Just a little Draco one-shot I came up with. I don't know if I like it… Umm… Anyways. If HBP didn't exist, Draco would definitely be out of character. But since HBP does exist… I'm not sure whether he's out of character or not. You be the judge.

The title 'Detour' came, as you've probably guessed from the Chapter Six title, 'Draco's Detour'. I actually thought it was called that, because Draco would be swapping sides, or something similar to that. (I still don't really understand why it's called 'Draco's Detour'. Oh, well.)

December 11th, 2005; slightly edited. Thank you for all your reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Or some couples in HBP would never have happened. -cough-

Warnings: Mild swearing. Nothing you guys can't handle.

Detour

"It is our choices that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

---Albus Dumbledore

"Draco!"

The young teen panted slightly, as he Apparated in the middle of the sitting room, narrowly missing one of the house elves, who squeaked in terror and ran away as fast as he could. After checking if he still had all of his body parts attached to him, which was the case, fortunately, Draco straightened himself, pushing back a white blonde lock of hair; he decided that Apparition was not good for his hair. Finally, he looked the owner of the voice, his surprised mother, in the eyes.

"Hello, mother," he said, trying to sound casual. Aside from the slight – but barely noticeable, he thought – tremor in his voice, he reckoned he did quite well.

"What… Why…" His mother seemed at a total loss of words.

"I've Apparated from outside Hogwarts. Just outside the gates," Draco said, as though this was what his mother wanted to know.

"D-Did you really?" His mother sat down in one of the velvet, green fauteuils, beckoning him to sit down, too. He did.

"Snape will be here soon." Draco didn't look at her. He didn't want her to see the uneasiness he felt whenever he mentioned or thought of the greasy-haired man. Instead, he looked at his fingers, which he, for some odd reason that absolutely had nothing to do with his conscience, imagined to have bloodstains on them. He winced slightly.

"Snape…" She murmured, almost inaudible. Draco felt his stomach twist and turn. He looked at his mother out of the corner of his eye. She stood up rather abruptly, and walked towards the nearest window, placing her thin fingers gently on the glass. Her breath and fingers left foggy stains on the cold window. She turned around, looking down on her only son.

"Tell me what happened, Draco." His mother's voice was soft and quiet, unlike the scolding voice he usually heard. Feeling his mother's intense gaze on him, he looked up. To his immense surprise, his mother looked worried, even frightened. But the thing that startled him the most, were the tears that seemed to be forming in his young mother's eyes.

"Dumbledore was…" Draco's heart started beating louder and faster, just like it did when it happened when on the Astronomy Tower. It was then, when Snape forced him to run, that he realized the damage this war would bring. "Snape ki—"

But he was interrupted by a loud crack.

"Severus!" his mother exclaimed, sounding rather relieved. She quickly wiped away the upcoming tears. "Draco told me you were coming."

"How nice of him," said Snape, his voice drawling, his expression bored. And suddenly, Draco couldn't stand to hear his voice, to see his face. In fact, at that very moment, he hated everything there was to hate about the hook-nosed man.

Yet Draco failed to understand why.

He had always seen Snape as his favourite professor – though not necessarily because he had actually liked him – maybe just a little – but because Snape always favoured the Slytherins, because he was a close friend of his father and because he was a Death Eater. So where did this sudden dislike of the ex-professor come from?

"Come sit, Severus… What happened?" his mother said, eyeing his tattered, blood-stained robes. "Your robes… so are Draco's…"

Snape didn't sit down, like Draco's mother asked him to. Draco wasn't even sure he heard her. The entire time he looked at Draco, making him feel very uncomfortable under his harsh look. Draco turned his face away.

"We've had a little—" Snape paused, "—incident."

Draco snorted. His mother turned her head to look at him with questioning eyes; Snape kept looking at him with that awful gaze of his.

Glaring at Snape, hoping the dark-eyed man would stop looking at him, he said in an aggressive sort of voice, "I'm going to my room."

Snape, seemingly unfazed by Draco's snorting and glaring, stopped him. "No, you're not." Draco hardened his glare, his grey eyes narrowing. "Despite the incident, there is still a good chance that the Order of the Phoenix has sent some of their members to find us. The Malfoy Manor is not a good place to hide; there are too many people who know its location. I'd rather want for us to go to my house. It is protected by the Fidelius Charm. And as to be expected, I am the Secret Keeper. The only ones who know the location of my house are the Dark Lord, the other Death Eaters and their wives, like yourself, Narcissa, and…" He paused for a moment. "Dumbledore."

"Then your house is not safe, as well!" Draco's mother argued, having no idea of the horrible death that occurred not too long ago on the Astronomy Tower. "If Dumbledore knows… Whether he trusts you or not… Surely he'll visit your house!"

"He won't," said Draco quietly. He stared at the imaginary bloodstains on his hands again.

"What?" His mother sounded confused. "Severus." She turned again. "What happened?"

For a while, Snape said nothing. Draco couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking at the moment. To know that he was the murderer of a powerful wizard, who was loved by all… He shuddered slightly at the thought of millions of wizards and witches coming after you, for killing – as most saw him – their leader.

