62 Behind the Scenes

As snow gradually melted and winter turned into the blooming spring, the Slytherin house was getting more and more lively.

Draco and Theo were just entering the common room after the day of classes had ended when they heard an interesting conversation between a group of fifth-years.

"The duels to determine the next Slytherin leader will start this weekend. This time, Corvus Lestrange will have some serious competition – one of the members of his faction had a potion explode in his face yesterday, and he's definitely out! Last year, Corvus managed to win only by a strand of hair, however, this time Aniceta Gage will make him sweat!"

"Heh, you think that potion explosions happen by chance? It's only Tuesday, there are still four days until the start of the fight for the Slytherin's throne, yet there's already one person incapacitated. I just wonder what kind of show we will be able to enjoy for the next few days!"

Draco and Theo exchanged glances and moved away from the gossiping upper-years. Anyway, it didn't really concern them who would be the leader the following year.

At least, that was what Draco thought until he was pulled into an alcove by Corvus Lestrange the following day.

"Malfoy," the older boy smiled unpleasantly as he greeted his younger housemate. "I need a moment of your time."

Draco raised an eyebrow at Corvus' manners as he demonstratively looked around the cramped space he was pulled into. His gray eyes were clearly expressing: 'And you selected this place to hold a conversation?'

Corvus Lestrange didn't get flustered - he apologetically smiled and motioned for Draco to follow him into an abandoned classroom, where he proceeded to cast a few privacy spells.

'At least he realizes that I'm not facing one of his bootlicking cronies,' Draco thought distractedly as he waited. He already had an idea as to why the older boy pulled him aside.

On the surface, the competition to become the Slytherin leader was completely fair and straightforward. Each person who wanted to hold the throne had to form a faction of five people and fight it out with other factions until there was a clear winner.

However, it wasn't based on elimination method, where losing once meant that you were out of the competition. Rather, each faction had to duel all other existing factions, and the one which had the most points would win.

But this wasn't the end. After all, Slytherins were an ambitious bunch of people, and who wanted to pave the way for others to succeed whilst getting only the crumbs in return?

There was only one throne, and only one of the five people could sit on it. But, no one was so kind as to fight it out with others, only turn around at the last moment to say 'Nah, I don't want it'. As such, after a faction won, it had to sort it out between themselves who would become the next leader.

Most of the time, the honor was granted to the one who created the faction. After all, even Slytherins had close friends and could form bonds with other people. As such, after promising sufficient benefits as compensation, it was also rather easy to decide on the ultimate winner.

However, this didn't always happen. After all, the closest friend wasn't always the most powerful ally available – often, that friend could quickly become a dead-weight. Because accumulated faction points depended on each person in the team, one had to select a strong faction, not just friends.

But if the faction was formed only of strong people, then they would all automatically think that they deserve the ultimate title! And, as strong people weren't always close with each other, it always managed to heighten the uncertainty of the outcome.

As such, the competition formed a vicious cycle of promises being made and abandoned, close friendships being broken off, as well as many plays occurring behind the scenes.

It was the first time that Draco participated in such a battle, which seemed to be taking place out in the open, but was ultimately decided in the dark. Since first and second-years were excluded from the competition due to their weak strengths and lack of time for creating bonds with others, Draco wanted to use this chance to observe the fun from the sidelines.

After all, when he wanted to form his own faction and battle for the title of Slytherin leader later, he needed to know what kind of strategies were generally put in use and what to expect from others.

However, he didn't think that even the first-years, who weren't important on the surface, wouldn't be completely let off by others.

Draco's eyebrow rose when Corvus finally finished casting the spells and proceeded in explaining the purpose of this meeting:

"Malfoy, you should know that the battle for the leadership of the house is approaching and everyone is picking their sides. Even if they are not in a faction and battling directly, they can still help behind the scenes with some small support… I hope that you will also consider supporting me in this year's battle. I promise you will be happy with the reward and your place in Slytherin's hierarchy."

The blond boy was momentarily silent as he considered what was being said. His expression was completely devoid of any emotion because he didn't want to show his own confusion over what help he could provide.

The only things he could think of would be using his connection with Severus somehow, or helping to incapacitate Lestrange's opponents similarly to how it was done to the older boy's faction member by exploding a potion.

But Draco would rather avoid providing such 'help' for the uncertain reward that was only momentary and may even never be retrieved. After all, if he was requested to do something nefarious and actually did it but never received any benefits, he couldn't come out to say 'you promised to give me this and that but didn't do it so now I will tell everyone how I injured another person at your request'.

However, everything also depended on said request. If it was something harmless and within his ability, then Draco would help because it could be useful to have Corvus Lestrange be indebted to him. As such, he could only try to find out more information.

