Chapter 1 – Pale Dingy Orange
"Quickly son, just get them out of sight!" Narcissa said hastily shoving random items into Draco's hands.
The Ministry of Magic was now conducting raids on suspected death eater households so unexpectedly that Draco's mother had gone into hysterics once they caught word about the Rosier house being searched. Now, since Lucius had been in prison for roughly three months after being found guilty of being a death eater, it was up for Draco and his mother to search the manor for anything illegal. Of course, many items were Malfoy heirlooms and only Lucius knew what power each item held, but in fear of being convicted herself, Narcissa insisted they clear out anything unnecessary.
Draco tossed another armful of trinkets, poisons, books, and totems into the hidden trapdoor in their drawing room. He had grown tired of his mother's constant worrying, but understood it as well. If she were to be convicted, where would he go? He was far too young to be allowed to stay in the manor by himself, and he'd be wearing a toe tag before anybody threw him into an orphanage. This thought alone helped him through all of the mindless hours of sorting and cleaning the entire manor.
"Do you think this could be considered illegal?" Narcissa asked while examining what looked like a real human skull incased in a sphere of glass. Draco merely shrugged, and she handed it to him to add to the rest of the items they intended to hide.
Many hours they had spent sorting through every room in the giant house, and this was the last room left. Draco was bitter about spending his last week of holiday stuck inside the manor, and many times he pleaded with his mother to just let the house elves clear everything out. This notion, of course, was out of the question. Narcissa had become so paranoid that she felt she had to touch every item before deciding its fate. It seemed that ninety percent of the house had either been destroyed or locked away.
After sorting through everything, Narcissa found herself pacing the entire house checking and double checking that all was clear. Draco, however, had to pack up for the trip to Hogwarts. The sixth year was but one witching hour away and for the first time he was actually looking forward to leaving the spoiled life at home. He mulled around his room rounding up all of his fresh-bought supplies and robes, making sure that everything was there. Once packed, he couldn't think of anything else to do, and went to asleep.
Draco awoke the next day to the frantic shuffling of his mother up and down the corridors. Once out of bed and dressed, he took his trunk and school bag down to the foyer and went to the kitchen for breakfast. While eating his toast, his mother rushed in looking flushed carrying a few more items she thought would be dangerous to have in the house.
"There's no more space left in the drawing room chamber, and I can't think of what to do with these!"
Draco couldn't see exactly what she was holding, the items were quite small.
"Maybe I'll drop them somewhere in the train station" she muttered, not really talking to Draco at all.
Once at King's Cross, Narcissa was repeatedly checking was pockets and looking to and fro. Draco pretended not to notice, and walked on with his usual audacity. They snuck through the barrier to the platform, and Draco decided to ease his mother's nerves, but really only trying to keep from being embarrassed in front of his classmates.
"Just put them in here, I'll dump them somewhere at school," Draco opened his school bag discreetly.
"No, Draco, I don't want you to get in trouble. We simply can't afford to risk anything, I mean, if you get caught with these, they could take you away from me, and I just want what is best-"
"Mum! Calm down, we don't even know what these are, and they really could be harmless. You're being paranoid," Draco whispered.
His mother seemed to deflate and glow at the same time. Those were the exact word she needed to hear in order to calm her down; Draco was relieved.
"Okay, but please get rid of them as soon as you can," she hugged him and dropped a tiny phial, and what looked like a rock into his bag so nobody on the platform would see.
"Bye mum."
"-I love you-, and have a good term. Make sure to write as soon as you can."
"You too, and I will."
Draco stalked away to get his trunk loaded onto the train and found Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, and Pansy all waiting to escape their parents as well. They found a compartment easily, as Crabbe yanked a few horrified first years out of one to make room.
"How was everyone's summer?" Draco drawled, gazing out the window and acting as if he were merely keeping up with social conventions.
"Fine," Blaise said with a snarl.
Draco heard the snarl in Blaise's voice without even having to look at him directly.
"What's wrong with you?" Draco said as he turned towards Blaise.
"House got raided of course, and I know for a fact that your manor will be searched as well," Blaise said pompously, "We were just lucky that what they found wasn't too horrible. Just a few fines are all."
The Hogwarts Express starting moving and many students filed through the corridor looking for seats.
"I heard that the Nott house was searched as well," Pansy added, looking slightly scared.
"I'll bet your father has loads of dark stuff hidden, Draco. I'd be careful if I were you."
"We've gone through everything already," Draco defended himself "Mum's been frantic all week. Of course, there are tons of items that we don't know anything about, so we just tossed most of it. Father will be in a right state when he gets out."
Draco watched as Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked in hoping to see empty seats, and glared once they saw who occupied the compartment.
"We gonna follow them?" asked Goyle.
"No, I have to be in the prefect cart in a bit," said Draco in a disappointed voice, though insincere.
As much fun as he'd had over the years terrorizing the golden trio, his mind was still wrapped around his father. Draco didn't know whether or not to follow in Lucius's footsteps and commit to the dark lord. He was sure if he did, it would completely crush his mother, but it would also make Lucius unbelievably proud to have such an heir.
Draco sat in silence watching the countryside slip past him as Crabbe and Goyle stuck their feet into the corridor, tripping anyone who walked by. Soon enough, he left for the prefect cart, and ended up trailing Hermione and Ron.
"…Well, you've always been amazing in every class, why are you so nervous about term?"
"I've been okay at the ones that have already passed, how can you know that I'll do as well in more difficult lessons?"
