Royalty at Hogwarts- Draco Malfoy

Chapter 104

One month. Voldemort was officially dead for a month. Draco, Theo, Blaise, and Daphne stayed at the palace while their parents tried to figure out the ministry. Madeline had insisted to bring the best healers from around the world to help her friends and guards. 

"Are you sure you're alright?" Madeline asked Daphne as they walked around the palace grounds.

"I've been bed bound for a month, I need to stretch my legs, this is good for me." Daphne said, she leaned her weight against Madeline, but Madeline didn't mind, she wanted to make Daphne as comfortable as she could during her recovery.

"Yes, for a good reason, you almost..." Madeline looked away and swallowed the lump in her throat, even just the thought of Daphne almost dying brought tears to her eyes. 

"Hey, we said no Voldemort death talk. We are enjoying our post war freedom." She said, Madeline's pursed her lips but nodded.

"Where are the boys?" 

"Still sleeping. They spent the night learning poker and playing with the guards." Madeline explained, as they walked past the gazebo, Madeline blushed as memories of that night started playing in her head.

"Can we sit down; I'm starting to get tired." Daphne said, Madeline nodded, leading her to the bench by the lake. They sat down, Madeline felt Daphne put her head on Madeline's shoulder, listening to her deep breaths. Her eyes followed a white and red fish as it swam up the lake. The war was over, but she had another issue weigh her on her shoulder. She needed to tell Draco about the engagement, she had no excuse now, the war was over, Voldemort was dead, the ministry was trying to set itself back together.

"There you guys are," Blaise said, the girls looked up. The boys walked over, wearing muggle clothes that Madeline had bought them, since there clothes were all destroyed during the battle of Hogwarts, and Draco was still waiting for his manor to be cleared so he can get his belongings back.

"I thought you guys were still sleeping?" Madeline said,

"Michael came in and....woke us up." Blaise grumbled, wrapping his arms around himself, he laid down on the ground, using his elbow to cover his eyes.

"What does that mean?" 

"He got the other guards to come in and flip our mattress." Theo explained, standing behind Daphne, he put his hand on Daphne's shoulders kissing the top of her head.

"With us still sleeping on them!" Blaise shouted,

"Blaise was the first one to get flipped, he's very...cranky." Draco muttered, sitting down next to Madeline. 

"I'm not cranky!"

"Yeah, you're a ray of sunshine, B." Daphne giggled, 

"Your father was asking about you Princess. Said he needs to talk you." Draco said, Madeline's smile faltered for a second before nodding. 

"I'll talk to him later."

"Can you talk to him about hiring new staff?" Blaise asked, Draco picked up a pebble, it hit Blaise right on the stomach.

"OW!" 

"That's my brother you're talking about." Blaise turned away from them, muttering under his breath about 'annoying friends and brothers.' Draco put an arm around Madeline shoulder, kissing her forehead, his death eater mark poking through his shirt, for once when he looked at it, it didn't make him sick to his stomach. The snake wasn't moving, wasn't taunting him anymore, it was faded but if someone looked at it they would know what Draco was, he pulled down the sleeve, pushing the thoughts out of his head.

"Blaise...there's a um...frog on yo-"

"What!" Blaise shouted, he lifted his elbow up, staring at the frog that rested on his chest. The frog croaked, its chin swelled up, Blaise screamed, pushing the frog away from his chest, stumbling to his feet. He ran back to the castle, screaming at the top of his lungs. The group started laughing, bringing tears to their eyes, almost wheezing. Draco felt a warm sensation in his chest one that hasn't been there for a while. 

---

"Dad, you asked to see me?" Madeline said, knocking on his office door. Her father looked up from the paper he was writing on. He smiled at Madeline, clicking his pen shut. 

"Yes, sit down, I have news about your...engagement." Madeline pursed her lips shaking her head.

"I don't want to talk about that." She turned around, straightened her shoulders, putting one foot in front of the other, she needed to leave now.

"Stop, sit down." Her father wasn't talking to him like it was her daughter, he was talking to her like she was the heir, and he was the king. Madeline turned around and sat down on the chair across her father.

"King Augustus has decided that we need to announce the engagement, and I agree." Madeline's breath was sucked out of her, the words felt heavy on her ears. She shook her head, staring at her feet.

"No, no, no, no," She repeated,

"I agreed with him."

"No, no, no, no,"

"The country has been in... distress this last year. It can help boast moral."  

"No, no, no, no." Her father opened a drawer, taking out a red-velvet box on placing it in front of her. He opened the box, an elegant round cut, 12 diamond silver ring, there were 10 smaller diamonds set around the center. It was beautiful, and everything a princess should wear, it might have even been something she would pick for herself, if she wasn't forced into this engagement. 

"Alexander picked it out." 

"Are you even listening to me?" She yelled, slamming her hand on the table. Her father looked between her hand on the table, and her face. 

"The war just ended. Let me be-"

"Exactly why we need an announcement. We are planning to have an engagement ball in two weeks' time. Prince Alexander is going to propose, and you are going to say yes, and be the blushing excited fiancé." Her father said, Madeline felt tears rising to her eyes. 

"I could get rid of it...I have magic, I could erase your memory, I could erase everyone's memory, destroy the papers." She whispered, her father chuckled, his lips curving into a pitying smile.

"I fought just as hard or maybe even harder than you did when I got engaged to your mum. I told my butler to try and get rid of every paper that had any trace of engagement. No one knew about it of course, my father just laughed and laughed-"

"What is the point of this story?" Madeline spat, 

"The point is, there's too much proof, hundreds of people who already know about the engagement, hundreds of documents, that would take you to long to erase. You have one week to end your relationship to Draco Malfoy."