Chapter Text
“Draco, would you come here for a moment?” Narcissa called from the door to her chambers as he passed.
”What is it, Mother? Is something the matter?” Draco ran a finger down Fenugreek’s spine for comfort as he approached her rooms. The witch has been ill more than usual this summer, each time taking longer to recover, and Draco was beginning to worry.
”No, no, everything is fine, Dear. I have a present for you,” she turned and rummaged through her wardrobe before turning with a large box wrapped in silver paper.
Draco pulled the edges of the paper apart, revealing a clear plastic animal carrier.
“I sent a glass tank to your dorm at school so Fenugreek could come with you. I thought you might not want to take the chance of losing her on the train, though.”
They stood there for a moment before Draco wrapped his arms around her.
”Thank you, Mother.”
Fenugreek hissed something softly and nudged against Narcissa’s neck.
”Fenu says thank you as well.”
”You’re welcome. I’m so glad you’ve bonded so well. It makes me feel better to know that she’ll look after you when I can’t.” The witch stood there, tears pooling in her eyes before asking, “May I hold her?”
Fenugreek hissed her approval and Draco held his arm to Narcissa’s shoulder so the snake could slither over.
——————
It was just Draco and Narcissa waiting on platform 9¾ —Lucius had a last-minute meeting with Voldemort. Not that he minded much. It was nice to have some time with his mother without the shadow of Lucius looming over them.
Draco had arranged his luggage so it was all in one hand and the other was free to hold his mother’s. This was something he hadn’t done since he was eleven and had first left for Hogwarts, but it was nice to have a tangible connection to her, to reassure himself that as long as he could feel her hand in his, she would be alright.
Since their talk, Draco had found himself making excuses to be around her more, spending the time he had normally spent in his chambers in hers. They used to do muggle crafts when they got bored and Narcissa had recently revealed that she had picked up origami. She had spent an entire afternoon teaching him how to form her favorite flowers out of delicate pastel paper.
The train whistled in warning, there was only a minute until the train would depart.
”You should go,” his mother whispered. “We’ll write like we always do, and I’ll see you for Christmas.”
Narcissa pulled her hand from his and gave him a final, lingering hug. When she retreated, Draco forced himself to square his shoulders and drag himself onto the train.
He didn’t head straight for a compartment as he usually did, instead lingering by the window and waving at his mother who returned the gesture with tears glinting on her cheeks.
When the train had departed and Draco still hadn’t moved, Fenugreek whispered at him through the carrier.
“Come on, you’ll see her again. Find somewhere to sit before we reach the school.”
Draco did as she asked and found himself sitting in a compartment with Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini.
”What’s with the snake,” Pansy sneered, “I never took you for an animal person.”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” Draco replied coolly, “I don’t think a summer away has changed that.”
Fenugreek was coiled in Draco’s lap, sleeping as she had been for most of the ride. He had taken her out of the plastic carrier when they had arrived in the room.
”Chill, mate,” Blaise chimed in, “She didn’t mean anything by it.”
Just then, someone knocked on their open door.
“Anything from the trolley, dears?” A short grandmotherly woman peered in.
”Jelly slugs and Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans,” Blaise dug a handful of coins from his robes.
”And some liquorice wands,” Pansy told the woman.
Draco slid Fenugreek off his lap and settled her on his discarded cloak before standing to survey the snack cart. He filled his arms with an assortment of chocolate frogs, peppermint toads, and sugar quills.
“Thanks, keep the change,” he said as he dropped a few coins in her hand and turned back to his seat.
——————
To say Draco was relieved to be back at Hogwarts would be an understatement. Having some distance between himself and Voldemort was so freeing that he found himself snapping less. He carried Fenugreek with him to all his classes and meals, and when he wasn’t doing homework, he transformed and explored the school with her.
Some of his teachers offered weird looks, but Draco got no pushback for keeping his snake around. One night, as he was roaming the halls with Fenugreek, he had an idea.
”Let’s go find the Gryffindor common room,” he said.
He had a vague idea of where the room was — a tower on the far end of the school — and it wasn’t difficult to find. The worst part of the experience was something Draco hadn’t anticipated.
When he and Fenugreek approached the portrait that doubled as the door to the common room, the lady depicted let out a blood-curdling screech.
“Snakes! Snakes in the corridor! Someone HELLPPP!!”
The portrait swung open, muffling the woman’s screams, but not coming close to silencing them. Through the doorway stepped Granger, looking thoroughly irritated to be dragged out.
“Oh, it’s alright. They’re just harmless garden snakes,” the girl turned to look at someone farther back in the room. “Harry, would you mind dealing with this? You’re better with snakes than I am and I need to finish studying for tomorrow.”
”Sure,” Harry appeared in the doorway as Hermione left. “Dragon! I didn’t think I’d see you here.” He stepped into the corridor and crouched next to the snakes, offering a hand for Draco to slither onto. “And is this—”
”Fenugreek,” she hissed.
”Nice to meet you, I’m Harry. Do you want to come in?”