《Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin》 -2 Character and appearances Since the original book and novel are very different especially the appearance, it can be quite confusing so I thought I will add a bit of information so people can understand a little bit about what the character''s look like, so it will be a bit easier to visualize what you are reading. I will only add important characters and will keep updating as more character''s are introduced. Draco = Similar to his father with platinum blonde hair and blue-grey eyes. A bit different from both Book and movies, since I made him look more like his mother. So a cute kid with basic villain look. (You know, some people just look mean.) Harry=Same as the movies but a skinnier. Ron= Tall and lanky red with freckles in his face. (The book version.) Hermione = Mix of both books and movies. (Basically Emma Watson with bushy hair and large front teeth.) Pansy = Cute with round face and a bit pointed nose. Daphne = Preety with blonde hair and a bit arrogant aura around her. Theodore = As the novel say tall and lanky with a bit of rabbit face. Other not described character''s are the same as movies. -1 Volume 2 notice. So I wanted to write a few things to explain some of the future chapters. The second book, chamber of secrets doesn''t contain a lot of plot, (or a very simple plot.) So I am going to go change a lot of it to fit the story. I already have a plan in my head but it''s going to be quite confusing at the very beginning. There are a lot of things that are going to be changed as well, I might go completely off-road with the second volume, so stick around. 1 Flashback Malfoy is the surname of a wealthy pure-blood wizarding family and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. They live in Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire, England and have a good relationship with many pureblood families. Inside the luxurious Malfoy Manor, A man with White-blonde hair and grey eyes is sitting on the sofa, opposite to him is a young boy with similar hair and eyes standing in front of him. These two people were none other than the lord of the Malfoy Manor, Lucius Malfoy and his son Draco Malfoy. Draco looked at the letter in his father''s hand as he sighed remembering everything that happened these past years. *Flashback* Draco didn''t understand himself about how he came into this world. One day he was just walking to school and the next moment he was in a body of a newly born baby and to add to that confusion he heard his new father name him ''Draco Malfoy'' which made him cry for a whole hour. ''Draco Malfoy what kind of name is that... Even if this is transmigration at least give me a decent name.'' Draco thought as he got scared that his parents were probably Potter-heads and he would probably be bullied in the future. Draco was in denial that he would transmigrate to a fictional world but boy was he wrong, soon after being born, he started seeing house elf and real magic. After calming his initial shock, he concluded that he was born in the Harry Potter world and again started crying remembering Draco''s fate. After calming down a little, he started calling out "System", "Stat" in his head but he was treated with silence, not even a ''Ding'', ''So I reincarnated as a villain and didn''t even get a system, what kind of fucking deal is this.'' Draco wanted to cry but no tear came so he finally gave up as crying wasn''t going to change anything and well for better or for worst he was still in his favorite world of Harry Potter. Draco now had one goal, to be strong enough to avoid his fate in this new world. Years went by and Draco was fitting into his new life very well than expected, maybe since he was in a body of a little kid, everything was explained to him in a detailed manner about the wizarding world and pure blood bullshit by his Mother and Father. Even though his parents were kinda forcing all the pureblood propaganda on him, he knew that they loved him very much, especially his mother. Growing up an orphan in his previous life and later being tossed around from one foster house to another, he didn''t have any attachment to the previous world, so he was very happy with this new life and family, and he loved them very much. After Voldemort''s failure and regret that the wizarding community was not ruled by the pure blood''s Lucius was in a gloomy mood day and night and was dreaming about how the great Harry Potter may grow up to be the next pure-blood champion and would help complete his dream. But soon after finding out about his own son''s talent in speaking and understanding since an early age, Lucius considered his son to be a genius, so he cheered up creating a master plan to raise his son as the next lord to rule the wizarding world, completely forgetting about Harry. ''Yes, A father''s wish would be fulfilled by his son and the Malfoy would be more powerful than ever.'' Lucius thought to himself. In Draco''s delight, his father spent a lot of time with him, teaching him about magic. Narcissa was against Draco learning Magic at this young age instead of making friends and enjoying his childhood like normal wizard (Was going to say a normal boy but I am sure a wizard''s life is very different from a normal boy.) but seeing both Draco and Lucius stubborn on learning and teaching, Narcissa gave up but not until they swore to fulfill one of her wishes in the future. Draco mostly learned theoretical knowledge of magic and potion at the beginning. Since his father was once a member of the slug club in his school years by gaining the recognition of Slug Horn for his potions and his godfather was a potion master in Hogwarts, Draco had a profound understanding in Potions. Since he was not allowed to use magic early on, Draco focused most of his time brewing potions as it didn''t require magic and even a muggle could make one with proper ingredients and instructions. Draco had a lot of notes from his father and some even from his Godfather, which made his study much easier. Draco was sure that he could brew basic potions with his eyes closed and even some intermediate level potion and difficult potions without trouble, which made Lucius very happy as all the years of teaching his son intensely was not in vain. Thankfully Malfoy''s were very rich and Lucius was more than happy to buy ingredients for Draco to experiment on making potions. Draco over the years had managed to create a new potion and had found ways to make some potions better by adding another ingredient or two. Draco''s new potion was made by accident which he named I-potion which sole use was to change eye color from normal to bright red. It wasn''t anything special and probably could be done by a spell but this was something he created with his own hands and he was very proud of it. Mostly due to the fact that he could change his eye color from normal to red to back to normal with just a thought and it was permanent, unlike most potions whose effect only last up to a certain time. Draco believed that his potion had an effect on the soul of a person rather than the physical body which explains the control and the permanent effect but this was just a theory, since he had little to no idea of soul magic, so as to not create trouble for himself, Draco kept it a secret even from his Mother and Father. Draco also had interest in Alchemy but since it required magic he only knew some basic knowledge about it. Narcissa was happy that her son was a genius but was angry at the fact that Draco spent all his time alone reading or brewing potions, so she had son''s of Lucius friends be friends with Draco. They were obviously Crabbe and Goyle. Draco was annoyed by these two airheads but due to him not being able to say no to his angry mother he reluctantly accepted it. Draco wasn''t very fond of them because unlike the previous Draco, he didn''t need lackeys, he needed companions and these two were far from his standard of companion considering the fact that, they would pee in their pants just hearing the name Voldemort. Draco quickly found a solution for these bothersome pests, he used them as lab rats to test his potions, which made the duo terrified of the entity called Draco. Draco threatened them with his red eye to not tell anyone about his experiments to which the duo agreed without any hesitation. Draco became a nightmare to both of them replacing even Voldemort, as they had never seen him and only heard stories of his misdeeds but Draco was real and he was right in front of them. Due to this, the duo stopped bothering Draco but still came to his house every now and then since their parents wanted them to be good friends with Draco. Even though Draco treated them as lab rats, he didn''t give them any harmful potions. He considered himself bad but not evil and he wouldn''t harm a person without reason and since it was a nice to talk to someone now and then other than his parents and the house elf, he didn''t mind them. Crabbe and Goyle too understood Draco a lot better and willfully became his subordinates/lab rats since they had no other choice than that; even though they were scared of him, they respected him a lot as well, Draco was more talented than they could ever be and they wished to learn something from him. Other than his two lab- cough friends, Draco managed to have a decent relationship with the house elves of his house and even managed to emotionally blackmail Lucius and Narcissa to treat them better. Narcissa wasn''t that cruel so she had no problems with it but Lucius was hard to deal with. He kept punishing the house elf for even the minor mistakes but with time and effort and a lot of emotional blackmail and threats like running away from home, he managed to keep Lucius in check, so even if the house elves made mistakes now and then he wouldn''t bother with them, other than giving them a deadly stare. The house elves were very thankful for Draco''s kindness, even the house-elf Dobby was happy with his current conditions. Draco had something in mind for the house elf''s especially Dobby but he wanted to wait till his second year to start his plan since he didn''t want the plot to go way off the original one. After turning 9, Draco started practicing magic, Since he couldn''t get his own wand until he was 11, he had to use one of his ancestor wand. Draco only practiced basic charm and spells like Unlocking charm and Levitation charm. Even though Malfoy Manner is filled with books and stuff about dark magic, Draco was not allowed to touch them. His mother was against him learning Dark arts at an early age and it would be very difficult to control it, due to him not using his own wand. Spells and Magic are very different and hard to learn than shown in the movie or books, you really have to understand the whole concept of the spell before beginning to use it. For example to use the Levitation charm you have to first understand how magic interacts with air and matter. Draco found that with correct imagination and the basic understanding of science simple spells aren''t that hard to master, but there are still many charms, hex''s and jinx''s that only needs one to understand the spell to work. The understanding of magic isn''t really developed in this world, even though it has been around for ages. The witches and wizards only seem to focus on the uses of magic rather than magic itself. Draco with nearly a year worth of experiments created a decent explanation for the magic to make it easier for him to understand it. Draco came up with the concept for Magic in form of Mana like in video games. With a lot of meditation and concentration, Draco started to feel the Mana in his body but it was harder to control without a wand. Draco tried to gather the Mana in his body at a single place but it wasn''t possible, as the Mana kept flowing out like water from hand. The whole concept of Mana was easier to understand on paper and it seemed very plausible but in practicality, it was very hard to do so. So other than feeling mana, he couldn''t do anything else so he didn''t bother too much with it for now, after some research he found a way to increase the amount of mana in his body by training. Physical Exercise seemed to increase the speed of the flow of mana and increase the amount that the body could absorb, so he did just that. Draco''s fame of being a genius spread throughout the wizarding community since Lucius couldn''t keep his mouth shut and bragged to all his friends. Draco achievement in potion was the main focus of his rumor after his father put some of his research paper on Daily Prophet, earning him the title of a potion prodigy. Of course, the research paper that was shared was the ones Draco approved of and even though they were not very useful it still decreased the price of making some of the potion''s and increased its effect, which is already an incredible feat for a kid his age. *flashback ends* 2 Lab Draco looked at his father holding his Hogwarts letter. "Father, I want to go to Hogwarts," Draco said Lucius looked at him and with a stoic face, he said "No, I want you to go to Durmstrang Institute. The school closely follows our beliefs and one of my acquaintances is the Headmaster there." Draco didn''t know how to convince his stubborn father so he just shouted, "MOTHER!!" Lucius'' face turned to a frown and soon Narcissa came in, "What is it? Why are you shouting so early in the morning?" Draco went to mother''s side and with a pitiful expression he said "Mother, Father wants me to go to Durmstrang" Narcissa was wondering what Draco had to say, but as soon she heard what Draco said she turned to her overprotective mom mode and looked at Lucius viciously. "Lucius, is it true?" "Yes." Lucius said awkwardly. "Narcissa, you know that Karkaroff is the headmaster there and he can take care of Draco better than Dumbledore." "No, Lucius I am not sending our son to Durmstrang, What in the Merlin''s name are you thinking? That place is in Northern Europe!! and we both know how reliable your friend is." Narcissa said with an angry expression. "I understand Narcissa, but I believe Durmstrang is really a good choice for Draco. Durmstrang only allows pure-blood and half-blood to enter unlike Hogwarts where mud-bloods lurk around every corner and.." "We both went to Hogwarts and we weren''t affected by them were we?" Narcissa cut off Lucius as she stared into his eyes and continued, "Lucius you promised me a wish when I allowed you to teach Draco, didn''t you? So this is my wish... I want you to send Draco to Hogwarts, where he will be closer to home and you are the chairmen in Hogwarts Board of Governors aren''t you? So you can take care of Draco yourself without trusting that person." Draco who was listening to their conversation hiding behind his mother''s back was surprised that his mother pulled the promise card so early on, he was happy that his mother took care of him but was scared at the same time wondering what she will ask of him when his time comes. Lucius looked at Narcissa eye''s for a while and sighed, "Okay! I give up, Draco will go to Hogwarts." Seeing Lucius give up Narcissa showed a smile as she pulled Draco closer with a proud look that read ''I won'', "Are you happy?" Draco smiled and hugged his mother, "Yes, Mother." Lucius coughed interrupting their Mother-son moment, "Draco" he called out and handed him his letter from Hogwarts. Draco looked at the letter with great interest, he quickly sat on the sofa with Narcissa beside him and quickly opened it. HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards) Dear Mr. Malfoy We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress He read through the first page and turned to the second page, HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY UNIFORM First-year students will require: 1. Three sets of plain work robes (black) 2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear 3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar) 4. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings) Please note that all pupil''s clothes should carry name tags. COURSE BOOKS All students should have a copy of each of the following: The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling A Beginner''s Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble OTHER EQUIPMENT 1 wand 1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) 1 set glass or crystal phials 1 telescope 1 set brass scales Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad. PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK Yours sincerely, Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions He wasn''t much interested in the second letter other than the name Newt Scamander, but he quickly put his thoughts away and turned his head to look at his mother, "I already have the books and equipment, so all I need is the uniforms, an owl and my wand!" Draco said the last word with excitement in his voice. All this time he wanted his own wand, which would allow him to use his magic to its fullest potential. Narcissa with a gentle smile stroked Draco''s messy long hair, "We will go buy the uniforms and your wand tomorrow." Draco nodded, he really wanted to go to the Ollivander''s right away but he knew his parents were likely busy so he calmed his excitement down. Draco ate his breakfast and went to his room. Laying on his king sized bed, he started thinking about the first year of Hogwarts. From what he remembered the main focus of the story is the Quirinus Quirrell, who was walking around with Voldemort inside his turban and the other important part of the story was... the philosopher''s stone. Draco stood up, "Shit! How could I forget about that!" For Draco who was very much interested in potions and alchemy the philosopher''s stone was a gold mine, literally. Turning metal to gold and semi-immortality (since you have to keep drinking the potion'' Elixir of life'' to stay alive and you will die if you don''t, I don''t think its really immortality so... semi-immortality ¡¥\_(¥Ä)_/¡¥ ).. the philosopher''s stone is probably the greatest treasure in the world since it gives what a man desires most in his life, wealth and a long life. According to a page in Advanced Potion-Making, "the Philosopher''s Stone was believed to mystically amplify the user''s knowledge of alchemy so much that anything was attainable." Draco now had a clear goal in his mind for the first year, get the philosopher''s stone and maybe help Harry with baldy valdy. Draco got off his bed and took out a black suitcase from underneath it. The suitcase belonged to his great-grandfather and was handed to him on his 8th birthday by his father. He opened the suitcase and went inside, climbing down the wooden stairs he appeared at a brightly lighted room. The room wasn''t too huge and was made out of wood but it had enough space to move around. The room looked more like a warehouse as it was filled with boxes with labels on them. Draco walked out of the room towards a beautiful garden. There were different rooms around the garden, each labeled clearly. Picking up a watering can, Draco walked into the room that read fresh ingredients. As soon as Draco walked in, the scenery of the surrounding changed. The place was different from outside and was very fascinating since it had different weather and environment side by side in the same place. Draco walked inside every one of them one at a time, watering plants that needed to be watered, checking on some plants condition and picking up plants that were ready to be harvested. After his chores, he walked inside another room labeled lab. The room had different potions on the shelf and glass jars filled with different ingredients all over the wall. In the middle of the room, there was a huge table with different equipment on top of it and there was a shelf on the side filled with notes of different experiments Draco had performed. Draco walked over to the shelf and picked out a note that read ''Antidote to Veritaserum''. Draco then picked up a couple of ingredients and sat down to do his new experiment, which was to create a permanent antidote for Veritaserum. Veritaserum is a powerful truth serum. The potion effectively forces the drinker to answer any questions put to them truthfully, it is said even the dark lord will start spilling his secrets with a drop of it. Even though Veritaserum is controlled by the Ministry of Magic, it isn''t hard for a person to get their hands on it from the black market and if you are a potion master you can even make it yourself. Draco is sure that if he gets strong enough he can avoid people forcing him to drink it but just to be sure that someone doesn''t slip something in his food or drink, he wants to be immune to it. After all, Precaution is better than cure. Last time when he was experimenting with the I-potion, the main ingredient was his own blood. Draco experimented the same formula again with other people''s(Crabbe and Goyle) and magical beasts blood but the potion didn''t have any effect at all. So, Draco concluded that his blood was somewhat special, he didn''t know what was special about it but it worked with his blood alone. Modifying the potion wasn''t as simple as adding his blood to the already existing potion formula. It required him to change the formula by a whole different level with other ingredients which would not dilute his blood but still work as intended. The other thing was the amount of blood, some potions required a couple of drops while some required a lot of blood. Luckily a piece of equipment which took blood out of the body without injecting or leaving a scar existed, otherwise Draco was sure his body would be full of scars. (The equipment is made up, but I am sure it exists in the HP universe as there are potions which require animal blood and I am sure they don''t cut up the magical beast''s every time to take blood out of it.) Draco after a couple of failed experiments went back up to his room, spending time practicing magic. 3 Pansy Parkinson Next morning, Draco woke up early and started nagging his mother to go to Diagon Alley. "Mother, let''s go. The Ollivander''s is probably already open." Narcissa sighed looking at her son, "My dear son, I know you are excited about getting your wand but we will go there after some guest arrives." "Guests??" "Yes, Theodore and a daughter of your father''s friend are coming, since they are all going to Hogwarts with you, I thought it would be a great idea to go together with them." Narcissa smiled giving her usual ''You better make friends'' look. "Mom, I can deal with the others but why Theodore? You know I can''t stand his cocky look." "You shouldn''t say bad stuff about others, behind their back Draco." Suddenly a voice came behind Draco interrupting their conversation. Draco''s lips started twitching since he knew whose voice was it, Theodore Nott. Theodore was a son of a fellow death eater who was raised by his father after his mother''s death, Theodore unlike Crabbe and Goyle was from the same social standing as him, which made Draco pissed considering he couldn''t control him like those two idiots, Theodore was smart and was very similar to Draco in terms of personality. Theodore was also very proficient in potions and Draco knew that in later years he successfully created two Time-Turners that allow the user to travel far back into time, surpassing the Hour-Reversal Charm on the Ministry-issued devices and was very clever, so Draco considered him an important asset but his carefree attitude made Draco really annoyed. Draco turned back to look at the tall lanky figure and with a brilliant smile he said, "I said you have a cocky face, Rabbit-face." Theodore whose face was somewhat ''rabbity'' wasn''t insulted at all instead he just showed a smug smile, "Oh! Even though I don''t consider your brewing ability to be superior of mine but when it comes to cockiness you will win every time." Draco who was sensitive about his villain-face, cracked his fingers as he said, "Let''s take it outside so I can show you my brewing ability." "Now, Now boys no need to fight and did you have your breakfast, Theodore?" Narcissa asked getting between them. "Yes, Miss Malfoy." Theodore showed his gentlemen smile and said, "You look more beautiful every time I see you." Narcissa smiled and said, "Oh! How kind of you Theodore." "Che! You know I look the same as my mother right, you hypocrite." Draco snickered seeing that bastard acting like a gentleman. "So when is the other girl coming, mother?" "Oh! What girl? Who is it?" Theodore also got interested and looked at Draco with a questioning look. "She is the same as us, one of the sacred twenty-eight from the Parkinson family, I believe her name is Pansy Parkinson." Draco nearly chocked hearing the name, ''Isn''t this the girl who had a crush on Draco.'' Draco thought. Draco was really interested in meeting this girl since there was no clear description of her in the book, sometimes she was described as ''pug-face'' and sometimes ''Pretty and vivacious''. Even her intelligence was questioned many times with even Hermione calling her "thicker than a concussed troll" but she was made a prefect and even attended N.E.W.T in Defense against the dark art, proving she isn''t as dumb as people say she is. Draco was really interested in knowing what kind of girl she really is. Draco left his mother telling her where he was going and pulled Theodore into his suitcase lab. Theodore wasn''t surprised since he had been here before but he still looked around in amazement. "No matter how many times I look at it this place, I still find it amazing; you know this kind of suitcases are very rare, even my family doesn''t have one." Theodore said sitting on a nearby chair. "Jealous?" Draco asked with a smirk. "Yes, who wouldn''t be... this level of Atmospheric charms and space magic, I am certain there are only a few people who can create this." Theodore sighed turning towards Draco "So what do you need my help with?" "Why would you assume that I need your help?" Draco said raising his eyebrows. "Haha!" Theodore laughed "You didn''t pull me here to have a chat with me, did you?" "Che!" Draco clicked his tongue and pulled out some notes from the shelf and gave it to him, Theodore started reading the note with a very interesting face after a while he put down the note and looked at Draco, "Antidote to Veritaserum? So you are trying to modify it." "Yes, I want to change some ingredients but I don''t want its effect to diminish." "Draco, you are the favorite of many poor potion makers.. you are like a modern day robin hood... you steal from rich i.e your father and give the formula you created to the poor for free, there are many potion and ingredients shop owners that hate you, you know" Theodore snickered. "Oh! When did our pure blood fanatic Theodore started reading muggle stories?" Draco smiled "And besides I have only given out the recipes that are cheaper to make but I still have many formulae that will make even the rich vomit blood, so tell me will you help me?" "Sure, but why do you want to make it, this is already illegal and you can just practice Occlumency to fight against it, with your talent I am sure you can learn it in no time." "I am learning it, but it will still take me another year or two to master it completely and until then I will be vulnerable against it, besides its an interesting project, isn''t it?" The main purpose of creating this potion was for his future companions who might not be able to learn Occlumency easily and might be a weak link for his future plans and the fact that he wanted to make it permanent was still a secret due to his blood so it was kinda hard to convince people to help him. Theodore looked at Draco''s eyes for a while and sighed, "Fine, I will help you but one day you have to tell me your secrets Draco." Draco was amazed that Theodore could figure it out but he still nodded without any hesitation, "If you live up to my trust, then sure I will tell you." Then both after forming a nonspoken agreement between them, start to work on the potion, with the help of Theodore it was much simpler than doing it alone. Theodore himself was very good at potion since a young age but due to Draco''s increase in fame being a potion prodigy, Theodore''s fighting spirit increased a lot, not wanting to lose to someone similar to his own age he practiced brewing potions day and night. Theodore''s father is also very proficient in potions and he has his own family secret''s so combining both of their work the research was very smooth. "I think this is it." Draco said looking at the purple liquid in front of him. "Yeah, I didn''t think it would be this easy." Theodore looked at Draco with a bright smile who was doing the same. Suddenly a pungent smell surrounded the air around them, "What''s that smell?" Draco said making a disgusted look. "Draco.." "Yeah, what?" "Why is the potion heating up?" Theodore asked making a weird face. "Shit!" Draco quickly pushed Theodore and himself under the table and ''BOOM!!'' The flask exploded, making the potion splatter everywhere. "Sigh! we were too naive." Draco said looking around his lab which now smelled like a rotten egg. "Yup! Thank Merlin, we didn''t drink it." Theodore said pinching his nose looking at the mess, "Hey do you think, the person who drinks the potion would explode?" "Well if it does then we did create something special, didn''t we?" Draco said with a thoughtful look. "Yea, should we try this potion on your lab rats." "Well, I don''t really want to kill them so early on." Both of them looked at each other and started laughing out loud, if someone were to see them now they would probably conclude that they were planning something bad, ''Dammit! Evil face!'' After a while, Draco stood up taking out an old wand. He waved the wand around using a cleaning charm, to clean up the mess. "Your charms are getting better." Theodore commented looking around the once messy place now being spotless, "But we still have to do something about the smell." "Yup." Draco was about to say something but was interrupted by a knocking sound. "Mother is probably calling us, let''s go." Draco and Theodore walked out of the suitcase as Narcissa was looking at them with a strange face, "Why do both of you smell so bad?" "An accident." Draco said with Theodore nodding his head. Narcissa sighed taking out her wand and with a wave, the bad smell was gone. "Come downstairs, Pansy and her father have already arrived." Draco nodded and followed her with Theodore walking behind him, and walked into the living room. Inside the living room, Lucius was talking to a bearded man laughing and beside the man was a little cute looking girl with black hair. "Oh! Draco you are finally here." Lucius stood up walking behind him and patted his shoulders, "This is my son, Draco. Draco, this is Mr. Roy Parkinson." (I couldn''t find the name of Pansy''s dad so I just made one up.) Draco did a noble bow with his hands on his chest and said, "Hello, Mr. Parkinson. Its a pleasure to meet you." "Oh the pleasure is all mine, I finally got to meet the rumored genius." The man stood up from his seat and laughed, "You look like your mother but your hair and eyes are similar to your fathers." The man then pushed the girl behind him forward, she was looking at him with an interested look, "This is my daughter Pansy Parkinson, Pansy where are your manners?" "Oh it doesn''t matter, Mr. Parkinson" Draco said walking in front of the girl who had a cute round face, he took her hand and kissed the back of it like a gentleman causing the girl to blush, "Since we will be attending the same school, let''s be friends." "Sure." The girl replied shyly. Draco was surprised by Pansy''s shy behavior since she was known to be quite snappy. "You can call me Draco and this rabbit face behind me is Theodore." "Nice to meet you, Miss Parkinson," Theodore said with a slight bow. "You can call me Pansy." Pansy nodded at Theodore quickly turning to look back at Draco again, which cause Theodore''s lips to twitch. After the brief introduction between them, Narcissa walked over. "I will be taking you to three to Diagon Alley to buy your supplies, Let''s go." The three of them nodded and followed Narcissa to the fireplace, where they used floo powder to teleport at the Leaky Cauldron. 4 Wand Diagon Alley is a cobblestoned wizarding alley and shopping area located in London, England behind a pub called the Leaky Cauldron. Inside the alley is an assortment of restaurants, shops, and other sights. The alley is completely hidden from the Muggle world which is right outside of its boundaries. It is very large in area and essentially the center of wizarding London. Draco had already been here a couple of times to shop, so he was very familiar with this place. After they used the Floo powder all 4 of them arrived at Leaky Cauldron. The Leaky Cauldron was a popular wizarding pub and inn located in London, even though it was a popular place it was creepy and weird looking, Draco was sure that if this place wasn''t connected to Diagon Alley, this place wouldn''t be popular at all. "We will first go to Madam Malkin''s to get the robes." Narcissa said walking outside the pub. The three of them didn''t say anything and just followed her silently, Pansy would look at Draco time and time again and Theodore was in his own world thinking about different stuff. After walking for a while they reached the door of Madam Malkin''s. "Draco, you go inside with your friends while I will go get the books and equipment for them." Narcissa said Draco handing Draco a pouch "Also don''t run off to buy a wand, wait for me." Narcissa said the last word strictly and walked away. Draco sighed finally getting rid of his mother, "Sigh! let''s go in." Pansy and Theodore followed behind him nodding, "So Draco, I heard you are a genius at potions." Pansy said holding Draco''s arm suddenly. Draco looked at the cheerful girl with a gentle smile and said, "Yeah, I am pretty good at it." "Then will you be willing to teach me, I am not that good at it," Pansy said getting closer to Draco, Draco who didn''t have any close relations with a girl even before he transmigrated here was getting slightly red. Draco was just about to reply to her, Theodore suddenly interrupted them "You know I am good at potions too, its just I don''t advertise my talent." Theodore said with a smug look. "Hmph! I wasn''t talking to you, you lanky rabbit face." Pansy called out looking at Theodore. Not expecting that reaction from her, Theodore was surprised but quickly recovered, "What did you call me, you pug-face." "Do you have a spattergroit or do you always look like that?" Pansy snapped back quickly. "When you encounter a boggart, does it turn into a mirror?" Theodore quickly came back with his own killer insult. "Okay, stop it you two." Draco came between them causing both of them to snort and look away from each other, ''Sigh! is this how my life in Hogwarts going to be?'' They walked in and Madam Malkin started taking their measurements, Draco being first then Pansy and Theodore. As Madam Malkin was taking Theodore''s measurement''s, A thin boy with baggy clothes and a broken glasses walked in. "Hogwarts, clear?" Madam Malkin said, when the boy started to speak. "Got the lot here -- these young guys being fitted up just now, in fact. " The three of them looked at the boy who looked very awkward, Draco had a guess to who he was so he walked in front of him. "Hogwarts?" Draco asked to which the boy nodded, "You too?" "Yeah! we three are going there, I am Draco Malfoy, The pretty girl here is Pansy Parkinson and the rabbit face getting his measurements there is Theodore Nott." Draco said reaching his hand out. Pansy was looking at the boy with an annoyed look wondering if he was a muggle born or not and Theodore didn''t have any interest in him at all so he just casually waved at him. The boy was kinda shy and shook Draco''s hand, "I am Harry Potter." Soon as he said that both Pansy and Theodore looked at him, Theodore jumped off the footstool looking at the boy as he and Pansy got close to him. "The Harry Potter??" Pansy asked with a curious expression. "Idiot, look at the Scar on his forehead, he is the real deal," Theodore said looking at Harry curiously. Harry who had just been out of the leaky cauldron was sort of used to this kind of reaction by now, but he didn''t think people his age would show the same reaction to him as well. "Cough" Draco pulled both of them out of Harry''s face, "Sorry, they are just interested and don''t mean any harm." Harry shook his head, "It''s okay, I have been getting the same reaction all morning." "Let me help you, with that." Draco smiled and pulled out his old wand and pointed it at Harry''s glasses "Oculus Reparo" The broken glass was magically repaired. Harry took off the glass and looked at it with amazement. "Oh! don''t be too amazed now! My measurements are done." Theodore said pushing Harry to the footstool. "So, Harry do you know which house you''ll be in?" Theodore asked. "No." Harry replied. "Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know we''ll be in Slytherin, all of our family have been -- imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I''d leave, wouldn''t you?"said Pansy "Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could understand what they were saying. "Sigh! We all know that Harry here came from the muggle world, so he probably doesn''t have any idea of what you guys are talking about." Draco stepped in trying to avoid the awkward atmosphere. "Oh! Forgive me, I kinda forgot about it." Theodore said scratching his head. Pansy didn''t say anything but just gave an ''Oh! I forgot.'' look. "Don''t worry about it! Do you mind telling me about what Slytherin and Hufflepuff is?." Harry asked looking at Draco thankfully. "They are Hogwarts Houses, There are four Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw." Answered Pansy politely as she continued, "Slytherin''s are for the best pure-blood and Half-blood wizards, Hufflepuff are for duffers, Ravenclaw for the smart-minded and Gryffindor for the ignorantly brave." "Each one of us will get sorted into a house when we reach Hogwarts." Theodore added, Harry was processing all the stuff when suddenly Madam Malkin''s voice came in, "Children its done." Draco went over and paid for all their clothes even Harry''s. "Oh! you didn''t have to." Said Harry "Don''t worry, its not that much money anyway." Draco said and pointed at the window, "I think someone is looking for you." Harry looked at the window to find Hagrid who was holding ice creams looking at him. "See you at Hogwarts then Harry," Draco said walking out not giving Harry a chance to speak. "See you." Theodore and Pansy also followed Draco out of the place. "Where are we going?" Pansy asked Draco. "To the wand shop." Replied Draco. "Didn''t aunt Narcissa told us to wait for her?" Pansy said with a questioning look. "Aunt Narcissa?" Draco looked at Pansy who was slightly blushing. "When has that ever stopped him?" Theodore replied walking towards Ollivander''s. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harry''s POV "Who were they, Harry?" Hagrid asked looking at the back of the three kids. "Some friends I made." Harry replied happily. Harry was very happy as they were the first friends he ever made. Hagrid looking at the happy Harry didn''t say anything and just sighed. He didn''t want to tell him that the friend he made might be his enemy in the future. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair. ''Finally.'' Draco was very excited about getting his own wand. "Good afternoon," said a soft voice making the trio jump, A old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop. Draco was sure that this old man was purposefully waiting for customers to walk in so he could scare them. "Hello." Draco said awkwardly, "I am Draco Malfoy, these two are Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson, we are here to buy our wands" "Oh yes, I know the young prodigy wizard, of course." The old man replied, "I remember like it was yesterday when your parents came in for their first wands." "Ok, let me have a look!" Olivander without stopping pulled out a long strip of silver tape from his pocket and came to Pansy. "Ladies first, Ms. Parkinson, which hand do you use?" "My right hand," Pansy whispered. "Please raise your arm." Ollivander measured her arm, starting with her shoulder to her fingertips, and then from wrist to elbow, knee to her armpit and finally her height and started explaining things to all three of them, "Each Ollivander wand has a strong magic core which is its essence. I usually use unicorn hair, phoenix tail feather, and dragon nerves, each and every Ollivander wand is unique because there are no two identical unicorns, dragons or phoenixes, of course, if you use a wand belongs to other wizards, the spells will never be as good." "Please remember, The wand chooses the wizard!" Draco knew what he said was true since he could feel some sort of resistance from his ancestor''s wand whenever he used it; the old man disappeared into the packed shelves and quickly came out with a box with the wand. After trying a few times, Pansy''s and Theodore wands were quickly picked and now came Draco''s turn. Draco walked in front of Ollivander who had been looking at him curiously since the beginning. (There is no information on what kind of wand they used so I will leave it to your imagination.) "Mr. Malfoy, which hand do you use?" "Right Hand," Draco replied after which Ollivander started measuring his hand and height. "Right then, Mr. Malfoy. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave." Draco took the wand, waved it around a bit, and gave it back. "Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try --" Draco tried the wand and gave it back again. "No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out." Draco tried. And tried one wand after another but none of them felt right, He could use them but it wasn''t a good feeling since he could feel some resistance from the wand. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become. "Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we''ll find the perfect match here somewhere -- I wonder, now - - yes, why not -- that wand -- Ollivanders went deep into the shelves as he came out with a golden box which looked very beautiful. Pansy who was getting bored watching all the wands pile up was fascinated when she saw the box. Mr. Ollivander opened the case delicately, inside it was a beautiful silver colored wand with the handle colored black. The base of it had a beautiful red ruby and the whole wand had some sort of inscription all over it. But the most surprising part was that that the wand had a metallic shine to it, unlike other wooden wands. Draco fascinated by the wand picked it up without thinking, As soon as Draco picked up the wand, all the inscription in the wand started shining red, Draco felt a crazy amount of mana rushing into him. The inscription around the wand suddenly started moving like a snake and started climbing up towards his arms, Seeing this Draco wanted to let go of the wand but he couldn''t even move. The inscription moved from his small finger and climbed up to his elbow in a circular motion. Soon the light stopped coming out of the wand and inscription stopped moving and got embedded into his skin like a tattoo. Draco looked at the weird words around his arms, He couldn''t understand it but he felt the wand now being connected to him as if it was another part of him. While all this was happening the other people in the shop only saw a bright red light flash when Draco picked up the wand and all of them started suffocating and they fainted on the spot. Draco who was wondering what the hell was going on looked around to find Ollivander, Pansy and Theodore unconscious on the ground. Draco was sure his wand was something unique and weird since he hadn''t read about a wand doing this before, so he quickly hid his marks on his arm and woke the three of them up. Soon Narcissa walked in and was surprised seeing all of them drowsy. Draco explained what happened to his mother and Narcissa helped them by giving them water. "Amazing!" Said Ollivander looking at Draco, "All my years of making and giving wands to people, such a phenomenon to occur is a first." Draco looked at Ollivander weirdly, ''Is he a masochist?'' Draco wondered. "What in Merlin''s name is this wand?" Draco asked "This wand was around ever since Ollivanders was open and was likely found by my forefathers since no record of making this wand exists" Ollivanders said looking at deeply into Draco''s eyes, "This wand is very fascinating Mr. Malfoy, I don''t know what metal it is made of and what core is inside it but one thing I can say for sure, this wand has more than two cores." Ollivander''s words left everyone shocked. "Wow! Draco... I knew you were amazing but this is really out of ordinary." Pansy tried to compliment Draco with a tired face. "I am never going wand shopping with you." Theodore joked with a pale face. "Sigh! One trouble after another." Narcissa sighed and looked at Mr. Ollivander, "Mr. Ollivanders, can you tell me how much I owe you." "40 Galleons." Ollivander stood up and walked back to the counter, Even though it was very expensive for a wand, since most wands only cost 7 Galleons, Narcissa paid the money without saying anything. As Draco and the others were walking out of the shop, Ollivanders looked at Draco and said, "The wand chooses the wizard, remember that Mr. Malfoy. Even though no one knows what that wand is capable of but I can tell that it is meant for extraordinary things, so I hope you don''t misuse it." Draco was wondering if the news about the wand may reach Dumbledore, but he was sure that Ollivanders and the others didn''t see anything looking at their reaction so Draco just nodded and left the shop, Everyone was tired so they called it quits for today and quickly went back to the Malfoy Manor. 5 Train The month after the shopping quickly passed. Draco didn''t know what was special about his wand, he tried to figure it out but couldn''t. The wand was similar to a normal wand but the only difference was that it consumed less mana when you cast a spell. Draco was sure that there were other uses of the wand but for now, no matter what he tried he couldn''t find anything useful so he just gave up. Other than that both Pansy and Theodore started coming to his house more often. Theodore was there to help him with the antidote of Veritaserum and Pansy in her own words, wanted to get proficient in potions. So most of his remaining days before Hogwarts was spent researching, teaching Pansy and spending more time with his family. Draco had forgotten about buying an owl, so his father bought him one instead, His Owl was a Great Grey Owl, the biggest of his kind which he named Owlbert. Owlbert mostly stayed inside his suitcase where he had a lot of space to fly around in. Today is September 1st, and the day to board the train. "When you arrive at school, send us an owl to let us know that you have safely arrived there and keep sending letters every now and then, to let us know that you are okay. Mother will send you your favorite sweets and cakes every week, but you are not allowed to eat too much of it. Also, you are not allowed to stay up all night at school. And you have to come home for Christmas or else I will be very mad." Narcissa hugged her son and kept telling him what to do and not to do in school. Since it was Draco''s first time away from home she was very worried. "Okay, Narcissa the train is about to leave and Draco, I wish you a smooth semester," Lucius said trying to console his wife, but you could still hear some sadness in his voice. Draco hugged his mother tightly and kissed her cheeks, "Don''t worry too much about me after all I will be back in Christmas." He looked at his father and both of them nodded at each other in understanding. "Are you ready?" Theodore''s voice came behind him. Draco turned to look at Theodore and Pansy who was rubbing her eyes and nodded. He took his suitcase, which was all the luggage he carried and walked away from his parents. "Take care both of you, I will miss you a lot," Draco said walking towards Pansy and Theodore who were waving at their parents. Draco walked through the wall giving his parents one final look and soon Theodore and Pansy followed behind him. Pansy quickly rushed and hugged Draco crying on his chest. Draco knew she probably didn''t want anyone to find that she was crying so he stood there slowly caressing her back. "Okay, it''s getting late you two." Theodore said with an annoyed expression. Pansy wiped her tears away and looked at Draco, "Does my face look, okay?" "Cute as always." Draco replied and they began walking towards the train. "You know, you can cry if you want." Theodore said with a grin looking at Draco. Draco just rolled his eyes as he got inside the train. They looked around and found an empty compartment to settle in. Soon a girl with bushy brown hair came in, "Hello, is this seat empty?" Pansy looked at the girl from head to toe and just ignored her as if there was no one there. Theodore was just reading his book so he didn''t even bother looking at the girl. Draco looking at his friend''s reaction sighed, "Sure, you can come in." Draco said with a gentle smile. "Thank you." The girl said while trying to pull in a huge suitcase. "Let me help you with that." Draco said taking out his wand. "Wingardium Leviosa" The suitcase floated up and settled on the upper rack smoothly. The girl looked amazed as she sat beside Theodore, in front of Draco, "A very beautiful levitation charm." She complimented. "I''ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and it''s all worked for me. Nobody in my family''s magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it''s the very best school of witchcraft there is, I''ve heard -- I''ve learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough -- I''m Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you." She said all this very fast. Pansy and Theodore looked at the girl with rather large front teeth weirdly, It was as if a prey had walked into a den of lions. Theodore hanging around with Draco didn''t have much prejudice against muggle-born rather he took them as an interesting subject, A person without any magical ancestry suddenly producing a wizard was a very interesting concept. Both Draco and Theodore did a quite a lot of research on this and still had no idea how a muggle born even had magic in them or how they got it. Both of them believed in the fact that, if they could found out how magic appears in a muggle-born in the first place, they could find a way to improve the quality of magic in a person by a large margin or even turn a muggle or a Squib to a wizard. Theodore was also very interested in muggle items from T.V to guns after Draco showed some of it to him when they were hanging outside. So even though he still had a sense of superiority it wasn''t to the point of hatred. Pansy, however, was another story, she had a pure hatred against these filthy mud-bloods but since she knew Draco didn''t like discriminating them, she tried to control her hatred against them but she still had a strong dislike for them. Draco looking at his friends behaving well smiled and looked at Hermione, "My name is Draco Malfoy, this cute girl here is Pansy Parkinson and that dork reading a book there is Theodore Nott." Draco said patting Pansy''s head trying to calm her down from saying something outrageous which worked very well as the girl was blushing very hard. ''Sigh! Even though she acts tough and all, she is still an 11-year-old girl, I hope I can change her mentality later on.'' Draco looked at the girl in front of him, even though the large front teeth looked weird, she was still very cute. Hermione Granger, the brains one of the golden-trio and the one our current Draco had a serious crush on in his previous life. "Draco... Malfoy." Hermione repeated the name as she suddenly said, "I know you." Draco looked at her for a while and tilted his head with a questioning look. "Idiot, She probably read about you in the Prophet Daily," Theodore said rolling his eyes. "Yes, I read about you in the newspaper when I was buying some books." Hermione looked at him with a slightly annoyed look, "They said that you were a potion prodigy and your spells didn''t lose out either." Draco just scratched his head awkwardly, "I am not that good, they just like to exaggerate a lot for their newspaper sales." Hermione narrowed her eyes, "So your potion formula''s that you came up with?" "I um.. had a lot of time to do experiments you know," Draco said awkwardly. Hermione looked kind of depressed, she turned her head to look at the book Theodore was reading, ''Advanced Potion-making'', reading the title made her even more depressed since this was an N.E.W.T level book. "Is everything okay?" Draco asked looking at Hermione who looked as if she was going to cry any moment. "Hey, tell me are you all from wizarding families?" Hermione asked looking at Draco to which he nodded in response. "Oh my god! What am I going to do, I knew I should have prepared and read more books over the summer." "Hey! Hey! Calm down okay!" Draco said looking at Hermione "The courses run according to everyone''s pace, so you are really not losing anything." Draco knew of Hermione''s character from the book so it wasn''t hard to figure out, what she really was worried about. "Hmph! Easy for you to say that." Hermione didn''t know what to do, the whole wizarding concept was very known to her and she didn''t even know she was a witch a month ago and now she sees the first peers she meets, one is a genius whose works are published in the newspaper with a title of prodigy and the other two are from family full of wizards and probably have more experience in magic than her. "You don''t need to be so annoying." Pansy said making a disgusted face, "I can assure you that there are many from wizarding families that aren''t even close to Draco and the rabbit-face over there." Hermione calmed down a little and looked at Pansy, "Is it true?" "Yup, you know all wizards and witches get their wand around this time and finally start practicing magic, so you are not that far off," Draco said with a reassuring smile. Hermione calmed down a lot, "Sorry! I tend to get nervous about these things." ''Sigh! sometimes it really takes a girl to handle another girl.'' Draco thought to himself as he patted Pansy''s hair. "It''s okay." Said Theodore "But the interesting thing is how you used magic outside of Hogwarts." "What do you mean?" Hermione asked getting confused. "Am I not suppose to use it outside?" "Hmph! Typical muggle-born." Pansy said, "I am surprised, you didn''t get expelled." "Expelled?" Hermione was getting worried again. "Well since you didn''t get any letter after using magic, so I am sure its okay now," Draco said. "Yeah! you usually tend to get a warning letter right away." Theodore said, "There is a law passed by Ministry of Magic that the underage wizards aren''t allowed to use magic outside of school, especially if you are muggle born." "Thank God!" Hermione breathed a sigh of relief "So can you guys use magic outside?" "It''s not that simple." Draco said, "The Tracing charm isn''t perfect as it doesn''t tell you who used the magic since our parents are adult wizards the tracer just thinks that our parents are the ones using the magic even when we are the ones using it around our house." "In simple words, we can mask our magic under our parent''s." Theodore added. Hermione nodded in understanding, "So why do you think, I didn''t get a letter?" she asked getting a bit curious. "Maybe since you only used basic magic, they probably brushed it off as a curious young witch." Draco said thinking for a while. "It''s quite annoying as the magic marks you until you are 17, I wonder what you have to do to get out of its clutches." Theodore said. "I think you can get away with an aging potion." Pansy added. "Nope, the magic probably marks your soul so your physical appearance doesn''t really matter."Draco added. Hermione quietly listened to their conversation with great interest since she didn''t know much about it. (The Tracing charm is very confusing and it isn''t explained how it works even in the books... so I just came up with my own theory on how the charm works.) As they were chatting, there was a sudden knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy came in. He looked tearful. "Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?" When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I''ve lost him! He keeps getting away from me!" "Hahaha.." Pansy laughed out loud, "I knew students were allowed to bring toads but I seriously didn''t think someone was going to do it." Theodore was also laughing, "Haha, I feel sorry for you... if someone like Draco found your toad, you can be sure that the toad is in a glass jar somewhere." The boy looked even more teary now wondering the fate of his toad, Draco was trying to control his laughter, "Haha Don''t be mean guys, haha I am sorry for them... I am sure it will turn up." Draco wasn''t trying to be mean but the boy''s face and his reaction was too funny not to laugh at. Hermione looked at them and stood up, "I don''t think you should laugh at him." She said walking out of the compartment, "Let''s go, I will help you find your Toad." The boy nodded still looking pale and worried. Draco coughed and stood up, "Hey Hermione, I am coming with you." "Why? why don''t you sit there and laugh." Hermione said making an angry face. "Okay, Okay I am sorry... um, what is your name?" Even though Draco knew his name already he still had to ask because he had never seen the boy before. "Neville Longbottom." The boy said. "Oh a fellow Sacred Twenty-eight, I am sorry Neville that I laughed at you... I will help you find your Toad as an apology." The boy nodded and started walking towards other compartments. "Hey, are you seriously going on a search for a toad," Theodore said still holding back his laughter. "Yeah! I am bored, might as well do something than just sit around." He said closing the door while ignoring Pansy''s pissed look. He looked at Hermione who was already walking away, "Hey! Hermione no need to get so angry you know, I already apologized and Theodore and Pansy didn''t mean anything bad either." "Hmph! I know that already, why are you still following me?" Hermione said still looking a bit angry. "You know I couldn''t help it... I have never seen someone make such a tearful face for a toad." Draco said trying to hold back his laughter remembering Neville''s face again. "Hey! stop laughing already." Hermione said slapping Draco''s arm but you could tell that she was smiling a little as well. "Okay! Okay! let''s go search for the damn Toad!" Draco said as they went from one compartment to the other asking if they had seen a Toad. 6 Hogwarts Going from one compartment to another asking if they had seen a toad was really embarrassing, a couple of senior girls even laughed at Draco. So after that he just kept quiet and silently followed Hermione standing behind her, letting her do all the talking. Hermione opened up another compartment door to find a boy raising his wand. "Has anyone seen a toad? Neville''s lost one," she said with her bossy sort of voice. "We''ve already told him, we haven''t seen it," said the red-haired boy, but Hermione wasn''t listening to him, she was looking at the wand in his hand. "Oh, are you doing magic? Let''s see it, then." She sat down. Ron looked taken aback. "Er -- all right." He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." He waved his wand, but nothing happened. The rat stayed gray and fast asleep. "The spells probably fake." Draco said walking in. Harry was surprised seeing Draco, smiling he said, "Draco, how have you been?" "Pretty good." Draco smiled Draco wasn''t really interested in playing buddy-buddy with Harry, since being with the main character always brings you unnecessary trouble, but since he plays an important role in defeating Voldemort as he is literally a walking Horcrux and you know how the saying goes, '' A enemy of your enemy can be your friend.'' so Draco thought why not at least have a good relationship with Mr. Savior. "Harry meet Hermione Granger." Draco said pointing at Hermione, "And you''ve probably already guessed it, He is Harry Potter." "Are you really?" said Hermione getting excited. "I know all about you, of course -- I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you''re in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century." "Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed. "Goodness, didn''t you know, I''d have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Okay Hermione give Harry here a break, in fact, his life so far has just been the same as yours and he too got to know that he was a wizard just a month ago." "Really?" Hermione asked looking at Harry who nodded in response. "Oh! let me introduce you two, Ron, this is Draco Malfoy." Harry introduced his new friend to Draco, "And Draco he is Ron Weasley." Ron didn''t laugh at his name as the original since most people in the wizarding community had already heard his name at least once, Instead, he looked at him with caution and a bit of hatred. From what Ron knew, Malfoy family and Weasley family were enemies, but even his father had complimented Draco for giving out his research for free to people and called him a good one among the Malfoy''s. Ron had a jealous character from a young age and seeing a son of death-eater acting like a saint caused him to be wary of the person named Draco Malfoy. He believed that all of this was just a facade to fool people into thinking the Malfoy''s are good people. Ron would be really surprised if he ever found that all his theory were mostly true. Draco just nodded at Ron but the other party just kept staring at him. Draco didn''t like the awkward atmosphere so he just stood up, "Hermione I am getting bored so I will go back to the compartment and Harry I will see you when we reach Hogwarts." He didn''t care much about Ron but he knew the golden-trio was very important to the story since Draco didn''t want the story to go off-roads from the original. Draco was already scared of not knowing the future in this dangerous world since this was the only advantage he had and with his wand, he already had a gut feeling that more trouble was about to head his way, so he didn''t want to add more to his troubles. But this still made his mood turn sour, maybe it was because of slight jealousy as Ron would likely marry Hermione in the future if he didn''t step in or the fact that he has to leave Hermione here just so he could start the cycle of golden-trio. Harry and Hermione didn''t understand why Ron was acting that way and why Draco was about to leave. Draco left the compartment, leaving the dazed Hermione and Harry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ron, do you know Draco from before?" Harry asked looking at Ron. "I''ve heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they''d been bewitched. My dad doesn''t believe it. He says Malfoy''s father didn''t need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." Harry was stunned as he didn''t believe that Draco was a bad guy but now he didn''t know what to believe in. While Harry was lost in his thoughts, Ron turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?" "Nothing, you better change into your robes, we are probably about to reach Hogwarts." Hermione said standing up. "You are a Muggle-born wizard, aren''t you?" Ron asked. "Yes." "I would be careful around him, From what I''ve heard Death-eaters have a deep hatred against muggle-born wizard''s." Hermione nodded and walked away, she already knew some things about You-know-who and Death Eaters but she didn''t believe that Draco was a bad guy, at least for now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Draco walked back to his compartment where Theodore was already snoring and Pansy was staring daggers at him. He sat back in his seat beside Pansy and looked at her, "What?" "Hmph!" was all he got back in response. Draco was kinda annoyed right now because of Ron, so he didn''t have any energy to waste on Pansy so he just kept quiet. "Hey, you are supposed to ask, ''What''s wrong?''" Pansy said with a frustrated expression. "What''s wrong?" Draco asked lazily. "Why are you so concerned about that mud-blood?" Pansy said with an annoyed voice "Ever since she got in our compartment, you have been acting strange." "I am not concerned about her and please stop calling people that." Draco said looking at her seriously. "Che, you both won''t even let me have a good sleep." Theodore said waking up lazily "And she is right you know, you acted kinda different around that Granger girl... do you like that girl? Is it love in first sight as they say or do you have a thing for people with messy hair and large teeth, or do you like a bossy girl who can dominate you? Oh! I didn''t know the prodigy Draco had such a fetish if only I had known earlier, I could have helped you out a little." The more Theodore talked, the uglier both Pansy''s and Draco''s face got. "I want to torture you with the Cruciatus Curse, right now." Draco said taking out his wand. "Hey, Hey no need to get serious I was only joking, you know." Theodore said as he quickly averted the topic, "But seriously, The genius, arrogant Draco apologized to a guy who was literally mourning over a lost toad and even went to help him. What''s wrong with you?" Draco thought for a while, ''Shit! I probably acted kinda weird due to my crush on Hermione, to not make her think that I am a bad guy. Well, I don''t regret it that much since she would likely be in Gryffindor and I am more likely to be in Slytherin, so I need to make a good impression before we get sorted into our house.'' Theodore looking at Draco''s silence and Pansy who looked as if she was going to explode, quickly said, "Did you at least find the Toad?" Draco snapped back to reality and looked kinda pissed, "Nope, My mood was disturbed by this red-headed trash and his filthy rat." "First a toad and now a rat? What is Hogwarts? A creepy Zoo?" Theodore said making a weird face. "Red hair, you mean the Weasly''s?" Pansy asked calming down. "Yes." Draco nodded, "Do you want to teach him a lesson?" Pansy asked smiling a little. "Okay! stop smiling like that pug-face, it''s creepy." Said Theodore making Draco laugh a little. Pansy kicked Theodore on his legs with an angry face, "Okay, you two... don''t start fighting. We are probably reaching Hogwarts, so let''s change into our robes." Pansy nodded and took her dress; and went into one of her friend''s compartment to change. Draco took out his and Theodore robe from his suitcase and both of them started changing their clothes. Theodore was already dressed and was putting on his robe and Draco was still pulling his pants up when suddenly the door to their compartment opened. Hermione who opened the door looked at the naked upper body of Draco for a while, and quickly closed back the door screaming, "Idiot, at least lock the door if you are changing your clothes." After a while both Theodore who was laughing and Draco came out of the door, to find a red-faced Hermione glaring at Draco. "Hey! you are the one who took advantage of me, why are you so pissed? Draco said covering his chest with his hands as if he had just been sexually assaulted. "And whose fault do you think it is, you idiot." Hermione roared at Draco walking inside the compartment and shutting the door close. "You know if you flirt so much with her, Pansy is probably going to kill both of you." "You do know, that my life can still go on just fine without your commentary in everything I do" Theodore didn''t say anything and just shrugged his shoulders. A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes'' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately." The train slowed right down and finally stopped. Hermione and Pansy pushed their way towards the door pulling the lazy Draco and Theodore who wanted to wait till all the people are gone to go outside. "Firs'' years! Firs'' years over here! All right there, Harry?" A voice came in front of them. Hagrid''s big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. "C''mon, follow me -- any more firs'' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'' years follow me!" Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was very dark on either side of them, Nobody spoke much. Neville, who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice. "Ye'' all get yer firs'' sight o'' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus'' round this bend here." There was a loud "Oooooh!" The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. "No more''n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Hermione, Draco, Pansy, and Theodore got in a boat as Hagrid''s voice came again. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then -- FORWARD!" And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood. "Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. "Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them. "Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid''s lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak front door. "Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face. "The firs'' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid. "Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She pulled the door wide. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Everyone could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right -the rest of the school must already be here -- but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously. "Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room." "The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours." "The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville''s cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron''s smudged nose. I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly." She left the chamber. "How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Hermione asked Draco. Pansy and Theodore turned to Draco as well, since keeping what the sorting ceremony a secret was a tradition, not even his father or mother told him what was gonna happen, but Draco already knew. "They put a talking hat on your head and it will decide your entire future." Draco casually said, "Hmph! If you don''t want to say it then don''t say it." Hermione didn''t believe Draco and turned back. Draco shrugged his shoulders looking at Theodore and Pansy who also didn''t believe him. Draco looked at Harry who was looking in his direction from time to time, Draco was sure that Ron had already told him about the death eater stuff, but he didn''t bother too much with it. Suddenly about twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance --" "My dear Friar, haven''t we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he''s not really even a ghost -- I say, what are you all doing here?" A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years. Nobody answered. "New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" A few people nodded mutely. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know." "Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony''s about to start." Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall. "Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me." 7 Sorting Ceremony Hogwarts was similar to what Draco had read in the book, a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Hermione whispered to Draco, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History." It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn''t simply open on to the heavens. Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool, she put a pointed wizard''s hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Theodore, Hermione, and Pansy looked at Draco with a surprised expression, "Were you really serious?" Theodore asked him. Draco was about to answer when suddenly the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth -- and the hat began to sing: "Oh, you may not think I''m pretty, But don''t judge on what you see, I''ll eat myself if you can find A smarter hat than me. You can keep your bowlers black, Your top hats sleek and tall, For I''m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat And I can cap them all. There''s nothing hidden in your head The Sorting Hat can''t see, So try me on and I will tell you Where you ought to be. You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffis are true And unafraid of toil; Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you''ve a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind; Or perhaps in Slytherin You''ll make your real friends, Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends. So put me on! Don''t be afraid! And don''t get in a flap! You''re in safe hands (though I have none) For I''m a Thinking Cap!" The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again. Theodore and Pansy''s mouth were twitching at the fact that this dirty old hat was going to sort them into their house. Hermione too was just frozen as she didn''t know what to say. "Well at least it sings good," Draco said, gaining him a weird look from other students around him. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!" A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause -- "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat. The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. "Bones, Susan!" "HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah. "Boot, Terry!" "RAVENCLAW!" The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them. "Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; "Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. "Finch-Fletchley, Justin!" "HUFFLEPUFF!" "Granger, Hermione!" Hermione nodded at the Trio and almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. "GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. When Neville Longbottom, who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it back. "Crabbe, Vincent" "HUFFLEPUFF." Draco, Theodore, and Pansy were surprised, especially Draco. Crabbe looked pale as he walked back to the HUFFLEPUFF''s table. Draco was surprised that Crabbe got into Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin,he started to wonder if it was his fault, since he treated Crabbe differently from the original Draco. Draco looked at Goyle wandering which house will he be sorted in. "Goyle, Gregory." Goyle looked more nervous than Crabbe since he probably already knew his fate. As soon as the Hat was put on top of him, the hat shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF." "Hey, how could your lab rats go to Hufflepuff aren''t they pure-bloods like us." Theodore whispered in Draco ears. "Well both of them are idiotic enough to be in Hufflepuff." Pansy said, "But there must be something wrong with the sorting hat." Draco sighed seeing the future already start to change, "Well I wonder what their parent''s reaction is gonna be." Draco was sure that their parents would probably kill them, Professor McGonagall called out. (For those who are wondering why they went to Hufflepuff, due to being influenced by Draco, they started studying and practicing magic with a lot of Hard work, even though both of them are still idiots, its the hard work that counts.) "Nott, Theodore." "See you at the table," Theodore said walking over to stool, confident that he would be in Slytherin and he really was. "SLYTHERIN!!" The hat shouted as Theodore moved to the Slytherin''s table. "Parkinson, Pansy" She waved at Draco before going over. "SLYTHERIN!!" The Slytherin''s table cheered again, Draco sighed in huge relief that other than Crabbe and Goyle nothing much has changed. One by one all people were getting sorted and the only one left where Draco and Harry. Harry looked nervous and wanted to talk to someone but seeing only Draco was around he shut his mouth. "Potter, Harry!" As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall. "Potter, did she say?" "The Harry Potter?" Everyone was whispering things as the sorting hat got put on him. After a moment of conversation with the Hat, it shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR." The Gryffindor''s table cheered the loudest as Harry went over and sat on the chair. "Malfoy, Draco." Professor McGonagall said the name of the last remaining student. The crowd again broke into whispers, even though he was not as famous as the savior Harry Potter... he still had the title of genius that no other students had not even Harry. Draco walked over to the stool, looking at the dirty old hat, Draco casually took out his wand doing a cleaning spell, cleaning the dusty old hat and turning it into a clean one. Draco then sat on the stool gracefully putting his wand back inside his robe (Imagine a wand pocket), looking at people who were staring at him in amazement. Even the professors were amazed since no one had dared to do so over the course of many years. Hermione was looking at Draco''s arrogant look in annoyance and rolled her eyes. Theodore and Pansy laughed, "Classic Draco!" Professor McGonagall broke out of her stupor and placed the hat above Draco''s head, Suddenly a voice sounded in Draco''s head, "Dodge" Draco quickly jumped out of the stool out of instinct, to everyone''s amazement a sword fell out of the hat piercing the stool. "You stupid hat are you trying to kill me?" Draco shouted in anger looking at the Hat, "I will burn you up, you crazy hat." Draco just wanted to clean the hat since he didn''t want a dirty hat on his head but he didn''t expect that the hat will try to kill him for making it clean. "I said Dodge, didn''t I?" Spoke the Hat arrogantly. "You little..." Draco gritted his teeth and took out his wand again and chanted, "Incendio." As soon as he said that the hat started catching on fire. The hall got noisy since no one had expected Draco to really burn the annoying Hat. "Silence." Dumbledore stood up and took out his wand, but before Dumbledore could do anything the fire went out by itself. "Hmph! Do you think your little flame will harm me?" Spoke the Hat again in a teasing tone. Draco just ignored Dumbledore''s and the hat existence for now as he laid his eyes on the sword, ''Holy fuck isn''t this the Gryffindor''s sword? But why did that bitch of a hat drop the sword on me... as far as I could remember only a true Gryffindor can summon the sword and why does the sword look similar to my wand.'' Draco was wondering all these things while Dumbledore turned his head towards the hat wanting an explanation to which the hat just replied, "Don''t look at me like that, the sword came out of its own will." Dumbledore walked over and took the Gryffindor sword out of the stool. Dumbledore took a deep look at Draco and said, "Are you okay, Mr. Malfoy?" "Yes, Headmaster." Replied Draco nodding his head. He wasn''t scared of Dumbledore but being in front of the greatest white wizard of their time was still a bit nerve-racking. Dumbledore nodded and looked at McGonagall "Professor McGonagall, Let''s continue the sorting ceremony." (If you are wondering why Draco let him take the sword, remember that he is in the middle of the hall with all students and professor present, and he still hasn''t been sorted yet.) McGonagall like others was trying to wrap her head around, at what had just happened but seeing the calm Draco and Dumbledore she didn''t say anything. Draco sat back on the stool again still being wary of the Hat. The crowd was very interested in what was going to happen, was the hat going to drop another sword and what house was Draco being sorted in. The sorting hat was placed on Draco''s head completely this time, "Oh, how was the sword!" The voice of hat sounded in his head. "Keep talking and next time, I will make sure that not even your ashes remain," Draco mumbled underneath his breath. "You should keep that anger in check boy, so which house should I sort you in." The hat said in a calm voice, "You have plenty of courage to be in Gryffindor, enough intelligence to be in Ravenclaw, hard-working enough to be in Hufflepuff and ambitious and cunning enough to be in Slytherin, so which house should I put you in." Draco wanted to be put in Slytherin since he would have enough friends and support there, Ravenclaw wouldn''t be bad either, But he was scared of being put in Gryffindor. Gryffindor is the most disadvantageous place you could be in, being the son of Death-Eater and it would be much harder to form an influence in the wizarding community early on as well. Before this Draco wasn''t nervous since he was sure that he would be in Slytherin like the original story but now seeing all the stuff happened with Crabbe and Goyle, along with the Gryffindor''s sword he was getting very nervous. 8 Daphne Greengrass While all this was happening, Snape was glaring at his god-son, even though he didn''t care much about him, he still wanted him to be in Slytherin but seeing the Gryffindor''s sword his hope was diminishing. "Please, not Gryffindor!" Draco kept whispering, "Anything but Gryffindor!" "Oh! Why not? You are courageous and bold enough to try to burn me in front of all the professors, I think you will fit well in Gryffindor." The Hat said. "Umm... Mr. Sorting Hat, if you are trying to take revenge on me because of the fire then we can call it a truce because you started it first by nearly dropping the sword on my head." "Che, Why do you wanna be in Slytherin so bad?" The hat asked curiously. "Well I am a pureblood and unlike other houses, we pure-blood tend to stick together most of the time, even though Gryffindors are brave and courageous, but when it comes to sticking together and supporting the people of their own house they are not very good at it." Draco said, "And I am a Malfoy, you probably already know some of my family''s history. I am pretty sure my people have murdered at least one family member of each people in Gryffindor so going there is a death-wish, I would rather be in Hufflepuff." Draco knew from reading the books, how cruel Gryffindor can be, when Harry was suspected to be the heir of Slytherin when the Chamber of Secret was open not even Gryffindor chose to support him and he was left alone and when Harry was chosen to be in the Tri-wizard tournament, again no one supported him from Gryffindor probably except Ginny and Hermione, not even Ron. (kinda exaggerated it, but for the sake of the story I have to show some bad sides of Gryffindor.) The real reason Draco wants to be in Slytherin is to pull the Dark wizards to his side, even though Voldemort is strong, most of his strength comes from the loyal Death-Eaters around him who are willing to kill and be killed for him and that''s what Draco wants Loyal companions and since controlling the Ministry of Magic is also easier with the support of other Pure-bloods, with him being a pureblood himself, the Slytherin route is more plausible and easy compared to others. The people waited and waited to see the which house Draco was going to be sorted in and after nearly 10 minutes which felt like an eternity the Hat suddenly spoke out. "SLYTHERIN!!" (Last chapter wasn''t really meant to be a cliffhanger, I just got lazy and stopped the chapter there, It''s in the title of the novel for Christ-sake.) The Slytherin table shouted the loudest cheering for Draco. Draco stood up sighing a sigh of relief. He looked at Snape who nodded at him showing a rare smile, Draco nodded back in greeting and went back to the Slytherins table, giving one last look at Dumbledore and the Gryffindor''s sword in front of him. Draco was greeted by his seniors and fellow classmates as he walked over to the table and sat between Theodore and Pansy, The Slytherin''s prefect Gemma Farley introduced herself to Draco as they shook hands. Suddenly Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there. "Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" "Thank you!" He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. As soon as he sat down the golden plates in front of them were filled with dishes that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. There were many dishes on the table, roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs. "Hey is he a bit mad?" Pansy whispered taking a couple of fries and steak to her plate. "In my father''s words, Yes." Draco replied "But his every word had a meaning, Nitwit represent Ravenclaw... Blubber represents Gryffindor, Oddment represents Slytherin and Tweak represents Hufflepuff." "Why are you not in Ravenclaw?" Asked a nearby girl. "Isn''t it rude to ask someone a question without introducing yourself first?" Pansy snapped at the blonde girl. "Oh I apologize, I am Daphne Greengrass." She replied with a smile not getting offended, "I know you are Draco Malfoy and you are?" Pansy snickered on the side not replying to her, Theodore seeing that started laughing, "I am sorry for her behavior, She is Pansy Parkinson and I am Theodore Nott." Theodore said as he pulled Daphne''s hand to kiss it, but to his surprise, the girl pulled her hand back and gave a creeped out look to Theodore. Draco was trying his hardest not to laugh, Theodore looked at him with teary eyes, "Hey, why does it only work when you do it?" Draco couldn''t hold back anymore and started laughing, "Hahaha... Rabbit-face you don''t have the same charm as I do." "Che... Charm? Have you seen your face? You look like the typical villain in a story, the one who kidnaps the princess away from the hero." Theodore clicked his tongue. This time Draco didn''t get mad instead he lazily waved the fork in his hand, "My dear Theodore, at least I have the bad boy charm, but for you... you look like the thug who gets beaten up by the hero on his first day of the adventure." "Hahaha..." Pansy and Daphe started laughing seeing Theodore''s face. Draco then turned to Daphne with a slick smile and nodded at her in greeting, "I am sorry my lady for ignoring you, what is it that you want to ask?" Daphne ears turned a bit red looking at Draco but seeing Pansy''s face she quickly recovered, (Pansy''s not a pug, she''s a bull-dog, guarding Draco against other girls.) "I just wanted to ask, why are you not in Ravenclaw? You are known to be a genius and everyone was expecting you to be in Ravenclaw, some students even bet on it." "Everyone?" Draco asked tilting his head. "Well- You know me and my friends." Daphne said fidgeting with red cheeks. "So you bet on me going to Ravenclaw?" Draco asked. "No, I actually bet on you going to Slytherin since we are from the sacred family, I believed that you will either be in Gryffindor or Slytherin. And since the bet was between Ravenclaw or Slytherin. I chose Slytherin." "So how much did you win?" "50 Galleons," Daphne said proudly. "So you owe me at least half huh!" Draco said casually putting a slice of steak in his mouth. "Hey! Why do I owe you?" Daphne asked looking confused. "You used my name to bet didn''t you?" Draco said with a sly look "So shouldn''t you give me some compensation." "Is that how the bet works?" Daphne said pondering a bit, "Fine, I will give you 25 Galleons when I get the money." "Oh sorry, but I don''t take money." Draco said, "You have to give me something of equal value." "What do you mean?" "I have everything if not money, so I have no interest in it." "So what do you want?" "How about a kiss." Draco said with a grin. Daphne turned completely red as she didn''t know what to say. Draco who was grinning suddenly gasped, as both Theodore and Pansy kicked his leg under the table with a lot of strength. ( I don''t really want to involve Daphe in the Harem but since people keep insisting on her, I wanted to at least keep a window open, in case I change my mind later on.) As they were laughing and bickering, Draco suddenly felt a malicious gaze on him. Draco turned his head around to look who it was, he found out that the person was none other than Quirrell, glancing at him from time to time. Draco knew that the whole Gryffindor sword fiasco might have alerted Valdy and made him interested in him, but right now there was nothing he could do, so he ignored his gazes and continued chatting with other students as if nothing had happened. As they were talking, suddenly all the ghost started flying around everywhere and on the side of Slytherin, a ghost came and sat. The ghost was very pale, pearly-white and slightly transparent. He had wide, staring, black eyes and a gaunt face. He was dressed in robes covered in silver bloodstains and carried chains, He was also wearing a curly powdered wig and carried a sword. "So new Slytherins, I hope you can help Slytherin win the house cup for the 7th time in a row." He said with a hoarse whisper. "I know you, you are the Bloody Baron," Pansy said looking at the ghost in front of them. The ghost just nodded and didn''t say anything else, "So why are you called the Bloody Barron?" Theodore asked "Idiot, don''t you see his clothes." Replied Pansy "By the way how did you get those stains of blood in your clothes?" As soon as Pansy asked that the cheerful atmosphere got cold, Draco quickly said, "I am sorry for my friend, she is just curious." The Barron looked at him, "Draco Malfoy?" He asked to which Draco nodded in response. "I have heard about you from other ghosts." The Barron said grimly, "I hope you can continue leading Slytherin to its Glory." "That''s the plan," Draco said smiling. Soon Desserts came and it too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent. "Ahern -- just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you." "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore''s twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors." "Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. "And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Draco snickered when he heard that. ''Making people curious about the place by saying such things and expecting them not to go there, What a Joke!!, He does want people, no Harry to go there, doesn''t he?'' "What do you think is in there?" Theodore muttered to Draco getting interested. "Probably some creepy dark magic items" Replied Draco not wanting them to get too curious about the place. "And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words. "Everyone pick their favorite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!" And the school bellowed: "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, Teach us something please, Whether we be old and bald Or young with scabby knees, Our heads could do with filling With some interesting stuff, For now they''re bare and full of air, Dead flies and bits of fluff, So teach us things worth knowing, Bring back what we''ve forgot, just do your best, we''ll do the rest, And learn until our brains all rot. Draco and Theodore didn''t sing the song at all since they couldn''t bother remembering the lyrics of the song. Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped the loudest. "Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!" Draco was wondering what games was he playing acting like a kid, Then Dumbledore walked away with the Gryffindor sword in his hand from the back door. ( I am sure there is one.) Draco looked at Hermione who was staring at him, the other party waved goodnight to him and Draco with a smile did the same. Then the Slytherin''s first year started following the prefect through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall. The entrance to the Slytherin common room is located behind a bare stretch of stone wall in the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle. "Our emblem is the serpent, the wisest of creatures; our house colors are emerald green and silver, and our common room lies behind a concealed entrance down in the dungeons. As you''ll see, its windows look out into the depths of the Hogwarts lake. We often see the giant squid swooshing by ¡ª and sometimes more interesting creatures. We like to feel that our hangout has the aura of a mysterious, underwater shipwreck." Gemma explained as they entered inside the common room. The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slytherins were silhouetted around it in carved chairs. It looked very homey according to Draco, he could imagine himself relaxing here. Gemma then showed us the way to boys and girls Dormitory. Since all of them already had a long day, They said their goodnight''s and went to their room. The Slytherin''s rooms were huge and each room had to be shared by four people, luckily due to Lucius interfering, Draco and Theodore got a two bedroom to themselves. The bed was an ancient four-poster with green silk hangings. And you could listen to the lake water lapping against the windows. Also, silver lanterns were hanging from the ceilings. The walls were decorated with Slytherin crests. Medieval tapestries depicting the adventures of famous Slytherins covered the walls. Their luggage had already arrived there, Draco quickly went over to his suitcase and sighed in relief. Draco''s suitcase was enchanted in a way that it could only be used by him. The enhancement wasn''t done by him but it was already there, to begin with, With a little bit of blood from him, the suitcase ownership was transferred to him. So when other people open the suitcase they only see a regular one. (Like Newt''s case.) The ownership of the suitcase will continue to belong to Draco unless he dies. The suitcase is amazing but kinda annoying at the same time as no other people can go inside the suitcase without Draco holding it, so even Theodore and Pansy needed to get Draco''s help, otherwise, they wouldn''t be able to get inside it. Theodore quickly changed his clothes and went to sleep whereas Draco opened the suitcase as let Owlbert out. Draco wrote a short letter to his parents indicating that he had safely reached Hogwarts and entered Slytherin just as expected. After sending Owlbert outside he quickly changed clothes and went to sleep as he was very tired himself. 9 Dream Author''s note:- If you are wondering why Draco got over his past life so quickly and how did he came to the HP world... then you should rethink your life. Just kidding. But seriously, there is a reason for all of it... but it will be explained later on (like far in the future) so bear with me until then. Also, I am going to mix scenes from both movies and book, so I can let the story flow smoothly. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Draco was having a hard time sleeping tonight. (get it, hard time *coughs*) Draco had a weird dream. In the Dream, no it was more like flashbacks, he could see an old man talking to someone about a prophecy, It was something about the destruction of the world. Then on the next scene was a handsome man with deep blue eyes and platinum blonde hair (Not a Malfoy), He was so handsome, no maybe beautiful would be the right word to describe him. Even though he was not into men, Draco still couldn''t stop his heart from beating faster. The man was beautiful than any women he had seen, with completely no flaw at all. The dashing man was wearing a golden Armour and was carrying a silver sword on his waist. The sword looked similar to the Gryffindor''s sword but it was very different at the same time, the sword looked much bigger, shinier and you could feel the power of the sword just by looking at it. The man then walked towards a room, pushing the door open. The Room had a huge golden throne in the center, with 7 smaller silver thrones surrounding it. The main throne was empty but on the smaller throne''s there were paintings of seven different women. The man walked towards the Golden throne and sat on it, he then stared at the painting of the women one at a time. Draco looked at the man who was tearing down looking at the paintings. He wondered who was the man and why was he crying over these women. As Draco was thinking that, suddenly the man as if he was now suddenly aware of his presence, looked straight into his eyes. Draco felt shocked, it was as if the man could see him. "Who are you?" He asked Draco looked around the room to see if there was someone other than him there, but there was no one. "I asked who are you?" The man asked again in a more stern tone, "Even though I can''t see you, I can still feel your presence." The man stood up taking out the sword from the scabbard, Draco gulped looking at the sword. The sword looked sharp enough to cut oneself just by looking at it. Draco tried to speak but no words came out from his mouth, it was as if he had no vocal cords, to begin with. "Don''t say I didn''t warn you." The man said as he swung his sword towards him. The man''s movement was so fast that, he didn''t even have time to flinch. "Ahh!!" Draco screamed as he woke up, sweaty and confused. Draco looked around to find himself in his own bed, Draco sighed in relief. Suddenly a pillow was thrown at his face out of nowhere. "Let me sleep you troll." Theodore yelled as he grumbled himself back to sleep. Draco who was hit by the pillow rubbed his nose. ''What a weird dream!'' Draco said looking at the inscription in his hand. Draco had searched for books to understand what language it was, but there was no result. Draco sighed, ''I might as well sleep a little.'' Draco laid back on his bed but this time he felt something uncomfortable on his back. It was like he slept on something. Draco stood up to look at what it was, but soon as Draco looked at it, another scream escaped his mouth. "AHHH!!" "SHUT UP." Yelled Theodore taking out his wand, "Silencio" Draco mouth was shut. He tried opening his mouth but couldn''t. "That should do it," Theodore said sleeping back again, "MMHMM" Draco tried to say something but couldn''t open his mouth. Draco then looked back at his bed, the thing there was none other than the Gryffindor''s sword. Draco looked back at Theodore who was sleeping, as he pulled the curtains closed around his bed. He took out his suitcase and went inside it with the sword. Draco walked out towards the garden as he used a spell to free his sealed lips. "That bastard, I will get him later," Draco mumbled as he looked at the sword in his hand. Draco was wondering how the sword came to him, ''Was it Dumbledore who placed it there, yes that might be the reason I was put in that weird dream, but again why would Dumbledore give me the sword... Even though I was the one summoned it, I am sure that old fogey wouldn''t give me the sword because of it, I am the son of a death-eater for Merlin''s-sake. Maybe its because I am the chosen one? No, you idiot there is already one here and you for sure know that you aren''t.'' While Draco was talking with himself. The inscription on his hand started to brighten. Draco turned to look at his hand which was holding the sword as the inscription kept getting brighter and brighter. The sword started vibrating as the inscription released from his hand and started moving towards the sword. Draco was getting excited as he could feel some connection with the sword, ''Maybe I am really the chosen one?'' Draco thought. The brightness kept increasing and soon even Draco was blinded by it. After a while, the light started to dim and everything returned to normal. Draco looked at his hand as the inscription was back in its original position. Draco stood up excitedly and waved the sword around but nothing happened. Draco''s smile was slowly turning into a frown. "What was the all light for then?" Draco shouted angrily as he threw the sword. The little bit of connection he felt with the sword was gone. Draco fumed around for a while and after a few minutes, he finally started to calm down. Draco walked over to the sword and picked it up again. "Sigh! I will keep you for now as you might prove to be useful later on." Draco said walking over to an empty room and throwing the sword in there and started walking out. "So let''s make things clear." Draco said to himself, "According to legends the sword only shows up to a ''True Gryffindor'' in need. I am neither a Gryffindor nor am I in need." "But the sword fell out before even I was sorted, maybe anyone can be a true Gryffindor, its the personality that counts not the house." "But even so, it doesn''t explain the fact why it showed up, I am courageous as I dare to do things mostly on impulse but I don''t consider myself to be brave as I would never take on things that I can''t face head-on, I am afraid of failure may be afraid of dying as well..." "But let''s say that I am a true Gryffindor in the inside, but I wasn''t in need for help, not the first time nor the secon... Maybe I summoned the sword due to that weird dream." Draco thought to smile again but his face turned to normal once again. "No, even if I summoned the sword due to that dream, I wouldn''t be able to summon it without the sorting hat in the first place." "Ah!! This is too irritating." Draco said pulling his hair. Calming down after a while, Draco changed his clothes and walked out of the suitcase. "I was going to knock." Said Theodore looking at him, "Let''s go get breakfast." Draco nodded hiding his suitcase. Outside the common room, Pansy was already there, waiting for them. "Hey, look that''s the kid." "That''s Draco Malfoy, isn''t it?" "Yeah, yesterday was crazy." As the three of them were walking towards the hall to get breakfast, Students from all sorts of houses around them were whispering pointing at Draco. Draco smirked, "It''s so hard being famous." "Yeah, if you were famous for nearly having your head chopped off." Replied Pansy. "What do you mean?" "Yesterday, Idiot." Theodore said, "Everyone''s talking about how you pissed the hat off by cleaning it and the Hat magically attacked you with the sword." Draco nearly vomited blood, "What do you guys think?" "What do we think?" Pansy said, "We now know not to piss off that crazy Hat." "Yeah! That was crazy, I wanted to ask you about it yesterday, but I thought you were suffering from a Trauma from nearly being killed." Theodore said, Draco wanted to cry right now, "I guess I am a laughing stock now, aren''t I?" Draco said in a self-deprecating tone. "No, you are not." A girl''s voice came. The Trio turned to look at the familiar face, "Oh! Daphne, if you want to get away from your debt by complimenting me, then it''s not going to work." "Wha.." Daphne''s face turned red remembering what he was talking about, "Cough! I don''t know what are you talking about... anyway, as I was saying, no one thinks you are a laughing stock, instead people are slightly afraid of you." "Afraid of me, why?" Draco asked innocently. "Are you sure the sword didn''t hit your head?" Theodore said, "You tried to burn the hat down, without even thinking. And you are asking us why people would be afraid of you," "Oh!" Draco said grinning idiotically, ''So that''s why no one was asking about the sword as everyone speculated their own theory of their own and soon it turned to a rumor, I am pretty sure Dumbledore told the professor to not say anything about it either, well that''s one less problem for me.'' Draco turned to Daphne, "So miss Greengrass, when are you going to pay your debt to me?" "What?" Daphne said quickly rushing away. "You sure like to tease girls huh!" Pansy said with a scary voice. Draco didn''t even turn back as he quickly rushed towards the hall. 10 Classes There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn''t open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren''t really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other. For Draco and Theodore who hated troublesome things, This was the most annoying thing in the world, like why do you need so many different stairs just to get to one place. Thankfully, Peeves the most annoying creature after Jar Jar Binks was busy messing with Mr. Savior, and didn''t bother much with Slytherins as it was afraid of the Bloody Barron. But there was another annoying thing in Hogwarts, Mr. Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp-like eyes just like Filch''s. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she''d whisk off for Filch, who''d appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick. Draco never in his life wanted to kill a cat so bad, Draco even tried to do it a couple of times but Theodore and Pansy would always pull him away. The second most annoying thing of all was finding the classes itself, thankfully Pansy was around or else Draco and Theodore would just give up searching for the classes and return back to their dormitory. The classes itself weren''t any problem for Draco, Draco was very proficient in Potions and Herbology, as both go hand in hand. There was already a class for Herbology, taught by a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout. Draco won his house 20 points just on his first class as no other first-year students except Hermione and Neville could match him in knowledge, but in practicals, even both of them couldn''t win as Draco was used to growing and taking care of these plants and Fungi for years now. Draco was only above average at astronomy, since he wasn''t very interested in stars. Then came the most boring class of all,History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns. Professor Bins was a very old ghost, it was said that he died in the staff room as he fell asleep and the next morning Binns got up to teach leaving his body behind. A very creepy and scary story in the muggle world, but in the wizarding world it was just another day. Draco wasn''t very good at History, As things, he knew from his previous world conflicted with things here and so many dates. Draco would rather do potion all day than study history. The other class was Charms, Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry''s name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight. Draco rolled his eyes seeing the favor put in him, he was looking at the tiny wizard with interest, wondering how he could be a dueling champion. Charms wasn''t a difficult subject for Draco, but since it was the first day the whole class was about the different uses of charms and they practiced waving their wand around. When some questions were asked, Draco and Hermione, took it as a challenge to see who can answer more question and how fast they could answer it, So in charms class both Draco and Hermione won 10 house-points for their house. The next class he really enjoyed was Transfiguration, not because he was good at it but because McGonagall showed the same expression to everyone. This was the type of person who Draco really respected, a person who is fair to all. Draco entered the class and sat next to Hermione who looked at him with an annoyed expression. "What are you doing here?" "I wanted to sit with you." Draco said making a sad face, "Am I not welcome because I am from Slytherin?" "Hmph! Do you think I care about you being Slytherin, it is you who is annoying." "Hey don''t mind me then." Draco said smiling, "You know you look very cute when you look annoyed." "Shut up! Idiot or I will kick you out." Hermione said hitting him with her books. Hermione was happy that Draco was sitting next to her even if she won''t admit it, Due to her bossy tone she was having a hard time making friends not even her roommates talked to her properly. So with Draco keeping her company, she was very happy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While they were having their own fun, Theodore, Pansy, and Daphne were staring at them. Due to Pansy and Daphne being roommates they quickly became friends and both of them were staring at the Duo''s bickering. "What is Draco doing with that Mud-blood?" Daphne asked with an annoyed expression. Even though she wouldn''t give up to Draco so easy, she still liked the compliments and flirting, Draco did with her. Today she was hoping to spend the class with Draco as usual but seeing that mud-blood taking her Draco, she was pissed. (Since you all are fan of Daphne, you all will probably be pissed, but since I am going according to the book in most things, you should know that Daphne is more or less the same as Pansy, maybe even worst as Daphne was like the lackey for Pansy, similar to Crabbe and Goyle along with another girl. Daphne is also one of the pureblood supremacists since she comes from one of the oldest pureblood families. If you guys still want Daphne, I will try to change her character later on and don''t expect it to be sooner either as I want to take it as realistically as possible, unlike other novels, I won''t go to the whole... I will punish you if you don''t change fiasco (IDK there are some cringey novels that I read), change takes time, so tell me if you still want Daphne or not.) "Hmph! who knows maybe that Mud-blood, used some dark magic to attract Draco." Snorted Pansy. "It''s love" Said Theodore from the side, gaining a pissed off look from the girls. "It was a joke." "But seriously, if you guys keep using the word ''Mud-Blood'' Draco would probably start to hate you." "Why?" Asked Daphne surprised, since they just became friends a couple of days ago, she still doesn''t know much about Draco. "It''s his thing." Replied Pansy, "He is just too kind, he doesn''t hate Mud.. Muggle-born." "Isn''t he the same as us?" Asked Daphne "Then what about you Theodore." "Me?" Theodore said, "I just don''t care to be honest, maybe because I was hanging out with Draco since I was very young, I was probably influenced by him. Besides Muggles are very interesting and Muggle-born Wizards are even more interesting since they can live both a muggle''s life and wizards." "Interesting?" Daphne looked confused as she glanced at Draco''s back. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The bell rang and the class started, The teacher hadn''t arrived yet so all of them were chattering with their friends, or they all thought so. But the cat on top of the desk didn''t fool Draco at all. "We should all be self-studying before the teacher arrives instead of being a chatterbox." Hermione said looking around. "Oh! Who told you the teacher hasn''t arrived yet?" Draco said looking at Hermione. "What do you mean?" Asked Hermione with a confused look. Draco didn''t say anything and faced forward looking at the cat, Hermione looked shocked, "Do you mean?" Just as she spoke our savior and his lanky tall red-headed friend finally arrived, "We made it." Ron said, "Can you imagine the look on McGonagall''s face if we were late." As soon he said that the cat in front of them suddenly transfigured into Professor McGonagall as she appeared in front of Ron''s face. Everyone looked amazed except Draco. "That was bloody brilliant." Said Ron with his face wide open. "Oh! Thank you for the assessment, Mr. Weasley, perhaps it will be more useful if I transfigure you and Mr. Potter into a pocket watch." Professor McGonagall said sarcastically, "That way maybe one of you will be in time." "We got lost." Said, Harry. "Perhaps a Map, I trust you don''t need one to find your seats," McGonagall said as she walked towards Draco. "Mr. Malfoy, you were the only one who found that I was an animagus." McGonagall said shocking some people, "Can you tell me how?" ''Well, I watch the movies, you know?'' "There are only 7 known registered Animagi in the world, and I knew you were one of them." Draco replied casually, "Very Well." Replied McGonagall not as impressed, Draco shrugged his shoulders, he was here to learn and not to impress her, and even if he did want to, he couldn''t come up with an excuse other than that for knowing that she is an animagus. Soon she walked up in front of the class, "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn''t wait to get started. Even Draco was impressed by her. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. Draco sighed and waved his wand around and started pouring dense mana into it, The match slowly turned into a golden needle with some designs on it, like his wand. Professor McGonagall who was walking around looking at her student''s work was surprised. "Marvelous, Mr. Malfoy." She commented looking at the needle. "This is one of the finest work, I have seen a first year do." She said showing the class the needle. "5 points to Slytherin." Hermione looked at Draco''s needle in frustration, "Need some help?" Draco said. Hermione just glared at him for a while and continued working on her match. "Sigh! when you put magic into the match, can you feel it?" Draco said, "The magic transferring from your hand to your wand?" Hermione looked at him and nodded. "Good, now is the easier part. Since you are from a muggle school... your imagination and information on science are quite high I assume, so put that into use." Hermione nodded and started doing her own work. Draco only gave her a hint as judging from her character, she wouldn''t appreciate if he taught her everything. Draco could only be considered fairly decent at transfiguration since he still couldn''t transform things into living animals yet, every time he tries to do it he just falls into an existential crisis about how a non living thing could be transformed into a living breathing animal, Magic you might say but that still doesn''t help since you need to understand the core of transfiguration to perform the magic itself, so every time Draco tries to perform a transfiguration spell he always somehow end of questioning, what is life? By the end of the lesson, only Hermione and Theodore had made any difference to their match to which the Professor complimented them. The Next class was Defense Against the Dark, Quirrell''s lessons turned out to be a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he''d met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren''t sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban. Draco was trying to hold his laughter back the whole time, ''Voldemort must be really desperate to get the stone.'' He was wondering how he was doing inside the Turban with this idiot running around, blabbing non-sense all day. 11 Potions Today was Friday, and they had potions with Gryffindors. Draco, Theodore, Pansy, and Daphne were having their breakfast when hundreds of owls flew in into the Great Hall. Owlbert dropped a package on Draco''s lap and landed near the table. Draco didn''t need to worry about Owlbert a lot since he was a great trained hunter even before Lucius bought him and didn''t need to be fed by him all the time. Since Draco had let him out on the first day, he has been traveling back and forth from Hogwarts to his home. Draco petted Owlbert first, then opened up his package. The package was filled with his favorite sweets and a letter from his mother telling him to eat properly and not worry about home. She even talked about Crabbe and Goyle, it seems their parents were very angry and next year they would return back home. Narcissa was hopeful that with Lucius influence both of them could go to Durmstang. ''No wonder, they always look lost.'' Draco thought, even though he had not seen them too often, Draco could tell something was wrong with them. Draco wanted to go and console them but he knew he wasn''t in a position to do so, as it was most likely his fault. As he was reading the letter Theodore put his hands inside the package and picked out a few candies and pocketed them. Draco glared at Theodore who was eating his breakfast as if nothing had happened. Draco rolled his eyes and didn''t say anything. "Draco, will you sit next to me in the potion class?" Daphne said suddenly, Theodore expression didn''t change but Pansy was glaring daggers at her. "Oh! May I ask why?" Draco asked in a teasing tone. "I am not really good at potions and I don''t wanna mess it up." Daphne said innocently, "Draco, you know I am not good at potions either." Pansy said giving Draco puppy eyes. "Yeah! But last night you said that Draco taught you Potion for a month, didn''t you?" Daphne said looking at Pansy "And I heard Theodore is also very talented in potions as well, so you can partner up with him." Pansy was gritting her teeth looking at Daphe like a wildcat. "Oh! you still haven''t paid the debt, and you want me to teach you?" Draco said with a smirk. Out of nowhere, Daphne who was beside Draco reached over and kissed his cheeks, "Will you sit next to me in potion class now?" Daphne asked with a red face. Draco who was stunned just nodded subconsciously. Daphne smiled as she covered her face and ran away. Suddenly there was a slam on the desk, Pansy picked up her book and started walking away. "Didn''t expect that she had it in her, did you?" Theodore asked and Draco nodded. "She is more shrewd and clever than you think." "And now you made Pansy mad." Theodore said laughing, "Your charm still isn''t enough to row two boats at the same time, thankfully your bossy muggle-born girlfriend isn''t here." Draco just sighed and didn''t say anything. Draco didn''t know why Pansy was so angry, it was just a kiss in cheek, but he was a little concerned about her since he really considered her a friend and he had never seen her angry with him before. Theodore stood up and walked away, "Don''t worry, I will talk to her." Draco nodded, he wasn''t really experienced in this kind of situation, so someone mediating the situation was useful. Draco sat there eating his meal alone when suddenly a loud thud came in front of him. Draco was a bit startled, he looked at Hermione who was in front of him. She casually sat on the chair, like it was normal. Draco could feel the stares of some of the Slytherin student so he awkwardly chuckled, "You really aren''t afraid are you?" "Why would I be?" She replied. "Can''t you see the Snakes are glaring at you?" Draco said "Oh aren''t you a snake, yourself?" Hermione snickered "And besides I came to show you this." Hermione took out a half golden and wooden needle. "Oh, impressive." Draco said looking at the needle, "That''s a lot of improvement." "Well I studied all day after school in the library and soon I finally got some understanding of the words you said." Hermione said, "So I wanted to Thank you." "Oh! but I don''t need a Thank you." Draco said thinking for a while. "How about a favor?" "What do you want?" Hermione narrowed her eyes. "I want you to give me your history and astronomy notes for the whole year." Draco said smiling. "What?" Hermione said, "No, I am not giving you my homework." "Eh! But that''s all I need." Draco said "No! you should do your work yourself." Hermione then proceeded to give Draco a long lecture. "If you want then we can study together and I will help you out, but that''s all." Draco eye''s lit up as he smiled, "Sure, then we can meet up in the library after school." Hermione thought for a while and nodded. "Also, I can give you my Potion and Herbology''s note, since I am not as selfish as you." "I don''t need it." She said standing up and walking away. Draco sighed, He then turned his eye''s to the front. ''Oh! looks like he got hooked with the robbery at Gringotts.'' Draco smiled looking at Harry who was reading a newspaper in his hand with a complicated expression, his plan was finally set into motion. After that Draco also walked away from the hall. Draco met Pansy outside the potion class and it looked like she wasn''t mad at him anymore, since she talked to him normally. Draco was glad as Pansy and Theodore were the first people who Draco really considered friends after he arrived in this world, so he didn''t want to lose them. Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and is quite creepy with the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. Draco wasn''t the one to complain since his lab was very similar. Draco as discussed earlier sat next to Daphne who was still blushing about the kiss, seeing her face Draco couldn''t help but tease her. Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry''s name. "Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new -- celebrity." Draco looked at Harry as Pansy and Theodore chuckled at the back. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. Snape''s cold and empty eyes stared down at the students. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word, like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don''t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren''t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." (If you read this without Alan Rickman''s voice in your head then something is really wrong with you.) More silence followed this little speech. Hermione was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn''t a dunderhead. ''She is really too cute.'' Thought Draco glancing at her. This didn''t escape Daphne as she started muttering things underneath her breath. "Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione''s hand had shot into the air. "I don''t know, sir," said Harry. Snape''s lips curled into a sneer. "Tut, tut -- fame clearly isn''t everything." He ignored Hermione''s hand. ''Ah! poor Hermione.'' Draco thought feeling bad for her. Looking at the girl who wants to prove herself so bad, Draco can''t help but fall in love. "Let''s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn''t have the faintest idea what a bezoar was... "I don''t know, sir." "Thought you wouldn''t open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Draco could see Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys'', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi? Snape was still ignoring Hermione''s quivering hand. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling. "I don''t know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don''t you try her?" A few people laughed;Snape, however, was not pleased. "Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "Mr. Malfoy, can you tell Mr. Potter here the answer." ''Why me? You are making me look like the bad guy, you know.'' Draco reluctantly stood up as he answered, "Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." Draco answered all the question with additional information. Most people weren''t surprised since Draco was a well-known genius in the potion. "Excellent, Mr. Malfoy." Snape said showing an ugly smile "10 points to Slytherin." He then turned to look at everyone back with his grim face, "Well? Why aren''t you all copying that down?" There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter." Things didn''t improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. Looking at Gryffindors face even Draco felt bad, but he still felt a bit nice being favored. Theodore and Pansy were very satisfied too as they always felt that Harry was favored by other professor''s a lot. As planned Draco and Daphne paired up together. Creating the potion wasn''t hard as Draco was very familiar with it. Daphne just sat there and watched as Draco was explaining things to her while making the potion himself. Soon the potion was finished, Draco had used some catalyst, that he had researched himself, which made the process faster. The process of making the potion was very easy. 1) Add crushed snake fangs to your cauldron and stir. 2) Slice your Pungous Onions finely and place in the cauldron, then heat the mixture. 3) Add dried nettles. 4) Add a dash of Flobberworm mucus and stir vigorously. 5) Add a sprinkle of powdered ginger root and stir vigorously again. 6) Add pickled Shrake spines. 7) Stir gently, so as not to overexcite the Shrake spines. 8) Add a glug of stewed horned slugs. 9) Add porcupine quills. 10) Finally, wave your wand over the cauldron to finish the potion. Snape swept around in his long black cloak, as he came near Draco. Snape picked up the blue colored potion, Draco had made with a smile. "Very Good, Mr. Malfoy." he said, "10 points to Slytherin." Daphne looked very happy at the finished potion as she kept complementing Draco. Draco smiled awkwardly since he could feel Gryffindor''s hateful gaze. As they were chatting, clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing suddenly filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus''s cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people''s shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs. ''How could you fu*k up a potion, with the damn instruction right in front of you.'' Draco was now a 100% sure that Neville had an IQ of a monkey, No, a monkey might be more intelligent. This made Draco dislike Neville more, Neville who''s parents were tortured by Death Eaters to the point where they don''t even remember their own son, was a complete waste to his parent''s sacrifice. Most people would want revenge or want to find a way to cure them but no he was too busy being dumb. No wonder his Grandmother keeps getting angry at him. "Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. "Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville. "You -- Potter -- why didn''t you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he''d make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That''s another point you''ve lost for Gryffindor." Draco sighed not even pitying Harry this time, because Neville reminded him of Harry, Even with the whole Order of Pheonix guiding him throughout life, literally paving a path for him to be a Hero. Harry was still the same, even after finding out about his parent''s murder and the killer was out there looking to kill him, Harry other than getting curious and nosy time and time again did nothing much to improve, instead he hid all his insecurities and put all his trust to best friend Ron and ran around being idiots. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From now on I will only post a chapter a day. 12 Library The class was cut short and everyone went to their common room. Theodore and Daphne were out looking for books in the library for the transfiguration homework. So Draco and Pansy were alone in the common room. "What happened Draco?" Pansy asked with a bit of concern in her voice. "Sigh! Nothing, just the whole idiotic things, I have seen today made me kinda annoyed." Draco said. "Oh! The savior and Toad boy?" "Yeah! Them." "Why are you ruining your mood for them?" Pansy said sitting next to Draco, caressing his hair. "Sigh! I don''t know, I just... can''t seem to understand them, I guess. Are they different from me because their life was hard and they just want to find happiness in whatever they can, so they don''t want to fight back or are they just plain idiots." Draco said looking at Pansy who was caressing his hair, "Umm... Pansy, what are you doing?" "Aunt Narcissa, always did it to you, to calm you down." Pansy said while blushing, "And before we came here, she told me to do it to you, whenever you get irritated since she wouldn''t be around." Draco nearly choked on what she said, ''What in Merlin''s name is mother thinking!'' "Hey, are you still mad about this morning?" Draco asked. "No, not really." Pansy said with a bit hesitant voice. "You know, it was just a kiss in cheek." Draco himself didn''t understand why he said that, but now he had already opened his mouth. "I know, but I still want to be your first in everything." Pansy said with determination. "Oh! in everything?" Draco asked in amusement. "Yes, Everything." Pansy said but as soon as she said that she turned red realizing what she had just said. "You know, Daphne isn''t the first to kiss my cheeks." "Who is the first one?" She asked getting a bit angry, looking at her, you can guess she would probably cast a curse on the person who had his first kiss. "My mother." Draco said innocently. "Hey, that doesn''t count." Pansy said getting annoyed at his teasing. Draco looked at the time and stood up, It was already the time to meet up with Hermione in the library. (Guessing there is some sort of clock there since classes are scheduled at certain times.) "Where are you going?" She asked. "I have a study date with Hermione." Draco said Pansy looked very angry this time as she was gritting her teeth, ''How dare that Mudblood'' she thought. Draco looked at her and he figured, what she might be thinking, so he went near her and kissed her cheeks suddenly. Pansy who was fuming up getting angry suddenly looked like a deflated ball as Draco kissed her. Draco looked at her with a gentle smile, "You are my first kiss.. on the cheeks, so calm down okay." Pansy like Draco in the morning subconsciously nodded, Draco''s face turned serious as he looked deeply into her eyes, "Pansy, You know what I hate and like, don''t you?" Pansy seeing the serious Draco nodded, "Except for Theodore you are my only friend that I have trusted with some of my secrets, (Talking about the suitcase and some of the potion formulas) So I hope you won''t do something that will make me hate you, okay?" Pansy narrowed her eyes a little as she looked into Draco''s, "I won''t." She said resolutely. "Thank you." Draco said walking away giving a gentle smile, ''Sigh! trying to change a person, who has been taught to hate since birth is really hard.'' Draco thought to himself. Draco struggled a bit to get to the library but going around here and there, and asking people for directions, he finally reached there. "Sigh! I really need a map." As soon as Draco walked into the library, the librarian Madam Irma Pince glared at him viciously. Draco was slightly scared by her gaze so he tried his best to avoid it, he looked around and finally found Hermione. Draco went over and sat next to Hermione, "Why are you late?" Hermione asked. "I thought you weren''t going to come." "Oh! How could I not come, when Ms. Granger is the one who called me." Draco said smiling, "So what are you reading?" "Potions" Hermione said closing her book, "And I didn''t call you, You came to me for help. Also, how did you finish your potions so quick in the class." "It''s a secret." Draco said gaining a glare from Hermione, "I added a catalyst to the mixture, so I could make the heating process quicker." "What''s the catalyst... you know what don''t tell me." "Hey, I was only joking you know... and it''s just a stupid potion. The catalyst is Moon.." "Stop!" Hermione said. "I don''t need it, you will probably ask me for another favor if you tell me the catalyst, so I am fine without knowing about it." Draco sheepishly smiled, "Oh! you know me so well, Ms. Granger." "Quit your flirting you two!" Theodore and Daphne came out of nowhere. Draco turned around, "Did you find what you were looking for?" "Yeah!" He said waving a book around in his hand. Daphne looked at both of them with complex emotion, "What are you doing here, Draco?" She asked ignoring Hermione. "You know I am bad at astronomy and history, right?" Draco said, "Ms. Granger here is doing me a favor, by helping me with it." Daphne glanced at Hermione as she clenched her fist, She wanted to say, that she will teach those things to him, but she knew that she wasn''t very good at it herself, so she just kept quiet. Theodore sighed, "You are really good at it." "No, I am not." Draco replied innocently, "You know, How much I hate remembering the name of stars and dates." "Sigh! That''s not what I am talking about." Theodore said sitting opposite to Draco. "Oh, by the way, do you know why the librarian here seems to hate me?" Draco asked. "I don''t think she hates you." Hermione replied, "She is like that to everyone." "Maybe, he''s an exception," Theodore said. "What do you mean?" "Well, with his reputation of being a genius young wizard, who has a short temper; who nearly burned the sorting hat on his first day and tried to attack Ms. Norris a couple times within a week." Theodore said smirking, "Why do you think Madam Pince here, who is very over-protective of the books in the library would be wary of you?" "Che, I don''t have a short temper. I just hate annoying things, that''s all." Draco said pouting, "And besides I am not that stupid, that I would destroy the books in the library for no reason at all." "Are you sure?" Theodore said causing everyone to laugh out. Even Hermione chuckled a little. Theodore stood up from his seat, "Okay, I won''t disturb you two now." Daphne looked at Draco then at Hermione, "I will see you in the common room, Draco." After both of them were gone, Draco and Hermione started studying seriously. Hermione was surprised by Draco''s different way of thinking, even though he fooled around a lot when he was seriously studying he had a different air around him. With his quick understanding, teaching him wasn''t as difficult as Hermione thought it would be. "Hey, you are clearly good at studying, you can probably do very well just depending on the classes, can''t you?" Hermione said walking out of the library. "I never said, I was bad at it." Draco said, "And you are really a good teacher too, I would rather study with you than that ghost we call the professor, I want to fall into an eternal slumber just hearing his voice." Hermione nodded, "Since you don''t need much help, I will only teach you every Friday after classes." "Sure!" Draco said, and both of them parted ways. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today was flying lessons, also known as Broom Flight Class. The approach of this class was heavily anticipated by all students, who often told exaggerated tales of past flying achievements. Of course, you could tell that they were mostly bluffing. Draco had tried riding a broom in the past since his father wanted him to join Quidditch. Draco was excited at first but after looking at the broomstick, he was severely discouraged; sitting on that stick for hours would be a real pain in the ass, he thought. But to his amazement, the broom''s were enhanced with cushioning charms, which made the whole experience different than he thought it would be. So with comfortable riding, he went out for a ride on his broom, but the higher he went the more afraid he got. Even though the seat was comfortable and the broom didn''t shake much when flying, the fact that there was no protection was still a problem for Draco. He couldn''t believe how people could play a dangerous game called Quidditch on the broom, with little to no protection at all. Just a moment of carelessness and you would be falling towards the ground from your broom to your doom. Draco would sometimes play games with Theodore when he had time, the game was similar to the muggle version of catch but it was played on the broom with a magically enhanced ball instead. Draco was not the best at flying but he could do it none the less. Among all the bragging first years, you could clearly see the nervous Harry, Neville, and Hermione. Harry being Harry was uncomfortable and overthinking things, like he always did. It was as if he was begging to be made fun of, no wonder the original Malfoy always did. The relation between Draco and Harry wasn''t good as the first day they met. In fact, they didn''t even have a simple conversation ever since they got off the train. Draco didn''t really care much about it since things would be better this way. Draco didn''t want to get in the way of Dumbledore''s plan, and with his identity as Lucius''s son, being friends with Harry would be very suspicious as well. On the Slytherin''s table no one was nervous at all, instead, they were sharing stories of their first flight. Daphne and Pansy were chatting about their own flying experience and Theodore was sitting there reading his book. At three-thirty that afternoon, Draco, Theodore, Pansy, Daphne, and the other Slytherins hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. The Slytherins were the first to arrive, there were twenty old broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. The Gryffindor''s came soon after. Draco waved at Hermione, who waved back. Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. Draco looking at her eyes wondered if she was really a human or maybe a hybrid. "Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." Draco looked at the brooms and sighed, ''I really need to talk to father about this.'' Dumbledore was basically spending the school fund''s else were while fooling the school Governors that the school was in top condition. He didn''t want to sound like the real Malfoy, but looking at the brooms, the money is clearly being wasted somewhere else. Even though Voldemort is both their mutual enemy, Draco would never consider Dumbledore as an ally. Dumbledore has and always will be a potential enemy in Draco''s mind, so funding the enemy with your own money and making the enemy stronger is the stupidest thing Draco could think of. "Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say ''Up!"'' "UP" everyone shouted. From the Slytherin''s side, Draco''s and Pansy''s broom jumped into their hands at once. Theodore could do it on the second try and Daphne was still trying her hardest. On Gryffindor''s side, other than Harry whose broom jumped to his hand on the first try, the remaining were struggling to get the broom to come up in their hand. 13 Flying After everyone got their broom. Madam Hooch then showed them, how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Madam Hooch corrected Draco''s posture since it was a little off. Draco didn''t know why Ron and Harry were snickering at it but he just kept quiet and didn''t say anything. Madam Hooch surprisingly complimented Pansy, since her form was perfect. "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle -- three -- two --" But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch''s lips. "Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle -- twelve feet -- twenty feet. Draco saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away. Theodore and Pansy looked at Draco, who to their surprise was there just humming a tune. "Aren''t you going to save him?" Theodore whispered. Draco just looked at him for a second and went back to humming. Theodore didn''t say anything after that. Then everyone saw Neville gasp, slip sideways off the broom and -- WHAM -- a thud and a nasty crack and Neville laid face down on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight. Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his. "Broken wrist," Draco heard her mutter. "Come on, boy -- it''s all right, up you get.". She turned to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you''ll be out of Hogwarts before you can say ''Quidditch.'' Come on, dear." Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him. "So why didn''t you save him, Mr kind guy." Said, Theodore. Pansy was also looking at Draco wanting to know why. "Well the teacher too could have saved him but she just stood there, so why should I?" Draco shrugged his shoulders, "Besides he needed to learn a lesson, to not be an air-head all the time. And I also wanted some revenge for my shoes, since his potion burned it." Theodore snickered, "It was just for the shoes, wasn''t it?" "Well, it was the first gift Pansy gave me, but he ruined it." Draco said with a stoic face. Pansy blushed hearing that and she started fidgeting, Theodore laughed hearing that reason. Some Slytherin students looking at that joined in, thinking they were actually making fun of Neville. Suddenly Millicent Bulstrode, a girl who Draco remembered to be Pansy''s other roommate said, "Did you see his face, the great lump?" The other Slytherins started to laugh harder. ''Eh! Why does this situation seem bad!'' Draco was confused. "Shut up, Millicent," snapped Parvati Patil. "Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Daphne. "Never thought you''d like fat little crybabies, Parvati." Theodore quickly went to pull Daphne back, as he too felt that they were getting into some misunderstanding. But it was already too late, the Slytherins were already laughing their ass off and the Gryffindor''s faces were ugly. "Give that back, Parkinson!" Suddenly Ron''s voice came. Draco looked at Pansy who was picking Neville''s Remembrall. The whole ground was quiet as Draco, went over. "I was just picking it up." Pansy explained to Draco, she didn''t want him to misunderstand. Draco didn''t say anything but just smiled signaling her that he understands. "Lies." Ron raised his voice, "Don''t think, I don''t know about you Slytherins, you probably want to steal it." All the Slytherins were irritated as they glared at Ron like hungry wolves. Pansy was getting angry as well but to her surprise, Hermione came in front of them, "Ron, I think she just wanted to give the Remembrall back to Neville, don''t make it a big deal." Pansy looked at Hermione and didn''t say anything, "Why are you supporting them we are all Gryffindor''s, remember."Ron whose face looked ugly now glared at Hermione, "Oh! I forgot you are also a supporter of the so-called genius." Ron has been frustrated with Draco and his friends for days now. They do everything without any consequences and they still keep getting praised for it. Ron was insecure about other Slytherin students making fun of him and his new friend Harry. And he blamed it all on Draco. Draco, yes.. he was the center of all of it. Even though he only hung out with three of his friends, he knew how every Slytherin students respected him deep inside, The Slytherins were proud that Draco was in their house like how Gryffindor''s were with Harry. Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students were fine with Draco and they all wanted to be friends with him. Because of him... Harry was getting pressured by other students. Even though no one said anything they could feel it. They could hear people talking how the Great Harry Potter wasn''t anything, he was just a stupid boy with a weird scar. Harry wasn''t affected by this rumors instead he was glad that people''s expectations of him were getting low but Ron was different. He blamed Draco, for affecting his friend''s influence.The last potion class multiplied all the complains he was carrying about Draco. Snape their professor, hated Gryffindor especially Harry but favored Draco in every way and what more, the professor didn''t need to cross a line, Draco was perfect himself, so Snape only had to throw bad comments at Gryffindor and keep praising Draco. The other person he was pissed at was Hermione, even though he didn''t like her very much due to her bossy tone but seeing her act friendly with a Slytherin student made him dislike her even more. To add to the complain, Hermione''s bossy tone seems to be gone in front of Draco as she spoke normally with him. This made Ron feel that Hermione was looking down on him and Harry for not being as talented as her and Draco. And today he saw one of Draco''s lackey trying to steal Neville''s Remembrall but even though he caught her red-handed, Hermione still seems to believe in Slytherins lies that a fellow Gryffindor. "I--" Hermione wanted to say something but under the glare of other Gryffindors, she couldn''t. Draco seeing this was extremely annoyed, "Enough! Weasley." He said with a powerful tone. "Do you think if you keep barking in front of me, I would just stand still and listen to whatever insults you throw at me and my friends. This is the last warning I will give you, Weasley; because next time I will throw you straight into the lake." The Slytherin students impressed by Draco, stood behind him in support; glaring at Weasley with a nasty smirk. Ron seeing their faces couldn''t help but step back a little. Draco didn''t want to waste his time on them, so he started walking away. But he stopped, hearing Harry''s voice. "Then give it back!" Draco gave a glare at Harry with his cold blue eyes, "Oh! Mr. Savior, please don''t bother with us. As you probably listened to what my friends just said, We will give it back to Mr. Longbottom when he comes out of the hospital." Draco then started walking away with the Slytherin students smirking. Draco didn''t want to bother with him, He simply could have given the Remembrall back, but this was about Pansy and his pride. "I said give it back, Malfoy." Harry said under the support of other Gryffindor''s. Harry couldn''t just sit there while his friend was insulted. Hermione just stood there neither supporting any sides. Draco smirked, he now wanted to just destroy the Remembrall to show Mr. Savior here that he wasn''t someone he could boss around. But then he suddenly remembered Quidditch. In the books, Harry got to be in the Gryffindor Quidditch team, because of the whole Remembrall situation. ''Maybe I should steal the only things he likes in school, Quidditch as a punishment. But again, I am just delaying it... since after the first year, students can participate in Quidditch themselves and with Harry''s talent he was sure to be selected. But then again, if I interfere with this it may disturb my plans.. since he wouldn''t get suspicious of Snape.'' Draco thought things through, and he turned his back to face Harry. Draco looked at Pansy and said, "Give me the Remembrall, will you?" Pansy nodded and passed the ball to him, She and Theodore were sure that Draco will likely destroy the ball. "Then Mr. Potter how about we have a challenge." Draco said smiling. "What challenge?" Harry asked getting cautious. Theodore and Pansy were surprised as well wondering what was going through the head of his. Draco casually threw the ball in the air and caught it, with one of his hands holding the broom, "A simple challenge, I will throw the ball high up in the air, and as it begins to fall we will both compete to catch it on our brooms, and whoever does catch it is the winner, How about it?" Harry nodded, Pansy, came forward and said, "Let me do it since the problem occurred because of me." "Silly girl." Draco said flicking her head with his fingers, but he nodded none the less. She was doing this to keep her pride and Draco wasn''t going to stop her either. "So how about it Mr. Boy-who-lived, you vs Pansy." "I want to fight against you." Harry said. "Oh! Afraid of a girl are you, Mr. Savior." Pansy said, "Don''t worry, I will be kind enough to not leave a scar." When it comes to comebacks, Pansy was way better than Draco. The result could be seen in Harry''s face. "Fine!" Harry said gritting his teeth. Draco smirked, The Slytherin students and Gryffindor backed off a little surrounding them in a circle. Draco in the center and Harry and Pansy in each corner on their broom. Hermione suddenly came in front of him, "No! Draco" Hermione came in front of Draco. "Madam Hooch told us not to move -- you''ll get us all into trouble." Draco looked at Hermione and smiled, "Hermione, there is one thing you should understand, Pride is and always will be greater than rules." Saying that he floated up and stopped in mid-air. Harry and Pansy got ready on their broom to fly up any second. Draco was smirking while holding the ball as he was secretly pouring a large quantity of Mana into it. He threw the ball in his hand high in the air, then he spun in nearly 90-degree angle hitting the falling ball with the tail of his broom shooting it high up in the air. "Go" He shouted and both Pansy and Harry shot up in the air. Draco landed on the ground with some shocked faces looking at him. Daphne came up to him and said, "Wow! Draco, I didn''t think you would be great at flying as well." Draco didn''t say anything and just smiled. He looked at Hermione who was glaring at him but as soon as he looked towards her she turned her head up to look at the match between Harry and Pansy. Theodore came over and looked at Draco, "This is really different from you." Draco was looking up so he didn''t bother looking at Theodore''s face, "Oh! How so?" "Normally you would have thrown the ball far away or just destroyed it when Harry kept nagging. Since you are short tempered and childish." Theodore said, "But you came up with this competition instead, I don''t know if you have matured or you just got more annoying." "Maybe both." Draco replied with a slight smile. ------------------------------------------------------------------ As soon as Draco said, "Go" both Harry and Pansy shot up towards the sky with great speed. Draco was surprised seeing Pansy''s talent in flying as she was going head to head with Mr. Savior who had a plot armor consisting of Flying genes, (I was always confused about Harry''s talent in flying as he was able to defeat Malfoy by catching the remembrall with a smooth drive. Harry comes out of nowhere with no information about brooms other than things what the teacher told the class a minute ago. I can see Magical talent being passed from his father or mother but seeing flying talent supposedly being passed is what I consider a plot armor, just to move the story forward. Even if you have natural talent, without any information about flying properly {Neville crashed before the teacher could teach anything about flying.} It seems impossible to me in any situation where he could pull that off.. Sorry Just a rant... I needed to get that off of my chest.) Pansy was reaching her hand towards the ball when suddenly, Harry got ahead of her slowly. Pansy gritted her teeth as she tried her hardest to reach the Remembrall. Harry who was in front got hold of the Remembrall but it quickly slipped from his hand. Pansy took the advantage and tried to catch the falling ball but seeing Harry was going to beat her to it, she kicked the ball with the tail of her broom shooting it up and forward. Both Pansy and Harry chased after the ball which was shooting of towards a tower. Seeing the ball about to crash into the wall, Harry quickly went in front doing a quick turn, kicking the ball away from the wall so it won''t crash and break. Pansy took the chance to catch the ball. But as soon as she did, Harry came flying forward straight for her, trying to dodge Pansy went sideways but her hand was hit by Harry''s knee causing the ball to fall down. Both Pansy and Harry seeing that did a quick dive trying to catch the ball. ------------------------------------------------------- Yo! since most people didn''t want Draco to play Quidditch... I had to give the power of Quidditch to someone else. Whether you like it or not, Quidditch has some importance to the story so I will need to involve Draco in some of it. 14 Fairness Both Harry and Pansy leaned forward and pointed their broom handle down -- next second they were gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball, mingled with the screams of people watching -- Harry stretched out his hand -- a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist. Pansy did a wonderful landing as well, but due to Harry being a split second faster, he won. "I win, Draco." Harry said. Draco shrugged his shoulders and went towards Pansy. The Gryffindor students except for Hermione rushed towards Harry and began cheering loudly. Ron even tried to carry Harry and was shouting the loudest. Similarly, the Slytherin students went towards Pansy. Pansy looked at Draco and said, "I am sorry, I lost." She wanted to take on Harry since the whole situation happened due to her picking up the Remembrall, but she didn''t think that she would lose to someone who has never even seen a broom in his life. ''If Draco was in my place, he definitely would have won.'' She thought "Are you an idiot?" Draco said, Pansy looked sad, ready to get some scolding but it never came. Draco slowly caressed Pansy''s hair, "You did your best, and I never knew you were so great at flying. I couldn''t have done better myself." "Yeah! that was awesome." Daphne and Millicent said holding Pansy''s hand. "Okay! I admit that it was slightly wicked." Theodore said smiling a little. "You guys!!" Pansy wanted to cry but more cheers from the Slytherin students came, "Yeah, it was really amazing the way you did that nosedive." "I think you will be a really awesome chaser." A boy said "No, I think she can be a great seeker." "Yeah, you should join the Quidditch team." Draco smiled looking at Pansy who was blushing slightly due to all the compliments. ''This is why I love Slytherin, we never accept defeat even when we lose.'' Hermione also went over towards Pansy and both of them smiled at each other in understanding. "HARRY POTTER!" "PANSY PARKINSON." Suddenly, Professor McGonagall came rushing toward them. Harry''s leg was trembling to see McGonagall and Pansy was a bit afraid as well. Draco held her hand and gave it a little squeeze, Pansy looked up at Draco''s face who was giving her a reassuring smile. Pansy felt calm seeing his smile and nodded at him. "Never -- in all my time at Hogwarts --" Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "-- how dare you both -- you could have broken your neck --" "It wasn''t his fault, Professor --" "Be quiet, Miss Patil "It was Malfoy''s plan to play the game." Suddenly Ron shouted and McGonagall glared at Draco who was standing there looking innocent. "You are too clever, Mr. Weasley" Theodore said with a surprised expression, "How could you blame others so easily, when you were the one who started the game... you challenged us, and we only accepted it because you kept insisting that Gryffindor were better than Slytherin. You even called us thieves." "Yeah! We are not afraid to admit our mistakes, Mr. Weasley." Daphne added looking righteous as well, "But we are not kind enough to take the blame for other people. You were the one who started it but now you blame Draco, such shamelessness." "Yeah! Yeah! it was him who started it." All the Slytherin student started putting the blame on Ron. "No, I wasn''t the one," Ron shouted back. All the Gryffindor student were surprised by the Slytherin''s shamelessness. "Enough!" Professor McGonagall said "Potter, you and Mr. Weasley come with me and Ms. Parkinson and Mr. Malfoy please wait here awhile, I will come here with your house head, Professor Snape. He will decide both of your punishment." This whole time Draco stayed silent and looked calm. "Follow me." Professor McGonagall said coldly. Harry glared at Malfoy, then threw the Remembrall towards Ron. "Can you hold it for me?" Ron nodded but as soon as he caught the Remembrall, it cracked and shattered into pieces. Professor McGonagall turned around to look at the shattered glass in Ron''s hand, "Be careful, Mr. Weasley." she said turning back again. Everyone was surprised as to why the Remembrall broke and they all looked at Draco. Draco''s innocent smile was slowly turning into a slightly evil grin, "Oh! How could you break the Remembrall that belonged to Mr. Longbottom? Mr. Weasley, I figured you were jealous of him having it but I didn''t think you would break it." The Slytherin understanding that it might be Draco''s doing, grinned from ear to ear, "I am surprised, with your sly behavior, you could have been a good Slytherin." Theodore commented "You.." Ron was clenching his fist in anger. Harry also looked angry but he couldn''t do anything right now, since McGonagall turned her back again with an angry expression, so both of them followed her giving an angry glare to Draco. After they were gone, Hermione came in front, "Why did you break it?" "I didn''t." Draco said tilting his head, Hermione narrowed her eyes, "Then why did you say that to him." "I was just pouring some salt in his wounds." Draco said, "Besides, the ball probably broke after all that fight." "Yeah! Hermione." Pansy surprisingly spoke with Hermione without a sarcastic tone, "I could feel the ball was already cracking a little when I hold it, and after Potter kicked the ball from my hand, it may have cracked even more, Maybe all it needed was a little push which was provided when Potter threw it towards Weasley." Listening to Pansy''s explanation, Hermione nodded slightly believing what Draco said. Theodore was the only one skeptical about it, He knew the ball wouldn''t break so easily but he didn''t say anything. Daphne was on the sideline looking at Pansy who was talking to Hermione with a surprised expression. The thing about his mana control was a secret which he wasn''t ready to tell anyone. Even if he wanted to do it, he wouldn''t be able to, as he himself didn''t know much about it. ''Sigh! Too much has happened, within these 11 days since the school started, I need to manage my time properly.'' Draco thought. "Poor Neville." Hermione said. "He broke his wrist and now his Remembrall which he got just today, broke as well." "Well, the broken wrist can be fixed with a potion so not a big deal, but the Remembrall was kinda my fault...I guess." Draco scratched his head, Even though he broke that Remembrall to satisfy his vanity against Potter, he still went a bit overboard. Since Neville wasn''t at fault. "I will find a way to make it up for him." "You better." Hermione said, "Well the Remembralls aren''t that expensive so I will buy him one." Draco said. Hermione glared at Draco with a ''Really?'' expression, "And maybe I will give him a nice gift on Christmas as an apology." Hermione finally nodded satisfied, "All that''s fine, but I didn''t think, you guys were so shameless though." Theodore laughed, "Are you talking about me? It was Weasley''s fault... we played a game under the consent of both parties, but he was the one to spill the beans, and put the blame on Draco. Really that red-headed Weasley has no sense of sportsmanship." "Hmph! His rat is probably more intelligent than him." Daphne snickered. ''Oh! How right you are Daphne!'' Draco thought to himself. Draco smiled and he looked at Hermione, "By the way, do you not have any friend in Gryffindor." "No... I have some friends." Hermione said looking awkward. "As Weasley said you are a Gryffindor. Remember you have to stay in the same room as them for 7 years so getting on their bad side, isn''t really a good thing. Like today no one from Gryffindor supported you and since you sided with us today... there might be some people in Gryffindor who might not like you." Draco said with a bit of concern, he didn''t want Hermione to get bullied by other Gryffindor students. "Hmph! You don''t have to worry about me." She said snorting a little, trying to hide her red ears, "You should worry about yourself, you might get expelled." "Yeah! Draco. What do we do?" Pansy asked she was blaming herself for the whole mess. "Don''t worry, even though we did break some rules... we didn''t cross the line too much as well." Draco said stretching his arms, "And besides Professor Snape won''t give us any harsh punishment either." As Draco said that, Filch came with an ugly smile on his face, "You both come with me, Professor Snape is calling for you." Draco waved others goodbye and walked behind Filch with Pansy, "Why are you so confident that they won''t expel us?" Pansy asked "Do you really think, Dumbledore will expel our dear little Mr. Savior." Draco said "You mean.." "Yup, since we got in trouble along with Potter, we are less likely to be expelled." Draco said, "Maybe that''s one benefit of being the friend of Mr. Savior, You might get punished but you won''t be expelled." "Sigh! Thank Merlin." Pansy said, "I didn''t know how I will face aunt Narcissa in the future if you got expelled because of me." "Don''t worry about me and it wasn''t your fault either." Draco rubbed her hair a little and said, "So have you thought about joining Quidditch." "Quidditch?" Pansy thought for a while, "I don''t know, I knew I was good at flying but I never thought I was this good myself, so I might join in the future. Besides, I can only join Quidditch, after our first year, so there is still a year remaining for me to decide." Draco looked at her, "Just so you know, I will support you if you ever joined the team." "Umm.." Pansy nodded, "Che...quit your whispering you two." Said Filch, "So finally getting punished huh, I knew this day would come sooner or later, you nasty little troublemaker." Pansy glared at Filch angrily but Draco, on the other hand, was calm. He knew that Filch hated him. Filch probably hated everyone in the school except for his cat. And due to there being repeated rumors about how Draco tried to murder his cat, Filch hated him more than any other students. Soon they arrived at Snape''s office. Filch knocked on the door, "Professor Snape, I have brought them, Troublemakers here." "Get in." Snape''s voice came in from inside. Filch opened the door and walked in with Draco and Pansy, Snape glared at them for a second before turning to look at Filch again, "I will have a talk with them now." Snape said to Filch. Filch nodded and walked outside not forgetting to give Draco a nasty stare before leaving, Snape''s office was a gloomy and dimly-lit room inside the school dungeons. The shadowy walls were lined with shelves of large glass jars filled with slimy, revolting things, such as bits of animals and plants, floating in potions of varying colors. Snape looked at Draco, "Care to explain." "Potter wanted to show his flying talent in front of everyone," Draco said shrugging his shoulders. Listening to what Draco said, Snape face turned sour, ''Hmph! Just like his idiotic father.'' He thought. "I won''t give you any punishment for now, so leave." Snape said. Pansy sighed in relief and started walking towards the door, but seeing Draco not following her she turned back. "I have something to talk with, Professor Snape." Draco said, "Wait for me in the common room." Pansy nodded and went outside closing the door. "What is it?" Snape said, "If you want to talk about potions, then we will have a conversation some other time." "It''s not that, Godfather." Draco said since no one was around he preferred to call Snape that, he has been calling him Godfather since he was young. "It''s about Potter." Snape stared at Draco, "Continue." "Potter similar to us didn''t get any punishment but was instead rewarded," Draco said. Snape glared at him signaling him to go on. "Potter was selected to be the next seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team." Snape face got a bit ugly, "Its impossible, he is a first-year student." "Yes he is, but he is also our dear Mr. Savior. I wouldn''t be surprised if Dumbledore favored him more than other students." Snape considered Draco''s word and asked, "How do you know about this?" "Peeves." Draco said, "Supposedly, Professor McGonagall took Harry to a senior''s class to meet someone name Oliver wood." Hearing the name, Snape eyes flinched a little. He knew that Wood was the captain of the Gryffindor''s Quidditch team. Draco continued, "And she took them to a class to discuss, Potter''s talent in becoming the next seeker of the Gryffindor''s team." "Peeves told you that?" Snape said with a little doubt. "No, he was singing it." Draco replied. All the things he said were the events that took place in the book, things might have gone a little bit differently but Draco was sure that Harry was going to become a seeker none the less. Snape mood was hard to describe, He had a mixture of emotions on his face. After a moment of silence, he turned to Draco once again, "So what do you have in mind?" "I want fairness." Draco said, "Since Potter could get rewarded for causing trouble then why can''t we." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Readers, I would love it if you stop guessing where the story is going. At least wait till the end of the volume to criticize, things you don''t like. It''s not that I hate criticism or anything, its just people are coming up with their own theory like, "Draco might do this." and "Draco might do that.", " Draco might lose to potter." When I haven''t written anything that will leave the impression of any of the weird situation you guys came up with. It''s not even criticism, it''s just weird. Just a complain, Do whatever you want.. I don''t care. 15 Youngest Seeker To my bored readers who want more Harry Potter in their life. fanfiction.net/s/4536005/1/Oh-God-Not-Again The protagonist is still Harry but from the future, it was a cool read. I will recommend other fan-fic that I found interesting, every week from now on. --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Oh! Do you want to play?" Snape asked looking at Draco. "No, not me but Pansy." Draco said, "She is way better than me and I believe she will be a great seeker." Snape narrowed his eyes, "Believe me, Godfather, Harry''s skill in being a seeker is very high... Today''s whole fiasco proved it. His manipulation of the broom was nearly perfect and considering today was the first time he got on the broom, his skill will only get sharper with good practice." Draco said, "But today Pansy went head to head with him, I can guarantee you that she will be much more fierce at being a seeker after some practice." Snape looked as if he was considering Draco''s word, So Draco quickly struck when the iron was hot, "If Pansy joins the Quidditch team, I will donate all the members in the Slytherin team, Nimbus 2000." Snape stood up, "Fine, If what you said is true, then I will talk to Dumbledore about it and I am sure he will understand. If not I will not let Potter be in the Team either." "Thank you! Godfather." "No need to thank me, but make sure that your friend is as good as you say she is." "She will not let you down." Draco and Snape got out of the office and went their separate ways. Draco went back to his room to write a letter and after writing it, he sent Owlbert out. Draco went back to the common room to find the first year students grouping up and chatting about today''s incident. "Glad to see you not punished!" Theodore said, Everyone, looked at Draco and opened a seat for him. "So what are you guys chatting about?" Draco said sitting at the center of the group. "You won''t believe this Draco." Daphne said, "Potter got to become the youngest Seeker in the history. He got accepted into the Gryffindor Quidditch team." "Hmph! Hypocrites!" Tracey Davis another roommate of Pansy spoke. "Yeah! I always knew Dumbledore was a bad influence like mother said but I didn''t believe it till now." Blaise Zabini said "I think due to Dumbledore being a former Gryffindor, he favors them more than other houses. Due to there always being a rivalry between our houses, Dumbledore probably hates us." Draco turned towards Blaise Zabini, even though he didn''t know much about him, his mother was someone he knew. She was the real-life Black-Widow. She was famously beautiful and married seven different wizards who each died under mysterious circumstances, leaving her with a large amount of gold from each husband. Draco wanted to meet her as she seemed like a very interesting person. "Can someone explain to me, what is going on?" Draco said, In the books, Potter becoming the youngest seeker wasn''t know to everyone. And it wasn''t a big deal even after everyone found out. "That red-headed friend of his is promoting his friend''s success. Telling everyone about it, and soon the news blew up! I heard the Gryffindor''s are celebrating, Potter being the next seeker in the Great Hall." Daphne explained to Draco. ''Oh! so it was that freckled creep.'' Draco thought to himself. Since in the original only Harry was with McGonagall he managed to keep it a secret for a while but today Weasley was with him. He probably wanted to show it off and told everyone about it, causing the news to blow up as it did. "Can we do something about it?" Millicent said "Yeah, Draco we must do something." Blaise added, "Today Pansy was great too, maybe we can get her to be in the Slytherin team as well." Pansy felt happy that all of them were supporting her, Draco looked at her and asked, "Pansy, if you get a chance to be the next seeker, would you do it?" Theodore suddenly smiled hearing that, "Oh! looks like our genius already has a plan." Everyone turned to look at Draco''s face who was smiling slyly. At the same time, captain of the Slytherin Team Marcus Flint walked in, "Which one of you is Pansy Parkinson?" He asked "I am" Pansy stood up. "Follow me, Professor Snape wants to talk to you." He said. Pansy looked at Draco who just smiled and nodded, signaling her to go with him. Pansy still looking doubtful went outside. Draco smiled knowing that his plan succeeded. "Hey! What did you do?" Daphne asked. Everyone was interested in what was going on. "Few of you may have guessed it already." Draco stood up, "Let''s go to the Great Hall." Some of them smiled guessing something. So with Draco in the front all the first year Slytherin students followed him. On their way, They heard ghosts talking about Harry being the youngest seeker in a century. The moment they walked in they could hear Ron''s annoying voice, "Harry became the youngest seeker in the century, so we should all do a toast." Everyone was clear that he was intentionally doing that to show off to Slytherins. Harry wasn''t saying anything but seeing his face you could tell that he was happy. The other Houses except Slytherin students gave a toast to Harry. On the Slytherin table, most people''s faces were ugly. Draco and the others coolly walked in and sat down on the bench. Draco could see that Ron was smirking at him. He didn''t need to say anything since his face clearly read, ''We won!''. Soon from the Great hall Marcus Flint and Pansy walked in. Pansy''s face was red, brimming with excitement. Marcus sat next to other Slytherin Players and began whispering things. Pansy was walking towards them smiling widely. But before she could speak, a lot of owls came into the hall carrying 4 huge boxes. The cheering stopped and everyone was looking at what was going on. Draco looked at Pansy and stood up. Each boxes were placed neatly on the different houses tables and the owls left. The boxes opened itself, Inside it were huge cakes. The cake was the expensive brand named Multi-Flavored-Cake, the reason it was named so, was because the cake was said to change flavors according to the person''s taste. So if a person like chocolate cakes, then the cake would taste like chocolates, due to it having all the flavors it was a very expensive cake. (I made it up.) The people who came from the wizarding community quickly recognized it and everyone was wondering what was going on. Draco pulled Pansy and walked in front of everyone. "Everyone, I have some news to share with you." Draco said loudly making sure everyone was listening to him, Ron was glaring at Draco wondering what was going on, "My dearest Friend, Pansy Parkinson today became the youngest female seeker in more than a century for the Slytherin''s team." Listening to that everyone was shocked, especially Ron. "How could she become a seeker?" "The same way Harry did." Replied Hermione not even looking at him. It was hard to tell what Harry was thinking since he was quietly sitting there, looking at Draco in front of him. Draco continued, "So to celebrate that, I bought everyone Multi-Flavored-Cake, so please enjoy it." All the tables cheered for Pansy except most Gryffindors. "Two young seekers, this year students are crazy." "Who cares, eat the cake and pray that they are not as good as our team." Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students started to whisper among themselves. Everyone then started eating the cake with a happy face since, with the Multi-Flavored-Cake, you could never go wrong. "Thank you, Draco." Said Pansy looking at Draco lovingly. She was proud finally finding something she was good at, Her two friends Theodore and Draco had things they were good at from the beginning, Theodore was talented in studying and potions and Draco was good at almost everything. She always felt a bit bad and left out because of it. Now she finally found something that she was good at, and she felt that she could finally walk toe to toe with her friends without being left behind. "No need to thank me." Draco said, "Besides I still have another surprise." Under the cheering of the Slytherin students, they sat back on the table, Draco again stood up, "I have another gift for the Slytherin''s Quidditch team." This time the announcement was only for the Slytherin''s table but that didn''t stop other houses to listen to what he had to say. "To congratulate my friend on her achievement, The Malfoy family is providing every one of the Slytherin Quidditch team with a Nimbus 2000." Everyone was shocked again. Nimbus 2000 was a very expensive broom and to give it to all the people on the team, it was simply outrageous. Students of other houses got nervous and envious since with better brooms there will be a better chance to win as well. Everyone on the Slytherin Quidditch team was extremely happy, some people who weren''t very happy with Pansy being the seeker now forgot all about it and happily welcomed her, and they began explaining her some responsibility that comes with it. Draco was confused when they started talking about responsibility, The Slytherin Quidditch team was the worst when it comes to rules, as they had no qualms with cheating and unsportsmanlike conduct. All the other team members looked like brutes, but being a seeker was a job for the light weighted so Pansy fit in perfectly. "Spending so extravagantly, huh!" Theodore said shoving a piece of cake in his mouth, "Let me pay for Half of the brooms." "Do you have enough money?" Draco said looking at him. "I am also a decent potion master, you know." Theodore said getting annoyed "My potions sell at a high price, so money isn''t a problem for me." "Your wish," Draco said. On the Gryffindor table, no was eating the cake, since some of them felt it was an insult and due to them the atmosphere was kinda heavy. But the Weasley twins came in joking about Draco being stupid enough to buy them a cake too and started eating it. With them eating a few other people who wanted to eat the cake joined in as well and the gloomy atmosphere was gone. Oliver wood started talking about training harder since their brooms weren''t up to standard. Draco invited Hermione over to their side to celebrate with them. Some Slytherins students weren''t happy about it but since Draco was the one who invited her no one said anything. All of them had a lot of fun cheering for Pansy. And the Gryffindors were doing the same with Harry as well. If one were to say, there wasn''t much jealousy between the group now. Some students felt that Draco wasn''t being rude, sharing the cake with them. They all felt that he was genuinely happy about his friend and wanted to share the joy with everyone. Harry who was mad about Neville''s Remembrall also didn''t feel that Draco was being malicious at all and was eating the cake with the other member of the Quidditch team discussing some strategy. There was only one gloomy person in the huge great hall today and that person was none other than Ron. 16 Duel Disclaimer: I wrote this chapter high on Mountain dew and it was the end of No Nut November, you get what I am trying to say, don''t you? Probably except for some lack of energy in the chapter.? 17 Duel PT.2 Harry and Ron were trying to sneak out of the Gryffindor''s common room when suddenly Hermione called out from behind. "Where are you two going?" Hermione asked making Harry and Ron jump, Ron looked at her annoyed, "Why do you care?" Harry shushed Ron, "Maybe we shouldn''t go!" "No, Harry... not showing yourself at a Duel is insulting to us. If we don''t show up all the Slytherins will gloat at us, calling us cowards." "Duel?" Hermione asked, "What Duel are you two talking about?" "I said go back." Ron said glaring at Hermione. "If you won''t tell me then I will complain it to your brother, Percy-- he''s a prefect, he''d put a stop to this.." Ron stiffened at Percy''s name, "Why do you care so much?" Asked Harry getting annoyed as well. "I don''t care about you two." Hermione said snorting, "I don''t want you to lose us more house points, Today you were lucky but your luck isn''t going to always be with you. Slytherins is already ahead of us and with your nagging, this evening, didn''t you want to compete against Slytherin. In the end, you don''t care about Gryffindor, you only care about yourselves, I don''t want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you''ll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells. and from Professor Binns since Draco isn''t good at History." Hearing Draco''s name both of them had a weird face, "Aren''t you a friend of Draco, why do you want him to lose?" Harry asked. "We are friends but the fact that we are from the different house doesn''t change, He and I both know this and since he isn''t petty like someone else, he doesn''t mind," Hermione said the last words looking at Ron. Harry looked as if he was considering things but Ron nagged again, "Harry let''s go." Seeing them Hermione guessed something, "Are you going to duel against Draco?" Harry and Ron turned stiff once again and looked back at Hermione, "Ha! I guessed correctly, didn''t I? Are you two stupid? Have you ever read the newspaper... Draco''s other strength than Potions is his spells. It was said in the Prophet Daily, that he could defeat peers his age easily when it comes to spells and dueling is one of his specialty, One year ago, In the ''All-England Wizarding Duelling Competition.'' The Winner Mary Kate who was 14 at the time won in the Age (10-15) group, but it was said that she had a secret duel against Draco and both of them ended up in a tie." (The competition does exist but there isn''t any information about it other than someone winning an award in the year 1430, so I made everything up under the name of the competition.) Hearing that both of them went silent, "The newspaper doesn''t really always tell the truth," Ron said getting a bit nervous, he said all those things to Draco in a fit of anger and jealousy but in reality, he didn''t know many spells at all. "Yeah! But are you willing to risk it." Hermione added. Harry didn''t know much about Duelling but hear he managed to end up in a tie with a 14-year-old when he was 10 was already an amazing thing for Harry who was new to the wizarding world. Ron, on the other hand, knew the significance of the award and was regretting it all now. Ron took a long breath, "We still have to go, Harry, losing is much better than not showing up at all." Hermione was amazed that Ron was still talking about it, "Are you sure you don''t have a couple of screws loose, I will talk to Draco, I am sure he will understand." Harry nodded to Ron as well, "I hate to say this but I think she is right Ron, we will only be making a fool of ourselves going there. Heck! I didn''t even know what dueling was an hour ago." Ron shook his head, "No Harry, you don''t understand the wizarding world... I initiated the challenge and if I don''t show up its considered as a mark of cowardice. We will be a laughing stock if the words get out." Harry looked at Ron and sighed, Ron was his first friend so he couldn''t let him down. "Fine! Let''s go. We can give up before things get serious." Hermione was looking at them, considering if they were really stupid like Pansy always said, but she didn''t say anything more to them. (If you are wondering why this chapter is more focused on Harry and Ron, here is the reason, 1) I ended up making Ron a villain too quickly, even though he has a jealous nature he has a good side too also don''t forget that he is only 11 right now. So I wanted to show that he isn''t always a piece of crap who keeps talking shit all the time and is always jealous. I don''t want my characters to be too one dimensional so I will show all of their perspective on things like this from time to time. 2) Similar to Ron, Harry is also the same. In fact, he is still a good guy (in a way). And I wanted to show his vulnerable side, which is him being unsure of what he wants to do. 3) I wanted to show how Hermione views Draco. 4) I wanted to add the concept of Duelling in the picture. If you are thinking why I am writing this long ass explanation, I don''t want people to whine about me not making Draco the focus of every chapter, and I want people to know that I will write chapters like this in the future where Draco won''t always be the focal point, to give other characters more personality. ?) --------------------------------------------------- Draco, Pansy, and Theodore reached the Trophy room hiding and looking out for Filch. Ron and Harry hadn''t arrived yet so they were looking at the Trophies. Draco was looking around when he found an award dedicated to James Potter for being the best Seeker. Draco knew that Harry''s father was a dick, He took Lily away from Snape, bullied him and still acted self-righteous about it until the end. He hated James the most when he read the books since it reminded him of a person from his previous world. (Our MC was on Snape''s side in his world.) Then something popped up in Draco''s head, ''Am I being the same as James?'' Draco considered, ''I am the leader of my group, I go around acting tough and arrogant. But there is still a fact that I am not stealing someone else''s loved one. Technically, since Hermione and Ron aren''t even friends and I liked her first in this world. But am I really a bad guy?'' Pansy looked at Draco, who was in deep thought, "Draco, are you alright?" Draco snapped back hearing Pansy''s voice, "I am okay." "What are you thinking about?" "Umm..." Draco thought for a while and said, "I am thinking if I am a bad guy." "Hahaha.." Theodore laughed, "I don''t know, but looking at yourself in the mirror with your face would make me consider if I am a bad guy or not too" Draco gave an annoyed glance at Theodore, "I am serious." "What made you think that?" Theodore asked coughing. "What Weasley said, he said that he and Harry were being bullied in a way, by other Slytherin students." Draco said, "Most of the first year in our class look up to me, and if I tell them to stop I am sure they will, but I am not doing anything, so does that make me a bad guy?" "I don''t think so." Pansy replied, "I have known you for 2 months now and even if you are short-tempered and you say mean things sometimes, I know you aren''t a bad guy. In fact, you are one of the nicest guys I have met till now, you don''t hide who you are and aren''t afraid to show it to other people either, and that''s what I believe is the most important." "It''s the same as she said." Theodore said, "We been friends for more than 5 years now and even if we didn''t like each other at first we still managed to stick through, didn''t we? I am a strange person myself. After my mo... after what happened in the past, I always stayed to myself and once you get in that state, you start understanding people more. People, they are selfish, unkind, fake and completely opposite to what they pretend to be. The more I saw it the more I wanted to call it quits with socializing, but you were different, you were completely open. I could read what kind of person you were on the outside and you were the same in the inside too. You weren''t hiding anything. You were childish, arrogant and a kid spoiled rotten by his parents." "Hey! no need to mention bad things." Draco said. "But those bad things makes you, you. Without it you wouldn''t be Draco, I know. And talking about other first-year students.. you can''t control everyone. Everyone has their own view on things and you can''t blame yourself for their action. They respect you out of their own will, you didn''t force them to, so you have no responsibility to take care of them. Today they will bully Weasley and Potter and if you stop them, they might stop but tomorrow they will bully other people. The cycle will keep going on and on. So if you ask me if you are a bad guy, you aren''t." Draco smiled gently looking at Theodore, "Well, at least if we don''t consider your face." Draco smiled turned to a frown quickly, "You know for the first time, I really was feeling that there was some good friendship being developed between us but after the last sentence, it turned back towards the border of ''You are my friend'' and ''I hate you.''" Draco then pulled Pansy and Theodore into a group hug, "Thank you!" He said with all his heart. Pansy smiled happily and Theodore was doing the same, "Don''t cry on my shoulder though, the robe is pretty expensive." Draco laughed hearing that. After 5 minutes, Ron, Harry, Neville, and Hermione came in, Draco looked at Hermione, wondering what she was doing here, understanding his gaze she said, "Sigh! I was trying to stop these two but they wouldn''t listen and Neville got out of the hospital right now but the door was locked so he and I couldn''t get back in. So we followed them here so that Filch wouldn''t catch us." "Do you wanna participate in the duel?" Draco asked jokingly, but all he got was an annoyed glare from Hermione. He then turned to Ron, "You do know the rules, right?" Ron nodded, this is something he at least knew about, coming from the wizarding family everyone at least knew how to properly duel. Draco then turned to Harry. Harry shook his head in response, "Sigh! Then I will explain it to you, so clear up." Pansy pulled Hermione and Neville to the side and Theodore and Harry were behind Draco and Ron respectively being their seconds. "So Potter listen up, In a formal duel, one wizard or witch challenges another. If the other person accepts, they then arrange a meeting time and place for the duel. Opponents then bow to one another before beginning to fight, But duellists who do not respect their opponents do not usually bow correctly, you get me don''t you. Your job as a second is to come in after the challenger is killed, but since this isn''t a real duel you can jump in after Weasley gives up." Harry nodded. Hermione was also listening to it keenly since she didn''t know much about dueling since it was never in the exams. "So let''s start shall we?" Draco turned to Ron who nodded in response, "The rules are simple, No physical contact and no lethal spells which I doubt you know any." Draco said making Ron frown a little, They went towards each other lifted their wands up and swung it back down and did a little but proper bow. Then they went back to their position and both of them stood in a dueling stance. "Let me teach you something Weasley." Draco said Ron started chanting a spell but before he could finish, Draco had already swung his wand, "Expelliarmus" As soon as Draco read the spell out loud, the wand was knocked away from Ron''s hand by a force. "First thing to consider when dueling is your wand, if you don''t have one, then you are useless." Ron hurriedly went back to pick his wand, but Draco didn''t let him, "Accio" Ron''s wand flew towards Draco''s and he caught it before he could even pick it up. Ron looked more nervous now. "Second thing to consider is to never underestimate your opponent, which you have been doing since day 1." "Locomotor Mortis" As soon as Draco read the spell, Ron''s legs stuck together making him fall. Theodore yawned not even looking at the match. Hermione and Neville were very surprised since Ron couldn''t even put up a fight. Draco went towards Ron and pointed his wand towards his neck. 18 Beautification Potion. Holy fuck you guys are crazy... rank 27(when I was posting it) As promised 2 chapters per day for at least 3 days...(My social life..*cries* 19 Three Headed Dog. I am stacking up chapters so I need things for future references This time I am asking for Animagus form for Draco. I hate birds so not choosing any bird. I want a form that will be easy to sneak in places with and spy on people, so big forms are out of question. You can recommend something mythical or something made up too. I have already something in mind too, 1) a cat with two tails, (One side half and the other black) {Representing the good and bad sides of his nature.