Chapter 14- The Life and Times of Draco Malfoy

OWLS were some of the hardest exams the average wizard would ever sit. So I wasn’t surprised when my father expressed hesitance about allowing me to sit the exams so early. While passing at such a relatively young age would be exceptional, failing would indicate that I had no ability to accurately gauge my own abilities.

“Father, I’m ready. I’ve studied for this. I’m a Malfoy; I’ll do our family name proud.” I’d said when all attempts at confusing him failed

The last bit brought a smile to his face, and he accepted my decision. While I hated having to seek his permission and stroke his ego, it had to be done. If he said I wouldn’t write the exam, I wouldn’t. That’s how things worked in the wizarding world.

I walked into the ministry with my head held high. I’d come home for Christmas break a week ago and would be returning to the school in a few days for the ball. I was excited for the event simply because who wouldn’t be.

“State your name and hand over your wand, please.”

I passed my wand to a bored-looking security guard and watched him perform some tests on it with his own wand. “I4 inches, fir and dragon heartstring. Purchased less than six months ago. Is that correct?” I nodded.

“Your name?” He sounded impatient for some reason.

“Draco Malfoy”, I replied, trying to match his tone with the airiest tone I could muster. He waved me in and I walked into the ministry itself. The office of the Wizarding Examinations Authority was calling my name.

I walked in about ten minutes before the start of the exams, and the man who introduced himself to me as Professor Tofty led me to a seat with several other test takers. I looked around and couldn’t recognise a single one of them. They all looked to be in one of two categories. Older wizards looking to get an official qualification or younger wizards that had to be home-schooled. Contrary to what the movies or books might have insinuated, most people in Britain didn’t actually attend Hogwarts. A huge portion of the population either couldn’t afford the fees- Hogwarts was actually fucking expensive, for people who aren’t purebloods, at least. Most of the older pureblood families purchased lifetime attendance at the school a couple centuries ago when the headmaster of the time took over the position to find that his predecessor had squandered the school’s holdings in several gambling endeavours.

I sat down and waited for a few minutes before the professor walked in with the first paper. Taking exams at the ministry was inevitably more difficult than taking them in Hogwarts. The ministry only set aside two days for the exam. Hence, all the theory exams took place on the first day, with all the practicals happening the day after.

For most people, it wasn’t a problem since they usually took between two and four subjects, but since I was attempting the whole 12, I had quite a daunting task ahead of me.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by the man who’d introduced himself as Professor Tofty walking to the front of the hall we found ourselves in. “Welcome. Today’s exams will take place one after the other. For those taking more than one course, feel free to request the next paper after you finish the one in front of you. You will be unable to leave until you finish with the examination. I wish you all the best of luck,” He said while giving me a significant look.

The first course was transfiguration, and I found myself grinning from ear to ear as I saw the questions in front of me. This was going to be a breeze, was all I thought as I put my quill to paper. Gamp’s laws? Conservation of momentum? Life transfiguration? All topics I’d learned more of in recent months than most NEWT students even knew existed.

The written exam for transfiguration was easy and I finished it within thirty minutes. The ability to write quickly had never been so useful. My joy was stolen by the next paper, of course.

It was the written exam for Divination, and while I’d studied my butt off for this exam, it looked like an entirely different language. The only good thing was that I knew the ministry didn’t have any seers in their employ and subjects like Divination were always stupidly subjective.

I got to writing the first thing that came to mind for the interpretation sections. Still, I put in real effort when it came to the more solid questions like the meaning and significance of Onomancy.

The next course was charms, which also gave me some joy. From that point, I locked myself in a mental haze as I answered question after question and moved from one subject to another. If I paid any attention, I might have noticed the shocked stares of the other test-takers or even the examiners themselves.

It took me hours to finish, and when I finally looked up from the last paper, Care of Magical Creatures, I was unsurprised to find the hall empty sans Professor Tofty, who was sitting at a desk in the front of the room. I stood up and walked over to drop the paper in front of him.

“Well done, well done, My boy. I didn’t expect you to be able to complete all the exams so quickly too. I look forward to your practical assessment,” He said excitedly.

“Thank you, Professor”, was all I could say in reply.

I was unsurprised to get home and find Narcissa waiting for me in the drawing room. “How was it, my little dragon?”

