Chapter 9

The rest of the summer was a lot more peaceful than the beginning of it had been, for which the Malfoy's were rather grateful for.

What with the events at the Quidditch World Cup and then Jane getting ill, it rather felt as if they had had their full of excitement.

Draco, as August drew to a close, had to say he was ready to go back to school, which he had not been at the end of the previous summer. Last year, he would have had no problem with staying off for a few more weeks, if only to have a bit more time with his family. Yet at the end of the summer, it was all different. For the most part they had been united throughout the break and even before it. He felt confident that unity would now remain.

He was also excited. Not only about what lay ahead at the school ('it is sure to be a wonderful surprise,' his father had promised him) but also seeing his friends again. He had to be more mindful that year of the way he behaved, of course, his father had made that clear to him. The war was coming and he was the child of a spy.

They all had to be careful.

But perhaps they might have a year or so more of relative peace, even if the Quidditch World Cup had seemed to put lie to that hope.

However, he knew himself to be slightly conflicted; he didn't wish to leave Jane and his father. He never did. The fact was he generally on the whole enjoyed both parts of his life. He liked to be at home with his family but, at the same time, he liked to be at school so he could be with his friends even if they did seem to be in trouble a lot of the time.

He wondered if he was going to be able to write to Sirius more when he was at school.

The two of them had corresponded relatively little over the holidays despite the fact that Sirius had said he was looking forward to the two of them getting close – it just had not happened yet, reasoned Draco.

So much else was going on.

He had written to him once from France though – Sirius naturally had wanted to hear about the Quidditch World Cup and his take on it.

He was beginning to understand that if any big events took place, then his cousin was not going to be satisfied until he had got his side of the story as well as Harry's, so he could piece what had happened together from what they both had told him.

If only they had got to Pettigrew...

He did not think he was ever going to forgive himself for letting the rat get away. If only he had gone to jail then he knew Sirius would have been at the Quidditch World Cup with them. There would be no need for letters. And he would have sat proudly by him. He was fiercely proud that they were related and he could only hope Sirius knew that when he went to bed at night; wherever he was sleeping.

"Draco, you have a visitor," he heard Jane knock on his door.

It was not often he got visitors when he was at home – not often one who he had not arranged to meet any way. He did not know why but the Malfoy Manor was not the sort of place that people just popped over too.

"Come in," He said and turning to the door he saw that it was his Aunt Andromeda who had come.

"Hey honey," she said as she came in the door.

Andromeda and he had always gotten along; for the most part, anyway. Draco understood that she had had many reservations when his mother had fallen in love with his father and he understood why. His father was a complicated sort of man that you really had to know to understand, not that even he did that all of the time. Yet, he had always understood that she had tried to be there for him and not allow her opinion of his father to infringe on the relationship the two of them built.

"Hey Aunt Andy," he said as he wondered what was up, not that he was not glad to see her.

It was just that he was so used to the fact that when the two of them met up, it was him going over to hers than the other way round (another effect of the fact that she had never gotten along with his father). He knew it had been a lot easier that way for them both to deal with the fact that she had had to be a part of his life.

"I know – you're probably getting ready to go back to school but I just wanted to come over and see you one last time before you go off for the year."

It was not as if the two of them had got a lot of time together that summer he knew. Now he was growing up and he could go to his friends, he just tended not to go to the Tonks so much. Though that did not mean he did not love them any less than he had when he was young.

He was simply growing up.

He pondered the question of why she had come to him and the only thing answer he could come up with was that just like Jane, she was scared.

And it was not that he wasn't worried over the upcoming war but like every other member of his generation, he had no idea what to expect from it. His studies in History of Magic told him that there had been a time when war was seen as a glorious thing which made men of boys.

That was not the idea he was getting from those people around him. The ones he knew who loved him the most.

If his aunt had lost a lot in the war, then he did not know about it. The only loss he knew she had sustained was that of his mother and she lost her through child birth, not the war. But when she had got up in the mornings she had read of the deaths in the paper and she had seen the missing persons list.

And she was a wife and a mother and an aunt...

And she had a lot more to lose this time about.

Somehow, it seemed to him that they all did. There was a silent understanding that if Voldemort did return then he was going to have to be destroyed for good or else...

"That's cool – I mean, I am about to pack up my truck but you can stay and help with it if you like."

He did not mind packing up to go to Hogwarts. It was on his way back that he could not be bothered.

