Hello, peoples! Happy Labor Day Weekend! And I believe Summer Bank Holiday just passed in England, so happy late Summer Bank Holiday to the English!
This Chapter is a lot longer than the last, so I hope it makes up for my lack of content in Chapter Three. Here, The Half-Blood Prince film officially begins.
Copyright: I own NOTHING!
Chapter Four
"Today's the day! Ready to go, Draco?" Aunt Bellatrix excitedly shouted, making me wince at her volume.
"Yes," I quietly answered as I entered our living room.
"Good!" she responded as Greyback the werewolf and my mother moved into the room. "Let's go, then!"
Mother took hold of my arm. I jumped a little at the sudden force on my still aching wand-arm as Bellatrix lifted her wand and Apparated us out of the manor.
Our surroundings suddenly blurred and quickly rearranged themselves into a darkened alleyway made of black stone.
"Let's go this way!" Bellatrix hissed as she raised her dark hood.
Bellatrix and Greyback quickly ran down the alleyway that led to Borgin and Burkes. I moved to follow them, but my mother placed a hand at my torso to stop me. She glanced around before shoving me in front of her and guiding me through the twisted ally, bringing us to a shop I visited with my father the summer before I began my Second Year.
My mother entered the shop while I hesitated outside the door, taking a moment to wipe all trace of emotion from my expression. Being around the other Death Eaters and my father so often has made me grow talented at concealing everything I felt. I learned a long time ago not to show fear or regret over the Dark spells I was being taught to cast.
"What can I do for you today?" a voice greeted as I entered the shop.
"We're looking for a rare item," I answered, reciting the script we had rehearsed as the owner of the shop came forward.
"W-well, we have plenty of that here," the older man stuttered, nervously glancing at Greyback behind me. "You'll have to be more specific, my boy."
"A Vanishing Cabinet," I clarified.
"'A Vanishing Cabinet'?" the man laughed. "Now, that's a bit too rare. I couldn't even tell you where to find one."
I swallowed nervously, gulping down the sudden lump in my throat. I didn't expect this to be easy, but I didn't want to show him. I never wanted to look at it again, but as Bellatrix subtlely prodded my back, I knew I didn't have a say in the matter.
I sighed dramatically, carefully rolling up the sleeve that concealed my left wrist. I held my arm out to the man as he approached me to inspect the Mark forming on my arm.
The owner tensed and fear flashed in his eyes.
"Are you sure you don't know?" I arrogantly wondered, tilting my head to the side for emphasis.
"I may have one in the back of the shop," he said quickly. "Follow me."
The shopkeeper led us through the various shelves and counters and through a hidden door and into the room beyond.
The man waved his wand and lit the back room with a soft glow of various candles and lanterns.
"Here it is," the keeper said, slapping the side of a blackened wardrobe.
I crossed the floor and inspected the dark wood. I tapped the side of it with the ring my father gave me after I cast my first Killing Curse. He said it would keep him close if I fell ill l again and he couldn't be there.
I put my ear to the door of the Cabinet and closed my eyes, listening to the hollow echoing and making sure it was what the shopkeeper said it was. My father had told me what to listen and look for to be sure it was a real Vanishing Cabinet, and everything seemed to be in order.
I turned back to the shop owner and voiced, "This'll do."
The owner opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it again, staring at the werewolf behind me.
Curiously following his gaze, I found Greyback standing on a platform above us and staring out of the large window through squinted eyes. I was about to ask him what he was staring at when with a wave of my mother's wand, the blinds snapped closed, instantly blocking off any view to the outside.
"You were saying?" I asked the shopkeeper after clearing my throat and yanking my sleeve back down, my uneasiness at having my faint Mark exposed growing by the minute.
"I was going to ask what purpose a teenager could have for a Vanishing Cabinet. Where you would take it," the man answered.
"That's our business," I calmly responded. "And we don't need to take it. We just need to...put it on reserve for a while."
"Yes, but a man can't help but be curious..." the shopkeeper trailed off.
