thirteenth lotus leaf

Draco's mind healer, whom he'd been seeing for a year and a half, couldn't have prepared him for this familiar phrase. Draco looked around but didn't see the idiot. It was Patil. He hadn't even realized it was a girl's voice because he was so focused on the damn sentence. Or maybe the girl was just that fierce, like a lion or something. Draco chuckled at his own cruel joke. But the girl seemed to have taken it the wrong way. Even Potter was frowning. No, not again. Draco sighed deeply.

"She said give it back , Malfoy," Great, now the Gryffindors were on him. He wasn't doing anything. Even Weasley and Potter had stepped forward and were watching him. What did they expect him to do? Throw the damn thing on the floor and break it?

The crystal glowed red mockingly. Great, he'd forgotten something. You're a big help, crystal. He rolled his eyes. He turned to the wild children. They were prejudiced, he hadn't picked a fight with anyone yet, except for Weasley, who was a special case.

"I don't want this stupid thing anyway," he said.

"Then give it back!" another boy shouted.

Great, now Gryffindor was banding together like a herd. Draco noticed from a distance that two of his bigger friends were coming to defend him. No, that was worse, if they saw those idiots, the kids would get even angrier. He wanted to compromise and give the crystal to Longbottom himself.

"I'd rather give this crystal to Longbottom," he said. Then he turned to the boy who had shouted at him. He was someone unimportant he wouldn't bother to remember the name of.
"Aren't you the one who made fun of him when you blew up the cauldron the other day?"

He tightened his grip on the crystal. His last wish was for it to be broken by a kid he didn't even bother to recognize.
"How can I trust you, huh!?" Draco raised his voice. The boy's cheeks flushed, he was trying desperately to defend himself.
"At least I'm not a slimy snake like you,"

"Watch your tongue, you mud-dy pig," Pansy hissed like a real snake.

The Slytherins were starting to take an interest for the first time. Were they going to have a gang war like in those muggle shows?

Both houses were engaged in a staring contest. Draco smirked mockingly. "You, yes you," he pointed at a boy. He was right next to Potter. The boy pointed at himself as if to say, "Me?" "Yes, you," A few students were stepping forward as if to protect the boy.

"Get out of my way, you're blocking my view," The boy listened to him in shock.

Hermione was behind the boy.

"Mione." He suddenly opened his arms and approached the girl. This scared the kids. He even hit a boy in the face with his hand.

"You're as brilliant as ever," He wanted to cause a scene. Slytherins weren't just slimy. They were offended, okay?
The students started to make way. He was regaining control of the scene, and Draco grinned. The Gryffindors' clearly angry pressure was now dissipating. He walked in front of Hermione.

He winked at her and turned back to the front.
"This slimy snake has decided that you are the most trustworthy person." There were audible breaths.

"I was clearly asking for the crystal, and now you're trying to play games,"

"If I wanted the crystal, I would have gotten one long ago, Seamus"

"How do you know my name-"

"Of course I'll give you the crystal, Draco," Hermione spoke with a courageous gleam in her eye.

"You're ruining our fun with your shocked voices," Daphne said with icy cold eyes.

"You can't just talk to us like that because Slytherin House has a bad reputation," Theo spoke up for the first time to everyone. How quickly the little snakes were growing up. Draco was proud.

"You forget we're kids too," another Slytherin girl added.
That was actually what Draco wanted. Slytherin was the most ostracized of all the houses. That was going to change in this timeline. Damn it, they were kids too. They weren't creatures to be locked in dungeons.

Blaise, Pansy, and Potter watched him proudly.
He mumbled a slight apology to Hermione. The girl must have been overwhelmed by being in the middle of all this.
Gryffindors had calmed down. Some lions and snakes were even starting to mingle. He slowly started to move his two big friends away. Blaise and Pansy caught up with him immediately.

"Good show, what are you going to do with it now?"

"With what, Blaise, be clear,"

Pansy laughed. She shook her black hair excitedly.
She pointed to her pocket and said, "You pocketed the sphere."

Draco was offended, "No, I didn't,"

"Yes, you did, that's our snake," tapped his nose with her index finger.

"What are you planning to do now?" Blaise asked, raising one eyebrow.

