Chapter Text
With the help of magical abilities and many volunteers of the wizarding world, the reconstruction of Hogwarts had been ahead of schedule and able to open up the next school year after the war. There was still parts of the school that were being repared and rebuilt, but it was deemed safe enoug to accept students once again.
Weather or not parents wanted to send their children to Hogwarts again or for the first time after not only the war, but the events of the past 7 years was another thing all together. There were less new enroll ments, and not everyone who had attended before was going back, some choosing to finish their schooling else where in the hopes of a safer and less stressful enviroment.
Going back to any school, let alone Hogwarts, was not something that Draco had originally planned. He would've much rathered found a way to finish his schooling at home or figure out something else.... But his mother wanted him to. Wanted him to not only finish his education, but still have the experinces that he thought he should get to experinece.
It took quitea bit of arguing back and forth, a lot of convining on her part, but she eventually got Draco to agree to go back. The only condition was if it became too much, he'd be able to leave and go back home.
With the amount of restrictions that Draco had on him from the ministry due to his families involvment in the war, he didn't think he was going to get to ecperience anything normally again, nor did he think that he was going to get to experience most of what his mother wanted him to anyways.
His father, Lucius, was put into Azkaban, because of the fact he and his mother had testified against him, they were given house arrest. Testifying against her husband was hard for Narcissa, but he wasn't the same boy she had fallen in love with as teenagers, and she had said she was doing it for Draco.
He didn't get it, not when no matter how much they did now, their sins where forever intertwined with their identities.
The house arrest was enforced through magical barriers, alerting the ministry if they passed the limits. Needing to get permission at least a week in advance if there was any appointments that needed to be made, or if there was any sort of supplies that they needed. Their wands had been confiscated, and Draco was only given his back after it was confirmed he was going to be accepted back at Hogwarts. Something he wasn't even sure why he had been approved to go back, his family didn't hold the same amount of power as they used to, and his father had been so close to the Dark Lord himself... he couldn't help but wonder who had stepped in to make it happen.
Going back to Hogwarts he was still going to have restrictions. He had to stay on the school property, nowhere near the forbidden forrest as well as a few ther places off limits. If he had to leave the grounds for any reason, he had to be escorted by a teacher the entire time, and get permssion ahead of time unless its an emergency. A magical tracker had been placed on his wand, only allowing him to preform magic between certain hours of the day, an anything suspicious was to be reported back to not only the teachers but also the ministry of magic.
The train ride to the school had felt excruciating. The first time that he didn't want to be alone, and everyone avoided him, even his old friends, at least the ones who had decided to go back to school.. some of them were in hiding, others deciding to attend a differen school.. and the rest were either dead or also in Azkaban or in custody of the ministry.
Anyone who was on the train and saw him, reused to interact with him. Either glaring him down, wondering why on earth he was there showing his face, or completly ignore him, acting as though he wasn't even there. Of course he couldn't blame him, but he was more than ready to sit down and write home to his mother to tell her about how this was a horrible idea. He'd most likely be back at home before Christmas managed to come around.
With not being able to leave his home, he hadn't bothered to even leave the house all that often. Even going out to the Garden or patio made him feel ill, the ministry employees who guarded the property were always there, always watching.
So he had gotte more pale, if that was possible for him. His hair was a little shaggier, and heavier darker bags took up the space under his eyes. At first glance it wasn't easy to see, but he had dropped weight. In general, he felt more like a shell than he ever had before. For once, he didn't feel he had any identity, and was ralizing that he had been lacking a stable one his entire life. Most of that blame could be placed onto his father and how he was made to act around him, he believed whatever his father wanted him to believe, along with the amount that had been kept behind closed doors... he had simply been a shiny doll for his father to use and parade around. He actually tried to avoid thinking about him or talking about him, and he outright refused to have any communication or connection with his father, ignoring his letters... ignoring everything about him. He would rather pretend that he didn't have father, pretend that all the awful things he had to go through and experience because of that man, never happened, it was easier that way.
Once he arrived at the school, alerted Mcgonagall that he was there, he found a seat at the very end of the Slytherin dining table, with much space on the bench between him and the other students. It almost made him laugh, the fact that he was now being shunned by even the Slytherins... he supposed that with how many of them were in hiding or outright refused to come back it only made sense. Anyone who would have been byhis side still, was long gone.
Since he really wasn't hungy, he was waiting for the sorting cramony to finish and dinner to begin, once the commotion started up, he figured he would be able to slip away and head to the dorms. The plan was to just get to sleep as soon as he could.
Sleeping was his main hobby now, he found himself sleeping more often than not. That was another reason why his mother wanted him to return to school, in hopes that it would return some normalcy to his life again... She was too concerned with how little sleephe was getting and how little he seemed to be eating.
Draco could tell she as doing worse off than he was. She seemed detatched from reality most of the time, often spending time alone in the sitting room or out in the garden.. if she wasnt eerily calm, she was hystarical. Apologizing to her son and begging that he forgive her for allowing him to get put into the situatons he had ended up in.. Or just, wailing. Crying out in pain and fear of what was going to happen to them, Draco often unable to console her and just had to let her tire herself out until she eventually went to bed. Sometimes he could hear her crying in her bedroom, speaking as if Lucius was there with her. Her mind didn't seem to know weather to stay angry at the man or if she wanted him back again. A drastic whirlwind of emotions that never truly seemed to go away, always coming back again.
While waiting for the ceramony to finish, Draco sipped at a cup of tea, unsure if he was going to finish it or not... uninterested and seemingly lost in his thoughts, his eyes glazed over and faraway..