raised by dementor

chapter 24

Summer had come to Malfoy Manor and Draco was currently sat in the living room with Crabbe and Goyle, it was a large room that was kept out of sight during the parties his parents had. Currently he was sat on a shining green cushion which was resting on the sofa, he was toying with his wand; he was bored already and it had only been a week since he had arrived home. Harry wasn't due for a week yet but Crabbe and Goyle were with him today. The train ride back had been eventful; Ron Weasley thought he could enact some kind of revenge against Harry in particular for losing the cup; he decided to target Draco and Cho who had gone to get something from the trolley. Well Ron should have chosen a better place to spring his attack than outside the compartment with the entire Ravenclaw Quidditch team; one black eye later he had run off.
"Can Dobby get master Draco and his friends something?" the house elf suddenly appeared in the room causing Draco to jump on the black leather sofa. The house elf gave him a nervous smile as he wondered if Draco was going to be angry because he had made him jump. Luckily it was Draco and not Lucius he had disturbed
"No thanks," Draco smiled slightly; since he and Harry had become friends he had found himself taking a less superior view on others; Dobby was more of a butler than a slave to him. The rest of his family not so much but they were improving, the house elf gave a slight bow before vanishing into the air, House elf magic was interesting. It could bypass all the wards on the house and Draco not for the first time wondered how such a power was ignored, Dumbledore couldn't bypass the wards but a simple house elf could? Well if the wizarding world wanted to be stupid that wasn't his problem. He suddenly heard a tweak and looked up, above him as normal was one of the huge chandeliers that filled the manor, he could see Dobby at the top.
"Is that your house elf?" Crabbe wondered suddenly looking up
"Dobby what are you doing up there?" he asked aloud, the house elf looked down slightly nervously
"Master Lucius said I needed to stop the chandelier swinging," Dobby answered as he practically swung from the huge glass thing. Both Crabbe and Goyle jumped up not wanting to be on the receiving end if Dobby accidently dropped the chandelier.
"Tell you what boys let's go outside," Draco decided wanting to give his new broom a try, he was going to try out next year after all, the two did but Draco decided to wait a moment.
"Ok next time you're trying to kill me be more obvious," Draco commented jumping up just in case Dobby unscrewed the wrong thing and he ended up squashed.
"Ok master Draco," Dobby replied innocently causing Draco to look up with wide slightly concerned eyed. Sighing he was about to walk out of the room when he saw something in the corner of his eye, a black book had been left next to the largest armchair opposite the fireplace, this was strange. His father was a very careful man and quite attentive when it came to things being out of place, overly attentive almost. However Draco felt the sudden urge to observe this strange entity and found himself staring at a black book, it was too small to be a school book so he assumed it must be some kind of diary.
"So what are you," he commented reaching for the book, then he heard something from behind. A few months ago he wouldn't have cared but he was the only person other than Dobby in the house today, his mother was out and his father was at work. So someone was sneaking around... he worked it out pretty quickly
"Great another one of Arthur Weasley's raids," he sighed knowing any moment the doorbell would ring and when he opened the door a team of wizards would search the place... well it might liven up his day.
Meanwhile
Harry also found summer tedious, the first few days had been fun with him catching up with everyone. Sirius, Bella and Lucy were the main ones but he was currently bored, it was mid day and Lucy was on her patrolling duty; sometimes he went with her while other times he did not and this was one of them. He would be staying with the Malfoy's in a week or so but he currently had a bit of a problem and that problem involved explaining to Lucy what happened between him and Quirrel. He had told Sirius and Bella had overheard and neither were angry or upset he had not told them but both had given him advice on the matter
"She is going to kill you," they had both laughed. Hermione had written to him to let him know that she had told her parents part of the truth but not all of it. so Voldemort, any near death situation had been left out except the troll; Cho had done the same but Draco decided not to mention it, he had no idea how his father would react if he was told that his son had managed to have his former master crushed into a wall. So he had a choice; tell Lucy or not.
"I can't not tell her," Harry sighed, he trusted her and she needed to know, it was just her reaction which worried him, how would any mother react to finding out her son had been attacked by Lord Voldemort...
"What!" a voice in his mind demanded. Harry was shocked for all but a moment but quickly regained himself
"Hey I thought we agreed not to use the mental connection to listen to each other's thoughts," he accused suddenly.