"It's common sense, that's why! You're the most brilliant witch in our year, possibly in the entire school!"
"Oh, don't flatter me, Ron."
"I may vomit…" Draco said just loud enough for them to hear.
Hermione and Ron whipped their heads around and scowled, but walked on.
"Shut up, Malfoy," Ron said.
"Ron, don't, it's not worth starting anything with him," she made sure to put extra emphasis on the word 'him' for Draco to hear, and now he wished he had taken up Crabbe and Goyle's offer to follow and taunt them earlier.
The prefect meeting was the same boring thing as usual, and Draco set off to patrol the corridors of the train afterward. He walked back into the compartment some time later and saw that everyone had already changed into their robes. There wasn't much to talk about, but Draco was comfortable sitting in silence until the train finally chugged into Hogsmeade station.
Once in Hogsmeade, they piled into a carriage. The ride to the castle was silent as well, and Draco was a little concerned about Pansy. She normally never shut her mouth around him. They stepped out at the castle doors, entered the Great Hall, and sat at the Slytherin table to enjoy the start of term feast. After the horrified first years had been sorted, Dumbledore said his usual speech about the forbidden forest and all of the items that Filch had banned. Everyone ate until they could eat no more and made their way to their dorms. Draco didn't feel very tired, and lay in bed for at least an hour until his eyes finally stayed closed.
The schedules were given out the next day over breakfast and Draco had his usual Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Divination, Defense against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Astronomy, and History of Magic. His first lesson of the day was Potions, and he knew that it would be with the Gryffindors. Draco finished his breakfast and headed to the dungeons with his cronies.
The class filed in and Draco sat at his group's usual table, Blaise at his side. Snape was waiting for everyone to sit before ordering silence.
"Today you will be making the Elixir to Induce Euphoria. It will be on page – Ten points from Gryffindor Weasley and it'll be more if you don't hold your tongue," Ron was talking to Hermione at the other side to the room, but shut his mouth at Snape's request. "It is on page 37 of your books. Now, the elixir is indeed an advanced potion and may have some side effects – Twenty points this time for interrupting my class once again. Now, I will pair you all up myself since Weasley has now taken away everyone's privilege of choosing their own partners. Weasley, you pair up with Crabbe. Potter, you with Goyle, and Granger you can pair with Malfoy."
Draco looked up at Snape with pleading eyes, hoping he would change his mind, but Snape seamed heart-set on giving the golden trio a hard time. He went around the classroom pairing everyone up. In the end, Granger was sitting next to Draco looking just as annoyed as he felt, and Blaise was sitting next to a trembling Neville.
"Now, you will all attempt to make the potion correctly, and your partners will test it for you," Snape smirked coldly with his eyes flashing over to the table that the trio was now sitting. Draco's spirits lifted significantly; he knew Granger wouldn't mess up any assignment given to her. With her as a partner, he felt no pressure to try very hard, and knew that he wouldn't be poisoned.
"You may begin."
Everyone bustled around grabbing ingredients and lighting the fires beneath their cauldrons. Hermione already had everything ready by the time Draco had even lit his flame. They worked on their potions for close to an hour before Snape told the class that the time was up.
"Bottle up a sample for your partner to try and clean up. Then, we will begin the testing."
Draco put a bit of his potion in one of his small phials. It was nowhere near the expected sunshine yellow color of Hermione's, but was a rather dingy pale orange. He corked the bottle and turned around to set in on the counter when Ron bumped arms with Crabbe, causing a small tussle. Crabbe's massive arms knocked over nearly everything on and around the table, including Draco's potion sample and his bag, the contents of which were now all over the floor.
As Snape broke the two of them off and docked more points from Ron, Draco started shoveling his books and quills back into his bag. Then he noticed something among the strewn items; it was an opaque, orange colored rock with what looked like an insect inside. This must have been the rock his mother dropped in there the previous day. He picked it up and put it in his bag to examine it later. He grabbed the phial of potion off the floor and resurfaced from behind the table to see Ron's nose bleeding.
Everyone had calmed down and they were all now sampling their partner's potions. Most people didn't change at all and a few giggled lightly, but poor Blaise swelled up everywhere and Neville had to rush him to the hospital wing. Finally Draco handed Hermione his orange-brown potion, which now looked more worrying than it did earlier. She drank it down and smiled. Draco waited for something really bad to happen to her, but nothing did. She just gazed at him with tender look in her eyes. He sipped his down as well, and felt incredibly happy; so happy that he almost patted Hermione on the back for her successful potion.
The students all starting packing things to leave, half of them not being able to stop smiling, some hiccupping, and a few seemed nauseated. Draco tucked the potions book into his bag, and saw a phial on the ground out of the corner of his eye. He picked it up and realized it looked a lot like the potion Hermione had just drunk. The potion inside it was indeed a dingy orange, and the bottle looked newer than the one he'd handed her. He poured it into one of the sinks and shoved the empty phial back into his bag
Draco left the classroom sufficiently confused. If that was the potion he made, then what did Hermione drink? Walking to Charms with his cronies, it suddenly hit him like a bag of bricks. He never disposed of the items that his mother slipped into his bag; that curious insect was indeed one of them. Draco sat down in the Charms classroom and began rummaging through his bag to see what else was in there. All he found were his school supplies, and the rock with the insect in it.
Draco now remembered his mother dropping a rock, and a small phial of liquid into his bag before he set off for school. Hermione drank the potion that had been kept in the manor most likely since before Draco was even born…