Gah. That nickname was ridiculous. Her poorly hidden smile made it clear she knew how the nickname sounded. I walked over to her and took a seat before telling her all about my day.

I might not have been the Draco she raised, not entirely, but some parts of me still saw her as my mother. I’d tried to remain distant from her, but that hadn’t worked. Not replying her letters in school had led to her sending even more. My first conversation with Snape in this world had been a strongly worded request to reply to her letters.

The woman loved her son a lot, and while I felt like an imposter in moments like this, I couldn’t fault myself for it all.

Xxxxx

The practical exams were held in roughly the same classroom. The other examinees would be starting with the wanded practicals, but I would be beginning with potions. Brewing a boil cure and a draught of peace at roughly the same time was stressful, and I actually had to lean on Draco’s potions skills to succeed.

The Herbology and Care of magical creatures tests were refreshingly simply. All I had to do was deal with some devil’s snare and prune some venomous tentacula. For Creatures, I had to put a Hippogriff and demonstrate the proper way to disable a hippocampus.

Divinations didn’t have a practical exam at the OWL level, and neither did ancient runes. Astronomy was going to be held later in the day or night rather since using a simulated night sky wasn’t going to be enough for some reason.

The wanded subjects came up next, and I began with transfiguration. Not one of the professor’s requests gave me any trouble, and I enjoyed the whispers of shock and amazement when I transfigured my face into Tofty’s for extra credit.

Charms was also very simple. I ended up displaying an enchantment to get myself some extra credit. Enchantments were basically semi-permanent charms and were at the peak of NEWT-level charms work.

Defence against the Dark Arts was the one I’d been both anticipating and dreading. I still couldn’t form the corporeal Patronus, but something told me the only thing I needed to do was confidence and pressure. I had all the ingredients. The only thing stopping me was some stupid block. I did all the spells as requested and even dealt with a boggart they brought out of somewhere.

I was quick enough to banish it the moment it turned into a copy of my body. While I was interested in knowing what I feared most, having the ministry also possess that knowledge would be idiotic.

For extra credit, I whipped my hand around my head in a grand sweeping motion, put all my happiest thoughts and dreams in mind, and intoned loudly and clearly for all to hear, expecto patronum. As I watched clouds of mist, thick mist pour out of my wand into a shield, I couldn’t even hide the disappointment on my face.

I tried to force a smile in the face of the applause I’d received from all the examiners, but I felt like a failure in that moment. Potter had done this at 13. He’d trained other students to do it at 15. What was so deficient about me that I couldn’t do a spell like this one that should have come so simply.

I slashed my wand to disperse the shield and accept all the congratulations I received for the feat. I had to wait in the ministry for a few hours till the astronomy test, so I decided to take Tofty’s offer of a tour around the ministry of magical education. While Draco had been brought to the ministry several times as a child, this particular department had never been given too much attention.

Xxxxx

Regardless of how much hype the students placed around the yule ball, it still turned out to be a regular event.

My thoughts about the situation weren’t charitable as I walked towards the Beauxbatons carriage. I didn’t want to attend this, especially as I’d just seen Hermione walk past me with a smiling Harry Potter on her arm. While I knew they were friends, and we weren’t even officially dating, I had no right to be jealous. I still was. Emotions cared little for logic, and my jealousy was no different.

Those thoughts, all thoughts actually, left my mind along with what breath remained in my lungs when Fleur Delacour alighted from the carriage. I looked at her in awe. Checking my occlumency showed the aura hadn’t gotten in, so it was just her beauty doing this to me.

She giggled as she approached, snapping me out of my daze. “It’s good to see you can be as enchanted as every other man,” She said with a humourous smile to take the bite out of her words.

I could only smile and wave my wand to conjure a wreath of flowers around her wrist before I took out the box from one of my robe pockets. The moment Narcissa found out I’d been going with the Delacour heiress, she’d insisted on me getting her some jewellery. In truth, she’d been the one to buy this particular piece.

I opened the necklace in front of her, and she gasped before turning around to allow me to put it on myself. I did a fantastic job of resisting staring at her arse; only two quick glances was an impressive show of restraint.

With the diamond necklace around her neck, she turned around and placed her hand in mine before we headed to one of the carriages ferrying students to the castle. While I’d walked here, it would be stupid for me to expect her to do the same. Especially not when she was wearing heels as high as these.

