Chapter 8
On average, November had to be Nia's least favorite month. The constant rainfall really got on her nerves. She needed sunlight!
Draco never liked November either, but for different reasons. Draco mother's birthday was in November and that meant Draco had to go home. It would be strange going home. The house would be empty. The truth is, Draco didn't know why he was going home. Maybe he wanted to make sure his father was missing. Maybe he wanted to pay homage to his mother, as he hadn't been to her grave yet.
Nia needed to leave Hogwarts too. She was doing reconnaissance for The White League. Normally, any leader wouldn't go on missions but all the other senior members were already working and the newbies couldn't be trusted, even with reconnaissance.
Her mission? Check out the Malfoy Manor and see if there are any hints or clues as to where Lucious is hiding.
So Draco and Nia were standing in the Hogsmede station shivering with the early winter chill and the pouring rain, each huddled so deeply into their cloaks that they didn't notice the other standing close to them on the platform.
That is, until they ended up in the same train compartment.
"Sorry." Draco mumbled when he saw Nia sitting there absorbed in a book. He started to slide the door shut when Nia looked up in surprise.
"You can stay you know. It gets lonely on empty trains." She said, looking up at him through her eyelashes.
'If I didn't know better I say she was flirting with me.' Draco mused, and then--- 'Please, please let her be flirting with me.' And the harshest part of his brains snapped 'Why do you care? She a Muggle-lover! And a Weasley!' and lastly---the part of his brain with the inferiority complex his father had caused by never loving him---'Like she'd flirt with you. Like she ever even think about liking you; you're lower than an animal, lower than dirt, you don't deserve her.'
"Thank you." Draco said, barley above a whisper as he plunked himself down in the seat across from her.
He saw that she had a circular, silver, shiny thing in her hands, with a long cord running out of the side running up the length of her torso until it rested on what looked like small, plastic and foam earmuffs that were slung lazily around her neck. His eyes grew as wide as saucers.
"Is that a portable cd player? Doesn't it run on batteries? How do you get it to work? Do you have a cd in it? Can you really hear music? What are you listening to? Can I listen?" This rushed out of Draco mouth all at once, this preoccupied look leaving his eyes and face.
Nia smiled and said. "Yes, yes, magic, yes, yes, Save Ferris, yes."
"Save Ferris? No way! What do you mean magic? You mean you charmed it so the spells that should make it malfunction don't work? That great! I love Save Ferris. Jesus, which cd is it?" This was a subject he could get lost in.
"It Means Everything. What else? I got the charm out of 'The Rock Star's Spell Book'. It's dead useful. I used the charm on all my amps and equipment." Nia said, closing the book. "Do you like ska?"
"Like it? Merlin, I'm borderline obsessed. I kinda have to keep it secret though, I doubt my father would approve." After this confession there was an awkward silence. Nia decided that a change of subject was in order.
"Here." She said, handing him the CD player. "How'd you know about cd players anyway? You didn't really strike me as the 'Ready to learn about other cultures' type."
Draco laughed, "I admit that I may come off as a bigot but that's not really true. Lucious is. That's just what everyone assumes, because of who I take Muggle studies, but not at Hogwarts. I think there is a health risk in a Slytherin taking Muggle-studies at Hogwarts."
Nia smiled. "True. My father really wanted me to take me to take Muggle studies, but living with him is a Muggle studies class all in it self. Why do you take Muggle studies classes anyways?" She saw Draco's face pale. 'Touchy subject?' She thought.
Draco cleared his throat. Years of pretending his wasn't in pain and spying for the Order of the Phoenix allowed him to manipulate his and other people's emotions. His faced turned into the perfect mask of a typical 16 going on 17-year-old boy. Fun loving, hormonally charged, Quiditch obsessed- --and a damn good liar.
"I'm very interested in Muggle music, if you haven't noticed. Much better than the wizard kind." Not completely a lie, he did like muggle music but the truth is, Muggle studies, like hand-to-hand combat, was required by the Order of the Phoenix. Although his classes were always taken separately. What Death Eater studied muggles? Not him.that's for damn sure.
Nia looked out the window. "Not including Death-Curse of course!" she said, turning to face him and smiling.
Draco smiled back. "Of course."
