Meles Malfoy

Chapter 4.

In Draco's opinion, the potions dungeon was exactly how he would picture the domain of Snape. Snape's desk, the work surfaces and the shelves lining the room were all spotlessly clean, in stark contrast to the other parts of the room which the professor did not think necessary to maintain at all. The corners of the ceiling were filled with more cobwebs than Draco had probably ever seen in the entire manor at home. The windows looked like they had once been enchanted by a previous potions master but Snape had obviously not been as keen to make the place seem welcoming and they just looked filthy and dark.

Draco was admiring some of the specimens in the jars on one of the shelves when he noticed the silence descending upon the room as Professor Snape entered from his office. He had just slipped onto a stool between Justin and Ernie when he caught a withering look from the teacher which made his blood run cold.

Luckily for Draco, this was the only acknowledgment of his existence he received from Snape throughout the lesson even when he was the only person to put his hand up when the professor began asking questions for which very few first years would have known the correct answers, nor did he receive anything like a compliment when his final flask of pale lilac coloured wart remover was the closest in the class to the dusky mauve stipulated on the blackboard.

"Pathetic," announced Snape. "It seems that no-one in this entire class is able to mix one of the simplest potions in the wizarding repertoire. I have been sent another load of idiots of the worst possible kind."

Snape's words made Ernie most indignant and he said out loud, "Draco's potion was clearly the best and you didn't even say a thing about..."

Snape cut him off most abruptly, "Do not speak out of turn McMillan. Two points from Hufflepuff and just because Mr. Malfoy," not even glancing at Draco (who was looking rather confused for what wasn't the first time that day), "managed to follow the instructions from the board and made fewer mistakes than the rest of you morons, is no cause for celebration."

After class, as they made their way from the dungeon towards the Transfiguration room, Ernie waited until he was sure they were out of earshot before rounding on Snape's treatment of his housemate. "He can't just ignore someone like that. Your potion was clearly the best and now I've gone and lost the house points."

"Just leave it McMillan, I actually prefer him to ignore me. Snape is just the sort of person to find the slightest fault in anything," replied Draco.

Transfiguration (another class shared with the Ravenclaws) was a different matter altogether. McGonagall, despite her stern appearance, seemed quite liberal with her distribution of house points. Draco earned a point for having the pointiest matchstick and Ernie was more than able to make up for Snape's class by making his match the most metallic and for answering some questions correctly. The Ravenclaws seemed to Draco like they deemed making pins from matchsticks to be beneath them, much to the annoyance of Professor McGonagall.

At lunch, Webley came around giving notice of a house meeting to be held that evening in the common room. "Shouldn't we have had that last night?" asked someone. "Well, we weren't able to because of..." Webley's eyes met with Draco's for an instant, making Draco feel like the entire house was looking at him (which they were). "It's nothing to worry about," added a female prefect to the first years. "We just like to get everyone together at the start of the year to make sure that everyone knows exactly what to expect."

First class after lunch was Herbology with the Gryffindors. This became the new topic of conversation as everyone was anxious to meet "The Boy Who Lived." Draco, remembering Harry's snub on the train was less keen than his house-mates and happily gave his opinion.

"He's really stuck up. You should have seen him holding court on the train. Just because he did something he probably can't even remember, he thinks everyone should bow down before him."

"Now Draco, I we should keep an open mind about him until we see what he's like in class," replied Ernie.

Zacharias Smith, another first year boy added, "If he tries thinking he'll get an easy ride from us just because of who he is. He has another thing coming."

"I hadn't even heard of him until I got on the train. I'm sure he's not too bad. There were some sons of famous people at my last school and they got on pretty much like everyone else," said Justin.

Susan Bones added, "I heard that he's spent the last ten years living with muggles. That must have been terribly..."

"Hey!" interjected Justin.

"Oh sorry Justin. I forgot," she replied, patting him on the arm.

In greenhouse number one, twenty minutes later, Harry appeared to be quietly industrious, not shirking any work but not volunteering much information. Draco was quite annoyed that he had been given so little ammunition to use against the Boy Who Lived. So on leaving the class he roughly shouldered him with and called, "Watch it Potter!"

"Watch it yourself Dracopuff!" replied Ron, clearly relishing his invention.

Before an argument could develop, Professor Sprout shooed them outside and on to their next class.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, as with the previous classes with the other houses, the students segregated themselves either side of the central aisle. Draco made sure that he was sitting next to Ernie (who was the purest boy available, apart from himself). They were seated quite near the back of the class and Draco noticed that Theodore Nott and a boy (who looked to be of mediterranean origin) whom he did not recognise were sitting together in front of Crabbe and Goyle who seemed rather subdued, though it was difficult to tell. "I've never known them to be the most scintillating company. Thick as two short planks actually," thought Draco to himself.

He was actually quite anxious to see the pair after class, to clear the air. They wouldn't be around him all the time, but Malfoy didn't think that that should prevent him from making personal gain from their acquaintance. Besides it most certainly would not do for Theo, the swarthy boy or one of the older Slytherins to be the one to boss them around instead of him.

The lesson itself only served to reinforce what his father had said about Defense Against the Dark Arts. Their teacher Professor Quirrell looked like a curtain full of doxies would cause him to run away crying. Draco would have liked to have been able to do the bare minimum in the class. The Malfoy family policy on defense was that it was better to make others do it (forcibly). Quirrell, however, seemed very interested in him and stammered several of the more difficult questions in his direction.

After class he caught Crabbe's eye who nudged his shaven headed associate and the three waited outside in the corridor until the rest of the class had disappeared towards their houses before dinner. Draco, who had spent the whole day since the aborted duel between Webley and Warrington deciding what to say to Crabbe and Goyle, had decided that he would need to take the lead in this conversation. He finally decided to begin with a neurtal question.

"Who was that boy sitting next to Nott?"

"Blaise Zabini," replied Goyle sullenly.

"Foreign, is he?" inquired Draco.

"He said he's from an old Italian family," supplied Crabbe.

Draco remembered something his father had once said about Italian wizards being incorrigible criminals who were not averse to involving themselves with muggle triads and mafias. "I see," he replied (privately outraged that "some crooked katzenfresser" was more worthy of a place in Slytherin than he). He wasn't stupid enough to insult a member of another house in front of the boy-mountains that were Crabbe and Goyle.

There was now a pregnant silence which Draco filled with, "That Quirrell, is an idiot." At almost exactly the same time as Goyle asked "Why didn't you get into Slytherin with us?"

Draco fell silent, he had been asking the same question for nearly 24 hours. He should have known that Goyle, who had the discretion (and looks) of the Knight Bus, would be the one to mention the erumpent in the corner. "Well if he's going to be blunt, I'll be enigmatic," thought Draco.

"I can't say just at the moment. But I can still keep an eye on both of you to keep you both out of trouble, like we discussed before."

"But if you're in Hufflepuff how can you..." began Crabbe.

"Just leave that to me. Anyway it's nearly dinner time, we'd best be getting on to our houses to get ready."

As they made their way back to the entrance hall, Crabbe and Goyle fell into step on either side of Draco. "That wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, I really don't know what I was worried about," thought Draco to himself as he returned to the Sett after having broken away from his retinue to let them disappear in the direction of the potions dungeon.