A/N Hi everyone, here I am with another story! Yes, I know that I have quite a few stories floating around out there-know that I fully intend to update/finish them all! Sometimes I have to wait until inspiration hits, and this little story just sort of came to me...it will be kind of a "filler" in between updates for my other works. The story opens with The Half Blood Prince, from Draco's POV on the night before he lets the Death Eaters into Hogwarts. You have the opportunity to see what was going through his mind that night. The story will take a turn after that, though, and will follow quite a different path than the book! I hope you enjoy, please don't forget to leave me a review. I like reading them all and will take any and all suggestions into consideration. This won't be a terribly long story...ten chapters at most and I will update it quickly..it will probably be finished within a week, if not sooner.

I don't own Harry Potter, any of the characters, or story lines.

Enough of me...on with the story! :)

The Woes of Draco Malfoy

The blonde teenager stood motionless in the quiet twilight, staring out over the dark gently lapping waters of the lake. The days were getting harder and harder to get through. He found his thoughts wandering over to the beginning of the term, when it had all been some sort of surreal game. He had fancied himself an important player, the man with a mission, the Dark Lord's right hand man. It was almost fun to come up with different strategies, clever plans, ideas that he hadn't really meant to implement.

But that was back when he had deluded himself into thinking he had a choice.

That one depressing fact jolted him right back to the present, and to his hopeless situation.

Tomorrow night. He faced it with a strange mixture of dread and relief. Relief that this would all be over soon, one way or another. And dread that this plan, his final attempt, would go horribly wrong and his family would suffer. And the horror of what would happen if it went right.

Draco Malfoy sank to his knees, clutching his head in his hands. There was no way out, no possible way to avoid what he had to do. An act of incomprehensible evil, an act that would strip him of any shard of innocence that he might still possess and leave his very soul in tattered ruins. But he was just a pawn, he knew that now. It was all he had ever been. He could see the fear in his mother's eyes, a desperate, clawing emotion that made it hard for him to even look at her anymore. He saw the horror and defeat on his father's face as he watched helplessly while his only child was subjected to the whims of a madman with no conscience or soul.

Was there even anything left of him to redeem? Almost against his will, Draco began reflecting on the evil acts he had already been a part of this year. Even though he had been coerced, he had tortured Avery with the Cruciatus Curse. And through it all, the Dark Lord's horrifying red eyes had been locked on Draco in undisguised glee, watching as the boy was forced to harm another human being in the worst way. He had put Rosemerta, the pretty barmaid at the Three Broomsticks, under the Imperious Curse in order to try to get the cursed necklace to Hogwarts. He had known, of course, that the necklace did not stand much of a chance reaching its intended recipient, but he had to show the Dark Lord that he was trying. Voldemort must have known, as well, that the plans were weak, but he took pleasure in knowing that innocents would be harmed, possibly killed, along the way. Ron Weasley and Katie Bell had both come close to death, but had managed to survive. Draco felt intense guilt consume him every time he thought of them. He wasn't friends with either, but he wasn't a murderer. At least not until tomorrow night.

After his last "stunt," as the Dark Lord had mockingly put it, it was time for Draco to complete the task, and do it right. There was no room for error, and the punishment for failure was death. It wasn't even his own death that frightened him at this point, in fact he would welcome the reprieve. But the Dark Lord knew his one true weakness—he loved his parents. And they, no matter their other faults, loved him. And that was the ultimate consequence should he fail. A long, slow death for all three Malfoys in full view of each other.

Draco knew that his parents were desperate enough at this point to go to the Order for help, but they didn't have the opportunity. Voldemort made sure of that. He had posted himself in their manor, strategically keeping Lucius and Narcissa prisoners in their own home. His mother's crazy sister, Bellatrix, was there to keep an eye on things when the Dark Lord was away. Draco was the only Malfoy permitted to leave, and that was to perform the exhausting work in the Room of Hidden Things. The work that needed to be done on the broken Vanishing Cabinet so that the Death Eaters could enter Hogwarts. And Draco could perform the grand finale to his year long act.

Kill Albus Dumbledore.