Characters borrowed by:
Perpetual Thoughts and MeaningDisastrous Dragon
"There's a shadow just behind me, shrouding every step I take, making every promise empty, pointing every finger at me. Waiting like a stalking butler who upon the finger rests."- Sober, by Tool
Prologue--
Draco's POV
Mother had been out of it, but I didn't ever think she was daft or messed up in the head, I just thought she hadn't eaten much. Well, when she locked herself up in her room, I knew then she had gone off the deep end…
So, I decided to tell the elves to give her food, and I realised a startling fact.
"Th-the missus said she wasn't hungry," Twinkie stuttered, and I could see him twitching from my glare.
"Did she say anything else?" I asked him, and the house elf shook his head, and I wandered away from him into the dining room, desperate to find anything meaningful to destroy.
Damn it, she's starving herself! I had realised, and gazed briefly into the open window at the bleeding wound in the sky, crimson mixing with yellow, bathing the trees with an eerie glow.
I inhaled shakily in my nose as I searched the room for something that mattered if I destroyed it, and I finally found the perfect thing.
It was an antique ivory sculpture of an angel, one in which the angel was holding a real wreath of flames. It had been beckoning me since I was five, and as I grasped my fingers around it, I paid mind to the dancing flames, eyeing the antique carefully.
"Say goodbye, I hope you can sacrifice your life for my mum's…" I whispered my prayer to it before chucking it into the dining room wall, where the flames gained a life of their own on a new house elf, I hadn't learnt its name yet, but when I strolled over to it, almost merrily, I saw it was burnt to the bone, it had been boiled alive, it's gaping eyes would haunt me until my dying days, its pillow case almost burnt off.
I took one of the crosses from a cabinet mum had kept all her religious things in, and laid the bulky golden cross over where I supposed the house elf's heart was, turned my back to it, and rested my head on the hard wall, my breath coming in short pants.
"Mum, I don't want you to do suicide," I whispered, closing my eyes tightly, swallowing down my tears.
Mum was always happy, she wasn't much of a pessimist, and she was usually optimistic…
"She loved him so much, and to have lost him…" I released a long sigh.
"Mr. Malfoy!"
I opened my eyes and settled them on Twinkie the house elf, and I arched my eyebrows at the humanistic expression of fear on his face.
"What?" I asked lazily, and I realised the elf was panicking.
"Miss Malfoy just said she left the mansion and everything to you--"
"SHIT!"
I barely heard the rest the elf said, because I was running up the stairs, just hoping I wasn't too late, but my realistic mind had already told me…
Dead, probably blood…
"Mum…"
I heard such horrid cries of pain from behind her large door, and I felt my eyes widening, and I pushed my ear to the wood, and listened in, my breath shallow and deep. I was afraid…
"Damn bloody dagger!"
That voice… No, it was too distressed, too full of emotion…
"Mum," I tried again, and I heard no sounds after that, and I felt something sticky under my socked feet, and I glanced down to see I was standing under a crimson lake, which was coming from the crack under her door…
"Go," her crackly voice commanded, but I had no choice, I kicked down the door, and walked inside her room, despite the aching in my feet and my mum…
She had been crying-- the trails were clear on her pale face, and I took a small step toward her, reaching my hand toward her small figure.
Her once pure white dress was crimson in places, and she had torn the sleeves off, and my eyes ran across the tracks, bumps, scrapes, cuts, and scratches she inflicted upon herself.
"Mother-- what have you done?" someone's crackly voice whispered, full of dread and obvious worries. It took me a moment to realise that had been me.
"I'm giving up, Draco."
"Mother…" I whispered, and she gazed up at me, her chocolate eyes aloof before they rolled to the back of her head.
I was too late… I thought, and gazed tearfully down at her, scooping her up into my arms and carrying her out of her dwelling and walked steadily down the stairs, choking down the hot bile that possessed my throat.
"Is she all right?" Twinkie asked, and I blinked away my tears and glanced over at him, a furious rage suddenly possessing me.
"SHE WOULDN'T BE DEAD IF YOU HADN'T TOLD ME EARLIER!!"
Twinkie twitched, and I stomped into the living room, placing her upon the green couch, breathing in deeply, the bile becoming harder to choke down.
She was dead.
No, she can't…
Suicide, we'd have to be in obscurity…
No-- me…
I was an orphan…
"S-sir, I didn't find out until now," he stammered, and I clenched my teeth, my fists balled tightly, and I couldn't stop the hot tears came flowing.
