No Belonging | Draco Malfoy

The Task

**A few days later **

Draco heard a faint knock on his door, waking him from a nap after he had been packing all morning. He had a lot of black clothes and limited luggage space, so it was a struggle squeezing everything in. After battling with the suitcase his weak body was exhausted and he had fallen asleep on his lounge chair made from black velvet.

"Young Master Draco, Master Malfoy wants to see you in the dining hall, Sir."

Dobby had entered and expressed Lucius wishes. He looked more anxious than normal but nowhere near as anxious as Draco was. He had not seen his father since the Diagon Alley incident a few days before as he had been away on Ministry trip and had not expected him to come back before he left for Hogwarts.

Straight away, Draco leapt up, wiped his eyes and ran down to the dining hall not wishing for his father to be left waiting. The hall had an arch for a door so Draco could see Lucius sitting down with his Mother who was sporting a dreadful look of worry across her face.

"Y-yes father?" Draco announced his presence.

"Come sit Draco!" he commanded sternly and magicked a chair next to him to pull out from under the table.

Gradually, Draco took the seat, across from his mother who could not even look him in the eyes like he was a stranger.

"Draco, I know Hogwarts was meant to be a fresh start for you, but I need you to perform a task for me!" he stated.

There was an eerie silence for a while, it was strange for the family to be sitting so close together, until his father finally spoke.

"I need you to befriend the boy who lived, Harry Potter. There is belief that he is attending Hogwarts this year".

Draco looked up nearly making eye contact, surprised by the news "Why?" he questioned.

Draco tensed, knowing he had misspoken but before anything could escalate his mother answered "Just try please Draco, it would help me and your father out".

"Okay..." Draco muttered not thinking too much of it.

He knew his family had used to support 'You know who' but since Draco was alive, he had not been sighted and even pronounced dead, so Draco never really questioned them about him. Could this be somehow related?

As a child like all the other young wizards he had heard the story of the famous Harry Potter. The innocent baby who had stopped the great evil and bought peace to the land. He knew people respected Harry and thought he was the chosen one, but his father always hated talking about him. According to him, Harry should have been killed along with his parents and the great evil should have exterminated all the muggles and non-purebloods. Draco was not sure what he thought, and his opinions never mattered anyway.

Suddenly, Draco remembered he had not told his father of his weird experience of meeting the muggles at Diagon Alley: Muggles always seemed to intrigue his father.

"Father," Draco muttered, "I met some muggles in Diagon Alley the other day!"

"What? Why were they in Diagon Alley?" he questioned astonishingly.

"They were buying robes for their daughter, who will be in my year. They didn't look that odd" Draco noted.

"What an abomination of a child, promise me you will stay away from that disgusting mudblood Draco, we don't need you mixing with that sort!" Lucius sternly commanded with his cheeks reddening.

"Yes father" Draco immediately answered.

Although the girl was quite nice to Draco, he guessed he would have to avoid her now.

"Now I have work to get to!" Lucius stated and left the table with his wife following.

Slowly, Draco retired to back to his room and laid flat out on his bed: his miniscule weight barely denting the mattress. He thought about how he was meant to win over this Potter boy. Could he offer to help him? Partner with him class? Or just simply ask him to be friends? His mind drifted back to the girl in the robe shop. She was so confident and just held out her hand. He decided he would try to befriend Harry that way: offer his hand. Draco recalled his father calling the girl disgusting and another word he had never heard before: mudblood? What did it mean?

Later that evening, Dobby entered Draco's room bringing him dinner and placed it onto a tray on the bed. As Dobby was leaving, Draco abruptly stopped him in his tracks by asking "Hey Dobby, what does mudblood mean?".

He turned and gave Draco a shocked look before whispering, "Dirty Blood" and hurried out the room.

Dirty blood? How could one's blood be dirty?

Then Draco figured it out. He supposed it was technically true as their blood was infected with some kind of mutation. He ate a few mouthfuls of dinner before placing the tray outside his bedroom door. He was leaving for Hogwarts tomorrow!

Draco tiresomely brushed his teeth and took a shower running his fingers through his wet, white sandy hair. His father was right: Hogwarts was going to be a fresh start even if he did have to be friends with Harry, maybe he would actually like him? He wondered about the dorms, the teachers, the lessons. Would Crabbe and Goyle be in his dorm? But one thing Draco knew for sure was his house: Slytherin.

After Draco had finished his shower, he laid back down on his bed under the covers this time. He thought about how he would finally escape his silent home and not be constantly watched over by his father. He would be a new Draco, a confident, friend making, Draco.

"Stop father, stop!" Draco screamed as he saw him storm into the robe shop and pounce on the young girl and her parents. Their happy cheerful faces rapidly tuned into look of terror, fright, and misery. His father snatched out his wand and was now pointing it directly towards the innocent girl. "Please father, she's my friend, stop!" Draco pleaded, tears running down his pale cheeks. Before he could say another word, his father cut him up screeching "Avada kedavra!"