} 2) a snake(viper) but kinda against it since its too slow. Give me some ideas you lazy readers... ----------------------------------------------------- Next morning, During breakfast Hermione came over to the Slytherin table and started telling them a crazy story about the room in the restricted section of the third floor. "So after we separated from you guys, we started walking back to the Gryffindor''s common room, but as we''re walking we heard Filch''s voice again, So we quickly went to a nearby room. The room was locked so I used a spell to open it and we all went inside. Filch came in and looked at the door. Thinking the door was locked, he went back grumbling. We all sighed in relief when suddenly we heard a small growl from behind, We turned back to see what it was and to our surprise, there was a huge three-headed dog. Seeing that we all got scared and quickly ran out. Thankfully, no one got hurt." "So you are telling us that there is a three-headed dog on the third floor?" Theodore asked "Yeah! we saw it with our own eyes." Hermione said recalling the incident, "It was huge and it looked like it was guarding something." "What was it protecting?" Pansy asked, "Don''t know." Hermione replied, "It was standing on top of a trap door." "Interesting!" Daphne said, "So what do you think is in there Draco?" "Probably an artifact of some sort must be something expensive though." Draco said. *Death Note, Kira theme* ''Finally! They found it, I had to go through all that trouble of running here and there, remembering the paths so when they return they would have to go through the third floor. I even had to trouble myself with hinting Filch about us being in the Trophy room and the third-floor area. I was skeptical about my plan, since I made the whole plan, just so they could reach the third floor and get curious about what was inside it, I wasn''t really sure that they would end up in that room but looks like they did.'' Draco smiled knowing that his plan succeeded. "Why are you smiling like that?" Theodore said, "It''s creepy. It looks like you are planning something bad." "You are the creepy one here." Draco retorted, "So Pansy when is your Quidditch practice?" "Tomorrow, evening." "Oh! Then it''s fine!" As soon as Draco said that dozens of owl flew in carrying long parcels, most of them landed on the Slytherin''s table and the other one landed on Gryffindors. The parcels landed next to each Slytherin team players. They opened the parcel to see a brand new Nimbus 2000. Pansy seeing that quickly opened the Parcel that landed in front of her as well. She squeaked excitedly, "Thank you, Draco!" Draco didn''t say anything and just smiled, the other Slytherin members came and thanked Draco as well, to which he just responded with a smile and a nod. "Hey, you need to thank me as well." Theodore said, "I bought half of these brooms, you know." "Thank you." Pansy said not even looking at him, Theodore sighed in annoyance, "By the way Draco, did you buy Potter one as well?" Everyone looked towards the Gryffindor''s table and saw Harry had a new Nimbus 2000 as well. "Nope! I didn''t buy it." Draco said, "Why would you even think I will buy him one?" "Well ever since we came to Hogwarts, I don''t really understand you." Theodore said, "Maybe you felt generous and wanted to give things for free." Draco rolled his eyes and didn''t say anything, "By the way, Draco! Did you really tie against the last year winner of ''All-England Wizarding Duelling Competition.'' I think her name was Mary Kate." Hermione asked, Draco and Theodore coughed at the same time hearing that name. "What! Draco that''s awesome. I didn''t know about it." Daphne commented, "You should participate in that competition next year, I am sure you will win." "I read in the newspaper as well, but I kinda forgot about it." Pansy said, "Hey! tell us about how you defeated her." Theodore and Draco stared at each other and stayed silent, "What happened? Don''t tell me it was a lie." Hermione asked in doubt. "Yeah! And why do you look so worried? Both of you?" "Sorry! It''s not really a good memory to recall." Draco said, "We did tie in the duel but barely." Looking at Draco who looked like he wasn''t going to say anything else than that, The girls left it alone. ''That witch!'' Draco and Theodore said underneath their breath. ---------------------------------------------------- Days passed smoothly in Hogwarts without too much hassle, Draco and Theodore started to continue their experiments on the Antidote of Veritaserum. Their progress was good and Draco was sure with a little bit more time, they will succeed in it. Pansy joined the Slytherin''s team''s practice formally. Draco along with other Slytherin students will go over to the stadium to cheer up her sometime. Draco seeing Pansy happily flying with crazy skills made him very happy. Draco and Hermione still met up every Friday, in the library where Hermione would teach him History and Astronomy. Draco was getting good at both the subjects but not too much. Draco didn''t care much about exams anyway, he was an heir to a rich family... even if he wasn''t, he could still do a lot of things that will make him rich later on. Draco had talked to Snape about the permission slips for the Library, which he got without much hassle. With the permission slip in hand, Draco could visit the restriction all he wants. So Draco started spending his remaining free time in the library, researching not only about spells but about other historical events as well. Even though Draco was knowledgeable about all the major incident that took place in the history, he was still unaware of many events, and the restricted section contained a lot of information on things and people, that couldn''t be found outside. In the remaining time when experimenting with Theodore, Draco created a new potion inspired by the multi-flavored-cake, which he named Noitop, which was potion spelled backward. The potion was more like a muggle perfume, the only difference was the smell of the perfume changed regularly according to a person''s emotion. For example, if a person was in love, he would smell roses or if he was just happy the person would smell fresh autumn. And the most useful part is that the perfume helped counter certain bad emotions., like if a person was sad the person would smell lemongrass, the light, earthy scent helped relieve some stress from people. The perfume smelled different for each people, so even if someone was in love and was smelling roses, the other person who smelled him would smell the emotion he/she was feeling and not roses. So just like the cake, you could never go wrong with this perfume. (Was seriously struggling to describe the potion, I read an article before that explained how certain smells can trigger different emotions and memories so I used that concept, if you are confused, search smells and emotions and you are sure to get results.) Draco contacted his father about the new potion and sent him a bunch of samples. His father after checking it with other potion master and determining whether the potion had side effects or not. He sent Draco a reply, Dear Draco, I tested the potions you sent with the help of other potion masters. And concluded that the potion was harmless and the results were the same as you said they were. I discussed with some of my peers who really loved the smell of it and suggested me that I sell the potion formula to them. After discussing with your Mother I have decided to sell the potion under our own brand instead of selling others the formula. I opened a new company under your name, I named the company ''Noitop Perfumes.'' after the name of your potion. Which I hope you don''t mind since I took the liberty in doing so. Send me the potion formula next time so I can formally start the production of the perfumes. The company belongs to you, but I will take care of it for you until you finish school. If you have any suggestions for the company, feel free to leave so. Also, when you come home for Christmas, there is a surprise waiting for you. Your father, Lucius Malfoy. Draco was kind of dumbfounded when he heard about his potion being sell as a brand of its own. Draco had forgotten that this was possible as well since he spent most of his time researching and studying, he didn''t really care about what happened to the potions he discovered. Thankfully Lucius managed where most of his potions went like if it was worthy enough to share in the newspaper or the potion wasn''t much. Draco thought that his father made a really nice manager, he was shrewd and opportunist and had an excellent sight for good business. Most potioneer wouldn''t share their recipes with the outside world. Some passed it as a family secret and some collected their research and published a book about it. ''Maybe I should publish a book, myself.'' Draco thought But right now he hadn''t developed many potions that he could share with the world so he put that idea in the back of his mind. After satisfied with his father''s idea, he quickly wrote a letter with the potion formula and send the letter back home. He didn''t bother much with the name since he wasn''t good at naming things, if Draco was in his father''s place he would have done the same as well. Draco wondered what kind of surprise was waiting for him at home. Draco really missed being in his own house, fortunately, he always spend a lot of time in his suitcase and the suitcase itself could be carried around, so he didn''t feel much sad about it. Draco right now was reading about a spell or formation to be exact, which could help him build a house. Even though Draco had a lot of different rooms in his suitcase, he always wanted to build a house inside of it. So he could feel homely wherever he went. The drawing of the formation wasn''t hard since all it needed was good mapping and drawing skills. The ingredients for the formation varied according to houses. Draco being the extravagant person he is, chose the biggest and sturdiest house, no mansion would be the right word for it. Made of up a fire/ weather repellent stone named Dark stone (Made up.), It was the sturdiest material to build a house. The ingredients used to Draw the formation was also very expensive. That included Phoenix ashes, Elder wood ashes, Whomping Willow''s ashes, Redwood ashes and Dragon''s crushed egg shells (Powder of crushed Dragon eggs.) Money wasn''t a problem, but the problem was the ingredients. Some of the ingredients like the Phoenix ashes, Redwood ashes, and Elder wood ashes were very rare. Hell, even the Dark stone was very rare and expensive and he needed it in large quantities. The Quantity of the Pheonix ashes and Dragon''s shell were needed the lowest but other than these two, he needed a lot of the other ingredients. Draco sighed as he wrote another letter to his father asking him to help him find the materials for his house. Since Owlbert hadn''t come back he used a school owl (The one used by students who didn''t have owls) to send the letter home. The other annoying fact about the Formation was, it needed 5 adult wizards to pour mana into it and chant the spell. Draco didn''t worry much about this since it was written that other magical creatures could use their mana into building it as well. Draco planned to use the house-elf to do so. (If you haven''t realized it the whole Formation is made up, There is no formation in Harry Potter.) 20 Dream 2 The red haired woman. To people who felt cuckolded due to survey.. Extra chapter for you... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30th October 1991 The day before Halloween, Everyone was excited for tomorrow. With everyone busy with what they were doing, Draco spent his time mostly organizing his things inside his suitcase. He tore down his warehouse and shifted it elsewhere so the opening would be a lot bigger. Then with the help of a formation, he created with ingredients that he had stockpiled, created a stair that could be turned into a slide or be removed whenever he wanted it to. Since there was no one to help him, he had to do everything on his own. ''Sigh! Next time I will bring some house-elf with me.'' Draco thought to himself. After a painful day of cleaning and creating the stairs, Draco went back to his bed and fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes. --------------------------------------------------- Draco opened his eyes and he was in another place, right now. ''Is this Lucid, dreaming.'' Draco looked around the place and it seemed that he was in the middle of a forest he had never seen before. Draco looked down at his own clothes and he was in the robes that he fell asleep in. ''I can''t help but have a feeling of D¨¦j¨¤ vu.'' While Draco was thinking what was going on, he suddenly heard a growl. Draco looked back to see a huge animal behind him. It was an animal resembling a mundane mountain lion or cougar in size and appearance. But it had 3 pairs of legs instead of two and its yellow eye seemed mesmerizing. ''Holy Shit!! Isn''t that a wampus cat.'' Draco was surprised, he had seen pictures of Wampus cats before but had never seen one in flesh. "Its beautiful!" muttered Draco looking at it but soon the cat growled again but this time it was louder and it looked fierce. Draco started to back out a little, ''What the hell.'' "Grr.." The Wampus cat did a small jump trying to frighten Draco. Draco jumped back and started running. ''Shit isn''t this a dream, why does it feel so real.'' Draco could feel his heart beat rising up. Draco stopped because the Wampus cat was already in front of him. ''Shit! I forgot that the Wampus cat is fast, strong, and almost impossible to kill and its yellow eyes have the power of hypnosis and it has a power of legilimency. Meaning it can read my mind and guess what my next move is going to be.'' Draco casually lowered his eyes to not meet the Wampus because of its power of hypnosis, Draco started to run in random directions to confuse the wampus but it kept chasing him regardless. ''Outrunning it, is impossible, even if I try to run; and my power in occulumency isn''t that well developed either.'' Draco glared at the Wampus who was having fun chasing him,''Wait! maybe it just wants to play.'' But as soon as Draco thought that, The wampus cat jumped towards him. Draco tried to dodge but its claws managed to scratch him. Draco felt intense pain in his left arm, where the scratch was and it was bleeding. ''Fuck! Why does it hurt so much.'' Draco gritted his teeth as he felt his robe, to take out his wand. But to his surprise, the wand wasn''t there. Draco didn''t know what to do now, so he started walking backward slowly. The cat again jumped towards him but this time he barely managed to dodge. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" He yelled. ''Is this cat seriously trying to play me to death.'' Draco was now in deep trouble since he didn''t have anything to shield himself with, and he was in unknown territory. ''Maybe if I die, I might wake up.'' Draco thought, ''No, I can''t take that risk. Since the pain in my arm felt very real and I might die a painful death.'' The Wampus now looked bored as it glared at him fiercely, it looked at him like one would look at its prey. ''Shit!'' Draco thought, the Wampus cat jumped towards him opening its mouth fully ready to bite into him. Draco closed his eyes in fear, but the cat never came. He opened his eye to look at the cat, which was in front of him, The cat was stabbed in its chest by none other than the Gryffindor''s sword which had magically appeared in his hand. Draco stood up pushing the cat sideways. It was an instant kill. Draco looked around and seeing no one was there he pulled out the Gryffindor''s sword from its chest. Draco looked at it and sighed, "I finally understand, its the same like last time, isn''t it?" Draco for the first time saw the sword as something useful. He turned towards the Wampus whose whisker were slightly moving. Draco felt immense rage build up within him. He took the sword and stabbed the cat again and again. "Stupid" *Stab* "Piece of shit!" *Stab* "You wanted to play with me." *Stab* "You wanted to torture me to death." *Stab* "Fucking bitch!" *Stab* *Stab**Stab**Stab**Stab* "hah!!" Draco was breathing heavily finally calming down. He never felt so angry at anyone before, this time there wasn''t any voice in his head, he just wanted to kill the cat himself. He was fine if the cat attacked him but it tried to play him to death, too maybe give him some hope of living before killing him. Seeing someone control the life that easily made him very annoyed. "Are you okay? Stranger." A sweet female voice sounded out. Draco turned to look back at the source of the voice and he was stunned. The owner of the voice was a beautiful woman with fiery red hair, She was dressed in armor with a sword hanging on her waist. She came closer to him. "Are you okay? Can you not speak?" She asked again. Draco snapped back and said, "How can you... *Cough* I mean, I am fine." Draco wanted to ask how can this woman see him, but swallowed his word back since it would be a weird thing to say. The woman looked at him for a while and took out a small bag. From there she pulled out a potion like liquid from a flask. She raised her hand in front of him as if she was asking for something. Draco tilted his head confused wondering what she was asking for. "Sigh! Hands" She said sighing. Draco subconsciously gave his hands to the lady, who pulled it fiercely as she poured the liquid inside the flask on to his wounds. His wounds burned for awhile but were healing at a visible rate. Draco was surprised seeing that, there are spells which can close a wound but healing it quickly was impossible. But this potion was making his wound heal and making the pain go as well. Soon his arms turned back to normal, not even a scar remained. "Its done." The woman said "Thanks." Draco said still looking at his hand in amazement. The woman curiously looked at Draco, "The healing potion is expensive but you don''t have to pay for it, take it as a commission for killing the Wampus." "What?" Draco asked confused. "Oh! are you new here?" The lady asked to which Draco nodded in response. "The Wampus here has been terrorizing the nearby villages, killing people. Don''t know how, but it got a taste for human flesh so it kept killing and killing." The woman said, "I was sent here by the Royal guards to kill it but you did it for me, so I will give you the healing potion as a commission." Draco was processing all the information, "Don''t tell me its not enough!" She said looking a bit angry. "Sorry!" Draco quickly said, "I didn''t need a commission but thanks anyway, I only killed it because it tried to kill me." She nodded looking satisfied, "Even though you don''t look that much, you are still strong," Draco choked on what she just said, "Normally you will need to set up a lot of Trap carefully since the Wampus are very hard to kill due to its innate ability." The woman continued. "Nice, Sword." Draco looked at his sword and picked it up, "Yeah! It''s something." The woman looked at him for a while then nodded again, "Since the job is done sooner than expected I will leave now." Draco nodded, "Can you show me the way to the nearest village." She pointed at the opposite direction, "There is a small village down there. " "Thanks." Draco said again. The girl nodded and picked up the Wampus corpse and put it inside a small pouch, ''Oh! An enchanted pouch.'' Draco became sure that magic existed in the place. "We will meet again if it''s destined to be." The woman said and started walking away opposite to the direction she pointed at. Draco sighed, ''What the hell is my life, I am suddenly sent to the Harry Potter world and when I am in Harry Potter World, I am sent to this weird place.'' "Well, at least this place is familiar." Draco said He was sure with the Wampus cat and magic that he was still in the Harry Potter world but it seems to be back in time. With the woman stating out Royal guards, Draco knew he was in a kingdom and with villages.. he was sure he was in the past. ''Shit! I didn''t even ask that beautiful woman''s name.'' Draco dusted off his clothes and placed the sword inside his robe and started walking in the direction the lady pointed at. Draco was trying to figure what was going on but there was no explanation to anything. Draco had already walked for more than 2 hours but he wasn''t reaching anywhere. ''Am I lost?'' He thought. Suddenly he felt a bit of pain in his chest. Draco looked down to see an arrow stabbed in his chest. Before he could react another arrow came flying and stabbed him again in his stomach. "AH!!" Draco yelled in pain. "We got him, boss." A voice said behind the bushes. "hAHAHA..Let''s go." Another voice said. Soon around 10 people came out of the bushes. Draco looked at them in anger, "Who are you?" "Who are we?" A big man who was walking in the center of the other men said, "We are your doom, who will kill you." "So bandits huh!" Draco grunted The pain of from the arrow was excruciating. "Hahaha... correct. You look like a rich noble. What are you doing here alone?" He asked. "None of your fuckin... business," Draco replied. "Hahaha.. heard him, boys." The man said and the other people behind him started laughing. The people surrounded him and took out their swords. "If I am going to die, I will at least take you with me." Draco said. "What did you say, boy?" "I said go to hell." Draco stood up with his remaining strength as he took out his sword and stabbed the man in front of him. As soon as he felt his sword go through the man''s body, the other remaining bandits stabbed him. And soon it was darkness. "AHH!!" Draco screamed opening his eyes, He looked around and he was back in his bed. "Sigh!" Before he could sigh in relief a pillow came flying to his face. "Shut up!!" Theodore said sleeping back again. ''I have a feeling of Deja vu again.'' Draco thought Draco looked at his arms and body. There was no pain whatsoever as if all the thing that happened was just a regular dream. Draco looked at the Gryffindor sword in his hand, since it had again magically appeared out of nowhere in his bed and even inside his dreams. The sword was still shiny and didn''t have a single drop of blood on it. Draco went back to his suitcase and put the sword back inside its room again. ''These dreams are related to the wand.'' Draco thought to himself since there isn''t anything other than this mysterious wand, that could cause these dreams. Talking about the wand, Draco quickly checked his robes and sighed in relief. The wand was still there. Draco then proceeded to meditate to calm his mind, he had been nearly killed by a Wampus cat in his dream and then a group of bandits killed him again. Maybe since his brain processed the whole killing the cat and that bandit as a dream, Draco didn''t feel anything about it. In fact, he wasn''t even taking it seriously. If Draco were to look back at the things he did again, the experience was as if he was watching a movie but he was the one controlling the actor in the movie. Draco took out a note and started writing down things that happened in the previous dream and today''s dream to see if things were connected. Draco writing down the dream finally realized something, the woman. The woman he saw in his dreams today was one of the woman in the portrait the man was crying about. "So these dreams are really connected." 21 Halloween Halloween morning they woke to the smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they''d seen him make Neville''s toad zoom around the classroom. Draco rolled his eye seeing people get excited over such easy things. ''Seriously some of you came from Wizarding family, and you are still getting excited about a simple levitation charm.'' Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Draco''s partner was Theodore, Pansy''s partner was Daphne, Harry''s partner was Seamus Finnigan, Ron''s partner was Hermione. Draco glanced at them, it was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this. She hadn''t spoken to either Harry or Ron, since the day of the duel. "Now, don''t forget that nice wrist movement we''ve been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too -- never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said ''s'' instead of ''f'' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest." Draco sighed and casually flicked his wand, "Wingardium Leviosa" The feather started floating up in the air, "Oh look, Mr. Malfoy has done it." Squeaked Professor Flitwick. Theodore could lift the feather up but not too high. "Just concentrate, its simple." Draco said. "Hey, not everyone is a genius like you." Theodore growled. ''I need to teach them basic science.'' Draco thought. Since most wizards are home-schooled they don''t learn a lot of things like science. Draco never realized Theodore''s basic spells were that bad considering he was quite good at Transfiguration and other spells. ''Well everyone has a weakness, I guess.'' It was very difficult for many other students too. Harry and Seamus swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skyward just lay on the desktop. Seamus got so impatient that he prodded it with his wand and set fire to it -- Harry had to put it out with his hat. Ron, at the next table, wasn''t having much more luck. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill. "You''re saying it wrong," Draco heard Hermione snap. "It''s Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ''gar'' nice and long." "You do it, then, if you''re so clever," Ron snarled. Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads. "Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger''s has done it too" Draco smiled looking at Hermione who seemed very happy, ''Cute and intelligent..'' Theodore glanced at Draco, who was making a weird face and whispered. "Don''t stare at her too much, you look creepy." Draco snapped back and coughed trying to hide his face. After potions class, Draco went to the Herbology class with other Slytherin students. Today they had Herbology with Gryffindors, Draco was happy that he could sit with Hermione in that class. SinceSlytherins didn''t have many classes with Gryffindor, and even if they did; in classes like Potions and Charms they couldn''t sit together since they had to usually pair up with another student from their own house. Draco went to the class and looked around but Hermione wasn''t in there. He sat in an empty seat and the class started. Draco waited for 15 minutes but she still didn''t show up. Suddenly something hit Draco, ''Troll Attack, Shit! How could I be so careless... Today due to that weird dream, I forgot about the whole incident.'' Draco glared at Ron, ''This fucker must have said something to her!!'' Ron felt a sudden chill in his spine. "Hey, What happened?" Harry asked Ron "I don''t know, suddenly I feel something bad is going to happen." Ron said. Draco calmed down, getting angry now wasn''t going to get things done. He would first have to get Hermione out of the girl''s bathroom, then he didn''t care whatever the troll did, The teacher would likely stop it. So his only main concern now was Hermione. As soon as the class was over, Draco left Theodore''s and the others and quickly rushed to the girl''s bathroom. But after he reached outside he didn''t know what to do. ''Should I just go in?'' Draco thought ''No, breaking into a girls bathroom is weird as hell.'' "What do I do?" Draco said out loud. "Excuse me, can I help you?" A voice came. Draco turned his head to find, Parvati Patil, the Gryffindor girl who tried to stop the Slytherins from making fun of Neville, staring at him. "Nothing." Draco said and started walking away ''Wait! I can use her.'' "Hey! There is something, can you help me with it." "What is it?" She asked. She didn''t have much impression on Draco, she liked him first, like many other girls in her dorm but after a while with the Remembrall incident''s her liking of him went down a notch. "Professor Snape is calling Hermione to talk about her notes, but she is in the bathroom. Can you inform her about it, please." She thought for a while and nodded, "Sure." She went in and Draco waited in the corner waiting. After awhile Parvati came out of the bathroom and walked away. Nearly 10 minutes later, Hermione came out. Her face was wet as if she had just washed it and her eyes were slightly red and puffy. She was walking towards Snape''s office when Draco pulled her. "What are you doing, Draco?" She asked, "Why did Professor Snape, call me?" "What Professor Snape?" "But Parvati said that you.." "It was a lie," Draco said looking at her. "What!!" Hermione was surprised, "Let me go! I thought it was weird when I heard it." "Weird, how?" "Professor Snape would never call me to talk about my homework, he would just say something mean in the class when handing me the note over if there were any mistakes." "Hahaha... Life of a Gryffindor in the potion class is really interesting." Draco said imagining what would happen if he had ended up in Gryffindor, ''Chasing Hermione would be fun, but I don''t know about the others.'' "You haven''t said why you bought me here." Hermione asked looking at Draco who was busy imagining things. "I can''t leave you sulking in the girl''s bathroom, can I?" Draco said, "Even if you wanna cry, do it in your room, why the bathroom? It''s just weird." Hermione was feeling a bit happy when she heard the first sentence but hearing the latter part, her face turned quickly into a frown as she stepped on Draco''s leg with force. "OW! What was that for?" "Hmph!" was all he got in return while the other party kept stepping on his shoes. "Okay! Okay! I am sorry." Draco said, "Let''s go, I want to show you something interesting." "I am not going to the hall," Hermione said, "Who said, we were going to the hall?" Draco dragged her towards the Slytherin common room. "Wow!" Hermione looked around the Slytherin''s common room. Compared to the Gryffindor common room which was on a tower, Slytherins has more of a cozy vibe to it. The main color theme of the whole room was green. Hermione looked around the beautiful carvings on the furniture, the window which was tainted green due to the lake, suddenly from the window, a fish like a creature swam by. "Its cool, isn''t it?" Hermione nodded, "Its completely opposite of the Gryffindor''s common room." "I guess so since you are up in the tower and we are in the dungeons." Draco said. "Hey, you have to promise me to not show other Gryffindor the way to the Slytherins room, okay?" Hermione looked confused, "Why?" "Did you know the way, to the Slytherin common room before?" "No" Hermione shook her head. "Was there a way, you could have guessed it?" "No." "So you realize it, don''t you? Its similar to an open secret. People know about it but don''t know where it is. Most people that is." "Will, you not get in trouble for bringing me here then?" Hermione asked she didn''t want Draco to get in trouble because of her. "Don''t worry." Draco said giving a reassuring smile, "The seniors have their classes and the first years won''t say anything if I tell them not to." "Why did you bring me here then?" She asked. "Well instead of going to the bathroom, I think this will be a nice place to sit and chat with me." Draco said, "We are friends, aren''t we? So why not come to me when a problem appears, I will always be here for you." Hermione didn''t say anything and looked down, she didn''t want Draco to see her blushing face. Draco looking at her thought she was still upset, so he quickly went to his room and bought out a gift for her. "Here, take this." Draco gave a small box which completely wrapped in ribbon. Hermione who didn''t even notice, that Draco had gone away for a while looked up to see a box which was wrapped in ribbon all over. "What is this?" Hermione asked "A gift." Draco replied casually handing her the box. "I just found out that your birthday was last month, so I got you a gift." "How did you found out?" Hermione knew she hadn''t told anyone about her birthday till now. "It''s a secret." Draco said winking, "How about you open your gift first?" Hermione looked at the gift which was wrapped all over with a ribbon, she didn''t know how to open the present. So she just pulled on the string that was hanging out, as soon as she pulled the string the ribbon unfolded itself and started floating up, bending and tearing itself. Hermione looked at the ribbon and was surprised, the ribbon after a moment of tearing and attaching, spelled "Happy Birthday, Hermione." and went out in flames. "Cool right, I experimented with some charms and formations and came up with this." Hermione nodded, it was very beautiful to look at, but the sad part was that it went out in flames, so she couldn''t keep it. She looked at the beautiful crystal box in her hand, which had a lid on top of it. There was an engraving on the crystal that clearly spelled out, ''NOITOP Perfumes, by Draco Malfoy.'' Hermione looked at Draco who was grinning at her. "I recently came up with a potion, which could be used as perfumes." Draco explained her all the uses of Perfumes and she was very impressed by it. "This is the preview version since they will only start selling the perfume after a month." Draco said, "So you are the first person to ever receive this person." "First person?" Hermione asked furrowing her eyebrows. With Pansy and Daphne around she didn''t believe that she was the first person to receive the perfume. "Yup, you are the first. Father sent me this just yesterday to look at the design of the perfume bottle." Draco said, "And since it was your birthday gift, I wanted it to be special in a way." "I will believe you, for now then." Hermione said fidgeting. "Why don''t you, try it then?" She nodded and put some perfume in her hand, and smelled it. The perfume smelled like Roses, which meant she was having feeling towards someone and her heart was fluttering because of it. Hermione blushed, "Hey what''s the smell?" Draco asked again. "Can''t you smell it?" She asked in a small voice but Draco heard her. "I can smell what I am thinking, so for me, it smells like lavender since I am calm and happy right now," Hermione finally understood the perfume smelled different to each people depending on their mood. So she sighed in relief. "Mine smells the same too." She said. Draco bent towards her getting closer to her face, "Are you sure, it doesn''t smell like roses?" Hermione blushed seeing Draco getting closer, so she stepped back, "I told you, it smells like lavender." "Fine. So what do you think? Do you think the perfume will sell well?" Draco asked. "Yes, All people like different smells at different times, and this clearly does the same and it smells in a comforting way so no one will have a problem with the smell if you ever wear it. It''s like that cake we had, you can never go wrong with it." Hermione said. "I thought the same too." Draco said smiling. "I took the inspiration from that cake, I wish I could use that slogan too. But the witches in that bakery shop are too scary and they won''t let us use their family slogan." "Hahaha.." Hermione started laughing hearing that, "Hey Draco, why did you name the potion Noitop? Isn''t that just the opposite of potion." "I don''t have a good naming sense." Draco snorted. "hahaha.." Hermione after a while finally stopped laughing, "The idea of your perfume is very good, I think you should add a catalog of some sort, consisting of what smell does each mood give, so people can know about it." "That''s a great idea." Draco nodded, People have the right to know what smell they are getting so putting it along with the perfume is great. "Also, thanks for the gift." Hermione said, "When is your birthday, I will send you a gift then." "Mine''s on June 5." Draco said, "So are you feeling good now?" "Yeah! Thank you." Hermione said "It was that Weasley, wasn''t it?" Draco said, "I want to punch him in the face, right now." "Don''t worry about it, it''s not his fault." Hermione said. "I always have a bossy tone in my voice, I expect everyone to do as good as me. I am surprised you didn''t run away after we met." "I think its cute though!" Draco said "What is?" "Your bossy tone." Draco said smiling, "A girl trying to prove that she is good so badly that she doesn''t even know that she is trying too hard. It''s really cute." Hermione hit Draco with her leg, "Idiot." "No, I am serious." Draco said teasing her, "Okay, since you don''t want to go to the hall, then we can eat here." 22 Troll Slytherin common room always has some pastry and biscuits for snacks, and Tea can be prepared at any time. (Its a British school for fuck-sake, I am sure there are magical teapots everywhere 23 Aftermath. Finally 50k words and 500k views... And I have already posted 6 chapter in 3 days so... I am back to one chapter a day. I won''t do extra chapters now since I am kinda busy with other projects. ---------------------------------------------- "Are you okay?" Snape asked coldly. "I am fine." Draco said, "I just used too much magic." "I still have to punish you for your recklessness, so I will deduct 10 points from you each." Snape said not even turning back, "But you still manage to defeat a full-grown Troll alone, so 15 points will be awarded to each of you." Theodore and Draco smirked. "What were you really doing there?" Snape asked "I dropped pumpkin juice on Granger and Chang, so we went to the bathroom to assist them." Theodore replied. "And after we saw the Troll, we wanted to fight it." Theodore knew how others would react when they hear that Draco was fighting it, partly for a Muggle-born wizard, so he had to save his ass, but he didn''t forget to give Draco a ''you owe me'' look. "Why would you want to fight it?" Snape snorted, "Don''t tell me you really want its whiskers?" "I wanted to test my strength, you know of the expectations father holds for me." Draco said, "I wanted to check whether I can live up to it or not." "You sure did live." Snape said sarcastically, "You can go now, but I can''t handle Dumbledore... you would have to come up with a better excuse than, ''I wanted to fight it.''" After that Draco and Theodore went back to their room and fell asleep quickly since they were very tired. ------------------------------------------ Next morning, In the Slytherin common room, Draco was sitting on the sofa getting nagged by 2 girls from both sides. "Draco, how could you? You could''ve died." Pansy said with a worried and angry voice. "Draco did your brains got knocked out by your wand or did you fall off a broom." Daphne said angrily as well. "Do you think fighting a troll is a sensible thing to do?" "I said I am sorry, didn''t I? Gosh!! What do you girls want from me?" Draco was getting slightly irritated due to all the nagging he has been hearing since the morning. "Draco keep talking and I will send a letter to Aunt Narcissa, she will take care of your antics" Pansy threatened Draco making him shut up at once. "Hey! Pansy no need to involve mother in this okay!" Draco said looking at Pansy with a pitiful gaze, "I told you, I only fought the Troll because Theodore was being chased by it, and since it wasn''t possible to outrun a Troll, we had no choice but to fight." "Yeah! let him go girls." Theodore said relaxing on the sofa, "We had no choice." "You could have kept running after you attacked it," Daphne said. "Yeah, but Potter and the other arrived as well, so if we were to leave, the troll would most likely kill them," Theodore said "Since when did you start caring about Potter?" Pansy snorted ''Ever since he was a Horcrux!'' Draco thought in his mind. Even though what Theodore said made sense, but in reality, he wasn''t trying to save Potter and Weasley. Instead, he just wanted to kill or in the very least harm the troll. The voice in his head had started acting up again but since Draco was wary of it, after what had happened with Weasley, he managed to snap back and control his rage. It still made him act different but at least he wasn''t being mindlessly controlled by his emotion. Daphne and Pansy seeing the silent Draco didn''t continue to argue and went over towards him. Both of them sat on each side. "Draco, I know you must be annoyed by our nagging." Pansy said, "But you know we are only doing it because we were worried for you." "Yeah! yesterday after class you just disappeared and later on, we found that you were fighting the troll." Daphne said, "We were worried." Draco looked at both of them, "Sigh! I am sorry. I didn''t think how you guys might feel, but you have to understand that I wouldn''t fight a Troll, just because I wanted to show off." Pansy and Daphne nodded. "Okay, since your little drama is now over." Theodore said, "How did you know that we fought the troll?" "Oh! Everyone knows about it." Daphne said, "Yesterday when we were leaving the hall after Professor Quirrell came yelling in about the Troll. We had just gotten outside the hall when suddenly the Troll fell in through the ceiling." "Yeah! It was very scary, we all felt that the troll was going to fall onto us." Pansy said, "But Professor Flitwick used a spell making the troll stuck on the ceiling and we heard your voices." "So everyone knew after hearing my voice?" Theodore asked, "Not you, you idiot." Pansy said, "Draco!, after hearing Draco''s voice and seeing the troll struggle the other Slytherin students started cheering for Draco and since you were missing from the hall they assumed that you were with him too." Theodore''s face started darkening, but Draco wasn''t laughing at him. "What''s wrong Draco?" Daphne asked, "Nothing, I just realized that I was careless. I didn''t care about my surrounding much when I fought, if Professor Flitwick wasn''t there, I could have put all of you in danger as well." Draco said sighing, "It''s fine, Draco." Pansy said trying to cheer Draco up, "We are safe, aren''t we?" "Yeah! and we got to see you defeat that Troll as it stopped struggling." Daphne said, "It was awesome. Everyone was complimenting you." "Yeah! Even Dumbledore did." Daphne said, "Dumbledore?" Draco asked. "Yes, he said that you were clever." Daphne said. Draco didn''t believe that Dumbledore would compliment him, so he looked at Pansy to confirm, "Well it wasn''t necessarily a compliment when the ceiling broke through and we heard your voice, Dumbledore mumbled ''clever'', He said it silently but the ones who were near him, heard it." Draco nodded, that he could believe. He looked at Daphne who was sitting beside him, Daphne was like a crazy fangirl most of the time, since she would exaggerate every compliment about him and would attack anyone that says something bad. It wasn''t a bad trait but it could get weird sometimes. Stuff like this always creates a wall between friendship, but Draco didn''t say anything to her. This was something she needs to get over with, herself. Draco believed that with friendship along the way she would remove the wall herself after they get closer with each other. "So How did you end up with Chang?" Draco asked looking at Theodore, The girls were surprised, "Chang, who?" "Cho Chang the second year from Ravenclaw." Draco replied "How could Theodore end up with that pretty girl?" Daphne said not believing Draco, "I heard she rejected many guys this year, even good looking ones. I am sure she wouldn''t be willing to date him." "Yeah! How could rabbit face end up with her." Pansy said. "Che.. I have never said, I am dating her." Theodore said getting annoyed, "Draco was asking how did I end up meeting with Chang, yesterday?" "She was with you?" Pansy asked to which Draco responded with a nod. "Hmph!! And the thing I said yesterday to Professor Snape was true, I spilled some pumpkin juice on her, so I assisted her to the bathroom but as soon as she entered she came running back with the Troll chasing her." Theodore said, "After that, we ran but the Troll caught up to us fast, so I used a jinx to make it slip on the floor and we turned corners to meet you guys." Draco nodded, his guess was pretty similar. "But the most important question is." Theodore smiled slyly "What were you doing with Ms. Granger, all alone?" Daphne and Pansy turned back to their interrogating mode again and looked at Draco who was starting to sweat a little. "Draco, care to explain?" Pansy said, "Umm... we. I.. I mean I.." Draco was running his brain quickly to think of an excuse. --------------------------------------------------------------------- After nearly an hour of explaining that he was just giving her a birthday gift. Both the girls finally let him go. ''Sigh! this is really a pain in the ass.'' Draco sighed walking out the hall towards the library. Today was Friday, so Hermione and Draco had their little studying session there. "Oh! Are you having a problem, Mr. Malfoy?" Draco turned to look back at the owner of the voice and it was nonother than Dumbledore. "Ah! It''s good to be young!" He said making a reminiscing face. "Good Afternoon, Headmaster." Draco awkwardly said, "No need to get nervous, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said, "I won''t harm you." Draco calmed his nerves down, "So are you here to talk about yesterday, Headmaster?" "You look like you were expecting it." Dumbledore said looking in front, walking peacefully. Draco had calmed down completely by now and had returned to his calm self, "Well, I was expecting you to call me in your office but I didn''t think, you would confront me here." "So, let''s get straight to point, shall we?" Dumbledore said, "How about you tell me what happened yesterday?" "Nothing much to be exact, I was walking my friend back to her dorm when my other friend came running in with a Troll behind his back, so we had no choice but to attack." Draco said casually, "Even though, I didn''t expect it to die so easily." Dumbledore took a glance at Draco, "Life is a very fragile thing, Mr. Malfoy." "I know." "So are you okay? I heard you were weak yesterday after the situation." "I used too much magic, that''s all." Draco said, "So am I getting punished?" "All you did was fight to protect yourself and your friends, so I can not punish you." Dumbledore said sounding wise, "And it wasn''t your fault that the Troll came out of nowhere either, so we can''t blame you for it." "So does that mean, I am not getting punished?" "Yes, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said. "But next time, I hope you don''t act recklessly." "Will try," Draco said. "Headmaster, can I ask you for a favor?" "Oh! It will depend on your request, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore looked at Draco wondering what he was going to ask of him. "The Troll''s bat" Draco said, "Can I have it?" "Why would you need that Mr. Malfoy?" "I wanted to keep it as a souvenir for the first XXXX level beast, I defeated," Draco replied. Yesterday after the fight, Draco had realized that the bat was made from redwood, which he needed right now. "Sure, I will have it to sent to you, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore didn''t ask anything else, "That''s it for today, Mr. Malfoy, I will no longer continue to disturb you." He said turning around the corner and disappearing. Draco sighed seeing Dumbledore gone, He was surprised that he didn''t raise a question about the Gryffindor sword, ''Maybe he doesn''t know that it has disappeared or he knows something but didn''t say it, either way, this old man is too troublesome to deal with.'' ------------------------------------ Draco walked into the library to see Hermione, Harry, and Ron doing their homework. ''Oh! looks like destiny bought them together, one way or the other.'' Draco lazily sat opposite of Hermione and yawned, Harry and Ron looked at Draco and started packing up their bag. "See you later, Hermione." They said and walked away glaring at Draco. Yesterday, Theodore didn''t try to save them and indirectly pointed fingers at them, so these two might be mad at him. "Oh! looks like someone''s got, new friends." Draco said making a pouting face, "Oh! I can''t help but get jealous." "Shut up!" Hermione glanced at Draco. "Are you okay?" "Why wouldn''t I be?" "You looked kinda weird after you kil.. that Troll." She said, "I thought you were sad because of it." "Sad because I killed a troll who was trying to kill us?" Draco said, "I am not that kind, besides even though it felt weird after I did it, I knew it wasn''t guilt or sadness. It was like a feeling of incompleteness." Hermione looked at Draco trying to understand him, Yesterday after seeing the Troll dead, she felt weird too and was wondering what Draco might be feeling since he was the one who did it, but looking at him he seems to be struggling a little with it too. "Anyway, Talking about Trolls, how did you become buddies with Potter and Weasley," Draco asked changing the topic. "They apologized to me later on and well since they did came to warn me about the Troll, I forgave them." Seeing Draco roll his eyes she asked, "What would you have done?" "I would have forgiven them as well, but that''s it... I wouldn''t be friends with them," Draco said, "Being friends with people who have been mean to you sounds stupid to me, but hey my thinking is different than most people my age and I am happy that you finally have friends in Gryffindor." That was Draco''s true feeling, even though he didn''t like Harry and Ron, with them there at least people can''t bully Hermione much. Hermione had a mixture of emotion listening to Draco but after hearing his last words she didn''t say anything, but she felt warm inside. ''''Also next time, Weasley says something mean to you, I will throw him in front of the train." Draco said smiling cheekily, "Okay, he is my friend now.. so forget about the past, okay?" Hermione said smiling a little. "Fine, if you say so." Draco waved his hands around lazily, "But you have to promise me that our studying session won''t be disturbed by them." Draco felt envy in his heart a little, but it wasn''t a normal one either. It was similar to the voices in his head, but this time it was trying to drown him in jealousy. Draco knew something was wrong so like before he tried to control it. "I promise." Hermione nodded. Hearing her Draco felt calm and that weird feeling was gone. ------------------------------------------------------------- Also, I am going to stop asking you guys for opinions since the last part about me asking animagus and Patronus left me confused, so I will write the story my way.. without being influenced by others. 24 Quidditch As they entered November, the weather turned very cold. The mountains around the school became icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. Every morning the ground was covered in frost. The gatekeeper, Hagrid could be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and enormous beaver skin boots. The Quidditch season had begun. On Saturday, Pansy would be playing in her first match after weeks of training: Gryffindor versus Slytherin. If Gryffindor won, they would move up into second place in the house championship, and even if they lose it won''t affect Slytherin in any way since Slytherin is in the top of the House championship. Everyone was sure unless something unexpected happens, Slytherin would win the House cup. Pansy had been working extremely hard since she didn''t want to let Draco and Snape down, they had provided her with an opportunity and a lot of support. So she has been practicing day and night in the cold weather. Pansy''s competitor Harry was working hard as well and now due to the support of Hermione, he could finish his homework on time and focus more on training.Quidditch was really the most annoying thing in the world, there are seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul and all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, and that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them and although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert. Draco had to applaud to the people who even after knowing these things still participate in this stupid game. "Its finally done." Theodore and Draco stretched their backs. Today, they had managed to finally complete the antidote. After months of extensive research, the potion was finally complete. The ingredients were changed to cheaper ones and the effect changed a lot making the effect of the potion last for nearly a whole day, and since the whole compound was changed the new potion couldn''t be detected by the Ministry of Magic. Draco was secretly experimenting on the potion himself with his blood, and he finally got the result he wanted. The potion was now turned into the permanent version. Originally Draco had completed the potion 2 days ago but due to him having to test secretly he delayed the completion of the potion. After drinking the potion, Draco now had complete control of it. So in the future, even if someone forces him to drink Veritaserum, the effect would not last even a second. To celebrate the completion of the potion, they ordered a lot of food with owls, since the potion was a secret, only the two of them celebrated and ate till they never wanted to see food again in their life. After their small celebration, Draco left the common room towards Snape''s office. Snape had called him to be an assistant to work on a new potion he was making. The potion was supposed to be an antidote to venom of most kinds. Draco knocked on the door and the gloomy sound came from within, "Come in." Draco went inside to see that Snape was not working on the potion but was on his chair. Draco went over to sit on the nearby chair. He glanced at Snape''s tore pants and bleeding leg. "What happened, Godfather?" Draco asked even though he guessed it. "It''s a small wound." He replied, "Since you have already seen it, we will work on the potion some other time." "Sure, but the cut looks deep. Do you want a healing potion?" Draco asked "You have one?" Draco nodded and took out a potion from his pouch. His pouch was also an enchanted pouch which could carry a lot of items and Draco being a potioneer he collected two different things, potions, and ingredients. So to do so he always carried a lot of potions and ingredients with him. Healing potion was a rare and expensive potion since most people don''t get serious injuries often and even if they did they could heal it using magic unless it is affected by some kind of poison. Draco handed him the potion. Snape took the potion from Draco''s hand and drank half of the potion and poured the other half on the wound. The potion usually closed the wound and numbed it, but the effect wasn''t the same as the one that red haired lady used on him in his dream. "The wounds bigger than I expected, what creature were you fighting?" Draco joked but all he got was a gloomy, cold look in return. *Cough* "I will leave now." Draco said standing up. "Good choice, next time I will send you an owl when I am in need of your assistance," Snape said. ---------------------------------------------------- Morning of the match, Both the Gryffindors and Slytherins were excited. Pansy wasn''t eating much due to nervousness. "Pansy you gotta eat." Said an over-weight guy who was the batter of the team. "How can you have the energy to knock people off when you won''t eat." "Haha.. leave him alone Rick." Marcus Flint said, "She must be nervous since it''s her first match." Daphne and the other girls were supporting and cheering her up, to ease her nervousness. Draco and Theodore weren''t around for breakfast since yesterday''s meal had started working its magic of its own. By eleven o''clock the whole school seemed to be out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. Many students had binoculars. The seats might be raised high in the air, but it was still difficult to see what was going on sometimes. Draco went to the locker room to talk to Pansy since he had missed her at breakfast. "Hey, Pansy." He called out to Pansy who looked lost. Pansy looked at Draco and lazily came over, "You finally came huh!" "I am sorry I am late." Draco looked at Pansy who didn''t look much motivated at all. "Are you okay?" He asked "I am nervous, I don''t know if we are going to win or not." Pansy said looking at Draco, "I don''t want to lose, Draco... I am afraid." "Sigh! Silly!" He said and hugged her tightly. Pansy broke from her nervousness and started to get shy, she wanted to push Draco off but he was hugging her too tightly. "Idiot! Being nervous means you care, and that''s what matters the most. And whether you win or lose, I and the others won''t care, what we care about is you putting your best into it." Pansy stayed silent first then hugged Draco back slowly, "I will try my best." Draco released her from the hug but was still holding her, "Go get''em my tiger, or should I say snake." "Hahaha... I will win for you." Pansy said with determination. *Whistles* Soon whistles came from within the locker room. Draco and Pansy immediately separated seeing the other members from the Slytherin team glaring at them with teasing looks. "Good luck! I will watch you from the stadium." Draco said running back leaving the embarrassed Pansy alone. Draco went up and joined the Daphne and Theodore. Since today was Gryffindor vs Slytherin, Hermione was standing on the Gryffindors side but she had came to wish Pansy good luck this morning. Being friends with someone with the rival house is very difficult but since nothing major has happened they have managed to keep their friendship in check. On the Gryffindor''s side, they had painted a large banner on a sheet. It said Potter for President, and there was a large Gryffindor lion underneath and the paint flashed different colors. Slytherins, on the other hand, were very extreme, Daphne and the other girls had professional helpers design a beautiful banner on which Go Pansy! was written in huge letters and beneath it had a moving picture of a snake attacking a lion and slowly choking it to death. After seeing the flashy banner the Gryffindors side went silent for a while but soon continued cheering after the players entered the stadium. Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand. "Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she said, once they were all gathered around her. "Mount your brooms, please." She said The Slytherins clambered onto their Nimbus Two Thousand. Madam Hooch gave a loud blast on her silver whistle. Fifteen brooms rose up, high, high into the air. They were off. "And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor -- what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too --" "JORDAN!" "Sorry, Professor." The Weasley twins'' friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Professor McGonagall. Draco didn''t have much interest in general so he was just watching Pansy fly around trying to look for the snitch. Due to there being too many flying brooms and balls, focusing on a single person was much easier. The Gryffindors started scoring first but soon the Slytherin played their game, with a little bit of foul and a good broom they managed to tie up to Gryffindor in no time and started beating them soon enough. Pansy had done a couple of loop-the-loops to let off her feelings and started searching for the snitch. Draco out of the corner of his eyes noticed Harry struggling in his broom. ''So it started huh!'' Draco looked at Quirrell who was chanting the jinx and at Snape who was using an anti-jinx to keep Potter on the broom. At the same time, Pansy caught the sight of the snitch and went chasing after it. The snitch was moving in random pattern making it harder for her to catch it. At that moment, Potter was falling off the broom and was barely managing to hang onto it. Draco found something weird, the snitch was moving around Potter as if it wants him to catch it, not Pansy. Draco focused on the snitch, trying to read the mana around it and his guess was correct, the snitch was being manipulated by someone, and was trying to change its course. Draco realized something, in the book Harry caught the snitch in his mouth when he fell off the broom, but that''s impossible considering the nature of the snitch to not move around in a single place and wait to be swallowed. Draco looked around but he didn''t see anyone who could possibly be doing it. Then a thought popped into his head, ''Dumbledore.'' Draco figured Dumbledore wanted to boost Potter''s confidence by making him win, so he chose to manipulate the snitch. ''Yes, there is no coincidence in this world.'' Draco thought. Dumbledore might want to support Potter by helping him cheat but Draco wouldn''t let him, he started chanting his own spell to manipulate the snitch, even though it was very difficult to take complete control of the snitch but he could still push the snitch here and there. ------------------------------------------------------------ On the Gryffindor''s side-- People were pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. Then the whole crowd gasped. Harry''s broom had given a wild jerk and Harry swung off it. He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand. "Did something happen to it when Flint blocked him?" Seamus whispered. "Can''t have," Hagrid said, his voice shaking. "Can''t nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic -- no kid could do that to a Nimbus Two Thousand." At these words, Hermione seized Hagrid''s binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started looking frantically at the crowd. "What are you doing?" moaned Ron, gray-faced. "I knew it," Hermione gasped, "Snape -- look." Ron grabbed the binoculars. Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering nonstop under his breath. But then he lowered his binoculars down a little and saw Draco was doing the same, he was muttering something similar to Snape with his eye fixed around Harry. "He''s doing something -- jinxing the broom," said Hermione. "I think its Draco." Ron said "What do you mean?" "Look", he passed over the binoculars, She looked over and saw that Draco was chanting something similar but his eyes weren''t exactly on Harry but around him. "No, it''s Snape. You need eye contact and Draco isn''t looking at him." Hermione said defending Draco. Ron looked at Hermione and didn''t continue to convince her since she is more likely to believe in Draco than him, "So what do we do?" "Leave it to me." She said. Before Ron could say another word, Hermione had disappeared. Ron turned the binoculars back on Harry. His broom was vibrating so hard, it was almost impossible for him to hang on much longer. The whole crowd was on its feet, watching, terrified, as the Weasleys flew up to try and pull Harry safely onto one of their brooms, but it was no good -- every time they got near him, the broom would jump higher still. They dropped lower and circled beneath him, obviously hoping to catch him if he fell. Marcus Flint seized the Quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing. "Come on, Hermione," Ron muttered desperately. 25 Quidditch PT. 2 Hermione had fought her way across to the stand where Snape stood and was now racing along the row behind him; she didn''t even stop to say sorry as she knocked Professor Quirrell headfirst into the row in front. Hermione looked towards Draco first then quickly rushed towards Snape. She believed that Draco wouldn''t do something like this even if he hated Harry and according to what Hagrid said, this was very dark magic since most ordinary magic won''t be able to affect the Nimbus 2000. While this was happening Draco, was in a fight of his own. The snitch was getting harder to influence by the second. Draco''s jinx seemed pitiful against the jinx placed on it since he could barely push it around. Theodore and Daphne were so into watching the match that they didn''t even notice Draco''s chanting. Hermione finally reached Snape, she crouched down, pulled out her wand, and whispered a few, well-chosen words. Bright blue flames shot from her wand onto the hem of Snape''s robes. It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on fire. A sudden yelp told her she had done her job. Scooping the fire off him into a little jar in her pocket, she scrambled back along the row -- Snape would never know what had happened. Draco who was concentrated heard the yelp but didn''t turn back, he knew it must have been Hermione who set fire on Snape''s rope causing the crowd to yell. But the distraction was enough. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom. Harry was speeding toward the ground. Pansy finally saw the snitch and went towards it as well. Pansy was so concentrated on catching the snitch that she didn''t even notice Harry falling towards her. *Crash* Both of them crashed and fell to the ground, luckily they were near the ground so no major harm was done. Everyone was looking at them nervously when suddenly Pansy stood up, "I caught the snitch." Pansy said holding the snitch in her hand. Everyone from the Slytherin side started cheering but Harry stood up holding his lips which had a cut in it, "No, I touched it first." he said The cheering died down and everyone was confused as to what was going on but Draco on the other hand knew. Madam Hooch walked towards them and the other player''s from both side landed as well. Pansy was glaring at Harry, she knew that she caught the snitch first; so how can Harry be the first person to touch it. Luckily for these kinds of situation, The snitch was enchanted with Flash memory and it remembers the touch of the first person who handled them, in case of a disputed capture. Madam Hooch looked at the snitch and after confirming with magic she found the real winner. "The person, who caught the snitch first is Harry Potter." She announced. The Slytherins face turned dark and the Gryffindor''s started cheering loudly. "He didn''t catch it, he just touched it with his lips," Flint was still howling twenty minutes later, but it made no difference-- Harry hadn''t broken any rules and Lee Jordan was still happily shouting the results. Gryffindor had won by one hundred and seventy points to eighty.(Snitch are worth 150 points.) Draco, Theodore, and Daphne went over to the locker room; to cheer Pansy up. "Hey Pansy, it''s okay." Draco said, "You played very well and Potter only won due to a mere coincidence." Draco was angry at his own weakness, He couldn''t get the snitch to be in his control like the other party did. Draco was sure that this other person was none other than Dumbledore. In Hogwarts he is the only powerful wizard who can have such control over the snitch without even being present and the only one sly enough to do so and Voldemort the other powerful wizard present there was too busy trying to kill Harry than making him a winner, so it was without a doubt the work of Dumbledore. "Yeah! Pansy cheer up." Daphne said, "We all know that you caught the snitch first but that Potter managed to accidentally touched the snitch with his lips." "Pug-face, if we are considering skills then you are a lot better than Potter." Even Theodore chimed in, "But sometimes stuff happens like Potter''s broom suddenly went out of control causing him to fall. I am sure that luck will not be with him all the time." Pansy looked at up at her friends who were trying to cheer her up, "I am fine guys, I just feel a little upset that''s all and as Draco told me before the game, I put my all into it, but still ended up losing due to an accident so I can''t help but feel a little sad." "I am sure you will win next time," Draco said. "Yes, coincidence doesn''t repeat every year," Theodore said. Pansy cheered up a lot by now but Draco was still feeling a bit sour, the taste of losing wasn''t a good one. Draco didn''t know why but his pride hurt a lot. Most people would be okay with losing against Dumbledore since everyone literally calls him the greatest White-Wizard of their time, so losing against him is not a shameful thing but Draco felt different. He had the urge to go to Dumbledore''s office and question him about why he did what he did. It was just a game but why did he have to be involved in this, Just to make Harry win? Why are things always about Harry? ''Since you want to play with fire, you have to know that you could get burned. Dumbledore since you want to control everything, I would make you lose the very thing you desire.'' Draco had enough of the manipulation and control. ---------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, in Hagrid''s hut, Harry was being made a cup of strong tea back in Hagrid''s hut, with Ron and Hermione. "It was Draco," Ron was explaining, "Hermione and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn''t take his eyes off you." "No, Ron I told you he wasn''t doing anything." Hermione said, "It was Snape." "Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn''t heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. "Why would Snape do somethin'' like that?" Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. Harry decided on the truth. "I found out something about him," he told Hagrid. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it''s guarding." Hagrid dropped the teapot. "How do you know about Fluffy?" he said. "Fluffy?" "Yeah -- he''s mine -- bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las'' year -- I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the..." "Yes?" said Harry eagerly. "Now, don''t ask me any more," said Hagrid gruffly. "That''s top secret, that is." "But Snape''s trying to steal it." "Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape''s a Hogwarts teacher, he''d do nothin'' of the sort." "Its either Draco or Snape." Ron said again, "I can tell you that for sure." "Why would Draco do something like that." Hagrid asked again, "Yeh know, even if he''s one of the Malfoys, he''s a kind boy... he invented an'' modified potions that could help people and even magical creatures, he shared those potion recipes for free without any profit too. Yeh know-- he could have made a fortune out of it, but he gave it all away." "Well, it all might be a lie, a false pretense Hagrid." Ron said, "I suspect that he is as kind as he pretends to be." "Ron, I have already told you several times before, Draco wasn''t doing anything." Hermione started getting angry with Ron, "Ever since school started you were the one who keeps making trouble, you insulted him and his parents in the train after he left, then you accused his friend of stealing and then you went ahead and insulted his father in front of his face. If I were to chose who is a bad guy between you and him, it would be you." "I.." Ron wanted to say something back but couldn''t, she was right ever since he saw Draco that day on the train, he''s the one that''s been acting like a bad guy, not Draco. "Okay, stop it guys." Harry said seeing both of them breaking into a fight again after finally becoming friends, "Ron, Hermione is right, we can''t keep blaming Draco because of his parents since he hasn''t done anything to us and Hermione, I believe Ron wasn''t trying to blame Draco either but he saw him jinxing something, didn''t he? So we can''t ignore that fact either and Snape is still our main suspect." "I am tellin'' ya kids... Its impossible, Professor Snape wouldn''t do something like that." "So why did he just try and kill Harry?" cried Hermione. The afternoon''s events certainly seemed to have changed her mind about Snape. "I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid, I''ve read all about them! You''ve got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn''t blinking at all, I saw him!" "That''s what Draco was doing too." Mumbled Ron earning a glare from Hermione "The Broom Jinx is a very powerful dark magic Ron, do you really think Draco can do it even if he wanted to." Hermione tried to calmly explain Ron again. "But he is a genius, isn''t he?" Ron said, Harry pushed him a little and looking at Hermione''s face he quickly added: "And I also believe that Snape did it, I am just taking Draco into consideration." "I''m tellin'' yeh, yer wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don'' know why Harry''s broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn'' try an'' kill a student! neither would Draco, in front of all the Professors there. Now, listen to me, all three of yeh -- yer meddlin'' in things that don'' concern yeh. It''s dangerous. You forget that dog, an'' you forget what it''s guardin'', that''s between Professor Dumbledore an'' Nicolas Flamel--" "Aha!" said Harry, "so there''s someone called Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?" Hagrid looked furious with himself. ------------------------------------------------------ Draco was in his suitcase taking care of his plants. The magical plants were very weird from normal plants since some of them had sentience, some fought back and some just destroyed. Today Draco was cleaning up Bouncing Bulbs. Bouncing bulbs were magical plant''s that jumped around if it is not restrained. Bouncing Bulbs'' main stem is a disproportionate purple bulb, with a bunch of leaves growing on the top. Young Bouncing Bulbs are small enough to handle, but mature ones can reach the size of doorways. Bouncing Bulbs can be aggressive when they feel threatened; they jump towards the possible attacker and try to hit it. Draco had grown them to experiment on it, but these plants turned out to be pretty much useless. Bouncing Bulbs are a necessary ingredient in the Pompion Potion, a potion which encases the drinker''s head in a pumpkin, but other than that it had no uses. Draco being the person who hates pumpkin, wasn''t really pleased by the only use it had and it was a troublesome ingredient since it smelled a little like pumpkins as well. Draco had only grown a couple of them for an experiment but somehow it managed to release its seeds in secret hidden places, causing a lot of them to grow up. Draco hadn''t noticed them at first but after they started causing destruction''s to his other plants, he began noticing them after a few investigations. The Bouncing Bulbs were very troublesome to take care of, especially when they are a lot of them. The smalls one''s could be stopped by using a knock-back Jinx but the bigger one''s needed to be burnt down. Since Draco was still in his garden, he couldn''t recklessly use fire spells or any other spells carelessly as it might destroy his garden. So, Draco was dealing with them one by one, with a new spell he learned that made things wither, it wasn''t a very powerful spell but was enough for a magical plant. So, Draco spent the rest of his evening taking his anger out on these plants which surprisingly managed to multiply to a number of 70. After killing them, the next part was to clean their rotting bodies from the garden and remove the smell. Draco found a new property of Bouncing Bulbs, they smelled exactly like baked pumpkin''s after they rot, which might be not a bad smell to some but Draco hated the plant even more now. After cleaning up he left the suitcase and walked towards the common room, all of the Slytherin student''s were celebrating, to cheer Pansy up. All the Slytherin''s believed that Pansy was the real winner and Potter only won due to a coincidence and the favor of other professors especially Dumbledore. Even some Ravenclaw students believed that. Ravenclaw and Slytherin have always been close and similarly, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor have been friendly with each other. Ravenclaw is all about intelligence and they would rather do things that benefit them rather than harm then which coincides with Slytherin''s believes, and since they''re a lot of pure-bloods and Half-bloods in Ravenclaw, being friends with them is natural and harmless. Similarly, Hufflepuff is about hard-work which coincides with Gryffindor''s believes and since both of their houses have the most Muggle-borns in them, they have no problems with each other. Everyone at the party was cheering for Pansy, complementing her about how great she played and how she will definitely win the game next year. Draco went over and joined them in their celebration. After a while, the party ended and everyone went back to their dorm. Only Pansy and Draco were left in the common room. "Draco, do you think I will win next time?" Pansy asked looking at the fireplace. "I don''t think so, I believe so." Draco said, "Don''t get caught up on what everyone says. Expectations are a heavy burden that people put onto you and not even realize it. So don''t try to live up to their expectations, do what you want to do!" "Easy for you to say." Pansy said smiling. "Hey! I have and will always have your back." Draco said, "Even if next year you decide to stop playing Quidditch, I will still support you in that decision." "Why are you so kind to me?" Pansy asked, "Sometimes, I feel that you are the only one that puts effort into our friendship. I feel useless since I haven''t even done a 10th of what you have done for me." Draco reached out and caressed her hair, "Then why don''t you take it as a debt?" "Debt?" "Yeah! Just pay me back when I need you to." Draco said, "Like maybe taking a curse for me or something along that line." "You want me to take a curse for you?" Pansy said making an annoyed expression and punched Draco''s arm. "Why not? Why does the knight always has to take a sword for the Princess, why can''t the Princess do so for the knight?" "Hmph! you consider yourself a knight?" Pansy snorted, "But since you called me a Princess, I will consider taking a curse for you when the time comes." "When did I.." Draco wanted to ask, when did he call her a princess, but looking at her happy face he closed his mouth. 26 Mirror of Erised Today, surprisingly everyone was gathered in the library. Draco, Theodore, Pansy, Daphne, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and even Cho was there. The atmosphere between them was awkward since it hadn''t even been a week since the last Quidditch match. Draco and Theodore were going to the library to search for some transfiguration book on animagus. Animagus was their new research topic, they wanted to research on it right away after they saw Professor McGonagall''s transfiguration from a cat to a normal human; but due to the ongoing experiment on the antidote of Veritaserum, they delayed it till now. Animagus was a very interesting topic for Draco and he wanted to learn about it right after he was transmigrated here but unfortunately, there were no books on animagus back at Malfoy Manor, since none of his ancestors was an animagus. From what Draco knew, from his past life and till now; An Animagus also known as Animagi is a witch or wizard who can morph him or herself into an animal at will. Animagus is taught to students only during their third year in Hogwarts. It is a learned skill, unlike the hereditary skill of a Metamorphmagus. Metamorphmagus was also a very rare skill, but it was an innate ability and couldn''t be learned like spells or potion. Metamorphmagus allowed the witch or wizard to change their physical appearance at will without the use for stuff like Polyjuice Potion. Draco knew only one Metamorphmagus himself, but he had also heard that his cousin Nymphadora Tonks was one of them. Talking about Tonks, Draco wanted to reconnect with his family members that have broken ties with them over the years, so he could use their help in time of need. To do so he planned to send Christmas gifts to everyone this year, to extend an olive branch towards them. Excited to research on the topic of animagus, Draco and Theodore rushed over to the library. On the way, someone called out to them. "Mr. Malfoy... Mr. Nott." A pretty voice called out. Draco and Theodore stopped and looked back. The person who called out to them was none other than, Cho-Chang. Cho came over to them, "I am sorry, I couldn''t meet you guys before." "It''s okay, also please call me Draco and this one Theodore. No need to be so formal." Draco said smiling, "Do you need something from us?" "Please call me Cho as well." She said showing a beautiful smile, "I wanted to thank you, for saving me that night. I wanted to come say thank you earlier but I was weirded and freaked out after what happened so I couldn''t do it. So I apologize for that." "It''s not a problem." Theodore replied, "Besides you''ve already thanked us for that night and are you okay? that incident might have been hard on you." "I am fine, Thank you." She said politely, "I especially caused you a lot of trouble since it was my fault crashing into you." "No worries." Theodore said, "Fighting a troll is pretty much what we do every day." "Every day?" Both Cho and Draco asked at the same time, "Yeah... Even though a troll was a first but we had fought a Murtlap before, they.. can get... very dangerous..as well." Theodore''s voice was getting smaller and smaller and by the end, it was just a whisper. Draco looked at Theodore whose ears were red and was talking weirdly, Even though Chang was pretty she wasn''t his type and he wouldn''t fight his friend to flirt with a girl but seeing his expression Draco wanted to tease him a little, "So Cho, where are you going right now?" "I am heading towards the library." Cho said, "How about you guys?" "What a coincidence!" Theodore said, "We were going there too." "Hahaha." Draco started chuckling, "If you don''t mind, we can go there together." "Sure." Cho replied, she didn''t know why Draco was chuckling but Theodore''s face had completely turned red. Draco walked in front leaving some space for Cho and Theodore, Draco felt awkward being the third wheel, since it was his very first time being one. He wondered if this is how Theodore felt every day when he flirted with Pansy, Daphne, and Hermione. Draco listened to their conversation silently and was surprised that Theodore was using his pickup lines on Cho, but unlike Draco who acted shamelessly, he was blushing quite a lot when he said those cheesy things, but it seemed to be working since the other party had a slightly red ear and was nervously playing with her fingers. They reached the library when two distinct voice called out, "Draco!!" It was Pansy and Daphne, "What are you girls doing here?" Draco asked "We wanted some help with our studies so we were looking for you, then Blaise told us that you were heading towards the library." Pansy said. "And here we are." Daphne said turning towards Cho, "And she is?" "Oh! She is Cho-Chang, the girl I told you about." Both Pansy and Daphne froze hearing that they looked at Theodore who was blushing and wasn''t his usual self and then turned towards each other grinning. "Nice to meet you!" Pansy said, "My name is Pansy Parkinson Since you are Draco''s and Theodore''s friend you can call me Pansy." "I am Daphne Greengrass, you can call me Daphne as well." "Hello! I am Cho-chang, you can call me Cho too." Cho said shaking hands with them. The girls then partied up leaving Draco and Theodore alone, they looked at each other and sighed. "Let''s go in." All five of them walked inside the library and searched for the books they wanted to study. Then all five of them sat down at the table in the corner. Surprisingly, Theodore picked out an advanced level Potion book to get close with Cho who was studying potions as well and with Pansy and Daphne studying Botany, Draco was left alone hanging with an Advanced Transfiguration book. He sighed looking at Theodore, who looked as if he had lost all purpose in his life and now his only dream was to chase after Cho. On the other side, Pansy and Daphne were giggling teasing Theodore, losing their interest in studying. Just as he sighed there was a loud thud, on the table next to them. All of them looked over to see who it was and to their surprise, they were none other than Harry, Hermione, and Ron. All of them stared at each other for a while, Draco coughed feeling the tense atmosphere. "*cough* Hey! Hermione." Draco said smiling, "What are you here for?" "Oh! We were just searching for.." "A book." Interrupted Ron. Hermione glared at Ron for a while and he awkwardly whispered towards Harry and Hermione, "He is still a suspect, isn''t he?" "But this topic is about Snape." Hermione whispered back. "Maybe Draco can help us." "Yeah! but he is also from Slytherin and from what I have heard, he has a very good relationship with Snape." Ron argued back. "And if we look hard enough, I am sure we can find who Nicolas Flamel is ourselves." "Hmph! Don''t you know its rude to talk behind other''s back." Daphne snapped, "Typical Gryffindor." "Don''t be rude, Daphne." Pansy said, "Potter probably still has a concussion from the fall and Weasley, well he is a Weasley so why are we even trying to teach manners to them." "Can''t argue with that." Theodore smirked, "You know, as they say, The fire''s lit, but the cauldron''s empty." "You.." Ron gritted his teeth. "Okay let''s not start a fight," Draco said looking at Hermione who avoided his gaze. Ron mumbled something and sat down. Since the other tables were already taken they couldn''t leave and had to stay at the table beside them. After some glaring, everyone started focused on their studies so they didn''t bother each other anymore. Draco quickly helped Pansy and Daphne with their homework and started researching things on his own, since Theodore was too busy showing Cho, how good he was at potions. As Draco imagined, It takes a lot of skill, practice, and patience for wizards and witches to become Animagi. The process of becoming an Animagus is long and arduous and has the potential to backfire and cause the transformation to go horribly wrong. Many witches and wizards simply feel that their time might better be employed in other ways, as the skill is of limited practical use unless one has a great need of disguise or concealment. Animagi can only take on the form of one specific animal. This animal form is not chosen by the wizard but determined by their personality and inner traits. It may also be that the full-bodied Patronus may reveal what a witch or wizard would turn into if they were an Animagus. Draco knew that people like Minerva McGonagall, a known cat Animagus, also had the Patronus of a cat. Since the form the Patronus takes may be determined by the same inner-traits as the Animagus form. An Animagus in animal form is also not restrained by the lifespan limit of the creature that they otherwise transform into. Each Animagus bears an identifying mark on their animal form that is caused by something on their human body. This may be a physical trait like dental structure, or an acquired trait such as glasses. Like Minerva McGonagall, who had markings on her Animagus form caused by her spectacles. If an Animagus undergoes a major physical change, such as the loss of a limb, their animal form will also reflect that. An Animagus could consciously choose if they also wanted to transfigure their jewelry and clothing with them or not. After nearly 2 hours everyone stretched from their seat. It was time for their evening classes so they had to leave. Today Draco and the other had History with the Gryffindors so all of them were ready to leave. "It''s getting late. We need to hurry up." Hermione said. "I think I know of a passage that can lead you guys to the history class faster." Cho said making everyone look at her. "That''s awesome! Can you show us the way?" Daphne said "I am not really sure about the path since I haven''t used it in a long time but I can walk you there, if you want." Cho replied. "Wouldn''t you be late for your class?" Theodore asked, "No, not really. I still have an hour before the next class starts." Cho said smiling, "Let''s go." Draco looked at Hermione and said, "Are you coming?" "Yes." She said dragging Ron and Harry. Ron decided that he would rather take the long route and be late for the class than follow them, So he looked at Harry, so both of them can leave but to his surprise, Harry was fine going with them, he didn''t even hesitate as he did. So Ron reluctantly followed them too. They walked from one passage to another, and it looked like they were getting nowhere, "I knew we shouldn''t have followed them." mumbled Ron "Its okay Ron, everyone makes mistake." To his surprise, Harry wasn''t angry instead he looked calm and was following them, without any complaint. "I think we took a wrong turn, guys." Cho said making a sad expression, "I am sorry. I haven''t used this passage in a long time, so I messed it up." "It''s okay." Replied Theodore making Daphne and Pansy giggle. Hermione was looking around, getting anxious about the class. Draco went over to her and whispered, "Its okay, we can skip the classes sometimes, you know." "You don''t understand, If all of us don''t show up to the class we might get into trouble." Hermione said getting more anxious. "Isn''t that more fun." Said Draco. Hermione got angry hearing Draco and was about to scold him, but Draco wasn''t looking at her anymore instead he was looking at an old door, in front of them. Draco started walking over to the door. Everyone was wondering where he was going, but they still followed him out of habit. "I know where we are." Draco said, "Where?" Hermione asked "The seventh floor." Replied Draco heading towards the door. "How do you even know that?" Theodore said. "We have never been there before." ''Because this is the room of requirement.''Draco shouted in his mind but didn''t say it out loud. He slowly opened the door, to reveal a room that looked like an empty old unused classroom. "I have never been here before." Cho said walking inside with the others. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, and there was an upturned wastepaper basket -- but propped against the wall facing them was something that didn''t look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way. It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. "The Mirror of Erised." whispered Draco but in that empty classroom, everyone heard it clearly. "What is that?" asked Hermione interested in the beautiful mirror in front of them. In fact, everyone was interested in it. "The Mirror of Erised is a mirror, which, shows the "deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts." The name "Erised" is "desire" spelled backward as if reflected in a mirror." Draco replied surprising everyone of them. "So what if a person doesn''t desire anything?" Pansy asked "It is said that the happiest person in the world would look in the mirror and see a reflection of them, exactly as they were." Draco replied walking towards the mirror. Theodore was trying to understand what was written on top of the mirror, "Hey genius, do you know what those words mean?" "I think its some sort of dead or a very old language, maybe." Cho said, looking confused. Hermione was also glaring at it trying to understand. "Its a mirror you idiot, so read it in the opposite way, Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi" on the mirror-reversed is "ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desire", which with proper spacing becomes.." "I show not your face but your heart''s desire". Hermione said completing Draco''s sentence. "Correct." Draco said standing in front of the mirror. "What do you see Draco?" Pansy asked, "I see every one of my friends and families, smiling happily beside me." Draco said what he saw. He didn''t tell the whole truth since some of the girls were in their wedding dress married to him, which would be inappropriate to say. "Why can''t we see it then?" Daphne asked wanting to see what Draco desired the most in his life. "It''s my desire so only I can see it." Draco replied. "My turn then." Theodore said pushing Draco away, "I see.." Theodore stopped and didn''t say anything. His eyes got slightly red. "Are you okay Theodore?" Pansy asked carefully, she had never seen the annoying Theodore like this. Draco went over and pulled Theodore, "It''s not real, so don''t lose yourself in it." "I know, but it''s really tempting." Theodore said, Draco knew, Theodore probably saw his mother. When Draco first met him, Theodore had just lost his mother, so he knew what he really felt about things. It took a lot of time to break Theodore out of his shell, so Draco didn''t want him to go back to how he was again. "Men have wasted away before it, not knowing if what they have seen is real, or even possible." Draco said, "The advice to ''hold on to your dreams'' is all well and good, but there comes a point when holding on to your dreams becomes unhelpful and even unhealthy. To sit gazing on a vision of what you can never have, will only damage a man. The mirror is bewitching and tantalizing, but it does not necessarily bring happiness. So don''t lose yourself in it." Theodore wiped his tears and nodded, listening to what Draco said most of them were now afraid of looking in the mirror, Sometimes not knowing things is much better than knowing about it. While all of them were considering whether to look in the mirror or not, Ron went over and looked at it. "What do you see, Ron?" Harry asked nervously. "I''m alone -- but I''m different -- I look older -- and I''m the head boy!" "What?" "I am -- I''m wearing the badge like Bill used to -- and I''m holding the house cup and the Quidditch cup -- I''m Quidditch captain, too." Ron tore his eyes away from this splendid sight to look excitedly at Harry. "Hahaha.." Pansy and Daphne couldn''t hold back anymore and started laughing, "Haha.. it really shows a person''s desire, but it surprisingly even shows things that can never be achieved." Ron''s face turned red and with his red hair, he looked like a tomato. "I am next." Pansy said walking in front of the mirror but after a quick glance, she quickly walked away with a red face. "What happened Pansy?" Daphne asked but she didn''t say anything. Daphne weirdly looked at Pansy and walked in front of the mirror herself, she too like Pansy walked away blushing immediately. "What did you girls really see?" Theodore asked getting back to his old self. "None of your business." Both of them said at the same time. They looked at each other and stayed silent. "My turn," Hermione said walking in front of the mirror. 27 Blood Curse Check out my new novel, https://www.webnovel.com/book/12382423505364105/A-Devil''s-Paradise ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "My turn." Hermione said walking in front of the mirror. "Since, its Hermione, her desires are probably a lot of books." Draco said looking at Hermione who was staring at the mirror for quite some time. "What? Yes.." Replied Hermione awkwardly, "Its just a pile of books." "Are you sure?" Asked Draco teasingly but he didn''t get any reply. Hermione like Daphne and Pansy became silent with her head down. "Cho, aren''t you going to try it?" Theodore asked, "No, I am afraid to look." She said, "After hearing what Draco said, I don''t want to get lost in my desires, it''s scary." No one tried to convince her since it was her choice whether to look at it or not and they weren''t close enough, for them to persuade her into it. The only remaining person was Harry. He slowly walked over and his eyes opened wide in surprise, "What do you see, Harry?" Ron asked. "Me winning the Quidditch cup this year." Harry said with an awkward expression. Draco looked at Harry and didn''t say anything to him, ''If you want to lie and lose yourself in it, your welcome to do so.'' thought Draco. "Hey! guys we are already 20 minutes late for the class, Professor Binns is going to kill us." Hermione said suddenly remembering the class again. "He is a ghost, so I am sure he can''t even touch us." Draco said jokingly but no one was laughing. Everyone quickly got out of the room and rushed towards their respective classes, everyone except Harry. -------------------------------------------------------- Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake was frozen solid. The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again. No one could wait for the holidays to start. While the Slytherin common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of off all were Snape''s classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them. Luckily Draco had managed to learn spells that would heat you and your clothes up, so he and the Slytherin students including Hermione were fine even in this cold weather. Draco pitied the others, seeing them stand close to the burning cauldrons for a little bit of heat. So Draco gave some Ravenclaw students the name of the spell and the spell book, so they can stay warm. Draco was walking outside towards another classroom when he saw the Weasley twins bewitching some snowballs to follow Quirrell which all targeted at the back of his turban. Draco seeing the situation joined in the fun, he took out his wand bewitching huge amounts of snow on the ground turning them into balls and threw them all towards Quirrell. Draco then quickly hid behind a nearby tree to watch the show. Quirrell tried to fight back but couldn''t even move after his wand was knocked out by a snowball and soon he was buried underneath the pile of snow. Draco was sure that Voldemort received a number of hits even though Quirrell was trying his hardest to protect him. The Weasley twins were shocked wondering how all this happened, so they quickly ran away to not get in trouble. Draco did the same and quickly went towards his classroom laughing his ass off. Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays. Draco had been considering staying in Hogwarts for Christmas since he could explore it more openly with no one around but later dismissed that idea, imagining his mother''s angry face. He remembered that his father had told him that they had a surprise for him at home, so he couldn''t wait to go back home. Hermione spent most of her time in the library with Harry and Ron, searching for Nicolas Flamel so Draco and she hadn''t met very often. Draco one day went over to her when she was alone and asked, "Hey, Hermione I see you in the library a lot are you looking for something?" "Me? No, I was just studying for exams." She said nervously, closing the book in her hand. "You know, you are very bad at lying." Draco said causing Hermione to freeze up, "But since you don''t want to tell me, I won''t ask you again but remember what I told you back in the Slytherin''s common room, you can always come to me when a problem appears and I will always be there for you. I still stand by what I said" Draco saying that walked out of the library leaving the dazed Hermione alone, "Wait!"Draco turned to look back at Hermione who was chasing after him, "I am sorry." She said, "I don''t even know why I was trying to hide things from you. Since I always believed that you weren''t the one in wrong." Draco tilted his head in confusion, "What are you talking about?" "Draco, in the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, what were you murmuring when Harry was falling off his broom?" She asked Draco finally realized what was going on, "Do you think that I jinxed Potter?" "No, Ron thinks so." Hermione said, "But I always believed in you, so I need to know what were you doing there?" "I was looking out for Pansy and I wasn''t jinxing anyone. I was reading this good luck charm that I found which supposedly gives people good luck." Draco lied, ''I am sorry Hermione, but the truth is harder to believe than the lie.'' Hermione stared at Draco''s eyes and asked, "Are you really not lying to me?" "Why would I?" Draco said not backing off from her gaze. "Sigh! I knew it." Hermione sighed in relief, "I was telling them it wasn''t you but no one believed me." "Hey! Potter and Weasley have been trying to frame as a bad guy since day one so I don''t really care." Draco said, "But what hurts me is that you were believing them." "I wasn''t." Hermione said "Then why didn''t you ask me about it, early on." Draco said, "You were doubting me, weren''t you?" "I.." Hermione wanted to refute but couldn''t, with Ron and Harry making Draco a suspect she was starting to consider Draco one too. It''s not that she didn''t believe in Draco but a seed of doubt was already growing in her heart. The question ''What if?'' kept ringing in her head. "I have no excuse Draco, I am sorry." Hermione guiltily said, "Deep inside I knew you wouldn''t do something like this but with... sigh! Anyway, I apologize for being a bad friend." "Che, I will forgive you this once." Draco said, "Next time if you ever have a doubt on me, come ask me right away." Hermione nodded, "I will." "So, who are your other suspects?" Draco asked, even though he knew the other suspect is most likely Snape. He wanted to be sure of it. "Umm.. that''s..." Hermione was considering whether she should tell him or not, "Draco what is your relation with Professor Snape." ''So its still Snape.'' Draco thought to himself. "He is my godfather." Draco said shocking Hermione, "It''s not really a secret. My father and Professor Snape were friends back in their days at Hogwarts." "Oh! I see..." Hermione said ''Sigh! Even if I tell him the other suspect is Snape, he will likely not believe me,'' "Do you know who Nicolas Flamel is?" Hermione asked trying to change the subject but the only word that came to her mouth was Nicolas Flamel. ''Well, they will find about it out sooner or later, so I don''t think it''s going to be a problem.'' "Nicolas Flamel is a French wizard, well-known alchemist and only known maker of the Philosopher''s Stone, a legendary substance with incredible powers. I heard he stays in Paris and sometimes goes to the nearby Beauxbatons Academy of Magic." Draco casually said, "Why do you need to know about that 600-year-old ghost?" Hermione was trying to digest all the information, "600 years old?" "Yeah! The Philosopher stone he created has a magical property and is the main ingredient in making Elixir of Life. You know how Professor Snape told us that Potion can help put a stopper to death, as far as I know, Elixir of Life is the only potion able to do so." "Does it make someone immortal?" Hermione asked "Nope! You have to keep drinking it day after day. You forget to drink it one day and boom your dead the next second, and besides after some time, your body will start to grow old without fail, so even if you live a 500-year-old long life, you will probably grow terribly weak." Draco said Hermione''s eye lit up, "Sorry Draco I need to go, I will talk with you some other time." Draco watched Hermione as she hurriedly entered back in the library. Draco sighed and walked back into the Slytherin common room. Today since most Slytherins had classes the common room was empty. Draco walked in and sat by the fire when he suddenly heard someone whimpering. Draco looked over and saw Daphne running outside with tears in her eyes. Draco quickly chased after her wondering what was going on, after running for awhile Draco saw Daphne sitting underneath a tree crying. "Hey! What happened?" Draco softly said reaching out for Daphne. Daphne looked at Draco and jumped into his arms weeping. Draco was shocked, he had never seen Daphne cry before. "Its okay, Don''t cry." He gently caressed her back, "Tell me what happened." "My sister..." She barely said with her sobbing. Draco remembered about Daphne''s sister. From what he knew, Daphne''s sister was Draco''s wife in the original. He married her and had a son named Scorpius Malfoy but later she died due to her family''s blood curse. "What happened to your sister?" Draco gently said hugging her. "I.. I just found that... that my sister has our family''s blood malediction." Daphne said with tears flowing out of her eyes. A blood malediction was a curse that could resurface in a victim''s descendants causing debilitation. The curse was much evil than it sounds as it eats a person from inside out making them weak and fragile. People with this curse don''t manage to live up to old age. Draco was getting worried about Daphne, "Daphne, do you also have the curse?" "No," She replied causing Draco to sigh in relief, "Hey, You believe in me, don''t you?" Daphne looked up at Draco and nodded, "I do." "Then you know I am a genius in Potion." Draco said caressing her hair, "I promise you that I will put my all into finding a cure for your family''s curse." Daphne eyes widened in surprise, "Is it possible?" "I don''t know since there has never been that sort of potion." Draco said, "But I assure you that I will make one, so your sister can live happily." Daphne stared deeply at Draco. "Promise?" she asked "I promise." Draco replied. Daphne went back into Draco''s arms, She wouldn''t believe if other people said that to her but after she saw that image in the mirror. She knew she could believe in Draco. Both of them stayed like that for a long time. "Are you okay?" Draco asked caressing her hair. "Yes, thank you." Daphne said blushing. "Don''t worry too much about your sister." Draco said, "She is still young now so the curse wouldn''t affect her till she grows old." "I know." Daphne said, "But I wish it could have been me." "Don''t say such things." Draco said, "I would be very sad if something were to happen to you." "Umm.." She nodded blushing, "Draco, do you want to know what I saw in that mirror?" "Yes." "I saw, my family and you." Her face was getting redder by the second. "Me?" Draco asked interested in what she had to say. "Yeah!" Daphne said standing up and running away. 28 UGLY "Sigh! I have never read so many books in my life." Ron said closing the book in his hand. "Yeah! and the worst part is that we still can''t find who Nicolas Flamel is." Harry said laying back on the chair. "Harry, Ron... I have found who Nicolas Flamel is." Hermione came in with a huge book in her hand. "What!" "Really?" Both Harry and Ron said at the same time. "Yes, look." She said showing them the book in front. "Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher''s Stone!" "The what?" said Harry and Ron. She pushed the book toward them, and Harry and Ron read: The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer''s Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Sorcerer''s Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight). "I knew it" Harry said rushing back into his room and coming out with a Wizard Card, "I told you I''d read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here -- listen to this: ''Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon''s blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel''! "The dog must be guarding Flamel''s Sorcerer''s Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they''re friends and he knew someone was after it, that''s why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!" Hermione said. "A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape''s after it! Anyone would want it." "And no wonder we couldn''t find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Ron. "He''s not exactly recent if he''s six hundred and sixty-five, is he?" "You really are a genius, Hermione." Harry complimented. "Yeah! See I told you, we don''t need Malfoy''s help." Ron said proudly giving Hermione a thumbs up. Hermione coughed and didn''t say anything. She wondered what their reaction would be after they find that Draco was the one who gave her the information. --------------------------------------------------------- Draco and Theodore were in the hall doing there homework. "Sigh! Who gives this much homework to a first-year student." Theodore complained, "That bloody ghost, I will get him one day." That day all of them were punished by Professor Binns, who gave them tons of homework as punishment for being late. "I wonder if there is a spell to exorcize ghost." Draco said, he too was irritated by this homework. They had to remember all the events of Wizarding Revolutions. The events weren''t even accurate since the dates differ from book to book. As they were complaining and doing their homework, they heard some quarreling outside the door. Normally Draco wouldn''t care much but he heard Crabbe''s voice. "Let''s go." He said to Theodore. Outside some older Hufflepuff students were making fun of Crabbe and Goyle cornering them. "Hey! aren''t you a pureblood? Why don''t you show me your magical powers then." An older boy said "Yeah! You just call me a mud-blood, didn''t you?" Another senior said, "Let''s see what makes you so special." He said taking out his wand. "Let''s not go too far guys." A handsome boy said. "What are you talking about Cedric, you heard this kid, he insulted me," The senior replied ready to hit both of them with a spell. "Expelliarmus." A light came knocking the boys wand. All of them turned their heads towards the voice. "Hey! Let''s not go too far, shall we." Draco repeated what Cedric said, walking between them with a smirk. Theodore lazily followed but he had his wand ready in his hand. The Hufflepuff student recognized who the other person was and the boy named Cedric came forward. "We don''t want any trouble but your friend is the one who insulted us first." He said in a calm voice. Draco nodded, "I heard it." he said looking at Crabbe and Goyle who had lost a lot of weight in this couple of months. Both of them looked nervously towards Draco, "Draco, we didn''t.." "Is there a reason?" Draco asked making the duo confused, "Sigh! Is there a reason you called that guy a mudblood?" "He''s been making fun of us ever since we joined Hufflepuff," Crabbe said looking down. "He kept pushing us again and again." Goyle added. "We didn''t say anything at first thinking he would stop but he didn''t and today, I accidentally used that word when he tripped me." Goyle said getting afraid, he knew Draco didn''t like that word very much. Draco nodded and looked at Cedric, "Cedric, can I call you that?" Cedric nodded, "As you just heard, your friend is the one in fault here, even though I hate the word mudblood, I don''t like people bullying my friends either." He said with a cold voice staring into Cedric''s eyes. "So today since both parties are at fault, I shall leave it alone but in the future control your friends." Cedric sighed and looked at his friend, The boy looked down and didn''t say anything. "I have warned them before and I will make sure there isn''t a problem in the future." He said Draco nodded and looked at Crabbe and Goyle, "If they cause you any problem in the future come to me and control your lips." Crabbe and Goyle nodded obediently. "Thank you." Draco turned to look at the boy, "You asked what makes a pure-blood special, didn''t you?" The boy looked at him and didn''t say anything. He knew the other party was a genius and he wasn''t sure he could defeat him. "You see, we pure-bloods are the center of the wizarding community, from the ministry to other higher-level jobs. We pure-bloods are involved in everything related to magic. So I will suggest you to not keep getting ahead of yourself since your future might be in the dark." "Are you threatening us?" The other boy asked with an angry expression "Another Muggle-born, I assume." Draco said turning towards Cedric, "You are a pure-blood, aren''t you? So explain to them what I was trying to convey." Cedric didn''t say anything and stared at Draco. "Just so you know, this isn''t a threat its a kind suggestion." Draco said walking away, "Take it or leave it." Theodore stared at Cedric for a while and walked away along with Draco. Crabbe and Goyle looked thankfully at Draco and walked inside the hall leaving Cedric and his gang alone. "Watching out for your competitor?" Draco asked teasing Theodore. "Hmph! Do you think he can defeat me?" Theodore said, Theodore had been hanging out with Cho for some time now and he knew a boy named Cedric from Hufflepuff liked her as well. He had been wanting to meet the other party for a while now but seeing Cedric face-to-face made him nervous. "Hahaha... it''s not about strength or your fighting capability, Theodore." Draco laughed, "You know, no matter how brave a Knight is, a Princess will always marry the Prince unless..." "Unless what?" "Unless you attack her heart before the Prince can use his charms." Draco smirked, "If nothing works, you can kidnap the Princess away." "Do you think we live in a medieval era?" Theodore said getting annoyed "Well, I was talking about the medieval era." Draco grinned, "or do you really consider yourself a knight?" "Che... I need some help." He said surprising Draco. "What? I think I heard you incorrectly." Draco said looking back at Theodore. "I said, I need... you know what forget it." "Okay! No need to act so shy." Draco said, "I don''t have much experience in this area either." "You don''t have experience?" Theodore laughed, "You have a girl hanging around you every time and you are telling me that you don''t have any experience. Don''t make me laugh." "I really don''t. I just act like I have some experience." Draco said with a serious face. "Are you serious?" Theodore stopped laughing and looked at Draco. "Yeah!" Draco said with a grim face. "So all this time you were just acting like a lady killer?" "Yup." "So how bad are you at this?" Theodore asked, "Are you bad at this than me?" "Worse than you." Draco replied with a straight face. "How do you do it, man?" Theodore was seeing Draco in a new light. "I just do whatever I think a girl thinks its funny or good." Draco said, "Teach me." Theodore said, "I am sure if you can do it then so can I." "Are you sure it takes a lot of courage and training to do so?" Draco asked. "Yes." Theodore nodded. Inside Draco''s briefcase both, Theodore and Draco were studying the art of getting girls. "So the first thing we need to realize is that we are ugly." Draco said seriously "We are what?" Theodore asked confused. Draco went over and slapped Theodore, "Do you think you are handsome? Go look at yourself in the mirror." Theodore was scared of this Draco, and hurriedly stood up walking towards the mirror, Draco walked behind him, "Look in the mirror." "Look at your ugly rabbit face." "Look at your tall lanky body. You look like a skeleton covered with a layer of skin." Theodore wanted to cry, "I am at least average." Another slap came flying towards him, "Average is still ugly." Theodore held his cheeks in pain wanting to escape but he knew he couldn''t. The whole space inside the suitcase was controlled by Draco. "I am ugly, say it." "I am ug--" "Put some energy into it and say it!!" "I AM UGLY!!" Theodore yelled. "Good, since now we have realized how we look on the outside--" "We need to look in the inside?" *Slap* "Don''t interrupt me." Draco said, "No one cares about what you are like in the inside unless you are marrying that person." Theodore nodded hurriedly, afraid another slap would come flying his way. "So we need to decide what we want to pretend as ourselves." Draco said sitting back down, "We are Slytherin and with our ugly faces a bad boy character suits us the best." "But I think I read in a magazine that girls like kind --." Seeing Draco raise his hand he closed his mouth. "You need to be good looking to act kind, otherwise you will just get friend zoned." "What''s a friend-zone?" "The friend zone is an unholy situation in which one member of a friendship wishes to enter into a romantic relationship but get''s rejected, with words like. ''Let''s just be friends.''" Draco explained, "Do you want Cho to say those words to you when the time comes." Theodore imagined Cho rejecting him when he confesses his love to her. Theodore hurriedly shook his head, he didn''t want that. "Good! So don''t be too kind to her." Draco said, "Girls like freedom, so learn to be a little open, you don''t see me chasing Pansy, Daphne or Hermione everywhere do you?" Theodore nodded noting down the points. "The next step is easy and you have already succeeded in it." Draco said, "You saved her when she was in trouble so you have already left a mark in her heart. I can say for sure that right now, she values you more than Cedric." "She does?" Theodore asked getting happy. *Slap* "Don''t get too happy, you fool?" Draco said, "A girls heart changes faster than a chameleon changes its color. If Cedric plays his card right with his pretty face you wouldn''t be able to take her back." "So what do you want me to do?" "Right, now the iron is hot, but don''t rush in either." Draco said, "Play it cool, say a lot of cheesy things, buy her gifts, no its still to early for buying gifts... buy her beautiful presents on her birthday and Christmas so it doesn''t look like you are a desperate creep. The other important part is don''t get too shy. She is the one that should be blushing, not you." "So I should act cool even when my ears and cheeks are getting red as you do?" *Slap* "Hey! What was that for?" Theodore slapped back. "*Cough* Sorry! I got a little too into this. I am new at this, just like you but hey at least, I am trying." Draco said holding his cheeks. "So what do I do next?" "I don''t know, I have never reached so far before." Draco said, "But luckily for me, things are playing out well." "That''s true." Theodore nodded, "So we can conclude that after we reach that stage we need to let things play on its own." "Yeah! you can say that." Draco nodded, "Hey, aren''t Cho''s parents Asians?" "Yeah! why?" "Make sure to send them gifts as well." Draco said, "From what I have heard, for Asian people, the first thing you''ve got to do is get in the parent''s good side. If you succeed, Cedric can''t even get close to her." "Really?" "I think so." Draco said Theodore nodded, "Hey! I have known you since we were little, when did you manage to collect so much information?" "*Cough* Its a talent." Draco replied. In reality, all this information was collected in his previous life from the power of observance. Having no friends throughout school you get better at this skill more than you think. So after observing his classmates dating and breaking up, he managed to collect data on dating but unfortunately, he never got to try it till now. After a while, both of them came out the suitcase with a red face. "Why are both of your cheeks so red?" Pansy asked "Don''t ask." Both Draco and Theodore said at the same time. 29 Surprise It was finally the holidays. Everyone packed up some necessary items and left for the train. All of Draco''s friend was going home so all of them stayed in the same compartment chatting. After hours of sitting on the train, they finally reached the station. Everyone had their families come pick them up, so Draco was the only left waiting for his father to come. ''Did he forget about me?'' Draco thought looking around the station. Then he saw Lucius coming out from the corner looking for him. Draco stood up and went up to him. "Why are you late?" Draco said. "That''s not a nice thing to say to your father after not meeting for months." Lucius said smiling. ''Wait, Smiling?" Draco looked at his father''s face and he was really smiling happily. ''Did something good happen or is he just glad to see me after a while?'' "What''s wrong?" Lucius asked looking at the dazed Draco. "What? no... nothing" Draco snapped back, "I was wondering about the surprise you told me about?" "Yes, Surprise." Lucius smiled even more brightly, "We need to get home first, for you to find out what it is." Draco nodded sighing, ''Did he hit his head or something?'' "I heard you were quite busy in school this first semester." Lucius smile changed back to the original grim one. "What are you talking about?" Draco asked innocently. "Don''t give me your puppy eyes, I am not your mother." Lucius said, "I am talking about you fighting a troll in Hogwarts." "*Cough* How did you know about this?" Draco asked "Severus sent me a letter of your heroic deed." Lucius sarcastically said, "And you told them that you fought troll for its whisker?" "Hey! It sounded like a good excuse at that time." Draco said, "Does mother know about this?" "You are lucky, I haven''t let her found out about it." Lucius said, "This is not the right time for your mother to get stressed out about you." "Why?" Draco asked getting slightly worried. "You will find out when we get home. Let''s go, your mother is waiting for you." Lucius said pulling Draco into the corner and apparated from there. Draco didn''t like the feeling of apparating since it actually feels like you''re being forced through a very tight rubber tube. Apparition is wizarding transportation. It is basically the magical action of traveling by having the user focus on the desired location in their mind. After the user is properly focused they then disappear from the current location and instantly reappear at the desired location. In short, an Apparition is a form of teleportation. It is by far the fastest way to get to the desired destination but is tricky to pull off correctly and disastrous if botched. Draco even puked the first time. Apparition is a popular method of travel in the wizarding world, though it is stated that plenty of adult witches and wizards do not bother with it. These witches and wizards prefer brooms, Floo Powder or portkeys. Draco wanted to learn apparation, but due to it being more complex than normal magic and having risks of splinching, he didn''t want to try it early on, without having sufficient mana and understanding of it. Splinching can occur when one has insufficient determination to reach one''s goal, causing certain body parts to fail to arrive at the destination with the wizard, even though the limbs could be attached back, Draco didn''t want to go through that experience, since it could be very traumatizing. Draco and Lucius arrived outside the mansion. Their house was enchanted with ''Anti-Disapparition Jinx'' making it impossible for people to apparate inside their house. The only people who this Jinx won''t work against are the elves. Hateful creatures if you think about it. They can come and go out of any place they want without anyone interfering. They have powerful magic in them and can use wand-less and chant-less magic as well. Draco pitied the house elves when he first arrived here but later on found that chaining them up is necessary. The servile attitude they carry is the only way to keep them in check, or else if they gain a test for freedom then they can wreak havoc. Luckily they liked getting enslaved for some reason. Draco didn''t know if that was the result of years of enslavement or if it was their natural instinct but luckily it was there. House-elves are intensely loyal to their owner whether they like them or not but there are some exceptions, for example, if a house-elf is smart enough and he/she doesn''t truly respect his master or mistress then he can disobey them by finding loopholes in their command. House elves magic are very complex as well. From apparitions being a natural talent they could use charms like levitation charm or even disarming charm and they could use powerful dark magic as well. Draco has been preparing a plan for the house-elves to help him and he is now ready to put his plan to use. Draco and Lucius walked inside the manor. Draco looked around for his mother but there weren''t any signs of her. "Mother!" He called out. "I am here, Draco." Narcissa''s voice came from within the living room. Draco dropped his suitcase and ran over to the living room. Lucius rolled his eyes and walked behind him. "Mother?" Draco walked inside the living room and to his surprise, his mother was sitting on the couch with a big belly. "Come here, Draco." She said reaching out her hand. Draco slowly walked over and caught his mothers hand with his eyes still wide open. "How do you like your surprise?" Lucius who had just arrived in the living room asked smirking. "Mother? What is this?" Draco asked looking at her big belly. "You are having siblings, now." She said caressing his hair. "Siblings?" Draco asked "It''s twins." Lucius answered, "You are going to have two siblings from now on." "Wait! Wait! Were you pregnant before I left?" Draco asked unsurely, it hadn''t even been 4 months since he went to Hogwarts. "Yes, I started having signs early on but I wasn''t sure." Narcissa explained. "So how long has it been?" "6 and a half months," Lucius said sitting beside them, holding Narcissa hands. "Aren''t you happy Draco?" Narcissa asked seeing Draco staying silent. "Huh? Yes, of course, I am happy." Draco said smiling, "I always wanted a sister but now I am getting two." "It could be a brother too, you know" Narcissa said. "No, it has to be a daughter!!" Both Lucius and Draco said at the same time. Both of them looked at each other and nodded. It seems both of them agree on something. "Sigh! Not you too." Narcissa sighed, "What will both of you do if you have a son and a brother." "There are two, aren''t they?" Draco said, "Then there are still some chances of there being at least one girl." "Yes, Draco is right." Lucius said, "I have been telling you this for a couple of days now." "Okay, you two don''t count your owls before they are delivered and Draco go take a bath. I will prepare dinner for you." Narcissa said, "Do they not serve good food in Hogwarts anymore? My baby boy looks so thin." "Really? I think I look good." Draco said standing up, "I will go take a bath then." The house elf quickly prepared a bath for him and Draco got inside relaxing. ''Sigh! I am happy to have siblings but I don''t know if its the right time. Voldemort resurrection is important without it, he can''t be killed. But resurrecting Voldemort with my baby siblings around doesn''t seem like a good idea. either. What do I do?'' Draco was worried about his family more than ever now. After a long bath, he came downstairs and sat at the dining table. "So Draco how is school going?" Narcissa asked "It''s going pretty well than I thought it would." Draco replied, "With Pansy and Theodore, it''s not that boring." "I heard you made friends with the girl from Greengrass family?" Lucius asked "Yeah! But how do you know everything?" Draco said, "Are you spying on me?" "I am friends with her mother, you know." Narcissa said, "She has been sending me letters thanking me for having you take care of her." "Oh! So how come I have never met them before?" Draco asked "They live quite far away." Lucius replied, "Besides we have only met each other on formal occasions every now and then." Draco nodded, being acquaintances with other wizarding families wasn''t that big of a deal, since he himself knew quite a few. "So who do you like more?" Suddenly Narcissa asked making Draco choke on his food. "*Cough* What are you talking about?" "I am talking about who you like more, Pansy or the girl from Greengrass family, I think her name was Daphne, right?" Narcissa said in a teasing voice. "I don''t like anyone," Draco said shoving food in his mouth. Narcissa giggled seeing her son''s behavior. "Its good if you decide earlier." Lucius said in a grim voice, "If you like one of them, then I can help you by setting good relation between our families. Both Parkinson and Greengrass families are good allies to have." Draco looked at his father who looked serious and said, "Even if I like someone, I am not going to be involved in a political marriage. Just so it can benefit our family." "You are still naive, Draco." Lucius said, "Allying with other families will help strengthen us. Especially in controlling the wizarding world in the future." "I can do well myself, father." Draco said, "I don''t need to nor do I want to use the people that I like just so I can benefit from them." "Draco you have to understand, setting good relation from early on will strengthen the bond between our families." Lucius said, "I am leaning more towards the Greengrass family, they are the oldest pure-blood family and have a great relationship with other pureblood families as well. So I hope you can focus more on the Greengrass girl." "Lucius stop it." Narcissa said, "Our son has finally come home after a long time and you have started talking politics already, he''s too young for that." "He has to learn someday, Narcissa," Lucius said. "If he plans to finish what has been started then he has to learn sooner or later. Besides I am not telling him to lie to that girl. If he becomes close friends with her then they will eventually fall for each other, as we did." Draco stood up from his chair, "Father, I know of your ambitions but I have my own as well and it''s much greater and superior to yours. As for who I marry in the future, it''s my life to decide, I might even marry a muggle if I want to and you will have no say in it." "Draco!!" Lucius stood up as well. "I am done." Draco said walking towards his room. "Lucius, I know you have been having a lot of stress lately due to the ministry seizing some of our businesses but you can''t take it out on Draco." Narcissa said, "I know my son more than you, the more you force him to do something the more likely he wouldn''t do it." "Sigh! I am sorry." Lucius said sitting back down rubbing his forehead, "With the dark lord gone some people have been acting out now and again, and now with our baby on the way I am more afraid for our family''s protection." "It''s okay Lucius." Narcissa said, "Draco has always been a little hot-headed and besides he is just 11 so we don''t need to rush into things like marriage. Also with Draco''s personality, I am sure that even if he grows old, he wouldn''t be willing to participate in a political marriage, I am afraid that if you really keep pushing him, one day he might even come home with a muggle wife." "I will have a talk with him later." Lucius said sighing. Draco reached his room and closed it. He has been stressing about Voldemort and the future but now his father wants to use him as a political tool to gain more power as well. Draco laid down on his bed, this wasn''t the first argument he had with Lucius but he didn''t expect it to be right after he comes home from school. Especially on the topic of marriage, he is too young for it and even though having allies is a good thing, he won''t marry someone just so he could get another families alliance. 30 Black. Draco woke up in the morning still annoyed by yesterday''s whole argument. He lazily went down the stairs when he heard his father call his name, "Draco!" He turned around to see his father looking at him from the living room. "We need to have a talk." Lucius said. Draco rolled his eyes and followed him inside. Narcissa was already in there, Draco sighed and sat in the seat opposite to them. "Draco, I apologize for my behavior yesterday," Lucius said making Draco flinch. ''Am I still dreaming?'' He thought, if Lucius were to hear his thoughts right now, he would probably lock him in the dungeon. "Yesterday, things got unnecessarily heated between us." Lucius said with a sincere voice, "I know you are too young for us to be talking about your marriage but running away from the political situation isn''t useful either. One way or the other you are going to have to face them so being naive in this area isn''t going to help any of us." "I am not naive, father." Draco said, "I just won''t do things that will harm people that are close to me, and nothing is going to change my mind against that." "We don''t mean that either." Narcissa said, "But there are a lot of different kinds of people in this world Draco and they might want to harm you." "I know what you''re are trying to say but I am not a kid anymore." Draco said, "I know who to trust and who not to trust and for those people who mean me harm, I won''t show any mercy to them either." "It''s good that you know." Lucius said, "Then that makes things a lot easier, if you have been reading the newspaper lately, then you might know the ministry has recently raided a couple of warehouses for dark objects which has hampered our businesses greatly." "I know and honestly I think it''s a good thing, that it''s gone." Draco said making Lucius glare at him, "Father, the times are changing and it''s time we change too. Dark objects are powerful and sell well in the black market but is it really worth it?" "Explain." Lucius said. "Father, all this time I have been giving away my potion recipes and my research paper for free to get the public to change their mind about our family and especially to make them support me when the time comes." Draco said making Narcissa and Lucius shocked. All this time they had been thinking that the reason he asked them to put up his research on the newspaper was because he was too kind and Lucius taking this chance to brag about his son, accepted this request without any hesitation as well but to think their son had some other reasons for it left them flabbergasted. Draco stood up and walked to the nearby window, "So father tell me if one of the warehouses they raid gets tracked down to us, what will happen?" Lucius stayed silent, he knew what could happen if it was tracked down to them. "Right now, other than the people in the inside, have been thinking that we are changing, especially due to me." Draco said, "So if you even get suspected for selling dark objects then all of my hard work will wash down the drain. Of course, you can bribe them but how long do you think it will work? Just a rumor is enough to ruin my reputation in the wizarding community." "Sigh! So now what?" Lucius asked, today he was seeing his son in a different light. He was seeing him more as a colleague than his son. "Destroy or sell away all the remaining dark items that we sell, and stop manufacturing new ones." Draco said, "We can make money in a not so shady way, like my perfume. By the way, how is it going?" "We have already manufactured the current batch and all of them were shipped two days ago to different shops all over the UK. Here.." Lucius said passing him the newspaper. On the very first page of the newspaper was the huge advertisement for the perfume, talking about its uses and suggesting them to buy it as a Christmas gift for their loved ones. This was Draco''s idea which he later got from Hermione who was giving him advice on how to sell his perfume better. "I am sure it will be successful." Narcissa said, "I hope so." Draco replied, "See father, we can do business in the open by selling stuff people can use than selling shady things hiding from other people''s eyes." Lucius nodded, "But things aren''t so easy, and besides we can''t run away from dark magic." "Who''s running from it?" Draco said, "Father, you have to understand that I am different from Voldemort, I won''t lose myself like him in dark arts." Narcissa and Lucius looked a bit shaken up when they heard Voldemort''s name. "See you still shake in fear just by his name but do you even have a shred of respect for him?" Draco asked. Lucius sighed, "No, I don''t. It was only fear. At first, when I started following him, I thought he was doing it for the sake of us pure-bloods but soon things got out of control, he was killing people left and right. He didn''t care if they were pure-bloods or not. He only wanted power and rule above all of us." "Exactly father don''t you get it, he has no sense of morality nor does he have a clear goal in mind. He was afraid, afraid that someone will take his powers away. If he was so powerful as he claimed to be then why didn''t he go fight Dumbledore? The reason is he was--" "Afraid of death." Narcissa completed his sentence. Lucius and Draco looked at Narcissa, "You get the intelligence from me, you know." Lucius frowned and Draco smiled, "I don''t want to fight anyone in the open, instead I want all of them to support me. I know there will be some people opposing me no matter what I do but I still want the majority to support me. I don''t want to finish what Voldemort started instead I want to create my own legacy." Lucius looked at his son, "So how long have you been brewing this plan of yours?" "A lot longer than you can imagine and I haven''t even started yet." Draco said, "At first, I wanted to wait longer till I could figure all the things out but now due to all the unexpected changes I have to make my plan start ahead of time." "So what do you suggest we do?" Lucius asked. "Expand our business and stay away from the black market. That''s the first step anyway." Draco said sitting back on the chair, "And I want you to disinherit me from the Malfoy family." "What??" Both Narcissa and Lucius said at the same time. "Listen to me first!" Draco said sighing, "I want you to disinherit me from the Malfoy family then make one of my new siblings the inheritor." "What if both the twins are girls?" Lucius asked, "And why are you making this decision?" "Mother, as far as I know, there is no one to inherit the Black family is there?" Draco said Narcissa eyes lit up, "You mean, you want to inherit the Black family?" Draco nodded, Lucius frowned and asked, "You haven''t answered my first question yet." "Father, if this is just a question about inheritance then if both my siblings are girls then I will control the Malfoy family myself and in the future, I will have one of my son take over the surname Malfoy and have him inherit it making the Malfoy family''s legacy go on." Lucius kept quiet and didn''t say anything, "So, mother what do we know about the Black family''s current situation?" Draco asked "After my aunt, Walburga Black passed away, the 12 Grimmauld Place along with all the black family''s wealth was inherited by my cousin Sirius Black, who is rotting in Azkaban; as for other people, my sister Bellatrix could have inherited the place after Sirius but she is in Azkaban as well." Narcissa explained "Wasn''t Sirius disowned from the black family?" Lucius asked. "He was, but after my aunt''s death whether the other party liked it or not, Sirius inherited the Black family''s wealth." Narcissa said with a snorting. (This part is kinda confusing since it doesn''t say whether Sirius inherited the Black family property or not but we are going to go with he did.) "So we need to convince Sirius?" Draco asked, as far as he believed convincing Sirius would prove to be quite difficult. "No, there isn''t a will directly written to him so if we can convince aunt Walburga and with the help of the ministry of magic, we can have you inherit the Black Family, but you have to change your name from Malfoy to Black." Narcissa said. "Aunt Walburga? but isn''t she like dead?" Draco asked "The portrait is still there." Narcissa said, "But have you thought things thoroughly?" "Yes." Draco nodded. "I have still not agreed to you changing your surname and disinheriting you." Lucius said with a grim face. "Father, you yourself told me last night about having other wizarding families support me, didn''t you? and besides with Black family''s wealth, I can live freely without someone trying to control me." Draco said sarcastically. "You are still mad about yesterday?" Lucius said frowning, "Even when I apologized to you?" "It''s not about apologies, father." Draco said, "Its about time we realize that you and me are different people, we have different views and ideas on things, so I am thinking this is for the best. If I have a brother in the future you can mold him into you. Similar personalities and similar lifestyle, making him just like you. So me getting disinherited is the best part, isn''t it? With it, we won''t have to argue with each other every now and then, since it will have nothing to do with me and I can live my life without you trying to force your ideas onto me." "Draco!" Narcissa said, "It''s not polite to talk to your father like that. Apologize to him." "Oh! I don''t mean to offend you father, so my apologies." Draco said, "But I still stand by what I said, every time we argue, it has something to do with you trying to force your ideas on me. I don''t want to break into a huge fight with you which I believe is bound to happen sooner or later, so I''d rather move out and not be in your control." "Fine, do what you want." Lucius said getting up. "Sigh! What do I do with you both?" Narcissa said. Draco walked over and held Narcissa''s hand, "Mother, you, believe me, don''t you?" "I do." Narcissa said, "You are my son, even if the world doesn''t believe in you, I always will." "I know it sounds stupid with me saying all these things out of the blue but I think its necessary." Draco said, "I and father aren''t the same person, ever since I was young he has been trying to mold me into being a next Dark Lord but I don''t want to be that, I want to be something beyond that." "I know." Narcissa said caressing his hair. "Besides with no one to inherit the Black family, it''s good that I step up," Draco said "I think so too." Narcissa said, "I wanted you to inherit the Black family before but Lucius was against it and thinking about it, it wasn''t possible to do so either but now with your siblings on the way, I can convince your father about it." "I hope you can." Draco said lying back, "I came back home for Christmas and the first two days of my holidays are spent with me arguing with father." "You know he can be stubborn sometimes but he wants the best for our family, that''s all," Narcissa said. "I know but it''s irritating if you think about it." Draco said, "With Voldemort now gone for a while, father''s still in a state of paranoia. Protecting one''s family is a good thing but if you start to get over-protective and controlling then it gets really annoying." "Okay! Don''t talk bad about your father now." Narcissa said pushing his head a little. "I will take you to the Black family house after you finish your first year." Draco nodded. (Narcissa is originally from the black family if you are still confused about this.) 31 Christmas. (Its a lazy day here so this chapter is going to be quite lazy as well. The main focus of this chapter is opening Christmas gifts and stuff, to increase some connection between characters and since Christmas has always played somewhat of an important role in Harry Potter, so I thought I could make a chapter out of it. If you wanna skip the part, you can do so. Since other than some gift references in the future chapters, it''s not really that important.) ---------------------------------------- Today was Christmas, so Draco woke up early. He went out of his bed and wished his father and mother, a merry Christmas. His father still upset about the disinheriting thing stiffly nodded. Draco shrugged his shoulders and went towards the living room where all his presents were collected. This year Draco had a lot more presents than usual since almost all his new friends and the Slytherin first year student had sent him a present. He quickly went over and started unwrapping them one by one. Theodore had sent him a book about potions from his family''s collection which he had never read before and Draco did the same as well. Pansy sent him a beautifully designed bracelet, which was made from platinum and gold. Draco looked at the bracelet for a while and wore it. The bracelet was bigger than his wrist but once he put it on, the bracelet shrunk itself to a perfect fit. There was a letter that came with the bracelet which read, Dear Draco, I heard about aunt Narcissa being pregnant so I wanted to congratulate her, make sure to do it on my behalf since I can''t be there at the moment. Also, how did you like my gift? I had it custom made a month ago and I had put a lot of effort into making the design, so you better like it. Also if I don''t like the gift you send me, you are buying me another one. I nearly forgot! Merry Christmas to you Draco! Your l?o?dearest friend, Pansy Parkinson. --------------------------------------- At Parkinson family''s house, Pansy was opening Draco''s gift as well. As soon as she tore open the gift wrap, she was surprised. It was a golden snitch, the newest on the market. This brand of snitch couldn''t be played in a match since its sole purpose was to follow around the person who touched it first. Pansy excitedly opened the package and held the snitch in her hands. The snitch slowly opened its wings and flew around her. Unlike the real snitch, this one was easy to catch and release back again. Pansy caught the snitch back in her hand and to her surprise, the snitch opened up and a note dropped from within. Pansy released the snitch again and read the note. I can''t always be around you so I will give you this snitch as a gift. With it around, you can always be sure that I am looking out for you, no matter where I am. Also, I wish you a Merry Christmas. -Draco Malfoy Pansy held the small note in her hand, blushing deeply. --------------------------------- Draco opened another package which was surprisingly from Harry. Draco opened the gift and it was a set of the robe, inside it there was a note that read. This is payback for the time you bought me my school robe. Now we don''t owe each other anything. -Harry Potter Draco laughed reading the letter. ''I didn''t expect Potter had it in him to do so.'' Draco put down the robe on the side and opened a new present from Daphne. Daphne had sent him a book about learning, how to fight with swords. Draco had previously mentioned his friends about wanting to learn how to fight with a sword as a joke but now it looked like Daphne took it seriously. Draco looked at the very old book in his hand. Draco opened the first page of the book and it read, "Gladio: Greengrass family." From what Draco knew ''Gladio'' meant sword and from the title, it seems like Daphne gifted him an old family book. The second page of the book was a blank page but Daphne had left him a little note there. Dear Draco, I tried to find a present for you but I couldn''t really think of anything decent. I remembered you talking about wanting to learn how to fight with swords one time so I decided to gift you this old family book, we had in our library. I don''t really know much about swords but I hope it can help you in some way. Merry Christmas! Daphne Greengrass. Draco sighed, ''Well if I really go back to the dream world again, learning swords might actually be useful.'' He said putting the book aside. ------------------------------------ At Greengrass family house, Daphne and her sister, Astoria were opening gifts as well. "Hey, Daphne who is Draco?" Astoria asked looking at a gift in her hands. "None of your business." Daphne said pulling the gift from her hand. Astoria snorted and started opening her own gifts, ignoring her. Daphne slowly and carefully opened her gift and inside it was a beautiful necklace, with a black and green emerald stone. While Daphne was dazed looking at the necklace in front of her, Astoria suddenly said, "Who is this Draco Malfoy?" Astoria''s voice woke Daphne from her stupor as she turned to look at another present in Astoria''s hand-labeled Draco. "That''s mine," Daphne said trying to pull the gift from her hand again but this time Astoria was quick enough so she managed to dodge her. "This one has my name written on it." Astoria said, "So it''s mine." "How could it be?" Daphne said not believing Astoria, "You have never even met him before." "Look.." She said showing off the name tag on top of the present, which clearly read ''From Draco Malfoy to Astoria Greengrass.'' Daphne froze reading the tag, Astoria took the chance and quickly escaped to her bedroom with the gift in her hand. Locking the door she sat on her bed as she tore open her gift. The gift was a perfume bottle which was crystal blue in color. Astoria seeing the perfume jumped up and ran outside, coming back with a newspaper in her hand. "It''s really the Noitop perfume. From what I have heard the perfume is really expensive and it''s almost sold out in all stores, so how can..." She said looking at the perfume in her hand, "Wait! Draco Malfoy, isn''t he the famous genius in potions and the one who created this perfume?" She read the label in the perfume and confirmed her guess. ''Why would he send me a gift?'' She thought for a while. She looked back at the gift wrapping she tore and found there was a note beneath it. It read, Dear Astoria Greengrass, My name is Draco Malfoy and I am in the same class and house as your sister Daphne. I have heard about you from your sister and I heard you were recently sick. Even if we don''t know each other please accept this gift as a get well soon gift and a Christmas gift. I hope you take plenty of rest and get better. Merry Christmas! Your well-wisher, Draco Malfoy Astoria kept the letter beneath her bed and held the perfume in her hands, she didn''t know why but she felt very happy. --------------------------------------------- Draco was opening one package after another in his home. Most of the Slytherin students had sent him chocolates. Candy''s and Chocolates were always the safe route to go when you are not close with each other, but still, want to send each other gifts. Draco himself had sent a lot of other people chocolate''s as gifts. Crabbe and Goyle had sent him bags of chocolates as well. Cho-Chang had sent him a broom-cleaning kit and Draco had sent her a bag of chocolates. From what Draco knew Theodore was going to send her a Nimbus 2000 as a gift since she is the seeker of the Ravenclaw team and didn''t have a nice broom to ride on. Draco didn''t really like Cho a lot considering her difference from other girls. Girls like Pansy, Daphne and Hermione were different than her, when these girls became friends with him, they became friends with each other as well not making the conversation between them weird, whereas Cho would rather not talk much when they were together as a group and make things quite difficult and awkward. When everyone is trying or doing something as a group she would always be the one to say no, which made bonding with her quite hard. Theodore had told him that she talked a lot when they were together and she was just the silent type but the lack of her socializing skills made Draco dislike her a little. Draco was sure he wouldn''t be friends with Cho in a normal world, but since Theodore liked her, Draco had to swallow his complaints and still try to make things work out. Draco opened another gift and it was from Hermione, Hermione had sent him a handsome looking eagle-feather quill. Draco was expecting Hermione to send him something study related and here we are. Draco considering her personality had sent her something similar as well. -------------------------------------- In the Granger''s house, Hermione had just woken up to the sound of someone knocking in her windows. Hermione rubbed her eyes went over and opened the window. As soon as she did a big owl came flying inside and landed on a nearby table. The owl had came with a package in its legs. "Owlbert, is that you?" Hermione said petting the owl, "You must be hungry, wait a minute." Hermione went over and came back with some owl treats since most owls come from the long distance and they don''t get to eat very often, Hermoine had bought some treats just in case, one of her friends sent her an owl. Owlbert started digging in the snacks, ignoring Hermione which made her laugh. She slowly opened the present, Draco had sent her a spellbook full of protection spells and some healing spells as well. The book wasn''t something that could be found on the store since Draco had hand-written all the spells down himself. He had written about some spells and potions mainly focusing on Protection and healing. Hermione page by page slowly read the book, she was surprised how the spells and potions were described and detailed more clearly than the book making it easier to remember and learn. Hermione knew that writing this entire book must have taken a lot of time and she was very touched by it. At the last page of the book was a letter written to her. Dear Hermione, I know how you have been trying to learn more offensive spells ever since our brawl with the Troll. Learning is okay but you have to learn to take some rest as well. Learning offensive magic is much harder than it sounds since attacks that really deal damage will fall into the Dark arts. While I know you can control yourself, Dark arts is like a drug making you fall deeper and deeper into it. So I hope when you learn Dark arts, you learn it with a professional mind rather than being emotionally passionate about it. Learning things specially Dark-arts, step by step is very necessary to get your body used to dark magic. Also, I want you to learn these spells that I have written down for you. The spells are mostly protection spells and healing spells. These spells are easier to learn than the spells you are trying to learn. Hey! If you want to fight then you must first know how to protect yourself first, so I hope these spells will help you with that. Some of the potions that I have written down are the ones that I have researched myself, making their ingredients cheaper and the potions more effective. Also, I suggest you to not try those potions on muggles since a wizard''s body is different from a muggle in someway, it might make things worse than it already is. I have also sent you two bottles of my perfume, for your parents. Don''t worry! I have experimented with it and it affects the muggles in a similar way as it does to us. And I wish you a Merry Christmas. Draco Malfoy. Hermione closed the book and looked at the bottles on the table she had failed to notice earlier due to being distracted by the book. Hermione took the bottles and went outside to her parents with a smile on her face. ----------------------------------------------------- Draco had already opened all the gifts, he lazily stood up and carried all the present to his room. Suddenly several owls flew into his room carrying huge packages. Draco looked at all the package in surprise wondering what it was. As Draco was looking over he found a note that read, This is all the ingredients you asked me to collect. Since they were very rare and expensive consider it a Christmas gift. -Lucius Malfoy. Draco sighed finally getting his ingredients and it seemed like his father wasn''t that mad at him as well. Draco picked up all the ingredients with his wand and sent them towards his suitcase. Unknown to Narcissa and Lucius, Draco had sent some of the family members that they had lost touch with some gifts in hope that they could rekindle their relationship or at least forgive them. 32 12 Grimmauld Place Somewhere in a hidden place, "Go take a rest." An old man said with a growling voice, his face looked as if it was roughly carved from wood. His face was covered in scars and a chunk of his nose was missing. He had dark grey, grizzled hair. He also had a wooden leg. His eyes, however, were the most shocking part of his face, one was small and dark while the other was a vivid, electric blue magical eye that moved around independently from his normal eye. "Mad-eye, its Christmas, I wanna go home." A girl with bubblegum-pink hair said lazily. "You will go home after you finish your basic training." Moody said limping. She mumbled something underneath her breath when suddenly an owl came flying by. "Didn''t you open your gifts this morning?" Moody asked. "I thought I did." She said taking the present the owl had bought her. She quickly opened the present to find a new Nimbus 2000. Her eye lit up as she picked up the broom and started playing around with it. Moody came over and said, "Who can send you such an expensive gift?" "Mad-eye, there you go being suspicious about everything again." She said, "It must have been one of my lovers back in Hogwarts." "Tonks, do you really think an old lover would send you the most expensive broom around?" Mad-eye said, "Besides, the broom could have been Hexed or worse cursed. As an Auror, you should be more aware of these situations." "Auror in training! and what''s that in your hand?" Tonks asked looking at Moody who was holding a letter in his hand. "It came with your broom, be more observant," Moody said grumpily and passed her the letter, for her to read it. Dear Nymphadora Tonks, You are probably wondering who I am and why I sent you a Christmas gift. Well, let''s start with who I am first. My name is Draco Malfoy. You may or may not have heard of me but all in all, I am your cousin. I know how our family relations has been since, my aunt, your mother married a muggle, but unlike my parents, I don''t believe in this pure-blood crap at all. So I am sending this Christmas gift as a way to reconcile our relations. I may not be able to convince my parents to think like me but I still believe that we are family and besides we are the younger generation who will have to live to see the future. So even if my parents don''t agree, I still want to make peace between our family or at least between you and me. I found that you graduated just the year before I joined, which is kinda sad considering the fact that I could have this conversation with you face to face rather than with a letter. I heard that you are training to be an Auror, so I wish you luck. Even though I think Aurors are weird and creepy, but hey it''s still something, isn''t it? I heard that there are some people in the department like someone called, Mad-eye Moody. Never met him before but everyone says he''s a little creepy so watch out for him. If you agree with my views then you can reach out to me through letters, whenever you have time. I basically stay in Hogwarts so that''s the safest place where you can send me a letter. Also if you don''t want to then just forget about this letter and you can still keep the broom, it''s yours. Merry Christmas! Your Cousin, Draco Malfoy. "Hahaha.." Tonks was already rolling on the ground halfway through the warning towards Moody. Moody''s grumpy face was grumpier. "Hmph! So what are you going to do?" He asked "I am going to do what?" Tonks asked but after gaining a glare from Moody she said, "I don''t know, he seems like a fun kid. He''s weird I guess, the first part of the later made him seem like a boring person but the latter made him interesting and he seems sincere, so I guess there''s nothing wrong with having a conversation, besides I got this really cool broom." "The Malfoy''s are more clever than you think." Moody snorted, "Considering how they manage to wiggle out their way after ''he'' disappeared." "But isn''t he still young? From reading the content of the letter you can tell that he is the first year in Hogwarts so how bad can he be." "I am more suspicious of that little devil." Mad-eye said, "From all the news I have heard of him, he''s, even more, cleverer than his father and with his intelligence, I wouldn''t be surprised if he turned out to be the next dark lord." "Okay, Mad-eye let''s not go too far in the future." Tonks said, "And he doesn''t seem to have the pure-blood prejudice all of these dark wizards have." "You should also know that Voldemort, isn''t the only dark lord." Moody said, "Every people have different ambitions." "Okay." Tonks said rolling her eyes, "I am going to send a letter to mother." ------------------------ Similar to many other families, the Tonks family were celebrating Christmas. Andromeda Tonks like her daughter received a letter from Draco talking about reconciling, where he explained to them about his beliefs and thinking. Andromeda was happy that there was another family member who isn''t completely void of love and isn''t mindlessly a pure-blood supremacist, so she happily wrote a letter back to him, agreeing with his thoughts. ------------------------- Christmas passed and there were a few days left before the school starts again. After his father agreed, the process was much smoother and faster than Draco imagined it to be. After a quick talk with the current Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, it was discovered that the Black family inheritance was passed onto Sirius Black, despite being in Azkaban. Since there were no other direct descendants other than him, Sirius was the rightful owner of the Black family and it couldn''t be changed unless he agreed to it. The right could only be legally transferred to Draco after Sirius''s death and if he''s already officially changed to a Black from Malfoy. Originally the process would be more complicated since after Sirius death the property would transfer to Bellatrix and after Bellatrix death, the right would transfer to Narcissa. But with a little bit of bribing and family connections, the matter was resolved to remove Bellatrix from the family inheritance line and with Narcissa giving her inheritance right to Draco. With Bellatrix confessing all her crimes openly at the Council, no one believed that she will ever be released from Azkaban so removing her from getting the inheritance wasn''t too difficult. The whole unexpected news caused a pause to his inheritance plan of the Black family. Even though Sirius was in Azkaban, no one knows when he will die. So after trying everything they could, they decided to officially change his surname to Black first since anything they do will require him to be a Black first. (Nearly forgot to write ''a'') The official changing of his family name wasn''t a difficult process, with Narcissa originally being a Black and the only heir who isn''t in Azkaban, taking on the name wasn''t difficult but Narcissa kept insisting on taking the permission of her aunt first before doing so. Draco agreed with her since Draco planned to move out to 12 Grimmauld Place, taking her permission was a priority. 12 Grimmauld Place was the ancestral home of the Black family, located in the Borough of Islington, London, in a Muggle neighborhood. The location was protected by a Fidelius Charm making the house invisible to the neighborhood residents, the local Muggles have long since accepted the mistake in numbering which landed number 13 next to number 11. The Malfoy family drove to the neighborhood in a car, since Narcissa was pregnant apparition wasn''t a correct choice as it may harm the baby. A car was one of the weird hobbies that wizards had. It was said that many wizards and witches envied muggle cars, so they started buying it for their own use. Even wizards with prejudice against muggles owned cars. Especially the rich wizarding family owned cars like Rolls Royce. Lucius had bought 3 different Rolls Royce from a wizard car-seller that sold enchanted cars after buying it from muggles. The cars were obviously different from a normal wizarding car with enhancement such as Extension Charm causing the car to have a huge space within the car. Draco suggested his father about some extension he could add to his car which resulted in, Lucius personally enchanting it with a flying charm, an invisible charm, and a self-driving charm. Lucius was very proud of his work and talked about it every chance he could get. Although a car is defined as a Muggle artifact and is therefore illegal to enchant under British wizarding law, nevertheless there are a few enchanted cars in Britain. With the Malfoy''s family legally owning three of them. Of course, the council wasn''t made aware of the other enhancement than the extension charm. After driving for nearly an hour they finally reached the place. "It''s really far away, from our house," Draco said looking around the place. "Even though my car isn''t as fast as the knight bus it''s still faster than a lot of other cars and besides if it was night time we could fly here more quickly." Lucius said, "But apparating here would still be much faster." Draco rolled his eyes seeing Lucius brag about his car to them. Lucius was the type that like to brag a lot but since he couldn''t talk about the enhancement to his friends due to it being a secret, he would keep bragging it to Draco and Narcissa, whenever he had the chance. "So where is it?" Draco asked "The place is hidden and from what I remember the place was under Fidelius Charm, but after my aunt''s death the place is known to all the people who previously knew about it," Narcissa explained "But wouldn''t that be disadvantageous?" Draco asked. He knew that later when Order of the Pheonix moved in here, Dumbledore enchanted the place with Fidelius Charm with him being a secret keeper but it still doesn''t explain how the other people like his mother or Bellatrix forgot about the place even before the charm was placed considering they had been here before. "The charm is inactive right now." Narcissa said, "Before dying, my uncle put every security measure known to wizardkind on this place when he lived here, so even right now only a few people know about this place. This is why getting aunt Walburga permission is necessary since after she accepts you, you can be the next secret keeper of the 12 Grimmauld Place after Sirius, making the place completely hidden again." "Wait! so Sirius can still know about this place even after I become the secret keeper." Draco asked confused "Yes, since Sirius is the current owner of this place it also makes him a Secret-keeper so unless we can get him to give you the right to the property, he will keep being a secret-keeper, no matter what happens." Narcissa said, "I know it''s confusing due to all the charms and enhancement did to this place but you can be sure that this place is very safe." "You both go in there and have a chat, I''ll stay here," Lucius said. Narcissa took Draco''s hand and walked between the two houses. Suddenly, the neighboring houses, number eleven and number thirteen, were shoved out of the way as a worn set of front steps appeared between them. Draco and Narcissa climbed up the stairs which lead to a battered front door. On the door was a silver knocker in the shape of a twisted serpent, with no keyholes, handles, or anything else that would indicate it to be a door, Narcissa took out her wand and waved it around causing the door to fling open. As soon as the door opened a loud, clanging bell rang through the house. The front door opened to a long hallway, lit with gas lamps and a large overhead chandelier. The place at one time might have been a grand entryway, complete with ornate portraits on the walls, but right now it was gloomy and cobwebby, with the wallpaper peeling off and the carpet is worn thin. Among the midst of painting was a life-size painting of an old woman in a black cap. "WHO IS IT?" The portrait screamed. (The whole thing is kind of confusing about 12 Grimmauld Place, so I added my own twist to it.) 33 Walburga Black "WHO IS IT?" The portrait screamed. "It''s me Narcissa, aunt Walburga." Narcissa said walking in along with Draco. Seeing her the portrait calmed down, and the furious expression changed into a mild one. "Why are you here, Narcissa?" The portrait asked looking at Draco, "And who is this?" "This is my son, Draco." Narcissa answered. Draco felt a bit awkward but still did a noble greeting. "That''s good! You married a Malfoy, didn''t you?" Walburga asked "Yes, aunt Walburga." Narcissa replied. "Yes, Blood purity must be maintained." Walburga said, "Seems like you are having new children as well." "Yes, aunt Walburga." Narcissa replied, "And this is one of the reasons why I came here today." "What do you want?" She asked raising her eyebrows. "I want Draco to inherit the Black family." Narcissa said. As soon as she said that Walburga clenched her fist and wrinkled her eyebrows in anger. "Please listen to me first, aunt Walburga." Narcissa said trying to calm her down. Walburga didn''t say anything but nodded her head a little, signaling Narcissa to continue. "After your death, the Black family house has been empty for almost 6 years now, with no one left to inherit it." Narcissa said, "Due to this, the house and the other black family property were naturally inherited by Sirius." "DON''T MENTION THAT BLOOD-TRAITOR''S NAME!" Walburga screamed angrily. "It''s necessary!" Narcissa replied, "Sirius is rotting in Azkaban and Bellatrix is the same. Unless the Dark Lord returns they are going to be stuck there forever, no matter what." "So you are saying?" "Since no one capable is in the line of inheritance, I want Draco to inherit it and continue the Black family line." Narcissa said, "With me, he still has the Black family''s blood running in his vein." "Why should I agree to it?" "If you don''t then the Black family line will end after Sirius''s death in Azkaban." Narcissa replied. "As a member of the Black family myself, I don''t want it to happen." "Hmph! Since the legacy has been passed to that Blood-traitors hand, what are you going to do about it?" Walburga asked seemingly understanding of the situation after what Narcissa told her. "With the Minister for Magic, being on our side. The problem will be solved in no time, but it will require him to be a Black first" Narcissa reassured her. Walburga turned towards Draco, "Do you want to inherit the Black family''s legacy?" she asked, "Yes, Grandaunt." Draco replied respectfully, "With my siblings on the way, I can claim the Black family''s name without any burden." "So are you willing to become a Black completely and revoke all ties with the Malfoy family?" She asked again. Draco became confused, ''Is revoking all ties really necessary?'' He thought "She means, that you will have nothing to do with Malfoy family anymore and you will have to put Black family first before everything." Narcissa explained. "I am willing." Draco said. Draco had the same plans to begin with, even though he won''t completely let go of the Malfoy family but he will always put his new family first. "Good! Then from now on, your name shall be Draco Black, not Malfoy. You will carry on the bloodline legacy of the Black family from now on and be sure to never stain its name." Walburga said looking at Draco. ''Stain? You are literally Voldemort''s puppets. No matter what I do, the name won''t be stained any further.'' Draco thought with his mouth slightly twitching but since he was bowing to her, Walburga couldn''t see it. "KREACHER!" Walburga screamed again and from inside a room, an old elf came running. "Yes, Mistress." The Elf said as he looked at Narcissa and Draco. "Miss Ciccy, it''s a pleasure to see you again." Kreacher said with slight emotion in his eyes. Kreacher like all house elves was considerably smaller than a human. He had a bulbous, snout-like nose, bloodshot eyes, many folds of skin, and had white hair growing out of his bat-like ears. "How are you, Kreacher?" Narcissa said gently. "Kreacher is good." He said bowing towards her. "Kreacher, From today onward. He will be your new master and the new heir and head of the Black family." She said pointing at Draco from the painting. Kreacher looked at Draco with his eyes opened wide. "From today onward your loyalty will shift to Draco, as he will continue the line of the Black family." Walburga said in a strict tone. Kreacher looked at her and nodded, "Hello! Kreacher, my name is Draco, please treat me well!" Draco said giving Kreacher a gentle smile. "It''s nice to meet you, Master Draco" said Kreacher, sinking so low that his lips almost touched his gnarled toes "Kreacher will do whatever Master wants." Draco was kinda scared of this deranged elf, who he was sure was a bit cuckoo in the head. He knew of the elf''s past and due to it being alone with this deranged painting for 6 years must have made it even more insane. Draco like with Dobby and the other house elves planned to treat it with enough kindness, so it won''t betray him on the time of need. "Kreacher, go fetch the keys!" The painting said. The elf nodded and quickly ran back and came with a golden key in his hand and handed it to Draco. "From now on the vault belongs to you," Walburga said looking at Draco. Draco getting hold of the key nodded. "Kreacher! I will be gone now, so make sure to treat him with great loyalty." Walburga said to Kreacher. For someone who spent the last of her days grieving her husband and son''s death, she had become very close to the elf. Kreacher like her was very attached to Walburga and started sobbing when he heard her. "Come here." The portrait said to Draco. Draco turned his head towards Walburga and walked towards her. Suddenly a light started glowing from the portrait showering Draco in it as well. "Keep the Black family legacy alive." Draco heard her voice, the light slowly faded away and it was completely gone. Draco looked back at the Portrait, which still looked realistic but it didn''t have any life in it like before. "Mistress." Kreacher walked forward and started crying and wailing seeing the lifeless portrait. While all this was happening Draco was trying to figure out, what just happened. "She transferred the right to you." Narcissa said, "Now you are the true owner of the Black family and the secret keeper of it. After I go out from here, no one except you and Sirius will remember this place." Draco nodded in understanding, "So Great aunt?" "She is gone now." Narcissa said sighing, "Gone forever." (I didn''t want a weird talking portrait to be connected with Draco, who keeps yelling every chance she gets so with this, I thought of killing two birds with one stone, by giving the right to Draco and having the portrait gone.) With Kreacher sobbing crazily, Draco looked around the house. "A lot of cleaning up is required, huh?" Draco said. "Yes, you will have to come back here with a couple of house elves to clean the place up." Narcissa said, "Looking at the place, I am sure it has become a nest for spider and pixies." Draco nodded agreeing with her. He wanted to look around but seeing the dirty place, he didn''t do it since he still had to go to the Ministry after this. Draco knew a Horcrux was in here, somewhere but he couldn''t do anything about it for now. Draco turned to look at Kreacher who was still crying. "Kreacher!" He called out. Kreacher turned his head to look at Draco, while still sobbing. "I will come here with a couple of house elves to clean the house tomorrow until then clean whatever you can." Draco said. Kreacher nodded and went back to crying. Draco looked at Narcissa and motioned her to leave. Both of them got out of the house and as soon they did, the house disappeared between the neighboring houses. "What are you thinking, Draco?" Narcissa asked "I am thinking about the house." Draco said, since he was now the owner of the house, he wanted to change it enough so it could fit his own taste better. He wanted to clean up all the gloomy things that were in the house and since the house itself was rotting away, changes were necessary. "House, yes but what.." Narcissa asked getting confused. Draco looked at his mother and figured the Fidelius Charm was already working. Draco took out a paper and wrote the address of the house with his wand and gave it to Narcissa. Narcissa reading the paper finally remembered 12 Grimmauld Place. The Fidelius charms is a very effective charm, other than the secret keeper himself no one can remember the place unless the secret keeper tells the other person the information making him/her a secondary keeper. The Secondary keepers can''t divulge the information to the other people even if they want to, no dark magic or curse can make them spill the information unless the secret keeper himself is tortured enough to reveal the information. The Secondary keeper themselves forget the information unless they want to remember it specifically and even then the secret will be revealed to them alone. After the death of the secret keeper all the secondary keepers will become the new Secret Keeper, so a Secret keeper must be strong enough to protect themselves. Any living creatures could be turned into a Secret Keeper, but people usually didn''t choose creatures that couldn''t speak human language, since a Secret Keeper needed to be the one to describe other people the secret unless one doesn''t want anyone to find about it, not even themselves. The Fidelius charm is an immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. So not even Voldemort or Dumbledore can reveal the information. Dumbledore and Voldemort can walk around the entire area searching for this place but will never find it even if they have their nose pressed right against the window of the living room. The Fidelius charm also makes the place Soundproof making it impossible for people outside to hear what''s going on inside the house. The other advantage he knew of the place is that it was unplottable meaning muggles would never find the place even if they are walking past by them making it impossible to locate it or map it. The property was similar to the Leaky Cauldron. Narcissa finally remembering the place nodded and suggested him, some places where he could buy the cleaning items. Similar to Narcissa, Lucius didn''t have a clue about the house at all, so Draco passed him a parchment as well, making him finally remember the place. The next place they had to go to was the Ministry of Magic, for formally changing him to a Black from a Malfoy. With the help of the Minister for Magic, the process was done within no time, after giving a couple of signatures and a drop of Blood, he was now no longer a Malfoy but a Black. Now even though, Sirius legally owned the Black family property and its legacy, Draco could use all the property however he wanted, except for selling it. Lucius held a small party inviting all the rich wizarding family to celebrate Draco finally becoming a Black. Daphne and Pansy couldn''t come to the party since they were quite busy with things of their own but still sent him a letter congratulating him. "So you are a Black, now huh?" Theodore who was at the party said. "Well, I guess so." Draco shrugged, all the Slytherin first-year students had come to celebrate the occasion with him. "So what about Sirius?" Blaise asked. Everyone was curious about Sirius since his deeds of exposing the Potters and killing 12 muggles was well known throughout the wizarding community. "What about him?" Draco said pouring himself some butter-beer. "He is still in Azkaban and I am sure he isn''t coming out anytime soon." "It''s surprising, that you are related to him." Millicent said "Is it really?" Theodore replied, "I am sure, we are all related to each other one way or the other." "Yeah! I am sure that I am even related to the Weasley''s in some way." Draco said. "Really?" "Yeah! Since our wizarding community is so small, especially us who take the pure-blood stuff way too seriously than we should. Being related to each other is very common especially among us Sacred twenty-eight." Draco explained. "So did you inherit all the Black family property?" Theodore asked since the Black family is known to be one of the oldest and the richest families, everyone was interested in this topic as well. "I did." Draco said waving the Gringott''s key around in his hand, "I don''t know how much do I have in the vault now but I am sure it''s still going to be a lot." "Well I don''t really care about the money but you will need to share some books with me, I am sure the Black family has a lot of unique books," Theodore said greedily. Draco didn''t reply and just drank his butter beer, rolling his eyes. Unknown to them, someone was secretly listening to their conversation. 34 Bug Problem. The next day, Draco went back to the place with a couple of elves including Dobby and left them there in the care of Kreacher who had finally stopped crying. The cleaning up would require quite a lot of time considering the area and having to clean up the nest of different creatures living there. Other than the antique''s, Draco planned to change all the furniture as some had dead Puffskein and may other creatures corpse lying around. The layout of the house was pretty simple, the front door opened up to a hallway, then on one side of the hallway was the dining room, which featured a dresser holding the Black family crest and China. The dining room also contained a long wooden table with chairs and hanging light fixtures. At some point, while the house was abandoned, a family of spiders the size of saucers moved into this dresser. The spiders were none the less very creepy, causing Draco to jump every time they came crawling out and kill them. At the end of the hallway were the stairs that led to the upper floors, decorated with a row of shrunken house-elf heads, mounted on the wall on plaques. Dobby seeing them was kinda scared specifically when Kreacher showed his mother''s head among the plaque, telling Draco that his dream was to have his head up there along with other elves. The other elves were slightly scared of Kreacher. Earning Kreacher''s loyalty wasn''t that easy since he was just following his orders without any diligence as if he was being forced to do so. Due to Walburga herself naming Draco the new head, Kreacher was respectful of him but wasn''t truly loyal. There was a door at the far end of the entry hall, a set of narrow stone stairs leads to the basement and the house''s kitchen. Though less ornate than the floors above, the kitchen was still a large, "cavernous" room with a large fireplace at the far end. Iron pots and pans hung from the ceiling above, and a long wooden table sits in the center of the room, large enough to fit a couple dozen people around it for a meal. Also in the basement, just off the kitchen, was a dark pantry, large enough for two people to stand in comfortably; and another cupboard off the kitchen houses the boiler for the house, as well as Kreacher''s den, filled with rags, smelly blankets, and photographs of the Black family. Other than these two small rooms, however, the kitchen seems to fill the entire basement ¡ª making it quite a large room indeed. The first floor had three rooms, a bedroom, a Bathroom, and a drawing room. Out of them, the Drawing room held the most significance. Draco knew that this place held the Slytherin''s locket which was one of Voldemort Horcrux. Draco wasn''t confident enough to face a Horcrux right now as Horcrux had their own defense set up against anyone who tried to destroy it and besides he didn''t even have a tool to destroy the Horcrux. The drawing room was at one time exquisite, with large windows overlooking the street in front of the house, a large fireplace flanked by two ornate glass-fronted cabinets, and an entire wall covered with a tapestry of the Black family tree. Draco was sure the room mostly just needed a good cleaning and it could return to its former self. Draco along with the help of elves cleaned up the curtain which held a lot of Doxies in them. Like in the Malfoy Manor the place held a lot of dark items in the cabinets ¡ª from snakeskins to bottles of blood to boxes of Wartcap Powder ¡ª which were ready to put up a fight against anyone trying to clean them up. Draco didn''t have any problems with Dark items so other than dusting them up, removing it wasn''t required. The other important thing this place held was a Black Family Tapestry. The tapestry looked immensely old; it was faded and looked as though Doxys had gnawed it in places. Nevertheless, the golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show a sprawling family tree dating back to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black ''Toujours pur''. The tapestry was in the Black family for seven centuries, being passed down to descendants through the ages, finding its way into their homes, and by most members of the family, it was treated as an object of reverence, representing their pure-blood heritage, which the House of Black held in great esteem. Despite this general respect of the object, some Blacks, the earliest known being Eduardus Limette, and the most recent being Sirius Black III was disowned for various reasons; supporting Muggle rights, being Squibs, fraternizing with other disowned people, etc., and treated the item with resentment and disrespect. The disowned members of the family had their images in the Tapestry burnt off by a spell and their descendants'' names were not even included on the tree. Disowned members'' birth/death dates were also never recorded on the tree. The tree contained the names and respective birth dates of the family members inside small pieces of parchment, as well as a small images of the Blacks by birth, There were names including his Mother, even his name was in there along with his picture. The Tapestry updated itself after new members were born in the family and similarly the Tapestry had changed his name from Malfoy to Black. The second floor held a couple of bedrooms. One bedroom in specific held two twin beds and a wardrobe, and like the rest of the house it was gloomy, had lofty ceilings, and had a doorknob in the shape of a serpent. On the wall was a portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black, from what Draco remembered Phineas was one of the Headmaster of Hogwarts and one of the least popular ones as well, Draco didn''t know what Phineas did to deserve that title but he was sure it was something related to him being a pure-blood fanatic. The third floor had two rooms in it, one led to the Black family library which contained tons of books, mostly related to dark arts. Draco read through the name''s of the book and was delighted to find rare and old books which weren''t even published anymore and the other room led to Broom storage, which contained a lot of old brooms which weren''t manufactured anymore. The fourth floor held Sirius and Regulus''s bedroom, which Draco wasn''t interested in. Draco didn''t plan to touch Regulus and Sirius room, other than cleaning it. Draco knew of the importance Kreacher held towards Regulus and besides there were plenty of other bedrooms in the house where he could sleep comfortably since he would be mostly staying in the Malfoy Manor and even if he stayed here, he would mostly be alone. This caused Kreacher to be very thankful of Draco who bowed to him, thanking him again and again. On Regulus room, there was a sign on the door, marked ¡ª "Do Not Enter Without the Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black"Draco could tell that both rooms had once been beautiful, with carved wooden headboards on the beds, velvet curtains, and fine wall hangings and furniture. However, the decor in the two rooms, of course, could not have been more different: Sirius decked his room out in Gryffindor colors and banners, and posters of Muggle biker girls and in Regulus''s room, slightly smaller, the decor, of course, highlighted his Slytherin, pure-blood heritage, with a Black family crest painted over the bed and newspaper clippings about Voldemort donning the walls. After looking around the entire house, Draco found a couple of items that really interested him. He found an ornate crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper, full of Dragon blood and not just even a normal Dragon Blood but one of the extinct Dragon''s which no longer exists. He also found a music box that played a faintly sinister, tinkling tune that when wound nearly knocked everyone out. An ancient set of purple robes that tries to strangle a person when one tries to remove it from their wardrobe. A spidery instrument, rather like a many-legged pair of tweezers, which scurried away and tried to puncture Draco''s skin and a grandfather clock that shot heavy bolts at whoever passed by. Other than the enchanted items, there were quite a few items he didn''t understand like the boxes, made of tarnished silver and inscribed with some sort of ancient language. There were several ancient seals, and rusted Daggers as well. Surprisingly there were a few muggle items in the house such as a Piano, which was enchanted to play music any time someone poured mana into it. Kreacher handed Draco a box, which contained a large, golden ring bearing the Black family crest. After checking it for hexes and curses, Draco determined the ring was safe to wear and put it on. The ring signified him being the next head of the Black family. Next day, huge news broke out through the wizarding community in England. The Daily Prophet released a piece of news shocking a lot of people, the front page of the news had a very domineering title. "HOUSE OF BLACK REVIVES" the news read, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black is one of the largest, oldest, and wealthiest pure-blooded wizarding families in Britain, and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. The House of Black is synonymous with elevated status and wealth and is considered to be akin to the Royalty in the British Wizarding Community. The pure-blood family has always placed and followed its pure blood heritage with great pride with its motto, Toujours Pur, which means "Always Pure" in French. The Black family which was on the verge of destruction after all the members of its family died after following You-Know-Who, with its last successor Sirius Black being in Azkaban for killing muggles and being under the service of the You-Know-Who. The family which end seemed near has its fate changed. Draco Malfoy, the genius prodigy in potions and spells, who has amassed fame over the years for his charity and intelligence has stood up to inherit the position to be the next Black. Draco Black, (formerly Malfoy) has now inherited the position of the next head of the Black family. With Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco Black who is now pregnant with his new siblings, Draco Black took the chance to inherit the Black family leaving the Malfoy family. With Draco Black''s intelligence many wizards have predicted in the past that he might become the next Dark Lord and now with him joining the pure-blood supremacist Black family, many professionals have suggested that it might really be the case. From being related to the murder Sirius Black and other dark wizards, the suggestion may not be very far from the truth. Slowly gaining power from his charisma and intelligence, Draco Black has succeeded in things that some wizards may not even succeed in their lifetime. Being born with a silver spoon in his mouth in the Malfoy family and now inheriting the rich Black family, Draco Black is surely one of the wealthiest young wizards around. But it is still questionable what he decides to do with all this power. With the current generation having young talented wizards like Draco Black and the Harry Potter, (who is also suspected to be the next dark lord) our future may not be as peaceful as we imagined it to be. Let''s just hope that our prediction may not be true if it is we are going to be in a lot more trouble than before. --------------------------------------------------- (The Gryffindor sword was only able to destroy the Horcrux because it has the ability to absorb the power in a way of the item it has defeated, so after fighting with the Basilisk it absorbed its venom property to help destroy basilisk.) Just in case you wanna know. 35 Bug Problem pt.2 Wow was reading comments on the previous chapter and things were a little heated up, I think people misunderstood because of the whole Dragon Blood thing so let me clear somethings up, 1) There will be no cultivation related things like I previously said I will keep it as real to the harry potter world as possible. 2) Dragon bloodline is weird like there isn''t even Dragon and human hybrid. And by giving him the power of Dragon''s the whole story will go sideways and be more illogical. So basically what I am trying to say is dragon bloodline is impossible but I will give Draco a bloodline but not an overpowered and impractical one like a Dragon. 3) Jesus Christ, too many people read xianxia novels and get''s things confused. You guys should check other novels out where you can understand more things than just cultivation. 