Chapter 16
Draco was glad to leave. He had found training with Mulciber rather tedious. The things that Mulciber had been lecturing him about were not boring by any means and he needed to know them, but Draco didn't particularly enjoy listening to Mulciber talk for his whole training and having to sit there silently, nearly the whole time.
He decided to return to his bedroom and return to planning a way to assassinate Dumbledore. He hadn't gotten any good ideas so far. He saw his mother and aunt arguing near the stairs. Narcissa looked stressed. Bellatrix appeared to have calmed down quite a bit, however she still looked quite irritated. Neither of them seemed to notice him.
"You're his mother, Cissy," snapped Bellatrix. "Why don't you just teach him yourself?"
"You know that I barely have any experience in the Dark Arts, Bella," said Narcissa sounding frustrated. "Draco is sixteen. The Cruciatus Curse can be a very alarming thing for a sixteen year old to witness. It'll just take him a while to get used to these things. He needs someone to mentor him, Bella."
"Why don't you ask Mulciber to continue doing it, or Barty?" said Bellatrix.
"Didn't you see how reluctant Mulciber was to train Draco today, Bella?" Narcissa said. "I doubt that he'll be willing to continue mentoring Draco, and Barty isn't too keen on doing so either."
"I'd train him if you'd just let me discipline him," snapped Bellatrix. "Honestly, Cissy. When I punished him today, you acted like I tried to beat him to death."
"There was nothing to punish him for," said Narcissa, angrily.
"I barely hurt him at all," shrieked Bellatrix. "And he deserved it! Didn't you and Lucius ever discipline him? Did Lucius not use similar methods of punishment? "
"Yes," muttered Narcissa. "But he only punished Draco when necessary. Please, Bella! If you'd only be patient with him…"
"I can only be so patient, Cissy," said Bellatrix.
Draco didn't stay to listen to any more of their dispute. He ran past his aunt and mother, and up the spiral staircase. He reached the third floor. On the third floor of the building, there were two corridors. Each led to five different bedrooms. Draco's room was at the end of the right corridor
On that particular day, his mind was full of thoughts about what had happened during his training and how he was going to kill Dumbledore. Without thinking about where he was going, Draco accidentally went to the room at the end of the left corridor. The door was wide open, and he went inside.
He found himself in a room that he had never been in before. It was cluttered with books, picture frames, boxes, old candle sticks, broken shards of glass and many other various items. It was obviously meant to be a bedroom, since there was a bed that had been pushed to the very back of the room. Draco looked around and immediately realized that he had gone down the wrong corridor. He turned to leave, but something caught his eye.
In the corner of the room there was a small wooden table and a shelf. On the table was a wide, shallow basin. On the shelf were about twenty glass vials containing liquids of different colors. Draco made his way through several piles of rubbish to get a closer look. He stepped on a piece of glass and cut himself. Wincing, he kicked the glass aside and continued towards the shelf and basin.
Most of the vials were labeled with skulls and cross bones. Draco's first thought was to steal a few vials and try to poison Dumbledore at school, but he knew that that would be very foolish for two reasons.
Whoever owned the vials would notice that a few of their poisons were gone, and he shuddered to think of what would happen if they found out he had taken them. The other Death Eaters weren't exactly easy going people to say the least.
Also, Dumbledore was thought by many to be the strongest and most intelligent wizard alive, and Draco knew that Dumbledore wouldn't be fooled into drinking something that had been poisoned. He quickly decided to leave the vials alone.
The shallow basin was full of what looked like some sort of swirling, glittering liquid. Draco went even closer to it. He stood over it, and watched the liquid whirl around in the basin. It was like an invisible spoon was stirring the basin's contents.
When Draco looked more carefully at it, the shining liquid began to change. Now, it looked like colors were being mixed into it. Eventually, the colors settled into place and Draco looked down at what appeared to be a picture of a room. He leaned over the basin.
Suddenly, his surroundings started to blur. It felt as though he had touched a Portkey, which he knew he hadn't done. It was like he was being pulled into a vortex. When everything had refocused, he looked around. He was no longer in the bedroom. By the looks of it, he wasn't even at Headquarters anymore.