Back to Expectations
Chapter 4
Draco and Severus landed in the entry of Malfoy Manor and were immediately greeted by a house elf Lucius sent to give them a message.
“Master Draco, dinner is about to be served, and Master Lucius said to clean up before coming down to eat,” Caf informed.
The house elf then turned towards Severus and bowed. “Welcome to Malfoy Manor if there is anything you need just call. Master Lucius is waiting for you in the dining room. I can lead you that way.”
“Thank you Caf,” Draco said as he walked up the stairs to freshen up in his room.
Once he got there, he went to his closet and picked out a pair of his evening clothes. He changed quickly and went to the bathroom to reapply gel in his hair.
He left his room and headed to the dining room where everyone was waiting for him. He walked through the doors to the dining room and saw his father and Severus having a conversation and his mother waiting patiently for dinner to begin.
His father looked over at Draco and smirked, “I assume you didn’t cause your godfather any trouble like I said?”
“No Father,” Draco replied simply, and his father responded with a subtle nod.
Draco walked over to his spot at the table, which was next to his father and Severus. His father firmly clapped his hands to signal dinner was to be served, and house elves started to pile into the room with platters of food, including roasted duck and vegetables .
Draco had a pretty good amount on his plate, and he was thankful his anxiety had calmed down and appetite had returned .
“Are you ready for Hogwarts, Draco?” His father asked as they all began to eat.
“Yeah, I’m excited to learn more about potions and defense against the dark arts.”
“You’ll need to focus on your studies while at school. You don’t want to ruin the Malfoy name by receiving poor marks do you?”
“No father. I’ll make sure to study hard” Draco said, remembering the first time his father told him this, but this time he felt more pressure to do well in school. Not only for his father but for Severus too.
After everything Severus had taught him at Hogwarts and during his summer lessons, he didn’t want to disappoint him and let all that he was taught go to waste by doing bad in classes. Severus was the one who sparked his love for learning and was his best parental figure in his life, so disappointing him would feel much worse than when he disappointed his actual father. He had always prided himself for receiving high marks, and he wasn’t going to change that part of himself.
“Draco has shown progressive growth in our lessons this summer, and I have no doubt that he will have some of the top marks and will certainly excel during his time at Hogwarts,” Severus offered.
“I didn’t expect any less from him. He is my son after all,” Lucius remarked and then changed the topic of the conversation, “You will never believe who I heard was in Diagon Alley today. Harry Potter.”
“He must have got his letter recently. I saw him with the Hogwarts’ groundskeeper walking around and buying school items.”
“Of course he's with that type of person. Next thing we know he’ll be friends with the Weasleys.” Lucius sneered
I wish he had this luck with predicting the future all the time. Draco thought as he smiled inwardly.
By the time dinner was over Draco had finished all the food on his plate and was ready to have his final potions lesson of the summer.
“Draco you are excused to go to your room. Someone will come up to get you for your lesson when we’re done here.” Lucius told Draco.
Draco nodded and rose from his seat. He walked up the stairs and down the corridor until he reached the doors of his room. He pushed them open and walked inside. All the things he had bought at Diagon Alley today were sitting in a pile to the side of the room that he didn’t notice before.
He didn’t have anything better to do while he waited for his godfather, so he decided to organize the items he bought, knowing his father would be upset with the mess the pile was at the moment.
His telescope was the last item he added to his organized arrangement. One of Draco’s favorite topics was astronomy. He already had a telescope in his room but it was a few years old. He hadn’t spent as much time on the topic when Voldemort was in his house, so he was excited to get back into it this school year.
Another thing Draco loved was drawing and art in general. Though, very few people knew about this because his father would always disapprove of it when he was a kid. He would always tell Draco that it was a waste of time and he needed to focus on subjects that would help him land a job worthy of the Malfoy name. He tried to give up drawing, but his passion for it was strong, so he opted to just keep it hidden. When his father was sent to Azkaban, he was able to really devote time to it, and with all the time he spent in his room to avoid unwanted guests in the Manor, his ability only grew.
Severus was one of few people who knew about his love for art. For every one of Draco’s birthdays Severus has always gotten him two gifts. One was something he gave to Draco when he got all of his other gifts at his parties. The other was new art supplies that he gave when it was just him and Draco, usually at the end of the party when most people were gone. and Draco could easily go and hide them away.
No one had been up to his room yet to let him know Severus was ready to start his lesson, and Draco had just come up with the marvelous idea of painting his new telescope. He quickly went to the back wall of his closet and moved the false panel to reveal where he hid all his art supplies. His supplies had grown over the years, so now that he was back at eleven years old, he didn’t have as many options. He luckily had thin brushes and white paint which was all he needed.
After he grabbed what he needed, he placed the false panel back and dropped the paint supplies on his desk. He then grabbed one of his astronomy books that showed pictures of all the constellations and stars from his bookshelf and his telescope from the pile of new school items. He brought those back to his desk as well.
