Chapter Two.
The Muggle.
Draco watched as the Wizengamot filed out of the room, they all seemed to be talking like normal, moving like normal, but he couldn't focus or hear any of it. He told them that he accepted. He would have his wand taken, his magic removed, and his life… Muggle.
"Malfoy!" Potter's voice cut through the haze. Draco turned his head slightly to look into the face of the man he had terrorized for the last seven years. There was no contempt in his rivals face, no there was something else. Something that looked a lot like pity.
"Did you know that they were going to do that?" Draco sneered at him.
"I didn't," Potter confessed, running his hand through his untameable hair. "Honestly, I didn't," He looked Draco in the face. It was something that few have ever done, but even less likely to happen since the battle.
Draco wished he would take it all out on Potter. He'd make the easiest outlet for all the anger building inside of him, but something in Potter's face stops him. The sincerity in his expression makes the retort die in his mouth.
"I won't see my wand again? Will I?" Draco asks instead.
"No," Potter says. "I'm guessing you won't see it until the two years is over."
Draco nods, unable to form a coherent sentence. No wand. No power.
"Come on, I see Hermione waiting for us at the door." Without another word, Potter walked off towards the Mudblood scum waiting for the two of them. Muggle-born Draco chastised himself mentally. She's Muggle-born, and I'm about to be as good as a Muggle myself. Draco stood, trying hard to ignore the weakness in his legs. As he followed Potter, he wondered what his father's expression would be if he knew what his only son had agreed to.
"It worked then?" Granger addressed Potter, she flashed a smile over at Draco. Her smile faded as she took in his posture and expression. "What happened?" her voice taking on a dark tone.
"They're sending him to rehabilitation," Potter explains to her what the terms of his sentence are to her. Her color pales slightly, but a slight smugness seems to creep onto her features.
"I see." She turns her attention back to Draco. He forces himself to look at her. All those years of calling her Mudblood, making her life a living hell and his Aunt torturing her in front of him. He had done nothing to stop it either, he had to be the good little death eater he was supposed to be. Of course, she is going to enjoy his punishment. He's going to become, even temporary, all the things that he had used against her. "So, you're going to be a Muggle for two years." The smallest of smiles touches her lips. "I have to say that the punishment does seem to have a poetic justice to it."
A sneer forms on Draco's lips before he can stop it.
"Oh stop that!" she chastised. "I lived as a Muggle for 10 years and turned out just fine. It will be an adjustment for someone like you, but you're going to be fine."
She said the word you like a curse. Someone like him, Pure-blood, evil, deceived, wrong. He read between all the lines of that word, and the sneer melted from his face.
"There you lot are." A familiar red-headed man strolled down the hallway towards them. "I've been assigned to take Mr. Malfoy here to his new home." Draco watched Arthur Weasley as he bounced on the balls of his feet, looking more than ready to get going. He knew that the elder Weasley loved everything to do with muggles, but was surprised to see him considering.
"Great," Draco muttered under his breath.
Harry ignored him, but Granger shot him a disapproving glare.
"You're going to be fine." she integrated again, before turning on her heel going back up the hallway without as much as a backward glance. Typical Granger.
Harry turned back to him, giving him a small smile. "I never said thanks to you."
"For what?" His voice was already starting to shake.
"For not telling your aunt who I was. You knew it was me, I could tell, but you didn't tell her that." Potter nodded his head awkwardly. "So… thanks."
Draco nodded his head back at him slightly, the silence between the two former enemies heavy. Mr. Weasley awkwardly cleared his throat to break it, "We really need to be going." He said. "We're expected."
Potter gave him a tight nod. "All right then. I guess this is it for a while." Jerking a hand out of his robes he thrust it towards Draco. Slightly stunned, Draco slowly reached out to take it. They both gave a single firm shake before Potter, like Granger, turned to go back up the hallway and away from him.
"I didn't think that you would appreciate being paraded through the atrium." Mr. Weasley said, his voice stern but not harsh. Draco would've expected a harsher tone from him. Someone who had lost a son during the battle. Draco tried to push the thought that he deserved so much worse from him out of his mind. "I had it arranged for the port key to leave here." The elder Weasley said, his voice taking on a kinder tone.