"I'm planning to give it to Longbottom myself," Pansy fell to the ground with this statement. Blaise also stood there rooted to the spot. Draco burst out laughing.

A voice inside Draco was telling him not to give away the sphere just yet. A scuffle had broken out among the Gryffindor students. Draco sensed he could create a small spectacle and turn them against each other. He slipped behind a nearby tree and pulled the sphere from his pocket.
"What's so important about you?"

He could hear a ticking in his head. Time seemed to be shifting. He usually heard this ticking sound in his sleep. Something serious was happening, and this sphere was somehow important. Before Draco could examine it closely, he heard Madam Hooch's voice.

"POTTER..."

Ah, Potter was in trouble again. He'd only looked away from the boy for two seconds and he'd already gotten into trouble. Draco sighed. Apparently, changing the timeline hadn't been about Potter joining the Quidditch team in his first year. Time was somehow continuing on its own course, unaffected by him. If Draco wanted to make big changes, how was he going to break this time loop?

The sphere glowed red again. He was forgetting something, and a voice inside him said it wasn't just about missing socks. 'He never had enough socks' – he didn't know where that thought had come from. But something strange was going on. He put the sphere back in his pocket. Or it was going to.

Draco couldn't sleep that night. He held the sphere aloft, its surface reflecting the moonlight streaming through his window. He brought the sphere close to his eye and peered into it. Once again, it began to glow red. Draco groaned. Focusing harder, he noticed the faint blue of the moonlight struggling against the crimson glow. The color seemed to be shifting, becoming more purple. 'Like wine,' he thought, a phrase that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Wait a second. Homer's Odyssey. Blue wasn't a recognized color in ancient times. Homer had described the sea as wine-dark.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus had eventually returned home. It wasn't just luck; in the previous timeline, it had taken Draco a total of 10 years to start at Hogwarts and then die.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Had the Black family existed back then? He thought so. Draco needed to reread 'Toujours pur'. It was a book written by an unknown Black ancestor.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Black, Black, Black... God.

Draco rubbed his forehead. 'Toujours pur' had mentioned a dark god. Everything seemed connected.

His arm itched again. The sphere glowed green, then returned to its colorless, transparent state.
It seemed the sphere couldn't help him anymore.

𝐔𝐧𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

ꓕᴉɯǝ: Ⴖuɔonuʇɐqๅǝ

"What do you plan on doing? This was a bad idea."

"There are no bad ideas, Castor, only people who can't carry them out."

"The magic can't hold, you don't know what you're doing."

"Of course I do, what do you think I am?"

"If this thing blows up-"

"Shut up, Castor! Even if it does, it won't matter to us."

"What about the others?"

"They'll just have to suffer the pain they should have suffered years ago."

".... You're insane, everything's changed, time is different, people are different."

"Time can't see or hear us here..."

"Nedret for-"
.
..
...

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tiiiik t-

Draco woke up with a start, gasping for air. His heart pounded in his chest. It was the first time he'd had a dream since time-traveling. He could still hear the ticking sound, but it was distorted. He sat up in bed. Theo and the others were still asleep. Draco rushed to the bathroom and vomited.
His reflection stared back at him, but it looked older. The flower on his cheek was gone, and his eyes were the same dull gray. Anger surged through Draco.

He turned on the faucet and splashed water on his face.
He didn't understand. He didn't understand. He rested his hands on the sink.

What was happening? The ticking sound scared him more than ever. The sound was distorted. This conversation had just happened, Draco was sure. Time was breaking.
He sobbed. It reminded him of the incident with the Sectumsempra curse in his sixth year. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe. His shirt felt like it was stuck to him. He couldn't get it off.

He didn't know how long he'd been standing there. Blaise turned on the light, startled.

"What the hell, man!" Blaise screamed. Then, after looking at Draco again, he calmed down.

"Draco, you've lost it."

"What time is it, Blaise?"

"4 AM." Draco rubbed his eyes.

"Dude, why are you up at 4 AM?"

"My skincare routine takes two hours!" Draco grumbled. "Shut up, no one asked you."

Draco washed his face and left the bathroom. He put the reminder sphere in his pocket. He'd give it to the kid in the infirmary without anyone noticing.

.......

