[ Title ] You, The Room & The Devil On Your Shoulder
[ Author ] Lena Horror
[ Genre ] Harry Potter (AU)
[ Story Genre ] Drama/Angst
[ Rating ] Fiction M (16+) but some later chapters may reach MA (18+) because of content.
[ Pairings ] Draco Malfoy/Alena Snape (Original Character), Angel Raye (Original Character)/Oliver Wood, Most other pairings that are canon (mentions)
[ Word Count ] 4.8K
CHAPTER FOUR: PRETTY LITTLE DISTANCE
`` I don't wanna leave, I don't wanna stay… ``
SETTING: Eleven Years Ago.
Time was flying, or at least, that's how it felt.
At the start of term, Nero was entering his third year at Hogwarts. His time at Hogwarts, to that point, had been incredible. He joined the Quidditch team for Slytherin, as a beater, last year at the suggestion of his friend, Marcus Flint. Playing for Slytherin was something Nero thoroughly enjoyed. Their house had been very successful in their games and it was something that made the bug to play long-term more and more evident for Nero. By the time he was a third year, just shy of fourteen, he thought he knew what he wanted to do with his life. That was something not everyone could say.
It was also the first year without his cousin Liam at school.
Dottie, just starting sixth year, was someone who helped keep Nero sane when things got particularly crazy at school. So having her for at least one more year was something that helped keep him down to Earth a bit. He knew that Liam was going to do well after Hogwarts as he had been eyed by a couple of professional Quidditch teams himself, he was just taking his time to "weigh his options", as it were. Nero couldn't blame him. He wouldn't take the first offer that came his way, either. Unless, of course, it was The Appleby Arrows. That would be the only exception to that.
As they sat together on the train, Dottie looked over at Nero.
"Isn't Draco supposed to be starting this year?" She inquired, "Or is he another year out?"
"No, this is going to be his first year," Nero confirmed. "My aunt already wrote me to ask if I could keep an eye on him. I responded and said I would but… hell if I actually want to. I know that sounds really mean and backhanded, and I don't mean it to, but he's
"Is he that bad?" Flint asked but Nero groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Not entirely, no. He's a child. You know. I think part of it is that he's just been spoiled to the absolute core and he'll grow out of it. Or, at least, I HOPE he grows out of it...because he could be a really good person underneath all of that. But he's a … bit of a pain, if you know what I mean."
"He's an entitled little shit," Dottie added, flashing as sweet of a smile as she possibly could after her statement. "He could be worse, though, I imagine."
"Mm..."
The dismissive tone Nero had was very rare but the 'he could be worse' comment was something that was truly up for debate. Even at eleven years old, Draco was borderline unbearable. He was spoiled to the absolute core, thanks to his Aunt Narcissa and Uncle Lucius, but more than that, he had an attitude that was completely unbecoming of a young man. He acted like he was better than anyone and everyone who crossed his path and for Nero, that left a foul sort of taste in his mouth. What also blew Nero's mind was that Draco acted like he was better than Nero, too, which was complete codswallop. Nero came from the same sort of lineage that Draco did but because Nero didn't carry the 'Malfoy' name, Draco thought lesser of him.
Truth be told? Nero would have much-preferred carrying "Van Buren". He didn't have to explain anything to anyone about his interest in Quidditch, for one, and for two, the Van Buren side was incredibly respected. There wasn't as much… controversy… with the Van Buren name as there was with the Malfoy side. The Van Buren side had their fair share of Death Eaters and the like but they lacked the controversy side that the Malfoy family relished in, it seemed. Even his mother Annabelle had her moments of negating the Malfoy side, dismissing it now that she was on a more 'straight and narrow' path with her husband. She associated closely with her brother and sister-in-law and her father but she didn't go out of her way to participate in the… extracurricular… that they still participated in, in spite of The Dark Lord's demise years previous.
Nero never understood the appeal of Voldemort, really.
Perhaps he was an odd one, in a family with a number of Death Eaters present, but he couldn't imagine answering to one wizard on a high-end power trip. That blew his mind in a not particularly good manner. Voldemort… what a joke. He also didn't particularly fancy the fact that people feared his name. For what? It was a name. He had done some pretty terrible things but at the end of the day, he was dead, and a baby was his demise.
That was embarrassing, wasn't it?
Nero was sitting next to Dottie, across from Flint, when another Slytherin shared their space. It was a second-year Slytherin named Adrian Pucey. Last year, there was talk of having Pucey try out for the Quidditch team in his second year so naturally, the conversation as the train left the station at 11 A.M, sharp, shifted to Quidditch and the plan for the year. They had a lot of ground to cover with losing some key players who were seven years the year before and they had to pad the team in the upcoming year to be able to secure the House Cup again.
