Second Time Around

Professor Moody

"Cause your soul is on fire

A shot in the dark

Where did they aim for

when they missed your heart?"—A shot in the dark, Within Temptation

"Yo."

Draco turned in the hallway in the middle of all the students on their way back to their dorms and grinned. "Theo, where've you been? I didn't see you on the train...or at the feast."

Theodore Nott was a tall gangly looking boy with inky back hair that was long enough to dip into his eyes constantly, a pale complexion and pretty much was the only guy Draco trusted and thought of as a friend. He returned Draco's smile with his usual blank look. "I came early, snuck off. Opening feasts bore me."

Yes, that seemed like something Theo would do. He hated wasting time almost as much as he hated being bored.

They made their way down the dungeon steps to the common room. Draco stretched and put his hands behind his head. "Well you missed one heck of a surprise. We got Mad-Eye Moody as a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Looks like Snape was passed over again. Did you hear about the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Yeah," Theo said dully. "My father told me before I left. Are you going to enter?"

"Death and danger for fame and glory? Nah, I'll pass. It's good to watch but I don't want to battle merlin-knows-what to get famous. That's for poor people and glory hounds."

"It's also a good way to gain valuable battle skills." Theo said thoughtfully.

Draco shrugged. "I thought I wasn't supposed to exert pressure on myself. Whenever I'm stressed the visions are induced. That's why I wasn't even allowed on my broom all summer, right?" he said glumly. A whole month with no Quidditch. If Theo wasn't his best friend, Draco would have thrown him in a deep pit already.

"That's true," Theo agreed. "Alright then. It's decided; under no circumstances are you to enter the tournament. If you stimulate your mind too much, the memories won't return naturally."

"I know, you've said that a thousand times already. And I already said I wasn't going to enter. I'm no Boy-Wonder Potter. "

"Good," Theo nodded. "Now, I think I've finally found something for your nightmares."

Draco slept well that night. Thanks to a stronger variant of dreamless sleep potion found by Theo in some backwater alley, Draco was finally able to bypass the dreams and sleep easily. In the morning he didn't have that usual exhaustion he'd been experiencing for the worst part of a whole year. Good thing too, for what his teachers had planned for him.

In the great hall that morning, Draco tried to catch Hermione's eye. But she turned away from him, leaving Draco feeling very confused. What did he do this time?

Herbology had them squeezing pus from Bubotubers. A task Draco could have lived his entire life without doing. By the time the lesson ended, Draco was sure he wouldn't be eating anything jellied for a long, long time. Things couldn't get any worse.

Almost immediately Draco took back what he said when in Care of Magical Creatures he found himself looking at the ugliest thing he'd ever seen. Their class subject was some sort of worm that shot sparks every now and again and smelt like rotting flesh. The giant really thought this was a lesson?

Draco tried to remember why he'd spent so long trying to help the Hippogriff's case when this was what he got in return. Oh yeah, he was trying to impress a girl.