Chapter 11- The Life and Times of Draco Malfoy (SI)

“Come in, Mr Malfoy” was what I heard before I even got to knock on the door. I waved it open with my wand and strode into Snape’s office as confidently as I could. 

There’s a reason I’d been avoiding the man since I was inserted into this body. He was a powerful legilimens with enough interest to care about what was going through my head. He’s Draco’s godfather, after all. There’s also the fact that he did attempt to get into Draco’s head in the books. 

He gestured at me to take a seat in front of his desk, and I busied myself by looking around the office. Legilimency was possible without eye contact, but it would be more difficult, and I highly doubted Snape could use it wandlessly with that much skill. 

“Do you know why I’ve called you in here, Draco?” His voice was silky smooth and forced me to look at his face. He was really ugly. Definitely not Alan Rickman. Hook nose, greasy hair and a permanent sneer on his expression. I couldn’t describe his eyes for obvious reasons. 

“Because of Warrington and Flint?” I asked. I couldn’t see any other reason for him to call me here, and I had no desire to spend any time longer than I needed to. 

“No, I could care less about Warrington and Flint. You were within your rights as a member of Slytherin, and as far as the staff are concerned, nothing happened.” Huh? It slipped my mind that what happened in Slytherin always stays in Slytherin. So why did he call me here then?

“I’d have thought your mother would have mentioned it. She’s secured my services as a tutor to improve that abysmal duelling of yours. Your injury in your previous duel had her worried and I’m to my absolute best to ensure you survive the stupidity that made you enter yourself into the Triwizard tournament.”

I simply stared at him, gobsmacked. Narcissa? Why the fuck would she do this?

“We’ll be starting with your duelling. Minerva has no positive feelings for you and is uninterested in making your duelling anything more than passable, we’ll be remedying that. Follow me,” He continued, not even pausing for a second to allow me to collect my thoughts or overcome the shock overwriting my senses. 

Snape? Tutoring? Duelling? My brain was short-circuiting. I must have spent too much time thinking things through for Snape’s liking since a stinging hex hit me on the wrist, which made me bolt up in shock. 

I looked up at him and met his eyes by accident. Nothing showed on his face, and he simply gestured towards the door to his left that I hadn’t noticed in my perusal of his office. I walked into a generic magic practice room. There were a few dummies, but the most important thing about the room had to be the wards.

I had no talent for sensing magic. A blessing like that was too much for me. Even without that talent, I’d felt enough magic in my time here to know that this room was drowning in it. The wards here had to be something impressive. 

“Assume your stance; let me see what I’ll have to fix” His voice rang out again. This time I didn’t dwell on the insanity of what was happening, and I just settled into my basic stance, if you could even call it that. 

I expected him to start things off by offering some criticism of my faulty stance, and he chose to subvert my expectations again by firing a spell at me. I instinctively deflected it to the side, and that was my first mistake. The spell ignored my attempt and cut a large rent into my arm. 

I screamed in pain. I’m ashamed to say I almost cried as I watched my blood begin to pool on the floor beneath my feet. I didn’t even notice Snape as he shoved a bottle into my mouth and began waving his wand around my wound while muttering something I couldn’t quite catch.  

With the potion clearing my mind of the pain, I recognised his words. “Vulnera Sanentur”, He muttered over and over again as my injury began to close before my eyes. 

When he finally finished healing me, he stood up from his position beside me and vanished the blood on the floor. He returned to where he was when we started the ‘duel’. 

“What did you do wrong?” He asked as he walked. 

“Me? You fired dark magic at me. Right here. In Hogwarts of all places,” I was seething.

“Yes, you. Since you’re too obtuse to figure it out on your own and I swore I’d help you, I’ll tell you where you went wrong. You tried deflecting an unknown spell. I have no idea who you learned the art from but they must be a nincompoop. The first rule of deflecting is that you must know the spell you are trying to deflect. The same is true with shielding.” I grudgingly admitted that he was right. Spell deflection was all about knowledge. You needed to understand the spell you intended to deflect if you wanted to have any hope of deflecting it. 

That’s why it’s such a rare and impressive skill. I’d been cheating at it. I deflected spells I didn’t know with intent. The room had given me the idea from a journal of one of the previous headmasters. If my intent to not be hit by the spell was stronger than the intent of the caster to hit them, then I could deflect as many spells as I willed whenever I wanted. 

The only exception to that rule was dark magic. Dark magic spells are nearly impossible to deflect with my cheat code method. The intent that forms dark magic itself wasn’t easy to overcome, even with how much focus I could bring to bear for deflecting any spell coming my way. 