4) I will not make MC OP because if I do that then I will have to make the villain OP as well, so at the end, it will be no different. ------------------------------------------- The news article was printed out with a picture of Draco, Lucius, and Fudge standing together chatting outside the ministry. If a person looks close enough they can quickly figure out that the picture was taken secretly but the wizards and witches didn''t care about that at all. The news spread like wildfire and everyone was concerned about Draco, being the next dark lord. Some muggle-born wizards, who still feared Voldemort even went as far to sent letters to Dumbledore and other professor requesting them to keep an eye on Draco Black and Harry Potter and to hand them over to authorities if any suspicious activity was found. The dark wizards, however, were the complete opposite, instead of being scared they were ready to come out from their hiding and support Draco if he really wants to finish what has been started.The news caused quite a ruckus and the Christmas spirit they had was all gone. Harry was also somehow cut in the misfire and was brooding over it. Lucius threw the newspaper angrily, "How can they say such things?" "People are paranoid, especially wizards and witches who take things like this way too seriously than they should." Draco said calmly sitting on the sofa, "I knew we shouldn''t have held the party at the party house, we should have just done it in our home." "Yeah! But the preparation would take too much time and with you going back to Hogwarts tomorrow, there wouldn''t be any time to celebrate it." Lucius said "Well, I don''t really care." Draco said, "I knew some wizards and witches had already painted me as this next uprising Dark lord in their mind besides they even put Potter in the mix, he was literally the person connected to Voldemort''s disappearances but they still suspect him to be the next dark lord." "Hmph! I wonder how those people got wind of it." Narcissa said, "And such close information, did someone leaked the news outside?" "It''s impossible." Lucius answered, "I am sure that no one will be willing to betray us, especially after we gained more power, now with Draco being a Black, our family is stronger than it has ever been." "You are forgetting something, Mother." Draco said, "The news doesn''t have all the information like Sirius still owning all the property legally. It just says that I am the new head of the Black family, meaning the person who leaked it only knew things we announced in the party." "You mean there was a spy?" Narcissa asked realizing things. "Yes, I am sure there was one at the party." Draco replied, "Father can you tell me the name of the person who wrote the article?" "It''s Rita Skeeter" Lucius replied."That woman always manages to get secret information without anyone noticing." Hearing that name, Draco''s eyes lit up. Rita Skeeter he knew. Rita Skeeter a journalist at Daily Prophet who desired to be an author. Rita''s news are very popular and it could even be called, enchantingly nasty. Enchanting, because of her writing skills where she wrote things making an article very fun and interesting to read and nasty because more than half of the article would be filled with lies. People who she wrote an article on, knew how disgusting and fake she could be but other people blindly believed her or at least kept her articles in mind. Rita had previously sent a letter to Draco asking him for an interview which he just ignored considering her habit but now it looks like she took the matter into her own hands. With Rita being a secret Animagus and a beetle at that, made her spying very easy. Even though she couldn''t get into restricted space like here in the Malfoy Manor without being noticed, she could pretty much spy on people anytime she wanted and this time she probably did the same as well. "I am going to get her." Narcissa said, she had heard about the deeds of Rita but didn''t expect that witch to go against her son. "Calm down, mother, getting angry isn''t necessary." Draco said, "I am sure Rita has thousands of complaints against her but no one will do anything against her because the Prophet is protecting her and would not fire her considering her fame among readers, besides with our connection with the Prophet, Rita didn''t completely bash me either as she could have said things that were a lot worse." "Worse?" Narcissa snorted, "What is worse than calling you the next Dark Lord?" "Rita''s news is more like a fictional story than a real one, if she wanted she could have painted me as the Dark Lord already than a potential one and besides she pointed fingers at Potter as well, making the attention shift a little from me and since Potter''s fame is much bigger than mine and with him related to Voldemort, I am sure he is getting the worse out of it." ''In fact, even I am surprised at the fact, that she didn''t make up some fictional story against me.'' Draco thought Harry was already a primary suspect for the role of the next Dark Lord, due to some rumors that surfaced around after the question how he defeated Voldemort arose in peoples mind and due to the newspaper mentioning Draco with the potential of being the next Dark Lord, Old rumors related to Potter rose up as well. "Draco is right." Lucius said calming down, "I know the editors and the owner of the Daily Prophet, and besides they didn''t directly attack us either and as Draco mentioned there are a lot of complaints against Rita Skeeter but none of them have been taken seriously considering the lack of evidence against her." "So you are telling me that we need to let her go because of not having any evidence." Narcissa said snorting. "No, but we will attack when the chance is right." Draco said, "If we attack her now, without any proof, people will surely believe that I am a dark wizard trying to hide my secrets and besides I wanted to announce the news of me inheriting the Black family sooner or later, so people won''t keep confusing me with a Malfoy and with this the news is surely spread all over the wizarding community within Europe." "Sigh! Next time we need to increase our security." Narcissa said. "But I am not leaving her for this." "Yeah! this is indeed a valuable lesson." Draco nodded.''and it''s going to be very interesting.'' Draco thought to smirk. ---------------------------------------------------------- Tomorrow he was going back to Hogwarts, so he slept early to get a good rest. Draco opened his eyes slowly, to find himself staring at the dimly lit, unfamiliar ceiling. He slowly stood up and looked around, right now it looked like he was inside a cave of some sort. ''So it happened again.'' Draco thought, he was much calmer than before as he was already getting used to the whole dream thing. Draco looked at his clothes, which were the same as the clothes he had slept in and the only difference was that he was holding the Gryffindor sword from the very beginning this time. Draco gripped the sword tightly and looked around to see if there were any creatures that could attack him this time but after a while, he finally calmed down finding nothing of that sort. He looked around to find an exit but there wasn''t any, the place was barely lit with the light coming out from the holes in the ceiling. Draco thought for a while and decided to walk down a random path. Draco wasn''t much afraid of what was going to happen since he believed that he was going to wake up in his room even if he died, so he wanted to explore this weird dream more than just stand there. The path he chose looked never-ending as it kept going on and on, and its size kept changing as well, sometimes the path was wide enough to walk freely and sometimes it was so narrow that he had to squeeze his way through. As Draco kept walking deeper and deeper into the cave, he started hearing strange noises and as he kept walking towards it, the noises changed into voices and it seemed like there were a couple of people in there. "Who goes there?" A voice called out. Draco kept walking towards the voice until he reached the reached the source of the voice. "I am just lost." Draco replied looking at the group of five people in front of him. There were 3 women and 2 men, and among them was a very beautiful woman in particular that Draco noticed. ''Another woman from the painting.'' Draco thought looking at the beautiful girl in front of him. The girl wasn''t too tall neither too short and had beautiful brown curly hair with glistening brown eyes. "Lost?" One of the men in the group sneered. "I just woke up in this place." Draco said shrugging his shoulders while his eyes never left the girl. "What are you staring at?" The next man who was taller than the other one said, "Haven''t you got any manners?" Draco looked at the tall sturdy man, with silver armor and a sword on his waist. The man''s face was scarred enough to make him look like a mob boss you would have to fight in an RPG game, making him look extremely ugly. "I have been walking in this weird cave for 2 hours now, so I would rather look at that beautiful lady over there than an ugly looking weird dude." Draco said turning back to face the girl again. "Dude?" One of the girls in the group asked. ''Oh! I forgot the dream takes place in the past.'' Draco thought, remembering the concept of the dream, ''Wait, if that''s really the case then why can they understand me or rather why can I understand them?'' "She asked you a question." The tall man spoke again not minding being called ugly. "Oh! A dude means a man" Draco said snapping out of his stupor. "Dude means man? Are you not from around here?" The girl with brown hair asked with a bossy tone. Draco''s mouth twitched as he felt a weird sense of deja vu again. "Mistress asked you a question." The short one said harshly, "You insult my friend and you disrespect my mistress, you sure are begging for death." "Mistress?" Draco asked tilting his head innocently, "Are you a slave?" "How dare you!" The man said taking out his sword. "Stop, Abadan!" The brown-haired girl said stepping forward, "He is just a young boy and judging from his clothes he seems to be from a noble family, don''t go around picking unnecessary troubles." ''Young boy? Oh, wait.'' Draco in all his excitement forgot that he was still an 11-year-old kid. The man grumbled and slowly put his sword back. "So young boy what is your name?" The girl asked, "My name is Abilene Midow." "My name is Draco Black." Draco said doing a noble salute out of habit. "A surname, so you really are noble." The girl said bowing in greeting too. "But I haven''t heard of the Black family before?" "Oh, I come from a place very far away," Draco said scratching his head. "I wonder about that, so tell me why are you here?" Abilene asked. "I really don''t know." Draco said, "I just woke up and I was inside this weird cave." "Hmph! Do you really think someone would come to the Abyssal cave, by mistake?" The short man named Abadan snorted. "Abyssal Cave?" Draco tried to remember if there was a place like this back in his world but nothing came to his mind. "Forget it." Abilene sighed turning back. "Take care of him." "With pleasure." The tall man took out his sword while Abadan grinned looking at Draco as if his fate was already sealed. ------------------------------------ Also I knew I said some things about suggesting a fanfic every week but I kinda forgot about it. So here it is fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry-Potter-and-the-Methods-of-Rationality It''s a pretty good read! 36 Back to Hogwarts. Draco became nervous, he gripped his sword tightly. He tried to remember what he could from the book he read, as he readied his stance. The man grinned and started rushing towards him, he took a huge leap and swung his swords at him. "Mistress is this really necessary?" One of the girls asked. "He seems to be from a foreign country and right now we are in the midst of war, so we can''t foolishly trust anyone." Abilene said "But he is just a little boy!" The other girl said looking back. "Do you really believe a normal young boy with a sword can enter into the Abyssal without even a single scratch on him." Abilene said. Both of the girls became silent, they themselves knew how horrific can getting through the first part of the Abyssal can be, so they didn''t say anything further and just turned their heads to look back at what was happening. The man grinned and started rushing towards him, he took a huge leap and swung his swords at Draco. Draco hurriedly tried to block the attack with his sword but he was sent flying back, crashing on the wall of the cave. Draco trying to bear the pain, coughed some blood. "You talk big but you really got nothing kid." The man said slowly walking towards Draco, "Even if it was luck, I do commend you on the fact that you were able to block my strike." "You piece of shit!" A voice sounded out but it wasn''t Draco''s. The man stopped in his track feeling the cold chilly air around him, Abilene turned back feeling a cold chill on her spine. Draco''s hair was changing as it kept growing longer till it stopped after reaching more than shoulder length, the sword in his hand, started getting larger as well and was shining differently. The man sensed danger as he stepped back a little. Draco slowly stood up, the whole air around him was completely different as if he was a completely different person. He looked at the man with anger filled eyes as if he was going to tear him apart from any second and pointed his sword at him. "You filthy Mongrel. How dare you touch me?" Draco said with a voice filled with arrogance and rage. The man tried to calm down as he readied himself for a fight. Draco unexpectedly quickly dashed over and swung his swords at him, the man barely managed to block the attack with his sword but he was slightly pushed away by the force. Before he could even counter-attack, Draco was already throwing a barrage of attacks at him. Even though Draco''s attack was more random and unskilled, the man was still having a hard time blocking his attack. Within a blink of an eye, the man had several cuts in his body with his armor seriously dented in some place. Draco who still looked like a wild animal wasn''t stopping his attack, suddenly Draco felt a bit of pain in his back. He looked back to see Abadan with his sword stabbing him in his back, grinning at him. Abadan was first surprised to see Draco going crazy but after calming down he cleverly went behind him and stabbed him, in hopes that this crazy kid would stop. Seeing Draco finally stopping he grinned, "No matter how crazy you act, you are still a kid." Abadan said. Draco stood still for some time as he turned his head back to Abadan and said, "You piece of shit! Do you think I will let you kill me every fucking time!" Draco stabbed the man in front of him with his sword right through his brains as he ran forward making the sword slip out from his back, He turned around to look at Abadan and jumped at him. Abadan, unlike the previous guy, was more ready to face Draco who kept attacking without caring for any wounds in his body. Abadan felt scared, for the first time in his life he felt scared of a kid. Abilene seeing the situation quickly took out staff and started chanting some sort of mantra, and shot a couple of fireballs at Draco but to her surprise, Draco kicked Abadan in his face as he turned back and absorbed all the attacks in his sword, "You bitch, do you think you can kill me." Draco roared throwing the attacks back her from the sword. "Impossible," Abilene muttered, A enchanted sword that could absorb and throw attacks were extremely rare, as far as she knew only 8 treasures similar to that existed. Abilene tried to cast a shield spell but the speed of attack was too fast, The two girls at her side quickly went over and took the shot for their mistress. The fireball attack was very powerful as it managed to blast off all their inner organs out. Abilene in shock quickly went over to her maids as she tried to heal them with magic. On the other side, Draco who launched the attack didn''t even bother to look back and kept fighting Abadan. Abadan who was trying hardest to counter-attack was shocked by the noise of the explosion to find his companions now dead but before he could say anything the whole world seemed upside down. Abadan got confused as he tried to look back only to see his headless body slouching on the ground, soon his vision started to turn blurry and it was nothing but darkness now. Draco turned over and walked slowly dragging one of his foot towards the Abilene, the whole adrenaline rush was ending and the pain was starting to take over. Abilene looked at Draco with anger clearly written on her face. "Draco Black, I will remember that name." She said quickly taking out a red parchment and poof! she was gone. Draco sighed in relief as he started to gain control of his body back and slowly everything turned blurry and it was dark again. Draco woke up back in his bed sweating and breathing heavily. He looked at the Gryffindor''s sword in his hand which had returned to normal again. Draco calmed down after drinking some water and went inside his suitcase. "What the hell was that!" Draco said to himself, "I wasn''t myself anymore." Like the previous dream, everything felt like a movie to Draco but this time it was completely different. Previously he had control of his own body until towards the end when the bandit stabbed him, but this time it happened early on. Draco felt as if someone had taken control of his body and was controlling him, without him noticing. Draco felt power for the first time in his life, the power which coursed through his veins giving him unlimited strength. It felt amazing at the same time he felt scared, scared that he wasn''t himself anymore as he kept losing his emotions. Draco went over and threw the sword back in the room and walked out. Today he will return back to Hogwarts, so he needed to get ready. "What happened Draco?" Narcissa asked looking at Draco strangely. "What is it?" Draco asked, "Did I get a pimple on my face or something?" "No, it''s your hair." Narcissa said walking over, "It''s way too long than yesterday." Draco finally realizing, looked at himself in the mirror with shock, his hair was longer than before and similar to the one he had in his dream. "Maybe my magic went out of control." Draco said, "I had a nightmare today, which could be the cause." "Are you okay?" Narcissa asked "I am fine." Draco replied reassuring her with a smile. Narcissa nodded and didn''t ask any question since growing hair and other stuff happening out of control wasn''t a new topic in the wizarding community, especially to young wizards. "Do you want to cut it?" Narcissa asked. Draco thought for a second and nodded. "Let''s got to Diagon Alley then." After a couple of hours of preparation, Draco was ready to board the train back to Hogwarts. Like before Draco and his friends sat on the same compartment back to Hogwarts. This time Hermione, Cho and a few Slytherin students weren''t around to be seen so Draco concluded that they took yesterday''s train. After hours of riding they finally came back to Hogwarts, since Draco wasn''t feeling too well he went straight to the bed without attending dinner. Next Morning Draco woke up lazily, he looked around to find Theodore wasn''t in his bed. Draco went over and quickly took a shower and went outside, the Common room was filled with the first year students discussing somethings. Draco walked over towards his friends and sat on the couch. "What''s going on?" He asked. "Oh! Draco you are finally awake." Millicent said. "We were all discussing today''s newspaper." "Things are getting weirder and weirder." Daphne said snorting, "First they call you a dark lord and now they are doing the same to Potter as well." "Oh! What happened?" Draco asked curiously. "Look!" Pansy said passing the newspaper to Draco, Draco quickly read over the article, the article focused on speculating how Harry survived the night of the attack, claiming only powerful dark wizards can survive the killing curse and Harry being a powerful one at that. It was similar to Draco''s yesterday''s news but it was more fictional this time and again the writer was none other than Rita Skeeter. "I am surprised people actually believe her." Draco said putting the newspaper on the table. "Yeah! yesterday on the dinner table everyone was kind of keeping a distance from Potter." Pansy said, "And everyone was whispering weird rumors about you as well, especially those filthy mud-bloods who were claiming that you threatened them before." Draco went over and started caressing Pansy''s hair. "It''s only weird rumors, no need to get so angry." "But those blood-traitors and mud blood were joining their hands, throwing insults at you." Daphne said pouting. Draco sighed and reached over Daphne with another hand and started caressing her hair too. Everyone was looking at them weirdly, Theodore rolled his eyes, "It was none other than those Hufflepuff guys." "I see." Draco said snorting, "People really try to kick you when you are down." "What are we going to do about it?" Pansy asked smirking, yesterday if it wasn''t for Theodore she would have really punched those guys. "We will see." Draco said, "Right now, I am in a delicate place. One wrong move and I will fall deeper into the suspicion of being the next dark lord." "Exactly." Theodore said, "And the more suspicion against you means more eyes on you as well, which will be kind of a bother." Draco nodded. "So do we just let them go?"Blaise asked. "No! we can get them anytime we want, but it should be in a place where no one else sees us." Draco said. "How about that place, with the mirror." Daphne suggested. Draco shook his head, "I tried to go to that room again but couldn''t find it." Draco said honestly Since Draco was interested in The Room of Requirement he tried to search for it again but couldn''t have the room come out. "What do you mean?" Theodore asked. "The room just disappeared?" "I think so." Draco said, "Remember Cho told us that she had never been in this room before?" Everyone nodded. "I think the room appears and disappears on its own and that day someone had opened it for us." "Someone? Who?" Pansy asked Draco shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it was opened there by someone. Maybe they had something to do with the mirror or they wanted us to go in there." Draco knew the room of requirement showed up whenever someone wanted something but that day they were just strolling around, Draco was sure that no one was looking for a place to hide. "What are you talking about?" Blaise and Millicent asked. "Oh, you guys weren''t there, right?" Daphne asked and started explaining the situation to them. ------------------------------------ Draco''s inner circle/team Draco Pansy Daphne Theodore Millicent Blaise 37 Death Threats. Draco followed by his friends walked towards the great hall. Everyone they walked past by glared at Draco weirdly. The moment they entered, the hall quietened and everyone in the hall looked towards Draco. Draco ignored them all as he was carrying a stack of books. He slowly walked towards the Gryffindor table. The Gryffindor students were watching him with vigilance as if he was their enemy. Draco stood next to Neville and dropped the stack of books in front of him, making him jump. "Wh-What?" Neville stuttered looking at Draco. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked over to see what was going on. "Catch." Draco said throwing something towards Neville. Neville in panic was barely able to catch it, he sighed as he opened his hands to look at what it was and was surprised, it was a remembrall. "Che, I wanted to give it to you on Christmas but I couldn''t finish the work on time." Draco said, "And this is an apology gift." Draco said patting the stack of book. Neville''s eyes were still wide open, "Umm.. what is it?" he asked. "It''s all the potion homework you will receive before your OWLs, if you manage to read all this you will pass your OWLs without any trouble." Draco said, "At least on the theoretical part, as for your practicals, you have to deal it by yourself." "Why?" Neville asked getting confused as to why he was receiving gifts from Draco. "Hmph! Can''t you see Draco is being kind." Pansy snorted, "Unlike someone who only knows how to blame others, Draco felt responsible for breaking your gift so he bought you a new one." "From now on you forget what happened, right?" Daphne asked snorting as well. "Yes." Neville replied quickly under the pressure of Daphne and Pansy. Draco rolled his eyes and glanced at Hermione walking back to the Slytherin''s table. Hermione excused herself from the Gryffindor''s table and followed Draco back to the Slytherin''s table. Harry looked at Neville''s who was studying the books in front of him and sighed. "Hypocrite!" Ron mumbled underneath his breath. "He was the one who broke it, so why is he acting like a savior now." "We don''t know that, Ron." Harry said, "We can only speculate that the ball broke because of him, maybe the ball really break because of the fight as Hermione said." "Don''t mention her, even after we became friends, she always supports Draco." Ron said, "Okay! Don''t talk bad about her." Harry said, "Right now I only have two friends including you and Hermione, and I believe with all those rumors spreading around I am going to have a hard time making new ones." Ron nodded and stayed quiet. Ever since Harry saw the Erised mirror that day, he kept going back to it every night especially after he received the invisibility cloak until one day, Dumbledore came over and explained it to him, that it was a wrong idea to carry just like Draco said, but he kept wanting to see them over and over again no matter what. After Dumbledore told him that he was going to move away from the mirror, he stopped going there. He was trying to move on from that when the news about Draco came out and for some reasons, he was dragged into the situation as well and today there was a separate article focused just on him being a potential Dark Lord. Harry felt sick at the thought of how people would compare him to someone who murdered his parents. Even his own friend Ron couldn''t understand him in this situation so he kept feeling down. Today before coming to the hall he met Dumbledore again, who had a little chat with him. He explained how the news writer Rita Skeeter was as she had written articles about Dumbledore himself being a dark wizard. Harry felt calm knowing he wasn''t the only person but now he became curious about Draco. One thing Dumbledore said to him keep ringing in his head, "One shouldn''t be punished for other''s deed." Harry kept repeating these words in his head again and again, even though Dumbledore didn''t specify Draco in general, Harry felt he was talking about Draco, from what he knew about Draco, he was arrogant, rude and very strong. Harry had people like Dudley in his life so compared to him, Draco was a saint. He started thinking about what went wrong and realized he was the one at fault. From the beginning, Draco extended a helping hand towards him but later on the train after he found about his parents, he distanced himself from Draco, painting him as the bad guy again and again. But as Hermione said back then, was he really a bad guy? or were they the ones that were bad. As a fellow person who was suspected to be a dark lord, Harry felt more relatable to Draco than Ron. Even though he was receiving backlash for being suspected to become a dark lord, Draco was at the worst end of the story as he was more so in power than himself. Even in today''s article, the story painted Draco as being already capable of being a dark lord and not just a suspect, it said everything would depend on his choices. Even though Harry now knew how fake the story was since it was written about himself, he couldn''t help but recall the troll incident. Harry was confused whether Draco was a bad guy or not. From his background to inheriting the dark Black family, pointed him to be a bad guy but his behavior sometimes said otherwise. Harry sighed and started focusing on his breakfast. --------------------------------- Hermione went over to the Slytherin''s table and sat down. "Oh! I thought you wouldn''t talk to me." Draco teased looking at Hermione. "Hmph! Good morning would be nicer." Hermione snorted. "You know we could have gone together on the train but you didn''t even send an owl." Draco said "I don''t own one and besides its really not that necessary since I would rather be in school, one day beforehand." Hermione said, "So are you okay?" "Why is everyone asking me that?" Draco said rolling his eyes. "Well, you changed from Malfoy to Black, which is causing a lot of controversies." Hermione said, "By the way, why did you do it?" "Because I am a pureblood and I hate muggle-born wizards, so I wanted to destroy them by becoming the next dark lord," Draco said with a straight face gaining him three kicks underneath the table from Pansy, Daphne, and Hermione. "It''s already bad! stop joking about this stuff." Daphne said, Draco rubbed his leg, "I don''t care, besides we are at the Slytherin''s table. Even if I wanted to become a dark lord, I don''t think they will have any problem with it." "Stop joking all the time." Hermione said, "Be serious." "Sigh! Well, my mother is from the Black family and due to the last successor of the Black family being in Azkaban, I took on the role to continue the Black family. I can''t bear to see a noble family end like that especially when I have the chance." Draco said, "And besides if I let it go that''s like losing a lot of money." Draco''s last sentence caused all of them to roll their eyes, "I heard you were having new siblings?" Hermione asked. "Yeah! I forgot to ask you about that." Daphne added. "Yes, it''s twins." Draco said smiling. "Twins?" Daphne asked looking excited, "I wonder how Draco''s smaller siblings would be like." "I hope at least not arrogant as him." Theodore added. "If it''s a boy then I am sure, my father is going to turn him into someone more annoying than me." Draco said sighing. To gain power Draco had already sacrificed his future siblings future. "More annoying than you?" Theodore said weirdly imagining someone more stuck up and arrogant than Draco. "By the way, do you not really care about all those rumors?" Hermione asked, "Harry is having a hard time dealing with it." "Hmph! Do you consider me as weak as Potter?" Draco snorted, "The rumors only openly circulated now, but I have been hearing those rumors soon after I started gaining my fame. Besides Potter''s situation isn''t worse than mine either, he just has to deal with emotional stuff but I have to tread carefully every time. This time I inherited a family which had strong beliefs in dark magic and blood purity, as far as I know, some people would try to monitor everything I do." Draco said taking out a couple of letters from his robe. "What is this?" Theodore asked opening one of the letters. "Death threats, I received today." Draco said making everyone shocked, they quickly took the remaining letter and started reading it getting horrified by the content of the letter. "Well, there are some who want to join me in my quest to kill all the mud-bloods," Draco said waving a letter in his hand. Hermione who wanted to help Harry by getting advice''s from Draco was shocked to see his situation was worse than Harry''s. "How dare they." Pansy angrily said. "You don''t seem worried about it!" Hermione said. Draco shrugged his shoulders, "Most of these death threats are from muggle-born wizards who are afraid of me turning into a dark lord so they want to scare me away from the dark path and I am sure some of them are serious, there are many people with a lot of hatred against Dark lords or just dark-wizard in general that they will be willing to do crazy stuff to stop another one from rising." "How can they do that? You haven''t even done anything bad instead you have always helped all of them." Daphne said in disbelief. "Well wizards are like that, superstitious fools, one day they respect you but the very next day if some unexpected rumors about you spread they will start to hate you." Theodore sad sighing "Superstitious?" Hermione asked "Here''s the thing, in the muggle world people believe in different stuff which isn''t true, don''t they? Like ghost and stuff." Draco said to which Hermione nodded in response, "But in the wizarding world ghosts exist openly, the superstition of muggle world is a normal every day in the life of wizards, so this causes a weird change of reaction, superstition of wizarding world is like a taboo because we all know nothing happens due to coincidence." Hermione nodded trying to understand Draco. "What he means is, even small rumors are enough to cause a huge change in the wizarding world," Theodore explained. "So are you going to be okay?" Pansy asked with a worried voice "Well I am in Hogwarts, so no one can touch me here and outside I am protected by the Malfoy family." Draco said, "Besides these people aren''t dark wizards, they wouldn''t be daring enough to kill me outside." Everyone nodded and the atmosphere got kinda heavy, "Sigh! Let''s talk about something else." Draco said rolling his eyes in annoyance. "Oh yeah! I heard Professor Snape is refereeing in the Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor match." Blaise said. "Yeah, Flint was talking about it." Pansy added. "Well, it doesn''t matter to us, who wins or loses." Theodore said yawning, everyone was agreeing with him while on the other side Hermione was now completely worried. -------------------- Over the next days, Draco was busy with his own things. He had now started practicing swords from the book, even though it was hard doing it by himself he was still pulling through. Draco wasn''t practicing any hard movements but just normal stances and swinging. Along with that, he was busy reading the books from the Black family and experimenting with the weird Dark magic items. Right now he was studying a book on making a portkey. The plan of him building a mansion was changing due to the fact that he couldn''t be bothered taking care of two houses, so he had this other idea of making a portkey in his suitcase joining it to the Black family house, so he could come and go out of Hogwarts whenever he pleased. This idea seemed more plausible than wasting a lot of material in building a house when he already has one. 38 Portkey. Wizards who cannot Apparate or whose destination has no fireplace rendering Floo powder useless and who wish to travel by daylight, meaning that broomsticks, Thestrals, flying cars, and dragons are inappropriate, will have to resort to the use of a Portkey. Almost any inanimate objects can be turned into a Portkey. Once bewitched, the object will transport anyone who grasps it to a prearranged destination. A Portkey may also be enchanted to transport the grasper (or graspers) only at a given time. In this way, the arrivals and departures of great numbers of witches and wizards can be noted, enabling such events such as the Quidditch World Cup to take place with few security breaches. When secrecy is paramount, and mass movement is planned, the chosen Portkey will be a nondescript object secreted in an out-of-the-way place, so that it will be taken for a piece of unimportant debris by Muggle passers-by. Accidents have occurred, however; once two Muggle dog-walkers have found themselves accidentally transported to a Celestina Warbeck concert in 1990, because their dogs had run off with an old trainer on Clapham Common, leaving an anguished crowd of witches and wizards to look frantically for their Portkey on a stretch of empty grass, hopefully seizing old crisp packets and cigarette ends. One of the Muggle dog-walkers was even invited on stage by Celestina to perform a duet of ''A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love''. While the Memory Charm placed upon him by a harried Ministry official seemed to take at the time, he has since written a popular Muggle song that bears an uncanny resemblance to Celestina''s worldwide hit (Celestina Warbeck is a witch singer/celebrity, who sings on the radio.) (The song if you want to listen to it, youtube.com/watch?v=iU5I8ek0Rt8) The sensation of traveling by Portkey is universally agreed to be uncomfortable, if not downright unpleasant, and can lead to nausea, giddiness and worse. Healers recommend that the elderly, pregnant and infirm avoid using Portkeys. The suggestion of arranging Portkeys for the transportation of annoying relatives has saved many a wizarding family Christmas The setting of making a portkey was all to do with spells but the process Draco was reading involved formations. The book he was reading was a rare Black family book, which taught people how to make portkeys from formation rather than spells. The making of Portkeys was done by the spell Portus but the method Draco was reading didn''t require one to cast that particular spell, as it completely depended upon the formation. Generally, creating a portkey without permission is illegal and could even have someone face prison time for it, but luckily the wizards didn''t have any method to track someone who used the formation as they don''t even have to use the spells. Portkey''s rules are very strict, if a person wants to make a portkey connecting two different countries he will need to have the permission of both the nations. ------------------------------------------- I am kinda tired today so I wasn''t planning on writing a chapter, but I didn''t want to leave you guys hanging so I wrote a very short one, basically explaining portkeys to anyone who is confused about it from Pottermore. The chapter will continue the same as always from tomorrow onwards.? 39 Q&A Just a rant and a Q&A! Not a chapter. Wow so I read some of my recent reviews and some people got very upset over the last thing I said, so let me make it clear. I wasn''t talking about Cultivation as in improvement or training, but literal cultivation like in wuxia and xianxia. I saw someone commenting about making Draco form a Nascent core and make him physically strong, so I wrote the whole description just to clear things up. Like since if you are such a genius on cultivation that you gave me google searched definition, you should have taken sometime to read what the fu*k I was talking about especially when I mentioned xianxia. Like is your brain fried or something. And the person gave me the reason as to why he hates my novel so much is because the first chapter wasn''t clear. Like if you hate my novel so much from the first chapter, why bother reading it up to 35th chapter just to bitch about it again and again. And as I have said before all the things in the first chapter had it''s reason, which I will explain in the future. Like what kind of difference would it make in the story if I explained his past life now? I am not even complaining about the 1-star review, like fu*k that... You can spam me with 1 star review and not even give any reason for it but at least don''t leave a stupid ass reason like, you not being able to read the novel properly since your IQ is below 40 and complain it to me like it''s my fault. Found the comment, I responded too, It was by Azusa_Aikawa, who said... "Why he not use Law cultivation technique from novel? Like his mana is in liquid state ( foundation bulding), first he need to change the mana to gas state to better understand the mana and refine his body (refinement qi), after that he need compress the mana to solid state (core formation), and fuse half his soul to his core (just like horcrux) to reach nascent soul." And he went to further argue with a lot of people about it, so I wanted to clarify and clear up the confusion so people won''t get confused as to what path the story is taking. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q&A 1) What about Draco''s past? Ans: I am planning on writing and clarifying about that chapter in the 3rd book, so still a long way to go. So you will have to wait until then. 2) What''s the power in his blood? Ans: It is something related to with him being there, so you have to wait until I write about the reason he is the harry potter world. 3) What is the wand? Ans: It''s a mysterious/extra item I created to make the story more interesting and original, since I am writing it from the perspective of a villain character, I didn''t much space to expand the story. So a extra element was required. 4) What about his dream? Ans: The Dream is related to the wand and it''s set in the past time like thousands of years ago, so the magic and everything related to it is different. 5) Why doesn''t he learn Martial art and Sword art? Ans: Draco is in Hogwarts right now and he doesn''t have any one to teach him. Especially since in the modern world with the invention of all those spells, they rely on magic more than physical ability. So for Draco to learn martial arts and sword simply out of a book, seems impossible to me, maybe training a little is useful. Also he stills do basic exercise like running as I have clarified in the first few chapters. So he atleast has stamina. 6) Wandless Magic? Chantless Magic? Ans: Chantless Magic, isn''t that useful as you think it is. The basic meaning of Chantless magic or non verbal magic is just the caster not speaking when casting the spell, that''s the only difference. The only time it will be useful is when casting with your mouth shut closed. Also it is said that the power of the spell reduces with chantless magic, but I am planning to make him learn it. Wandless Magic, is more difficult to perform since even Dumbledore(The strongest wizard) has only performed it for simple spell and never used it to do powerful spell. So we can guess that there is a set-back here and wandless Magic is said to be very difficult so Draco wouldn''t be learning it any time soon. 7) Relationships? Ans: It''s still in developing stage, they are 11 so calm your tits down. 8)Animagus? Ans: I am planning on putting a pause on it as I figured a lot of wizards do fine without being an animagus but I have something to make up for it and I didn''t want him to be a Animagus just for a gag. 9) Patronus? Ans: It''s going to be a Dragon, (Long dragon since it was chosen the most and since I find it pretty unique in the HP world). I have a decent reason for making his Patronus a Dragon which you may find out in the next couple of chapters. 10)Pets? Ans: There will be a lot of magical creature but I will add it slowly. 11) Twins name? Ans. The twins will not play a major role since till the end of the story they will only be 7 to 8 years old as for their name I am considering Lyra and Lupus. If you have any suggestion leave them in the comment but think that it has to be a suitable name for a boy and a girl and it must be related to constellation or star. 12) More about the dream. Ans: Draco actually see the whole dream as a movie. Like you are playing a game like RPG. The character is already fixed and the plot is already fixed, but he can just use his name and chat about different things like normal but it won''t affect the outcome. The person sitting on the throne isn''t his past life but the person who the wand''s belong too. Ask any questions about the novel you want and I will add it to the list of Q&A within this chapter. 40 Invisibility Cloak. Draco stretched putting the book back inside his suitcase. The formation portkey was much more efficient than, the spell one since it didn''t teleport him to another place instead bring the place to him. The idea of the formation was simple, first of all, get a door, then enchant it with the formation and do the same at the destination as well. The two-door will then connect to each other through space and make it possible for a person to move from one place to another without suffering from the side effects of the portkeys. (Similar to Doraemon''s door but it only connects to a single place.) Draco realized that the whole formation was similar to creating a Vanishing cabinet that joined two places like the one in Hogwarts. Draco was now certain that the Vanishing Cabinet in Hogwarts was enchanted with a similar formation, since Vanishing Cabinet''s doesn''t transfer people from one point to another instead it just makes them disappear into a space not connected to the outside but the one in Hogwarts was connected with the other Vanishing Cabinet in Borgin and Burkes. Fortunately, most of the ingredients needed for the formation was same as the one needed for the mansion, but he still needed new materials like Ashwinder egg and Horned serpent''s horn dust. (The horn turned into powder). Other than the Horned serpent''s horn dust, the other material were easier to find. It turns out making a formation portkey costs more than making a luxurious mansion, but since the portkey allowed him to get in and out of Hogwarts without anyone noticing, he was willing to bear the expense. This time he didn''t send his father a letter instead he sent a letter to the shop owner who sold him his ingredients directly, since he would rather pay the cost himself than bother his father and besides with his new wealth paying it wasn''t that expensive. Other than the Black family wealth itself, Draco had his own personal money he made by selling potions, which he always carried with him, in case of emergencies. Even though it wasn''t much but it was still more than enough for a normal person to live by for at least 5 to 7 years normally. Draco was sure his wealth would have been much more if he didn''t spend money buying things randomly, just because it looked interesting. Draco stretched and went outside his room to find the common room empty, he was wondering what was going on when he suddenly remembered that today was the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match. Draco was certain that Gryffindor was going to win the match but he still went out to see it, since he was bored. As he walking towards the stadium, he saw people coming back from there and from what it looked like, the match was already over and seeing the faces of the Gryffindor student and them cheering, Draco could clearly tell that they won. Draco sighed, as he waited for Pansy, Theodore or Daphne to come by but they never came. Draco was planning to return to the hall since it was already evening as he saw a hooded figure came swiftly down the front steps of the castle. Clearly not wanting to be seen, it walked as fast as possible toward the forbidden forest. Draco recognized that it was Snape, so he ignored it but then he saw Harry slowly gliding over his broom towards the forest following Snape. Draco who was bored was interested in what was going on, so he slowly followed them as well. Draco finally found Snape, but he wasn''t alone. Quirrell was there, too. Draco strained to catch what they were saying. "... d-don''t know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus..." Quirrell said. "Oh, I thought we''d keep this private," said Snape, his voice icy. "Students aren''t supposed to know about the Philosopher''s Stone, after all." "Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid''s yet?" "B-b-but Severus, I --" Quirrell stuttered worse than ever as if he was really afraid of Snape "You don''t want me as your enemy, Quirrell," said Snape, taking a step toward him. "I-I don''t know what you-" "You know perfectly well what I mean." Snape said "Your little bit of hocus-pocus. I''m waiting." "B-but I d-d-don''t --" "Very well," Snape cut in. "We''ll have another little chat soon when you''ve had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie." Draco quickly hid behind the tree as he saw Snape ending the conversation, Snape walked out of the place followed by Quirrell who looked pissed and was muttering something. Draco sighed, ''Why is Snape still loyal to Dumbledore when he didn''t even fulfill his end of the bargain, self-punishment maybe? Well at least the philosopher stone is still there and looking at their conversation, looks like Quirrell finally found a way to get over that weird Dog.'' Draco was lost in his own thoughts when suddenly a small piece of a branch fell over from the tree on his head. Draco looked up but he couldn''t find anything when suddenly a wind blew over in the direction back to Hogwarts shaking the branches along the way. "Potter." Draco murdered looking at the direction he went by. ''Looks like he got his invisibility cloak.'' Invisibility Cloak is a magical garment which renders whomever or whatever it covers unseeable. These are common items that are massed produced in the wizarding world and unlike the other Deathly Hallows, a lot of people owned them but the only thing that made this one unique was its longevity and durability. The invisibility cloak can be considered the weakest out of the Deathly Hallows or maybe even the strongest depending upon the situation and it''s used. Draco had even bought an invisibility cloak made out of Demiguise hair with a lot of money before but the cloak started turning opaque within a year. The original invisibility cloak was also said to have a charm in it that prevents one from summoning them but that is not proven yet. Draco was interested in the deathly hallows but he wasn''t overly fascinated by it. He knew the elder wand was powerful but he didn''t know to what extent, Resurrection stone was good at looking at dead people but other than that, he couldn''t find any uses and last but not least the invisibility cloak could be pretty useful but it wasn''t rare. The only part he was interested in about was the title, "Master of Death." Even though Draco was certain that it didn''t mean anything special since wizards used overly exaggerated titles all the time but he still had some doubts about whether he could gain some external powers from it or not. Since it was already getting late, Draco went back to his dorm. "Where have you been?" Theodore asked. "Out there looking for you guys but you were nowhere to be seen." Draco said sitting on the sofa. "Where were you guys?" "I was out in the library with Cho." Theodore replied. "I and Daphne were in the hall completing our assignment." Pansy said. "I heard Gryffindor won the Quidditch cup." "Yeah! But it isn''t going to affect us anyway." Draco said chilling back. "Even if they win, they are still far off from winning the house cup this year." "Sigh! Next year, I am surely going to win," Pansy said with determination. "Stop talking about Quidditch all the time it''s annoying." said Daphne rolling her eyes, "By the way have you thought of a way to teach those Hufflepuff''s some lesson." "Soon." Draco said he wasn''t in a hurry to teach them a lesson. "How long are we going to wait?" Millicent asked gritting her teeth, "I heard them spreading weird rumors about us in the hall yesterday." "Oh, what kind of rumor?" Theodore asked interestedly. "That Draco is the next dark lord and we are his death eaters," Blaise replied. "Hmph! They keep running their mouth just because we don''t say anything." Pansy snorted. "Well teaching them a lesson would come later on, but we can''t keep letting rumors affect our mindset." Draco said, "Yeah! Besides, do you really think the Hufflepuff students are the only are talking bad about us." Theodore said, "Those Hufflepuff students have something against us, so that''s why they are openly spreading rumors but a lot of other people think the same way as them, they just don''t speak it out loud like others." Everyone was silent listening to Theodore because they knew he was speaking the truth. "Sigh! It doesn''t matter." Draco said lazily waving his hands. "But if I really wanted to be a dark lord would you guys still follow me?" All of them looked shocked when they heard that even Theodore was looking at him weirdly. "Forget what I said." Draco said standing up and walking back to his room. ---------------------------- P.S extra chapter will be posted only on Patreon from now on and I will only post a daily chapter here, 41 Be "Sigh!" Draco sighed heavily going back to his room. He didn''t know what got into him, that made him ask that question. "Are you okay?" Theodore''s voice came from behind. Draco looked back to find Theodore and Pansy behind him. "I am fine." Draco replied "If you want to get something off your chest." Pansy said walking forward, "You can always tell me, you know?" "It''s nothing." Draco said shaking his head, "I am just stressed with all the things that have been going on." "You are not the only one." Theodore said sighing as well. Draco raised his eyebrows, looking at Theodore curiously. "It''s Cho." Theodore said, "With all the current rumors going around, she started distancing herself from me-- I mean us." "Hmph! I expected nothing less from her." Pansy said, "She seemed to be the type who would always follow the crowd and can''t stand up for herself from the start. So I am not even surprised." "Pansy!!" Draco said with a bit of strict voice, he didn''t want both of them to fight over this kind of topic. "It''s okay." Theodore said sighing, "I don''t really care that much, I felt bad for a minute when I found that she was ignoring me but I understand that we are different people so I can''t expect her to be like me or agree with me on things blindly, considering that we haven''t even known each other for more than just a couple of months. Especially with this kind of topic but she started talking to me normally later on anyway, so it''s really not that big of a deal." "Chill you''re 11." Draco said rolling his eyes, "My father would really love to have you as his son." "Why? What happened." Theodore asked. "Over the vacation, my father wanted to fix marriage for me." Draco said lazily. "WHAT??" Pansy and Theodore said at the same time, "So did you?" Pansy asked with a small voice. "Of course, I didn''t agree with it." Draco said, "Why did you think I rushed to become a Black so quickly?" "You did it all to escape from marriage?" Theodore asked looking confused. The whole thing had brought so many troubles and to hear that the reason behind all this was just Draco wanting to escape from marrying seems doubtful. "Well, I planned to inherit the Black family around next year but due to my father acting like an idiot, I had to do it early on," Draco said. "Who did your father wanted you to marry?" Pansy asked in her normal voice. Draco looked at her for a while and turned his gaze away and said. "Anyway, I am sorry for asking that weird question earlier." Pansy pouted not getting the answer but didn''t say anything, she felt that she was better off not knowing the answer because she was scared that it was some other girl, she didn''t know about. Looking at the weird atmosphere, Theodore sighed and said, "You know, even if you were a dark lord, I will still follow you as long as you don''t do anything annoying." Draco looked at Theodore in surprise, "I will too." Pansy said, "Even if you were to do something bad, I''ll still follow you." Draco turned towards Pansy who didn''t back away from his gaze. "Do you think, I''ll turn into a dark lord?" Draco asked. "Maybe." Theodore answered smirking, "But with your ''love'' for Muggle-borns, I am not really sure about that." *Cough* Draco coughed awkwardly understanding the meaning in his words. "Even though I might not hate muggle-born, there is still something I want to do." "What is it?" Pansy asked. "Control the wizarding world or at least the one in Europe completely." Draco said looking out the window, "No matter what it takes." "Why?" Pansy asked. "If it''s just controlling the UK and Ireland then you can just be a minister, which seems much easier." "The minister isn''t fully in control." Theodore said, "They are elected by other wizards and can get fired from their position anytime, but still why do you want the control so bad?" "The Wizarding world is degrading day by day, look at all the stupid people around us. The world has already started to change but we wizard the more powerful and gifted than muggles are still living like we are in the medieval period, the world is passing by us and we keep sticking to the same concept hiding and running from fear." Draco said. "So you want to try changing it like Grindelwald did?" Theodore asked. "No, something much more than that." Draco replied, "I don''t really care about the International Statute of Secrecy, besides living secretly is the key we survived so long, otherwise I am sure if muggles were to really find out, we will be burned on stakes for sure. What I want is a revolution and for that even if have to break the code, I will." Theodore and Pansy stayed silent. "I don''t want to rule over the muggles nor do I want to do that with wizards, what I want is the change and for me to have control over it, so there won''t be any mishaps in the future." Draco said, "You can call me a dark lord for that but what I want is for our wizard community to develop and adapt to situations more quickly than before because as muggles develop more in the future, the more trouble we are likely to get in." Draco had read the books up to the 7 years ahead in the future and after that came the book of the cursed child, but as far as Draco knew the cursed child was way too confusing and full of plot holes, not transforming in with the modern age but still sticking to same Hogwarts we love and care. This world wasn''t much different from his previous world and as the technology keeps on developing the Wizards have to keep on compromising. Draco had to spend his life here even after Voldemort is dead so he doesn''t want to leave any regrets for the future, where he and the wizards in the future would have to struggle. As the saying goes, "Prevention is better than cure.", he doesn''t want to leave liability in the future by just depending upon his knowledge in this world. "Fine, I am with you but you have to at least keep it interesting." Theodore said Theodore knew of the dangers that Draco was talking about. He had realized over time that with the muggle weapons defeating the wizards wasn''t a big of a deal anymore. Besides even in the past where the muggle didn''t have any dangerous weapons, they had still managed to capture and kill a lot of wizards. "I have already said it but I am going to say it again, I am with you even if you want to be a dark lord." Pansy said. Draco smiled, "You will soon understand as well, Pansy. But right now it''s not the time to act yet." "When will it be then?" Theodore asked. "Patience." Draco said, "Right now, even if we want to do anything. Do you really think the world will follow along with what an 11-year-old kid says?" "What about Daphne?" Pansy asked, over the couple of months they have all been close friends so leaving her out of this conversation seemed weird. "As Theodore said like Cho, Daphne has her own life and I can''t ask her to believe in me blindly," Draco said. "But I am sure like you, she would understand when the time comes and follow us." Pansy sighed and nodded. She didn''t understand Draco or what he was trying to do but she didn''t ask anything more. ------------------------------------------------------------ 42 Dragon. "Congratulations, on winning against Hufflepuff." Draco said sitting across Hermione opening his books. "Thanks." Hermione replied taking out a paper from her bag and giving it to Draco. "What is it?" Draco asked. "I drew up a study schedule for you." She said, "The exams are only 10 weeks away so you need to prepare." Draco looked at the schedule and sighed, "I can still pass, I guess." "Just passing isn''t enough." Hermione said, "You need to at least get some good grades, unlike Harry and Ron you are at least good in a couple of subjects." "Che, can you not keep bringing up their name." Draco said clicking his tongue, "It''s kinda annoying." "Well, I am friends with them, so even if I don''t want to, their names will still come up in our conversation." Hermione said color-coding her notes. "Anyway, forget about them." Draco said resting his arms on the table. "Do you want to have a bet with me?" "What kind of bet?" Hermione asked, stopping her work. "Let''s see, who will get better marks at the exam." Draco replied smiling, "The loser will have to do one thing the winner says." "Why would I accept a bet with you?" Hermione said, "You already have me teaching you everything I know in History and Astronomy and plus you have your own strength with potions, botany, charms, and transfiguration." "Hey, com''on we both know, that you are decent enough to get good marks on your exam on charms and Transfiguration, as for Potions and Botany, even though I am good at it, they aren''t going to give me extra marks for writing something way off, so even in that we can tie. The only place we can challenge each other in History and Astronomy. You have been teaching me both these subjects for this whole year now, so you know that I am not very good at it." Draco said, "So why are you so afraid of accepting the bet?" Hermione thought for a while and asked, "So you will do anything I ask for?" "Yes, but only if you win otherwise you will have to do one thing I ask of you." Draco said smirking, "Are you afraid of losing to someone who you have been teaching?" "Hmph! Who''s afraid of losing?" Hermione snorted, "Fine! I will accept your bet but don''t regret it later on." "I won''t." Draco said with confidence. "But from now on until the exams, I won''t teach you anything, anymore." Hermione said. Draco thought for a while and nodded, "Fine." Both of them shook their hands on it, when Hermione suddenly said, "What is he doing here?" Draco turned back to find Hagrid acting sneaky. At the same time, Ron and Harry walked in towards them and they looked at Hagrid weirdly as well. "Hagrid, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked. "Jus'' lookin''," he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An'' what''re you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin'' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?" "Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively. "And we know what that dog''s guarding, it''s a Philosopher St --" "Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don'' go shoutin'' about it, what''s the matter with yeh?" "There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry, "about what''s guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy --" "SHHHH!" said Hagrid again looking towards Draco. "Listen - come an'' see me later, I''m not promisin'' I''ll tell yeh anythin'', mind, but don'' go rabbitin'' about it in here, students aren'' s''pposed ter know. They''ll think I''ve told yeh --" "See you later, then," said Harry understanding as he glared at Draco. Hagrid shuffled off quickly. Hermione sighed, seeing her friends behavior and looked awkwardly at Draco. "So the dog''s guarding the Philosopher stone on the third floor, huh?" Draco said laying back on the chair with his eyebrows raised. "Were you eavesdropping on our conversation?" Ron said looking at Draco angrily. "I have to be an idiot like you to not figure it out, even after hearing you talk so loudly." Draco said, "And if you don''t want people to overhear you then learn to close your loud mouth." "You--" "Shut up, Ron." Hermione said, "You were the one who revealed the whole thing acting smug about finding Nicholas Flamel, even if someone deaf was here, they would have still understood it." Ron didn''t say anything and just sat there with his mouth half open. "Sigh! Calm down Hermione, Ron didn''t mean that." Harry said, "We just didn''t realize that he was here." "Stop mentioning me, as if I am a ghost." Draco said smirking, "Or are we not using names against another Dark Lord." Harry stiffened up after he heard Draco, The rumors had died down in Hogwarts ever since he had won the match but right now, hearing someone directly call him a dark lord, he froze up. "Malfoy, shut your mouth." Ron said gnashing his teeth. "It''s Black now, Weasley." Draco said looking at Harry''s face but seeing his facial expression not changing he figured that he still didn''t know about Sirius. "And besides when a Dark Lord is talking with another Dark Lord, a peasant shouldn''t speak." "Do you think Harry is like you?" Ron said. "Draco, don''t." Hermione said not wanting them to fight, because she knew the result would end up in Ron ending up worse than before, she knew to ask Ron wasn''t going to work so she asked Draco to stop instead. Draco rolled his eyes and stood up packing his bag, "If your friend Harry was like me then he would have been more useful." he said walking away, "Hermione, don''t forget our bet?" Hermione nodded and sighed in relief. "Ron, you should stop provoking Draco." She said, "Even if you want to do it, at least make sure not to do it with someone who has defeated you in the past." "I have learned more spells than before." Ron said awkwardly, "Besides why do always keep on siding with Malf-- Black whatever his name is." "Ron--" "Don''t stop me, Harry. We are friends, aren''t we? But why does she always keep supporting Draco." Ron said "Because I consider him a better friend than you." Hermione said not even flinching, "When you were talking behind my back he was still my friend and he still is and besides do you really think that with a couple of spells you learned in the past month, you will be able to defeat him." Ron was silent, he didn''t expect Hermione to be so forward. Hermione herself was surprised by her own reaction, ''Maybe he rubbed off on me.'' She thought. "Okay! She is right Ron." Harry said, "We were at fault due to not being careful and besides you really need to stop provoking Draco, at least until we can fight him off." Ron didn''t expect Harry to side with Hermione as well, "Sigh! Fine I will try." he said giving up. "What was Hagrid hiding behind his back?" asked Hermione thoughtfully after Ron had calmed down. "Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" Harry suggested. "I''m going to see what section he was in," said Ron, He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table. "Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper''s Guide." "Hagrid''s always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him, " said Harry. "But it''s against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks'' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It''s hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we''re keeping dragons in the back garden - anyway, you can''t tame dragons, it''s dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie''s got off wild ones in Romania." "But there aren''t wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry. "Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who''ve spotted them, to make them forget." "So what on earth Hagrid up to?" said Hermione. -------------------------- When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper''s hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them. It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused. "So -- yeh wanted to ask me somethin''?" 43 Dragon Pt.2 "So -- yeh wanted to ask me somethin''?" Hagrid asked. "Yes," said Harry. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what''s guarding the Philosopher Stone apart from Fluffy." Hagrid frowned at him. "0'' course I cant, he said. "Number one, I don'' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn'' tell yeh if I could. That Stone''s here fer a good reason. It Was almost stolen outta Gringotts - I s''ppose yeh''ve worked that out an'' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou'' Fluffy." "Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on around here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid''s beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you." Hagrid''s chest swelled at these last words. Harry and Ron beamed at Hermione. "Well, I don'' s''pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let''s see... he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o'' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout -- Professor Flitwick -- Professor McGonagall --" he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell -- an'' Dumbledore himself did somethin'', o'' course. Hang on, I''ve forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape." "Snape?" "Yeah -- yer not still on abou'' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he''s not about ter steal it." Harry knew Ron and Hermione were thinking the same as he was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything -- except, it seemed, Quirrell''s spell and how to get past Fluffy. "You''re the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy. aren''t you, Hagrid?" said Harry anxiously. "And you wouldn''t tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?" "Not a soul knows except me an'' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly. "Well, that''s something," Harry muttered to the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I''m boiling." "Can''t, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. Harry noticed him glance at the fire. Harry looked at it, too. "Hagrid -- what''s that?" But he already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg. "Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That''s er..." "Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must''ve cost you a fortune." "Won it," said Hagrid. "Las'' night. I was down in the village havin'' a few drinks an'' got into a game o'' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest." "But what are you going to do with it when it''s hatched?" said Hermione. "Well, I''ve bin doin'' some readin'' , said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library -- Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit -- it''s a bit outta date, o'' course, but it''s all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, ''cause their mothers breathe on I em, see, an'' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o'' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An'' see here -- how ter recognize diff''rent eggs -- what I got there''s a Norwegian Ridgeback. They''re rare, them." He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn''t. "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," she said. But Hagrid wasn''t listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire. "You''re really an idiot, aren''t you?" All of them froze up when they heard the voice. Hagrid''s face was pale as snow, and everyone was very nervous. Hagrid slowly stood up and opened up the door to find Draco smirking with Theodore behind his back. "May we come in?" Draco asked Hagrid was still frozen when he saw Draco, so he couldn''t say anything, "What are you doing here?" Harry spoke up coming towards them. "Oh! Didn''t Hagrid say to meet up after some time, so I came along." Draco said innocently. "Didn''t you Hagrid?" "I--" "Dragon''s are really dangerous, I wonder what will happen after Dumbledore or maybe even the board of chairmen find out that there is a live dragon egg in Hogwarts." Theodore said cutting off the nervous Hagrid, "Draco, isn''t your father one of the chairmen?" "He certainly is." Draco said chiming in. "C''me in." Hagrid said quickly listening to their conversation. Draco and Theodore smirked and walked in, "Don''t mind us." Hagrid looked around and quickly shut the door. Hagrid''s hut only had one room inside, with hams and pheasants hanging from the ceiling. In the corner stands a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it. Overall, his house was small and slightly dirty. "What are you doing here?" Hermione asked looking at Draco and Theodore. "Oh! I was interested in the philosopher''s stone so I thought I will listen to what you guys had to say." Draco said. "But I didn''t expect to hear such interesting words about Dragon." "And I am just here for fun." Theodore replied looking around the small hut. Hermione didn''t say anything but Ron''s and Harry''s expressions were yelling at them to get out. Both of them were worried more than ever, they were sure that Draco would likely tell all the information to Snape and he will likely steal it sooner now. "So Dragon, huh?" Theodore said looking at the egg in the fireplace. Looking at Hagrid''s pale face, Hermione quickly said, "Draco, Theodore, please don''t tell about this to anyone." "Sure." Theodore said not even looking at her. "You do know, that it''s dangerous, right?" Draco said. "Norbert won''t hurt anybody." Hagrid said in a paced tone. "Norbert?" Draco looked at Hagrid, "You already named the Dragon? So you must be even planning on keeping it?" "I-- yes, at least until it grow'' up enough to defend its''lf." "Are you nuts?" Theodore said, "This dragon after it hatches will likely grow into your whole house in just a couple of weeks." Harry, Hermione, and Ron were surprised by what Theodore said, they didn''t know much about Dragon''s in the first place and to hear that it will likely grow into the house, they were more worried for Hagrid, who looked like a stubborn child. "Sigh! How about you give it to me?" Draco said looking back at Hagrid. "What-- No." Ron and Hagrid hurriedly said. Draco''s face turned sour looking at Ron, "Weasly, mind your business. I am talking with the owner, not you." "I am not giving him to anyone." Hagrid added looking at Draco. "Listen here, Hagrid." Draco said, "Either you give me the Dragon, and I will help raise your Dragon safely and properly or you can wait here raising it and be sent to Azkaban later on." "Are you threatening us?" Harry asked angrily, "Oh! I am not threatening you nor am I threatening your friend here." Draco replied with a sly smug on his face, "I am just giving you a suggestion." "Draco.." Hermione wanted to convince Draco to stop but she knew he was right. "Hermione, Draco is right, you know?" Theodore said, "Even if we don''t report it, the dragon itself will grow big enough to be noticed and you should know that raising a Dragon without permission will lead to at least 5 years in Azkaban and in case something bad were to happen, then a student might even lose his life making your huge friend here be sent to Azkaban forever." "Azkaban--" Hagrid murmured, he knew how bad Azkaban could be, since he himself has been there, not for long but it was enough to drive him to the point of insanity. "Azkaban?" Harry asked looking at Ron, "Azkaban is similar to muggle''s prison Harry," Hermione replied. "I have read that it is much worse than a normal prison." Harry hearing that, turned over to Hagrid, "Hagrid get rid of it, please. I don''t want to see you go there." Hagrid was struggling, not knowing what to do. "So Hagrid, can I call you that?" Draco said, "You see after I got hold of the Black property, I now own a Dragon farm in Romania. The farm right now is empty as the ministry auctioned off the Dragons but since I am in control now, I would love to fill that place with Dragons reforming it back to its former glory. I will guarantee you that I will hire people especially to take care of it and make sure that it grows up healthy." "Charlie, Ron." Harry said suddenly, "Didn''t you say that your brother is studying Dragons in Romania. Maybe we can send the Dragon there?" "Yes, Hagrid. My brother can take care of it." Ron quickly said with a smug face. Hagrid eyes lit up, he would rather send the Dragon to Charlie whom he knew that with Draco. "Che, you annoying pest." Draco clicked his tongue. "What did you say?" "I said that you are an annoying pest." Draco repeated again, "Hagrid, you can send your Dragon to this Charlie fellow, but I will like you to consider it, since the thing about philosopher stone.." Draco didn''t complete his sentence but everyone knew that he was blackmailing Hagrid. 44 Negotiation. "How much do yeh know?" Hagrid said looking at the trio with a bit of disappointment in his face. "Well, let''s see... there is a dog guarding the philosopher stone on the third floor, which was restricted by Dumbledore and our Saviour here seemingly suspects Professor Snape." Draco said, "But seriously who puts such a valuable item in a school full of children? The man wanted to steal it from Gringotts, what makes them think that putting it in Hogwarts, a school full of children is a good idea." "Good question. Now it all makes sense, the sudden robbery, and everything." Theodore said nodding, "Maybe it''s because of Dumbledore? He is, after all the strongest wizard in the world and besides with Nicholas Flamel being his Alchemy partner he obviously handed it to him for protection. So I am guessing over-confidence." "Wit'' Dumbledore here, no one can steal the stone," Hagrid said with confidence. "An'' besides yeh, kids should stop underestimatin'' Dumbledore." Harry, Hermione, and Ron quietened up, they now finally knew how much of the conversation both of them heard. "Wait! how did you know about Gringott''s since we have never mentioned it, today?" Harry asked looking suspiciously towards Draco ''Shit!'' Draco thought to himself, he kinda went overboard with the whole blackmailing thing. "Well-- do you really think this is the only conversation I heard," Draco said trying to look confident, "The walls are very thin around Hogwarts." "You..." Harry looked at Draco in anger. Draco sighed in relief, that Potter bought his excuse as he rolled his eyes, "So Hagrid about the deal, as long as you give me the Dragon. I will not talk about the philosopher stone again and not leak the news outside." "What do yeh mean?" Hagrid asked with a tense voice. "It''s simple, isn''t it?" Draco replied, "As I said leaking the news outside will be very easy for me, one letter to the daily prophet and boom! the news will be on the front page tomorrow." "Draco.." Hermione wanted to stop Draco but he didn''t even look back at her. "Hermione, I am talking business so could you please not try to side with the other party too much." Draco said with an annoyed tone, "As I was saying Hagrid, I will not leak the news outside and plus I will give you the money for the egg, so how about you save yourself some trouble and give it to me." Draco was kinda annoyed by Hermione today since she had tried to stop him a couple of times already. Hermione didn''t say anything and just stayed silent, after that. She knew somewhat of Draco''s character and she knew he hated being controlled the most, she could now only hope that Draco doesn''t bully Hagrid too much since the odds are in his favor. Hagrid was contemplating on what to do when Theodore added, "We can make a deal, right Hagrid? You don''t want Dumbledore finding out that his trusted ground-keeper was the one who leaked the secrets." "You are blaming him for it now?" Harry said angrily, "You are the one who''s threatening Hagrid." "Are we really?" Theodore said innocently, "Too bad for you, we just overheard the conversation of the great Harry Potter and his freckled red-headed friend, who were discussing the topic of the philosopher stone and where it is hidden, and you know the best part of it all, one of the men who Dumbledore trusted was the one who leaked the secret." Hagrid''s face paled listening to Theodore, he was now really regretting telling Harry about it and was cursing his big mouth. Harry and Ron didn''t know how to comfort Hagrid since it was their fault that Hagrid even told them in the first place. "I--" "I will give you permission to visit the dragon, time to time as well." Draco added giving the final offer to Hagrid, "This is all I can give you Hagrid, money for the Dragon, permission to visit him and not leaking the news, how about it? It''s either this or you losing both the Dragon and Dumbledore''s trust." "Hagrid, accept it." Hermione said, "Sigh! It''s for the best and I will personally assure you that Draco will give you the money and make sure he will let you visit the Dragon when it grows up." Harry and Ron stayed silent and didn''t say anything since they knew they had no chance of winning this fight. They themselves can''t defeat Draco and Hagrid didn''t even have a wand, so fighting wasn''t even an option. "Draco, how much do Dragon eggs cost?" Hermione asked "Umm, how much did you buy it for?" Draco asked looking at Hagrid. "I-- sigh! I won it in a bet." Hagrid said giving up. "Bet?" Theodore and Draco looked at each other in doubt. "What''s wrong?" Hermione asked, "Is it not normal?" "Hagrid, what kind of bet, was it?" "It was a game of cards, I as''ume the oth''r party was a Dragon dealer." Hagrid said. "Dragon dealer?" Theodore was still doubtful about the situation but Draco understood it completely, "Are you sure, you didn''t give him-- you know what, How about I give you twenty thousand galleons for the Dragon?" (1 galleon = 6.14 US dollars, so I am offering 122,800 dollars which I guess is a fair price for a Dragon egg.) Hermione and Theodore noticed that Draco wanted to say something but didn''t, both of them didn''t say anything but were waiting to get outside to ask Draco what was going on. Harry noticed something too but didn''t put much thought to it. "Twenty thousand galleon?" Ron repeated gulping, Harry was also in a bit of a shock as it was more than 1/3rd of his wealth that his parents left him. "Sounds fair!" Theodore said, "A dragon egg would usually cost around the same in the Black market, which is expensive considering they sell it illegally but this isn''t legal either so the price is right." Hermione also nodded, she didn''t know how much a dragon egg cost, but twenty thousand Galleons was a lot of money. "I don''t need the money," Hagrid said shocking everyone. "Hagrid, you should take it." Hermione said, "You can build a better house for yourself with that money." "Yes, Hagrid. Since we have no other choice, we should at least take full advantage of the situation." Harry added. Hagrid shook his head, "I wan'' some''hing else." "What do you want?" "I wan'' yeh to make me some potions for me creatures." Hagrid said. "Creatures?" Draco asked, "Can''t you just buy it with the money, yourself?" "No, I hear'' that yeh wer'' grea'' at Potions." Hagrid replied, "So I wan'' yeh to make me a couple." "Sure...!" Draco said, he knew Hagrid loved animals, so his request wasn''t that unexpected. "What do you want?" "A coupl'' of healin'' potions, maybe a bit of potion for diges''ion and yeh know normal magical creatur'' disease." Hagrid said vaguely. Draco nodded and took out a small pouch, he stuck his hands inside it making everyone surprised, "Enchanted Pouch." Hermione said looking at Draco sticking his whole hand inside the small pouch. Ron, on the other hand, was explaining Harry what it was. Draco pulled out a huge chest half-way through. "Little help!" He said Hagrid walked over and helped him pull the remaining chest out. Everyone was looking at it wondering what was inside, while Draco put his hands back in the pouch and pulled out a small key, He went over and unlocked the chest. Everyone was shocked by the content of the box, which was filled with potions. "I don''t know much about the diseases of magical creatures but these potions are something that I have experimented over in the past, so it''s okay to use it in beasts." Draco said, "The red ones for healing external injuries, the blue one is for digestion problems, the dark-blue one is for most internal diseases and the purple one, intoxicates them in case you know, they ever need to put out of their misery." Hagrid took a look at them and nodded. "This woul'' do." "The potions worth around the same money, I offered so I hope there will not be any further problems." Draco said. Ron and Harry gulped again hearing Draco, ''Potions are really expensive.'' They thought Hagrid sighed and nodded. Draco went over to the big guy and extended his hand, "Hagrid, even though I didn''t want our first official meeting to be, me blackmailing you but we can put the past behind us and start fresh, can''t we?" Hagrid looked at him for a second and caught Draco''s small hand with his big hand and shook it. "As Hermione said, it''s probably fer the bes'' but I hope yeh lis''en to me one smal'' reques''" "What is it?" "I wan''a see it hatch." Hagrid said. Draco thought for a while and nodded, "Sure, let me know when it hatches, I have never seen one hatch before as well." Hagrid smiled once again and said, "Sure, I''ll let ya know." 45 Warning. Draco nodded and looked back at Harry and Ron, "Even though, I don''t care whether you both die or live but don''t focus on something that has nothing to do with you." "What do you mean?" Harry asked with an annoyed tone. "The stone isn''t a simple thing for you to be running around investigating it." Draco said, "Plus, even if the stone gets stolen it has nothing to do with you-- Consider it a warning, I guess, You can do whatever you want to do, but don''t go around dragging Hermione into the danger with your stupid antics." Hermione looked at Draco and in a soft voice she said, "Don''t worry, I won''t let them go into this any further." Harry and Ron just glared at Draco and didn''t say anything. "Still arrogant, huh?" Theodore smirked looking at them, "Do both of you think you can defeat a dark wizard who was able to break into Gringotts and get out so easily? Even Draco wouldn''t be able to do it, so do you think, you can? Don''t make me laugh." "Whatever we do is our business," Ron said, "You don''t have to keep interfering in what we do." "Well dig your own grave then," Theodore said ignoring them. Draco turned back to look at Hagrid and said, "The news about the stone will not be coming out of my mouth, we can even do an unbreakable vow if you want me to." "I''ll trust you." Hagrid shook his head, "You are really similar to him." "Him?" Draco asked getting confused but Draco then remembered, "You mean him?" He said looking at Harry. "Yes, like him, he was a witty and talented wizard, but also quite an arrogant and mischievous troublemaker. Good with girls and... sigh! I hope yeh don'' go the same path as him." Hagrid said reminiscing things, looking at Harry sadly. The others were confused as to what they were talking about especially Harry since he couldn''t figure why both of them looked at him. Draco knew that Hagrid was comparing him with Sirius, maybe in a way both of them similar, Draco didn''t put much thought into it before but looking at it now his behavior is quite similar like Sirius, controlled but still similar. "I still have his motorcycle, if yeh wan'' yeh can hav'' it back." Hagrid said "No need. He gave it to you, right? and that is his property so I have no right over it." Draco replied, "Besides, I don''t like motorcycles that much, I am more of a car guy. See we are already different." Hagrid smiled, "I''ll keep it fer now then, it comes in handy since brooms can''t handle me weight." Draco nodded, looking at Hagrid he was sure that a broom wouldn''t even float over the ground if Hagrid was to ride on it. "I''ll leave now." Draco said, "Do send a letter when it''s about to hatch." "I will." Hagrid said nodding. Draco walked out of the cabin followed by Theodore and surprisingly Hermione. "What is it?" Draco asked looking back at her, "I am not in a mood for a lecture." "Hmph! I am not planning to give you one either but you shouldn''t have been that mean to Hagrid, he is really a nice guy." Hermione said. "Hermione, here is the thing, you are stubborn, rude and controlling," Draco said making Hermione fume over. "But I accept you the way you are, don''t I?" Hermione didn''t say anything but just snorted, "Similarly, you have to accept me the way I am as well." Draco said walking forward, "We have been friends for nearly a year now and you should certainly know some of my traits and personality. If you are rude then I am arrogant. If you are stubborn then I can be very manipulative and if you are controlling then I am strong enough to not fall under it. If I were, to be honest with you then we are completely different from each other in every way possible." "So..." Hermione asked with a weird tone. "So?" Draco asked, "It''s nothing, no matter how different we are, I still want to be friends with you but to do so we have to learn how to compromise. Like today, you can''t always keep opposing me without even realizing what I am trying to do. It makes me feel that you doubt me." "It was your approach which was wrong." Hermione said, "Any normal person would start doubting you if you suddenly start blackmailing people out of nowhere." "True, it was my fault in that but you should know that I won''t put Hagrid in a bad position just for a Dragon egg." Draco said, "Plus, every time you do so, it makes it seem like you doubt me lowering my credibility in front of the other person as well. You would really be a bad business partner, to work with." "I wasn''t doubting you..." Hermione said murmuring, "It was your fault." Draco rolled his eyes, "Sigh! Okay, it was my fault this time but make sure you at least put a bit of trust in me in the future." "Since both of your lover''s quarrel is over, I want to ask you about the bet thing, I am sure Hermione is here for that as well." Theodore said. "Stop, speaking nonsense." Hermione said blushing a little, "And I would like to know about that as well, you wanted to say something but you suddenly changed the topic. Was the bet not normal?" "Hermione, you told me that you will stay away from the stone, right?" Draco asked "Yes, and I will make sure Harry and Ron are out of trouble as well." Hermione said. "I don''t care about them and judging from their personality I highly doubt that you will be able to stop them." Draco said, "But since you are planning to keep away from the stone then what I was trying to say is useless to you." "You mean the bet is somehow connected to the philosopher stone?" Hermione asked in shock. Draco smiled and said, "That''s my speculation and that''s all you are going to get from me." Hermione snorted and went back to the hut. "The bet is seriously suspicious as hell, who would even bet a live Dragon egg in a game of card?" Theodore said after Hermione left, "The person would either be very stupid or way too drunk but considering the thing with the Philosopher stone, I highly doubt that all of this is so simple." "That''s what my guess is," Draco said nodding, he couldn''t help but feel impressed at Theodore''s deduction capability. He himself knew of the stone and the other things because he had read the book but Theodore didn''t even know about the existence of the philosopher stone in the school before this. ''The book did you wrong, my friend.'' Draco thought to himself. "So the stone''s in the third floor, are we just going to leave it there?" Theodore asked. "Right now we can''t do anything even if we wanted to." Draco said, "Whether we like it or not, Hagrid is right, Dumbledore will certainly have some resources put over there in the form of security. I don''t know about the traps the teacher put in there but I am sure that, Dumbledore himself may have put up a final line of defense in there as well." Draco lied but it wasn''t a complete lie either since Dumbledore really did put up the final line of defense. Theodore nodded, he reckoned that to be the case as well, since, without protection, Dumbledore would certainly not leave the Philosopher stone out in the open. "Are we going to talk about this with the others?" He asked "What do you think?" Draco said glaring at Theodore. "I will take that as a ''no'' then." Theodore said, "So Dragon huh? I didn''t know that you had a Dragon farm in Romania." "I don''t." "Then... all you said there was a lie?" Theodore looked at Draco in shock. "Half a lie, at least." Draco said, "I didn''t expect to get news about a dragon egg so I had to come up with something, but I will buy it soon since having Dragons doesn''t really sound like a bad idea." "You are making it sound like... wait you are, aren''t you?" "Yeah! Why not? I have seen some wizards commit crimes with the help of magical beasts so why can''t I use them?" Draco said. "But they are Dragons, not a house pet." Theodore said, "I know but what''s wrong with trying?" Draco said, "If it doesn''t work then, I will at least have some exotic pets to brag about." Theodore nodded, "At least you don''t have weird ideas, by the way, who was Hagrid comparing you to?" "Sirius." Draco said with a straight face. "Wait he was comparing you to a murderer?" Theodore said getting shocked again, "And you took it nicely?" "Things aren''t always what they seem like." Draco said in a mysterious tone. Theodore looked at Draco but kept quiet trying to figure out the meaning behind his words. 46 Plan. Draco after the fight with Troll realized how weak he was and handling things alone would prove to be very difficult. Draco wanted to take this chance to strengthen his group mainly Theodore since compared to Pansy or Daphne, he was the strongest ally he had. So after he left the library he went to find Theodore and told him about some stuff about what Ron said and the philosopher''s stone and both of them went to Hagrid''s hut, and just as expected Draco didn''t need to say anything since Harry and the group blabbered all the information out. As Draco thought, Theodore was very interested in the stone after learning that it was in Hogwarts. So when the time comes Draco would have an ally to go along with him. The main problem of taking the Philosopher''s stone was that it was inside the Mirror of Erised. Draco couldn''t look for the stone before because he didn''t know where it was, to begin with, but right now he was sure that it kept inside the Mirror of Erised already. Originally, Dumbledore had placed an enchantment on the mirror, hiding the stone inside of it, and allowing the mirror to transfer the stone only to one who wanted to find the stone but not to use it. Anybody wishing more than simply to find it would just see themselves making gold or the Elixir of Life. This is because the greatest desire of anyone wanting to use the stone would not have their greatest desire to be finding it in the first place; anyone just wanting to find the stone but not use it would thus have their greatest desire to find the stone thus have their wish granted. Draco was sure that it would be impossible for both him and Theodore to retrieve the stone because they had nothing but the desire to use it. So due to that, Draco had set up his second trap, enticing Harry by leaving some clues. Draco wasn''t stupid enough to blurt out things without keeping his mouth shut so he had to do it in a way that it wouldn''t be predictable. With Hermione caught up with what he said, Draco was sure that with Harry''s savior character, he would surely go to the third floor to stop anyone from stealing it. Now that he had left enough traps for Harry to fall through, the only remaining part was to wait for Harry to go to the third floor and take out the Philosopher''s stone for him. The other unexpected thing was the Dragon, Draco had completely forgotten all about it since the Dragon didn''t play any particular role in the books, it was just there for the sake of showing Malfoy''s bad side and seeing Voldemort living up off Unicorn blood. But even though he had to resort to blackmailing he still got what he wanted. Draco wanted to try and tame the Dragon enough to let it do some work for him. Even though a Dragon could be defeated by dozens of wizard or a powerful wizard at once, but no one has ever gone wrong with having a few extra cards in hand. ---------------------------------------------- Harry and Ron went back to the Gryffindor''s common room and were discussing what to do. "I am sure, Black will tell this information to Snape," Ron said. "We should have checked our surrounding before talking." "That''s what I am worried about." Harry replied. "I heard Percy once say that there is a charm that prevents outsiders from listening, we should learn it." Ron said. "We should, but we have already made the mistake now and Black knows everything." Harry said, "I wonder how long he has been spying on us." "Since he knows all about it, from the very start I guess." Ron said with a frustrated tone, "Do you think he is also planning to steal it?" "No." Harry shook his head, "He wasn''t interested in this before as well and even this time, he was more interested in getting the Dragon from Hagrid." "Right, that Dragon." Ron said, "We can''t let him take it." "What can we do about it?" Harry said, "It''s not ours, to begin with, and Hagrid already took the payment. It''s probably good as well since I don''t want Hagrid to go to Azkaban." "He did take the payment but we can make Black lose money, can''t we?" Ron said smiling as if he had the greatest plan, "If the Dragon is gone before he can take it then neither Hagrid nor us would get in trouble." "How can we do that?" Harry asked interested, he wanted some payback for his conversation being eavesdropped upon and making him lose his trust with Hagrid. "How about we tell, Professor McGonagall?" Ron suggested. "Wouldn''t Draco leak the information out then?" Harry said getting worried. "Not if we tell Professor McGonagall, we might get scolded but as Hagrid said McGonagall is one of the teachers protecting the philosopher''s stone and she will certainly stop Draco if she finds out that he knows everything." Ron explained, "And that is only if he leaks the news otherwise we don''t even have to go through all that." "What do you mean?" "Listen, on the day Black takes back the Dragon after it''s hatched we can inform Professor McGonagall and she will capture Draco red-handed with a Dragon in his hand." Ron said smirking, "With this Hagrid would have fulfilled his end of the bargain and on the other hand, Draco would get caught with a dangerous creature which will probably get him some punishment and maybe even expelled and if he tells others about the stone we can tell everyone that Draco was the one who did it, and due to him having motive as well, I am sure everyone will believe us." Harry nodded, "It''s a great plan but are you sure Hagrid wouldn''t get into trouble for it?" "I am sure," Ron said. "What are you talking about?" Hermione''s voice came in, shocking both of them. "No-Nothing," Ron said stuttering, he was sure that Hermione would certainly not let them complete their plan if she knows about it. Hermione looked at Harry and Ron who were acting suspicious, "How come you came out of the hut so quickly?" "We thought Hagrid was angry with us, so we excused ourselves and came running out," Harry said. "He should be." Hermione said nodding, "I came back apologizing as well, you guys should do too." "It was Black''s fault, to begin with." Ron said in a righteous voice, "If he hadn''t eavesdropped on us, none of this would have happened." Hermione rolled her eyes and didn''t say anything, she already knew no matter what she says, Ron will always blame Draco so why even try. "Aren''t you going to defend him?" Ron asked suspiciously, "Or do you finally realize that he is a bad guy?" "He isn''t." Hermione said sitting on the sofa next to the fireplace, "Yeah, he shouldn''t have eavesdropped on you but considering your loud voice, I don''t think he even has to try." "Hermione, I am with Ron on this. Didn''t you see how he and his friend tried to blackmail Hagrid." Harry said siding with Ron. "He did but he did apologize at the end, didn''t he?" Hermione said opening a book, "And besides since Hagrid himself is okay with it, you guys should stop blaming him as well. Oh! and forget about the stone from now on, as Draco said it''s very dangerous and even if Snape did want to steal the philosopher''s stone we can''t do anything about it. Maybe we will tell a Professor when we catch him in the act." Harry and Ron looked at each other and turned back to Hermione, "But we can''t let him steal it, you know how much he hates Harry, what if he comes after him when he gets the stone." Ron said. Hermione closed her book while trying to figure out a way, "Well if he does steal it, we can tell Dumbledore about it, I am sure he will protect Harry." Harry and Ron looked at each other in shock, seeing how fast Hermione changed her mind about things. 47 Parseltongue "I have something interesting to show you." Draco said dragging Pansy and Daphne. "What is it?" Daphne asked, "Where are we going?" "It''s a surprise," Draco said not looking back at them Pansy and Daphe looked at Theodore who was following them with a questioning look. "You will know when you get there," Theodore said shrugging his shoulders. "I am sure you will like it." Daphne and Pansy were confused since Draco was acting excited ever since he received a letter this morning and as soon as the Herbology class ended, he started dragging them towards the edge of the forest. "Why are we here?" Pansy asked looking at Hagrid''s hut. "You''ll see." Draco said knocking on the door. Hagrid opened the door looking flushed and excited. "I see you brought friends over." Hagrid said, "Well come on in, It''s nearly out." He ushered them inside. All of them went inside to find Ron, Harry, and Hermione already over there. "Why are they here?" Daphne said. Pansy was quite as she signaled Daphne pointing at the egg on the table. "Draco is that a dragon egg?" Pansy asked. "And is it about to hatch?" "Yeah!" Draco said excitedly. Hagrid gave all of them, chairs to sit on and all of them started focusing on the egg. The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath. All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. It wasn''t exactly pretty; it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes. It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout. "Isn''t he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon''s head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs. While everyone was excited looking at the Dragon, Draco, on the other hand, felt a weird connection between him and the Dragon. Draco slowly reached out his hand towards the dragon as it turned back towards him, "Be careful!" Hagrid said but Draco wasn''t listening to any of it. The Dragon curiously looked at his hands and instead of snapping at his finger, it started stroking it with its head, as it climbed on to his hands. "Curious, little fellow aren''t you?" Draco said smiling, The Dragon looked at him and nodded as if it understood him and started climbing up towards his shoulders. "Hahaha, what are you saying?" Theodore started laughing out loud. Pansy and the others looked at Draco funnily too. "I just said, if he was curious, what''s so funny about that?" Draco said raising his eyebrows annoyed. "You just made random noises just now." Hermione said looking at Draco weirdly. "But, I-" Draco looked at the Dragon which was halfway towards his arm. He caught it with another hand and bought it close to his face, caressing its scaly back. The dragon made a cute noise in comfort as it sneezed fire out of its mouth in the opposite direction. "You''re so cute!" Draco said rubbing it more. The dragon started rubbing its head on Draco''s hand in bliss. "See there you go making that noise again." Theodore said barely holding back his laughter. Draco looked at them weirdly, "What kind of noise, am I making?" "I don''t know its kind of a whisper, really." Pansy said coming close, "Looks like its really attached to you." She stretched out her hand trying to touch it but the dragon snapped at her hand, luckily she moved her hand quickly and avoided getting bitten. "Don''t bite her!" Draco said, the dragon looked at him and looked back at Pansy again. Pansy looked at the Dragon, "It''s really scary." "Do it slowly, I don''t think it will try to bite again." Draco said with a bit of uncertainty. Pansy nodded and slowly reached out her hand, shaking a little bit, she slowly got more and more, closer towards the Dragon and this time it really didn''t snap at her instead allowed her to caress it. "It feels weird." Pansy said smiling, "It''s really scaly but it''s not that bad either." "Let me try!" Daphne said coming towards them. "Don''t bite the girls." Draco said again, wondering if it will still work. Soon Hermione also came over and took the Dragon from his hand, the three girls then started petting the Dragon like if it was a puppy and the Dragon really seemed to enjoy it. On the other hand, Hagrid, Ron, Harry, and Theodore were surprised looking at the Dragon''s behavior, especially Hagrid since it had tried to bite him before but now it was like a harmless animal getting petted by the girls. "Did you learn to calm Dragon''s down?" Theodore asked, "It tried to bite Hagrid but when it came to you, it became calm and docile, is it the whisper?" Draco was still wondering what was going on when he heard Theodore, "I guess so." He said in an unsure voice, "Maybe it thinks of me as his mother." "Maybe." Theodore said raising his eyebrows. Draco was confused as to why people were hearing whispers when he was talking to the dragon and in return, it really seemed to understand him as well. Draco was thinking what was going on when a sudden thought struck his head, he looked at Harry who was busy chatting with Ron. ''Is it Parseltongue?'' Draco thought. Parseltongue is the language of serpents and those who can converse with them. An individual who can speak Parseltongue is known as a Parselmouth. It is a very uncommon skill and is known to be an almost exclusively hereditary trait. Not counting Herpo the Foul, who predated him by several centuries, nearly all known parselmouths are descended from Salazar Slytherin, with Harry and Herpo the Foul, being two notable exceptions. Parseltongue is, when spoken, a hissing sound, similar to that of a snake; as such, normal people cannot understand it, which is very similar to his situation right now. Apart from merely communicating with serpentine lifeforms, Parselmouths are also able to influence the will of serpents to a certain extent. Aside from serpent-based creatures, Parselmouths can communicate with each other with the language. While inherited, Parseltongue usually requires the speaker to face a snake-based creature or object shaped like a snake like a carving; It is also said that the more proficient speakers like the Gaunt family were able to speak it at will and even communicate in it. ''No, it can''t be, Parseltongue can only speak to serpents but this is a Dragon we are talking about, but with all the weird things going on...''Draco thought rubbing the marks on his arms, ''Maybe...'' Draco went up to the Dragon and said, "Hop on." stretching his hands forward. The Drago looked at him and came stumbling towards his hand. "Draco you have to teach me that." Daphne said excitedly, "By the way is it ours?" "Ours?" Hermione and Pansy both said at the same time with a sour voice. *Cough* "I meant to ask if Draco owns it or not." Daphne said blushing as she started rubbing her necklace. Draco looked at her necklace and realized that it was the one he gave her. "Glad you liked the present." Draco said. "Yeah! It was my first time seeing a Dragon hatch." Daphne replied smiling. "It''s really awesome." "I didn''t mea--." Draco was about to say something but stopped halfway through, "Sigh!, yeah I own it." "Really?" Pansy asked getting excited, "Where are you going to keep it? As far as I know, it is illegal to own one, without a proper document, oh wait are you going to keep it in the suit--" "No, I am planning to send it to Romania." Draco said cutting off Pansy, "I have sent a letter to father and he has agreed to it." Pansy understanding that she almost slipped out the secret, stuck her tongue out. Draco had already sent a letter back to his father, lying to him about how he found a Dragon egg on the forbidden forest and was raising it till it hatched. Lucius quickly tried to manage a Dragon farm but all of them were far expensive than expected so he booked a private place in a Dragon Sanctuary which is cheaper considering the caretakers for the Dragon''s come for free as they keep it there for study purposes. Draco after thinking for a while agreed to it but now thinking about the new changes he might have to change his plans. 48 Norberta Ron and Harry were discussing, what to do now in the corner. "What is he saying?" Harry asked, "I don''t know." Ron said shrugging, "I guess he is just playing along, but our main focus is to find out the correct time when Draco will take the Dragon away." Harry nodded, thinking that he was just trying to impress the girls but the whispers seemed familiar to him, he couldn''t completely understand it but it seemed very familiar, even though he couldn''t tell what he was saying but he could at least understand that, he was trying to calm the Dragon down. On the other hand, Draco was having a conversation with Hagrid. "I''ll be taking the Dragon tonight." Draco said, "Could you please help me look after it till then? Taking the Dragon in broad daylight might prove to be a little difficult." Hagrid nodded, "So hav'' yeh thought o'' a name fer the Dragon?", he asked. "Nope." Draco said, "Haven''t really got into thinking about it, do you have a suggestion?" Draco asked looking at Hagrid''s excited face, "I sure do." Hagrid said, "How about Norbert?" Draco smiled and said, "Sure, we can name it that but it''s not a he but a she." "What?" Hagrid said shocked, "Really?" "Yeah! you can identify it by just looking at it." Draco said, "You can see it for yourself." He said picking up the Dragon from the table. Hagrid looked at it and said, "I didn''t think of the possibility that it could be a female." "It''s okay." Draco said, "The name is pretty good maybe we can change it to Norberta." "Yes, ''s a good name." Hagrid said nodding, "But are yeh okay wit'' me naming her." "It''s not a problem." Draco said smiling, with his new plans he couldn''t fulfill the promise of letting Hagrid visit the Dragon so he could at least let Hagrid name it. "Your name is Norberta, from now on." Draco said tickling the Dragon, "Do you like it?" The Dragon jumped happily as if it really liked the name. "Your whispers real''y seeme'' ter calm it down." Hagrid said. "I wonde'' which book did yeh learn it from." "Oh! It''s an old Malfoy family book." Draco said. Hagrid nodded understanding that it was a secret since it involved family books. Draco lied but he had at least studied a lot about the Dragons in the past few days, learning many things about them. Dragons are basically giant winged, fire-breathing reptilian Creatures. Widely regarded as terrifying yet awe-inspiring, they can be found all over the world and are frequently referred to in Asian and medieval European folklore. Able to fly and breathe fire through their nostrils and mouths, they are one of the most dangerous and hardest to conceal creatures in the wizarding world. The Ministry of Magic classifies them as XXXXX, which is a rank for known wizard killers that are impossible to train or domesticate. Despite how dangerous they are, there are people who are trained to work with them, called dragon keepers, or dragonologists. Who basically train them enough to study them, by providing food for them. A wizard who trades and sells dragon eggs (which is an illegal activity) is referred to as a dragon dealer. Dragon dealers are hard to come by since most of their business comes from stealing and fighting with Dragons and the latter half is even more dangerous due to continuous raid from the Ministry of Magic. Hagrid was very worried about the Dragon since it required a lot of taking care of during their first few months. In the early stages, Dragon mothers breathe fire on their eggs to keep them warm due to this they did not keep their eggs in nests, in fear of burning the place down. The dragon''s first fire breaths, usually accompanied by thick grey smoke, appear when the dragon is around six months old. However, the ability to fly is normally developed later, at around twelve months, and the dragon will not be fully mature until it is two years old and ready to live on its own. The book that Draco read, ''Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit'' states that a person is required to feed a baby dragon a bucket of brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour, which proves that its a lot hard to take care of since it requires constant care. Not much is known about dragons social behavior, however, it seems that, at least with the Chinese Fireball, females are generally larger and dominant over males. The book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them states that sometimes females oust males from their territories, at least with the Antipodean Opaleye. Due to this female Dragons tend to be more powerful than male ones. Dragons are generally highly aggressive towards anything, even wizards, and will sometimes attack humans without provocation at all. Due to their unhealthy and unpredictable behavior, many incidents have occurred over the years. The Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks'' Convention of 1709, due to understanding the dangers in the earlier period as it couldn''t be tamed and even if it were, due to its huge size it was easily identifiable by muggles. The historic event like using the single largest Memory Charm cast in recent memory was in 1932, are linked with Dragons. The Memory charm was used because of a dragon swooping down on a beach filled with Muggle holidaymakers. Draco himself seemed to have a connection with Dragons since his first name comes from the constellation The Dragon ("Draco" in Latin). Also, The motto of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is Draco dormiens numquam titillandus which is Latin for Never tickle a sleeping dragon. Dragon''s had a lot of uses other than being big and dangerous, some tamed Dragons were used to guard places but since Dragons cannot be domesticated, despite individuals trying to do so. However, it is possible to condition them via torture to make them somewhat subservient, as Gringotts Wizarding Bank had done to the one guarding the lower vaults, who had been trained to expect pain upon hearing a certain noise. Many useful materials come from dragons, but they are hard to obtain since it takes almost half a dozen wizards just to stun a dragon. The selling of dragon products is closely regulated by the Ministry of Magic, and only dragon species that are over-breeding are killed to make these items. The materials that came for Dragons included its blood. The uses of it were hard to find out but Dumbledore had managed to come up with 12 uses of it, but most of the uses were stupid like cleaning an oven or being used as a spot remover. Powdered Dragon claw is used in potions which boosts your mind for a few hours, even though no proper experiment has been done on it, it is said that it leaves the user''s mental capability worse than before. Dragon dung is sold as a fertilizer and it''s very expensive, Draco even owned some for his expensive and hard to grow plants and herbs. Dragon eggs are classified as a Class A Non-Tradeable Material by the Ministry of Magic. Despite the ban, many dragon eggs can still be found on the black market. Chinese Fireball egg shells are highly prized as potion ingredients by Chinese witches and wizards, said to heal a lot of diseases and make the body strong. Dragon heartstrings are used as wand cores and its horn and liver are used for potions as well. The Dragon hides are used to make clothing. Where Muggles would wear leather, wizards wear dragon hide. The skin is very tough, impervious to some spells, and provides the same physical protection as leather, while at the same time having the same texture and appearance as snakeskin. Dragonhide is used to make gloves, boots, jackets, and shields. In high demand at the moment is the skin of the Swedish Short-Snout as it is very durable and cheap. Draco''s suitcase was also covered in Dragon''s hide but he wasn''t sure which species of Dragon was it made out of and last but not least it''s meat was considered a delicacy in a lot of countries, but a special method was required to cook them and only highly trained professionals were able to do so. Muggles believe that dragons are a mere myth, but have been known on occasion to glimpse these beasts. To prevent them from being seen by Muggles, and to protect them from poaching, dragons are kept on dragon reserves around the world, most of which are far from human habitation. The reason, Dragons are more dangerous is because of its skin as it repels most spells thrown at them and the only spells that are work are the spells such as the Stunning Spell, some spells can affect dragons if aimed at the right spot, or if cast by several people at once or by a very powerful wizard. The known curses that work were the Conjunctivitis Curse, which blinds the Dragon but a good aim is necessary. Draconifors a transfiguration spell which turns statues of Dragons into real one giving Dragons a real fight and the stunning spell which stuns the Dragon temporarily. It is said that there are many dark curses which affect the Dragons since they have more harming property than a normal spell. ------------------------------------------------------------ Two things I want to clear up:- 1) The ability of Draco is similar to Parseltongue but is completely different so Ron and the others don''t suspect much since talking to Dragons is not heard of. 2) I wanted to use this chapter to explain everything about Dragons so when I use some of the terms in the future chapter, many people wouldn''t be confused. 49 Caught. "Is she going ter be okay?" Hagrid asked, "Will they take good care of her?" "No need to worry Hagrid." Draco reassured Hagrid, "I have had my father arrange the best caretakers for her." Hagrid nodded sighing, "Go along now, The classes will star'' soon." All of them nodded and headed out of the hut. Harry and Ron went out their own way and the rest of them went towards the hall for dinner. "So how are you going to get out at night?" Theodore asked, "Do you need me to come along with you?" "Yeah! That would be great." Draco nodded. Having an extra hand would be very helpful in case of emergencies. "I want to come too." Pansy said and Daphne added, "Yeah, me too." "No, the more people there are the more the chances of someone finding out." Draco said, "Sigh, these are the situation where I wish I had kept a pair of an invisibility cloak." Daphne and Pansy pouted, getting rejected. "I will visit the place on the vacation, so you can come along if you want." Draco said, "But it''s far in Romania." Daphne and Pansy looked at each other and nodded excitedly imagining their vacation out with Draco in Romania. "You shouldn''t break the rules." Hermione said, "What if Filch finds out?" "Don''t worry, even if he does we can knock him out with a spell." Theodore said grinning, "I have been practicing the Confundus charm recently." "Confundus?" Draco said, "It''s sure to come in handy." "It will." Theodore nodded, "You should focus more on handy skills like this than protection and offensive skills, it''s not like we are going to fight a Troll every day." "Wait! Are you two serious?" Hermione reprimanded them, "Are you seriously talking about knocking out a caretaker and manipulating his memories?" Draco and Theodore looked at each other and then back at Hermione, "I am sure we said the same thing." "You--" Hermione said getting angry over their teasing. "Okay, Chill." Draco cut off Hermione, trying to avoid an earful of lecture, "We are Slytherins remember, we are meant to be the bad guys." "Just because you are meant to be doesn''t mean you have to be." "Let them be, Hermione," Pansy said, "They have no other choice but to do it at night, otherwise they might get into more trouble if others, especially the professors find out." "Yeah! and besides, they can run away from Filch like last time if they want to." Daphne added. "I know that, but--" Hermione thought for a reason to stop them for a while and finally gave up as she sighed, "Sigh! Fine but how are you going to take the Dragon out? As far as I know, no one can come and go out of Hogwarts without being noticed." "No humans can, but that doesn''t mean other creatures can''t." Draco said smirking. "You mean, Elves?" Theodore said, "Can they apparate here?" "I am sure they can." Draco said, "I have tested this theory over many restricted places and they can do it very easily." Theodore put his hand on his chin and nodded, "We wizards really did underestimate does little bastards." "Yeah, But I am glad we did." Draco said, "Imagine setting up all the protection only to get assassinated by a house-elf in the middle of the night when you least expected." Theodore shivered at the thought of that and said, "We really did make some nice choices, cruel but it still works." "What are you talking about?" asked Hermione. "Nothing." Draco shook his head, "Anyway, you can rest assured that we will have no troubles getting the Dragon out of here." Hermione nodded, "I will go back to the common room then, good luck!" ---------------------------------------------- Later that night, Draco and Theodore sneaked out of the common room slowly and carefully. Walking around the dungeon in the dark they slowly got out of the castle and came running towards the hut. They looked around and knocked on Hagrid''s door. Hagrid also carefully opened the door and said, "Come in quick, your elves here." Draco and Theodore nodded and came gushing in. Inside Dobby was standing at the corner politely. "It''s nice to see you so soon, Master Draco." Dobby said coming towards them, "It''s nice to meet you too, Mr. Nott." Ever since Draco got hold of the Black property, Dobby''s been living there, even though with the grumpy and crazy attitude of Kreacher, living there was hard but it was still better than in the Malfoy Manor with all the grumpy old elves there, trying to force him to submit to the master of the house like a slave. "How''s the house Dobby?" Draco asked. "It''s neat and tidy, Master Draco." Dobby said, "Kreacher wouldn''t let us clean some places but other than that, most of the house is cleaned." "Good." Draco nodded satisfied, "Was it too much trouble?" "There were some dark magic items here and there but other than the ones you removed, there weren''t that many," Dobby said. "And the restricted places are just as it is." Draco nodded, he had specifically ordered the house-elves not to touch some of the rooms, especially the one with the Horcrux in it. "What about Kreacher?" Draco asked, "Is he well?" "Yes, he is still the same but he doesn''t boss around us too much like before." Dobby said. "Who is Kreacher?" Theodore asked. "And what house are you talking about?" "The house-elf of the Black family," Draco said but he didn''t answer the second question since it didn''t matter whether he told Theodore or not. "Bet''er get going," Hagrid said taking out a large crate with Norberta inside it. "She''s got lots o'' rats an'' some brandy fer the journey," said Hagrid in a muffled voice. "An'' I''ve packed her teddy bear in case she gets lonely." Draco could hear ripping noise coming from inside the crate, he was sure that the Teddy was having his head ripped off. "Bye-bye, Norberta!" Hagrid sobbed. Draco couldn''t help but feel amazed by Hagrid''s enthusiasm with magical animals. "Take this." Draco said giving a letter to Dobby, "Give this to father and go back home, I''ll be home after school ends." "Yes, Master Draco." Dobby said and disapparated with the Dragon and now it was gone. "Elves sure are Handy." Theodore said, "Pretty useful but it still increases my distaste for them more." "I know what are you talking about." Draco said, "Hagrid, thank you for taking care of her, We shall take our leave now." "Sure!" Hagrid said nodding, he seemed to be in a bad mood so both of them didn''t say anything else and went out. Both Theodore and Draco sneaked out the place like before but as they stepped into the corridor, Filch''s face loomed suddenly out of the darkness. "Well, well, well," he whispered, "we are in trouble." Theodore slowly took out his wand and before he could cast a spell they heard him say, "Professor McGonagall was right." Filch said showing an ugly smile, "Follow me, I have a huge present for you." Theodore and Draco looked at each other, right now they couldn''t do anything to him since it involved a professor, if it was just Filch then both of them could just knock him out and walk inside like nothing ever happened but now they could do nothing but follow him. "How did he know? No, the real question is how did McGonagall know." Theodore said underneath his breath following Filch. Draco was thinking the same thing as he shrugged his shoulders in confusion. Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall''s study on the first floor, where they sat and waited without saying a word to each other wondering what was going on and soon Professor McGonagall showed up leading Harry and Ron who had victorious smile on their faces but soon their excitement turned into disappointment as they couldn''t find the Dragon anywhere nearby. Theodore and Draco looked at each other finally understanding what was going on, "Hey! Do you mind if I beat them up to a pulp." Theodore whispered. "Which one are you taking? I am taking the red one." Draco said, today he was pissed none the less. Professor McGonagall came over towards them, she looked more likely to breathe fire than Norberta as she towered over the two of them. "I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Weasley and Potter said you were outside the castle. It''s one o''clock in the morning. Explain yourselves." Draco finally understood Ron''s and Harry plan, both of them planned to catch them outside the castle from the start and looking at their faces, Draco was sure that they were probably expecting him to have the Dragon in his hand. "We were out looking for my Wand." Theodore said showing his wand to Professor McGonagall, "Early on, Mr. Potter and Weasley took my wand and hid it somewhere and just before tonight''s dinner they informed me about the whereabouts of my wand since I was afraid to go alone outside, I dragged Draco with me." Theodore lied with a straight face not even flinching a little bit. Draco couldn''t help but admire Theodore''s ability to bullshit his way out of everything. "Yes, Professor." Draco chimed in looking at Harry and Ron, "I was thinking why they were playing this prank on us but now we know." Harry and Ron were both stupefied how quickly they turned the tables towards them. 50 Caught pt.2 Harry and Ron had both of their mouths wide open. "We didn''t." Ron said, "They went out for the dra--" "Shut up, Mr. Weasley, I think I''ve got a good idea of what''s been going on," said Professor McGonagall. "It doesn''t take a genius to work it out. You hid his wand to get them out of the bed and into trouble, I also caught Longbottom who was caught in your trick." "Neville?" Harry asked confused. "I suppose you think it''s funny that Longbottom was also caught in your plan, don''t you?" said Professor McGonagall, "He was out of his bed trying to warn Mr. Black over here about your schemes." Harry and Ron had pale faces while on the other hand, Draco''s and Theodore''s mentality towards Neville was changing. They looked at each other and nodded in understanding. "Professor, that''s not it." Harry said trying to defend himself and Ron, "He was the one who--" "Mr. Potter do care to explain how you knew about them going out then?" Professor McGonagall said. "I am very disappointed in you two." "I--" Harry wanted to say something in his defense but Ron pulled his hand signaling him to stop. He knew if he went on further about this, Hagrid could get into trouble. "I''m disgusted," said Professor McGonagall. "Five students out of bed in one night! I''ve never heard of such a thing before! All five of you will receive detentions -- yes, both of you too, Mr. Nott and Mr. Black, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it''s very dangerous -- and fifty points will be taken from both Gryffindor and Slytherin." "But Neville--" Draco tried to protect him but looking at McGonagall''s face he stopped. Theodore was shocked by their punishment specifically considering his victim card didn''t work. Draco wasn''t that surprised considering McGonagall''s behavior of being fair to all people. "Fifty?" Harry gasped -- they would lose the lead, the lead he''d won in the last Quidditch match. He and Ron were really regretting coming here to trap Draco. "Fifty points each," said Professor McGonagall, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose. "Professor -- please" "You can''t --" Harry and Ron pleaded but nothing worked, on the other hand, Draco and Theodore were calm since they were still on the lead, against other houses since both of them had managed to pile up a lot of house points. Harry and Ron felt guilty considering what would happen when other''s find out about it tomorrow morning, especially Ron since he hadn''t even contributed a single point, Just thinking about Percy''s angry face made him scared. "Don''t tell me what I can and can''t do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I''ve never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students." A hundred and fifty points were lost. That put Gryffindor in the last place. In one night, they''d ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the house cup. Harry felt as though the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. How could they ever make up for this? Gryffindors and Slytherins passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the house points the next day thought there''d been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer and the Slytherin''s had a hundred points less than yesterday? And then the story started to spread: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, their hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost them all those points, by trying to mess with Black and Nott of the Slytherin house. From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup since they had been consecutively winning for 6 years now. Everywhere Harry went, people, pointed and didn''t trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him. Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!" No one had any problem with Draco and Theodore since they were on the lead mostly because of them. Considering they were still on the lead no one wanted to pick troubles with them. Both of them managed to repress the information on Neville but he still looked down knowing he was the cause of one of those mishaps. Harry, on the other hand, was suffering, Harry swore to himself not to meddle in things that weren''t his business from now on. He''d had it with sneaking around and spying, trying to make people fall in trouble. He felt so ashamed of himself as he had stooped to the same level as Dudley. "What happened?" Hermione, Pansy and Daphne came to the table and said, "Tell me." "Why don''t you ask Potter and Weasley?" Theodore snorted, Even though no one was blaming them he was still pissed about the incident. "Sigh! Don''t take it out on Hermione." Draco said, "It''s not her fault." "Che, I still have to take my revenge or I am never going to be satisfied." said Theodore. "What is going on?" Pansy said, "Tell us about it, at least." "Potter and Weasley told Professor McGonagall about us going out in the night." Draco said, "Probably to try getting us in trouble." "What?" Hermione was shocked listening to that information since Ron and Harry wouldn''t budge about it. "Hmph! You heard him." Theodore said, "Next time I beat them up, don''t come trying to defend them." The girls looked over at Harry and Ron over the next table who were sitting on the Gryffindor table alone with their heads down. "I am sorry!" Hermione said in a soft voice, "I told them that you were going out in the night but I didn''t expect them to do such a thing." Draco looked at Hermione who looked as if she was going to cry any moment now, he wanted to say something but before he could Daphne and Pansy jumped over. "It''s not your fault." Pansy said, "Both of them betrayed your trust." "Yeah! They are the one at fault, not you." Daphne said, "So you don''t have to apologize." Hermione looked over at them and looked at Draco, "I don''t blame you." Draco said still surprised thinking when did all of the girls became friends and Theodore snorted saying, "Just don''t come defending them when I try having a talk with them." "Thanks!" Hermione said still sad. "Sigh! Don''t worry about them." Pansy said, "I heard all of you got detention." "Yeah! It''s a drag." "By the way, what happened to Norberta?" Daphne asked in a worried tone. The three girls looked at Draco and Theodore with a questioning look getting worried for Norberta. "She is fine." Draco said, "Luckily we sent her back outside the castle otherwise things could have been much worse." Everyone sighed in relief knowing Norberta was fine, "So she should be in Romania by now, shouldn''t she?" "I think she will be there today, I just don''t know when." Draco said. "What were those two idiots thinking?" Hermione started getting angry after knowing Norberta was fine, "Really such idiots, with a hundred and fifty points gone they lost over all the points I have collected over a couple of months." "Don''t know," Draco said. "I just wish that at least within the next year, both of them get enough brains in them to know the consequences of doing certain things." The exams weren''t far away and all the studying the students had to do keep their mind off the whole drama that occurred. Ron and Harry had to study extra hard since Hermione stopped talking to them after knowing what happened. Draco had heard that both of them tried to apologize to her but failed, due to Hermione not even giving them a chance to speak. On the other hand, Hermione started helping Neville instead after knowing he tried to warn them. All the students were working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells by heart, memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions... -------------------------- I think some people have some confusion over what is going on so let me explain. The whole expelling thing was taken lightly in the first and the second book, like Draco trying to get Harry and Ron expelled and vice versa. It''s just a bunch of kids trying to win over each other without understanding the consequence of their actions. Especially to all the Ron haters out there, calm down!! P.S there will be some payback in the future chapter. 51 Detention. A week before the exams were due to start, Draco was walking back from the library on his own one afternoon, he heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. As he drew closer, he heard Quirrell''s voice. "No -- no -- not again, please --" It sounded as though someone was threatening him. Draco moved closer. "All right -- all right --" he heard Quirrell sob. Next second, Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode towards Draco''s direction, Draco quickly acted as if he was just walking by but he could still feel Quirrell''s gaze on him. Soon the footsteps were gone. ''Talking to Volde, I assume.'' Draco thought. As he was walking by, Harry came out of the classroom Quirrell was in. Draco looked at him suspiciously and the other party was doing the same. Draco didn''t want to waste time with him so he strode off when he suddenly heard Harry call out to him, "Draco." Draco turned back to look at him, "I-I am sorry." Harry said awkwardly, "I wasn''t thinking straight since I was angry about you eavesdropping on us and Ron was the same too. We should have known better." "So?" Draco asked in an uninterested voice. "That''s it." Harry said, "I apologized since the whole stupid thing could have harmed Hagrid as well and due to us not thinking things through. Other than that, I am really not sorry. Since with this, we are finally equal." Draco rolled his eyes and started walking off again, "I am not the one you should apologize to Potter." Harry stared at Draco''s back and sighed. He knew that Draco was right, he still needed to apologize to Hermione, Hagrid and maybe even Neville. Harry went back to the common room, where Ron was working on his Astronomy. Harry told him what he''d heard. "Snape''s done it, then!" said Ron. "If Quirrell''s told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell --" "There''s still Fluffy, though," said Harry unsure. "Maybe Snape''s found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," said Ron, "I bet there''s a book somewhere in the library telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do, Harry?" The light of adventure was kindling again in Ron''s eyes, Harry''s vow of ignoring things were wavering. Just then Hermione walked in. "Can you two, not stay out of trouble even for a week?" She said with an annoyed tone, "Isn''t losing a hundred and fifty points enough." This was the first time in a week that Hermione had spoken to them. "It''s not that Hermione." Harry said quickly afraid of getting ignored again, "Also we are really sorry for breaking your trust." Harry pushed Ron a little and he too stood up from his seat, "Yes, Hermione I am really sorry. I shouldn''t have thought too much about this stupid plan." "I am not the one you should be apologizing too." Hermione said angrily, "Because of you guys Draco and Theodore got into trouble and the whole cause of it was me, thank god that Draco and Theodore didn''t have Norberta with them otherwise he would have really been expelled. Did you really wanted me to be the reason behind my friend''s expulsion?" "I-" Ron couldn''t say anything. "I apologized to Draco today." Harry quickly said, "So, please forgive us." Hermione looked at them, "I can''t forgive you right away since you guys broke my trust that we had built over the past months and you Ron... you should go apologize to Draco and Theodore as well. Otherwise, don''t blame me if something bad happens to you." "Something bad?" "I don''t know about Draco but Theodore will surely get you." Hermione warned them, "I don''t know much about his character but I have heard that he is worse than Draco in certain things so if I were you, I''d go and apologize quickly." Harry and Ron looked at each other in confusion but decided on apologizing sooner would be better, not because they were afraid but they didn''t want Hermione to keep being upset with them. "We will." Hermione nodded and started walking away "Also don''t focus on the stone too much, go to Dumbledore. That''s what you guys should have done ages ago. If you try anything else, you''ll be thrown out for sure." "But we''ve got no proof!" said Harry. "Quirrell''s too scared to back us up. Snape''s only got to say he doesn''t know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor -- who do you think they''ll believe him or us? It''s not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore''ll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn''t help us if his life depended on it, he''s too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he''ll think. And don''t forget, we''re not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That''ll take a lot of explaining." Harry quickly explained before Hermione could walk away, he really needed some advice from her, since talking with Ron always seemed to lead to trouble. "Then don''t do anything." Hermione harshly said, "The stone''s not your property is it?" and walked away. --------------------------- Next morning, Draco, Theodore, Ron, Harry, and Neville got the same letter which read, Your detention will take place at eleven o''clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall. "Sigh! I kinda forgot about it." Theodore said lazily, "But this might be a good time to take revenge." "You are really stuck on that, aren''t you?" Draco said smiling slyly, "What do you plan to do?" "Haven''t really thought too much about it." Theodore said, "But we can adapt to the situation, can''t we?" "Touche." Draco was looking forward to tonight since meeting Voldemort seemed really interesting. At eleven o''clock that night, they said goodbye to Daphne and Pansy in the common room and went down to the entrance hall. Filch was already there -- and so were Neville, Ron, and Harry. "Follow me," said Filch, lighting a lamp and leading them outside. "I bet you''ll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won''t you, eh?" he said, leering at them. "Oh yes... hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me... It''s just a pity they let the old punishments die out... hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I''ve got the chains still in my office, keep ''em well oiled in case they''re ever needed... Right, off we go, and don''t think of running off, now, it''ll be worse for you if you do." Draco and Theodore rolled their eyes wishing Filch would shut up. They marched off across the dark grounds. Neville kept sniffing so Theodore went over and patted his shoulders trying to calm him down, unlike before Theodore had kinda developed pity over Longbottom who was always clumsy and scared. "Don''t worry buddy." Theodore said, "Relax, they aren''t going to give us some traditional punishment, its just going to be a walk in the woods or something." Draco really wanted to ask if Theodore was a transmigrator like him too but didn''t say anything in the end. Harry and Ron were walking together wondering what their punishment was going to be. It must be something really horrible, or Filch wouldn''t be sounding so delighted, they thought. The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, They could see the lighted windows of Hagrid''s hut. Then they heard a distant shout. "Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started." Harry''s heart rose; if they were going to be working with Hagrid it wouldn''t be so bad. His relief showed on his face, seeing it Filch snorted as he said,"I suppose you think you''ll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy -- it''s into the forest you''re going and I''m much mistaken if you''ll all come out in one piece." Neville let out a moan in fear, "Sigh! Me and my big mouth." Theodore facepalmed, "I must have jinxed it." Ron stopped on his track "The forest?" Ron said,"We can''t go in there at night -- there are all sorts of things in there -- werewolves, I heard." "Not so cocky now are we?" Theodore said in a mocking tone but hearing about werewolves made Neville more afraid as he clutched the sleeve of Theodore''s robe and made a choking noise. "That''s your problem, isn''t it?" said Filch, his voice cracking with glee. "Should''ve thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn''t you?" 52 First meeting. Hagrid came striding toward them out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder. "Abou'' time," he said. "I bin waitin'' fer half an hour already. All right, you guys?" "You shouldn''t be too friendly to them, Hagrid," said Filch coldly, "They''re here to be punished, after all." "That''s why yer late, is it?" said Hagrid, frowning at Filch. "Bin lecturin'' them, eh? ''Snot your place ter do that. Yeh''ve done yer bit, I''ll take over from here." "I''ll be back at dawn," said Filch, "for what''s left of them," he added nastily, and he turned and started walking back towards the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness. Ron turned towards Hagrid, "Are we really going in that forest," he said, Theodore was pleased to hear the note of panic in his voice. "Yeh can''t do nothin'' about it." said Hagrid. Looking at things it seemed Ron and Harry apologized to Hagrid but their relationship seemed to have become more awkward than before. "Is the forest really that dangerous, Hagrid?" Harry asked Hagrid looked at Harry then quickly looked away as he said, "It can be." "Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, ''cause it''s dangerous what we''re gonna do tonight, an'' I don'' want no one takin'' risks. Follow me over here a moment." He led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the forest. "Look there," said Hagrid, "see that stuff shinin'' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That''s unicorn blood. There''s a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We''re gonna try an'' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery." "And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" said Neville, unable to keep the fear out of his voice. "There''s nothin'' that lives in the forest that''ll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid. "An'' keep ter the path. Right, now, we''re gonna split inter two parties an'' follow the trail in diff''rent directions. There''s blood all over the place, it must''ve bin staggerin'' around since last night at least." "So Harry..." Hagrid awkwardly said, "Sigh!, So me, Ron, an'' Neville go one way an'' Draco, Theodore, an'' Harry go the other." "I will go with Neville." Theodore said sighing. "I don''t trust him with some people." Hagrid looked at Draco but before he could say anything Harry spoke out, "Me, Draco and Fang can take the other way." Hagrid thought for a while and nodded, "Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we''ll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an'' practice now -- that''s it -- an'' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an'' we''ll all come an'' find yeh -- so, be careful -- let''s go." The forest was black and silent. A little way into it they reached a fork in the earth path, and Harry, Draco, and Fang took the left path while Theodore, Neville, Ron, and Hagrid took the right. They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. "So you apologized to him, didn''t you?" Draco asked, Even though he wanted to go with Harry just for the lucky chance to meet Voldemort he didn''t expect the atmosphere to be so weird. "I did." Harry replied, "But he is still upset about Norberta." "I see." Draco said calmly."No wonder he sent you with me." "So... do you think a werewolf is killing the unicorns?" Harry asked. "Do you know what werewolves are?" Draco asked instead of answering. "I have read stories..." Harry replied, "A man turning into a wolf in the full moon." "It''s pretty similar to that." Draco said, "But its more of a disease than a curse since it spreads by blood and saliva. They form a pack and live mostly hidden from people, so do you think Dumbledore or any other headmaster before would keep crazy man-eating animals around in the forbidden forest, who can come out anytime and kill students? You know what he might actually." Harry was about to say something when they suddenly heard a moan. "What was that?" "Just because there aren''t any werewolves around doesn''t mean that there aren''t many other dangerous creatures lurking around." Draco said not even looking back, "Don''t you find it funny, Potter?" "What?" "The fact that they send us out the castle for being out of the castle in the first place." Draco said, "And especially to this godforsaken place where creatures like Troll are hanging around everywhere." "There are Trolls here?" Harry asked a bit afraid since the last encounter with a Troll wasn''t really a good memory to be exact. "Plenty." Draco replied, "If we come across their colony, we better hope this dog can be a distraction." He said sarcastically looking at Fang who was cowardly following behind them, and as if it understood his words Fang begrudgingly walked in front of them. But as soon as they turned a corner, Fang came running back and ran back to where they came from at its fastest speed. "Black, what is that?" Harry said quivering. Draco looked at Harry''s direction to find a cloaked figure reaching towards the unicorn on the ground, It lowered its head over the wound in the animal''s side, and began to drink its blood. Draco quickly took out his wand and casted, "Stupefy." The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at them -- unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and swiftly dodged the attack. "Not so fast." Draco grinned, "Confringo." *Boom!* A loud explosion occurred at the hooded man''s feet causing the dust around to rise up. "What is that?" Harry asked in a panic as he rubbed his scar in pain kneeling on the ground. Draco looked at the man on the ground, he knew that it was none other than Voldemort who was struggling to stand up. ''Sigh! I could end this now but...'' "Stupefy" Draco silently chanted as he knocked Harry out. "Why?" Voldemort asked him with a deep scary voice. "Dark Lord, I am the son of your humble servant Lucius Malfoy." Draco said doing a little bow. "I know about you," Voldemort said slowly standing up. "But that wasn''t the answer to my question." "I am honored that the Dark Lord knows my name." Draco said still bowing, "My father has been searching for you ever since you disappeared and ever since I found out about the philosopher''s stone, I expected you to be here." "Lucius?" Voldemort said snorting, "Out of all my servants who would have expected that Lucius would be so loyal." "Dark Lord, do you need my help with anything." Draco said, "As your loyal servant, I will be willing to do anything." Voldemort looked at him for a while, "Why attack me, if you knew about me?" "To prove myself," Draco said. "I wanted to show you that I am worthy enough to serve you." Voldemort looked at him in doubt, "Fine, I''ll give you a chance to prove yourself." "I am thankful." Draco said, "I suggest the Dark Lord, to get out of here since the gate-keeper and the others are around and hearing the explosion, they might be here any moment." Voldemort nodded, "Wait for my future order." "How will I get in touch with you?" Draco asked in a naive tone. "I have connections inside," Voldemort said in a mysterious tone and turned back disappearing into the darkness. "Piece of shit!" Draco mumbled standing straight, he took out his wand and shot both the green and red sparks in the air. Draco looked at the unconscious Harry and left him in a comfortable position walking towards the unicorn. Even in that state, it was shining beautifully, Its long, slender legs and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves. To his surprise, the unicorn was still alive but barely. "Are you all right?" A voice came from behind. Draco quickly took out his wand and pointed it towards the person behind him, to his surprise it wasn''t really a person but a centaur. "You are?" "My name is Firenze, you can put your wand down, human, I don''t mean you any harm,"Firenze said with his calm voice looking at him with his astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. "Are you okay?" Draco put his wand back down, "I am fine but my classmate over there is knocked out and this unicorn is bleeding to death." Firenze was about to speak when a sudden voice came in, "What happen''" It was Hagrid and the others 53 Healing. "What happen''" Hagrid and the others came rushing in. "We found the attacker." Draco said, "Well he was in his cloak with his hood on, I don''t know what happened but after seeing him, Harry started to hold his scar in pain and passed out." Hagrid and Ron quickly went over towards Harry and shook him a little, "Harry, wake up." Harry slowly opened his eyes confused as to what was going on. "Thank Merlin, yeh''re fine." Hagrid sighed in relief. Theodore left the shaking Neville and walked towards Draco who was examining the Unicorn. "Can it be saved?" Theodore asked. "No major harm was done but he has lost a lot of blood." Draco said patiently trying to look for further injuries, "Looks like it was attacked by a dark curse causing such damage and from the looks of it, it was stunned just in case." Theodore nodded, "Will a spell work?" "No." Draco shook his head as he took out his potion pouch from his cloak. "Heal its legs, they seemed to be fractured and some bones are cracked here and there." Draco quickly took out a couple of herbs and a mortar grinder and started grinding different herbs into it. While this was going on, two other centaurs showed up as well but seeing everyone quite and focused on the unicorn, they too quietly went next to Firenze and looked at what was going on. Harry woke up from his stupor and watched Draco hoping he will be able to save the unicorn, Hagrid, on the other hand, was hoping the same. "It''s no use." A centaur with an arrogant look spoke out looking at the sky, "It''s fate has been sealed, better put it out of its misery instead of wasting time." "He''s good at potions, Bane," Hagrid said with an annoyed look, "Atleas'' let him try." Even though Hagrid said that he couldn''t help but feel nervous since Centaurs are known to be good at deviation. "If you want to chant bullshit then go do it somewhere else." Draco angrily said as he kept grinding the herbs faster. "Are you threatening me human." Bane said angrily. "If you don''t shut up, I will shove your fate and stars inside your ass." Draco said with an impatient tone, "Leave or else I might really do something that I may regret in the future." Maybe it was his time here in the wizarding world, Draco had become very sensitive to things like cursing and jinxing. Unlike his previous world, words of a person really mattered and played a vital role. So he didn''t want someone to keep jinxing him when he was trying to save a life. "You--" "Stop it!" the other Centaur said walking in front of Bane, "We are not to interfere." Bane gnashed his teeth and stayed silent. Theodore had slowly managed to fix the broken legs and heal some minor injuries. "It''s up to you now, buddy." He said looking at Draco. Draco took out a clear liquid from within his potion pouch and mixed it with the paste he had just created, after finishing the potion he slowly started applying the paste over the deep wound. The wound magically seemed to absorb the paste. Slowly the unicorn began to wake up from the spell as it started struggling. "Calm down, boy." Draco said trying to calm the unicorn, he really wished for a girl to be near him at this moment since unicorns prefer females over males. Luckily the unicorn calmed down a little as the potion started to numb it and reduced its pain, Draco kept applying the potion and the wound kept absorbing it. After putting all the potions into it, he took out his wand and chanted, "Vulnera Sanentur" The wound started closing on its own and soon it was completely healed. Draco was very proficient in healing spells since it was the one he focused on the most. In the dangerous world full of uncertainty, healing spells seemed the best way to go since nothing much happens within the first few years. The spell ''Vulnera Sanentur'' was taught to him by none other than Snape, he didn''t exactly teach him the spell but gave him his research papers about it. The spell was invented by Snape himself so it was a very rare spell that other people didn''t know about. The unicorn calmed down as it tried to stand up but failed, "The pain is only numbed, buddy." Draco said patting the unicorn, "The dark magic that was used to harm you has given you a deep poisonous cut, so even though it looks okay from the outside, I am sure the pain will remain for quite some time." Hagrid and the others sighed in relief, seeing the unicorn fine now. The centaurs looked at the sky, "Impossible." Bane said. "Nothings impossible Bane." Firenze said, "Fate isn''t certain." "But the planets..." Bane mumbled looking at Draco''s back. "Is it okay now?" Hagrid asked getting closer, Theodore looked at Hagrid, "Even though its healed, it''s still weak." "It can''t survive on its own." Draco added, "Do we take it back with us to Hogwarts?" "I can keep it in my farm until it''s okay." Hagrid said nodding, "If we just leave it here, whatever harmed it might do it again, and this forests exactly isn''t safe for weak creatures." "You must be Harry Potter." Firenze said walking towards Harry looking at his scar, "Do you know what happened?" Harry shook his head, "No, I felt a sudden pain in my scar and I fainted." Firenze shook his head and looked back at Draco, "May I know what your name is human?" Unlike the other centaur, Draco didn''t find this one annoying, "Draco Black." "Black? Like him?" Firenze spoke to himself. "I am his cousin," Draco said. "Not his son." Firenze nodded in understanding, he looked at the unicorn who was breathing well and looked calm, "It''s amazing how you can heal him." "Potions is something I am very good at." Draco said standing up, "Especially curse wounds." "So do you think its a sick Vampire?" Theodore asked. "No." Draco shook his head, "If it was a vampire, I don''t think it would need to cut open a wound so large and besides vampires wouldn''t be so desperate for unicorn blood when they can get everything off of humans." "What is then?" Harry asked walking forward, he felt the man was connected to him and his scar, so he was very curious about it. "Harry Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used -for?" Firenze asked "No," said Harry, startled by the odd question. "We''ve only used the horn and tail hair in Potions." "That is because it is a cursed thing, to slay a unicorn," answered Draco ignoring Harry. "It is said that only a person who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep someone alive, even if they are an inch away from death, but it comes with a terrible price." "Due to slaying something pure and defenseless to save yourself." Theodore added, "The person will have a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches their lips." "Yes, Exactly," Firenze said nodding at their explanation. "But who''d be that desperate?" Harry said. "If you''re going to be cursed forever, deaths better, isn''t it?" "It is," Firenze agreed, "unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else -- something that will bring you back to full strength and power -- something that will mean you can never die. Mr. Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?" "The Stone! Of course -- the Elixir of Life! But I don'' understand who --" "Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?" It was as though an iron fist had clenched suddenly around Harry''s heart. Over the rustling of the trees, he seemed to hear once more what Hagrid had told him on the night they had met: "Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die." "Do you mean," Harry croaked, "that was Vol-" "Enough!!" Both Hagrid and Bane said at the same time. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?" Bane said, "You have said more than enough, let''s go." Firenze looked at Harry for a while and then at Draco, "If fate has it, we shall meet again." He said taking off with Bane and the other centaur. "Never," said Hagrid irritably, "try an'' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin'' closer''n the moon. An'' Harry you, stop mentioning the stone to everyone you meet." "But he already knew--" Harry mumbled but kept quiet after a while.. 54 Punishment. The journey back to the castle was filled with awkwardness, Harry was thinking of Voldemort as he wanted answers and Hagrid, on the other hand, wasn''t willing to give it up. In his own saying, Voldemort was more than dead and it wasn''t time for Harry to meddle into these things. Ron and Neville were silently following them as well and behind them, Theodore and Draco were dragging the floating unicorn using a spell. "So do you think its Voldemort?" Theodore whispered. "Yeah!" Draco said, "Even though I am not a fan of divination, I am sure it was Voldemort, considering how I was able to chase it away, he must be really weak right now." "What do we then?" Theodore asked, "He is really a Dark Lord, considering he managed to stay alive after all these years." "Right now?" Draco said, "What can we do? If he managed to stay alive all these years he must have a trick up his sleeve but him staying here would hamper my future plans so I need him to die, but I don''t think it the right time to do so." Theodore nodded and looked away fixing his gaze behind a bush, "Hey! Time to execute punishment." Draco looked at Theodore, "What?" "Just handle the unicorn," Theodore said releasing the spell, as he pointed his wand at the bushes and chanted something. As soon as he did, the bush started shaking vigorously and everybody stopped to look at what was going on. Nevill being scared quickly ran towards Draco and Theodore, whereas Ron did the same by running towards Harry and Hagrid. *Boom!* A small explosion occurred causing everyone to jump back. Out of nowhere water exploded from beneath the ground and a Murtlap came flying out. Theodore silently used another spell and the murtlap was sent flying towards Weasley''s face. "Harry! Hagrid! Help me!" Ron yelled as the murtlap began scratching and biting his face. Harry who was nearby quickly tried to help Ron by pulling it out but it backfired as the Murtlap quickly released Weasley and latched onto Harry''s face, biting him. Hagrid quickly came over and got hold of the Murtlap and threw it on the ground. "Murtlaps!" Hagrid said, "I wonder how they came here. Did they bit'' you?" "Yeah!" Ron said panicking, he had several bite marks all over his face and Harry had one mark on his neck. "We need to get you to the hospital quick!" Hagrid said, "Ar'' the rest of yeh okay!" Neville was shaken up by the incident and Draco and Theodore quickly nodded indicating they were fine. "Let''s go quick!" Hagrid said carrying Harry on one hand and Ron on the other. "Neville go after Hagrid!" Draco said to Neville who was shaking, "We still have to carry the unicorn with us." Neville looked at them for a while and nodded, "How did you know?" Draco asked "I saw it go inside the burrow previously." Theodore replied, "But I didn''t expect it to work so well. Now, this is what I call revenge." Draco shook his head and looked at the corner where the Murtlap was laying, probably fainted by the shock, from the force that Hagrid used when throwing it. He took out a pouch and put the Murtlap inside it. "Are you taking it with you?" Theodore asked. "Yeah! It shouldn''t be here." Draco said, "I wonder how it survived here in the first place, so I am little curious." "Curious?" Theodore said, "Well just try not to get bitten." "Hurry up." Hagrid''s voice came. Draco and Theodore looked at each other and nodded, carrying back the unicorn and rushing ahead. The Murtlap''s bite was enough of a punishment really, from having a high pitched fever to shooting out flames out of ones anus. The Murtlap bite was enough to make one suffer. Draco wasn''t sure if they had a cure for the bite in Hogwarts, otherwise, Harry and Ron are going to have a hard time for a couple of days. Especially Ron who was bitten multiple times. They both took the unicorn back to the hut and waited till Hagrid came back from the hospital. "It''s really bad," Hagrid said in worry. "We don''t have any cure right now and don''t have any herbs to create a potion for the cure of Murtlap bite, you wouldn''t have one on you right?" "I am sorry Hagrid." Draco said, "I don''t have the cure for Murtlap bites since I thought they wouldn''t be around." He did have the herbs but no one needed to know that. "Sigh! It''s a pity then." Hagrid sighed, "Harry''s fine but Ron''s suffering very badly." "Has the flames started?" Theodore asked curiously. "No, But Madam Pomfrey said, that it could start any moment." Hagrid said in a worried tone, "Both of them will have a hard time till we get the potion or the herbs." Draco and Theodore looked at each other and nodded, "I am sure they will be fine Hagrid." Theodore said. "Well we should go now, it''s already 3''o clock." Draco said, "Better get some sleep." "Oh and take this potion, feed this potion to the unicorn by mixing it in his food." Draco said handing out a small flask of purple colored potion. Hagrid nodded and took the potion from his hand. Both of them got out of the hut and went back to the common room, where Pansy was waiting for them. A snitch came flying towards them, Theodore caught it. "You guys came back." Pansy said coming towards them, "Give it back!" She said to Theodore. "What is it?" Theodore asked opening his palm. The snitch was laying there without any movement and one could clearly see the initial ''D.B.'' was carved on the center of the snitch. "D.B?" Theodore asked in a teasing tone. "Give it back!" Pansy said in a flustered tone snatching the snitch from Theodore''s hand. "Draco, what do you think D.B stands for?" Theodore asked raising his eyebrows in a joking manner. Pansy looked towards Draco fidgeting. "Dragon Ball?" Draco replied. "What?" Pansy and Theodore asked. "What?" Draco looked confused, but then he slowly realized, "Oh! Is it my initials?" "Don''t misunderstand!" Pansy said quickly, "Since this was your gift, I wanted to remember that you were the one who gave me the gift." "Is your memory that bad?" Theodore snickered, "Or is it--" "By the way, what took you so long." Pansy quickly cut off Theodore, "What was the punishment?" "A tour of the Forbidden Forest," Draco said sitting on the sofa. "To catch a unicorn killer." "Are you alright?" Pansy quickly said, "How can they do that? Sending a student to a creepy forest filled with monsters." "I am fine," Draco said. "But others aren''t..." "What happened?" "Hehe... I got my revenge." Theodore said laughing evilly, "Potter and Weasley are in the hospital." "What did you do?" Asked Pansy worried if they went overboard with them. "I just used a spell on the ground and a murtlap did the job." Theodore grinned, "Don''t worry no one saw me using that spell." "Murtlap?" "Yeah! Amazingly there was one there." Draco sighed, "We will talk tomorrow, I have some work to do." Inside his suitcase, Draco took the Murtlap out. The Murtlap was still knocked out so Draco took the chance to examine it properly. The murtlap wasn''t harmed anywhere and he took this chance to take out some of its tentacles without harming the murtlap. Murtlap''s pickled tentacles are said to give the person more resistance to jinxes and curses when eaten but if it''s consumed too much the person starts growing purple hair from their ear. Draco had used different Murtlap''s products before but he had never seen one alive so he was very interested in it. "Wait! Why can''t I do that?" Draco thought standing up, "All this time I have been only using this suitcase to grow plants and stuff but can''t I own magical beasts? They are walking living potion material, they can be very useful in the time of need as well." Draco looked at the Murtlap and bought it out to a nearby empty area. "All this empty space, I can surely fill it up with different Magical beasts." Draco thought looking around. The murtlap started waking up so Draco put it on the ground and moved away a little taking out his wand. The murtlap looked around and found Draco looking back at him. The murtlap growled and wanted to lunge towards Draco but he was too slow as Draco quickly used a spell and bounded it. "Calm down there little fellow." Draco said walking close to the murtlap, "I can give you a place to stay and food to eat, will you like to stay here with me?" The murtlap looked at Draco, even though it didn''t understand him but from his demeanor and soft voice, he at least understood that Draco didn''t mean any harm. ---------------------------- Punishment given-- Flames out of ass!! 55 First Creature. "What do you say, buddy?" Draco said taking out a treat and pushing it forward. Draco stood up and released the bind on it. The murtlap started moving around the food slowly and went for it. Draco smiled seeing that and looked at the empty space in front of him. ''So the books finally gonna be useful.'' Draco thought going back to his small library that he had created and came back with an old book in his hand along with a pouch. Draco then started taking out some ingredients from the pouch and started mixing it all together. He moved a little forward and started drawing a formation with a lot of foreign language on it. The Murtlap had finished its food and was staring and Draco wondering what was he doing. Draco after a while finally finished the formation and stuck his wand on the center of the the formation chanting, "O mi Deus creare parva lacus" The formation started shining brightly as Draco took his wand out and slowly backed away. The ground started shining further and further and soon the light covered a certain area. The light slowly started to vanish and what appeared in front of them was a small beautiful lake with crystal clear water in it. "Success." Draco though out loud. He looked at the Murtlap, "You know this is my first time using a formation and it worked very well than expected." The Murtlap looked at him and just stayed silent. Draco rolled his eyes as he blew a hole on the ground near the lake, "Go along now it''s your new home." He said, "I don''t know much about your habitats other than the fact that you leave near water sources, So I will leave it up to you to design your home the way you want to and I will feed you according to schedules, which I will create for you after doing some research." The murtlap just stood there lazily, "Obviously he doesn''t understand you," Draco said to himself as he took out another treat and threw it at the hole he had just made. The murtlap quickly went over there and started eating it, after a while it started digging a bit and settled down, sleeping. ''Hope it stays there.'' Draco thought to himself as he went back to towards the room. The room was locked so something can''t really walk into it casually but still, Draco wanted to be sure since there are many expensive kinds of stuff in there. He made another formation but this time it was a simple barrier which prevented people from walking in without the permission of whoever made the formation. He created the formation three more times securing all the rooms as much as possible. Since this was his first time owning a pet, Draco was quite nervous about it. Draco went out of his suitcase, he looked at the clock and was shocked to find that it was already morning. Draco had a habit of staying up late so it wasn''t a big deal for him but today since he created a heavy formation and some smaller ones, and used some magic here and there, he was very exhausted. Draco went over and kicked Theodore off of his bed. "What!!" Theodore looked around scared only to find Draco grinning at him. "Why the fuck did you kick me!!" "Get up, it''s already morning!" Draco said yawning. "But I haven''t even slept properly yet." "Quit acting like a baby!" Draco said sighing, "Don''t you want to go check on Potter and Weasley?" Theodore looked still annoyed but when he heard the latter part he started to quickly change into his robes. "Let''s go." Both of them went out towards the hospital wing. The Hospital wing is located on the first floor, the hospital wing is where Hogwarts residents go to have their medical needs met. Within the hospital wing, there are lots and lots of beds with white sheets, privacy screens, and bedpans. The entrance has double doors and Madam Pomfrey''s office is part of the hospital wing complex. Madam Pomfrey seeing them trying to enter quickly came over. "What is it?" She asked in a strict tone. "We are here to meet Potter and Weasley." Theodore said, "They were admitted here last night." Madam Pomfrey looked at them for a while and shook her head, "Both of them are in a serious condition so I don''t want anyone to disturb them, so go back you two." "Actually we are here for our checkup as well." Draco quickly added, "We were out in the forbidden forest with them as well, so the Professor wanted us to have a quick checkup." Draco quickly lied, considering Madam Pomfrey character, she wouldn''t let them enter without any valid reason. Madam Pomfrey though for a while and nodded since it didn''t seem like a lie. "Get in then." She said, "But be sure to not disturb the others, I will be back in a while." Draco and Theodore nodded and headed in. "You are learning!" Theodore said giving Draco a thumbs up. "See, being around me is really useful." "Pretty sure, Cho doesn''t think so." Draco said rolling his eyes. "Cho doesn''t mind me actually." Theodore said, "She is just afraid of you." "Afraid?" Draco snorted, "I tried being friends with her but she still views me as a someone dangerous? Hmph! Are you sure you still like her?" "Maybe..." Theodore said silently, "Hey look." The moment they walked in a sudden flame started rising from a curtain closed bed with a long farting noise. It was more like a flamethrower to be exact. "Ow!!" They heard Ron moan in pain. Draco and Theodore who were here to make fun of them flinched, feeling sorry for them. "Hey! Do you think we went a bit far?" Theodore whispered, "I don''t know." Draco replied, "They tried to expel us so I think its okay but it will depend on how long he is going to shoot fire." "Where''s Harry?" Theodore asked looking around only to find Harry in the bed sweating heavily. "That must be pretty painful," Draco whispered. A moment later Madam Pomfrey came over and did a little checkup on them, after figuring out that they were fine she gave both of them a piece of chocolate. "Here--" Madam Pomfrey said, "You are all fine, so get going, don''t be like that other girl!" "Other girl?" "The brown hair, Gryffindor girl." Madam Pomfrey said, "She''s been here two times already." "I see." Draco said figuring it was Hermione, As they were about to leave another fart noise started with flames rising up to the ceiling along with a loud painful moan from Ron. "Are they going to be fine?" "Sigh! The herbs will arrive tomorrow." Madam Pomfrey replied. "They can only be recovered after that." Draco nodded and both of them went to the great hall. In the great hall, everyone was waiting for them to reveal what had happened since Potter and Weasley were missing, a weird rumor that both of them were injured by Draco rose up. "Did you do anything to them?" Hermione came over to them and asked before they could even sit at the table. "No." Draco replied honestly. "What about you?" She said looking at Theodore, "I didn''t." Theodore lied, "Some Murtlap''s did." "Murtlap?" Hermione was shocked, "No wonder Madam Pomfrey wouldn''t let me in." "We went there and Weasley was shooting some serious flames up his-- you-know-what," Theodore said making the gang laugh."They will be fine by tomorrow, don''t worry." Hermione still suspicious sat by them. "Didn''t Neville tell you anything?" Draco asked "No, he hasn''t even got out of his room, I asked Seamus his roommate what happened and he told me that Neville was too scared to go outside." "Are you guys okay?" Hearing that Daphne quickly asked worried, she had been trying to stay up late to wait for them but unknowingly she fell asleep so she couldn''t greet them. "We are fine." Draco replied, "Some interesting things did happen, though." "Oh! What did?" Blaise asked. "We found an injured unicorn in the forest." Draco replied, "But luckily we managed to save them." "Really?" Daphne asked interestedly. "Yeah! He''s in Hagrid''s hut right now, resting." Draco said, "Wanna go and see?" "Yeah!" All of them went to Hagrid''s hut to meet the unicorn who was standing there gracefully. Everyone was amazed by how beautiful the unicorn was. "What are yah doin'' here?" Hagrid asked coming out with a bucket in his hand. "We are here to check up on this fellow here," Draco said. "He seems more healthy now." "It is, I fed the potion you gav'' to me, early this mornin''." Hagrid replied, "I researche'' a little and found tha'' this unicorn is only 6 years old!" "6?" "Yeah! After it hits the 7th mark it will shine more beaut''fully than it is, right now." Hagrid said looking at the unicorn, "Really, beautiful creatures, aren''t they." Everyone, especially the girls went up near the unicorn to pet it. The unicorns prefers a women''s touch especially a pure one so they are okay with it but to their surprise, the unicorn ignored them completely and went over to Draco''s side. 56 Starlight. Draco looked at the unicorn who was rubbing its head towards his. "Okay, stop!" Draco said backing off a little but the unicorn kept following him like a lost puppy. "Looks like it likes you." Daphne said sourly, "Now that I think about it all the animals seem to like you." "Yeah! First Norberta and now him." Pansy said with the same sour tone. "Okay! It''s not that I want it to like me." Draco said, "Maybe it''s just grateful that I helped it." "I think so too." Hagrid said, "Unicorns are very pure creatures, so this one must be really and truly grateful, for it to keep chasing you like this." "Wanna pet it?" Draco looked at the girls who were eagerly waiting for the opportunity so as soon as they heard Draco, they immediately came over and started petting its soft silky fur. The unicorn still followed him wherever he went so it was getting a bit troublesome since he had to stay in the same place until the girls were satisfied. "So when do you plan to release it?" Draco asked looking at Hagrid. "Tonigh''." Hagrid replied sadly, "It seems to be fit enough to defend itself and keeping him here without any permit will be tough. The ministry is already aware of it somehow and sent a letter to me, to send it back to the forbidden forest." The unicorns are the same as Dragons, even though not as big as the latter they are stilled noticeable from very far away and has been one of the creatures that muggles have noticed the most, to the point where they started writing stories about them. Due to this wizards are forbidden to own unicorns without the required permit. Draco nodded, the one who informed the ministry was none other than him, not because he wanted to send the unicorn back to the forest but he wanted to keep it inside his suitcase, and from the looks of it, he didn''t have to try too hard. Unicorns would be an amazing creature to have especially considering its beautiful nature, from being faster than werewolves to different potion ingredients, unicorns were truly an amazing creature. "So I heard you visited Potter and Weasley?" Draco asked looking at Hermione. "Yes." Hermione replied awkwardly, "I was kinda worried since I saw Neville this morning afraid and shaking, I thought something really serious happened to them." Draco rolled his eyes, "You are either too kind or too stupid and looking at things I am thinking you might be the latter." Hermione awkwardly stayed silent. -------------------------------------- Later that night Draco waited outside the forbidden forest for the unicorn. This time he had prepared everything for it, no one not even Theodore knew about him coming out here. Draco had easily came out of the dormitory, running out quickly and entered the forbidden forest hiding there behind a huge tree waiting for Hagrid to come out, with his suitcase in hand. After hours of waiting, Hagrid finally came out with the unicorn, releasing it. The unicorn looked back and Hagrid kept awkwardly waving at him. Seeing this Draco felt really annoyed at their goodbyes and kept cursing Hagrids mental stability of a child. After nearly an hour of waving and looking back, the unicorn entered the forest and Hagrid went back to his hut. Draco looked around as he sighed relief and came out of his hiding spot. "Hey there buddy! come here!" Draco whispered. The unicorn looked surprised by the sudden voice as it turned its head here and there and came running towards Draco after finally spotting him. Like this morning the unicorn kept dearly rubbing its face towards Draco. "Okay! Okay! I know you like me and all but if you keep doing this, you might actually poke my eye out with your horn." Draco said caressing the unicorn. The unicorn didn''t stop and after a while, it finally calmed down from his excitement. "Do you want to come with me?" Draco asked. The unicorn looked at him confused as it just tilted his head. Draco backed off a little putting his suitcase on the ground and opening it, "If you want to come with me, step inside the suitcase but if you don''t, you can run along to the forest, I won''t stop you." Draco wanted to keep the unicorn but not forcefully as it might run out any moment in the time of need. The unicorn just nighed clearly not understanding him. Draco facepalmed himself, "Sigh! Why do I keep talking to them, like they would understand me? Well, at least it might help me build a connection with between us." Draco thought for a while and went inside the suitcase himself signaling the unicorn to follow him and as suspected the unicorn really did follow him inside. The unicorn was surprised being suddenly pulled into the suitcase as it looked around in panic. "Calm down! It''s okay!" Draco said softly trying to calm the unicorn down. The unicorn seeing him quickly came over as if he was his last straw of hope. The unicorn was slightly traumatized by the event with Voldemort so it was kinda scared of this sudden change of events. "There! there! It''s okay." Draco said trying to calm the unicorn caressing it softly. The unicorn after awhile finally calmed down as it looked around the new environment they were at. "It''s beautiful, isn''t it." Draco said, "From now on this will be your new home." The unicorn neighed looking at the wide empty space in front of him. "Let me show you your new home." Draco said, "Can I ride your back?" Not receiving any response Draco signed as he went to the side of the unicorn trying to climb on to it but failed since his height wasn''t enough. ''It''s really tough being a kid,'' Draco thought to himself. The unicorn understanding what Draco wanted to do, bent down a little making it easier for him to climb onto him. Draco surprised, looked at the unicorn as he climbed on to it. "Next time, I will have to remember to buy a saddle." Draco thought out loud. Draco pointed at a direction as he said, "Go there." The unicorn slightly understanding a little started moving towards the direction he pointed at. Draco nodded in satisfaction, "Next time I will have to remember to buy some reins as well since it will be easier to control the direction, I want you to go. You see I don''t know much about horse riding other than what I learned from watching movies or T.V shows before." The unicorn neighed as if it was understanding him. Draco smiled enjoying this pointless conversation with the unicorn. "I have made you a new home, which is pretty similar to the forbidden forest but less creepy and more bright and beautiful. It really took me a lot of time to make the place as good as it is right now. There aren''t many other animals here for now except for that Murtlap. I suggest you to not go over to its burrow since it might try to fight you, its really annoyingly mean. But don''t worry, I have created a small pond for you to drink out of if you ever get thirsty, so you don''t have to go towards the lake." The unicorn neighed in reply. "The place might be a little lonely for now but in the future, I will make sure to find a mate for you." Draco said smiling, "Now that I think about it, I haven''t given a name to you guys yet. I don''t know about the murtlap since it''s very annoying but since I plan to spend more time with you, I might as well give you a name. How about... Starlight? Since I met you in the dark where you were shining like a bright star. So Starlight... do you like it?" The unicorn neighed happily even jumping a little. Draco proudly nodded, since people always complained to him about not having a good naming sense, he was really happy to have the name he gave be appreciated. "So, let me introduce myself since I haven''t been able to do so before, I am Draco Black. Nice to meet you Starlight." Starlight happily neighed again as he kept walking towards the direction. Soon they reached the edge of the forest, unlike the creepy vibe of the forbidden forest, this one looked more like a park where one will go to have a picnic in. "So this is your new home buddy," Draco said showing him the place. "Look over there is the pond and there is the place with food in it, I am sure Hagrid fed you before he left you but you can still eat from there anytime you want." Draco jumped of Starlight. "Do you like it?" Starlight looked around and started walking towards the pond drinking a little out of it then he started running around the place happily while Draco stood there looking at him with a smile on his face. 57 Exams. Hemione, Harry and Ron were sitting in the common room discussing things. It had already been 3 days after the incident and Harry and Ron were still recovering from it. Luckily, the herbs arrived sooner than expected so both of them could get the treatment sooner, especially Ron since he was reaching the point where he had to be sent to a hospital directly. At the moment Hermione had forgiven them, not completely but she had resumed talking to them again after they apologized to Draco and Theodore in front of her. Even though Draco and Theodore just ignored them and walked past by them, the fact that they didn''t complain further made her sigh in relief. Harry couldn''t sit down. He paced up and down in front of the fire. He was still shaking remembering the incident that took place that night. "Snape wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort''s waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich...." "Stop saying the name!" said Ron in a terrified whisper, as if he thought Voldemort could hear them but Harry wasn''t listening. "I never thought I would say this but luckily Draco was there, I fainted when I saw Voldemort if Draco wasn''t there, I am not sure if I would survive there or not... and the centaurs they must know that Voldemort''s coming back..." "Will you stop saying the name!" Ron hissed. "So all I''ve got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone," Harry went on feverishly, "Then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off... Well, I suppose a lot of people would be happy." Since the newspaper incident he knew how much some people hated him, so he was sure they would be very happy if he were to die, especially in the hands of Voldemort. Hermione looked very frightened, but she had a word of comfort. "Harry, everyone says Dumbledore''s the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won''t touch you. Anyway who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that''s a very imprecise branch of magic." "Yeah! and didn''t you say Black was able to chase him off, so that means he is very weak right now." Ron added words of comfort. "But I don''t understand why Draco didn''t mention about You-know-who to anyone?" Hermione thought out loud. "Maybe he was too scared by him." Ron suggested, "Or..." "Or what?" Hermione asked with an annoyed tone. "I- I mean..." Ron mumbled nervously. "Speak!" Hermione said harshly. "You know his parents are death-eaters so he might actually be supp--" The more he spoke the more intense Hermione''s gaze was, so his voice kept getting quieter by every word. "Ron! Next time, I swear to god! I will not forgive you." Hermione reprimanded Ron, "Don''t speak ill about my friends." "Sigh! Yeah, Ron leave it." Harry said, "He could have harmed me all he wanted back then but he didn''t so it kinda proves that he isn''t really that bad, and with Voldemort, the topic is very sensitive so maybe he didn''t want to worry you and his friends." Hermione nodded thinking about that possibility since from what she knew about Draco, he could be really secretive sometimes but its usually for the best interest of other parties. The sky had turned light before they stopped talking. -------------------------------------- The exams started in Hogwarts and everyone got super busy with their own things. In the sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where all of them did their written papers. Everyone had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an anti-cheating spell. Draco didn''t have much problems with written than expected, as it was much smoother than he thought it would be. They had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk, which was a very easy feat to perform for Draco and Theodore since it was just a basic spell they used in their day to day life. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox -- points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was but taken away if it had whiskers. Draco did considerably well on that too since he had been practicing transfiguration for quite a while now. Draco managed to transform the mouse into a gold and emerald snuffbox with delicate and beautiful design. Professor McGonagall was very impressed with Draco and from the smile on her face, he was sure that he would get full marks on the exam. Next was potions, Snape was making all the students nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness Potion. Well everyone except Theodore and Draco of course since they could make such an easy potion with their eye closed, at any given moment and luckily with the help of both of them, Daphne and Pansy weren''t suffering either. For Harry, on the other hand, it was very different, Harry did the best he could, trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead, which had been bothering him ever since his trip into the forest. Neville thought Harry had a bad case of exam nerves because Harry couldn''t sleep, but the truth was that Harry kept being woken by his old nightmare, except that it was now worse than ever because there was a hooded figure dripping blood in it. Maybe it was because they hadn''t seen what Harry had seen in the forest, or because they didn''t have scars burning on their foreheads, but Ron and Hermione didn''t seem as worried about the Stone as Harry. The idea of Voldemort certainly scared them, but he didn''t keep visiting them in dreams, and they were so busy with their studying they didn''t have much time to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to. Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who''d invented self-stirring cauldrons and they''d be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Draco couldn''t help cheering with the rest since history was his most pressured subject. "That was far easier than I thought it would be," said Hermione as they joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn''t have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager." "Are you sure that was even in this term?" Draco asked "It was but it wasn''t so important and elaborate," Hermione said, Hermione always liked to go through their exam papers afterward, "Then why even bother with it." Draco said rolling his eyes, "You do remember our bet right?" Hermione looked at Draco and nodded. "I do, be prepared to follow my order." "Draco I need to talk to you," Harry said coming behind him. Theodore and Draco looked at each other and back at Harry, "What is it?" "It''s about the forest." Harry whispered slowly looking at Pansy and Daphne. Draco thought about it for a while and nodded, he looked at Pansy and Daphne and said, "Can you wait for me in the common room?" Both of them looked at each other and nodded, "We will see you later then." Hermione, Harry, Ron, Theodore, and Draco went towards the lake where they started chatting. Harry was rubbing his forehead along the way. "I want to know what this means!" he burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting -- it''s happened before, but never as often like this, especially since I went into the forest." "Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested. "I''m not ill," said Harry. "I think it''s a warning... it means danger''s coming... Draco you know what this means right, I beg of you, please tell me." Hearing the desperate voice of Harry both Ron and Hermione were surprised. Draco sighed, "Sigh! What do you want to know?" "My scar!" Harry said, "It''s been hurting more and more since we met Voldemort in the forest, you fought him off after I fainted didn''t you? Do you know something about it?" "Don''t say his name out loud, idiot." Draco reprimanded Harry. "Especially in an open space like this." "I am not afraid of him." Harry said. "It''s not about being afraid you idiot." Theodore snorted, "Hasn''t your friend told you anything?" Harry looked at Ron who just shrugged his shoulders. Ron knew it was a taboo name but he didn''t know exactly why. "Sigh! Idiots, his name is a taboo not because people are afraid of him but because his name is enchanted, everytime you speak out his name in an unprotected space like this, he will be aware of your location." Harry and Ron both gasped as they swallowed their saliva. "What kind of spell is that?" Hermione asked curiously, "I never heard of such spells before." 58 Scar "What kind of spell is that?" Hermione asked curiously, "I never heard of such spells before." "He is called the Dark Lord for a reason you know." Draco replied, "Dark magic is really interesting and powerful, creating spells like that is as easy as flicking his finger for him ." Hermione nodded and stayed silent while Ron had his eyebrows raised. "And about your scar, do you know who gave it to you?" Draco asked looking at Harry. "Yes, Vol- I mean you-know-who." Harry corrected quickly. "Think of it as a connection then." Draco said vaguely, turning back, "If we really met You-know-who that day then, a connection is the most theoretical explanation. I don''t know much about these things and you should stay out of it as well." Draco started walking back towards the castle. ''I could tell you much more but then I will have to come up with an explanation as to why I know that, so bad luck for you Potter, but luckily he is hooked.'' Draco thought as he looked at the time. ''It''s today.'' "Don''t try to die." Theodore said turning back as well, "If you die then it means You-know-who wins, you are the chosen one for some reason so it will leave a bad taste in my mouth if we were to lose because of you." The trio stayed silent looking at the back of the two in deep thought. "Harry, relax, the Stone''s safe as long as Dumbledore''s around." Ron said sighing, "Anyway, we''ve never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he''s not going to try it again in a hurry. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down, especially after what happened with us and Norberta." Harry nodded, but he couldn''t shake off a lurking feeling that there was something he''d forgotten to do, something important. When he tried to explain this, Hermione said, "That''s just the exams. I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered we''d done that one." Harry was quite sure the unsettled feeling didn''t have anything to do with work, though. He watched an owl flutter toward the school across the bright blue sky, a note clamped in its mouth. Hagrid was the only one who ever sent him letters. Hagrid would never betray Dumbledore. Hagrid would never tell anyone how to get past Fluffy... never... but -- Harry suddenly jumped to his feet. "Where''re you going?" said Ron sleepily. "I''ve just thought of something," said Harry. He had turned white suddenly remembering the conversation between Draco and Hagrid that day, where they discussed how he got the egg. "We''ve got to go and see Hagrid, now." "Why?" panted Hermione, hurrying to keep up. She figured that Harry finally noticed what she did that time, she was struggling whether she should say it or not, since, with Voldemort involved, things got more personal than before. "Don''t you think it''s a bit odd," said Harry, scrambling up the grassy slope, "that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket? How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it''s against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don''t you think? Why didn''t I see it before? Remember that time when Draco wanted to ask Hagrid for some information about how much the dragon egg cost and how he got it. He must have known something even back then but he didn''t say it out loud." "What are you talking about?" said Ron, since he was more focused on scheming back then, he hadn''t really paid attention to the conversation between Hagrid and Draco, but Harry, sprinting across the grounds toward the forest, didn''t answer. Hagrid was sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl. "Hullo," he said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?" "Yes, please," said Ron, but Harry cut him off. "No, we''re in a hurry. Hagrid, I''ve got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norberta? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?" "Dunno, he wouldn'' take his cloak off." said Hagrid nervously due to things being more serious he had already told the information to Dumbledore about what the centaur had said that day, and according to Dumbledore he had already taken precautions about it, so he didn''t want Harry to be involved in this any further. He saw the three of them look stunned and raised his eyebrows. "It''s not that unusual, yeh get a lot o'' funny folk in the Hog''s Head -- that''s the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn'' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up." Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?" "Mighta come up," said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah... he asked what I did, an'' I told him I was gamekeeper here... He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after... so I told him... an'' I said what I''d always really wanted was a dragon... an'' then... I can'' remember too well, ''cause he kept buyin'' me drinks... Let''s see... yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an'' we could play cards fer it if I wanted... but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn'' want it ter go ter any old home.... So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy..." "And did he -- did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice calm. "Well -- yeah -- how many three-headed dogs d''yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy''s a piece o'' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus'' play him a bit o'' music an'' he''ll go straight off ter sleep --" Hagrid suddenly looked horrified. "I shouldn''ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "I shouldn''ta told him that! hey, where are yeh going!" Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn''t speak to each other at all until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds. "We''ve got to go to Dumbledore," said Harry. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak -- it must''ve been easy, once he''d got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze, the centaur might back us up. Where''s Dumbledore''s office?" They looked around as if hoping to see a sign pointing them in the right direction. They had never been told where Dumbledore lived, nor did they know anyone who had been sent to see him. "We''ll just have to --" Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall. "What are you three doing inside?" It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books. "We want to see Professor Dumbledore," said Hermione, rather bravely, Harry and Ron thought. "See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. "Why?" Harry swallowed -- now what? "It''s sort of secret," he said, but he wished at once he hadn''t, because Professor McGonagall''s nostrils flared. "Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once." "He''s gone?" said Harry frantically. "Now?" "Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time -- "But this is important." "Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter." "Look," said Harry, throwing caution to the winds, "Professor -- it''s about the Sorcerer''s tone --" Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn''t that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn''t pick them up. "How do you know --?" she spluttered. "Professor, I think -- I know -- that Sn- that someone''s going to try and steal the Stone. I''ve got to talk to Professor Dumbledore." She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion. "Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow," she said finally. I don''t know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it''s too well protected." "But Professor --" "Potter, I know what I''m talking about," she said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine." But they didn''t. 59 Fightback. "It''s tonight," said Harry, once he was sure Professor McGonagall was out of earshot. "Snape''s going through the trapdoor tonight. He''s found out everything he needs, and now he''s got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up." "But what can we --" Hermione gasped. Harry and Ron wheeled round. Snape was standing there. "Good afternoon," he said smoothly. They stared at him. "You shouldn''t be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd, twisted smile. "We were --" Harry began, without any idea what he was going to say. "You want to be more careful," said Snape. "Hanging around like this, people will think you''re up to something. And Gryffindor really can''t afford to lose any more points, can it?" Harry flushed. They turned to go outside, but Snape called them back. "Be warned, Potter -- any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you." He strode off in the direction of the staffroom. Out on the stone steps, Harry turned to the others. "Right, here''s what we''ve got to do," he whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape -- wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione, you''d better do that." "Why me?" "It''s obvious," said Ron. "You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know." He put on a high voice, "''Oh Professor Flitwick, I''m so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong....''" "Oh, shut up," said Hermione, but she agreed to go and watch out for Snape. "And we''d better stay outside the third-floor corridor," Harry told Ron. "Come on." But that part of the plan didn''t work. No sooner had they reached the door separating Fluffy from the rest of the school than Professor McGonagall turned up again and this time, she lost her temper. "I suppose you think you''re harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!" she stormed. "Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you ''ve come anywhere near here again, I''ll take another fifty points from Gryffindor! Yes, Weasley, from my own house!" Harry and Ron went back to the common room, Harry had just said, "At least Hermione''s on Snape''s tail," when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Hermione came in. "I''m sorry, Harry!" she wailed. "Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and I''ve only just got away, I don''t know where Snape went." "Well, that''s it then, isn''t it?" Harry said. The other two stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering. "I''m going out of here tonight and I''m going to try and get to the Stone first." "You''re mad!" said Ron. "You can''t!" said Hermione. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You''ll be expelled!" "SO WHAT!!" Harry shouted. "Don''t you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort''s coming back! Haven''t you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won''t be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He''ll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn''t matter anymore, can''t you see? D''you think he''ll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I''ll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it''s only dying a bit later than I would have because I''m never going over to the Dark Side! I''m going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?" He glared at them. "You''re right Harry," said Hermione in a small voice, she was feeling a bit guilty about not telling them the information sooner but since now everyone had already found out, she acted like she never knew about it. "I''ll use the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It''s just lucky I got it back." "But will it cover all three of us?" said Ron. "All -- all three of us?" "Oh, come off it, you don''t think we''d let you go alone?" "Of course not," said Hermione briskly. "How do you think you''d get to the Stone without us? I''d better go and look through my books, there might be something useful... Do you think we should call Draco?" "Draco? No!" Harry shook his head, "Remember he tried to hide it from all of us even though he had already figured that something was wrong. I am not sure we can trust him in this." "He was just trying to get you off the idea about the stone." Hermione explained, "He didn''t know about You-know-who back then and with him there, stopping professor Snape would be much easier." "Yeah! but I still find it hard to trust him." Harry still disagreed. "Are you sure you want to come with us?" Hermione sighed and nodded. "But if we get caught, you two will be expelled, too." "Not if I can help it," said Hermione grimly. "Flitwick told me in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They''re not throwing me out after that." ------------------------------------------- "I have completed the task, professor," Draco said standing in front of Quirrell. Three days ago, Quirrell had presented himself as a servant of the Dark Lord to Draco. The Dark Lord wasn''t much interested in Quirrell after he lost to Draco so he wanted a more capable servant to do his bidding. Quirrell in place of Voldemort had asked Draco to send Dumbledore a fake letter from the ministry to get him out of here. "G-Good Job!" Quirrell said in an annoyed tone, he was very upset at how the Dark Lord forgot about his sacrifices once he lost to Draco not even giving him a second chance. "May I ask what the Dark Lord plans to do today?" Draco asked curiously. "None of your business." Quirrell said in a bit arrogant tone, "Go back to the common room and wait for the future orders." As far as Quirrell thought, Draco only won due to coincidence. Draco just shrugged his shoulders and went back to the common room. "Where have you been?" Theodore asked. Draco thought for a while and sighed, "Library." Draco replied he wanted some help but after some spell training last week he realized Theodore wasn''t too ready either, at most he could beat someone in the third year easily, so taking him there with him seemed more dangerous than going alone. ----------------------------------------- After dinner the three of them sat nervously apart in the common room. Nobody bothered them; none of the Gryffindors had anything to say to Harry anymore, after all. This was the first night he hadn''t been upset by it. Hermione was skimming through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments they were about to try to break. Harry and Ron didn''t talk much. Both of them were thinking about what they were about to do. Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed. "Better get the cloak," Ron muttered, as Lee Jordan finally left, stretching and yawning. Harry ran upstairs to their dark dormitory. He took out the cloak and then his eyes fell on the flute Hagrid had given him for Christmas. He pocketed it to use on Fluffy -- he didn''t feel much like singing. He ran back down to the common room. "We''d better put the cloak on here, and make sure it covers all three of us -- if Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own --" "What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he''d been making another bid for freedom. "Nothing, Neville, nothing," said Harry, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back. Neville stared at their guilty faces. "You''re going out again," he said. "I thought you said last time was a mistake Harry and you Hermione..." "No, no, no," said Hermione. "No, we''re not. Why don''t you go to bed, Neville?" Harry looked at the grandfather clock by the door. They couldn''t afford to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing Fluffy to sleep. "You can''t go out," said Neville, "you''ll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble. Is it something to do with Draco and the others?" "You don''t understand," said Harry, "this is important." But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate. "I won''t let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I''ll -- I''ll fight you!" "Neville, "Ron exploded, "get away from that hole and don''t be an idiot --" "Don''t you call me an idiot!" said Neville. "I don''t think you should be breaking any more rules! And someone has repeatedly told me to stand up to people, so that''s what I am going to do from now on!" "Who Draco?" said Ron in exasperation. "Neville, you don''t know what you''re doing." He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight. "Go on then, try me!" said Neville, taking out his wand. "I''m ready!" Harry turned to Hermione. "Do something," he said desperately. Hermione stepped forward. "Neville," she said, "I''m really, really sorry about this." She raised her wand. "Petrificus Totalus!" she cried. 60 Devils Snare. "Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Neville, but to everyone''s amazement, Neville dodged the spell pointing his wand at Ron, "Locomotor Mortis" Ron who was surprised couldn''t even move from the shock and the spell hit him. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, knocking him out. Neville looked shocked, not thinking Ron would get really knocked out. "Are you okay? Ron?" he said in a worried tone. Hermione was shocked as well but she quickly recovered and used the spell quickly, "Petrificus Totalus!" Neville who was busy looking after Ron got hit by the spell, having his arm and legs stuck together, where he fell onto his face as well, completely getting knocked out. "What''ve you done to him?" Harry whispered worried, "And Ron?" "It''s the full Body-Bind," said Hermione breathing a bit heavily. "Ron''s probably knocked out by smashing his head on the ground." Both of them checked on Ron who was grunting on the ground from the pain. "Look''s like he''s okay!" Harry said sighing in relief, He looked at the time and said, "You take care of Ron, I am going there alone." "No, Harry!" Hermione quickly said, "I am coming with you, help me put Ron on the couch." Harry sighed as he quickly helped Ron on the sofa and both of them went towards the door. "I didn''t think Neville had it in him," Harry said crossing over Neville who was still on the floor. "He was always scared, I wonder why?" "It''s probably Draco or Theodore." Hermione said crossing over as well, "They have been helping out Neville a lot, the leg binding curse is Theodore''s favorite curse, I always wondered why and now I know." Harry was more surprised since Neville was worse than him and considering the difficulty of the spell he felt a bit ashamed. "Don''t worry Harry, his spell wasn''t perfect." Hermione said quickly seeing Harry''s dark face, "Ron''s leg wasn''t fully binded causing him to trip over and fall, I am sure with a little bit of practice you can learn it as well." Harry nodded grimly, both of them under the darkness went out towards the third floor. -------------------------------------------- Draco was already out of his bed walking to the third floor when he suddenly heard some sound coming behind him. He pointed his wand behind his back and asked, "Who''s there?" "It''s me." Daphne''s voice came out as she came out of the corner herself. "What are you doing here?" Draco asked, "You know what, nevermind, go back to the bed, I don''t want you to get in trouble." "I should be asking you the same thing." Daphne said coming forward, "I followed you out of the common room since you were acting very sneaky from dinner." "Sigh! It''s nothing, go back." Draco said, "I will come back in a while." "Draco!" Daphne caught Draco''s hand, "I am coming with you." "No!" Draco said, "It''s dang-- its private." He was sure if he said it was dangerous then Daphne surely wouldn''t let him go. "What is it?" Daphne said, "Tell me." "Go ba--" As he was about to say something he heard Filch''s voice. "Who''s out there?" "Shit-- come with me." Draco said dragging Daphne quickly. After running for a while they finally reached the third floor. "Why- Why are we here?" Daphne said panting, she remembered Hermione telling them about the three-headed-dog who stayed there. Draco, on the other hand, was considering whether he should knock out Daphne but rejected that idea since anything could happen and he didn''t want to put Daphne at risk. "Sigh! I am going inside but you have to listen to me." Draco said. "Why?" "Don''t ask too many questions." Draco said, "Either you go back, which I am sure you are not going to do or come with me." Daphne looked at Draco''s eyes for a while and gave up, "Fine but you have to tell me later on." "Follow my lead and don''t act on your own." Draco nodded, "Take out your wand and be cautious all the time." Daphne quickly took out her wand and nodded replying, "I am good." "Draco, what are you doing here?" Hermione and Harry came from the side, removing the invisibility cloak. "Great timing." Draco mumbled a bit annoyed, "The same as you." Harry and Hermione looked at each other. "You are here to catch Professor as well?" Harry asked in doubt. "Yes." Draco nodded, ''But my professor has two heads.'' he said the later part to himself. Hermione came over to them and whispered in Draco''s ear, "Harry''s a bit hot-headed now, take care of the situation will you." She looked at him with a little bit of hope in her eyes, Draco rolled his eyes, ''Am I a babysitter now?'' "Sigh, let''s go in." Draco said walking towards the door which was already opened. The surprise was written all over Harry''s and Hermione''s face seeing the open door. "All of you have your wand ready right?" Draco asked again. Everyone nodded and Draco pushed the door open. As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. All three of the dog''s noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn''t see them. Daphne was shocked since it was her first time seeing the Dog, on the other hand, Draco who was recently more interested in magical beasts, was fascinated by it. ''I don''t know what happens to the dog after it''s duty here is done, I could maybe convince Hagrid to give it to me.'' Draco thought to himself. "What''s that at its feet?" Hermione whispered. "Looks like a harp," said Daphne looking closely. "Someone must have left it there." "It wakes up completely the moment it stops playing," explained Harry. "Well, here goes..." he said taking out a flute. "What are you doing?" Draco asked weirdly. "Playing the flute, didn''t you hear me? The dog will wake up if the music stops." Harry said. "No need for that." Draco said waving his wand making the harp play a bit more actively and loudly, "It will play for more than an hour now." Slowly, the dog''s growls ceased -- it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep. Harry awkwardly put his flute back. All of them then slowly crept toward the trapdoor. They could feel the dog''s hot, smelly breath as they approached the giant heads. "I think we''ll be able to pull the door open," said Harry, peering over the dog''s back. "Want to go first, Hermione?" Draco joked. "No, I don''t!" Hermione quickly shook her head. "All right." Harry gritted his teeth and stepped carefully over the dog''s legs. He looked at Draco, "A little help?" Both of them bent over and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and opened. "What can you see?" Daphne said anxiously. "Nothing -- just black -- there''s no way of climbing down, we''ll just have to drop." Harry said, "I will go first." "Wait we don''t know what''s in there!" Hermione said worriedly. Draco rolled his eyes, "In the name of Merlin, be quick will you." he said jumping down. "Draco!" Daphne said worried and followed by jumping down soon both Hermione and Harry came jumping down as well. Cold, damp air rushed past Draco as he fell down, down, down and -- FLUMP. With a funny, muffled sort of thump, he landed on something soft. He sat up and felt around, his eyes not used to the gloom. It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of plant. Draco quickly chanted, "Lumos." Soon all of the others landed as well. What''s this stuff?" were Harry''s first words. "Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it''s here to break the fall." said Hermione "We must be miles under the school," Daphne said. "Lucky this plant thing''s here, really," "Lucky!" shrieked Hermione. "Look at you both!" She leaped up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles. As for Harry and Daphne''s, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing. "Stop moving!" Draco ordered them. "It''s Devil''s Snare! just be calm for a moment." Harry and Daphne couldn''t help but panic a little but they still tried to remain calm, Draco quickly chanted, "Incindio." The plants started lighting on fire. In a matter of seconds, the two of them felt the plant loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull free. Draco had to wait for them to land to use the spell otherwise they might really hurt themselves. ''Doing it alone is actually much better and easier.'' Draco thought to himself, "Let''s go." 61 Chess "Let''s go," said Draco, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward. Hermione moved closer to Daphne explaining her the situation. All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Draco was reminded of Gringotts since it was very similar. Harry, on the other hand, also had a similar feeling, he felt an unpleasant jolt of the heart, he remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the Wizards'' bank. If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon... He sighed walking close to Draco. "Why are you really here?" Harry asked he was still doubting how Draco and he had come to the same conclusion as himself. "Same plan different enemies," Draco replied not even looking at him, Harry looked at him in deep thought wondering what was he trying to say. "So what happened with Weasley?" Draco asked interested since he was sure the red-head was sure to be here. "He slept through." Harry lied avoiding Draco''s gaze. "Can you hear something?" Daphne suddenly whispered. Draco listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead. "Do you think it''s a ghost?" Harry said "I don''t know... sounds like wings to me." Hermione said, "There''s light ahead -- I can see something moving." They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door. "Do you think they''ll attack us if we cross the room?" said Daphne in a wary tone. From what Hermione told her, the place seemed to be full of traps. "Probably," said Harry. "They don''t look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once... well, there''s no other choice... I''ll run." He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room. He expected to feel sharp beaks and claws tearing at him any second, but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched. He pulled the handle, but it was locked. Draco rolled his eyes slowly crossing the place with the other two following behind him. Harry tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn''t budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora charm. "Now what?" said Daphne. "These birds... they can''t be here just for decoration," said Hermione. They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering -- glittering? "They''re not birds!" Draco said walking forward. "Accio" He chanted but nothing happened, ''Spell proof huh!'' Draco thought to himself. Harry who was wondering what Draco was doing looked at them closely and said. "They''re keys! Winged keys -- look carefully. So that must mean..." he looked around the chamber while the other two squinted up at the flock of keys. "... yes -- look! Broomsticks! We''ve got to catch the key to the door!" "But there are hundreds of them!" Hermione said examining the lock on the door. "We''re looking for a big, old-fashioned one -- probably silver, like the handle." "It''s that one." Draco pointed with his wand towards a particular key, "The silver key with the blue wings." "How can you tell?" "The feathers are crumbled up meaning someone who came before us, used the key." Draco said lazily looking at Harry, "You are a seeker, aren''t you? Go on and show off your skills." Harry looked at Draco for a while as he sighed, seizing a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. He grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch. "Is he going to be okay?" Hermione asked. "Don''t worry, I can blow off the keys if they attack," Draco said waving his wand lazily. Hermione glared at him, "Don''t you know any other spells?" She asked. "I do but this one''s hard since it''s spell proof." Draco said in a joking manner, "Blowing it off is the best case scenario." Not for nothing, though, was Harry the youngest Seeker in a century. He had a knack for catching things but this one seemed impossible as it kept running away. "We''ve got to close in on it!" Harry called, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. "I need some help, one of you come at it from above -- Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down and I''ll try and catch it. Right, NOW!" Draco stopped Hermione as he waved his wands manipulating the brooms in the direction Harry had said and as Draco suspected the key moved away from the broom, Harry who was in a moment of shock quickly broke out of it moving along as he pressed the key against the wall, finally catching it. Harry landed quickly, and ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned -- it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice. "Ready?" Harry asked them, his hand on the door handle. They nodded. He pulled the door open. The next chamber was so dark they couldn''t see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, the light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, where the white pieces. "Now what do we do?" Hermione whispered. "It''s obvious, isn''t it?" said Harry. "We''ve got to play our way across the room." Behind the white pieces, they could see another door. "How?" said Daphne nervously. "I think," said Harry, "we''re going to have to be chessmen." He walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight''s horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Harry. "Do we -- er -- have to join you to get across?" The black knight nodded. Harry turned to the other three. "This needs thinking about" he said. "I suppose we''ve got to take the place of three of the black pieces...." The three of them stayed quiet, watching Harry think. Finally, he said, "Now, I know that Hermione isn''t that good at chess and since Ron isn''t here..." He looked at Draco and Daphne. Draco was thinking something himself as he looked back at Harry, "Move away, Potter." Harry not knowing what Draco was planning to do, moved back subconsciously. "Confringo." Draco chanted pointing his wand towards the white pawn. The pawn exploded into pieces and suddenly the knight from the white side made a move. "What happened?" Daphne asked surprised. "I found a loophole." Draco said grinning, "It looks like, as long as we destroy the pieces, we don''t really need to play it." Harry and Hermione were sitting with their mouth wide open. "Why does everything involve exploding with you?" Hermione sighed. "Sigh! You felt smarter before you learned the curse." "Wait until you learn the spell first, then you will learn to love the power of explosions," Draco said grinning, chanting several curses towards the white pieces and by the end, none of the pieces remained except for the king. The white king took off his crown and threw it at Draco''s feet. They had won the game of chess without even moving a single piece. "Let''s go." All of them charged through the door and up the next passageway. "We''ve had Sprout''s, that was the Devil''s Snare; Flitwick must''ve put charms on the keys; McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell''s spell, and Snape''s." They had reached another door. "All right?" Harry whispered. "Go on." Draco said Harry pushed it open. A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making both of them pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one they had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head. "I''m glad we didn''t have to fight that one," Daphne whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can''t breathe." Draco thought the same as well, fighting the troll will definitely drain his energy whether he wins or loses and will be at a complete disadvantage for the final fight. 62 Puzzle. Draco pulled open the next door, All of the others were hardly daring to look at what came next - but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line. "Snape''s," said Harry. "What do we have to do?" They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn''t ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped. "Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Draco and the others looked over her shoulder to read it: Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind, Two of us will help you, whichever you would find, One among us seven will let you move ahead, Another will transport the drinker back instead, Two among our number hold only nettle wine, Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line. Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore, To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four: First, however, slyly the poison tries to hide You will always find some on nettle wine''s left side; Second, different are those who stand at either end, But if you would move onward, neither is your friend; Third, as you see clearly, all are different size, Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides; Fourth, the second left and the second on the right Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight. Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing. "Brilliant," said Hermione. "This isn''t magic -- it''s logic -- a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven''t got an ounce of logic, they''d be stuck in here forever." "But so will we, won''t we?" Daphne said confused "Of course not," said Hermione. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple." "But how do we know which to drink?" "Give me a minute." Hermione said but as soon as she said that Draco said, "Found it." He walked up towards the line of bottles, as he turned back and said: "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire -- toward the Stone." Harry looked at the tiny bottle in Draco''s hand while Hermione looked pissed not getting to solve it on her own. "So now what do we do?" Hermione asked, "There is only enough for one of us to go through the dark flame." "I will go," Harry said walking in front. "The three of you return back and inform a professor." "But Harry--" Before Hermione could say anything Harry snatched the potion from Draco''s hand drinking it. "I will go." He said rushing towards the flame as he disappeared out of their sight. "Harry!" Hermione called out but Harry didn''t turn back. "Sigh! What do we do now?" "You two go out and call for a professor," Draco said, "What about you?" Daphne asked. "I have my own methods." Draco smiled taking out a similar potion and drinking it. He smiled at both of them as he crossed the fire. "Hey! Don''t you have more potions?" Hermione asked getting more anxious. "I do but it''s not for sale." Draco smiled back at them, "Go, do as I say since it would be much more of a help." Draco too disappeared, Both Daphne and Hermione looked at each other sighing as they drank the potion and rushed back. ---------------------------- The potion''s effect was to form a protective layer over the skin against the fire, every fire required different potions and luckily Draco had secured himself plenty since he knew of the fire beforehand. The potion''s effect indeed as suggested was as though ice flooding his entire body. He dashed forward, saw the black flames licking his body, but couldn''t feel them -- for a moment he could see nothing but dark fire -- then he was on the other side, in the last chamber. Draco could already hear Quirrell and Harry talking. "You!" gasped Harry. Quirrell smiled. His face wasn''t twitching at all. "Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I''d be meeting you here, Potter." "But I thought -- Snape --" "Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn''t his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn''t he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?" Harry couldn''t take it in. This couldn''t be true, it couldn''t. "But Snape tried to kill me!" "No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match. She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I''d have got you off that broom. I''d have managed it before then if Snape hadn''t been muttering a countercurse, trying to save you." "Snape was trying to save me?" Harry asked getting shocks after shocks today. "Of course," said Quirrell coolly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match? He was trying to make sure I didn''t do it again. Funny, really... he needn''t have bothered. I couldn''t do anything with Dumbledore watching. All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular... and what a waste of time, when after all that, I''m going to kill you tonight." Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry. "You''re too nosy to live, Potter. You and that Malfoy, Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you''d seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone." (Even though Draco''s name was already changed, some people might still call him Malfoy, For future reference.) "You let the troll in?" "Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls -- you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off -- and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn''t even manage to bite Snape''s leg off properly." "Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror." It was only then that Harry realized what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised. "This mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this... but he''s in London... I''ll be far away by the time he gets back...." All Harry could think of doing was to keep Quirrell talking and stop him from concentrating on the mirror. "I saw you and Snape in the forest --" he blurted out. "Yes," said Quirrell idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I''d got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me - as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side...." Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it. "I see the Stone... I''m presenting it to my master... but where is it?" Harry struggled against the ropes binding him, but they didn''t give. He had to keep Quirrell from giving his whole attention to the mirror. "But Snape always seemed to hate me so much." "Oh, he does," said Quirrell casually, "heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn''t you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead." "But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing -- I thought Snape was threatening you...." For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell''s face. "Sometimes," he said, "I find it hard to follow my master''s instructions -- he is a great wizard and I am weak --" "You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Harry gasped. "He is with me wherever I go," said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it... Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me... decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me...." Quirrell''s voice trailed away. Harry was remembering his trip to Diagon Alley -how could he have been so stupid? He''d seen Quirrell there that very day, shaken hands with him in the Leaky Cauldron. 63 The man with two faces. Quirrell cursed under his breath. "I don''t understand... is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?" Harry''s mind was racing. What I want more than anything else in the world at the moment, he thought, is to find the Stone before Quirrell does. So if I look in the mirror, I should see myself finding it -- which means I''ll see where it''s hidden! But how can I look without Quirrell realizing what I''m up to? He tried to edge to the left, to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing, but the ropes around his ankles were too tight: he tripped and fell over. Quirrell ignored him. He was still talking to himself. "What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!" And to Harry''s horror, a voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself "Use the boy... Use the boy..." Quirrell rounded on Harry. "Yes -- Potter -- come here." He clapped his hands once, and the ropes binding Harry fell off. Harry got slowly to his feet. "Come here," Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see." Harry walked towards him. ''I must lie.'' he thought desperately. ''I must look and lie about what I see, that''s all.'' Quirrell moved close behind him. Harry breathed in the funny smell that seemed to come from Quirrell''s turban. He closed his eyes, stepped in front of the mirror, and opened them again. He saw his reflection, pale and scared-looking at first. But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket -- and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow -- incredibly -- he''d gotten the Stone. "Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?" Harry screwed up his courage. "I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore," he invented. "I -- I''ve won the house cup for Gryffindor." Quirrell cursed again. "Get out of the way," he said. As Harry moved aside, he felt the Sorcerer''s Stone against his leg. Dare he make a break for it? But he hadn''t walked five paces before a high voice spoke, though Quirrell wasn''t moving his lips. "He lies... He lies..." "Potter, come back here!" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see?" The high voice spoke again. "Let me speak to him... face-to-face..." "Master, you are not strong enough!" "I have strength enough... for this...." Harry felt as if Devil''s Snare was rooting him to the spot. He couldn''t move a muscle. Petrified, he watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. What was going on? The turban fell away. Quirrell''s head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot. Harry would have screamed, but he couldn''t make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell''s head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake. "Harry Potter..." it whispered. Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn''t move. "See what I have become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapor ... I have form only when I can share another''s body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own... Now... why don''t you give me that Stone in your pocket?" So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry''s legs. He stumbled backward. "Don''t be a fool," snarled the face. "Better save your own life and join me... or you''ll meet the same end as your parents... They died begging me for mercy..." "LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly. Quirrell was walking backward at him so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling. "How touching..." it hissed. "I always value bravery... Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first, and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn''t have died... she was trying to protect you... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain." "NEVER!" Harry yelled. "Che! How long are you going to hide?" Voldemort said in a hissed tone shocking both Quirrell and Harry. Draco came out of the corner with a wand in his hand. Harry seeing Draco felt happy for the first time, "Draco, quickly use a spell." "Shut up!" Quirrell voice rang out as he apprehended Harry in the vine again. "Quick!" Harry yelped but his happiness soon turned to despair when he heard Voldemort. "Take the stone from him." Voldemort ordered. Draco looked at Voldemort for a while as he turned his wand towards Harry. Voldemort grinned, but to his surprise, Draco turned his wand towards Voldemort again, "Why should I?" "You traitor!!" Quirrell yelled. "Shut up!" Voldemort hissed, "My boy what do you want... I can give it to you... So, why not follow me instead?... Your parents, friends everyone are my servants, to begin with... so why ruin it for everyone?" Draco looked as if he was considering things while Harry was panicking to his fullest. He knew he shouldn''t have trusted Draco but what else could he do, he was too weak. "What do I get in return?" Draco asked raising an eyebrow. "Everything you desire... Your talent is very similar to mine... and unlike me, you grew up knowing you were a wizard... making you even stronger than when I was at your age... Both of us can destroy or rule this world... cleansing it... You and I can rule the wizarding world together... Follow me Draco... you won''t regret it... help me get the stone my child." Voldemort whispered in an alluring tone. Draco sighed as he pointed his wand back at Harry, "Release him." Quirrell hesitated but after Voldemort whispered something to him he released Harry. Draco walked closer to Harry, with his wand pointed at his face, "Hermione trusted you!" Harry yelled in anger, "I knew you were the same as Ron described, we shouldn''t have trusted you." Draco smiled, "So long Potter." He winked. Harry was surprised as to what was going on again, as Draco suddenly turned his wand back to Quirrell, "Expulso." Quirrell tried to block the spell but he was too late and was sent flying towards the wall but he quickly used a sponge spell softening his landing. "Got your wand Potter?" Draco asked readying his dueling stance. Harry who was still in shock quickly recovered as he looked around searching for his wand. "Better pick it up quickly, you know." Draco hurried to dodge a spell from Quirrell as he rolled to the side. "Expelliramus." Draco chanted but Quirrell dodged the spell. "Kill him..." Voldemort said with rage in his voice. "You are still too young to challenge me to a duel." Quirrell said attacking him with a string of fire-based spells. Draco used a bunch of defensive spells blocking the attacks but the last one was too strong to block as he barely managed to dodge the spell. He fell on the ground hard having his ankle twisted as his wand slipped from his hand. ''Shit!'' Draco thought to himself. "You should have joined me... but now you will die... I will make sure Lucius pays dearly for his son''s mistake..." Voldemort whispered "It''s the end, dear Draco." Quirrell said coming closer grinning, his wand shined green in color as he chanted"Avada.." Draco was struggling to dodge gritting his teeth but suddenly Harry came flying towards Quirrell, pushing him out of the way. Quirrell quickly kneed Harry throwing him hard on the ground. "You little..." Draco took the chance to pick up his wand and chanted, "Expelliramus" The wand flew from Quirrell''s hand as he looked a Draco in pure hatred. "Incarcerous" Draco chanted. Soon a rope materialized out of thin air completely binding Quirrell. Quirrell and Voldemort quickly started chanting somethings loosening Draco''s grip on him. "Potter Quick! Touch his face." Draco yelled trying his hardest to hold onto him longer. Harry who was holding his stomach in pain barely managed to do so, without knowing why. 64 Love "AAAARGH!" Quirrell screamed, his face blistering, too, and then Harry knew: Quirrell couldn''t touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain -- his only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from moving. "Keep it up." Draco said struggling to keep the rope tied in. They could only hear Quirrell''s terrible shrieks and Voldemort''s yells of, "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" and other voices, maybe in Harry''s own head, crying, "Harry! Harry!" Quirrell soon disintegrated into nothing as the rope fell down. Voldemort soul apparition floated around and disappeared escaping through the wall. Draco and Harry sighed in relief, "How did you know?" Harry asked panting heavily. "When you pushed him, you touched his hands and it started burning." Draco said panting as well, he had forgotten about the curse on Voldemort that Harry could trigger. Draco clenched his teeth in pain, he was sure that he had sprained or maybe even fractured his ankle since it was hurting like hell. "Oh!.." Harry said weakly slowly fainting on the spot. Draco slowly crawled towards Harry, taking the philosopher''s stone out from his pocket. "Phew!" Draco sighed in relief looking at the stone in his hand which shined blood red in color, he quickly put it in inside one of his pouches. He laid back on the ground closing his eyes. ''It was really a close encounter.'' Draco woke up in a bed with light shining above his head. He heard Dumbledore and Harry chatting. "Good afternoon, Harry," said Dumbledore. Harry stared at him. Then he remembered: "Sir! The Stone! It was Quirrell! He''s got the Stone! Sir, quick --" "Calm yourself, dear boy, you are a little behind the times," said Dumbledore. "Quirrell does not have the Stone." Harry remembered what happened as he sighed in relief, he knew Quirrell was gone, "But.." "Harry, please relax, or Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out." Harry swallowed and looked around him. He realized he must be in the hospital wing again. He was lying in a bed with white linen sheets, and next to him was a table piled high with what looked like half the candy shop and the other side of him, Draco was laying in bed with a similarly large amount of candies and flowers by his side. "Tokens from your friends and admirers," said Dumbledore, beaming. "What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is not a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows. I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a toilet seat. No doubt they thought it would amuse you. Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic, and confiscated it." "How long have I been in here?" "Three days. Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Granger will be most relieved you have come round, they have been extremely worried." "But sir, the Stone" Harry asked again since he didn''t have the stone in his hands anymore. "I see you are not to be distracted. Very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. You and Mr. Black here did very well on your own, I must say." "I was useless." Harry said as he looked at Draco again, "Is he okay?" "Exhaustion of magic and a sprained ankle, all fixed, he should wake up any moment now." Dumbledore said looking at Draco who was listening to their conversation silently. Draco was slightly worried when the conversation for the stone came up but when he heard Dumbledore he couldn''t help but feel a slight shiver down his spine, Draco realized that he was already caught. "So you got there? You got Hermione''s owl?" Harry asked "I arrived in time, at Hogwarts, when Miss Greengrass and Miss Granger came searching for me." Dumbledore said. "Sir?" said Harry. "I''ve been thinking... sir -- even if the Stone''s gone, Vol-, I mean, You-Know- Who -" "Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself." "But his name is enchanted isn''t it?" Harry asked "It is, but inside of Hogwarts you don''t have to fear it." Dumbledore said wisely. "Yes, sir. Well, Voldemort''s going to try other ways of coming back, isn''t he? I mean, he hasn''t gone, has he?" "No, Harry, he has not. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share... not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He left Quirrell to die; he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his enemies. Nevertheless, Harry, while you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time -- and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power." Harry nodded, but stopped quickly, because it made his head hurt. Then he said, "Sir, there are some other things I''d like to know if you can tell me... things I want to know the truth about...." "The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should, therefore, be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you''ll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie." "Well... Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?" Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time. "Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today. Not now. You will know, one day... put it from your mind, for now, Harry. When you are older... I know you hate to hear this... when you are ready, you will know." And Harry knew it would be no good to argue. "But why couldn''t Quirrell touch me?" Harry asked another question he was curious about. "Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn''t realize that love as powerful as your mother''s for you, leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good." Draco couldn''t help but snicker at this as he slowly stood up. "Anything wrong, Mr. Black?" Dumbledore asked, "Nothing really it''s just the way you put things." Draco said looking at Harry, "It was a spell not love." "What?" Harry was in confusion. "Mr. Black can you explain your meaning of love." Dumbledore asked looking at Draco not getting angry. "You can call me Draco." He said, "And as for love... I don''t know. It has different meaning but since we are talking in relation to magic then I believe love acts as a stopper in certain ways. Especially in dark arts, considering people lose their ability to love when they fall under dark arts but the same love could stop them from losing their basic sanity. So you could say love can make you stronger but in the same way, it will make you weak." Harry was listening carefully while Dumbledore nodded a little. "Weak?" He asked "Yes, love leaves you with vulnerability and using it to train magic is a slow and tedious process but it has its strong point as well, such as allies and people you can trust, so even if you are weak you will be strong like that muggle saying, A single twig breaks but the bundle of twigs are strong." "Well said." Dumbledore nodded with a slight smile on his face, "If only a couple more wizards learn it, the world would be a better place." "Don''t get me wrong I still prefer individual strength though," Draco said, "You can''t always rely on everyone," Draco said all these things in purpose to wake Harry from his state of bliss, since with him here now a lot of things have changed like Hermione, so he can''t have Harry dying on the way without being killed by Voldemort first, hope this gives him a wake-up call. Dumbledore looked at him deeply as he sighed. "Draco, after you get the permission to leave, could you please visit me in my office." Draco nodded, he knew that it must be about the stone, facing Dumbledore about this has always been a concern for Draco since he can''t just take it away without him knowing. He knew sooner or later he would have to face Dumbledore so he wasn''t too scared about it, worst case scenario he can just take it and hide it in his house back at 12 Grimmauld place. "I don''t know where your office is?" "You can ask Professor Snape about it," Dumbledore said, "I heard he wanted to have a little chat with you." Draco face turned sour thinking about it for some reasons. 65 Birthday "There''s something else..." Harry said suddenly remembering something. "Fire away." "Quirrell said Snape --" "Professor Snape, Harry." "Yes, him -- Quirrell said he hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?" "Well, they did rather detest each other. Like Mr. Weasley and Draco here. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive." "What?" "He saved his life." "What?" "Yes..." said Dumbledore dreamily. "Funny, the way people''s minds work, isn''t it? Professor Snape couldn''t bear being in your father''s debt... I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father''s memory in peace..." ''If only you knew...'' Draco thought to himself. Harry tried to understand this but it made his head pound, so he stopped. "And sir, there''s one more thing..." "Just the one?" "The invisibility cloak - do you know who sent it to me?" Harry asked but soon after he did he looked at Draco. "It''s not that rare, you can always buy one." Draco sneered looking away. He was kinda irritated by Harry''s gaze which looked as if he would steal it at any moment. Harry sighed in relief as he looked back at Dumbledore. "Ah - your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it." Dumbledore''s eyes twinkled. "Useful things... your father used it mainly for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here." "And sir, there''s one more thing..." Harry said again awkwardly. Dumbledore smiled and nodded signaling Harry to go on. "How did I get the Stone out of the mirror?" "Ah, now, I''m glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between the three of us, that''s saying something. You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone -- find it, but not use it -- would be able to get it, otherwise, they''d just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life. My brain surprises even me sometimes... Now, enough questions the stone''s safe for now and I suggest you two, to make a start on these sweets. Ah! Bettie Bott''s Every Flavor Beans! I was unfortunate enough in my youth to come across a vomit-flavored one, and since then I''m afraid I''ve rather lost my liking for them -- but I think I''ll be safe with a nice toffee, don''t you?" He smiled and popped the golden-brown bean into his mouth. Then he choked and said, "Alas! Ear wax!" Draco laughed on the side, "I think you could use this," he said taking his wand, which was on the top of his table as he pointed at the candies, "Separatum" As the spell hit the cover some of the candies jumped out the tray and only a few remained. "Only the sweet ones are there." Draco said putting his wand back. "Wonderful spell!" Dumbledore complimented looking at Draco curiously, "Don''t look at me like that." Draco said rolling his eyes, "Let''s just say I got a vomit-flavored one as well." Dumbledore nodded, creating a new spell at his age was a marvelous feat even though it was a simple charm, which was seemingly made by combining two existing charms, nonetheless, it was very fascinating. "I need to learn this spell as well." He said taking out a bean again, "Coffee flavored" he smiled walking away. After Dumbledore walked out, Harry turned to Draco, "Thanks." he said. Draco raised an eyebrow, "No need, l wouldn''t have done it, if there wasn''t any profit for me." Harry sat there silently, thinking Draco was pretending to annoy him but he would be shocked if he really knew the truth. Back then, Draco was struggling whether to let Quirrell who was half Voldemort kill Harry since it could have done the job and a Horcrux would disappear but when Voldemort called him out he changed his plans since if Quirrell killing Harry didn''t work, there would be a lot of other inconveniences in the future so he changed his plans the last second and turned against Quirrell instead. "What did you mean when you said Magic?" Harry asked after a while, the awkwardness was killing him. "I don''t know." Draco replied, "It''s probably a rare magic that will let someone protect the other person and seeing the strength of the spell, the user sacrificed a lot in your case your mother..." "Sacrificed herself." Harry said completing his sentence with a sad voice. Draco didn''t have memories of his mother back in his original world but in this world, if something were to happen to Narcissa, Draco would surely lose it, so from a mature perspective of things, he could understand a little of what Harry was feeling. A couple of moments later they could hear some familiar voices outside the hospital. "Just five minutes," They heard. "Absolutely not." "You let Professor Dumbledore in..." "Well, of course, that was the headmaster, quite different. They need rest." "Professor Snape said he woke up. Oh, come on, Madam Pomfrey..." "Oh, very well," she said sighing. "But five minutes only." And she finally let them in, Theodore, Daphne, Pansy, Ron, and Hermione came rushing in."Draco!" Hermione and Daphne fling their arms around Draco, jumping into his bed. Draco was quite awkward as he didn''t know what to do but after a while, a cough from Pansy came making the two hurriedly get off the bed, blushing deeply. Daphne looked out the window and Hermione went to check on Harry. "Seems like you were quite busy." Pansy said with a strict tone coming in front of Draco as she punched his arm hard. "Ow!" Draco started rubbing his arm in pain, "You know my body is still sore, right?" "Hmph! you deserved it." She said with an annoyed look but her voice and actions said otherwise as she touched his arms feeling a bit guilty as she hugged him tightly, "Stupid! Idiot! Who do you think you are?" The soft blissful hug was turning into a death hug as she was holding him too tight. "I can''t breathe." Draco gasped. Pansy finally let him go and looked at him still pissed. "Why does your punishment seem so amazing?" Theodore said coming towards him, "Do you need a hug?" He smirked, "Piss off." Draco said rolling his eyes. "So this is what was going on huh?" Theodore said, "I hope the day you trust me comes soon since I am losing patience, you know." "I know." Draco sighed. "I just didn''t think it would be that dangerous and I trust you, I really do but if you had worked on your spell more, you could have tagged along." "Che, annoying." Theodore clicked his tongue, "It worked out well for you, as I can see, by the way, you got the stuff?" he asked looking at him with hope in his eyes. "Maybe." Draco said vaguely. On the other side, Ron and Hermione were talking to Harry, "The whole school''s talking about it," said Ron. "What really happened?" It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors. Harry looked at Draco wondering if he was okay with him telling it to everyone. "They have the right to know." Draco said looking at Pansy, Daphne, and Theodore. Harry nodded and slowly told them everything: Quirrell; the mirror; the Stone; and Voldemort. Ron, Pansy, Daphne, and Hermione were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places, and when Harry told them what was under Quirrell''s turban, The girls screamed out loud. ''Now that I think about it, this is more like a horror story.'' Draco thought to himself. "So the Stone''s gone?" said Ron finally. "I don''t know." Harry replied, "Dumbledore just said that it was safe." Theodore looked at Draco who winked in return signaling him to keep quiet for now. "So he is really alive." Daphne shivered, "Don''t worry." Draco said with a determined tone, "As long as I am here, I won''t allow Voldemort to harm anyone close to me." He was really frustrated to the point of exhaustion, about his mistakes, goals and what to do next. This year was really useful to Draco as it helped him learn new things, his weakness and vulnerability. With a strong new ambition, he was ready to fight everything and everyone, for his goals. Pansy caught his hands, distracting Draco''s train of thoughts. He looked at her, "What?" "Here." She said dropping a gift in his hand, "Happy Birthday!" "What?" Draco was still confused when Theodore, Daphne, and Hermione gave him gifts as well. "You forgot didn''t you?" Daphne laughed. ''Oh! Now that I think about it, all that happened at the night of my birthday.'' "You were acting super shady so we sent Daphne to check on what happened and keep you out for a while since we wanted to surprise you but you never came back." Pansy said with a quivering voice. "Two hours later we came to find that you had done something stupid again and were in the hospital bed, fainted." Pansy couldn''t help it anymore and started crying, "I was so afraid." Draco sighed as he hugged her tightly, "I am sorry." Everyone was silent and they could only hear Pansy''s sobbing. 66 Insecurities. After a while, Pansy finally calmed down and stared at Draco. "You really are an idiot." "I know," Draco said smiling a little. "By the way, do my parent''s know about it?" "No." Theodore said handing out a letter, "Pansy wanted to send a letter but this came back, so I stopped her." Draco curiously opened the letter, which read. Dear Draco, I want to tell you that your mother has successfully delivered the babies. One of is a healthy strong boy and the other one is a beautiful girl, they look very similar to you. Both your mother and babies are okay and are in good health. We have named them, Proteus and Stella. Surprisingly, maybe due to fate, both of them are born on the same day as you. Your mother is really happy about this and so am I. Also Happy Birthday! You will get your presents when you come back home. So I hope you come back home soon. Take care. Your Father, Lucius Malfoy. Draco folded the letter back sighing. "Congratulations!" Hermione, Daphne, Pansy, and Theodore said. "Thanks!" Draco smiled. Ron and Harry who had no idea looked at each other as they shrugged their shoulders in confusion. "By the way, why aren''t you hospitalized, Weasley?" Theodore snickered, "Or like Draco do your friends think of you as a burden." "You.." Ron gritted his teeth but remembering what happened he couldn''t help but feel ashamed. "Okay, stop acting like that." Draco sighed, "Next time, I will tell you." "You need to tell us too." Daphne and Pansy said at the same time. "If you are strong enough." Draco said smiling, "I hope you can pass the exam first." "Don''t talk about it." Daphne said since she wasn''t that good at studying. "So what happened to you two?" asked Harry. "Well, we got back all right," replied Hermione. "Me and Daphne went round -- the mess you made at the chess floor was too much -- so that took a while -- and we were dashing up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall -- he already knew -- he just said, ''Harry''s gone after him, hasn''t he?'' and hurtled off to the third floor." "D''you think he meant you to do it?" said Ron and Theodore together. Both of them looked awkwardly at each other and turned away as Ron continued "Sending you your father''s cloak and everything?" "Well, " Hermione exploded, "if he did -- I mean to say that''s terrible -- you could have been killed." Pansy looked very angry as well. "No, it isn''t," said Harry thoughtfully. "He''s a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give us a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don''t think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It''s almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could...." "Yeah, Dumbledore''s off his rocker, all right," said Ron proudly. "Listen, you''ve got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow. The points are all in and Ravenclaw won," Ron said, his face turning sour "-- you missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrollered by Ravenclaw without you -- but at least the food will be good." Draco looked at Theodore who shrugged his shoulders, "They beat us by 50." At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over. "You''ve had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT!!" she said firmly. ------------------------------------------ Next day they were sleeping when Madam Pomfrey walked in. "Professor Dumbledore says you two are to be allowed to go," she said stiffly, as though in her opinion Professor Dumbledore didn''t realize how risky feasts could be. "And you have another visitor." "Oh, good," said Harry. "Who is it?" Hagrid sidled through the door as he spoke. As usual, when he was indoors, Hagrid looked too big to be allowed. He sat down next to Harry, took one look at him, and burst into tears. "It''s -- all -- my -- ruddy -- fault!" he sobbed, his face in his hands. I told the evil git how ter get past Fluffy! I told him! It was the only thing he didn''t know, an'' I told him! Yeh could''ve died! All fer a dragon egg! I''ll never drink again! I should be chucked out an'' made ter live as a Muggle!" "Hagrid!" said Harry, shocked to see Hagrid shaking with grief and remorse, great tears leaking down into his beard. "Hagrid, he''d have found out somehow, this is Voldemort we''re talking about, he''d have found out even if you hadn''t told him." "Yeh could''ve died! Draco could''ve died" sobbed Hagrid looking at the sleeping Draco. "An'' don'' say the name!" "VOLDEMORT!" Harry bellowed, and Hagrid was so shocked, he stopped crying. "I''ve met him and I''m calling him by his name. Please cheer up, Hagrid, we saved the Stone, it''s gone, he can''t use it. Have a Chocolate Frog, I''ve got loads...." Hagrid wiped his nose on the back of his hand and said, "That reminds me. I''ve got yeh a present." "It''s not a stoat sandwich, is it?" said Harry anxiously, and at last Hagrid gave a weak chuckle. "Nah. Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it. ''Course, he shoulda sacked me instead -- anyway, got yeh this..." It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Harry opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father. "Sent owls off ter all yer parents'' old school friends, askin'' fer photos... knew yeh didn'' have any... d''yeh like it?" Harry couldn''t speak, but Hagrid understood. Draco had already woken up by Hagrid''s voice but he just pretended to be asleep. Hagrid came over to his bed and put something on his table. "Tell him, I''had come to visit will yeh!" After Hagrid went out, Draco slowly opened his eyes, he looked at the huge cookie on his table. Harry went out towards the Gryffindor common room saying bye to Draco while Draco went straight to Professor Snape. The relation between both of them was awkward and weird, they weren''t exactly friends but weren''t enemies either, it was a weird relation nonetheless. ----------------------------- "What were you thinking?" Snape snapped at Draco. "You could''ve idiotically died." "I am fine." Draco said but suddenly Snape jumped in front of him holding his arms tightly, "Is it because of that Muggle- Granger." Snape said glaring at Draco. "No--" "Forget about her." Snape said strictly, "Just because you became a Black do you think you can change everything?" "I--" Draco wanted to explain but Snape wouldn''t let him. "Don''t try to hide your intentions, I have been watching you this whole year." Snape said with a variety of expressions on his face, "She is Gryffindor and you are in Slytherin. You two aren''t meant to be together and no matter how hard you try it never will. Today she is your friend but tomorrow she will leave because that''s how it is meant to be. What will you do then? Wait? Sob?" Draco had enough as he pushed Snape''s arm away, "First of all I went there due to Quirrell and second don''t try to throw your insecurities onto me. I will do what I want, even if you torture me to death I will not change my views on things just because someone said so. So stop this Godfather." Snape stayed silent for a while as he turned back and gave Draco a paper. "Go to the principal''s office." Draco took the paper and turned around opening the door, "I don''t know what happened to you but I hope you can see a new light Godfather." he said closing the door. 67 Deal. Draco arrived in front of the Headmaster''s office, which was in a separate tower like the Gryffindor and Slytherin common room. The tower is guarded by a large and ugly stone gargoyle. Draco walked up to the Gargoyle and repeated the password written on the paper. "Sherbet Lemon." The gargoyle leapt aside, revealing a slowly ascending circular staircase. Draco climbed the stairs, where he found an oaken double door. He opened the door and walked inside, the headmaster''s office itself is a large circular room with many windows and many portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, who were pretending to be asleep, snoozing gently and a large portrait of Dumbledore hanged behind the head''s desk, from what Draco knew, the portrait of the immediate predecessor of the current headmaster or headmistress will always be the largest of the paintings in the room, and the paintings shrinks by some degree once it is no longer the portrait of the immediate predecessor of the current headmaster or headmistress. One thing was certain: of all the teachers'' offices Draco had visited so far this year, Dumbledore''s was by far the most interesting... It was a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. There was also an enormous, claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby, tainted wizard''s hat ¡ª the Sorting Hat. Draco walked up to the Hat who looked at him in a similar way. "Missing the sword?" Draco asked jokingly. "No, it was a bother to carry anyway." The hat replied, "I am surprised as to why the sword wants to keep following you but since it wants to, I can''t do anything about it but you ought to know one thing." "What''s that?" "The sword will come back to me when a true Griffindor''s summons it." The hat said, "I thought you ought to know." Draco was surprised by this information, "Do other people know?" "Only you and me." The hat said, "I am not allowed to do otherwise." Draco nodded and walked away looking at the Fawkes, the beautiful Pheonix who was looking at him curiously as well. "Beautiful, isn''t he?" Dumbledore came down from the set of stairs in front. "His name is Fawkes." "Yes." Draco replied, "And your collections of books are really interesting." "Oh if you want to, you can come read it at any time you want." Dumbledore said kindly, "But be sure to return it to me in time." Draco just nodded and stayed silent. "Oh! Take a seat and make yourself comfortable, will you?" Dumbledore said sitting on his chair. "Do you want some tea?" "No, Thank you." Draco said sitting on the chair face to face with Dumbledore, "Let''s get straight to the point shall we?" "Let''s do so." Dumbledore nodded. Draco took out a pouch from his robe and took out the Philosopher''s stone and put it on the table. "It''s really an interesting thing, isn''t it?" Dumbledore said just looking at the stone and not taking it. "Why?" Draco asked confused. "Why?" Dumbledore asked him instead, "You could have taken the stone from me when I fainted or even now... but your actions suggest otherwise," Draco said looking at Dumbledore in doubt wondering what game he was playing. "I could have, but I wanted to see what you would do?" Dumbledore said, "And I am surprised nonetheless seeing you give it to me without any hassle." "It''s not mine, to begin with." Draco said, "I do want it though." "I wonder what will you do with it?" Dumbledore asked, "To one as young as you, I''m sure it seems incredible. You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human being would choose above all -- the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them. So I am curious of what you want?" "I want to experiment on it." Draco said truthfully, "I don''t care much about money and as for immortality, I have seen pictures of Mr. Flamel before and no offense but he looks like he''s barely hanging on, like a corpse with life in it. The body''s rotting away but the soul isn''t willing to leave due to the Elixir of life. Unless it can provide me immortality without consequences, I am not willing to take it." Dumbledore was looking at Draco carefully while he continued, "I have several theories about the stone you see, with so much ma-- I mean power inside it, it sure is to have a lot of other uses. I want to try all that and find the truth about it." Draco said with his eye''s shining brightly. "You want to try it all." "Yes." Draco nodded. "Let''s make a deal, shall we?" Dumbledore said suddenly surprising Draco. "What do you want?" "You can have the stone while I have a request of my own." Dumbledore said. "But you aren''t the owner of the stone." Draco said, "Can you make the decision?" "I have asked Nicholas and he agreed, at first he wanted to destroy it but later on he finally agreed." Dumbledore said, "But you have to make sure to use it properly and not let it fall under dirty hands. Also, he has a request for you to visit him when you have time." Draco narrowed his eyes, "What do you want from me?" he asked again. "Draco, tell me what do you feel about Harry?" "Ignorant, Naive, low self-esteem and incredibly dependent." Draco quickly listed things about Harry as if he had read all the things the night before, even Dumbledore was surprised, "I am good at reading people." Draco said awkwardly as he himself didn''t expect to say all those things. "*Cough* You seem to know him well." Dumbledore said, "So I hope you can listen to this one request of mine." "To win the house cup?" Draco asked curiously. Dumbledore in surprise nodded, "How did you guess?" "Well, at the end of the year there can''t be anything else." Draco said, "And with all the commotion I thought you wanted to take this as an advantage." "Good deduction." Dumbledore nodded, "Yes, I want to offer house points to Gryffindor so they can win this year." "To boost Harry''s confidence?" Draco asked, "But unless you gave him 150 points he wouldn''t be able to win." "I plan to do so with Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, and Longbottom as well," Dumbledore replied. "But aren''t I getting the bad end of the bargain?" Draco said, "The way you put it, I have the permission of Nicholas Flamel the owner himself and you are just the mediator aren''t you, so taking that much as a commission would be a bit unfair to me." Dumbledore instead of getting angry, smiled and said, "What do you want? As long as it''s nothing extensive I can give it to you." "First, give Daphne the house point as well." Draco said, "At least I want to be second. For that, you can give her all the credit as I don''t want any part of it" "Done." "Second, can I get some phoenix tears." Draco said looking at Fawkes, "Not much but a little will be okay." Draco said. Dumbledore thought for a while and nodded. "You really know how to drain someone dry" "Third, the dog." Draco said, "I am pretty sure you will release it in the wild or sell it somewhere else, so why not give it to me?" "I heard you really like animals," Dumbledore said implying something but Draco didn''t let that faze him, "Fine, I will try to convince Hagrid but that''s all I can do." "The snitch..." Draco said glaring at Dumbledore who was still unfazed and looked calm, "You are one of the brightest students I have seen at Hogwarts." Dumbledore said, "I will try my best, So I guess we are even now, aren''t we?" Draco rolled his eyes, "How about some Pheonix ashes? I can pay for it if you want. Consider it extra." "No need, I will give it to you for free but you will owe me a favor in the future," Dumbledore said smiling. "How about it?" "As long as it''s not anything extensive," Draco repeated Dumbledore'' line. Dumbledore nodded, "Time will tell." "Can I ask you something?" Draco said, "Why go through all this trouble when you could directly call the shots at the feast tonight." "Well if I do so, Professor Snape would be very angry and the other students are very hard to handle themselves, and since I am a Headmaster I need to be fair to all students," Dumbledore said. "Even if you have to use tricks?" Draco snickered. "Yes, even if I have to use tricks." Dumbledore replied, "And the other reason is that you remind me of someone." "Oh, really?" Draco said, "Can I ask who?" "An old friend of mine," Dumbledore replied looking as if he was reminiscing things. 68 Second. Draco went back to the common room with a lot of things in his hands. Surprisingly Dumbledore prepared all the things within seconds and gave it to him. Now he carried a philosopher''s stone with him, Pheonix tears and ashes as wells a quill made from one of its feathers, which Dumbledore gave him as a gift for his birthday. As for the dog which goes by the name of Fluffy, Dumbledore promised to give it to him, when the school ended. As suspected Dumbledore knew about his suitcase but didn''t say anything other than, "You can carry it with you, can''t you?" Draco sighed in relief since the other person didn''t ask anything else. He put all of his stuff inside the suitcase and went outside for today''s feast. Outside the common room, Theodore, Pansy, and Daphne were waiting for him. "Let''s go." He said smiling. The other''s nodded and started moving along, "So the stone?" Theodore asked "In the name of Merlin, will you calm down." Draco whispered, "And yes I have it." "Great!" Theodore''s eye''s lit up. "So when are we going to start?" "When we have the chance," Draco said ignoring Theodore completely. They made their way down to the end-of-year feast alone that night, walking the empty corridors. The Great Hall was already full. It was decked out in the Ravenclaw colors of blue and bronze to celebrate Ravenclaw''s winning the house cup for the first time in six years, finally beating Slytherin. A huge banner showing the Ravenclaw''s eagle covered the wall behind the High Table. When they walked in there was a sudden hush, and then everybody started talking loudly at once. They slipped into a free seat emptied by the other students at the Slytherins table. Draco tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at him. He looked at Hermione and Harry who were looking at him as well. He nodded in greeting and turned around. Fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away. "Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man''s wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully, your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts..." "Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twenty-two points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Slytherin has four hundred and twenty-one and Ravenclaw, four hundred and seventy-three" A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Ravenclaw table. They could see Cho and the other Ravenclaw students banging their goblets on the table. It was slightly a sickening sight. This is the moment where Draco realized that chasing after profit and avoiding dangers doesn''t only make you intelligent but it makes you slightly evil as well. "Yes, Yes, well done, Ravenclaw," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account." The room went very still. The Ravenclaw''s smiles faded a little. "Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes... Theodore looked at Draco who smiled in return. Theodore had a bad feeling about this. "First -- to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." Hermione buried her face in her arms; Draco strongly suspected she had burst into tears. Gryffindors up and down the table were beside themselves -- they were a fifty points up. From the Slytherin table only Draco clapped and after a while, Theodore, Pansy, and Daphne joined in as well. "Second -- to Mr. Harry Potter..." said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. "For pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points." The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had four hundred and thirty-two points. They took the second place. Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent. "There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I, therefore, award twenty-five points each to Mr. Neville Longbottom and to Mr. Ronald Weasley." Ron went purple in the face; he looked like a radish with a bad sunburn. Gryffindor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Percy could be heard telling the other prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother!" But Harry and Ron couldn''t rejoice completely yet since they knew that Daphne and Draco were sure to get some house points as well and as suspected, Dumbledore again raised his hands up and there was silence once again. "And last but not least-- I want to award 60 points to Ms. Daphne Greengrass for her outstanding performance and bravery." Daphne was shocked as she couldn''t even move, Draco patted her back cheering her up with a smile. The Slytherin table cheered loudly as they could, they had taken the second place and were only one house point away, but slowly people started noticing that Dumbledore had just said the last one but what about Draco. Theodore, Daphne, Pansy, and Hermione noticed it and all of them looked at Draco who was smiling instead of complaining. "Silence." Dumbledore said, "As for Mr. Draco, he has already asked me something else in return so he wouldn''t be getting any House-points." ''That old-geezer.'' Draco thought to himself as he could feel all the Slytherin students and Snape glaring at him. He awkwardly smiled, "Well it was something very important you know, Don''t worry I will make it up next year." Some Slytherin''s, especially the one in their final year were pissed off but they didn''t say anything to him instead just mumbled something between them, while the other Slytherins were looking at Draco weirdy thinking why couldn''t he ask for 2 more points as they could have won the house-cup. "I see... for the stone?" Theodore asked vaguely as Draco nodded in return. All the other students were curious as to what Draco got from the headmaster in exchange for house points. Soon Gryffindor''s got over it and started cheering out loud, someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken place, so loud was the noise that erupted from the Gryffindor table. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood up to yell and cheer as Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Gryffindor before but now he did it. Harry, and Ron cheered for Neville happily as the previous grudge between them had been solved. Worst of all were the Ravenclaw students who were pushed into the third place from the first. "Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, "we need a little change of decoration." He clapped his hands. In an instant, the blue hangings became scarlet and the bronze became gold; the huge Ravenclaw''s Eagle vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall''s hand, with a horrible, forced smile. Draco was sure that Snape was going to annoy him with a lot of questions later on. It was the best evening of Harry''s life, better than winning at Quidditch, or Christmas, or knocking out Quirrell... he would never, ever forget tonight. ---------------------------------------------------- The next day the exam results came out. To Harry''s great surprise, both him and Ron passed with good marks; Hermione and Draco, on the other hand, were still focusing on the bet. Unfortunately for Draco, he had lost to Hermione due to one point as Hermione took the first place and he took the second. Everyone started doubting whether Draco was cursed to always come second by having a point less than the first place. As for the bet, Hermione didn''t have anything in mind right now so she didn''t ask him for anything right away. "I will ask for something when the time comes." Hermione said. Theodore was third and as for Pansy and Daphne, let''s just say both of them passed their exams neatly. Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his Potions which wasn''t that bad. He thanked Draco a lot for giving him the notes nearly crying. Draco barely managed to escape from Neville who kept following him. Goyle and Crabbe, on the other hand, failed their exams. Draco went towards them to have a little talk with them but they quickly ran-off saying, "We are going to change school next year anyway, so it doesn''t really matter that much." ------------------------------------------------------ Thought I could finish it in this chapter but it turned out a bit long so wait for the last one. 69 Vows. Snape called Draco to the office where he had to explain everything to him. Even though he was always moody, Draco knew that he could trust Snape so he bought Theodore with him. "Care to explain?" Snape asked not even looking at Theodore. "I can but I need you to make an unbreakable vow with me first," Draco said. Snape looked at him for a while raising his eyebrow as Draco continued, "If it was something stupid, I wouldn''t ask you to do it." Snape nodded as he came forward. The Unbreakable Vow is a type of binding magical contract casted between two parties kneeling or standing opposite each other and clasping each other''s right hands. A third party must hold their wand, standing quite close to the pair holding hands, and place the tip of their wand onto the linked hands, acting as the witness. Then, the first will ask a certain number of vows of the other, whereupon each time the second accepts a term, a thin stream of fire will be emitted from the witness''s wand, weaving around the hands of the pair taking the vows. Upon the vow being completed, should the one who accepted the terms break any of them, they die. Snape and Draco clasped each other right hand as Theodore came forward with his wand. "Do you Severus Snape vow to keep the information of what Draco Black''s about to tell you a secret." Snape looked deeply at Draco for a while as he said, "I do." "Do you Severus Snape and Draco Black vow to not break the trust between you two." Draco and Snape both replied at the same time. "I do." A thin line of fire surrounded both their hands as it slowly disappeared. "It better be good or else I will use you as my next potion ingredient," Snape said sneering. After making an unbreakable vow between them, Draco shared the information about the philosopher stone and like expected Snape was very interested in it. "I am amazed how you managed to get it," Snape said looking at the stone in his hands. "Nicholas Flamel supposedly agreed to give it to me." Draco said shrugging his shoulders. Snape decided to join in the fun as both of them agreed to start experiments with it starting next year. As they got out of Snape''s office, Theodore looked at Draco. "Don''t you want to sign a deal with me?" He asked. "No, I have got something else in mind for us," Draco said handing out a book to Theodore. Theodore quickly started reading it and after an hour finally finished it. "Are you sure?" He asked. "Blood pacts are more severe than the unbreakable vow." "Didn''t you wanted my trust badly?" Draco said. "I am giving it to you." Theodore thought for a while and nodded. Since they were alone in their room no one was here to disturb them. Both Draco and Theodore made a small cut in their hands with their wands and interlaced them. As they made their oath of never betraying each other and chanted the required mantra. Soon the two glowing drops of blood raised from their palms and mingled into one. A phial started to shape around it, enclosing the drop, signifying that the deal was struck. Draco caught the phial in his hands as both of them looked at it. "So who''s going to keep it?" he asked. "I don''t know." Theodore said shrugging his shoulders, "Does it even matter since its unbreakable." Draco shrugged his shoulders, "Then I will keep it my case for now." Draco felt a bit open for the first time like a burden had been lifted off from his shoulders, now he could discuss plans and start sharing some secrets freely now with Theodore as he had finally gained a true ally. (Is it a bit gay??) -------------------------------------------------- Fluffy, on the other hand, was another troublesome thing. First was to convince Hagrid and thankfully Dumbledore managed to do it. The second was to keep the dog itself inside the suitcase, Draco was running around the ground with the Fluffy chasing him wildly. Draco had a ball in his hand given to him by none other than Hagrid. After they managed to convince Hagrid, Dumbledore sent him to the edge of the forest to capture it in secret and now the Fluffy was chasing behind him wildly. "You ready?" Draco called out to Theodore who was sitting there with the suitcase in his hands, wide open. "What the hell did I get myself into?" Theodore mumbled to himself. "Go, boy!" Draco said throwing the ball inside the suitcase and soon Fluffy dived inside the suitcase as Theodore closed it quickly. "What the hell?" Theodore complained. "We need to go in." Draco panted, "But after a while." "How did you managed to keep him calm?" Theodore said scared of the dog. "No, the real question is, have you gone crazy? I am cool with the Murtlap and even the unicorn but this thing, what are you going to do with it." "I want it to protect the phial and the stone when we aren''t using it and many other things in case someone manages to break into my suitcase and it may be useful in some other way, you never know." "How are you going to control it?" "Fluffy is thankfully trained to follow orders," Draco said magically taking out a bright yellow ball which made a weird sound when squeaked, "The sound keeps him in check, so he won''t attack anyone who is holding the ball making the sound and follow its orders to a certain extent." "Great weakness," Theodore said sarcastically. "Well, it''s not every day that you run into a man with yellow balls which makes the same sound." Draco said. After a couple of minutes, both of them went inside the suitcase and tied up Fluffy to a chain in a very open space, outside a small house which holds a couple of Draco''s precious things. Fluffy had enough space to move around but not to the point where he could escape. ---------------------------- Soon all, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, Neville''s toad was found lurking in a corner of the toilets; notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays "I always hope they''ll forget to give us these," said Fred Weasley sadly. Hagrid was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Bettie Bott''s Every Flavor Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling off their wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats; pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King''s Cross Station. It took quite a while for them all to get off the platform. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn''t attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles. "So do you still have the plan for Romania?" Pansy asked. "I don''t know." Draco said, "I will let you guys know if I have one." "Do you plan to?" Theodore asked worried, after finding of Draco''s new hobby of collecting animals he was really scared that he was going to collect Dragon''s as well. "I do plan too." Nodded Draco seriously nearly making Theodore faint. "What are you two talking about?" Daphne said. "Nothing really," Draco said, Pansy knew about the suitcase but it had been a long time since she had really entered it, Since it wasn''t really important, she didn''t put much thought into it. After school started, Draco didn''t spend much time inside it so she couldn''t care about the suitcase. As for Daphne, well she didn''t know about the suitcase that much but had suspected something since he only carried the small suitcase with him every time. "Bye, Draco!" "See you, Nott!" All of them said goodbyes to each other as they got out of the gateway together. Suddenly they heard a voice, "There he is, Mom, there he is, look!" It was Ginny Weasley, Ron''s younger sister, but she was pointing at Harry. "Harry Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see him." Draco and Theodore looked at each other, "Why is Weasley''s sister kinda... cute?" Theodore said weirdly, "I don''t know." Draco said not really realizing that Ginny would be so cute, she was by far the most beautiful girl he had seen in school and that''s saying something. "Why can''t I have a fangirl like that?" Theodore whispered, "Now even Potter has one and a pretty one at that." "Hey! Mom isn''t that Draco Black." Ginny suddenly said making both Theodore and Draco cough awkwardly. Unlike Harry''s excitement, she was looking at Draco with a mixture of emotions, maybe fear mixed with a bit of hatred and a slight bit of fangirl. "Finding a fangirl for a dark lord is hard." Theodore said patting his shoulders. "Che, your situation is worse than mine." Draco said, "Piss off." "Be quiet, Ginny, and it''s rude to point." Mrs. Weasley smiled down at them. Draco awkwardly looked at her and nodded in greeting as she did the same. Then she started conversing with Harry and Ron. "My dad''s here." Theodore said, "Make sure to send me a letter." Draco nodded then a few seconds later, Pansy''s and Daphne''s parent''s walked in and they said their goodbyes and with a hug, they departed. "Your parent''s not arrived yet?" Draco walked up to Hermione and asked. "Yes, and yours too?" Draco nodded, "Make sure to write me some letters and not only about studies." "What kind of letter do you want then?" "Maybe a love letter." Draco joked making Hermione blush. "Idiot don''t say weird things." She said hitting Draco. "Hey I am the next Dark lord, you need to show some respect." Draco grinned. "Hmph! You already have people who show you respect why do you need another one?" "Well, they aren''t as cute as you. Ow-- okay sorry you aren''t cute--- Ow!! what do you want from me?" Draco screamed in pain as Hermione kept pinching him. "Don''t joke around too much." Hermione said letting him go. "Is that the order from the bet?" Draco asked. "Don''t you try to run away from it." Hermione said with a mean face, "If you do, I will not speak to you ever again." "Sigh! Don''t get too sensitive over everything." Draco said pinching Hermione''s nose smiling. He looked around and saw his father getting out of his car as he quickly let go of Hermione as he pulled her into a quick hug. "See you." Draco said running away smiling. Hermione whose parent''s had also arrived saw it and looked at Hermione who was blushing deeply, playing with her hair. ------------------ Volume 1 End!! We ended the first volume on the legendary 69. Next Volume is called new enemy. 70 Escape. I suggest you check the auxillary volume to check where the chapter is going. --------------------------------- Draco had been home for a couple of days now and it was getting quite boring. He spent most of his days taking care of his twin siblings, which wasn''t as fun you would imagine it to be. Thankfully the elves knew a lot of magic tricks to appease them, otherwise, it would have been really a bother. Draco was locked inside his own house, not allowed to go out under any circumstances. Ever since he met his father at the station everything was in lock-down mode. Supposedly some dark-lord supporters rose up and were planning on attacking some wizard community under the banner of his name but luckily the Ministry of Magic, captured them before they could even start the riot, but that didn''t stop some of the people to suspect Draco and try hunt him down. Some wanted to kill him early on whereas some wanted to brainwash him completely. The situation was quite similar to the death threats he received but luckily at the time Draco had managed to not let people, especially his parents find out about it, but this time it was different since the Minister himself alerted Lucius. Due to all that his house was in a complete lock-down mode. Especially the rules for Draco was so strict that he wasn''t even allowed to send letters outside. Narcissa was against such methods but the paranoid Lucius wasn''t listening to anyone. Lucius was wary that Draco might try to escape so he even confiscated his wand and suitcase. Today, Lucius was busy with his wife and children, hosting a party in celebration. Different wizards and colleagues came over and celebrated the birth of the twins while Draco couldn''t even get out of his room. Suddenly the door opened slowly, "Get out, I am not in the mood for anything right now." Draco yelled thinking it was a house-elf who had came to check on him. "Do you really want me to get out?" A familiar voice sounded out as Draco jumped from his bed. He looked around but no one was there. Suddenly he felt a kick in his butt making him jump. "You piece of--" Draco pulled the cloth out of thin air and it was none other than Theodore under an invisibility cloak grinning at him. "What''s up?" he asked "Che-- Nothing much." Draco said throwing the cloak on the floor, "What are you doing here?" "My father was invited and I decided to tag along." Theodore said, "I heard about your situation, and bought a cloak with me. All this time at the party your father kept staring daggers at me, probably suspecting I might do something weird." "Did you bring your wand?" Draco said looking at Theodore in hope. "I did." Theodore waved his wand. "By the way, Pansy and Daphe are downstairs as well. They wanted to meet you but were denied by your father." "I see." Draco nodded, "You are here to get me out right?" "What?" Theodore looked shocked, "I am only here to see you since from what I have heard you are in lockdown till the second year at Hogwarts starts, I thought I will come by and say a bit of farewell." "Stop joking around," Draco said, "I might go crazy here, wasting my time doing nothing. I feel like a prisoner in my own house." "Okay, okay, Calm down, will you." Theodore said, "Do you have a plan?" "I have a place to hide." Draco said, "But first, I need my wand and case." "Who has been feeding those animals?" Theodore asked, "Aren''t they like dead already?" "No, I left enough food to last a month." Draco said shaking his head, "But they sure are lonely, It''s a weird situation where I can''t explain to my parents that I have animals in my suitcase." "Why not?" "Because they think its slightly weird and disgusting." Draco said with an annoyed face, "I hate being a kid." Draco mumbled the last part to himself. "Do you know where the suitcase and your wand is?" Theodore asked after a while. "In the cellar," Draco replied. "Let''s go." "By the way where do you plan to go?" Theodore asked, "When did you get a hiding spot?" "You will know when we get there," Draco said picking up the invisibility cloak and putting it on him and Theodore. Both of them slowly got out of his room and went down the stairs where the party was being held. The whole mansion was decorated beautifully and several people were there in modern wizard suits and dresses. Draco could see Pansy and Daphne taking with each other on the side and Lucius and Narcissa were to busy managing their own guests. Among all these wizards they slowly managed to get out of the room as they headed towards the basement. "Alomohara." Theodore chanted and opened the door, and they quickly went inside it. Draco and Theodore came out of the cloak as they frantically started searching for Draco''s belongings. "Where is it?" Theodore asked. "Found it." Draco said pointing at the chest, "But it''s locked." Theodore came over and chanted, "Alomohara." again but the chest didn''t open. "What kind of spell did your father use to lock this chest?" "Don''t know." Draco said, "I only saw him putting my stuff inside the chest but that''s all-- Give me your wand!" Theodore gave his wand to Draco, "You might wanna back off a little." he said. Theodore in doubt slowly started backing off, as Draco grinned and chanted, "Confringo." A huge explosion sounded out, opening the chest completely. "What in Merlin''s name is wrong with you." Theodore said, with his eyes wide open in shock. ------------------------------------ Up where the party was going on, everyone where busy with their own conversation when they all suddenly heard an explosion. Lucius gritted his teeth, "Draco..." The house elf in charge of Draco came running out, "Master, the young master has disappeared from his room." Narcissa looked worried whereas, Lucius'' face was red and purple in rage. ---------------------------- "I miss this feeling." Draco said throwing the wand back to Theodore and getting hold of case and wand. "What do we do now genius?" Theodore said sarcastically. Draco looked at the closed door, where he was sure his father would enter any second. "I have a plan!" he said. The door was soon opened by Lucius and couple of his friends as they looked around. "Draco I know you are in here, get out!" Lucius said looking around, but to his surprise, there wasn''t anyone, "It''s probably an invisibility cloak." Lucius said taking out his wand but before he could chant any spell, Draco called out. "Father, do doxies bite?" He said opening his suitcase and releasing a group of doxies which he had taken the time to collect before in the forbidden forest. Draco and Theodore quickly ran out locking the door, ignoring Lucius yells. "Draco!" Narcissa called out in a worried tone. Draco went over and kissed his mother on the cheeks and kissed his siblings, "I am going on a little trip, take care." He said rushing out. "But--" "Sorry mother, I will be back before school starts," Draco said escaping among all the wizards and witches who were looking at him carefully. "Draco!" Daphne and Pansy came running behind him and Theodore. "What is it?" Draco asked not stopping at all. "We are coming with you!" Pansy said. "Sorry, Pansy." Draco said turning back, "I don''t want your parents to worry, the same for you Daphne. Go back. I will see you in school." Daphne and Pansy didn''t stop, "DRACO YOU IDIOT!!" both of them yelled as Draco and Theodore jumped into one of the cars. "Do you know where the key is?" Theodore asked, "Hell! Do you know how to drive?" "Don''t worry, I have seen father ride it a couple of times before." Draco said taking out the key from the cabinet. As he turned on the engine. He started driving the car forward. Daphne and Pansy panted looking at the back of the moving car. "DRACO!!" Theodore and Draco, on the other hand, were panicking, "Why isn''t it going up?" Theodore asked,'' "I don''t know." Draco said pushing all the buttons in the car. Theodore closed his eyes as they were about to hit the wall when luckily the car lifted up. Pansy and Daphne who also closed their eyes, afraid that both of them will crash, slowly opened them to find the car floating as it suddenly turned invisible and vanished. Lucius and Narcissa came out to see that they were gone. "What is he thinking?" Lucius said, "Doesn''t he realize, I am doing this for his own good." "Sigh! I told you before, the more you force him to do something the harder he will rebel. Now, look at what you have done." Narcissa said blaming Lucius, "My baby boy, I wonder where he is going?" "Probably to..." Lucius said, "Why can''t I remember?" Narcissa felt that she was forgetting something as well but she didn''t know what was going on. ----------------------------------- 71 Gringotts. Draco who was flying the car tore off the paper with the address to the 12 Grimmauld place and threw it out the window. "Will you be fine?" Draco asked. "What? with you driving the car?" Theodore asked, his voice still shaking. "No, you coming with me." Draco said focusing on the direction they were heading to. "Won''t your father complain." "Not really." Theodore said, "You know how he is, he just doesn''t care. Anyway, where are we going?" "To the black family house." "And where is that?" "Relax, it is enchanted so you don''t know about it." Draco said, "And I have to quickly make a formation and enchant the door." "Door?" Theodore asked confused, "What are you talking about?" "Sigh! Take this-- and just shut up, you don''t want to have a crash landing do you?" Draco said passing a book to Theodore who started reading it. --------------------------------------- "Was that him?" A girl dressed up in a beautiful blue dress asked. "What is it Astoria?" Daphne said in an annoyed tone, "Who was what?" "I was asking if that was Draco Black?" Astoria asked again with excitement on her face. "It''s not her fault Daphne." Pansy said rubbing her forehead, "Yes, that was Draco." Astoria''s eyes opened wide in surprise, "He really was here? Too bad I couldn''t meet him-- I really wanted to thank him for his present." "Hmph! Don''t talk about him, that idiot." Daphne snorted, "How dare he just run off." "And no one knows where they headed off too." Pansy sighed, "I just wish they would be okay." Pansy was very worried for them and Daphne, on the other hand, was way too annoyed. ------------------------------------------ Moments later they reached their destination since it was complete daylight they couldn''t just land where ever they wanted to, so they had to be careful. After Draco started flying over the Grimmauld place the hidden place opened up. Draco took a couple of deep breaths and barely managed to land safely on the roof. Theodore who was immersed in the book looked around after the sudden disturbance. "Are we there?" He asked, "Well, glad you didn''t kill us both." Draco rolled his eyes, both of them got out of the car and looked around. "So this is the place huh?" Theodore said looking around, "So where is the library?" "You can find it if you jump down from here." Draco gave an innocent smile, walking down the stairs. Theodore bickering followed him inside. "Dobby? Kreacher?" Draco called out. Both Dobby and Kreacher came towards him, "You are finally here, master." Both of them greeted. "Clean a room for Theodore here," Draco ordered, "And prepare my room as well." "Yes, Master." Kreacher said running away. "Dobby, prepare some food for me and Theodore, will you." Dobby nodded as well and ran away. "Are you just going to look around?" Draco asked. "It''s an interesting place, so what''s wrong with that," Theodore said. At the dining table, both of them were eating the beef stew that Dobby had made. "So what do you plan to do?" Theodore asked "Romania," Draco said, "We should go there." "You still into the dragon thing?" Theodore said, "Aren''t you getting a bit too excited with collecting all these beasts?" "You can say I am but I am doing this to help them, aren''t I?" Draco said, "Like, the Murtlap would probably die after you destroyed its habitat in that forbidden forest, same for Starlight and as for fluffy, he would be sent back to Greece, so it''s like me helping them and them helping me." "You make it sound so generous." Theodore snickered. "So how are we going to get there? Since you are famous and all, wouldn''t people know about our whereabouts." "I have an idea for it." Draco said taking out a small potion vial and drinking it. "I ordered it from the beauty shop, so it should work." "What is--" Before Theodore could finish the action of the potion had already started taking place, with his platinum-blonde hair turning completely black. Draco also changed his eye color to red. "How about it?" Draco asked smirking. "You look like a vampire." Theodore said nodding, "But with it, it will be difficult to recognize you." "So--" "Even though we can avert attention from other people--we have a new problem in hand-- we will nowbe attracting the attention of some Vampire hunters, which will be more annoying." "Che, you win some, you lose some." Draco said annoyed, "You can''t have everything can you?" Theodore rolled his eyes, "So when are we going and how are we going? Don''t tell me we are flying in that car." Draco shook his head, "It''s too far for driving. We can move to Budapest by an illegal portkey and from there we can get a ride to Romania." "Illegal Portkey?" "Yeah, I have heard my father talk about it, with his friends." Draco said. "It should exist." "But what if it doesn''t?" "I don''t know." Draco said, "We will think about it when the time comes. Now if you will excuse me, I will have to go take care of my animals." ------------------------------------------ "Where could he be?" Lucius said in annoyance banging his fist on the table. "It''s not a safe time for him to be playing around." Narcissa, Pansy, and Daphne who were having a little chat of their own looked towards the group of men discussing Draco and Theodore''s whereabouts. "Let them be." Theodore''s father said waving his hands, "They will go around playing and when they get hurt, they will come back home, learning an important lesson." "It''s not that simple." Lucius shook his head, "Things are getting more complicated, with different riot groups forming." "Pansy, do you know anything?" Pansy''s father asked. Pansy looked at Daphne then back at her father, "I don''t know." she said. "Pansy if you remember anything, please tell us." Mr. Parkinson said, "You don''t want Draco to get hurt, do you?" Pansy and Daphne stared at each other for a while, contemplating what they should do. "Things aren''t as simple as before." Lucius added, "There are literal adult wizards looking for Draco, whether they are dark wizards or someone trying to be a martyr. If they get caught, things would be very difficult to handle." "We did talk about-- going to Romania for the holidays." Daphne said after thinking about it, she was afraid Draco might be killed by those crazy wizards who were full on protesting him. "Yes." Lucius stood up. "Why didn''t I think of that." "What''s in Romania?" Mr. Nott asked. "Something important," Lucius said vaguely. "But that''s not important." "How can two kids reach Romania?" Mr. Parkinson added, "Do they even have enough money?" "Money?-- I know where to look." Lucius said, "Gringotts." ---------------------------------- "Are you sure that you have enough money?" Theodore asked "I do." Draco said walking outside the pub. "I am the head of the Black family remember?" Gringotts is an imposing snow-white multi-storied marble building located partway down Diagon Alley, near its intersection with Knockturn Alley, that towers over the neighboring shops. Draco and Theodore both hidden in robes walked inside Gringotts. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was a goblin. The goblin was quite shorter than them. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. They ignored the goblin waking inside, towards the second pair of doors which was silver, with words engraved upon them: Enter, stranger, but take heed Of what awaits the sin of greed, For those who take, but do not earn, Must pay most dearly in their turn. So if you seek beneath our floors A treasure that was never yours, Thief, you have been warned, beware Of finding more than treasure there. "Arrogant shits." Theodore whispered, "Every time I see these words, I can''t help but feel pissed. Just because they are a bit smarter, do they really think they are different from an house-elf." "Calm down." Draco said, "Do you really want to fight with them?" "Che, one day I will show them how secure this place really is." Theodore clicked his tongue and walked silently. A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Both of them walked towards a free counter. 72 Key "Morning," said Draco to a free goblin. "We''ve come to take some money out of the black family''s safe." "You have the key, Sir?" The goblin asked staring at Draco and Theodore. Draco took out the key and showed it to him. The goblin looked at the key for a while with his cunning eyes. "We need some form of identification, sir." The goblin said, "After the last break-in we have increased our security." Draco took off his hood and looked at the goblin with his red-eyes clearly annoyed by it. "Will this do." Draco showed his black family ring to the goblin who after inspecting for a while nodded, "We apologize for the inconvenience, Mr. Black." "Make it quick," Draco said putting his hood back on. "Very well," he said, handing the ring back to Draco, "I will have someone take you down to the vaults. Griphook!" Griphook was yet another goblin. Draco and Theodore both followed Griphook towards another door. Griphook held the door open for them. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in -- and were off. At first, they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. It went left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, in a confusing manner. The rattling cart was enchanted to know its own way, as Griphook was just sitting in the front not talking or moving at all. Their hoods flung open as the cold air rushed past them, The cart kept moving as they kept passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor. "Hey! Do you really think there is a dragon down there?" Theodore asked. "Could be." Draco said, "With so much money that they have, keeping a few wouldn''t be troublesome at all, the only problem would be keeping it under control." The cart kept moving deeper and deeper, from what Draco knew the Vault was way deeper than the Potter family''s vault but not too deep towards the Lestrange family''s vault, which had one of the Horcrux in it and was actually protected by a dragon. After some time they finally reached the Black family''s vault which was inside an open space. Griphook just stayed outside the room not entering in with them. Theodore was looking around the place with great interest. "I have never been this deep before." he said. Draco too was observing the place carefully since he hadn''t been here before. Draco opened the door with the key which automatically started spinning on its own after it was entered inside the keyhole. The door opened up revealing a room full of gold and silver, shining brightly. From decorative armor to cups, everything was made out of silver and gold. There were a few skeletons and skins of different creature laying around. The further they went inside the interesting the stuff got, with a few black-magical items here and there, there was a hoard of books laying around as well. After looking around for a while, Draco stored some money, the books and some decorative items in his suitcase. "You need to lend me the books," Theodore said as Draco closed the vault. Draco rolled his eyes as they got back in the cart. After a minute of the uphill ride, both of them reached the top again. Griphook bowed to them and started walking away. "Sigh! now that''s done, we will head out to Budapest tomorrow." Draco said stretching as he put his hood back on. Both of them were heading towards the counter when they suddenly heard familiar voices. "I am his father, why am I not allowed in there?" Lucius said angrily. "You don''t have the key and the identification required to head in there." The goblin on the counter said with a firm tone. "Please note that you can''t access the Black family''s vault without the permission of the owner." "Let it go, Lucius." Mr. Nott said, "Let''s have some guards stay over here and capture the two of them if they get out of here." "Sigh! Fine." Lucius said. Draco and Theodore pulled on their robe tightly as they started walking out when suddenly one of Lucius men called out. "Excuse me, you dropped this." Draco and Theodore stopped in their track, they looked back to find Lucius standing there with a book in his hand, looking at them. "You piece of shit!" Draco mumbled looking at Theodore. Theodore shrugged his shoulders guiltily as they walked back towards them. "Thank you!" Draco said in a deep voice taking the book from his hand. Lucius nodded and headed out with the other wizards following him. Draco and Theodore sighed in relief but suddenly Lucius stopped in his track. "Wait a minute, that case." "Shit!" Draco said backing off a little. "Draco?" Lucius called out but he didn''t answer back. "I know it''s you, fun''s over. Let''s head back home." He slowly took out his wand as the other wizards began to surround them. "Do you really think that I won''t recognize my own car outside the pub." Draco not saying anything quickly took out a potion from his pouch and threw it on the ground, causing huge clouds of green smoke to form. "Don''t breath it in." Lucius said quickly using a spell to form an air bubble in his face. Some were too late as they began to drop on the ground but quite a few managed to secure themselves with varieties of spells. In the midst of all this, Draco who was hidden behind all the smoke hurriedly opened his suitcase, "Get in." he said pushing Theodore inside as he quickly jumped inside as well. Soon the smoke cleared up and all that left were the surrounding wizards and goblins who had fainted and only a few of them hiding behind their desks. Lucius and his friends looked at the suitcase on the ground. "It''s over." Mr. Parkinson said walking towards the suitcase. "Be careful, the kid''s full of tricks." Mr. Nott said. Lucius nodded, he knew his son well enough to know that he wouldn''t come back without a fight. All of them slowly approached the suitcase with their wands in front of them. "Is it safe?" A wizard following Lucius asked, getting close to the case. He slowly touched the case, trying to get it open when suddenly the suitcase started shaking and "Boom!" A unicorn came flying through the suitcase with someone on top of him, pushing the wizard away. Everyone hurriedly stepped back as the unicorn raised its front leg in defense. Draco quickly used his wand to pull over the suitcase. "Go, buddy!" Draco said patting Starlight''s neck. Starlight quickly pushed over the wizards in front of him, rushing out of the main gate. Lucius and his friends quickly shot some spells but none of them hit the target since starlight was way too fast for them. They chased them out but before they could reach the outside, the unicorn was nowhere to be seen, the only thing that remained were people with eye''s wide opened signaling where the unicorn ran off to. "Why does your son have a unicorn in his suitcase?" Mr. Nott asked panting a little. "I don''t know," Lucius said putting his wand back inside his robe, gritting his teeth. "I am too old for this." Mr.Nott said disapparating out of there., "Let them go, I am not following them again." Lucius and the wizards looked around, "Follow the path." Lucius said, "It''s a unicorn, people will notice it regardless of what they do." Draco started running around in different directions, frightening wizards, and witches here and there. Turning different paths he finally stopped. Draco quickly pushed Starlight into the suitcase and started running away. Lucius and the others who apparated here and there searching for him couldn''t pinpoint the exact location. After running and hiding for a while, Draco managed to get out of the pub as he quickly hopped on a Muggle Bus. 73 Charles. "Are you sure this is the way?" Theodore asked. "Shut up or I will stick your wand up your ass." Draco said getting annoyed, "This is the 58th time, that you have asked me that question." "But we have been flying for hours now." Theodore mumbled, "There''s nothing but grasses here, its been 4 hours since we last saw another person." "Che, why don''t you-- wait what is that?" Draco said pointing at the person below. "What is what?" Theodore looked down, "Probably a muggle, we should fly a bit higher." "We are literally in the middle of nowhere." Draco said, "Do you think a muggle would be just standing there." "Maybe it''s the port guy." Theodore said shrugging his shoulders, "Let''s land." Both of them flew down towards the guy who looked old and was wearing rugged clothing, from his reaction he didn''t seem like a muggle as he was just standing there watching them carefully. Theodore looked at Draco and passed his broom to him, "Excuse me are you the one in control of the illegal portkey here?" The man nodded as he pointed at the bowl on the ground. Draco put both his and Theodore''s broom inside his suitcase and walked over, "It is to Budapest, right?" The man nodded again. "So how much?" Draco asked taking out his pouch. The man pointed 3 fingers out. "3 galleons?" The man shook his head again, "30 galleons?" The man nodded pointing at Theodore. "So 30 Galleon for me?" Theodore said guessing, "Then what about him?" The man pointed all 10 fingers, "Are you trying to loot us?" Draco said angrily, "Why 30 galleons for him and a 100 for me?" The man didn''t say anything and just stayed there silently. "Don''t be so petty?" Theodore said grinning, "You are a rich man." "Che, just because I am rich doesn''t mean I have to spend lavishly on stupid things." Draco complained throwing a small pouch filled with coins to the man, "130 galleons." The man weighted the pouch in his hand and put it inside his coat. He then looked back at them signaling them to come forward. Both of them did and grabbed the bowl. "A famous person will be charged more, especially when someone''s out looking for them." The man spoke suddenly. "You can speak, you filth--" Before Draco could finish his sentence, he was sucked into the bowl along with Theodore as they disappeared from there, landing in an alley in the middle of nowhere. "Ouch!" Draco said rubbing his back, "What the hell was he talking about? Are there people really searching for me?" "I don''t know." Theodore said looking around, "Where exactly are we right now?" "Let''s look around, we might find some clue." Draco said. They walked out of the alleyway and looked around. People were running around here and there in wizard attire with no muggle in-sight. "Well, at least we landed in a wizarding community." Theodore said, "You stay here, I will go around and search what''s going on." -------------------------------------------- "What the hell is this?" Narcissa said throwing the newspaper. "Anti-Dark force? Are they really planning on killing my son." "It''s not a killing plan, they want to keep him under observation whenever he is out of Hogwarts." Lucius said sighing, "Some Aurors have come out of the dark to make sure Draco is protected and have joined the organization themselves, the primary goal for them is to lead children like Draco to a better place for the sake of future." "By brainwashing them?" Narcissa sneered, "If you aren''t going to do something then, I will handle the situation myself." "It''s not that simple Narcissa, try to understand." Lucius said, "This kind of stuff it''s not simple since a lot of masses have supported the idea, of course, all the pure-blood families are against this but that stupid Fudge couldn''t handle the public pressure and ended up agreeing to it. Now the organization is already created and they want us to hand over Draco to them for training purposes." "Hmph! Do you think they will train our child to become more strong? It''s a complete plan to harm him and his future." Narcissa snorted. "They are just afraid that another Dark Lord would rise up." "I know." Lucius sighed, "I promise to you that I will handle the situation since us families have more power in the court, so we can shut the organization down but it will take time nonetheless, and besides we aren''t the only to oppose this, even Dumbledore has stood up against it." "Dumbledore?" "Yes, the savior Harry Potter is also one of the targets of the organization and Dumbledore has completely stood against them training Potter. So as long as Dumbledore doesn''t give up Potter we can hide under the banner of Dumbledore." Lucius said, "But the problem is Draco himself, running out alone like that is very dangerous especially in all of Europe." "So what are we going to do?" Narcissa asked anxiously. "Sigh! I will head to Romania today, I have a decent idea of where he is going." ------------------------------------------------- "This is ridiculous." Draco said throwing the paper in his hand. "Well, it can''t be helped." Theodore said shrugging, "As long as you have your hair dyed no one can recognize you at a glance and with your eyes we can surely fool people that you are a vampire. Since Vampires are common in Romania we can surely hide without being noticed." "I am not doubting my disguise." Draco said snorting, "Anti-Dark force? Confine me on my holidays? Are they fucking kidding me-- I will kill whoever fucking came up with this idea." "Well, at least you aren''t alone." Theodore snickered, "At least you have your buddy Harry Potter with you." "Piss off," Draco said looking out the train window. After asking around for a while they managed to get on a wizarding train that leads to Romania directly. And considering the distance, they will reach Romania by tomorrow. ------------------------------------------------- After getting out of the train the next morning, they booked a small room in a hotel. Luckily, finding wizards in Romania wasn''t too hard since they were basically everywhere. Unlike in the UK, wizards were very common in Romania, Romania housed a number of Dark creatures from all over the world, from Dragons to Vampire, everything was common here. The hotel they were staying at was your day to day wizarding hotel, with various wizarding tourist staying over. With the help of a little bit of Polyjuice potion getting a room wasn''t that hard. Draco had kept some of Lucius''s hair, so acting as him wasn''t that difficult, the only problem was that he didn''t have much polyjuice potion with him, so he could only use it now and then. The potion wasn''t sold legally and had to be brewed by oneself, which took a month. A time which they didn''t have. After a day worth of rest, they continued their trip to the Dragon farm, which was another tedious journey. After hours of flying, they finally reached their destination. "Finally!" Theodore said sighing in relief, "I have never flown so much in my life, especially in this hot weather." "Yeah!" Draco agreed, looking at the entrance of the farm, "Let''s go." Both of them went towards the gate where they were greeted by a wizard. "Excuse me, sir. How can we help you today?" The man asked looking at both of them. "We are here to check on our farm," Draco said passing a small letter. "This is the proof of ownership." The man took the letter and looked at the two of them again, who were still hidden inside their robes. "Can you wait a minute, sir." The man said running inside the gate. "Do you think they will let us enter?" Theodore asked, "This is a weird situation where we need your face but we can''t show it as well." "Well, they can probably guess it''s me." Draco said shrugging his shoulders, "We don''t have any other choices, do we?" The man came running back with another man with red hair. The man''s face was full of freckles and he was short and stocky. "Sorry for the delay." The man said giving the letter back, "This is Charles Weasley, who is taking care of your Dragon, so please follow him inside." Draco and Theodore looked at each other and back at Charles who smiled and nodded at them. They started following Charles inside the dragon farm. Inside they could hear different roars of Dragon from time to time, which was quite frightening nonetheless. Charles who was walking in front of them, turned back to look at them. "It''s hot to be wearing a robe in this weather, isn''t it?" Charles said but he didn''t get any response from both of them, "So-- my name is Charles Weasley." 74 Dwarves. "So-- my name is Charles Weasley." "We prefer to not to say ours." Draco said with a deep voice. "Tell me about Norberta." "Okay, then-- we have been studying Norberta for a while now and she is really hard to handle." Charles said shrugging his shoulders, "She has already killed two elves and harmed more than 5 caretakers, so not many of us get too close to her. If she was a normal Dragon we would have already confined her in a strict environment but since you pay a lot of money to take care of her, our boss doesn''t allow us to do that." "You seem mad." Theodore said, "Let me guess, she harmed you." "Not me, my friend." Charles said not looking back, "One of his arms was bitten off." "Isn''t that common in your profession?" Theodore asked interested, "You are handling a dragon, you know?" "Yeah! But the crazy ones are handled in a controlling manner, so they stop causing further harm." Charlie said, "But with Norberta, all we can do is feed her and study her behavior from far away, she isn''t trained at all because that''s what you asked for." Theodore went near Draco and whispered, "Do we really want that crazy thing?" "Let me see her first." Draco said rolling his eyes under the hood, "If I can''t handle her then I won''t do any crazy thing." "Your choice." Theodore said backing off. "So Charles--" "You can call me Charlie." Charlie said. "Okay, Charlie-- you said that there are elves here?" "Yeah, they are really useful in taking care of these creatures and are specifically trained for it." "Can you buy one?" Draco asked curiously. "There is a trader up-north from here, who deals with trained elves." Charlie said, "But it will cost you a huge amount of money, what other creatures do you own?" "A murtlap and some creatures here and there." Charlie thought for a while, "Are you new to this?" he asked. "You sound very young." "Ever heard of dwarves?" Draco said with an emotionless voice. "Oh! I apologize-- since you are new, I suggest you go buy some giant dung beetles-- it will help you deal with the feces." Charlie suggested awkwardly. ''That''s a really good idea.'' Draco thought to himself, with Fluffy around, the cleaning of their feces has always been a bother, especially since he was considering adding more animals to his suitcase buying some dung beetles seemed necessary. "We are here." Charlie said opening a door, "The place is enchanted with different formations and spells so she can''t escape from here-- look there she is." Both of them looked at the fairly grown Dragon, which was way bigger than the last time they saw her. Draco slowly started walking close to Norberta. "I wouldn''t go near if I were you." Charlie called out but Draco didn''t listen. Theodore sighed taking out his wand in case anything unexpected happens. Norberta looked at Draco with a bit of vigilance, "Norberta, it''s me." Draco said in a weird whisper. Hearing that Norberta came closer and closer. "Hey. is your friend going to be okay?" Charlie asked taking his wand out as well. "I don''t know." Theodore said readying his stance as well. But to both their surprise the Dragon neither breathed out fire nor did she bite Draco, instead she came closer and suddenly started rubbing her face against his. "What--" Charlie was shocked, in all his years of research he had never seen something like this before, A dragon acting close to a human? What has the world come to? Especially Norberta, that deranged Dragon has been acting crazy ever since she came here. "Leave--" Draco said turning his head back. "But this is amazing-- can''t I just watc--" "I said leave." Draco said again. Charlie kept his head down and backed off, "I will be just outside if you need any help just call out to me." He went out and closed the door, but he looked incredibly sad, missing out on such precious research material. "Well, at least he isn''t as annoying as his brother." Theodore said after the door closed, "The world is really a small place." Draco opened his hood, petting Norberta, "I knew he worked here but never thought he would work here with Norberta." "He doesn''t seem to hate you or even know you though." Theodore said, "Especially considering your families-- don''t really get together." "He doesn''t know." Draco said caressing Norberta, who was fondly looking at him "Only a few people are allowed to know the information of the owner of these dragons, the researchers are here only to do their research, other things don''t really matter to them." Theodore nodded, "It''s surprising-- does she still remember you?" "I don''t know." Draco said, "Do you remember me?" Draco asked Norberta who nodded in return. "Those whispers again... can you really talk to them?" "What do you think?" "At first, I thought that it was something you learned to control a dragon but you can understand them, right?" Theodore said with his hands under his chin. "I guess..." Draco answered vaguely, "I don''t know, what it is myself." Theodore was about to say something when suddenly the door opened again, "I told you to stay out didn''t I?" Draco said looking back but it wasn''t Charlie but a group of strangers. "Who are you?" Draco asked looking away quickly pulling his hoods up. "Brilliant Disguise, Mr. Malfoy or should I say, Black." The man in the center grinned. The man had long black hair and a beard streaked with silver, as well as a great overhanging forehead that shadowed his glinting eye. "Who are you?" Draco asked with vigilance taking out his wand, he turned back looking at them. Since they already knew his identity, Draco quickly switched his eye''s back to normal. "Don''t be so impatient, Mr. Black." The man said, "Let me introduce myself, I am Pius Thicknesse, the head of the anti-dark force that has been recently created." ''Pius Thicknesse...'' Draco repeated the name a couple of time until he finally remembered that this person was none other than one of Voldemort''s puppets and the future minister of magic. Thicknesse was under the Imperius curse at the time, so Draco didn''t really know what his character was like, beforehand. "What do you want?" Draco said. "We just want you to come with us, that''s all," Pius said smiling, "We don''t mean you any harm." "People who mean harm usually say that they don''t." Theodore snickered. "Oh, Mr. Nott, you are required to come with us as well," Pius said, "Afterall you are a hidden talent as well." Norberta growled looking at the people slowly surrounding them, Draco patted Norberta to calm her down. "Such a beautiful relation between a human and a Dragon is a very rare thing to see." Pius said smiling, "Does she belong to you?" "You are really being an annoyance, don''t you think?" Draco said pointing his wand at him, "I''ll ask you again, What do you want from me?" "We want nothing but to help you, Mr. Black." Pius said, "We have arranged training methods for you and a couple of other wizards to help them improve, so when you get out of your school, you will be a lot better than all your other classmates. You can even be a Head Auror right off the gate." "Are you an idiot?" Draco said making Pius frown, "Or do you think I am one? Help me?-- I am the Head of the Black family, do you think I need to be a filthy Auror like you?-- you all are afraid of a 12-year-old kid becoming a dark lord-- do you think, I will believe that you have the guts to teach me more and make me even more powerful?" The surrounding wizards faces were grim after hearing Draco insult Aurors and so was Pius for a while but he returned to his smiling face. "You are right-- you don''t need to be an Auror and neither do we want to make you more powerful-- we just want to make sure that your intentions aren''t to harm us so we wanted to make sure, and we want to teach you how to exist properly in this new age, without causing any harm to the future." "I have heard, Enough!" Suddenly a couple of wizards dressed in black came in through the door. It was none other than Lucius. "Mr.Malfoy it''s a pleasure to meet you." Pius said bowing a little but Lucius didn''t pay him any heed. He looked at Draco, "Enough playing around, you are coming back with me." "I can''t allow you to do that." Before Draco could say anything, Pius replied walking towards Lucius. 75 Vampire girl. "I can''t allow you to do that." Before Draco could say anything, Pius replied walking towards Lucius. "Why should I care about what you want from me?" Lucius said glaring at Pius. "It''s the order from the ministry." Pius said showing Lucius a letter, "I hope you don''t interfere with ministry''s works." "Tell your minister that I won''t hand over my son before Harry Potter is involved in your so-called training." Lucius said snorting. "I am afraid, it doesn''t work like that." Pius said taking out his wand. "Oh! You want something else, don''t you?" Lucius said narrowing his eyes as he took out his wand as well, "I have already talked to the minister about how things are and he understands, so it''s better if you let me leave with my son." Pius shook his head and fired a spell at Lucius who blocked it and fired a spell back. Soon both parties started taking out their wand and getting into a heated battle. "What the hell is going on?" Theodore said, knocking out a man rushing towards them with an Expulso spell. "I don''t know." Draco said, "Expelliramus-- this is getting kinda getting out of hand-- Confringo." Soon the battle started getting intense as people started using killing spells. "You aren''t under the order of the minister, are you?" Lucius said deflecting a spell. "Maybe, Maybe I am not." Pius grinned attacking madly. A couple of wizards who were with Pius started surrounding Draco and Theodore more and more. "Shit! This is getting hard to handle." Draco said dodging. A man came running towards them wildly under the cover of all the spells, Draco flinched as the man got closer when suddenly Norberta stretched her neck out biting the man''s torso and throwing him across the room. "Good girl!" Draco complemented in his whispers, "Can you use fire yet?" Norberta understanding nodded as she breathed out fire burning several enemy wizards all at once. Everyone coming towards them stopped and started running away in shock and some began attacking back. "Cover my back." Draco said to Theodore, "Okay Norberta-- time to go inside the case-- just don''t kill or burn other animals in there, okay?" Norberta looked confused but nodded nonetheless. "Sigh! just get in quick." Norberta still confused stepped in the suitcase getting pulled by it. Seeing the dragon disappear, several people who were running away, started attacking back, Lucius''s men blocked their attack and started firing back, keeping them away from Draco and Theodore. "Get Draco and Theodore out of here." Lucius said to one of his men. "Not so fast." Pius exclaimed, rushing towards Draco with a quick speed as he came close to him, attacking him with several spells. Draco dodged and block a couple of attacks but was still hit with plenty leaving a lot of deep cuts all over his body. "Fuck!" Draco cursed out, He quickly chanted an unknown curse that he learned from the Black family''s book, conjuring several arrows in mid-air and threw them all towards Pius. Pius dodged the arrows with spells but one of the arrows managed to shot through his leg, leaving him on the ground, moaning in pain. The situation suddenly came to the peak, as many people from both sides had already died and only a couple of them were remaining and they were mostly wizards from Lucius''s side. Pius struggled to get up as he disapparated and came towards Draco. "No!" Lucius yelled, coming towards them. Pius threw a killing curse towards Lucius which he barely managed to dodge. A man from Lucius''s side came running towards Draco and Theodore to take them away but Pius suddenly turned back and attacked the man coming towards Draco with a killing curse, killing him instantly. Pius stood up from the ground, rushing towards Draco trying to disapparate from here with him. In the midst of all the attacks and confusion, Theodore pushed Draco towards the man who was coming to get him to safety and switched places with him, disapparating with Pius and Draco disapparated to an unknown location with one of Lucius''s men. -------------------------------------------------- In the middle of nowhere, inside a forest, a beautiful girl with dark hair and red eyes was running away from, creatures who slightly looked like Harpies, with beak-like birds with scaly wings they were shooting fireballs out of their hand, chasing the girl. The girl dodging the fireball tripped on a vine on the ground falling. The birds like creatures stopped on their tracks landing as they suddenly turned into very beautiful women. "Give the vial back, you nasty vampire." One of the beautiful women said in a rage, which didn''t suit her beautiful appearance. "Surrender or else." "Hahaha... I might as well die-- than surrender to you." The vampire girl replied laughing, "Do you even know who you are messing with." "A disgusting blood sucking creature, who is also a thief." The pretty girl in the front said with a nasty smirk as the other girls started laughing, only the girl in the center wasn''t. "You are the princess, aren''t you?" She asked with a serious face. "Oh, you know me?" The girl on the ground smirked, "Then you must know the reason behind it." "If you are talking about the dark age then that was quite long ago, no one remembers." "I do, the people of our kingdom do." The girl said with not an ounce of fear on her face, "The shame you bought to us by not completing the deal, fooling us, is still used as an insult towards us to this very day, so with the vial with me, both our races have completed the deal." "It doesn''t work like that." The girl said, "The vial contains something way too sacred for us to give it away. We don''t want war with your race so I suggest you give it back and we can all forget that this ever happened." "If I don''t?" "You will die." The girl replied, "You are here without any guards which suggests that you are acting alone, and besides who cares if that king of yours has one kid less, I heard he has plenty." The vampiric girl gritted her teeth, "I will rather die and take you all with me than return back with shame." "You--" Before the girl could say anything the vampire girl took out a white wand, causing a huge explosion, the girls couldn''t even run for their lives as the explosion swallowed them completely, killing them. *Cough* "You bitch" Only the girl remained as she struggled to get up, with wounds all over her body. She looked around to see the dead charred body of her friends as the disgusting smell of flesh burning surrounded the place. She looked at the girl who was still coughing with rage. "I will kill you!!" She yelled, transforming into a bird-like creature again as she walked up to the vampire girl picking her up from her throat. "Our clan will remember this." The girl said choking her. The vampire girl struggled as her wand slipped from her hand, ''Is this really the end.'' She thought, ''I am sorry father, I bought shame to you.'' As everything was starting to turn black suddenly out of the corner of her eye, she saw a smoke appearing above them through it came two men crashing towards them as they landed on the girl, pushing her underneath them. The vampire girl took the chance as she quickly took her wand from the ground and used a spell, killing the girl who was trapped underneath the two men who came from the sky as she was struggling to get out. Even in the end, she looked at the girl with nothing but anger. She wanted to check up on the two men, but she couldn''t as her body felt heavier as she drifted off to sleep, losing her consciousness. ---------------------------------------------- It''s my first time writing a group wizard battle, so it was kinda difficult to depict everything that was going through my head, but I hope it isn''t too bad. 76 Elanor. Moments later the girl woke up, as she checked her surrounding. The smell of the burning flesh was still there, so she deduced that she wasn''t out for a long time. She slowly got up as the last explosion spell had deal some damage to her as well, she considered herself lucky that she hadn''t learned the spell completely, because if she had the explosion would have been quite larger engulfing her in the explosion as well. She took out a pouch from within her coat she was wearing. She took out a small vial of what seemed like a brightly glowing liquid. "At last, I got it." She spoke to herself as she turned her head back to the two men who came out of nowhere and saved her. She walked over to them and checked their pulses, "Well, at least one of them is alive." She said biting the neck of the dead one, sucking him completely dry. Some wounds on her body visibly healed after she drank the blood, she checked her body looking for wounds, she still had a deep cut in her abdomen, which required more blood to heal. She looked at the boy with black hair who looked around 12 or 13 years old, wondering whether she should bite him or not. "I will leave you since you saved me." She said carrying the boy away from the fire as she sucked on the blood of the girl that was crushed under them. She spat the blood after just biting through her neck, "Fucking, Veela blood." She threw the body on the ground and burned it, using a spell from her wand. She walked towards the suitcase which was on the hand of the boy when he fell, from the sky. She sensed some life inside the suitcase so she tried to open it interested what was inside it but she couldn''t get it open no matter how hard she tried. She looked back at the boy and went near him. "Who are you?" She said checking his body. Inside she found a pouch containing potions, a small watch and a wand suggesting that this boy was a wizard. She looked at the boy''s wound riddled body wondering what happened to him. "Looks like you had a tough day too." She said caressing the boy''s cheek, which had a cut in it. Suddenly she sensed something coming behind them as she turned her head back to look at the silent forest. "We need to go." She said carrying the boy and his stuff, running away at an incredible speed. Moments letter she arrived at her hiding spot, she put the boy on the ground as she laid down as well, incredibly tired she fell asleep again. -------------------------- Draco woke up in pain, he looked at the dark place he was in. He quickly stood up in a panic looking around, he searched for his wand but it wasn''t there. After a minute or so, he calmed down a little since no attack came his way. He tried to remember what happened. "Theodore, you idiot..." Draco mumbled. He looked around to find a clue to where he was at, only to jump in a surprise finding a beautiful girl sleeping right next to him. She looked in pain as she clutched her bleeding abdomen tightly. Hearing Draco the girl opened her eyes looking at him with beautiful blood red eyes. Draco felt fear looking at those pretty haunting eyes, which looked too mesmerizing to be real. Compare to his red eye''s this looked more real. "Who are you?" Draco asked with vigilance. "I am your savior and you are mine." The girl said smiling, "What''s your name?" "Um... Draco-- where are we?" "How rude?" The girl snorted, "Didn''t someone teach you manners?-- Sigh! Why am I arguing with a human-- My name is Elanor Cruorem." "Okay, Elanor." Draco said weirdly still not completely putting his guard down, "Where are my wand and suitcase?" "It''s there." Elanor pointed at the corner. Draco quickly went over and checked his stuff, glad that nothing was missing. "I can sense fear from you." Elanor said, "You are afraid of me, aren''t you?" "If you wake up in a cave next to a vampire, I am sure most people would be afraid if they were in my position." "But you are calm now." Elanor tilted her head cutely, "Why?" ''Are vampire''s always this beautiful?'' Draco thought to himself but quickly shook his head removing the weird thoughts. Draco shook his wand in response. "Do you think you can beat me?" Elanor laughed, "A puny human like you-- what can you do?" "Che, It''s not about you beating me or me beating you-- The wand gives me the confidence-- you wouldn''t understand," Draco said since he himself didn''t understand why holding his wand near gave him confidence and a sense of security. Elanor looked at Draco with an interested look, "I understand a little." She said taking out her wand and waving it in front of him as well. "It''s like holding a sword, where you can attack any person who tries to harm you easily." Draco looked at the wand, as it seemed very familiar to him for some reason but he didn''t say anything as he started searching for things inside his pouch. "What are you doing?" Elanor asked. "Potions." Draco replied busy searching for what he was looking for, "Doesn''t that hurt you?" Elanor looked at her wound, "Not that much, I need some blood." Draco stopped what he was doing and looked at her, "Hmph! I am not going to kill you if I wanted to do so, you wouldn''t be alive to give me that look right now." Draco sighed in a bit of relief taking out a couple of potions and mixing them together, he poured the potion over the wounds in his body and face. The cuts luckily weren''t very deep, thinking about it now, Pius didn''t want to harm him too badly since he could have done serious damage if he wanted to. He drank the rest of the potion, making the wounds close. "That''s gonna leave a scar." Draco thought out loud. "Have you seen your face?" Elanor said snickering. "What is it?" Draco said weirdly touching his face as he felt the cut in his face stink. He felt the scar from top to bottom which led from one corner of his forehead to the chin, missing the left eye. Scared Draco quickly took out a mirror from his suitcase looking at his face. He had now completed the whole villain look with additional scars on his face now. He felt his wounds sighing, now wasn''t the time to cry about his face. He took out another potion and passed it over to Elanor. She took the potion and smelled it. "What is this?" "What? You''ve never heard of a healing potion before?" "Che, You little-- don''t act smart with me." She said throwing the potion far away, "It won''t work on me, I need blood." "Well too bad for you, I don''t have one." Draco said gritting his teeth looking at the girl in anger, "Just because you are a little cute, do you think you can act like a princess, whenever you wanted to." Draco mumbled the last part to himself. "Oh! I am cute?" Eleanor said smiling slyly, "I am a vampire, remember." Draco was a little embarrassed so he didn''t look back at her, he took out a new robe and threw the old one, quickly wearing it. "What else have you got in there?" Elanor asked interestedly, looking at his suitcase. "Nothing that should concern you." Draco said closing his suitcase putting his pouches inside his robe. "I can sense life in there." Elanor said shocking Draco, "What is in there?" She asked again. "How can you..." Draco didn''t know how she could sense it, even though she was a vampire, it was impossible to sense life inside his suitcase which was protected by barrier after barrier of magic. "I am different." Elanor said understanding Draco''s thought a bit. "I don''t have time for this." Draco said, "Where are we?" "In the Venus forest, didn''t you know?" Elanor said "Venus forest," Draco repeated, He had never heard of this place before. "Where is the man that came with me?" Draco asked with a little bit of hope, remembering the man that bought him here. "Dead." Elanor said, "And I sucked the blood out of him, to heal a bit." "You? What if he was alive?" Draco said with anger in his voice. "I know better than you." She said, "And if I hadn''t drunk his blood, you and I would probably die in the forest." "Dead?" "Do you think those bloody-veelas would leave you alive after you killed their kin." Elanor snickered. "Wait, Veela?--When did I kill one?" Draco asked more confused. "Practically I did but you trapped her for me." She said, "You landed above her aiding me, and that''s also the reason you are still alive right now." Draco thought for a while but stopped, putting those thoughts in the back if his head. Right now, figuring out what was going on and finding Theodore was more important than worrying about something he had no idea about. "Do you know how to get out of here?" 77 Deb "Do you know how to get out of here?" Draco asked readying himself. "I do." Elanor said, "But why should I tell you?" "Um... because I saved you." Draco said after thinking for a while. "But I saved you as well, the debt''s already been paid." Elanor said shrugging her shoulders. Draco looked slightly annoyed as he ignored her and started walking away. "Are you just going to leave an injured lady alone?" Elanor called out. "The debt''s already paid, isn''t it?" Draco repeated her line and continued walking. "Wait! If you find me some blood, I can tell you the way out." Elanor called out again, "If you were to just wander around all alone without knowing where to go, you''ll surely fall under the traps of those veelas, without me, you can''t get out of here." Draco stopped, "What kind of blood do you want?" "It was my first time drinking a human''s and as expected it''s nothing useful." Elanor said, "If you can get me Dragon blood that will be good... but you can''t find any here so maybe hunt some animals and collect their blood for me. I will taste them on whether they suit my taste or not and how much it will take for me to heal completely. If it''s low-quality blood it might take a lot but it will still work and make sure to not bring any Veela''s blood, I just tasted it and it tastes like garbage." "Why are you ordering me around?" Draco snorted, "And didn''t you say that you carried me here? Why can''t you hunt your own food then?" "I did but I have bled too much right now." Elanor said, "Soon the veela''s would follow up and kill me and you, so why not make this deal with me." Draco thought for a while, "Wait for me then." He said heading out. "You''ll come back, wouldn''t you?" She asked again. Draco looked at her beautiful pale face, as he quickly turned back, "I might." He said going outside the cave. He looked around the place and saw nothing but trees all over the place. Draco wanted to fly up and look but decided not too, since if what that girl said was true then he would be spotted immediately. "What to do?" Draco thought for a while. He quickly found a secure place and hid his suitcase, getting inside it. Inside things were slightly a bit of mess. Fluffy suddenly came running towards him quickly hiding behind his back, "What happened to your chains?" Draco looked back at Fluffy who was growling looking back at his house. Instead of trying to attack him, Fluffy was hiding behind him, wanting Draco to protect him, which surprised Draco a lot. Draco looked over to see Norberta eating Fluffy''s meal and figured what had happened. Draco sighed and looked back at Fluffy, "Guess you will have to share for a while." He said walking over to Norberta. "Norberta, come here." Draco called out in whispers. As soon as Norberta saw him, she came stumbling towards him happily, since she wasn''t old enough to fly she could only walk around. "Good girl." Draco said patting her, "Did you harm anything here?" Norberta quickly shook her head looking at Fluffy who was still behind Draco. "It''s okay, I knew you would be hungry, sorry I couldn''t come any sooner but next time, don''t chase him away, I will separate food for you differently. Norberta nodded rubbing her face towards his, "Be careful girl, I already have a lot of scars." After separating a living space for Norberta and leaving her with plenty of food, Draco sat back resting for a while. He didn''t create a habitat for Norberta separately since wasting mana here would be a dumb thing to do. He really wished that he could apparate right now. He started feeling a bit sick remembering all the killing that happened today. He thought this would be easy but it really wasn''t. The more time he spent thinking the more weird and bad he felt, even though he didn''t kill any of them directly, but indirectly he murdered plenty of them and he had blood in his hands nonetheless. "If I didn''t act so stubborn none of this would have ever happened." Draco thought to himself wondering whether Lucius''s was fine or not. And what was happening to Theodore? Was he okay? Did Pius harm him? He started remembering Lucius last''s word and started connecting the dots. "So from what I know, Pius is the head of the anti-dark force created by the ministry but he wasn''t acting like a ministry worker at all. He wanted to take me away no matter the cost since he went far as to kill people without any warning. There were Aurors there as well but none of them stopped him, instead joined forces with him to attack me and father-- Does he just wants to kill me to prevent me from gaining power in the future... Wait, the other forces, how could I have forgotten about them--" Draco said quickly going back to his room and taking out a couple of letters. "The people who wanted me to join the dark side is he from there... that explains why he didn''t harm me too much. So is he the one in control of that group as well or is he acting under the order of some other people-- Sigh! Wasn''t Voldemort enough, now I have to deal with Pius as well." He got out of the room and walked towards the door which lead to nowhere, no matter how one looked at it, it was just a door on the empty ground. Draco walked up to the door and knocked on it three times as the door suddenly opened leading to the 12 Grimmauld place. Luckily Draco and Theodore had managed to build the formation, so this could be used in his time of need. (So I skipped the formation making process since it was too boring to write and didn''t fit well in the context.) "Kreacher! Dobby!" Draco called out. Both the house-elf came out and looked at him in surprise. "Master! you are here." Kreacher bowed, "What happened to you master?" Dobby asked in concern looking at Draco''s face. "I am fine." Draco said shaking his head, "Dobby, go back to Malfoy Manor and make sure whether Father is okay or not and don''t let anyone find that you were there. If you find out some information that would be much better as well. Come back to me as soon as you find out." "Master is something wrong with..." "Just check whether he is back, home or not." Draco waved his hands. Dobby didn''t ask anything more and disapparated back to the Malfoy''s. "Kreacher, how far can you disapparate?" Draco asked. "I can do it all over the country... but it will be harder the further we go." Kreacher replied. Draco shook his head in disappointment, "Go get me some raw meat that I have stored, all of them." Kreacher nodded and disappeared. Draco went towards his library and started searching for a clue for where he was. Knowing the place was really important, even though he could come and go whenever he wanted to, his suitcase would be stuck there, so he had to learn the location of the place and get his suitcase out of there immediately. After searching for a while, he stumbled across a map that showed the Venus forest and had some information on it. It was written that the Venus forest housed a special veela clan but that was all that was written about the place. It showed where in Romania the forest was but he couldn''t figure where exactly his suitcase was since the map wasn''t detailed at all. "It at least confirms that Veela lives there." Draco thought out loud. He thought about Elanor the beautiful vampire, wondering whether he should continue on with the agreement or not. He could provide her with Dragon Blood which wasn''t a hassle but he was wondering whether he could trust her or not. 78 Umbra Forest. Inside the Malfoy Manor, Dobby apparated inside as he sneaked around hiding looking for Lucius or any other people when he suddenly heard some people''s voices. "Are you okay?" Narcissa asked in concern holding both the twins in her arms. "Yeah!" Lucius sighed, "Thankfully the Ministry arrived in time and I could get back home quickly." "Draco..." "Draco should be fine for now." Lucius sighed, "The ministry themselves were shocked about Pius''s betrayal and now he has Theodore with him." "That idiot son of mine." Mr. Nott sighed, "Have they found clues about Theodore''s whereabouts?" "Yes, he left some message in his house talking about a hidden place, in Romania. Supposedly to taunt us or to lure Draco there. The timing and everything makes me believe that this was all carefully planned, probably leaving this as Plan B," "Draco, where is he?" Mr. Parkinson asked. He had hidden the information about Draco and all the drama going on till now to Pansy, but with the situation getting so serious, it was only a matter of time before she and the whole magical community knew about it. "I don''t know." Lucius said, "But he is clever enough to keep himself alive at least." "What is the ministry going to do about this?" Mr. Nott asked. "The ministry will send highly trained Aurors to look for Pius''s and your son''s whereabouts Mr. Nott." Fudge followed by some Aurors walked inside the room. Dobby hid behind a cupboard quickly, still listening to their conversation. "Cornelius, if even a strand of my son''s hair is harmed-- I will come after you," Mr. Nott said standing up. "*Cough* I apologize." Fudge quickly said, afraid that these pureblood families would turn against him, "I didn''t expect them to have such hidden agendas, I have already ordered for the disbandment of the force and all the members are already captured and are being questioned." "Torture them and get the answer out of them quickly." Mr. Greengrass said in an annoyed tone, he had enough of this nonsense, they were already being suppressed after Voldemort''s death and now the public went far as to harm their children, they were really taking this too far. "We are." Fudge nodded quickly, "We have also captured their informants from Romania and we are torturing them to get some answers out of them but we have found something unexpected." "What is it?" Lucius asked. "Most of the Aurors and people under the organization were under the Imperius curse." Fudge said shocking everyone. "Imperius..." Lucius murmured. "Yes, some of the Aurors were under the Imperius curse whereas the others where completely fine and had acted on their own will." Fudge said handing out some documents to Lucius and others to see. "I am afraid that someone new and powerful has risen up." "Pius?" "I don''t know." Fudge shook his head, "But going back to his records, he doesn''t have any motive nor is he powerful enough to put so many trained Aurors into the Imperius curse alone, someone powerful must be behind him." "Lucius, we need to find Draco," Narcissa said worriedly. "We don''t know where he is." Lucius shook his head, "The least we know is that he is somewhere in Romania but Merlin knows where?" "The Prophet has got the wind of it." Fudge broke down another bad news slowly, afraid he would get shouted at again. "The news about this situation would be published tomorrow. I tried to stop them but couldn''t." "It''s good." Mr. Nott said sitting back sighing, "More people would be cautious about it and helping find Draco and Theodore would be easier." "Don''t worry." Lucius patted his shoulders, "Our sons are intelligent enough to know what to do. You should have seen your son today, he fought bravely." Mr. Nott didn''t say anything and just nodded. "We have decrypted the clue to a forest in Romania." Fudge said, "Pius is likely hidden somewhere inside the forest. As for Draco, his whereabouts has also been pinpointed towards another forest deep in the mountains." "Then what are you waiting for." Narcissa snapped at Fudge, "Go and search for them." "We are trying to." Fudge said sweating slightly, "But the forests are too large for us to search them within a day. We don''t have enough manpower to do all the work so it will take some time." "Let''s join the search then." Mr. Greengrass suggested, "Half of us will look for Draco and the rest will look for Theodore." "Yes." Lucius nodded, "Cornelius, quickly tell us where they are." "Draco is in a forest named Venus and as for Theodore he is inside the Umbra forest." Fudge said in relief, he came here to ask them for help but he didn''t have the guts to do so but lucky for him, all of them voluntarily agreed to it. After saying their farewells all of them quickly headed of too the Ministry to get to Romania quickly. (So I have made it, that the ministry has access to all over Europe and come and go easily unlike other people.) Narcissa sighed praying for Draco''s safety and left the room taking care of the twins. Dobby was confused as to what was going on but he didn''t let it bother him too much, now all he had to do was go back and tell Draco the information he had collected. As soon as he about to disapparate, someone sneakily came back inside the room again. He looked around as if he was searching for something and after a while, the man took out something from the hoards of books on the shelf. "...Harry Potter, it''s your doom." Dobby didn''t hear the complete sentence but he heard something about Harry Potter. The more he listened the more shocked he got, wanting to listen more he walked near to the man only to knock a Flower vessel off the table on the ground by accident. The man looked back towards the source of noise, "Who''s there?" The man called out. Dobby afraid of being caught quickly disapparated back to the 12 Grimmauld place. --------------------------------------------- Draco was still searching for clues in the dining room when Dobby disapparated back. Dobby breathed heavily looking slightly worried. "What''s wrong?" Draco asked. "Did you get caught?" "No, Master Draco." Dobby quickly shook his head looking suspicious as he began to tell all the information that he had heard. Draco sighed in relief knowing his father was fine. "So Umbra..." Draco quickly searched for the map again under the pile of books, "So there it is." Draco thought out loud, The Umbra forest wasn''t that far away from Venus. "Is there something else Dobby?" Draco asked looking back at Dobby who was still there. "Ye-- No." Dobby quickly shook his head. Draco looked suspiciously at Dobby but he didn''t have time to take care of it. "Leave," Draco said as he carried the books and the stuff he had collected going back to the suitcase. He closed the door, leaving the stuff inside his potion room. Draco got out of the suitcase as he looked around the dark place, it was already night here. Draco had already decided on what to do so he went back to the cave where Elanor was. ------------ Back inside the cave two Veela''s had already caught the trace of Elanor and where fighting her inside the cave. "You''ll die today." A veela said throwing fireball towards Elanor who barely dodged it. Her bleeding hadn''t stopped and she was way too weak to carry on. ''Sigh! am I really going to die today.'' She thought struggling to attack back. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice and before the Veela''s could react the two of them had arrows in their body, as they slowly fell down dying not even knowing what killed them. "Killing is really different in real life," Draco said walking in as he ignored the dead bodies on the ground, today he had seen more than enough and now by the end of the day he had even killed two people with his own hand. "You are back." Elanor said weakly smiling. "Sigh! Take this." Draco said passing a vial of red liquid. Elanor looked at it and from the smell, she immediately recognized, what it was. "Dragon blood..." She said quickly opening the vial and drinking it, the moment she did her wound closed up completely healing her not even leaving a scar. "Well, that''s convenient." Draco said. "Do you want to become one too?" Elanor asked looking at him, wiping the blood off her face. "What? A vampire?" Elanor nodded cutely, "No, thanks." Draco said shaking his head, "I love being human, at least for now." "You sure?" Elanor asked, "It has many benefits you know?" "I would have to kindly decline." Draco shook his head, "So can you move now?" "The blood heals my wound but I am still exhausted." Elanor said looking at the body of the two Veela''s on the ground, "But whether I can or not, We have to get out from here." 79 Veritaserum. "So how did you get the Dragon blood?" Elanor asked as they settled in their new hiding spot. "None of your concern," Draco said taking a bunch of food and woods out of his suitcase as he started a fire with his wand. "Want some?" he said handing over some cooked meat that he just heated up. Elanor nodded and grabbed a piece of meat. "So how did you arrive here?" "Long story short, I was attacked and I escaped with the man you killed and I arrived here." Draco casually said. "Hmph! If you don''t want to say it then don''t and the man you came here with was already dead." Elanor snorted, "So where are you going?" "Umbra forest, you know the place?" Draco asked. "It''s my kin- I mean my home," Elanor said. "Really?" Draco asked with a bit of hope in his eyes. Seeing the sudden enthusiasm of Draco, Elanor nodded hurriedly. "Yeah, why are you heading there?" "I need to meet a friend." Draco said quickly taking out a map, "How well do you know the forest?" "Very well." "How many wizards settlements are there?" Draco asked ready to note any important information. "Wizards?" Elanor laughed, "There are no wizards in there, only vampires." Draco looked at her in surprise, "Are you sure?" "Yes, I know the place very well." Elanor said, "Ever since I was young, I wanted to travel to different place but my father wouldn''t allow me to step foot outside the forest so I hung around the forest. I know every shortcut and way there, so believe me...there isn''t any wizard settlement there-- In fact, you are the first young wizard, I have seen. Since only some old wizards visit our place from time to time." Draco nodded, noting down the facts. "So are there any abandoned places far away from your settlements?" "Abandoned places?" Elanor asked tilting her head, "There are 2, but why do you need them?" "2... Can you lead me there?" Draco said. "Can you tell me why first?" "You know I saved you from those Veela''s right, so consider you not asking anything back a part of a new deal." Draco said making Elanor pout. "Fine! I won''t ask you." Elanor said, "One of the old abandoned building is our old mansion and the other one is an old farmhouse." "How far apart are they?" "Not too far away from each other." Elanor said, "It will take us more than a day if we want to reach the place, so it''s better if we take some rest." "More than a day?" Draco frowned slightly, "We can use brooms, Since you know the way, it shouldn''t be a problem, right?" "Brooms?" "Flying brooms haven''t you heard of it?" "Oh, you mean like flying carpets." Elanor said, "I at least know that." Draco shook his head weirdly taking out two sleeping bags from his suitcase, "We will move out tomorrow morning." Elanor nodded taking one of the sleeping bags, she flipped it around not knowing how to use it. Draco rolled his eyes and taught her how and she snuggled inside the bag cozily. "It''s really comfortable." she said. "It is." "Are all wizard items like that?" "Yes." "How brilliant," Elanor said appreciating the sleeping bag. "You could take it anywhere you want and still sleep properly." Draco looked weirdly at her wondering if something was wrong with her head, "Elanor, how old are you?" "Don''t you know that it''s rude to ask a lady''s age." Elanor said, "But I will tell you if you tell me yours." "I am 12." "Really?" "Yeah, why?" "Nothing, it''s just that my guess wasn''t that far off." Elanor laughed, "I am 17 by the way." "I see." Draco nodded, he too guessed her age was similar to that since they age like humans and aren''t immortals like, in myths, so it wasn''t hard to guess. "What are you doing in this forest by the way? and why are those veela''s chasing you so badly?" "I wanted to complete a deal that was held a long time ago." Elanor said vaguely, "And I came here in this forest to complete that deal." "Just a deal?" "Hey, no questions remember." "Che, I wonder how you came here." Draco said, "Considering how childish you are, I am surprised you manage to come so far away from your home." "Who are you calling childish?" Elanor snorted, "Do you think I wouldn''t kill you?" "I believe you will." Draco said, "Which surprises me even more considering how you are so open about killing, I am surprised you can still act so cu-- naive." "You were about to say cute right?" Eleanor grinned. "No, I wasn''t." "Hahaha... It''s really funny considering you were the one said it." Elanor laughed, "Maybe it''s because you grew up differently, for me killing isn''t a new thing, My siblings tell me that I am slightly naive as well since I tend to do stupid things for stupid reasons. Do you have any siblings?" "I have two actually." Draco said smiling, "They are twins. How many do you have?" "I have twins in my family as well." Elanor said, "I have around 40." Draco nearly choked when he heard her, "40? isn''t that a little too much?" "Is it?" Elanor asked naively. Draco remembering that she was an alien didn''t say anything back. "Hey tell me about the wizarding community, I want to know more," Elanor asked. "We can talk all day tomorrow since I am guessing there isn''t going to be anything fun to do in the journey." Draco said, "Go to sleep." Elanor pouted not getting her answers as she stared at Draco who was trying to sleep, ''What makes you so special?'' She thought. She remembered everything that happened today and can''t help but feel complicated in her heart, He saved her both times when she thought that she was going to die. He always appeared out of nowhere saving her. She never felt like this before, especially for someone so much younger than her. She wanted to tell him everything and wanted to know everything about him as well.She shook her head, ''It''s just a deal and you will be free of it.'' she thought trying to sleep as well. Draco was, on the other hand, considering other things, ''Looks like the potions don''t work too well on vampires but at least I can tell she didn''t lie to me.'' Early on Draco had mixed Veritaserum with the dragon blood to know her intentions, and due to the correct timing, she didn''t figure it out and drank the blood right away. If Elanor were to listen to Draco''s thought right now, she would be very angry. -------------------------------------------- Next morning both of them woke up and after some quick breakfast, they quickly headed out. At first, she was having slight trouble with the broom but she quickly got the hang of it. "This is really fun." She said, "You can keep it if you want to." Draco lazily said, keeping his head in his book trying to learn a useful spell. "Really?" Elanor asked with her red eye''s shining brightly, he pales and lean figure and her beautiful face made her almost irresistible to most men. Draco tried to ignore her hiding his face behind his book. "You can take it, but you need to help me with something." "I knew you wouldn''t give it to me out of kindness." Elanor snorted, "What do you want?" "A bit of help." Draco said, "You see, I have an enemy waiting for me down at the Umbra forest and I can really use an extra hand." After finding out last night that her intentions weren''t bad, Draco decides to ask for help since she knew the in and out of the forest as it was home, having her with him would be really useful. "Really?" Draco looked at her with an annoyed expression, "Well, who is it?" She asked taking him a bit seriously. "The one who gave me all these scars." Draco said with a hint of rage in his voice. Elanor looked at him, "It''s really impossible since no wizards are allowed without any permission inside the forest." Draco was shocked by the information but shook his head, "This is the only clue I have and from what I know he wants to lure me in there. There is someone powerful with him as well so maybe he got in with force." Elanor looked deeply at Draco as she secretly sent a bat flying with a letter attached in its feet away to the direction they were heading at. 80 Surrounded. After nearly half a day of travel, they finally reached the edge of the forest. Draco was reading his book and Elanor was flying around in full awareness, cautious of her surrounding, in case some Veela''s come attack out of nowhere. "Draco!" Elanor whispered pushing Draco''s broom to the side. "What is it?" Draco asked annoyed being disturbed. "Land." Elanor said. Draco narrowed his eyes as both of the landed on a nearby tree. "What is it?" he asked. "I hear people taking over there." She said pointing at a direction. "People?" "Yes, male and females." Elanor said, "This is a forest of Veela''s, there aren''t any males around here." "Males..." Draco thought for a while and realized it must be his father and some Aurors. "It must be the wizards looking for me, can you hear what they are saying?" "We are too far away, I can''t make out the words since it looks like there are a lot of people there." Elanor said, "Who really are you to have so many people searching for you?" Draco shrugged his shoulders as he took out Owlbert from inside his suitcase. "Was that the only thing inside?" Elanor said looking at the huge owl, "No, I can sense more life it. Who really are you?" "Okay stop asking, remember the deal." Draco said, in this short time they spent together, Draco realized that Elanor took deals and promises too seriously so everytime she started asking something, Draco would remind her of the deal and she would shut up, like right now, "Do you have something that they could use to enter the Umbra forest with, like a permission slip or something." "Give me a piece of cloth." She said. Draco didn''t ask anything and gave her his handkerchief, Elanor bit the tip of her fingers with her sharp fang and dripped, a single drop of blood on the handkerchief, folding it properly again. "As long as you have this, the people inside wouldn''t question you." Draco didn''t completely understand her words as he took the handkerchief back, "Is your blood important or something?" Elanor shrugged her shoulders and didn''t say anything. Draco looked at her for a while for answers but she didn''t budge, "Stop staring at me, okay-- You have your secrets, I have mine." Draco rolled his eyes as he tied a letter on Owlbert''s legs. "Wait for me here," Draco said putting on Theodore''s invisibility cloak as he slowly floated on his broom hiding, going near the source of the voices. Draco quickly confirmed that it was Lucius from his arrogant and impatient voice. Draco released Owlbert and went back to Elanor, as they continued their journey on foot, not to be spotted. ------------------------------------------- "I am telling you my son''s in there," Lucius yelled at the beautiful women in front of him. "Wizard, I have told you again and again that no one is allowed within the forest, right now." The women said as she blocked the path with other Veela''s. "You..." Lucius had it with these Veela''s as he took out his wand. "Calm, Mr. Malfoy." An Auror who was with them said coming forward, "Can we ask the reason why? As per our treaty, we have the right to search for our people there, especially since he isn''t even an adult wizard." The women looked at him for a moment and still shook her head, "These past day''s there have been 7 murders inside the forest, all of our kin and something very important to was stolen so our queen has banned people from coming and going out of the forest before the intruder is caught." "So you aren''t going to follow the treaty?" The auror asked. "I am not letting my son stay in that forest with a murderer lurking around the corner," Lucius said readying his wand as the fellow wizards around him did the same as well. "Let''s do it." The Veela''s prepared themselves as well, transforming into bird-like creatures. As the fight was about to break down an owl came flying out the forest attracting the attraction of both the Veela''s and the wizards. "It''s Draco''s," Lucius said, Owlbert flew around dropping a letter at Lucius'' feet. Lucius quickly picked it up and looked at the content of the letter, Inside was a small note and a handkerchief. The note read: Dear Father, you don''t have to worry about me. I am fine and I am heading towards the Umbra forest to rescue Theodore. I hope you quickly reach their as well from what I have found, the people inside the forest wouldn''t let you in without permission. The Handkerchief was given to me by a new friend of mine, according to her showing this would allow you to get inside the forest. I am sure the Aurors heading there are stuck outside as well, so go over their quickly, I have also found out about the two abandoned places where Pius and Theodore could be, One is an old farmhouse and the other is a mansion, I am heading towards the farmhouse, you should go towards the mansion. Be quick. Lucius crumbled the letter, "That brat... he hasn''t learned his lesson yet." "What happened?" "He is heading towards the Umbra forest, we need to get there quickly." Lucius said giving one last glare at the Veela''s, "We will remember this." he said disapparating away. "You..." The Veela''s were about to say something but stopped when they suddenly heard a loud scream behind them. They looked at each other and quickly rushed towards the place. "We were too late." The women said looking at a couple of dead Veela''s all over the place, burned completely not even leaving a trace as to what killed them. "Follow the path." She ordered the other Veela''s as she headed back deep in the forest. "The Queen isn''t going to like this." She mumbled. --------------------------------------------- "Are you okay?" Elanor asked with a bit of concern, both of them were back on their broom again heading towards the Umbra Forest. They were now flying out of the mountain range heading towards an open field. "Sigh! I am fine." Draco said, "I am not used to killing yet, it feels weird." "It''s either you or them." Elanor said, "Well that''s what I tell myself, I believe as long as we don''t harm the innocents we are not sinners." Draco didn''t say anything and stayed silent. After a while, Elanor spoke up again, "So we are heading to the farmhouse right?" "No." Draco shook his head. "We are heading towards the mansion." "But in the letter you said..." "If I tell them where I am going they will come after me, so with this, we can cover more ground quickly. Every second counts." Elanor nodded. --------------------------------------------- After a couple of more hours, they finally entered the Umbra forest. Unlike the Venus forest, which was bright and beautiful, this place was dark and gloomy. It kinda reminded Draco of the forbidden forest. "Didn''t you say there will be guards?" "There are." Elanor said, "It''s just that they know who I am, so they won''t act." "Well, you seem famous." "Same could be said about you." Elanor said snorting, "Turn left here." After confusing twists and turns they finally reached an Old Mansion, surrounded by huge walls. "Is this it?" Draco asked. Elanora nodded, both of them landed outside the mansion. As soon as they did a lot of men dressed in black appeared out of nowhere and surrounded them. Draco quickly took out his wand as he turned to Elanor who was smiling at him. "What is this?" He asked. "Nothing much." Elanor said walking towards one of the robed men, "Hello father." Draco looked around all the people that were surrounding him, gritting his teeth he held his wand tightly as he looked at Elanor angrily. 81 Half-king "Draco calm down, it''s not--" Elanor said but before she could finish her sentence another man came forward from behind the man who she called father. "What are you going to do kid?" He asked, with his red eye''s shining from the hood. "Try me," Draco said readying his stance. Both of them looked ready to jump on one another any moment when suddenly Elanor''s father came forward removing his hood revealing a handsome gaunt face with the same bright red haunting eyes, he had long black hair slicked back perfectly. "Okay stop!" He said, The moment he did, the man in front of him snorted and went back to where he stood before. He then walked up to Draco and introduced himself, "My name is Mordred Demidicus Cruorem, the Half-king of the vampires." Draco was shocked by his introduction, ''King? no half-king? what the hell is that...'' He thought to himself as he looked at Elanor who shrugged her shoulders. Draco wanted to end this quick so he composed himself, "Sigh! My name is Draco Malfoy Black or just Draco Black." Mordred looked at him raising his eyebrows slightly, his pale face read a slight hint of surprise, "Malfoy and a Black, huh." he said. "Do you know my family?" "Of course, I know of the sacred twenty-eight." Mordred said, "The noble lines of the wizard." Elanor also looked slightly surprised and nodded as if everything that happened finally made sense. Draco was confused as to what he saying and why the surrounding vampires had a surprised reaction but he didn''t have time to explain things to them and clear up the misunderstanding properly, "Umm... If you don''t have any problem can I go inside and check." He asked "You are in front of a king, don''t you have an ounce of respect--" The man in the back yelled once again. "Zip it." Draco said pointing his wand at the man "Langlock.", What king? Draco didn''t have time to waste around worshipping a king that he didn''t even know existed before. The man tried to speak but could only make sounds as his tongue was stuck on the roof of his mouth. "Interesting spells you''ve got there, little wizard." Mordred said with a hollow smile, "You have no need to go in and check, as we have already checked all the forest and we have confirmed intruders are staying in there." Draco hearing that hurriedly clutched his suitcase wanting to go in but stopped when he heard Mordred again. "You don''t want to go in there alone." Mordred said, "The people inside not only managed to trick our guards who are wizards and fighters but managed to get in without us knowing. They were all affected by the Imperius curse, causing them to hallucinate and not act out against them." "What do you want me to do then?" Draco asked slightly annoyed, "Wait." Mordred said, "From what I have heard from my daughter, you have men coming over, so I suggest you to patiently wait for them." Even though what Mordred said was right Draco couldn''t just sit here without doing anything when his friend was trapped inside the Mansion and he was sitting only a couple of meters away from it. "Don''t you want revenge as well?" Draco suddenly said turning back at Mordred. "You are the king-" "Half-king." Mordred corrected. "Okay, Half-king, some people just entered your forest, breached your security and harmed your people; are you sure you don''t want to do anything than just sit here," Draco said. Mordred was silent but Draco could feel pressure from the other vampires around him, Draco knew that this was his only chance so he didn''t back out and continued, "Don''t you think that as a King it is your responsibility to take care of your people, or are you just going to stand outside the mansion waiting for other people to solve your problems." "Draco--" Elanor wanted to say something but Mordred stopped her by raising his hand. "I appreciate your cunningness, Mr. Black but I am afraid you provoking me wouldn''t work." Mordred said with a slight smile, "And you are correct, it is my duty as a king to solve the problems in my forest but it is just that I can''t." "Why not?" Draco asked confused. "The place is enchanted with anti-Vampire spells and formations, which made even my magic fail, from the formation I can guess how long it took to make it, so I am ashamed that I had no idea of this as this was happening inside my own forest, in my old mansion." Draco was appalled nonetheless, Formations such as these were very old and it was a very difficult dark magic, even after acquiring the Black family''s library Draco only knew about such spells and formation but had no idea how to even start it. ''Who is it?'' Draco thought to himself, ''Can it really be Pius?'' Draco shook his head from what he knew Pius didn''t have such power in his hand. Seeing the silent Draco, Mordred turned back as he said, "I suggest, you wait for backup to arrive before you rush inside." All the vampires started walking away and only Elanor stayed where she was staring at Draco when suddenly all of them stopped in their tracks when they heard a voice. It was none other than Pius as he stood up on top of the roof with his wand in his neck, making sure that his voice was loud and clear. "How good to see you again so soon Draco," he said spreading his hand. "Have you finally come here for your training?" Draco narrowed his eyes glaring at Pius, Mordred looked back at what was going on only to find his senses flaring up, he looked at Draco with his eyes wide open wondering what was happening. "Pius! Release Theodore." Draco yelled, "The ministry is already after you, you can''t run." Pius hearing Draco started laughing madly, "Hahaha... let them come, but before that--" Hesnapped his fingers and Theodore suddenly appeared from behind him as he started walking towards the edge of the roof, "--Can you save your friend." Draco was getting more and more pissed, the voices in his head that seemed to have disappeared over that last couple of months were now screaming at him to go attack. Draco was barely able to keep himself in control as he gritted his teeth, he looked at Pius with nothing but pure hatred. "What have you done to him?" He roared, seeing Theodore''s lifeless eyes. "You know, a bit if Imperius curse, but I have to say your friend here was too tough to handle, even after a lot of torture he didn''t reveal anything and even after being put into the curse he still didn''t speak." Pius said, his voice getting more and more creepy. Even the vampires behind couldn''t help but feel the creeps. "You really are interesting Draco, able to surpass me in certain areas at this young age already proves your worth, join me or else-- your friend here dies." Draco figured that it was the unbreakable vow that stopped Theodore from revealing anything but that didn''t matter now. "I will give you 10 seconds to cross the gate or else Theodore here might jump." Pius grinned as he waved his wand. Theodore took one step forward as he was now on the verge of falling down. "Draco-- don''t fall under his traps. The moment you step in, we can''t help you." Elanor said but Draco wasn''t listening. "You are good at sensing aren''t you?" Draco asked, his eyes cold and scary, "Tell me how many people are in there?" Elanor couldn''t speak, this wasn''t the Draco she knew before she wanted to do something but suddenly Mordred spoke. "48." "Father--" "Let him." Mordred said looking interestedly at Draco''s back. Draco nodded and started walking forward. On the other hand, Pius was counting down from 10 and had already reached, 4 when he stopped seeing Draco coming forward. He snapped his fingers again and a couple of wizards apparated in front of the castle. "So Draco, what''s it going to be?" Pius asked after Draco entered the gate, "Join me with peace or will you go down with a fight." Draco didn''t answer anything, the red jewelry on top of his wand was shining brightly as mana began to circulate around his body faster, His hair started growing longer and the black dye in his hair evaporated revealing his original platinum blonde hair. Pius was looking at Draco with amusement whereas the vampires had their eyes wide open, especially those from the royal family. Sensing the aura change around him suddenly made them all shocked as they had never seen anything like this before. "Interesting..." Mordred mumbled 82 Power. "Pius, do you know the feeling of suddenly having a lot of power and you being in control?" Draco asked looking at Pius with a mad grin on his face. "I am afraid to say that I don''t," Pius replied shaking his head as he clapped his hands, The surrounding wizards raised their wands, "Ready when you are." Draco smiled as he took out a yellow ball, he opened his suitcase as he squeaked the ball that made a weird sound. "Are you joking with me?" Pius asked with a frown in his face, Two wizards stepped forward walking towards Draco with their wands ready to attack any moment. Draco didn''t reply anything as he pointed his wands back towards them, "Confirngo." *Boom!* The moment the explosion sounded out killing one of the wizards, all the surrounding wizards disappeared from their original place and arrived at random different location shooting spells at Draco. Dust started rising up from the ground as the attack kept coming. "Draco--" Elanor called out anxiously, she was afraid that Draco was dead or injured heavily due to a moment of carelessness. "He is still alive." Mordred said, Elanor looked at her father wondering how he knew, "This is a good time to train your senses, don''t think too much and just feel if you do you''ll be able to see it." Elanor nodded and concentrated on the dust that was rising up only to find nothing in there, but the life she sensed before inside the suitcase. Pius raised his hand up as the wizards stopped their attack, "Go and check." He said, a couple of wizards still fully cautious slowly walked towards the dusted area, one of them used a spell to clear the dust of the area and what was left on the ground was only a suitcase. They looked at each other confused as to what was going on when they suddenly heard the squeaky sound again before they could even react to what was going on, A huge three-headed Dog came flying out of the suitcase, the middle head instantly bit one of them when the left head grabbed the other part of the body tearing him away. The blood splashed on every wizards face as they finally woke from their stupor but before they could even move arrows came flying from nowhere stabbing all of them to the ground. "Works everytime." Draco said with a grin, on the other hand, Pius who was watching from the roof madly grinned, "Yes, show me more..." he mumbled to himself. *Boom!