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An alternative view of Silverfox's Runaway Dragon which will likely make no sense if you have not read that and maybe my other stories too.
I own nothing but my words, the things that aren't JK Rowling's are Silverfox's.
Chapter 2
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Covers Chapter 2
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=431805&chapter=2
I sent Munin off to the ADA squad early, and headed off myself to get some jobs done and some feelers out before they descended upon me.
If Malfoy really was dead, then the ramifications would be... interesting. As out of the loop as I was (and happy to be so thank you very much!), I might still be able to get a feel for who was going to fill the power vacuum. The dog would make as good an excuse as any to be in Knockturn Alley, talking to people who had been talking to people.
Sarah would look after Draco. She'd be able to keep him out of the park, he might understand Slytherin power structures, but the Hogsmeade gangs were right out of his ken, and they'd eat him for breakfast without sugar if he got in amongst them.
Hopefully he wouldn't be too underfoot, and Sarah could certainly cope with the usual Malfoy snobbishness. For the time I'd be away anyway, I would be able to quell the worst of the brat's pureblood viciousness when I got back.
Mind you, if he did start on that particular habit, then maybe the park would be the best place for him. There were a couple of Squibs down there who would show Master Malfoy that breeding wasn't a lot of use compared to a bit of chain with muscle behind it....
I was amazed to return and find the kid not only polite, but helpful! Volunteering to do the dishes even, was this the real Draco Malfoy?
He seemed to be getting on well with Billy too, quite unknown depths in young Draco. Get him away from the scum he usually associated with, and look what happens.
I'd been slowly pulling Slytherin up from the depths, building a cadre of almost decent youngsters from the abused and damaged and disliked and frightened who found their way into my care, but there were still ones I'd never be able to mend. Until now, I'd thought Lucius's spoilt son was one, but maybe there was hope. Was I slipping, to never have seen this side of the boy?
Still no news about Lucius, so had best keep the lad interested, give him other things to think about. Throw some questions at him, chat to him a bit, distract him from whatever had made him collapse in that sobbing heap in Diagon Alley. Not surprising he was interested in the gangs, hell of a day for a kid to be cooped up inside. But inside was the best place for him.
OK, let's see what the lad has learned. There were times I wondered if any of them retained anything even vaguely useful, for something like potions, class learning was so inefficient. Too wide a spread of ability, too little time with each one. Cookbook work, with just enough theory to make it seem like real learning, they probably thought it was always like that. Neatly written down, the only skill how well you can mince things.
Still, given some encouragement, he was starting off properly. Oh he was having trouble, but it wasn't an easy assignment, and he wasn't giving up. Doing better than expected, maybe some of it did get through!
Hmm... the ADA is taking a while to come battering the door down. If there'd been nothing in it, they'd have been here doing me in for malicious rumour immediately, so looks like there was some basis. How much though? And what else did they find? Would they think I was still mixed up in it? Had I just hung myself in my own rope? Where are they? Gods, listen to you Severus Snape, are you actually *hoping* for a visit from the ADA?
Ah. Munin. That means there will be a knock on the door any minute now, and given my luck it will be... Yes. Roger bloody Rogerson. Officious little twerp with no redeeming features. Not old enough to have done real work against the Dark Lord, not senior enough for much but errands and harassing poor sods like Snape, Severus. OK, have to hold on to my temper because he would just *love* to take me in for "questioning".
So even though he insults my wife, scares my son, and ye Gods and little fishes even kicks the cat, I will be calm and distant and not give him the excuse he's after, and definitely not give him the thrashing he so richly deserves.
Gods. It's hit home now hasn't it. Probably had just about convinced himself the whole thing was a nightmare. "Draco, you're not weak. It's okay to cry. hey, your mother just died. I'd be very worried if you weren't crying, you know."
Next job will be to find a place for Draco, someone who won't finish the job Lucius started. All on hold until after the trial, even though there's no chance at all that Malfoy will get off. Of course that's what I thought last time wasn't it, and I got to spend 5 years dodging Dementors and pacing 4 steps up and 4 steps back while Mr Bloody Malfoy got tea and sympathy. What it is to have money and barefaced cheek! He'll be displaying both in spades in the next few days, but with luck even he might not have enough of either.
The name of the unpleasant man is an Australian injoke. Roger Rogerson was a very corrupt policeman, star turn of a Royal Commission into the New South Wales police. Bribery, drugs, strongarm stuff, gangs, killings, you name it, Roger Rogerson was doing it or arranging for it.