Draco Malfoy Promises To Be A Good Boy This Year

Part Fourteen

The Black School

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I immediately plunged into darkness. It was like a portkey, but a whole lot more frightening. It was like falling through a tunnel of wind, being blown like a rag doll from every direction, except that I was blind. I couldn't see a thing except blackness. I opened up my lungs and screamed for all I was worth. There was nothing worse than being surrounded by total blackness while falling.

Suddenly, my hand was wrenched from Hermione's and I cried out for her. The light became gray and then orange with torchlight and I smacked hard against a cold stone floor. Groaning, I looked around for the others but they were no where to be seen. I was alone again. "Hello! Herm? Ron? Can anyone hear me?" I was in a long winding hallway completely made out of stone with high ceilings that I couldn't even see. There was blackness as far up as I could look, but the actual corridor was lit with warm orange light. Shadows lurked in every corner and the walls seemed to pulsate with life, with faces of demons. I was terrified. "Hello?" My voice echoed.

A light flashed to my left and a wand lit up. "S..Stay back! Don't come a step closer! I'll k..kill you, I swear!" Ginny emerged from the shadows, her wand held out in her trembling hand, Nathaniel clutching onto her robe.

I held my hands out in front of me. "Ginny…it's me…" I was so happy to see her, I had to hold back my joy so I didn't startle her.

She lowered the wand and rushed towards me, flinging herself into my arms. "Draco! Hold me, please!"

I held her close, burying my nose in her hair. I wanted to just take her hand and run as far away as I could. But we needed to find the others and discover what Tom Riddle, formerly Voldemort, had up his Muggle-clad sleeve.

"Da! Da!" Nathaniel attached himself to my leg and I scooped him up.

"Do you know where the others are, Ginny?"

She shook her head. "Are they here? Oh god, I'm so sorry. I should have found some way to fight him."

"He was too powerful. None of us can fight him." I planted kisses on Nathaniel's little round cheeks. "Where are we, anyway?"

"I don't know. I woke up alone with Nattie in my arms. I was on a soft sofa…I got up and started to walk. I've been alone for hours." She shuddered.

"We'll stay close together from now on." I took her hand and we started to walk through the dark halls of the stone complex.

We eventually fell into step with a great many others, mostly young men in their late teens or twenties. They were all clad in long black cloaks with tan hoods over their faces. Their faces were not cruel and they smiled at us as they walked.

"They don't look frightened, do they, Draco?" Ginny held tightly to my hand and looked around at the serene figures.

Nathaniel was getting heavy in my arms. "They're not afraid. They know what they're doing here. We'd better stay with the group." We hurried along into a massive chamber, not unlike the Great Hall of Hogwarts, only much darker and more sinister. Soon a chanting struck up, almost like we were in the midst of a Monastery.

"It's so beautiful," breathed Ginny.

I had to agree, even though the whole thing was giving me the creeps. "But what does it mean?"

"Ginny!" Harry's voice resounded from somewhere across the room.

"Harry, is that you?" Ron.

"Where are you guys?" Hermione cried out next.

By pushing through the crowd, we all met up in the center and clung to each other for dear life. I was relieved they were there. "I'm so glad you're here! The coin must have dropped us all off at different places."

"Coin?" Ginny asked.

"We'll explain later," said Harry. "But what is going on here?" More and more of the young men were watching us by the minute. We did look different in our hoodless robes, but they needn't stare!

One of them bent down and started to talk to Nathaniel. Ginny knelt down next to him, just in case the young man was up to no good. But on the contrary, he was very kind. "Hello, little one. Awfully young to be here at the Black School, are you not?" The young man had an unidentified accent…as if he wasn't quite from this world.

Ginny started. "Black School?"

"Ah yes, small lady…do you not know where you are? This is the famous Black School in Spain."

Hermione gasped. "Spain?!"

I crossed my arms. "That's just a myth."

" 'Tis no myth, young man. You are here." He gestured all around us and ruffled up Nathaniel's hair. "But we must be silent now. Our Head Boy approaches."

All heads turned to look up at a raised stone platform where a tall form appeared. He was dressed like the others, but he threw off his tan hood to reveal a head of tousled jet-black hair and a pair of dark eyes. He smiled at the crowd. It was Tom Riddle, looking a bit more like himself.

