Draco's Struggle
By Lotus1974
Summary
Draco struggles; with the loss of his father, and being trapped with people that hate him, namely the Trio and Neville. Anything you recognize belongs to someone else, beta needed, reviews wanted
This story was to be part of a friend's story, but I have no idea if or when he will ever do anything with that story so I am posting this, I enjoyed this part too much to let it just sit there.
Draco's father has taken him out in the middle of nowhere to work on his apparating. When the Dark Lord calls, he apparated, leaving Draco there alone. Draco hears a commotion over the rise, goes to investigate, and sees the Dark Lord, Death Eaters and even some Dementors attacking the Golden Trio and friends. He sees a strangely dressed girl wave her hand at the Dementors that causes them to melt. His father when ordered to attack hesitates, so the Dark Lord attacks him resulting in his horrifying, slow death, before they leave, leaving his father twitching on the ground. His eyes seem drawn to his father's form, until he hears the girl's voice call out "I choose him."
Before he can focus on the girl that spoke, he was standing in front of her, along with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville. As soon as he realized where he was, he half listened to what she said, as his eyes find his father's body and he can see the damage for the first time. He turns a little green at the sight. The reality of the situation crashes down on him. 'Father is dead, what is going to happen to me now? What do I do? How can this have happened to my father? He is supposed to be invincible isn't he? Things like this happen to other people, not him. He causes things like this to happen, not the other way around.' The pain and fear are plain to see if any had cared to notice, but apparently, no one does.
Then he finds himself in a beautiful place, but he barely notices. As he enters his new room, he finally has the time to sit down and think about everything that the strangely dressed girl told him. He decides that he doesn't want to cross her. Especially now that she is offering stability that, he desperately needs. 'I have no idea how to deal with his death, I never even thought of the possibility, even when he was sent to Azkaban, I knew he would get out all right. I never had any control over my life but I trusted my father to control it for me, but now someone I don't know or understand has control ,' He starts to shake and cry and he can't stop.' but they are working for Harry and that means going against the Dark Lord. I know Harry hates me and now I have to rely on them for there is no one else. What do I do about Harry and the others I am trapped with in this place?'
Harry and the others are in the common room talking about what happened today. "I can't believe that we're stuck here with the Ferret. Why would he be chosen to help you, more than likely he'll stab you in the back the first chance he gets" Ron states angrily.
Hermione tells him "She must have someway of preventing something like that from happening, and since we are all stuck here we should at least try to get along and you could start by not calling him Ferret. I think we should go and talk to him; he is probably even more confused about this than we are. Come on Harry. Ron, Neville are you coming?"
"No, I don't want to deal with him anymore than absolutely necessary, I'm sure Ron agrees with me. The two of you can explain what is going on to him and make sure he understands if you want to but I won't." Neville states from his seat on the couch where he and Ron are playing chess. Ron nods his agreement with Neville as he makes his move.
Harry goes with Hermione to the room that belongs to Draco and stops uncertain of what to do now that the time has come; Harry listens at the door and hears what sounds like sobbing. Harry tells her "Maybe I should go in alone, we don't want him to feel outnumbered, or like we are ganging up on him, which would just make things worse." Hermione nods her head in agreement and goes back to join the others. Harry knocks on the door and hears the sobbing get worse and sounds of choking come thru the door. Therefore, Harry quietly enters the room and his eyes find the figure curled up on the bed sobbing and shaking so hard that he can't breathe which makes the situation worse.
Harry goes over to Draco and wraps his arms around him "Draco you need to calm down." However, it only gets worse. "Draco, you're alright, everything is going to be fine. I promise, Draco it will be alright." Harry tries to comfort the distraught boy in his arms. He is stunned when Draco wraps his arms around him and buries his face in Harry's chest, seeking comfort from a person that he supposedly hates. Harry then realizes that Draco must have seen his father die, whom he had idolized, this would make all of this so much worse for him to deal with since he has to come to terms with the brutal murder of his father by his own Lord, before he can deal with anything else. Harry wonders 'what was Draco's relationship with his father like. Was he a kind and caring father or was he controlling and cruel? How much of Draco is actually him and how much is his father's influence, I guess I'll find out in the morning.' Draco slowly starts to calm and Harry realizes that while he was thinking he had started to rock him and he is slowly falling asleep. Harry looks at his sleeping tearstained face and wipes off the tears, marveling at how young and innocent he looks in sleep and how deceiving looks can be. He starts to get up only to find that Draco has a death grip on him making it impossible for him to get up without waking him, so Harry tries to get more comfortable in Draco's grip, and slowly joins him in sleep, wondering once more' what changes the morning will bring to Draco and the rest of them.'