The Second Malfoy

Chapter One:

Slytherins

The snake flicked its tongue, staring out of the glass cage it was entrapped in at the boy who seemed desperately fascinated with him. He had seen this child before several times. He was here often with his mother, who came to the store to buy owl treats and peacock feed. Frequently he had expected the child to talk his mother into taking him home, but the boy had never been able to accomplish this feat. It was a shame too, since not many people seemed interested in owning a pet snake nowadays. Maybe this time he'd be able to leave this place where owls looked in on him hungrily and mice and rats were just out of his reach?

"Ron, get away from there," the mother called across the store. The boy jumped, his ears turning red and his expression instantly guilty. Well, it looked like the snake would not be joining the boy today. Losing interest, he wrapped himself up into tight coils and turned his head away from the bright-eyed child.

Outside of the cage, Ronaldus Malfoy turned to his mother and frowned. "Why can't I have a snake, Mum? I'll take good care of it!"

"Because you have a weak stomach and I don't think you could take feeding a snake. Not to mention that the letter said you can bring an owl, cat, or toad. It didn't say anything about snakes." Narcissa Malfoy crossed her arms, a sure sign that she had said her final word and that Ron was not going to win his argument. He hated when she used his health against him like this. All his life, he had been constantly reminded of the fact that he was sickly, not only because he had to take a potion every month for it, but also by the limitations his parents put on him. His twin brother Draco could get away with anything, since he was healthy and strong. However, there were all sorts of restrictions on Ron. He couldn't be outside for longer than an hour, he wasn't allowed to fly on a broom until he was nine years old, and now he apparently couldn't have a snake. It just wasn't fair.

Sighing in resignation, he marched over toward Draco, who was eyeing an eagle owl with interest. It wasn't that he didn't want an owl, of course. Everybody wanted one, because they were incredibly useful. He just wanted to have something that Draco didn't have for once. Not to mention that the snake was the symbol for Slytherin house, which he was sure to be placed in. All Malfoys were.

"Mum wouldn't let you get the snake?" Draco asked, sticking his fingers through the bars of the cage to stoke the owl's feathers.

"Of course not," Ron lamented. "She says I'll get sick while feeding it."

"Feeding it...that would be cool," Draco said with a hint of a grin.

"Then why don't you ask her for a snake? I'm sure she'd let you have one." His words came out sounding bitter and he immediately regretted it. Draco really hadn't done anything wrong. It wasn't his fault that Ron was prone to sickness, nor was it his fault that their parents did all they could to keep Ron healthy. "Sorry," he mumbled in an attempt to make amends for his blunder.

Draco shrugged, but Ron still felt bad for snapping at him. As though to try to make his twin feel better, Draco suddenly suggested, "Why don't you look at an owl? This one is pretty awesome. And anyway, they're way better than snakes. They actually do more than sit at the bottom of a cage their entire life. I'd get bored with a pet snake, personally." Ron nodded even though he was certain he would never get tired of the snake he had just been looking at. It was a young boa constrictor, and even though it was small now, he imagined it in a few years time, when it would be around ten feet long. Still, Draco did have a point. Owls could come out of their cages and would probably show more affection than a snake ever could. Seeing Ron nod, Draco said, "What do you say? Want to try out an owl then?"

"Yeah, okay," Ron responded. He knew he would have to settle for an owl anyway, of course, but for some reason, having Draco suggest it made everything seem slightly better. Draco had a tendency to make even the worst situations with their parents easier to manage. He was just naturally talented at getting everyone to see eye-to-eye that way. Or, at least, he was good at getting Ron to cooperate.

"Good. You should get a big one, though, that way it can send you bigger packages." Draco went back to looking at the eagle owl and said, "I'm getting this one for sure."

Slowly, Ron made his way through the rows of owls within the Magical Menagerie. Draco was right about the size, of course. Even though Ron had felt Draco tended to get his way more often than he did, he knew that their parents spoiled both of them. They received so many presents on the holidays and their birthday (and several times in between), that they had never really wanted for anything. They had both grown up rich with the newest toys, best clothing, and tastiest treats. There was no way the Malfoys would allow their children to go to school without sending them tons of packages.

He eventually settled upon a hawk owl, partially because it was so large and partially because he felt like it complimented Draco's. The woman at the counter, Mrs. Menard, took in the two huge owls and rolled her eyes at the twins that she had come to know rather well in the last ten years. "I should have expected they would be getting similar birds," she laughed to Mrs. Malfoy.

