Blackwood Academy
Chapter 2: The Headmaster
Warnings and Disclaimers: See first chapter
"Malfoy? What are you doing here!" Harry asked bewildered.
"I'm the headmaster, of course. I'm here to see if your room is fitting you well and to help you plan your weeks here," he said with a character smirk.
"You're the Headmaster? Draco Malfoy, muggleborn hater, ex-Death Eater,"—he seemed to flinch at that title—"heir to the Malfoy throne. You're the 'incredible man who started this amazing school and gave us the money we needed.' That Headmaster? I don't believe it. That's like saying that I am trying to bring Voldemort—good god, it's a name—back. Preposterous." Harry defended, still a bit addled. Malfoy chuckled and looked at Harry sternly.
"Yes, I am that Headmaster. It's not the name but that history behind it and, maybe I changed after the war. I know you did," he said and gave Harry a crooked smile. He had read the news. Well, of course he did, everyone did. But the news at the end of the war had depicted Harry at this very worst. At that point he wanted to be alone. To take some time to mourn, but would the press except it? No. They had pestered him and pestered him and he had pushed them away every time. His break-up with Ginny had been front page news for a week, and there had been absolute chaos when he was seen three months later with a Muggle man. He moved to Muggle London to get away from it all. They finally gave up two years after the war, but only because there were a lot of corruptions going on in the Ministry and they were more focused on that.
"Well, all right, but I still don't trust you," he said and glared at Malfoy who just looked at him and chuckled darkly.
"I guess I'll just have to show you that I have changed and that I have a heart and that you are wrong," Malfoy said smirking. "I do have great artillery, though. Better than anything you could conjure up," he said looking at the young Victoria.
"Oh no, you wouldn't use the children. I won't let you," Harry said firmly. Malfoy laughed again.
"One, you have no control of me, you can't stop me from doing anything. Two, I wasn't going to use the children, that would be too low, even for me. I was talking about the teachers; they worship me like I'm a god," he said, smiling broadly as he walked further into the room. He walked up to Victoria—who was right in front of Harry—and held out his hand. "Welcome to Blackwood, Harry Potter," Malfoy said, his Cheshire cat smile starting to creep Harry out a bit. He did not like this, not one bit, but he digressed and begrudgingly took Malfoy's hand.
"Father," Victoria's voice made him jump, he had almost forgotten she was there, due to his intense glaring at Malfoy, who seemed to be having the time of his life. "Mister Potter never shook my hand," she said and Malfoy's eyes widened the tiniest bit, but otherwise he showed no emotion. He felt those blue eyes piercing into him and it made him feel slightly uncomfortable.
He saw Malfoy urge him on with his eyes and he looked down at the small girl holding out her hand and he takes it in his. The hand is small and soft, but grips his firmly and shakes it rather hard. When she finishes she turns around and leaves the room without waiting for a response from anyone. Harry can tell that she is really nervous but wants to look good in front of the guest. He smiles at her as she leaves and then looks back at Malfoy.
"So, my guess that you loved children was correct. Oh don't look so confused, how could I not think that when you've generously donated so much money to our school? She's a bit shy around stranger, though, a bit like a shelter puppy. Victoria, that is," Malfoy was looking at the doorway with a dreamy expression on his face, making him look almost like Luna Lovegood. It was then that Harry realised that Malfoy really was serious about this whole 'keeping the muggleborns safe from muggle abusers' thing. He really cared about the children and how they grew up. This wasn't a plot or a trick to gather up a bunch of them in one area and kill them all at once. No, if he was trying to do that he would have done it already. He smiles inwardly; it's kind of a relief to know nothing—well, hopefully nothing—unusual was going to happen on this. He's not going to tell Malfoy he's realised this. No, it's going to be too much fun watching him try to prove that he's a good guy. Yes, his Slytherin tendencies were starting to kick in. He saw Malfoy was looking at him with a raised eyebrow and he realised he was smirking. He quickly shook it off and looked back at Malfoy
"Well, what do I do next?" He asked
"I could give you a full tour. Celeste only gave you a quick overview, I could show you where everything is and I have a few things that no one except me knows about the school," Malfoy said and sent Harry a quick wink. Harry smiled pleasantly.
"That sounds wonderful," he said and Malfoy looked quite shocked. "Is there a problem with that? You're the one who suggested it," he said and sent a quick wink back. Malfoy gained his composure and put on a really bad poker face.
"Er, no, it's quite all right, I just didn't expect you to agree," he said smiling awkwardly. He brightened up and put on a big fake cheery smile. "Okay," he clapped his hands together, "are you ready?" he sent a quirked eyebrow in Harry's direction, quickly spun around and locked elbows with him. Harry himself was quite shocked, who was this Malfoy? He was so different, yet so similar to the old Malfoy. For a moment his mind suggested it was someone else who was under a Polyjuice potion, but he had seen a Polyjuice version of Malfoy that did a much better impression of Malfoy than this one was doing. If they were going to be Malfoy they should at least try a little harder. Well, whether this was the real Malfoy or not, he was all right. This was a Malfoy he could tolerate, at least for a while.
"Well come on then!" The Malfoy-like-person said, tugging on his arm. He looked up out of his thoughtful reverie to see a faux-smiling Malfoy staring at him with annoyed eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm coming," he said smiling wryly. With that they went out the door and into the hallway to start their tour of Blackwood Academy.
AN: Thank you for reading the second chapter of Blackwood Academy! Please review! Don't worry, Malfoy isn't all that different, just in this chapter.