As they were talking, Nero noticed his young cousin, Draco, walking along the aisle of the train to find a seat with a small group of first-year students. Draco looked up and caught Nero's line of vision, a slight sneer on the younger blonde's face. Nero narrowed his eyes in momentary confusion as to why Draco would look so disgruntled.
Already.
Dottie had noticed Nero's line of vision and saw the look that Draco gave him. She rolled her eyes momentarily, giving Nero's side a light nudge to break his concentration on the younger boy. When he looked at her, Dottie shook her head.
"Don't even think about it," She said, her tone encouraging to her younger cousin. "I am telling you, in the most polite manner in which I possibly can, that Draco is not worth your frustration. You can keep an eye on him from a distance and not have to interact with him TOO much. It's not like Hogwarts is THAT big. It's small enough that you could easily keep an eye on him and keep him as out of trouble as possible but trust me when I say, he's not your responsibility. Nor is it your job to keep him on the straight and narrow. You're not his parent, you're not his keeper, letting his spoiled rotten attitude put a damper on yours isn't worth it at all, Nero."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
"Of course I'm right, you git." Dottie flicked Nero's forehead in a playful manner, which got a minor grimace from Nero. "Don't let it ruin your year. There's no doubt that he'll be in Slytherin, yeah? I'm sure..."
"There is no doubt at ALL," Nero confirmed. "I would guarantee that the sorting hat won't even hesitate. As soon as the name Malfoy is even mentioned, he's going straight for Slytherin. It's even more inevitable than, say…. Me, being in Slytherin. There's no doubt whatsoever."
"So, there. That's how you can keep an eye on him. You'll see him often enough to know he's fine or at least as fine as he possibly can be having to associate with the 'lesser lifeforms' of the general public. I'm sure that's going to break his precious little heart."
Nero laughed quietly at Dottie's shady commentary but there was some truth to it. Draco did act like people were below him when he had absolutely no right to act like that. Nero never understood that line of thinking and he hoped to everything good in the universe that he never identified with that line of thinking, either. He couldn't imagine looking at people who were different from him or not as fortunate as him as 'lesser beings'. Yet, he knew confidently, that Draco would act like that. It was how he was raised, after all. While they shared blood, they were raised very, very differently.
Annabelle and Emery raised Nero to be kind but to also help others where he could. They raised him to work hard and expect nothing in return for being generous and helpful. Perhaps it was the Van Buren influence that was the biggest catalyst for the difference in raising. With Draco being part of the Black family, due to his mother Narcissa, they also had the same sort of mentality in a lot of ways that the Malfoy family had. It was no real surprise that Narcissa and Lucius would marry. Whereas Emery and Annabelle were raised with very stark contrasts.
The Malfoy family were a very underhanded bunch with a long history of dark allegiances. They had a history of underhanded practices as well as being tied to a lot of not-so-pleasant acts in the past. The founding father of the Malfoy Manor achieved his status, rumor had it, through shady and magical means. Granted, that was the ancestor that Annabelle insisted on partially naming Nero after but that was neither here nor there.
There was one major difference that the Van Buren blood inside of him accommodated for. He didn't share the Malfoy family's requirement for those types of dealings. Nero had grown into a young man who wanted to keep things as 'on the up and up' as he possibly could. He wanted to improve the lives of those around him. He saw how his father handled people, how he treated everyone he came across with a kind heart and a kind word no matter if they were muggle-born, half-blooded, pure-blooded or squib. He didn't care as much about blood purity as some did. None of the Van Buren family, albeit pure-blooded, did. Nero never saw blood purity as an excuse to treat someone poorly. Yet, he had seen it, with his own eyes, with the Malfoy family. His mother had struggled with it in the past but now she was doing quite well with not doing it. Nero swore that his father had something to do with that but that was neither here nor there.
Once they arrived at Hogwarts, the students who were years two through seven went off to be seated at their respective house tables while the first years were prepared to be sorted. Nero was sitting next to Marcus Flint and a couple of the other members of Slytherin on the Quidditch team and Dottie wasn't too far down sitting next to a couple of her girl friends. They were close enough that if Nero leaned over the table, he could not only see her but talk to her and communicate with her. Their friendship, aside from their relationship as cousins, was something that truly did keep Nero sane and he was grateful for it every single day that he spent within that castle.
