A/N - No, I didn't upload the wrong chapter.
Chapter 36: Back to School
With a feeling of relief Harry dove through the wall and onto platform nine and three quarters. Finally he was away from the muggles. The worst holidays of his life were over.
Well, maybe that was slightly exaggerated, but it had been bad. The Dursleys hadn't even allowed him to keep Hedwig with him and only a few days into the holidays Ron had written that he couldn't send Pig over anymore either. Apparently Professor Dumbledore had informed the Weasleys that it wasn't safe to owl Harry during the summer anymore and Mrs Weasley had forbidden Ron all contact with his best friend.
Harry had kept hoping that Ron would manage to sneak at lest one owl past his mother, but not a single letter had arrived from any of his friends all summer. He'd finally had to resort to calling Hermione on the phone while the Dursleys were out so he could ask her to buy his school books for him when she went to Diagon Alley to get hers.
Now he just couldn't wait to finally see his friends again. He pushed his trolley down the platform trying to spot the Weasleys in the crowd.
"Harry! Harry!" Harry looked up and saw the Creevey brothers race towards him excited as usual.
"Hi, Colin, Dennis!" he called back considering his chances at a quick retreat pushing a trolley through this many people while the Creeveys seemed to have already loaded their luggage onto the train and were darting through the crowd unhindered. No chance, he decided and stood to await the onslaught.
"How was your summer, Harry?" Colin asked as soon as he'd reached him. "Ours was great. We went to France and ..."
Harry let him rattle on long enough to hopefully seem polite. "That's great Colin, but I'd better get on the train now. You two don't happen to have seen Ron or Hermione, do you?"
"Oh, sure we have. They're right in the next car, third compartment." Colin grinned. "They're saving you a seat."
"Then I'd better go before they decide I'm not coming and give it away. See you, Colin." Harry quickly steered his trolley towards the next car and luckily the Creeveys didn't pursue.
"Over here, Harry!" he heard Ron call out to him after only a few steps and when he looked up, he saw him and Hermione waving out of the window of their compartment.
"Ron! Hermione!" he called back to them.
"Hand us Hedwig in through the window." Hermione suggested instead of a greeting and held out her hands ready to receive the cage that held Harry's snowy owl.
Hedwig hooted sleepily at the suggestion which Harry assumed to mean that she approved of the plan and so he lifted her up as carefully as he could and Hermione and Ron pulled her inside the compartment.
"I'll be with you in a moment!" Harry called up to his friends and lifted his heavy trunk to drag it onto the train.
Thankfully he'd grown a little stronger since his first year and even though he was still small and thin for his age he was now able to carry his trunk up the steps without needing help. He smiled at the memory of Fred and George helping him in his first year. Where were those two anyway? They still had one last year to go at Hogwarts, but Harry couldn't see them anywhere when he dragged his trunk down the isle and peered into all the compartments he passed.
He soon forgot about the twins, though, when he found Ron and Hermione's compartment and his two friends greeted him excitedly.
"Oh Harry, I'm so glad to see you!" Hermione exclaimed throwing her arms around him for a quick hug.
"I'm so sorry I couldn't owl you all summer, but Mum put a spell on Pig so he'd have to show her every letter I gave him to deliver and then Percy caught me when I tried to use Errol when Mum had gone shopping."
"Sorry I couldn't owl you on your birthday, Harry." Hermione added. "But you know Dumbledore said it wasn't safe and if Dumbledore says so ..."
"I know, Hermione. I really missed you, though." Harry answered with a smile.
He was so glad to see his friends again that he didn't even notice Neville Longbottom sitting quietly in a corner of their compartment until Ron handed him his birthday present and Neville wished him a shy: "Happy birthday, Harry."
"Hi Neville." Harry greeted him surprised. "Sorry I didn't greet you before. It's just because I was so excited to see Ron and Hermione again and I didn't expect to find you in here as well."
"That's okay. My friends' compartment was already full, you see, and I didn't want to sit all alone in case Malfoy came by." Neville stared at the ground looking embarrassed.
"Malfoy? He didn't pick on you again, did he?" Harry asked angrily. He always felt a little protective of shy, clumsy Neville. The poor boy didn't deserve the treatment he often got from the Slytherins.
