A/N - Hey everyone! This is my new story! It should be awsome! I've better developped m,y writing skills and this is a really good origional story plot! Hope you all like it! I also edited it recently because I read it ovfer and realized that I hadn't gotten into the wedding dress thing - I forgot to mention its meaning or elaborate on it! 3
Chapter Summary: Four years after the war and Draco Malfoy, friendless, alone, hated, miserable and desperate, is sitting alone in the Leaky Cauldron, when a woman wearing Stylish Muggle Clothes walks in. Who is she? Why is she dressed in Muggle clothing if she's a Witch, which is the only way she could be in the Leaky Cauldron.
Twisted Fate – Chapter 1
It had been four years since the War between Harry Potter and Voldemort. The past four years had been recovery years; the Wizarding World had been making amends to all the damage done from the War. Hogwarts had been fixed and improved, new teachers had been hired for the subjects where teachers were lost, the Ministry had been fixed up, and Diagon Alley had re-opened and was finally getting back to normal where people could walk without fear and the Wizarding World was growing and had gotten stronger.
Harry Potter had married Ginny Weasley - the love of his life, Hermione Granger had married Ronald Weasley - their long time loves, and everyone had moved on, they would never forget, but they would remember the hard times, the lost ones, and prosper. But as for Draco Malfoy, well he had been shunned from the Wizarding World, the Malfoy name was no longer a powerful title to carry with your head held high, but was now a shame and curse to have. Ever since Voldemort fell, all the Death Eater's were sent to Azkaban, most were given the Dementor's Kiss such as his Aunt Bellatrix Lestrange, his father was locked up in Azkaban until further notice and his mother and him had sold Malfoy Manor and had built a new home. There was no way they could live in there anymore - not after the cruel and horrible things that had taken place in that house, not after HE had stepped foot in there. Draco Malfoy's life was full of nothing but horror, misery and disappointment. He'd thought that the past four years would be different, freer and a chance to be happy now that Voldemort was gone for good - but it turned out QUITE the opposite.
Every time he or his mother showed their faces in public they either got dirty looks or dirty remarks from people who recognized them. After 4 years he'd grown used to it and didn't pay much attention, but he always felt hurt and alone because he only had his mother. He had no friends, being the way he was in school had left him that way, Crabbe and Goyle were like his followers and Crabbe was dead, Goyle in Azkaban, and they weren't real friends anyways. He'd always envied Harry and Ron's friendship. Having a good friend like that would have really helped him in his sixth year and that horrible task he'd been set if he'd had true friends to help him and to confide in, and if he hadn't had that reputation to uphold. But he'd moved on with his life, and he was just waiting for the right moment to prove to everyone that he wasn't the person they all thought he was, if they only knew...
So Draco Malfoy sat at a table in the Leaky Cauldron and drank his fire whiskey, and read the Daily Prophet as he usually did on Saturdays. He'd somewhat let himself go, his white blonde hair had grown long and shaggy - almost to his shoulders, and he was growing the slightest beard. Draco Malfoy had become friendless, alone, hated, miserable and desperate, which was ironic for someone who had been popular, feared, confident, and arrogant.
So he sat alone reading his paper, when a woman wearing stylish Muggle clothes walked in and past the table he was sitting at. She was wearing a beige knee-length angled skirt and a black cashmere quarter length sleeved off-the-shoulder top. She was wearing strap-y black stilettos and carried a back hobo bag over her shoulder. She had long ringlet-y raven hair from the ear down that reached the end of her breasts. Draco couldn't see her facial features from her side profile, but she intrigued him none the less. He watched as she walked over to Tom the bar man and exchanged words with him.
She turned and walked past him once again and made her way towards the entrance to Diagon Alley. He didn't know what had gotten into him, but he stood up and bumped into her.
"Oh I'm so sorry!" he apologized.
"Uhh it's alright!" she said in a daze.
"Please, let me buy you a drink to make up for my clumsiness." He offered.
"Um you are?" she asked confused.
He hesitated, he knew the moment he told her who he was she would freak out, curse him and never want to talk to him. But he couldn't lie, there were people around who knew who is truly was, and she would figure it out eventually.
"Um, my name's Draco Malfoy." He answered.
Her face hardened. "Draco Malfoy? Son of Lucious the Death Eater Malfoy?" she asked.
"Um, yes." He replied, knowing where this was going.
She laughed. "Oh yes, I'd just LOVE to get a drink with a Death Eater! You have some nerve even stepping foot around here! I can't believe you!" People started to stare, but he didn't care, he was used to it.
