Ch. 10- Blood Traitor

I knew something was wrong when I entered the common room that night. I'd just had the happiest day of my entire life, holding River's delicate little hand in mine, kissing her sweet lips between classes, touching her petite waist, toned legs, smooth arms, brushing my lips against her forehead, making her laugh, looking into her eyes. I did not know that just these small moments with her would mean the entire world to me. I would not have ever guessed that this girl, with her long, dark hair, flashing eyes, stubbornness, selfishness, and the little bump in her pert nose, could ever mean this much to me, because she was so strong willed and quick tempered and self centered. But she was so beautiful and loving and spunky and funny and sweet and optimistic and forgiving.

However, it was quite obvious upon entering the common room that none of my housemates felt this way. My mouth still tasted of her peculiar peaches and chocolate and ginger taste that was all her and a blissful smile turned my lips upward when I realized how tense the air felt in the common room.

Crabbe and Goyle were sitting on the couch with Pansy, Millicent and Theo Nott facing them across a coffee table. Pansy looked tearful, Theo, Crabbe and Goyle looked angry and Millicent looked properly detached.

Blaise Zabini was trying to make himself scarce on one of the green chairs in front of the fire, but Crabbe and Goyle kept calling things out to him. He ignored them as best as he could.

As I walked into the room, I tossed my long robes onto the chair Blaise was sitting on and loosened my tie around my throat with the casual air of one returning home. I flopped down in the other green arm chair next to Blaise and dropped my bag to the floor.

"Malfoy," the dark Italian looked up, a warning in his eyes.

"Zabini," I nodded at my best friend, a smirk playing around my lips.

"I would ask how your day was, but I already know it was good with Miss Blue and Bronze on your arm." His smirk matched mine.

"Miss Blue and Bronze? You couldn't get more creative than that, Blaise, you're simply a genius," I was being overly sarcastic, something I only did when I was nervous.

"Well, that's what they call her," He jerked his head towards Crabbe and Goyle, which called me to their full attention for the first time.

Pansy looked coolly at me from the corner of her dark, bloodshot eyes.

"I hope for your sake that you're only using the Mudblood whore for sex, Drakey," She calmly snubbed me.

"No, Pansy darling, that's what I keep you around for," I snubbed right back. Blaise bit his bottom lip to avoid sniggering.

Theo Nott whirled around angrily.

"Don't tell me that Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, who are both members of The Dark Lord's private circle, actually has feelings for a mudblood."

"Don't call her that, Nott," I rose out of the chair.

"Blood traitor," Goyle spat at me as he stood.

"You'll be shagging Granger next!" Crabbe stood next to his friend.

Blaise quickly scampered to his feet behind me.

"Go take a shower, nobody wants left over from the mudblood staining the Slytherin common room," Pansy sneered as she stood next to the thugs.

"Oh, sod off, Pans, you're just jealous," Blaise snarled next to me.

"Jealous? Of the little tease? Bet she'll never let you into her pants, Draco. Might as well give up on her now. She already strings along every straight Ravenclaw boy in our year, plus a few above us, she just wants to add you to the waiting list!"

I smirked cruelly at Pansy.

"Shows how much you know, Parkinson," She grimaced at the use of her surname. I had never called her that in my life. I'd known her too long.

"You fucked the mudblood?" Nott's face twisted in disgust. Fuck. I shouldn't have said that. Now that the Slytherins knew it was all down hill from here.

"That's dirty, Draco," Crabbe's face twisted up.

"It's not dirty! Merlin, she's a witch! And she's hot!" Blaise jutted his angular chin out at my side

Goyle lifted his hand and brought it down, hard, against Blaise's face. I cringed involuntarily. This wasn't a rare sight in the Slytherin common room. Tempers ran high and fights often broke out, in fact, Blaise and Goyle had fought before. But now, it seemed somehow worse. It always seemed wrong in some way to see Blaise get injured. He was so damn proud. I whipped my wand out of my pocket and stuck it at the juncture of Goyle's chin and neck.

"Apologize," I snarled.

"Make me," He hissed back.

"Oh, Gregory, when will you ever learn that you really don't want me to make you do anything?" His eyes widened in fear, then narrowed as he smirked.

I lifted my wand and opened my mouth to hex him.

"Crucio,"

Pain. Pain like I'd never felt before. I was burning from the inside. Something was trying to claw its way out of me. My skin was peeling back from my bones. Tiny needles were pushing into me. Every inch of my body was being punched.

Oh, Merlin, Pain.

It was the bitter elixir of life. There was no breathing, no beating heart, and no step forward without pain. But how I loathed it.

I thought it would never end.

But then it did. And it was the greatest relief I'd ever felt. I lay for one second on the ground, where I'd been writhing, then bounded to my feet. I'd banged my body up pretty badly thrashing around, but nothing worse than a few bruises and a split lip.

But I burned with hatred. Oddly, it wasn't directed at Nott, whose wand was shaking in his hand as he gazed at the spectacle his curse had made of me. It was directed at my Aunt. Dear old Auntie Bella, for doing this to my mother.

I was dying to take sweet revenge against her, but she wasn't around, Theo was.

"Theodore," I whipped around to face him.

"That will be quite enough Mister Malfoy," A smooth, silken drawl came from behind me.

My godfather. Severus Snape.

"Mister Zabini and Mister Malfoy, you will come with me. Mister Goyle, Mister Crabbe, Mister Nott and Miss Parkinson, you will each return to your dormitories until I return. You will sit there silently and think about the punishments I will give you. The operative word there is silently"

"Yes, sir." The four of them chimed in unison, hanging their heads in shame. Snape practically glided out of the room, robes billowing behind him, without even a second glance to ensure that Blaise and I were following.

We dropped a few steps behind Snape.

