Chapter Text
The First Vision that came to Draco was the day after his 6th birthday. He had already played the part of the Malfoy heir well, he walked besides his father in a suit, let himself be pulled around the party, showed his face and smiled at people he didn't even knew properly. As a reward, he was allowed to go wherever he wanted. The place just so happened to be a muggle zoo. He has heard of it from his Godfather, a place where mundane animals lived and he was just fascinated enough to want to go there.
“Now remember…” His Godfather started. “This is a muggle zoo.. you will not talk about magic or about your family.. in fact let me do most of the talking” Most people would think his Godfather detested him as his gaze stared at the boy with annoyance but he could see a mild fondness inside the man’s eyes. “And remember, when your father asks you where I took you… you will reply-”
“Uncle Sev took me to Hogwarts again” he finished the other sentence as he vibrated. He was very excited. The older man just sighed before leading the boy inside the zoo.
Draco would say the day was going super well. He had stared at the large lions with enough contempt and fascination while being very excited about feeding baby koalas and zeebra’s. It was after they left the Zoo, inside a less populated area did everything go into ruin.
Draco was standing besides his Godfather one moment and then was on his knees shivering the next. His lips trembled as he found himself in another room. A courtroom.
“Why..?” His mouth opened up but it wasn't what he wanted to say? It wasn't even his voice. Gone was the child-like pitch, his voice was a rougher and drier voice, like the voice had been denied water. Draco quickly realized that he was looking at a boy. The boy–no man had Brown hair, a scar on his head and green eyes. The man stared at him back with no emotion on his face, just tiredness. “Why did you help me?”
“Because Draco… you were also a child like me” the man says back. In mere minutes Draco was back where he came from. Severus was kneeling in front of him looking so worried and terrified, two emotions Draco wasnt even aware Severus could show on his face.
“Draco-” Before the man could ask, Draco let out a cry and hugged him.
It took some time and some light interrogation the next day but Draco told Severus about the vision. The man looked as confused as the boy felt. After assuring the child that there was nothing wrong with him and agreeing to not tell his father about it. They let the moment slid by.
×××
Draco got his second vision during a party surrounded by his friends. One moment he was with his friends. Pansy, Millificent, Theodore and Gregory and the next he was again on his knees staring at a boy with red hair and freckles. He looked older then him, 11 or so.
“Do you think like him..? Do you think she is bad just because she is a muggleborn?” The boy asks, his voice measured. Draco mouth moves without him meaning to yet again.
“Of course not Weasley.” Draco was taken aback by his own angered voice. But wasn't that what he thought? Muggleborns were thiefs, they stole wizards magic wasn't that what his father thought? They were mudbloods. “She is a capable witch, her blood doesn't matter. Of course, I don't think like my father. Her being a muggleborn isn't bad or good. Blood doesn't matter in magic..”
The boy's eyes softened as he asked again. “Then why be around them?”
“Because they are my friends. And if I don't correct their bad habits now, the good in them wouldn't shine”
Draco came back again. He glanced up to see his father’s disapproving face, pansy’s tearful face peaking from behind her mother looking at him with worry, Lord Nott stared at him as if he was calculating something and the only adult that looked genuinely worried was Lady Longbottom. “Draco what happened? You were on your knees shivering”
The boy flitched at his father's wording. Even more at the looks he was receiving. “I-i…” I saw something? Was that the correct answer? “I saw…” Some feelings inside him nagged at him that day.
“I saw a cockroach” he lied.
After the party was over, his father gave him an earful. Calling him out on embarrassing him and being a disappointment to the Malfoy name. He was only able to see his Godfather after seven days, the man was a professor in a school afterall.
“It happened again, it wasn't a cockroach that I saw but a vision” Draco explained, staring at the man with tears threatening to spill out. Severus just stared back with a conflicted look on his face. He had never been one for cuddling but he wordlessly brought the boy closer, into a half hug. It's an invitation to explain the vision. “it was about a Weasley boy. Red hair and freckles. He was asking me weird questions. He asked me what I thought about a girl being a muggleborn”
Severus’s posture froze as his jaw tightened a bit. “And you replied..?”
“I didn't. Well I did. Like last time. My mouth opened on it own. It was my voice but different enough? I talked about how her being a muggleborn doesn't matter” His Godfather stared back at him in shock. “I also said something about if I don't correct my friends now, their good habits wouldn't shine..” A pained expression makes its way into the older man’s face as if remembering something. After a few moments of nothingness. Severus finally speaks up.
“I think your vision self is… correct” Draco looked at him in shock of his own.
“But father-”
“You father is a man with faults. So am I. In the end it's you…who says what is right and what is wrong… You have been taught that muggleborns steal magic but have you seen such a thing happen?” Draco hesitantly shaked his head. “Slytherins don't follow. Slytherins collect information… You need to keep an open mind..Collect information and then decide what to believe…”
“...okay.. I will do that” Draco said, sounding a bit unsure but he does look up to his Godfather more so than his father and if the man says to collect information and decide himself then he will do so. “But what about the visions?”
