A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you guys liked the last chapter. I enjoyed writing Hermione and Draco's banter a lot, and well, we all know what a prat Draco is. Read the A/N at the end to find out when the next chapter will be out. On with the chapter!

"Shut up, Lucius!"

"Don't tell me to shut up, Narcissa! You can't talk to me like that."

Draco rolled his eyes at that and shifted on the bed so that now his back faced them. He accioed a random book towards him to distract him.

He groaned when he realised which book he had summoned.

Hogwarts: A History

"Granger has been influencing me too much." The blond wizard muttered. "Just spent a few hours in her annoying company and my mind literally managed to summon this stupid book."

Throwing that book on the floor, Draco summoned another one towards him.

This time, it was Pride and Prejudice.

He remembered the day when his mother had secretly given him this book, when Draco was about eleven years old, because Lucius didn't want his son to associate with anything related to non purebloods and half bloods.

Just a few months before that, Lucius had found out that the dragon plushie Draco slept with, was bought from a muggle shop.

By none other than his own dear wife.

Obviously, since Lucius had not been able to convince his wife to throw it away, because her wrath was way worse than his, the Malfoy patriarch had instead decided to destroy the toy right in front of his son, so that the young wizard would learn not to disobey the rules that were set for him even before he was born.

Thankfully, Narcissa knew about her husband's plan beforehand. So she conjured another toy like that and let her husband destroy it.

When little Draco had ran to his room, all the while crying loudly, his mother had entered his room late at night and given him his real dragon plushie.

And Draco declared that the toy was his best friend forever from then on.

But of course, the blond Slytherin Prince would obviously deny it now if anyone asked him.

But he still had to convince his mother to not tell anyone about that, because she loved to embarrass him in front of his friends.

With an annoyed sigh, the Slytherin Prince opened the book and started reading it. He would never admit this out aloud of course, but Elizabeth definitely reminded him of Hermione.

And as for Mr Darcy, well, Draco didn't want to talk about that.

In the background, Narcissa and Lucius were still arguing over some stupid thing.

"I am telling you, Lucius, I am right-"

"There is no way you can be right on this topic, my dear Cissa-"

"Don't you dare dear me, Lucius." Narcissa narrowed her eyes at him. Crossing her arms in front of her, she spoke to her husband, "Don't try to butter me up now. It won't help you." 

"But my dear Cissa, you are so beautiful and thoughtful. And I love you, even if you continuously threaten me to throw me to the peacocks."

Lucius tried to hold her hand but his wife smacked it away.

"Flattery will not get you anywhere, Lucius." She replied.

"What stupid things are you guys arguing about now?" Draco, who couldn't tolerate this any further, asked his parents. 

"Mind your language, Draco Lucius Malfoy." His mother tutted at him. "And this is not stupid. It is a very important topic to talk about."

"I agree with your mother, Draco." Lucius chimed in.

"Really, Father? Don't give me that crap-"

His father too crossed his arms in front of him, and leaned back on the couch. "We need to talk about this important topic, Draco. So yes, I agree with my wife." 

"How foolish of you to assume that you have any choice in this, Lucius." His wife smirked at him. "You are clearly wrong here. And you have no choice but to agree with me and my opinion."

"Oh please." He snorted. "My opinion matters as much as yours does, my dear wife-"

"That may be true, but I am willing to ignore that right now." She cut him off. "After all, whatever we decide will have an impact on our future."

Draco spoke before Lucius could retort. "And what is this stupid thing which will have an impact on our future?"

The Malfoy Heir spoke that sentence in a high pitch voice, trying to imitate his mother. 

And that resulted in him getting a glare from his mother. "I happen to think that whether or not we should have more peacocks in our gardens is a very important topic, my stupid dragon. So we have to have this important discussion." Narcissa told him 

Draco's jaw dropped to the floor. "Peacocks? That is the stupid topic you-"

"Do.  Not. Talk. About. The. Majestic. Birds. Like. That." His mother said in a low voice which was enough to terrify the hell out of the blond Slytherin.

"Anyways, so as I was saying we don't need more albino peacocks. We already have so many of them." Lucius interjected.

