Chapter Two

Draco Dormiens

Madison sighed and stroked Draco's hair as she helped him build up the walls around the castle he was building out of white, red, and green Legos. She refused to help him with the dungeon of green and black, and he had stopped fortifying the tower of white and green. He kept mumbling and muttering under his breath about, "The snake, stop the snake. Fortify and defend. Can't let the snake back in."

Madison felt like crying. Draco was so different now, a slave to his madness. She didn't know what he had seen, what had happened to him, but her cousin Viktor had brought her Dragon to her a week into the summer vacation, shrunken and deathly pale, shivering and weeping, whimpering in fear. Now, he was a child during the day, and a desperate, brutalized young man when the sun set and the dark brought on his terrors once more.

"You don't like the castle. Do you?" Draco's hoarse whisper startled her from her frightened memories. His stone gray gaze was locked on the tiny porcelain figurine of a princess on one of the catwalks.

"I like the castle," she said softly.

"Tell the truth."

"I like it."

"Liar!" He smashed the tower with its sparkling green Dark Mark. He roared and shoved himself away from the humongous model castle, snarling in rage. "Don't lie to me! Ever! Do you hear? Filthy Mudblood bitch! Don't think I don't know! Always laughing behind those buckteeth, I've seen you. Oh, I know. I know what you told them. Granger, you Mudblood, I'll kill you for what you've do-"

SLAP! Madison's hand cut across Draco Malfoy's face, leaving a blood red mark in the shape of her hand. The young wizard didn't seem to feel it, though. He merely grew calm and weary, sliding against the wall until he was slumped on the floor, his head on Madison's thigh.

"I was being ill again, wasn't I?" He asked, twirling a lock of the girl's wild, raven black Spanish curls. "When will I get better?"

"I don't know," Madison murmured, still reeling. She wondered who this Granger girl was that Draco so disliked, and Weasley and Potter. Who were these people? Why did Draco rant about killing them on minute and then cry out for them to run away, to save themselves, the next? Mudblood, he had called her.

"Why do you help me build the castle if you don't like it?"

"Because it makes you feel better."

"Madison, I..." He looked at her hair, clenched now in his hands, and whispered, "Mother, where are you? Why is your hair black? You're not my Mother. Who are you? Where's my mother?"

A tear slipped down Madison's cheek. Their brief moment of lucidity was gone. And where was Narcissa Malfoy? She gently took the strand of hair from between his fingers and tucked it behind her ear, crooning softly, "Madison, Draco, I'm Madison. Remember? Remember Madison?"

"Madison. I'm in love with a girl name Madison. She's very beautiful, and smart. She's not a witch, but that's okay. I don't care. She's perfect."

"Thank you, Draco," she murmured, but he didn't hear.

"You look like her," he said. "Like my Madison. Except you're so sad, and Madison's always happy. Sometimes, I think she eats happiness for breakfast. Isn't that a silly thought?"

"Yes," she said, as his eyes began to drift close. "Very silly thought." His eyes snapped open, and he shoved her away. Snarling, he staggered to her feet.

"Whore! Bitch! Muggle slut! How dare you call me silly! Who do you think you are, anyway? I'll make you pay for this! Who are you?"

"Madison!" She cried. "I'm Madison, Draco, your mermaid! I'm Madison." Draco calmed down instantly, and stared at Madison's face. It sported a red mark that was swiftly turning purple, just underneath her right eye.

"Maddie?"

"It's okay, Draco. I'm all right. Come on, look, Raven's left us some cake. Let's have some." She stood up and took his hand. Like a child, he followed her back towards the table. Madison barely managed to see her way through the blur of tears. Draco, the real Draco, had gone back to sleep, wherever the madness had sent it.

Draco Dormiens means "sleeping dragon."