Lay Me Softly Down

LAY ME SOFTLY DOWN:

Chapter 8

" I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this rain, but it's my destiny to be the King of Pain..." -"King of Pain" Alanis Morissette

"I like boys, I like girls. They're all great. There's no difference, is there? Mr. BBC."

"Right this way! Best be getting' a move on there!" Hagrid called out, alternately looking this way and that to see if there were any students straying from the long line leading into the castle, but there were none to be seen.

After a night in the woods, and another good 5 hours travelling by Ministry transport to get to Hogwarts, most of the students were too exhausted to do anything but mumble their greetings unintelligibly, and follow the line with numb exhaustion, and even number feet.

Here and there Hagrid saw a face that he recognized, and called out a greeting, but mostly it was just one stretching line of students that he either didn't recognize, or only knew on a casual basis. For a moment, the bushy haired half-giant cocked his head to one side to get a glimpse of his fellow teachers, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall.

Merlin only knew how hard this was on them, they had been up most of the night aiding in the search for the lost students, worrying about whether they had been killed, attacked by Death Eaters, or eaten by Dragons. Hagrid almost smiled at the thought, but caught himself just in time.

He opened his mouth to say something, maybe to make some small talk with Dumbledore, only to finally see two of his favourite students trudging up the walkway. One with bushy brown hair, and the other with equally wild, shoulder length red hair. "Ron! Hermione! Good ter' see ya'!"

Hermione tilted her head up and nodded in greeting, while Ron said nothing at all. Just then, Hagrid noticed something amiss. "Where's Harry? I 'been waitin' ter see him again all summer." At this, Ron snorted laughter. Laughter, which, thankfully for him, did not reach Hagrid.

Feeling that he should at least offer some sort of explanation, Ron offered this: "Well last time I saw Harry, he was a bit tied up with Draco." He said, not without a bit of sarcasm. Hagrid's brow furrowed for a moment as he recalled Draco's last name. When he got it, his eyes bulged comically.

"Ya' mean Malfoy? That little sod'?" Hermione kicked Ron solidly in the shin. "Ron, I think we're holding up the line..." She muttered menacingly, so only Ron could hear. "Oh, right then. See you around Hagrid." Hagrid waved at them as they made their way into Hogwarts.

Hagrid turned around, and began ushering on the students once more, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't seem to shake what Ron had said. "He was a bit tied up with Draco..." There was something very fishy about that, very fishy indeed...

Once the students entered The Great Hall, they immediately noticed something very different about its layout. Instead of the four House tables festooned with their respective colours, there were hundreds of chairs in a block formation.

At the head of this block was a polished mahogany lectern, which Headmaster Dumbledore stood behind. Dumbledore waited patiently while the students filed in and took their seats, and through the whole procession, he kept a look of solemnity on his aged and wrinkled face.

Once the assembly was seated, a few low whispers reverberated around the room, but otherwise all was silent. Aside from the fact that most were too tired to say anything remotely resembling conversation, all had noticed Dumbledore's grave expression, and were waiting respectfully to hear what he had to say.

One student in particular was paying special interest to the matters at hand. Draco Malfoy, despite his own fatigue, sat ramrod straight in his chair, and expertly maintained his cool Slytherin demeanour. The ice-cold stare, the frosty posture, and the baleful sneer were all in attendance.

He had parted ways with Harry at the entrance, wary of what might be said if his fellow Slytherins were to see him so openly fraternizing with the enemy. But now, seated in between Pansy Parkinson and Jan Slade, an up and coming figure in Slytherin social circles, he felt overwhelmingly lonely, and found himself wishing desperately that he was still with Harry.

At that moment however, Draco's attentions, and those of everyone else present were focused by the sound of Dumbledore clearing his throat pointedly. "Thank you." He said in his crowd voice, a voice that Draco found immensely reassuring, although he would never have told any of his fellow Slytherins that little fact.

Dumbledore paused for a moment to adjust his spectacles, and then continued his speech, all the while maintaining the air of graveness and seriousness that was so uncommon of him.

