Disclaimer:  They all belong to J.K. Rowling, not me!

Notes:  This is an alternate universe where Draco takes Tom Riddle's diary rather than Ginny Weasley and this switch in owner has some horrible consequences.  The prologue is mostly a re-write of the chapter in Flourish and Blotts where Mr. Malfoy gives the diary to Ginny.

Embrace Chaos

By Bohemian Storm

"This is not the path I thought.

This is not the place I sought.

This is not the dream I bought,

just a fever of fate I've caught."
- The Book of Counted Sorrows

Prologue

            Draco Malfoy leaned over the railing on the upper floor of Flourish and Blotts watching Gilderoy Lockhart prance about below him with Harry Potter glued to his side.  The poncy git had just announced for the world to hear that he'd be taking over Quirrell's empty position as Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts for Draco's second year.  The young Slytherin hadn't cared much for Quirrell but seeing Lockhart's face every day alongside Potter's would be absolutely unbearable.

            With a sneer, he watched Potter tip his brand new Lockhart collection into the Weasley girl's cauldron, edging toward the outskirts of the crowd.  Draco's eyes narrowed and he sauntered down the stairs toward Potter and the rest of the Weasley family.

            "Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" he snapped, making his presence clearly known.  "Famous Harry Potter," he sneered.  "Can't even go into a book shop without making the front page."

            He watched, hoping that this would be the time that Potter would try to curse him in front of all these responsible adults.  There was nothing Draco loved more than getting Harry Potter into trouble.

            "Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" the Weasley girl snapped.  She was glaring at Draco, her eyes narrowed.

            Draco arched an eyebrow.  "Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!"

            The Weasley girl turned scarlet and backed away quickly as Ron Weasley and the annoying little mudblood Hermione Granger wrestled their way through the crowd.

            Weasley stopped and stared at Draco unpleasantly.  "Oh, it's you.  Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"

            "Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley,"  Draco drawled, grinning maliciously.  "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for that lot."  He watched, still grinning as Weasley tried to fight his way over, restrained only by Potter and Granger.  Even as Weasley's father struggled over Draco knew he had won.  He could feel the cool presence of his own father behind him and a moment later a cold hand dropped onto his shoulder.

            "Ron!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed.  "What are you doing?  It's mad in here, let's go outside."

            Draco's father cleared his throat and said, "Well, well, well -Arthur Weasley."

            "Lucius," Mr. Weasley replied, inclining his head slightly.

            Draco could feel his father's hand tightening slightly on his shoulder as the lack of respect the Weasley's had for their family.  He understood perfectly . . . he hated the way Ron Weasley thought he was better than the Malfoys.

            "Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," his father continued coolly.  "All those raids . . . I hope they're paying you overtime?"  He reached downward and pulled a battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration from Ginny's cauldron, smiling arrogantly at it.

            "Obviously not," he said sharply.  "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"

            Draco watched in amusement as Mr. Weasley flushed a very dark shade of red before speaking very carefully. 

            "We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy."

            Draco could feel the cold smile on his father's face.  "Clearly."  His eyes strayed to where Hermione's parents were watching the interaction, apprehension in their eyes.

            "The company you keep, Weasley . . . and I thought your family could sink no lower-"

            Draco stepped quickly out of the way when Mr. Weasley tackled his father and drove them both into a bookshelf.  Spell books of all sizes came raining down upon them and Draco smirked, wondering just what his father would do when all was said and done.  He wouldn't stoop to fisticuffs but when Weasley's back was turned he'd find something to damage him.

            Moments later the fight was broken up by Hagrid, pulling both Mr. Weasley and Draco's father apart.  Draco could see a bruise forming where a spell book had hit his father's eye, but he was still clutching Ginny Weasley's transfiguration book in one hand.  Draco paused, studying his father's hand and noting the worn, black leather book behind the transfiguration book. 

            "Here girl," he snarled, thrusting both books back into her cauldron.  "Take your book - it's the best your father can give you."  He straightened his robes and swept from the shop, leaving Draco behind to smirk and gloat to his heart's content.

            "What's in your cauldron, Gin?" Weasley asked, fingering the worn notebook Draco had seen earlier.

            She shrugged and pulled it out.  "I don't know.  It's not mine."

            "Just leave it," Mr. Weasley said, taking it from her hands and dropping it into a shelf.  "We have a lot to do today and no time to waste."

            As they walked by both Potter and Weasley cast loathing glares in Draco's direction, but he just fixed a self righteous smirk on his face and waited until they were out of the store.  The second the door closed behind them he walked toward the shelf Mr. Weasley had left the book on and picked it up, turning it over in his hands.  It looked as ordinary as any other notebook and Draco flipped through the empty pages looking for anything that might indicate why his father had wanted to be rid of it.  There was nothing on the inside cover, just yellowed pages with absolutely nothing written on them.

            His lip curled upward and he was about to toss it back down on the counter when the name stamped on the back caught his eye.  It was faded slightly, as if the book had been handled many times, but Draco could still read the name perfectly.  It was a name he had grown up hearing about; a name that had once meant the downfall of all but the most faithful.

            Tom Marvolo Riddle.

            So this had been Voldemort's diary at one point.  Draco smiled, tucking it carefully into his robes.  He didn't know what it could do yet but there was no doubt it would be very useful to him.  He didn't know why his father would possibly want to get rid of it, not when there could be dark secrets stored within it's pages.  Perhaps his father knew something about the book that he didn't, but Draco wasn't going to pass up the golden opportunity to show up his own father.  If there was something in this diary he was going to find it.  Draco Malfoy wasn't going to let this diary out of his hands.  Ever.

            If only Ginny Weasley had taken Tom Riddle's diary . . . things would have been very different.

End Prologue