A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you guys liked the last chapter. I absolutely loved writing the scene between Caleb and Draco, and the former may become one of my favourite characters. Anyways, would you guys like to read a double date scene, that is between Hermione - Draco, and Caleb - Carissa? Also, I know the scene where Lucius apologises ended abruptly, but the chapter had become too long so I had to end it. No worries, you will get a proper explanation in this chapter. Read the A/N at the end to find out when the next chapter will be out. On with the chapter! 

Next day.....

He grinned as he arrived at his Manor. "Finally I am back." He muttered and dragged his bags towards his room.

He would have asked his house elves for helping him, but he didn't have even one of them, thanks to Hermione Granger.

Even though he had never really agreed with her idea of spew, and had never bothered to ask her for its meaning, she had become a part of their circle during eighth year and he had gotten to know how she really was.

He had seen her use quite a lot of spells, and assign people detentions. And so, he didn't want to face her wrath by saying that he thought spew was rubbish.

Oh well there was one more reason.

Hermione was Draco's crush during Hogwarts, and he didn't want to get punched by his best friend for upsetting the girl he loved.

Not that Draco had ever bothered to hide his annoyance of her plans for spew.

The ex Slytherin Prince was just thankful that she hadn't used the privilege of being the Head Girl to ask people to support spew. Salazar knows what he would have done if Headmistress McGonagall had asked them to do the same.

Probably throw a hex or two at Granger.

Draco had thought that Narcissa would strongly oppose Hermione's plans about spew when she had approached the subject during the Winter Holidays which the ex Gryffindor Princess had spend with the Malfoys at their penthouse.

To his utter surprise-

And also annoyance-

Narcissa had not only liked that rubbish idea, but also told Hermione that she would gladly help her whenever she asked.

He could still remember how Draco had complained for weeks about that to him and, well anyone else who would listen, after that.

"As if tolerating Granger's ideas and talks about her stupid spew wasn't enough, I have o tolerate my mother's ideas too now." Draco had groaned while saying that. "Perhaps I should have just used silencio on Granger to stop her from telling my mother about her ideas, or just obliviate her so she wouldn't remember anything about spew."

"And I am telling you, my mother is the most unpredictable creature you will ever meet." Draco had told him. "She literally scolded me for not supporting Granger's plans, how unfair is that?"

He chuckled as he thought about those moments, and put his bags on the floor. Walking towards the balcony, he opened the glass door and stepped out. 

"Why is no one here to welcome me?" He said to himself, frowning as he looked down at his gardens. "The return of Theodore Not deserves a welcome back party."

Shaking his head, Theo sat down on the chair. "Or maybe they are going to give me a surprise party." He thought. After all, it just wasn't possible that he would come back to ENgland after years, and his friends would not throw him a welcome back party.

He looked around and saw a few books lying on the table next to the railings. Furrowing his brows, he got up from his chair and walked towards the table. His eyes widened as he saw the title of the first book. The book Hermione had given him.

Three years ago. 

The day before he had left England.

"Salazar." Theo muttered as he picked it up, and used his wand to remove the dust particles lying on top of it. "Hermione would kill me if she knew I had left her book lying outside in the balcony for three years."

As expected, the book was ruined because of being kept outside, without the protection spells around it to keep it safe from rain and birds, and also other stuff. 

He kept it aside and looked at the other books, out of which one belong to Hermione and the others which he had taken from a Muggle bookshop.

Thankfully, the second book that Hermione had given him hadn't suffered much damage, just like his other books, as he had gotten them weeks before his departure and had placed a few protection spells on them. 

Don't get him wrong, Theo loved books.

Well he did now, he used to think of them as a bore before he had left the country. 

It was only in New York, the place he had gone to, and stayed there for three years, that he had discovered the joy and happiness that came with reading books.

Before that, he just used to buy Quidditch Magazines, and also Witch Weekly, to see who had been declared as the Hottest Wizard each month.

Not that it mattered anyways.

As his best friend Draco Malfoy had always been on the number one position on that list. Even the fact that he had gotten married didn't stop the witches from flirting with him after reading those articles.

But of course, Draco paid them no mind.

As Theo was thinking about the said magazine, he saw one lying on the table, below his books. He picked it up, and rolled his eyes as he saw who was on the cover.

