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June 14th, 1994; what had begun as an Average day for young Draco Malfoy, would be the day that he unknowingly changes the fate of the world, and in-turn, accidentally saves his own.
Draco walks down the halls of the dungeons with the grace and elegance of a ballerina,
‘Malfoys don’t slouch’
his Father’s words ring in his head, flying around like a Snitch. He pulls his books tightly against his chest, his chin held high. He is the only one down the hall, it’s late, most likely only a few minutes until curfew.
His brisk pace is slowed by an inane observation; a small cylindrical object, lying inconspicuously on the ground, the object has a white body and is black on each end, though, each end is shaped differently. Draco crouches down to grab the object, he stands holding it up to his face, there’s a small patch of writing on one side of the object:
“Bic Clic Stic” He whispers, his small voice echoes throughout the halls and Draco cringes.
“Draco?” His attention is drawn away from the object as the unmistakable deep voice of Severus Snape calls from behind him, he yelps, dropping his books and falls to the floor, landing face down.
“My, My, Draco, are you all right?” Snape asks, he steps forward and crouches down to pick up Draco’s dropped books before offering him a hand to stand up.
“I’m fine, thank you” He stands without Snape’s hand, dusting himself off, ignoring the fact his cheeks are red-hot with embarrassment and his nose aches with a pain that could only mean it's been broken.
Draco holds out his palm, mystery object in hand and shoves it into his godfather’s face, “Do you know what this is, Uncle Severus?” Snape squints at the object,
“Draco, this is a pen.” He responds like Draco should know what this thing is.
Draco scowls at him. “A pen? What the bloody hell is a pen?” He asks, retracting his hand to investigate the object once more.
“Watch your language, Draco” Snape scolds, and with one hand grabs his wand from his robe pocket and shoves it in Draco’s face, casting a healing charm on his nose, the cartilage squeaks grossly and returns to its original position, “It’s quite like a quill, except the ink is already inside, no need to dip every time you write.”
“It’s genius, why haven’t I heard of it? And why don’t we use these instead of quills?” Draco asks as he rubs at the sides of his nose.
“Muggle Object.” Snape clearly considers the conversation over, as he turns and begins to walk in the direction of the Slytherin common room, Draco's books still in his arms, “Come on, Draco, you should be in bed”
Draco follows him. “There is no way a Muggle invented something this smart,” He says with a scoff and Snape turns to look at him,
“Muggles invent all sorts of smart things,” Snape’s face is unreadable; but different to his the cold glare he wears more often than not. He turns back around and continues walking, “If you don’t believe me, ask Professor Burbage tomorrow, you will be surprised, I'm sure”
“Hm,” Draco hums as he and Snape walk into the Slytherin Common room.
(*******)
The next day, after his last class, Draco walks out into the courtyard, the supposed ‘pen’ in his pocket. He scans the area looking for Muggleborns, he would ask Professor Burbage, but once she starts talking it’s like she never stops. David Reid catches his eye, He’s in the same year as a Draco, a Ravenclaw and a Muggle-Born. He’s on a bench, alone, reading a book. Draco wastes no time approaching him at a speed that rivals the one of a Phoenix.
“Hey, You, Reid right?” He calls out to him, Reid looks up, and his eyes go wide and his grip tightens around the book he’s holding.
“I have something I need to talk to you about,” he says, sitting beside Reid on the bench.
“Please, I don’t want any trouble,” Reid says, his voice wobbly, Draco scrunches his brows, how offensive for him to assume that Draco wants trouble,
“I don’t want any trouble either,” He scoffs, “I have some questions, questions about Muggles,” Draco says as he fishes the supposed ‘pen’ out of his pocket.
Reid smiles uncomfortably, “Okay, ask me anything,”
“Why is your face doing that?” Draco asks, looking at Reid in repugnance.
“Sorry,” the boy says and he drops the fake smile, his eyes wide in fear.
“Don’t do that again” Draco demands before extending out his hand holding the ‘pen’.
“Do you know what this is?” Draco asks, Reid looks down and examines the object for no more than a second,
“That’s a pen?” He says, very obviously confused by Draco’s ignorance, not everyone knows everything, Reid! By Salazar, what a douche!
“Hm, Uncle Severus was right,” Draco mumbles to himself, “And you are sure a Muggle invented this?” He asks.
“Well, Yes, I’m pretty sure of it”
“Hmm” Draco hums before continuing, “Please do tell me more about Muggle inventions, the smart ones.” Draco pulls out his quill, a bottle of ink and a piece of parchment from his bag.
“Oh, well, I don’t know what you want me to tell you about,” He says, hand coming up to scratch the back of his neck.
“Think, Reid, anything you’ve seen in the Muggle world you’ve never seen in the Wizarding world.”
“Um, Well I've never heard anyone here talk about toasters-” Reid begins before he is disrupted,
“Leave him alone, Malfoy!” Potter’s voice booms through the courtyard, Granger and Weasley walk closely behind him,
“Leave who alone, Potter?” Draco scoffs.
“He’s talking about David, You git” Granger speaks, Draco rolls his eyes,
“I’m not doing anything to him, you presumptuous pillock” Granger crosses her arms.
“Yeah, right Malfoy-” Weasley starts before quickly being cut off by Reid,
“No, really, he’s telling the truth, we’re just having a conversation.” He says, Draco almost smiles at his vindication and all three of their idiot Gryffindor faces twist in confusion,
“No way,” Weasley says.
“Yes, way” Both Malfoy and Reid say at the same time, Draco turns to scowl at him and Reid bites his lip, Granger scoffs,
“Now what exactly were you two talking about?” She says, her voice stern and impatient, Draco goes to answer but Reid is already speaking before he can,
“Well I don’t know why you need to know about our private conversations, but since you seem so keen on knowing, he was asking me about pens.” Reid looks over to Draco and tries and fails to imitate his perfect posture, crossing his arms over his puffed-out chest in an attempt to seem as tall as Draco is, Draco rolls his eyes.
“Pens?” Potter asks and turns to look at Draco, who extends his palm holding the Pen,
“I found it in Dungeon.” Draco declares and Potter grabs the back of his neck sheepishly,
“Right, Sorry, Let’s be going then,” he says, Granger and Weasley argue with him for a few seconds before finally walking away. Draco sneers before turning back to look at Reid,
“What about this Toaster you say?”
(*******)
The next week came and went and Draco doesn’t think he has ever been more interested in anything else in his entire life. He’s spent the last week asking every Muggleborn he could find questions about everything. It seemed every new piece of knowledge was more interesting than the last, every new invention smarter than the one before it. Draco learned of Telly-Phones and Telly-Visions and Highlighters and of VHS tapes that held moving photos that lasted hours! The Muggles must definitely be geniuses if they can find a way to shrink the people to fit inside the Telly-Vision without Magic, Draco thinks.
He sits in the courtyard, back against a tree, reading through all of the notes he’s made about these wonderful Muggle inventions.
“Malfoy!” He looks up, Reid is walking toward him, he’s waving at Draco with one arm. Draco waits until he’s closer to greet him back,
“Reid,” he says, turning back to his notes, Reid sits next to him without asking, and Draco grimaces.
“I have something for you, I think you’ll like it”
“And how do you know what I'd like?” Draco asks, turning to look at Reid, a dark blush covers his cheeks,
“Just trust I think you will” and he shoves and box at Draco, He pulls the lid off the box, and inside rests 4 rectangular objects, all different from one another. One is especially different, it has a long string attached to it that splits into two strings with little black round pieces of silicone at the end, the other three objects are much more similar to each other, one has a red background, a yellow man, and in blue writing at the top says ‘BOWIE THE SINGLES COLLECTION, the next has an all-white background, four seemingly-white men dressed in black stand next to each other and the words written in bold red writing say ‘QUEEN I WANT IT ALL’ the last of the three also has an all-white background with the exception of two blue and one red line at the top of it, there is a black man in a white suit in the middle and in black writing the top says ‘MICHEAL JACKSON THRILLER’. Draco examines them all carefully.
“What are they?” He asks, putting them all back into the box before looking back over to Reid, who seems to be getting redder by the second.
“They’re cassette tapes, they have music on them, you just take them out of the little plastic case and put them into the player and then you put the headphones, those little silicone pieces, in your ears and you press play and you will hear a song, I got a new one, for Christmas so I don’t need that one anymore, I don’t know if you listen to muggle music but I gave you some of my favourites.” He squints his eyes at Reid and he goes impossibly redder.
“Thank you, Reid.” He says and Reid squirms under his strong eye contact,
“You’re welcome, um I have work to do so, um, I’m gonna go,” Reid says before he runs off, Draco watches the back of Reid’s head as he runs away before taking the Cassette player out of the box and shoves the headphones into his ears, he grabs the first Cassette in the box, The one that says QUEEN, he takes it out of the plastic case and pushes it into the Cassette player.
(*******)
Draco loves Muggle Music. He’s on the train now, listening to Beat It by Michael Jackson. He’s very recently decided that as soon as he gets home he will give his dad a piece of his mind, Muggles were most certainly not inferior to Wizards and by extension, his opinion on Muggle-born Witches and Wizards has changed drastically. Muggles were clearly very smart, and no one below Draco could possibly create a song as wonderful as Starman by David Bowie.
If his father is wrong about something as important as this, what else could he be wrong about? Did his posture really matter as much as he said it did? Did he really need to straighten and gel his hair every single day? Father says that image is everything, was that true as well? And how does disliking Muggle-Borns help his image? How does having straight hair instead of curly make him look better? He is very confused.
Draco loves his parents, he believes every word that comes out of their mouths, hangs onto what they say like scripture and trusts them endlessly. Draco sees his parents' refusal to accept Muggleborns as a betrayal; they led him down the path of evil because of false assumptions built on pure ignorance and a refusal to educate themselves. Nearly everyone he knows assumed that Muggles were below them because they didn't have magic. Hell, even he believed that Muggles were below him because they didn't have magic! He had assumed that Aunt Andromeda had only been saying that Muggles were equal because his Uncle Ted, her husband, was a Muggleborn, but apparently, she had been right about Muggles all along!
Draco will tell them off as soon as he gets home, he will tell his father that his support of Voldemort was ridiculous and that he was stupid for attempting to rid the world of Muggles, as they were really quite brilliant and recently, he discovered that Wizards would have gone extinct years ago if not for Muggleborns. He will demand that his Father give up all his loyalties to The Dark Lord, Publicly! He will educate his Mother and Father on the brilliance of Muggle inventions. Draco will change his parents for good! His mum and Aunt Andromeda will be able to be seen in public together, and he and Dora can as well! This is the greatest idea he’s ever had!
(*******)
When Draco meets his parents at the train station he doesn’t smile; nor does he return their hugs,
“Draco? Darling, is there something wrong?” His Mother asks,
“Did something happen on the train? Who do I need to sue?” His Father cuts in,
“No, Father, nothing happened on the train. Let’s go home now, please, I have something important to discuss with you”
His Mother and Father look at each other before turning their gaze back to their son,
“Okay, Draco, let us go home”
(*******)
When they arrive home Dora and Andromeda are in the main living area of the Manor, Dora has thrown herself carelessly over an armchair and his Auntie sits nicely on the couch, a cup of tea on the table in front of her.
“Hello Dora,” Draco says and she nods her head at him as he walks into the room, his parents quickly behind him, “Auntie” Draco bows his head to her and then places his bag on the table which holds his Auntie’s tea.
“How was school this year, Draco?” His Auntie asks, ignoring the fact his bag almost knocked over her tea.
“It went quite well in my opinion. All O’s as usual” Draco turns his attention to his parents,
“Mummy, Daddy, please sit I have some discoveries I'd like to share with you”
“Now what exactly did you “Discover”” Dora grins, putting two of her fingers up and down as visual punctuation, her voice drips with sarcasm, something that Draco assumes has to run in the Black Family blood.
“Hey! I am very capable of discovering things” Draco sneers at her and she sticks out her tongue at him.
“Anyway! Back to what I was saying!” Draco pulls out a stack of parchments from his bag and places them on the table, “I have a bone to pick with you guys,” He says, pointing a finger at his parents.
“Us?” His Mother asks, looking around and behind her and his father as if it could be anyone but them.
“Yes, you two! I need to talk to you about your opinions on Muggles and Muggleborns and about your support of Voldemort and how we present ourselves to the public!” His Parents' eyes go wide,
“Draco, don’t speak that name!” Father says looking around the room crazed, as if simply saying his name will summon him.
Draco rolls his eyes, “Whatever! It doesn’t matter! You-Know-Who! The Dark Lord! He’s still a fucking dick and you need to do something about it!”
“Draco!” His mother gasps, “Watch your language!”
“I am sorry about my language, Mummy. But his opinions on Muggles and Muggleborns are ridiculous and uneducated! Muggleborns are not even slightly inferior to Purebloods! And Muggles are quite Brilliant! I bet you haven’t seen any of the genius inventions Muggles have made! And besides that, Witches and Wizards would have gone extinct if not for Muggleborns” Draco says,
“Draco-” his Father begins but Draco cuts him off quickly,
“No! You will listen to all I have to say and then you will talk, understand?” Draco looks between his parents and then over to his Auntie and Dora, they all nod, wordlessly.
“Okay, Good! A few weeks ago, I found this on the floor of the dungeons,” he pulls the pen out of his pocket and displays it in between his fingers, turning across the room so everyone can see it,
“This is a pen, it was invented by Muggles and it’s genius! It’s like a quill except all the ink is already inside so there’s no spill risk or ink blobs or anything!” He places the pen on the table and picks up the stack of parchment, “This stack of parchment is every muggle invention I’ve discovered so far, I will give you the best examples before my demands of you.” His father squints at him but nods along with his mother.
“Number 1, The Telly-Phone, This device lets you call people through wires and on some Telly-Phones you can text people! Which is like a letter but smaller and on a tiny Telly-Phone Screen and it has a limit for the number of letters you use, Some Telly-Phones are connected to a wall or to a wire and some don’t need to and they can fold in half, one side is a screen and the other is a bunch of buttons with letters you press on to write, and it’s small enough to fit in your pocket! The Muggles did all that with no magic! Isn’t that incredibly impressive?” His Mother and Father nod yes and Dora sits up straight to listen better to what Draco is saying, he’s not trying to change her mind, she knows how great Muggles are, her dad being a Muggleborn and all, but he is glad to see that he’s got her attention as she’s famously uninterested.
“Number 2, The Telly-Vision. This is a box that has tiny people in it that act out very long moving pictures in it called Movies and TV Shows! At first, I was confused about how they shrank the people without magic, but apparently, they just take a very long moving picture and then put it inside something called a VHS tape and then you put it into the Telly-Vision and it plays the moving picture on there! And they do that all without magic!” Draco grins as his Mother and Father begin to seem more interested in what he’s saying. Draco pulls the Cassette Player and all three Cassettes Reid had given him out from his bag.
“Number 3, The Cassette and Player, This is a little rectangular box that lets you listen to Muggle music, it’s kind of like the VHS except it has no video, only sound. You put the cassette in this slot here, and it plays music in these little silicone circle things called headphones, I’ll show you how it works after,” Draco's face is violet with pride, and his Mother and Father’s jaws are on the floor along with Aunt Andromeda’s.
“It’s so incredibly impressive that Muggles were able to do these things without magic, correct?” Draco looks to his father who nods dumbly at him.
“Now here is what I want from both of you, 1. You read up and educate yourself on Muggles and Muggleborns and how they are discriminated against,” he places the Cassettes and Player on the table. He pulls several books on the topic of Muggleborn Discrimination and Muggle studies out from his bag before shoving them into his father’s arms, “2. Release your loyalties from Voldemort, publicly. Go to the Ministry, cut a deal, tell them everything you know of his followers, then denounce him publicly and release a public apology to those who were hurt or those whose family members and loved ones were hurt by your actions, understood?” He looks to his father and waits for his answer,
“Draco, I can most certainly do the first one, but you have to know the second is a heavy ask of me-”
“Then I guess I will have to no longer love you” Draco states, crossing his arms and lifting his chin high, closing his eyes, he hears his Father sigh.
“Draco, I love you very much, you are sure this is what will make you the happiest?”
“Yes, Daddy, I have thought about this quite a lot and I refuse to love someone so ignorant to follow Voldemort.” Draco opens his eyes and lowers his chin to look his father in the face.
“Alright then, love. Tomorrow I will go to the Ministry and I will tell them all about what I know and denounce Voldemort, and after I shall inform the press of my apology, I’ll write it tonight after I read these books. How does that sound?”
“That sounds perfect, thank you, Daddy” Draco responds, a smile plastered onto his pale face. He jumps into his Father’s arms and his Father returns the hug happily, mumbling something about how much he had missed his hug at the Train Station.
“Remember Draco, we only want what’s best for you,” his Mother begins from beside his Father, “Are you sure this is what is best?” Draco nods.
“Draco, Have you ever heard of the Order of the Phoenix?” His Auntie asks, picking up her cup of tea.
“No, I haven’t, what’s that?”
“Well it was founded by Dumbledore, during the Wizarding War, it was a group of people who wanted to fight against You-Know-Who and his followers, the Death Eaters. Many people you know were in the Order, I was, Sirius, you know Sirius don’t you?, Remus Lupin, hm, who else would you know? Oh! Emmeline Vance, The Potters were a part of it, I believe Severus had some part in it, but who was in it doesn’t matter much, does it? I think you should read up on that, I think you would find it interesting if you have this refreshing new view on Muggleborns” She takes a sip from her cup of tea and Draco grins in anticipation of new knowledge.
“Where would I find information about this exactly?”
“Hm, You could check Grimmauld? Sirius has bound to have kept some things, I’m sure he’d be glad to see you dear, very glad you’ve had this change of heart as well” She smiles.
“Thank you, Auntie Andromeda.” Draco shoves his stuff back into his bag, excluding his notes on Muggle objects, which he shoves into the arms of his Mother, before running upstairs to his Bedroom.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
12 Grimmauld Place is not as dirty as Draco had assumed it would be, it was certainly not pristine like Draco knew it once had to have been, but it looked quite nice for having been abandoned for more than 10 years, a thick layer of dust covered almost every object on the shelves and the floors were certainly not swept. He begins to walk into the house but is stopped in his tracks, by a House Elf, with a huge pointed snout-like nose and eyes so red he looks like he had just been smoking dried plants in a pipe like Draco’s 8th cousin Cecil. The Elf has many folds of skin and white hair, which grows out of his bat-like ears, he stands in the middle of a door to what appears to be a hallway.
