Creep

Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint!

Und das mit Recht; denn alles, was entsteht,

Ist wert, dass es zugrunde geht;

Drum besser wär's, dass nichts entstünde.

So ist denn alles, was ihr Sünde,

Zerstörung, kurz das Böse nennt,

Mein eigentliches Element.

- J.W. von Goethe, Mephisto in "Faust" ¹

Chapter 1: The Prince of Slytherin

Sighing, Draco closed the book and lifted his eyes to scan the Hogwarts library. It was already dark outside and shimmering torches only slightly lit up the cold room. There were few students left in the library. Draco saw some second years, and here and there sat several older students with their noses in dusty, old books.

Idiots! Draco snorted.

His eyes came to rest upon three figures in the corner. They talked with each other in hushed voices.

The Dream Team, thought Draco to himself as he unconsciously slid his delicate fingers over the silver dragon, which was carved into his chest under his grey cotton jumper. He knew there were bruises all over his chest, but just now he did not care.

Saint Potter, the Weasel and their insufferable Mudblood friend. Draco hated the three with a passion. What were they hushing their voices over again, anyways? Draco's stormy grey eyes surveyed Hermione Granger's back. Her long wavy hair cascaded over her small shoulders. If he had not reserved pure hate for her, he might have found her beautiful in a very twisted way. She leaned over to Pothead and whispered something into his ear. They both giggled.

Ahhhhh, just insufferable!

Draco stood up energetically. He rushed through the library and placed the book he had been reading on the shelf from which he had taken it. Then he turned around and crossed the room to reach the door. While his footsteps echoed through the room, he took a side-glance at the Dream Team. His bright grey eyes locked on hazel brown ones. Hermione lifted her eyebrows in shock and hastily looked down at her papers again.

Not that tasteless after all, are we now? smirked Draco to himself as he reached the door.

Having left the library, Draco walked down to the dungeons gracefully. He was slender and tall. He had grown quite a lot over the last years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The little, thin blonde boy had turned into a well-grown and beautiful teenager. Not only was he a Prefect, he had also become the Quidditch Captain of the Slytherin Team this year. All of this, though, was not the reason for his popularity with the female population at Hogwarts. He was known and notorious for his success among those of the female gender. It was not just his slender, Quidditch trained, body or his arrogant and proud appearance. It was not only his soft, but yet determined voice or his angelic face. No! It were all of these attributes combined that made Draco Malfoy by far the most popular and adored boy of the whole school. Of course, one could not call him a prince or anything like that, for he wore no crown. Not that he would ever wear one, either.

However, beauty was not his only characteristic. Draco Malfoy was known for detesting all Mud- and Halfbloods. Everybody knew that he would pick on everybody cruelly who only slightly irritated him. On top of that, his father, Lucius, was publicly revealed as a Death Eater and thus a supporter of Lord Voldemort only last year. Of course, everybody now thought that Draco was surely in close connection to Lord Voldemort as well, and just maybe they were not all wrong.

Draco grinned to himself. What did it mean to him that he did not possess a crown? Nothing! It could only be helpful, simply because not being known as the prince meant nothing more than having the power without being known for being the keeper of it. This meant that Draco was adored by the girls, but because he symbolized everything they hated, they would, of course, never confess their secret desires, with the only exception being the Slytherins, maybe. Thus far only few boys of Hogwarts had an idea of what Draco did to their little princesses. And Draco liked it that way.

He had reached the entrance to the Slytherin Common Rooms by now and muttered the password: "Sanguines!" He had chosen the password himself. Sanguines², a word that revealed so much of his life style.

The grey stone wall moved and allowed Draco to pass. He entered the Common Room and was greeted by Blaise Zabini, his best friend. Blaise's dark eyes scanned over him and the ebony haired boy cocked up one eyebrow.

"What's up, Dracie? Has sweet little Pansy confessed her love for you once more?" Blaise laughed, loving to tease his friend about that ridiculous person of Pansy Parkinson.

Draco walked past Blaise.

"Shut it, Zabini!" he hissed dangerously and pushed a first year aside so he could sit on the couch.

Then he looked angrily up at Blaise, whose dark hair hang loosely in his face.

"No need to be bitchy, Malfoy!" said Blaise defensively as he leaned against a table.

"No ... it's okay. I just saw Saint Potter and his ugly little friends. I swear, my father will kill him one day, and hopefully that day will not be too long from now."

