CHAPTER
1: ESCAPE
He looked at the door, a chill running up his back
and causing the fine hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. His
father and Selene stood behind him, arm-in-arm.
" Well,
son, are you going to open the door, or not?" Lucius Malfoy
said. Draco could picture him raising one eyebrow, a trait he had
always wished he had inheirited.
" Yes, Father," he
replied, then pulled open the door.
Narcissa
Black lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Draco felt extremly
uncomfortable; it was the first time he had seen his mother in over
three years.
" Draco," she said, relishing the
name.
" Mother." What was there to say?
She
sat up, meeting his eyes directly. Draco was a little shocked; it was
difficult seeing Selene's face with large brown eyes rather than that
icy blue colouring he found so disturbing in females.
"
How are you? Are you well?" he asked her, then instantly
regretted it.
" I don't know." she replied. "
Does the Pope piss in the woods?"
" No."
"
There you go."
" Mother..."
" I'm
sorry, Draco. I am so...sardonic these days. I don't feel like
anything should care about me."
Draco studied her, the
way her pale blonde hair fell across her face, her large brown eyes
like a deer in the headlights of the Knight Bus...but most of all her
angular face and high cheekbones, which although Selene, her (evil)
twin sister had, were so uniquely her.
" Tell me about
you, Draco," she said, arranging her skirts. " Tell me
about school. Have you met any girl yet?"
Draco flinched;
it was one thing admitting his love for this girl mentally, quite
another telling his mother about it. She doesn't care about
Mudbloo-Muggle-borns. Not like Father.
" Yes, actually,"
he said carefully. " As a matter of fact, I have. There is just
one problem..."
Narcissa looked at him inquiringly.
"
She's a Muggle-born, not to mention the fact that she hates me. It's
Hermione Granger, Mother. I was going out with Pansy, and Virginia
Weasly, but then, over the summer, I realized I couldn't entrust
myself to either of them. Pansy runs a whore group, and Ginny has
joined it. I can't trust either of them.
" When I see
Hermione, I just feel...good about myself. I can't stop thinking
about her. Even though I have always been cruel to her and her
friends, for the past year I haven't. I have let them alone, and now
she doesn't even see me pass her in the halls. There is nothing I can
do! She ignores me! She hates me! I want to make her trust me, even a
little."
Draco paused and took a breath. Narcissa spoke
softly.
" If only I could be out there...help you...if
only there was a way..." She was close to tears. " This
Hermione sounds like a wonderful girl."
" She
is."
They sat together in silence for a moment. Draco wet
his lips, and pulled his bookbag up onto the bed. He rummaged through
it. Narcissa watched silently.
" Here," he
whispered, pulling something out of his bag. " I stole it from
Father."
Narcissa accepted the slender cederwood rod with
trembling hands.
" Fourteen inches, cedarwood, veela
hair," he whispered. " Am I correct?"
She
raised her face, looked him square in the eyes. " It's time?"
"
It's time."
Narcissa stood, and strode over to her
wardrobe. There was new power in her step. Draco turned, put his hand
on the doorknob, and readied his wand.
He yanked the door
open, shouting " STUPIFY!" twice at the top of his lungs.
Two thumps certified the spell's power. He knelt and examined them,
Selene and Lucius. They would be unconsious for hours.
Narcissa
appeared at the door. Her hair was now red, twisted into a bun at the
back of her head. She was dressed in blue robes; Ravenclaw dress
robes from her Hogwarts graduation. He was amazed they still fit.
"
Now where are we going?" she asked.
Draco busied himself
with the locking spell on the large wooden door.
"Draco..."
"
Severus Snape's house. I wrote him."
" Snape?
No..."
" We should trust him. He'll take us
somewhere safe."
" You know perfectly well I hate the bastard, Draco."
" We don't have a choice, Mother!"
Narcissa swept out the door imperiously.