His Princess || Draco Malfoy

Chapter 8

I rolled over in my new bed. I'd never liked going to bed angry, but there wasn't much I could do about it now. How could she? Chloe was one of my best friends. She had been a target of Draco and his friend's harassment for almost as long as I had. Why did she run off to them when we were right there? I lay there, staring at the ceiling as I tried to wrap my head around it. What did they have that made her leave? Surely she knew that we wouldn't forgive her. I wondered how long she'd been trying to integrate into their group. It couldn't have been that long, right? This had to have been a new thing. It must have been. I couldn't bear the thought of this going on for any longer than the past few days. 

I flipped over again, blinking away angry tears. My room was quiet, illuminated by the silvery light of the moon pouring in through an open window. The room was beautiful as a rose is; lovely, but not without its thorns. It was lovely, but every moment I spent there was another moment I spent wishing that I was back in the Slytherin dorms with Sophia. I imagined she was struggling to grasp the events of earlier as much as I was. 

I don't know when I fell asleep, but I felt awful when I woke up. I trudged out of the room, hoping that Draco wouldn't be there when I did. No such luck. He looked like he slept about as well as I had, still dressed in his clothes from yesterday.

"Good morning, princess," he mocked when he heard the door open. "Did you sleep well?"

"Exceedingly so," I replied sarcastically. "You look well rested yourself. Tell me, did you intentionally make your scalp that shiny, or are you just greasy?"

"Very funny." He scowled at me, turning his attention to his handheld mirror and running a hand over his smooth head as I closed myself in the bathroom. Once I was done washing my face and brushing my teeth, I came back out, once again ignoring Draco to go to the bedroom.  I locked the door, slipping out of my pajamas and into my robes. I didn't especially feel like making Draco angry this early in the morning, so I unlocked the door as I gathered my things for classes. I had promised Abigail and Sophia that I'd meet them before class so that we could all walk together. I began to make my way to the door just as Draco emerged from the bathroom.

"Where's all your stuff?"

"What?"

"I just thought that you'd have loads of makeup on the counter in there." He gestured back to the bathroom.

"I don't really wear makeup."

"Really?"

I rolled my eyes "Yes, really. Do you have an issue with that?"

He shook his head and went back to getting ready. He had this slightly incredulous look on his face that I chose to ignore. I thought about how much of a jackass he was on the way to meet my friends.

The day was largely uneventful. I ignored Draco as best I could. His usual bullying seemed to have been replaced by a more passive approach of a snarky comment from one of his goons every so often. I could deal with that. 

I headed to potions toward the end of the day. I had Professor Snape for Defense Against the Dark Arts earlier in the day. Truth be told, I was a little apprehensive about meeting the new potions professor. I knew a lot of students had their issues with Snape, but he was never all that terrible to me. Maybe it was that I was unusually good at potions in combination with the fact that I was a Slytherin, but he had never singled me out like he had with the other students. I knew that he was widely disliked for being crabby, but I never quite understood it. Perhaps I just flew under his radar a bit better than everyone else.

Rumor had it that Harry and Dumbledore had to go beg this new guy, Professor Slughorn, to come out of retirement to teach us. Why on earth Dumbledore took Harry was beyond me, but it was no secret that Harry was his favorite. He could do just about anything and earn points for Gryffindor. I was never really all that close with him, but he seemed like a nice enough guy. Draco hated him, so naturally I liked him. Besides the whole 'chosen one' business, he was a fairly normal guy. 

A lot of the other Slytherins hated Gryffindors. I personally had always thought that the house feud was weird and refused to take part in it. A few years back, I had Divination with Hermione Granger. I was rubbish at it and she didn't like the class all that much so we bonded over making fun of it. It didn't matter to either of us that she was a Gryffindor and I was a Slytherin. What mattered was that we had a common hatred for Divination, and that's what was important.

I arrived in the potions room. Everyone was standing in the back of the room. I joined them, taking my place over by Abigail and Sophia. Chloe sat across the room with Draco and friends, shooting us pointed glares every so often. It was odd not seeing Professor Snape in the room with us. The new potions master, a pudgy old man in brown robes, stood in the middle of the room. He greeted us as we each walked in. I prayed that he was good at what he did. Potions was my favorite subject and I would not have this man ruin it for me.

Professor Slughorn, as he introduced himself, decided to start the year off with a challenge. Brew an acceptable Draught of Living Death in exchange for a bottle of Felix Felicis. I took my spot and opened my book. Having invested much of my time and energy into getting good at brewing potions, I knew some of the tricks that the book didn't tell me. A glance around the classroom told me that not many others knew them, save for Harry. I didn't pay it much mind. I focused on my own brew for the next hour of class. It didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, but it didn't look nearly as awful as some of the others. Slughorn gave me a satisfied nod as he passed by me, but his head was soon turned by Harry, who had managed to brew it perfectly. At the end of the class, once we finished cleaning up, Slughorn presented Harry with a tiny glass bottle of liquid luck. Not a huge loss. I was more in the class to learn than for rewards. Still, I did wish that I was able to establish myself a little better right off the bat. Oh well. This wouldn't be my only opportunity. 

I liked Slughorn well enough. I was glad my fears were unfounded. It did appear to me like he had already found a favorite in Harry, but that didn't seem like a good reason to dislike him. I would just have to work a little bit harder to be seen. I wasn't a stranger to hard work, and I was determined to prove it to Slughorn and myself that I was worth paying attention to.

I spent the next several days doing nothing but reading in the library, trying to find anything that would give me an edge in the class. It worked out nicely, between my relentless studying, classes, and choir practice I hardly saw any of Draco. My new habit was taking me far, although on several nights I came back to the dorm to find myself locked out of the bedroom. I never complained as Draco had. Sure, I would rather sleep in the bed, but the couch certainly wasn't uncomfortable. 

It was made clear to me that my efforts were paying off when an owl came for me at my dorm one night months later. I took the letter and unfurled it. Written on the paper in neat script was an invitation to join Professor Slughorn and some other students for a dinner party in a few days time. I smiled as I read it over. I couldn't contain the excitement over my success. I folded the letter and tucked it in amongst my things, settling into a comfortable position on the couch, practically buzzing with excitement.