Scars That Don't Fade By Cee and Shadow
Chapter Four-Pain
Draco ate supper in the great hall by himself later, which was fine as far as he was concerned. He wasn't really in the mood to talk to people anyway. He ate slowly, picking through his plate. His arm hurt and he wasn't really hungry anyway.
He let out a sigh as he walked down to the dungeons, not looking forward to the cold. He wanted his warm bed at home.
Things weren't going to be the same anymore, Draco could tell already. His summer had been hell, he'd been brought to school by the half giant, and McGonagall just wasn't as good at her job as Dumbledore. McGonagall hadn't even tried to hide her disgust when he'd walked into her office with the fat jolly giant.
But after she had talked to him a few seconds she started to do what all adults had done since it happened: feel sorry for him. And he hated that. Even fatty had been patient when he had refused to leave his house earlier that day. Which is why they'd been so late.
He sighed and cradled his left arm a little. Once he turned eighteen, he would get his money and maybe leave this country. Why the hell did his father have to be such a hard ass when it came to his money? He should be able to get his inheritance at seventeen just like any other wizard. He wanted to slap himself for thinking it.
He squeezed at his arm, instead, feeling the comforting pain. Concentrating on that, he quickened his steps. The faster he got to the Slytherin house, and fell asleep, the sooner the pain would stop.
When he finally arrived, it was only to realize that he couldn't remember what McGonagall had said the password was. It was a habit of his not to listen to teachers outside of class. He wished they didn't all have such monotone voices, then maybe he wouldn't be in this predicament.
He took a deep breath and sat on the floor with his back against the wall. He could have fallen asleep out there, but just as he was about to a voice spoke in front of him. "Draco, what are you doing out here?"
Draco looked up quickly, trying to stand just as quickly. He winced a little and looked up at Snape, half way from the floor, Snape looked much taller then he actually was, giving him an even more powerful look. "I was just waiting for people to go to sleep." Draco swallowed hoping Snape wouldn't notice his lie. Unfortunately Snape had been nothing but a liar, to both the dark and light side. Each lie nothing but a safety precaution. It was Snape who had won the war for the light side, though the details were untold to anyone- even the 'great Harry Potter'.
Snape arched his brow, and Draco knew he had caught his lie. "How long have you been 'just sitting here'?"
Draco looked down, using his watch as a way to cover his eyes. "Uh, maybe about three minuets." He said looking both directions down the hallway, giving himself time.
"Don't lie to me Draco. How long have I known you?" Severes mumbled. He held out his hand to pull Draco up the rest of the way.
Draco looked back down the hallway, this time hoping someone would come for him, someone who wasn't Snape.
"The child's been here almost and hour Severes." The portrait across from them growled.
Snape didn't even turn around, his face turned to annoyance as he hissed, "Thank you very much…numb." Draco frowned, remembering the password as the older man said it.
He followed the man into the common room. Of everyone in the school, he trusted Snape the most, maybe only. After all he had lived with him a good portion of the a year. More then likely he would be dead now if it weren't for Snape.
Maybe that was why it was so hard to talk to him now. Snape had been doing his mother a favor, and his mother had tried to take it back in the end. He bit his lip and tried to concentrate on something else.
"I assume you are tired. You are taking you potions correct?" Draco nodded. "Did you get everything you need?" Snape hadn't had time to take him to do his shopping so he'd ended up going with the half giant.
They almost hadn't had time to gather up everything. He'd literally had to be dragged out of his home, and then he'd refused to get on the train and literally been dragged on that as well. He hoped that Snape had been informed of this.
"Uh, yes sir." Everyone in the house was already in their separate rooms. Draco could tell they weren't all sleeping though. Laughing and giggling came from every room. He ground his teeth together in annoyance and flopped down on a chair.
Snape drifted off towards the stone passage again. "Draco, how many times have I told you, you don't need to be so formal."
Draco looked over his shoulder at the man and smiled halfheartedly. "I know." To him that had been respect, he'd called his father that ever since he could remember. And his father had called his father the same. Respect hadn't been a light subject in his house.
"It reminds me of a damned house elf when you call me that." Snape finished as he walked the rest of the distance to the door. As he stepped out the door he said. "Goodnight Draco."
Draco squinted trying to see the older man as the stone moved back into place. His eyes were starting to get blurry from pure exhaustion. He was contemplating actually taking the medications so he could sleep tonight. The pain and his own thoughts usually kept him tossing and turning all night.
Refusing to go up to his room, he walked over to, and settled into, his favorite couch. His eyes closed right away, but getting to sleep was an entirely different story.
