The Gala
Mori knocked on the front door of the Malfoy mansion. He, Koyou, and Dazai had all come for the Charity Gala, an hour early, again.
Koyou was the only one who would be making appearances, of course. Dazai would have to remain hidden, and Mori was there for who knows what. He hadn’t filled Dazai in on why he was there, that was for sure. Slimy boss.
It wasn’t cold as it had been last time, but it was still uncomfortable. Mori's hand rested on the back of his neck, and it took all of his self restraint not to squirm under the unwanted touch.
Eventually, Lucius let them in. He appeared far more collected than last time, his hair was immaculate, and his robes were fancy and showed no signs of wrinkles. Mori must’ve let him know that they would be arriving early in advance. He ushered them in, leading them to his office.
“You’re here early again,” Lucius stated.
“We are. It would’ve been a waste to bring Dazai all the way here separately,” Mori replied.
“I see.”
He didn’t mention that he wanted a private word before the Gala, though it seemed obvious to Dazai, and he assumed Lucius was able to infer.
“Shall I fetch my son to escort Dazai to his room?” Lucius asked, glancing at Dazai.
“Of course, we can’t have anyone seeing him with the DOE.”
“Right. I’ll go get him, then”
Lucius left his office, soon returning with Draco in tow. Dazai adjusted his posture to better hide his useless left arm. It wasn't in a sling, as he and Mori had agreed that it drew unwanted attention from anyone who saw it. Mori had even suggested that it might be something Draco would kick up a fuss about, not that Dazai had needed telling.
Draco was wearing expensive looking robes, not dissimilar to his father’s, though his were slightly ruffled, like he’d been running around in them. He was wearing the same snake as last time, though it was notably not moving in his pocket, due to Dazai nullifying its magic six months earlier.
“Dazai, you’re here again,” Draco started.
“Take him to your room. Go. I’m having an important conversation,” Lucius broke in. Dazai could hear the slight strain in his voice, no doubt Mori could too. Lucius wanted Draco to have as little to do with the Port Mafia as possible, and was trying to get him out of their presence quickly.
Dazai wondered if Lucius realised that he'd just given away a weakness. Mori would no doubt think of Draco as a first option if he ever needed blackmail material now. Dazai hated the thought of having him used as a pawn against Lucius like that.
Draco complied with his father's order, leading Dazai out of the office and down the familiar hallways to his room.
Dazai quickly found a slightly more obscured place to sit this time, taking his place behind Draco’s bed, towards the back of the room.
Draco sat with him. “So, how come you’re here again? Isn’t it annoying having to hide the entire time you’re here?”
“Eh, Mori wanted me here, so I came. At least it means I get to hang out with Draco,” Dazai replied.
Draco glanced at him, seeming to see something in the way he was holding himself. His face did some weird gymnastics before he asked, “you’re not hurt again, are you?”
Dazai rolled his eye, making Draco glance somewhat worriedly at the bandages still wrapped around the left half of his face. It had been over six months after Dazai had gotten the injury, Draco couldn't possibly still be worried about that.
“Draco worries too much! I’m fine, see,” Dazai reached his arms up to prove his point when Draco gave him a look. He barely suppressed a wince at the pain that shot through his forearm at sudden movement, despite having prepared for it.
Draco let out a sigh, relieved.
He was better than the other Hounds, but he still liked to kick up a fuss about non-issues like this, like he had during the Winter Ball, with Dazai's eye.
"All of my subordinates are such worry warts!"
“Okay then,” Draco said, rolling his eyes. “How has break been? Oh! You probably haven’t heard, living in the muggle world and all,”
“Hm? Have I gotten even more famous? What did I do this time?” Dazai asked, though he had an idea of what it could be. He was glad that Draco had interrupted himself though, he wouldn’t have to find something about break this way.
Draco winced at the mention of Dazai’s still less-than-stellar reputation. “Nothing to do with you this time, thankfully,” he said. “Headmaster Dumbledore was found dead in front of his house! Apparently someone had burned it down,” he continued.
Dazai had expected that to be the big news. Really, he was just glad that no one had connected it back to him.