* An explosion rang out as the wizards began attacking Fluffy, Draco who was on top of Fluffy cast a shield charm protecting them from incoming attacks whereas Fluffy was jumping around throwing and tearing every wizard in his path like they were nothing, some spells were beginning to harm them as Fluffy madly roared and started attacking crazily and more fiercely as well. "What do we do?" A wizard asked Pius where he just pointed at Draco attacking them still on top of Fluffy. The wizard understanding nodded as he apparated on top of Fluffy, behind Draco. His wand shining bright he was about to attack when suddenly Draco turned back towards him smirking as he whispered something. The man heard a growl from beneath him, he looked down to see Draco''s suitcase wide open, before he could even read a spell or jump to the side, A huge flame rose up from the suitcase burning the wizard completely as his lifeless body dropped back on the ground. Seeing most wizards dead, Draco caught his suitcase and jumped off Fluffy, the moment he did, Starlight came out of his suitcase, Draco quickly got hold of Starlight''s neck and rode on him, while still falling from Fluffy. As soon as they landed Starlight started rushing forward with his quickest speed, throwing away wizards in front of his path whereas Draco kept attacking with every offensive spell he knew, killing them through unconventional means. As they reached the gate, Starlight kicked it, completely destroying the mansion''s door. Draco quickly dodged a spell coming his way as he jumped out of Starlight quickly chanting, "Langlock." Not being able to open her mouth the woman wasn''t able to chant a spell as Starlight rushed towards her completely knocking her out. Draco not without a hint of mercy burned the woman down with a spell not caring if she was already dead or was only unconscious. He didn''t even care if they were under the imperius curse or not. Draco rushed forward towards the roof through the grand stairs only to be attacked by a hidden wizard out of nowhere, Draco was sent flying back, his back slamming against the wall. The man''s eyes were normal as he grinned idiotically, "Not so fast boy." "An auror huh?" Draco said wiping the blood from his mouth, seeing the man not under Imperius curse he quickly tried to think of something as he saw his wand in front of him. "Indeed." The man said throwing a bright yellow light towards Draco, Draco rolled over on the side dodging the spell. The wall where the spell hit cracked with a small hole through it. "That was close." Draco said trying to reach for his wand secretly, "Why are you betraying the ministry?" Draco asked hoping to keep the man busy before he reaches his wand. "Knowledge of course." The man said, attacking Draco again but this time he was too late as the spell hit his legs puncturing one side of his thigh, Draco yelled in pain looking at the man with hatred. "Just stay here." The man said grinning, "Why?" Draco asked again. "Didn''t you hear? Knowledge." The man said. Draco snorted, "Whatever Pius can give you, I can make it double." "Oh, my dear genius is making a deal is he?" The man said with a slightly crazy face, "But I am afraid you can''t give me even half of what Pius is giving me." Draco surprised, was thinking things through as the man came towards him, kicking off his wand away. Draco looked at the grinning man with a raised eyebrow. "Still confident are you." The man said raising his wand once again. Draco quickly kicked the suitcase with his other leg, opening it. "You should have kicked the suitcase away too." The moment he said that the murtlap came jumping out of his suitcase jumping on the man surprising him. Draco quickly whistled before the man could have a chance. Outside the vampires were in full of shock and awe, they could have never imagined a kid being able to do this amount of destruction from taking out a hellhound killing several wizards all at once to even calling out a unicorn. In all this Mordred was impressed nonetheless. "Umm..." The man whose tongue Draco tied was trying to say something but couldn''t. Mordred took out his wand and released the man from his misery. The man finally sighed in relief as he said, "Why is he so powerful father?" He was afraid if the previous fight had continued he would be the same as the wizard who was torn in half. "He isn''t." Mordred snorted seeing the weakness of his own son. "He is a normal wizard for a kid he is pretty good but he isn''t even the same level as ordinary adult wizards." "But that power rush we felt." "It wasn''t a power rush but more like his body absorbing and releasing magic at an intense speed." Mordred explained while the surrounding Vampires were nodding and listening carefully, "We with the royal blood can sense magic so this should be a very important lesson for all of you, The boy doesn''t have any increase in magic but he is just filling up the pot full of water till it leaks out again and again so even if he wastes magic he can keep filling it up again." The vampires nodded finally understanding what was going on. --------------------------------------- 1) I called Fluffy a Hellhound because his race isn''t specified in the books nor in wiki. But it is said that Three-headed dogs are prominent in Greek and Roman mythology and are also known as hellhounds. So I picked his race as a Hellhound since it seemed cool. 2) The vampires sensing power is similar to byakugan (for easy understanding) but they can only sense mana like they sensed chakra in Naruto. They can''t see the x-ray version of your body or something like that. 3) So this is me trying to write an intense fight scene without being absurdly OP. like using his tools and his surrounding than fighting with sole powe 83 Surrender. After Draco entered inside the mansion Elanor was slightly afraid, as explosions kept ringing out from within the mansion time and time again, her senses weren''t developed to pick up whether Draco was alive or not as she could only sense some random magic here and there. Suddenly, there wasn''t anything, it was silent inside the mansion. She then heard a sudden scream from within the mansion and knew that it was Draco''s. She didn''t know why but she felt very panicked. "Is he done for?" A woman in robe asked she had similar features as Elanor but she looked much older. "Shut up, Victoria!" Elanor said with anger. "He isn''t going to die yet." Victoria looked surprised as she had never seen her little sister yell at her before and now she was doing it for a human she met a couple of days ago, A huge grin began to form on her face, "Oh! Don''t tell me you like that little brat." she said "Shut up!" Elanor said still anxious, she didn''t have the heart to blush or feel weird from that comment as she was extremely worried for Draco. Her brother looked at Mordred, his father and back at Elanor, "A vampire can''t have relations with humans, so its best if you forget about it." Mordred didn''t say anything but just stood there silently, no one knew what he was thinking. "She is going to have a relationship with him if he manages to even survive this, which I believe he won''t." Another man said snorting. "A foolish human being filled with unnecessary emotions for even strangers. Turns out it was all for his friend." "I said shut up!" Elanor said aloud again looking extremely angry, "A trash like you who can''t even use magic has no right to talk ill about others." "Elanor, I am your brother." The man said, "Even if I can''t use magic, you should be well aware that I can snap your neck this instant." "Go ahead." Elanor snorted, "Okay! now-now... you know the rule no fighting between siblings." Victoria said stepping forward, "Let''s have a bet instead." "What bet?" The man asked. Victoria smiled and looked back at the mansion, "If he can survive this ordeal, Elanor wins and if he doesn''t you win." "What do I win then?" The man asked arrogantly. "If I win, you will be labeled as useless trash forever, if you win I will leave the family," Elanor said angrily. "Fine." The man gritted his teeth, "Hmph! I will even throw you an extra offer, I will leave the family myself if I lose." With his much more advanced senses he could perfectly hear Draco screaming in pain, so he was very sure of his win. "Deal!" "Deal!" "I will be the witness for the bet so make sure to follow up the bet you two." Victoria grinned. "I am sure I will win--" Before the man could even finish his sentence another scream rang out as a man came flying through the window, through the crack they could see Draco standing up and walking up towards the roof. Elanor snickered as she turned her head back to look at the man more arrogantly, "How about it, Raymond." Even though this man in front of her was her own step-brother, she never liked him due to his arrogant attitude. He was born without magic but he still acted tough and loved to bring other people down whenever he could to satisfy his own insecurities. Raymond was the only sibling that Elanor hated the most. Raymond glared at Elanor in anger, "There are still many people left, I wonder how long your little boyfriend can survive this." -------------------------------------------- As soon as Draco whistled, Starlight came rushing from downstairs kicking the wizard out of the window. Draco quickly grabbed his wand, "Accio." He chanted, pulling the murtlap closer as he was trying to escape. The murtlap tried to bite him a couple of time but Draco didn''t mind. "You did a good job," Draco said putting the murtlap back inside the suitcase. "You too buddy," Draco said to Starlight. Starlight happily neighed. Draco took out some potion bottle and poured it on his wound and drank a couple, the wound quickly closed stopping the bleeding but the pain was still there. Draco had some numbing potions with him but he couldn''t take it as he still had some fight left, so he couldn''t have himself dozing up on potions. "I killed around 36 wizards so 12 left," Draco said standing up with the support of Starlight. This two days he killed a lot of people, rather than feeling sad or guilty he was numbing up to it but he was still afraid that he would lose himself, killing was important to survive, today or tomorrow he had to get used to it but he never expected to have blood in his hand so early on. It took some time for the potion to kick in and he could finally move but barely. The shock against the wall had calmed him down significantly as he was back in control of his body but the rage hadn''t left. Draco took a deep breath and thought things carefully. "Get inside the suitcase." Draco said to Starlight who understanding him slightly hesitated as he came forward urging him to get on top of him. "It''s okay buddy." Draco said with a smooth voice, "I can''t handle the fights alone now and with this, we can launch secret attacks so please trust me, I won''t die." Starlight reluctantly entered back into the suitcase as Draco picked it up. He looked at the huge gash on his leg, "Well I guess another scar doesn''t matter much." He said to himself slowly walking up, carefully checking in his surrounding with the spell, "Homenum Revelio" If he was in his right mind before this wound would never have happened but it had already happened. Draco sensed 8 people on the top floor as he slowly walked up the stairs. Up the people were waiting for him, from what Draco knew, these people didn''t want to kill him but capture him any way possible so he just planned to surrender. "I give up!" Draco said walking up towards the empty hall. All the wizards pointed their wands at him but only 3 showed slight emotions as they walked a little forward towards him, still not letting their guard down. "I am injured and can''t continue anymore, tell Pius that I give up." Draco said again The wizards looked at each other, nodding they looked back at Draco, "Throw your wand and suitcase towards us and raise your hands up." Draco did as he was instructed and slid his wand and suitcase towards them. The men looked at each other as one of them said something to another person and went up towards the roof, probably to inform Pius. The other man looked back at Draco, "What happened to the woman who was guarding the gate?" "The one with the dark dress?" Draco asked innocently laying back against the wall. "Don''t act smart with me, there is only a single woman inside the mansion, my wife." The man said pointing his want towards Draco, "What did you do with her?" "Oh, she was your wife..." Draco said tilting his head innocently as if he was thinking something, "Don''t play games with me or I will kill you, regardless of what Pius wants." The man said growling. "Your wife--@#@#," Draco said the last words in whispers. "What did you say? Say it clearly." The man shouted once again, Draco just grinned when suddenly the suitcase opened up and Norberta came jumping out of the suitcase breathing fire as she burned all the wizards, some attacked but the spells just repelled from her body. In a matter of seconds, the seven wizards burned to crisps as their lifeless bodies fell down on the ground. "Your wife died the same death as you." Draco snorted picking up the suitcase as he sent Norberta back in. -------------------------------------------------- 84 Who are you? "Those flames again." Victoria said, seeing the fire rose up from the window. "Father, is that what I think it is?" "Yes, Dragon flame." Mordred nodded, he was more than familiar with Dragons as they were their source of food sometimes. Mordred himself had fought many Dragons before but not one of them felt close to following orders, Mordred wondered why the Dragon was helping Draco and why wasn''t he releasing the Dragon fully but he finally knew why. The Dragon was still small to be used to its full extent. The more he knew about Draco the more he found him interesting, far interesting than any other human he had met before. ------------------------------------- A moment later the man showed up with Pius, Theodore, and the remaining three wizards. The two awaken people looked at the burnt place in shock, even Pius''s face was dark and Draco was nowhere to be seen. They looked at the dead bodies which were their friends before but now they couldn''t even be recognized properly. They turned back and looked at Pius, "That kid is insane." One of them said, "I quit." "Me too." The other man said, "You can take back all the money you gave me." "You can quit but you have to quit the knowledge I gave you as well," Pius said arrogantly, "I showed you the true taste of power, and you''re telling me that you want to give it all away, he is a 12-year-old kid for Merlin''s sake." "But he isn''t that simple." The man shook his head, "He killed everyone in a matter of seconds now all you have left is two people under the imperius curse, one is a kid and the other is an auror similar to the ones that the kid has killed several times before. I read rumors about him being a dark lord but now I know for sure that he is one." "Yeah, I am sorry, I give up as well." The man said, "You have knowledge about all these spells and formations, so I am sure that you have a spell to erase the memories of all the knowledge you gave us." "Yes, with your power I am sure you can defeat him alone." "Idiots." Pius said, "Quitting in the final moment, the kid''s already injured and most of his cards are already out in the open, and you are still scared." The two men stayed silent and didn''t say anything sill to wanting to quit. "Voldemort made it seem much easier..." Pius mumbled, "Expelliramus--Go and kill them." He said to the auror who was under the Imperius curse as he threw the wands of those guys far away. The two of them looked afraid as the auror chanted, "Avada Kedavra." Afraid, one of the men quickly pushed the other in front as he died on impact of the curse, the man rushed towards the auror trying to fight for his life, but since the other man was under the Imperius curse he kept fighting like a robot who didn''t feel pain. Suddenly out of nowhere, Draco''s voice came out as he jumped from behind the couch, "Confundo." *Boom* The explosion sounded out as the two people who were fighting were suddenly sent out of the mansion through the wall only to be ripped apart by Fluffy who was still down there. Pius grinned at Draco, "There you are." "Expelliramus." Draco chanted but Pius who was completely fine dodged the curse without any problem. Draco who was extremely tired panted. "You are more interesting than I thought." Pius said, "For bearing only power, you certainly got more knowledgable in no time, guess I am the only one with the disadvantage." "What do you mean?" "You don''t remember so it''s pointless to tell you." Pius said launching a spell as Draco barely dodged it, with his injured leg he wasn''t able to move around easily and not to mention he was extremely tired as the past couple of days he has been fighting and traveling with not much proper time to heal. Draco was panting heavily, all these things were getting more and more confusing, ''What knowledge is he talking about?'' Draco thought, Pius according to what he knew from the books shouldn''t be so manipulative as he could have gotten out of Voldemort''s hand easily, if this was the case and the thing he said just before kept bugging Draco, ''How the hell does he know how Voldemort does his work, he wasn''t a death eater nor was he in the order of Pheonix to know how Voldemort worked.'' "What are you thinking, dear Draco?" Pius asked grinning madly. "Ah! look at your face full of scars, I am sure your friends and parents will be shocked when they see you again, maybe they will be happy that you fought bravely or they will be disgusted by your face. Humans right? So difficult to understand them." "Who are you?" "Smart!" Pius said launching another spell as he tied up Draco in a rope. His wand fell down. "Interesting suitcase you have got there but where is it?" Pius searched around but he couldn''t find anything, "Did you lose it?" He asked Draco who was struggling to get out of the rope. "Who are you?" Draco asked again, "You aren''t Pius but you don''t seem to be under the curse as well." "Oh! Believe me when I say that you will know soon." Pius said pointing his wand towards Theodore, "But first tell me where your suitcase is or your friend here dies. Don''t worry I just want a quick look." Draco gritted his teeth angrily, "Do you think I won''t hunt you down and kill you?" "I believe so." Pius said, "Now quick." He said waving his wand as Theodore fell on the ground screaming in pain. "Stop!" Draco yelled, "It''s underneath the cushion." Pius smiled happily, "See it wasn''t that hard was it." He said walking towards the sofa but as soon as he picked it up, the murtlap jumped towards Pius, as it bit his nose. Pius struggled to get the murtlap out pushing it away only to be left with a scraped bleeding nose, The murtlap quickly bit his hand as it was trying to escape from him causing his wand to drop. As soon as the wand was released from his hand, the grip on the rope loosened and Draco quickly got out of it. "Accio" He chanted getting Pius''s wand. Now it was Draco turn to bind Pius as he tied him up in a similar way struggling to stand up, he said, "You are clever I admit that but you overthink simple things." "I tend to do that sometimes." Pius said without a trace of worry in his voice, "I try to have a bit of faith in humanity but it always turns out to be disappointing." "Diffindo-" Draco said cutting one of Pius'' fingers off. Pius yelled in pain but the disgusting smile on his face didn''t waver. "Who are you?" "What are you going to do next? Chop my arm off?" Pius grinned. But to his surprise Draco grinned as well launching several severing charms, again and again, bit by bit slicing Pius''s arm completely as he kept yelling in pain. "Like me have you lost it as well." Pius asked in tears. The pain was driving him nuts. "Who are you?" Draco asked again but he didn''t get any response, as Draco tried to cast another charm, Theodore suddenly jumped at him pushing him away. ''Shit.'' Draco thought as had completely forgotten about Theodore, still being under Pius''s control. "No." Pius yelled but he crazily shook his head once again, he looked at them sweating, shaking his head again and again "Trash him Theodore-- Get out!-- Don''t kill him but you can do whatever you want." 85 Essence of Veela "Dude! wake up it''s me." Draco said dodging a punch. "I know you can get away from his control, I know you can-- okay stop trying to punch me you, idiot!" Draco said punching back right in his face. Draco quickly got up getting the chance, "Theodore, it''s me, your best friend, your childhood friend-- remember all the times we spent together, remember Pansy, Daphne, and all our other friends in Hogwarts-- Wake up Asshole! I know you can." Draco yelled. Theodore stooped in his tracks trying to get back control. His emotionless eyes started shining a bit. Draco knew this was working, "Remember the time when we first met and I forced you to become my friend even if you didn''t want to-- you looked so annoyed but deep inside I knew you were happy." "Don''t listen to him!" Pius yelled crazily, the rope had already come off but he was similarly struggling like Theodore, trying to get away from whoever was controlling him. "Shut up!" Theodore said taking out his wand and shutting Pius''s mouth shut with a spell, dropping on the ground. He had finally woken up. Draco sighed in relief, "You are back!" Draco smiled. "What the hell happened to your face?" Theodore said weakly laughing, but out of nowhere Pius suddenly grabbed the random wand on the ground and pushed Theodore out of the hole that Draco had made previously with a non-verbal spell. Theodore who was pushed away was sent out the wall flying but to his surprise, Draco blinked, he didn''t know why but he decided to trust him, a yellow ball came flying down with him. Theodore realizing what the ball was quickly caught it and squeaked it, as he was about to nearly fall on the ground, Fluffy caught him with his teeth hanging out by his robes. Theodore sighed in relief, he didn''t even mind the saliva that was dripping on top of him from Fluffy''s mouth. Fluffy slowly put him on the ground and to his surprise, Draco''s suitcase was there, which had a small note on top of it, that read: You see those four poles surrounding the mansion, destroy it and let the vampire''s outside in. Also, the suitcase is unlocked, put Fluffy inside it for me, would you. Theodore looked at the gate to find people in robes staring at him, ''Vampires really?'' At the same time, a vampire came rushing in towards Mordred as the person bowed in front of him, "King, some wizards have arrived and they have the princess''s blood printed handkerchief with them." Mordred nodded, "Let them in." --------------------------------------- Up inside the mansion, Draco rushed to pick up his wand as Pius threw a sofa towards him, "Cave inimicum" Draco quickly chanted conjuring a shield protecting himself. Draco had to admit that even after his mouth was shut sealed and one arm missing Pius was still not giving up without a fight. "You win this time." Pius said opening his mouth with his wand, "Make sure to read the letter--" He said throwing a letter to him. Draco caught the letter in surprise but as he looked back at Pius who was madly grinning, Draco felt something was wrong. "--If you survive this." Pius completed his sentence, self-destructing, a huge blast rose up, Draco blocked the flames with the shield but he was still sent flying by the force. Theodore who had just destroyed the poles looked at the flames that were rising up, "Shit!" Theodore said quickly sending Fluffy towards him, trying to catch Draco. Similarly, Elanora rushed quickly to save the falling Draco after the formation was destroyed, but both of them were too late as Draco''s body fell on the ground with a loud thud. "No!" Theodore yelled rushing towards Draco as he jumped up off Fluffy, He checked Draco to see his wound filled body, with burnt marks on them and some bones clearly broken. Theodore hurriedly checked his breathing and luckily Draco was still breathing but it was very weak. "Don''t worry buddy, I will save you." Theodore said quickly trying to heal his broken bones, the bones healed but the situation wasn''t any good. "It''s no use." Mordred said appearing behind Theodore, Theodore looked back to see a pack of vampires who looked indifferent and a girl who was on the ground her eyes wide open in shock. "It''s a pity he could have been a great war--" Before Mordred could finish his sentence, Theodore yelled at him, "He is still breathing so shut up!" Everyone was shocked as to how Theodore spoke to Mordred. "Humans really don''t have any manners." Raymond snorted as he grinned looking at Elanor, "So little sis, I win, right?" Elanor looked at Raymond with eyes filled with anger, as she was about to say something an explosion suddenly rang out, throwing Raymond far away. The vampires shocked looked at the perpetrator who attacked Raymond as it was none other than Theodore, "You Fuckers shut up or I will kill all of you!!" He yelled madly as he turned back again at Draco again, trying every healing spell he knew. "Sigh! What a sight!" Victoria said, "One tries to save the other and the other one does the same as well, even though they have no familial connections between them, wizard-- no humans are really weird." "I''ve got it." Elanor suddenly said quickly rushing towards Draco. Theodore looked at Elanor with vigilance, "I know him and I can save him." Elanor quickly explained to Theodore. Theodore looked at her for a while and went back to doing his own thing. "You shouldn''t make false promises, Ela." Mordred said. "It''s not a false promise father." Elanore showed him a vial which shined brightly. Mordred eyes lit up, "Is that--" "Yes, Father I managed to get it from the Veela''s." "And you want to use it on a human?" Victoria said with her eyes wide open, "We don''t know much about the potion, his normal body may not be able to handle it let alone his injured one." "We know that it is said to even bring the dead back to life," Elanor said with determined eyes. "And he can survive it if I mark him." "Have you gone mad?" Victoria said, "What are you--" Mordred raised his hands stopping Victoria, "Are you sure?" He asked looking at Elanor. Elanor nodded without any hesitation. "You were the one who found it so it belongs to you, so do whatever you want with it." "But Father--" The other Vampires said but Mordred shook his head, "It''s her choice." "Let him drink this." Elanor said to Theodore who was glaring at her, "I am the only chance at saving your friend here or else he will just die." Theodore knew she was right, nothing was working and this was the last chance at saving him, "I will torture you to death if something bad happens to him." He said walking aside. Elanora nodded and fed Draco the potion. As soon as she did, Draco''s body started shining brightly, engulfing him in light, the scars on his body visibly started disappearing, his hair was turning completely white and his facial structure was changing, "What the hell was that?" Theodore said shocked seeing what was happening. "The potion is something called, the essence of Veela." Mordred explained his eyes still on Draco, "The potion is said to have the purest essence collected by every Veela queen open her death. The potion collects in the form of drops so one life of a queen is only worth a single drop of the potion." Theodore stood there in shock, "What are its uses? Can it really save Draco?" "I don''t know about that but as for your first question-- no one knows about its uses other than the queen herself but the potion as mentioned before is said to have an abnormal healing factor, along with beautifying the person drinking it." "Beautifying you mean--" "Yes, It is said that the person starts becoming more and more like a Veela, but to what extent and how that I don''t know of." 86 Kiss. The energy that came from Draco''s body was so high that even Theodore could sense it without even trying. He turned back putting Fluffy inside Draco''s suitcase and closing it, he sighed praying for Draco''s safety as he looked back at Draco. Draco''s face and his whole body had significantly changed, his hair was now completely snow white, he had gotten a little taller than before and his face was even more beautiful than a girls, but Theodore wasn''t in a mood for jokes since if the potion turned out to be weird as he was imagining it to be, Draco could permanently turn into a Veela which wasn''t a good thing at all. "His energy''s way out of control." Mordred said, "If you want to do it now''s the right time." "Wait do what?" Theodore asked but he didn''t get any answers in return but instead he saw what they were talking about with his own eyes. Elanor sat near Draco as she cut her lips with her teeth and cut Draco''s lips with her nail, without any warning Elanor kissed Draco, murmuring something. Theodore looked weirdly at them and back at Mordred, "What the hell is going on?" "My sister''s getting married," Victoria replied walking towards Theodore with a smile on her face which looked quite scary. "Wait, Marriage?" Theodore was shocked, "But you didn''t even ask--" "We didn''t ask him if he wants to or not?" Victoria snickered, "We could but your friend needs to be alive to do that." "What does keeping him alive have anything to do with him getting married?" "Everything." Victoria said, "You could feel it right? The intense magic building around him." Theodore nodded as she continued, "You see the binding ceremony is the only way we could control it now without turning him into a vampire, which is the second option. You might ask what binding ceremony is so let me explain-- The binding ceremony combines the life and soul of the two-person, completely sharing each other''s life both physically and mentally. Even though I called it marrying, even married couple don''t tend to do this as it is too much to ask for." "Then does that mean if Draco dies your sister will too?" "Yes." Victoria said, Theodore still looked at her in doubt, "Hmph! Doubting me are you?" Victoria said snorting. "I have the reason to." Theodore said, "Why would a girl that Draco met, I don''t know 2 days ago be willing to share life and fate with him so randomly?" "That''s what confuses me as well." Victoria said, "But its a tradition in our family not to object when someone wants to perform this ritual." "Your family? Thinking about that, do every vampire have this power?" "Why wanna marry one?" Victoria said showing a sweet but seductive smile but seeing Theodore''s serious and dull face she turned back to normal, snorting she said, "You are no fun." "I am just trying to put two and two together," Theodore said. "No, only our Royal family is capable of that ritual." Victoria replied. "Royal huh so are you like a princess or something?" "You took that pretty well than expected!" "I just heard about the potion from a Veela queen so I am not surprised that you would have a king as well." Theodore said, "And from the conversation of the guy who I just blew up, I could tell that you were probably a noble or something similar." While they were having their conversation, Draco and Elanor ended their kiss, Elanor was still blushing deeply as she started chanting some Mantra again and again. Inside Draco''s consciousness, Elanor''s voice rang out. ''Draco, can you hear me?-- it''s me Elanor.'' Draco who was floating freely inside his conscious opened his eyes curiously looking around where the voice came from. ''Draco, do you hear me?'' Draco recognized the voice, it was Elanor. ''I do.'' he answered. ''Finally, I want you to repeat these words after me-- don''t ask any questions, for now, I will explain it to you later on.'' ''Okay,'' Draco said as he chanted everything Elanor said line by line, ''Anima et corpus meum et tuum. Omnia enim et meum est quod habes quod tuum est. Aeternum et ultra usque hodie ab omnibus, et simul semper esse, Vivere et mori in unum una. Voveo praedonis in nomine deus, caelum et terram.'' (I translated it from English to Latin, the original meaning of it is, ''Your body and soul is mine and mine is yours. Everything that you have is mine and I have is yours. From today till all eternity and beyond, we will always be together, Live together and die together. I vow in the name of God, earth, and heaven.'') After Draco repeated those words light started shining in front of his eyes as he looked in surprise. To the delight of Theodore and Elanor, Draco slowly opened his eyes. He remembered everything that happened before as he stood up in shock looking around. "Calm down its over," Elanor said smiling at Draco. Draco looked at Elanor as he felt calm, he felt a connection between him and her as if everything was connected between them. Their breathing and even their heartbeat were in sync. Being looked at by Draco, Elanor blushed but suddenly a punch came ruining the beautiful atmosphere between them. Draco held his cheek looking at Theodore as he quickly punched back. "What was that for asshole? Can''t you see I''m hurt." "That''s for not coming sooner and stupidly coming alone." Theodore slapped Draco. Draco quickly slapped back as well, "Well if I didn''t I thought you would be tortured to death." "What torture?" Theodore slapped once again. "Didn''t you suffer any?" Draco slapped back. "Pius asked me some questions but since he couldn''t get the answers out of me he quickly started putting me under the imperius curse, but he didn''t torture me in any way." Draco nodded holding his cheek. "Have you seen your face?" Theodore said holding his face as well. "I know it''s full of scars so what of it?" Draco snorted, "You want to complain that it made me more ugly than it was before right? Go on tell me how I look more like a villain-- do you think you are smart or something, I already know what you want to say." Theodore annoyed threw his suitcase at him, "Check for yourself." Draco confused opened the suitcase, he was even more scared now, since due to the explosion his face may even be more fucked up than before, reluctantly he looked into the mirror only to be greeted by the most handsome face he had seen in his life. The perfect white hair along with his now bright blue eyes and flawless skin, made him looked more dashing even his imperfections like his pointed nose and huge forehead was solved. He kept looking at himself in the mirror as Mordred suddenly coughed. "What is this?" Draco asked confused. "It turns out your life-saving potion works as a permanent beautifying potion as well." Theodore explained snorting, "You need to thank that lady over there because she gave it all to you." Draco looked at Elanor who looked shyer, "Umm... thanks for saving me, I guess." he said awkwardly. "It wasn''t anything," Elanor said shaking her head fiercely, Draco was still confused as to why she was acting different, "I will take it as a favor then." Draco said, "Do you want anything? I will give it to you no matter what it is." "No, it doesn''t matter." Elanor said standing up, "What''s mine is yours anyway." She mumbled the last part but Draco heard it, "What are you--" Draco was about to ask what she was talking about when he suddenly remembered the things he repeated in his consciousness, translating it back he realized that it was definitely weird. "Um.. what just happened? Can someone explain it to me more clearly?" "Congratulation on your marriage buddy." Theodore said patting Draco''s back with a huge grin on his face, "You got a new face and a new wife, have fun explaining that to those three girls." "Wait what three girls?" Elanor asked. 87 Who are you.? "Wait! What three girls?" Elanor asked confused. "Okay shut up, can someone explain what''s going on to me?" Draco said as he didn''t hear anything else from the talk about marriage. Theodore then proceeded to explain all the things while Draco tried to understand the situation. "It''s nothing, just consider it as a payment." Elanor said, "You have saved my life twice already and this was my chance to save yours, at least once." "But you will die if I die, its kinda intense isn''t it?" Draco said awkwardly, he was happy to be alive and thankful that Elanor saved him but all this was a bit too sudden and too intense for Draco to handle and comprehend. "I understand," Elanor said nodding. "But what''s done is already done, I will try my hardest not to die and you do your hardest not to as well, with this we will have no problems." Draco could hear the awkwardness in her voice as he sighed, he walked up to Elanor and pulled her into a hug. Elanor surprised, tried to escape from his grip but couldn''t since she herself didn''t put much effort into it, maybe deep inside she didn''t want to get away from his hug. Right now Draco was much taller than before, even though he wasn''t as tall as Elanor but the gap between them didn''t seem that obvious like before. At the moment Lucius and the other Aurors appeared quickly but stopped seeing all the dead bodies on the ground and the perpetrator of all this was hugging a girl in peace. Draco didn''t even realize that other people had arrived in the scene as he was lost in Elanor''s scent, both of them were in peace, feeling their heartbeat beating in sync. Theodore and Mordred including a couple of other vampires walked over to them as they began explaining the situation while Lucius was weirdly looking at the two of them from time to time, he wanted to interrupt them but he didn''t have the heart to do so, seeing the peaceful air around them. --------------------------- "Hey, does that mean I am a Veela now?" Draco whispered in Elanor''s ear. "I don''t know." Elanor said with a bit worried tone, "Do you feel like you can transform?" Draco tried to transform but couldn''t, "Not really." "How about the fire from your hands?" "Let me see." Draco said trying to conjure fire in his hands as he concentrated hard and to his surprise, some sparks flew from his hands. "Maybe..." Elanor looked at the sparks and looked back at Draco, "I am sorry, other than the potion we didn''t really have any choice." Elanor said. ''I did have the phoenix tears but its too late now.'' Draco thought to himself slightly afraid, he tried to calm down since the thing had already happened so there was no point in crying over the spoiled milk. He suddenly remembered something as he checked his pockets and there it was; the letter. Draco wanted to read it now but he didn''t since things were very confusing right now and he didn''t want people to get unnecessarily worried. "What are you thinking?" Elanor said, worried that Draco was still upset. "Nothing really." Draco shook his head, right now he had other problems to deal with, "Elanor--" "Call me Ela, that''s what my close family members call me anyway." "So Ela, about our connections, I am really thankful that you saved me--" Elanor''s face had a variety of emotions as Draco began to speak, "--I think you''re really beautiful, I do and even though the time we spent together was short, I really like your personality." Elanor looked into Draco''s eyes as she smiled and said, "Really? I thought you were afraid of me." "I was, at first at least." Draco said scratching his hair, "I was kinda afraid that you liked me too much and wanted to turn me into a vampire." "Narcissism is it?" Elanor snorted. "Well I did save you and from the theory I have, girls heart flutters when someone does that, so I guessed you wanted to." Draco said smirking, "And look at me now, I wasn''t wrong, was I?" "Time called for it, don''t be too arrogant." Elanor hit Draco in the chest with a bit of force, "So what now..." "Now? Do you want to have babies?" Draco said making Elanora jump a little, "I want ten, how about you?" "Wait-- you aren''t serious are you?" "Of course I am, you''re my wife right?" Draco smirked. "We didn''t even marry." Elanor said moving backward with blushing cheeks on her pale face, "It was just a ritual nothing else." Elanor was having a bit of hard time facing Draco as he now looked and acted completely different, before he was just a kid who was way too serious about finding the person who hurt him but now he looked more relaxed and his face was too much to handle, right now. "After the ritual, we became one didn''t we?" Draco said smiling as he started walking closer to her, "It will leave a bad taste in my mouth if you were to become someone else''s." Elanor was deeply breathing trying to calm down as she looked at Draco, "I can understand your feelings a little bit, but we can''t- I can''t come with you right now." Draco looked at her with his eyebrows raised, getting serious he said "I too understand a little, I like you and I am guessing you like me as well-- but I know what we have here isn''t completely, love either. So let''s give us a chance at the very least." "What do you want to do?" Elanor asked looking serious. Whether they liked it or not, now both of them were tied up together, fate and life alike. So she would rather consider a relationship with Draco than other people. "Right now I am young, maybe a bit too young." Draco said, "So after I finish my school, why not spent time together to know whether we can work out or not." "How many years do you have left till you finish your school?" "6 years," Draco said. "Isn''t that a bit too long." Elanor said sourly, "Wouldn''t we forget about each other till then?" Draco smiled and flicked her forehead, "We can meet time and time again during my holidays like this, can''t we? And besides, if fate has it then we will surely meet early on." Elanor rubbed her forehead as she pouted looking a bit angrily at Draco, "Fine, it will work I guess." She said, "I am going to be busy with the problems of my own and my family." "What about your family?" Draco asked curiously. Elanor looked at her father and saw that he was talking to some people, "Looks like the people who were searching for you are here." She said. Draco looked at Lucius and the others as he sighed, "I will go talk to them, want to come with me?" "No." Elanor shook her head, "Draco you have to understand the relation between a human and vampires aren''t that simple, I don''t know about your family but I know mine, I am not sure my father would appreciate it." Draco sighed as he thought how Lucius would react if he knew what he was planning, "I don''t know about my father." Draco said, "But I know my mother would be happy at the very least and as for my family, my circumstances are different as I am the sole heir of the Black family right now." "Yeah, what''s with that?" Elanor said, "Are you a Malfoy or Black?" "I was born a Malfoy but I took over the Black family." Draco explained shortly, "So even if your parent''s don''t agree, we can still run away." "Okay stop saying weird things." Elanor pushed Draco a little, "Go, that man over there keeps looking at you, is he your father?" "Yes." Draco nodded as he walked up to Lucius. As he kept walking closer the more awkward he felt since all this happened due to both of them pressurizing each other. "Hello, father." He said smiling but Lucius looked at him weirdly. "Who are you?" Lucius said. -------------- (That awkward moment when you get plastic surgery and your parent''s don''t recognize you anymore.) 88 Who are you pt.2 "Who are you?" Lucius said looking at Draco weirdly. "I am your son." Draco said a bit angrily, "I know you are angry but can you at least show a bit of emotion, I almost died." Lucius looked strangely at Draco then back at Theodore, "Is he really?" he asked. Draco was getting really pissed off right now when Theodore pushed him a little as he signaled his face. Draco looked weirdly at him for a while, ''Oh yeah! I am a handsome devil now.'' he remembered. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy, he is Draco." Theodore said, "Somethings happened and for better or for worse, his face is stuck like this now." "It''s actually the poti--" Mordred wanted to clear the misunderstanding but Draco interrupted him. "Yeah, the potion, I was injured quite a bit but the potion healed everything," Draco gave a vague explanation, he didn''t want people to know about him becoming a partial Veela. Since no one knew about this potion and its effect, Draco wasn''t sure what was happening to him right now so making other people worried about this topic wasn''t necessary. Mordred looked at Draco, understanding he didn''t say anything else and kept quiet. Lucius sighed as he pushed Draco around looking for wounds in his body, "Are you fine?" "Yes, father." Draco said awkwardly. "The injuries are gone for good." "What kind of potion is it?" Fudge asked interestedly but seeing Mordred''s emotionless face he didn''t continue on. Draco was surprised seeing Fudge here as he was the minister and he was supposed to be quite busy. He looked at Lucius for an answer. "We dragged him along of course since this was partially his fault." Lucius said. "He himself also wanted to make sure that both of you were okay, Right Cornelius?" "You have done a good deed, Draco." Fudge awkwardly coughed and said, "Mr. Cruorem have explained a few things to us and least to say I am very surprised." Draco looked at Mordred wanting to know what he said to them since he didn''t want others to know about his animals as they will be taken away. "I told them how you astonishingly defeated all these dark wizards with the clear use of brain and spells." Mordred grimly said, "Your father should be very proud of you." "I am." Lucius said smiling a little. "Yes, Draco, I will personally make sure to award you properly." Fudge said chiming in as if nothing ever happened, "We have somethings to discuss first, so we will take our leave Mr. Cruorem. We apologize for bothering you." "These things were part of our fault as well but now since the perpetrator of all this is dead we have no problems." Mordred nodded and said as he turned back walking away, Draco was surprised that Mordred didn''t bring up anything about Elanor, maybe he just wanted Draco to leave. "Vampires are really hard to handle..." Fudge said wiping his sweat off, "Lucius, I will leave the Aurors here to check for other things and take back the bodies-- is no one alive?" Draco shook his head, "Every single one of them is dead." Fudge started sweating more and the Aurors and other families present there were giving Draco a weird look, some filled with respect and some filled with fear. Fudge took a big gulp and said, "Oh-- that''s fine, you take some rest first we will talk about other things, thoroughly." A kid killing 40+ wizard was an amazing thing to do, even though some potions were involved to heal him, that didn''t matter since none of them were confident enough to accomplish the same feat. They looked at the smoke coming out of the mansion which had its roof missing in awe. Fudge then turned back and started talking with the Aurors about the bodies. Draco nodded as he knew he had broken quite a few rules here and there, he was wondering how Fudge would handle the situation, and most importantly there was another enemy lurking around the corner who no one knew about. "Let''s go." Lucius said standing up. "Where are we going?" Draco asked. "We have booked a Hotel not far from here." Lucius said, "We will take shelter there today and move out tomorrow since both of you look exhausted. I also have to write a letter to your mother to let her know that you are fine. We have a lot of talking to do when we reach home." Draco felt quite guilty about making his mother worry but what could he do, since he himself didn''t expect things to turn this way. Draco looked at Theodore who was similarly having a conversation with his father as well. "By the way, is that the girl you mentioned?" Lucius asked. "Yeah, she is someone who helped me in the Venus forest." Draco said as he looked back at Elanor who was talking with another girl. "Say your goodbyes, we need to leave." Lucius said. Draco nodded and rushed back towards Elanor, the two girls looked at him, one he didn''t know about but he didn''t care about her right now. "So, I am leaving right now." Draco said awkwardly. "Sure." Elanor nodded as she smiled, "Let''s meet again soon." "Yeah! you can send me owls from time to time." Draco said writing his address down, "I am mostly in Hogwarts so you can send the letters there." "Okay." Elanor said taking the piece of paper. Draco not knowing what to say anymore sighed, he walked near Elanor and pulled her into a quick embrace, he quickly separated and kissed her cheeks, "Thank you." he said running away. "Oh looks like the kids fallen for you." Victoria teased looking at the stiff Elanor, who had a red face. "Shut up." Elanor said shaking her head, "What about Raymond?" "He escaped when all the commotion happened," Victoria said folding her arms. "He''s probably too embarrassed to show his face anymore and took the chance to run away. Anyway, I am glad to finally get rid of that annoying trash." "Did you know Draco would win?" Elanor asked as she remembered that she was the one who initiated the bet. Victoria shrugged her shoulders as she took out a coin, "I have been practicing some divination." Elanor sighed as she turned to look at Draco who was going inside a weird vehicle as he flew off with some people. "Let''s go." She said. Elanor was in a good mood today, she completed the mission of stealing the potion, even if that potion had to be used on Draco no one needs to know that, all they need to understand was that she removed the shame and completed the revenge of her family which was lingering around for centuries. ----------------------------------------------------- Draco quickly ran back to Lucius as they got out of the mansion. Walking out Draco felt something move around him as he quickly turned around and noticed the murtlap which was trying to escape into the wild. Draco quickly ran over and secretly put the murtlap back in the case, he was very surprised that the murtlap was still alive especially since he was ready for its death as he used it as a sacrifice. "I will prepare a special treat for you little guy," Draco said smiling. Lucius noticed that and sighed, "Since when did you start taking care of them?" "Its been awhile," Draco said awkwardly, he didn''t know what Lucius reaction would be if he knew there was a live Dragon inside. "You''re lucky no Auror or ordinary people saw you that day or else it would have been really bad, your animal would be taken away and you will probably face some charges as well." Lucius said. Draco quickly understood that he was talking about Starlight. "Sorry, Father." Draco said. 89 Letter. "Sorry, Father." Draco apologized since all this could have been stopped if he had listened to Lucius that day in Gringotts but he was too busy trying to run away. "It doesn''t matter now." Lucius said shaking his head as they got inside the Ministry''s cars and flew away towards the hotel with Theodore''s and the others. "You might have listened to me if I didn''t order you around previously trying to cage you in. In this, we are both at fault." Draco didn''t say anything as he looked outside the car window. "Make sure to thank the families who supported us during this." Lucius reminded Draco. "Okay." Draco nodded, he was really happy with all the pure-blood families who came to his rescue in the time of need. "So how are you feeling?" Lucius asked. "I am fine, the potion surprisingly healed everything even my old scars." "I am not talking about that." Lucius said, "I am talking about your emotional state since you kill--" "I am quite fine actually." Draco said sighing, "At first, I felt extremely guilty when the first commotion happened as those blood were in my hand as well, but soon I had to kill with my own hands. Later, I began convincing myself that it was necessary since it was either me or them and before I knew it, I killed even more. I may be numb to say at the very least." Lucius nodded, he knew that his son was different from him, he wasn''t a dark wizard and he had normal human emotions. He didn''t want his son to kill so early on as well and was quite worried about what will happen from now on. "Sigh! There are a few things you want to know--" Lucius said as he began explaining what happened in his absence. -------------------------------------------- Back in the hotel room, Draco after a quick bath was sitting on his bed with the letter in his hand. Dear Draco or should I say fellow transmigrator, Shocked, are you? Well, I know you are even if you lie that you aren''t. If you are reading this then I am guessing you somehow survived the blast so first, let me introduce myself, I am Ryan Adams. My real name is... well it doesn''t matter in this world. I am a half-blood. I am sure you are totally confused about what''s going on so let me explain it to you. Let me start from the very beginning after we died due to the accident, Wait! Do you even remember how you died? Well, let''s keep that suspense for you. If I reveal everything in this letter it wouldn''t be fun anymore. Anyway, after we died we met this light called Mora, who controlled the space. He then explained about our past, why we were there and why we will be sent back to our original world, yes this is our original world, surprising right? In between all this, we were given two choices, one was to choose knowledge and the other was Power, and me being me quickly picked knowledge and you being too slow got Power by default. Through Knowledge, I remembered everything about our Past lives, all these different spells, potion formulae and even things you don''t remember but it turns out knowledge isn''t everything. Oh, how wrong was I. It turns out the most important thing is Power, which you contain my dear Draco. I have all this knowledge but I can''t use it to its full extent and you have all the power but you don''t have the required knowledge to use them fully, funny right? Due to me having more advantage than you, I got the worst fate possible, my parents weren''t that rich and I was born 3 years before the original story starts and to make things even worse, I am not even in Hogwarts but Durmstrang whereas you due to only having power you got the best fate among us, being born as Draco Malfoy, the dick character, rich parents and everything. When I first arrived here, I was disappointed with everything the only thing I liked was that I was more powerful than you will ever be, or at least I thought that was the case. In this school, other than this Victor Krum from the movies, I didn''t know about anyone else in Durmstrang, I begged my parents to send me to Hogwarts but everything was already set and no matter what I did, I was still sent to Durmstrang, that''s when I found you. Out of nowhere in the newspaper I saw your face, a potion genius they called you, I wonder if I show them my talent, what will they call me? Maybe a god? Anyway moving on, With your lack of knowledge I was sure that I will find you sooner or later but this was too easy than I imagined, as you showed yourself to me and slowly I began realizing something, I was lied and betrayed all along. You see, I realized that with Power you can slowly learn knowledge and progress but with Knowledge gaining power is very very hard, not impossible but difficult, especially when my legs don''t work. Yes, they don''t. I am like that weirdo from those x-men movies, the baldie, I am all so knowledgeable but I can''t do shit on my own. I then became extremely jealous of you, the more I saw you on the news the more I got irritated and angry, but then... something hit me. I could play you on my fingers all along. I quickly calculated all the things you could do with your power since even though you lack the knowledge you still have the memories of your previous life. I came to three different conclusions and planned things carefully and slowly, and within a year I was ready. I tricked Pius into becoming my pawn controlling him completely, its a nice spell you know, it''s pretty handy if you ask me. Back on the topic, I then started a riot against you, you see... you becoming a Black was one of the few things I concluded that you would do. Pretty typical if you ask me. So I started manipulating people and slowly I managed to gather a small mass to protest against you, I admit some of them had to be put under the curse but it still worked. Then came the Romania part, speaking to Dragons a handy skill isn''t it? I can do the same too, so I already had my men ready to trap you in Romania, but then came the unexpected parts. I didn''t think your friend will be present there, in fact, I thought you will be clever enough to keep these things to yourself, so that was a mistake on my part, I guess. Due to this, you managed to escape from my traps and then came the other unexpected part, the vampires, I don''t know how you did it, but you managed to turn them completely against me so you managed to dodge my other traps as well and went straight ahead into the mansion. You are probably asking, why do all this right? and you also probably have a lot of question you want to ask me, so why don''t you come to meet me. This year come visit me in Durmstrang, if you don''t, I will come for you dear Draco and I assure you things wouldn''t be as simple as before. This time I neither harmed your friends nor touched your family but the next time I am not sure that I will be able to control myself. I can answer so many of your questions, your wand, your death, and even your purpose so don''t hesitate too much. Don''t worry, I won''t harm you. Your other half, Ryan Adams. The letter burned into ashes as soon as he finished reading it. Draco frowned as he quickly took out a paper and a note and started writing down all the main points he could remember from the letter. "Other half..." Draco tried putting all the clues together but was still left with all these unanswered questions. Draco never believed in transmigration before until he came here so people other than him being transmigrated wasn''t too much of shock to him, in his previous life he was a worse than average guy, so he wasn''t a chosen one or something like that, so a fellow transmigrator could be understood. But the part about Mora, wand, other part left him very confused, about how he knew them and what purpose was he talking about. 90 Fear. Next morning, all of the families involved in the incident and the Minister along with some Aurors were chatting in the meeting room of the hotel. "So Draco, let''s talk about the incidents." Fudge said looking at Draco who was sitting on the opposite side of him. "Okay." Draco nodded, "If you have any questions, ask away." "First of all, let me start with why you went to Romania?" "Tourism." Draco lied with a straight face, "As you know that I am famous for my potions, I was researching on new materials and ingredients that could be tough and resilient which got me thinking about Dragons, and how could I use them to create more new potions or improve the existing ones." "Can you explain more briefly of how the incident took place and how you got there?" Draco then began explaining all the things that happened and how the incident took place, of course, he didn''t mention the animals, the letter and left many other things untouched. Fudge nodded but the Aurors around him weren''t that impressed with the answer, they all felt that there were holes in his story here and there but they couldn''t say anything. "Let me apologize for the incident since I was the one who agreed and allowed the task-force to be created but in my defense, I didn''t think any of this would happen." Fudge apologized under the watchful eyes of the pure-blood families, "I was forced to sign the application of the task force due to public pressure since you becoming a Black wasn''t that well received by the public--" Draco raised his hand stopping Fudge from going on further on his apologetic essay, "I will rather have you show your sincerity through action than words, so I hope to skip this part and get to the heart of the issue quickly." Fudge felt disrespected as he looked at Lucius but all he got was a silent treatment from him and the other families, looking at the situation he didn''t say anything back as he was clearly lacking in support in this room since everyone was siding with Draco. "I understand." Fudge nodded as he passed on some documents, "These are all the laws you and Mr. Nott have broken in these few days from underage magic to killing." Theodore looked at Draco when the topic of killing was raised but the latter just ignored him as he stared at the documents, which contained a list of spells they used and the damage that they have caused. "Luckily, you two didn''t break the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, so this still falls under our jurisdiction." Fudge continued, "So to show our sincerity, hereby we shall forgive all these crimes since it was all done under the state of emergency." Draco nodded and put the paper down as he stared at Fudge. Fudge felt uncomfortable with his gaze as Draco was looking at him as if he wanted something more. Fudge fixed his bow, breathing deeply, thankfully he had other cards to play, "Pius Thicknesse, was a threat to us all and I believe we can all agree with that." The surrounding wizards nodded as Fudge continued, "His motives were certainly questionable but we can all agree that he wanted to bring huge chaos to our wizarding community, whether there was someone behind him or not is still out for debate but the fact that Draco here was able to stop him is more than enough proof to his ability and Theodore, he was able to withstand the torment bought on to him by saving his friend, so I hereby announce that Mr. Nott will be receiving a Second class Order of Merlin award and Mr. Black will receive a First class Order of Merlin award for their effort in stopping a huge disaster." Every wizard present there clapped, nodding as they began congratulating both Theodore and Draco. The Order of Merlin (abbreviated O.M.) was an award bestowed upon wizards and witches who had achieved great things for the wizarding world. It had three different levels: First Class, Second Class, and Third Class. The First Class is awarded for "acts of outstanding bravery or distinction" in magic. The Second Class awarded for "achievement or endeavor beyond the ordinary." and last but not least the Third Class awarded to individuals who "have made a contribution to our store of knowledge or entertainment." The Organization was formed in the Middle ages by Merlin himself, and the medal is known to be one of the highest honorary awards a wizard could receive but over the years the value of the award has decreased by a significant amount as the Ministry of Magic favorites seem to receive the Order of Merlin, especially the higher classes, more often than one might expect. The prime example of this is Fudge himself who awarded himself with the First Class Order of Merlin award causing a lot of controversies this past year. Due to all these reasons, unlike others, Draco wasn''t that excited and happy about receiving this award as it clearly showed the desperation of Fudge to make the purebloods happy. Draco accepted all the congratulation with a simple smile, thanking them as he looked back at Fudge. ''What more do you want from me?'' Fudge cursed in his mind. As if Draco heard him, he said, "I want to ask the ministry for two favors, one of keeping the killings a secret, my reputation''s already bad as it is so I don''t want people to get more wrong ideas about me." Fudge nodded as it seemed more logical and the other wizards keenly listened to what he had to say, after the incident Draco had earned the respect of all the pureblood wizards, once and for all. "And the second favor will require the ministry''s help in it." "What is it?" "I want to use this situation in my favor." Draco said laying back on his chair, "The reporters have already found out about the situation so there is no point in hiding it any further, so why not use this to our advantage?" "What do you mean, Draco?" Mr. Parkinson asked. "We use the same medium to change people''s opinion about us." Draco said as he played with his phoenix-feather quill, "We release the news but only filled with the half-truth and half-lies, like a story that''s believable but still seems more of a fantasy. We leak the news about me defeating Pius who was planning on becoming a Dark-lord along with a few of his servants who were trying to take over the community by causing chaos, sprouting seed of mistrust against us pure-blood families, to weaken us. And to make this story more believable we can let them know about the information where the Imperius curse was used with proof and we can even add how Pius and the others were planning on attacking muggle towns and muggle-borns which will turn the tide against our side." "With it, we can regain some public trust by playing the victim." Mr. Nott said nodding, "Excellent Idea!" "Yes, and to add more fuel to the fire, we can use the name of You-know-who, portraying Pius as his follower who wanted to revive him and more, other than news with the help of Aurors we can spread the news further through rumors and gossips." All the pure-bloods agreed with the idea as this could help them get rid of some of the pressure they were facing due to previous involvements with Voldemort. They believed with this both them and Draco could benefit as the latter was under the spotlight of becoming the next hero. Even the aurors couldn''t help but feel impressed by the idea, as this sort of method could help solve a lot of problems that they were currently facing and could face in the future. They felt a sudden uneasiness in their heart as they remembered the gruesome murders and destruction in that mansion, since they were the ones who cleaned up the place all the wounds caused by Fluffy and other animals were blamed on Draco and he was portrayed to be too gruesome and cruel as he went far as to burning them to tearing them in half. 91 New Enemy, New Game Draco had thought of this idea, yesterday night as this will help solidify his reputation of being one of the savior in peoples mind resetting and increasing his fame among common people both muggle born and half-bloods alike and as for the pure-bloods, other than the ones here in the meeting, a lot of them were already supporters of him. The other reason he wanted to do this was to taunt none other than his dear other-half, Ryan Adams. Since reading yesterday''s letter he had concluded that this person had one thing that drove him,--Jealousy. The whole letter to him was sent to express Ryan''s envy towards him and to taunt him, Draco wasn''t too happy about the idea of being under someone''s control and being under the constant fear that his moves were predicted beforehand, he didn''t like the thought of being afraid against someone he hadn''t even met before, so he had now started his own game against him. Since it was a new enemy he needed a new game to play against him, and Draco wasn''t willing to lose. Fudge sat there for a while silent thinking of god knows what. After a moment of silence, he sighed and said, "I can make sure the news is reported in the exact same way you wanted too but what about the other problems? I am not sure all the people would be so easily fooled." "What problems?" Theodore asked laying back. "As far as I know, I am the victim and Draco here is the savior and Pius is the dark lord if a baby Potter could gain fame with just this even without actually moving a finger then what''s the problem." Draco nodded, "There will always be people who wouldn''t believe in the news even if they are told the truth, how many of you here would believe that I defeated Pius and 40+ wizards, which among them contained some trained Aurors by myself." Draco knew that Fudge wanted to run away from the responsibility but Draco wouldn''t let him. The wizards in the room remained silent as they will never likely believe what happened if they didn''t saw the blast and the dead bodies themselves. Fudge deeply breathed a couple of time and finally gave up, "I can fulfill these demands but that''s all I can do for now." He deliberately said, so Draco would stop asking more. "That''s all we need for now." Lucius said, "Our informants and people who work under us can help with all these as well, so you don''t have to worry too much about it." "By the way, I''ve been meaning to ask this, when did you guys figure out about Pius''s betrayal and his location?" Draco asked interestedly. "He attacked one of the aurors as he escaped leaving a letter as to where he was heading." Fudge said. "And you believed him?" "He chanted the location before disappearing so what was written on the letter was confirmed and due to the content of letter suggesting that his target was you, we immediately rushed into action as news about your disappearance was circulating around as well." Fudge explained trying to sound responsible. ''Looks like someone is fame hungry'' Draco thought to himself. "I want to ask you one last question." "What is it?" "The potion-- how much were you injured?-- and how much did that potion heal you?" Fudge asked with greed in his eyes, the potion changed the whole feature of Draco and its healing factor seemed to be astounding, considering the heated battle that took place. Fudge wanted to see if he could mass produce this potion and sell it as they could cause a lot of benefit to them, especially to aurors who work difficult jobs. Understanding Fudge, Draco shook his head, "The potion fixed the scars I got and was able to fix a few broken bones... that''s all." "But what about your face?" "My face? Is something wrong with it?" Draco asked with an annoyed tone, the way Fudge said it made it seem as if he had a problem with his face before. "No, that''s not what I mea--" Fudge wanted to clear up the misunderstanding but Draco didn''t let him as he stood up. "Greed isn''t a good thing." Draco said, "The Vampires have done us a favor this time not bothering too much with the broken law that was set. Unless you want to go in a war with the vampires I suggest you get that idea out of your head. Both sides have their own magic and potions, they haven''t asked any of ours so we don''t have the right to ask theirs-- so I hope you can remove the idea out of your head." Fudge stayed silent as one by one, all the wizards stood up and started walking out. "What do we do, Minister?" An Auror asked after all the people had left the room. "Nothing." Fudge shook his head, "Start leaking the information to the news sources as explained." The man nodded and apparated out of the place. "Sigh! Let''s leave, I have work to do." Fudge said to the other aurors as they went out of the room as well. ----------------------------------------- "Where are we going?" Lucius asked as they were walking inside an old dirty bazaar, this place seemed more like a black market as dark-items were being sold all over the place, but unlike back in London, this place sold these items openly. "There is a market, down there where they sell elves who are trained to take care of magical creatures." Draco said, "I want to buy some." Draco didn''t want Lucius to come with him since he knew all he was going to do was complain but Lucius didn''t let him go alone. This time he didn''t stop him but came along with him, which still annoyed Draco but he didn''t say anything since changes took time. Lucius looked weirdly at Draco, he wasn''t happy about his son taking care of these animals like a farm boy, but due to all that has happened he decided to work on his attitude to make sure mistakes like this weren''t repeated again, so he didn''t object Draco from raising them and from what it seemed like with the animals such as Unicorns in his case, it could come very handy in the time of need. Lucius was secretly very impressed as to how Draco managed to escape that day in Gringotts. "Father do you know how to cast the Fidelius Charm?" Draco asked casually as they were walking past by a small herb store. "Why do you ask?" Draco didn''t say anything and looked back at Lucius wanting to know the answer. "Sigh! I don''t." Lucius said giving up, "Now can you tell me why?" "If you were to try and learn it, how long do you think it will take?" Draco asked again instead of answering the question, "Just focusing on the charm and nothing else." "6 to 7 months, give or take." "Can you start learning it from now on?" "Not if you don''t tell me why first?" Lucius said, Draco sighed, "Dangers!-- I don''t know what''s going to happen next-- I don''t think Pius was alone in doing all this, I fought him so I know his strength and I am not sure how he was able to defeat different Aurors and put them all under the Imperius curse all alone." Draco lied. Lucius was silent for a while, "So you think someone is behind him?" He asked and seeing Draco nod he continued, "So you want me to put the charm on our house and live under hiding?" "Yes." Draco said, "If it was like before we could have not paid much attention to it and leave it to the ministry but now with the twins, I am more afraid." Lucius looked at Draco whose voice was wavering, as far as he could recall, he never heard Draco say those words before. "I understand." 92 Q&A This isn''t a rant like yesterday but an explanation as to where the story is taking place. Will move to auxiliary after 24 hours. So let me start by answering some comments that I''ve read, who expressed their concerns. 1) The villain was random and he came out of nowhere. = I get that, but you have to understand that, there wasn''t any place to do so. The first few chapters were spent explaining and developing characters and relations, and the rest were used on developing. Inside it, there wasn''t any place to introduce a new villain without cause would be just weird and would feel out of place. And introducing him with cause would be another problem, since as to harm Draco who was in Hogwarts at the time, Ryan would need to Harm his family, which would cause other unnecessary problems and unhappy readers, since things like this and even subtle hints with things like netorare are a no-go in this site and for me who was building readers at the time, this would be a bad move. There were subtle hints in the previous chapter about the villain, with Draco receiving Death threats and info on group forming, which wasn''t in the original. So it wasn''t completely out of the blue as well. The whole story is mainly(with a few necessary exceptions) focused on Draco''s perspective, so what Draco knows, the readers know and if Draco doesn''t know something the readers wouldn''t know about it as well. Things like how Draco views Ron but we all know Ron isn''t completely same in the book, but Draco sees him in a bad light, that''s why the readers see him in a bad light as well. The situation was supposed to be surprising to both the readers and Draco at the same time. The timing may seem out of place but it was nearly perfect since the second volume needed plot which the main source couldn''t provide this time around. And it would be way too late if I bring out the character later on as I wouldn''t have time to develop the character. Even in xianxia, people pop out of nowhere and take the mc''s girlfriend to be their student or something, while the MC is just stuck there. I don''t see people complaining in those novels. 2) The villains a transmigrator. = A topic, I never thought I would have to explain because I didn''t think it was such a turn off to have another transmigrator as the villain. I knew this site loved cases with OP mc and a hollow villain, but I didn''t think the reaction would be this bad. You all have to understand me in this since if I were to introduce someone more powerful and talented enough to match Draco and is someone WHO ISN''T A TRANSMIGRATOR and was already a part of the world, the story wouldn''t be believable anymore. Since with Voldemort on the rise, even if there is such a person hidden somewhere in the original story, they would come out of their hiding. It just doesn''t fit in with the story at all and would seem completely out of place. I picked another transmigrator as a villain because it would be equal to someone who is a transmigrator as well. With both of them knowing the story beforehand, Draco would have to struggle with the villain, instead of completely outshining him and me using the villain as a complete stepping stone for Draco. There needs to be someone logically and be equal and stronger enough to fight the hero to keep the story going. Things like his legs and power would be explained in the latter part as that is the part of the plot. The only thing I will give away is that he isn''t the main villain in the story. 3) Too much explanation on the letter. = I get how people think that this character is only there for explaining things and I do admit it might seem like it due to my bad writing. But the real purpose of me showing the letter was to show the villains character. Ryan is someone who likes to brag, gets jealous and is very petty. I think people got the wrong tone with Ryan guessing Draco''s move that he is a genius but he isn''t. If you read HP before, things like this aren''t too hard to guess for normal people. Knowledge doesn''t mean intelligence. Just because you remember something for the exams doesn''t mean you can explain the stuff perfectly as well. 4)Draco''s power. = Again if I explain everything, it wouldn''t matter in the future, so leaving out this one as well. Again, this isn''t a rant, just me trying to explain some parts of the story which could have been better explained. This is the thing with a couple of chapters a day system, It''s not a book where you can read till the end and figure out how the story goes, without judging things early on. Things will go slowly and you would have to wait for things to happened and appear. Sorry if you thought this was a chapter. I will answer some logical questions in the comment for a couple of hours so feel free to leave some. 92 Elves For Sale. "I understand." Lucius said, "I will focus my attention on this charm and enchant our house with it." Draco nodded, "Is mother going to be okay?" "She is living in the Greengrass family house after I left, along with some caretakers," Lucius said as Draco nodded. "I will try to learn the charm too but I don''t have much time in my hand right now to focus on it." Draco said, "I want to prepare more for the future so I wouldn''t be caught off-guard like this." Lucius sighed, "Make sure to not stress yourself out, among the young wizards you are probably the one with the most talent." "The one with the talent isn''t me?" Draco said knocking on his suitcase, "If this wasn''t with me, I am not sure I could do anything." Lucius didn''t continue on the topic, "So what do you plan to do next?" "I want to move school this year." Draco said shocking Lucius. "I want to go to Durmstrang." "Why?" Lucius asked confused, "Didn''t you want me to?" Draco said looking at Lucius whose face was hard to read, Draco couldn''t guess if he was happy or weirded out. "Wh-- I mean its good but why so suddenly?" Lucius asked with a smile. Draco''s mouth twitched watching Lucius''s creepy smile, "I think you are misunderstanding something. I want to just switch school for this year." Draco said, "Maybe as an exchange student for half the school year-- you said that you were friends with the current headmaster, didn''t you?--then why not ask him this favor." "Why do you even want to go there?" Lucius asked, as his smile faded away, "There is no reason to go there just for a certain amount of time and go back to Hogwarts again." "I want to try it first." Draco said after thinking for a good lie, he didn''t want to explain too much stuff, "If I like the school then I can completely shift there." Lucius looked at Draco doubting him, "Fine, since I am helping your friends, Vincent and Gregory to move this year, I will write about you as well to Karkaroff, with your fame, I am sure he won''t even hesitate." "Oh, by the way, how is their family relation going?" Draco asked suddenly as he was reminded of Crabbe and Goyle. "I tried to talk with them in school but they just kept ignoring me." "It''s not too good." Lucius said sighing, "Vincent''s father wasn''t too happy about all this, I heard that he even fought with Gregory''s father, accusing him of making Gregory influence his son to the point of becoming an idiot like him." "So have they calmed down yet?" "They had a small fight in our house last time, but suddenly they stopped." Lucius said, "I think they finally realized fighting isn''t going to solve anything." Draco nodded, this time he was prepared to face his enemy without much worry, since unlike the original, Lucius wasn''t jealous of Potter so Draco was sure he didn''t have the need to send Tom Riddle''s diary to Hogwarts, so there wasn''t going to be any basilick attack in Hogwarts this year. So he didn''t have to worry about Pansy, Daphne, Hermione, and the others. Draco had tried to search for the diary in the past but he never could really find it, he had searched all the bookshelves and hidden rooms in his house but there wasn''t even a sign of the diary. Since it was difficult to explain to Lucius how he knew about the existence of the diary in the first place and how he knew that he had it, Draco couldn''t ask about it directly as well. So he just gave it up for now until he learns some spell or finds a method to destroy the Horcruxes. Talking about Pansy, Hermione, and Daphne; Draco was sure that he would get in a lot of trouble after he returns back home tonight. After walking for several minutes, stopping here and there to shop for some interesting herbs, Draco and Lucius finally reached an old medium sized building, with the huge wooden board hanging outside with ''Elves For Sale.'' carved on it. "Well, that was easy to find." Draco said walking in with Lucius. Both of them looked around as they passed through a dark passage filled with bats. "You here for the elves?" A fat man suddenly came out of nowhere, scaring both Lucius and Draco. After calming down, Draco observed the short, fat man who had a scruffy beard and from his hazed eyes and the weird smell around him, Draco figured that this guy must be a drunkard. "Yes, we are here for the elves who are proficient in taking care of magical beasts." The man happily smiled and said, "This way, sir." As he led both of them through the passage which started lighting up one by one. Draco and Lucius looked at each other, signaling each other to be careful and be aware of their surrounding. The man didn''t say anything at first as he kept walking forward, in front of them was an opening which looked like an entrance of a cave with the outside light shining in. The man suddenly turned back and said, "We are the best sellers in the market, so I can assure you that you wouldn''t be disappointed." Lucius didn''t say anything as he looked at the man with disgust and Draco nodded in response to be polite. "We have the best service in all of Europe, as we don''t ask nor tell anyone of our buyers identity, so you can rest freely." The man continued in a monotone voice as if he was reading from a book. "We have all sorts of elves here, ones who do household chores, ones who can help in potions and alchemy, ones who can take care of magical beasts and one who can do anything you want them too." Draco was a bit creeped out by the guy but he still had to ask a couple of questions, "So what assures their loyalty?" He asked. "They are neither family elves nor have they been raised in that environment, how can I be sure that they wouldn''t run away after I purchase them?" "It''s simple." The man said, "These elves have different teaching than house-elves, for them, loyalty is the most important thing in life, their loyalty can''t even be compared to the house-elves. For them, anyone who buys them is their master, their god. All this, I can assure--its the same concept of house-elves but they will be loyal to anyone who buys them, even if you give them clothes or release them, they will still stay loyal to you till the very end." Draco thought for a while and asked, "How many types of magical creatures can they take care of?" "Almost all of them." The man replied immediately, "They have all been taught to only take care of animals their entire life, but just to let you know, they aren''t good at anything else other than that. So if you want them to do other jobs I suggest you buy other elves as well." The man was trying hard to sell and advertise more elves but with the tone of his voice, Draco was sure that no other people would be interested in buying more. "How many elves do you have?" "How much do you need?" Draco started calculating the work lord in his mind and said, "5 elves and they should be able to handle XXXXX level creatures." The man nodded and led them towards an open field out of the passage, the field had many animals in them with the elves running around here and there, taking care of them, some feeding and some cleaning. "Are these creatures for sale too?" Draco asked interestedly as he saw a couple of unique creatures. "Only Elves." The man replied lazily, "If you want to buy some creatures, there is a shop, 20 minutes from here but you will need a legal permit and if you want to buy it illegally you need to walk towards the west side for 45 minutes to reach there. Beneath is a black market where they sell some creatures, but it will cost you a lot of money." Draco noted it all down as the man began gathering the elves for Draco to choose. 93 Auction. Draco picked 5 elves who looked decent enough. Seeing the conditions of the elves Draco realized that they were mistreated a lot than a common house-elf. All of them had sunken faces and they were too skinny. All of them had a collar around their neck, which was tied too tightly as they had marks on their neck from it. The names of the elves were Ed, Fred, Ned, Red, and Ted respectively. All the 5 elves Draco chose were male and all of them were young and healthy. Each elf cost Draco seventy thousand and Five hundred Galleon. After paying the total sum of three hundred fifty two thousand and five hundred galleons, the man called Draco in front. "I am assuming you''re the owner." The man said looking at Draco and ignoring Lucius. Lucius'' mouth twitched listening to the tone of the man, he was already irritated by the dirty place and seeing the drunkard''s attitude towards him, made him even angrier. Draco reading the mood hurriedly nodded. "We need to do a simple ritual." The man said taking out a bottle of alcohol from his robe and chugging it all in, the alcohol spilled from his mouth and his entire clothes were wet. He wiped the alcohol of off his mouth and continued, "You just walk in front and open their collar with your hands, not your wand and release them. After that, they belong to you." Draco nodded and walked in front of the elves opening their collar one by one, who upon doing so hurriedly kneeled on the ground. "Thank you, Master, for releasing us." They said in unison, "We will repay this favor with unyielding loyalty for our entire life." Draco nodded happily seeing the elves behavior. "Now that''s done, I''ll be off." The man said snapping his finger and the moment he did, a sudden blackout happened for a tenth of a second and they were suddenly outside, the place was nowhere to be seen, it was like the whole building disappeared out in thin air. In the open field, Lucius, Draco and the five elves were standing there in a daze. "What was that?" Draco mumbled to himself. "The place is said to never exist in the first place." One of them elves spoke. "Explain." "Yes, Master. We don''t know much about this but it is said that the place was never meant to exist." Ed said. "Some of the old elves told us stories that the place would only appear to those who seek it and to those who mean no harm but after you visited the place once, it will forever be lost." Draco raised his eyebrows and thought to himself, ''Seems like old magic,'' "Let''s leave." Lucius said, impatiently. The idea of just standing in an empty field talking with elves made him uncomfortable. Draco wanted to ask more but seeing the impatient Lucius, he didn''t. Draco opened the suitcase and whispered something, sticking his head into it. Soon a small growl came and Draco took out his head, "Go inside, you don''t have to do anything for now. I will later come in and explain your work to you." "Yes, Master." The elves said as they slowly approached the suitcase and still afraid jumped in one by one. "The work''s done, isn''t it?" Lucius said. "No need to be so impatient father." Draco said picking his suitcase up, "I still want to go to the market the man talked about." "To buy more creatures?" Lucius asked snorting, "The growl I heard-- what else have you got in there?" "It''s a secret." Draco said, "If you don''t want to come, I can go alone and you can return back to the hotel room." "Che, I will lead you there." Lucius said turning back, "It isn''t my first time coming here, my father, your grandfather bought me to this place once, so I know my way around and with me, we can apparate quickly over there." Draco rolled his eyes and followed Lucius out towards the black market. --------------------------------- After apparating here and there, asking some suspicious looking people, they finally reached the place. The entrance of the place was a door that leads straight down to an underground passage, After walking down the flight of stairs they reached an open space filled with different empty cages here and there. There was an enchantment on the roof that made it seem like the place wasn''t an underground room at all. Unlike the elf shop, the place was filled with people all wearing black robes, covering their face. Before they entered the place both Lucius and Draco had their hood on as well, as they kept walking. The deeper they went the more the place stretched out with cages filled with different magical and even normal animals. "The auction starts in 10 minutes." A voice sounded out throughout the place and all the people who were looking around started walking in a single direction. Lucius and Draco looked at each other and both of them walked the same direction as other people as well. They all walked up to a tent, inside, the place was filled with chairs and at the very end of it was a huge stage with candles all over the floor. Many people gathered around the stage and quickly picked a spot to sit on. Covered in hoods, Draco felt like, he was in a cult meeting of some sort. "These sorts of auction happens all the time in the black market." Lucius explained, "Even our family held some." "How come I never knew about it?" Draco asked surprised. "It was supposed to be that way." Lucius replied, "In honesty, I wasn''t supposed to know about it either. On the outside, our family has no affiliation to the black market remember." Draco understood what his father meant, "Why hold an auction though? Isn''t it easier to sell those items quickly under a fixed range, as it will help reduce the risk of the ministry catching up to them." "It will reduce the chances." Lucius said, "But people in the black market hold auction for one of two reasons, one, they are desperate for quick and more money and two they have a rare material. Considering that this place is a fixed establishment I am guessing the latter. We might be lucky if there is something rare in store for us." Even though Lucius didn''t care much about magical creatures, he was still interested in exotic animals like the dragons and phoenixes, which were less likely to be tamed and captured. Keeping them was a sign of luxury none the less. Draco nodded as what he said made sense. All the people kept on waiting as they chattered with each other when suddenly the candles that were on the stage floated up and lit on fire, lighting up the stage. A man wearing a traditional red wizard robes came out wearing a white mask. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Wizards and Witches and my honored guests, I thank all of you for joining us today in our auction." The man said bowing in greeting, "I am known as Merc and I will be your host today." All the people clapped and cheered. "We can get into action but first let us remove the nuisance, shall we?" Merc said suddenly taking out his wand and waving it around. Out of nowhere from the ground vines grew and started slithering around them, climbing up to some people and binding them. Draco looked around and saw that out of all the people there, 8 people were on the chair struggling to get out as the vine quickly covered them. They started groaning in pain as the vine around them kept getting tighter and tighter and slowly the struggle was over. "It looks like some of our guests have followers but lucky for them, we don''t hold them accountable." Merc said. Draco didn''t figure what he was talking about until the vine released the people and Draco found one of the men who was lying dead on the ground with his hood flung open was an auror, who was present in today''s meeting. Draco looked at the other dead bodies who still had robes on and realized they probably must be the other aurors present as well. 94 Auction pt.2 Draco looked at Lucius who was doing the same, "They were following us, weren''t they?" "Seems like it," Lucius said clenching his fist. "I really need to have a talk with Fudge about this." Draco nodded, he was glad that this place had a system to kill of intruders otherwise it would be really bad with them finding out about the animals, other than that, he was really interested in Merc, about how he knew about those aurors and how he knew about himself. Merc waved his wand around and those dead bodies on the ground were swallowed by the ground itself as if the ground suddenly turned into quicksand. "Now that, that''s gone-- let''s start the auction, shall we?" People started clapping and cheering again, from the looks of it, they weren''t shocked by the death of those aurors. Draco figured that this was normal in this area so he tried to calm down as well. "Everyone knows how our auction goes, but for new people out there--let me explain the set of rules." Merc said raising a finger, "Rule no. 1, A person isn''t allowed to buy more than 10 items in a single auction, we don''t care if you are the richest person in the world neither do we care about your influences, so try to buy more than 10 items, we will kick you out.-- Rule no. 2, Bringing in your family or friends doesn''t count, if you do come in with one, you will be counted as a single unit.-- Rule no. 3, Pay first and take the items you bid for, no loan is provided.-- and last but not least Rule no. 4, What happens outside the auction, we don''t care. Even if you were looted or killed, we won''t be responsible.-- The auction moves on from common material to rare materials, with inventions and magical items included, be sure to keep that in mind." Draco noted all the points down and sat down to relax and watch the show, Soon two elfs came in with sliding a huge cage, which contained a lion inside. Draco wasn''t interested in normal animals so he just ignored it but looking at some of the people who were raising their hand, increasing the bid, Draco realized that these animals aren''t as useless as he thought it was. "Since normal animals are easier to tame than a magical beast, some wizards have started hobbies of collecting such animals." Lucius explained, "Don''t you want it?" "No." Draco shook his head. "I only want animals with some uses." The lion was sold for a 150 Galleon which was bought by a dark green hooded witch and the auction moved on, "The next item we have here is out today''s first magical creature. Bought here from India." Merc announced. As soon as he did, house-elves dragged another cage in the stage, but this time the creature trapped in the cage had another layer of caging inclosing it in. "As some of you might already know, This creature with backward feet is none other than an Abarimon," Merc said pointing at the hairy humanoid figure, who really had its feet twisted the opposite way around, "This creature is nothing special since it mostly lives with wild animals inside a forest, other than their fast speed and extreme savagery, they aren''t anything special-- but what makes them rare is their habitat. If you know an Abarimon, you know that they can''t live outside of their natural habitat which makes them extremely rare in this part of the country. As far as I know, there are only 6 of them in this continent, with our facility and a genius hunter we have managed to come up with a solution to capture them without killing them. The inner cage you see is the one that provides it with the air, making sure it survives in the outside world.-- Granted, it can''t do anything else than be a showpiece stuck inside a cage, we decided to auction it off early on. The bid starts at a Thousand Galleon." Draco wasn''t too interested in buying the creature as seeing it in person was already enough for Draco. Even though some people might want to collect it, due to their rareness, it was nothing too special in the eyes of Draco as this creature couldn''t even be used as a potion material. The auction started off slow and reached its climax at eight-thousand Galleons. The auction kicked off soon with varieties of common magical animals like the Mortis Bat, Bicorns, Billywigs, Bundimun etc. An hour passed and till now there wasn''t anything that caught the interest of Draco for him to even bid on, Lucius was bored out of his mind whereas Draco was still having some fun getting to see magical creatures that he had never seen before. Every now and then. they would feature new wizarding inventions, which would interest a particular set of buyers who would bid high prices from the very beginning, afraid that someone else would steal the inventions for them. "So this our today''s last common magical animals, the Bowtruckle." Merc said as a couple of elves dragged a small tree with a couple of Bowtruckles on them, "These Branches (A group of bowtruckles is called branches.) will be sold along with the Mahogany host tree that it''s guarding. Not much description is needed of Bowtruckles so let''s get on with the bidding, The bid starts at a two-thousand Galleons." This was the first creature to interest Draco, even though they weren''t rare, they were very hard to find and even if you find the tree containing the Bowtruckles, taking them with you was another story. Draco raised his hands in excitement, "2500" As soon as Draco did a couple of other people similarly started raising their bid as well, The bid soon went up to 5000. Draco annoyed raised his hands again and again,"6000" "10,000" and the bid finally ended on "12,000" which was done by Draco. With 12,000 he finally won 8 Bowtruckles and a medium sized Mahagony tree. Merc threw a coin towards Draco which floated in front of him. Draco caught the gold coin which had the number 58 written on it, Similar to the bidding number of the bowtruckles. The auction carried off again, with new rare items appearing every now and then. There were several auctions with different species of ghouls like the Hidebehinds. By the end of another hour, Draco had bought eight more items, one was a Firedrake, it was a species of lizards with long antennae, that flew around.They are sometimes mistaken for dragons, though they do not breathe fire. Instead, they emit sparks from the ends of their tails. The second item he bought was a device, that could predict dangers. It looked and worked in the same concept as the remembrall but instead of turning black when forgotten something, it turned black when something dangerous was about to happen. Draco was skeptical about the invention but after Merc showed that it really worked by attacking an Elf, Draco bought it, just in case it could prove to be necessary. Next, he bought a potion book which literal title was, "Potion for offensive magic." The book contained several recipes of different potion formulae which could be used in form of offense, like an exploding potion, poisonous smoke potion and many other. The fourth item was a Golden Snidget, The small bird was basically the first snitch ever used and was like a walking or flying treasure trove. The bird''s eyes and feathers are very precious and they are very fragile. Even though the bird wasn''t too useful, Draco bought it due to it being an endangered species, making it rare and precious. Draco figured that some luxury now and then wasn''t bad at all. -------------------------------- 95 Auction Pt.3 Draco then bought a jar of Hodag''s horn, which was very useful in making a certain type of potions. The potion''s effect included making a person immune to alcohol for a period of time and giving the person energy to go a complete week without sleep. Draco bought the potion in case of emergencies, where he would have to keep running without being able to sleep. The sixth thing Draco bought was a Lethifold, the creature was probably one of the most dangerous creatures Draco had bought today. Lethifold resembles a black cloak roughly half an inch thick and appears slightly thicker if the creature has recently digested a victim. It glides along surfaces in an unknown form of locomotion in search of its prey, humans. It attacks at night, when the target is asleep, by suffocating and then digesting them. Due to its violent nature, it was considered a Dark creature and the only known method to fend of against them is the Patronus charm making people assume that they are related to Dementors. Draco didn''t know Patronus charm but luckily the creature came with its own cage, making it unable to go out. The Lethifold''s main prey are humans but according to Merc, it could be fed using livestock like cows or goats. He even showed the crowd how it fed on those animals slowly. Draco interested bought the creature immediately but it came with a huge price. The Lethifold reminded Draco of the Dementors in the third year and how he needed to add Patronus charm to one of the spells he needed to learn this year. Lucius seeing his son spend money so lavishly couldn''t help but sweat. Even though these creatures were rare, they weren''t rare enough for them to go around spending so much money on them. Lucius wanted to stop him but Draco reassured that he had plenty of money to do more bids. The next item Draco bid for was for 5 liters Re''em blood. The blood has the ability to give a person immense strength for a limited amount of time, which would be really useful for Draco since the best way of beating a wizard was through strength. Draco barely lost the item to a witch who kept bidding head on against him but after the price reached a certain point she gave up. The most expensive thing Draco bought today was a set of creatures, which featured 6 young Granians, which is a breed of Winged horse. They are grey and very fast, probably the fastest winged horses. It came with another creature called, Porlock. Porlock is horse guardian which protect the horses keeping them in check. They are small, reaching a height of two feet on average when they are fully grown, and covered in a large amount of rough, shaggy hair. It has a large nose, small arms ending in four stubby fingers, and it walks on two cloven hooves. Along with the creatures, the whole set came with a beautiful gold and silver carriage. The whole set cost Draco a whopping 98,000 Galleon. The most he has ever spend throughout his life on a single item. Lucius coughed, "You know, just because there is a limit to 10 items doesn''t mean that you have to buy all 10." "I know." Draco said worriedly, he himself was running out of all the money he bought with him, "But these items are very good and is cheaper too, compared to buying them from black markets." Lucius nodded and didn''t continue to say anything else. Even if Draco ran out of money, he still had some on his hands. Draco calculated the amount of money he had left with him. With the cost of all those items reaching over 250,000 Galleons, Draco only had around 40,000 left with him. "So we have seen all sorts of creatures and technologies today." Merc said, "But our next item is the combination of both, sold by one of our regular sellers, the next item came from a lab far in the Sahara desert." The elves dragged a cart which seemed to have an egg on top of it. The egg was even bigger than a Dragon egg and was red and golden in color. Everyone in the crowd had their eyes on the marvelous egg in front of them. "This lab was raided by the ministry of magic, for suspicion of illegal breeding of magical creatures." Merc said raising his hands, "You have guessed it, this egg is the mixture of different magical creatures, a hybrid." The people clapped their hands, not that enthusiastic about it now since hybrid creatures were nothing new. But what Merc said next shocked all of them, "This creature my friends is a mixture of different dangerous and exciting creatures. A Runespoor, Occamy, Horned Serpent, sea serpent, Selma and a Dragon. The person who created it was a well-known serpent enthusiast which could be seen in his creation, the creator was sadly killed in the cross-fire when the raid was happening but luckily we managed to get our hands on his last creation." Noises surrounded the area as people started discussing things between themselves. Draco, on the other hand, was looking at egg concentrating on the heartbeat that could be heard. A man suddenly stood up and asked with a hoarse voice, "Aren''t breeding like that considered a failure? Combining so many dominant creatures into one, makes it seem like a work of an amateur breeder. It not hatching, and staying as a decoration is the most I would expect from this egg." Many people nodded agreeing with the man, even Merc nodded as well. "I understand your concern friend." Merc said, "Even I was concerned about it at first but since the seller kept insisting on its quality, I couldn''t do anything about it. The egg itself has a mixture of even more unknown creatures, which even the seller doesn''t know. So the whole process of even making it to this stage was an incredible feat-- We want to sell this egg as a rare and one of a kind decoration but we can''t guarantee whether it would hatch or not. The bid starts at 1000 Galleon." Draco was confused by all the talk, he looked around to see people not so excited about the egg, even though he couldn''t see their faces, their body language expressed everything. ''Am I the only one?'' Draco thought to himself and looked towards Lucius. "Father, can you hear something?" "Hear what?" "Concentrate on the egg." Lucius confused did what he was told but shook his head, "It''s nothing but a useless piece of decoration, I admit the egg looks unique but I don''t think it will ever hatch." "Must be the Dragon then." Draco thought out loud, "Dragon?" "Nothing." Draco shook his head and raised his hands. "1,500 Galleon." The people around him, looked at Draco as if he was an idiot. From his voice, they had already figured that it was a young kid but seeing him spend lavishly on extravagant creatures, they were all jealous but now seeing him, bid on a dud item, they all agreed that it was a stupid kid who had a lot of money in his hand, who spent it all without thinking. "1,500--1,2--" "2000" A witch bid out loud wanting to humor Draco. Soon people started bidding one by one and the price reached to 38,000 Galleon. For the people who were looking at him as if he was an idiot, seeing the price raised, Draco couldn''t help but feel annoyed, "Father, how much money do you have?" Lucius who was thinking why Draco was so insistent on buying the egg, "10,000" he said. "I didn''t carry much since I was in a hurry." Draco nodded and raised his bid, "40,000" The people quietened down, they didn''t think the egg was worth that much so they kept quiet. Even the witch who was taunting him was unsure whether to raise the bid or not. "42,000" She spoke out reluctantly. "45,000" Draco raised his hands again. All the people stopped, looking at the witch and Draco to see who was going to win the dud egg. The witch raised her hand again "48,000" "50,000" Draco raised his hands, this was the final bid he could come up with since with even including Lucius''s money, they had already run out of Galleons to spend. 96 Merc "50,000--1--2--3" Merc counted down. Draco breathed a sigh of relief as he glared at the witch who was doing the same too. A coin floated in front of him. Draco caught the coin and sat back. Soon with a couple more items the auctions ended. "Every guest who carries a coin, please follow me." Merc said bowing a little, "As for the rest of the guest, we apologize for not having anything that interests you but the auction carries on every week so I hope you will find something then." Draco and Lucius stood up and followed the small group of people outside the tent to a passageway. Draco could feel the witch glaring at him from time to time, but he wasn''t interested in picking a fight in an unknown place, so he tried to remain patient and ignore the witch. One by one, elves came and took each of them to different places. Draco and Lucius similarly followed an elf inside a small room, which only had a couch and a table. The elf snapped its fingers and two cups of tea and sandwich appeared out of thin air. Suggesting them to sit on the couch the elf left the room. "Why did you buy that egg?" Lucius asked a bit annoyed. "I can understand other things but why that dud egg?-- Do you even have the money for it?" Draco shrugged his shoulders, "I don''t-- That''s why I need all the money you have as well.-- Don''t worry I can pay it back, once we arrive back home." Lucius''s mouth twitched seeing Draco''s carefree attitude, "It''s not about the money-- It''s about you spending money recklessly." "Isn''t that the same thing--Don''t worry with a couple of new potions, I can make that money back easily." Draco said relaxing back, "I am more interested in this place and that guy." "Who, the auctioneer?" "Yeah!-- The fact he recognized the auror and the way he said those words afterward like he knew who we were?" "It''s not that impressive." Lucius snorted, "I have read books about some Alchemic inventions that could help see people''s faces and identity,-- I admit its rare but still not that impressive. With how much popular this place seems-- getting their hands on an item like that is very easy for them." Draco nodded, "But how come this place is so secretive? with how popular it is, how come we never heard of it before." "It''s because of our rule." A voice sounded out. Draco looked at the door where Merc stood looking at them. Merc came and snapped his fingers, out of nowhere a chair came out from the ground and Merc sat down opposite of them. "What rule?" Draco asked interested, he had heard of all the rule before and none of them were similar to this. "It is, of course, a part of our contract," Merc said taking out two pieces of paper from his robe and placing it in front of Lucius and Draco. Draco and Lucius started reading the contract and it was a set of rules as to what to do and what not to do. While they were busy reading Merc continued, "The contract works like an unbreakable vow--The contract only needs to be signed once, since you are new here, you have to do it.-- If you have any questions feel free to ask it after you''ve signed the contract." Draco read the rules silently, the rules went from not stealing to not causing any disturbances, there were rules that made it impossible to release any information about the auction outside the place. The rules worked the other way around as well, stating that the auction house wouldn''t sell any information on the buyer. "I believe that you''ve finished reading the rules so what are we waiting for." Merc said snapping his fingers, "A drop of blood is all it needs." Merc took out his wand again and cut himself a little, dropping a single drop of blood on each paper. Lucius and Draco looked at each other. Draco had read the rules twice already and as far as he could tell, there wasn''t any loophole affecting them in any way. "What''s keeping you from using it against us?" Lucius asked. "You don''t have to worry about anything." Merc assured them, "We are running an honest business here--if we harm our customers, the reputation and trust we built over the years will just collapse-- and we won''t be able to run our business anymore." Draco looked at Lucius who after thinking for a while dropped his blood on the paper, seeing Lucius do so, Draco quickly did the same. After they did the paper shined brightly for a while and burned away. "Now that the contract is initiated, I can answer any question you desire." Merc said clapping his hands, "Or we can get straight to business if you want." "What is this place?" Draco asked. "We are an organization that runs this black market where we sell magical beasts and just regular animals." Merc said, "But every week we act as an auction house as well, considering you didn''t know about this place, you are very lucky to find us." "Someone recommended this place to us." Draco said, "Well at least vaguely--" "Oh! Who is it?" Merc asked interestedly. "The elf seller." Draco said, "We didn''t manage to get his name though." "I see." Merc nodded, "He is a regular and as expected he managed to find a loophole of some sort." "He signed the contract as well?" "Every single person who knows about this place have to sign a contract," Merc said. "No matter who it is. Consider it like an exclusive secret group of some sort." "What happens if you don''t sign it?" Draco asked. "We obliviate them." Merc said, "Its a bother, but we do what we have to do." "You said that this place is run by an organization." Lucius said suddenly, "But by far other than the elves you are the only person I''ve seen here." "Things can be deceiving," Merc replied. "Maybe I am the only person here, maybe I am not-- no one can know for sure." Draco was confused by what Merc said but one thing he knew for certain was that either there were a lot of people hiding secretly or he was too powerful. "I can see that you have more questions," Merc said looking at Draco who was still in his hood. "Ask away." "First, how powerful are you?" "Who is the most powerful wizard you know?" "Dumbledore." "So compared to him, I am not powerful at all. I am at most average." Merc replied, "But strength is not all about how much power you have but how you use it." Draco wasn''t satisfied with his answer, "Do you know who I am?" "Of course, how can I not know the famous Draco Black." Draco opened his hood despite Lucius trying to stop him. "You look better in person," Merc said, suggesting something. "How much do you know about me?" Draco asked again. "Not much-- other than you''re really powerful for someone your age-- and how you managed to escape from Pius." Merc said, "For other pieces of information, you have to pay--Oh! I forgot to mention that we sell information as well, didn''t I?" Draco narrowed his eyes staring at Merc who was calmly sitting there as if nothing happened, "Let''s get to the items that I bought." "Wonderful!" Merc said, reaching his hands forward. Draco wondered what he was asking at first, then he remembered the coins. Draco place all 10 coins he had on Merc''s hand. Merc clapped his hands and elf came through the door and took the coins with him and soon one by one different elf carried different items forward and went back closing the door again. "Payment first." Merc said, "The total amount, you''ve reached is 320,000 Galleons." 97 warning Draco placed several bags on the table and looked at Lucius who after a moment place a bag on the table as well. Merc snapped his fingers again and a couple of elves came by and took the bag of money. "Aren''t you going to count it?" "After the contract, we have a relationship built on trust-- so we don''t need to do that." Merc said, "Also since you are the first person to spend more than 300,000 Galleons in years, I will sell you some things for free-- consider it a gift." "I did want some giant dung beetles," Draco said remembering them, his main purpose today was to buy the elves and beetles but due to auction, he ended up spending all the money on other things. "For the animals, I see-- I will give you a small colony for free--it consists of 12 beetles." Merc said nodding, "Anything else?" "You are being too generous aren''t you?" Lucius said suspiciously. "It''s not what you are thinking Mr. Malfoy, it''s just that the beetles are too cheap," Merc replied waving his hands, "Every beast collector has them, so it''s not a rarity." Draco wasn''t surprised that Merc knew Lucius identity since he knew his, "So can we buy some information from you?" "The price depends upon the information." "How much do you know about Pius?" Draco asked. "And don''t tell me the information that I would know." "Ummm... difficult- very difficult-- but since you''re a guest, I will tell you something I know." Merc said rubbing his chin, "All I know about him is that he started acting out after he visited, Durmstrang for the ministry''s business 5 months ago and went rogue for a while only appearing now and then--" "That would suffice." Draco stopped Merc since he already knew why he just wanted to confirm the timing of the place. Lucius, on the other hand, was surprised since Fudge told all of them that Pius suddenly acted out on the day of the attack. Lucius was already planning on having a meeting with others to remove Fudge from the minister position but the more he knew about the lies Fudge told, the more he was pissed at him. "I guess you want to know other things?" Merc asked curiously. "Yes-- I want to know about anything you can give me-- maybe a suggestion or a warning-- anything interesting would do." Draco said "Draco..." Lucius wanted to stop Draco since he still wasn''t sure he could trust Merc. "It''s fine, isn''t it?" Draco said staring at Merc, "I want to know what kind of new conspiracy is brewing up against me." "We do have something of that sort, In short, beware of any beautiful women you meet," Merc said standing up. "Well that''s all, I will now take my leave. The sandwich made by the elves are very good, so I suggest you to try some." "Wait, what do you mean?" "You need money for more information, which I believe you don''t have." Merc said reaching the door, "Do come again, we host auctions every week." Draco stared at Merc who closed the door slowly and left. "What did he mean?" Lucius asked. "I don''t know." Draco shrugged his shoulders, he walked over to the items he bought and checked on them. Right now other than the Lethifold, he wasn''t interested in any of the other creatures. The cloaked figure just floated around in the air like jellyfish. Draco knew that there wasn''t any way to train these creatures especially considering that it was much more dangerous than the dementors in some way but Draco figured that it might prove to be more useful in one way or the other. Draco opened his suitcase and called out the elves, who looked pretty shaken up. Draco figured that they must have seen Norberta who was running around the whole place freely. Due to a method of conversation, Draco was able to train Norberta not to mess around the place. Earlier he warned her not to eat the elves but seeing their faces, Draco realized a bit more training was required. "Take these items in," Draco commanded. The elves nodded without any hesitation and snapped their fingers making the items float as they entered back inside the suitcase along with all the items. Draco nodded in satisfaction and closed the suitcase. "Let''s go," Draco said to Lucius who looked lost. Lucius hearing Draco snapped out of it and looked back at him, "I will come back to this place again to find the complete information." "If its just money isn''t there any Cashpoints around here?" Draco asked. Cashpoints are basically wizarding ATM''s, made by Gringotts to make deposits and withdrawals faster. "No." Lucius shook his head, "Those damn goblins haven''t made any up to this point." "Oh! Talking about Goblins, what''s going to happen to my vault there." Draco said remembering the incident, "After my last stunt there, I am sure the goblins aren''t too happy with me." "Most of the goblins were knocked out by the potion you used and I managed to tear up the records and obliviate some of them, so I am sure none of them are aware of the incident-- even if they are aware, what are they going to do about it?-- According to their rule, as long as we don''t steal, we are fine, aren''t we?" Lucius said snorting. Draco nodded, "Let''s leave. I can''t wait to go back home." As Lucius and Draco were going to apparate towards the hotel room, outside the market. Draco noticed the same witch who was trying to bid against him, glaring at his direction. Her haunting eyes stared at them as they apparated out of the place. Draco didn''t think much about it, considering the women looked pissed when he won both the egg and Re''em blood. Draco figured that the women probably wanted to pick a fight but due to Lucius being present, she wasn''t able to do anything as they apparated out of the place. ---------------------------------------- After an hour or so they finally reached the ministry through a ministry authorized fireplace, which helped in traveling long distances. After they reached the ministry, everyone went their separate ways through the floo network. Draco and Lucius used the floo network and went back to the mansion as well. As soon as the smoke cleared up Draco felt someone suddenly hug him. It was none other than Narcissa. "I am sorry Mother for worrying you," Draco said as he hugged her back. "It''s okay," Narcissa said pulling back and checking on Draco, to see if he was okay. Even though the letter mentioned about him being completely fine, she wasn''t going to be satisfied until she saw Draco with her own eyes. Seeing Draco''s new face she was very surprised as she looked at him from up to down, "You seem to have grown taller in a couple of days." Draco laughed a little seeing the confused Narcissa. "I want to see the twins." he said. Narcissa pointed at the other room as Draco walked over. He had missed them a lot over the last couple of days. Narcissa looked at Lucius who then began explaining her somethings about the potion, which he left out on the letter, since explaining Narcissa about their son''s changed face would be difficult to do so until she saw him herself. Lucius left out the stuff about Draco being injured so Narcissa wouldn''t worry. Draco was surprised that Narcissa didn''t mention anything about his new face, so he acted completely normal as well. Draco spent the whole day with Narcissa, who after dinner, finally let him go. Draco then went back to his room with a bunch of newspaper in his hand to catch up to whatever he was missing on. The first two newspaper wasn''t anything special but from the second newspaper, various news about Pius''s betrayal was printed and the news sources were very accurate. Draco was sure that it was the job of Rita but to his surprise, it wasn''t. Each news about Pius was from a different journalist and not one was written by Rita. The first news was written about Pius''s disappearances and him turning onto the dark side. The second news was written warning people especially Draco and Harry, that Pius was after them. The same evening a piece of special news was printed out stating Draco''s and Theodore''s capture. Seeing everything in the news written in such a detailed manner, Draco was sure the perpetrator of all this was none other than Ryan himself. "Looks like our new enemy is a bit fame hungry." Draco said to himself. 98 Managing. Draco spent the night managing things in his suitcase, assigning new places for the new creatures and separating duties among the elves. Among them only one was allowed to go near Norberta and feed her, due to Draco telling her not to harm him, Norberta reluctantly followed the order. To keep things simple for Norberta to understand, Draco made quite a few rules. Those rules included prohibiting her from going to certain places and not harming or going near other creatures, especially not attacking them with her fire or chasing them. With the help of formations and the elves, Draco was able to finish all the work within a couple of hours. With a fire-based habitat created for Norberta and Firedrakes. Draco tried to communicate with the Firedrakes, the same way he did with Norberta but unfortunately it didn''t work. Draco kept the Lethifold on a separate place. Since it came with its own cage, Draco didn''t have to do much about it. The main problem with keeping it was that it needed live food. Luckily, due to the Lethifold eating the day before, it wasn''t that hungry. Draco had a lot of food with him, even including meat of different type of animals, but he didn''t have anything alive that he could feed the Lethifold with. Draco made a quick order to a wizarding shop to send him a bunch of a different kind of livestock, which could be sold legally. An elf was assigned for the Lethifold and the live-stocks separately but since nothing had arrived till now, the elf was free of his duty. The elf''s main job was to protect and look out for the Lethifold, making sure it doesn''t escape by reinforcing security every day. With a help of a formation, Draco created a barrier of a sort, a bit far from its cage, in case it ever manages to escape. Draco then proceeded to plant the Mahogany tree containing the Bowtruckles. With the help of quality fertilizers, Draco was sure the tree would grow big in no time. Draco wasn''t interested in all the bowtruckles but just one in particular which seemed a bit more intelligent than the others as it was more curious about Draco than cautious like the others. Draco picked the Bowtruckle as the one suitable for training and marked it with magic without the Bowtruckle knowledge. Draco knew building a connection would take a bit of work and time so he didn''t rush into it. For Draco who was planning on facing a dangerous knowledgeable enemy, he needed a lot of help and that is where the Bowtruckles fit in, with its small size and with its capability to pick locks, it was one of the handiest creatures he could have around. In enemy territory, Draco needed to be cautious enough to not fall under traps but in case he ever did, he wanted to have the option to escape from it. According to the letter, Ryan had similar ability as him in speaking with Dragons, due to this Draco had to bench one of his powerful creature, in case she could be used against him. An elf was assigned to take care of all the small sized creatures like the Bowtruckles, the Murtlap, the dung beetles, the Snidget and the firedrake. Another one was assigned to deal with big creatures like Fluffy. After getting Starlight''s agreement on things, Draco released the Granians in the same forest as Starlight, but unlike Starlight who roamed freely, they were kept inside a high fence covering the entire place, even the skies as they had the ability to fly away. Draco didn''t have to do much about taking care of them since it came along with a Porlock. The Porlock after being released quickly hid somewhere in the open space. Draco didn''t mind it since it was in the nature of Porlock to be mistrustful of humans. Draco kept the carriage right outside of the fence, in case he had to quickly travel using it. The horses were raised and trained with the sole purpose of carrying the carriage, so Draco didn''t need to worry about training them. Draco after managing the creatures, assigned all the duties to the elf, from cleaning to taking care of the animals. Some creatures needed additional and careful care, so he picked the smartest one among them to do the jobs. Their jobs included feeding the creatures in time, cleaning up their mess and placing it in an assigned area, where the dung beetle could do its job properly. Dragon manure was kept separately as Draco could use it as fertilizers. The elves also had the task to clean the area regularly along with some necessary chores here and there. Since Draco didn''t have many creatures with him, the elves didn''t have even half the workload on their hand as they did before. Draco used a formation to build a small house for the elves, which consisted of five different rooms. Since elves are used to living under small cave they dug themselves, for them this room was way more luxurious. Draco could clearly see the difference between them and the regular house-elves. Even though the five of them continuously thanked Draco for giving them a place to live in, they didn''t decline the house at any time. Draco was sure if he gave any elf from the Malfoy Manor, a house to stay in, they would probably cry and beg to make sure Draco takes back the house. Draco met very interesting people in his tour to Romania, among them Merc and the elf seller taking the top spot. Draco was more interested in the elf-seller since he seemed to know even Merc and was very mysterious as Draco didn''t even know his name, unlike him Draco understood a little about Merc since he had a decent conversation with him. Draco asked the elves about the elf seller but to his surprise, none of them knew much about him either other than the fact that he was their temporary owner unless someone comes and buys them. According to the elves, they were trained by the older elves who didn''t sell early on, to do their job and the man didn''t bother with them at all. Foods would arrive in time and the elves had the free reign to do anything as they pleased, but due to the guidance of the older elves, they didn''t do anything out of the line. The man showed up now and then, looking around the place once in a while and just disappear out of the place most of the times. The more Draco heard about the man, the more interested he got in him, as he figured that the man was something special rather than a plain old drunk, he first thought he was. Draco after a brief conversation with the elves went towards his lab. The place was a mess since the last time he came here, so with a bit of wand-waving, the place was clean as before. Draco put the egg on the center of the lab on a heated pillow. Draco didn''t know much about raising eggs, but he doubted that even if he did have the knowledge, it would be pretty useless since the egg in front of him was a hybrid. Draco bought the egg for the sole reason, that he was the only one who heard its heartbeat. Even Merc was unaware of the fact that the egg was alive and wanted to sell it as a dud egg for decor. Draco was sure that the hybrid containing Dragon genes in it was the only reason he could hear the faint heartbeat. Draco was sure that the egg could hatch any moment since the heartbeat signified that it was already starting to turn into a creature, he just didn''t know when. It could be tomorrow, after a month or even years. So to make sure it didn''t cause any ruckus after it breaks free, Draco created a small barrier around it using a formation, to make sure that the creature wouldn''t set his lab on fire, in case it had the ability to. Draco was very fascinated with the idea of hybrids and couldn''t help but feel excited to see what hatches out of it and what power it holds. 99 Resem Blood. Draco then proceeded to store, all the things he bought in different locations. He kept a liter of Re''em blood for experimenting and kept the other in a separate flask. After a bit of studying Draco found about Re''em blood uses properly. Since Re''em, blood isn''t exactly a secret many people had invested time in experimenting about its uses in the past but even with a ton of research, they could only come up with the strength-giving part of it. According to the research, Re''em, blood gave immense strength to the person who drank it for a certain time. The research concluded that 2ml of Re''em blood was only sufficient for giving the person enough strength for a minute and that the blood tasted a bit like wine but much bitter and sour than you could imagine. The side-effect of drinking the blood included fatigue and nausea, due to overstraining the body than a person normally would. The more you drank the blood the greater the side-effect would hit you. Even after reading it all that, Draco still wanted to try some to see its effects for himself, so he drank exactly 2ml of the blood. The taste of the blood was hard to describe but the least Draco could say was that it wasn''t as repulsive as he thought it would be. As soon as Draco, drank the potion he felt a rush of energy. It was much like before when he went off on Pius but this time there wasn''t any difference in his mana. Draco rushed outside, running at an incredible speed, which would humanly be impossible. Draco as he rushed towards a decent sized stone in front of him, suddenly jumped and punched the stone. The stone had a hole in it, as Draco''s arm successfully penetrated the stone. Draco was shocked seeing him cross his body limit as he only expected to crack the outside a little at most and to his surprise, he didn''t feel any pain. As he was in amazement as to what happened, his body suddenly gave out. Draco dropped on the floor, gasping and sweating. He felt very tired as if he had just run a marathon. After minutes of laying on the floor, he finally regained enough strength to move again. Draco quickly used a couple of spells and just as he expected the potion didn''t have any effect on magic, just his physical body. (All the restriction and things are made up by me, since wiki didn''t describe it properly. With this the Re''em blood wouldn''t be to OP.) After a bit of research, he went back to his lab and noted all the things down quickly. After contemplating all things, he separated the remaining Re''em blood in different 20ml flasks. With all that happened, Draco was sure that he couldn''t take the side-effect of the blood for more than 10 minutes and 10 minutes of strength would make a lot of difference in a fight and would be enough to get out of certain situations. With that settled down, Draco took out the Hodag''s horn and stored it, to make a potion out of it when he had enough time. Draco kept the danger prediction ball in his robe, as it could be best used when it was near him. Then he took out the potion book which he bought before, the book taught people how to make offensive style potion for protection and attack. The potion book included rare potions which couldn''t be found elsewhere, which pleased Draco very much. The recipes of this potions went from basic to difficult. After reading it a quarter way through, Draco closed the book and went back outside his suitcase to get a good sleep. -------------------------------------------------------- Next morning, Draco was wakened up by a bunch of letters suddenly dropping in. Draco still half asleep looked around to see different owls flying in. Draco looked at the letters in his bed as he lazily stood up, yawning. He fed the owls and kept them in the stands. After a quick wash, Draco sat on his chair and looked at the letters carefully. He knew that 2 of them were Howlers. A Howler is a magical letter in a red envelope which enchants the written message into the writer''s voice, usually at a very high volume. The physical temperature of the Howler begins to rapidly increase upon delivery, and it will explode if left unopened for too long. This mechanism ensures that the recipient will open the Howler, even though he or she knows that it contains an unpleasantly loud message. Once the message has been received, the envelope bursts into flames, leaving only ashes. The sole purpose of the Howler is to deliver a message expressing anger or great displeasure in a manner which standard writing cannot adequately convey. As such, a howler will convey the displeasure of its author/sender even if left unopened, for it will shower the recipient with insults and cursing upon exploding. As he thought the letters were from Pansy and Daphne. Draco knew that they were pissed at him but he wasn''t in the mood to listen to a loud scolding the very first thing in the morning. He threw both the letters high up in the air and burned it. Even when burning, the sound kept coming out of the letter which couldn''t be understood and soon it quietened down. Draco was sure he would get scoldings from Daphne and Pansy later on as well, so the howlers weren''t that necessary. Draco looked at the other letters and surprisingly he still had a few. One was from Hermione, who sent the letter asking if he was okay. She sounded very concerned about his disappearance, which she found out when accidentally reading the daily prophet. After which she regularly followed the news and was finally relieved when the letter about him coming back was printed out today. The other letter was sent by Tonks, who got the information about Pius beforehand through Moody. She similarly was a bit concerned and was asking if he was okay. Even though the two of them have never met, they had built a friendship through letters. The other letter was from Andromeda, his friends at Hogwarts, including Neville and surprisingly Dumbledore. The content of most of the letters was the same. Feeling a bit happy about all the care he received, Draco sat back to write a reply letter to all of them, stating that he was fine. Sending the letters back along with the owls, he went out of his room to get breakfast. Since yesterday, Narcissa herself prepared a lot of Draco''s favorite dishes. Draco sat down eating the delicious food. After the meal, Lucius called Draco to the living room. "The news has already spread as you wanted to." Lucius said passing today''s paper to Draco, "Some of the people wanted to come to interview you, what do you plan on doing about that?" Draco took the paper and looked at it, the headline of the first page was, ''Defeat of the uprising Dark Lord.'' The news stated different things about Pius''s deed and how he was finally defeated by Draco. "How''s the response of other wizards?" Draco asked sitting down. "It''s pretty decent." Lucius said nodding, "Of course, some people find it hard to believe but most people are hooked, even people calling you the next Dark Lord are now on your side. All in all, the result you wanted have been achieved." Draco nodded, "We can do the interview, maybe even call up Fudge to give me my Order of Merlin award for the paper." Lucius couldn''t understand why Draco wanted so much attention but he dismissed the thought thinking, his son was like him. "We can do that, have you thought about what you want to say?" "Yes." Draco said. "I just want to spread the message about how we are being wrongfully accused and with it, in the future, we can even use this as an excuse to blame the other people back when they start doubting us for any reason at all. With the interview, I can solidify my reputation and answers some question people want to know, to reduce their doubt on me." "Would you mention your creatures?" "That''s going to be a secret." "I forgot to tell you this but since you used Doxies in your escape that day, people have started gossiping you carry weird creatures in your suitcase." Lucius said, "I am sure the interviewer will bring the question up." "Don''t worry." Draco said shrugging his shoulders, "When has using Doxies become a crime." "With your current reputation getting a license wouldn''t be hard so why go through all the trouble," Lucius asked confused. "If you ever get caught, all your creatures would be taken away." "It will totally ruin the surprise element." 100 Interview Draco was sitting in the living room, opposite of 3 reporters. One of the reporter present there was none other than Rita Skeeter. Draco didn''t know how she managed to get in, because as far as he knew, he had excluded Rita from the list of interviewers who were coming today. From the very beginning, as soon as she entered his house, Rita kept staring at Draco. Draco felt uncomfortable by her gaze and stared back at her, wondering what was going on. As soon as he did, Rita pushed the other reporters aside, walking closer with a photographer, who started taking pictures. The flash of the camera was so bright that it left Draco dazed for a while. "We can take the pictures later Rita." Fudge who was present there along with some aurors said. "Yes, we can Minister." Rita said with a smile. Fudge who had been called a few things by Rita, ignored her as he was already in a bad mood. Fudge who was in a position of power felt helpless as he had to obey orders from a 12-year-old to keep his position. Draco after a brief discussion with Lucius this morning, decided to not interfere with the Minister position for a while. Due to Fudge''s stupidity controlling things would be much easier, so Draco didn''t want someone unexpected and hard to control become the new minister. Fudge too admitted that he had nothing to do with the aurors following them, so after a last warning from the pure-blood community, they let Fudge go but not without certain promises. The reporter asked him various questions, mostly Rita who kept asking direct and provocative questions. "Hello, I''m Rita Skeeter! I write for the Daily Prophet. But, of course, you know that, don''t you? It''s you we don''t know, so let''s cut the introduction short." Rita said pushing the two reporters aside, "I have been wanting to interview for a couple of years now but you always seem to reject the offer, what makes this time an exception?" "This time, what has happened with Pius is not my personal issue alone." Draco said calmly, not getting nervous at all, "With the attack on different ministry officials and normal wizards with one of the Unforgivable Curses, the Imperius Curse. The people have the right to know what is going on." The reporters wrote down the things, Rita included but she kept staring at Draco while writing it. "So can you give us an account of what happened with Pius from your perspective, from your disappearance to you defeating him." A reporter asked quickly before Rita had the chance to do so. Rita snorted and sat back, ready to write things down. "Well, it''s difficult to explain actually but I will try to give you some details of what I could remember in the very least." Draco said, "As you might have already heard, I went on a little tour to Romania with my friend." "You escaped." Rita cut off Draco, "Why?" "I will appreciate if you don''t cut me off next time, I am not a very patient man." Draco said glaring back at Rita, If it was before the whole fiasco, the reporters would have brushed the comment off as a child''s threat but now they were dealing with someone who defeated a soon to be Dark Lord. Gulping, they all naturally smiled. "I apologize." Rita said smiling as if nothing happened, "Please continue." "Hmph! As I was saying, I went off on a tour to Romania with my friend. As for your question, I am a kid, and if you have children you can easily know how rebellious they can be sometimes. For me, this was an act of rebelling against my Father, who wanted to protect me way too much." Draco continued, "Why Romania you might ask, well, of course, it''s for the Dragons. Very interesting creatures they are, and I always had a fascination for it. But after we reached the Dragon farm, we were attacked by Pius and his men suddenly. Lucky for us, my father arrived there along with some help and we managed to delay Pius, but unfortunately, due to all the confusion among the fight, my friend Theodore was captured by Pius who disapparated away with him and I was sent flying back to a forest. Hence the news of my disappearance broke out." The reporters keenly listened as they wrote each and every word he spoke with complete seriousness. "As you all know, I am very good at Potions, so with a couple of healing spells and potions, I was able to walk back out of the forest, but due to a bit of very good luck, I found out that Pius was hiding in the forest, opposite of mine. So with a broom in hand, I traveled there quickly and safely. After I reached outside of the forest, I was delighted by the news that the Minister was already aware of the situation and was acting on it immediately." Fudge nodded happily agreeing with Draco. "It wasn''t a big deal, with some of our finest trained aurors, finding their location didn''t take much time." Fudge added, "And we acted on it as soon as we found their locations. As you might have already known both Theodore and Draco here are very intelligent wizards and are the future of our magical community, so we couldn''t let them fall under wrong hands-- We would do the same if any other children were involved of course." Saving the Ministry''s reputation was a part of their deal. With so many aurors going rogue, People started doubting Fudge''s position as the Minister. So to save the crisis falling upon them, both of them decided to save the Ministry''s character along as well or else Fudge would be kicked out of the minister''s position just by the public outcry. "So basically after that, I followed the trails back to Pius and along with the help of some brave aurors who unfortunately couldn''t make it. We defeated Pius." Draco continued, in reality, he could have taken all the credit for defeating Pius, since that was exactly what he did but he refrained from doing so due to various reasons. Draco was sure that with this he could get more believers than people who doubt him since even in the wizarding community, a 12-year-old kid defeating a group of full-grown wizards was basically like a fairy tale. So after some discussion with Fudge, Draco prepared the whole fake statement of some aurors helping him, who unfortunately died to do so. These brave martyrs were none other than ones who were killed by Merc on that auction. Since they needed to justify the missing aurors somehow, Fudge suggested that this was the best idea. Draco knew that Fudge wanted to take every chance he could get to repair his reputation but even knowing his intentions Draco still chose to follow it, as it was convincing and reasonable. "And that''s the end of it." The reporters quickly wrote all the things down nodding, they too found it convincing that Draco had some help rather than the rumors about him defeating all those wizards under the curse along with some rogue trained aurors, by himself. "Ask your questions, now." Draco said, "I am busy with other stuff and don''t have all day to deal with this, so let''s quickly end this interview, shall we?" "Why are you so interested in Dragons?" Rita quickly asked "They are marvelous creatures, anyone my age would, of course, be interested in Dragons, wouldn''t they?" "There are rumors that you owned one of the Dragons in the farm that disappeared that day." Rita quickly asked not giving chance to the other reporters, "What do you have to say about that?" "I don''t." Draco said clearly, "If I owned one, I wouldn''t go through all that hassle just to see one and I heard about the disappearance of the dragon, and I am extremely apologetic to the Dragon farm and the owner of the dragon. He or she could come to ask me or the minister compensation any time, for their loss." Fudge coughed awkwardly since he didn''t want to waste his money on repaying for someone else''s mistake. Since Fudge didn''t know that Draco was the one who owned the Dragon, he started cursing Draco in his mind as to why he couldn''t keep his mouth shut. 101 Fire "There are also rumors that you have some weird creatures in your suitcase." Rita quickly asked another question, noting down things, she couldn''t care less if the owner gets paid or not. "The rumor started with the people in the party, who saw you use Doxies as a way to escape." "Oh, you mean this." Draco said taking out a suitcase from beside his sofa, "You can take a look if you want to, its nothing but an ordinary suitcase really and as for the Doxies, those people in the party can confirm that I was in the basement that day and you know how Doxies are, they gather around dark places and since I had to escape, I caught some that day and released it as a distraction." One of the reporters quickly opened the suitcase but they found nothing, they tried several spells on it but anyway they looked at it, it was just an ordinary suitcase with some clothes in it. Draco, of course, gave them a fake suitcase. In the meantime, Rita asked another question, "Are you taking beautifying potions to hide the scars that you got in the battle?" "What makes you think so?" "Your picture which was taken a couple of months ago, when you won the Black family house, looks completely different as to how you look now." "If I was taking the beautifying potion, wouldn''t you be attracted to me instead of you looking at me with weird gazes." "What makes you think I am not attracted?" Rita said raising her eyebrows a little. Draco wanted to puke when he heard what she said, Even though she looked young and decent for someone her age but the fact still remained that she at the end was 40 years older than him. Draco wanted to make a joke but he didn''t since it wasn''t the correct time to do so as he didn''t want something overly outrageous article on the newspaper tomorrow, which he had a feeling would happen anyway. "You can use a revealing spell if you want to." Draco said awkwardly, "Kids my age grow up quick, I might even look more different than I did today within a couple of months in the future." "No need," Rita said writing down things quickly, today she wasn''t using her Quick-Quotes Quill due to the minister being present, so she had to write all the stuff down herself. "So how did you kill Pius? What spells did you use?" Rita asked the questions directly, even other reporters were shocked at first but remembering why she was called the Queen of Quills, they looked at Draco wondering how he would answer the question. "I didn''t kill Pius directly." Draco said putting on a show, as he spoke with a depressed expression, "In the midst of the fight, I used an explosion spell secretly which caused the floor to blow up. Of course, I didn''t know that my spells would be so powerful. After the floor broke down, Pius was sent flying down as he was crushed by the remaining building parts, killing him immediately." "What do you feel when you saw that?" "Nothing, just emptiness." Draco replied in a sorrowful tone, "I just take it as whether it was me or him--" "That''s enough." Lucius said walking in. "We have other things to do, so I kindly request you to end this interview. "It''s an honor to meet you, Mr. Malfoy." Rita quickly said standing up in greeting and looked back at Fudge and Draco, "Let''s end with the ceremony shall we." Fudge nodded. After taking several pictures with Fudge handing him the Order of Merlin award, praising him, the reporters finally left for Theodore''s house, who Draco convinced to give an interview and what to say in it. "I will take my leave as well." Fudge said, "I have to hand over the award to Mr. Nott as well, so I would have to reach there before the reporters. Do you mind if I use the Floo network." "Not at all." Lucius said leading Fudge to the fireplace and he was gone. "Well, that was tiring." Draco said sitting on the couch. "I am glad mother isn''t here, otherwise she might really use a spell on her." "Well, that''s true." Lucius nodded, "I wonder how she managed to get the job when we clearly asked for her to not be included." "She probably had something on the editors and the management, so she might have blackmailed them to give her the job." "That''s possible." Lucius said nodding, "With the number of people she writes articles on, I wouldn''t be surprised if she had some on her colleagues." ------------------------------------------------ Later in the day, Draco was running tests on his new found powers. He sat down concentrating and focusing on his hands trying to light a fire. After a couple of sparks, a small fire conjured in his hands. Draco looked at the small bright flame forming in his hands. Draco tried to shoot the flame forward but it didn''t work as the flame went out. "Doesn''t look too good." Draco thought out loud, the possibility of shooting flames was a good thing, since it could be used as a secret weapon of some sort, but Draco was concerned about the fact that he could potentially turn into a veela. Draco prayed, wishing that he was maybe just like a half-veela rather than a full one, but the flames in his hands told another story. After practicing the flames for a while, Draco was able to bring the flame out any time he wanted but he was still far from being able to shoot it. Draco after a bit of practice quickly felt the mana used in the flames, as he was able to control it a bit but since mana are very chaotic in nature, excess mana could cause his hands to blow up, so he had to be careful with it. Draco, after taking care of his herbs and checking on the creatures, went towards the Bowtruckle, he chose. All the bowtruckles quickly hid when they saw him coming but the one, in particular, didn''t move. Draco extended his hands hoping to connect with the Bowtruckle but it just backed off a little looking confused. Draco patiently took out a small jar of insects and took a worm out. Keeping the insect on his hand, he extended it back again. The Bowtruckle looked at him confused but slowly came forward looking at the worm in his hands. It slowly extended its branch like hands and took the worm, eating it. After it finished eating the worm the Bowtruckle looked at him, as if it wanted more. Draco happily took out another worm and similarly gave it to the Bowtruckle, who after eating it, ran away hiding inside the hollow spot in the tree. Draco nodded in satisfaction, as small interaction such as this helped build a friendly connection between them, with how things were going, Draco was sure that soon the Bowtruckle would be friendly enough to come with him rather than staying in the tree. Draco was about to head back into his lab to create some potions when he suddenly heard knocking sounds. Draco quickly got out to see Lucius looking at him weirdly. "What is it?" Draco asked confused. "Did you order, a bunch of cows and goats telling the owner that we wanted to start a farm?" "Yeah, that was me." Draco said completely getting out of the case, "Has it already arrived?" "Sigh! Look outside." Lucius said. Draco nodded and started walking out, "By the way, did you pay for them?" "I did." Lucius said not looking back, "You know money doesn''t grow on a tree--" Lucius wanted to lecture Draco but as he turned back, Draco was nowhere to be seen. Sighing at this again, Lucius went back to his room to get some rest. 102 Prince Next morning, the special edition of Daily Prophet was released. Even Wizards who didn''t read the newspaper bought it for that day, Every Wizard and Witch knew that today''s paper covered the whole story behind the Pius scandal. Even though the paper covered many details of the news before, most of them were just speculations and guesses on their part, but today''s news covered the whole story told by one of the victims and the one who defeated Pius alone. The whole front page of the newspaper started with the eye-catching title of the article, which read ''The Prince of the Black Family.'' Writers and editors after deciding for a long while finally decided on the title and just as from the title of the article you would expect, nothing much was written about the incident. The moving picture of Fudge giving Draco the order of Merlin award was the main picture in the article. The whole article showed Draco in a luxurious manner than a hero who defeated Pius, the article did indeed mention what happened in the whole situation, but all of those were described in a single paragraph just giving a gist of what happened. Rather the whole article was filled about Draco''s personal life, which some people were very interested in after him being in the news for a long while now. The article mentioned about him growing up in one of the richest wizarding family in Britain, the Malfoy family and later acquiring the Black Manor as well. With Sirius in prison, no one had any doubt that Draco was the true owner of the Black family. The article then began describing the total worth of all of Draco''s Property, including his potions and items he got for free, coming to the conclusion that Draco was one of the wealthiest people in the whole of Britain''s wizarding community. After reading the article, many people couldn''t help but feel that the title really suited Draco. The genius boy who grew up rich in a noble family, really made it seem like, he was living a life of Prince from a fairy tale. Many people after reading that Draco had the help of some aurors started trying to ruin his name but before the countless people who supported him became immense, those people didn''t have much chance. Wizards are very simple as they move along with the wind, one time when the media outcry for Draco being a potential Dark Lord was out, many people believed so and wanted him to surrender but now when the same Draco defeated a person who seemed like a huge threat to the community, Draco became a Prince. Not a hero but a simple Prince, he didn''t battle alone neither did he came from a humble beginning where he fought his way to rest above everyone else, he was just a Prince who grew up with a golden spoon in his mouth and was very talented in using his resources. Even though the news portrayed him in a bad way, including his good deed but making it seem like it was normal, people''s mentality didn''t saw Draco in a bad light instead he became super popular, especially among young girls. With his handsome good looks, noble standing and being a brave fighter, Draco became the knight in shining armors the girl would dream about, but unlike the dream, Draco was more of a real deal. The word Prince became the known title for Draco, some people like the media used it to make it seem like his deeds weren''t worthy enough to be appreciated too much, some used it sarcastically to make it seem like he was just a rich brat doing whatever he wanted to gain fame and attention, especially in that scene where he could''ve just waited for the trained aurors to do their job, instead of jumping in and bothering them, and some people used the word as a way to show their respect to Draco for his effort and strength. The news blew up quick like wildfire, to the point where the Daily Prophet had to reprint the issues just after a couple of hours of releasing it. The whole British community was talking about it and everyone had their own different opinion. Draco especially gained some fame among the half-bloods and muggle born wizards, where they figured Draco didn''t really hate them like other pure-bloods did and thought he could help bring an end to the discrimination in the future. The news mentioned Harry in a short sentence were they wrote how busy the savior was in hiding and being protected by Dumbledore, but people didn''t even bother remembering Harry in this incident. -------------------------------- Draco who finished reading the newspaper closed it and threw it on the ground. He had anticipated some bad things but he''d never expected the Daily Prophet to change the whole situation to focus more on his financial side. Even though they made it seem like, they were neither against him nor with him, the different sudden arguments bought up a whole new side to the story which Draco wasn''t sure was even possible. "So is our Prince upset with the article?" Theodore who had come to visit him said sarcastically. "Shut up." Draco said annoyed, "I never felt that they could turn the situation into me showing off my wealth." "Well, what do you expect from an article written by Rita." Theodore said, "You should be happy since the whole article is about you, even Fudge doesn''t have a full paragraph in this article." "Well, I never expected them to only copy a quote from you. Especially, since you''re a victim, I thought they would be very interested in what you had to say." Draco snickered, the whole article only had one line where Theodore was even mentioned, even when they conducted a similar interview with him. "Don''t worry, I am not fame hungry like you." Theodore said rolling his eyes, "So have Pansy and Daphne visited yet?" "Not yet." Draco shook his head, "I heard that their parents didn''t let them since they figured I needed some time to rest, but they did send me a howler yesterday." "Haha.. what did it say?" "I didn''t bother reading it," Draco said laying back, "We are going to meet tomorrow anyway so what''s the big deal." "What''s tomorrow?" "Oh! did I forget to tell you that we are going shopping tomorrow." Draco said throwing a letter towards Theodore. Theodore caught the letter and opened it, The letter told them to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King''s Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books they''d need for the coming year. SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE: The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2by Miranda Goshawk Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart 43 Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart "What''s up with all these Lockhart''s books?" Theodore asked folding the letter back again, "Is our new teacher a fanatic of Lockhart or something." "Who knows!" Draco said, due to all the drama he had actually forgotten about Lockhart. Draco was thankful that he had decided to go to Drumstrang as an exchange student this year, so apart from a few months, Draco didn''t have to face all the craziness of Lockhart. Talking about the exchange student program, Draco had already received a permission letter from the Ministry along with the agreement of Igar, due to Lucius intervening in the matter all the documents were ready, now all he needed was the permission of Dumbledore and he could go to Durmstrang without any problem. He mentioned the topic and sent the documents regarding the school visit to Dumbledore when he sent the letter back to him the other day, but he still hadn''t received a reply back from him, on the topic. "Why are you dozing off?" Theodore asked snapping his fingers near Draco''s face. "Now that I think about it, isn''t Lockhart very similar to you." Draco snapped out of his thoughts and looked back at Theodore annoyed "What do you mean?" "Well, both of you are famous for doing heroic deeds that no one had witnessed, both of you are fame hungry." Theodore said mocking Draco, "The only difference is that, you haven''t written a book about it or else you would be called the second Lockhart." 103 Male Veela "Don''t compare me to that idiot." Draco said. Theodore made him remember something, Draco hadn''t told anyone about the topic of him going to Durmstrang because he didn''t want them to get involved yet since these things included something personal as well. "Theodore, this year... can you focus more on magical training?--Maybe even train others a little more." "Why?" Theodore asked with his eyebrows raised. "Is the Veela thing acting up?" "No.. why would you even assume that?" "I don''t know. Whenever I look at your face and how it''s different compared to the past, I can''t help but remember the new veela side in you." Theodore said, "The threat of you being a veela is always going to be around, which is a very concerning matter and the way you just said those words, it felt like you weren''t going to be present with us." "Don''t think too much." Draco said clicking his tongue, "Just do as I say." "Fine." Theodore said, "So how is the Veela thing anyway? Is being the only male Veela in existence an interesting thing?" "Not too good," Draco said, opening his fist as a fire emerged from his hands and quickly disappeared as he closed his fist back. "I am not sure, I can be proud of being the only one for the first time." Theodore looking into it, looked at Draco seriously, "Have you started transforming yet?" "No signs of it. I have come up with several theories as to what is going on with me." Draco shook his head, even though turning into a Veela wasn''t a bad thing, but still, Draco didn''t want to be a monster. In fact, he was fine being a half-veela of some sort, due to his increased perception of feeling the mana around him but other than that, he didn''t want to turn to a monster. "One is either, nothing is going to happen after this and this fire is only an advantage-- second, the transformation is a slow process, and it''s slowly turning me into a Veela and there are many other possibilities that could happen." Theodore nodded, "If there is a poison, then there has to be a cure as well, if you do turn into a full Veela maybe we can fix up a potion to negate the effects--talking about the potion, have you experimented with the Philosopher''s stone yet?" Theodore said trying to change the depressing topic. "What do you think?" "Knowing you, I can''t think of any reasons, you wouldn''t by now." Theodore said, "So what did you find?" "As expected the stone''s pretty much useless for now." Draco said lazily, "Without formations, the stone can''t turn things into gold and without the potion formula, we can forget about the elixir of life." "So we can''t do anything with it for now?" Theodore asked frowning. "We can experiment with it, in other fields using a variety of potions with it, since that''s what we basically planned to do from the very beginning and as for the other uses, I am sure Nicholas Flamel knew, I would hit this bottleneck." Draco said, "Maybe that''s why, he was so confident in giving me the stone, even with all the rumors going around about me." "So are you really going to meet him?" "I have to." Draco said, "Even though I am not interested in Elixir of Life, I still need access to the formation for turning things into gold as that will stabilize my financial condition." "Oh, is the Prince having trouble saving up money?" "You don''t know about it yet, do you?-- Now that I think about it, I never told you about my purchase." "What are you talking about?" "Follow me." Draco said, leading Theodore to his room and inside the suitcase. ------------- "So you''re telling me, that you blew almost all of your money in an auction, buying these weird creatures?" Theodore said not believing what he was seeing. "Yes..." "Why?" Theodore was confused, he couldn''t think of any reason where Draco would need all these items and add to that, he bought some elf''s to go along with the whole set as well. "You probably don''t know, since you weren''t conscious when that happened, but these creatures here saved my life, without them, I am sure that I couldn''t defeat all those wizards by myself." Draco said, "And hey, almost every creature has at least one use to them. Fighting with an army of creature''s sounds interesting, doesn''t it?" "Really? What about that Golden Snidget? What use does it have?" "I don''t know." Draco said, "It''s a rare creature okay, having one doesn''t affect anyone-- If we ever find a potion recipe or formation where any part of Golden Snidget is necessary, where in the world will we go to find them?" "Che, stop making excuses..." Theodore said. "If people outside find that you''re actually poorer than me, the whole title of the Prince would be nothing but a joke." "Stop acting like my financial advisor, and if we are talking about money then with all the property I own, from the Black family. I am still way richer than you." Draco said snorting, "Anyway, as long as I can get the knowledge on the formation, from Nicholas Flamel, then money wouldn''t be a problem anymore. I need to have at least one good advantage of owning the stone, don''t you think?" "Sigh! so when are you planning on meeting him?" Theodore asked, giving up. "Not this year, maybe the next or whenever I have time." Draco said shrugging his shoulders. He knew without the stone, Flamel would die sooner but Draco knew he still had some Elixir of life with him to survive a couple of years so he would be fine with delaying their meeting a bit. Theodore didn''t ask more and both of them began experimenting on different potions. After reading the potion book on offensive potions, Theodore became very interested in it as well and both of them began creating several batches of different potions. ------------------------ Next morning, Theodore and Draco were ready to go to Diagon Alley for shopping for new school supplies. Draco didn''t have to necessarily buy books for this year of Hogwarts but it was deemed necessary anyway since he would be there for at least a month. For Durmstrang, Draco didn''t have to buy any books, because the school provided books separately to them. Both of them were waiting for Daphne and Pansy to arrive. Draco was slightly nervous because he was sure he was going to get some lectures, Theodore, on the other hand, was busy reading the potion book. After half an hour of waiting, the fireplace lit up and both Daphne and Pansy arrived together. As soon as they entered they looked directly in Draco''s direction fiercely, as they began walking towards his direction. Draco being nervous closed his eyes only to be surprised by a sudden hug from both the girls making him fall down. "Idiot." Both of them said as they threw a couple of soft punches towards him. Draco was surprised since he was ready to get some scolding but it turned out to be a good thing instead. Pansy and Daphne stood up a little as they looked at the mixed expression on Draco''s face, "Why do you look so nervous?" Pansy asked worriedly, "Are you fine?" "No, I am completely fine." Draco shook his head. "I heard that you were still tired from my parents." Daphne said, "Are you sure?" "Yeah, I am." Draco said, "I just needed some rest, that''s all." There was a moment of silence where the three of them were just looking at each other only to be awakened by Theodore''s interrupting cough. "You look different," Pansy said, tracing one side of Draco''s face. "I saw you in the newspaper for the first time after the incident yesterday and I was surprised to see your appearance so-- changed." Daphne added, similarly tracing the other side of Draco''s face. "Are you attracted to me?" Draco suddenly asked making both girl panic a little as they hurriedly stood up completely. "What are you saying?" "Yeah! What are you talking about?" They asked blushing. "I am just asking if you feel attracted to me due to my face," Draco asked seriously, if the girls were attracted to him due to his face, this would suggest one of his theories about his Veela changes. ------------------------------------- (The stone is said to be extremely rare and difficult to even make and since the book didn''t clearly explain how its effect of turning metal to gold and elixir of life was done, I made up my own. Guessing the rarity of the stone, I am sure the potion formulae are found everywhere. especially considering its rarity.) 104 Reunion Seeing Draco''s serious face, they hurriedly shook their heads. "It''s not that." They said at the same time, "It''s just you look different that''s all." "Sigh!" Draco breathed a sigh of relief, "Well at least that''s not a problem yet." "What are you talking about?" Daphne asked. "Nothing." Draco said as he looked at both of them, "I expected you to be more... mad but you girls seem to be the exact opposite." "Oh, consider your self lucky that we decided to only scold you once." "We figured, a scolding through the Howler would be enough." Daphne said, "You did listen to it, didn''t you?" "N--Yeah! I did." Draco hurriedly shook his head, "That''s why I expected you to be, you know maybe a bit-- more angry." "That was recorded a couple of day''s ago when you first went missing." Pansy said folding her arms, "So mind telling us what happened?" "You know, I am one of the victims too right?" Theodore added pointing at himself. "Well, we knew that you were alright--since at least you sent us a letter back, unlike someone else." Pansy snorted. "I didn''t know how to reply to a Howler so I stayed quiet." Draco lied quickly. "Anyway, believe it or not, the thing the newspaper said is mostly the truth." Theodore said sighing, "The only thing that''s different is that, Draco acted out of necessity, not for fame and attention." "Is it really the truth?" Daphne asked. "Yeah." Draco nodded, He and Theodore had already planned to lie to the girls as well, since he didn''t want both of them to worry unnecessarily for his reckless behavior. "What about your face?" Pansy asked, "You kept telling us that the beautification potion is very dangerous but you used it on yourself instead?" "Is it true that you''re hiding scars from the fight?" Daphne added. "Hey, do you think I am that insecure... that I will hide my scars using a potion." Draco said but looking at their reaction, the three of them seem to be exactly thinking the same thing. "It''s not that." Daphne said awkwardly, "You and Theodore both put a lot of importance on your face since both of you keep insulting each other''s face... so you know-- it gives that weird vibe that you guys do care about your face, a lot." Draco and Theodore awkwardly coughed, "It''s not that--it''s just you know, jokes." "Yeah! and I didn''t use any potion to fix my face or anything, like that." Draco quickly said, "Due to some circumstances, my face just ended up like this-- is it that weird?" Pansy pinched Draco''s cheek, "You still look like the same Draco but more, feminine and a bit more good looking." "Was I that ugly back then?" Draco said in an annoyed tone. "No, we both liked you-- I mean your face-- I mean-- you get it, don''t you?" Daphne tried to hurriedly explain, "It wasn''t bad before and for us, you''re still the same old Draco." Draco smiled hearing that but his smile quickly turned into a frown when he heard Theodore, "Yeah! The same old Draco but just weirdly more attractive than he previously was." Everyone laughed looking at Draco''s face, "Hmph! Let''s go... Hermione is probably already waiting for us at the Leaky Cauldron." Draco snorted. "Oh is she coming there as well?" Theodore asked. "Yeah, she is." Draco said, "You guys don''t seem too surprised?" He asked looking at Daphne and Pansy. "We sent letters to each other throughout the holiday." Pansy shrugged her shoulders, "So of course we knew." "Let''s go, then." "Wait are we going alone?" Daphne asked, "Isn''t anyone coming with us?" "Mother is busy taking care of the twins, they both are a handful, you know." Draco said, "And Father is busy with the ministry''s business, so he won''t be home till noon. Don''t worry too much, the danger''s gone, and even if it wasn''t, I am sure people wouldn''t dare attack me in a place like Diagon Alley, where the place is literally filled with wizards." After minutes of convincing, Daphne and Pansy, finally let go and the four of the use the floo powder and disappeared from the Malfoy Manor. ------------------------ In Diagon Alley, Hermione and her parents were waiting for Draco when the Weasley family arrived through the floo network. "Hermione!" Ron called out walking towards her. "Ron!" Hermione waved back as well. "What are you doing here?" Ron asked as he kept looking around. "I am waiting for Draco to arrive." Hermione said, along the holiday she had exchanged some letters with Ron now and then, so she wasn''t too anxious to meet him, "Where is Harry, by the way?" "We helped him escape from his aunt''s house. A pain in the butt, they are... by the way, where is Harry?" "Shouldn''t you know?" "No, he came before us, so he should arrive before us." "Does he know how to use the floo powder?" Hermione asked, "He might have ended somewhere else instead." "What''s going on?" Mr. Weasley came asking but before they could say anything, Mr. Weasley was distracted almost at once by the sight of Hermione''s parents, who were standing nervously at the counter that ran all along the great marble hall, waiting for Hermione to introduce them. "But you''re Muggles!" said Mr. Weasley delightedly. "We must have a drink! What''s that you''ve got there? Oh, you''re changing Muggle money. Molly, look!" He pointed excitedly at the ten-pound notes in Mr. Granger''s hand. "Oh, yes." Mr Granger said awkwardly. "We are heading towards Gringotts too." Mr. Weasley said, "We''ll be glad to lead you there." "That--" Mr. Granger didn''t know what to say as he looked at Hermione who convinced them to leave with Arthur. "Arthur''s always like this." Ms. Weasley sighed, "We need to go look for Harry, I wonder where he ended up at." "Let''s go check." Ron said walking towards Ms. Weasley and Ginny, as he stopped in his tracks to look back at Hermione who was just staying there, "Are you not coming?" "I''ll be there in a couple of minutes." Hermione said, "I have told Draco that I will wait for him here." Hearing Draco''s name again, Ron turned a bit stiff as he turned back again, "We will be at Flourish and Blotts if you want to meet us." "Okay," Hermione said. As soon as the Weasley family walked out of the pub, A smoke flashed on the fireplace again. Draco, Theodore, Pansy, and Daphne arrived at the same time. Unlike the previous Weasley family''s who had been dusty and dirty, all of them arrived clean. "Draco." Hermione rushed towards Draco and the others as she awkwardly stood in front of him. Hermione looked at him with a surprised expression as this Draco before her was completely different. He was taller than her, his hair white as snow and his eyes brighter than before. As Hermione was staring at him in a daze, Draco went over and pulled her into a hug. Suddenly getting into a hug, Hermione was surprised and wanted to escape but Draco didn''t let her. As the gentle scent of Draco, entered her nose, she began to calm down. "Ah! I really miss your bushy hair." Draco said messing her hair a bit. "Don''t." Hermione escaped from Draco''s grip, blushing, "Are you fine?" She asked worriedly. "Why is everyone asking me that?" Draco said rolling his eyes, "It''s super annoying. For the last time, I am fine." "Hmph! Don''t act arrogant with me, just because your title upgraded from a Dark Lord to a Prince." Hermione and Draco looked at each other and laughed. "You look different." Draco said looking at Hermione. "I could say the same about you." Hermione said pulling her hair back getting a bit shy. Draco looked closely at her and realized that her large huge teeth were gone. "You look weird." Draco joked. "I do right? I knew I should''ve waited. Is it that bad?" Hermione said with a serious face. "You looked cuter before." Draco replied smiling. Realizing that she was being teased, Hermione snorted as she punched him a couple of times. Draco jokingly blocked her as he looked up at Daphne and Pansy who didn''t say anything back like before. Draco suddenly realized something, as he looked around in the pub to find all the wizard and witches in the place staring at him. Draco for a moment forgot that he was a bit famous right now. "I think we need to get out of here." Draco said as he signaled all of them to run. Draco didn''t want to bother himself with other people right now. 105 Knockturn Alley. Draco and the others escaped from the hurdle of people blocking their way, as they got out of Diagon Alley as fast as they could and kept running through a path, not stopping to listen. After turning through different twists and passages, they finally stopped, all of them except Draco was breathing heavily due to the unexpected run. "Phew! That was close." Draco said. "That''s why we asked whether someone was coming with us or not." Daphne said breathing heavily, "But you were too busy acting tough to listen to us." "The situation''s not the same as before." Pansy said panting, "You are very famous now, previously people only thought that it was just okay to remember your name but now people know your face as well." "Sorry, I forgot." Draco said apologizing, "I am not used to my current fame and besides I haven''t even been out of my house, ever since I arrived here, so I didn''t know things were this crazy out here." "That''s fine and all but where are we?" Hermione said looking around. Draco finally noticed he was in a weird place far from Diagon Alley. "It''s Knockturn Alley." Theodore said doing the same as well. Knockturn Alley is a shopping area off Diagon Alley in London. It is filled with numerous shops devoted to the Dark Arts and has its good old fashioned Black market as well. "Isn''t this bad?" Hermione said nervously, she had read before about Knockturn Alley, where suspicious people often hung out selling items related to the Dark Arts. "It''s not as bad as you think." Draco said, trying to ease her nervousness, unlike her Pansy and Daphne had been here before with their parents so they weren''t too freaked out by it. "It''s just a place for Dark Arts that''s all-- If you read my last Christmas letter carefully, you did realize certain things about Dark Arts, didn''t you?" Hermione nodded, back then she wanted to learn a bit of Dark Arts as they could be a good offense in time of need but stopped after reading Draco''s letter and started taking things seriously and carefully, as she started learning it from the basics for knowledge rather than power. "The place might seem creepy if you think of it as a market for Dark Arts as people portray it to be but in reality, it isn''t." Draco continued, "If you want something for a cheap price, then this is the way to go. They sell a lot of herbs cheaply here since most of them are stolen goods, so as long as keep a keen eye and know where to look, you''ll find this place to be very wonderful-- also make sure to never sell anything here at Borgin and Burkes, Mr. Borgins there is a bit cheap-- And last but not least, don''t come here running alone without a guardian... a wizard guardian, even though the place isn''t too dangerous, the people who wander around here are. They are very shady as they will try to trick you and you''ll never know, as they won''t even hesitate to use a love potion on you." Hermione, Pansy, and Daphne, carefully listened to Draco''s warning, keeping it in their mind. "Okay, you don''t have to explain everything here." Theodore said, "And you-- keep your hood up, it''s annoying to have people follow you around especially in this place, when you''ve finally got out of being a suspect for a Dark Lord." Draco nodded and put on his hood as they began to slowly get out of Knockturn Alley, through small passage way''s here and there, avoiding the public eye. As they were just about to leave the Alley for good, they suddenly heard a familiar voice, --------------------------------- "Not lost are you, my dear?" said a voice in his ear, making Harry jump. An aged witch stood in front of him, holding a tray of what looked horribly like whole human fingernails. She leered at him, showing mossy teeth. Harry backed away. "I''m fine, thanks," he said. "I''m just ¡ª" "HARRY! What d''yeh think yer doin'' down there?" Harry''s heart leaped. So did the witch; a load of fingernails cascaded down over her feet and she cursed as the massive form of Hagrid, the Hogwarts'' gamekeeper, came striding toward them, beetle-black eyes flashing over his great bristling beard. "Hagrid!" Harry croaked in relief. "I was lost ¡ª Floo powder ¡ª" Hagrid seized Harry by the scruff of the neck and pulled him away from the witch, knocking the tray right out of her hands. Her shrieks followed them all the way up the stairs out into bright sunlight. Harry saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance ¡ª Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered him right into Diagon Alley. Yer a mess!" said Hagrid gruffly, brushing soot off Harry so forcefully he nearly knocked him into a barrel of dragon dung outside an apothecary. "Skulkin'' around Knockturn Alley, I dunno dodgy place, Harry ¡ª don'' want no one ter see yeh down there ¡ª" "I realized that," said Harry, ducking as Hagrid made to brush him off again. "I told you, I was lost ¡ª what were you doing down there, anyway?" "I was lookin'' fer a Flesh-Eatin'' Slug Repellent," growled Hagrid. "They''re ruinin'' the school cabbages. Yer not on yer own?" "I''m staying with the Weasleys but we got separated," Harry explained. "I''ve got to go and find them¡­" -------------------------------- "What''s Potter doing here?" Pansy snorted, "Doesn''t he know, that his mistakes could cause Draco''s reputation to fall as well." "I heard he was lost." Hermione defended Harry, "He was here with Ron and the others, he might have used the floo powder wrong and, what does his mistakes have anything to do with Draco." "Okay, stop it you two." Theodore said, "Here''s the thing, both Draco and Potter are mentioned in the news together a lot, so both of them tend to affect each other in one way or the other, even if they did it by mistakes, so Pansy''s right on that but that doesn''t mean, Potter here can''t make mistakes as its always Draco who is the source of starting these rumors." "Blame the news, not me." Draco defended himself as he sighed, Similar to how Ron would never be friends with him, Draco was sure Pansy and Daphne would never be friends with Harry and Ron and due to Hermione being their common friend among their hatred, Draco was sure that Hermione would have a hard time, defending her friends among her other friends. "If you guys are so interested, Why don''t we just go and meet them, we can find out for sure what''s going on?" All of them nodded and rushed towards Harry and Hagrid. They looked around: Sprinting up the crowded street were Ron, Fred, George, Percy, along with Harry and Hagrid. Soon Mr. Weasley along with Hermione parent''s came as well, along with the frantic Ms. Weasley. "Harry," Mrs. Weasley now came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, Ginny just clinging onto the other. Gasping for breath Mrs. Weasly pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot Hagrid hadn''t managed to beat away. "Where did you come out?" Ron asked. "Knockturn Alley," said Hagrid grimly. "Excellent!" said Fred and George together. "We''ve never been allowed in," said Ron enviously. "I should ruddy well think not," growled Hagrid. Oh, Harry ¡ª oh, my dear ¡ª you could have been anywhere ¡ª" "We hoped you''d only gone one grate too far¡­" Mr. Weasly mopped his glistening bald patch. He took Harry''s glasses, gave them a tap of his wand, and returned them, good as new. It was awkward for him since he didn''t think that Harry would end up in Knockturn Alley and his love for muggle items kept him busy with Hermione''s parents. "Well, gotta be off," said Hagrid, who was having his hand wrung by Mrs. Weasley ("Knockturn Alley! If you hadn''t found him, Hagrid!"). "See yer at Hogwarts!" And he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street. "Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry said suddenly. 106 Raids. "Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry said to Ron and the Weasley family after Hagrid disappeared. "Who?" "Vincent Crabbe and his father," Harry said. "Did they buy anything?" said Mr. Weasley sharply behind them. "No, he was selling ¡ª" "So he''s worried," said Mr. Weasley with grim satisfaction. "Oh, I''d love to get them for something¡­ After so long, finally, the rats are coming out of their hole." "I think that''s just a misunderstanding," Draco said walking in along with Hermione and the others. Hermione waved to Harry. "And who might you be?" Mr. Weasley asked looking at the boy in front of him. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself." Draco said removing his hood, "Its a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Weasley." Recognizing Draco, Mr. Weasley was slightly shocked along with the rest of the Weasley family. Ron and Harry, on the other hand, had already figured it was Draco, after seeing Theodore and the girls but they were still shocked by his appearance. Ron had seen the newspaper before but he just brushed it off as a fault in the camera but seeing him in front he was totally weirded out. Same goes for Harry who had been locked inside his house the whole summer, but after he got out, he learned that a lot of conspiracy was brewing against him and Draco, after Dumbledore himself sending a letter assuring that everything was taken care of to the Weasley family, they finally let him go out and relaxed. All this time Harry had many questions and all this could be only told by the person in front of him. "It''s nice to meet you, Mr. Black." Arthur shook Draco''s hand. "Please just call me Draco." Draco said kindly, "I have been reading about your work on the bans of muggle items and dark items, and I really appreciate you helping clean our wizarding community." "It''s nothing really, nothing special compared to your deeds." Arthur said humbly. Arthur Weasley was a wizard known for being a well-meaning, reasonable and competent every-man, trying to take care of his family and do the right thing. A man of principle, he was strongly opposed to the discrimination of Muggles, Muggle-borns, half-bloods, half-breeds, and cursed beings such as werewolves, and did not think highly of those who subscribed to such intolerant beliefs, despite it being the prevailing views of so many of his fellow pure-bloods. While this earned him the respect of his friends and family, others, such as his father who considered him to be a "blood traitor." and a "disgrace to the name of wizard". The latter, however, he never truly took to heart, as his opinion about what disgraces the name of wizard differed greatly from theirs. Since they shared common beliefs Draco didn''t have any problem with Arthur, instead, he respected the man for not swaying with beliefs and being strong enough to stand up for what he thought was the best. Unlike Draco, Arthur was a man of this world, who was raised with similar beliefs from his peers, but unlike them he stood up to become the man he wanted, instead of falling for greed, even though his family suffered, he didn''t choose the dark path to gain benefits. If Draco wanted support from muggle wizards, and half-bloods, keeping good contact with people like Arthur was necessary. Even though due to Draco being here, Lucius and Arthur didn''t crash like before but they still hated each other none the less. "It was just a moment of recklessness on my part." Draco said with a slight smile as he turned to face Harry, "So you saw Vincent and his Mr. Crabbe in the Knockturn alley, did you?" Seeing Harry nod, Draco sighed, he knew something was going on with the Crabbe family but he didn''t know what. For Dark family such as them coming to the Knockturn Alley wasn''t a new thing so this could mean anything. If it was just any other day, Draco could''ve just ignored it as the Crabbe family trying to avoid current raids that have been going on but with the whole situation, he couldn''t just believe that it was so simple. "Mr. Weasly, I ask you to leave that thing to me and not interfere with it." Draco said. "Why?" Arthur narrowed his eyes, even though Draco was the son of Lucius, one of the men he hated the most, he still considered Draco to be a good seed. Even before he heard about all this drama, he knew that Draco was a good kid. From his random act of kindness to Lucius''s changed behavior over the years, Arthur believed that it was all due to Draco. With his talk with Dumbledore before, he knew Draco was in a very sensitive situation, being so young, his mind could be molded into anything but according to Dumbledore, there wasn''t anything to worry, at least for now. "I know how much you hate Dark items, along with the current raid but this isn''t going to help anything at all." Draco clearly said, "You might''ve caught a few people with surprise raids but now the element of surprise has been removed, People are already aware of the raids and have already begun hiding their stuff somewhere else, unless you come across wizards who have a mind of a troll, you aren''t going to find anything." "So what do you suggest, we do?" Arthur asked, thinking things carefully. He knew Draco was right since during the last two raids they didn''t manage to find anything that will lead to them being caught. "It''s difficult." Draco said grimly, "The wizarding world is very hard to change and doing it forcefully isn''t going to bear any fruit either. Even in a perfect society, we can''t manage crimes from rising as they will happen one way or the other. These forceful raids would just keep pushing the pure-bloods again and again when they have already tried to remain as calm as they could, the recent incidents prove to be the case of pushing us again, didn''t it?" Arthur knew Draco was talking about the whole training program lead by Pius which resulted in the death of more than 60 wizards and could''ve been much more serious. "I''ve managed to reduce somewhat of the pressure due to how the current situation took place but if people keep pushing it, then the wizards won''t even hesitate for a second to turn to the path they have retreated from, and you and I both know, how badly some people want to do so." "Then what do you suggest we do, just sit there while these dark wizards roam freely, destroying our peace." "Capture the ones who do it." Draco said directly, "Punish those wizards who do so. I can see how people connect all these incidents with the pure-bloods due to our history but I can assure that ever since you-know-who disappeared, all of us have gone quiet." Arthur, Mrs. Weasley along with all the Weasley family and Hermione''s parents were keenly listening to both of them. Since Draco had a different standing now in the wizarding community, his opinions mattered. When Draco bought out you-know-who, all the Weasley family, shivered a little. Mrs. Weasley wanted to drag the other kids away from this, especially Harry but he wouldn''t budge. Mr. and Mrs. Granger didn''t have a clue as to what was going on but looking at other people''s serious face, including their daughters, they remained silent and tried to understand what was going on. "Mr. Weasley, I can understand why you would think that all these crimes are related to us and I won''t lie to you, some of them are... but the pure-bloods aren''t willing to do anything extreme and dangerous as that will be just digging a hole for ourselves. All things take time and I would really appreciate it if you think about all the consequences of things before you do something." Draco said sighing, he knew this topic wasn''t as simple as he described but for him to rule, he needed to gain control of the chaos first. "I just realized that it might be inappropriate to talk politics in the middle of the Alley when we have guests here..." Arthur snapped out of his thoughts and looked at the Granger family, he knew if they learn about their chaotic situation, it might make them unnecessarily afraid so he calmed down as well, "True, I really think, the words you said do contain some truths to them, so I wish we can talk on this topic some other time in a bit more appropriate place." "Sure." Draco nodded as he went over to the Granger family, "Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Granger." 