No one mentioned the incident anymore, at least not in Draco's vicinity. Only Blaise's girlfriend looked a bit wary when Draco was around, which wasn't that often since Blaise barely talked with Draco anymore. If they hadn't Quidditch training or Potions, Draco could have as well been air to Blaise.

Between Quidditch and homework Draco had still enough time to think, which was exactly what he didn't want to do. He couldn't even write to his father since prisoners weren't allowed to get letters and his wife's being missing also didn't mean that Draco could visit him.

Luckily, the first and most important Quidditch match came nearer and nearer and Draco scheduled so much trainings lessons that one or two team members complained about not having enough time for their homework until Draco reminded them scathingly that Gryffindor had won the damn Quidditch cup the last two times.

Still, he had too much time on his hands and even his homework could only fill so much of his time. A positive side effect was that his grade in every subject improved, except Potions. Whatever Potter did was perfect and no one could reach his level. It bugged Draco more than he cared to admit.

Half a dozen unsent letters to his father later the weekend of the first Quidditch match was there and of course everything went wrong. Vaisey hit his head and couldn't play, which meant that Draco had to find a new chaser in less than 24 hours. Or he would have, but the winter flu swept through Slytherin and even with Madam Pomfrey's potion, he and the whole team were out for the whole day until the next morning.

At breakfast he told Theo in no uncertain terms that he would play this match with them or he could explain to all teachers why his homework ended up in fireplaces regularly.

'Okay, okay.' Theo held up his hands in surrender.

'Just making sure.' Draco said with a smile that showed all his teeth. Theo rolled his eyes.

'You're really obsessed with this game.'

'When you're captain, then we'll talk.'

'Will that be after or before you trained your team to death?' But before Draco could answer, Theo added,'hey, there's your Gryffindor friend.'

And really, Cormac McLaggen approached the Slytherin table and Draco in particular. From what he had seen of him, Potter hated having him as Keeper and that alone endeared him to Draco, plus even though he didn't talked to him it was clear that Blaise's opinion of Cormac hadn't improved.

'Hi.' Cormac practically leered at him. From the corner of his eye, Draco could see how Blaise's face darkened and leered back.

'Hi. Your first match. Nervous?'

'Petrified.' Cormac grinned. 'But you don't have to play against me directly.'

'You underestimate my team.' Draco threw him a wolfish grin.

'I think you underestimate me.' Cormac dropped his voice an octave or so.

'We'll see.' He offered Cormac his hand and Cormac took it, looking him in the eyes the whole time. He had brown eyes like Blaise but in a lighter shade.

'Maybe we could discuss the game afterwards.'

'I don't think I can afford being late to the party in my house afterwards.'

Cormac shrugged.

'Maybe later.'

'Maybe.'

Draco looked at his team.

'Let's go.'

Outside, Blaise suddenly grabbed his arm and dragged Draco in an alcove, while gesturing to the other's to go.

'What was that?' He nearly yelled at Draco. After not speaking to him for two months, flirting with McLaggen got him Blaise's attention? Merlin, was his friend easy. Draco shrugged.

'I was merely talking with a fellow student.'

'Talking? That was a lot of things but definitely not talking.'

'Jealous?' Draco smirked at him. It was a shame that they had to go to the game soon, because he liked having Blaise's attention on him again.

'Because last time I looked you had a girlfriend.' Draco straightened his robes. 'Relax, Blaise. McLaggen is a pureblood, so nothing to worry about.'

'He's still a Gryffindor. Your expectations have really dropped, Draco.'

'I see it as widening my horizon.' He pretended that the last sentence hadn't hurt because McLaggen was at least in Slughorn's club if nothing else but who was Marisa Jayne?!

'Or losing your mind.'

Draco narrowed his eyes.

'What do you mean with that?'

'I mean that you're completely mad since you came this summer. Couldn't cope without your father, could you?'

'You would of course know everything about that.' Draco sneered.

'And as soon as your mother vanished you attacked Marisa.' Blaise continued as if Draco hadn't said anything. That was too much. Draco seized his wand and pressed it against Blaise's throat.

'You better watch your mouth you filthy half-blood.'

