Chapter 4
The manor hallways were ice cold as he passed through them. Portraits of past Malfoy's hung on the walls, their scrutinising eyes following him as he passed. Wall sconces adorned the dark wallpaper, the only light guiding him to his destination: the dining room. The high ceilings, dark colours and gothic feel gave the manor a haunted feeling, which still sent shivers down his back even at the ripe age of 17.
His shirt sleeve scratched the brand on his arm, reigniting the constant burning that never left him no matter how much he tried. No salves, potions or spells could stop the torment that plagued him 24/7, keeping him up at night from the pain. The only sound in the long corridor besides his heavy breathing was the slapping of his shoes on the wooden floors, changing to marble as he hit the ground floor.
He heard their voices before he saw them, the cackling from his demented aunt, the hissing of the vile snake and the murmurs of the other Death Eaters only a few paces away. Draco slowed down his stride, stopping before the door. Breathe. Don't let them see you crack, he thought as his occlumency walls were put up. The heavy double doors opened revealing a scene that would forever be burned into his mind.
His mother lay, barely clothed on the dining room floor, writhing in pain or fear he couldn't tell, as a masked man was on top of her, violating her in front of a room of 30 other people, who were jeering him on. He rushed forward to stop this madness, but was stuck where he stood. His eyes searched for the caster until he spotted his father tucking his wand away, his eyes hard and cold as stone. He shouts at The Dark Lord, screaming 'take me instead!', 'stop this, please! She did nothing wrong!', but his pleas went unanswered as his mother's screams filled his ears.
September 2nd 1998
His eyes opened in a flash, frantically searching for his mother until he came to his senses. Hogwarts. He was in Hogwarts, hundreds of miles away from Wiltshire, from his mother. Sweat was formed on his brow as his eyes scanned the room. Moonlight lit the dorm, with its white light splashing on the floor beside him, illuminating his surroundings. Longbottom lay sprawled on his bed, snoring away in a peaceful sleep before his eyes moved on. The gauzy curtains lay limp by his bed, their stillness unsettling him further.
He reached around for his wand, casting a tempus charm for the time. 04:48am, fan-fucking-tastic, he thought as he sat up, quietly heading for the door, not wanting to disturb his roomate. Light snoring could be heard from him as he passed him by on the way to the door. The door clicked softly in place behind him, leading him into a silent environment. The wind whistled outside as Draco left the long corridor, his sock clad feet hitting the floor as he passed the silent dorms, not a sound coming from their residents inside.
At the end of the corridor, Draco could make out a light coming from down the stairs. As he got closer, the light grew brighter, the flickering indicating that it was the fireplace. In the dead of the night, the common room looked a lot more inviting to him than what it did earlier, probably due to the lack of other people. The warmth of the fire enveloped him as he entered the room, like a warm blanket on a winter's day, before he entered the small kitchen off of the main room. The coldness of the space shook off the remaining drowsiness of sleep as he grabbed a glass of water.
For a few moments, Draco didn't move from his place, leaning on the edge of the counter, as his pesky thoughts floated into his conscience. Was his mother okay back home in Wiltshire? Sure she had Mediwitches taking care of her at the Manor but he wouldn't know; what if she got worse? Would he find out immediately? Later? By McGonagall or a letter? I need to get out of here, he decided as he returned to his room to change and grab his trusty broomstick.
Before long, the grass was under his feet as he mounted his broomstick in the middle of the Quidditch Pitch. The wind blew through his hair as he ascended into the air, the smells of the pine trees, cut grass and September winds permeated around him as he flew through the sky. Flying was the one thing that could calm his brain down after a torturous night like tonight. The cool breeze and the freedom he felt when 100 feet in the air was incomparable to anything in Draco's mind. He didn't feel like this anywhere else.
The hours flew by in a blur of clouds, twists and turns, and the clearing of Draco's mind. A haze of colours blurred the skies around him, oranges and pinks blended like watercolours on a canvas. He landed on the pitch, sweating and clear headed, before he quickly showered, then made the walk back to the castle for breakfast. The courtyard was already swarming with students, chatting away about their summers, classes and other mundane things like that. Draco kept his eyes averted as he passed through, trying to ignore the whispers and glares he received as he strode past. His eyes remained glued to his shoes until the large doors of The Great Hall came into his peripherals.