Truth be told, he had no idea what he was going to do without her when she left school. That would be a huge bummer for him and it was something that he wasn't sure he was ready for. Though, in the interest of fairness, when Dottie finished, he wasn't far behind, so there was that.
The Sorting Ceremony came and went, and without surprise, Draco did land in Slytherin. The bloody hat didn't even touch the boy's white-blonde hair before it bellowed out that fateful declaration. What was especially curious to him was that not only was Draco in the class of first years, but Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, Voldemort's destruction, was in that same class. He was sorted to Gryffindor, which was a bit curious in Nero's opinion, but at the same time not really all that surprising if he actually thought about it. Part of him almost found it poetically just that the Boy Who Lived would be sorted into Gryffindor House.
Also, how many goddamn Weasleys were there? It felt like there were thirty of them. Not that he was judging, per se, but for goodness sake… how many children did one family need? Perhaps that was Nero judging, in a minor sense, as an only child but he couldn't even remotely IMAGINE having that many siblings. No thanks.
Nero wasn't the least bit surprised that he'd be sharing the next few years in Slytherin with Draco so a part of him did want to make nice, for a lack of a better term, with his younger cousin. He knew that he could have had a relationship with Draco if he tried but part of him felt like they were far too different to 'make it work'. That, and Draco had to be willing to work with him too, and the likelihood of that was very, very minimal. They had never been able to really get along for a longer duration of time, not even as children, so that was working against the theory from the get-go. It wasn't to say Nero wouldn't try, though. He would. Perhaps stupidly, but to him, the family did mean something and that did include Draco.
Time would tell if the sneering, blonde little git would ever grow past his 'I'm better than everyone with a pulse' stage…
The first interaction that Nero had with Draco didn't happen for days.
They had somehow actively avoided each other in the Slytherin Common Room, somehow passed each other entirely in the corridors, and barely had any interaction outside of a glance or a look in the Great Hall at meals. Granted, a big part of Nero's preoccupation came with the start of the school year, Quidditch, and maintaining the friendships that he had made over the three years that he had been at school. He also simply wanted to spend time with those he knew at school after a long summer of being away from school. Yes, owls existed and yes, communication and time spent together did happen, but it was different being back at school.
It was early in the morning on a late September Sunday.
The sun had only been up for a brief while but a lot of the students were awake. Nero was no different. Nero was an 'up with the sun' type of person who always seemed to have far too much energy for his own or anyone's own good. He had gone outside before breakfast to get a few laps in on the pitch, with permission of course, just to keep his Quidditch skills honed. He was a very disciplined young man for his age and wanted to succeed and that came through in droves when Quidditch was the subject. He was coming back into the castle when he almost ran into a familiar blonde.
Surprisingly, Draco was alone.
Since Draco had been at Hogwarts, he had been flanked by Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Crabbe and Goyle were… odd, from what Nero had experienced in passing, but the strange part was to see Draco alone in general. That was unexpected. When they nearly ran into each other, Nero was expecting Draco to snap at him, but instead, Draco noticed that Nero had his broomstick with him.
"Early at the pitch, I wager?"
Nero responded to Draco's inquiry with a nod, at first. He decided, though, that maybe a conversation wouldn't be terrible.
"I spend a lot of time out there where I can spare it," Nero said, "Are you going to try out for the team next year?"
"I imagine so, yes."
"I think you'd do well," Nero said, his tone showing sincerity, which seemed to surprise Draco. Even if but a little. Nero scoffed quietly, more so in a playful manner than a judging one. "What. You act like I don't think you're capable. Stop it."
"Just seems a bit odd, I guess," Draco stated, looking at the broom Nero was carrying to looking back at Nero himself. "We're not exactly friends, so I suppose I don't understand your complementary nature."
"You're right, we aren't friends," Nero said. "We're family. I know we don't always act like it but we are. That means I'll always care about you, even when you don't want me to."
That made Draco smirk. An actual, amused kind of smirk. That was also pretty unexpected from Nero's perspective but he didn't seem to mind all that much.
"I never want that, you know." Draco's tone actually sounded more amused than snarky.
"Yeah, well, I never want to," Nero said, giving Draco a light nudge.
The real surprise there, though, was when Nero nudged Draco, Draco laughed. Albeit quietly, but he still laughed. In all of the years that he had been around Draco, Nero couldn't remember ever seeing him actually laugh or show any sort of positive emotion. It was always sneering or whining… looking angry, or seeming uninterested and bored. Talking about Quidditch seemed normal for young wizards, given how invested so many of them were, but for Nero and Draco to hold a civilized conversation in general was surprising, regardless of the topic of their discussion. Perhaps it was naive of Nero to think that one pleasant interaction with Draco could set the pace for a new relationship in the future but Nero was a positive, optimistic person at his core. Perhaps his biggest downfall in some regard, it was simply how he was raised, especially by his father.