"You don't understand! I'm not a Death Eater, yes I was, but not because I wanted to! It's not what everyone thinks!" he argued desperately.
She laughed again. "Yes I'm so sure! Now if you excuse me…" and she began making her way once again towards the entrance to Diagon Alley.
"Please! Wait!" and he followed her.
"Do not make me hex you!" she said pulling out her wand, "though I'm sure my magic is nothing compared to all the Dark Magic you know!"
"You really have got me all wrong! Please! Just let me buy you a coffee or something and explain it all to you! No one understands that I'm not that person that I used to be, I wasn't even that person at that time! Please! I beg you!" he said to her as she pointed her wand at his throat.
She lowered her wand and looked at him skeptically. "And why should I give you a chance? Look what pain and suffering you and your family and purebloods have done to our world?"
"I know! But you have to understand, I did it all out of fear. I didn't have a choice and neither did my family!"
"Your father did when he first joined Voldemort! He is the reason you were forced into it, and HE had a hand in the sufferings of Witches and Wizards and Muggle borns!" she yelled.
"I know, but you can't blame me for my father's doings! Please! Give me a chance to explain, that is all I ask of you! Then you can judge me and hex me or whatever." He pleaded.
She thought for a moment on his last words, he made sense, and maybe she WAS being prejudiced towards him and judging him without knowing the full story.
"Alright! Fine! Meet me at 2021 Diagon Alley. It's a little boutique of mine that I'm opening next week; I'd rather not be seen talking to Draco Malfoy in public if you know what I mean." She replied.
"Yes, that's fine! I'll get coffee! What would you like?" he said enthusiastically, finally he had a chance to convince someone of his innocence.
"Caramel Cappuccino would be great. Thanks." She said.
He went to get their coffees and proceeded to find her boutique. He was hoping that she hadn't played him and given him a false address to rid herself of his presence, but he found it. It was a small quaint little store with a large purple sign above it that said Brooke's Couture, and had a bell over the white door that led inside to his one chance at redemption.
He tried to open the door, but he found that it was locked – probably because it hadn't opened yet, so he knocked. A few minutes later the same girl from the Leaky Cauldron came to the door and quickly opened it and rushed him in. "HURRY! Before someone sees you! It could be bad for my business, I'm opening next week and can't afford any bad publicity." He entered, and found walls in a shade of dark purple, with clothes on racks everywhere, it was mostly female clothing, but there was a section near the back for men. To the right as he entered, there was a checkout desk, and on the right of the wall behind the checkout desk, stairs that led to a flat upstairs. Draped across the stairs was a velvet rope that had a sign that read EMLPOYEES ONLY. It really was quite an adorable little shop.
"The shop looks nice. You design clothes?" he asked.
"Yes, after the War I went to College in the Muggle World for fashion. I've created my own line of a mix between Muggle Clothes and Witch and Wizards Robes. I've always thought that robes have been a bit dull and too common. I'm hoping to make a breakthrough in starting a new style in the Wizarding World, one more stylish and adventurous." She explained.
"Well it looks pretty good to me. I think you've really got something going here." He commented.
"Thanks. Now you can follow me up here, this is where I get my work done. I have a lounge where we can sit and uh…talk." She explained as she said the counter curses to the enchantments she had beyond the velvet rope for the non-employees.
He followed her up the stairs. When they reached the top flat, the first thing Draco noticed was a mannequin that had a wedding dress on it. It looked like it was being designed and worked on, there were pins in it, and fabric all over and scissors on the floor beside it. It was positioned in the middle of a large window that looked out into the back of the shop for optimum lighting. There were many trees behind the shop, a whole forest that it backed onto. To the left of the mannequin was a book shelf full of books, and to the left of that there was a couch that looked very cozy, and a coffee table in front of it, all set on top of a burgundy rug. At the far end of the room - to their right as they walked in - was a desk full of papers, and fabrics where this woman obviously did all of her work. Beside it on the left, was a door that probably led to a bathroom, and on its right, a twin bed, where she most likely slept when she worked late. The walls were a Chocolate brown, and the room was accented in purples and reds.
"Nice room." He commented.
"Thanks. It's where I do my work, not much but it's cozy and homey." She said.
"So you designing a line of Wedding dresses?" he asked.
"What? Oh! That! No! I'm designing MY wedding dress. For whenever I get married. Well IF I get married. You kinda have to have someone in order to get married and it's just me at the moment. But I've always had an image of what I want my dress to look like. So I'm designing my own, started this past summer." she explained.
