Chapter ten. Being Branded.
Um, okay yeah. So I haven't updated in like forever. You can thank the release of Prisoner of Azkaban for motivating me to write more of this story and finish it off. I recently read back through it and laughed at myself because there are some cheesy moments where I just roll my eyes and go oh em gee, I cant believe I wrote that corny line. Sometimes Draco bugs me, I'm going to try and work back in his sarcasm. I love a sarcastic Draco. So yes. Chapter ten! Being Branded.
Taka doesn't own Harry Potter or any related Harry Potter goodness.
Hermione looked quite please with herself as Draco sleepily wandered into the kitchen the next morning. Draco's brow furrowed for a moment as he scanned her over.
"Wha's that look for?" He slid into the seat across from her and took one of his beloved biscuits from the tray in the middle of the breakfast table.
"I'm pretty happy with the brightness of myself right now." She answered mater-o-factly.
"May I inquire as to why?" He broke a piece of the cookie off that he held in his hand and popped it into his mouth. "I thought you were always happy with the 'brightness' of yourself."
"Be quite. I've just found the perfect place to finish off our last part of the project for winter vacation." She smiled brightly and took the remaining piece of Draco's sweet out of his hand and into her own mouth.
"And..." Draco looked down at his hand and then look back up to watch her munch on the biscuit and took another for himself from the tray.
"And...well, its not exactly a popular muggle place, its more of a tourist attraction, you know what those are, righ-"
"Yes! I know all about those stupid tourist traps." He snapped back. "I don't live in a muggle world but I'm not stupid about it."
"Well, anyway. It is supposed to be this hunted castle; kind of like the shrieking shack was but bigger and well they give tours of it and that sort of thing. It's supposed to be really creepy. Well to muggles I guess ghost would be creepy..." Hermione paused in thought.
"Sounds good. So I guess the point of your being happy with yourself that you found this place is that you found a way that we can get a taste of the magical world without breaking any rules, right?" Draco reached up and scratched at the nape of his neck. "I never knew muggles would be interested in that sort of thing, ghost and all I mean."
"Oh yes! They're fascinated with the whole idea of supernatural things...well in general they are. People like Harry's uncle and aunt can't stand it."
"What?" Draco scoffed at the mention of Harry's name.
"Nothing," Hermione smiled faintly. "Um think of it as some wizards are fascinated by muggles, like Mr. Weasley."
"Stupid git."
"Draco." Hermione warned. "And other wizards can't stand them...like, well, you're father." Draco shrugged at this.
"So when are we going then?" he causualy asked. "The sooner we get this over the sooner we can finish the rest of this vacation, and I can think of a couple of ways I'd like to spend it." He eyed a now blushing Hermione.
"Um, we can go now. We should be able to catch a tour if we leave around now and don't take to long to get there. We can walk, its not that bad. It's just about where the town meets the residential area.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Draco stood from the table and grabbed his scarf and coat that were draped over a stool in near the sink next to Hermione's things.
--
"So this is it." Draco looked at the massive castle trimmed in snow in front of him he knew this place well. It wasn't a haunted castle. Something much more ghastly lurked and lived within the halls of the manor. "This is Edien hall." He felt the words catch in his throat.
"Yeah! It's pretty ancient, I don't think there's any ghost left here. I remember Nearly Headless Nick talking about how he used to know a ghost here but because of something he left it and went to haunt the parliament of all places. Anyway, it may not be haunted but its still a fun idea." Hermione started to walk into the gates to join the other hoards of people wandering the grounds. "Draco! Aren't you coming?" she looked back at him.
Draco was frozen in his place, he'd been here on many occasions with his father, he'd never seen it this way before, and it was always in the dead of night when those meetings would go on.
"Draco, come on!" Hermione yelled for him to catch up. "What's wrong with you, you aren't scared, are you?" She came back to him and tugged on his scarf a little. "I don't think it's a good idea for us to be here."
"What are you talking about, it's fine. I can't believe you're scared. At Hogwarts there are ghosts everywhere, what's your problem?" Hermione pursed her lips. "I don't have a problem with ghost. There aren't any here anyways...there's something worse here."
"What? Another three headed dog? A troll? Hippogirffs? You know how scary those can be." Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
"Don't be stupid. You want to know what's so bad about this place? I'll show you." Draco grabbed her tightly by the arm caught in a rush of anger and dragged her out into the cemetery on the side of the large manor.
