Outside

Author's note: Hello! I just have a few things to tell you before you read. First, I am very happy that you're reading, and please review! Second, this fic stars Draco, and if you have something against him, don't flame me. I warned you. And third, this installment is rather depressing. It describes a Death Eater's gathering in gory detail, which involves some rather nasty stuff. So don't read if you are really weak and you can't take it. Either way, I hope you enjoy!

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Outside

Prologue

It's hard to explain
Inherently, it's just always been strange
Neither here nor there
Always somewhat out of place everywhere
Ambiguous
Without a sense of belonging to touch
Somewhere halfway
Feeling there's no one completely the same

Standing alone
Eager to just believe
It's good enough to be what you really are
But in your heart
Uncertainty forever lies
And you'll always be
Somewhere on the outside

Early on you face the realization
You don't have a space
Where you fit in
And recognize you were born to exist

Standing alone
Eager to just believe
It's good enough to be what you really are
But in your heart
Uncertainty forever lies
And you'll always be
Somewhere on the outside

And it's hard
And it's hard
And it's hard

Irreversibly
Falling in between
And it's hard
And it's hard
To be understood
As you are
As you are

Oh, and God knows
That you're standing on your own
Blind and unguided
Into a world divided
You're thrown
Where you're never quite the same
Although you try
Try and try
To tell yourself you really are
But in your heart
Uncertainty forever lies
And you'll always be
Somewhere on the outside
You'll always be
Somewhere on the outside

            Draco looked out of the stained glass window in the library. Rain was pouring down in thick sheets over Hogwarts castle. How nice, the last years of my life will be rainy, he thought bitterly. A cold feeling of dread crept up from his stomach. He couldn't even concentrate on his studies without thinking about his unavoidable death. Any day now, he could come right now and I couldn't stop him, Draco's stomach was a freezing pit now.

            He was very familiar with this feeling of pure dread. He had felt it so often. When Lucius would beat him, when he was forced into Death Eater meetings, when he lost at a game of Quidditch and knew what his punishment from his father would be… and so many other times. But when he thought of his inevitable death he got an even worst feeling of cold, constricting fear. But there was no escaping.

            The memory of the day when he learned his fate was very clear in Draco's head. He would often lay down at night to sleep, but he was kept awake by the plaguing memory. And now, when he was studying for a Potions exam, the recollection of that fateful night replayed itself to him.

"Daddy, why must I dress so nicely tonight?" a six-year-old Draco looked up at Lucius with inquiring gray eyes.

"Tonight you learn your destiny, boy," Lucius said. "Now get dress in these robes, but don't drag them on the floor as you do so, because they must not be soiled at all." Lucius went out of the room, leaving a rather puzzled Draco behind. He raised one leg extremely high, trying to get his leg into the trousers without the trousers getting anywhere near the floor. When he finally accomplished this, he put the other leg in the same way, wobbling unbalanced as he tried to make his leg reach the trouser leg.

Draco put the black button-up shirt on, then the long robe over it. The nearly tripped over the seam of it as he walked out of his bedroom and into the hallway.

"Daddy! I got dressed!" Draco yelled down the hallway. Lucius came from around the corner and stopped to look Draco over.

"Good enough," Lucius shrugged. "Follow me." Draco scrambled after his father. "Now, tonight is when all of your lessons come into play. You must be ready for any attack. I don't think that Master will go hard on you, but you must be ready anyway." Draco nodded as he scuttled behind Lucius.

"Will your friends be there Daddy?" Draco asked. Lucius turned around and smacked Draco's face.

"You will call me Father!" he barked, and Draco nodded, red-eyed. "And yes, the other Death Eaters will be there. And you will call them ma'am or sir." Lucius said.

"Okay Father, I will." Draco said. Lucius stopped in front of a door and threw it open. Inside was the ornately decorated ballroom, which was packed with Death Eaters that were drinking wine and chatting, some already dancing. An extremely plump woman was standing by the door drinking elegantly from a glass of wine and chatting with a knobby young man. The woman had a large and unsightly mole on her face, and she had a very hairy upper lip.

