"Bang!"
The sound of the door closing wasn't particularly loud, yet Draco still flinched involuntarily.
He didn't dare lift his head to meet his father's eyes.
His mother was left outside the door, as was the professor.
A slightly cold hand rested on his shoulder. Feeling the tension in the boy's body, Lucius softened ever so slightly.
"You know what I'm going to say, Draco."
His voice was low.
"Yes."
Draco lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I know I was wrong."
"What was your mistake?" Lucius asked.
Draco stared at the floor and stiffly repeated what both the professor and the school nurse had already told him several times—
"The Entrails-Expelling Curse is a very dangerous spell. I shouldn't have used it on a classmate… Even though Vincent is annoying, I didn't want this to happen to him…"
"Wrong, Draco."
Lucius lightly patted his shoulder twice and said:
"Your greatest mistake was recklessly learning a spell you didn't fully understand—"
Draco's expression showed some resistance.
He knew that before his father had entered Hogwarts, he'd also learned quite a few Dark Magic spells, taught to him personally by his grandfather.
Even Draco himself had been taught some "self-defense tricks" by Lucius before starting school.
Then he heard his father continue:
"—You've only seen the harm it caused Vincent, but have you considered what would happen if the spell rebounded onto yourself?"
The boy's head shot up in alarm, and he blurted out instinctively, "It could backfire on the caster?"
"Of course."
Lucius replied calmly, "There was a wizard from the Avery family who had a bowel obstruction. He thought he could take a shortcut and used the Entrails-Expelling Curse to solve the problem, only to end up hollowing out half of his own stomach."
Thinking of Vincent's miserable state, Draco shuddered violently.
"So, do you understand now? When your mother and I received Severus's message, how worried we were… Worried that the one hurt might be you." Lucius's tone softened.
Severus, for reasons of his own twisted amusement, had been deliberately vague when delivering his message, misleading them into thinking that Draco was the one injured.
At that moment, Lucius was so enraged he could have killed someone. In his mind, he was already formulating a plan to leverage the twelve school governors to oust the incompetent headmaster, Dumbledore.
However, upon arriving at the school and encountering Crabbe—nearly being attacked in the process—he finally pieced together the full story.
Lucius Malfoy's imposing aura deflated like a punctured balloon, replaced by a newfound calm as he began strategizing how to mitigate the fallout from the incident.
Facing his clearly trembling son, Lucius ultimately refrained from the harsh punishment he had initially envisioned.
Instead, he offered Draco a measured admonishment, warning him of the potential dire consequences and repeatedly emphasizing—
Never recklessly dabble in dangerous magic, even the most seemingly ordinary ones. History is full of wizards who were killed by their own spells.
"This time, your father can handle the matter (26,000 Galleons), but in the future, you must exercise caution. Don't act so impulsively again. Focus more of your energy on studying or Quidditch instead."
"You're a Slytherin student—you must act like a snake. A snake is a carnivorous creature that moves in the shadows. The moment it exposes itself in the sunlight is also the moment it becomes most vulnerable."
"Don't worry about Vincent seeking revenge when he returns to school. Your father will always have your back."
"And when conflicts arise with your classmates, don't resort to immediate retaliation. Here's how you should handle it..."
Lucius imparted much of his own experience to Draco during this conversation.
Throughout the discussion, Severus Snape's name came up repeatedly. Lucius used him as an example, sharing stories of how the intimidating head of Slytherin House had once been a naïve boy, targeted and bullied by his peers.
These anecdotes occasionally made Draco laugh out loud.
Forty minutes later, Lucius emerged from the empty classroom with his hand resting on Draco's shoulder.
To Snape's surprise, Draco's lips carried a faint, relaxed smile, and his cheeks were slightly flushed. He didn't look at all like someone who had just been scolded.
Snape raised an eyebrow, glancing at Lucius.
—Is this still the Lucius Malfoy I knew?
At the sight of Snape's expressionless face, the budding hint of mockery and disdain in Draco's heart immediately vanished.
He realized that the tall man before him wasn't the pitiful character described in Lucius's stories (which only recounted the times Snape was bullied). Rather, he was a mature, formidable, and rather ill-tempered head of house.
Draco's smile instantly disappeared.
He watched as his parents exchanged a few polite words with the head of house. Their tone was familiar but tinged with a subtle distance.
As they were leaving, Lucius said, "Then I'll leave Draco's detention in your hands, Severus."
Draco stared in shock at the father who had just been so kind and persuasive.
"No problem," Professor Snape replied, with a malicious smile tugging at his lips. "As it happens, I have a great deal of potion ingredients that need sorting."
For instance, bat wings, beetle eyes, cockroach antennae, and so on...
Draco's face turned deathly pale again.
How he wished his father would take him along!
What Draco didn't know, however, was that as soon as Lucius left the castle, his expression darkened.
Narcissa silently walked up beside him and asked, "How did it go?"
"He didn't say."
Lucius replied grimly, "Draco either doesn't want to—or cannot—tell me who taught him that curse. They might have signed some kind of magical contract."
When Draco lied that he had learned the spell at home, Lucius immediately knew it was untrue. But in front of others, he didn't expose his son's deception.
In reality, the Malfoy family's collection of dangerous Dark Magic books was heavily restricted. Some of them were so perilous that merely approaching them could pose a risk. There was no way Lucius would allow Draco unrestricted access to those texts.
The truly dangerous books were hidden far out of Draco's reach.
The ones in the study, though many of them detailed Dark Magic, were not excessively hazardous and always included clear warnings. At most, Draco might have seen a reference to the name of the spell, Entrails-Expelling Curse.
Lucius initially assumed that Draco must have sneaked into Hogwarts' Restricted Section in the library. The ancient castle held countless secrets, and finding a forbidden magic book wouldn't have been surprising.
However, when Draco denied it, Lucius realized the situation was more complicated than he had thought.
"Then…" Narcissa frowned. "How exactly did he…"
"For now, let Dumbledore handle it!" Lucius interrupted. "Even if someone has been playing petty tricks behind the scenes, there's little in this school that escapes his notice… Not even the Dark Lord himself…"
Lucius suddenly realized he had said something he shouldn't have and immediately fell silent.
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⭐Harry Potter: Becoming a Study God (HP:BSG)- +235 Chapters
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