Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him."
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Draco Malfoy was going to steal Severus Snape's wand.

He didn't know how, or even if he dared to, but he knew he had to. He shivered thinking about the blank-faced, cool rage he had seen Severus direct at others. Draco wondered if the unpermitted use of something as sacred as a wand would finally direct that anger at him.

But he had to as it was the only way he could think of to fix the catastrophe that had become his life.

This Catastrophe had started at the unlikeliest moment. Draco had been anticipating his Hogwarts letter his entire life and had imagined the day he would receive it as the start his life as a full-fledged wizard. He would get to go to Hogwarts! Even now with the occurrence of the Catastrophe he was giddy with anticipation to find out what that entailed.

If only if it wasn't for the Catastrophe that occurred when read his Hogwarts letter. This was because it was through his Hogwarts letter that Draco found out a piece of information that Severus had conveniently forgotten to notify him of.

He was not allowed to bring his broom.

This was not acceptable. Draco could not imagine his life without the freedom of flying, and to make sure that he never would have to he was going to have to steal Severus Snape's wand.

Telling himself to be a Slytherin Draco had not outwardly reacted to the news, knowing from experience that Severus would not indulge his temper tantrums. Instead Draco had pretended to take the news calmly and slunk away to quietly scheme on how he was going to execute his plan.

After reflecting on all he knew about Hogwarts, and even forcing himself to read the entity of Hogwarts: A History in pursuit of ideas he had come to the conclusion that the safest way to smuggle the broom without the house elves noticing was to shrink it and carry it in his pocket on the journey to the school .

After days of practicing the wand movements and pronunciation of the shrinking charm from where he had found it in Severus old textbooks Draco was ready to attempt his, in retrospect, rather suicidal mission.

Draco's plan relied too much on luck for his comfort, but not so much so that there wasn't a chance of it working. That brief chance of success trapped Draco into attempting it, ambition to succeed spurring him on even past his fear.

The first part had been to delay Hogwarts shopping for after July 31st, for it was on that date that Draco's plan hinged on. If after his plan to steal Severus wand does not work his continuity plan was to find a way to secretly purchase the ingredients for a shrinking solution in Diagon Alley and hope that the potion wouldn't interfere with the magic of his broom.

It had been risky enough to pretend to botch some potions to collect the necessary ingredients for the Sleeping Potion needed for his first plan. Standard Ingredient and Flobberworm Mucus were very easily missed and he could pick the Lavender and Valerian Springs from his backyard, so he was confident enough nicking the ingredient for the Sleeping Potion. He was not very eager to try again with the more noticeable ingredients needed for the Shrinking Solution- especially when the potion might wreck his broom.

It was bitter having to do all this planning to cast a simple shrinking charm when he would be getting his own wand in a couple of days. Draco knew that the minute he got his wand Severus would charm it to record every spell that that Draco would cast. 'You get into enough trouble without the help of a wand,' Severus had told him, 'be grateful that I am not confiscating it immediately.'

So it was on the night of July 31st, the same day that Draco's father had died, that Draco got ready to steal Severus Snape's wand.

Can I claim writers block on the second chapter of a 2000 word story :grimace:?

Hopefully the next chapter will be more exiting! Coming up: Why is Draco living with Severus? What happened on the fateful July 31st? Why would Draco's plan hinge on July 31st? Hint: It seems that Slytherin's have a weakness for the colour green.