Chapter Three:
Malfoy walked to his first class, Potions. Fortunately for him, he wasn't with the Gryffindors again this year, but he felt like this was the only thing that was good news in his life lately. He took a seat, near the end of the row, so he could be close to the exit when class was over, he didn't feel like sticking around and chatting with Snape.
It seems like Snape was watching his every move, not romantically mind you, but in a way like he was trying to find out whether he was going to follow his dad's wishes to become a Deatheater. Despite what everyone thought, Snape and Draco were not close. In fact, they both would often get into arguments. Malfoy knew almost immediately when he came to Hogwarts that Snape was an undercover deatheater, secretly working for Albus Dumbledore. Snape knew that he knew. Therefore, they engaged in many, a countless arguments on whether Draco would join the dark side or stay on Dumbledore's good side. Truth was, he just wants to be neutral. He wasn't exactly fond of being involved in the battle of good versus evil, he just wanted to live his life the way he wanted it. Besides, he couldn't care less for goody-two-shoes Potter and his faithful, waiting on his foot sidekicks.
After about five minutes of thinking, the rest of his classmates started pouring in. Draco studied them, trying to figure out what house he was stuck with. It was Ravenclaw. Not bad, he didn't exactly want to be stuck with a bunch of know-it-alls but that meant that Snape won't be turning to him for an answer for every single question. That was particularly annoying. He would've gave the wrong answer on purpose if it wasn't for that stupid Granger, he wanted so badly to beat her.
As Malfoy watched the rest of the class come in, he wondered whether Padma would be in this class or not. He shook off the thought, why should he care right? After that incident with...wait what was her name, oh yeah...Pansy in the Great Hall, he was almost positive that she didn't even want him near her. At that same moment, Pansy came by his desk and attempted to sit on the empty seat next to Malfoy. Malfoy quickly put his books there and said:
"Sorry, it's being saved"
"Oh yeah? By whom?"
Padma entered the room, looking for an empty seat, but alas there was none to be found...except the seat next to a particular person...
"By her. Padma! Come over here and sit down. Don't be shy!" Draco said, with a bit of fake happiness, his eyes darting fearfully at Pansy and Padma.
Padma walked over there slowly with a deeply confused look on her face. What was Malfoy playing at? Then she spotted Pansy glaring at her, a look filled with such hatred, Padma was sure she could burst into fire if her eyes were locked with Pansy's for a while. Padma reached the seat, Draco removed his pile of books, and she sat down, hesitantly. Draco looked back at Pansy with a smirk on his face, his silver eyes colder than ice.
"Guess what Pansy, you just have to find someplace else to sit. Sorry, maybe if you came a bit earlier? Well, I wouldn't expect it since the fat that you lug around is just going to slow you down, but, try and try again!"
The class, who was watching the situation intently, heard that and gasped. Then gradually, like a domino effect, the class started to laugh. Pansy looked all around, her eyes welling up in tears. She broke down crying and rushed out of the room. At the same moment, Snape entered the room. He looked at the class, who were still laughing hysterically, and snorted in disgust. These kids nowadays were having too much fun, they are never going to learn.
Padma looked at Draco, with a surprised look on her face. Draco looked back, with a playful look in his face, but a bit of pain and guilt in his eyes. Padma turned and looked at Snape, ready for today's lesson plans, but her only thought was:
"I guess he is human after all, in his own, strange, insultive way".
Snape turned around and faced the class.
"Silence! I won't have the class misbehaving in the most unaccepted way. Now, today we are going to work on the Past Potion, a potion in which, when made correctly, can result in you seeing your partner's past. Now, I will choose your partners."
Draco's insides froze. A Past Potion...his partner will be able to see his past? That's bad, tremendously bad. He didn't want anyone seeing his past, it was too horrible to be seen. He looked angrily at Snape, who just ignored him. He then turned to Padma, who was deep in thought, her face displaying a slight panic. Guess, she has things in the past that doesn't want to be seen. Snape came up to their side.
" Malfoy and Patil, you will be partners. You have until the end of this class to make the potion and use it on each other. Don't waste it on fooling around."
Padma nodded, her past was going to be seen by Malfoy? This is the worst thing that will happen. Who knows what Malfoy is going to do when he sees it. At the same time, Malfoy was dreading the thought of Padma looking into his past, she has already seen the scars on his back, isn't that enough, but she has to see his past too? Fate is playing with him.
They faced each other, and started on the potion. A bit of sage, chamomile, and thyme was added along with eye of newt, tounge of a frog, and the heart of a shrew. The brains of the bowtruckle has also been added. After being stirred at exactly 50 times, fal clockwise, and the other half counter-clockwise, the potion was ready.
Snape announced at the near edn of the class that the potion should be ready by now and had reached a pinkish green color. They could test it on each other. Padma and Malfoy looked at each other.
Padma said, " I'll go first, go ahead, drink the potion."
Draco replied back, "No, why don't I go first, you can drink the potion."
"No please, I INSIST!"
"I INSIST!!!"
"Fine, why don't we toss a coin?"
"Okay, call it"
"Heads!"
