Disclaimer 1: Draco, his parents and teachers all belong to JKR. (As if you didn't all know that.)
Disclaimer 2: Severus Snape owning a raven belongs to J.L. Matthews. (Go read her story everybody. It's great.) I found a new name for him this time though.
Disclaimer 3: The gang name Sharks is borrowed from the musical West Side Story of course. I don't remember where I found the name Rakers, but I know I read it somewhere.
Disclaimer 4: The idea for Snape having a family comes from Al's fic Time of Trial. (Thanks Al. I always seem to get the best ideas when reading your fics.)
A/N - The Spanish versions of my fics can now be found at Daga's site. Go to: http://sietepilares.iespana.es You'll find some other Spanish fanfics there as well which sadly I can't read. (Sniff!)
Chapter 7 - 'That Dog' Plays Soccer
Draco decided to try and distract himself by studying some Math before going to bed. So he retreated into the lab right after he'd finished washing an putting away the dishes and took out the Math book. At first he found it rather hard to concentrate and had to redo several problems, but after a while he managed to forget everything around him and didn't even hear the door open when Snape came in two hours later.
"Draco?"
Draco jumped at the sudden voice behind him.
"I really think it's time you went to sleep, Draco." Snape said sternly.
"I just want to finish this one problem. I ..."
"Now, Draco! Or do I have to confiscate that book again?"
Draco sighed and put away the quill. Snape wouldn't be persuaded, he knew. He was used to having to send teenagers to bed. The Slytherins hardly ever kept the 'lights out at ten' rule unless checked on and reminded repeatedly. Snape usually ignored them until eleven, but he still had them all in bed before midnight. When he wasn't around to send them to bed however some Slytherins were known to stay up until three in the morning despite all efforts of whoever happened to stand in for Snape.
Draco remembered Trelawney once actually going to Dumbledore for help. The headmaster however hadn't been happy about being woken up in the middle of the night and had kicked her out of his room telling her to go to bed. Draco had fallen asleep beside the fireplace in the common room that night where Snape had found him upon his return in the morning. After that Trelawney had never again been asked to substitute for Snape and Draco wasn't sure whether that was because of Dumbledore not wanting to be woken up again or because of Snape thinking her incapable of keeping his students in check.
Severus sat down in the chair Draco had just vacated and absentmindedly regarded the open book on the table while Draco changed. He knew better than to leave Draco to go to bed alone. He'd return to his Math problem the moment he closed the door behind him.
Draco had gotten surprisingly far with his exercises, Severus saw. Obviously he'd been wrong about it putting Draco off his plans of studying Physics. Well, he'd see if the boy would stick with it once he moved to his uncle's and away from all the fascinating muggle objects.
He didn't really regret showing Draco the way he lived and getting him in contact with an almost muggle like world. Draco had been raised to despise muggles and cherish the dark arts and Voldemort's evil followers. This experience would steer him away from the dark path his father had started him on, but Snape didn't think it would be taken well by the other Slytherins if Draco went to the other extreme. Well, it was most likely not going to happen anyway. If moving in with his uncle wouldn't make Draco forget about his dreams of being an electrician returning to Hogwarts and studying for the OWLs surely would. And after all he had found some other kids to play with and distract him from his studying as well. Thinking of which...
"I met Jack on my way home today."
"Oh, did you?" commented Draco climbing into his bed.
"Yes, he returned from the pond early and in a bad mood it appears."
"He's always in a bad mood." Draco scowled.
"You don't like him much, do you?"
"He doesn't like me. All because I laughed at his name. Jack the Ripper. Honest, that's so ridiculous."
"He's the gang leader, Draco. You're not supposed to laugh about him. Treat him with a little respect."
"I'm trying to, but he's never doing anything to respect him for. I'm staying out of his way as best I can though."
"Are you? Then why did he glare at me like I was the reason for all his problems? What happened to make him return early today?" Snape fixed Draco with one of those stern looks that made you feel like he was looking right through you. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything." claimed Draco knowing exactly that that wasn't entirely true. "He ran off because Cathy broke up with him. I even asked him to stay, but he just ran off."
Severus could imagine quite well how Draco had asked Jack to stay. He'd watched Draco pick on the Gryffindors and even on other Slytherins often enough.
"And why did Cathy brake up with him? They seemed quite happy together only yesterday. That wouldn't have anything to do with you, would it?"
"Of course not!" protested Draco. "She broke up with him, because he's a bad loser. She said she wanted somebody more mature, someone who could take a defeat at Soccer with some grace instead of screaming at her and everybody else because of it."
"And what exactly happened to make him scream at her?" Snape insisted.
Draco finally sat up in bed again and told him the whole story of the morning's Soccer game. He knew Snape wouldn't leave it alone, if he didn't.
Severus nodded and moved over to sit on the bed beside Draco.
"It's not my fault." Draco ended his story defensively.
