Chapter 7: Power Play
Draco didn´t hate muggles not really, when he thought about it he never had. He just hated what they stood for and how they behaved like barbarians. They really had no class and not to sound superior or anything but a lot of them didn´t seem to have much of a brain either.
When Draco had been younger he had even looked forward to see the muggle world, it had been this great unknown and he had thought going out there would be this great adventure. It had been an adventure all right, but not of the pleasant and adrenaline filled kind.
He recalled the first time he had been to the muggle world and why with a foul taste and a frown gracing his otherwise smooth forehead.
"Draco, I need to talk to you in my study "Lucius said rather sternly to his son, not that he didn´t always sound stern Draco though but nodded obediently "yes father."
Draco had never been allowed to enter his father's study before so he knew this had to be rather important and he felt excitement bubble inside his chest to be included in something that required the use of his dad´s office. He quickly suppressed the excited feeling before he would get an excited expression on his face, if he showed any emotions without permission Lucius may change his mind and then think he wasn´t ready to be included after all.
Entering the room Draco couldn´t help but look around the room he had only been able to sneak peeks of earlier. It was bigger than he had previously believed and had an air of being important, like in this very room important decisions was made all the time. Everything was polished and in complete order making Draco feeling that even breathing was wrecking the perfection around him.
When he glanced at Lucius again he looked both impatient and satisfied to his response to the room that had been a mystery for so long. Lucius had taken a seat in the chair behind the big oak desk and looked like there was no other place he would fit in better.
"Please take a seat Draco" Lucius said and made a hand gesture at the chair on the other side of the desk. The chair was the only thing in the room that wasn´t looking expensive and lush, Draco almost made a grimace at the chair that he would think rather belonged at a home for a Weasley than in his father's study. He glared at the chair but a moment later was seated gingerly at the edge so that his feet were able to reach the ground.
When Lucius didn´t say anything Draco raised his eyes to his fathers to be met with a stare filled with power and confidence, he felt very small and somehow he felt inferior to his father. Maybe it was because of Lucius way of holding himself the way he was looking at Draco or the simple feeling of the difference between his chair and the one on the other side of the desk.
"Power!" the one word was said with so much power that Draco shuddered, Lucius inflicted both superiority and fare in him with only one word and an ice cold stare. "You do what you need to get what you want, nothing is out of limits when it can get you to power, the end always justified the means" Draco nodded automatically to his father's words even if the meaning behind them hadn´t even yet really registered in his mind.
"A Malfoy always gets what they want and this is because we take what we want without having a conscious for other people's feelings and desires, a person is only as important as they are useful to our purpose."
Draco did see his father's point, he did not see how every action could be justified though if they hurt people just for someone else to gain power, he had always connected power with knowledge and clever people but it seemed that Lucius connected it with manipulation and evil means.
"With this said as the heir of the Malfoy family you have a responsibility to the our family to gain power with every given opportunity and do what must be done to uphold our status as one of the most influential and strongest pure-blooded branch of the wizarding world" Draco almost squirmed in his seat of the weight he felt was laid upon his small shoulders.
Lucius gave him a small smile before he stood up and walked around the desk, "I´m glad to see you taking this with the great honour it´s worth and the seriousness it deserves, I will personally teach you everything I can for you to achieve what I expect of you." Draco knew he had no choice than to do what was expected of him and live his life as the Malfoy he was born to be.
"It´s a great honour father, thank you" he squeaked when Lucius didn´t say anything for a few seconds.
He felt a hand clap him on the head in appreciation and knew he had pleased Lucius with his obedience and interest, he had nothing to fare today. Draco knew what would happen and he had done the mistake to stand up to his father before, he was not about to do that again, the nightmares of his punishment was still as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.
"Today you will get your first lesson on doing what it takes, we are going out into the muggle world to get you clothes for my meeting with the American ambassador. To say I despise muggles are an understatement but they have power that I want, they are easy to manipulate and to use to our advantage and that is enough for me to downgrade myself to act as an simple and undignified muggle" Draco had known his father did some muggle business but he had not expected him to go to this lengths to get the power he craved.