"This," he stood before a large gravestone with a beautiful one winged angel perched upon it. "Is what is so bad about this place."
"It's a grave, Draco." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Scary." She said in monotone.
He stood in front of the larges tomb in the cemetery and muttered a quick "Kedavra." Hermione watched amazed as angel with one wing sprang to life and hovered above the tomb leaving an opening for them.
"Okay, maybe a little scary." Hermione looked up at the hovering angel.
"We're not going in there." Hermione took a few steps backward.
"Oh yes we are. I know you love a good adventure. And besides you said it wasn't scary." Draco looked up at the angel's face.
"Look Draco, you've proven your point, lets just get out of here." Hermione protested but Draco took hold of her again and pulled her into the dark depths of the opening. The little bit of sunlight that had shown through was soon cut off as the statue took its place once again guarding the entrance.
"Draco is so dark." She reached out into the pitch black and felt for him.
"Be quite." He hissed. "We don't want to run into the wrong person down here...especially you." He took hold of her and held her closer to him. "Stay close, okay." He felt Hermione nod and grab tighter to him.
"Draco..." Hermione whispered cautiously, she knew she wasn't supposed to talk but she had to ask. "Where are we?" Draco quickly shushed her with a hand over her mouth and pulled her down.
Lights were coming down the corridor opposite them. Hermione felt Draco's heart racing against his chest and sensing his nervousness brought herself closer into the folds of his jacket. She tried holding her breath because she had become aware of just how loud her breathing was in a tense moment. The lights were almost on them now.
'What was I thinking?' Draco held Hermione closer to him as the men neared them. He closed his eyes and rested his chin on her soft dark hair. 'My short temper might get in the way of this protecting business. Look where its got us now.' Draco wasn't afraid for himself, only for her. If he were caught wandering the dark halls of the manor and its underground no one would think the wiser of it. Draco was a frequent roamer of these halls, usually accompanied by his father though. This was his first time here on his own.
Hermione lifted her head to look at Draco; his face was hard and emotionless. She knew on the inside he was feeling terror though. The men were passing now in great numbers; there had to be hundreds of them. They all looked the same with their dark cloaks swept up over their head and masks. Masks. It became painfully clear who these men were now and at the thought of it Hermione dug her fingers deeper into Draco's flesh. The last few of them streaked by, they had been unseen.
"Draco! Why did you bring me here?" Hermione said in a panicked hush. "Those were Death Eaters, weren't they."
"Yes." He plainly said.
"How do you know about this place?" Her grip remained tight on him. "Better yet WHY do you know about this place?! You, you're not a Death Eater? Are you?" Hermione dreaded the worst. Had Draco played this cool innocent misjudged boy just to get her down here and take care of her once and for all?
"No! Don't be stupid Hermione, I know you know about my father he's...he's, well you know." Draco's voice wavered as he talked about Lucius.
"Well I knew he didn't like muggles but I never really though that it would go this far..." She trailed off. "I'm sorry Draco."
"For what." He looked confused.
"For you, I mean...it must be awful." Hermione though of what she would feel like if her father had been serving something so evil...then again Draco might not care, or maybe he supported the Dark Lord to and, 'No.' Hermione thought, I'm getting ahead of myself now.
"You mean about my father?" Draco lowered his stormy eyes.
"Yeah." Hermione licked her dry lips.
"Well I won't pretend I don't care but he makes his choices...I'm learning to make my own now too." He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "He's a very persuasive and powerful man though, my father."
"I don't doubt it." Hermione leaned into him. "Do you think we could leave?" Hermione pleaded.
"Yeah, hold on one second. Do you think you can stay her for a few minutes?"
"I guess...why?" Draco stood and fallowed the path of the masked men. "Hey!" She covered her own mouth with her hand; she hadn't meant to be so loud. Draco turned to look back at her. "Where are you going? It's not safe." Draco only held a finger to his mouth signaling her to keep quite and continued down the damp hall.
Draco ducked down different passageways and corridors in the dark hall under the Edien manor. He knew where the men were going, but why he wasn't sure. Death Eaters were rarely found in great numbers like that, just incase they were to be found out. Draco's curiosity was peaked, so many Death Eaters and in the early morning. He reached two large doors with the infamous dark mark etched into them one Death Eater was on watch outside.