'Or what?' Blaise whispered boldly, 'Kill me? I don't think so. You don't have the power anymore to usher us around.'

'Yeah?' Draco's voice was soft but filled with venom. 'My mother is vanished, my father imprisoned, you know how soft Dumbledore is: I could attack your girlfriend without getting detention. Do you really want to risk it?'

'Draco! Blaise!' Hestia stood a few metres away. 'Where were you?'

Draco put his wand away and they both followed Hestia to the changing rooms.

'Fine, so the Gryffindor Keeper doesn't get along with his team, so Potter will probably pay less attention to him. You,' he addressed Pan and Fauna. 'Keep the Weasley girl from the Quaffle as well as you can, Bell, too but mostly Weasley.'

'And you can try to catch the Snitch at least once before Potter.' Blaise murmured so that everyone could hear it. Since hitting Blaise in front of the whole team before their match would be bad for morale, Draco grinned an all-teeth grin and said:

'If you're good enough, it won't matter whether I catch the snitch or not.' Blaise looked like he had a lot of answers for that but Draco prevented that by saying, 'Let's go.'

McLaggen had the nerve to smirk at him when Draco shook hands with Potter. Draco successfully avoided giving Potter a pitying slap on the shoulder. His team couldn't lose.

Madam Hooch's whistle gave the start signal and both teams rose into the air.

Just like Potter, Draco had to divide his attention between finding the snitch and looking at what his team was doing. McLaggen was a better Keeper than Draco had anticipated but he kept distracting his team and Potter by telling them constantly how to do things right, which more or less meant that Bell and Weasley played alone against the Slytherins.

Pan and Fauna kept flying around Weasley as he had told them, even if that meant that his team had to duck the Bludgers a bit more than what was usual. Theo was not bad for never having Quidditch training, but Blaise's ferocity together with Urquhart's experience nearly made up for the loss of Vaisey, who already had a place in a professional team waiting for him.

'Trouble with your Keeper, Potter?' Draco had immensely enjoyed the last minute where Potter had yelled at McLaggen until his face was red.

'Your Beaters seemed to have forgotten their job.' Potter pointed out, but Draco ignored that. He would boast with his brilliant tactics later, after they had won.

As if on keyword Potter suddenly flew steep into the sky. Draco didn't need to be told that he had seen the snitch and followed him. The sun was shining and in the golden-glittering water from the lake it was hard to make out the small ball Potter chased.

With his faster broom, Potter would have caught the snitch, if the little ball hadn't unexpectedly decided to change its direction.

And then, with Blaise's words still fresh in his mind, Draco did something very, very foolish. He jumped from his broom, caught the snitch with his outstretched hand and held on with an iron grip. He could hear Potter's gasp and thought gloatingly didn't expect that, didn't you Potter?

He would bet that they all thought that he was going to fall but his father had taught him never be without your wand

'Accio, Nimbus 2001.' He gripped the broom with his free hand and showed the snitch to the audience. The noise from the Slytherin side was deafening. Draco twisted his head until he could see Potter's disbelieving face and laughed. They had won. They had won their first fucking match against Gryffindor in six years.

When he landed on the ground, his knees gave out, but for once he couldn't care less. His team surrounded him and they all hugged each other, while the Gryffindor team stood around, looking clueless what to do.

'You stupid idiot.' Pansy had come down and hugged him too. 'You scared us all to death with your stunt.'

'A world-class seeker and captain has to always do something unexpected to win.' Draco replied arrogantly, which wasn't so convincing since he couldn't stop grinning.

They just beat Gryffindor, the other matches would be easy. It was as if they already held the Quidditch cup in their hands. When they did, he would so send Flint a picture of it.

'She's right, Draco.' Theo shook his head. 'That was pretty reckless even for your standards.'

'Stop spoiling the mood, Nott,' Vaisey admonished him, a bandage firmly wrapped around his head. For the first time he didn't look like he begrudged Draco becoming captain instead of him. 'You fooled us all.'

'It was a pleasure.' Draco smirked self-satisfied. Mother and father will be so proud abruptly he seemed to be unable to breathe properly. For a few minutes he had actually forgotten...and now Blaise was approaching him and he absolutely didn't want to deal with that now, too. The pain in his chest was already enough.