108 war. The Goblin Liaison Office is part of the Being Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It is the section which takes care of the magical economy and the relations between goblins and wizards. It takes care of the law they set for running Gringotts as it is one of the only widely known institution run by a magical creature. Draco didn''t care much on how strict they make the rules since it wasn''t anything of a bother. But rules such as opening a vault has always been up for debate, one either needed a large sum of money to get one or need to be associated with a wizarding family none the less. So for the young muggle-born wizard who didn''t have enough money, opening a vault here was impossible until they grow up enough to work and create one for themselves. Hermione who had never been down here was looking at the place curiously as she kept mentioning about how the place was similar to the ones she read on one of the books. Harry and Ron were sitting in front of the cart and Draco and Hermione were on the back. The cart-like usual moved at an incredible speed in a confusing manner. After a while, the cart stopped and Harry and Ron got off the cart towards their vault. "You can move on." Harry said to the Goblin who snorted and pushed the cart again, as they went deeper into the cave. "How deep is it?" Hermione asked. "A bit far away." Draco said, "The deeper we get the more significance the vault holds and is kept according to the wealth and prestige of the family." "Then shouldn''t yours be at the deepest part." Hermione asked she remembered that she had read somewhere that the Black family was similar to the Royal family in the wizarding world and were one of the richest. "No." Draco shook his head, "Mine is important but not so much either, there are more families like the Lestrange family, who are much deeper than ours." "Why?" Hermione asked as she looked more confused as to why Draco was so calm about it. Draco shrugged his shoulders, "The vault such as the Lestrange''s belongs to my aunt, but she is in Azkaban as well, unless she comes up with an heir the place should technically be orphaned and with a bit of help with the ministry, taking control of that place shouldn''t be hard after sometimes, so I don''t really care much about it." Hermione was surprised hearing that as she looked at Draco, "All your relatives seem to be in Azkaban... by the way the thing you said with Mr. Weasley..." "About the pure-bloods?" Draco asked as Hermione nodded, "Well, we can take these things however we want to but the result would vary each time." Draco said laying back, "Right now, I am one of the few people who managed to get their respect and if everything goes well, I can calm them down but the problem lies with our past." "What past?" Hermione asked as the cart suddenly stopped. Draco climbed over the platform and pulled Hermione up as he walked towards his vault with his key. "The same past you know about, of course... the one with Volde." Draco said casually, "You see the situation is really in a sensitive stage right now, ever since Volde disappeared all of us have been silent and calm, we don''t act irrationally but the opinion of public about is hard to change no matter how much low we stay as the pressure keeps building up." "With the current raids?" Hermione asked as Draco nodded. "That''s just the tip of the iceberg." Draco said, "Internally we''ve all been pressurized, even though we still hold some power, it isn''t the same as before." "But they have done evil so don''t they deserve the punishment?" "They do." Draco said, "And most of the cruel ones are already in Azkaban, you see Hermione we were at the top of the food chain before this and people in this stage are more power hungry than you can ever imagine them to be, so when Volde came over to us saying he could give us more power, most of us didn''t hesitate even for a second but with the fall of the Dark Lord we too fell with him. We tried to climb higher only to fall back down on the ground." Hermione keenly listened as Draco opened the vault. "Now with all the pressure and damage we want to climb back higher more than ever, they know with Volde, things like this isn''t something more than a death wish but some of us wouldn''t hesitate just to gain their reputation and power back." Draco said calmly, "So unless I can help them divert their attention else were, giving them what they want without causing any harm... all we are gonna get is a disaster." Draco said walking inside his vault along with Hermione, "So if we punish them its war and if we just leave them alone it''s going to be war again." "Yes." "But wouldn''t that affect other wizards like me." Hermione said, "With pure-bloods climbing on the top, muggle-born wizards would suffer the most." "I know." Draco said walking in front, "That is exactly what is hard about the situation, at the end of the day, I can''t think of any solution where I can control the pure-bloods and make them happy and the same time not let any other wizards be affected by it. So the only way to solve this is war." "War?" "Yes... War." Draco said, "It might sound evil or even outrageous, but its the only way. Without blood spilling, there isn''t any way to control the situation." Hermione was silent, she didn''t even have any interest in looking around her surrounding, "So are you going to start it?" "Oh, not me." Draco said crouching down and picking up Galleons from the small pile on the floor as most of them had already been used and keeping them in a small enchanted pouch, "It''s very simple actually, all I have to do is... do nothing and the war will happen." "But you can stop it can''t you?" "I can try." Draco said lazily, "But I won''t." "Why not?" "As you said, there are people who deserve punishment and these people aren''t willing to change, so to bring the change the war must happen. And as I said, all I could do is try but when he rises back from the dead again, it will be nearly impossible to stop him." "You mean..." "Yes, Volde of course." Draco said, "Its bound to happen sooner or later." "Then what about Harry?" "That''s his destiny." Draco said turning back and looking at her, "But this is all for the future, and future isn''t always predictable. So I hope you can continue to train harder in magic than just focus on your studies." Hermione was silent for a while as she suddenly felt a flick on her forehead as Draco was smiling at her. "Don''t get too tensed up. I wanted to tell you the truth of the situation beforehand so none of this will come as a surprise to you in the future." "Why?" She asked looking confused, "Well, you have a tendency to get suspicious against me quick so just didn''t want you to misunderstand if you ever see me standing in the opposite side of you." Draco said pulling Hermione''s hand, "I, in the future may not be able to fight on the same side as you but even at that day, I hope you''ll trust me enough that I will return to your side, for sure." Hermione was silent thinking as Draco''s breath slowly hit her face waking her up, as she realized both of them were too close. "Don''t try to take advantage of me, you idiot," Hermione said pulling her hands and pushing Draco as she ran further inside the vault. For the first time, she started looking inside the vault clearly to find many interesting things that amazed her. Suddenly she felt something pull her back into an embrace, Hermione was about to complain as she looked back to find a skeleton holding her back with a knife in its hand ready to strike. Not knowing what to do she froze in place, when suddenly a bright light came out of nowhere, hitting the skeleton in its head breaking it apart. "Don''t run around carelessly." Draco said hurriedly coming over and checking on Hermione, "This place is filled with Dark items, and you might get cursed if you touch the wrong item. I don''t even know what triggers them so don''t run around here." Hermione kept silent as Draco turned her over, again and again, to check if she was fine. "Draco, why do I always freeze in a situation like this?" She asked. 109 Lockhart. "Draco, why do I always freeze in a situation like this?" She asked softly, "Why do I always have to rely on you, to help me." "Is relying on me so bad of a thing?" Draco said, "And it was an unexpected attack, even I would be confused and dazed by it." Hermione kept looking at Draco who gave up and sighed, "What do you want from me?" "Teach me." Hermione said seriously. "Okay..." Draco said lazily, since teaching her wasn''t that bad of a thing. "No, you know what would be better." Hermione suddenly said as her eyes lit up, "We can open a club in school and you can teach them magic." "And why would I do that?" Draco asked confused, teaching his trusted fellow members was a good thing but teaching the whole school seemed bothersome. "Why not?" Hermione said, "You said it yourself, a war is coming... then shouldn''t we all be prepared." "But why would I trust them enough to teach them." Draco said lazily, "What if they all turn against me instead?" "You said that you''ll be in my side right? So no matter what happens as long as you are on the good side, people will follow you." Hermione said, "And with your current fame doing so isn''t hard and again, isn''t having more people besides you a good thing in the war." "Why do you think you are in the good side..." Draco mumbled as Hermione didn''t say anything as she kept looking at him seriously, "Sigh! You just want me to teach them, don''t you?" Draco said rolling his eyes, with Hermione''s character there was no way in hell she would ever support a war but having him teach them to defend themselves, that Draco could believe. "I will help you." Hermione said as she kept insisting on it. Thinking things through, this could really help Draco gain some reputation and followers as well. "Fine, but I need to find a suitable plan to do so." Hermione nodded smiling a little, "What kind of plan?" ''The fact that I wouldn''t be here anymore, for god knows how long.'' Draco thought to himself, "I will tell you things later as for a club to form we need the permission of Dumbledore, don''t we?" "True, but that wouldn''t be hard to get." Hermione said, "I have read before that, there have similar clubs like these in the past. As long as you don''t have any bad motive, I am sure no one will stop you." Draco rolled his eyes as he began walking out pulling Hermione with him to avoid any incidents. Soon they were out with Harry and Ron and were walking towards Pansy and Daphne. "Where''s Theodore?" Draco asked confused. "You wouldn''t believe it." Pansy said, "Crabbe''s father suddenly started a fight outside with another wizard, Theodore''s gone over to stop them." "Who is fighting?" Draco said walking out. "That I don''t know." Pansy said, "We only heard yells as both of them kept arguing loudly walking away further." Draco and the rest reached the outside only to see, Theodore returning back lazily. "What happened?" Draco asked pushing him forward, not letting the girls and Potter hear their conversation. "Mr. Crabbe and one of the reporters were arguing." Theodore said, "Apparently, the reporter was returning back after an interview with Lockhart when he saw Mr. Crabbe coming out of Knockturn Alley, hoping for a good scoop the reporter followed him only to be later found out and be chased around the Diagon Alley." "Was the problem solved?" "The reporter got obliviated, Mr. Crabbe wanted to kill him but luckily I and Vincent were able to pull him away," Theodore said. "He left muttering weird things in hurry grabbing Vincent with him." "Did you notice anything suspicious?" Draco asked, "Causing a scene like this in Diagon Alley isn''t like him." "Everything other than his rage seemed normal to me." Theodore said thinking, "I didn''t know why but he was very angry for some reason. Do you think it''s the same person, who was behind Pius?" "What do you mean?" "Oh, Don''t act dumb with me, I am not that stupid, even though I wasn''t completely myself, I still remember quite a few things about that day." Theodore rolled his eyes, "So do you think someone''s controlling him as well?" "It''s not that far fetched." Draco shrugged his shoulders, "As far as I know, Mr. Crabbe was always with father and the rest, so he shouldn''t have been attacked separately." "Then I think, he was just having a bad day." Theodore said, "With Vincent moving to Durmstrang, things must be a little hard on him, don''t you think?" "That I don''t know." Draco said, "But we have to be careful, I''ll have father have his men look over Mr. Crabbe. I don''t want to have another unexpected enemy near me." "Why are you guys being so secretive?" Daphne asked pulling Draco''s robe, "What''s going on?" "Nothing, Let''s head over to Flourish and Blotts." "Yeah, let''s go." Daphne said, "I''ve heard Gilderoy Lockhart is doing a book signing over there, maybe we can get an autograph as well." "We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed. "I mean, he''s written almost the whole booklist!" Looking at the girl''s excited face, Draco couldn''t help but frown a little. He had forgotten about the weird charm that idiot of teacher hold. Seeing Draco''s face, the girls awkwardly coughed. "Is something wrong, Draco?" "Nothing." Draco said snorting as he began walking forward, the girls noticing his weird behavior looked at each other and followed silently as Ron and Harry chatted with each other keeping a distance between them. Draco bought three large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams for the girls, which they slurped happily as they wandered up the alley, examining the fascinating shop windows. Theodore didn''t like sweets and Draco wasn''t in a mood for one. Due to the awkwardness of their relation, Ron and Harry walked quite a few steps back and were busy shopping some stuff of their own, as they stopped now and then to check for Quidditch related stuff. Similarly, the girls would enter a few shops to buy clothes, whereas Hermione bought some ink and parchment. After roaming around here and there, they finally reached outside of the Flourish and Blotts. They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw to their surprise a large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The reason for this was proclaimed by a large banner stretched across the upper windows: GILDEROY LOCKHART will be signing copies of his autobiography MAGICAL ME today 12:30P.M.to 4:30P.M. The crowd seemed to be made up mostly of witches around Mrs. Weasley''s age. A harassed-looking wizard stood at the door, saying, "Calmly, please, ladies¡­Don''t push, there¡­mind the books, now¡­" All of them squeezed inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. They each grabbed a copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 and sneaked up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys were standing with Mr. and Mrs. Granger. "Oh, there you are, good," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We''ll be able to see him in a minute¡­" Draco annoyed by all this stood back along with Theodore not wanting to be any part of this fiasco. Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes; his pointed wizard''s hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair. A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash. "Out of the way, there," he snarled at Ron, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet ¡ª" "Big deal," said Ron, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on it. Gilderoy Lockhart heard him. He looked up. He saw Ron ¡ª and then he saw Harry. He stared. Then he leaped to his feet and positively shouted, "It can''t be Harry Potter?" The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry''s arm, and pulled him to the front. The crowd burst into applause. Harry''s face burned as Lockhart shook his hand for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over the Weasleys. "Nice big smile, Harry," said Lockhart, through his own gleaming teeth. "Together, you and I are worth the front page." When he finally let go of Harry''s hand, Harry could hardly feel his fingers. He tried to sidle back over to the Weasleys, but Lockhart threw an arm around his shoulders and clamped him tightly to his side. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I''ve been sitting on for some time!" "When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography ¡ª which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge ¡ª" The crowd applauded again. "He had no idea," Lockhart continued, giving Harry a little shake that made his glasses slip to the end of his nose, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" The crowd cheered and clapped and Harry found himself being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, he managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room. 110 Lockhart Pt.2 "I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!" Lockhart said as the crowd cheered and clapped. "Do they seriously not check their background before they hire someone to be a teacher?" Theodore said. Since he had been hanging around with Draco since he was young, he knew about Lockhart''s fake deeds and he wasn''t pleased hearing about someone so unqualified becoming a teacher. "Well, if they did. We wouldn''t have idiots as our teachers." Draco said, "I think last year should prove it all." Lockhart who had a sharp ear and a couple of nearby wizards heard them clearly since they didn''t bother to whisper to each other as they casually talked. "Why don''t you show yourself?" Lockhart said walking towards Theodore and the hooded Draco. "Or can you only talk while hiding." Draco rolling his eyes didn''t bother to talk back to him when suddenly Theodore pulled back his hood to reveal himself. The witches and wizards there along with the reporters started going crazy as they snapped one picture after another and began crowding around him. Draco with his lips twitching looked at Theodore who just shrugged and avoided his gaze. "Oh, how surprising, it''s the Prince." Lockhart said coming closer looking excited, "I will be glad to teach you this year." As Lockhart began to come closer wanting to hug him for the camera, Draco couldn''t help but feel a rush of disgust and hate towards him as he took his wand out and used a spell pushing Lockhart back, throwing him towards the pile of his own book. "Don''t touch me." Draco said as he pulled his hood back on and began walking away. The reporters and the people there were surprised and didn''t follow him as they were too shocked to do so. Theodore and the rest followed him out, wondering why he was so annoyed with Lockhart. "I''m okay." Lockhart said standing up, even though no one asked him, he began explaining things to the crowd by making stuff up, "He might still be afraid due to the previous incident so he didn''t want me too close... As a teacher, I will make sure to help him through this incident, after all, he is just a child..." Draco went out of the book store pushing everyone away when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulders. He looked back to find Arthur Weasley, looking at him with a bit of concern and confusion. "What happened?" He asked. "Nothing much." Draco said taking a deep breath, "Just something got onto me." "Did Lockhart do something... I know he can be annoying but you shouldn''t have used magic in public." "No worries." Draco shook his head, "This place is a wizard location so the tracking wouldn''t work with all these wizards around, as for Lockhart... it''s hard to explain but I don''t like him." "Why not?" Theodore and the girls came out followed by Ron and Harry who were looking at them and listening to their conversation from the shop. "You know why, don''t you?" Draco said annoyed, "Why''d you had to pull my hood off?" "I thought, why not give him a taste of his own medicine." Theodore said, "Unlike him, your fame is real and even by standards you are still on a higher position than him." "What are you talking about?" Pansy said, "What''s going on?" "I am not in the mood anymore." Draco said, "I want to go back home, did you get your books?" "We did." Daphne said coming closer, "Let''s go back then." Looking at her face, Draco knew she was a bit afraid and concerned as he sighed. "See you in Hogwarts then Hermione." Draco said turning back as Pansy and Daphne said their goodbyes as well and followed along leaving the dazed Hermione and the rest. "Is he stronger than Lockhart, father?" Ginny who was silently looking all this time said. "I don''t know." Arthur said, even though he had his doubts on Lockhart''s deeds, he still considered him a competent wizard, to say the least, "He should be, but I think the element of surprise played a huge part." Hermione who didn''t know what suddenly got into Draco didn''t stay there much further as after a little talk with Harry and Ron, she returned back home as well. ------------------------------------------------------- Draco, Theodore, Pansy, and Daphne returned back home with the floo network. Draco sighing opened his hood and sat on the couch trying to stay calm. Ever since the last incident where Draco got hold of that power, he started having less control of his emotions. The thing with Lockhart reminded him of Ryan, who had a fame-hungry nature of the same sort and due to him knowing Lockhart''s real face, he couldn''t control his anger. Draco couldn''t figure if this was the side-effect of the wand or the side-effect of the potion that made him a part Veela but since the emotions he felt were similar to the one caused by the wand, Draco was 80% sure that the wand had something do with it. In the past days, he had tried using his old ancestor''s wand again and not use the wand too much but it wasn''t much different, it felt like it didn''t matter if he had the wand with him or not, so to prevent future accidents from happening he started carrying his wand back again as he was used to it and due to its features. "So want to tell me what''s going on?" Pansy asked as she stood in front of him, with her arms crossed. "Sigh! Lockhart''s a fraud." Draco said getting straight to the point, "The way he kept pretending to be great, when he really isn''t, made me a bit angry especially when he tried to touch me." "That can''t be." Daphne said, "You have read about his tales and stories, haven''t you?" "But that''s all they are-- stories." Draco said, "Do you really expect me to believe that he did all those extraordinary stuff under the radar? Has one person ever come forward saying he or she saw Lockhart do all these events?" Draco knew trying to explain these stuff to these girls would be hard since everyone has always been in awe in front of Lockhart''s lies to the point where there aren''t even that many wizards and witches who doubt him. For them, Lockhart is even bigger than some of the real-life heroes, and his so-called fans won''t even hesitate to put Lockhart in the same position as Dumbledore when needed. Feeding all these brainless idiotic wizards with nonsense, Lockhart had managed to come up at the top as a hero who is way too humble and kind. "That''s true but that doesn''t mean he didn''t..." Daphne said as Pansy stopped her. "It''s okay if you don''t believe me." Draco said standing up, he didn''t want to bother too much with Lockhart since he wasn''t even going to be in Hogwarts completely this year and he was sure for the next year, Lockhart would be gone due to the curse. So arguing with his friends about Lockhart seemed pointless, as long as they are smart enough, they can figure these things out on their own, after he starts teaching. "It''s not that we don''t believe you or anything like that." Pansy said, "We just wanted to know the cause of your anger, even if Lockhart''s really is like how you describe him to be¡­ that doesn''t make up for your actions of using magic in public openly." 111 Lockhart Pt.3 "She is right, you know." Theodore said, "You should be thankful that none of the reporters managed to capture an image since they were too shocked to do so, but I am sure they are going to report about it anyways." "I don''t care." Draco said sighing, "I am sure the people there wouldn''t say anything outrageous about me, even if they did, as long as the ministry doesn''t have enough evidence, they can''t do anything about it." "Well if you say so." Theodore gave up, "I have some work to do of my own, so I will head back." Draco nodded as Theodore went back inside the fireplace and disappeared. "Here''s your book." Daphne said placing a bunch of book on the table. "I don''t need them." "Don''t act like that." Daphne sat on his side pulling him down as well, "I believe you, but these are under our curriculum this year and whether we like it or not, Lockhart is our teacher¡­ isn''t he?" "He announced it in front of the media, so must be true." Pansy said sitting down as well. "Or is he lying about that as well?" "He is the teacher." Draco said, "Also¡­ I am sorry for my outburst; I didn''t think I would do something like that myself." "It''s okay." Daphne said, "I know that you didn''t mean anything wrong." "I''ll forgive you this once, but explain stuff to us before you go and attack at people again, so we can help you." Pansy said, "Even if he is really that way, he is still a grown wizard, what if he had attacked back." "I can defeat Lockhart with my eyes closed." Draco said confidently, "I defeated trained Aurors on my own, previously as well." "Sigh! Don''t be so reckless¡­" Pansy said giving up, "I wonder when will you grow up." "I don''t know." Draco said in a whisper. "I need to leave." Daphne said as she stood up. "Why?" Draco said looking at her, "We haven''t talked with each other in a while and I want to have a proper conversation with you guys since I will be busier till the start of the school." "I want to as well." Daphne said pulling Draco''s hand, "But there are some things going on my family that I can''t explain right now." "I heard mother talk about your sister''s health, is that it?" "You know?" She asked. "Not the full story, I know what my mother knows of course." Draco said, "Something about controlling your sister''s condition." "Yes, it has worsened these past days." Daphne said looking a bit worried, "I don''t know how but her curse is acting up too soon. Father found an old family seal, that will help put a stop to the curse but it will act up again slowly as the curse would begin to eat the seal and take over it. After that happens, she would¡­" (This is a plot I added so don''t be confused by it.) Draco pulled Daphne into a hug as she slowly sobbed. Draco didn''t know why the curse was acting up so soon neither did he knew how to stop it, so he could do nothing but feel helpless as he couldn''t do anything but comfort her. Daphne released herself from the hug as she looked at Draco. "You should''ve stayed home." Draco said, "We could''ve gotten the supplies for you." "No, I wanted to check on you as well." Daphne said shaking her head, "Also the seal works very well, so there isn''t much to worry about that." "I am searching for the cure." Draco said, "I began studying about the curse but I''ve got no result till now. I am sorry that I didn''t put too much thought into it before as I felt that we had more time but I was wrong¡­ I am sorry." "Don''t blame yourself." Daphne shook her head, "I know how hard can it be since even our family can''t find the cure even though we''ve been hunted by it for generations. So don''t push yourself." "I know but I promised to you, didn''t I?" Draco said, "So when are you using the seal?" "Today, around midnight." "I can come with you if you want." "No." Daphne said, "It''s a family matter and my father would be mad if he knew I told someone else¡­" "It''s okay." Draco said, "If you need any help, feel free to tell me and I won''t forget our promise. Sooner or later, I will figure out the cure." Daphne nodded as she awkwardly looked at Pansy, "See you soon." She said. Pansy nodded. She and Draco looked at Daphne who disappeared into the fire. "Didn''t you knew about it?" Draco asked Pansy who was staring at the fireplace looking at the ashes that floated around. "No." She shook her head, "Daphne, she can be very secretive. I am even surprised she told you those things, guess she really does¡­" "Does what?" "Nothing." "So aren''t you going to ask me about it." Draco said looking at Pansy who stayed silent. "I don''t want to bother you with it." Pansy said, "And besides it''s not your secret to tell, if Daphne wants to tell those things to me, she will tell it on her own accord. I won''t force her." "Well at least, you''ve seemed to matured a lot." Draco said rubbing her head. "I figured, one of us has to." Pansy said as she kept staring at Draco. "What?" Draco asked confused, "Don''t tell me, that you have to leave as well." Pansy shook her head as she came closer and laid on Draco''s chest since Draco was taller than before, the difference felt obvious. Draco didn''t know what was going on but he instinctively hugged back. "You''ve hugged everyone but not me idiot¡­" She murmured but Draco heard her clearly. "I thought I did at the beginning." "But that was with me and Daphne together, you didn''t hug me¡­" Pansy murmured as she slowly fell silent, "Just forget about it¡ªYou smell different." "Smell?" "Yeah, you smell different back then but now you smell like Vanilla-- and Sandalwood." Draco figured that it was the potion that did this, "How did I smell before?" "Like potions." Pansy giggled a little, "You smelled similar to a potion''s lab." "Was it that bad?" Draco asked getting a bit self-conscious since he spent a lot of time in the lab, he wasn''t really surprised about it. "It had a medical feel to it, but I didn''t hate it too much." Pansy said, "It was weirdly comforting but a bit repulsive as well, but most people wouldn''t notice since the smell came from your clothes." "Weird¡­ I can understand other people but I am surprised Theodore didn''t mention it." Draco said, "As far as I know him, he wouldn''t hesitate to do so." "What do you think he smells like?" "I don''t know; I''ve never thought about it." Draco said trying to remember. "He smells exactly like you." Pansy said, "Well it makes sense since both of you keep spending time making potions." Pansy pulled herself out of the hug as she stared into Draco''s eye, "So mind telling me what happened?" "Well, some potion was indeed involved but not beautification." Draco said knowing what she meant, "I don''t know if this is permanent or temporary or something else entirely." "I''ll believe you for now," Pansy said, "I am sure a lot of people back in Hogwarts are going to be shocked." "Well with all the people that I''ve met, none of them have the surprising reaction, I was hoping for." Draco said, "It''s the same, oh you''ve changed¡ªscenario." "That''s because we are your friends, of course." Pansy said, "To be honest, I was very surprised with it at first, but I didn''t want to show an overreaction as that might freak you out and make you completely uncomfortable." "True." Draco said sitting back on the couch, "I''ve to tell you something." 112 worries. "So you''re telling me that you''ll be gone after a couple of months," Pansy said frowning. "Well, that''s the plan in the very least." Draco said shrugging his shoulders, "I still need the permission of Dumbledore but I am sure he will give it to me." "I don''t understand why--why would you even need to go there." "For an experience to say the least." Draco said, "And it''s not like I am going in there forever, I will be back before the year ends, at least that''s what my plan is." "I just can''t seem to understand you¡­ especially these days." Pansy said, "Do others know?" "Except for my parents and the ministry, along with the headmaster of Durmstrang, I am sure no one knows." Draco said, "I wanted to tell you about it first." "So not even Hermione knows?" "Even Theodore doesn''t know." Draco said coming closer to her, "I didn''t want to tell you before well at least not until I was ready to leave before but since you''ve decided to trust me a bit, I decided to tell you early on as well." "Sigh! Can''t I come¡­" Pansy said looking at Draco, "Or at least take Theodore with you, he is much better at spells than me." "I am just going to Durmstrang for a bit of academic exchange." Draco said, "Not in war¡ªso don''t worry too much about it. As far as I know, the ministry won''t allow me to stay there for longer than half a year." "Was there such a rule?" "Well there is but since most schools stopped doing such exchange, the rules have died down." Draco said, "Besides the place seems too interesting to visit and Crabbe and Goyle are moving in this year as well, so I won''t be too lonely." "Fine do what you want to do, just be safe." Pansy said, "After last time, I am always worried whenever you''re not by my side. I keep having this bad feeling, that something bad is going to happen." "You worry too much." Draco said caressing her hair, "Just believe me, I am very strong you know." "Yeah¡­ha-ha" Pansy giggled making fun of Draco. ''I am sorry that I can''t tell you the truth. Since lies can make you happier and worry less about me, I will be willing to do so every time.'' Draco thought to himself. Pansy poked Draco''s cheek, as he looked too lost in his thoughts. "So what''s keeping you busy before school, I wanted to spend some more time with you." "It''s just basic stuff, but meeting again would be difficult as I have a few stuff that I need to take care of and I will be out most of the time." Draco said, "But don''t worry, I will make it up to you when school starts." Pansy nodded, "So are you going to tell Daphne about this? And what about Theodore and Hermione¡­?" "Daphne has enough in her plate right now so I don''t want to add to her worries so early on but I will be sure to tell her couple of weeks before I go there. As for Theodore, he would likely want to come with me, if I tell him early on so it will be more bothersome and as for Hermione, I will tell her, the same time I do Daphne." "Why are you so insistent on not taking Theodore?" "Well since last time, I am kinda afraid that he would be affected along with me since most people are out there to get me. I don''t want him to get in trouble because of me." Draco said slowly as he stood up, "Wait a minute." Draco walked back in his room and later came back with a small book in his hands, sitting back he handed the book to Pansy who looked at. "What is this?" "A list of spells and basic potions." Draco said, "Learn the things according to the book." "I can understand the spells but why potions¡ªand these potions are something, I have never even heard of before." "Oh! That''s an explosive potion which creates an explosion of gas which is way hotter than fire and much more destructive as it carries acidic properties to it." Draco said explaining the page she was turning into, "But this is a bit advanced, you won''t reach this point in a year, so don''t worry about it." Draco turned to book to the first page, "So the first spell I want you to learn is a basic Expelliramus spell, not too advanced but is enough to throw even trained wizard off as many wizards can''t do anything without a wand¡­" One by one Draco began to explain the spells and some basic healing potions to her. Pansy didn''t understand why Draco was teaching her this stuff but she still listened carefully, keeping each and every word Draco said in her heart. "--So after that is the Expulso spell. This spell is much more advanced than the others I have explained before but you might have seen me use this spell before." "You mean the one used at the party?" "Yeah." Draco nodded, "The spells effective enough to burst through anything with force as long as you know how to use it properly. I want you to learn at least all the spells and potions that I''ve mentioned today by the end of this year, as for the other spells, you can learn it on your own if you managed to finish learning all the spells that I''ve told you about. If not, I will explain the spell to you on my own after I come back." "Okay." Pansy said nodding, "I will try my hardest." "As long as I am in school, I will teach you these spells myself but you''ve to practice these spells on your own after a while." Draco said, "Don''t worry, these spells aren''t that hard but still are very handy." "Aren''t you going to teach it to Daphne?" "I talked with Hermione over this topic today and she gave me a brilliant idea." Draco said, "I will select a few students, I deem worthy and create a club. I will teach it to them in a similar way, and make sure that they follow my rules." "Why? Are you just going to teach Slytherin students or is it something for everyone?" "To gather followers of course, with my current fame, I doubt it would be hard and as for who would join¡­ I don''t care as long as they ensure their loyalty." "And how will you do that¡­?" Pansy said, "You shouldn''t trust people so easily." "I won''t teach them advanced magic, to begin with¡­ as for their trust, I haven''t thought much about it but I can come up with something for the people to ensure their loyalty to me." Draco said, "Maybe something like the Dark Mark." Draco said the last part silently. "What?" "Nothing." Draco shook his head. "I have a lot of free time today; we can do something that you want." "I want to go outside but I am not sure if it''s safe." "It''s safe." Lucius suddenly came in through the fireplace, "As long as you don''t go out of line." Looking at Lucius''s grim face, Draco knew something was wrong. "What is it?" Draco asked. Lucius didn''t say anything and handed a letter to Draco, Draco furrowed his eyes as the letter was from the ministry. He opened the letter and read it. The letter was a warning to Draco for underage magic and his punishment. "What is this?" "Lockhart came complaining that you used magic on him in public." Lucius said, "And offensive magic at that." "Is Fudge willing to let this happen?" 113 Confiscated. "Is Fudge willing to let this happen?" Draco asked getting a bit pissed, "Did he grow some wings out of nowhere?" "Draco, you need to understand that the Ministry is run by not only Fudge but a lot of different other people." Lucius said, "Even though Fudge is in charge of controlling things in ministry¡ªthere are many other people who are just as powerful as him. And if Fudge keeps favoring you, they wouldn''t hesitate to release the news and change the minister. Of course, he could help you in this but since we are forcing him to do these stuff, he is taking every chance to retaliate against us." "So we can''t do anything about this?" "No, we can''t." Lucius sighed, "Why even use magic in public against someone like Lockhart?" "Long story short, I wasn''t in a good mood." "Well, make sure to keep it in check." Lucius said, "As you''ve read, your punishment is having your wand confiscated by the ministry for 6 months." "Wait, they can''t do that, especially when Draco is going to Durmstrang." Pansy said getting worried, "With his circumstances walking around without a wand is not good." Lucius looked at Draco confused, "I told her about it." Draco said, "When are they coming for my wand?" "In a couple of hours." Lucius said, "It''s best not to resist, I can pull in some connection and have the ban reduce." "Are the wizarding families going to stay silent about this?" Pansy said again. "It''s no use." Draco sighed, "Finally after many years, our image has begun to change in the eyes of the public, so risking it for this isn''t worth it. I am sure if we retaliate against this, Fudge would bring equality and justice in the case making us fall under his trap." "But¡­" "Don''t worry, I have my ancestor''s wand with me and it''s good enough." Draco said, even before this Draco was already contemplating on whether he should take his wand or not. Since even Ryan seems to know about the wand and knowing how mysterious his wand was, Draco didn''t want to take a risk with letting the wand fall under Ryan''s hands in case things goes sideways. Considering the mystery surrounding his knowledge, Draco couldn''t let Ryan take control of his wand, and with this it would at least be protected to a certain extent. "What I am pissed about is Fudge." "I knew he would try to repel the pressure somehow but I didn''t expect him to do it this early on." Lucius said, "Even though he is stupid, his arrogance isn''t lesser than anyone of us." "Well, we will need to take care of that." Draco said, "Let''s leave it for now¡­ are you sure he isn''t going to turn his back on the promise." "He wouldn''t." Lucius shook his head, "But are you sure, that he isn''t going to use this against us." "Well, it''s important so we can''t do anything about that." Draco said, "And with the Unbreakable Vow he has with you, we don''t need to worry much about it." A couple of hours before the interview took place, Lucius and Draco managed to force Fudge on making an unbreakable vow with three promises, by blackmailing his authority, they got what they wanted. The first promise was for Fudge to not reveal any information on Draco to the public or any person and about the deal, they made before and today. The second promise was for Fudge to support the purebloods and act for there welfare every time, and the last promise was a bit special which included Fudge granting Draco a secret visit to Azkaban. "We should''ve made stricter vows." Lucius said sighing, "But even then, forcing him to make such promises might''ve backfired on us instead." "We couldn''t do much about it back then." Draco said, "Let''s forget about it. I think this is much better as they wouldn''t be able to track my wand and I can use magic all I want." (It''s unknown how the wand is controlled by the ministry, so I am making up rules that would seem logical, in case you''re confused.) After an hour, Two Aurors came and took Draco''s wand along with them. Due to Fudge''s unwilling support, Draco didn''t have to go through long procedures and the case was solved by just giving him the punishment. Since wands are marked by the ministry, escaping or giving a fake wand would be impossible unless you know how to remove the track. There wasn''t any specific spell to do so, Draco was sure that one would have to come up with an original spell of their own to remove the tracking spell. Draco added another thing in his list of spells he needed to learn and that was none other than the track removing spell. Draco knew that even Voldemort hadn''t managed to come up with this spell, so one could tell that it was very difficult. Rather than coming with a new way of releasing the tracking spell, using someone else''s wand would be more effective. "So what are we going to do?" Pansy said, "I have no mood to go out now, it''s so unfair¡­" "Well, I am the one who lost my temper so I am the one to blame here." Draco said, "I have to make way with this wand now." Draco looked at the old wand in his hand. Draco didn''t know much about this wand other than that it was made out of Aspen wood, which was made infamous by The Silver Spears.The Silver Spears was a notorious and secretive dueling club in the 18th century that allegedly only allowed wizards and witches who possessed wands made from aspen wood to join. It is said that the proper owner of the aspen wand is often an accomplished duellist or destined to be so, for the aspen wand is one of those particularly suited to martial magic. Due to this, the club created a reputation for themselves and Aspen wood wand. No one knows for certain if the club is really gone or they learned to be more secretive and hidden over the past years. The ancestor''s whose wand he was using was said to be part of the Silver Spears club as well. Draco, himself was very interested in the club ever since he heard about it from his father about the wand and its origin, especially due to its concept of martial magic. The terms martial magic or combative magic are used to refer to the forms of magic used defensively and offensively in wizard duels, the current style he was using or at least was trying to use. Durmstrang was one of the only few known schools which still taught different form of martial magic. Even though at the end of the day power is what really matters but with the help of certain martial techniques, a weak person is said to hold the ability to defeat a strong enemy at ease. Draco had seen a person use it before, the girl named Mary Kate (Had mentioned her before, Chapter 17, if you forgot.) Remembering the girl, Draco shook his head and sighed. (The things about martial magic isn''t very clear so I am giving it my own twist.) Draco was interested in Durmstrang before due to this but since he knew his destiny lied in Hogwarts, he chose the latter. But now since he was going to Durmstrang anyhow, he was a bit excited in learning martial magic none the less. Even though with Ryan, things might not be simple as it is, Draco still wanted to make the best of the situation. "Does other wands not work for you, why not try others than this old one." Lucius said looking at the old silver wand. Even though Aspen wands are famous for their silver-white color and ivory-like finish, the wand was too old and looked rusty. "You know that the other wands don''t suit me so much." Draco said waving the wand around, "It''s not like we haven''t tried before, maybe we can get it tuned at Ollivanders." "And get the wand marked?" Lucius said, "With your reckless behaviors, I don''t think that it would be a good idea." "Then what do you suggest we do?" Draco said, "Do you know a place where I can get it tuned, since I will be using it for a couple of months, I would like to have it in its peak condition." "Why not just get another wand?" Pansy suggested. "You were with me that day when I bought my wand, weren''t you?" Draco said, "I don''t know if I would have to try a million different wand to find the one that will fit me." Pansy remembering the scene that day, gave up. 114 Gregorovitch "I do know a place where we can get the wand tuned up." Lucius said, "But you will need to clear up your schedule?" "Where?" Draco asked curiously. "Mykew Gregorovitch" "How do you know him? ¡ªThat''s not even important, I heard that he retired from wand making, so will he even work for us." Draco knew who Gregorovitch was and was surprised that his father actually knew the guy. Gregorovitch was one of the owners of the Elder wand who was later killed by Voldemort after he came to power but right now he was still alive and was said to have retired from wand making. "He is one of the famous wand makers other than Ollivander, so of course I know about him, but personally I have never met him before." Lucius said, "Money can buy anything, so why can''t he come out of his ''retirement'' to tune a wand, it''s not like we are asking him to build a new one." "Father, you know how stubborn wand makers are, I am sure he wouldn''t do so, even if we gave him a lot of money." Draco said getting a bit worried. "Leave that to me." Lucius said, "I need to take care of some other business for now so I''ll be leaving again. If you go out, make sure to take a house-elf with you and don''t wander off far away." "What work?" Draco asked. "I need to handle some business with the man you just shot a spell at." "Lockhart?" Draco asked raising his eyebrows, "What''s he going on about? Isn''t he okay with me just getting my wand taken away or is he hungry for something more?" "I am afraid things aren''t simple." Lucius said, "I am sure someone''s behind him in this." "Again." "I don''t know if it''s the same person but as far as I know, Lockhart never had the gall to go against us purebloods." Lucius said, "I had my men capture him, so I am going to interrogate him on whether he is under a spell or working for someone or not." "What about your identity?" Draco said reminding Lucius, "I made a mistake but again these are delicate times." "I know what to do." Lucius said. "Don''t worry he will never know it was me." Draco nodded as Lucius disappeared from the fireplace. "Let''s just stay home." Pansy said, "I am really not in the mood to do anything else." -------------------------- After spending the whole day with Pansy, she reluctantly left leaving Draco alone. Draco sighed, as he went back to his room looking at the mark on his arm. Even though he didn''t have the wand with him anymore, Draco could still feel its presence in a way, unlike the other wand. Draco then went back to his suitcase, practicing spells to get used to his wand. Draco could clearly feel the difference between his original wand and this one, especially after using his wand for a year now the difference between the two was clear. Due to the wand being passed down from his ancestor, the wand didn''t show too much resistance on its own but the problem lied with Draco himself. Unlike other wands, this one could still hold his power and not break but the effect was limited. "I hope Gregorovitch agrees to tuning it, maybe then the wand would finally be more suitable." Draco said to himself as he went back to his lab for creating more potions. With the offense book, Draco had certainly improved in his potion skills more due to the complicated potions and created different batches of healing potions and explosive potions. With the book in hand, Draco quickly realized that throwing a potion was easier and quicker than chanting a spell, as he wouldn''t even need his wand to throw a vial of explosive potion, doing double the damage a normal spell would. ----------------------------- Lucius came home late, looking tired as he threw his coat on the couch and sat down sighing. "So what was it?" Draco asked, "Is someone really behind Lockhart?" "There is, but it may not be the same person." Lucius said. "His memories were manipulated." "By whom and why?" "We don''t know." Lucius shook his head, "After a couple of spells, he kept talking about how he wanted to be famous and not be humiliated." "So you think, that him complaining against me was just random?" "Yes." Lucius said, "His memories were manipulated in a complex manner leaving him in that state where he wanted justice for himself and since you were the one who attacked him recently, he found a way to attack you, knowing this might hamper your reputation¡ªI am certain that Lockhart isn''t that clever." "So did he woke up?" "Yes." Lucius said, "Soon after he did, he started asking many questions to us, not wanting to be bothered we obliviated him and left him on the street." Draco nodded, as he started thinking of who it could be on his own. Recent things that have been happening was far different from the book so he didn''t know what it could be. Draco couldn''t be exactly sure that it wasn''t Ryan but to prove that, Draco would have to check on Lockhart himself. Seeing Draco who was in a deep thought Lucius coughed, grabbing his attention, "Draco, he is teaching at Hogwarts this year, would you be fine? ¡ªI can talk to the board of directors and have him removed." "With his reputation, it would be hard to do so." Draco said, "Since there are many half-bloods in the board, where most of them don''t share out ideology, they might not care about our situation, especially considering that the one we want to remove is the hero of many wizards." "I hate to admit it but with Dumbledore in Hogwarts, an intruder coming in would be quite difficult." Lucius said grimly, "As for the other part, you''ll be away in Durmstrang within a couple of months, so it wouldn''t be too bad but be sure to be aware." "What are you talking about?" Narcissa said walking in. "Nothing, mother." Draco quickly said to her, "We are just talking about my transfer to Durmstrang." "Sigh! I don''t know why would you want to go there, especially considering all the dangers." Narcissa said worriedly. "Don''t worry too much about it mother." Draco said, "It''s just for a short while, isn''t it? Besides, the danger is the reason I want to go to Durmstrang, with their way of teaching magic, I would have a better way to survive." Narcissa nodded and didn''t say anything else as she sat next to Draco, caressing his hair. The family sat in a peaceful moment once after a very long time only to be disturbed by the twins crying. ----------------------------- "Do you know where we are really going?" Draco asked Lucius. After eating breakfast, both Lucius and Draco have been traveling towards far north in search for Gregorovitch who was nowhere to be found. Even though Gregorovitch has wand stores in Diagon Alley around Carkitt Market and several other places, they only sell his wand and the person himself is nowhere to be seen. "Finding a retired Gregorovitch is more of a tough job than you think it is." Lucius said apparating with Draco to another building, "This is the address the shop owner gave me, so this should be it." Draco looked at the old house in front of him. The place was in a muggle town but there were no nearby houses. The place beard similar resemblance to an old hunted house and Draco was sure that he wasn''t further from the truth as well. The two storey house looked old and cranky and it was hard to figure whether someone lived in it or not. Draco and Lucius walked up to the door and knocked a couple of times, as the door suddenly flung open. Draco and Lucius looked at each other and entered the house, both cautious they took out their wand and looked around the place. 115 Wolfe. "What brings you here, Mr. Black?" A voice sounded out Draco and Lucius looked at each other, still, cautious Draco replied to the voice, "I am here for a wand." "I thought you own one of the Ollivanders?" The voice asked again. "I did." Draco replied honestly, "But that didn''t work out anymore, I need my ancestor''s wand tuned." "Wand tuning?" The voice said in a mocking voice, "My wand is superior to any other, why don''t you try out my wand." "I thought you retired from making wands." "That, I did." A man with pure-white hair and a thick, bushy beard came out of the shadows, Draco knew the man was none other than Gregorovitch. "But for special people, I can always have extra time in hand." "Nice to meet you, Mr. Gregorovitch." Lucius said and Draco nodded as well. "Follow me." Gregorovitch said turning back leading them to a room, the place reminded Draco of Ollivanders as the walls were filled with different shelves containing wands. Gregorovitch took out a silver box from the shelf and dusted it off. Putting the box on the table he took out a white wood wand and handed it to Draco, "My wands are different from Ollivanders, but are powerful none the less. I use several types of wand cores and woods and sometimes even mix a couple to make the wand perfect and strong. I guarantee that this wand will satisfy you, Mr. Black." Draco wanted to say something but figured showing would be better than telling he caught the wand and waved it around releasing its magic, not being able to handle the pressure the wands tip burnt off and the place was filled with a mist of smoke. "That''s impossible." Gregorovitch said taking the wand from his hand. "I told you that I needed some tuning didn''t I?" Draco said, "Trying a new one isn''t suitable for me.'' Gregorovitch stared and Draco for a while and stretched his hands forward, Draco knowing what he wanted, placed his wand on top of his hand. Gregorovitch looked around the wand carefully. "Aspen wood, 13.5 inches, and its core... Thunderbird tail feather, no doubt a work of Wolfe." "Wolfe?" Lucius who was sitting by asked confused, he had never heard of any wandmaker with the surname Wolfe. "Shikoba Wolfe, an American wandmaker. His work consisted of intricately carved wands along with using the core of as Thunderbird tail feather." Gregorovitch said, "There is no doubt that this is an old work of his, this type of wands are no longer made, after all." "But our family..." Lucius was confused as he had never heard any of the ancestors that went to America and got himself a wand there as most of Malfoy''s wands were almost bought from Ollivanders. "Maybe he had his reasons." Draco said. He too was slightly surprised knowing his ancestor''s wand was American and knowing that the core was Thunderbird''s tail feather. "So do you think you can tune the wand and make it more suitable for me to use." "Did you use any other wands before this?" Gregorovitch asked still playing around with the wand, "I did but I don''t have it anymore." "What wood and core did you use?" "Does it matter?" Draco said, "Besides, I don''t know about it, other than the fact that the wand was perfect for me to use." "How can you know the wand is perfect when you don''t even know its core and its wood." Gregorovitch mumbled, "Must be due to it being an Ollivanders, ain''t it? All these people make a big deal about his wands when clearly it''s not good as mine." "It was Ollivanders but I am back to you, aren''t I?" Draco said, "So tell me, can you tune it?" "I can." Gregorovitch said, "But it might take a while, maybe a day or two." "What do you mean?" Draco asked, even though he didn''t know much about wand tuning, he for sure knew that it didn''t take so long. "I''ve always sought out for making a perfect wand." Gregorovitch said. "And I always will, you just as the paper described are different... and a perfect wand would be difficult to make." "As I said, I just need it tuned..." "You might, but it won''t be perfect." Gregorovitch said a bit crazily, his eyes still not leaving the wand as he slowly traced the carved area of the wand, "This wand is a perfect combination, the Aspen woods ensures durability and power, and as for the Thunderbird tail feather it complements power. Even strong wizards can barely master the wand itself. Due to all this, the wand is perfect for you since it handles your powers well but you can''t completely master it, right?" "But that is because the wand doesn''t belong to me, isn''t it?" Draco said, "I mean, that''s my ancestor''s wand but I need a wand of my own to completely master it." "Wand Lores vary Mr. Black." Gregorovitch said, "I have my own, Ollivander''s has his own and similar to that, every wand maker has his own view on wands. Mine, for example, is dependent on the power the wand posses rather than the complete mastery of the wand. But later in my life, I came to realize that the wand will only be perfect once the owner gains complete mastery over it. For some, it happens the moment they touch the wand and for some, it doesn''t happen till death. As for which wand, it doesn''t matter. Some wands naturally have resistance due to their nature of being molded into their previous owner''s magic but most wands don''t." Draco nodded trying to understand this lore. Draco knew most purebloods didn''t have new wands, some people like Neville still carried his father''s wand but it still worked better, some say that the wand recognizes blood of the owner, some say its the magic but no matter what it all meant, this all was confusing none the less. "So what do you want to do?" Draco asked, "I mean how can you make it perfect." "That''s why I need time and you to work with me." Gregorovitch said, "Making a new wand might be easier but will require time and since you''re so insistent on using this wand, we have to make it figure out your compatibility with the wand wood, to make your wand better." "You mean adding another wand wood?" Draco asked confused, "Wouldn''t that ruin the wand?" "Not completely, some of the wands are hybrids as they have different woods and cores, but all this depends upon the wood type." "What do you think?" Lucius asked, "We can stay here if you want?" The idea of wasting time here wasn''t pleasing to Lucius but he knew Draco needed his wand, so they had no other options. "I can provide a room." Gregorovitch said. After thinking for awhile Draco nodded, Lucius moved back to the room and Gregorovitch and Draco started checking for wand compatibility. ----------------------------------------- One by one, Draco worked with Gregorovitch to find a suitable wand wood and after series of trying different wand woods, they came to the conclusion that Holly wood fit Draco the most. Draco found this amazing as the Holly wood is known to be one of the rarer kinds of wand woods; traditionally considered protective, it works most happily for those who may need help overcoming a tendency to anger and impetuosity. At the same time, holly wands often choose owners who are engaged in some dangerous and often spiritual quest, which fit in some sort with Draco. Holly is one of those woods that varies most dramatically in performance depending on the wand core but since Draco''s wand already was laced with Aspen which completely took over Thunderbird''s tail feather''s, they needed something else to balance the wand. 116 Payment. "No, this won''t work." Gregorovitch threw another wand piece away and started working on a new one. "Will he be okay?" Lucius shook his head, they had been here for more than 3 days now and they were running out of time, "Like this, it will take forever to get your wand tuned." "I know." Draco said, when he first heard the idea of the wand from Gregorovitch, he was very excited but he didn''t expect things to take so long. He had two days before school started and he had some other unfinished business as well. "Let me go talk with him." "It''s useless, it''s not like you''ve not tried it before." Lucius said, "I am starting to think that coming here was a mistake, the wand was perfectly fine the way it was before, now its already disassembled and Merlin knows how long it will take to get it fixed." "But we''ve got to do something, don''t we?" Draco said walking towards the messy floor which was filled with different Holly woods all over the floor, "Anything I can help with?" "Hmm?" Gregorovitch turned back a little and stared at Draco, his eyes red and tired and his hair all messy, if Draco didn''t know that this was due to him staying up late, he would surely think that Gregorovitch had gone crazy. "I asked if you need help with anything." Draco repeated walking a bit closer as he looked at the Pheonix feather in his hands, "Pheonix feathers?-- Is it really going to work?" "I am not sure." Gregorovitch said turning his head back, "The wand combination is just too much to handle, if I add a powerful core, the wand wouldn''t be able to handle it as it will off balance the power level of the Thunderbird tail feather and if I use a weak core, the wand would just turn out to be useless." Draco walked forward and looked at all the mess on the table, "Same as the wand wood, can''t we find a compatible one with me?" "It''s not that simple, cores don''t work like that." Gregorovitch said, "It''s more about balancing the wand rather than being fit to you, I am creating a wand laced with another normal existing wand so ordinary methods won''t work here." Draco sat there looking at Gregorovitch work on the wand, who after blowing it up, threw it away with rage. "I can''t seem to figure out the combination." "What cores have you tried before?" "Nearly everything." Gregorovitch said sighing in frustration, "Unicorn hair, Dragon heartstrings, kelpie hair-- everything you can think of." "Hmm--how about Veela hair?" Draco suddenly thought of something. "What was that?" Gregorovitch looked at Draco. "Veela hair?" "We can''t find that here." Gregorovitch shook his head, "Unless you want to go brawl with those crazy creatures, nothing coming out of that one." Draco wanted to try something so he looked at Gregorovitch with a bit interested look, he knew he had some Veela powers now, so maybe his hair could work. "How about my hair?" "Your hair?" Gregorovitch shook his head, "A wizard''s hair doesn''t contain enough magical property to carry the burden." "But as you said, we aren''t looking for it carrying a burden, we are looking to balance and fix it for me, isn''t it?" Draco said, "And as you''ve said, you''ve tried everything so what''s wrong with trying an extra thing, who knows, maybe it might work." Gregorovitch still not believing Draco, bought his hand forward, willing to satisfy Draco''s curiosity. Draco plucked a couple of his hair out and handed to Gregorovitch, who sighed and started working on the few Holly woods, he had left. One by one he started the process again. Draco found the creation of the wand to be a wonderful process, about how the wood binds the core fusing with it, like two substance mixing together, as the delicate process of putting the core inside the wood, without damaging it and so on. After mixing his hair and the wood together, Gregorovitch stretched the wood to a thin rope-like structure and started binding it with his ancestors wand one by one, the wand began to shake a little as Gregorovitch sighed once again, "I told you it wouldn''t wo--" Just as he was about to give up, the wand stabilized and started the procedure again without any disturbances, surprised that there wasn''t any interference, Gregorovitch continued the process slowly and carefully making sure there wasn''t any mistake. The newly polished and clean Aspen wand which shined like ivory with its beautifully carved piece which looked more delicate due to the Thunderbirds tail feather started binding together with the new wand, the holly wood started to rotate around the wand holding it together in place as it started out thick in the base and started thining out as it began to move upward in spiral and at the tip of the wand it perfectly covered it, with half of the wand still showing. "I can''t believe it." Gregorovitch said out loud holding the wand in his hand dearly as if he had witnessed something mind-blowing. He stretched the wand here and there. "This is really unbelievable." "Really?" Draco asked, "I thought you had made hybrid wands before." "Not with these materials, especially a wizards hair... I never believed it would work." Gregorovitch said, "Quick try it, it wouldn''t matter if the wand is fixed if you can''t master it. If you can it''s perfect but if you can''t... then all our efforts will be gone to waste and I''ll have to disassemble your wand again." Concerned about taking more time, Draco slowly reached out for the wand not sure if the wand was now okay. Lucius dropped by to see what was going to happen as well, as he had other jobs to do and couldn''t be stuck here in the middle of nowhere forever. Draco took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his shoulders, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. "It''s done." Gregorovitch said squealing, his face looked fresh as if he was never tired before, "What a beautiful site." Draco couldn''t believe it, his wand felt different than his original wand. Even though his old wand felt compatible, this one felt different. It felt more controlled rather than his previous wand which tried to control him instead. Draco knew with this wand, his magic wasn''t going to preserved like the other but he felt that he could use his power to its full capacity. Excited to see what was going to happen, Draco waved the wand, "Expulso" A burst of blue light came through from the wand crashing into the wall, leaving a huge hole in it as only dust remained. "Incredible." Gregorovitch said, instead of feeling angry for his wall he looked as if he wanted Draco to destroy more, "All my life, I''ve sought out on making a perfect wand but never would ''ve guessed that I will be making the perfect wand for someone else, even though its farther from the one before but its still the best wand I''ve ever created." Draco didn''t really like the look Gregorovitch had so he looked back at him with a bit of vigilance, "So Mr. Gregorovitch what do you want for this wand?-- I am very thankful that you were able to tune my wand to a perfect condition along with making it compatible for me, so you can name your price as long as it''s within my capability, I''ll be happy to help." "I don''t need anything." Gregorovitch shook his head, "As long as the world knows that I created this wand for you... I will be happy than ever." "Are you sure?" "Yes, very sure." Gregorovitch said with all smiles but his eyes told another story as his eyes never left the wand. Draco shook his head and looked at Lucius who nodded and took out his wand and pointed it at Gregorovitch. Gregorovitch suddenly aware as to what was happening took out his own wand and pointed it back at them, "What is going on?--I helped you and this is how you''re going to repay me?" "I am very sorry." Draco said. 117 Azkaban pt.1 "I am very sorry." Draco said, "Expelliarmus." A light shot out of Draco''s wand knocking Gregorovitch''s wand away. Before Gregorovitch could react Lucius shot a binding spell knocking him down on the ground. "So do we do it?" Lucius asked. Draco kneeled on the floor looking at Gregorovitch who was staring back at him with fear and anger. Even though his body couldn''t move and he couldn''t speak, his eyes told everything Draco wanted to know. "Don''t worry, I won''t kill you." Draco said, "But I will at least do you a favor, so don''t feel too bad about it." Draco stood up and nodded at Lucius who shot an Obliviate spell on Gregorovitch changing his memories. While that was happening Draco cleaned up the place quickly, fixing the hole in the wall and returning the place back to how it was 3 days ago before they came here. "It''s done." Lucius said. Draco looked back at Gregorovitch who was still on the ground, using a floating spell he moved the unconscious Gregorovitch to the sofa. Both of them packed up and left Gregorovitch house. "I don''t understand, why you want to send him to the US." Lucius said, "I mean, he is already retired and with the spell, I am sure we can leave him alone as he is no threat to us." "I am repaying him for my wand." Draco said vaguely, Lucius seeing that Draco didn''t want to tell the truth, didn''t ask anything further, he grasped Draco''s shoulder and both of them apparated out of the place. Draco knew Gregorovitch would die sooner once Voldemort rises to power and he goes on a goose chase for the Elder wand, so with this, he could at least let Gregorovitch die in peace after he is grown fully old. With him in the US, Draco didn''t need to worry about Voldemort finding him. Along with this, he planned on transferring some money to Gregorovitch so he could enjoy is retirement fully. "So with this, the wand is done, but I am still wondering what would happen to your other wand." Lucius said along the way since they were quite far away from home they needed to take a wizarding train back to London. "Honestly all this wand lore is really confusing... no wonder there aren''t many wandmakers and people who want to be a wandmaker." Draco nodded, staying these past days with Gregorovitch has been a really good experience as he learned a lot about wands. Being a wand-maker wasn''t that difficult, as all one needed to do was become an apprentice to one of the existing certified wandmakers, the difficult part was understanding the wand lore itself. As Gregorovitch said to him, every wandmaker has their own signature lore they follow but finding the one that fits you among all the existing one was the most difficult part. Getting enlightenment on the lore was extremely important in being a successful wandmaker, Ollivander has his own path where his goal is to make a wand to suit the person, Gregorovitch, on the other hand, believes in power rather than suitability. Even though Draco felt like he understood a lot about wands but thinking it now carefully trying to put pieces together, he was left with nothing but confusion. After a couple of hours of traveling, they finally reached home. "Why can''t you stay home in peace for a single day?" Narcissa complained, "Ever since the holiday''s started out, you''ve been running out every single day." "Don''t worry mother." Draco tried to console his mother, "It''s okay since I would rather stay out and visit other places, rather than stay home. Also this time it was out of necessity." After a couple of minutes of consoling, Narcissa finally let him go as the twins woke up from their sleep and started crying again. "So are you really going in there?" Lucius asked, "As far as I am concerned, I will be happy as long as you don''t go in there your entire life." "I need to." Draco said, "I can''t tell you why right now but I will tell you the answers sooner or later." Lucius sighed, "So do you want me to send the letter today? I am sure that he is going to make up some excuses." "Talk about the vow." Draco said, "It''s not like he''s going to back from it and this is his last job anyway, after this as long as he doesn''t open his mouth carelessly, he''s a free man. To get him attracted let''s throw in a bit of support." "You mean..." "Yes, act like all his deeds were misread by us and we''re in full support of him." Draco said, "Instead of threatening him with the vows directly, lure him with sweet talk and with his intelligence, I am sure he is going to get hooked. Let''s let him believe that he has the upper hand among us." "Sigh... sure, go and rest, after I get a reply, I will send an elf to your room." Draco nodded and went back to his room. On top of his table, there was a letter, Draco walked up to it and picked it up. It was none other than Hermione''s letter. Draco sat on the edge of his bed and opened the letter, reading it. The letter was short, and all she asked about in the first half of the letter was his actions back in the bookstore and the other half included her talking about their club, suggesting Draco different ideas and approaches to the club. Reading the letter, Draco felt a bit light-hearted since it seemed like Hermione wasn''t completely under Lockhart''s charm due to Draco''s rise in fame, she probably didn''t put that much importance in it. Draco took out his phoenix quill and sat down replying to the letter. He didn''t mention much about Lockhart but talked about the club instead and apologized for freaking her out that day. After writing the letter and sending it, Draco went back to his suitcase checking on the animals and started practicing magic with his new wand to get comfortable with it. Using magic between both the wands wasn''t that different any longer, as far as Draco knew both of them felt the same and his magic worked the same, the difference on the power was the same but what was obvious was the mana consumption. After trying out different spells in turn, Draco was getting tired. Draco was about to give up when suddenly a sudden urge of mana coursed through his entire body. It wasn''t like before, the feeling felt similar but the mana didn''t, for some reasons it felt pure and denser than ever before. Renergeized Draco quickly shot an explosion spell. Draco felt a large amount of mana quickly pass through his body towards the wand and shot towards the empty space where the wand was pointing at. *Boom* The explosion sounded. Draco was surprised to see the deep hole that was left on the ground. The explosion was the biggest he had ever produced, Draco was sure that even Dumbledore would have a hard time making an explosion of that level. Draco was about to head towards the site but the moment he walked a step forward, his body gave out. Draco fell on the ground huffing. He knew he had run out of mana again and this time he was drained empty but before he could worry, Draco felt mana coursing through his body again, this time not so fast but it was still quicker than before. The mana wasn''t as dense as before but was the same as the one he was used to. As his mana regenerated Draco slowly stood up and tried an explosion spell again. This time the aftermath wasn''t as grand as the previous one but was similar to the one he was usually capable of. 118 Azkaban Pt.2 "The denseness of the mana... I couldn''t control it." Draco said to himself after trying out a couple more spells. The regular mana he was used to wasn''t hard to master at all, in fact, he didn''t even put the thought in his brain while using it as the spell would only use the necessary mana but this dense one was complicated and wasn''t the same as before as it spirals out of control, draining him dry. Wanting to get that feeling again Draco quickly used various type of spells to Drain his mana but was left with nothing. After experimenting the whole night, Draco came up with two conclusions, one... his body had changed completely, but whether the cause of it was anything to do with his original wand or the Veela thing was still left unsure, two... the mana regeneration process was smoother and quicker than ever before but every time it refills he was left with an exhausted body and the denseness of the mana decreased every time as well, resulting in weaker spells. The new changes in his body weren''t too alarming as it could be used to his advantage, but Draco couldn''t help but feel concerned, none the less. The changes negate the benefits of his original wand making his new wand just as useful but what was concerning was that, his body was slowly changing and Draco didn''t know what was causing it. ---------------------------------------------- Morning came and Lucius handed Draco a letter. "You look tired, are you okay?" Lucius asked with a bit of concern, "Did you stay awake all night again?" "I am fine." Draco said rubbing his eyes, "So what did Fudge say?" "He agreed." Lucius said turning back, "He asked you to come meet him at 11 at the ministry." Draco nodded as he quickly read through the content of the letter. "Oh, he also asked you to come wearing a robe, as this is a matter of life and death for him, I am sure he wouldn''t try anything stupid." Lucius said, "Will you be fine?" "Yeah, don''t worry." Draco said taking out a small pouch and a spoon. Taking out a spoonful of the powdered substance from the pouch, he ate it. He quickly drank a lot of water to chug the whole thing down as he sighed in relief. "What was that?" "Powdered Hodag''s horn." Draco said, "With it, I can go on for several days." "Be sure to get a proper sleep now and then." Lucius said, "The powder is just delaying the effect but it would hit sooner or later and it would hit hard, so I suggest you to not take it regularly." "Don''t worry, I know what to do." "I hope so." Lucius said, "I will come with you to the ministry." "No need." Draco shook his head, "With you there, it will be more obvious to people who I am." "Then a kid walking around wouldn''t?" Lucius said, "Even if you have grown taller, you aren''t tall enough to fool many people, especially those aurors walking around the place and with your current reputation, I hardly doubt people would find it hard to pinpoint you." "I have a solution for that." Draco said walking towards Lucius and pulling a couple of his hair out. Before getting yelled Draco quickly took out a bottle and showed it to Lucius. "Polyjuice potion?" "Yes, with it I can sneak in and sneak out easily." Draco said, "I realized in my so-called journey that these things are really helpful." "So you mean you''ve done this before?" Lucius said narrowing his eyebrows, "Don''t tell me you stayed in those cheap hotels with my face." "That''s-- well not true at all." Draco awkwardly said as he quickly escaped from the room leaving the fuming Lucius alone. ------------------------------- After the time arrived, Draco transported to the Ministry with the floo powder. After drinking the polyjuice potion, Draco now walked in the place as Lucius, still hiding in his robe he looked around the place, to find Fudge waiting for him secretly at the place. "What''s taking him so long." Fudge mumbled as he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder, "What is it?" he asked getting annoyed. "Sorry to make you wait so long." Draco said peeking out of the robe. "Wait are you..." "Don''t ask." Draco said, "Shall we get going?" Fudge didn''t speak for a while but soon shook his head, "Let''s go, but you need to wear this--" Fudge said passing a cloak to Draco. "Invisibility cloak?" Draco asked as Fudge nodded. "I can let you come with me, but people will ask me a lot of question if I was to go with another person, so wear it going over to that corner so people wouldn''t notice you." Fudge said, "After that just follow me and don''t get left behind, if you do... don''t blame me." Draco nodded and went over to the corner Fudge pointed at, the place was discreet and was clearly unnoticeable, quickly using the place Draco wore the cloak and went towards Fudge. "I am ready." He whispered as Fudge nodded and both of them started walking towards the main official building. Going from one passageway to another, Draco noticed that the security wasn''t tight at all and due to Fudge being present no one really cared much about anything. Draco rolled his eyes seeing the carelessness of these wizards as he snooped past by them. After walking for a while they reached a huge door which was closed, the place was guarded by two huge stone statue and from what Draco knew of the wizarding world, these statues were sentient none the less. Fudge gave one of the stone statue standing near the gate a paper, which like Draco suspected moved and took the paper, after it took it, the statue burned the paper and reached its hand out again. "Sigh! I knew it." Fudge mumbled as he took out another piece of paper and gave it to the stone guard, who after taking it burned it, in a similar fashion and stood back up again like before. The huge door slowly opened as Fudge started walking inside it, following him Draco went inside the room as well as the door closed back again. "You can remove the cloak now." Fudge said turning back. Doing as he said, Draco took off the cloak as it was getting uncomfortable bending over to fit the cloak as he was the same stature as Lucius right now and Fudge had prepared the cloak to fit his regular built. "Now since we are already here, mind telling me the reason." "Already here?" Draco snorted. Fudge didn''t say anything and pointed at the vase in the middle of the room, "This place his highly secured, you know. Even I can''t come and go, without any valid reason and without telling my identity to those stone guards. And believe me, we are very close to Azkaban." "The papers..." "Yes, the stone recognized you, even though you were hiding under the cloak but don''t worry, the stone''s don''t speak." "Wait does that mean, you had a document prepared on me to go visit Azkaban." "Yes." Fudge said, "Again, I had to as you could see and since I have my life in line... I wouldn''t be careless about this, so you don''t need to worry. I put mine under investigation and yours under visitation since your aunt is in there and you have a valid reason to visit. Now can you tell me about why you want to visit that god-forbidden place?" (I searched and there wasn''t any mention on how people reached Azkaban quickly, so I came up with my own... so don''t get confused on that.) Draco was still trying to get his head around this room as he sighed, "I want to research on dementors." "But you can do it elsewhere can''t you?" Fudge said, "It''s not like they are that rare." "They aren''t but seeing them in their natural habitat is rare isn''t it?" Draco said, "Especially when they are feeding, that sight is a rare one indeed." 119 Azkaban Pt.3 Fudge after the incident always had a bad feeling revolving around Draco and hearing him, talk about such sadistic things so carelessly, made him fear Draco a little bit more, as he remembered the gruesome scene at that mansion in the forest. "Can you tell me a bit about this room?" Draco asked suddenly, waking Fudge from his thoughts, "I''ve never read about this place." "It''s because the place doesn''t exist." Fudge said, "The moment we get out of here, we forget about the place." "Like the Fedilus charm right?" "Not exactly, since there are no secret keepers." Fudge said, "There is a similar stone statue in my office well at least a miniature version of it, the statue is there for the sole reason of giving permission and access to the people, as long as your reasons are valid the statue wouldn''t reason and give you the papers, which you''ve to exchange at the gate and after you get the papers you remember the place." (I felt with this secret thing it will fit in with the story along with how it never mentioned again.) "Do we really have to go through such a long procedure?" "Don''t ask me... I am not the one who created it." Fudge shook his head walking towards the vase. "You only talked about getting in..." Draco asked, "So how do we get out." Fudge didn''t say anything as he signaled Draco to come closer, Fudge grabbed Draco''s shoulders and put his hands on the vase. The vase sucked both of them in as both of them teleported to Azkaban. Reaching there, Draco forgot his question as he never even remembered the place, to begin with. Draco looked in awe at the Fortress, in front of him. Azkaban has existed since the fifteenth century and was not originally a prison at all. The island in the North Sea upon which the first fortress was built never appeared on any map, Muggle or wizarding, and is believed to have been created, or enlarged, by magical means. The fortress upon it was originally home to a little-known sorcerer who called himself Ekrizdis. Evidently extremely powerful, but of unknown nationality, Ekrizdis, who is believed to have been insane, was a practitioner of the worst kinds of Dark Arts. Alone in the middle of the ocean, he lured, tortured and killed Muggle sailors, apparently for pleasure, and only when he died, and the concealment charms he had cast faded away, did the Ministry of Magic realize that either island or building existed. Those who entered to investigate refused afterward to talk of what they had found inside, but the least frightening part of it was that the place was infested with Dementors. Many in authority thought that Azkaban was an evil place that was best destroyed. Others were afraid of what might happen to the Dementors infesting the building if they deprived them of their home. The creatures were already strong and impossible to kill; many feared horrible revenge if they took away a habitat where they appeared to thrive. The very walls of the building seemed steeped in misery and pain, and the Dementors were determined to cling to it. Experts who had studied buildings built with and around Dark magic contended that Azkaban might wreak its own revenge upon anybody attempting to destroy it. The fortress was therefore left abandoned for many years, home to continually breeding Dementors. Once the International Statute of Secrecy had been imposed, the Ministry of Magic felt that the small wizarding prisons that existed up and down the country in various towns and villages posed a security risk, because attempts by incarcerated witches and wizards to break out often led to undesirable bangs, smells and light shows. So after different Ministers came and went, they finally decided on using the dementors and created a prison here in the middle of nowhere. Even though there weren''t any wizards in this place other than the prisoners, the place was safe as the dementors in this place were enough to keep them in check. The effect of the prison is so secure that many believe, that as long as the Dementors were there, the prison could even be built in an open space rather than an island. As Draco was looking around, suddenly a Dementor came flying out of the place looking at them. Draco couldn''t help but feel cold and weird looking at the Dementor as it came closer. The bad feeling got Draco''s heart racing as his emotions were starting to get out of control again, Draco was ready to take out his wand but Fudge stopped him, as he shook his head signaling Draco to not make an irrational move. Draco trying to calm down took deep breaths as he controlled his emotions back again. The Dementor had a humanoid shape, approximately 10 feet high, and was covered in dark hooded cloaks of long ripped black cloth, making them closely resemble wraiths. Its body looked greyed and decayed looking, like a decomposing corpse, and its breath sounds rattling like it is trying to "suck more than air" out of a room. Its hands glistening, greyish, slimy-looking, and scabbed. "I am here to inspect, the prison." Fudge said holding out a paper. As if looking at it, the dementors looked at it for a while and turned back not coming any closer. "What just happened?" Draco asked, "Aren''t they blind?" "They are but we have a contract built." Fudge said patting the document, "As long as I have this in my hand, the dementors wouldn''t attack us. Ever since I became the Minister, I had to visit here frequently as it''s my job to inspect the prisoners, time and time again." "Oh right, how do we escape, if something goes wrong?" "There is an island nearby, where we can apparate to and from there through ministry authorized channels we can sail back to another island a bit far away and after that, we can just use the floo powder to return back to the Ministry headquarters." Fudge explained. "Wait how did we come here again?" "Don''t ask." Fudge said walking towards the entrance of the prison, "No one knows, even I don''t." Draco was still struggling to remember what was going on but as Fudge said, he couldn''t remember anything at all. They kept walking inside the fortress, the place filled with Dementors riddling around. "Why aren''t they attacking us?" "The permit, they can sense it." Fudge said, "You don''t have to worry about other details than that." Draco didn''t ask any further questions as one by one they passed through several prison room. Inside each prison, the wizards and witches looked lifeless, some yelled in agony whereas some just stayed silent staring into nothingness. As they were walking deeper and deeper into the prison, the denseness of the dementor increase as they kept floating around. The temperature inside was extremely cold and freezing as Draco tucked himself properly. Fudge didn''t speak much along the way and kept silent as he kept walking forward but he suddenly stopped. "This is the maximum security area, most of the prisoners here are You-know-who''s follower." Fudge said trying to scare Draco but the other party wasn''t even looking at him, A bit frustrated Fudge leaned over to the fence and pointed his fingers towards a cell opposite of them "That is your aunt''s cell, don''t you want to visit her?" "Would you allow me to?" "I can make an exception." "I am not really in the mood." Draco said, "Also, I don''t really have times for family reunions." Fudge muttered some words as he looked back at Draco once again, "I am sure you''ve done your ''research'' by now, so shall we leave." Draco looked around the place one last time, as he looked at every cell one at a time carefully and nodded. "I am fine with going back." 120 Azkaban Pt.4 "I am fine with going back." Draco said. Fudge wasn''t even here for checking on the prisoners, so he was glad to leave this hell of a place. He had to tell a lot of lies to get here alone with Draco, without being escorted by the Aurors and to add to that, he was sure there will be some questions and doubts raised on some of those suspicious old timers. As they were returning back, without Fudge noticing, Draco quickly shoot something from his hand. A letter came flying out of his pocket as soon as Draco touched it and escaped far away from them. Fudge wasn''t able to notice anything and as for the Dementors, they were as good as blind. "I can''t understand you." Fudge suddenly said, "But now everything is over isn''t it?" "If you''re talking about your deals, then yes." Draco said, "As long as you don''t speak out that is..." "Seriously what do you think of me... no that''s not even that important." Fudge said, "Why are you doing all this? Do you think controlling me is equivalent to controlling--" "Controlling the ministry? No." Draco cut Fudge off, "If it was, would blackmailing you be so simple?" "Sigh, I just hope that the deal between us is over and your father carries on the promise he gave me." "Don''t worry, we will support you as the minister as long as we can." Draco said, "I can give you my word on that, as for the other families, we can control them for now as long as you don''t go out of control and sign one of those weird laws again, trying to suppress us... cause if you do that, then even I wouldn''t be able to save you as most of your funding comes from us, you wouldn''t be able to continue on long, since now you lack public support as well." "I know what to do." Fudge said grimly as they turned a corner when suddenly a dementor came flying near them, leaving a mist of cold air around them. "Really annoying," Draco said looking at the back of the dementor, "I am still amazed that it doesn''t attack us." "Well, how do you think that we can work with them till now." "But do you really think you can trust them?" Draco said, "They are dark creatures in the end, after all." "You sound like Dumbledore and those others who think they are a nuisance." Fudge said, "But you''ve got nothing to really worry about, we''ve got everything under control. They are intelligent creatures you know." "Sure you do." Draco murmured rolling his eyes. "Did you say something?" "Nothing." Draco said, "I was just wondering which one them is stronger, a Dementor or a Lethifold." Draco always had this question in his mind ever since he got a Lethifold. Both of them are similarly alike, as they are both dark creatures and the only way of defeating them is the Patronus charm. Dementor attacked openly with the sole purpose of sucking someone''s light and happiness from them. They can glide toward a victim without sound, and they are sentient enough to taste and sense fear, being drawn to it and the promise of positive memories that they can feed off of. They are also intelligent enough to be greedy and understand basic human language. They hunt in groups rather than alone surrounding an enemy by cutting off all their exits and going in for the attack. Lethifold, on the other hand, is very similar, in fact, they are probably as intelligent as Dementors but unlike the Dementors, they tend to attack alone. They are intelligent enough to use their body as a disguise like hiding themselves as curtains and go in for attacks when the victim isn''t noticing. Unlike the Dementors, they eat a person whole, slowly killing them by suffocating. Draco couldn''t decide which one was worse, to die a slow and painful death or to live like an empty shell after you get the Dementor''s kiss. Draco wanted to do further research on the Lethifold but without learning the Patronus charm fully, letting the Lethifold out of its cage wasn''t a good idea. Fudge didn''t answer Draco''s question as he looked at him with uneasiness, he didn''t speak to him till they got out of the prison. After they got out, they quickly apparated to a nearby Island and from a small trip through fireplace to the Atrium, located on level 8, they were back again inside the ministry. "It''s good to see you, Lucius." Suddenly a man called out as Fudge and Draco were getting out of the fireplace, "Oh, the Minister is with you as well." Draco was surprised for a second but then remembered that he was still in the disguise as Lucius. Draco didn''t say anything to the man as the other party kept waiting for a response. "We are a bit busy right now, we will talk to later Mr. Smith." Fudge said. Draco nodded in response to that and left towards Fudge office leaving the man behind in daze. Draco took out a small flask and drank the rest of the Polyjuice potion, "I nearly forgot about my disguise." "Well, you''ve got to keep that in check." Fudge grumbled, "So this is it, isn''t it?" "I have something else to talk to you about." Draco said. "What is it again?" "Is your memory really that bad or did you really forget about my wand." Draco said in a cold voice. "Oh that, let''s talk about that in my office." Fudge said. Both of them entered Fudge''s office, which was located on Level 1. Draco hadn''t been here before and truth be told it was nothing special as it looked like any other wizards office, just bigger and a bit luxurious. "About your wand, I did get the news but I couldn''t do anything about it as it lies a bit away from my jurisdiction." Fudge said sitting on his chair preparing tea for himself, "Tea?" he asked. "I am fine." Draco said sitting on the chair opposite of Fudge, "You should know my circumstances don''t you?" "It''s the same thing I explained to your father, that day." Fudge said, "It''s really not possible for me to interfere much on it, especially since I''ve already reduced as much pressure on you as I can. Laws are made for equality and with the other masses being dominant we can''t treat you differently as you said before, the public opinion of me isn''t really good right now. Along with that, about your circumstances, the thing is solved with Pius dying, isn''t it?" "Pius was more like a warning for me to stay aware of my surrounding." Draco said, "And can you guarantee that another Pius won''t come up." "Pius was an unexpected factor, no one believed that he would go rogue and believe us, when I say that, we''ve caught everyone working with him." Fudge said, "I can give you my personal guarantee that things like this wouldn''t happen again, in fact, weren''t you living at peace before this happened?" "What about other factors like, you-know-who?" Fudge narrowed his eyes as he put his cup down, "He''s dead and he isn''t coming back so don''t even worry about him." Draco noticed the bit of fear in his eyes as he calmed his guard down a bit. "I need you to tell me where my wand is?" "Why would you even need to know that?" Fudge said, "Besides when the ban is over, we will hand your wand over to you." "I am not sure, I can trust the ministry fully," Draco said rolling his eyes, "And you know that I don''t have to explain why either." "Sigh! The wands safe in a vault." Fudge said, "I can assure you that no one can touch your wand. In fact, I can give it to you right now." Fudge stood up and walked deeper inside his office and came out with a box in his hands. Draco confused looked at him weirdly as he put the box on the table. "What is this?" "It''s your wand of course." Fudge said. "As my sign of trust, I will return it to you." "So you had it all along with you and you still played naive?" "Not really." Fudge said, "You''ll see why in a bit." 121 Alive. Draco not understanding his meaning looked at the box which contained his wand, the box was covered in a vine which enclosed it. Trying to open it Draco pulled on the vine but it didn''t break nor did it unfolded, he pulled harder but there wasn''t any result whatsoever. "It''s a magical vine." Fudge said, "No magic or physical strength can remove it, the plant will simply wither away after 6 months and you can access your wand. I told you didn''t I, its useless whether the ministry has it or not, no one can access your wand." "So I can take this right?" Draco said holding the box. "Sure if you want to but is it really necessary?" "I''d rather keep it on my side rather than trust this with someone else." Fudge nodded, "I have already explained your circumstances to Dumbledore and Karkaroff, so you can rest easy and go to school. With your talent, I believe you can manage fine without a wand for the half the semester, can''t you?" Draco didn''t bother replying as he put the box in his robe and walked out. "We''ll keep in touch." Fudge mumbled something but Draco didn''t bother to listen as he headed back home. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside Azkaban, the moment Draco and Fudge left, the letter that was sent by Draco started floating around the place, finally landing inside the cell ??-390. The man inside the cell was startled when the letter landed inside the cell, near his foot making him jump a little. Wondering what it was after a moment he picked the letter from the ground. The cover of the letter didn''t say much about who the sender of the letter was but the name ''SIRIUS BLACK'' was written carefully on the front cover of the letter. "What''s this about?" Sirius mumbled. Sirius whose face now had prematurely aged beyond that of a man in his thirties had a gaunt, sunken face, waxy skin, yellow teeth, and long, matted hair. He looked tired and his face looked lifeless. He flipped the letter around, after a moment figuring that it wasn''t a trap of some sort, Sirius tore the cover of the letter and shook it, from inside a page which was folded neatly fell on the ground. Throwing away the cover, he picked up the letter and opened it. Dear Sirius, It''s probably rare getting a letter in Azkaban, especially for you since it might''ve been so long. I want to keep this letter short and simple since I am guessing you''re not in the right state in the mind right now. The most important thing I want to inform you about is, your old friend Peter Pettigrew is still alive. I don''t have any proof right now but a filthy rat with a finger missing isn''t that hard to identify. After that night, where you thought you killed Peter, he managed to escape living his finger there as a distraction. And to confirm your suspicion, Peter has been staying in his rat form all these years hiding in the Weasley family, and right now his owner is one of Weasley''s child Ron Weasley, who is in the same class as your god-son Harry Potter. Both of them share the same house, Gryffindor and the same room. Now stay calm and think, don''t you realize that this is more of a coincidence? Now the reason, why I sent you this letter... I need help. You don''t have to know my identity yet, but just know that I am the only thing that''s keeping your God-son alive and away from Pettigrew but now I''ve some trouble of my own. I am sure you want your revenge and by proving your innocence you can live happily ever after with your god-son as well. But for this, you need my help, whether you admit it or not. After you escape this prison, you''ll be nothing but a convicted criminal on the run, and you''ll have no chance of getting in Hogwarts, as I am sure the ministry wouldn''t think twice about releasing these filthy Dementors to search for you. I guess you''ve already figured what I want you to do by now. For now, escape the prison by using your animagus form, the dementors wouldn''t be able to detect you... though you might need to get a bit thinner to do so and have at least a bit of stability. After escaping, rush back to the Black House, the house is under my control and the Fidelius Charm is activated once again so you can stay there without any hassle as you''re one of the secret-keepers finding that place isn''t that hard for you. I know you might''ve some questions and I will guarantee you that it will all be answered when you reach the Black House. I will be waiting for your escape. Your well-wisher. The letter and the covered suddenly burnt away, leaving an old wooden wand as Sirius stared in a daze at it. His mind filled with hundreds of different thoughts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "I will miss you." Narcissa hugged Draco, "Be sure to return back for Christmas." "I will try my best," Draco said as he hugged her back. Today was the day, he would return back to Hogwarts and with how things are going to be, he wouldn''t see his family for a full year. "Are you ready?" Lucius said. "Yes." Draco nodded as he got out of the car and headed towards the platform. "After you''re done with the spell, don''t come looking for me unless I say so and don''t send me any letters when I am away in Durmstrang." Draco had already said those words back in his home to Lucius but he wanted to remind him once again. Lucius sighed and nodded, knowing what Draco meant as he watched Draco head inside the station. "What a bother." Draco thought to himself as he kept walking. All the muggles from time to time would stare at him in wonder. Draco had noticed, his Veela powers were more effective on muggles as they had no sense of magic whatsoever and with his white hair and beautiful heavenly look, he looked like some sort of otherworldly Prince walking around. Annoyed Draco pulled his hood and started rushing a bit towards the Platform. Due to some last minute preparation, Draco was late and all his friends were waiting for him inside the train. As he was rushing towards the station he saw two boy''s crash into the wall with their trollies still in their hand. They were none other than Harry and Ron. Both of their trolleys had hit the barrier and bounced backward; Ron''s trunk fell off with a loud thump, Harry was knocked off his feet, and Hedwig''s cage bounced onto the shiny floor, and she rolled away, shrieking indignantly; people all around them stared and a guard nearby yelled, "What in blazes d''you think you''re doing?" "Lost control of the trolley," Harry gasped, clutching his ribs as he got up. "Are you okay?" Draco walked up to them picking up Hegwig, as he opened his hood and apologized to the surrounding muggles. Seeing his sweet appearance and his apology most people didn''t bother with them anymore and started walking past by them. "Thank you." Harry said as Draco nodded and walked towards the wall. After inspecting it for a while Draco''s face twisted a little "Why can''t we get through?" Harry hissed at Ron. "I dunno ¡ª" Ron muttered as both of them got up and looked at Draco. "What''s wrong with it?" Harry asked. "We''re going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don''t understand why the gateway''s sealed itself when we still have some time left." Harry looked up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. Ten seconds¡­nine seconds¡­ He wheeled his trolley forward cautiously beside Draco who was just standing there until it was right against the barrier and pushed with all his might. The metal remained solid. Three seconds¡­two seconds¡­one second¡­ "It''s gone," said Ron, sounding stunned. "The train''s left. What if Mum and Dad can''t get back through to us? Have you got any Muggle money?" Harry shook his head and looked at Draco who was just standing there, lost in his own thought. ''Why?'' Draco questioned himself, with everything fixed with Dobby there wasn''t a reason for him to seal the path like in the original, but maybe it wasn''t Dobby, to begin with. 122 Car. ''If Dobby wasn''t the perpetrator who could it be?'' Draco in his guard, holding his suitcase firmly looked around the place wondering if there was any enemy around them. He couldn''t take his wand out, as according to the law he wasn''t supposed to have one and if he was seen waving his wand around this place filled with a muggle, he was sure to get into trouble. He looked around for a while but other than some muggles running around, he couldn''t sense any wizards nearby. With so many people around, a detection spell would be useless as well. Draco was thinking about what was going on when he felt a tap on his shoulder to find Harry staring at him. "What?" He asked. "Have you got any Muggle money with you?" Harry asked looking desperate. "I have Galleons but I don''t have any Muggle money." Draco said, realizing why Harry was panicking. Harry sighed in worry as Ron walked up to the wall and pressed his ear to the cold barrier. "Can''t hear a thing," he said tensely, "What''re we going to do? I don''t know how long it''ll take Mum and Dad to get back to us." They looked around. People were still watching them, mainly because of Hedwig''s continuing screeches and Draco''s look where still pulling in some attention. "I think we''d better go and wait by the car," said Harry. "We''re attracting too much atten ¡ª" "Harry!" said Ron, his eyes gleaming. "The car!" "What about it?" "We can fly the car to Hogwarts!" "But I thought ¡ª" "We''re stuck, right? And we''ve got to get to school, haven''t we? And even underage wizards are allowed to use magic if it''s a real emergency, section nineteen or something of the Restriction of Thingy ¡ª" Ron said looking at Draco as if he was hinting something. "But your Mum and Dad¡­" said Harry, pushing against the barrier again in the vain hope that it would give way. "How will they get home?" "They don''t need the car!" said Ron impatiently. "They know how to Apparate! You know, just vanish and reappear at home! They only bother with Floo powder and the car because we''re all underage and we''re not allowed to Apparate yet¡­" Harry''s feeling of panic suddenly turned to excitement. "Can you fly it?" "No, problem," said Ron, wheeling his trolley around to face the exit. "C''mon, let''s go. If we hurry we''ll be able to follow the Hogwarts Express ¡ª" Harry was about to storm off but stop as he looked at Draco, "You can come with us, since the train has already left, staying here would be pointless." Draco thought about it for a while, it was indeed true that the train had already left and staying here might prove to be fatal in case the person who sealed the train dares to attack him. Sending a letter to his father would be quicker and easier but again it would be more bothersome to explain these things to Lucius. "Are you sure?" Draco asked looking at Ron who was looking at them from a bit far away. Harry looked at Ron who sighed, "It''s fine." he said as he headed outside the station. Harry and Draco too marched off through the crowd of curious Muggles, out of the station and back onto the side road where the old Ford Anglia was parked. Ron unlocked the cavernous trunk with a series of taps from his wand. They heaved their luggage back in, put Hedwig on the back seat, and got into the front. Draco got in the back seat as he looked at Ron, "Do you know how to drive?" "I do." Ron mumbled. "Check that no one''s watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand. Harry stuck his head out of the window: Traffic was rumbling along the main road ahead, but their street was empty. "Okay," he said. Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The car around them vanished ¡ª and so did they. Harry could feel the seat vibrating beneath him, hear the engine, feel his hands on his knees and his glasses on his nose, but for all he could see, he had become a pair of eyeballs, floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of parked cars. Draco sat back in the seat, ready to take action in case anything goes wrong. "Let''s go," said Ron''s voice from his right. And the ground and the dirty buildings on either side fell away, dropping out of sight as the car rose; in seconds, the whole of London lay, smoky and glittering, below them. Then there was a popping noise and the car, Harry, and Ron reappeared. "Uh-oh," said Ron, jabbing at the Invisibility Booster. "It''s faulty ¡ª" "Give me your wand." Draco said hurridly snatching over Ron''s wand and pointing it at the Invisibility booster, waving his wand in a particular direction, Draco chanted, "Reparo" and the Booster was fixed once again, turning the car completely invisible. Seeing the car fixed again, Ron and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Draco sighed in relief as well since these days to avoid having Ryan predict his movement, he needed to get out of being in the newspaper for a while. "Hold on!" Ron yelled, and he slammed his foot on the accelerator; they shot straight into the low, woolly clouds and everything turned dull and foggy. "Now what?" said Harry, blinking at the solid mass of cloud pressing in on them from all sides. "We need to see the train to know what direction to go in," said Ron. "Dip back down again ¡ª quickly ¡ª" They dropped back beneath the clouds and twisted around in their seats, squinting at the ground. "I can see it!" Harry yelled. "Right ahead ¡ª there!" The Hogwarts Express was streaking along below them like a scarlet snake. "Due north," said Ron, checking the compass on the dashboard. "Okay, we''ll just have to check on it every half hour or so ¡ª hold on ¡ª" And they shot up through the clouds. A minute later, they burst out into a blaze of sunlight. It was a different world. The wheels of the car skimmed the sea of fluffy cloud, the sky a bright, endless blue under the blinding white sun. "All we''ve got to worry about now are airplanes," said Ron. They looked at each other and started to laugh; for a long time, they couldn''t stop. They only stopped as Ron''s wand was thrown back to his lap again, as both of them finally remembered that Draco was with them there too. Harry turned to look back at Draco who was seemed to be writing something. "What are you doing?" He asked. "Writing a letter to Theodore and the rest as they might be worrying about me." Draco said a simple answer as he folded the letter and put it inside a cover. Taking out a wax stamp from his suitcase, Draco sealed the letter. "Can I use your Owl?" he asked. "Sure." Harry answered looking outside the car''s window. Ron and Harry as though they had been plunged into a fabulous dream. This, thought Harry, was surely the only way to travel ¡ª past swirls and turrets of snowy cloud, in a car full of hot, bright sunlight, with a fat pack of toffees in the glove compartment. "Want some?" Harry asked Draco who had just sent Hedwig off with a letter, who started flying down towards the train. "No thanks." Draco said shaking his head. "By the way, I''ve always wondered, where''s your owl and luggage?" Harry asked again, "Aren''t books enough to fill the suitcase?" "I don''t remember being on such friendly terms with you." Draco said as he folded his arms, raising his eyebrows, "And also are you sure that this is a good way to reach Hogwarts." Ron who was silent till now looked at him making a weird face, "What''s wrong with it?" he asked "Well, the fact that we are breaking laws and especially breaking rules that your father helped implement, the law about enhancing muggle items with magic which is clearly illegal. Even if you don''t get trouble with this stunt, I am sure your father will." Ron had just come to the realization, that his father, especially his mother would kill him if his father lost his job because of him. "What do we do Harry?" Ron said. 123 Manage. "What do we do Harry?" Ron said panicking a little. Harry who still was oblivious about the situation looked confused, "What are you talking about?" "The car." Ron said, "Where do we land it--where do we leave it? If we go to Hogwarts with the car, I am sure we are getting in trouble and if we leave it any far away, we will be late for the ceremony and still get punished for it and my mother would kill me." Getting the gist of the situation, Harry began to worry as well, he looked back at Draco who seemed perfectly fine and not worried in the slightest. Feeling Harry''s gaze, Draco sighed. "Don''t worry, I have an idea." Draco said, "Since you did me a favor, I will do one for you." "What''s the plan?" Harry asked feeling a bit relieved that not all of them were lost. Draco sighed, "Weasley, Can you let me drive for a while?" Ron looked at him for a while then back at Harry who nodded. After switching seats in an uncomfortable manner, they got back to where they were again. "What are you planning on doing?" Ron said, "You do know how to fly right?" "I do." Draco simply answered as he reached out his hands forward, "What?" Ron said. "Your wand." Ron understanding gave his wand to Draco with a bit of hesitance, "So it''s true huh?" Draco stayed silent as Harry asked again, "Did they really take your wand?" "How many of you know?" "Only us." Harry said quickly to avoid misunderstanding, "Will you be fine without a wand?" "I can manage." Draco said flicking Ron''s wand couple of time, producing several sparks as he touched the steering wheel of the car again and again. Worried that Draco might ruin the car, Ron hurriedly said, "What are you doing?" "Fixing some things." Draco said, "The vehicle is lacking in a lot of things, so I am making the current spells on it, stable at the very least." "How''s that going to help us?" "Write a letter to your parents that the car is going to be parked outside of Diagon Alley, I am enchanting it in a way, that it will land there on its own." Draco seeing Ron''s unsure face, snorted. "I am better at spells than you think, Weasley." "It''s not that..." "Ron, I am sure Mr. and Mrs. Weasley have already figured that we took the car, so there is no point in lying... let''s tell the truth instead." Harry said, "I am sure they will understand our situation." Draco handed a quill and paper to Ron who still looked confused, not paying attention to him any further he continued to drive the car. After a couple of hours, Ron finally finished writing the letter as he was about to ask how he was going to send them, Hedwig came flying towards them and entered the car through an open window with a small piece of paper on its feet. "It just says ''okay''," Harry said taking the paper and handing it to Draco. Draco nodded and didn''t pay much attention to it, while Harry and Ron looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders, they sent Hedwig back with the letter as they sat in silence. Day turned to night, and with the train below them, Harry was sure they were reaching Hogwarts in a few minutes. "You have a plan for landing right?" He asked Draco. "I do." Draco said taking out a pocket watch and his danger predicting ball, which showed no signs of dangers at all. Draco put all the items back as he kept driving in silence. "So...?" Ron said getting a bit frustrated. "Wait half an hour and you''ll get your answers." Draco said. Harry kept chatting with Ron, to avoid conflicts between him and Draco while they waited. "Get ready." Draco said. "Ready for what?" Without replying Draco, turned the car visible again. He slowed the car and started lowering it down. Ron and Harry were about to speak up once again when they suddenly saw a light blinking on top of the train. Wondering what it was, they got closer... only to find, Theodore, waving his brightly lit wand on top of the train. "Don''t tell me..." Draco slowly pulled near Theodore and waved his hands. Theodore annoyed just looked at him with mild annoyance as he sarcastically waved back. Draco clicked a button on the car and the trunk of the car opened up. One by one Theodore slowly used levitation spells to bring luggage from the trunk towards him and lowered it inside the cabinet. From within, Hermione and the rest of the girls including Ginny pulled the luggage in. Harry and Ron surprised looked at Draco who was focusing his best on maintaining stability and his speed, as they finally realized that he had planned it all from the very beginning. The last item was Draco''s suitcase, which was the easiest to pull and they got a hang of it quickly. "Don''t tell me, that we are going in the same way as the luggage." Ron said, gulping as he looked down from the car. He couldn''t bring himself to believe enough in Theodore to pull him over to the side safely, Harry too had the same thoughts going on his mind as he looked very nervous. "No, you idiots." Draco and Theodore said and at the same time. Harry and Ron looked at Theodore who was not on top of the train anymore but was flying alongside them on his broom, with another broom on his hand. Theodore handed the broom to Harry as he nodded. Harry understanding what they were planning smiled as he looked at Ron, "Ready?" Ron looked nervous as he nodded and looked at Draco, "Don''t destroy the car." he said jumping out of the car with their broom. "You ready." Theodore asked Draco, who nodded, "Let''s go up." Both of them started flying high and with the last bit of wand flicking, the car started driving on its own. Draco finding the right moment quickly jumped off the car, where he was quickly caught by Theodore. Draco looked back at the car, which started turning invisible again and disappeared. "You do know how to get into trouble." Theodore snorted. "Well, what can I say, it takes a certain talent." Draco said, climbing back on the broom carefully as they met up with Harry and Ron. "So are we going to land on the train?" "No, rather than doing that, it will be safe to land when the train stops." Draco said, "Just make sure to fly on the right side and just group in with the other students. Also, throw away the broom after we land." Harry nodded as they kept flying to the side. "You did what I told you to do, right?" "Yes, I and the others managed to enchant the sweets that lady brings and lace it with a sleeping potion." Theodore said, "Give or take, I am sure most of the students are asleep. And we didn''t cause much noise, so I am sure most people don''t know about it." "Even if they did, who are they going to blame?" Draco said looking around the train, "In this darkness, even I wouldn''t be able to recognize myself." "Are you sure, it''s safe?" "If it isn''t... then we can obliviate them, aren''t you good at it?" Theodore grinned as they rode the broom silently alongside Harry and Ron. And as the train was about to land, they quickly hid near the forest and came out like regular students, mixing in with the students. As they were walking, suddenly a bright light flashed across their faces, attracting the attention of the students around them. All the students realized that it was none other than Draco and Harry, the students who seem like first years started surrounding them, as they kept chanting their name. Not knowing what to do, they froze in place. Luckily Pansy and Hermione arrived, as they shooed away the young girls around them and pulled them out of the crowd. ------------------------------------------- 124 Ginny. "I am not sure if I am ever going to get used to it." Draco said breathing a sigh of relief as he awkwardly smiled at the girls. "Hey, how have you been?" "Other than you ignoring my letters, I am perfectly fine," Pansy said. "What letters?" Draco said confused, "I didn''t get any." "Of course you didn''t." Pansy said, "I went to your house and took them back." Draco stared at her for a while, wondering why his mother didn''t say anything about it. "Was it something important? I told you, I''ll be busy didn''t I?" "It''s nothing." Pansy snorted as they got out, as their house prefect started gathering them. Draco looked at Harry and Ron who were being lectured by Hermione as they were trying to explain her about, the sealed gate. "So what happened?" Daphne asked. "I''ll tell you later." Draco said, "Your sister?" "She''s okay." Daphne said nodding, "The ceremony worked out fine and she''s back to her normal self again." Draco nodded and held her hand as he didn''t say anything else and looked forward. Daphne stared at Draco for a while, holding his hand tightly she revealed a small but sweet smile. Daphne let go of his hand after continuous stare from Pansy, Draco shook his head and was about to talk to her when he suddenly saw Hermione head towards them. Not wanting to argue, Draco quickly said, "What Potter and Weasley, said is true and we had no other way... I know contacting the school would be a logical thing to do but waiting there didn''t feel safe, as I found the things over there kinda suspicious." Hermione who wanted to lectured turned quiet as she got all of her answers without even asking. A bit annoyed, she snorted and punched Draco on his arms. As she mumbled something, again and again. Draco threw Ron''s wand towards him and turned towards Pansy and Hermione, trying to soothe their anger. "Firs'' years this way!" called a familiar voice. Draco and the rest turned and saw the gigantic outline of Hagrid at the other end of the platform, beckoning the terrified-looking new students forward for their traditional journey across the lake. Some students were staring at Draco and Harry time to time, whispering something, while most of them were yawning, from the sleep potion they had eaten early on. "All right, you guys?" Hagrid yelled over the heads of the crowd. They waved at him but had no chance to speak to him because the mass of people around them was shunting them away along the platform. They followed the rest of the school along the platform and out onto a rough mud track, where at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the remaining students, each pulled by an invisible horse. Draco could see the Thestrals due to all the murders he committed. Draco finally realized why people seem to hate them so much, their whole existence was a reminder that you saw someone die or you killed someone. Draco ignoring them climbed inside the coach along with the rest of them. The coach shut itself off and started setting off by itself bumping and swaying in procession. Due to Draco being present, this year Harry and Ron didn''t miss the assembly and could observe the new path to Hogwarts freely as the boats were an attraction only for the first years to enjoy. The coach smelled faintly of mold and straw. The carriage trundled toward a pair of magnificent wrought iron gates, flanked with stone columns topped with winged boars. The carriage picked up speed on the long, sloping drive up to the castle; Hermione and the girls, including Harry and Ron were leaning out of the tiny window, watching the many turrets and towers draw nearer, while Draco stayed silent the whole ride, breathing deeply trying to calm down. Other than Theodore, no one noticed his abnormality, but he stayed silent as he figured the Thestrals might''ve bought up some bad memories. Theodore could understand Draco a little as he could see them too but didn''t say anything out loud.At last, the carriage swayed to a halt, and all of them got out. Hermione prodded them in the back to make them hurry, and the three of them joined the crowd swarming up the steps, through the giant oak front doors, into the cavernous Entrance Hall, which was lit with flaming torches and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors. They followed the crowd into the Great Hall, sitting at the table of their respective houses. Innumerable candles were hovering in midair over four long, crowded tables, making the golden plates and goblets sparkle. Overhead, the bewitched ceiling, which always mirrored the sky outside, sparkled with stars. Draco was being peered at by almost everyone in the hall, some looking at him with a sense of respect, while some senior girls were looking at him with a gaze, only they could understand. Ignoring them Draco sat on the empty side of the table where soon, his friends surrounded him gossiping about different things. Draco was now clearly the most famous student of Hogwarts and was a figure of pride for Slytherin, so with this came a lot of people wanting to be his friend and quite a few people who envied him. Now with him having all the thing a man wants in life, he was a source of envy for most men, Draco was known for his immense wealth, his good looks, his strong magic, and heroic action, so he possessed everything a person could ever dream of. Soon a long line of scared-looking first years came filing into the Hall. Ginny was among them, easily visible because of her vivid Weasley hair. Ginny unlike expected was looking at Draco rather than Harry from time to time. Draco didn''t took notice of her as he was busy observing other people. Professor McGonagall, a bespectacled witch with her hair in a tight bun, started placing the famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat on a stool before the newcomers. Every year, this aged old hat, patched, frayed, and dirty, sorted new students into the four Hogwarts houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin). Draco well remembered putting it on, exactly one year ago, and waiting, petrified, for its decision as it muttered aloud in his ear. For a few horrible seconds, he had feared that the hat was going to put him in Gryffindor, and the surprise sword attack by the hat... getting all the nostalgic feeling, Draco felt a bit happy and soon started to forget about the Thestrals. Draco''s eyes wondered towards Professor Dumbledore, who sat watching the Sorting from the staff table, his long silver beard and half-moon glasses shining brightly in the candlelight. He wasn''t looking at Draco like the others as he seemed calm about the whole situation. Several seats along, Draco saw Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in robes of aquamarine. He was staring at Draco from time to time, not forgetting to give his signature smile towards him. Draco knew that Lucius had obliviated his memory, so to Lockhart, all the things in the newspapers were rumors and he had never met Draco before. And there at the end was Snape who looked at him in a weird way. Knowing that look, Draco figured a talk with Snape was unavoidable so he didn''t gaze at him further, as he chatted with his friends ignoring the first years, as he had no interest in them yet. One by one the sorting hat placed the students on their respective houses as the new student was walked towards, their houses under cheers of their new Housemates. Soon Ginny''s turn came as she sat on the chair and McGonagall placed the sorting hat on her head, soon after being placed the hat announced her house surprising a lot of people, including Draco. --------------------------------------------- 125 Slytherin.. "SLYTHERIN" The sorting hat announced, shocking the Weasleys, Draco, Harry any many Gryffindors. "Wait! This must be a mistake." Percy stood up from his table, the Gryffindor table was a noisy mess, no one had ever expected a Weasley to be ever sorted in Slytherin. "Mr. Weasley, please retain your silence." McGonagall said looking at Percy fiercely, "There aren''t any mistakes at all." She said but she still was unsure of what was wrong so she looked at Dumbledore for answers. Percy, clenching his fist looked at Ginny who was a bit shaken up by the revelation. The Slytherins who had been annoyed by the antics of the Weasley were smirking. Fred and George were similarly worried for their sister like Percy and last but not least Ron got the biggest shock of them all as he was just stuck there with his mouth wide open, while Harry and Hermione were trying to calm him down. Dumbledore looked at Ginny through his half-moon glasses and at the hat, as he sighed, "There''s nothing wrong with the sorting hat, Professor McGonagall please continue the ceremony." McGonagall nodded and sent Ginny towards the Slytherin table, even though she wanted to say something, she knew there wasn''t anything else she could''ve done. Unlike the other students, Ginny walked up towards the Slytherin table silently as there wasn''t even a single person who cheered for her. Ginny wanted to cry due to the sudden change of her expectation, the one thing she feared the most had come to life, she wasn''t a Gryffindor like her family but a Slytherin. There hasn''t been a Weasley who was in Slytherin, ever. (Don''t know if it''s true but I couldn''t find anyone who was in there.) As Ginny was walking towards the Slytherin table silently, suddenly she heard a clap. She looked to see who it was and it was none other than Draco. One by one the students started clapping following Draco, not caring anymore. They would rather please Draco than mess with a first year. Even though there wasn''t any cheer of any sort, the clap was still louder than ever. Daphne looked at Ginny who was stuck there looking at them and sighed, she cleared the seat next to her and signaled her to come over there. Draco who was beside Daphne let out a simple smile, Ginny nervously walked over to them and sat in the empty spot, thanking Daphne. Snape snorted while the rest of the teachers had a little smile on their face none the less. A couple of Slytherin''s were jealous wondering why a Weasley would get the special favor of Draco but they couldn''t do anything about it. The ceremony continued and other than a handful of students, none of them really caught the interest of Draco. After Dumbledore''s regular speech, it was finally the time for the feast. Draco sat eating and chatting with his friends, Ginny, on the other hand, was silent as she just played with her food rather than eating it. Draco had felt a bit of sympathy for Ginny as she was suddenly in Slytherin due to some reason, and he was sure she would have a lot of trouble in the future as well. Draco wasn''t close to her at all so other than a little help he wasn''t interested in taking care of her full time. At the time, Draco noticed a couple of gazes at him which made him feel a bit weird, these days his sensitivity had increased a lot, even though he wouldn''t feel weird about the gazes most of the time since it was getting pretty normal these days but gazes with certain intent in them was clearly distinctive. He looked around, to find the Weasleys staring at him, their sister being in Slytherin, Draco didn''t find it weird at all that they would be concerned about her. He looked around the Ravenclaw table to found a girl staring at him, she had straggly, waist-length, dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look, She had an aura of "distinct dottiness" that made her seem a bit weird as she kept staring at him with a look of interest. The way she looked at him, was different than the way the other girls were looking at him as if he was some sort of exotic animal. Draco realized that she was none other than Luna Lovegood, he had forgotten that she was admitted to Hogwarts this year as well like Ginny. Draco awkwardly waved at her wondering what was going through her head while she slowly waved back as well. Not figuring what was wrong with her, Draco decided to avoid her for now. "So Draco, is it true?" "What is?" "You were ignoring our whole conversation, weren''t you?" Millicent said, "We were talking about you-know-who, was he behind the whole thing that happened?" Draco shook his head, "I don''t know, that''s what Pius said but it could be anything." "It''s really creepy how he is still influencing our lives." Blaise said, "They don''t call him a Dark Lord for nothing." "Well, that''s not really important now is it." Pansy interrupted, "The thing is over and we are free, let''s not talk about you-know-who or anyone else for today, frankly I am quite tired of it." "She is right, you know." Theodore said yawning, "All this talk makes me less hungry so let''s talk about other things, by the way how was your guy''s vacation." "Mine was simple as always." Blaise said, "I didn''t go any place since mother decided that it wasn''t safe." "Your mother?" "Oh yeah! She wanted me to apologize to you for her absence in the whole fiasco. Even though the whole thing was an important movement for us pure-bloods we couldn''t be present." Blaise said, "Mother doesn''t like to participate in this sort of stuff." "It''s okay." Draco said shaking his head, "As long as we have your support it''s fine, isn''t it?" While they were having their conversation, Ginny on the side was kind of surprised they were discussing politics so openly, especially the things with You-know-who. She was already uncomfortable being here with the Slytherin students looking at her weirdly from time to time and this whole scenario made her even more uncomfortable. "You need to get used to it." Suddenly the girl beside her said, "It''s Daphne Greengrass." "Ginevra Weasley, you can call me Ginny." She said awkwardly with a smile. Daphne sipped her glass of juice as she sighed, "Its really interesting that a Weasley would be in Slytherin, even though it''s not that surprising at the same time." "What do you mean?" "Well whether you admit it or not, you''re a pureblood so it''s not surprising that you would be in Slytherin but the fact that there has never been a Weasley in Slytherin before makes it even more fascinating," Daphne said. "That''s not what I meant." Ginny shook her head, "I was asking why it was so interesting or--fascinating?" "Well, a Weasley can finally see our world with their own eyes." Daphne said a strange smile, "The world that your family claims to hate so much and-- now their daughter is a part of that world-- or maybe will you give up and go home? That would be really disappointing though." 126 Help pt.1 Daphne left Ginny alone as she turned back towards Draco and started chatting with them. Ginny stayed silent as she looked back at her brothers at the Gryffindor table wondering what she was going to do. The feast was over and as they were about to leave, Professor McGonagall came over towards Draco, "Mr. Black, The headmaster would like to have a word with you." Draco nodded, "Don''t wait for me." He said to the others and went with McGonagall following her towards Dumbledore''s office. Dumbledore''s office was just as Draco remembered. Draco walked in there with McGonagall and inside there was Snape along with Dumbledore waiting for him. "Am I in trouble?" Draco said awkwardly looking at them, as they were staring at him a bit too intensely. He wondered if it was something to do with the car. "Not at all, Mr. Black." Dumbledore said, "Please take a seat, first." Draco nodded and sat in the chair, as he looked at Snape wondering what was going on but the other party just shook his head. "This summer vacation has been a bit too complicated for you." Dumbledore said with a pleasing voice, "So first of all, I''d like to apologize for our absence." "It''s fine." Draco said shaking his head, "We already had a lot of people helping me, including the minister and besides I heard that you were looking after Potter as well, so I don''t think it really matters." Dumbledore took a deep breath, his gaze not leaving Draco at all, "Mr. Black, you know I''d always thought that things were under my control but these days, I''ve started realizing that this wasn''t the case at all." "So let me get this straight-- am I here because of Voldemort or am I here to listen to you losing control over things." Draco said. "Mr. Black--" McGonagall wanted to say something but Dumbledore stopped her. "Just suggesting, I can be a very good listener, you know?" Draco said with a smile. "Since you''ve already figured it out, get straight to the point." Snape said. "We want to know about Pius." "Haven''t you read the papers?" "We have Mr. Black." Dumbledore said, "But things aren''t always what they seem to be and I would rather hear it from you than the newspaper." Draco rolled his eyes, "Was Pius a Voldemort supporter, I don''t know-- was he connected with Voldemort, that I don''t know-- I know what you know, and that''s all I know." Dumbledore stared at Draco for a while and sighed, "Let''s forget about that for now, I want to talk to your request about you going on a school visit to Durmstrang... May I know, why?" "No specific reasons." Draco said, "I want to check the school my father has been asking to go for ages, let''s just say I want to pick a school right for me." "Mr. Black, you should know that most of the curriculum of both the schools are very similar," Dumbledore said. "There isn''t anything that we can''t teach that Durmstrang can." "Of course I do know that but there are a few extra teachings I am interested in, that I am sure Hogwarts wouldn''t teach." Draco said, "And besides, I just want to go there to feel the study environment there, so you don''t have to worry about me switching schools." Dumbledore could understand a little bit of meaning behind Draco''s words but there wasn''t really anything he could do right now to stop Draco, he had already figured that something weird was happening but he just couldn''t point out what it was. The board, the minister and even Karkaroff was okay with Draco transferring there for a term or two. "You will transfer to Durmstrang in November and return in May, your exams would be held like regular and your finals would be held here at Hogwarts like the previous year." Dumbledore said. "Congratulation in being the first exchange student in years." Dumbledore handed Draco a couple of document, which he after reading nodded, "Thank you." "No need to thank me, Mr. Black as for your circumstances I have informed every Professor here, so you don''t have to worry about it as for with Mr. Lockhart--" "Those are just rumors." Draco said with a straight face since no one really knows for sure he didn''t care much about people''s opinion and even if Dumbledore knew that it was a lie, there wasn''t anything else can he do. ''Thinking about it, would he really care?'' Draco thought to himself looking straight at Dumbledore, wondering what was wrong with him to have Lockhart as the Defence Against the Dark teacher, for sure he knew about Lockhart but why keep him here still, was he that desperate for a teacher or did he have other motives. "Is there anything wrong Mr. Black?" Dumbledore asked. "No, nothing." "I hope that things are the way you say it is." Dumbledore said, "It will leave me with a peace of mind, Also congratulation on your first Order of Merlin award, I am sure you will win plenty in the future." "Thank you, but I really hope not--it will save me quite a lot of trouble," Draco said with a smile, "Also, the thing I''ve mentioned to you before." "I am working on it." Dumbledore said, "I''ve talked with Professors, and it really is a good idea but I want to make sure the activities don''t hinder the student''s school work and besides without you here, wouldn''t it be difficult to do so." "It''s all extra activities and to learn something... as long as the people have a passion for it, I am sure it wouldn''t be hard at all and they can learn things without even me being here." Draco said, "And if the club is approved quickly, I still have two months to figure things out and manage things accordingly." "I''ll be sure to inform you when I''ve dealt with certain things," Dumbledore said. "That is all for today, I apologize for wasting your time since you might be very tired." "It''s not a problem at all." Draco said, "If that is all, then I''ll be taking my leave." Draco stood up and left for the door with Snape following him from behind. "Is it okay for you leave things like this?" McGonagall said, "With things getting so complicated once again and that child being the center of it... shouldn''t we at least ask more questions?" "I''ve got the answers that I wanted." Dumbledore said, "He''s really a clever kid, and one of the more intelligent ones, the only difference I can see is that one of them wanted to prove that he is different while the other wants to prove that he is the same but superior, I wonder what''s worse." McGonagall didn''t understand what Dumbledore meant as she stayed quiet, trying to find the meaning behind his words. ------------------------------------- Draco sighed walking outside Dumbledore''s office, talking with him was always annoying since he couldn''t lie completely but had to maneuver his way around the topic, talking in metaphors without completely telling the complete answer as well. "Are you done sighing?" Snape said walking behind him. "Not really but do you want to ask me something as well?" Draco said looking at Snape. "Hmph! your work is done." Snape said, "Are you sure you want to do this?" "I am plenty sure." Draco said, "I wouldn''t ask you for your help if I could do this alone." 127 Help pt.2 "Well, at least you''ve got a little brain inside that head of yours." Snape said passing pages of different documents to Draco, "I''ve investigated all the weird things happening around far North, and it is similar to how you predicted all the stuff to be." "Well, it wasn''t that hard to guess." Draco said, "Anything happening around here?" "No, it seems like they are holding back for some reason since things here are the same as they''ve always been, not even a single change." "That''s a relief and a bit suspicious at the same time." "Taking help from the ministry would be easier you know." Snape said, "As much as I despise there uselessness, they''ve still got a ton of dumb wizards, enough to make a difference." "But they aren''t trustworthy at all." Draco said, "Pius didn''t come out of the blue, and this is enough to make me not trust them." "So you''re thinking of handling it all alone or do you think I will join you on your suicidal missions." "Of course not." Draco said, "If we act on it now, the enemy would be alerted much sooner than expected which I don''t want, right now all I need to do is make sure that I know his every move." "Mind telling me about the enemy?" "That I don''t know as well." Looking at Snape''s suspicious face he silently rolled his eyes, "I''ve trusted you enough with all these information that no one else knows, so what makes you think that I''ll hide this from you? and such a piece of vital information at that-- All I know is that he is in Durmstrang and that''s the truth." "So you want to go there on a suicide mission?" Snape snorted, "Things aren''t that easy." "I know." Draco said, "But this is the only way I have. I have predicted numerous situation but none of them seems to work out well." Draco waved the documents Snape gave to him, "And with this, I am sure you realize, that this isn''t a simple matter." "Sigh! Just when I thought there was only a single source of trouble." Draco shrugged his shoulders, "Hey besides me Potter is another target and I am sure that he wouldn''t be able to do a better job than me, so I am the best choice we''ve got." Snape looked at Draco with his dull expression, "You need to realize that we can''t do this alone." "Don''t worry, I have already planned things out." Draco said clutching the paper in his hand, ''I wonder what your reaction will be when you realize that you''re losing at your own game.'' Leaving Snape, Draco went to the Slytherin common room and just as expected the place was empty. Draco looked around the dark place as he stretched his arms when he suddenly heard a bit of whimpering. Draco looked around the place only to find Ginny in the corner sobbing. "Are you okay?" Draco asked wondering if she got bullied out of her dorm. Ginny hurriedly wiped her tears as she looked back at Draco wondering who it was, "I am fine." she said standing up and walking away when she suddenly tripped on the carpet. Draco hurriedly caught her but the position he did got kind of awkward. He was holding her by her waist and his face was way too close to hers, close enough to feel each other''s breath. Draco and Ginny hurriedly stood up, as he quickly let go of her. "I apologize, that wasn''t my intent," Draco said hurriedly getting a bit flustered. Ginny seeing that let out a little giggle, "It''s okay." She said but soon her smile faded away again. "Um, did you get kicked out your room or something?" Draco asked directly, "It might be a bit hard for you to adjust here in Slytherin but if you need any help, you can come to ask me for help anytime." "It''s not that." Ginny shook her head, "And I can take care of myself. It''s just--I don''t know what to do." Draco understood what she meant, "Have you talked with your brothers?" he asked, "Didn''t have the chance to but Percy told me that he will talk with me tomorrow." Ginny said as she looked at Draco carefully, "You are really different from what I imagined you to be?" "What did you think I was gonna be like?" Draco asked rolling his eyes, "A cold-blooded Nobel who only knows how to control and order people around?" "Ye--I mean no." Ginny quickly corrected herself. Even though Draco heard it, he pretended like he didn''t, "Thinks aren''t going to be easier for you in Slytherin, I don''t know what''s wrong with that trash of a sorting hat but it keeps messing up people''s life..." Draco took a big sigh thinking how much more trouble the sorting hat was going to give, looking at Ginny, he knew that she was the same as the book described her to be but now she is in Slytherin for god knows what reason. "Is it because of my brothers?" Ginny asked suddenly waking Draco from his train of thoughts. "A little bit... well at least they hate you Weasley''s more due to the antics of your twin brothers but I wouldn''t blame them, to be honest, some Slytherin students are too stereotypical to the point where it even surprises me but well they are how they are, and they do deserve a couple of pranks here and there. In fact, its more of a two-way battle but your brother have the upper hand due to their weird inventions." Draco said. Ginny nodded a little not sure how to react, maybe if she was in Gryffindor she wouldn''t have to be bothered by all this but now things were different. "What do you think I should do?" She asked silently. Draco was surprised that Ginny of all people would ask him for help but considering the situation she is in and how young she is, it was still understandable. "Well you have two options, One is to fight and adapt to Slytherin because no matter whether you like it or not, this is your house now and you can''t change that... so my suggestion would be to learn to ride the wave than go against it." Ginny looked at Draco frowning a little while wrinkling her forehead, so Draco quickly corrected himself, "I mean... you don''t have to go around hating muggles or Muggle-born, even I don''t do that but you know, try to understand them a little and be friends with them, that''s how I managed." Remembering Hermione, Ginny understood a little what Draco meant as she went into a deep thought once again, "What''s the other option?" She asked after a while. "The other option is to go back home-- I know it sounds cold but you should know that many wizards learn magic from their home and as long as you put your heart into it... you shouldn''t be less competent than any other wizard." Draco said looking at Ginny who looked a bit lost. "There''s nothing wrong with being in Slytherin though. People''s lives are what they make of them. In my experience, we all have light and dark inside of us and by extension, I believe that every individual would have a bit of each house inside them. We all can be clever in some form, we can be cunning/resourceful, we can be brave, and we can be loyal/hard-working. Just because someone was placed in a certain House does not mean that they could not display characteristics of other Houses. What matters is what we choose to act on and how we use our abilities. And being in Slytherin means that you certainly have the talent to be a leader, along with many other qualities, having a disregard for the rules certainly falls under Slytherin and I think today''s action proves it." "You mean those chocolates and the train fiasco?" Ginny said smiling a little. "Well, I understand what you mean." "It''s late now, so I''ll head back to my dorm to catch some sleep, you should too." Draco said smiling back, "Welcome to Slytherin." 128 Welcome to Slytherin "Welcome to Slytherin." "Thanks." Ginny said with a bright smile, "You can call me Ginny by the way." "Call me Draco." Draco said looking at her wondering what was the cause of her sudden emotion change, "Goodnight." Ginny quickly said as she rushed back to the girl''s dormitory. Draco sighed, as he went back to his dorm where Theodore was already asleep. Draco sat down on his bed and looked at the Document that Snape gave him, the whole documents showed places where wizards started gathering around for an unknown reason, some disappeared and some left everything, their family, their job and went on to an unknown place. Draco was sure that these wizards were none other than some puppets of Ryan. Ryan challenging him without an army would be weird and unusual, especially considering that he had much more time to prepare than Draco, and just as he suspected he had an army of wizards prepared along with some other magical creatures. "Think you''re so smart huh." Draco opened his suitcase and went inside it. He read through the documents quickly again to prepare a decent plan for his next action, According to the information collected by Snape, there has been a couple of changes around different areas. Wizards and Witches going missing are only the tips of the iceberg. All of them collecting in a single group at different places forming bases, making sure the muggles move far away from them with spells and last but not least some werewolves seem to be involved too, as their traces were found nearby. Previously, when all of the commotions took place, Draco made sure to send a letter to Snape who was in Hogwarts at the time to help him look for such strange activities, Snape, of course, wasn''t willing to, but with Draco using Harry''s name as bait, Snape agreed to help him, with Ryan including Harry''s name in the newspaper, it made it easier to convince Snape. Draco wasn''t completely sure that Snape would do what he was told but with the document now in his hand, Draco was happy that Snape agreed to help him. "Master, we are running out of food." One of the elves came towards Draco, as he bowed down and said, "Norberta has been eating a lot than usual, so the food supplies need to be refilled again." Even though it was possible for the Elves to go through the door and appear at the Grimmauld 12 place for replenishing supplies themselves but Draco didn''t allow it, as it might hamper security. "I will make sure to bring some food." Draco said nodding, "How''s the thing with the fertilizer going?" "It''s going well, Master." The elf said, "We have already managed to secure a batch." Draco nodded, he had previously ordered the elves to start collecting animal feces to come up with a fertilizer that can help his plants grow faster and be healthier. With the enchanted door, it was now possible for Draco to come and go out of Hogwarts without being noticed, which was an extreme advantage for him. Draco then excused the elf, and went inside the door and arrived inside the Black-house. "Dobby!" Draco called out, He had to inquire about the stuff that happened today at the train station and to make sure that Dobby wasn''t the one who sealed the passage. Moments later, Dobby came out of the kitchen. "Dobby didn''t expect Master to be home today." Dobby said bowing, "Is Master here for the supplies?" "Yes and No." Draco said, "Let Kreacher handle the supplies and you come with me to the living room." Dobby looked confused but still nodded, after informing Kreacher he went towards the Living room where Draco was already waiting for him. "Dobby, where were you today?" Draco asked directly. "Dobby was here the whole day, cleaning and working on managing the supplies." Dobby said looking a bit surprised, wondering why Draco would ask him that suddenly. "You didn''t step outside the house the whole day?" Draco asked again, raising his eyebrows. "Yes, Master." Draco sighed, staying silent for a while he turned towards Dobby again, "Dobby you wouldn''t lie to me right?" "Master gave me freedom and have taken care of me since forever." Dobby said looking a bit taken back, "I''d rather end my life than betray you, Master." Draco nodded, "Go and help Kreacher." he said with a cold voice. Dobby still confused, nodded and left, wondering if he did something wrong. Draco laid back a little massaging his temples, wondering what was going on. He wasn''t that reliant on Dobby but he trusted the house-elf enough to know that it wouldn''t lie to him, no matter what. Especially Dobby who was easy to read didn''t seem that suspicious to Draco. ''Who could it be?'' Draco thought to himself, according to the information collected by Snape, there wasn''t any suspicious activity happening around London so the chances of Ryan being behind it was very low and again considering the first target of the passage wasn''t Draco but Harry and Ron made the situation even weirder and confusing. After the supply was collected, Draco took it back inside the suitcase and arrived inside Hogwarts again. He looked at Theodore who was still asleep as he laid back in his bed wondering what he was going to do. ------------------------------------------------------- The next day, Draco, Theodore, Daphne, and Pansy went to eat breakfast in the Great Hall. Ginny was nowhere to be seen so were her brothers who weren''t at the table along with Harry. The four long house tables were laden with tureens of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast, and dishes of eggs and bacon, beneath the enchanted ceiling (today, a dull, cloudy gray). Hermione came toward the Slytherin table and greeted them "Good morning." "So where are the Weasley''s and Potter''s?" Theodore asked looking back at the Gryffindor table and at Hermione, everyone was clear from his voice that Theodore didn''t like the Weasley''s. "Ron said they were going to talk to their sister and convince her to leave Hogwarts." Hermione said sighing, "With Ron''s hatred for Slytherin, his reaction wasn''t surprising at all but I am more concerned for Ginny." "Hmph! It''s not like we Slytherin''s like the Weasley''s." Pansy snorted. "Besides, do we really have to talk about her, when her staying at Hogwarts had nothing to do with us." "But it is really sad." Daphne said, "I wanted to see what kind of new drama would the Weasley''s brew knowing that their sister is in Slytherin. Too bad, it looks like the girl can''t even follow her fate." "It''s just like Draco said, the hat ruins everything and everyone." Hermione said. She was now beginning to realize how bad these weird tradition of Hogwarts which seemed to really affect everyone was. From her perspective, if Draco was in any other house, they could have all been friends without fighting each other and now Ginny, who was now put in this weird predicament was all due to the sorting hat. "It''s not the Hat''s fault''s actually," Draco said. "While I indeed still believe in what I said before, but I have come to realize that all the houses are what you make of it. For years, Slytherin has been known to be creepy and full of Dark Wizards, but the school never removed Slytherin from being one of the houses since all of the principals knew that, this all had nothing to do with being a Slytherin at all but rather the student''s own bad choices." All of them turned silent listening to Draco as he turned his head towards Hermione, "So aren''t you going to help her?" 129 Its a start. "Me?" Hermione asked confused, "It''s not that I don''t want to but Ron seemed mad and so insistent that I gave up since I don''t feel like it''s my place to talk anymore..." "It''s not the Hermione I know." Draco said, "The Hermione I know would help Ginny since she knew that her brother was in the wrong and was trying to force his sister out of Hogwarts for just being a Slytherin. It''s not about family or friend... it''s about right and wrong." "You are right." Hermione said standing up, "Thanks." She said suddenly running outside the hall with a determined face. "Why are you so insistent on helping her?" Pansy asked pouting. "You know during that sorting ceremony, the hat nearly placed me in Gryffindor... at the time many thoughts ran through my head, about what I was going to do." Draco said surprising everyone since they never heard this story before. "Even though both mine and Ginny''s problem are different, I can at least relate to her a bit and besides what''s wrong with helping someone, who''s in the same house as us." "Yeah, especially someone cute, last time I saw her, she was, looking at Potter with worship... you were jealous, weren''t you?" Theodore said grinning only to get kicked under the table by Daphne and Pansy. "So when are you going?" Pansy asked, "Isn''t that why Dumbledore called you yesterday?" Draco nodded, "2 months from now..." he said vaguely. "What are you talking about?" Daphne asked, "Nothing." Draco shook his head, Daphne and Theodore were about to ask him what was he going on about when Snape came along the table handing out course schedules. Draco took his and saw that they had double Herbology with the Ravenclaws first. "Talking about Ravenclaw, what''s going on with you and Cho?" Draco asked looking at Theodore. "I don''t know." Theodore said, "We''ve been talking for a while again after the incident, but we still haven''t talked face to face." He said looking back at the Ravenclaw''s table. "She''s such a two face, do you still like her after what happened last year?" Pansy snorted, "She was so quick to judge Draco..." Draco stopped her before she finished as Theodore took a huge sigh, "That''s why I don''t know." He said, "I can understand her point of view in this as well, since her and we were never that close of a friend, her sticking out for us would be difficult but at the same time--thinking about how she quickly decided to turn her back on us, make me dislike her a bit." "People take time to change." Draco said, "Besides, she isn''t even in the same class as us, so she has her own friends and reputation to maintain, I would probably do the same if I was in her position for people who I barely know." "But you guys savedher from the troll, doesn''t she feel even a little bit of guilt?" Daphne added. "She does." Theodore said, "Every letter she sent me contained the word ''sorry'' and that''s why she can''t even face us directly right now... Let''s not talk about her." Theodore said ending the conversation. After that, they left the castle together, crossed the vegetable patch, and made for the greenhouses, where the magical plants were kept. As they neared the greenhouses they saw the rest of the class standing outside, waiting for Professor Sprout. They had only just joined them when she came striding into view across the lawn, accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart. Professor Sprout''s arms were full of bandages, and with another twinge of guilt, Draco spotted the Whomping Willow in the distance, several of its branches now in slings. Professor Sprout was a squat little witch who wore a patched hat over her flyaway hair; there was usually a large amount of earth on her clothes and her fingernails would have made Narcissa and many other noble Draco knew disgusted. Gilderoy Lockhart, however, was immaculate in sweeping robes of turquoise, his golden hair shining under a perfectly positioned turquoise hat with gold trimming. "Oh, hello there!" he called, beaming around at the assembled students. "Just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to doctor a Whomping Willow! But I don''t want you running away with the idea that I''m better at Herbology than she is! I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels¡­" "Greenhouse three today, chaps!" said Professor Sprout, who was looking distinctly disgruntled, not at all her usual cheerful self. There was a murmur of interest. They had only ever worked in greenhouse one before ¡ª greenhouse three housed far more interesting and dangerous plants. Professor Sprout took a large key from her belt and unlocked the door. Draco caught the usual whiff of damp earth and fertilizer mingling with the heavy perfume of some giant, umbrella-sized flowers dangling from the ceiling. He was about to follow Theodore and the girls inside when Lockhart''s hand shot out. "Mr. Black! I''ve been wanting a word ¡ª you don''t mind if he''s a couple of minutes late, do you, Professor Sprout?" Judging by Professor Sprout''s scowl, she did mind, but Lockhart said, "That''s the ticket," and closed the greenhouse door in her face. Pansy and Daphne were worried that Draco might again blow up Lockhart in a fit of rage but looking at Draco''s calm face they couldn''t say anything, as Theodore pushed them inside nodding at Draco signaling him to not do anything stupid. "Draco," said Lockhart, his large white teeth gleaming in the sunlight as he shook his head. "Draco, Draco, Draco. I can call you that right?" Completely nonplussed, Draco said nothing as he stood there looking at Lockhart wondering what an amazing job of obliviation was done. According to Lucius, he had asked help from an acquaintance who is a known Obliviator who works for the ministry to Obliviate him. "All these rumors about you and me, I hope you aren''t upset." Lockhart said keeping his signature smile, "Don''t know when I''ve been more shocked, these reporters talking about you and me fighting when obviously you are completely fine. What can I say, fame does bring all the goods but the bads as well." It was remarkable how he could show every one of those brilliant teeth even when he wasn''t talking and how he didn''t even flinch a little while bragging. "Being in the newspaper once gives you a taste for publicity, doesn''t it?" said Lockhart. "Gave you the bug. You got onto the front page of the paper and you couldn''t wait to do it again, of course, I am to blame for all this, as I have heard before that you were one of the people who really adore me" "What gave you that idea ¡ª" Draco was cut off before he could even finish his sentence. "Draco, Draco, Draco," said Lockhart, reaching out and grasping his shoulder. "I understand.Natural to want a bit more once you''ve had that first taste ¡ª and I blame myself for giving you that because it was bound to go to your head ¡ª but see here, young man, you can''t go around fighting dark wizards all the time. Just calm down, all right? Plenty of time for all that when you''re older. Yes, yes, I know what you''re thinking! ''It''s all right for him, he''s an internationally famous wizard already!'' But when I was twelve, I was just as much of a nobody as you are now. In fact, I''d say I was even more of a nobody! I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven''t they? All that business with that old bloke Pius, claiming to be the follower of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" He glanced at Draco''s face with a bit of envy but he quickly hid it. "I know, I know ¡ª it''s not quite as good as winning Witch Weekly''s Most Charming Smile Award five times in a row, as I have ¡ª but it''s a start, Draco, it''s a start." 130 Mandrake Draco was frowning looking at Lockhart, cursing the Obliviator in his head who seemed to have put in some unnecessary plotline between him and Lockhart. ''Admirer my ass.'' Draco thought to himself. Every person in that bookshop knows that Draco wouldn''t hesitate to blow up Lockhart just for touching him and now he was treating him as his underling of some sort. Draco wanted to use a spell on Lockhart to get rid of this annoying conversation, but he couldn''t because they were in Hogwarts ground, so he just sat there silently glaring at Lockhart. "Remember you can come to me for advice anytime, and since I am your defense against the dark teacher, I will make sure to teach you everything I know... since a special young man like you needs proper counseling and guidance." He said giving Draco a hearty wink and strode off. Draco stood stunned for a few seconds wondering how a man could come up with such bluffs, then, remembering he was supposed to be in the greenhouse, he opened the door and slid inside. Professor Sprout was standing behind a trestle bench in the center of the greenhouse. About twenty pairs of different-colored ear muffs were lying on the bench. When Draco had taken his place between Daphne and Pansy, she said, "We''ll be repotting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?" To nobody''s surprise, Theodore''s hand was first into the air. "Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," said Theodore, sounding as usual, due to the influence of Draco, he had gotten good with botany as well and knew quite a lot about magical plants, "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state." "Excellent. Ten points to Slytherin," said Professor Sprout. "The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?" "The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it," This time Draco answered lazily. "Precisely. Take another ten points," said Professor Sprout. "Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young." She pointed to a row of deep trays as she spoke, and everyone shuffled forward for a better look. A hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish green in color, were growing there in rows. They looked quite unremarkable to Ravenclaw and Slytherin students, who didn''t have the slightest idea what Draco meant by the "cry" of the Mandrake. "Everyone take a pair of earmuffs," said Professor Sprout. There was a scramble as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn''t pink and fluffy. "When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are completely covered," said Professor Sprout. "When it is safe to remove them, I will give you the thumbs-up. Right ¡ª earmuffs on." Draco snapped the earmuffs over his ears. They shut out sound completely. Professor Sprout put the pink, fluffy pair over her own ears, rolled up the sleeves of her robes, grasped one of the tufty plants firmly, and pulled hard. The students let out a gasp of surprise that no one could hear, due to the Mandrake''s shriek. Instead of roots, a small, muddy, and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. The leaves were growing right out of his head. He had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs. Draco frowned as he looked at the Mandrake as he had previously handled a couple of Mandrake''s himself and knew how annoying they could be, luckily most of his mandrakes were young and weren''t fatal but he still remembered the first time he handled a Mandrake, where he nearly went deaf. Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it, burying him in dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. Professor Sprout dusted off her hands, gave them all the thumbs-up, and removed her own earmuffs. "As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won''t kill yet," she said calmly as though she''d just done nothing more exciting than water a begonia. "However, they will knock you out for several hours, and as I''m sure none of you want to miss your first day back, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I will attract your attention when it is time to pack up. Four to a tray ¡ª there is a large supply of pots here ¡ª compost in the sacks over there ¡ª and be careful of the Venomous Tentacula, it''s teething." She gave a sharp slap to a spiky, dark red plant as she spoke, making it draw in the long feelers that had been inching sneakily over her shoulder. Millicent and Blaise quickly pulled Theodore away, as he was the only one they could trust enough to work with them expect Draco. While Pansy, Daphne, and Draco were joined at their tray by a very attractive girl with dark eyes and long dark hair, from Ravenclaw named Padma Patil. Draco had seen her before but he had never held a conversation with her. "Padma Patil." She introduced herself, "Know who you are, of course, the famous Draco Black... and you are Pansy Parkinson, the Seeker of Slytherin and you''re Daphne Greengrass." She raised her hand for a shake but Pansy just ignored her as she said, "Are you a half-blood?" "Yes." Padma said awkwardly, suddenly remembering that she was chatting with Slytherins, seeing Draco, she got a bit excited and forgot about it. She thought that they were going to ignore her, but to her surprise, Pansy shook her hand and so did Daphne and Draco. Draco sighed looking at Pansy, even though she wasn''t rude to muggle-born wizards anymore but she still hated acting friendly with them, especially people she had never talked to before. Draco smiled awkwardly at Padma, saying hello. "That Lockhart''s something, isn''t he?" said Padma happily as they began filling their plant pots with dragon dung compost. "Awfully brave. Have you read his books? I''d have died of fear if I''d been cornered in a telephone booth by a werewolf, but he stayed cool and ¡ª zap ¡ª just fantastic. But of course, you aren''t lesser than him, considering your age, I am sure you''d be greater than him." She continued looking at Draco. Draco didn''t want to say anything else about Lockhart and neither did Pansy and Daphne, so after a bit of pleasantry, they didn''t talk much as their earmuffs were back on and they needed to concentrate on the Mandrakes. Professor Sprout had made it look extremely easy, but it wasn''t. The Mandrakes didn''t like coming out of the earth but didn''t want to go back into it either. They squirmed, kicked, flailed their sharp little fists, and gnashed their teeth. Even Draco struggled as this was more about technique and experience which Draco didn''t have. He usually used magic to deal with these sort of stuff but it wasn''t possible to do so in the middle of the class, but being more used it to it than the others Draco managed to squash a particularly fat one into a pot within minutes. By the end of the class, everyone was sweaty, aching, and covered in earth. Only Theodore and Draco looked decent enough to carry on. Everyone traipsed back to the castle for a quick wash and then the Slytherin''s hurried off to Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall''s classes were always hard work, especially considering that Transfiguration where one of his weak subjects. Today''s work was to turn a beetle into a button but since Draco wasn''t allowed to use magic, he couldn''t do anything but just sit there looking at others trying their best to figure things out. People who didn''t know about Draco''s wand being gone were wondering why he wasn''t doing his work but looking at McGonagall''s who didn''t seem annoyed or surprised by it, they ignored it as well. 131 Photograph. After Transfiguration they went down to lunch, Draco finally saw Ginny who was sitting at the Slytherin''s table alone as he looked at Hermione, Harry, and Ron who were sitting awkwardly at the Gryffindor''s table not talking with each other. Draco guessed that they might''ve gotten into a fight but he had no interest in bugging them about it, so he sat at the empty side of the Slytherin table with Pansy and the rest. While eating their lunch, Ginny suddenly stood up from her chair and came towards them. She looked at Draco and said, "Thank you." As she walked outside of the hall. Draco wanted to ask her what happened but Ginny had already run off. Pansy and Daphne looked at Draco wanting some answers but Draco just shook his head, implying that he doesn''t know. Not believing Draco in the least, they sat there glaring at him. "Okay, stop it." Draco said, "I seriously don''t know what happened. Maybe its the thing we discussed in the morning." Draco said looking back at the Gryffindor''s table for Hermione but she too was long gone with only Harry and Ron eating together. "So what do you think happened?" Pansy said, "Looking at her, it seems she will stay in Hogwarts." "Really I think she might not." Daphne said, "Maybe the thank you was the last appreciation for Draco before she leaves Hogwarts forever." "Well, whether she stays or leaves, it has nothing to do with us." Draco said. "Oh, I thought you were concerned for her." Theodore said sarcastically, "Won''t you be sad if she leaves?" "I honestly don''t care." Draco said rolling his eyes, "As I said in the morning, I did feel pity for her but that''s it. Besides I don''t even know her that well for me to chase her around and meddle in her affairs. I feel like, I''ve already done enough." "Finally, that''s the Draco I know," Pansy said with a smile. "What''ve we got this afternoon?" said Theodore changing the subject. "Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Daphne looking at Draco. "What is it?" Draco asked looking confused. "Will you be okay?" She asked carefully. "You do remember that Lockhart is the one teaching us right?." "How could I forget." Draco said rolling his eyes again, "It''s not like, I haven''t been reminded of it a thousand times now." "Sigh! She is just concerned you know." Theodore said, "After what happened in the bookstore, everyone is." "Don''t worry, I won''t lose my cool like the last time." Draco said, "Besides I didn''t kill him today, so trust me on this one." "Sigh! I wonder why would they hire a teacher like him." Pansy said, "Hogwarts has really fallen from its grace. With these books, I feel like we are in a literature class rather than defense against the dark." "Well at least, you know." Draco said sighing looking at the girls around him, who were excitedly waiting for Lockhart''s class. From Slytherin to Ravenclaw, everyone was the same. They finished lunch and went outside into the overcast courtyard. Draco, Theodore, and Daphne were discussing some potions while Pansy, on the other hand, was talking about Quidditch with the seniors who were discussing their schedules for practice for several minutes before Draco became aware that he was being closely watched. Looking up, he saw the very small, mousy-haired boy he''d seen trying on the Sorting Hat last night staring at him as though transfixed. He was clutching what looked like an ordinary Muggle camera, and the moment Draco looked at him, he went bright red. "All right, Mr. Black? I''m ¡ª I''m Colin Creevey," he said breathlessly, taking a tentative step forward. "I''m in Gryffindor. D''you think ¡ª would it be all right if ¡ª can I have a picture?" he said, raising the camera hopefully. "A picture?" Draco repeated blankly. "So I can prove I''ve met you," said Colin Creevey eagerly, edging further forward. "Looks like you got yourself a fanboy." Theodore said laughing. While Draco was a bit weirded out, Colin, on the other hand, was nodding furiously "I know all about you. Everyone''s told me. About how you created all those potion formulas and managed to defeat an army of dark wizards alongside aurors and everything and how you got your wand taken away." Colin said all of it in a single breath as he still continued "and a boy in my dormitory said if I develop the film in the right potion, the pictures move." Colin drew a great shuddering breath of excitement and said, "It''s amazing here, isn''t it? I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Hogwarts. My dad''s a milkman, he couldn''t believe it either. So I''m taking loads of pictures to send home to him. And it''d be really good if I had one of you" ¡ª he looked imploringly at Draco ¡ª "maybe your friend could take it and I could stand next to you? And then, could you sign it?" "A mudblood?" Flint who was chatting with Pansy suddenly came forward towards them, "You don''t really know your place, don''t you?" He nastily snorted. Draco frowned looking at his behavior as he looked at other people who had the same annoying arrogant look like Flint. "I think I can handle it myself," Draco said looking at Flint, even though he didn''t really like the guy, he didn''t want to bother himself with him. Flint who was living up to his reputation of having troll blood and was failing classes often, he even got held back this year, so Draco knew that it was better to talk with his animals rather than Flint, who seemed to be the walking, living definition of the word ''idiot''. Flint looked at Draco for a while before arrogantly snorting and walking away with rest of the Quidditch players following behind him. Draco looked at Colin who seemed confused and scared. "As for you." Draco said, gaining the attention of Colin quickly, "Were you the one who took the picture of us at the train?" "Ye-Yes." Colin said getting a bit scared, "I was just excited to see you, that''s all." "Oh, So you were the one." Theodore said coming forward taking his wand out, "Tell me what you saw." "I didn''t see anything, I swear." Colin quickly said backing off a bit, "I saw you as you were passing by and took a picture, I wanted to take it silently but I forgot that I had the flash on. I am sorry." "Sigh! Stop it." Draco said looking at Theodore who put his wand down, while he still had the smug look in his face as he then turned towards Colin again, "Leave, and don''t let Flint catch you again, I am sure he won''t take what happened here lightly." Colin quickly nodded and ran off. "Was that really necessary?" Daphne said coming forward, "And what were you really planning on doing with him." "Nothing much really." Theodore said, "Just wanted to use an Obliviating spell, in case he saw things that weren''t meant for him to see." "Leave it." Draco said sighing, "Watch out." Pansy whispered as Draco looked behind his back, Lockhart who was putting his hands on Colin''s shoulders was dragging him towards them again. "I apologize, but I couldn''t help but hear your discussions." Lockhart said, "Mr. Flint there told me that you were signing photos here?" Draco''s lips twitched wondering why Flint had to go towards Lockhart. Lockhart left Colin and came towards Draco as he puts his arms around his shoulders. "Come on then, Mr. Creevey," said Lockhart, beaming at Colin. "A double portrait, can''t do better than that, and we''ll both even sign it for you." Colin still afraid didn''t know what to do. Draco sighed and nodded at him, getting an okay from Draco, Colin quickly fumbled for his camera and took the picture as the bell rang behind them, signaling the start of afternoon classes. "Off you go, move along there," Lockhart called to the crowd, and he set off back to the castle with Draco, who was wondering if he could kill Lockhart and get away with it, still clasped to his side. Theodore was holding back his laughter while Pansy and Daphne looked worried as they saw Lockhart drag Draco away again. 132 Photograph pt.2 "A word to the wise, Draco," said Lockhart paternally as they entered the building through a side door. "I covered up for you back there with young Creevey ¡ª if he was photographing me, too, your schoolmates won''t think you''re setting yourself up so much¡­" Deaf to Draco''s murmurs, Lockhart swept him down a corridor lined with staring students and up a staircase."Let me just say that handing out signed pictures at this stage of your career isn''t sensible ¡ª looks a tad bigheaded, Draco, to be frank. There may well come a time when, like me, you''ll need to keep a stack handy wherever you go, but" ¡ª he gave a little chortle ¡ª "I don''t think you''re quite there yet." They had reached Lockhart''s classroom and he let Draco go at last. Draco yanked his robes straight and headed for a seat at the very back of the class, where he busied himself with piling all seven of Lockhart''s books in front of him so that he could avoid looking at the real thing. Draco right now didn''t look charming at all, instead, he looked like an old witch planning to cast a curse on someone. The rest of the class came clattering in, and Theodore, Daphne, and Pansy sat down on either side of Draco. Since they had the defense against the dark arts with Gryffindors, Harry, Ron, and Hermione came as well along with other Gryffindor second years. Hermione sat in front of Draco while Harry and Ron sat across him. Looking at Harry''s face, Draco figured that he wasn''t the only one getting harassed by Lockhart. When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up Neville Longbottom''s copy of Travels with Trolls, and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front. "Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly''s Most Charming Smile Award but I don''t talk about that. I didn''t get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" He waited for them to laugh; a few people smiled weakly. While Draco, on the other hand, was cringing harder than anyone. "I see you''ve all bought a complete set of my books ¡ª well done. I thought we''d start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about ¡ª just to check how well you''ve read them, how much you''ve taken in ¡ª" When he had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said, "You have thirty minutes ¡ª start ¡ªnow!" Draco looked down at his paper and read: 1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart''s favorite color? 2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart''s secret ambition? 3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart''s greatest achievement to date? On and on it went, over three sides of the paper, right down to: 54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart''s birthday, and what would his ideal gift be? Draco who didn''t have any interest in this so-called test didn''t answer a single question as he played around with his quill. Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class. "Tut, tut ¡ª hardly any of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in Year with the Yeti. And a few of you need to read Wanderings with Werewolves more carefully ¡ª I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples ¡ª though I wouldn''t say no to a large bottle of Ogdeds Old Firewhisky!" He gave them another roguish wink. Theodore was now staring at Lockhart with an expression of disbelief on his face; Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who were sitting in front, were shaking with silent laughter. Hermione, on the other hand, was listening to Lockhart with rapt attention and gave a start when he mentioned her name. "¡­but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions ¡ª good girl! In fact" ¡ª he flipped her paper over ¡ª "full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?" Hermione raised her hand. "Excellent!" beamed Lockhart. "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so ¡ª to business ¡ª" Draco quickly called out to Hermione still wondering why she was so focused on Lockhart, even when he had warned her several times. "Don''t think too much about it." She said, "Even if what you say is true, I still don''t want to fail my classes." Getting relived a little Draco looked at Lockhart who bent down behind his desk and lifted a large, covered cage onto it. "Now ¡ª be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm." In spite of himself, Draco leaned around his pile of books for a better look at the cage. Lockhart placed a hand on the cover. Dean and Seamus had stopped laughing now. Neville was cowering in his front row seat. "I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart in a low voice. "It might provoke them." As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover. "Yes," he said dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies." Theodore couldn''t control himself. He let out a snort of laughter that even Lockhart couldn''t mistake for a scream of terror. "Yes?" He smiled at Lockhart. "Well, they''re not ¡ª they''re not very ¡ªdangerous, are they?" Theodore choked, still trying to hold his laughter in. "Don''t be so sure!" said Lockhart, waggling a finger annoyingly at Theodore. "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!" The Pixies were electric blue and about eight inches high, with pointed faces and voices so shrill it was like listening to a lot of budgies arguing. The moment the cover had been removed, they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making bizarre faces at the people nearest them. "Right, then," Lockhart said loudly. "Let''s see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage. It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them seized Neville by the ears and lifted him into the air. Several shot straight through the window, showering the back row with broken glass. The rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and papers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the wastebasket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed window; within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and Neville was swinging from the iron chandelier in the ceiling. "Come on now ¡ª round them up, round them up, they''re only pixies," Lockhart shouted. He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" It had absolutely no effect; one of the pixies seized his wand and threw it out of the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, narrowly avoiding being squashed by Neville, who fell a second later as the chandelier gave way. Draco had enough of it as he stood up, grabbing Daphne''s wand. "Sectumsempra" Draco chanted and in a single blow half of the Pixies were cut in half. Not wanting to deal with the rest of them, Draco blasted a hole through the window and the remaining scared Pixies quickly ran for their life. 133 Burn pt.1 "Good job, Draco!" Lockhart said coming out from underneath his desk. "20 points to Slytherin." Draco was completely annoyed by Lockhart and he couldn''t really control his anger anymore, he was looking at Lockhart as if he was going to rip him apart in pieces. Daphne and Pansy looked worriedly at Draco while Theodore, on the other hand, went behind Draco and *Bam!