"Promise me you'll listen to the Healers, Draven." Hermione implored as she pulled away from her friend. She had been alone with Draven for a couple of hours now, since the elder Malfoy's had left for the day, and she had found out that the youngest Malfoy had refused to leave his room and move around. The Healers were getting frustrated with his antisocial, aloof, attitude and weren't sure he was ready to return to Hogwarts. They needed him to interact with others so they could see if he was, indeed, well enough to leave and resume his normal activities. "Please?" She begged as she sat back down and gave him her best pleading look. "Fine!" She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'll just have to tell Draco that you're being a stubborn sod!" Draven was amongst a handful of people that was able to frustrate her so quickly. She glanced down at her watch then looked towards the door. Being the only one allowed to leave Hogwarts to visit Draven, she was on a tight schedule.
"Why should I?" Draven pouted. "What do Healers know anyways?" He grumbled and copied her by crossing his own arms over his chest. "I don't want to play nice with the other, pathetic, people here!" He sneered in a manner representative of the Malfoy patriarch.. "If I want to spend my days in the confines of my room that is my choice!" His voice clipped and he was growing angry at his friend for not dropping the subject,
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly! You're acting like a baby! The Healers only have your well-being in mind, Draven! They need to see you interact with others to make sure you're ready to be amongst the Hogwarts population!" She looked to the door when she heard a soft cough, standing, she hugged Draven again and headed for the door. "If you're going to be stubborn then I won't come see you until this weekend!" She called out then greeted her chaperone, Mr. Weasley, who had just arrived to take her back to Hogwarts. "I'm ready." She started down the hall.
Arthur Weasley nodded and stuck his head into the room. "How you feelings, Draven?" He inquired, knowing that Ron, Draco, and Orion would bombard him, and Hermione, with questions once they reached Hogwarts. He still didn't understand why Draco wasn't allowed to visit his own brother or even Orion who was the boys cousin. How Hermione was granted permission, before family, was beyond him.
"I'm alright. Tell everyone that I should be out of here in a day or two." Draven gave his friends father a small smile. "Or I'm making a break for it!" He grumped falling back into the bad mood Hermione had placed him in with her nagging.
"Good, good. Get some rest, Draven. I'll try to stop in from time to time to see how your doing." Arthur waved and ducked out of the room to catch up with his young charge.
Draven breathed a sigh of relief once he was finally alone. Ever since he woke up, two days ago, his room had been like a circus. His parents, especially his mother, had spent almost every waking moment with him. All the attention was starting to grate at his nerves. He wanted to be left alone but he had to admit that he was glad to see his parents and even his friend. He just wished that they were in smaller doses. Laying in bed, he stared at the ceiling. "Bloody hell!" He pulled his pillow over his head and soon he drifted off to sleep, all thoughts of Healers, Hermione, and his parents forgotten, replaced by nightmares he could never remember. When he opened his eyes again, sun was steaming into his room, he wasn't alone. A woman with auburn hair was sitting at his bedside clutching his hand. He observed for a moment before clearing his throat. "Hello." He greeted, softly, cautiously.
The woman, who had been starting out the window, started at the voice. She blinked and looked to the boy in the bed, giving him a warm smile that made her eyes sparkle. "Well, hello there. Have a good sleep?" She inquired, cheerfully. "I hate to be a bother but can I have my hand back now?"
"Hand?" Draven looked back to their connected hands and realized that his earlier observation had been incorrect. It wasn't her clutching his hand but rather him clutching her hand. He felt heat rising up his neck and into his checks. "Sorry." He mumbled and let up on his grip so she could reclaim her hand.
"Don't worry about it." The woman gave his hand a little squeeze before withdrawing her hand and flexing her sleeping fingers. "How are you feeling? That must have been some dream you were having." She asked, in a motherly tone, once her hand had regained it's feeling.
"Eh..." Draven trailed off unable to remember what he had dreamed about last night. "I'm fine." He assured her. "If I may, who are you?" He eyed her again. "You're not a Healer." He stated, simply. She didn't wear the white robes of a Healer.
"You're right." She inclined her head as she settled back in the chair, having no intentions of leaving as of yet. "I'm a patient here, same as you." She motioned towards the door. "My room is the one across from yours." She explained. "This isn't going to sound too glamorous but I was on my way back from the loo when I heard what sounded like crying. I couldn't find any of the Healers to check it out so I decided to investigate myself. Once I was inside your room I realized that it was coming from you. You were struggling with your covers and crying out in your sleep. I tried to wake you and that's when my hand was captured and held prisoner." She gave him a smile. "I didn't mind since you seemed to calm down at the contact. So I pulled up a chair and decided to stay until you woke up."
Draven felt his face burning. "I am truly sorry, Miss." He mumbled again and felt the urge to crawl under his bed in embarrassment. "How long ago was that?" He asked, sheepishly.
"A couple of hours." She answered, promptly. "But I really didn't mind. My daughter used to have terrible nightmares when she was little so I'm used to sitting for hours in a chair at a bedside. And none of that Miss stuff." She made a face. "My name is Lily."
