Chapter 39

The next few days for Draco were to say the least a mix bag. The Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws remained with the opinion they had had when they had learned what he had done – that he was immensely brave and should be hailed as a hero.

On the other side, he did not think that Blaise, Theodore, Vincent or Greg had ever been so cold with him. They had never been as close to Severus as he had been when they were growing up but they had seen him regularly and he was their Head of House. Draco supposed it was only natural that they were going to be loyal to him. So while he was a hero for the majority of the students, he was, at least for a while, public enemy number one for the Slytherin's.

The others assured him that they were going to come about to him in the end. Even Severus was of this opinion, which as promised, he expressed to him in detention. They would forget his outburst eventually.

Cleaning the store cupboards was no ones idea of fun – least of all Draco's.

There was one thing that made it bearable though – the fact the Quidditch season was about to begin. It was also soon to be his first Halloween at Hogwarts. There was a lot coming up and he found that more and more of this time was occupied. The amount of homework and extra work he felt obliged to do so that he helped keep the good reputation of his house was increasing.

The more his time was filled, the more he got used to Hogwarts life and that could only be a good thing.

"Do you want to come to the library tonight Draco?" asked a hopeful Mandy a few weeks after the cauldron throwing incident. She seemed to have taken quite a shine to him – in her eyes what he had done had definitely made him a hero.

"I can't Mandy – my last detention..." he reminded her.

After that night he was free; free of the store cupboard. He supposed it could be worse. Even though he was serving detention under him Professor Snape, he really was with Uncle Sev. The first detention had been harder than the first. He was sure that he had made him suffer a little (scrapping frogs spawn out the sink – the muggle way, before beginning on the clear out) just so he was sure he was treating him as one of the others. They had, of course, talked about his behaviour and why it had been so bad. Then, the second one was a little lighter (no frogs spawn), and he expected the one he served that evening to be the same if not even easier.

"Oh, well maybe next time." The library was, of course, every Ravenclaw's favourite hangout.

She looked vaguely disappointed but didn't press it.

So at seven that evening after he had his dinner, Draco set off for the final part of his punishment. He would be glad when it was over.

As ever when he got to the dungeon he found that Severus was already there waiting for him.

"Ready?" he asked him. Draco nodded - he was more than ready to get this over with.

"How were your classes today?" asked Severus as they made there way to the store cupboard. That was the one good thing about spending detention with Severus. It felt like home. He and his father had always used to talk about how the day had gone at the end of it.

"Alright," shrugged Draco. "I had a flying class again – and Transfiguration."

"And you enjoy it?"

"Not as much as potions." he said with a grin.

"Don't be a suck up." Severus playfully growled.

Draco laughed it off and soon begun to clear one of the shelves they had not yet been through.

"Are you still talking to Potter and Weasley?"

Silently, Draco nodded. He had been waiting for his uncle to bring the subject of the Gryffindor's up.

"They are good fun to be about."

"Draco, I am only saying this because I worry about you." What he was saying of course, went unsaid – that he should not be spending time with them.

"I know you do, but can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Can you tell me why you are so against me being friends with them? What is the manner of your disapproval?" Severus smirked at how 'Lucius like' that last part sounded.

He had been dreading that question. Ever since he had begun to meddle in the friendship, he had seen his young nephew build with them he had been expecting it. He full well knew he was meddling as well. Draco was a smart kid and he knew that something was going on.

"I just don't want to see you get mixed up with the wrong sort of people."

"You are not adding anything new to the last time we had this conversation."

Draco's clear, young and innocent eyes looked up at Severus reminding him of what he was trying to protect. He thought back to what Lucius had said the evening after Draco's bad behaviour; that he did not understand there were grey areas in life.

He didn't know if he could bear to be the one who exposed him to them.

"I know I am not." He said wondering vaguely if the right thing would be to tell him what had happened to him at the hands of James Potter and Sirius Black. "But one day, when you are older, you will understand."

"I hate it when adults say that."

"So did I – and so will your own children when you have them."

Draco turned back to the shelf knowing he was not going to get anything out of him.

"I will however try to be kinder to your classmates in future." He conceded. That earned him a smile, but not much more.

