96: Chapter 96 Draco's Sense of Distance

The fire in the Slytherin Common Room was low, and Draco sat at the other end of the long table, his book spread out for a long time without being turned.

Pansy looked at him.

"Draco, why aren't you sitting over there today?"

Draco lifted his chin.

"Do I need to report where I sit?"

Zabini stirred his tea.

"Young Master Malfoy has learned to be independent."

Draco closed his book.

"Zabini, mind your teaspoon."

Allen leaned against the fireplace, turning a page of his Potion notes.

"You're not in a state to talk today."

Draco looked at him across half the Common Room.

"Potter, I wasn't talking to you."

"Then keep it that way."

Pansy looked back and forth between the two.

"Did you two have a fight?"

Draco stood up, the legs of his chair dragging across the floor.

"No, it's just that my father believes Slytherin students should learn to choose appropriate friends."

The Common Room went quiet.

Nott looked up.

"Did Mr. Lucius send a letter?"

Draco did not deny it.

"He said that students at school should know their boundaries and not tie themselves too closely to trouble."

Zabini put down his teacup.

"Who does he mean by trouble?"

Draco glanced at Allen, then looked away.

"Whoever it is knows."

Allen closed his notes.

"Well said."

Draco's expression darkened.

"Do you have nothing else to say?"

"Yes, listen to your father."

Pansy was stunned.

"You want him to stay away from you?"

Allen put his book into his bag.

"This is the Malfoy Family upbringing; it has nothing to do with me."

Draco grabbed his schoolbag and left with Crabbe and Goyle.

On a sofa in the distance, Flint and several upperclassmen deliberately raised their voices.

"The legend of the Chamber of Secrets is spreading again."

"The older generation knows it's true."

"If it really opens, there will be a lot less trouble in the school."

Another boy laughed out loud.

"Muggle-born little Mudbloods should learn to be afraid."

A glint of interest appeared in Pansy's eyes.

"Is what they're saying true?"

Zabini swept a glance at her.

"Do you want to go ask Flint?"

Pansy shut her mouth.

Allen walked toward the dormitory corridor.

"Nott."

Nott stood up.

"I heard it. The source is still that Adrian Pucey line; his cousin is a clerk on the Board of Governors."

Zabini followed.

"Going around in circles, it leads back to Mr. Lucius."

Allen didn't stop walking.

"Don't mention names here."

The dormitory door closed, and Draco threw his book onto the bed.

"What did you mean just now?"

Allen lit the desk lamp and took out a piece of parchment.

"To make you listen."

"My father told me not to get too close to you, and you're telling me to listen too?"

"Yes."

"So, in the future, I should pretend not to know you in the Common Room?"

"That works."

Draco stared at him.

"Do you really not care?"

Allen dipped his quill in ink.

"Will caring make Lucius change his mind?"

Nott checked that there was no one in the corridor and closed the door behind him.

Zabini sat by the window.

"Malfoy, tell us the useful parts of the letter first."

Draco took the parchment from his sleeve but didn't hand it over.

"Father said that I was influenced too much by you last year, and my judgment has become not 'Malfoy' enough."

Allen asked.

"The exact words."

Draco suppressed his anger and read on.

"'Do not entrust family judgment to an orphanage student named Potter, and do not let collateral bloodlines use your hand to enter the Malfoy Family circle.'"

Crabbe scratched his head.

"Is 'collateral bloodline' an insult?"

Goyle thought for a moment.

"Sounds pretty long."

Draco glared at them.

"Shut up."

Allen wrote down a few lines.

"Continue."

Draco sat down, creasing the letter paper.

"Father also said that the school will undergo changes this year."

Nott looked up.

"The exact words."

Draco was silent for a moment.

"'Hogwarts will be forced to see clearly what kind of people it has been admitting all these years.'"

Zabini stopped smiling.

"Anything else?"

Draco looked at Allen.

"'Impure blood will be cleansed.'"

In the dormitory, only the sound of the Black Lake water gliding against the ceiling remained; the shadows of the few were elongated by the lamp light and then cut off by the eerie light from outside the window.

Allen wrote this sentence into the parchment.

Draco stared at that line of words.

"He has said similar things before, but this time is different."

Allen asked.

"How is it different?"

"He is waiting."

Draco rubbed his temples.

"He seems to know something in advance in every sentence, and he also told me not to stand in the wrong position and not to sympathize with people I shouldn't."

Zabini looked at Allen.

"Lucius knows the Chamber of Secrets will open."

Nott continued.

"Or he might know someone will make it open."

Draco looked up, then swallowed his words.

"Don't speak too definitively."

Allen asked.

"Has he mentioned school safety recently?"

"Yes."

"Blood status?"

"Yes."

"The Board of Governors?"

"Yes."

"Gilderoy Lockhart?"

Draco frowned.

"He mentioned him too. He said celebrities are suitable for standing in the front, and also suitable when trouble happens."

Zabini scoffed.

"That's the truth."

Nott noted down the information.

"Flint talking about the Chamber of Secrets, I'm afraid it's not idle chatter."

Allen asked.

"Are they afraid?"

Nott shook his head.

"They're waiting for the show."

Draco cursed under his breath.

"Idiots."

Zabini looked at him.

"You used to laugh too."

Draco crumpled a corner of the letter, then let it go.

"I didn't know that diary would eat people before."

Allen looked up.

"Don't take this sentence outside."

"I know."

