Chapter Text
In The Name Of Social Standing
I own nothing and thus I make nothing on this work, which only proves how much my life sucks.
Chapter one
Draco Malfoy did not want to be there. The tension in the Great Hall upon his arrival was heavy and thick. The expressions on his peers' faces were a mixture of hatred, disbelief and anger. He steeled himself and quickly made his way to the Slytherin's table. He kept his head bowed and his grip on Pansy was tight and angry. She squeezed back and pushed him into his seat. He was grateful to see that his back was to the majority of the room and to him, Potter, who's face he avoided the most.
Being force to returned by his mother and the Ministry was punishment enough, all he needed to do was get through three terms, write his NEWTS and be on his merry way. He had no time for trouble which meant he better avoid Potter and his loyal band of followers at all cost. He remembered what his mother begged him to do before he went on to the train.
"Please be a good boy Draco" she said it while hugging him tightly. So tight that it almost hurt, her nails digging into his back and arm. "Just be a good boy, people need only to forget and forgive Draco. Keep your head down and be a good boy. "
She then kissed him and stepped back into the custody of two Aurors, he spied tears trailing down her face just before she apparated away with them. He knew they were taking her back to Malfoy Manor; once her beautiful home, now her beautiful cell. His mother was wrong though, no one will ever forget. He looked around the room and saw clear evidence of that set in the eyes of everyone. When there was a war the winners tend to gloat in the faces of the losers. His friends were all pale faces and nervous hands, waiting anxiously for the gloating to begin. The only ones that didn't seem to be affected were Blaise and Pansy.
Blaise, of course, had endless practice on how to control his emotions from his whore of a mother. Pansy's face, on the other hand, was a surprise to Draco. Pansy, the girl who wanted to hand over Potter, had a determined look about her. Draco cocked a brow in her direction. He knew she was up to something and most likely he would be dragged into whatever it is that she was planning.
" What is it?" he asked her.
" I'm sick of how people are treating us" She didn't even tried to keep her voice down. The whole table was staring. "Did you know that that cow face Mary Dunhill had the nerve to actually speak to me and do you know what she said Draco?"
Draco stared at her stupidly.
" She said that I should go to hell" Pansy was warming to her topic now. Her face had gotten a really unattractive red. " Like I would actually take advice from someone dressed in wool and a Hufflepuff to boot. Of all the nerves !."
" Pansy" Draco said through clutched teeth. " Would you calm yourself and for Merlin's sake keep your voice down"
People from the other houses were catching on that Pansy was throwing a tantrum. There were whispers and looks that were anything but friendly.
" I will not calm down. I'm not a house elf. I can do what the bloody hell I want. "
" And clearly you want to act like an embarrassment" Blaise drawled.
" Of course not,"Pansy huffed. " that's not what I - Oh for the love of -" She pushed herself off of the bench and strolled to the front of the room. The eyes that were watching the scene, followed her.
After a shared look with Blaise, Draco forced his eyes to the front for the first time since he entered the Great Hall. He was shocked to see McGonnagal in the headmaster's chair and Flitwick was clearly filling in her old post. He was currently arguing strongly with a small sandy haired boy, whose voice, because of the sudden drop in the noise level and everyone's focus on Pansy, carried loudly around the room.
" There must be a mistake" he tried to grab the Sorting Hat from Professor Flitwick. What resulted was a heavy tug of war between the two. " Give it back, I'm not a Slytherin. Honest, I'm not!"
" Now look here young man, there's absolutely no need for this kind of behaviour." he said this all the while tugging and pulling on the old hat. "The Hat has spoken, now kindly take your sit at the Slytherin's table."
" No, I wouldn't. I'm not a Slytherin. I'm not evil" The boy was almost in tears. The Hall was filled with whispers. Draco was appalled to see pity in the eyes of most of the population. He even saw Weasley muttered " Poor boy". Draco shot him a glare and snorted to himself when Weasley returned it. He absolutely refused to look at Potter.
He drew his eyes back at the commotion at the front. Professor Flitwick had yet to take back the hat.
