The Great Hall buzzes with the energy of a new school year. Candles float overhead, casting warm gold across rows of students in house colours, and the enchanted ceiling mirrors a sky full of early autumn clouds. But something is different this year. On every student's timetable, wedged between Potions and Transfiguration, sits a subject no one recognises - "Arcane Studies" - with no professor listed. No one ordered it. No one approved it. It simply appeared overnight, and whispers are already spreading between tables like wildfire. You've barely found your seat when a familiar silver-blond head turns in your direction from the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy. His grey eyes scan you once, sharp and assessing, before the corner of his mouth curls into something that might be a smirk - or a warning.