Draco Malfoy Promises To Be A Good Boy This Year
Part Six
Portkeys And Potter
And
What Happens When 5 Kids Are Left In A Flat Unsupervised
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That very afternoon, I was sitting in my new home on a soft green rug, soaking up the sun in front of two glass French doors that overlooked a busy street right in the heart of London. The flat wasn't that large, but it had a spacey living area, a small kitchen area, and two bedrooms with a full bath connecting them. I couldn't imagine Snape living there, but I suppose he must have had some sort of personal life at one time or another. The only thing that really reminded me of Snape was the color scheme, which was predominantly green. I loved every bit of it.
As soon as I arrived there (by Floo Powder - brrr…), I set about settling in. First I set up the Portkey in one of the closets. I had clutched it all the way there through various fireplaces and I was glad to be able to set it down. It was an old messed up shoe that one would not want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Its match was at school and I instructed that no one was to know about it except for Snape, Dumbledore, Ginny, and Harry-Ron-Hermione if they absolutely must.
The Hogwarts Portkey was going to be hidden in Snape's classroom and no one went poking around in there if they could at all help it. In my opinion, I would be glad if someone dropped in, as long as they were welcome company.
Actually, I had my first visitor later that day. I had just received an owl from Hogwarts with the first day's lessons when two more owls arrived at the same time. The one was my beautiful eagle owl from home and the other was an ancient owl, Errol, the Weasley owl. He floundered into my lap and passed out, but my eagle owl dropped his letter and fled. "Hey, come back!" I yelled. But then I noticed what the letters were. They were both bright red. "Howlers!!" Seemingly, my owl had been wise enough to evacuate.
I blanched and started to hyperventilate as the red beasts started to smoke. This was the last thing I needed. Suddenly, the one from the Weasleys exploded. The force threw me backwards and tossed poor Errol right out the open French doors. I wanted to go see if the poor old thing was dead on the balcony, but Mrs. Weasley's voice was so amplified that I was stunned by sound-waves. Then the other one exploded and my father's voice filled the room. I cowered and covered my ears. The Cruciatus Curse was better than this!
When Harry arrived in the closet he found me lying on the floor with my ears covered, bits of red paper strewn around me. "Howlers?" He quirked an eyebrow.
"Shut up, Potter."
He knelt down and started to pick up the pieces of paper. "Draco…look, I'm sorry if I'm the one who got you in so much trouble with the Slytherins."
I shook my head. "Forget it. They're just ignorant. And if they won't accept Ginny and me, then I don't want to be near them anyway."
Harry flinched when I mentioned Ginny. What was up with him? "Speaking of Ginny, she should be along soon. She wants to bring you dinner."
"Good thing. There's some strange device over there that's supposed to cook things, but I don't have the faintest clue how it works."
Harry burst out laughing. "That's a microwave."
I glared. "Shut it, Potter. I'm not a Muggle."
Still laughing, he noticed the French doors. "Ooh, a balcony!" He ran through the doors and yelped. "Hey, there's something dead out here! Errol?" He came back inside, carrying the pile of feathers that was once an owl.
"Oh, he's not dead. At least not yet. But I think Mrs. Weasley's voice almost did him in."
"I know, Ron got a Howler on the first day of his second year."
"Now I know who I rank with…" I grumbled. "So what are you doing here anyway?"
"What, is ickle Draco not happy to see me?" He was obviously in a very giddy type of mood.
"Oh, I'm delighted to see you Harry. Why don't you make yourself comfortable on the sofa while I make you up a lovely drink of tea and arsenic?"
"Can't wait." He flopped over on the sofa and placed Errol on a pillow. "So, this place belongs to Snape? I can't believe it."
"Neither can I." I brought him a cup of tea, minus the arsenic. I had supposedly almost killed enough people, and killing Harry would make me look even worse off than I already was. I grinned at my deliciously evil thoughts. "Honestly, did you miss me so much that you're already here?"