His wife turned her angry stare at him. "We definitely need more-"

"Wait," Draco interrupted his mother, earning another glare from her which he ignored, "Why are you both talking about stupid peacocks right now, at this serious moment?"

"They are not stupid, you are stupid, my idiot dragon-"

"We are having this conversation because the atmosphere is tense, and the death eaters are everywhere around us, right now. And we don't want them to pick up on the tension we have regarding our roles as double agents, so we are having a light conversation here, albeit how stupid it is." Lucius explained it to him.

Narcissa huffed as she got interrupted again.

But before the two wizards could say anything, they heard footsteps outside the door of the bedroom. They had just managed to keep their wands at ready when the door opened and a wizard stepped inside.

The wizard being Lord Voldemort, if he even was one, that is.

Without saying anything, the Dark Lord crossed the room in quick strides, grabbed Draco's arm and dragged him towards the drawing room, his parents following behind while shouting at him to stop.

Voldemort shoved Draco to the floor, took his wand out, and shouted, "CRUCIO!"

-------

A few hours later.....

Draco locked himself in his room again, but this time, he made sure that no on would be able to enter the room.

He had put up all the strong charms and spells he could think of to ward his room.

He didn't need anyone near him right now.

He didn't want anyone to tell him that it was not his fault.

That he didn't have a choice.

It was not his fault that he had been forced to kill Oliver Wood.

So that he could prove his loyalty to Voldemort.

It was not his fault that the said dark wizard had put Draco under an Imperius Curse when the Malfoy heir had refused to kill anyone.

Draco had never killed anyone, much less an innocent person.

Or an Order member, who had been snuggling food into the safe houses so that the other Order members won't have to come out themselves to get the food.

Oliver Wood had been that Order member.

And Draco had been imperiused to kill him.

And so, the Slytherin Prince didn't need anyone to tell him that it was not his fault.

Because he knew that it was not.

Draco was not stupid.

He knew that because he had hesitated in torturing Oliver Wood, the Dark Lord had placed him under an Imperius Curse to torture and kill the former Quidditch Captain of the Gryffindor Team.

And Draco had been too weak, because of enduring the Cruciatus Curse for at least an hour, to fight off the Imperius Curse.

And even if he had not been too weak, the blond Slytherin knew that he would not have been able to remove the curse from him.

Because he was a failure.

His father, Lucius, had told him a few years ago, when Hermione, a muggle born witch, had been able to beat him in class, that he was a failure.

Draco supposed it was still true, that he was a failure and will always be.

And thus, it was very important that no one would be able to enter his room without permission, because he didn't need anyone to tell him the truth.

That it wasn't his fault.

Because even if it was not, it still felt like it was. 

And Draco needed to blame this on himself, he needed to take his anger out on someone, and that someone had to be none other than Draco himself.

So Draco did what he had to.

He summoned a knife towards him and placed the blade above the filthy dark mark that contrasted with his pale arm.

With the first cut, he cursed Voldemort.

For being so power hungry, that he didn't care the many lives he was ruining.

With the second cut, he cursed the Death Eaters.

The Death Eaters who had managed to catch Oliver Wood and had dragged him here, despite the fact that Oliver did take down a few members of Voldemort's Army by himself.

With the third cut, he cursed himself.

For not being brave enough to have openly fought against Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts, perhaps then if the Dark Lord had kept him as a prisoner or killed him, then it would have been better.

Soon, Draco passed out from blood loss and exhaustion, but he hoped that the wards would still hold.

Because he didn't want anyone to help him.

Inside the room, a few doors away from Draco's, Narcissa Malfoy cried as she leant against her husband.

And Blaise and Theo sat down in front of them on the couch, one supporting the blonde witch, and the other supporting Lucius.

"It will be fine, Cissa." Lucius whispered as he tightened his arm around his wife. "Everything will be fine. He will be fine."

"Don't give me this crap, Lucius!" The Malfoy matriarch pulled away from him suddenly and exclaimed. "Don't speak things which even you don't believe for a second. Nothing is fine right now, and he? Our son is not fine, Lucius!" 