"Severus? …Severus? Sev—"

"One of the Dark Lord's wishes has been fulfilled." Snape's voice sounded oddly monotonous. When Draco looked up again, he noticed the unusual expression on Snape's face – blank.

"One of the Dark Lord's wishes…?" she said slowly. "The Potter boy…? Or…" Upon seeing the slight flicker in Snape's eyes when she trailed off, her eyes widened. "Dumbledore? He's… dead?"

"Yes. I killed him."

"I'm going up to my room," said Draco again, before his mother could speak, walking further. He didn't want to hear any of it. His stomach was already squirming uncomfortably, and if it continued squirming, he was afraid he might vomit.

"No, you're—" Snape, who seemed to come to his senses, protested, but Draco cut him off.

"You're not stopping me. What's the harm, anyway? The whole lot of them is probably grieving over Dumbledore—" his stomach squirmed "—they won't look for us 'til tomorrow. Besides, I'm only going up there for a few minutes."

Snape didn't say anything, so Draco assumed he was given permission. On the stairway, he heard his mother mumble, "Dumbledore. Dead. And here I was, thinking he couldn't die."

Oddly enough, Draco couldn't help but agree.

"NO!" Draco yelled, getting more frustrated by the minute. "I don't want any damn tea! Just go the fuck away!"

The elf he had been yelling to, gave a terrified and squeaky apology. "Milly is so sorry, sir! So sorry!" She bowed, her large ears flopping. "Milly will go the fuck away now, sir!" And with that, she walked away rather hurriedly, almost tripping.

Draco rolled his eyes, not feeling sorry for the frightened house elf at all. He opened the door to his ridiculously large bedroom. He shut the door, dragging his feet towards his large, four-poster bed and letting himself fall on it tiredly.

Never had he expected this. Well, actually, he had expected this – it was what the Dark Lord wanted him to do, after all – but he didn't expect the strange feelings that seemed to be erupting like a volcano inside him.

Was this how guilt felt? This nagging feeling… Dumbledore constantly popping up in his head, looking weaker than ever… That green flash of light…

Why did he care? Why did he care about the ex-Headmaster's death? He hated the old, Muggle-loving fool, didn't he? And he respected the ex-Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, didn't he?

So then why…

"I haven't got any options!" His own panicked voice. "I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"

Normally, he wouldn't have acted like this. He was a Malfoy, and Malfoys do not panic, nor do they have outbursts. But he didn't care at that time – nor did he now – he just needed to get his frustrations out. But Dumbledore had just looked at him with that calm expression, though he looked considerably weaker than usual.

"…I can help you, Draco."

"No, you can't," he had said. Clutching tightly onto his wand, his hand had started shaking horribly. "Nobody can. He told me to do it, or he'll kill my family. I've got no choice."

But Dumbledore's expression never changed. Despite his state, his expression stayed calm the entire time, even looking kind and pitying at times.

"Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine."

He remembered that he had looked at him, unbelieving. On the one hand, he thought Dumbledore was even more stupid than he had thought. On the other hand…Dumbledore was a powerful wizard…He would be lying if he said that he didn't think the offer was tempting…It was extremely tempting, in fact, especially for someone who didn't want to live in fear anymore…Because for some reason, he found the thought of being one of the Dark Lord's Death Eaters more frightening than joining the side of the Order of the Phoenix. He knew that if he were to be in a life-threatening situation, he would be able to count on the Order of the Phoenix members. The Death Eaters would leave him to die. And then, just as he was ready to drop his wand…

Was that the reason why he cared about Dumbledore's death? Why he suddenly hated Snape so much? Because Dumbledore had cared about him? Or because Snape took away what was possibly his only chance at freedom? Either way, it mattered to him. Dumbledore… Dumbledore's death mattered to him.

Draco's light grey eyes widened slightly at his thoughts. His treacherous thoughts. What if the Dark Lord would use Legilimency on him? He would definitely find out, wouldn't he…? Then he would most definitely die…

Avada Kedavra…The Killing Curse…

And then, all of a sudden, his worries disappeared. He didn't care anymore. He decided then, that he would swap sides. He knew that he would be considered a traitor. But with the heavy guilt inside him, after treating Dumbledore so badly, even though he had been kind to him… Draco couldn't bear it.

Of course, he still had to tell his mother… But she had never really supported the Dark Lord. She had simply supported his father, who in turn, supported the Dark Lord. His father would not want to swap sides, he was sure of it. Maybe his mother wouldn't want to, as well. He didn't know.

But despite the complicated problems that he knew would stand in the way, he told himself that everything would work out. He promised himself.

An Unbreakable Vow…he thought ironically to himself.

Smirking to himself, thinking how much of a caring and emotional fool he had turned into this year, he grabbed a fine, grey quill and a piece of parchment, and scribbled down:

To Potter…

Ta-dah! If you liked it, please review! If you didn't like it… please review, anyways! And tell me what you didn't like about it. (If it's about the whole out of character thing, I'll probably agree with you.) I like long, detailed reviews. -hinthint-

-Kaze