Draco Malfoy: Year 1 (Alternate Reality)

The Potions Master

Dear Harry, (it said, in a very untidy scrawl)
I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to
come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig. Hagrid

Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled 'Yes, please, see you later' on the back of the note and sent Hedwig off again.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.
Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.
'Ah, yes,' he said softly, 'Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity.' Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.
'You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion- making,' he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. 'As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the deli- cate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses ... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.'
More silence followed this little speech. Harry, Ron and Draco exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.
'Potter!' said Snape suddenly. 'What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?'
Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.
'I don't know, sir,' said Harry.
Snape's lips curled into a sneer.
'Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything.'
He ignored Hermione's hand.
'Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to
find me a bezoar?'
Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go
without her leaving her seat, but it was obvious Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was.
'I don't know, sir.'
'Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?' Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold
eyes.
Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.
'What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?'
At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching towards the dungeon ceiling.
'I don't know,' said Harry quietly. 'I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?'
A few people laughed.
'Sit down,' he snapped at Hermione. 'For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?'
There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, 'And a point will be taken from Gryffindor house for your cheek, Potter.'
Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticising almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had some- how managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class were standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
'Idiot boy!' snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. 'I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?'
Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
'Take him up to the hospital wing,' Snape spat at Seamus.'Cheer up,' said Ron. 'Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?'
'I'd like that too, if you wouldn't mind.' Draco muttered.
At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.
When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, 'Back, Fang – back.'
Hagrid's big hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.
'Hang on,' he said. 'Back, Fang.'
He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.
There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire and in a corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.
'Make yerselves at home,' said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.
'This is Ron and Draco,' Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes on to a plate.
'Another Weasley, eh?' said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. 'I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the Forest. And your last name is?'
'Malfoy, but please don't think of me in a bad way.' Draco instantly responded.
'I ain't gonna do no such thing, so yer a Malfoy, and yer in Gryffindor and friends with Harry Potter. Parent's must be pleased, ey?'
'I don't know, they haven't responded to my letters to be honest.'
The rock cakes almost broke their teeth, but Harry, Ron and Draco pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.
The boys were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch 'that old git'.
'An' as fer that cat, Mrs Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang some time. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her – Filch puts her up to it.'
Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron and Draco, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.
'But he seemed to really hate me.'
'Rubbish!' said Hagrid. 'Why should he?'
'How's yer brother Charlie?' Hagrid asked Ron. 'I liked him a lot great with animals.'
Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose.
While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy and showed it to Draco. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches unknown.
Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.
'But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you,' said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

Draco remembered Ron telling Harry and himself on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.
'Hagrid!' said Harry. 'That Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!'
As Harry, Ron and Draco walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse,  Draco thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. What did Hagrid know about that breakin? And Harry was definitely sure it was something, but what?