"He was tortured for hours after the Battle." She continued. "And if that wasn't enough, Voldemort had to torture him again and again, and even today, while my precious dragon was getting tortured, the mad wizard used Legilimency on him, but thankfully, Draco was able to hold up his Occlumency walls and not give in. And then he was imperiused to torture and kill someone whom Draco had known since he had started Hogwarts. Do you realise how that had affected him? He literally ran straight to his room and hasn't come out since then. So please don't tell me that he is fine, Lucius."

"But he will be, you know?" Blaise interfered before Lord Malfoy could speak. "Draco will be fine, Narcissa. I have faith in him, and faith in the purity of his soul. His arm might be tainted, Narcissa and Lucius, but his soul isn't. And I am going to make sure that that never happens."

"We are going to make sure that it never happens, okay." Theo corrected his friend.

"How many times have I asked you two idiots to call me Aunt?" Narcissa sniffed, a small sad smile making its way to her face. "But I am so thankful to you guys for being there for my dragon."

"Well we love our dear dragon so much, Aunt Cissy." Blaise and Theo said together and then turned towards Lucius.

"No, not at all." Lucius immediately shook his head before the two young wizards could even open their mouths. "You are not getting the permission to call me Uncle Lucius or something. I don't like that."

"How about Uncle Lucy?" Blaise suggested.

"That is even worse, and perhaps the most disgusting thing I have ever heard." The blond wizard shook his head against and sighed. "I am fine with just Lucius, okay?"

"Then we shall call you just Lucius." Blaise and Theo said that simultaneously, and smirked at the angry wizard as his wife started laughing. 

"Nice name, Just Lucius." Theo commented. 

Eventually, Lucius cracked a smile as well, as he watched the his son's best friend trying to cheer up his wife. 

Blaise and Theo might be a pair of stupid idiots according to him, but they were very good friends to Draco. 

He just wished that he could help his son somehow. That he could help his son not lose himself because of Voldemort. 

And he hoped that being an Order member would help Draco achieve that, but first, he, his wife and his son's best friends had to give all of their strength to Draco, and let him know that they were there for him, that they believed in him and had hope in him. 

For when you don't believe in yourself, even a small spark of hope can do wonders. 

------

Next day.....

Draco let out a sigh as stood outside the living room of the Grimmauld Place, dreading every step which took him near the Order members, who had no doubt, heard about the event that had taken place in the Malfoy Manor a day back.

An event where Oliver Wood had been killed, and Draco Malfoy, the not yet completely defected Order spy, had been the one to cast the spell.

And even though the blond Slytherin Prince had been under the Imperius Curse during that, it was still his fault according to him and he knew that the people of the Order would think the same.

So yes, he didn't want to be here, not at all, but what other choice did he have?

He can't very well go back to the Manor, and be forced to kill someone else, or maybe suffer hours under the Cruciatus Curse and do nothing while the Order keeps sending him messages to report to them.

No, he couldn't do that. Not unless he wanted to lose this very and only opportunity to turn to the good side and save what was left of his soul, and protect his parents as well, of course.

Taking a deep breath, Draco took a reluctant step forwards and opened the door of the living room.

But before he could even open his mouth or do anything else, a spell came hurling at him and hit him on his shoulder, ensuing a hiss full of pain from the blond wizard.

"RON!" He heard someone shout, but since his eyes were closed because of the pain, he didn't know who it was.

Though the voice sounded very familiar to him, perhaps it was of certain Gryffindor witch.

But whether or not it was actually the muggle born Gryffindor witch Draco had been thinking of, didn't matter as a second later the Slytherin Prince was punched square in the jaw.

Stumbling backwards, Draco caught hold of the door handle, and slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times and noticed a red headed wizard, with an angry look on his face, in front of him.

The blond wizard frowned as he noticed a wetness on his shoulder, and gently touched it with his finger, hissing when his finger found the spot the hex had wounded.

Before Ron could hurt him further, he was pulled back by his mother, and Hermione pushed past them to help Draco to the couch.

She sat him down and carefully touched his shoulder, inspecting the injury. After a few minutes, she nodded to herself and took her wand out, and muttered the required healing spell.

