Chapter 27
"How was your summer?"
Draco had been on his way to class early when he heard the drawl behind him.
There had been a time when he would have turned and answered kindly. But before summer she had said he had had to pick a side.
And he had done. And he was not going to be a turn coat for anyone.
"Why do you care, Pansy?" he asked as he stood in the corridor.
"Because I need my old friend to come to his senses," she said to him.
Old friend. She was right, of course. The two of them were old friends. She had been one of the few other children he had seen on a regular basis when he had been young. They had grown up side by side. But all that felt like a long time ago now.
She had to be just a foot behind him. He soon started walking again.
"You are going to be waiting for that for a long time," he told her as he went on his way.
Well, he supposed he had asked for that when he had come down to the dungeons. This was where the Slytherins were based after all. But he had had to see his uncle.
He could not say how much he missed him.
He was different to his father and Jane. He was not always there and he lived by a different set of rules to them.
But he was still family.
And he was always going to be.
"Almost a full twelve hours later than I thought you were going to come down, but your here," he heard another voice behind him.
This time he turned.
"Well, I was not going to rush down to see you when you barely bothered with me all summer," Draco said teasingly to his uncle as he allowed him to overtake and lead him into the potions classroom.
Of course, at times, it had felt like that. But he knew why he had had to stay away. And he did not think his uncle was going to relish coming to a house where Harry Potter was any way...
"How are you, Uncle?" Draco asked as he took a seat on the front bench and set down his bag.
"Considering... quite well," Severus nodded.
As well as he could be when he was worrying over Lucius and the way he was coping. Somehow it was worse going through it with someone...
Last time he had had to rely on himself. That was something he was good at. It had been nice to not have to worry about someone else screwing up - and as much as Lucius was his brother, he did fear his... loyalties being put to the test.
The surest guarantee of that was Draco.
"And you? How was summer?"
"It was boring," Draco found himself able to admit.
He had not said it when he was there. He had not wanted to hurt Sirius or Jane... or Hermione for that fact.
But how was it not meant to be boring when they could go nowhere?
"Well, I do not think it can be much fun cooped up," Severus sympathised.
He had rather been glad of it. He had not had to given his safety another thought which had been a relief.
"No. I do not suppose I can ask how your summer was?"
"You cannot."
Draco sighed as he got his books out. His uncle had always been ones of life great conversationalists...
But there was one topic he wanted to get something out of his system.
"What do you make of Umbridge?"
"I do not think I need to tell you what I think of her and nor do I think that the language I would need to use to tell you would be approved of by Jane."
Draco nodded. There was nothing else he had to say.
"What about Hagrid? Where is he?" asked Draco.
"That if cannot tell you, at least - all I can say he is on a mission for the professor."
Draco nodded. He hated all these secrets those.
He was beginning to think that there was no normality left. Not anywhere.
"The school he as a very different feeling to the once it once had," Draco told his uncle.
Severus was not sure.
He had lived and worked there for well over half his life but he did not think it had felt like a home since he had been a student there. Since Lily really. So much time had passed but he could not say he felt any different to the way he always had.
It was then the two of them were joined by Miss Granger. Teaching the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws together almost pleased him. There were far worse combinations.
But he then saw something which was a concern to him.
Maybe it was the look on her face, or maybe it was the way he turned to greet her, but there was something about the two of them that through him right back then to something he did not know if he liked being reminded of in such a way.
And he wanted nothing more than to protect Draco from it.
But there was no defence from young love.
All the same, Severus suddenly found he disliked Hermione Granger even more.
X x x
"It was hell to see," said Hermione later that day.
Potions had gone quite well. She had kept her head down and she had got through it without attracting too much attention from Snape. That was something she always hoped for.
Defence of the Dark Arts - well, that had not been the same. That was what the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindor's had said when they had got out of it, or so Draco heard.
He had hoped they were going to be in the same class. If they had to have Umbridge as a teacher then at least they were going to be able to tackle her together.
But as he was he was going to have to take it with the Slytherins.
He heard Jane, his father and Severus in his mind telling him he had to keep his head down and get through it.
To hold his tongue.
But he did not know if that was one of his strong points. He remembered when he had been in first year potions. He had been eleven, and he had been plucky and innocent. He had not changed a lot from that point.
No... it was not one of his strong points at all.
As it was, it did not matter what he did. Harry had to do his detention and they had no way of getting out of it.
He put his hand on her back.
"The way she went on it was as if she was a broken ministry loving record," she said as she looked at him.
