AN: This is my first HP fic and I hope you all like it. If you don't like Draco/Harry stuff please don't read it (not that there's much of that in chapter one anyway). Honestly I don't think it makes much sense in the context of how J.K.R.'s books are going to go, but I changed that around a bit. If she was writing my story we would actually get nine books instead of just seven wouldn't that be nice. (sigh) I guess I'm rambling now. I'll shut up and let you read it now. By the way thanks to all you people who've reviewed this for me. I really appreciate it. And for anyone else please R&R for me. On with the show.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of J.K.Rowling's WONDERFUL creations. I only own Tinder and Dipsy, and not even their species.

Parlance of the Serpent

Chapter 1

As usual Draco Malfoy awoke scared and shaken. Clutching a hand to his wildly beating heart, he looked up to see sunlight streaming through his bedroom windows. The young man shook his head and ran long fingers through his pale hair. He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and stood up, shivering at the cold wooden floor on his bare feet. Quickly putting on his robe and slippers, he padded down the hall to check on his mother.

Ever since Lucius Malfoy was sent to Azkaban Draco had been fiercely protective of his mother. Narcissa Malfoy had always been a quiet woman who needed to be taken care of, and after the stress of leaving her husband she had broken down and completely depended upon her son. Draco's newfound responsibility brought maturity, compassion, and thoughtfulness, all qualities he would have detested two years earlier. Unfortunately it also brought dreams. Dreams that chilled Draco's heart and made him wake full of fear. Dreams that forced him to relive every night the day he and his mother had gone to the Ministry of Magic to turn Lucius in. Dreams that showed him his father's face and made him hear the screams of rage and terror as his father was carried off to Azkaban with a troop of dementors in tow.

Peeking around his mother's door, he made sure that she was safely asleep. With that done, he walked down the stairs of the silent house. His footsteps on the large marble staircase, once used by some of the most powerful wizards in the country, echoed hollowly through the hall. Draco passed doors that had been blocked off after their fall from society. Furniture from all over the world was shut up in these rooms and strong anti-dust spells had to be replaced every few months. The two house elves who had stayed on tried to clean all the rooms, but Draco's personality change was so complete that he realised that they were under too much pressure and he shut up the house.

Pausing on the stairs he looked up at a portrait. A boy of thirteen looked down at him from where he was sprawled on a dark green sofa. The boy stood up with an impish twinkle in his silvery grey eyes. Looking at Draco's slightly dishevelled hair the boy in the painting sneered elegantly and smoothed back the single silvery blond hair that was out of place on his own forehead. Draco's heart filled with longing. If only he could be that carefree, cocky boy of his youth again. The outside world had seemed so remote, so unworthy of his notice. How Draco wished he could live in a world where that kind of naïveté was reality. As he walked away from the portrait his painted counterpart gave him a mocking bow and went back to reclining in a pose of arrogant pleasure.

Draco walked down a corridor and into the kitchen. Noticing two sleeping house elves at the large wooden table, he quietly closed the door after him. Walking over to a cupboard that looked like it might have tea in it, he glanced around the room looking for a kettle. Up until four months ago he had never been in this kitchen, let alone tried to make himself a pot of tea. He had expected to be served by the Malfoy family's huge staff of house elves. After his father had been taken away Draco's mother had freed most of the house elves and only Dipsy and Tinder had stayed on. These two elves had only stayed because they'd been serving Narcissa Malfoy since she was a teenager.

Draco pulled the teabags out of the cupboard and stared at them blankly. Pulling his wand out of the pocket of his robe he magically moved them into the kettle. With a flick of his wrist he lit up a small fire under the kettle. Smiling in self-satisfaction he waited for the tea to be ready. The only sounds in the kitchen were the deep breaths of the two house elves and the slow steady ticking of a clock. As Draco sat on a stool, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes slowly closed and he was lulled into slumber by the rhythmic ticking.

He was chasing the golden snitch. He could see it in front of him, fluttering and dodging his grasp. Gripping his broom he leaned forward so that the other seeker behind him wouldn't get to the snitch first. Suddenly he felt his robes being tugged from behind and three shapes went hurtling past him at the snitch. Three hands closed around it at once, crushing the tiny flapping wings. The hands belonged to three familiar faces; Potter, Chang, and Diggory. Ignoring the fact that two of those three people were dead, Draco opened his mouth to protest against three seekers to one. Diggory pointed his wand at Draco and mouthed a word. Draco started to choke and his eyes widened in horror as the other seekers' hoods and robes lengthened. Suddenly all four of them were on the ground and the other three people had ceased to exist. Dementors stood in their places!

"Please," Draco shrunk away from them. "Don't take me!"

The dementors drifted towards him. He turned to run and found himself facing a mirror. Rooted to the spot he watched as his reflection turned slowly into Lucius Malfoy and was dragged off by the dementors. Draco opened his mouth to scream, but only a loud high-pitched whistle came out

The whistling of the kettle roused Draco from his slumber. As he sat rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, Tinder leapt up and turned off the water. Dipsy scuttled over to a cupboard and pulled out a teacup and saucer. Their combined magic poured the tea into the cup, adding just the right amount of cream and sugar for their young master. Tinder bowed low and presented the tea to Draco, who took it and sipped some.

"I was trying to do it myself," he reproached them mildly. "I should probably learn some day."

"We're very sorry sir," Dipsy replied meekly with a deep bow. "Master Draco mustn't work Sir. This is Dipsy and Tinder's job Sir."

"Well maybe I want to learn how to do things for myself for a change," Draco snapped. "Maybe you two should sod off and let me try things my way!"

Immediately Draco regretted his words. He opened his mouth to apologise, but he was too late. Dipsy and Tinder started banging their heads against the huge metal stove, creating a huge metal boom each time their heads came into contact with the metal. Draco rushed over, dropping his teacup in the process, and pulled the elves away from the stove.

"Look I didn't mean to make you punish yourselves," Draco let go of them and watched them rush to clean up his newest mess. Taking a calming breath he continued. "I'm just nervous about going back to school and leaving Mum here. I want you two to take extra special care of her. I'm dead serious about this. You know how she's been since... since we've been alone. If anything happens to her while I'm away the two of you are going to have to bloody pray that I don't kill you."

Tinder's eyes widened until they looked like they would pop out of his head at the idea of either of them being unwatchful. "Oh Sir! We would never let harm come to Mistress Narcissa. We is being extra careful for her Sir."

"Yes Sir," Dipsy added. "We is making Mistress food in the morning Sir, and caring for her all the way to tucking her in at night Sir. And we is protecting her too Sir. We is not letting any bad witches, wizards, or other beasties get to Mistress Sir." The two elves took what they thought would seem to be a menacing guard stance.

Draco half smiled. "Alright I trust you two with her and house. I'm going upstairs to get ready to go. If Mum comes down tell her I'm leaving in an hour. I'll expect my trunk to be at the front door by then." As he left the kitchen something else occurred to him. "You did pack my Gringotts key, didn't you?" The elves nodded respectfully. "Good. I have a lot of shopping to do in Diagon Alley before school starts."

With that Draco walked back up to his room to get dressed. As he put on his silvery white shirt and black pants he wondered for the hundredth time what his reception back in Slytherin would be. He knew that over half the people in that house had left the school, but there would still be a few there who would know what he had done. With a sigh he buttoned his dark green robes and opened his door. With his wand in his hand he walked back downstairs to say goodbye to his mum and to catch the Knight Bus.