When she moved to heal his jaw, Draco stopped her with raising a hand and mumbled a tense thanks. 

He didn't need her to do anything for him.

After all, he was the Brightest Wizard of His Age.

The Malfoy Heir pointed his finger at his jaw, and wandlessly and nonverbally healed it, as if he had done this many times before.

Which he had done, not the healing spell for the jaw, but the other ones.

He didn't survive living in the same house as Voldemort, Bellatrix, some other Death Eaters and Greyback without the knowledge of the healing spells.

Hermione bit back a comment on that, and instead turned towards her friend and crossed her arms in front of her. "You shouldn't have done that, Ron."

"I can't believe you, 'Mione. Are you really going to protect this scum?" Ron exclaimed.

"You just can't go around hexing and punching people just because the Daily Prophet says something about them, Ron." The Brightest Witch of Her Age shook her head at him.

"Oh really? Then that doesn't mean you will go around and help our enemies either." The redheaded wizard said, his tone perfectly conveying the anger he felt.

"Enemies? Malfoy is not our enemy-"

'Wait," The said person interrupted her, "Why was I punched and hexed? And what is this about the Daily Prophet anyways?"

Hermione sighed and accioed that day's Daily Prophet towards her and passed it to Draco. The blond wizard quickly read the article, which spoke about how he had mercilessly tortured Oliver Wood before killing him to prove his loyalty to Voldemort.

That article was written by Rita Skeeter.

Of freaking course. 

Trust that evil bug to portray everyone else as evil as well.

Though this also further proved the mindset of Voldemort. Now that he had won the war, he could focus on other things. As of right now, he wanted to prove to everyone that all of his followers were still very loyal to him, even the ones who had clearly shown signs of betrayal in the Battle of Hogwarts.

"Mr Weasley," McGonagall started, "Perhaps you would not be against listening to whatever happened from Mr Malfoy, right? After all, I am sure you are one of those who clearly know the lies of the Daily Prophet, and specially what that damn witch Rita Skeeter publishes." 

If anyone was shocked to hear such words from McGonagall's mouth, they didn't show it.

Specially Draco.

Who had always thought that the head of Gryffindor house was strict and proper.

But well, the Malfoy Heir thought, if McGonagall wanted to stand up for him, then he wasn't going to stop her.

One more person added to the list of his fans.

Ron reluctantly nodded when Molly nudged him and everyone looked at Draco with both confusion and anger in their eyes.

Taking a deep breath, the Slytherin Prince began telling everyone what had exactly happened. From how Voldemort had barged in his room unannounced, and then dragged him to the drawing room.

He noticed Hermione flinching when he said the drawing room.

Draco let his gaze fall to the disgusting word which was carved on her arm by his deranged aunt.

Shaking his head, he continued. He told everyone how the Dark Lord had tortured him first, and then some Death Eaters had dragged Oliver Wood inside.

Voldemort had then asked Draco to torture the Order member, but since the blond wizard had declined, the nose less freak had then proceeded to use the Imperius Curse on Draco, and ordered him to first torture Oliver, and then kill him.

Silence bestowed upon the place when Draco finished telling everyone what had happened.

Molly Weasley did the honours of ending the silence when she cleared her throat and walked forwards, not stopping until she directly stood in front of Draco.

"You, young man," She started, "Are in need of some food."

Draco was too shocked to respond to that.

He had just told her how he had killed Oliver, and this witch, this red headed witch was telling him that he needed some food.

Was the entire Weasley family crazy?

Molly sighed and grabbed Draco's man. Without saying another word, she led him to the kitchen and made him sit on the dining table while she quickly prepared some soup.

In the living room, Ron shook his head in disgust and left the room, some other Order members following him.

Hermione sighed and looked towards the kitchen, where an awkward Draco Malfoy kept looking here and there.

No, they were not crazy.

They just believed that the defining line between enemies and friends had thinned too much in this war, and it was better to accept the help of people whom they had never thought of being on their side. 

-------

Hermione exited the living room a few hours later, and entered the backyard. She was about to start on her usual route, when she heard a voice which seemed to come from the other side of the backyard.

