Burning Butterflies

Burning Butterflies

Prologue

I guess you can say that Harry Potter is like every other boy on earth. His best friend has hair to inspire an arsonist; he's wanted dead and is showing the potential of being an extremely powerful wizard, so he is told.

All right, so I'm lying. Maybe he's not too average.

Harry Potter really does have all those things and more! You can purchase them for seventeen Galleons and four Sickles! Please send your owls to-

"Ahem."

Not funny. Sorry Harry.

You see him walking down the hall, scar, glasses, messy raven hair and all. He walks neither like a king nor a pauper, yet a pauper disgraced by his fate pushed upon him. You stare out of habit, may it be of awe or of adoration. Usually, however, when Slytherins stare their motive is revulsion.

He's nothing like you. Everyone knows that. He is your opposite; he is the Yin to your Yang.

You are polished, primped, and posh. Every inch of you is played by the rules, your own family rules. You are bred like a show dog to be sly, cunning, sarcastic and just flat out sinister. You have even practiced your smirk and sneer in the mirror, frequently.

You know they think you are an evil little rich prat, don't they, Malfoy? They think you are an annoying little ferret. You know they think you are heartless as not just a Slytherin, but as a malevolent Malfoy.

Oh, how they are wrong.

***

The Slytherin common room was an icy cold no matter which season stumbled upon the Hogwarts grounds. There were no windows to let in the sun, only chiseled out indents covered with stained glass, containing candles behind them. The fire that burned steadily in the grate helped none at all. Stiff, emerald colored armchairs encircled the fireplace, unoccupied, casting long eerie shadows across the floor.

Broken quills, empty inkpots and furrowed scraps of parchment littered tables awaiting the skittish house elves. Black floor pillows and black leather sofas were placed almost haphazardly. Recently extinguished torches that sent elegant signals into the air were fixed to the ornate green silver walls. The room bestowed a dangerously still message forewarning evildoers and cunning ideas to wreak havoc.

Nevertheless, Draco Malfoy fancied it that way.

To Draco it was more welcoming then Malfoy Manor and gratefully less...cheerful then the rest of Hogwarts. He spent little time for leisure sake, that wasn't on a broomstick, in the common room.

He would gracefully sprawl about one in particular black leather couch in the back of the room as agile as a cat, for Draco Malfoy did everything with grace. He had "reserved" a specific sofa for his entire seven-year stay at Hogwarts...just because he had the power. He was oblivious to the fact, and would be completely enraged, that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had clumsily sat upon it in their second year with him, incognito as his thickheaded minions for about an hour.

There are many things Draco fancied but wasn't aware that Gryfindors had "tainted." Ironically, there were things that Gryfindors were keen on that Slytherins were too. If they knew how much they had in common, their loves and loathes, the natural balance of Hogwarts could shatter like a glass cage and unleashing its captive of an unknown motive. They would create the divine chaos of Hogwarts.

***

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were considered the "Dream Team," "The Heroes," and "The Golden Trio" of Hogwarts. They saved the school, or more often the wizarding world, at least once a year. They were admired and respected throughout the school, with the exception of the majority of Slytherin House of course.

Harry was the hero. He was brave, daring, slightly stubborn, and kind. Hermione was the heroine; intelligent, strong minded, and remarkably clever. Both became attractive, as they grew older and wiser as young men and women do. They fit very closely in the mold of what a hero and heroine should be, except for the part that they weren't madly in love with each other.

Then there was Ron. If I was to say Ron was the loyal sidekick that was deprived of the spotlight because of the hero and heroine, I would be insincere to the greatest extent. Ron was the secret love interest of Hermione. He was sarcastic, rude, funny, sweet and humble. Not to mention his friends envied him. Harry wanted to have a family like his, or preferably be a part of it. Hermione envied his chess skills, more or less.

Nothing had ever permanently harmed their friendship, and it looked as if nothing will. Of course, no one had dared expected a Slytherin to mix with a Gryfindor in a more than almost civil fashion.

No one expected it would be Draco Malfoy that shattered the balance.