Chapter 3

In the corridors

Draco walked down the hall in a most perturbed state of mind. He felt too numb to think of anything at the moment, and was afraid that if he even started to try to think, he would burst into floods of tears. "Better save that till I get to my room," he thought. This was one of those times that being a prefect was obviously very useful. A couple of silencing charms on the room and a few unbreakable charms on the more fragile objects, and he could go in there to rant and scream and cry and throw things, and no one would be the wiser. In any case, he could think in peace there, without having to worry about random people barging in on him.

He found himself walking faster and faster, in a desperate attempt to get to his room before things actually started sinking in. However, he was interrupted by the sound of hurrying footsteps behind him, and a breathless voice yelling, "Malfoy-san! Malfoy-san!" urgently.

Draco turned around to see a small figure running towards him down the length of the shadowy corridor. As the figure came closer, Draco could make out the Ravenclaw colours of the crest on the cloak the student was wearing, and a shock of spiky black hair that was more dishevelled than usual. Draco recognized the figure as one Yoshito Tanaka, a student from Japan who was from a very obviously influential Muggle family in those parts. Yoshito seemed to be a descendant of a very powerful family, and apparently the only wizard therein. In as much as Draco was disgusted by Mudbloods, he was equally attracted to people of power, and so did not consider Yoshito quite so low as, say, Granger, for example. In any case, Mudblood or no, the Tanaka family had offered Draco much in the way of incentive when they found out that he actually knew how to pull down the wards protecting Hogwarts. The deal had been that if he were to help the members of the Tanaka family see Yoshito whenever they needed to, he would be offered the full amount of protection they could possibly give him.

Now, this would theoretically not mean much to Draco, who, being a Malfoy, was quite obviously someone that no one would have the ridiculously bad judgement to touch. However, Draco knew that this would not always be the case. Not if he was going to carry out the resolution he had made to himself earlier never to become his father all over again, as his father had been about his grandfather, and his grandfather about his great-grandfather, and so on. He never really knew why he started having all these thoughts, when for the first ten years of his life, all he wanted to do was be "like Daddy" but then he granted it philosophically to the concept of teenage rebellion. In whatever case, Draco felt no real compunction to ever join the Death Eaters (of course, his father did not know this yet), be a dark wizard (though, he had to admit, knowing certain amounts of dark magic could come in useful now and then), or to ever grow his blatantly Malfoy hair out to waist length. Shoulder length, maybe, but waist length? Never.

In any case, seeing as that Draco would soon be out of the Malfoy fold, and that Draco knew it, he decided that the more protection he could get, the better. After all, who knew if one day he would be forced to flee to the Muggle world as a result of his temporary rebellious nature? And protection from a powerful and dangerous Muggle family...all the better. The only thing that puzzled him was the fact that when the head of the family called him in to give him the oath by which he would be guaranteed protection, the oath was given in the name of the Fujiwara family, instead of the Tanaka family. But anyway, Draco conceded, the man promising protection seemed to be rather powerful, and if he was willing to help, well then, so be it. They all seemed to be part of one large extended family called the Yakuza's anyway (at least, when they were talking, the name Yakuza had come up rather frequently), so what could a few discrepancies in name matter? At the moment, Draco had briefly considered asking to speak to Mr. Yakuza himself, but then decided that he would probably have to get in closer with the more influential members of the family to be allowed such a thing.

To show his gratitude at the protection offered however, every month, Draco sent off a very polite note via owl post to Mr. Yakuza, thanking him for his kindness and confirming his willingness to keep working for him. He convinced himself that he was trying to be polite and maintain good relations, but a niggling feeling bothered him that if he didn't do something of the sort, he would be shot.

Somewhat oddly, the note was never answered by Mr. Yakuza himself, but rather by Mr. Fujiwara. Oh well, Draco concluded, Mr. Yakuza was a busy man, after all.

But whatever the case, Draco found himself suddenly accosted by the young Yoshito Tanaka and sighed. He was in no mood to have to deal with the fans right now.

Yoshito had, by now, reached Draco, and promptly fell to his knees and bowed deeply. "Malfoy-san! Onegai-simasu!" and bowed again.

Draco sighed an even deeper sigh. Why was it that these Japanese would have to insist in being unable to come up with a proper English line when they were feeling strong emotions of any sort? He granted that this was an exaggeration at the back of his mind, but for the time being, his frustration knew no bounds. On top of everything else, here was yet another person grovelling at his feet. Just what he needed.

Draco rolled his eyes. "What is it this time, Tanaka? I really have no time to be fooling around right now."

"Oh, it is terrible, Malfoy-san!" Yoshito started breathlessly, as Draco wondered exactly what the significance of the -san at the end of his name was. Never Malfoy or Draco, but always "Malfoy-san". If Draco ever found out what that meant, and it turned out to be some sort of an inside Japanese joke, he decided he would be pretty pissed. But for the time being, the kid was always respectful, so he guessed the kid could call him whatever he wanted, as long as he said it politely.

Said kid however, was babbling consistently while Draco was thinking about what the English equivalent of -san could possibly be. "...please, sir, if you don't it will be just like that case with the Empress and the three treasures at the bottom of the lake in Tale of Heike! And whatever will my family do then? It will bring dishonour to us all! Dishonour! You must help, Malfoy-san!" And here he bowed deeply again so that his forehead almost touched the top of Draco's bare feet, and repeated even more desperately, "Onegai-simasu!"

Draco sighed, yet again. "For the love of Salazar, Tanaka, get up and speak to me in a normal language! I can't make out half of what you're saying!"

"Oh, Malfoy-san! I have just received a crane from my father. It was a bit of trouble trying to get him to fit through the window, since cranes are so big and all, but we managed somehow anyway. Owls are rather rare in our part of the world, you see, and..." Yoshito babbled nervously as he picked himself up off the floor.

"Never mind that, Tanaka," Draco interrupted irritatedly. "What did the letter from your father say?"

"Oh, Malfoy-san! You must help us! My father needs to see me immediately and he is coming tonight and there is no way he can get in with his friends! And oh, I am so glad I found you...you have helped so many times before...and you have always been loyal to my father! I humbly request you to please help me again!" And at this, he dropped to the floor yet once more, bowed, and pleaded. "Onegai-simasu!"

"If you don't get off the floor, Tanaka, I swear to you that I'm not going to do anything. I have had an exceedingly bad evening, and having you grovel at my feet is not helping it any," Draco started, as he considered possibly being a nice guy and helping young Yoshito out. Realising that he had pretty much no choice, as this was his part of the bargain, and faced with the same disturbing thought of potentially being shot (irrational as that was), he decided to be charitable. Not that he had any choice, really. "All right," he said with a resigned sigh. "Let's go let your dad in."

A suddenly elated and energetic Yoshito jumped up and grabbed Draco around the waist in an exuberant ten year old's hug. "Arigatou gozaimasu, Malfoy-sempai!" he mumbled into Draco's shirt. Draco groaned. He simply had to get a Japanese to English dictionary one of these days.