"Not, it isn't, but you have to understand Jack's reaction as well. He is the gang leader, because others respect him and some are even afraid of him. That fear and respect of a gang's leader are what keeps the other gangs out of their territory. Mark and his gang are afraid of Jack, but Jack's also afraid of Mark and so are the rest of the Rakers. In a fight with the Sharks it would be expected of Jack to fight Mark. The others wouldn't, because they're afraid and they respect Jack the most, because he dares to fight Mark. Now here you come and take on Mark all on your own looking entirely unafraid. You're younger and you're alone, but still not scared. Jack's losing respect here when compared to you. If you'd stay, you'd have a serious chance to take over his gang."
"But I'm not staying and who says I wasn't afraid? I'd have run if it hadn't been for Billy."
"Ah Draco, you ought to know this. It's just like Hogwarts really. It's not about not being afraid of Hagrid, it's about pretending not to be afraid of Hagrid."
Draco looked up at Snape totally surprised. He'd had no idea that his head of house understood his relationship with the Care for Magical Creatures teacher this well.
"Okay, so maybe in their eyes I am as good as Jack, but I'm still not gonna stay so what's the problem?"
"You're not gonna stay, but Jack has lost some of the Rakers' respect. He's trying to regain it by putting you down, but his attempt fails. So he tries to stomp any subordination by picking on those most influential in the pack. Cathy takes objection to his unprovoked attack and rebels. Now he has got exactly what he didn't want. He's weakened his position in the gang instead of strengthening it. ... Cathy has a certain position in the group as well." he explained when he saw Draco's confused look. "Losing her made him lose even more respect and whoever she chooses as her new boyfriend will rise considerably in the eyes of the others. With Jack running off and the gang acting on their own, by following Cathy into the water instead of sticking with Jack and Cathy currently unattached the Rakers are in complete chaos. A new kid in the gang usually causes some shifting of rank, but you managed to upset the very top. A new leader might rise even if it isn't you."
"And who would that be? Who'd have enough respect from the others to overthrow Jack, if they didn't before?"
"Well, Mike's won some respect for being your friend. If Cathy should chose to go out with him, that might give him enough status to override Jack's authority. Then again Cathy could chose someone who doesn't have a chance to take over, maybe even someone from outside the gang and lead herself. The gang followed her today and as a girl she wouldn't be expected to face off against a male gang leader all on her own. She could fight Mark two on one without losing respect."
"It's all up to Cathy then?" Draco asked surprised.
"It might be. Jack still might be able to get the rest of the gang back behind him and regain control. Right now the situation is rather explosive. Watch out for the Sharks. This looks like an ideal time to attack for them." Snape got up and walked towards the door. "Good night, Draco. Sleep now. The Rakers will work it out once you're gone."
"Professor?" Draco asked when he was almost out the door.
"Yes?"
"What do I do if the Sharks attack the Rakers?"
"What would you do if the Gryffindors attacked the Slytherins?"
"Fight?"
"Fight." Snape nodded and closed the door.
Draco dreamed of Slytherins, Gryffindors, Sharks and Rakers that night. He didn't quite remember what exactly had happened in that dream the next morning, but there had been a big fight and something about Neville Longbottom and a washing machine, maybe he'd stuffed Neville in there? Draco laughed at the thought and startled 'That Dog' who'd followed Munin into the lab.
"Eat!" was Munin's insistent comment. The raven didn't seem to like the fact that humans had to wash and dress before breakfast.
"Hey, I wasn't born all dressed up in feathers like you. Can't you just give me a few minutes to get ready?" Draco protested when Munin followed him into the bathroom repeating his order once again.
"He wasn't." commented Snape from outside.
Draco opened the door again and stuck his head out.
"Who wasn't what?"
"Munin wasn't born covered in feathers. In fact he wasn't even born, he was hatched. And he hatched all naked."
"How do you know?" growled Draco grouchily. "Were you there to see it?"
"Yes."
"Really? What did he look like?" Draco grinned. Now there was some material to blackmail the bird with. ... Er ... blackmail the bird? What was he thinking?
"Well, he looked like any newly hatched bird. A big pink ball with two long thin bird feet and two odd shapes sticking out where the wings are going to be, a very thin neck with a much too large and heavy second pink ball that has a large beak and two big dark spots where the eyes are going to be."
"Caw!" protested Munin fluttering out of the bathroom and landing on the kitchen table to present his beautiful black feathered wings and well proportioned body.
"Ha! Got you, bird!" laughed Draco quickly slamming the door shut behind him locking the raven out.
He should have remembered to lock it however as only seconds later it opened again and Munin fluttered back inside to land on Draco's head.
"Eat!"
"You," observed Draco swiping at the raven, "are a nuisance."
Munin hopped off Draco's head to sit on the tap instead.
"Eat!"
"How do you shut this bird up?" Draco asked when he finally arrived for breakfast, late because Munin had held him up by constantly getting in his way.