"No no, I didn't even see him, but after this summer. Who knows what he's going to do." Neville tried to explain himself.
For a moment Harry wondered what might have happened this summer to make Neville so nervous about Malfoy, but before he could make up his mind to ask, Ron started talking about his holiday adventures and when he told them of the twins' latest prank on Percy Harry forgot about Malfoy completely.
The train soon started to move out of the station and about an hour later the witch with the food trolley came by. Neville insisted on buying a big box of chocolate frogs and some every flavour beans for all of them. Harry took several pumpkin pastries and Hermione dug out some sugar free muggle candies that her parents had given her.
Ron blushed a little when all he could add to their 'picnic' were some cheese sandwiches, but Neville took his cue from Harry and Hermione and ate a sandwich without complaint.
"Thanks Ron." Hermione even said. "We really need to have some real food before all the sweets."
Ron blushed again and started to say something when suddenly there was a knock at the door and the big pudgy face of Gregory Goyle peeked in almost shyly.
Harry stared since when did Goyle knock before entering a Gryffindor compartment?
Vincent Crabbe appeared behind his friend a moment later and pushed him inside. There they stood for a moment looking around in a way that reminded Harry of Neville when he'd lost his toad.
"Looking for something?" he asked Malfoy's two goons in an almost neutral voice.
"Yeah." said Goyle looking like a lost puppy.
"Draco." added Crabbe. "Have you seen him?"
"No." all four Gryffindors shook their heads.
"We've searched the whole train." Goyle complained. "What are we going to do without Draco?"
"We'll find him." Crabbe tried to reassure his best friend. "We didn't search the bathrooms yet."
"Right." said Goyle. "Lets go look in the bathrooms."
"Uh, guys." Hermione stopped them.
"What?" asked Crabbe who was already out in the isle.
"If Malfoy was in the bathroom when you first searched the train, chances are that he's already back in his compartment by now."
"Oh." was all Goyle found to say to that.
"But nobody in the compartments has seen him either." Crabbe pointed out.
Hermione shrugged. "Maybe they were just teasing you?"
Crabbe and Goyle exchanged a look, shrugged at each other and shuffled off down the corridor.
"Hey, maybe Malfoy really isn't on the train." Ron grinned happily. "Maybe he's never coming back."
"Nonsense, Ron." Harry shook his head at his best friend. "Of course Malfoy's coming back to school. How else would he finish his education? And I doubt his parents would let him transfer to another school now."
"But Harry, haven't you heard?" Hermione exclaimed and Ron and Neville stared at him incredulously.
"Heard?" Harry repeated. "Heard what?"
"Malfoy's Dad, Lucius." Neville whispered excitedly. "He ... he murdered his wife."
"Killed her in cold blood." Ron added. "He beat her to death and tortured her."
"Actually the Daily Prophet said that he got drunk and they had an argument which got physical and Narcissa fell and broke her neck." Hermione corrected.
"And when they arrested him they found the whole house full of dead muggles and dark arts stuff." Ron went on ignoring Hermione who was rolling her eyes at him and Neville who was shivering with fear at the gruesome story.
"Stop exaggerating, Ron. You're going to start a rumour that'll only frighten the poor first years." Hermione ordered. "They didn't find any bodies other than Narcissa Malfoy's and even though they found a lot of dark arts objects they weren't all over the house. They were all stored away in a secure hiding place and only a few of them showed any signs of recent use."
Harry still shuddered slightly at the thought of Lucius Malfoy showing his son how to use all sorts of dark tools. He certainly hoped Malfoy wasn't bringing anything the ministry had overlooked to school with him. That was if he was coming back to school at all. Maybe he'd never have to see Malfoy again.
"They arrested Lucius?" he asked Hermione, not quite trusting Ron's account to be entirely correct about that either.
"Yes, he was put on trial and sent to Azkaban for life." Hermione reported. "It was all over the papers. They also said that he lost all his money in the process."
"And what happened to Draco?" asked Harry.
Hermione opened her mouth to answer, hesitated, then closed it again. "I don't know." she said in a tone of wonder. "The papers didn't say."
