Author: enchanted nightingale
Beta Reader: pussycatadamah
Timeline: Book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Pairs: Harry/Lucius
Disclaimer: The characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I merely use them in my plot for fun.
Chapter 23 – When Draco gets a Clue
He was used to them, letters from home, small care packages his mother put together herself (while she did not cook the sweets, his mother either bought or had the elves make them and then oversaw everything herself). But ever since the Third Task, the packages had stopped. There were shorter letters, messages along the lines of:
Take care of yourself, pay attention to your studies.
Your father and I care about you.
Love,
Your mother
That was worrying Draco more than he liked to admit. Then again there were more things to worry about. His housemates were all getting cryptic messages from their families. The entire Slytherin house and members from other Houses, people Draco knew had Death Eaters in the family, were all worried. Slowly, the blond wizard started putting together the various clues and he did not like the conclusion. He was moping that morning when he saw that regal bird Potter had been getting letters from all through the year sweeping down in front of the green eyed wizard. Draco stared with great interest, and he was not the only one to do this. The regal bird put on a show whenever it appeared. It was chummy with the Gryffindor's Snowy Owl as well.
"A galleon it's from Bill Weasley," Theodore Nott told everyone who could hear him.
"No Weasley is going to give that much money for an Albino Eagle Owl," Draco commented.
"So, Potter has rich friends, what's so surprising about that?" Pansy asked.
Draco was silent. The odd thing about all this was that that particular owl was familiar to him. He had seen it only once in his life, back when the bird of prey had hatched from its egg. He had had to sneak up to the Owlery they had on the grounds of the Manor. It was his father's owl that one and the blond Slytherin was troubled as to what that meant. Was his father contacting Potter? Was it a coincidence? Was it something more? He had no idea and while he was curious, he was too worried about his mother to try and find out.
"You know," Nott said. "I heard a few of the seventh years the other day talking. They think that…" He looked around and then his voice dropped to a whisper, "He is back."
The Slytherin's tried not to shiver. Draco wanted to scoff but after the events at the World Cup, he was not quick to dismiss the possibility. Suddenly the Great Hall was the last place he wanted to be. He pushed his plate away from him and stood abruptly, shocking his year mates who knew him so well, and striding out of the Great Hall as fast as he could. His mind was in turmoil and he never noticed how he bumped into Potter hard and nearly fell on his back, but the quick reflexes of the green eyed wizard Draco loved to tease caught the blond wizard and steadied him.
"Damn," Draco muttered and swallowed the swearing that nearly escaped him.
"Wow! Watch it Malfoy," Harry warned as he steadied the Slytherin. He released Draco when the blond was standing steadily on his feet again. Draco thought he saw worry for a moment in those green eyes before Potter masked it surprisingly easily and then pulled back.
"Well, you watch it," Draco shot back. He missed the fact that his Slytherin friends had caught up with him and were watching the two school rivals, ready to step in if the tensions ran too high and before any of the professors saw anything that merited a detention.
"Are you okay?" the Gryffindor's next question came as a surprise for the blond. "You look pale."
"Why do you care?" Draco demanded, feeling his explosive temper rising. He had no idea what it was about the Boy-Who-Lived that rubbed him the wrong way this much; whenever he was around Potter he had the urge to curse the green eyed wizard silly. Deep down he recalled the crushing disappointment of having his offer of friendship turned down but the Malfoy Heir quickly squashed it.
"Sorry, just… You look too pale, okay? It is a bit alarming. Sorry for being a decent human being," Potter muttered and walked away.
Draco stared after the Gryffindor, only taking his grey eyes off of him when Nott touched his elbow.
"Draco?" Theodore asked.
"Potter was right," Pansy added. "You're too pale. Maybe a visit to the infirmary…"
But Draco waved them off. Deep down he knew that it was stress that had him looking like this, stress and not enough sleep.
"I'll be fine," he told his friends.
And he would be. After all he would soon be back at home. Then he could make sure that his parents were fine and perhaps also snoop around and find out whether the owl that came to Potter so often was a Malfoy owl after all. A quiet summer was what the blond wizard wanted and hoped to have.
End of chapter.