Draco's bedroom
Draco Pov
Draco awoke suddenly to the sound of his door being slammed open. He groggily sat up and saw his father angrily striding through the room toward him. His father raised his wand and the curtains flew open to reveal a setting sun in the distance. Draco internally rolled his eyes at what he knew was coming and swung his legs over the side of his bed. "What do you think you're doing?" his father hissed, "It's five-fifty in the afternoon and you're asleep! Draco, we have a meeting with the Dark Lord in ten minutes. Do I need to remind you what happened the last time someone was late?" Draco cringed at the memory of Pettigrew's screams caused by the Cruciatus Curse.
He walked over to the vanity and quickly buttoned the black dress shirt he was wearing, effectively hiding the three biggest scars that spanned his chest from the lavatory fight with Potter last year. He grabbed his suit jacket off the nearby chair and hurriedly slid his arms into the tailored sleeves. "Sorry, Father. I was just feeling tired and I must have accidentally dozed off." Draco was not indeed sorry; nor had he "accidentally" dozed off. He had done it on purpose and was not ashamed.
His father ignored him and walked around him to his bedside table where he picked up a picture. "What is this supposed to be? It's just an empty picture frame. Are you going mad, boy?"
Draco's eyes widened in panic when he saw what was actually in the frame and quickly thanked Merlin that Hermione had remembered to put a Concealment Charm on it. It was the birthday present she had given to him all those years ago with the picture of them on their date in the Astronomy Tower. Suddenly, there was a pop, and Milly, the new house-elf appeared, accidentally trodding on his father's foot in the process. "Ouch!" he exclaimed and dropped the picture in surprise. The picture frame smashed, with glass going everywhere. Draco dove for the actual picture, not caring about the shards digging into his legs, and retrieved the photo. Inconspicuously stashing it in the inner pocket of his suit, along with his wand, he inched out of the room, leaving his father to deal with Milly and hopefully forget about the frame.
Hurrying towards the formal dining room, he pulled out the picture and placed a kiss on his fingers which then touched Hermione's unmoving face. He smiled sadly and burst into the room. Although most of the seats were filled; Snape, Bellatrix, the Dark Lord, and his father were still missing. Taking a seat next to his mother and kissing her lightly on the cheek, he noticed someone floating at the end of the table behind Pius. His stomach rolled with dread at the thought of who would be tortured today. Though he knew that if it were Hermione, the whole Wizarding World would have heard of it by now, he couldn't help but think that the woman's hair looked remarkably like hers.
He fidgeted nervously under the table but stopped when his mother laid a hand over his reassuringly. A few seconds later, his father came striding in, accompanied by his aunt who looked very proud of herself. "Move, Draco." His father gestured for him to move one seat over so he could sit down next to his wife with Bellatrix sitting on her other side. Draco reluctantly moved over.
"What took you two so long?" his mother asked.
"Well, I had to let that new house-elf go after an unfortunate Apparating incident involving my foot took place. Your sister was just helping me make sure the elf would never want to come back."
Draco's mother narrowed her eyes. "Honestly, Lucius! She was the third new one this month."
"Can you imagine what would have happened to her if she had stepped on the Dark Lord's foot?" Draco heard his mother's sharp intake of breath and agreed. If Voldemort used the Cruciatus Curse on someone for being late, he couldn't fathom what would have happened to poor Milly.
There was suddenly a chorus of chairs scraping against the marble as Voldemort strode in through the door. Draco hurriedly stood up as well before sitting back down as Voldemort did. Voldemort's cold eyes surveyed the room, landing briefly on each of the people at the table until finally landing on the empty seat that should have been occupied by Snape. "Where is Severus?" he asked, addressing the room. When no one answered, Voldemort started to drum his fingers on the oak of the table, a telltale sign he was getting angry.
