Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and my amazing yellow headphones broke so that I don't own them anymore either.
Dbi: Thanks for the review, and I am glad that you are liking the story so far. Here's another rule for you.
Melanie: No problem, and if you ever need another chapter sent to you I'd be honored to send it. I've always thought Bill was a cool character too, and thanks for the review!
Gremlin: Yes, you are definitely onto something with your theory. Thanks for the review, and yay for happy dances!
Kristen: Wow, thanks for the compliments and for the review, I'm glad that you like it.
Authors note: Thanks to Embellished who pointed out my physics error in chapter 8 and another thanks for giving me the equation in feet, which makes life a whole lot easier for me. You can go check out the new and improved version and thank you very much!
As always, thanks to my awesome beta Ada Achlys!
Chapter 10
Rule number eight: Avoid pain medications. If they must be used, do so in privacy.
Fail the test, Draco thought to himself. Why would Bill ask him to fail the test? He slowly made his way down to the Ancient Runes classroom, keeping his weight off of his knee by the use of crutches, which made the trek to the class seem like a cross-country journey and each staircase a mountain.
The crutches were useful though. Now he could walk in late to class and the teachers wouldn't be able to mark him off, and it also drew attention from the other students, especially the females, who helped him carry his books and fussed over him.
Just because he was a genius did not mean that he didn't enjoy the effects of being one of the 'hottest' male students. With his fortune and pureblood status, he was used to being sought out, but the crutches made even the shy girls approach him and ask how he was feeling. Draco was no innocent, and he was a teenaged boy, and so he thoroughly enjoyed the interest in him.
He pushed open the door of Ancient Runes, noting that everyone was in their seats and had already begun the test.
"Good of you to join us, Draco," said Bill. "Your test is at your seat."
Draco made his way to his chair, dropping into it rather gratefully, and looked down at the test. Again, he wondered why Bill had told him to fail it. He had been far too chatty with the Gryffindor in the infirmary that Sunday and even the day of the fall. New rule, he thought to himself, watch out for pain meds. He made a note to himself to write it down.
Rule number eight: Avoid pain medications. If they must be used, do so in privacy.
But that didn't solve his problem. As of now, Bill Weasley knew his secret and Draco had actually enjoyed conversing with him, had talked completely too much. He should have yelled for Pomfrey to get the teacher out, he should have clamped his mouth shut and refused to talk. He had kept himself deliberately apart from other people ever since his tutor had told him to keep his genius a secret for fear of someone finding out, and now someone was too close.
He wanted to pull away. He wanted to regain that distance, but loneliness is an emotion that affects even the most conditioned of souls and despite his genius, he knew that he was still a kid deep down. How did Bill put it? Yes, 'a very lonely kid at that'.
If it was just loneliness getting to him, Draco knew without a doubt that he would ace this test right now and maybe even drop the course, but Bill had deliberately baited him with another feeling: curiosity. Draco wanted to know why he had to fail the test. He wanted to know what it was that Bill was finding out at those meetings. Most of all, he was sick of pretending to be what he wasn't, and he wondered what it would be like to have someone to really talk to. Bill knew he was a genius, and he knew that his father was a Death Eater and that Draco had attended Death Eater meetings, but he didn't judge. Draco was curious, yes, and so he continued staring at his test, his mind reeling with all of the thoughts and possibilities.
"Something the matter, Draco?" asked Bill, coming to crouch next to him. Draco realized that he had been staring at the test for a good twenty minutes with his jaw locked and his fists clenched.
"No," said Draco, uncurling his hands.
"Do you want to go back to the infirmary?" asked Bill. "You can take this another time."
His meaning was clear. Whatever the reason Bill wanted Draco to fail the test, he was willing to wait if Draco was still injured. It was then that Draco made his decision.
"No," he said again. "I'm fine."
Bill nodded and moved away. Draco picked up his quill and began to fill in answers.
After class, Draco went straight to the Slytherin Common room and sat in one of the large green armchairs in front of the fire. His mind was still in conflict from the test and he couldn't silence his thought no matter how much he repeated silently 'It's over now, I can't change it'.
"Awww, just look at you," said Pansy, coming to sit on the armrest of the chair. She leaned over him, and because her school shirt was unbuttoned to a rather low point, she showed off her assets very well. She really was a beautiful girl. She flipped her long black hair over her shoulder and leaned in a little more. "How was your day, Draco?"
