Father and Son

~Chapter 11~

Twenty-Four Days

December 1997

'Let me get this straight. You came from the future,' Hermione repeated, after David had told her his story.

'Yes.'

'And you are Malfoy's son...'

'Yes.'

'And you tried to brew a memori amor potion that went wrong, and then you got transferred to our time?'

'I guess, yeah.'

'And where is Malfoy?' Hermione asked, frowning.

'In view of the fact that I'm here, I'd say he was transferred to 2015.'

'Perhaps your spirit just took over his body,' Hermione mused.

David looked himself up and down. Sure, he wore his father's clothes, but he didn't feel as if he was in anybody else's body.

'I don't think I have another body. It feels just like it always did.'

'Are you sure?' Hermione asked. 'You look exactly like your father. Like a copy of him.'

'You must have looked at him quite closely if you are so sure that this is his body.'

Hermione blushed. 'I never...how can you...I have a boyfriend!'

David laughed heartily at her stuttered evasions.

Hermione suddenly looked at him fascinated. 'He never laughs like that,' she remarked.

'He still doesn't laugh very often. Only mum gets him to laugh every now and then.'

'Who is your mother?' Hermione asked.

'Ginevra Malfoy. Wait... Am I allowed to tell you things from the future?'

Hermione frowned.

'You are right,' she said. 'I'm not supposed to know anything.'

'Well, at least now you know that I would never do any harm to her.'

Hermione sighed and sat down in the armchair. 'I'm sorry, I've been like this all morning, but you can hardly trust anybody these days. I don't know if he has ever told you, but your father was and still is deeply involved in dark magic. He's a Death Eater; at least I think he is. And although he's in the Order and on our side, I still don't trust him.'

'A Death Eater?' David stared at her shocked.

'You didn't know?' Hermione asked.

David shook his head.

'Well, I suppose the Dark Mark is not something you would peddle around with,' she said.

David hastily scrolled up his left sleeve and looked at his forearm.

There it was. The Dark Mark. Voldemort's sign.

So his father had been a Death Eater!

When he continued to stare at the Mark on his forearm, Hermione slowly moved towards him and stretched out her hand hesitantly. She touched the pale skin near the Mark and then stroked it with her finger, fascinated.

David winced and pulled his arm away harshly.

'It hurts!' he snapped and sat down in an armchair. 'He never told us!' he said absently and looked up at Hermione. 'He always told us about his parents and that they were Death Eaters. He always sounded as if he despised them for it. But that he had been one of them...that he supported Voldemort once....'

'How comes you never noticed the Mark?' Hermione asked.

'He doesn't have one. He has a lot of scars, though. Thinking about it, there's a big one on his left arm.'

After a short silence Hermione said seriously: 'As you are obviously unable to return to your time, I assume that you are bound to play Malfoy's role until we find a way to get you back.'

'We?' David asked, surprised.

'Yes, I'm going to help you. You'll need someone to cover up for you. And from your reaction to the fact that your father is a Death Eater, I guess that you're not familiar with your parents' history.'

'How should I be? They never told us much!' David defended himself indignantly.

'You always say "us". Do you have siblings?'

David nodded.

'How old are they?' Hermione asked.

David looked at her suspiciously. 'Why do you want to know? You said you shouldn't know anything from the future.'

'I'm afraid there are a few things you'll have to tell me. Things that are relevant for the present. For example your and your siblings' age. You said you are from 2015. If you are seventeen you could have been - heaven forbid - conceived in this time period. But since you are here...'

'I turned sixteen on July the fourth. So I wasn't conceived in 1997.'

'Your siblings?' Hermione asked tensely.

'One is my twin sister, and the other one was born on July the thirty-first 1998.'

Hermione froze.

'That... that would mean Ginny is already pregnant! She... she never said anything! I didn't think...she and Malfoy... already... last time we talked....' Hermione stared at him, horrified.

'Not necessarily,' David said. 'My sister was a premature baby. Dad always says she's something special, because she was born exactly seven months and seven days after she was conceived: you know, seven being a magical number and everything....'

Hermione rushed to her school bag and pulled out her planner.

'Seven month earlier than July the thirty-first would mean December the thirty-first. And seven days earlier would be...Christmas Eve!' she reasoned.

'Which means we have twenty-four days to get me back to the future,' David concluded.

Hermione looked at her watch.

'We still have thirteen minutes till the free period is over. I'll try to give you an overview of the present state of things, so the others won't notice that you're not Malfoy.'

'Don't you think Ginny will notice?' David asked.

His mother always knew when he was lying. David had not yet figured if it was a natural talent of hers, or if she was trained of uncovering his father's lies.