"Oh, that's always nice I guess." he said slightly uncomfortable. He'd never had a serious girlfriend before, I mean Pansy Parkinson hardly counted; and after the war he just didn't see the point in actually going anywhere with her. She didn't even KNOW him. He'd changed and just didn't want anything from his past and the person he used to be to stay with him.
After the awkward silence he said, "Oh! Here's your coffee." He said as he handed her the caramel cappuccino.
"Thanks, um we can sit here, and you can uh tell me your story I guess." She replied, walking over to the couch, and sitting down with her legs crossed, making herself feel at home. She felt very uncomfortable talking to him, and had no idea why she let him into her store, her life, and agreed to listen to his.
Draco sat down a good distance beside her; he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. "So, first I just really wanted to thank you for giving me the chance to talk to you. You don't know how much it means to me. I've tried getting other people to listen, to reconsider their opinions of me, but they won't give me the time of day." He started.
"Um your welcome I guess." She said uncomfortably.
"Um, do you mind me asking how old you are?" he asked hesitantly.
"I'm 22." She said.
"Oh, no wonder I don't remember you from Hogwarts. You were in the year ahead of me."
"Yeah, I graduated the year you attempted to kill Dumbledore." She said coldly.
His face changed. It hardened and portrayed pain and remorse. "Yeah…well I guess I should start about there. No, it would be fair to start with why I was such an arrogant arse back then. Obviously, I was raised to think that being pureblooded was the best thing that could happen, that it was a superior state in society, and that I was superior to anyone who was below me. I cannot take full blame for the way I was, it was my up bringing that made me that way, and I cannot change that. But, I did use my blood status to my advantage, and I admit that I was a cruel and arrogant git who deserved nothing more but to feel the agony I bestowed upon those that I tormented and bullied."
"Through the years, I soon came to see what horrors were in the world, after the Dark Lord rose, my father was terrified. He had liked our lives without him, we were better off he said. But after the Dark Lord returned, my father had to cover for why he never went looking for him, for why he wasn't continually faithful, and after the accident at the Ministry, we were in more trouble than my father could bargain for. He had wished he'd never gotten involved, that he had never become a Death Eater, it wasn't until he had me that he realized what a mistake he had made, is what he told me. He put my mine and my mother's lives in danger, and targets on our backs, and while he was in Azkaban after the Ministry fiasco, my mother knew that the Dark Lord would call upon me."
"I was set a task that I knew I could not fulfill. Killing Dumbledore – something the Dark lord had never been able to do himself, so why should I succeed. I was terrified, I acted honoured and as though I was lucky, but deep down. I was more scared than I had ever been in my entire life. I feared failure, because with failure laid my life. I did my best, though I never wanted to kill Dumbledore. I never wanted to kill at all – not even Harry Potter, whom I envied. I had no choice but to do what I could to fulfill this task the best I could, my life was at stake. There were times when I'd break down and cry, Moaning Myrtle was the only one whom I could confide in and entrust my true feelings. I had no one, I had friends but they only knew the "me" that was an arrogant pureblooded prince. So in truth – I was alone. And going through this made me feel it more than I ever had. Knowing that no one other than my parents truly cared if I failed or succeeded hurt more than anything I've ever felt."
"After Dumbledore died, the Dark Lord's plans went into motion. Our house became head quarters, and my life was constantly monitored. To see all the horrible things He did, the murders he committed with not a single regret, the pain he inflicted and enjoyed – is something that changed me more than anything. Not only was I alone in the world, I was surrounded by fear. I couldn't sleep, breathe or think without fearing that someone would read my thoughts, kill me or torture me. Everything I did and said was judged so I stopped talking, I only spoke to my mother and father and even then – very scarcely. I did not trust my aunt; she was too faithful to Him. I had successfully learned Occlumency in my sixth year, so if not for that I would have gone mad. That whole year during the war was like being constantly surrounded by Dementors feeding off your misery and sucking all the happiness out of you. I couldn't be happy about anything, I had nothing to look forward to, and I could only pray that Harry Potter would find a way to defeat Him."
"When Harry and his friends were caught, a sinking feeling inside me drained every last hope I had. I did my best to protect them and make the others unsure of their identities, and when they escaped I was relieved and secretly jumping for joy. We were severely punished though; the cruciatus curse is something I do not wish upon anyone. Pain beyond imagination – all you want is death. I never wanted to stop Harry and his friends in the Room of Requirement, but Crabbe and Goyle had grown minds of their own and had developed into these Dark evil Death Eaters and if I didn't go along with it would be mine and my parents' lives at stake. I did my best to stop them, and when Harry saved me, I was shocked. I couldn't stop wondering why he did it. Why save me? My life was nothing to him, it was full of pain and misery and I had treated him with nothing but disrespect. It was then I found hop in myself. I knew that I was saved for a reason, I would be able to redeem myself, that Harry Potter may one day forgive me and then so may others as well."