-

Draco decided to pay no attention to what his uncle had said – he had two personalities. So why should he have two sets of friends? He really wasn't causing anyone harm as he had told Sev. So he continued to sit with the boys in class, and to his dismay when he did go to the library (which was more often now he had more free time back), he often found himself in the company of Hermione Granger.

He had to say he was glad that she had more courage than brains (though how he wasn't sure; she was far clever than the majority of the Ravenclaw's) because he did not know if he couldn't cope if he had been put in the same house as her. She was brilliant as a study partner, but Draco found her the sort of person you could only spend limited doses of time with before they did your head in. Lovely; but annoying, that was how he would sum her up.

However, he did notice when she was not there (which was rare). One the day she was not in the library though was at the end of October, the day that the Halloween Feast was due to take place.

"Do you know what I heard? That it was Ron Weasley fault! She has been crying in the bathroom ever since Transfiguration," he heard a first year Gryffindor who was called Lavender Brown say to another as they sat at a table just across from his.

He knew that Ron had taken a disliking to the girl and that he found her exasperating (he had told this to Draco and Harry enough times). He hoped it wasn't true – he didn't like the idea of her being upset, even if he found her irritating.

He began to worry when she did not show for the feast.

As he sat there with his Ravenclaw friends, he found that he could not get his mind off of Granger and it didn't take long for him to work out he was worried over her. It was stupid – what was she to him anyway?

The feast he had to say though was spectacular. The rumour was that the food at Hogwarts was provided to the students by house elves and if that was true, then he had to say they had really out one themselves that night. Even he appreciated it as great tasting food and he had been raised on the finest food money could buy.

He felt more relaxed about the feast than he had at the sorting. He was very gradually getting used to being about so many people – he had been at Hogwarts two whole months and was now settled in. Over a month had passed since his father's visit. It seemed like yesterday and a year ago all at once.

It had all been going well at the feast - that was until Quirrell had come into the Hall, Draco's stuttering Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. He did not like his. He never met anyone's eye in class and it was off putting. Almost as if he had something to hid.

"Troll – " he made such an entrance when he had run up the middle of the table that everyone had stopped eating as well as talking, so they could all hear him. "In the dungeon."

There was much screaming before Dumbledore took hold of the situation, and he soon found himself being shepherded out of the hall with his fellow first years by Penelope Clearwater.

But there was something on his mind... something... no, someone...

Hermione....

Turning, he saw that Ron and Harry were just across the floor from where he was – he mouthed her name to them and he was sure that he was going to beckon him over to him when –

"Come on Malfoy, we have to get back to the Tower as soon as we can. Quickly now," Penelope said in an almost maternal tone.

She seemed to have taken exclusive charge of the first years while the others ushered the second and third years away. He paused again momentarily as he watched the two Gryffindor' escape their own prefect. Somehow, he knew Hermione was going to be ok.

But he continued to wish for the rest of the night that he had managed to slip away from Penelope. If he had just moved quicker...

He knew if something bad had happened to Hermione then they would know by now but ...

Tossing in bed later that night, Draco's thoughts turned to what he had heard Lavender say and what his uncle had been telling him. Was it possible that Severus was right? Were Ron and Harry not really the people he had thought they were? Where they cruel? Had he in a way, dreamed Ron and Harry up into something they weren't? And did he enjoy being with them so much because they were the forbidden fruit? Two of the people his father would most be against him fraternising with.

But the next morning, when he met up with them he soon learned that where Ron has been the cause of Hermione's upset he and Harry had also been the cure. They had saved her life from the troll.

"They were both so brave." she told him as they sat in the library later the next day.

The two boys blushed and Draco chuckled at their embarrassment but the four of them seemed fast friends now. Despite the fact that he liked his fellow Ravenclaw's and truly he missed the company of the Slytherin's (he was trying to work it out how to make it up to his friends), he didn't feel the click with them he did with the Gryffindor's.

Besides, they made a bigger fuss of Harry than they did of him unlike the Ravenclaw's. Mandy, as lovely as she was, was irritating him being so nice all the time; a consequence of him putting his neck on the line for her. It wasn't just asking him to go to the library with her; it was waiting for him every morning, asking him to partner her in every class - She didn't seem to understand that he had been trying to make a point in general and he would have done it for anyone.