"Well, I hope you can help it for your sake," I threatened, my heart clenching as I spoke.
Bellatrix gripped her wand at her hip, and as per the plan, I gave her a stern look. She quickly released her wand and backed a few steps away from the man.
The shop owner visibly gulped and stuttered, "E-either way, you-you'd still have to pay."
I looked over to my mother and gave her a curt nod. She reached inside of her cloak and pulled out a coin purse that she handed to the shopkeeper.
The man opened it with an expression that was simultaneously curious and cautious. His eyes widened as he found the several hundred galleons resting inside the small coin purse.
The owner looked back up at us and gestured to the item we needed. "The Cabinet is yours."
Bellatrix bounced excitedly over to my mother and myself as Greyback descended towards us. The three adults each raised their wands, and my mother took my hand as we Apparated back to my family's manor.
We appeared in the main dining hall, and I quickly let go of my mother's hand and backed away from the group, relieved that it was over. It was time for school, now, and I had collected my books and things early so we would have time to get the cabinet later in the summer when it was less crowded. I would never have to deal with this until Christmas Break when my training resumed.
My stomach suddenly heaved painfully, and I covered my mouth as bile rose into my throat. I was already weak from the Dark spells I have been casting lately, and my body hadn't fully recovered from the Killing Curse I cast on that rat, so the Apparating that day made me nauseous to the point of needing a toilet.
I was about to retreat to my room and private bathroom when the voice of my father stopped me. "Draco?" he called behind me.
I quietly sighed away my nerves and pushed my churning stomach to the back of my mind as I turned around. "Yes, Father?"
"It is time we tell you the real reason we need the Vanishing Cabinet," Father began. "And the reason your training will continue until you leave for school. And you will have special emphasis place on the Killing Curse."
Before I could ask what he meant, the darkened and snake-like form of the Dark Lord extracted itself from the shadows in the corner of the room. My chest tensed with nerves, and I lowered my head in an attempt to hide my fear from him.
"Well done in acquiring the Cabinet, Draco," Voldemort breathed.
I quickly nodded in response, not taking my eyes off of his dangerous snake coiling around his feet.
"You have progressed quickly in your training, and I am very proud of you, but now it's time for your real training to begin," The Dark Lord whispered. "We need you to-"
"We need you to kill someone!" Bellatrix exclaimed, getting me to raise my head to glance at her.
You-Know-Who made a soft growling sound in the back of his throat as he slowly turned his head towards her, glaring threateningly at her through his slitted eyes. "Yes, Draco," he added, turning back to me. "We need you to kill someone with that Killing Curse we've been having you practice."
"Who?" I asked, struggling to keep my voice steady. He was going to have me kill Potter. That had to be it. There was no one else I could imagine him wanting dead, but I thought that he had wanted to do away with Harry himself.
"Well, your father says is the worst thing that has happened to Hogwarts School ," The Dark Lord uttered. "Albus Dumbledore."
I froze at the name, and I know I hadn't succeeded in keeping the shock off of my face. Why would The Dark Lord need the Headmaster dead?
"He can help Harry Potter escape me in so many ways, and you are the only person we have who can ensure that he does not get the chance to offer that help, but you won't have to do it alone. We have arranged for someone to help you," Voldemort continued in his breathy tone. "But you can do it any way you see fit. It will prepare the school for the day we take it."
"'Take it'?" I questioned. "How would you do that? Undoubtedly, they have heard about everything that we have been doing and have taken precautions to prevent that from happening."
"Ah, but there is already a Vanishing Cabinet in the school, yes?" the Dark Lord countered. "That Cabinet and the one at Borgin and Burkes are twins. They will create a passage, once the one at Hogwarts is repaired. Then we can pass through their barriers unharmed."
I nodded and remained silent, casting my gaze to the floor again. I had thought that the School would be able to protect itself against the Dark Lord and his Death Eater army that I am now part of, but I suppose Voldemort always has a way to get what he wants.
