My Life is a Movie

Chapter 8: The Unexpected Visitor

The early morning breeze blew gently across the majestic countryside of Malfoy Manor as the sun's rays shone brightly through the magnificent Victorian style window, the birds twittering away contentedly in the nearby trees.

"Shut the fuck up!" Draco screamed out the window. He forcefully slammed it shut and yanked the heavy green curtains closed. "Blasted fucking little buggers," he muttered to himself.

With the Hogwarts Express leaving in approximately two and a half hours, Draco needed to be packed and ready to go, and those stupid annoying birds were delaying his packing process. Their loud and happy chirping was starting to wear on his nerves, but he needed peace and quiet to make sure he had everything he needed for his sixth year back at school.

Sulking slightly, Draco headed over to his walk-in cupboard and grabbed the rest of his school robes, a few pairs of shirts and trousers, his favourite custom-made dress robe, and a pair of expensive designer shoes. He made his way to the trunk that lay open next to his bed and arranged the articles in it carefully, making sure not to wrinkle anything. He then went over to his desk to fetch his books and other school supplies that he knew he would need. After a few more minutes of packing, he yelled for a house elf to help him bring his belongings down stairs.

Damnned house elves! Where the hell are they anyway? They were supposed to be here to pack all my stuff. When I get my hands on those duff pieces of filth I swear I'll give them a right whipping!

He violently shut his school trunk and ambled over to his luxurious queen sized bed. Brusquely throwing himself above the sheets, he waited for a house elf to arrive. In the back of his mind, he vaguely realised that the house elves had been mysteriously absent the entire morning, but pushed aside the idea of finding out why as his stoicism held him back from leaving his room.

Giving an audible growl, he closed his eyes tightly and took a moment to compose himself and ease the stress he could feel building up inside of him. To be quite honest, Draco was actually dreading his return to Hogwarts.

Normally he would be excited to be returning to school. The fearful admiration from the younger students and the suitable recognition from those older than him always made him eager to revisit that reputable environment. However, because of all the events that occurred at the end of the last school year, he wasn't really up to going back to the well-known Wizarding school. He knew his reputation would be quite different compared to his first five years there. Not that image and popularity meant everything to him or anything. Well actually... it did. It was just so thoroughly annoying not to have that kind of supremacy anymore. Now, instead of getting wondrous looks of respect or hearing soft whispers of adoration, he was sent glares of contempt and would often hear harsh whispers of revulsion.

Oh well, he thought miserably. At least I'll be able to get away from Mother and her, 'Come now Draco, tell me what you're thinking'.

With his father gone, his mother had unexpectedly developed an unbelievingly bothersome interest in him. Her daily attempts at heart-to-heart conversations about his interests and way of life had only contributed to Draco's trepidation. He couldn't quite comprehend how she could be so concerned about him and his daily activities when her husband was locked up in a tiny cell in Azkaban. It seemed as if she didn't even notice the man's truancy at all.

Speaking of things Draco couldn't comprehend, another thing the young Slytherin had yet to figure out was the whole Todd business.

Just who the hell was that twat and why the fuck does he look so much like me? Draco often asked himself. He had no doubt in his mind that Todd was in fact not a Malfoy, despite the fact that they looked completely identical. Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy was an extremely accurate reference after all, and if Todd was in any way related to the Malfoy family he would have been mentioned somewhere in that book.

After all the undesired confusion, Draco thought he finally found an edge in solving at least part of the mystery when he remembered the short conversation he overheard between Todd and the Mudblood about something called movies. But alas, that glorious feeling of triumph was short lived. Subsequent to finding out from Pansy that she had never in her life seen a movie for it was in fact a Muggle invention, Draco was once more forced to rely on the written word for help. This aid came from the book The Mystifying Minds of Muggles: Muggle Inventions with Magical Qualities, which he was fortunate to find in his mother's private section of the library.

According to the text, a movie is: 'a form of Muggle entertainment using a sequence of projected images with sufficient rapidity as to create the illusion of motion and continuity'. Although the technical jargon confused the hell out of him, Draco luckily found a little footnote at the bottom of the page, which stated that Muggle movies are quintessentially equivalent to Wizarding photographs, in that the picture moves. The differences, however, are that movies have sound, don't interact with you, actually tell a story and could only be viewed in specialized buildings called 'theatres'. These theatres were where groups of Muggles would go to sit in a dark and often drafty room to watch the moving images being projected onto a huge screen.

Draco found the concept rather ridiculous, but figured that Muggles were daft creatures anyway, so he really shouldn't be surprised. What did surprise him though was that even after learning all he could about movies; he was no closer to figuring out whom Todd was or what he was trying to pull. To tell the truth, Draco was probably more confused now then he was before.

The idea that someone was out there parading himself around as a Malfoy had Draco fuming with anger. Not to mention the fact that he was actually passing himself off as Draco Malfoy. The nerve of some people! That bloody bastard needed to be taught a lesson and Draco was the one who was going to teach him.

First however, he needed to find out who Todd was and why he was pretending to be a Malfoy, not to mention the link between Todd, movies, and Pansy with brown hair. Draco was more than determined to find out any and every piece of information there was on Todd, and he was willing to go through any means to get it; even if it meant having to get all his information from Potty and his gang. After all, they were the ones Todd was hanging out with. Besides, he had a suspicion that they had something to do with that fraud's deceptive act. So logically, they would be the ones who could give him the most accurate facts.

Maybe I could get Granger to give up some dirt on him, Draco concluded. She seemed to be rather close to him. He recalled the image of her and Todd standing by the door in The Leaky Cauldron, remembering the lively look on her face as she leaned in to whisper in the blonde's ear. For some reason that image kept popping into his head every so often, but he couldn't figure out why. Stupid Mudblood.

He struggled to come up with a plan to get Granger to tell him about Todd when a sharp knock came from the door.

"Come in," Draco yelled, not bothering to get up from his laying position. "Took you long enough," he mumbled, his eyes still shut off to his surroundings. "Well come on then, go bring my things down stairs," he ordered, gesturing idly to the belongings next to his bed.

"I beg your pardon," inquired a strong and masculine voice from the doorway. It definitely did not sound like a house elf.

Draco quickly shot up at hearing the voice. He recognised it instantly, but knew that it couldn't possibly be who he thought it could be. He stared at the person standing at the doorway, a stunned expression coming over his face. After about a minute of silent gawking, Draco gracefully got off the bed and took a few steps forward. The shock of seeing his new visitor was rapidly ebbing away as his infamous smirk began making its appearance. He nodded cordially to the man and greeted him.

"Father."