"Hush!" Snape told the raven who was riding happily on Draco's shoulder and Munin stopped in mid caw.
Draco stared at the raven in surprise, then back at Snape.
"Another one of his tricks?"
"Exactly. Here, Munin!" Snape nodded and held out a piece of toast to the raven. Munin hopped off Draco's shoulder and across the table to get it.
"Thanks!" he cawed grabbing the bread.
"Well, it doesn't work too well." commented Draco. "He's already talking again."
"He's talking again because I said his name. That's the permission to speak again."
"What if I'd said his name? Would he talk then too?" asked Draco quickly grabbing a bit of toast for himself while Munin was still busy with his own piece.
"No, he obeys only me. That's what I like about ravens so much. They know exactly who they belong to."
"Just you wait. I'll buy myself a raven too and then I'm gonna let him bother you all the time." threatened Draco.
"You'll have the trouble of hatching, raising and training him first." stated Snape calmly.
"I'll buy one already trained." taunted Draco.
"Then he won't obey you."
"I'll find one that does."
"Well, I won't hold my breath waiting, that's for sure. I know ravens, Draco. You can't buy them trained. They aren't even sold that way."
Draco shrugged and focused his attention on breakfast. He'd get his own raven somehow. Maybe he could buy one in the muggle world? Did muggles keep ravens for pets? He'd have to go to a muggle pet shop someday and find out.
This time Sarah even let Draco go out alone after he'd finished with the dishes on the sole condition that he took 'That Dog', who was being particularly bothersome this morning, with him. He quickly slipped on his shoes and dashed out holding open the door for the dog.
'That Dog' could hardly believe his luck. Going out with the boy had to mean that he'd get to do a lot of running around and barking. He had obviously decided to get a head start on both and jumped after Draco barking loud enough to wake the whole house.
Draco had been hoping to get to ring Mike's doorbell, but of course 'That Dog's' noise spoiled that plan. Only seconds after they'd left their flat Mike peeked out into the corridor.
"Don't tell me we have to take him along!"
"Sorry. He was being a pest and Sarah decided he needed some air. I got to chose between staying home watching Billy and doing the housework or go out and take the dog. And I don't know how to do housework."
"Well, lets hope he knows how to play ball without getting stepped on." Mike decided stepping out into the corridor. "Bye Mum and Dad!"
Draco had a nasty suspicion that Mike had raised his hopes considerably too high, but decided not to comment, on it. Maybe 'That Dog' would be good for once and everything would be fine.
Of course 'That Dog' wasn't good. He started by dashing up and down the stairs barking madly and causing Mary to cover her ears with her hands and growl at him in a tone any canine normally understood. 'That Dog' wagged his tail at her madly and continued to bark.
That behaviour finally got a little more bearable when they got out of the house and the sound was no longer amplified by the empty staircase. 'That Dog' immediately shot off to sniff the next bush which forced him to silence for a few seconds.
"Dragon, that dog is impossible." Mary informed Draco calmly.
"I know, but I had no choice. It was take the dog or stay home, sorry."
Mary glowered at 'That Dog' and Draco wondered what she might be thinking. Maybe she was pondering what he might taste like? Ogres were known to eat all sorts of things and dogs were comparatively normal food for them. He supposed that Mary would be polite enough not to eat her neighbours' pets though. She was half human and living with a human family after all.
The rest of the gang weren't happy to see 'That Dog' either. He had finally stopped barking by the time Jack arrived however which was a great relief for Draco. He'd been worried about Jack's reaction after the explanations Professor Snape had given him in the night.
Jack insisted on the same teams as last game. He was obviously looking for a rematch. Mary however protested that she hadn't been there and wanted to play today and thus Jack decided to make her his team's keeper with an evil grin at Draco who just shrugged at him nonchalantly.
"That's not fair." protested Sammie. "You've got more players than we do."
"Well, we're an uneven number so one team will always have more players than the other." Jack grinned back at him. "Unless of course you want to step aside and watch?"
"Now wait a minute, we've also got all the weaker players, so we should be the ones to have more." argued Matt.
"You won yesterday."
"That was because Larry left the goal not because we're the better team. He won't make the same mistake again." said Charlie.
"Very well, you can have Mary." Jack conceded with a smirk.
"No, they get me." stated Cathy calmly walking over to stand beside Draco. "Mary and Dragon, both play only keeper and you can't have two keepers on one team. And besides I don't want to be in your team anyway. I don't like getting yelled at."
Jack shouted and screamed at her, but Cathy stayed adamant and calm. She simply refused to play on the same team as Jack. Jack finally gave in under the condition that she would not be allowed to be the team captain.
"Okay," said Cathy with a shrug. "Dragon can be captain."
"Dragon?" Jack sounded startled.
"Yes, why not? It'll be a new experience for him. Or are you afraid of being beaten by a beginner, Jackie?"
"I'm afraid of nothing! And don't call me that, Cat!! I'm Jack the Ripper!"
