Spells and Questions
The first time Draco went to the library to study all the tombs about vampires other thanhunting tips from the 18th century, he came up relatively empty.
There were some French books of course. But his French vocabulary was too poor to even attempt it.
Their neighboring country's high society seemed a bit more acceptant of the dark creatures as it turned out.
But of course, when you had an eternity to build your fortune, you were gonna eventually turn up wealthy. And wealthy people didn't need to be hunted as long as they didn't give anyone any obvious reasons to do so. They were simply accepted. In France that was.
The title of the book, within he had found that information, seemed not too reassuring, 'How to kill a Vampire: dark creature laws in Europe', but Draco still gathered some interesting facts about his kind, or well, about vampires. There was not one book about half breeds as well as no book to help Draco out of his predicament with Potters scent.
However, After a few weeks or so of carefull studying, Draco finally found what he was looking for. Coincidentally, he didn't read it in a book that had anything to do with vampires, but a O.W.L. Potions textbook he had found in his godfathers library.
- And no, Severus did not know that Draco had access to his private rooms, and Draco was hoping to keep it that way-
It was all theory, but there seemed to be a real chance of the charm working to Draco's advantage.
'madefacere odorem'.
The charm was widely spread in Potioneer circles, to prohibit any potions from effecting the potioneer indirectly.
It had to be applied once a day, if Draco wanted to keep it up for his lessons and possible encounters over the course of the day. It was said to wear of in the late hours of the evening, meaning the spell wouldn't be hindering his nightly escapades to the firbidden forest.
The first time he used it, was a Friday. Careful of the spells repercussions Draco had already lessened his hunger by devouring every drop of blood his latest meal, an already injured doe, had provided.
The first thing Draco noticed after applying the charm was the dampening effect it had on the scents around Draco. It didn't completely take it away like it did to many wizards and witches he had read about. At first Draco didn't even feel the difference until he returned to his dorm. But immediately after entering ghe Slytherin Common room, the spells extent dawned on Draco.
It was strange not to smell blood and magic everywhere he went. Being a vampire, or half a vampire anyway, Draco of course loved the smell of blood. But being able to concentrate without having to restrict himself from jumping someone, he loved even more.
The biggest test of his ability as well as the charm itself, presented itself to Draco in their next potions class.
Excited to study just how strongly the spell dampened his senses he didn't apply the charm before class, to really notice the effect.
The smell was even stronger than he remembered, when he sat down next to the black haired boy. Maybe a side effect of the constant play with his senses.
Draco, as always, didn't even look at the boy next to him. Nor did he lust after that beautiful artery he could hear the boys blood rushing through, thank you very much.
Instead he drew his wand under the table and murmured the spell.
Suddenly the pressure of his hunger lifted immensely. A small smile drew itself on his face.
Of course the scent was too strong to ignore completely, but it didn't crush Draco like it normally did.
Only a small nagging feeling he could easily ignore.
That was also the lesson when Draco Malfoy finally spoke his first words to Harry Potter.
"How can one be so incompetent? Your cutting the dittany all wrong."
Draco snarled out of reflex, what he normally only thought.
Potter seemed to be stunned into silence next to him, making Draco take the opportunity to slide over the dittany to extract the essence himself.
"You can talk?"
Draco's eyes slowly made their way over to his neighbor. Right, he had never said one word in a 20 meter radius of the other. He had forgotten.
"Of course I can talk, Potter! What did you think?"
Draco found great glee in pronouncing the others name like Severus always did. The little flinch that earned him, made it especially worth it.
"I.."
Potter swallowed.
"I thought that maybe you were..."
His eyes flicked away, as if desperately searching for help from his peers. Nobody paid them any mind though, so the green eyes returned to Draco.
"Mute."
The cold stare Draco must have given him, seemed to have a horrific effect on the chosen one, who turned as white as a sheet. Maybe even whiter than Draco, as far as the Vampire was concerned.
Draco had to bury his amusement really deep down to not burst out into laughter at the horrified look in the others eyes.
"So just because someone doesn't talk to you directly, you suddenly think they're mute? Do you think that people that don't look at you are blind, or what?"
