A/N: Once again, I can't think of a thing to say except to say that Mar888 is right.

Chapter Nine: Off To Hogwarts

"Did you notice?" Evelyn Brown was sitting on the couch next to Sirius Black.

"He was smiling the entire time." Sirius answered. "His smile was gone the instant we left." He sighed. "How can you smile when you're not happy and not smile when you are?"

"He isn't happy, Sirius. Not in the sense you and I understand." She paused. "Do you remember when I asked him about mood swings?"

Sirius barked a laugh. "He turned around, saw the Parkinson girl and slipped into his junior Death Eater role as though he was born to it."

"As though," Evelyn emphasized, "no more than five minutes ago he was about to kill someone. The anger is there. Constantly. You said he seemed to enjoy the party. He probably did. If I understand him correctly, he had two reasons. Everyone was telling him how great he was. And he was, as far as he was concerned, lying to each and every one of them."

That was true, Draco thought, from where he stood against the wall just outside the study, next to the open door.

"I found out something else, too," Sirius added. "He knows martial arts. He gave a demonstration then bragged that he used the same throw on Simon Nott. On a tangent, Some students would like to take classes, if you are interested."

"We'll discuss it when we get to the school." A pause. "Where and when did he learn it? You were his watchdog."

"I didn't follow him everywhere. Mostly, I made sure he returned home every night. His friends were . . . well . . . they made me look like a model student." There was some laughter. "You're the expert. What do you think?"

"I think, for me, it would have been better if I had refused to have that drink with you. I'm not the expert. Psychology is not my job. It may be, eventually, but I still need to finish my doctorate. I teach jujitsu and judo to paying students. That is what I'm qualified to do. I asked around, told friends and teachers I was looking for an evaluation. Left out any personal information except for sex and age. Do you want to know what they said?"

"Nothing useful?"

"My current professor asked if I was serious. (I said no but my fiancee is.) He said I gave him the textbook description of a psychopath."

Draco felt his back stiffen. Could he be crazy? A complete nutter?

"He's not a killer."

"He could be. Or did you forget Diagon Alley already. But that's not what I mean. He has most of the symptoms. How many friends does he have? Did he write to anyone, or owl them over the summer?"

"This is a difficult time for him," Sirius said defensively. "He's not crazy, either."

"I didn't say that. Being a psychopath doesn't mean you're crazy. It's more about . . . a lack of inhibition. If he wants something, he'll do whatever it takes to get it." Sirius started to say something but he stopped. "Remember what you told me about the tournament? Draco wanted to win."

"He had to win." Sirius said, forcefully. His voice softened. "There was a prophecy."

"THAT would have been useful to know earlier." Evelyn was clearly annoyed. "Like when I asked for any pertinent data." A huff. "That changes the entire picture, you know."

"He's not a psychopath?" There was relief in his voice.

"No, caring about something like that doesn't fit the pattern. He DOES have tendencies, but they were probably learned." She was annoyed.

Draco frowned. How do you learn to be a psycho?

"About the only thing I can tell you," Evelyn continued, still annoyed, "is that he's paranoid, and that it's probably the only reason he's still alive."

"We already know that," Sirius said without thinking as Evelyn made the huffing noise again. "What we wanted to know is . . ." A pause, then he continued in an uncertain voice. "What? "

Draco ruined it all by laughing. He barely heard Evelyn say, "I told you he wasn't in bed."


Draco stood on the doorstep. His holiday was over. He was alone. Him and his backpack. He had said goodbye to everyone. Sirius, Evelyn, Kreacher. All would meet him at Hogwarts. This was his request. It was the one thing he should have done every chance he had. Get out of the house. Talk to people. Visit his friends. And now that he finally decided, he was afraid. What if he met someone. He would have to explain. He started to step onto the street when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. On the corner, looking embarrassed at being spotted, was a large black dog.

That did it for him. He began walking. For some reason, that fact that Sirius lied to him made him appreciate the man. He rarely got things right but at least he tried.

Draco stopped. He was passing the home. The empty lot where the building once stood. Two men were standing just inside the now fenced area. They didn't look like workmen. They looked like the workmen's bosses.

"Excuse me," Draco asked.

The taller man turned around. "Not open yet, Lad. Come back in six months." The two men grinned at the joke. The man looked back. "You want to know what it's going to be?" He pointed to his badge. It said Tesco's. "He yours? What's his name?"

Draco looked down to see Sirius had come over and was sitting next to him. "Um, Dog."

