Smoke & Sunsets
Written for Professor Flitwick's Prompt of the Day on the Hogwarts Online Forum
Prompt(s): Last day of summer and sunset
When that sun is setting, you know it's all over. Once it goes down, disappearing beyond the horizon, you know that you're doomed.
Of course, you know it'll rise again. Still, you can't help but think how different it's all going to be from here on.
Oh my. You're in trouble now, Draco Malfoy.
It's not like you ever intended for it to happen, but happen it did, and you're stuck, sealed in by wards that you have no chance of breaking.
There's ice, running through your Pureblood veins, freezing you to the very core. However, there's something else there, etched deeply into your skin, something that can't be washed away like ink or dirt, something that will remind of your downfall for the rest of your life.
You boasted about it at one time, didn't you? 'Draco Malfoy: The youngest Death Eater in the history of the Dark Lord's upheaval' you said, a smug grin on your face, as per usual. God, if only you'd known how it would turn out. You'd have run away, intent on never returning.
Punishment.
You're in this state because of it. Because of your fathers mistake. Because of his failure. You know you're going to die if you fail. Your entire family will.
Mother.
She's always been there for you, always cared for you. You adore her more than anyone else in the entire world. You can't end her life, can you?
It's all a flash of dark rituals and burning heat. Smouldering, creeping its way in to your innocent mind. It may not seem like it, after all the things you've done, but that's what you are: innocent.
Your worlds become a hue of dark colours, with only those in the sunset breaking through. It's simple, it's Technicolor, and it's beautiful.
So much changes in the space of such a short time, just like your life. Amongst the hues of purple, blue, yellow, orange and red, you see something there that's inside you.
There's no green in a sunset is there? It strikes you as funny. The one colour that means more to you than any other in the entire world has nothing to do with that image of perfection.
Glass is going to shatter and lives are going to be lost. You know this. It's been drummed into your mind enough times.
You can pretend it's just a simple children's game, but it's not. You can't stop playing this time whenever your get tired or bored. It's going to haunt your conscience and scuttle away into the corners of your thoughts, always there, waiting to scuttle back again.
A Vanishing cabinet, a lightning struck tower and death. These are what lie ahead.
There's nothing you can do except fight. You don't want to, it's clear, but when you picture your mothers smiling face, you want to break down. Watching her get murdered… It seems unimaginable.
There's only so long you can hide behind that mask of yours, and already it's starting to crack, and I'm certain that no simple murmur of 'reparo' is going to fix it.
The end of a season, the end of a childhood, the end of innocence. Your world is going to end in flames and tears, and who are you to stop it?
You've lost every battle, and you're going to lose the war, too.
Until then, the sunset it your only friend, Draco Malfoy. It can't hug you, or help you, or reply to your cries, but it's there. It's the end of a summer, the end of a season, but the sunset is still there.
For now, at least...
Not my best, but not my worst either. Leave a review with your thoughts, I just love the Black/Malfoy family, it has such brilliant writing potential; So many twisted minds to delve into! You can expect many more fics about them from me in the future, I'm sure.
