Interview

On the following day, all of the students and even the teachers discussed the appearance of another phoenix at Hogwarts. Severus, who knew about Zosar from his visits to Malfoy Manor, kept sending pointed looks Draco's way.

As someone who valued peace and quiet, he was really tired of his colleagues' constant wish to discuss the new topic and wanted for the matter to finally become known to others. The gloomy man didn't understand why everyone always thought that he was willing to indulge them in idle gossip? Should he scowl a bit more to deter them from involving him in these trivial matters?

Draco actually felt a bit helpless over the issue. Recently, Zosar refused to leave the room and seemed to be sulking. Somehow, he found out that others thought of him as childish and silly. The young phoenix was convinced that this was too shameful and didn't want to show up in front of others anymore. The fact that Fawkes seemed to be searching for him didn't make the young phoenix any more willing to come out.

No matter how Draco persuaded his familiar, the fiery bird didn't want to agree. The blond boy really didn't know what to do!

Someone also found out some old articles about a young phoenix showing up during the Summer Solstice celebrations. Never let it be said that people were stupid – they managed to connect the dots so well with such old information!

Of course, after their initial success students started digging out more articles. Someone found a newspaper which wrote Draco as the suspected owner of the mysterious bird. Another person found a really old page about how Draco and Theo rescued phoenix eggs back in Egypt. Finally, students felt that they connected the dots - as such, Hogwarts was filled with wild gossip and many pointed stares were directed at the blond boy.

Feeling that keeping the matter secret was no longer an option, Draco wanted to openly admit everything, however, now that he was willing - his familiar was unwilling!

If he stood up on a table and told everyone in the Great Hall that the phoenix was his, he would be ridiculed, unless he managed to get Zosar to show up. No matter the rumors, everyone would only believe their eyes, after all.

As such, after consulting with his grandfather and parents, they suggested doing a formal interview for the Daily Prophet. Lucius especially came to Hogwarts to accompany his son in answering the reporters' questions - in case some of them turned out to be too tricky.

After managing to somehow convince his petulant familiar to show up in front of the photographers, Draco and Zosar were led out of Hogwarts to Hogsmeade by Severus on a weekday's evening. The location was selected to be more secluded, so they met the reporters in one of the private rooms at an expensive restaurant, which students usually couldn't afford.

• Are you sure that I will be able to redeem my image? What if they photograph me from my bad side or write badly about me? • worried Zosar relentlessly on their way there.

"We can just sue them for defamation," answered Draco uncaringly. He was really too tired of dealing with this immature bird for the past few days. "Besides, you look handsome from all sides, so how is that possible? Everyone also says that your coloring is more vibrant than Fawkes, so you can be considered as the prettiest bird in Britain."

Zosar felt that there was something wrong with the blond's words, however, no matter how much he thought, he couldn't quite point out what it was.

---

The next morning, when students who subscribed to newspapers read the front page of Daily Prophet, the Great Hall erupted with noise.

"Is it really true? I heard some rumors, but to think that a slimy Slytherin has a phoenix as a familiar!" shouted a Gryffindor sixth-year as he stared at the paper clutched in his hands with wild eyes.

"What, show us!" demanded his friend and quickly ripped the newspaper out of the other's hands. "Wow, it's true! There's even a picture there!"

Students at other tables were showing the same reactions.

"I had thought that they were exaggerating! The Malfoy family is really on the rise recently," commented an upper-year Slytherin. He looked around his house's table, however, he couldn't spot the familiar blond head of the first-year student, who was currently being actively discussed by others.

Knowing that people would surely come to bother him during breakfast, Draco decided to skip it altogether and eat some of the sweets his mother sent the other day in his room in order not to go hungry.

However, just like other people, he was reading the article in the newspaper with interest. After all, this was his first interview – before, his parents forbid him from talking with the reporters. Zosar was even more curious – he kept looking over Draco's shoulder and admiring his own moving picture which was splashed all over the page.

• I think we should make a portrait with me as the main character – it could be my birthday present,• he smugly commented to Draco.

"But we don't celebrate your birthdays," Draco reasonably pointed out.

Zosar seemed to be hit with a realization.

