Professor Dessen's Tale

Chapter Four

Draco's fever ebbed but he still felt weak. When most of the professors came in to check on them, they found him sleeping on the couch. In addition, they also found that the students were being just as uncooperative as they were at the previous check up.

After lunch on Saturday, Professor Snape found Harry and Ron playing Wizards Chest at the table, Hermione curled in a recliner reading a book, and Pansy and Blaise doing homework in front of the couch Draco was laying on.

During dinner, Professor McGonagall noted how they were perfectly fine with passing food to their own housemates but were incapable of doing so for the opposite house. Instead, they would place the dish back on the table instead of in the hand that was waiting expectantly.

Draco woke up early Sunday morning. He woke up feeling much better. His other roommates were still sleeping and the sun hadn't come out yet. His fever had cleared up and the pain on his thighs had completely dissipated. He just felt a bit overtired. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Draco stood up and then fell back on the couch.

"Shit," he muttered to himself. He stretched out his legs and started punching them lightly to get the blood circulating again. After a minute or two, he tried again and this time his legs held him up. He made his way to the bathroom and took a shower. Then he walked out to his trunk to get clothes and his hair gel. Once he was done, he brought out other homework that was uncompleted and finished them on the coffee table by the fire. When he'd finished he checked his watch. It read 5:03 a.m. He put his work away and then went back to sleep on the couch.

* * *

The next time he woke up it was 8 o'clock and this time he wasn't the only one awake. Harry was sitting at the table eating breakfast. He ate quickly like someone who just got out of jail. He recognized it from the way his father ate when he'd gotten out of Azkaban. Harry hunched over the food and taking big, quick bites as if the food could disappear at any moment. And now he was sharing a room with the reason his father was there in the first place. How was his father okay with that?

His stomach growled scurrying his thoughts away. When was the last time he ate? It felt like his stomach was going to eat itself. He looked over at the beds and scowled. These teachers just won't quit.

Each queen sized bed had their name plates at the foot. The boys were opposite the girls and his bed, to his great discomfort, was right in between Potter and Weasley. He only got slight satisfaction in the fact that Granger was between his friends as well. His belly growled again.

'Fuck it,' he thought as he got up from his resting place. He wasn't going to let one Gryffindork get in the way of his morning meal. He sat down in a chair across from Harry and started helping himself to pancakes and bacon.

* * *

"You guys aren't making this any easier upon yourselves. The longer you refuse to cooperate, the longer you stay in here," Professor Dessen said as she examined her nails. It was a bit before dinner and it was her turn to check on them.

"Sit still!" Pansy exclaimed. Professor Dessen looked up startled by the outburst. Pansy rolled her eyes and said, "Not you." She turned back to Blaise who was posing for her canvas. "If you don't sit still I will make you."

"I am!"

Draco looked up from his school work. "Hey, what's that charm you use for levitation again?"

Pansy and Blaise stared at him and said in a 'duh' manner, "Wingardium leviosa?"

"Right," he returned to his work nodding, "just checking."

"I'm serious guys. You aren't going to get out of here by ignoring each other."

Pause.

"Well how do are you planning on getting out of here?"

Draco sighed and put down his quill. "I figured I can ignore them until break. Slytherins only playing a game or two until then and I am well on my way to convincing myself that I can deal with missing one game. Then I will go home for break and tell my father that this idea was ridiculous and he should sue because I'm sure there must be some law in locking us up like this. It can't be healthy for us." He looked at Dessen with a look of contempt. "And I don't see why you're so pressed about us getting along with them anyway. What's this got to do with you?"

"Everything."

"Really now?" he leaned forward in his seat and continued, "I was under the impression that this cruel and unusual punishment was about us being 'prejudice.' In what way does that concern you?"

"Come off it, Malfoy!" Hermione shouted from her seat in a recliner.

He smirked at her, "And I suppose you're gonna make me, Mudbl-,"

"Come over here," Professor Dessen ordered. Harry and Ron glanced up from their game and Hermione peeked from the top of her book. They each gave her puzzled looks.

Pansy raised an eyebrow from behind her aisle. "Why?"

