"Oh how this is going to be fun"
Chapter two,
Draco
Draco cuffs his wristbands tightly around his arm. He smells the incense burning in the room next door as he takes a sip of his fire whiskey and feels it burn all the way down his throat. All the lights are off in the manor, only sunlight lighting the room. Blaise walks in the room, his cigarette smoke covering his face. He walks up next to Draco and rests his hand on his shoulder.
“Man, if you're gonna look all dark and gloomy going into a new job your never gonna like it '' Draco pushes his hand off and steals his cigarette. He takes a deep puff and waits to respond.
“I'm not trying to be “dark and gloomy "I'm just stuck in a really shitty situation man.”
He hears the slide of Theodore entering his room.
“HOGWARTS PARTYYYY” he announces and starts doing a little dance. Draco and Blaise turn around and look at him disappointingly. “Oh come on man I'm just trying to set the mood. If it was up to me I would be sitting on a couch and binging a muggle tv show. But I have made it my mission to make sure that your time back in that hell hole is as good as it can be.”
He grabs Draco by putting his arm around his shoulder and pulls him out of the room. Draco checks his fathers watch
“It's time to go.” he mutters as they make it to the bottom of the giant staircase and Theo turns him around to see his face. He pulls him into a tight hug. Draco walks over to Blaise and repeats it.
“We will be meeting in the three broomsticks every weekend, we need updates for every day” Theo says. Draco knows that he had agreed to meet with his group every weekend for drinks. He knows that he is indecisive and will probably end up just staying home. His friends have been worrying about him since the war. But Draco was strong. He had to be. He apparates over to the platform he knew all too well. Platform 9 and ¾ he walked through with a sense of urgency. He gets hit with the smell of smoke and bertie botts every flavored beans. His hands are sitting in the pockets of his suit jacket and he is trying not to cringe as he walks through the station again. He breathes out cold air and gets on the train. He sits right in the front of the train in the small one person carriage
And sets his bags down. He leans back against the seat, what was he getting himself into?
He pulls off his jacket, studding the mark on his arm. How was he supposed to teach students, get kids to trust him? He places his hand over the mark, pulling his sleeve back down. He feels the itchy seat below him, and he gets flashbacks to the years that he took this very train to Hogwarts, to learn. Draco was very nervous, to put it plainly. There is nothing to hide anymore so here you go, his full truth. Draco used to have panic attacks every day before going to school, his dad wouldn't help with that and crucio him until he snapped out of it. His father made sure that he was feared. He had to be. It was the family name and he couldn't mess that up, even if it meant he couldn't be friends with the one person in the school he liked. Now he is back on the train, no panic attack, but freaking out because he is expected to teach with that one person. Hermione was his only crush throughout Hogwarts, yes he had a fling with Pansy but they both try to forget about that now. It was mostly because of his parents anyway, and she was a lesbian, which he, of course, didn't know at the time. It does make him feel better about never liking her, knowing that the feeling was mutual.
Thinking about primary school years seems silly now though, the fact that he's going back to teach at that very school. It seems to have shot him into a phase of regret. Obviously regretting his part in the war, but also about how he never allowed himself to be a kid. He was stuck in his house learning magic when his friends were outside playing, training for the war instead of focusing on school. But he cannot go back and change the past. He must live in the now. Live through the consequences of his actions. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't get to try to experience some of the things that he missed out on when he was younger that he was so desperate to do.
A sly look spreads across his face, oh how this is going to be fun.