They stared at each other. Both of the smiling perfect, happy smiles, but behind these shining faces tempests of emotions ran free. Both of them were always constantly afraid of getting caught, both minds housing secrets and lies. Both of them had trouble relating to others because of what there lives were like. Both of them had mastered the art of wearing masks that hid who they really were.
On the outside Nia and Draco appear like perfectly normal teens. Or as normal as a witch or wizard could get. Nia was attractive, funny, intelligent and had lots of friends. She liked music and reading, and she had 6 older brothers. Very few ever bothered to see past that. To Alec and a handful of others she was fierce, opinionated, lonely, afraid, and deadly.
Draco was well brought up, well groomed and wealthy. He did what his father told him to. Only his best friends knew he wasn't that way at all. Draco was opinionated, strong, intelligent and unstable. He was funny and kind. Blaise knew Draco hated his father and everything his father stood for. Most of the school thought he was a selfish bastard and none of them knew he risked his life for their safety on a weekly basis.
"Thanks for letting me listen." Draco said as he slipped the headphones over his head. Nia watched him close his eyes and lean back in the seat. He looked like a walking statue of a Greek god. All the girls (and a few boys) talked about how good-looking he was. Nia would be lying if she said she didn't notice his almost supernatural good looks. But she was a Weasley and he was a Malfoy. It wouldn't work. Even of his father was dead and her family would respect her taste in boys their reputations would still get in the way.
When Draco joined the band he and Nia had made a sort of truce. But Nia's temper was short and Draco's comments were cold. They rarely talked, just played. There they had some common ground. Music. Something they both had mastered. It was nice to hear Draco play. His voice was soothing and well tuned. Perfect. She liked the look of concentration on his face when he played, the joy in his eyes while he strummed out perfect notes on his well- used guitar. His calm and relaxed posture when he played piano. Something else they shared.
Nia and Draco had more in common than either of them cared to admit.
Nia looked back out of the window and sighed, looking for any other sign of life through the gray sheets of rain. Her head snapped back to Draco when she heard him singing softly. She snorted with laughter and his eyes remained closed.
"COME ON EILEEN! OH I SWEA---!" he sang, getting louder.
Nia burst out laughing a Draco's eyes finally opened. His face turned an embarrassed shade of red. 'Was I singing out loud?' Draco thought. The sight of Nia looking at him, with an amused glint in her eye pointed to 'yes'.
"Bravo Draco! I've learned a lot about you on this little train trip." Nia said, clapping her hands lightly.
Draco blushed furiously, which made Nia smile bigger.
Nia stretched cat-like back in her seat, yawning softly.
"Goodness, this train ride just get longer and longer!" Nia said, her arm draped lazily over the back of the seat. As is cued my Nia's words the train pulled to a stop at Platform 9 ¾.
"It's been nice riding with you!" Nia called and she swung her messenger bag over her shoulder and pulled on a rain jacket. Draco wondered briefly where her cloak had gone. She was out of the compartment before her could ask.
Draco exited the train and looked around the platform for Nia but she had disappeared. Draco glimpsed over his shoulder cautiously, making sure no one was around before he apperaited. (A/N~SPELLING?) He had become the master of quick getaways since his joining of the Order of the Phoenix.
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Malfoy Manor was a desolate as Draco remembered. Not much had changed; the place had always been a little dusty and dark, with suspicious shadows in every corner. The coppery tang of blood was in the air, left over from the nights when Lusious had left him to die. Malfoy Manor had never housed anything but evil. He'd burn this thing to the ground the second he had a chance.
The first thing Draco did was go down to the kitchens. He wanted to makes sure all the house elves he had set free weren't lingering around. Some of them had gone to work at Hogwarts. He hoped they were okay.
After checking the kitchens (which were empty) he went up stairs to his bedroom to collect anything he might need.
He was busy throwing random objects that had some sentimental value into a magical bag that fits everything and makes it very light when the sound of foot steps on cold flagstones reached his ears.
"So you've come back?" Said Lucious Malfoy.
Draco whirled around and came face to face with his father. His eyes were a stone cold gray.a color that told Draco that his blood would be shed before the day was over.