"My dear students, I am very sorry to have to keep you up at such a late hour, but the matters that I must speak to you about are very serious, and cannot be put off until morning." Several students murmured their assent, but other than this, dead silence prevailed.

"As you are well aware of, The Hogwarts Express was derailed some 8 hours ago, thus stranding you all in the woods. However, what you may not know is that this was not an accident. The train was derailed by Death Eaters acting on Lord Voldemort's orders."

At this, a violent surge of voices rose up in a clamour that drowned out the aged Headmaster's next words. "Death Eaters! I knew it!" "Voldemort!" "The Dark Mark!" In this cacophony, more than a few heads turned in Draco's direction. His father's connections to the Death Eaters were very well known.

"A bunch of snivelling rats if you ask me." Draco jumped, shocked at the voice that had come mere feet away from his right. As he turned, he saw Jan still seated, favouring him with a distasteful smirk. The smirk seemed to say: *So this is the boy everyone's been talking about.*

Upon inspection, Draco noticed that Jan was of about his age, with long brown hair that fell well below his shoulders. Instead of being dressed in his school robes, he was wearing an elaborate green silk shirt with gold weave, and was sporting matching pants to boot. To top it off, he was wearing a pair of menacing looking black leather boots that were polished to a killing gloss. He came from money; there was no question about it.

Finishing his inspection of the boy's attire, Draco trailed his gaze up again until he met Jan's. What he saw there startled him even more than Jan's unannounced arrival had. He had eyes of the deepest sea blue. Very unlike his steely grey eyes, or even Harry's deep, soul searching jade green ones.

For a moment, just a moment, those eyes locked with his own, and Draco found that he did not like what he saw there. Then his attentions were yet again drawn back to the front of the room by a loud, booming shout. "ALL STUDENTS WILL PLEASE REMAIN SILENT!"

Such was the shock at hearing their beloved Headmaster shout, that the room followed his orders and promptly zipped their lips. Dumbledore paused for a moment to close his eyes and rub the bridge of his nose, making him look older than ever. "I am sorry my dear students, I know it has been a long day for all of us." Here and there a few murmurs of assent sounded.

"And it is for this reason that the Sorting Hat Ceremony will not take place tonight, but rather tomorrow, when I know that you'll all be more rested and alert." He smiled in that kindly way of his to punctuate the sentence, then continued. "And, since this is the case, I will now ask all Prefects to please lead their students back to the dormitories. First years will sleep in the Great Hall tonight. Dismissed."

And without another word, the four houses stood up, and followed their Prefects deeper into the castle, where many warm beds awaited. However, as he stood up to go, Draco couldn't help but look longingly in Harry's direction, a look which Harry returned with equal, if not more longing, and a look which Jan Slade did not fail to miss.

In the Slytherin Dormitory, the fire burned brightly in the recessed marble and limestone hearth. The limestone and marble interwove to create an intricate pattern of green and black, with the symbol of the Slytherin snake branded in gold above the fireplace.

And above that, written in large gothic style black letters was the Slytherin motto: There may be fairies, there may be elves, but God helps those who help themselves. Which clearly distinguished it from the mottos of the other four houses. When Snape had become Head of Slytherin house, one of the first things he had done was to pick a new motto.

Behind this lavish mantelpiece, was an equally lavish Common Room, one that, Draco now admitted to himself, he had always hated for its detachment, for its lack of feeling. The wood backed gilt chairs, and the ridiculously well draped, but highly uncomfortable couches. It reminded him of a living room from Hell.

What was even worse than the pompous settings, was the people who inhabited them. Looking around the room now, Draco couldn't help but wonder why he ever put up with these pompous windbags.

Even the formation in which his fellow housemates were seated was telling. Instead of one big relaxed group, the chairs and couches had been cordoned off to form tight little rings of people, cones of wax within the hive if you will.

