2

5 June 1988

As Theodore Nott put his legs safely on the ground after the not so pleasant apparition by his father, he lets out the breath he was holding.

This wasn't his first time apparating but the process was never comfortable for him and from what his father has said won't be for another few years. Apparently, when wizard's 'core' matures the process of apparating becomes exponentially more bearable.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder Theodore looks up at his father, who is looking down at him with concern in his hazel eyes. Seeing the gaze Theodore automatically stands taller and smiles a little at his father.

His father looks at him a few seconds longer before giving a small nod in response.

The hand that has never left his shoulder is now guiding him towards the Malfoy Manor, Theodore uses the time before they will go in to inspect it. It doesn't disappoint, as always. This isn't the first time Theodor is here but he is still impressed by the sheer majesty of this place nonetheless. Nott's are not poor, no certainly not. They are in the upper spectrum when it comes to the unofficial hierarchy, which is mostly decided by the wealth and prestige of a wizarding family.

But Malfoy's currently stand at the very top. Looking at the mostly English

styled manor with some touches from the French, Theodore thinks about the people that occupy this manor.

Lucius Malfoy, arguably the most powerful man in Britain politics right now, there is no doubt in Theodore's mind that where the Malfoy points the Minister goes.

Abraxas Malfoy, previous 'Lord Malfoy' now letting his son take over. Still, he is given utmost respect whenever he goes. One of the most accomplished duelist to come from the family.

Narcissa Malfoy née Black is the lady that leads the current trends and fashion of the magic world in Britain. Every pure-blood lady looks up to her and wants to be her.

And then there is 'the heir', Draco Malfoy. Theodore doesn't think highly of the youngest Malfoy, finds him unpleasant at best and idiotic at worst, and today he will have to be dealing with him yet again. He can already feel the headache but ignores it and pushes on.

Going through the path to the entrance, Theodore looks around at the spacious and luxurious garden before him. It is certainly beautiful but he doesn't have enough time to admire it as they get before the entrance.

They wait a few seconds as the doors open for them and they walk through with all the grace of a pure-blood. Theodore, head high, looks around as they walk through the reception, the employees don't dare to stop them, and they walk further only to get to a large room. 

Decorations, food, drinks, and everything else. All elegant, all perfect. It's the same as always, Malfoy's showing everyone their wealth. There are a lot of people everywhere, some pairs are dancing to the delicate music but most are mingling in a group of dozen and more. Theodore doesn't spend more than a few seconds inspecting the room before looking at his father, eyebrow risen in an unasked question.

His father looks around the room for a few seconds more before he looks at him, eyes calculating. He gives him a small smile before he heads off.

Theodore stares at his back for a few seconds before he once more looks around the room trying the find where the children his age are gathered. There are a few unwritten rules at gatherings like these, such as that children should be with children and adults with adults, socializing and trying to find allies.

In the right corner, he sees them, the Malfoy heir at the center of the attention. Smiling, talking, and being a good host. That makes Theodore frown in confusion because this is the first time he is seeing Malfoy smile so pleasantly.

As he is nearing them he sees that the children have adoration in their eyes when they are looking at him, the oldest of them being ten. Which is ridiculous because the same children that are now looking at him with adoration were bad-mouthing him the year before. Even though this is something new, the last he remembers of Malfoy was always bragging and insulting others. Not of him being pleasant.

As he comes into their vicinity he catches the grey gaze of Draco Malfoy, who is looking at him with unreadable eyes. Theodore is the one who looks away the first as he goes for the refreshments. Malfoy seems to be making a hole in his through his gaze because he feels his eyes on him for a few more seconds before he hears the chatter again.

Looking at the refreshments he simply tries the few simple ones and takes some drink, it tastes sweet. Some kind of fruit juice, it is refreshing.

He doesn't have time to do anything else as he hears steps come his way and stop near him.

Theodore turns around, meeting the gaze of Draco Malfoy head-on. He somehow knew that it would be him. Scrutinizing him Theodore can see that the Malfoy before him is taller than him, which is a little bit irritating considering the fact that he has to look up a little bit to meet his gaze. Theodore isn't small for his age, quite the opposite.

Looking into his eyes he sees that he doesn't have clear grey eyes, there is actually quite a bit of blue, the color reminds him of shards of ice. The ice is right now looking at him, watching him. A few seconds went by before Theodore grudgingly admits defeat and greets him first,

"Heir Malfoy," Theodore says and bows with no emotion on his face.

"Heir Nott," Malfoy says back, nodding at him. Face indifferent.

Another thing that Theodore notices is the difference in Malfoy's posture and voice. He seems to have gained some sort of grace and elegance to him as he stands before him. His voice hasn't changed that much in sound but more in his tone. It used to be unpleasant, arrogant. He used to have much more 'fire' to his voice, always aggressive as if waiting to prove to someone how much better he is.