None other than Draco Lucius Malfoy.

It was the issue of March 2004, published just two days before Draco had married Astoria. Theo couldn't help but chuckle as he read the title of one of the articles. 

'The most sought after wizard, who wins the award of the Hottest Wizard every month, is going to be off the market in two days.'

Below it, the subheading was, 'Remember to keep your tissue papers and handkerchiefs by your side, witches, when you will him marrying the love of his life, Astoria Greengrass."

"Tissues, seriously? Draco isn't that special." Theo couldn't help but mutter. "These magazines and their absurd article headings are the reason Draco has a ego bigger than the Hogwarts castle."

After putting the magazine down, he picked up the books and carried them inside. He placed them on his bookshelf, reminding himself to arrange them properly later. 

As he turned to walk away from there, Theo couldn't help but take a look at the books he had bought from a muggle bookshop.

Books that he had bought when he didn't like reading.

Books that he had never even tried reading.

Books that he thought he should hide, or perhaps keep them away to prevent himself from thinking about all the awful memories.

Books that reminded him of the happiest phase of his life, which also turned to be the one which gave him the most pain, in the end.

Books that he had wanted to tear before he had left England. Before he had left his whole life behind.

Books that he had bought to impress a girl who had once been the love of his life, and had even offered to let her borrow them.

But he had never gotten the chance to do that.

Because the girl he had loved the most in this world a few years ago, was also the reason he couldn't stay here anymore, and so he had to leave.

He sighed and looked away from the books. They brought too many painful memories. Taking one last look at the magazine lying along with his books, he turned away from the bookshelf.

Thinking about his best friend whose face was on the magazine, Theo remembered the day he had told Draco that he was leaving.

Well he was the only one whom the Nott heir had told that he was leaving, and also the reason behind that.

Theo had never seen Draco more angry ever before than when he had broken down and told his best friend everything that had happened.

If it weren't for Theo to control him and make him promise to not do anything nor tell anyone else about that, Draco would have not bat an eyelash before hexing that witch. 

Shaking his head to get rid of those memories, Theo decided to go and floo to Blaise's house. He would have gone to Draco's, but he knew Draco didn't like having surprise guests over, specially in the mornings considering he wasn't a morning person at all.

Theo remembered how Draco had once thrown his books at him when he had tried waking up the blond wizard a year after they graduated.

And during their eighth year, him and Blaise had gone to the Heads' dormitories, as they had wanted to go to Hogsmeade, but Draco was still sleeping.

Theo had apparently decided that throwing cold water on Draco's face was a good way to wake him up, and so he had done that, despite knowing that his best friend had a very short temper.

Draco, who had abruptly woken up, threw his shoe at Theo, who had luckily managed to dodge it in time.

But poor Blaise hadn't.

Just as he had entered Draco's room a few minutes after Theo did, a shoe came flying towards him, and he had been too shocked to dodge it.

But that's not to say Theo had left the room safely and without any harm.

Draco had used the Bat Bogey hex on him, and didn't remove it until two hours later, when Hermione had come back to their dormitories, and had glared at him for hexing Theo.

Well at least Draco had removed the hex.

And as for Blaise, it had been nine years since he had gotten hit with Draco's shoe, but the blond wizard had still not apologised to him.

And his reason for not doing so, had been, "It is actually Blaise's fault. If he wouldn't have decided to enter my room so early in the morning, and perhaps had stopped Theo from waking me up, he would have not gotten hit with my shoe." Of course, since Draco was an awfully stubborn person, nobody had been able to convince him to apologise to Blaise.

Not that Blaise minded it, of course. He had gotten his revenge by trapping Hermione and Draco under the mistletoe in the great hall during lunch time.

Draco had been too flustered to even think about glaring at him, or hexing him. 

Blaise and Theo had been smirking as they saw them kissing in front of everyone, as they had won the bet of when they would have their first kiss. 

But unbeknownst to them, the two already had their first kiss in Hogsmeade, that too because of a mistletoe, when they had their accidental date. 

Taking some floo powder in his hand, Theo stepped inside the fireplace and called out his friend's address. He stepped out from the fireplace in the Zabinis' house, and was about to greet Blaise when he saw the living room was empty. 

