Ma Chérie

If anyone actually bothered to ask Draco Malfoy about Potter, they would find out that he didn’t hate the Boy Who Lived.

He was, in actuality, rather obsessed with him, ever since Narcissa Malfoy told him a bedtime story about the boy that was (sort of) immune to the killing curse.
That was when he was 9, and the obsession hasn’t gone away.

In fact, it had gotten worse since the green-eyed, scruffy boy in baggy clothes had rejected his offer of friendship at the beginning of this year. He wished he had known it had been Harry in Madam Malkin’s, and then he wouldn’t have been so snobby in his first impression for the other boy.

Maybe he shouldn’t have insulted Weasley right off the bat, on the first day.. not that he regretted it. No, certainly not.
Malfoys don’t apologise, unless .. nope. They just don’t. And Draco’s strange desire to be friends with Potter, not just the receiver of his sneers and annoyance, wasn’t going to change that.

At least he was the next best thing: Potter’s rival.

And he certainly made the most of it, especially in Potions.

But, sadly, nobody asked Draco about Potter. His few friends were already tired of his constant moaning about the boy- Pansy had taken to finishing his complaints about Harry in an imitation of his voice, such as:

Draco: “Did you see Potter today. Strutting about with his new broom, and his stupid glasses and ridiculous hair, and”

At this point, Pansy interrupted,

Pansy: “and his gorgeous green eyes that I stare into all day. Yes Draco, we get you have a big fat crush. Doesn’t mean me and Blaise should have to hear about it too, after all, we don’t have crushes on Potter.”

Blaise would normally laugh when Pansy said something like this, furthering Draco’s annoyance.

On these occasions, the blond would mutter something under his breath about snakes and stomp off.
Pansy probably thought he was sulking, but in reality he would go to abandoned classrooms and secret corridors and the like, to practice turning into an animagus. He had gotten pretty far into the second stage by January of this first year.

This was a recent thing, and a secret. One of his many.

*

Draco’s foray into becoming an animagus had been prompted by a taunt of Potter’s, although he would never admit that unless under copious amounts of veritaserum.

In October, he had been going on about Mcgonagall’s praise of his transfiguration, (a dove into a gravy dish, and back again), boasting to Granger, next to him. Draco shared a desk with Granger due to some awful luck, although later on he was grateful for someone competent to practice spells with.

Him and the frizzy-haired witch had been battling for top place in Transfiguration since September.

He was still revelling in Mcgonagall’s praise when Harry, who seemed to kind of be friends with Granger, had turned around to their desk.

Potter had been even more annoyed with the blond at that time because of a particular insult concerning Harry’s mother and Snape. Harry didn’t seem to care that Draco’s jab had been founded on fact (it was true they had been childhood friends and possibly more), he just thought it was another case of Draco being awful.

At this moment during Transfiguration, he gave Draco an annoyed look, before muttering,

“You better hold onto that compliment from Mcgonagall, Malfoy. I doubt you’ll get any more for a while, and certainly not from your dear daddy.”

Draco hated people mentioning his dad. His father was scary, and Draco had been taught the hard way to respect him. He had growled at this insult from Potter, and was about to say something about Harry’s parents (never a good idea, unless he fancied being punched again), when Harry continued,

“Once you figure out how to transform into a cat like Professor Mcgonagall or something, then maybe you’ll impress someone. Until then, please stop taunting Hermione, for all of our sanity.”

Draco was pulling out his wand to subtly hex off Potter’s nose or perhaps ears, when Granger whispered to him, “Don’t! Mcgonagall’s coming over here.” He shot her a confused look, before sliding the wand back into his dark robes.
Harry turned back round to his desk after shooting Draco an odd look at his lack of response – he probably expected at least an insult in return.
Hermione rolled her eyes at Draco and added, “I don’t mind having an academic rival actually, I think Harry’s just worried about me because of something R-Ron said…”-Hermione went quiet for a second here, and Draco wondered if whatever Weasley said was why Hermione had looked a lot less full of herself the past few days. For some reason, it made him want to hex Ron, who was nowhere near as interesting or clever as Granger- “…and he thinks I study too much. If you really want to get revenge for what he said, learn to become an animagus. Preferably a cat. That’ll give him a shock.”

He was never sure if she had been joking about this last part.

So yes, it was in fact Potter and Granger who inspired this process of transforming into an animagus. It was slow work though, and he doubted he would reach the final stage until second year.

*

Anyway. He had enjoyed having Granger as an academic rival this year (as opposed to Potter as a general rival), but he had noticed her, the Weasel, and Harry, were more chummy since that troll incident.
His father had been rather angry about the troll, and had called for Dumbledore’s removal.
Luckily that didn’t happen. Draco quite liked the Hogwarts headmaster. He was frightening but kind of funny- he’d heard from Pansy that the man loves lemon drops and apparently had a tragical romance with Grindlewald. The kind of guy Draco could look up to, seriously.