Professor Dessen answered, "I want to tell you guys a story."

Blaise rolled her eyes from her pose. She said sarcastically, "Did you hear that Draco? It's story time!"

Draco smirked as he sat down on the green sofa. Pansy took her wand and said a spell that took Blaise's picture. Then she covered her painting and walked to where Draco was sitting. Blaise joined him on the couch while she sat by Draco's feet. She grabbed her hairbrush and held it out to him. He took it and began to brush her chestnut locks. Harry and Ron sat next to each other on the opposite couch. Hermione bookmarked her page and shut the book.

Professor Dessen opened her bag and brought out a six-pack of Butterbeer. She opened each one and handed it to each of the teens. "Tell me, what do you know about your potions professor?"

"He's a bitter pale man with greasy black hair with a hooked nose the size of a parrot's beak that had a slight obsession with my aunt," Blaise answered swiftly.

The Gryffindors coughed into their drinks and Professor Dessen smiled wryly, "Well do you have any clue why he's so bitter?"

Pansy leaned her head on Draco's inner thigh. "Is it the nose?"

"No-,"

"Because that would make me bitter. I feel really bad for ugly people I mean, they were born that way and if they try to change something significant like Snape's nose, EVERYONE would know because it was so bad in the first place. God, I'm so glad I don't have any friends that are ugly."

Draco shook his head with a soft smile, "Pansy, that was so profound."

"Yeah, it touched me deeply," Blaise added.

Pansy chuckled softly.

Blaise continued, "Anyway, didn't he have an older sister that was disowned?"

"What!" The Gryffindors all exclaimed.

Draco nodded, "Yeah, she went off, married a muggleborn, and that was the last we all heard about her."

"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy. You just told my story."

Hermione gasped, "You're Snape's sister?"

"No."

Blaise wrinkled her nose. "Eww."

"I'm not Snape's sister-,"

Ron asked, "Then what were you talking about Snape for?"

"Because he's my uncle!"

There was a silence and then a soft 'oh' from Hermione.

"Yes, my mother and Severus were very close growing up and she had to leave him because her parents didn't approve of her fiancé's blood-,"

Pansy exclaimed, "Don't try to sugarcoat it. Your mother refused to marry the man your grandparents arranged for her—which, by the way, so happens to be one of my uncles on my father's side, then on top of that she befriended, fell in love with, and decided to marry a Mudblood. Leaving Severus and the rest of her family, was her choice."

"My mother had no father to give her away and no family sitting on the bride's side on her wedding day-,"

"Well that was your mother's decision. Before one's disowned, their family gives them a choice to receive punishment to atone for their wrongdoings and to do as they were asked or to be disowned. Your mother chose to be disowned so it was her own fault she had no family on her wedding day."

"I'm not denying that she chose to be disowned rather and to comply with the rules-,"

"Then what is the point of the story?"

"The point of the story is that she shouldn't have had to make that decision in the first place! Her family should have been there and supported her decision to marry—muggle or not. That's what families are supposed to do. They stand by your side through thick and thin but because of that prejudice that had been bred into them, like it's been bred into you, they let it break them apart. This is why you're in here: to keep this from happening to you and other people."

Draco stopped brushing Pansy's hair. "That's nice of you all and everything but, I highly doubt any of us are going to risk being disowned for a Mudblood."

"You will cease using that term, Mr. Malfoy."

"Why?" Blaise asked.

"Because there is no such thing as dirty blood. Blood is blood. Dirty blood makes about as much sense as clean shit. Shit is shit. It stinks." Professor Dessen stood up and stared at the Gryffindors. "And you three need to realize that the prejudice between you guys isn't a one way thing. You have never once tried to be civil to a Slytherin because you believe they would take a wand out and kill you, your family, and anyone else connected to you if they had the chance. Much like how they have never approached a Muggleborn because they believe that Muggleborns are nasty, filthy creatures that are beneath them and have no right in the Wizarding World. Its human nature: people hate what they don't understand." She walked to the entrance. As it opened up she turned around and stared sternly at the six of them. "I want you guys to think about what I said." And with that, she stepped out of the common room.