Draco almost tripped and fell down the stairs as he headed to the other side of the Manor. Voldemort had picked the best chamber in the house and claimed it his. It aggravated his mother how the man almost threw out everything that was in the room and had it rearranged for his satisfaction. Travers seemed to be patrolling the room as he paced the corridor back and forth.
"Is the Dark Lord inside?" Draco asked. "Yes." Travers replied curtly.
"Tell him I wish to meet him then." Draco ordered.
"What for?" Travers frowned at Draco.
"That's non of your business, just tell him." Draco repeated impatiently.
Travers glared at Draco and his fingers trembled around his wand. He was so tempted to hex the little prat but he couldn't risk doing it with both his mother and his aunt lurking around the house. He hesitantly knocked the door and waited, hoping the Dark Lord won't answer. But a faint "Come in" came eventually. Travers disappeared into the room for a short while before emerging again then closing the door behind Draco.
Draco took a deep breath to settle the tremor that ran through his body as he walked into the room. Voldemort was sitting on a chair, he didn't seem to be doing anything except petting the huge snake whose head sat quietly on his lap. Draco hated that bloody snake more than anything, he feared it even more than Voldemort himself. And the man treated it like it was his pet! He kept it by his side most the time, but when he didn't, he let it roam around the house freely, terrifying even the strongest men. Even Voldemort's most loyal men never grew to accept the serpent.
"It had been a while since I last saw you, Draco." Voldemort looked at him through dark scarlet eyes. "But you have changed since then, haven't you?" he asked.
"I believe I have." Draco nodded politely, his eyes kept travelling back to the snake.
Voldemort, noticing how Draco's gaze kept travelling back to Nagini let her slither down his leg and curl at his feet. "Are you...intimidated by Nagini, Draco?" he asked, enjoying the fear that laced the boy's gaze.
"Fear is but a sign of respect, my lord." Draco replied.
Voldemort studied the boy in front of him intently before speaking. "You're a spitting image of your father, Draco. But you didn't inherit his wits..or lack thereof. Those, you got from your mother, fortunately." he remarked slowly.
"It's an honor to meet your approval, my lord." Draco bent his head down in acknowledgment.
"It was you who discovered about Rowle and eventually caught him, right?" Voldemort asked.
"Right." Draco nodded faintly.
"Such a shame, don't you think?" Voldemort said after a thoughtful pause. "How a man gets the chance, or rather the honor of joining the ranks of highly talented witches and wizards who would eventually rule the world. Yet he so carelessly declines it to help a filthy Mudblood. Traitors...are something I shall never understand!" he sounded genuinely unable to understand how anybody dared betray him.
Draco stared at the man, exerting an extra effort on masking his expression. Voldemort's words sounded like they were directed to him. Or was he being paranoid about it?
"I never trusted Rowle." Draco said, stirring the conversation back to safer grounds. "Wasn't he the one who killed Gibbon during the battle at the Astronomy tower?" he added.
"Yes...but he claimed it was an accident." Voldemort replied.
"I was there, my lord. And I can assure you it did not look like an accident to me." Draco shook his head.
"Anyway, it does not do to discuss the choices of a dead man." Voldemort dismissed after he paused for a while to consider Draco's words. "Why did you want to see me?" he asked.
"There is something that I feel obliged to discuss with you, my lord." Draco informed tentatively, he took the man's faint nod as a permission to continue.
"That day when we...caught the Mudblood. There seemed to be something with her that caught my aunt's attention. And I couldn't help but notice the panicked look on her face when she thought they had broken into her vault in Gringots." Draco said. "And then...when I was searching for the Mudblood, when I found her and that boy Weasly. I heard them say something about the Lestrange vault, they seem to be looking for something that's hidden there. I wasn't able to know what they were talking about but they were probably heading to Gringots when I found them. And, my lord. I can't help but relate those two incidents to each other. It all seems intriguing, don't you think?" he added. Voldemort's eyes gleamed as he seemed to pay more attention to Draco's words.
"I was right." Voldemort announced after a long pause "You are smarter than your father." he added.