"I'll talk to you later, yeah?" Nero posed and Draco gave a half shrug.
"I mean, you're unavoidable, you know. You're practically Merlin's gift to Quidditch if you ask anyone in our house." Draco did, however, give a bit of a smile. "I suppose we can chat again sometime. You know. If I must."
"You're kind of obligated, it's in the blood after all."
And there it was again. Draco laughed.
Nero was wondering if there was some kind of prank happening or if Draco was actually, genuinely amused by their conversation. Perhaps Draco had simply woken up on the right side of the bed and was pleasant that day. Perhaps it was the fact his cronies Crabbe and Goyle were nowhere to be found and Draco's ACTUAL personality was able to shine through a bit. Nero kind of appreciated it, though. How odd. Draco even smiled before he turned to walk off toward the Great Hall, which Nero gave him a smile in response.
As Nero was standing in the corridor, he felt a hand rest on his back, which caused him to turn. He saw a very perplexed Dottie coming up next to him. She stood next to him, looking up with a look of pure confusion. She had obviously seen the two boys with Malfoy blood chattering about and it seemed… not hostile. That was a first, even for Dottie, as she had always seen that dissension between the two Malfoy boys.
"Am I seeing things?"
"Depends on what you're thinking you've seen," Nero responded to Dottie's inquiry. "If you're assuming that you just saw a pleasant interaction between my cousin and myself, you would be correct, and I am just as bewildered as you are. Trust that."
"I never thought I'd see the day that the little brat knew what a smile was unless someone was on the receiving end of something horrible."
"Honestly, Dot, maybe he's not that bad." Nero shrugged. "People change. Maybe the experience here at Hogwarts is going to do wonders for him. It just may give us an opportunity to get to know each other and, well, I kind of think that would be cool."
"Just keep your guard up, yeah?" Dottie rubbed Nero's shoulder in a reassuring manner. "I'd hate to see you get hurt because he takes advantage of your kindness, Ner. You're far too trusting and far too compassionate for your own good sometimes. While it's admirable…."
"I know, I know."
"I'd just hate to see you be taken a fool by someone with a track record of being a bit unpleasant."
"He's eleven, Dot," Nero responded, patting her hand in a gentle manner. "I don't think anyone's truly a capable, mindful person at eleven."
"Fair enough, I s'pose."
The rest of the day saw Nero in a particularly great mood. Quidditch practice went swimmingly, the meals that day were cracking, his time spent with his teammates was ace, and of course, the time spent with his friends was good, too. It certainly was a good day to kick off another week of studies and hard work, that was for certain.
The day for Draco went just as well, too, on the other side. Draco was not used to actually finding Nero's presence especially inviting but that morning interaction with him was… nice. He thought about it a lot, too, given that it wasn't his typical day-to-day interactions. Crabbe and Goyle were good at taking orders and listening to Draco but they weren't exactly great when it came to craving intelligent interaction. They were rather daft, but at the same time, they were obedient so that took precedence. It was difficult being in the position he was in, with that Malfoy name, to need to succeed and do well. There was also the fact that he already was at odds with that bloody fool, Harry Potter. There was something about that boy that made Draco feel so impossibly furious and he couldn't put into words how it happened so swiftly. Just Potter's breathing made Draco fume.
Draco felt that, perhaps, he should have made some sort of attempt at being friendly or at least existing with his cousin. Not only did people seem to gravitate toward Nero, but Nero was on the Quidditch team, with all of the potentials in the world of becoming team captain very, very early should he want it. Quidditch was in his genes in a real way. The Van Buren family were known for that… his father played professionally… how could it not directly filter down to Nero? If Draco wanted to have that notoriety himself, he knew training with the best could actually benefit him. Was he planning on using Nero? Not entirely. Not really the right term. He was definitely thinking, though, how a relationship with Nero might actually be more beneficial to him in the long run than not having a relationship with him. If Nero didn't like him, the likelihood of him getting on the team the following year was null and void.
The remainder of that year had its ups and its downs. The Quidditch team had a decent year save for losing to Gryffindor due to Harry Potter, a FIRST YEAR, being on the team due to McGonagall playing favorites and pulling strings to make it happen. Oliver Wood, bless his heart, was all too happy to have Potter on the Gryffindor team but Harry was only one player on a team of average players. That was the Slytherin team's thoughts on it, anyway.