An old hand at packing a truck for Hogwarts, having gone there herself and having now seen her daughter through seven years at the school, Andromeda nodded.

"Sounds good, kiddo."

Draco sent to the kitchen to have two hot drinks sent up before he gave his aunt the book lists he had been given for that year; somehow, he always seemed to forget one of his core books and so he was determined not to do that that year.

By the end of the hour it took to get everything ready for the off, he could not be more glad that his aunt came over. Though he was not as close to her as he was Jane, Andromeda had shared actual blood within his mother.

It... felt as if part of her lived in Andromeda, just as part of Cissy lived on in him – and indeed his father.

If she had lived, then he had no doubt in his mind that she would have been the sort of mother who sat down and packed up his trunk with him.

"What are you thinking about little one?" she asked as she saw him go pensive.

"Our family; the Blacks."

She looked at the ground.

Though she had always made sure she was part of his life, she had never introduced to him any of their history to him as his father had done with the Malfoy's. His sire had made sure he knew where he had come from, at least from his paternal family.

Yet it seemed to him now, especially since he had met Sirius, that he had only ever been given half of the story.

"The Blacks are no more. You now that as well as I do, child."

So that was how she saw their family. Gone from the world.

Only they weren't were they.

"Sirius is out there though. He has our name and he has our blood."

She looked at him as if he had stabbed her and he knew from that single glance the two of them had been close when they had been kids. He just knew it. It seemed to him very few things hurt her now, yet the thought of his betrayal did. She had had to grow a thick skin with all she had been through since she had been as a young woman. It was the only way she could survive it.

He had a great admiration for her but she had to face up to the fact that whatever they were, the Blacks were not yet finished as a family yet.

"I do not want to talk about him. Please Draco..."

When she had asked with such feeling in her voice, he knew there was little he could do but give it up. He did not want to upset her – any more than he already had...

"Now are you sure that you have everything?" said Jane as she lead him back out of the manor holding on to his shoulders as she did so, cuddling him.

He was well aware that though he was ambiguous about this time of the year, she was not.

Even from when he had been a very small boy and he left for school for the first time, she had hated him going. Of course, that time, he had not had the comfort of knowing she was going to be there waiting for him when he got back, which she was not, though she had visited. She had still been a governess then and she had had to go off to make a living or so she had thought. He knew she had looked after a pair of twins for a couple of years, but they all would have been much happier if she had just stayed where she was meant to be; the Malfoy Manor.

"Yeah, but if I have not then you can send it up to me, can't you?" he said with his cheekiest grin.

"Of course, I can, but it would be a lot easier if you took everything now!"

Draco turned to look at her and even though he knew it was only his own imagination playing tricks on him, he did not think she looked as well as she had when he had come home.

"I'm fine," she read his face. "Be good and be safe; and if you can't be either of those, then be lucky," she said as the two of them embraced. "I love you, darling."

"I love you too."

He nodded, hoping he was going to be the first two and was not going to have to be the third. He climbed into the carriage with his father and at that moment, he knew the dread of leaving home over powered his willingness to go back to school and the desire to see his friends...

"I miss her a lot when I am gone you know."

"Of course, you do. I know that you see Cissy at times when you need her the most, but even I can admit to myself now that Jane is the only mother you have ever really known."

He nodded. Every word his father said had been the truth. "I do miss her – the same way I miss you when I am gone. You're going to be careful, aren't you dad?"

He had to be there at the end of the year to pick him up.

Draco remembered before he had left for school for the first time, how it had hurt. And he had had to ask his dad what was going to happen to him if the day came when he was not there.

Practically, he knew the answer now. He would become the ward of Severus and Jane.

But he did not wish to be.

"Of course, I am going to be careful. As I have told you before I am well aware that I have to be here with you at least until you come of age. I am not going to allow anyone else to do my job; even if they are likely to do it better than I can."

"I am not going to scratch your ego today dad," Draco told him but as he did so he leaned his head on his shoulder and sighed, comfortable there until they got the city at least.

They got to Kings Cross in uncommonly good time and side by side they went through the barrier for platforms nine and three quarters.

Lucius aided Draco in putting his truck on the train as he had done every year and yet there was a formality to it as there had to be now if the world was going to believe they were not totally at ease in one another's company. After all, he was the son who had betrayed Slytherin twice over; first, he had not even been worthy to make it into his father's house. And then he had gone and made friends with a group of Gryffindor's...