"But are you a coward like him, Draco?" He asked.
"I don't think so." Draco replied carefully.
"Good." Voldemort muttered as he stood up and started pacing the floor carefully. "You see, there is something that belongs to me...a cup. But a rather valuable one. And it does indeed exist in the Lestrange vault. But it can't remain there for long." he explained.
"That mission your aunt had sent you on. Put it on hold. I want you, accompanied by her, to head to Gringots. First thing in the morning. Retrieve that cup and bring it back to the Manor." Voldemort dictated. "That would be all." he turned his back to Draco, bringing their meeting to an end.
"And, Draco." he called after Draco's departing frame. "When I say, guard this cup with your life. I do mean your life will be nothing but a cheap price to pay if anything happens to that cup." he warned.
Draco mumbled a barely audible "Yes." before leaving and closing the door behind him.
For the first time ever since he stepped into that room, Draco was able to breath properly. He walked in there unsure whether or not he was going to leave that room alive. But things went much better than he had expected. He had only wanted to make sure the thing Hermione had been talking about did exist in the Lestrange Vault. But he hadn't expected the mission that had been assigned to him and he couldn't tell whether it would complicate the matter or make it easier. And first thing in the morning! That gave him very little time to fly Hermione back to the Order and then go back to the manor to get some rest. The sun was already going down.
Hermione jumped in surprise as the door opened suddenly and Malfoy walked in. She had contemplated going out to find him but the last time she went out was disastrous. And that thing he said before leaving about getting killed was worrying her sick. When he finally walked in the room in one piece, she sighed in relief.
"Care to explain what's happening?" she demanded, glaring at him.
"That thing you're looking for, does it happen to be a cup?" Draco asked.
How did he know! Hermione looked at him in disbelief.
"It..could be, but how did you know?" Hermione did her best to sound believable.
Draco's paused for a minute, he looked at her in confusion then his expression changed as if he had just realized something.
"One would think you'd get better at lying by time." he grimaced at her. "You knew it was a cup all along. But you couldn't trust me enough to tell me." he added.
"Look..I didn't..." Hermione started to explain.
"Don't." he raised his hand in a motion to stop her, closing his eyes and looking down for a moment before he looked back at her.
"I had a...discussion with the Dark Lord. He says there's a cup that belongs to him in the Lestrange vault. He wants me to go with my aunt to Gringots and bring the cup here. He doesn't think it's safe to keep it in Gringots anymore. He also made it very clear that if anything happens to the cup then I'm dead." he explained briefly.
"I'm supposed to do this first thing in the morning. So I have to fly you back to that house as soon as possible. Get ready." he ordered.
"If the information was only mine, I would've shared it with you but I couldn't." Hermione admitted, ignoring what he was saying.
Later on she would freak out about the fact that he risked talking to Voldemort about what she had told him, but first things first. At this point she knew that no matter what past they had shared, she did trust Malfoy now. So far he hadn't done anything to lose her trust and everything to earn it. But she couldn't help but be careful about how much information she could share with him. Her number one loyalty was to the order and she had to act accordingly.
"And how could you talk to him about something like that? What did you say to him, Malfoy? What did he tell you?" Hermione demanded, firing one question after the other.
He didn't reply, instead he stood up and walked away from her, getting his broomstick out of its cupboard once more. He opened on of the drawers in his bedside table and started fiddling with something it. Hermione stood behind him, frustrated at the way he was ignoring her. She pulled his arm forcefully and he turned around, looking at her coldly.
"Draco, I do trust you." she insisted.
"That sounds nice, too bad I don't believe you." he replied dryly, snatching his arm away from her and picking up his broomstick.
"Let's go." he ordered sternly, looking back at her over his shoulder as he mounted his broomstick.
"Do I need to put on the cloak?" she asked.
"No." he shook his head briefly. She mounted the broomstick and this time he was the one to flinch when she touched his shoulder. Alarmed at the muffled groan that came from him when she touched his shoulder, Hermione's hand flew away from his shoulder. Reluctantly, she leaned closer and her hand clutched his waist instead.