Serpent in the Lion's Den

27. Damp Cheeks & Bandaged Hands

The moment Hermione's screams had diminished from the corridor Lucius stormed over to Draco and dropped his voice from a shout to a hushed whisper.

"Draco! Where have you been? The Dark Lord has been here every week wanting to know where you were!"

"Well at least he knows where I am now" Draco yawned, turning to face his father and realising that his mother had dropped his arm and moved behind Lucius. When he caught her eye, he felt a rush of heat flow up his spine to his head and saw memories of Hermione flood his head. Draco shot a worried and cautious look at his mother and saw her yet again move her head slightly, but this time to nod at her son, a ghost of a smile tinging her lips.

"No Draco, he knows you are alive and that you've apparated twice, but he doesn't know you are here. He'll be informed soon enough, but we must hear everything from you before we call him."

"Let's hear this little story Draco, I'm sure it's thrilling"

Draco crossed his arms and all three members of the Malfoy family turned to see Bellatrix, standing innocently at the door, twiddling her wand between her fingers.

"Actually, Auntie Dearest, it's a rather dull story. I suspect you mentioned to mother and father about how you chased me through Hogwarts, threatening to take me to the Dark Lord so either you or he could kill me?" He smirked as both Bellatrix's eyes narrowed at Draco and in turn his parent's eyes narrowed at his aunt.

"During that little chase I decided to try apparating and it worked, I then hid out in and around London until I saw Granger sneak into Diagon Alley. I followed her and couldn't think of anywhere else to bring her but here seeing as I've been rather out of the loop recently." He continued, making an act of stepping away from between his relatives, not caring to be in the middle of another family feud if one occurred.

"Fenrir Greyback visited me whilst you were missing nephew, he said he thought he saw you in a forest. With the mudblood."

Draco spat out a cruel laugh and shot daggers at his aunt, "And you trust that oath? Greyback is single handily the most stupid creature I've met... and I've met Rodolphus."

His father sniggered as Bellatrix returned daggers at her nephew, "Careful nephew, there's still a lot I could mention to the Dark Lord."

"Threatening my son Bella?" Lucius challenged and placed a hand on Draco's shoulder to which he roughly shrugged off,

"Don't pretend to care, quite frankly it's off-putting father" Draco said whilst backing away towards the door, "now, if you don't mind, I'm going to shower, I smell of mudblood." Using everything within him to say the word with the vigour and hatred he was expected to use. As he vanished from sight Draco took a second to lean back up towards the door to be able to her his aunt mutter to his parents in a menacing sing-song voice,

"He's hiding something"

XXX

Draco couldn't risk going to the south drawing room to see Hermione, instead he ran up to his bedroom and slammed his door shut. A small yelp broke out when the door slammed against the frame and it wasn't until Draco heard whimpering from under his bed that he realised he hadn't squashed something in his doorframe.

Draco knelt down on the floor and whispered softly, "Mopsie is that you?" Which caused a fresh wave of sobs to break out from under his bed as a small house-elf crawled out and rushed over to the wizard, stopping slightly to check she'd recognised the voice correctly. The little house-elf tried to wipe her damp cheeks with bandaged hands and looked up at the wizard.

"Mopsie has been waiting for yous to returns... when mister did not return Master had to punish Mopsie and Master banished Mopsie to mister's room until mister returned." The small elf whimpered as Draco inspected the elf's hands, it looked as though she had burnt them with a muggle iron or stove top. When he let them go the elf sank to the floor, her entire little body was shaking and Draco realised how cold his room was. The elf had been alone in the cold, with no cover or blanket for the best part of a month. He stood, picking up the frail elf with him and walked over to the bed and placed her in the middle of one of the many blankets that covered his king-size and wrapped it around the elf.

"Mopsie cannot be using Mister's blankets, Mopsie will be punished for taking Mister's things."

"Mopsie, I'm giving you permission to use my things. Now, stay here and keep warm, I'm going to shower and then I'll bring up some food for you." He smiled fondly at the elf that had practically mothered him for years and walked over to his en-suite, pausing just before the door.

"And Mopsie, when you're feeling better, can you go to the south drawing room and check on Hermione for me? You remember me telling you about her?" Draco turned back around to the elf and his heart warmed to see the joy spreading on the elf's face.

"Mister's Miss is here? Mopsie will check on Miss right away!" The elf practically shouted in excitement as she shrugged on the blanket and ran towards the door. Draco stopped her partway and looked seriously as the same creature, "Just remember Mopsie, what do you need to be when I ask a favour?"

The elf clutched her bandage hands and gently swung side to side, looking up at the wizard with big blue eyes, reciting the line Draco had taught her. "Mopsie is to be discreet Mister."

Draco smiled and opened the en-suite door and smiled, despite the fear for Hermione and himself rising in his stomach,

"Thank you Mopsie."