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The first thought that came into Nia's mind when she saw Malfoy Manor was "cold". The pouring rain didn't help liven up the atmosphere. When she apperated into the front hallway (A/N yeah I know.if some guy has lots of dark arts crap his house would be better guarded but lets just say that Nia and Draco were special and they could apperate wherever they want okay??? Even into your bedroom.WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!!!!!!) It was hard for her to imagine living in such an awful place for as long as Draco had. Nia could feel evil in the very walls of the house.
She took a map of the Manor out of her messenger bag and peered at it carefully. Dumbledore had asked her to take some pictures of any dark artifacts that she could find. She took out a camera and made her way to the library.
After looking around for about ten minutes she found that the place was an absolute gold mine for dark artifact---spell books, jewels, wands--- it was all so strange. It took about an hour for Nia to photograph all the things on the first floor. Nia took as many pictures as she could, slowly making her way up stairs.
She came to the very top and took a left. She made her way down the hallway, carefully checking each door for curses or spells before she opened it and exploring the inside and taking pictures of whatever looked like it might be used for anything outside the law.
When Nia came to the last door she found the worst of all possible things inside. Draco Malfoy, slumped against the wall looking like no one had ever seen him before, beaten, bloody and vulnerable.
@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@
In his half unconscious state it was hard to see who had walked in through the door. Draco prayed it wasn't he father and when he felt cold hands on his face he begged.
"Please no more---please." He whispered.
"Shhh---Draco---its okay, I'm here now." An angle with red hair said softly.
Draco felt magic flow through his thinned-out blood and pump through his tired heart. He wondered briefly if he was dieing, before the world faded to black.
The next time he woke he was in the Hospital Wing looking in to the worried eyes of Nia Weasley.
~*A/N*~ Sorry it took me so long to update. This is one of my longest chapters yet. I'm feeling very ill and tired right now and I'm going to bed. Thanks ever so to all my reviewers! You have no idea how happy reviews make me! I forgot some disclaimers last time. In the last chapter Nia says "The first rule of the White League---blah blah blah blather blather blather" Those quotes don't belong to me! They are from a movie! A donut goes to whoever guesses which one!!! And the whole "falling down" thing was an idea stolen from Ms. Tamora Pierce whom I worship and love! Okay that's it! Thanks for reading! Xxx Darky
On average, November had to be Nia's least favorite month. The constant rainfall really got on her nerves. She needed sunlight!
Draco never liked November either, but for different reasons. Draco mother's birthday was in November and that meant Draco had to go home. It would be strange going home. The house would be empty. The truth is, Draco didn't know why he was going home. Maybe he wanted to make sure his father was missing. Maybe he wanted to pay homage to his mother, as he hadn't been to her grave yet.
Nia needed to leave Hogwarts too. She was doing reconnaissance for The White League. Normally, any leader wouldn't go on missions but all the other senior members were already working and the newbies couldn't be trusted, even with reconnaissance.
Her mission? Check out the Malfoy Manor and see if there are any hints or clues as to where Lucious is hiding.
So Draco and Nia were standing in the Hogsmede station shivering with the early winter chill and the pouring rain, each huddled so deeply into their cloaks that they didn't notice the other standing close to them on the platform.
That is, until they ended up in the same train compartment.
"Sorry." Draco mumbled when he saw Nia sitting there absorbed in a book. He started to slide the door shut when Nia looked up in surprise.
"You can stay you know. It gets lonely on empty trains." She said, looking up at him through her eyelashes.
'If I didn't know better I say she was flirting with me.' Draco mused, and then--- 'Please, please let her be flirting with me.' And the harshest part of his brains snapped 'Why do you care? She a Muggle-lover! And a Weasley!' and lastly---the part of his brain with the inferiority complex his father had caused by never loving him---'Like she'd flirt with you. Like she ever even think about liking you; you're lower than an animal, lower than dirt, you don't deserve her.'
"Thank you." Draco said, barley above a whisper as he plunked himself down in the seat across from her.
He saw that she had a circular, silver, shiny thing in her hands, with a long cord running out of the side running up the length of her torso until it rested on what looked like small, plastic and foam earmuffs that were slung lazily around her neck. His eyes grew as wide as saucers.
"Is that a portable cd player? Doesn't it run on batteries? How do you get it to work? Do you have a cd in it? Can you really hear music? What are you listening to? Can I listen?" This rushed out of Draco mouth all at once, this preoccupied look leaving his eyes and face.
