Chapter 46

It was harder than Draco had thought it was going to be to get near Ginny without having to encounter her big brothers. That was something he was not willing to do and at least until she had been sorted and was settled, they seemed to have closed ranks about her. He was not going to be able to talk to her.

He had not yet seen Harry or Ron though and he had to say, that was something he was grateful for. When he had stuck his head into the carriage where he had seen Ginny he had had the misfortune to see Hermione though. He had thought it was odd they were not all together but had walked on before he had commented.

Finding a carriage, he had not long been by himself long when the Ravenclaws joined him. Terry and Michael were the first ones to arrive and then Stephen and Anthony came in.

Terry was sun tanned he noted. Michael was a little rounder and had a healthy glow to him. Stephen told them all how he had been to Quidditch camp that summer and he was now committed to going professional no matter how long it took. Ant explained that he had been to the Caribbean for his parents wedding anniversary with them.

They had had real summers unlike him. They had had fun and they had parents who actually gave a damn, Draco mused as he sat quietly. Once upon a time he had had that too.

But not now.

The one good thing that had happened to him that summer was that he had had a bit of time with Jane. That had definitely been the best thing that had happened to him.

He did not say that to them, of course. He supposed it must have sounded quite sad that the best thing that had happened to him in the whole summer was that he had had a visit from his old governess.

He shook his head.

He was not going to admit it out loud.

Instead of joining in the conversion then he turned to the window and watched as the countryside passed them by.

He was going to be so glad when he got home.

Home to Hogwarts.

Rather than go over the lake he went up to the castle by the carriages pulled by invisible horses. But even they failed to interest him somehow when they got there.

Dinner did though. When he had been on the train he had been so preoccupied with what he thought of as now 'feeling sorry for himself', that he had barely been focusing on anything. But the minute he saw the golden roast potatoes and the meat on the table he remembered what it really meant to be back.

His eyes, without his permission, he was sure, swept the top table and sure enough he saw as ever his Uncle Sev was there and as their eyes met, Draco was sure that he could see both an apology and a million burning questions for him.

Well if he thought that Draco was just going to forgive him after the very long absence he had had in his life then he was wrong, he thought angrily. However, there was a smile on his lips at the thought of talking to him despite his fury. He had missed him beyond belief.

Severus had always believed him and in him whatever he had done and whatever was going on; that had forged a special tie between them. He could not just forget that.

It was just then that Filch came to his uncle's side and said something in his ear. Snape turned to him with an expression that was a mixture of anger and all his Christmases coming at once. He nodded towards Draco and swept out of the Great Hall.

Clearly there was somewhere he felt that he had to be.

Draco knew they had lot of talking to do them. But that would wait until the morning. And unlike the relationship he had with his father he had hope for him and Sev.

He had to say he enjoyed the Sorting much more from his secure place on the Ravenclaw table than he had the year before when he had been waiting in the line. It really did not seem so long ago and the thought that he had done a year at school already did not seem real still.

Yet he had.

Predictably, as the Sorting came to an end Ginny Weasley became a Gryffindor to the apparent joy of all her brothers except Ron, who was still not at the table. Neither was Harry and as much as he wanted to deny it Draco was worried about where his friends were. 'Had they even been on the train?' he found himself questioning.

Ron, to him, was still the boy he had met at the Quidditch match deep down no matter how much he wished that was not the case.

The other absence that he noticed was that his cousin was not at the Hufflepuff table any more. Another change that he did not like. Something else he wanted as it had been when he was younger.

He had to say he was more than a little curious about the new Ravenclaw's as well now that they were not the ickle firsties.

The one who looked most interesting to him was a little blonde girl who looked as if she was gazing about the room but not seeing what was there. In some ways, she was wholly detached to what the other first years were feeling it seemed to hm. But when he looked at her eyes he knew she understood it better than any of the others, what they were going to go into.

Quite currently though, he realised that she was looking as intensely at him as he had been at her. There was something about her gaze that meant he could not hold it.

It was the deeper understanding again.

All in all he had to say he was quite pleased when he was able to get to bed and away from her.

He laid back in his four poster and he had breathed a sigh of relief. He was back. He was there and Hogwarts was all about him.