"I am truly sorry " he said " but there is nothing I ca-"
He was interrupted by the arrival of Pansy who had finally fought her way through the crowd of first years.
" Nonsense Professor," She drew herself to her full 5 feet 5inches and stood with her hands on her hips, towering over the 'Poor Boy' and glaring fiercely at him. " There's absolutely no need to be sorry. " She leaned in close and had a quick discussion with the boy. She gripped his shoulder when he started to shake his head. " Why am I even asking you" she huffed in a typical Pansy way and grabbed his one of his ears. He let out a loud squeal that caused the whole Hall to jump. Pansy then began dragging him to the Slytherin's table. This time the boy was howling in tears.
Draco focused quickly on McGonnagall's face. She look torn between amusement and disbelief. Thankfully she chose to say nothing to Pansy, even when she paused half way to the table and said " If by any chance one of you wishes to act like this idiot" She give his ears another quick squeeze which was followed by more squealing on his part. " I beg you, do not. For I will leave my seat and I will come down here and smack some sense into that person. Do I make myself clear"
They all nodded quickly and collectively took a step back from the insane sight that was Pansy Parkinson.
She continued to drag the boy and then, quiet roughly shoved him between Gregory and Blaise. He took one look at Grey's solid body size and the stormy look in Blaise's face and let out squeak that sounded like a really awful impersonation of a peacock. And that's when Draco lost it. He leaned over Blaise to get to the boy. " Whats is your name?"
The boy rose mud brown eyes that were rimmed with red to meet Draco's grey ones that were rimmed with disgust. "Mu- my name,"he stuttered "is, um it's"
" I'm getting the impersonation that your name might be Idiot" Blaise drawled because drawling is what Blaise is good at.
The boy shot him a look that got an eyebrow rose in return. " My name is Lucas Urqahart" he stuck his skinny chin out and try to pretend that his last name wasn't ridiculous as it sounded and that he was brave. Poor Lucas Urgahart failed on both fronts.
Draco felt sorry for him, because when he stuck out his chin in that exact way and in that precise angle, he felt a weird kind of connection with the boy. Being force to do something that you really didn't want to do was scary. And Lucas Urgahart had a right to be scared. He was a goldfish now learning to swim in a fishbowl that was now Hogwarts and the real sharks were not the Slytherin's anymore because a war that they lost had fucked up their entire food chain.
Draco sighed and said " I'm Draco Malfoy" and he might as well had said that his name was Lucifer and he was taking over the world. Urgahart got pale and with the speed in which his eyes were darting from Draco's sleeves to his hair, Draco honestly felt that the boy would burst an eye vessel anytime now. The boy slowly began to hyperventilate.
"Yes I'm Draco Malfoy, the Death Eater." he drawled because Blaise wasn't the only one who was good at drawling. And Blaise was not the only one who could showoff. He might have drawled it a little too loud though because his table was silent. Again. Silence was sucky. McGonnagal should banned silence. He should talk to her about that, tell her about his campaign against silence. He could even make badges. He was warming to the idea when he realized that McGonnagal probably hated him and he definitely didn't like her either. And then he realized that he had just admitted to a first year what he never admitted to himself. Not once during the entire war. Not once as he fixed the cupboard, not once when he let them in. Not once. Not even when he looked into Dumbledore's eyes. Not once.
Draco swallowed down the emotions. And said it again. "I'm Draco Malfoy and I was a Death Eater. " It felt good even when he croaked out the last bit. Draco reached for his goblet because it was suddenly filled with water and because the whole table was filled with food, which meant the sorting was over, and because even with the sorting being done and the food on the table, everyone was still staring at him and were still silent. Draco had no idea how much he hated silence until this every moment. He blinked at them and they blinked back. Then he heard a slight cough which of course came from Pansy because she was the only one who could pull off such a cough.
"I'm Pansy Parkinson, the Bitchy Pug Face Cow" she said it with dignity and grace that came from being born and raised by her scary beast of a mother. Draco swore Mrs. Parkinson was the most polite and graceful sociopath he had ever met. He didn't think she would approve of Pansy's earlier performance though. But he did approve of her filling the silence for him now.