“Really?” he asked, feigning surprise. “Something that big and no one’s blaming the dreaded Demon Student?”
Draco hesitated, “well… about that, the Daily Prophet did try to connect it back to you when the story first came out. I don’t think they’ve been as bad as last year at least, though. The stunt you pulled with the basilisk, plus professor Lochart’s good word really helped to get people to stop thinking of you as a Demon so much.”
Well. That was… conflicting. On one hand, it’d be nice to walk through Hogwarts without everyone either looking terrified of him or like they wanted to kill him. On the other, his job was to play villain, so he needed that reputation back.
Koyou and Lucius joined the first early guests beginning to arrive. The Gala would be starting in earnest soon.
Important people with clearly overinflated egos milled about the room, some picking at the various drinks and snacks being brought around by waiters and waitresses, others more involved in chatter.
Koyou engaged in general small talk with the other guests, usually allowing conversation to hover between the other guest’s mostly unimportant lives and the issue of the Demon Student and DOE’s plan to fix it.
She discovered quickly that while many of the pure-blooded rich folk were more than happy to support DOE’s mission to remove Dazai from Hogwarts, almost as happy as they were to brag about how wonderful they were.
Luckily, none were anywhere near as bad as that book writer had been the last time Koyou had been there. That would’ve been her personal hell, even if they were easy to manipulate. She was able to easily coax many of the people around her into leaning into DOE’s goals quite quickly by simply having them talk about themselves, if they were parents, she could talk about how much safer their children would be without the Demon Sudent. If not, then she talked about how terrible it was that a mud-blood with such a reputation was allowed to enter the Slytherin house.
She discovered early on that Hogwarts house loyalties spilled out into the wizarding world here, specifically ex-Slytherins who seemed to greatly value the pride of their pure-blooded house. It was an exploitable weakness more than anything, as it made a clean divide between classes and showed how easily they could be turned against each other should it ever be convenient.
For now though, the self-importance and pride that they all seemed to share made for an easy way to sell DOE’s agenda. They all seemed to hate the idea of someone who wasn’t born to other pure-bloods ever making their way into Slytherin.
Koyou, of course, lied about her blood status. She wasn’t a witch, much less a pure blooded one, but having others think she was made it much easier to do her job.
“Even as an educational organisation, do you think you’ll be able to do anything about Sirius Black? We’re all so worried that he’ll hurt someone now that he’s escaped, and with the luck Hogwarts has been having recently… well, I think everyone would rest a little easier if something were done about it.”
That was interesting. Koyou had been trying to keep up with the new circulating within the magical community, but it was difficult, what with how secretive they were. She’d been able to find that there’s been a recent prison escape, but it looked like it was more relevant to her job than she’d thought.
“Well, I’m not sure how much we can really do, unless of course we catch wind that he might be targeting a school. If he does try anything with a school, though, I will personally ensure he is caught and sent back to Azkaban.”
She was fairly certain that was the name of the prison he’d escaped from. The reaction from the other guest proved her right. Mori would probably want to hear about this soon.
Dazai jumped at the sound of a knock on the door. Draco looked up just in time to see it slam open, revealing Blaise and Pansy, the two other snakes in Dazai’s little gang.
“I figured you would be here,” Blaise said, looking at Draco. He was sitting on his bed, while Dazai was out of sight behind it.
“Is Dazai here again?”
He poked his head up from behind the bed, hearing Blaise’s voice, “that’s right!” he said.
Blaise smiled slightly upon seeing him. He and Pansy stepped into the room. Dazai realised his mistake, he hadn’t meant to let them in like that. He couldn’t risk Mori coming in.
“Uh, it’s nice to see you guys and all,” Dazai said, “but if Mori comes back and sees any of you, we’re all kind of screwed.” He finished bluntly. He had no reason to sugar coat it, Pansy was the only one who didn’t know about the Port Mafia, and even she had to have suspected he was involved in something bigger by now. Dazai figured if he was blunt they were more likely to realise that they really should go.
“Mori?” Pansy asked. Huh, maybe she was more clueless than Dazai had thought.
