Why We Fight

Part 21:
O Oedipus, Oedipus, Unhappy Oedipus
(Monday, September 5, 1977)

"I'm thirsty," Draco said. With a long-suffering sigh, Madam Pomfrey brought her patient a glass of water. Draco scowled at the water and looked at Madam Pomfrey. "I wanted pumpkin juice." Madam Pomfrey closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and turned the water into pumpkin juice. Draco took a slight sip. "I want it warm."

He'd been asking the medi-witch to do the most menial tasks, having her cater to his every whim for the past hour. He hoped to finally change her mind so he could get out of the infirmary. It was strange. He'd been far less injured when he'd practically demanded that Madam Pomfrey keep him in the infirmary after being attacked by that bloody hippogriff. For some reason, he liked it better back in time. Maybe because Harry wasn't soaking up all of Draco's rightful attention. Maybe it was because, for once in his life, he actually had someone to hang out with who had something more to say than the occasional grunt. Imagine that, him Draco Malfoy, enjoying his time with James Potter and his little gang.

"Get out," Madam Pomfrey said through clenched teeth. Her voice was dead calm and the words were so quiet that Draco could barely hear them. "You're healed well enough."

"What?" he asked, hoping that he had heard what he had thought he heard.

"Out! Out! Out!" Madam Pomfrey screamed. "GET OUT!!!" Her face was mottled and purple with rage. Her arms flailed and she looked like she was about to have a stroke.

Draco didn't waste another moment. He made his escape, breathing in the sweet smell of freedom which actually smelled a great deal like musty old castle. He leaned against the stone wall, savoring the cool roughness against his back but mostly he savored the fact that he'd finally gotten out of the infirmary. His eyes must have closed because when he opened them again, he wasn't alone in the formerly-deserted hallway.

In front of him stood a beautiful blond woman who gave him a sexy smile. Normally, this would be a very welcome gesture but this was as far from a normal event as it was humanly possible. For the beautiful blond woman who gave him a sexy smile was none other than Narcissa Black, Draco's future mother. Draco's stomach dropped as she looked like she was about to devour him.

HELP!!! his mind screamed as his eyes widened like a deer in headlights. He quickly looked to his left and to his right. In his joy of freedom, he had neglected to notice that he was in a dead end and his mother blocked his only route of escape. "Hiya, tiger," Narcissa purred. Her tone of voice made him feel dirty. "I don't think we've met before but I'm Narcissa Black."

"Oh, actually I do think we've met before," Draco said, his voice was abnormally high and his words came out in a squeak. He cleared his throat and tried to disappear into the wall. Of all the bloody walls at Hogwarts, he just had to find one that didn't have a secret passageway. "Anyway, it was nice seeing you again, um, Miss Black."

"Please, call me 'Cissy,'" Narcissa said with that same purring tone. Draco pushed back a shudder as she mentioned her pet name. He made a move to leave but Narcissa only moved closer, her lips almost close enough to kiss.

The teenager jerked back hard, whacking his head on a stone. "Bloody hell!" he cried, rubbing his now-aching head. A spill of curses spurted from his mouth as he felt the bump and, of course, he just happened to piss off the only person who could fix his head.

Narcissa arched a brow and examined him speculatively. "There's a Halloween dance, you're going to be my date," she stated.

Draco stared at her. "I'd love to. Really, I would but I can't. I've got a date already," he said, forcing a smile.

"Oh, really, who?" she asked.

"My girlfriend, Hermione, you see she's really quite jealous so I can't date anyone else. Ever," Draco babbled. Thank God for Hermione! he thought. A thought he would never have again any time soon.

"Jealous is she?" Narcissa purred, a glint entering her eyes as she examined Draco as a predator would examine prey. "Maybe we should give her something to be jealous about, hmmm?" Draco's eyes grew to the size of saucers.