All the young men ceased to chant and kneeled down on the stone floor in respect of Tom. We alone stood, looking up at him. He smiled at us, a happy look in his eyes. "Students of the Black School! Our kind Master has allowed us to have an assembly today to welcome five new students into our humble place of learning." He was gazing right at us. "Will the five I address please step forward?"

I glared at him. "Sure Tom…you think we're coming up there? Send us home!"

He glared at me. "Not bloody likely, Draco…you'd better come on up here if you want to keep the pretty heads of the ones you cherish on their necks!"

Ginny shivered and I kept my arm around her tightly. "We may as well do what he wants. We're dreadfully outnumbered."

As a group, we marched through the pack of students, who parted for us with respect. If we were 'friends' of the Head Boy, we must be friends of theirs too.

Tom stooped down and grabbed our hands one by one, pulling us up on the platform with him. "I will now introduce you to our five new students in the education of the Dark Arts."

"The Dark Arts!" Hermione was furious. "I am not learning the Dark Arts!"

"Oh don't worry, Hermione, it will be good for you!" Tom grabbed her by her robes and threw her down on the platform in front of him. "Hermione Granger, destined to be Head Girl of Hogwarts…" There was a murmur from the crowd. "…And even sooner Head Girl of the Black School." He nudged her aside with his foot. "Be a good girl, now. We'll take no trouble from you."

After shoving Hermione aside, he grabbed hold of Ron and shoved him down to his knees. He had incredible strength for such a tall spindly boy. "Ronald Weasley…useless, but sure to amount to something some day." The students laughed.

"Hey!" Ron cried indignantly, but was shoved aside.

Tom reached for my hand and pulled me in front of him. He ran his hands over my head and wrapped his arms around my chest. "Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, one of my greatest supporters in England. A dear, dear, boy. He's raising my son, in fact." He was surprisingly gentle with me. So I was destined to be a favorite of Voldemort.

He pulled Harry up next. "And this is the great Harry Potter, the child who led to my downfall. The most beautiful boy I have ever seen." He held some of Harry's hair and breathed deeply of the scent. "It takes so much not to hate him…but let's not be too cruel to him, shall we? He is one of us now." Tom shoved him roughly away and he sprawled on the floor, rather molested and confused.

Next he reached for Ginny. She put up quite a fuss, holding onto Nathaniel with a death grip and kicking at him. "Leave me ALONE!"

Tom laughed and pulled Nathaniel out of her grasp. He hoisted Ginny off her feet and held her out in front of him, holding her still with an iron grasp. "Virginia Weasley, the diamond in the rock." He smiled viciously. "What else is there to say? She's the mother of my heir." He pulled her back against himself and slowly licked her left cheek. She shuddered and then cried out as the black streak she had received on her cheek the summer before burned black, much like the dark mark, standing out on the white of her pale face. I stifled a gasp and Nathaniel ran to his mother, crying out for her.

Tom smirked and turned to the wall. "Robes!" To our amazement, a hand was thrust out of the stone and promptly dropped five robes upon the floor. Tom lifted them and ceremonially draped them around our shoulders. "You must be tired after your journey from London. You'll find your chambers comfortable, I'm sure." He smiled at us. "You will receive guidance in its own time." He waved his hand and I was suddenly in a large well-lit room with Ginny and Nathaniel, complete with a large bed and a little crib for the baby.

Ginny eyed the bed curiously. "It's almost as if he's begging for us to be indecent."

I laughed. "Pervert…" I cupped her face in my hands. "Speaking of indecent, how dare he do that to you!" I turned her face and examined the black streak on her cheek. "It's exactly the same as last summer. Does it hurt?"

"No, but his tongue burned a bit." She shuddered. "But I'm not scared! We just have to wait and see what happens. We'll get through it." She knelt down on the floor and reached for my hand. I took it and sat close to her. Within moments Harry, Ron, and Hermione drifted into our room through the open door to the hallway and joined hands with us. We all sat in a circle, holding hands with our eyes closed, in some kind of silent unspoken prayer for the safety of all of us until we found a way out of the great Black School of Spain.


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I've done an illustration that shows Tom in his various forms, and I thought it might help clear up the whole disguise issue. You'll notice that he looks quite a bit different as Thomas than he does as Tom Riddle.

(Copy, Paste, And Take Out The Spaces)

www.angelfire.com / art2 / prettybetsikes / images / tom_riddle_profiles.jpg