"Lucius!" The blond man sighed and turned around as Severus Snape ran up to him, fury etched into every muscle of his face,
"Can I help you, Severus? But you'll have to be quick as I have lesson plans to go over before tomorrow…"Snape interrupted him,
"How could you do that to him?" He demanded, eyes blazing,
"Do what?" Lucius replied innocently,
"You know perfectly well what!"
"Oh that! It was surprisingly easy actually, especially as he gets all his good looks from me." He smirked gave Snape a sardonic bow, "Now, if you've quite finished?" He turned to go, but a hand shot out and grabbed Lucius' arm,
"No I haven't bloody finished!" Severus snarled, "You've gone too far this time! I kept my silence before but I swear, if you ever hurt Draco like this again I'll…"
"You'll what?" Lucius wrenched his arm free, "Go running to Dumbledore? Get him to make it all better?" He sneered, "Because it won't work, Sev, if I can get out of a life sentence in Azkaban. I can get out of this."
"I won't let you get away with it. I could get him taken out of your custody permanently."
"And do you think that Draco would ever forgive you? You know as well as I, that no matter what I do, he always comes crawling back to me, begging forgiveness." He let out a harsh laugh, "Really quite pathetic actually, don't you agree?" As quick as a flash, Snape's wand was at his throat,
"Don't you ever talk about Draco like that again." He growled, applying pressure, "You don't deserve to have him as a son." Lucius glared at him, but stayed silent as Severus' wand was cutting off his airway.
Luckily for some and unfortunately for others, Hermione chose that precise moment to rush around the corner at fifty miles per hour. Snape quickly lowered his wand and turned his attention to the panting girl; who was obviously trying to say something,
" What are you doing, Miss Granger?"
"You've got to come!" She panted, "Down by the lake…Draco…"
"What?" Severus urged, "What's happened?" But Hermione just shook her head,
"Can't explain…got to find Dumbledore and McGonagall, Just go!" And with that, she raced off again, a trail of dust billowing behind her.
Severus threw one last killer glare at Lucius, wand arm twitching with self-control, then set off in the direction of the great outdoors.
The three adults; Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape, plus Hermione stood over the sleeping Draco, discussing him quietly,
"How old did you say he was?" Severus whispered,
"Six. But he seemed older."
"And, am I right in thinking that he spoke French?"
"Yes. In fact, he hardly seemed able to understand me at all." McGonagall looked at Snape quizzically,
"What do you mean, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, "Are you saying that this child can only speak French?"
"I'm afraid so. Lucius didn't think it necessary for him to speak English until he was about eight and considering both he and Narcissa were fluent in French, it appeared the obvious choice."
"Well, it's lucky I'm bilingual then isn't it?" Dumbledore stated merrily, beaming around at them all as though Christmas had come early, "I've been waiting for an opportunity to put my knowledge of the Latin and cheese based language to use for quite some time.
And with that, he burst into an uplifting chorus of 'Frere Jaques' causing Hermione to wince, Severus to give an exasperated sigh and roll his eyes and Minerva to shake her head sadly, each sending out the same, silent message; There he goes again.
At the start of the fifth round, Minerva patted Dumbledore on the arm, snapping him out of his musical trance,
"Albus, don't you think we should see if we can wake him now?"
"Oh yes. Of course. Severus, you knew him at this age, perhaps you would care to do the honours?"
"Certainly." Snape bent down next to the slumbering boy and gently shook him back into consciousness. Draco yawned and slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes dazedly with balled fists. His face broke into a grin when he saw Snape, showing rows of gappy teeth,
"Bonjour Draco. A fait vous appréciez votre sommeil? (Good morning Draco. Did you enjoy your sleep?) "
"Oncle Sev'rus! Ce qui est vous en faisant ici? (Uncle Sev'rus! What are you doing here?) "
"Je travaille ici Dragon. Vous souvenez-vous où vous êtes ? (I work here Dragon. Do you remember where you are?)" Draco put on a thinking face,
"Une fille est venue appelée "elle mon oh né", elle a dit que j'étais à Hogwarts. C'est elle! (A girl came called Her-my-oh-nee, she said I were at Hogwarts. That's her!) " He pointed up at Hermione and stated proudly,
"Elle est mon ami! Mais...mais que je ne sais pas qui tous ces autres gens sont. (She's my friend! But…but I don't know who all those other people are.) " He added, glaring up suspiciously at McGonagall and Dumbledore. Snape stood up, with Draco following his example, clutching a small handful of his godfather's robes,
"C'est Minerva McGonagall, (This is Minerva McGonagall,)" He gestured to her, "Elle est le député de la directrice et enseigne la transfiguration ici. (She is the deputy headmistress and teaches transfiguration here.)" Draco stepped boldly forward and held out his small hand towards her,
"Je suis très content de vous rencontrer. (I'm very pleased to meet you.)" He said solemnly. Minerva shook it with equal seriousness, with Hermione ducking down to stifle giggles,
"Et c'est Albus Dumbledore, le Directeur.(And this is Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster.)" Dumbledore smiled kindly and held out his hand,
"Bonjour Draco. (Hello Draco.)" But Draco let out a low whimper and hid behind Snape, who frowned and moved away, but Draco moved with him and remained concealed,
"Draco, partent et disent bonjour au Professeur Dumbledore. (Draco come out and say hello to Professor Dumbledore.)"