The hall was still quite full when he arrived, of people enjoying their mornings before the ruckus of the school day began. The professors all sat at the head table, talking about Merlin knows what as he walked to the Slytherin Table, having already spotted his fellow snakes. He thought he spotted a mass of curls at another table but he couldn't look too much as he was bombarded by a curtain of black hair in front of him.
"And just where did you disappear to this morning?" Pansy's shrill voice filled his ears, making him step back to look at her. Her eyes were manic, searching him for signs of harm, lips pursed as if she had eaten a lemon.
"I got up early to fly, and train." He replied, only lying slightly. He didn't want to worry her with his nightmares; they were his to worry about and his alone, not hers or the others. This answer seemed to calm her down significantly as she turned and sat, continuing her breakfast. Draco plopped next to Theo on the bench, Blaise across from him as usual.
"So where were you really, Draco? Chatting up some fine witches like, I don't know, Granger?" The teasing lilt of Theo's voice could be heard beside him, already riling him up.
"Now why would I be doing that, Theo? I've barely spoken to her since we returned, unless you count the stilted conversation on the train yesterday." Draco replied, eyes glaring at his smug bastard of a friend beside him.
"You never did tell us about that. What did you guys talk about?" Blaise cut in, eyes curiously peering at him over the Daily Prophet. " You both looked quite chummy when you walked into the feast last night."
"Nothing that concerns you and it was all boring Head's stuff anyway." He turned to his breakfast, ending the discussion between them. As conversations of classes and the new living arrangements filtered between the five Slytherins, Slughorn came around with their new timetables, exclaiming his delight of having them in his class again this year. Draco's eyes scanned over the Wednesday column and he groaned.
Wednesday
9:00am - Advanced Arithmancy Studies(NEWT)
10:00am - Transfiguration (NEWT)
Break
11:30am - Muggle Studies (NEWT) Mandatory
Lunch
2:00pm - Charms (NEWT)
3:00pm - Potions (NEWT)
"Fucking hell." He muttered as Theo was cheering for having 'Alchemy and Potions in the same day!'. The clock tower chimed signifying it was time for class so he stood and left the hall, followed by Blaise, as the two made their way to Arithmancy. The day proceeded in a similar fashion, teachers droning on about their subjects, acting as normal as they could due to recent events. Professor Vector was her usual haughty self, going on about 'predicting the future through these tough equations' and other nonsense. Transfiguration wasn't much better with McGonagall challenging them with turning each other into furniture.
All the Slytherins were made to take Muggle Studies to 'punish them for their actions' or so their court papers stated. The new teacher of the subject, Professor Whitlock was a lovely young woman, with bright strawberry blonde hair and a sweet personality. However, the flashbacks Draco received of the former professor of the subject still made him feel ill.
Charms with Professor Flitwick was always a favourite of Draco's as he found the class easy. His mother was quite good at charms so he must have gotten it from her. Pansy and himself sat at the back, barely paying attention to the teacher as they complained about their days to each other. The chime of the clock ended the period, so they travelled to their last class: Potions with Slughorn.
As they arrived, the class was already full with the other Seventh and Eighth Year students, with Slughorn assigning them into partners! "Ah! Mr Malfoy, Nott and Zabini with Miss Parkinson and Greengrass. How lovely you could join us." Slughorn's voice resonated throughout the class, making every other student turn to look at them. Glares and narrowed eyes greeted them from their fellow classmates. "Now I've mixed the partners this year; so Mr Zabini you're with Miss Lovegood, Miss Parkinson with Mr Longbottom, Miss Greengrass with Miss Patil." Each of their names were called until Draco and Theo were left. The only two seats empty were beside Granger and Weaslette. He begged whatever gods that he wasn't paired with-
"Mr Nott you're with Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy with Miss Granger." The class was silent in shock as he slowly walked over to his new desk. Granger peered up at him with wide eyes as he sat, refusing to look at her.
Oh Merlin.
As the class progressed the silence between them became deafening and Hermione's mind began to go haywire. Was Slughorn ill? Why on earth would he pair them together? Sure Malfoy had apologised but they would most likely kill each other before the year was up. She chanced a sideways glance at her partner for the year, cataloguing his features. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, not even moving from Slughorn's pacing form. They only moved to look at his parchment to take notes. An emotionless expression was on his face as the class progressed, with his posture as rigid as a wooden beam.
