Disclaimer: I don't even own my own house.
Chapter Disclaimer: not much, perhaps some cursing? It's a short one, thats sort of important though? To me anyhow. Anyways, enjoy!
At the house meeting, Draco glared at Snape, as the man condescendingly ignored him. He used to love the man, but he was unsure about his loyalties, he had see Snape, watching Draco get cursed within inches of his life, and the man hadn't even looked upset. It was probably his fault that they were all branded as Death Eaters.
He scowled, and turned his gaze to his finger nails, openly, and subtly ignoring everything that came out of Snape's mouth. Tides were shifting, and he no longer felt secure enough to throw around his attention and loyalties.
Draco and Blaise sat side by side on Draco's trunk, while Greg and Theo sat on Draco's bed, and Vince sat on his own bed. They were all idly talking about their summers. Though, Theo was tight lipped, since he had gotten into a blow up with his dad, about not wanting to take the Dark Mark. Vince had escaped it by being sent to Germany to work at his uncles apothecary. So really they were talking about nothing, while they all tried to pretend that no one was being pulled to opposite sides of a war that no one wanted to fight.
"What are we going to do?" Draco said it suddenly, interrupting something about some german drinking game, looking at Theo steadily, then to each of his friends. He was starting to panic, as his sense of self preservation and his sullenness about being used by people who didn't even know him began to run rampant.
The looks he got were mostly blank. Right. So probably, he should clarify. "About, you know, everyone's parents. And the whole Dark- Voldemort. Thing. You know."
He go a flinch from Greg, a shocked expression from Vince, speculation from Theo, and nothing from Blaise.
"Wellll," Theo began slowly, "You and Greg and Blaise sort of, had to take the mark this summer, and You-know-who has got me and Vince's parents by the balls, and well he's also got me and Vince by the balls, because you know, the transitive property. And well, he's also got Millicent, and Terry, and Liam, and Morag, and Pansy, and well, almost all of us by the balls. Well not the girls, I suppose he has them by the lady bits. But I was well brought up, so I can't specify." He added the last part hastily, gesticulating wildly.
"I don't want anyone forcing me into anything though," said Draco, although he admittedly felt like a petulant child when he did. Blaise sighed, and opened his mouth, probably to tell Draco that everything wasn't about him, and that wars were not fought nor resolved for the comfort of teenage boys. Draco cut him off quickly, "And I don't think we should all suffer for a cause none of us are committed to. I don't even know the cause. And I don't have the mark, Theo."
He raised his sleeve in proof, slouching against the wall in a most improper fashion. "Draco, going against our parents on this isn't like wearing muggle trousers, or like going to the christmas party high, this is one of those things that they might never forgive. Well, my mother won't, your father wont, Greg's father won't, Pansy's dad would kill her; this isn't just being rebellious teenagers or anything. This is one of those big decisions that might get us all killed, disinherited, or banished."
Blaise spoke slowly, but he sounded more nervous than angry. Blaise's dad had been killed in the last war, and Blaise didn't even remember him. Theo's mum had been killed by the Dark Lord, only two years ago, and Crabbe's aunt and uncle, and their three kids had been killed just 6 months ago, for what the Dark Lord deemed as not enough loyalty.
"The body count is high on our end," Said Vince softly, looking at his hands, twisting his ring.
When it came down to it, that was that.