12 July, 1997 (11:30p.m, Thursday)

Theo knocked on Draco's door, when he heard the muffled "Come in!" he walked in.

Draco was sitting at his desk, he turned to look at Theo, "Finally you show up!"

Theo shrugged, "It's just been a bad week."

"I know. I overheard my father talking about it. When did you get the Mark?"

Well. Draco got straight to the point. Theo was a bit taken aback. He didn't expect Draco to know. He honestly hadn't even planned on telling Draco.

"The day before the funeral." He mumbled.

Draco frowned, "Oh. I didn't know they made you get it then. I figured it had been yesterday or something like that. They couldn't have given you time to properly grieve?"

He shook his head, "Guess not."

Draco sighed, "Well, at least I'm not alone in this anymore."

Theo gave him a confused look, "What?"

Draco rolled his shirt sleeve up, "I have one too."

"What? Since when?" Theo asked. Draco hadn't mentioned it to him, he'd been with Draco all summer so he didn't know how he missed it.

"Since the day after we got back from Hogwarts."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh, like you were going to tell me that you have one?" He retorted.

He changed the subject. "Does Scarlett know?"

Draco shook his head, "No, and it's staying that way, I don't want her or Astoria to worry about me."

"Astoria doesn't know? Holy shit, Draco." He ran his hand through his hair, "How has she not seen it?"

Draco shrugged, "A glamour charm."

Theo was quiet for a moment, contemplating his next question. He had so much to ask. "Have you had to go on any missions?"

"I have to restore a Vanishing Cabinet. I haven't really figured out how to do that yet."

"Well fuck."

It was quiet for several more minutes. Neither of them knew what to say.

Draco was the one to break it, "Think the Dark Lord will make it a two person job?"

Theo scoffed, "Well, I was already planning on not letting you do this shit alone."

"Good."

-

Scarlett was lying on her bed beside Astoria. The two girls were staring at the ceiling. "Do you ever wonder what Draco and Theo do in their spare time?" Astoria asked.

The two girls were bored. It was a Thursday night and all of their friends were gone on vacation. No one would be back until Saturday morning.

Scarlett sighed, "They probably just complain about quidditch teams and talk about people they don't like. I can't see their conversations being that much fun. They're both kind of boring."

Astoria looked over at the blonde girl, "That's a personal attack, I think."

Scarlett laughed as she rolled onto her side to face Astoria, "How?"

"All we do is gossip about people we don't like, too."

Scarlett, "Yeah, but we're not boring, and you know the most craziest shit about people. Like it's baffling. I can be like, 'Do you know that fifth year Hufflepuff girl?' and you'll be like 'Are you talking about Stacey, Veronica, Audrey, or Laurie?' and then elaborate on all the insane stuff they've gotten caught doing."

Astoria laughed, "That's true. Speaking of Laurie, I heard Terrence is bringing her as his date to your ball." She made a disgusted face.

Scarlett scoffed, "Ew. I don't like Laurie."

"Me neither. She's always so rude when we get partnered together for Potions."

"Okay, well now that we're friends, you're my new permanent Potions partner."

"Deal!"

The two girls had only started their friendship a few weeks prior. The summer quidditch game was the first time they'd ever really talked to each other but they were practically inseparable now. Astoria was Scarlett's first real friend that she'd made on her own, without the help of Draco. Well, technically she probably wouldn't have sat with Astoria at the game if it weren't for her knowing that Draco was dating Tori. But she befriended her with no help from Draco.

It got quiet again, the two were back to staring at the ceiling. It was getting late. But Scarlett wasn't tired. She was just bored. "Want to go swim?"

Astoria turned back to her, "I forgot that you guys have a pool."

"I do too sometimes."

"Should we invite the boys?"

"No, Theo and I aren't on the greatest of terms right now." She lied. She just didn't want to see him.

"Oh. I just figured that you two had sorted it out since you disappeared off with him a little bit ago." She shrugged, "You're welcome for covering for you. I told Draco you were taking a bath and reading a book. He didn't know Theo was here yet but I saw you leave from the balcony."

Scarlett blinked, "How do you know everything?"

"Greengrass girls know everything. It's just a fact. Now are you going to tell me about what happened with you and Theo?"

"I will in the pool."

Astoria nodded. Scarlett disappeared into the bathroom and Astoria walked into the closet. A minute or so passed and the two girls were out and walking down the stairs and headed outside.

Astoria slowly stepped into the water, it was a little bit cold, Scarlett jumped into the water causing a big splash to hit Astoria. "It's not even cold, Tori!" She exclaimed.

"Yes it is!"

"Well, you have your wand, warm it up."

That was actually a good idea. Astoria mumbled something and pointed her wand at the water and then it got warm. Astoria sat her wand back down and swam over to Scarlett, "You have to tell me now."

Scarlett groaned before disappearing into the water.

Astoria patiently floated, waiting for her dramatic friend to surface.

When she finally did, Astoria gave her a pointed look, "Scarlett Isabella Malfoy, tell me what happened."