"Actually, I wanted a snake," Ron spoke up, "but Mum wouldn't let me have one." He couldn't stop the trace of bitterness in his voice and instantly felt bad when his mother looked upon him with sad eyes. He knew she felt guilty for saying no to Ron. After all, they were really close and it hurt to deny Ron anything (when Narcissa would go out to Diagon Alley, she always asked Ron if he wanted to go. He had actually come to quite enjoy his days with his mother. Draco, on the other hand, tended to prefer spending time with their father Lucius). Quickly, Ron added, "But I like my new owl. I've named him Salazar!"

"Oh, man! I wish I would have thought of that!" Draco suddenly said is dismay. "I named mine Ares!" Ron flashed his twin a triumphant grin, and Mrs. Menard laughed fondly at them and slipped some complimentary owl treats into the bottom of their new pets' cages. Ron had always really liked Mrs. Menard. While the old witch had once told him that she had been a Ravenclaw in her days at Hogwarts, she never minded Ron's and Draco's enthusiasm for Slytherin house. Other shop proprietors like Florean Fortescue and the woman at the stationary store weren't so kind about their passion, choosing to either switch the topic when Hogwarts houses were concerned or openly belittling Slytherin. Not Mrs. Menard. She would just grin happily at them and send them on their way.

Once out in the street again, pushing their little carts that their owl cages were now in (they were too small to carry the cages themselves, and their mother had insisted that they instead wheel them around Diagon Alley), Draco began begging to go to Ollivander's. Of course, that had been the thing they had both wanted to do all day long, but Mrs. Malfoy seemed to be having fun watching them anticipate what their wands would be. "Oh, no, I think it's time for robes," she stated simply. Ron's shoulders slumped in disappointment, and Draco openly groaned. He hated Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions and Ron couldn't really blame him. Standing for robe fittings was a tedious ordeal, not to mention that the women who worked in that shop talked about the most boring things.

Narcissa held the door to the store for her boys and they slumped inside in resignation. There was a surprising lack of people within. Ron had thought that there would at least be a few Hogwarts students needing new robes. They probably already got theirs, he thought. They were actually buying their school things rather late in the summer considering that they had gotten their school letters in June on their birthday. Most of the students had already been here, he figured.

"Oh, hello, Mrs. Malfoy!" Madam Malkin herself greeted from the back of the store. She appeared to be putting away a long roll of silvery fabric. "Draco...Ronaldus. Here for Hogwarts, then?" She smiled at them indulgently, but Ron had never gotten the same sort of fond vibe that he had received from Mrs. Menard. Instead, it was as if Madam Malkin was kind to them out of obligation.

"Yes," Narcissa responded. "Is it all right if I leave them here while I pop over to Flourish and Blotts for their books?"

"Absolutely," the store owner responded. Ron didn't mind being left while their mum completed some of the shopping. He found books rather dull, to be honest, and if he could avoid the bookstore, he figured he would be happy. Draco, on the other hand, was not in the least bit satisfied by this latest development.

"Aw, what?!" he protested, glaring at his mother angrily.

"I already told you no," she hissed back at him, looking up to Madam Malkin anxiously. The proprietor of the shop was giving them curious looks as she went to pull black material from a roll marked, "Hogwarts." Ron gave her a cold look, daring her to eavesdrop, and surprisingly, she turned away from the three Malfoys nervously.

It would not have been that big of a deal, really, if Draco would have wanted something rather innocent, like a book on hexes and jinxes. But Draco had long since begged his mother for books on the Dark Arts, and Narcissa had yet to give in. Their father had always rather encouraged them to ask about the Dark Arts, but had also pressed them to be secretive about any interest they had in them. Ron himself wasn't overly fond of his dad's tales of illegal curses and prohibited potions, but that was probably because he hated the idea of getting in trouble. It would just be embarrassing to him to get caught doing something wrong. Draco, however, was thicker skinned and didn't seem to mind the idea of breaking the law and running the risk of being found out. The more he had learned about the Dark Arts, the more interested he was in it.

Because Narcissa was not supportive of her sons learning about the Dark Arts on their own, Lucius had denied both children books and things in which they could actually learn how to perform Dark spells "until they were old enough." Draco had been under the impression that now that he was going to school, he would finally be able to get his book.

No such luck, Ron thought sympathetically toward his brother, still eyeing Madam Malkin suspiciously. That would be just what the Malfoy family needed; a person sticking their nose into their business and learning that a couple of them had a fascination of illegal practices. Although Ron was thoroughly convinced that his parents were harmless, he knew that they had Dark items within their home. Neither he nor Draco was ever allowed within the basement, where Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy brewed potions. For a long time they had both thought that it was because some ingredients were dangerous when ingested alone, but then one day, one of their father's friends came over to pick up a bottle of Veritaserum, a potion that they looked up immediately and learned was illegal in most cases. Narcissa also had a collection of jewelry that she had warned them was dangerous to touch, and within Lucius' study, there were several books that he had once told his sons were off-limits to them.