She looked to Ron and Neville hopefully, but Ron just shrugged.
"I guess the social services department of the ministry will have taken him to his grandparents or something." she concluded after a while.
Neville shook his head, though. "The social services department is a joke." he told them. "It exists only in name. They never even showed up when my parents ... well you know. My gran just took me and nobody ever asked what had happened to me at all."
"They can't just do nothing, Neville." Hermione insisted. "Somebody in the ministry has to take care of orphaned children."
"They never seemed to bother with me either." Harry reminded her. "It was Dumbledore who took me to the Dursleys, not the ministry. And unlike Neville and me, Malfoy isn't even an orphan. His father's still alive to take care of him."
"Lucius was sent to Azkaban for life." Hermione corrected.
"Maybe his gran took him?" Neville suggested. "That would be the most natural thing to happen, wouldn't it?"
"Lucius Malfoy's parents are dead." Ron supplied happily. "I bet he murdered them himself."
"What about Narcissa's parents? Or maybe aunts and uncles?" Harry asked.
Ron thought it over for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know who Narcissa's family are. I guess one of the old rich pure-blood families, though."
"My gran once mentioned a Jeremiah Malfoy." Neville remembered. "I think she said he wasn't quite as bad as Lucius, but still a typical Malfoy."
"So who cares where Malfoy is anyway." Ron grinned. "As long as he isn't coming back to Hogwarts that's cause for a celebration."
No more Draco Malfoy? Harry smiled at the thought. No more taunts, no more strutting about Slytherins ...
"And why wouldn't his relatives send Draco back to school?" Hermione argued. "Do you even know where Jeremiah Malfoy lives? If he really is the one who took Draco in at all. He'll most likely just board the train at a different stop this time."
"Uh ... maybe they're sending him to a different school." Ron didn't want to give up hope. "He always wanted to go to Durmstrang. Maybe he got his wish and we're finally rid of him."
"Nobody would switch schools in fifth year." Hermione shook her head. "The curriculum is too different and he'd have problems with the language as well. Victor told me they have language courses for the first years, but the older students usually can't take them, because they'd miss other classes."
Still Harry, Ron and Neville kept hoping that Malfoy wouldn't show up and it seemed they were in luck. Every time the train stopped they opened the compartment window and leaned out to look for Malfoy among the kids boarding the train, but despite his distinctive silver-blond hair, they didn't see him anywhere.
The closer they got to Hogwarts the more they started to believe it. No more Draco Malfoy! Yes!
And indeed when they got off at Hogsmeade station, there still wasn't any sign of Malfoy. They stopped to watch the other students get off the train still looking for any sign of silver-blond hair, but all they found was Crabbe and Goyle still looking lost and confused.
"Yes!" yelled Ron. "We're rid of him!"
"There's still the smaller train from the north." Hermione pointed out.
"Oh, that'll be here in only five minutes." Hagrid informed them in between his shouts for the first years. "Now you'd better get going or you might be late for the feast."
Ron and Harry still wanted to stay and watch the second train come in, but Hermione grabbed their arms and dragged them along to one of the coaches. "Come on. There won't be any room left in the last coaches when the train arrives."
Reluctantly the boys agreed and only a few minutes later they reached Hogwarts and squeezed inside with the big crowd of excited kids happy to be back. They tried to push through the crowd quickly hoping to secure good seats at the Gryffindor house table so they'd have a good view of the sorting ceremony.
Harry managed to squeeze into the hall just in time to see Draco Malfoy calmly walk in at the other end of the hall. Harry groaned in disappointment. Malfoy was here after all! And not only that he even smirked at him obviously feeling smug at not having to fight his way through a huge crowd.
Wait a minute? How'd he gotten to that door anyway? That was one of the corridors leading to a stairway down into the dungeons, not to the entry hall. Had Malfoy arrived so early that he'd had time to visit the Slytherin common room in between then and now? That didn't seem likely and moreover that wasn't the door the Slytherins usually used when coming in for dinner. The stairway it led to was rather small and came out closer to Snape's office than the Slytherin common room entrance.
And what was that strange box in his hands?