Nia smiled and said. "Yes, yes, magic, yes, yes, Save Ferris, yes."
"Save Ferris? No way! What do you mean magic? You mean you charmed it so the spells that should make it malfunction don't work? That great! I love Save Ferris. Jesus, which cd is it?" This was a subject he could get lost in.
"It Means Everything. What else? I got the charm out of 'The Rock Star's Spell Book'. It's dead useful. I used the charm on all my amps and equipment." Nia said, closing the book. "Do you like ska?"
"Like it? Merlin, I'm borderline obsessed. I kinda have to keep it secret though, I doubt my father would approve." After this confession there was an awkward silence. Nia decided that a change of subject was in order.
"Here." She said, handing him the CD player. "How'd you know about cd players anyway? You didn't really strike me as the 'Ready to learn about other cultures' type."
Draco laughed, "I admit that I may come off as a bigot but that's not really true. Lucious is. That's just what everyone assumes, because of who I take Muggle studies, but not at Hogwarts. I think there is a health risk in a Slytherin taking Muggle-studies at Hogwarts."
Nia smiled. "True. My father really wanted me to take me to take Muggle studies, but living with him is a Muggle studies class all in it self. Why do you take Muggle studies classes anyways?" She saw Draco's face pale. 'Touchy subject?' She thought.
Draco cleared his throat. Years of pretending his wasn't in pain and spying for the Order of the Phoenix allowed him to manipulate his and other people's emotions. His faced turned into the perfect mask of a typical 16 going on 17-year-old boy. Fun loving, hormonally charged, Quiditch obsessed- --and a damn good liar.
"I'm very interested in Muggle music, if you haven't noticed. Much better than the wizard kind." Not completely a lie, he did like muggle music but the truth is, Muggle studies, like hand-to-hand combat, was required by the Order of the Phoenix. Although his classes were always taken separately. What Death Eater studied muggles? Not him.that's for damn sure.
Nia looked out the window. "Not including Death-Curse of course!" she said, turning to face him and smiling.
Draco smiled back. "Of course."
They stared at each other. Both of the smiling perfect, happy smiles, but behind these shining faces tempests of emotions ran free. Both of them were always constantly afraid of getting caught, both minds housing secrets and lies. Both of them had trouble relating to others because of what there lives were like. Both of them had mastered the art of wearing masks that hid who they really were.
On the outside Nia and Draco appear like perfectly normal teens. Or as normal as a witch or wizard could get. Nia was attractive, funny, intelligent and had lots of friends. She liked music and reading, and she had 6 older brothers. Very few ever bothered to see past that. To Alec and a handful of others she was fierce, opinionated, lonely, afraid, and deadly.
Draco was well brought up, well groomed and wealthy. He did what his father told him to. Only his best friends knew he wasn't that way at all. Draco was opinionated, strong, intelligent and unstable. He was funny and kind. Blaise knew Draco hated his father and everything his father stood for. Most of the school thought he was a selfish bastard and none of them knew he risked his life for their safety on a weekly basis.
"Thanks for letting me listen." Draco said as he slipped the headphones over his head. Nia watched him close his eyes and lean back in the seat. He looked like a walking statue of a Greek god. All the girls (and a few boys) talked about how good-looking he was. Nia would be lying if she said she didn't notice his almost supernatural good looks. But she was a Weasley and he was a Malfoy. It wouldn't work. Even of his father was dead and her family would respect her taste in boys their reputations would still get in the way.
When Draco joined the band he and Nia had made a sort of truce. But Nia's temper was short and Draco's comments were cold. They rarely talked, just played. There they had some common ground. Music. Something they both had mastered. It was nice to hear Draco play. His voice was soothing and well tuned. Perfect. She liked the look of concentration on his face when he played, the joy in his eyes while he strummed out perfect notes on his well- used guitar. His calm and relaxed posture when he played piano. Something else they shared.
Nia and Draco had more in common than either of them cared to admit.
Nia looked back out of the window and sighed, looking for any other sign of life through the gray sheets of rain. Her head snapped back to Draco when she heard him singing softly. She snorted with laughter and his eyes remained closed.
"COME ON EILEEN! OH I SWEA---!" he sang, getting louder.