"Draco, what are you doing here?" Draco recognized the voice to be Amos Diggory; one man turned Death Eater by madness over loosing his son. Draco remember his father telling him that he had struck deal with the Dark Lord himself that if he were to become loyal to him and only him he would bring back his son. Of course it was a lie and now Diggory was in the ever- gripping clutch of Voldemort.
"I-I need to see my father." Draco cleared his throat.
"I can't let you in this time my boy. Not with out the mark, your fathers orders, you know?" Diggory slightly lifted the mask off his face as he made eye contact with Draco.
"Oh come off it Diggory, you've let me in before." Draco began to push past him but he was sent back into the wall opposite of the doors.
"No." Diggory held out his wand. "Not this time, Mr. Malfoy, I cant do it."
By this point Draco could feel his temper boiling within him, he'd never been refused entrance into the hallowed halls of the Death Eaters meetings before, why would he when his father was right-hand man to Voldemort. Most of the Death Eaters looked at Draco with the same respect as they did his father. Something inside him told he needed to get inside, something big was happening, maybe something that Dumbledore had been eluding to. He knew he would be able to rest easy if he knew what they were plotting. Draco racked his brain of ways to get in and finally it came to him.
"Diggory, go get my father," he took a deep breath. "I want the Dark Mark."
Draco felt his blood run cold, of course he didn't really want it but now there was no turning back. Diggory had slipped in the doors and any minute now his father would come out. Draco's heart beat fast and he considered running but by the time that thought had come his father was already exciting the meeting fallowed by Diggory.
"Draco. Good of you to come...there's something you want?" Lucius' lips curled up into a smile. Lucius knew what he wanted and Draco could tell his father was beaming with pride. Draco couldn't deny the fact that he liked the feeling. He was always striving for his father's approval.
Draco cleared his throat and looked up into the steel gray eyes that mirrored him. "The Dark Mark...I think, I think I'm ready now." Draco grabbed his forearm thinking of the stinging searing pain it would bring him.
Oh em gee. Draco's in trouble now. Crap. Hum...well more to come. Please take time to review. I hope you enjoyed it.
Takanori
Um, okay yeah. So I haven't updated in like forever. You can thank the release of Prisoner of Azkaban for motivating me to write more of this story and finish it off. I recently read back through it and laughed at myself because there are some cheesy moments where I just roll my eyes and go oh em gee, I cant believe I wrote that corny line. Sometimes Draco bugs me, I'm going to try and work back in his sarcasm. I love a sarcastic Draco. So yes. Chapter ten! Being Branded.
Taka doesn't own Harry Potter or any related Harry Potter goodness.
Hermione looked quite please with herself as Draco sleepily wandered into the kitchen the next morning. Draco's brow furrowed for a moment as he scanned her over.
"Wha's that look for?" He slid into the seat across from her and took one of his beloved biscuits from the tray in the middle of the breakfast table.
"I'm pretty happy with the brightness of myself right now." She answered mater-o-factly.
"May I inquire as to why?" He broke a piece of the cookie off that he held in his hand and popped it into his mouth. "I thought you were always happy with the 'brightness' of yourself."
"Be quite. I've just found the perfect place to finish off our last part of the project for winter vacation." She smiled brightly and took the remaining piece of Draco's sweet out of his hand and into her own mouth.
"And..." Draco looked down at his hand and then look back up to watch her munch on the biscuit and took another for himself from the tray.
"And...well, its not exactly a popular muggle place, its more of a tourist attraction, you know what those are, righ-"
"Yes! I know all about those stupid tourist traps." He snapped back. "I don't live in a muggle world but I'm not stupid about it."
"Well, anyway. It is supposed to be this hunted castle; kind of like the shrieking shack was but bigger and well they give tours of it and that sort of thing. It's supposed to be really creepy. Well to muggles I guess ghost would be creepy..." Hermione paused in thought.
"Sounds good. So I guess the point of your being happy with yourself that you found this place is that you found a way that we can get a taste of the magical world without breaking any rules, right?" Draco reached up and scratched at the nape of his neck. "I never knew muggles would be interested in that sort of thing, ghost and all I mean."
"Oh yes! They're fascinated with the whole idea of supernatural things...well in general they are. People like Harry's uncle and aunt can't stand it."
