“Draco!” the dreaded voice came from the far end of the hall, freezing my blood and giving me a severe case of what I can only describe as the screaming heebie-jeebies. Escape was my new top priority; for I feared I would not survive a direct engagement with the opponent.
I ducked around a corner and wedged myself behind a statue of Boris the Bewildered, pulling myself in so as to take up as little space as possible. Pansy rounded the corner, her head turning this way and that as she scanned the hallway for me. I crouched to the floor silently.
“I could have sworn I saw him,” she muttered, and, much to my relief, walked on. I remained frozen in place for several seconds to ensure that she was truly gone, then stood and eased myself out from behind the statue. I blew out a long sigh of relief and leaned back against Boris.
Pansy had been impossible since the Tattoo Incident (all thanks due, you remember, to that fiend in sub-human form, Blaise Zabini, may-he-be-boiled-in-blackberry-jam-and-left-on-the-top-shelf-of-a-cupboard-to-gather-dustbunnies-for-all-eternity). Pansy, never one of the world’s deep thinkers, had accepted the afore-mentioned fiend’s words about my eternal love for her at face value. Now she pursued me from class to class, trying ceaselessly to catch me alone so she could declare her undying love for me and, probably, start planning the wedding. Already I had been caught once, but that had been the day before yesterday, when I was young and foolish and unskilled in the art of eluding girls. The conversation had gone basically like this:
“Draco! My heart! My life! My reason for being! My strong, stunning, blonde SAVIOR!”
“Er, hello.”
“I love you, Draco; if love is the word. For my part, I think love cannot truly capture the soul-plumbing, heart-throbbing depths of my feelings. You are everything to me.”
“Oh, Merlin, is that the time? I should have been in bed hours ago! Good night, Pansy.”
But it’s only half-past seven.”
Exactly! Far too late. Bye!”
And after that I have so far managed to avoid coming face to face with the girl, praise Merlin. I just wish I could say the same about Snape. The man had been swooping about the halls seemingly without rest since we had returned from Violet’s. Of course, it’s normal for Snape to swoop about the halls, its just that before this he always looked like a half-dead vampire bat who the cat had brought in after spending a few years playing with out in the local dump. He still looked like a vampire bat, but now it was a sleek and well-groomed vampire bat who had spent the night at an elite club for gentleman bats and has just got time to grab a few z’s before flying off to meet with Dracula about an underwear endorsement. In short, the git was showing off his new look. He had noticed that many female students (and, sadly, some of the male ones) had suddenly developed a tendency to pay strict attention when he lectured and trail about behind him when the saw him in the hallways. A surprising number had asked for private tutoring. The thing that really pissed me off, though, was that he still found time to harass me. You’d think he’d be grateful, but clearly in Snape’s book the end did not justify the means. He was out for blood.
“Mr. Malfoy,” I jumped. Speak of the devil and he shall appear indeed. The bat himself had slunk around the corner and was now glaring at me with malevolent pleasure evident in his eyes.
“What?” I asked sullenly.
“Don’t take that tone with me, Mr. Malfoy. And kindly remove yourself from that statue. It is very old and extremely valuable and delicate. If you have damaged it in anyway you will be responsible for repaying the school.”
“Shut up, Sunshine,” I said. “You know it’s not broken, and if it was, I could fix it.”
“Now, now, Malfoy. We would not like to suffer a relapse of the mysterious condition that cause you to secrete honey everywhere you went, would we?”
I grumbled something.
“And remember that your essay is due today. I trust you will be receiving an Outstanding grade?”
I grumbled something further.
“Apparently you do not have confidence in your work. Get along to the library and polish it up.” He swept off, his black robes swirling dramatically. I could have bit him.
I didn’t go to the library, as for all I knew Pansy could have been lurking in there, ready to leap upon the Malfoy chest at the slightest provocation. I went back to the Slytherin common room and sulked in the dorm until it was time for my next class.
“Pass your essays along the rows,” said Snape. “I will collect them at the front.” I handed my essay to Crabbe, seated in front of me, and tried to ignore the passionate look Pansy shot at me from two rows to the left. Did this, I wondered, constitute sexual harassment?
