No one had touched Malfoy's wand, which had escaped from the other side of the common room, so the blond plucked the sleek black Wand from the floor, after looking at me, went into the bedroom without a word.

I took a deep breath and looked around. There had been a lot of Slytherins to witness that, and most of them were either amused or gave a respectful bow of their head towards me. I suppose that means I wouldn't get into trouble…

"Good form, Prince," Gilbert said pushing through the crowd that had been drawn forward by the shouting. He patted me on the shoulder. "Good form."

"We've wanted to beat the little snot ever since he opened his mouth," a boy whose nametag stated Herbert Burke, "But we're not allowed to issue a challenge to housemates in a year below us."

huh? I thought

"You seem surprised," said a smirking girl Regina Rowle, by her nametag. "Did you think we enjoyed being talked down to?"

I could only scratch my head, not knowing what to say

"Why do you look so lost, Arthur?" Sally-Anne asked with a worried voice, picking up the high-backed chair that had been knocked like it was a routine part of our everyday chaos.

In a tired admission, I explained, "Everything's new, especially here. I'm still figuring out the ground rules."

"Sorry, Anne," I added with a weary smile. "As much as I'd like to chat, I need some downtime."

Retreating to the bedroom, I noticed semone, it was Draco on the other side, wrapped up. The silence enveloped the room, interrupted only by the muffled sounds of the outside world, and occasionally, faint cries from him.

As I settled into bed, the lingering question echoed: Did I handle it right? With that thought, I slipped into sleep, hoping the night would bring clarity to this reality that felt more perplexing than any dream.