Luckily, Snape entered at that moment, looking quickly at the end of the room where the girl was floating. Draco saw recognition flash through his face and his dread heightened. If Snape recognized her, she could be Hermione. He swallowed nervously and his grip tightened on the table. "Severus, I was beginning to worry you'd lost your way. Come, we've saved you a seat." Voldemort's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he watched as Snape took a seat. "You bring news, I trust?"
"It will happen Saturday next at nightfall," Snape replied, referring to Merlin knows what. Draco wasn't kept informed of the going-ons of the Death Eaters after he had failed to kill Dumbledore. He was perfectly fine with that fact, except for it made meetings like these terribly confusing.
"I've heard differently, my Lord," came Rowle's deep voice, "Dawlish, the Auror, let slip that the Potter boy would not be moved till the thirtieth of this month, the day before he turns seventeen." Ahh, so they were talking about Potter. He just hoped that Hermione wouldn't be in danger because of this plan.
"This is a false trail. The Auror Office no longer plays any part in the protection of Harry Potter. Those closest to him believe we have infiltrated the Ministry," Snape rebutted.
"Ha! They've got that right, 'aven't they!" A few Death Eaters laughed at Akinston's joke, but most stayed silent.
As the laughter died out, Voldemort spoke. "What say you, Pius?" Draco turned his head toward the other end of the table where Pius was sitting quietly.
"One hears many things, my Lord, whether the truth is among them is not always clear," he said evasively.
Voldemort let out a disgusting laugh. "Spoken like a true politician. You will, I think, prove most useful, Pius." The corners of Pius' mouth upturned a little at the compliment. "Where will he be taken? The boy, I mean."
"To a safe house. Most likely the home of someone in the Order. Once it's been given every manner of protection, it will be impractical to attack it," Snape replied.
There was a clearing of a throat and Draco realized it was his aunt. "My Lord, I'd like to volunteer myself for this task. I'd like to kill the boy." Draco couldn't help but roll his eyes again. Fat chance that Voldemort would ever give that chance away to anyone, even Bellatrix. He would want to kill Potter himself. Suddenly, there were screams from the dungeon.
"Wormtail!" Draco jumped at the volume of Voldemort's voice but kept his face natural when he saw his father's glare. "Have I not spoken to you about keeping our guests quiet?!" Guests! As if! The people in the dungeon were hardly guests, more like prisoners. Draco was the only one who ever bothered going down there to check if they were okay.
"Yes, my Lord. Right away, my Lord," Pettigrew replied pathetically and hurried off to take care of the screams.
Turning back to the matter at hand, the Dark Lord addressed Bellatrix. "As much as I admire your bloodlust, Bellatrix, I must be the one to kill Harry Potter." How predictable. "But, I face an unfortunate complication that my wand and Potter's share the same core. They are, in some ways," he paused dramatically and stood up, "twins. We can wound but not fatally harm one another. If I am going to kill him, I must do it with another's wand." Voldemort was right behind him now, and he crossed his fingers under the table (a habit he'd picked up from Hermione) that it wouldn't be his wand. "Surely one of you would like the honor. What about you...Lucius?" Draco couldn't help but sigh in relief. "I require your wand." Voldemort's pale hand appeared between him and his father. His father unsheathed his wand from his staff and placed it in Voldemort's hand. "Do I detect...elm?"
"Yes, my Lord," Draco's father said hoarsely, all of his earlier anger diminished to pure fear. There was a sound of the Dark Lord snapping the decorative snake head off of the wand.
"And the core?"
"Dra-Dragon Heartstring."
"Dragon Heartstring!" Voldemort repeated. There was a pause and then the clang of the snake head against the oak of the table. Suddenly, the girl at the end of the table started moving closer. As she did, Draco saw that her body type was all wrong to be Hermione and felt his heartbeat steady out. "To those of you who do not know, we are joined tonight by Miss Charity Burbage who, until recently, taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her specialty was Muggle Studies." Everyone chuckled except for Draco and his mother. "It is Miss Burbage's beliefs that Muggles are not so different from us. She would, given her way, have us mate with them." Retching sounds were coming from Bellatrix but the only thing Draco wanted to retch at was the unfairness of these people he was forced to be around. "To her, the mixture of magical and Muggle blood is not an abomination, but something to be encouraged."
