Chapter 37

"Well then I suppose this is good bye." He said his tone of voice mournful.

"Only for now sir. Don't think you are going to get rid of me that easily." Said Jane.

Lucius had to say, after nine years of living with her in the same house, he was going to miss her greatly. She had been a great friend.

He knew she was off to some where called Yieland Place. Apparently they had a set of particularly unruly twins in need of a firm hand. Well, they were going to get that. After years of having Draco defy her she had got used to how to make her voice heard when naughty children were not listening to her.

"You will visit, wont you?"

"Just try stopping me."

She walked forward, gave her employer a kiss on the cheek and walked out the door. And just like that she was gone.

"Stop it."

"What?"

"Thinking so hard, I can hear the clogs in your mind going."

Eliza smiled over at him. Her charge, she was sure, was more nervous about his son being away than the boy had been when he had left.

She had been the same when Lucius had gone though. She had worried over him as she was sure Jane was also worrying over Draco. And she worried for Draco too, of course she did. But maybe over the years she had gathered enough wisdom to know that he would be alright.

It was the smaller things that Lucius found he hated not knowing, the things he hadn't even thought of when he had first considered his son leaving. His immediate thoughts had been of course how much he was going to miss his physical presence about the manor. But then he found it was the things he did not know that tormented him the most.

What class was his son in? Was he enjoying it? Had he cleaned his teeth that morning? Had he eaten a healthy breakfast?

All the things he knew Severus was going to be keeping an eye on but it did not help him, stuck at home. He wasn't used to not knowing what his son was doing, or where he was. He normally knew what room Draco was in – now all he knew was he was in a remote castle.

"I know he is going to be ok – every other child who has gone there has been fine, but it is so hard when it is your own child."

"I know it is."

"I just keep on thinking and it is driving me to distraction." He admitted.

He had however managed to take at least a few precautions. He had managed to buy his way on to the board of governors so that any big change going on at Hogwarts had to go through him before they got to his son. He had a spy in Severus. Everything told him that his fear for his son was irrational.

But at the same time, surely it was normal? The most natural thing in the world for a loving parent to feel was concern for the well being of their little one. And somehow Draco seemed very small still.

--

Friday night was a while other experience for Draco. The boy who had been brought up by a hand full of people suddenly exposed to a common room of hormonal teenagers. They all knew they were not going to have to have to go to class the next morning and so none of them were in a huge rush to get to bed.

Neither was he.

He sat with the other first years, banished to some of the more uncomfortable chairs. He could only envy the seventh, sixth and fifth years who were enjoying the warmth of the fire place. Little first years were not so blessed.

In his lap was the Charms book he had planned to read a little of that night. He was beginning to appreciate just how hard learning everything was going to be. They were all in the same boat, and he seemed to have little advantage over the muggle borns as a pureblood. So why exactly did his father think the distinction was so important? There must be a reason.

He had to admit, he wished the others would be quiet. He missed the quiet and the peace he had had when he had been at home. The noise chatty distracted him easily.

He was sure that in time he was going to get used to the noise at Hogwarts. He'd have too. There was always something going on, always someone up to something. It was just a part of school life he was going to have to accept.

He picked up his book, took it to his dorm and swapped it for a quill, ink and piece of parchment. While he had got three letters from his father in the week he had been at school he had only as of yet sent one back.

It was time to remedy that situation.

Returning to the common room he took his seat back up and dipped the quill in the ink before committing his small scribe to the parchment.

Dear Dad,

It is Friday night. I can't believe I have been at Hogwarts for an entire week. It feels very odd. We had the afternoon off today so I have done the majority of my home work and look forward to exploring the castle a bit more tomorrow. Uncle Sev has kept an eye on me this week I think and it is nice to have him here.

I miss you though,

Draco.

He sighed. Parents so far had been off the agenda for the first years to talk about. He knew that he was not the only one who was struggling to be so far off from home; Mandy only that morning had had to comfort a tearful Lisa after a letter from home. Hogwarts was a wonderful place to be. But so far, it just wasn't home for them.

He slept badly that night. He had dreams of his parents plaguing him. Of the two of them being together and taken away – then Sev was there, and he was bullying the others while he was sitting on the sofa eating sweets as he watched.

He awoke with sweat dripping down him, in damp sheets. It had been nothing but a dream he told himself – but it didn't help. Guilt plagued him for some unknown reason. It had seemed so real.