“You are Master Draconis Malfoy, Kreacher presumes,” Draco looks at the House Elf, a pain aches in his stomach, a House Elf has never looked more human to Draco, which is strange considering this is the most abnormal-looking House Elf he’s probably ever seen. His mind flashes to every time he’s ever interacted with a House Elf before, to Dobby mostly, most times he was nasty and unkind for no reason other than seeing them to be below him. In this moment Draco decides that House Elves deserve just the same as he does, he will fight for the rights of Muggleborns and House Elves alike and for anyone else who is treated unfairly.
“Please, call me Draco, Mr. Kreacher, Sir,” Draco nods his head at him and Kreacher looks up at him wide-eyed and confused,
“Yes, of course, Master Draco. What can Kreacher help you with today?”
“I’d like to see Sirius, please, If that’s alright.” Draco asks and Kreacher motions for Draco to walk down the hallway, he walks past Kreacher after muttering a
‘thank you’.
Draco walks past a few closed doors which he assumes to be closets. One room has an open door, it’s what appears to be the parlour of the house, a Floo is in the middle of the back wall, and in front of it sits two couches facing each other sitting on top of an expensive-looking rug, a chair in front of one of them. Paintings are scattered across the wall and there is an absurd amount of candles for such a small space. Next to the door is a large grand piano, it’s obvious it was hand carved, probably Muggle-Made, then enchanted after, Draco finds it strange that a family as obsessed with Blood Purity as the blacks would have a Muggle object in their house.
A man, not Sirius, sits on one of the sofas, legs crossed at the knee, a cup of tea is in one of his hands, The Daily Prophet in his other, Draco recognizes him immediately,
“Professor Lupin?” Lupin immediately looks up at him, clearly startled as he was not expecting company,
“Oh, Draco,” Lupin says, dropping his paper on the couch beside him, “Do you need something, my boy?”
“I’d like to talk to Sirius about something, but I do suppose you could help me as well,” Draco states, walking to sit on the sofa across from Lupin,
“Since when do you live here?” Draco asks, eyes scanning the room around him,
“Um, recently” Lupin answers, bringing his tea to his lips once again, chugging the whole cup in one sip before placing the cup next to his paper on the sofa,
“So, Draco, what would you like to talk about?” Lupin asks, he uncrosses his legs and puts his hands on his knees, leaning forward toward Draco,
“I was going to ask about the Order of the Phoenix. Aunt Andromeda said I would be interested in what the Order did.” The mention of his Auntie seems to intrigue Lupin as he scoots closer to Draco on the sofa,
“Andromeda, you say?” Lupin murmurs quizically,
“What were you talking about that brought up the Order exactly?” He asks, eyeing where Draco is thumbing the pen in his pocket, he assumes Lupin thinks it’s his wand,
“Long story, but I’ve recently educated myself on the discrimination against Muggles and Muggleborns and was absolutely appalled, I’ve decided I want no part in that, I convinced Daddy to release his loyalties to the Bloody Purists, Aunt Andromeda brought up the Order, said it was used to fight against Voldemort during the Wizarding War? It sounded interesting and she said that any information about it would probably be with Sirius, or well at his house.” Draco explains.
He decides to go against his Father’s word, he does not sit properly, Draco swings his legs over the back of the sofa, his head landing dangling off the side of the couch,
“Well, I can answer any questions you want about the Order, and be careful not to give yourself a headrush, dear.” Lupin responds and Draco goes over the Pros and Cons in his head before deciding that sitting upright is more beneficial on account of the headrush, he turns over, but lays himself across the small sofa,
“So,” Draco begins, running through every possible question in his mind, “What was the Order of the Phoenix, of course, I know the very basic things, but I want to know everything,” Draco croons and Lupin sits in thought for just a second,
“During the wizarding war many people who were not Aurors disapproved of Voldemort’s ideas, so, because we were not Aurors we couldn’t actually fight against his followers, Dumbledore created a secret society called the Order of the Phoenix, the people in the Order fought against Voldemort and his followers without ever being Aurors. The Order worked with the Ministry though, of course. Unfortunately, even though Lily had managed to defeat Voldemort the first time, in 1981, our losses were far larger than those of Voldermort’s followers, so we disbanded, which was of course not just because of the loss of members, you see, Voldemort was dead, well we had thought he was, so there was no more point in having the Order, did that answer your question?” Lupin waits for Draco’s answer, maintaining strong eye contact,
“Yes, I believe it did, Potter’s parents were a part of the Order, correct?”
“Yes, they were” Lupin confirms,
“Interesting,” Draco hums.
“Moony, My love! I’ve returned!- Ah!” Sirius steps through the fireplace, screeching as he notices Draco lying on the sofa,
“Hello, Uncle Sirius,” Draco greets him,
“Hello, Draco,” Sirius groans, “Wait, did you call me Uncle Sirius?” He asks accusatory,
“Yes, I did.” He state.
“Draconis, I am not your Uncle,” Sirius argues, and crosses his arms over his chest like a toddler,
“You basically are, so I will call you Uncle Sirius, as I have no other Uncles, except for Uncle Ted, of course,” Sirius sighs,
“If you are going to call me Uncle, Draco, please don’t call me Uncle Sirius, call me Uncle Padfoot” Sirius demands and Draco hums in thought,
“Uncle Padfoot, strange, I like it” Draco agrees and Sirius picks up Remus's cup and paper and sits next to him, Draco looks back and forth between the two men,
“Since you two are clearly in a romantic relationship with each other I suppose that makes Professor Lupin my Uncle too, Doesn’t it? Shall I call you Uncle Remus or do you also have a strange name you’d prefer?” Lupin turns to look at Sirius they seem to have a conversation with no words spoken before Lupin turns back to look at Draco,
“Would you call me Uncle Moony?” Lupin asks, a nervous smile plays on the corners of his mouth,
“Hm, perfect! You shall be Uncle Moony!” Draco declares, pushing his pointer finger up into the air, Remus and Sirius smile and lean into each other.
“Kreacher hates to interrupt Master’s conversation, but I is wondering if Master Draco would like something to eat or drink?” Sirius is about to speak, but Draco cuts him off before a sound
can leave his lips,
“That is no problem at all, Kreacher. I would love a cup of tea, anything you have is fine, extra sweet please” Kreacher nods,
“Yes, of course, Kreacher will do anything for Master,” Kreacher turns to look at Sirius,
“Fetch me Toast, Fried Tomatoes, and Green Tea, one sugar, and for Moony, one piece of toast, cut into four pieces, marmalade onto one quarter, jam onto another, butter on the third and lemon curd on the last, I assume with your years of experience Kreacher, you won’t mess it up?” Sirius orders snobbishly, Draco fumes silently.
“Kreacher is capable of preparing breakfast without messing it up, Master” Kreacher verifies and drags himself away from the living area to where Draco presumes the kitchen is,
“So, Draco, what brought you here today?” Sirius asks him, leaning back against the hard sofa, as if he hadn’t just been barking orders at poor Kreacher,
“I came to ask you some questions about the Order but Uncle Moony answered everything after one question,” Draco breathes out deeply and stretches his arms above his head and sits up,
“The Order, the Order of the Phoenix you mean? What did you want to know about the Order, and how did you find out about the Order, and why did you want to know about the Order?” Sirius questions rapidfire,
“Well, it all started a few weeks ago, when I found this thing called a pen…”
(*******)
Draco finds Grimmauld incredibly interesting, it’s probably been hours since Uncle Padfoot and Moony had let him free in the house, letting him explore it for himself, their only request to stay out of their shared bedroom. He’s only just made it to the second floor a few minutes ago, he pushes open a door that has a nameplate stating
‘Regulus’
on it, the room is, in Draco’s opinion, poorly decorated, printed blue wallpaper peels from the corners of the wall, an undeniably gorgeous carved wood bed is devastated by ugly striped pink-red sheets, green velvet curtains matching the green carpet clash with the other colours of the room, a Slytherin plaque hangs lone on the wall, Regulus’s clothes are pulled out of his drawers thrown haphazardly across the room and there are far too many mirrors in for the space.
“Master Draco?” Kreacher drawls from behind him, Draco turns around to face him,
“Yes, Kreacher?” Draco can’t help but notice the unsavoury look on Kreacher’s face,
“What is Master Draco doing in Master Regulus’ room?” Kreacher questions harshly,
“Oh, I’m just exploring, I haven’t ever heard much of Regulus,” Draco hums, tucking a piece of curly hair behind his ears, he’s decided not to straighten or slick it back today. “Care to tell me anything about him?” Kreacher perks up,
“Master Draco cares to ask about Master Regulus?” Kreacher asks him,
“Yes Sir, I do” Kreacher hobbles over to Regulus’s unmade bed and fixes it in less than a second with a flick of his wrist,
“Please, Master Draco sit, Ever does Kreacher have the tale for you” Draco sits down on the bed and Kreacher climbs his way up,
“Kreacher will tell you all of Brave Master Regulus, Regulus Defender of House Elves,”
“Defender of House Elves?” Draco asks, intrigued,
Kreacher doesn’t answer and instead grabs his head and starts muttering to himself,
“Can’t tell, can’t tell, must obey Master, must complete my task, can’t tell Master Regulus’ family,” Kreacher shakes his head in his hands, Draco deduces the problem quite easily,
“Regulus told you not to tell, didn't he? Well, I object to that! Mr. Kreacher, I command you tell me of The Brave Regulus, Defender of House Elves” Kreacher lifts his head from his hands,
“If Kreacher is commanded he must, Kreacher will tell Master Draco of Master Regulus” Draco nods his head and waits impatiently for Kreacher to begin telling him of Regulus,
“The Lord had needed a House Elf, Master Regulus volunteered Kreacher, he said it would be an honour to serve the Lord. Master Regulus told Kreacher to come home when he finished the task. The Lord took Kreacher to the Crystal Cave and forced him to drink the potion in the basin so that the Lord could place the Locket in the basin. Kreacher was having stomach pain and was very thirsty. The Lord left Kreacher in the cave, Kreacher needed water, so he crawled to the island’s edge and he drank from the black lake and hands, hands of the dead came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface,”
“Inferi, I always thought they were myth” Draco Mumbles, “How did you get away?”
“Master Regulus told Kreature to come back”
“I know, but how did you escape the Inferni?”
“Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back” Draco hums and pretends to understand, urging Kreature to continue,
“What happened when you got back? What did Regulus say?”
“Master Regulus was very worried, very worried, Master Regulus told Kreature not to leave the house; stay hidden. And then, it was a little while later when Master Regulus came to find Kreature in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell. Master Regulus asked Kreacher to take him to the cave he had gone to with the Lord. Master Regulus drank the potion and ordered Kreacher to switch the locket with a fake locket and go home to destroy the real one, to leave Master Regulus to die in the cave, he ordered Kreacher to not tell Master Regulus’ family what happened but Kreature failed his order of his Master. Kreacher was unable to destroy Master Regulus’ locket”
Why would Voldemort go to such extreme lengths to hide a locket? Every possibility runs through his mind, and then, suddenly, a book he had read, years ago, from Bellatrix’s old collection of books flashes in his mind, it hits him in the face like a train, so obvious it almost hurts no one had realized it before, Draco gasps, and his eyes go wide,
“Voldemort is using Horcruxes to stay alive, which means he’s not really dead” Draco mutters, “If I find out what the other Horcruxes are I could kill Voldemort!” Draco turns to face Kreacher,
“Kreacher! What happened to that locket? Do you know if Regulus kept any notes on this or something, anything?” Draco asks eagerly,
“Kreacher is unsure if Master Regulus kept any notes about Voldemort’s Horcruxes, but Kreacher knows Master Regulus kept a diary, I is unsure where that might be. Kreacher will fetch the locket, Is Master Draco looking to keep Master Regulus’ locket?”
“Draco is looking to destroy Regulus’ locket, Kreacher, I will help you finish your task!” He exclaims, mimicking Kreacher’s third-person narrative.
Kreacher hobbles out of Regulus’ room to go get the locket and Draco starts to dig through all of Regulus’ stuff to find his diary, every drawer, every nook and cranny, under his mattress, behind the plaque, in his pillows, and in between the curtains, just as he’s about to give up, he remembers the one place he hadn’t looked,
“Under the carpet!” He concludes and he rips up the corner of the large rug, lo-and-behold a loose floorboard sits in its wake. Draco slides out the floorboard and pulls his wand out of his pocket, casting Lumos, in the hole there is a diary, RAB carved into the leather-bound book, and underneath it sits a cardboard box, he pulls both out of the hole before shoving the floorboard back into place and rolls the carpet back over top. He sits down, crisscrossed, on top of Regulus’ now, unmade again, bed. He places the diary to the side and opens up the box, there is a variety of things in the box, pictures, letters, newspapers, jewelry and pins, a Gryffindor tie, a snitch and many other things.
Draco picks up the pictures first, most of the ones at the top of the stack are mundane, a few of which appear to be Regulus’ friends, one of them appears to be of the Slytherin quidditch team, a few from Regulus’s years in something called ‘
the slug club
’, Draco recognizes Horace Slughorn, a brilliant Potioneer, who, unfortunately for Draco, had long since retired when he had finally arrived to Hogwarts. The next few are pictures of Sirius, then pictures of Sirius and his friends, he recognizes Remus and Sirius in the picture but no one else, the last few photos shock Draco to his core, one is of Regulus sitting in a chair, a man, who happens to look exactly like Potter, has his arm around him, it’s clear he’s the one taking the photo, he leans in and kisses Regulus on the cheek, he pretends to not like it but can’t fight back the smile on his face, the next is just of the Potter look-alike, he’s sat, back against a tree in the forest, his hand are up against his face in the shape of a heart, the next is also just of, who Draco assumes to be James Potter, in an incredibly… vulnerable state, heat rushes to Draco face and quickly shoves the picture back into the stack and tries to forget he saw it in the first place. Was Regulus Black shagging Potter’s dad? This would ruin him!
But then there’s the matter of Uncle Padfoot, this would also ruin him. And Sirius, did he know? Did Potter’s mum know? Had Draco just come across the greatest kept secret in history? That’s a stretch, he supposes.
“Master Draco-” Kreacher greets as he walks into Regulus’ bedroom,
“Ah!” Draco screams, shoving the photos back into the box and closing the lid, deciding to take it home with him, for safekeeping, not for snooping of course.
“Kreacher is apologising for startling Master Draco, but I has retrieved Master Regulus’ locket,” Kreacher extends his skinny arm out toward Draco, Locket dangling from nimble fingers, Draco grabs it from him,
“Thank you, Kreacher, very much, you’ve helped me a lot today, I do need to be going right about now though. I suppose I will see you later. Goodbye!” Draco rushes past Kreacher and pats him on his bald head before he stomps down the stairs to the first floor, he yells goodbye to Uncle Padfoot and Moony and he Floos home, box cradled in his arms.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Draco Malfoy was not snooping, he wasn’t, really! It was…Investigation! Maybe Potters’ dad mentions the Horcruxes in his love letters to Regulus! If Draco didn’t read them he would never know! So it’s NOT snooping!
It’s obvious that Regulus and Potters’ dad (It feels weird to call him James, even just in his head) were not just shagging, each letter from Potters’ dad ends with an ‘
I love you
’ and the letters were far more romantic than sexual. Bloody hell! Potters’ dad was in love with Draco’s cousin! Sirius’s Brother!
Draco definitely doesn’t cry reading the last few letters, all of Potters’ dad begging him to answer, to join the Order, to not become a Deatheater, that he and Lily will end their fake relationship and he and Regulus can be together, publicly - wait!
Fake?
Potters’ parents' relationship was fake? Draco puts his head in his hands and groans, he was definitely not supposed to find these letters.
Draco folds the last letter back into its envelope, and he digs around the cardboard box, the snitch is still very shiny despite how long it had probably sat in this box under Regulus’ floor, which surprises him, there is a Black Family Crest necklace and what appears to be a Potter Family Crest ring.
Potter Family Crest Ring!?
Regulus and Potters’ dad were courting each other!?
Draco is so confused he almost explodes, he shoves everything back into the box and shoves the box into the vent in his built-in wardrobe next to his pack of Malboros, which he had stolen from Dora during Christmas Hols and never even smoked. Draco decides he has enough secrets to keep as it is, and that he won’t continue to
not
snoop.
Draco lies down on his bed and rubs his hands up and down his face, what has he gotten himself into? He has to carry the burden of being an heir to the richest family in the wizarding world, of possibly being the only alive person to know that Regulus Black and James Potter (Still weird) were having a secret affair and that James and Lily’s (That feels even weirder to say than just James) whole entire relationship was fake, and he has to find all of the Horcruxes and destroy them to kill Voldemort and to be completely fair, the last three of those things are completely his own fault, but the first had nothing to do with him in the slightest!
The Horcruxes!
Draco had been so preoccupied with Regulus and James’ (It’s growing on him) relationship that he had completely forgotten about the fact that he had figured out a way to kill the Dark Lord for good. He grabs Regulus’s book from his bedside table and is relieved not to see remarks of James Potters’ arse written in Glitter ink, instead, he finds a detailed and organized list of all of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, and how to destroy them.
Regulus’ notes are clear and to the point, similar to Draco’s own when he writes them, which Draco appreciates expeditiously, his eyes roam down the list of Horcruxes,
Salazar Slytherin’s Locket
Voldemort’s Diary
Rowena Ravenclaw’s Lost Diadem
Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring
Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup
Voldemort
Under each Horcrux, Regulus had written a detailed method of destroying it, which Draco was very grateful for. Draco grabs an unused notebook from his bedside table, and a Sharpie which he stole from Tracy Davis, his Halfblood housemate before school had ended for the summer, and in bold writing on the front of the notebook he writes: Draco Malfoy and the destruction of Voldemort’s Horcruxes
(*******)
Killing Voldemort is a lot harder than Draco assumed it would be. He has no idea where to start, even after trying for the last week, so Draco goes with the only logical next option, asking his parents.
Draco walks downstairs and ignores the bustling yells of the reporters outside his front door, it’s like they lived there since his Father had cut all ties to Voldemort.
He walks into his living room, both his own notebook and Regulus’ diary in his hands, and he sits down next to his dad on the couch, leaning into his side, his father accepts the hug happily, throwing his arm over Draco’s shoulders, pulling him in with a grin on his face.