"Where on earth are they?" He muttered as he took a seat on the couch. "Wait, are they engaged yet? Or what if today's their wedding and nobody came to welcome me because they were attending it." 

Deciding that that was the reason the room was empty, Theo turned around to floo back home. But before he could do so, his gaze fell upon the picture hanging above the fire place. 

It was a photo of Pansy and Blaise, from when they had gone to Paris a couple of years ago, to celebrate the ex Slytherin witch's birthday. 

And Theo knew that for a fact because Blaise had sent him a few items he had bought from Wizarding Paris, and also a few photos he had sent along with their group photos, hoping that they would make Theo jealous enough to come back to them. 

But that idea had failed. 

"If they were engaged, they would have surely put that photo here, and not this one." Theo told himself. "Blaise had always told me that he would have his and Pansy's engagement photo framed and would place it here." 

So nodding to himself, Theo decided to just sit and wait for his friends to return back home. 

"Or wait, is it Draco's wedding today or something?" He wondered. "Did he finally ask Hermione to be his girlfriend, and then his fiancée? But I know he won't marry without me being present in his wedding. He would have remembered to send me an invite."

So he decided that it definitely wasn't Draco's wedding today, and so he continued to sit on the couch. However, he had just sat down for a few minutes when he heard someone saying something in the kitchen.

"Oh shit." He muttered. "I completely forgot to check out the rest of the house. Seriously, the time away from England has perhaps messed up my thinking skills." 

He quickly made his way towards the kitchen, but stopped as he saw Pansy rummaging around there. "I will seriously hex Blaise when he comes home." She muttered.

"I literally told him to buy apples, not tomatoes." She continued muttering, oblivious to her friend's presence. "He literally can't even differentiate between them. Am I supposed to make tomato pies now, instead of the apple ones? He doesn't even like tomatoes." 

"Well if you do decide to hex him, make sure to do it in front of me then." Theo interrupted her muttering. "I would like to see his reaction." 

"And who the hell do you think- THEO!" Pansy screamed as she turned around. "Wait, how do I know you are really Theo? You could be an imposter for all I know?"

Before she could point her wand at him, Theo held up his hands. "Well we were partners once in Potions class in eighth year when Blaise had a headache, a hungover actually, and that day we were supposed to brew Amortentia. You and Blaise weren't dating that time, and you told me, well I just happened to overhear what you were muttering, but you just said that you wished Blaise was next to you that day, so you could maybe get to know whom he smelled and know whether or not he liked you."

Pansy narrowed her eyes at him as she thought about that day. She had been so lost in her thoughts, that Theo had to nudge her to get her attention when Slughorn was approaching them.

And she knew it was really Theo who had been her partner that day, as he had told her that Hermione muttered something while listing the scents she had smelled, and Draco had looked at her with an odd expression on his face.

Theo had also told he hoped that the last scent Hermione had smelled belong to Draco, as they had been rooting for Hermione and Draco to get together, and obviously the imposter wouldn't know about that.

"And we also talked about your crush on Blaise afterwards." Theo continued when she stayed silent. "You also made me swore to secrecy that I wouldn't tell anyone what I had overheard, and I still haven't done that-"

He wasn't even able to finish his sentence when Pansy had immediately thrown away the items she was holding in her hands, and wrapped her arms around him. "Oh Salazar, I can't believe it's really you, Theo. I missed you so much." 

He chuckled as he hugged her back. Nobody knew how much he had missed his friends. As he stood there with his friend in his arms, he wasn't able to believe how he had managed to stay away from them for so long.

"You git." Pansy smacked his arm as she pulled away from him. "You really had the nerve to leave us, didn't you? What was it you said? Oh right, 'I am just going for a short trip. I will be back soon." She hit him again and added, "Three years were soon enough for you, weren't they?"

"Ow Pansy." Theo grumbled and caught her hand in his to stop her from hitting him. "You are mental, you know? And stay away from Hermione, her tendency to hit people is growing on you."

"You deserve that, Theodore I don't know your middle name Nott." Pansy glared at him. "Where were you actually these past few years?"

"If you keep hitting me, I am never going to tell you my middle name." Theo told her. "Come on, forget about harming me, and let's sit. We have a lot to catch up on."

Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he steered her away to the living room where they talked about what all had happened since he had left.

When Blaise came back home, he almost fainted when he saw Theo sitting in his living room.