We got to the waiting room and found Krum with his date, Hera Manois. The elder of the Manois siblings but not the heiress, apparently. I smiled in greeting and waved at them, but neither of them even gave me a second look.

Turning to give Fleur my full attention, I was again enchanted by her beauty. Beautiful women were everywhere. I’d seen hundreds of them in the past few months alone, but something about the half veela took my breath away. That made my thoughts return to the feel of her arm in mine every few minutes. As socially awkward as I was, my first attempt to initiate conversation between us had her in peals of laughter.

“Why the dark arts?” I’d asked when the silence had gotten too uncomfortable for me. She only raised an eyebrow at my question, and the face I made when I realised how inappropriate my question was, along with my attempts to backtrack, made her laugh uproariously.

“Don’t worry. I dislike small talk too. I favour the dark arts because they come easy to me. They fascinate me. Spells to do everything exist on that spectrum.” Dark arts coming easy to her wasn’t very surprising for me to note. Veela weren’t called dark creatures for no reason.

They were creatures of passion. The darker emotions necessary for the true dark arts came as easily to them as breathing. At least, that’s what Lucius had taught me on the topic.

“And you? You favour transfiguration quite a lot. What I’ve learned about your family was that you all had an affinity for the mind arts, but little talent for the more physical magics. Why are you different?” The curiosity in her tone prevented me from being offended by her words.

There was also the fact that she was right. It was the origin of the name, after all, Malfoy. Our name literally means ‘bad faith’. We got the name from one of our earliest ancestors who was famed for using his skill in occlumency to deceive others so thoroughly and even himself at times so he could enter and break multiple contracts.

“I don’t know. I have some talent for the mind arts, of course. All Malfoys do, but transfiguration comes easy to me.” I said, paraphrasing her words.

“I look at the world and see so many things that could change. I see the benches over there, and I see what they could be. Transfiguration is magic in its purest forms. It covers the very essence of the primordial force we wield like a toy. The world changes itself every second. Pieces smaller than we can ever perceive move constantly, changing and rearranging things as we act on them. Transfiguration allows me to capture a bit of that power for myself.” At the end of my tirade, I noticed her gazing at me with a fond look.

“What?” I asked.

“That passion. That look in your eyes. No one would ever believe I saw something like that in a Malfoy of all people” I laughed at her admittedly poor joke, and we were finally interrupted by professor Mcgonagall walking into the room.

“Gather around, gather around,” She said, and we walked towards her. I noticed Krum and Manois doing the same out of the corner of my eyes.

“You’re all here. Good, you’ll be entering the hall in a few minutes. You will proceed to your seats at the centre table after you do so. Dinner will come before the dance. The rest of the instructions will be given to you by the headmaster as necessary.” That was all she said before leaving us at the entrance again.

I turned to Fleur, and she laughed at my unspoken joke. “How was your childhood? I imagine growing up as a part Veela wasn’t easy,” I asked to fill the silence.

“Non. It wasn’t. I have to correct your assumption there, though. I am no part Veela. A Veela is a Veela. We aren’t goblins or giants. The child of Veela will always be Veela. It is the nature of such things,” She said before moving on to the question I’d actually asked.

“I grew up on a vineyard. My family produces the best wine in the world, and I grew up with my younger sister watching the process. It was peaceful. We were alone in our own little bubble, our little idyllic paradise. It wasn’t perfect by any means, there were standards I had to meet in even that little slice of heaven, but it was much better than what came after. When I turned 10, I was sent to Beauxbatons for the first time, and my paradise expanded to include something I’d never gotten the joy to experience- friends. They were the best of the best, and it all fell apart at puberty.” She took a deep breath at that point as if simply recalling the memories was going to be painful.

“When puberty came, those same friends I’d treasured above anything discovered boys. It was slower for me; Veela develop at a slower pace, physically at least. They’d gained boobs and were intent on attracting the boys they had crushes on. It was no longer fashionable to hang out with the girl that looked like a girl when they were intent on looking like women. It was painful, but their abandonment taught me lessons I needed to learn.” Fascinating. To think Veela developed differently from humans. I’d never considered it, but it could be an evolutionary holdover. I had no doubts that they were attractive specimens, so maybe their magic didn’t let them develop those traits till they were old and powerful enough to defend themselves from whatever threats that attractiveness could bring.