In this conversation, Draco could be considered as standing in both, an advantageous and disadvantageous position. On one hand, the one who needed help wasn't himself, so he had an upper hand in this aspect. On the other hand, he wasn't completely familiar with the way the battle for the Slytherin leader position transpired, and if he agreed without knowing everything - he would definitely suffer a loss.

Because of that, Draco silently waited for more information.

People were beings who were easily flustered if they didn't get a response from others. Often, they would strive to fill in the silence with nonsensical chatter or try to shove more information the listener's way if they felt uncomfortable in the still atmosphere.

Corvus wasn't an exception.

Although he was a sixth-year, until now he only dealt with children. True, these children were shrewd and knew a lot of tricks, however, one had to consider that they were witches and wizards. If something made them unhappy, they resorted to magic to get their revenge. If they wanted something, they only needed to learn a few spells or brew a potion, and they could make it happen most of the time.

In other words, they weren't like muggles who could be even more shrewd and use various psychological cues to influence others. At least, these children wouldn't gain such abilities until they had more experience in playing business and politics with adults, who wouldn't resort to magic in order to 'politely' sort out their opponents over a dinner table.

Because of that, Draco didn't find it strange when his strategy worked and he quickly found out what all of this was about after almost a minute of silence.

"Malfoy, your family is one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight and you have a lot of influence over others. I know that you have some connections with the upper years, including Fawley, the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. If you could persuade him to… let's say 'incapacitate' Higgs on Saturday's match… You will receive a lot of benefits!" Corvus explained his proposal while emphasizing on the last sentence.

Draco didn't refuse immediately, though he really wanted to. Even if he knew that Fawley would never agree on deliberately injuring his opponent, he could always make it look as though he had the means to make it happen - this would also make himself appear more influential.

Besides, an immediate refusal would only make an enemy out of Corvus Lestrange, and Draco didn't fancy himself to be a masochist to deliberately provoke others.

As such, the blond boy casually pulled out his wand and dusted off one of the old desks on which he proceeded to lean on while making a show of considering the proposal. Finally, he opened his mouth and slowly asked:

"What sort of benefits would I get?"

Corvus' face brightened up after seeing that the younger boy didn't reject him straight away. In fact, he was at his wit's end, trying to think up the solution for replacing one of his injured faction member's. He finally managed to pull in a promising fourth-year, however, he wasn't really confident in the other's abilities. As such, taking care of his most dangerous rival faction's members would make his chances that much higher.

Talking with Draco about it was something which he thought up only after hearing one of his faction members' casually sigh about the probability of Higgs being knocked out with a Bludger, thus putting Gage's faction in danger at the last moment. However, the stadium would be surrounded by hundreds of students and teachers, and magic would be detected. As such, only an inside job or the rival team could harm one of the players.

As his family name was rather infamous and his birth was also not that clean, Corvus didn't have any connections with the Hufflepuffs, who would be playing against the Slytherins in the next game. Hell, he even had problems connecting with his other housemates, who avoided him due to his father still being imprisoned in Azkaban and bringing shame to the whole family.

As such, Corvus could only associate with the children of the Death Eaters and one or two others, who didn't mind his family name or birth. His circle of friends was very narrow and he didn't have many people to turn to with such a request. Thus, naturally, Draco, who had a wider network of acquaintances and was a first-year (thus easier to manipulate), became a perfect person for the job.

Corvus took a deep breath and, hiding his rising excitement, quickly explained that Draco would get the best study-rooms, potion laboratories, passes to the library's Restricted section and so on. He made it sound as though the blond boy would be living like Hogwarts' prince if he agreed to the proposal.

Draco silently listened to the end and made sure that his expression looked tempted. However, on the inside, he was rather amused and even felt a little bit of pity for the other boy, who was trying so hard.

After one year of being the leader, Corvus seemed to have become addicted to the power granted to him and tried to do everything to continue holding it.

Really pitiful...

Finally, the glorious explanation of how the blond Slytherin would be able to drink rare tea in the common room while his feet were being massaged by the house-elf (it wasn't said directly, but certainly implied) ended.

Draco sighed as his expression turned regretful.

"I am sorry, but these sort of benefits, while tempting, won't make up to the risk I take as well as the friendship with Fawley which could be ruined as a result of my request. If all of this comes out in the open, I could become an enemy of many Slytherins, especially the fans of Quiddich and Gage's faction… But I will be rooting for you," the blond assured with a smile, as though his cheering on from the sidelines would be of help.

Corvus could only helplessly watch as Draco exited the abandoned classroom. Suddenly, he felt a surge of fury in his heart – in a fit of rage, he took out his wand and proceeded in destroying all of the furniture in the classroom.

No one heard any noises only because the privacy wards were still in effect.

Finally, after calming down, Corvus straightened out his sleeves and, acting as though nothing had happened, exited the place leaving only a pile of debris behind himself.

'I am still a leader right now, and I will continue to be one,' he thought to himself darkly. 'Those who have refused to help me… I definitely won't forget it!'