Chapter One: The Mission
"Draco," He turned at the sound of his father's voice, and saw Lucius' face devoid of expression: "The Dark Lord wants to see you."/li
Draco's gray eyes searched his father's for a moment, trying to discern some trace of fatherly expression in the blank shades of gray. As expected, he didn't find any. His father Occlumency seems to excel whenever he faces his son.
Draco nodded at his father and made to leave, when Lucius Malfoy suddenly stepped forward and took his arm in a vice-like grip. "Draco, do not waver in your loyalties." Lucius whispered in his ear, his low voice scraping against his brain, "Keep in mind that the Dark Lord will not be cheated. Do not be misled by your mother's soft-hearted…stupidity." Draco's gaze flew to meet his father's. He knew of Narcissa's secret plots for the two of them then. Narcissa had once tried to persuade him to curse off the dark mark and leave with her. "I'm not my mother." Draco said quietly. "No, you are not," Lucius said, bringing his face closer to Draco's, "prove to me that you have not been breached by Dumbledore, the soft-hearted old fool."
"Come Draco," Beckoned the high-pitched voice. Not daring to look up, Draco knelt at the feet of the dark-robed figure, and bowed his white-blond head. He could feel waves of danger emanating from white bag of bones overhead. "My Lord, the diadem is destroyed." Voldemort let lose a chuckle. "Well done my boy, the Malfoy blood is ever diligent in deception." Draco said nothing as he watched the white hands twirling the Elder Wand. Such a shame for the golden trio and Dumbledore, the Dark Lord had already known that the diadem was cursed from the beginning. He found out from Snape that the diadem was cursed to repel piece of soul, and at the same time slowly eating away the core soul. Though he was once compelled to kill him, Draco had to admit that Dumbledore was a brilliant wizard. He managed to find channel a connection between the items of the four houses, and by putting a soul-repellent curse on the Gryffindor sword, he cursed the Slytherin locket, Hufflepuff's cup, and Ravenclaw's diadem to trump up the soul inside. Also, Dumbledore had used an ancient spell to connect the parts of the soul together, so as to eat away the core soul of Voldemort.
"Draco, I want you to kill me."
Draco's gray eyes widened as he bowed his head, tucking his chin into his pale neck. He waited for the curse to come.
"My-my Lord? What have I-"
"No, Draco." Voldemort's lipless mouth twisted into a smile. "I want you to let Harry kill me."
"My Lord-I can bring Potter to you. Godfather betrayed you, but I, my Lord, will never-"
"Draco," He felt the cold tip of Voldemort's wand lightly against his forehead, "Do you know what Dumbledore had planned? He wants Potter to come to me and beg to be killed. He plans to have all of my Horcruxes destroyed so that I will be weak and alone by the time Potter confronts me. Do you think I'm going to let that happen?"
"No, my Lord." Draco felt an ominous chill creeping up his spine.
"No, my Draco." Voldemort traced Draco's chin with the tip of his wand. "Because you are going to kill me and help me reborn."