Talk about being a drama queen.

Well he had learnt that from Draco Malfoy, of course.

-----------

"Why have we not started this meeting yet?" He asked the man sitting sitting at the head of the table.

"You told us two hours ago that we were waiting for someone." Another man said. "What's taking him so long? And is even important enough for us to wait?"

Before anyone else could say something, the door opened and a raven haired man stepped inside. "Sorry it took me so long." He apologised. "I had to make sure nobody saw me coming here."

The man who was sitting at the head of the table got up and walked towards him. "Did you get what we asked?"

"I did." He nodded and pointed towards the bag he was carrying. "The information we need is in here."

The man nodded and gestured for him to sit next to him. Once that was done, he turned towards the other people sitting at the table. "My dear and loyal friends, meet Carl Roger."

Carl stood up from his seat and greeted everyone, even those whose names he couldn't remember despite even having seen their photos yesterday. 

The man told him to sit down and said, "I know most of you, well actually none of you know him, but believe me, he is our key to success."

Carl took a deep breath and began, "You all may not know me, but I certainly do." He looked at the man next to him, and continued, "Of course, I understand if you don't trust me straightaway, because I certainly wouldn't have in your position. But let me make one thing clear. I joined your group with one thing in my mind, that is revenge. I want revenge on someone for taking my brother away from me, and I wouldn't be able to rest until I have accomplished that. But the thing is, as soon as I have completed my mission of getting revenge, I will leave this group. I have no intentions of supporting you all in your death eater activities and I don't support blood purity like you all. I am not afraid of anyone here, and nor do I underestimate you all. But I don't like anyone who chooses to cross my path. I joined this group for revenge, and I'll leave as soon as I get it."

"The boy has got courage, I like it." One of the people present there chuckled as he said it.

"But how do we know that this boy, what's his name, Clor something, will not betray us in the future?" Another one asked.

"The name is Roger. Carl Roger." He crossed his arms in front of him. "And yes, you don't know whether or not I will betray you in the future, but then again, neither do I. See the thing is, nobody knows what or what not I will do in the future. I guess it all depends on if I will succeed in getting my revenge or not. Other than that, I don't know anything. I don't care about anything else. I am here to offer my help to you all, it's up to you if you want to accept my help or not. I tried getting my revenge a few years back, and I almost succeeded. And I know that if I try again, I can succeed. So really, I don't care about this group, I don't need your help. But you all certainly do."

He took out a file from his bag and placed it on the table. "It contains information that would help you all for your first attack." Carl told them. "If you accept my help, you will get this. If you don't, then good luck planning about your attack. And also, nobody except me would be able to open this file, so don't try doing that. Trust me, helping me is the best shot you have got at completing your own plans." 

"My, my." The man sitting at the head of the table chuckled. "I knew how you were like when I first met you, but hearing you say those words..... You really are one of a kind, aren't you Roger?"

"Well I wouldn't have been able to stay hidden for these past few years if I weren't like this." Carl shrugged. "You knew what you were doing when you agreed to help me, Dolohov."

Antonin Dolohov, the leader of the group nodded. "I did, and I haven't regretted my decision yet." Then he turned towards the others, and said, "My dear fellow death eaters, as you can see, I have decided to let Carl join our group, and he has already started getting useful information. I do hope you all will treat him nicely."

"But what is there in this file?" Someone asked.

"Each and everything you need to know about Mini Hogwarts." Carl told him. "In case you didn't know, well you probably didn't considering it's a confidential file, Mini Hogwarts is just going to be like actual Hogwarts. The difference is that it's for the kids smaller than eleven years of age, it will help them adjust to magic better."

"Do you know whose idea it was?"

"Of course." He nodded. "As mentioned in the file, the people who got this idea are Minerva McGonagall, the Headmistress of Hogwarts and Narcissa Malfoy. I don't know how or even when those started tolerating each other to work on this idea, but they certainly seem to like it."

"And how did you get this file?" Someone asked.

"Well that just happened to be because of pure luck." Carl chuckled. "I managed to get inside the Files and Papers room of the Ministry, please don't ask me how because I am not going to tell you. I had just gone there to get information on the protection wards of Draco Malfoy's house, as it would have helped me get my revenge. Just when I was trying to find the file, I heard Kingsley telling someone to take extra care of a certain file, and to make sure nobody got to know about it. Then naturally, I was intrigued. When those two left the room, I went to grab that file and it happened to be about Mini Hogwarts."

