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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 and my inability to keep the tenses consistent, the things that aren't JK Rowling's are Silverfox's.
Chapter 3
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Covers Chapter 3 of Runaway Dragon
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=431805&chapter=3
The next morning, I had to turn up to what promised to be a very boring day at a very boring trial. Draco wanted to come too, wanted to go home, wanted to be anywhere but cooped up in a 4th floor flat in West Hogsmeade, but he'd have to cope.
He wasn't too happy about having to wear Muggle clothes either, a trace of that damnfool prejudice there no doubt.
But he was docile enough as Munin and I left. Sarah would look after him, she would handle him, she could handle anything!
When I got back, tired and drained after hours of wasted time, she told me he'd been no trouble, helpful even! And now he was off in my lab reading books. Hardly normal for a fifteen year old on holidays, especially that one, this warranted investigation.
There he was, making notes! Feet of them, I'd not seen him this industrious in all the time I'd known him. Oh, he'd got good marks alright, he must have been studying somewhere, but he usually took good care not to be seen to do it by anyone who might seize on it as a weakness.
(Was I in that camp? How well did I know this boy anyway? Have I let a name blind me?)
He did seem to be serious, as though those light switches had somehow opened something in his mind. He wants to study physics? No, he wants to know how a light works, he has no real idea how much is involved, he'll get over it. But it's nice to discuss these things with someone who thinks they are worth doing. How low you have sunk, Severus Snape, to be grateful for a teenager's interest in your work? Well you know that no one else is interested in it! Not unless you can give them a potion or a spell right here and now that will do something they want.
Oh well, anything to open his mind. He'll be having hard enough times in the next few days, anything to distract him. This muggle science obsession won't last more than a day or two, but anything to keep him occupied. And out of the park. Malfoy may have his head on the block, but that won't stop me being in trouble if his son ends up getting a good kicking down there and the ADA find out.
Well. Is he really that ignorant? About money, and the lack thereof? But then how much did I know at his age eh? I too bought the party line that every wizard-born ended up at Hogwarts, didn't I. That the Weasleys were dirt poor, that everyone who could wave a wand could afford 3 sets of robes and a broomstick and a purpose-bred owl and a wand custom built by Ollivander. That every poor wretch I saw on Knockturn Alley and sneaking about the Three Broomsticks was not One Of Us, had to be Squib or Muggle or some other subhuman.
And just like a certain young Death Eater, learning that things aren't as he thought they were is upsetting young Mr Malfoy. It does change things when it's people you know, doesn't it Draco! Ah well, he can't help what he's been brought up to believe.
"Billy will be all right. He'll go to school with all the neighbour's kids. The same kids he'll grow up with and go to primary school with."
And don't I wish it could be different. Don't I wish I could change things for these two people who are my whole existence, my loves, my life's reason, don't I wish I could give them more than this. A cramped dogbox on the 4th floor, not quite enough money, and definitely nowhere near enough safety.
Ah well, no need to frighten Draco with that. He doesn't need to know that my son's life hangs on more than what school he goes to, that it hangs on my ability to make certain people think he means nothing to me, and that I am nothing to them. While Dumbledore might be quite happy to take him to Hogwarts, Billy's a lot better off here. Poor, lacking in opportunity, never fulfilling his potential, but never coming to the notice of people who smash babies against the wall to force their parents... No. Let's not go there. Let's not remember that. Not that.
I was very grateful for Sarah that night. She has the ability to change the nightmares into dreams of roses and summer. How I miss that, down in the dungeons of Hogwarts, when I have to be Snape-the-Sarcastic-Bastard, Snape-the-Outcast-and-Leader-of-Outcasts. Snape-the-Tool-In-Albus's-Hand.
That Snape has far too many nightmares, and it's never summer below ground.