Disclaimer: I own nothing. I am not making profit off of Rowling's amazing work.

After the welcome feast, Draco trooped downstairs with his fellow Slytherins. He went up the stairs that lead to the boys' dormitories, found the door marked "Fourth Years", and entered. Blaise was already unpacking his trunk, while chatting with Daphne and Pansy, who were sitting on his bed.

"Hello Draco!" said Daphne, smiling brightly. "Are you going to try and enter the tournament?"

Draco looked her up and down appreciatively; she had always been good-looking, and had grown even more beautiful over the summer. She tilted her head flirtatiously, her smile broadening as she looked brazenly back at him. He smirked, and then opened his trunk to organize his own belongings.

"Nah," he said, dismissively. "I have better things to do with my time than risk my life for a measly one thousand Galleons." He pulled out his robes to hang.

Theodore Nott, a tall and stringy boy, had entered the room behind Draco. "But you'd be famous!" he said. His eyes lit up dreamily. "Just imagine, all the girls that would come running!"

Daphne and Pansy exchanged disgusted glances, and then burst out in giggles. Theo glared at them.

Blaise chuckled. "Yeah, Theo, I don't think that would help you," he said. Draco sniggered.

Theo sullenly went to unpack his own trunk.

Vince and Greg walked in, last as usual, since they often lingered behind at dinner to stuff their faces. "What are you two doing here?" said Vince, narrowing his eyes at Daphne and Pansy.

"We're not here for you, Crabbe," said Daphne, rudely. She turned to Draco, blatantly shunning Vince, and said in an overly sweet voice, "So how was your summer, Draco?"

Draco hid his wince – Daphne may be a beauty but she was brainless and had no tact – and said, shortly, "Fine."

Pansy spoke up. "You went to the Quidditch World Cup, didn't you?" There was an edge to her voice. The room went suddenly quiet as the boys stopped rummaging through their trunks.

"Don't talk about that," said Theo in a tight voice.

"I thought you would be glad to see the Dark Lord's Mark again, Theo," Pansy retorted.

Theo spun around, his face twisted in anger. "You don't know anything, so shut up!"

Pansy leapt off of Blaise's bed, pulled out her wand, and stomped towards Theo. "You dare to tell me to shut up?"

Theo backed up against the wall, his eyes flickering to Blaise, who was leaning against the bedpost with his hands thrust in his pockets, and then to Draco, who was casually rolling his own wand between his fingers. Indecision clouded Theo's face; he wasn't sure if the other two boys would defend him or Pansy. He decided to err on the side of caution, and his head dropped in defeat.

"Sorry, Pansy, I didn't mean it like that," he mumbled.

Pansy snorted, then turned away. Her eyes shifted around the room and landed on Draco. A crafty look appeared on her face, and she slinked towards him.

"So, Draco," she purred. "What did you think of the World Cup?"

Draco's wand flicked up – he muttered the spell – and before Pansy could react, her wand went flying across the room. She jumped back in surprise.

Draco laughed nastily. "You should know better than to mess with me," he said, then jerked his head meaningfully toward the door.

Pansy pouted, then tossed her hair. "Come on, Daphne," she said, bossily. "Let's go." As she bent to pick up her wand, Draco noticed Blaise admiring her backside. He shot his roommate a wink, and Blaise grinned, unabashed at being caught.

Daphne followed Pansy out of the room, her long eyelashes fluttering at Draco, but he ignored her. When the door closed behind the girls, Blaise said snidely to Theo, "You should go to the hospital wing and ask for some Skele-Gro because you really need to grow a backbone."

"Shut up," said Theo, his face turning pink.

Draco swaggered across the room and did his best imitation of Pansy's voice in falsetto. "You dare to tell me to shut up?" he mimicked.

The other boys howled with laughter, and Theo's blush deepened. He fumbled for his wand. As he cast his spell, Draco lazily said, "Protego." The resulting deflected magic blasted back at Theo, lifting him off his feet and dumping him unceremoniously on his bed. He scowled.

"Give it up," Draco drawled.

"You wouldn't be so cocky if the Dark Lord returned," Theo muttered under his breath – but Draco heard and his grin faded.

"I have nothing to fear from the Dark Lord," he said, softly.