Draco's eyes were sparkling in disgust. He thought a moment and then added, "Or else I will!" as an afterthought.

Blaise nodded approvingly, not willing to try his friends temper. "Yeah, someone should really get rid of that git soon. And the Weasel too! God, how I hate him!"

Draco's face lit up a bit. He felt satisfied to have somebody to talk to whose hatred for the Dream Team and Dumbledore matched his own.

*********************************************************

Draco stood up and headed towards his and Blaise's dormitory. He gave Blaise a short gesture, indicating the dark eyed boy to follow him. Blaise hesitated at first, doubting that it was wise to follow his bad tempered friend just now, but then came after him willingly.

"Have you spoken to your father yet?" asked Draco after having arrived in their room.

It was an impressive chamber with shimmering, dark green velvet curtains. The floor was made of black marble, and the enormous closets of ebony.

"Yes, but he hasn't been informed yet as to what is going to happen to your father!"

Draco turned around and scanned Blaise's concerned face. "Hmm."

Was it possible that not even the people responsible for Azkaban Prison were informed as to what would happen to Lord Voldemort's most loyal servants?

Draco's thoughts wandered off to the night when his Lucius had left the manor hurriedly to fulfil his duties as a Deatheater. Draco knew now that his father had been sent off to fight Potter and his useless little friends. Draco wondered how his father was doing now, locked up in Azkaban. Would he still be the man that he had been before his departure? That was, indeed, if he ever was to return.

He pulled off his school robes and stretched out on his big four poster bed. He looked at the ceiling and thought about his earlier eye contact with Hermione Granger. Strange how the Mudblood had managed to capture his attention, usually reserved for himself or for his father when he had requested it.

"Have you ever realised that that Mudblood friend of Potter, Granger, has worked out some nice female features?"

Draco looked at his friend who was now seated on the other bed in their room. Draco and Blaise, of course, had the room all to themselves; their parents, after all, owned half of Europe, and India, but who would mention that?

Blaise pulled up his eyebrows in disgust.

"Really, Draco? Are you kidding? You won't earn any points with her, mate!"

Draco gave an annoyed laugh.

"It was only just a small realisation. She stays a Mudblood and a know-it-all, indeed! Do you really think that I would dirty my fingers on such a vixen? Come on Zabini, I have not sunken that low and neither am I that desperate!"

Draco already regretted having mentioned his thoughts about Hermione Granger to Blaise. Without question, this was the only acceptable reaction of his friend. Why did he even think of Granger as being somehow beautiful? It was ridiculous. He hated her. Draco decided not to waste another thought on her and hoped his friend would soon forget his comment about her. Blaise did seem to forget what Draco had said only too soon.

Five minutes after the boys had entered their dormitories, a panting Pansy Parkinson came running into the room. Draco and Blaise were just discussing the last Quidditch match. Pansy looked at the boys and smiled excitedly.

"Draco! There you are!"

Draco looked up and sighed knowing what would come next. Pansy walked over to his bed and sat down next to him, gazing happily into Draco's eyes. He really did not like her very much. She was, indeed, quite nice to look at, and on top of that she was a Pureblood. Her personality however was repulsive. She was always running after him, patting him, claiming him and bawling all over him, pretending to be his girlfriend or something like that twenty-four hours a day. Draco sat up straight at once.

"What's up, Pansy?"

He looked down at his fingernails, finding them surprisingly interesting all of a sudden. Pansy reached out her hand and stroked Draco's hair softly.

Ughhh, as if I was her hamster, a silent voice uttered inside his head.

"I've been looking for you all over this place! And where are you? Hiding in your dorm with Blaise again?"

She was bawling once more and Draco rolled his eyes. Blaise snickered maliciously at the scene playing out in from of him.

"Well, yeah, you know? This is my room! The place where I live!"

Draco exaggerated the 'I' in his sentence, but Pansy only looked at him dumbfounded, still smiling widely. Draco observed her face, not believing how stupid she actually was, and then added: "The place I go to when I don't want to be interrupted by anybody!"

Pansy's eyes watered as realization finally dawned upon her.

"You are so mean, Draco Malfoy!" she shrieked and jumped to her feet.

You are so mean, imitated Draco in his thoughts, sneering.

She was out of the room in no time at all. As soon as the door was slammed shut, Blaise broke out into loud laughter.

"You are such a lovely person to deal with!"