"Yeah, sure boss." said Draco pretending to be bored. "Whatever you say."
He knew he shouldn't tease Jack, but sometimes he just couldn't resist it. He was used to leading the Slytherins and few people had ever tried to challenge him over that. Even back in first year his father's name had given him enough authority to usually get what he wanted. That gang was so much like a class of Slytherins that sometimes he just had to act like he did at Hogwarts. Jack seemed to be the only one who really had a problem with that and Draco would be gone in two more days anyway. Why not enjoy this while it lasted? Who knew when he'd get to spend some time with other kids again. Maybe Uncle Thomas lived as secluded as his father had. Then he'd have to wait until he got back to Hogwarts.
And what if Uncle Thomas didn't want him to go to Hogwarts anymore? Maybe he'd want him to be home schooled. That wasn't a very comfortable thought. He might never see Professor Snape or Hogwarts or his fellow Slytherins again after Sunday.
He most certainly wouldn't see the Rakers again. They'd just go on and forget him. Somehow that thought hurt. He wanted to see them again. He wanted to stay here and go swimming a few more times, play with Billy some more, learn to play Soccer correctly, but he couldn't well ask the Snapes to let him visit them every holidays, could he? Their flat was small enough for a family of three as it was. They didn't need a visitor to take away even more space.
Draco sighed and returned his attention to the game. He was captain. That meant he had to come up with some sort of strategy and coordinate his team.
"Okay, Cathy Cat you're the one with the best chances to score. I want you and Sammie to stay close to the other team's goal. Don't come back over here. I want a permanent presence in their territory. Sammie, I know you're a good shot as well, but if anyhow possible I want you to pass the ball to Cathy instead of shooting at the goal. Try to confuse them by pretending to go for the goal, then pass to Cathy at the very last moment. Use your speed to get some distance between them and the ball and give Cathy some room. It'd be a good idea, if Cathy remained closer to the goal than you, but stay in their half." he decided. "Charlie, you're best at slipping by unnoticed so I want you to get the ball through to Sammie and Cathy. Matt and I will try to pass it to you as unobtrusively as possible. Try to stay around the center or near our goal and pretend to be invisible. Matt, stay in our half and try to get the ball away from them when they attack and over to Charlie. I'll pass it to you, if I can't get it to Charlie. Don't get too far away from the goal."
They all nodded dumbfounded. They'd obviously not expected such a detailed strategy. Good hopefully the other side hadn't either.
Jack put Mary in the goal as expected and came for their goal together with Mike and Larry. They tried to stay at about the same height and pass the ball among them a lot, which proved to be a problem for Matt who had to constantly run from one to the other, never knowing who'd actually attack. Having to wait for Larry slowed them down however and Draco still managed to catch all their balls.
He soon gave up the idea of passing the ball to the exhausted Matt and threw it directly to Charlie instead who cleverly decided to stay behind Jack and his team mates most of the time. That way she didn't have to get past them, just run fast and pass the ball on to Sammie, who in turn passed it to Cathy.
Mary held well, but thanks to Sammie's speed and Larry's slowness Cathy usually had a free field and could pick whatever angle she wanted to shoot from. It was only a matter of time when the first shot got through.
'That Dog' was obviously decided to play equally against both sides. The moment he'd first seen the ball roll over the lawn he'd raced after it regardless of everything else around him. He was always after the ball and always getting between the feet of whatever player happened to have it.
"Damn it! Draco, can't you put your damn dog on a lead?" Jack yelled after the third time 'That Dog' had tripped him.
"That isn't my dog and he doesn't even have a dog collar." Draco shouted back "Anybody have a rope I might use?"
They didn't and therefore had to continue to put up with 'That Dog'. Luckily he was already panting heavily and finally dropped into the grass somewhere around the middle of the lawn gasping for air. He made only short half hearted spurts after the ball after that, but presented an obstacle nevertheless. Especially Charlie and Sammie were held up by having to detour around him.
Draco expected Jack to change his plan of attack any moment and leave Larry to stay behind and help Mary the way Draco was keeping Matt close to his goal, but strangely it never happened, not even after Cathy scored the first goal of the match.
It had been a good manoeuvre. Everything had gone exactly as Draco had planed it. Matt had gotten in Jack's way when he'd been about to shoot at their goal and forced him to pass the ball to Larry. Larry should have passed to Mike, but decided to shoot himself. Draco had caught Larry's shot and thrown the ball over the attacker's heads to Charlie. Charlie had stayed on the right side of the field to avoid 'That Dog' and raced straight over towards the goal. Halfway there she'd quickly passed the ball to Sammie, who'd gone straight towards Mary from the right. Mary had concentrated on him and not seen Cathy move in from the left. The moment Mary had stepped out of the goal towards him Sammie had passed the ball on to Cathy who'd immediately shot it into the goal not giving Mary enough time to even turn around and see what had happened.