• Indeed, we should start from now on! You will have to pay me back the debt of the last five uncelebrated birthdays, though! Maybe I could pose for more portraits… •

Draco speechlessly stared as Zosar hopped from the bed and flew over to the mirror, where he proceeded to try out various intimidating, haughty and even pity-inducing poses.

---

The first month of the school year was over just like that. After the initial surprise of another mythical creature showing up at Hogwarts, students soon got tired of discussing the topic and moved on to other things.

The first-years also got used to their lives in the ancient castle. After the first few weeks of simple and introductory lessons ended, they were piled with various assignments from different teachers until they wanted to cry.

Draco found it funny when others complained to him about their pitiful workload – clearly, they had never experienced preparation for exams or university courses. If they knew, what awaited them in the future when they had to prepare for OWLs and NEWTs, they would have surely given up on magical education altogether.

The teachers also moved on from just reciting magical theory and letting students practice the simplest spells, to teaching more complicated ones. However, just like before, Draco didn't find the workload to be too challenging.

In Transfiguration classes, where they had to change matchsticks into needles, he tried to think up of the most intricate designs in order to challenge himself more. This resulted in many points earned for Slytherin when McGonagall noticed the results of his castings.

The Charms class was even easier, however, Professor Flitwick tended to describe uses of various simple spells in very interesting and unthinkable ways, so Draco wasn't bored during the lessons.

Potions class was also the same – although Draco already knew a lot about the simplest elixirs, Snape encouraged him to try out different ingredients with the same properties and see the results. Such practice would help to hone intuition in potion making, which would later allow Draco to create new potions or modify the existing ones.

However, aside from the interesting and useful courses, there were also a few that the blond boy hated. History of Magic was one of those classes – Draco and Theo spent it discussing the ways of exorcism.

Although the British literature was quite insufficient when it came to this topic, Theo assured his friend that if they went to Japan and researched the matter thoroughly, they would be able to do the ritual and maybe even get away with it with no one finding out about who the perpetrators were.

Japan was quite known to be the land of spirits, which were called shikigami. These spirits were conjured and controlled by onmyoji – Japanese magical society's specialists in spiritualism and divination. Although those spirits were a bit different from ghosts, the theory of exorcising them should be the same (at least Theo and Draco thought so).

Because the ghost that taught the subject of History didn't care about what his students were doing during lessons, the class could still be spent in an interesting manner. However, the same couldn't be said for Astronomy or Herbology.

The Astronomy class was held on Fridays at midnight – for eleven-year-old children it was real torture. Draco was usually happily asleep in his bed by ten or eleven p.m., so this class completely threw off his sleeping habits.

Besides, what made him even more unwilling to attend it was the fact that he already knew all of the planets and constellations, and could operate his telescope without problems. After all, his mother was a Black, and Black family was obsessed with stars – all of their names were derived from them.

The Herbology class wasn't bad time-wise or in its content. In fact, Draco didn't know much about Herbology aside from the plants' uses in Potions. He hadn't been interested in the subject before, so he chose not to learn it too deeply.

What he disliked the most was the fact that after each class he had to go to shower because magical plants liked to move, or spew out weird stuff at the students. Sometimes, he had no time to clean himself and had to endure the next class while covered in dirt or slime. This was pure torture for the boy who grew up spoiled and well looked after.

Aside from the typical lessons, which started from week one, students were also soon notified about the start of the Flying classes. Having read the books, Draco was ready for Longbottom's fall from the sky and his losing the remembrall, which could remind people that they forgot something.

The blond boy didn't try to stop the clumsy Gryffindor's fall. Like all others, he passively watched as Neville lost control of his broomstick and was violently thrown from it. The Gryffindor boy was soon checked over for injuries and carried away by Madam Hooch – the flying instructor.

The remembrall, which helped to escalate the feud between original Draco and Harry Potter in the books, laid on the ground completely forgotten.

As such, Harry didn't manage to get an exception and become the Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Draco thought that it was a good thing – the bespectacled boy didn't need any more exposure and should concentrate on his studies, anyway. Besides, he could also always properly and fairly try out next year, when he became a second-year.

Before long, another month passed and soon Halloween arrived.