Title: Consequences
The Houses Competition
Round: 2
House: Ravenclaw
Class: Additional Submission
Category: Standard
Prompts: [Multiple Dialogue] "How come you've never seen this before?" / "Maybe because we're not supposed to be here?"; [location] Malfoy Manor
QLFC
Team: Caerphilly Catapults
Position: Chaser 1
Round: QL Daily Prophet A Very Senior Year Competition
Prompt: Draco Malfoy
Additional Prompts used: [dialogue] "You and I are the two stupidest people I know."
Alphabetti Spaghetti: spell out your favourite character's first name – C
Prompt: centaur
Flower Power: list 1, Orchid
Prompt: [genre] friendship
Honeydukes hoarder: chewing gum, number 2
Prompt: Blaise Zabini
Just Friends: star beads, number 24
Prompt: [plot point] sneaking in
Murder Mystery: location, basement; murderer, Lily Evans; weapon, Chair leg
Prompt: [dialogue] "Don't go down there!"; [trait] confident; [weather] stormy
Writing club: here for the year, number 9; colour theory, number 6; Godric says, number 3; Hogwarts library, number 14; Room of Requirement, number 7; literary legends, number 9
Prompt: feature a duck in your fic; write about an heir; [dialogue] "Why is the word porcupine so funny to you guys?"; [plot point] uncovering an old family secret; [emotion] amusement; [object] family portrait
Gather Your Party: cleric, number 16
Prompt: [weather] lightning
Word count: 2755
Betas: Dora, Rose
Warnings/Trigger warnings: Hints at child abuse
A/N Draco is delighted to have friends over to play until they discover an old family secret.
It was a hot, humid summer afternoon and seven-year-old Draco was playing tag on the grounds of Malfoy Manor with his friends Vincent, Gregory, and Blaise. They were having such fun. Draco had never had so much fun in his life before. Normally, he only ever saw his friends when his parents had one of their boring adult dinners, during which the children were expected to sit quietly at the table while the grown-ups talked about politics, how Muggles and Muggle-borns were a scourge to society and other boring things. After dinner, they would retreat to the Drawing Room and the children were expected to play quietly in the library. His mother had finally convinced his father that it would be good for Draco to socialise more with people his own age, suitable people of course. Father had agreed so long as Draco was making friends with the right sort. In other words, other purebloods.
Mother was sitting in front of the summer house watching the children running about on the grass, laughing and giggling. Father had retreated inside to his study. Father couldn't stand all the shouting and laughing of so many children. Out of breath, they flopped onto the grass, panting and laughing. Vincent sat up suddenly.
"Horse-man! I've lost horse-man," he wailed.
"You probably just dropped him when we were playing," Draco told Vincent.
"We'll help you look for him," Blaise offered, jumping to his feet.
The four of them spread out across the lawns in search of Vincent's toy centaur.
"I've found him," Draco called out and Vincent came barrelling towards him. Draco didn't know he could move so fast.
"Horse-man!" he exclaimed, taking the toy centaur that Draco was holding out to him. "I was so worried. I thought I'd lost you."
"What's that down there, Draco?" Gregory asked, pointing down the slope of the lawn leading away from the Manor.
"That's the duck pond!" Draco smiled happily. "I like to go down there sometimes to feed the ducks. They always come swimming towards me whenever I go to visit them."
"Can we feed the ducks?" Blaise asked.
"We'll have to ask Mother," Draco said. "I'm not allowed to go down there by myself."
"You're not by yourself now," Vincent said, walking towards the pond. "You've got us."
"Don't go down there!" Draco exclaimed. "Mother says children shouldn't go there without an adult!"
Draco sprinted over to the summer house where his mother was.
"Mother! Can we go down to the duck pond to feed the ducks?" Draco said, excitedly. "My friends really want to see my ducks!"
Mother smiled at Draco and followed as he sprinted back towards his friends.
"She says we can go see them."
"Race you," Blaise cried.
"Last one there's a rotten newt's tail!" Draco called after him and the four boys raced each other towards the pond.
As soon as Draco reached the edge of the pond, the ducks started swimming towards him with lots of loud quacking. They were very happy to see Draco and get some treats. Mother summoned some bread from the kitchens of the Manor and passed some to each boy so they could break it up for the ducks.
"Like this." Draco showed his friends what to do and threw some in for the ducks. There was a lot of splashing and commotion as the ducks swam here and there for the bread.
"Are you having a good time with your friends, Draco?" his mother asked him.
"Oh yes, Mother!" Draco exclaimed. "Can they come over another time, too?"
"I'm sure I can talk your father into that if you are all good."
"We will be!"
"I think perhaps it's time to go inside though," Mother said with a glance up at the sky. "I don't like the looks of those clouds. I think it might rain. Come along boys," she called. "Time to go inside and you can play in Draco's room."
Shouting and laughing, the boys followed Draco's mother back towards the house. They had only got halfway there when the first fat raindrops began to fall with a rumble of thunder.
"We might be in for a thunderstorm," she said, to no one in particular. "Quickly boys!"
