Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Authors note/warning: There's cursing. We're back to Draco! On another note, so I post a chapter, every time I write a new one, and I'm about 10 chapters ahead. And I just wrote the first Harry Draco scene! So. Get excited? Granted, it's the first one in the book so they don't bang, or even really like each other, but it's better than nothing? Comment's and edits appreciated!
The next day, Draco tried to skip breakfast. But Blaise just shook his head, and murmured, "They need you."
Draco sighed. He knew that. He knew that now, all they had was each other. Well. They also had siblings and fathers and parents, who had all stood around and let the manor burn. He tried to calm himself, wishing he could take more calming draught, and got up.
He had fallen asleep in his clothes, and didn't bother changing, just vaguely smoothed back his hair, and not even bothering to grab his school robes. At the bottom of the stairs they met the silent group of the rest of them, the rest of who knew what had happened, who'd felt it, personally somehow.
Draco took Pansy's hand in his, and Daphne's in the other. Neither girl was crying, or showed signs of any emotion. Stonily taking things was expected of them, god forbid the miniature death eaters have a stray emotion. He noticed that both girls were immaculately dressed, but Liam and Tiny Baddock both looked like they were dealing just like Draco, neither looked as if they'd ever met a comb.
Actually eating breakfast went differently for every single person. Well. Most managed something, but for once Pansy didn't eat a bite, and let Draco get away with the same thing. Astoria managed juice, and just laid her head on her sisters shoulder after that, eyes closed, weary. Tiny Baddock tried to take a big bite of some toast, and got up, running from the hall, possibly to void his stomach.
Draco tried to seize all 4 coffee pots, but Blaise only allowed him two, ignoring Draco's pathetic bleat that coffee was his life. Draco felt oddly numb, void of emotion. Instead of angry, and overwhelmed, he felt calm, and like his anger was more aggressive then ever, but on a different level, hidden within.
He felt like instead of a pawn hung in suspension, like he was watching a game, and the dice had fallen where they might. He looked blankly at the piece of parchment that was dropped on his empty plate, summoning him to the head masters office, this evening. The same parchment was on anyone's who parents had died's plates.
"They're going to ask you to switch sides…" Millie said quietly.
Draco got up, squaring his shoulders. "I'm going back to the common room. Classes can go to hell," he said in a calm, clear voice.
He meant to just walk as fast as he could, but half way to the dungeons, he found a roughed up Tiny, crying.
Draco dropped to his knees, kneeling next to the boy, curled up, hugging his knees to himself. Draco reached out, but his hand faltered, and instead, he ended up just sort of poking the little Baddock.
"The-they said that we d-d-d-d-deserve what-t w-w-we got," Tiny managed.
Instead of flying into a rage as he might have once, Draco just felt sick. He sighed, and got up, pulling Tiny to his feet, and steering him to the dungeons. He didn't need to ask who they was. Who ever it was, Draco wasn't surprised. How very one minded of them. What the hell was wrong with just about everyone. He parked the smallest Baddock on one of the common room couches, and then he sat on a different on, just watching the fire.
Before long, Pansy, Daphne, and Morag appeared, Blaise and Vince trailing after them. Liam showed up a few minutes later, joining everyone sitting quietly, watching the fire, and eventually Theo, Adrian and skittish looking Antony Vaisey, who took a seat next to Tiny Baddock, so quickly he nearly fell into Baddocks lap.
They sat in silence for some time, before Draco realized he knew what he was going to do next. He looked up slowly, his eyes resting on Blaise's.
"I'm leaving." He said quietly, as Blaise met his gaze levelly, clearly not that surprised. His announcement was met with silence.
"What about school?" Morag asked softly.
"I wish I could believe that the school would be left alone. But it won't. And this, this just keeps getting worse. They all hate us here. I can't do it anymore, and if this, this thing becomes a war, I can't see either side letting me live."
"So you're just running away?" Pansy's angry voice almost barbed him out of his numbness, but not quite.
"I never said that. I am going to go get revenge for my mother, and then I am going to do the best I can to just survive and deliver the most damage I can." Draco let Pansy's head fall back on his shoulder, almost as if she was exhausted by her own outburst.
"Why don't we go to Potter and Dumbledore, then?" Asked Vaisey, his voice quiet.
"Never," snapped Baddock the smaller, his red rimmed eyes turning angrily to his friend. "They hate us, they won't trust us, they won't accept or respect us, and I will never be on their side."
"I'm going to be on my own side. That's how its always been for us," Draco said, before anyone could snap back at the little Baddock. "I'm leaving tonight. Come if you want, don't if you don't want, tell on me if you feel like it. Slytherin is the closest family I've got left, but I can't stand around waiting for the Dark Lord to come get Potter and Dumbledore, and they'll probably just lock us up down here in the dungeon and leave us to rot. And I just. I'm going to go get my things."