He got up earlier, as he saw no point in wasting any time in bed. Going up to the Owlery he sent Hercules off with the letter, hoping that the reply from home would get to him sooner than later. His father had always been able to calm him. He was glad he had written to him the night before and not that morning, since he had a feeling if he had written when he had got up the letter would have had a hint of agitation about it. And he did not want to let on to his father how he was feeling.

He knew that if anything his father was going to need more soothing than he was. His letters had been full of affection telling him how much he was missed. He had also giving him many pieces of advice and reminders, some of which he was sure even his dad would acknowledge as a waste of parchment... but then, at least he cared.

When he had got his post he noted that some morning Harry had had none. He still could not get his head about the concept of being an orphan and how lonely the Boy Who Lived must feel at times.

While he had not felt hungry he had done to breakfast and he was glad he did. He got a letter from his nana as well as a package of sweets from Jane. It was quite clear that he was still in all of their thoughts no matter how far away they were. Hercules also brought him a copy of the Daily Prophet which told him Gringotts has been broken into – the goblins were insisting nothing had been taken, but it was big news. Gringotts was normally so safe...

As Draco finished eating his toast, he felt a hand tap him on the back.

"Do you want to come down to Hagrid's with me and Ron today?" a cheerful voice said to him. Harry Potter stood at his shoulder with a smile on his face and a final bit of toast for himself in his own hands. Draco had been told the day before by Severus that if he wanted to go and spend the day with him in the dungeons then he was more than welcome to - but spending time with Harry and Ron seemed a much better way to pass the morning.

"Have you had a flying class yet, isn't it great fun?" said Harry, once they were out of the Great Hall and had set off across the lawn. Classes still dominated the conversation between the 'ickle firsties', as Peeves dubbed them.

Drake nodded. He had enjoyed it. "My technique was a bit off Madam Hooch said. I think I am going to have to have words with my father, he was the one who taught Me." he shrugged. "What about you're other classes? Have you been enjoying them?"

"Yeah," Ron chipped in. "Except Potions. Have you had Snape yet? He is a right foul git isn't he?"

Draco said nothing. The general consensus of the student body at Hogwarts seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Ron. The only ones who saw anything like what he did were the Slytherin's who his uncle was obviously biased towards. As it was, Draco could not stand to see the unfairness of it and was determined to talk to him about it. Maybe he would go and see him that day after all.

Tea with Hagrid's for the first time was an experience that Draco was not going to forget in a hurry. First of all he knew that Hagrid had to be some sort of half-breed. Just like Harry, there was no way his father would agree with his friendship with the giant. And that was what they had by the time he left the small hut on the out skirts of Hogwarts - a friendship. He was a little alarmed by his giant dog, but essentially, Hagrid was a kind and gentle giant, with exceptionally warm black eyes. Once he had got over the shock that a Malfoy had wanted to be his friend, he had welcomed Draco in with Ron and Harry. It seemed that the apple had fallen quite far from the tree.

That was the wonderful thing about kids, mused Hagrid as he watched the trio make there way back up to the school. They had their own way of looking at things and were willing to try new things – even when they were not supposed too.

Who'd thought Lucius Malfoy's boy would be such a good kid?

Draco made his excuses and split from the other two boys when they got back to the castle. Making out he had not yet done his homework, he made for the Ravenclaw common room only to turn back and head to the dungeons when they were out of sight.

Severus he found in the Potions lab looking troubled.

"You alright Uncle Sev?" he asked.

Severus surveyed his nephew. He had thought that he had got in to Ravenclaw because he was a smart kid but Draco was rapidly proving that wrong. He was more than a little displeased that he had struck up a friendship with the famous Potter of all people. He could not bear the thought of the child he had spent so much time with being friends with James Potter's brat. Yet they had seemed to be friends in the Great Hall that morning.

"I think so," he sighed unsure as to how to brooch the subject with he boy. He had of course considered going straight to Lucius, as undoubtedly that was what his friend would have wanted him to do. But there was something holding him back. As ever, it was Lily. He could not tell Lucius his son had been mixing with people who did not have the same kind of blood as he did as it would feel as if he was betraying her and everything she stood for.

"Why only think so?"

"Draco – it is just, I don't want you to fall in with the wrong set of people under my watch." He said to him. "You understand?"

How could he not? He knew exactly what his uncle meant and whom he was referring too.

"Harry and Ron might be Gryffindor's but they are fun. It's not as if we are doing anyone harm by being friends."