There is no more fire, there seems to be ice now. He looks more confident, more self-assured. He doesn't need to prove anything to anyone, it should be the other way. That is how it seems to Theodore.

Malfoy seems to have gained level headness, certain aloofness. 

The other children around them are all making polite chatter with each other but he knows that every single one of them watches their interaction with interest.

Malfoy starts first,

"How are you finding the refreshments?," Malfoy says with a pleasant smile. Eyes unreadable.

"Acceptable," Theodore responds neutrally, face still emotionless.

Malfoy seems amused by the way he smiles a little. If some were to nitpick, his response could be taken as an insult. But Malfoy seems to not care. Which is weird. Theodore said it because he wanted to see Malfoy's reaction, Malfoy from a year before would have taken this insult and would start having a temper tantrum.

"Follow me," Malfoy says in a manner that he is expecting his order to be followed, as he starts walking away. His tone has changed too, from pleasant to commanding. Malfoy did issue orders before too but this one was different, Theodore couldn't describe it properly but it seemed that Malfoy gained some form of charisma as now actually listening to his orders wasn't so difficult. Not that it really did anything for Theodore.

He thinks for a few moments before he starts to follow him. Even though he doesn't really want to spend time with the Malfoy heir he also doesn't want to insult him, in which way he would shame his father.

Malfoy walks out of the room with all the grace of a royal, Theodore following a few steps from behind him. They don't draw many eyes, except for a few adults and the children.

They walk in silence as Malfoy leads him through his house, after a while, they end up at the huge backyard of the Malfoy Manor.

 There they come upon an elegant seating, with two chairs and a table between them. One chair is slightly fancier than the other, and the back of the chair is a little bit higher than the other. A detail he notes.

Malfoy of course seats himself into the fancier one, motioning for Theodore to sit in the other. Theodore gracefully sits. As he looks at Malfoy he sees that all the pretense is gone now. 

Right now Draco Malfoy isn't smiling, his face doesn't as much as twitches as he studies Theodore with cold, calculating eyes. Scrutinizing every detail, he seems to watch everything, and though Theodore would actually never admit this to anyone, Malfoy's gaze makes him nervous. He makes extra sure to not squirm under his gaze, his face clear of all emotion. Malfoy's expression doesn't show if he succeeded in masking his emotions completely.

"Knob," Malfoy suddenly spoke, still looking at him.

A house-elf appears a second later, bowing his head while quietly murmuring 'master' reverently.

"A tea if you would, and some refreshments."

The house-elf disappears for a few seconds before appearing again and setting the table with tea and some biscuits. Malfoy dismisses him with a wave of his hand and the elf disappears once again.

Malfoy now seems to ignore him as he completely focuses on his tea, swirling it around in the cup before taking a few gulps. Theodore doesn't touch anything.

"I can see that you have some questions, ask away," Malfoy says in an indifferent tone, face blank, still focusing on his tea and now nibbling away at the biscuits.

Theodore has more than 'some' questions as Malfoy put it but he asks the one he wants an answer to the most,

"What am I doing here?" Theodore asks away, not intending to be here longer than he needs to.

Malfoy stops swirling his tea, looks up at him, and tilts his head slightly at him as if asking if he is an idiot,

"Having a tea with me of course," And goes back to nibbling away the biscuits.

"And why did we need to be alone, in your family's backyard to have tea? We could have easily done this indoors if you wished to share tea with me" Theodore says with a bite to his voice.

"We could have," Malfoy concedes.

"Alone, in your family backyard, under the moonlight, aren't you a romantic?" Theodore says drily, wanting to insult him to finally end this farce.

Malfoy actually snorted at that, and as Theodore looks at him he sees only amusement, no anger.

"It runs in the family, we Malfoy's love our dramatics," Malfoy says with a tone practically rolling with sarcasm.

Theodore is shocked. To see Malfoy actually make a jape about his family, he never eve-

"But that doesn't change the fact that you are currently in my home and you will behave with the respect that guest should have, understood?"

Malfoy says in a cold, arrogant voice. His grey eyes looking like steel as he was once again looking at him.

"Of course, forgive my rudeness, please," Theodore quickly responds in a quite nervous voice, mentally cursing at himself for letting a weakness slip in front of Malfoy.

Malfoy doesn't look bothered in the least by his tone, he simply nods and goes back to his tea. After a few minutes of Theodore uncomfortably sitting and watching the table with great interest Malfoy spoke once more,

"Do you have a wand on yourself?" Malfoy asked.

"I do," Theodore answered.

Every pure-blood child gets one for their seventh birthday, even though the wand isn't most suitable for them it is enough for them to practice a few simple spells.

