Disclaimer: I own nothing. No Draco, no ducks, no nothing. So don't sue me.
Chapter 3: Draco, Detentions, and Ducks
Draco stormed into the almost empty Slytherin common room. Two 3rd years that had been standing near the fire hurried out of the room. It was a good thing too, because at that moment Draco felt like cursing anybody in sight. Thanks to Weasley, he now had a detention. Him! Draco Malfoy! He never got a detention. Not if he could help it, anyway.
Draco threw his bag onto the floor, not caring that he smashed a bottle of ink. He could always buy more. That's one thing his father was good for, his money. Draco sighed, thinking about his father. Draco was nothing like him. Everybody thought it, that Draco was a Death Eater, but he wasn't. Sure, there were some people he hated, like a certain red-haired family of blood traitors, but he would never succumb to Voldemort. Voldemort was the reason that he had a filthy family. His father never cared about him, he just wanted somebody to follow in his footsteps and serve Voldemort. His mother wasn't exactly the "maternal" type. She just wanted money to buy things, and to stay out of Lucius's way. Neither of them cared about Draco. Once Draco thought about it, he didn't care about them much, either.
This is all Weasley's fault, Draco thought. In the deeper part of his mind, the one that had some common sense, a little voice told him it wasn't. At the moment though, Draco was in a nasty mood and needed somebody to blame for it. Ginny Weasley happened to be that somebody. I would've just left her be after she fell, Draco told himself, but she had to go and call me a Death Eater. I would never become one of those- those monsters. Draco thought back to a conversation he had had with his father just weeks ago…
"Draco," Lucius drawled, "it's time we think about when you will take the vow to serve the Dark Lord. You are coming of age now; you are almost a man…though I don't think you deserve to be called one just yet. However, after you graduate from that mockery of a school, you will become a Death Eater. The Dark Lord has decided that he wants you to serve him, just as I have done."
Draco looked over at his father. They were in Lucius's study, where Draco had been summoned. Draco had had a feeling that this talk was coming, and had tried to prepare for it. He did not want his any of his anger or reluctance to show to his father, but he was not succeeding in hiding it well. He frowned, considering his options. He would never become a Death Eater, never; he would die first. It wasn't that he was afraid of Voldemort, he just hated that man- no, thing- with all his heart. He couldn't very well run away from home though, because there was nowhere to go. Draco didn't think he could just switch sides in the war, either. He doubted that Dumbledore would take him on their side…that is, if Draco wanted to change sides. Draco shuddered at the thought of fighting along side Harry Potter.
"What's the matter, Draco?" Lucius smirked at seeing Draco shudder. "Are you afraid of the Dark Lord? You should be; he is a very powerful man. You will become a Death Eater, Draco. It is either that…or death. I do not think you would prefer the latter."
"Yes I would," Draco muttered under his breath. He glanced up at his father, but he hadn't noticed.
"You see Draco," Lucius motioned with his hands, walking to a bookshelf on the wall. "There are three kinds of people in this world. There are those who choose to fight for the Dark Lord, those who get beaten by the Dark Lord, and those who betray the Dark Lord. We are the former. If you were to choose the latter, well, it would not be very good for your health." Lucius picked one book from the shelf and placed it back. "The Dark Lord does have some compassion, thus, he likes to kill the Muggles and blood-traitors quickly and cleanly." Draco snorted, but his father kept on talking. "Those who betray the Dark Lord get a very slow, and painful, death. The Dark Lord does not like traitors. So once you join the Death Eaters, you will always be one. It is better to refuse the Dark Lord, than to join him and leave him." Lucius Malfoy had apparently finished speaking, and was waiting for Draco to say something. He was looking expectantly at his son. Draco fidgeted under his gaze, and pretended to be interested in his fingernail.
"Well, Draco?"
Draco started to sweat. He couldn't say no, but he would never say yes. All he did was shrug his shoulders.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Lucius snarled, spraying spit all over his desk, and looking uncannily like a rabid wolf. Despite the situation he was in, Draco laughed. That caused his father to become even more enraged.
"You think this funny, do you?" Lucius howled, slamming a book down on his desk. "Maybe you need some discipline, to shock you into reality! This is reality, Draco! Not some game! If you refuse the Dark Lord, you will die! What will it take for you to realize that?" Lucius Malfoy was practically screaming now, and Draco flinched as his ears rang. He knew what was coming. More torture. It's how his father always ended these talks of becoming a Death Eater. "Discipline", was what his father called it. "Character building". "A strengthening of will-power" was what Draco called it. Will power to defy his father…and Voldemort.