"Don't try getting out of this like that! what do you mean Voldemort attacked you?" she demanded within his mind, Harry thought for a moment. Well looks like this would be the best time to tell her
"You bet it is," she replied listening to his thoughts again.
"Stop reading my thoughts," Harry demanded not overly happy that she was listening to everything he was thinking.
"Stop being attacked by Dark Lords," she replied immediately and Harry got an inkling that there was no way he was going to win this fight. So using the connection he explained what had happened over the course of the year (not mentioning Fudge knew!) and what had transpired after they had followed Quirrel .
"What school did I send you to?" she wondered in her own mind and in Harry's
"You know Draco asked the same thing," Harry almost chuckled but decided not to show any humour, she was not too happy today well not any more.
Meanwhile
Cho lived in a moderately large home in the middle of a wizarding village just outside of London, thanks to her mum working at the ministry they were relatively rich and a five bedroom home was just right for them. She had two younger sisters who would go to Hogwarts in three of four years but today was an interesting day. Her mum was at work thanks to Umbridge demanding she do extra work; Harry had spoken of the woman once and for some reason she got the impression he didn't really like her. He felt that she was only out for herself and would please Fudge however she could so in a few years she would have a chance of taking over; the inner workings of Britain's magical government were a mystery to her. Despite what they thought the entire Chinese communist party had been aware of magic since they took over, they had taken over the magical government as well and their rules were far more relaxed.
"Cho what's that?" Hermione asked; Cho had invited her round after finding out they didn't live far apart, it was only a car journey away and seeing as Cho was a half-blood with a magical parent both girls could use magic outside of school. Hermione was currently pointed to a small stone on the end of her bed, the room was large. A double bed rested on a Ravenclaw blue carpet, a small bedside table had a few books and a muggle alarm clock while the rest of the room was covered in shelves and wardrobes. Some had pictures, others had clothes and more but Hermione was drawn to Cho's impressive book collection, they were both Ravenclaw's so they did enjoy a good read.
"It supposed to predict your future," Cho answered; it had been a gift from her father who was currently downstairs talking to Dan and Emma Granger. He was a muggle born wizard and had married a pure blood, not that Cho cared, blood purity was unheard of in China and the rest of the world except Britain as far as she knew. Hermione was toying with the blue stone and suddenly it exploded into a vibrant green, she looked towards Cho for an answer
"It means you're going to be healthy I think," she answered after a moment looking at the stone in more depth, though the moment she touched it; it turned black with a slight tinge of red.
"What does that mean?" Hermione wondered
"No idea," Cho answered; she didn't know. Luckily the conversation did not continue this way for long as both girls were more interested in discussing magic, gossiping, testing spells and more than trying to work out strange omens. Though this one was strange, black meant darkness and red meant joy after all and these two did not often go hand in hand.
"Cho... you and Draco," Hermione began after awhile not too sure on how to start her next sentence, Cho already knew what she meant and laughed
"You mean was is it with me and him?" Hermione nodded. "He's funny at times but someone has to keep comedy in its place, before you know he starts with the creepy comments so to restore the balance of the universe I threaten to kill him." Hermione giggled at this but Cho had a feeling this was not the question Hermione was really asking; the real question she was not going to answer at least not yet.
Later
Crabbe and Goyle were gone now, they had left after the raid and luckily Narcissa had arrived home before the raid could actually commence. They found nothing and Draco knew they wouldn't; anything giving even the slightest indication of his father's past was locked away in the secret chamber. Not that Arthur Weasley or anyone else could find it, they had spent hours looking through the place and left; Lucius would not be happy and would most likely file a complaint or go directly to Fudge. They men had a frosty relationship and what Harry didn't know was that Arthur had at the last moment had fought against Harry staying in Azkaban, the man's memory had been altered accordingly as Fudge had already worked out where Dumbledore wanted him to go and was not going to allow it. Harry had pretty much forgotten about him anyway and Draco had only heard it when he was eavesdropping on a conversation . Though as Draco stepped back into the living room (it had been put back the exact way it should be after the intruders were done) he noticed something; the black book was gone. For a moment he was confused, why would they take that but then again someone could have just put it back on the shelf though he was not the only person that noticed. Dobby had watched the entire thing and he knew that Arthur Weasley had taken the diary, he knew what that could mean and already a plan was forming in his mind.