Draco woke to the insistent pats slapped onto his cheeks. Still in his beautiful slumber; he groaned and turned to his other side, smacking the person's hand away.

"Wake up! Wake up, oh dear Draco…" It was a lady's voice set on an anxious tone. But he cared less. Draco continued snoring.

And among the lovely dreams he had been having tonight, the sound of a female sobbing came across his consciousness. Mother. It sounded just like Mother and her useless sniffles whenever he was sent off to Hogwarts. But no, he was only due for Hogwarts the next month…

He bolted right up off bed, his eyes huge and vacant when he realized his mother was crouched at his bedside, crying as if she was truly, in her worst denial. He smirked. It must be something about Father having an affair with his young secretary again. Draco hated it whenever his father hurt Mother. To speak the truth, he never loved Lucius Malfoy. As much as he hated to admit, he feared Lucius. He was a Death Eater. He bore the mark. Not someone Draco wanted to trifle with. So he followed everything Father ordered him to; but Mother was the only one he truly loved in this dreadful world that holds no meaning for life for him at all. He only lived for his mother, whom he knew, would cry her eyes dry and bloody if he were to die.

"Oh, dear Draco! My baby!" he winced. "You are finally awake! Hurry off now, here, wear your coat, we have a long journey ahead." Fear and anxiety were scrawled all over his mother's face, and tears were still flowing freely down her cheeks. The young Malfoy also noticed that she lacked her usual make up. Narcissa never went anywhere without her make up, but now Draco also noticed that whatever his mother was hyperventilating about was true. Because there was a large suitcase right beside her, and both of their coats at her right hand.

"Mother? Where are we going? What happened?"

Narcissa had no time to answer her son's questions. Hastily she pulled him out of bed and forced his coat over him. "Now, Malfoy, look at me." He looked at his mother's puffy blue eyes, wondering whether she had gone mentally deranged or something. She had not. He could see the sanity and the calmness in her eyes. "I can't explain it to you now, because we have no time left. I need you to follow me, and trust me in whatever I do."

Mutely, he nodded and followed his mother out of the house as she levitated the suitcase with her wand and they drove her car; out into the darkness of the brooding night.


Draco Malfoy, the poor boy who had no idea of what is happening, found himself in Hogwarts; apparently a month earlier before school reopens.

And he was in Dumbledore's office.

With his crazy mother.

Who was speaking with Professor Dumbledore in such low voices that he had already given up trying to eavesdrop on them.

He started playing with Fawkes with the tip of his finger, and marveled when she (was it a she?) crumbled into ashes, and a few moments later was reborn again. He saw the sorting hat at the shelf above Dumbledore's desk, and the various portraits of old headmasters and mistresses of Hogwarts hung on the walls. They seemed to be sleeping, because he swore he can hear faint snores. Funny how pictures kept these extraordinary characters alive. Draco suddenly wondered whether witches and wizards ever missed their deceased family members. They could just talk to them in their photographs. He wondered even more, and found himself pondering upon the fact of losing his mother one day. Emptiness started gnawing at his heart, and he cursed his imagination away.

"Alright, Mr. Malfoy. Your mother and I have come to a conclusion. You shall stay in Hogwarts to be kept safe until the school opens the next month." Dumbledore's deep voice suddenly interjecting into his reverie. Draco was sure that he looked confused, for Narcissa gave a nervous laughter before saying, "Sorry, Professor Dumbledore, but I have told my son nothing yet." Dumbledore peered at Draco through his crescent shaped glasses, and then glanced at Draco's mother with very, very light blue mysterious eyes before giving a slight nod. Then he took his seat behind his desk, and Draco's mother started speaking.

"Draco, long ago when I married your father and known that he is a Death Eater, I have known that this fate would befall upon you someday." She took a deep breath, an all too familiar way of steeling herself for a coming blow. This is no good, Draco thought to himself. "I used to think that was what I wanted. To join forces and work under the hand of the Dark Lord. I thought if you were to become a Death Eater someday too, it would be a blessing, and not a curse. Even though I was not a Dark Eater, I supported Lucius in his assignments. I thought that as a form of support for the Dark Lord. I felt protected. We, Lucius and I, felt protected by the Dark Lord's immense power. And then I had you, Draco, and you were such a beautiful baby, your hair the softest I had ever seen, and your innocent grey eyes looking back at me. I tried to imagine you serving the Lord, and I couldn't."

A tear trickled down Narcissa's cheek and Draco felt a stinging in his eyes too. He balled his fists at his side, verily aware that Dumbledore was watching his every move.

"I couldn't imagine you killing, Draco. I looked into your beautiful eyes and I knew you were meant to do beautiful things. Not dark magic. I thought I failed everyone, including my sister, Bellatrix and my husband, Lucius. Your birth changed me. I never wanted to do anything bad again. But of course I could not disclose this to anyone. I continued playing my role of a supportive but stupid wife. I let Lucius teach you things he wanted you to learn. I let him bring you up to become this… bully." Her eyes softened. "But I believed that beneath your cold exterior there is something greater, something good, something beautiful. I knew everything you did in school; every misdeed, especially to Harry Potter and his friends." Draco managed to stifle a snigger. Now was not a time to interrupt his mother. "And just recently, I overheard Lucius talking to Bellatrix, discussing about your becoming of a Death Eater. And that was when I knew the time has come. That this was the time I have to protect you. That finally I can do my duty as a mother who loves her son. I bring you here, because I know Hogwarts is safe from the threat of the Death Eaters. Including your father." She said the last bit softly and let out her breath, relieved that all she had wanted to say was out, and watched for Draco's reaction. There was only silence and a devoid of emotions in his cold, grey eyes. Oh, how she hoped to see the warmth that was absent in her son's seventeen years!

"Draco?" Suddenly a horrific thought crossed Narcissa's mind. "You – you… You don't want to be a Death Eater, do you?"

Draco Malfoy finally closed his eyes.

And when he opened it again, they were brimming with tears. Tears he never shed to hide his weakness. Tears he had wanted to shed because he was human.

"No, Mother," he whispered, shaking his head vigorously, then dropping to his knees, holding his head in his hands. His tears were flowing more freely now. There was no point in holding them back anymore. "No, no, thank you, Mother." A changed Narcissa knelt down beside her son, as she stroked his white blond hair, but only now this was not the same young boy she used to adore. Not the same boy whose hair she had stroked so many times.

This was her son; a young man with a beautiful heart he will soon discover; her son, who was about to become a better man.