"Lily." Draven repeated and nodded. "Well, I suppose you'll want to be getting back to your room now?" He questioned trying to, subtlety, tell her that she could leave.
"I'm in no hurry. I won't have any visitors until later in the day." Lily looked around the room, taking in the decor. Her green eyes fell upon a picture on the night stand beside the bed, she hadn't noticed it earlier. She reached over and picked it up. The two adults in the picture were dressed ,in what looked like, very expensive robes and were standing stiffly, barely moving. In front of the adults were two boys which closely resembled each other and were dressed the same as the adults. They, on the other hand, were moving, waving at the camera and pushing each other. She chuckled at their antics. "Is this your family?" She recognized the boy in front of the woman in the photograph to be the boy in the bed in front of her. Her eyes moved back to the man in the photo who looked very familiar but she couldn't place him.
Draven craned his head to try and see what she was looking at. He gave her the trademark Malfoy grin. "Yes." He pointed to the people in the photo, when she lowered it for him to see, and began identifying them. "That's my mum, dad and older brother."
"You come from a very prominent family." Lily spoke her observation out loud.
"I do." Draven confirmed, amused that she didn't know who he, or his family, was.
Lily eyed the blonde haired boy as if she was just seeing him for the first time. When she spoke again, her voice had lost all the warmth that it held earlier. "Pureblood?"
Narrowing his eyes, Draven nodded. "Yes, my family is one of the oldest pureblooded families around." His voice had taken on an arrogant tone. "And you're a muggleborn. What's your point?" He stated, simply.
It was Lily's turn to answer some questions. "I am." She sat the picture back onto the night stand. "Does that bother you?" Her voice was quiet but there was a hard edge to it.
Draven frowned and leaned back against his pillows. "You sound just like Dumbledore. He once asked me if my dad approved of my friends. And I'll tell you what I told him, my dad no say over who I'm friends with. I'm friends with a muggleborn, she was visiting yesterday, and she's the smartest witch in our year. So to answer your question, no, it doesn't bother me. Purebloods are a rarity so if you don't expand your social circle then you'll going to lead a very lonely existence."
"You know Albus Dumbledore?" Lily inquired, suddenly, with a frown.
"Doesn't everyone?" Draven answered. "Being that he is the Headmaster of Hogwarts and that I am a student there..."
Lily blinked in confusion. "Hogwarts? Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"
Draven was seriously beginning to think that Lily was crazy. "Eh...yes. Unless there is another Hogwarts that I am unaware of."
"That's impossible. Hogwarts has been abandoned for twelve years!" Lily exclaimed. "It never reopened after Albus Dumbledore disappeared!"
"I can assure you that Hogwarts hasn't been abandoned for twelve years and Dumbledore isn't missing. My friend Ron Weasley has older brothers that attended Hogwarts." Draven explained to the clearly distraught Lily. "If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself when he comes to see me later."
Lily tilted her head to the side trying to determine if the blonde boy was lying. "Dumbledore is coming here? Does he visit all his students that end up in St. Mungos?" Her voice still held disbelief but she wasn't so distraught.
Draven shrugged. "I don't know. I do know that he visits when it's his fault that the student ended up in St. Mungos to begin with. Plus my dad is on the Board of Governors and they aren't too happy with me getting hurt at Hogwarts." He reasoned.
This seemed to grab Lily's interest and she focused on the boy. "You're here because of Albus?" She asked in disbelief. "You got hurt at Hogwarts?"
"Don't look so surprised. Hogwarts is safe only as long as the Headmaster likes you." Draven said with a frown.
Lily blinked. "The Headmaster hates you?" She didn't know Albus Dumbledore was capable of hating anybody let alone one of his students.
"Hate might be a little harsh. I'd say he doesn't care for me or my family. I think he's still a little sore that the sorting hat put me in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. I was the first in my family to be placed in Godric's house rather than Salazar's. Dumbledore may stress house relations but he's rather protective of his former house. I guess he thinks I'll corrupt all the good little gryphons with my snake-like ways." He sneered, bitterly. "Not that I really care that he dislikes me. The feeling is, entirely, mutual." He concluded.
Silence stretched between the two. Draven had spoke his piece and Lily didn't know what to say to his words. Until a few minutes ago she thought Hogwarts was no more and Albus Dumbledore hadn't been seen in years.
Clearing her throat, Lily shifted in her chair. "I didn't mean to make you angry, child. It was just a surprise to hear that Hogwarts is still in operation. My daughter turned eleven last year and she never received her Hogwarts letter." She explained.
Draven snorted. "I am not a child, Lily. If you wish to refer to me, I suggest you use my name, Draven. And did it ever occur to you that maybe your daughter never made it onto Hogwarts registry? Maybe she is a squib or without magic altogether." He sneered feeling irritable and moody.
"No need to be rude." Lily chided. "Draven?" She felt the oddest feeling of deja-vu as if she had heard that name before but couldn't remember where.
"So why are you here?" Draven steered the conversation away from Hogwarts and Dumbledore.
Lily turned her head to the side and pointed to the horrible scars that covered the left side of her face, starting just below her eye and disappearing under the neck of her St. Mungo's pajama top.
