Chapter 9

Draco knew that this detention was going to be a risk. However, as far as he was concerned, it was a completely necessary one at this point. The school year had been going so poorly already, not that it was any fault of Hermione's, really. After all, the Dark Lord himself had taught her Occlumency and deemed her ready to take on Moody. If he hadn't thought she was ready, then he clearly would have figured something else out. It was obvious to Draco that the Dark Lord perhaps hadn't expected the former Auror to put all of his focus on Hermione—if he had, then he apparently was forgetting that even though all of them seemed older than their years and wanted to help the Dark Lord whenever possible, that they still were only fourth years. Draco was never one to bring their age into the equation, knowing that they were just as loyal and able to be bloody fantastic Death Eaters as the rest of them, but this did seem like a situation where too much had been expected of Hermione; if the man had realized that she might not be able to take on an auror that had brought more experienced Death Eaters down in the past, then perhaps they wouldn't be in this situation.

But, alas, they were. And there was nothing that could be done about that now—there was no going back. For now, what they had to do was get Moody to stop fully focusing on Hermione before he did manage to break her and get the information that he desperately wanted. Draco knew that if she only had a bit of time to regroup, then she would be able to face him again with no problems. The Dark Lord had trained her well, after all, which meant that Draco was sure that she could handle herself around him after a bit of a reprieve.

As for the detention that he currently found himself headed toward, well, he wished that he had a better plan, but he really was just winging it. Although Hermione loved plans, and getting down details before something happened, Draco relied mostly on his instincts. Sometimes, of course, plans were better and definitely helped to guarantee success. But this was something that he certainly didn't think that he could actually plan for. He had no idea how Moody was going to act, therefore no plan would really even work for him anyways. It would all depend on how the former auror was planning on coming at him, if he was at all. Draco would be incredibly bloody frustrated if the man acted like this was nothing but another detention, not showing any of his cards. No, Draco wanted the man to press him as he did Hermione, sure that he could take it and hopefully learn something about the former auror in the process.

He knocked on the door, entering without waiting for a response. Moody was sitting at his desk, his normal eye remaining on the parchment he was reading, while his fake eye darted upward to stare at him,

"Mr. Malfoy, take a seat," he stated, gesturing to the chair across from him. As Draco walked over to the man, he noticed a large number of what looked like newspaper clippings strewn across the majority of the desk. He raised his eyebrow at the papers, his eyes moving up to glance irritatingly at the former auror,

"What the hell is all this?" He asked, seeing no need to be polite to the man that was causing his friend so many problems, had caused his family so many problems, and many Death Eaters as well. This man was actually someone he disliked more than many others, and it would be incredibly satisfying to see him be brought down. It wouldn't be easy, but it was certainly possible and he wouldn't give up until they succeeded.

Moody sat up in his chair, staring carefully at him, "These, Mr. Malfoy, are simply some articles that have been collected over the years that I've been meaning to go through for quite some time. You will be going through them for me, and organizing them by year." An amused smirk was playing across the former auror's lips, and Draco knew that this was going to be something incredibly irritating. It also seemed that he was just going to completely ignore any manner of rudeness that Draco pulled on the man, but he doubted that the ponce could keep his bloody mouth shut this entire detention. No, at some point he was sure to want to run his mouth about something at some point.

Draco picked up one of the clippings, his eyes scanning the pages. It was an article about a Death Eater that Moody had captured. When he picked up another one, he noted that it was about a trial… about a Death Eater that Moody had had a hand in catching as well. The Slytherin scoffed, dropping the articles back onto the desk before casting an amused look at the professor. Draco shrugged casually,

"Seems like you could just trash it all, really. Just a load of rubbish, so the bin seems to be exactly where it belongs."

Moody didn't react again, his amused smirk seeming to just grow more. It became clear when Draco did begin sorting through the useless articles the reasons that the man would give him such a tedious task. It would be easy for his mind to wander, and it would be even easier for it to wander to topics related to what these papers were revealing. There were several articles over the course of the years about the search of the ruins of the Granger Estate, and their attempts to find anything that connected the family to the Dark Lord. Those also made Draco chuckle under his breath. The man was digging, just like he had been then. He wouldn't find anything of interest—not if Draco had anything to say about it, and he clearly bloody did. In fact, this was actually only going to hurt the former auror in the long run. All of these articles were simply reminding Draco why he hated the man, and it was only going to fuel the fire further. They were going to get him the bloody hell out of Hogwarts, and they were going to figure out Snape's loyalty as well. They had brought back the Dark Lord as second years, for Merlin's sake, they could manage a few obstacles like these ponces.