And of course, because Blaise likes to show off, he had to add his piece. " I'm Blaise Zabini, the Womanizer" and he says this with a proud look in his eyes, a look that could only come from years in the presence of his whore of a mother. A mother he's very proud of. Blaise then winks at a blonde first year girl that Draco doesn't remembering seeing come to their table which shows how careless he has become because the girl has tits on her that would put Lavender Brown to shame.
" Don't even think about it" Draco whispers at Blaise as he winks again at the girl and she,of course, blushes because when Blaise Zabini puts those chocolate eyes on you, and smiles in the way he's doing now, you have to blush. Draco forgets at times and blushes too because Blaise gets his looks from his mother and Draco swears he never saw a more beautiful sociopath.
"You know I can get her" and of course he's smug about it.
Gregory snorts " Of course you can, she's eleven. I could even get her if I wanted to."
It's Blaise's turn to snort " No you couldn't" then he turns and looks at Gregory properly, for perhaps the first time since the train left the station. Blaise is self centered like that. He looked at him good and proper taking in his broader shoulders, his longer fuller head of hair, his brute size and finally the muscles in his arms ,that Blaise knows came with the abs that are bound to be under his black robes. He sighed and said " Maybe you could." then his eyes narrowed "What the hell happened to you. You used to be bloody ugly." he shot Greg a glare. " Go back to being bloody ugly"
The new Gregory Goyle grinned " I work out now. I'm Gregory Goyle, the Sexy One."
Draco blinked for a second or two. Gregory Goyle made a joke. Maybe it was true what Pansy said , maybe Vincent was holding Goyle back. 'While rest in peace Vincent Crabbe- you stupid fuck that almost got me killed' Draco thought to himself. He didn't feel guilty one bit, he had the scars on the back of his hands to prove how stupid Vincent had been. Cursed fired. Honestly.
" Draco" Blaise shoved him with his shoulder and knocked him out of his depression. " Tell this lunatic that I'm the sexy one. " he demanded
" Don't be ridiculous Greg,of course you're not the sexy one" he drawled while playing around with his chicken. The grin on Blaise face was magnificent. " We all know that I'm the sexy one in here." and the look on his face after Draco said that was priceless.
The rest of the Feast past along lovely. It felt like old times. He felt nice. Warm and filled with food, surrounded by friends. Even Urgahart had began to loosen up after Blaise slipped him couple drops of firewhiskey. Draco felt great so, of course, something would had to go wrong. Draco blamed Urgahart.
He was minding his own business, helping Pansy round up the first years because, according to her, the other prefects were "fucking bloody useless" and he was a prefect and was doing his job. He was being a good boy like his mother told him to be. 'See mother, I can be good.' he thought to himself, when out of no where Urgahart, who Draco had being steering towards the doors because the boy obviously couldn't hold his liquor very well, bumped into Potter himself and proceeded to turn out his insides on Potter's ridiculous looking trainers.
Blaise let out a roar of laughter that filled the emptying hall ( because war has made him a joyous retard) and patted Urgahart on his back. " Yep, definitely a Slytherin" he shot Potter a grin. " Though your methods leave room for improvements " he said thoughtfully then he shrugged and said "But it's been a bad year,we'll take what we can get"
"Shut up Zabini!!" Ginny Weasley said angrily. It seemed she had attached herself to the Savior. " How dare you even joke about that!"
Pansy shoved her way to the front and snorted " What do you want us to do? Cry?"
"My brother died in that war " Her eyes had tears and her voice was trembling.
Pansy had an evil little smile on her face that made Draco think 'Uh oh this can't be good'
Pansy squared her shoulders and said slow and deliberate "I've seen pictures of your house Weasley, as far as I'm concern he's in a much better place."
Draco snickered and wished he hadn't. It was a good one, a little below the belt but a good one nevertheless. His snickers drew the attention of Potter. He didn't have to look at Potter to know. He felt the heat of his stare and knew it was one of anger. Again Draco refused to meet his eyes.