"I wrote him a little note and sent it to him by owl, it said something along the lines of I know how it feels to lose a parent and that if he wanted to talk then I'd listen even if we aren't on the best terms. Then I said he should come visit Draco. By the time he got here, you'd already gotten here so he was about to leave, but I asked him had I done something since this wasn't normally how he acted. Like even though I'm mad at him, he usually still annoys me and honestly, the way he was acting you would've thought he hated me. But we talked for a minute then we went and took the car to some Muggle diner that he likes. I love the car, by the way, it's the best thing that Lucius has ever bought."

Astoria was smiling, "Okay, what happened at the diner?"

Scarlett laid on her back and lightly kicked away, "Well, we talked about our families and how we grew up. He made fun of my accent that I didn't realize I still had."

Astoria laughed, "You only have it for certain words. When you say Theo's name it sounds funny. But for the most part you sound like a sophisticated Pureblood girl." She teased.

"I really don't hear it, but alright."

"It used to be bad. When you first moved in with Draco, Lucius sat him down and told him that it was his job to make sure no one treated you differently and that no matter if you were not Lucius' and Narcissa's child you were a part of their family and no one would treat a Malfoy child with anything other than respect. So Draco spent two weeks writing 'I will not call people Mudbloods.' in detention with McGonagall because he overheard a Muggleborn say something mean about you so he took matters into his own hands."

Scarlett was shocked, she never knew any of this. She wanted to cry. They had always treated her so well and immediately welcomed her into their home after her parents death.

"I can't believe I never knew about this." Scarlett mumbled.

Astoria shrugged, "I wouldn't have expected you too. Draco told me about it when he got back to the common room after his first detention."

"I really hope you marry him someday. You two are perfect for each other."

Astoria sighed, "Me too. He's been a little distant lately. He won't talk to me about what's wrong though."

Scarlett frowned, "He has been a little distant lately. I hadn't realized it but now that you've pointed it out, you're right. I wonder what he's been up to?"

"You don't think he's taken the Mark do you?"

Scarlett shook her head, "No, I can't see him doing that. I don't think Cissy would be okay with that. I know she wasn't too happy when Lucius took it during the first War. She mentioned it once."

"She's so different from Bellatrix. It's so crazy to me."

"I've never been around Bella much. I think Cissy is worried that she'll treat me differently. So whenever she comes over, Cissy sends me to Hogsmeade or to the Parkinson's house."

"Have you ever met her?"

"Well, she escaped Azkaban last year. She's been around a few times when the Dark Lord has meetings here. But no, not officially."

Astoria nodded, "Does Draco ever go to those?"

Scarlett shrugged, "I've never seen him at one. I try to avoid being around it. They're so depressing."

Astoria scoffed, "Well, they are trying to eliminate Muggleborns, I wouldn't expect them to be happy in their meetings."

"You have a point."

-

Theo was sitting on Draco's bed reading a book about cabinets and Draco was at his desk reading a book on dark magic, he'd found it in the Malfoy library a week ago and was finally reading it, all of the other books had been unhelpful.

Theo sighed, "This is ridiculous. You'd think there would be better instructions for fixing a cabinet."

Draco turned to him, "Well it hasn't been used for years, except for when Graham got stuck in it thanks to the Weasley twins pushing him into it."

Theo laughed, "They did us a favor. If they wouldn't have shoved him in there then he would've found us and given us a detention for roaming the halls."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. What were we even out doing?"

"We had been setting up a prank in Snape's classroom. Remember? We froze his floor and turned it into an ice skating rink and he was so mad. Classes were cancelled all day and he never figured out who did it. Our best prank ever."

"The Weasley's got credit for it though." Draco reminded him.

Theo shrugged, "Better than us getting in trouble."

Draco closed the book on his desk, "I wish I knew where that book went."

"What book?"

"The book with pranks written in it. Don't you remember, I had found it in the library and there was random pages with prank ideas written on it."

"Oh. I wonder if it was the Weasley's?"

"It hadn't been checked out since 1978 so I doubt it."

Theo dramatically placed his hand on his heart, "We owe whoever they were so much. Those three pranks were the best Hogwarts has ever seen."

Draco laughed, "They were pretty good."

authors note:
just wanted to let you all know
that i just published my draco
malfoy post war fanfic

there's an easter egg in this chapter,
if you figure out who the prank book
belonged to then 10 points to your
hogwarts house

also i am aware that their ages technically
don't match up to the school years or books😭

because draco should be 16 going into 6th year since this is taking place on halfblood prince timeline but he's 17 in this book because i forgot the plot of the original books while writing
BUT WE ARE PRETENDING THAT HE IS GOING INTO SIXTH YEAR

also also i googled if malfoy manor had a pool before writing this and the answer was yes. there was a virtual tour of the place that they filmed the malfoy manor scenes at and there was a pool.

also also also if you wonder why the updates just stopped for a hot second it's because i've spent the past 3 weeks non stop studying and taking tests for my insurance license exam. i finished my last test last night (finally!!!) and i passed it so now i can go take my insurance exam this week and then i can start my new job!!! so please manifest that i pass this exam because i'm so nervous about it