The Ancient and Most Romantic House of Black

"The Ancient and Most Romantic Black Part 2"

The next morning, I awoke to the bright sun shining in my face, hurting my eyes. "Ugh," I mumbled, groping for my wand, eyes shut tight. I grabbed it and gave it a wave, closing the curtains. "That's better," I sighed and tried to go back to sleep.

Dudley, however, impeded this by saying, "Uh, Draco? I have to go to the bathroom."

"Good for you," I snapped.

"I don't know where it is."

I sighed, gritted my teeth and headed for the door. "Well, come on."

He followed me down the hall. I took him through several turns and finally stopped by a portrait of one of my distant relations. "There," I said.

"There what?"

"Just walk through the portrait," I rolled my eyes and yawned.

"Are you kidding?"

"No."

"You can't walk through portraits!"

"Yes you can, watch." I walked through it into the bathroom and walked right back out. "See? Right in there," I pointed for emphasis.

Dudley glanced from me back to the portrait, sighed and seemed to be screwing up his courage. "Well...o--okay." He walked up to the portrait and pushed his hand experimentally on it. It fell right through and he gasped. "It's not solid!"

"It's magic."

He nodded and walked through into the bathroom. I turned and was headed back to our room when Potter walked up to me, holding Ginny's hand. She was grinning, happier than I'd ever seen her before. "I never thought I'd say this, Malfoy, but I feel sorry for you, having to share a bedroom with Dudley. So...here's some advice. Just threaten him with magic. He's terrified of it."

"Oh, I don't know. I did some in front of him last night and just now I showed him how to get into the bathroom. He seems to be warming up to the idea that magic isn't so bad."

Potter scoffed. "Figures you two would get along. Always said you two reminded me of each other."

"Ron told me."

"Ron?"

"Yeah."

"What, no Weasel? No name calling?"

"Nah...we've come to...an understanding," I smiled at Ginny.

"Come on, Harry, I'm hungry," she said, tugging on his arm. "Let's go get some breakfast."

Potter nodded distractedly and followed her, glancing back at me, confused.

I snickered and went back to my room, shut the door, took off my pajamas, and reached into my trunk for a clean robe. I pulled it on over my head and turned around. The door opened and Dudley entered.

"Uh, Draco?"

"Yes?"

"I don't have any clothes."

"Well," I said looking into my trunk. "I don't have any Muggle clothes, but I could make this robe fit you," I pulled out one of my old school robes.

"What's that?"

"Wizards wear these."

"It looks like a dress."

"Well, it's not."

I waved my wand at the robe and handed it to him.

"See, magic is dead useful."

"Maybe."

I shook my head. "Well, I'm going down to breakfast. Can you find your way back down to the kitchen?"

"Yeah. I think so," he nodded. I left, shutting the door behind me.

I walked down the hall and descended the staircase. Entering the kitchen, I saw that Mrs. Weasley was cooking eggs and bacon.

"Morning," I said to everyone. Tonks nodded sleepily, Lupin buried his head on his arm, Ginny smiled at me, and Harry turned to glare at her.

I sat down in an empty seat and graciously took the plate Mrs. Weasley offered me. "Where are your Aunt and Uncle?" I asked Potter, taking a bite of my eggs.

"Don't know, don't really care."

"Oh. Well, Dudley is coming down in a minute. He's just changing right now."

"What's he changing into? He didn't bring any clothes."

"One of my old robes. I magically resized it. Kid's starting to appreciate magic more and more as time goes by."

"I don't get it. He was always terrified when I even mentioned magic around him."

"That's because you would hex him senseless in a heartbeat."

"And you won't?"

"Well, I could, but it's an awful lot of work to go through for some guy I just met. The trick is knowing what kinds of magic to show him. I've only been showing him the useful stuff."

"Makes sense," Potter said.

Dudley entered, looking like Crabbe with blonde hair and sat down near Lupin. He took a plate from Mrs. Weasley, but didn't touch it.

"You can eat that. It's just eggs and bacon."

"Egg of what kind of animal?"

"A chicken," I sighed. "Look, none of us want to hurt you, okay?"

"Okay." He took a tentative bite and smiled. "This is good. Thank you."

"You're welcome, dear," Mrs. Weasley beamed and sat down to eat herself.

Lupin groaned and Tonks patted his shoulder pityingly.

"What's wrong with him?" Dudley asked.