"What?" Draco scoffed at the mention of Harry's name.
"Nothing," Hermione smiled faintly. "Um think of it as some wizards are fascinated by muggles, like Mr. Weasley."
"Stupid git."
"Draco." Hermione warned. "And other wizards can't stand them...like, well, you're father." Draco shrugged at this.
"So when are we going then?" he causualy asked. "The sooner we get this over the sooner we can finish the rest of this vacation, and I can think of a couple of ways I'd like to spend it." He eyed a now blushing Hermione.
"Um, we can go now. We should be able to catch a tour if we leave around now and don't take to long to get there. We can walk, its not that bad. It's just about where the town meets the residential area.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Draco stood from the table and grabbed his scarf and coat that were draped over a stool in near the sink next to Hermione's things.
--
"So this is it." Draco looked at the massive castle trimmed in snow in front of him he knew this place well. It wasn't a haunted castle. Something much more ghastly lurked and lived within the halls of the manor. "This is Edien hall." He felt the words catch in his throat.
"Yeah! It's pretty ancient, I don't think there's any ghost left here. I remember Nearly Headless Nick talking about how he used to know a ghost here but because of something he left it and went to haunt the parliament of all places. Anyway, it may not be haunted but its still a fun idea." Hermione started to walk into the gates to join the other hoards of people wandering the grounds. "Draco! Aren't you coming?" she looked back at him.
Draco was frozen in his place, he'd been here on many occasions with his father, he'd never seen it this way before, and it was always in the dead of night when those meetings would go on.
"Draco, come on!" Hermione yelled for him to catch up. "What's wrong with you, you aren't scared, are you?" She came back to him and tugged on his scarf a little. "I don't think it's a good idea for us to be here."
"What are you talking about, it's fine. I can't believe you're scared. At Hogwarts there are ghosts everywhere, what's your problem?" Hermione pursed her lips. "I don't have a problem with ghost. There aren't any here anyways...there's something worse here."
"What? Another three headed dog? A troll? Hippogirffs? You know how scary those can be." Hermione rolled her eyes at him.
"Don't be stupid. You want to know what's so bad about this place? I'll show you." Draco grabbed her tightly by the arm caught in a rush of anger and dragged her out into the cemetery on the side of the large manor.
"This," he stood before a large gravestone with a beautiful one winged angel perched upon it. "Is what is so bad about this place."
"It's a grave, Draco." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Scary." She said in monotone.
He stood in front of the larges tomb in the cemetery and muttered a quick "Kedavra." Hermione watched amazed as angel with one wing sprang to life and hovered above the tomb leaving an opening for them.
"Okay, maybe a little scary." Hermione looked up at the hovering angel.
"We're not going in there." Hermione took a few steps backward.
"Oh yes we are. I know you love a good adventure. And besides you said it wasn't scary." Draco looked up at the angel's face.
"Look Draco, you've proven your point, lets just get out of here." Hermione protested but Draco took hold of her again and pulled her into the dark depths of the opening. The little bit of sunlight that had shown through was soon cut off as the statue took its place once again guarding the entrance.
"Draco is so dark." She reached out into the pitch black and felt for him.
"Be quite." He hissed. "We don't want to run into the wrong person down here...especially you." He took hold of her and held her closer to him. "Stay close, okay." He felt Hermione nod and grab tighter to him.
"Draco..." Hermione whispered cautiously, she knew she wasn't supposed to talk but she had to ask. "Where are we?" Draco quickly shushed her with a hand over her mouth and pulled her down.
Lights were coming down the corridor opposite them. Hermione felt Draco's heart racing against his chest and sensing his nervousness brought herself closer into the folds of his jacket. She tried holding her breath because she had become aware of just how loud her breathing was in a tense moment. The lights were almost on them now.
'What was I thinking?' Draco held Hermione closer to him as the men neared them. He closed his eyes and rested his chin on her soft dark hair. 'My short temper might get in the way of this protecting business. Look where its got us now.' Draco wasn't afraid for himself, only for her. If he were caught wandering the dark halls of the manor and its underground no one would think the wiser of it. Draco was a frequent roamer of these halls, usually accompanied by his father though. This was his first time here on his own.
