Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or HP…2 more days! And Happy Bastille Day!
Draco stared steadily at a brick in one of the walls. Every few minutes his eyes would move to the stone next to the previous one. Harry could, and had, calculated the time according to these shifts. So far, Mrs. Malfoy, Dumbledore, and the Order had been holed up in his office for about…Harry waited patiently for Draco to move again. Forty-five minutes.
After the Order had come bursting in and Ron was brow beaten in a match of wits with Mrs. Malfoy, the students had been herded into the Library and told to wait. Hermione was thrilled, but Ron, Harry and Draco couldn't have been less. To make matters seem even more unfair, Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama were allowed to participate in the discussion (assuming that was what it was).
Draco felt the mad desire to destroy something. Every few minutes one of the Gryffindors would look his way. What did they think he was going to do, kill them? At Hogwarts? Did they think he was stupid?
He re-concentrated on a stone and tried to think things through. Apparently, his mother was a spy for the Order, his father had the mad ambition to behead Voldemort and become the next Dark Lord, and he, Draco, was caught in the crossfire. Quelling the urge to rip out large chunks of hair, Draco concentrated on breathing evenly through his nose.
Draco found that trying to plan a future was actually rather difficult. He was a proud pureblood and paranoid that all Muggle borns were spilling all of the Wizarding world's secrets to the Muggles. However, after a few months ago, he had found out that the Dark Lord himself was a half blood. Nothing made any sense anymore to him. His father had told him that Mudbloods were evil and that Lord Voldemort was their only salvation. During his second year at Hogwarts, his father said that he knew of the Dark Lord's childhood. Which could only mean that he knew of the Dark Lord's lineage for a while.
What he couldn't understand was why his father never told him, unless he was planning on telling him later, before his initiation, to manipulate him…Draco blinked furiously as he realized the answer to all his questions about his father. It was all about manipulation.
Harry and Ron looked at each other as they saw Draco twitch and start blinking madly. It almost looked like he was crying. Well, either that, or some dust from one of Hermione's large stacks of books flew into his eye.
"Malfoy, are you alright? It looks like you're going to cry," Harry asked.
"I'd be fine if Granger put away those damned books, or decided to have the decency to clean them instead of blowing the dust in people's faces," Draco said, pointedly staring at Hermione, who ignored him.
Ron mouthed 'git' to Harry, who nodded in agreement. But he still felt a little sympathy toward the ferret. If Mrs. Malfoy really was with the Order, then Draco's family was shattered.
Draco rolled his eyes in annoyance as he was forced to contend with stares and sympathy. He forced his mind to get back on track, and thought about his mother's goals.
She was working for the Order, evidently. Why, Draco didn't know. He could've sworn that she loved father, or at least his money, whichever. So it didn't make sense that she would gamble it all away. After all, what did she think would happen to her if the Dark Lord won? Draco shrugged as he realized that that question wasn't going to be answered anytime soon. He'd have to dig for it.
Ron and Harry were becoming unnerved with all the silence and Draco's obsession with the walls (not to mention the rate that Hermione was reading books).
"Er, Ron, do you still have my copy of The Daily Prophet?" Harry asked, subtly trying to signal to Ron that he was the bearer of the boredom-reliever.
"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that!" Ron exclaimed, earning murderous glared from both Draco and Hermione. "Sorry!" he said, also a tad bit too loudly, causing Draco to shake his head at the stupidity of it all, and Hermione to shush him.
The first thing they saw when the unrolled the paper was "Death Eaters Strike Again?" in bold underneath were several moving pictures of explosions and survivors.
"Hermione, come look at this," Harry said grimly.
"It could just be Iraq," Hermione commented as she finished reading.
"How can you be so composed!" Ron asked incredulously. "People died! And you're talking about it as if…as if you're comparing something in Potions!"
"Ron, were in the middle of a war. There's one in the Wizarding world, and there's one in the Muggle world. I'm telling you that it might not be Death Eaters."
"They hit the Knight Bus! What more proof do you need?"
"Correction, they accidentally hit the Knight Bus. The one that actually blew up was a muggle one," Draco interjected.
Harry, Ron and Hermione just stared at him oddly.
"What!" Draco snapped, "The Wizarding world does overlap with the muggle one. This being the case, it is imperative that you read about both worlds. This attack bears a striking similarity with the Madrid bombings and has Al-Qaeda written all over it. While we shouldn't rule out the possibility that it might be Death Eaters, it's far more likely for it to be a simple muggle terrorist group."
The other three just continued staring at him in shock.
Draco muttered something about stupid Gryffindorks, snatched the paper away, and went to the opposite side of the library to read without being ogled.
Hermione was the first to snap out of the shock. "You see? Even Malfoy agrees with me!" she said this as if it would convince them. It did, at least for Harry (who knew about the war with Iraq). It didn't do anything to Ron. He was still convinced that Voldemort was lurking under every stone and every speck of dirt associated with the bombing.
…………
Meanwhile, in Dumbledore's office, the assembled Order was wondering the same things Draco was. Why was Narcissa working for the Order.
"So, why…" Yusuke began.
"Because I actually care about Draco. I actually care that he'll be a Death Eater to a hypocritical, bastard, mudblood! I'm a mother, what do you expect from me!" she explained hysterically.
"Um, I was going to ask why you're named after a personality disorder, but that was the answer to my second question, I think." Yusuke's response elicited wide eyes from the assemblage.
"What! I thought it was a good question!" Yusuke defended.