Theo sneered. "You're just like your little Gryffindor friends. Which side are you really on, Malfoy?"

Suddenly he was jerked off his bed by two pairs of rough hands. Vince and Greg slammed him against the wall. Theo twisted in a futile attempt to escape from the two burly Slytherins. Then he froze as the tall blonde boy before him stepped forward and threateningly pressed the tip of his wand to his throat.

"I am on whichever side that wins," said Draco, his calm tone clashing with the hard look in his stormy grey eyes. He muttered a few quick words under his breath, and then stepped away to admire his handiwork, signaling Vince and Greg let go of Theo's arms, which were now locked in place. He had placed a Full Body-Bind Curse as well as a Tickling Charm on his roommate. Theo's eyes were nearly bugging out of his head; but he was helpless to stop the torture.

Blaise shook his head. "That's just mean." But he didn't move to help Theo and avoided Draco's gaze.

"You say that as though I care," replied Draco, coldly. He stepped back towards his own bed to finish rearranging his personal belongings.

The curses wore out by the next morning, but Theo had haggard, dark circles under his eyes. He said nothing, though Draco was sure that he was plotting revenge. But Draco didn't care; he was confident in his ability to counter anything Theo could do to him. At breakfast, Snape passed out class schedules to the Slytherins. Draco held one up to examine.

"Today's not so bad… Charms first… and then Care of Magical Creatures with the Gryffindors…" He bit into his buttered toast.

"Double Arithmancy this afternoon," Blaise groaned.

"If you need help, just ask," said Draco, grinning. Blaise glared at him resentfully - they both knew that Blaise would rather die than ask anyone for help.

Charms was rather dull. Flitwick insisted on reviewing every spell from the previous year. Vince, Greg, and Daphne seemed to have forgotten everything over the summer and were struggling with the simple Wingardium Leviosa. Draco and Blaise spent the period surreptitiously messing with Daphne's feather, causing her to stare in puzzlement as her feather fluttered in random directions.

When the Slytherins left Flitwick's classroom, their class split, heading toward their respective electives. Draco headed outside with Vince and Greg for Care of Magical Creatures.

The Gryffindors were already there, gazing with disgusted expressions into open wooden crates. That is not a good sign, Draco thought.

He peered into a crate, and then jerked back. There were about a hundred creatures per crate. They were some sort of deformed, shell-less lobster, horribly pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places. They gave off a very powerful smell of rotting fish.

"What are these?" he asked.

"Blast-Ended Skrewts!" Hagrid replied cheerfully. "On'y jus' hatched so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"

"And why would we want to raise them?" asked Draco.

Hagrid looked stumped at the question. Then he said, "Tha's… next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today."

Draco rolled his eyes. It was obvious that Hagrid had no clue.

After a few minutes of attempting to feed the creatures, it was clear that they were quite dangerous. "Some of 'em got stings," warned Hagrid. "Be careful wi' burns too, an' I reckon the females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies, might be ter suck blood."

"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive," Draco said, sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?"

"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful," Hermione snapped. "Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"

Draco grinned. "When you discover the twelve uses of Blast-Ended Skrewt blood, let the rest of us know, eh?"

Hermione glared at him, but the corner of her lip twitched.

After lunch, Draco and Hermione headed to Arithmancy while Harry and Ron went off to Divination.

"No more Time-Turner?" he asked.

"Too much trouble. I dropped Muggle Studies," said Hermione. Draco smirked at her, and she growled, "Oh, shush Draco, I know you told me so. By the way, guess what I found out!? There are house-elves here!"

She looked at him expectantly, and so Draco pretended to be mildly interested. "Really, I've never seen one around," he said.

"It's despicable that Hogwarts is partaking in such oppression!"

He blinked at her, fighting the urge to burst out laughing. "You're joking."

She glared at him. "Of course I'm not!"

"Have you ever even talked to a house elf? They don't want to be free. They like being servants!"

"Dobby didn't!"

Draco winced. "Dobby was… odd. He nearly killed Harry several times, remember?"

"It is still a horrible and disgusting custom and it's people like you who prop up rotten and unjust systems –"

"Isn't it arrogant of you to presume that you know what's best for them, better than they themselves?"