Around midnight he realized that he was still awake. He looked down at the blanket covering his body and turned to watch the small house elf relight the fire that had gone out hours ago. He realized he was shaking slightly and pulled the blanket up higher.
Draco was surprised that the house elves would do that without his asking. He guessed that was because these House elves didn't know him, to them, he was just a student in need. The house elves here didn't know punishment.
It was about two when he finally got to sleep, the rain had finally stopped, and the moon was popping in and out of sight behind the clouds.
Harry walked in and out of breakfast the next morning. He wasn't hungry, and the little piece of pineapple he did have would tide him over until lunch. Besides he wasn't so into the conversation going on at the table. The Daily Prophet had been informed about the train, but Harry had reason to believe they either hadn't been told the whole story or they weren't telling it. Apparently, on its way to the station, someone, though they didn't know who, had taken down a bridge at the exact second the train had been crossing. It had taken twenty wizards to get the bridge back up and the few workers on board at the time were in Saint Mungos in serious condition.
Some of Voldemorts most extreme supporters, who had yet to be tracked, were still convinced that their master could not die. Until his eventual 'return', however, they could do nothing except seek revenge and avoid being caught. These people have the entire wizarding world after them, including many of the people who had been fighting along side them in the war. Nobody wanted to so much as spark one hair of interest with Snape or the ministry.
As he walked into his first class, sucking on his pineapple, he wondered whoever had done it had known there'd been nobody on the train. He shivered, what if the people in question had attacked his train as well?
He tossed the skin of his pineapple in the garbage and shook his head, taking a seat in the farthest corner from the teachers desk. He was trying out a new class this year, muggle studies. He couldn't wait, finally a class he could get an O in without even studying. Hermione had been so disgusted by the thought, she made sure Ron didn't take the class too, so Harry had no one.
This only made angered Harry. Last year she'd taken the exact same class, and she'd lived in the muggle world as long as he had. He looked around the class, realizing how early he was he pulled out his text book, The Man Without a Wand, and flipped through it again. He stuck out a tongue, hoping the teacher was cool so the class wasn't too boring. He pulled out his other book. He'd bought it for himself a week ago, before he went to the Weasleys. Even though he was a slow reader he only had a few pages left. He'd been so engrossed in it Ginny had asked to read it after him and he's accidentally said yes.
He looked at the front cover, his hand tracing over the title, Fire Us. Thinking about Ginny made him shiver again, why the hell had he even decided to go out with her in the first place. She not only found a new boyfriend during the summer, but she was pretending nothing had changed. But things had, he felt uncomfortable whenever she was in the room. He could barely talk to her, and of course that's all she wanted to do. 'We're friends again Harry, we should be able to talk.'
He sniffed shoving the book into his face and starting to read again. Harry looked up over the book when he heard someone walk in. The people looked at him, glared in his direction rather, and then took their seats. He almost dropped his book, not able to believe there was a Slytherin in his class.
Soon, it seemed, every other Slytherin had been piled into to the room. His eyes were starting to burn from frustration and he pulled out his schedule to make sure he was in the right room. A few Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw came in, looking at the Slytherins curiously as well.
It was when Harry saw Malfoy walk in that he actually did drop his book. He moved quickly to pick it up, smashing his forehead rather hard on the desk as he did so. He put his hand on it hissing some audible swearwords, and grabbed the book. He threw it on the desk, annoyed with it, and looked up at the staring class. He opened and closed his eyes until he could see strait and then smiled, trying to make the class look back at the front of the classroom. Where the hell was the teacher?
Harry took a deep breath and grabbed for his book, dropping it again as someone spoke next to him. "I'm not sharing a seat with someone Potter, that's the only reason I'm sitting here." Harry caught his book before it fell to the ground and then looked over at Malfoy.
Harry looked around realizing that this literally was a full class. "What the hell is going on?" Harry asked as the people started to look back to the front of the class one at a time.
"What are you talking about, Potter?" Draco growled, still not looking over at Harry.
"I mean why does it seem that your entire house is taking this class?" Harry asked started to get annoyed himself.
Draco looked over at him sneering, "Ministry orders." Harry motioned for Draco to continue. "You didn't know Potter?"
"Just tell me what the hell is going on Malfoy, I don't have the patience for you today."
Draco looked at Harry with such an annoyed and angry looked that Harry drew back a little. "Ministry order says that every mans child found in the same bearings as the late Dark Lord is to take muggle studies. Something about it teaching us that we're all the same inside." He said the last part in a mock girly tone.
Draco's face went blank and he blinked, to emphasis how stupid it sounded, before looked back at the font of the class. The teacher walked in, wearing jeans and a Know Thy Self t-shirt, giving Harry no time to think about anything as she went to the chalkboard and started writing down the projects they'd have this year. Only a few of them were partner projects, which was good for him. He didn't have anyone in the class and would more then likely get stuck with some stupid Slytherin.