" You want to say that again Parkinson". Potter said
"Why don't run along and go play with your fan club Potter?" Blaise drawled. He turned to shove his way through Potter and his annoying red haired girlfriend however before he could Potter shoved him back.
"Why don't you clean this mess up before you go?"
"I'm not a house elf Potter" Blaise said clearly pissed. " Why don't you clean it yourself?"
"You heard what Harry said " The Weasette was kind of ugly when she was being smug. "Why don't you just do it?"
" Because unlike you, we do not live to please Potter." Pansy sneered "Tell me , how does it feel to be the Savors' whore?"
And suddenly there were six pairs of wands in their faces. In addition to Potter and his girlfriend there was Granger, the male Weasley, Finnegan and Thomas, who was looking at Draco with disappointment in his brown eyes. Draco found that look to be ridiculous. He didn't do anything, it was Urgahart's vomit for Merlin's sake.
" Hello Draco" Luna Lovegood smiled up to him between the faces of Weasley and Granger. She seemed completely oblivious to the tension in the room. " Did you enjoy your summer?"
"Um.... Yes it was ...nice" if you called being locked in jail for one half and spending the other locked inside of your house nice, then yes it was nice.
"Of course it as nice for him" said the Weasel "after Harry got you off. Would have been rotting in Azkaban with your daddy if it was up to me. "
Draco hated Weasley. He really hated the annoying red head, he had no idea why Potter sought to surround himself with annoying red heads. Potter was stupid.
Stupid Potter and his stupid friends who won a stupid war. Everything was just stupid, especially Potter. Fucking stupid Harry Potter.
" I thought you would be grateful Malfoy" Granger said " After all Harry went through to get you and your mother off. You should be grateful. "
She looked like she expected Draco to say something but all Draco keep thinking was why was it suddenly about him. It began with the vomit and now they were discussing his life story and his debts to Potter. What did they expect him to do?
"Well what do you have to say for yourself Malfoy?" Granger sneered
Draco shrugged and with a flick of his newly brought wand, which he had to order all the way from France, the vomit instantly disappeared . He then proceeded to drag both a furious Pansy and a green face Urgahart to their dormitory.
" Can you believe the way they' re treating us ?" Pansy huffed as she threw herself into an over stuffed green chair. Draco thought it looked ugly and that it made
Pansy look like a toad when she puffed out her cheeks and pouted in the way she was doing now. " What ever happened to good old fashion fear and respect ?'
"It was lost when we -"
"It was a rhetorical question Greg! " she snapped. "Honestly!!"
Poor Gregory, Pansy's temper could eat a man alive.
"How about everyone just calm down?" Draco suggested like the adult he was. He really was on a roll tonight, he wished his mother was here to see him. She would have been proud as hell.
"I don't want to calm down," Pansy said "What I do want is to rip Granger's bushy head off. Who the bloody hell does she think she is? And You, why did you allow her to talk to you as though you were her child? ". She kept punching the arm of the chair with each word she said.
" Pansy" Draco said softly and calmly. " I can not afford to get into any situation that would violate my probation - because this is what this whole period is : one big fucking probation. If I allow myself to give into the urge to squeeze Weasley's head until it pops then it would be one free ride to Azkaban. I can not fuck these three terms up understand? " He leaned in close to Pansy, putting his arms on either side of her chair. " Do you understand Pansy? "
She nodded her head stubbornly.
"Repeat after me - I will not fuck with Granger and her two dunderheads. "
"I don't want fuck with Granger, I want to rip her-"
"Pansy!" Draco snapped. He looked to Blaise for help but all Blaise seemed to be occupied with was muttering "Fucking Potter" under his breathe.
"Look Draco can't I just-"
"No!"
"Fine!"
Draco sighed. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with Pansy when she was in one of her moods. She was being oddly ridiculous even by her standards.
" Look," Draco cuddled his hands with her face "Darling get some rest and I promise you this week will be perfect"
"Promise?" She begged in a tiny voice. If he wasn't so tired he would have smiled. The last time he heard that voice was when they were five and she begged him to promise that she would get to be Princess of the World.