Malfoy gracefully stood up and started walking further into the garden, motioning with his hand to follow him. Theodore got up and followed him yet again but feeling more nervous than the first time he followed him.

"How many combat spells do you know?" Malfoy asked as they were walking through the garden, not even gracing him with a look when he spoke.

"Few," Theodore answered vaguely, truthfully he did know more than a few a child his age should know as the Nott family has many roots in martial magic and dueling. He has learned to duel from a young age, he doesn't know many spells as of right now but he is adequate in the basics of dueling. The spells will come as he gets older as his father often said.

Malfoy didn't answer that one.

In a few moments, they stop in a clearing. As Theodore looks around there are many dummies and other equipment for training combat spells. They stop before a white circle on the ground, the platform bigger no more than 30 feet in all directions.

Malfoy turns around and with a flick of his hand a wand comes into his hand, Theodore is immediately guarded but notes that Malfoy's speed of that move was slow and almost sloppy. He doesn't seem like a very experienced duelist, not like Theodore himself was very experienced but it seems that he had an advantage here if he deducted this situation right.

He looked at Theodore once and then started performing spells that should actually be taught in their first year at Hogwarts, which no child his age should actually be able to cast. They were cast efficiently too. It must have shown on his expression because Malfoy snorted at him, getting the hint Theodore immediately schooled his emotions of his face.

"We are going to have a duel here and I wanted to show you that I know more spells than you and therefore under normal circumstances you would most likely lose as you wouldn't know the counter to most of the spells I would throw at you," Malfoy said, voice indifferent.

"But that isn't enough for me and for you too because you would probably just say that if you knew the spells that know that you would defeat me, which is actually a fair point," Malfoy continued,

"So we are going to have a duel with special rules with only 3 spells of your choosing, whoever gets hit incapacitated first or is disarmed first will lose, choose." Malfoy ended, not even asking if he wanted to duel or not, which was irritating at best and insulting at worst.

Seeing Malfoy's confidence lit a fire in Theodore, desperately wanting to finally put Malfoy in his place and put an end to this farce.

"Do you know the Jelly-legs jinx, Trip jinx, and the Finger removing jinx?" Theodore asked.

Malfoy nodded at his question, they were amongst the most basic of jinxes but it wasn't weird for children their age to don't know how to cast them. Most pure-blood children don't really learn any spells before their tenth birthday, after that they are educated so that they have an advantage when they go to Hogwarts. But seeing what Malfoy was already casting it didn't really surprise him that he did.

"We will also start with our wands in our holsters, is that acceptable?" Malfoy actually asked for his opinion for the first time today on something, Theodore actually liked this as from what he saw he could end this duel in a few seconds as Malfoy's drawing of a wand is slow at best and sloppy at worst.

Theodore nodded, not showing the emotions on his face. But he was gleeful inside, he wasn't celebrating as everything can happen in a duel but he has got a big advantage that should decide this match.

Without further ado, they moved into the circle. Standing on opposite sides and looking at each other. Malfoy took something out of his pocket and Theodore almost wanted to start casting at him but held himself back,

"I will throw this coin lands on the ground the duel will officially start."

Malfoy didn't ask for his opinion as he threw the coin high into the air.

For Theodore it seemed as if the time had slowed down, he watched the coin carefully as it slowly fell to the ground. He was itching to draw his wand but held himself back as he waited only a few more seconds as the coin made contact with the ground.

Theodore didn't know what happened but instead of drawing his wand, his first instinct wasn't to draw his wand as he ducked instead and it saved him the embarrassment of losing this duel in one move as a dark brown spell flew over him, presumably the Jelly-legs jinx.

He rolled to the side, drew his wand, and started firing back. Malfoy sidestepped each spell with grace and ease that startled him. He thought he wasn't experienced in duels so why did he have a wand in his hand before Theodore even considered taking his? Did he cheat? No, Theodore was watching him the whole time as the coin was falling and he didn't have one when the coin was only a second before the ground, then Theodore looked away to confirm it and right then he dodged a spell. Did Malfoy purposefully draw his wand slowly before to confuse him? That was the only logical conclusion as he got his wand in his hand first.

As the duel got going he could hear faintly the cries of names of the spells from his own mouth. His heart in his throat, he didn't even think as he started to trade spells.

But he soon came to a conclusion, that was fairly simple. Malfoy was faster than him, which meant that trading spells with him was just waiting for Malfoy to actually hit him as Malfoy's spells only got closer and closer and Theodore's mostly even weren't in a range that actually threatened Malfoy.

Right now when Theodore sent one spell at him he got two back to dodge. So he changed tactics and focused only on dodging. And he waited on an opportunity, anything to counterattack the Malfoy heir.