The rain was getting heavier now and a flash of lightning and loud crack of thunder gave Vincent such a fright that he dropped his toy centaur again.
"You've dropped horse-man," Gregory said, picking up the toy and handing it back to Vincent.
"I don't like thunderstorms," Vincent said.
"I don't like them either," Gregory told him. "But my mother says they are nothing to be afraid of."
"I'm still afraid of them."
"Me too. You and I are the two stupidest people I know," Gregory said. "Since we're afraid of something no one else is."
They were back at the house now and Draco was excited to be able to play in his room with his friends.
"Come on! Wait until you see my room!" Draco exclaimed, running towards the stairs.
"No running in the house, Draco, you should know better," came the stern voice of his father, who had emerged from his study to see what all the commotion was about.
"Sorry, Father," Draco whispered. "May I take my friends up to my room to play?"
"If you do so quietly," Father said. "And stay in your room."
"Yes, Father." Draco beckoned to his friends and tiptoed up the stairs. He didn't want to make his father angry. He might not be allowed to have his friends over again if Father got angry with him.
"Wow, Draco!" Blaise exclaimed as they entered Draco's enormous bedroom.
"This is so cool," Gregory said. "I wish I lived in a big Manor house like this."
"It must be so fun and exciting to live here!" Vincent said.
"Not really," Draco said, shaking his head. "It's boring and very lonely."
"You got so many stuffed toys," Vincent said, not hearing Draco's reply and rushing over to the big pile of stuffed toys in the corner of Draco's room.
"You've even got a porc…porcupine!"
The other boys burst out laughing at the stuffed toy Vincent was holding up.
"Why is the word porcupine so funny to you guys?"
"That's a hedgehog," Draco told him.
"How do you know?"
"Because there aren't porcupines in this country," Draco said. "Grandma Walburga gave me that. She said that filthy Muggle children shouldn't have something I didn't have."
"I've heard there are secret passages and rooms in the Black house," Blaise stated.
"No, there aren't," Draco replied. "It's just a normal house like this one."
"There's nothing normal about living in a Manor house, Draco. I bet this place has secret passageways!" Blaise stated with his usual confidence. "My mother says they would go back to the days when we all mixed with Muggle High Society."
"Are there secret passageways?" Gregory asked.
"There are passageways that lead from the family areas to where we would entertain guests," Draco nodded.
"Can you show us them?" Blaise asked.
"I don't know," Draco replied, hesitantly. "Father said I could have people over if we played out in the gardens or in my room."
"But it's pouring down outside," Blaise said. "So, we can't play out there."
"And it's a thunderstorm," Vincent said with a quiver in his voice. From outside there was another flash of lightning and they heard another low rumble of thunder.
"And apart from being bigger. It's just like our rooms," Gregory said.
"Secret passageways are much more fun," Blaise said.
"Please, Draco?" his friends begged.
"Well, okay, but we have to be super quiet so Father doesn't hear us and get angry."
"We'll be really quiet," they all said.
Draco led the way out of his room and along the corridor. Outside his mother and father's bedroom, he pushed on a wooden panel and a hidden door opened. The boys tiptoed into the passageway and Draco closed the door behind them. The wood-panelled corridor was dimly lit by a few candles in some old wrought iron brackets. Draco tiptoed along the passageway to the other end. He pressed his finger to his lips to tell them all to keep quiet before pressing his ear to the door, listening for any sounds of his parents on the other side. He heard nothing so he carefully opened the door and led his friends out into the gallery above the entrance hall. The gallery was filled with hundreds of portraits of long-dead members of the Malfoy family, dating back hundreds and hundreds of years.
"That's so cool," Blaise whispered.
"Why are the people in the portraits dressed in such funny clothes?" Gregory asked, pointing to a portrait of Lucius the First who was wearing Tudor clothing.
"Why, you insolent little whippersnapper," Lucius' portrait bristled. "Funny clothing indeed! I'll have you know this is the finest clothing that money could buy!"
"Grandpa Lucius lived hundreds of years ago," Draco told them. "He was often in the company of King Henry the Eighth. That's why his clothes look so different."
"Are you boys supposed to be sneaking along the hidden passageways?" Lucius' portrait asked them suspiciously.
"You won't say anything, will you, Grandpa Lucius?" Draco asked the portrait sweetly. Lucius had a fondness for little Draco and just smiled.
"Shame there's no hidden rooms and only hidden passageways," Blaise said with a little sigh. "I thought Manor houses would be cooler and have hidden secrets."
"Shows what you know, you little whippersnapper," Lucius sneered at Blaise. "There's lots of hidden rooms in this Manor. I know because I ordered them built myself."
"Where?" Draco asked excitedly.
"The biggest one is beneath the drawing room. The hidden door is beside the fireplace. But don't you go down there!"
"We won't."
"Good. Now you run along and play with your little friends."
The boys left Grandpa Lucius and slipped back into the secret passageway.
"Did you know about the secret rooms?" Blaise asked Draco.
"No."
"How come you've never seen them before?"
"Maybe because I'm not supposed to go there? Come on, let's get back to my room."
