Draco himself was just amazed at the stupidity of all concerned.

Still, he grinned as he remembered what his father had told him about the Death Eater's punishment. From what Draco could gather it had been extremely painful and humiliating. He wished he could've been there.

But no, Draco couldn't attend most of the meetings until he got the Dark Mark and became a fully fledged Death Eater, which couldn't happen until he had finished at Hogwarts or the Mark would arouse suspicion. For his final two years there he would just have to hear about things second-hand from his father, which was fine by him. His father had told him to keep an eye out on people and keep him informed of what they did and didn't know about Lord Voldemort's plans. Draco sort of liked the idea of being a spy. It made him feel important.

He said goodbye to his mother, then got on the train and found an empty compartment. While he waited for Crabbe and Goyle to come and find him he amused himself by watching the people on the platform. He imagined what would happen to them when Lord Voldemort was in power.

Potter would certainly be dead, which was reason enough to support Voldemort as far as Draco was concerned. Some of the Weasleys would probably be joining Harry, others might be forced to serve the Death Eaters under the Imperio curse. The thought of doing whatever he wanted with Ginny Weasley was certainly enticing. And as for all the Mudbloods... Draco imagined there would be a mass execution, preferably with a lot of blood and pain. Hermione Granger would scream, and Draco would laugh. The mere thought of it made him smile.

Unfortunately, Crabbe and Goyle would remain exactly the same as they were now: extremely stupid. Draco had just seen them walk across the platform in front of his window and not even notice him. Of course he wasn't going to embarrass himself by waving, so it looked like he was in for a long wait until they had reached the other end of the train and, not having found him, would get on and walk back, pausing to stare into every compartment.

Sometimes they were just exasperating.

At that moment Pansy and Millicent walked into the compartment. Obviously they had seen him from the platform. He smiled at them as they sat down opposite him, making them giggle. He knew they both had huge crushes on him, but unfortunately his father had ordered him to leave the Slytherin girls alone. That of course meant that he had to make do with girls from other houses, most of whom weren't nearly as interesting as the ones he couldn't have. Maybe it would be different if he got to know them a little... but he just couldn't be bothered.

When the train started to move Crabbe and Goyle still hadn't arrived. Excusing himself to the girls, Draco wandered out into the corridor to look for them. Walking past the different compartments, he heard excited chattering after he passed most of them. He smiled to himself. Sex God Draco. Oh yes, that was him.

Then he heard Potter's voice. Grinning, he leaned in the doorway, looking for something embarrassing to comment on. He found it, too, though not in the way he was expecting.

Slytherin's very own Tracy Davies was practically sitting on Potter's lap. Though she was a Mudblood, she was still a Slytherin, and Draco felt a wave of anger go over himself as he watched her.

"Not afraid you'll spoil your reputation, Potter, hanging around with a Slytherin?" he managed, before leaving quickly so he wouldn't hear Potter's response.

Potter, stealing his girls. He wasn't going to stand for that.

He found Crabbe and Goyle a few minutes later, pigging out on a cake some stupid person had left in a luggage rack.

"Come on," he told them. "We have some revenge to plan."

TBC