Chapter 3: Discussions

"Ah Mister Hall, I was beginning to wonder how many house points Professor Granger was willing to lose before she tracked you down and forced you to join me for detention." Draco addressed the rather angry looking young boy before him.

"I don't think house points matter when you're trying to avoid death eaters." The boy with the curly, golden blonde hair remarked with as much attitude as he could muster.

Perhaps to Jasper's surprise, the professor didn't do very much at all in response to the comment – in fact, Professor Malfoy didn't even twitch. "Ex-death eater."

"Yeah sure. That's what kept you out of Azkaban, right professor?"

"Yes. On both counts Mister Hall. I was an ex-death eater and my rejection of the regime is what ultimately saved me."

"Yeah well I bet you're only an ex-death eater because You-know-who is dead."

At this point, Draco simply raised an eyebrow at the young man. "You know, some soldiers are more than capable of their own thoughts following the demise of their leader. That said, I turned my back on Voldemort (you have the misplaced courage to call me all things under the sun Mister Hall so don't you shy away from calling him by that or even by Tom Riddle) before his fall." Instead of continuing down that path of discussion, Draco extended his left hand (continued to stir the cauldron that was currently bubbling away on his desk with his right) and pointed to the cupboard in the corner of the room. "Now to begin the detention – please open up that cupboard and take out the following ingredients: Salamander blood, lionfish spines, flobberworm mucus and honeywater. Don't even think of picking up different ingredients Mister Hall – the Wiggenweld potion that's to be made next is for Madam Pomfrey." Not unsurprisingly, the short boy made no attempts to move from his position by the door. "Now Mister Hall."

"I hate you."

"You wouldn't be the only one."

"I hate the lot of you and you're all as bad as each other, no matter what you try and say to justify yourselves."

"We very well may be Mister Hall but let me tell you something – you can hate me all you want, you can hate the death eaters all you want and you can certainly hate Voldemort all you want but how will that help you? It's clear that you're angry and to be perfectly blunt Mister Hall, I don't know exactly who did exactly what to you or somebody that you know."

"'Course you and your friends wouldn't know. You wouldn't care either. The lot of you deserve worse than Azkaban."

"I'm sure you're quite right Mister Hall – a lot of people at the time wouldn't have known or cared and they sure as hell deserve worse than Azkaban but tell me, what are you going to do? Are you going to Avada me? Are you going to Avada the lot of them? I can tell you right now that it'd only make you just as bad as we are if you did."

"So what? You'd all be gone."

"Yes, we'd be gone but so too would your soul and then you'd really be no better than Voldemort."

"Then what? I'm supposed to just stand here and do nothing?"

"No, Mister Hall. That isn't what I said. You can hate me all you want. You can hate every last death eater (including those of us who defected) all you bloody want but channel that hatred into something better. By getting an education, you're already becoming a stronger, more controlled wizard, don't go and throw your life away for the sake of getting even. Become a potioneer and create cures to uncommon maladies or become an auror and bring the evil wizards to justice the right way. Hell, you could even work as a healer and save people around the world or work in magical law and truly create a motion which will see justice served. Who knows, you might even become the next Minister of Magic. That. That is how you become a better man than we could ever hope to be."

A lengthy pause ensued then ever so slowly, Jasper made his way towards the cupboard and collected the ingredients.


Detention with Jasper had been uneventful the rest of that week and although the Draco knew very well that the young man didn't hate him any less now that they were a month and a half into the school year than he did when they first started, he was secretly quite happy with how Jasper had changed in response. Sure, the kid was still insulting him but at the very least, he was applying himself. In fact, just last lesson, Draco had asked three ingredient specific questions and Jasper had put his hand up to answer each time (even if the answer each time started with something along the lines of 'since you know so little Professor Malfoy…').

"Oi Malfoy, what did you do to the poor kid?" Neville asked during the lunch break in the staff room.

"Oh nothing – just the good old imperius trick." A smirk quickly formed on his face when he saw the shocked faces that Neville and Hermione had. "I swear, Gryffindors are too easy to wind up. What do you think? I talked to him."

"Talked to him about what? How you'll break his arm if he doesn't behave?" Neville quipped in jest.

"Why settle for something so simple when I've got so many potions lying around, waiting for a test subject?"

