What If? -Drarry

Part Three: Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The night before the hearing, Draco slept badly. When he finally did sleep, it was broken and insubstantial. He dreamed that Manimi had been split into three smaller snakes who spoke in English, each with a different person's voice. The one with his father's voice bit him, the one with his mother's voice died, and the one with Harry's voice shrank until it was nothing. He woke up in a cold sweat to see that his window was wide open and freezing air was billowing into his room. He grabbed Harry's scarf from the pillow beside his (so maybe he had been sleeping with it next to him) and felt himself warm up deliciously as he wrapped himself in it. He got dressed after he had closed the window, bluish early-morning light creeping in through the glass, and then began to walk to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Funnily enough for Draco, his sleep had generally been improving over the last few months. Sure, during the Triwizard Tournament, and those nights when Harry had worried him, he had barely slept at all. But in general, everything was getting a little better. It probably had something to do with his father being away so much. Unfortunately, things didn't feel better today. The fact that Harry might not be allowed back to Hogwarts again sent him into a panic when he thought about it for too long, and he felt cold despite the magic of the scarf. To make matters worse, Manimi was still out hunting, meaning Draco was totally alone in his sufferings.

It took Draco half the journey to the kitchen to realise that he wasn't in the slightest bit hungry, and instead, he diverted to the entrance hall and out into dew-splashed grounds. Without thinking, his bare feet led him back to the same spot he always gravitated to: the rose garden with the koi fish. The smell of the flowers made him calmer. As he stood and breathed the smell in deeply, a drop of icy condensation fell from the overhead climbing plants onto Draco's head and trickled through his hair, making him shiver horribly. Lifting his hand to wipe the water from his skin, he inhaled roses and tried to forget.

He stayed in the garden until he could no longer smell the roses. He had no idea what time it was but imagined that, possibly, the trial might be over and a letter might be on its way. Then, while he trudged back to the Manor, he heard a whoosh of air above his head and looked up to see a snowy owl soar above his head, and turn to angle herself back down towards him. His hands shook as he took the letter from Hedwig and ripped it open, thanking her before sending her off again, and hastily read the scrawled writing.

Draco,
Cleared of all charges!
Love, Harry.

0o0o

"You wanted to see me, father?" Draco tried very hard to stop his voice from shaking as he stood straight and proper in Lucius Malfoy's office. A week left of the holidays, and he had almost got through without a single run-in. But it wasn't going to happen, not on Lucius' watch. He had never gone a holiday without doing this and wasn't going to break that habit now.

Lucius' cheek had a large, deep looking slash across it, which was only just beginning to scab over. Draco knew not to ask where he had got it. His father didn't instantly reply - Draco wasn't expecting him to - but instead, he finished whatever he was doing at his desk. Eventually, he turned his eyes on Draco.

Once, when he was about seven, Draco had seen a dead fish in the kitchens. Its eyes had been glossy and white, like milk that has gone off, and had stared unseeingly straight through the soul of the child. It had scared him so much that he had been sick. His father's eyes were the same: blank, pale, and, above all, dead.

"Draco, come here." His voice was flat and dead as his eyes. Draco obeyed swiftly.

Lucius stood up, still towering over Draco despite his recent growth, a hand resting lazily on his snake-headed cane. "Why, dearest son of mine, has the news reached me that that mudblood has beaten you in every subject except potions - which is taught by your godfather and therefore doesn't count - for the fourth year in a row?"