He continued, "At first, I thought of just putting it back, but when I saw who were the founders of it, I knew it would only help me. As I didn't think it was possible that Minerva McGonagall would be one of the founders, and she wouldn't ask a certain witch for helping her with the programmes for Muggle born children. I wanted to take that file with me, but I hesitated because I wanted the file about protection wards too. But well in the end, I decided to take this file, as it allowed me more opportunities to get my revenge, as if I had somehow managed to get inside Draco's house, there was a chance that I still may not have succeeded because of the blood protection wards, which are never mentioned in the Ministry files. And Draco would definitely have two of them in his house, one of the Malfoys' and the other of the Blacks'. So I just made a copy of this file and took the original one, and exited that room."

Several people nodded in appreciation. Dolohov asked Carl, "How did you manage to get out of there safely?"

"Well I almost didn't, but luckily for me, Harry Potter doesn't have a very sharp memory." Carl smirked. "On my way out of there, I stumbled into him, and on top of that, my glamour was slowly fading. But I still had my hood up, and a glamoured stubble on my face. He didn't recognise who I was, and just stared at me for a few seconds. And before he could recognise me, I got away from there. And also don't ask me how I escaped the wards around the Ministry, because I am not going to tell you that. So after I got the file, I decided to wait for a couple of days to come here in case Potter somehow recognised me and alerted the Ministry or something."

"Pretty secretive, aren't you Roger?" The person sitting opposite him rolled his eyes. "What's to say we won't be able to get inside the Ministry like you did?"

"Well you didn't manage to do that until now, did you?" Carl raised his eyebrows at him. "The war has been over for nine years now, and yet you all still haven't launched an attack. You just managed to stay hidden for all these years, but haven't been able to do anything progressive."

Before anyone could say anything else, he stood up and put the file back inside his bag. "Well I am off now." He slung his bag over his shoulder and told Dolohov, "If you decide to accept my help, then let me know. And if you don't, then good luck planning the attack on your own." 

With that, he disappeared from there.

When he reached his house, he quickly kept the bag inside a cupboard, and secured it with protection spells.

"I am coming to get my revenge, Hermione Granger." Carl said as he stared at the photo of the brunette hanging on the wall.

He took a marker and wrote a certain blond wizard's name underneath her photo, and connected them with a line."

"And this time you won't be able to save her, Draco Malfoy." 

----------

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Blaise yelled at him. 

"Well wow....." Theo blinked at him. "That's a really nice way to greet your best friend, Zabini. How nice manners you have." 

After Blaise had almost fainted upon seeing him sitting on his couch, he had thrown his bag away and had stomped over to the couch where his friend and girlfriend were sitting.

"Manners?" Blaise raised his eyebrows at him and pulled him up. "I will show you manners."

He picked up the book lying on the table from one hand, while his other remained on Theo's arm to stop him from moving. Blaise then started smacking him with the book again and again.

"Hey, hey- Stop it- you idiot Blaise Zabini-" Theo hissed at him as he tried to move away, but to no avail as Blaise had a ironclad grip on his arm. "Help me, Pansy! Your crazy boyfriend of so many years is hurting me!"

The said witch just stood a few feet away from them, and started laughing. She knew she should interfere, but also, she was aware of the fact of how sad Blaise had been when Theo had just disappeared, and so she just stood where she was.

"You freaking crazy bloody wizard!" Theo exclaimed as Blaise smacked his head. "Will you stop this violence, idiot?"

Blaise finally stopped and threw the book to the floor. "Never again, you hear me?" He grabbed Theo's collar and continued, "You aren't allowed to go anywhere on a trip or something ever again. I don't trust you to be honest now."

"Well so if I were to go on my honeymoon, then also I have to stay here?" Theo raised his eyebrows at him. "How cruel can you be, Blaise?"

"Honeymoon?" He dropped his hands from Theo's collars and took a step away from him. "Are you trying to tell us something, Theo?"

