Title - The Fear of a Slytherin
By - PheonixFireBlack
Summary - Have you ever wondered what Draco might see if he were to face a boggart? Well, I have and this is my take on it.
Category - Harry Potter
Genre - Angst/General
Rating - PG-13
Feedback - Please?
Criticism - Sure, why not? Flame me for all I care. stares at flames "I still cannot believe that only I can prevent forest fires." Damn. Oh well! (sing song You-person-who-gave-me-that-quote, you know who you are! grin thanks, by the way!)
Disclaimer - Do I LOOK like I own Harry Potter? Yeah, didn't think so. Plus, I'm not even British! grin
Notes - Alright...I don't want to give anything else away, so...just READ dude! lol! Later!

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The Fear of a Slytherin
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The Gryffindors and Slytherins were in their Defense Against The Dark Arts class. Another year, another teacher. No one had ever thought that their seventh year at Hogwarts would be like this. The entire year had been one huge review, along with another class that everyone, first years through seventh, have to go to. It was a Defense class, but a War Defense one. That, however, is not where our key character was at the moment. He was standing near the back of the DADA classroom, hoping he wouldn't be called on. He didn't want to be here and he definitely didn't want to be called on. The blond-haired Slytherin sighed as he watched the repeat of his third year class happen. Yep, this Professor Claudia Martinez woman was, in her words, "Making sure we knew how to deal with the things we'd dealt with in the past." It seemed quite pointless, this particular class. They were going over how to go against a boggart again. This was boring and hopeless.

"Mister Malfoy, why don't you come on up here and give it a go." Professor Martinez said, brushing a piece of her red hair behind her ear. She smiled and made a motion, beckoning him to come up to the front of the class.

Draco didn't feel like doing this, so he decided he'd try and get out if it, even if he did mean he might get a detention. "I don't want to do this, Professor. It's pointless. We've been over everything we've done almost this entire semester! We should be spending time on things we haven't been over, or more time in the War Defense class, don't you agree, Professor?"

Claudia smiled a forced one, "Draco, I'm not sure if you've forgotten, but I am the Professor, you are the student." She looked at him squarely, "Therefore, when I ask you to do something, you do it." She put stress on "therefore" and bit off the rest of the sentence.

"And if I don't?" Draco challenged.

"I'll force you." She said evasively.

Something hit Draco when she said this. He knew what force was like and force wasn't something he liked. With that said, he slowly walked to the front of the class. He looked at the Professor, "So...let's get this over with."

"Alright." Claudia walked over to the trunk the cabinet that it was locked inside. She looked up at the student, "Wand at the ready..." She waved her wand, muttering some kind of incantation, and the door unlocked and the door creaked open, letting the boggart take form and step out.

The one thing that was seen, was one thing no one expected to see, except for Draco of course. The boggart had, oddly enough, taken on the form of his father. Draco stared at the copy of his father. Though somewhere in the back of his mind that he knew it was only a clone, Draco could feel the fear rising within him. He closed his eyes and then they snapped open.

"Come on, Draco...it's not real...Just do the spell." The Professor said, frowning slightly. She didn't know any of her students all that well, but over the time she had been teaching here at Hogwarts, Draco didn't seem like the type to be like this.

"Right..." Draco muttered, raising his wand and saying the spell. The form of Lucius Malfoy was suddenly wearing one of his mother's more...lacy dresses. Draco smirked and walked to the back of the class again.

And so the class went on, each fear different than the last. There was nothing too interesting about any of the fears; most of them were all the same from their third year, such as Neville still being afraid of Professor Snape. Claudia had smiled at that, claiming that she "Knew Snape from her school years and understood completely."

Later that night in the common room, Draco was sitting on the black leather couch. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't get the image of his father out his mind. He closed his eyes and fell sideways onto the couch, swinging his legs up. Draco was so out of it and lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear anyone come into the common room. He probably wouldn't have noticed had they not sat down right next to his head. He jerked up, "Blaise? Merlin, don't do that!"

"I didn't do anything." The black-haired girl said, allowing her bright blue eyes to bore into her friend's gray ones.

"No, of course, you didn't do a thing except scare half the life out of me."

"I'll be sure not to do it again, then. Don't need you dying on us." She smiled. "What are you doing up so late?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Couldn't sleep and when I can't sleep, I always come down here. What's your story?" She asked, sitting down next to her friend, turning sideways to face him.

"I couldn't sleep either."

"Any particular reason?"

"What's with the interrogation?" Draco snapped.

"Hey, I don't mean to step on your toes or anything, but you've been acting weird ever since our DADA class." This triggered something in her mind and she immediately spoke again. "Speaking of the DADA class...that was a little weird. Why did the boggart turn into--"

"I don't want to talk about it, ok?" Draco turned from her.

"But, Draco--"

"But nothing, Blaise. I said I don't want to talk about it, and I mean that I don't want to talk about it."

"What's with you? I know you can be a real bad-ass and even on occasion a complete bastard, but honestly!" She stood up and was about to go back to her dormitory, but Draco grabbed her wrist. "What?" She asked sharply, "Wanna yell at me some more?" Blaise didn't take well to people yelling at her.