"Neville, Malfoy, that isn't funny." Hermione herself looked less than impressed.

"Isn't it Granger? I thought it was hilarious – should've seen his face when I said I've got plenty of stuff up my sleeve which can turn him purple for a week or longer." Hearing that caused Neville to burst into laughter, causing a smug look to grace Draco's face.

"You will not turn my student purple."

"Not a fan? How about blue then?" Draco asked and Hermione's brows furrowed.

"No."

"Oh I know (Neville, I'm sure you'll love this one), I'll turn him Slytherin green for a month."

The laughter in the background grew louder and Hermione pulled a face before speaking seriously. "Well, whatever talk you've had with him, he's working harder than before. Yesterday, one of the prefects informed me that he wasn't in the tower at curfew so the three of us went searching. We found him in the library and all that he would tell us was that he was studying and lost track of time."

"Hermione, students say that all the time." Neville commented once the laughter died down.

"Yes Neville but I think he meant it – there was parchment everywhere and they all had writing on them."

"Maybe he's just trying to mimic the queen of studying herself then?"

"Sod off Malfoy, I was not the queen of studying."

"Well good to know Granger but I never named anyone." Draco smirked at an annoyed Hermione. "But since lunch is over, I think I will sod off – some of us still have classes to teach you know."

"Honestly, if I'm the queen of studying then what was he?" Hermione asked Neville once Draco had left.

"Based on how much he knew by the time we got reacquainted with him? Probably the king of pretending to slack off."


"Ron, it's been a month and a half since the school term started – it's almost Halloween, we should tell her."

"Harry, it's almost Halloween. Surely there are plans to celebrate at Hogwarts, we should wait until afterwards."

"She'll only be madder if we wait longer you know."

"Yeah well if she's going to hex our heads off now, what difference is a little bloody longer going to make?"

"What if the difference is how long she takes to do it and how painful she makes it?"

"It'll probably be long and painful either way Harry and instead of us getting any last words in, Hermione will probably give us a lecture."

"Then we can die knowing that we at least tried."


There were two days to go until the Halloween feast when Hermione was 'pleasantly' surprised by Harry's head appearing in her fireplace.

"Have you got a moment to talk Hermione?"

"For one of my best friends? Of course, I have a moment to talk."

"In that case, could you let Ron and me through?"

"So it's something serious then."

"Yeah, it's something serious."

A moment later, Harry stepped out of the floo (brushing off the soot as he did so) followed closely by Ron.

"What's the matter? Did something happen?" Hermione asked worriedly after she had given each man a hug.

"Nothing's happening." Harry responded carefully.

"So that means something already happened?"

"Mione, how's working with Malfoy?" Ron tried a different approach.

"Not bad surprisingly – it wasn't too easy to begin with but that might have been more so my fault. Mostly though, we acknowledge each other and engage in conversation sometimes if other professors are there or if we need something from one another. So whatever's already happened has something to do with Malfoy?"

"Oh bloody hell Harry, just tell her."

"Oi! I thought we agreed to tell her together?"

"How about you stop referring to said her as if she weren't right here listening to the two of you then?" A disgruntled Hermione interjected, motioning for the three of them to move towards the seats near her desk.

"Sorry Mione." Harry apologised first after they all sat.

"Yeah, sorry Mione." Ron repeated soon after. "Now tell her Harry."

"Well, as we were saying, we really need to tell you something and we need you to know that we would've told you sooner if we could have."

"We were under the vow Mione, promise."

"You mean to tell me you aren't under the vow anymore? I assume this has all got something to do with Malfoy? He mentioned something about you two not being able to tell me though on the first night so I just assumed it was something related to safety. If you aren't under the vow anymore then it must be safe to talk about it right?"

"I'd forgotten how scary you could be at times Mione." Ron muttered in response.

"Right. Listen Hermione, we've worked with Malfoy for the past 7 years. The only reason we're allowed to talk about it now is because what needed to be done has been done." Harry was the first to explain.

"We honestly thought that Kingsley had gone off his rocker at first but as it turns out, Malfoy was a lifesaver. Literally. More than once." Ron added quickly. "Don't suppose you have a pensieve on you? It might make things a bit easier."

[[Note: I swear, I'll reveal it in the next chapter!]]