The hawthorn trees were in bloom. The gradient of colors, shifting from white to red, painted the morning chill with an exquisite beauty. The windows of Malfoy Manor were thrown wide open, allowing the cold air to seep into the equally cold 'home'. A chair had been pulled into Draco Malfoy's room. Petals of hawthorn, torn from the tree, drifted through the window.

Narcissa Malfoy sat on the chair, gazing at the view. Wrinkles, previously absent, were beginning to appear on her face. Her magical core was weakening.

She stood up and sat on her son's rumpled bed. Though it had only been two weeks since Draco had left home, an unease had settled within her. She hadn't slept at all the night before. Even Lucius had looked at her with concern. She had spent the night in her son's room. Her maternal instincts were on high alert. Despite knowing how safe Hogwarts was, she couldn't shake this feeling. She didn't trust her son as much as she trusted Hogwarts. He had changed so much in the last month. She knew that Draco would grow up eventually, but something felt off. Draco had suddenly become more attentive to his mother, even going so far as to ignore Lucius at times and avoid eye contact with him. Most importantly, he was showing more affection, expressing himself, and talking more. Draco had always been a closed book, never asking for help. Perhaps it was due to the thoughts his father had instilled in him. When he was five, he had gotten a thorn stuck in his finger and had struggled to remove it himself until Narcissa had seen him. On the first of September, he had asked his mother for a handkerchief he had dropped. There was a subtle but significant change in her son. He didn't even seem as arrogant as he used to be, which was very unusual for a Malfoy.

She got up from the chair and picked up a fallen hawthorn leaf. She turned it over in her hand. A surge of anger filled her towards the flower she had always likened herself to. She needed to get rid of the hawthorn flowers.
All the windows of Malfoy Manor slammed shut at once. Something was wrong. She needed to go to France and ask them.

She swept out of her son's room.

He rubbed his eyes as he entered the breakfast room. He'd managed to sneak Longbottom's crystal ball out of sight, but then Blaise had kept him awake, forcing him to put on fifty different face masks. Even in his original time, Draco hadn't had to endure so many masks. The blasted fellow had even used a twinkle spell.
Apart from Blaise and Pansy constantly bothering him about how 'bright' and 'happy' he was today, breakfast was going almost well. His mother had sent him a three-week supply of chocolate frogs. And then, suddenly, his mother had decided to go to France. Draco thought his day couldn't get any worse until the blasted Potter and his gang cornered him in the corridor.

"Draco is a-" "On the third floor-"

"Three-headed-" "It was dangerous-"

"Big" "They didn't listen to me-"

"STOP IT!" Draco rubbed his forehead.

"I can't even understand who's talking. One at a time."

The kids calmed down and nodded.

"Okay, Hermione first."

There were protests from the other two.
"Why her?"

"Because she's my friend, Weasley. She obviously has priority." The other two looked offended again. Hermione smiled slightly and began to explain.

".... They wouldn't listen to me, I did everything I could, Draco."

Draco was very surprised. What was a three-headed dog doing at school?

"There's a bloody seven-meter Cerberus at school and you saw it? WHAT'S HAPPENING, THIS SCHOOL IS CRAZY, AND YOU'RE CRAZY TOO!"

"But Crabbe and Goyle were planning something in the trophy room, we heard them with Harry, right, Harry?" Ron was now seeking his friend's support. Harry nodded rapidly.
Draco pinched the bridge of his nose.

"First of all, why are you even listening to those two idiots?"
It was clear that the two had tricked the kids just like he had done in the previous timeline. But it was Draco who had told those two not to go to the dueling room. This time, the kids were unlikely to think the same.

So this dueling room incident was a fixed point in time.
"Aren't they your friends?" Harry asked now.

"They are, but-" Weasley interrupted him with a groan.
"Then why were they trying to get us caught by Mrs. Norris?"

Draco realized they had been discussing how to sneak sweets into their pockets since flying class.

"Because they heard your secret plans and didn't want to get caught by a professor. They acted before you and complained to Filch, they were afraid you would bring a professor."

"But why would they do something secret?"

"You're the only one asking sensible questions here, Mione, darling." Hermione gave him another playful smile. Harry seemed to shrink in place.

"I knew they were up to something." Draco sighed.

