His head was pounding when Draco opened his eyes next day. The air was virtually vibrating with the deafening clangour of bells accompanied by a bird's incessant croaking and a thin voice of a boy singing an eerie song in lilting tune.
"Clever bird, clever man, clever clever fool. Oh clever clever clever fool." He sang, as jingle of dozens bells were reverberating in Draco's ears. "The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord. The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord."
"He sings that all the time. I told him to stop, but he won't. It makes me scared. Make him stop." A small voice of a girl reached his ears, as the bird was shrieking ceaselessly. "Lord, lord, lord."
The cacophony of sounds was so unbearable the wizard was ready to unleash his power to silence everyone in vicinity, heedless of danger that might follow his action. Luckily for everyone, Draco could not summon up even quarter of his magic, nonetheless it was enough to magically induce his voice with authority.
"Stop it!" He shouted. "Make a sound again and I'll curse you all."
After a moment it became blissfully quiet, he could feel the attention of everyone present in the chamber was immediately diverted to him, even the bird curbed his activity. Draco turned his head towards the source of abruptly concluded commotion, what came into his sight was so queer, he had to close his eyes. What the fk is going on? Did I somehow end up in st. Mungo's psychiatric ward? Madness, no wonder though, he thought, as he finally mustered up some courage to behold the unfolded scene once more. The truth be told, it was a sorry sight. There were three of them, an old maester from the previous day, an ugly girl and a fat fool. They all were staring at him, eyebrows raised, mouths opened.
"Oh, you're awake, my boy." The old man observed him intently.
My boy, Draco was reminded of the headmaster he was missioned to dispose of. He wanted to scream at the entirely guiltless man and make him mute, instead he said, "Draco. My name is Draco M-m…" It took him an effort to stop revealing his full identity. All his life he was proud of his family name, it was armor against his enemies, a shining galleon for admirers and a key for him to all closed doors. Yet at the circumstances that he found himself stuck in, he was not sure what kind of fate would await him once his last name was revealed.
"Draco?" Maester Cressen repeated. "That is quite a rare name, I must say, and undoubtedly Valyrian. It is a good thing you recalled your name, as I mentioned yesterday, you are doing a marvelous progress, despite, or should I say, in spite the ghastly injures you bore yestermorning. How are you feeling now, Draco?"
The man came closer to his side, hands and legs trembling with each step.
"I feel better, thank you for your care." Draco did not wish the healer in close proximity to his emaciated body. He chose to be polite if it meant he would be able to prevent the man from taking out some other surprise from his sleeve.
"You are very welcome; it was pleasure to assist and witness the healing process of the one with the blood of old Valyria." Maester said and it was obvious he would have continued his long speech on the subject, had he not been cut off by the fool, who seemed to be prone to involuntary twitches. As he hopped each bell rang and sent a new wave of headache. Draco was one step away from sending an Unforgivable, when he realized he did not have his wand.
"Take it off, take your bloody bucket off!" he shouted once again, pressing his palms around his ears.
"Under the sea the merwives wear nennymoans in their hair and weave gowns of silver seaweed. I know, I know, oh, oh, oh." The fool sang and hopped, with each motion cow bells rang ringa-linga, ring-ding-dong.
"You stop it." the girl's voice was stronger now and everyone ceased their movements.
"Oh, forgive me for my manners; my age takes its toll, an old excuse for an old man." Maester Cressen was first to act, as he removed a bucket from the fool's head. The fool was not pleased. "Lady Shireen, this is Draco, the boy the Queen's, your mother's guard alighted on Dragonsmot. Draco, this is L-lady, Princess Shireen." the Maester stumbled over the introduction.
Princess? Well, if the girl is a princess and there is her fool, what role do they have for me? Draco wanted to laugh, his lips were stretching into a sneer, but not a single noise left his mouth. The girl was watching him curiously, although her eyes remained sad, so sad, in fact, Draco simultaneously wanted to comfort her or cast Ridiculus. Instead he turned his head back to the ceiling, after all the girl was not good-looking, even for a child. And as much as Draco did not care about appearances, not after a year of sharing his house with all sorts of freaks of nature, he could not behold the gaze of an innocent child, who was unfortunate enough to be born into a royalty with a face that was expected to be mocked at best. With ears so big and a jaw so wide she could have been considered homely by some, but when a grey spot of petrified flesh was covering half of her face and neck as a particularly monstrous mask, the only consolation was not being called ugly. Only her big sad eyes of dark blue were the single pleasing feature on her face and the expression on those eyes were too familiar to Draco not to be reminded of the circumstances of his own past experiences.
"And this is Patchface," Princess added, voice soft and caring. The fool did not move this time, neither did he sing, Draco appreciated the silence until he met the fool's eyes. Those were not sad or guileless eyes of a child, least of all a friendly or vacant look of someone clad in motley, instead there were twists of shadows in them, his pupils hidden in a dark well of brown eyes. Belatedly Draco noticed the squares on the fool's face were not poorly drawn paints, but tattooed ink of green and red. His inner Slytherin wanted to wax indignant over the sheer lack of taste, but he would never admit that watching at the clashing colors was easier than forcing himself to focus on the fool's deep set eyes. Still his instincts remained dormant, he chose to concentrate on the maester instead.