"Oh, Lucius, is this your son? Why, he's just a darling!" the woman bent over and pinched Draco's cheek.

"Erm… hello sir…" Draco said to the woman. Lucius coughed.

"Draco, this is MISS Brumbly." Lucius said.

"You're a WOMAN?!?" Draco gaped. Lucius looked rather embarrassed, but Miss Brumbly didn't seem to mind the fact that Draco couldn't believe she was a woman.

"Awww, Lucius, he's such a dear! Would you mind if I borrowed him for a little while?" Miss Brumbly asked.

"Oh, I wouldn't mind, I'll be around to get him in a hour." Lucius said, walking off. Miss Brumbly smiled at Draco.

"Hello Drakie Wakie, would you like some fruit punch?" Miss Brumbly beamed, walking a little way to the refreshment table and ladled Draco some pink juice from a bowl into a tiny goblet. She handed Draco the goblet, and he drank the surprisingly good juice.

Miss Brumbly absolutely tortured Draco for the next hour. She pinched his cheek every few minutes, and she asked him stupid questions like, "Does your daddy like your mother," "Do you think your daddy is interested in me," "Where is your daddy's room, anyway, I'd like to pay him a midnight visit one day," and "Don't you think that any man would have to be crazy to turn ME down?" Draco had just answered in a manner that he thought would please the odd woman. "Yes, my father absolutely adores you Miss Brumbly, he talks so much of your beauty."

Draco was very relieved when Lucius came to retrieve him. "It's time for you to dance with your date for tonight, Draco." Lucius said, waving to Miss Brumbly as Draco went to follow Lucius. Lucius led him to a very pretty little girl. "Draco, this is Lisa Villagio." Lucius said, and the girl smiled.

"Hello, Draco," she said as she stepped forward. Draco looked pleadingly at his father, but Lucius didn't notice. He was already walking off to who Draco recognized as Mrs. Villagio, while Mr. Villagio was nowhere in sight.

Lisa put her arms on Draco's shoulders, and he blushed rather red as he put his hands on her hips. Lucius had tutored him on ballroom dancing, and it came rather easy to Draco. He danced, still blushing, with the beautiful little girl for a few hours, and he rather liked her.

It seemed all too soon that the music slowed and the adults began to usher the children outside. They assembled on a plateau overlooking a vast forest that seemed to stretch on forever. The Death Eaters had formed a circle around a large circle made from rocks, and inside was the design of a skull with a snake protruding from its mouth, made from twigs. From the center of the circle, a large pole jutted from he dark soil. Draco, even though young, knew what had happened here many times before. He knew that every Friday night, Narcissa would tuck him in bed, dressed in stiff ceremonial Sabbath bedclothes for the children, and she would chant to him as he drifted off to sleep. She would chant the same chants that she would later recite with the other Death Eaters just beyond his bedroom window as they made their human sacrifices to the Dark Lord. And as Draco looked at the charred wooden pole, he could almost hear the screams of pain and terror that escaped the ones burning there.

Draco could feel his heart beating out of his chest. He didn't quite know what was happening, but in the pit of his stomach he knew it wouldn't be good.

Lucius was a High Priest for the Death Eaters. Many of the meetings were held at the Manor, and the brutal rituals carried out on the plateau that they were now collected at. Lucius was dressed in dark robes, and he stood in the center of the ring of Death Eaters, just in front of the circle of rocks and wooden pole. Before him was a wooden altar which was ornately carved with snakes and the Dark Mark. A large leather bound book sat on the top, and Lucius carefully opened it to read from the first page.