Perhaps the most curious object within Malfoy Manor was the mask, which Ron was convinced had to be full of Dark secrets. It was obviously some sort of heirloom, or else his dad would not keep it within his study in a glass encasing in pristine conditions. It looked like a skull that had been cleaved into two, so that only the face remained. Around the skull was a jet black hood. He had never had the courage to ask his father what it was or the kinds of effects it had on the person who wore it. Ron imagined that it possessed the wearer into doing evil deeds, like murder, or that it killed whoever tried it on.

Despite his misgivings, though, he was fully confident that his parents were merely collectors and would never use any of their equipment or potions for any wrongdoing. Still, other people might not be so understanding, which was why he couldn't stop himself from bestowing a threatening glance upon Madam Malkin, who rushed off to get her shop assistant as fast as she possibly could once she had laid the material out for their robes. Mrs. Malfoy gave her two children swift hugs and told them to be good, leaving Ron feeling contented and Draco scowling, disgruntled.

"It's not fair," he lamented quietly later as they were being made to stand on top of little footstools so that Madam Malkin and her assistant Sophia could hem the material to the right length. Once again, Madam Malkin looked curious, and Ron clenched his fists in annoyance. Why couldn't Draco just let it go for a while? It wasn't the same thing as his issue with the snake. Ron's pet snake would not have been a bad reflection on their parents. People would have just thought he had a weird interest in reptiles. But Draco's desperate desire to learn more about the Dark Arts really could make Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy look like horrible people. Their sons knew they weren't, but that in itself wasn't enough to stop anyone from investigating and sending them both to Azkaban.

"We'll talk about it later," Ron said warningly. For good measure, he made sure to look pointedly over toward Madam Malkin, who was bent in front of Draco. His twin glanced between the two, and suddenly it all clicked.

"Oh, right," he said dejectedly. He fell silent and for a long time, they merely stood and watched the women work around them. It was surprisingly duller than usual, since today Madam Malkin and Sophia did not seem inclined to gossip. Ron wondered if it was because of what Draco and their mother had been discussing as they had entered the shop. I bet they're trying to figure it out, he thought. I bet they'll instantly start talking about it the moment we leave.

"So, are you two looking forward to Hogwarts, then?" Madam Malkin asked out of the blue. Ron, who was busy thinking of ways to get the shopkeeper and her assistant to believe the Malfoy family were completely innocent, barely heard the question and spent ten seconds trying to figure out just what the woman had asked of him.

"Yes!" Draco exclaimed, happy to have something to talk about finally. Ron was still confused and desperately trying to figure out what to say. "Our parents were going to send us to Durmstrang, but Mum didn't want us to go too far away from home. Hogwarts will do, I suppose."

"Durmstrang? Oh, I agree with your mother. That's way too far away," Sophia replied cheerfully. Ron tried to see what Madam Malkin's reaction would be since Durmstrang was renowned for teaching the Dark Arts. Thankfully, she did not seem to care one way or the other. "Do you know what house you want to be in when you get to Hogwarts?"

"Slytherin, obviously," Ron answered, aware that he sounded quite haughty, but not caring. Madam Malkin indulged him with a knowing laugh; she had been acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy for as long as the twins could remember, and therefore, could have seen the answer coming. Sophia seemed a little taken aback. She was much younger than her employer (she had, in fact, only been working within the shop for two years), and could not have foreseen the answer as well as Madam Malkin did.

"Is that so?" she asked, placing the final pin in Ron's hem of his robes. "Both of you?"

"Well, yes," Draco said with a roll of his eyes. "That's the house our parents were in. It's obviously the best one."

"I don't know about that! Gryffindor is quite like Slytherin. It's a great place to be."

Ron chuckled at Sophia's response and said, "Please! Gryffindor are just a bunch of Slytherin wannabes. That's what Dad says, at least." Sophia looked up at him, her eyes dark and glaring. Ron suddenly felt like he knew which house Sophia had been in. It figures, he thought, hoping she didn't give him lopsided robes for being so hateful toward Gryffindor.