"No, no, you wouldn't want to see her jealous," Draco squeaked as he narrowly evaded his mother's attempt at seduction. She had moved to kiss him and he had side-stepped causing the blonde to kiss the wall instead. He tried to compose himself but failed miserably as he stared at his mother, who looked rather annoyed.

"She's not going with you," Narcissa said.

"Of course she's going with me," Draco managed, trying to think of some sort of escape spell.

"No. She's going with Severus Snape," Narcissa stated.

He chuckled nervously as that option was pulled away. Damn you, Granger! Draco thought. "How could I have forgotten? See, we -- Hermione and I -- we're on a break! We talked about this yesterday but it must have slipped my mind in all the concussion. And, well, I'm not going with Hermione after all! I'm going with--with, um..."

"You forgot who you're going to the dance with?" Narcissa asked with a touch of anger in her voice.

He quickly made a run through all the girls he could think of but unfortunately he didn't know the names of anyone in this time period except... "Lily! Yes, yes, I'm going with Lily P--Evans." Narcissa looked positively enraged. "So I'd better go and, um, talk to Lily. We're dating now, you know."

Draco managed to get past his mother without being groped and thanked Merlin for his luck. But as he neared the Great Hall, he realized he'd just created a new problem for himself. He had just told his mother that he was dating his arch-nemesis's mother. His only hope now lay with Professor Flaherty and the possibility of leaving this time before the Halloween Masque. But something told him that it wasn't going to happen. Whatever had occurred over his potion with Hermione was an once-in-a-lifetime sort of mishap. Maybe the only hope would be to tell his future-self not to mess up the potion? But if he told his future-self not to mess up the potion, but if he didn't mess up the potion, how could he tell his future-self not to mess-up the potion? He head was starting to hurt and it wasn't entirely because of the knocking it had taken on the stone wall earlier.

Well, if he did date Lily maybe Harry wouldn't be born. That was a somewhat bright spot in the otherwise bleak future that lay ahead of him. But a strange emotion rose inside him, one that he was entirely unfamiliar with. He felt...strange. If he dated Lily then James would be upset and upsetting James made him feel...bad. Why on earth would he feel bad about stealing someone else's bird? Was this strange emotion guilt? He banged his head on the wall by the doors to the Great Hall and, as he did it, he realized that it was, indeed, a very stupid thing to do. It only hurt his head more. With a grunt, he cradled his now-aching forehead as the dull throbbing on the back of his head increased. Yes, it was a very, very stupid thing to do.

He squared his shoulders and entered the Great Hall. Girls at the Gryffindor table looked up at him, giggled, and then proceeded to talk animatedly between themselves while stealing occasional looks at the Gryffindor Keeper. He walked through the room with a sinking feeling in his gut. Every move felt heavy and he darted a look back at the door to the Great Hall. All apprehension left him as he saw his very-enraged mother entering the room. He plopped down at the table and wrapped an arm around Lily's shoulder. Lily looked at him. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked in a hiss.

"Giggle like I said something funny. No, not just something funny, like it was the funniest thing you ever heard." At her blank look. "Just work with me here," he whispered. "It will all be explained in time."

"Just so you know, I'm taking a lot on faith here," she said. She giggled musically and Narcissa sent Lily an Avada Kedavra glare. Lily turned to face Draco. "You gonna explain yourself?"

Draco cleared his throat and tried another phrase. "So, Lily, got a date to the Halloween Masque?" he asked.

"No," she said with a little smile.

"Wanna go with me?" he asked.

"You're a year younger than me," she said, cutting up her sausage patty.

"You're not going to make this easy, are you?" he asked.

"No," Lily said, her smile widening.

"When's your birthday?" he asked.

"August thirty-first," Lily answered.

"What year?" he asked.

"1960," Lily replied.

"Barely made the cut, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah. What does this have to do with anything?" Lily said.

"My birthday's June fifth. You're only..." he started. His brow wrinkled as he tried to calculate how much older Lily was if he had been born in 1961. "Ten months older than I am."