'Hey,' Blaise said, but Draco looked away. In the crowd surrounding them he could make out the thick, black hair of Blaise's girlfriend.

'You confirmed what I always thought about you,' Blaise tried again.

'What? That I'm an arrogant madman who got where he is because of his father? And shows his madness now that said father is gone?' Draco asked quietly but icily.

No matter how attractive Blaise is, if thinks he can make up for what he said without saying sorry then-

'I shouldn't have said that,' Blaise admitted, 'I went too far.' Blaise took a deep breath.

'I'm sorry, Draco.'

'It's okay.' Draco said and added, mostly because Blaise smiled at him.

'I went too far, too.'

'You two are finally talking to each other again?' Theo snorted derisively.

'Fuck you, Nott,' Draco replied cheerily, because Blaise ignored his girlfriend completely to go with the rest of the team to the lockers.

Short of his mother coming back unharmed, his father coming back from prison and Potter humiliating himself so badly that they would expel him from school, life couldn't be better.

Blaise realizing that his girlfriend was crap and not worth his time wouldn't hurt either.

Partly to rub it into Potter's face, partly to rile Blaise up, Draco continued flirting with Cormac, especially when Blaise chose his girlfriend's company over Draco's. It never went farer than a little harmless flirtation.

Just because they had won against Gryffindor didn't mean that Draco cut his team any slack. He had in fact, with Snape's permission who had given him an angry glare and additional homework for talking in class to Potter's delight, for the stunt at the match, begun to train a substitute team.

December came quickly and everyone's favourite topic was whether they would go home for the vacations and what they would do there. The bad weather combined with this year's security measures meant that Draco had no place to escape to. That damn Auror had delivered him to Snape's office three more times for no other reason than being late from Quidditch training. So what, it wasn't like Draco was checking his watch every three minutes when he was flying. Also, it was only ever him, the Auror never harassed the other team members that came as late as Draco.

'Hey, Draco.'

Draco made a non-committed sound. He was elbows deep in his homework because the teachers seemed to be under the impression that vacations in two weeks meant that they could double the work for their students. Maybe training two Quidditch teams had really been a bit too much.

'Draco.'

'Draco!' Blaise repeated impatiently.

'What?' Draco snapped. He didn't need to do this particular essay now but not working meant time to remember that he would spent Christmas alone in an empty house without his parents.'

'Do you want to come with me during the vacations?'

Draco must have misheard because he had been sure that only a week ago Blaise had told him that he would spent his vacations with this girlfriend and her family. Draco said so.

Blaise shrugged.

'We broke up.' As if that wasn't a bad deal and Draco, annoyingly, felt very much like dancing on the ceiling.

'Mother won't be home anyway, so it's just me and Faiella.'

'Faiella?' Draco asked suspiciously.

'My sister. She attends Beauxbatons.' He laughed at Draco's stunned face.

'You have never said anything about a sister.'

'She's going to Beauxbatons, none of you would have ever let me hear the end of that.' Blaise's expectant smile did something very treacherous to Draco's insides and his knees became weak.

'So, you're coming or not?'

'Sure,' Draco replied, pretending to be annoyed for being interrupted for something so trivial.

'Can I finish my homework now?'

His good mood lasted exactly a week until he heard that Blaise had invited Marisa Jayne to Slughorn's Christmas party.

Spending two weeks' vacation with Blaise or not, Draco couldn't let that one sit. They had broken up, hadn't they? Then why the hell did Blaise invite her? He could have as well asked Draco –and that was probably the heart of the matter, but Draco refused to look too closely at that possibility and did what he always did this year when he wanted to annoy Blaise: spend time with Cormac McLaggen. After the disastrous Quidditch match against Slytherin, Potter had thrown McLaggen out of the team but he was still in Slughorn's club.

Getting invited was nearly too easy and got Draco (and McLaggen probably too) a lot of looks that clearly asked if he had lost his mind. Blaise looked his especially furious but didn't say anything.

On the evening of the party, Draco was in a nearly euphoric mood. Only this night separated him from two weeks with Blaise and no girlfriend in sight.

Cormac actually looked good. Not as good as Blaise, but then Blaise was a class by himself, but Cormac was dressed tastefully even by Draco's standards, and was attractive to begin with.

