Finally (An Eighth year Drarry story)

Thanks, McGonagall

Draco, Pansy, and Blaise entered the castle with the rest of the second through eighth-year students and filed towards the Great Hall to take their seats at all of their respective house tables. But when they entered the Great Hall, they found that there weren't four house tables... but five? Draco looked at Pansy and Blaise confused, as did the rest of the students. Even the "Golden" Gryffindorks seemed baffled by the change and Draco was internally glad that they'd all been left out of this knowledge, as the "Golden Trio" always seemed to know what was happening in this place. McGonagall was standing at the front of the Great Hall in front of her spot at the Professors' Table as Headmistress.

"Welcome returning students, including our nontraditional eighth years," She smiled tautly, professional but kind, just like always. She was one of the few faculty Draco had always thought trustworthy. "I am so happy that so many of you are here this year." Obviously addressing the fact that many parents didn't want to send their students to Hogwarts after the final battle had literally been in the school and destroyed so much of it, not that you could tell since they'd physically fixed the school to its original state. It had yet to heal magically. As it was, McGonagall was right; more parents than anyone thought had allowed their students to return this year. Obviously, their numbers had lessened, due to the number of deaths the school had had to face, and the fact not everyone had returned this year.

"I can tell you're all confused by the extra table we've added this year. If everyone but the eighth years can sit at their normal tables, please. Leave the center table empty but sit at your tables in the same order they've been in previous years."

The students all shuffled to their tables muttering to each other and looking back at the eighth years as they did so. The eighth years looked between each other feeling awkward as they were the only ones standing anymore. Draco looked around and took in the "eighth years" that still stood at the entrance to the Great Hall. Most of the Gryffindors had returned, minus Lavender Brown, who he'd heard had joined a werewolf colony after being almost killed by Fenrir; the Ravenclaws had also mostly all but that was obvious. The Hufflepuffs had lost a few in number, but all of the ones who hadn't returned were students that had decided that they didn't need their NEWTs and would rather just get a jump start in a non-NEWT requiring career. The Slytherins had lost the most by far, both Crabbe and Goyle had not returned this year, leaving Blaise, Theodore Nott, and Draco as the only Slytherin boys, whereas Pansy, Daphne Greengrass, and Millicent Bulstrode had returned from the Slytherin girls. They had lost one female Slytherin this year, but Tracey had always been a quiet thing and Draco had always secretly felt she was more of a Hufflepuff anyway. She had only left for a potions mastery either way. In all, it was a good number of students, certainly more than he thought would be attending Hogwarts this year.

"Eighth-year students," McGonagall continued, drawing Draco's attention back to the front of the Great Hall. "The table in the middle is yours, and I highly encourage you to mingle with students from other houses than your own."

The table was shorter than the other tables, which actually forced the students to sit all next to each other, not giving them the ability to separate themselves by their house. Even so, they had all sat with their own houses and tried their best to scooch as far as possible from the other houses. Especially since the Slytherins and Gryffindors had ended up next to each other...

Great, just great. Harry thought as he just so happened to be sitting directly across from Pansy Parkinson and directly to her left was Draco Malfoy. Out of all the places. Of course Seamus wasn't paying enough attention when he led the way to realize that we were sitting next to the Slytherins. Harry was slightly bittered by this, as he had to watch Parkinson and Malfoy flirt for the entirety of the meal. The Sorting Hat sang, and the first years were sorted; now Harry suffered. He kept rolling his eyes when Parkinson swooned over muggle band after muggle band. This was shock enough to Harry, not only was Parkinson going on and on about popular punk/grunge muggle bands, but Malfoy was participating in the conversation and giving his input on these bands that it seemed he really loved. Harry shared a look with Ron and Hermione when he realized what they were talking about, Ron was clueless as he'd never heard of these bands and so he didn't know it was muggle music; Hermione, however, seemed to share Harry's confusion and actually had the guts to speak up.