The Slytherin

Chapter Two

Charms class was the first on Alice's schedule, and it was just as difficult as she would have thought. There was something about it that just would not come naturally to her. She was sitting between two of the girls with whom she shared a room with, Kathleen Redrey and Pansy Parkinson. Wingardium Leviosa was the spell that was being taught, and Kathleen seemed to be quite gifted at the art of charms. Pansy did not seem too concerned with learning the spell.

"My mother always told me that charms was her favorite class. I will have to write to her and tell her all about it." Kathleen had a huge smile on her face, and from the short amount of time that Alice had known her, Kathleen seemed to show more traits of a Hufflepuff than a Slytherin. Her optimism was practically overflowing from her, and she had been nothing but kind and friendly to Alice from the moment they met.

"I wish this class would just end." Pansy groaned as she looked at the clock that was hanging on the back wall of the classroom. Pansey was quite the foil to Kathleen, for she was rude, usually in a bad mood, and her only topics were either about how dumb someone looked, how annoyed she was, or how great Draco was.

"Brodeur, would you like some help?" Draco's voice came from behind Alice as she incinerated her third feather.

"I'm fine, Malfoy."

"You do seem as if you could use some aid." Kathleen gave her a wide smile and went on to show her the perfect wand movements and pronunciation.

"Wow, you really are terrible at this, aren't you?" Draco's voice once again rang in Alice's ears. Pansy's laugh came from beside her, but it had a strange fake and hollow sound to it.

"Oh Draco, you really are so funny." Pansy's voice raised at least three octaves and her strange laugh still echoed in Alice's ears.

Alice rolled her eyes and decided to keep trying to perfect her spell.

"Why are you so quiet?"

"Malfoy, maybe if you stopped talking I could actually concentrate." Alice snapped as she whipped around to see the grey eyes, annoyed frown, and greasy blonde hair of Draco. "You can be so obnoxious sometimes."

"What was that?" Draco asked as Pansy gasped.

Kathleen stayed quite. She looked quickly over to Draco and then back to Alice before plastering another huge grin on her face. "Anyways, Alice, let us get back to the charm." As Pansy turned desperately in Draco's direction and started striking up a conversation with him, Kathleen turned towards Alice and started speaking in a hushed voice. "You should be nicer to Malfoy."

"Why? We already are friends... in a way."

"You should never try to get on that boy's bad side, or else you might find your family in trouble. A lot of witches and wizards look up to the Malfoy's, so if I were you I would watch your mouth.

Alice then had an epiphany. Draco lived in a world where most of his relationships were fake. People just wanted to be his friend out of a want for social advantages or fear. It is not like you are any better. She thought to herself. Her whole reason for befriending Draco was out of a want for an advantage. She just had not realized at the time that this was how almost everyone saw him. An advantage. 

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Although charms class had not been Alice's best work, she found that she had a talent in the art of potions. As Professor Snape talked in his intimidating manner most people found themselves losing interest. Alice held on to every word with the deepest amount of interest and curiosity. She quickly took notes and found herself anxiously awaiting to try brewing her first potion.

The table in front of her had a scrawny boy with red hair and the odd boy with the glasses. She turned towards Kathleen and asked, "What do you think of the kid with the glasses and the black hair?"

"You mean Harry Potter?" Kathleen's eyes grew wide as she said the name.

"Yeah."

"Well I mean, he is a legend." They kept their voices low to avoid being heard. "He defeated You Know Who as an infant, and we are so lucky to be in the same class as him." She seemed as if she was fangirling over the boy.

"Do you have a crush on him?" Alice smiled in the way that eleven-year-olds do when they talk about their juvenile loves.

"No, of course not." Kathleen sounded a little too defensive. "I just think that he is a cool guy, you know?"

"Sure."

"What is that supposed to mean? You- you won't tell Parkinson and Malfoy, right?"

"Why do you care?"

The girl looked down at the ground and sighed. Her blonde hair was thin, and little pieces of it found themselves sticking out of her ponytail in every direction. Her green eyes matched her robes, and they were large and very round. "I was walking with them in the hallways. They both hate Potter."

"You really care about what they think about you, don't you?"

"Do you not? Are you not afraid of being alone?"

The question hit Alice hard as she thought about it. Was she afraid of being alone? "I can just make other friends."

"Well I don't really want other friends."

As the class ended, Alice got up to start walking towards the table where Draco and Crabbe were sitting. As she got up she found herself running into someone. His glasses flew on the floor, and she found herself falling down and knocking her head on the leg of the desk. Harry Potter sat across from her, and he quickly scrambled onto his feet to help Alice up.

"I'm so sorry." He said as he reached out his hand for her to take.

"Don't worry about it." She stood up and quickly placed her hand in the spot where her head was throbbing. She was extremely surprised to see blood on her fingertips, and she quickly walked out of the room once she saw Harry's face turn a shade of bright red from the embarrassment of making a girl hit her head and cause her to bleed.

A quick stop to the Hospital Wing was all that it took to fix the tiny injury, and as Alice walked into the corridor she was surprised to see Draco waiting for her.

"Hey Malfoy."

"You can call me Draco."

"We haven't really known each other for that long." In Alice's eleven-year-old mind this was a much bigger deal then it really was.

"Who cares." He had his permanent annoyed look on his face as they walked down the hallway. They walked in silence for a little while before Draco abruptly stated, "Don't talk to Potter."

"What?"

"You heard me. I don't want you talking to Potter."

"I'm not sure this is really your place, Draco." Alice made sure to emphasize the Draco. She found herself wanting to abuse the rights to call him by his first name.

"Just don't talk to Gryffindors in general. They are a disgrace to the wizarding world."

"Draco, I want to be your friend, but friendship and tyranny are two different things." Alice found herself walking faster. Ever since she had met the boy he had been nothing but rude and unpleasant, but there was something inside of her that wanted to keep hanging out with him. It was her young and stupid mind telling her that he would make a great friend.

Draco grabbed the sleeve of her cloak and pulled her back beside him. "I don't give a damn about what you think of me." The word damn sounded strange and unnatural coming out of a kid's mouth, but his stare was surprisingly intimidating. "All that I care about is that you stay away from Potter."

"Fine."

"You promise?"

"Sure."