𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒

Chapter 29

'I never should have said things couldn't get any worse,' Draco complained to himself. It wasn't even lunch yet and here he was sitting on a bed in the hospital wing, waiting for Madame Pomfrey to come back with her creams and salves to heal the small cuts and bruising on his face and body.

The blonde Slytherin had gone to classes with everyone else after the debacle in the Great Hall and everything had seemed quiet until the end of class. On his way to his next class he had been waylaid by Pucey, Zabini, and surprisingly, Malcolm Baddock who was in a younger year and normally didn't get involved with in-house politics. They had dragged him into a quieter corridor where they proceeded to beat him almost unconscious. They hadn't even used their wands on him, and had left him bleeding, lying in the hall until a first year Hufflepuff had found him and helped him to the infirmary.

Draco lay back on the bed as a wave of dizziness overcame him, feeling utterly defeated. Not only had he had to endure the embarrassment of being helped by a little eleven year old kid, a Hufflepuff no less, but he also had to face up to the fact that he was no longer welcome in his own school house. He had thought he would have been prepared for the jeers and insults, able to hold his own against it and still come out looking not too bad, but what the others had done had been personal. They considered him a traitor of the worst kind. To lie with a Gryffindor was tantamount to him spitting in the eye of Salazar Slytherin himself, at least that's they way they saw it. And if that Gryffindor was a boy and Harry Potter to boot, well then that was three strikes against him, wasn't it.

Pucey, Zabini and Baddock had called him a turncoat, a traitor and other various names not to be heard in mixed company as they beat him. Their final words had been that they no longer knew the name Draco Malfoy and as far as they were concerned he was no better than a scab beetle under their feet. They tore the Slytherin crest from his robe, effectively banishing him from Slytherin house before turning their backs on him and walking away.

Of course, this was only a banishment from his peers and not official from the school, but the effect was the same as if it was, maybe worse. From this day forth no Slytherin student in the school would ever speak or look at him again. As far as they were concerned he was a non-existent entity. Draco sighed and took a couple of deep breaths to try and control the well of sadness that wanted to erupt from him in the form of tears. He had always been proud to be in Slytherin and now he didn't even have that. The thought that all this just wasn't worth it flitted though his mind until he thought of Harry.

Draco wiped the small amount of moisture that had gathered in his eyes. As long as Harry was by his side he guessed he could deal with it.

XXX

Harry sat between Hermione and Ron at lunch, trying his best to ignore the questions and smart assed remarks that had followed him the whole morning. The other houses seemed to think of it all as a big joke, except for Slytherin house. He must have been purposely shoulder bumped a half-dozen times in the halls already, all from the Slytherins. Even that greasy git Snape seemed to be in on it, making his life more miserable than normal in Potions, until Harry had to hold himself back from seriously hexing the man.

He glanced over to the Slytherin's table as he tried to eat with his two friends running interference and frowned in perplexion when he didn't see a familiar blonde head. In fact, now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen Draco since first class.

"...and he was just bleeding everywhere," Harry heard a young Hufflepuff say as he walked past the Gryffindor table behind him with two of his friends.

"I can't believe you actually helped him," another boy said with an affection of awe in his voice. "You better be careful, the other Slytherin's could come after you for it," the third boy cautioned.