“Daddy, Do you know where I could find Voldemort's Diary, Rowena Ravenclaw’s Lost Diadem, Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring or Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup?” Draco mumbles into his father's side,
“Draco -” His father pauses before continuing, “What did you just ask me?” Draco peels himself from his father’s side, sitting crisscross on the couch to face him,
“I asked if you knew where Voldemort’s Diary, Rowena Ravenclaw’s Lost Diadem, Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring or Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup is” Draco repeats.
“Now, why exactly do you want to know where these things are?”
“They are Horcruxes, Voldemort’s Horcruxes, because he has Horcruxes he is still alive, I’m going to find them, destroy them and kill Voldemort for good” Draco states, looking his father dead in his eyes,
“WHAT!”
(*******)
His father was much less of a help than Draco hoped he’d be, he did inform Draco that he once had possession of Voldemort’s Diary but had disposed of it quite a while ago, which was not useful, as he had downright refused to tell Draco what he had done with it, very clearly embarrassed about something, but he did tell Draco that Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup was in the possession of Bellatrix and was likely in her vault at Gringotts.
“Dora, I need your help” Draco bursts through the door of Dora’s flat, the door slams harshly behind him and the wooden tiles of her floor creak under Draco’s bare feet after he kicks off his boots. Dora is sprawled out across her couch, a box of takeaway chinese sits in her lap and a salt and pepper chip falls out her mouth as she speaks;
“Sure, Kid. What do’ya need help with?” Draco trudges his way into Dora’s drawing room, stepping out of the way of her dirty trousers and socks. He sits next to Dora and steals one of her chips.
“I need you to help me break into Bellatrix’ Gringotts vault” Draco informs and Dora freezes before her face twists in confusion,
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me” Draco crosses her arms over his chest,
“Now, why do you need in Bellatrix’s vault, Dray?”
“I need to get a Horcrux” He shrugs and steals one of Dora’s salt and pepper chicken balls,
“What the bloody hell is a Horcrux?” Dora shoves 3 chips in her mouth at once, chews twice and swallows, Draco cringes.
“Simply put: a Horcrux is a piece of a witch or wizard’s soul, it is implanted into an item - or in some rare cases a person or animal - and they can never truly die unless it’s destroyed, their body can be destroyed, but their soul will live on and always will unless the Horcrux or Horcuxes are destroyed” Dora stares at him in disbelief before she bursts out laughing, nearly choking on a bite of chicken,
“Very funny Draco, I almost believed you for a second,” Draco scowls and Draco looks at him in confusion,
“What?” She asks, taking a bite of chips, dripping with curry sauce,
“I’m not joking, Dora. I’m being serious, I need to get my hands on this Horcrux and destroy it,” Dora examines his face for a moment,
“You’re not lying” Draco rolls his eyes, “Draco - whose Horcrux are you trying to destroy?”
“Voldemorts’”
Dora's jaw drops, “What. The. Fuck.”
(*******)
Getting into Bellatrix’s estate was relatively easy; The property had been taken away by the Ministry when she was arrested years ago and Dora and Draco’s magic was able to dismantle the Ministry’s easily. Bellatrix’s house was a maze, but they found her room eventually.
“There!” Draco points to a hairbrush sitting on the vanity of Bellatrix’s bedroom, curly black hair entangled in its many prongs, clearly in need of a cleaning.
“We will use it to brew a Polyjuice,” Draco decides, “Now we just need her vault key” He adds,
“Found it,” Dora says, pulling a brass key out from a hidden drawer of a dark wooden nightstand,
“How do you do that,” Draco complains, Dora’s brilliance never fails to amaze him; something he will never admit out loud.
(*******)
Draco brews the Polyjuice, he’s always been better at potions than Dora, better than everyone he knows, actually - except Snape, of course. He brews multiple, as a contingency, of course. He drops his aunt’s hair into two of the vials and Dora’s hair puffs out of her head and grows into crazy dark curls. She shoots up what Draco assumes to be about 20 centimetres, the sound of torn fabric forces him to tear his eyes away from Dora’s new face and he looks down at his chest and groans. Bellatrix’s breasts tear a long rip down the chest of Draco’s shirt, his shirt is tight around his waist and his - No, Bellatrix’s - bellybutton is on full display, Dora laughs manically,
“Oh my Merlin, this is the greatest thing that’s ever happened!” Draco gives her two fingers and waddles into Dora’s bathroom to change into the clothes they had taken from Bellatrix’s closet, a black long-sleeve corset dress and a pair of huge heeled boots. He walks out of the bathroom with ease but laughs as he sees Dora struggle to stand in the boots.
“So I guess I’m the one who is going to have to break into Gringotts, then?”
Dora nods, black hair bouncing crazily.
(*******)
Draco enters her vault at Gringrotts and takes the cup easily, luckily for him, Goblins are truly selfish creatures and they had cared more about keeping Bellatrix’s money in their vaults than her potentially escaping Azkaban, so they did not call the Aurors on him.
(*******)
After his victory with the cup, he goes to Sirius to ask for help finding the other four Horcruxes, and after some emotional turmoil (Intense sobbing and a few broken vases) regarding Regulus, in fact, not being evil, Sirius immediately knows where one of the Horcruxes is,
“That ring!” He exclaims, pointing at the drawing Regulus had conveniently made of it, “It’s the one Dumbledore wears!” Draco scolds himself for not realizing it sooner but not for long as within the next Draco and Sirius are looking at each other before they rush to the Floo. Remus starts speaking before they can actually leave,
“You said Rowena’s Lost Diadem, didn’t you, Draco?” Draco whips his head around to glare at Remus,
“Yes?”
“You should ask the Grey Lady or maybe Moaning Myrtle, at Hogwarts, I mean, they may know. Ghosts are very smart, you know? Ask any of the ghosts, they were probably around when he made the Horcruxes”
(*******)
After a bit of arguing Dumbledore gives up his ring, although quite reluctantly, he refuses to give it to Sirius or Draco though, and he decides to destroy it right then and there with the sword of Gryffindor, which Draco does admit was quite a cool thing to witness, the ring shatters once it makes contact with the sword and the pieces fly across the room, a few hit Draco in the face and he scowls at Dumbledore, who ushers Sirius and Draco out of his office and tells them not to break-in to Hogwarts again, he and Sirius laugh at his request, which just makes him push them out of the door faster.
The Grey Lady does aid in Draco and Sirius’ search for The Diadem, she gives them a riddle of sorts and after figuring out her clues, which, admittedly, had taken them both an embarrassingly long time, they find it in the room of requirement, which Draco was shocked to find out actually existed, Sirius laughed in his face and told him to “Get cooler” and “Go to a party or something”, which Remus had scolded him for once they arrived home, arguing that Draco was just 13, Draco was confused with the situation, as he hadn’t entirely understood what Sirius had said at all, which frustrates him greatly. What does the room of requirement and parties have to do with one another? And also how is Draco being cool somehow connected? When he asks Remus shakes his head with a smile, ruffling Draco's hair, telling him, “It’s nothing to worry about, dear”. Draco sighs but attempts to force himself to let it go and crosses the Ring and Diadem off his list of Horcruxes.
(*******)
There is less than a month until summer ends and both Draco, Dora, and Sirius are getting quite annoyed that they just cannot seem to find the diary, it seems nobody has as much as seen this diary since his father had gotten rid of it and his father refuses to tell Draco what he did with it, turning away embarrassed every time he asks. Sirius has gotten so fed up that he has Dumbledore to call the Order to Grimmauld so that they can directly ask anyone who might know where the diary is, or at the very least enlist some extra help in the search.
Draco sits on the left side at the end of the table next to Sirius, who is sitting at the complete end, Remus sits on Sirius’ right, Dumbledore on the other end, Draco’s parents sit next to Dora who sits next to him and Aunt Andromeda sits next Remus. The rest of the Order hasn’t arrived yet, mostly because the meeting isn’t supposed to start until an hour from now.
The Horcruxes lay on the table in front of Draco and Sirius, all of them but the infuriating book.
A sound extracts Draco from his thoughts about how to find Voldemort’s diary, Professor McGonagall walks into the dining room, guided by Kreacher who had met her at the Floo.
“Hello Remus, Sirius,” She bows her head to them, quickly greets everyone else and then takes a seat next to Aunt Andromeda.
Time goes by and people come in one by one, Emmeline Vance, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Edgar Bones, Sturgis Podmore, Caradoc Dearborn, Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle arrive on time, it’s obvious more people are supposed to come, Sirius magiced the table bigger earlier and 8 seats still remain, Draco groans as he comes to the horrifying realisation, Weasleys + Granger + Potter = 8.
Some yelling and scolding that could only come from a fed-up Mother lets everyone know they have arrived and they all shuffle into Sirius’ dining room awkwardly, Granger scowls at him as soon as she notices him at the table,
“What is
he
doing here?” She asks, clearly agitated just at the sight of him, Draco rolls his eyes,
“The real question is why are
you
here?” Draco turns to look at Sirius, “Padfoot,”
“Yes, My precious, darling Draco” He says, batting his eyelashes innocently, resting his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands, Draco wants to hex him.
“I thought we were summoning the Order,” Draco stretches out each vowel as if talking to a toddler,
“Well, I did do that, I just - requested some new additions?” Sirius shrugs and Draco rolls his eyes and kicks his shin under the table, revelling in the way he gasps for a breath and the glares daggers through Draco head, he grins at Sirius and raises an eyebrow, Sirius looks away, annoyed.
Weasley squints at him, “What?” Draco barks and Weasley chokes,
“What’s going on with your hair?”
“This is what my hair looks like”
“No it does not, it’s curly, your hair isn’t curly!”
“Didn’t know you spent so much time looking at my hair, Weasley” Draco grins,
“Why in the bloody hell is your hair curly!”
“Why do you think? I didn’t bloody straighten it, genius!” Draco rolls his eyes and his Mother glares at him. Weasley scoffs and is pushed into a seat by his Mother, who Draco now thinks is quite lovely, he mentally takes back every bad thing he’s ever said about her, deciding she was a saint for putting up with Weasley. Potter, Granger and the Weasleys sit at the end of the table near Dumbledore and as soon as everyone is sat, Sirius begins to explain,
“Now! You’re probably all wondering why you’re here! And well the answer’s really quite extraordinary! Draco, explain!” Sirius motions for Draco to stand, he does not.
Draco rolls his eyes as he’s suddenly put on the spot, but explains anyway, “Voldemort isn’t really dead, I know this because I, well actually Sirius’ little brother, Regulus, discovered that Voldemort was using Horcruxes to stay alive, I have here 2 out of the 4 obtainable Horcruxes, Rowena Ravenclaw’s Lost Diadem, and Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup. There are six in total, Marvolo Gaunt's ring has already been destroyed and the second last is Voldemort himself, the last is Voldemort’s diary. The diary was originally given to my father, but he,” Draco bends his fingers into air quotes, ““disposed of it” and now has no idea where it’s gone. The reason Sirius called you here today was to, 1. Inform you of the existence of these Horcruxes and 2. Ask for your help in finding this diary” Draco finishes indifferently and everything is silent for just a second, and then everyone is yelling, Draco closes his eyes and pushes the heels of his palms in the ears as the yelling intensifies, he feels Dora’s hand on his shoulder, she squeezes his shoulder and he hears her chair scratch against the floor as she stands before her voice booms through the room,
“THAT’S ENOUGH, BE QUIET! ALL OF YOU!” The room falls silent and she turns to look at Draco and nods her head, hand still on Draco’s shoulder, bruisingly tight,
anything you need to say?
She says wordlessly and Draco turns to look at Sirius who stands again,
“Do any of you have any idea what could have happened to that Diary?” Draco asks, and cringes at the stutter in his voice, it was just yelling, there was no reason for him to react like that, he scolds himself.
Draco's eyes scan across the room, Potter and the she-asley make nervous eye contact with each other, Draco squints his eyes at them and turns to look at Dora, who seems to have noticed the same thing, not hesitating to ask; “Harry, Ginerva, do you know what happened to Voldemort’s diary?” Potter and She-asley look at each other again, and Potter speaks,
“I might have destroyed it, during second year” Potter pulls anxiously on the collar of his shirt, revealing his collarbone, which protrudes through his brown skin, he must not be eating enough Draco thinks and his breath gets caught in his throat. Strange. But he chalks it up to how similar he looks to his Father and the photos Draco had seen. He pushes the thought out from his mind.
“And you’re sure the diary is destroyed?” Draco asks him, he stands and leans forward, hands on the table in front of him, Dora’s hand travels from his shoulder to the back of his neck, she squeezes harshly, an act she knows is comforting to him, and then lets her nails scratch up and down Draco’s back through his coat and the shirt underneath it and, as he calms down expeditiously, he silently thanks the deities for giving him a cousin as wonderful and understanding as Dora is.
“I stabbed it with the fang of the Basilik, would that destroy it?” Draco scoffs,
“Yes, that would destroy it, the only cure for the basilisk venom would be Phoenix tears, extremely hard to get those…” Draco looks over to Potter, his throat, his adam apple bobs as he swallows nervously. His mouth, he bites into his bottom lip with slightly crooked front teeth. His nose, his nostrils flare as he breathes deeply in and out. His eyes, his pupils are wide with fear and his scar
.
His
Scar.
Regulus was wrong.
Draco was wrong.
There were not 6 Horcruxes, there were 7.
Harry Potter was a Horcrux.
Draco peels his body away from Dora’s grip and walks over to Potter, he takes Potters’ head in between his hands, Potter very clearly does not enjoy this,
“Malfoy, what the f-”
“Does your scar ever tell you things? Like, let’s say Voldemort or his dark magic is near, does your scar tell you?” He asks, thumb running over the sensitive skin of Potter’s scar, he shivers under the soft press of Draco’s thumb.
“Well, yes, I guess, it hurts, does that count?” He looks up at Draco through hooded eyes and Draco’s heart skips a beat.
Draco hums and leans closer, eyes centimetres away from Potter’s scar. He lets go of Potter’s face and looks to Sirius, who’s gone deathly pale, clearly scared of the implications of what Draco’s saying,
“Draco you couldn’t seriously be suggesting…”
“It would explain the Parseltongue,” A thousand thoughts flash through Sirius’s eyes before he looks back to Draco, his eyes dark,
“What? What is he suggesting?” Potter asks, turning to look at Sirius,
“You, Mr. Potter, are a Horcrux” Draco answers proudly, “Well really your scar is a Horcrux, must have happened when your mother ‘killed’ Voldemort the first time” Potter gulps, Granger goes to speak, probably to deny it, or maybe to question what a Horcrux is, but Potter interrupts,
“What even is a Horcrux? And how exactly is it keeping Voldemort alive?” Potter looks back at Draco, who makes eye contact for a second, before turning to look at Remus, silently asking him to explain, he does,
“Well, Harry, Voldemort has split his soul into a bunch of different pieces and then put those pieces into a bunch of objects, or animals? Things? Doesn’t matter, because as long those things are still around and still have his soul inside of them Voldemort is still alive.”
“Part of Voldemort's soul is inside me?!”
“Part of Voldemort’s soul is inside Harry?!”
Weasley and Potter all exclaim at the same time, Draco cringes,
“So how exactly do we destroy the Horcrux inside Harry?” Granger asks,
Sirius sighs and looks over to Remus who looks over to Draco,
“Kill him, I think,” Draco shrugs and he ignores the pang in his chest at the thought of Potter dying.
Chaos breaks out at the table again, and Draco grabs his own arm, his fingernails dig into his skin,
“SHUT IT!” he yells and the room falls silent again, he slowly and reluctantly opens his eyes,
“Most Likely when we ‘kill him’ it will just kill the part of Voldemort’s soul that lives inside him, not actually kill him, we’d just need to use the killing curse, you know, Avada him” Draco hands flay around wildly.
“He’s right, if we use the killing curse it would just kill the part of Voldemort’s soul inside him, not actually kill him” Sirius mimes,
“There also still a chance of him dying though” Remus counters,
“For the greater good, If I die I die, it will be well worth it if it means Voldemort’s dead,” Potter says and Granger scoffs,
“Harry how can you trust Malfoy so blindly! For all we know he’s lying!”
“I’m trusting Sirius!”
“The man who spent 12 years in Azkaban isn’t much better than Malfoy!”
“Sirius is innocent and you know it, Hermione! You were there!”
“I know that! But for all we know he went evil in prison! You need to be more careful, Harry!” Potter rolls his eyes and turns to look at Draco.
“Malfoy, do you have any evidence that these Horcruxes are real?” Draco nods and walks back over to his seat, his bag leans against the leg of his chair, and he reaches down and pulls out Regulus’s, well not diary, his notebook in the shape of a diary? Out from it, he slides it down the table and Potter catches it, he opens it up and everyone leans in closer to see what the book says.
Draco almost smiles in vindication when Granger groans as she realizes that the Horcruxes are in fact real and that it is more likely than not that Potter is a Horcrux.
The adults are talking now, well arguing about the best ways to dispose of every Horcrux, they had kicked Draco, Granger, Potter and the four Weasleys out of the dining room, they sit in the main living area, Draco is once again spread out on the couch like he had been the first time he visited, this time with a book in his hands. Potter and and the three male Weasleys sit on the floor next to the piano, Granger and the She-asley sit on the other sofa, the face each other and engage in quiet conversation, gossip.
“-I think that Eddie Carmichael is pretty cute,” The She-asley says and she and Granger giggle into their hands, Draco snorts as he tries and fails to contain his laugh, Pansy had dated him earlier on in the year and he had heard far too much about the Ravenclaw boy.
“What’s so funny, Malfoy?” Granger asks, Draco grins,
“Eddie Carmichael you say? My dear friend, Pansy, you know her, of course, dated him earlier this year,” Draco fights back his smile, “She said he kisses like a fish,” Granger and She-asley burst out in a fit of giggles,
“No way!” The She-asley says, Draco scoffs,
“She said that she could practically taste the sea life, and then something about how his hands were so sweaty that they left prints on her cheek,” The girls continue laughing and Draco turns back to his book.
“Malfoy? What do you know about Marcus Belby?” Granger asks him and The She-asley hides her face in her hands and groans a “
Hermioneee
”.
Draco groans and shoves the bookmark into his book then shuts it, he sits up, braces his elbows on his knees and wracks his brain, Belby sounds familiar, and then it comes to him,
“He and his family came to one of my Mother’s dinner parties, he ate like a pig, mouth open and everything,” Draco stifles a laugh with his fist, “Astoria told a joke and he laughed and then the food in his mouth went everywhere, but mostly onto her face.” The two girls groan in disgust and turn to look at each other before bursting out into laughter,
again
, and Draco sniffs, holding in a sneeze.
