The Boy Who Made the Right Choice

5- Little white ferret

It was as if the whole night had been a dream. On Monday morning, Draco awoke feeling as though he had a fever. The atmosphere in his bedroom wasn't hot, but he sat up in bed with sweat dripping from his pale skin, and a throbbing pain in his head. He felt as though the power of a dragon had just burned him alive...

For Harry, the morning was a welcoming nest of energy-draining shouts from students, most being from the year below them wanting to know if he and Malfoy had made any interaction since the Slytherin's name was called. Harry just wanted the agitating kids to disappear and leave him to attempt to wipe last night's events from his mind.

Draco and Harry went back to their normal rivalry the next morning. For someone who had just recently lost their best friend, Blaise seemed to act like absolutely nothing had happened. Unlike Draco, who was currently sitting in the crook of a large tree in one of the courtyards that morning, avoiding any stares from his Slytherin friends he got while his mind kept lecturing him about preparing for the first task.

All he wanted to do was forget about the traumatizing sight he'd witnessed the night before, but his mind wasn't letting him, until he let his eyes drift to where Potter was standing with Weasley. The two Gryffindorks looked to be having an inaudible bickering session. By the looks of it, Potter seemed to be looking concerned about something as he looked around the courtyard frantically, while Weasley just gave him a look of disbelief. 

Having nothing better to do while Blaise was giving him the cold shoulder, Draco called out from his place in the tree crook. "Why so tense, Potter?" 

Potter rolled his eyes at the platinum haired boy as he and Weasley attempted to just ignore him and walk past. "Oh, no reason. Good luck in the first task. Ron doesn't think you're going to last ten minutes."

Draco gave him an annoyed glare that quickly disappeared as he stylishly jumped down onto the ground with ease. "Not that I was looking for a thanks or anything.... but it's pretty safe to say that you wouldn't've even lasted five. You're welcome."

"Well I don't give a damn what you think you deserve, Malfoy!" Potter walked angrily up to Draco before Weasley could interviene. "Don't act like the hero. You're pathetic." And he turned away, leaving Draco furiously glaring daggers at the back of his head.

"Pathetic...?" He quickly drew out his wand, and muttered half a hex while pointing it at Potter's back. "Entomor-"

"NO YOU DON'T BOY!" Moody stepped into the sunlight and fired a spell at Draco, and in the blink of an eye the platinum boy had disappeared - where now, a snow white ferret was scurrying about.

"Malfoy... " Crabbe bent down to pick up the small ferret, and from behind a few Slytherin boys who were watching the scene with wide eyes, Blaise looked up from his book to catch a glance at his best friend who was now in the form of a small furry animal.

"Professor Moody!" McGonagall quickly came scurrying into the scene led by two first year Gryffindor girls. "Is- is that a student?" She eyed the ferret in Crabbe's large hands with a look of sympathy.

"Well, technically- it's a ferret." Moody chuckled, clearly proud of himself while Potter and Weasley behind him sniggered slightly. McGonagall's face turned quickly from concerned to stern as she looked back at the large man, and she swiftly waved her wand almost effortlessly, returning Draco back to his normal self in a heap on the floor, his hair messy and ruffled like every morning when he woke up.

The Slytherin looked around frantically, shock painted on his face before he turned back to Moody, purple with fury. "My father will hear about this!"

"I'm sure he will. Now, where were we?" Draco frightingly turned on his heel and ran away, faster than the Slytherins behind him could follow. Blaise tagged along with the Slytherins hurrying after Draco, though he stayed walking slowly in the back with his face back in his book.

"Alastor!" McGonagall scolded Moody when they were gone, sounding more serious and demanding. "We never use transifguration as a punishment! Surely Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it... " Moody scratched the back of his head nervously.

"So you will remember it."

"Yes, ma'am." And the crowd of students that had gathered slowly retreated, along with professor McGonagall. "Now Potter," Moody turned his gaze to Harry once they were alone. "Come with me." He led the raven-haired boy to his office in the back of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and sat down.

"Now, you mind tellin me why Malfoy put his name in that goblet? I ain't stupid- he's the typ'a person to do it for the fame an' glory. But it was clear he already knew your name was in the goblet-"

"But I didn't put my name in it!"

"And I believe you." Moody said, almost calm like Dumbledore. "But Malfoy interjected your name - by putting his own in." Harry noticed there was the slightest tone of anger in his voice, as he spat his sentence through gritted teeth.

"Sir... ?"

Moody scrunched up his face like he'd just had a puking pastel, and he quickly snatched his hip flask from nearby and drank frantically. He wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve when the flask was empty, and cleared his throat. "Look, the question everyone's so puzzled about is - why?"

Harry knew very well what he was talking about, but stayed silent.

"Why did Malfoy block your name from being picked?" Again, Harry couldn't answer no matter how much room for a response Moody left. 

Draco and the Malfoy family had always symoblized a patch of Emeralds; wealthy, important, loyal to each other - but also cold-hearted. Was it possible that the heir to the Malfoy family potentially held a heart of gold deep down?

That afternoon, Harry entered the Gryffindor common room to find Ron and Hermione sitting at a round table in one corner, already out of their robes. Ron waved Harry over.

"Honestly Ronald, if you ask me I think it's just because Harry cares about people's lives." Hermione sighed as she read through the Daily Prophet for the third time that day. 

"Harry, you can't seriously be concerned for Malfoy?"

Harry just gaped like a goldfish as he sat down in the chair between them. "I dunno. I guess I might think he doesn't deserve all this... "

"Why? Because you would be in his position right now?" Ron said through a mouthful of pumpkin pastie which Herione scolded him for.

"Yes." Harry said boldly. "Why wouldn't I? You're forgetting the part that Malfoy had a choice. When he found out my name was entered he could've just left it at that and wait around for me to get scorched by dragons."

"But he didn't." Hermione said finally, as she folded the prophet and rested her arms on the table, looking back at Ron. "So why'd you thi-"

"I've already told you, I don't know!" Harry sighed, irritated. "If anything, I'm about as close to knowing the answer as the Slytherins. I think they've been pestering Malfoy on and on but he's just better at avoiding them than I am with the Gryffindors."

Ron and Hermione both said nothing after that, though it was obvious neither one of the three friends had let the question leave their minds.

The afternoon wasn't as different for Draco as Harry's had been. He sat in a large comfy armchair beside the fireplace in the Slytherin common room, staring intensly into the flames that cackled in front of him. No one had stopped questioning him about his daring choice to enter the tournament, until he yelled at Crabbe and Goyle to leave him alone that actually startled the large boys. The rest of the house took that as a warning and left him alone to stare into the fireplace with one leg crossed over the other with his head resting on his propped up fist. 

Draco, still fully clothed in his uniform minus his robe, slowly drifted off to sleep in that position in the armchair. He dreamed of large, untamable beasts, and the vision gradually came to the outline of an unknown dragon, flying freely through the night sky before coming and settling amongst the stars of it's home constellation; Draco.