"Well they are in Gryffindor, Hermione – I think that might be the general point, being brave and all."

Even he could see though that they had not had to go after her. They had done it off their own backs. It was a brave deed.

It was obvious by this point that she was tiring of her Ravenclaw friends teasing and smirking and so decided to change the subject swiftly.

"You wouldn't happen to know who Nicholas Flamel is would you, Draco?"

"Why?"

He saw the other two give her a look. Whatever this was, about it meant something to all of them.

"Because he has something to do with whatever was taken out of Gringotts." Said Harry.

Draco searched his mind. He didn't know why but he was sure that he had heard that name before.

"I know it but I don't... does that make sense?"

Harry nodded. He knew what Draco meant as that was exactly how he felt; as if he had read it somewhere but he just didn't know where.

"I can write to my father, see if he knows anything." He suggested. When he didn't know something, his father had always been the first port of call.

Harry shook his head.

"Don't worry about it – I am sure we are going to be able to work it out on our own somehow. And besides, you a Ravenclaw – surely you can work it out." He had heard that Draco's father was close with Snape. As a by product of that association he was not sure that he trusted him.

It felt like Draco had been set a challenge and he was going to rise to it – and he did work on it hard for the next half a week, researching with Hermione who he was getting used to.

But then as the weekend approached there was something far more important than finding some old wizard.

Quidditch.

"I must say I've read all about it but I have never been to a real game. It shall be interesting to see how it works," the muggle born said to him the day before the Quidditch season kicked off.

The Ravenclaw's were going mainly to size up the competition. He had been told a pretty second year, Cho Chang, was now there seeker having only made the team a few days ago. The second years had been all hyped up about it a few evenings ago in the common room.

As it was though, the two teams who were playing were Gryffindor and Slytherin. While he hoped that his friends house did well he could not help but back Slytherin. It was in his blood. It sounded as if the Slytherin's had a good team. No one had left it the year before so they had the added advantage of having trained together for a year.

As for the Gryffindor's they had not been so lucky. The rumour was that they had real trouble finding a new seeker (arguably the most important player on the team) to replace the one they had had the year before.

The rumours turned out to be the truth and by the end of the day Draco was delighted to be able to write to his father that so far his old house was steaming ahead for the Quidditch cup. Draco made it clear to his dad that he was please for him, but only so long as they did not beat Ravenclaw in the end. He had a feeling there was going to be a bit of rivalry in the house when they did get back for Christmas which all of a sudden seemed quite close. It would of course just be friendly banter... When the list for who was going to stay at Hogwarts for the festive season came about, Draco was one student who definitely did not put his name down.

"Are you going to be coming down to the manor on Christmas day?" asked Draco eagerly as sat with Severus one day after class. He had his cloak wrapped tightly about him, to keep the cold out. He had woken to find a thick layer of snow covering the castle.

"I expect so." Christmas he found was always one of the times when he found it even harder than usual to be without Lily.

"I can't wait to get back. I got a letter from Eliza saying that they aren't going to start the decorating without me."

"Then I am sure they will not." He had never been able to understand how people could get so excited over it. Even though he had enjoyed the Christmas' he had had with the Malfoys – especially when Draco had been three to about five – they had been magical ones, Lucius had made sure of it. Draco had always been given stacks of presents spread throughout the day. There was always an elf, or some other little magical creatures coming to give him something, yet somehow everyone had always been received gratefully and nothing was ever cast to one side without a thorough inspection.

But when Severus had been young, despite his mother's best attempt his father had always found a way to wreck Christmas for all of them – no, Christmas had never been a happy time in the Snape household. Maybe that was why he had always tried to escape to the Evans'.

"No - they'll wait, I know they will. I had better go and start packing to go back though - see you in a bit," he said giving the man a one arm hugged before he run back to the dormitory.

As he walked through the halls of Hogwarts, he found (much like all of his fellow students) that it was near impossible to ignore the good mood that had taken hold of the castle. The portraits were crossing over to one another, the stair cases were not changing so much and the doors often would not open until you wished them a Merry Christmas. There was little that even Filch could do to dampen the good cheer that had taken over the halls. Peeves, was of course taking the opportunity to make more chaos than he had since the beginning of term and as long as he was not doing anything to then, he found he had more support than ever from the students.