"He's a werewolf. He just transformed last night. It's always really tough on him," Potter said.

Dudley looked frightened, but to his credit, he did not jump up and run away screaming. He did start to eat faster, though, apparently to get away from Lupin as soon as possible.

I suddenly realized that Dudley didn't know who most of these people were. "Dudley, you haven't been properly introduced to most of us. That's Molly Weasley, that's Nymphadora Tonks, that's Remus Lupin, that's Arthur Weasley, and that's Ginny Weasley," I said pointing at them each in turn.

Ron entered. "And that," I said, pointing at him, "is Ron Weasley."

"I've already met him," Dudley said and stiffened. "And that man," he added, pointing at Mr. Weasley.

Potter barely stifled a giggle.

"Well, Mrs. Weasley is his mother, Ginny is his sister..."

"And my girlfriend," Potter cut in.

"Yes, she's that, too. Anyway, Tonks is an Order member and my distant cousin."

"Mine too," Ron piped up.

"Right, theirs too."

"And Lupin is my dad's old friend," Potter said.

"Right, and our old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Wow. Why are you all related?" Dudley asked.

"Because the Weasleys, me, and Tonks...well her mother was anyway, we're all purebloods. And if you want to stay purebloods, you've got to keep marrying other purebloods. And there are so few of them nowadays that you end up marrying your seventeenth cousin on your uncle's brother's side or something."

"What's a pureblood?"

"Someone who has only wizard blood in them."

"Is that good?"

"It doesn't matter," Ron cut in. "I'm a pureblood and I don't care. My girlfriend, Hermione, is a Muggleborn, and it just doesn't matter. But some people..."

"Like Voldemort," Potter piped in and most of the room flinched.

"Say that it does. That's why they want to kill all the Muggles and Muggleborns."

"Right. Which is why we've got to stop the people who think like that," Ginny said.

"But if it doesn't matter, why would anyone care?"

"They just do. Same as your family thinks wizards are weird, they think that Muggles are weird, and ought to be eliminated."

"So why would they want to kill the Muggleborns? They're magic!"

"They think that Muggleborns are unworthy to study magic."

"Which is a lie."

"Yes," Ron added. "Hermione is the smartest witch in our year. She's got the top grades in every class! She got O's on every OWL in fifth year. So don't tell me she isn't worthy to study magic!"

"What's an OWL?"

"Ordinary Wizarding Level. It's a test all magic folk have to take at the end of their fifth year. It's really difficult and most everyone panics. Trust me, it's a huge achievement to get an O, and it's positively astounding that she got O's in everything."

"Yeah, the only thing I got an O in was Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Which, let's face it, you're Harry Potter. That one was a given."

"Yeah, I do seem to have an aptitude for it..." he joked.

Everyone chuckled but Dudley.

"Huh?"

"Never mind, you have to be a wizard to get it."

"Okay."

Professor Snape entered. "Weasley, we are going to go pick up Miss Granger this evening. Molly, Arthur, Tonks, and Lupin, if you feel up to it, we'll be leaving at six."

"Thanks, Professor," Ron said. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley nodded and Tonks smiled.

Professor Snape left, and Ron began to smile. The smile started small, but quickly grew to a full-on grin.

"Bet you're happy," I joked.

He turned to me, that smile still seemingly plastered there. "You have no idea."

After breakfast, Potter, Dudley, the Weasleys, and I all went upstairs to the drawing room. We sat around talking happily, explaining magical things to Dudley whenever necessary, until Mrs. Weasley came in. "Would you lot mind helping me in the attic? I need to find another bed to put in Ginny's room for Hermione. It's so darn dusty and dark up in there."

"Sure, mum," Ron said and jumped to his feet. The rest of us got up and followed her to the ladder leading to the attic. Dudley refused to climb up. Since he had no wand and no knowledge of how to deal with attic-dwelling magical creatures, no one argued with him.

We climbed up the ladder and into the complete and total darkness. Slowly around me lights began to spring up as Potter, Ron, and Mrs. Weasley lit their wands. Following their lead, I lit mine as well.

"It's somewhere up here, kids. Just spread out and look for it."

We all split off into different directions. After poking around in the dust for two minutes, I was tempted to just say "Accio bed!" But when I thought about it, I realized that I didn't want a bed flying at me, so I continued to look.

"I found it!" I heard Ginny call.

Following the sound of her voice, I turned a corner and ran into Potter. "Oh."

"Watch where you're going, Malfoy."

