Chapter 5 – Blackpool

25 March 2010

Dagworth-Granger Manor

Sussex

Draco Malfoy

I escape to the bedroom that was always mine when I stayed here. There's just too much information to think about. I know what Ophelia left me the Potions portion of the business and the greenhouses. Ophelia grew that business after both wars. She purchased everything after the first and second wizarding wars from abandoned businesses to estates. Compared to the Dagworth-Grangers, the Malfoys seem like paupers. She left Her 12 vaults and knowing Auntie Phea, they are all probably stacked from floor to ceiling with labels. She loved her labels.

I can't believe she's gone. I thought I was going to have a panic attack. UGH!!! I can't think of that right now. It's just too fucking much. I need….what I need to know is why last week she was yelling at me for a four percent drop in the quarterly report and this week she just seizes to exist. It's not fucking fair!

I pick up a moving framed photo of us sitting on the beach from the summer of '98. She in a tiara and my too long hair is blowing in my eyes. Merlin! She taught me how to just…she taught me that love is the most powerful magic of all.

27 June, 1998

Dagworth-Granger Manor

Sussex

Draco

"Draco"

Ugh…

"Draco"

Fuck it's too early!!! God why is the bitch trying to wake me up? "What?! What time is it?"

She says, "It's 10 a.m. As you know I went to Gringott's yesterday. We are going on a trip. You have 30 minutes to get ready. I have laid your clothes out today and I expect you to wear what I laid out! I have left you a pepper-up and a hangover potion. Ah…ah…ah…don't try to lie to me, young man, I may be old, but know the exact amount of firewhiskey I had in the library last night. I will see you in the morning room soon, my dear."

FUUUCK! I hate her! I came here because I didn't want to go back to the manor. I didn't want to hear my mom whinging about father's fucking two year sentence at Azkaban. I fucking didn't want to hear her fucking lectures on duty. I just wanted to read and drink and live my fucking fucked up life!

My trial was three weeks ago, on my fucking birthday! At least I didn't have to sit in Azkaban. No, I sat in a court room while fucking Scarhead and that fucking mudblood tried to prove I was innocent. Why would the same fucking girl that bled on my fucking drawing room floor stand up in front of everyone and tell them I deserve a fucking second chance? Why? They gave me a one year probation and if I stay out of trouble all charges are dropped. I'm required to return to Hogwarts to finish my fucking N.E.W.T.S. Is it too much to ask to spend the fucking summer with a sliver of peace?

Well apparently it fucking is…that old cunt tries to talk to me every day, like I want to hear that shit. She just rambles on and on and on. I didn't fucking see her fight a fucking war. I didn't see her go to trial. It's fucking stupid the way she is constantly fucking talking. What does she talk about? Fuck if I fucking know she just keeps fucking talking! Fuck!

Fine! I get out of bed and take a shower. Once I get out I look at the clothes on the bed. It's a black undershirt that has "Metallica" written across the middle and a pair of tiny tan trousers with giant pockets on the legs. The trousers are too short to cover my legs! There are also stupid looking ankle shoes that are black and white made of hard cheap cloth that say "Converse" on them. What the fuck? Are these fucking muggle clothes. I'm not wearing fucking muggle clothes! Disgusting! What the fuck is this old bat thinking? Fuck it! If I don't wear them she'll just force me to fucking put them on anyway. I will let her know of my dissatisfaction!

I march to the morning room and stop dead in my tracks. Ophelia is sitting there glamoured to look much younger than I have ever seen her, fuck she's almost looks my age. She has her honey brown hair bunched up on top of her head very sloppy like I've seen girls at school, and she has a few loose curls framing her face and hanging from the back. She has no tiara! She is wearing an undershirt like me but, but hers is white with underdressed women on the front and says "Spice Girls". What gets my attention are her trousers, they are shorter than mine, way too short, and blue like what the mudbloods and half-bloods wear. She's wearing shoes like mine in a red. I see her legs, almost all of her legs! It's obscene!

"What the fuck!?"

"Well we are taking a trip. Yesterday day when I asked you if you would like to have a friend join us, you told me no and to fuck off. So I took it upon myself to give you a friend and we, meaning you and I are going on a trip. We will apparate once we have breakfast." Her voice is hers, but younger, fresh.

"But…" Fuck! Why didn't I just tell her to owl Theo?

She stands from her seat and she walks up to me and looks up at me, "No you listen to me you little pompous git! I am tired of you ignoring me, I am tired of your inappropriate and offensive language, and I'm tired of you getting so pissed in my library, the elves have to clean the carpets from your vomit! I have tried so hard to get through to you, to help you, to nurture you when I know you are hurting. Don't you dare roll your eyes at me young man! I know magic that will knock you off your arse for a year and I can do it all without a wand and before you know it's happening. Sit. Your. Arse. Down!"

