Chapter 26 - The Blood of Draco Malfoy

The Blood of Draco Malfoy

Sage had been quite surprised with some of the things that seemed to be changing around him, he did not seem to notice, however, the changes that were occuring in himself. He was surprised that he never got a lecture from his uncle about what happened with Lucius Malfoy. In fact, Severus seemed rather pleased with the entire event. He had not lost face with Malfoy, since he had recovered the situation with Sage, yelling and hitting him in front of Lucius. But Sage had managed to do something that he had effectively wanted to do, but could never do. He had helped Draco and perhaps gained his trust, but especially his respect. Draco Malfoy was an integral piece of Severus's plan to keep as many Slytherins as possible out of the Death Eaters.

So when Draco came up to the Gryffindor table the next day, Sage was not entirely surprised.

"A word," Draco said simply, ignoring the rest of the Gryffindors.

"Get back to your own table, ferret," Ron cut in.

Sage put up his hand to keep them quiet and told them, "It's all right, Mr. Malfoy and myself have sorted out our problems."

He got up to follow Draco, and Harry stared after him suspiciously. First that strange scroll last year, then being accused of learning the Dark Arts, now walking off with Malfoy? Harry scowled.

Once they were out of the Great Hall, Draco turned to him.

"What happened after I left?"

Sage lifted an eyebrow and shrugged non-chalantly.

"What do you think?" He countered.

Draco appraised him, taking in his pastey face, red eyes, and blue circles. He made a conclusion he must have been satisfied with.

Draco jerked his head down the hall, "Come on, then. Let's talk somewhere, a little more private, shall we?"

Sage nodded slightly and followed, an odd smirk playing on his lips.

Draco turned into the boy's bathroom, which was quite deserted since everyone was eating.

"Good thing you came along when you did, Snape."

"Yes, good for you," he answered. "I on the other hand, gained nothing."

Then Malfoy did something that Sage was not anticipating. He took off his school robes and loosened his tie. Without a second thought he turned to Sage.

"You saved me from a good trip to the hospital wing. Care for a look? Perhaps then you can tell me if anything was gained."

Sage nodded.

Malfoy took out his wand, and Sage recognized a counter charm for Glamourie. As soon as Draco said the words, dark bruises appeared on his face and a few crusted over cuts. He undid the buttons on his shirt and there were red marks all over his chest and stomach, leftover from the Cruciatus, as well as large bruises from where Lucius had punched him. The worst, by far, was Draco's neck. It was bruised and red from where Lucius had apparently tried to choke him.

"Merlin," Sage muttered under his breath.

"Father was rather displeased over what happened with Weasley, and with you."

"I can see that."

"I'm lucky you came along and decided it was worth it to stick your neck out. Not that I deserved your intervention. He has come close to killing me a few times, you know, but just stops. A dead heir is no use, is he?"

The way Malfoy said that without emotion, irked Sage. He was certain that if Draco had been an expendable son or a second son, Lucius would have killed him by now. He nodded at Malfoy's statement.

"After you left, Uncle Severus yelled at me until he was hoarse, throwing in a good couple of slaps. He got one good one in on my eye though," Sage lied. Actually he did have a black eye from that night, but he had no idea how he had gotten it. Lucky he had, because now he had something to show Draco.

He moved his hand in front of his face and lifted the Glamourie he had used on himself to hide the mysterious black eye.

"I think I will be cleaning cauldrons from now until I am of age, but I got by rather unscathed. Which is to say it was worth it, considering what I have seen from you. I believe he was rather more angry that your father had the audacity to do that to you within the school - because of his position, you know – and he was meerly aggravated with me. Truth is if I hadn't stopped your father, it would have been more likely that the headmaster would have found out. That could have had dramatic consequences. I believe that's why I got by."

"Professor Snape isn't like my father," Draco meerly stated.

"No, he's not. There are some things he will not do."

"He helped me, you know," Draco said, buttoning his shirt back up as if nothing had happened.

Sage raised his eyebrow.

"He came and got me early this morning and made me show him everything. He gave me some medical potions and helped patch me up. I don't think he'd mind me telling you. He told me that if it becomes too much, to tell him and he'll take care of it, with my father."