Nia burst out laughing a Draco's eyes finally opened. His face turned an embarrassed shade of red. 'Was I singing out loud?' Draco thought. The sight of Nia looking at him, with an amused glint in her eye pointed to 'yes'.
"Bravo Draco! I've learned a lot about you on this little train trip." Nia said, clapping her hands lightly.
Draco blushed furiously, which made Nia smile bigger.
Nia stretched cat-like back in her seat, yawning softly.
"Goodness, this train ride just get longer and longer!" Nia said, her arm draped lazily over the back of the seat. As is cued my Nia's words the train pulled to a stop at Platform 9 ¾.
"It's been nice riding with you!" Nia called and she swung her messenger bag over her shoulder and pulled on a rain jacket. Draco wondered briefly where her cloak had gone. She was out of the compartment before her could ask.
Draco exited the train and looked around the platform for Nia but she had disappeared. Draco glimpsed over his shoulder cautiously, making sure no one was around before he apperaited. (A/N~SPELLING?) He had become the master of quick getaways since his joining of the Order of the Phoenix.
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Malfoy Manor was a desolate as Draco remembered. Not much had changed; the place had always been a little dusty and dark, with suspicious shadows in every corner. The coppery tang of blood was in the air, left over from the nights when Lusious had left him to die. Malfoy Manor had never housed anything but evil. He'd burn this thing to the ground the second he had a chance.
The first thing Draco did was go down to the kitchens. He wanted to makes sure all the house elves he had set free weren't lingering around. Some of them had gone to work at Hogwarts. He hoped they were okay.
After checking the kitchens (which were empty) he went up stairs to his bedroom to collect anything he might need.
He was busy throwing random objects that had some sentimental value into a magical bag that fits everything and makes it very light when the sound of foot steps on cold flagstones reached his ears.
"So you've come back?" Said Lucious Malfoy.
Draco whirled around and came face to face with his father. His eyes were a stone cold gray.a color that told Draco that his blood would be shed before the day was over.
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The first thought that came into Nia's mind when she saw Malfoy Manor was "cold". The pouring rain didn't help liven up the atmosphere. When she apperated into the front hallway (A/N yeah I know.if some guy has lots of dark arts crap his house would be better guarded but lets just say that Nia and Draco were special and they could apperate wherever they want okay??? Even into your bedroom.WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!!!!!!) It was hard for her to imagine living in such an awful place for as long as Draco had. Nia could feel evil in the very walls of the house.
She took a map of the Manor out of her messenger bag and peered at it carefully. Dumbledore had asked her to take some pictures of any dark artifacts that she could find. She took out a camera and made her way to the library.
After looking around for about ten minutes she found that the place was an absolute gold mine for dark artifact---spell books, jewels, wands--- it was all so strange. It took about an hour for Nia to photograph all the things on the first floor. Nia took as many pictures as she could, slowly making her way up stairs.
She came to the very top and took a left. She made her way down the hallway, carefully checking each door for curses or spells before she opened it and exploring the inside and taking pictures of whatever looked like it might be used for anything outside the law.
When Nia came to the last door she found the worst of all possible things inside. Draco Malfoy, slumped against the wall looking like no one had ever seen him before, beaten, bloody and vulnerable.
@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@&@
In his half unconscious state it was hard to see who had walked in through the door. Draco prayed it wasn't he father and when he felt cold hands on his face he begged.
"Please no more---please." He whispered.
"Shhh---Draco---its okay, I'm here now." An angle with red hair said softly.
Draco felt magic flow through his thinned-out blood and pump through his tired heart. He wondered briefly if he was dieing, before the world faded to black.
The next time he woke he was in the Hospital Wing looking in to the worried eyes of Nia Weasley.
~*A/N*~ Sorry it took me so long to update. This is one of my longest chapters yet. I'm feeling very ill and tired right now and I'm going to bed. Thanks ever so to all my reviewers! You have no idea how happy reviews make me! I forgot some disclaimers last time. In the last chapter Nia says "The first rule of the White League---blah blah blah blather blather blather" Those quotes don't belong to me! They are from a movie! A donut goes to whoever guesses which one!!! And the whole "falling down" thing was an idea stolen from Ms. Tamora Pierce whom I worship and love! Okay that's it! Thanks for reading! Xxx Darky