Draco started laughing as well. It was, after all, a ridiculous situation. He stood up and took his wand out of the pockets of his trousers He tapped a large tapestry hanging in a corner of the beautifully furnished room with it.

"Aparte Armati!" ³

The tapestry coloured and slowly a list of names with numbers next to them became visible. Draco studied this list intently and then gave a hollow laugh.

"I still can't believe it, but you really gave me an eight for Parkinson, Blaise!"

Blaise nodded in agreement.

"She is quite beautiful to look at with her long blonde hair and blue eyes after all. I know guys who'd kill to just have her once!"

Draco smirked. "If they had her only once and got to know her character, they would be more likely to kill her. There's no doubt about that!"

Blaise laughed again. "Yeah, might be!"

He strode over to Draco and looked at the yellowish tapestry as well.

"See? I got a six for that Ravenclaw girl, Padma Patil."

Draco glanced at Blaise in question.

"I mean, most of them are really not worth anything like that. I doubt only one of them deserves more than a three, except Eleanor maybe!"

Draco touched the tapestry once more with his wand.

"Dissimulate!" ⁴

He absolutely agreed with what Blaise had said. Or did he?

*******************************************************

Draco was awoken early the next morning by the shrill sound of his alarm. He threw it down on the floor. This did not help. The alarm was still as loud as before. Draco put his pillow over his head and tried to ignore the noise. That, unfortunately, did not help either, so he finally got up. Blaise was already in the bathroom and as Draco moodily entered, he looked up from doing his hair.

"Good God Draco! You look horrible!"

"Thanks! I love you too!"

Draco splashed some water into his face and then looked at his reflection in the mirror. He really did look horrible. There were thick dark rings under his pale eyes. The last few weeks had been one big, tiresome journey. At last the exhaustion was showing on his usually perfect complexion. He would have to cast a concealment charm on himself later.

The two boys left the dormitory, both completely dressed up and looking positively charming, as always, some minutes later. They walked to the Great Hall and took their seats in the middle of the Slytherin table. As soon as they had sat down, several fifth and fourth year girls of their house took the surrounding seats.

Draco grinned at Blaise and they both started to talk with the girls close to them. Draco had just started a conversation with an exceptionally beautiful blonde, whom he had dated once last year, when his attention was caught by another person. Entering the great hall, Hermione Granger swiftly walked over to the Gryffindor table. She greeted some people that crossed her way and took her usual place next to the Weasel, who was deep in conversation with the infamous Harry Potter.

"Do you really think I should keep my hair like that?"

Draco was pulled out of his thoughts and looked at the questioning face of the girl he had just been talking to.

"Hmm? What did you say?"

The girl looked at Draco, confused. Daydreaming was not exactly typical Malfoy behaviour, or so she thought.

"I asked you if I should keep my hair like that."

Draco checked out the girl. "Yeah, it's cool!"

His eyes flickered back to the Gryffindor table for an instant before he looked back at the girl. What was her name again? Nelly? Nanny? Nancy? Nancy! Yes, right that was it!

"Cool?" she asked sceptically.

Draco nodded. "Yeah, well, beautiful!"

The girl smiled happily at Draco now. He, however, wished to get away from her as fast as possible. He sometimes just could not stand all that superficial little small talk. He finished his breakfast early and left the Great Hall sooner than he needed to be on time for classes. His first two hours of the week were Double Potions with the Gryffindors, much to his annoyance. Draco entered Snape's classroom and took his seat in the last row. After ten minutes, the room started to fill slowly. Blaise took his seat next to Draco and pulled out his Potions Essay.

"Why did you leave so fast just now?"

Draco studied his own essay for possible mistakes. He did not look up at his friend.

"I couldn't stand those brainless sheep anymore!"

"Since when do you care about their brains?"

"I don't. I just don't care about them at all, seriously. So they should stop bothering me!"

Blaise laughed. "You're being very moody lately, Malfoy!"

Draco did not listen to what his friend was saying. He had his eyes fixed on Granger. She walked past him and whispered something into Potter's ear: "There's nothing new about him being moody, now, is there?"

"Shut up. you filthy little Mudblood!" hissed Draco after her. He saw Potter's muscles tense.

"Tell me now, Malfoy, what exactly is your problem?" asked Harry, turning around to look back at his long-term enemy.

Draco's eyes sparkled with hatred. "I wasn't talking to you, Scarhead. It was your unworthy Mudblood friend who was addressed!"