'Depends on your acting ability. And what I've seen of it, I'd say it's rather poor,' Hermione teased.

'Hey, I convinced a whole room of prefects that I was Draco Malfoy!' David protested.

'Just because you look exactly like him, and because you've obviously inherited many of his character traits. The sideswipe on Ron, for example, was very convincing,' she added coldly.

'He brought me in a dicey situation. He deserved it!'

'Of course! And you didn't do it out of old rivalry at all,' she said sarcastically.

'If you mean the Malfoy-Weasley feud, I can assure you that our mother and grandparents always were very concerned about integrating us into the Weasley clan. They always insisted that the feud between my father, Uncle Ron and Harry was of private nature and had nothing to do with our families. My sisters and I spent practically half our lives at the Burrow!' David said haughtily.

'And your other grandparents? I mean, surely Lucius Malfoy wouldn't want the Malfoy heirs to be in the company of blood-traitors?'

David hesitated again. 'I don't know the grandparents on my father's side,' he said, carefully choosing his words.

'Oh...well. Here's your chance to meet them.'

David thought that she didn't sound as if she was happy for him at all.

'They are Death Eaters as well, aren't they?' he asked carefully.

'Lucius Malfoy is one of the most dangerous people I've ever met,' Hermione said bitterly. 'And don't think he's less dangerous for you because you are his son...well, impersonating his son. You, especially, are in great danger of his wrath. You are a traitor. If he ever found out...well, you had better wish you are back in the future and not present at that time!'

'He doesn't know?' David asked, surprised.

'Draco Malfoy is a spy for the Order of the Phoenix,' she half whispered, as if she feared the walls could have ears.

David was stunned.

From what he knew of his history lessons, to be a Death Eater had been highly dangerous, not only because of the Aurors who were hunting them, but also because Voldemort didn't know mercy for those who failed in his eyes. A traitor to the cause would die sooner than he was able to beg for forgiveness. Not that it would have been of any use.

'What...what does he do?'

'He brings Voldemort useful information. Well-selected information that Dumbledore allows him to. On the other hand, he brings information for the Order of the Phoenix.'

'And I'm supposed to do that now?' David asked horrified.

'You have no choice. If you don't want to cause damage to the time-line - more than you already have - you'll have to continue your father's work. As much as I hate to admit it, the Order needs Malfoy.'

'I can't do that! I know nothing of the Death Eaters, or at least not much! And I doubt you can teach me. They'll kill me!' he nearly yelled at her.

'They won't kill you. You are the son of one of the most highly regarded Death Eaters, you are Bellatrix Lestrange's godchild, and with being Head Boy, you are a useful source of information from Hogwarts. You must be the most mollycoddled boy in the Dark Lord's ranks,' Hermione said and rolled her eyes.

'But I'm not Draco Malfoy! I'm not him, all right? I can pretend to be Head Boy, yes, but I'm not the man my father was!'

'Yes. And that's why I'm going to teach you,' she said casually.

'But....'

'First of all: You are sounding desperate. You act like a bloody coward. Malfoy may be a coward, but he never lets anybody see that he's afraid. Never! He's always sure of himself, pretending to know everything and to be able to do everything.'

'I know what my father is like!' David snapped, irritated. 'But being a Death Eater is something else! What if I'm supposed to kill someone? What if they want me to torture people? It's against...against everything I believe in.'

Hermione's face hardened.

'You can say all you want to, but I'm not going to be a Death Eater. I won't even impersonate a Death Eater, and that's my final word!' David snapped.

Hermione huffed. 'Fine!' she snapped back. 'Then let's just make sure McGonagall won't notice anything for a start.' She pulled out her Transfiguration book and threw it towards him. 'Chapter seven. McGonagall will be testing us in...five minutes,' she said looking at her watch.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Although Transfiguration was one of his best subjects, David failed miserably at the test. They were supposed to transform their hands into a tool. Hermione had suggested that he should try to transfigure it into a spoon because it was one of the easier transformations, but David only managed to make his hand turn silver.

McGonagall examined his hand, turning it and then banging it on his desk. She snorted. 'Well, I suppose it should have become some sort of cutlery. At least you managed the right material. The most important thing to you seemed to make it pure silver, Mister Malfoy. But let me tell you it's no use if it's of a pure material. It's more important that it's useful.'

'I never regarded one of my hands as useless, Professor.' He smirked.

Hermione rolled her eyes behind McGonagalls back.

'Why did you have to make it pure silver? It was supposed to become a spoon! It could have been a wood spoon, why silver?' she later hissed, when Harry and Ron where distracted, showing McGonagall the transformation of their hands.