"Do you think your father would see it that way?" Draco shook his head. In truth, Severus hated even using the threat. But he had to protect Draco. If Harry was anything like his father... Sev shivered. Draco had had enough bullies in his life to last him a life time.

"Why don't you like them? Asides from me and the rest of the Slytherin's, you don't seem to like any of the students, Uncle Sev." he said to him. It had been playing on his mind – he had had to ask.

Severus sighed. He should have seen it coming he supposed.

"Don't be silly Draco."

"I am not being silly. I see the way you are with the others, you know. You can be really cutting."

"Draco, I have been teaching at this school since before you were born my boy." He reminded him. "I have seen students come and go and I have got the majority of them through up to OWL level. I am sure I do not need teaching advice from you."

"But if you had encouraged them –"

"Draco please." Sev said to him. He fell silent...

"Just try be nicer to my friends ok? Cut me some slack. I hate hearing them all bad mouthing you."

"They bad mouth me?"

"He says it as if he didn't already know."

Severus had the grace to laugh. Draco was right of course. He knew that the students didn't exactly like him. The problem was that the feeling was mutual.

Severus observed him. He had sworn that when he got there that he was going to do everything he could to get the boy through his first year. The first week up until then he had found rather easy. Despite the fact he was not so sure about Draco being a good judge of character as he had been at the start, he was also delighted they had had no tears. He had not yet asked to use the fire place.

Putting his fingers on his forehead he rubbed it. He felt tense, and his small nephew was doing nothing to help calm him.

"If this is what you wish then I will try to be more – helpful to your friends in class. But if they do something wrong I am not going to mollycoddle them Draco, it will do them no good."

"If that is what you call it then you and my father had been mollycoddling me my entire life." He said finally understanding that he had been brought up in a very different way to many young boys and girls his age.

"Circumstances demanded that we were gentler with you." He said quietly. The annoyance that had previously been in his voice left it. There were few times that they ever acknowledged what had happened - it upset Draco to talk about it. Even then he tensed at the memory.

Reaching out, Severus could not help himself but to hold Draco's hand. "I will be more agreeable to your friends if you will only accept that – Draco, I can't treat everyone the same as I treat you as I do not have the interest to.

"I have helped your father raise you from the day we lost your mother. I care for you more than you know young man. But I can't treat the others as I do you also because of natural human reactions. You do not treat me as you do your father – I would not expect you too, that is the way of the world. Every relationship is different Draco. People respond to one another differently all the time. I treat Dumbledore differently to McGonagall. I treat you different from your friends in the same way. You understand?"

Draco nodded. He thought, at least - he was trying to understand what he was saying to him.

-

The visit to his uncle had at least given some comfort and on Saturday night Draco slept much better than he had on Friday. Sunday was enjoyable. He met up with the Slytherin boys in the morning and they headed down to the lake together to review the week. They were still worried about him being in Ravenclaw, but the more he was there, the more Draco was genuinely enjoying it. His mothers blessing had helped this considerably. He didn't know why but he just knew that she knew the Sorting Hat had got it right.

All it all, he felt it was a good week end but he was glad when Monday morning came. There seemed to him to be less point at being at Hogwarts if they were not in class. It gave him far too much time to think.

A whole week had passed since he had been with his dad. He still had twelve weeks to go until Christmas came.

Breakfast was a light bowl of cereal and a glass of pumpkin juice. He didn't want anything to hearty that morning. He wasn't in the mood for it.

Class begun sharp at nine and he was among the first queuing up to get into Charms. He felt an aching for his father the like of which he had not experienced since the train station.

He sat away from the others. He did not want to answer the question 'are you ok?' - obviously not. History of Magic didn't improve his mood. He let Ron sit in the middle that week. He seemed to be in a better mood than Draco was.

When in Transfiguration he didn't so much as get a wooden needle out of his match stick he begun to feel seriously frustrated.

So it was in this mood that he made his way down to the dungeons. He was seriously annoyed and just wanted to head up to the dorm so he might get some sleep without the others in there. However, he knew in all good faith he could not skip class in his second week at school. Much less his uncle's class.

That week they were going to be working on antidotes to rashes, having moved on from the boils they had been working on the week before. It was his third lessons in Potions having had two the week before and he was watching out for the way that Severus was treating the others after the conversation the two of them had had on Saturday.