Draco chuckled as Harry tried to throw himself at him, but was blocked by Crabbe, who had just entered the room. He knew exactly what to say to make Potter and the Weasel act exactly the way he wanted them to. Crabbe threw Harry to the floor heavily and the other Slytherins cheered. Hermione, meanwhile, was standing still. Her eyes had started to fill with tears as she was staring at Draco wordlessly. Draco felt uncomfortable under her stare.

"Like what you see, Mudblood?"

Hermione immidiately looked away. Draco saw her bosom moving up and down because of her fast and angry breathing. God, how he detested them all. Not that he had ever been able to stand them, but since last year, when they had brought Draco's father into prison, he hated them more intensively than ever before. Harry stood up and was just about to throw an insult at Draco when Professor Snape entered the classroom. Everyone was silent at once. Snape's black eyes scanned the students angrily.

"What exactly has been going on here? Malfoy, explain!" Snape fixed his eyes on Draco.

Draco looked up at his favourite Professor and proclaimed innocently: "Miss Granger and Mister Potter have been insulting me!"

Draco smiled maliciously at Harry, who was struggling to keep his temper down.

"But Professor, that is not--" started Hermione, but she was interrupted by one of Snape's deadly glares.

"As I see you two are already acting out of line again, ten points from Gryffindor!"

With that said, Snape walked to the front of the class and started to put ingredients for their next potion on his table. Draco chuckled as he saw Hermione's and Harry's mouths hang open from the injustice they had just suffered.

"Sit down now, or I'll take another ten points from Gryffindor!" echoed Snape's voice through the classroom, and Harry and Hermione took their seats in front of Draco without even shooting another look at him.

Blaise grinned at Draco approvingly and whispered, "What would life be without them?"

They were already ten minutes into the first hour and Draco was still being strictly ignored by Hermione, who did not even raise her voice when Draco voluntarily spilled spider legs on her robes. Suddenly the door bumped open and Ronald Weasley entered the room, panting. Snape came out of his storage room and shot a deadly glance at Ron, who was trying desperately to regain breath.

"I'm so sorry, Professor! I forgot my books!"

"That'll be another ten points from Gryffindor, then!" said Snape, obviously happy to have found another reason to take points from Gryffindor House. Not that he would not have found reasons without the help of the Gryffindors. Ron sat down next to his friends and they sulked together.

Draco, in a twisted kind of way, considered himself lucky to have classes with The Dream Team. They strolled into trouble constantly, and he only had to lean back and watch everything happen. He did not have too much luck in other parts of his life, on the other hand. He already felt the day could hardly have taken a better turn for him when Goyle passed a little folded paper to him, pointing towards a girl with dark brown hair at the front of the class. Isn't that the one Blaise shagged only two weeks ago? he wondered. He unfolded the paper and read what it said.

Hey Draco

I wonder if you'd like to go out with me this evening.

If so, write back, telling me the time and place.

Kisses, Parvati Patil

Draco looked up and surveyed the girl sitting in the front row. He usually did not meet with Gryffindors, but she looked nice, and he wanted a change for once. So he leaned over to Blaise and asked, "Didn't you date Parvati Patil some time ago?"

Blaise shook his head. "It was Padma Patil. They're twins, you know. She was quite cool. I think I'm going to see her again. Why?"

"It's just, well, look at this!" Draco handed the paper over to Blaise, who read through it quickly and then smirked at Draco.

"Well, I'd go for it, mate!"

Draco thought his friend was right. At least Gryffindor girls usually were not as superficial and bitchy as Slytherins. He took the paper and put his delicate, black handwriting under the message of Parvati Patil:

All right. In the dungeons, statue of Sir Nathaniel de la Port, 07:30 pm

Carefully, he folded the paper and passed it back to Goyle.

Well, well, well. This could turn out nicely, smirked Draco, mischievously.

¹ This here is a translation of this particular phrase from Goethe's Faust:

I am the Spirit that denies!
And rightly too; for all that doth begin
Should rightly to destruction run;
'T were better then that nothing were begun.
Thus everything that you call Sin,
Destruction - in a word, as Evil represent-
That is my own, real element.

Should somebody be interested in reading Faust (great drama!), here is a link: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/faustidx.html

² Sanguines - Latin: Blood

³ Aparte Armati - Latin: Reveal Yourself

⁴ Dissimulate - Latin: Disappear