The Lion Inside the Snake, Part 2 : 5_nevers [PG: Draco Malfoy]
Title: The Lion Inside the Snake, Part 2 : Part 1
Fandom: Harry Potter
Genre: AU
Characters/Pairings: Draco Malfoy, Fred and George Weasley, Percy Weasley, & Hogwarts Students 1991-1998
Word Count: 855
Prompt: N/A
Rating: PG
Warnings: Gryffindor!Draco, Angst,
Summary: Now that Draco's a Gryffindor, he watches as all his friends are taken away from him and placed where he thinks he belongs.
Disclaimer: Don't own. Just Borrowing. Promise I Won't Break Them.
Author's Notes: Yes, don't flog me. XD Written for 5_nevers. There is no 'never' in this chapter. It's transitional.
Nobody was sure which had been more unexpected, the Sorting Hat’s decision or Malfoy’s reaction. Professor McGonagall looked like she was about to be sick. Professor Snape expression held a mix of utter bewilderment and deep concern. The remaining staff members were whispering frantically to each other while Dumbledore looked decidedly pleased.
“Go and join your new House, Mister Malfoy,” Professor McGonagall pronounced once she had been able to collect herself. “Others are left to be sorted.”
Draco slumped beneath the hat until it was plucked from his head. He didn’t budge from the stool, though, his hands gripped firmly to it. A high pitched buzz rang in his ears, eyes leveled towards the ground. Greg and Vincent were already over at the Slytherin table. And he knew that if he glanced into the assembled crowd, Theo, Blaise, and Pansy would be looking at him like he was dirt.
“Mister Malfoy? Mister Malfoy. Mister Malfoy!”
Draco jerked his gaze up at Professor McGonagall, flushing heavily as she thrust her finger in the direction of the table decked in red and gold. This was his fate, so he supposed he had to accept it. While most first years joined their new Houses under a torrent of applause, Draco did so to hushed whispers and sideways glances.
Reluctantly, he took his place next to a rotund lad with brown hair and brown eyes, the Longbottom boy. Sitting around him were three students that Draco didn’t recognize offhand. As McDougal, Morag took her seat at the Ravenclaw table, and Nott, Theodore was called up to be sorted, the boy across from Longbottom leaned over to him.
“Oi, mate. What’s all this fuss about?” The boy asked in a thick Irish accent.
Draco had to restrain himself from shuddering. This boy didn’t know who he was, so he was a mudblood or a muggle raised halfblood. As horrible as he felt actually having to associate with such a creature, he felt even worse when one of the Weasley brats - redhead and freckles, he couldn’t have been anything else - answered for him.
“Malfoys are always Slytherins, mate,” One of a pair of twins snarked. “Daddy Malfoy is going to be delighted when he hears his little poppet’s a Gryffindork. What do you think he’s going to do first, Malfoy? Disown you, thrash you, or just outright kill you?”
“Leave off, Fred,” The other twin said, smirking a bit. “I’m sure the brat’s in enough pain as it is. Let him wallow in his own self-loathing. No need for us to make it any worse.”
“Both of you behave,” Yet another Weasley - how many of them were there?! - interjected. “He’s one of us now and should be treated as such.”
Draco wasn’t really listening, though, as he watched as Nott, Theodore and Parkinson, Pansy took their places at the Slytherin table. Four out of five friends lost to him. Only one left, but Zabini, Blaise could go nowhere else. He’d look horrible in red, anyway. The first Patil went to Ravenclaw while the second took a seat next to Draco and smirked as she leaned over and hugged him. Draco colored deeply.
“Hi, Parvati...”
“And here I thought I’d end up all on my lonesome,” Parvati said. “Shame about Pansy and Theo, though.”
“They’re where they belong...” Draco muttered. “Which is more than I can say about myself.”
“I don’t think I belong here, either...” The Longbottom boy - what WAS his first name? - mumbled. “But at least this is what Gran wanted...”
“GRYFFINDOR!”
The exclamation was accompanied by frantic cheering from the Gryffindor table. What had happened? Who’d gotten into the House? Draco hadn’t been paying attention. Draco scowled as Harry bloody Potter sat down next to a bushy brown haired first year. Just his luck. He was going to have to share a dorm with Potter.
Another boy slid in next to Parvati, flashing her a charming smile and introducing himself as Dean Thomas. Another Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff, and then Weasley joined Potter, laughing as he practically tumbled into his seat. No grace, those Weasleys, but that was to be expected. Grace came with breeding, and they certainly lacked THAT. When Blaise took his place at the Slytherin table, Draco’s shoulders slumped a bit.
“Come on, Drake. You certainly didn’t expect Blaise to be over here, did you?” Parvati asked, patting him lightly on the back.
“Drake?!” The youngest Weasley snorted before bursting out laughing.
Draco growled in response. “Shut up, you uncouth moron!”
“Make me, you spoiled brat.”
“That is enough!” Percy snapped, being the prefect closest to the first years. “You two will treat each other in a civil manner, or I will take this to Professor McGonagall.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
‘That’s better,” Percy muttered as the food appeared on their plates. They had missed the whole welcoming speech. “Now, eat. We’ve only got an hour before we have to be back in the common room.”
The common room. The Gryffindor common room, surrounded by red and gold, in a high tower, trapped in a dorm with Potter, Weasley, and the Longbottom boy. Draco suddenly lost his appetite.