When They Attack

It was the Christmas holidays. I had had a choice, spend the festivities in the cold halls of Malfoy manor or at Hogwarts, my home, the one place I was accepted. Mother was very disappointed that I wasn't returning home for the yuletide season that year, father was very disappointed in me, period so the letter said. That time the year before, that would have hurt, but not then, I just threw the letter into the waste bin where it belonged. 11 years of my life I had spent striving for that man's affection, striving for his love and the more he rejected me the more I had needed it. But not anymore, not after I had seen what he'd done to her after everything she'd given up for him.

FLASHBACK

I am 11 years old, it's the summer holidays and I'm lazing around in my bedroom at Malfoy manor, it's late, too late I should be in bed, but Father isn't home and I don't like to sleep until he's there, his presence makes me feel safe, protected. Finally the door slams. I hear my mother say something but it's too mumbled to make out, voices are raised, I sit there terrified, just a scared little boy, I've never heard them row like this, I've never heard them row .Ever. I hear something smash, frightened for my parent's safety I rush to the stairs. I sit like a little child on the stop step peering through the railings, I see her, my beautiful mother, my beautiful, loving, caring mother, on her knees in front of my father, she stares up at him, tears in her eyes, blood trickling down her face.

"You were with her weren't you" she whispers.

"What do you expect" he spat at her "how long was it since we made love?"

Draco closed his eyes to block out the mental image.

"A man has needs you know, and when his wife fails to meet those needs…" he paused and smirked at the quivering figure before him "he has to look elsewhere"

"I'm sorry Lucius, please I can change," she begged "its just been so hard for me since, since…since I lost her"

I closed my eyes against my weeping mother.

"You can change, can you?" smirked the elder man "what better time than the present"

He roughly kissed his wife, she tried pushing him away, but she was no match for his strength.

"Narcissa," he said, feigning astonishment "what way is that to make amends?" He smiled at the wriggling form beneath him "I think it's time we got reacquainted don't you?

With that he slid his hands underneath his wife's skirt, all the time keeping her pinned to the floor and ignoring her pleas for mercy. I fled my vantage point on the stairs not wanting to witness anymore. The next day I confronted my father, I pinned him to the wall and told him what I had seen, I told him if he ever laid a finger on my mother again I'd kill him. He smirked at me, a smirk I'd tried so many times to emulate.

"You're mother enjoyed every minute of it" he said silkily "she begged me to do it, over and over and over again"

I whipped my wand out of my cloak "One more word…" I warned him jabbing into his throat.

He twisted it out of my hand and used it to send me spinning into the opposite wall.

"And what?" He asked approaching me, he laughed at the look on my face and tossed me my wand. "God you're almost pathetic as her." And with his trademark smirk and the sweeping

of his black cloak he was gone. I put my hand to the back of my head where I had hit the wall, it was damp. Blood. I stared at the red on my hand until it blurred, as, for the first time in my

life, I burst into tears.

END OF FLASHBACK

We have never spoken of it again, but after that my family has fallen apart around me, I have keptup the macho, Malfoy image at school, I have to, everything, my house, my friends, my future

depends on it. There is no other path for a Malfoy than a service to the dark lord, no one else in themagical community will even contemplate offering the son of a well-known death eater an honestjob, it would be madness. No my life is laid out before me, protection from my Father will keep me alive, and as a servant of he-who-cannot-be-named, even an unwilling one, my place in the newworld is assured.

A/N: I'm sorry about the rape implication, I felt it was necessary to give Draco a reason to be alienated from his father for purposes that will be revealed later in the story. Any reviews would be appreciated but id prefer they weren't flames however, should you feel the need, feel free, I need something to

roast the marshmallows over on Bonfire night. Also i checked my spelling and grammar as best I could but doubtlessly some mistakes got through so i apologise.