Mayhem & Magic

I’ve been struggling to get motivated, and I think part of that may be due to a lack of schedule now that I’ve finished with University. SO I’m going to be implementing one:

Narcissa:

Narcissa: aren't slytheryn dormitories in the dungeons?..

Wren was trying to find a compartment. His brothers, Lorcan and Lysander, had already ditched him to find their own friends. But they were seventh years, and he supposed they didn’t want to be seen with their little brother. Fifth year was a hard one already, he mused, and wondered how on earth he was going to get by with just his hidden Niffler friend. Patches was his best friend, though, and he couldn’t bear to leave him behind at home. 

He was just about to try the next compartment when he was stumbled into and collided. He blinked and looked up at her, grabbing his case and lifting it. “Uh, was that my fault? I’m so sorry. I swear I was looking where I was going.”

Paisley landed on the floor. Only a few days removed from the last full-moon her balance was nonexistent. Standing -- legs a newborn thestrals she readjusted her bag and crossed her arms, leaning on the side of the train for support. The boy looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him.

Last year had been DIFFICULT -- her best friend, Smith in the midst of an argument outed her status as a werewolf and threw a slur across the Great Hall, her housemates ignoring her existence, the other houses eyeing her in fear... a fist fight in the courtyard. The only good bit had been the parcels of sweets Seamus sent to get her through the days after full moons. A simple truth became clear to Paisley throughout it all; no one wants a werewolf in their inner circle.

Legs – jelly in a muggle washing machine carried Paisley down the corridor, her bag hanging from one shoulder as she searched for an empty compartment. It was the beginning of her fifth year, and the first she’d be starting with no secrets. It was terrifying.

Hand trailing along the wall of the train, Paisley stepped to the side. Two younger girls squeezed passed. They hesitated. A rushed whisper quickly followed by an unsettled escape. Teeth ran across her bottom lip – chapped, the topography that of craters and canyons. Everywhere seemed to be full, or at least, that was the impression she got when doors closed in her face.

The train lurched and reeled. A breath dug its claws into her chest, her balance defective. She stumbled. The sound of the train’s whistle a banshee’s wail. Her tongue pressed to the inside of her cheek, urge to punch something lingering on the edge of her mind -- maybe Smith’s face if she found the other girl. 

“My mum says there’s no such thing as bad wishes or bad feelings. She says what you actually do is more important than what you just think about,” Enid told him. “You’re allowed to be upset, or nervous, or angry. I wouldn’t blame you for being angry. It sounds like your dad and your mum are arguing about you without asking you how you feel.”

Just because Scorpius was only eight years old didn’t mean he couldn’t have his own opinions. If Uncle Draco and Astoria really wanted to do what was best for their son, they needed to listen to him first.

She tugged Scorpius a little closer and said, “Maybe you could tell her that spending the summer with her feels like too much all at once? That you think she needs to start smaller? I mean, I can’t promise she’ll listen, but at least you’ll have said it, yeah?”

Enid would have suggested asking her own mum to intervene on Scorpius’ behalf, but she paid too much attention to things to genuinely think that was a good idea. She’d already noticed that Astoria didn’t seem to like her mum very much.

“ I’m not ...” angry, he began. The word remained unspoken -- a lie, but Scorpius was not a liar and he wouldn’t start now, not with Enid. A deep breath filled his small form, chest slowly rising and falling a great distance. 

He was angry. He was angry that his mum wasn’t how he pictured her, he was angry that she left, angry that she came back, angry that he hadn’t known her his entire life... Scorpius was angry, but it was a soggy anger. An anger that’d been left out in the rain and forgotten.

“ I don’t know how I feel. All I know is, I want things to go back to how they were.” Scorpius began again, his fingers pulling at a loose strand on the arm of his favorite jumper. It began to unravel. He could hear Aunt Pansy’s playfully scolding voice somewhere in the back of his head going on about treating the things you like nicely, but it didn’t matter, because everything was changing and tomorrow he may very well hate this jumper.

Scorpius wanted to spwnd his summer reading in the garden and listen to his father tinker in the study through the open window. He wanted to get ice cream with his nan, and spend weekends with Owen, Enid, and Auntie Theo. But none of that seemed to matter.

Albus: Sure, what's up dad?

Harry: Do you think it's possible your sister snuck someone in here last night? I found a lone shoe outside her window.

Albus: I wouldn't be surprised, we were all seventeen once, and the side of the house is just so easily --

Harry: What?

-- Harry stares as Albus slowly slips away, face frozen in horror --

This AU is canon divergent and begins during fourth year. Draco and @tnott​’s Theo are informed that their families have agreed that when they come of age they will marry. Neither are thrilled (Draco would rather be mauled by hippogriff and picked apart by a flock of Augurey), so over the next year and a half the pair plot and plan and fail to get their families to change their minds. As the Christmas holiday’s of sixth year approach and Theo comes of age, the pressure is mounting -- not only the pressure of their upcoming forced nuptials, but the threat f war, and of both of them being forced to take the mark. After a worrying letter from Narcissa with undertones of encouragement to run, Draco agrees with Theo that their only hope to avoid the fate their parents have set before them is to hide... in the muggle world... 

The pair survive off money left to Theo after her mothers death, and what little money Draco could get out of the family vault before they are both disowned and Lucius changes the Malfoy family vaults lock. The pairs only contact to the wizarding world during this time is Pansy Parkinson -- who knows that they’re hiding in the muggle world, but not their exact location. They rarely venture into the wizarding world unless forced.

During the first few months of their time in the muggle world Draco is still under The Trace, and struggles -- majorly. 

( *Note: Minor tweaks to timelines and canon exist within this verse. Lucius and the Death Eaters fail to retrieve the prophecy but escape, as such Draco is not forced to take the mark, but the Malfoy family does suffer punishment which I will not get into here)