My Father's Only Rule {DRACO MALFOY X SNAPE'S DAUGHTER}

Chapter Eleven: Career Roadblocks and Quidditch Tryouts

October 1997 - Hogwarts

I had Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone in hand, ready to present to Professor Nita Gnat on our first Career workshop. And just in case, I had a recently finished copy of Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets. Jane and I had slept in and stumbled into the surprisingly empty entertainment career workshop. I was eager to get Professor Gnat's thoughts. She had been in almost every entertainment career imaginable in one way or another. Her dark skin and frizzy black hair matched her stark personality and loud tones.

"Welcome, Miss...Snape?"

"Yes. Grace Snape?"

"As in...Severus Snape?"

"My dad."

"Ah...I see, I see. Well, Professor McGonagall told me you'd like to be a writer of sorts. So, what have you brought me?" I took a breath as I took The Philosopher's Stone out of my bag and promptly placed the 200-page book on her desk. She was speechless.

"I wrote it over the summer," I said. "I also wrote a sequel," I said, placing the slightly larger 300-page book on the desk.

"Oh my," she said, flustered. "Well, I was thinking more of a collection of short stories-"

"Oh, I have that too," I said, reaching into my bag.

"I'm sure you do," she said, stopping me. "This is fine. Great actually. Most writers wouldn't have had one book written by the time they were your age. Let alone two at this size. Let me take a look at them." She picked up the book, read the title, and looked almost horrified.

"Oh my," she said. "Dear...Harry Potter? What is this?"

"Right," I said. "Well, Harry and I are- I mean we used to be...friends. He, uh, told a lot of stories about his adventures over the years at Hogwarts. And, well, I lived in the muggle world for fourteen years. What I'm trying to say is, I know muggles. And I think they would find this kind of story fascinating. I think I should write more and publish these in the muggle world."

"Oh dear," she said.

"What? What is it?"

"Um, sweetie, you can't do that." She seemed paranoid to be talking about it

"What? Why not?"

"Well, she stuttered. "First of all, he's, um, he's...a fugitive, dear. Second of all, you'd be exposing our world."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if you wrote about a magical world where students ran through a wall at Platform 9 ¾ at King's Cross every fall, how many muggles would wait for us there? If you told these stories to the world, we'd have to redo our entire security system to stay ahead of them."

"We would be able to do it, wouldn't we?"

"Oh, of course, we would. But our world wouldn't be a secret anymore. And you, well, you'd be banished, dear?"

"Banished?" I said. "They can take my magic away?"

"Well, no," she said. "But they can prevent you from entering any magical location. Which means you would never get to take your children to King's Cross."

"Oh," I sighed.

"I'm sure these stories are quite good," she said. "And the fact that you can write so much really is a huge accomplishment. But it's a bad idea. I'm sorry, dear. I really am. But I must advise you...if you're going to keep writing these, I'd highly suggest you do so after, well, after the war."

"Oh," I said. "Ok, well, thank you."

I walked back to my seat slowly and handed Jane The Chamber Of Secrets.

"Another one?" she asked excitedly. "Hell yeah."

I felt stupid. But I liked writing these stories. It didn't matter if I could never publish them.

*

I was excited to host quidditch tryouts. I was less excited when I saw the turnout. Draco had agreed to help me with tryouts, but he made it very clear he did not want to play. But even he considered it when we saw who all had come. It was only a handful of people, including Crabbe and Goyle. Goyle was for sure getting in purely because he was experienced. For Crabbe...it would take a miracle. And then there were the stragglers. All newbies who showed no promise.

"Draco," I said, pulling him aside. "I know you don't want to play quidditch this year."

"Sorry, Grace," he said. "But I just can't."

"Oh, Grace," I heard a voice say. I turned to see Blaise running towards me with a water bottle. "Jane and I were watching from the bleachers. She told me to bring you this."

"And you just did it?" I asked.

"Yeah," Blaise said. I was starting to notice how Blaise just kind of does whatever Jane tells him to.

"OK, thanks. And Blaise?"

"Yeah?"

"How would you feel about joining Quidditch?"

"Ha," Draco remarked. "Good luck with that."

"Didn't we have this discussion already?" Blaise asked. "Four years ago? When you joined?"

"Oh yeah," I remembered. "Do you want to reconsider?"

"No," said Blaise.

"Wait a minute, Blaise," I said. "Blaise, come on, we're desperate."

"Why can't Draco do it?" he asked. "He's the one with experience."

"I did my time," Draco said. "I'm not interested."

"At least try out," I asked. "Come on. Just let Draco teach you. And if you're not interested, I won't bother you anymore."

"Fine," he reluctantly said.

"Thanks so much, Blaise," I said. "You're really helping me out here."

"I haven't committed to anything yet," Blaise scoffed. "Come on Draco. Let's get this over with." Draco took Blaise off to the side to teach him a few things while I focused on the newbies. But it was only a matter of minutes before I noticed Blaise was zooming around the field. Of course he picked it up as miraculously as I did. I mean we had the same teacher after all. At the end of the day, I had my team. A team I wasn't...totally unconfident in.