Draco froze.
Harry Potter had rejected his friendship, the Malfoys' friendship!
Most importantly, Harry rejected him for a Weasley brat? Draco wondered if maybe he wasn't completely awake, or if he had taken a wrong stance getting on the train. Why else would he be having hallucinations now?
Staring at the redhead, Draco grew angrier and more frustrated with each passing thought.
As the saying goes, there's no need to endure the unbearable. Draco, fed up with feeling aggrieved, decided to approach him.
The two henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle, who had been following Draco and enjoying the show, realized their leader was getting into a fight. They had no idea what else to do, especially given their limited intellect, so they decided to join the fray immediately.
Harry, seeing someone daring to mess with his newly made friend, needed no further explanations. He jumped into the fight!
A noisy brawl ensued, drawing the attention of the prefects patrolling the compartments. Two fifth-year prefects quickly separated the involved parties.
Draco realized he couldn't get rid of Weasley at that moment, so he left in anger, determined to come back and plan his revenge.
Draco returned to his compartment, accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle, both sporting bruises on their faces. He was even more dissatisfied with them. Despite being three against two, they couldn't defeat a Weasley. It was a total disgrace.
"Malfoy, aren't we going to look for the Minethils?" asked Crabbe cautiously. He knew Draco was in a bad mood at the moment and didn't want to upset him. But, remembering his own father's repeated instructions and the fact that he had just lost a rock-paper-scissors bet to Goyle, he had no choice but to ask.
"Look for Minethil? I don't have the mood for that now! We'll deal with it later. Anyway, we're at Hogwarts, and they can't escape. It doesn't matter if it's early or late," Draco replied.
At that moment, Draco neither had the mood nor the time to look for that useless Minethil. He had to go back and plan how to reclaim Harry.
...
Due to what had happened at noon, Draco hadn't left his compartment on the train until they finally arrived at Hogwarts.
Standing in front of the Great Hall, Draco felt nervous. Despite being completely sure he would be sorted into Slytherin House, he didn't know how Hogwarts would decide the houses for each of them.
The new students around him were anxious and discussing what they would face in the Sorting Ceremony. Draco listened attentively for a moment and realized that none of the rumors made sense.
Some said they had to defeat a troll, others said they had to participate in a group fight, and most ridiculous of all, some claimed all they needed to do was put on an old hat, and it would decide their house. That was absurd! Only an unserious school would let an old hat determine the fate of its students.
Then Draco realized that Hogwarts indeed used a dirty hat to decide which house to place the students in. It seemed his father was right; Dumbledore was truly a strange guy and should be kept away from.
The new students were called one by one to be sorted into their respective houses. Soon, it was Draco's turn. He looked at the dirty hat in front of him and ran his hand through his clean, blonde hair.
"I'll make sure to tell my father to burn this old hat," he thought to himself.
After putting on the Sorting Hat, Draco was sorted, as expected, into Slytherin House.
When he heard the Sorting Hat shout, "Slytherin!" he felt extremely happy. He even forgot that the hat had messed up his hair. Amidst the applause from the older students, Draco headed to the Slytherin table and sat next to Crabbe and Goyle, who were already waiting for him.
After Draco, it was Minethil's turn. When Professor McGonagall loudly announced the name Bell Minethil, Draco remembered his second task.
With still quite a good mood, Draco decided to pay a little attention to Minethil. After all, his father had specifically instructed him on this, so Draco took the task seriously.
What had happened before? That was just a minor incident, understandable in a way.
Draco looked up and saw a young boy with short black hair heading toward the Sorting Hat. Was this individual really a new student? Was he really 11 years old like him? What had he eaten to grow so much? How could he be so tall?
Draco decided to wait a bit until this boy was assigned to Slytherin, and then spend more time welcoming him and asking about the secret of his growth.
Why was he so sure that this boy would be assigned to Slytherin? There was no doubt, after all, the Minethils were a respectable pure-blood family, and Draco had heard his father say that all Minethils were in Slytherin. Therefore, Bell, as the heir of the Minethils, would surely be assigned to Slytherin.
However, Draco was completely wrong. He heard the Sorting Hat shout "Ravenclaw." Fortunately, what he had initially thought was not said out loud, otherwise, he would have felt very embarrassed. It seemed that his first impression that "Bell was not talented enough, and that's why his father rarely took him to social events" had been correct.
Draco, now aware of the truth, lost all interest in getting close to Bell. Instead, he decided to inform his father about his discovery. After all, the Malfoy family was the foremost nobility in the British wizarding world, while the Minethils were just wealthy newcomers who had earned money in recent years. As the heir of the Malfoys, how could he stoop so low as to befriend them?
Therefore, instead of wasting more time on the Minethils, he decided to focus on his "Operation Retrieve Harry" that he had been planning. He had come up with a brilliant idea and was eager to put it into practice the next day. He was excited about what the future held for him.
"Haha..."
"Draco, why are you laughing?" someone asked.
A Slytherin student looked at the new student incredulously, wondering if this boy had mental issues.
"Uh..."
Draco wiped the sweat from his forehead with some misery, surprised that a wave of excitement had made him laugh.
"It's nothing," he said, "It's just that I'm really excited to have been sorted into Slytherin."
The student nodded, about to say something when Professor McGonagall announced the name "Harry Potter." All eyes immediately turned toward the Sorting Hat, as everyone was eager to know which house Harry would be assigned to. If it was Slytherin, it would be great.
Draco was also nervous, even more nervous than when he had been sorted himself.
Inside, he silently prayed to Merlin, hoping that Harry would be assigned to Slytherin. He swore that if Merlin truly blessed Harry with a place in Slytherin, he would never mock Merlin's socks again.
Maybe Merlin really liked wearing socks. But finally, Harry was sorted into Gryffindor. Watching the enthusiastic celebration of Gryffindor, especially the young redhead from the Weasley family who was so excited that his face was covered in freckles, Draco clenched his fists with envy.
'I swear in my father's name that I will get revenge on that little Weasley!' Draco shouted inwardly.