Jack requested a time out after that and Draco was sure that they'd come back with a new strategy, but all that occurred was a shouting match between Jack and Mary. Jack was fuming while Mary insisted that she was doing her best, but couldn't be expected to hold every ball with two opponents constantly in front of her and her team mates nowhere around. She wanted help in her half of the field, but Jack didn't want to provide it.
Draco just shook his head at it all. Jack's rage made him blind to the actual reason behind their problem even though Mary had laid it out to him clearly enough. He just didn't understand how anyone could let themselves be that blind.
And suddenly he remembered the time Harry Potter had caught the Snitch right beside his ear.
'Never again. Potter. I swear I'm never gonna play like Jack again.' he swore to himself. Wouldn't the Gryyfindors be surprised when Draco suddenly ignored his taunting to go for the Snitch instead. This year Gryffindor would find that it wasn't as easy to beat Slytherin as they'd come to believe.
"Okay, we're about half through the game and we're in the lead." he told his team. "Try to keep this up as we've planned. Should you notice that Mary starts concentrating on Cathy shoot for the goal yourself a few times, Sammie. That'll confuse her again. Lets try for another goal just to be comfortable. Then we won't get in trouble if they do get one through. Matt?" he addressed the boy who was sitting in the grass at his feet trying to catch his breath.
Matt looked up at him expectantly too exhausted to answer.
"Are you okay Matt? They've kept you running around a lot."
"I live." he panted. "Just barely. But I do."
"Can you keep this up for the rest of the game?"
Matt shrugged. "I'll try."
"No, don't." decided Draco. "Concentrate on Jack. He's their best player. If he can't shoot I only have to deal with Mike and Larry and Larry isn't so hot. I think I can handle that."
"What if Jack gets frustrated with that and decides to stay back in their half?" asked Cathy.
"Then you'll have to work around him. I'm expecting them to post someone to hinder you sooner or later, but personally I'd chose Larry. He'd be a lot more trouble for you and he's slowing their attack down. Matt, if they do come at us without Jack, go for Mike and let me handle Larry. Just keep an eye on Jack anyway in case he suddenly tries to rejoin the attack once you've attached yourself to Mike. You're gonna have to judge, if you can manage to switch to Jack in time or if you'd better stick to Mike. Don't leave both of them unguarded though. I might not be able to hold that."
"Are you sure you can hold anything Larry and Mike throw at you?" Sammie asked uncertainly.
Draco smiled back at him widely. "Of course not, but I think I've got a good chance."
All that strategy talk proved to be unnecessary however. Jack and his team kept playing just the way they had for the rest of the game even though Draco noted that Mary was getting increasingly frustrated and Mike tried to have a talk with Jack several times. Jack kept trying to score himself despite Matt being in his way which resulted in him losing the ball to Matt more and more often.
Cathy managed to get the ball into the goal again with a lucky shot and Draco was beginning to actually enjoy being captain of this team. They might not have the best players, but they made up for that by working together and sticking to their game plan. Unlike the Slytherin Quiddich team they never let their egos get in the way of strategy. It gave Draco something to think about. The weaker players could prove to be stronger, if their opponents couldn't form a real team. He wished there were a way he could teach that lesson to his Quiddich team colleagues.
Jack was beside himself with fury. He stalked off after blaming Mary, Larry and Mike some more. Mike just barely managed to keep Mary from attacking Jack. 'Ogre temper.' thought Draco with a smile while he thanked and praised each member of his team for their efforts. That had worked well on Charlie the day before so why shouldn't he try to use that method on the rest of them as well.
It proved to be rewarding as well as motivating when Cathy actually hugged him saying how much better he was as a captain then Jack.
Mike, Mary and Larry finally trudged over to them looking terribly embarrassed.
"Okay, yesterday might have been luck, but today you guys controlled the game." Mike said to Cathy. "What did you do?"
"What Dragon told us to, Mike. That's all. It's called sticking to the game plan."
"I know what it's called. Jack does it too much. I tried to convince him of changing strategy several times, but nobody listened." he sighed. "I don't know what's wrong with him. He used to be open to suggestions."
"I am." said Draco calmly.
"What?"
"I am what's wrong with him. He hates me so much, he's thinking only of proving he's better than me. It's the same mistake I tend to make with Potter. I try to outfly him so much, I forget to look for the snitch."
"Potter?"
"Harry Potter. I think you might have heard of him? He's the Gryffindor seeker and well, Slytherin and Gryffindor don't get along."
"Oh, why not?" asked Larry confused.
"Why don't you get along with the Sharks?" Draco asked back.
"Why, because they're stupid idiots." declared Larry.
"See, that's why."
"Ah."
"Larry can ask pretty stupid questions sometimes." Cathy commented on the way home.
"Yes, well, so he isn't particularly bright. We can't all be geniuses." said Draco picking up 'That Dog' who was way too exhausted to climb the stairs.
"You handled his stupid questions pretty well, you know." interjected Mike.