Draco stands and begins his trek for the room’s door,
“Where do you think you’re going?” Potter questions but Draco ignores him and steps into the hallway, he can hear Potter get up and run after Draco but he doesn’t care.
“They said we weren’t allowed to leave, Malfoy” Potter spits and Draco turns around,
“Actually, they said you couldn’t leave, I am not the one who needs to be killed, right now I am unneeded and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, observation clearly isn’t your strong suit, but it is incredibly dusty in here and I am very allergic, I need fresh air,” Draco turns back around and yelps when Kreacher stands in front of him,
“Master Draco is allergic? Master Draco should have told Kreacher, I is cleaning it right away, Master Draco, Sir,” Kreacher summons some sort of magic-duster and begins to dust frantically,
“No! Mr. Kreacher, Sir! It is all right, you don’t need to for me, I am not here that often, it’s fine,” As if on clue Draco sneezes, Potter laughs from behind him, he turns around,
“What?” Draco asks him, he glares into Potters’ soul,
“You Sneeze like a kitten,” Potter giggles, Draco gives him the middle finger, sneezes again, and then grabs the hand to the front door,
“Kreacher encourages Mister Potter to be more respectful to Master Draco,” Draco freezes, he lets go of the door handle and looks at Kreacher,
“You call him Mister but me Master, why?” Draco asks, Kreacher looks at him like he’s stupid,
“Kreacher is loyal to The Black Family, Master Draco is a Black, even if his last name is Malfoy” Draco gasps in realisation and he runs up the stairs.
“Is Master Draco, alright? Is Kreacher upsetting Master Draco?” Kreacher runs upstairs after him and Potter follows him up.
“No, Kreacher, you’ve not upset me at all!” Draco bursts through Walburga and Orion’s - Now Remus and Sirius’ - bedroom door, he opens Walburga’s jewlery box, and he spots exactly what he was looking for instantly, it sits in the box enticingly, practically begging for Draco to pick it up, A Black Family crest Pendant necklace, similar, but also different to the one which ha dbelonged to Regulus. Draco grabs it and holds the pendant his palm, the chain hangs down from his fingers and grags against his thigh as he moves. He throws open the door to the wardrobe and grabs a white silk button-up shirt, which he assumed had once belonged to Orion.
“What is Master Draco doing in Master Walburga and Master Orion’s room?” Kreacher asks as he waddles into the room, finally catching up, and Potter falls through the door behind him and breathes heavily, falling against the doorframe rather ungracefully.
“What the bloody hell, Malfoy?” Potter pants, Draco waves him off and drops to his knees in front of Kreacher, he shoves Kreachers’ thin boney arms through the arm holes of the shirt, and the shirt, now all the way buttoned, sits like a dress on his small frame.
“Master Draco has given Kreacher clothes-” Kreacher starts,
“-Kreacher is free.” Draco finishes, he pulls the Pendant necklace over Kreachers’ head,
“An Heirloom, because Kreacher is part of the family” Draco looks Kreacher in his tired eyes, they swell with a wetness that hits Draco right in the heart,
“Kreacher is ever so grateful for Master Draco’s kindness, but how can Kreacher leave The Noble House of Black?” Kreacher asks him, Draco smiles,
“You don’t have to
leave,
Silly. It’s just so now you don’t have to do whatever Sirius tells you to do, and it’s not like he can kick you out, you’re probably stronger than he is” Draco laughs, Kreacher holds onto the Pendant around his neck,
“Kreacher is a part of the family?”
“Yes, Yes he is, You Sir, are a Black through-and-through, I can tell, and I am basically an expert” Draco stands up and brushes off the dust and dirt from his knees, he walks towards the bedroom door and is disgruntled to find Potter blocking the door,
“What was that about, Malfoy?” Potter asks him, his arms crossed over his chest, Draco rolls his eyes,
“Keep yourself out of my business, Potter” Draco stands tall, sharp nose tilted upward in authority, he crosses his arms right back at him, Potter’s stupid face twists into an annoyed expression.
“Malfoy,” He says, he’s angry, Draco almost laughs at how easy it is to rile him up like this, instead he sighs and lets his shoulders slump, Potter is visibly surprised at Draco’s informality.
“As much as I like my Uncle Padfoot, he treats Kreacher like shit, like he’s subhuman. I like Kreacher, he’s smart, helpful, he deserves to live his own life, not dictated by what Uncle Padfoot says, House Elves are just as intelligent as Witches and Wizards are, I refuse to just sit back and watch someone whom I care about being treated as if he was a slave.” Draco states, he straightens his shoulders and grabs his elbows with opposite hands, Potter looks at him quizzically for a few seconds before replying,
“Well, that’s actually quite a nice thing to do, especially for an evil cockroach like you,” Potter grins, Draco narrows his eyes and thinks of all of the possible reactions he can give to such a comment before he decides on the most appropriate one, Draco pushes his thumb and his pointer finger together and he flicks Potter right on his stupid forehead,
“Ow, What the hell, you git,” Draco pushes past Potter, who is now rubbing the spot where Draco had flicked him like it had actually hurt,
“You’re the git, you git” Draco responds, trudging back down the stairs,
“You’re the one who hit me, Git” Potter says, he follows closely behind Draco,
“You started it, Git. I didn’t even say anything rude to you, I was just defending my right to some privacy” Draco scoffs at Potters’ audacity.
Just as Draco and Potter make it to the bottom of the stairs the door to the dining room swings open and Dora plots out,
“Draco!” She yells and Draco closes his eyes and covers his ears with his hands,
“Oh! There you are, sorry, Kid” Dora pries Draco's hands off his ears,
“Come on, little man, you’re coming to my house tonight, your parents are going to be busy” She exclaims and Draco rubs his brow,
“Number 1, I am literally taller than you, so don’t little man me, Number 2, Nuh Uh am I staying at
your
house, last time you managed to burn the pasta so bad it made the alarm go off and those creepy men in black robes and helmets showed up,” Draco tries to squirm out of her grasp on her arm, but he fails,
“Draco the firemen were not creepy they were coming to put out the fire and protect us,” Dora assures, “And we can go out to eat, come on, I drove” Dora drags him by the back of his coat, Draco takes one last look at Potter, Draco makes pleading eye contact and mouths,
“Save me, Savior”
Potter grins and turns the other way, git.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
In the next few days Voldemort is killed, the Order destroys the Horcruxes fairly easily, Potter survives the Horcrux destroying process, much to Draco’s chagrin, in fact, Potter was the one who actually did kill Voldemort, stupid Potter and his stupid prophecy, the idiotic git followed the Order to where they had tracked Voldemort’s magic, he was found in the old Riddle Estate, he had killed the Muggles that lived there, Draco mourns the poor Muggles silently.
To Draco's absolute pleasure the Daily Prophet had put his face on the article they had written about the death of Voldemort, but to his annoyance, the picture was right next to a picture of Potter, he still hung up the paper on his wall, he definitely doesn’t draw a mustache on Potters’ stupid face, and if he did, so what! And besides, it’s none of your business anyway!
School starts in less than a week, Draco always hates the week before school starts, his parents get all sentimental and clingy and they act like he’s never coming home, on the plus side though, in this state Draco has to put in less effort in convincing his parents to buy them what he wants, he’s already gotten 13 new packs of pens, about 2 dozen new books, 26 new Cassettes and his father is taking him to see Quidditch World Cup live, on personal invitation of Fudge himself to thank him for saving the world from Voldemort or whatever, Draco just hopes he doesn’t have to share a box with Stupid Potter.
Draco is startled by the poof sound that comes from the middle of his bedroom, he looks up from where he lays on his bed,
“Draconis Malfoy!” Dobby exclaims from where he stands in the middle of Draco’s room, Draco is speechless, Dobby has returned?
“Dobby is very proud of Draconis Malfoy for his work in defeating The Dark Lord and for him freeing Dobby’s new friend Kreacher!” Dobby throws his hands up in the air and spins around, Draco is simultaneously confused how and also glad that Kreacher has made friends.
“My god, Dobby,” Draco stands and grabs his small shoulder, “You’re freezing! You are free, Dobby! Why have you not got on any clothes!” Draco shuffles over to his wardrobe where he pulls a green jumper from the stack of clothes he’s yet to put away (new responsibility, the House-Maid, Lucille says it will make him more self-sufficient), and he shoves the jumper over Dobby’s head and onto his thin body, Dobby wraps his arms around himself and spins around again,
“Dobby is ever so happy Draconis Malfoy is being so nice to Dobby and his friends!” Draco shakes his head,
“I am really not that nice Dobby,” Draco Grabs his elbow, sheepishly, Draco doesn’t apologise, but in this instance, he believes it to be necessary, “Dobby, I’d like to apologise, for how I treated you in the past, it was wrong and there’s no excuse for how I treated you, I’m sorry, I will never treat anyone like that again, I promise, and please, call me Draco” Draco looks to his socked feet as he waits for a response,
“Dobby is happy to accept Draco Malfoy’s apology!” Dobby claps his hands together and runs around Draco’s room, he points out what has changed since he was freed excitedly, and he jumps happily when he notices the picture of Potter but scolds Draco once Dobby notices the mustache drawn on Potter’s face, Draco frowns and hits the heel of his palm against his the side of his head, Dobby grabs his wrists, like he had when Draco used to hit himself as a child and Draco stares down at his hands embarrassed.
“I really don’t want to do it, Dobby”
He had cried one night, years ago, Draco was just about the age of 9
, “Dobby knows, Young Master,”
He had said back
, “Dobby knows”
Dobby lets go of Draco wrists when he knows that Draco feel better and begins to jump on Draco’s bed and Draco joins him, because if his Father was wrong about the Dark Lord he had to be wrong about jumping on the bed.
Draco didn’t even realize he missed Dobby until now, and he most definitely doesn’t cry when Dobby leaves, definitely.
(*******)
The day of the Quidditch World Cup is cold and gloomy, the wind smacks Draco in the face and pricks his eyes, as he, his Father and his Mother approach the bridge which leads to the box in which they’ll be viewing from.
“Blimey, Dad. How far up are we?” Weasley’s voice comes from higher up, Draco is slightly relieved knowing that he will
not
in-fact be sharing a box with Potter,
“Well put it this way: If it rains you will be the first to know” His father remarks, Draco grabs his cane and shoves it into his Father’s stomach,
“Don’t be rude, Father. That’s my thing,” Draco sasses, he turns to look at the group of Gryffindors, which happens to have two extra editions; both of which he does not recognize.
“Apologies for my Father’s unkind words. It seems that in his old age, he has lost his filter,” Draco grins, he turns so he’s looking Potter directly in the eye,
“I do hope Potter can still enjoy his day, yes?” Draco grins and grabs his Mother’s arm and begins to walk across the bridge, he shoves his Father’s cane back into his arms,
“You know Draco, I’m really not that old,” His father chides,
“Don’t be silly, Daddy. You’ve got a full head of white hair!” His mother giggles from beside him and his Father groans.
In all honesty, Draco doesn’t really like Quidditch, he had only joined the team because he wanted to annoy Potter, and his Father was more than happy to buy his way in because it kept Draco happy.
(*******)
Draco is only slightly embarrassed that he fell asleep during the game, his cheek imprinted from the press of the shoulder of his Father’s robe. His Father rushes him and his Mother out of the stadium, but not before Draco can see the symbol in the sky, Draco recognizes it immediately, he sees it all the time, the mark is permanently branded into his Father’s arm,
“The Dark Mark” He whispers when his Father activates the Port Key and then he’s at home.
(*******)
Draco is scared. It was his work that helped kill Voldemort, he would have never died if Draco hadn’t found all those Horcruxes. Draco had assumed that because Voldemort was dead that all his followers had either been imprisoned, killed or had just plain given up on the Blood-Purity bullshit, but apparently, he was wrong and now he has a fucking target on his back, and he was the one who fucking drew it in red glitter ink.
The train ride is uneventful, he spends the first half-hour scrubbing his Mother’s cherry red lipstick off his face while Theo and Blaise laugh at him, when he returns to their compartment Astoria and Pansy join in on Theo and Blaises’ mocking, Draco gives them the middle finger. He buys himself a few sweets from the trolley and forces the others to buy their own, “Payback” He shrugs as they give him dirty looks.
(*******)
Dora waves at him excitedly from the teacher's table, she recently took up a job as the Arithmancy Professor, Draco can’t say he isn’t excited to have her as his teacher.
Dumbledore, the ancient imbecile, begins his beginning-of-year speech,
“Well, now we’re all settled in and sorted, I’d like to make an announcement,” Dumbledore bellows,
“Hopefully he’s announcing his retirement” Pansy giggles, Draco does agree, the man really should retire,
“This castle will not only be your home this year,” Filch runs up toward Dumbledore, the idiot probably too senile to notice, keeps speaking anyway,
“But home to some very special guests as well. You see, Hogwarts has been chosen -” Only as Flich is standing right in front of him does Dumbledore notice Filch who is now speaking to him directly in a whisper, Filch turns around and runs out of the Great Hall and Dumbledore continues,
“So, Hogwarts has been chosen to host a legendary event: The Triwizard Tournament!” Whispers of excitement are exchanged throughout the Great Hall, Draco’s stomach drops, all he’s ever heard and read about the Twiwizard Tournament is how dangerous it is! How idiotic for him to hold it here!
“For those of you who do not know; The Triwizard Tournament brings together three schools for a series of magical contests” Draco looks over to his friends,
“I am so going to do this” Blaise mutters to them and Draco gives him a ‘
you’re an idiot
’ look, Blaise sticks out his tongue at him,
“From each school, a single student is selected to compete. Now let me be clear. If chosen you stand alone. And trust me when I say, these contests are not for the faint-hearted” Draco’s stomach churns, he knows Theo will want to compete too, possibly even Astoria would, they’re going to kill themselves, it would take so much convincing to get them not to try to compete!
“But more of that later” Dumbledore resumes, “For now, please join me for welcoming the lovely ladies of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and their Headmistress Madame Maxine!” Dumbledore crows and the doors to the Great Hall bust open, beautiful women in blue uniforms walk in sync, swaying to an invisible song, they are mesmerizing, Draco can’t take his eyes off them, a very tall woman walks behind them, Draco pays her no attention, eyes set only on the girls in front of her, their arms move out from their sides and little blue birds fly out of from their underarms, they bow at the end of the Great Hall and each and every boy at every table burst out into cheers and applaud, the girls look not so happy, Draco understands why, but claps anyway. The tall woman greets Dumbledore and he kisses her large hand, he almost laughs at how small he looks next to her. Dumble raises his arms and begins to speak again,
“And now our friends from the north. Please great the proud sons of Durstrang and their High Master, Igor Karkaroff!” Everyone’s attention is suddenly back on the door again, completely forgetting the women they were once drooling over, men with sticks march into the Great Hall, they hit the ground with them and with every hit the floor sparks bright, they flip their sticks around and chant something in what Draco assumes is Bulgarian, he doesn’t know though since he has yet to learn the language, the men have shaven heads and handsome faces and Draco heartbeat picks up, they run to the end of the Great Hall and do some flips and Draco thinks that maybe he is having a heart attack because surely his heart rate should not be this fast, it has only ever felt like this before when he argues with Potter and that he has a reason for, so why is his heart beating so fast? One of the handsome men, who is on one knee in front of the Podium lifts up his wand and blows a Phoenix made of fire out from his wand and Draco nearly passes out. Igor Karkaroff is also very handsome, Draco notices, sharply defined features are toned down by his age, but he’s certainly aged well.
“Albus” Karkaoff exclaims,
“Igor” Dumbledore returns and the two men hug.
Draco looks up to the teacher's stand, he knows Moony won’t be there, but he checks anyway, secretly hoping to see his scarred face but knowing he will just see the face of his replacement, instead Draco’s stare is greeted with an empty seat, had they cancelled Defense Against the Dark Arts? Or had Snape finally gotten the job and they cancelled Potions? Draco is appalled, he is about ready to complain to Dumbledore himself but then he realises that maybe the teacher is late, which would be unprofessional, but Draco would rather be taught by an unprofessional Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher than not be taught at all, it’s basically a free class as he already knows nearly everything one could possibly know about the Dark Arts, I mean he helped kill Voldemort for Salazar’s sake. He looks at Dora the then back to the empty seat, she shrugs at him.
Four men dressed in all black bring in what looks like a mini tower and place it in front of the podium before they are shoo-ed away by Filch, Dumbledore calls for the students’ attention,
“Your attention, Please!” He roars and the hall goes mostly silent,
“I’d like to say a few words” Dumbledore places a hand on the mini tower, “Eternal glory. That is what awaits the student who wins The Triwizard Tournament. But to do this that student must survive three tasks. Three. Extremely. Dangerous tasks.” Draco grips his thighs and rubs his fingers against the pen in his pocket, his friends really are going to kill themselves if they get chosen! And how could they possibly win against Durmstrang? All of them are so toned it’s insane! Not that Draco was looking! Because he wasn’t!
“For this reason, the Ministry has decided to impose a new rule. To explain all this we have the head of the department of Magical Cooperation, Mr. Bartemius Crouch” Dumbledore introduces and just as Crouch is about to step and begin speaking a flash of lightning hits the Great Hall, and then another and then it’s a full out storm inside, someone from the opposite end of the Hall fires a wordless spell into the air and then the storm is gone,
“Bloody Hell, It’s Mad-Eye Moody” Weasley’s vexing voice echos throughout the Great Hall. But Draco hadn’t needed for Weasley to tell him that it was Moody, Draco had recognized Moody immediately, he’s read stories of him, one of the greatest Aurors of all time, filled half the cells of Azkaban himself, but the job made him go mad. Draco almost feels bad for him, once the greatest of all, now he’s just as mad as a hatter. Moody lurches his way up to the front of the Great Hall, he greats Dumbledore with a shake of the hand and complains about the ceiling then takes a swig from a flask with a skull for the lid, Draco does not think water is in there,
“He really has gone mad,” Draco whispers,
“He’s kind of creepy,” Theo mutters, Draco nods his head in agreement.
Crouch walks back up and begins to speak,
“After due consideration, The Ministry has concluded that for their own safety, no student under the age of 17 shall be allowed to put forth their name for the Triwizard Tournament, This decision is final” Crouch informs and the hall bursts into upset yelling and groans, Blaise and Theo, and as he suspected, Astoria, are all outraged, but Draco cannot be more relieved, he nods to Pansy who seems to be sharing the same sentiment as him.