The man seemed amused. "You named him Dog?" The smile shifted slightly as the man noticed Draco's hand, gave a slight shrug as though to say it didn't matter.

"Well," Draco drawled, "his full name is Black Dog. I'm not very good with names."

Both of the men laughed. A friendly laugh. Then they wished him luck and went back to work or whatever it was they were doing.

"C'mon, Dog," Draco said, and they made their way to Kings Cross. Just a boy and his dog. Halfway there, Draco stopped, "Cor. Nigel. Never even thought of him. Coulda spent the whole summer working on fancy bikes instead of mopin' about." The dog looked at him and just shook its head. Then they both began walking again.


And there it was. The Hogwarts Express. All red and shiny. Time was now short so he rushed to the first car then tried to find Justin or Hermione. Secretly, he hoped he did not run into any Slytherins. He never found them. But he did find someone. Truth be told, they found him. He was halfway through the second car when someone grabbed him by his left arm, pulled him back two compartments and thrust him through an open door.

"You found him," Luna Lovegood said happily from her seat by the window. Fred, pushing him forward and onto the seat next to Luna, said it was easy. He and George sat across from them, closing the door.

"Now," George commanded, "hold out your right hand."

"Arm," Fred told him. "He doesn't have a hand."

"I sit corrected," George said casually, "arm, please."

Confused, Draco held out his arm. George quickly removed the bandage that covered the end of it while Fred produced a measuring tape. "Ugly thing," Fred commented as he examined the scarred stump. He then measured the diameter of the wrist, reading the number, which George promptly wrote down on a piece of parchment that was suddenly in his hand. He then measured the distance between Draco's wrist and elbow. Then they measured his left arm, just to make sure. The numbers recorded, they were safely stored in George's back pocket. For most of an hour, they cast miscellaneous spells, one of which turned his arm bright blue. "We'll remember that one," Fred commented as he wrote down what George had said.

"Only a few more," George told him. "This one may not work but we can't tell. We adapted it from another spell and we haven't perfected that one either." He cast a strange spell that Draco was too nervous to follow. A ghostly hand appeared where his missing hand had been. George moved Draco's arm and the transparent hand moved as well. Fred and George were grinning. Draco wasn't. The fingers of the ghost hand were moving of their own accord, and not always in ways that were possible.

"What is all this about?" Draco asked. It was the third time he asked but this time they gave him an answer.

"Your good friend," George said. "Luna Lovegood," Fred added, pointing at Luna. When Draco turned his head, she gave him a polite wave. "Has commissioned us to produce for you." "One pair of gloves, at half price, of course." He cancelled the spell and the hand faded.

"A pair of gloves?"

"One will be an ordinary glove." "No reason to do anything since you have that hand." "But the other glove." Both were grinning broadly. " Should we be successful. Nay, when we are successful." "Will act as though your hand were inside." "We're sure we can manage the movement. That isn't the problem." "We can't guarantee you'll have any feeling."

Draco could only stare. The creators of the Extendible Ears, of the Canary Creams and the Ton Tongue Toffees, had said they were going to make him a prosthetic hand.

"Um."

"We take that as an agreement to make payment." "You'll find the terms very reasonable."

"H - How?" he finally muttered.

"We have no idea." "We've never done anything like this before." "We'll start tomorrow, sometime after classes."

They were still grinning. Draco turned to look at Luna.

She smiled at him. "You don't really have to pay them. All they want is a testimonial. I told them Daddy would print it in the Quibbler."

"Um, thanks. Really."

"Can't lose our best Seeker," George commented. "Just in case," Fred suggested, "Can you recommend a good replacement? We can't be sure we'll be done in time for the first match."

Draco thought briefly. It didn't take long because a Seeker was supposed to be small and he already knew who the smallest person in Gryffindor was. "Dennis Creevey. I don't think his brother warned him about you, yet. If you can get him away from Colin, I think he'll agree."

"Is he any good?"

"Yeah," Draco lied. "Well, he's got to be better than Hermione was when she first started."

"That's a given." "A scarecrow with a locomotor spell would have been better." The tone of the twins changed as they noticed the door was now open and someone was standing there. "But even you could never match her style." "When Hermione was playing Seeker, everyone knew it."

"Thank you," Hermione said from the doorway, "but even I know how terrible I was. Why are you talking about me, anyway?" She paused. "You're not thinking of making me . . ."

"Dennis Creevey," George said.

"And," Fred was smirking, "Draco just agreed to be his coach."

"I whot?" Fred held a finger to his lips. He shouldn't mention what they had been discussing. "Oh, yeah, I did."