"Poor dear, must be shy." Minerva whispered to Hermione, who nodded her agreement,
"Non. non!" Came the muffled reply,
"Pourquoi ? Qu'est-ce qu'il y a ? (Why? What's the matter?)" Draco looked up tentatively and beckoned to Snape to come close. He bent down so the little boy could whisper in his ear,
"Il est un mauvais homme. (He's a bad man.)" Severus raised an eyebrow questioningly,
"Et pourquoi pourrait-il être ? (And why might that be?)" Draco frowned,
"Mais...mais...il est. (Because…because…he is.)" McGonagall came over,
"What's going on, Severus? Why is he afraid of Albus?"
"I'm not quite sure, but apparently he's a 'Bad man'." She gasped, hand flying to her mouth,
"How can anyone think that? Even a child?" Draco looked around at the group of shocked people around him, they were very obviously upset about something he had said,
"Je suis désolé. (I'm sorry.)" He said timidly. Snape gave him a reassuring smile,
"C'est pas mal. Vous n'êtes pas dans le pétrin. Pouvez-vous me dire pourquoi vous n'aimez pas de Professeur Dumbledore, Draco ? (It's okay. You're not in trouble. Can you tell me why you don't like Professor Dumbledore, Draco?)"
"Papa dit qu'il est un mauvais homme et si je suis méchant, il viendra quand je suis endormi et me mange. Et je suis méchant maintenant parce que je ne suis pas censé sortir sans la permission de Papa. (Papa says he's a bad man and if I'm naughty, he'll come when I'm asleep and eat me. And I'm naughty now 'cause I'm not s'posed to go out without Papa's permission)" He burst into tears, "Je ne veux pas être mangé, Oncle Sev'rus! Ne le laissez pas s'il vous plaît! (I don't want to be eaten, Uncle Sev'rus! Please don't let him!)" Snape translated to the others, whilst trying to soothe the sobbing child. Hermione let out an 'Aww!' of sympathy and scooped Draco up into her arms, cuddling him close,
"Ne vous inquiétez pas, à personne départ vous manger. (Don't worry, no one's going to eat you.)" Draco sniffed and looked up with unbelieving eyes,
"Vraiment ? (Really?)"
"Uh huh. Je promets de donner un coup de pied à quelqu'un qui essaie de vous manger, bien ? (I promise to kick anyone who tries to eat you, okay?)" Draco giggled into her shoulder,
"Vous êtes bêtes Her-my-oh-nee! (You're silly Her-my-oh-nee!)"
"Je suis sûr que je peux vivre avec cela. Maintenant comment de la réalisation des amis avec le Professeur Dumbledore ? (I'm sure I can live with that. Now how about making friends with Professor Dumbledore?)" Draco peeked out at Dumbledore, then quickly buried his face in Hermione's clothes. She could feel his small body shaking slightly,
"Draco, qu'est-ce qui est incorrect, le bébé ? (Draco, what's wrong, baby?)" But she needn't have asked, as at that moment, a cool voice came from the shadows behind Dumbledore,
"What is going on here?"
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Hello! Not much to say this time except Huge thanx and big kisses from Draco to TobiasHawk13! For being the best beta and muse ever!
Chocolate to the following lovely people- Jacc, Snow Mouse, TimeMage0955, TwilightDemon, 13BlackAnegels.
READ, REVIEW AND RECOMMEND! (S'il vous plais.)
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