"Oo you finally have a girlfriend, Theo!" Pansy, not giving him a chance to answer, ran towards him and hugged him tightly. Again. "But wait did you say honeymoon? Are you engaged? Or already married, huh? Where is the unlucky girl? When was the wedding? And why was I not invited, Theodore Nott? You do know I used to be a wedding planner, right? Are we going to meet your wife, or what? And also-"

"For the sake of Salazar's pink polka dot pajamas, just shut up, Pansy." Theo removed her arms from around him and used silencio on her. "So many questions, jeez. Are you sure you are Pansy, and not Hermione in disguise?"

"Stop beating around the bush, Theo." Blaise smacked his head. "When did you get married?"

"I did not get married, Blaise." He rolled his eyes. "Do you really think I'll get married without you two, and Hermione, Draco, Narcissa and Lucius present at my wedding? Draco will kill me if I don't make him the best man."

"Then why did you say you were married? And also, where is the girl who somehow managed to fall in love with a git like you-"

"I never said I was married, Zabini." Theo exclaimed. "Your girlfriend was the one who started saying all that nonsense. And she- now wait a second." He removed the spell from Pansy, and continued, "Did you just say 'unlucky girl'? How nice friends I have got."

"Yeah yeah." She rolled her eyes. "The girl will be so lucky to be with a wizard like you who cannot even tie his shoelaces properly."

Theo looked down at his feet and then smiled sheepishly at the two of them when he saw he had tucked the laces inside the shoes instead of tying them, as he had tried tying them nine times, but had failed miserably.

"Just ignore whatever rubbish she said, Theo." Draco told him as his best friend sobbed while sitting next to him. "She is crazy, and doesn't realise how lucky she had been when you chose to be with her. And who the hell cares what she said?" He rubbed Theo's back. "I know, we all know, how amazing you are, Theo. And any girl will be damn lucky to be with you. It's her loss, not yours. And honestly, I just feel like going and hexing the hell out of her right now, or maybe even tell Rita FREAKING Skeeter everything about her. Then we will see what will happen to her reputation that she is so concerned about."

Theo sighed as he remembered that day. The day he had told Draco that he had to leave, and of course, Draco hadn't let him go without asking for a proper explanation.

"I was just speaking hypothetically when I said that, okay?" He said. "I didn't mean anything by that, nor am I trying to tell you anything special. Anyways, you two are mental, you know?"

"Mental?" Blaise scoffed. "You are the one who disappeared from this country saying that you were going on a trip, and then didn't come back for three years. Tell me, which trip lasts for three years?"

"A world tour perhaps?" Theo shrugged.

"Oh really?" He raised his eyebrows at him. "Then tell me which countries did you visit on this world tour of yours?"

"Well I first went to New York....."

"Oh yeah, and then?"

"I stayed in New York for a couple of weeks as a tourist....."

"Yeah we have already established that, which place was next?"

"I then got a job offer in New York....."

Pansy narrowed her eyes at him. "Really, Theo?"

Theo gulped. "And I got a nice flat too....."

"He is a freaking lunatic, I am telling you." Blaise whispered to Pansy.

"So then I ended up staying in New York for three years." Theo finished quickly. "And you are calling me that, really Blaise? You two are lunatics, you know? Smacking people with books. Stay away from Hermione, seriously. You are becoming like her."

"You should thank me, Theo. Narcissa almost sent you a howler when you didn't come back." Blaise told him. "She also almost sent a search party for you, which didn't include us because apparently she didn't think we would be able to find you."

"Well then what are we waiting for?" Theo asked them. "Let's go and visit her, in hope that she wouldn't kill me first."

"Wait," Pansy stopped them. "Now that I think about it, Draco didn't panic when you didn't come back even after a couple of months. Want to tell us something about that, Theo?"

"Well let's ask Draco about that, shall we?" Theo smiled innocently at her and dashed off towards the fireplace before she could ask him any more questions. "Sorry Draco, but you know how scary Pansy can be."

-----------

"So where are Narcissa and Lucius?" Theo asked Draco as they sat down on the chairs in the latter's study. "I miss them so much, you know? Specially Narcissa, she makes the best apple pies in the whole world."

"Well my dear mother told me to go away from their house as they were hosting a small get together for their friends." Draco told him. "According to her, I was disturbing her while she was planning so I had to leave. And of course, Father took her side as usual. He wouldn't even ask her to let me stay."

