A Long Way Down| Draco X Reader

Chapter 20: Fainting Potter (Year 3)

Once we had finally arrived at Hogwarts everyone grabbed their bags and began heading off the train. Hagrid took all the first years with him across the lake and up to the castle while the rest of us simply took a passage up by foot. We made it up to the castle, leaving our trunks in the entrance hall to be taken to our dormitories. Afterwards, everyone entered the Great Hall and began splitting off to take a seat at our respective tables. As I sat down I noticed Ron and Hermione enter the hall without Harry, making me raise my eyebrow in confusion. But not even a minute later Harry entered as well and quickly made his way over to them sitting next to Ron.

"Did you guys hear that Potter fainted?" Draco asked all of us. They all nodded laughing a bit.

"Wait, really?" I asked, clearly not hearing the news somehow.

"Y/N, how did you not hear everyone talking about it on the way up to the castle?" Blaise added as he leaned forward closer to me cocking his eyebrow.

"Guess I zoned out a bit." I shrugged and looked back at the boy, he did seem to be a bit disheveled now that I'm looking at him. "Har- I mean Potter!" He didn't seem to hear me so I tried again, "Potter!" I waited until I got his attention before continuing. "Is it true you fainted?" I asked sincerely. But before he could respond another voice chimed in from beside me.

"Yeah, I mean you actually fainted?" Draco added in a mocking tone as Blaise pretended to faint behind him as the others laughed.

"Shove off L/N - Malfoy." Ron sneered as he glared at us, turning Harry back around away from us. I sighed and turned back to my own table as well.

"Ya know, you don't have to mock him every chance you get, right?" I whispered to Draco who just replied with a shrug before talking to Blaise again.

Soon enough the first years began filing into the Great Hall forming a line down the middle of the Hall. One by one they each tried on the Sorting Hat which sorted them into the Houses best suited for them. We clapped and cheered when we received a new Slytherin but stayed deadly silent for anyone that was sorted into the other Houses. After all the new students were sorted Dumbledore began his annual ramble which was meant as our welcoming to Hogwarts for the year.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by excellent feast -" He cleared his throat before continuing to speak. "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business."

I thought back to the train, remembering how cold I felt, inside and out. Dementors were truly terrible creatures, the thought of being around one again sent a shiver through my body. We had to spend a whole year with those things around, or at least until Sirius Black was caught and sent back to Azkaban. I looked around a bit seeing if anyone else was uneasy about the whole situation but only a few student here and there seemed to share the feeling.

"They are stationed at every entrance to the grounds," Dumbledore continued, "and while they are with us, I must make it plain that nobody leave the school without permission. Dementors are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises - or even Invisibility Cloaks." Draco and I exchanged looks as he said that, to our knowledge there was no possible way anyone here could have an Invisibility Cloak. "It is not in the nature of a dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the dementors."

"Merlin's beard, he calls that a warning? Sounded more like he was trying tell us a scary story." Blaise half joked with a look of slight fear on his face. Pansy let out a dry laugh before nodding in agreement.