When he got up he was going to be back to go to class and he was going to be able to eat breakfast where he was surrounded by his friends. He felt sleepier and sleepier and the last thought in his head was maybe he and the others would go see Hagrid. And everything would be as it had been before.

-

Of course, it was not the case when he got up but Gryffindor or no Gryffindor's he was beyond happy to be the place he thought of as home now. He did not think about the manor for he could not. Not anymore. It wasn't.... what he thought it had been.

When he got to breakfast he saw his uncle was once more in his own seat and Harry and Ron were seated at the table with Hermione and Ginny.

There was a rumour going about the school that rather than get on the train, they had rode to school in a flying car and Whooping Willow was hurt because of it, due to the fact they had crashed into it. It was quite a story and part of him wanted to get it firsthand.

A bigger part of him said that was a dumb idea. Above everything he had to behave himself that year. In all regards. It had to be the case if things were going to be better for him next summer.

"Hey Draco," he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey Mandy… how was your summer?" he had managed so far to avoid her but he was in need of company and she was there. So far she did not seem as annoying as she had the year before. She had not sought him out the previous night.

Rather she had let him settle in.

Taking the opportunity, she sat by his side and launched into a one sided conversation which he found oddly relaxing. He nodded and smiled in the right places and asked the odd question but mainly he just continued thanked the powers above that he had returned.

His new second year time table revealed that he had Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Hufflepuffs first that day and then he had to go to Herbology with the Slytherins. Then worst luck, he had potions with the Gryffindors.

That was going to be fun.

Not.

Once again as he ate, found he was being watched by the little blonde first year as he read his time table. He did not think he would mind if he didn't first her so interesting as well.

There was something odd about her. He did not think it was a bad odd. "What's your name?" he said when Mandy had stopped chattering.

"Luna." She said to him in a matter of fact voice. "I already know who you are. You're Draco Malfoy. You're the first Malfoy not to be in Slytherin for years daddy said!"

He had to say he had almost liked her was soon as she had said her name was Luna. It was different and imaginative just as he had imagine her name was going to be; but it felt as if she had hit him when she reminded him he had not been put into the house of his fore fathers. It felt as if she had said to him that he had not been good enough to go where he should have.

The hurt must have shown on his face.

"And so what if he is?" said Mandy instantly on the defensive…

Luna shrugged and went back to buttering he toast. Suddenly, Draco found he had lost his appetite.

He had been about to get up and go out of the hall when he had heard a bit of a commotion over at the Gryffindor table to say the least.

It seemed that what he has heard was the truth; that Harry and Ron had indeed flown to school. That was why he had not seen them on the train and it seemed Ron was now paying the price for that...

He had got a Howler.

-

Classes went smoothly that day and Draco immersed himself in his work as soon he got back into class. He was going to come top of the class that year. He was determined.

Yet memories of what happened the year before were everywhere. As was evidence of Harry and Ron. The Whooping Willow was all bandaged up he noted as he walked down to Herbology after Defence. His first impressions of Lockhart had been right. That class was going to be a joke he thought bitterly. He did not like wasting time.

He found he genuinely enjoyed the first Herbology lesson of the year. Maybe the Slytherin boy's had heard he had had a rough summer from their parents, who after all had known Eliza from when they had been kids. Too often they had seen her when they had gone to the Malfoy manor. So rather than talk about the great summers they had as did every other person he spoke too, they just talked about nothing in particular. It was familiar and comfortable.

Even if he was not talking to Ron, Hermione and Harry then he had a lot of friends he could turn to when he was at school, he thought to himself happily.

His spirits rose throughout the day and by the time he got to the Potions room he had to say he was buzzing with expectation.

The thought of at last being reunited with his uncle was a warm one which filled him with anticipation. He remembered the last time he had felt as he did then was when he had been due to return to his father...

He suppressed the thought. He would not...

"Enter." Severus came out of the classroom and ordered his new class of second years.

Draco made sure to enter the room before Ron, Hermione and Harry. He remembered when they had sat at the back of History of Magic together the year before. That was not going to continue into potions.

Rather, he choose a seat at the very front and was soon flanked by Terry and Antony. He no longer cared much if he looked like his uncle pet, eager to go to the front and learn. That summer he had found out there were a lot more important thing in life.