Nero spent a fair amount of time, here and there, with Draco. They seemed to be friendly or even mistakingly considered friends by the end of the first term. When Draco wasn't with Crabbe and Goyle, he was with Nero and Nero's friends, which included the Slytherin Quidditch team. They had, basically, pretty much solidified that Draco would be welcomed to the team the following year should he want to take the position. They were looking for a seeker anyway. It wasn't really fair, per se, to pick someone out of favoritism, see their complaints with Potter, but… Draco was different. He was Nero's cousin, after all. Having cousins on the team might have called for a very unique dynamic. They had to know each other pretty well, right? That would mean great field chemistry and it would just be fun to see how Draco and Nero worked as a team.
While Nero planned on spending a bunch of his time that summer with Dottie and Liam, he did agree that he would spend time with Draco, too. Nero hadn't been to the Malfoy Manor often in… quite a few years… so he made it a point to tell Draco that he WOULD be swinging by when they were out of school. They both had their fair share of dislike about how things ended that year but everyone vowed to go back to Hogwarts the next year and really do their best to switch things around. Nero was going to be the fourth year, while Draco was entering his second so that they had plenty of time to turn things for Slytherin in a real way. The only downfall of looking forward to the next year was that it would be Dottie's last year at Hogwarts. That really bummed Nero out.
When Hogwarts Express made it back to King's Cross in London, Dottie and Nero were standing on the main platform having a chat. Nero was waiting for Draco, it seemed, who was having a conversation with a few other Slytherin students.
"You know, part of me doesn't want to go back," Nero said to Dottie, "This year was far too good and, well… if we don't go back, next year doesn't start."
"What's so bad about next year?" Dottie inquired but Nero sighed.
"I'm not ready for you to not be there."
Dottie gave an almost sad smile to Nero's comment. Dottie always thought that Nero's heart was far too big for his body and he had a way to really hit a person right in the chest when they least expected it. His kindness and his empathy were two of her favorite traits about her younger cousin but his companionship and friendship were two things that she cherished so dearly. Dottie brought Nero in to a warm, cuddling type of hug.
"Well we have the whole year, you know. Not to mention, by the time next year is over, you'll be a fifth year, yeah? You'll be doing incredible things and I think, truly, you'll barely notice my not being there. Or at least that's my hope so I don't feel as bad finishing school before you..."
"No, I'll notice," Nero said softly. "You definitely can't NOT miss your best friend no longer being around every day, you know."
The fact that Nero considered her one of his best friends really meant the world to Dottie. He could have simply considered her his cousin and left it at that but it seemed to mean more to know he saw her as a friend, as well. While they were chatting on the platform, Draco glanced over, noticing that Nero and Dottie were still present and he thought for a moment of going over. Though it seemed like they were having quite a moment together and he didn't want to intrude. Draco felt minor pangs of jealousy because he never knew what it was like to genuinely be that close to someone and not have it be for a reason other than personal gain. That was just what he grew up seeing and how he thought people were supposed to act. Maybe that was wrong.
"We can grab an ice cream in Diagon Alley before you head home, do you want to?" Dottie asked, which made Nero smile.
"I would. I'm sure my mum and dad can wait for a little while so we can do that. Onward to Fortescue's?" Nero held out his arm to her, which Dottie took with an amused smile.
"Onward, then," Dottie replied with a chuckle.
Noticing them walking off, Draco decided to stay put. He could have easily followed along but he refused to be a third wheel. The jealousy that he felt inside of him was more so because it seemed like Nero and Dottie had the kind of relationship anyone would kill for. They were family, yes, but they actually were friendly, too. It wasn't a, 'we're friends because we're related', type of forced relationship. They genuinely seemed to enjoy each other's company regardless. So, yes. Draco's jealousy was because he never experienced that kind of thing. Ever.
Perhaps when Dottie left Hogwarts, he would be able to have that kind of relationship with Nero. There was a sense that his jealousy toward Dottie Van Buren was completely unjust and he didn't WANT to feel like that but he couldn't help it. Not having someone close to you, at all, ever… it took a toll on a person. Draco was no different. He was young, sure, but feeling pangs of anger and jealousy over someone else's friendship was new to him.
Whatever. He'd get over it, he was sure.
Draco left the platform to seek out his parents, who were no doubt roaming around Knockturn Alley waiting for Draco to arrive back home from Hogwarts. He would just see Nero over the summer. Perhaps he'd be able to form a friendship with him as Dottie had with him. Maybe even better friendship. A partnership. A brotherhood, even. It sure beat the blockheads he hung out with all first year…