Draven eyed the scars, he didn't notice them before, with interest. "Curse damage?" He questioned once he was satisfied with his observation.
"Correct. It's been almost twelve years now and the Healers are still puzzled by why the scars and tissue damage keeps coming back after they've healed it." Lily gave the blonde boy a sad smile.
"Twelve years and it keeps coming back?" Draven blinked. "Intriguing. May I inquire who cursed you?"
"I really don't know. I have my suspicions but I can't prove it." Seeing the boys quizzical look Lily hurried to explain. "I was attacked, in my home, by a Death Eater. Like I said it was almost twelve years ago. I had just come home from work and tucked my children in when I was attacked. The Ministry investigated, of course, and concluded that the Death Eater had been hiding in my house for hours. My children, who were being cared for by our house-elf, hadn't been harmed in all that time. I remember feeling the curse hit me and then nothing. When I woke up...my oldest child was gone." She got a faraway look in her eyes.
Draven listened to her explanation carefully then frowned. That didn't sound like something a Death Eater would do, besides the Death Eaters always worked in pairs or small groups. But the damage caused by the curse did look familiar. "Have the Healers tried Acromantula venom?" If he was right, the venom was the only treatment.
"Acromantula venom?" Lily looked at the boy as if he was crazy. "Why would they've tried that?"
"Eh, my brother and I were tutored by a Potion Master when we were younger in preparation for Hogwarts. He liked to work with exotic ingredients. " Draven quickly threw out the first thing that popped into his mind. "It was just a suggestion."
Lily eyed the boy suspiciously. "Acromantula venom?" She seemed to consider his suggestion. "I'll speak with Healer Quinn about it later." During her conversation with Draven, she noticed that the boy acted much older than a third year. She opened her mouth to ask him about it but was stopped by a noise near the door. Her eyes turned away from the boy and landed on the eloquently dressed Narcissa Malfoy. "Can I help you?" She stood and faced the woman, placing herself between her and the boy.
Narcissa sniffed in distaste before a cool smile appeared on her thin lips. "Yes, you can tell me who you are and what you are doing in my sons room?" She sneered and entered the room with her nose held high. She stopped at the end of the bed and turned to address her son. "Has this person been bothering you, Draven?"
Frozen, Lily could only stare at the woman she had attended Hogwarts with. Her eyes darted to the photograph she had looked at earlier and sure enough, the woman in the photo was indeed Narcissa Black now Malfoy. She had been so focused on the father that she only glanced over the mother. "This is your son?" She finally managed to ask.
Draven spoke before his mother had a chance. "She isn't bothering me, mother. I was bored and she was kind enough to keep me company." He, smoothly, lied. "She's in the room across from mine." He added for good measure.
"Well then since I am here, she no longer needs to keep you company." Narcissa said firmly as she asserted herself as the boys mother. "And to answer your question, Miss, I am his mother."
Lily looked from the boy to the woman then back again. She see his resemblance to Narcissa. All this time she had been speaking to a member of the Malfoy family, one of the darkest families in the wizarding world, and enjoying it.
"Her name is Lily, mother." Draven soothed, trying to get his mother to back down in her assertiveness. "The Healers have been pushing me to interact with others." He pointed out in disgust.
Narcissa raised an eyebrow. "I believe they wished you to interact with boys and girls around your age. Not with someone...older."
Draven rolled his eyes. "Mother..." He growled and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I have not seen anyone my age. Dumbledore hasn't been considerate enough to send me a companion."
"Hermione was here, was she not?" Narcissa has softened slightly.
"You're Lucius Malfoy's son?" Lily knew that Narcissa had son but she was sure the boy wasn't named Draven.
Narcissa turned back to the woman whom she had dismissed but was still there. "I can assure that Draven is, indeed, Lucius' son. Do you care to question the paternity of my other son, Draco, as well?" She hissed.
"Lily, maybe it would be best that you leave." Draven gave the red head a small smile. "And yes, Lucius Malfoy is my father."
Lily seemed to hesitate before vacating the room, lost in thought, and returning to her own.
"St. Mungos seem to let anyone in these days." Narcissa moved around the bed and sat in the chair Lily had occupied.
Draven glared at his mother. "You could have been a little nicer. She wasn't harming anything." He grumped. "And yes, Hermione was here. But Dumbledore didn't give her a lot of time to visit. He still won't let Draco, Ron, or Orion visit?"
Narcissa sighed and relaxed into her mothering role. "No, he doesn't trust them apparently. But your father is working on it. The Board of Governors are already upset, he might be able to use their sympathy to get the boys permission." She waved a hand, boredly. "Now tell me about that woman." She calmly, demanded.
"There is nothing to tell!" Draven huffed and settled back against his pillows. This was going to be a very long day, he could feel it.
Authors Note
Finally! I'm sorry it took so long but this was the chapter that refused to be written!
I think I went through like five-six versions before I settled on this. It's basicly what I had in mind for the chapter. It's also my longest chapter for this story. I hope you like it.
As always, REVIEW!