"Look...I didn't mean to snap, but...this whole thing just really...touchy...for me, ok?"

Blaise frowned and sat back down next to Draco, not even bothering to take her wrist back. "What do you mean?"

Draco let go of Blaise's wrist and sat up straight, swinging his legs back onto the floor. "It's...my dad...and the war...and...everything. It's just..." Draco sighed. He really wasn't sure if he knew what he was talking about or how to tell her what he meant.

"What is it about your dad, Draco?"

Draco glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "I...it's just...with everything about the war going on, he's...he's been acting weird, lately. It's not normal, Blaise. He's been...I don't know how to describe it, but he even went as far as to..." Draco shut his eyes as tight as he could. He didn't want to go back to what had happened over the summer.

"What, Draco? What did he do?"

"He..." He shook his head.

"Draco..."

"He put this...curse on me. I don't know what it was. It was like...I was there, but I was only there inside my mind."

"It wasn't the--"

"No. It was different. The incantation was different. It was supposed to allow him to have complete control over me, but...it didn't for some reason...it was supposed to, but it didn't. It was was like...I don't, Blaise. He could still control me. It doesn't make sense, but it's like I had a mind of my own and was doing what I wanted to do, but at the same exact time, I was doing whatever he wanted me to do. I felt like...I don't know, I guess like I might...burst. It was horrible, Blaise...I-I don't want it to happen again." When Draco was done, he was chewing his lower lip.

"Oh, God, Draco...I..I can't even imagine, I-I'm sorry..."

Draco shook his head, "I don't want sympathy..."

"What do you want, then?"

"Independence." He said, looking directly into her eyes.

Blaise looked at her friend, sadness in her eyes. The thing that he wanted most was the one thing he would probably never have. "You know that you--"

"Won't get that. Yeah, I know..." He sighed and muttered to himself, "Especially after what he forced me into becoming..."

Blaise was pretty sure that Draco hadn't meant for her to hear that last bit, but unfortunately for him, she did. "What did he force you into, Draco?" She asked quietly.

Draco looked away from her, determined to not tell her anything more. It wasn't like it was any of her business anyway. His life was none of her business, it never was and never had been and it never would be. It was his personal life and he didn't have to let anyone else in on what was going on within in. Though, he had been not letting anyone in on it for seventeen years now and it was starting to get really hard to handle and even harder not to burst under the pressure.

Blaise sighed and put a hand on his shoulder, "Draco..."

"No."

"Draco--"

"I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"And I don't care because one way or the other, you're going to talk to me, Draco." She stood up and in front of him, putting a hand on each of his shoulders. "What did he force you into doing...or, or becoming, Draco?"

Draco stayed silent, ignoring her.

"What did he do, Draco?" When he continued to ignore her, she shoved his robe off his shoulders. When she did this, Draco pulled back away from her, as if he was trying to really get away from her. "Draco...what's going on?"

"Nothing." He said, his voice wavering slightly.

Blaise looked at him in his eyes. "There's something...what is it?"

"It's nothing..." Draco's voice still faltered.

Blaise rolled her eyes, not believing it at all. She frowned slightly and suddenly it hit her. "Oh, Merlin, no..."

Draco stared at her, confused. "What?"

"Tell me he didn't, Draco." She said quietly.

"What are you talking about?"

Blaise rolled her eyes again and shoved the sleeve of his left arm up to his elbow. That's when she saw it. He had the Dark Mark on his forearm. She slowly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they held an immense sorrow. "Oh, Draco...I-I don't know what to say."

"That's because there isn't anything to say." Draco said, taking his arm from her grasp, shoving his sleeve down and putting his cloak back on.

"Draco, I can't believe he did this. Why did he do this?"

"Why? Because I'm supposed to follow in his footsteps. How could you not believe it? He's a Death Eater...why wouldn't he want me to be one?"

"When--"

"It happened over the summer, I'll go under complete command when this term is over. Right now, I'm supposed to be...getting inside information or something like that."

"I'm sorry this happened, Draco."

"There's no reason for you to be sorry, it's not your fault. It was bound to--" He stopped and they both turned their heads towards the entrance of the common room.

The door opened and a figure stepped through. The figure was male and muttering to himself. "I can't believe this is how this is all going to end..." Something caught his eye. "What are you doing up?" The Head of the Slytherin house didn't sound too happy, not that he ever did, but that was far from the point.

"Professor, we were just--" Blaise started, but the Professor cut her off.

"I don't care what your reasoning is Miss Zabini. Off to your dormitories." He waited a moment, "Now!"

The two seventeen year olds quickly got up and ran up the correct staircases and into their dormitories. All the while, Professor Snape stood in the middle of the common room, waiting for the slam of the doors of the dormitories as a confirmation that they were in their respective dorms. After a few moments of complete silence, Snape spoke quietly. "So young they take them, now. I never thought it would come to this. The Death Eaters are definitely getting desperate now. Maybe this is a sign of how desperate Voldemort is getting. There would be no other explanation for the fear of a Slytherin to be his own father, would there?" He smirked at his own words and went to his own room.

-Fin-