"Crucio!" Lucius shrieked, pointing his wand at Draco's heart. Draco fell off the chair he had been sitting on and fell to the floor, twitching and trying to hold in his screams. Standing above him, Lucius Malfoy laughed as he watched his son writhe around on the floor like an ant with its legs broken off. "One day, Draco, one day you'll thank me for all of this," Lucius said with a maniacal gleam in his wide eyes.
"Crucio!"
Now Weasley goes and gets him a detention. Why was life so unfair? Draco rubbed his forehead, thinking hard. Who did that professor think he was, anyway? All Draco was doing was having a little fun, the only kind he could. Then he had to jump in and save the weasel. Draco sighed, pulled himself to his feet, and walked up to the 7th year boys' dormitory. His books and smashed ink bottle lay forgotten.
That evening, Draco was sitting in the Great Hall trying to enjoy his dinner, but Pansy Parkinson kept cooing in his ear. Finally, in frustration, he slammed his fork down on his plate and turned to face the girl with a pug-like face.
"Pansy! Will you just shut your face for one second? I am trying to eat here! When will you get it through your thick head that I don't like you? I never did, so just leave me the hell alone!" And with that, Draco grabbed a roll and walked right out of the Great Hall, leaving a scowling Pansy behind him.
As he was walking down an almost empty corridor finishing his dinner roll, Ginny Weasley practically flew past him towards the Great Hall. She knocked into his shoulder, but kept on running without stopping.
"Oi! Watch where you're going, Weasley!" Draco shouted after her, but he didn't think she even heard him. Muttering to himself, he kept on walking, shaking his head in disgust. Did that girl have no sense of propriety? No girl Draco knew would just run down halls like that without even worrying that she looked like a duck. Draco laughed at that thought, and kept on walking.
The rest of his first week went by in a blur for Draco. Before he knew it, it was Saturday night, the night of his detention with Professor Juriac. As he was walking from the library that afternoon, a terrified-looking 2nd year boy came up to him and handed him a note tentatively. Before Draco could ask him anything, the boy took off running in the opposite direction. Draco laughed. Good, people still feared him. He looked down and read the very short note.
Mr. Malfoy,
I am feeling ill this afternoon and will be unable to oversee your detention. Instead of prolonging it even further, you will attend your detention with Professor Snape. He has kindly offered to fill in for me. Please go down to his office at 8:00 this evening.
-Oleaney Juriac
Draco smirked. If his detention was with Snape, there was no way it could be bad. He crumpled the note into a little ball and threw it on the ground.
That evening, he walked down to Snape's office and knocked on the door. A voice replied, "Enter." Draco walked into the room and found Severus Snape sitting at his desk writing something. He looked up when Draco walked in and stood.
"Ah, Draco, I see you got the note about your detention. What did you do to get it, anyway?" Snape stood leaning against his desk.
"Tried to curse Weasley," Draco smirked back. "Professor Juriac caught me."
"Obviously," Snape said. His greasy face shined a little in the dim light of his office. They both stood there for a minute. Draco coughed.
"Ummm, Professor? Are we going to get started with this detention or are we going to just stand here all night?" Draco asked.
Snape, sighing, said, "We are waiting for the other person to arrive. You're not the only one with a detention tonight."
"Other person? Who else is –" at that moment there was a knock at the door, and Snape replied, "Enter."
The door opened and revealed the one person responsible for Draco being there in the first place. Ginny Weasley walked into the room, but stopped when she saw Draco standing there.
"What is he doing here?" Ginny demanded.
"I could ask the same of you, Weasley," Draco retorted.
Snape sighed especially loudly, interrupting the two teenagers. They both look over at him. "You both will be cleaning out the student cupboard, organizing it, etc. etc. And you'll do it with no magic…together."
Ginny grimaced, and Draco felt the same way. There was no way this was going to work. After all, she was a Weasley. This was going to be a long night.
"Move it, Malfoy," Ginny stated an over and hour later, shoving him out of the way to get to the sink. They had both just gotten finished washing out beakers containing goblin blood, and their hands were filthy.
"Manners, Weasley," Draco chided, drying off his already clean hands. Ginny mumbled something under her breath. "What was that?" Ginny turned to him with an innocent expression on her face.
"What? Nothing. I said nothing. Maybe you should clean your ears out, Malfoy. Though it probably wouldn't do you much good. You're so full of crap that I don't think there's any hope for you."