“Silence!” Dumbledore yells, the chatter trickles away and Dumbledore points his wand at the mini tower, it fades away with his magic and reveals a very large goblet, similar to the one that is currently holding Draco’s pumpkin juice, just much, much larger. A blue flame shoots out of the top of it, Draco knows what this is, he’s only read about once or twice but he’s sure he knows what it is.
“The goblet of Fire,” He mutters, and Dumbledore continues his speech,
“The Goblet of Fire!”
Knew it
, Draco almost says, but he keeps his mouth shut, “Anyone wishing to submit themselves to the tournament need only write their name on a piece of parchment and throw it in the flame before this hour on Thursday night. Do not do so lightly! If chosen, there’s no turning back, as from this moment the Triwizard Tournament has begun”
(*******)
Draco, just his luck, shares a Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Potter, Granger and Weasley, he scoffs and takes a seat next to Astoria, his only friend in the class, excluding Crabbe and Goyle, but he’s not really friends with them.
“Alastor Moody.” Moody says he faces the class but turns his back to them to write on the chalkboard behind him, “Ex-Auror, Ministry malcontent and your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.” He crosses his hands behind his back,
“I am here because Dumbledore asked me. End of story, goodbye, the end.” What a delight to have a teacher so excited to teach! Draco rolls his eyes.
“Any questions?” Moody scans the room with his one good eye, no questions.
“When it comes to the Dark Arts, I believe in a practical approach,” Astoria shoves into him, their thighs touch, it’s the only way she will show her nerves, Draco pats her on the knee and leans forward, interested in what Moody is saying,
“But first, which of you could tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?” Unforgivables? Unforgivables are not supposed to be taught in school! Though Draco thinks it would benefit all students to know how to fight against them, but still, this is not allowed!
“Three, Sir,” Granger says, Draco glares at her,
“And they are so named?” Moody asks, turning again to write on the chalkboard,
“Because they are unforgivable. The use of any one of them will…”
“Earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban, correct” Moody finishes Granger’s sentence,
“Now, The Ministry says you are too young to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you’re up against! You need to be prepared!” Moody turns his back to the class, Draco agrees with Moody, he is very much starting to like him.
“You need to find another place for your chewing gum besides the underside of your desk, Mr. Finnigan!” Moody exclaims, Draco hides a grin with the palm of his hand,
“No way. The old codger can see out the back of his head” Finnigan mutters,
Moody whips around and throws a piece of chalk at him, “And hear across classrooms!” Draco bites his palm and stifles his laugh.
“So, which curse shall we see first?” Moody leans against Potter and Weasley’s desk,
“Weasley!”
“Yes?” Weasley responds, voice shaking in fear, Draco almost laughs out loud at how pathetic it looks, there is no way that he actually finds Moody scary, right?
“Stand.” Moody demands and Weasley rises slowly,
“Give us a curse”
“Well, my dad did tell me about one. The Imperious Curse” Weasley all but whimpers,
“Oh yeah,” He grumbles, “Your father would know all about that. Gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why,” Moody hobbles back toward his desk, he lifts the glass lid of a jar containing a small spider, he lets the creature crawl onto his hand and pulls out his wand, he casts Engorgio on it and it grows 10x its original size, and then he casts Imperio on it and flicks it around the room, Draco grins as his classmates scream in fear, Draco knows the species of Spider is venomous, but it’s under Imperio, it won’t bite unless Moody makes it.
“Don’t worry! Completely harmless!” Moody booms, “Unless she bites, then she’s lethal!” He laughs maniacally as he drops the spider onto Weasley’s head, Draco can’t hold in his laugh.
“You think this is funny, Mr. Malfoy?” Moody looks at him,
“Yes, Sir, I do” Draco replies,
“How about now?” Moody flings the spider to cling to his face, Draco doesn’t scream like Moody so clearly expects him to, he smiles and laughs as the spider's long limbs tickle his face.
“Didn’t you hear me say she’s lethal, Mr. Malfoy?” Moody asks him, Draco’s enjoyment of having the spider on his face seems to have ruined his fun,
“Yes I did, sir” Draco doesn’t look at Moody, his eyes follow the path of the spider on his face,
“Then do you have a Death Wish?” Moody laughs,
“No sir, the spider is under Imperious, she won’t bite unless you make her,” Draco grins and Moody returns it to him,
“Very smart, Mr. Malfoy! 15 points to Slytherin!” The Non-Slytherin groans and the Slytherins cheer happily. Moody pulls the spider off his face,
“What should I have her do next? Jump out the window?” Moody flicks the spider against the window and the laughter in the room dies down slightly, “Drown herself?” The room goes silent, everyone watches in horror as Moody dangles the spider over a bucket of water, he keeps her there for a few seconds before floating the spider back over to himself, landing in his hand.
“Scores of Witches and Wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who’s bidding under the influence of the Imperius Curse. But here’s the rub: How do we sort out the liars?”
“Another, Another.” Many hands go up, including Draco’s, but Moody picks on Longbottom, whose hand is up so low you’d almost couldn’t be able to tell he had his hand up at all.
“Longbottom is it? Up” Moody demands and Longbottom stands up slowly, shoulder hunched like Moody is going to bite his head off, He leans directly into Longbottom’s face.
“Professor Sprout tells me you have an aptitude for Herbology.” Longbottom nods nervously before speaking mousily,
“There’s the, um, the Cruciatius Curse” Moody points his wand at Longbottom's shaking frame and he flinches back,
“Correct, correct! Come, come!” Moody shuffles backward, his wanded hand waving Longbottom closer,
“Particularly nasty” Moody mutters, “The Torture Curse,” Moody almost whispers, Longbottom looks terrified, rightfully so, Draco minds, the Cruciatius Curse is what drove the boys’ parents to insanity.
Moody lifts his wand and casts Crucio onto the spider, the spider screams and squirms around in pain, Draco closes his eyes, the sight bringing back some not-so-fond memories, and the spider screams in agony for all about 10 seconds,
“Stop it! Can’t you see it’s bothering him? Stop it!” Granger Screeches, and then the spider’s screams stop, Draco opens his eyes, and Moody’s eyes are on him, he walks over, the spider in his hand, and drops it on top of Draco’s textbook.
“Mr. Malfoy, you have personal experience with the Cruciatius Curse, don’t you, boy?” Moody asks, Astoria grabs his wrist under the table and squeezes.
“Yes, Sir, I do,” The classroom breaks out into a chorus of gasps and all eyes are on him, he thumbs at the bulge of a pen in his pocket,
“Tell me, Mr. Malfoy, what does it feel like?” Moody stares at him wickedly and Draco takes a breath,
“Like a thousand white-hot knives, like your blood is on fire, like every bone in your body is broken over and over again, in reality, it may only last 10 seconds, but it feels like hours, it’s excruciating” Draco replies, taking extra time to make sure he doesn’t stutter or whimper, Moody hums,
“Thank you, Boy. Now, perhaps you could give us the last Unforgivable Curse, Mr. Malfoy?”
“The Killing Curse, Sir” Draco mutters,
“Correct!” Moody exclaims he raises his wand, Draco closes his eyes and then Moody casts Avada Kedavra onto the spider.
“The Killing Curse. Only person has been known to survive it,” Draco opens his eyes and scowls, of course there couldn’t be one singular lesson where they don’t bring up Saint Potter,
“And he’s sitting in this room” Moody turns to look at Potter and limps his way over and stands over Potter’s desk, he flicks open his flask, the same one with the skull lid and takes a gulp of mystery liquid, that smells so familiar, but Draco just can’t figure out.
“That’s it for today!” Moody exclaims, “Pack up your stuff!”
(*******)
“He’s brilliant, Draco! Demented, insane maybe, but brilliant nonetheless!” Astoria gushes as they walk out of the class,
“Terrifying to be in the same room with, but so bloody brilliant!” She continues,
“I like him,” Draco agrees and Astoria grabs him by the shoulders,
“He’s very clearly mentally deranged, I’m sorry he put you on the spot like that” Astoria hugs him and shoves her head into his neck, he lets his arms hang loosely around her stomach.
“But, he’s so cool!” Astoria pulls away from Draco, “You know, you can tell he looked evil in the eye, just by, like, how he talks!” Astoria continues to squeal like a like a teenage girl at a Beatles concert,
“What is he looking in the eye?” Draco snorts, and Astoria hits him in the stomach,
“You’re such a dick, Draco”
(*******)
The Great Hall bustles with students who are waiting to put their names in Goblet, he and Pansy were dragged here for ‘emotional support’ as Blaise, Theo and Astoria stare at the Goblet like it’s the Mother of their children.
“How much longer are you guys going to just sit here like idiots?” Pansy asks as she collapses over Draco’s lap, and he sets his open book on her stomach, which gains him a middle finger from Pansy but he doesn’t move it.
“Don’t be insensitive, Pansy,” Theo sighs,
“Yeah, we’re mourning,” Astoria adds, looking at the Goblet sadly,
Draco looks at Pansy and they both groan,
“So at least another hour then, I guess?” Draco concludes and she covers her face with her hands.
Abrupt yelling comes from the Weasley twins as they run into the Hall, they hold what appears to be potion vials over their heads, and they run to a group of other students who cheer at their arrival.
“Well, Lads, we’ve done it-”
“-Cooked it up just this morning-”
“-An ageing potion!”
The crowd of students cheers again and Draco scoffs,
“It’s not going to work,” He sings, The Double Weasleys look at him,
“Oh, Yeah?-”
“-And why is that Malfoy?” Draco scowls at their complete idiocy, he points to the age line,
“That is an age line, conjured by Dumbledore” He accentuates every vowel in Dumbledore’s name, “Your Kindergarten Ageing Potion isn’t going to trick Dumbledore’s magic, and even if by some miracle you two make it past that age line, as soon as you put your name in the Goblet it’s going to realise you both are not 17 and it’s going to send both of you flying backward and you are going to hurt yourselves” He scowls, looking the both of them up and down, they look at each other before looking back at Draco, they stare at him silently for a moment, idiots,
“You are not going to fool Dumbledore with a dodge as pathetically dimwitted as an Aging Potion” Draco rolls his eyes,
“But, Malfoy, that’s why it’s so brilliant-”
“-Because it’s so pathetically dimwitted” Draco groans, he looks over to Granger, who looks miserable,
“Don’t even try to save them, Malfoy, I’ve been telling them about how bad an idea this is since they first thought of it” She moans, Draco turns back to the Weasleys,
“Well then, have fun killing yourself, I guess” He shrugs and turns back to his book,
“We will!” They say on cue and Draco can hear their footsteps,
“Ready Fred?”
“Ready, George”
“Bottoms up!” They say in unison, the sound of them jumping across the age line can be heard, aswell as cheers from all around,
Draco is surprised that they made it inside the age line, but he knows that this will not end well, he looks up from his book.
“Ready?” They drop their names into the Goblet and nothing happens?
“Told you, Malfoy,” They say and then as on cue, blue flames fire out of the Goblet and blast them backward, long white hair grows from their head and face and Draco laughs as they roll around on the floor fighting each other.
“Told you so,” Draco sings, and the rest of the students chant:
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
The chants stop abruptly as Krum and his lackeys walk into the room, he silently marches toward the Goblet, eyes fierce, then drops his name into the Goblet as he walks away he catches Draco’s eye and winks, Draco scowls in confusion.
(*******)
The students of Hogwarts wait impatiently for the names to be called, Draco doesn’t understand why people are so excited for this; to watch their fellow students accidentally kill themselves, but Astoria had complained until he finally agreed to come.
“Sit down, please” Dumbledore asks,
“Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for; The Champion selection!” He waves his arm around the room and dims the fires with his hand, wandless and wordless. Dumbledore raises his hands to the Goblet of Fire, he caresses the Goblet in between his hands like it’s delicate, he stands back and then the fire turns pink, then purple then back to blue, a piece of paper flies out of the top, burnt at the edges, still smoking, Dumbledore turns the paper around in his fingers,
“The Durmstrang Champion is Victor Krum” The Durmstrangs bursts into cheers and congratulations, Krum stands up and walks up, he shakes hands with Dumbledore, who then sends him down a hallway.
The Fire turns pink again, then purple then back to blue and another charred, smoking piece of paper pops out the top of it,
“The Champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour” The pretty girls all clap and cheer as Delacour walks to shake Dumbledore’s hand and then walks to same hallway as Krum.
“The Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory” The Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors and Ravenclaws cheer and the Slytherins groan, Draco claps, for Dora’s sake, even though he knows this is more than likely going to lead to Diggory’s death. Diggory shakes Dumbledore’s hand and follows the path of the other champions.
“Excellent! We now have our three Champions! But in the end, only one will go down in history, Only one will hoist this chalice of champions, this vessel of victory, the Triwizard Cup!” Dumbledore points his finger at the fabric-covered object that sits on the podium, placed there by Crouch mere seconds before, the fabric flies off and reveals a glowing blue chalice, it’s gorgeous by any standard, Draco’s friends shove into him and each other mouths agape. Just then the Goblet releases another burst of fire, a charred piece of paper flies out the top and lands in Dumbledore’s hands,
“Harry Potter'' He reads, Draco seethes with anger, realistically he knows that it was probably a prank and was thrown in by an older student but it’s just not fair, of course Potter somehow ends up being the FOURTH Wizard in the TRI-wizard Tournament, and knowing Potter’s luck he’s probably going to win too! Draco crosses his arms and leans against Theo, who leans back into him, clearly also annoyed. The Great Hall is silent and Dumbledore repeats himself, Potter stands up and stalks toward Dumbledore nervously, he shoves the smoking paper into Potter’s face and he grabs it from Dumbledore’s wrinkled hands, he examines the paper and then walks to follow the path of the other Champions.
“He’s a cheat!”
“He’s not even 17 yet!”
Most of the adults that were standing at the end of the Hall follow Potter through the door and disappear, leaving only a few less influential teachers and a crowd of outraged students, they scream and argue and chant about how unfair it is that Potter gets to participate when he’s only 14. Draco groans, he gets up and stalks over to where Dora is sitting at the Teachers’ table, head in her hands.
“Dora,” He whispers, her head snaps up and she grabs him by the shoulders,
“Draco! Do you know how he did it?” She shakes him around,
“No I don’t, but I think it’s bloody bullshit!” Draco crosses his arms,
“Draco, this kid is going to get himself killed! When I was in school and we did the Tournament one of them died and the other two were badly injured! One of them lost both of his legs!” Dora threads her finger through her hair and pulls harshly, Draco grabs her hands and yanks them out from her hair and pins her wrists against the table,
“Dora, calm down! This is Harry Potter we’re talking about, he literally won’t die! It’s his whole thing! He’s the Boy Who Lived, remember?” Draco comforts,
“I’m not so sure that his Boy Who Lived magic will work this time, Kid” Dora sighs, Draco looks to the door where Potter had just walked through,
“Trust me, Dora. This idiot can survive anything. I hate him, you know that, and still, here I am boosting his stupid ego, the dumbass is probably going to somehow win the whole thing” Draco scowls and Dora stands up,
“All of you, to your common rooms now or you’re getting detention!” She yells and they push their way through the doors of the Great Hall, Dora collapses in her chair and groans,
“The kid better live again, or else I’m going to hunt Dumbledore for sport”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It’s just a few days before the first challenge, Draco stalks into the library with quick-footed and feather-light footsteps, he looks around and spots Potter easily, he’s sitting at a table, alone. Draco pulls out the chair in front of Potter and sits, legs spread, Potter groans, “What do you want, Malfoy?” He looks up, and the underneath of his eyes are sunken in, “Wow, Skeeter was right, your eyes really are glistening with the ghost of your past” Draco grins and Potter drops his head onto the table, “Potter,” Potter looks up at Draco, eyes dark and miserable, “Do you remember when I found all the Horcruxes that killed your evil archenemy? Yes? You do? Perfect! So, I was just innocently reading in the Slytherin Common Room, like I so often do! And my fellow housemates were making bets about how long they think you are going to last in the tournament, but to my shock, not one singular one of them bet that you would survive more than ten minutes, but let’s be real, you’re Harry Potter!” Madam Pince shushes him and Draco nods his head in apology, “You’re Harry Potter!” He whispers, “You’re not going to die! But I just wanted to come over here and you know make sure that you will last more than 10 minutes because I may or may not have bet 100 galleons that you would survive more than ten minutes” Potter collapses his face onto the table again groaning, “Oh my god, I’m going to die,” he moans and Draco rolls his eyes, “Potter, I bet 100 galleons in your favour, you better not die, at least not before ten minutes is up, or else,” Draco threatens, “Or else what you Git?” Potter looks up, eyes alive again with anger, “I’ll be so-so-super sad because I’m out 100 galleons?” Draco proposes and Potter sighs like it’s not a good reason, Draco gets a nervous feeling in his stomach in anticipation for what he’s about to say, “And, off the record, I believe in that you won’t die, If I thought you were going to fail I would have been the first to bet” Draco states and he stands and attempts to walk away, Potter grabs his wrist, he turns around confused, “Thank you, Malfoy” Potter says and he lets go of Draco wrist, he nods a ‘ you’re welcome’ and walks away.
(********)
Draco had snuck his way into the kitchen over an hour ago, he had gone around, apologizing to each Elf individually, he is really just now realizing how many Elves there are at Hogwarts, there is a new Elf, and Draco recognizes her from the Quidditch Cup, she had been alone in his box, he was told she belonged to Crouch. She’s wearing a blue dress and matching blue hat, she’s really quite cute, she’s small, probably smaller than an average Elf, her nose is shaped like a tomato and her eyes are huge and brown, she isn’t doing any work, but instead is sat on a stool next to the fireplace, a bottle of butterbeer in her hand, she mutters to herself, “My poor Mr. Crouch, what is he doing without Winky? He is needing me, he is needing my help! I is looking after the Crouches all my life, and my mother is doing it before me and my grandmother is doing it before her…oh what is they saying if they know Winky was freed? Oh the shame, the shame!” The Elf, Winky apparently, cries, Draco’s heart tears apart, “Hello, Ms. Winky, I am Draco, Draco Malfoy,” He extends out a hand that she doesn’t take, “What is Draco Malfoy wanting with Winky?” She slurs and Draco thinks he’s going to be sick at the sight of her, “You said you were freed by the Crouches?” Draco recalls, in his opinion, Crouch was a nasty man, he can’t think of a good reason why Crouch would free his Elf, “Why were you Freed, Ms. Winky?” “Winky did very badly, Sir. I is shameful to my family! Winky is an embarrassment to the Crouch family at the Quidditch Cup!” She cries, Draco kind of wants to hug her, but she looks very dirty so he doesn’t. “Embarrassment,” Draco ponders all that could have happened at the Quidditch Cup that could have resulted in Winky being fired, “The Dark Mark,” He whispers, “Crouch Jr. was a Deatheater, Crouch Sr. is probably one too, he’s been filling your head with Blood Purist Propaganda hasn’t he! And then he gets you to fire the Dark Mark into the sky to intimidate the Order and then you get caught so he fires you so he has no ties to the Dark Lord! That nasty man!” Draco accuses and Winky’s face turns angry, “You is not insulting my Master, Mister! You is not insulting Mr. Crouch! Mr. Crouch is a good Wizard, Mister! Mr. Crouch is right to sack bad Winky! Winky should have been paying more attention to her duties to Master instead of being afraid of the heights!” She defends, Draco sighs and turns around, it really is unfortunate when House-Elves can’t see they are being taken advantage of, to be honest, he’s kind of glad that he had Dobby as a House-Elf so he actually self-aware and not be sad and self-loathing like poor Winky or even Kreacher; who had been miserably performing everything Sirius demands of him because he couldn’t imagine doing anything else, Draco goes to bed sad that night, thinking of poor Winky.