Draco arrived in the great hall just at the same time everybody else was coming in. He smirked at the sight of Harry Potter getting almost squeezed to death in the door and hurried over to the Slytherin house table. There. Now nobody should realise that he hadn't arrived on the train like everybody else.
"Draco! There you are!" somebody shouted only a few moments later.
He turned his head to see Vincent and Gregory heading his way.
"We missed you." Gregory informed him as they arrived.
"You weren't on the train." Vincent elaborated. "We almost thought you weren't coming."
"I didn't take the Hogwarts Express this year." Draco smirked at their surprised faces.
"Why? Where were you?" Gregory asked. "I tried to owl you, but the owl kept coming back."
"Oh, I had a really great holiday in a top secret location." Draco told them.
"Really? Despite ... er ..." Vincent broke off very suddenly, but luckily his best friend took over for him.
"Where's that? Come on Draco you can tell us." Gregory pushed.
"If I'd tell you you'd only be scared." Draco grinned.
"You mean a really dangerous place?" Vincent asked.
Draco nodded. "A place your parents would never let you go."
"The Forbidden Forest?" Gregory asked.
"No, more forbidden."
"The aurors' headquarters in London?" Vincent picked the most dangerous place he knew.
"Of course not!" Draco snorted. "Who'd want to spend their holidays there? No, I was somewhere much cooler, where even the aurors are afraid to go."
"Voldemort's headquarters?" Gregory suggested immediately.
"No, that's probably dead boring and in the middle of nowhere. I got to go to all kinds of places and met lots of people."
"Oh come on, tell us already!" Vincent begged.
"No, you'll have to guess." Draco insisted.
"We're out of ideas." Gregory complained after a moment.
"Well, then you'll just have to give up." smirked Draco.
For a moment the two looked almost disappointed, but then got distracted by the arrival of Blaise, who greeted them in his usual friendly but distant manner then turned to sneer at Draco. "Couldn't afford any better robes than those?"
Draco just shrugged it off. "These will do. And I won't have to be careful not to rip them in a fight."
Blaise seemed to be put slightly off balance by that comeback, but caught himself after a moment. "And what is that thing in the box you've got there?"
"Yes, Draco." Gregory asked eagerly. "What's in the box?"
"My new pet." Draco grinned proudly.
Everybody in hearing distance turned to stare at the box which didn't move. Severus had covered the egg with a charmed piece of cloth to keep it warm, so all they could see was some fabric.
"Well, what is it?" Vincent finally asked.
"A raven egg." Draco whispered back.
"An egg?" Blaise repeated with a snort. "What's so great about an egg?"
"You have to buy a raven as an egg or he won't obey you." Draco informed him calmly. "You have to train him yourself."
"Oh, and you think you can do that?" Pansy Parkinson said derisively.
'Well, so much for still having a girlfriend.' Draco thought. "Professor Snape thinks I can and he knows everything about ravens."
"Oh, really?" asked Blaise.
"He happens to have one as a familiar as well." Draco answered with a sweet smile.
"Yes, that's true." Gregory confirmed to everyone's surprise. "I saw it in his office once."
"Him." Draco corrected. "Munin's a male raven."
That silenced everybody for a moment, then they started asking questions in earnest and only stopped when Professor McGonagall arrived with the first years.
Draco just glared a the sorting hat through most of it's song as it had started it off with declaring how the founders had founded a school that provided all wizards and witches with an education. Even the damn hat should know better. It had to have at least heard of the school in London.
The sorting was rather boring after having seen it three times already. The only interesting thing were the green faces of the first years when they were called and had to walk up front under the eyes of the whole school.
Draco watched the rapidly diminishing crowd of nervous children and soon spotted the two girls that had played dress up with him in the second hand clothes store. He waved at them and the more courageous one waved back while the other just smiled at him. Both seemed a little less nervous afterwards.
"Carter, Araminta!" McGonagall called soon afterwards and the courageous one stepped up to the sorting hat.
'Araminta.' Draco thought. 'Gotta remember her name.' Or would she prefer to use a shortened version? He thought he remembered her mother calling her Minty.
The hat didn't take long to decide Araminta's fate. "Ravenclaw!" it announced after only a few seconds.
Draco applauded along with the Ravenclaws as she walked over to her new house's table.