"Lucius is too scared of Narcissa, you know." Theo chuckled. "She has got him wrapped around her finger."

"Well nobody wants to face her wrath. She can be quite scary, remember? And ever since Granger has come back, she doesn't even hesitate before threatening me, and Granger would support her."

"Oh look at you, poor thing. Anyways, speaking of your dear Granger-"

"She is not my Granger, Theo-"

"Well she is your dear girlfriend." Theo rolled his eyes when Draco tried to deny that. "Stop being in denial, Draco. We all know how much you two love each other."

"How many times I should repeat that I do not love her, Nott?" Draco said, despite what he had discovered while smelling the love potion. "She is just my best friend-"

"Yeah yeah, same old story. You two are best friends who fell in love with each other and the next moment I'll be getting an invite to your wedding." Theo grinned at him. "Remember to make your best man-"

"As if. You can't give a proper speech and a best man is required to do that." Draco snorted. "Wait, why am I even talking about a wedding right now? You are bloody crazy."

"Whatever helps you to sleep at night, Draco. We all know the truth." Theo shrugged. "Anyways, so what I was trying to say before you so rudely interrupted me, how did Lucius react to Hermione living in your house? I take it he wasn't on top of the world?"

"Definitely far from it, Theo." Draco shook his head. "Father wasn't happy at all and he gave me an ultimatum."

After Draco had finished telling Theo how his father had disinherited him, and how he had got his inheritance back a few months back, Theo leaned back in his chair.

"Well then so what happened next?" He asked. "Surely Narcissa was able to convince Lucius to apologise to you, right? Your mother is an ambitious and cunning Slytherin after all."

"She actually managed to drag him here and make him apologise to me." Draco told him. "Also, she told him to tell me why he actually hates Muggle Borns."

"Well then what are you waiting for? Tell me what he said." Theo said. "I am patiently waiting, Draco."

Flashback

"I heard that Snape was in love with Potter's mother." Draco said. 

"Can we get back to the matter?" Lucius interrupted them. "As I said, I was in love with a muggle born, and she is the reason I started hating them too." 

"How is that possible?" Draco asked. "Was it a love hate relationship or something?" 

Lucius glared at him. "Can you just be patient for a bloody second and let me speak, Draco?" Before he could be interrupted further, he continued, "And no, it was not a love hate relationship."

He closed his eyes for a moment as he thought about those pleasant, and well mostly unpleasant memories of his seventh year.

Lucius had used to believe in blood purity, much to his father Abraxas' joy, but as he grew up he started doubting whatever the purebloods used to say, because he didn't think it was possible that all muggle borns were filth and beneath them.

After all, if they were like that, then surely Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw wouldn't have allowed muggle borns to be sorted into their house, right?

Why was Salazar Slytherin the only one to do that?

Everybody knew the four were pretty competitive, and wanted their house to be the best one. So if muggle borns were really filth like he was told, surely the others wouldn't have wanted them in their house, if they wanted to be the best.

It didn't make sense to Lucius.

And on top of that, he got to know that there were muggle borns in Slytherin too. Which just contradicted the statement of purebloods like his father.

So deciding that he would find out for himself whether or not muggle borns were truly filth.

He had made that decision in his second year, and slowly, he got to know about a Gryffindor muggle born witch who used to sit in front of him in class always.

At first, he tried to ignore her. Tried avoiding her whenever she asked him for some help, or just wanted to have a talk with him.

That continued until his sixth year until the girl finally lost her cool and hexed him when he tried avoiding her again.

From then on, Lucius never tried to do that again.

He was afraid of that girl's wrath.

As she continued sitting in front of him, they became friends and eventually fell in love.

It seemed like a perfect love story to Lucius, but of course, it was a hidden one.

A secret relationship.

They dated for a year, and it would have been more if Lucius hadn't noticed something.

One day, when Lucius was going to the Gryffindor Tower to meet that girl, he saw a boy kissing goodbye to a witch a few feet away from him.

It would have been completely normal.

Except it wasn't.

For that girl was none other than Lucius' muggle born girlfriend.

For a moment, he just stood there. Doing nothing. But when she pulled away from that boy, and looked over his shoulder at him, Lucius felt something.

Not anger.

Not sadness.

Not betrayal.

Guilt.