He smirked up at her. They had never really dated (with a girl like Pansy, it wasn't necessary to actually date), but Draco didn't mind her flirtations, and responded in kind.
"Bloody awful, until you showed up," he said.
She rewarded him with a slow, rather seductive smile, and leaned even closer to lay a kiss on his cheek. Draco turned into it, like she had been hoping he would, and the next few minutes caused the younger children, who still believed in cooties, to be thoroughly disgusted. When Pansy finally pulled back and sashayed away, Draco did not follow, but leaned back with a rather self-satisfied smirk on his face and stared back to the fire. His mind was diverted, and calm again, which was what he had been hoping for.
The next day went by quickly. Draco used his injury to his advantage in every class, and made a rather big deal about it. Snape made Potter and Granger fetch all of his things, and also stir his cauldron because he 'couldn't stand for long periods of time'. Potter initially had been staring at him rather curiously as no doubt he realized that Draco had saved his life, but with a few well placed comments, Draco had him believing that Harry had been the one to fall into him.
The next day went by slowly and Draco was particularly anxious to know the reason Bill had asked him to fail the test. Once everyone was in the class, Bill began handing back the tests and Draco received his with a note that said 'See me after class' and underneath it was a 'T'.
Draco looked up in hopes to catch Bill's eye, but the red-haired man ignored him, and Draco knew that it was on purpose. So he glared and sulked in his chair until the end of class, which seemed even longer than usual, and Draco was annoyed that he was this interested in what the Professor had to say.
"And you are all dismissed," said Bill, "but I need to speak to you Draco."
Granger shot a triumphant smirk at him, as she had seen his test score and had hid a giggle behind her hand, and left, no doubt anxious to tell the other two-thirds of the Golden Trio that Draco Malfoy had failed a test, with a T.
Draco glared and slumped slightly in his seat as the class filed out, watching Bill out of the corner of his eye, his body slightly tense, not knowing what to expect. Bill was flipping through a few papers, lounging in his seat, occasionally glancing up to check the students' progress. As it was the last class of the day and as they had just gotten a test back, the students stopped to chat for a few moments, and so it took a while for the class to file out.
Draco heard the door swing shut behind him, and Bill sat up quickly, pulled something out of his drawer, and walked over to place it on Draco's desk. Draco stared at the package wrapped in blue paper.
"Is this some sort of holiday I don't know of?" he asked, suspiciously eyeing the blue paper package.
Bill pulled out the chair from the desk in front of Draco and straddled it so that he was facing Draco.
"It's not going to bite," said the Professor smiling a little at him. Normally the smile would anger Draco, but he had a feeling that although Bill might be silently laughing at him, it wasn't in spite or cruelty.
"What is it?" Draco asked, not reaching for it. He had received presents before, but those were on Christmas or his birthday, and as he got older he began buying his own presents and was reimbursed for his purchases from his father. The idea of getting someone a gift just for the heck of it was foreign to him, especially to someone who wasn't family or even a friend.
"For a genius, you really can be dense sometimes," said Bill. "You're supposed to open it and find out."
Draco picked up the package, figuring by the shape that it was a book of sorts, and turned it over to find the place where the paper was taped. He suddenly felt awkward. How was one supposed to open a gift? At home, the wrapping was done at the shops and would simply come off at the tug of a ribbon, he had never torn paper before, and was he supposed to just rip into it?
He settled for sliding his finger under the spell-o-tape and pulling the paper away. It was a journal with a cover of soft brown leather with tiny gold runes all along the edges in four different dialects. It read 'Language is the means by which we learn, laugh, and love." In the middle of the cover was a small imprinted dragon.
Draco ran his hand along the script, and then flipped it open. Inside was an index of the six major Ancient Runes and their alphabetical code along with the basic grammar rules. There was a section of transfer paper to allow tracings of the original scripts and then the rest was comprised of blank pages with faint gold lines for writing. It was a translator's journal.
He looked up to see Bill studying him with an unreadable expression on his face, and suddenly he realized that the polite thing to do would be to thank him for the journal.
"I, uh," he said, casting around for the words, but Bill cut him off.
"I suppose your wondering why I wanted you to fail your test," he said, changing the topic and Draco nodded, grateful for the switch. "As of now," said Bill, "you are taking extra sessions Thursday after class because your summer class didn't cover all of the necessary dialects, which is why you failed the test."