"You know this firsty?" Vincent whispered into Draco's ear.
"Met her and her friend in Diagon Alley during the summer. We had some fun together, so I guess she deserves a little support." Draco answered without turning his face away from the sorting. After all he had no idea when the other little girl would be called and being the more nervous of the pair she definitely needed his support even more.
But the sorting went on and on and the group of first years grew smaller and smaller.
"Smith, David!" McGonagall called when there were only five students left.
Smith, David? David Smith? Where had he heard that name before? Oh, right!
Draco shot one look over to the head table and saw that Severus' attention was fixed on the boy who walked stiffly up to the hat as if he were in a marching band. He just barely managed to suppress a snigger at the kid's military haircut. 'Like a little zombie' he thought.
David sat on the chair very erect with his hands folded in his lap and frowned slightly as the ratty old sorting hat was placed on his head.
They waited. Little whispers sprang up all over the room as time went by without a decision. This boy had to be really hard to sort. Unfortunately Draco couldn't see David's face as the hat had fallen over his whole head. He wondered idly, if the boy could even breathe under there, but then the hat had holes enough.
At the head table Professor Flitwick leaned past Professor Snape to ask the headmaster what they'd do if the hat didn't manage to sort this one at all.
"The sorting hat has always been able to sort every student." Dumbledore answered calmly. "No need to get nervous just because it takes a little longer for Mr. Smith. I remember several other students that took even longer to sort than this."
As if on cue the hat finally made it's decision. "Slytherin!" it announced with a slight note of relief in it's voice.
Draco quickly looked to Severus as everybody around him started clapping. There was a dangerous gleam in his uncle's eyes. Draco grinned. This prey had been delivered right into the snake's fangs.
David appeared to be very nervous as he delivered a stilted introduction to his fellow first years.
They stared back at him for a moment, then a fat little blond girl burst out laughing and soon almost everybody at the Slytherin table was at least sniggering. David seemed to be fighting down tears.
At the head table Dumbledore looked to Severus who shrugged slightly. "I can't quite jump up and make a big scene right now, can I?"
Albus who knew very well that Severus could usually curb unwanted behaviour by much more subtle means filed the incident away for later examination. Something seemed to be up with Severus and Mr. David Smith.
A sixth year prefect finally took matters into her hands and reminded her house mates that Slytherins didn't pick on or laugh at their own.
At about the same time the sorting ceremony finished with McGonagall calling "Zoran, Jana!"
The left over little girl from the clothes store almost ran to the stool just to get away from all the stares. She was lucky enough to be sorted quickly and for the first time in his life Draco found himself clapping for a Hufflepuff. Well, at least neither of his little friends had had the misfortune to end up in Gryffindor. He supposed Hufflepuff wasn't that bad. At least Jana would make a lot of really nice, if most likely stupid, friends there.
Less then a minute later the food appeared on the tables and Draco suddenly realised that he had hardly eaten any meat all summer and hadn't even missed it much. Still there were a lot of things here that the Snapes couldn't afford and he quickly filled his plate forcefully reminding himself to add some vegetables as well. After all vegetables were good for you even if he'd eaten lots of them all summer.
He'd just started eating when suddenly an owl fluttered into the hall. The poor bird looked completely exhausted. He must have flown for days, maybe even weeks for his feathers to get this ruffled and his wings this tired. No longer able to fly in a straight line the owl wobbled towards the Slytherin table where he dropped into a bowl of mashed potatoes in front of Draco.
Draco pulled him out and set him down on the table and the owl immediately held out his leg to him. As soon as the boy had untied the letter from his leg, the owl gave an exhausted sigh and sagged into his plate too tired to even nibble at the food.
"What's that?" Gregory asked curiously.
"My Hogwarts letter for this year." Draco answered absent-mindedly
How was this possible? All the owl had had to do was fly from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade, the same distance he and Severus had walked that same day. Severus had said that the owl was young and a closer look at him seemed to confirm that. He looked exhausted, not old. Could he be sick?
Draco gently lifted the animal out of his food and walked to the head table ignoring the curious looks of his fellow students.
The teachers stopped eating and watched almost as curiously as the students as Draco carried the unmoving ball of feathers to Severus.
