'It is difficult to say for certain,' Remus hedged.
'Professor, please.'
'Well, Draco,' Remus said, 'let's just say that if Bellatrix Lestrange was always considered to be Voldemort's right hand, Lucius Malfoy was his left.'
The blond boy bit his lower lip and nodded. 'I see,' he said.
They stood there quietly for a few more minutes before Remus put his hand on Draco's shoulder and told him it was time for them to go. Draco turned to the Longbottoms before leaving.
'Goodbye, Mr and Mrs Longbottom,' he said courteously. 'It was an honour for me to meet you.'
The witch and wizard made no response, of course, and Remus took Draco back to Hogwarts.
'So, Draco,' Remus asked once they returned to his office. 'Do you understand now why the Cruciatus is such a terrible thing?'
'Yes, sir,' Draco replied faintly. 'I think I should almost prefer to death to that.'
'You would be far from the only one to voice that sentiment,' Remus said. His voice, though stern, was not without pity. 'I must impress upon you the utmost seriousness of the line you have crossed today. You will serve detention every night for the remainder of term. I shall send a letter to your mother, and if I ever learn of your doing such a thing again, I shall have to refer you to the Headmistress.'
'Please, sir,' Draco began to protest, but Remus cut him off.
'After what you have seen, do you still feel that you do not deserve such a punishment?' Remus asked sharply.
'No, sir,' the blond boy replied. 'I know I deserve much worse. I was only going to ask if you could possibly not send a letter to my mother about this. She's been through so much lately. I don't want to upset her. I'll willingly serve detentions through June! But please don't bother her. I promise, I won't ever do anything like this again.'
Remus's expression softened. 'You're a good lad, Draco,' he said with an approving nod. 'You'll serve your detentions until the end of this term, but I shan't inform your mother.'
Draco sighed with relief. 'Thank you, sir,' he said.
'Now run along back to your dormitory,' Remus told him, and Draco readily complied.
....
'Well, Draco?' Harry demanded when his cousin returned to Gryffindor Tower. Their dormitory was quite empty, as Dean, Weasley and Finnegan were all in the infirmary. 'What happened?'
Draco plopped down on his bed. 'We talked about the dangers of the Cruciatus Curse,' he said simply, 'and I have detention for the rest of term.'
Harry's face turned red. 'That's not fair! Weasley was trying to hex you left and right. The prat deserved what he got.'
'I appreciate your jumping to my defence, Aries,' Draco said. 'But I shouldn't have done it. I deserve my punishment.'
'It wasn't even really the Cruciatus!' Harry protested.
'That doesn't matter,' Draco said quietly. 'It was bad enough.'
Harry looked at his cousin curiously. 'What's come over you?' he asked. 'Did Uncle Moony decide to bring out the guilt?'
Draco smiled faintly. 'You might say that.'
'I'm going to go talk to him,' Harry said, hopping up from his bed. 'This isn't your fault. Weasley started it. Maybe I'll complain to Dad. I bet he could get you off.'
'No, Aries,' Draco said firmly. 'I deserve what I've got. Professor Lupin wasn't too harsh at all.'
Harry snorted. 'You ruddy Hufflepuff! Where did you get this overdeveloped sense of fair play?'
Draco smirked at him. 'Well, you did want to know where the Hat was thinking about placing me.'
Harry's eyes looked ready to explode out of their sockets. 'HUFFLEPUFF?' he shouted. 'THE HAT WANTED TO SORT YOU INTO HUFFLEPUFF?'
Draco chuckled. 'It was either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. Of course, since you decided to pull your little trick with the Hat, we'll never know which it would have decided in the end.'
'But Hufflepuff?' Harry sighed. 'I'd never have expected it of you.'
'And just what's wrong with Hufflepuffs?' Draco demanded, his tongue firmly in his cheek.
'Nothing,' Harry replied. 'They're the most decent wizards you'll ever meet. They're just so...boring.'
Draco swatted the back of his cousin's head.
'Prat,' he said affectionately.
......
With Draco in detention for the rest of term, Harry found himself with a great deal more free time, most of which he spent in the library doing research. He wanted to be ready for anything, especially with Riddle on the loose, and after the fight in Gryffindor Tower he thought he could benefit from expanding his arsenal with a range of more subtle curses. Of course, most of the books he wanted were in the Restricted Section, but with Abraxas teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, it was an easy matter for Harry to obtain permission. Before the incident, he would have thought that Remus would be just as helpful, but now that he had seen how his Head of House responded to Draco's Magnadolorous Curse, Harry thought it best to keep his new research from the werewolf. It wasn't that Harry resented his dad's best friend – he didn't, at least not very much. But Remus was simply far too narrow-minded to appreciate what Harry had to do if he was going to help bring Riddle down.
