"The Hogwarts Curriculum For Aspiring Minions Of The Dark Lord." (Harry Potter) G
Title: The Hogwarts Curriculum For Aspiring Minions Of The Dark Lord. (On Archive Of Our Own)
Author:
lannamichaels
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Series: Part 2 of Snakeskin
Rating: G
Summary: The Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry provides a surprisingly practical education.
1.
The first, and most important thing, Draco learned at Hogwarts, he actually learned on the train. He stuck his hand out to another boy and introduced himself as Lucius Malfoy's son. Because wasn't that what you always did? Anyone who ever met Draco only ever cared about who his father was.
Harry Potter did not care who Draco's father was. Draco then made the mistake of assuming it was because Harry didn't know.
Harry Potter was a wizard. Of course Harry knew exactly who Draco's father was. Harry just didn't care.
For the first eleven years of Draco's life, the most important part of it was that Draco was Lucius Malfoy's son. After his first day at Hogwarts, that changed. From then on, the most important part of Draco Malfoy's life was that he was one of Harry Potter's roommates.
2.
At the end of their second year, Harry passed out their electives sheets for next year. Muggle Studies was already selected on all of them because, Harry said, "I know you all want to take it."
"We do?" Vincent asked. Theo, who was sitting next to him, pinched his arm.
"Don't you want to understand where I came from?" Harry asked.
Silence descended upon the Slytherin Common Room. Draco, personally, was not sure at all that he wanted to understand where someone like Harry Potter came from. The older students, who had learned through trial and error to leave Harry alone, were inching away.
"You're not a muggle," Vincent said. Everyone flinched.
Harry just looked patronizing. "Five points to Slytherin. No, I'm not. But my family is, and they raised me, and I love them very much. I'm sure you don't want to accidentally insult my family."
Vincent finally got a clue, along with some black and blue marks from everyone sitting near him, but at least he avoided a trip to the hospital wing for now. "You're right. I want to take Muggle Studies."
Draco exhaled.
"Are there any other electives we want to take?" Millicent asked, because she was smarter than Draco was right now.
"If you can pass the Care of Magical Creatures OWL, I'll let you babysit my basilisk," Harry said. "But I know you'll all be really bored in Divination. You probably shouldn't take that. The professor's a fraud."
Draco hadn't been intending to take Divination, and his mother wanted him to take Care Of Magical Creatures anyway. "Do I like Arithmancy or Ancient Runes more?" he asked Harry.
"How would I know?" Harry asked. "Pick them both and drop one if you can't handle it."
Draco filled out his electives sheet accordingly.
"You can all go write to your families about your choices," Harry said magnanimously. "Vincent, stay behind."
Draco didn't look.
3.
Draco's parents were confused by his elective choices and they remained confused about them until the third task of the Triwizard Tournament in his fourth year, where they sat in the stands with the rest of Draco's friends and their families. Every other Champion had brought their family to the task and Harry wasn't going to be any different just because his family were muggles. Harry had been pretty clear about that.
"It's nice," Draco's mother said slowly, "that you want to support your friend like this." Draco's parents had spent three years telling Draco that he should try more in Slytherin, that of course he could topple Harry from his position on top of the informal student hierarchy if Draco only applied himself. But something had shaken them up this year. Maybe they were finally actually reading the contents of Draco's letters instead of just skimming them for requests for money or candy.
"We all really want to support Harry," Theo said sincerely and with great feeling. Everyone else nodded.
There was a lot of informal betting going on in the stands. Draco's parents watched as Draco put money on anyone but Harry. "You don't have faith he's going to win?" Draco's father asked.
"Harry's not going to win," all the Slytherins said in chorus.
"And why do you think that?" Draco's father asked, his eyebrows raised as if shocked by this lack of House pride. He was definitely not reading Draco's letters.
"Because he said so," Draco told his father. "Harry didn't enter himself in the tournament and he isn't going to be anyone's puppet."
"A remarkable lack of ego in a powerful teenage boy," Draco's mother said. Draco wasn't sure if she approved of the idea or not. She was also not reading Draco's letters. If she did, she'd know all about Harry's ego.
"Harry doesn't have anything to prove to anyone," Millicent said loyally. From the stands, they all watched Cedric Diggory win. They applauded politely. Harry came in last.
Afterwards, Harry toured around the stands with his family. When he met Draco's parents, Draco braced himself for everything four years of knowing Harry Potter had taught him to expect.
