"Malfoy! Trying to hide?" Bradley growled, glaring at him.
                              
The other students stopped to watch the altercation. Draco tried to get up, but Chambers shoved him back down.
                              
"Where do you think you're going, Death Eater? We aren't done!"
                              
Students crowded in closer, cutting off any chance to escape. Trapped. He hated being trapped. No one was going to help him, now.
                              
Draco swallowed hard and managed to say aloud, "I'm just trying to go to class."
                              
"Like we care... we got a few minutes," Bradley laughed and reached down, grabbing Draco's robes and pulling him to his feet.
                              
Draco didn't fight back, but Chambers pinned his arms behind his back.
                              
"It's open season on Death Eaters! Free punches and hexes!" Bradley called out and sunk his fist into Draco's gut, twice.
                              
Draco whimpered from the pain, but managed to keep from crying. He knew, from his own experience, that they loved it when you cried and begged. He would not do that... easily anyway. These school kids were not ready to get into the heavy stuff. Humiliation is what they want. He tried not to cringe as others held up their wands, their hexes hitting him without anything to stop them. His legs collapsed under him and Chambers was the only thing keeping him up. 
                              
Peakes, a Gryffindor beater, punched him in the eye. "That was for Nigel, Death Eater."
                              
Draco had no idea who the fuck Nigel was, but he got the impression he was dead. Peakes spat in his face and walked away. A few more students came and got their licks in before he heard the yells to get to class. Chambers dropped him to the floor without warning and spat on him.
                              
"Fucking Death Eater!" he growled and threw a Stinging Hex right into his chest.
                              
Draco yelped from that one and brought his arms in.
                              
"Until next time, traitor," Bradley said, kicking him in stomach.
                              
The hallway cleared and Draco dragged himself over to the wall. He sorted out the Jelly-Leg Jinx and a few other low-key hexes and slowly stood up. He wiped the spit off his face, grimacing. Thankfully, he bag was untouched. That would have been annoying. He needed to ask Blaise to ward it for him. Blaise was good at that and Draco had no idea what spells he was allowed to cast. He wouldn't risk anything that was remotely dubious.
                              
He walked into Greenhouse 5 a few minutes late, but Professor Sprout merely looked at his forming black eye and waved him to a table by himself. He had no one in this class. He tried to concentrate on the lecture, but he could barely avoid the glares of the Ravenclaws and his fellow Slytherins. He also wasn't able to extract the Cicuta oil he was trying to collect. His hands were shaking too much. Professor Sprout came over and gave him a pitying look when he tried to handle the toxic plant.
                              
"Sorry, I can't make it stop," he whispered to her.
                              
Professor Sprout nodded and showed him how to do it, so he at least saw how it was done. Then she went onto other tables while he struggled to keep from destroying the flowers he was working with. However, the professor went further on down the greenhouse, nearly out of view in the voluminous chaos of deadly plants and the next round of the gauntlet started as Michael Corner and Oliver Rivers approached him.
                              
"Nice eye, Malfoy," Michael Corner grunted, pushing Draco's books off the table. 
                              
Tracy and Alexus laughed and said, "Get him, Mike."
                              
Corner enjoyed the attention they were giving him as he flashed a smile their way. The rest of the class was oblivious. 
                              
"Tell me, did you enjoy your time with the dementors?" Michael said, leaning in.