The side she had never explored before. 

Frowning, she tucked her book under her arm and walked towards the source of noise. Soon, she was surrounded by some bushes and mud, and just as she had taken a step forwards, her leg seemed to have stepped into a place where there was no ground for she suddenly fell forwards, and a second later, she could see nothing around her, but darkness.

And it was just her luck that her book and wand had not fallen down here with her.

"HELP!" She shouted, even though she wasn't sure if anyone would be able to hear her from here.

But to prove her wrong, she heard some mutterings a few seconds later. "Trust Granger to turn small simple things into dangerous ones just because she cannot suppress her curiosity."

Wait, she knew who that voice belonged to.

"MALFOY!" Hermione shouted. "I KNOW YOU ARE THERE, MALFOY. COME ON, HELP ME."

When nothing happened for a few minutes, she yelled again, this time accompanied by her jumping up and down to make him listen to her. "HELP ME, MALFOY, OR I WILL HEX YOU SO BADLY LATER ON AND ASK EVERYONE TO JOIN ME IN THAT."

She heard some rustling sounds, and eventually, the darkness around her was filled with a beam of light which seemed to come from a small hole that Draco had managed to create.

A hand was extended towards her and the Gryffindor Princess jumped to grab it. She caught it with both of her hands, and clutched it tightly as Draco lifted her upwards.

As her head hit the edges of the hole, Draco made the hole bigger using his wand, and then bent down to lift her up using both of his hands.

Once she was out of the hole, he pulled her towards him as they both fell down on the ground. Hermione quickly got off from on top of him, not wanting to be too close to him, and sat down a few inches away from him.

"What the hell was that?" She asked him a few seconds later.

Draco sat up on the ground and rolled his eyes at her. "That is the result of being too curious for your own good."

"Don't play with me, Malfoy-"

"Do learn to take a joke, Granger, it will do you some good." The blond wizard smirked at her infuriated expression.

She was this close to punching him again.

But her gratitude towards him for helping her twice, once in the battle and now here, held her back. 

"Anyways, this was a trap." He told her. "Some people made a big hole here and covered it with leaves and rocks using magic, and they can only be removed by magic. So, when you stepped on this, you fell into the hole, and because there is magic involved, the leaves and the rocks arrange themselves like they actually were at first, and so it was as if the ground had swallowed you, or something like that. And well then, because I am so nice, I made a hole and pulled you out of it."

"Why didn't you fell into the hole?" She inquired. "Because you must have passed it go further. And how do you even know about all of this?"

"Because I am the Brightest Wizard of My Age." He smirked at her.

When she glared at him, Draco once again rolled his eyes and said, "This hole has been here since years, Granger, and nothing has happened to it because of magic. Every Black property has this kind of trap, so I can easily recognise it when I come across one. I simply used some spells to arrange the broken branches like a bridge over it, and then passed the hole without falling into it. And then I vanished the bridge."

"Why would you do that?" Hermione leaned forwards as she asked that and then scrunched up her when she smelled something foul. "You have been drinking." She said as her eyes fell on to the nearly empty bottle of firewhiskey lying near the tree.

"Very well spotted, Granger, fifty points to Gryffindor for this." Draco sneered at her. "I vanished it because I wanted to be alone, but of course, you had to ruin my plans, right?"

  "You don't own this place, Malfoy-"

"Technically, I do." He cut her off. "And you should be grateful to me for saving you. Only because I have Black blood in my veins was why I was able to hear your screams. Anyone else would have simply walked past without hearing anything."

"Thank you for that, really." Hermione reluctantly told him. She didn't want to thank this prat of a wizard, but he did save her life, so she could at least swallow her pride to thank him. "But, how were you able to use magic when you were drunk? I have never seen anyone do that before."

"I was completely drunk for the better part of last year, Granger, specially when I went back for my seventh year." Draco looked away from her. "And I wouldn't have survived the Carrows if I didn't know how to defend myself. I drank to make myself numb, but at the same time, learnt to use magic while being drunk to help me. So you see, I have got a habit of it now."