She continued to discreetly cast glances at him, however his body language never changed. Slughorn's voice cut through her examination, announcing an assignment. "Now in your pairs, I would like you to brew a batch of Wound Cleaning Potion as revision for your first time back." The class began to move, collecting ingredients and cauldrons to start the potion.
"So you get the ingredients and I'll get the cauldron?" Hermione turned to Malfoy as she said this, breaking the silence between them. He nodded as he stood, striding over to the ingredients cupboard, not a single word uttered. After returning with the cauldron and ingredients, they began to work. While every other pair chatted or bickered amongst themselves, they were completely silent only speaking about timings for certain ingredients to be added and whatnot.
As she began to cut the flobberworm, a hand stopped her knife from moving. Hermione's eyes flicked up to see Malfoy looking at her with an unreadable look in his eyes. "What are you doing?" She asked, sceptically.
"Crush them instead of chopping them. It'll make the brew more potent." Malfoy drawled, sliding the knife from her hand and proceeding to show her how to do it.
"What are you talking about? Cutting the flobberworms diagonally then slicing them through the middle makes the potion more potent. Not crushing them." She replied, taking the knife from him and continuing her task. She stopped when she heard a low chuckle come from beside her. Her head whipped around, spotting Malfoy laughing while watching her. "What now?!" Her voice began to rise in pitch as the laughing continued.
"Whoever told you that, was lying to you because that's utter bullshit." Malfoy smirked down at her, mirth in his eyes. "That could make your potion less effective due to the ingredient being too small." He snatched the knife from her before turning to the ingredient on the cutting board. They continued to bicker, drawing attention to them until-
BANG!!
Silence resonated throughout the classroom as they stared at each other. Purple goop covered both of them from head to toe, dousing their robes and faces. The bell rang, dismissing the class however, neither of them moved, too shocked to comprehend what had just happened. "Malfoy, Granger, get out of my classroom! Now!" Slughorn shouted after a few minutes. Hermione quickly grabbed her bag and retreated from the classroom, not glancing back to look at Malfoy.
After a shower to get rid of the failed potion, Hermione found herself her favourite place: The Hogwarts Library. Madam Pince greeted her with a small smile and a nod as she passed the librarian's desk, heading to her usual table at the back of the Charms Section. The colours of the stained glass windows reflected onto the table, greens and blues merging together. The smell of old tombs, drying ink and parchment filled the air, calming her mood immediately. Getting an early start on her assignments, time passed by with researching, essays and many rolls of parchment until the scraping of a chair broke off her reverie.
"Theo?" Her voice was coloured with surprise as the Slytherin sat down beside her at the table. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to study Granger." He replied as he arranged his supplies in front of him. "And I also wanted to get to know you more." He added, smiling a toothy grin that made her think her parents would approve of.
"You aren't trying to flirt with me are you?" She questioned hesitantly.
"I am besotted with one Miss Greengrass, I am not but I need a new best friend as mine are very broody and I think you need someone who could add some spice to your life so, Ta Dah!" He raised his hands in the air presenting himself like a fine collectable item.
"Okay? Right, so what do you want to talk about?" Hermione asked, her voice filled with confusion and uncertainty as Theo began to ask a million questions.
"What was it like being raised in the muggle world?"
"Do you have a favourite sweet from Honeydukes?"
"Any book recommendations for me?"
"I do have one question though." Hermione interjected after Theo finished describing the different chocolates at Honeydukes.
"Well fire away Granger. I'm all ears." He replied, ready for anything.
"Why are you doing this? Is it to prove you have changed or something or for a dare?" She asked tensely, her own insecurities slipping through into her voice. As she looked at him, his face began to close off, like a wall being built around him as he looked at her. When he responded, his voice was more closed off than before.
"My life has been a rollercoaster recently as I assume yours has, so I thought you could use someone who wasn't your Gryffindors to hang around with and be you. I see myself in you Granger and you look lost in yourself. See you around Granger." With that, he packed up his things and left, leaving her confused and speechless amongst the stacks of Hogwarts tombs.