“I won’t spend my team teaching you hundreds of spells, that will come with time. I’ll spend my team polishing your instincts and skills. Your wand movements are sloppy, and your casting speed is horrendous. The only thing worse than your casting speed is your variety. At this point, your only saving grace is your transfiguration skill.” He went on for another five minutes. Tearing apart everything I’d been proud of about my duelling. He even thrashed my transfiguration by saying I hadn’t been creative enough with my conjurations and transfigurations. 

The annoying part about him was that everything he said was true. It hurt my pride like nothing I’d ever felt, but he was right. I understood his points. Looking back on my duelling, I was even more surprised that I managed to win so many duels. 

“The only reason you’ve been winning so far is because your style is new. It’s novel. You’re breaking all the rules and people can’t expect that. You’re also fairly powerful and skilled for your age group.” I almost jumped out of shock and ensured I wasn’t looking him in the eyes. 

“I’m not using legilimency on you. Trust me, nothing in your mind even remotely interests me.” And he just spoke like he read my mind again. Fucker. I looked at his face hesitantly, and I could see the edges of a smirk in his expression. 

“You show your thoughts on your face. For all your sudden maturity, you remain the Draco I’ve always known. Now, stand up. Let’s see what I have to work with.”

We spent the rest of the morning together. After the first tirade, Snape didn’t spend time correcting me- not verbally, at least. He still caused me no small amount of pain whenever I fucked up and wasn’t quick enough to apply his advice to my duelling, 

Burns, cuts, bruises or fractures. He didn’t hesitate o apply any one of those to my body. His healing was expert, so I wasn’t in any real danger, but the pain was real. Definitely the most real thing I’ve felt since my insertion into this world.

“Tell me who trained you?” He finally asked as he allowed me to catch my breath.

“No one. I figured it out myself,” I answered honestly. 

“Do not lie to me, Draco,” he said, his voice in a low hiss. “Who taught you? Who have you been meeting with? Trust me, I can protect you from any retaliation” He was calmer at the end of the sentence. Retaliation? What the fuck is he talking about?

“No one taught me. I started going into the family library and I saw all the impressive things my ancestors did. I didn’t measure up to tha and I wanted to live up to the family legacy so I started to train and work like I’ve never worked before” This was the explanation I’d prepared in case anyone bothered asking about my changes and differences.

He simply stared at me, suspicious, before relenting. “I’ll see you here by 6am on Saturdays and Tuesdays,” He said while turning around to head back to the office. 

I followed after him in confusion. “Tuesday, professor? That’s a weekday,” I pointed out. 

“Do you think me stupid, Draco. I know you haven’t been attending any classes apart from potions for the last few weeks. Your professors have complained to the headmaster but it is well within your rights as the Hogwarts champion.”

He didn’t say anything more and sat at his desk, returning to the papers he was grading before I walked in. Fucker. 

I rushed back to my room after he dismissed me. He might have spoken a great deal about not wanting to invade my mind, but I couldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. Severus Snape might have been my godfather, but even Lucius had taught me to be wary of the man. 

He was dangerous. More dangerous than both his masters knew. Lucius knew something, though, something that made him wary of the man. Something that made him teach his son to avoid the man’s eyes at all costs and to spend as little time with him as possible. Whatever Lucius knew had to be big. He showed no care for half-bloods, considering them inferior, so teaching his son to be wary of one sent alarm bells ringing in my body. 

I walked into the common room and ignored the stares I received as I walked to my room. I was lucky I remembered to fix my appearance before showing up in the common room. No need to send the gossip mill turning. Who knows what they’d end up coming with and the consequences of whatever that could be? 

Slytherins were exhausting people. In the privacy of my room, I took deep breaths to settle my racing heart and looked at my shaking hand in annoyance. I managed to hide my fear while I was in public, but now, all those feelings came crashing down on me. 

I sat there, back to the door for a few minutes before I got better. I still didn’t feel as calm as normal, but the suffocating feeling of my impending doom was gone. 

I stood up and went to my desk to pen a letter. I needed to start occlumency practice with Granger as soon as possible and we needed the unbreakable vow to make any progress with that. I’d contended myself with allowing her to flounder around looking for a binder for a week or two before solving the problem but the urgency forced my hand. 

I finished my letter and held it in my hand before calling out my chosen messenger. “Tilly,” I said commandingly and waited a few seconds before my personal elf, Tilly, arrived. 

“What can Is be doing for you, Master Malfoy Sir” I snickered at the address. Draco had been a real ponce. 

“Thank you, Tilly. I needed that,” I said after a few moments of allowing myself to enjoy the comedy of the situation. 

“I need you to deliver this to the recipient on the envelope. Can you do that?” I asked seriously. I’d come across the idea in fanfiction, but I didn’t know if it would work. 

“Yes, Master Draco, Sir. Is be doing that,” She said cheerfully, and I nodded at her before giving her the letter and thanking her for her service. 

