The Dragon Breezes In

~Chapter 1~

The next night I ate my last dinner at the Manor, farewelled my mother and left with Severus and my school trunk. It was a bit sad to leave my mother virtually alone but I was glad to leave the Malfoy Manor. I was still the Heir but I hoped that one day I would demolish it.

"This is it," said Severus, we had arrived right between two houses.

"What the..." Even though I was quite nervous I was also quite confused. And yes I do get nervous sometimes. Well rarely.

"Read this and memorise it," Severus said, handing me a piece of parchment.

The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix can be found at number Twelve Grimmauld Place.

"That's all very well but where is this place?" I asked.

"Concentrate on the words." He sounded a bit annoyed, but then, he always sounds at least a slight bit pissed off. I think he just hates the world.

A house then appeared in front of us, it was extremely shabby and dirty, and not really a place I would usually stay at. Snape tapped his wand on the black door and it opened slowly. I entered after him, by this time I was extremely nervous. Merlin, what would they say when they saw me? What would Potter think? And Granger, I had been calling her a Mudblood for so many years, I would have to apologise for my shallowness.

The house was very interesting, very Slytherin. I'd expect it to be a hideout for the Dark Lord, not the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix.

We went into the dining room where many people were sitting around a huge table; these must be the members of the Order. They were all staring at me; I could tell that they were curious and suspicious.

"Draco, welcome to your first meeting in the Order of the Phoenix," Dumbledore said as I sat down next to Granger. Great, the almighty Dumblebum has made me an official member.

"Uh, so I'm a member?" I said stupidly.

"Yes, at first we didn't allow those who were not of age to join but I changed my mind." he said, eyes twinkling brightly.

I looked around the table, there was the Weasel, quite a few Weasels actually, McGonagall, Lupin, Granger, Mad-eye, I would have to steer clear of him, and of course Potter, he looked miserable. He was probably angry because I had just arrived. There were others here, but only a few were familiar.

"To start off on a lighter note, we finally managed to get rid of Sirius's mother for good," said Dumbledore chuckling. A few people cheered at clapped. Now I was confused, did he mean Sirius Black? I heard that he was Potter's Godfather from my father.

"Draco Malfoy has decided to join us; he has informed us that there are some Dark artefacts hidden in the Malfoy Manor. Do you know anything about them Draco?"

"Well I'm not really sure what they are. I know that there are some Muggle things that are probably enchanted. All of this stuff is under the Drawing Room floor." I was surprised to see that the Weasel smirked at this.

"We will have to bring them here to examine them," said Dumblebum. "We can destroy some of them as well. The Floo Network will be a bit risky. Lucius could be watching it."

"Do you have any idea of your father's whereabouts?" asked a witch with dark purple hair.

"No, he hasn't tried to contact me or anything,"

"Lestrange said she didn't know anything when she was captured?" asked Potter.

"She said she knew absolutely nothing," she said.

"That's bullshit!" said Potter, banging his fist on the table. "She would have known where Voldemort was!" Gee Potty, no need to get worked up over a bunch of low life Death Eaters. Though, I did admire him slightly for saying the Dark Lord's name.

"Harry, I know you're angry at her, we all are," said Dumblebum. "But what's done is done, it's in the past." Potter was still fuming, it was a bit amusing to watch but what were they going on about I wonder? Who cares about bloody Lestrange?

The rest of the meeting was quite boring; it was mostly the purple haired witch going on about how the Aurors didn't know where You Know Who was and all the new leads that they would try. Snape and I were to concentrate on getting the stuff from the Manor here.

"As many of the Death Eaters have been captured, we can only assume that the rest are in hiding with Voldemort," said Dumbledore. "The meeting has ended."

Weasley's mother showed me to my room, she was quite nice, so I felt a bit guilty about what I said about her last year.

"It's not much dear, but it'll do for a week or so until you go back to school," she said.

"Thanks." The gloomy room had a single bed in it and the green wallpaper was peeling off the walls. I wrinkled my nose. Oh well, at least it didn't smell.

It was quite late by now so I feel into bed, thinking. I suddenly heard someone shouting from the room next to mine.

"He's a slimy bastard!" It was the Weasel. "We shouldn't trust him; he's probably spying for You Know Who!" I scrambled out of bed as quietly as I could and put my ear against the wall.

"Ron, keep your voice down," Granger hissed urgently. "He can probably hear you!" I smirked. Indeed I could, she was a smart one.

"Yeah, he's probably got his ear against the wall writing down our conversation right now," said one of the Weasel twins.

"I don't think he's spying," said Potter. "Dumbledore's not stupid; he wouldn't let Malfoy join if he wasn't sure he was genuine." Damn, it's Draco! Not Malfoy! Draco!

"And besides," Granger went on, "Lucius isn't that dumb, he wouldn't contact him, not with the Ministry probably watching his Manor."

"He's a Slytherin; there wasn't a witch or wizard that went bad who wasn't in Slytherin!" Trust the Weasel to use that in an argument.

"Well," said Hermione a bit sadly, "that's not true is it?" I pushed my ear against the wall even harder. "What about Peter Pettigrew?"

"Pettigrew was a coward!" Potter snapped bitterly, he did have some temper tonight. "He gave in to Voldemort."

Then it was silent. "Well we must go," said one of the twins. "We have a sale tomorrow -"

"- Last minute preparations," the other finished.

They all said their goodnights; I heard two pops which must have been the twins Disapparating. No more was said and the door closed.

I got back into bed; I had a lot to think about. Why was Potter so angry? Who was Peter Pettigrew? How was I going to prove that I was genuine? I regretted what I had done in the past, I was so childish and I doubted that they would forgive me. I would have to face them tomorrow, what the hell could I say?

I decided to talk to Potter the next day and convince him that I wasn't a Death Eater.

Damn, it was hard being good.