𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐄

Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: To Learn

They agreed to keep the meeting with Snape as a secret. No one needed to know that they'd gone to meet the betrayer of the light side in the middle of the night and managed to get Voldemort's entire personal diary out of it. Knowing the Order members the way Harry did, he knew they'd take it away from him and make sure he never saw it again. And then they'd send him out of missions based on the findings from the diary as if they'd been the clever ones.

It wasn't as if he was sceptic of the Order. He thought they were doing an amazing job. Unfortunately, they were also amazing at keeping things from him and using him. It wasn't something he'd always seen. Only just recently, he'd realised that they were keeping him in the dark about many things. He was always too young to know about the dangerous things, but never too young to be thrown head-first into a terrible situation. Sure, Harry was excellent at getting himself in trouble on his own. His 'hero complex' had him dashing in head-first without the Order's orders.

And if those weren't good enough reasons, he and Remus knew that they'd never approve of them seeing Snape. They'd still doubt his loyalty. Harry didn't doubt it anymore. He was certain Snape was on their side

So they decided to not tell anyone.

By the time he got back to the dorm, he paused. At the end of the hall, he could see the flickering candlelight from under the closed door. Malfoy was awake and had locked himself in his room by the looks of things. Harry was half tempted to see what he was doing, but decided against it. He instead walked over to his own closed door and hoped he wouldn't wake Ron with his return.

As always, Ron's snores continued as Harry got to his bed and stripped off. In his boxers and tee shirt, he slipped into his bed. Searching for his pyjamas would have required light and you could only tempt Ron's sleeping abilities so much.

Draco had made a decision, and it wasn't a few complicated one. He was to stay in his room as much as he possibly could, even if the décor damaged his eyes (it wasn't an exaggeration-he was certain it was possible with this amount of tacky colours). It was better than the mess that was down the hall or downstairs.

The room was so different to what he was used to. Back in Slytherin, Draco shared a room with Blaise Zabini and that was it. The dorms were made for comfort, not for socialising, so rather than stuffing the large rooms with several beds, like he'd seen of Gryffindor, they had two queen sized beds each. Draco wrinkled his nose at the thought of forever sleeping in a lumpy single bed. It was degrading.

He'd never moved home before, so his dorm room in Slytherin and his bedroom in the Malfoy Manor were the only bedrooms he'd ever known. This was something he never thought would happen to him.

Draco ran a hand through his hair without thinking about how badly he was messing it up. It didn't bother him. There was no need for him to be bothered about his shabby looks. For once in his life, he didn't have to impress anyone. He didn't have to appear perfect. So his hair wasn't perfectly in place and his robes weren't done up to Malfoy standards and he just didn't care anymore.

Everything was so different now. For the past few months, Draco was trying to cope with the changed conditions in his life. He had to live with the fact that his master was an abusive bastard that treated him like crap. His father was in Azkaban, where he was to stay for the rest of his life. His mother had completely disappeared after his failure was made known within the ranks. Everything was falling apart.

And now…now he had to deal with the nightmares. Logically, he knew he was dreaming. Logically, he was well aware that there was no monster ready to eat him alive.