"I'm used to it. My friend Gregory from school makes even Larry look intelligent."
"Really? You know somebody even slower than Larry. How does he get through such a difficult school as Hogwarts then? Larry has lots of problems in our school. He's even had to repeat a year once." asked Mary.
Her grades probably weren't much better than Larry's, Draco suspected. Then again she had understood his strategy easily back in the game. Maybe she was just so quiet that people tended to underestimate her. That was at least true for Vincent Crabbe. The fact that he usually let Draco speak for him and hung out with Gregory most of the time led people to think that he was just as stupid as his best friend. In truth Vincent wasn't exactly a genius, but clever enough to get by.
"Well, we help him a lot in classes and I usually let him copy my homework. That way he manages to scrape by most of the time."
"Don't your teachers notice that?"
"Some do, some don't. Of those that do some mind, some don't, but they all understand why we do it. I guess most of them feel sorry for Gregory too. It's not his fault that he's stupid after all and they know that he tries."
"You've got really nice teachers then. Are they all like Uncle Severus?"
Draco noted with a touch of surprise that Mary called Snape Uncle Severus as well.
"Actually, Professor Snape can get really mean. Not to us Slytherins of course, but some pupils are really afraid of him. I think he's the least popular teacher in school. ... Well, with the exception of that Trelawney woman perhaps. Luckily I don't take any of her classes."
"What does she teach, then?" asked Cathy intrigued.
"Divination."
"Oh, we don't have that at West Hogsmede. They didn't find a teacher who was actually good at it."
"Well, at Hogwarts they didn't either. They say Trelawney is an old fraud that had only one true prediction in her life, but that one was so big that Dumbledore's keeping her around just in case she might have another one."
"So why does anyone take Divination at all, if they all hate the teacher and she's a fraud?"
"Because it's an easy 1*. You've just got to make up some convincing lies to get by. It's mostly the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs that take it though Gregory does too. It's one subject he doesn't have to worry about especially since he takes it with the Hufflepuffs. They're all nice and stupid which means the teachers have to go easy on them and they help Gregory out whenever he gets in trouble."
"Well, that's really nice of them." said Cathy.
"Hey Draco, if you want we could show you our school after lunch. It's not far from here and we could show you all the other places we hang out too." suggested Mike.
"That'd be nice, but won't Jack be angry, if you don't show up?"
"So?" laughed Cathy. "Let him. The way he just stomped off he shouldn't be surprised we don't want to see him."
"Yes," growled Mary. "I'd probably just strangle him anyway after the way he yelled at me. Who does he think he is? I told him I needed help, but would he listen? No. He's lucky he had me, you know. I'm rather proud you didn't get more shots in. You had enough chances, really. I held at least as many as Dragon today. It's not my fault they let you shoot more often."
"Of course it's not your fault, Mary." Draco tried to calm her. "You're a good keeper, but I had Matt to help me."
"Matt isn't really good at anything." stated Mike.
"Maybe he has no particular talent, but he's certainly good at standing in people's way when they want to shoot. He kept one attacker off of me during the whole game."
"Yes, and that unnamed someone decided to hand him the ball as a reward." grumbled Mary.
"He didn't do that on purpose." commented Mike.
"Maybe not, but he did it a lot and then blamed us for losing. I really don't feel like seeing him again right now."
"Okay, then that's settled. We meet here again after lunch and go for a walk." grinned Mike.
Draco had to ask Mike to ring the doorbell for him this time, because 'That Dog' had fallen asleep in his arms and threatened to fall off, if Draco removed a hand from under him. Sarah was quite surprised when she opened the door and Draco held a sleeping dog out to her.
"Could you hold him for a moment, please? I can't take of my shoes with him in my arms and I don't want to pad into the living room with dirty feet."
Sarah accepted the dog with a long suffering look at Mike.
"Why don't you just drop him?" suggested Mike grinning. "That'd wake him up sure enough and spare you all the trouble."
"Drop him?" asked Sarah horrified. "I can't. ... I mean, Severus would never forgive me, if I hurt his poor little innocent dog."
"Little maybe, poor perhaps if he really got hurt, but innocent? Are we talking about the same dog?"
"He looks pretty innocent, now that he's asleep." commented Draco.
"Well, if you say so. See you later." and with that Mike closed the door.
Draco gently reaccepted the dog from Sarah and placed him on a blanket in the living room where he usually slept. Sarah opened a can of dog food and set his lunch in front of the blanket. 'That Dog's' nose twitched once, but he didn't wake up.
"Whatever did you do to the poor animal, Draco?" said Sarah looking down at the sleeping dog.
"Nothing. We just played Soccer and he just wouldn't stop chasing the ball about. It just turned out to be a little too much chasing and he exhausted himself."
"Well, couldn't you just have tied him up somewhere so he wouldn't?"
"Sure, if you'd given me a lead to go with the dog. We couldn't just conjure up a rope to tie him with, you know."