He felt guilty. Because he thought that it must be because of him that she cheated on him.

She cheated on him because he must have done something wrong. Because he must have not been enough, not been worth it.

So without saying anything, he just quietly walked away from there.

Days later, he got to know from one of his friends that the girl had been cheating on him for months now.

And what made it worse was when he got know that the girl told the person she cheated on him with, everything about Slytherins' Quidditch tactics. Turns out she had been using him.

When he confronted her one day, she told him that she had been love with him once.

But when she got to know that his father was a death eater, and Lucius was expected to become one too, she started hating him.

Because he was going to be someone who would kill people like her.

It was then Lucius felt a bit of anger inside him. How dare she just assumed that he would do that when in the first place he had stopped believing in blood purity?

As if what the girl hadn't done was enough, months later, after they had graduated and Lucius had become a death eater, that girl's brother killed one of Lucius' best friends in a duel.

That was his turning point.

That was when he started hating muggle borns. Because of that girl and her brother. But mostly because of her, who had betrayed him in the worst way possible.

"And that's it. That's the reason I hate Muggle Borns, and I used blood purity to make you hate them too, Draco, because I was too much of a coward to tell you the real story." Lucius finished.

Draco sighed. He didn't know how to react to that. "And nobody knew about that?"

"No. I didn't tell anyone until I met your mother." Lucius smiled at Narcissa. "When our parents made a contract for our marriage, I decided to be honest with her, about everything."

"You know you are like Severus, right?" Draco asked. "You both were in love with a Muggle born Gryffindor."

"Well we both were friends, remember?" Lucius said. "I was the one who chose him as your godfather after all. So we are pretty similar."

"Well there is a big difference too, between you too. The difference being how you two treat your hair." Draco chuckled.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well you treat your like you want it to be perfect. You take hours to get ready." Draco pointed out. "And I get that habit from you. But Severus? I don't even know if he used to comb his hair or not."

"Well Harry used to say something related to that." Hermione told them. "He used to joke about gifting Snape bottles of shampoo and conditioner for Christmas, because it didn't seem like he ever washed his hair."

"I love you Severus, really, you were an amazing godfather to me." Draco smiled. "But seriously, I have to say that his hair was really greasy."

The laughter continued for a while when Hermione asked Lucius, "Did you know that Snape was in love with a muggle born?"

"I had my suspicions." He nodded. "But I never told him my story, thinking that he wouldn't understand my reasons." 

"I am not sure I understand either. Because of her, you decided that muggle borns were really filth, and made me hate them. I just..... I can't deal with this right now." With that, Draco got up from the couch and went to his room.

Flashback over

"Wow um..... That's pretty deep. I would have never expected that." Theo admitted.

"Neither did I. That's why I just had to leave. I get that he had his reasons for hating them, but the whole lot of them? That's not fair." Draco shook his head. "And to think that he made me act like a typical pure blood and harmed me when I protested against muggle borns being filth..... I couldn't deal with it."

Theo nodded, understanding why Draco was reacting and feeling like that.

Of course, he wasn't stupid to think that Draco and his father will have a healthy relationship in future.

But he truly hoped that maybe someday, Draco would be able to forgive his father for everything he did, and perhaps they could have a better relationship than they used to do when Draco was a kid.

----------

Draco was just tidying his bookshelf when he saw a patronus coming towards him. 

A patronus which he didn't like. 

A peacock patronus. 

His mother's patronus. 

"Cancel all your plans you have for day after tomorrow, Draco." It said in Narcissa's voice. "We will be going to Hogwarts, to meet Minnie- I mean Minerva, and I want you to come." 

Draco rolled his eyes as it disappeared. Great, now he had to endure an afternoon listening to his mother gossiping with her best friend. 

A/N: That's it for this chapter. It was 7200+ words. Hope you guys liked it. Okay, so longest chapter I have written till date, and I actually had to remove two scenes from it because it was becoming too long. I hope it wasn't boring. So Theo's back. And I apologise for adding a fifth mystery to this book, that is whatever happened with Theo. But it's not much, and I think you all can probably guess what had happened. Random question: Do you like Severus Snape? Answer in the comments below. Vote, comment and please share my story. Reviews are always appreciated. Thank you! 

Next chapter on 3/1/2021(Sunday). 

Until next time.