This story is dedicated to luvdarkarts, the love of my life, whom I got to know through this story!

I love you, little one!

AD FINEM - UNTIL THE END

I don´t own the characters appearing in this fanfiction and am by no means making money from this.

The rights of 'Harry Potter' belong to Joanne K. Rowling.

summary:

Draco Malfoy failed to kill Dumbledore. The consequences are not exactly what he expected.

This story depicts how hate can turn into love.

(Capture-bonding is a mental process, which allows a person being captured to dump previous emotional attachments to build new social bonds to the capturer to be able to survive. It is an evolutionary developed process, explaining why throughout time people gave up and joined the tribe that had captured them and sometimes had killed most of their relatives. The intense reward from sexual practices such as BDSM derives from activation of the capture-bonding psychological mechanism. Capture-bonding is also used in army basic training, fraternity hazing and accounts also for the battered person syndrom. Hail Wikipedia! ;-) )

DM/LV DM/SS DM/HP

warnings: HBP spoilers, slash, spanking/caning, non-con, violence, torture, character death, smut galore!

Chapter 1

COWARDICE

"Run, Draco!" Snape´s voice sounded hard and angry.

Draco was painfully aware of that Snape had killed Dumbledore in his stead because he himself had been too cowardly to fulfil his Lord´s order. Snape had every right to be angry on him, having forfeited everything because of Draco´s failure, but more than being afraid of Snape Draco was awash in panic when he thought about how angry the Dark Lord would be.

Draco´s heart was pounding as curses whizzed past his head, eerily beautiful like fireworks in the night sky. His feet stamped heavily, feeling as if they belonged to someone else entirely, the erratic beat of his heart louder in his ears than the shouts of battle in his back. Where was Snape? Draco didn´t dare to turn around to look for him. It would be his end if he tripped and fell down. His ticket to Azkaban. Maybe they could get a family suite of holding cells for Malfoy senior and junior to share, but Draco was sure that the interior design would hardly be worthy a Malfoy.

He had to get past the wards, as nobody could Apparate from Hogwarts´ grounds. Not that he was able to Apparate without splitting himself when being this anxious. He was in fact not able to do much at all as he had proved clearly on top of that accursed tower. He was a failure. Draco felt like crying and laughing at the same time. He had failed. Gods, he had failed!

His sight became blurry as tears threatened to spill from his eyes. He could hardly make out the shape of the gates marking the boundary of Hogwart´s grounds and the border of the wards. Draco hid behind the first tree outside the gates, his breath heaving, his shaking hands clutching the rough bark as if his life depended on it.

Draco´s eyes widened as he watched a Hippogriff pursuing Snape. He could clearly remember the blasted creature from his third year, the injuries he had sustained had left scars on his arm. Could it be the same one? Who knew if Dumbledore had hidden that Hippogriff away from justice at that time...

Dumbledore. Draco moaned as he remembered the happenings again. Dumbledore had offered him protection. If only he had accepted that offer. But now the headmaster was dead. Nobody left to be able to protect him from the Dark Lord any longer. Snape, maybe Snape would...

Draco shook his head, biting his lower lip. Snape had killed Dumbledore when Draco had not been able to. His life in Hogwarts, his cover as a spy, his shelter in Hogwarts - destroyed because of Draco. Snape had killed Dumbledore without hesitation, a look of hatred on his face. Dumbledore had trusted Snape implicitly, and still Snape had killed his mentor without a second thought. Draco frowned. Maybe it was better not to trust Snape with his life.

The Hippogriff turned and flew back towards the castle as soon as Snape had reached the protection of the trees. Other Death Eaters where still running down the hill towards him and Snape.

"Draco! Where are you, foolish boy?" Snape hissed into the dark.

Draco left the shadow of his tree only hesitantly as he saw the wild fury on Snape´s partly blood-covered face. "I´m here." His voice sounded scratchy and low.

Snape turned towards him with the ever present elegant twirl, his robes billowing behind him. As Snape stalked to him at fast speed Draco swallowed and took a step back.

"I´m sorry..." Before he could finish saying whatever he was sorry for, Snape backhanded him so hard that Draco´s head hit the treetrunk beside him, the bark scratching his temple.

"Sorry is not good enough, foolish whelp!" Draco held his burning cheek, tears burning in his eyes as he stared at Snape with wide eyes.

Snape had never hit him before. Never! He was his godfather, always protective and supportive. Even when his father had been angry on him, Snape had still supported Draco. His father had sometimes slapped him, but Snape would never have done such a thing to his godson. It hurt Draco more than anything; it was not the physical but the emotional pain which hurt him most, the feeling of being abandoned. To mask his mortification he decided to concentrate on the anger he felt welling deep inside him.