I turned to mum, bending down to stare into her chocolate eyes.
"Mother."
Her mouth wasn't going to open ever again, and while staring at her I realised that.
"I love you, Draco…"
I barely heard it, but she had said it-- she loved me…
I collapsed to my knees, taking her cold hand in mine, sobbing softly.
Two years later, Hogwarts, Draco's 7th year, normal POV
She was his one and only hate, she was the only person that drove him to insanity. She was the only person that made him want to hurt someone; she was the only person that made him want to hurt himself. Yet, she never noticed. Her laughter was a barrier to his cold hatred and he was repelled against her by her invisible barrier. She was the garlic; he was the vengeance-filled vampire wanting to destroy it.
She drove him to a drunken insanity; fire whiskey almost downed every night, trying to forget her laugh, her smile, and her gracefulness…
She never knew, ever. She only thought of him as the 'pure-blooded boy that was the bane of her existence' and he was glad, because he felt the same.
Moreover, she always did something to him, something that no one ever did. She made him cross when he had been playing around with his friends just mere moments before.
In addition, as the rain caressed his cheeks, he felt no remorse at all when he saw her with her friend. Touching, snogging, all intimate-like, in the Great Hall in front of everyone. She was not afraid at all, not frightened of what people might think... That only disgusted Draco further.
He knew what they called her now: "such a sluttish whore, almost worse than Parkinslut, the Queen of Flashing!" It seemed like his ex, Pansy was going to lose her crown, and Granger was not even half as good-looking!
Draco always put these things out of proportion, but he heard many rumours, and he had an odd pang to tell him to stop them. He had never heard Hermione Granger and those words in any sentence, but he once saw the girl snogging her boyfriend in the hall. Gryffindors, with their odd ways of showing affection...
Of course, when he stormed into the conversation, he would slap the girls and insult their ways. Telling them they should not start such gossip about their own kind, and would walk calmly away, as if he owned the place.
The rumours would become gradually worse, and would involve him and the Mudblood, so that when his father found out, he had the decency of cornering him about it where no one would see. Lucius knew his son better than might think-- they had a very tight connection.
"You and the mudblood girl?" he would calmly ask, and Draco would shake his blond head; his grey eyes fathomless.
"No, I don't feel anything toward her but anger, nothing else," he said firmly, his lips pursed in a straight line.
"Just be careful, the whore could do something, she even has some of the Slytherins falling for her. I know you saw your cousin gazing at her. Don't end up like that; we need to keep purity of blood in mind."
His father would lecture him, but Draco did not mind. He actually enjoyed his short time with his father-- he admired him, wanted to be exactly like him, and would not change that for the world. Everyone knew that, and he was proud.
"She's with that blond Ravenclaw anyway," Draco said coolly, interlacing his fingers and walking around the outside of the Great Hall doors.
"It makes me worried… Just don't fall for her-- we all know how you are with brunettes… Why won't you get back together with Pansy? You two seemed happy together in 5th year," his father commented, and Draco let out an exasperated sigh.
"Father, Pansy was snogging every sex-crazed male in school, and in fact she still is. A Malfoy can't be with someone with her kind of attitude," Draco pointed out rather bluntly, and his father scowled.
"Let's see... Perfect. How about you seduce Granger, then break her flimsy Gryffindor spirit by dumping her?"
"Father, that is the most idiotic plan you've come up with since-" Draco stopped himself from mentioning Tom Riddle's diary and the incident with the Weasley bitch.
"Just do it," his father snapped, and strode much as Draco would, out of the building calm and relaxed though Draco sensed he was worried.
Lucius Malfoy was never worried; he had barely shown any emotion since Draco's 5th year, when he had been sent to Azkaban. Even if it was only a week, Narcissa had committed suicide, and Draco had bribed the Ministry to take pity upon them for their loss, thus Lucius was released.
Draco put on his best mask, released a huge breath, and pushed open the doors to the Great Hall. He was welcomed by stares, glares, and fixed expressions of curiosity.
TBC
Hullo... I hope you enjoyed the prologue as much as I did writing it! Why don't you review and tell me what you think about this new version? Yes, I said new version. This was once another story called 'Life as the Abnormal One.' Oh, and could you please note I'm turning thirteen on the 16th of this month? Thanks for reading!