“Isn’t Mori your dad Dazai? Why is he here? For that matter, why are you here?” she questioned.
“Ah Pansy really is so clueless sometimes!” Dazai chirped. He was beginning to worry that it would be harder than expected to get his dogs out before any of them were caught. Chances were, if Mori saw them here with Dazai, he’d kill both of them. Or have him do it. That might be worse.
“Mori’s here as a guest at the gala. As for why I’m here, school’s starting back soon so I needed to get all the way over here at some point.” He chose to exclude the part where Mori was acting as DOE through Koyou. Pansy absolutely did not need to know that.
“Either way, it’s good to see you Dazai. Did something happen towards the end of break? You stopped writing back,” Blaise said.
“Eh, just Mori getting in the way. Did you two go deaf since I last saw you? I told you to go before you get caught,” Dazai replied easily.
He had no idea what Mori could possibly be doing, he couldn’t be at the gala with Koyou, and Dazai would have guessed that he would’ve done his snooping last time. It only made him more anxious about the Boss coming to check on him unexpectedly.
“The Gala’s boring. No way am I leaving Draco with you just because you’re worried about your dad who’s busy down there coming in,” Pansy stated.
“Pansy, it might actually be best if we at least get out of sight. Dazai usually does things for a reason,” Blaise said in response. He walked over to Dazai’s hiding place behind the bed and sat next to him, Pansy following not long after. When they noticed that they’d run out of places to sit, Draco stood up and pulled one of his smaller couch chairs over to make more hiding places.
Dazai couldn’t help but be somewhat taken aback by the sheer quantity of furniture that Draco had in his room. Dazai’s room, with its small desk, bed and wardrobe, in comparison, looked like a hovel.
Once they’d all settled on the floor, despite Dazai’s protests, Blaise took out a small bunch of grapes that he’d likely swiped from somewhere downstairs. He held it out to Dazai, who made a face.
When Blaise didn’t let up, Dazai eventually took it. He just held it for a while, eventually drawing a pointed look from Blaise that very clearly communicated that he wanted Dazai to actually eat it. Dazai hrumphed but began eating the grapes regardless, careful to avoid use of his left arm as much as possible.
Blaise seemed to inspect Dazai as he ate, though he did it subtly. His eyes eventually landed on his left arm.
“Are you hurt?”
“Eh? I’m fine.” Dazai said. He shifted his arms to make it look like the left one was doing more than it was. It still hurt, though Dazai had grown expert at hiding his reactions to pain in that arm by now.
“Yeah, I checked on him earlier, before you two arrived,” Draco added. Dazai was glad Draco was siding with him. He doubted Blaise or even Pansy would believe his word alone, and he really didn’t want to do another demonstration. He may have a high pain tolerance, but it didn’t make it enjoyable.
Blaise appeared satisfied, and didn’t press further, though Dazai caught him checking him over for injuries again a few minutes later.
“So, where will you be staying for the next week?” Blaise asked after a while.
“Probably at the Leaky Cauldron again. The bartender isn’t too bad there.”
Blaise hummed in response. Slowly, conversation picked up as Dazai made his way slowly through the grapes he’d been given. It was starting to feel almost like they were back at Hogwarts already, minus the Weasleys and Hermione. They mostly talked about what they would do when they returned to Hogwarts, or complained about going back to having assignments, or discussing what the gang could get up to this year.
I’m home. Dazai thought, before quickly pushing the thought aside. It wasn’t becoming of a mafioso. He couldn’t get soft.
Severus wandered around the Gala, occasionally taking a drink despite not particularly wanting one. He didn’t actually enjoy going to these events, but he had to make appearances. He mostly avoided talking to other guests, though he was forced through pleasantries and small talk several times.
He had no interest in talking to any of these people. He would much rather have spent more time alone, especially after both Poppy and Albus died so suddenly. They had been two of his closest friends, even if he and Albus had had their differences.
Eventually, a young woman with reddish pink hair approached him.