"What is it, Draco?" the Potions Master asked almost gently.
"My Hogwarts letter." Draco answered. "Is this the missing school owl?"
Severus looked at the owl for only a moment then turned to McGonagall. "Minerva?"
The head of Gryffindor got up to get a better look at the bird, then shrugged. "It could be. He is the right size, but I don't know him well enough to recognise him. He's one of many, after all."
Hagrid reached over the table with one large hand and picked the owl out of Draco's hands. He gently stroked his ruffled dripping feathers, picked a pea out from under one wing, then looked back up eyes full of pity for the poor animal. "Yes, that's Chip. He's been missing for a whole month. What have you done to the poor guy?"
"Nothing." Draco defended himself. "I've never even seen him before. He was just supposed to deliver my Hogwarts letter and only arrived just now."
"This is very strange." Severus remarked. "Draco was in comfortable reach of the owl during the whole time he was gone. There's no real reason why he should be late or this exhausted."
Headmaster Dumbledore calmly suggested. "Perhaps you had better keep Chip isolated from the other owls until he has completely recovered, Hagrid. It looks like he might be suffering from some virus. Maybe you'd better take him to see Madame Pomfrey as well."
Hagrid nodded. "I'll do that Professor. Poor little Chip. He's usually such a happy, lively little bird."
"I seem to have bad luck with owls this year." Draco commented to Severus. "Gregory sent me one as well, but it didn't find me and brought his letter back."
"Well, he can't have had your address, so maybe his owl wasn't able to locate you." Severus tried to explain it away. Actually it was a very unlikely coincidence, as if somehow Draco had been invisible to the owls. It was theoretically possible to hide people from owls, but Chip had found the boy now. He'd headed straight, or as straight as he still could, for him from the moment he'd flown into the hall.
"But shouldn't an owl be able to find a wizard without an address?" Draco asked.
"Many can, but it's a difficult trick. I suppose Mr. Goyle's owl just isn't very bright." Severus answered his mind still busily working on the mystery. If Draco wasn't invisible that had to mean that for some reason the owls had been unable to reach or find the flat in West Hogsmeade, which meant that there had to be a spell on his flat.
But Munin had no problem finding his way home and the owl from the potions shop in Diagon Alley had reached him without delay as well. If the flat was invisible specifically to owls he shouldn't have gotten any anymore than Draco.
Unless ... "Can I see your letter for a moment, Draco?" Severus asked as casually as he could manage.
"Sure. It fell into the mashed potatoes, though." Draco held it out to him.
Severus quickly checked the envelope. No address, just as he'd suspected, but who'd ever heard of a spell that could make a place invisible to owls unless they were carrying a letter addressed to it? Not many people had ever visited him at Merlin Park and even fewer were powerful enough to work such a spell without Severus detecting it at some point.
"You should get back to your dinner." he told Draco as he handed the letter back. "You must be hungry."
Draco nodded and hurried away. Severus looked after him for a moment, then turned his attention to the old wizard sitting beside him. Just what kind of secret safety measures had Albus taken to protect his family?
"Draco, there's something I have to tell you." Vincent stated the moment Blaise had left the dorm to go to the bathroom that evening.
"Oh really? What?" Draco asked wondering why Vincent hadn't brought it up at the feast. The way Vincent had said it sounded like he thought it something important, so why had he waited this long?
"Greg, watch the door." Vincent ordered. "If Blaise or anybody else wants to come in here, warn us. It's important."
"Oh, it's about that." Gregory nodded. "I'm sorry, Draco." He added as he went out.
"Sorry?" Draco repeated looking up at Vincent quizzically from where he was sprawled on his bed.
"Message from the Dark Lord." Vincent explained his precautions.
"The Dark Lord?" Draco repeated. "You spoke to Voldemort himself?"
"My father did. He asked me to tell you that the Lord thinks it wouldn't be safe for you to be initiated with the rest of us." Vincent reported. "He thinks that the aurors are on to you now and you'd only endanger all of us, so you're out. You can't become a death eater until we have taken over and destroyed the ministry."