"Hearing that the Dark Lord was dead – defeated at last was the best, happiest moment of my life, and I was filled with so much jubilation that I can't even explain the feeling. I was free. We were ALL FREE! It was over, I could start over, be the person I've always wanted to be, and stay away from this dark evilness that I had seen and knew existed. When I was younger I admit I looked up to it, wanted to be a Death Eater like my father, but after seeing and going through what I did, nothing can explain that and to this day I am haunted by those memories."
"My father pleaded forgiveness from the Ministry, showed his truest remorse, and his life was spared, but he rots away in Azkaban. Mother and I visit him, but it's too horrible to go there. Mother was never involved with any of it so she was not punished, but my aunt Bellatrix was given the Dementor's Kiss. I was spared, even though I was of age, my parents vouched for the fact that I was forced into becoming a Death Eater and only took part in any of it because my life was at stake, myself and my parents took veriteserum and were tested to the fullest, but I was spared, even Harry Potter said that I could go free. His word was law, so they allowed it. I owe Harry Potter my life."
She sat there, speechless and in awe. "I uhh, I umm, I…I…I don't know what to say." She stammered.
He let out a slight laugh. "It's alright, I don't expect any words of pity or console. I don't deserve it, but the fact that you've listened means so much to me." He said to her honestly.
"No! I mean, I believe you! There's no way you could fake feelings like that! I just can't believe that's what happened, that that's what you went through. To hear your side of the story changes my perspective about the rumors completely." She said with pity in her eyes.
"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to be." He said with a slight smile.
She smiled back and for a while they just looked into each other's eyes. Her wanting to know him and pitying the pain he'd gone through, and hating herself for prejudicing herself against him without knowing the whole story. Him wanting to know her, appreciating her for listening to him, for giving him this chance, and appreciating the second chance fate had given him.
"Do you still have the mark?" she asked not wanting to meet his gaze.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah…" he replied.
"May I see it? I mean, if you're not comfortable with it that's fine, I've just always been curious as to what it looks like." She said, embarrassed.
He pulled the sleeve of his left arm up without hesitation; revealing Voldemort's mark, the Dark Mark - the mark of evil. Without asking she grabbed his arm slowly and gently, tracing her fingers over it. The moment she touched him, a jolt of electricity – or something like it, shot through him. It was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, it wasn't painful - it was tingly and vibrant, almost numb. She intrigued him even more as he watched her silently trace her fingers over the mark that had changed his life. She looked up at him with pity, understanding and remorse. They gazed into each other's eyes for some time, and she wouldn't let his arm go, and it had gone completely numb without falling asleep or being painful.
"Draco, I…I'm so sorry!" she finally said very quietly, looking at the floor with his arm still in her hands.
"It's alright. It's in the past now. This is why I'm trying to get people to understand, to realize that I'm not that person, not anymore. I haven't been since my 5th year at Hogwarts. You have given me hope." He said to her sincerely.
"But I'm only one person. I don't even know why I gave in to letting you tell me your story, and no offence, but I really don't think other people will be as kind and forgiving as I am." She said meeting his gaze.
"It doesn't even matter. If I could change one person's mind like I have yours that is enough. I can never repay you for giving me this chance."
She looked at him in new eyes. Never in her life would she have imagined pitying Draco Malfoy, almost caring about him and his past. And then something she never would have expected happened. They kissed.
He didn't know whether it was him, or her or both of them, or how it happened, but somehow their lips met. At first it was soft and sweet, then as they went on it become passionate and more vigorous until she stopped.
"What am I DOING!?" she said in shock, "this is wrong! This can't be happening!"
He just stared at her, not knowing what to say.
"There's no way! This didn't just –!" and mid way through her babble and denial he kissed her again, and she kissed him back.
They kissed a vigorous and passionate kiss and he gently pushed her back onto the couch and he lay on top of her, and shockingly – she didn't resist! They kissed until they were out of breath, and then broke apart. He got up off of her and they separated disgruntled.
"Umm I think I should go." He said getting up and walking towards the stairs.
She got up and followed him, when he turned around almost bumping into her. "I forgot to ask you what your name was. I mean I saw the sign, but yeah…"
"Brooke Coles." She said gazing into his eyes.
"Brooke…" he said hearing himself say her name. They stared at each other for a while and till he said, "I really should go."
But instead of leaving they just stood there and stared at each other. After a few minutes he leaned in and kissed her ever so softly, and the turned and left.