Draco looked at her mischievously, "It's tails, you lose. Come on, down that potion."
Padma looked at him suspiciously and carefully took the potion. Closing her eyes tightly she drank the potion, making a sour face. In less than 15 seconds, she closed her eyes, and Draco was being sucked.
Draco was in a bright, white room. There was a nothing there with the exception on a white table with a white flower in a white vase.
'This is Padma's memory? What is she, a robot?' Draco thought.
Soon the room flooded with images, flipping backwards in sonic speed. Draco watched amazed. This went on for at least ten minutes, Draco was getting bored. After the ten minutes passed by, he was considering getting out of here, but then the flipping images stopped to one single image, moving in normal speed. Draco watched.
It was a house in the suburbs, a pretty decent looking one. It was cream with red trimmings and shutters. There was a plush green front yard and the backyard was littered with various magic toys. Draco heard some noises, but the image didn't move towards the noise. Then he noticed something. The picture seemed so real, he felt like he was actually in Padma's memories. He touched the screen and was pushed through.
He landed on the green grass and tripped a little. He quickly regained his posture. He walked towards the noise. It was located in the backyard, in a tree house. He climbed up the poorly built tree house and peeked in. It was young Padma and Parvati, playing wizard's chess.
"Bishop to I-5" commanded Padma
The Bishop moved to its said location and destroyed Parvati's queen.
"No fair!" screamed Parvati
Draco smiled a bit. He never had anyone to play with he was young. He had his mother, but his mother was always too busy to tend to him so they hired an old nanny for him. But the nanny was boring and often made him read books like The Old Man and the Sea, which in his opinion was the most boring story ever.
Padma and Parvati stopped the game, Padma won. They ran down the ladder leading to the treehouse and went inside the house. Malfoy followed.
There, their mother awaited them with a plate of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. The girls grabbed one or two and went to the living room and ate them there. They shared cookies and laughed when one of them got chocolate stains on their faces. It seemed like they were truly enjoying the joys of childhood.
Suddenly, the image was gone and was replaced with the same white room that Draco was in before. Malfoy waited patiently, he knew there was more. Lo and behold, there was. This time it was when Parvati and Padma entered Hogwarts for the first time. They both looked identically scared. They were waiting at the steps. Draco saw himself, facing Harry and making fun of him and criticizing Harry for joining the wimps. The present-form Draco winced. Was he really like that? God, he was an obnoxious little kid.
The Patils entered the Hall, holding hands and looking terrified. Padma got onto the stool first and looked relieved that was placed in Ravenclaw but was greatly disappointed when Parvati was placed in Gryffindor. Before joining their classmate in their common rooms, they gave each other huge hugs and promised to meet at the Tower as much as they can so they will never grow apart.
The white room came back. Draco was getting quick-tempered. When was this going to end? There's nothing to see here. Finally, another image came. It was back at home, during a summer vacation. Parvati and Padma are in their rooms, holding on to each other and crying. Draco heard screams coming from downstairs. He slowly went downstairs. He saw the girl's parents holding their wands in protection against another man facing them, who looked remarkably like the father.
They shouted in Hindi, the unknown guy sending sparks everywhere with his wand which was pointed at them. The mother said something that seemed to make the guy even more furious and he pointed his wand at her and screamed "Avada Kedavra!" The father quickly reacted by jumping in front of the mother. The last thing he said to her before he died was to ask her to tell the girls that he loved them so much. Then he breathed his last.
The image flashed forward to the funeral day. It was a rainy day and everyone stood outside dressed in black. Parvati and Padma looked depressingly at the hole in ground, dug for their father. Everyone left, talking quietly. Draco heard some people blaming them for their uncle's anger.
"I heard that they provoked him while he was drunk. They should know better to do this", one of the old ladies said to her husband who nodded his head.
Draco got mad at them for that. They didn't provoke him. He knew, he saw it.
He looked back at the twins. Tears were streaming like rivers down their brown skins now, their mother clung both of them. The images started to fade.
Draco was back in the white room. He felt sad for them. It was ironic how they had a father who loved them so much he died for them and his wife and they never wished him dead. Meanwhile, his own father was such a bastard that he wished that he was dead, but it never happens. He wondered how it felt to have a loving father.
The white room started to fade away, the colors started to come back, he was returning to the classroom. Everyone was coming about. A few of them looked dazed, some looked scared, some laughed, some looked sad, and Draco was one of them. Padma looked at him,
"Had fun?" She asked sarcastically
"I'm so sorry" He replied softly, his eyes cast downward.
Padma eyes widened a bit. She immediately turned sad.
"Thanks." She said.
"Ok, class, wasn't that amusing. Now it's time to switch partners. Go on now, drink the potion." Said Snape
"OK, you ready?" asked Padma
"I guess, just don't be so shocked ok?" Draco replied.
"Yeah" she said.
Draco downed the potion and started to feel a bit drowsy. Padma fades to the infamous white room.
