The Wicked One (A Drarry Fanfic)

Chapter 1: Pride

Author's note: The first chapter is not about Harry or Draco at all, though it works as a kind of introduction to the story (:

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Chapter 1: Pride

It was Sunday afternoon. The air was cold against her old bones as the cheerful sun that had been shining earlier hid behind clouds of shadowy grey. She could hear the children playing at the back yard, laughing and running after each other. She smiled gently as she thought of how much she loved her job. She herself had been an orphan; she knew what it was like to grow up with no parents, learning the hard way through life. She lived in an orphanage until she turned seventeen. Mrs. Clarkson, the orphanage's director, had always believed in her.

"Clemence," she said, "you are intelligent, hardworking, with a bright future waiting for you. You are not like the other girls in this orphanage. You make me proud."

Mrs. Clarkson was like the mother she never had. She felt the need to show her she could be everything that she believed her to be. When she left the orphanage, she began working and studying formally. After a few years, she had accomplished to finish a short study on children's education, and she went back to the orphanage to find out Mrs. Clarkson was dying. She wanted Clemence to work for the orphanage and to run the place for her in her absence.

She knew it was her responsibility to show Mrs. Clarkson she was right about her, that she could trust her. It was not always easy to work in an orphanage, however. Raising the children, coordinating with her co-workers and getting enough funds for them sometimes seemed impossible to do, but she managed. Many children that had left the orphanage had come back to thank Clemence for her help, trust, and patience. She was certain that if she stimulated the children as Mrs. Clarkson had done with her, they would become good, respectful citizens.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the alarming sound of children screaming. She walked as fast as her legs let her to the back yard and found that a bush had been set on fire. She didn't know for how long the bush had been burning, but she could only see the red and blue flames consuming the little tree. The kids were screaming and running away from it, excepting two of them.

"Boys, get away from the bush!" she shouted as Ms. Jenkins brought a bucket with water and threw it over the burning bush. It took three of them to put out the fire completely. A thin smoke was coming from it, and the smell of burned wood had gotten deep into her nostrils.

She looked at the two boys; she knew they had something to do with it. They were the troublemakers, sometimes together in mischief, sometimes fighting between each other. There was always a pair like this.

"You two are going to tell me right now what happened!" she looked at both boys threateningly, wondering how they had started the fire in the first place.

"It was Tony, Ms. Clemence!," one of the boys, a dark haired one, pointed to the other.

"Tony, why did you do it? Why and how did you start the fire? It's utterly dangerous to do such a thing!" Clemence said angrily, this time addressing little Tony, a boy with blonde curls entangled in every possible direction. This was not the first time something like this happened when Tony was around.

"It was not my fault, Ms. Clemence! I was telling Leo I could run faster than him, and we raced, but he won," the boy pouted, "and then he began to call me a turtle! I told him to stop, be he kept calling me 'Turtle! Turtle!' I was so mad that I wanted to hit him, and suddenly the bush began to burn! I swear I didn't do anything!"

"Bushes don't burn by themselves, Tony, you must have had started the fire."

"It's true, Ms. Clemence, the bush started burning when Tony told me he hated me! He has powers!" Leo said frightened as he hid behind the old Ms. Clemence.

"Let me see your pockets!"

She checked the boys' pockets and none of them had matches or lighters, and there seemed no hints in the ground that showed the fire had been started either.

Heavy raindrops began to hit them from above. The lightning bolts scared the children and they began to scream and run again all around the yard.

"Let's go inside, we'll talk about this later. You two boys will be punished for this," she threatened, and with the help of the older boys and girls she got the children into the old building.

Something about the story made Clemence shiver. It reminded her of a boy that had been raised in the orphanage many years ago, when she was still young and unexperienced. He was a quiet boy she didn't like much because of the strange things he could do. An old man had come to say he would give the boy an education, and he studied in some rich boarding school most of the year. She was thankful not to have him around for so long, and he left the orphanage after he turned seventeen. He had never come back to thank her for anything. She had the feeling she could have done more for the boy if she hadn't been frighten by the mysterious events that happened whenever he was around. Perhaps the boy needed more support, perhaps he only wanted love and affection, perhaps Clemence had been too hard on him.

The rain continued for the rest of the day. The children were entertained with other activities inside the building, and Clemence was very watchful of the boys, especially Tony and Leo. She had decided she would make them clean the toilettes for the next week. Such behavior could not be so easily forgiven, but she was resolved to find out what had happened with the burning bush and to give Tony more attention and care.

By ten o'clock all of the boys and girls had gone to bed, it was time of peace in the orphanage. It was also Clemence's favorite time to drink a cup of tea and read a novel before going to bed. She got out of her room and walked through the dark hallways until she got to the kitchen, and much to her surprise, the kitchen door that led to a second entrance to the building was wide open. The furious wind from outside must had opened it, and with some effort she was able to close the heavy door back into place.

When she turned to the oven, she jumped in her place as she saw an enormous figure stand before her. Her heart stopped as she saw a human looking creature, dressed in a long, black cloak. The snake-like face had tiny, bloody eyes. She would have shrieked, but no sound came from her dry throat.

"Ms. Clemence, how do you do?" the voice was like a cold, hissing sound.

Clemence tried to scream again, but no sound came. She tried to move desperately, but her extremities were not responding.

"Do you remember me, Ms. Clemence? You sure do. I am Tom, remember? The young Tom Riddle," it was as if the monster could read her terrified face, for he continued, "Yes, I do look a little bit different now. You too have changed; you look so much weaker now than you did back then," he smiled cynically at her, "I just want to thank you, Ms. Clemence, you see, if you hadn't treated me as a freak all the years I spent in this orphanage, I wouldn't have become the most powerful wizard of all time. You should be proud of me. Are you proud now, Ms. Clemence?"

She opened her mouth, but again she couldn't say a thing. She couldn't believe what she was seeing or listening, but she felt an intense urge to say "I'm sorry." A tear left her eye as she realized she was too afraid again to do anything. He gave her an emotionless smile and he spoke some words she did not understand. A flash of green light and Tom Riddle's horrid face were the last images she could see before her body fell lifeless on the orphanage's kitchen floor.

The filthy muggle deserved to die.

Harry woke up soaked in sweat, gasping heavily. His stomach was turned with feelings of excitement and fear all mixed together, and his scar was burning across his forehead. He put his glasses on and in the middle of the dark he confirmed he was in his Gryffindor bedroom; the other boys were sleeping deeply.

"Just a dream," he whispered to himself. Just a dream.