" I promise that this week will be completely and entirely perfect in every way, it will be just like old times. Completely prefect. There's absolutely nothing to worry about"
****
On Monday they set her hair on fire. Not Potter and his gang of course, they were too good for that. But some snotty nose Ravenclaws who felt annoyed at her presence. Her lovely hair that she was growing all summer was now a short bob that ended at her ear. She took that one without nothing more than a grunt and determined face.
On Tuesday they made her break out in hives, this time she sought to hex everyone of them back. A girl ended up with a beak for a mouth.
On Wednesday she found out that Urgahart was seeking off to apologize to Potter. She caught him before he could and when she was dragging him by the ears away from Potter, someone thought it would be hilarious to send a trip jinx when she was on her way down some stairs. She tripped and broke her nose, she wasn't too mad about that because according to her, her nose was a " fucking nightmare" however Potter was absolutely furious. Draco heard that Potter shouted at the boy till his face turned purple and Granger had to drag him away before things got out of hand.
From Thursday to Friday she was left alone, mainly due to the fact that Potter was still pitching his tantrum and had taken to following her around to ensure that she was left alone. People thought he had gone insane, Pansy thought he was annoying and Draco avoided him at all cost.
Draco avoided everyone. In fact, he was so good at making himself seemed invisible that Greg kept losing him in crowds. He kept his head down and most importantly he kept his mouth shut. People didn't harass him because he simply did not exist any more. He made sure he was invisible, he learnt all the necessary spells and movements. Pansy was the only one having a hard time, and that was only because she was the easiest to get at. They were too scared of Greg, Theodore's silent and brooding act made him seem much more evil then he actually was, Blaise and Daphne were too pretty to have any real harm come upon them and Draco was the invisible one. Truly keeping his mouth shut was the hardest part, but he dealt with it. Clearly Pansy could not.
On Saturday, Pansy lost it. She came rushing into the common room in tears. Her pretty face was blotched with patches of red and pink. Simply her pretty face looked beyond ugly. A crying Pansy was never a good sign. Draco was instantly at her side.
"What is it?" he asked.
"They kicked me out of the dress shop" she sobbed.
Draco blinked. " What?"
Pansy eased her crying to glare at him. " I said they kicked me out of the dress shop. " She wiped her nose on her sleeves, an act which Draco thought was disgusting. "My life is ruined Draco. Its absolutely ruined. I can't lived like this. I can't. I simply refused to Draco."
And suddenly her sad, pathetic, red face turned into a very determined one. Draco was instantly on alert, what ever Pansy was planning, he knew she would drag him into it.
"What are you going to do Pansy?" Draco asked, a little scared. "Remember what I said-"
"I know what you said!" She snapped. She got up from the chair she had pitched herself in.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to think of a plan." She simply stated and left the room.
Draco did not like the look on her face.
******
Pansy spent the whole of the Saturday afternoon and Sunday's scheming. She finally came out of her room with a grin on her face, just as the sun was going down.
"Oh Draco," she came to him with her arms grasped in front of her and her cheeks pink with the efforts of her mood. " I've done it."
"What have you done?" Draco said slowly, putting down the book he was trying to read.
"I just thought of the perfect plan " She said.
"Well, common then" Blaise said "Let us all hear your brilliant plan." Then he turned to Gregory without a care for Pansy's feelings, sorted and said "This ought to be good."
Pansy sent him a glare. " Shut it Blaise."
Blaise only rolled his eyes and said "Well get on with it."
Pansy smiled. "I'm going to marry Potter."
They all stared.
"Come again?" Blaise said.
"Think about it; if I marry Potter then everyone will have to like me." She's smug about it, and she expecting everyone to congratulate her on a plan well thought of, but everyone is simply staring at her like she lost all her marbles and then some. " And even better; we can all get one of Potter's friends so everyone is evened out. You know? "
Daphne coughed. "No, we don't know. Pansy have you completely lost it?"
"Actually," Blaise said slowly, " its not a bad idea."
Daphne looked at him and said "Have you lost it too? Is it something that's catching?"
Blaise ignored her and turned to Pansy. "But if we do this, I want to make it perfectly clear. I want Weasley."
