On the morning of his third day at Grimmauld Place, Draco skipped happily down the stairs and into the kitchen, where the others were sitting around the table conversing about the kinds of things one usually talks about at breakfast,
"So how many will we have?" Tonks asked Lupin, cutting up her bacon into minuscule pieces and covering it in tomato sauce,
"Well," The werewolf began to tick people off on his fingers, "They'll be us seven, Molly, Arthur, their kids-"
"All of them?" Tonks questioned, looking slightly horrified,
"No, just Ron, Fred, George and Ginny." Nymphadora breathed a sigh of relief,
"Thank Merlin! That was a horrible moment" Draco looked up, interested, as he scrambled onto his chair,
"What are you talkin' about?" He piped, "What was a horrible moment?" Remus and Tonks laughed,
"Don't worry about it." Lupin told him, handing him some tea, "It's nothing important. What do you want to eat?"
"Ummm…" The boy had a moment of exaggerated thinking, "Toast please. Where's Uncle Sev'rus an' Mione? They're gong to miss breakfast, then they'll be hungry."
"I think Hermione's still in bed, why don't you take her up some coffee?" Draco hesitated, watching his cousin suspiciously. Was this a trick? To test him? Coffee was forbidden, she should know that, so why was she telling him to take some to Mione? Surely she knew he would get into trouble for that? But if he didn't obey, maybe she would be angry with him instead…
"Draco?" The metamorphmagus waved a hand in front of the boys frowning face, snapping him out of his trance of inner turmoil, "Are you going up to Hermione?"
"I-I can't." Draco whispered lowering his head dejectedly, "Please-please don't make me!" Tonks moved closer to him, out of concern from his strange reaction, but Draco, expecting the worse, flinched and took a frightened step back, watching her every move nervously,
"Draco, it's okay. She won't be cross that you've woken her up." She soothed gently, misunderstanding him, "I expect she'll be glad of an early morning booster. Here." She held out the cup of coffee towards him, expecting him to take it. Instead, he gave a muffled cry and shied away from it, as if it were going to strike him. Nymphadora, not knowing how a drink could instil such fear in the child, turned to Lupin, who was reading yesterday's newspaper innocently,
"Umm, Remus? A little help here, if you don't mind." Lupin slowly, reluctantly, laid down his paper and went over to Draco, keeling down so as to be at the same height. The bot stiffened slightly, lip held firmly between his front two teeth. His eyes were flicking around, not sure where to look.
Draco was certain he was going to be in trouble for disobeying his cousin, but what scared him the most was that he had absolutely no idea what they were going to do. At least with his father, Draco had learnt to read his expressions, to get some idea of what was going to happen, but with them, he didn't even know what kind of thing they were going to do…
"I-I…I'm s-sorry…" He whispered, his little voice shaking, "Please, Sir, I'm s-sorry."
"What for, Draco?" Lupin asked, his voice gentle, "Why are you sorry? What have you done wrong?" So, even they knew the Routine, Draco thought sadly,
"I disobeyed Tonks. I wouldn't do what she told me."
"Why? Was it unreasonable, what she asked you to do." But this time, Draco couldn't answer. He let his head drop down, just wanting it to be over. Why did adults always have to prolong the inevitable? Why couldn't they just hit you straight off, without asking all those stupid questions? Why did they have to make the fear last even longer than it did anyway?
Draco squeezed his eyes tight shut, bracing himself for the slap, or what ever it was going to be, that would put him in his place and make him pay for his insolence.
But when Lupin touched his cheek, there was no pain or silver fire, just kindness and concern in it's place. Draco slowly opened his eyes, hardly daring to look up, in case it was all a trick and the blow would be delivered nonetheless, catching him off guard.
"What's wrong little Dragon?" Remus murmured gently, "Why are you so scared?"
"Aren't you going to…to h-hit me?" Draco asked uncertainly, eyeing Lupin with nervous anticipation. Remus shook his head,
"No. Not unless you want me to, of course. But you'll have to persuade me. I don't want to hit you." Draco frowned,
"But I've been bad." The older man shrugged,
"No you haven't. Besides, even if you were bad, I still wouldn't hit you. It is against all my morals." Draco paused, thinking about this for a moment,
"Oh." He finally came up with, "I think understand…" Lupin grinned and ruffled the boy's hair,
"Of course you don't. You're too young to understand. Now, I'm sure Hermione will be awake by now, so why don't take her up some tea or coffee and give her a happy start to the day?" Draco nodded slowly and reached up to take the mug of tea down from the table, the proceeding to carry it carefully, with both hands, up the stairs to Hermione's room.
As they heard Draco's footsteps on the landing above them, Tonks shook her head and resumed the consumption of her bacon,
"You can certainly see why he's so messed up as a teenager, now can't you?"
A/N: Heya! Yay, nearly on 400! Thankyou to all! Btw, why do people keep on asking me what ginger newts are? Here's a quote from ootp (P.223, uk version)
There had been a previous occasion when Harry, expecting to be caned by Professor McGonagall, had instead been appointed by her to the Quiddith team. He sank ino a chair opposite her and helped him self to a Ginger Newt.
"Potter, you need to be more careful." Harry swallowed his mouthful of Ginger Newt and stared at her.
:-P Lol! Anyway, chocolate candysticks to...
Timemage0955, lollenk, Hogaboom, The Look of lve, SailorHecate, Nikki's Evil DoppelGanger, -addicted-2-hp-, Phantom Starlight, I Estel vinta amarbarenna lomeo A Duath, xnightxrainx, Tamika DanarDraco, perfectpureblood, miniuncy22, Dark Princesses, lilmissgullable.
All my love, Lilyxxxxxxx