It seemed that Merlin heard him as Malfoy overreached with his wand and Theodore immediately used the chance before him to fire back. It proved to be a mistake.

Malfoy once again sidestepped the spell and the chance that Theodore saw actually proved to be a feint and Malfoy went immediately into the motion of the Jelly-legs jinx,

"Locomotor Wibbly!" Malfoy cried, hitting Theodore straight into his chest.

Theodore collapsed to the floor before suddenly he lost his fingers, his wand falling out of his hand. He tried grabbing it but it was difficult, his legs couldn't move and when he fell he actually hit his head.

Suddenly he felt something poking his neck, as he looked up he saw the cold eyes of Draco Malfoy with his wand pushed into his neck. It was uncomfortable to breathe as Malfoy wasn't gentle.

"Yield," Malfoy said indifferently.

"I yield," Theodore said back without thinking.

As Malfoy removed his wand from his neck he stood up, Theodore noticed now that he actually held his wand in his other hand. Malfoy cast the counters at him, so Theodore could actually use his legs and fingers again.

Malfoy hold out a hand to him, which Theodore grasped and Malfoy helped him up and simultaneously put his wand in his hand. He even went out of his way to cast a few cleaning spells at him for which Theodore was actually grateful. His ancestors are probably already turning in their graves at him, if he actually had to go back dirty he would probably never go out of his room again from the sheer embarrassment.

"You actually surprised me, I thought that the first spell would be enough," Malfoy said with a small smile that didn't seem forced or insincere.

Theodore didn't take that as a compliment as the match still lasted for like a minute.

"Did you purposefully make it seem like the drawing of your wand was slow?" Theodore asked, wanting to know the answer.

"Yes, I wanted to know if you could actually notice it and use it. Another thing that you surprised me with," Malfoy said again with the same expression. It seemed as if the Malfoy heir had actually acknowledged him. Which was a weird feeling for Theodore as despite being an heir to a quite powerful house he actually didn't have any friends. Nor any real allies.

Theodore was actually starting to feel respect for the Malfoy, not only did he know how to cast spells that even he did not but he actually beat him quite soundly. There weren't any bad feelings, he only felt humbled. He wanted this and he will take responsibility for it, which in this case means acknowledging the Malfoy heir and giving him the respect he deserved, not because of his family name but because of his capabilities.

"Now the thing I wanted to actually talk to you about is really simple. In three years we will attend Hogwarts and probably get sorted into the same house, for that, I want to create my own faction. With the right people, we could achieve great things, Theodore. I want to take over the Slytherin house as one of my goals but obviously, I can't do that alone. You were the first one on my list to ask and all this was for me to confirm that you were competent enough, and you exceeded my expectations. So, what do you say?" Malfoy said with a calm tone and indifferent eyes with a polite smile.

Theodore now understood that Malfoy has not gained only 'some form of charisma' but it seemed like Malfoy gained a natural leadership. He showed Theodore his status through the 'picnic' and then his strength through the duel, only to hold out a hand for him. He wasn't stupid, he knows that Malfoy surely decided to stroke his ego a bit at the end to make him more amenable to this, but it still warmed his heart that someone else from his father was complimenting him. And it wasn't from someone who needed to compliment him no, Malfoy was stronger than him. He learned that today. Malfoy didn't need to compliment him but he seemed like he meant the last bit about him exceeding his expectations.

They would probably end up in the same house so this interaction would decide how things would go for him in the future. And call Theodore a follower or a sheep but he didn't think following Malfoy was a bad idea. Theodore wasn't really a leader, he wasn't outspoken like Malfoy, he apparently isn't as strong as Malfoy, and the most important one, Theodore didn't really have any leadership qualities or anything to make people follow him. And most importantly he also didn't want to lead anyone, seeing that as more of a bother than anything else.

Malfoy also said the truth, together a group of competent people could achieve great things. Theodore also didn't really have any ambition or anything like that currently in his life. So maybe through this, he would find something to do.

And lastly, he actually started to somehow warm up to Malfoy. He didn't know what it was but it seemed like Malfoy gained something that just pulls people to him. And later if he didn't like it he could just leave even if it may create problems for him in his future house.

As Theodore thought about all this Malfoy didn't move a muscle the entire and watched him. A few minutes went by like this.

"I will join you," Theodore said simply.

Malfoy nodded at him as if he expected this. Which he probably did.

Malfoy extended his hand for him, and Theodore grasped it.

"You can call me Theo from now on," Theo said.

"Draco," Draco said simply.

It seemed to Theo as if he did something that will change his life greatly, he doesn't really know how it will change it but he thinks that it will.

"Well, let us go back," Draco said and started walking away.

Theo followed a few steps behind him, it seemed that that will be something that he will do a lot of from now on.