"Don't you agree, Draco?" You-Know-Who asked, gliding even closer to me.
I glanced at my father, but all that he offered was a silent urging to say "yes".
"Yes," I finally muttered, "I agree. I'll kill Dumbledore."
"Excellent, Draco," The Dark Lord whispered, placing his cold hand on my shoulder. "I knew I chose correctly."
With that, The Dark Lord waved his bone-shaped wand in the air and vanished from the room, taking his snake with him.
Once he left, the churning in my stomach sprang to the forefront of my mind, but it was ten times worse than before. I placed a hand on my abdomen and another covering my mouth to try and keep the bile and little food I could eat inside of myself.
"Are you alright, Draco?" my mother asked, placing the back of her hand on my forehead.
"No," I mumbled through my hand. "Not right now."
"You must still be affected by the Killing Curse you cast," Mother offered.
"Yeah," I agreed, removing my hand from my mouth. "Let's go with that."
I didn't give her or anyone a chance to respond. I ran from the room and moved as fast as I possibly could to the private bathroom in my bedroom.
I quickly raised the toilet lid up and rested it against the back of the toilet. The small amount that was in my stomach instantly bubbled up and poured from my mouth, the sound of my own retching making me even more sick.
I spent the good part of an hour bent over the toilet coughing up bile and dry heaving until my father called me from the main part of my room. "Draco?"
I spit a small amount of saliva that formed in my mouth after another dry heave before demanding, "What?"
"I-I came to check on you," Father said nervously. "And to tell you that I will no longer be training you."
I looked back to him, planning on questioning why, when another heave from my stomach forced me to bend back over the toilet bowl.
I retched and groaned, a hand clutching my aching abdomen, but nothing came up except saliva.
My father kneeled on the floor beside me and gently ran a hand up and down my back, smoothing down the fabric of my black suit.
The careful movement of his hand calmed my churning stomach and allowed me some reprieve from this horrible hour.
"You have about two weeks left until you return to school, and The Dark Lord wants your training to be pushed harder," my father clarified.
"Harder?" I exclaimed, turning slightly to face him.
Father removed his hand from my back and sighed a little, giving me a pitying look as another jump from my stomach forced me back over the toilet.
"I'm sorry," my father sighed, "but I don't have a say in the matter. I don't even get to know who's training you."
I spat out another mouthful of saliva and half-heartedly wondered, "Anything I should prepare for?"
In truth, I didn't care what would happen during training. If it killed me, so be it. I didn't want to kill Dumbledore. I didn't want to kill anyone.
"Non-stop drills," Father answered. "I don't think that you'll be able to sleep very well, if you sleep at all."
"No sleep for two weeks?" I muttered, turning to him.
"You will sleep, but it will be so little that it will feel like none at all," Father responded.
I groaned and turned back to the toilet, resting my forehead on my hand.
Father returned his hand to my back and rubbed my spine up and down, comforting me as he said, "I suggest you eat what you can tonight and sleep as much as possible."
I nodded against my hand.
My father patted my back lightly and stood from the tiled floor, leaving the room.
The quieter his footsteps got, the more my heart sank. My stomach had settled for the most part, but I was terrified. I didn't want my father to go. For the first time in my life, there was something that scared me more than my father's stories, and he was the only one I could turn to. He was the one here for me now, not my mother like it normally was. Father came to warn me. Not Mother.
He couldn't leave me now.
Just so you all know, I'm not playing Devil's Advocate with Lucius in this chapter. There's never any proof that he hates Draco, and it's obvious that he loves his son, and JK Rowling came out on Pottermore (I think) saying that Draco looked up to Lucius.
Speaking of JK Rowling, I know she said that what Draco showed the shopkeeper on his wrist was not a Dark Mark, but I have no idea what else it could have been, so maybe it was a developing Mark. That's why it's in this chapter. To me, there's no other explanation. What else could have scared the shopkeeper so much (especially since Rowling discredited the theory that Draco is a werewolf)?
Hope you guys enjoyed!