Disclaimer: I don't own ANY of this... sadly. Not that I could do it justice, or whatever, but. Eh.

Warnings: I know it's like a month past HBP, but for those of you who have YET to finish it, or get your hands on it, consider this your warning: This takes place after Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince.

Draco Malfoy and the Random Inanimate Objects

Chapter One:Draco Malfoy and the Muggle Train

The silence was disrupted with a sigh.

Trees still passed by, and the sun still rose gradually into the blooming sky. The earth still spun, and the birds still rose early to catch their bloody worms.

It almost didn't seem right.

Not when I wished my lips would no longer be fanned by my breath. Not when I wished that my heart would simply stop in its place and just take me away as repayment for my evil.

Professor Snape, upon hearing my soft sigh, whipped his head around to face me. His face seemed more sallow than usual, and his eyes were more sunken than I had seen them in days.

Neither of us had said a word since he met with me at our rendezvous point not ten minutes after I had arrived. He looked more disgruntled than usual, but I didn't pry.

"This must be done, Draco," Snape reminded me in a scolding tone. He didn't appreciate my sighs of boredom and anger when he was 'doing this for me.' "There is simply no way around it."

I loathed running away. I despised the fact that I would be in hiding for the rest of my life. Or at least until this whole War thing blew over.

I found myself wishing that Voldemort would just hurry up and kill Potter. But I hoped Potter would give him a good fight, so that I could think of it as revenge upon the Dark Lord for making me corner Dumbledore. Fool though he was, I suddenly could see it wasn't right.

"Don't ever let your guard down, lest someone be listening to your thoughts," he added, giving me a sharp glare. "Never forget what you have been taught, Mister Malfoy."

I sighed again, in annoyance, and quickly locked up my mind so that I could think appropriately nasty thoughts about my former professor. I was greatly disappointed that I had let my guard down, and failed to even notice his sticking his rather crooked nose where it didn't belong.

"I'm never going back," I realized aloud in a hollow voice. "I'm never going to see that wretched place I called school again. Not now, not ever."

"Quite right," Snape replied. "You won't be seeing many familiar sights for some time now. You're going into hiding, Draco, and you'll stay there for many years to come."

I briefly wondered what would come of him, since Potter most undoubtedly knew that it was he that had cast the Avada. I knew that Snape was going to be my Secret Keeper, and I wondered if he, too, would go into hiding. I wondered if it would cancel everything out if I agreed to be his Secret Keeper in turn.

The trees were slowing down now, and they were no longer a continuous blur out my window. The train was stopping.

"I hate this Muggle way of living," I exclaimed hatefully. "I hate that we're reduced to riding a Muggle train! Why can't we just ride the Magick Express?"

Snape's eyebrow rose at my demanding manner, and he carefully warned me in an even voice, "Do not assume that because you carry the Malfoy name that you can speak to me like that."

I had nothing to come back with, because I knew the answer to my own question. I could not retort because I owed him a debt; I could not fully carry out the plans our Dark Lord had given me. I was too much of a coward, too easily swayed by empty promises of safety and protection.

I was glad Snape had cast the Avada for me, to silence the old fool's promises. I was weak for considering them, and I hated myself for it.

"To answer your previous question, Draco," Snape began silkily while I fell into thought, "we cannot ride the Magick Express because we will be easily recognized. And we cannot risk being seen."

"So you're not going back?"

He looked at me, surprised at the wavering hopeful tone that I thought I had expertly hidden. A small smirk captured his mouth as he explained, "I will be visiting the Dark Lord after you've gotten settled in. But no, I will not be going back to Hogwarts. He has asked me to lie in wait with you."

That meant that I was not to show my face for a good several months. Not even to Him, despite how much he direly wanted to speak to me, I was sure. However, it gave me a distinct pleasure that my old family friend would be forsaking his treasured job because he had revealed his double-crossing identity to those simpering fools. To protect me.

"Well… Good," I said, at a loss for better words. "Then will I be able to start attending the meetings again?"

This time it was Snape who sighed.

I figured it was because my company grew tiresome. As it almost always did.

He did not know that Snape was truly at a loss as to why, after witnessing Draco hesitate at killing his Headmaster, he still wanted to be a part of that life.

---

The Manor was cold and empty, as it usually was. Atop the perpetually snowy hill, it appeared as menacing as it always had. No one could tell the difference. No one could possibly know that the number of its inhabitants slowly dwindled as the years went by. No one knew that the only human left was a poor, grieving mother/wife.

My heart clenched. She was half the reason I found myself in the predicament that I was in. I hoped beyond hope that she understood.

"C-can I?" I asked my new guardian. My voice cracked as I spoke, and if I had not been trained against it, I knew tears would have been in my eyes as I pleaded, "Let me see her."

"You cannot," Snap answered in an unusually soft voice. "She must never know you were ever here. Go, get your belongings."

I climbed the spiraling stairs to my room dejectedly, squeezing my eyes shut with a force I never knew I possessed. Her room was at the end of the dark hall, and I could hear her loud, wailing sobs in between her shaky breathing.

Her breathing rattled peculiarly loud in my room as I packed what belongings had not been left at Hogwarts, and I had to wonder if my guilt was the cause.