Draco tucked the letter back into his robes.

"My father told me to stay away from you; I will do it for others to see, but I am not Flint."

Allen folded the parchment.

"You don't need to prove anything."

Draco paced half a circle around the table.

"You always arrange everything for others and then tell them not to think about it."

Allen tucked the parchment into his book pages.

"Do you want to rebel against Lucius?"

Draco stopped.

"I can't."

"Then don't pretend to rebel."

Allen looked at him.

"Can you write a letter to question him?"

Draco looked away.

"No."

"Can you tell Snape?"

Draco gritted his teeth.

"That would be equivalent to pushing the Malfoy Family to the forefront."

"So what you should do is keep your distance, pass on information, don't speak for him, and don't cover his loopholes."

Draco was silent for a moment.

"You've already thought this through?"

Allen turned down the wick of the lamp.

"Lucius telling you to stay away from me means he thinks this turmoil will implicate me, and it also means he doesn't want me to get close to the Malfoy Family through you."

Nott nodded.

"Both."

Draco looked at Allen.

"You should be happy that my father considers you a problem."

"Being considered a problem by a smart person means my trump card hasn't been revealed yet."

Draco sat back on the edge of the bed.

"He enjoys this."

Allen looked at him.

"Who?"

"My father."

Draco looked at the letter paper.

"When he wrote that the school would change, his handwriting was lighter than usual."

Zabini didn't reply.

Draco continued.

"He never explains things clearly; he only makes me stand in a firm position and waits for others to fall."

Nott asked.

"What would you do if you heard that before?"

"Follow it."

Zabini asked.

"And now?"

Draco looked at Allen.

"Now I have to ask him first."

Allen corrected him.

"Ask him privately."

Draco sneered.

"Don't worry, I'll stay three tables away from you in the Common Room."

Nott nodded.

"And argue a few words."

Zabini added.

"It's best if Pansy hears it."

Draco glared at them.

"You're arranging even this?"

Allen picked up his Potion homework.

"What Lucius wants to see is distance."

Draco asked.

"What about Snape?"

"He will see that we are acting."

Draco's face darkened.

"Then what do we do?"

Allen wrote down the name of an ingredient.

"Let him see a part of it."

Nott understood.

"The Professor will see that we are guarding against parents and won't intervene immediately."

Zabini picked up his teacup.

"He hates stupid students, and he also hates parents sticking their hands into the school."

Draco folded the letter well.

"He hates my father even more."

Allen said.

"So don't give him a reason to pin you in the Headmasters Office."

Footsteps passed outside the door, and the group stopped.

Crabbe poked his head out.

"Filch?"

Goyle listened.

"Is that the sound of water from the Girls Lavatory?"

Draco turned his head.

"Where would there be a Girls Lavatory in the Dungeon?"

The footsteps faded away.

Nott spoke again.

"I'll keep watching Flint, and I'll also check on Adrian Pucey and the Board of Governors clerk."

Zabini said.

"I'll write to my mother and ask who has been talking about Hogwarts safety in social circles recently."

Draco put away Lucius's letter.

"I will talk to you less outside."

Allen nodded.

"Be harsh when necessary."

"I'm good at that."

Zabini raised his cup.

"Finally, something that doesn't need training."

Draco pointed at him.

"If you say one more word, I'll tell everyone in the Common Room tomorrow that you read Gilderoy Lockhart's books."

Zabini put down his cup.

"Malfoy, you've learned to be bad."

Nott closed his notes.

"That's more like keeping distance."

Allen finally wrote down three words: Lucius, Chamber of Secrets, panic.

Draco saw it.

"You think he is waiting for panic?"

Allen put away his pen.

"He is waiting for the school to be in chaos, waiting for the Board of Governors to have a reason to act, waiting for the parents of Muggle-born students to be afraid, and waiting for Dumbledore to be pushed to the wall."

Draco asked.

"What about Ginny?"

Allen looked at him.

"To him, the Weasley Family's little daughter is just an entry point."

Draco turned his face to the window.

"That sounds terrible."

"But it's easy to understand."

The dormitory went quiet.

After a while, Draco stood up.

"At breakfast tomorrow, I'll sit with Pansy."

"That's fine."

"Don't look at me."

"I'm not interested."

"If Pansy asks, I'll say you sleep too much, which affects the Malfoy Family's image."

"Good excuse."

Zabini raised his hand.

"I can testify."

Nott also said.

"I can add that Potter's Potion homework is written slowly."

Draco looked at them, anger stuck on his face.

"You guys are really my friends."

Allen turned off the light.

"Not in public."

Draco pulled the bed curtains, then stopped.

"Allen, if my father is really pushing this behind the scenes, what will you do?"

The light from the Black Lake flickered on the bedpost.

Allen put his book by his pillow.

"See how far he pushes it."

"What if he pushes too far?"

Allen closed his eyes.

"Then let him know that he isn't the only one in the school who knows how to borrow a knife."

Draco didn't ask again.

The curtains fell, and outside the Common Room, Flint's laughter hadn't faded.

"If the Chamber of Secrets really opens, this year will be interesting."

Another upperclassman replied.

"The Heir of Slytherin will pick people."

The firewood in the fireplace snapped, and sparks sank into the ash.

Inside the Portable Space, the void tail tip pressed down on the parchment with Lucius's name.

The cracked pocket watch did not light up.

Deeper underground, the sound of water in the pipes rolled low.