Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't ours. Fintastica owns the Alaries, though.
Also, this is a collaboration with Fintastica! This is Semo (StupidOneShots) speaking.
(P.s. Fin is still writing Olly, and Semo is writing Draco. Also! In this chapter, Semo is writing Narcissa and Fin is writing Lucius. Who's writing Voldy and Bella, you ask? You'll find out later :))
CHAPTER 4:
Draco sat in the library, pouring over some books for his Potions' essay. He was almost finished with it, too, just a few inches left.
Olly was sprawled into a chair opposite Draco. He put his stack of books on the table, and then let his head slam onto said table. "What's a good excuse to avoid the visit of a very overbearing aunt that knows about magic because her sister was a witch and who thinks I should try to become the Minister of Magic or something for some weird reason?"
Draco looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. He shrugged lightly. "I don't know, tell her you are going to a friend's house or something," He suggested.
Olly gave him an incredulous look. "Dude, I can count the people I'm friends with here at Hogwarts on one hand. And I highly doubt Lily Moon is going to invite me over."
Draco frowned. "Lily Moon?" He shook his head. "Whatever. Fine. How about I invite you over?" Draco suggested, sounding reluctant, but in fact, he wanted to show his sort-of-new friend his house.
"That works," Olly nodded nonchalantly, but really he was elated not to have to spend a week with his aunt grinding on him. Then he paused. "Wait, your parents are gonna be fine with it, right? I mean, I'm like, what, Muggleborn? Half-blood? Something between the two anyways." He wasn't quite sure, since he still wasn't sure if his mother was a witch or not.
Draco shrugged. "They know that I don't invite just anyone over. I'm sure they won't mind," he said. "But, until now, you don't know your parents at all? Like...you can't find them or are they..." he trailed off, not wanting to say 'dead'.
Olly rolled his eyes. "Both dead, yes. My father was most definitely Muggle. My mother...no one is quite sure, since neither of my stepbrothers are wizards and my grandmother was most definitely a witch. We found a book on potions in her cottage some time back." He'd taken out some parchment to scrawl a quick letter to someone. "With luck, I won't be brutally murdered by my sister for not coming straight home for holidays." He muttered in French, finishing and sealing the parchment.
Draco just observed Olly as he wrote his letter. "I don't get why you are so indifferent about the whole thing," he said after a while.
"I leave the jumping around and squealing like a balloon to my sister, thanks. Pretty sure I'd break a leg again if I tried doing that anyways." Olly finished writing, sealed the letter, and put it in his pocket to give to an owl later. "And you didn't answer my question about the whole "pureblood'' thing."
"Actually, I did answer your question. My parents will not mind very much if I was the one to invite you. They know that I will never let a Mudblood enter the Manor," Draco said. "Beside, they never will interview you. But..." Draco pursed his lips in thought. "They might ask about your parents."
"Grandmother was a witch. The mum never mentioned if she was or not and I never found out so let's just assume she was. As for the father, pure muggle. But besides, I think I can pull up something from the time I did some genealogy research...Did you know for instance that one of your ancestors tried courting the queen?"
Draco blinked at Nicote. "Wow, no I had no idea. But I am sure if I told them you're a Half-blood then that's okay, too. But...if you know nothing about your parents...do you even know their names?" Draco asked.
"I don't know anything about my mother. I learned plenty about my father. More than I'd like." Olly muttered the last part under his breath. "And I do know their names. My...brother...has a scary excellent memory. Unfortunately."
Draco nodded. "We will see what we can do. You just come over to spend the summer and I will improvise if it gets bad," he said, finishing the last part of his essay, and started packing his things.
"Most of the summer, anyways. I have to spend August in France, at the very least. My eldest brother is turning 20 and if I'm not there, well, there goes my share of the business. Or at least some of my honor and dignity." Olly shrugged, selecting some books from his pile and putting the rest on the shelves again.
Draco got off the train, his trunk trailing behind him by the spell he cast on it. He obviously will not drag his trunk behind him like some lowly Muggle. He spotted his parents standing farther away, waiting for him, but elected to wait for Olly to join him before going over.
Olly all but crashed out of the train. "Stupid...trunk...stupid trains, why can't we use planes or something?" Olly grumbled, picking himself up and putting the bludger that had escaped (why he had one no one knew and it was probably better not to ask) back into the trunk. "Stupid bludger." He straightened up. "Ok, can we just get out of here now? Before this thing gets loose."
