Chapter Twenty-One: Hogwarts Again
Goodbyes never were easy for Narcissa Malfoy, especially when it concerned her only child. Every Hogwarts sendoff made her excessively worried, and her worry was fueled by the same thought: that if she let Draco out of her sight, it perhaps might be their last goodbye. Lucius would chide her, telling her that it was unnecessary, but it did little to make her feel any less uneasy, especially considering what had happened just a few short months ago.
"I love you," she whispered, with her son wrapped tightly in her arms. She lowered her head lovingly and inhaled deeply, making sure to remember his scent, his height that would soon reach her shoulders, and his warm hold that he reciprocated. This was embarrassing for Draco, after all a mother's anxiety was not something that a young teenager could understand, and Draco just responded with a nod, as he silently wished that this display of affection would be over soon (and that other people weren't watching).
Lucius watched on with a stoic face and his arms crossed. This goodbye was much harder than the first time they had sent Draco off to Hogwarts, after what had happened in last year. His son was bloody attacked within the walls of the Hogwarts castle, a place where it was supposedly safe.
After the incident, Narcissa had wanted to transfer Draco to Durmstrang Institute, her initial qualms of Draco being as far away as Sweden was decidedly a price she was willing to pay if it meant that he was safe. "I'm no seer, but call it a mother's intuition…" she had told him, "there will not be a quiet year at Hogwarts with Harry Potter attending that school." Her point was valid, Lucius conceded. Harry Potter seemed to attract trouble wherever he went.
It took Lucius weeks to convince the woman that Severus Snape was a better man to put their trust in than the slimy Igor Karkaroff, after all, the man had snitched on several of his fellow Death Eaters in exchange for the pardon of his crimes. That man clearly only cared about himself and won't hesitate to throw others under in his stead.
Draco loosened himself from his mother's embraced and he looked up at her. "Mother, please stop worrying. I promise I won't cause trouble." He said the words as earnestly as he could, though he knew full well that he said it to ease the separation for his mother, rather than to seriously keep out of trouble.
As if reading his mind, Narcissa gave him a small bitter smile and ran a hand through his loose, platinum locks. His hair fell perfectly back into place. "Oh, Draco, you don't have to lie to me. We both know that trouble will come whether you're the one to start it or not. Just, be careful. The world isn't as safe as it used to be."
It sure wasn't. It was just recently announced in the Daily Prophet that Sirius Black had escaped his maximum security cell in Azkaban, and he was recently spotted at Hogsmeade, which wasn't a far walk from Hogwarts. Draco supposed he could understand his mother's concern. No mother would feel at ease knowing that a known felon was lurking so close to the school grounds.
He helpfully supplied, "Do you mean Sirius Black?"
Narcissa chuckled as if she heard a funny joke. "No, Draco. Sirius Black is the last person I'm worried about. He has no reason to come after you, and he's a Black -" she paused and sighed, looking nostalgic. "-he's family." she said at last. "The Noble House of Black may have produce some radical individuals in its time, but this second cousin of mine will certainly not hurt family if he can help it."
Draco frowned. "Then who are you saying I should be cautious of then?" He had a feeling that his mother was hiding something from him.
Narcissa's eyes quickly darted towards Lucius for help, an action that didn't escape Draco's keen observation, and thus his suspicion was confirmed. Narcissa was troubled, she certainly couldn't tell Draco about the Dark Lord's hidden agenda to claim Draco's body as his own after his revival.
Luckily her husband caught her look and replied in a drawl, "The blood traitors, son. Have you so quickly forgotten what the little Weasley brat did to you? She attacked you while your back was turned… all for the sake of retrieving a diary." He tutted, "Some secrets she must've wrote in there."
"No, I haven't forgotten, Father." Draco replied, but he knew full well that that excuse wasn't the real answer, and whatever it was, they weren't going to tell him today.
Just then, Lucius caught a flash of red hair out of the corner of his eye, and he purposely spoke a little louder, "Remember this, son, the blood traitors are easily manipulated, weak minded fools that can't think for themselves. They blindly trust that fool Dumbledore, a complete narcissist if I've ever seen one, and allow themselves to be willing exploited. Then one of their own gets easily possessed by the enchantment of some diary, to the point where they set a monster to attack the Mudbloods that they vow to protect… what a joke!"