Draco had to fight not to laugh out loud at the unhappy pitiful look Vincent was giving him. "It's okay, Vincent. I already realised that myself. I'll just have to live with it."
"It's gotta be hard." Vincent remarked still full of pity. "I mean right after what happened to your father and all the money you lost."
"I'm over that, Vincent." Draco suddenly saw a great chance. "I've already made my plans to deal with the situation."
"Really?" Vincent's curiosity stirred right on cue. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to take Muggle Studies." Draco grinned.
"What?" Vincent obviously didn't believe his ears.
"That way I prove to the ministry that I'm a nice muggle loving light wizard." Draco explained. "It's going to take years to fully convince them, if I even manage to at all, but I bet they'll at least give me less trouble that way."
"Did they bother you already?" Vincent asked sympathetically.
Draco nodded. "We were raided during the holidays and I even spent an hour or so in jail and was interrogated."
"They really locked you up?" Vincent was horrified.
"Oh, only until Professor Snape came to get me out." Draco was having lots of fun leading Vincent to misinterpret his holiday experiences. "He's really good at handling aurors, you know. One looked almost scared. But of course he was only a second rate prison guard. The ones that are really out in the field are a lot tougher, Snape said."
"They're not even afraid of Snape?" Vincent gulped. "Oh man, they've got to be really terrible then."
Draco almost couldn't fight down a triumphant smile. "You know, if they scare you this much, maybe you shouldn't become a death eater either. You'll most certainly run into them a lot if you do and they won't give you the 'gentle' treatment I got once you're an adult. Professor Snape told me a few really horrible stories."
Vincent grew very quiet at that. Obviously he was seriously considering Draco's warning. When he didn't say anything more for over a minute Draco opened the door and waved Gregory back in.
"I'm really sorry about it all, Draco." Gregory told him again.
"I'm fine, Gregory. I already knew." Draco reassured him. He decided not to repeat his story for Gregory. Let Vincent do that for him. With any luck he'd make it even scarier and Gregory was easy enough to convince. With a little luck a little comment from Severus might suffice to cost Voldemort another two followers now.
At the very least Vincent would start a rumour that would explain away his sudden interest in Muggle Studies.
Blaise returned only moments later. "What are you still unpacking?"
"No, I haven't even started." Draco grinned back at him. That had two reasons. The probably more important one was that he was feeling too lazy at the moment, the other that he wanted to avoid getting involved in the usual chaos caused by four boys unpacking at the same time.
"You intend to live out of that old junk?" Blaise sneered at Draco's trunk.
"I intend to unpack tomorrow." Draco informed him coldly. "And I like this trunk, by the way."
"Really? It looks like it's been used before." Blaise remarked disdainfully.
"That's because it has." Draco told him. "Professor Snape was so kind to lend me his old school trunk since mine unfortunately disappeared in the ministry raid on Malfoy Manor."
"Snape's trunk?" Gregory asked fascinated. "Oh, wow!" He and Vincent immediately came over to inspect Draco's trunk.
"Keep your paws off!" Draco warned them. "I want to return it in one piece."
"I'd still have preferred something new." Blaise sneered.
"That's a matter of personal taste, I suppose." Draco answered in kind. "I for one like all the old stuff Professor Snape gave me."
"Snape, Snape, Snape." Blaise repeated. "That's all you talk about today, isn't it? Where'd you spend your holidays? At Snape Manor?"
"There is no Snape Manor." Vincent informed him. "It was sold a long time ago. To cover some debts, I think."
"Then where does Snape live?" Gregory asked surprised. He probably couldn't imagine anyone not living in a manor house at all.
"Here at Hogwarts?" Blaise suggested with a shrug.
"No, he doesn't." Gregory shook his head. "Or he'd be here every weekend. I once asked Filch where he was and he told me he'd gone home."
"Maybe he's got some old castle?" Vincent tried.
"Why sell the manor, if they had a castle?" Blaise shot back.
"Maybe he bought a new manor." Gregory decided. "One that just isn't called Snape Manor."
"I bet Draco knows where Snape lives." Vincent said. "Right Draco?"
Draco just nodded. He was laughing too hard to answer.
"Well, where is it?" Blaise demanded impatiently.