"I was showing a bird to her grace. A white raven flew from the Citadel to announce the end of summer." The bird perched on the railing of the stairs suddenly croaked, as if confirming what the man had already stated. It was an unusual raven indeed, much larger than Draco's family owl, and despite having snow white feathers its clever eyes were pitch black.
"The longest summer in living memory," the girl chirped. "Maester said it lasted for ten years, two turns and sixteen days."
A sudden burst of laughter caught the wizard off guard, it took him some time to realize it was him laughing hysterically.
"Ten bloody years!" he laughed and coughed, his body trembling from exertion. "Girl, you have your fool. Are you so ambitious or simply greedy? Princess or not, you can't make everyone play your game!"
"You should be more appropriate, my boy, this is the Princess you are talking to."
"I play no game," the girl whispered in a small voice, her lovely eyes cast down.
"Then do not act as if I were your fool," Draco said as last bits of his energy were slowly evaporating.
"Clever bird, clever man, clever clever fool! Oh clever, clever fool!"
The fool began to sing again, albeit less vigorously. Without his bucket the song he sang sounded weak and hollow. I want to go home, Draco thought leaning back on the pillow.
"Your fool is actually right," he told them. "Either you start to make sense or I will start to think you are, your clever fool aside, completely nuts."
"Nuts?" Maester Cressen asked nonplused. "Draco, my poor boy. I am apprehensive of my early expectations, I am afraid your fast physical recovery cost not only your past memories… Apparently you have to pay double for the power that flows in your veins."
"Are you implying I'm not sound of mind?"
"Sometimes the healing of the body is only possible at the expanse of mental faculties, it is only appropriate when it takes its toll. Do not worry though, your case is not finite, or so it seems, I will not give a false hope again."
"Maester Cressen, wasn't it? I believe you said you were a healer, you must be a knowledgeable man, how can you not?" As an old man nodded proudly in agreement, a Slytherin continued. "Well, impart me with your wisdom then. Clearly you see the absurdity of idea that a summer can last for years."
"And how long should summer be?"
"Isn't it an obvious answer? Surely it would be redundant for me to respond…" Draco waited for the man's reaction, which only revealed a mild confusion and loads of pity. Malfoy lashed out. "Three months! For Merlin's sake, where's your common sense? Have you ever been outside? Even if it never snows here, it doesn't mean the rest of the world doesn't have seasons, every one of which lasts exactly three months!"
The old man and the girl exchanged glances, their lips twitched in a short smile, eyebrows furrowed.
"Three months, wouldn't have it been wonderful, indeed!" Maester Cressen smiled wistfully. "I wonder where you acquired such notion, Draco, but let me tell you this – if you do not wish your sanity to be questioned, never, I repeat, never make a jape about the length of seasons, especially so when it comes to winters."
A jape? I am dead serious, you cretins! Breathing heavily Draco Malfoy tried to break a charm or a curse he believed he was inflicted with, it did not work. He took a deeper breath and reached the edges of his well-structured mind, to his utter terror the protective walls, he had been painstakingly raising and fortifying throughout his life under a grueling supervision of his father, followed by his aunt Bella, were crumbling away. He could see his innermost thoughts, his deepest secrets and his shameful experiences were all there for everyone skillful enough to see, unveiled and so exposed. Draco could not recall the last time he felt so vulnerable and unprotected, Constant vigilance became as much his mantra as it ever was the Mad Eye's. What meagre scraps of magic he had accumulated so far, all was pushed to maintain the most basic level of mental defenses. When the shields were at place and he deemed them passable, he looked back at his guests.
The three of strangers were still watching him, as if they were anticipating something. Belatedly he thought of the position he was in and realized he lost the track of time, Malfoy wondered if they were waiting for an answer or a comment. He chose to ask instead:
"Is it magic? The unpredictable nature of seasons, is it because of magic?" Draco inquired; in the end magic was all what mattered.
"Magic? I am sorry to tell you this, my boy, but there is no magic in this world." The old man stated.
"But you said you have dragons and a red witch," the wizard felt his voice cracked.
"Dragons are gone, if ever there were supernatural forces at play, now they all ceased to exist, slowly leaving this world with children of the forest at first, then dragons. As for the red woman –", said Maester Cressen, his tone polite, but lecturing.
"No. I have seen them in my dreams, they are coming," the Princess broke in, her voice ringing anxious. "They are coming to eat me, they are!"
"Not this again, My Lady, we have talked of this before. No dragons are –," the old man was interrupted once again, as the door opened, a man in a similar grey robe, although with significantly less amount of links on his neck, strode into the chamber.
Another house-elf, but this one is younger, Draco thought amused. The young Maester did not seem to notice him.
"Maester, pardons."
"You have forgotten the porridge," the old Maester told him.
"Maester, Ser Davos returned last night. They were talking of it in the kitchen. I thought you would want to know at once," the man replied.
"Davos… last night, you say? Where is he?"
"With the king. They have both been together most of the night."
"I should have been told. I should have been woken." Maester Creassen complained. Draco could hear a slight panic in his voice. "Pardons, my lady, but I must speak with your lord father. Pylos, give me your arm. There are too many steps in this castle, and it seems to me they add a few every night, just to vex me."
With that both Maesters left the room. Draco Malfoy sighed heavily and closed his eyes.