Maybe it was in an attempt to win him round and score brownie points (in fact he was sure that it was) but his uncle was what could only be described as unnaturally nice to the Gryffindor's which helped appease Draco's conscience. Despite what it must seem like to them, he was not at all finding it easy to be so mean to them. He did not want to blank them. He just wanted things to be as they were when he had been a little kid.

The potion was relatively simple when he began his work. All the reading he had done over the summer was going to pay off he thought to himself. At least that was one good thing to come out of all this.

By the end of the class though the anticipation he had been feeling had turned to nerves and he did not know why. He had rarely ever been nervous of his uncle. He had been after the cauldron incident of the year before but that had been because he had been in trouble. They had always had a good relationship. A close one, he had believed...

Yet the thought of the two of them being alone once more... it was odd.

He considered running out of the class with the others but he knew that was not what his heart wanted even if his head did.

So instead, as he had done countless times before, at the end of class he stayed seated.

-

Sev shut the door as the last Gryffindor left the dungeon.

He and Draco were at last alone.

His eyes turned to him. He was so glad to see him once more. Summer had seemed pointless and dull for the first time in a long time when he had not been able to go to see his friend and his nephew.

Instead, he had spent a lot of his time dwelling on things at Spinners End and he was sure that it had done him no good what so ever. But it did not appear that summer had been kind to anyone that he cared about.

He had hoped that Lucius would relent. He had written more than one letter to start a reconciliation. To no avail.

The boys grey eyes pierced his heart as he looked up at him.

"First and foremost, Draco can I say how very much I missed you and your father this summer?" He begun formally.

"No." A quick response came from the lad. "No, you may not. Because it isn't true! You did not come to see me once. You did not even bother writing Uncle Sev! Not one letter! You didn't miss us at all!"

Draco turned away. Severus had been expecting such a response from the lad and he had been right to give it to him, even if it did tear at his heart. If he had not then he would have wondered what was wrong with him. He had not been under the illusion he was going to be welcomed back into his nephews life with open arms by the boy.

"You did not even come to us when Nana died." Draco muttered miserably.

Sev sighed heavily. Of all the offences Draco saw him of having committed that summer he knew that was the worst and that that was going to be the one it took longest to forgive. Rightly so as well.

And yet he did not know what to say to him.

'Draco your father will not let me near you when we are not at school and that is why I did not come.' That would only turn him and Lucius against one another further. He needed to try and help them heal this rift; not tear them further apart.

From what Jane had said to him they were at logger heads enough these days.

"It was unforgivable, my silence. But Draco it could not be helped."

"You said you were going to see me over the summer. You said Uncle Sev!"

Draco suddenly felt like that little vulnerable boy walking up the aisle, so sick and tired of having no one.

"I know I did. I – I cannot explain myself. I can only say that contrary to what my actions seem to convey, I do love you very much and missed you above everything else in my life this summer."

Sev closed the gap between them. Taking the chair next to Draco he looked at him as if trying to gage some sort of sense of how close he was to being forgiven or not. There was no telling.

"Draco, please..." he said softly.

Throwing caution to the wind, he reached over and took his nephews small hand in his own. Draco turned to him with tears in his eyes and a lump in his throat.

He had been strong in the summer, but now he felt weak.

"She died. Things would have been easier if you were there!" Draco said half angrily, half pathetically. "Just having you there! He hates me, Uncle Sev, he hates me and I know he does! And he is never going to forgive-e me for Hermione! Why didn't you come? Why?" he said as tears splashed on to his cheeks without his permission.

Severus could hear no more. Taking the lad firmly into his arms he kissed and held him as Draco shook. He was so angry at Lucius that he wanted to kill him. He had not felt such a white rage in him since that fateful day when his so called best friend had nearly got married.

Momentarily ,Draco seemed reluctant to take the comfort he was being offered but then apparently thought better of it. To the boy, Severus smelt of home and of his childhood , so he clung on to him as he had done when he had been lifted out of Marias grasp. Once again Severus was saving him.

"I missed you!"

"I know you did my little dragon and I swear it to you that I missed you as well. Just know how sorry I am that I missed so much this summer." Said Severus as he held on to him and kissed his forehead, the blond boy now in his lap. Severus was sharply reminded Draco was still only twelve. He was just a child really. He ran a hand through his hair to calm him as he had done when he was a toddler who had fallen down. Memories flooded back as did regret for the time they had missed that summer and he was shocked at how choked he felt. All he knew was that he never wanted to let him out of his arms again. "But you are so wrong Draco. Your father is incapable of hating you." He said remembering what he had told him on the stag night all those years ago.

