Draco Malfoy Promises To Be A Good Boy This Year

Chapter Sixteen

The Old Student

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Seconds ran into minutes and minutes ran into hours. Hours to days. Days to months. Months to years. Well, maybe we hadn't been at the Black School for quite that long, but several weeks must have passed; time didn't feel like it moved at all where we were, deep beneath the ground. Yet we adjusted.

Ginny and I became very good at being dark wizards. For us, it was like being in the Chamber of Secrets all over again because we were free to do as we pleased. Only, we didn't get quite as nutty…just talented. We had mastered the art of controlling fire and water and we would host battles against each other for the rest of the students at night after meals. Ginny and I could produce the most amazing fire and water spirits from the ends of our wands and we would duel as Ginny's fire tried to consume my water and my water fought to extinguish her fire. At the end of every battle we would end up clasped in a heap together in the middle of the main cavern, sopping wet and covered in soot, completely exhausted. Harry and Ron were slightly enthralled with the whole process, but Hermione thought it was sick and wouldn't watch. She was having the hardest time adjusting to our new school. Tom Riddle, meanwhile, loved us. Such talent he had never seen, he said, from anyone lower than himself.

Every night before we went to bed we would ask the walls of our chambers the questions we thought up during our days of reading and studying. This was Hermione's favorite part, considering the walls were just as smart as she was, if not more so. The rest of us…well, we were pretty dumb in her eyes. Hermione would sit in front of the stone walls in the room she shared with Ron and Harry and watch the bright green words show up, delight upon her face. Nathaniel often would sit next to her, patting the wall with his little hands, fascinated by anything brightly colored.

Nathaniel was a very serious little child and he was extremely well behaved even though he didn't really have an adult to look after him. He would toddle along between Ginny and me whenever we walked through the caverns and play with little colored pebbles and Tarot cards and anything else that was lying around nearby while we were studying. I wondered if that was normal, that he almost never cried and that he was so quiet. Really, he was a lot like I was as a tiny child.

Harry and Ron were fascinated, but not attached to the Black School. They wanted to go home as much as Hermione did, but at least they made the best of it. Harry had the hardest time with Tom Riddle, whom he hated considering Tom killed his parents. Tom swore that he was changed and, why, even felt bad about it, but Harry didn't buy it. He glared at Tom whenever he saw him and tried to keep him away from Ginny and me, which was a hard feat. Tom was obsessed with Ginny. As for me, I didn't mind Tom too much. I had never been a die-hard Voldemort supporter, but I had never disliked old Voldie either until last summer. Ginny liked anyone who was nice to her, so she often forgot and let her guard down. You had to admit liking Tom was different from liking Voldemort since they were almost two different people. I forgot from time to time that they were one in the same as well. I think we all did.

One evening Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Nathaniel, and I were hanging out in the main cavern after dinner. Ginny and I were practicing for the evening's show of Fire and Water. Tonight I was experimenting with turning the water to ice and Ginny was dodging sharp ice bombs left and right. "Come on Draco, don't kill me, will you?"

Nathaniel was sitting next to Hermione who was reading from a children's book she had requested for us by way of her friend, the wall. She had also read it to the rest of us in an attempt to keep our minds focused on good things, rather than bad, since it was so easy to loose yourself in a bottomless resource of dark magic. It didn't have much effect on me, but it made Ginny cry because she missed her mum. So Hermione scored a point and managed to pull Ginny and the boys back from the bottomless pit of evil thoughts.

This night, however, Ginny was raring to play with Dark Magic. "Harry, Ron! Why don't the two of you try to duel too?"

Harry set down the book about disfiguring curses he was pawing through. "We're not as good as you."

"So? It's really quite fun. You're good at controlling wind and Ron can make it rain."

"You make it sound so cheesy, Gin." Ron mumbled. "I can make it thunder and lightning too!"

Ginny ran over to her brother and started to pull on his hand. "Pleeeeease come play with Draco and me? Show Tom Riddle how great at magic you are!"

Harry snapped, "We don't care what he thinks."

"But I'm bored," said Ron. "I'll play." He picked up his wand and headed over to Ginny and me.

Ginny gave Harry a look. "Come on."

He sighed. "Fine, I'll play. No sense in sitting around doing nothing all night." He hurried over and pulled out his wand. "On the count of three, get ready to feel the wrath of wind!" He raised his wand to the sky and yelled out a spell.

Wind flew out of the point of Harry's wand and engulfed us. Ginny was thrown right across the floor on her bum, but I set a jet of water in Harry's direction. It soaked Harry and soon a creature in the shape of an evil dancing sprite, completely made out of water was attacking Harry's spirit, which had formed from the wind. In a moment, a fire sprite was turning my water into steam and a fairy in the shape of a lightning bolt blazed forward in a ball of electricity. The water crackled and sizzled as the fire was blown wildly around by the angry wind. It was invigorating and terrifying all at the same time. As we battled, other students drifted in, cheering on our various controls of Mother Nature. Tom Riddle was at the head of them, laughing and tossing conjured flowers at Ginny.

Hermione held Nathaniel on her lap and watched in terror like usual when she dared watch at all. She suddenly stood up and pointed. "LOOK!" she yelled.

We heard the voice before we registered that Hermione had said something. "ALL HOGWARTS STUDENTS WILL STOP THIS IMMEDIATELY!"

All four of us dropped our wands right to the ground and gawked, dripping wet and singed from fire and lightning. Professor Snape was drifting through the pack of Black School students who parted for him in respect. My voice caught in my throat. "P..Professor?"

He glared at us all. "You should all be ashamed of yourselves!" Ginny was sitting on top of Harry with her hands around his neck. Apparently she had gotten a little overzealous with the game. I was standing there like a little monk in my robe and hood, sopping wet, my long bangs plastered over my eyes, and Ron was trying to put out some flame which had ignited on the corner of his robe.

Snape pushed his way over to us and grabbed Ginny by the scruff of her robe, practically pulling her right off her feet. He did the same thing to Harry and held them up in a death grip. "Having a bit of fun were you?"

"No," Harry offered meekly.

"Shut your mouth, Potter!" He glared at me. "Malfoy, Weasley, get over here!"

Hermione was standing up on a stone ledge, clutching Nathaniel. "Please don't yell at them, Professor! We didn't mean to come here."

He sneered up at her, recognizing her even in her robes and hood. "I'm well aware of that, Miss Granger. Now please see if you can hold your tongue for a moment!" Hermione shut up, needless to say.

Once Ron and Hermione and I were standing next to Snape, trembling with fear and shock at seeing our Potions professor, he leaned down and whispered to us. "I'm trying to get you out of here. Who is the head boy this year?"

"This year? Were you here before, Professor?" Hermione was shocked.

"Yes, Miss Granger. I was a pupil here long ago, after my Hogwarts training when Voldemort was in power."

We all stared at him in amazement. Harry's expression practically screamed, 'I knew he couldn't be trusted.'

Hermione continued deducing. "So, since you're an old student you can get us out of here. We'll only be allowed to go if a student or an old student gives us leave."

"That is precisely why I'm here, Miss Granger." He straightened up and looked around, still holding onto the back of Ginny and Harry's robes. "I wish to speak to the Head Boy here immediately!"

Tom stepped up onto the aforementioned stone platform and dramatically tossed off his hood. "I am Head Boy."

Snape smiled, which curled back his lips in a sneer. "Tom Riddle…"

Tom smiled back, his eyes cold and calculating. "Severus Snape…"

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