“I.. will figure out what they are. For now. Stay as you are and if you get one. Tell me”
×××
Draco was seven when he got his third vision. He was alone in his room when he felt himself being dragged onto his knees again. One moment he is in his room and in another one he is in Hogwarts. The scene felt serene yet difficult to watch. He was in a room filled with Slytherins and Gryffindors. His Godfather was teaching potions when suddenly Neville longbottom, a boy he has only seen ones as lady longbottom doesn't like bringing her son to pureblood gathering much, does a mistake and gets the absolute cruel lecture of a century. His awkward godfather becomes downright like his father as he glances at another boy, a boy that looks awfully similar to the man from his first vision and ends up berating the boy too.
Draco comes back to his own world, face to face with a house elf. It takes a couple of blinks for the boy to recognise Dobby. Dobby is stuttering and asking him something in tears but Draco wasnt even able to explain that he can't hear the elf before he was again shown something else.
“Dobby works with Hogwarts now. Draco Malfoys cruel father cannot hurt Dobby. Draco Malfoy cannot hurt Dobby..” Dobby said as he stared back at Draco like he is the cruelest thing to ever exist.
Draco gasped as he returned back to his room. Dobby is pretty much circling him in worry. “Dobby, I am fine. leave my room” he commanded quickly. The house elf looked worried and Draco found himself speechless as the elf rather bravely doesn't do as he is told.
“Young master is a child. Dobby won't leave young master in pain!”
The two images are drastically different in nature. One dobby called Draco cruel like his father and this version called Draco a child to be protected. Where these visions really from the future? Would he become a cruel version of his father or the boy that talks about muggleborns like they are equal. Draco has done some basic reasearch about muggles after his last visions and safe it to say, he doesn't really think they have stolen any magic or are lesser then wizards. Whether or not, if Draco likes them is too be determined after he meets one.
But now another thing has resurfaced. Well two.. but one comes above the other. “Dobby, do you think I am cruel?” Dobby looked taken aback, mouth opening and closing. “You are allowed to answer freely...” Draco wasnt aware why the word cruel made him want to cry so much.
“Dobby thinks Draco Malfoy is a child. Young master isnt cruel like his father. But Young master is demanding and sometimes a… brat”
Draco stared at the elf for a few moments. A brat. But not cruel… yet.
“I..thank you for your honesty. You can leave now” Draco tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice but failed as Dobby started to cry a bit. “No no! I am thankful. Leave now. And don't tell father about this.”
Dobby tearfully bowed and left, leaving Draco alone with his thoughts.
×××
Draco didn't tell Severus about the third and fourth vision until a tutoring session between them did it for him. He was watching the older man make a veil of sleeping draught for him when suddenly Draco was on his knees again. His mind again leaving and showing him another room.
He was at Hogwarts again. A girl with bushy hair standing in front of him with a grin. “Let's try this again shall we?” She says before going in for a handshake. Draco finds his own hands shaking hers. “My name is Hermoine Granger.”
“Draco Malfoy” he replies back without meaning too again. He quickly finds himself back inside Severus’s home office. He is somehow sitting on his bed. Severus stared at him with a gentle worry that can be mistaken as stoic from another person. Or maybe Draco is imagining the worry.
“Third vision?” His Godfather asked simply. Draco sighed to himself before shaking his head. The man's eyes hardened a bit. “you had more prior?” He could hear the man's annoyance at not being told. Draco just hummed as the reply.
“mind telling me boy?” He has heard this tone before. The disappointed teacher tone he often uses, Draco cannot help but think back about that version of Severus, the one that was cruel to his students. Was he cruel to all children? Or just Gryffindors? Or was Draco the only one spared from this cruelty because he was the man's Godson?
“The third vision was.. about you actually.” The man physically froze up as Draco explained “it was you in class.. Neville longbottom did some mistake and you berated him along with his partner.” The man nodded. “...you do that often”
Severus' face didn't give anything away as he said “Children make mistakes. They need to be punished-”
“-would you berate me like that when I come to Hogwarts?” he couldn't help but ask. The man lowly shook his head.
“Have i ever done that to you?”
“Never. That's why I am asking… you told me to collect information.. and from what I collected you hate Gryffindors..” Draco stated. “You looked like my father. I didn't like it”
The man looked a bit constipated as he spoke again. “I would never talk to you like that”
“I know… but for some reason. That doesn't make me feel great either” the 7 year old replied in absolute innocence. The man doesn't reply further. “My fourth vision was of Dobby. My house elf. He is going to work at Hogwarts in the future i think… he called father cruel before implying that I am cruel like my father”
“You aren't cruel like him Draco.”