Cormac eyed him from top to toe when they met in the hallway on the seventh floor, not far from the room were Slughorn held his party. Blaise had already gone half an hour before, and had only dryly reminded Draco that he shouldn't come back too late or he would miss the Hogwarts Express. Draco had rolled his eyes at that. What exactly thought Blaise he would do with Cormac? Being a good looking distraction didn't automatically mean getting laid.

'Ah, Mr. McLaggen.' Slughorn greeted Draco's companion enthusiastically but only as long until he saw Draco.

'And Mr. - He seemed too perplexed to remember Draco's name.

'Malfoy, sir.' Draco said politely, 'I believe you knew my grandfather, Abraxus Malfoy. He always said that you were his favourite teacher.'

'Of course, of course.' Slughorn still stared at them. 'But please, enjoy the party. Even Mr. Potter has come.'

Even with Potter, Granger and Blaise's girlfriend at the party, Draco still had the time of his life. He had grown up around parties like this and his parents had trained him to be polite, charming and generally obliging to the right people.

He talked and laughed, made compliments and listened carefully to everything the other guests said. He was especially polite and charming to those who he could see were wary of him because of his name, and managed to outmanoeuvre Potter and Granger while throwing an insult about her family into a compliment he made the Weasley girl. Her glare amused him even more than Blaise's appalled looks at Cormac.

'He's jealous, you know?' The blonde Ravenclaw girl with the crazy clothes had somehow wound up next to him while Cormac was using the bathroom. Against his will Draco asked,

'Jealous?'

'You mean a lot to him.'

Draco smirked. Cormac was in for an unpleasant surprise if he thought that anything would ever happen between them.

'Hey Luna, is he bothering you?' Potter glared at him. Draco sneered back.

'Relax, Potter, I wouldn't touch your girlfriend with a ten-metre pole if I had to.'

'Let us go somewhere else,' Potter muttered darkly.

'Bye, Draco.' Luna waved at him as she followed Potter to the other side f the room.

'Don't worry, she's a bit crazy.' Cormac had reappeared at Draco's side.

'She's in best company for that.'

'Potter is an asshole,' Cormac agreed. Because he threw off of the team, right? Draco smiled secretly. Cormac's hand brushed against his.

'Hey, 'He said quietly, 'You want to get some fresh air?'

Draco fully intended to say no but in that moment Blaise leaned down to whisper something into his ex-girlfriend's ear and she laughed. To reach the balcony behind the shades, they had to walk past them. In a sudden fit of nausea and anger Draco said,'Sure.' He made a point of walking as closely as possible to Cormac and met Slughorn's confused and Blaise's disbelieving looks with a defiant stare. For a short moment Blaise made a move like he wanted to approach Draco, stop him from going with McLaggen but his ex-girlfriend's hand laid on his arm made him hesitate.

The air was icy. Snow fell from the sky and covered the whole world as far as he could see.

'You like playing hard to get, don't you?' Cormac was far too much in Draco's personal space but Draco could feel Blaise's eyes on him through the translucent drapes. Maybe he was taking this too far, but then he remembered how Marisa had stopped Blaise from stopping Draco even though she didn't have a claim on Blaise anymore.

If Blaise wanted to watch what he could have had if he had only said something, then who was Draco to deny him that pleasure.

'I'm worth it.' He grinned at Cormac.

'Really?' Cormac's voice had dropped and he leaned close, 'Show me.'

Draco kissed him.

It felt a bit mechanical, kissing someone he only felt remotely attracted to while he knew that someone else watched them but on the other hand, the last time he had had sex had been before the summer vacations and his body definitely favoured Cormac over abstinence.

It was too cold to do anything but kissing, but Cormac was a good kisser and they wound up pressed tightly against each other.

Draco asked himself how it would feel if it was Blaise he was kissing, Blaise who was taller and more slender than Cormac, who had elegant hands with finely boned fingers and smelled subtly like expensive cologne.

A commotion on the other side of the drapes made them part, someone was calling Draco's name.

Draco stepped through the drapes back inside the room and saw Snape. Saw the serious look on Snape's face and felt his insides clench and turn to ice.