"Arthur, keep walking," he heard a scowling Molly say heatedly to her spouse. "He's just trying to rile you up again and cause a scene. Don't listen to him."
Arthur and the Weasley brood pushed past them with a look of contempt on their faces.
The Hogwarts Express's conductor blew his whistle. "All aboard!" he cried.
With a smirk, Lucius Malfoy turned back to his family and said his final goodbyes to his son before ushering him onto the train. The pair watched the train leave the station until it was only a wisp of smoke far off in the distance. They then apparated back home to the Manor.
To be honest, Lucius felt no penitence at all for slipping Tom Riddle's diary into the Weasley runt's school things, after all, the little bint had almost killed his son. He supposed they were even now, an eye for an eye.
His initial intention of getting Arthur Weasley in a sticky situation with the Ministry had certainly backfired on him, nearly costing him the life of his son. Not to mention, Draco had dabbled first hand with the dark artifact himself for quite a long period of time. Lucius hoped that it didn't do any lasting damage to his soul or else he could never forgive himself.
The diary belonging to the Half-blood devil himself was not something that Lucius was aware of. When Snape recounted to him about how Draco was possessed in the most literal sense by the diary, Lucius was floored. Even the young Dark Lord had taken interest with his son and commented that Draco had the potential to achieve great things, and that, made him nervous.
Upon returning home, Lucius excused himself and entered his private study. With the door shut sturdily behind him and locked both manually and magically for good measure, he made his way over to an antique hardwood bookcase. His hand flitted over a few titles before he finally tipped the dark green tome on the shelf at eye-level forty-five degrees towards him. The bookcase slowly swung forward to reveal a secret room, a room that was passed down through the generations from the first Malfoy patriarch that built the Malfoy Manor.
Once inside, Lucius took a few quick steps over to an ornate glass cabinet, in which there were glass vials inside. Each vial was shimmering with memories from past Malfoy's, or from close acquaintances to the family. His fingers hovered over the vials, pausing briefly at the two vials his father left him at his deathbed. Today, was not the day to relive that moment, he decided, and reached for the vial that his mind was set on.
With the vial in his hand, Lucius rolled it on his open palm to verify the label.
'March 1993 - Severus's visit to the Hogwarts infirmary'
Without a second thought, Lucius uncorked the vial and poured its contents into the Pensieve standing next to the cabinet and allowed himself to be sucked into the contents.
Once he felt himself on solid ground again, Lucius straightened his robes with a huff. He was in the Hogwarts hallway, right in front of the infirmary. He heard footsteps coming his direction and it wasn't long before a tense looking Severus Snape and a distraught Madam Pomfrey turned the corner. As the two approached the infirmary, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, both still in their Quidditch uniform, stopped their mad pacing and blabbering to Professor Sprout and Professor Lockhart and ran up to them. Lucius followed closely behind Severus.
"It was Malfoy!" a very angry Harry accused. "He's the one that did this to her! It has to be him, I know it."
"Hermione told us that Malfoy had threatened her. He said, 'You'll be next, Mudblood' when she bumped into him while alone in the halls over Christmas Hols. He planned it all!" Ron supplied in a flurry of words, eager to support his best mate.
Professor Lockhart took a step forward. "Well, Severus, that seems like intent to me! What do you have to say about your charge?" Lockhart chimed brightly, a tone certainly not appropriate for the current situation.
Snape's face darkened and he leered at Lockhart like he was the stupid git that he was, and then promptly ignored him. He wasn't going to dignify that comment with a response.
Judging from his expression, Lucius could tell that Severus was very angry, but when he spoke, his tone was kept surprisingly even. "Mr. Malfoy may have said some stupid things in anger, much like you two are doing now, but I will caution you Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, that thoughtless words are one thing, but accusations carry a much different weight in a trial. You best have some evidence before making such accusations or one day you will suffer the consequences."
"But Professor! Surely he has been plotting for ages. Was he even attacked anyway? It could be part of his plan to throw us off his scent." Ron exclaimed.
"Mr. Weasley, might I remind you that it was your very own sister that found Mr. Malfoy? Was she part of the ploy then too, I wonder? I'm sure that Madam Pomfrey can assure you that the attack was very real. He was seriously injured and almost lost his life from blood loss."