You must be surprised that my personal elf would be so lively. I was surprised to note it when I came to this world, but it made sense. Draco might have been a little shit, but he was never needlessly cruel. He wasn’t kind to her, don’t get me wrong, but he never punished her as seriously as Lucius did to Dobby. 

Another thing that might surprise you is being allowed to summon elves in the castle. It was frowned upon but not technically against the rules. Very few families were rich enough to afford house elves, and of the families rich enough to enjoy that privilege, mine was the only one with more than one of those creatures. 

Other families had only one elf, so an heir summoning that elf into Hogwarts would inconvenience the rest of the family. It just rarely happened. It was another example where Hogwarts refused to make rules for something. A muggleborn might see it and assume it to be some oversight, but it was very intentional. 

Magic thrives in chaos and detests most forms of order. A school for magic as old as Hogwarts had its own identity and what it loved to do was preserve as much chaos as possible. It’s why there were so many hidden passages in and out of the school. Hogwarts itself detests rules and opposes attempts to impose what it sees as unnecessary rules. It also made it impossible to banish Peeves, an agent of chaos, from the castle. Hogwarts tempered its more aggressive tendencies but also protected its presence here. It’s honestly impressive, all things considered. 

Hogwarts isn’t sentient, don’t get me wrong. The castle has many characteristics of life and sentience, but it possesses neither of those features. Every book I’ve come across on the subject agreed on that fact. One posited that Hogwarts had some primitive consciousness that sought to preserve the founders’ will in the castle itself. In contrast, another author posited that some remnants of the founders’ will remain in the very bricks of the castle they’d built. It was a fascinating magic theory but practically irrelevant. 

I waited for a bit before Tilly returned to my room with a reply. I opened the envelope, finding only a piece of parchment with a single word. The word was ‘yes’ though, so my plans were well on track.

I sent Tilly back home and made my way to the room of requirement. It wasn’t till I was on the sixth floor that I realised Granger might not even be there. I had no way to contact her if she wasn’t, so I just kept my fingers crossed. I smiled when I got to the deserted hallway and found the door waiting for me. Anyone who passed would see me staring at a wall. One of the room’s features was that no one could enter while someone else was using the room. They wouldn’t even be able to see the door if they weren’t invited in.

My luck had to be good for something. I walked in and noted the present appearance of the room. It looked like a giant study. Bookshelves covered every inch of the room I could see, and Hermione sat at the centre of the room in front of a giant study desk covered with books. 

She hadn’t even looked up at me when I entered. I had no time for this song and dance, so I walked over and snatched the tome in her hands. She looked at me with fury burning in those brown eyes of hers. I raised my hands in a motion of surrender and said, “I’ve found us a binder for the vow.”

That seemed to drive the wind from her sails, and she settled down. “How? Who?” She asked eagerly. 

I smiled and said, “That’s for me to know and for you to find out. Get up. We need to get to Hogsmeade,” I said as I grabbed onto her hand and started pulling her out of the room. 

“Hogsmeade?” She asked when she finally settled down from being dragged off her chair so abruptly. “I’ll fill you in later”, was my only reply. 

We left the room since I had no interest in using a passage that led to Aberforth Dumbledore. I had no doubts he’d somehow manage to see through even my most powerful disillusionment charm.

We walked toward the statue on the third floor in silence. As I walked out of the room, I’d already disillusioned myself, and Hermione hadn’t hesitated to follow my lead. Her charm was worse than mine, and if she could see the smirk that knowledge brought to my face, she’d be smashing it in with that fist of hers. 

We got to the statue of the one eyes witch on the third floor, and I said the password to allow us entrance, and we started the trek. 

“Now start explaining.” She said while looking me in the eyes. We’d dropped our disillusionment charms on entering the passageway. No need to waste magic. 

“We’re heading to Hogsmeade to meet a man known as the binder. He’s well known in pureblood circles. He makes a living from acting as the binder for unbreakable vows.” I started to explain before she cut me off.

“Vows? Multiple vows? The books I read on the subject say its not possible to act as a binder for more than one vow at a time. It weighs too much on the soul.”

“No one knows how he does it, but he does it. He’s also discreet. Very discreet.”

“I doubt this comes cheap. How much?”

“Irrelevant. I’ll be paying.”

“No. I might not be a Malfoy, but I can more than pay my fair share.” She said stubbornly. 

I shook my head at her. “He’s the only one that provides the services he does. He’s also very discreet about it.”

“How much does it cost?” She pressed. 

“A thousand galleons,” I said while giving her a deadpan look.

When she didn’t say anything more, I continued, “Like I said, I’ll be paying.”

 That seemed to hit at her pride. “I’ll be paying you back,” She said suddenly, and I resisted the urge to smile in amusement. Dentists made a lot of money in the UK, but I doubted she had five hundred galleons lying around somewhere. 