Does she realize she used inappropriate and offensive language? We both sit at the small round table. She's fucking scary like this! I sit down and start serving my plate. She's still giving me a death glare. I'm not talking to her for the rest of the day.

……

…..

Hmph!!! Maybe after I find out where we are going, but not after that. I look up at her and she is sipping her tea, but still staring at me. I ask, "Where are we going then?

She glares at me another half minute, and then softens her eyes. She says, "We are going to town called Blackpool. Here, take this potion. It's a calming draught. I refuse to have you hurt anyone if you panic and have a spot of accidental magic like a toddler. This draught is off the market. You know I am always tweaking potions. This potion is a combination of draught of peace and a calming draught and should last you all day. You will play nice to anyone we come in contact with. You will use your manners and good breeding. Do you understand me? I will imperio you if I have to! Don't think I'm not powerful enough to get what I want!"

Fuck, she's barmy! "What the fuck do you want from me?

She smiles and I look down at my plate. She says, "Oh my dear sweet boy…what I want from you, is for you to have fun. I want you to be young while you are young, and quit acting like the world is resting on your shoulders. You have been given a second chance. It's time you open your eyes and see a world that it isn't full of hate, war, and death." I look up and she's crying, fuck! She continues, "Please, Draco I….I can't lose another godson to cowardice and fear. I don't want you to continue down this road you are on. Let me help you. Allow me…please…please let me show you how powerful love can be."

I see her for what seems to be the first time. She's mesmerizing, and I look into her eyes full of tears and anguish. They are gold, honey and all the shades of brown. In that moment, I know I'll do anything and everything to never see that look in her eyes again.

I said, "Ok. Let's get ready to go."

We finish breakfast silently. We then get up to go, and she grabs the bottom of my shirt that is neatly tucked into my tiny trousers and she untucked it. She casts an ironing spell on it and says, "Don't tuck that shirt in again. The muggles will laugh at you for such a fashion faux pas."

I ask, "Is that why half-bloods and mudbloods dress so terribly?"

She signs, "They are muggle-borns, Draco. You would be surprised by how many children are considered muggle-borns whom have a large amount of pureblood ancestry."

I huff, "How would anyone know?"

She smiles a large toothy smile and says, "I have spent a better part of a century making sure I know a great deal of many things, most people do not." Then she winks at me. "One day I will tell you all I know, today is not that day. Today is for fun! Let's go. I have a wand holster for you to put your wand on your right arm since you are left handed. I'll conceal it for you since you have the random probation checks. You will not need it today, but I know you'll feel safer if you have it."

She hands me a light weight black leather holster. It's quite nice, it fastens to your wand to the underside of you arm so you can quickly access it with your wand hand. I fasten it and secure my wand and she conceals it. It's quite nice. I smile and thank her.

We start walking to the parlor and she stops me and says, "I need to warn you. Where we are apparating to is a small alley close to where we are going. You may hear screams of people. Do not be alarmed, you'll understand once we are there."

We apparate and arrive in an ally. From a close distance you hear hundreds of people yelling. I wonder what horrible place Auntie Phea has brought is to. She looks up at me and smiles. "Draco, relax, it's going to be just fine. They are happy screams like when you go too fast on your broom and do loops. Come on."

We walk for a few minutes and I see tall structures with small trains on them. It's frightening, but thanks to the calming draught she gave me I have little physical reaction, I am only hyper-alert. She grabs my hand and leads me inside the gates.

"This is Blackpool Pleasure Beach! It is what the muggles call an amusement park. It opened in 1896. I came here for the first time with Hector in 1898 when we were courting. My Aunt Josephine was our chaperone. She was a 67 and luckily for Hector and I, a terrible chaperone. Come."

She procured all the requirements we needed to enter and I just observed her. She was extremely comfortable with muggles. She was like a totally different person than from what I have known my whole life. Auntie Phea was a proper society lady. She demanded respectful behavior. She was a proper pureblood. The Auntie Phea I've known for all 18 years of my life was stern and proper. This person who I know is just a glamoured version of her, was carefree, friendly, like she hadn't lived a long life, never known loss, never survived war.

We are standing in line for what she called a rollercoaster. I notice it's one of the train things. She's talking to a few people that are my age. She chose our clothes well, we look exactly like the filthy muggles. I hear her say, "You'll have to excuse my friend, he's sheltered, that one, his parents are loaded. He has never been to a place like this, his poncy arse doesn't know have to have fun like normal people.

What? She is so comfortable. These muggles are talking with her telling stories, joking, and she's interacting with the muggles. All you hear is people yelling in the background. What undignified behavior!