"Well…" Kurama trailed off, wondering how to answer. "The thing is, "Narcissa" isn't a personality disorder, it's a flower. On a further note…"
"Yeah, yeah, it wasn't appropriate and all that other crap. But we've been in here for about an hour, and nothing has been asked or answered! If no one was going to ask an intelligent question, I'll just go ahead and ask my stupid ones!" Yusuke cleared his voice to signal he was about to ask another.
"That's very noble," Mrs. Weasley blurted out suddenly to forestall Yusuke before he asked another question.
"Really, is it? I was just spying to uphold my family's reputation. Merlin knows someone has to."
"But you just said…"
"I know what I just said! What would happen if Draco went through life a slave to that monster. No proper Black heir would be a lowly slave," she sounded much calmer as she said this.
There was more tense silence following this revelation.
"So, uh…what's your favorite color? Do you have any pets?"
…………..
Draco couldn't help but laugh as he read about a woman who allegedly saw the Dark Lord torturing one of her cats. It was just too funny. Why the Dark Lord would even think to waste his time on a mud blood squib was beyond him. Like Arabella Fig was anybody.
While Draco was laughing his ass off at Mrs. Fig's expense, the Gryffindor trio were plotting ways to get the Prophet back.
"So, if we cause a disturbance here…"
"Now, why would Granger want to cause a disturbance in her precious little library?" Draco asked, still reading with his back to them.
"We want our paper back!"
"That's touching, Weasley, but do the three of you always share things? I shudder to imagine what would happen if one of you somehow obtained a girl friend, or boy friend. On that note, I would also have to wonder how."
"Shut your face!" Ron shouted.
"I'm sorry, that is physically impossible."
"Gah!" Ron looked like he was going to kill Draco. Draco looked like he would hex Ron to hell and back and claim it was self defense.
"Children, go to separate sides of the library! Don't talk, don't move, don't do anything except breath!" Hermione's attempt at discipline wasn't working. All it managed to do was cause Ron to look at her angrily, and Draco to look at her incredulously. Harry decided to sit this one out, wait until Draco was suitably distracted, and reclaim his paper.
As expected, Ron and Hermione began to bicker. Draco wasn't helping. He seemed to have deemed this as an excellent source of entertainment, and was goading the two on. Neither really paid it much attention. They were far to busy concentrating on the other.
"You tried to put me in time-out! Who do you think you are! You're not my mother, Hermione!"
"That's right!" Draco said brightly. "How dare you try to take on that responsibility! It's rude!"
"Well, with your level of immaturity, someone has to take on the responsibility when Mrs. Weasley isn't here! Imagine what would have happened if she had heard your comment to Mrs. Malfoy!"
"Exactly! Boys are so immature at this age! Someone has to keep them in line with an iron fist!"
"…Got it!" Harry shouted as he snatched the paper off the table. No one noticed. "O...kay…" Harry stared, wide-eyed, at the intensity of the argument. He wasn't even involved, and he was fearing for his life!
"Yeah, that SPEW incident; how dare you take it upon yourself to forcibly free house elves!" Draco said mock-indignantly, silently wondering to himself if Granger had a mental problem.
Harry glared as he saw Draco egging his two friends on. He marched up to him, and dragged him away from the two.
"What did you think you were doing?" Harry spat.
"Getting some entertainment, what else?"
Harry felt his eye begin to twitch.
"…if you try to not focus on what's upsetting you, the twitch usually leaves," Draco advised him.
Harry obviously wasn't taking his advice, the twitch was still there.
"Fine, don't take my advice. See what good it won't do in twenty or thirty years when you have wrinkles."
A/N: I originally wrote the majority of the chapter a day after the London bombings. Not because I found it funny, or amusing or anything that sadistic. I just thought it could have the potential of a decent little plot thingie. That and…I don't know, I guess I wanted to immortalize it in my own little way that wasn't media attention and death counts and other morbid stuff.
Anyway, now that the speech has been taken care of, I know I haven't updated in about half a month. I've had stuff I had to take care of and other crap. Yeah. Um…I'm cranky right now, so just bare with me. It's 3 AM.
Oh, and before I forget, Narcissa was acting a bit nervous because she had been sitting there for an hour with no conversation with anyone. People were just kind of staring at her, very suspiciously.
No explanations this time.
I hope that all the people who read enjoyed this chapter. Now, onward to the reviews.
Reviews:
Bluespark: I hate that colour combination on everything…so I figured it would be a pretty decent hair colour to prank someone with. Well, maybe they don't have butter knives in the Makai…I really didn't put that much thought into that. It's probably more of an intimidation tactic.
Yeah, I've always like Narcissa for some reason. I suppose because she's the only female character that hasn't annoyed me at all. Then again, she's only appear once…I think.
Nope, I've never roleplayed YYH. Why?
tbiris: Is that a good no comment or a bad one? .;;
kit-kit: Yeah, when I updated it, I went back to see if it caused a plot hole. It almost did. Key word was almost though. You can't imagine how relieved I was when I realized it didn't.
genny62890: I can't believe people don't tell you your funny! I keep finding your reviews funny! Ah, the rest of the world is weird. We know the truth! Have you ever noticed that Kurama looks like an angry Kenshin when he glares?
mistressKC-wanteddeadoralive: I tried. I have the idea that Kurama on less sleep equalssilly, so I decided to incorporate it. Why the sudden add-on to your pen name? Did you really annoy someone or something?