(*******)
“Why so tense, Potter?” Draco yells from the tree he’s sat in, Potter gives him a death glare, “Were you the one who made those badges, Malfoy?” Potter sneers, Draco is taken aback at Potters’ rude assumption, “Well let’s take a look at what we know, 1. I am not wearing a ‘Potter stinks’ badge, 2. I bet in your favour for the Tournament. Why would I purposely set myself up for failure by getting into your head that you stink?” Potter stares daggers through Draco, “I didn’t make the badges,” Draco jumps down from the tree and extends his pinky finger to Potter, “I Pinky promise,” Potter looks down at Draco’s finger, he grabs it with his own Pinky and they shake their hands, “Potter!” Moody’s voice sends Draco backward to the ground, their intertwined fingers pull Potter down with him, Moody hobbles over to where Draco and Potter have fallen into a pile, “Get up, Potter, come with me!” He chides, Potter pulls himself off Draco and looks back at him when he follows Moody inside, “Sorry,” He mumbles, Draco rolls his eyes and lets Theo and Blaise pull him from the ground.
(*******)
To Draco’s absolute pleasure, Potter does last more than 10 minutes in the Triwizard Tournament, unfortunately though, he does survive. The idiot seems to have finally used his brain for once in his life, using his wand to summon his broom to fly while fighting the dragon. Draco wins the bet and collects a whopping 753 Galleons on top of the 100 he put in. “The Yule Ball has been a tradition of the Triwizard Tournament since its inception,” Snape drones, “On Christmas Eve night, we and our guests gather in the great hall for a night of well-mannered frivolity. I expect each and every one of you to be on your best behaviour,” Snape glares at Draco, “Me?! What did I do?! If anyone should be on their best behaviour it’s Pansy! You know how she gets!” Draco complains, and Pansy shoves her elbow into his side and Snape glares at Draco until he’s calmed down, “Tonight, Mrs. Malfoy has ever so thoughtfully offered to teach all of you how to dance, I expect all of you to treat her with the same respect you treat me” Snape steps out of the way and Draco’s mother walks up to introduce herself but Draco speaks before she can, “Mummy? What the bloody hell are you doing here?” Draco asks exasperated, “Draco, were you not listening? I am here to teach your housemates how to dance!” His Mother responds happily, a very fake smile spread across her lips, “I know you’re here to teach dance, I was asking why ” Draco groans, “Because your Uncle Severus asked me, My Dear” His Mother beams, Draco crosses his arms over his chest and collapses into Pansy’s side, she pats his hair and whispers; “Your mum is so hot, Draco” Draco smacks her on the back of her head, and the detention he gets from it is worth it.
(*******)
Draco sits the corner of the library, he reads a Muggle book on something called Calculus. “Malfoy,” Viktor Krum’s heavily accented voice tears Draco’s attention away from his book, “Yes?” He asks as Krum sits himself across from Draco, “I have something to ask you,” Draco stares at him skeptically, “Go on then,” “Go to the Yule Ball V’ith me?” Draco stares at him, mouth agape, “Why do you want to go to the Ball with me?” “V’hat do you mean V’hy? You are handsome, smart, and good in the papers, V’hy v’ouldn’t I want to go with you?” Draco squints at him, “I guess you will be an acceptable enough date, you’re not terribly ugly and quite famous. I will let it be known I have no intentions of taking this further than one date, I am not interesting in dating you and I suspect you are not interested in dating me either. I will wear black velvet robes, wear something that doesn’t clash or I will drop you before we walk in the door, understand?” Krum nods, “I understand, V’e v’ill meet an hour before the Ball begins, outside the hall, good?” Draco nods and Krum walks away with a grin.
(*******)
Draco collapses face first onto the foot of Astoria’s bed, she groans and tries to push him off but he doesn’t budge, “What the hell, Draco, how did you even get into the girl’s dorms?” She pushes her socked feet into Draco’s side, “Ughh” he moans and he turns himself over to look at her, “Viktor Krum asked me to be his date to the Yule Ball,” He tells her, Astoria’s jaw drops in shock, “Oh my gods, no fucking way” She laughs and continues to poke him with her toes, visibly delighted by how disgusted Draco is with it, “Yes, and I said yes,” Astoria squeals, “Draco! You’re going on a date with the Viktor Krum!” She kicks her feet into Draco side so hard he thinks it’s going to bruise, he slaps her ankles, “It’s not a date!” He defends, “I have no interest in dating Krum, but he’s handsome, well liked, and a champion, he makes the perfect Yule Ball partner,” Astoria rolls her eyes, “Oh yeah right, there’s no way you don’t wanna date Krum!” “I don’t! And I have made my intentions very clear!” Astoria laughs, “Only you would get a date with Viktor Krum and then not want to date Viktor krum, Draco” Astoria reaches into her nightstand, she pulls out a copy of Teen Witch and pats the spot next to her on the bed, Draco crawls over.
(*******)
Draco walks into the Great Hall for the Yule Ball, Dress robes fitted around his waist, his arm is around Krum’s and they get several looks of shock. Pansy goes alone, something about female empowerment, Draco just thinks that she’s secretly a lesbian or something, but that could just be projection he supposes. Theo doesn’t come at all and Blaise comes with Millicent. He and Krum spend the time dancing and chatting and ignoring Potters’ stares. Potter has come to the ball with Cho Chang, a very beautiful girl, far too good for Potter, Draco thinks. It seems that the entire time Potter’s eyes are on him, even when he’s dancing with Chang, scratch that, especially when he’s dancing Chang. The entirety of their first dance in front of the entire school Potter stared daggers at him, Draco doesn’t even know what he’s done wrong this time! He’s been civil with Potter and his friends all year! Draco notices that Granger has walked away from her date, who happened to be Weasley, and has sat down by herself. He grabs Pansy by her arms and shoves her over to Granger, “Granger, are you dancing with anybody right now? No? Here dance with Pansy!” He shoves Pansy in front of Granger, “Draco!” Pansy Exclaims, “I’m sorry he’s really weird” Pansy rubs the back of her neck, and Granger stands, “No problem, Parkinson,” Granger smiles and extends her hand, “A dance?” Pansy agrees and then wanders out into the crowd of dancing students. He left Krum a while ago so he could be with his friends, Draco stayed as long s possible but the man has the personalily of a paper cup and he couldn’t handle hearing himself talk anymore. Astoria went with Tracey Davis and they are making dance together in the large crowd, and Blaise is making out with some Ravenclaw in the hallway. Draco sits down where Granger had just been sat and watches as Pansy and Granger make awkward dance with each other. Draco couldn’t help himself, it was obvious the girl had a crush on Granger with how much she talked about her, always about Stupid Granger and her stupid hair, and her stupid teeth, he couldn’t take Pansy’s stupid pining anymore! “Malfoy,” Draco looks up to see Potter standing next to him, his fingers gripping the ends of his robe, “Potter, Chang leave you for someone else?” Draco teases lightheartedly, “Yes, actually” Potter confirms, “Oh, well, sorry then” She was far pretty for him anyway, Stupid Potter and his Stupid hair and his Stupid scar- -And Salazar’s Bones Draco has a crush on Potter. The realisation hits Draco so hard he nearly falls back in his chair, his thoughts spiral but he keeps his composure, “Hermione and Parkinson are dancing together,” Potter says, “Wonderful observation skills, Potter” Draco is suffocating, Potter is so close, his hip is directly next to Draco’s face. Potter flicks him on the side of the head with his finger, “Shut up, Malfoy” And he does, Draco doesn’t reply, he just looks out to where Pansy and Granger have finally gotten onto the same page and are dancing at the same in somewhat unison, “Are you enjoying yourself?” Potter breaks the silence, Draco turns to glare at him, why can’t he just leave already, Draco is having a crisis right now! He grips his thighs and thumbs at the pen in his pocket, “You see Potter, I am here and my date,” Draco points to where Krum is making out with Cedric Diggiory of all people, “Is over there,” He looks up at Potter and ignores the way his heart begins to beat a thousand beats a second, The Durmstrang incident from the beginning of the year is starting to make a lot more sense now, “So what do you think, Potter?” Potter bites his lip and Draco thinks he’s going to die, in probably the most humiliating way possible too, he can imagine the headlines now ‘Malfoy drops dead; Potter too cute’ , “Oh” Potter picks at his cuticle and Draco hits his hand away, “Don’t do that, it’s bad for you” Draco mutters and Potter intertwines his hands, “So, you’re not dating Krum?” Draco scowls, “Of course not, why would I be?” Draco rolls his eyes. Potter doesn’t say anything; or move. “Are you going to do anything or just stand there and look stupid?” Draco asks, Potter rocks from foot to foot and taps his finger against the backs of his hands from where they’re intertwined, “So you’re going to stand there and look stupid, I suppose,” Draco is going to explode, Potter isn’t moving, the smell of Eucalyptus radiates from Potter’s hair, Draco, in a last-ditch effort to get Potter to go away, attempts to scare him off, “If you want to dance with me, Potter, you should just ask” On the outside Draco is grinning, but on the inside he is screaming, if he spends one more second around Potter he doesn’t think his heart will make it, but instead of running away in disgust Potter does something unexpected, “Would you want to maybe dance with me?” Potter asks, Draco laughs and his heart beats against his ribcage like it’s trying to escape, Potter clears his throat and extends his arm for Draco to take, “Oh, you’re being serious?” Draco has died, he has entered a new celestial plane, Draco stands and accepts Potter’s arm, “How can one say no to the one and only Mr. Potter?” Draco grins, his head is spinning and he can’t see straight and he’s so nervous he might vomit all over Potter’s stupid beautiful face. Potter doesn’t lead them out into the crowd, instead, they stay right where they are, Potter’s hand comes to wrap around his waist, and the other intertwines with Draco’s, they sway to the music, but Potter keeps stepping on his toes. “You’re very bad at this,” Draco states, “I know.” Potter replies, he looks Draco in the eyes and Draco’s going to explode, he lifts his hand from Potter’s waist and reaches for his neck, he shoves Potter’s face into his shoulder, “Let me lead,” Draco says and Potter doesn’t step on Draco’s toes as much, but still does, which is surprising as he can no longer see, his face pressed into Draco’s robes. “You smell good,” Potter mentions, forget Butterflies, Draco has a whole fucking zoo in his stomach right now, how did Draco not notice this before? Potter leans into Draco’s neck and sniffs him ? “What are you doing?” “You smell good,” Potter repeats like it will explain why he’s fucking sniffing him and Draco thinks this has to be a dream, Potter surely has to hear how fast his heart is beating right now. “Have you figured out the next clue, yet?” Draco asks, trying to disract himself and Potter shoves his nose further into his neck, “No, when I try to open the egg it just makes a bunch of high-pitched screeching noises,” Potter’s nose runs up and down the collum and Draco’s throat and his hand squeezes Draco’s tighter, Draco hums in thought, “Merpeople, when out of the water, their songs sound like high-pitched screams, but when underwater, it’s understandable, the water deepens the sounds, have you tried that?” Draco asks, and Potter pulls away, he lets his arm drop from Draco’s waist but holds on tight to his hand, “No, I haven’t tried that, Draco, it’s genius!”
Draco.
Potter's eyes are wide with excitement, he lets go of Draco’s hand and runs off, he’s about Metre away when he turns around, and yells to him, “I’m not ditching you! I just really need to figure out this clue! Pinky Promise!”
(*******)
Draco sits in an empty hallway, knees to his chest, book in his hands, Draco likes this hallway, people don’t come down it often so he gets some peace and quiet. “Malfoy!” Draco yelps and throws his book in the air, it falls on his head and then lands on the floor, he coughs and sits himself up straight, “Potter,” He greets, back to Malfoy, he’s no longer Draco apparently. Potter slides down next to him, their thighs press together, he can smell Potter’s shampoo, in fact, his hair is still wet from the shower. “How did you know that would work?” Potter grabs Draco’s book from the floor and holds it to his chest, hostage, Draco realises. “Know what?” Draco asks, he looks at his book, not Potter, hoping to calm his racing heart, “About the egg, how did you know that I’d be able to understand it if I put it underwater?” Potter squints at him and readjusts his stupid glasses, “I used my brain, Potter. I, well you technically, made an observation; when the egg is opened it makes a high-pitched screeching sound. I made a connection; The Merpeople also make high-pitched screeching sounds. I, then made a hypothesis; if the Merpeople’s screeching is understandable underwater it's likely that so is the egg’s” “Oh,” Potter mumbles, he extends his book-clad hand out to Draco, he grabs his book. “I do use my brain, you know” Potter crosses his arms over his chest, “Based on my personal experience with you I disagree but you can believe whatever you want, Potter” Potter grins and hits Draco’s leg with the back of his hand, “Thank you for helping me, I mean it, if I didn’t figure out the clue soon I would have failed” Potter is trying so desperately to make eye contact with him, Draco’s heart is beating against his rib cage like they’re the ones who are enemies, not him and Potter. Draco hates him, he hates Potter, he hates his stupid face and his stupid scar and he hates how bad he wants to kiss him. “It’s really no problem, it’s not like it was hard” Potter smacks him again, a little harder this time, Draco pokes him in his side with long piano-fingers. “Harry! There you are!” Granger calls from the end of the hall, Potter doesn’t stand and instead greets Granger from where he sits next to Draco before going back to poking Draco, who continues to poke him back. “Harry, the first task is soon! You need to figure out the first clue, you can’t waste your time fighting with Malfoy!” She exclaims, and raises her arms to the ceiling then lets them fall to her sides, “Oh, I figured the clue out last night, Mione,” Potter responds absentmindedly, he moves to poke Draco in his armpits, Draco grabs his wrists and pokes his own fingers into his sides, “What! Harry! Why didn’t you tell me? Go on, tell me, what was it? How did you find out?” Granger sits crisscross in front of Potter and Draco, “Well I put the egg underwater in the Prefects bath and it sang me a song,” Potter begins to recall the song, singing is definitely not his strong suit, he hopes Potter’s bad singing voice is enough to put him off his childish crush, it is not. “Come seek us where our voices sounds, we cannot sing above the ground, an hour long you'll have to look, to recover what we took, an hour long you'll have to look, and recover what we took, but past an hour, the prospect’s black, too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back” Potter finishes and Granger glares at him, “How did you think of the idea to put the egg underwater? And do you know what the song means?” Granger grabs Potter by the shoulders and gives him a violent shake, she lets go quickly, but she still holds on long enough for some jealousy to brew deep inside Draco’s gut, “Draco told me to, yesterday at the Yule Ball. I told him about how when I opened the egg it just made screeches, and he made a connection between that and the Merpeople being able to be understood underwater,” Potter pauses as if he’s realises something, he turns to look at Draco, he grabs his arm and forces eye contact, Draco’s heart is in his throat, “Draco,” God fucking damnit, this is it, Draco’s going to die, right here and now, “There wouldn’t be Merpeople in the black lake would there?” Draco’s heart pounds violently in his chest, “Yes, of course, there are” Draco thanks anyone he can think of, God, Merlin, The Ancients, anyone, for the fact that he doesn’t stutter during his reply, Draco cringes just imagining how embarrassing that would have been, Potter turns to look at Granger, not letting go of Draco’s arm, “So the Black lake is where the next task will be held, obviously, and then you have an hour to complete the task, also obvious, but potentially problematic,” Granger furrows her brows in thought, “Potentially problematic? When’s the last time you held your breath underwater for an hour, Hermione?” Potter snaps, he leans closer into Draco’s side and squeezes his arm a little tighter, it’s like he knows and is purposefully trying to kill Draco, “I’m trying to help you, Harry!” Granger breathes out a sigh, calming herself down, “Look, we can do this! And we have Malfoy to help us now, I'm sure we can think of something! We always do!” Draco scowls at her in confusion, “Oh, you have Malfoy now, do you?” Draco snarls, she looks at him, “Yes. We do.” Granger says with the sternness of a Mother, Draco raises the hand of his free arm in defeat and nods a yes, “Yes. Yes, you do.” she turns to look back at Potter, “Have you thought of using a potion of some kind?” Draco asks but cuts Granger off just as she’s about to speak, “No, that wouldn’t work, it would take weeks to brew a potion powerful enough to last an entire hour,” Granger sighs deflatedly, clearly she had been interested in the idea. Draco starts to run through his brain, anything about underwater breathing that wasn’t a potion. Draco blinks in shock, why is he helping Potter? Potter is his enemy, stupid crush or not! He’s on the verge of standing up and walking away, he turns to look at Potter, whose gripping onto his arm so tight his knuckles are white, his face is worried, and he looks so damn cute, and fuck. Draco decides that Granger is too scary to be messed with, definitely, Granger is the one who changes his mind. He begins to search his mind again, maybe plants? He runs through the catalogue of plants in his brain when he finally gets to one that would be helpful, “Gillyweed?” Draco looks at Granger, who looks back at him with confusion, “What’s that?” Granger asks, “It’s a plant, I read about it in a book I read from the Crouch’s library, I borrowed it secretly during a gala a few years back. In theory, the effect: water-breathing, should last long enough for Potter to ‘Recover what they took’” Potter and Granger stare at each other like they're having a conversation with their eyes, Potter turns to look at him once more, “Draco,” Holy shit, Potter needs to stop doing that, especially when he’s this close, “Do you know where I could find this, what? ‘Gillyweed’ you said?” Draco bites the inside of his cheek, Potter bores holes into Draco's eyes with his huge green ones, Draco clears his throat, “Not really, you’d have to ask around, maybe Professor Sprout, possibly Longbottom if he likes Herbology as much as Moody says, maybe the kitchen Elves? They have access to loads of things students and teachers don’t, um, maybe Snape’s potion ingredient stash?” Draco answers, Potter and Granger look at each other and have another eye-conversation, the both stand abruptly and walk swiftly down the hall, they get quite far before Potter and Granger turn around in unison, “Are you not coming?” Potter asks, he sounds a little sad at the prospect but Draco assumes it’s just nerves because of the next task. “I wasn’t planning on it, I helped you like Granger said I would, didn’t I?” He sneers and grabs his book from the floor next to him, he opens it back up in his lap, and looks up when Potter speaks again, “Oh,” He says, it sounds so incredibly sad, pathetic almost, Draco is confused, “Well then I’ll see you later I guess, thank you for your help, I mean it. Goodbye, Draco!” Potter smiles, “Thanks, Malfoy!” Granger speaks and then she and Potter turn around and run away, Draco shakes off his shoulders, he lets the arm Potter had been holding wave around randomly, trying to remove Potter’s touch, accidentally hitting the wall a few times, Draco attempts to shake away his stupid crush on Potter, it doesn’t work. Draco groans and continues to read his book.