We passed the rest of the journey in silence and made our way out of the passageway in the basement of Honeydukes. We reapplied our charms and strolled out of the store, with the owner none the wiser. 

We made our way to the chosen meeting point in silence, and I tried my best not to think about how her hand felt in mine as I led her to the three broomsticks. It was at the other end of the town, so we had a bit of a journey ahead of us.

My legs were killing me, and I started to feel the distance we’d travelled already. I might have started doing some exercise with my duelling practice, but nothing had prepared me for a journey like this one. The journey from the castle to Hogsmeade was at least 5 kilometres long.

Before we entered the pub, I dragged Hermione into an empty alley. I ignored the wand that dug into my chin, and I explained. “We need to modify our appearance before we go in.” She nodded; at least, I thought she did.

I removed my disillusionment charm and conjured a mirror to see what I was doing. I trusted Hermione to keep an eye out as I used a colour-changing charm to turn my hair black and some minor transfiguration to move my cheekbones lower on my face. 

“Your turn,” I said to Hermione, and she removed her disillusionment charm to give me a deadpan look. “I’m not letting you transfigure me”, She said, and I sunk my shoulders in. 

She rejected all my explanations and reasoning for her need to allow me to change her appearance, so I used a glamour charm to settle her hair down and change the colour to a platinum blonde. 

Seeing her like that made me feel even more possessive of her. Women who married into the Malfoy family were required to permanently change their hair to blonde, so that had to be part of it. 

We walked into the pub like we belonged and reserved the second room with the matron. We got there and settled down to wait. I ordered a full English breakfast while we waited since I was so famished, and Hermione neglected to pick anything up for herself. Didn’t stop her from picking off a sausage or two from my plate or drinking my water, though.

 The binder came into the room a few minutes after I finished eating, and we wasted no time with introductions or pleasantries. I stretched out the piece of parchment containing the vow we’d chosen to him, and he gave it a read. His eyes gave nothing away. 

He must have been wearing a fake form like we were because there’s no way anyone could look so perfectly average. He looked exactly like what I’d imagine an NPC to look like. 

He turned to us after giving the vow a read and said, “Let’s begin”. Even his voice was perfectly average. 

Hermione and I stood across from each other and held hands like we were about to arm wrestle. He walked over and waved his wand over our joined hands before a bolt of light surrounded our wrists. He started with Hermione. 

“Do you swear to keep whatever secrets you find in Draco Malfoy’s mind to the best of your ability?” She answered affirmatively, and another bolt of light connected our wrists. 

“Do you swear to put in your maximum reasonable effort to keep the secrets of Draco Malfoy safe?” He continued and when she said, ‘I do, another bolt of light connected our wrists. 

“Do you swear to not use the secrets you discover in Draco Malfoy’s mind against his interests that are known or suspected by you?” 

“I do”, She answered, and a third bolt joined our hands before he waved his wand again and turned to ask me the same questions. When he finished, I felt a notable weight pressing on me. 

I looked at him, and he answered the question in my mind. “The weight will disappear after an hour or two, and you won’t feel it till you come close to breaking the vow. I advise you not to even think about breaking it. Magic can be very particular about things like this.” He explained, and I nodded in understanding before tossing a coin purse at him. 

He overturned the galleons on the table and watched them pile high before using a counting charm that confirmed there were indeed a thousand galleons there. 

“Now, your assurance”, He said while relaxing and waving his hand at my head. I wasn’t going to tell him I’d never used the obliviate spell before, so he felt calm, trusting me to wipe his memories. 

I pointed my wand at his forehead and muttered the incantation before I saw his memories flowing through my head like a film. I searched for the memories of the vow itself and wiped them clean with my metaphysical paintbrush. I left the memories of the meeting, but I also removed the memories of our names. 

I got out of his head and took deep breaths to calm myself. The charm was exhilarating. It wasn’t difficult at all, but it had my heart beating at a unique high. 

“Good work”, He said before leaving the room. Hermione decided to abandon her silence and started questioning me about why the binder had allowed me to use such an illegal and dangerous spell on him. 

I answered her questions and allayed her concerns that the Aurors would burst into the room and take us into custody the best I could before we left the pub. 

I took a small detour to a second-hand goods store and bought a random nimbus broom before we disillusioned ourselves and made our way to the honeydukes cellar. Luckily, the store owner used intent-based wards, and since we had no plans of stealing anything, we made our way into the store very easily. 

When we entered the cellar, I took out my newly acquired broom and got on it. Hermione debated simply walking to the castle in her head before relenting and accepting my offer to ride with me. I ignored the way her body felt pushing into mine and started the journey. 

A/N; Sorry I've been gone for so long. Laptop almost died on me. Here's a whole chapter to make things up.