Draco, predictably, did not catch on to the glance between his brother and the girl fixing his robes. It wasn't that Draco was dim or anything. He just did not care for other people's feelings as much as Ron did and was, therefore, more apt to miss out on signs that he or Ron had hurt others. "Seriously! Gryffindor is filled with people who were not good enough to be put into Slytherin! OUCH!" Ron's head twisted in Draco's direction, and he saw Madam Malkin pull back her hand quickly, a pin clutched in her grasp.

"Sorry about that, dear," she said, clearly not sorry at all.

"Careful!" Draco hissed at her, and Ron couldn't stop himself from smirking. Draco always made him laugh when he got demanding. Of course, Ron didn't enjoy seeing his brother bully people, but Draco was such a petulant child about certain things that he found his behavior amusing. He was particularly prone to crossing his arms across his chest dramatically and narrowing his icy blue eyes in a way that he thought would send shivers down anyone's spine. Unlike some people, Ron didn't find his posture alarming or intimidating; he just found it silly.

Whether or not Madam Malkin and Sophia found it funny was never discovered by the Malfoy boys. Literally a second after Draco's pin incident, the shop door opened yet again and someone walked in. "Oh," Madam Malkin said in a way that could only mean she was looking forward to the prospect of more money. She dropped the handful of robe that she had in her grasp and made her way to the front of the store. "Hogwarts, dear?"

Curiosity instantly won out on Draco, and he quickly twisted around to get a look at the newest arrival to the shop. He sniggered and gave Ron a meaningful look, tilting his head in the direction of where the customer stood. Not caring if he ruined his robes, Ron turned around as well, ignoring Sophia's sigh of frustration. Being led to the fitting area was a boy who was, undoubtedly, a first year. He was way smaller than both Ron and Draco, which was only made more obvious by the baggy clothing he wore. His glasses were broken down the middle and were very messily being held together by tape.

Probably poor, he thought as he looked back at Draco, holding in the laugh that he was dying to let out. He probably should have felt sympathetic, but he didn't. It wasn't his fault the boy's family couldn't afford better clothing. He looked absolutely ridiculous!

"Hold still, please," Sophia said in exasperation. Ron turned back around and glanced at the woman fitting him. Her nostrils were flared with repressed rage, and her fingers were shaking as she reached for her wand to cast the Sewing Charm she was about to place on his clothing. Ron only felt slightly guilty.

The new boy was placed on a stool next to Ron and Sophia quickly switched from working on his robes to tend to the other kid. Ron didn't mind. The rest of his fitting could be done with magic and he didn't need to stand there with her picking at his hems anymore, clearly hating her patron. Instead, he watched as a needle and thread very quickly worked their way through the fabric.

"So are you going to Hogwarts too?" Draco asked, stressing the word "you" as if disbelieving that a kid as puny and unfashionable could ever get into Hogwarts. The boy jumped at the sound of the question being addressed to him and looked at Draco uncertainly. Ron wondered if he was smart enough to have caught on to Draco's clear distaste of him, but he didn't seem to.

"Erm...yes," he replied timidly.

Now fully taking pity on the boy, Ron decided to speak to him a little less condescendingly. Clearly he wasn't aware of how ridiculous he looked. "Us too...our mother is getting our books right now. I think we'll be looking at wands next."

"Are you twins?" the boy asked, looking from Draco to Ron. Draco scoffed at his stupidity, but Ron could see why the kid would be confused. After all, he and Draco weren't identical. Draco was paler, Ron was taller. Draco had very pale, blonde hair, while Ron's was more of a darker, strawberry blonde. Draco's nose was very small and button-like, while Ron's was long and slender. Ron had freckles, and Draco's skin was flawless. Yes, it was very easy to see the differences between the two of them when you really looked.

"Yeah, we are," he answered.

"Obviously," Draco added.

"Right," the boy said, watching Madam Malkin cast her Sewing Charm on Draco's robes in amazement. Oh, Merlin, he's a Muggleborn too, Ron thought in annoyance. Nobody who was pureblood or halfblood would ever look that enthralled at the sight of magic...they'd be too used to it to care.

It wasn't that Ron hated Muggleborns. Actually, he found them quite fascinating, much more, he was sure, than his family would want him to. It was just that he had interacted with them so rarely in the past that he was certain they would not be able to find anything else to talk about. This kid undoubtedly knew very little about the wizarding world, and he knew the Muggle world based only on what he had seen from his window of his bedroom, where there was a view of a freeway in the distance.

"Do you play Quidditch?" Draco asked without realizing the expression on the boy's face. Ron groaned slightly, not really relishing the idea of explaining Quidditch to someone. It was a rather difficult game, and he didn't think he had the patience to stand here at length and try to do the sport justice to someone from the Muggle world. He just wouldn't understand.