"Then find him and bring him with you," Hermione commanded. "Angelina wants to talk with everyone."she paused, almost with embarrassment. "And she wants to know if you have the butterbeer."

George smiled at Draco. "Angelina knows how to make sure everyone comes to her meetings."

Fred had grabbed Draco's backpack and was kneeling on the floor. His hand was reaching into a box under his seat. George told him not to worry. There would be a feather spell on the pack so it wouldn't weigh much. And his clothes would be safely stored. The twins assured him they would bring the rest along with the younger Creevey.

Draco's pack was hung over his shoulder. It honestly felt lighter than it did before. It also felt colder. Hermione told him it was obviously a chilling spell. Who wants to drink warn butterbeer? As they slipped past Draco and Hermione, one of the twins signaled back to Luna that there were still two bottles in the box.

Draco told Luna he would see her later. She said that would be nice. Closing the door, he followed Hermione through the cars to where Angelina Johnson was. As they walked along, Draco asked a question that had been bothering him from the beginning. They had just entered the next car and the corridor was deserted.

"'mione, am I barmy?"

Hermione stopped. She looked at Draco carefully. "You're serious? You don't know?"

Draco was annoyed, but at himself. "It's Evelyn, um, Professor Brown."

This led to a delay as Draco had to explain that Sirius Black's fiancee (another delay as he explained he didn't know any of the details) was the new Muggle Studies teacher. An additional delay as he explained he was telling the truth about the betrothal. She mentioned it in passing when Draco was listening in on her conversation with Sirius Black.

That brought them back to the subject when she asked was he was listening in on the conversation. He gave her a description of what was said. "How could I learn to be a psychopath?"

"It couldn't have been at Saint Brutus. You weren't there long enough. It couldn't have been your old school. Even if they had classes, you would have never paid any attention anyway." Hermione was smiling. She was waiting to see if Draco understood. It only took a few seconds for her to know that he did not. "You don't even know what a psychopath is. It's a person who's completely selfish. Who only thinks of himself." She gave him an ironic smile. "They tend to be arrogant, controlling, moody, friendless . . ." Draco could tell she had an idea. "I can explain it in one word." She leaned in and whispered, "Voldemort. He's as perfect an example as is."

The door between the cars opened. Ron Weasley and Dean Thomas were there. They were both grinning. Dean commented that they should get a private compartment. Both boys laughed when Hermione said they were only talking. This time it was Ron. He said it was obvious what they were talking about. Dean added that they wouldn't tell anyone. All four of them knew he was lying.

That was when Draco had one of his brilliant ideas. He pulled his pack off his shoulder and handed it to Ron, asking him to give it to Angelina. When Ron asked what it was, he answered that it was the reason Dean came along. As Ron said it was too light, Hermione huffed that it was a feather spell, adding quickly that once he opened the pack, the spell would cancel.

Draco saw what Hermione had already figured out. Ron was thinking about grabbing a bottle. Now he was thinking that he didn't know how heavy the pack would become if the spell cancelled. Dean told Ron it was no problem. They would be drinking soon enough. Draco called after them, smiling. He said he and 'mione would be along in a few.

"Let them think they're right," Draco suggested.

Hermione sighed. "Not that they care. They're worse gossips than Lavender. If they don't know anything they make things up."

Draco said the obvious. "They don't know anything. That's why they always make things up."

Hermione brought them back to the subject. She told him, quite simply, that he had the perfect measuring stick. He had problems, but that wasn't one of them.

Draco sighed with relief. They both stepped away as the door between the trains opened again. Cas and Billy Boy were looking at them. Fred and George were there with Dennis Creevey, standing behind them.

"Does Pansy know?" Casper asked.

"We WERE talking," Hermione insisted.

"That close?" William asked.

"Easier to whisper that way," Draco insisted.

"We believe you," William said.

"Ron and Dean don't."

"Honestly?" Casper added. "Everyone knows Hermione fancies mphrm."

"I'm missing something," Draco said.

"A lot," George said as Fred leaned over and removed Hermione's hand from Casper's mouth. "And everyone does not know. What you saw was the first time."

"Merlin's beard," William said in disgust. "We didn't say anything because we thought everyone knew."

"Don't worry," George assured him. "You can tell them that she jilted Draco for my brother."

"Could I ask a question?" Draco asked. "Why are you two here, anyway?"

"We want to find out why they wanted Dennis."

The group walked to the other end of the car. The compartment was easy to find. Angelina had commandeered the last two so that everyone would have some room. And by the looks of it, everyone had a bottle in hand.

