Draco had been very unhappy lately.
The main reason was his humiliation in Monday's Care of Magical Creatures class.
He, Draco Malfoy, the eldest son and direct heir of the noblest Malfoy family in the United Kingdom's wizarding world, had nearly been injured by some lowly beast.
That was a minor matter.
What mattered was that Potter had actually saved him! And then Ron Weasley, that former pauper and current nouveau riche, had actually mocked him.
It was simply intolerable.
But what could he do about it, even if it was intolerable?
Draco was very wary of Harry now.
He certainly could not beat him with his fists, and probably never would in his lifetime. Harry could take on him, Crabbe, and Goyle all by himself.
Well, if Pansy joined in, Harry could probably take on four. A barbaric Gryffindor through and through!
But with fists out of the question, he did not seem to fare particularly well in other areas, either.
Draco had originally hoped to win with magic, but their current record stood at two duels and two defeats for Draco. On top of that, he had heard that Harry had actually destroyed a Dementor on the train to school this year.
That had kept Draco from sleeping well for several nights, out of sheer fright.
There had been Slytherins among those who had witnessed the scene. In the Common Room, they had vividly "made up" accounts of what they had "seen with their own eyes" at the time.
Well, clearly, Ron was not the only one with a talent for making up stories. Slytherin had its own experts in that field.
In their descriptions, Harry had seemed more like an evil creature than the Dementor, tearing it apart with his bare hands-hardly anyone questioned the part about