'I didn't mean to! You said 'imagine a spoon'. We only have silver spoons!' David snapped.

'Spoiled git,' Hermione hissed.

'Bloody know-it-all!' David snapped back.

Hermione had to fight the urge to stick out her tongue at him. Instead, she tapped her hand on her desk, irritated.

Five minutes later, when David had almost forgotten about their snapping, a crumbled bit of parchment hit his head.

David's eyes darted towards Hermione who looked back at him innocently, but her laughing eyes and the twitching edges of her mouth gave her away.

He took the crumbled parchment and threw it back, hitting her at the forehead.

'Mister Malfoy, I won't have such childish behaviour in my lessons. You will leave this instant!' McGonagall's harsh voice left no room for discussions, so David slowly stood up and left the classroom. He heard a few of the Gryffindors snigger and saw that Harry and Ron were glaring at him, but he didn't care. At least he had an excuse to leave. Seventh year classes turned out to be more exhausting than he would have thought. He would have to find a way back as soon as possible or his father's marks would alarmingly decrease.

'Draco?'

A familiar voice roused him out of his thoughts. David turned to see his mother standing at the end of the corridor.

She looked concerned. Or perhaps just confused. David couldn't tell, since she was standing so far from him. She looked cute with the school uniform on and a stack of books in front of her.

David walked towards her slowly.

'Why are you out of class? Don't you have Transfiguration now?' Ginny asked.

For a moment he searched for an excuse. Then he remembered that his father probably didn't have to justify his behaviour in class to her.

'McGonagall threw me out,' he shrugged.

Ginny let out a breath that he hadn't seen her holding. A smile appeared on her freckled face when he came to a halt in front of her. He had to smile as well because, to his amusement, he could look down on her. There she was, his small mother, looking up at him.

'What did you do?' She smirked.

'Granger threw something at me,' he said.

'And that's what you got kicked out for?' Ginny asked with a raised eyebrow.

'I threw it back at her and McGonagall caught me.'

Ginny swatted him playfully. 'I told you not to torment my friends.'

'Granger started it!' David defended himself.

'I'm sure she did!' Ginny said, laughing and handing him a few of her books.

'So, since you have some free-time now and I've finished all my homework,' Ginny smiled wickedly, 'we could perhaps spend some time in your room, Head Boy!'

'I...uhm... I mean, you are... I have....' David stuttered. He knew the look a girl gives you when she's up to snog you senseless.

'Come on,' she said, winking and taking his hand to lead him to his room.

David obeyed and followed her. His mind raced. He had to find a way to prevent his mother-to-be from doing something he didn't even want to think about.

'Why did you look so relieved when I told you McGonagall threw me out?' David asked, remembering her earlier reaction.

Ginny came to a halt in front of the portrait that led to the Head Boy and Head Girl dormitory.

'Password?' she asked, refusing to meet his eyes.

David grinned. He got her.

'Dragon's blood,' he said, hiding a smirk.

When they'd entered the room he tried to copy his father's intonation:

'Gin? I asked a question.'

Ginny sighed. 'All right, I was afraid that you had to leave classes because your Mark burned,' she admitted. 'I know you told me not to worry, but I do! I'm worried like hell every time he calls for you,' she said, sounding desperate.

David replied nothing.

'Draco, I don't like this idea. I don't care that it's helpful! I want you to quit working as a spy.'

David fought hard with himself. He wanted to back out of the whole Death Eater thing. But if he did, his father wouldn't be able to continue his work when they changed back. What if it was a vital part of defeating Voldemort? What if Harry Potter failed just because he, David, had been a coward? Then he'd perhaps return into his time and find himself confronted with a Wizarding World that was ruled by Voldemort.

'I don't like it either, Gin, but we need this information,' David said cautiously.

Ginny sat down crossing her arms in front of her chest.

'I will tell Dumbledore that he has to find another one!' she suggested stubbornly.

'I'm not going to back out of it, Mu... Ginny!' That was close! he thought. Concentrate! It's bad enough that Hermione knows.

Ginny pressed her lips together, obviously trying to keep herself from saying something.

'Nothing will happen, I promise,' David said and sat down opposite her.

Suddenly tears started up in Ginny's eyes. Oh, shit! I made her cry! David thought, horrified. He quickly stood up and closed the distance between them in a few fast steps. The tears were already rolling down her cheeks when he took her in her arms, holding her tightly. 'Shhh. Don't cry.'

'I can't stop. Draco you're risking your life! What am I going to do when you're dead? I wouldn't live through that! I just don't take the pressure of knowing you could die any minute!' she cried, soaking his school uniform with tears.