Draco shook himself out of his gaping. "Okay, let's go," he said, rolling his eyes at the boy's weird behavior. He led him to where his parents stood, and when he stopped in front of them, his mum swept him in a hug.
Lucius looked Olly over. "This is your...friend?" he asked, nose upturned. "What's your parentage, boy?"
Olly snickered a little at Draco's mother's overenthusiastic show of affection (even though he himself usually got the same welcome from his very huggy sister). Then straightened up to answer Mr. Malfoy's question. "Half-blood."
Lucius sniffed. "Well, it is better than being a Mudblood, at any rate. Draco, how is Sev? You did win that house cup, didn't you?"
Draco patted his mum on the back before stepping away from the hug to answer his father.
"Sev is fine. He..." He gave a fleeting look towards Olly, "He tries to help me still. And about the house cup..." Draco looked down in shame. "The Gryffindors won again. The idiots."
Olly, for once, understood the look 'don't question it.' After all, he was supposed to be making a good impression. He at least knew enough about that.
Unfortunately, his bludger had other ideas and flew out of his trunk, knocking him over again. "Dammit! Where's the nearest post owl? I'm sending this thing back and I don't particularly care who it's going to hit when the package gets opened!" The bludger had been a "present" from his sister as her response to him not coming back for the , Olly had wonderful siblings indeed.
Lucius narrowed his eyes at the bludger. "And what, pray tell, is that..thing?"
"Something that my sister, who apparently somehow learns more Charms at Beauxbatons then I know about, decided to send just to annoy me," Olly grumbled as he wrestled with the bludger.
"Alright!" Draco interrupted. "I think we should go home now, don't you?"
Narcissa laughed quietly and nodded. "Don't worry, my Draco, I like that friend of yours," She told him quietly. He smiled at her.
They all Apparated to the gates of Malfoy Manor, Draco and Olly doing Side-Along Apparition with Narcissa and Lucius respectively.
Olly, to Draco's mild surprise, wasn't too shocked at seeing such a big house. His own home was quite similar...just more noisy.
Lucius opened the front door. "Well, come along. Standing outside like this isn't going to do anyone much good."
Olly awkwardly carried in his trunk, trying to hold down the lid so the Bludger wouldn't escape again, and trying not to trip. "For once, I am so glad I do not have to bring that cat of mine with me," he muttered darkly to Draco, puasing to slam down the slowly-opening lid. "Draco, please tell me you have a library. I need to go find a spell to un-enchant this...thing." He hadn't been allowed to take books out of the library and he very much wanted to find something that would unenchant the bludger and also maybe make his sister grow fangs for a week.
Draco frowned slightly. "I don't know if my father will allow you to enter the library. It's very dangerous. But I can ask my mother for help. She was good at Charms," he whispered, as he led Olly upstairs to the guest bedroom. Olly just nodded at that.
"This is where you sleep. And this is my room. Just get ready, because dinner is in an hour, I think," Draco said, before going into his own room to change.
Olly awkwardly changed into bell bottom jeans and something that suspiciously resembles one of those fancy chef's uniforms but black. Then, with the bludger beating him periodically, he stumbled out of his room and collapsed on the landing, near Draco's room, to wait for him since he didn't know where the dining room was. He face-planted on the floor, painfully, rolling to the side, and didn't bother getting up. It was a nice cool place and he could stretch out, even if it was a weird place to do so.
After a while of choosing what to wear, Draco finally settled on black dress trousers and a white dress shirt. He came out and raised an eyebrow at Olly. "You better not let my parents see you like this," he commented.
"You try getting beat by a Bludger."
"Whatever. Let's go." He said, as he led Olly to the dining room and took a seat across his mother.
Olly took a seat next to Draco. Lucius looked him over and asked, "What is that...thing...you are wearing?"
Olly shrugged. "The only type of clothing I have that isnt school robes, sir."
Draco silently hoped Olly would not make a fool of him, Draco, in front of his father with his careless behavior. He sighed quietly. Thankfully, the house elves appeared to serve dinner and they started eating.
"Draco, darling, how was school?" Narcissa asked her son.
"It was fine, thanks," he replied politely.
"And you, dear? Olliverro, wasn't it? How was school for you?" Narcissa asked him kindly.
