Draco Malfoy and the House of Black

Snowdrops

"I don't know why you'd listen to any of that malarkey," was Hermione's response to Trelawney's prophecy. She already seemed at the end of her tether when it came to Divination, and hardly inclined to entertain anything about it. "Just because you'd like to think you're the Dragon..."

Draco still jotted the words down as best as he could remember in his third notebook, and even went over to Theo and made him give his memory to cross-check. Unfortunately, that meant Theo began to speculate on the prophecy's meaning, but Draco managed to distract him by inviting him to come sit with him and Hermione at their library table to research it. The thought of being seen publicly with a Muggleborn had Theo more than nervous enough to let it go.

It was only when Draco was trying to sleep that night, though, that he remembered that Trelawney had also predicted the Grim in Potter's future, in tasseography, and that the Grim's form was a large black dog. Like the one Sirius had appeared as, in the Quidditch match when the Dementors came and Potter fell.

"Don't you see?" Draco hissed, waving his arms excitedly at a Hermione who looked more inclined to start sobbing over her Herbology essay than listen to him decipher prophecies. "The dragon breathes fire, the dog rises, the rat falls- I'm the dragon, Uncle Sirius is the dog, Pettigrew is the rat, and Lupin is the wolf. It's all so obvious. She saw that I'm going to catch Pettigrew, and that will save Uncle Sirius." Save him from Aunt Bella, even. "This means we can't give up!"

"Will you just shut up?" Hermione said, a tear sliding down her cheek. "I'm starting to not even remember what a Puffapod is."

She didn't take it in the spirit intended when Draco offered to finish her essay for her.

But only days later, opportunity came unexpectedly in the form of Dean Thomas's latest footy magazine arriving, which he begrudgingly came to share with Draco anyway, although in the courtyard instead of the common room after dinner. And when Thomas seemed less interested in taunting him about Arsenal's recent poor run of form- perhaps because West Ham's had been even worse- than grilling him about his invasion of their dorm, Draco blurted, "Alright, Thomas, you want to know what I was really doing there? I was going to try and steal Ron's rat."

"That ragged old rat? Scabbers?" Thomas asked in amazement, and Draco trained an appropriately devious look on his face.

"It can't have escaped your attention," Draco drawled, "That even before my itinerant stint as Sirius Black, the golden trio have had their harmony somewhat marred, by the abhorrent behavior of its males towards my dear friend Hermione." The look on Thomas's face suggested he was well in agreement with their opinions on Hermione's betrayal, keeping the Firebolt from them. "Which," Draco hastened to add, "Has in fact far less to do with Quidditch, and more to do with that ridiculous Scabbers, whom Ron has become falsely convinced that Hermione's cat Crookshanks is after. Imagine ruining a friendship like theirs over a pet. An ugly one. So my thought was to steal the rat from your dorm, and pretend Crookshanks must have taken him. And then I would bring him back, to show Ron how stupid they'd all been being, and then they could reconcile."

Thomas looked at him like it sounded like just as dumb a plan as it was. "Wait, you think staging the disappearance of Ron's rat will make them get along better? Draco, I don't think..."

"Listen," Draco said, "I know these people, Thomas, and they're not normal." Thomas nodded, fully in agreement on that point. "And I'm clever, you know I am, and this will work, trust me. But I can't try again, and Hermione wouldn't approve, so you know, you live in the same dormitory as Ron and Scabbers..."

Thomas's eyes widened in horror when he caught Draco's drift. "No. Absolutely not."

Draco had him saying yes in half an hour, without even having to bribe him. Apparently implying to a Gryffindor that they were not brave enough and too bloody scared to do something was a cheat code to make them attempt just about any form of lunacy. Good to know.