Finally, I levitated my suitcase down the stairs once more, and my heart clenched when my mother's sobs briefly intensified.

"We can leave now," I allowed stoically, wishing I had given into my sudden desire to leave a note for her. "I didn't say a word," I added, as though it would relieve him.

He spared a knowing glance at me, and I allowed my cold face to flash a brief smile.

He didn't know that the glance Snape gave hid the actual pride he felt knowing that Draco was not as heartless as he liked to portray himself.

---

The street reeked of filthy Muggles. It appeared as though a mischievous creature such as Peeves had come along and vandalized the entire neighborhood. The houses were in a poor state, and suddenly the phrase "growing up on the wrong side of the Hogsmeade" made sense. Dirty brown water trickled through the cracks of the cobblestone path, carrying the distinct smell of immorality and failure.

It seemed almost perfect for me. But despite the abode I believed I truly deserved, I asked with a grimace, "Is this the place?"

Observing the disapproving contortion of my expression, Snape scowled severely. "This is where I live. I am here to retrieve something of importance," he snapped, walking a bit more brusquely now. "Never you mind what it is," he added when I opened my mouth.

"I didn't say a word," I defended innocently. "Please, by all means, retrieve your things."

However, his cloak was already billowing around the corner. It was evident he did not need my approval of his actions.

Once inside, I opted to stay in the doorway. I must admit that I feared for my life, noting the unstable way his house and everything in it appeared.

"Spinner's End," I read in a quiet voice. The street name rolled around on my tongue in a strangely familiar way. But I shook off the feeling, disregarding it as déjà vu.

"We're off," Snape announced from the sitting room. "Wormtail, you are dismissed." This was said in a much quieter voice, clearly not intended for me to hear. I peeked around the rooms curiously, the name ringing a bell in the recesses of my mind.

Ah, yes of course. Peter. That simpering fool stood before Snape trying his best to make his small, wide frame appear menacing. Caressing his silver hand lovingly, he sharply retorted, "I believe that is not your call."

"What do you mean, 'it's not my call'?" Snape demanded thunderously. It was clear his patience with Peter had worn thin during his stay. "I believe your sole purpose was to stay here and assist me. This entitles me to be rid of you whenever I feel that your assistance is no longer needed. Or shall I take it up with Voldemort?"

"Y-you do that, Severus," Peter stuttered,

My eyebrow rose at this challenge to authority. This was not the Peter I remembered Father sneering about. He was supposed to be fearful, and thus, authority respecting.

He didn't know that Peter could not be dismissed from Severus Snape's side because Lord Voldemort had sent him to spy on Snape. Just in case.

---

The familiar chug of a locomotion filled the air, and a large, forbidding black train chugged down the scenic tracks at a comfortable pace. On the outside, it was a harsh, hot day where the sun beat down mercilessly on those who dwelled on the outside of this charging mass of steel. Inside, however, the occupants sat in a perfectly accommodating temperature while chatting idly about their plans.

But behind the closed door of a seemingly empty compartment, I was sprawled listlessly along my little bench, alternating between counting the trees and pondering about our curious trip to Snape's humble abode.

He hadn't caught me listening into the conversation, but I daresay from the suspicious look on his face that he knew me better than to simply accept I had stayed in the doorway like a good little boy. When he thought I had taken a catnap earlier during the ride, I could hear him grumbling about "such insolence" and "have a nice long chat" and "the nerve". Needless to say, nothing more was said on the subject.

I snuck a glance over at Snape, and was careful to ensure that my mind was locked to his prying nature.

"Prof—" I begun, and then cut myself off. He was no longer my professor. "Er, Snape, where are we going?"

I had finally accepted that there was no choice but to lower myself to Muggle standards concerning the train. I even knew beyond a doubt that I would have to live with them as well, if I wanted to successfully hide from the Ministry. But still, I hoped against hope for a nice, wizarding village.

"You will know when we get there," he replied easily.

Yes, thought I, because it would be rather obvious we arrived in the vicinity of my hideout when we got off the train.

I offered him a cocky smirk when I felt him trying to probe my thoughts. "Sorry, sir, you have trained me all too well."

And with a glee I had not felt since I last taunted Potter (which was far too long ago, I assure you), I closed my eyes to truly sleep at his mutterings of "insolent boy."

He didn't know that while he slept, Snape cheated and probed his mind.

Long and boring A/N: I'm trying a different style of writing, as you could probably tell. I'm testing the waters, so to speak lol. There's another story I'll be uploading soon where the style is mooooost interesting, most interesting indeed. In any case, this is one of my many takes on life after HBP.

This story isn't going to be as beefy as my past ones have been, I don't think. But this way makes it easier for me to update. Hopefully I'll do better with this story, because I actually have a rough idea of where I want to take this; unlike the others, where I just sort of let my fingers do the typing. No planning, just winging it. For everything lol.

So tell me what you think, and maybe that'll shape how this turns out a little more. I wanted to post this first chapter before I finished the second because I was getting to antsy lol. And I just want to know how it goes over... or there's no way I could finish that chapter ahaha. Oh well. So is life.