Nothing is Ever Easy

Author: Renegade Moon

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy are killed by the Dark Lord. But Draco is in danger too, Voldemort has vowed to kill every Malfoy so that he would be the one and only Slytherin heir. Draco has to change his identity, and that means a new appearance, a new name, a new life. Things will be hard for him. But then again, nothing is ever easy.

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JK Rowling, except the plot.

Author's Note: Hello everyone!! Here's chapter 9! I can't believe it, I have so many reviews! Thank you all so much for your support, you have no idea what your reviews mean to me. Hope you like this chappy!
Thank you : f0xyness39, Rebecca, Bridgette, lisaturpin (my fav hogwarts boy ? Draco, of course !!), SophieBabe, Lady Calliope, Lilie Blaze, Alanna Roseguard, Prongs, Starrynights13, Sanaria, cheerprincess343(no, I haven't seen the movie yet... :(( I live in France and here we have to wait until december 4 :((((( ...), borednhyper, Sara, Atepogs, grr argh, JoeBob1379. Thank you all !!

Chapter 9 : Strange Changes

Voldemort angrily slammed the book close. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing! He got to his feet and began pacing around the large tent that had been set up for him at the Camp. Letting out a frustrated breath, he glanced back at Salazar Slytherin's manuscript laying on his wooden desk. His anger overtook him and the logs and dried wood in the fireplace suddently burst into huge, reddish flames.

Voldemort was fuming. He had read the manuscript over and over again about ten times, and he still didn't know what had gone wrong. Slytherin had only written a few pages in the book, but it was enough to learn how to inherit the Founder's secret powers. In the thrity-two pages written, Slytherin explained with every detail how the ritual had to be done, and Voldemort had followed his instructions very carefully.

So why on earth didn't he have the magical powers? It was said in the book that, when he would get the powers, it would hurt. A lot.

But it hadn't hurt a bit. Voldemort had felt dizzy and weak for a few moments, but nothing like "the greatest pain a human heart, even the purest, strongest, most powerful of hearts could bear", as was described in the book.

And the powers were supposed to appear immediately. He didn't have any new powers, he knew it— could feel it. There had not been a single change inside himself.

That could only mean one thing. One single, simple thing.

The Heir was alive.

********************

The next morning, Draco was allowed to leave the infirmary. Everyone was so worried about him, because no one knew what exactly had happened to him. Somehow, though, Draco wasn't worried at all. He didn't care what happened to him, as long as Hermione stood beside him. He smiled, remembering their kiss the previous night. He didn't care about anything, except about her.

He didn't even care that he was a Malfoy, and she a Mudblood.

He walked out of the hospital wing and made his way to the Gryffindor Common room, where Hermione should be waiting for him. For a moment, he wondered how Harry and Ron would react when they learned about he and Hermione. But, after all, they didn't know he was Draco Malfoy. There was nothing wrong with Alex and Hermione going out together.

He smiled to himself again. He felt happier than he'd had for a long time; happier, in fact, than he'd ever had. He felt at peace. Finally.

Once at the portrait hole, his smile faded. It was too good to be true, of course, there had to be something wrong. And that something was... he felt changes inside himself. He felt— different, and though he couldn't tell why, he knew it must have something to do with his ability to see through the invisibility cloak. When Hermione had the cloak on, Draco only saw a transparent veil around her.

"So, are you going in or not?" exclaimed the Fat Lady on the portrait, making Draco jump.

He realized he had been standing in front of the portrait hole for a few minutes, lost in his thoughts. "Genie in a bottle," he muttered to the Fat Lady, who let him enter the common room.

"Alex!" Hemrione called to him as soon as she saw him come in. She was sitting at a round table in a corner with Ron and Harry. He walked over and sat next to her, and took her hand in his. Harry and Ron smiled at him and, not seeing the surprised expressions he had expected, Draco guessed Hermione must have told them what had happened at the infirmary. They were her best friends, after all.

"So, Pomfrey finally let you go," Ron said. "Are you feeling better?"

Draco frowned slighly. There was something wrong with the way Ron had said that. He sounded— uneasy. Come to think of it, Draco noticed Harry and Ron's smiles looked a bit forced. Well, Draco hadn't really excpected them to be very happy about this, either. Ron's gaze when he looked at Hermione showed that he was happy for her— happy that she was happy. When he looked at Draco, though, he seemed to be containing his anger.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, and the three friends started to fill him in on all that had happened while he was at the infirmary.

Draco wasn't really listening, though. Something about Harry was bothering him, though he didn't know what. It was as though he recognized Harry for the first time. But that didn't make sense!

He looked at Harry and saw him staring at him straight in the eyes, a puzzled look on him face. Harry's eyes were filled with mixed fear and incomprehension under his bewildered frown.

"Alex, are you listening?" Hermione said.

"Hey, Harry, wake up," Ron said.

Harry and Draco didn't hear them, though. They were staring at each other intently. Suddenly, Harry shot to his feet, not taking his eyes from Draco.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Hermione and Ron asked at the same time.

"Um, n... nothing," he said. "I just... I'm ok," he glanced at his watch. "We'd better hurry, we've got double Herbology in a few minutes."

They all stood and prepared to go to their class. What the hell was that all about? Draco thought with a last glance at Harry.

********************

After lunch, the four of them made their way to History of Magic. Harry was aware of Alex's gaze upon him, but didn't look up. Harry knew he shouldn't be avoiding his gaze like this, but he couldn't help it. What he'd felt earlier that morning was still bothering.

As soon as his eyes had met Alex's, Harry's scar had hurt. The pain wasn't as strong as it was whenever Voldemort was near, but still... It had sent shivers down his spine. And Alex had been staring at him with a strange look in his eyes, too. Alex had been staring at him as though suddenly aware of who Harry was.

Harry didn't really trust Alex before; now he didn't trust him at all. Why had his scar started to hurt again? Was Voldemort near? But if it had been Voldemort, it would have hurt him a lot more. Harry knew only too well what it felt like when Voldemort made his scar hurt, and this time it hadn't been the same.

And it had hurt at the sight of Alex. Was Alex on Voldemort's side or something? But that seemed very improbable... didn't it? Or could it be that Alex really couldn't be trusted? After all, he did look a lot mysterious.

Harry sighed heavily as he sat beside Ron in the classroom. He glanced at Alex and hermione who sat at another table to their left. He didn't know what to do, what to think, but what he knew was that he was getting worried about Hermione.

And when he saw the look in Ron's glistening eyes as he looked at Hermione, he began to feel worried about him, too.

a/n: oh boy, that chapter was short... sorry... will you forgive me? please? I'll try to make the next one longer, ok? Review!!! Flames are accepted, if they're constructive. And give me your email adress if you wanna be on my update list!