Late September
One of the first years was lost. Athebyne had mrowed Draco awake in her now customary manner and then watched him critically as he pulled on the formal set of robes he'd adopted as his uniform after accepting the caretaker role. He would be damned if he spent his days skulking around the place looking an absolute fright in the disgraceful way that Filch used to.
The child was one of the littlest Hufflepuffs. Apparently he had gotten turned around after his last lesson and had somehow ended up in trapped in the forbidden areas that were still undergoing repair. He had spent hours wandering around lost before the castle had alerted Draco.
Draco tried not to get annoyed. He'd quickly come to understand that the affected areas were like scar tissue - areas that Hogwarts, and he in extension, were nearly completely blind and numb to. Luckily this time the child had come to no harm. There were so few wizarding children in the year, Draco would hate to lose even one.
He crouched down in front of the boy. He recognised the boy's face, but his name escaped Draco.
"What's your name?"
"Rodrick sir, Rodrick Longbottom"
"Ah, one of Neville's little cousins yes? Come with me Rodrick, I'll get you back to your room."
The boy appeared torn between relief that he had been rescued, and horror that it had been by the terrifying caretaker.
Athebyne wound her way around the little boy's legs and butted him until he giggled. Draco rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket to draw out a large square of chocolate which he handed to Rodrick. The boy still looked terrified, but shoved the chocolate into his mouth and worked on it as Draco guided him back through the wards and safely to the entrance to the dorms.
"That's better. Now it was very foolish of you to wonder off, you could have been hurt. Five housepoints from Hufflepuff, and you can come to detention with me on Saturday at 9am. Don't give me that look - unlike some of the other teacher's detentions you'll be perfectly safe with me. Now hurry along to bed now."
Draco watched the boy enter his dorms safely, then walked back to the point where the wards had failed and Rodrick had entered the forbidden area.
It was the work of a second to patch the wards back up, but Draco didn't like that they kept failing. It felt as though a malignant presence still lingered sometimes, almost like an infection that raged and crept around when it wasn't carefully monitored. And the black staining in the walls seemed to be creeping steadily outwards. He would have to talk to McGonagall.
The situation wouldn’t be quite so desperate if the school was not so under capacity. They needed more students, a handful over two-hundred was nowhere near enough.
With a sigh, Draco headed back to his rooms, mind whirling.