PissedOffEskimo
Pairing: HP/DM (graphic); HP/GW (mild); HP/LM (non-con); HP/SS (implied)
Rating: R
Author's Note: Thank you all so much for waiting the extra week for the update, I hope it's worth it!
Summer 7: Part C
"But, Mother, I want to go."
"I forbid it."
"Father would have let me. He understands, he…"
"Your father is in Azkaban, Draco, and I am the head of this household until he returns. You will do as I say and you will respect my decision on the matter."
"How can I possible respect your decision when I don't even respect you." Draco didn't even see the hand fly, just felt the palm of his mother's hand strike across his face with a sickening crack.
"Go to your room and do not come out until I personally retrieve you."
He turned around and stormed out, seething. How dare she treat him like some common, ill-bred half blood! It was unthinkable. Slamming his door, he threw himself on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He only wanted to go to Hogwarts, he only wanted to see Harry before…
Lifting up his arm, he looked at the inside of it, bare and smooth. It wouldn't be for long. Voldemort had already sent word to his mother that he was to be initiated in his father's place. 'Before the summer was out', that was all the letter had said about when.
His mother had always been so cold to him, but after that letter it was all he could do to get any privacy. She insisted that they eat together, take walks in the gardens together. She wanted to talk to him. It was infuriating. The woman had been a non-entity his entire life and now that he was fifteen she was suddenly his mother.
He reached up and put his fingers on his cheek. It hadn't even been a very hard slap, but the memory of her hand on his face left unfamiliar and unwanted tingles flitting across his face. She'd hardly ever paid him attention, let alone slapped him. Was this how Harry had felt when Snape slapped him?
Turning onto his side, Draco looked at the wall and chewed on the inside of his cheek. He wasn't going to just sit here and do nothing for the next two months. He had to see Harry at least once before term started, but his mother was unlikely to relent unless she had no other option.
He sat up as an idea struck him. Yes, that was it, give her no other option, make it so that she couldn't refuse the request to send him to Hogwarts. A soft knock at his door jarred him from his thoughts and he looked up to see his mother step in.
"Draco?"
Stubbornly, he turned so that his back was to her and didn't answer. She sighed heavily, but did not retreat. "I am sorry that I struck you, but I…" she faltered and Draco found himself wanting to listen, despite himself. "I know that I have been… otherwise occupied throughout the years, but with Lucius gone and now it is my duty to protect you. You are my son."
"You've never acted like it." He bit his lip hard. He hadn't actually meant to say that.
His mother took another deep breath, "I have always had your best interest in mind, I've just never been good at expressing it. My abilities with children are rather limited. I don't have a great deal of patience, nor can I abide loud noises, but I have always seen that you had what you needed…"
"Except a mother." He hadn't meant to say that either, but it was true. Sure, he'd always worn the latest fashions, ate the best foods, had the most superior tutors, and anything he asked for was his, but the only time she had ever wanted to do anything with him was when she had shopping to do and didn't want to go alone. If his father had agreed to go with her, she probably would have left Draco home with a house elf to watch over him.
She took a step towards him, but apparently thought better of it and stepped back again. "I know why you want to go to Hogwarts."
Draco's spine stiffened slightly. How could she know? How could she possibly?
"You want to continue with your father's plan of getting into Potter's good graces. However, the boy is carefully guarded now and I will not have you putting yourself into even further danger. If the Dark Lord asks, at least at this moment you can say that you aren't his friend. If that changes he may ask you to risk your freedom or even your life. I won't let that happen if I can help it."
With a sigh, Draco finally turned around, facing his mother fully and raised his chin. "Well, then, you're too late, aren't you?"
"What?"
"He's more than my friend, mother, and I will go to Hogwarts this summer, with or without your approval."
Before she could say anything, he stormed past her, leaving her gaping in the doorway to his room while he all but ran to his father's study. In truth, he couldn't go anywhere unless she said he could. If she willed it, the manor would refuse to let him out the front door, she could close the floo line, she could instruct the owls not to deliver anything that didn't come directly from her.
Shutting and locking the door behind him, he looked around the study, taking large, deep breaths to steady himself. He could do this. He could. Grabbing parchment from his father's desk, he wrote quickly and attached the letter to the dark owl sitting on his father's desk. "Deliver this to… Lord Voldemort."
It flew out the open window and Draco watched it leave, his chest tightening as it got smaller in the distance. What the bloody hell had he just done?