Harry smiled innocently. "Mrs. Malfoy, it's so nice to meet you," he said, and Draco held his breath. "You know, I heard a rumor once. They said your sister married a muggleborn and your family hasn't had anything to do with her since. Draco hasn't even met her. Is that right?"
"We were planning on visiting her this summer," Draco jumped in before his parents could say anything and ruin everything.
Because Harry Potter was not subtle. Harry Potter had never been subtle, not since the first night in the Slytherin dorms when Draco had dropped his socks on the floor and Harry had hexed him for sloppiness. Harry Potter lived in a neat house and he lived in a neat dormitory and he did not abide any disrespect for muggles. Last year, Harry Potter had told everyone that things were going to change. He had meant it.
Draco was never going to forget that Harry had killed Voldemort and now spent his spare time finishing the job. Harry had killed three Death Eaters that Draco knew about. And Draco's father had been a Death Eater.
But Snape had also been a Death Eater, Draco always reasoned, and Harry got along fine with Snape. So maybe… maybe Draco wouldn't find himself in a pack of Harry's followers while Harry decided who was going to rid the world of Lucius Malfoy on his behalf. Harry wasn't unreasonable. So if Draco did what he said, and if Draco's family played along, it wouldn't be like that night all over again, two dead men and Harry telling them to leave muggles and muggleborns alone.
They just had to do what Harry said. That was all. It wasn't complicated. Harry didn't even want such terrible things, most of the time. Most of the time, it was just doing what he said. It was only sometimes that it was something that had been giving Draco nightmares for a year.
Draco's family just had to go along with it, too.
"We'll have to discuss it at home," Draco's mother started and Harry's expression went very cold.
"Family is the most important thing, Mrs. Malfoy," Harry said. "Don't you think so? I certainly do. Have you met my aunt and uncle yet?"
Harry's aunt and uncle were standing behind him, looking very uncomfortable. But Draco had been watching them. They clearly doted on Harry. No wonder Harry wanted to protect them. There was nothing wrong with that.
Over the sounds of the adults introducing themselves politely to each other, Draco leaned in to Harry. "I'll go see Aunt Andromeda this summer if I have to run away to do it," he promised.
"Why do that?" Harry asked. "I'm sure your aunt wants to see her sister again. You should all go."
"All of us going... it's going to be hard," Draco admitted. Harry blinked at him in expectation. Draco licked his lips nervously. "But hard's not a problem."
Harry patted Draco's arm. "I'm glad to hear it," Harry said sincerely.
Where 'family is the most important thing' had been when Harry was making Draco murder his own cousin, Draco didn't want to ask. "Congratulations on not winning," Draco said instead.
"How could I have won?" Harry asked. "I'm just a fourth year."
When they were in first year, Harry had dueled a seventh year and beaten him so badly, the seventh year had withdrawn from school for months to recover. A week after that, Harry had gotten jumped from behind by a group of other students, all of them twice his size, and Harry had walked away. None of the rest of them had.
Once, someone went to Professor Snape to complain about Harry. Once. Only once.
Three years had passed since then. Did Draco think Harry could win the Triwizard Tournament? What kind of question was that? Harry could win the Tournament asleep if he wanted to. He just didn't want to. Draco didn't really understand it, but he didn't have to. That was the great thing about Harry. He didn't care what Draco understood by himself. As long as Draco understood what Harry told him to understand, then everything was fine between them.
Harry wasn't really in this for friends. No one was Harry's friend. But if you did what he said, you weren't his enemy, and so that was the most healthy choice to make.
It took extensive effort to get his parents to visit Aunt Andromeda that summer, but they did. In the first week of August, Draco Malfoy found himself standing inside Aunt Andromeda's parlor, shaking Ted Tonks's hand, and thinking, "I bet Voldemort is turning in his grave right now."
Both Ted Tonks and Aunt Andromeda smiled at him throughout the visit and Draco felt very very weird about the whole thing. Shouldn't they have done this without Harry making them? But when he wrote to Harry about it, Harry sent back some muggle chocolate for a job well done, and Draco knew there was no higher compliment he could get. It made up for how angry his parents were at his behavior. Draco didn't mean to be a disappointing son, but it wasn't his fault he was in Harry's year.
Unlike Voldemort, Harry Potter wanted unity, and he expected his Slytherins to get it for him. Or else.