"Is that so," said Draco, wondering where this was going.
"It is," said Bill, "but of course, that's just the cover story. The truth is, we're going to be working on a little project of mine."
"Which is?" prodded Draco.
"This," said Bill getting up and pulling out a blackboard on wheels from the corner of the classroom. He flipped the board over so that the clean surface was replaced with a set of Ancient Runes.
Draco got up and walked over to the board, trying to determine if he had ever seen the runes before. He hadn't.
"Untranslated?" he asked Bill.
"Yep," said Bill, studying the board as well.
"When were they discovered?"
"Three years ago."
"That recently?" asked Draco in surprise.
"I was on a dig," said Bill. "I found these beside the treasure chamber and copied them over, but I haven't really been able to spend time on it as my job kept me rather busy."
"And now that you're a teacher and a spy you expect the free hours to roll on in?" asked Draco, quirking his eyebrow.
"Well, I have this genius kid in one of my classes," said Bill. "He's a bit of a prat, and has this really bad attitude, but I was hoping he might help me Thursdays after class."
Draco was silent for a minute, thinking it over. The thought of translating a completely new set of Ancient Runes was thrilling, and already he could think of four different algorithms he wanted to throw the glyphs in to see if the would provide a clue in the translations, but it would mean working with Bill.
It wasn't that he didn't like Bill, well, to be completely truthful, the trouble was that he didn't dislike him. Working with Bill was a complete violation of everything he had ever stood for. Not only was he a Gryffindor, but a Weasley and an Order spy, and yet Draco found himself actually getting along with the man and looking forward to his class each week. Draco flashed back to the Malfoy Family Code; there were at least half a dozen rules against becoming friends with such a person. Well, he wasn't following that rule book anymore, and just because he was working with Bill didn't mean they were friends.
"Does it count as extra credit?" he asked finally.
Bill broke into a grin, obviously relieved that Draco had said 'yes' and Draco felt strangely pleased that Bill had cared that much.
"Do you really need extra credit?" Bill countered.
"No," said Draco shrugging. "But I had to see if I could get something out of it."
"Ever the Slytherin, huh?" asked Bill, and it was evident that he didn't mean it as an insult. Draco felt his lips twitch up in response to Bill's infectious smile, and he immediately turned back to the runes, hoping that Bill didn't catch the slip.
"Do you have a basis of translation?" asked Draco, studying the board once again.
"Yeah," said Bill. He went over to his desk and pulled out a notebook then tossed it to him. Draco caught it and flipped open the first page. He stared at the notebook, then at Bill.
"Are you serious?" he asked. He walked over the nearest desk and sat down, flipping through the pages. He looked back up at Bill. "Do you know what you are proposing?"
Bill smiled at the look of incredulity that must be on his face. "How about you tell me," he said.
"If you're right about this, then it means that this is the key for deciphering the eleven Persian runes," said Draco. "This could be the largest find of the decade."
"Of the century," corrected Bill. "So I take it you're interested?"
"Does Snape hate Potter?" asked Draco, still looking through the book. At Bill's snort of laughter, Draco looked up and realized that he had just said that out loud. He diverted Bill's attention. "So, what dialect is this one?" he asked pointing to one he had seen before but never learned. "It seems important to your translation, and I don't know this one."
Bill pulled the book over to look at the runes, and then began explaining it to him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill watched the kid stare at the present, and frowned. It was as if Draco had never seen a gift before, though Bill knew that must not be the case as no doubt Draco's parents could buy him all of London.
"Is this some sort of holiday I don't know of?" Draco finally asked.
Bill pulled out a chair from the desk in front of him and straddled it. There was suspicion in those grey eyes.
"It's not going to bite," said Bill, smilingly slightly at the confused look on the boy's face.
"What is it?" Draco asked, still not reaching for it.
Bill began wondering what sort of Christmas or birthdays the boy had, not to know what a surprise was.
"For a genius, you really can be dense sometimes," said Bill. "You're supposed to open it and find out."
He watched as Draco picked up the package, and turned it over. The pale hands hesitated for a moment, as if unsure on how to get the paper off, and then Draco slid a finger underneath the tape to pry it up. The paper was peeled away, and Draco stared at the book. Bill could see his eyes run over the runes as if he were merely reading a story in English and not Ancient Runes and then his hand brushed over the script and opened the book.