Potter's jaw had positively dropped at the sass Draco threw at him. This was fun.
"People who don't listen to the hippogriff dung that comes out of your mouth must be deaf then."
A few of the students around them were now looking in their direction. Draco heard a pair of gryffindors a few rows behind them whispering to each other animatedly. Another perk of being a vampire. His immaculate hearing.
"Are you really that self centered, Chosen One?"
Draco delivered the final blow. By the time the words left Draco's mouth, the whiteness had left Potters face, replaced by an embarrassingly deep shade of crimson, that made Draco salivate.
"No, that's not... I don't..."
"Mr. Potter! Are we trying to distract our new neighbor now as well?"
Draco couldn't hide the amusement coiling up his lips into an evil smile, so he just turned his gaze towards Severus. Had he ever told his godfather how much he loved him?
If not Draco had to make sure to do that right after class.
"No, I ..."
"Ten points from Gryffindor for your lack of self control."
Severus seemed to be just as amused as his godson, though way better at hiding it.
"But..."
"Don't make me subtract even more, Potter."
Potter went quiet after that. Draco almost felt bad for him again. But he also had to admit how great it felt to mess with the dark haired boy. He could already see it becoming his most exciting past time.
And Potter seemed to already have everything laid out at his display. Fame, Money, the appreciation of all of the wizarding world. Only fair to harden his life a little bit.
Potter and his blood, didn't turn out to be the only downside of life at Hogwarts, though. That made itself clear when Draco was cornered after class, by one very angry Pansy Parkinson, demanding his full attention. Of course Draco wasn't heartless, although he was sure that his heart didn't quite beat the same as his classmate's did. Nonetheless he did care about Pansy in some form.
Be it the nostalgia speaking, or maybe just the pity he felt for her desperate attempts to charm herself into the Malfoy bloodline.
They had known each other for quite some years now, which meant Draco couldn't really refuse her as well as anticipated. So instead of distancing himself from her even more he at least tried to keep up a friendly facade. After all, Pansy wasn't as incompetent as most other first years, and knew Draco well enough to not overly test his patience.
Besides she was a pureblood, and his parents had always stressed how important ones heritage was in the wizarding world. It did make Draco wonder though, wasn't he himself a Mudbood as well? Of course he didn't kill any other wizards or muggles, had never even drunken one drop of human blood, not that he knew of anyways. He had only ever strengthened himself with animal blood. But didn't that dirty his blood as well?
So in the end Draco at least tried to include Pansy a bit more. Turns out she got along quite well with Blaise, other than their constant fighting. But that seemed to define their relationship, so Draco didn't try to intervene.
Over the course of the next weeks however, Draco's mind did wander back to the question of blood again. Especially when Hermione Granger almost beat him on their History of Magic essay. But since Draco had the clear advantage of having grown up with stories about the goblin rebellion and Gellert Grindelwald, he doubled down hard, and got another Outstanding.
His mind did swim with questions, though. Because, what even defined all this blood prejudice? What defined pure blood? Had he been that different the day before his sixth birthday from the day after? Was Draco so different now from the person he had originally meant to grow into?
His parents didn't believe that did they? Was he a different boy to them now? Was he less worthy, just because of an unfortunate accident that had turned him into what he was now?
People that didn't know about his disease couldn't even see the difference. So what was the difference between a pureblood and a muggleborn then without their last name?
Of course he knew that pureblood were good. Stronger. Magically more potent, which seemed to be true, looking around at his fellow Slytherins. But then there were those strange irregular cases. Neville Longbottom, who even as a Pureblood was worse than Weasley at most things.
- don't get him started on Weasley. Just as his father always said, that family wasn't worth their pureblood status-
Although, using your fathers old wand, didn't seem that beneficial in Draco's opinion. He didn't know why his grandparents never bought the Gryffindor his own wand.
But then there was someone like Hermione Granger, who's eagerness Draco was honestly a bit scared of.
Maybe that was it though. Maybe strength wasn't as reliant on blood anymore, but build itself on preestablished skills and knowledge passed on by generations.
Though that couldn't be. His own parents wouldn't be so wrong as to not conclude the same if it was true. So perhaps purebloods were just better. But then, what about Draco?