I love that boy with everything I am Severus...

"He loves you far too much for that even if he has lost sight of that fact for now."

"But I need him Uncle Sev! I need him!" it had been the first time he had said what he had been thinking out loud.

"And he is going to need you too sooner or later. And when the time comes, which it will, you will get each other back. You just have to give him time to grieve. Your father has never been able to cope well with death," Severus advised Draco as the lad wiped his eyes on his sleeve, making him seem if anything more vulnerable.

"Was he like this when mother died?"

"He was different... it was not the same, but whenever Lucius feels grief and lost it is violently. He is going to come round sooner or later."

There was a far off look in the eye of the potion master that told the boy a lot more than he had been intended too. Draco understood somehow that his father had been moving away from his uncle somehow and that Severus was missing him a lot more than he was letting on. After all, the three of them had only ever had one another, Eliza and Jane.

"I know I have got a lot of making up to do but we are ok, aren't we Draco?" his uncle said as he turned to the lad now that his sobs had subsided.

"We're cool." Said Draco as he sat up but still stay in uncles arms for the time being. It went without saying that he had missed the affection he had been brought up with every day of his life until the beginning of that summer. He was in no hurry to end the physical connection between them, especially as it recalled to him so strongly the paternal affection he had bathed in since his childhood.

"Good boy." said Severus as he kissed his forehead once more.

By the end of the conversation Draco it as if there had been a weight moved off of his small shoulders. Knowing that he was not the only one who had somehow fallen so far out of favour with his father helped him. And he was reassured that no matter what he and Severus still shared the bond he believed they had for so many years. He did not know what he would have done if that had been robbed of him entirely. Severus was right though. He did have a lot of making up to do.

Three or four Quidditch match's making up in fact, Draco thought with a smile.

He wondered off in the end pretty happily back to the Ravenclaw common room. There was no point in going to the library, it was so near dinner. Little did he know that he had left his uncle furious in his wake... Not at Draco, but at Lucius. To think after all they had been through when the lad was young, after all Draco had been through when he was young.

And now he was ... he could only equate it with what Maria had done to him all the time, while knowing Lucius' silence hurt Draco more than anything she could ever had done to him. Draco was merely better at covering it up now he was growing up.

The fact was no matter how angry Draco was at his father, deep down he was still that lad who had trailed after Lucius like a little puppy dog with big adoring eyes.

To think someone could ever break that trust, that bond horrified him...

To Snape, no matter what they had done in the dark days, Lucius was committing his biggest crime now. One day, he was going to pay.

He'd have too.

But his bigger fear was somehow, they'd all pay.

-

"Stop it! Leave me alone!"

As soon as he had heard those words Draco's sense of justice had kicked in. He could hear someone in distress and he was unable to walk away.

He turned about the corner of the corridor he had been walking down to find three first years. It looked as if two of them were bullying the other, which shocked Draco. They had barely been at Hogwarts twenty four hours.

He recognised the one being bullied. It was Ron's sister.

Where were her brothers? He was shocked after the way they had huddled about her the night before that she was alone.

"Leave her alone!" he said as he walked down towards them.

The contents of Ginny's bag were all over the floor.

Like the cowards they were, as soon as they saw Draco walk over to them, the two of them run off in the other direction leaving the red head alone.

Red faced and embarrassed, the littlest of the Weasley clan gave him a coy smile. "Thanks," she muttered as she recognised him as the son of the man who had been so rude to her own father when they had been in the book shop. But apparently he was nothing like his father something in her said.

"It's no trouble," he said, as the feeling in him that she was in trouble due to some action of his father returned to him. While he helped her collect her belongings his eyes feel on a book. It was different from the others and it certainly was not new. Some of her other books were clearly second hand as well but there was something about that book...

Later on he could not understand what he did next but rather than give it to her, he slipped it in to his own bag as she picked up her quills.

Flushed and eager to get away from Malfoy's son, she nodded. "Thank you," She murmured and run off, leaving Tom Riddles diary in the care of Draco Malfoy.

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