Draco opened his mouth to say something particularly nasty to her, but she just walked past him, slamming her shoulder into his.
They had everything out of the cupboard, but now had to clean the cupboard itself out. Draco was not looking forward to it. Earlier, as he had grabbed out a container of something slimy, he could have sworn that something moved in there.
As they both bent down to peer into the cabinet, Ginny shuddered next to him. Draco almost did too. A very foul odor was emanating from the cupboard, and Draco pinched his nose shut.
"Ladies first," he said through his pinched nose. Ginny snorted. "What?" Draco asked.
"You sound like a duck like that," Ginny pointed to his nose.
"Well at least I don't run like one," Draco retorted, remembering earlier that week when Ginny had tore past him in the hall. She frowned and looked up at him.
"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked, confusion clearly evident on his face.
"You run like a duck," continued Draco, bending down towards the cabinet once more. "Earlier this week in the hall you ran past me and when I shouted after you, I noticed that you look like a duck when you run." Draco said all this as if they were discussing the weather.
"That's absurd!" Ginny yelled. "I do not run like a duck…" she muttered under her breath. "It's impossible too. Have you ever seen a duck run? Hmmm? They waddle. Ducks don't run…"
"Anyways," Draco continued. "What's the point of all this. Are you going to start cleaning that thing out or not?"
"Me? Why should I be the one to clean it? After all, it's your detention too"
"Yes, but ladies first," Draco replied, folding his arms across his chest.
"Well, who said I was a lady?"
"Right," Draco mumbled under his breath. "You're a duck."
"What was that?" Ginny challenged.
"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." There was silence for a minute as the two glared at each other. Finally, Draco burst out, "Look! You should clean it! You're used to this sort of thing!"
"Used to it?" Ginny cried. "Who could be used to a smell like that?" She gestured towards the cupboard.
"You must do this sort of cleaning every day at your house. Of course you're used to it!"
"For your information –" Ginny was cut off by Snape over in the corner.
"Will the both of you just shut up and clean? I don't want to be here all night." Snape sounded exasperated.
Draco and Ginny both turned back to the cabinet. The smell was getting worse, Draco decided. He was definitely not going in there. Definitely.
"Oh fine then, you big baby. I don't want to be here all night either." Draco smirked as Ginny pushed past him with a rag, and opened the door. When she opened it, a black and brown mass of fur launched itself from the cabinet onto her face, making a horrendous sound as it did. Ginny shrieked and dropped her rag, trying to get a hold on the thing. Drops of blood appeared on her face, and she screamed louder. Draco stood there gaping at her and whatever was mutilating her face, before he grabbed his wand that had been lying on the floor and pointed it at the creature.
"Flaridia!" He shouted, and the thing dropped from Ginny's face onto the floor, twitching only slightly. He stood above Ginny, looking down at her. She was on her knees, holding her face in her hands. When she looked up, he saw deep scratch and teeth marks on her face. A look of pain was etched there, surrounded by blood.
Snape reached their side and pulled Ginny up by the shoulder.
"Take her to the Hospital Wing," he said, as he bent over and picked up the brown and black thing that lay on the floor. "I will deal with this."
"But what was that-"
"Now, Draco. We'll talk about this later."
Draco pushed a whimpering Ginny towards the door and into the hallway. She was covering her face with her hands, and blood was seeping through her fingers. She didn't seem to want to walk, so Draco kept poking her back all the way towards the Hospital Wing. When they got there, Draco opened the door and called for Madame Pomfrey. When the medi-witch arrived, Draco left without a word.
Let her figure out what happened, Draco thought. I really don't care. He assumed that the detention was over for the night, so he didn't bother going back to Snape's office. He would find out later what the creature that attacked Ginny was.
As he was walking through the hall, making his way towards the Slytherin Common room, he heard quick footsteps coming up from behind him. Turning, he saw Professor Juriac briskly walking past him and mumbling. He seemed totally oblivious to Draco standing not three feet away.
"…more careful next time…don't want to damage it…" Professor Juriac's voice trailed after him. Draco called out to him, but once again, he got no answer.
Why does everybody ignore me these days, Draco thought to himself. I'm Draco Malfoy, for crying out loud. Muttering to himself about impropriety, Draco continued walking toward the Slytherin Common room.
-----------
-------------
-----------
------------
-----------
-------------
-----------
A/N: Just so you know, the chapters do get longer. I've got some really long ones later on. The beginning of the story is just kind of slow. Review are always welcome.
Lauren