"Would you please just call me Draco? This calling each other by our last names shit is getting bloody ridiculous."

"What's the matter, don't want to be associated with your parents anymore?"

"No."

"Fine, whatever."

Ron walked up then and looked back and forth between the two of us. "Everything all right?"

"Yes. Harry here was just telling me something funny that happened to him this summer."

"Then why aren't you laughing?"

"I didn't think it was very funny."

"Well, come on. Mum and Ginny are right over here."

We followed him and found Ginny and Mrs. Weasley standing beside a dusty old bed.

"Well, I'll have to clean it up once we get it out of the attic, but can you boys help me carry it down the ladder?"

"Couldn't you just use the Locomotor Charm on it?" Harry asked.

"I could, but it's a bit too big for me to handle by myself. If you boys would like to help me..."

"Sure, Mrs. Weasley," I said and pulled out my wand. Harry and Ron followed suit.

"Ginny, you go on down the ladder and watch us to make sure we don't run this into anything."

Ginny nodded and descended the ladder.

"All right. On three. One...two...three. Locomotor bed!"

The four of us said the incantation at the same time, and the bed rose slightly in the air.

"Okay, Ron. You go down first."

Ron nodded and began to descend the ladder, keeping his wand trained on the bed.

"Now Harry."

Harry disappeared down the ladder as well.

"You're next Draco."

I went down the ladder. Dudley was cowering in a corner, his beady little eyes trained on Harry's wand. Harry was ignoring him, pointing his wand at the bed. Ron was doing the same. Ginny was standing by looking on wistfully.

"Okay, mum. They're all down here. You can come down."

Mrs. Weasley appeared at the top of the ladder and climbed down slowly, careful to keep her wand pointed at the bed. When she got to the bottom, she said, "All right, boys. We'll start moving it down the ladder on three. One...two...three."

The four of us started to move the bed carefully down the latter. It wasn't easy; we had to turn the bed up on its end to fit it down the ladder, but we managed it. Slowly and steadily we brought it down to us.

"Okay, now into Ginny's room."

We headed down the hall into Ginny's room. After fifteen minutes of moving the bed, we finally set it down into its new home. Mrs. Weasley turned to smile at us. "Thank you, boys."

"No problem mum," Ron smiled.

"Well, I'll just go wash the linens and dust it."

Ginny stayed to help her mother, but Harry, Ron, Dudley, and I went to Ron and Harry's room to hang out and talk. Dudley walked behind me, as far away from Harry as he could, as though he were trying to use me as a shield. When Ron opened the door to his room, I almost jumped in shock. From every inch of the wall, Hermione's face stared down at us, smiling and waving. Apparently, Ron had been quite busy since he moved in.

"So that's what you've been doing!" I said. "All this time, I thought you were writing to her, but..."

"I told you, I did write to her a lot. But usually I was just drinking, thinking, and hanging up pictures."

"Where did you get all these?" I asked slightly shocked.

"Some I took last year, some she sent me."

"They're...they're moving!" Dudley said, sounding shocked.

"Wizard pictures move, Diddikins," Harry sneered.

I laughed. "Diddikins?"

"Shut up. My mom calls me that."

"Yeah, but his gang calls him 'Big D'," Harry snickered.

"Shut up!" Dudley growled.

"You have a gang? So do I. Well, I used to..."

"Of course Dudley has a gang. Have I not said it enough already? The similarities between you two are striking."

"I'm starting to see them," I said.

Harry and Ron sat down on one of the beds and Dudley and I took the other. Ron and Harry began chatting about what little news we had of the Death Eater's movements and I joined in occasionally. Dudley sat there, staring numbly at his hands when we spoke about Muggle deaths.

"Draco, what did you find out from your father before he found out you were our spy?" Harry asked.

"Not much. Just that they were planning to attack the Muggle underground. But that was ages ago. They tried it and we stopped it."

"Oh. It's too bad he caught you. You could've gotten some valuable information out of him."

"I know. Dumbledore was really disappointed. But honestly, if he wanted me to not get caught, he should've given me a better way to communicate than owls! They're so easily intercepted."

"Tell me about it," Harry said.

Ron checked his watch. "Damn. Only five."

"Ron, she'll get here soon enough."

"I know. I just miss her."

"Ron, she'll be here in about two hours."

"That's true," he smiled slightly. "God, I can't wait."

"Want a firewhiskey to calm your nerves?" I asked.

