Draco Malfoy and The Ripped Page

Christmas at Hogwarts

Christmas came so quickly it almost felt abnormal. The rumor about Harry being the Heir of Slytherin had spread quickly, causing all the Slytherins to revolve every conversation about it.

Draco had awoken one night, a couple of days before Christmas break, to a commotion in the common room that consisted of Marcus and Adrian fueding.

"No way Potter is the heir! Friends with a mudblood and a blood traitor there's no way..." Marcus mumbled.

Draco noticed how Marcus always managed to make that word sound so much worse than it was.

Draco saw that they were sitting on the couches opposite the fireplace with a bottle of firewhisky between them, mumbling, dropping a few swear words here and there.

"Marcus, it has to be just to be a weird coincidence.." Adrian said, taking a sip from the bottle and putting it back down roughly on the table.

"Yeah, sure, but if he was.." Marcus's tone changed, and he grew silent as Draco watched his eyes scan the common room.

"We should just go to bed...almost dawn, and I gotta help the bloody first years pack in the morning." He flicked his wand, and the bottle of firewhisky seemed to disappear. Draco felt as though Marcus was scanning the room for him and knew that he was eavesdropping. Draco turned around and headed back into his dorms with one swift motion and crawled into bed. He'll overthink their conversation in the morning.

He did overthink the next morning. And the next. And the next.

Eventually, the day came where all the students with loving parents and warm cozy homes left, leaving Hogwarts to be quiet and deserted. Draco wasn't jealous at all and completely didn't mind.

He was more worried about being lonely, more importantly, alone in his thoughts. Blaise, Theo, and Pansy had all packed and were ready the moment Snape called them to board the trains. Draco watched as they giggled over what game to play on the train and what Gryffindor's were planning on bullying; it all made his heartache.

Snape came down to the dungeons, half past 3, beckoning the students to go up to the entrance hall. Draco gave a half-hearted smile as he saw them all pick up their trunks. He waited for them to walk away when all three of them turned around and ran towards him.

"Sorry we couldn't bring you to my mum's Draco," Blaise said, hugging his blond-haired friend, "Since we won't see you, we wanted to give you this,"

Blaise placed a small silver-wrapped present in his hands. It was wrapped perfectly, with no loose wrapping or edges that stuck out; it was perfect.

"Don't open it till Christmas morning," Pansy said and then got closer and looking him straight in the eyes, "Promise?"

Her glare was threatening, but Draco decided to mumble the words "promise," which resulted in a huge hug from the girl who he once had described as Pug Face.

The moment he pulled away, Theo was running into his arms.

"We'll write!" Theo said, holding the hug until Draco was released from the embrace first.

Theo's goofy grin was the last thing he saw before they grabbed their trunks and made their way out of the common room and up the stairs, ready to go home.

Draco made his way back into the dorms where Crabbe and Goyle were sat going through Theo and Blaise's nightstand drawers.

"Bloody hell, they haven't even been gone for ten minutes yet," Draco tried to sound annoyed, but he felt a laugh escape his mouth. How could he ever be mad at these two idiots?