"You shouldn't drink too much, it is not good for you, you know?" Hermione said that as she got up from the ground, thinking that even if Draco was her enemy, she didn't want anything bad for him.

When he didn't say anything, the Gryffindor Princess sighed and turned around to walk away, remembering to make a bridge to cross that trap.

Just before she could take a step forwards, she heard Draco snort and say, "As if I deserve to be good, or have something good for me."

-------------

A few hours later.....

This time when Draco came back to his Manor after spending a few hours at the Order's Headquarters, he frowned when he saw his bedroom door opened.

"Who the hell is in my room?" The blond wizard muttered to himself as he took his wand out from the holster and pointed it in front of him.

With a spell resting on his tongue, he slammed the door open and opened his mouth to give the resting spell a go-

-Only for the intruders to scream at him to not do the very thing he intended on doing.

"What the hell are you two idiots doing here?" The Malfoy Heir asked as he closed the door using a bit of wandless magic. "And why the heck didn't one of you thought of closing the door? What if a Death Eater had seen you both? Or worse, the Dark Lord?"

"Then we would have offered your father's best Firewhiskey to the Dark Lord, right Theo?" Blaise asked.

The other person nodded. "Hey Draco, do you think that if we made the bald maniac laugh while he is drinking Firewhiskey, he would snort?"

Before Draco could answer, Blaise and Theo shook their heads.

"You know why?" They said in unison. "Because he doesn't have a nose to snort, idiot!"

"There is me, who is a responsible person even when he is drunk." The blond wizard muttered to himself. "And then there are these two idiots who can never be trusted, no matter whether they are drunk or not."

"Wait," Theo's head whipped towards him at that, and he frowned. "You are drunk? You don't look like drunk." 

"What am I supposed to do then?" Draco asked him, crossing his arms in front of him. "Dance around the Manor while singing a romantic song on top of my lungs?"

"Or perhaps," He continued, "I can take a dip in the Lake while being fully clothed and invite the Dark Lord to do the same?"

"Or," Blaise suggested, "You can dress up like a peacock, you already have the platinum blond hair, and then hang out with the majestic albino peacocks which are roaming around in the gardens."

"Bet Narcissa would like that." Theo nodded. 

"This house is full of idiots, and that statement doesn't include me." The Slytherin Prince grumbled and accioed three vials of sobering and hangover potions each to himself, handing four of them to his best friends, and drinking the remaining two.

"So why did it take you hours to come back here, dear dragon?" Theo asked once all of them had sobered up, and were either lying on the couches or the bed.

"I wanted to come as soon as the meeting was over," Draco ignored the dear dragon part, "But then I got drunk and Granger-"

"Wait," Blaise's eyes widened, "You were with Granger when you were drunk?"

"So what?" Draco, offended, asked. "And why are you so focused on Granger? I am telling you-"

"Oh sod off, Malfoy." The Italian wizard rolled his eyes. "No need to become jealous, I already have a girlfriend whom I love very much, need I remind you? And I am sure you must have snogged Granger before you came."

"Why the heck would I do that?" He asked, exasperated.

"Oh we don't know, perhaps because you have been in love with her since first year?" Theo shook his head at him.

"I have hated her since my first year-"

"And you tend to get emotional when you are drunk, so we thought that you must have snogged Granger after confessing your feelings to her." Blaise explained it to him.

"Well nothing like that happened, she had fallen into a trap and I saved her-"

"He is becoming her hero." Theo nodded to Blaise. "And soon she will fall for him. How many galleons do you want to bet?"

Before Blaise could answer, Draco got up from the bed and pointed his wand at them. "If you two don't have anything important to say then feel free to get the hell out of my room-"

"Oh we do have something important to say." Blaise nodded.

"We also want to join the Order, Draco." Theo told his best friend. "And you are going to help us with that." 

A/N: That's it for this chapter. It was 5100+ words. Hope you guys liked it. I am so sorry for the second scene, I love Oliver Wood, trust me. Random question: Marauders' Era or the Golden Trio one? Answer in the comments below. Vote, comment and please share my story. Reviews are always appreciated. Thank you!

Next chapter on 3/8/21(Tuesday). 

Until next time.