"What?" They all chorused. Most of them looked stunned.
"The female Weasley " Blaise said quickly. 'Honestly."
Pansy was furious. Draco knew that Pansy always thought Blaise secretly wanted her. Clearly he never did. "Fine" she snapped "But to make this fair to everyone else, we are picking from a bag. "
"No we are not." Theodore said drily. " I want no part of this stupid scheme. "
Pansy narrowed her eyes and said " Fine don't do it but if you think that you are going to get that fancy job at the Ministry then you have another thing coming. Your name and everyone else's in this room is black listed. They wouldn't accept us, we will forever be the children of the Death Eaters, some of us are worst off then others."
Draco refused to acknowledged that, in fact he refused to even look at her.
"You have a choice," she continued, "I'm not forcing anyone of you to do anything. Its your choice but know this, we are Slytherins are we not? Its our duty to be cunning and clever and to uphold our pride and respect. We are not meant to be treated like dirt. I will not allow myself to be treated like dirt. Will you?"
In the end they all decided to go with it just to shut Pansy up. What she said made sense to them. Draco knew this will only end badly, he tried to tell them. He honestly did. No one listened. Theodore really wanted to work in the Ministry, Daphne really wanted a respectable marriage and Gregory just went along with it because he was really scared shitless of Pansy. Blaise motives were a mystery, but Draco knew they couldn't be anything good. Blaise wasn't in love with Weasley, maybe he wanted to teach her a lesson. Maybe he wanted to teach Potter a lesson, either way, it was not going to end well. Draco could tell. All of it was not going to end will but he went along with it because he was an idiot and truth be told, he wanted his respect back and if that might sleeping with Granger then he was going to suck it up and do it.
He was an adult for Merlin's sake.
"Theo, " Pansy called. " You go first." She gestured to the bag she had conquered and the names that were swimming around within. Theo sucked in his breathe and pulled a name.
As soon as he draw the yellow parchment, he said "I want another go."
"Absolutely not." Pansy snapped. Pansy was awfully snappy these days. " You have to stay with whoever you pull and court them. Those are the rules. Court them till they fall in love with you or at least, lust. No switching."
"But I got Longbottom, " Theo whined " I don't like boys Pansy. This is ridiculous."
"Its call self sacrifice Theodore." Pansy said, " Now Greg, your turn."
Greg approached the bag with his tongue peeking out the side of his mouth. He was really concentrating. Draco didn't know what exactly he was concentrating on, probably thought he could change the names in the bag to the one he wanted with his mind. Poor gullible Greg.
"Granger." Grey read the name off the paper, clearly bewildered.
" Pansy-" Draco began, he was determined to talk some sense into her. If Greg got within an inch of Granger then they were all chopped liver.
" Don't start Draco," she sneered. " You heard what I said. Rules are rules after all. Daphne you're up."
Daphne did not waste anytime. She shoved her hand into the bag and took a quick step back, parchment clutched tightly in her hands. She took a breath and read the name off. Her expression wasn't revealing anything. " Lovegood."
"Brilliant" Pansy grinned. " My turn." She give the bag a fierce shake and placed her hand inside. She took a good ten seconds feeling around and muttering: "Potter, please be Potter" under her breathe. When she finally withdraw her hand, she was grinning and gritty with excitement. She looked at her hand and stared in horror. "Weasley!" She shouted. She opened and closed her mouth and then said " Look, about the rules-"
Draco snatched the bag from her hands and grinned. "Sorry, Pansy darling but rules are rules. " He then proceeded to drag the last name out of the bag. He unfold the paper and stared at the name on the yellowish parchment. It said "Potter" in Pansy's ridiculous curvy handwriting. Potter. It said Potter. He had gotten Potter. It hadn't dawn on him that Potter's name would be the last left.
"Well, Draco" Pansy said "Congratulations." She looked like she really wished him death. He had gotten her precious Potter.
"Who did you get Draco?" Greg asked because Greg really was that clueless.
"Potter" Draco croaked out. He had gotten Potter.
Stupid, fucking, Harry Potter.
They were all bloody screwed.