To Draco's surprise Sarah turned wordlessly and went to dig through her sewing basket. She searched for quite a while until she finally came up with a strip of leather with a close attached that looked like it might once have been part of a sandal.
"There." she said triumphantly. "How's that for a dog collar?"
"Great, but we still need a lead we can fix to it."
Sarah searched some more and after a while presented some gold ribbon of the kind one uses to wrap Christmas gifts to Draco. Draco sneered.
"Well, the only alternative was bright pink." she explained. "I don't think he'd particularly like that. On the other hand, 'That Dog' likes everything and everyone."
Draco quickly took the ribbon before she changed her mind and did chose the pink one instead.
"There, now how about you try to figure out a way to fix it to the collar while I start with the cooking. Look through the sewing basket for some material. I'm sure you'll find something you can use."
Draco obediently started sorting through all the strange objects in Sarah's sewing basket.
"Dako!"
Billy stood in front of him looking up at him with big pleading eyes and holding out his favourite squishy toy.
Now what should he do? Draco squeezed the toy a few times then tried to hand it back to the baby and return to searching for ways to fix a lead to a dog collar.
"Dako!" Billy protested.
Draco sighed and lifted Billy up onto his lap. Holding the baby with one arm he tried to continue his search with the other hand and finally found a small metal ring that he could slip onto the collar. Now he could tie the ribbon to that, but every time he'd want to let 'That Dog' off the lead he'd either have to open the collar to slip off the ring or untie the ribbon.
Billy was struggling to get to whatever 'Dako' found so interesting. Draco finally gave in and handed him the collar to prevent him from taking an interest in the sewing basket. He suspected strongly that something with needles in it was never a good baby toy. Billy immediately put the collar into his mouth which was probably not very good for the leather, but luckily he didn't like the taste and consequently dropped the collar reaching for his squishy toy again.
'Good.' thought Draco 'That's definitely safe for both sides.' and retuned to his search. He finally found an old slightly rusty snaplink that looked a little large for the small gold ribbon, but would serve it's purpose.
But how long was a small hyperactive dog's lead supposed to be? He'd probably get dragged about if he made it to short, but if it was too long he'd get tangled up in it. Or maybe 'That Dog' would tangle himself, or tie himself to a tree or bush. How could he find out how long to make the lead?
He decided to ask Sarah for advice.
"I don't know, but you can always shorten it later so I think you should make it rather long at first. You'll learn from experience what length is most comfortable for both of you." was all she said.
So Draco measured out a rather long piece of ribbon. He folded it once and tied it securely to the snaplink then made another knot near the other end to form a loop so he could hold it more comfortably. There, now all that was left to do was to fix the dog collar to 'That Dog'.
That last part proved to be the most difficult of the whole project and Draco was glad he hadn't contented himself with tying the ribbon to the metal ring.
'That Dog' had woken up in the meantime and was busy with devouring his lunch, but not busy enough not to fidget and hop about and duck away when Draco tried to fix the collar around his neck. Billy tried to help, by patting 'That Dog' which made everything even more difficult.
In the end Sarah left her coking for a while to hold 'That Dog' for Draco and he finally managed to close the collar around his neck. Sarah also quickly checked that it didn't seem too tight or loose enough that 'That Dog' might be able to pull it off over his head. It looked fine though and she promised to look for a way to fix the ring more permanently to the leather so it would stop sliding about all around the collar which made it more difficult to find when it was needed.
While Draco fed Billy, Sarah quickly finished cooking, but still they had only just finished their lunch when Mike, Cathy and Mary arrived at their door asking what was taking them so long.
Sarah rolled her eyes at their impatience and declared that Draco wasn't allowed to leave until the dishes were clean, properly stored away and Billy's diapers changed. Draco wondered for a moment what she meant about the diapers, but caught her wink just in time. Sarah was decided to exploit his friends for a little housework.
Indeed they all volunteered to help and Sarah ordered the boys to do the dishes and the girls to change the diapers. However it soon turned out that Mary had no idea how to change diapers and Billy was scared of her and started to wail. Frightened at his protest Mary nearly dropped him thinking she'd hurt him in some way.
Alarmed by Billy's scream Draco dropped his towel and raced over to the baby's side. He told Mary to dry the dishes in his place and offered to change Billy's diapers himself. Thus Cathy held the baby while Draco changed the diapers.
Mary started drying dishes, but had to ask Draco where every piece belonged until Mike, who remembered most of that from their cooking lesson offered to take over the drying, if she'd do the washing instead. That combination finally worked with only a little more advice from Draco and five minutes later they were ready to leave.
"Don't forget the dog!" Sarah called after them.
"But Aunt Sarah," protested Cathy. "He'll just race off again and we're going into town. He might get lost or run over by a carriage."
"Oh no, he won't." Sarah grinned at her. "We just fitted him out with a lead." She held the gold ribbon out for their inspection.