Hermione lifted her head to look at Draco; his face was hard and emotionless. She knew on the inside he was feeling terror though. The men were passing now in great numbers; there had to be hundreds of them. They all looked the same with their dark cloaks swept up over their head and masks. Masks. It became painfully clear who these men were now and at the thought of it Hermione dug her fingers deeper into Draco's flesh. The last few of them streaked by, they had been unseen.
"Draco! Why did you bring me here?" Hermione said in a panicked hush. "Those were Death Eaters, weren't they."
"Yes." He plainly said.
"How do you know about this place?" Her grip remained tight on him. "Better yet WHY do you know about this place?! You, you're not a Death Eater? Are you?" Hermione dreaded the worst. Had Draco played this cool innocent misjudged boy just to get her down here and take care of her once and for all?
"No! Don't be stupid Hermione, I know you know about my father he's...he's, well you know." Draco's voice wavered as he talked about Lucius.
"Well I knew he didn't like muggles but I never really though that it would go this far..." She trailed off. "I'm sorry Draco."
"For what." He looked confused.
"For you, I mean...it must be awful." Hermione though of what she would feel like if her father had been serving something so evil...then again Draco might not care, or maybe he supported the Dark Lord to and, 'No.' Hermione thought, I'm getting ahead of myself now.
"You mean about my father?" Draco lowered his stormy eyes.
"Yeah." Hermione licked her dry lips.
"Well I won't pretend I don't care but he makes his choices...I'm learning to make my own now too." He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "He's a very persuasive and powerful man though, my father."
"I don't doubt it." Hermione leaned into him. "Do you think we could leave?" Hermione pleaded.
"Yeah, hold on one second. Do you think you can stay her for a few minutes?"
"I guess...why?" Draco stood and fallowed the path of the masked men. "Hey!" She covered her own mouth with her hand; she hadn't meant to be so loud. Draco turned to look back at her. "Where are you going? It's not safe." Draco only held a finger to his mouth signaling her to keep quite and continued down the damp hall.
Draco ducked down different passageways and corridors in the dark hall under the Edien manor. He knew where the men were going, but why he wasn't sure. Death Eaters were rarely found in great numbers like that, just incase they were to be found out. Draco's curiosity was peaked, so many Death Eaters and in the early morning. He reached two large doors with the infamous dark mark etched into them one Death Eater was on watch outside.
"Draco, what are you doing here?" Draco recognized the voice to be Amos Diggory; one man turned Death Eater by madness over loosing his son. Draco remember his father telling him that he had struck deal with the Dark Lord himself that if he were to become loyal to him and only him he would bring back his son. Of course it was a lie and now Diggory was in the ever- gripping clutch of Voldemort.
"I-I need to see my father." Draco cleared his throat.
"I can't let you in this time my boy. Not with out the mark, your fathers orders, you know?" Diggory slightly lifted the mask off his face as he made eye contact with Draco.
"Oh come off it Diggory, you've let me in before." Draco began to push past him but he was sent back into the wall opposite of the doors.
"No." Diggory held out his wand. "Not this time, Mr. Malfoy, I cant do it."
By this point Draco could feel his temper boiling within him, he'd never been refused entrance into the hallowed halls of the Death Eaters meetings before, why would he when his father was right-hand man to Voldemort. Most of the Death Eaters looked at Draco with the same respect as they did his father. Something inside him told he needed to get inside, something big was happening, maybe something that Dumbledore had been eluding to. He knew he would be able to rest easy if he knew what they were plotting. Draco racked his brain of ways to get in and finally it came to him.
"Diggory, go get my father," he took a deep breath. "I want the Dark Mark."
Draco felt his blood run cold, of course he didn't really want it but now there was no turning back. Diggory had slipped in the doors and any minute now his father would come out. Draco's heart beat fast and he considered running but by the time that thought had come his father was already exciting the meeting fallowed by Diggory.
"Draco. Good of you to come...there's something you want?" Lucius' lips curled up into a smile. Lucius knew what he wanted and Draco could tell his father was beaming with pride. Draco couldn't deny the fact that he liked the feeling. He was always striving for his father's approval.
Draco cleared his throat and looked up into the steel gray eyes that mirrored him. "The Dark Mark...I think, I think I'm ready now." Draco grabbed his forearm thinking of the stinging searing pain it would bring him.
Oh em gee. Draco's in trouble now. Crap. Hum...well more to come. Please take time to review. I hope you enjoyed it.
Takanori