“I am a brat according to everyone” Draco recalled asking his friends and them replying in a similar manner. “I… don't think I want to be like me anymore”
“I like you for you but if you choose something else to be then I will continue to do so.”
“That's your way of telling me that I am a brat”
“It is. I have seen you during previous birthday parties… tell me about the vision you had now”
“It was small. It was just me introducing myself to a girl named Hermoine Granger.” Draco explained with a shrug. The rest of the day went as normally as post vision can go.
×××
The visions stopped for three years or so. Draco would say he was happy about the fact. The visions changed enough of his perception as it is. He didn't hate muggles anymore to the horror of his father even though his father didn't know that his son didn't subscribe to his thinking and he wanted to be just Draco not Draco Malfoy.
A brat perhaps, but not cruel. And that choice came to him after his 11th birthday. His letter to Hogwarts had arrived and he was very happy. So much so that he fainted… literally.
He remembers his head hitting the pillow of the bed after he finished reading his letter. Then suddenly he was somewhere else. A boy beside him.
“Hello.. Hogwarts too?” He found his mouth speaking without command again. The boy just nodded, looking a bit anxious.
Then Draco found himself in a shop "Ten inches, hawthorn wood, unicorn hair core… the crystal grew from the core! i think. This has never really happened before but I do remember a witch it has happened to!” a voice spoke with excitement. The moment didn't last long as Draco found himself in a train compartment.
“Dray! You made it!” Pansy shreiked and hugged him before looking behind him. “Ah.. you made a friend already?”. Draco again found himself in another place, the main hall of Hogwarts with a hat on top of his head. The sorting hat.
“You aren't as brave as a Gryffindor but you are as Rightous as one, You are as smart as a Ravenclaw but don't seek out information like one, You love like a Hufflepuff but aren't as forgiving as one…. I know just what you are… SLYTHERIN!”
Draco gasped out loud, momentarily finding himself laying in his own bed. He felt happy that it was over. He froze when he saw the alarmed face of his father until he fainted again. This time he was inside Hogwarts face to face with the Granger girl.
“I am sorry for what Pansy said. She is mimicking what our parents say.” Draco finds himself telling her. The girl looks at him puzzled for a few moments as if deciding whether Draco is telling the truth or not.
Draco is teleported again, this time he found himself in front of Dobby.
“I am sorry” Draco didn't say but he found himself whispering as he hit Dobby with a stinging hex. A thought hit him with full force. ‘Maybe cruelty is in our blood. Maybe our heart is rotten’
Everything went black after that. No vision, no dreams.
×××
He woke up at night. A whole day went past. He thought he was in his room alone but besides his bed sitting on a chair and sleeping was his Godfather and standing on the otherside was Dobby. Draco felt nausous as he glanced at the house elf who was cleaning the room from what he saw. The elf was cleaning vomit. Has he been vomiting?
Over the years, Draco has tried his best to be patient and neutral with the house elfs, including dobby. He didn't want to be cruel to dobby like the one vision implied but now he got the confirmation that he did curse at the house elf– or will do so in the future. That made him want to vomit.
“Master Draco is awake!” Dobby whispered as he glanced at the boy. The happiness made Draco feel guilty. The voice also woke his Godfather up immedialy. Post war instincts is what Draco has named it early on.
“Draco?” He mumbled, breaking his sleep and looking at the boy. “What happened? Lucious called me, telling me you got your letter and then had a seizure. I came in and you were having one. You even vomited a few times” the man has never looked so terrified in Draco's lifetime of knowing him.
“I don't even know what happened. Visions came and went and I…” Draco got up, now sitting down. Dobby seemed to understand when Draco glanced at him that he wasn't needed or wanted at the moment and vanished away. “...I don't know. I can barely remember it now”
His Godfather stayed quiet. “I talked with your father” Draco found himself freezing. “I didn't tell him boy, I can keep a secret” he glared at Draco before continuing “He thinks it's better if I take you to Dragon alley and get your books and wand. Which i will do. That's all we talked about”
A bitter part of his heart wanted to ask. Wasn't his father worried? From what he read and talked about with pansy and Greg. Parents are supposed to hover over their children when they are sick. But his father doesn't, it is his Godfather that does. Same with theo’s father and Milly’s parents. They don't care about their children when sick.
“I am sorry for erm..”
“No need to be sorry. You didn't ask to have these visions. I will be honest with you. I don't understand what is happening either but… I do know you are looking at the future or a possible version of it. I checked the students list this year. Hermione Granger is one of them”
Draco tried not to let any emotion be shown.
“That means. You glanced at the future years ago. What you want to do with this information is in your hands…. It's evident… you are a seer of some kind” Draco didn't answer. Silence stole the room as Severus wordlessly pulled the blanket over him as if telling him to sleep.
“I will pick you up tomorrow.” Was all the man said as he left.