Madam Pomfrey nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Now who would be as reckless as almost plotting his own death just to petrify your friend and a few Muggleborns? Don't think so highly of yourselves." Snape sneered. Then he looked at Harry, his cold stare chilled Harry to the core. "You're the most arrogant of all, taking after your good for nothing father. Wake up, Mr. Potter. You're the 'Chosen One' not because you're anything special, it's because Lily made the sacrifice to save you that night. It was her magic, not yours that defied the Dark Lord. You're no different than any other brat."
Just then, the doors opened and an angry McGonagall stepped out with a frown on her face, "That's enough! I can hear all the ruckus that you all are causing from inside. Mr. Potter, stop with your accusations of Mr. Malfoy. He has been unconscious in the infirmary all this time and couldn't have possibly attacked Miss Granger. Now if you want to see Miss Granger, you both will have to behave yourselves and quiet down."
With downcast eyes, both boys nodded begrudgingly.
"Follow me." Professor McGonagall said grimly, her lips pressed into a thin line.
Lucius could tell that it was uncomfortable for the boys to see their friend in that state. They adverted their eyes from her glossy stare and instead focused their attention at the mirror that she was holding. It was a bizarre sight for them. Hermione wasn't the type of girl to be checking her reflection in the halls.
Harry turned away and look at the other girl adjacent to Hermione's cot. He nodded towards that girl's direction and asked, "Professor McGonagall, who is she?"
"Penelope Clearwater, a Muggleborn." the older witch replied.
Madam Pomfrey turned away with a dejected sigh and commented, "what were those two girls thinking, two Muggleborns roaming the hallways alone late at night."
To an extent, Professor McGonagall nodded in agreement, "Poppy, we'll continue to have students escorted to their classes during the day and now we'll now have all Muggleborns escorted by a Head or a Professor if they are to walk the halls at night as an extra precaution." She turned to the two Gryffindors. "Come along now Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley. All the students should be gathered in the Great Hall. I will need to address the situation."
Harry and Ron gave one last gloomy look at their friend before they turned and followed Professor McGonagall. Lockhart tagged along to 'enlighten' Professor McGonagall on some of the hypotheses that he had regarding the Heir of Slytherin.
"Professor Sprout, let us check on the Mandrakes again." Madam Pomfrey said and Professor Sprout nodded in agreement.
"Thank you, Poppy and Pomona." Professor McGonagall said with an appreciated look.
When the doors of the infirmary closed shut, leaving just Snape, Severus walked over to the drawn curtains of Draco's cot.
"You're awake aren't you?" he asked as he flung the curtains opened. He had just read the note that Madam Pomfrey had sent letting him know that Draco was awake when Madam Pomfrey herself burst into his office going off about a double attack.
His eyes widened in surprise when they landed on his godson. Draco was sitting in fetal position, with his head resting on top of his knee. Severus quickly bent down to examine the boy, his brows furrowed with worry. "Draco, are you alright? Is something hurting?"
When the boy shook his head left and right in reply, Severus let out a relieved sigh and transfigured a stool to sit on.
"Uncle Sev, I'm so confused." the boy breathed, "I don't know what's going on. I have a bad feeling that I was involved in the attacks somehow."
Snape leaned in. "What are you talking about?" Snape hissed. "Do you understand what you're saying, Draco?"
Draco felt so overwhelmed, he started crying to Snape's dismay.
Snape's brows furrowed feeling immensely worried about his godson. For him to break down like this, something was terribly wrong. "Draco," Snape said a little more kindly (though it didn't have the desired effect as Draco bawled even louder). The corner of Snape's mouth twitched. He didn't have the time and patience for this.
"Draco, look at me." he said. Draco stiffened, and the boy briefly held on to his tears, but he pulled himself into an even tighter ball.
"Draco, do you hear me? Look at me." Snape demanded a little more gruffly. Snape pawed away his godson's arms and forced him to face up. Draco's eyes were puffy and blood shot from the crying. He didn't dare look him in the eye. As a last resort, Snape roughly grabbed Draco's face towards him. That startled Draco and caused him to meet his eyes directly for a brief second.
"Legilimens."