*

Now it was nearly the end of his first year, and he wasn’t sure what to take away from it. They’d only just finished end of year exams, and he’d got top of the year in Potions and joint top in Transfiguration (with Hermione), while almost all the other subjects went to Granger. Not including Defence, which Potter was somehow top of. Draco wasn’t sure how he’d missed that. At least Harry was still resolutely middle-of-the-barrel at Potions (although it’s a definite improvement from the beginning of the year, due to Draco’s reluctant help and Harry’s effort).
Longbottom was top in Herbology, but that didn’t really count. It’s Gardening, people!

Oddly, he still felt on edge even after exams. This ominous feeling had been around since February, and his ominous feelings were rarely unjustified. Like something is going to happen, and he has a feeling it will involve the ‘Golden trio’. Harry’s broom being cursed during Quidditch still hasn’t been investigated, and Draco’s rather shocked at the security standards at this school. And that dragon thing…

*

The other day, Granger had mentioned briefly something to do with Nicholas Flamel, and Draco was very curious as to what the three were up to. She had only asked him because she thought he might know who the man is, considering they are academic rivals and all.

But he didn’t, until he glanced at Theo’s chocolate frog card at lunch a few days ago (Dumbledore), and noticed the name. He had rushed off to tell Hermione and possibly brag about him finding out first, but he couldn’t find the three of them in any of their usual spots. Not that he knew their usual spots, he’d just been paying a close eye on them since his ominous feeling had appeared.

Eventually he gave up and went to the library. And there they were, Granger looking more frazzled than usual, Weasley fast asleep under a pyramid of open books, Potter sighing and squinting at a positively ginormous book. Potter’s hair looked even curlier and spiky than usual.

“Merlin’s balls, didn’t think I’d ever see you two in a library! Me and Pansy honestly thought Weasley was allergic.”

This insult didn’t get much of a reaction, considering Ron was asleep, and Harry had been trying valiantly to ignore Draco’s comments recently. Harry glanced up tiredly at Draco and raised an eyebrow, while Hermione said a distracted, “Hi Draco”.
Harry looked between the two with slight confusion. Draco supposed this was due to the first name use. He hadn’t been a fan of it, but he studied a lot with Granger, and she had told him, in that way of hers,

“I will not quiz you on the 3rd Goblin Rebellion if you insist on calling me by my last name, and vice versa. Draco is nicer than Malfoy anyway, why can’t I call you that?”

He had been too desperate for History of Magic prep at the time to argue. Now he regretted that decision. Still, he was glad for Hermione as a study partner/sort-of-friend. He honestly doesn’t understand those things his father always says about muggleborns being inferior at magic. Hermione is the cleverest witch he knows. He supposes that he isn’t old enough to understand that sort of politics yet, as his father often reminds him.

“Well? Sit down, will you.”, Hermione grumbled, “You can look through one of those books Harry has for the name Flamel. More eyes mean we can find him quicker.”
This last part she added on when Harry gave her an annoyed side eye. Draco grinned and sat down. He enjoyed taunting Potter a bit too much.

“Exactly how long have you all been looking for this Flamel man?”,
Draco asked innocently.

Harry shot Hermione another suspicious, ‘I-don’t-trust-him’ look, which the witch admirably ignored, before he sighed and answered,

“Since Christmas. Me and Ron have a theory he doesn’t actually exist.”

Hermione rolled her eyes at that, but Draco laughed. He decided this would be more fun if he didn’t tell them his information till the end. Even if it supports Potter’s view of him as an evil Slytherin.

*

After a few long hours of searching for Flamel in vain, in which the only exciting things to occur were Ron waking up suddenly with a shout of ‘SPIDERS!’ and Harry yawning (37 times, Draco counted), the four of them collectively agreed to give up for the day.

As they were walking to The Great Hall for dinner, Draco casually remarked,

“Have any of you ever got the Dumbledore chocolate frog card?”

Harry looked at him strangely, but that was nothing new. Ron turned to Draco and said,

“Come on, mate. Everyone’s had that card at least a hundred times.”

Draco grinned, noticing Hermione now also looking at him strangely, and added,

“I know, Weasley. That’s why I’m surprised none of you noticed that Flamel is mentioned on it as a friend of Dumbledore’s. They worked on the Philosophers’ Stone together.”

He kept on grinning as the other three stopped still in the corridor and stared at him in shock. Hermione was the first to react, swinging her bag at him and demanding why he had to be so dramatic and not tell them before, and Ron joined in with this assault.

Draco laughed and put up his hands in surrender, and while doing so, he noticed that Harry’s strange look hadn’t gone away, but the Chosen One was actually smiling at him.
And it was like soft autumn sunlight- another thing Malfoy would never ever under any circumstances give up unless under veritaserum.

The other two eventually toned down their attack to say thanks to Draco, and he had given them a Slytherin smile and informed Hermione that she owed him now. And that the three of them shouldn’t do anything reckless (no chance they’d listen to that), before stalking off to the Great Hall and the Slytherin table.

This whole incident happened only a few days ago, and Draco knows something’s going to happen when Dumbledore abruptly leaves Hogwarts today.

He only hopes Potter doesn’t get himself killed.