"Good idea," he said and pulled a bottle out of his school trunk.

"Ron!" Harry admonished. "You keep firewhiskey up here?"

"Hey, he's been having a hard summer," I said.

Harry cocked a brow.

"And how do you know?"

"Because I've been here with him for most of it. He's been worrying himself sick about you two."

"He's right, Harry," Ron said, grabbing some glasses from his trunk as well.

He poured a glass and handed it to me. "Thanks," I said.

"So you two are drinking buddies?" Harry laughed.

"I guess you could say that," I said.

"Let's just say we understand each other," Ron said and poured another glass, offering it to Harry.

Harry took it, but did not take a drink.

"You want one?" Ron asked Dudley.

"What is it?"

"Firewhiskey."

"Which is?"

"Liquor."

"Oh. I guess so."

Ron handed him a glass, then poured a fourth one for himself. "Well, cheers," he said and the four of us clinked our glasses together somberly. Ron and I took a large gulp from our cups. Harry sat his down, still not drinking it. Dudley sniffed at his drink as though trying to figure out what it was, then finally took a sip. He coughed and sputtered.

"Yeah, that first drink is a kick in the balls," Ron and I said together and chuckled.

Dudley took another drink. "This really isn't so bad."

"Nah. Calms your nerves, at least."

Ron took another gulp and finished his glass off. "What's the matter, Harry? You gonna drink that?"

"No."

"Well, can I have it?"

Harry handed the glass to Ron, who downed it in one large gulp.

"So you've just been drinking all summer?"

"Well, sort of. Not enough to get drunk or anything, but enough to..."

"Settle things," I supplied.

"Yeah. Enough to settle things."

Next to me, Dudley startled to giggle. "This stuff is good!" He laughed loudly.

"Oh shit, I forgot!" Ron gasped.

At first I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, then I, too remembered. "Oh, bloody hell."

"What's the matter?" Harry asked.

"We gave him firewhiskey!" Ron said in a panicky voice.

"So?"

"Look, Har, we can drink a couple of glasses before it makes us drunk, but Muggles..."

Harry's eyes grew wide. "Oh, that's right! They get drunk off a few sips!"

"Yeah, and he just drank a whole glass."

"Great. That's just great, you two. As if it's not bad enough you two have spent the entire summer becoming drunkards, now you've got to go and include my cousin. Shit. My Aunt and Uncle will blame me for this, you know."

"Well, we'll just have to hide the fact that he's drunk."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

"Well, we'll just keep him locked up in my bedroom. We'll shut him in there, magically lock the door, and tell anyone who asks that he's hiding from all us magic folk."

"That sounds believable enough," Harry agreed.

"Heeheehee. I can make stuff float!" Dudley said and grabbed my wand from my pocket. He gave it a wave and nothing happened. "But..." he pouted, "I WANNA MAKE STUFF FLOAT!"

Harry laughed, Ron looked worried, and I took my wand back. "You can't. You're not a wizard."

"But I want to be! It's not fair." He stood up now, glared at Harry, and began to rant drunkenly. "It's not fair! He gets to be so special. He just waves that fucking stick and he can make all kinds of stuff happen. He gets real friends. He gets to have a perfect life. It's not fair! Why does he get to have special powers? Why not me?"

Harry had stopped laughing and his eyes had grown wide. "Dudley...I don't have a perfect life. My parents are dead. The fate of the entire world rests on my shoulders. And magic isn't a solution to everything. It's more a matter of..."

"Convenience," I supplied.

"Yes, convenience. I'm not special."

"But you get to do magic. You get to be some sort of special wizard guy, and I don't."

"Well..." Harry stared at Ron, who shrugged. "I guess it's not fair that some people are born Muggles or Squibs and some are born magical, but...that's just the way it is."

"And these are the circumstances we were dealt. And you just have to deal with it," Ron glanced at me and I smiled back.

"Yeah. This is just the way stuff is."

"Dudley, you shouldn't be jealous of us. Believe us. We don't have perfect lives, and yes, we can do magic, but it's not the perfect solution to everything like you think. There are plenty of things magic can't do."

Dudley sat down on the bed again. "But it's convenient," he said in a mocking voice.

The three of us sighed. There was obviously no way to make him see our point, and it was useless to keep explaining things to him. Sorry that we'd ever given him that firewhiskey, Ron, Harry, and I pulled him to his feet and guided him down the hallway to my room.