"Why did you kill him? Our Lord ordered me to do it! I could have done it!" Draco shouted at Snape.

Snape´s face twisted into a sneer. "You could not! Even your own mother knew that and made me swear an unbreakable vow to finish your job if, or shall I say when, you failed! Which you obvioulsy did! You have no idea how much you destroyed with your cowardice."

The look of loathing on Snape´s face directed at him was almost too much to bear for Draco and he could not hold back the sob shaking his frame. The other Death Eaters who had managed to escape the battle had reached them by now--Amycus, Alecto and Yaxley.

"You need not punish him, Snape, our Lord will want to take care of that." said the tall blonde with a cruel grin on his face.

Draco shuddered as he thought of what their vicious master might want to do to him. He had failed a direct order! Gods, he was going to die at the age of seventeen! Surely the Dark Lord would want to put him under Crutiatus first until he became a blubbering idiot like Longbottom´s parents.

Panic started to freeze his heart and lungs. Why had he not gone to Dumbledore earlier? The headmaster had offered protection. Now Dumbledore was dead, his last chance out of this misery. But what was he thinking, he was a marked Death Eater. Nobody who bore his Mark could escape the Dark Lord. He could find and kill them anywhere through the Mark as the rumour had it. Even if he ran, Voldemort would still kill his mother. Draco shuddered, praying to whatever deity would have mercy on him, that it wouldn´t hurt too much!

"Where are Greyback and Gibbon?" Snape asked the others, his black, beady eyes vigilant as they scanned their surrounding.

"They didn´t make it out. The Order people--how did they know that we were to attack tonight?" whined Alecto, nervously playing with her wand.

"Enough! We will apparate to the Mansion now! If they can make it out they will follow." Snape grabbed Draco´s upper arm harshly and apparated them away.

They were pulled through swirling colours and sounds, wind whistling through their hair, before their feet touched the ground miles away from Hogwarts. Draco almost stumbled when he reappeared beside a small graveyard in the back of the dark Riddle House. Snape was still holding his arm, unkindly pulling him along as he walked up to the abandoned looking mansion with long strides. Behind them three pops were heard, disturbing the tranquil place as their fellow Death Eaters materialized.

It was a dark and moonless night, the crickets´song the only sound besides their heavy boots stomping over the uneven ground. No Lumos was used to enlighten their path, and Draco stumbled twice on stones lying in his way. They entered the house, Snape muttering a complex spell to allow them entrance through the back door, heading straight to a naked wall hiding the stairs leading to the basement.

Draco had been there only once before, the night Lord Voldemort had marked him and given him his order to kill Dumbledore and provide a possibility for his fellow deatheaters to enter Hogwarts. How proud of himself Draco had been that night. Getting the Dark Mark and an important mission at the age of sixteen had been something unheard of before among the Death Eaters.

His mother however had not looked as happy as Draco, although she tried to fool him with a forced smile. A fact that had made Draco annoyed at that time, but now Draco could not help the feeling that his mother had known something then, which had been hidden to him until the desaster had hit him full force in the face tonight. Draco was a coward.

With a wave of Snape´s hand a part of the wall moved aside with a low rumble and allowed them entrance to the long staircase leading them into the depths under the mansion--to the secret dungeon of Riddle House where all Death Eater meetings were held and sometimes also people were tortured and executed. Draco was sure that he would be one of those unfortunate souls who had to enjoy the less desirable aspect of the hospitality of Riddle House.

He was thinking about escape, but he was sure that he would never be able to make it out alive. Maybe his Lord would not kill him. He had managed to repair the Vanishing Cabinet and made it possible in the first place for the Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts. He had tried to kill Dumbledore, but he was still a boy. He had never killed anybody in his life and to start with Dumbledore had unfortunately not been a good test for his Death Eater skills. But he had been able to hold Madame Rosmerta under Imperius successfully. His achievements had to be worth something, Draco thought desperately. Still his whole body was shaking with fear.

They went into the assembly hall or the throne room as Draco called it, where the Dark Lord already slouched on a large throne-like chair made of ebony wood with intricate carvings of screaming faces, skulls and bones. Their master idly twirled his wand in his hand as he watched them entering. Draco shuddered as crimson eyes met his, immediately looking bashfully at the ground, afraid that the creature upon the throne would be able to read his failure in his eyes.

"Draco!" Draco´s head jumped up and his eyes searched for the person who had called his name--his mother. Two Death Eaters restrained her on the other side of the room. She had tears in her beautiful blue eyes as she looked Draco over, searching for any injuries.