One evening when Harry was poring over The Warlock's Companion: A Comprehensive Guide to Battle Magic, he noticed Daphne Greengrass sigh in frustration at the table next to him. He had already been reading for over an hour, and his vision had begun to blur, so he decided to pay the pretty girl a visit and see if there was any way he could help.
'Good evening, Daphne,' he said as he slid casually into the chair across from her. 'It's unusual to see you without your cousin.'
'I might say the same about you, Aries,' Daphne observed with a wry grin. 'Where's Draco?'
Harry shrugged. 'He's got detention with Professor Lupin.'
'Pansy has detention with Sprout,' Daphne replied. 'It's a pity, too, because she's better than I am at Potions. Professor Snape wants an essay on the mistakes I made in my Calming Draught this morning, and I can't seem to figure out what I did wrong.'
Harry held out his hand. 'May I see your work?' he asked. Daphne handed her papers over and Harry looked them over. 'What colour was your potion at the end of class?'
'I should say it was a delicate shade of lavender,' Daphne replied.
Harry raised an eyebrow. 'You're talking to a bloke, Daphne. I haven't a clue what that means.'
Daphne laughed. 'Purple.'
'That's more like it,' Harry said, suppressing a chuckle. 'It ought to have been light green.'
'That's what Professor Snape said.'
'Hmm,' Harry said pensively, looking down the list of ingredients. 'Did you leave out the crushed dung beetles?'
Daphne put her hand over her mouth. 'I put them in, but I chopped them instead of crushing them.'
'That's a mistake, certainly, but I should have thought it would make the potion too dark, rather than changing the colour entirely.' Harry stared at her notes for a few minutes and frowned. 'You've written here to stir the potion seven times clockwise after you've added the first teaspoon of powdered newt's eyes. I could have sworn it was supposed to be seventeen times.'
'Oh dear,' Daphne said. 'Are you certain?'
'Positive,' Harry said. 'I think that's your key mistake. It totally changes the effect of the potion. You ended up brewing an Invigoration Solution.'
'No wonder Professor Snape gave me such low marks,' the girl said with a sigh. 'I don't think I shall ever be able to understand Potions.'
'Poppycock,' Harry retorted. 'Potion-brewing is no more difficult than cooking.'
'I don't cook,' Daphne said haughtily. 'That's what a house elf is for. I should be very surprised if you of all people had ever even set foot in a kitchen.'
Harry laughed. 'My Granny keeps a very close eye on the food she serves at our chateau in France,' he said. 'Roquefort does all the menial stuff, but she's asked me and Draco to help her a few times. She's also the one who taught us how to make potions. She's the best potion-brewer in the family.' He stood up suddenly. 'Come with me,' he said.
'Where do you want us to go?' Daphne asked.
'I'm going to teach you how to cook,' Harry replied.
'But why?'
'I thought you wanted to do better in Potions,' Harry said.
'I do.'
'Granny says that the best way to learn potion-brewing is to begin with cooking,' Harry said.
Daphne could hardly believe what she was hearing, but she put her books in her bag and followed Harry out of the library. He led her to a funny painting showing several kinds of fruit, and Harry tickled the pear. The painting swung open to reveal the enormous Hogwarts kitchens. Several house elves came rushing towards Harry and Daphne.
'What will the young masters be wanting?' one of the elves asked.
'I need a stove, a saucepan and an egg,' Harry said.
Daphne felt sure that the elves would refuse the strange request, but they eagerly led the children over to an empty stove.
That evening, Harry taught her how to boil an egg, and Daphne Greengrass thought it one of the strangest experiences of her entire life. The Greengrasses were a respectable, upper-middle-class pureblood family, and Daphne had never even seen the kitchen in their home. She knew that her grandmother cooked from time to time, but her mother had always regarded that as something shameful, and they didn't mention it outside the family. Properly-brought-up young witches did not cook their own food. It simply wasn't done.
But now, Daphne was being shown how to cook by none other than Aries Black, the heir to the wealthiest and snobbiest pureblood family in all of Britain. It simply boggled the mind! And when he sat her down at a table, and then proceeded to place her egg in its cup before salting it and presenting it to her himself, he served her as deftly as the Minister's own elves.
'Here you go, Mademoiselle,' he said as he placed the egg before her. 'Bon appétit.'
Daphne giggled as she took the first bite of the very first food she had prepared herself. It was delicious.
.....
Want to read ahead. Then join my patreon now.
2+ free advanced chapters from each of my books,
FOR ALL FREE MEMBERS.
Link: p*atreon.com/Nebula_Scribe (Remove the *)
Thank you once again for all the support, and I hope you enjoy the story.