(*******)
Draco hates Harry Potter, he does, really! Last year the thought of Potter dying would have made him so happy he’d jump and click his heels together, but right now, there is a very real possibility that Potter actually will die. Draco is not overjoyed by this idea, in fact, the thought makes him want to throw up. Stupid Potter! Stupid Potter and Draco’s stupid crush on him. Goddamnit Draco hates him! Draco covers his eyes, it doesn’t help much with Astoria explaining everything happening in excruciating detail, Pansy sits on his other side, somehow, amongst the cheering and yelling and everything she has managed to fall asleep, she slumps against Draco’s side, her face smooshed into Draco’s shoulder, her mouth wide open and a trail of drool down her chin, Blaise and Theo sit next to each other next to Astoria, they are yelling and cheering along with her. Draco does not want to be here, he really doesn’t! He just - wants to see if his idea worked! Yes, that’s it! That’s why he came! Not to see Potter soaking wet and - nope! Draco pushes the thought far away from his mind, flashes of James Potter, completely nude spawn in Draco’s mind and he wonders if Potter looks anything like his dad naked, he shutters, and pushes that thought away further than he did the first one, Potter really does look so much like his Father, it’s almost a little off-putting, especially for Draco who has seen Potter Sr. naked and fuck, he’s thinking about it again! Draco opens his eyes, deciding the vomit-inducing anxiety of Potter dying is more bearable than James Potter’s naked body. Weasley and whoever was taken for Delacour pop out of the water together, they are dragged to the dock by Delacour from where she sits on top of it, but Potter is nowhere to be found, the effects of the Gillyweed have to have worn off by now, and a surge of panic hits Draco in the chest, he’s fucking killed Harry Potter! The Boy Who Lived! Killed! By Draco Malfoy! Oh fucking hell! Just as Draco has accepted the fact that he’s now complicit in the death of the Savior he shoots out of the water and lands harshly on the dock, Draco nearly cries of relief - not because of the fact he’s glad Potter isn’t dead, no definitely not that - but because he doesn’t have to deal with the guilt of being the one who caused him to die, of course, obviously. Everyone around him goes wild, his friends included, somehow, Pansy doesn’t wake, Draco coughs awkwardly and claps as best he can without waking her. Potter spits water everywhere, before he stands he shakes himself off, splashing water onto everyone near, including Dumbledore to Draco’s secret amusement. Potter examines the stands with his eyes, clearly looking for someone. Even from how far away he is, Potter's eyes seem to catch Draco’s, Potter waves with his full arm in his direction, Draco looks behind him, expecting to find She-asley or one of Potter’s other friends, but no one sits there, just some more older Slytherins, Potter is waving at him, Potter, is waving, at him , out of everyone, all of his friends, he’s waving at Draco . Draco ignores the blush that creeps up his neck all the way to his hairline and waves back, Potter’s smile gets impossibly brighter. Potter is smothered in towels by his entourage and Delacour grabs Potter by the face and kisses him on both cheeks, a wave of fury and jealousy hits Draco and he reminds himself that it’s Potter, Potter is him enemy. He hates Potter. A crush will not change that. He refuses to be jealous over Potter. He looks away and tries to wipe the memory from his brain, it’s just a crush, he reminds himself, there’s no need for jealousy, especially over Potter. He looks back over to Potter, who is covered in towels and is smiling idioticly like he didn’t just almost die, and Draco is truly fucked, because even now, as stupid as Potter looks, Draco’s heart begins to race. Diggory wins the challenge, of course, Draco already knew this as he emerged from the water with Chang first (Draco wonders how Krum feels about that, and the same for Diggory as Krum pulled some Gryffindor girl out of the water). Potter is given second place, because of his ‘outstanding moral fibre’ Draco rolls his eyes, that is complete bullshit, just more Potter privledge, Theo boos but Astoria smacks him on the back of his head and he shuts up quickly enough.
(*******)
Crouch, Potter and Moody engage in conversation at the edge of the forest clearing where the path back to Hogwarts was, Moody says something, apparently jarring to Crouch, who approaches, looks Moody in his one good eye and then walks away, “And they say I'm mad!” Moody exclaims and takes a sip from his flask, and then walks away, Draco avoids eye contact with Potter, still embarrassed at the fact that he had just gotten jealous over him, unfortunately for Draco, his method of avoidance does not work. “Draco!” Potter exclaims and walks hastily over to Draco and grabs his by the arm, “I’m going to take him off your hands for a few minutes, thanks” Potter nods curtly at his friends who apparently see no problem with Potter kidnapping him. Potter drags him to the edge of the forest, and pulls him a little further than where he had been talking to Crouch and Moody, “Your Gillyweed idea worked,” Potter states, he wraps his arms around himself and shives as the cold wind blows into their sides, “Clearly it did, you’re still alive, aren’t you?” Potter smiles and pokes Draco’s arm, his heart is beating so fast he can hear every beat pound against his ribcage. “I am, thanks to you, so thank you” Potter wraps his arms around himself tighter and shoves his face into the towel wrapped around his neck, clearly searching for warmth, “Are you cold? That’s a stupid question, you’re obviously freezing,” Draco shrugs his coat off his shoulders and drapes it over Potter’s, Potter throws the towel from his neck to the forest floor and shoves his arms through the arms of Draco’s coat, Draco removes his scarf and drapes it over Potter’s neck, he stands back and takes in the absurdity of Harry Potter wearing a Slytherin scarf, not only a Slytherin scarf; Draco Mafloy’s Slytherin scarf. Potter shoves his hands in the Pockets of Draco’s coat, “So, how do I look?” Potter jokes, he lifts his eyebrows up and down before he giggles, Draco chokes. “You look,” Draco freezes, very cute, Potter looks so incredibly cute in Draco’s coat and scarf, “Stupid, you look so very stupid” Potter shoves him with his elbow, “Shut up, Git, they’re your clothes, so I guess you look stupid too, then?” Potter stands close, he leans his shoulder into Draco’s, he smells terrible, like fish, it should turn him off but he still has the urge to kiss him. “No, you imbecile, they’re my clothes, they obviously look good on me, just not on you” Draco sniffs and crosses his arms, thankfully, Potter leans away, and snorts out a laugh, “Yeah right, you git” Potter smiles and Draco doesn’t think he can be near him anymore. “I’m leaving now. Goodbye, Potter” Draco turns and walks away, he gets a solid three steps before Potter speaks again, “Draco,” He stops and turns around to look at Potter, he doesn’t speak, just lets Potter continue, “1, Call me Harry. 2, No one else is around, who knows what could happen to me? Walk me to my common room?” Potter grins with his teeth, “Well if the Chosen One asks you to walk him to his dorm then how does one say no?” Draco joking extends his arm for Potter to take, “Come on, I haven’t got all day, Harry” Draco cringes, the use of a first name is far too intimate, for friends and family only, and Potter is his enemy, crush or not. Potter prances over and takes Draco’s arm in his own, they get several weird stares along the way, Potter for some reason seems to love the stares, grinning proudly at anyone who dares look at them, Potter’s behaviour confuses Draco. When they arrive at the Gryffindor common room Potter returns Draco’s coat but claims the scarf as his own and shuts the door to the common room before Draco can protest.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The day Bartemius Crouch Sr. dies is a good day for Draco Malfoy. That foul prick of a man certainly deserved it, especially after what he did to poor Winky, he had sort of hoped Winky had come to her senses and killed him herself, but after checking up on her that does not seem to be the case, she dislikes Draco even more now and spent the whole time he was there crying and drinking a butterbeer. The fact that the Triwizard Tournament was still allowed to continue on was not a surprise, but still disappointing. There is no way having a huge competition will be safe for the students, Draco thinks, but it was Dumbledore’s decision, so again; not very surprising. The courtyard is cold, the crisp morning air smacks him in the face but Draco doesn’t mind, he reads a Muggle history book about Germany, his back against a tree. “Draco,” Potter sits next to him, the sides of their bodies are pushed flush together, “Potter,” Potter scoffs, “I thought I told you to call me Harry” Draco looks up ready to argue but is frozen upon seeing Potter wearing his scarf, Draco struggles to find his words, “Fine, Harry.” He decides, and he looks back to his book and tries to breathe, Potter grabs Draco’s wrist and squeezes, clearly trying to gain his attention, “Snape called my use of Gillyweed ingenious,” Potter begins, “I don’t expect anything less considering it was my idea” He brags and hopes Potter doesn’t hear the struggle in his voice, “Yeah, well then he accused me of stealing his ingredients to make Polyjuice Potion,” Potter rolls his eyes and leans into Draco’s side like it’s something they do, like they’re not enemies, like they don’t hate each other. “Well, were you?” Draco shuts his book in his lap, there is no way he is going to get any reading done with Potter this close to him, “No, you idiot, I have to reason to make a Polyjuice, Infact I was wondering if you might know anything about this?” Potter’s grip on his wrist tightens and Draco turns to look at him offended, “Are you implying I had something to do with that? Because I don’t idiot, I have no use to change myself, at least for right now” Draco crosses his arms and raises his chin, Potter doesn’t let go of his wrist, and his arm is dragged rather ungracefully across Draco’s lap, he pulls Draco’s arm back from his chest and pulls in into his lap, where he pulls and squeezes and Draco’s fingers, Draco turns beet red. “I wasn’t implying anything you, you presumptuous pillock, ha! You remember that one, don’t you, from last year,” Potter smiles and begins to crack Draco’s knuckles, “I was simply asking if you knew anything about it, you’re smart you know things, I thought that you might know something about this” Potter reaches for Draco’s other hand and begins to crack his knuckles on that hand as well, “Well, I guess it was rude of me to assume,” Draco sniffs, he looks at his fingers that Potter are playing with, it’s something he’s seen him do with Granger, so it’s not completely off-putting. “Yes, it was,” Potter grabs onto both of his hands and pulls him up abruptly, Draco’s book falls to ground and the pages wrinkle, before he can complain Potter pulls him so close he can smell his own cologne on the scarf Potter is wearing, “Take a walk with me, will you? In the forest,” Potter doesn’t let go of either of Draco’s hands and pulls him in the direction of the forest before he Draco can even answer. “My book!” He complains, “You can get it later!” Draco groans and makes a mental note to buy a new one the next time he visits the Muggle shops as it’s going to be gone by the time he returns. They walk about 30 paces into the forest before Potter stops abruptly, he and Draco face each other, their hands still connected in between them, “What the hell?” Draco gulps as Potter stares deep into his eyes, “I think Moody has something to do with Barty Crouch’s death,” Potter keeps eye contact not looking away for a second, Draco is having a hard time breathing, “And you’re telling me this why?” Draco can’t believe he has a crush on someone as idiotic as Potter. “Like I said earlier, you’re smart, you know things!” Potter squeezes his hands, “Did you know Barty Crouch has a son, Barty Crouch Jr., he was a Deatheater, one of Voldemort’s followers, I saw him in one of Dumbledore’s memories in this water bucket thing. I’m thinking that maybe Barty Crouch Sr. had something to do with the Voldemort stuff too and Moody is an Auror right, so he wants to get rid of the Dark Magic, but he had no proof that Crouch was doing Dark Magic, so he just killed him!” Potter exclaims, “In a pensieve? You know that would explain the Dark Mark in the sky at the Quidditch Cup, Crouch was there! They blamed his House Elf, Winky for it! It was him! He’s a Deatheater!” Draco realises. “Dark Mark?” Potter asks, confused, “At the Quidditch Cup, the symbol in the sky, The Deatheaters get a tattoo of it on the inside of their arm to show their support of Voldemort,” Draco swallows, “My dad has one, that’s how I know what it looks like” Potter furrows his brows, “I saw Igor Karkaroff, when Snape accused me of stealing Polyjuice, he was showing off a tattoo that looked like that symbol to Snape, it was on the inside of his arm! And in the memory, I saw he was the one who sold out Barty Crouch! Blimey! You don’t suppose it was him who killed Barty Crouch?” “Hm, I still think Moody makes more sense, but Karkaroff also makes sense, maybe he was defending himself against Crouch? It’s possible that Crouch had attacked him for sending his son to jail?” Draco proposes, Potter squeezes his hands again, he spreads Draco’s arms open and shoves his face into Draco’s neck just like he did at the Yule Ball, Potter takes a deep breath in and seemingly inhales Draco’s scent. “In Dumbledore’s memory Crouch Sr. says that Crouch Jr. isn’t his son, but it’s possible that was just for show,” Potter runs his cold nose up and down the warm collum of Draco’s throat. “You really shouldn’t be worrying about this, you need to prepare for your next task, I don’t think that Karkaroff or Moody is going to muder anyone else considering the motives behind their crimes” Draco scolds and Potter laughs into his neck, “You sound like Hermione, Prat” Draco rolls his eyes and takes in how absurd this situation really is, Harry Potter, his enemy, is hugging and fucking sniffing him in the middle of the forbidden forest, after telling Draco something that he could easily use against him! For all he knows Draco is evil and working with the The Deatheaters to kill him! Potter is a bloody idiot! He couldn’t have told anyone else about this! He’s sure Granger would have been useful in this situation, the girl seems to know almost anything, it had really shocked him when she hadn’t known what Gillyweed was. “Now what do you boys think you’re doing?” McGonagall asks, Scottish accent heavy on her tongue, Potter doesn’t let go, instead, he pulls his head out of Draco’s neck and turns it around to look at Professor McGonagall, “Nothing, Professor” Potter replies, he smiles, McGonagall does not return it. Potter looks down at glares at the first year Ravenclaw boy who it appears has ratted them out to McGonagall. “Come on boys, to my office,” She sighs and turns around, Potter threads his arm through Draco’s and they follow her to her office.
(******)
McGonagall’s office is warm and the chairs are comfortable, Potter sits on a chair next to him, munching on McGonagall’s biscuits, the door to McGonagall’s office bursts open, “Professor McGonagall- Draco?” Dora walks closer and stands next to his chair, she gives him a look and he scowls at her, “What are you doing here?” She asks, snatching the plate of biscuits away from Potter who frowns, “I got caught in the forbidden forest,” “With Potter?” She grins. “With Potter.” Draco sighs and Dora laughs in his face, and it takes an amazing amount of strength not to hex her. “You’re such an idiot, Dray,” Dora grabs a handful of biscuits and ruffles up Draco’s hair. “I’ll talk to you later, Minnie” Dora walks out the door and just as she leaves, his parents arrive, as well as Mrs. Weasley. His Mother and Father sit in chairs next to him and Mrs. Weasley sits next to Potter. He cannot think of any possible reason why his parents would need to be called because he went into the forbidden forest, he did the same thing in his first year and they didn’t call his parents, maybe they’ve updated the rules, or maybe it’s strike system and if you get two strikes they call your parents? No, that doesn’t sound right, it couldn’t possibly be that. “Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter were found in the forbidden forest together, as you know, students are prohibited from entering the forest unless instructed by a member of Hogwarts staff,” Draco taps his fingers on his knee nervously, his Mother rests her hand over his and squeezes. “Draco, what were you and Potter doing in the forbidden forest together?” His Father drawls, and Draco swallows, he trusts his Mother and Father to know about the theories that he and Potter were discussing, but is unsure of Mcgonagall and Mrs. Weasley, “Nothing, Daddy” Draco lies and McGonagall tuts, “No offense to you, Mr. Malfoy, but what I saw did not look like nothing,” Potter’s eyes widen, “What exactly did you see?” He asks, his eyes look at Draco, while his head faces toward McGonagall, “Yes, what did you see, please do tell, Professor” Mrs. Weasley chimes in, Potter picks at his cuticles nervously, Draco slaps at his hand and scolds him with a glare. “Well, Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter appeared to have been-” Mcgonacall clears her throat, “-Kissing” Draco freezes, kissing Potter? They were hugging for fuck’s sake! Salazar’s Bones! How is he supposed to explain that Potter and him were not kissing but Potter was explaining his Murder Conspiracy Theory and then got touchy? Draco’s scarf wrapped around Potter’s neck seals the deal, there is no way he is going to convince his parents he is not dating Potter, well, maybe his Father, but his Mother, never. Potter looks at him, Draco returns his stare, Potter gives him a look that screams ‘ I’m going to do something stupid ’ Potter grabs Draco’s hand with his own, “Draco and I are dating!” He exclaims, full confidence, if Draco wasn’t in on the lie he probably would have believed it, “Right, Dear?” Potter smiles at him and pleads with his eyes for Draco to play along, “Yes, Darling” Draco cringes at himself, “Harry, I love and support you no matter what, you know that, but Draco Malfoy?” Mrs. Weasley asks, she squeezes Potter on the arm, “What’s wrong with Draco?” Potter defends, he said it so quickly Draco almost tricks himself into believing that Potter actually cares that Mrs. Weasley thinks Draco’s a good person. Draco heart rate picks up, his hand is warm where Potter holds it, and his face is so hot he thinks he could boil a tea kettle. Mrs. Weasley purses her lips in thought for a few seconds before she answers, “Nothing, Harry. Nothing at all. I’m so very happy for you” Mrs. Weasley smiles and kisses Potter on the head, Draco turns to look at his parents, “Draco-” His Father begins, “Nope! Absolutely not! We can have this conversation another time, when we are alone!” Draco demands, his Father nods and his Mother gives him a smile then grabs his face and smothers him kisses, Draco feels his Mother’s lipstick on his face and is remind of how hard it was to take off the last time, he groans, his Mother lets go of his face and stands up, she walks over to Potter and grabs his face in between her two hands, “Oh, Draco, such a pretty boy, you’ve gotten yourself!” His Mother grins and then plants kissed all over Potter’s face, he frowns confusedly at first, but smiles and laughs as she goes on, “Oh, I love him, already! Draco, he’s so perfect!” She squeezes Potter’s face in between her hands, Potter’s face is covered in cherry red kiss stains, and a goofy smile is plastered on his face. “Mummy! You’re going to scare him off!” Draco’s voice cracks, he clears his throat, “Oh, alright” His Mother kisses Potter’s face one last time, sighs and sits back down in her own seat, McGonagall coughs, “Both Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter will be given two days detention,” Mcgonagall explains. Two days! Two days! “Detention! He’s going to kill himself if he doesn’t train for the next task!” Draco squeals, his voice cracks again and he coughs awkwardly, “Mr. Malfoy-” “No! You can’t just let him die! I’ll take his detentions! How about that?” Potter grabs his arm and squeezes gently, Mcgonagall sighs, “I suppose that could work Mr. Malfoy”
(*******)
It takes his parents 15 minutes to say goodbye, his Father hugs him for most of it, claiming his Mother had gotten enough time with him when she was kissing him earlier. He attempts to rub his Mother’s lipstick off his face, but he likely just smears it all over. “Draco!” Draco yelps and falls to the floor, Potter runs over and offers him his hand, a smile blesses his already beautiful face, and fucking hell Draco hates him. Draco groans and lets Potter pull him off the floor, his Mother’s lipstick is still all over face, “You know it’s going to be really hard to keep up with this lie, idiot” Draco lets go of Potter’s hand and brushes himself off, Potter shifts uneasily from foot to foot, a nervous smile on his face, “What?” Draco demands, he crosses his arms over his chest and squints his eyes, “Well, you know, it doesn’t have to be a lie,” Potter murmurs. What could that possibly even mean? Potter is such a bloody idiot. “What?” Draco chokes out and Potter wraps his arms around himself, “Well, you see, um, I like you, like really like you, Draco. I have a very huge crush on you,” Potter squeezes his elbows nervously, Harry Potter. Has a crush. On him. Draco Malfoy. Harry Potter has a crush on Draco Malfoy. His heart beats rapidly in his chest, his breaths slow down, his vision fleets and then darkness.