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The room was small, but elaborately decorated. Perhaps a little dated, but very decadent in its own right - the tapestries on the walls were clean, but there were moth holes in a few, the throne was extravagant, but there were nicks in it in places, the carpet was a rich burgundy, but there was the occasional stain. Had everything been new, however, Draco could see how the throne room that he was standing in might have been very elegant. Of course, he wasn't paying much attention to the room, because Lord Voldemort was sitting in front of him in the nicked up throne, staring at him with red eyes and breathing threw his slit, snakelike nose. Why had this been a good idea again?
Dropping to one knee, Draco bowed forward, "My Lord."
Voldemort made a noise that sounded like something between approval and annoyance. "Stand." Draco stood, wishing his knees would stop shaking. "What is it that you wanted to speak with me about?"
One of the many rumours going around was that the Dark Lord was an accomplished Legilimens and as he looked at the red eyes, Draco decided that he believed that one; best not to lie then. "It's about my mother."
"You're mother?"
"Yes, my Lord. My Father had a plan and I have been working very hard for many years. With him gone, she has seen fit to put a halt to it. I disagree with her and I think you will as well."
Voldemort steepled his fingers and Draco was reminded of Snape when he was observing an animal he had just tested a potion on. "What if I do?"
"Then I am hoping you will persuade her to allow me to continue my efforts"
"I do not appreciate my followers being cryptic, young Draco. Either tell me what you wish to do for me, or I will consider this a waste of my time."
Draco gulped lightly and looked at the carpet, taking that single moment to steel himself before looking back up. "My father has been sending me to spend time with Potter since I was nine-years-old. The hope was that he and I would become friends and that I would have access to him, that I would have his trust."
The hairless eyebrow ridge raised and wrinkled slightly, "Has it worked?"
"Yes, my Lord, I have his trust."
"Are you his friend?"
Draco forced a smirk, hoping it did not look too much like a grimace. "And more."
Voldemort kept his eye contact for several moments and Draco felt a tingle in the base of his skull. An image of Harry on his knees in front of him flashed in front of his eyes and he blinked, caught off guard by the sudden recollection. Voldemort allowed his thin lips to smile, just slightly. "Yes, I do believe you are telling me the truth. You can bring me the boy?"
This was where he had to be careful. He wouldn't, he couldn't turn Harry over, but if what his mother had told him was true, he wouldn't have to. "It is my understanding that the security at the school has been tightened to such an extreme that that may be impossible at the moment, but I wish to continue my… affair with him, so as not to raise his suspicions. My mother is worried that it would be too dangerous, especially if I am to take your Mark."
"Ah. Then the issue is not simply your mother. It is whether you are to take my mark."
"I want to." Draco cursed himself for speaking too quickly, sounding too eager. "I just believe that showing my support for you so openly might hinder my progress with Potter."
Voldemort dropped his hands to his knee, "Come here."
Slowly, Draco walked to the throne and stood facing the thing that his father served, the thing he was expected to serve. There was something in the cheekbones and the line of the jaw that indicated that the Dark Lord may once have been an attractive man, but there was so little human left in him that any of that beauty was hidden behind the snakelike features currently set in the face. One of the slender hands reached up and ran a long finger across Draco's face, tracing his jaw thoughtfully.
"You are a very handsome young man, very much like your father, but perhaps a trace more delicate."
Had anyone else called him 'delicate', Draco might have felt the need to defend himself. As it was, he was lucky that he was still standing. "Thank you, my Lord."
"Hm, seduction is an adult's game. Are you quite sure that you are up to the challenge?"
The finger was moving down the side of his neck. "I… I think so."
"Can you, at your age, separate what you feel from what you do?"
He thought about what he was doing now. Standing before the Dark Lord, forcing himself to be in the presence of the man who wanted to kill the boy he lo… fancied. Enduring that touch so he could spend even a few weeks with his Harry. "Yes."
Apparently, something in his tone, or perhaps in his mind, convinced the Dark Lord that he was serious. Dropping the hand, Voldemort smiled, a rather insidious gesture on the lipless face. "Very well, I will inform your mother that you are to leave for Hogwarts immediately and we'll postpone your initiation for now. However, should you take your freedom too lightly, Draco Malfoy, I may feel the need to remind you of whom you belong to."
Draco felt the blood leaving his face and nodded. "Of course, my Lord. I am yours."