"Er...no," the boy answered lamely. He didn't inquire as to what it was, but just stood there awkwardly as Sophia pulled the bottom of his robes up for hemming.

"That's a shame," Draco replied. "We're going to force Mum to take us to Quality Quidditch Supplies to look at brooms...aren't we, Ron?"

"That's the plan," Ron said. A part of him rather hoped the boy didn't think they were spoiled. It didn't matter what the shopkeepers thought of them, as they didn't have to see them every day. This kid was someone they would be attending school with and, poor or not, Ron didn't want to make enemies already. What if this boy ended up being a Slytherin too?

"Sounds fun," the boy replied lamely.

"I want to get good enough to play on the House Team," Draco continued to blab on. "Ron can't, though, since he's sickly."

The boy turned his head in Ron's direction, and he instantly wished Draco wouldn't have said anything. The kid was now looking at him with the deepest sympathy. He tried to wave it off, as though being so sick that you had to take potions for it monthly was no big deal. "I like watching it anyway," he said dismissively. "Besides, I don't think I'd be very good. I'd probably get really nervous and mess up a bunch." The boy nodded as though that made sense, but Ron still got the impression that he had no idea what Quidditch was or how one could mess up a match.

"What house do you want to be in?" Draco questioned.

"Er...I don't know." The boy looked around nervously, seeming to try to find an answer within the shop. Ron decided to be helpful.

"We're going to be in Slytherin. Our whole family's been there."

"Yeah...I'd die if I were put into Hufflepuff, wouldn't you, Ron?"

Sophia made and annoyed sort of cough and Ron glanced at her in exasperation. He was fully convinced the woman simply hated Slytherin. "Definitely," Ron replied. The boy next to him turned a sickly shade of green, and Ron suddenly imagined that the boy was dreading being sorted, especially if he ended up in Hufflepuff. It wouldn't surprise him, though. His father had always told him that people who were put into Hufflepuff were the idiots, and this kid certainly seemed very ill informed, even for a Muggle.

"Do you see that guy outside? Look at how enormous he is!" Draco exclaimed uncouthly. Ron turned again, this time actually stepping off the stool, because his needle and thread seemed to be done with their work. Out in the street was an enormous man with two ice cream cones, waving and pointing at the boy with them.

"That's Hagrid," he explained knowledgably. "He's the gamekeeper at Hogwarts."

"Oh!" Draco and Ron replied, both of them unable to keep from wrinkling their noses in disgust. Their mother had lamented many a time about how creepy and overly friendly he was with students. Their father, meanwhile, claimed that he was incredibly dull witted and was barely smart enough to do his job, let alone work at a school.

"Are you with him?" Draco asked, still wrinkling his nose and watching his needle and thread work on his sleeves. "Where are your parents?"

"They died," the boy said. It came as a shock, of course. How often did you meet someone who had dead parents? What was more surprising than the truth, though, was how the boy had replied to Draco. He seemed like a different kid. Gone was the boy who meekly responded to their inquiries. In his place was a boy who seemed offended at Draco's rudely stated question and wasn't afraid to confront him about it.

"Were they like us?" Ron decided to ask to ease the tension.

"If you mean magical, yes, they were," he replied coldly. Ron felt stung and held up his hands defensively. Draco didn't seem to notice that any sort of altercation had taken place. He grinned in relief at the sight of his needle and thread retreating away from him to a box on the floor.

"All done!" Madam Malkin said, taking their robes. "I'll make more of these and send them, your hats, and your cloaks to your parents' home. You'll get your ties for your houses when you're sorted."

Draco rolled his eyes as they waved goodbye to the boy, who was still on the stool. Still annoyed with them, he didn't wave back, but looked straight ahead at a case displaying a fur lined cloak.

Their mother was still getting their books, so they headed in the direction of Flourish and Blotts very slowly, laden with their school supplies and owls. Ron longed to discuss the boy in the shop and his reaction to the questions about his parents, but Draco's mind had already flitted from their conversation. "She'll send our ties when we get sorted. We're obviously Slytherins, why doesn't she just give them to us now?"

Ron laughed silently to himself. It was so much like Draco to just brush off the sort of discussion they had just had in favor of discussing himself. The weird thing was, he really loved that about his brother. It always made for interesting turns of events. "Because she obviously hates Slytherins!" Ron said, prompting a huge rant from his brother about how ridiculous people could be about their house. All the while, Ron smiled and nodded emphatically, egging Draco on.

School, Ron was certain, was going to be incredibly fun.