Sage raised both eyebrows. He knew better than to interrupt when information was flowing so freely.

"Do you think he really would?" Draco asked, plainly, no emotion showing.

"He would. I am sure of it."

Draco was looking at him sceptically, silently asking him how he knew for sure.

"He took me away from your father, Draco. You remember. If he had not where would I be?"

Draco did not let the look leave his face, he was still asking him.

Sage sighed, "Take this as you will Malfoy, but Professor Snape was you."

Finally Draco nodded, seemingly pleased with Sage's answer.

"I could not do this now, either," Draco stated. "You are fortunate to have a Snape for a father and a Malfoy for a mother. The other way around could have proven most intolerable. But Professor Snape is not my uncle, as he is yours."

"Perhaps not, but he is not the kind of man to help anyone. He helped you. Blood isn't always everything, Malfoy."

"My father was not right about that either, Snape. Blood isn't always everything."

He nodded at Sage, and proceeded to tighten his tie again, and put on his robes. Then he added, "Perhaps we have both gained something from this."

Severus steepled his hands on his desk, his face slightly showing his surprise at what had happened between Sage and Draco. After he had seen the two leave the hall, he knew that something very important was going to happen. It still had not prepared him to hear what Draco had said and that he had shown Sage, willingly, what Severus had forced the boy to show him that same morning.

"He said that perhaps his father was wrong and that blood wasn't everything."

"What was he insinuating do you suppose," Severus asked reading an eyebrow.

Sage sighed, "I think he was talking about defying his father. But the way he was talking about you almost sounded to me as if he were saying that you were more concerned about him than his own father."

"We'll just have to see what Mr. Malfoy makes of this. One thing is for sure, he is leaning in the proper direction. We never would have known if you had not intervened for him."

What do you think about more Draco and Sage? Do you like where that relationship is going? Let me know!

Hee hee, if you read Ever Twisting Path by Shadowycat you will find where I got my idea for Sage cleaning the fireplace a few chappies back!

VD – Glad that you were surprised and glad you likd the way that things turned out. Thanks for saying that Snape's past in another similarity to OotP. I am really blushing so much now everyone, you have no IDEA! I love your reviews they are always so vibrant and/or funny! Can't wait to hear what you think of this. I hope it was another shock.

Shadowycat – Thanks for the compliments. Especially about the depth and believeability of the characters. It is very important to me not to change the characters, at least not much. And I do believe that Snape is in denial, but one thing we learned about Severus from his flashbacks about his brother, is that he never realized how he felt about Jace until Jace was murdered, he also didn't realize how much his brother had loved him. So he is rather imperceptive about those kinds of feelings. He has them, buried, but doesn't realize that he has them. ;-) You can probably tell that I like to do the flashbacks from the past. Hoped you like what I did with Draco in this chappie. Can't wait until you post your next chappie!

Elalien – Thanks for reviewing! About your question about whether Sage's visions are sometimes triggered by wandless magic -you will see soon, promise.

BookWitch – Wow! Thanks for the compliments, that means so much to me. Thanks for saying that you thought Sage and Snape were similar to Snape and Harry in OotP, I blush everytime I hear something like that, so it doesn't matter that you weren't the first! I was also surprised about how you say that I cover it in more depth – I don't think JKR has given us enough Snape yet, so I have to give more! ;-) About keeping to it for the fifth book… I will to the best of my ability while still keeping my plot. The Prophecy in OotP kinda contradicts my prophecy, so can't be exact there. Sage will fit into book 5 however, but it wont be completely the same. I don't think Sage would last long without killing Umbridge or her discovering something about him that she should not, so you'll see what I do. ;-) I promise you will like it!

Carpathia – Thanks for saying that I do a good job keeping Snape in character, that is very important to me. I don't want him to be a different person. ;-) I try my best. We will see a lot more between the two Snapes in times to come. We are on an uphill, with one quick dip down to bottom in the next chapter, in Sage's and Snape's relationship. Hurling would have been fun, but I couldn't have done it. Plus, I think Sage would rather, YUCK, swallow it than puke on Snape – he doesn't want to see Snape's reaction to that!