Long Time in the Making

Having recognized Harry Potter’s love for wallowing with undesirables, Draco redirected his efforts away from cultivating the scar-headed git as an acquaintance and towards establishing his own reputation and influence within a school that generations of his ancestors had controlled as students and trustees. According to one of the living ancestral portraits he’d been unwillingly tutored by before Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin raised his share of the school’s start-up funding by negotiating a deal and a vow with a great-great-grandsomething Malfoy; the terms bordered on murderous. In his mind, Draco cocooned himself in the confidence of his position and his success in all academic endeavors — intellectual, social and political. Potter and his dysfunctional group of incompetents and untouchables would rue the day Harry declined Draco’s charitable offer of friendship; he’d see them crawling before year-end.

No one denied Draco Malfoy what he wanted.

Being young, Draco had yet to learn that the world will as it wont and not always as those with resources, influence and power desire.

Thus when marks were posted at winter hols and Draco sat at #2 behind one of Potter’s undesirables, Draco panicked privately behind the custom-made curtains on his custom-made bed, fearful of leaving for home and a man who would discipline him harshly for “missing the mark”, so to speak. To fall short of #1 was bad enough, but Draco fell behind the one student guaranteed to prolong the beatings Draco now couldn’t avoid.

The Mudblood sealed his fate with her know-it-all attitude and her relentless passion to win.

Shaking like a leaf at the voice of his father, who was beyond angry at having to retrieve his son from Slytherin’s dungeons, Draco considered that had Hermione Granger’s blood not been polluted, she’d have been a worthy addition to his list for fun, courtship and marriage.