"Secret Aaaaagent Man…er, Wizard"
"I won't!" Draco stated petulantly as he crossed his arms.
The Malfoy family was in Lucius' private office. Lucius was seated at his ornate black desk with Narcissa at his right side while Draco sat across from them. Draco's eyes were narrowed and his mouth was set in an angry line. In times like these Lucius would find himself extremely frustrated with his stubborn son but there was a part of him that respected the boy – Malfoys alwaysgot what they wanted and Draco seemed to inherit that internal philosophy. He would do well, with the right upbringing that they were providing.
"Draco, darling, it will be an excellent experience for you. Imagine what this will do for your future career. Few purebloods know about the muggle world and this will give you an inside look – which may prove beneficial in later business deals," Narcissa said smoothly, her palms upturned in a gesture of willingness for him to listen.
"But muggles are terrible and trashy and overall foolish," Draco whined. Then he turned to Lucius with a hopeful look. "Isn't that right, Father?"
Lucius sighed. The boy was correct and a part of Lucius abhorred placing him in such a foul institution as muggle public school, but the payoff would be worth it. However, due to Draco's young age they had agreed not to tell him the full story in regards to his muggle schooling. It wouldn't do for the boy to let something slip.
"Draco, indeed you are correct. Muggles are utterly beneath us. But what this schooling truly is, is a secret mission." Lucius let loose a little smile as Draco's eyes widened before he calmed his features into an impassive expression.
"What sort of secret mission?" his eight-year old son inquired suspiciously – with just a hint of excitement that glowed in his pale gray eyes. Ever so subtly he leaned forward in his seat.
"Well," Lucius began in a hushed voice as he leaned slightly over his desk. "We discovered that there is a young wizard boy who is trapped in that school."
Draco paled – likely he was imagining how wicked the muggles must be to trap a wizard. In reality, Lucius had no idea what the extended family that kept young Harry Potter was like – it would be foolhardy to approach that neighborhood when Dumbledore – crafty old bat that he was – would likely had placed a spy nearby.
"What? How? Why?" Draco cried out in horror.
Lucius gave a graceful shrug of his shoulders. "Truthfully, we're unsure. We don't even know if the boy has been informed of his wizarding background. His parents died in a car accident when he was a baby and he lives with his aunt and uncle." Lucius may not know a bloody thing about the muggle world but it was simply enough to convert some Galleons at Gringotts and pay a private muggle investigator (he had considered hiring a wizard but decided to abstain from involving the wizarding world at all in this new venture – one could never be sure who to trust, after all). The investigator had found official records that stated how Lily Potter had 'died' and that the child went to her sister and brother-in-law.
Silent as he mulled his father's words over, Draco pursed his lips and leaned back in his chair. Finally he asked, "So what exactly is this super secret mission? Am I supposed to take him from the muggles?"
"Honestly, we just want you to befriend the boy, darling," Narcissa inputted. She smiled sadly. "The poor thing has no connection to his family's past and we think it's important to help him."
"Of course, don't tell him that he's a wizard – or that you are," Lucius added quickly. "We don't want to scare him away if he just thinks that magic is imaginary. Get him to trust you first."
"And don't tell your friends," Narcissa said. "I know you like to share everything with Vincent, Blaise, and Gregory."
"Mother!" Draco whined. "That isn't fair!"
"Draco," Lucius said in a stern, low voice. "What word in the phrase 'secret mission' fails to inform you of the intent of our request?"
Flinching, Draco bowed his head. "Sorry, Father," he mumbled.
Settling back into his chair, Lucius nodded. "Will you accept this secret mission to befriend the wizard at the muggle school, Draco?"
Draco raised his head and gave Lucius a steely gaze. "Depends, Father. What is in it for me?"
Lucius smiled. He and Narcissa had trained their son very well.
Draco couldn't believe it. His father had just side-along apparated them to a town called Little Wingbat or something, and now they were standing in front of this maudlin brick building that had a lawn covered with obstinate children who fought with their parents against going to school or were running around like wild animals in pants. Fighting back a shiver of distaste, Draco looked out at them all with cool gray eyes.
Even worse, he was wearing muggle clothing. Something called 'khakis' and a blue 'polo' shirt that had a little alligator on the breast. Annoyed, he pulled at the shirt, wishing he could wear his robe or something else - anything else.
On top of it all? Father had, after their first talk, revealed that the boy he was supposed to find was Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived and all that rubbish. Draco had heard the stories growing up, although never from his father. For whatever reason his father did not like to talk about the night the Dark Lord fell. Apparently most in the wizarding world hated him but Father (and Draco was forbidden to repeat this or say anything similar in public) said that the Dark Lord had been a great wizard who would have saved society.