To Snape's absolute surprised, he was shunned outside the boy's mind, and knocked back into his seat, almost falling off the stool.
What's going on? Snape thought. There was no way that the boy could have excelled in Occlumency to that level in the span of several weeks. There was something that his godson wasn't telling him, and he was going to find out.
"Legilimens." Snape snarled. This time, he put more intent into the spell, and the spell easily shattered Draco's well built Occlumency defenses.
Snape saw it all, flashbacks of Draco slipping the diary into his pocket, of him finding out how to work the diary, of him threatening Hermione, of him seeing Hermione in the infirmary, and finally of him overhearing Minerva implying that Hermione wasn't a true Muggleborn.
But what was most disconcerting to Snape were the scenes of Draco befriending Tom Riddle.
It all made sense, how Draco advanced his Occlumency skills so quickly…
Sweet Salazar, the boy learned his Occlumency skills from the Dark Lord himself.
The memory ended and Lucius found himself back in his study, breathing heavily with a major headache.
"That was the most shitty train ride ever." Draco spat. Blaise and Theo nodded in agreement, both finishing up another piece of chocolate frog upon the recommendation of the tattily dressed Professor.
Dementors were horrible creatures, and Draco felt terrible with just one of those monsters gliding past his compartment. It felt so cold and his stomach churned with an inexplicable feeling of dread and misery. If these creatures roamed the halls of Azkaban freely, he pitied his Aunt Bellatrix.
The three Slytherins hopped off the train just in time to see the Golden Trio approach, with Harry in the middle, looking weak and pale, and Hermione and Ron both looking worried, asking Harry if he was alright.
"I heard you fainted, Potter. Big ol' Dementor frighten you that much that you went into shock?" Malfoy called out with a jeer.
"Shove off, Malfoy," Ron said, looking ready to fight him.
Hermione frowned. "I'd like to see how you would react if the Dementor came and stared you in the face, Malfoy." Hermione retorted. Then she added the finishing blow, "Your precious Daddy won't be around for you to hid behind him."
The tips of Malfoy's ears tinged pink and he shouted, "No one asked for your opinion, you - " He paused and the words of his father flashed before his mind.
Remember this, Draco, no one can find out that Hermione is a Pureblood. I made a promise to your grandfather to protect her. Continue with the taunts, let the rest of the world believe that she's a Mudblood and when the time comes, her identity will be rightfully revealed.
"-filthy, dirty, Mudblood." he finish, with as much disdain as he could muster into his voice.
Hermione looked hurt, but for the sake of Harry, the three moved past them to get harry into a carriage.
Draco watched on but his sneer morphed into a frown. He was confused. He felt as if his world was turned upside down. What does the word Mudblood mean anymore? All his life he was taught to hate these individuals that weren't deserving of magic and yet, when he encountered his first at school, she turned out to be a Pureblood in disguise.
He masked his expression once again. Pureblood or not, he still disliked the know-it-all Granger. She was still just as revolting as before with her swotty attitude and her sucking up to all the Professors.
"Come on, Draco, let's go." Blaise called out. Draco climbed into the carriage after him and the three joked around and reenacted Harry's fainting spell until they reached the Hogwarts castle.
It would take Draco at least another year to realize that his perception of the girl had already changed. He no longer watched her like she was the dirt that could stain his crisp white oxford.
No… he observed her as an equal.
A/N: My plunny had decided to run away from me and I had a hard time getting this chapter to come together. I wanted to tie up some loose ends from book 2 as well as get book 3 introduced. Not to mention I wanted to remind readers that Abraxas had left Lucius with some memories that have not been seen in the story yet. Anyway, I've caught my plunny and have securely locked her up in her cage.
As always, thank you for your support. If you haven't read my other active story, "The Lady in Waiting," do give it a read. It's a light hearted AU, and should be enjoyable if you're a sucker for romantic pieces.
Big shout out to lexxiebabey, Grovek26, Bratalia, Guest "t", JuliSt, JessChen, DianneBaquiran, Kathryin, mega700201, LadyHermioneMalfoy1, "Guest", Vanessa85, and SmileSimplify for your written comments and words of thanks. Appreciate it!
BTW, still open on ideas for Draco's boggart and what your favorite scenes from book 3 are. Send me a note :)