Stories from the Vault - Hogwarts Mystery One Shots

Merula and Draco

The woman waiting to be fitted for new robes tossed the newspaper back on the coffee table in disgust. The photograph on the front page portrayed an attractive woman dressed in quidditch robes. She was waving cheerfully at the photographers. Merula sneered at that woman, as she'd done so many times before. 

"Saint Spellman," she spat. "Can't even make a career change without making the front page." The accompanying article had detailed the renowned chaser for the Appleby Arrows deciding to retire in order to get back into Curse-Breaking. 

"We're ready for you, Miss," Madam Malkin called from behind the counter. 

"About time." She rose from her chair and followed the plump woman to the back. 

There was another boy being fitted by Madam Malkin's assistant when Merula entered the back room--a thin, pale boy of about thirteen or fourteen, with sleek blonde hair and his face twisted into a prideful scowl. 

"Hogwarts?" asked Merula. 

"Obviously," said the boy disdainfully, gesturing to the crest on his Slytherin robes. 

What a brat, she thought. No wonder she'd never liked children. She looked the boy up and down. It looked like he spent a lot of time perfecting his hair. She'd have to curse it off as he left the shop.

"How are these, dear?" Madam Malkin asked her. The older witch waved her wand, and there appeared a set of black robes, sleek and tight fitting, though breathable to enough to allow for quick movement. "I believe these will meet all your...demands, nicely."

Merula felt at the material. "I suppose these will do," she said at last. "Though I doubt they'll be as good as my last ones."

"These have been imbued with fire protection potion," said Madam Malkin proudly, "had the ones you bought from Twilfit and Tattings had that, you wouldn't need to be buying from me now."

"My last set caught fire while I was breaking the Curse of Fire Swamp," she said over her shoulder to the boy. "It was extremely dangerous, but its all in a day's work for a Professional Curse-Breaker, like me."

The boy rolled his eyes and said nothing, but Merula smirked to see the flicker of admiration pass over his face. 

She went into the dressing room to change into the new robes, then stood on the raised platform so Madam Malkin could work on the hem. She'd finally had a growth spurt after she'd left Hogwarts (she swore whatever those wretched house-elves put in the goop they served as food stunted her growth), though not as tall as the five feet and eight inches that Sarah Spellman had, according to the Daily Prophet. Did she honestly have to be better at everything?

The boy scoffed, and Merula glanced over to see him staring out the window, his arms raised so the assistant could adjust his sleeves. 

"Perfect little Potter," the boy muttered. "Roaming the streets like a king with his mudblood friends."

Merula looked out the window to see three children walking down the street, a boy with jet black hair, followed by a ginger that reminded her of that Weasley kid in her year, and a girl with bushy brown hair. 

"So, that's Potter, huh?" she asked, staring at the boy with black hair. "Not so remarkable. I'd have expected him to be taller, at least."

"He has no talent or  any admirable traits whatsoever," said the boy, "but he gets everything he wants from all the teachers just because of that ugly scar on his forehead."

"Sounds like Spellman," said Merula, eyeing Harry Potter with a renewed dislike.

"Who?"

"A girl in my year when I was at Hogwarts," said Merula, smiling because the boy didn't recognize the name. "She comes to school all famous just because her brother was some nutter who broke open the Cursed Vaults, so everyone treated her like royalty and she got the best of everything at school."

"Yes, my father told me about the Cursed Vaults," said the boy. "I even met that cursed girl you're talking about, I remember now. She was all high and mighty, just like Potter. Hung out with the riff-raff, too. Blood traitors and mudbloods."

Madam Malkin paused in her work. "Please young sir, do not use such language in my shop." 

Merula and the boy rolled their eyes together. 

"Hang on," said Merula, "you're Lucius Malfoy's son?"

"Yes, who are you?"

"I'm Snyde. Merula Snyde. I spent more time babysitting you than Spellman did. And look, she's still getting all the credit for my hard work!"

For the first time, the boy smiled. If anything, Merula thought it made him less pleasing to look at. "Yes, weren't you the one who got her wand in a knot because I drew in a book of yours?"

"You destroyed a textbook I'd borrowed from the library!" Merula fumed. "I had to to do a week's worth of detentions because of you!"

Merula noticed Madam Malkin and the assistant exchange nervous glances, before hurrying to finish their work. They obviously wanted nothing more than to get the pair of them out of the shop. 

The Malfoy boy continued to smile. "Yes, well you can hardly blame me. I was what, five or six at the time?"

"Old enough for me to feel justified in jinxing your ears off if Spellman hadn't always been there to stop me," Merula spat. 

"My father would've had you expelled," said Malfoy. 

"It would have been better than being stuck at that school with Spellman and all of her worshippers."

"At least you didn't have to go to school with Potter," said Malfoy. "Everyone flocks to him just because he's famous. He's only got friends because they all want a bit of his glory."

"Every time there's a special event going on at school, I bet he finds a way of making it all about him," said Merula. 

"Of course," said Malfoy. 

"No point in trying to prove you're the most power witch--er, wizard at Hogwarts, when no one cares about actual talent or brains. It's just a popularity contest for whose name has been in the paper more often."

"Exactly," said Malfoy. "I wish you would explain all that to my father. Maybe he'd believe you."

Merula glanced over at the boy again. She had misjudged him. He wasn't all that bad, really. 

"Well, it doesn't matter whatever everyone else thinks, as long as you know you're superior to Potter," she said. 

"I am." The boy stuck his nose in the air importantly. 

"And you'll have your chance to prove it to him." Merula narrowed her eyes. "One day."

"Yes," said Malfoy, already relishing the moment in his mind. 

"That's you finished, lad," said Madam Malkin's assistant, and Malfoy stepped from his stool in his new Hogwarts robes. 

"Good luck this year," said Merula.

Malfoy nodded. "Nice talking with you."

Yes, Draco Malfoy wasn't half bad. 

Merula watched the boy pay for his robes, then remembered. Madam Malkin was busy fussing over her hemline and didn't notice her slip out her wand. She pointed it at Malfoy just as he was exiting the shop. 

She grinned as she heard the boy's mother scream through the shop window. "What on earth happened to your hair?!"