Which is why Draco thought it was odd that his father wanted to help the boy who killed his friend. Then again, Draco didn't understand his father half of the time. Plus, he was pretty proud of the fact that his father – his father who never seemed to approve of him – had recruited him for a secret mission. Begrudgingly he had to admit it was pretty cool.
But now he was standing in front of some brick zoo with disgusting muggle children – most of them who looked far too dirty for his liking. Unconsciously, Draco smoothed his white blond hair.
"Come along, Draco. Today is the first day of your mission. Be excited," Lucius smiled encouragingly.
Draco forced a smile and nodded. Seeing his father smile at him like that…well, it wasn't often he did that so Draco was determined to be a good son so his father would continue to smile at him.
Lucius began walking into the school and Draco followed him. Students and adults milled in the hallways like stampeding deer and Draco fought not to accidentally have any of them rub shoulders with him. Good Merlin, was it possible to catch muggle-ism? He really hoped not.
Ugh, poor Harry Potter, forced to actually live with muggles.
…He hoped this Potter person wasn't a filthy muggle lover…
Strolling into a room marked 'Main Office', Lucius approached the counter. Behind the counter stood rows of mailboxes and two desks cluttered with paper. One old lady with her grey hair neatly curled sat at the desk. Once Lucius cleared his throat she looked up in surprise.
"Oh! Hello there," she said with a friendly smile. Draco noted that the name plate on her desk said 'Mrs. Forrester'. "What can I help you with, dear?"
Lucius shot her a dazzling smile. Draco often watched his parents ready for bed and knew for a fact that his father used a tooth-whitener spell each week. "I am here to enroll my son in school."
Mrs. Forrester gave Lucius and Draco an appraising look. Thankfully, his mother had taken them both to a muggle shop so they were dressed appropriately; his father had on a very well-tailored suit that was very expensive.
"Lovely! I'll just need you to fill out this paperwork." Mrs. Forrester reached under the counter and pulled out a thick stack of paperwork. "We just need to verify that you live in this school district and have all of your personal information."
Draco looked at his father in alarm. They didn't live nearby! And they certainly couldn't give their information to these muggles! Their house was un-plottable, after all!
Lucius stiffened but then relaxed as he glanced behind him and saw no one. Swiftly, he pulled out his wand and incanted, 'Imperio'. The spell hit Mrs. Forrester and her eyes glazed. Draco had never seen his father perform this spell and was immediately struck by how cool it was. He couldn't wait for Hogwarts!
"My son Draco Black will be enrolled in your school and you will assign him to the same classes as Harry Potter," Lucius spoke in a cool and controlled voice. It had been decided that Draco would use his mother's maiden name just to help hide his identity. Personally, Draco had wanted to give himself a cool name like Scorpius but Mother said that it wouldn't due for Potter to call him by one name only to realize it was a lie.
"Your son Draco Black will be enrolled in our school and I will assign him to the same classes as Harry Potter," Mrs. Forrester repeated in a deadened voice.
"Yes," Lucius confirmed, watching with a smile as Mrs. Forrester went through some binders in her desk and handed Draco a paper with a teacher's name.
"You will be in Mr. Melon's class," Mrs. Forrester informed Draco with a blank look in her eyes.
The zombie-like stare kind of scared Draco. Suddenly he wondered if maybe that spell was a spell that he wanted to learn.
In Mr. Melon's classroom there were twenty-five desks lined five by five in perfect rows. A chalkboard that had been poorly cleaned, judging by the white dust covering it, was at the front of the classroom and right in front was the teacher's desk. Mr. Melon was in his forties but was already bald. Thick black spectacles sat low on his nose and he wore black trousers, a white button-up shirt, and red suspenders. His voice was obnoxiously monotonous and Draco was tempted to snap the suspenders and wake up the man a little.
Draco had been placed in the back row on the left hand side, which was nice because he was able to get a good look at everyone. He had no bloody idea what Potter looked like but knew he would have a scar on his forehead – that part was always in the stories. Unfortunately, he had no idea who Potter could be. There were a good deal of well-dressed boys in this room and Draco knew that Potter had to be one of them, but with their heads facing the front of the room, he couldn't check for a scar.
"Now get out your Reading textbooks, children. We're going to read out loud a short story called "Bloody Fingers" in celebration of Halloween."
