The Tragic Tale of the Boy Who Lived and the Boy Who Wanted to Die [ON HIATUS]

“Draco, did you hear? Did you hear?” Crabbe asked enthusiastically when the five of them sat down in the Great Hall.

“Hear what?” He asked. None of them had heard anything noteworthy since they had gotten off the train. Luna went with her fellow Ravenclaws, and Ginny went with the other Slytherins.

“Potter fainted on the train, when the demeny-things came.” Draco looked over towards the Gryffindor table and sure enough, he wasn’t there sitting in his normal spot next to Weasley. Granger was missing as well.

“Oh no, Draco, sad your boyfriend isn't here?” Daphne joked, but Draco didn’t feel like laughing. He was still very put off about the whole dementor thing.

“Look, Ron’s all alone. He hardly spoke to me at all this summer. I guess he doesn’t have a problem with me here, but at home, he hardly said a word.” Ginny said, sounding upset. “Percy won’t look at me either. Fred and George have been nice, though. They think it’s funny.”

“If your family stops caring about you because you’re ambitious, I think they have their own problems to go and deal with.” Draco was determined to cheer her up, to right some of the wrong that he had done by stealing that diary back.

“No, it isn't because I’m ambitious, it’s because I didn’t really try all that hard to get the hat to put me in Gryffindor. I think they thought I would do what Harry did and ask the hat to put me in Gryffindor.”

“Potter had to specifically ask the hat to put him in Gryffindor?” Draco was surprised to hear that. He had figured that Potter had just gotten in, maybe because his parents were both in Gryffindor, or maybe because he had defeated the Dark Lord when he was just a baby. He’d never thought about any other house Potter could have been Sorted into.

“Yeah, it actually almost put him here. Imagine that, Draco, having to see his face every day.”

“Not that he would mind much, right Draco?” Pansy and Daphne were still overcome with laughter. Draco was still failing to see any humour in the situation.

“Oh please, for the last time, I do not-” He was unable to finish his sentence, however, because the Sorting Ceremony had started. Draco listened without much interest, and clapped whenever a student was Sorted into Slytherin.

As soon as the Sorting was over, Draco noticed Potter and Granger sneak in through the door and take their seats at the Gryffindor table. Draco could tell that Potter had a run in with the dementors, his hair was more messy than it was normally, and he looked generally unhappy. Despite his disliking for him, Draco felt bad for him. Those dementors were very unpleasant. Granger, on the other hand, seemed inexplicably happy about something. Draco had no clue what.

“Are any of you taking Care of Magical Creatures, or is it just me?” Draco asked irritably. He was in a pretty bad mood, with the dementors and Ginny’s situation.

“Yeah, me and Daphne are taking it too,” said Pansy, “Don’t worry, we didn’t leave you all alone.” Dumbledore then started talking about the usual start-of-term things. He announced that Hagrid would be the new Care of Magical Creatures teacher, which Draco was not happy about.

“That oaf, teaching us classes? I’d rather die.” muttered Daphne. Draco just rolled his eyes and continued waiting for him to be over. Finally, he was done. Food appeared onto the plates, and the students began eating.

It was almost exactly like the previous year, except for a lot of students, mostly younger ones, were still dealing with the fallout of the dementor attack. There was a certain lack of happy faces that you would usually see scattered about the Great Hall. Soon, the students all departed for bed, but Draco laid awake, unable to stop himself from replaying the dementor attack in his head.