"Oh yes. Certainly. And we decided that we would all do our homework over here tonight, with you…you know, in case you have any questions."
I humphed, but was secretly glad since I wasn't always the brightest student. I didn't like applying myself all the time. "And Ginny didn't get in trouble?"
"Professor McGonagall believed that it was all your fault, so nothing happened to Ginny. She was just given a warning not to get any ideas about having young men sleeping in her room until she was at least eighteen." Harry snorted with laughter. "I thought it was all a jolly good show…Ginny's scolding, I mean. But we were so scared when you went wild, Draco. I'm glad Ginny didn't have to see it."
I was too. I hadn't planned on blasting the Gryffindors or running rampant through the castle, but these things just seemed to happen to me when I lost my temper. I would have to try to watch it. I changed the subject. "So then…want to play with the tele-thingy?"
Harry raised his eyebrows and snickered. "Git…"
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Later that night, five of us sat around on the green rug (dubbed affectionately the 'Snape Rug'), doing our homework. At least Hermione was, and I think Ginny was trying to. But the rest of us were pretending more than doing since we couldn't shut up.
"Are you sure you're supposed to be staying here? Snape was meaner than ever today." Harry glared at me and pointed his finger at me sharply. "Potter! Even less intelligent than last year, eh? How…disappointing. 10 points from Gryffindor! Parkinson, you're dumb as a brick, but you're in my house. 50 points for Slytherin!" He gave me a calculating smile, which was so good, I started to crack up.
"Would you all please shut up?" Hermione whimpered. "I'm trying to explain this to Ginny and you lot are acting like…"
"Boys?" I offered. Ron tossed a marshmallow at me and it bounced off my head.
Hermione sighed. "Yes. Yes, quite."
Ginny was lying over her parchment, her quill in her mouth. "Hey, Ron? What do you think is a good prediction for Divination? I'm supposed to be reading a…sweaty gym sock…or something."
I keeled over laughing. We were so gone.
Ron answered through his tears of laughter. "We read our futures from sweaty gym socks last year…"
"This I believe," Hermione whispered.
"…So, Ginny, studying my sock right now, I would be willing to predict that Draco will be hit with a stray comet as soon as he leaves the flat."
Hermione hid a smile and Ginny laughed uproariously. "I'm actually going to put that!"
"Professor Trelawny would love to see me hit with a comet, I promise you." I had just managed to pull the prediction that we were going to be killed by rabid wolves out of looking at a future-telling feather for 5th year Divination. "There has to be a better way to spend time than doing this." I jumped up onto the coffee table. "Time for a Pantomime!"
Hermione's head shot up. "A what?"
I just batted my eyes at her and grabbed for my wand. I tapped it on my head and I was instantly draped in a black cloak with green trim. I glared at the lot of them and made that same evil smile that Slytherin's are known for. "Who am I, Potter? Don't know? 200 points from Gryffindor!!"
Harry shook his head. "Too easy!"
"He likes me," bragged Ginny.
"Who wouldn't like you, Ginny?"
I spoke in a deep menacing voice. "Oh yessss…we all love Ginny." I reached down and grabbed her hands and pulled her up onto the table. I planted my lips over hers.
"Ew! Ew! Ewwwwwww!" Ron screamed, pretending I was Snape. "That's just sick!!"
"Cut it out, this place might be bugged!" cried Hermione.
Harry was glowering at me for reasons unknown.
I released Ginny. "All right, who's next?"
Harry shook his head as if to clear it. "Oh, I'll go." He stepped up on the table and tapped his wand on his head. He was then clothed in a bright violet cloak, covered with silver stars. He had a mirror in his hand and he looked in it, giving himself a brilliant smile. He was smiling so hard that I was afraid his face was going to crack.
I winced. "Oh no…it's…"
Hermione nudged Ginny. "Swooning time!" She tossed aside her Arithmancy parchment and she and Ginny grabbed hold of Harry's feet. "Oh, Professor Lockhart, you are just soooo sexy!"