Listening to them now, Draco found that this was for all purposes and intents a hive, seething with creatures that could, and would sting at a moment's notice. All dressed splendidly, hiding the poison stinger from view. You could see it in their eyes, the way the group mind functioned. *Dear Merlin I feel lonely.*

And he did feel lonely, surrounded by all these falsely cheery faces. This presented a problem for him. He just simply couldn't get up and walk over to Harry's dorm. That would cause a great deal of suspicion. What was more, was that he wasn't even sure if they would let him in. What if Harry saw him and slammed the door in his face. He'd be ruined, never again able to look him in the eye.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!" A loud, sharp burst of laughter tore Draco away from his troubled thoughts. Upon inspection, he discovered that this burst had come from none other than Pansy Parkinson, who was at the moment leaning on Jan's shoulder, along with a 6^th year blond that Draco did not know.

"Oh, hoh! Now that's rich! Draco mooning over Potter! The flower of..... Heh heh haaaa!" Whatever Pansy had been about to say was lost in a fresh wave of the loudest, most horse-like laughter imaginable. The blond soon joined, and Draco could feel the blood trying to rush up to his face.

Draco quickly sat up properly, cocked his chin, and threw his frostiest *Have at it* glare at Jan that he could muster. It was a look that would have sent any other Slytherin cowering in terror, but not Jan.

He kept his eyes locked with Draco's while the corners of his lips turned upwards in a self satisfied sneer that equalled, if not surpassed Draco's own humourless expression. Pansy and the blond, oblivious as to what was occurring, continued to bray laughter while the two would-be-combatants eyed each other up from the relative safety of their seats.

In his most removed, frostiest tone of voice, Draco said: "And what, may I ask, gave you the impression that I was 'mooning' over Potter?" Jan gave an elegant little shrug, and followed it with a bored yawn.

"Oh please, I saw the way that you two were looking at each other when you left the Grand Hall. It's also very common, ( he said this loudly so the entire room could hear ) knowledge that you were sleeping with Potter's gang in the woods."

Draco laughed harshly, and swung his head so that his hair fell away from his face. "Oh really? I think you're forgetting your place here Jan. My reasons for doing what I do are my own, and it's not the place of some snot-nose who has been here for what, 1 year? To question my authority. Do I make myself clear?"

By now the room had given up any pretence of being uninterested in the proceedings, and was waiting with rapt attention to see how Jan would respond to this out and out rebuke. After a few charged seconds, Jan slid out of his chair, stood up to his full height, and proceeded to walk toward Draco.

Draco wasted no time in standing up, and meeting Jan in the dead centre of the circle of chairs. The room was positively charged with electricity, and all were holding their breath to see what would happen. The challenge had been met, and now the male battle was about to commence.

"No, I think it is my business when I see a Slytherin neglecting his own responsibilities and openly carrying on a relationship with a Gryffindor, what's even worse for that matter, a Gryffindor male." Jan and Draco were now standing inches apart, and staring straight at the other, all pent up fury and anger, ready to break at a moment's notice.

This time, when Draco spoke, the firelight reflecting eerily off his face, his voice was little more than a whisper, but a whisper charged with anger and slaked with bitterness. "Nobody, but nobody tells Draco Malfoy what to do."

And without any further ado, the combatants charged and rammed into one another at maximum speed. Blows were traded with lighting quick speed, and countered with near Godlike reflexes. Around and around they spun, locked in a furious battle of strength and agility.

After what seemed like ages, but had really been only a few minutes, Draco saw an opening. He punched straight forward, making as if to hit Jan in the stomach, but when Jan moved to block, he grabbed his arm, twisted it behind him, raised one black booted foot, and delivered a solid kick to the boy's shoulder blade.

With a strangled cry, Jan went flying, his long brown hair fanning out behind him like a corona of fire as he fell. Then with a solid thock! his head made contact with the fireplace edge, and he dropped to the floor in a fetal position. Immediately, several 6^th year girls ran to his side and began cooing over him in that annoying manner of theirs.

Draco gave the room a bitter once over, and savagely kicked a fallen chair into the crowd. Without another word, he turned on heel, and stalked off through the Common Room door, and out into the vastness of the castle that lay beyond it. He needed to relax with some real friends, and that meant one thing. He had to find Harry.