Finally, I was able to finish this chapter! It took a bit longer than I would've wanted to, but here it is. It was very hard to write, dealing with Draco's different emotions during the day, but stuff is starting to happen now, the last chapter was more of a prologue.

Draco stood in the mass of people waiting for the doors to the Hogwarts Express to be opened, face cold and even paler than usual. The students around him were eagerly discussing the term, and whether or not Harry Potter was telling the truth about Voldemort being back. Finally, the doors slid open, and they all started moving. Draco walked behind his friends Blaise, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle through the train to their seats. He didn't say much, though they wondered what Dumbledore had wanted to tell him. Draco knew he couldn't keep quiet about the matter for too long, Crabbe and Goyle would find out anyway soon. As soon as they had sat down, he quickly whispered to them what happened, but didn't get into the details. He didn't remember their reactions.

The train started moving. At first it went slowly, but sped up, and soon different shades of green and blue started to fly by the window. There were forests, lakes and mountains outside the window. Draco got himself comfortable in his seat, leant to the wall next to said window and fell asleep.

"Draco? Draco, wake up." It was Pansy. "We've arrived."

She woke him up just in time for him to feel the train slow down and squeak. Soon, everybody was up. He looked out the window like it would give him answers, but saw nothing but bricks. He grabbed his luggage that laid on a shelf above them and started moving with the others to the doors. The other four Slytherins seemed a bit too quiet, like they had something to say but didn't know how to word it. That was probably the case, Draco thought, but didn't ask them what was troubling their minds. If he would choose, then he wouldn't have told them at all, but he knew they would have wanted to know.

When he got out, he first didn't see the man leaning against the wall because of all the people hugging loved ones, laughing and walking in front of him. The sorrow he felt made him wonder how they could be so blindly happy while he was suffering this much.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to his left.

"I'll write to you." Crabbe said quietly.

He nodded back at him, and Crabbe and the others waved at him while they slowly started walking to the wall that lead out to the station. Draco stood where he was, because Dumbledore told him someone would pick him up. After a while, he started to doubt if that was what the old man really had said, maybe he was supposed to walk out the wall to? Dumbledore, of course, hadn't told him where he would wait. What could he expect of him? But as the masses started to disperse, a man stepped forward to him, talking with a deep, slow voice.

"Draco Malfoy?"

He was tall, had dark skin and was big and broad shouldered. He was bald, had a blue hat with a matching blue robe, and a gold hoop earring. Draco thought that under different circumstances, he would be really terrified by this man. But something made him trust him.

"Yes."

"I am Kingsley Shacklebolt, and I am here on Dumbledore's order to safely transport you."

With that statement, Draco got even more annoyed by the tiny amount of information he's been given so far. Where's he going to be transported? Why was it all so hush-hush? Why couldn't they simply tell him?

His annoyance became visible in his face when he followed Kingsley out the station. The muggles didn't usually notice him, or any other witch or wizard, here at King's Cross, but this time he did get noticed. It must've been the combination of the two males and their appearance, a slender boy with platinum blonde hair and bangs and a black suit, and at his side a big, black, bald man with a cloak flowing behind him in the wind like blue wings.

Kingsley crossed the parking lot, whispering a few charms as he went, with Draco next to him, who couldn't help but feel undignified and put aside like a little child. His grey eyes darted across the parking lot, wondering if they were actually going to go in a muggle car.

But then he saw that they weren't. A few meters ahead, there stood a black horse carriage, but there weren't any horses pulling it, like the carriages at Hogwarts.

"Don't worry about the muggles noticing you." Kingsley said. "Hop in."

With a frown, he did as told. Kinglsey himself sat in the driver's seat, and with a sudden pull, they flew up to the sky.

Draco had his eyes fixed to the ground until he couldn't see the cars moving on the streets anymore, the building's roofs grew flatter, and everything turning into a distant daze. He leaned back when he felt that they weren't moving upwards anymore, instead moving forward. He could disguingish the horizon far far away and the sun casting a warm light at the vegetation underneath, until the clouds started to shade his view. It felt relaxing.

It took them a few hours to travel. When they were getting close to the manor, Draco felt the sorrow hit him once more. Not only because the manor were empty, but because he just realized it was his now. He didn't want to have to take care of such great matters as a whole manor and its servants.

They landed on the backyard with a bump, scaring away the white peacocks who called out and fluttered with their wings. He felt his muscles stiffen, because this made everything much more real, the memories of this house and its former inhabitants washing over him with immense power.

