Unconditional

Draco arrived at the doors to the Great Hall. McGonagall was waiting with the first years.

“Had a nice chat?” she asked.

“Professor. Is there any way I could, er, be resorted?”

“Well, of course. It’s been planned.”

Draco was taken aback. “It has?”

“Dumbledore said earlier that as you had a new name you must be resorted.” She snorted. “Poppycock, if you ask me.” She looked Draco straight in the eye. “He just takes care of his students.”

“Yes, Professor.”

“So, are you going by Black, then?”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Alright then. Get in line.”

---

Draco felt their suspicion when he walked in with a line of first years. Their confusion when he was called out as, ‘Black, Draco.” Their hostility as he was placed in Ravenclaw. The only people that clapped were the Slytherins.

---

The first few days passed quietly for Draco Black. Ravenclaws, he found, were very open-minded people. He supposed that came with the territory. There were a few that clearly didn’t approve of his new status, but they didn’t start any trouble. The Ravenclaw common room was almost a library; the walls were all covered in shelves and many books were written by Muggle authors. Ravenclaws knew good literature when they read it. There was also a smaller section called The Anarchist’s Library, where students would leave their own books they no longer wanted, take books that were there and not be required to give them back. It was astounding. The Slytherins never gave a thing away for free.

“Hello, Black,” said Luna Lovegood. Draco was immersed in Hamlet.

“I said, hello, Black,” she repeated.

Draco started. “Oh, right, hello.” When he realized who it was, he groaned inwardly. He really didn’t want to be talking to Loony.

“Still getting used to the name?” she asked.

“Yeah. Sure.” He pointedly went back to his book.

“People are wondering what happened to you this summer. You disappear for months, come back with a new name and a new house. Seemingly a new person,” she said.

“Mmm.” He turned the page.

“I don’t think you are, though, not really. Perhaps you’ve renounced your family and their Dark ways, but you’re still an arse, aren’t you?”

Draco looked up. “Well. You’re very rude.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Because you’ve always been ever so nice to me.”

“Look, Loony. Er, Lovegood. I’ll admit I haven’t been nice to you. I don’t really like you. You’re weird. And I dunno, I’m probably still an arse, so you might wanna just walk away now.”

Luna cocked her head to the side. “You talk differently.”

Draco let out an exasperated breath. “What?”

“You were very refined before. You never would have said something like, “I dunno.” You would have said, “I don’t know.” You talk differently,” she repeated.

“That’s fascinating, Lovegood. Please leave me alone.”

“You can’t just hide in books all year,” she pointed out before walking away towards the female dorms.

“Just watch me,” Draco muttered.

---

It was strange, Draco thought, having classes with different people. In Slytherin, many of his classes had been with the Gryffindors. In Ravenclaw, he only had Charms with them. It wasn’t as though Draco wanted to spend more time with Harry Potter. It was just odd to have potions with the Hufflepuffs.

And it was odd to go from being one of Snape’s favorite students to being invisible. He could tell Snape was trying to contain his anger. He knew it had more to do with switching houses than switching sides, which he thought was rather petty. But, he thought, there was nothing he could do about it.

“Black.” Snape spat out the name like it hurt him.

“Yes, Professor?”

“Stay after class.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Draco cleaned up his area and wondered what Snape wanted to talk to him about. They had been as close as students and teachers could be last year. He had even made a number of comments making Draco think that perhaps he wasn’t on the Dark Lord’s side as much as everyone thought he was. He was still nervous, though. Snape had a Dark Mark just as he did.

He walked up to Snape’s desk. Almost immediately, Snape demanded, “Let me see it.”

“Excuse me, Professor?”

Snape fixed him with a look that made him feel a fool. Draco battled with himself for a moment before deciding that he didn’t really care if his Potion’s Master saw what he did. He pulled up his sleeve.

Snape stared. “When Albus told me…” he muttered. He looked up at Draco’s face. “You’re mad.”

Draco shrugged and dropped his sleeve. “A bit, yeah.”

“Why, Draco?”

He looked Snape in the eyes. Dumbledore hadn’t asked why. Dumbledore already knew. Lucius hadn’t asked why. He thought he knew. Snape, he didn’t understand. And Draco didn’t know if he could say it without breaking into shouts or tears or both. But, he thought, he rather wanted to tell someone. He took a deep breath. “I don’t want to be him. He doesn’t deserve love, or anything.”

“So it was just a new, exciting way to say, ‘Bugger off, Dad?’” Snape asked, incredulous.

Draco blinked. He had never heard his professor talk this way. “Er, I suppose—“

“Fool,” Snape said derisively.

“Hey! It’s my life! I realized that too late, I had to get this stupid Mark, but I’m not just gonna sit around and fight a war I don’t much care—“ Suddenly Snape was laughing. “Shut up laughing!”

“Oh, Draco. I was hoping you would snap out of the daze your father put you in. He is very charismatic, I’ll give him that.” Draco was nonplussed. “It doesn’t much matter to me if you renounced the Dark Lord because you sincerely disagree with him, or simply because you were sick of your father’s totalitarian control of your life. I’m glad you’re out.”

“You… you are?”

“Yes. I’m exceedingly disappointed you felt that you had to go as far as getting resorted, however.”

Draco colored. “It wasn’t really, well, I was worried. Of the Slytherins.”

“As well you should be. And I can understand not wanting to live in fear. Not wanting to put triple wards on your bed every night. Not being able to relax in your own common room. You understand that even though your father was in Slytherin, it is not worse for that?”

“Yes, Professor.”

“Alright.” Snape snorted with amusement again. “Another tattoo,” he said to himself. “Go to dinner…”

“Yes, Professor.” Draco grabbed his bag.

“Just one more thing.” Draco stopped and looked back. Snape had a horrible grimace on his face. “Did you have to choose Black?”

---

Finally, it was time for Charms. Padma Patil gave him a strange look. “Really like Charms, huh?”

Draco winced. “Did I say that out loud?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Yeah, I uh, really like Charms.”

Padma smiled a little as she fell into step beside him. “I always sort of thought you were just a jerk. You know, like you hated everything. It’s weird but it’s like you’re a real person now.”

“I am very much like a real person,” Draco responded.

She laughed. She had a nice laugh. “I like Charms, too. If you want, you could probably join our study group. We meet like, once a week. We haven’t set a day for this year yet.”

“Maybe I will.” He smirked at her. Not his “I’m better than you,” smirk, but his “you think I’m pretty, don’t you,” smirk. He practiced them in mirrors.

---

Draco didn’t know what to expect from Potter. He knew it would be something, though. Probably something horrible. Black was his godfather’s name, after all. And Draco’s father had just been directly responsible for the man’s death. But even so, Draco wasn’t sure what to expect.

What he didn’t expect was Potter coming over to him, lightly pushing Padma aside and asking in a polite, if slightly strangled tone of voice, if Draco wanted to be his Charms partner.