Let's Do It Right This Time, Chapter 20: Draco Malfoy
"Yes headmaster," Gaunt said obediently, after making sure Seamus was out of danger, although he felt more like screaming. "Professor Snape?"
Said professor looked up. "I take it you wish me to accompany you?"
Aurelius nodded, preparing to follow Dumbledore.
The old man, however, suddenly looked uncertain. "Mr. Gaunt, is that really necessary?"
"I am within my rights to ask my head of house to sit in on the meeting," Aurelius told him tiredly, shaking a little now that the adrenaline had begun to wear off. "And since he's Malfoy's house head too, it might make discussion easier." Translation: I don't trust you enough to be alone with you.
Dumbledore did not look exactly pleased with that, but he plastered on his 'kindly grandfather' look and nodded to Snape, who followed them, while Mcgonagall silenced the roar of talk in the Great Hall and told everyone to go to class, barring a shaken Seamus.
Meanwhile, the three Slytherins followed the Headmaster to his office in silence. Snape looked impassive as usual, and Draco was white as cracked ice, while Aurelius seemed as if he just wanted to go back to bed; he could occlude the frustration, but the tiredness was not so easy to banish. Slowly, they walked up the winding staircase to the top, where a quick "Luminous Lollypops" made the gargoyle slide aside. Then the headmaster led them into the office.
"Boys, sit down. Lemon drop?"
Snape looked as if he had already eaten one. "Is that really necessary, Headmaster?"
The kindly grandfather facade died a little more. "Very well, Severus," Dumbledore said, tenting his fingers and fixing them with a stern gaze over his half-moon glasses. "Mr. Gaunt," he began.
"Yes sir?"
"You did a great and honorable thing today, if with the help of black magic."
"Thank you, sir," Aurelius said, though his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Dumbledore didn't just hand out complements and praise like those infernal lemon drops. What was the catch?
"You will, however, understand that I cannot let you get away with using parcelmagic."
Aurelius closed his eyes briefly and occluded so that Dumbledore couldn't see the anger on his face. "Why ever not, Headmaster?" he asked, giving a token protest, although he knew there was literally nothing he could say that would change Dumbledore's mind.
"Just because your peers use black magic does not make it right for you to do so also. I'm afraid I will have to take a hundred points from Slytherin."
Draco stared at Dumbledore as if he had never seen him before, incredulous even through his fear. Aurelius pinched the bridge of his nose. "I beg your pardon, Headmaster, I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you say you would have to take points? For black magic?"
Dumbledore sighed as if it pained him to make Aurelius's life more difficult. "Yes, Mr. Gaunt. We mustn't let the other students think that it is alright to use dark magic under any conditions. Do not take it personally."
"Now I know why Riddle went dark," Aurelius muttered under his breath. Dumbledore's eyes widened.
"Excuse me?"
"First of all, parcelmagic isn't black, even if you go by the old definition, rather than the modern one. Secondly, wouldn't the other students be a little more focused on the fact that I saved Finnegan's life? Thirdly, I do, as a matter of fact, take it personally, considering that if a Gryff or a 'Claw pulled the same stunt I just did, the house cup would already be in the bag for them. Not that I'm asking for the house cup or anything. I'd just like to maintain the status quo."
"Twenty points from Slytherin for disrespect," Dumbledore told him disapprovingly, the twinkle in his eye noticeably absent.
"Case in point," Harry said, quietly enough that the headmaster couldn't reprimand him for it, although Aurelius was sure he heard.
"Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said, changing subjects. "I must say that I am very disappointed in you. I may have to expel you."
Draco, if possible, went even more pale. "Please, headmaster, you can't do that! I didn't even know what that spell was!"
"Which ought to be a lesson to you," Snape inserted, speaking for the first time. "You never, never cast an unknown spell."
Unnoticed by the headmaster, Aurelius winced, eyes darkening as he remembered the sectumsembra. Snape, who was watching him, frowned ever so faintly, seeing his cringe.
"Indeed. Osso Frangere is not only black, it is illegal. If you were not a minor, you would be going to Azkaban."
Draco looked sick, and Aurelius couldn't help wondering if this would be the impetus to push him over to the Light side this time around; he knew perfectly well that for all his talk, Draco had no stomach for being a Death Eater, and this event only confirmed his opinion.
"As it is," Dumbledore went on, "I will be calling your father to the school. The Board of Governers will have to decide if you may return next year."
"I didn't mean it," whispered Draco again.
"But regardless of the intent, you did it and that cannot be ignored."
Aurelius had to agree with that, although he knew that Dumbledore was likely saying this more to scare Draco so that he could better manipulate him and make him all the more grateful for being allowed back at Hogwarts, rather than out of any simple motives of discipline.
"I'm sorry," Draco said. It was clear that it was only his Malfoy breeding and training that was keeping him from bursting into tears. He was, after all, still only a firstie.
"Very well. I will call your father tomorrow. As for today, you are excused from classes; you will have detention until the end of the year. Oh, and two hundred points from Slytherin."
Aurelius couldn't help it; he barked a laugh.
"Anything amusing, Mr. Gaunt?" Dumbledore looked as if he were loosing patience.
"Nothing, Headmaster," Aurelius told him, hurriedly occluding his amusement. He was thinking of how he had acted when he had learned Sirius Black had nearly killed Snape and had gotten off with only a slap on the wrist and twenty-five points from Gryffindor (which were replaced when Dumbledore gave James two hundred points for saving a yearmate's life), while Snape had lost a hundred points for being out after curfew. Simply put, Dumbledore had never been fair.
"Very well then. That will be all."
The three of them left, Snape to the class that he had already half-missed, and Draco distractedly walked to the lavatory, head down so as not to meet the eyes of the various curious or shocked students. Aurelius, slightly concerned, followed.
Draco barely made it through the door before he was sick, tears already sliding helplessly down his cheeks as he wretched. Without any conscious thought, Aurelius approached, his cursed Gryffindor pity sweeping over him as he watched the proud Slytherin prince break down. Silently, he slipped an arm around the boy's shaking shoulders; Draco started, but then simply slumped against him, too distraught even to break away, while Aurelius murmered the things that he had often wished someone would say to him, hoping it would help- it was not as if he had any experience with emotions himself. It might have been an hour or only a few minutes before Draco seemed to regain control of himself, jerking away from Aurelius's touch and swiping a sleeve over his face, as if that would help.
"Gaunt," he spat, realizing who his comforter was for the first time. "Come to gloat?"
"No," Aurelius told him frankly. "You were a damn fool and I will probably be angry with you if you do it again, but Finnegan's fine and I don't think your father would let you be expelled, so there's not too much harm done."
Draco's mouth opened and shut several times. "I-"
"Save it, Malfoy, go and get some sleep. You're overwrought," was all Aurelius said. And without another word, he left to his next class.
Neither of them noticed that they had not been alone for the last few minutes of that exchange.