The students had been back at Hogwarts for no more than a week and already she wished they were back at home. Grimmauld Place was better than school was.
"Well, as soon as Harry said she was at his trial we knew she was not going to be on our side."
"But I did not think she was going to be as vile as she was," Hermione said.
She did not know why, but she thought it was the pink. That was what made her so - so evil in her eyes. She looked so lit and fluffy and...
"When are you going to have her?"
"I have that pleasure tomorrow afternoon," Draco told her.
He looked across at Harry. He did not think he was going to be calming down any time soon.
"I do not know how we are going to get through this if we do not have a decent Defence teacher, not this year. Draco, the only thing she cares about is the theory! You know better than anyone how much we all need the practical," she said as she shook her head.
What they needed was a plan. And he could already hear the cogs of her mind forming as she tried to come up with one.
X x x
"So all the bedrooms have been put back to the way they were before the great summer invasion of 1995," said Jane as she came down the stairs of Grimmauld Place.
Sirius had been passing in to the kitchen as she did so and he paused to give her a smile. "The house is yours once more."
"I do not think it was ever mine, but thank you," he said as she followed him through. The big table where they had all had breakfast together looked so empty now it was just the two of them.
She went to pour herself a drink immediately. That had been hard work, getting everything back ship shape.
"Where's Molly?"
"She went back to their house for the day. She and Arthur wanted to check it was ok," he said as he sat down.
She could only hope that it was going to go better for Molly than it had done when she had gone back to the manor.
"Is she going to be back in time for the meeting tonight?"
Sirius nodded.
"Well, I had better go and give Max a walk if he is not going to get out tonight," she said as she gave him a smile.
After she had had a nice long walk with Max, Jane returned to her room to get ready for the meeting. Running the brush through her hair, she could not help but wonder what the night was going to bring to her.
A task hopefully. It was not just the kids who had begun to feel restless when August had turned to September.
She had too. And suddenly she felt ready to do something for the order rather than just sit around and baby sit the kids. She was going to be able to do something which was more useful.
Thus she was glad that evening when she was told by Dumbledore she was going to go on the rota to guard 'the weapon', she was thrilled. What it was she had not been told, which was fine by her. After all, if she did not know what it was then there was no chance of her cocking up at any point. She did not think she seriously would but better safe than sorry.
"It is ok," Tonks said to her once the meeting was at the end. "I have done it once or twice and the worse thing about it is the boredom."
Jane smiled as she took a drink of water. After she and Sirius had hit the fire whisky the night before she had decided it was time to take things a bit easier.
"I am just going to be glad to be able to do something useful for a change," she said as she begun clearing away.
"Looking after the kids is useful. That healing course Draco said you did last year is going to come in really handy when - well, when things do get bad," she said with a dark look on her face.
"Yeah, well thank god that time has not come yet so to do this little is enough," Jane shrugged.
There was silence between the two women for a moment.
"Do you know why my uncle was not here tonight?" she asked Jane.
The blonde shook her head. There had been a time when the two of them so close they had always known what was going on. But when she had gone there...
It had been awful. And then there was the kiss business.
"Don't ask me," she said sadly.
X x x
Defence was as bad as Draco had thought it was going to if that was possible. He all but stormed out of the class when it finished. It was if anything made worse by the fact he had to share the class with Slytherin. The way they had sucked up that woman, had appalled him.
"Did you manage to keep your head down?" asked Hermione as Draco slid into the chair next to her in the library.
"Only just," he said in a voice that was quite low.
She put her hand on his shoulder as he sighed and shuddered.
"I have not known a women like that... for a long time," he sighed.
She looked at him with curiosity as that day in the summer flashed into her mind. She did not much care what he said to the contrary. She knew that was the woman he had referred too. The woman who had been his Bogart, it had to be.
"I had hoped she was one of a kind."
"I think there are little men and women who let a bit of power go to their heads all over the world."
He paused and hoped he might go on a little. She felt a sudden annoyance at him being so secretive...
The two of them were friends and they were more than that too. She knew he did not like secrets and as such could not understand why he would keep them from her.
But he was going to continue to do so. She could see that. And as her father had taught her when she had lived at home, there was no point fishing when they were not biting. Especially when you did not have any tastier bait.
"I do not care about the ones who are all over the world, I care about the one who is here and who is obstructing our learning," she explained and he knew from the way she was speaking she had the bit between her teeth. She was not going to be letting go any time soon. "We are going to have to get round that."
"Any suggestions?" he asked in all sincerity.
Hermione shook her head.
"Not yet. But I will do."
Please review!