It was all a very unpleasant business.

"I will see you on your return from school," Lucius said to Draco and it was with an aching gut he realised that he was not going to be home for Christmas. Not with everything going on at the school.

It was going to be at least April until they were home together.

Blast Draco growing up...

It was with a playful, comforting wink just for him that Lucius sent off his son for the new school year. They both knew things were going to be different when he returned.

But change was something they were both slowly getting used to.

Draco turned form his father, got on the train and made his way down the train to find the Gryffindor's. No longer did he wonder who he was going to ride up to the school with as he done in his previous years.

He passed a few of his Ravenclaw friends as he did so, including Mandy Brocklehurst, the girl who he was only too aware had previously had a crush on him. However, the fact she was then hand in hand with Terry Boot suggested that time had passed.

He was bound to catch up with his house mates later that evening, he thought after they had exchanged polite pleasantries.

"Hey all," he said as she finally got to the carriage where Harry, Ron and Hermione sat with Neville Longbottom and Ginny.

Taking the seat by the corridor next to Hermione he was greeted by them all.

"So how do you think that fourth year is going to differ from the others?" asked Hermione.

"Perhaps one of us will actually die this time," Ron shrugged.

"Well, I just hoping we are going to have nice quiet year," said Harry. He wished he was not going back at all but off to find Sirius. He had a lot on his mind he wanted to talk to him about. The Dark Mark, the break in at Moody's, the Quidditch World Cup still, his hurting scar.

It was at times like these when having a legally free godfather would come in handy.

But as ever his friends did not give him a lot of time to dwell for which he was grateful for. The lads and Ginny got the cards out and begun playing a hand together while Hermione looked through their new school list.

No doubt that was what Draco knew he should be doing as well – after all, he was going to have a pretty hectic school time table when they got there. He had picked up three extra subjects the year before when they had had the chance to take some new classes, which he had admitted at the time that he had been excited about. He later wished he had not when Ron and Harry gave him a ribbing.

Along with the two of them and Hermione he had picked up Astronomy as well as Care of Magical Creatures. However, he had decided he was not going to waste his time with Divination. He had never had a lot of faith in the subject and he knew his time was better used to study Ancient Runes – that class was mainly dominated by Ravenclaw's like himself.

By the time that Draco got to the school hall that evening, he was drenched. A storm had come over Scotland it seemed; he could only hope it was not an omen for who the rest of the year was going to go.

"Hello Draco," he heard a slightly dreamy voice say to his left as he sat down at the Ravenclaw table.

He had never been great friends with Luna 'Loony' Lovegood but it had never stopped her prattling on in his ear from time to time. In fact, in her first year he had times been rather cruel to her.

And he supposed that was because there was something ... unusual about the girl. She did not observe social etiquette and she seemed a fairly good judge of character. If only she could get some tact then she might be easier to talk to, he mused.

However, he had the patience to deal with her that night it seemed.

"Hey Luna. It is nice to see you. Did you have a nice summer?"

"Oh, yes – I helped daddy with his magazine a lot though. We had a lot to report on with the emergence of the Moon Frogs."

For all the fact that she was an odd ball, there was something he found that day a little endearing about Luna. When there was so much else to worry about, she and her father were thinking about Moon Frogs. She was... she had a sweetness to her.

"I am afraid I missed that issue," In truth, Draco would only turn to the Quibbler as a last resort, or a laugh. But there was no need to be unkind to her. He had no reason but to be anything other than kind to her.

"Well, I can get daddy to send up an issue still!" Draco felt as if he had walked into that one. He had deserved it.

"I'd like that." He was going to have to read to now.

The food was, as ever, delicious. He always enjoyed the welcoming feast, the sorting and the atmosphere. There was a sense of renewal. Of course, by the next week they were all going to be moaning over their work load, but that had not come yet.

By the end of the night, Draco found out with the other students what his father had been on about.

"I cannot believe there is going to be a Tri-wizard Tournament," said Michael as they got back to the common room. It had come as an almighty shock.

Whatever else it did, thought Draco, it meant there was not going to be a quiet year for all of them now. If anything this was going to be the busiest year he had yet had at Hogwarts.

He guessed a lot like all the other students, he lay awake that night wondering what it was going to involve. He knew there was going to be the three tasks obviously, but what else?

It was to be a school year like no other. That was the only surety.

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