“When I achieved my own maturity, those girls that wanted nothing to do with me came running back. Suddenly, they tried their best to be around me as much as possible. The boys they tried to attract were always attempting to impress me, so they thought that maybe spending time with me would give them the opportunity to draw the boys from my influence. I never cared for any of them, though.”

I had to interrupt at this point with a question. “But you all seem so happy together. It’s all pretence?”

She laughed in my face at my question. “Mr Malfoy, women don’t like each other. It’s all pretention. I hear the things they say behind my back. I feel their jealous stares on my body whenever a boy makes a fool of himself in my presence. They’ve come to hate me in the past years, and I’ve come to hate them in turn. They spend time with me though. While they dislike me, I represent something none of them has any hope of achieving. They’re drawn to me, and I have no need to remove them because they present a layer of protection from the male populace.”

“Draco” was all I said in reply. She gave me an inquisitive look. “We’re on a date, after all. Feel free to call me Draco.”

“Oui. Then feel free to call me Fleur as well” Her smile sent butterflies through my stomach that I tried beating down with a stick.

While Hermione and I had never formalised our relationship, I had doubts that developing a crush on Fleur Delacour would end up well for anyone involved. The bushy-haired bookworm could be shockingly mean-spirited.

An elf popped into the room and instructed us to get ready to walk in. We arranged ourselves as we’d been instructed. Krum and Manois were to go first, and Fleur and I would follow them. I paid attention to Krum’s outfit, and I felt shamefully overdressed. His black robes were well made but incredibly simple.

I was wearing a pair of silver robes with green stitching woven across them that looked like snakes slithering on the ground. There was even a charm on the robes that animated the threads, so the snakes were actually slithering across the robe. Fleur matched me perfectly with a silver dress that accentuated her curves and hugged her in all the right places. She wore emerald earrings, and the necklace I’d gifted her had a centrepiece of emerald, surrounded by diamonds. She was beautiful, and at her side, I felt a bit underdressed. What an interesting dichotomy.

The doors to the great hall finally opened, and the cheers threatened to deafen me. We walked in after Krum, and the applause got even louder, if that was possible. I had no delusions that I was the one being applauded, however. Every eye was on Fleur, and she bore the attention like a person used to the load. I admired her ability to act unaffected by the blatant stares and catcalls.

When we got to the table, we found Krum and Manois already seated. The only other free seats were right opposite them, between Dumbledore and Madam Bones of the British Ministry. I pulled out a chair for Fleur next to the headmaster while I took the seat next to the head of the DMLE.

Dumbledore stood up and said some words about the tournament bringing us all together or something that I completely ignored. The old man had to be delusional if he actually believed this tournament was fostering any spirit of co-operation among the students.

When he finished, he sat down and announced that the dinner could begin. I picked up my menu and spoke out clearly, “steak”. My meal appeared in front of me a second later; I touched my fork to it and noted it was just like I liked it.

Dumbledore gave me a look, and I realised I’d gone ahead of him, but I only smiled sheepishly. Everyone started ordering, following my lead. I smiled at Fleur’s order for Bollubaise before I dug into my meal.

I expected the meal to pass in silence, but Dumbledore had other plans. “Draco. I’ve heard good things about your transfiguration skills. Professor Tofty mentioned an astounding impersonation of my own person with human transfiguration” I turned to the willy old man and saw a glint in his eyes. There was something I wasn’t seeing here.

“Thank you, Professor. The nose was the most difficult part to get right, but it all came out well in the end; if I do say so myself,” I couldn’t resist the urge to include the dig about his crooked nose. He was playing a game I couldn’t see here.

“Professor Tofty?” Madam Bones intruded into the conversation with her unasked question.

“Yes, He examined me for my OWLs at the ministry just the other day.” My statement seemed to cause more questions than it answered.

“OWLs at 14? Extraordinary,” I heard Bagman contribute from the far end. The conversation trailed off from there, though. Most people wouldn’t be comfortable asking a complete stranger weirdly personal questions like that, so I was unsurprised that they didn’t push further.

“Your development this year has been amazing, Draco? I must confess that I find myself curious about the motivation behind it” Most people apparently didn’t include Albus Dumbledore.

“I just woke up one day and saw the potential being wasted.” My vague reply didn’t satisfy him, but he couldn’t push things further without seeming rude or suspiciously inquisitive.