"What? We've just learned there's a hidden room. We've got to go sneak into it."
"Grandpa said we've not to go down there."
"Then why else would he tell us about it? What else are we going to do when it's pouring outside?"
"I don't know."
"It will be an adventure mystery, like those Famous Five books we read in your library. Uncovering an old family secret in the mysterious hidden rooms."
"Well, I suppose we could just take a little look," Draco relented. He really wasn't sure it was a good idea but he didn't want his friends to think he was boring either. Otherwise, they might not want to come back and play if they were allowed. And it was so dreadfully lonely and boring in the Manor sometimes with only their house-elf Dobby to play with. "But we have to be quiet."
As quietly as they could, the boys snuck downstairs. They tiptoed past Lucius' study towards the Drawing Room. Draco hoped his mother would be sitting in the Parlour. She preferred it there to the Drawing Room. Cautiously, Draco opened the door and peeked into the Drawing Room. It was empty.
Draco moved across to the fireplace, closely followed by Blaise. Vincent and Gregory were a little more hesitant. Draco examined beside the fireplace carefully to try and figure out where the hidden door would be. In the corner of one of the panels was a tiny carved Malfoy coat of arms. This had to be the panel. Draco reached out a hand and stopped, looking about the room. The room was quiet. The portraits that lined the room were all either asleep or visiting other portraits. Quickly, before he could lose his nerve, Draco stretched out his hand and gave the panel a firm push, revealing a stone passageway with steps leading down beneath the floor of the drawing room.
The boys all crept carefully down the stairs. Torches, mounted in brackets on the wall, sprung to life as they drew near. It was very cold down here, and damp. The cold seemed to be oozing out of the walls and they all shivered. It was also incredibly creepy. Their footsteps echoed along the stone passageway, making it sound as though they were being followed. They reached the bottom of the stairs and they heard the secret door, clicking shut. Draco didn't like it. It made him feel trapped. What if they couldn't get out? What would his father say if he found out Draco and his friends had been sneaking around in the hidden rooms of the Manor? Rooms that he had never told Draco about before now.
"I think we should go back," Draco whispered, his voice echoing through the passageway. Behind him, Vincent gave a stifled little sob.
"I wish I'd brought horse-man with me," he sniffed. Vincent had left his centaur toy in Draco's room.
"I want to go back," Gregory said.
"Don't be such a scaredy kneazle," Blaise said confidently, striding forward and opening the nearest door. "Let's look in here."
Slowly, Draco followed Blaise into the room beyond the door. Vincent and Gregory refused to enter. Draco didn't blame them. It looked like it had once been a holding cell. There was a damp, musty smell to the place. There was water oozing out of the walls and there were chains and shackles hanging from the walls. Draco half-expected to find a skeleton down here and wondered how many people had once been imprisoned in this awful room by his ancestors.
"How come you've never seen this before?" Blaise asked and there was a definite quiver in his usually confident voice.
"Maybe because we're not supposed to be here?" Draco replied.
"I don't like it down here," Blaise said. "It's too creepy and too cold."
"Me neither," Draco said. "Turn around and let's go back up to my room."
They turned around and went back into the passageway to find Vincent and Gregory peering in another door. Draco looked in and saw a room filled with lots of Dark artefacts, the type he had seen in Borgin and Burkes when his father had taken him there.
"We're really not supposed to be here," Draco told his friends.
"No, you are not!" Father's stern voice echoed in the passageway behind the boys making them all jump. "I told you to play in your room, Draco. Not go sneaking about the house, poking your nose in where it doesn't belong."
"I'm sorry, Father," Draco squeaked, cowering under the furious glare of his father.
They followed Draco's father back up to the Drawing Room. Draco didn't dare look at his father. He didn't want to see the anger and disappointment in his eyes.
"Get upstairs to your room this instant!" Father barked. "I'm taking your friends home. And stay there until I get back!"
Tears stinging his eyes, Draco hurried out of the room and up to his bedroom.
He sat on his bed, clutching Vincent's toy centaur, waiting on his father's return for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually, his father returned from taking his friends home and he could hear his father arguing with his mother as they came up the stairs.
"No, Lucius, I won't allow it. He's just a child!" Mother said, angrily.
"He's got to learn, Narcissa. He's got to learn to obey and you mollycoddling him won't help him learn. I had to Obliviate their memories of what they saw down there."
"I forbid it, Lucius!"
"You forbid it?" Father shouted. "I'm the head of this family and I decide how to punish my son for his disobedience. He will learn respect; he will learn to obey and I will not have him bringing shame upon our family name!"
"He's just a child…" Mother started.
"He's old enough to have chosen to disobey me. Now he will learn the consequences of his actions!"
Draco sprang to his feet as his bedroom door opened. He shot a quick glance at his father before casting his eyes back to the floor. He'd never seen his father look so angry.
"Come here, Draco!" Father commanded.
Slowly, dragging his feet, Draco crossed his bedroom towards his father, still looking at the floor. As he drew closer, he could see the belt in his father's hand, he dropped the toy centaur and began to sob.