Hermione wrinkled her nose at him. "They're uneducated and brainwashed! They don't know any better –"

"Now you're calling them stupid. That's insulting."

"Slavery is wrong no matter how you try to twist the argument," Hermione sputtered.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Well if you feel so passionately about it, why don't you start up a little club and see how many members will support you? My bet is zero."

Hermione's eyes lit up. "Draco! That's a brilliant idea! The club could be named…. Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in their Legal Status!"

Draco laughed out loud. Hermione's eyes sparkled as she looked happily back at him. He grinned.

"I don't even know how to describe you," he said, shaking his head. She was so naïve sometimes, even if she was brilliant.

They sat by each other in Arithmancy, passing notes back and forth as Professor Vector droned on about the magical properties of the Fibonacci sequence. Hermione told him her crazy ideas about elf rights, while Draco offered criticism and suggestions, helping her hone her arguments. He couldn't care less about house-elves, but he enjoyed the logical argumentation. She also knew absolutely nothing about persuasion and the political maneuvering that she would need if she wanted to achieve real legal change, which Draco found hilarious. And she had no flair for coming up with a catchy club name.

What do you think about S.P.E.W. - Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare, she wrote.

Makes me want to spew, he replied, earning a kick under the table. He grinned, and then wrote, What about Organization for the General Rights of Elves.

Ogre? You asshat, she replied. He snickered under his breath.

After class, they joined up with Ron and Harry in the entrance hall, which was packed with people queuing for dinner. They had just joined the end of the line, when Blaise came up behind Draco and draped an arm over his shoulder.

"Hey mate."

"Hey Zabini. What's up?"

Blaise shoved a paper under Draco's nose. "Might want to let your ginger friend see this," he said, shooting a sly glance at Ron, who immediately snatched the paper out of Draco's hands.

Ron scanned the paper, then looked up at Draco with narrowed eyes. "So, making fun of my dad now, Draco?"

"I haven't even read it yet. Give me that," Draco responded frostily, ripping the paper back. He chuckled at the misprint of Ron's father's name. "Looks like 'Arnold Weasley' doesn't need any help making a fool of himself –"

"I've had it with you!" roared Ron, lunging forward. Both Harry and Hermione grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him from attacking Draco. Everyone in the entrance hall stopped to stare at them.

Draco whipped out his wand. "What's your problem, Weasley? I've done absolutely nothing to you," he snarled, stepping forward and raising his wand.

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"

A loud bang echoed throughout the entrance hall. The world blurred and suddenly Draco was peering up through fuzzy eyes. Was there something wrong with his vision? But even though he couldn't see very well, there was a deafening onslaught of noise and strange aromas that he had never sensed before. He twitched his whiskers, trying to get a feel for his surroundings.

Whiskers?

Then suddenly something invisible seemed to pick him up and he was flung through the air, and then landed with a SMACK back on the floor. That hurt! He squealed in pain, flailing his legs and tail – tail? – helplessly.

And then there was another loud crack and Draco was deposited on the ground, back in his human form. He groaned, and then climbed to his feet, wincing. He glared around furiously. Where was his wand?

"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" Professor McGonagall was saying. "We give detentions! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"

"I'll do that, then," said Moody. He stared at Draco with blatant dislike. "I don't like people who attack when their opponent can't attack back. Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do. Now your Head of House'll be Snape, will it?"

"Yes sir," said Draco. He found his wand on the floor and bent to pick it up, not keeping his eyes off of Professor Moody.

"I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape," Moody growled. "Come on, you –"

He moved to seize Draco's arm but the boy jerked back. The professor's eyes widened and a strange glint appeared in them. Draco stared back coldly, his grip on his wand tightening. Something was warring in Moody's eyes, as though he was barely restraining himself from attacking Draco again. But then the professor simply gestured for him to follow, and then stumped off towards the dungeons.

Draco did not glance around, or look back at his friends. He didn't want to see their faces; he had just been humiliated in front of the entire school. He kept his eyes straight ahead as he followed Moody, boiling in anger and frustration.

Life has gotten a lot busier than anticipated. I will do my best to update as soon as I can, but it may be a while. Please review, and as always, thanks for reading.