Draco Goes Down in Flames!

Draco Malfoy, Slytherin's pure-blood representative and the eldest young master of the Malfoy family, suffered a Waterloo-style defeat on the very first day of his bold pursuit of love.

The Chosen One, Miss Potter, was so mortified that she flew into a rage. With her skillful magic, she knocked Malfoy out in one hit and claimed the top spot in popularity among the third-years!

Actually, she held the top spot even without knocking him out.

Ron dug his fingers deep into his red hair, making the already messy strands look even more like a bird's nest struck by lightning. He stared at Draco lying on the floor with an expression as if he'd just eaten shit.

"Has Malfoy gone mad?! Did a Troll step on his head? Or did he drink some dodgy potion?"

Hermione's brows drew together. "I'm not surprised Malfoy would do something like that at all..."

Her expression twisted for a moment. "I'm not surprised Malfoy likes Harry either. After all, Harry's so lovable, even I..." Her voice suddenly caught, and the tips of her ears turned a suspicious shade of pink. "That's not the point! The point is, how did he manage to hit every single one of my ideas for the 'most embarrassing way to pursue someone'?!"

"...Stop talking!" Harry slammed the table in mortified indignation, shaking the petals loose from the white roses in the vase.

It was so embarrassing. How could anything be this embarrassing? What new kind of torture was this?

"I don't want to hear anything else about Malfoy!" Harry covered her face.

"All right, all right!" Sensing that Harry really was mortified and angry, Ron and Hermione spoke in unison and made matching gestures of zipping their lips.

Harry had thought knocking a classmate unconscious in public would earn her at least a week of detention, but strangely, Professor McGonagall only gave her a meaningful look before turning and leaving.

Even stranger was Snape. After checking on Draco, he deducted ten points from Slytherin on the spot, citing "deliberate damage to the house's image."

Everyone was once again stunned.

How could Snape take points from Slytherin? And from Draco, of all people! Had he taken the wrong medicine?!

Over the following days, Draco Malfoy was as if he'd had an Invisibility Spell cast on him.

Except when he had to appear in class, he seemed to have vanished from Hogwarts.

Even in Potions Class, whenever Draco tried to approach Harry and say something, Snape would appear silently behind him like a bat, a warning gleaming in his dark eyes.

One evening, Harry ran into the godfather and godson near the library's Restricted Section.

The torches in the corridor cast their shadows long. Snape's voice was like poisoned ice. "If I catch you looking in Potter's direction even one more time..."

A rare look of stubbornness appeared on Draco's pale face. "But, Professor, I-!"

"The Malfoy family's heir," Snape interrupted him, "isn't the least bit suited to Potter. Just look at yourself." Snape surveyed Draco with a disdainful gaze. "Your hair is too light, and it's soft, too. You're prone to going bald. Apart from being rich, there's nothing particularly impressive about you."

"Miss Potter deserves a boyfriend with excellent grades, who is focused, devoted to her alone, and makes her life his highest priority! Not a playboy like you!"

Harry: ?

Draco: ?

Harry took a deep breath, quietly backed away a few steps, then turned and slipped into another corridor.

Wasn't there a single normal person in Slytherin?!

Snape kept Draco there for a long lecture, and only after Draco promised he would no longer pursue Harry so ostentatiously did Snape finally show mercy and let him go.

When Draco returned to the Slytherin Common Room, he immediately spotted Pansy Parkinson standing by the fireplace. Her fingers twisted a letter bearing a gold-stamped wax seal, and her cheeks were flushed an unnatural red.

"Draco," she said, her voice at least three degrees softer than usual, "a letter came for you from Malfoy Manor."

Draco took the letter without looking up. He gave a casual "Mm," then turned and headed for the boys' dormitory, completely missing the way Pansy's eyes instantly dimmed.

In the dormitory, Goyle and Crabbe were squeezed into one armchair, sharing a box of Chocolate Frogs.

Draco slammed the door behind him. The rush of air lifted the silver-and-green bed curtains, revealing a newspaper clipping stuck beside the bed—a Daily Prophet report about Harry Potter, its edges already curling.

"Let's see what my dear father wants to say to me..." He clicked his tongue twice and broke the wax seal.

The moment he unfolded the letter, Draco's expression went from casual to disbelieving, finally settling into a contorted mixture of anger and shame.

"Ha!" He sneered, crumpling the letter in his hand. "The great Mr. Lucius Malfoy actually wrote a whole page just to mock his son for not knowing how to pursue a girl?"

Goyle choked on his chocolate, and Crabbe hurriedly patted him on the back. Neither dared look up.

Draco slapped the letter onto the bedside table. Among the densely packed writing, words such as "clumsy" and "disgraceful" had been repeatedly underlined for emphasis.

"Why doesn't he think about it?" Draco's voice rose. "He and Mother had an arranged marriage between their families! If Mother hadn't happened to like him too, there's no way he'd have managed to marry her with all that talk of 'pure-blood glory'!"

Crabbe secretly nudged Goyle with his elbow, and the two exchanged a terrified glance.

"Say something!" Draco suddenly turned around, his gray-blue eyes like two icy gems in the firelight. "Have you two gone mute?"

The two looked at each other.

"Maybe... you should give up?" Crabbe mustered the courage to speak, his voice growing quieter and quieter. "Miss Potter doesn't seem... er... very..."

"Malfoys never give up so easily!" Draco seized a pillow and hurled it at the wall to vent his frustration.

Goyle swallowed. "But, young master... Professor Snape clearly disapproves..."

"What does that old bachelor know?" Draco's mouth curled in a sneer. "If he really understood the art of pursuit, would he still be spending every day in the Potions Room without even a girlfriend?"

"Professor Snape might not even have a romantic bone in his body! I bet on it! If he's ever liked a girl, I'll never win Potter over in my life!" Draco declared confidently.

After a moment's thought, Draco suddenly dragged a carved oak chest from under his bed.

The instant the lid sprang open, Goyle and Crabbe both sucked in a breath.

The chest was piled high with all kinds of beautifully wrapped gifts. Though they didn't know why Draco had brought such things with him, that didn't make them any less expensive.

"Next week is Hogsmeade week." Draco smoothed the creases out of the letter, a confident smile spreading across his face. "This time, I'll show Potter what a Malfoy-style courtship really looks like."