"They wanted to sneak more sweets into their pockets, so they were going to practice magic. I know them, they're not very bright, but they knew that even if they got hurt trying to do magic in the dueling room, they wouldn't get into trouble."
They listened to his explanation in silence. Draco was exhausted. He didn't have time for this early in the morning. He wanted to sleep a little before classes started. Draco pushed Harry aside and tried to pass. The boy grabbed his wrist.

"Where are you going, Draco? You haven't even heard us out."
Draco was really getting annoyed.

"I think I've heard enough, we've figured it out. And believe me, I'm not curious about the Cerberus at all." Draco looked at his wrist. The boy followed his gaze. When Draco raised an eyebrow, he reluctantly let go.

"Come to the library after class," Draco offered one last favor. Ignore him.

Draco, Draco, Dracoo!"

"Ugh," Draco lifted his head from his open book.
"Hermione, I was, um..." He looked around. He had fallen asleep in the library. Curse it.

"I'm not talking to Harry and Ron, before you ask."

"Oh, okay?" Draco didn't know what to say. He needed a few more minutes to wake up.

"I just wanted to help them, and I don't want to lose points from my house and lose to Slytherins and the others. Don't be mad, Draco."

"I'm not mad at all."

"And those idiots don't listen to me, and what Ron said this morning, he's been saying it for a long time." She slammed a few heavy books on the table and slid into the chair next to him.

"You're right, Hermione."

"They clearly don't want me around, and Harry's all focused on his new broom, he's practically being rewarded instead of punished. And they're bragging about it."

She opened her book and began turning the pages.

"You're right, Hermione."

"I thought we'd at least talk after that Cerberus incident, but it's obvious they don't want me around. Since they don't want me, I thought I'd hang out with you."

"Well, great, Hermione," the girl seemed satisfied.

"What were you reading, Draco?"

"Oh, um, just Toujours pur."

The girl looked at him with wide eyes.

"Just Toujours pur? Draco Malfoy, are you joking?" She snatched the book from him.

"And it's a first edition, these books are so rare." The girl seemed to be in awe of the book. Draco laughed.

"Actually, it's from the author himself."

"What!!" Her voice was too loud, and Madam Irma Pince glared at them.

"How did you get this? It's amazing." That girl's love for books was no joke. Draco was still pleased. Besides Theo, he had someone else to talk to about books.

Actually, Draco had started to think that the girl who never left the library could help him.

"It's actually a family heirloom."

"Really? Oh, right, you're a Malfoy. The Sacred Twenty-Eight, you're related to the Black family."

"Exactly, and this is my ancestors' book. Actually, Hermione?"
The girl looked up from the book.

"I thought maybe you could help me." The girl was surprised and happy that someone would ask her for something. She was probably his only friend. The girl was intelligent, intelligent people talked, and idiots didn't like those who knew and spoke a lot.

"Of course, what do you want me to do?"

"I want to do some research, and I'm sure I can find you a copy of the Toujours pur book."

The girl was almost jumping in her seat now. Draco couldn't help but grin. This was going to be fun.

...

A week had passed. A week had passed, and neither Draco had spoken to him nor Hermione had been there to warn them about anything. Those two seemed really close. Harry, the first wizard boy he had met, with his almost white blond hair, gray eyes that seemed like blue, and milky skin, and... he didn't even consider him a friend. He had spent so much time on the train with the boy, they had gone to Hagrid's, joked around, laughed, and Hermione was his only friend. Until a week ago, he had hardly spoken to the girl. What had changed? Draco seemed to be getting farther and farther away from him. Harry finally hoped that maybe the title of the boy who lived would work, but it didn't. The boy seemed to be even more mocking. Those pink, delicate lips of his would curl into a smirk, and he would throw him a smirk. Harry would feel blessed by that smirk until the three-headed dog incident. After that, Hermione was always by Draco's side. She would smile at him with those warm gray eyes in the corridor, and it was so frustrating. Why was Hermione getting that smile and he had to settle for just a mocking smirk?

Ron's snoring filled his ears again. Sleeping in a big room with others felt strange but nice. He sighed inwardly. He wished the room arrangements weren't based on houses. At least he could see the angelic boy more. Harry slowly fell asleep, imagining himself becoming friends with Draco and holding hands with him while playing in the garden.

His long-forgotten Nimbus Two Thousand was still under his bed.