"I fucking hate you! SO much. You have no idea how much you piss me off. Every. Single. Fucking. Day. You prance around, all high and mighty, with your bloody fans following you around everywhere thinking you're so much better than everybody else, you conceited bastard. I cannot even express how much I want you dead. Gone. Off the face of the Earth. You have made my life hell for so long. I'm not a fucking Death Eater you filthy piece of unlovable shit! I'm not some generic slimy Slytherin which you can just push around whenever you want. We don't live in a black and white world, you aren't some hero. You're a fucking murderer-"
Harry stared at his rival... a little perplexed.
"It was only an owl!"
Malfoy paused in his rant. Stared at him with such intensity that Harry wanted to cower beneath his gaze. His voice was stiff and unforgiving,
"What?"
"I said it was just an owl. An accident. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry I killed your pet but-"
Malfoy's expression closed off completely, something dark and foreboding beneath his eyes, a predatory gleam in his grey eyes. He interrupted,
"Just a pet."
Harry nodded,
"Just a pet."
Suddenly a smirk adorned his face, an evil looking smirk, and a certain terrifying I want to run away look filled his eyes. Harry wanted to leave. He didn't like that look.
Malfoy's voice was soft and dangerous. Unforgiving. Harry had crossed a line.
At Harry's terrified expression Malfoy's smirk only grew.
"So..."
Malfoy walked casually over to him, the smile never leaving his face. Harry backed away from him, soon crowded into a wall.
"... Just like your owl is just an owl. You wouldn't mind if I... per say... killed her?"
Harry gulped,
"But that's different because-"
Malfoy raised an eyebrow,
"Why? Because I'm the bad guy? Hmm? The nasty Slytherin who is always getting in the way of the goody goody can do no wrong Griffindors? Because MY PET is NOT WORTH AS MUCH AS THE PRECIOUS BOY WHO LIVED'S?"
Harry tried to back away again, as he felt Malfoy's cold eyes fall onto him, but he only hit the cold wall behind him. He tried to speak again,
"I mean I understand and-"
Malfoy's smiled grew colder and colder by the moment.
"I suppose... I suppose things might have to change. Won't they? I mean. I've been ever so gracious. Ever so lenient. I am the evil Slytherin after all."
A pause. Harry's breath was starting to fog up in front of him, a cool mist surrounding him. Malfoy's normally small power seemed... bigger somehow. And it was frightening.
"I suppose I haven't been a real enemy. I've been so obsessed with trying not to become a carbon copy of my father, that I didn't realise that I could achieve the same goal without having to be nice."
Harry spluttered,
"Nice! What! You've always-"
Malfoy placed a finger to his lips, a chillingly warm finger, and Harry stopped. Regretting speaking. God he was an idiot.
Malfoy titled his head to the side, a sinister air to the gesture, and said,
"No more telling the other Slytherins that you are mine so that they do not hurt you. No more staving off You-Know-Who supporters. No more considering becoming a spy to the Light, like my poor broken godfather. No more pretending to hate you so that others won't. No more planning to help better causes."
Harry's breath caught in his throat, disbelief in his eyes.
"No more."
The words were quiet and chilling.
A guilt settled in the pit of his stomach, one he had never truly felt before to his Slytherin counter parts. He had felt guilty. Yes. For killing Quirrel. For killing the Basilisk. For letting Pettigrew escape. For killing Cedric only a few weeks ago.
Killing.
Killing.
Always so much killing.
Like Malfoy's owl. Insignificant pet. His rival. It didn't matter. No. It didn't. It didn't. Because... Because... he was a slimy snake.
Fuck.
"I have spent so long trying to be good. I have forsaken my own blood, gone against their ways, because I couldn't stand to hear tortured screams coming from my own family home. Through muffled walls. I couldn't stand to ignore the haunted voices of those poor hopeless muggles any longer. I have tried to change my house from within. Gone against everything I have been told to find my own path. Have tried to protect even you, the one who refused my hand because of my own stupidity. My own arrogance. My own insecurity which bred words, single words, which meant you never spared me another glance."
Malfoy's smile turned to a bitten one. Still trapping Harry against the wall. Still making him listen as his rival bared his very soul. Any words to console or ridicule got lost in his throat, were suffocated, and he simply waited for him to continue.
"Eleven. I was eleven when I was forsaken by you. I know what I said was cruel, that you were also just a child, that you could not understand petty jealousy and hope. Perhaps you could. Perhaps you simply did not want to see such emotions within me. I have seen you from afar, all these years, coming home from the summers thinner than when you leave, faint sunburn at your collar, a haunted look in your eyes. And I..."
Malfoy trailed off. Harry was stock still, shocked that so much could be known by his bitter rival... was he such?
"I... I felt a sort of kinship with you. Maybe that was why I protected you so. Maybe I thought you could be my saviour as well. Maybe I hated the way that the Headmaster played you, the way you were hurt in your summers... Perhaps I thought that one day you would see behind all my games and see that I was only trying to help. But I was wrong, as I often am, and will no longer be your protector. Because... she was only an owl wasn't she? Never could she have been a friend as well."
Harry stood there gaping as Malfoy pulled away from him. Harry said pitifully,
"It was an accident! I'm so sorry.
He said coldly before he left,
"I don't believe in accidents."
Malfoy spat,
"You sicken me."