Little Secrets

Chapter 16

He hated this.  He hated the Manor and the way it echoed with malicious laughter all day.  There wasn't a room in the house that was totally empty except for his.  Even then, he'd sometimes walk in to see his mother sitting in a chair and reading something from his personal bookshelf.  He much preferred her company over the other options in the house, so he never said anything when she was there.  They seemed to have a mutual understanding not to talk about their current situation.

Dinners were the worst.  Draco would have to listen to several Death Eaters (they changed almost every night) talk about when they would finally attack Hogwarts.

When he'd been called away by his Mark almost a week ago, he'd known something was about to go down.  He hadn't expected it to take so long, but after understanding their next plan of attack was to takedown Hogwarts, he knew it would be a while.

He'd tried not to participate in the dinners and musings of the other Death Eaters every day, but trapped inside the Manor with them left little else to do.  Mulciber had voiced a rather brutal idea for what to do with muggle-borns and blood traitors after they won.  It was so disgusting, Draco had to excuse himself just so he wouldn't hex them all that night.  Unfortunately, the others had thought it was a fantastic idea and Draco had to listen to them talk about it again at breakfast and dinner the following nights.

It was day seven of being home from Hogwarts when word came that they'd be moving in that night.  After Draco had locked himself away in his room almost two days ago, he hadn't heard what was happening around him and was shocked to hear Potter was tracked to Hogsmeade.  He'd disappeared, but no one had apparated out of the town, so it was assumed he'd taken a secret tunnel into Hogwarts.  The Dark Lord felt sure he would be there and after finding out he and Potter had some strange link, Draco knew he was right.

Blaise had sent word about what the Carrows were teaching, writing a convincing letter of triumph over blood traitors and muggle-borns.  When the owl had pecked at his window, Draco had feared the letter would say something worse.  Blaise had clearly accounted for the possibility of someone else scanning the letter and even trying several different revealing charms.

It took Draco a few minutes to figure out how to reveal the hidden message he knew Blaise had written and when it turned out all he had to do was say "Fucking hell, Blaise, what'd you do to this?", he almost burned the letter.

Granger's safe.  Haven't seen her in a day, but half of the students are missing and more are disappearing by the hour.  Carrows are using Unforgivables on students in the hallways now, but most of them seem unaffected which I assume is her doing as well.  Merlin, Draco, you sure do know how to pick them.

Draco rolled his eyes at that, but he was glad to know Hermione's spell was working.  He chuckled at the thought of how infuriating it must be for the Carrows to cast curses on the students and have nothing happen.  On the other hand, if half the students were missing at Hermione's hand and the other half or so seemed immune to the Carrows' curses, either Hermione had figured out a way to cast the spell nonverbally and without suspicion, or the DA she sometimes talked about was much larger than he'd originally thought.

Pansy and I have taken to hiding some of the Slytherin students.  She'll lie and say it was my idea, but I think she's just as worried.  I haven't figured out Granger's hiding spot yet, so we'll have to keep them with us.  Any word on when this will be over?  Things are getting rough quick and I'm pretty sure the Carrows are about to go on a killing spree.  Much love, Zabini.

He snorted at the signature before lighting his wand and burning the letter with an irreversible fire.  When it was completely gone, he penned a quick note to Blaise, making sure it sounded enthusiastic about the Death Eaters' standing then using what he hoped was a similar charm to Blaise's to hide the secret note.

They'd be there by tomorrow night, he was sure of it, and if Blaise didn't have all the younger students away from the school, there were sure to be more casualties than if they were gone.  Once he was sure the letter was safely away from the Manor, he took a deep breath and headed downstairs for dinner.

Draco made a point of surrounding himself with their Death Eater guests that night.  If anything had changed, he wanted to know what the new plan was.  It was hard to know who to talk with, though, as everyone was discussing something different and Draco didn't feel particularly drawn to any of them.

As he stood towards the back of the drawing room and looked around the room, he knew tonight was the last night.  Every Death Eater he knew of was standing in the Manor.  Bottles of wine levitated around the room and the Manor was full of the sound of pre-battle celebrations.  Even his father was partaking in the celebration.

"You look uninterested, Draco,"  a high voice said behind him.  He spun around, not entirely surprised to see the Dark Lord behind him.  Thankfully, his beady red eyes weren't on him, but on the other Death Eaters.  "One might say you don't enjoy your position,"  the Dark Lord said.  As he turned his eyes on Draco, Draco glanced down at his drink discreetly.

"Don't get me wrong, I do very much enjoy where I'm at,"  Draco said, twirling the champagne glass in his hand.  Where was that disgusting Firewhiskey they always had in Hogsmeade?  It may not taste very good, but at least it could put him out of his misery faster than whatever bubbling champagne was being served.

"You wish for more of young age,"  the Dark Lord assumed.

Draco had been about to say that, so he nodded.  He did a quick double-check to make sure no one was trying Legilimency on him and was content to discover they were not.  He was most familiar with what the Dark Lord felt like when exploring his mind and the lack of searing knives cutting through his thoughts however inconspicuously was reassuring.

He'd learned early on that no one could enter a mind completely undetectable and it was important to know what his thoughts felt like without the presence of another.  Both his mother and Severus were such skilled Legilimens that if he hadn't been paying attention, he wouldn't have noticed them perusing his thoughts.  Thankfully, most others were not as subtle and the Dark Lord was definitely among them.

"It does get rather lonely when the closest one to my age is my own Aunt,"  Draco mused, his eyes flitting over his Aunt Bella as he spoke.  The Dark Lord hummed and the sound sent a shiver down his spine.

"By tomorrow night, everyone worthy of my ranks will have joined,"  the Dark Lord said, his eyes returning to the mass of Death Eaters drinking and talking.  "We will have victory and your friends will finally be free to join us."

Draco took a silent deep breath, forcing thoughts of what Mulciber had planned from his head.  He locked them away in their own separate box of his mind and raised his glass to his lips as he said,  "Then I suppose tomorrow will be the best day of my life."