"Actually, nine months and four days," she replied.

"Exactly. Nine months and four days older than I am," he replied. "C'mon, Lil, I promise, we'll have loads of fun."

Lily chuckled. "What do you really want?"

"Want? What could I possibly want?" he asked nervously.

"You haven't even looked at me and now you want to go to the dance?" she asked. "What's the deal?"

Draco swallowed hard. He'd been found out. "You, uh, see that angry-looking blond girl?" he asked.

"Narcissa Black?" she asked.

"Um, well, I told, uh, Narcissa that we were...dating..." Draco said.

"You told her what?!" Lily cried.

"Shhh, keep your voice down," Draco hissed. "She wasn't taking a hint..."

"What was that hint?" Lily asked, eyes narrowed with anger.

"That I wouldn't date her if she was the last woman on earth," he said.

"So you decided to tell her that I was your girlfriend?" she inquired.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," he replied.

"Well, what's your real girlfriend going to say?" Lily asked.

"My...real girlfriend?" Draco asked.

"Hermione," Lily replied.

"Oh, yeah, Hermione. Well, we broke up," he said.

"Why?" Lily asked.

"Um, well, that's actually a really long story..." he trailed off. "Please, help me out." Draco's eyes widened, had he really just begged a girl to date him? He was a Malfoy! Malfoys never had to beg, women threw themselves at Malfoys. Well, most Malfoys weren't being chased by their mothers in a romantic way.

"You know, it's nice for a guy to ask before he tells everyone that he's dating a girl," Lily said.

"I thought I just did!" Draco cried.

Lily grinned at him. "No. You just asked me to the dance. There's a difference between dancing and dating," she replied.

Draco let out a long-suffering sigh and wondered if this was all really worth it. He thought of his mother and realized that, yeah, it was all very worth it. "Lily, will you date me?" he asked.

"Let me get back to you on that," she said cheekily.

"Lily, I'm begging here! Narcissa's really..."

"Scary?"

"Oh, yeah."

Lily paused, mulling it over. "Okay," she said. "I'll date you."

"Thank you, Lily," he said. "You're a lifesaver."

---

James Potter sat a few seats away and turned to see Draco making the moves on his woman. Okay, so she wasn't his in as many words, but he still couldn't believe that Draco, who knew he liked Lily, would be putting the moves on her. Okay, so he hadn't exactly told Draco that he was into Lily but he'd made it abundantly clear. He leaned forward a bit but the Great Hall was too crowded to hear their conversation. He leaned back some but only managed to fall on his butt. A few people giggled but all laughter stopped as the Quidditch captain glared at them. He picked himself off, brushing off. He sat down, nursing his bruised ego.

How could he have been so stupid? He had taken this boy under his wing and this was how he was repaid? His unofficial girlfriend was now even more unofficially his. All because of Draco Aquilus. Maybe he should have listened to Padfoot and Moony? Wormtail was absolutely useless when it came to forming an opinion. Why had he even wanted to hang out with him? Maybe because, in a way, Draco reminded James of himself? Why? That was a good question. He glared sullenly at the blonde and redhead talking and had another idea.

Maybe Draco wasn't putting the moves on Lily? Maybe he was trying to help? No, probably not. Someone really needed to invent a way to overhear conversations.

---

The bell rang for first period and Draco slid off the bench feeling much better, at least he could get his mother off his back for a while. He smiled thankfully at Lily and she returned his smile, gathering her books for first period. Draco's head had finally stopped hurting and he slid off the bench to head for class. He left the Great Hall, sighing with relief.

"So what was that about?" James asked.

"What about?" Draco inquired.

"You and Lily."

"Oh, I asked her to the dance," Draco said. That strange emotion welled up again, the guilt. Imagine that, a Malfoy guilty. "I need to talk to you about that. I think I can help you get her."

"Get her, uh, why would I want to get her?" James stammered.

Draco draped his arm around James's shoulder in a friendly way. "See the thing about it is this..."