Cathy and Mary looked doubtful and even Mike wrinkled his nose at their construction, but they didn't protest.
Draco snapped the lead onto the dog collar and they were off. 'That Dog' jumped out the door with a happy bark and stopped dead in his tracks startled by the sudden pull at his neck. The pressure lessened as Draco stepped out after him and 'That Dog' tried again. He dashed off in the direction of the stairs only to come to an abrupt halt after only two jumps. That pull was back.
It disappeared again as Draco walked past him, but this time 'That Dog' had decided not to move. Maybe it would stop again, if he sat still for a while. Suddenly the pull was back and this time it was pulling him forward. He refused to move and was dragged along for a bit.
That was rather uncomfortable. He decided to walk.
The pressure lessened again as he hopped past Draco down the stairs and then it was suddenly pulling him back again. 'That Dog' looked up at the humans around him. This seemed to be somehow connected to his boy. The one his owner and the woman who fed him called Draco. There was no pressure when he stayed beside Draco, but it always pulled him back towards him whenever he tried to get away from him.
He gave Draco a pleading look. 'Please, let me go.' But it didn't help.
"Believe me, it's better for you this way." Draco told him.
"Woof!"
Nobody seemed to care about his protest. 'That Dog' sighed a long disappointed dog sigh and trotted after Draco. After all there wasn't much else he could do.
They went down the stairs and by the time they left the house 'That Dog' was following Draco obediently and hardly bothered them at all anymore.
"You know, he really should have gotten a lead a long time ago." Mike stated looking down at the peaceful and calm dog. "He looks almost cute when he's like this."
West Hogsmede Wizard School turned out to be not far from West Hogsmede Market Place. Obviously that was a sort of town center for the region. The school didn't look much different from the apartment houses. It was as long and high, but the main entrance was much bigger and Draco supposed that, if they'd been able to go inside they'd have found a wide staircase much like the ones at Hogwarts and nothing like the dark smelly staircase the house at Merlin Park had.
Still Draco found it difficult to imagine that this was a school just like Hogwarts. There were no towers and turrets, no thick stone walls. It was just another building like all the others around here. He wondered, if the school at least had a dungeon. Probably not. Was Potions taught in the basement then?
He tried to imagine his classes being held in light modem classrooms. Professor Binns in front of a white board you wrote on with felt pens? Cathy and Mike tried to describe it to Draco, but he just couldn't imagine a blackboard being any colour but black and written on with anything but chalk. The school used electric light? And just what was an overhead projector?
All the descriptions and stories didn't help. Draco couldn't imagine what classes at West Hogsmede were like.
He tried to explain Hogwarts to the others. The maze of corridors, scores of unused old classrooms, dungeons lit by candlelight and a History of Magic teacher who walked in through the walls. They didn't understand either.
After they'd finally given up on understanding each other's schools, they went on to explore the market place which looked very different without the stands and bustling activity that Draco had seen on market day. Still there were some people about and Mike pointed out a few buildings to Draco. There was the aurors' outpost usually manned by only one auror during the day and deserted by night, but during market day there were actually two aurors.
Yes, Draco remembered seeing them and also how ineffective they were in the large crowd.
That over there was the district administration. There were people walking in and out of that one a lot Draco noticed. Mike explained that there were only three district administrations in all of Hogsmede and West Hogsmede was densely populated, which explained all the people coming and going.
There were also some shops that were of particular interest to the kids, the homes of two of their teachers at West Hogsmede Wizard School and the building in which Charlie had her ballet lessons. Sometimes Charlie's class demonstrated their skills at the little theatre next doors. Maybe Draco could get permission from Dumbledore to come to Hogsmede to see the next show? It was usually held on a Saturday evening.
Draco thought about that. Maybe if Professor Snape took him to see it, Dumbledore would allow it? But then other pupils would start asking for special permissions to visit Hogsmede on non Hogsmede weekends as well. No he didn't think the headmaster would want all that trouble.
They got home late again that day, but not as late as the day before. Draco was still in time to feed Billy and help to set the table for dinner. Professor Snape however didn't arrive on time and Sarah finally decided that they should eat anyway.
Munin fluttered in during the meal carrying a letter saying that the trial was going to last late into the night and Severus wouldn't come home before he'd heard the verdict. He told them not to stay up and wait for him, he had a key after all.
Draco went to his Math studies a little worried over the outcome of that trial, but managed to block out those thoughts after a while as he tackled negative numbers and decimals.
He heard Professor Snape come home in the middle of the night, but he didn't come into the lab. Draco supposed that he assumed that he was already asleep. He really should have been.
Thus he slipped into bed quietly trying not to worry about whatever had taken so long at the trial. Snape had said that Lucius was going to Azkaban and that was all Draco really needed to know. There wouldn't be a problem with the money. There couldn't be!
In the next chapter: Sevi takes Draco to the Hogwarts library and ... the Gryffindor common room! And we finally get to hear the results of Lucius' trial.
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