It was the beginning of his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Wichcraft and Wizardry, and Draco Malfoy couldn't have been more exited to start.
Maybe it was the classes he would be taking, or the sun shining down at him as he entered the Hogwarts Express, that had put him in such a good mood. It also helped a lot that he had a new obsession this year. Not to mention that the first person he saw when on the train was a glaring Harry Potter. Only two years back in time Draco would've glared back, much more impressively, and commented on scarhead's messy hair or hand-me-down clothes...but now he said nothing. To this date he didn't even send the boy his signature smirk.
No. Draco had changed. Both on the inside and the outside. He was sure Pott- Harry (he hadn't really been 'potter' in Draco's head for months) had noticed. Now he seemed to try to coax a 'normal' response out of Draco. But he held his tongue and blew past the trio (Weasley and Granger were with Harry, of course), feeling them stare at him as he went down the isle.
He found himself an empty cabin and settled down for the long trip back to school.
The only memorable thing that happened on the whole ride was that Harry once walked past outside the closed cabindoor and halted to glance questiongly at Draco. Calculating almost. When Draco didnt respond to him as he normally did the boy looked even more frustrated and then walked on. Draco chuckled. This was more hilarious than house-elves in drag.
Finally they made it, and everything sort of passed in a blur, getting off the train - the feast - Harry glaring from across tables - scedchuals - and lastly bedtime. Draco enjoyed this part the most. He could just close the curtains and be totally alone with his thoughts before dozing off to sleep.
As the weeks passed Draco served his new obsession - watching Harry James Potter- with loyalty. It had started last term for real when they had had an aggressive confrontation about...something, and Draco had caught himself staring into Harry's eyes, first in fury, but it soon had dimmed to slight irritation before mutating into wonder and fascination and...attraction.
In Draco's defense those eyes really were gorgeous. Emerald and smoldering with fury underneath thick wispy lashes... captivating. Draco certainly paid Potter more attention after that, noticing all the 'little things' about him. How he got more and more quiet throughout the year, how his friends were too caught up in each other to notice - for some reason this bugged Draco to no end- and how his eyes slowly changed colour from the bright green to a darker shade as the boy locked himself up. But it wasn't until he overheard the Gryffindoor shed self-contained tears one night in the midst of may that he changed from being 'Potter' to being 'Harry'.
Over the summer Draco, bright as he was, had worked himself a mission. To get Harry to notice him, but with a positive footnote this time.
First step was to be polite, and Draco had been doing really good on that lately. It was really amusing to see Harry's suprised and confused expression whenever he just strolled past him without saying a word, or smirking. But now Draco had to proceed to the next step. Which was talking to the boy. This would be a lot more difficult than just acting poroper, and Harry was sure to be stubborn. But Draco wasn't a Malfoy for nothing. He was patient and cunning and knew how to use it.
Last Potions-class before Christmas Holidays Draco made his first move. They shared this class with Gryffindor . Conveniently enough this class they would be working in pairs and Draco was of course paired with Harry Potter. He felt certain this was something Professor Snape did to make this class as miserable for Harry as possible. And Draco felt a small spark of anger towards his favorite teacher. Harry had enough on his mind as it was. Draco had figured out that Harry hadn't started his depression thing before Sirius Black's death, and there was this rumor going around that Sirius had been Harry's godfather. With that on his mind, the threat of Voldemort and a couple of daft friends who were busy eating each other up every minute of the day, Harry did not need this class to weigh him down further...(oh get a grip, D.)