"You are alive, thank Merlin!" she whispered with a smile on her face.

Draco returned the smile, happy to see his mother, but deep inside he was terrified of what her presence here at Riddle House would mean. He remembered the Dark Lord´s threat to kill his whole family if he could not fulfil his task. Draco loved his mother dearly; even though they were not a cuddling family, he still loved her with all his heart. A burning chill settled in his chest, as he thought about the possibility to have caused his mother´s death sentence.

The Death Eaters moved to stand in a half circle around their Lord´s throne, Snape with Draco still in his grip exactly opposite their Lord.

"Report, Snape!" hissed the ill nature radiating figure, staring at them with crimson eyes.

"Dumbledore is dead, but we had to leave Greyback and Gibbon behind as the Order interfered." The Dark Lord nodded, satisfied, seemingly indifferent to the apparent loss of two of his minions.

"At last, Dumbledore is gone. Good, very good!" He got up from his chair and walked over to them, grabbing Draco´s chin with his left hand. The crimson-eyed creature raised Draco´s face to meet his gaze, as Draco, although tall, reached only to the chin of the snake-faced monster.

"Draco, did you fullfil my order and kill Dumbledore or did he die by somebody else´s hand?" his master hissed quietly, twisting his lipless mouth into a parody of a grin.

Draco froze, his eyes transfixed by the sinister red slits of the monster in front of him. For some seconds he thought his heart had stopped beating and his lungs refused to take in the much needed oxygen. Finally he managed to take a shuddering breath and whispered "I´m sorry, my Lord!"

The Dark creature didn´t lose his smile as he hissed "I thought as much!" Then he lightly let go of Draco´s chin and turned around, lazily lifting his wand.

"Avada Kedavra!" the almost bored tone of the Dark Lord confused Draco at first, but when he saw his mother crumbling to the ground he understood.

"NO! Please, no! Mother!" Draco screamed and fought desperately against Snape and McNair who were both holding him to stop him from running to his mother. The Dark Lord turned around and backhanded him with an irate expression on his face. Draco froze, his very soul shrinking back from the mad light shining in those crimson eyes.

"Shut up! It is your fault that she had to die, you knew that this would happen if you did not obey my command!" the snake-faced ruler of the Dark side hissed; then he turned around again and pointed his wand at the corpse of the beautiful blond woman who had once been Draco´s mother.

"Incendio!" Draco could only watch, his mind frozen, tears blurring his sight, as his mother´s body caught fire. When the stench of burning flesh and hair started to fill the large room, Draco bent forward, heaving. Snape and McNair let go of his arms, cursing and stepping aside, as they did not want vomit to stain their clothes or shoes. Draco fell onto hands and knees bringing up the few he had in his stomach, heaving and sobbing until just acid was left to spit out.

Lord Voldemort was sitting on his throne again, watching with interest how Malfoy´s boy broke down. The snickering of some of his Death Eaters at the boy´s misery combined with the merry spitting of the cremation fire and Draco´s retching provided a cheerful music for the Dark Lord´s entertainment.

When Draco´s stomach had stopped rolling, his godfather scourgified the grey stone floor and helped him to stand up. Draco took one last look at his mother´s corpse. By now there was only a shrivelled, smoking, black clump not even the size of a skeleton left. The stench in the hall was unbelievable. The cruel despot got up and walked into the middle of the circle.

"Draco, Draco, Draco!" Draco looked up with red rimmed eyes showing despair and hatred.

"Evanesco!" His Lord vanished the smoking corpse and turned towards Draco again.

"You disappointed me! But I didn´t expect anything less from you. You are still a child. " Draco felt dead inside, shock having dulled his senses.

"Why did you kill her then?" he whispered. The Dark Lord´s face distorted to something akin to rage.

"She was not good for you! She spoiled you with her protectiveness. You can become one of my best, but first you have to learn your place. I am your family from now on! I will teach you everything you need to know and bring you up as I would my own child!" Draco stared at the Dark Lord with disbelief.

"I have a father already!" The Dark Lord´s answering laughter chilled Draco to the bone.

"Your father is dead!" his Lord hissed venomously into his face, his red eyes shining with unadulterated malice. "You have no family any longer, just as I promised you! The Malfoy Manor, the vaults and everything else were transferred to my name just before you turned seventeen last week. All you have left is me!"

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Coming ahead in the next chapter of Ad Finem - Until The End:

Draco has to suffer the repercussions for failing to complete his task and get´s a first glimpse at how the Dark Lord plans to train him.