"Would you mind if I told Dumbledore?" Hermione asked before she could come up with her millions of reasons not to.
"Why would he care?"
"Ummm- because child abuse is illegal, and Lucius could get in a whole lot of trouble for you two getting into a physical fight."
"You mean I could get Lucius into shit just because we got into a fight? Now if I had known about this I would have pissed him off like that years ago!" Draco laughed. "Sure, go ahead, talk to Dumbledore about it." he laughed again.
"I got to kick his ass and get him in trouble with the law! Well, I have a whole new perspective of that holiday!"
"Great, then, Ron, let's go talk to Dumbledore!" Hermione started to stand up.
"Why me? What about Harry, or Draco?" Ron asked unhappily, not wanting to be dragged from his lunch hour.
"Because you and Draco aren't very good friends and we're trying to make this seem dramatic to make it worry Dumbeldore even more so there's more of a chance of getting Lucius in trouble! Honestly Ron, I'm not asking you to swim the English channel in one half of an hour! Now come on!" she yanked him up by the arm and lead him over to the teachers' table.
Hermione put on a very concerned face and started to talk to Dumbledore. Who, soon after she started to talk, also got the exact same look. Ron got this kind of solemn face and they both followed as Dumbledore lead them to his office. They came back out about a half an hour later when the rest of Gryffindor was in Herbology. They walked in and handed a note to the Professor before sitting down by Draco and Harry.
"How'd it go?" Draco whispered to Hermione.
"Great! He got really worried and is going to personally see to it that this matter does not go ignored'."she said excitedly.
"You're kidding! He actually said that?" he stifled a laugh. "Damn, this is going to work out better than I thought it would!"
"You do realize that if something like this ever happens again it's liable that-"
"Ms. Granger, Mr. Malfoy, unless you would like to continue this conversation in detention I suggest you be quite and listen to my lecture!" Professor Sprout yelled and the rest of the kids snickered.
Draco and Harry had to wait until the end of class to hear in full detail what had happened with Dumbledore. It seemed to go on for hours and hours instead of twenty minutes. Professor Sprout went on and on about St. John's Wart and then gave them a truck load of homework.Mainly tedious work, too, like notes on the entire chapter. When the bell finally rang the four practically sped out of the room. When they were out of ear shot from everybody else Hermione started to describe how everything had happened at Dumbledore's office.
"We went over to the Professor's table and told Dumbledore that we were really worried about you, Draco. He told us we should talk about it in his office, and you know what his office looks like, you three have been there so many times it's amazing you don't live there but, then Ron told him what he saw and all that. Next, I told him what you told us at lunch, well I didn't mention a few things, well- two things. He then told us he would personally see to it that this matter does not go ignored'." Hermione seemed extremely happy with herself for coming up with the idea for the whole thing.
"What were you about to say in class?" Harry asked.
"Oh, it is plausible that somehow Lucius could lose guardianship of you and you wouldn't have to live with him anymore! Isn't that great?" she seemed pleased beyond reason that she was saying that.
"I've died and gone to heaven! He would be so pissed off! And I would be so happy! I think I love this school! And people wanted me to be in Slytheirn! I am so glad I listened to that damned hat. Can you believe Professor Sprout gave us so much homework?"
"It's torture! I mean, it's just mean giving us so much work!" Ron started to walk backwards as he spoke.
"I thought Hufflepuff's were suppose to be nice, at least the ones I know are nice, like Hagrid and Justin. Who knows about the other Hufflepuff adults!" Harry looks down at his books in dread.
"It's not that bad, you know! If all get a head start and do it before tomorrow morning, you won't be any kind of trouble."
The rest of the day was quite strange, all of the Professors had substitutes, and during their last class Professor Binns came back. He later informed Draco he was to go to Dumbledore's office. Draco couldn't help letting a smile come across his face, which made Professor Binns furrow his brow. He crossed his eyes at his friends before leaving the classroom for the Headmaster's office. He had been there so many times he knew the password, Blood Pops', and he went right on in.
"Hey Dumbledore!" Draco sat threw himself onto his usual chair across the Headmaster's desk.
"Draco, Mr. Malfoy-"
"Uh-oh, he's breaking out the last names, duck and cover! Okay, go on, seriously."
"Do you know why you're here?"
"Because Ron and Hermione were all weirded out because I got into a fist fight with Lucius, even thought I totally kicked his ass! He is so bad at fighting when he's drunk, it's sad, it really is." he tried not to smile. "But seriously, what do you want to talk to me about?"
"About just that, how bad... well- how bad is your back?" Dumbledore asked uncertainly. Almost like he'd done this before, but no matter how many times he dealt with it, that it would never get easier.
"I dunno, I haven't seen it in awhile, you tell me." he lifted up his robes and the back of his shirt to reveal three large welts on his back that were almost sunken into the skin and no longer appeared red.