Padma stood in the white room, rubbing her eyes. The brightness of the room almost blinded her. What happened? There was nothing going on. This is his memory? No wonder people call him cold and heartless. He has nothing stored inside his heart and mind. Then suddenly she notices a small spot in the white wall that started to expand and grow. It grew and grew until it was a size of an IMAX theater. Padma watched, amazed and enthralled.
It was a house, no, not a house, a mansion and a huge one at that. It was a dark and gloomy place, covered with gravel and no gardens. There was a fountain, but it was of an evil-looking vampire. His eyes seemed to bore into Padma's head and she quickly looked away. This was his home? No wonder why he looked so malicious all the time.
Padma noticed a movement to her left. It was a tiny boy with slicked-back blond hair and icy grey eyes. It was Draco, of course, who else would it be? He was heading towards the house, looking over his shoulder constantly as if someone was following. He was also limping a bit. Padma followed him inside. The internal part of the house was as dark and depressing as the external. Malfoy rushed up the main stairways and hurried to his room. Padma followed.
His room was large, majestic, and yet again, gloomy. It was green and black with only one window and a thick black curtain was drawn. The room had torches, magically lit of course, on the opposite sides of the walls. Padma watched as the young panicked boy spread something on his bed. It was colorful and she smelled something sweet, like candy, like Snickers or Crunch. He looked pleased. He started to stuff them in his mouth, taking bunch rather than taking it one by one.
While he was devouring the candy, Padma saw that a door opened from a wall. It was a hidden door, so well hidden, one could barely see the outline of the door. His father entered the room, holding something, and from her instincts, she could tell it wasn't something good. Padma was amazed at the similarities that both father and son had in their looks.
"Draco, my dear son, are you enjoying yourself?" His father said coldly, with no hint of concern or care.
Draco stiffened his back and dropped the candy that had been wrapped around his hands.
"Father, I didn't realize you would be back so soon" He answered in a small voice
"No, of course not son. Do you realize that you have disobeyed me?"
"Yes, but I only wanted candy, Blaise was talking about how good they were and I just wanted to try-"
"I don't care, you left the house, and what is worse, you bought mudblood's candy. How dare you put that impure filth in your body?"
"I'm sorry father, I promise to never do that again"
"Well, sorry isn't enough, is it Draco? Kindly remove your shirt…now."
Draco started to tremble violently and straightened to remove his shirt. Padma gasped at what she saw. The boy's pale body was full of scars, some of them still fresh and bleeding. She looked at his father, hoping to see some kind of concern some kind of compassion on his face, but instead, he looked like a little child about to get something wonderful.
"Stand against that wall."
Draco went there slowly, still trembling, his breaths coming out in short, panicked gasps.
His father revealed a whip that had sharp metal tips. He raised his arms.
Padma wanted to protect him and she was just about to when she realized that she was being pulled away from them. The only thing she heard were painful screams from Draco.
She was back in the white room. Padma was shocked and saddened. No one deserved to be treated that way, not even Malfoy. All that, and just for eating Muggle candy? That was cruel and totally unwarranted.
She then saw something else, another image moving and growing. She watched, afraid of what was coming.
She was in Draco's library. It was a regal room, almost as big as the Hogwarts Library. It was decorated in deep green and black, and bits of silver around the place. Draco was sitting on a plush, luxurious loveseat, concentrating deeply on the book that he was poring over. Padma took the time to look at him. This must have been last year or something because he doesn't look any different then than he does now. His hair wasn't slicked back anymore, it hung down, messy, but framed his face well.
Somebody entered the room, it was his mother, Narcissa.
"Draco, your father is looking for you." She said to Draco, no emotion present in her voice.
"Why?" He replied, without looking at his mother.
"I think it has something to do with the initiation coming up soon."
Draco looked up with disgust in his eyes. The initiation?
"Fine, I'll talk to Father dearest"
Draco unwillingly got up from his chair and set his book back in the appropriate place. He walked down the long, dark hallway.
His father met him in the Study.
"Son, you have reached that age when you are ready to be initiated in the Dark Lord's circle. Before the initiation, you will have to attend numerous meeting, just as a formality. Tomorrow will be the first, dress decent, black. And if you do anything against my orders and find a way to embarrass me, you can certainly look forward to something…special later at the house. Understood?"
"Yes, Father. But I have decided something."
His father looked at him, his eyes clouding over, his rage starting to surface.
"What is that, Draco?"
"I'm not going to serve the Dark Lord. I don't want to be initiated."
His father laughed mirthlessly.
"I'm afraid you have no choice."
"I'm not going to do it, that's it, it's my final decision."
Draco turned around and started to exit the Study when he felt white hot daggers poking at his bone. He turned around and saw his father whispering Crucious to him, pointing at him his black wand.
Draco skirmed and twisted, but he let out no scream or agony, he won't let his father win. He dropped to the floor and was seizing around. Padma stood there, watching helplessly.
What was wrong with his father, he has no soul, no conscience?
Padma was being pulled back into the white room, she then was being pulled back into reality.
Draco and Padma woke up, startled. Draco looked into her wide, terrorized eyes, and gave her a sad smile.
"Do you like what you see?" He said to her.
The bell rang, and Draco was out of that room, faster than anyone else.
Author's Notes: Review please!