'Shhh. We could all die. I'm much safer than most of you are.'

'You are only inches away from him at times,' she sobbed.

David shuddered. He just hoped he got home before he made this experience.

'Yeah, but he doesn't want to kill me. You, on the contrary, are one of his aims. I should be the one that is worried.' He wiped away her tears. 'So stop crying now. I want to see you smile.'

Ginny pulled back, tried to smile and wiped the rest of her tears away. 'I'm sorry, but this tension is killing me. We are all just waiting for him to make his next unexpected move. We have no idea what he's playing at, what he's going to do. And we have no idea how to stop him. I just feel so helpless!'

'It won't be long. Potter is going to save the day, and we'll finally live in peace,' David promised with a knowing smile.

The portrait door opened and Hermione, Harry, and Ron came in.

'What did you do to her?' Ron asked accusingly when he saw his sister's puffy face.

'Ron!' Ginny admonished him.

Hermione gave David an askance look.

'I upset myself about something, alright?' Ginny snapped irritated.

'Malfoy, we need to talk,' Harry said and sat down in the armchair opposite to Ginny and David.

'Your mother is having a ball at your Manor,' Harry started to explain. 'She asked Dumbledore for permission that you may leave for one day to attend it.'

David looked at him horrified. A ball at the Manor? That would mean meeting his grand-parents.

'We don't think it is a ball, since neither the Minister nor any other ministry employees are invited.'

'A Death Eater meeting,' Ginny concluded.

Harry nodded. 'Probably. Dumbledore expected something like that since your father's breakout.'

David desperately tried to remember the events of the war. He inwardly cursed himself for not paying more attention to this in History of Magic.

'So... does Dumbledore want me to go?' David asked.

'Yes. If Narcissa invites so many people that it has to be covered by a ball, it's going to be an essential meeting were major plans are being discussed,' Harry said.

'When?' David asked.

'The day after tomorrow. You'll floo from the Headmaster's office.'

David nodded, trying to look relaxed.

'There's another thing Dumbledore wants me to tell you. Your mother knows about your relationship with Ginny. Seems like one of your house mates felt obliged to tell their parents, and they told your mother. That means that your father knows it too, if not Voldemort himself, by now.'

'So what?'

'So what? You're endangering my sister!' Ron snapped.

'Lucius Malfoy will not approve of this,' Hermione said.

'There's a Malfoy rule for this: shag your own choices, marry whom your father voices,' David said, shrugging.

Hermione gasped, Harry gaped at him, and Ron looked like he was going to kill him.

David looked over to Ginny, who smirked. 'Does your mother know of this rule?' she asked, sounding amused.

David shrugged. He didn't know anything of Narcissa Malfoy, so he thought it would be better not to invent things.

'So you think your father won't say anything as long as you don't intend to marry her?' Hermione asked.

'I don't know. After all, Ginny is a pure-blood,' David answered honestly.

'Let's hope that will suffice for Lucius Malfoy,' Harry said, looking gloomy.

He rose from his seat and looked at Ron. 'Come on, let's have lunch, mate. I'm starving.'

Ron nodded and threw a last hateful glance at David before leaving the Head Boy and Head Girl rooms.

David looked at Ginny. 'Are you all right?' he asked.

Ginny nodded.

He hesitantly took her in his arms again. 'Everything will be all right. You'll see.'

Ginny smiled at him. 'I wish I had your confidence in the future.'

She gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

'I'm going to lunch, too. Are you coming along?'

'I'll join you later. Granger and I have some Head Boy and Head Girl business to discuss,' David said quickly.

'All right.' She gave him another kiss and went after Harry and Ron.

As soon as she was gone, Hermione said: 'Not bad. At times I really thought you were him.'

'I don't like being my father.'

'I can imagine that. I'd rather live in peace too.'

'So what are you suggesting about this ball?' David asked.

'I really don't know. Let's hope your father taught you enough of being a Malfoy that your grandfather won't notice you're not him. If he notices that you're from the future, they'll use you to get information about the end of the war.'

'If I ever get back, Diana is going to pay for this!' David growled.

'Malfoy! Would you please stop spilling the future?' Hermione snapped.

David smirked. 'You know, I have you in my hand now.'

'And I have you in mine, since you'll have a lot of explaining to do if I tell Dumbledore, or worse, the Ministry!'

'You wouldn't want to risk the future I come from,' David said, amused.

'The future were a Malfoy has an offspring can't be worth fighting for.'

'I'm mortally hurt,' David said, pretending to pout.

That only earned him a sofa-pillow right into his face.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~