"Why would you do that?" The question left his mouth before he had willed it to.
"Because." Mr. Weasley looked both resolved and on the verge of tears. "If any of us are going to move past this mess, the compassion has to start somewhere." He took a ragged breath and looked Draco in the eye. "Looking back on all of this, I would like to imagine that compassion started with me."
Unable to find anything to say to the older man, Draco just dropped his gaze to the floor. Mr. Weasley was showing him a kindness that he, himself, had never offered anyone else. A kindness that he wasn't sure that he deserved.
"It's time." Mr. Weasley said, holding out a small toy shaped like a blue telephone box.
Without even thinking Draco reached out to put his hand on it too, careful not to touch the other man. Before he could think about anything else, a familiar pull grabbed him behind his belly button and they were gone. When he gained his footing again they were no longer in the Ministry of Magic, but instead, they were standing in what looked like a small but neat study. There were books lining three of the four walls, with a sturdy wooden desk in the middle of the room with three worn chairs. It was clean, but Draco could tell it had seen better days. The ornate carpet covering the hardwood floors was worn out, showing a threadbare track straight to one of the three chairs. Many of the books on the shelves were missing their spines and some the spines were broken and hanging off the books at odd angles.
These were all things that would never have been at the manor. The carpet would have been charmed to stay clean and its piling fluffy and never worn out. The books would have been repaired the second that they started to show wear and the furniture… Well, the likes of it would have never have been brought the manor in the first place, so it is hard to think of what would have been done to improve it.
The simple wood doors behind them opened suddenly. Still coming to terms with what was happening, Draco couldn't bring himself to turn to see who he was living with for the next two years.
"Ah! Ms. Sharpe." Mr. Weasley said. Draco could see him rush forward to shake someone's hand from the corner of his eye. "It's so good to see you again."
Ms? So the one babysitting him for the next two years is a woman? Draco wasn't sure if he should be offended by that fact or not.
"So, this is my new tenant?" A small female voice said.
Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Draco turned to look over his shoulder. She was of small build, probably about his age, maybe a year or two older. That was a big maybe. Wavy, dark hair fell to her waist and framed not only her elvish face perfectly, but also her small frame.
"Yes, this is Draco Malfoy." Mr. Weasley said as he gestured for Draco to come closer. He did, without even realizing that his feet were moving. Muggles. Muggles weren't supposed to look like this. He closed his eyes for a second and then opened them again, determined to find something tainted and wrong with her. Maybe, her nose was too thin and long, or maybe she was too short. Something.
"I see. My name is Jane Sharpe." She said, giving him a curious look. "You've been told about your stay with me then?"
"Yes." He hated himself for not being able to keep his nervousness from his voice.
"Good." She said turning her attention back to Mr. Weasley. "You're the one going to do the spell?"
Mr. Weasley cleared his throat awkwardly. "Umm… Yes. I am."
"All right then." She nodded her head at him to get on with it.
Taking a shaky breath he approached Malfoy, the young man in front of him shaking slightly despite the calm and collected expression on his face.
"Your hand, please." Mr. Weasley offered him his left hand.
Draco looked up at the man, aware that despite trying so desperately to school his features into calm, that the older Weasley could more than likely see through his mask. Slowly he reached his hand out, taking the one offered him.
Mr. Weasley held his wand over their interlocked hands and started the incantation. Draco couldn't force himself to listen or even to focus in on the dark purple tendrils of power that started leaking out of his arm, swirling over the dark mark that was tattooed there and into the arm of Arthur Weasley. It was a lengthy spell, one that took a toll on Draco. By the time that it was finished Draco felt sick, his stomach sitting in his throat as he stumbled back into one of the worn out chairs.
"It's done then." She said.
"Yes, it's done." Mr. Weasley at least had the decency to sound remorseful for what he had just done. The girl's voice gave off no remorse what-so-ever.
"Well, I'll get him settled then. Thank you, Arthur."
Taking the dismissal, Mr. Weasley turned on the spot, disapparating away. Leaving Draco alone with his new keeper.