“Your duels are always entertaining to watch”, The DMLE head spoke up to fill the silence.

“Thank you, Madame Bones. I don’t think the last one was as entertaining as the rest though” I accepted her compliment with the humblest smile I could muster.

“Oh, nonsense. You did an admirable job fending off such magic. Have you considered a job in the DMLE? The Aurors always need skilled wizards in their ranks?” Her attempts at probing were ridiculously easy to spot. She was many things, but a skilled politician wasn’t one of them. I had no doubts she wanted me in the Auror office, but I doubted it had anything to do with my skill as a wizard.

“I’m trying to keep my options open for now. I haven’t seriously considered employment in the DMLE, but that might be because I have no idea how one obtains employment as an Auror. I’ve never seen any vacancy notices.”

“You won’t see any. The Auror office usually receives applicants by invitation from current Aurors. While we accept independent applicants, they form a small part of our recruits. The process is also incredibly long. The training takes most people three years to complete.”

“Most people?” My previously silent date asked.

“Yes, most people. We recognise everyone learns at different paces, so the Auror training is highly personalised. The fastest anyone has ever completed the training is a year and two months.” Noticing our question before we could even verbalise it, she added, “It was Alastor Moody.”

Our entire table turned to look at the man at her words, and we all spotted him walking out of the hall with Harry Potter by his side. I felt my heart begin to beat quickly, and I turned to the headmaster to notice he was no longer smiling.

The rest of the table had returned to their meals, but they stopped again when they noticed the headmaster abruptly stand up and begin making his way out of the hall. He only made it a few feet before one durmstrang student stood up with glassy eyes and shouted words that made us all freeze in shock.

His killing curse was blocked by a rock the headmaster had conjured, and a wave of the man’s wand had the boy wrapped in chains. It didn’t stop there, though, because all across the hall, Durmstrang students were standing up and firing killing curses into the crowd.

I turned to Krum, barely quickly enough to notice the wand pointed at my head. A hastily conjured bird swallowed the killing curse he sent at me, and he choked on his own blood a second later.

We all followed his eyes to his chest, where there was nothing but a wide hole. I looked at my wand arm in shock, just noticing that I’d fired a piercing hex at the man in front of me. I just killed someone. I froze.

Madame Bones saved my life by dragging me off my seat with her to the floor. I watched a killing curse sail past the space my head had occupied a few seconds earlier. I was snapped from my daze by a slap to the face. I turned to my date and noticed her giving me a concerned look with her hand raised. I simply nodded to show her I was okay.

Snapping from my daze, I looked around and noted that the durmstrang students had already been mostly disabled. Dumbledore stood tall at the centre of the hall, defending students and capturing attackers with grand waves of his wand. I turned and looked around at the people huddled on the floor with me.

Fleur was okay, as were Bagman and Weasley. Madame Bones was nowhere to be found, probably busy capturing attackers. I looked for Karkaroff in the crowd and could just barely note him making his way from the hall. ‘Not on my watch, I thought and sent a piercing hex at his head.

He turned like he had eyes behind his head and deflected the spell. His return fire was blocked before I could even raise my wand. “Hide, Draco. Quickly” was all Severus Snape said as he walked towards the Durmstrang headmaster.

I could only watch in amazement as the skilled wizards began their duel. I’d known Snape was good but not truly how good. I’d thought I’d been pushing him in our duels, but it seems I was sorely mistaken.

Igor Karkaroff was faced with the full might and focus of Severus Snape, and he was found wanting. Snape reacted to Karkaroff’s spells before he could even fire them. Every spell was countered, and every aggression was waived away with skilled wand movements. This was the power of legilimency in magical combat. Snape looked like a fucking seer as he shielded against spells yet to even be fired.

Karkaroff lost the duel before it even started, and I could see the very moment when he realised that fact. He tried manipulating the duel to move closer to the door. Still, Snape saw through him and prevented whatever attempts he made to escape. In a few more minutes, the headmaster’s wand arm was ripped from his body, and he was bound in dark chains that oozed malice I could feel from all the way over here.

I turned away from the duel and noted that the duels all across the hall had ended. Dumbledore spoke some words to console a grieving student lying over his friend’s body before he looked up with an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. His phoenix appeared by his side and flashed him from the hall.

A/N; That's it, boys and girls.