"Fine, besides the Howlers, bludgers, and getting banned from detentions in the kitchen," Olly said automatically. He was too busy analyzing the food to really pay much attention. "Hmm. What kind of mushroom are these? I've never seen them before, and the flavor is quite enriching to the rest of the dish," he noted. Internally, he was making lists of dishes he could add these to if he just knew where to get them...
Lucius looked him over carefully. "Banned from detention in the kitchen. Explain."
Olly jerked up, having been engrossed in flavor-tasting. "Oh. Um, yeah. I...might have gotten a little carried away about being back in a kitchen again...My family is head of a high-class restaurant, and my sister and I plan to open our own restaurant for French wizards, there are almost no good choices for fancier meals that do not involve Muggles in some way in that part of the country surprisingly," Olly replied. "By the way, your food is excellent," he added. He knew that piling on the compliments was often a good thing to do with more...wealthy folks. He saw enough of those in his family's restaurant.
More then enough of them.
Draco resisted the urge to facepalm. For the hundreth time since meeting Olly. Luckily his mother appeared to quite like his new friend. She laughed at what he said. "Thank you, dear. You seem like such a nice boy."
Olly just nodded politely and kept right on analyzing mushrooms with the main part of his mind.
Lucius didn't quite know whether to get mad or not, on the one hand this boy was infuriating (though not like the Potter boy), but on the other hand...
"So your family owns a business?" Lucius managed to say without too much venom.
Olly glanced up. "Oh, yes, a high class restaurant chain in Paris. And...some other ventures. My grandfather recently started investing in pigeon racing, it's very profitable and in Asia the events are like the Quidditch World Cup, but with more money involved. But I don't really know the details of that. I stick with the restaurant. Much more straightforward and more reliable." In truth, he knew a lot, but no way was he going to tell all his family secrets out. After all, he had the feeling Lucius wasn't thrilled with muggle things too much…
Draco looked anxiously at his father as he played with his food.
"How did you meet Draco, Olliverro?" Narcissa asked. "It is rare when our son brings home a friend, and he only does that when they are worthy of his friendship, you might say."
Olly glanced up from his enjoyment of a fine dinner not cooked by himself or his family. "Oh. We're in the same year. I just spent most of my time in the library and we...sort of ran into each other later or sometime during the last school year."
Lucius had a feeling that wasn't the whole story but decided to not mention it...yet. Draco would probably tell him anyways.
The rest of dinner went...mostly smoothly. (Olly spent a good chunk of it analyzing different flavors in his food and barely remembering to not just reply to things automatically with snide comments) but otherwise was quite uneventful.
Afterwards, Lucius pulled Draco aside. "He's coming back," he said quietly.
Olly was too busy trying to get the bludger to stop hitting him to notice, luckily.
Draco stared at him. "Well, we already know that, don't we? He was back since fourth year," Draco whispered back. "Or do you mean...He's coming here? To the manor?"
"Of course I mean he's coming here. He wishes to use our manor as headquarters. After all, your aunt Bellatrix is his second-in-command," Lucius whispered back.
Terror seized Draco's insides. "Oh, God. What do I do? And, and what about Olliverro?!" Draco whispered fiercely.
"A little help would be nice," Olly called from where the bludger had decided to have a field day on him and was going around his head like an annoying bird- Olly had a feeling that whatever charm his sister used matched her current emotional state or something.
Lucius just sighed. "We'll figure something out. Erase his memory later, perhaps."
Draco looked towards Olly and was surprised to actually feel woried for his new friend. "I...I will think of something, father."
Lucius just nodded and left the room. Olly finally tackled the bludger. "Some help. Stupid Bludgers. This is why I don't play Quidditch."
Draco, still pale, went over to Olly. He sighed.
"Listen, we need to stay in my room for a while, okay?" Draco told him. Rather, he needed Olly to stay in the room and he had a feeling that he would have to be present in that "meeting".
Olly raised his eyebrows. "What's going on? Whatever. I can try some counter spells on this thing."
"Since you obviously don't care for reasons, let's go," Draco said, quickly pulling Olly behind him and upstairs to his room. His Mark was starting to tingle and he knew that He was near.
Olly and his annoying bludger followed.
The moment Draco closed the door, he heard the faint voices of people downstairs. He leaned back against the door and sighed.