Her first question was why the Hufflepuffs were there. Once she was told, she asked her second question. Why was Dennis Creevey there? Upon hearing the answer, she asked her third question. Have you ever seen him on a broom? Because she had. She glared at Draco when told he was going to be Dennis's personal coach. She had one more question. Did Draco expect him to be any good? She frowned when he told her he was the one who originally suggested Hermione, back in their first year. She said to give Casper and William a butterbeer and send them on their way. Both readily agreed.

"Right," Angelina said. "From last year, we still have both beaters, three chasers and one backup. We don't know which is which this year. Ron (cheers from the Weasleys) is our best bet for Keeper and," she looked at Dennis, "we're wide open for the position of seeker." She looked around from her position in the corridor to see if any of the newcomers seemed interested. She smiled slightly as Ginny Weasley gave her a thoughtful look. Draco kicked himself. He never thought of Ginny. She was a Weasley. She had to be good on a broom.

There were only four new faces, including Ginny. Cormac McLaggen, who gave a rude laugh when Ron's name was mentioned. A second year girl, Demelza something or other. She looked disappointed when she heard about the chasers. The last was Dean Thomas. Draco thought his only reason for coming was the butterbeer. On the other hand, he looked interested when Angelina first mentioned chasers.

After a brief discussion about the kind of players she was looking for, it became a version of the Slytherin party the night before. Draco found himself out in the corridor with Dennis and George. Dennis wanted to know why they wanted him to play. He wanted an honest answer. He wasn't that bad on a broom but he never did more than his classes. George told Draco to answer the question.

"Can't play," Draco admitted, "but I do know how to play. The best Seekers are small and . . ."

"Right, and why me. I'm not good enough."

"Ooooh," George said, "Dennis, you just said the right thing. I'll get you measured for a uniform."

"Hold off," Draco insisted. "We never thought if Dennis wanted to play. It's hard work. You never get a break from any of the teachers. If you're lucky enough to win, no one gives you any rest and if you lose, no one gives you the time of day. And Dennis, if he agrees, he'll have it worse than anyone. Sure he can fly. But he has to be a damn good flyer. He has to keep his eyes on everything. He'll probably have to face off with Ginny Weasley, who's probably better than anyone thinks she is. And worst of all, if he gets that far, he has to do all of this in front of the entire school. One mistake, and everyone, EVERYONE, will have his goat." He turned to Dennis. "And on top of that, your brother will probably take a picture of it."

"Will he?"

Dennis was smiling. For some reason, the idea of his brother taking his picture seemed to please him. And others were now watching him, attracted by Draco's yelling. Cormac, sitting by the door, was saying something about that shrimp being a something or other. He never finished that sentence because Ginny, walking past him, stomped down on his foot. She apologized, saying she was trying to avoid his big mouth.

"I heard my name," Ginny told Draco as she stepped out of the compartment.

George smiled. "Draco says you're great on a broom."

"He's right." Ginny was daring her brother to say something.

"How good?"

"I might not make chaser, but I have a good chance at being Seeker." She looked at Dennis. "At least I thought I did."

"But . . ." Dennis started to say. ". . . you're really good."

"I'll help," She offered. "That way, you know what you're up against."

"What are you doing?" Draco asked. "You know the position is yours."

Ginny was smiling. A Weasley smile. "And nothing's going to happen to me? Since Charlie left, Gryffindor have never finished the year with one Seeker. He can be the reserve. And if he turns out to be a natural, I'll watch from the stands." She laughed. "It's what Oliver Wood did with Ron."

"What if I'm no good," Dennis asked.

Hermione was standing behind him. "You'll never know what you can do unless you try. Talk to the other players. Ask them about me. I'll wager anyone that I was worse than you when I first tried out."

"Two Galleons?" George asked.

Ginny snickered. "My brother, throwing away money."

"I've seen him fly."

"And you saw me after I had extra lessons." She smiled at Draco. "That gives us two weeks. What do you think?"

"It's not my call. Dennis, if you want to, just tell any of us."

Dennis nodded his head. Someone handed him a butterbeer and he went to take Hermione's advice.

Draco, huddled in the corner of the second compartment, was talking with Ron and Dean about Viktor Krum. The butterbeer was long gone and Hogsmeade was getting closer. They all agreed that the Grodzisk Goblins had the best change to take the league cup. Ron pointed to Dennis who was standing in the doorway. The others, Katie Bell, Angelina, and George Weasley, looked up as well.

"I'll do it," Dennis said.