Ron blushed a bright red. "Hermione!"
"Well…he was, but he was too stupid to forgive."
"Nice to see you getting into it, Granger." I gave her a lovely Malfoy smirk. "But I think we've had enough of Lockhart, don't you think?" I hopped up on the table and Harry and I pretended to have a duel with our wands until he tipped himself off the table.
"Woe is me, I am such a dead git! You're too much for me, Severus! Oh, woe."
Ginny threw herself onto Harry's body. "OH!!" she cried. "OH, poor handsome Professor Lockhart! Kiss my lips so that I may have the greatest experience a young woman could have before I die!"
Harry laughed nervously and kissed her quickly. Good thing too, if he kissed her for real, I would kill him.
Hermione hopped up on the table, tapped her head and she soon sported some multi-colored robes and a pair of thick glasses that made her eyes huge. "Why didn't you just borrow Harry's?" I asked.
"Shut up, Draco." Harry adjusted his glasses indignantly.
Hermione squinted down at us. "Behold, a speck of dust. The stars sent me this speck of dust and the fate of the future will be determined by what this SPECK OF DUST tells you. Mr. Potter…oh HORRORS! The speck of dust has just informed me that you will be dying a horrible death tomorrow. Why, you'll be drawn and quartered and then fed to Fluffy! Poor, poor child. So brave. So…tragic!" Hermione collapsed on the table in a mock faint.
Harry cackled. "Remember, she did predict that Voldemort was coming back. You have to give her that."
'Professor Trelawny' opened her eyes and gave a sniff. "Well, you have to admit she's mostly a fraud."
Ginny threw a sock at Hermione. "My turn!" She didn't do anything with her wand, but crawled around, arching her body like a cat. She looked at Ron and hissed. "Sssssssstudent out at niiiiiight!" She meowed and leapt at Ron, latching her teeth onto his leg.
He yelled out and then looked at us all with annoyance. "And she used to do this all the time when she was little…OW, hey, not so hard! I'm just joking!"
"I think it's kinky." That came from me, of course. "Mrs. Norris never looked quite so good. Come bite my leg, Ginny."
"You're horrible!" Hermione scolded.
"I'm next." Ron detached his little sister from his leg and climbed up on the table. He grabbed for Harry's wand and tapped it on his head. Suddenly, a Dementor stood before us and not Ron. Ginny screamed involuntarily.
"That is you in there, right Ron?" Harry asked, his voice quavering a bit.
Ron lifted the hood slightly and winked at us before dropping it again. He lifted his hand and pointed at me, as he made his breath rattle. He was scary. He advanced on me.
"Hey…stay back, there!" He suddenly grabbed me and pretended to plant a huge kiss on me. "Arrrrrrg!!" I yelled.
Ron fell away, laughing and looked at the shocked faces around him.
"Oh my god…that's definitely the best!" Harry's mouth was hanging open. "Ron definitely wins the Pantomime."
I, meanwhile, pretended to be dead on the floor. "Need air…Weasley Kiss Of Death…need…soap!"
Ron nudged me with his foot. "Draco helped."
There was applause all around and our costumes vanished with a spell from Harry. Ginny suddenly looked at her watch and cried out. "It's eleven-forty-five. Snape will kill us if we're not back by midnight. We're not supposed to be here any later than midnight."
"Plus, we don't want to see Snape at night. I would hate to think what that hair of his does," Ron added.
"Snape Bed-Head…scary." Harry laughed and gathered together his things. "We'll be back. Don't have too much fun without us."
"Don't worry." I yawned and collapsed on the couch. Ginny leaned over to kiss me.
"Goodnight, sweetheart," she whispered.
"Sleep well." I wanted to go with her. But I was safer here and she would be back. I would get my life back together. As they all headed into the closet and disappeared by Portkey, I pulled a blanket over myself and fell into a deep sleep. Tomorrow is another day.
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