The teacher herself was the nicest he'd ever had. She was new that year, taking over for Professor Jansen who had given birth over the summer and wanted to stay home with her new 'bundle of joy', as she had been quoted saying.
She had her long strait black hair in a ponytail at the top of her head and a pair of sunglasses up on top of her head. She didn't say anything as she wrote. When she was finished she wiped the chalk off her hands and turned to the class smiling. "My name is Randi Theis, you can call me Randi, Mrs. Theis, Professor Theis. Any combination of those. I went here when I was your age, I was a Slytherin, and I guess that's the only reason I was hired considering I only just graduated three years ago. If there are any Slytherins out there who are thinking that they don't know who I am, there's a good reason for that. I live in the states, California, and flew down every year to get on the train. I pretty much kept to myself, yes my dear other houses, that's possible. I graduated with one friend, a Slytherin boy my age, my fiancée, and O's in almost every class.
"I was in the middle of getting my teaching license when Minerva owled me." She took a clipboard and went from person to person, pointing her wand at them and then at the paper. She would turn the board around and motion for them to nod if it was their name that showed up at the bottom.
"I personally think that the new ministry order is a good idea, but I think that every student should have to take the class, no matter who your family is." She pulled a pen from her bag and scribbled something on the clipboard under someone's name. Harry put his finger in his book to mark his page and listened intently as she started up again. "Then again my family never had the threat of Voldemort hanging over their head..." Most of the students in the room went ridged at the name. She stopped in front of Draco and turned the picture around. In the picture Draco was actually seriously smiling. Draco looked down and nodded. "You are going to have some major advantages in this class then in the previous muggle studies classes…" She said turning the clipboard in front of Harry who nodded at the sight of his name. Before she turned the picture back around, he noticed the smiling Draco again. This time he noticed the hand on the blonds shoulder.
He wondered for a second who that was, but then Professor Theis spoke again as she strolled back to the front of the class. "The reason you'll have this advantage is counted by two things. Firstly, even though both of my parents are unbearable when it came to wizards over muggles, they didn't actually have anything against them. It's the same as rich and poor, they didn't hate them they just thought they were better. All my friends were muggles and our house was pretty full of muggle things, phones and such, so I could keep my friends entertained when they came over." She paused for a second looking around at the class and then said, "The other reason is because, as a Slytherin should be, I'm rather rich." She said smiling.
Some of the class laughed a little and she pulled her bag closer to her again. "First things first." She said pulling out a plastic bag and looked down at the clipboard. "Uh Zabini and um… Asher and Livingston please help me pass these out, one for each, thank you." She waited until they were on opposite sides of the room digging in the bag before she said. "This is a little present from me to you. It's a note book, a pack of pencils and an eraser. The little pink things are erasers and the paper is a notebook. How many of you have used these." Harry and another girl raised their hands. "Its quite easy isn't it." It was rhetorical but Harry and the Ravenclaw nodded anyway.
"Also along with the study I was thinking of having my fiancée send me some things to bring in daily, just to introduce you to some muggle things slowly. I don't want to overwhelm anyone on the first day, but we'll start with my outfit" She was joking, but only Harry seemed to get it. She did a head banging motion and the sunglasses fell to her nose, covering her eyes. She pointed to her toes and slowly moved her finger upwards. "As you can see she said reaching her knees and continuing up. "Muggles wear almost the exact same things as we do," She stopped at her shoulder and finished her sentence. "And without out that added weight of robes we can do this much easier." And she did a little dance. This time there were only a few Slytherins that didn't laugh, Draco being one of them.
Harry shrugged that off and pushed his book to the side of the desk. When she finished she started up again motioning to the sunglasses she said, "Then there are these lovelies. Come in mighty handy where I come from. Anybody know what they're called?"
Harry and the girl raised their hands, but the girl seemed unsure of herself, looking both ways and not seeing anyone else raising her hands she put it back down. Professor Theis's eyes fell on Harry and she looked at her clipboard, "Yes, Mr. Potter." She asked looking back up amused.
"Sunglasses." He said with a nod.
"Correct, at home I need them because it's almost always sunny there, unlike here. They block the sun so I can look up at it and not go temporarily blind. Catch Potter!" she laughed, throwing it to the back of the room. Harry caught it and looked up at her for instruction. "Try 'em on check 'em out and then pass them around. And while those are being passed around flip your books to page 3, introduction to the wandless man. For this class I'm going to show how the muggles take notes… quite a shock when I got to college and the teachers just started to talk." She laughed.