"I didn't think you'd get my back on that one," I hissed to him, so quietly even Snape couldn't hear it.

"Of course I did, you bloody fool. You're my best friend," He hissed back, angling his sharp chin slightly upward with his usual regal, stuck up air. Perhaps this was the reason we got along so well. At heart, we were the same pompous, selfish, rich, sophisticated teens.

"I thought you were of the popular opinion in relation to mud bloods,"

"You told them not to call her that and now you're using the term yourself?"

"It's just her, Blaise."

"Well, I guess I thought you were of their opinion as well, Draco."

"I am. Or maybe I'm not. Bloody hell, I don't know. All I know is that she's different, but in general, pure bloods are still the best, the most worthy."

"Well, it doesn't really matter to me, pure blood, half blood, muggle born, it's all what you make of it. There've been plenty of pure bloods who've done crap for themselves and plenty of muggle borns who've worked their bums off and had it pay off."

"But your family-"

"Know which side to be on. We like the power, not the ideals, Draco. And we know which side the chances are on, and that's the Dark Lord's, with or without Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore."

Hopefully soon without the second of that pair I cringed to myself. Salzaar, but I was scared.

And now is not the time to be thinking of that I reminded myself as I felt the peculiar sensation of somebody trying to reach into my mind. I immediately blocked. Snape shot a look over his shoulder at me, suspicion and surprise in his dark eyes.

Snape flicked his wand, throwing open the door to the potions class room, then flicked it again to close the door behind us.

"I don't want to know what this petty nonsense fight was about, Mr. Malfoy," He glared at me as I opened my mouth to explain the situation.

"Then what do you want, Professor?" Blaise asked with that cocky tone in his voice.

"I want you to know that ordinarily I would have to notify your parents of the duel but under the given circumstances I've decided to not let this information out at all. All parties involved will be punished, separately and by myself. Your fathers will not have to know. And neither will Mr. Crabbe or Mr. Goyle's parents." He was saving me. My jaw fell open in surprise.

"They'll tell their parents, Professor," Blaise chipped in.

"No, they won't Mr. Zabini. I'll be sure of that."

"Close your mouth, Draco," Blaise mumbled to me. I snapped my jaw shut and extended my right hand towards Professor Snape. He took my hand lightly in his own and shook it.

"It's been a pleasure, sir. I'll see you in class." I dropped his hand and turned to walk out the door.

"Thank you, Professor. I'll be seeing you," Blaise quickly followed behind me.

"That was perhaps the luckiest moments of our young lives," Blaise hissed at my side.

"You're telling me. Fuck, I'm shaking." My hands were shaking. I stuck them in the pockets of my black robes in hopes that hey would stop.

"Do you realize what could have happened to us? Defending a muggle born? Fighting with our own side? Your father would have,"

"Stop, Blaise. I don't even want to begin to think what my father would have done," I shuddered once. We were already in deep enough shit with the Dark Lord. Recently, Father had been flying off the handle at anything that put us at any risk of falling more out of favor, like my failures with the cursed necklace and the poisoned mead. He'd been so furious, but also so terrified. I hated seeing Father like that. His gray eyes, so like mine, darting wildly around as he insisted over and over again that I use my occlumency to hide these failures. Nobody in the inner circle could know. But Snape did know. He also knew that people suspected me (and by people I mean Scarhead, Weasel King, and buck toothed, bushy haired Mudblood). And Snape hadn't said anything then either. In fact, he'd been protecting me pretty thoroughly. Under whose orders, though? The Dark Lords? Or Albus Dumbledore's? Or was it that bloody unbreakable vow? I hated not knowing what side he was on. Keeping secrets from his Lord? Well, that was telling. Perhaps he was Dumbledore's man. But the Dark Lord trusted him so completely and he was such a talented Legilimens that he would have found out. However, Snape was a fantastically talented Occlumens.

What a tangled web we weave. My head hurt from trying to unravel my Godfather's loyalties.

"But why did he protect us?" Blaise wondered.

"Your guess is as good as mine," That wasn't completely true, I was a bit better informed than Blaise. I suddenly noticed that we were heading back to the common room, which was not actually where I wanted to be right now. I wanted to be in the Room of Requirement, trying to fix that cabinet. But, I needed Crabbe and Goyle's clueless protection to do that. I wondered briefly if Blaise would protect me. I didn't have the energy right now to convince them to worship me again and get the story to River.

"Hey, Blaise, would you do me a favor?" The words were out before I could stop them.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, do you remember that room we found Dumbledore's Army in last year?'

"Yeah,"

"I've got something I need to do in there. And I need someone outside to warn me if someone's coming so I don't walk out at an inopportune time. Usually Crabbe and Goyle do it, but given the circumstances…"

"Sure, Draco,"

"You'll need to transfigure yourself," He shrugged his slender shoulders and pointed his wand at his facial features, lightening his skin until it was a nice, warm, tanned color and lightening his hair until it was blonde. He still had the exact same features, but no one would recognize him without the dark skin and close cropped dark hair.

We walked over to the Room and I set to work on the cabinet, thinking the whole time of how I would fix this mess, get Crabbe and Goyle back on my flanks, and still keep River.

I stuffed an apple in the Vanishing Cabinet, heard the familiar sound that meant it was going to Bourgin and Burkes, mumbled an incantation under my breath and heard the sound again. I opened the cabinet. And there the apple sat, in perfect condition. I cut into it and found that the flash was crisp, and the juice sweet. At last, it had come back with no bruises, no pieces missing, no brown spots. At last.

I took a bite of the fruit.

Success was so close, I could taste it. If an apple could make it, it was only a matter of time before something living and breathing could too.

I resolved to resume work again tomorrow, covered the cabinet with a sheet again and strode confidently out of the room. Next stop, Ravenclaw tower to speak to River about a plan.