"I'll wait here, take your time." Kinglsey said, making Draco turn his head suddenly. He nodded to him, brushed his suit and started walking across the lawn. The hedge and its shadows were looking grey, even though the sun was still shining. He came to the main entrance, and the door swung open for him.

He stepped inside, and felt the familiar, homey smell he was so used to. It smelled a bit like old perfume, mixed with the smell of wood and roasted meat. Suddenly, a tiny little house elf stood before him, looking up with big, shiny eyes. It looked like she's been crying, though happy to see Draco, and her cloth looked dirtier than ever.

"Welcome, master Draco. Do you want dinner?"

Those words hit him like a punch, even though it came from this pitiful creature. It was his mom and dad that were the masters in this house, not him. He couldn't help but dislike their house elves, creatures existing only to serve wizard and witches. But he didn't feel hungry, even though he hadn't eaten since breakfast, so he gave her a short no and a condescending look.

He walked past the little elf, and went trough the hallway. The portraits on the walls stared at him, and he stared back. The lamps in the wooden ceiling shone a soft light down on him, creating spots of light on the floor on which he stepped. The light made him look like the paintings on the walls, hair almost white and shining, and pitchblack at his knees and down. It also enhanced the shadows under his eyes and his chin. He walked past a few mirrors on his right, but didn't look into them.

Eventually, he came to a staircase. It was made out of black wood, and had a red carpet on it. The ornations on it were beautifully crafted, with flowers and branches, reaching and climbing along the handrail up to the next floor. As he walked up the stairs, a memory of his came to mind: It was of him, five years old, who had fallen and scratched his knees and elbows. He remembered how he searched up his mum who grabbed him and comforted him.

Before the staircase stood a drawer, and on the wall above it hung a beautiful mirror with a golden frame. Draco jumped at his own reflection, shocked by what he saw. He looked worse than he imagined, his hair was greasy and his facial skin wasn't as firm as it always was. He continued, turning right and then left, opening the door to his room. He closed it behind him and sat down at his bed.

The bed stood seated to the wall right to the door. He sat down at the foot of it and sighed. It felt all these emotions he had felt today only had emptied him, making him uncapable of feeling any more. But he didn't feel completely apathetic, because this room always gave him comfort.

He got out a trunk, and started packing. All the things he actually needed were already packed, but he had to take some things with him from home. That included a photo album, a few books and an ornamented golden box.

When everything was safe inside the metal trunk, he walked down the stairs, and made his way trough the hallway. The men and women on the walls kept following him with their blank gazes. The handcrafted carpet underneath him got a little wrinkled by the wheels of the trunk.

He reached the front door, and walked out of the manor. The gravel path crunched underneath his feet, and left two stripes from the trunk's wheels. He made a turn to the right, on his left a big lawn stretched out, and to his right there were bushes against the manor's walls. He made another right-turn, and saw the carriage, with Kingsley waiting, standing in the middle of the green sorrounding him and the black carriage. The sun had started to set, and the bright light made Draco squint.

Kingsley didn't say a word, but waited for Draco to get seated and then exhorted the carriage to fly up in the sky. They flew above the manor, and the towers were exactly underneath them. If they were to suddenly fall, they would possibly get pierced. If that didn't kill them, then the height would.

They were flying back to London. The landscape underneath them shifted from forests, open fields, rivers and mountains to villages, streets, then lights and traffic. Slowly, Kingsley began to move downwards to the ground, until the cars and trees and then people got visible, more and more details got apparent. They landed on a rubbishy street, with trash on it. There were no people around and it looked generally messy and untidy. It was a big contrast compared to Malfoy Manor.

"We are still invisible to the muggles, so don't worry about that." Kingsley said next to Draco, who just got out of the carriage together with his luggage.

It had gotten much darker than when they were at the manor. Kingsley said a few words, which Draco didn't understand, and he flickered his wand. Then the walls of the houses in front of them started moving. They were pressed aside, as well as lamp posts, metal fences and bushes. What came out between the walls was another house, identical to the ones at its sides. With a bam, the walls stopped moving, and Kingsley turned around to Draco who found himself staring. He flicked with his wand again and the luggage dissappeared.

"I moved them upstairs, so you wouldn't have to drag them all the way."

They took a few steps forward to the staircase that led them to the front door of the house. Draco felt his heart starting to beat faster the closer they got. He stood one footstep underneath Kingsley as he knocked on the well used door. In a few moments, it swung open, and before them stood a handsome man with long, wavy brown hair and a short beard. Draco immediately recognized him, who smiled brightly at Draco.

"Welcome Draco, I'm Sirius Black."