Severus it seemed was not in a much better mood than Draco himself. Having had the Weasley twins, then the combination of a Hufflepuff/Slytherin third year group he was not best pleased. At times, he felt as if he was banging his head against a brick wall. His conversation with Draco was at the back of his head and the first years were doing nothing to improve his mood.

"Miss Broklehurst, I thought you were a Ravenclaw. Surely as a member of the most intelligent house in the school you know that your potion is meant to be a deep red, not a striking purple. I did not have you down as a dunderhead till now."

Draco felt the girl tense at his side, her upset visible on her shaken features. He tried to give her an encouraging smile. He remembered how Harry had said that Snape seemed to spend the majority of his Potions lessons trying to cut down Neville Longbottom, who didn't appear to have that much self confidence as it was. Draco looked down at his own potion. It was a murky green.

"Sir, you have not commented on mine." He challenged his uncle. Severus was visibly shocked at Draco's deviance.

"It's fine Mr Malfoy." He said as he went on to the next row, not wanting to row with his tense nephew. He knew when something was wrong with Draco, and he would speak with him after class. He hadn't realised he felt this strongly...

"But you said it should be a deep red sir. This is green." He was daring Severus, desperate to provoke him in a rather reckless mood.

"Then go back, figure out where you went wrong and maybe I can help you solve the problem."

The rest of the class had looked up by this point curious as to the exchange going on between student and teacher. Many of the Ravenclaws now knew that they were as close as family, making it even more of a surprise that Draco was talking back to him. None of them would have taken Snape on so defiantly.

So Sev would only criticise the others, but when he asked for help; he got it just like that? It didn't seem fair and for a moment it made the young Malfoy see red. The bad day of classes, the longings for his father... they built up and even he was shocked by what he did next.

Wanting to strike out, he put his hands to the side of his cauldron and pushed it off of the work bench before gathering his things and rushing out of the classroom. He didn't know why he had felt so angry. He and Mandy weren't even that close. But he hadn't been able to watch as his uncle had bullied her. He loathed bullies with everything he was.

He was soon to learn though that anything that what went on in the school did not stay a secret for long and when he walked into the Great Hall for dinner that evening, he was met by a round of applause. People slapped him on the back and cheered him. It was quite apparent that at least for that day, what he had done had made him a hero.

"Bloody brilliant from what we hear." Said one of the Weasley twins. "Not even we would have done that in our first year."

"Did Snape really start crying?"

"Which spell did you use Malfoy?"

"Was the snake really four feet?"

As with all rumours, it was soon out of hand. The more ridiculous the rumour got, the more people wanted to believe Snape had suffered.

But it wasn't what Draco wanted. He didn't want anyone to know what he had done, and looking back, by the time he got to dinner he was rather ashamed that he had been unable to control himself. He wanted nothing more than to slip off and say sorry to his Uncle Sev, explain how frustrated he had felt. But apparently they were well passed that. A solitary owl flew into dinner that night.

"Hercules." Sighed Draco. Whatever the owl was carrying, Draco had a feeling it wasn't a note saying 'well done.'

Mr Malfoy,

Please attend my office at six thirty tonight.

Regards,

Albus Dumbledore.

"You don't think that you can be expelled for pushing a cauldron off a desk, do you?" he asked Terry and Michael.

They shrugged, though from their faces were clearly both concerned.

He set off for the office in good time to find the gargoyle already open. McGonagall had given him directions. Dumbledore had not been in the Hall and was obviously wanting for him.

It was his second week at school and already he had been called to the headmaster's office. This wasn't good.

As if possible, when he opened the door to the office after knocking, things went from bad to worse.

The headmaster sat behind his desk observing the boy through his half moon spectacles. If anything he looked more amused than angry.

He was joined the three other men. Both Slytherins and Ravenclaws Head of House were there, and neither looked as amused as Dumbledore. Severus had a look of confusion rather than anger on his face, while Flitwick had a severe expression on his.

But he didn't care about them, because of the presence of the fourth man. Sev must have called him - or maybe he had got an owl. Either way, it was obvious from his expression he knew what he had done and he was not happy about it.

Draco gulped.

"Dad."

Author note: Ok, I know in canon Ron and Harry go to Hagrids on Friday but it flowed better if they went Saturday morning here. I really enjoyed writing this chapter. As much as I miss Lucius and Draco being together so much, I think Draco's character benefits from the time apart - he is going to grow a lot over the next few years. Don't you just love the little rebel?

Please review!