Chapter 24
Worldly Miscalculations Part 1
Sev wasn't stupid. He knew that sort of dismissal. The sort of dismissal where the adults wanted to talk about you without your presence. So he left, and as he walked out the door, there was a teenaged temptation without significant deterrents anymore; dare he try to watch unobserved?
In this world, he knew for certain he could get away with it. They, by and large, vastly underestimated his magical abilities and seemed oblivious to many spells.
It was also somewhat amazing that the temptation rose out of nowhere, because in World 1.0 he had been disabused of that notion by the time he even was a teenager. He had attempted to eavesdrop on his mother and father talking about him, brazenly, a few times, and he had never gotten away with it.
He and Scorpius had tried, once and only once, to eavesdrop on a Meeting at Mr. Malfoy's. Without magic too, thinking that was safer. The aftermath of that was enough to disabuse anyone of spying on the adults.
But here?
Here he needed to know what was being said about him. For his safety. For his ability to protect himself. The "open-ended" comment about his return to school had not escaped his notice. He wanted to know what was going on, needed to know what was going on so he could gauge his actions appropriately.
He sat down on a bench by the far corner of the front window, out of view, and pulled out his wand. His first spell projected what was behind him against the glass so that he could look all he wanted through it without being seen. His second, he put his wand to the ground and sent a listening spell inside. He had to get it to stop very close to them for it to work, but his spatial skills were strong from being a beater and dueling, so it was not too hard.
Then he could just listen with his wand tip.
The conversation, or perhaps argument, was not precisely what he thought it would be. Nothing to really worry about, at least.
In fact, he was rather happy he heard it.
This was perspective.
And it seemed he had really upset old Professor Slughorn and the Headmistress by disappearing. He had sensed that about the Potions master already, and he'd felt badly about that.
When Mr. Malfoy had showed up at Hogwarts, he was not sure why. He had postulated several reasons. First, that he was simply the best equipped to deal with him because he also had a teenaged boy who was a Slytherin. Second, that he felt responsible for what Scorpius had done with the time-turner. Third, that he had been the one who had expressed the most interest and concern the entire time so was the logical one to contact. Fourth, Mr. Malfoy felt a firm enough allegiance to his dead father from this world to accept his child from another world. The fifth and final potential reason had been that Mr. Malfoy really cared.
Now it seemed the fifth reason might be the most concrete one.
Teachers and Hogwarts sorting me out! He snorted softly. Mr. Malfoy had more sense than the lot of them added up together. Not that he thought he needed much sorting out. He just needed time to adjust his mental rules and scripts to a new set of circumstances and different people. He did feel most at ease with Scorpius' dad. The similarities between worlds were familiar and comfortable with him.
And Mr. Malfoy did not treat him cautiously, as if he were going to break. He spoke normally and was the way that he was, and that was familiar and easy enough for Sev to handle without a barrage of stimuli from all the world differences. That was overwhelming.
When he saw and heard the Minister's chair scrape, he stood up out of view, pulled off his spells, and took off around the corner to avoid being seen.
He dawdled a bit to not enter immediately after she left, and when he went back toward the café door, Mr. Malfoy was exiting with a frown on his face.
"I saw the Minister walking back toward the Ministry. She did not look very happy, sir," he commented. In fact, when he had been very young, his mother had stalked off on his father like that many times; until the days when she couldn't leave and there was nowhere to stalk off.
"Her husband and I did not like each other in school. It becomes a sore subject very quickly when he's mentioned," Mr. Malfoy semi-lied very smoothly, his face rather firm in a way that suggested some lingering agitation.
Nobody else could probably notice the look, but this Mr. Malfoy was very like his own, and he had spent a lot of time with that Mr. Malfoy.
"Did you enjoy the Quidditch store?" the blond asked him.
"Of course, sir. I don't think there's a whole lot different with Quidditch stores between worlds," he lied, also smoothly, because he hadn't even been in there.
"Do you want to stop there before we go back? Anything you want?"
Sev shrugged, with the shoulders and everything, like he'd seen these teenagers do. His father probably would have smacked the back of his head if he had ever shrugged like that at him, but it was normal here. And he was acting normal. It felt…strange.
"No, thank you, sir. You already got me most of the things I need."
Mr. Malfoy gave him a nod and a smile but still looked as if he was annoyed and thinking about something else. The Minister must have really angered him.
When they arrived back in his study at Malfoy Manor, Draco said, "Let's have a little chat, Sev."
The intake of breath at that sentence, and the zipped way it was done, told Draco that he probably also had "little chats" in Sev's old world and that they meant trouble in both places. The boy's demeanor totally changed when he turned to face him. Those grey eyes looked up at him, braced.
Draco leaned back against the edge of his desk. The Gryffindors had no idea what they were dealing with at all. Maybe he had not fully appreciated either. A year's worth of Death Eater company at his house when he was nearly an adult was not the same thing as the thirteen years Sev had experienced in the absence of anything else.
Draco had experienced something else in the world first. Something better. Something he had wanted back. Professor Snape's son had experienced only one thing, and his father was the only exception.
He was seeing that more clearly now. Trust was a foreign concept. Protection that was not from his father was also a foreign concept. He couldn't fathom another reason why the boy would do what he did.
"Did you use magic to spy on me with the Minister in the café?"
AN - What do we all think Draco's response is going to be? I broke this into two chapters, but the other half is already mostly written. Drop me a review and let me know what you think!