Draco felt excitement in the pit of his stomach for being included in the dinner and getting to see the muggle world and interact with the creatures that in so many ways was so alike himself. He wanted to see for himself if the horrid stories of the humans that disgraced their kind were as horrible that his father made them out to be.
*DM*
A few hours later he was angry, tired, filthy and the curios feelings that had earlier occupied him was now replaced by repulsion and pity for people that had to live like barbarians for longer then the half a day he had been made to endure.
It had started with them having to make their way from the wizarding part of London by foot to later take something called a taxi that made him feel sick to his stomach. The black thing that was called a car was something that he would be glad to never have to see ever again.
To make the experience so much worse it had started to rain and his parents had not granted his wishes to cast a water repulsing charm on him. Looking disappointingly at him they had chuckled and told the driver of the black metal box called a taxi that Draco was in a period where he played a wizard. Draco had pouted but knew he had almost made a huge mistake and that he was not supposed to talk about magic with muggles.
He was sitting on his bed in his bedroom, the water was still dripping from his hair and the clothes he had worn were ruined for sure. He didn´t see why his parents had to make him suffer when they could have cast a spell without anyone of the muggles even lifting an eyebrow.
He glanced at his shoes standing in the corner on the room and his beanie lying on the bureau just inside his room, he didn´t even want to touch those with a ten foot pole anymore. He had walked in dog poop and a bird had released some white goo on his head under the day and still his parents had done nothing to aid him.
He guessed he should be happy though that it was just his beanie and that the white bird faeces hadn´t come in his hair, he didn´t even want to think of that, his hair was his favourite feature about himself and if the bird dropping had come in his hair he was not sure he would have been able to keep his cool.
Magic he decided was something that made all the difference. It may not be the muggles fault but the fact that they were unable to perform magic was something that made them quite behind and handicapped in a lot of areas. He hated to have to agree with his father but they was beneath them, but he still did not think this made it okay to use them as something disposable.
He did decide there and then though that he was going to try to stay away from the muggle world, he didn´t want them any harm and he guessed the muggles did not know how it was to live with magic so that to live without was normal for them, but for Draco living without magic was like fumbling in the dark.
He was going to hold to one thing his father had said today though, Malfoy's always gets what they want.
From that day Draco had not settled for anything less than what he thought that he deserved but he was never going to blatantly take what he wanted while discarding others well not any more at least. His heart was not cold as ice as many wanted to believe.
He also had learned through the years that judging individuals because of a group was not something to be done lightly, just look at himself he wanted to believe that he was not a totally dark and emotionless person and yet he had been a part of the death eaters the very group that was the symbol of pure evil.
He was going to try to go into the muggle world today with an open mind, maybe this Dudley person was an individual that actually was worth to get to know. He had also learned that without taking a chance sometimes the chance to gain the most wonderful things also was lost.
Since the first time he had sat his foot on the other side he had tried to stay away and he had been rather successful. Going in to London now to collect his muggle bait was going to be the first time in over 10 years' time that Draco went and associated with muggles if you didn´t count the mail man incident the other day.
Draco wasn´t scared of muggles, no he just felt bad for them and as a Malfoy he was not supposed to feel bad for people, compassion was a weakness and he knew that muggles could make him feel that traitorous feeling. He was scared of being vulnerable and staying away from the muggle kind was his way of staying on top of his own emotions.
No Draco didn´t hate muggles and never had, he may not understand them and he may not feel even slightly connected to their sort but that didn´t mean he couldn´t feel pity for them and he had suppressed that feeling for years.
Draco had been spoiled as a child and he had always thought he deserved everything that was given to him, that you could use whatever mean to get to an end, that sacrifices of others was just a part of life to get to the top. Draco had learned a long time ago that it was not that easy, everything done for "the greater good" that Dumbledore would have said was not justified.
If you used someone to get to the end you desired by helping them on the way instead of throwing them to wolfs though, it was a completely different matter altogether. It may still not be very noble but it was both cunning and kind, so what if you deceived someone into helping you if you helped them in return. Draco saw this as the Slytherin way of being a good person and he therefor saw the use of Dudley as something justified and something to be proud of.
With this thought on his mind and a small smile on his lips he left for the central station in London.