Draco had seen some of that 'or else'. He didn't want it pointed at himself. He didn't want it pointed at his parents. The fewer reasons Draco could give Harry to attack a former Death Eater, the better.
Sometimes Draco thought he should tell his parents about Sirius Black, about that night, about what he'd done. But then he'd never be able to take it back. They'd always know what he'd done. Some things weren't for parents, and the way Sirius Black had looked at him at the end, the way Harry had pressed against him, his hair brushing Draco's ear, as he whispered his order, the way Draco had felt when it was done-- that wasn't for anyone. Draco never wanted to do that again. Draco would do it any time Harry even hinted he wanted it. There was no option for disobedience, not when it came to Harry Potter.
Maybe his parents would understand that, though. From what Draco had heard, it's not like his parents had ever disobeyed the Dark Lord they had followed. They should understand that it was the same for Draco. Disobeying a Dark Lord came with consequences, and they couldn't all be Harry Potter, defeating Voldemort when still a baby.
He was Draco Malfoy. He was a Slytherin. And that meant he was one of Harry's Slytherins.
Really, it wasn't hard to understand. Draco just wished his parents did.
4.
In fifth year, Harry told Draco to start a Potions study group and gave him a list of potions to 'practice'. The list was long, full of potions Draco had never tried before. Snape was not any kinder to them when overseeing the study group than he normally was, which was comforting. Draco didn't know what Harry was holding over Snape -- other than, he supposed, the incredibly obvious, and so it couldn't be the Dark Mark -- but at least it wasn't enough to make Snape a pleasant person to be around.
All of the potions they made were illegal to purchase. Some of the ingredients for them were illegal to own. "There are some exceptions for educational work," Snape said once, when asked.
"Not for what you're using it for," Harry added cheerfully, taking the week's bottles and adding them to the dedicated trunk. "I don't want to count the number of laws you're breaking, Draco. It's enough to get you kicked out of Hogwarts and the good professor fired."
"But you're not going to do that," Draco said.
"I might," Harry said. "How are your Charms grades?"
Not as good as Harry's were, but no one was as good as Harry was in anything. The class rankings were always a fight for second. Hermione Granger usually beat everyone out for that, leaving Draco in a distant third, at best. "Let me guess. I have more Christmas homework?" Draco asked.
"Your father's wandwork is so good," Harry said. "Why is yours so terrible? You should study with him more."
"Uh-huh," Draco said. "What spells am I getting my father to teach me?"
"Any he thinks are particularly useful," Harry said. "He still thinks you can defeat me, doesn't he? Work with him, not against him. He's your father, after all."
"And family's important," Draco said, rolling his eyes.
"To you," Harry corrected. "Family is so important to you. That inconvenient factor in your father's history--"
"Right," Draco said quickly. He didn't need any reminders, thanks, Harry. He really didn't.
Sirius Black hadn't even been a Death Eater. He'd just been there.
"I'd hate for you to be as disloyal to me as your father was to his lord," Harry said. "I don't mind that he followed Voldemort, Draco. I mind that he turned coward and ran screaming."
"So did Snape," Draco said. "He turned on all of them and testified against them. That's got to be worse."
"Snape knows what he has to do," Harry said, which was news to Draco, but probably shouldn't have been. "Do you know what you have to do?"
Draco nodded. "Christmas break, illegal spells my father knows, and bring you back some fudge."
Harry patted him on the shoulder. "A lot of fudge."
"A lot of fudge," Draco agreed.
5.
In the beginning of seventh year, Draco finally managed the animagus transformation. Harry'd had all of his Slytherins working on it for years, but, one by one, they were finally managing to do it. Theo was the first to get it, but Draco wasn't the last. At least he wasn't last. Draco didn't want to know what Harry was going to do to whoever was last. Probably keep them in their animagus form for months.
Harry rubbed his hand over Draco's transformed head. The Parseltongue orders went straight to something deep in Draco and he drooped, curling onto the floor, along with all of the rest of Harry's snakes. He could feel Harry's approval thrum through him.
"True Slytherins," Harry praised them. Then he looked at the rest, who hadn't managed it yet. "By the end of the year," he warned them. "Or I'll transfigure you myself."
But Draco didn't have to pay attention to that. He could curl around the feet of his lord, a loyal snake safe in his transformed form, wait for his lord's whim, and eat snacks out of the basket the kitchen had sent up.
This entry was originally posted at https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/1220192.html.