Draco looked up, catching Bill's gaze. "I, uh," he started awkwardly, and Bill knew that Draco was not accustomed to saying 'thank you', and so cut him off.
"I suppose your wondering why I wanted you to fail your test," he said. "As of now, you are taking extra sessions Thursday after class because your summer class didn't cover all of the necessary dialects, which is why you failed the test."
"Is that so," said Draco, the question in his voice.
"It is," said Bill, "but of course, that's just the cover story. The truth is, we're going to be working on a little project of mine."
"Which is?" said Draco in a lordly 'get on with it' tone.
"This," said Bill, hiding his smile by getting up and pulling out the blackboard. He flipped the board over so that the Ancient Runes he had copied from his notebook was facing them.
He watched Draco get up and walk to the board, his grey eyes flickering from one rune to the other, the fingers in his right hand tapping out some pattern with each other.
"Untranslated?" he asked Bill.
"Yep," said Bill, turning his attention to the board.
"When were they discovered?"
"Three years ago."
"That recently?" asked Draco, the surprise evident in his voice.
"I was on a dig," said Bill. "I found these beside the treasure chamber and copied them over, but I haven't really been able to spend time on it as my job kept me rather busy."
"And now that you're a teacher and a spy you expect the free hours to roll on in?" asked Draco, quirking his eyebrow. Bill smiled at the sarcastic comment.
"Well, I have this genius kid in one of my classes," said Bill. "He's a bit of a prat, and has this really bad attitude, but I was hoping he might help me Thursdays after class."
Bill held his breath as Draco fell silent, and risked a glance at the boy. The grey eyes were staring at the board, but not really seeing it. The gaze turned darker and Draco's fingers began tapping in earnest, and Bill noticed some sort of internal debate raging behind the grey cloudy eyes.
Bill could understand the hesitation; he would even understand if Draco left right then and there. It was apparent from conversing with Draco that the kid was confused when it came to matters of the war and blood lines. His interest in Draco was not completely war-related. While Draco would be a valuable asset to the Order, should he so decide, Bill felt a sort of brotherly affection for the kid. As he had five younger brothers, it came easy to Bill to play the confidante and he felt a strange desire to help Draco.
"Does it count as extra credit?" Draco asked finally.
Bill let out the breath he had been holding and grinned at the unexpected quip.
"Do you really need extra credit?" he countered.
"No," said Draco shrugging. "But I had to see if I could get something out of it."
"Ever the Slytherin, huh?" asked Bill. He smiled to show that no offense was meant, and he swore he saw Draco's pale lips quirk up slightly before he turned back to the board.
"Do you have a basis of translation?" asked Draco, changing the subject.
"Yeah," said Bill. He went over to his desk and pulled out a notebook then tossed it to him. Draco caught it deftly and flipped open the first page. Bill watched as Draco blinked at the page, then turned to him with an eyebrow raised.
"Are you serious?" he asked. He walked over the nearest desk and sat down, flipping through the pages. He looked back up at Bill. "Do you know what you are proposing?"
Bill smiled at the look of incredulity on his face. "How about you tell me," he said.
"If you're right about this, then it means that this is the key for deciphering the eleven Persian runes," said Draco. "This could be the largest find of the decade."
"Of the century," corrected Bill. "So I take it you're interested?"
"Does Snape hate Potter?" asked Draco, still looking through the book. Bill tried to hold back the laugh, but it came out as a rather undignified snort. Draco looked up, apparently startled that he had said that aloud, and Bill smothered another laugh.
"So, what dialect is this one?" he asked pointing to one he had seen before but never learned. "It seems important to your translation, and I don't know this one."
Bill spent the next hour teaching Draco the first Persian runes, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable hour. Draco picked things up incredibly quickly and even though Bill knew that he was a genius, it was still astounding to watch. There was even a moment when Draco corrected him on a conjugation of a verb.
When Draco left for dinner, Bill leaned back in his chair, vaguely wondering what his family would say if they knew that he was meeting secretly with 'that Malfoy boy' to translate what may be the linguistic discovery of the century. Oh yes, his family had no love for the Malfoy family, and he was sure that the feeling was mutual though Draco seemed not to mind him so much. He knew Draco held no regard for his youngest brother or for Harry Potter, but that seemed to be more of a personal grudge than general prejudice.
His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp, searing pain on his left arm. He was calling.
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