He sat in his desk chair, and once his supplies were set up, he began to paint constellations onto his telescope. The Draco Constellation was the first one he painted. He put it in the middle and labeled it Draco underneath.
He relaxed into his painting and was able to forget about his worries with his time traveling issue. He was so focused on his painting that he didn’t even here his godfather enter the room.
“You know if your father came up here instead he wouldn’t have been too happy with what he saw.” Severus said, snapping Draco back to reality.
Draco scoffed and knowingly said, “Father would never come up here. He would send a house elf to come fetch me instead.”.
He started to clean up his desk as Severus walked towards him and asked, “What are you working on now?”
“Painting constellations and stars on my new telescope. I got bored waiting and thought it looked plain just black.”
“It looks good, but put this stuff away quickly and then meet me in the study room. We only have an hour for your lesson tonight.” Severus said and walked out of his godson’s room.
Draco gathered all his art supplies and placed them back behind the false panel, like he was told. He was excited to have another lesson with Severus even though they would just be going over the first year requirements. They had stopped in his other timeline once his father was in Azkaban and Voldemort moved into the Manor. When we entered the study room, Severus already had everything they would need set up.
“Today you are going to brew a Boil Cure Potion. This is one of the potions you will brew this school year.” Severus said and walked over to the desk and sat down. “The instructions are on the board.”
“Aren’t you going to help me?” Draco asked.
“I think you are perfectly capable of brewing this potion yourself. If anything goes wrong it’s no big deal, and I’ll be here to fix it. That’s the thing with potions, things go wrong. You just have to find a way to fix it.” Severus said and started to read a potions book he picked up at Diagon Alley earlier that day.
Draco looked up at the board and the instructions on how to brew the potion were written in chalk on it. Draco has brewed this potion many times. It was a good way to learn the basics of potion making because this potion involved many of the regular skills needed, but an eleven year old kid shouldn’t be able to complete it successfully even if he had previous lessons.
Because of that, Draco decided that he would make a couple small mistakes while brewing the potion, so his godfather wouldn’t become suspicious as to why he could brew a potion perfectly with no experience.
Within the next hour Draco had finished the potion and Severus came over to inspect it.
“It seems you have stirred the potion too much and added too much of the pearl dust. Potions is a precise subject. You need to pay more attention to the specifics.” Severus told Draco with a hint of disappointment.
“I’ll leave the instructions on the board and you can practice more at another time.”
“Thank you,” Draco said, wishing he would’ve just brewed the potion properly instead of disappointing his godfather and noting to never make that mistake again.
“I’ll see you at Hogwarts Draco,” Severus said and with that, left the Manor and Draco in the study room by himself, in a house with his father.
Draco started to clean the mess he made while brewing the potion when he heard a pop. He turned around and saw Dobby standing by the desk.
“Master Draco, Master Lucius wants to see you in his study right away.” Dobby said
“Ok thank you Dobby, I’ll be right up. Can you come up to my room when I’m done talking to Father?” Draco asked.
“Of course, I’ll be up right as soon as you're Master Draco.” Dobby said, bowing.
Draco left the room and walked down the hall to his father’s study. He was nervous. He didn’t know what he wanted, but whenever his father told him to meet him there, it was never for something good. He reached the door faster than he would’ve liked, yet he still knocked and waited for his father to signal for him to come inside.
“Come in Draco.” Lucius said.
Draco followed the command and looked around the room. It was darker than he remembered. Colder even.
“Draco, Severus told me about your lesson today. He said you failed to brew the potion correctly. Is that true?” Lucius asked, still sitting inn his chair with a glass of Fire Whiskey in his hand.
“Yes, Father, but this was my first time brewing a potion and I only made two mistakes.” Draco said, trying to get his father to see the reason why the potion failed.
“I don’t want excuses from you Draco. You have been having lessons every week for a month to prepare you for potions, and you couldn’t even brew one right.” Lucius said.
“I’m sorry.” Draco said.
“You're sorry? This potion better be perfect when you have to brew it in class. You will not embarrass the Malfoy name while at school. Do you understand?” Lucius shouted and was now standing close to Draco.
Draco expected to feel terrified by his father’s actions, but he was only annoyed. Annoyed at himself for not brewing the potion correctly like he could’ve and putting himself in this situation. Annoyed that his father thought scaring his child into submission was the best way to raise him. “Yes, I understand,” Draco sighed with his head down.
Glass shattered on the wall behind Draco, and his head was jerked up so he was looking straight into his father’s eyes.
“You look me in the eyes when you speak to me,” Lucius sneered.
Draco’s father let his head go, and then slapped him across the face. His face stung and turned bright red.
“I have expectations for you this year that you will meet even if I have to beat it into you.”
“You will be sorted into Slytherin like every Malfoy before you, you will get top marks in all your classes, and you will bring pride to the Malfoy name,” Lucius ordered, hitting Draco after each command.
