Chapter 9 INTERROGATION (1)
After the incident in Hogsmeade, Narcissa Malfoy was emotionally fragile. Draco sighed at her scrawl, folded the letter, and took out a wooden box from his wardrobe. In the delicately-carved box were all the letters she had written to him in this semester. Christmas had not come yet, but the box was nearly full.
Father was still in Azkaban. Narcissa begged all the people she could turn to and spent a fortune on it, achieving nothing but moving Lucius into a neater cell. Draco knew the fury of the Dark Lord had not faded, and he still wanted to see them suffer. Whether his father would be released or not depended totally on his performance-he needed to let the Dark Lord notice that he was a powerful and promising follower, clever enough, yet sometimes ignorant of his purpose, and above all absolutely loyal to him.
Several months ago, he would never have expected himself to do something so humiliating and dangerous. It was until his father was sent to jail that it dawned on him that no one would shelter him anymore. He had to face the most fearful dark warlock and the most ferocious monarchy in the world. He should not be subjected to luck and ease, and he must spare no effort to practice-practice spells to strengthen himself, practice Occlumency to guard his secrets, and practice to behave like a perfect slave so that the suspicion on him would be less. What the Dark Lord did not understand was that a Malfoy would not be a slave perpetually. The boy squinted his eyes, his flawless smile concealing the coldness beyond his age. He adjusted his dark green tie in front of the mirror and walked out of the dormitory.
He had arrived early. There were only a bunch of scattered yawning students in the hall. Hermione was sitting alone at the Gryffindor table with a piece of toast in her mouth and Potter and Weasley were nowhere to be seen. Draco sat down at the Slytherin table, pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice. Peering over the top edge of his glass he studied her. She was thinner and low-spirited. She kept leafing through the thick book on her knees while having breakfast, a typical good student excruciated by heavy study.
XXX
Hermione Granger had been having a rough time recently. She and Ron Weasley were in the longest cold war ever, one always buried in books and the other kissing Lavender Brown deliberately all day. Maybe only Draco Malfoy knew how many times she had hidden in a corner crying, her tears saturating the handkerchief, and he felt as if his heart was soaked in tears, heavy, sad and sour, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Ron came in with Lavender hand in hand, laughing. At the sight of Hermione their expression stiffed, and then Ron hummed. Hermione turned away, avoiding looking at him. It's obvious that a rare crack had emerged in the Gryffindor trio. The other day in the Transfiguration class Ron mocked her overtly, doing an accurate impression of her jumping up and down at teacher's questions. She raced out the classroom on the verge of tears and their relationship could not be worse. Yet Draco knew even though that jerk Weasley made her cry, he was still one of the most important ones in her heart.
The fifth time Lavender burst into laughter, Hermione sprang to her feet, dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief and tidy away her books, preparing to leave. Just at that time, Ginny Weasley came in the hall with Dean Thomas. She frowned at Lavender's laughter, tossed back her red hair and said purposely to Dean, "Won-Won is so lovely. Maybe you should learn from him, dear."
With a vacant look Dean nodded. Ron pulled himself away from Lavender's face and raised his head, looking awkwardly at Ginny.
"I'm grateful your kissing skills are not as bad as his," leaning against Dean, touching his hair, Ginny said with affection, "Poor Lavender, if my brother bites her face off, my family will have to compensate her."
The students around could not withhold their laughter. Ron flushed and tried to retort, but he seemed unable to find the right words to talk back. At last he pulled Lavender and disappeared together from the hall where the students' laughter only got louder.
Ginny shrugged and moved down the table to sat with Hermione. She patted on her shoulder, and said smugly, "I bet they have to suffer from hunger this morning, since they haven't had time to eat anything."
Hermione managed a smile and stabbed the omelette with her fork. Ginny looked at her and sighed, not knowing how to comfort her. She tried to transfer the topic. "Er, where did you buy your handkerchief? It's nice."
It was only a casual comment, yet she immediately found her complication not enough-The handkerchief was extremely beautiful. The pure white, thick fabric looked soft, blended with fine gold thread, shimmering in the sunlight. When she looked closer, she realized the gold thread was not simply woven into the fabric, but was designed in intricate and magnificent patterns with exquisite techniques. Golden red embroidery bordered the handkerchief, and the four corners were decorated respectively with a tiny crystal, each of them being pure, pellucid, and light gray.
"How beautiful!" Ginny exclaimed, and could not help touching it, which felt like silky skin, simply too fine and smooth. "This handkerchief can't be something cheap, and even one of those crystals may not be bought with dozens of Gallons. They look like magical crystals. Where did you get it, Hermione?"
"Uh...I just picked it up."
"Pick it up?"
"…or rather it's a gift..."
"Which way was it?" Ginny was confused. She felt the handkerchief again with an admiring expression.
Hermione pulled her hair, trying to organize her thoughts and explanations. She put the handkerchief back to her bag, looked around-Draco looked away quickly and sliced his bacon lazily-and lowered her voice, "Do you remember that day, the day when we beat Slytherin in Quidditch, you know, Ron..."
"Yeah, I understand. My brother is the biggest idiot over the world!"
Hermione looked away, not willing to talk about him, and she continued. "I happened to meet...them at the end of the corridor on the third floor, so...I hid in an unoccupied classroom. When I came out, it was placed at the door."
"Placed there, not dropped there?"
"yes, it was folded neatly into a pentagon, so it's unlikely that it was dropped out from a pocket."
"So you picked it up," Ginny sighed, her expression turning serious, "Have you checked it? Maybe it's-"
"No, there's no such magical hint on it, unlike..." she shook her head, "the diary."
Hearing their worries, Draco was not sure whether he should be annoyed or amused.
Apparently Ginny was convinced by Hermione's judgement and rested assured. She winked at Hermione. "Then it must be a gift from a kind-hearted gentleman. Using so expensive a handkerchief, he might come from a very wealthy family."
"I don't know. Judging by the color, it should be from a Gryffindor. Do we have many such students in our House?"
"Most of the wealthiest student are in Slytherin." Ginny waved her hand, dismissing it as unimportant. "I should have known, being excellent and pretty, you must have many secret admirers, and one of them quietly left a handkerchief for you. Those dunderheads wouldn't have such romance." She looked reprovingly at Dean, who was smiling sheepishly at her.
"Cheer up. Reveal your charm and have Won-Won pissed off."
Hermione smiled.
XXX
Draco finished his bread. With his bag in hand, he walked past them and left the hall. Vaguely he heard her commented on his disappearance.
"Malfoy is pompous than ever recently, isn't he? Yet Parvarti said he was cool..."
If you know the handkerchief is mine, perhaps you will find it unworthy of wiping tears for you.
With a properly arrogant smile on his face, he left the noisy crowds behind. Today he had Charms for the third and fourth class, which would not begin until two hours later. Maybe he should go to the eighth floor first...
"Draco." Someone called him. He turned around and saw Snape hurry down the staircase across from him, black robes swinging. The instant he heard Snape's whisper, he was chilled to the bone.
"The Dark Lord wants to see you. Follow me."
Author Notes:
I have divided this chapter into three parts because of the change of perspectives. The first and the last are internal-visual-angle and from particularly Draco's perspective while the second part is from the third-person omniscient point of view. The good news is that I am finally able to discern the shifting of narratives and separate them, since the original author did not distinguish them properly. The bad news is that my change of POVs is too stiff and unnatural, due to my poor writing skills. I do believe they should have not been organized this way. Please be tolerant if you find this fiction not fluent enough.