"Severus! Severus, please. We're friends," Professor Burbage begged. Draco glanced over at Snape to see his face betrayed with only the slightest touch of indecision.
Draco saw Voldemort raise his wand, and knew what was coming for he had seen it so many times already. "Avada Kedavra!" The green light shot out of his wand and Professor Burbage fell with her limbs splayed out over the table. Draco flinched and leaned back from the table. He knew Professor Burbage from back when Hermione was still taking Muggle Studies. She was nice, but shy, and was one of Hermione's favorite teachers. "Nagini, dinner," Voldemort's cold voice suddenly cut through Draco's thoughts.
Oh, Merlin, Draco was going to hurl. The last time he had to watch Nagini eat, he was the one who had to feed her and clean up the blood after. Nagini slithered across the table and Draco looked away.
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Draco had been forced to stay behind after the meeting to clean the...remains off the table. Without magic. He dipped the rag into the bucket of bleach next to him and scrubbed a little harder at the few...stains left. Once they were gone and the only thing he could smell was bleach, he picked up the bucket and brought it down to the dungeons where there was a drain. Passing an empty cell, he noticed a jacket in it. He quickly dumped the dirty water in the drain and opened the cell.
Picking up the jacket, he checked the tag and saw stitched onto it Property of Charity Burbage. He emptied the pockets and found that there was an Enlargement Charm on it. He pulled folder after folder with different student names on them. He sat down on the hard bench and opened one titled MacMillian, Ernie. There were probably 17 papers in there, all different titles. He opened another one, this one called Finnigan, Seamus, with only about 10 papers. He couldn't think what kinda nutshell would walk around with all their students' papers in their pockets; but then again, Draco probably shouldn't be talking about the dead like that.
He pulled out one last folder and gasped at the title. Granger, Hermione. He opened it with trepidation and leafed through the papers. He landed on the shortest one which was called Muggle Marriage and Divorce and picked it up.
Muggles get married for many reasons. Most common is when they think they are in love. These days, divorce (which is the act of becoming un-married) is becoming more and more common. People are too hasty and marry someone they might not get along with. You asked for our opinions on marriage and I have some things to say. I hope that I never act too hasty and I get married to someone I really love. People make mistakes, I get that, but I can't see myself rushing into something. I have a boyfriend and I can see us being together for a while, maybe even long enough to get married. I'm thirteen, and I'm already thinking about marriage. If that's not hasty I don't know what is, but again, people make mistakes. Like my parents are always saying, "You have to make mistakes to learn". I think divorce is a fact of life, and though it is unfortunate, it's...
Draco had to stop because the words were blurring together. He wiped his tears and took a deep breath. He never knew that Hermione had ever thought about marrying him before, especially not back in their third year. He had ruined everything. He gathered up the papers and put them back in the folder. He put it under his arm and grabbed the coat. With all his new Muggle reading material he headed back to his room. He was looking down and not paying attention to where he was going when he bumped into his aunt, effectively spilling all of Hermione's papers. He tried to gather them up but Bellatrix snatched one off the ground. "What's this?" she cackled. "Muggle Jobs by Hermione Granger? Hey, isn't this the girl that Potter's friends with? Why do you have these papers?"
"Oh, no reason. Just found them in Professor Burbage's coat; I was just going to throw them away. Sorry." He snatched the paper back and hurried away; not to the trash, but to investigate further into the mysteries of Hermione Granger.
Okay, so I did this chapter because I've always wanted to write Draco's pov of the going ons of the Death Eaters. Hoped you like it and we'll be back to Hermione's pov next chapter. Please comment and vote! Also, I'll be going back to add in some stuff in previous chapters after re-reading the books because I want to keep stuff as canon as possible.
-Ms. Scarlet