in which Draco's worst nightmare comes true
People liked to say that the Academy of Hogwarts was for high birth only. It wasn't true, at least not completely. Every child of any crown from The Union had their place there since birth, but there was barely a dozen of them throughout the whole school. The rest of the kids there had won their place.
Most of them were high birth, but not all of them. As long as you were smart enough to pass the selective exam required to get in, you were good to go. If you didn't have enough money, you could get a scholarship. King Lucius surely hated the fact that his son shared classrooms and dorms with low borns, but he was one of the rare ones to. Most Crowns of the Union were in favour of this, and there wasn't much he could do while facing the majority.
Hermione Granger was one of them, those low borns. Those kids his father had taught him he was superior to.
Truth was, Granger wasn't even poor, far from it actually. She had all the education of high society. But the Crown she came from didn't have the same nobility system as his own and therefore she wasn't considered a noble.
Draco hated her. Not because she was one of those insufferable girls that ran after him in the hallways ; sometimes he'd rather she was. No. Hermione Granger was one of a kind. She was smart. Extremely smart. As in, brilliant smart.
Ever since Draco had entered the Academy, he had come second, always. Just behind her, on every single subject. The only subject in which he did better than her was horse riding, but he wasn't stupid enough to give himself credit for it. Horse riding hardly required the same academical abilities than solving mathematical problems. Besides, he was pretty sure horse riding wasn't a thing where she came from. People there didn't have normal pets, if her pet tiger was anything to go by.
Draco hated that damn tiger practically as much as he hated its owner. Every single year, he brought Diogenes to the school's animal building with the fear he would never see him again. Who even decided it was a good idea to let an overgrown cat in there with birds just the right size for him to play with ? If anything happened to his eagle, Draco would have that goddamn girl's head.
But apparently, Pansy hadn't got the memo. Like always, she spend their first day back at the Academy drooling over his Arch-nemesis. Pansy was the Princess heir from the same country Granger was from. And apparently, Granger was the summum of perfection for Pansy. She had some sort of fascination for the girl's curls. When they were younger, said-curls had been more of a messy brown bush than anything else. However it appeared somewhere along the way Granger had learned to care for her hair properly, and it now sat in neat, defined, heavy curls that formed a "dream-like halo around her face" (Pansy's words, not his).
As much as Draco hated having one of his best friend falling for his academic rival, he recognised it was one of the reasons him and Pansy would make such a great couple in the future. They would never fall in love with each other, both of them would be free to have affairs with anybody they liked without causing quarrels. All of that with the only condition they gave birth to a rightful heir before so. And even if neither he or she liked to think about that, Theo definitely did :
"Soooo, when are we getting a baby dragon ?"
Blaise hit him upside the head. Well done, Draco thought. Pansy sighed, but went along Theo's little game anyway.
"I don't know Theo, have you yet found a way for you to impregnate Draco yourself ?"
Draco chocked on his water. Blaise crooked a smile, which was basically his equivalent of laughing his arse off crying, crawling on the floor. Theo grew a sly grin and promptly asked her a question of his own :
"Why Pansy, got a secret kink you'd like to let us know about ?"
And of course Pansy didn't falter one bit. Their flirty banter went on for the rest of dinner. Paying no mind to their friends, Draco and Blaise exchanged new of their holidays. Blaise was the only one who only rarely wrote. It was a family habit, really. Last time the boy had received a letter from his father, it was to tell him an his current lover had died.
Blaise also came from a royal family. Pansy, he and Draco would be the future of their respective Crowns. Theo wouldn't. It seemed to be fine by him. He had known Draco since his birth and had never envied him his place as Prince, not even once.
The Notts were the Hand of the Crown, the same way the Blacks had been for Tom Riddle up until 17 years ago. Theo had therefore been Draco's faithful companion since their early childhood. Draco hoped he would stay by his side once he would be king. He feared he would be lost without the boy's terrible sense of humour. Well, Pansy's might rivalise it, but he'd rather have both, if he was given the choice.
After dinner, the Headmistress Minerva Mcgonagal made her yearly announcement which went like always : safety rule, new teachers, the timetables would be given to them the next day first thing in the morning, blah blah blah.
Then, finally came the interesting bit : room repartition. It didn't change every year, at least it wasn't supposed to for children who behaved. But there was always a few kids doing whatever stupid action that caused them to be expelled, or that made the teacher change their dorm mates. Which meant at least three other people would be getting brand new roommates (if they simply exchanged the dorm mates) : the one ending up with the problem kid, the one that previously was with the problem kid, and the one who used to share a room with the problem kid's new roommate. Of course, teachers never just switched dorm mates by pair, no, they had to make it everybody's problem.
By then, Draco had shared a room with Theo for four years and two with Blaise. None of them had ever done something demanding a change of dorms ; they had simply been victims of the teachers' poor organisation. But still, he had little chance of finding himself with someone who wasn't one of his two friends. No, he worried more for Pansy, who had very little female friends and who never had spent a full year with the same girl in her room. While they had been lucky, she not so much. She always ended up with the worst crackheads ever. Draco was practically sure at least one of her old roommates had died one way or another.
Pansy ceased teasing Theo as soon as the Headmistress started calling out room pairs, switching to staring holes into her plate. The girls went first, they always did. From the youngest to oldest. Little by little, the Great Hall emptied itself of her female classmates. One of them - Daphne Greengrass, if Draco remembered correctly - patted her on the shoulder as she walked out of the room. When finally Pansy's named was called out, the three boys released a breath none of them had realised they had been holding. Pansy, however, seemed to stop breathing altogether when the second name was called out :
"Granger, Hermione"
Theo turned to Pansy so quickly Draco feared he would unscrew his head. She didn't move an inch. Blaise had to actually kick her under the table before she finally decided to get up. She leaved the room swiftly following her brand new roommate.
"Well, that's certainly better than anything she's had yet" remarked Blaise.
"We'll never hear the end of it" lamented Draco.
The Headmistress went on her list, now calling out boys from the younger years. Draco absentmindedly picked at his apple pie while observing kids stepping out of the room one by one. It was like watching an hourglass. Finally The Headmistress came to their year. Everything went on fine, until Mcgonagal called :
"Zabini, Blaise and Nott, Theo"
Both boys turned to look at him. Both of them had shared a room with other boys before. They were used to it. Draco not a single time. They must have felt his panic, because both of them came by and ruffled his hair with a sympathetic look on their face that border to close to pity for Draco's likeness.
When he taught he couldn't take any more of it, finally he heard his name :
"Longbottom, Neville and Malfoy, Draco"