"Okay," Draco let his robes and shirt drop and he flopped back onto the chair. "Well, it doesn't look too bad, not as bad as I thought it could be. I am still very concerned, as you can imagine, while I've been Headmaster at Hogwarts we've only had two other cases of child abuse, one of which happened this year also."
"Wait, was it that quite Ravenclaw girl? Damn, what's her name... Jenny, right?" Draco remembered her from classes and he saw her when he hung out with Hermione in the library sometimes.
She always looked at the floor and seemed to have some sort of cut or bruise whenever he saw her. Jenny didn't even seem to have friends among the other Ravenclaws, she actually seemed quite afraid of Draco. Although she was extremely tall and looked to be the strongest in their year.
"Draco, I've told you at least a dozen times this year, watch your mouth!"
"Oops... is it her?"
"Yes, but if you do tell anyone about that I will have to give you a months detention. Understood?" Draco nodded and rolled his eyes, like he was going to go spread a rumor about it. "Why did you think that it was her to begin with?"
"I dunno, I guess she just... fits the normal psychological personality, I guess. So, what do you want to do about the whole thing with Lucius and me getting into that little feud?"
"Report it to the Ministry, and keep a close eye on Lucius, mainly. However, if this happens again we will take you out of his custody. I think that is all for now, we will talk later this year, I am sure. Good day Mr. Malfoy."
"Yeah, good day to you too, Professor." Draco was deep in thought until dinner when his friends finally found time to ask him about Dumbledore.
"What happened?" Hermione seemed to be the most interested.
"He basically told me he would report it and he would be watching Lucius for any suspicious behavior... I think I have an idea. But, you're probably not going to like it, so..."
"Oh God, what are you going to do?" Ron asked.
"First of all, I don't care what you three say, I'm doing this anyway, so don't bother trying to talk me out of it, but if you really want to know," Draco lowered his voice so that only this friends could hear.
"I'm going to purposely get into a fight with Lucius." Hermione's eyes got wide and Harry's jaw dropped. "I know, it sounds insane, but I do have a good reason, Dumbledore said if this ever happened again I would be taken out of Lucius' custody. And it's worth it."
"Are you... sure we can't talk you out of this?" Harry questioned doubtfully, basically knowing the answer already.
"Positive. However, I do have something else up my sleeve, Hermi already knows part of it, I'll tell you two later. But for now we're done with this, we can talk about it after dinner sometime."
Before anyone could get a word in edgewise a massive amount of mashed potatoes came flying over from the Slytheirn table and fell all over one of the twins. Apparently Fred and Gorege had been taunting them for the whole meal and someone in their house decided to get even by starting a food fight. Before long everyone was involved in the fight where everything from pumpkin juice to peppermint hamburgers were being used as weapons of war. Lavender and her friends had made a catapult from assorted silverware and napkins. Meanwhile some of the Ravenclaws had made a sort of bazooka with some magic, cups, and many candle holders that weren't in use. It took a total of twenty some minutes to calm everyone down and get all of the students to stop throwing food. Surprisingly, Dumbledore wasn't the slightest bit upset, in fact, he seemed quite amused by the whole situation.
"Now, if you all weren't so creative with your tools of mass destruction and I couldn't have this cleaned in a matter of seconds with magic, I would be furious. But, you were and I can, so, it's time for bed, hurry along. And no more food fights, at least not this year. Good night!"
Everyone started to leave the Great Hall and head towards bed hen all of a sudden Lucius Malfoy apperated only a few feet away from Dumbledore. Draco quickly ducked into the crowd, but hearing Lucius ask Dumbledore, What the hell was that owl about?' made him weave his way out of the group and into a dark corner to listen.
"Well, Mr. Malfoy, I believe I explained it thoroughly in the letter I wrote you. But, if you need a more... in depth explanation, now what is it you don't understand about it, Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore seemed calm considering the circumstances.
"The whole bloody thing! Who do you think you are threatening the custody and authority I have over my son?" Lucius was now turning red with anger. "He is my son, damn it, and I will discipline him whatever way I choose! It's not your business!"
"Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore took on a look Draco had never seen in him before, an hostile fire had taken over his facial features. "It is my business! Unlike you, your son is smart and won't do something for any other reason than he pleases to! Which I, as well as most others, greatly admire! Draco is not afraid to be ostracized by his peers, you on the other hand, are a worm!"
"You can't take the thought of being criticized or having your dominance questioned, and since that's all Draco does, you get angry. And when you get angry you drink, and when you drink you get violent! You didn't try to hurt him as discipline! You did it because you can't stand the thought of him doing something against your will, at all! You are truly pathetic, you try to beat up a child because he makes you angry! If I did that you would have been dead ages ago!" a very shocked silence followed. Dumbledore had never been so visibly fierce before, and to see it was very frightening.
Draco really didn't want to stick around for anymore of the argument he knew would come, so he started to head back to the Gryffindor common room. Not four feet out the door of the Great Hall and Draco ran into a person, he looked up and saw Professor Snape looking down at him.