Year 5 - Stockholm

Chapter 4

A Slytherin Divided

The walk to the dungeons was a silent one. Clicks of Draco's matte black Oxford shoe heels echoed through the corridors down to the cold depths where the den was. Enchanted candles lined the way to the common room. The gray stone sweated through the growing chill the deeper they delved.

Neither of Draco's goons spoke. They knew better.

He ground his teeth.

Everything about his day was going brilliantly. Granger stormed off in her irritating way, unable to take another response of his. The more he remembered it, the more he fumed.

The damp smell rose through his nostrils as he came close to the Slytherin common room. It meant time wrapped within his bed, curtains drawn, ready to contemplate the situation he wedged himself in with Granger.

"Vipera berus," he hissed at a wall.

Bare stone parted to reveal a long, dark corridor. Draco and his friends swiftly ducked their heads and thrust themselves through the opening. It landed them inside their common room.

The common room was filled with Slytherin students of all ages. They littered the dim. Leather couches held first years huddled around new texts as they struggled through homework. Snape was never easy in his class. One boy wiped his hands down his uniform, wrinkling the dark fabric.

Huddled by open flame was another crossed-legged group of Slytherins. They were a year older. One of them of Higgs. He lounged casually as he debated amongst his friends how to gain favor for an election. It was rumored that Terrence had high aspirations within the Ministry as an ambassador to America.

Influence in the Ministry was one thing. But work? Draco scoffed at the idea of being held responsible for a daily job like a commoner.

True wizards and witches never subjected themselves to the monotony that came with employment. Brilliant minds flowed where they wished. Routine dulled the senses. It forced a sense of servitude to a being of unstoppable power, a timetable at which their brilliance was limited.

Nothing was more unstoppable than himself. Draco knew he'd conquer without plan.

Leaders were gifted power in the world. First year he was given power over his classmates without much fight at all. They drew to him. They listened. It was natural for people to listen to him.

Some drifted away from his leadership; their minds made suspicious of others. It was their own stupidity that they weren't suspicious from the beginning and acted against their own interest to abandon his troupe. After all, Draco learned more information than anybody.

His connections ran deep.

Draco sat away from the crowd within the common room in a tight corner with an overstuffed arm chair seated next to a candelabra of yellow light. He worked on his assignments quietly as students younger than him relented to their exhaustion. It was an hour later, and the room was empty except for the few fifth- and sixth-year students in rigorous studies for their upcoming exams.

O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s were vital. Futures were determined by their scores. It placed undue pressure on already struggling students.

Not that Draco cared. He kept up well enough. Classes were not so hard for the intelligent. Granger only made it look that way because she lacked outside the classroom.

Granger. His thoughts boiled at the thought of her.

Ever since they met, she was a nuisance. She never stayed in line. Each statement from her mouth was a need to fulfill an oath she made to make everyone else feel inferior. And how could they not? She knew everything.