Please no.

'Mr. Malfoy.' He needed no further words.

'Draco, what-?' Cormac had followed him.

'Not now,' Draco snapped at him and rushed out of the room.

'You found her.' Draco wasn't sure whether his sentence had come out as a statement or as a question but it didn't matter.

'Where?'

'Rosier's house. The Aurors made a routine search and found your mother's body in the cellar. She was killed months ago.' Snape sounded angry as if he knew something that Draco didn't knew, as he knew who was to blame for the death of Draco's mother.

I bet you do. Draco thought. You just have to look into the mirror.

'How did she die?' Draco dreaded the answer but he had to know, 'Was it the Avada?'

Snape eyed him for a moment, apparently unsure of how much he should tell Draco.

'No, it wasn't. It was Exsanguere.' Draco wished that he hadn't asked. He didn't want to see in his mind how his mother lay somewhere on the floor and slowly bled to death. He could see his aunt Bellatrix, dancing around his mother and throwing insults at her, probably a few other curses, too, to see her suffer. Draco had to stop and lean against a wall for a moment. He involuntarily shook his head to get rid of the gruesome images that raced through it.

'Where are we going?' He asked to occupy his thoughts with something else than imagining his mother's death.

'To the Headmaster's office. Due the 'special' circumstances you are now allowed to visit your father at Azkaban.'

'Now?' Slipped out before he could stop it.

Snape raised his eyebrows.

'Would you rather wait until after you said goodbye to Mr. McLaggen?' Snape's sarcasm hurt but it anchored Draco in the here and now.

'That's none of your business,' He snapped and watched Snape's lips curl into a thin line. Why the hell did everyone think that McLaggen was the love of his life? Draco huffed and banned all thoughts about McLaggen, the party and Blaise from his mind.

'Mr. Malfoy,' Dumbledore greeted him with a serious voice. 'Professor Snape has already explained the situation to you?'

'Yes.' Draco felt impatient. He saw no sense in being here when he should already be on his way to Azkaban. He could do without Dumbledore's condolences.

'Very well then. Two Aurors will wait for you at the gate and escort you and Professor Snape to Azkaban.' Dumbledore paused. 'I understand that you wanted to spend your holidays with Mr. Zabini?'

Draco wondered how Dumbledore could know that but he affirmed.

'If you agree, you can meet him tomorrow at King's Cross as I doubt that you will be able to return to the school tonight.'

'Thank you, sir.' No one could say that his parents hadn't raised him to counter every situation with manners.

'Why the Aurors?' he asked Snape as soon as they were outside.

'Dumbledore is afraid that someone might attack you on the way to your father.'

'They have their revenge on my father,' Draco laughed humourlessly, mirroring his mother's words from this summer: 'What should the Dark Lord want from a child like me?'

'Don't be stupid,' Snape reprimanded him, 'The Dark Lord doesn't tolerate refusal from his inferiors. He won't stop until you and Lucius are in his hands too.'

'Then why didn't you let me go?' Draco felt the old, familiar anger stir up again,

'You didn't have to promise my mother to protect me. I'm old enough to make my own choices.'

'That alone proves how foolishly childish you still are.' Snape didn't need to raise his voice to make Draco hear that he was rapidly losing his patience.

'Lucius failed the Dark Lord and either way you are the easiest way to make him pay for that failure. Make no mistake, Draco. Your death was planned and instead of looking for someone to blame, you should honour the sacrifice your mother made to protect you.'

Draco pressed his lips together and bit so hard that he could taste blood, but he didn't want to show Snape how much he had hurt him. Someone was to blame for his mother's death, and placing it on his father was unacceptable. He was his father. The only family he had left. Snape, no matter how much Draco had always admired him, was not family.

One of the two Aurors that waited for then was, of course, the Auror that had picked on Draco for the whole semester. He looked grimly satisfied, like he thought that Draco finally got what he deserved. Draco had to preserve all his strength not to attack him, and vowed silently that he would use the first opportunity to hex the man some furuncles.

The other Auror was, as Draco knew, his cousin Nymphadora, but that was only a technicality since his mother had never had contact with her sister since she had betrayed the family to marry a Muggle.