So when slime covered Filch run past him on the way back to his dorm, and not even Draco, who generally wished no harm on anyone, could suppress a chuckle – if any one actually deserved a sliming it was Filch.

When the day came that they were actually going to going home he felt as if he was going to burst of excitement. It had been a long time coming and as much as he had enjoyed being at Hogwarts and discovering that he quite like learning in a proper environment, the thought of home called to his heart.

He thought of Eliza's face; his own room; the library and all the books but as ever most of all...

The reflection of his grey eyes were what were calling him the most because they did not just belong to him...

Before he knew it, it was time to get on the train and as he headed out of the castle and it felt like a bit of a dream that the time had gone so fast. He had coped an entire term away from the manor...

Home...

"Have a good break!" Ron and Harry said to him as they saw him and Hermione off at the station. "See you in the new year."

"Enjoy the break!" he returned. "Merry Christmas!"

The two going home walked down the carriage together, trying to find an empty compartment but were soon caught by the Ravenclaw's. Maybe it was because she was so intelligent, but they were more than happy to let Hermione go in with them and so they joined them.

Draco though, had to admit he was beginning to miss the Slytherin boys. He missed the camaraderie he had had with them – you just couldn't get that bond with someone over night.

He did not have time to dwell though. It was not long till everyone was quizzing each other over what they had asked for and where they were going to be spending the holidays; whether it be just with there parents at home or with their aunts and uncles or grandparents as well.

He supposed he was going to be seeing Ted and Andy over the holidays but the one he really wanted was his mother.... it had only been three months since she had come but it felt a life time. She had never come just because it was Christmas though.

All thoughts of his mother were soon crashed out of his head by his longing for his father as they got closer to London, who had written to say he was going to be on the platform waiting for him. A tide of love washed through his young heart.

After many sweets had been consumed and many games of Exploding Snap had even been won or lost, they finally pulled in at the station.

Draco was shaking he was that excited. He felt his heart rising in his chest. It had been three and a half long months without his father...

"I'll see you at the start of next term," he said to Hermione.

"Well wait a sec and I am going to get off with you."

"I can't wait!" there was of course more than his excitement behind the reason he did not want to get off the train with her, not that she knew it. She was a muggle born. As if his dad would want to see him with he... He didn't want to be unkind or be seen to be rejecting her but he was not going to get off on a poor foot with his dad for the holiday's – especially after the cauldron incident.

"Merry Christmas!" he said and so as to not give her chance to reply he jumped out of the carriage and down the train till he found the door that lead him to the platform.

The fog lay heavy over London as the parents waited for their off spring. The platform was not as packed as it had been at the beginning of term, on account of many students to stay where they were for the break and so it was relatively easy for the children to get back to their mother or father.

And so it was the case for Draco.

His father was there, just as he said he would be; wrapped warmly in his ermine robes, fur hat perching on top of his head. That day his hair had been tied back, not that his son noticed. All he saw was his father's smile – his eyes.

Draco walked slowly and almost nervously up to him.

"My son." His father greeted him.

No other words were needed.

When Draco looked back on the first ride home from the station for Christmas it was those words he recalled in his mind. He also remembered how tender his father had been with him and how despite his joy at being back by it side, it had not been long after they had got into the carriage that he had squirmed his way into his father's robes. He had then proceeded to fall asleep with the only sound he heard was that of Lucius' strong heart beating under his ear. The excitement worn him out and Lucius was as ever more than happy just to hold his little one as he dozed serenely.

The last thought he had before he had slept into that peaceful, dreamless sleep had been that he was back with his father - in other words, he was back where he belonged.

Author note: A few changes in this chapter, the biggest being Harry not getting on the Quidditch team. Without bratty Draco there to throw the rememberal, McGonagall won't see him through the window and so on. As a consequence, Harry will be on the team – only next year.

Also, this is likely to be the last update for a couple of weeks as on Saturday I am going on holiday with my family.

Please review!