Title: The Unknown Malfoy Child

Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me, except for one, and that person is what this whole story is about... READ ON!

A/N: I started a version of this a while back...but it was crap, so I started it again...Hope you like it.

Ch.1: The Well-kept Secret

Draco Malfoy crept through the many corridors and rooms of his own home and into the dungeons. The hall in which he resided was dark and musty and the stone walls were wet from the humidity.

He took a deep breath and grabbed a torch off the wall to guide him to his destination, his wand held by his other hand. His heart pounded with each step he took, his breath stopping whenever he turned a corner. He would not be caught again. He was going to find what his parents were hiding down in the dark depths of the dungeons.

He walked into the "artifacts" room where his parents kept several of the Dark Lord's old possessions. There were some torture-devices, a lot of them belonging to his father. Just imagining the uses of the devices sent shivers up his spine. He wondered if his father would use any of them on him if he was caught again. But then he thought better of it. My father wouldn't torture me. God, he was glad to be a Malfoy.

Reaching the door on the opposite side of the room, he removed the ring of keys he'd stolen from his sleeping parents' bedroom from his wrist. He fiddled with them, trying to fit each key into the lock. After the third or fourth try, he'd found the key, and entered an even darker part of the dungeons.

There were even fewer torches in these halls than in the last. Whatever his parents were keeping down here, they really wanted to keep it a secret.

Draco shivered. It was extremely cold down there and all he was wearing were his boxer shorts and a T-shirt. His bare feet made a slapping noise on the damp stone floor as he quickened his pace.

He hoped that he wasn't being followed. He'd had that strange feeling the whole time; but then again, the dungeons were an eerie place. Even so, Draco couldn't help but remember what happened last time he was caught...

He'd overheard a conversation between his parents... he didn't know what they were talking about... but what they were saying wasn't hard to forget.

"It won't talk... But it's getting powerful. I think we need to get rid of it." Narcissa Malfoy said, cautiously looking around for signs of listeners. Little did she know, her son, Draco, was stooped next to the bookcase, hidden in the shadows.

"Don't talk about it now!" Draco's father, Lucius, protested. "It will be taken care of in time. The Dark Lord will make sure of that."

"But darling, I fear something will happen. I fear it will somehow escape. I've had dreams about it. And the odd part of it all was that our own son was the one who helped it."

"Do not worry, it is locked up in the dungeons and Draco does not know of it. And he will not be part of the Dark Lord's fall. And that is only if it escapes."

Draco saw Narcissa frown, but nod her head and then both parents turned and left the room. He wondered what they were talking about.

"Well, whatever it is, it's locked up in the dungeons. And I'm going to find out what it is."

That night he tiptoed into the kitchen, a place he'd rarely ever seen, and tried to open the door to the dungeons, but it was locked. And he didn't have the keys...

He ordered one of the house-elves to get them from his parents' room and of course, they went without complaining, but it did seem pretty hesitant and nervous.

"Oh well." He thought.

Draco waited at the table; his elbow propped up on the table, his chin resting on the palm of his hand. He drummed his fingers... He yawned from lack of sleep.

"What is taking this house-elf so long? I ask it to do a simple task, and it can't even get it through its thick skull. House-elves have such enormously large heads, but they have a brain the size of a peanut." He laughed at his cockiness.

Finally, fed up, he let the kitchen and into the hall in search of this "peanut-brain house-elf."

He prowled the halls, but found nothing. Turning the corner to go into the hall, something caught him by the throat. A human hand. Belonging to his father.

"I'm disappointed in you, Draco. Never send a house-elf to do your dirty work."

"Wha-What are you talking about?" Draco choked through his father's hold.

"This." With his other hand, Lucius held up the small house-elf that Draco had sent to get the keys. He was holding them in his hands and his eyes were shut tight and his large, floppy ears were bent down in fear. He was shaking from head-to-toe.

"Stupid thing. So pathetic."

"It told me that you wanted it to get the keys so that you could go into the dungeon. May I ask why?" Lucius seemed so calm, but in his eyes you could tell he was furious.

"I-I-" Draco tried to explain, but the words wouldn't come. And he couldn't tell his father the truth; or else he'd be in bigger trouble.

"You are forbidden to go into the dungeons. Now, you," He addressed the quivering elf, "You are to go and tell the others that they are not allowed to let Draco anywhere near the dungeon door. And if they do, they will have to answer to me."

Lucius let the elf down, while still keeping Draco pinned to the wall by his throat, and snatched the keys away. As soon as he turned his eyes, the house-elf ran toward the kitchens. Lucius stared at Draco and quickly let go off his throat and walked fast-paced down the hall.

Draco rubbed his throat from remembrance. Thank god the house-elves were all asleep, and which ever weren't, he'd taken care of them with a simple sleeping potion. Plus he's taken the keys from his father himself, and had taken the extra precaution of adding a couple drops of the sleeping potion in his parents' wine at dinner.

Finally, he'd turned a corner which led him into the very lest hall. At the end of the hall was a single door. He approached it cautiously; unsure of what could lie beyond it.

Holding the torch up to the door so that he could see, Draco grasped the doorknob and slowly tried to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. Sighing at the fact that he now had to find the key that opened the door, he searched for a place to put the torch. When he found on, it was just close enough so that he could make out the door in front of him. Once again he fiddled with the keys, fitting each one into the keyhole until he found the right one.

He took a deep breath. Draco took the torch back off the wall and went back to the mysterious door. Gripping his wand tightly, he twisted the doorknob and eased the door open.

What was inside shocked him.