We board the train or rollercoaster. We are trapped in and I start feeling anxious. The thing starts and I grab Phea's hand tightly. I heard bunch of clicking and I just know we are going to die. She's smiling and then we plummet to our death and I feel it in my stomach and then it shifts and turns and knocks us around. I realize I'm yelling, she's yelling, and before I know it, it's all over. For the first time in two years; since I was forced that damn mark on my arm, since I was tasked the most impossible mission, and since I witnessed so much death, I feel myself smiling, a genuine, happy smile.

We spend all afternoon riding rollercoasters and talking with muggles. Phea is at ease and slouching more than I have ever witnessed. We talk about the rides and compare rides. It was like nothing I have ever experienced.

Before sunset we leave the park and grab something she called a pizza and we walk about a quarter mile to the beach. After some convincing on her part, we both sit in the sand away from everyone.

While we are eating the pizza with our hands like barbarians. I ask her, "How are you so relaxed here?"

She smiles, "I was raised in a different time. We weren't isolated from muggles to the extent most purebloods are today. I know this is your first time in the muggle world and I'm so proud of how you handled yourself today, by the way. Women had so many restrictions. If I were really your age, we would've never been allowed to be alone together. I would have had a chaperone who would have insisted we never touch in fear my virtue would be compromised. In my experience, men fear what they don't understand. That fear is universal. Prejudices of any kind are formed out of fear. Fear of the unknown. I have discovered that a great many fears happen because men were too lazy to understand it. Women are such complex beings. It was easier for men to try to control women than to try to understand them. Women have their roles to play and if they didn't play those roles according to the man's rules, those women were labeled and shunned. Women not only have the ability to bring life into the world, they are critical thinkers, compassionate, and much more powerful magically than the average wizard."

We finish eating and watching the sunset and checks her watch, "Come. Let's go have a drink, shall we?"

We walk to a local pub and drink ales that tasted like shite, and she makes me dance with a muggle. I observe her as well. She's talking with people and laughing and again is so relaxed. At 11:30 that night we head back and to the apparition point and when we arrive we head to the library.

She offers me a long needed firewhiskey and we are talking about our day.

Suddenly she gets serious, "Draco, you should not have to occlude so much. The way you were taught was wrong. Legilimens should not be painful. It is only painful if it is forced. A truly powerful legilimens would not be felt, or if they are, their push in your mind is pleasant, warm. You don't need to occlude so much. We are no longer in a war. I'll tell you something of myself that only a couple of people have ever been privy to. I have always been a natural legilimens. Natural legilimens are very rare and don't need a wand or a verbal command to preform it. They were once very common and only a couple of families had the ability. The families were hunted and executed because they had abilities men didn't understand or feared. I'm telling you because I love you. You will be the last Malfoy godson of mine. I want you to know I understand you more than anyone, and I think what you need is new experiences. Let me do that, let me help you continue that smile. It may just be my last good deed before I die."

Fuck I want to be angry with her, but I'm not. I had the best day of my life today because of her. I look at her and she's hopeful. "Thank you Auntie Phea. I love you, too."

Then it strikes midnight and she starts to speak, but as every stroke of the clock rings she ages what seems to be a decade. "Phea?"

She's again herself and she smiles. "There's a muggle story about a young girl who was mistreated and forced into servitude by her family. She had a fairy godmother who came to her and with magic, her fairy godmother gave her clothes fit for a princess and allowed her to go to the ball. She had until the strike of twelve before she changes back into the servant girl. The prince finds her and marries her and they live happily ever after. The true story is, the girl by the name of Ella was not young, she was rather old and dirty. She was so dirty they called her Cinderella. Her dream was to attend a ball. She visited a local witch and the witch gave her a potion to make her young again. The witch transfigured her rags into a ball gown. Then witch warns her, at the strike of midnight the potion will make her youth fade and she will again be an old woman. Cinderella attends the ball and she dances with a duke who was enchanted by the young woman. As midnight approaches, Cinderella flees the ball and the duke chases her and when she completes the transformation back to an old woman, the duke catches her. He is scared of the magic the old woman possessed to make him fall in love with her, so he kills her. The potion was named the Cinderella Potion and it was banned many centuries ago. You'll find that law was brought forward by a Malfoy. Men feared it because it could play with their emotions. It's a fun potion Hector and would toy with our years together before he died. We would go to the muggle world quite a bit. We had quite a love for cinema. Hector always encouraged me to be free when it was just the two of us. We were quite mischievous together. I miss him everyday. Thank you for a lovely day, Draco." She smiled again through unshed tears and left the library.

For a first time in my life, I really thought about the things I feared and how it caused me so much anguish. I thought of how I feared my father, while needing his approval. I questioned the love of my mother because not once in my entire life had I ever felt as loved as I did today.

The rest of the summer Auntie Phea and I explored and visited every amusement park in Great Britian, sometimes using the potion. Sometimes as herself. I even took Theo a couple times. By the end of the summer, I was free of anger, freer than I had ever been.