“Hello, I’m Koyou Ozaki, of the DOE. You must be Severus, right?” she asked politely. If Severus remembered correctly, the DOE was the group currently trying to get Dazai expelled. They’d featured in a few Daily Prophet articles over the last few months, and Snape wanted nothing to do with them.
“That would be correct.”
“I can’t seem to recall what you do for work, something to do with Hogwarts, no?” Koyou questioned. She seemed to really want a conversation, unfortunately for him.
“I happen to teach potions there, yes. Why do you ask?”
“Working at Hogwarts must be difficult at the moment, with so many tragedies happening there recently. You must be wishing someone would do something about the Demon Student, so he can’t hurt anyone else,” she continued. Severus resisted the urge to do something he’d regret. It wasn’t right that his Problem Child was treated with so much animosity, even after that Lochart had helped clear things up last year.
“There’s plenty of evidence that the deaths last year had nothing to do with Mr Dazai. It was the basilisk and those hopeless St Mungo’s healers that caused them,” he replied cooly.
“Still, it can’t be good having the Demon Student running around terrorising other children on top of it all.” Koyou was clearly trying to get Severus on DOE’s side, but all it was doing was giving him a headache. He wondered how she thought this would work with rumours of his favouritism towards the boy still running rampant.
Thankfully the Daily Prophet let up on the idea of Snape being his father, due to the obvious lack of physical resemblance.
Eventually, Koyou seemed to give up on him and offered him a polite goodbye before returning to mingle with the crowd.
As Severus continued wandering through the party, he noticed that while the Parkinson and Zabini families were both in attendance, none of their children were anywhere to be seen. It wasn’t unusual for them to run off during such events, as Severus had slowly noticed over the years, but he hadn’t seen any of them at all. Still, he hadn’t heard any commotion, so there wasn’t much reason to worry this time around.
Dazai was beginning to really worry. While it was true that Blaise and Pansy weren’t immediately visible upon entering the room, it wouldn’t take much for Mori to find them. The Gala would be ending soon, he knew. If they waited, it was more likely that Mori would find them.
“All right, gang meeting is over now! The Gala’s almost over, so you won’t have to wait long if you go now.”
“Why are you so fixated on making sure we aren’t caught? We used to pull this kind of thing all the time, and we never got in that much trouble,” Pansy paused, then “and out of all of us, aren’t you the one who cares least about getting in trouble? You seem to enjoy detention with how much you rile Professor Snape up.”
“My subordinates are so badly trained!” Dazai huffed. He looked to Draco to help him out. He could hear the Gala beginning to end below them, no doubt Mori could too.
“Whatever, Dazai has a point, his dad really doesn’t want him associating with you and the Gala’s nearly over anyway,” Draco said. Pansy looked at him disbelievingly for a moment before she and Blaise got up. Blaise sent Dazai a look that somehow conveyed that he wanted an explanation later.
The two left the room and headed down the stairs. Dazai breathed a silent sigh of relief.
Not even five minutes later, Mori opened the door to Draco’s room and strode in.
“Come on Dazai, the Gala will be ending soon.” Dazai stood and followed Mori out of the room, barely offering Draco a nod as he left. They headed out a different door to the one they came in through, probably to avoid being seen by guests.
Dazai was directed to a Mafia-owned car and was off to the Leaky Cauldron while Mori presumably waited in the shadows for Koyou to join him and leave.
While Koyou was too busy making nice with partygoers to notice the two children coming down the stairs, Snape was not. He remembered what he found last time those two came from that direction like that, and decided to ask them what they had been doing.
“Hello, you two, what a surprise seeing you here,” he started, glancing up the stairs where they had come from.
“Professor,” Blaise replied shortly. Pansy seemed to decide it was best to let him deal with Snape, and didn’t make a move to respond herself.
“Is there a reason you were upstairs?” he asked, to the point.
“The Gala was boring, we went to hang out with Draco,” Blaise responded cooly. Snape seemed to realise that it wouldn’t be easy to draw anything out of Blaise, so he frowned and gave up.
“Very well then, just stay out of trouble.” He turned and left.
Blaise and Pansy returned to their parents, and eventually left with the rest of the guests as the Gala ended.