Snape took Draco's arm as soon as they had reached the middle of Hogsmeade, a swirl and the next thing Draco did was fall to his knees and vomit into the sand underneath him.

If Apparating was always like that, then he would rather walk than do it again.

'Get up boy, we don't have all night.' The Auror had the nerve to sound annoyed.

'Milton,' Nymphadora said softly. She gave Draco a sympathetic look.

Don't you dare pity me you didn't even know my mother

'You better watch your mouth, Savage,' Snape said coolly.

'Why? You gonna hex me?'

'I'm sure Professor Dumbledore wouldn't like to hear that you treat one of his students as if he has committed a crime, for nothing else but holding a petty grudge against his father,' Snape continued as if the Auror hadn't said anything. 'He may come to think that you are not the right person to guard a school and request to put you back to active duty, far away from Hogwarts.'

It was clear what Snape implied, and the Auror only narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

Draco shivered involuntarily as he followed Snape through the hallways of Azkaban. After the breakout last year, the Ministry employed fewer Dementors, but some were still here. And this prison belonged to the supposedly good guys. Driving one's prisoners to insanity was inhuman and deliberately cruel; some of the prisoners where in Azkaban because they had done exactly that.

An eye for an eye. Maybe we should reinstate the death penalty for murderers and let rapists be raped themselves Draco thought darkly in an attempt to push away the images of his mother's death. His father had taught him that.

Think dark thoughts when you encounter them, Draco. The Dementors can't feed on them.

They were brought into a special room; his father already sat at the other side of the old wooden table and looked exhausted and thin, like he hadn't been eating enough.

'We'll give you a moment.' Only then Draco noticed that Snape and the two Aurors hadn't followed him inside. Even through the closed door Draco could hear loud protest at Snape's action.

He didn't care.

His father had barely stood up when Draco crossed the room and rushed into his arms. It had been a long time since his father had held him like that but in this situation, a token of weakness seemed justified.

His father didn't say anything, no platitudes like Dumbledore, simply held him with one arm securely around Draco's body while the other hand stroked his hair.

There were a lot of thoughts running through Draco's head and all of them were incredibly trivial.

We have a new Potions teacher I'm worse than Potter now, too, because he's cheating. I'm sure he does Snape's teaching in DADA like he always wanted. I'm Slytherin's Quidditch captain. We beat Gryffindor this year. I slept with Theo last year after they arrested you. I kissed a Gryffindor just a few hours ago. I think I like Blaise

They could hear the rusty handle on the door moving and parted, each sitting down on either side of the table.

The Auror came in, looking flushed as if he had had a heated argument with Snape, who threw him a disgusted look.

'Severus.' His father acknowledged his old friend with a nod.

'Lucius.' Then he turned to Nymphadora and pointedly ignored the other Auror:

'When will you release my wife's remains for the burial?'

'Not until the new year.' Was he imagining that or did she actually sound sorry?: 'The examination isn't finished yet.'

'I don't suppose you will let me go to the funeral.' His father sounded rather amused at the very idea and the Auror immediately chimed in:

'The risk of your flight is too high.' His father murmured something derogatory, and since neither Auror could actually see his face, rolled his eyes.

'You will spend Christmas at Hogwarts, then.'

'Actually, Blaise invited me to spend the holidays with him.'

'Good.' His father nodded approvingly. His eyes lingered at Draco's suit.

'You were at a party tonight?'

'Professor Slughorn gave one,' Draco told him, 'He's our new Potions teacher.'

His father gave Snape an appraising look. It had always wormed Draco that they could talk to each other without actually saying a word, mostly because he didn't have a friend like that. The closest friend he had was Theo, and even they weren't as close as Snape and his father.

Then his father continued to ask a few more questions about school and Quidditch and Draco could gloat with his daring move to catch the snitch before Potter. It was vaguely surreal to have such a domestic conversation with his father in the night, surrounded by two Aurors and his head of house. They didn't mention Narcissa until the end, where his father said:

'When you come back from Zabini's, contact Keyx, he will know what to do.'

Keyx was the family lawyer and even now loyal since the Malfoys were only fallen from grace, but not poor. He also handled most of the business since Draco's mother had been taken hostage.

'I know.'