* Theodore slapped Draco''s back as hard as he could causing Draco to flinch and snap out of his angry state. Draco looked back at Theodore with his lips twitching wondering whether he should hate him or be thankful that he managed to control him. Everyone in the classroom was busy taking care of themselves as this was nothing less than a traumatic event for them, so they barely had a chance to notice Draco''s change, everyone except, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Daphne, and Pansy. All of them could feel the sudden change in Draco, even though nothing around him changed, he still gave the vibe of a completely different person which gave them a shiver down their spines. But after Theodore slapping his back, he completely returned to his usual self as he stared at Lockhart again, the intensity of anger in his eyes hadn''t changed much but this time they could tell that it was still Draco himself. "I''ve had it with you." Draco said looking back at Lockhart gripping Daphne''s wand tightly, "I have already controlled myself way too much." "Dr- Draco, it''s okay... I know you''re probably scared due to the incident so let''s all calm down okay." Lockhart said waving his hand as quickly as he could, making sure Draco doesn''t do anything irrational, even though he liked to bluff and believed that the story about Draco''s was overly exaggerated like his''s was but he wasn''t willing to take that chance, "Also Draco, you aren''t allowed to use magic remember, I''ll let that one slide since it was necessary but the other..." "The other what?" Draco said narrowing his eyes. Lockhart flinched a little not being able to maintain the gaze with Draco. He gripped his wand tightly as well, looking around at the other students, who were wondering what was going on and what was going to happen. Lockhart knew that he couldn''t sacrifice his reputation in this classroom being afraid of a second-year wizard, he knew if he backed down all the rumors already spreading around about Draco blowing him up would be valid and people would start doubting him. "Mr. Black, I suggest you keep your wand down, otherwise-" Lockhart said thrusting his chest out, looking at Draco bravely, "Otherwise I will have to take some necessary action, I admit you''re a good student but that doesn''t give you the right to disturb classes and disrespect your teacher." "Draco don''t..." Hermione came pulling Draco''s robe wanting him to stop and so did Daphne and Pansy. "Draco, he''s not worthy for you to get in trouble for." Pansy said, "Leave him be since the Pixies didn''t harm anyone... just let it go." "Yeah! Draco beside you already know what kind of person he is." Daphne added, "It''s better to get used to him rather than keep arguing and fighting with him every day, and besides he is a teacher so we are at a disadvantage here." Draco seeing the girls face began to calm down a little as he glanced at the cocky expression on Lockhart''s face, looking as if he had got a one up on Draco. "Fine!" Draco said as he dropped all of his Lockhart''s books down on the ground. "What are you doing?" Lockhart asked getting confused, similar to him all the other students were confused as well. "I am boycotting your classes from now on." Draco said smirking, "I have had enough of your stupidity. Today''s the first class of this year and you''ve already shown us what you''re capable of... hiding under the table because you were afraid of a couple of little pixies, are you sure you defeated vampires?" "I-I did indeed do those things... th-this time I was testing the capability of my students of course." "So you needed to hide under the table for that?" Draco asked mockingly. The rest of the students were silent, wondering the things Draco just said. "I--" Before Lockhart could come up with another excuse, Draco didn''t even let him finish as he chanted, "Incendio" The book on the ground immediately caught on flames. "You''re free to join." Draco said leaving the classroom. All the students were confused wondering what to do and what was going on. "It''s an open invitation, you know," Theodore said as he picked up his book and dropped in on top of the fire. The fire grew larger as another pile of the book was added. In a similar manner, winking at Lockhart, Theodore left the classroom as well. Pansy and Daphne looked at each other and sighed. They too picked their books and burned them along with the rest and left. One by one, the Slytherin students stood up from their seats and threw their book on the fire and walked away, since Draco was their Idol following them was the more efficient way than following Lockhart. The remaining Slytherin girls were a bit hesitant at first but figured it would be better to support Draco than betraying the Slytherin group as a whole. Soon only Gryffindors were left, who didn''t know what to do. Some looked at Lockhart who was standing there like a statue, some looked at each other wondering whether they should join Slytherin in this mess or not. One of those people were Harry and Ron, especially Harry who already had enough of Lockhart bothering him and with this class, he was sure there was nothing better Lockhart could teach him. Harry took a step forward carrying his books as well only to be stopped by Hermione. "Hermione let me go." Harry said, "It''s my only chance." "Don''t do it." Hermione said, "Draco has the strength to back up what he said but do you?" Harry stayed silent for a while looking at Hermione, "But all of the Slytherin students are gone, I am sure I am better than quite a few of them." "You are but have you looked at the Gryffindor students?" Hermione said, "The girls are head over heels for Lockhart at the moment and the guys are just too scared to make a move. Believe me, you don''t want to stand out." "But..." Harry looked at Ron who just shook his head. "Don''t look at me, I am already in enough trouble because of the car." Ron said not looking at Hermione at all, "Besides, even though I find Lockhart annoying, I don''t think we should trust Draco on this. He is sure to get in trouble because of it, A student boycotting a class in Hogwarts... I''ve never heard of it before." "So aren''t you going to go?" Harry asked Hermione, "Isn''t Draco your friend?" "He is and I am sure he already understands why I won''t join him as well." Hermione said. Harry just stood there not knowing what to do, as he finally let go of his books, sighing. The bell rang and one by one all the Gryffindor students left the messy classroom one by one looking at Lockhart who seemed like he was stuck in place, not moving at all. ----------------------------------------- "That was cool and all but do you think we aren''t going to get in trouble for it." Theodore said to Draco as they were walking towards the Slytherin common room, "I am sure someone''s going to stop us before we even reach the common room." "Do I look like I care and besides if something does happen, I can deal with it when the time comes." Draco said, "Leaving that aside, why did you slap my back?" 134 Burn Pt.2 Even though Draco was glad that Theodore stopped him before he did something irrational, he still wanted to know why Theodore did it. "You were losing yourself again, weren''t you?" Theodore said, "The slap was a shot in the dark, I didn''t really know it would work. So you''re going to tell me what happened right?" "I don''t know." Draco said, "The Veela blood in me has been causing some trouble, I guess." "That could be it but you had the problem even before remember." Theodore said, "The time when you nearly blew Weasleys head off, so I don''t really think that''s the problem of the blood and again, I have known you for a couple of years and I have never seen you act like that before we got into Hogwarts." Draco shrugged his shoulders, "Well I don''t know." Draco trusted Theodore but he didn''t want to drag him into this mess. Draco, of course, knew that his original wand was the problem but he didn''t know what was wrong with it. Not unless he meets with Ryan of course. Theodore wanted to ask him something further but they were suddenly interrupted by Daphne and Pansy running behind them. "So you burned the book as well?" Draco said looking a bit surprised. "Of course." Pansy said walking in front, "But will this be okay?" "Don''t worry about that." Draco said, "So who else left the class, since they all followed me, I at least need to take a bit of responsibility." "Responsibility? you?" Theodore snickered, "Those words sound weird coming out of your mouth especially when you can''t even control yourself." "Oh! shut up." All of them reached the common room and soon the Slytherin students who left with Draco started coming in as well. All of them sat around the place wondering what was going on, as Theodore and Daphne told them to stay. Soon Draco came out of his room with a couple of papers in his hands. "First of all, I want to thank all of you for following me out here." Draco said, "I know its a risky decision, which we don''t know the outcome to but seeing your trust in me, I am really pleased." All the students seemed happy, they all have been trying to gain the attention of Draco since last year and finally finding what they reached for felt very pleasing. No one really paid too much attention to what they did back at the classroom since it didn''t matter that much as they could just use Draco as a shield. As long as Draco was in front of them, they knew no one can push them around so standing behind him was the safest place in the whole school right now. "I don''t want you to worry about what happened back in the classroom since Lockhart''s a fraud anyway." Draco said, the students started gossiping around suddenly after the revelation but Draco stopped them, "You might be wondering what proof do I have or why am I making such claims-- Simple! I hate his guts. As for the proof--time will tell and unless you''re braindead you will be able to recognize that he is phony." The murmur died down and the group of Slytherin students were looking at him carefully. "So now that''s all done, I''ll get to the point." Draco said passing the documents to the Slytherins, "This past month, I''ve been thinking of opening a club for people who would be loyal to me... I know, sounds far-fetched but to those people in the club, I''ll be teaching them everything that I know, every knowledge that I''ve ever gathered whether its potions or spell. I''ll teach them all to you guys in exchange for one thing... Loyalty. That''s all I ask of you. And since its a good time and a good place, I''ll be opening the club from here on out." "But is the school going to agree?" One of the girls asked. "Tracey right?" Draco said, to which the girl nodded enthusiastically, "I''ve already talked to Dumbledore about this and I am sure he will be fine. Since he is a busy man as long as he doesn''t say no, we can take it as a yes. The club activities will take place instead of the Defense against the dark class, where I will personally teach you some things as for the most part... you practicing the spell will be the thing that will really matter." The girls and the boys nodded agreeing to what Draco said, "Since you''ll be the first members of my club, I won''t ask you to show me your talents nor will I ask you show me something special. I just want you guys to be the foundation and the core members of the club. As I said, I value loyalty more than anything so as long as you''re willing to follow me, you''re welcome to the club but if not please go back to Lockhart''s class as I will have no use for you." The words might''ve sounded harsh to some people but for the Slytherins, that was the sign of power. Respect belongs to the one who''s strong enough to fight for it and Draco being the strongest of all, there wasn''t any further explanation required. "So if you''re willing please raise your hand." One by one the students raised their hands, people including Theodore, Pansy, and Daphne who were smiling looking at him. ---------------------------------------- It was night time and without anyone noticing Lockhart snuck out of the castle as he ran towards the forbidden forest without anyone noticing. "That little filthy garbage, how dare he--" Lockhart snarled punching a nearby tree in anger only to jump from the pain of hitting it. "Fool, have you done what I''ve asked of you." Suddenly a voice called out of nowhere. Lockhart a bit surprised from the voice jumped again but he seemed calm and not afraid, "Yes master." Lockhart quickly kneeled on the ground facing towards the direction of the voice. "Has your memories regained completely?" "Yes, Master. I got it back just an hour ago." Lockhart said again, "But I still can''t remember who was the one who kidnapped me and tried to mess with my memories." "That doesn''t matter." The voice called out, "Since you have your memories back, you know your purpose, don''t you?" "Yes, Master." Lockhart said quickly as if he was afraid the man would kill him immediately if he hesitated. "I need time to work on it but I guarantee you that the massacre would start soon." "Better not take long." The voice said, "If not--you know what will happen to you, don''t you?" "Yes, Master. I swear I''ll be good." "Good." The voice said, suddenly an old diary fell out of nowhere, "Take this, this is all it will take to make you strong and invincible, and you can finally get revenge for the humiliation that you''ve suffered." Lockhart picked up the diary as he nodded his head as quickly as he could. --------------------------------------------- The next day, nothing happened. There were no calls from Dumbledore and other than McGonagall looking at them a bit different, things moved the same as it always did. Snape didn''t have any problem with the boycott, instead, he seemed more than happy to finally get his house away from Lockhart and as for Lockhart himself, there weren''t any signs of him in the hall, or anywhere for that matter. Draco woke up in the morning a bit late today, all of his friends were already down the hall, so he slowly dressed up and walked out of his room only to find Ginny heading out as well. "Good morning!" Draco said. Ginny for some reason looked a bit nervous but still responded, "Good morning!" 135 First lesson Pt.1 "Good morning!" "So assuming you''re here... means you got a pass from your brothers or what?" "Ye-Well not really." Ginny said, "Mom and Dad sent me a letter, saying they were okay with me being in Slytherin and they would be proud of me wherever I was and they said the same things you told me as well... but Percy and Ron seem to have some problems with it-- I am sorry, I talked a bit too much." "It''s okay." Draco shook his head, "You''re heading towards the hall, aren''t you? Let''s go together then." "I am sorry, I have some extra work to do, so I''ll be off then." Ginny nervously shook her head, she was about to leave but she suddenly stopped and turned around again, "By the way, are those rumors about you true?" "What rumors?" "The one where you declared that you won''t attend Lockhart''s classes anymore." "Rumors do spread fast around Hogwarts, huh!" Draco said sighing, "Yea, it true... And don''t worry about it, nothings going to happen if that''s what you''re concerned about." Draco was sure where this conversation was leading up to so he decided to get straight to the point. "Are you sure?" She asked as if she wanted some reassurance. "Yeah." "Well, see you later then." Saying that she stormed off, Draco didn''t know what was going on with her but he chose to ignore it. Down in the hall, everyone was looking at Draco differently. The teachers weren''t present in the hall at the time but you could tell by everyone''s look that something was going down. Ignoring all their gazes, Draco walked towards the Slytherin table and sat beside Theodore and Daphne. "You don''t seem concerned." Theodore said looking at Draco who was fixing himself a good sandwich, "Everyone already knows about the fiasco that went down yesterday." "I know, I met Ginny in the common room and she knew about it too." Draco said without a worry in the world, "Besides I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, I am surprised it took this long, by the way, where are the professors?" "They were here at the beginning but left after an owl came for them." Pansy answered instead of Theodore, "McGonagall didn''t look pleased with it at all." Draco nodded taking a huge bite of his sandwich when suddenly Hermione came from behind knocking him on the head. "Ouch! What was that for?" Draco said looking back, rubbing his head. "Why did you have to do it?" Hermione said folding her arms, "You know, I heard Lockhart filed a complained against you with the school board." "Oh! Where did you get that information?" Draco was interested in how Hermione managed to get that sort of information when even he hadn''t heard of it. "I was walking towards the hall with Harry and Ron when Harry was suddenly dragged away by Lockhart into his office." She said, "In there Harry found a letter which was written by Lockhart complaining about your actions in the classroom yesterday, wanting you to be expelled from Hogwarts. Harry said, that he send the letter away right in front of him." "Cool." "Cool? That''s all you have to say... you''re getting expelled for god''s sake." Hermione said getting a bit angry. "Don''t worry about it." Draco said rolling his eyes, "If he wants a fight then I''ll give him one and besides half of the members of the school board will support me so you really don''t have to worry so much." "But..." "Sigh! Even though I might''ve acted irrationally, I still have the power to back it up and you know that." Draco said, "Lockhart doesn''t have the right to teach us anything, he doesn''t have the right to teach me anything, also I suspected something like this might happen so I''ve already sent a letter to my father explaining him about the things that went down in detail. And for the third time, Don''t worry. Trust me, I''ve got it. Look at Pansy and Daphne, they don''t really worry much because they trust me enough and that''s what I need you to do as well." Hermione stayed silent for a while as she sighed and started walking away. "You''re not still mad at me, are you?" Draco called out. "No, I''m just hungry," Hermione said walking towards the Gryffindor''s table. "So, What are you going to teach today?" Pansy asked changing the topic, seeing Draco''s face she already understood that he was tired of talking about this topic already, "All the Slytherins in our class are excited about it." "It''s not going to be something complicated, I will start teaching spells, which will be necessary for them to pass the exams first." Draco said, "I can''t have them failing their exams with me teaching them. So we''ll go around that first, then after that, I''ll start teaching them some real spells." "Will you be able to?" Pansy asked "Don''t worry, this guy will be enough for the basics." Draco said patting Theodore, who brushed of Draco''s hand looking at him weirdly. "Again, what are you guys talking about?" "You''ll know soon." Draco said shrugging his shoulders. Surprisingly the class went good as usual. Some of the professors just ignored Draco as if he wasn''t there and some like McGonagall kept staring at him as if they want to say something but didn''t. And since Draco didn''t have his wand, there weren''t any reasons for the teachers to talk to him either. It was the end of the potion class when Snape suddenly asked Draco to stay. Theodore and the others looked at Draco since after this they had their club activities. Draco whispered something in Theodore''s ear as he nodded and went out with the rest of the people, leaving Draco and Snape alone in the lab alone. "Okay I know I messed up and I know the consequences but I can handle the situation, so you don''t have to worry about me." Draco said in a lazy tone, he was already tired of telling everyone the same thing as everyone asked him the same questions. Snape snorted looking at him, narrowing his eyes, "You do know that this could get you expelled right? Even though I don''t like Lockhart, he is still a teacher." "I know." Draco said, "By the way, why hasn''t Dumbledore taken any action or anyone for that matter. I thought he would be the first one to jump on the bandwagon for calling me out and pointing my ''wrongs''." "With Lockhart complaining against you with the School Board, this wasn''t something that Dumbledore could handle alone anymore." Snape said looking grim as usual, "So he asked us to remain calm and silent until the judgment is made by the board. So no professors will be talking to you about this mess, best they can do is ignore you for now." "I see." Draco nodded. "Well, no matter what Lockhart says or does, it''s not going to work, at all... So I don''t really have to be concerned about it." "Remember Draco being confident and full of yourself is two different things." "I know." Draco said, "And we''ll know that Lockhart isn''t qualified to be a teacher and that''s something I''ve got going on for me. If anyone questions me, they''ll just have to prove them that." "I hope you can otherwise you''ll not only be dragging yourself but also all the students who followed you." Snape said. Draco nodded in understanding getting out of Snape''s office. He then walked out towards the common room, where everyone was waiting for him. Since they didn''t really have any special place prepared for them, they had to work with what they had. 136 First lesson Pt.2 "Since everyone is here, I am going to start our lesson right away." Draco said, "Today''s lesson is going to be very simple, In fact, I won''t be teaching you anything for now." Draco signaled Pansy who started distributing thick binders among the students who were looking at them curiously. "This is something that I''ve worked on for quite some time and is basically a guide for what you need to do in order to at least pass your exams." Draco said, "Even though learning is important, we can''t have you failing your classes, so this will help you at least pass your exams." "Is this similar to the one you gave to Longbottom from Gryffindor?" Blaise asked. "Yes." Draco nodded, "I want all of you to at least learn the spells and potion recipes that''ll be required to pass your exams for this year. After you learn that we can start working on your spells. Consider this as a test, if within two weeks you can learn all the stuff written on there for your second year, then you can consider yourself worthy enough to be in this club. Otherwise, just know that you''ll be dragging others down with you. So put your all into it and try and pass this test of mine to prove yourself to me, that you''re at least a hard worker." Everyone seriously nodded. "That''s it for today then." Draco said waving his hand around, "Go ahead and start studying and if you run across any problem you can ask me or Theodore." ---------------------------------------------------- The week passed by quickly without much disturbance from anyone. McGonagall and the other professor eased up on the situation and weren''t hard on Draco anymore either. Draco didn''t even saw Lockhart around the school anymore, neither was he present in the hall. Draco felt that Lockhart was hiding from him but he didn''t have any proof to back it up either. Draco wouldn''t really care about Lockhart to much but his action these days seemed too suspicious even for him. According to Hermione and Ginny who were still attending Lockhart classes, Lockhart had been teaching them seriously. Not only was he not teaching them stuff about himself but with that included he still taught magic properly. According to Hermione, the spells that he taught were described in detail at the same level as his. Draco found it incredibly suspicious that Lockhart was suddenly teaching them magic and was moving according to the schedule, however for an adult wizard teaching a bunch of second-year students some spell wasn''t a hard thing at all. Lockhart could be easily faking it since with the whole school board observing them, he had to act seriously if he wanted to keep his reputation intact. ------------------------------------------- Today was Saturday morning, Harry was awakened by Oliver wood to come to inform him about him the Quidditch practice today. Harry waking up went down the spiral staircase to the common room, his Nimbus Two Thousand on his shoulder. He had just reached the portrait hole when there was a clatter behind him and Colin Creevey came dashing down the spiral staircase, his camera swinging madly around his neck and something clutched in his hand. "I heard someone saying your name on the stairs, Harry! Look what I''ve got here! I''ve had it developed, I wanted to show you ¡ª"Harry looked bemusedly at the photograph Colin was brandishing under his nose. A moving, black-and-white Lockhart was tugging hard on an arm Harry recognized as his own. He was pleased to see that his photographic self was putting up a good fight and refusing to be dragged into view. As Harry watched, Lockhart gave up and slumped, Panting, against the white edge of the picture. "Will you sign it?" said Colin eagerly. "No," said Harry flatly, glancing around to check that the room was really deserted. "Sorry, Colin, I''m in a hurry ¡ª Besides I don''t understand your fascination with me since there is already someone way popular than me at school." "You mean Mr.Black?" Colin said frowning a little, "I picked the wrong timing, I think I may have pissed him off. Mr. Black wouldn''t even hesitate to beat up Lockhart, so for me going near him would be asking for a deathwish." Harry scoffed seeing the difference in treatment between them two. He started wondering if he had fought harder against Lockhart would Colin leave him alone as well. "By the way, where are you heading Harry?" "Quidditch practice ¡ª" Harry said as he climbed through the portrait hole. "Oh, wow! Wait for me! I''ve never watched a Quidditch game before!" Colin scrambled through the hole after him. "It''ll be really boring," Harry said quickly, but Colin ignored him, his face shining with excitement. "You were the youngest House player in a hundred years, weren''t you, Harry? Weren''t you?" said Colin, trotting alongside him. "You must be brilliant. I''ve never flown. Is it easy? Is that your own broom? Is that the best one there is?" Harry didn''t know how to get rid of him. It was like having an extremely talkative shadow. "No, I am not the youngest player there is a girl on the Slytherin team who is months younger than me." "I see. I don''t really understand Quidditch," said Colin breathlessly. "Is it true there are four balls? And two of them fly around trying to knock people off their brooms?" "Yes," said Harry heavily, resigned to explaining the complicated rules of Quidditch. "They''re called Bludgers. There are two Beaters on each team who carry clubs to beat the Bludgers away from their side. Fred and George Weasley are the Gryffindor Beaters." "And what are the other balls for?" Colin asked, tripping down a couple of steps because he was gazing open-mouthed at Harry. "Well, the Quaffle ¡ª that''s the biggish red one ¡ª is the one that scores goals. Three Chasers on each team throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through the goal posts at the end of the pitch ¡ª they''re three long poles with hoops on the end." "And the fourth ball ¡ª" "¡ª is the Golden Snitch," said Harry, "and it''s very small, very fast, and difficult to catch. But that''s what the Seeker''s got to do, because a game of Quidditch doesn''t end until the Snitch has been caught. And whichever team''s Seeker gets the Snitch earns his team an extra hundred and fifty points." "And you''re the Gryffindor Seeker, aren''t you?" said Colin in awe. "Yes," said Harry as they left the castle and started across the dew-drenched grass. "And there''s the Keeper, too. He guards the goal posts. That''s it, really." But Colin didn''t stop questioning Harry all the way down the sloping lawns to the Quidditch field, and Harry only shook him off when he reached the changing rooms; Colin called after him in a piping voice, "I''ll go and get a good seat, Harry!" and hurried off to the stands. The rest of the Gryffindor team were already in the changing room. Wood was the only person who looked truly awake. Fred and George Weasley were sitting, puffy-eyed and tousle-haired, next to fourth year Alicia Spinnet, who seemed to be nodding off against the wall behind her. Her fellow Chasers, Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson, were yawning side by side opposite them. The Weasley twins were very worried about their sister being in Slytherin so they couldn''t really sleep these days well. Their pranks against Slytherin have decreased but that seems to have taken all the fun out of them as these days they just sat their quite making their usual jokes from time to time. In fact, the whole Weasley family was like that. Percy has been more and more strict and Ron just seems lost sometimes. 137 Argument pt.1 Harry still remembered what happened a week back, where everyone except the Weasley twins wanted Ginny out of Slytherin, in fact, they wanted Ginny to stay at home rather than be anywhere near the Slytherin students. Harry couldn''t help but wonder, what he would do if he was in Slytherin, but deep inside he knew that he would rather stay in Hogwarts than going back to the Dursleys again. Harry was trying to stop Ron and the others from pressuring Ginny but no one was listening to him at all. Luckily Hermione arrived and managed to fend off Ron and Percy who were hell-bent on talking Ginny out of Hogwarts. Just when the situation was getting tough, Ginny pulled out a letter from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who clearly gave Ginny the pass to stay in Hogwarts. Harry didn''t know what Ginny had told them but he couldn''t help but feel surprised that the Weasley family who hated Slytherin so much would allow them to stay in Hogwarts. After that, Ron and Percy gave up, and Ginny was allowed to stay in Hogwarts once and for all. Even though this caused a fight between Ron and Hermione, and caused Ron to stop talking with Ginny he was still concerned about his sister''s safety. He and the Weasley''s brothers walked around Ginny every chance they could get, in case someone tries to bully her but for some reason, no one really bothered. Harry who was dragged by Ron, in one of those missions was surprised that Ginny was not getting bullied but she had even managed to make friends in Slytherin instead. Harry soon realized that this was all because of Draco, for some reason all the Slytherin seemed to follow Draco''s order, like how they all walked off Lockhart''s classroom. Harry didn''t know what to feel of the situation as in one hand he was happy that Ginny was able to live a normal life but on the other, he couldn''t help but feel the distance between him and Draco grow further and further. "There you are, Harry, what kept you?" said Wood briskly making Harry snap out of his thought. "Now, I wanted a quick talk with you all before we actually get onto the field, because I spent the summer devising a whole new training program, which I really think will make all the difference¡­" Wood was holding up a large diagram of a Quidditch field, on which were drawn many lines, arrows, and crosses in different colored inks. He took out his wand, tapped the board, and the arrows began to wiggle over the diagram like caterpillars. As Wood launched into a speech about his new tactics, Fred Weasley''s head drooped right onto Alicia Spinnet''s shoulder and he began to snore. The first board took nearly twenty minutes to explain, but there was another board under that, and a third under that one. Harry sank into a stupor as Wood droned on and on. "So," said Wood, at long last, jerking Harry from a wistful fantasy about what he could be eating for breakfast at this very moment up at the castle. "Is that clear? Any questions?" "I''ve got a question, Oliver," said George, who had woken with a start. "Why couldn''t you have told us all this yesterday when we were awake?" Wood wasn''t pleased. "Now, listen here, you lot," he said, glowering at them all. "We should have won the Quidditch cup last year. We''re easily the best team. But unfortunately ¡ª owing to circumstances beyond our control ¡ª" Harry shifted guiltily in his seat. He had been unconscious in the hospital wing for the final match of the previous year, meaning that Gryffindor had been a player short and had suffered their worst defeat in three hundred years. Wood took a moment to regain control of himself. Their last defeat was clearly still torturing him. "So this year, we train harder than ever before¡­Okay, let''s go and put our new theories into practice!" Wood shouted, seizing his broomstick and leading the way out of the locker rooms. Stiff-legged and still yawning, his team followed. They had been in the locker room so long that the sun was up completely now, although remnants of mist hung over the grass in the stadium. As Harry walked onto the field, he saw Ron, Hermione, and Ginny sitting in the stands. "Aren''t you finished yet?" called Ron incredulously. "Haven''t even started," said Harry, looking jealously at the toast and marmalade Ron had brought out of the Great Hall. "Wood''s been teaching us new moves." He mounted his broomstick and kicked at the ground, soaring up into the air. The cool morning air whipped his face, waking him far more effectively than Wood''s long talk. It felt wonderful to be back on the Quidditch field. He soared right around the stadium at full speed, racing Fred and George. "What''s that funny clicking noise?" called Fred as they hurtled around the corner. Harry looked into the stands. Colin was sitting in one of the highest seats, his camera raised, taking picture after picture, the sound strangely magnified in the deserted stadium. "Look this way, Harry! This way!" he cried shrilly. "Who''s that?" said Fred. "No idea," Harry lied, putting on a spurt of speed that took him as far away as possible from Colin. "What''s going on?" said Wood, frowning, as he skimmed through the air toward them. "Why''s that first year taking pictures? I don''t like it. He could be a Slytherin spy, trying to find out about our new training program." "He''s in Gryffindor," said Harry quickly. "And the Slytherins don''t need a spy, Oliver," said George. "What makes you say that?" said Wood testily. "Because they''re here in person," said George, pointing. Several people in green robes were walking onto the field, broomsticks in their hands. "I don''t believe it!" Wood hissed in outrage. "I booked the field for today! We''ll see about this!" Wood shot toward the ground, landing rather harder than he meant to in his anger, staggering slightly as he dismounted. Harry, Fred, and George followed."Flint!" Wood bellowed at the Slytherin Captain. "This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off now!" Marcus Flint was even larger than Wood. He had a look of trollish cunning on his face as he replied, "Plenty of room for all of us, Wood." Angelina, Alicia, and Katie had come over, too. There was one girl on the Slytherin team, Pansy who stood separate from the rest of them, facing the Gryffindors, leering to a man. "But I booked the field!" said Wood, positively spitting with rage. "I booked it!" "Ah," said Flint. "But I''ve got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape. ''I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new beater''. You''ve got a new Seeker?" said Wood, distracted. "Where?" And from behind the six large figures before them came a seventh, smaller boy, smirking all over his pale, pointed face. Harry recognized him as one of the guys who seemed to follow Draco and was close to him, but couldn''t remember his name. "Blaise Zabini." Woods recognized the guy. "Yeah, he is our new beater." Flint said smirking as he let the Gryffindor have the clear picture of their broom since last year everyone in Slytherin team had a Nimbus 2000. But there seemed to be two new brooms on the field today. Both Pansy and Blaise seem to have Nimbus 2001, the newer and better version. Harry couldn''t help but sweat a little as he started cursing Draco in his mind, thinking he was indirectly involved in this somehow again. Back in the stands Ron, Hermione, and Ginny noticed something going on. "What''s happening there?" Ginny asked looking at bit concerned. 138 Argument pt.2 "I don''t know." Hermione said standing up as she looked at them closely, "Ginny, can you do me a favor and call Draco." "Draco? Why?" "He''s the only one that can handle the Slytherin students off--otherwise we might''ve to call a teacher," Hermione said looking at the players who seemed to have a weird vibe around them, "Go quick." Ginny nodded and left the stands while Ron and Hermione went towards them. "Oh, look," said Flint. "A field invasion." Ron and Hermione were crossing the grass to see what was going on. "What''s happening?" Ron asked Harry. "Why aren''t you playing? And what''s he doing here?" He was looking at Blaise, taking in his Slytherin Quidditch robes "I am the new beater of the team Weasley." Blaise said, even though Blaise had only gotten into few scruffs with Ron, he still hated him none the less. Ron gaped, open-mouthed, at the superb broomsticks in front of him. He looked at Pansy broom and snorted, "How much money did Black pay you guys to let him on the team, or did you just want to wag your tails in front of him further." Harry and Ron, who knew Ron''s problem of not shutting his mouth frowned along with Pansy and Blaise, and Flint in particular. These days he''s sick of everyone bowing down to Draco, even though he wanted to openly retaliate against him but seeing that no one in Slytherin had any intention too. Draco being a powerful pureblood wizard and still hanging around with mudbloods made him disgusted. Even though the whole school seemed to respect Draco, Flint could only see a wizard who had lost his way whenever he saw Draco, so being looked down by Ron as being Draco''s lackey, pissed him off. "Little Weasley, do you really think I am all forgiving like Black?" Flint said narrowing his eyes taking out his wand, without any hesitation, he chanted a spell and sent Ron flying away. "Ron." The Weasley twins yelled going to help their brother along with Harry and Hermione. "Stop it Flint!" Pansy called out but Flint didn''t even look at her. "Not so fast Mudblood!" Flint said smirking as he shot another spell. Hermione afraid closed her eyes only to open her eyes a moment later to see Flint on the ground screaming in pain. ----------------------------------------- Same morning and Draco was sleeping late since he didn''t have any classes today. He had stayed up the whole night practicing spells and potions again, so Draco was planning on sleeping the whole day away when suddenly someone started knocking on the door. Draco who was still sleeping soundly didn''t care much about the knocking as he slept peacefully. The knocking sound kept getting frequent and louder as Draco lazily opened his eyes and looked around, Theodore was nowhere to be seen, so he had no choice but to get up and open the door himself. Still half asleep, Draco opened the door slowly only to see a panicky Ginny. "Whassamatter?" said Draco groggily. "Quidditch--" Ginny said huffing seeming completely tired, "In the Quidditch field--" "I know today''s Quidditch and I think you''re misinformed, I don''t play... Pansy does." Draco said rubbing his eyes with a huge yawn. "We need to go--" Ginny said being impatient. Draco squinted at the window. There was a thin mist hanging across the pink-and-gold sky. Now that he was awake, he couldn''t understand how he could have slept through the racket the birds were making. "Where?" Draco croaked. "It''s the crack of dawn." "I''ll explain it to you on the way." Ginny said pulling Draco who was still in his night suit. Draco lazily was being dragged down the hall by Ginny who was pulling him furiously and quickly as she could. Both of them reached the stairs when suddenly Draco pulled her back when she was just about to fall from the end, as the stairs suddenly shifted away. "You need to be careful." Draco said, "You see rule no. 1 is to not run towards the stairs as they shift." Draco was going to continue the joke but seeing Ginny''s serious face, he didn''t. "So mind telling me what happened, running around like this without any explanation is weird, you know." "Slytherins-- and Gryffindors are arguing--" Draco narrowed his eyes, "You have your wand, don''t you?" "Yes." Ginny nodded. "Give it to me." Draco said reaching out his hand, "And you can back to your dorm." "But--" "Do what I say." Draco said a bit sternly. Looking at Draco, Ginny gave up and gave her wand to him, returning back to the dorm slowly, while she looked back at Draco who went dashing forward without saying anything else. Just as Draco reached the ground he suddenly heard Flint scream Mudblood and shoot a spell at Hermione, recognizing it was a dark spell, Draco quickly chanted, "Protego Duo." The spell quickly bounced off from Hermione. Flint in shock and dismay looked at Draco when suddenly he was hit by a spell, causing him to ache all over his body. Draco, of course, didn''t use an unforgivable curse but just a small version of The Cruciatus Curse, not completely dark and powerful magic but still painful as hell. "Draco!" Pansy called out wanting him to stop but Draco didn''t show any sign of doing it. On the other hand, Ron was getting up from being knocked out of the spell. Ron suddenly looked pale and sick as he started vomiting a huge slug. The Gryffindor''s quickly realized that it was some sort of Slug-Vomiting Charm. The Weasley twins wanted to help but they didn''t know any spell that could help Ron right now. Draco glanced at Weasley, ''Looks like even I can''t save something from fate itself.'' Draco thought to himself as he got closer to Flint. The Weasley twins helped Ron who was Vomiting Slugs get off the ground, As they looked at Flint angrily only to be shocked finding him on his knees. Hermione snapping out of her shocked state quickly went over to stop Draco thinking a horrible thought in her head. "Draco stop, you can''t use the unfor-- I mean don''t use it." Draco looked at her for a bit as he slowly said, "If it was the Cruciatus Curse, he would already start screaming much more from the pain. Besides, why would you even think that I will use that curse?" Without replying Hermione pointed at the Slytherin students who seemed a bit afraid looking at Draco. Draco seeing their reaction rolled his eyes, not bothering to explain anything to them, he went over to Flint, still using the spell. "You''ve been really getting on my nerves lately." Draco said to Flint who was squirming on the ground due to the stinging pain, "Look at me." Flint looked at Draco with a bit of resistance and hatred. "Good now apologize to Hermione and Weasley over there or else--" Draco increased the amount of pain he was causing, making Flint scream out, "Now be a good dog and apologize." Flint just stared at Hermione and Draco with hatred, gritting his teeth. "Well, you''re only making it harder on yourself." Draco said increasing the pain by another fold making Flint scream out in pain, as he rolled around the ground like a fish out of water. All the Gryffindors quidditch team, who were angry at Flint just a moment ago couldn''t help but feel pity for him now. Some even wanted to stop him, since this was just plain open torture but no one dared to do so. "Draco, it''s okay." Hermione said trying to stop Draco, "I don''t need his apologies." "But I do." Draco said increasing the level of pain making Flint flinch again. "I am sor-ry" Flint said screaming out. "I can''t hear you." Draco sadistically smiled as he increased the amount of pain. "I AM SORRY." Flint screamed out not being able to hold any longer. Draco snorted finally letting the spell go. Flint exhausted lied on the ground sweating as he breathed heavily. Draco didn''t look at anyone and went straight towards Flint''s wand and picked it up. "Not so good looking of a wand you have here, Flint." Draco said, "I thought after being held back a year, you would learn from your mistakes but I never thought you would come after my friends." --------------------------------------------------- 139 Outrageous. Without blinking an eye, Draco broke Flint''s wand, right in front of him. Flint stared at him in horror with his mouth wide open, he wanted to say something but couldn''t find any words. The people in the ground were shocked none the less, breaking someone''s wand was a big deal. People could even get punished for that but what mattered wasn''t the law but their wizarding standard. Breaking someone''s wand was equivalent to making that person their enemy, in Draco''s case, since he was from a higher standing, it was equivalent to excluding him from the group. It was humiliation. Leaving the sophisticated meaning behind the action, it was insulting none the less. "This is your punishment." Draco said throwing the broken wand towards Flint, "Just know, next time you point your wand towards the people I care about, the wand wouldn''t be the only thing that''ll break." The Slytherin student looked a bit terrified as Draco suddenly stared at them. "It''s a misunderstanding." Blaise hurriedly spoke wanting to save the rest of the team because he knew that all this trouble started because of him, "It was just a simple argument between me and Weasly when suddenly Flint made it a big deal. Honestly, I don''t know what his problem really is." Blaise felt no shame and guilt putting all the blame on Flint and neither did any Slytherin students. Since they honestly believed that all of this could''ve been avoided. "Che, really annoying," Draco said throwing Ginny''s wand towards Blaise, "Go and hand it over to Ginny." The Weasley twins and Ron perked up their ears when they heard Ginny''s name, but they weren''t sure if they should speak as the situation had turned completely weird. Blaise quickly nodded and went back inside the castle. Draco looked at Flint who was staring at his broken wand, trying to pick it up again. Draco sneered, "Oh! How far jealousy can take you." Pansy and Hermione wanted to stop Draco from going any further when suddenly Blaise returned with Professor McGonagall and Snape, dragging him from behind. "What is going on here?" McGonagall said with a rough tone, "Never in my life here in Hogwarts, have I seen students fighting each other so openly." Pansy pulled Draco to the side making him stand away from Flint while Draco was trying to figure out how did McGonagall found out about it. No one spoke anything as things were too complicated, at one side the Gryffindors had a grudge against the Slytherins but with Draco, justice was served and they didn''t want to really make an enemy out of Draco as for the Slytherins, they respected Draco too much to stand against him. McGonagall came closer to them, only to find the tired Flint on the ground, who was sitting there silently with his broken wand in hand. She and snape quickly went over to Flint to check on him. "Mr. Flint are you okay?" She asked but there was no response, Flint didn''t even look at her in the eye. Snape glared at Draco wanting an answer. "I didn''t do anything." Draco said, "Just because, I am here doesn''t mean that..." "Silent, Mr.Black." McGonagall stood up, when she heard a vomiting noise, She and Snape looked back at Ron to see him vomiting another huge slug on the ground, while Harry patted him on the back, trying to calm him down. "Anyone want to explain, what is going on here?" Snape said looking at Harry, "I specifically remember, giving the Slytherin Quidditch team the permission to use the ground today." Oliver the captain of the Gryffindor team wanted to say something but the girls from the Quidditch team stopped him, This was something too complicated to answer, considering how good at lying the Slytherins are, they will likely fall under the trap or will just end up pushing the blame on one another. "Let me guess, you all were fighting over the ground." McGonagall said, "That would explain it but you should all know that these types of childish behavior won''t be accepted at Hogwarts, especially you Mr. Black, I thought you''ll be sensible than the rest of them." "I don''t even have a wand remember." Draco said waving his empty hands. "Then, do care to explain, why are you here? Especially in that attire." Draco looked down and realized that he was still in his night suit, and was standing there with messy hair. "This, I wanted some morning exercise." Draco said thinking of a random excuse, "Since it is very early in the morning, I thought no one would notice." "And how about the condition of Mr. Flint and Mr. Weasley over there?" McGonagall said sarcastically, "Do care to explain that as well." "That I don''t know." Draco lazily shrugged his shoulders, "They were already like this before I even came here." The Gryffindors couldn''t help but feel amazed at how shameless the great Draco Black was, the way he didn''t even have any problem blaming other was the most shameless thing they had ever seen, especially coming from someone like Draco, but they realized that this shamelessness has shifted the blame towards other people, while Draco was just standing there like an innocent bystander. McGonagall didn''t believe Draco at all whereas Snape stared at Pansy wanting the answer, "Flint fell off his broom causing him to break his wand, at the same time he accidentally shot out a weird spell which hit Mr. Weasley over there, causing him to start vomiting those...slugs. And we were sending Blaise to call for help when you came here with him." "Ms. Granger is it true?" McGonagall asked Hermione who hurriedly nodded, "Yes, Professor, it was an accident." McGonagall wasn''t still believing her and was still suspecting Draco. Snape even though he didn''t want to make Slytherin seem bad, was looking at Draco wanting the real answer from him. "You can check his wand." Draco said shrugging his shoulder, "Even if it''s broken, you can still check what spell was shot from it, right? If I had my wand I can show you." Snape sneered and picked up the broken wand from Flint''s hand causing him to finally move his eyes. "I''ll be sure to do that." He said, as he turned to the two guys in the Slytherin team and towards the Weasley twins, "You two, take him to the hospital, Weasley''s do I need to send you an invitation to send your brother to the hospital wing?" The student gathered up and picked Flint and Ron, and headed back inside the school. "All of you head back to your dorm, as for you Mr. Black, change into your robes and follow me to the principal''s office," McGonagall said. Hermione and Pansy looked a bit nervous as they looked at Draco, but he, on the other hand, shook his head as he signaled them to go. Nodding one by one they finally left. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "This is outrageous." McGonagall said, "First with Professor Lockhart and now in the playground. I admit that you might be the best among all the other students in Hogwarts but that doesn''t give you the right to act the way you are doing right now." "Professor McGonagall, Please calm down." Dumbledore said as he stared back at Draco who was sitting in front of him, "Do care to explain." "As I said, I was just exercising," Draco said looking back at Dumbledore. "And?" "If you want to know about Lockhart then it''s all true." Draco said, "But it''s not out of personal vendetta or anything similar to that. He''s just not that qualified for teaching anyone, myself included or excluded, whichever you prefer." McGonagall seemed like she wanted to say something but she held back. She really believed in Dumbledore''s judgment and was sure that Dumbledore wouldn''t accept anyone out of the blue to be a teacher if he thought the person wasn''t qualified but on the other hand, she had been keeping an eye on Lockhart since the incident but she couldn''t help but find some truth in Draco''s word as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 140 Club. "And what makes you say that?" Dumbledore asked, "As far as I know, he has already started with the ciriculum?" "His story books you mean?" Draco said, "Nothing but a waste of paper, I would say. The story might be interesting but if that''s what we''re learning this whole year then I would like to be happily expelled." "I can see your concerns in that but these day''s Professor Lockhart has been teaching, what a second-year student should be learning," Dumbledore said. "It''s all an act." Draco said, "After complaining against me with the school board, he needs proof to show that he isn''t incompetent, doesn''t he?" Dumbledore stayed silent for a while, "So what do you plan on doing then? If Professor Lockhart can prove that he is qualified, wouldn''t that be bad for you?" "It will but that won''t happen." Draco said, "I am sure you have your suspicions or you''re just pretending to not see it but you don''t have to worry about me in the least and as for the students who followed me, I''ll be sure to take full responsibility of them." Dumbledore kept quite as both he and Draco stared at each other for a while, "Fine, I''ll give you the benefit of the doubt." Dumbledore said sighing, "You can run your club openly after this and if any of the students fail in the class, it will be up to you to take that responsibility. But be sure to remember that every action will evidently have its consequences. ." Draco didn''t know what he was talking about and before he could ask, Snape entered the room, with Flint''s broken wand in hand. "It was Flint who chanted the Slug-vomiting charm." Snape said placing the broken wand on the table in front of Dumbledore, "As for Flint himself, he hasn''t said anything, I am guessing the trauma from the fall has severely affected him." Dumbledore nodded. "Mr. Black, you''re free to go now then." Draco nodded and stood up from the chair, nodding at Dumbledore he walked out of the room with Snape following him out. "So mind telling me, what is going on?" "What do you mean?" "Flint didn''t just cast the slug-vomiting charm but he chanted different jinx at the time as well, suggesting that it wasn''t an accident or are you telling me that a falling person can chant a complex curse and a jinx subconsciously one after another?" "Magic is amazing isn''t it?" Draco said averting the topic, "Some people say that they awaken magic when they are put in a dangerous position but after they learn the same magic as they get older, the magic doesn''t work in the same way and they get killed if they don''t have any wand to defend them self with." "What are you going on about?" "Nothing much, just a couple of experiments that I''ve been performing." Draco said and before Snape could say something else he passed him a pouch, Snape caught the pouch and looked at Draco. "I need you to take care of it." Draco said, "It''s pretty much useless right now so traveling with it will be pointless, and I don''t want it to fall under dirty hands if something goes wrong. I''ll be taking my leave now, I still have to catch up on my sleep." Yawning Draco quickly entered the dorm leaving Snape alone. Snape sneered as he looked at the pouch and just as he suspected, it was the philosopher''s stone. ------------------------------- Inside the dorm, Pansy, Daphne, Ginny, and Hermione were in the living room. Draco nonchalantly entered the room as he sat in the chair opposite of them. The girls looked at him anxiously. "What happened?" Pansy asked. "I am getting expelled." Draco said sighing, "I''ll leave Hogwarts today." "How can they?" Daphne suddenly stood up. "Yeah, I mean, even if you were doing something extreme... it was Flint''s fault, to begin with." Hermione said, "You were protecting me, I am sure if we explain that to Dumbledore, he would understand." While the girls were getting nervous they suddenly heard Draco scream in pain, "OW!! Stop pinching me." Pansy let go of Draco''s cheek as she looked at the girls, "If he was really getting expelled, do you think he would be so sad and dramatic about it?" Thinking for a while, the girls realized that they were getting fooled by Draco as they angrily looked at him. "Okay! Okay! Calm down, I''m not getting expelled and as for the incident it''s better if we don''t talk about it." Draco said, "We all know that he deserved it." Ginny who was already filled with information agreed with Draco but Hermione wasn''t having it. "But that doesn''t mean you should break his wand." She said, "Every time you do extreme things, first on the train and now this..." "Don''t get burdened by it." Draco said, "He had it coming and besides what he said was the final trigger for me. Just think of it as me doing it for myself than for you." "But..." "I would''ve still done the same if I had found out about it later on." Draco said, "You might be upset at me which I totally understand but you and I both know that it will not change me." "Sigh! I''ll forgive you one last time." Hermione said, "But just know that I can fight my fights by myself." Draco nodded smiling, "I''ve got good news though, the club got accepted, so you can join in as well." "Really?" Hermione asked getting a bit excited, "So have you planned what it''s going to be and how we are going to do it?" "Don''t worry, this year is just the beginning so we don''t have to go full on for the club and I''ll be really busy so let''s take it slow." "Can I join?" Ginny who was silent asked. She was really interested in joining the club ever since she heard the students talk about it and now it is open so she really wanted to join as soon as she could. "Sorry, one of the criteria is being a second year, since most first-year don''t even know what magic is." Draco said, "But don''t worry, if you work hard enough you can join in next year." Ginny was a bit upset when she heard the first sentence but after hearing the second she nodded getting determined. As Draco was about to say something else, Theodore walked in the room covered in dust. "Where have you been?" "Don''t ask." Theodore said, "I am going to take a shower." "Pretty sure you''ll need to use a couple of spells for that." Draco said to Theodore as he tiredly walked inside the room. "What''s up with him?" Pansy said. "Oh! I nearly forgot we need to help Ron." Hermione said, "I completely forgot about it due to your joke." "We? Didn''t he move to the hospital wing?" Draco said, "I am sure, Madam Pomfrey could take care of that." "No, he was too embarrassed to go there. He kept vomiting slugs on the way." Hermione said, "I looked into the spells but I can''t help him. Please! I am sure you know the cure to the stuff. He''s with Harry at Hagrid''s." "I thought you weren''t talking to him?" "Yeah! I..." "I see that''s how it is." Draco said fakely pouting, "He gets forgiven for trying to do what I did and I get a final warning? Where is the justice in that?" "I... Hey, are you really trying to make me say sorry?" Hermione said, "You know that I didn''t mean it in the wrong way right?" "You seemed pretty serious to me, right Pansy?" "Yes." Pansy nodded going along with what Draco said. "I...Fine don''t help me then." Hermione went away fuming as she closed the door. Draco and the others laughed, "By the way, you got back your wand right?" He asked after a while. "Yes." Ginny nodded, waving her wand. "It''s a really good wand." Draco said, "It gave me a lot of resistance while using it." Ginny not understanding still nodded. "Where are you going?" Daphne asked seeing Draco stand up. "I need to have a talk with Hagrid and this feels like a good opportunity." Draco said leaving, "Make sure to save me some food in the hall." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 141 Cure. Draco with his suitcase in hand, was within twenty feet of Hagrid''s house when the front door opened, but it wasn''t Hagrid who emerged. Gilderoy Lockhart, wearing robes of palest mauve today, came striding out. Draco stood there watching him, with mild annoyance. "It''s a simple matter if you know what you''re doing!" Lockhart was saying loudly to Hagrid. "If you need help, you know where I am! I''ll let you have a copy of my book. I''m surprised you haven''t already got one ¡ª I''ll sign one tonight and send it over. And you Ron, I already used the spell so you should be okay. Well, good-bye!" And he strode away when he saw Draco standing in front smiling at him. "Oh! what a pleasant surprise." Draco said, "I thought we would never meet again as you kept hiding your face from me." "Hiding? Me?" Lockhart snickered, "You can come to my office anytime you want to visit me, I am sure you want to apologize but I am not really that forgiving. But if you were to kneel and ask for my forgiveness then I might consider it." "Well someone is still full of himself." Draco said rolling his eyes, "I don''t want to waste my time further talking with you." "Hmph! This isn''t the end of it, Black." Lockhart said walking away, "I''ll make sure to tear the wall of pride you''ve built." "I''ll wait for that." Draco walked up to Hagrid''s front door as he knocked slightly. Hagrid appeared at once, looking very grumpy, but his expression brightened when he saw who it was. "Bin wonderin'' when you''d come ter here, Hermione said you''d come ¡ª come in, come in ¡ª thought you mighta bin Professor Lockhart back again ¡ª" Draco was surprised slightly by Hagrid''s reaction but he decided to ignore it. Walking in he looked at Harry and Hermione who were supporting Ron over the threshold into the one-roomed cabin, which had an enormous bed in one corner, a fire crackling merrily in the other. Hagrid didn''t seem perturbed by Ron''s slug problem. "Better out than in," he said cheerfully, plunking a large copper basin in front of him. "Get ''em all up, Ron." "Lockhart has worsened the situation even further." Harry complained as Ron vomited multiple amounts of slugs at the same time, "I don''t think there''s anything to do except wait for it to stop." "What made you think I''ll come here?" Draco asked Hermione. "You always do," Hermione said smiling a little but she quickly frowned as Ron vomited another batch of slugs. "Please, tell me you have got a solution for it." Draco sighed making a disgusted face as he looked at Ron, who looked extremely pale. Harry looked at him in hope but was disappointed when he saw Draco shaking his head. "If it was like before, I had a potion for it but now... the spell''s something that I can''t handle." Draco said, "You said Lockhart used a spell, right?" "Yes..." Harry said slowly, getting a bit nervous. "The spell seems to have mutated into something, I haven''t seen before, so the best course of action is going to Madam Pomfrey." Draco said, "I could experiment a bit but I don''t know what action would come out of it. It might solve the problem or even worsen it." Hermione and Harry sighed looking at Ron, who just shook his head, "I''d rather go to Madam Pomfrey''s." Harry nodded, "I''ll take him there." "Take this." Draco said passing a small vial of potion, "It''s not the cure but it will give him enough strength to walk for a while on his own." Harry nodded and passed Ron the potion, who after drinking it immediately started to light up, His pale skin turned normal and he seemed completely normal, even the vomiting stopped. "I am fine, Harry." Ron said looking surprised and happy. "It really stopped." "I wouldn''t stay here if I were you." Draco said taking out his watch, "You''ve five minutes before you start going back to the way you were and you might end up a tad bit weaker so you better run." Ron not knowing what to say stopped to stare at Draco, wondering what the potion he just drank was while Harry on the other hand quickly responded and started dragging him out of the hut leaving them without asking any further questions. "What was that potion?" Hermione asked anxiously. "A bit of diluted Re''em Blood." Draco said, "Enough to give a good enough adrenaline rush for such events, but has a side effect of weakening the person after drinking it. It shouldn''t do much harm as it is diluted but considering Weasley''s situation, he would probably suffer a bit. Well, he wouldn''t have to suffer if he just went straight to Madam Pomfrey''s." Rather than just diluting it, Draco had previously experimented with his blood mixing it with the Re''em''s blood, the result wasn''t what he had expected before but it at least gave the solution a sort of temporary healing effect, making the person feel good and well, even in serious situations. Draco required more test subjects to continue to find its effects, so he used this opportunity to test it on Ron, so he could study the potion''s effect on him for a bit. "I told him the same thin'' but he wouldn'' lis''en to me at all." Hagrid said, "If he had jus'' gone to Madam Pomfrey to begin wit'', none of this would''ve happen." "By the way, Hagrid why was Lockhart here?" Draco asked. "Givin'' me advice on gettin'' kelpies out of a well," growled Hagrid, moving a half-plucked rooster off his scrubbed table and setting down the teapot. "Like I don'' know. An'' bangin'' on abou some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I''ll eat my kettle." It was most unlike Hagrid to criticize a Hogwarts'' teacher, and Draco looked at him in surprise. Hermione, too was surprised as she asked, "Do you really believe that Hagrid? I mean don''t you think like the others." "He was the on''y man for the job," said Hagrid, offering them a plate of treacle toffee, "An'' I mean the on''y one. Gettin'' very difficult ter find anyone ferthe Dark Arts job. People aren''t too keen ter take it on, see. They''re startin'' ter think it''s jinxed. No one''s lasted long fer a while now. So tell me," said Hagrid, jerking his head at Draco. "I really think what you did was good, a waste of time to learn under him if you ask me." Draco smiled a little, remembering what he actually came here for. "Hagrid, you mentioned the Kelpies, right? Can I take care of that." Hagrid looked at him for a while, "You want it?" he asked, "Yes." Draco nodded, "As you know, Kelpies are barely surviving due to all the muggle activities these days, so I''d like to keep a pair in hand just in case something happens and besides the way, they''re acting out somethings gotta be wrong with them." "Sigh! You can take them but make sure ter not harm them in the process, I hav'' been tryna figure out what was wrong with it but I got nothin''." Hagrid sighed, "By the way, How''s Fluffy?" "He''s good." Draco said, "He helped me a lot over summer and I think we''ve bonded pretty well." Hagrid nodded. "Wait! what are you talking about?" Hermione said. "Fluffy? Do you mean that three-headed dog on the third floor? Do you have it?" "Don''t worry about it." Draco said, "It''s not a big of a deal, besides once you get to know him, he''s really good." "Get to know him? Where are you even keeping him?" Hermione asked again. "It''s a secret... I guess." Draco said slowly but looking at Hermione''s face, he realized that he wasn''t going to get away with it. "Fine! I''ll tell you... follow me." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 142 Squib. Hermione stood up and walked towards the door, waiting for Draco. "You do hav'' theright equipment for it right?" Hagrid asked,"It''s really dangerous, to tryna control them... I am barely able to keep them under control meself." "I do have the things ready and I am sure they have some sort of problems otherwise they wouldn''t act out like they are doing." Draco said, "I am used to handling tough situations like this, so you don''t have to worry about it." "You need my help?" Hagrid asked, "It''s goin'' to be troublesome." "I think I can handle it." Draco said walking out of Hagrid''s hut, "See you later, Hagrid." "See yah, be careful around them." "See you, Hagrid." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "So are you going to explain?" Hermione asked Draco, as they were heading out towards the well. "Well, help me with the catching the kelpies first." Draco said, "Trust me, seeing is better than me telling you the whole thing." Hermione nodded.The Kelpie well was a bit far from Hagrid''s house but wasn''t too near the dark forest as well. Both of them reached there pretty quickly. Draco looked around and placed his suitcase on the ground. Draco opened the suitcase and from within pulled out a small bag. Hermione was surprised seeing Draco put his whole hand down the suitcase, she wanted to say something but didn''t as she quietly muttered about the suitcase being a magical one infused with an expandable charm. Draco pulled out three potions from the bag as he walked near the well. He took one of the dark potions and spilled it all in the well. Hermione came over and looked over to see the whole well brightly lit up in a green tint as the light slowly dimmed away. "As I suspected." Draco murmured. "Why? What''s wrong?" "Someone had dropped a batch of potions in the well. I don''t know what kind but looking at it, there''s no way to figure it out." Draco said, "It''s probably been going on for a while." "Who would do that?" Hermione asked. "I don''t know." Draco shrugged, "The teachers wouldn''t do it, so we have no one to blame but the students, someone must be practicing potions and since they couldn''t get a hang of it, they threw away the useless batch of potions in the well." "Why not just throw it normally?" Hermione said, "Why go through all this trouble? Just a wave of the wand and the problem could be solved. I think someone did it on purpose..." "Unless... the person doesn''t know magic." Draco said cutting off Hermione. "Who doesn''t know magic in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked looking at Draco weirdly. "I know only one... Filch." "That finally makes sense." Hermione said opening her mouth in a bit of a surprise, "No wonder, I never saw him use magic. But why would anyone allow a muggle in Hogwarts?" "He''s a Squib, not a muggle." Draco said, "They are born into a wizarding family but haven''t got any magic powers. Kind of the opposite of Muggle-born wizards, but Squibs are quite unusual and rare." He looked at Hermione seriously, "It''s best not to mention it to anyone as it''s a huge insult to them and Filch would probably get you in trouble for it if he hears you mentioning that word. Now you know, why he''s always that grumpy among us who know how to do magic." Hermione who was still not that used to all the wizarding politics nodded, keeping it in her mind. "But if that''s the case, why would he be doing potions?" "That''s something only he knows," Draco said taking the other two potions and mixing them together, the potion turned light blue. Draco took out his wand and tapped on it with a spell turning the color of the potion to clear liquid. Satisfyingly nodding, he dumped the potion into the well. As he sat down resting against the wall. "We have to leave it for at least half an hour." "Was it a purifying potion?" Hermione asked sitting down as well, "I had been planning on trying it but the ingredients are too expensive to buy." "If you want, I can lend you some." "Lend?" "Pretty sure you wouldn''t take it if I give it to you." Draco said shrugging, "So just consider it as lending." "I''ll think about it." Hermione said standing up, "Stay right here, I''ll be back in a while." Draco nodded as Hermione went towards the castle and came back with a book in her hand a while later. "What''s that?" Draco asked. "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." Hermione said as she sat back down and opened the book towards the page describing Kelpies, "Draco are you sure you want to do this? It says here that Kelpies are a shapeshifting water demon. Able to take any form, a Kelpie usually chooses that of a horse with a bulrush mane. After luring unwary travelers onto their backs, they drag them underwater and eat them, allowing the entrails to float to the surface of the water. I mean its too dangerous, why even go through this trouble?" "I still want to and I''ve my reasons." Draco said looking unfazed, "Besides I already know what kelpies are capable of." Hermione stared at Draco for a while, knowing what she says wouldn''t matter she sighed and continued, "It says here, that a Kelpie can be rendered docile and harmless by using a Placement Charm to put a bridle over the creature''s head. Do you have one?" "I do." Draco said taking out a bridle from the suitcase. The bridle was actually prepared for Starlight but it was too big for her, but Draco decided to keep it in case it comes in use again. "You know how to use a placement charm, right?" Draco took out his wand and waved it around chanting a spell, causing the bridle to magically disappear from Draco''s hand to appear on top of the book Hermione was holding. Hermione nodded and placed the bridle on the ground and continued to read until something hit her and she looked at the wand in Draco''s hand. "Whose wand is it?" "Mine." Draco said waving it around, "It looks unique, right?" "Yeah! It''s really cool." Hermione said sarcastically as she glared at him, "You know what I am asking you, right?" "It''s a replacement." Draco said, "I needed something for me after my old wand was taken away. It''s a secret so don''t tell anyone." "I am glad." Hermione said looking back at the book, "Since you keep getting in troubles, it''s really worrying if you don''t have a wand with you. With it, I can at least trust you enough, that you would keep yourself safe." Draco smiled looking at Hermione, "Since you worry so much about me, don''t blame me if I fall in love with you." "Lov..." Hermione suddenly blushed as she turned to look at Draco who was staring deeply at her. Hermione was speechless and Draco kept staring at her. Both of them kept silent looking into each other''s eyes until the peaceful moment was ruined by Draco''s clock making them both flustered again. Draco cursing his luck took out the clock and stopped the alarm, as he stood up and looked into the well. The potion had its effect and the water was crystal clear now. Draco at the corner of his eyes saw something swim by. Draco smirked as he knew that it was a kelpie and it probably already got the sense of having someone around. Draco took off his robe but kept his pants on because Hermione looked way too uncomfortable with it. As she wasn''t able to even look at him. "Hermione, so this is what I want you to do." 143 Nest. "Are you really sure?" Hermione asked nervously for the fifth time. "Yup!" Draco said, "As long as you keep the suitcase open and be prepared in case of emergencies, I''ll be fine." Hermione sighed and nodded, "Good luck!" Draco chanted a spell pointing at himself, as he created a bubble around his face. Draco looked back at Hermione one last time and with the Bridle, in his hand, he jumped inside the well. With the Bubble-Head Charm breathing underwater was extremely easy. Diving in he looked around to find nothing, he kept his senses up as he kept swimming when suddenly he felt something move deeper inside the well. "Sigh! They really must be planning on killing me, huh!" Draco said snorting as he chanted, "Lumos Maxima." Draco''s wand grew very bright, as he started swimming deeper. The deeper he went the wider the well got and before he reached the end of the well, he was already deep inside a what looked like a water castle. There were pillars and broken statutes all over the place. His eyes fell on the darker area only to realize that the place kept going deeper. "What is this place?" Draco muttered not expecting there to be such a thing inside the well. The place reminded him of the many secret rooms in Hogwarts. "I wonder how many more are there?" Draco pondered when suddenly at the corner of his eyes, Draco saw something move behind one of the huge pillars but before he turned over, the thing had already disappeared. Draco carefully looked around those pillars one by one, his breathing getting a bit heavy. Draco tried to calm down and feel the movement around him. Fighting underwater was very different from what he had expected, the limit in his movement caused him to slow down and his efficiency dropped down a lot as well. Draco felt something behind him as he quickly turned around to find a horse-shaped creature coming towards him at a full speed. "Not so quick!" Draco snorted as he quickly used a stunning spell at the horse which it managed to dodge easily. Draco seeing the kelpie dodging wasn''t nervous at all instead, he was smiling. Without any delay, Draco quickly used the placement charm shifting the bridle from his hand to the horse''s mouth. The horse tried to shook the bridle off of it but failed as it started transforming into something else, a Scottish loch. Draco smile soon faded away as the kelpie who had just transformed was too close to him. Draco tried to dodge but the kelpie got hold of him and with him holding on, the kelpie started diving in towards the deeper part uncontrollably trying to shake the bridle off of it. Draco who barely managed to dodge grabbed on the Kelpie''s hair as the kelpie kept diving deeper and deeper into what seemed like an endless pit. Getting a hold of things Draco looked around to finally find the reins attached to the bridle. Taking his chances Draco quickly grabbed on the reins and using it, he climbed on the back of the Kelpie and pulled back. The kelpie who kept struggling as it kept diving felt something on it''s back but before it could do anything it had to forcefully stop as Draco kept pulling its head back with the rein. It struggled again and again but Draco didn''t let go. After not being able to do anything it let out a cry. Draco felt the Kelpie giving up, as he relaxed until out of nowhere another Kelpie came towards him, pushing him off the back, Draco knowing the situation wasn''t in his favor anymore quickly used an explosion spell, pointing at what seemed like a statue blowing it away. The statue broke off and started sinking and without thinking anything Draco held on to it, sinking deeper and deeper as the kelpies kept chasing him. After what felt like an eternity, The statue landed on the floor crashing. Draco used a protection spell to get off but the impact still managed to get to him, as he was thrown a bit far away. Trying to swim a bit he used a spell again making the place brighter. He swam around the place finding a couple of dead Kelpies around the floor, the bodies still looked a bit fresh so he figured the toxicity of the potion had caused them to die. The place was more like a small hall and wasn''t as big and wide as Draco expected it to be. He looked around for a while only to realize that he was surrounded by four huge statues when he looked up. "The founders?" Draco said to himself as he looked around carefully. Draco was certain that they were the founders as he had seen them in a couple of books he had read and Hogwarts literally had their statues and paintings all over the place, especially the entrance which contained giant statues of the founders. But among the four only one of them caught the eye of Draco, the statue of Rowena Ravenclaw. The statue was very similar to the others but the thing that caught Draco''s eye was the diadem on her head which had a huge pearl on top of it, unlike the other statues which were made of stone, the pearl seemed real as it still shined brightly and the condition down here hadn''t even affected it. Draco wanted to swim closer to inspect it but his eyes quickly turned towards the two kelpies who were swimming furiously towards him. Trying to prepare for battle he looked around, to find something unusual on the ground. It was a small nest filled with eggs, Draco was now clear as to why both of these kelpies were so hostile against him being there and it not wanting to obey Draco. Draco snickered as he quickly pulled the whole nest towards him. "Accio." The nest flew over to Draco''s hand. There were 7 eggs in the whole nest which barely fit into his arms. Seeing its eggs being taken the Kelpie''s let out a weird noise, moving quickly. Knowing his job was done here, Draco smiled and pointed his wand up. The two kelpies came closer and prepared to attack him from two sides. Just as they were about to get close to him, Draco chanted, "Ascendio." --------------------------------- Outside Hermione was getting worried about Draco as it had already been a half an hour since he was gone. She was already thinking of calling Hagrid or a professor to help when out of nowhere, Draco came flying out of the well, quickly jumping inside the suitcase and soon two huge creatures jumped out of the well as well and followed him inside the suitcase. All this happened so quick, that Hermione barely had enough time to react. After coming to her senses she looked around and pondered for a while, as she hesitantly jumped inside the suitcase as well. Inside Draco quickly placed the landing location into another lake he had created the day before and dived into it again. The air in his bubble mask was running out due to all the fiasco and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Seeing the Kelpie following him, Draco smiled as he put the nest, gently on the ground in front of the Kelpies and slowly backed away. The kelpies swam near their eggs, checking on them to see if they were okay. One of the kelpies which Draco figured was the male looked at Draco with hostility. Draco stayed calm and stayed where he was. He wanted Kelpies to like him and not hate him since they were basically going to live with him now and he needed them. Draco had already made up his mind on using these beasts to help him on his quest, so he had already planned on collecting several of them, the kelpies being one of the very few. The Kelpies were very useful, especially in water. Draco didn''t think that he would ever have to fight underwater but in case he did, Kelpies were the best choice to help him assist in it. It''s incredible speed and shape-shifting power made it be one of the best assistance in underwater fights. Draco knew if he managed to control and train these Kelpies properly, he could create a good fighting strategy underwater. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don''t know how Kelpies reproduce and neither was it mentioned in the wiki page so for convenience sake, let''s just pretend it lays eggs. Ascendio = https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Ascendio If you don''t know what the spell is. 144 Nest pt.2 The kelpie started moving closer towards him and without hesitating much, Draco moved closer as well. Draco still held his wand tightly in case something went wrong. Moving closer to each other, Draco stretched his arms forward, which increased the vigilance of the Kelpie but Draco didn''t back off. Reaching his hands forwards he reached it towards the bridle opening it. The bridle loosened up and fell on the ground. The kelpie stared at Draco for a while and with what seemed like an understanding among the two, the kelpie nodded and swam back towards its egg. Draco sighed in relief as he started swimming up as well, removing the air-bubble mask, taking deep breaths. He swam to the edge and climbed up, laying on the ground. All this chasing around made him super tired but he knew that it was worth it. Not holding back, he let out a burst of small laughter in happiness as his plan was successful. He was cheering himself up until out of nowhere he heard a loud scream. "Hermione!!" Draco stood up immediately and started running towards the voice. ------------------------------------- Hermione landed inside the suitcase in a forest of some sort. She had some suspicions about Draco''s suitcase being a magical one with some extension charm added to it but now looking at it, she realized that it was far from being simple. The place had its own sky and from the looks of it, it was way bigger than she could imagine it to be. It was like the suitcase held a small world of its own. "Draco!" She called out finally remembering her true purpose of being here. She started looking around the place as she suddenly heard something moving along with the trees. "Draco, is that you?" She called out but there was no answer. She readied her wand as she kept following the sound, following it she reached the end of the forest but there wasn''t a single being in sight. She walked out of the place looking around when suddenly she saw something a bit far away. She quickly rushed over to find that it wasn''t Draco but a group of birds like creatures. "Firedrakes." Hermione quickly recognized those creatures due to the spark coming out of their tail. Not knowing why it was here, she slowly backed off to avoid them, she kept walking until she saw a Golden Snidget. Those rare animals were hard not to recognize, as their golden color shined brightly even in the darkness. Being impressed she walked closer to the bird but the Snidget sensing her, flew away. Hermione was a bit disappointed but she suddenly turned towards the tree which was filled with moving creatures. Walking closer towards it, she saw some Bowtruckles, struggling to hide as she kept approaching them. She was walking closer towards them when she suddenly felt something behind her back. She quickly turned to find it was a Dragon standing behind her. Hermione was so surprised by it that she couldn''t help but yell and run away from it. She blindly ran for some time breathing heavily, she stopped to look back and sighed in relief knowing that the Dragon was not chasing her. "What is up with the place?" She complained as she couldn''t wait to meet Draco and ask for answers. She walked around the place calling him out when suddenly she saw another creature that caught her interest. Unlike the other creatures who were running amok in this place, this one was in a magical cage of some sort. The creature looked like a piece of cloth floating around in the place, calmly. She felt something in her heart as she couldn''t help but want to move closer to the creature. It felt like the creature was calling out to her. The creature moved towards her as well. The only thing that was separating both of them was the barrier, which the creature seemed to not be able to cross through, taking her chances Hermione moved her hand through the barrier and it passed through. The barrier allowed any being to come and go, other than the creature locked in itself, so Hermione was easily able to pass through. Hermione hypnotically reached out to the creature through the barrier when out of nowhere, the creature grabbed her hand and started pulling her in. Snapping out of her daze she struggled to pull back, but the creature in front of her was way stronger than she anticipated it to be. She pulled harder but the creature was dragging her in slowly, Not knowing what to do, she shot a couple of spells towards the creature but nothing seemed to work. When all hope seemed lost, suddenly she felt something pull behind her from the back. She looked back to see a unicorn. Hermione recognized the unicorn as the same one she had seen before in the forbidden forest before. With the help of the unicorn, Hermione had a much easier time holding back but it was still hard to completely take her hand back. "Expecto Patronum." Hermione heard Draco''s voice, a mist of light came out of Draco''s wand. Even though the spell seemed weak it was more than enough for the creature to let go Hermione''s hand in shock, as it flew further away. Starlight completely pulled Hermione behind from her robe, with Draco rushing towards her. Draco quickly came over and hugged Hermione as he checked on her one by one, "Are you okay?" Seeing Draco''s panicked face she felt a bit warm inside, which helped her calm down a lot. "What is that?" she asked. "A Lethifold." Draco said looking at the creature, "Why did you cross the line? It''s inside a barrier for a reason, you know." "I don''t know." Hermione said shaking her head, "It felt like it was calling out to me and before I knew it, it had already got a hold of me." ''Interesting! I never thought it was capable of doing so.'' Draco thought to himself, ''Since it hasn''t fed on humans for some time,it may be tempted after seeing Hermione, but a Lethifold luring someone is unheard of. I guess more research is necessary on its behavior.'' "Draco!" Hermione called out seeing Draco in a daze again, "Are you alright?" "Yeah!" Draco said snapping out of his thoughts. "What about the Kelpies?" "Let''s just say that we are in peace now." "That''s all good. So do you mind putting a shirt back on?" Hermione said looking away. Draco quickly stood up and used a spell to dry his pants, as he snatched his shirt from the ground, which Hermione was carrying and quickly wore it. Due to Hermione''s scream, he had panicked and forgotten the fact that he was still half naked. "It''s okay, you can look now." Draco said. Hermione nodded and looked back up, Draco helped her get up from the ground as he walked towards Starlight. "Good job, buddy." Draco patted Starlight, as it neighed in comfort. Hermione looked at both of them as she said, "Isn''t it the unicorn that we found if the forbidden forest? I thought Hagrid released it?" "Well yeah, but we made a certain decision, so he''s here with me." Draco said, "You can come over. you''re already familiar with him, aren''t you? He''s Starlight by the way." Hermione went towards Starlight and patted him, "Starlight, right? Thank you for saving me." Unicorns are more susceptible towards female so Starlight had no problem interacting with Hermione. Draco smiled looking at them, as he climbed on the back of Starlight. "Since you''re already here, let me show you around," Draco said reaching his hand forward. Hermione thinking for a moment took his hand and sat behind Draco. "So mind telling me what this place is?" Draco signaled Starlight as he began to move around at a decent pace, "Well, where do I start..." 145 Maybe... "I really can''t stop getting surprised." Hermione said looking around the place carefully as Starlight slowly walked around, "Ever since I was introduced to the magical world, every day has just been full of curiosity and surprises. I don''t think I''ll ever stop being impressed with magic... like there''s somuch to learn." Draco looked at Hermione with a soft gaze as it was really rare for the proud and competitive Hermione to really show her feeling around others, especially things relating to magic. Feeling Draco''s gaze Hermione looked back at him, "What is it?" "Nothing." Draco shook his head. Hermione shook her head as she started talking again after a while, "I understand the purpose of this suitcase, but I still don''t get why you need all this?" "What do you mean?" "I am talking about these creatures... I get the plants, your potion lab but I can''t understand why would you need all these creatures to be around with you, especially those dangerous ones while we''re in Hogwarts." "Well, it just started with me being curious and wanting to do something." Draco said, "I decided on keeping them when I met Starlight. I mean he was injured and with Voldemort roaming around in the forbidden forest at the time, sending him there again felt wrong so I tried communicating with him. I don''t know what we really talked about, but he wanted to stay with me and I wanted to keep him. Then, came the murtlap then Fluffy. Within a short time, I already had 3 creatures I needed to take care of. All this felt a lot but I recognized their value when the fight broke out during the holidays. You know there are separate versions of how the fight went down but in all honesty, if these creatures weren''t around, I''d probably be long dead or at least I think I would..." Hermione carefully listened to Draco as he continued after a moment of silence, "After that, I guess I grew fonder of them. I do have my own selfish reason but then again me liking them is really the truth. I might have gone overboard with the Lethifold and Norberta but I don''t really regret it. They are very honest you know, unlike humans they don''t lie and stay true to their nature... As for why I have them around with me, I guess you could call it protection, but I don''t know who''s protecting who... and besides, I really don''t have a place to keep them other than the case." "Sigh! If they get out, they could cause a lot of trouble, can''t they?" Hermione said, "Especially Norberta, she''s already a big dragon, won''t she..." "Don''t worry about that." Draco said, "She''s really trustworthy. She didn''t chase after you or bother you right?" "Yeah but..." "Hermione, all these aside I am trusting you to keep this a secret, okay." Draco said seriously, "If people find out not only me but all my creatures would be taken away as well. So you can''t tell it to anyone, not even Potter and Weasley." "I know." Hermione nodded seeing Draco''s serious face. "Let''s go, let me show you my lab." Draco said patting Starlight, signaling him to stop as they had already reached his lab, "It looks small but it''s big from within." Draco got off Starlight and helped Hermione down as well. They both went inside the small hut, which really wasn''t small from the inside. Hermione looked around curiously at all the potions on the walls, different books and the place filled with lab equipment. The place reminded her of the potion classroom, but more advanced and friendly looking than the damp and cold classroom of theirs. Draco took out his wand and waved it around chanting spells, cleaning the place off. "Sorry, it''s a bit dirty here. I don''t allow the elves in and I don''t really clean around that much." Hermione shook her head specifying she was fine with it as she went towards the potion shelf. "What are these blood potions?" "Oh, those are my experiments... you don''t really want to touch them." Draco lied with a straight face as he sat on one of the chairs preparing himself a cup of tea. Hermione looking around went over to the bookshelves. She picked up the books one by one. The books here were mostly related to potions while some were about formations and alchemy. She casually picked a book and opened it. She had never seen the book before nor did she know about the title. Looking at the title of the book it seemed to be about Alchemy but she put it away quickly as the front page of the book had, ''Property of Black family'' written on it with huge letters. She knew that pure-blood family had their own hidden secret magic and stuff and it was considered rude to read them without the owner''s permission. Even though she knew Draco would likely not mind it, she still wanted to respect his private matters. "Want some tea?" Draco asked looking at Hermione. "No, thanks." She replied as she looked back but her gaze wasn''t on Draco but the egg that was at the corner of the room. "What is that?" Draco looked in the direction Hermione was looking at to find the egg, "An egg." he replied. "I can see that too." Hermione said rolling her eyes, "I was asking about the egg. Is it another creature?" "Well sort of, it''s a hybrid egg." "Hybrid?" Hermione walked closer towards the reddish golden egg, "Isn''t that illegal?" "It is." Draco said, "Don''t look at me like that, I didn''t breed it. I just bought it." "Do you know what creature is inside it?" Hermione asked "Well, I know it''s a mixture of a different creature, mostly from the serpent family but I am having my doubts." Draco said, "At first, I thought it was a successful Hybrid but it''s been a month and I haven''t seen any changes in it." "Then why did you buy it then?" Hermione said, "Even though I don''t know much about them, I at least know that most Hybrids don''t survive and even if they do they don''t last long." "I felt something at the time." Draco said shaking his head as he approached the egg and started tapping on it, "You could call it a gut feeling I guess. But now, I don''t feel anything, either the egg stopped developing the way I wanted it too or I was wrong from the beginning." Hermione suddenly noticed something as she pulled Draco''s hand. "What happened?" Hermione didn''t say anything and pointed at the egg which now had red smudges on top of it. Draco looked back at it his hand which was bloody. Draco pulled his robe back to see a cut on his arms which was causing the bleeding. He realized that it could''ve had happened when he crash landed with the statue in the well. "It''s not a big deal," Draco said pointing his wand at the wound, "Ferula" The cut immediately was bandaged up within seconds. "If Theodore was here, he could have healed those small cuts easily." Draco said, "I guess I need to focus on healing spells as well." "Sigh! I thought you said everything went fine with the Kelpies." Hermione said looking a bit annoyed, "What really happened down there?" "Oh! something unexpect--" As Draco was about to complete his words he suddenly started hearing a familiar tone of heartbeats. He quickly turned to look at the egg, which seemed alive again. Draco couldn''t help but stare at the egg which seemed dead ever since he bought it here but now it started giving him the same familiar feeling as before. The feeling that it was alive. He looked at the blood on the top of the egg which was disappearing at a fast pace with his eye''s wide open, "Maybe..." 146 Interesting "Maybe what?" Hermione asked looking at Draco who seemed to be in a daze. Her voice woke him up as he looked back at her. "Nothing, where was I?-- oh yes, the Kelpies." Draco said ignoring Hermione''s suspicious gaze, "The well was something out of the ordinary." "What was there?" Hermione asked curiously as it was rare for Draco to not expect things. "The well was far deeper than I expected it to be, in fact, there was a whole room down there." Draco said, "It was quite beautiful, to be honest. There were huge statues of the founders but I didn''t really have the time to check it out." "Must be one of the secret rooms then... Hogwarts has never lacked one." Hermione said, "So what about your cut, how did that happen?" "I don''t know. I was too busy being chased by the kelpies." Draco said trying to shorten the conversation but seeing Hermione''s gaze he continued, "I did find their nest and..." "And?" "And I might have taken it away to make them chase me and follow me inside the suitcase." "Sigh! Why go through all the trouble." Hermione said shaking her head with her arms crossed, "Didn''t you say you bought the couple of animals you have here, why can''t you do just the same. I am sure buying would be easier and safer than what you''re doing." "I could but I am glad I didn''t do that." Draco said, "The room was worth looking at and the kelpies well... the potion which polluted the well had already killed the rest of them leaving the only two of them alive. If I hadn''t gone there, I am sure they would be all gone by tomorrow." Hermione stayed silent when at that moment someone started knocking on the door. Draco got out to find that it was one of the elves who did it. "I am sorry, master." The elf bowed, "I didn''t know you were here." "It doesn''t matter." Draco shook his head, "Go over to the new pond and check on the kelpies there, they were in a polluted source of water before and I am sure they are weak. Go look over them and take this potion with you-- make sure to drop a spoonful of it every day in the water." "Yes, master." The elf nodded and took the potion as it quickly went away. "What was that?" Hermione asked looking at the elf''s back. "A house elf." Draco said, "They sleep during the day as I stay here most of the nights so it''s hard to find them this time around. They usually take care of the animals here since I don''t really have the time to handle them myself." Hermione nodded as she sighed, "I can''t really understand all this." She looked at Draco with a bitter smile, "The more I try to understand the wizarding world the complicated it seems to be. The studying and me trying to better my spells aren''t really working wonders. I don''t know why but I tend to freeze up, every time something bad''s going to happen. I am good at spells, I know I am but what''s the point in learning it, if I can''t use it when I am in trouble." Draco walked up to Hermione and pulled her into a gentle hug. He slowly caressed her bushy brown hair. Hermione didn''t fight back as she enjoyed Draco''s warmth and relaxed her head on his chest. Since the current Draco was quite taller than her it felt a bit awkward at first but she quickly got used to it. "Don''t think too much about it." Draco said, "You''re one of the smartest witch I''ve ever met. If I was in your shoe, I am certain I wouldn''t be able to do anything that you are doing right now. People call me a genius but I am really not one. All I did was take control of the resources which I had from the moment I was born, if you were born in the same environment as me, I am sure you would be able to do much more." "Why are you so nice to me?" Hermione asked. "Oh! Why wouldn''t I be?" "I am serious." Hermione said, "I know myself better than anyone. Every step of the way I am doubting you and when you do something amazing, I feel jealous wishing I could do that. Don''t say that you don''t know about it because I know you do." "I am nice to you because I know that you doubting me is because you care." Draco said softly, "As for your envy, I guess that''s just your personality I''ve to deal with and to be honest, it''s interesting that you want to compete against me and not follow me blindly like everyone else. I guess that''s what makes you different from the rest and makes you stand out. But even with all that I know, you''ll always have my back." Hermione didn''t say anything as she smiled brightly holding Draco closer. "And as I told you before, don''t be in a hurry to fight. Learning is the most important part and I know you''re very good at that" Draco continued, "As for the fights, you just need practice. Like take me for example, I have been practicing magic from a young age especially dueling which has made me adjusted enough to think straight in a time of need." "Dueling huh... we should involve that in our club." Hermione said, "You could teach me and the others how to fight." "Yeah about that..."Draco went on to explain Hermione about him leaving for Drumstrang after two months and how he wouldn''t be able to stay here and teach them. "Is it necessary for you to go there?" "Yes, There are a lot of questions that I want the answers to." Draco said as he looked at Hermione who wasn''t giving him the doubtful questioning look as always, "...Aren''t you going to ask what answers am I looking for?" "Would you tell me if I ask?--You are the one who''s always telling me to trust you and that''s what I am doing right now." Hermione said as she looked up at Draco, "Just don''t break it, okay?" "Okay." Draco smiled as he slowly bought his face close to her and kissed her forehead, which made Hermione blush as she quickly pulled back from the hug and started to go on her way about how they needed to get out of the suitcase, in case someones finds it. Draco just laughed and followed along, as both of them got out of the suitcase. Getting out Draco saw Hermione who looked shocked and was silent as he was getting out of the suitcase. He looked around to find that he was no longer outside but indoors and inside a very familiar place. "That... you know this..." Hermione spoke looking at Theodore who was in front from them, trying to think of an excuse for the whole coming out the suitcase thing. Draco and Theodore looked at each other and laughed. Hermione who quickly understood the situation glared at the two of them and went outside the room muttering about how she wasn''t the only one who knew. "You seem busy." Theodore said with a smirk, "What were you doing?" "I could ask you the same question." Draco said jumping out of the case, "Where were you all morning?" "I found a secret passage by accident and was dealing with it." Theodore said, "A waste of time I tell you. The passage was blocked halfway through, I am pretty certain there is a secret room behind it." "Oh, what a coincidence." "You found a secret room too?" "Yeah, inside the well." Draco said, "I am certain, one would never have guessed that there was such a place deep beneath it." "Why would you?" 147 October pt.1 "Why would you-- don''t tell it was for the kelpies?-- It was, wasn''t it?" Theodore sighed as he couldn''t really understand his friend''s obsession with magical creatures, he was sure if Draco had this hobby sooner the Troll that chased them around before would be in his suitcase right now, "By the way, you should consider yourself lucky that you didn''t share the same punishment as me." "Why what happened?" "Filch happened." Theodore said with an annoyed look on his face, "I was getting out of the passage when Filch found me all dirty and muddy. He took me to the office and started going on this crazy rant about me dirtying the school ground. You should be thankful, I found your case and bought it here as Filch was just about to take it away." "Yeah! Yeah!" Draco waved his hands around lazily. Even if Filch really found his secret there was nothing he could do about it. Just a simple memory charm and Filch would forget about the entire incident and there wasn''t anything he could do to fight back at all. "Hmph! But I did manage to find something interesting." "What is it?" Draco asked. Theodore didn''t say anything and gave him a large, glossy, purple envelope with silver lettering on the front which read, Kwikspell A Correspondence Course in Beginners'' Magic. Intrigued, Draco flicked the envelope open and pulled out the sheaf of parchment inside. More curly silver writing on the front page said: Feel out of step in the world of modern magic? Find yourself making excuses not to perform simple spells? Ever been taunted for your woeful wandwork? There is an answer! Kwikspell is an all-new, fail-safe, quick-result, easy-learn course. Hundreds of witches and wizards have benefited from the Kwikspell method! Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: "I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke! Now, after a Kwikspell course, I am the center of attention at parties and friends beg for the recipe of my Scintillation Solution!" Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says: "My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak! Thank you, Kwikspell!" Draco put down the envelope knowing it was a normal wizarding advertisement for a correspondence course in beginner''s magic run by the Kwikspell Company, called Kwikspell. The course is designed to help adult witches and wizards brush up on their magical skills. The course has been proven to be quite useful for wizards and witches who really aren''t too bright but for Squib like Filch it was quite useless. "Interesting, isn''t it?" Theodore smirked as he threw a book in Draco''s hand. The book seemed to be pretty old just looking at it and the writing seemed to be handwritten. Just reading the title of the book he could figure out that the book was about potions and a very interesting sort of potions. The book claimed that these potions would be able to make even a muggle into a full-fledged wizard. Draco knew about this type of fake-books which were sold all over the black markets, it featured the same style of book, old and handwritten. To fool gullible people into thinking they could make someone wizards. The books target audience was always Squibs and Muggle-born wizards who wanted to make their friends or family members wizards. Draco turned a couple of pages of the books reading through the content quickly as he snorted in disdain. All the recipes mentioned in the potion book were full of shit, Draco was sure even a wizard in their first year could come up with a better book than this crap. The recipes mentioned in the books were all random and worthless, while most of them would just result in a failed potion there were still some of them that were totally poisonous. Selling this book to someone was equal to trying to murder them. "Now I understand..." "What?" "The reason, I went to check on the kelpies was because of them suddenly acting out and when I looked into it, I found out that someone had been dumping some useless potion in the well." Draco said, "It caused the death of all the Kelpies in the well, except for two who luckily survived them." "So you doubt Filch is behind it?" "I thought so, but now I am sure." Draco said waving the envelope and the book, "Looks like our dear old Mr. Filch wants to be a wizard so badly that he is willing to do all this stuff." "So what we are we going to do?" Theodore asked, "I am sure we can''t really do much about this." "We won''t." Draco said, "I already cleared up the well so no one would be harmed from his deeds any longer, well the ones that were bound to get harmed are dead anyway. Keep this with you--Pretty sure it would come in handy when Filch acts out on us." "That was what I was thinking." Theodore said taking back the envelope and the book, "It''s like our free pass and we won''t have to use magic on him as well. I thought it was his desperate attempt to be a wizard but who knew he was going crazy about this." "Men do crazy things." Draco said laying on the bed, "Especially when they realize they can be something more than just... normal." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. Ginny Weasley, who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking some by Percy. The steam pouring from under her vivid hair gave the impression that her whole head was on fire. Draco forced Daphne and Pansy to take some as well due to them getting sick and Draco''s version of the potion was a bit worse but effective enough to revive a dead Dragon. Both Pansy and Daphne cried in pain for hours as the side effect went on for quite some time but the results were much better than normal ordinary potions. Draco was sure that the girls would never catch a cold in their life again but instead of being thankful the girls'' guilt trip Draco into owing both of them a favor which he gave in and obliged to. Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid''s pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds. Pansy''s enthusiasm for regular training sessions, however, was not dampened, which was why Draco was to be found, late one stormy Saturday afternoon, returning to Slytherin common room, drenched to the skin and splattered with mud. Since the previous incident, Flint looked lost and hopeless whenever he was seen, and he even quit the Quidditch team soon after. People believed the humiliation was the cause of it but no one ever knows for sure as he stopped talking to his friends as well. Snape wanted Draco to be the new captain as it was partially his fault that Flint became weird but both of them knew that was impossible due to schedules as Draco was moving away to Durmstrang the next month. Since the position of captain was empty Draco pushed Pansy in the captain''s position and with Snape practically forcing him, Draco had to coach the Slytherin Quidditch team as long as he was here. Pansy who was even better than Draco needed not so much of a guidance on flying but she still needed to learn leadership. So Pansy got in charge of the training secession for the Quidditch team and Draco became the strategist for the team. For Slytherins who usually play with brute force being in a strategized formation was quite difficult for them. But with work and a lot of patience they came around and allowed themselves to use their brains for once. 148 October pt.2 Even aside from the rain and wind, it hadn''t been a very happy practice session. First, the teammates were excited about Draco being the next captain, well some of them at least but since they found out Pansy was being the one, they felt wronged especially the older students who had been waiting for their chance. After they learned about Draco''s strategies they felt pretty good about it so they agreed on letting Pansy be the captain but they never knew the fiery and simple chaser would turn out to be such a devil. Training went on no matter what weather it was or who was injured. The only thing that keeping motivated in this stage was seeing the Gryffindor team working just as hard. Draco learned a lot and had many successful experiments of his own as well. As suspected, Draco''s theory was correct and the egg seemed to absorb his blood for some reason. Draco had collected a lot of his blood over the years but even then all of his stocks were nearly finished as the vampire of an egg kept absorbing it like it was nothing. Draco thought about using other types of blood including animals but decided against it as the egg seemed responsive to only him and his gut told him not to do so. Luckily, the egg seemed more responsive and alive, Draco was sure it would hatch any day now which made him a bit more relieved. The kelpies, on the other hand, were now perfectly healthy and fine. They are getting a bit used to Draco but they are not really close yet. Draco hasn''t ridden on it and neither has the Kelpies tried to eat him. Both of them are in the midst of understanding each other and respecting each other''s space. So to increase their trust, Draco has been spending a lot of time underwater as well. Within this month, Elanor sent Draco a letter as well. Talking about her time there and how boring it was for her to stay in the palace all day long. Apparently, she did got some punishment for acting out and couldn''t send a letter to him and she did as soon as she was free. Also within this month one of her brothers the one who acted during the fight came back again secretly and managed to convince some vampires to leave with him. Ela and her sister think they are planning a rebellion but they haven''t done anything yet which is causing them to have more suspicions. The letter ended with a shy ''miss you'' which made Draco chuckle a little. Draco quickly wrote a reply and send one back with the bat that came along with it, telling her not to worry much about it and about how he was going to Durmstrang after a month telling her to not contact him during those periods. -------------------------------------------------------- "Are you sure about this Draco?" Pansy and Hermione said at the same time looking at Draco. "I am." Draco said, "As I said don''t worry about it. I''ve got everything in control" "Easy for you to say that to us when in fact you never even knew about this meeting." Daphne said, "Please take this a bit seriously." "I will." "You need any help?" Theodore said. "In the name of Merlin, will you all calm down." Draco said standing up, "You guys are starting to freak me out as well. In fact, I did know about this meeting... just this morning--but hey I still knew and father has already informed me that more than half of the school board members are on my side. As long as I can come up with a good reason for what I did, they will all support me." The four of the awkwardly smiled but Draco could still see their doubts. "Sigh! Don''t follow me." Draco said getting a bit frustrated as he got out of the common room heading towards Dumbledore''s office. On the way there almost all the students were collected throughout the passageway looking at Draco as if he was going in on a war of some sort. The news about today''s meeting with the school board regarding Draco and Lockhart was known by all and everyone was excited wanting to see what kind of outcome will all this result too. Some older students especially girls were looking at Draco in disdain, as they were hardcore Lockhart supporters but the support for Draco didn''t die out in comparison at all. Instead, in someway Draco still managed to overwhelm the supporters of Lockhart. There were still many students who were neutral since they didn''t know Draco that well and Lockhart''s new teaching methods were good enough for them, so they couldn''t bother choosing a side. "Good luck." Draco heard Harry say as he looked over at Harry and Ron. Ron who had survived his experiment was a very useful sacrifice as it helped Draco learn a lot of the Re''em blood potion. Ron suffered for a weak due to his immunity and body being completely depleted of energy, which was one of the side effects of the potion and the slug puking didn''t help his cause either. But it wasn''t all for vain as the potion helped him recover well and he could see that Ron was much healthier than before, not a big change but enough to make a difference. Of course, the difference wasn''t noticeable but for Draco who was closely observing Ron like a lab rat, it was more than enough. Draco nodded at them and headed towards the principal''s office where Snape was waiting for him outside. "You''re late." "Sorry, I wasn''t exactly in the school''s robes when I was informed about it." Draco said starting to walk in the towards the office following Snape, "What is happening inside?" "Lockhart''s already starting his act." Snape said, "Are you prepared?" "I am." Snape didn''t say anything any further and opened the door towards Dumbledore''s office. Today the office was a bit different. The pile of useless items were hidden away and there was a big enough room in the middle where Dumbledore, McGonagall, and the 12 school board members were sitting around listening to Lockhart''s speech about how he is a good teacher and Draco being the student has no right to insult him. The board members, collectively known as the Hogwarts Board of Governors are a group of twelve wizards who oversee the running of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They hold a lot of power in decision making in Hogwarts to the point where they even the appointment and suspension of a Headmaster is up to the governors or even shut down the school once and for all if deemed necessary. The board members never had to deal with an issue like this before as a student boycotting a class and taking a whole house of students along with him was never heard of. They would likely not pay any attention to this sort of complaints but the accuser being a famous wizard beloved by many and the accusee being the upcoming rising young wizard, they had to pay attention to this case. "Mr. Lockhart since we heard your side of the story, how about we hear Mr. Black''s." Dumbledore said noticing Draco, "Please do come in." Draco walking in noticed some acquaintances in the school board along with his father, "Good evening." He said casually as he stood in front of them along with Lockhart who was staring daggers at him. "Mr. Black we have heard the whole accusation of Mr. Lockhart who claims you insulted him in the classroom burned his books and walked away encouraging your fellow Slytherin classmates to do the same." An old board member asked. "Is it true?" "Yes." Draco admitted to it without any hesitation making the board members a bit shocked by his boldness, they had assumed that Draco would at least put up a fight. Some even started speculating if Draco was really giving up including his father who looked a bit uncomfortable at the moment. "Did you boycott his classes purposefully?" "Yes." 149 Duel? "May I ask why?" "Well, releasing pixies on the first day of the class for the students to fight against and using these weird questions as a test was enough to prove to me that he wasn''t worthy of being a teacher." Draco said passing the test question they got on the first-day to the board members and the professors, "Also you might have also looked into our curriculum to know that the book Lockhart suggested has nothing to do with defense against the dark." The board members including the professor''s started frowning looking at the question about the test which was all related to Lockhart''s personal life and not one question had anything to do with Defence against the dark. Lucius smiled slyly looking at the questions, "Dumbledore, it''s really sad to see Hogwarts fall to such level." Lucius said in a mocking tone, "We send our children here to learn about magic, not about some famous wizard''s favorite food." Lockhart''s face turned red, nobody knew if it was from embarrassment or anger. On the other hand, the board members couldn''t agree more to what Lucius just said. Even McGonagall was staring at Lockhart in disgust. "Mr. Lockhart do you have any explanation for this?" Dumbledore said calmly looking at Lockhart as if he wasn''t bothered by it. "Is there anything to ask more?" Lucius said waving the paper in his hand, "I think this is enough to prove his incompetence or is it that you still want to defend this man?" Draco didn''t say anything but he was thinking the same thing as Lucius. Draco knew how sly Dumbledore was, so it wasn''t far fetched for him to try to save Lockhart''s ass in this situation to save his own. Dumbledore wasn''t rash, in fact, he was still calm and like a kind old man he gave a bright smile to Lucius. "Mr. Malfoy, I know all this seems wrong but I believe every story has two sides." he said, "And just like how we can''t act against Draco her just because of the accusation of Mr. Lockhart in a similar manner I suggest we listen to what Mr. Lockhart has to say to defend himself." "Of course I do." Lockhart said as he gave a small cough and started acting perfectly as he gave his signature smile to the board members, "The reason for the questionnaire was for me to test how attentive my students were to their studies and at the same time I wanted my students to get to know me. You see, I believe that students and teachers must have a good connection which would make it easier for the students to understand me and for me to teach them." "What about the pixies then?" "The Pixies were also a part of a test to know how my students would act in a serious situation." Lockhart continued with a righteous tone, "As far as I know, this is why we study defense against the dark, to defend against an unknown threat. And also I can assure you that I had everything under control." "Sure you did." Draco said sarcastically, "Pretty sure you could''ve saved us all after you got out from underneath the table." "Dear Draco, I know you have some personal hatred against me. Even though I don''t know why." Lockhart said dismissing what Draco just said, "But that doesn''t mean you can disturb my class. If you had just stayed a moment longer without acting out, I am sure you would''ve known the truth." The board members were in a bit of a scuffle right now, from one perspective Draco seemed right but on the other hand, they couldn''t really disagree with Lockhart. Especially considering someone like Draco who was getting a bit infamous for his impulsive rash behaviors. There was silence for a while as no one really said anything, everyone kept their quite as the old board member spoke out, "I think there might''ve been a misunderstanding between the two of you. Since it''s an easy fix how about we just solve it here and just go about our way without creating more problems." "I''d love that." Lockhart was quick to speak first, "I am willing to accept all the second year Slytherin student''s back in my class as well but... I need an apology from Draco over here. As you know I am a very respected wizard in our community and I have never been insulted like this before, even if it might be a misunderstanding the thing Draco has done has caused a stain in my reputation." "Mr. Lockhart..." The old man hesitated, he didn''t know much about Draco but the way he carried himself was enough to show that he wasn''t the kind to give apologies, something told him that it wasn''t going to end well as he saw Draco''s eyebrows pulled down. "It''s just an apology that I am asking not something outrageous." Lockhart said in a justified tone, "As a teacher, I feel like I deserve it." There was silence again as the people in the room heard Draco take a deep breath as he turned towards Lockhart. "Fine, I''ll give you an apology." The old board member was happy for a moment until he heard Draco''s next words, "But only if you accept my challenge in a duel and win against me." "Hahaha, do you think you can defeat me in a duel?" Lockhart gave out a burst of hearty laughter, "I guess the compliments in the newspaper has gone over your head." "You dare?" "Fine, I shall humor you." Lockhart said, "Also let me add something more on the stake, if I lose the duel against you, I will leave Hogwarts." "Mr. Black and Mr. Lockhart, this isn''t really necessary is it?" A board member said wiping sweat from his forehead. "Of course it is." Draco said, "A duel would be the quickest way to prove our point. If I lose against him I can admit the fact that I am weak and irrational but if I win it proves that Lockhart isn''t worthy of teaching us." "But as I have heard before you don''t even have a wand with you right?" Lockhart said sneering as he ignored the board member, "You wouldn''t be using excuses now would you?" "Who says I need my own wand to defeat you." Draco said in an arrogant manner, "I could borrow one from any random wizard and I still will win." "So what do you think Lucius?" Dumbledore said, "Since both of them are agreeing to it, why not go ahead and do it." Lucius didn''t look at Dumbledore as he stayed silent wondering what Draco was thinking. The board members looked at him as well, since Draco was his son they couldn''t make any random decisions. "Sigh! I agree with it." Lucius raised his hands. Seeing that the ones who were supporters of Lucius quickly did so as well along with a few other board members. The old man sighed, "Since more than half of us agree with the duel then let''s carry on with it." "Mr. Black and Mr. Lockhart we agree to your proposal of duel." The old man said, "The duel will be held a week later in Hogwarts. As for your conditions, we agree to it as well." "If that''s it then I shall take my leave." Draco said nodding at Lucius, "I hope to see you again next week." The board members nodded as Draco went out of the office. As he was going down he was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of people looking at him, with the question, ''What happened?'' written all over their faces. "Sigh! I''ll make this quick." Draco said rubbing his forehead, "Lockhart and I have agreed on a duel and we''ve agreed on some conditions. Now if your curiosity is over, I will go back to the common room." Draco walked through the crowd of gasping students not looking back. 150 Defeat pt.1 "Ready?" Pansy asked. "Yup!" Draco said walking towards the quidditch ground which was now being used as a duel arena for today''s match. Theodore, Daphne, and Pansy were with him as they began walking towards the field. "You should all go now." "Good luck." Theodore and the rest nodded and left towards the stand to watch the match. The news of their duel was leaked by none other than Draco himself. He wanted to kill two birds with one stone, one to make sure Ryan hears his new victory again and the other to humiliate Lockhart enough in the public to make sure he would never be able to release another book again. Unknown to Draco, Lockhart had the same idea as him and to humiliate Draco, he had sent letters about the duel to all the reporters he knew to get the maximum coverage over his glorified victory over the so-called genius. This week had been a stressful one for all the professors, who had to barricade the school to prevent more letters from flooding in. Thousands of wizards and witches all over Europe wanted to see the match between the two of them. Several reporters wanted to get the view of the duel but Dumbledore and the board members decided against letting them in. The fact that it was a duel between a teacher and a student made the so-called duel meaningless. The board members had already figured the fragile ego of both the parties and not wanting to hurt anyone they decided against it. But a certain reporter had managed to sneak herself in through her animagus form and was secretly hiding in the shadows. In the stands, all the students of Hogwarts were sitting with excitement and anxiousness written all over their faces along with all the professors and the board members quietly watching the field waiting. The students were allowed to watch the duel, considering how they were going to find about it anyway and Lockhart himself started advertising the duel to the students, so the professor had a hard time telling no to them. Hermione, Harry, and Ron sat together with all the Gryffindors with Hermione praying for Draco''s win. "Don''t worry Hermione." Harry said looking at Hermione who hadn''t spoken to them since the morning. She looked even more nervous than the people who were actually going to duel, "We all know what Lockhart is like, and we also know that Draco is good enough, so winning for him isn''t that hard at all." Hermione didn''t say anything as she quietly nodded her head in response. Even if Lockhart was the same as everyone said he was, the fact that he was still an adult wizard was out there. Harry sighed and looked at Ron who shrugged his shoulder not knowing what to say. In fact, Harry was excited about the duel as well, since he had never seen a proper one before and only heard about it. The only information he knew about dueling was connected with Draco who was known to be a very good duelist. Harry didn''t know what was wrong with Lockhart to accept the duel proposal but when he thought about the arrogant Lockhart he wasn''t actually surprised that Lockhart would accept it. Dumbledore stood up from his stand and putting his wand on his throat he yelled, "SILENCE!!" The whole crowd of people who were busy chattering became silent and looked towards Dumbledore. "Today we are here to witness the duel between a fellow student and a known professor." Dumbledore said in his usual wise tone, "To be honest, in the history of Hogwarts this has never happened before and neither do I condone it but some issues have come along the way and this was the only way we could think of to solve it. But I do want you all to know that this is never the solution for this problem and after this event, such a thing will be forever banned from Hogwarts." The student body remained silent, some didn''t know why this was a serious matter but the rest knew. Dumbledore and the other professors wanted to use this opportunity to make sure these incidents do not happen in the future again. A student challenging a professor to a duel every time they thought they were being treated unfairly would result in a devastating situation so after consulting with the board members all of the agreed on banning duels between a student and teacher in Hogwarts. Dumbledore was sure that this wouldn''t happen in the future as most students weren''t gutsy enough to do so but he wanted to prevent it in case an undeterminable factor like Draco pops up in the future again. "Now that''s done, let us enjoy today''s duel." Dumbledore continued, "We wanted this duel to be private but since it''s not, we hope you all learn something from it. As dueling isn''t a part of our school''s curriculum, some of you might have never even heard of it. So I hope you will take this as an opportunity to learn what a wizard dueling is. Learn the benefits and the dangers of it, but also keep in mind that the dangers outweighs the benefit..." Giving his be good and righteous speech Dumbledore sat back down and then the old board member who was on the field got towards the center. "Mr. Lockhart and Mr. Black, please come towards the arena!" he announced. Lockhart and Draco both came from different sides walking towards the center arena which was prepared just for today. Lockhart was wearing a bright suit which was laced with different shiny pieces of jewelry all over the place. Whereas Draco, on the other hand, was in a plain dark wizarding suit. Cheers surrounded the place as both of them stood next to each other on the stage. "Before we start the duel, let me give a brief summary of the rules in case any of you forgot." The old man said as the cheers died down, "First, since there are no seconds in this duel another party interfering with this duel is completely forbidden." "Second, only magical means may be used to fight an opponent, and that there is to be no physical contact." "Third, remember this isn''t a duel to the death, so harming the other party seriously is forbidden." "Since we are all done with the rules, let''s begin the match." "Wait!" Lockhart said, "He doesn''t have a wand, does he?" "We have allowed Mr. Black to use his ancestor''s wand today for the duel." The old man replied. Draco lazily took out his wand from his suit''s pocket and waved it around. With the help of his father, he was able to use his actual wand in the fight by claiming it to be his ancestor''s wand, which wasn''t completely a lie. Lockhart nodded righteously. Draco looked at him disgust wondering how can someone act constantly throughout their life to the point where it''s even hard to separate the real them. "Then let the match begin!" The old man announced and backed off. "Good luck!" Hermione whispered from the stage. The crowd went silent as now everyone clearly focused on the duel. "You still have a chance to back off." Lockhart said coming closer, "You can beg for forgiveness, you know." "Cut the crap!" Draco said doing the same. Lockhart and Draco turned to face each other and bowed; at least, Lockhart did, with much twirling of his hands, whereas Draco jerked his head irritably. Then they raised their wands like swords in front of them. Both of them swung their wands above their heads and pointed them at their opponent; Draco cried: "Expelliarmus!" There was a dazzling flash of scarlet light which made people feel that Lockhart was done for when suddenly they heard Lockhart scream, "Protego" 151 Defeat pt.2 Draco''s spell got deflected and vanished away. Draco along with all his friends were surprised as to what just happened. They all expected Lockhart to fall off, even Draco did. He wanted to use it to finish the match quickly but he never guessed Lockhart could use a Protego spell. Even though not common, Protego was a very difficult spell to master as even some workers in the ministry weren''t able to conjure a proper Protego spell. Even Draco himself wasn''t completely able to use the spell to the point Lockhart was using right now. "Petrificus Totalus" Lockhart quickly launched a spell which Draco blocked without even blinking. Draco today had to be very specific in his choices of spells as he couldn''t openly use dark spells in front of the board members and the whole school but that didn''t mean he was running out of powerful spells. "Incarcerous" "Relashio" "Expulso." "Stupefy" No one knew how many spells were used till now but it continued on and on. It was a back and forth of shooting spells and protecting and reflecting it. "What is going on?" Pansy muttered. "Looks like something is wrong or we really did underestimate Lockhart..." Feeling the gazes of Daphne and Pansy, Theodore quickly stated, "I am sure something is wrong, though! He shouldn''t be able to last this long, I wonder what is going on." "The boy really does have a lot of potentials." The board members were discussing things with Lucius, "Lucius you son is really something. To be able to use so many of these spells so accurately, I believe he is destined for something big." "It''s an honor." Lucius said smiling but on the inside, he was really worrying, the back and forth spell war might seem simple to some but he knows how much power was being used in each spell and every time the next spell was being it was turning more and more dangerous and serious. Lucius was getting on the edge of the seat as Draco and both Lockhart had now started using curses on one another. Everyone on the stands were the same, they could feel the intensity of the battle going strong. Even Dumbledore was ready with his wand to stop the fight immediately if it gets out of hand which didn''t seem far off from happening. "Enough!" Draco said frowning as he used the arrow spell conjuring a lot of arrows mid-air and dropping it all down on Lockhart. Lockhart who was already sweating quickly covered himself with a Portego spell as the arrow kept coming one by one. While he was busy defending, Draco didn''t show any mercy and quickly used another spell, "Confringo" The spell wasn''t aimed towards Lockhart but towards the ground near him. The shockwave created from the explosion spell pushed Lockhart away on towards the ground where the remaining arrows kept falling towards him. Lockhart covered his face in fear when suddenly he heard Draco. "Reducto." Draco used another spell vanishing the arrows and quickly used another spell, "Accio." Taking Lockhart''s wand away from him. There was silence in the crowd, even the old man serving as the referee was frozen in his spot. Draco turned towards him and said, "I win." To which the old man nodded subconsciously and announced, "The winner of this duel is Draco Black." The crowd cheered, his friends, Hermione everyone clapped the loudest cheering his name. Dumbledore along with the rest of the board members whispered something to each other as he finally stood up again, "I want to congratulate Mr. Black in his win." He said, "What an achievement indeed. I am sure not even some adult wizards his age would be able to comprehend magic to the limit he has." "The duel is over and the winner is decided, but the result is something that must be discussed. So I ask all of you to leave the arena and go over to the hall where a banquet will be held in order to congratulate Mr. Black on his win." Draco didn''t quite understand what he meant as he looked at his father who nodded at him. Understanding that Lucius wanted to handle the situation he nodded back and waved towards the crowd at his friends and the members of his club who now had more respect for him. Draco looked back at Lockhart who was now unconscious on the ground due to the shock. No one knew what Draco was thinking but he didn''t continue much further and started moving off the arena, throwing Lockhart''s wand back to him and soon all the people followed him towards the hall. Dumbledore and the board members went towards his office while professor Flitwick carried Lockhart towards the infirmary to treat him. In the hall, everyone was cheering for Draco raising their cups in his honor. The feast which was prepared were similar to the ones they would get on the regular but was a little bit extravagant. Draco thanked all the people and all of them were quick to dig into the feast. "What''s wrong Draco?" Blaise asked confused as to why Draco didn''t look happy even after his victory. "Something is really wrong." Draco said subconsciously. "What is?" "Nothing." Draco shook his head. "Are you sure?" Theodore asked, "I am also quite confused about Lockhart sudden rise in power. Either he somehow got really strong so quick or... he was hiding his powers all along." "I think..." Before Draco could continue, he felt hands on his shoulder. He looked back to find Snape looking at him. Following Snape out of the hall, he asked, "What is it?" "Dumbledore wants you in the office." Draco nodded, "Godfather, is it just me or is the result really quite unexpected." "You winning isn''t enough?" "It is and I was already certain of my victory, to begin with." Draco said the arrogant words casually, "But I am surprised Lockhart lasted so long." "Don''t be." Snape said, "I have seen Lockhart in Dumbledore''s office quite a few times this whole month. He was probably training him." "Dumbledore? Why?" Draco was confused, "Why would the greatest wizard of our generation teach someone like Lockhart personally?" "That I am not aware of but you do know our situation right?" Snape said. "The one about the empty teacher''s seat for defense against the dark?" "Yes." Snape said snorting, "Hogwarts is desperate for a defense against the dark teacher, to the point where Dumbledore took the responsibility for Lockhart himself." "So Dumbledore wants to protect Lockhart to save himself?" "That''s a guess." Snape said as he ended their conversation. They had arrived in the principal''s office as they knocked and got in. Dumbledore was alone in his office, the board members who had busy schedules were already gone along with his father. "Congratulations again Mr. Blackon your win." Dumbledore said humbly. "Please take a seat." Draco didn''t say anything back and just nodded. "You must be tired from the duel so let me get straight to the point." Dumbledore said, "We have decided that we can''t honor your deal with Mr.Lockhart." "Why?" "As you may or may not know our school is really lacking a defense against the dark teacher." Dumbledore said, "And finding a quick replacement would be very difficult, so we want Mr. Lockhart to teach the subject for the rest of the year. And the next year, I assure you that there will be a new teacher filling in that position." Draco knew that Lockhart was going to leave Hogwarts the next year either way so it didn''t really matter. In fact, he was quite shocked that Dumbledore was being honest for a change. 152 Deathday party pt.1 "I know what you might want to say but today was enough to prove that Lockhart was still worthy enough of being a teacher." Dumbledore continued, "As I said back in the field, even adult wizards can''t compare with you in terms of spells so if we were to search for a teacher worthy enough to teach you, we might not even find the correct teacher in years. And you are moving away towards Durmstrang within 2 weeks now so Mr. Lockhart being here shouldn''t really be much of a bother to you." "Hmph! Even if I agree would Lockhart do so?" "He has already agreed in staying here to teach for this year." "Well someone is shameless." Draco said indirectly hinting at something but Dumbledore''s expression remained the same, "Sigh! So what do I get in return for letting all this go?" "A favor." Dumbledore said, "You can ask me for anything and as long as I am capable of doing so, I will do it." Draco stayed silent for a while, "Fine! But I don''t want the students who are in my club to attend Lockhart''s classes, in turn, I guarantee that they wouldn''t fail their exams" "Fine." Dumbledore nodded sighing, "Draco, please do understand that there are certain things I have to do. The same as you, I might say." Draco didn''t want to continue the chat so he stood up and said, "Since I have nothing to ask you now, I will take my leave. But I will surely ask you for something in the future." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Harry, late one stormy Saturday afternoon a few days before Halloween was returning to Gryffindor Tower after practice, drenched to the skin and splattered with mud. He squelched along the deserted corridor he came across somebody who looked just as preoccupied as he was. Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor Tower, who was staring morosely out of a window, muttering under his breath, "¡­don''t fulfill their requirements¡­half an inch, if that¡­" "Hello, Nick," said Harry. "Hello, hello," said Nearly Headless Nick, starting and looking around. He wore a dashing, plumed hat on his long curly hair, and a tunic with a ruff, which concealed the fact that his neck was almost completely severed. He was pale as smoke, and Harry could see right through him to the dark sky and torrential rain outside. "You look troubled, young Potter," said Nick, folding a transparent letter as he spoke and tucking it inside his doublet. "So do you," said Harry. "Ah," Nearly Headless Nick waved an elegant hand, "a matter of no importance¡­It''s not as though I really wanted to join¡­Thought I''d apply, but apparently I ''don''t fulfill requirements'' ¡ª" In spite of his airy tone, there was a look of great bitterness on his face. "But you would think, wouldn''t you," he erupted suddenly, pulling the letter back out of his pocket, "that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?" "Oh ¡ª yes," said Harry, who was obviously supposed to agree. "I mean, nobody wishes more than I do that it had all been quick and clean, and my head had come off properly, I mean, it would have saved me a great deal of pain and ridicule. However¡ª" Nearly Headless Nick shook his letter open and read furiously: "''We can only accept huntsmen whose heads have parted company with their bodies. You will appreciate that it would be impossible otherwise for members to participate in hunt activities such as Horseback Head-Juggling and Head Polo. It is with the greatest regret, therefore, that I must inform you that you do not fulfill our requirements. With very best wishes, Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore.''" Fuming, Nearly Headless Nick stuffed the letter away. "Half an inch of skin and sinew holding my neck on, Harry! Most people would think that''s good and beheaded, but oh, no, it''s not enough for Sir Properly Decapitated-Podmore." Nearly Headless Nick took several deep breaths and then said, in a far calmer tone, "So ¡ª what''s bothering you? Anything I can do?" "No," said Harry. "Not unless you know where we can get seven free Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones for our match against Sly¡ª" The rest of Harry''s sentence was drowned out by a high-pitched mewling from somewhere near his ankles. He looked down and found himself gazing into a pair of lamp-like yellow eyes. It was Mrs. Norris, the skeletal gray cat who was used by the caretaker, Argus Filch, as a sort of deputy in his endless battle against students. "You''d better get out of here, Harry," said Nick quickly. "Filch isn''t in a good mood ¡ª he''s got the flu and some third years accidentally plastered frog brains all over the ceiling in dungeon five. He''s been cleaning all morning, and if he sees you dripping mud all over the place ¡ª" "Right," said Harry, backing away from the accusing stare of Mrs. Norris, but not quickly enough. Drawn to the spot by the mysterious power that seemed to connect him with his foul cat, Argus Filch burst suddenly through a tapestry to Harry''s right, wheezing and looking wildly about for the rule-breaker. There was a thick tartan scarf bound around his head, and his nose was unusually purple. "Filth!" he shouted, his jowls aquiver, his eyes popping alarmingly as he pointed at the muddy puddle that had dripped from Harry''s Quidditch robes. "Mess and muck everywhere! I''ve had enough of it, I tell you! Follow me, Potter!" So Harry waved a gloomy good-bye to Nearly Headless Nick and followed Filch back downstairs, doubling the number of muddy footprints on the floor. Harry had never been insideFilch''s office before; it was a place most students avoided. The room was dingy and windowless, lit by a single oil lamp dangling from the low ceiling. A faint smell of fried fish lingered about the place. Wooden filing cabinets stood around the walls; from their labels, Harry could see that they contained details of every pupil Filch had ever punished. Fred and George Weasley had an entire drawer to themselves. A highly polished collection of chains and manacles hung on the wall behind Filch''s desk. It was common knowledge that he was always begging Dumbledore to let him suspend students by their ankles from the ceiling. Filch grabbed a quill from a pot on his desk and began shuffling around looking for parchment. "Dung," he muttered furiously, "great sizzling dragon bogies¡­frog brains¡­rat intestines¡­I''ve had enough of it¡­make an example¡­where''s the form¡­yes¡­" He retrieved a large roll of parchment from his desk drawer and stretched it out in front of him, dipping his long black quill into the ink pot. "Name¡­Harry Potter. Crime¡­" "It was only a bit of mud!" said Harry. "It''s only a bit of mud to you, boy, but to me, it''s an extra hour scrubbing!" shouted Filch, a drip shivering unpleasantly at the end of his bulbous nose. "Crime¡­befouling the castle¡­suggested sentence¡­" Dabbing at his streaming nose, Filch squinted unpleasantly at Harry who waited with bated breath for his sentence to fall. But as Filch lowered his quill, there was a great BANG! on the ceiling of the office, which made the oil lamp rattle. "PEEVES!" Filch roared, flinging down his quill in a transport of rage. "I''ll have you this time, I''ll have you!" And without a backward glance at Harry, Filch ran flat-footed from the office, Mrs. Norris streaking alongside him. Peeves was the school poltergeist, a grinning, airborne menace who lived to cause havoc and distress. Harry didn''t much like Peeves, but couldn''t help feeling grateful for his timing. Hopefully, whatever Peeves had done (and it sounded as though he''d wrecked something very big this time) would distract Filch from Harry. 153 Deathday party pt.2 Thinking that he should probably wait for Filch to come back, Harry sank into a moth-eaten chair next to the desk. There was only one thing on it apart from his half-completed form: a piece of large, glossy jewel. Harry picked it up knowing what exactly it was, a piece of Lockhart''s clothing he wore that day in the fight. He picked it up remembering the scene, which couldn''t help but made him feel a bit depressed. Draco who was already a known genius was way too powerful than he expected him to be. He had indeed heard all the rumors and read all the newspapers but seeing those power displayed right in front of him was something extravagant. And that wasn''t it at all, Lockhart who he thought was a weak no-good wizard was far better than him. Seeing someone like Lockhart so strong made him feel very weak. He felt lost. Even though he knew there wasn''t any good coming off of comparing himself with someone like Draco or an adult wizard like Lockhart, he knew what he was doing wasn''t enough. Harry remembered Dumbledore telling him the fact that Voldemort was still out there, which made him feel more scared. He didn''t want to rely on others every time something happened. Even though he was young didn''t mean he wasn''t allowed to get strong, Draco was a living example of it. ''Maybe, if Draco was in my place he...'' Just as Harry was getting lost in his thought he suddenly heard shuffling footsteps outside which told him Filch was coming back. Not wanting to get in trouble for it, Harry threw the piece of jewel back onto the desk just as the door opened. Filch was looking triumphant. "That vanishing cabinet was extremely valuable!" he was saying gleefully to Mrs. Norris. "We''ll have Peeves out this time, my sweet ¡ª" His eyes fell on Harry and then darted to the table, which, Harry realized was too late, the jewel was lying two feet away from where it had started. Filch''s pasty face went brick red. Harry braced himself for a tidal wave of fury. Filch hobbled across to his desk, but unlike what he expected Filch went for the purple envelope which was far from the table and snatched it up, and threw it into a drawer. "Have you ¡ª did you read ¡ª?" he sputtered. "No," Harry said quickly. Filch''s knobbly hands were twisting together."If I thought you''d read my private ¡ªnot that it''s mine ¡ª for a friend ¡ª be that as it may ¡ª however ¡ª" Harry was staring at him, alarmed; Filch had never looked madder. His eyes were popping, a tic was going in one of his pouchy cheeks, and the tartan scarf didn''t help. "Very well ¡ª go ¡ª and don''t breathe a word ¡ª not that ¡ª however, if you didn''t read ¡ª go now, I have to write up Peeves'' report ¡ª go ¡ª" Amazed at his luck, Harry sped out of the office, up to the corridor, and back upstairs. To escape from Filch''s office without punishment was probably some kind of school record. "Harry! Harry! Did it work?" Nearly Headless Nick came gliding out of a classroom. Behind him, Harry could see the wreckage of a large black-and-gold cabinet that appeared to have been dropped from a great height. "I persuaded Peeves to crash it right over Filch''s office," said Nick eagerly. "Thought it might distract him ¡ª" "Was that you?" said Harry gratefully. "Yeah, it worked, I didn''t even get detention. Thanks, Nick!" They set off up the corridor together. Nearly Headless Nick, Harry noticed, was still holding Sir Patrick''s rejection letter¡­ "I wish there was something I could do for you about the Headless Hunt," Harry said. Nearly Headless Nick stopped in his tracks and Harry walked right through him. He wished he hadn''t; it was like stepping through an icy shower. "But there is something you could do for me," said Nick excitedly. "Harry ¡ª would I be asking too much ¡ª but no, you wouldn''t want ¡ª" "What is it?" said Harry. "Well, this Halloween will be my five hundredth deathday," said Nearly Headless Nick, drawing himself up and looking dignified. "Oh," said Harry, not sure whether he should look sorry or happy about this. "Right." "I''m holding a party down in one of the roomier dungeons. Friends will be coming from all over the country. It would be such an honor if you would attend. Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger would be most welcome, too, of course ¡ª but I daresay you''d rather go to the school feast?" He watched Harry on tenterhooks. "No," said Harry quickly, "I''ll come ¡ª" "My dear boy! Harry Potter, at my deathday party! And ¡ª" he hesitated, looking excited "¡ª do you think you could possibly mention to Sir Patrick how very frightening and impressive you find me?" "Of-of course," said Harry. Nearly Headless Nick beamed at him. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "A deathday party?" said Hermione keenly when Harry had changed at last and joined her and Ron in the common room. "I bet there aren''t many living people who can say they''ve been to one of those ¡ª it''ll be fascinating!" "Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died?" said Ron, who was halfway through his Potions homework and grumpy. "Sounds dead depressing to me¡­" "Hey Harry can I bring Draco and the others as well?" "Why?" Ron said looking back at her. "I mean isn''t it boring to bring someone to such a party. We don''t even know how they are celebrating it." Hermione knew that Draco was leaving for Durmstrang after Halloween. It was a secret so she couldn''t mention it to Ron and Harry. Since the party was going to be held just the night before, Hermione wanted Draco to be there as they weren''t going to meet again for another 6 months. Maybe it was a bit selfish for her to ask Draco that but since they didn''t have much time left, she wanted to at least celebrate Halloween with him. "Sure, it wouldn''t be a problem I suppose." Harry agreed to it, "I am sure Nick would be delighted to have him there as well. Especially since he is quite famous after the duel and all." The rain was still lashing the windows, which were now inky black, but inside all looked bright and cheerful. The firelight glowed over the countless squashy armchairs where people sat reading, talking, doing homework or, in the case of Fred and George Weasley, trying to find out what would happen if you fed a Filibuster firework to a salamander. Fred had "rescued" the brilliant orange, fire-dwelling lizard from a Care of Magical Creatures class and it was now smoldering gently on a table surrounded by a knot of curious people. Harry was at the point of telling Ron and Hermione about Filch when the salamander suddenly whizzed into the air, emitting loud sparks and bangs as it whirled wildly around the room. The sight of Percy bellowing himself hoarse at Fred and George, the spectacular display of tangerine stars showering from the salamander''s mouth, and its escape into the fire, with accompanying explosions, drove both Filch and the envelope from Harry''s mind. -------------------------------------------------------------------- "So you''re going away, huh!" Theodore said lazily as he had already expected it. "You knew?" Draco said as he looked at Theodore. "Not all the stuff but I knew you were hiding something." Theodore said, "And you''re really not that good at hiding things." "So you aren''t mad?" "Nope! I guess a bit of trust can''t hurt especially when you went through such a long route just so you could hide it from us." Theodore said, "I am just happy you told it a week before you''re leaving." "So what''s going to happen to the club?" Daphne asked as the members of the club sitting around looked curiously at Draco as well. 154 Deathday party pt.3 "It''s going to continue." Draco said, "I have fought Lockhart to get this club going so don''t disappoint me. You guys did pretty well on the test I gave you, so I have no doubts that you''re going to pass the exams this year, just don''t start being lazy. In my absence, Theodore would be teaching you basic spells and potions. You shouldn''t worry about him not being good enough. Also, I''ll be back within 6 months so I need to see your progress." The club members nodded eagerly waiting to prove themselves when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Blaise got up from his seat and opened the door, coming back with Hermione. ------------------------------------------------------------ "A deathday party?" Draco asked Hermione as both of them headed out of the Slytherin common room. He remembered about the party and wasn''t really sure if he wanted to go there but looking at Hermione''s face, he knew he couldn''t say no, "Sure, I guess. It would be much more memorable." "I know right!" Hermione face gleamed as Draco agreed, "You can bring Theodore''s and the others as well." "I will ask them to." Draco said nodding, "So is that it?" "Yeah! By the way, how are the kelpies doing?" "They are great." Draco said suddenly reaching for his pocket, "Oh! I almost forgot. Take this--" "What is it?" Hermione said taking what was in Draco''s hand, opening her palm she saw a hand-sized flat-faced stick figure made of bark and twigs, "Is that a...?" "A bowtruckle." Draco said casually gesturing Hermione to keep her voice down as he carefully looked around, " I want to give her to you. I haven''t named her yet, you should come up with a name for her." "Why?" Hermione asked looking at the bowtruckle on her hand which had similar expression as her right now. "Who knows it might come in handy." Draco said shrugging, "They can pick locks easily and as I said, it might come in handy when you need it too." "Draco, I can''t really take it..." Hermione said shaking her head, even though she looked reluctant her face said otherwise, "I mean I don''t even know what to feed her." "Just consider it my early Christmas gift, you wouldn''t reject that now would you?" Draco said, "As for feeding it, you don''t have to worry much as they live off of insects. They are quite adept in finding food for themselves, you know." After insisting a couple of times Hermione finally agreed to keep the creature with her as they went about their separate ways. Hermione tried to hide it but she seemed quite excited to own a creature of her own. Draco was already planning on giving a bowtruckle to Hermione as they can be really good companions and due to their compact size, they can easily live in the open while still remaining hidden. Among his friends, Draco was worried about Hermione the most as she was from a completely different and an enemy house. All of his friends were from Slytherin so they could stick together in a time of need but it was different for Hermione. As far as he knew her, she wouldn''t even ask for help from others most of the time. "So mind telling me the complete reason." As Draco was lost in his own thought he heard Theodore from behind. "What are you talking about?" "What do you think?" "I thought you were fine with it." "I am." Theodore said sitting by the window across Draco, "But you can''t expect me to not have any questions right? Back there I was just making sure Pansy and Daphne wouldn''t worry." "Sigh! What do you want to know?" "I want to make sure you''re not going to Durmstrang for what happened back then with Pius right?" "Part of it." Draco said honestly as there was no point in lying. "Then mind telling me why are you trying to go there alone?" Theodore said furrowing his eyebrows, "You do know, last time we barely got out of the situation alive right?" "Because I need someone in Hogwarts." Draco said looking through the window, "The enemy already knows about me. So I need someone to keep an eye out on things here. I don''t know what kind of enemy we have so I can''t be sure whether he wouldn''t use dirty tactics on me, like using my friends as bait." "So you expect me to wait here and do nothing?" Theodore frowned, "I have some account to settle with the person behind on all this, on my own as well." "Yes at least for now." Draco said, "But rest assured if everything goes according to the plan you will join in on the fun." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By the time Halloween arrived, Harry was regretting his rash promise to go to the deathday party. The rest of the school was happily anticipating their Halloween feast; the Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats, Hagrid''s vast pumpkins had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in, and there were rumors that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the entertainment. "A promise is a promise," Hermione reminded Harry bossily. "You said you''d go to the deathday party." Since Hermione had already informed Draco about the party and he had agreed to it, there was no way she wasn''t going to go to the party now. So at seven o''clock, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked straight past the doorway to the packed Great Hall, which was glittering invitingly with gold plates and candles, and directed their steps instead toward the dungeons. "You are finally here." Draco said walking over to them, "It''s really cold here, you know." "Where''s Pansy and the rest?" Hermione asked as she couldn''t see the usual suspects here. "Busy with their own stuff." Draco replied, "You know how I feel about Halloween right?" Hermione remembering Draco''s hatred for pumpkins nodded smiling. Draco didn''t really invite Pansy and the others to begin with as this was too dreary for them. If the party is as bad as Draco remembered it to be. He was sure Hermione would feel tired and leave here alongside him. "Let''s go then." Harry said, "We might miss the deathday... it feels really weird to say that." The passageway leading to Nearly Headless Nick''s party had been lined with candles, too, though the effect was far from cheerful: These were long, thin, jet-black tapers, all burning bright blue, casting a dim, ghostly light even over their own living faces. The temperature dropped with every step they took. As Draco shivered and drew his robes tightly around him, he heard what sounded like a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard. "Is that supposed to be music?" Ron whispered. They turned a corner and saw Nearly Headless Nick standing at a doorway hung with black velvet drapes. "My dear friends," he said mournfully. "Welcome, welcome¡­so pleased you could come¡­Oh! Mr. Black its really a pleasure to see you here. You were great in the duel. If I say so myself, you must be one of the great ones in this era." He swept off his plumed hat and bowed them inside. "It''s my pleasure to be here, Sir Nicholas," Draco said nodding humbly It was an incredible sight. The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly-white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a raised, black-draped platform. A chandelier overhead blazed midnight-blue with a thousand more black candles. Their breath rose in a mist before them; it was like stepping into a freezer. "Shall we have a look around?" Harry suggested, wanting to warm up his feet. "Careful not to walk through anyone," said Ron nervously, and they set off around the edge of the dance floor. 155 Deathday Party pt.4 They passed a group of gloomy nuns, a ragged man wearing chains, and the Fat Friar, a cheerful Hufflepuff ghost, who was talking to a knight with an arrow sticking out of his forehead. Draco wasn''t surprised to see that the Bloody Baron, a gaunt, staring Slytherin ghost covered in silver bloodstains, was being given a wide berth by the other ghosts. Both of them made eye contact with each other and nodded in greeting. "Oh, no," said Hermione, stopping abruptly. "Turn back, turn back, I don''t want to talk to Moaning Myrtle ¡ª" "Who?" said Harry as they backtracked quickly. "She haunts one of the toilets in the girls'' bathroom on the first floor," said Hermione. "She haunts a toilet?" "Yes. It''s been out-of-order all year because she keeps having tantrums and flooding the place. I never went in there anyway if I could avoid it; it''s awful trying to have a pee with her wailing at you¡ª" "Look, food!" said Ron. On the other side of the dungeon was a long table, also covered in black velvet. They approached it eagerly but next moment had stopped in their tracks, horrified. The smell was quite disgusting. Large, rotten fish was laid on handsome silver platters; cakes, burned charcoal-black, were heaped on salvers; there was a great maggoty haggis, a slab of cheese covered in furry green mold and, in pride of place, an enormous gray cake in the shape of a tombstone, with tar-like icing forming the words, SIR NICHOLAS DE MIMSY-PORPINGTON DIED 31ST OCTOBER, 1492 Draco watched, lazily, as a portly ghost approached the table, crouched low, and walked through it, his mouth held wide so that it passed through one of the stinking salmon. "Can you taste it if you walk through it?" Harry asked him. "Almost," said the ghost sadly, and he drifted away. "I expect they''ve let it rot to give it a stronger flavor," said Hermione knowledgeably, pinching her nose and leaning closer to look at the putrid haggis. "It''s more of a feeling actually." Draco commented, "Spirits or ghost, are attracted to the rotten feeling as it gives off a negative aura in the air. Which correlates with the spirits." "Can we move? I feel sick," said Ron. They had barely turned around, however, when a little man swooped suddenly from under the table and came to a halt in midair before them. "Hello, Peeves," said Harry cautiously. Unlike the ghosts around them, Peeves the Poltergeist was the very reverse of pale and transparent. He was wearing a bright orange party hat, a revolving bow tie, and a broad grin on his wide, wicked face. "Nibbles?" he said sweetly, offering them a bowl of peanuts covered in fungus. "No thanks," said Hermione. "Heard you talking about poor Myrtle," said Peeves, his eyes dancing. "Rude you was about poor Myrtle." He took a deep breath and bellowed, "OY! MYRTLE!" "Oh, no, Peeves, don''t tell her what I said, she''ll be really upset," Hermione whispered frantically. "I didn''t mean it, I don''t mind her ¡ª er, hello, Myrtle." The squat ghost of a girl had glided over. She had the glummest face Draco had ever seen, half-hidden behind lank hair and thick, pearly spectacles. "What?" she said sulkily. "How are you, Myrtle?" said Hermione in a falsely bright voice. "It''s nice to see you out of the toilet." Draco was amused on the side as it was quite rare to see Hermione acting fake, he wondered how weird Myrtle might be to make even Hermione act awkward. Myrtle sniffed. "Miss Granger was just talking about you ¡ª" said Peeves slyly in Myrtle''s ear. "Just saying ¡ª" "Just saying ¡ª saying ¡ª how nice you look tonight," said Hermione, glaring at Peeves. Myrtle eyed Hermione suspiciously. "You''re making fun of me," she said, silver tears welling rapidly in her small, see-through eyes. "No ¡ª honestly ¡ª didn''t I just say how nice Myrtle''s looking?" said Hermione, nudging Draco painfully in the ribs who was gleaming at her. "Oh, yeah, she was telling us how nice you were." Draco said with a weird tone. "Don''t lie to me," Myrtle gasped, tears now flooding down her face, while Peeves chuckled happily over her shoulder. "D''you think I don''t know what people call me behind my back? Fat Myrtle! Ugly Myrtle! Miserable, moaning, moping Myrtle!" "You''ve forgotten pimply," Peeves hissed in her ear. Moaning Myrtle burst into anguished sobs and fled from the dungeon. Peeves shot after her, pelting her with moldy peanuts, yelling, "Pimply! Pimply!" "Oh, dear," said Hermione sadly. Nearly Headless Nick now drifted toward them through the crowd. "Enjoying yourselves?" "Oh, yes," they lied. "Not a bad turnout," said Nearly Headless Nick proudly. "The Wailing Widow came all the way up from Kent¡­It''s nearly time for my speech, I''d better go and warn the orchestra¡­" The orchestra, however, stopped playing at that very moment. They and everyone else in the dungeon fell silent, looking around in excitement, as a hunting horn sounded. "Oh, here we go," said Nearly Headless Nick bitterly. Through the dungeon, wall burst a dozen ghost horses, each ridden by a headless horseman. The assembly clapped wildly; The golden trio clapped started to clap, too, but stopped quickly at the sight of Nick''s face. On the other hand, Draco was just there wondering how bored all these ghosts must be. The horses galloped into the middle of the dance floor and halted, rearing and plunging. At the front of the pack was a large ghost who held his bearded head under his arm, from which position he was blowing the horn. The ghost leaped down, lifted his head high in the air so he could see over the crowd (everyone laughed), and strode over to Nearly Headless Nick, squashing his head back onto his neck. "Nick!" he roared. "How are you? Head still hanging in there?" He gave a hearty guffaw and clapped Nearly Headless Nick on the shoulder. "Welcome, Patrick," said Nick stiffly."Live ''uns!" said Sir Patrick, spotting Draco, Harry, Ron, and Hermione and giving a huge, fake jump of astonishment, so that his head fell off again (the crowd howled with laughter). "Very amusing," said Nearly Headless Nick darkly. "Don''t mind Nick!" shouted Sir Patrick''s head from the floor. "Still upset we won''t let him join the Hunt! But I mean to say ¡ª look at the fellow ¡ª" "I think," said Harry hurriedly, at a meaningful look from Nick, "Nick''s very ¡ª frightening and ¡ª er ¡ª" "Ha!" yelled Sir Patrick''s head. "Bet he asked you to say that!" "Did he?" Draco asked with a smirk to which Harry stayed silent. "If I could have everyone''s attention, it''s time for my speech!" said Nearly Headless Nick loudly, striding toward the podium and climbing into an icy blue spotlight. "My late lamented lords, ladies, and gentlemen, it is my great sorrow¡­" But nobody heard much more. Sir Patrick and the rest of the Headless Hunt had just started a game of Head Hockey and the crowd was turning to watch. Nearly Headless Nick tried vainly to recapture his audience, but gave up as Sir Patrick''s head went sailing past him to loud cheers. Draco was very cold by now, not to mention hungry. "I can''t stand much more of this," Ron muttered, his teeth chattering, as the orchestra ground back into action and the ghosts swept back onto the dance floor. "I never thought I would say this but I agree with Weasley." Draco said, "I''d rather sit back with pumpkins all around me than here." They backed toward the door, nodding and beaming at anyone who looked at them, and a minute later were hurrying back up the passageway full of black candles. "I am sorry, your last night here turned out to be such a disaster." Hermione apologized looking a bit sad. "Don''t worry about it." Draco said, "As I said, it''s all about experiences isn''t it. And I am sure no amount of memory charm would ever make me forget this one." Hermione smiled a little as they kept rushing towards the hall in case there was still some food left. "Pudding might not be finished yet," said Ron hopefully, leading the way toward the steps to the entrance hall. Suddenly Harry stopped as he heard something. "¡­rip¡­tear¡­kill¡­" 156 Chamber of secrets pt.1 It was the same voice, the same cold, murderous voice he had heard in Lockhart''s office. He stumbled to a halt, clutching at the stone wall, listening with all his might, looking around, squinting up and down the dimly lit passageway. "Harry, what''re you ¡ª?" "It''s that voice again ¡ª shut up a minute ¡ª" "¡­soo hungry¡­for so long¡­" "Listen!" said Harry urgently, and Ron and Hermione froze, watching him."¡­kill¡­time to kill¡­" The voice was growing fainter. Harry was sure it was moving away ¡ª moving upward. A mixture of fear and excitement gripped him as he stared at the dark ceiling; how could it be moving upward? Was it a phantom, to whom stone ceilings didn''t matter? "This way," he shouted, and he began to run, up to the stairs, into the entrance hall. It was no good hoping to hear anything here, the babble of talk from the Halloween feast was echoing out of the Great Hall. Harry sprinted up the marble staircase to the first floor, Ron and Hermione clattering behind him. Draco stood there for a second finally deciding to go with them, ''I have a really bad feeling about this.'' he thought to himself. "Harry, what''re we ¡ª" "SHH!" Harry strained his ears. Distantly, from the floor above, and growing fainter still, he heard the voice: "¡­I smell blood¡­I SMELL BLOOD!" His stomach lurched ¡ª "It''s going to kill someone!" he shouted, and ignoring Ron''s and Hermione''s bewildered faces, he ran up the next flight of steps three at a time, trying to listen over his own pounding footsteps ¡ª Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Ron and Hermione panting behind him, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage. "Harry, what was that all about?" said Ron, wiping the sweat off his face. "I couldn''t hear anything¡­" But Hermione gave a sudden gasp, pointing down the corridor. "Look!" Something was shining on the wall ahead. They approached slowly, squinting through the darkness. Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches. THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE "What''s that thing ¡ª hanging underneath?" said Ron, a slight quiver in his voice. As they edged nearer, Harry almost slipped ¡ª there was a large puddle of water on the floor; Ron and Hermione grabbed him, and they inched toward the message, eyes fixed on a dark shadow beneath it. All three of them realized what it was at once, and leaped backward with a splash. Mrs. Norris, the caretaker''s cat, was hanging by her tail from the torch bracket. She was stiff as a board, her eyes wide and staring. For a few seconds, they didn''t move. Then Ron said, "Let''s get out of here." "Shouldn''t we try and help ¡ª" Harry began awkwardly. "Trust me," said Ron. "We don''t want to be found here." But it was too late. A rumble, as though of distant thunder, told them that the feast had just ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends. The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, as silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight. Then someone shouted through the quiet. "Enemies of the Heir, beware! You''ll be next, Mudbloods!" It was Flint. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his cold eyes alive, his usually bloodless face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat. Harry who was feeling pity for him was now completely disgusted looking at the sight of Flint who looked hungry for revenge. "What''s going on here? What''s going on?" Attracted no doubt by Flint''s shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror "My cat! My cat! What''s happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked. And his popping eyes fell on Harry. "You!" he screeched. "You! You''ve murdered my cat! You''ve killed her! I''ll kill you! I''ll¡ª" "Move." A demanding voice came from behind him as Filch looked back to see Draco who had just arrived at the scene. "You! You are involved as well..." He said walking towards Draco. "Argus!" Dumbledore had arrived on the scene, followed by a number of other teachers. In seconds, he had swept past Harry, Ron, and Hermione and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket. "Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You, too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger... and you too Mr. Black." Lockhart who had healed in the past few days stepped forward eagerly. "My office is nearest, Headmaster ¡ª just upstairs ¡ª please feel free¡ª" "Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore. The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape. Draco who was studying the scene sighed and left nodding at Theodore and the rest as well. "Couldn''t help but get in trouble even on your last day, huh?" Theodore muttered silently. As they entered Lockhart''s darkened office there was a flurry of movement across the walls; Draco saw several of the Lockharts in the pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore lay Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her. Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged tense looks and sank into chairs outside the pool of candlelight, watching. The tip of Dumbledore''s long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs. Norris''s fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. Professor McGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most peculiar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making suggestions. "It was definitely a curse that killed her ¡ª probably the Transmogrifian Torture ¡ª I''ve seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn''t there, I know the very countercurse that would have saved her¡­" Apparently, after Lockhart losing the battle with Draco, he fell back into his old ways. Though he didn''t confront Draco head on, seeing his excited face all around made Draco more and more uncomfortable. Lockhart''s comments were punctuated by Filch''s dry, racking sobs. He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs. Norris, his face in his hands. Much as he detested Filch, Harry couldn''t help feeling a bit sorry for him, though not nearly as sorry as he felt for himself If Dumbledore believed Filch, he would be expelled for sure. Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs. Norris with his wand but nothing happened. She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed. "¡­I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadougou," said Lockhart, "a series of attacks, the full story''s in my autobiography, I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once¡­" The photographs of Lockhart on the walls were all nodding in agreement as he talked. One of them had forgotten to remove his hair net. "It isn''t dead, genius." Draco called out, "I can smell the dark magic from far away. If it was dead, it would reek of death, not dark magic." Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the number of murders he had prevented. "What do you think about it, Mr. Black?" Dumbledore said with interest in his eyes. "It''s not like you haven''t figured it out," Draco said. "It''s Petrified." "What lead you to believe so?" Dumbledore asked. "The same conclusion as yours..." "Not dead?" choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "But why''s she all ¡ª all stiff and frozen?" 157 Chamber of secrets pt.2 "As Mr.Black said, she has been Petrified," said Dumbledore. "But how, I cannot say¡­" "Ask him!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to Harry. "No second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly. "it would take Dark Magic of the most advanced ¡ª" "He did it, he did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found ¡ª in my office ¡ª he knows I''m a ¡ª I''m a ¡ª" Filch''s face worked horribly. "He knows I''m a Squib!" he finished. "I never touched Mrs. Norris!" Harry said loudly, uncomfortably aware of everyone looking at him, including all the Lockharts on the walls. "And I don''t even know what a Squib is." "Rubbish!" snarled Filch. "He saw my Kwikspell letter! It had disappeared before but now I am sure who is the culprit behind it all." "I don''t even know what letter are you talking about." Harry refuted. "If I might speak, Headmaster," said Snape from the shadows, and Harry''s sense of foreboding increased, he was sure nothing Snape had to say was going to do him any good, "Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time." Harry was shocked, he didn''t know why Snape would try to help him but then he remembered Draco who was along with them. "But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was he in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn''t he at the Halloween feast?" Lockhart out of everyone called out with a nasty voice staring at Draco. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all launched into an explanation about the deathday party. "¡­there were hundreds of ghosts, they''ll tell you we were there ¡ª" "But why not join the feast afterward?" said Lockhart, his black eyes glittering in the candlelight. "Why go up to that corridor?" Ron and Hermione looked at Harry. "Because ¡ª because ¡ª" Harry said, his heart thumping very fast; something told him it would sound very far-fetched if he told them he had been led there by a bodiless voice no one but he could hear, "because we were tired and wanted to go to bed," he said. "Without any supper?" said Lockhart, a triumphant smile flickering across his face. "I didn''t think ghosts provided food fit for living people at their parties." "We weren''t hungry," said Ron loudly as his stomach gave a huge rumble. Lockhart''s nasty smile widened. "I suggest, Headmaster, that they are not being entirely truthful," he said. "It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. To be honest, it''s not like they haven''t got someone in their group who is very proficient in magic." "Just say it straight, Lockhart you are trying to blame me aren''t you." Draco said frowning, "It''s true if I wanted to I could easily do so, but why would I go this roundabout way of getting myself blamed for it. Do you really consider me that stupid on the other hand, you look too eager to blame me..." Draco''s voice got slower and slower as his eyes gleamed with light as if he had finally figured something out. The sudden rise in power and the chamber of secret correlates to one thing, Tom Riddle''s diary. Draco didn''t know how Lockhart got his hand on it but he was now certain who possessed it. "Mr. Black, Lockhart just keep quiet for once." said Professor McGonagall sharply, "And Lockhart, I see no reason to deprive of them of their privileges. This cat wasn''t hit over the head and there is no evidence at all that they had done anything wrong." Dumbledore was giving Draco a searching look. His twinkling light-blue gaze made Draco feel as though he were being X-rayed but he stayed silent as he stared back at him. "Innocent until proven guilty, Lockhart," he said firmly. Lockhart looked furious. So did Filch. "My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!" "We will be able to cure her, Argus," said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris." "I''ll make it," Lockhart butted in again looking away from Draco, "I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep ¡ª" "Excuse me," said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school." There was a very awkward pause. "You may go all go. I believe Mr. Black has some work to do tomorrow morning." Dumbledore said to Draco, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They went, as quickly as they could without actually running while Hermione nodded at Draco as she slowly left alongside Harry and Ron as well. When they were a floor up from Lockhart''s office, they turned into an empty classroom and closed the door quietly behind them. Harry squinted at his friends'' darkened faces. "D''you think I should have told them about that voice I heard?" "No," said Ron, without hesitation. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn''t a good sign, even in the wizarding world." Something in Ron''s voice made Harry ask, "You do believe me, don''t you?" "''Course I do," said Ron quickly. "But ¡ª you must admit it''s weird¡­" "I know it''s weird," said Harry. "The whole thing''s weird. What was that writing on the wall about? The Chamber Has Been Opened¡­What''s that supposed to mean?" ------------------------------------------------ "I don''t know." Draco firmly answered the questioning look of Pansy. "How come?" Pansy asked again, "You know pretty much everything. So what makes this one so different?" "Pansy, I think he really doesn''t know." Daphne backed up Draco to protect him but couldn''t help but look back with doubt clearly written on her face. "Right?" "Sigh! The chamber is an old myth in Hogwarts." Draco said sighing, "It''s just that, A myth." "Then who could do such a thing?" Pansy asked with nervousness in her voice, "I mean that writing..." "Maybe it''s just someone with a grudge against the cat." Theodore said suddenly, "I mean who doesn''t hate that cat, right?" "Stop worrying about the cat." Draco said shaking his head, "I am leaving tomorrow morning so I need to have some word with you guys." Pansy and Daphne nodded as they circled around the common room and chatted for a while. Soon both Theodore, Daphne, and Pansy fell asleep. Taking his chances, Draco looked around and slowly without trying to make much noise sneaked out the door. He was carefully walking towards Lockhart''s office when he suddenly felt someone behind his back. Suspecting it might be the creature from the Chamber, the basilick. Draco kept his eyes closed and turned back pointing his wand towards the other direction trying to feel things with his senses. "It''s me, idiot..." Draco heard a familiar voice as he relaxed and opened his eyes, "Go back, Theodore." "Not until you tell me why you''re acting all sneaky." Theodore came forward with a questioning gaze. "Sigh! You know curiosity killed the cat, right? Maybe, in this case, petrified it... but I guess it wouldn''t be so bad if someone was at least aware of the situation." Draco said in a whispered tone, "Follow me and be quiet!" "It is about the chamber isn''t it?" Theodore murmured, "Do you know what happened?" "That''s what I am trying to find out." Draco said, "Shh!! Someone''s in there?" To reach Lockhart''s office, they had to go through the first-floor corridor which happened to be the scene of the incident. And in there was someone none other than Filch trying to wipe off the writing from the wall with a bottle of Mrs. Skower''s All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but it wasn''t working at all. Filch getting frustrated, threw the whole bottle on the writing as he started madly scrubbing with all the strength he could muster. "Knock him out!" Draco whispered. "A plate of memory charms coming right up!" Theodore nodded and went forward, with his wand. 158 Slave to fate. Knocking out Filch, Draco and Theodore moved towards Lockhart''s office. "You sure he is still in there?" Theodore whispered with uncertainty, "I mean, it''s already really late." "We''ll just have to see." Draco said, "Even if he isn''t there I still need to search his office for something." "What?" "Something that is really necessary." Draco said vaguely as he suddenly turned quite when he heard murmurs from within Lockhart''s office. They moved in closer and slowly, suspecting if someone was in the office with Lockhart but the more they listened the more it seemed like Lockhart having a conversation with himself. "You stay here." Draco said to Theodore, "In case something unexpected happens, be my backup." Theodore nodded as he stayed in position with Draco preparing his wand out as he barged into Lockhart''s office. "Stupefy!" He chanted at the first sight of Lockhart, knocking him out. The portrait around him seemed confused and shock but before they could react, Draco quickly chanted another spell and covered all of them up. "You can come in!" Draco said as Theodore came in and locked the door from within. Both of them tied Lockhart to a chair as Draco sat on top of the desk in front of him. "Rennervate" Draco chanted as Lockhart woke up frightened and scared, he wanted to scream but before he could his tongue was tied by a curse, "Mimblewimble" Draco stretched his wand to Lockhart''s neck, "I will not hesitate to blow your fucking head off if you mumble a single unnecessary word. Do you understand me?" Lockhart quickly nodded as if his life depended on it. Draco undid the curse as Lockhart moved his mouth around, trying to feel his tongue again. "I will not ask you more than once, just give me the diary." Draco said with seriousness, "It doesn''t belong to you." "How do you know about it?" Lockhart said with his eyes wide open, "Ho-How''s that even possible?" "Do you really want to make me repeat myself?" Draco said frowning as he raised his wand back up again. "It-It''s in the third drawer of that cabinet." Lockhart said pointing to a cabinet at the corner of the room, "I swear, Draco I didn''t mean it. I mean... I know we have our differences but please I didn''t really mean it." Draco didn''t say anything and just walked towards the cabinet and pulled the third drawer. In there was a black diary, Draco sighed in relief as he picked it up but he quickly frowned again as he noticed some strangeness in the diary. It wasn''t a regular one but more of a wizard diary. As far as Draco knew Voldemort''s or Tom Riddle''s diary was a regular muggle diary which was later bewitched with magic. Draco turned the pages to a random spot and as expected it wasn''t the diary he was looking for as it was filled with words from the front to the last. The diary basically wrote about all about Lockhart revenge plans on Draco for tarnishing his reputation. From different ways of capturing himself to making him confess his wrongs with memory spells. After losing the match, Lockhart had now already lost a lot of respect in the wizarding community. Though his hardcore fans defended him claiming Draco being too strong and abnormal, but still losing to a wizard who was still 12 was still a very shameful thing for someone who claims to be the strongest. The reported Rita wrote the whole duel in an exaggerated way, bashing Lockhart to fullest. Draco didn''t know what was going on between Lockhart and Rita, but from the looks of whatever it was, it wasn''t really good for Lockhart as his reputation took even a deeper dive than before after the news came out. From what Draco had heard, even his old fans were now asking for a refund on the books they bought before because it was too unbelievable to them. So now finding this sort of diary from Lockhart wasn''t really too surprising but Draco was far from pleased. He threw the diary right across Lockhart''s face, which caused him to cry out, "Not my face!" Since he couldn''t do anything but squirm around. "Where is the diary?" Draco asked clearly angry as he grabbed Lockhart''s collar. "I gave it to you!" Lockhart said nearly crying. "Does this look like a joke to you?" Draco said as he released his collar and pointed his wand towards the chair, "Incedio!" The chair quickly caught on fire as Lockhart began panicking but before he knew, he couldn''t speak again as his tongue was tied up. The fire easily started spreading towards his robe and the rope Lockhart was tied in, as Lockhart kept squirming and mumbling words with nothing but fear in his eyes. "Give me the diary or I''ll burn you to death." Draco said as he watched Lockhart wail in pain as his clothes began to catch on fire too. Theodore who was watching from the side sighed and released a spell, "Aguamenti" Clearwater sprouted from his wand putting the fire out. "You''re losing it again." He said looking at Draco, "I don''t know what kind of diary you want from him but killing him isn''t really a choice here." Everyone was silent for a while, and the only thing they could hear was Lockhart breathing heavily. Draco didn''t say anything back to Theodore as he went closer to Lockhart who was now drenched from head to toe. "I am not really losing it right now but I guess I really am blaming my mistakes on others." Draco said taking a deep breath, "You know I could have prevented all these stupid things but then again I kept underestimating fate, who knew no matter what I did, these things were bound to happen sooner or later. I kept the elf in check, I did the same with my father as well. I thought I changed everything for good but in the end, I am still a slave to fate." Draco walked around Lockhart, "I know you might just be an innocent victim in all this but I can''t help but be angry-- Lockhart, as you said we both have our grievances but I tell you this, that cursed diary isn''t going to help you in this. Though I don''t really know when all this started with you but I now know that everything that happened wasn''t completely your fault... you were just another victim to his sick games. I know I overreacted at times and made you suffer humiliation which you might not have deserved but that diary isn''t going to help you solve all this. Lockhart, I promise you this, as long as you give me that diary back I will help you get back on track again. Hell, I will even help you be a better wizard but you need to get away from that corruption first." Draco removed the curse, "Let me help you." "I-I really don''t know what you''re talking about." Lockhart said in an unusually serious tone, "I really don''t. If I knew, I would have given you what you wanted by now." "So you''re telling me that you suddenly being strong enough to duel with me in a couple of months is a coincidence? Are you seriously asking me to believe that you were willing to stay in this school for no purpose even after being humiliated after the duel?" Draco said frowning, "Lockhart, you''ve seen me angry and you''ve seen my lenient side but please don''t test my patience." 