Bloody Fingers? What in the ruddy hell was wrong with these muggles? Who read about bloody wounds for fun?
"Draco, since I don't have a book for you yet, why don't you just share with someone next to you?" Mr. Melon offered.
Share? Draco Malfoy did not share. Stupid cheap muggle schools. He looked to his right and to his left. On his right was a boy with dirty, greasy black hair and clothes three sizes too big for him – clearly one of your standard dirty muggles. To his right was a pretty girl with smooth cocoa skin and almond eyes. Draco gave her a winning smile. "Mind if I share with you?" he asked smoothly.
The girl sniffed and sat up straight. "I don't share," she informed him coolly with a haughty shake of her head that sent her straight black hair flowing behind her shoulders.
Shocked by her snotty treatment, Draco's jaw dropped as she caught her friend's eye (the blond in front of her) and giggled. Why…how dare she!
"You can share with me," a quiet voice said.
Draco looked back at the peasant-dressing muggle boy. Merlin, even his glasses were broken and covered with clear tape! "Fine," Draco said in a loud voice. "I'd rather not get cooties from a girl anyways." He put an extra emphasis on the word 'girl', letting her know it was an insult. After all, no one treated a Malfoy (er, Black) poorly and got away with it! That girl was now his mortal enemy!
The boy scooted his desk closer and placed his book half on Draco's desk. He gave Draco a friendly, albeit timid, smile. "Don't worry," he whispered. "Kalika is like that to most people."
Draco arched an eyebrow. "Well I'm not most people," he sniffed.
The boy's eyes widened at his statement, and then he shrugged. The conversation was officially terminated as Mr. Melon went around and had different students read out loud.
Maybe', Draco thought, 'once I find Harry Potter we can figure out a wandless spell to hex that stupid Kalika girl.'
After lunch (where Draco sat with a group of the popular good-looking well-dressed boys because he figured one of them had to be Harry Potter; after all, Father had said the boy's family was extremely wealthy – not as wealthy as them of course, but wealthy enough) Draco went to recess where he was severely disappointed that he had still not found Harry Potter. He supposed he could have asked the other boys who Harry Potter was but he figured that a secret spy should not be name-dropping. Therefore, he just made quick glances at everyone's forehead (which was hard since most boys had bowl-style haircuts) to check if they were the Boy-Who-Lived. So far, it didn't seem like any of the popular boys were Harry Potter.
Making his mood worse was the fact that this recess activity-thing was apparently a time for children to roughhouse and play stupid sports like kickball (nothing compared to Quidditch!). The popular boys invited Draco to play kickball with them and some of the girls, but since that witch (and not the good kind) Kalika was playing, he feigned a stomachache. Instead, Draco sat on the swings by himself and surveyed the playground.
There were twenty-five kids in his class. Twelve of them were boys. Seven of them were the popular boys he sat with at lunch, none of whom had a scar on their forehead. That left five other boys. One was fat and unsightly in a striped red shirt. Another was black and Draco was pretty sure that Harry Potter was white. Then there was the dirty boy whose book he shared. Finally, there was a blond-haired but very short boy who hung out on the jungle gym with the girls and a bookish fellow sitting on the ground by a tree, far away form everyone.
Good Merlin, if one of those losers was the famous Harry Potter that he had to make friends with, he was seriously going to demand far more presents for this crazy mission.
The bell rang and the children began running to the building door like manic sheep with a pack of wolves snapping at their ankles. Draco smirked. He wondered if these muggle children knew that he was the big bad wolf. After all, if Father had it his way – he said once – he would exterminate all the muggles so they would stop 'dirtying magical blood'.
As the children poured into the building, Draco found himself near the back of the line. When he squeezed into the door, he bumped into the dirty-haired muggle boy (EW! A muggle touched him! As soon as he got home he was going to make Dobby prepare him a bath!). Glancing down at disinterest, he saw the boy sprawl onto the tiled floor. Several students laughed cruelly and one boy ( a supremely fat and ugly boy, if he ever saw one) even 'accidentally' kicked the dirty muggle boy in his knee.
"You make a great carpet, Potter!" the fat boy shouted with a nasty grin.
Draco froze in horror. This was the Boy-Who-Lived?
A/N:
Thank you to everyone who reviewed!
Hope you liked the update :)
References
*Bloody Fingers: A reading on YouTube: .com/watch?v=lQ7zY54ZjaQ .org/wiki/Scary_Stories_to_Tell_in_the_Dark
*Kalika - a name I got from the Christopher Pike "The Last Vampire" series. I've always liked it ;)
