"Father, why do we have to go here every year? You never get anything," soon-to-be seventeen-year-old Draco Malfoy complained to his father in the doorway of a creepy store in Knockturn Alley. Lucius Malfoy looked down at his son somewhat glaring at him, but his lips were curled in a nasty smile.
"Draco, Draco, Draco... we don't go to this store to buy things, I come here for many... different reasons," Lucius said, hesitating a little as he spoke. Draco raised one eyebrow suspiciously, but followed his father into the store nonetheless.
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, welcome back, welcome back... here about your, um, letter, I assume?" A very old looking man with a scratchy voice greeted them as they stepped toward the counter. Lucius nodded, motioning for Draco to give them a bit of privacy as they talked.
Draco sighed. "Fine. I'll wait outside." He felt uneasy as he walked outside, however, considering the fact that everyone seemed to be staring at him today. It really bothered him that everyone would want to stare at him, but he didn't really care as he leaned against the wall, looking up towards the sky.
If only he was with her. Then he'd be completely happy, but alas, he wasn't. And even if he did tell Hermione Granger the reason he hadn't been teasing her as much as he had to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, she'd probably hate him even more. But if only he could tell her... tell her everything that was bottled up inside him, including the fact that his one true desire was to be with her, and to be friends with her friends. Of course, no one knew this. He couldn't just go around saying he, Draco Malfoy, pureblood Slytherin and son of Lucius Malfoy, loved a Gryffindor Muggle born. How would that look on his reputation?
Of course, if you really, truly loved someone, you wouldn't care very much about your reputation.
Draco jumped at the sudden sound of banging on the counter from inside the store his father was in. And from the looks of it, Lucius wasn't very happy. Draco pressed his ear against the window to attempt to hear what they were saying, but the glass was simply too thick. But he did catch a few words. Words such as "Draco", "Slytherin", and "Gryffindor". He had no idea why his father would be talking to a man like that about Draco and Hogwarts, but it had to be another one of his schemes. There was no other excuse.
Some good ten minutes later, Lucius stepped out of the store, slamming the door violently behind him. Grabbing Draco's arm, he pulled his son towards the extremely crowded streets of Diagon Alley.
"Father, can you tell me what's going on? You seem kind of angry," Draco asked his father as they rushed through Knockturn Alley. Lucius glared down at him. Obviously, he wasn't in the mood to have a one-on-one conversation with his son.
"You don't need to know what went on in there," he replied very icily. Draco felt no need to ask any more questions, as they would just anger his father even more. And, from previous experience, Draco knew that was something he never wanted to do again.
"Draco, get your school supplies and come back to the manor. I have some business to attend to," Lucius said shortly, and with a flick of his black robes, he turned around and walked in the opposite direction Draco was going in.
He'd been acting very strange lately. Ever since Lucius had received an "urgent" call from the Ministry of Magic, he'd been extremely tense, and had a new tendency to snap at the smallest things. For example, just last weekend Draco had broken a very inexpensive vase his mother had bought, and Lucius had completely flipped out and forbid Draco to touch anything made of glass for the rest of the week. This definitely was not like his father.
But the sound of an all-too familiar voice snapped Draco out of his thoughts. "Ron, I'm telling you, you do not need to obsess about Chairee every-" Hermione voice stopped in mid-sentence as the trio reached Draco. Putting on his usual smug face, Draco looked down upon them.
"Who is this 'Chairee' you speak of, Granger? I've never heard of her in my life," Draco said, waiting expectantly for an answer.
"She's my girlfriend, Christina Hayden, but we call her Chairee. Pity, you don't even know what it's like to have a girlfriend!" Ron shouted without thinking. Draco's eyes narrowed. Yes, that was true. But did he have to be reminded of it?
"I'm surprised you even have a girlfriend, Weasley, since your family is so poor and all... who would want to go out with the likes of you?" Draco replied, smirking as Ron tried to attack him, but was held back by his two friends. Draco was so proud of his ability to make people angry just by saying one single sentence.
Once Harry and Hermione got Ron settled down, Hermione took a step forward. "Malfoy, you are such an insensitive jerk! You're the one who doesn't deserve a girlfriend because you're so mean to everyone!" Draco stared at her, his eyes wide with a mixture of anger and sadness. He didn't know what to say to that.
"Yeah, Malfoy, so why don't you just go find your little friends and leave us alone?" Harry said directly to him. Draco took a few steps back, then turned around towards the bookstore, Flourish and Blotts. And as he looked back slightly at them, he could see the look of surprise on their faces. Naturally, they'd been expecting Draco to come back with a witty comeback, but they were so wrong.
"If I'm gonna secretly like Hermione, I have to start being nicer. Though it will seem kind of weird..." Draco mumbled to himself as he opened the door of Flourish and Blotts and stepped inside.
Once Draco got all of the supplies he needed for school, he started to go home. He really wished his father had stayed so he didn't look weird walking by himself, but he did say he had some business to attend to. Whatever that could be.
And besides, he had some thinking to do. He couldn't do that with another person around.
Why do I have to be so mean? I mean, I tried to become Harry's friend in Madam Malkin's robe shop before our first year, so what happened? Well, that was obvious. Harry had been sorted into Gryffindor, and that just made Draco angry. He'd desperately wanted to become Harry's friend, but Harry had chosen Ron over him right in front of Draco's eyes. And that just made Draco hate Harry even more. But, unknown to Draco, deep down inside, he was wishing that he[ were Ron, and that he was the one who got to follow Harry around everyday, and be close to Hermione nearly all day...
God, he sure has a lot on his mind.
Soon, Draco reached the Malfoy Manor. It was a rather dark place from the outside, with stone gray walls and historic style windows, but on the inside, it was extremely beautiful and one of the largest houses in the wizarding world. And, to his surprise, a light was on in the very top tower of the manor. Strange, Draco thought, no one ever goes up there. He didn't think too much of it, however, as he walked into the house and was greeted by his mother, Narcissa Malfoy.
Narcissa wasn't exactly the most responsible mother in the world, but she did watch out for him more than his father did. That had to mean at least a little something.
"Oh Draco, good, you're home... do you know what's wrong with your father? He's been acting very strangely lately, always wanting to go into the top tower..." Narcissa looked at him with hopeful eyes, thinking he knew the answer, but her hopeful look became discouragement as he shook his head.
She turned around to leave. "All right then. Well, just do whatever you want to, I could care less." Well, at least she didn't glare at him.