159 Slave to fate pt.2 "I DONT KNOW!! I DONT FUCKING KNOW!!!" Lockhart screamed angrily with frustration clearly on his tone, his voice got hoarser and slower as he kept going, "I don''t know if you are a curse to me but ever since I met you that day everything has been going shit for me... You want to know what I am doing here?-- I have been asking my self that all morning." "You don''t have your memories..." Draco muttered as he kept staring at Lockhart realizing what was going on. "I woke up today not remembering shit, these four months have been empty to me as if someone else was living as me. And after waking up, the first thing I find is my reputation, my entire career that I build with care and hard work has now disappeared... I woke up to barrages of insults from people who once used to love me but now its all gone...all gone. And the reason for it? Me clashing with the young wizarding prodigy which I don''t even recall why." Lockhart said in a frustrated tone, the facade he used to show now all gone, "I don''t know what fucking diary you''re looking for whenI don''t even remember why I even agreed to teach here in the first place. The only way I am even putting all these pieces together was through my diary and newspaper clippings but they aren''t useful either." "Sigh! Do it." Draco said to Theodore turning back, "At least, give him some decent memories to replace the bad ones." Theodore lazily nodded and turned his wand towards Lockhart, while Draco fixed the mess around the place. "Are you sure you don''t want to look further?" Theodore asked getting out of Lockhart''s room. "It''s pointless." Draco said looking at his pocket watch as he shook his head, "I don''t even have time now." "So what''s this all about?" Theodore said, "Mind filling me in?" "Sigh! It''s related to Voldemort..." ----------------------------------------------------------------- "So he finally comes, huh?" Inside a dark room, a boy in his late teens was sitting by the fireplace in a wheelchair, beside him a grown hairy man was kneeling down to him like a faithful servant, "To think he will go further to mock me again. He really knows how to get under one''s skin, I''ll give him that at least." the boy crumbled the newspaper in his hand and threw it into the fire. "Yes, master." The man said faithfully, "I heard Karkaroff talking about picking the boy up from Hogwarts yesterday." "Call me Ryan." The boy said smiling a little, "You''ve been faithful to me ever since I came here and have been serving me well. Silas, I assure you that no one is worthy other than you." "Yes mas... I mean Ryan." The man said awkwardly with a sleazy smile none the less, "I have been following you for so long, anything other than master just sounds weird to me now." "It''s fine." Ryan said waving his hands, "So who is going to pick up our dear friend from Hogwarts." "Previously only I was supposed to go but now with the whole duel thing with Lockhart, Karkaroff wants to go bring the genius himself here to make sure he stays here in Durmstrang." "Genius? haha..." Ryan gave a burst of hearty laughter, which ended in an arrogant sneer, "Good, do everything according to the plan and not mess it up. Remember as I said, don''t act against him in any way." "You know me, master. I am not like the others." Silas said smiling, "I can assure you that there will be no problems." "Well get ready to leave then." Ryan said, "Don''t waste any time." "Yes, master." Silas nodded standing up as he walked away. "Finally we are going to meet." Ryan spoke to himself in a hushed tone as he suddenly began to violently cough, covering his mouth he looked at his hands which was covered in blood, "I must say you have a really good timing or else I might have to look for you myself." (A/N: What Silas looks like: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/c/cc/SilasCrump.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/347?cb=20161230015945 ) ----------------------------------------------------------------- "So you''re telling me that a bewitched diary that Voldemort once possessed was given to your father and is now lost in Hogwarts." Theodore said with a really annoyed tone, "Furthermore the fucking thing has a mind of its own and can release a Basilick inside the chamber of secrets." "Yup! That''s why I need you to solve this case for me." Draco said looking outside the window at the rising sun, "Or at least protect everyone till I get back here." "How do I look for the culprit then?" Theodore said rubbing the back of his head, "I mean I am sure they won''t certainly show themselves to me." "It will be difficult but just look for someone who is acting a bit different than their usual self." Draco said, "Maybe someone who is now suddenly good at magic or someone who looks too afraid. Mostly keep an eye out on Ginny, from what I know with the slug-vomiting incident and the diary... fate will likely try to bite me in my ass again." "Ginny? Fate? Since when did you become a big believer of fate?" Theodore asked yawning, "You''re acting like you know everything that''s going to happen... wait! don''t tell me you''re interested in Divination now." "Something like it." Draco said smiling, "But do remember what I said. Also if you get your hands on the diary, promise me that you''ll inform me right away." "Really? Fine--I promise. You don''t want to do another oath do you?" "Not necessary." Draco said, "Let''s go back, I need to say my goodbyes now." "Where did you go?" Pansy asked seeing Draco and Theodore casually enter back into the common room, "I was about to go look for you." The yesterday''s incident still had her shaken up so she couldn''t help but worry, Daphne who was beside her still had a worried face as well. "Come sit with me." Draco said smiling, "I have something to tell you guys." "What is it?" Daphne asked looking a bit confused. "You see, something happened and there are some incidents that took place yesterday that I wasn''t really expecting." Draco said, "Though I told you guys to not worry but now it seems like I won''t be around to handle the situation like I was expecting anymore." "What are you going on about?" "Yesterday''s incident." Draco said, "I know somethings but you guys have to trust me on this one, okay?" "So you did know, huh." Pansy said pouting, "At least you decided to come clean before you leave." "The situation is really serious." Draco said with a self-deprecating laugh, "I thought I could handle it before I leave but I couldn''t do it." Seeing Draco like this, Pansy and Daphne looked at each other and turned to look back at Draco seriously. "The incident is caused by a Basilisk, that''s hidden inside the chamber of secrets." Draco said, "And I am sure it won''t be the first incident hereafter as well." "Basilisk?" "The Basilisk is a giant serpent, also known as the King of Serpents." Draco said, "They are huge and well there are able to kill their victims with just direct eye contact, that''s all you need to know about them." "But you said Filch''s cat didn''t die?" "Because it was indirect, you saw the puddles of water around the place, didn''t you? Though not a lot of people know this, indirect eye contact with the basilisk leads to petrification. Hence, the situation with Filch''s cat. The basilisk is being controlled by someone but I don''t know who." 160 Durmstrang pt.1 "You mean the one who wrote on the wall?" Daphne and Pansy who were smart quickly caught on to what Draco was talking about. "Exactly." Draco nodded, "I know you are not like others but I will say it just in case, don''t look for it. The Basilisk won''t likely attack you during the night in the dorm and also make sure to go home for Christmas no matter what. Always hang out in groups and make sure to carry a mirror with you to look back at, in case you suspect someone or something following you." "Petrification is much better than death." Theodore added from the side, "Stop staring at me... I didn''t know about it till an hour ago too." Seeing Pansy''s and Daphne glare, Theodore quickly retorted. "Should we inform the teachers then?" Pansy said, "Though I don''t know about Dumbledore, Professor Snape might be able to help us." "It might help us but it will arouse too many questions which I am not really in liberty to answer." "How about Hermione don''t you want to tell her as well?" Daphne asked. "You explain things to her for me in case she asks but don''t tell her about the basilisk." Draco said, "Though I don''t think she will do anything alone but with those two idiots by her side, I am sure they will drag her into a mess. Also, do the same for every member of our club. Just tell them it''s my orders." Daphne and Pansy nodded knowing which idiots Draco was talking about. "Do you know about the chamber of secrets too?" Pansy asked. "I do know something about it but don''t expect me to tell it to you." Draco said seriously, "Just do as I say and stay out of trouble at least till I come back." Pansy sighed and nodded. Draco knew Pansy was upset about him keeping secrets but there were many things he couldn''t share with her. Knowing there wasn''t much he could do, he pulled Pansy into a tight hug. "Don''t worry too much about the basilisk." Draco said gently as he caressed her hair, "Though it''s a threat, I promise you that it won''t cause you any harm as long as you do as I say." Pansy didn''t say anything and just lied in his embrace like a kid. "Also, I am really sorry but you have to understand my side of things too." "Umm..." Pansy said in a muffled tone hiding her face in his chest. Draco knew Pansy was trying her hardest to not cry for so long, as this was probably going to be their longest separation ever since they met. "I''ll be back before you know it." Draco said patting her back softly, "And I want to see you win the quidditch cup this year, so don''t let me down." "I won''t!" Pansy said in a determined tone. Draco looked at Daphne who was looking at them with a smile on her face. Draco didn''t say anything and just stretched his hands calling Daphne to join the hug as well. Daphne quickly obliged and rushed towards Draco hugging him. "Lucky bastard!" Theodore mumbled looking at Draco holding two girls in his embrace as he walked off. ---------------------------------------------- "Take this and keep it in a secure place." Draco said handing Pansy, Daphne, and Theodore a batch of Mandrake Restorative Draught which he had prepared a very long time ago. "In case any of you get petrified it will be helpful but don''t go around handing it to everyone as I don''t have a lot of it." "You''re not giving it to your mistress from Gryffindor?" Theodore asked in a teasing tone. "She will figure things out too quickly if I do with the mirrors and all." Draco shook his head, "I wouldn''t worry much about her if it weren''t for the two idiots... anyway keeping them a far away from these things is the best outcome of the situation. But do give her one if she falls victim to the basilisk." They all nodded as they head out. Draco carried his suitcase with him ready to leave as his ride was already here. "I have already kept an eye on things." Theodore whispered to Draco, "Since the only lead we have is Potter, I will watching over him for now." "He has an invisibility cloak as well so make sure to keep an eye out." Draco said, "As far as I know, as long as Volde knows about Potter he would do anything in his power to get to him." "What are you talking about?" Hermione came walking towards them. "Nothing much." Draco shook his head as he stretched out his arms for a hug. Hermione unlike before wasn''t much shy as she hugged him back. But she still didn''t hug him for long with Pansy and others around. "Have a safe trip!" "You stay safe too." Draco said, "Though I would rather ask you to stay away from Potter but since you won''t at least don''t blindly follow him into a mess." "Don''t talk bad about them." Hermione said smiling, "Don''t worry, I will keep a look around. But I did have some questions for you..." "And you must know I won''t answer them as long as it''s about yesterday." Draco said looking serious, "Don''t go looking for trouble and make me worry about you." Hermione though not satisfied still nodded as she didn''t want to pick a fight with Draco today. "Stay safe and don''t hang around at night and please make sure to not roam around alone." Draco said messing her bushy hair, "Consider this you repaying some favors of mine. Also, Theodore here will help you if anything goes wrong so don''t hesitate to ask him for help, though not as good as me he will certainly help you." Hermione nodded with doubts in her mind but she didn''t question him. "Take this mirror with you and don''t go out without it." Draco said handing her one, "They will answer your questions if you have any." -------------------------------------------- Leaving them with a final goodbye, Draco went towards Dumbledore''s office. He was about to enter when he suddenly heard Dumbledore call out to him. "Draco, we have been waiting for you." Draco turned around to see Dumbledore along with two men by his side. One was the principle of Durmstrang himself, Igor Karkaroff while the other person was someone who he didn''t know at all. "It''s finally great to see the genius with my own eyes." Karkaroff said with an unctuously cheerful demeanor, "Though I expected you to be a little small, but hey all those powers need a good body to handle it, right?" "It''s good to see you too, Headmaster." Draco smiled coming closer toward the tall and thin Karkaroff with a greeting. Karkaroff looked like any villain from a movie, wearing a sleek, silver fur with his weak chin which was not completely covered by his goatee, which ended with a small curl. His cold blue eyes made which made him slightly unnerving and to finish the touch he had yellow shining teeth. Dumbledore''s face twitched a little hearing Draco call the other party Headmaster but he didn''t let it bother him as he continued with his usual happy expression. "No need to call me Headmaster boy!" Igor laughed, "Call me uncle, your father and I are good friends." 161 Durmstrang Pt.2 Draco didn''t say much and just smiled as he looked at the man besides Karkaroff who was looking at him in a weird way. "And this is?" "Oh! I forgot to introduce him, he is Silas, one of the professors in Durmstrang and my assistant." Karkaroff said patting the man, "He was supposed to be the one to pick you up but I decided to hop along the journey as well." "It''s really a pleasure to meet you." Silas said coming forward, "I have always wanted to meet the rumored Prince." "It''s great to meet you too Professor." Draco nodded, "And the whole Prince thing is an exaggeration and nothing else so please don''t flatter me for it." Silas shook his head and stood back to where he previously stood. "You can visit any time you want Professor Karkaroff." Dumbledore said turning to face Draco, "Draco, are you ready to leave?" "Yes, I have said my goodbyes and I am good to go." Draco said shaking the suitcase in his hand, "By the way, can you tell me where Professor Snape is? I need to have a word with him if I could." "You just missed him." Dumbledore said, "Though I don''t know what for, Professor Snape has taken a vacation for a week." "I see." Draco nodded, "Since he isn''t here, I am ready to leave any time you are, uncle Karkarof "Let''s not waste any further time then." Karkaroff nodded, "Dumbledore it was great seeing you after so long and I hope to see you again." "We will be seeing each other sooner than you expect." Dumbledore said humbly with underlying meaning behind his words, "And also, do make sure to be here on time Draco and since you''re representing Hogwarts, make sure to behave." "The geniuses are always the troublemakers, aren''t they?" Karkaroff laughed showing his yellow teeth, "Don''t worry he will be fine under my tutelage. I am sure Durmstrang is the place where a true pure-blood genius like him belongs. A true place for the prince." Dumbledore didn''t say reply to the statement as he sat there with a hint of a smile, "Do take care of him though as he is really a precious student of ours." "Don''t worry, Dumbledore you have my word." Karkaroff said nodding, "When are you getting your wand back, huh, Draco? I heard Cornelius talking about your situation." "After February." Draco replied, "The ban was placed for 6 months and it''s already been two." "Good, you can at least show your full potential while you''re there." Karkaroff nodded, "Well this is it then Dumbledore, I will be taking your genius for now." "Have a safe journey." Dumbledore said as he looked back, "I hope to see you soon as well Draco." Draco nodded. Igor and Silas walked towards the exit of the castle but before leaving Draco turned to face Dumbledore. "I don''t want to know what games are you playing but I hope you know what you''re doing." Draco said, "I don'' want to hear a piece of single bad news about my friends while I am not here." "I really don''t know what you''re talking about." Dumbledore said with his usual casual tone, "Is there something that you know about?" "I know we both suspect the same thing so playing naive isn''t really going to end well for us." Draco said, "I don''t know what you''re trying to achieve but I hope you know that if any of the students get hurt, Hogwart will surely close down." Both Dumbledore and Draco knew that it wasn''t a threat but rather the complete honesty. Saying what he wanted to say, Draco followed Igor and went out. Deep inside he always suspected Dumbledore but this time he was sure, Dumbledore really did know something. If that wasn''t the case then there was no way in hell that any of the students would survive the Basilisk attack. Considering last time it was out, Moaning Myrtle died there was a huge probability that someone should''ve died in the second year too but the victims were only petrified. One could have been a coincidence but more than that was definitely a sign that someone was hindering the process. Draco was still stuck between the world he was in and the book he once read but the reality was much more different. Though Dumbledore might not know about the Horcruxes, he for sure knew about the basilisk. In the magical world, there isn''t a thing as coincidence and who better to control things here in Hogwarts than Dumbledore. Though Draco didn''t trust the old fogey too much, he at least knew that Dumbledore wouldn''t let anyone die, which was more than enough for him. "Get in, Draco!" Igor called out, as he stood outside a wooden carriage, which was laced with silver pieces of jewelry. The horse was carried by four full-grown Abraxas. "Suprised are you?"Igor asked looking proud. "I traded some books from our school for these winged-horses from Beauxbatons, the headmistress there loves to breed them... though that giantess nearly wanted an arm for it, I still managed to get it." Draco nodded in understanding and got inside the carriage which was a bit more spacious than what it seemed like from the inside. In front of him was Silas staring at him with the same gaze and before but when Igor entered, Silas expression turned to normal. Draco wasn''t much surprised by this behavior however with Durmstrang being Ryan''s territory, he was already expecting some enemies to be around, unexpectedly these people with him weren''t really under the Imperius curse like the previous people but he was still doubtful whether one of them was under the same magic as Pius was before, the one were one could be completely controlled by someone. Not trusting anyone, Draco just sat there with his wand hidden up his sleeve in case of an unexpected attack. The horses started flapping their wings as the carriage lifted off the ground. Draco looked outside the window and saw his friends along with all the members from the club waving him a final goodbye through the castle window, not knowing whether they could see him or not, he still waved back at them until he couldn''t see them anymore. "So what subject do you really teach, Professor Silas?" "I teach dark arts." Silas said with a smile, "Though it might be a foreign subject to you as they don''t teach it in Hogwarts, I am sure you will get the hang of it soon." "He is, after all, a genius." Igor butted in the conversation, "I heard you defeated Lockhart with minor dark arts, which I must say is really impressive. I heard about him before and though I don''t know much about how strong he is, defeating an adult wizard is already praiseworthy for someone your age." "It was a stroke of luck." Draco said, "To be honest, I am sure he could have won if he had a few more months to prepare for it." "You''re too humble Draco." Igor said, "One should be proud of their achievements." "It''s the truth." Draco said sighing, "I have a tendency to underestimate my opponents and overestimate my abilities, but the battle really has given me some insights. I need to crush my opponents down the moment I have the chance, no matter how weak or strong." Silas stayed silent just glaring at Draco, saying nothing while Igor on the other hand laughed. "Hahaha! you remind me of a student of mine." he said, "A bit hard headed but he is really hard working, you might have heard of him, he is, of course, one of the rising stars, the same as you, Victor Krum." 162 Durmstrang pt.3 "Krum..." Draco mumbled in disappointment but he didn''t let it show on his face, "I have indeed heard of him, it''s quite difficult to not notice a rising Quidditch star who I heard is getting selected for the Bulgarian team." "Yes-Yes... A star, that he is." Igor said proudly, "But it is really a bit of disappointment that you couldn''t enter Durmstrang from the beginning. As far as I know, Lucius wanted you to go there, didn''t he?" "Yeah he did but mother worried about Durmstrang being a bit too far away, but I am quite happy here in Hogwarts. It''s not really that bad as some might think." Draco said, "I have been meaning to ask, aren''t there any good students in Durmstrang, as in academically." "Well almost all of them excel in every subject but there hasn''t been anyone exception like you." Igor said again praising Durmstrang again, "I hope within these six months you make your mind up to chose the right school for yourself." Draco ignored most of the conversation throughout the whole rest of the journey with just simple nods. Draco was trying to figure out what Ryan was actually trying to achieve, the way he acted was completely different from how he appeared in front of people. After all the investigation he had done with the help of Snape, he had concluded two very important details. One, Ryan was creating an army of his own filled with wizards and witches and even magical creatures. Last he heard any information about it was that a pack of werewolves had joined his cause willingly. And that wasn''t all, he had even managed to influence wizards with the imperius curse to work for him, though not so big, he had quite a decent battle power right now, especially if he wanted to sneak attack, the opponents might not stand a chance at all. Second, Ryan was completely anonymous in these things to the point where nothing could be traced back to him, suggesting someone else was doing his bidding for him. Snape and Draco had come to the same conclusion that it must have been a very faithful servant who is very close to him. Which suggests that the person was in Durmstrang. Though the investigation suggested that things in Durmstrang were normal, the suspicion that there was a faithful servant hiding behind all the students and teachers their made things much more complicated. The person could be anyone even Igor who was chatting with him right now. For a cowardly dark wizard who snitched on his fellow Death Eaters, and someone who used to follow Voldemort, the suspicion on him wouldn''t be too far-fetched. Every wizard who used to follow Voldemort wanted one thing, ''Power'', whether it was for dominance or it was to get back on the top, it all correlated to wanting power. So Igor could have easily submitted himself to Ryan, but that was all suspicions besides he had found something much more interesting. Silas, who was staring at him. Though he looked normal on the surface, the aura around him told a different story. In fact, Draco had never seen anything like it before, just the whole vibe of animal-like killing intent Silas was giving off was really intensifying. He had never felt the same way about any other person he had met before and from the way, things were looking, he was sure Igor couldn''t feel anything of the same. The feeling was hard to describe but in general, it felt as if a predator was looking at its prey as if it was barely holding back from ripping the prey to shreds. Draco was sure the only reason he could feel it was because he was now a half-veela of some sort and was quite a bit sensitive to nature magic but what made Silas so different was really amusing to Draco. Throughout the whole journey, Draco had already found his main suspect, though there might be others or even Silas himself could be innocent but the feeling he was giving was enough to decide there was something wrong with him. Through a not so long journey, Draco could finally see Durmstrang in sight. Durmstrang Institue really lived up to its name for being one of the three largest wizarding schools.Durmstrang, like Hogwarts, is a castle, though their castle is not quite as big as Hogwarts it is still large enough to shock someone. The castle is four stories tall and has the same medieval feeling to it. It also has very extensive grounds and is surrounded by lakes and mountains. From what Draco knew of the school is that it is Unplottable meaning no maps can ever trace its location, similar to Leaky Cauldron and Durmstrang also conceals its whereabouts from plain sight with additional magic added to it, to keep Muggles away from the place at any cost. Durmstrang was founded during the Middle Ages by the great Bulgarian witch Nerida Vulchanova, who served as the first head of the school. She was succeeded after her mysterious death by Professor Harfang Munter, who established Durmstrang''s reputation for emphasizing martial magic as an impressive part of its curriculum. One of the few reasons, Draco was really interested in this school as it not only prepared students for duels but also for real life-fighting scenario as one is very unlikely to follow the rules of a duel in a death match. The other thing that made this school very interesting was because of a single person, Gellert Grindelwald, one of the most powerful and dangerous Dark Wizards of all time, who was accepted into Durmstrang Institute back in the day. Although the school was oriented towards the Dark Arts, Grindelwald''s experiments in dark magic were considered too dangerous for the students. After a certain amount of time, Durmstrang could no longer ignore Grindelwald''s dangerous studies and expelled him. For a school that was so proud of its history of dark magic, it was kind of ironic to expel a student for it. But the fact they did suggests how ruthless and dangerous Grindelwald''s magic was, to the point where it even made a school like Durmstrang to expel him. But even after all that, to this day, Grindelwald is still marked as the best student in the school''s history. Draco had heard of students who were so proud about the fact that they went to the same school as Grindlewald that they went on to brag about it, only to get taught a lesson in the form of retribution by the people who lost their family members to Grindelwald. And last but not least, he was kind of happy to meet Crabbe and Goyle again. Though they weren''t really too close friends, he still considered them to be a sort of responsibility since he had changed their entire fate. For someone who was supposed to stay in Hogwarts, they had to leave for Durmstrang which wasn''t really that much of a nice place as Igor made it out to be. One of the main reasons being Igor himself. Igor Karkaroff, after being acquitted as a Death Eater by betraying Voldemort by revealing information to the British Ministry of Magic, rose to the position of Headmaster of Durmstrang and had created an immensely unpopular image of himself in this position. To the point where several students were removed from the school by their parents for his ruthlessness. But even after all the backlash, he still insisted on an environment ruled by fear and intimidation from his students, leading many to view him as egotistical and unprincipled. So seeing Karkaroff, act all chummy with him made him feel extremely uncomfortable. Though his unusualness wasn''t comparable to Silas, as his behavior could be interpreted as him wanting to impress Draco but it still didn''t feel right at all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A friend of mine is writing a Harry Potter fanfic which I think you guys will love. Please check it out and support him. Its called Harry Potter and the Fate Breaker (Link below) https://www.webnovel.com/book/14127185805424705/Harry-Potter-and-the-Fate-Breake 163 Durmstrang pt.4 The carriage landed outside the gates of the school and soon as they did, the huge gates opened itself letting them in. Since it was still the middle of the day, most of the student were busy having classes, so no one could be seen outside. The fact that they arrive so quick made Draco feel impressed of the carriage and the horses, though he had his own pair of flying horses he had never gotten the chance to ride it around outside other than inside his suitcase where he took a couple of test drive so seeing them reach quicker than ever made Draco quite satisfied. Draco stepped outside the carriage looking around the place, the place seemed empty compared to Hogwarts it was way too dark for its own good. The main castle had a huge inscription of the school''s coat of arms which was a double-headed eagle, which also featured the school''s name in both Latin and Cyrillic script. Draco found it quite hilarious how Drumstrang was the complete opposite of Hogwarts in every little thing possible. If Hogwarts in muggle terms was very akin to a normal boarding school then Durmstrang would be comparable to a military school, with its strict regime and training. "Since you''re a transfer student you don''t have to do much but I still prefer that you change into our school''s uniform as standing out isn''t always a good thing." Igor said as he got out of the carriage as well, "Silas here will provide you with it all the necessities and explain you with all things you need to know. I have some other matters to attend so I will be taking my leave." Draco nodded as Igor left towards a tower, which was not too far away from the castle. "That''s the headmaster''s office." Silas said looking at the tower as well, "If you need anything from professor Karkaroff please head there." Draco nodded in understanding as he saw three men in uniforms heading towards them. Without saying anything other than a simple nod towards Silas, the men got hold of the horses and started leading them away. "They are the guards in our school." Silas explained looking at Draco with a small smile, "Things here are a bit different, so I hope you get used to it. So shall we go inside then, Mr. Black." "Sure." Heading inside the castle the first thing Draco saw was moving portraits similar to that of Hogwarts but unlike that of Hogwarts, all the portraits contained gloomy figures inside huge golden frames. The portraits stared curiously at Draco as he was in still in Hogwarts uniform completely different from the rest, while some acted unbothered about it. "These are the portraits of our headmasters and all the important figures that went through their magical journey here in Durmstrang." Silas said acting like a guide leading Draco around, "They don''t say anything so trying to talk to them would be pointless." "Shouldn''t they be in a more secure place than right in front of the gates?" Draco said looking around, "I mean, isn''t it a bit disrespectful to do this?" "Well, it was like that before but ever since headmaster Karkaroff took the office he changed the things around quite a lot." Silas said sighing, "According to him, we should make people feel the glory of Durmstrang the moment they enter the castle. They should look at these painting of these great figures and know the excellence of Durmstrang from the very beginning." "That''s ambitious... but aren''t people''s memory wiped about how they get here?" Draco asked, "So what''s the point of even going through all this ''showing off greatness'' when all they remember is vagueness?" "The potion isn''t too powerful at all and besides the impression of it is what really matters." Silas said cunningly laughing, "Also are you worried about the potion, if so, you don''t have to get worked up about your memories getting wiped. Professor Karkaroff was unwilling about it from the very beginning." "I wasn''t worried about that at all." Draco said with not even a hint of nervousness. Draco who was in the enemy territory wouldn''t stupidly risk exposure by drinking unknown potion left and right. Even if Igor himself forced him, he wouldn''t budge a bit about it. "It''s really amazing." Silas said laughing again, "I have always been interested in why Professor Karkaroff was willing to bend so many rules and regulations and going far as to accept a transfer student which haven''t happened in a very long time but it makes sense to me now seeing your raw confidence, Mr. Black. The rumored prince really does lives up to his reputation." "I have been meaning to ask this professor, what is the deal with the prince title?" Draco asked confused, "I have heard many titles given to me before but I have never really heard people call me a prince before." "I see, it''s no wonder you seem so uncomfortable with the name." Silas nodded as if understanding something, "But you better get used to it, since as far as I know every magic school knows you as the prince." "Wait, what?" Draco was even more confused, as he had never heard of it before. "This is a secret but when someone gets too famous, information about them starts circulating through certain networks." Silas said in a friendly tone, "While I don''t know about it much myself, I do know that they give a title to every single one of these people, like how Harry Potter is known as ''the chosen one'' and you are now known as the prince. And with you beating the famous Lockhart, you have become more famous than ever, so I wouldn''t be surprised in everyone starts calling you that." Draco nodded, though he knew a lot about these sort of stuff due to his father being in a high position in the ministry, there were still too many informants and independent wizarding networks that were hard to find out, like the auction and the black market they found out about later on. Also, the fact that he was in Hogwarts all this time made it impossible to know these things. He looked at Silas who was smiling at him, though Draco didn''t know if Silas was faking it or not, he couldn''t shake off the aura he was getting from Silas. "This is my office." Silas said stopping Draco''s thought as he opened a small door which was in the corner of the castle. The room was pitch dark but lit up as soon as they stepped foot in it. The candles around automatically flicked on brightening the room immediately. The room in contrast to the darkness was more lively than what Draco imagined it to be. "Being the dark arts teacher, I do have some dark-items so be careful not to touch anything." Silas said as he went towards his desk searching for something, "We wouldn''t want you to get cursed on your first day now, would we?" Draco looked around the place without much interest but one thing caught his eye. He went closer towards it and as suspected it was a scarf, but it wasn''t just any scarf but the one that belonged to the Slytherin house. "I see you have found it." Silas said as he looked at the scarf along with Draco, "You really are observant." Not caring about the useless compliments Draco looked at Silas with a questioning gaze, "You were from Hogwarts?" "Used to be." Silas said, "But I didn''t return back after the first year, so I guess it doesn''t really count, right?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Durmstrang isn''t clearly explained in the books not even in the wiki pages so I had to take every single thing I could to keep it close to the original source. Also, a lot of things are extra things I added like the guards, are things which I imagined Durmstrang would be like. So don''t get confused about it. (Durmstrang coat of arms = https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/f/f3/DurmstrangCrest.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20160112161151 ) 164 Roommates "Can I ask why?" "I had some issues of my own." Silas said vaguely in almost a murmur, as he placed a box on top of his table, "This is your uniform and the books for this semester. It''s mostly the same but you won''t at least have to read Lockhart''s book here." Seeing Silas deliberately divert the topic, Draco didn''t continue on it as he vaguely nodded. "Also, here is the map for Durmstrang and your school''s ciriculum." Silas placed the papers on top of the box, "Oh! I almost forgot, this is the badge you must wear as a transfer student, you should just put it on now." Draco took the badge from Silas and looked at it, trying to feel any mana coming from the badge but as he expected, it was just a normal badge. The badge had the same Durmstrang''s coat of arms as he saw before except the background which was completely white. "There aren''t any tricky stairs or misguided rooms here in Durmstrang, so there is no need to worry about losing your way." Silas said smiling, "I have marked your room on the map, so please head there for now." Understanding that Silas didn''t want to have a conversation any further, Draco obliged and picked the box up as he headed out towards the door but just before he went out he decided to test the waters, "Professor since you went to Hogwarts, I wonder why Dumbledore really didn''t seem to recognize you back there." "People change, Mr. Black." Silas said in an unusually calm but hurrying tone, "And not all of us can be a notable student now, can we?" Draco didn''t look back as he headed out the door without any further questions. The moment he did, he heard a loud thud as the door behind him closed causing Draco to smile. "Just another idiot." Draco said to himself as he followed his way to his room with the help of the map. Though he wasn''t much certain before, he was now more than sure that there was something wrong with Silas. Though he couldn''t completely link it with Ryan but seeing Silas''s action and how easy it was to get on his nerves made one thing very clear, Silas wasn''t a big fan of Draco as he pretended to be. ----------------------------------------- Back inside his office, Silas threw the table across the room with an extreme force growling with anger. "This isn''t good." He said to himself as he gritted his teeth taking heavy breaths, "To force my transformation mid-day just by me being near him. I need to tell master about this..." ------------------------------------------- Draco slowly but surely found his room, which seemed to be in the dormitory as the others. Unlike Hogwarts, there weren''t any houses in Hogwarts so everyone lived in the same place. Draco was allocated in room no 57. Looking around he sighed at the hollow place and entered his room when out of nowhere he heard someone read a spell. Without hesitation, he dropped whatever that was in his hand and dodged taking his wand out as he pointed it at the direction of the person in front of him. To his surprise, the person in front of him was just a young boy smiling at him with no wand in his hand. Looking at him, he seemed about the same age as Draco and was wearing a Durmstrang''s uniform. But one thing that stood out was the orange patch of hair which was different from the rest of his brown head, the feature made Draco finally realize who he was. The boy in front of him was Walter Snyde from the Snyde family, a well renowned pure-blood family. Snyde family though not as ancient as the Malfoys, it is mostly known for its wealth as they don''t ever seem to lack it and the fact that Walter''s parents were death eaters was another thing that stood out amongst the rest. Which was also the reason Draco was familiar with him and was one of his friends growing up until the latter''s family decided to move out of the city and live far-off from all the ''problems''. "Snyde?" "Malfoy or should I say, Black?" The Walter smirked, "Seems like you really are living up to the reputation these days." "The hell are you doing here?" Draco asked getting up. "You mean here in Durmstrang or your room?" Walter said casually leaning against a desk, "For your first question, I needed to go to a school and Durmstrang was the nearest one and as for the second question, congratulations you''ve got your self a roommate." "Well it seems you''re still a dick, I guess some people really don''t change." Draco said waving his wand as he picked up the things he dropped, "And here I thought, Durmstrang would be nice enough to give the transfer student a room of his own but I guess not." "Same here, I thought they would at least leave me alone but who knew they were going to shove a transfer student in my room." Walter said, "Well but they really can''t do anything about it either, as the other rooms here are all packed other than the ones in the girl''s dormitory." "Girls dormitory..." Draco mumbled as he finally remembered that Durmstrang was not the same as the movies but rather like the books where the school housed not only the boys but girls as well. "Still drooling about girls are you?" Walter commented seeing Draco lost in his thoughts, "Oh well can''t really blame you but I got to warn you, the girls here are not that pretty. According to the rumors, the pretty ones started moving away after Igor came in." "Not going to call him by respect?" "For a coward?" Walter sneered, "Che, besides what are you doing here? Isn''t Hogwarts good enough for the prince?" "Again with the prince thing..." Draco rolled his eyes, "I have some work to do here but honestly I am surprised you''re here. I thought your family were all loyal Slytherins in Hogwarts, I was surprised you weren''t there?" "Oh were you?" Walter asked sarcastically, "4 years and you didn''t even send a letter, and you were surprised that you didn''t see me in Hogwarts?" "Well, thanks for leaving me with an address to send a letter to." Draco said in a sarcastic tone as well, "I remember sending plenty but you never replied." Both of them looked at one another and laughed. "I couldn''t." Walter said smiling, "Father didn''t want anyone to know and you know how things were after Voldemort was gone." "Well, I wouldn''t pretend liked I remember either." Draco said smiling as well, "After you were gone I was busy with a lot of other things, you know magic and stuff. But its really good to see you again." "You too buddy." Walter said, "How''s Theodore and the rest?" "Theodore''s the same as usual and I haven''t really met with the rest of them." Draco said sighing, "We all separated ways after that and I have no clue of where they are either. Honestly, if I hadn''t come to Durmstrang I would''ve never known you were here as well." Due to Voldemort''s actions, a lot of the purebloods suspected of being the death eaters were having a hard time living in a normal society like before. While houses like Malfoy''s stood tall due to their heritage being old and strong enough, some of the newly formed pure-blood family weren''t that lucky and had to leave to different hideouts and countries to at least live peacefully. The Snyde family was just one of many. "I haven''t met the others too." Walter said, "But you would be surprised knowing who else is here?" "Don''t tell me..." Draco made a bitter face as he realized something looking at Walter''s weird smile. "You guessed it, Grimblehawk is here as well." "I thought her family was not really into the idea of Durmstrang." Draco questioned, "She always talked about going to Beauxbatons. I mean why is that crazy girl even here?" 165 Arya Grimblehawk "You know how she is." Walter sighed, "She ran away from Beauxbatons to Durmstrang after she somehow got information about me being here. Kind of amazing I tell you, not even Igor could figure how the hell she got here without getting lost but due to some family connection he let her stay." "I don''t exactly know how she is, we weren''t really that close with her." Draco said making a bitter face, "The only thing I remember about her is she continuously insulting me and the others for being death-eaters as she obsessed over you in every party we attended." "She''s not that annoying as she used to be." Walter said smiling bitterly as well, "You aren''t going to take what a 7-year-old girl said to you in the past that seriously are you? I guess some of the rumors about you being petty was correct." "Che, forget about her and the rumors." Draco shook his head, "Why are you here in your room? I mean don''t you have classes right now?" "Your''s truly is currently suspended from attending any class at the moment." Walter said looking smug, "Picking fights is a special skill I learned these past years, you see." "With who?" "Who other than the rising Quidditch star, the one, and only Victor Krum." Walter said with a cheerful tone while his disgusted expression told another story, "The guy thinks he can do everything just because he is favored by Igor." "Is he that bad?" Draco questioned, as he remembered Krum from the books, though still a dick, he wasn''t really that bad of a person considering Hermione was friends with the guy. "Egotistical would be the right word, my friend." Walter shook his head, "Forget about him, I don''t want to waste my breath talking about that guy." "At least tell me you won the fight?" "Not exactly..." Walter said, "It happened in the heat of the moment you see and at the moment though I managed to suppress him in magic, the thing quickly turned into a push and pull and ended up in a bet. A quidditch match between him and me." "You can play Quidditch alone?" Draco said raising his eyebrows as he got the gist of the situation. "No, its a three on three matches and we play without the batters." "Seems like he got a hold of your anger." Draco said, "Guess I am not the only with anger issues." "What did you say?" "Nothing." Draco shook his head, "So when is this match?" "Two weeks from now." Walter said sighing, "I was kind of fretting about it before but now that you''re here, it wouldn''t be that hard." "What makes you think I will join you?" Draco rolled his eyes, "You should know, Quidditch isn''t really my forte." "Dear Draco, we are old pals aren''t we?" Walter started talking with a begging tone, "And I am not exactly popular here as well, so please do me this favor." "How long have you known that I would be here?" "Just yesterday." Walter said, "Please, for old time sake help me this one and I swear I will return the favor." "Since you aren''t even popular, you wouldn''t be really much use to me either." Draco said, "Get a better bargain." "You need someone with connections right?" Walter got what Draco the hint in Draco''s words, "Help me and I''ll help you convince her to help you?" "Her? You mean Grimblehawk." "Yes." Walter nodded, "Arya is the best when it comes to digging pieces of information. As I said, she even managed to find me, so how about it?" "I''ll think about it." Draco said vaguely as he started putting up the books and dresses in the empty closet, "So is she going to be the second player?" "Yeah, well the fight started due to her so of course, she is going." "I see that both of you are getting along well." Draco nodded, "It''s kind of amazing that you didn''t even have to try." "It''s not what you''re thinking." Walter hurriedly said as if he wanted to clear a misunderstanding, "And besides aren''t you doing too good for yourself. For someone who looked like an evil wizard the moment he was born, you sure have become extremely good looking. No wonder they call you the prince." "Stop with the prince thing, it''s really annoying to just listen someone call me that." Draco said with annoyance clearly visible in his tone, "So does everyone know that I am here?" "Yeah! They announced is yesterday." Walter said, "Information doesn''t really pass around here in Dursmtrang that much unless it''s with official letters. So it was quite surprising to know you were coming here so suddenly." "The place is too strict for its own good." "Well, it''s still something." Walter shook his head, "By the way, how is the legendary Hogwarts like?" "Much better than this." -------------------------------------------------------- "Has he arrived?" Ryan asked as Silas kneeled in front of him. "He indeed has, master." Silas said, "But there have been some complications." "I thought you told me that there weren''t going to be any." Ryan said clenching his eyebrows, "What happened?" "I was certain there wouldn''t be any but ever since I got in contact with him, even back in Hogwarts something started going completely wrong." Silas said with his head still bowed down as if he was afraid to look back up, "Though I couldn''t understand it in the very beginning, the more I stayed with him the harder it became to control myself, until the last moment where I was barely able to control myself from transforming." Silas thought he would get some punishment for what he did but the scolding never came. He looked back up at Ryan only to see him smiling a little. "It''s like I suspected, our magic repels one another." Ryan said, "And you Silas since your transformation are all controlled by my magic, it started reacting and started going against you when he was close to you." "What should I do now master?" "Nothing, carry on as usual." Ryan said, "As long as you don''t stay close to him for too long, you should be fine." "I feel like he already suspects me a little due to my actions, master." Silas confessed, "I feel like we can''t go on as we planned." "Yes, that is indeed a thing to worry about but fret not, I already have other plans." Ryan said grabbing the edge of his chair, "It''s not like I didn''t think of this scenario." "Yes, master." --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Do you really need this amount of thick clothes?" Draco said irritatedly as he walked out with Walter, dressed in his new Durmstrang uniform, "We are wizards for a reason, you know?" "You will get used to it no time." Walter said laughing, "It gets really cold out here, so its at least a bit helpful to say the least. And that dress really suits you too well, you look like a Prin-- I mean a wealthy noble in it." The uniform of Durmstrang was pretty simple, dark fur cloaks, fur hats, and blood-red robes. Though the hats and cloak weren''t necessary to be worn all the time, the robes were still a necessity. With the fur and all, Draco couldn''t deny that he looked like a rich noble but the blood-red robes really seemed like a military more than anything, to say the least. 166 Arya Grimblehawk pt.2 "The classes should be over by now." Walter said, "The dining hall is that way. I am sure the people would go crazy when they see you as you''ve been the talk of schools for as long as I can remember." "As long as they don''t annoy me like back in Hogwarts, I am completely fine with it." "You might be in for a supr--" Before he could finish his sentence, Walter''s eyes caught something that immediately made him bitter as he rushed towards a particular table. Draco quickly noticed something as well, though he didn''t know what was going on but looking at the situation it seemed like a group of guys trying to bully some girls around. "Krum, I thought you learned your lesson but I guess I was wrong." Walter yelled as he took out his wand, "I told you to stay away from her, didn''t I?" "Don''t get ahead of yourself Snyde, last time you won because you sneakily attacked me." Krum and the people around him took their wand out and pointed at Walter as well, "And me not talking to Arya was part of the deal, which hasn''t taken place yet and that again is if you win. So till then, you don''t have a say about what I can do or not." "You..." Walter grumbled in anger as he couldn''t do much against so many of Krum''s follower and Krum himself as they were in their fifth year already, so they were much harder to fight but he wasn''t the type to back down, "If you want to settle things then let''s settle it right here and now but I hope you won''t go running back to the headmaster this time." A crowd started forming around the place, with both of them being at the center of it. Krum''s face twisted in anger as Walter had hit him right where it hurt. He had never gone to Igor to complain against Walter, instead, it was Igor who went through extra lengths and unnecessarily too action against Walter by suspending him for a couple of weeks straight. But even though he and his friends knew about it, a lot of people thought the otherwise, especially the crazy purebloods who weren''t exactly a fan of his. Due to this, his life had been tough throughout the week with random taunts thrown at him every now and then, so Walter''s comment wasn''t exactly the thing he wanted to hear right now. "You''ll pay for this." Krum roared in anger as he went for a punch forgetting he was a wizard in the moment of rage. Walter without wasting time used a spell throwing Krum across the room, but as expected of an athlete, he wasn''t backing down without a fight. Among all this, Draco was just watching the fight by the sidelines. Amongst the chaos, not a lot of people noticed him as they were more interested in the fight that was taking place. Draco had no intention in joining the fight or helping Walter as he casually looked around at the students and as he expected the figure named Ryan was nowhere to be seen. "Aren''t you going to help?" A voice called out to Draco as he looked back at a girl staring at him. Though shorter than him, she had a mature looking face which was pale and she had beautiful long dark-reddish hair. "Why should I?" Draco answered already guessing the girl''s identity. "I thought you were better than that." The girl said in a haughty tone, "Or is everything just a pretense." "If me not getting involved in something that I had nothing to do is a pretense, then let it be so." Draco said casually shrugging his shoulders, "And besides if you''re so concerned about your little boyfriend then why don''t you go help him instead." "I would but I am not..." The girl gritted her teeth trying to hold back something when suddenly Walter was thrown across the dining table making her suddenly feel helpless, "Help him, Black!" Draco looked at Walter who got back up and went back to join the fight once again. "Why should I?" "I know you are here in Durmstrang for a reason." She said, "And you should know I can help you." "Why should I trust you?" "You''re looking for the person who attacked you and Theodore back during your vacation, isn''t it?" She quickly said with urgency in her voice as she saw, Krum''s friends joining in on the fight, "Is that enough to pique your interest in the least?" Before Draco could say anything she took the wand in her hand and threw it at him, "We both need each other''s help, don''t we?" On the other side, Krum''s friends were getting ready to attack Walter as he was kind of overwhelming Krum in a one to one duel when out of nowhere they heard someone else read a spell out loud and before the knew it, they were suddenly tied by a rope pulling them together with force, constricting them. Everyone looked shocked wondering what was going on, as they cleared their path to find a strangely handsome boy with snow-white hair, slowly walking towards Krum and Walter. Whispers started going around as people looked at the boy carefully. "It''s him..." "Is he really the prince?" "Of course he is, haven''t you seen his pictures in the newspapers?" "I nearly forgot that he was arriving today..." The same way, others were staring at Draco, Krum was intensely gazing at him as well. Of course, he had already recognized who he was, Draco Black, the prince of the Black family or in short the Prince but one thing he couldn''t figure out was why Black was interfering with this fight. "Took you long enough..." Walter breathed heavily as the whole thing was getting a bit too hard for him to handle on his own. Unlike what he had in mind, Draco didn''t even look at him as he just stared at Krum casually waving the wand in his hand around. "You are our guest, so I don''t want to use force against you." Krum said staring back into Draco''s ice blue eyes, "So it''s best if you don''t interfere." "I am not trying to." Draco said smiling a little as he looked at Krum''s friends struggling with the rope, trying to get out, "But you do know the proper tradition of a duel, right?" "I didn''t need them to interfere." "I sure hope that''s the case." Draco turned around, "Good luck buddy, I hope you win." Saying that he casually walked back to his original place alongside the girl, while everyone including the girl was just stuck wondering what just happened. Walter''s lips twitched as he looked back at Krum and without warning both of them started to duel again, this time a bit more formally than before. "You really have changed." The girl said, "I was sure you would''ve stepped in but I guess you really grew up." "Is that right, Grimblehawk." Draco said, "In that case, so have you considering you asked me for help." "It wasn''t me asking for help. It was just an ordinary deal, so don''t get too delighted about it." The girl said, "And call me Arya, no need to bring up our family''s name every time we speak." "Well, you started it." Draco lazily said, "So what information have you got for me, Ms. Arya?" "There is a time and place for that."Arya said rolling her eyes as she stared back at the students of Durmstrang staring Draco with wonder, "Sigh! You could''ve at least helped him, you know?" 167 Arya Grimblehawk pt.3 "I could''ve." Draco looked back at the match between the two and honestly, he was quite amazed that both of them were still in a draw, "But, it doesn''t really look that bad to me." "You don''t think everyone here is as strong as you right?" Arya said in a sarcastic tone, "Krum is very good in charms and offense while Walter''s strength lies more on defense, dark arts, and curses, it might not look much but Walter is the perfect counter for Krum, if only he was a bit older and experienced he could''ve easily won the duel without taking this amount of time." "You seem to be still quite fond of him." Draco said with a questioning gaze, "I heard you escaped from Beauxbatons, what''s that all about?" "He couldn''t keep his mouth shut huh?" Arya sighed heavily, "Well its none of your concerns to begin with but I am more interested in you being here. I thought you were stupid but not stupid enough to come here to face your problems head-on. Though it was still expected..." "Do you just work on guesses or informants? For someone who looks certain about everything you really do contradict yourself quite a lot." "None. You see some things are infinite in the world including knowledge, the more you know the more questions you have and the more lost you become, it''s really endless." Arya said, "My will is to know what is going on and not act on it, same with your situation I know quite a lot about it but if I were to act on it and try to know more, I am sure to be more than just lost in this scenario. And similar to knowledge, the future can really be dangerous and confusing. Even if you know everything about the future it changes so drastically that you can''t really be sure of anything, leaving me just contradicting myself every time." Draco looked back at the fight and really couldn''t hold back anymore as he wanted to clearly understand what and how much information Arya had got so he walked near them again. With Arya''s wand still in his hand, he started fixing the table and the benches that were broken around due to the duel. Both Walter and Krum were equally tired as they kept heavily breathing when they suddenly heard some noises. They looked back at Draco casually fixing things as he walked back towards them with a pleasant smile. "Since both of you seem extremely tired how about we call it a tie?" "No, I can defeat him." Krum grumbled still not being able to hide his heavy breaths, "I am not going to let him win this one." "You both are tired so how about change to seconds, I will play for Walter here." Krum looked back at his friends who were tied up by Draco with disappointment, he himself knew he couldn''t do much as well. Though he was quite curious about the prince, he knew he was way too tired to fight him right now. "Or are you both going to keep fighting until some of the guards or the teachers show up?" Draco continued as he raised his eyebrows, "One of you is already suspended and I can see you don''t really want that. So how about we all just act like proper gentlemen and get over this for now at least?" Krum stared at Draco for a while and then back at Walter as he snorted and turned back around, he waved his wand casting a spell as he released his friends from Draco''s spell and walked out with them. "Let''s leave as well." Draco said to Walter as he looked around the students who seemed quite eager to meet him for some reason, "I didn''t know this was going to be so annoying." "But I am still hungry." "No time for that." Draco pulled Walter as he walked outside the room ignoring everyone''s gazes afraid to spark any unnecessary conversations. Arya casually walked out with them and started leading them to somewhere outside of the castle, as they finally reached to a nearby gazebo right behind the castle. Walter who was tired immediately slumped over the bench, while Arya and Draco sat face to face with one another. "So how much do you know?" "Not much but I do know why you''re here and who you''re here for?" Draco didn''t say anything and just nodded, signaling her to continue. "As I previously mentioned, you are here because of the accident that took place over your summer vacation, the one with Pius." Arya said, "And as far as I know he was manipulated by someone and that someone is the one you came here to look for?" "So you''re telling me you knew he was coming?" Walter said with an annoyed tone, "Why didn''t you tell me before about it?" "Because if I did, you wouldn''t have gotten in a fight with Krum in the first place." Arya said casually as if she was used to Walter''s questions, "And trust me when I say that it was necessary." "For Merlin''s sake, can you stop with your vague talks. I didn''t understand you back when I was 7 and I am for no reason going to understand you now." Draco said sighing, "Could you just continue without ignoring me for a single second." "Ryan, you''re looking for Ryan Adams, right?" Arya said with a straight face. "Wait you mean that Ryan, the one from the 5th year?" "You know him?" Draco asked "It''s really hard to ignore a wizard in wheelchairs." Walter said shrugging, "Why are you even looking for him?" "He called Draco out here." Arya said again surprising Draco by a lot, "Don''t look at me like that, there is much that I don''t know about." "How did you..." "How do I know?" Arya cut Draco off, "You aren''t the only special one here and if you do want to know why? I am certain you will figure out within two weeks." "The match?" Draco got the hint about what Arya was saying, "You want me to join in the weird bet you''ve got going?" "That''s your decision to make." Arya said sighing, "And I really hope you make the right one." Draco stayed silent for a while, "I will think about it later, so how about you tell me everything you know about this Ryan, first." "Ryan Adams, no one really know much about him in this school other than the fact that he isn''t a pure-blood but a half. As Walter mentioned he goes around in a wheelchair, keeps to himself as far as I know." Arya said, "Not exceptional in studies, average in magic, potions, and everything. That''s all I can tell you about him." Draco frowned as he looked at Arya wanting to see if she was lying but there were no trace of it whatsoever, "So he is just average in every other way excluding the facts that he doesn''t have any friends." "Yes." Arya nodded, "Quite shocking in fact, I never would have known if our fate didn''t intertwine." "What do you mean?" "I mean he is dangerous, I do know that but I don''t know how." Arya said, "I know its confusing but this is honestly all I know. I can swear on a vow if you don''t believe me." Walter who didn''t really seem to understand what was going on just looked back and forth between Draco and Arya, "Draco, I don''t know what''s happening but I can assure that Arya is not lying, she never does." "Fine, I''ll trust you for now." Draco said, "But a bit of explanation would really help." "Believe me, if I didn''t trust you as well, I wouldn''t initiate this conversation with you in the first place." Arya said, "You''re not the only one with your life on the line here. So I just ask you to be patient and not reckless." 168 Queen. "So what''s her deal?" Draco asked Walter as they started walking back into the castle. "It''s not really my secret to tell, Draco." Walter shrugged, "But I have never seen Arya this serious before. All I can tell you this moment is that we can only trust her, besides I don''t know the full story about what is going on as well." Draco stayed quiet seeing Walter didn''t want to reveal things, though he had some suspicions he didn''t exactly know what was going on, so he didn''t continue bothering him. After a while, when they reached the boy''s dormitory Draco finally broke the silence, "Do you at least know where is his room, at least?" "You mean Ryans?" Walter asked, "I do know about it but didn''t Arya tell us to not do anything for now?" "Are you really expecting me to put all my trust and faith in someone who I haven''t met in years?" Draco said frowning a little, "I don''t even know if I can trust you here-- So are you going tell me where he lives or not? If not, I can figure things out on my own." Walter took a deep breath as he sighed heavily, "He doesn''t live here with rest of us, due to his condition Karkaroff granted him a separate room on the ground floor where he can live without bothering all of us." Draco nodded and headed outside the dormitory with Walter following behind him crazily soon after. "What are you doing here?" "Don''t you remember what Arya said to us?" Walter said breathing heavily, "You can''t win this fight alone, though I can''t do much, with me here at least you are not alone so at least according to her you wouldn''t die." "Your girlfriend might be really mad at us." Draco teased a little with a smile on his face. -------------------------------------------------------------- "What do you mean?" Lucius was back in Romania in the same auction shop he was before with Draco. He was sitting in front of Merc, the owner of the place who was casually sitting with his leg crossed. "As I said, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Black is sure to be in deep trouble." Merc said, "The threat that I was talking about when we last met is sure to attack back." "Get to the point!" Lucius said frowning, "What threat are you talking about?" "The Veela Queen, of course." Merc said with a monotone voice, "Though I don''t know why? I heard the Queen is looking for something precious that was stolen from her and now she wants it back." "But what does any of that have to do with Draco...unless." "My suspicions are as good as yours, Mr. Malfoy." Merc said taking a deep sigh, "For now, she is moving very slowly as she can''t exactly take big steps without alerting the Ministry, but slowly but surely she is likely to attack." "I have to warn Draco..." Lucius stood up from his seat wanting to leave as soon as possible. "Mr. Malfoy, the queen has yet to leave Romania but I am not sure how long is she going to wait." Merc said, "Since you came here back again, I shall give you a good suggestion for your shopping last time. Mr. Black is likely to be safe in Durmstrang for now-" "How did you..." "It is my profession, of course." Merc said cutting off Lucius, "As I was saying, Mr. Black is safe back in Durmstrang but others around him aren''t, so you should use this time trying to think of a way to stop her instead and protect those around him first." "You mean..." Merc just shrugged his shoulders and didn''t say anything else on the topic, "I have been thinking about moving my business to London as well, so next time when I have some information I can inform you if you like it." "Send me an owl." Lucius said walking out of the room. As much as he thought about it, Merc was right, for now, Draco was safe in Durmstrang and as he remembered Draco didn''t want to be bothered when he was there. Now that he thought about it, he now figured what Draco said about learning the Fidelius Charm was really important, especially considering Narcissa and the twins. Lucius made up his mind to first transfer them to a safe place and go about dealing with this Veela Queen. --------------------------------------------------- *Knock* *Knock* "Are you sure he is in there?" "How would I know that?" Draco said as he tried knocking a couple of times again, but wondering why he was being so gentle towards an enemy he turned towards Walter and asked, "Open the door for me, will you?" "Alohomara!" Walter chanted taking out his wand, "What can''t'' you do it on your own?" "It''s a long story." Draco said opening the door and walking in carefully. He looked around the place to find just an ordinary room. There were books around the place neatly kept, but none of them were exceptional in any way. "Seems like he isn''t here." "Well, I guess I have to leave a message then." Draco seeing no one was around, he took out his wand and wrote on the wall with huge bold letters. FOR SOMEONE WHO TALKS BIG YOU SURE LIKE TO HIDE A LOT. I KNOW THAT YOU ALREADY HAVE HEARD ABOUT ME BEING HERE, SO WHY HIDE. LET US SETTLE THINGS QUICK AND GET OVERWITH IT. - YOUR OTHER HALF "Your other half?" Walter said raising his eyebrows, "What does that even mean?" "Well, no idea." Draco shrugged, "I just replied the same way he did but now that I think about it... it seems a bit weird." "Do you think he''s like into boys?" Walter said with different emotions written on his face, "I mean, is that why you''re really here." "Shut up!" Draco said checking the place carefully once again, "There isn''t any magical enhancement anywhere..." "So what do you think this guy''s deal is?" "I don''t know." Draco said as he turned back around and started walking out, "I mean, I don''t even know what this guy wants. The way he acts around this place is very unlikely to how I expected his personality to be when I first got his letter. I thought he would be some sort of tyrant wanting to be famous but the way he has presented himself to the people here is completely unexpected. It feels like the word ''Average'' is just meant for him." "Now that I''ve noticed it, it''s really creepy." Walter said, "I mean, I have seen some weird and peculiar wizards and witches but even compared to then he seems just too out of place. So perfectly average." "I have kept wondering why he is even here..." Draco mumbled, in fact to this day after he got the letter he couldn''t figure out why Ryan was in Dumstrang in the first place when he could''ve easily gone to Hogwarts if he wanted to. Even if his parent''s forced him to, considering the power of control he has shown it should be really easy to just force them to change their opinion or even kill them. Draco had Snape look at Ryan''s profile before but even then the signs of his parents were nowhere to be seen. It was like they never existed in the first place, first Draco suspected that Ryan had killed them but the theory didn''t hold any proof to support it. "Walter, if you had all the knowledge in the world but lacked the power to use it, what would you do?" 169 Vacation "Me? Well, I would just find a way to get powerful then." Walter said as he closed the door behind them, "I mean, if I have all the knowledge in the world, it shouldn''t be that hard, right?" "Exactly." Draco said as he nodded, "But what if the only way the person could get power was by using someone?" "If that''s the only way then the result will depend on how crazy the other person is..." Walter slowed his voice down as he stared at the person in front of him. "You went there didn''t you?" The person was none other than Arya who seemed to be just casually standing there waiting for them. "Deal with your lovers'' quarrel." Draco said as he patted the nervous Walter, as he began walking away from them, "I''ll be in the room then." "You''re taking a wrong approach to this situation, Draco." Arya said as Draco passed by her, "I told you, you can''t win this fight alone." "Then give me a reason not to go and kill a guy in a wheelchair right now?" Draco stopped and stared directly into Arya''s eyes. "This man threatened to harm my family, my friends, so give me one reason not to find him right away and end it." "Because you''re weak!" Arya said not backing off from Draco''s gaze, "And with the way you''re going, you''ll not only kill yourself but Walter as well." There was a deafening silence in the place, with Draco and Arya just staring at one another. Seeing the weirdness between the two of them, Walter started awkwardly laughing. "Hey, let''s leave this here." Walter said as he pushed Draco a little, "''I will show you around the school. I mean its good to know the place better before we do something, right?" Draco didn''t say much as he walked along with Walter not saying anything back. "Calm down!" Walter whispered to Arya as he took Draco along with him. "You can leave. I''m fine." Draco said after he calmed down a little, "You should be with her. I mean clearly, she has more issues than me." "Things are really complicated, Draco." Walter sighed, "But trust me, she isn''t that bad as she comes out to be. Something must be wrong." "Like what?" Draco sneered, "And I know I am not the only one here. She already has problems with Krum, doesn''t she?" "The Krum situation is a bit different." Walter said trying to explain, "You know how our school was the house of Grindelwald for a while, right?" Draco nodded as he got interested in what Walter had to say. "Grindelwald being the lunatic he was, has left several deathly hollow signs all over the school." Walter continued, "You do know about the deathly hollows, don''t you?" "I do." "Yeah, so Arya got suddenly interested in finding some information about these deathly hollows but was found out by Krum along the way." Walter said, "I don''t know much but from what I''ve heard, Krum had lost one of his family members to Grindelwald like many others, so he started bothering Arya about it and the whole fight broke out." "What does she have anything to do with the hallows?" Draco asked confused. "I don''t know." Walter shrugged his shoulders, "Along the many years that I''ve known her, I stopped asking these questions a long time ago because I know she wouldn''t do something if it didn''t have any purpose in it." "No matter how much you trust her, it''s really not a good idea to show such blind faith in her." Draco said, "Things are really messy here in this world." Walter just smiled and didn''t continue on about the topic, "This is the only library in the school." Walter pointed at the huge door in front of him, there were two guards on each side of the door standing there with full attention. "Can we go in?" "I knew you would be interested in it." Walter said, "Let''s go." Both of them walked near the door and it opened itself as soon as the got near it. The library was normal like the one they had in Hogwarts but it seemed to have a bit fewer books. "I think you will like it here." Walter said as he showed Draco around the place in a low whisper even though the place was empty, "There is nothing here such as a restricted section, so every book is out there for you to grab, even the ones about dark arts. But it''s not a good thing to obsess about them openly as people will certainly look at you weird." "Isn''t that just contradicting?" Draco said as he picked out a simple spellbook, "I mean, don''t you guys have a dark arts class?" "Yeah but with the history of this place and with Voldemort and everything, things really are complicated." Walter said, "It''s not that there''s any rule against it but the students themselves have developed some unwritten rules for it and with your fame, it''s really not a good idea to have weird rumors spread about you." "Sigh! There really is a lot of problems in the wizarding world." Draco said sighing, "By the way, why is no one here. I don''t even see the librarian." "Most students take the book of their liking and leave with it, so there are not many people who stick around reading it here." Walter said, "As for the librarian, there are only guards here. All the books are enchanted with a returning spell so after a month no matter where the book is hidden it''s going to return back to the library so we really don''t have a need for them." "So what''s the deal with these guards, by the way?" Draco asked. "They don''t really interfere much with how the school works. They just have certain duties assigned to them and they just follow it." Walter said as he looked strangely at Draco, "Why do I get the feeling that you''ve something bad planned in your mind?" "Not really." Draco innocently said, "Do you know how many guards there are in total and how powerful each one of them is?" "They are certainly powerful enough to be an Auror, at least." Walter said, "As for how many of them are here, as far as I know, it''s less than 30." "You don''t seem certain about it." "There are rumors that there are more but honestly I haven''t really seen them so I can''t be exactly sure." Walter said, "And I suggest you stay away from them, they have this rule to not bother any student in general unless they are ordered by Igor himself and the rule goes both ways." Draco nodded keeping things in mind. Draco was not sure he could trust anyone here in Durmstrang especially the older ones. With Ryan''s character in mind, it wasn''t far fetched of him to use any resources he could gather, so being at least aware of the surrounding potential enemies was the least he could do right now. Draco and Walter walked around the library looking at the books. Most of the books in there were something that Draco had already read before in both Malfoy Manor and Black house, so he wasn''t really that impressed by it. After collecting a couple of books that he found interesting they got out of the library. "So how long is your suspension for?" "Till the bet is over." "Really?" Draco said frowning, "I can talk to Igor if you want, I am sure he will be more than willing to owe me a favor." "Don''t bother with my vacation." Walter said, "It''s hard finding that around here." 170 Training pt.1 Next day, Draco woke up very early to prepare for classes. Unlike Hogwarts, Durmstrang had a system of starting early. The first class he had was something he had been waiting for a long time. Martial magic. The class was a practical class, consisting of a couple of different training routines and followed by duels at the end of each month. Draco put on his uniform and looked over at Walter who was sleeping as if there was no tomorrow, wondering how he managed to be on classes on time before he was suspended. Draco walked out of the room, to find some of the male students sitting around in the dormitory chatting with one another. Since yesterday, Draco had avoided people all the time but this time it felt like it was impossible to do so with some of the people already looking at him. Draco felt a huge headache heading his way, so to avoid that he decided to take the first step as he went forward to introduce himself. The moment he went forward all the people''s attention shifted on him, so he didn''t have to call everyone out. "Hello! As some of you might already know, I am Draco Black, a transfer student from Hogwarts." Draco said doing a normal noble bow, "I will be here for 6 months, so I hope we can get along well. Especially my peers who are in the same year as me." The wizards here in Durmstrang though seemed moody weren''t really as stiff as Draco imagined them to be. As they cheerfully greeted him back and one by one began introducing themselves. Out of the corner of his eye, Draco noticed Krum followed by a group of people leaving the room without caring much about him. "They are really a pain in the ass." A wizard who was beside him said, "They act as if they are different from us, even though we share the same roots but I guess that''s the difference between half-bloods and us." Draco looked at the boy carefully wondering who he was. The boy was almost as tall as Draco and was more on the muscular side. With bright green eyes under his spectacles, the boy in front of him looked exactly like a buffed up version of Potter. "I am sorry, I didn''t get your name." "I am Albert Sallow, its really nice to meet with the prince." The boy extended his hand, "We are in the same class, so let''s be friends." Draco shook his hand, looking at him with slight confusion. As if the other party noticed it, Albert smiled and said, "We have some family secrets that make us larger and appear older than normal wizards. I am really in the same year as you." "I apologize for my rudeness," Draco said, "Is the Sallow family not from here?" "Yes, we come from a place not to close from here."Albert said, "So it isn''t surprising that you haven''t heard of us. But I can assure you that my blood is pure as it gets." "Don''t worry about it." Draco said, "I don''t really care much about purebloods or half-bloods." "As expected of the Prince, these petty things don''t bother you." Albert said with a huge laugh, "We should get going or else we might be late for our class." Draco looked at the wizards around packing and leaving as well, so he nodded. "So is Krum here like the leader of the half-bloods or something?" "Not exactly." Albert said, "People do follow him but he isn''t strong enough to completely control the people around him. They are more like his fan to be exact as fame is all he has." Draco nodded. "Forget about him." Albert said, "I really want to see what the Prince fight likes, I heard about you single-handedly killing a lot of the dark wizard and Aurors who were following Pius." "Rumors are always exaggerated, you should know I had some help from the ministry, right?" Draco said, "Also feel free to call me Draco, the title really doesn''t fit with me that well." "Sure, But you shouldn''t be too humble." Albert said, "I could sense your magic yesterday in the dining hall where you casually rendered three wizards useless in a matter of seconds. They aren''t professionals, to say the least, but they are still in their fifth year." "You could sense my magic?" "Yeah, I am not completely human." Albert casually said, "But hey we are still the same, so it wasn''t that hard to figure that out." Draco frowned a little as he glared at Albert but the other party had no reaction to it whatsoever as if he really couldn''t care less about it. "Our family has a very special giant blood mixed in it." Albert said, "Though not as powerful as yours, it still gives us a lot of advantage. Like strength, more magic but is still really makes me wonder what your race is mixed with. In all honesty, I have never seen anyone like that before." Draco after being pointed out finally noticed something different about Albert, the aura around him was really different from a normal wizard but that got him wondering about Silus. Though his aura was more violent it was still something similar to it in a sense. Albert read Draco''s silence as something else so he quickly apologized, "I am sorry, I didn''t mean to intervene in your affairs. It''s just people around me didn''t really fit with me too well so I was just excited finding someone else like me." "Who else knows about your condition?" "No one else." Albert shook his head, "Announcing it doesn''t really seem like a good idea." "Let''s keep it that way." Draco said, "Also pretend that this conversation never happened." Albert felt a sense of urgency looking at Draco''s smiling face, "I don''t know what we were talking about at all." Draco nodded, looking at him Draco felt he was quite gullible like Hagrid. If someone told him that Albert was a love child of Hagrid and Harry, Draco wouldn''t really be surprised. After the casual silence, Draco and Albert reached the ground where there were many students around. "Every student joins the training together." Albert said seeing Draco''s confusion, "It''s all about strength in Durmstrang and not age, so people could really care less about having joint classes. That''s why so many people admire you here. Young and Strong, you''re like the walking dream of a lot of students in Durmstrang." Draco thought Albert was exaggerating things but the attitude of the teacher in front of him made him slightly uncomfortable. The teacher was probably the strongest looking wizard he had ever seen. His tall and big stature made him look like a heavy weight lifter in the muggle world. The man smiled at him with a nodding gesture. Draco weirded out, didn''t let it show in his face as he nodded back in greeting and followed Albert to where the second year were situated. Every student were standing in a long line, according to their year. "Attention!" The teacher shouted as everyone looked at him. 171 Training pt.2 "Do we really need to do all this..." Draco said huffing as he had been running for god knows how long carrying weights. "It''s usually the case." Albert said as he ran behind him casually with not even a single drop of sweat on his face, "According to the professor, for martial magic, we need to develop enough stamina first to move around as most of the time it''s all about how quickly you dodge a spell." Draco made a twisted face as he kept running on and on. Draco himself did some basic cardio before to keep himself in shape but he never did so with enchanted bags that weighed more every minute. "And stop!" Draco heard the teacher order finally as he dropped to the ground breathing for his life. He looked around and was glad that he wasn''t the only one that was as tired as he was. While everyone was resting, the teacher started evaluating the student'' performance and giving them some tips, normally Draco would be very attentive in things he didn''t know much about but something suddenly caught the corner of his eye. Far away from the training ground, there was someone in aa wheelchair sitting beneath a tree watching them. Draco''s eyes widened as he realized who it might be. "You can see that guy over there right?" He asked Albert to make sure it wasn''t an illusion of some sort. Albert turned his head to look in the same direction as Draco, to see a figure sitting by, "Oh, that''s a senior student here in Durmstrang. I heard he comes around every day to view the training even though he can''t participate due to his condition. Poor guy, he might have wanted to join us." Draco nodded as he was about to stand up, he had been here for a whole day now and finally seeing his reason for being here, he didn''t want to back off. He was just about to rise up when suddenly someone pulled him back down. He looked back to see Arya just glaring at him. "We''re in the middle of our class, so not a good idea." Draco snorted as he released her hands from his and turned back to the figure only to see no one there anymore. Draco looked around the place but there were no signs of him at all. Draco looked back at Arya just to see her casually ignore him. Classes then went on as usual, with potion, herbology and dark arts. Draco was of course very proficient in both herbology and potion so he didn''t have to worry much at all. Due to his recognition as a potion genius even before he had the whole Prince thing going on, the teachers weren''t surprised at all. Draco felt uncomfortable with all the praises as he tried to ignore them but things kept getting annoying as usual. In the Dark arts class, Silas sleazily walked into the classroom. Against Draco''s expectations this time Arya didn''t ignore him and sat right next to him pushing Albert away. Albert getting confused didn''t want to say anything due to his shy nature and sat back far away in an empty seat. "What do you want?" Draco asked as he looked at Arya. "Nothing at all." Arya said casually, "But are you really trying to pull in more casualties than there needs to be?" "You''re talking about Albert?" Draco raised his eyebrows, "In all honesty, I could really care less about it. He''s the one acting close to me. And I don''t see why it affects you in any way." "You having your suspicion isn''t wrong but I''ll tell you this, not a single student here knows what is going on." Arya said, "They are all innocent, so its best if you stay away from them." "And you will be fine sitting next to me then?" "I am already a part of this whether you want me to or not." Arya said, "I was always destined to be." "Good for you." Draco said rolling his eyes, not even trying to understand the vagueness in her words, "So is it you being related to the deathly hallows?" "You heard about it, huh?" Arya said lazily not being bothered by it at all, "I was trying to help you out a bit but some students here wouldn''t really allow me." "Help me?" "Of course." Arya said, "Your future... no, our future is interconnected with it, I don''t know to what extent but I know it is, in one way or the other." "Are you some sort of seer now?" Draco said sarcastically but Arya''s response shocked him a bit. "Took you long enough." "Wait! What?" Draco said out loud as every student in the classroom stared at him. "Is there a problem, Mr. Black?" Silas asked looking at him in a confused matter. "It''s nothing." Draco said, "I''m sorry." "It''s okay." Silas said nodding, "But please be more attentive in class." Draco nodded as he stared back at Arya. "You don''t have to look at me like that." Arya said, "I wasn''t going to tell you this right away but you really are bringing a lot of unknown factors in one by one." "Does Walter know?" "He does." Arya nodded, "In fact, he''s the first person that knows about this. Let''s talk after class." Draco wanted to ask more but seeing Silas glare at him from time and time again, he figured it wasn''t really a good idea. Though he couldn''t pay attention in the class after such revelations he still managed to get by. A Seer is a gifted wizard or witch who has the ability to see into the future with their Inner Eye. Seers are one in a million due to such gifts being hard to come around. True Seers are even more rare, as their predictions are almost always the truth. Draco didn''t know what type of Seer Arya was but it still didn''t stop him from wondering about certain things. "Are you allowed in there?" Draco asked as he followed Arya back towards the boys'' dormitory. "No one will be around here this time." Arya said casually entering the room and heading towards Walter and Draco''s room. Walter who was somehow still sleeping jumped out of the bed as Arya slammed the door shut to purposefully wake him up. "Is the class over?" Walter said rubbing his eyes, not caring about Arya''s actions as if he was already used to it. "It is." Arya said sitting on the bed, "I have something important to tell, so the two of you have to listen carefully." "You mean ''that''?" Walter questioned with his eyebrows raised. "He knows." Arya said as he took out her wand and cast an anti-eavesdrop spell, then she turned to look at Draco, "Let''s take a vow, so you won''t have any trust related issues against me." Draco didn''t disagree with it and gladly extended his hands. Arya and Draco turned to Walter who had a complicated look on his face but he finally gave up, "Let me get my wand." "Will you, Arya Grimblehawk, tell me, Draco Black, the complete and honest truth?" "I will." "And do you agree to not betray me in any way whatsoever?" "I do." "Now it''s my turn." Arya said, "Will you Draco Black, agree to not act irrationally until the problem is solved and willingly move according to my plan as long as it doesn''t go against your moral." "I will." Draco said after a moment of silence. "So now that''s over. Is it true that you''re a Seer?" Draco asked Arya but his gaze never left Walters either. 172 Plan. "It was kind of hard to believe at first but when things started going as she said it would, it didn''t really take that long." Walter said shrugging his shoulders understanding what Draco wanted to hear, "I didn''t really mean to hide it... but I didn''t expect you to tell him things much sooner." "I wouldn''t have, but your friend here started going off road again and again." Arya said, "Futures are already complicated and him being stubborn as he is isn''t really a good thing." "Is it about Albert?" "Yes." Arya nodded, "The future that I saw didn''t include him in our plans so with you befriending him the future might have a different outcome." "What did you see?" Draco and Walter asked at the same time. "Sigh! The vision I saw was you coming in Durmstrang trying to fight Ryan on your own but he manages to get one over you and possess your body, completely killing your soul from within." Draco stayed silent for a while until he finally got what Ryan wanted from him, "He''s the mind and I am the body." "What?" Walter asked. "Nothing." Draco shook his head, "So that''s the only thing you saw, me getting killed?" "No, after he got your body he began annihilating everyone in our school including me and Walter." Arya shook her head as she said in a heavy tone, "But future has endless possibilities and I only see one. Just when I was thinking about what I was going to do, I stumbled across the Deathly Hallows sign carved in our hallway which somehow triggered another vision. A future where you, me, Walter along with several other people managed to defeat Ryan by working together. A future where you didn''t work alone and won." "So the reason you''ve been so secretive about it is?" "It''s because I want things to go according to my vision. The future that I saw already have two different possibilities that I know of. I don''t know about you but I want to live so I want things to go according to my second vision. Not a single person less and not a single person more." "Is he that strong?" "You both might end up in a tie but I don''t know if you are aware of this or not but he has an army on his side,"Arya said, "So trying to come up with a plan against him with you alone should just be avoided. Remember he knows this school better than you do and staying in the sidelines for so long, I wonder how many traps he has created over the years. And as I said if you lose we all will, whether we like it or not." There was silence among all of them as no one spoke a single a word. Everyone trying to process all the things properly. "So what do you think we should do?" Walter broke the silence looking at both of them. "We have to wait for the right time."Arya said, "Also the future I told you about has something to do with the Deathly Hallows, it''s either that or it has something to do with Grindlewald who carved the symbol himself." "Isn''t he dead?" Walter asked. "No, he is still locked in his own private prison cell." Draco said thinking about Arya''s plan, "How many men do you think we will need?" "Not much but still enough to overwhelm them." Draco nodded as he took out his luggage from an expandable pouch that he had been carrying. From there he took out a couple of document related to Ryan. "This is all the information I have collected against him." Draco said as he laid down the map, "The areas that are marked are all the bases where Ryan has collected his little army. Annoying as it might be I have suspected there to be at least a 100 wizards and more than 30 werewolves." "Is that it?" Walter asked naively not knowing the exact battle power they contained. 10 wizards are enough to handle a Dragon let alone a 100 and not only that they also have enough werewolves to infect or kill everyone in Durmstrang in an instant. "As far as I know yes." Draco nodded, "I did have some plans of my own though." "Let''s hear it." "My plan followed of me attacking Ryan here in Durmstrang first." Draco said, "Though I am not sure how I want him chased out of Durmstrang. After that, he will likely return to one of these bases, so before that happens, I want to sneakily attack the bases first clearing as much ground as possible. Since many of the wizards are there due to the Imperius Curse so as long as we clear the ones that are controlling them so we might not have to face all 100 wizards at once." "How about the Werewolves?" "They are the difficult part but it should be fine as long as we manage to hunt them all down before full moon." Draco continued, "If this works then our plans would be much simpler." Arya listened carefully and shook her head, "Who are you going to get help from to defeat hundreds of wizards. The Aurors might leak the information during their investigation and on the other hand, as you said a lot of them are just being manipulated so killing innocent people will bring consequences that you might not want to face." "She is right, buddy." Walter said, "The last I heard there weren''t many people happy about the aurors dying during the whole kidnapping period." "Who said anything about killing them?" Draco shook his head, "We can just capture or knock them out, one by one. It''s not like they are grouped up in a single place." "How many of them are located in a base?" "12 to 13 people in a single camp," Draco said, "As for the helpers, I have some people that are working under my father. Including me and two guests, I am hoping would show up, I believe we can win this. But it all amounts to working together at the same time, to not leave any traces behind." "But even if that works the flaw in your plan is still attacking Ryan alone." Arya said, "I saw you die within these walls so we need to think of something else." "There is no other way." Draco said shaking his head, "Even if you two were to join the battle, I reckon it will cause any significant impact. And due to your vision, I am having second thoughts about collecting people here to join my cause and fight with me." "As I said, it won''t work." Arya insisted on her words, "I can''t take a chance." "Then what do you want me to do?" Draco said with a bit of frustrated tone, "Do you really expect me to grow stronger in a couple of months to overwhelm him alone or do you expect my plan to work out on its own without me interfering." "Okay, calm down you two." Walter stepped in between them, "Both of you''re right in your own decisions and planning. Arya, you don''t have any plans to solve this issue and Draco, though you have a good plan, things might not work out the way you intended to." "He''s right." Arya sighed, "Do you know something else about Ryan that we don''t? You don''t have to spill everything you don''t want to but I for sure know that you know something that we don''t." "I did forget to mention that the man is very good at manipulating other people with magic." Draco said dodging the question, "To the point where he can completely latch onto someone and control them like puppets even though he stays far away from them. I have never heard of a spell like that before and it feels more like the upgraded version of the Imperius curse." 173 Plan pt.2 "Can you explain in detail?" Arya asked as she narrowed her eyes. "Pius was the prime example of what I just said." Draco continued as he tried remembering the details of the incident, "Pius wasn''t a minion of Ryan but was manipulated by him. The manipulation was to such perfection, that it felt like Ryan had just drunk some polyjuice potion and was now pretending to be Pius as he stood in front of me. If that wasn''t enough he tried taking control of Theodore who was captured by him at the time but luckily his plan failed." "What changed?" Draco went silent for a while as he recalled the incident, "As far as I think, I feel it was due to our blood pact." "You have a blood pact with Theodore?" Walter asked as he raised his eyebrows, "When did you two get so close?" "After you, all left we were the only remaining ones so why not." Draco said shrugging his shoulders, "But as I was saying, I think the blood pact affected Theodore as he couldn''t act against out on me. We all know that Blood pacts are more serious than the unbreakable vow, so with it, I feel like it''s hard for even Ryan to control someone. Like in my example, Theodore couldn''t attack me as we have a ''not harming each other'' thing going in our pact." "Let''s do it then." Arya said after thinking for a while. "Do what?" "The pact." Arya said, "We already have a contract among us so you know I can''t betray you and then again if this pact stops us from harming one another then isn''t it helpful considering how Ryan could manipulate one of us to gather pieces of information." "True." Draco agreed, "I am sure he has eyes and ears all over Durmstrang so seeing we are all getting chummy, he might have a different plan for us ready." "What are we waiting for then?" Arya said taking out her wand. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Wait! Doesn''t my opinion matter?" Walter said looking sad but no one gave him sympathy he wanted. "Not really, I mean since you know all this I can''t let you go without signing a contract first." Draco said, "I thought we were friends so I didn''t think I needed to ask this." "Yes Walter, I have tried pushing you towards the good light for a long time now but looking at it now I feel like I''ve failed." Arya added, "Do you really want to act like that instead of just helping a friend." "Don''t make me look bad!" Walter said in a frustrated tone causing the two of them to chuckle. With the mood lightened, the three of them sat in a triangulated position. The three made a small cut in both their hands with their wands and interlaced them in a triangulated manner. As they made their oath of never betraying each other in any way possible and never want harm for the other as they chanted the required mantra. Soon the three glowing drops of blood raised from their palms and mingled into one. A vial started to shape around it, enclosing the drop, signifying that the deal was struck. Draco captured the vial, which was slightly larger than the previous one he made with Theodore. "Who''s going to keep it?" Walter asked. "I will." Draco said, "At least I have some protection against it." "Where?" Arya asked with her eyes furrowed. Draco pondered for a while but since the three of them had already had a blood pact along with the fact that now they had to battle together, they at least needed a place to train. So Draco decided to come clean about his suitcase. "Do you think you can put up more security charms around the place?" "That''s my forte." Arya said standing up as she chanted three different spells covering the whole room again, "One on the outside is the external layer as long as someone enters the door we will be aware of it. The second one gives the effect that the room is empty and the final one is a shield type charm so it will take a lot of effort to break it and we can at least have some time to do what we''re doing." "What are we doing exactly?" "This." Draco said putting his suitcase in front of them as he opened it, "Let''s go." At first, the two of them were confused as to what he was talking about but when they saw Draco jump inside the case they finally realized what he was talking about. They looked at one another and jumped in as well. Going in they saw the scenery suddenly change, the suitcase seemed to have a world on its own. "What in the Merlin name is this Draco?" Walter asked confused and amazed at the same time. "Follow me." Draco said leading the two, "It''s an expandable suitcase." "Yeah, I get that but why is there a Dragon here?" "Dra- Dragon? Where?" Walter looked around but couldn''t find it until Arya grabbed hold of his chin and directed it towards the empty field a bit far away. Walter gulped as he finally laid eyes of the Dragon, though not as large as a fully grown Dragon, it was still big enough to kill someone. The Dragon which he recognized to be a Norwegian Back, burned the meat that was placed on the ground and ate it. "Bloody hell, why didn''t you say you have a Dragon before?" Walter said his eyes opened wide, "With this, we can win the fight easily." "Not so easy as you think." Draco said, "Last time when we battled in Romania. Ryan figured most of the creatures that I carried with me. Along with my battle power. I later realized that all the things he did were probably just to grasp the limit of my ability." "What other creature..." Just as Walter was about to ask, he suddenly saw a huge three-headed Dog in front of him. Since he was so busy watching the Dragon he didn''t really notice the obvious huge Dog in front of him. Draco was more than close with Fluffy these days, so he didn''t quite require his favorite ball to be near him. Though he could still hear him growling looking at Arya and Walter. "Calm down, boy." Draco said, "It''s okay." Fluffy looked at him and then back at the two strangers, though he stopped growling he didn''t quit staring at him. Draco let it be as he went near the house he had built and from within his shirt, he took out the vial they had just created. He stretched his hands forward and the vial itself lifted up and went inside the house through a specific small hole as it began revolving the first vial he had kept. "That should be safe." Draco said casually returning back but looking at Arya''s questioning look he answered, "No one can open the case instead of me and even if they did manage to get in forcefully, all my defenses would go up along with all the creatures that will be released." "Master it good to see you." One of the elves came up towards them while they were on the verge of starting another argument again, "May I ask if you need anything?" "Not right now." Draco shook his head but suddenly something crossed his mind as he had a huge grin on his face, "But I may need you and the other elves do some work for me." "Anything for you master." The elf said sincerely not understanding but Walter and even Arya felt a shiver run down their spine seeing Draco''s villain face. 174 Back at Hogwarts Days went and came but things didn''t really change back in Durmstrang. Draco didn''t feel threatened nor did he feel he was in enemy territory as his life went mostly normal. He met with Ryan several times but before he could reach him the other party would just disappear. Draco knew Ryan was mocking him, the whole showing up and disappearing charade was all about, ''What can you do to me?'' but with their planning in place, Draco didn''t let those petty things get to his head. It was Christmas since he had asked no one to send him any gifts everyone followed suit and didn''t. He woke up to the sound of Walter snoring annoyed he rubbed his eyes as he cursed his luck, now feeling a little bit of annoyance Theodore might have felt due to his late-night activities. Ever since the day of the planning, Walter and Arya had stuck together with them not even going home for Christmas to stick around him. Draco walked around the empty hall as he made his way to the hall for breakfast. Since not all students went back to Durmstrang there will still some students around but his eyes quickly caught the guy in a wheelchair. "Not going to run from me this time are you?" Draco said as he sat next to none other than Ryan who seemed to be enjoying his breakfast. "I thought I''ll give you an early morning Christmas gift." Ryan spoke his first words to Draco after two months of him being here as they looked at one another. "What do you think will stop me from killing you here and now?" Draco said as he lifted his wand from within his robe as a knife floated around mid-air, "I don''t even need a complex spell to get you, just a basic one and you''re done." "But you won''t, because I know you want a decent future." Ryan said, "Kill me now and no matter the connections you have you''ll still be in Azkaban rotting away." "True, but that doesn''t mean I can''t harm you." Draco said as the knife flew directly towards Ryan''s eyes who didn''t even flinch, but the knife took a deep dive and stabbed him in his leg. "Paralyzed, huh? Draco said casually as he took a sandwich from Ryan''s plate, "I wonder if you''ll wince if I stabbed you in the stomach though?" As he was talking the knife never stopped as it kept stabbing one leg after another as blood filled his seat. Looking annoyed Ryan took out his wand and flicked the knife away healing his wounds. "Did I break you or something?" Ryan asked. "I think so." Draco said casually, "You know people in our previous world would surely call me crazy as I want nothing more than just to kill you right here and now. As long as you''re dead, things go back to the way they were before with me in control." "And I thought I was to play the villain in this story." "You were but I guess that roles suit me better. Draco Malfoy, the bully, and the bad guy." Draco said, "But are you really going to pretend that you don''t want to do the same?" "I do of course." Ryan nodded, "But I plan to do much more." Draco felt something probe his mind but he quickly pulled his defenses up, shooting a fork at his hands again, causing Ryan to flinch. "Looks like you have done much better than last time." Ryan said as he pulled out the fork from his hand, "You didn''t even notice it before." "I guess so." Draco shrugged, "But you''ve remained the same for which I am very thankful, to be honest. You know all this time I wondered about how to defeat you and how to win against you but slowly I came to realize that you''re just an empty husk of a shell as I am." Ryan glared at Draco continued, "As you said, I can''t kill you in front of all these people but neither can you. I mean, you''re more pathetic than me, this is our first time talking face to face and I''ve managed to stab you 28 times already. While you can''t do anything but glare to keep up the whole pitiful boy in a wheelchair facade. From far away you might have chances of winning and granted I don''t know what you''ve planned but as long as I am close to you, you and I both know that I don''t need a wand to end your life." "You''re correct." Ryan nodded, "But that doesn''t make me weak, it makes me stronger. While your emotions will slowly begin to corrupt you." Draco rolled his eyes as he stood up. The whole corrupt things did raise some question but he wasn''t going to let it show in his face. "You better watch your back." Ryan hissed at him, "The game has just started." "And I have already made the first move," Draco added as he left the hall. Going out he took out a bunch of keys from within his robe, one of which was vibrating seriously. "Looks like this Christmas is getting even better by the minute." ----------------------------------------------- It had been three months since Draco had gone to Durmstrang. Since the whole dueling episode with Draco, Professor Lockhart had been teaching them seriously with everything he could muster but after ever since Draco went to Durmstrang, Lockhart had somehow again managed to fall back into his old ways. Some of his fans in school who were still around were at least happy that he had managed to get over his defeat but the fact he pretended like Draco didn''t even exist left some people to think that it was trauma at work. But it wasn''t happiness for all people. Instead of teaching them about the spell and how to protect themselves, he read passages from his books to them and sometimes reenacted some of the more dramatic bits. He usually picked Harry to help him with these reconstructions; so far, Harry had been forced to play a simple Transylvanian villager whom Lockhart had cured of a Babbling Curse, a yeti with a head cold, and a vampire who had been unable to eat anything except lettuce since Lockhart had dealt with him. Harry was hauled to the front of the class during their very next Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, this time acting a werewolf. Several times he wanted to refuse but would give up pitying his condition. "Nice loud howl, Harry ¡ª exactly ¡ª and then, if you''ll believe it, I pounced ¡ª like this ¡ªslammed him to the floor ¡ª thus with one hand, I managed to hold him down ¡ª with my other, I put my wand to his throat ¡ª I then screwed up my remaining strength and performed the immensely complex Homorphus Charm - he let out a piteous moan ¡ª go on, Harry ¡ª higher than that ¡ª good ¡ª the fur vanished ¡ª the fangs shrank ¡ª and he turned back into a man. Simple, yet effective ¡ª and another village will remember me forever as the hero who delivered them from the monthly terror of werewolf attacks." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. The bell rang and Lockhart got to his feet. "Homework ¡ª compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf! Signed copies of Magical Me to the author of the best one!" The class began to leave. Harry returned to the back of the room, where Ron and Hermione were waiting. "I wish I could join the Slytherins, for the first time in my life." Harry said frustratingly, "I mean at least they don''t have to attend the classes and I am sure they are surpassing us in every level." "I heard that Black left his notes for them." Ron said nodding, "I am sure with it they can easily breeze through this year, let alone this subject. Just when I thought my initial doubts about Lockhart were wrong he goes back to proving himself to be that same moronic professor we knew before." "I know, I was actually glad that he was teaching us something nice for a change." "Do you think the match with Black broke him or something?" Ron said as he quickly stood straight looking back at Hermione, who he was sure was going to complain to him about talking bad about a teacher but looking at Hermione she seemed to be lost in her own thoughts. 175 Back at Hogwarts pt.2 "Hermione?" "I think you''re right," Hermione mumbled, "I know something is wrong but they just won''t tell me." Ron and Harry thought they heard something wrong, as they looked back at her in confusion. "Did you hear the same thing I did?" "I think so." Hermione rolled her eyes as she said, "I know there''s something going on in this school, I did before and after Collin, Justin Finch-Fletchley and even the ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, I am even more sure that it''s not something simple." "What do we do about it then?" Ron said, "I mean no matter what happens they still blame Harry so we need to help him if we can." "It''s not that I don''t trust you Harry but you have to understand that being the same place every time petrification took place, is very werid." Hermione chose her word carefully as she said to Harry who already was starting to look uncomfortable, "I think this has one way or the other has something to do with you." "What makes you say that?" Ron said but just then a familiar figure came towards them. "Hello, Hermione." The person was none other than Theodore Nott, Draco''s best buddy in school, "I have bought you the things you have asked me for." Theodore said handing out a book and a pouch. "Though, Polyjuice Potion seems easy to make it''s very hard to control it as it has a bit of tendency to explode when things aren''t done in order." Theodore said, "Draco will surely kill me if he finds out that I am giving you all this stuff that might cause you some harm." "Thank you, Theodore." Hermione said, "Don''t worry I''ll be careful." "And Potter seems like you''re faring off well." Theodore looked towards Harry, "I heard that you''ve become quite the popular interaction again considering how actually no one wants to interact with you." "What are you trying to say Nott?" Ron growled. "The same thing everyone has in their mind, Weasley." Theodore said not paying attention to the redhead at all, "Why is that every time you''re near something bad happens? Do you feel like someone is controlling you or something?" "Theodore..." Hermione wanted to stop before Theodore took it too far but the other party just shook his head. "Forgive me Hermione but this time I am not trying to insult." Theodore said, "I am seriously curious." Harry wanted to say something back but he couldn''t retort what Theodore just said, bad things did always happen when he was around, the first year he was the one who found the mess with the whole duel thing and they landed in Fluffy''s doorstep which landed in them going on this whole trip with the Philosopher''s stone. "Actually we wanted to have a chat about you with it." Hermione said, "Can we go somewhere a bit private?" "Potter and Weasley as well?" Seeing Hermione nod, Theodore took them to an empty classroom they had been using during their free period to practice duels and stuff when Lockhart''s classes were taking place. "I can''t believe they gave you a classroom." Hermione said looking around, "Draco, sure did get lucky this time around." "He has a deal with Dumbledore." Theodore said vaguely, "So what do you want to talk about?" "We actually wanted to join the club," Hermione said making both Harry and Ron flinch. "Hermione, as I have told you before you''re more than welcome to join the club anytime." Theodore said, "I heard you helped Draco with it so you''re already a part of it." "Thank you, Theodore, but I wanted Harry and Ron to be part of the club as well." "I-I don''t want..." Ron was about to say something but Harry stopped him. "Fine! Since we are only taking in second years this year they can join us." Theodore said, "But before that, they have to take a test." "Test?"'' Harry asked. "It''s a basic test." Theodore said, "It mostly covers the whole ciriculum of the first year and second year. Of course, we don''t expect you to be intelligent enough to do so yourself, so we will provide you with notes and after a week you''ll take the test to at least know if you are good at remembering things." "Who in the name build this system?" Ron complained but when Hermione glared at him, he realized who did, "Hermione you didn''t tell us before." "You were never interested." Hermione said, "Fair deal! Since I was the one who created the system I shouldn''t play favoritism in this matter." Theodore nodded as he went over to the desk and pulled out two stacks of papers huge enough for Ron and Harry to already give up in their heads. "You want us to finish this before a week?" "It''s mostly basics, Ron." Hermione said, "If you remember things from the first year then you should be able to pass easily." "Isn''t there another way?" Harry asked still hopeful for he did not want to join Lockhart''s classes anymore, even if it meant he had to join in with the Slytherins. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Of course we do." Theodore said, "A duel." "Wait! Who instigated that?" Hermione was the one to be surprised this time. "Draco didn''t tell you?" Theodore shrugged, "He decided that not every genius has to be all book smart as long as they can practically prove they have a talent they are allowed in." "Who do I have to duel against?" "It would usually be Draco but since he''s not here, it''s going to be me." Theodore said, "But you don''t have to worry, I won''t go full offensive since this is a test to see how powerful and handy with spells you are." Harry thought for a while and nodded, "I want to enter through a duel." "Good enough for me, So how about next Sunday?" Theodore said, "You should''ve enough time to prepare, right?" "Harry..." Hermione wanted Harry to stop but the other party just shook his head. "Hermione there''s no way I can finish all that in a single week." Harry said, "So I''d rather take my chance and try the duel." "Harry I think Hermione is right." Ron added, "What''s keeping him from not playing fair." "Weasly unlike you, I have an honor I have to keep." Theodore said, "Also, I will swear an oath on the day of the duel to play fair." "Fine if that''s the case then I am in as well." Ron snorted, "I''ll see how fair you will play." "You''re welcome to do so." Theodore said, "If that''s all then I need to take my leave, Hermione." Hermione nodded as Theodore walked out of the classroom but before he exited at the door he looked back at Harry and said, "Things will only be getting worse so be prepared at least." Harry wasn''t sure what Theodore meant but he knew the message was for himself. "What''s this about Hermione?" Ron who was acting tough suddenly slumped as soon as Theodore got out of the classroom, "Why are we even joining with the Slytherins?" "Because I know that they know something about what''s going on, so we need to get in the club to at least figure out what is it." Hermione said, "Draco knew but he wanted me to be safe so he didn''t tell me about it but now with everyone blaming Harry, I can''t help but pry. Draco was right, hanging out with you guys, does always seem to drag me into troubles." "Why?" Harry asked confused, he didn''t know what to say. He knew what Draco said was correct and honestly, he never had been much of a good friend to Hermione as he did with Ron. But the other party always stuck around making him feel ashamed of himself. "Why? It''s simple because we''re friends." Hermione said, "Though Draco might be a bit mad at me, that hasn''t stopped him from doing anything I didn''t want him to as well and besides he will understand where I am coming from. Let''s stop chitchatting and go prepare for your duel- I mean both of your duels." 176 Duel for the club "What? Potter and Weasley?" Back in the common room, Theodore was telling Pansy and Daphne what happened before. And as expected Pansy wasn''t too pleased with it. "Well, as long as they do good we have nothing to complain about." Theodore said, "And besides I need to keep an eye on Potter since he''s been the one that I suspect the most." "You''re talking about the Basilisk?" Daphne asked sighing, "Who knew this was going to be such a pain in the ass. I just wish it ends quickly." "Are you sure it has something to do with Potter?" "He''s connected with it one way or the other so keeping a close eye on him wouldn''t be a waste of time in the least." Theodore said shrugging his shoulders, "So are you two fine with it?" "It''s whatever, I am sure Draco wouldn''t mind either." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. ------------------------------------------------------------- "I, Theodore Nott vow to act fair in this duel and will only use defensive magic unless the opponent uses a lethal spell against me and I am forced to fight back." Theodore saying his vows bought his wand down as he stared at Harry and Ron. The surrounding members of the club who were all Slytherin second years didn''t look too happy about it but they couldn''t really go against something Draco had decided beforehand as they now only wished for Potter and Weasley to fail. "So who''s going first?" "I am," Harry said as he walked forward nodding back at Ron and Hermione. "You know the rules, Potter," Theodore said as both of them walked towards each other. Then proceeded to bow and then walk back and start the duel. Harry threw one spell after another, while Theodore just used a shielding charm blocking most of the spells thrown at him. Though he hated to admit it, Potter did have a way with spells as he used even the basic spells to their full capacity though he was a bit clumsy with its accuracy. Theodore was sure if Harry was raised in a wizarding household, his powers would probably be good enough to match his own or even surpass him. After several spells, Harry was starting to get tired and so was Theodore who had to cast the charm again and again. "And stop!" Theodore said as he bought his wand down, "Welcome to the club, Mr.Potter." Harry though tired couldn''t help but feel happy as this was the first time he had done something on his own. He looked back at Hermione and Ron who were cheering for him, as he waved back at them happily. More so he was quite happy about his progress than last time. "The rules of the clubs are simple," Theodore said, "The things you have learned here wouldn''t be shared with other people outside of the club. Second, You aren''t allowed to disclose information you''ve accidentally learned to the outside without the consent of the other party. Third, no fightings among the members unless it''s a challenge to a proper and serious duel." "There are still many rules to the club but these three are the most serious ones. Right now as you know, we have our club activities during the Defense against the Dark arts class but in the coming future when we have a proper teacher the club activities would shift after school." Harry nodded listening carefully to all the rules clearly, "What if we wanted to leave the club in the future?" he asked, "That''s simple." Theodore said providing Harry with a long scroll of paper, "When you join the club you''ll sign this contract that will bind you to some rules and if you ever decide to leave, most of the secrets and things you''ve learned in the club would be obliviated from your memory when you choose to leave." "But that''s..." "That''s to protect our privacy and trust, Hermione," Theodore said, "It might seem too much but we can''t trust everyone to keep their mouth shuts in the future, and if it''s any consolation every one of us have signed it. It''s your call Potter, no one is forcing you." Harry looked back at Hermione and Ron thinking for a while, he thought about all the things that happened just this year, and last year included. With Voldemort alive, he had to take a stand for it so he looked back up determined. "I am ready to sign the contract." "Congratulations." Theodore said passing the contract and a small knife to Harry, "A drop of blood there and you''re done." Harry with a bit of hesitation made a small cut on his index finger as he dropped the blood on the bottom of the paper which seemed to absorb it. Soon the contract burned away as all he felt something like a bit of static course through him. "Please step to the side now." Theodore said as he looked at Ron, "We still have a new applicant, don''t we?" Harry nodded as he went back, patting Ron he mouthed ''good luck'' to him. "Let''s see how fair you and this club of yours is," Ron said as both of them did the ceremony and started with the duel. Theodore quickly noticed the way Ron used his spells was quite unusual for someone using such high-level spells. Some of them were dark and some of them plain offensive spells. Theodore blocked one spell after another but every other spell he blocked his frown couldn''t help but be deeper. Ron was the exact opposite of Harry, he used different high-levels spells but none of them were powerful enough to cause actual damage. The spells were getting darker and darker after each turn but when Theodore noticed what spell he was going to use next, he quickly used ''Expelliarmus'' going for the offense for the first time. "Hey! I thought you were playing fair in this game." Ron snorted as he picked his wand up. "I did until someone decided to throw a dark spell at me." Theodore said clenching his eyebrows, "Who did you learn it from?" "None of your concerns." Ron said, "It was a fair dueling spell so you can''t blame me for it." ''But not someone your level could use it.'' Theodore said to himself as he finally realized the pattern. Previously when the diary was in Lockhart''s hand he suddenly got a bit powerful and now Ron. Realizing the connections Theodore couldn''t help but smile. "Is everything okay?" Hermione asked "It sure is." Theodore said as he passed the contract back to Ron, "Congratulation, Mr. Weasley for entering the club." Ron snorted looking like a proud peacock as he dropped his blood on the contract and went back towards Harry. "Is there something wrong with the spells he chose?" Hermione asked, "Though I am still surprised that he didn''t use the charms I taught him at all." "Well, who knows maybe we''ve all been underestimating Mr. Weasley all this time." Theodore said, "Though it was a dark spell, it wasn''t one of the illegal ones and with his powers, I doubt he could do much even if he hits me with the killing curse itself." "So when is my test going to happen?" Hermione asked shaking her head. "You are already the part of the club so you just need to sign the contract and we''re done." Theodore said, "Besides, you were the one who created it so there isn''t any point for you take it." Hermione finally realized the point as she awkwardly laughed and signed the contract finally becoming part of the club. 177 Krums bad day. Krum was sitting in his room thinking about the match that took place before Christmas. Though he acted cocky and arrogant, he believed himself to still be in control to not show much of his arrogance around people. He believed himself to be good enough of a guy to not let his anger get hold of him but when the day, that brat named Walter stopped him from taking action against the girl he nearly lost it. Having lost several family members in the hands of Grindlewald, he resented coming to Durmstrang, to begin with, but when he had no other choice to do so he vowed to himself that he would stop anyone from fantasizing about Grindlewald while he was there. From there he had met different people who shared the same ideologies as him and were just as against Grindlewald like he was. So they always stopped and managed to suppress anyone from worshiping the deathly hallows and Grindlewald alike but just when things were fine the girl named Arya had to go searching and snooping around about the deathly hallows. Though he didn''t know what exactly the girl was up to, he was still sure that the girl was just another Grindelwald fanatic like so many others. He wasn''t a bully so he went up to the girl and asked her to stop politely but the girl just ignored him and was seen several times by many trying to search things related to Grindlewald. After Arya had repeatedly not cared about his warning including many others he knew he had to do something. But things quickly took a turn from a single warning to a sudden duel with a second year. He knew he was being harsh with the girl but he didn''t think anyone would try to stop him but against his expectation, the boy named Walter bravely came forward. And in his surprise, he seemed to be on a tie with that little brat. Causing him to feel shame and embarrassment from his peers watching the duel in shock. After throwing barrages of insult against each other both of them decided to end this once and for all with a Quidditch match. A three against three-game. He was sure he would be the one to win from the very beginning as he was an up and rising quidditch star himself while the other party looked as if he didn''t even know the rules of the game. And the thing he was confident with was the fact that the other party didn''t seem to have a third player to join the game. The girl was sure to be one of his team members but he knew no one would be gutsy enough to fight against him. The other students were sure to not bother and the same went for any member of the Quidditch team. Though it was a bit shameful to use this as a method of winning against a second year, this was the most peaceful way he could think of solving this issue. He was sure when the day of the match would come, the boy would ask for forgiveness and this whole thing will be over with but he didn''t expect, Draco Black to be an obstacle. The guest of Durmstrang seemed to be friends with the boy as the other party took no hesitation to defend him. Though he acted fair and just, he knew it was all a facade to fool people. This caused things to be a mess as he was now certain that Walter had finally found himself a little partner of his own. He had obviously heard some things about Draco, from news to rumors, though he expected the other party to be strong he felt he still underestimated Draco by a lot. He knew he couldn''t defeat him in a normal fight but the match contained Quidditch the thing he knew not even Draco could beat him in. But fate didn''t seem to be on his side, the match started like normal and he and his friends won the first round very easily but he didn''t expect Draco to cheat. Though he didn''t know how, he was quick to notice Draco''s concentration focused more on muttering things than catching the snitch. He wanted to call it out several times but since the other party didn''t have a wand and nothing had happened so far, there was no way he could prove it. Just then the snitch came closer to them and both of them started running on a goose chase behind the snitch. He knew he was close, he knew he was about to win but just then his broom started shaking, he felt something going wrong with the broom as Draco passed by him catching the snitch. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Though he was bitter about losing the match, his focused relied more on the problem his broom was facing as he didn''t know what was going on. The broom soon when out of control turning left and right and rocking back and forth on its own, he tried holding on to it but to no avail, he fell off the broom. He opened his eyes as he felt someone pulling him back up. Draco who had caught him slowly let him down, saving his life and becoming a hero in the eyes of many. Krum was still shocked by what happened as he caught his broom that had just fallen down and left the field. The broom was completely damaged none the less, to the point where it even stopped working anymore. He opened the broom completely to check what was wrong with to only find all the magical enhancement inside the broom burned to crisp. He was now sure that Draco had indeed cheated on the match. But it was impossible to prove so as he had no clue how he did it. He first contemplated that it could be wandless magic but his expensive broom came with an enhancement that prevented anyone from using spells against his broom. Not even the darkest spell would make his broom go this crazy and get so severely damaged. There was still a small chance that the broom got damaged itself but that was very likely not going to happen so randomly. He had questions he wanted answers to but he knew he wasn''t likely going to get it. Now Arya and her friends could research and fantasize Grindlewald all they wanted without anyone stopping them as it was part of the deal but that didn''t matter now as all he could hope for his qualification in getting in the national team, not get revoked. In one hand he wanted to confront Draco but on the other hand, he was still a bit thankful that Draco didn''t let him fall as that fall would''ve really caused a lot of damage. Thankfully all this was over, it felt like another Christmas gift today as he had finally gotten accepted to the Bulgarian Quidditch team. Things seemed to not be going so well after the match but he heard, Draco had actually sent a letter to them about the malfunction of the broom admitting to him winning only due to sheer luck, which helped clear some misunderstandings and him getting accepted. The previous grudge he held was all gone and he could finally move on. But just before he could cheer up he heard someone attacking him with a spell but before he could react he was hit. --------------------------------------------------- A/N- So I am rushing the chapters a bit since I want to quickly end this arc as I feel like this has been going on for too long and since most of you guys don''t like the whole Quidditch thing I decided to just skip it. The second volume would likely end within 25 chapters at most. 178 Sirius Escapes. Sirius Black had escaped from prison and now the dementors of Azkaban were on full alert including the ministry, one of them being the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge himself. Aurors were sent out to look for him including some dementors who were set loose on nearby Islands but there was no result. Fudge had summarised one thing if Sirius Black was out he will be after Harry Potter and probably Draco Black, after all, how can that deranged criminal forgive anyone especially the one who stole his title and heirship. Fudge quickly wrote a letter to send to the Malfoys but stopped midway through since he didn''t have an excuse for Sirius''s escape. He didn''t know if this was the right thing to do or not but one thing was certain, not even the purebloods will be able to save him this time. "What are you doing here?" Kreacher yelled at the man with disheveled clothes, as he entered without looking at the elf. Dobby who was given the duty to activate a magical charm if someone entered the house, quickly did so as he went to stop Kreacher. The man entered the living room and sat on one of the couch as he looked here and there thinking how all the things were still the same, he couldn''t hear his mother screaming which was quite pleasant but other than the elf''s blabbering the man felt a sense of loneliness. "How are you doing, Sirius?" Sirius heard someone behind him as he went on full alert quickly reacting and pointing his wand towards the boy who stood behind him cooly. But before he could react the wand in his hand melted and the couch he was standing on began morphing as it trapped his leg. "To think that all this time in Azkaban and your skill is still better than a lot of Aurors is really a wonderful thing. It shows how strong the past you was." Draco said in an appreciating tone as he sat opposite of Sirius who was growling and snarling at him, "But I am not stupid either, though the wand belonged to one of your forefathers, I did mess with it a little so it was under my control all along, well the destruction path at least." "Who are you?" Sirius said still trying to get out from the couch''s grab. "Let me introduce myself properly Sirius," Draco said, "I am Draco Malfoy, now Black.--now, now you might want to listen to me first. I indeed did inherit the Black family, since you were in Azkaban and Bellatrix was in Azkaban as well, there was no way the Black family was going to continue, so asking your mother, I legally inherited the house, though I might have used some corrupt minister to get the job done quick its all legal I swear." "Why did you help me?" Sirius said calming down a bit, as the couch began loosening the more calm he was, "And how did you know?" "It wasn''t that hard to find about some things, after all, I have decent connections-- Sigh! Fine, I asked my father and he told me that you had no connection with the dark lord whatsoever so due to it, I already had my suspicions and through that, I dug a bit deeper and the connection between you and all the Marauders as you call yourselves." "How did you know about Peter and our animagus form?" Sirius calmed down further, as the crouch completely loosen its grip on him morphing back to a normal couch again. "I can''t sell all my secrets now can I?" Draco said as he looked at the wounds on his body, "Go take a shower, I''ll leave you with some healing potions. Take a good night rest, and we will talk tomorrow." "You haven''t answered my question yet? Why did you help me?" "As I said in the letter I need some help from you and I''ll help you with your Peter Pettigrew problem." Draco stood up as he looked at Sirius carefully one more time. He had seen pictures of Sirius before but now, unfortunately, Sirius'' handsomeness had suffered due to the depression and maltreatment he underwent during the twelve years he spent in Azkaban. As a result, Sirius had prematurely aged beyond that of a man in his thirties. He had a gaunt, sunken face, waxy skin, yellow teeth, and long, matted hair. "What are you looking at kid?" Sirius snarled. "Glad to see that you still have some sanity left." Draco said, "You''re supposed to be my Maternal cousin once removed but now since we share the same surname and same house, I''ll call you uncle if that''s okay with you." Sirius didn''t say anything at first but after a while, he mumbled, "Just call me Sirius." "Will do." Draco said, "Kreacher wouldn''t bother you anymore at least he shouldn''t but you know how he is so if you need something call Dobby, he''s less annoying for you." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. -------------------------- "So you''re staying in Durmstrang now and you need my help to stop your senior who is very dangerous?" Sirius snorted, it was the morning of the next day and now that Christmas was over, Draco had arrived back at Blackhouse to have a proper talk with Sirius. "It might sound like a joke but I am serious," Draco said as he presented the news about Pius and the rest, including all the information he had on Ryan''s base to Sirius, "He''s the same as Voldermort maybe even more dangerous, but he''s not as strong now so this is the right time to attack." Sirius narrowed his eyes at the name Voldemort as he looked at the papers. Looking at the data, it was clear the person who Draco was so worried about seemed to be a big deal. "Why not ask the ministry to take care of this?" "With Pius involved last time, I don''t trust them enough on this and besides I don''t exactly have the evidence that all this is done by a bloody cripple." "So what does this Ryan guy have to do with you?" "My body is a bit special you see." Draco said with a hint of a lie, "I accidentally became a half-Veela of a sort, so he wants to basically take over my body and with his knowledge of Black magic wants to take over the world." "Veela blood?" Sirius said looking at Draco from head to toe, "No wonder, I smelt something weird the moment I met you, but a half-veela seriously?" Draco shrugged as he conjured fire in his hand as he shot it at the fireplace, lighting the woods on fire. Sirius nodded as he looked at what happened, "So what do you want me to do?" "I want you to attack at this base here." Draco said pointing to a map, "This base is what I''ve concluded to be the main base of operation and with your animagus ability, I want you to infiltrate the camp and have a go at it. Considering your skills you should be fine there." "I am weak right now, do you really think I can fight werewolves and wizards in this state." "We still have a couple of days to prepare, after all in a heated conversation I might have stabbed the guy and made him a bit hot-headed, but you shouldn''t worry as I''ll be your back up." "You? What do you think you can do?" "I am a really good wizard if you let me do my job, so basically you''ll attack from the inside and I''ll cause distraction from the outside so you won''t have all the heat on you." "And if I refuse?" "I''ll kill you here and now," Draco said not even flinching. 179 Sirius Escapes pt.2 "You think you can?" Sirius snorted. "Well you might be a lot for me considering you can use wandless magic and you having your animagus form but I don''t need to do all the dirty work, now do I?" Draco snapped his fingers as an elf appeared out of nowhere behind Sirius''s back holding a knife to his neck. Sirius gulped as he stared at the elf he hadn''t seen before but before he could do anything the elf disappeared with another snap of Draco''s finger. "I see you have found some good uses for them," Sirius said sarcastically as he rubbed his neck distastefully, "Quiet clever if you ask me." "Well someone had to right?" Draco said, "But let''s get serious, Sirius--that sounded weird-- anyway, this is the only way you have left. You''re an Azkaban escapee, as far as I know still guilty and getting hunted by the ministry. Working with me is the only choice you have." "Why me? You''re a Malfoy-by birth at least, you can get anyone to do your bidding for you." "I need someone I can trust and someone disposable." Draco said with complete honesty, "And you''re the only one that fits the description. I can really trust you but at the same time, I won''t flinch even if you were to die. As for being the Malfoy part, I do have people working for me but as you can see there are a lot of bases to cover." Sirius stayed silent for a while, "What about Harry?" "Harry is safe, I can assure you that," Draco said passing the newspaper to Sirius. The front page of the newspaper was a huge description of Draco''s club that was teaching students some really harmful spell. Though the club was meant for learning, it didn''t stop Rita to bash the idea of his club thoroughly even going far as to criticize Dumbledore for it. But that wasn''t the worst part at all, the main focus of the club was Harry Potter being in the club as well. Harry Potter who was not in the best position like Draco and was already suspected of being a future-dark lord was now in the spotlight again. The picture in the newspaper was the picture of all the members of the club which included Harry and most importantly Ron and the rat. "I am sure you recognize your godson, don''t you?" "I do, he looks like his father." Sirius said sighing, but then he noticed the rat on one of the boy''s shoulder, that bloody rat was something he could recognize anywhere and anyplace. Draco noticed Sirius behavior, frowning a little at the way he was acting as if he was going to go Hogwarts this very second and kill the rat. "Calm down." "Calm down! You want me to calm down after seeing this?" "If you do something to attract attention, I am sure Peter would be aware and will escape before you can ever find him again." Draco said, "Like I suspected the ministry wouldn''t be quick to publish the news about your escape as I am sure Fudge would still want to save his arse, so we have a month at most. We do my job and we will get back at yours after that." "I know you want to jump right away but I assure you, this is the only way to go." Draco continued, "With Pettigrew in Hogwarts, Harry is safe under the care of Dumbledore." Sirius was still growling but his facial expressions were calmer than before. "Stay calm, we have a lot more to do, especially about you?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "What do you mean?" "I mean as much as you want to kill Peter, the best way to deal with this situation will be to successfully capture Pettigrew and turn him over to the Ministry," Draco said as he rolled his eyes at the hyper Sirius who began flaring again, "Now, now... listen to me first. You can kill Peter if you want but that won''t help prove your innocence but turning him over will. With it you''ll finally be a free man, you won''t have to worry about being a prisoner on the run but will get to live a proper life again." "You really think I care about wanting to live a proper life?" Sirius snorted, "I''d rather kill that son of a bitch and die with him if I have to." "Sure you will but what about Harry?" Draco said, "He''s an orphan and all alone. Dumbledore after you being sent to prison sent him back to his aunt''s house, where let''s just say he isn''t leaving the dream, one would imagine he would be in.-- Don''t worry, he isn''t being physically abused but mentally he sure is. If not for his cocky attitude which helped him still stay sane, I am sure he''d turn into an Obscurial, looking at how against magic his aunt and uncle are but it did help reduce his cockiness though which I am sure Uncle Snape would be thankful for." Sirius grunted, "You knew this and--" "And didn''t stop it?" Draco cut of Sirius, "I promise you that I didn''t know of this before until I looked into it and let''s just say your Godson and I are not quite friendly, We went from being friends to enemies then back to an acquaintance in a matter of a year, so I don''t know what our relationship is but you get it, don''t you?" "How did the newspaper get access to the information about your little club?" "I asked my friends to do it." Draco said, "Since you were taking so long breaking out of the prison, I figured this would give you enough of a motivation, though I didn''t except Harry and that Weasley brat to join in on my club but I guess it was meant to be." "You''re much like your mother," Sirius said as he snorted, "You know when to use people or should I say a perfect Slytherin at least." "That''s a first." Draco said, "So as I said, we can solve your problem in an instant, all we have to do is catch the bloody rat and we''re through. You can stay and take care of your godson and I can live my life as well." "So when are we attacking and how are we doing it?" "Leave that to me." Draco said, "You just need to recover as much as possible and wait until it''s time to attack the main base. That''s all the things you need to focus on." "How many people do you think would be there?" "A few, I guess." Draco shrugged, "I am sure there are some guards there but then again since it''s their main base, I think only some trusted people would be there." 180 Attack After discussing strategies with Sirius, Draco went back to Drumstrang. He went looking for Arya and Walter to discuss his strategies with them as now Sirius was already out. He went around the castle to find something odd. There was no one around the castle today. Though the holiday was still on and many people were out with their families, there were still enough people to make sure that the castle wouldn''t be empty. Students, aside there weren''t any signs of neither the teachers nor the guards as well. This oddly felt suspicious as Draco prepared himself. He took out the wand he had hidden from his robe as he walked around carefully. He walked across the lobby through the paintings who looked at him with a bit surprised and frightened expression as if they wanted to say something but couldn''t. Walking towards the end, he saw a young boy. A first-year student, whom he had seen in the dining now and then. "Are you okay?" Draco called out but the boy just stood there looking at him, as Draco was walking closer towards him he recognized the dazed expression the boy carried but before he could say anything, the boy launched a spell at him. *Boom!* With barely an inch, Draco managed to cast a shield charm. The shield charm was incomplete which caused Draco to fall back as he flew back across the hall. Without waiting, the boy launched one curse after another. With Draco''s experience, he managed to hold back the pain as he shielded every spell thrown at him. He had just stood up a little when the attacks tripled with two more following the boy. The two were none other than the guards that were experienced adult wizards whose attacks were heavier than the boy. "Damn it!!" Draco grunted as he repelled back a spell causing the boy to get thrown out. He quickly launched different explosion curses, "Confringo." Though the guards managed to reflect the spell, the explosion still caused them to shake a little. Within a matter of seconds, the tide had turned and now the guards were the one shielding. Draco frowned as the guards kept blocking his heavy attacks with a shield spell that he hadn''t seen before. Quickly thinking, he raised his hands towards the guards still launching curses at them. Draco''s hand started shining bright and before they knew it a fireball launched from Draco''s hand directly launching at them. The guard''s whose magic seemed different from normal couldn''t block the fireball thrown at them, as it was something more of a pure fire than magic as one of the guards was thrown back. Soon quickly followed the second man, as he flew towards the wall crashing into it taking the boy with him. Taking deep breaths, Draco slowly walked over towards them, as he looked around to make sure no one else was there. The little boy started moving a little, as he looked around with a confused expression. The first thing he saw waking up was an unconscious man on top of him, just as he pushed the man away, he saw Draco Black, the famous transfer student pointing his wand at him. "Wh- what are you doing?" The boy asked in a heavy accent shaking a little. "Seems like you snapped out of it." Draco nodded as he pushed around the boy, looking for any enchantments he could look for. "What''s the last thing you remember?" "I don''t know." The boy said a little frightened under Draco''s gaze as he tried his hardest to think what he was doing, "I was just in my room and-- I don''t remember anything after that." "Good!" Draco said with a smile, "Stupefy!" The boy fainted back as Draco sighed, He took out his suitcase and called one of the elves out. "Get them in and let them settle. Keep them in one of the sheds, tied up and don''t hesitate to use a spell on them if they try something else." The elf nodded and with the three people disappeared into the school. Draco knew Ryan would rush his plans after getting humiliated but he didn''t think he would go far enough to magically manipulate the entire school. Luckily it was still vacation and there were less than a quarter of the students left in the school. Though the teachers and guards were likely to be the cause of the problem. With the practice in attacking he received beforehand, and his improved agility and fighting techniques from his learning in Durmstrang, Draco was ready to fight and he wasn''t going to underestimate his opponent this time around. His suitcase opened, came out Starlight, beautiful and shiny as ever. "You know what to do buddy!" Draco patted Starlight as he got on top of him, "Let''s go." Starlight neighed as he went rushed towards the main hall, where Draco suspected the most people to be in. On the way, he zapped over 3 students and just at the entrance of the hall waiting for him were two teachers and a student he recognized, Victor Krum. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. As soon as they caught sight of Draco, they started firing spells at him immediately. Though several dark curses were being thrown, Draco had the advantage knowing that they wouldn''t harm him physically as Ryan wanted his body, so with enough confidence without thinking he let off his suitcase from which the mad big fluffy got out. Interesting as it was like previous, the three seemed unfazed as they quickly launched spells to tie up Fluffy to hold him down. Though the spell was similar to what he had used before on Krum''s friend, in seemed to be a different one, as the normal rope spell was able to hold Fluffy in place with just two of the teachers. Krum came rushing at him with different spells thrown in his direction. Krum who was adept with his broom summoned one as he rode off dodging attacks from Draco. Irritated Draco, started using his powers as well before more people started rushing in from both sides of the passageway. Over twenty people surrounded him, guards and students alike. All had their wand in their hand. This for Draco was a lot to handle for sure, but he had expected something of a sort when suddenly the suitcase that was open far away had elves popping out of them left and right. Though Draco didn''t have enough time to train the elves, a few instructions on apparating and disarming wands from people was enough for them to be fearful especially among wizards who rely heavily on wands. The elves teleported from one place to another disarming the two teachers first, which quickly lead to Fluffy being free. The wandless wizards were quickly thrown off here and there like toys, though Draco was sure they had broken some bones, a few potions would fix them up. "Avada Kedavra!" Draco heard the ominous spell being read as one of the people in the crowd yelled. A green light flashed from the person''s wand and shot towards Fluffy, it was close but Fluffy barely managed to dodge it by an inch. Starlight jump across as he threw the man on the wall with his horn. Draco irritated to the max, shot a fireball at Krum''s broom-making him crash and then shot stunning spells all around making sure everyone was captured. Draco though how he seemed, cared a lot about his animals, especially the ones that had been with him from the very beginning. And though, the people under the imperious curse couldn''t hurt him physically, the would certainly not bat an eye killing his animals. Draco knew it was a bad time to go soft but there were things that he would regret if something didn''t go according to his plans, which seemed to be the case seeing all the things growing out of control. 181 Death With heavy breathing, he looked around at everyone laying on the floor. He didn''t want them waking up again so he tied them down properly and avoided sending them to his suitcase considering how everyone seemed to be under their control. Draco couldn''t be more thankful that he had a signed blood pact with Walter and Arya. Looking at things he was sure they were captured as well. Getting Fluffy and Starlight back in the suitcase, he went towards the hall. He considered calling Sirius but in the state, he was in, he won''t be able to make a difference. With his Veela power on focus, he could sense the magic around him even better as he slowly went around eliminating people. Mostly the hidden ones waiting for a sneak attack, though not many he managed to secure all the students by now and all that left were the guards and teachers. He wondered what Karkaroff might be off to but there was no point in bothering with him at the moment. Whether he was captured or free, Draco couldn''t be bothered anymore. Walking around he reached the dining hall, where he sensed the most magic signatures. Breathing deeply he signaled the elves to be prepared as he walked in. "Welcome, Draco." Ryan said with a huge smile as he sat in his wheelchair at the middle of the room. All the tables were thrown out and the room was empty. Surrounding the place where the remaining guards and the teachers while Arya and Walter were behind Ryan, under his control. Draco walked in as he looked around, thinking of different strategies. "You are truly worthy of being my rival." Ryan said, "In the short time we last met, you seemed to have gained some new powers, I see. Those fire from what I remember seem to be a Veela''s innate ability. It really makes me wonder how but it won''t matter for much longer as I''ll be in control of your body." "For a guy who spouts about knowing all the time, it seems like you don''t know everything as well." "Of course, I don''t. I only knew what he knew and though he knew all the things he still didn''t know it all." Ryan said, "That''s what makes me quite jealous of you, you have all the strength he possessed. Not a single magic-less but then again its all hidden away. You can''t access it without my knowledge so you''re just another wizards with a superior body type." "I might be." Draco shrugged, "But with how things are going lately, I am fine without knowing about my hidden strengths as long as I have time I am sure I am going to grow strong none the less." "Che, annoyance." Ryan clicked his tongue, "Do you not care about these two friends of yours?" "One''s an annoying brat and the others too controlling for my taste. What do you think?" "Acting cold are we?" Ryan snickered, "Silas!" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "Yes, master." Silas came closer towards Ryan as he bowed down. It was clear that he wasn''t manipulated like the others but Draco wasn''t too surprised by the revelation. "You know what to do. If he wins at least bring me his wand and meet me at the base or else you can be prepared to serve me your head." Ryan said as he snapped his fingers. A formation below him activated and he disappeared alongside Aryan and Walter. "Sigh!" Silas took a deep breath stood up as he stared at Draco. "You know kid, I have been waiting for this day for as long as you''ve been here." "Want to kill me?" Draco asked, "Your instincts gave it away from the very first day. Though I suspected you hated me, it wasn''t that hard to figure who you were working for." "Oh! It''s not my instinct it''s my nature." Silas said with a grin on his face as he walked closer. His body growing larger as hair started covering his body. His shirt tore off as he landed on his feet giving a large howl. Draco was surprised, not because Silas was a werewolf but at the fact of how he could transform mid-day without the full moon and without any pain. Being a Werewolf was a curse, some embraced it, some had to live their whole life knowing it would be a pain. Either way being a werewolf wasn''t really the best interest of anyone. Though there were some who had some control of there werewolf form as they enjoyed their killing instincts, for those who didn''t, they would rather choose to die than continue living on as a werewolf. "Surprised are you?" The werewolf Silas said in a growling tone, from the looks of it he was smiling, "Master said you would. This is the reason why my Master is superior to you." "It''s interesting, to say the least." Draco nodded with a bitter smile as he knew this was going to be a tough one with how many wizards that were surrounding him now he had to face a werewolf who seemed to be in full control of himself and his powers, "Though your master''s magic is interesting, he is too weak. Do you not know how I barely stopped myself from killing you precious little master, dog." Silas only replied with a growl but it was clear that it was angry as he charged towards him. With an explosion charm, he blasted away Silas but his regeneration power were something he didn''t expect as he stood quickly back again. The wizards around began swinging their wands throwing spells left and right as Draco struggled to dodge them with a werewolf chasing after him. His only chance was Norberta who jumped out of his suitcase, tanking some of the attacks for him as a sea of flame engulfed the place, which kept Silas in check. Though he looked a bit surprised he wasn''t shocked as he knew about the possibility of there being a dragon in his magical suitcase that seemed to pop animals left and right. "Boom!" A couple of explosions occurred left and right as the spells attacking towards his direction as they began completely attacking blindly not paying any attention to the fire. Just like how they had the disadvantage of not being able to harm Draco, Draco too had the same obligations. With how things occurred last time, getting people to support him, in the long run, would be impossible if more wizards were to die because of his cause though it seemed inevitable. Especially this time when he was sure Fudge would be likely be expelled from the minister''s position after the news of Sirius''s escape would be revealed. He was sure he could get away with killing one or two wizards but more than that and he would have to likely live in a world of trouble. Luckily the explosions started slowing down with the elves on their work but just then, he heard a growl above him. It seemed as if the whole world had gone slow, as the angry werewolf Silas jumped into the fire, though his flesh burned he didn''t care as he kept healing. Draco''s eyes widened in surprise, his mind empty. Just when all hope seemed lost a bright light flash across him pushing Silas away. It was one of the elves who was in the grasp of Silas. He kept fighting the werewolf, but Silas angrier than ever chewed of the elves head before he could do anything. 182 Hidden room pt.1 I am thankful that so many people have started reading this book again and to all the loyal readers that haven''t left from the beginning. I know I haven''t been posting quite regularly but as promised I will take this story until the end and won''t stop writing it. Though I will try to post chapters more frequently I have some obligations to fill at home (Some personal stuff) but after this month i.e. from October I will start doing daily chapters again like I used to. So thank you for all the support. Also, I know this part of the story must feel like a filler with a bit of action but it''s still not the final battle yet. I know I said I would like to end this arc quickly but doing it too quick would ruin all the pick up I''ve been doing for a long time. So I''d at least like to give it a good conclusion. There are more villains to come (From the story... no more other transmigrators.) and more adventures to come so please continue to support the story. A bit of spoiler but Hermione and Pansy would join in pretty quick. ------------------------------------------------------- Everything went silent for a while. Almost all the wizards were disarmed and knocked out by the elves. Only the sound of blood dripping on the floor rang throughout the hall as Silas threw away the elves head in his mouth. Draco knew something was wrong, the elf should''ve been able to escape. As he was finally studying the environment for the first time as the battle came to a halt, he realized his magic power draining. Not only him but Norberta couldn''t spit fire anymore and all the elves couldn''t apparate anymore. "I see you''ve finally realized," Silas said in his growling voice, "Let''s see how you still dare to use one your pesky little creatures now." Not paying attention to Silas''s threat he tried to use his fireball magic but it didn''t work. Then he tried using spells from his wand but other from a few sparks nothing came. Seeing the frustration in Draco''s eyes Silas laughed heartily, similar to that of a hyena. Draco felt his remaining magic being sucked away into the ground, as he finally realized what was going on. All this time he had been cautious of Ryan''s trap in Durmstrang but he never thought the trap to be the entire school itself. He knew he had been a bit exhausted from the moment he came back to the school and the fight began but the thought never crossed his mind as he was too busy concentrating on the might. Draco didn''t exactly know what sort of magic was this but he was sure it had to be a spell or some sort of formations which absorbed one''s magic. And it seemed Ryan''s loyal dog was an exception as his healing powers never left during the fight and even now he was healing himself. Draco looked around the hall, half of it was badly damaged and half, burnt beyond repair. The wizards were all knocked out and the elves mortified at the death of one of their fellow elves. "Sigh! You got me good." Draco said as he opened his suitcase, as he started at Norberta. Norberta getting the sense of what he wanted to do, shook her head but with Draco''s insistent gaze entered the suitcase. Though a Dragon, she was still a young one and with her magic gone, she shouldn''t be able to fly that well as even Dragon''s use magic to some extent to function, such as flying and breathing fire. Silas too didn''t bother or stop them as he wasn''t too sure about facing a dragon himself. He signaled the elves as well, who though sadly didn''t stop following his order. Draco fixed his suitcase as he closed it staring back at Silas. "Now it''s just you and me." Silas said slowly walking around Draco, "Ready to surrender?" "I admit your plan was good but seriously draining the magic of all these wizards as well?" Draco mocked, "I did know your master was rash but not so much. I mean with my magic gone, you could''ve easily gotten me to surrender early on." "Don''t act clever boy." Silas growled, "You think you''re smart but you really aren''t. You''re the same as any snobby pureblood wizard, except you are foolish enough to talk to mudbloods alike. Though the magic is gone, do you ever wonder where it is being stored to..." Draco''s gaze tightened as Silas snorted, "But why do you care? I know you''re a dead man anyway. Now throw you wand and your case towards me and then surrender yourself before I have to do it for you." "Come and get me." Was Draco''s reply as Silas growled and rushed towards him. Silas was confident that he had won, but when a potion flask came flying his way all his thoughts ran amock. The potion the moment it hit his face exploded sending him far, burning half of his face away. Though he started healing immediately, in his moment of shock and immobilization he looked at Draco running away with one of his eyes as the other one barely healed. Yes, the boy was genius at potions. Silas cursed himself for not being careful and too excited. He was already holding himself a lot not to tear up the boy''s head, as his master needed him alive With it he was already enough control and much of his ability to think. Unlike others he was an advanced werewolf, he was treated with his master blood and had become something special. A werewolf that wasn''t afraid of the full moon, a werewolf that could transform any time and any place he wanted and was in control of himself. Though the instinct took over time and time again, he could hold on to it but just like how they first met, Silas couldn''t control himself near Draco. With his wounds heal and his eyesight returned to normal, he stood up. With his werewolf form, his keen sense of smell was enough to keep little Draco from running away. After turning left and right he quickly found out where Draco was hiding but before he could approach him two more of the same potion flasks came flying his way. Not making the same mistake as the past he carefully dodged through the spill of the potion manages to burn his legs a little. The chase which seemed to be easy couldn''t be harder than imagined. A grown werewolf chasing a young defenseless wizard who couldn''t use magic anymore seemed to be an easy match but not when the boy was throwing a series of exploding and a poisonous potion which he seemed to be in unlimited supply. Running throughout the school, both of them reached the famous passage. The one where the infamous Grindlewald had left his mark. Silas who kept healing no matter how many potions was thrown at him and Draco who kept running and throwing everything he had, attaching to his last string of hope were both tired. "Enough!" Silas growled as he dodged the potions thrown at him, and though one of them actually him right on his left paw and blew it off, Silas didn''t stop as he slammed towards Draco throwing him off. The hit was hard enough to smash him in the wall as his suitcase slipped from his hand. He kept trying to hold onto it but he no longer could but at the corner of his eyes, he witnessed the case slipping into the wall. The wall right below the Deathly hollows mark. Draco eyed Silas who seemed to busy concentrating on him and his wounded leg and was sure the other party didn''t see anything at all. Draco too couldn''t believe anything but the truth was in front of his eyes. He knew he had a chance to escape, with his case gone he now only had one flask of exploding potions left inside his robe. "You annoying prick, you better thank Merlin that I don''t rip your head right off your shoulders as I did with your measly elf." Silas growled, "But this time I won''t make the same mistakes." Without warning, Silas jumped at him grabbing his robe by his clothes threw him towards the wall again. A loud crack sound emitted as Draco cried in pain. His arm was clearly broken in several places as his wand dropped from his hand. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. Silas then began whispering a certain long chant that Draco had never heard of before. Though Draco couldn''t use magic anymore, he still could feel the mana concentrating in the passage as the chant continued. 183 Hidden room pt.2 Draco knew he had to do something as he knew whatever the spell he was using wasn''t probably a good one. Draco was getting ready to use his exploding potions on Silas and try and escape but before he could the spell whatever it was shot at him but just then a flash went by followed by a loud grunting noise. It was Victor Krum, on his broom who launched at the spell and Silas blocking it for Draco and knocking Silas away. Silas angry was about to bite Krum, who seemed to be unconscious but just when he was about to do so an exploding potion came flying his way. Silas who was under Krum couldn''t dodge the potion as it hit and exploded right in his face, blowing his face to smithers. Draco who was relived at that slowly tried to stand up to check whether Silas was dead for good or not but seeing his face recover Draco panicked. He could still see Krum still breathing, no matter what spell had hit him, Draco was sure it wasn''t fatal as he dragged Krum along to the wall where his suitcase just disappears. The surrounding magic seemed to be going out of control which was probably the cause of the spell Silas just fired. Draco tried to enter the wall, but he soon realized the wall seemed to be malfunctioning as well. One time it open and let one pass through while just the other moment it closed into a solid wall. Draco taking his chance seeing Silas moving he barely threw the unconscious Krum through the wall, which he luckily entered at the right time. Draco then too passed into the wall, with the end of his robe getting stuck at the end which he tore off and crashed on the other side of the wall. The place was dirty and smelled bad but he didn''t have any time to analyze his surrounding. Feeling the fluctuations of magic stopping and the wall closing for good, Draco passed out on the floor. Draco had been the most injured since he ever been with his magic gone and pretty much all the exhaustion from the fight he couldn''t carry on. -------------------------------------------- "Where am I?" Draco said to himself as he woke up in a strange place, he suddenly found himself in a strange surrounding. His hands completely fine, his original wand in his left hand and the Gryffindor sword on his right, he was laying back. Just when he was about to confirm the strange feeling of Deja vu, he heard some voices. And one of them particularly to be very familiar to the one he saw in the strange dream he had and his guesses turn out to be correct as the red-haired women who he once saw in his dream followed by 2 other women appeared in front of him. They looked at each other for a while both of them on their guard. "It seems you''ve been doing well since the last time I met you." The woman haughtily said as she recognized Draco. "I guess so," Draco replied still not sure what to think of entering this dream world again after such a long time. With what was happening out in the real world he was sure this wasn''t the right time for this stuff but he knew he wasn''t getting out before he died so there was that to focus as well. "I would ask you what you''re doing here but I am sure you''re here for the treasure like everyone else?" "Everyone?" "Oh, you didn''t think you''d be the only one looking for it now will you." "I guess not." Draco said as he couldn''t really bother with whatever the treasure in his dreams was, "By the way? Do you know the way out?" "Is he kidding us?" One of the women behind the red-haired one said, "You should use your power, Hilda, I am not sure of him." The woman named Hilda wasn''t the red-haired women but the one beside her with dark black hair, she was beautiful to the extreme, the beauty which seemed mesmerizing but wasn''t enough to faze Draco. But the sense of familiarity that lingered was making Draco nervous. "How could it be possible." The woman named Hilda said looking shocked. "Is there something wrong?" The red-haired women said as she pointed her sword at Draco. "He''s a veela like me." "What?" The two women said with a surprised expression as they kept looking at Draco and the girl again and again. "And he seems to carry a Queen''s curse with him." "Wait! About the Veela part I can explain but what''s the Queen''s curse and can you drop your sword." Draco said surprised by all the revelation in front of him, "I am not in a good mood right now and pointing your sword is the worst thing you want to do to me right now." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. The red-haired women snorted, she was willing to teach the boy in front of her a lesson if needed but she was more interested in what was going on. "The Queen''s curse, is like a mark on a person put by the Veela queen herself." Hilda said, "I don''t mind it as much since the Queen doesn''t seem to be from my Clan but you do want to be aware." Draco was sure someone wouldn''t be happy with him after the revelation of the whole him drinking the valuable veela potion but he didn''t assume he would be marked though the information seemed legit, he took with a grain of salt as he couldn''t really trust this dream state he was in. "Wait now that I think about it, aren''t you the one bothered the princess?" The red-haired women said pointing her sword again, "But she said you were dead..." "I am not sure what you''re talking about." Draco narrowed his eyes, getting annoyed at the whole pointing the sword thing. "No, it has to be you, after all, I''ve never seen someone with hair like yours other than the high nobles from another land." The woman murmured, "But then again I am not sure why you''re alive." "Sigh! Just kill me." Draco said not wanting to spend another second here wasting his time since the only way to wake up was to kill himself, he would just do that. "Why are you so surprised? Do you carry this sword just to point at people''s face?" "What''s this all about?" The women got shocked at the sudden change in Draco''s attitude as he looked at him like a mad man. "My friends and families could be in danger the longer I waste my time doing this useless stuff, so just kill me so I could wake up from this bloody dream or... this is even better." Draco said as he pointed his wand towards his neck, shaking a little he chanted an exploding charm. The women looked mortified seeing what he was doing but before he could see any other reactions, he was in a pitch-black room and suddenly he woke up. Sweating and tired he looked around to find Krum still laying beside him unconscious as he began checking his surroundings. 184 Hatched egg "Where did that fucker go?" Silas whose face had healed back looked around sighing and breathing heavily. Casting that chant in his werewolf form and the constant healing had mage him completely exhausted. Especially the last one which he was was sure, if he wasn''t in his werewolf form could''ve completely blasted his head off. He knew it was a close call, luckily his brains didn''t explode, though having your face blasted off wasn''t the best feeling in the world. His new pair of eyes and face were still numb as he stumbled around looking for Draco. The curse he activated was taught by his master, Ryan himself which was supposed to send, a person''s soul flying out of his body. Though he didn''t know how or why he knew it was an important cause but now the fucker was nowhere to be seen. Silas tried another spell, Ryan had taught him which allowed him to access any door and know where someone was but other than a few fainted students and teachers he couldn''t find anyone. "Did he escape from the school?" he muttered, "Master is going to kill me if that kid got out of my hand." Silas afraid of his life began frantically running around the school, checking every nook and cranny before finally ending up in the same place he had started. The sun was going down and he knew he had to sooner or later return to his master. Just when he was wondering what to do, he stepped on a wand. Changing back to his human form Silas grabbed the wand as he recognized it to be the same one that Draco had carried out with him. One of the components that his master ordered was found the bloody wand. Silas, thanked Merlin a couple of hundred times as he went back to the hall, chanting another unknown spell as he apparated away from the school. ---------------------------------- Just like usual when waking from the dream he had the bloody Gryffindor sword back in his hand followed by a surprising element. His wand in his broken hand. The wand still had some time till it got out of the box but surprisingly it seemed to have teleported back in his hand. Since he couldn''t move his arm anymore he exhaustingly sat up straight as he looked around the dusty old place. "Didn''t know that Drumstrang had a secret room." He mumbled as he remembered what Arya had said a couple of months ago, "The Deathly hollow mark... she did say it was useful." Looking around the place for a while, he concluded that it was an old lab of some sort. There were books, cages and potion materials all over the place. The place smelled of dark magic all over. Though Draco wanted to explore, he wasn''t in a condition to do so. He picked his wand with his other hand trying to do magic but it seemed the place though away from the school, it still didn''t work. "Wasn''t expecting magic, that could stop wizards from doing magic." He mumbled sarcastically himself. He looked at Krum who was knocked out and it didn''t seem he was waking up any soon. Though the breathing told him that he was still alive. Draco didn''t know how he got out of Ryan''s control and why he shielded that attack from him, Draco was no doubt in debt of him. Draco saw his suitcase below the old moldy table as he crawled over to it, calling the elves. The elves could use their magic a little as the suitcase was another dimension of its own but it seemed the moment they got out the magic would dry up from them. Struggling the elves helped Draco and Krum inside the suitcase. Draco looked at the few students who he had knocked out before in his suitcase wondering what he should do with them but for now, he had several other things to do, one of them being healing himself. With the elves helping him to the potion room, he took the Skele-Gro potion he had bought well before and a Wiggenweld Potion he had brewed himself. Both the potion tasted disgustingly bad but he frowning still drank it as he passed over at the bed. Draco had a weird dream again, he thought for sure he was in those dreams again where he was being strangled by something but luckily it was just a nightmare as he woke up sweating and shaking. His bones seemed to have healed and though a bit of pain was still around he felt much better than what he was like before.Sitting up in his bed he looked around at his potion room, he knew something felt was wrong but he couldn''t figure out what. Just then, a cold ran behind his back as he felt something crawling on his skin. Panicking a bit he hurriedly stood up only to see a snake-like creature on his bed. Still a bit numb he fell on the ground, as he could see the snake crawl towards him. Still a bit stiff he looked around for his wand but it was way too further from him to grab. The closer the snake got the more he saw that it wasn''t a just another normal snake. It looked like a Runespoor as it had three heads and the reddish glow in its body made Draco even certain but what was confusing was that though one of the left head was of a Runespoor, the middle head looked different and third head looked irresponsive and faded. The middle head was what drawing Draco''s attention, it had intelligent blue eyes and horns making Draco sure that it was a Horned Serpent. Then something struck him, as he looked over at the egg which he had been taking care of and feeding blood to. The egg as expected was in pieces and the only thing Draco was certain of was that the thing in front him was probably the most ambitious mixed-breed creature ever in existence. Though the creature fed in his blood for so long, Draco was sure it didn''t consider him its mother as its eyes didn''t look too friendly, to begin with. Draco wasn''t sure how long he was asleep and how long had the creature hatched from its shell but it had managed to grow to the size of an adult Cobra and it for sure looked hungry. Draco didn''t what to do but remembering how it previously reacted to his Dragon-talking skill he whispered some random things as he felt the snake wrap around in his arms. He didn''t know what he said over the panic but all he heard was,"Hungry!" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. The Snakes looked more patient and calm than before as it latched itself in his arm, giving him a look of familiarity. Draco didn''t know how to deal with this but he for sure knew he had to feed them before they turn unfriendly again. 185 Waking up. Draco quickly called for his elves as they hurried up. "Master, you''re finally awake!" "Why do you all look like that and how long was I out?" Draco asked looking and the elves bloody clothes as he stood up from the grounds. "The people you bought you fell ill, as soon as they woke up Master." The elves said, "We didn''t know what happened but they started vomiting blood as soon as they woke up and are in a semi-conscious state." "That''s how we got blood on ourselves." "How long ago was this?" Draco asked getting a bit concerned. "Some woke up yesterday and some today." One of the elves said, "You''ve been out for almost a week now master." "A week!" Draco sounded surprised as he didn''t even realize how long he was out, maybe taking two of those potion mixed with his own blood wasn''t really a good idea. Though he should''ve only been out for a day at most, he pondered how seriously injured he was before and how long was he just dragging out on adrenaline. Thanking his gut he returned to the now important matter, "Why didn''t you wake me up earlier?" "We tried to, master but that snake on your arm wouldn''t even let us in through the door." The elves said, "We thought you had bought another creature with you, so we tried to take it away but it just kept attacking and never stopped." "Yes, and it''s invisibility and flying powers didn''t help the case either." "Invisibility and Flying?" Draco asked as he remembered that the horned serpent did have those abilities especially due to the jewel on top of its head. Talking about the snake he finally realized that they were hungry enough to kill for and he wasn''t willing to risk his life now for the sake of a hungry snake. "Get something to eat for them first." Draco said as he pointed at the snake. "What should we get master?" "I don''t know, just anything would do." Draco said, "Gets some rats maybe." "Yes, master." One of the elves snapped his fingers as he apparated away appearing with a cage full of rats again. Though these rats were mostly used for experiments he couldn''t care enough to for that now. Seeing the rats the snakes seemed excited as it slithered itself out of his arm onto the ground towards the elf who was holding the cage. The elves being expert animal handlers knew what to do as they put the cage down and released one of the rats. The rat hurriedly tried to escape but the snake moved quicker... no, it went invisible for awhile appearing right next to the rat eating it. Glad that the snake was having his meal, he went out with the other elves leaving one of them to complete feeding the snake. The next immediate matter he had to deal with were the students he bought along with them. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.comfor visiting. "How many time have they puked blood?" Draco asked looking at the pale bodies. "Only once and that is after they''ve woken up." Draco looked over towards them and didn''t exactly know what was wrong with them. He knew he had to send them to St Mungo''s Hospital for proper treatment otherwise they might really die. Draco wondered if the conditions were the same for the others as well who were still in Durmstrang. Draco with weakness, a result of not eating for a week felt a bit dizzy but he now knew what exactly he had to do. Draco ordered one of the elves to bring him some Hodag''s horn potion he had made. Making the students drink some and he himself drinking some, he opened the door towards the Blackhouse as he had the elves take the others with him there as well. With the sounds coming in, Sirius who was fortunately still in the Blackhouse looked confused as he came down. "I thought you were a goner but its good to see you''re still kicking," Sirius said, "What took you so long and who are these kids? Don''t tell me they are the follower of that Ryan or whatever." "I, unfortunately, got attacked the same day I got out of here," Draco said responding to Sirius''s sarcasm, "It was quite a battle but with some luck, I survived. Though I might kill any werewolf I see from now on." "I see, you had your fun... so these children?" "They were being manipulated, if you remember what I told you last time then you see this is the result of it. I think they''ve been cursed or poisoned which one I am not sure but I am having them dropped off at St Mungo''s Hospital where they can be treated." "They are cursed." Sirius said as he crouched over and looked at one of the sick kids, "Its more like a side effect of the Imperio curse when used for too long. I have seen it before but never this serious but good call, I think the healer at the hospital would be able to cure them." "Imperius curse? I see... so this curse is just an advanced version of the imperius curse." "I guess so." Sirius said, "You look tattered up for someone who said they could handle me." "Well, I am sure you don''t know how to steal magic from me do you?" "Do explain." "I don''t know how or what... but I am sure that Ryan has managed to build a ruin all over Durmstrang that steals magic from people. I mean, I could feel my magic growing but the amount it took was much larger so I was completely defenseless and to add to the fact I had a werewolf chasing my ass." Draco said as he saw the last of the children being taken away, "I have to go." "Where?" "There are more children and teachers at the school, who I am sure is suffering from the same thing as them." Draco said, "I can''t let them wait too long, as I am sure they will die if I make them wait any longer." "I am coming with you." "Why?" "Isn''t that why you wanted me out of Azkaban?" Sirius snorted, "And besides this isn''t my favorite place to be all so cooped up in." Draco thought for a while but then guessed it would be good to have an animagus around in case there is still someone in Durmstrang. "Fine but just don''t ask many questions." Draco said, "And go get your wand." --------- "I have been wondering where do you keep and going to?" Sirius asked as he entered through the door and entered into another world of some sort, "Where are we?" "I said no questions, didn''t I?"Draco said rolling his eyes as he headed towards the door and getting out of the suitcase with Sirius following him. "So, it''s a magical suitcase? I remember people talking about it back in the day but I didn''t think it would be really this amazing, maybe I should''ve gotten one as well." Sirius said as he walked out of the suitcase. "Too bad, the goblins don''t make them anymore for sale. Only the smaller version of it is available." "Che, so this is Dumstrang?" "Not quite, I mean we are in Durmstrang but I think we''re in some secret room." Draco said as he waved his wand around and as suspected the magic didn''t work here, "So first we''ll need to find a way out of here and as you can see we can''t use magic so we''ll need to find a technical door of a sort." Sirius had many questions but seeing Draco''s irritated face he didn''t want to give the other party more reason to show arrogance as he just searched around the place as well.