"Lord of the Snakes, I call to thee

You who are seldom seen be with me now

I call for the images of times long past

I ask for your presence at this place made sacred." Lucius read. He looked up from the book. "I am sure you all know why you and your children have been called here. This is the first meeting for many of these young children. The reason our Master called us here tonight is for him to choose an heir. He will rise again in glory, but when his time is over he will need a successor. Tonight our Lord will pick one of these children to be his beneficiary. Some he will spare tonight, but the rest will be sacrificed to our Master." Lucius said. Draco looked at his father. He couldn't see his face from under the hood, but he could feel Lucius's icy gaze on him. If he were chosen to be killed by Voldemort, his father would be deeply ashamed.

"We will have the children come up in alphabetical order after the sacrificial ceremony. The children will be then hand selected by Voldemort. Now, may the sacrificial offering be taken up to the altar?" Lucius looked over the crowd to two dark cloaked men who had a woman by handcuffed arms. They lead her up to the altar, and then tied her to the charred wooden pole. She was screaming and thrashing about, but it was to no avail. Draco knew plainly well that Lucius would now take sadistic pleasure in inflicting pain in this poor woman. Draco had learned not to feel pity for the victims now, however. He used to sit up in his bed listening to the mournful cries of the sufferers. But now he could sleep peacefully through the rituals. And now he stood emotionless as Lucius cut the screaming woman's stomach and removed her intestines-while she was still alive. Lucius then let the woman bleed to death. When she was surely dead, he cut off her arms, legs, and head. He then pulled out all of her remaining intestines and stuffed the empty body with stones. The woman was then put in a bag to be later disposed of in a Muggle lake.

Draco didn't know what to expect next. Lucius turned to the crowd.

"And now I shall have each child call the Dark Lord up. The child who succeeds in summoning the Dark Lord shall be our Master's heir, and the great powers he possesses will one day be bestowed upon the child." Lucius said.

""Danga, Shannon." Went first. The others seemed to fly by. None of them succeeded in summoning Voldemort.

"Caliciyya, Moushirou," "Clark, Sandra," and all the way to "Farense, Alicia," 

"Malfoy, Draco." Draco stepped forward, not letting his extreme fear show. He was, of course, chilled to the bone with fear. But for a Malfoy to show fear… it was criminal; unforgivable. He went up to the huge cauldron, which was twice as wide as he was tall. Draco knew the summoning spell by heart, and he took the knife, cutting his wrist and letting his blood drip into the cauldron.

"Lord of the Snakes, I call to thee

You who are seldom seen be with me now

I call for the images of times long past

I ask for your presence at this place made sacred." He recited. Steam emitted from the cauldron, a reaction that none of the other children got. Draco shut his eyes tight, and he heard screams all around him

"It is the Dark Lord!"

"He has been summoned!"

"Summoned by a mere child!"

"A pale, weak, skinny child no less!"

"Today is the beginning of a new era in my reign. Today my heir is chosen, and his fate locked indubitably in stone." Voldemort said, his voice powdery and nonhuman. It had no trace of compassion or coldness; it had no realness to it, like air.

"A child has summoned me. A meager child has brought me to your midst. This child possesses great power. This child shall be my heir." Voldemort turned to Lucius. "Which child summoned me?" he said tonelessly. Lucius looked proud when he pointed to the quivering boy, his eyes covered by his clenched hands.

"Draco Malfoy, my son."

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Well, that's it! Of course, being the prologue, it is shorter then the other chapters will be. I know, it's not exactly a…happy chapter… but I promise I'll have some humor in the next chapter. ^-^ Please review. Please? I love you? If you promise to review, Draco will perform for you. Ready?

Draco: Huh?

Virginia: You're going to perform for the readers in hopes they will review.

Draco: I don't think so, Lewis.

Virginia: Oh yeah? I think so.

Draco: No way.

Virginia: ::Uses almighty AUTHOR POWER to make Draco appear in a hula girl outfit:: You WILL perform.

Draco: ::Strumming banjo:: LA COO COO RAAAAAA CHA! LA COO COO RAAAAAAA CHA! Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee! LA COO COO RAAAAAA CHA! LA COO COO RAAAAAAA CHA! Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee!

Virginia: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! ::cough…sputter::