Snape placed the stack of essays on his desk and moved behind the lectern, where he began to drone on about something or other. I ignored him, that being about all the revenge I was in a position to take. There were risks “ he might have decided to call on me without warning and reveal that I hadn’t a clue what he going on about, but he didn’t. I think he was afraid that I would call him Sunshine in the middle of class. Considering my mood, I might have.
The lesson ended after an interminable wait. Swinging my bag onto my back, I rubbed the strap against the tattoo on my inner forearm. It was sore and painful. Great, on top of everything else, there was a Death Eater meeting tonight. I, of course, had made no progress on the killing-Dumbledore thing, so old red-oculars would have a field day raking me over the hot snake-scales for this.
Same grave time, same grave place. The familiar vista of the graveyard popped into place as I Apparated. Shooting a dirty look at the marble angel that had smacked me over the head the last time I had been here, I went to take my place in the circle. The big V himself Apparated into our midst in a column of mist. It dispersed and drifted around at head-height, making us all even more uncomfortable that we were already. When I’m the Dark Lord, I thought, I’ll hold meeting in nice dry conference rooms in hotels. I’d provide complementary donuts too. Also Christmas bonuses, health insurance, and retirement packages. I’d hire some decent-looking girls, too. Someone blonde and cheerful, but efficient…
“Draco!” I jumped back to reality. I was alone in a graveyard with Voldemort in the dead of night. Always a slightly uncomfortable situation.
“Yes, my lord?” I asked.
“About your little assignment, Draco, tell me about your progress.” I shifted nervously and mentally prepared some serious bullshit.
“I have investigated routes into and out of the castle, my lord,” I said.
“Don’t waste my time, Draco. We all know there is no way to sneak anyone into Hogwarts, not so long as That Fool is there, anyway.”
“I’m not so sure, my lord. There is in the castle a vanishing cabinet. Its mate is not present. If the other half of the pair is discovered, it could be used as a route into Hogwarts.”
“Hmmm,” said Voldemort. It was disturbing to discover that he could hmmm sinisterly. “And you have ideas of where this mate might be.”
“I do, my lord,” I said, lying my little head off.
“In that case,” he said. “You have made progress, Draco; but you must move more quickly now. I will expect to hear from you in four days.”
“Yes, my lord,” I said bowing deeply, barely concealing my relief.
“You are dismissed,” he said. I apparated immediately, not waiting for him to discover, in whatever mysterious way he uses, that everything I had just told him about the Vanishing Cabinet had been the hottest rumor in Slytherin House last year after that thing with Montague and the toilet.
I pushed a first year out of an armchair by the fire in the Slytherin Common Room and sat down to mentally tally up my problems.
Voldemort is pressuring me to kill Dumbledore
But I don’t know how to kill Dumbledore, nor do I very much want to just now.
I’m supposed to be overthrowing Voldemort and I haven’t got a clue how to start.
Oh, wait, what about those Horcrux things my father told me about? He told me that Dumbledore says that there are six Horcruxes, each one containing a piece of Voldemort’s soul, and all six must be destroyed before the Fearless Leader can be destroyed.
This is just a side note, but it’s really pathetic that powerful Death Eaters have to rely on penetrating the enemy’s intelligence so they can find out about their own leader.
Anyway, Horcruxes: the diary Potter destroyed back in second year, the ring that Dumbledore destroyed, Slytherin’s locket, Hufflepuff’s cup, something that used to be Ravenclaw’s, something that used to be Gryffindor’s, and one that nobody knows about, or that’s what Dad said.
There’s no way I can destroy all those. I don’t even know where they are, and even if I did, I couldn’t get to them.
Back to my other problems, I’m apparently failing my Defense of Dark Arts class.
Pansy thinks I’m in love with her.
There was really only one thing a man of action could do: go see Snape.
Becoming a Dark Lord by FinalCow
Chapter Notes: I don't own Draco but that tattoo is mine