When Lucius had finished, he walked over to his liquor cabinet and poured himself another glass of Fire Whiskey.
“Go to your room and don’t forget what I told you,” Lucius told his son as he took a sip from his glass.
Draco stood up and left his father’s study, closing the door behind him. His body ached a little, but it’s not like he wasn’t used to it. He had lived with this treatment from his father his whole life, so he wasn’t going to act like it was a big deal now that he was sent back in time. The moment he laid a hand on him he knew he wasn’t sent to an alternate universe. Part of it was because he knew he wasn’t that lucky. The other part was he wouldn’t let himself believe there was another reality where his father abused him.
He made it to his room quickly, and Dobby was inside waiting for him. He had forgotten about inviting Dobby to talk, but was grateful that he did. Dobby was his only friend in this house and probably the only reason he had kept sane in Manor before he went to Hogwarts.
“Master Draco are you ok?” Dobby said and walked over to Draco helping him sit down on his bed. Dobby never failed to notice when Draco was the slightest bit injured, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
“I’m fine, Dobby. Can you bring me a bag of ice and a glass of water?” Draco asked.
“Of course Master Draco. I’ll be right back.” Dobby said leaving the room.
Draco got up from his bed and grabbed a pair of silk pajamas from his dresser. He went inside his bathroom and changed into his pajamas. When he took off his shirt, multiple bruises had started to form, but he was thankful they all would be covered by his clothes. He left the bathroom, and Dobby had returned with the items he asked for.
“Master Draco, you should be resting.” Dobby said, helping Draco back into bed.
“Don’t worry Dobby. I was just changing my clothes and now I’m going to lay back down.” Draco reassured him.
He sat against his headboard and took the ice and glass of water from Dobby. After he took a sip of water, he sat the glass on his nightstand and put the bag of ice on his face to stop it from swelling.
“Master Draco, what did you want me here for?” Dobby asked.
“I just wanted to tell you about my trip to Diagon Alley.” Draco said and motioned for the house elf to sit next to him. “Father was there with me for a little bit, but something came up at his work so he had to leave. Then Severus came with me for the rest of the day, and made sure I got the best supplies for my upcoming school year. We also ate at our favorite cafe and ice cream parlour.”
“That sounds fun, Master Draco. I’m glad you had a good time.” Dobby said.
“That’s not even the best part. Guess who I saw when shopping? Harry Potter” Draco told Dobby excitedly.
Dobby gasped and said, “The Harry Potter? The one you always talk about?”
Draco nodded his head with a smile on his face. “Yeah, we were in the same robe shop and had a small conversation about Hogwarts. He said he’ll see me there.”
“How lucky you are,” Dobby said.
Draco sighed. He had missed his talks with Dobby. “I wish you could go with me to Hogwarts. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”
“You’ll see me on breaks and during the summer.”
“If I ever get out of this place Dobby, you’re coming with me.”
Dobby smiled at Draco and got out of the bed. “Good night, Master Draco.”
“Goodnight Dobby.”
❀ ❀ ❀
Draco woke up the next morning, and his body felt worse than it did when he went to sleep. He looked over at his clock, and it read 6:00 am. He had an hour and a half till he was supposed to be down for breakfast.
He got out of bed slowly and picked out new clothes for the day. He went to the bathroom, looked at his bruises in the mirror, and grabbed the healing salve he kept in the drawers. He rubbed the cream over the bruises, hoping they would heal quickly.
Once he was done tending to his bruises, he finished getting ready for the day. He still had over half an hour till he was needed downstairs, so he went inside his closet and removed the false panel in the back. This time he grabbed his sketchbook and pencils.
As he sat back at his desk, he turned his sketchbook to the piece he had been last working on at the time. It was supposed to be a vase of flowers, narcissuses to be exact, but the vase hadn’t been fully finished and the flowers needed more detail. He looked at the piece and thought I have gotten a lot better over the years. Did all my art look like this?
He flipped through the pages of the sketch book and recognized some of the sketches. He had always been good at portraits, so there were many of those. His favorites were a drawing of him and Dobby and one of Severus and him, each wearing a party hat.
That reminded him of the photo he based this sketch off of. Draco opened the drawer to his nightstand and took out the photo of him and Severus he kept there. It was taken during his eleventh birthday party. Draco had finally convinced his godfather to wear a party hat just like his. Severus had a frown on his face while Draco was grinning from ear to ear. It was a fond memory of his and made him realize how far back in time he truly went. To him it felt forever ago because it had been, but in reality it was only a couple of months ago.
Draco put the photo back and went back to his sketchbook. He grabbed a pencil and started to finish the vase that his eleven year old self had started.
Soon enough it was seven fifteen and Draco was almost done with the vase. He put all his art supplies back in the closet and headed downstairs for breakfast where he would have to spend every morning with his father and all the ones after that till it was time for him to leave for Hogwarts. Draco couldn’t wait for that day to come.