Draco fought to get his laughter under control, but he was still giggling slightly as he answered. "I can't tell. It's secret."
"Secret? Why would Snape have a secret address?" Blaise wondered.
"So he won't be bothered by curious or vengeful students during the summer?" Vincent suggested. "With the way the Gryffindors hate him, he has reason enough not to want to be found."
That cleared up the question sufficiently in Gregory's mind and he returned to unpacking his trunk. Vincent turned away as well, but Blaise wouldn't leave it alone.
"Oh, and Draco is the only privileged one who knows?" he hissed. "Why should he be the only one?"
"Because I'm the only one Snape ever invited to his home, that's why." Draco declared. "And I promised not to tell, so I won't."
"Okay, which one of you took my white socks?" Gregory demanded suddenly. "I put them right here in my trunk and now they're gone."
"Your socks?" Blaise repeated exasperatedly when he realised Gregory was looking at him. "Why should anyone want your socks?"
"They were here in my trunk and now they're gone." Gregory repeated angrily.
"Well, I didn't take them." Blaise growled back. "I wouldn't touch your stinking socks if you offered me money for it."
"My socks don't stink! Our house elf just washed them!" Gregory yelled angrily stepping closer to Blaise and balling his fists.
Vincent held him back by grabbing the back of his robes, though. "Don't step on my dress robe. You'll leave footprints."
"What is your dress robe doing on the floor anyway?" Gregory asked with a frown.
"I just unpacked it, but I have to rearrange my school robes to make room in the cupboard. So I left it on the floor in the meantime. Now be nice and get back to your own trunk." Vincent tried to push Gregory back.
"But I need my white socks." Gregory protested.
"Maybe you already unpacked them?" Draco suggested rolling over onto his stomach so he could open his trunk without having to get up.
"I don't think so." Gregory answered.
"Did you check if they're already in the cupboard?" Vincent asked while Draco dug out his pyjamas.
Gregory went over and searched the cupboard. "They're not here."
"Didn't you leave some socks on the chair, when you went outside for a moment?" Draco asked now grabbing for his backpack.
Gregory checked the chair. "Oh, there they are! Thanks, Draco!"
"Where is my second shoe?" Blaise shouted only a moment later.
Draco sighed and pulled out Cuddly and his Rakers' cap. He put on the cap and sat the teddy on his pillow. There, almost like home.
"What's that?" Vincent asked wide eyed.
"My teddy." Draco explained. "I'm keeping him because he was a gift from someone." He didn't want to say Snape again, because that might remind Blaise that he knew where Snape lived.
According to the looks Vincent and Gregory gave him they must have assumed that he was talking about his mother or father.
"I didn't mean the bear." Vincent said a little uneasily. "What's that thing on your head?"
"My cap?" Draco asked incredulously. "That's just an ordinary cap, like muggle kids wear them all the time. They're really comfortable when it's hot and the sun is shining into your eyes."
"Um, there's no sun shining in here, Draco." Gregory reminded him.
"I know, I just like to wear it." Draco explained patiently. "It was a gift from my new friends."
"New friends?" Blaise repeated. "What new friends?"
"Just a bunch of kids I met during the holidays." Draco said defensively. "You don't know them."
"You made friends with a bunch of muggle kids?" Vincent asked horrified.
"No, they're wizard kids." Draco corrected. "They just go to a different school. Mike told me that there are three other wizarding schools in Great Britain, that I never knew about."
"Mike?" Gregory asked. "That seventh year Ravenclaw?"
"No, my friend Mike, who doesn't go to Hogwarts at all." Draco insisted. Ravenclaw might fit Mike, though, he decided. His knowledge of Transfigurations at least would do any Ravenclaw proud.
All in all the fist day at Hogwarts hadn't been as bad as expected, Draco thought later when he lay in bed. His classmates had been more curious, but less aggressive than he'd expected. Of course tomorrow would be the first day of classes and that would most likely mean having to deal with the Gryffindors. He just hoped that would be as easy.
A/N: How will the teachers react to Draco? When will his raven hatch? And will he manage to deal with Blaise and Pansy?
In the next chapter: Draco meets the Gryffindors in class, hands in his homework and has to deal with McGonagall.