"Very well, you are dismissed."
With another low bow, he turned and left the room, conscious of everything form the carpet under his feet to the eyes boring into the back of his head. He'd done it. He was going to Hogwarts to see Harry. His mother was going to be so pissed.
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His mother had not been pleased, but then he hadn't expected her to be. After spending several hours ranting at him for foolishness, she had gone to send a letter to the school, requested that Draco be allowed to visit Harry. Ten hours later, he was standing in Dumbledore's office, watching house elves disappear with his trunk.
"Mr. Malfoy, it is a pleasant surprise to have you here. I must say, I had not expected to hear from you this summer."
Draco looked around the office, trying not to make eye contact with Dumbledore. He'd done a moderate amount of research on Legilimency and found that the Dark Lord was not the only powerful wizard alive reported to be competent in the art. He had also read that there was a counter measure, Occlumency, and he was hoping that he could ask Snape about it.
When Draco didn't say anything, Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. "Have a seat, there are some things that we need to discuss before I send you on your way."
Reluctantly, Draco did as he was asked, declining tea and lemon drops. "Is something the matter, Professor?"
"No, but due to circumstances, this summer is going to be a bit different from the pervious ones and I wish to make myself absolutely clear on the rules that are to be followed while you are here."
"Different, sir?"
Dumbledore popped one of the lemon drops in his mouth. "Yes, you see Professor Snape has been called home for the summer and will not be returning until the start of term."
He hadn't known Snape even had a home. Well, okay, logically, he had to have a home, but Draco had never been to it and Snape was always at the school. He couldn't even begin to imagine the state of disrepair the place must be in. "So, we'll be in the Tower with Professor McGonagall then?"
"No, I'm afraid that other than Professors Hagrid, Trelawney and Firenz, none of the teachers were able to stay. It is dark times, Mr. Malfoy, they wished to spend time with their families while they still can."
Draco felt his cheeks redden. He hadn't really put much thought about what it was like for wizarding families who didn't support Voldemort. He'd thought about Harry, but Harry was here and he was safe and his own family, or what was left of it, was perfectly safe as long as they didn't do anything stupid to anger the Dark Lord.
Like falling for the boy who was prophesised to kill him.
Damn.
"However, you are nearly sixteen-years-old and I would like to think that you can stay in a room unsupervised without causing yourself great harm. To that end, you will be staying in Professor McGonagall's rooms for the summer. If you need anything I will be here, or either of the Divinations Professors are on hand. Also, there is at least one Auror in the castle at all times for Harry's safety."
Draco was slightly taken aback by the amount of freedom that Dumbledore was granting him. His father was now a known Death Eater. Dumbledore had to know that Draco was in line to take his father's place in Voldemort's ranks. So, why was he giving him free access to the Boy-Who-Lived? What was he trying to gain by this?
"Sir, I'm not sure I understand."
"It's quite simple, my dear boy, I am simply informing you that should you need anything there will be an adult nearby, but you are otherwise free to entertain yourselves. Now, as to the rules. There will be no leaving the castle grounds. However, if you intend to go anywhere outside of the castle itself, I do ask that you inform Professor Hagrid so that he can keep an eye on you."
There was a very long pause while Draco waited to hear something along the lines of, 'and handing Harry over to Death Eaters is expressly forbidden,' but Dumbledore wasn't saying anything, "Is… is that all, Professor?"
Dumbledore nodded and stood up, "Oh, yes, and one more thing. Please refrain from overindulging in sweets. The house elves will bring you anything you ask for, but cake and pie at every meal is hardly nutritional. Try and eat at least one well-balanced meal a day if you can."
After several moments, Draco nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Well then, that is all. Unless you have something you wish to tell me?"
There was that piercing gaze again and Draco dropped his eyes, "No, sir."
"Very well, I've not had time to inform Harry that you were coming, but I dare say he will be very happy to see you."
Draco stood up and tentatively walked towards the door, still waiting for some kind of admonishment from the Headmaster. None came. He closed the office door behind him and walked down the spiral stairs in a daze. This was unreal. Dumbledore was… trusting him? Draco stopped and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking around the deserted hallways.
He'd never been so explicitly trusted before and it was strange - kind of lonely, actually. He'd just have to hurry up and get to Harry so that he could take his mind off the Headmaster and his stupid mind games. Yes, that was exactly what he needed. Harry… and maybe sex. Sex was always fun.
-tbc-