Author's Note: The only thing out of canon in this story is the fate of the adult Malfoy's (and in coming chapters, an original character).

According to Miss Rowling, Narcissa's assistance in the Forbidden Forest after the King Cross's chapter helped all three avoid Azkaban. However, that did not sit right with me and this is my take on Draco Malfoy's fate. This will not be a long chapter-fic, as I really do not have the patience for it, but I have most of it planned (or written) out and hope to be done with it by August.

Disclaimer: Just for good measure, I do not own much.

Learning to Exhale

Prologue

Whether or not he would get out of this mess, he was not sure. He sat alone in his cell in Azkaban for over a month, but he lost count of the days.

It was dark and it was cold; he was thankful there were no dementors, but the despair they left in a place remained. Draco could feel death around him, and the thought made him shiver alone in his cell. He had seen death, even if he was unable to commit the act himself, but he did not know if he would ever be used to it.

An Auror paced by on one of their rounds. He looked up and briefly, their eyes met through the bars. The Auror smirked at seeing the imprisoned Malfoy, even having the nerve to twirl his wand between his fingers. Draco's brow furrowed and he nearly snarled, despite his fear and his coldness. When he turned away and closed his eyes, trying to block the laughter, his thoughts returned to the day that the Snatcher's had brought Harry Potter and his crew to the Malfoy Manor. Potter had taken his wand. While he had been using his mother's, it had even felt a comfort to this feeling of loss. Nonetheless, the wand had been taken from him, and was now in the hands of the Ministry.

He felt powerless and he was afraid.

That fear intensified when he, along with his parents, were summoned to court.