(*******)
He wakes up in the hospital wing 30 minutes later, His Mother and Father dote on him for about an hour before they finally leave because of work, his friends come in shortly after, he begrudgingly explains what happened in full detail, starting from being caught in the forest, they make fun of him until lunch time when they are forced to leave to eat, Madam Pomfrey doesn’t let him leave, and tells him she wants to keep him until dinner time just to make sure he doesn’t faint again. He’s three bites into the blandest vegetable stew he’s ever eaten when Potter bursts into the hospital wing, he spots Draco instantly and walks over to his bed sheepishly, hands held behind his back, he lowers himself on to the chair next to Draco’s bed slowly, “Hi,” Potter smiles nervously, “Hello” Draco another bite of warm vegetable water. “Good stew?” Draco glares at him and Potter turns red and coughs into his arm awkwardly, “Are you okay?” Potter asks, “I’m fine, I have to stay until dinner though” Draco sighs, he gives up on eating the nasty stew and stirs it in circles, the repetition calms him a bit. “Oh,” Potter murmurs, Draco bites the inside of his cheek, “About what I said before you fainted, um, I, er-” Potter stumbles over his words, Draco is sure he’s going to take it back, and tell him it was a joke or that he was wrong, there’s a pang in Draco’s chest, and he rubs at the pen in his pants pocket. “Take your time, I’m not allowed to leave until dinner” Draco rolls his eyes like his heart isn’t beating so fast he thinks he’s dying and continues to play with his dirt stew. “It might take me that long to be truly honest,” Potter is such a buffoon, Draco thinks, how can he possibly have fallen for someone this idiotic, he really needs to hurry up and break Draco’s heart and go away so Draco can breathe again. Potter takes a second before continuing, “I really like you, Draco” He was not expecting that, his face flushed red and his stomach does a summersault, “And I know were supposed to be enemies or whatever, but you’ve helped me alot this past year and I think were past that as people, we’ve both grown alot, don’t you agree?” Draco swallows a bite of nothing and nods his head yes, Potter grins in the corner of his eye. “I really like you and I really bloody hope you like me too. I was wondering if maybe you’d like to be my, like, I don’t know, boyfriend?” Potter reaches for his free hand and Draco lets him intertwine their fingers atop Draco’s thigh, Draco is surely as red as the lipstick on his face, his hand is grossly sweaty and Potter most definitely feels it and his heart is beating so fast it hurts. “How would it work exactly?” Draco doesn’t look at Potter, and continues to stir his stew in circles, “What do you mean?” “You do realise associating with me would probably be bad for your reputation right? Just because I helped kill the Dark Lord doesn’t make me a good person. I am a bad person, Harry, I have done and said bad things, and people haven’t exactly forgotten what my family has done in the past” Potter squeezes his hand and Draco forces himself not to look at him. “I don’t care about my bloody reputation, Draco. And besides that, you are a good person, I’ve seen it, like I said earlier; you’ve helped me so many times this year already, I see you defending Muggleborns to your housemates and I see you educating yourself on Muggle things and I saw how you treated Kreacher and when I visited Dobby he said so many nice things about you, and so did many of the other House Elves in the kitchens!” Potter’s other hand, the one not intertwined with Draco’s, reaches up and the backs of his fingers rest upon Draco’s hairline, it reminds him of his Mother when she checks if he’s sick. “You’re a good person” He whispers, “I know it, and I know I like you, and I know I don’t care about my stupid reputation. I like you, okay? Really, it’s kind of embarrassing how much I like you, alright? Honestly, I like you a humiliatingly big amount. And what other people think won’t change that for me. Draco.” Draco leans into Potter’s touch and squeezes his hand, “Skeeter is already on your ass because of the Tournament, Harry. If she finds out there’s no telling what she’ll write, you know how she likes to come up with lies” Potter frowns, “Fuck Rita Skeeter, and anyone else who tries to decide who I want to date. Let them talk, it doesn’t matter, Draco. Because I know the truth, I know you’re a good person and Skeeter’s stupid opinion on you isn’t going to change that” Draco breathes out through his nose, Potter is his enemy! But he isn’t really, is he? Enemies don’t help each other win Tournaments, or worry about each other’s wellbeing, or take each other’s scarves. They may not be enemies, but he hates Potter! Right! Right? Oh fucking hell. Draco supposes he hated Potter when he was younger, fueled by jealousy and the anger of Potter’s wasted potential. But he doesn’t hate Potter, not right now, at least. He drops his spoon and lets it slide to the bottom of the bowl of stew, it’s handle just barely pokes out of the top of the nasty liquid, he tears his eyes away from the bowl to stare at their intertwined hands. “Okay” Draco concludes, “Yes? You’ll be my boyfriend?” Potter beams, Draco finally looks at him, he’s smiling so big all of his teeth are on display, and his pupils have grown so huge he can barely see the small ring of green around the edges, “Yes, I will be your Boyfriend, Harry” Harry - not Potter, he’s Harry - jumps forward and wraps his arms around Draco’s shoulders, his face is once again shoved into Draco’s neck, he narrowly misses spilling Draco’s stew, he stays there for a few seconds before he pulls back and throws himself back down into his chair. “So, now that you’re my boyfriend, do you mind getting me some actual food? This is disgusting” Draco scowls as he stares down into the bowl of stew, Harry stands up so fast that his chair goes flying backwards, “Yes, of course I can, I’ll be back!” Harry sprints to the door and is gone quickly.
(*******)
Harry somehow knows that Draco is a Vegetarian, but had no idea what he wanted so he just got him a bit of everything, Draco is content with it. They discuss the next task and he scolds Harry for being here instead of training for it. “I’d rather be here with you” “I’d rather you survive, idiot”
(*******)
Draco is incredibly worried for Harry’s safety. He heard that there are terrible things in the maze, deadly things! Bloody hell, he’s just got a boyfriend and now he’s gonna fucking die! The maze is in the middle of the Quidditch Pitch, Draco and his friends sit in the stands, he doesn’t like the yelling, but is willing to put up with it for his friends sake, and Harry’s, of course. Dumbledore shushes the crowd then begins to speak, “Earlier today, Professor Moody placed the Triwizard Cup deep within the maze. Only he knows its exact position!” Draco's stomach sinks, he doesn’t know why, maybe it’s Harry’s theory on him being a murderer, or maybe it’s just his suspicious aura, but Draco has a terrible feeling about this. Draco grips his knees and calms himself down, Moody is a Professor, he was an Auror, he might be a little scary but he would never knowingly kill an innocent child, no matter how mad he is. Draco breathes normally again. “Now, as for Mr. Diggory and Mr. Potter-” The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs cheer loudly, Draco forces his eyes to stay open, for Harry, but he covers his ears with his hands, “-are tied for first position they will be the first to enter the maze followed by Mr. Krum and Ms. Delacour. The first person to touch the cup will be the winner!” “I’ve instructed the staff to patrol the perimeter. Should, at any point, a contestant wish to withdraw from the task he or she need only send up red sparks with their wands. Contestants!” Dumbledore huddles the Champions together and he tells them something, Draco can’t hear what he says to them, they break up and stand around the entrance to the maze, “Champions! Prepare yourselves!” “On the count of three! One,” A cannon shoots off too early and Harry and Diggory enter the maze, Krum and Delacour following shortly after. Draco can’t see inside the maze, the thought of Harry getting hurt flashes in his mind more than a few times, Draco has no idea what could possibly be in the maze, and he doesn’t want to find out, he doesn’t want Harry to find out either. It’s mostly just cheering for a while, there is no way to look inside the maze, people are still living for it though. Draco doesn’t look at the maze, he looks at the teachers, Moody specifically, he’s not sure if Moody murdered Crouch, and it’s not like if he did murder Crouch it would be such a bad thing, Draco would probably thank him, if he was being honest. But there’s just something else about him that’s not right, the way he talks and carries himself is just not right, he doesn’t have the presence of a man who fights against evil, and the smell of the liquid in his flask is strangely familiar but Draco just can’t figure it out. Moody hobbles his way inside through the doors from the Teachers Box to the inside of the Quidditch building, Draco doesn’t even think, he just stands and runs, he gets a lot of complaints from the people he shoves into on his way but makes it inside the Quidditch building relatively quickly, he finds Moody quickly, and lucky for Draco, he’s still in the building, he looks into his flask with one wide eye and then shoves it back into belt, “Malfoy! What are you doing here?” Moody snaps as Draco approaches, “What are you doing here?” Draco inches closer, the flask is attached to his belt, it’s so close Draco could grab it, and for some reason Draco really wants to grab it and find out what’s inside. “Since when is what I do any of your business, boy? Hey!” Draco snatches the flask from Moody’s belt and runs to the doors to the Teachers Box, Moody tries to run after him but can’t on account of his fake leg, as Draco runs he opens the flask and he smells it, it’s empty but the smell still lingers, and finally Draco realises what it is, Polyjuice. Snape’s missing ingredients! Moody isn’t Moody! Holy fuck! Draco runs into the Teachers Box, he grabs Snape by the shoulders, “Moody isn’t Moody!” He screeches and holds out the flask to him, “What- Draco-” “Smell, it’s Moody’s Flask, it’s Polyjuice! Your missing ingredients?” Snape brings Moody’s flask up to his large nose, “Gods,” Snape mutters, “Draco, You’re right, but if Moody is an imposter, than-” ‘Moody’ stumbles into the Teachers Box just as Snape moves to tell Dumbledore, who’s still on the Quidditch Pitch, “Fuck! You little shit, give me that back!” Moody groans at Draco, he face twists and melts uncomfortably and his bones crack and his cartilage squeaks as he melts into an entirely different person, every Professor present stares in horror as Moody reveals his true form, a handsome man, with short shaggy brown hair and the eyes of a maniac, he looks familiar, Draco is sure he’s seen this man before. “Barty Crouch Jr.” Snape mumbles, Draco holds on tightly to the flask, Crouch Jr. and Dumbledore hurl some insults to each other before they begin to duel, Snape joins in as well as several other Professors, Draco doesn’t know which ones, though. Draco would be laughing at the absurdity of one person thinking they are strong enough to battle the entire staff of Hogwarts but this is far too much for Draco to deal with, he falls to the floor and pulls his knees to his chest, closes his eyes and covers his ears, the duel ends quickly enough, one of the teachers calls the Aurors and they take away Crouch Jr. easily, he yells and licks his teeth creepily. “Karma will come for you Malfoy! Mark my words! It will come! He will get his revenge!” He laughs maniacally and Draco shutters at the sight of his tongue. Draco stands up from where he had been sitting, brushes himself off and coughs awkwardly, he sticks the flask out to Dumbledore. “It’s the Polyjuice that Crouch used to become Moody,” Draco looks around, nearly all teachers in attendance have already sat back down and are looking at the maze again like there hadn’t just been a duel with a fucking Deatheater who had invaded the school. “I’m sorry but did that happen way too fast? Crouch spent all year trying to be Moody for some reason and then all I had to do was take his flask and then he got taken down in like 10 minutes, isn’t that weird to you?” Draco asks, because what is happening? It all happened so fast that none of the Champions have even found the Twiwizard Cup yet, it appears barely anyone even noticed that the duel had even taken place, the entirety of the school stares at a maze and cheers, not knowing if someone is getting ripped apart inside. Hogwarts is so fucking doomed if the Dark Lord returns, Draco realises. “Why would Crouch Jr. even want to be Moody? What was his plan? What the fuck is going on?” Draco exclaims and Dumbledore grabs the flask from Draco’s hands, “I don’t know for sure why Barty Crouch Jr. did what he did, Mr. Malfoy. We just have to hope that the Aurors can figure it out,” Dumbledore shrugs, “You cannot just be content with that! He tried to infiltrate the school! He taught your students! He probably murdered Crouch Sr!” Draco cannot believe that Dumbledore is acting like this is so normal! All of his students' lives were at risk! He hired a Mass-Murder-Deatheater to teach at his school! What the fuck is wrong with this guy! “All of this will be dealt with after the task, Mr. Malfoy. Please return to your seat” Dumbledore turns to walk back down the Quidditch Pitch and Draco scoffs exasperated before he turns around and stomps back to his seat. It doesn’t take him that long, but when he sits back down he collapses into Pansy’s side. “Where the hell did you go?” Pansy asks and she wraps an arm around Draco’s neck, “Long story, I’ll tell you later”
(*******)
A few minutes later Harry appears back at the entrance of the maze in a cloud of smoke, the entire student body, including the Slytherins, erupt into cheers, the Hogwarts band plays a terrible song and Dumbledore grabs Harry’s hand and holds it up in the air, “Harry Potter is the Triwizard Champion!” Dumbledore bellows, there is a huge grin on Harry’s face. Draco doesn’t like the fact that soon enough his celebration is going to be ruined by fucking Barty Crouch Jr. and his stupid plan to - Draco doesn’t even know because Dumbledore didn’t bother to find out! Draco pushes his anger aside and allows himself to be happy for Harry, his Harry. Draco smiles and cheers along with his friends.
(*******)
Harry celebrated for a solid 24 hours before Dumbledore announced that Moody was, in-fact, not Moody. Dumbledore, the old crone, took five centuries explaining the story to the staff of Hogwarts before even attempting to explain it to the students. Lucky for Draco, Dora summarized it for him. From what Draco understands, Barty Crouch escaped from prison, somehow ended up at the Quidditch Cup, where he blasted the Dark Mark into the sky and then he blamed Winky for it, he kidnapped Moody and continuously stole Snape’s ingredients to make Polyjuice, he had become Moody so he could kill his Father to get revenge, but when he saw the cup he couldn’t help himself and he put Harry’s name in the cup with the goal of him dying during the Tournament, at least that is what Dumbledore assumes, they couldn’t crack Barty Crouch Jr, not even with the Veritaserum, powerful bastard. Moody was returned home physically unharmed, but the months of isolation seems to have made him gone even madder than before. The Triwizard Tournament is effectively cancelled for all future years, which does not bode over well, especially with the 6th years who were only a year away from being able to compete. Astoria hasn’t stopped complaining about it, Blaise sings the same tune, Theo loses interest after a day. Surprisingly enough, and to the delight of Dora, all three other contestants survive; “With all their limbs too!” She exclaimed when she found Draco after.
(*******)
The days that lead up to the end of the school year are unsubstancial, Defense Against the Dark Arts is cancelled for the rest of the year of course, but other than that it’s about as normal as a School of Magic can be. He and Harry stand shoulder to shoulder, on the platorm which looks out upon the courtyard. They watch as the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students say goodbye to their friends at Hogwarts, he knows that he and Harry will have to say goodbye to each other within the next hour, but he ignores it, and so does Harry. There is something so delicate about what they’ve created together, it’s so new that Draco worries it might not survive the summer. “Pinky Promise you’ll write me?” Harry asks from beside him, Draco smiles, “Pinky Promise; as long as you write back” Harry leans further into his side, his head rests on Draco’s shoulder, “I’m gonna miss you,” Harry mumbles, “You’re always welcome to visit, I’m sure Mother would be delighted to see you again” Draco really hopes that Harry agrees, “Are you sure?” “Of course, you know how she sends me a letter everyday? Every letter she’s sent since she’s met you has mentioned you in some way” Draco smiles and Harry turns to look at him, “I’d love to visit you” Harry smiles and Draco can’t look away, entranced by Harry’s eyes. “Draco!” Dora calls as she runs up to him, “Come on we gotta go, our parents are expecting us!” Harry looks at Draco confused, “I’m not taking the train, Dora’s gonna drive me home” Dora pulls on his arm and he glares until she lets go. “Oh, Okay, see you later then?” Harry asks, he clasps his hands behind his back and his smile transforms into something nervous, “Yeah” Draco leans forward and presses their lips together, just for a second, it’s really nothing special, but since it’s his first kiss with Harry, it’s very special, it’s the greatest thing he’s ever felt. “See you later!” Draco calls as Dora grabs him by the arm and drags him to where she’s parked her flying car. There are still so many things Draco Malfoy needs to say to Harry Potter, but for now ‘ see you later ’ is enough.