Olly started trying different countercurses on the bludger. Which resulted in him getting knocked back on his back against the wall. "Ow. What on earth did she enchant this thing with? Merlin's pants, I swear she's probably gone and gotten some older friend to do it for her, no way she did this..." He seemed oblivious to the voices downstairs.
Lucius, meanwhile, was trying his best not to freak out.
Bellatrix smiled a very stretched, thin smile at Lucius. "Lucius. It is..wonderful, to see you doing so...fine."
Lucius nodded. "Hello, Bellatrix." But inside, he was quaking. What if the dark lord was to discover his son's clearly muggle-raised friend, who seemed quite...oblivious...to the tastes of wizards?
Voldemort sat at the top of the table, observing his followers. He noticed how nervous Lucius and Narcissa were. He also noticed that the boy wasn't there.
"Lucius," Voldemort began, "Where is Draco? Should he not be here, where he belongs?" he asked pointedly.
Narcissa stopped herself from whimpering. She had hoped that her Draco would not get involved in this.
Meanwhile, Draco was trying to shush Olly and listen to what was being said downstairs at the same time.
Olly did not attempt more countercurses for a good while after that. Namely because the last one had rebounded and he was currently too busy trying to un-countercurse his left hand. "Your parents throwing a party or something?" he muttered to Draco.
Lucius stammered. "He has just returned from Hogwarts, I expect he is still unpacking or is preparing himself to come and join us "
Bellatrix snorted.
"He is, isn't he?" Voldemort said thoughtfully. "Well, I want him here, now." He looked at Narcissa pointedly. She gulped quietly, and summoned a house elf.
"Get Draco for me," she ordered the house elf, who bowed and disappeared with a pop.
Draco jumped slightly when a house elf appeared in his room.
"Master Draco, sir, you are wanted downstairs."
Draco clenched his hand to stop it from shaking. He looked at Olly desperately.
Olly rolled his eyes. "What are you looking at me for? They want you. Just go down there and see what's the fuss and when they get to ignoring you again slip back upstairs. That's what I usually do whenever it's a business meeting. Merlin's pants!" he yelped as the Bludger knocked him in the face. "I think my sister put some Muggle microphone device in this thing..." he groaned.
Bellatrix was tittering. "If it were my son I would have had him already downstairs, to greet his Master."
Draco shakily went downstairs and knocked on the dinner hall door. He opened it and stood there, his head bowed.
The Dark Lord heard the door open, and without looking up, he said, "Well? What are you waiting for?"
Draco quickly scrambled to the table and sat at the only empty chair: between his parents.
Bellatrix just sniffed disdainfully at Draco's lateness.
Lucius looked only slightly less relieved that his son was here.
Voldemort regarded Draco. "So, Draco, update us on your task."
Draco's hands shook in his lap. "M-my lord. I am almost done with it, j-just a few more a-adjustments and-"
"A few adjustments, you say? How long will it take you to finish? I have been gracious and gave you more time than necessary," Voldemort said
Draco's breath quickened. "I-I need more time, my lord. It is very hard for me to-to act freely at Hogwarts, where there are professors and the Headmaster. I do not want anyone to get suspicious, my lord," Draco stammered.
Voldemort regarded him coldly, then looked at Bellatrix.
Bellatrix sniffed. "It's been nearly a year. Why-"
A loud crash from upstairs interrupted her. Lucius jumped out of his chair hearing the noise. "Goodness, what on earth is that, Cissy?" Bellatrix yelped, wand out.
Upstairs, Olly was growling at a certain owl holding a howler in his beak. The window was also broken, as the bludger had flown into it when it missed hitting Olly. The boy groaned when the voice of his sister came out and started yelling at him...again.
"Olliverro, you idiot! Do you know what you've done? You've forgotten a lot of stuff, that's what! Newt is absolutely failing at running your shifts and I don't care if he's just as good as you when it comes to cooking, he's way too busy sticking his nose in books to be of much use! And I have to do all the calculations, which is supposed to be your job and you're the one taking arithmancy! And don't even get me started on auntie, she's driving everyone nuts including Al and Al does not get annoyed, everyone knows that!" The girl was switching between French and English so often it was hard to tell what she was saying sometimes.
If Olly wasn't dead via his sister's angry ranting, he was definitely goig to be dead by Everyone else in Malfoy Manor.