It wasn't until halfway through the detention that Moody even spoke again, after Draco had once again passed an article about the Granger Estate, when they had finally given up the search,

"I'm surprised you're finding so much amusement out of these articles, Mr. Malfoy, since they were the capture of many of your father's dearest friends."

Draco was a bit shocked about the candidness of the statement, but only glanced carelessly up at the man before continuing to move through the useless scraps of paper,

"It is no secret that my father has many friends, but if you are referring to him being friends with any of these criminals, surely you must be getting your facts mixed up," he stated. No one in their public circle of friends had really ever been caught; they had all found ways to cover up their involvement—with the exception of a few, of course, like his aunt, "It is unfortunate, of course, that my aunt got herself mixed up in it; but as you can tell, she is in Azkaban, and my father is not. You are welcome to your own misguided opinions, like everyone else is, but you'll find that my father is no more a Death Eater than you are."

The casualness and having to deny his Death Eater ties was something that was second nature to Draco at this point, even if he disliked it. He couldn't wait for a time when Death Eaters wouldn't have to be hidden in the background, worried about the annoying heroics of the members of the Wizarding world trying to bring them all 'to justice.' When the Dark Lord ruled, that would not be something that he would ever have to worry about. And then, none of them would have to lie about who they really were.

"Oh how you all just continue to deny it, but I've dealt with true Death Eaters before, and your acting skills don't impress me at all," Moody replied, narrowing his real eye at the boy, "Can't we just be frank with each other, Mr. Malfoy? It would make everything a hell of a lot easier, would it not?"

Draco paused, looking slowly up at the former auror. This had not been the route he had expected the washed up auror to take. There was no way that the man actually thought that this conversation would give him any information. He couldn't be that damn stupid,

"Well, I've some doubt about your own abilities. After all, you say that my father is a Death Eater, and yet he's not in Azkaban, is he? If you were so sure of his guilt, and couldn't get it out of him, then I'm not at all impressed by your interrogation skills," Draco placed the next article down onto a pile, barely having to glance down as he knew exactly what year the article in question belonged to. It was, after all, about his aunt's trial, "I think that you're a washed-up Auror, looking for Death Eaters behind every corner. Why you're bothering yourself with a bunch of fourth year Hogwarts students, I'll never know. I suppose I should be flattered by whatever it is you think that we are capable of doing, but I'm not. But if you think that you can continue to harass Hermione and stay as a professor of this school, then I suggest you check yourself into St. Mungo's," Draco shrugged, before crossing his arms across his chest and waiting for the man's reply. Draco had much more to say, but he wanted to get a read on the man's reaction before he went any further.

"Can't win them all," he stated, and Draco followed the man's gaze to an article talking about the former auror's attempts to gain information pinning Lucius to Death Eater activities. Can't win them all, indeed, Draco thought, feeling rather cocky for his father's ability to keep the auror off of his trail. He would have to tell him that the man still was obviously not over it, as he was sure that his father would find some manner of amusement out of that, "I'm at this school for a very specific reason, Mr. Malfoy, and you'll find that I'm not an easy man to get rid of. So, yes, perhaps word will get to the Ministry that I've unusual methods—I'm sure it already has. But they won't remove me from my position, not while Dumbledore continues to back me. The antics that your father's people pulled at the Quidditch World Cup have got people scared, but not me—it just got my radar up, and I won't stop until I figure out exactly what is going on," the former auror paused, an eyebrow raised, "If that means pressing Hermione Granger until she spills everything she knows, then so be it. Perhaps she doesn't have the information I need, and I'll find someone else to get it from. Who knows—perhaps it'll be you. I doubt you have your father's skills of dealing with interrogation, but maybe I'll get to find out," he added, in a grimace that was clearly supposed to be some kind of amused smile, "You're dismissed."

Draco got to his feet, slightly irritated but not showing it. He pulled his wand out quickly, pointing it at the newspaper articles on the desk, "Incendio," he stated, before the man could attempt to stop him. He smirked as he watched the flames burn up the man's apparently impressive accomplishments, "Perhaps you'll get some bylines in this decade, Moody. But I doubt it."

With that, the Slytherin turned and headed to the door, only raising a hand in acknowledgment to Alastor Moody's final comment, "Detention again tomorrow, Mr. Malfoy."

Author's Note: It's been a while...again. I'm certainly going to try a lot harder to get my updating back on track! I hope that you all are doing well.

Thank you to RamyFan, , Pank98, CassieRenee333, aeireis, AmayaBlack, not really sane fairy, cleotheo, Aghaliam, LadiePhoenix007, hoshiakari7, Super MKatR, Santana Starr, xXTigress1776Xx, HermioneMalfoy0826, Vampess, swstkabanik, PaulaBoomkamp, .16, peewaa9, xxSecretShadowsxx, and four guests for reviewing. :)