Title: Dance with my Father
Author: Silver Night Child
Word count: 1993 words
Warnings: Minor Character Death, angst
Disclaimers: The characters and settings are direct result of JK Rowling, I own none of them. 'Dance with my Father' is Luther Vandross' song I don't own that either.
WIP: Nope
Beta: Nope
"We are here today to complete trial number 1728, in the crimes against Lucius Malfoy, which include: performing unforgivable curses, murder, conspiracy again the Ministry of Magic, attempted murder" The man standing in the front of the room rolled off the crimes against the blond haired man who was locked to the chair in front of the group of people. The chains glinted and wicked mockingly to the boy sitting in the front row, his own hair pulled back from his face the same color as his father's.
Draco Malfoy at the age of seventeen sat there without any emotions playing across his face although his eyes showed the fear that rippled through him as he heard each of the crimes listed against this man who he had known his whole life. He had no idea what he was going to do, after all nothing that was said could not be proved and his father had run out of reasons that he had done them. Things that would point to others and not him, and he had no names to give, it was hopeless.
Back when I was a child, before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high and dance with my mother and me and then
Spin me around 'til I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure I was loved
The short three year old Draco walked into the large ball room, in a small makeshift wizard robes that his mother had helped him pull together the morning before. As his other ones were too big on him and there had been no time to go and get the robes changed and altered before his mother was going to have to get ready and his father had been out for the whole day doing things that were unknown to the innocents of the three year old.
"Hello Draco" came the voice of a old woman standing only about five feet as she was slightly hunched over. Her face covered in wrinkles that betrayed her age and show that she had seen many things come to be in her long life-time. Dressed in dress robes herself; colored a deep blue she looked like she should be an old queen. Although her face held kindness that royalty so often lacked.
"Hello Maki" Draco said and took her hand bowing over it and kissing the wrinkled hand in a cute rendition of what some of the older males had been doing as they met the females in the room. Maki gave a laugh that sounded as if there might have been something caught in her throat and ruffled the young boy's hair.
"Go on now" Maki said and watched as Draco ran off to go and see what was happening around the room. He got a few odd looks from the younger men who wondered what he was doing there, and a hello from some of the females. He had even gone so far as to ask one of the girls if she would dance with him, his checks tingeing pink as he did so. So the girl let him dance laughing later to tell her friends how cute the smaller boy had been at the dance. The older of the group who had known Draco or at lest who he was said hi to the boy as he moved throughout the room.
A slow song came on, filling the room with a sweet melody the echoed off the walls and circled around the couples on the dance floor that swirled in a great many colors. Draco looked around waiting to be part of it all, waiting to dance, but when he looked around the girl he had danced with earlier was gone and Maki was out dancing as well and he didn't want to ask anyone else. It was then that he spotted his mother and father dancing around on the dance floor and ran forward, tapping his father's leg, and looking up.
His mother looked down with a smiled on her face and the young boy's father also looked down picking up Draco so that he would be included in the dancing.
If I could get another chance, another walk, another dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end
How I'd love, love, love
To dance with my father again
Draco blinked away the memory of his younger years before anything had changed in the household and his father went over to the Dark Lord and gave his life to him. Draco could not say that the man sitting in front of him was the same man as his father had been before that moment. Although what had happened Draco had never himself been sure.
He listened to the people come up and talk about what they had seen the older Malfoy do, past events that would throw doubt on anything that he had said. Draco couldn't help but watch as it come time to choice the fate that was to befall his father, as each of the members spoke one word out of two that would say if his father would live or die.
Draco sucked in his breath as he watched, his mother next to him, her hair pilled up atop her head. She looked forward a strained look on her face as she watch each of the words echo throughout the hall where they happened to be sitting.
There were more in the room of course, families of others in his house; of course there was Potter, Weasley and the Mudblood sitting there as if they had nothing to do with this whole thing. They did, Draco just knew that they were sitting there thinking that after this there would be little trouble as the Death Eaters were slowly being caught and sentenced. That was a lie though; Draco new from everything his father had told him that there were Death Eaters that had not yet been sworn in that were getting soon. This little thing was going to make little to no difference in the numbers.
When I and my mother would disagree
To get my way, I would run from her to him
He'd make me laugh just to comfort me
Then finally make me do just what my mama said
Later that night when I was asleep
He left a dollar under my sheet
"No!" Draco looked over his shoulder, at the age of nine he was one that would not listen to what anyone was going to tell him to do. He glared slightly at the woman in front of him not wanting to go up and clean up his room, after all they had elves to do that it was pointless to do it himself.
"Draco, get up stairs?" Mrs. Malfoy looked at her only son and sighed slightly as he took off running towards his father's study and shook her head putting her head in her hands as she did so. There was one thing if she could ever get the boy top do as she asked him it would be a miracle.
It only took a little while before Draco had finished cleaning his room and gone to see his father about going outside now that he was done. Although he had taken to long and after dinner he went to bed smiling at both his mother and father.
He was going to fall asleep and maybe he would talk to his father tomorrow, but he was not coming to talk to him much any more, he was always going out tonight, and Draco wondered in his nine year old mind just what his father was up to.
Never dreamed that he would be gone from me
If I could steal one final glance, one final step, one final dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end
'Cause I'd love, love, love
To dance with my father again
"Guilty"
The word rung out like what it was the death sentence of a man who had a family, the sentence of a foolish man. Draco felt his mother next to him suck in her breath as she closed her eyes, although he showed no emotions as the word hit home. He was going to lose his father, not the one that was chained to the chair, but any hope that the old Malfoy would be come back.
It was at the moment that Draco realized that he had held something back in him, that hope that he thought he could in time get the father back that he had loved more than anything. The father that had danced with him and went outside to be with him and his mother.
Draco cursed himself as the pain rippled through him as his father worked to keep his calm look as he listened to what was going to happen to him, only the flash in his eyes showing he had heard about the kiss. His mother turned her head away and let out a slightly muffled sound that almost sounded like a plea. He watched as his father was asked if there was anyone he would like to say good bye to and to Draco's horror he shook his head no.
He had held himself in his chair as he watched his father go throw the kiss watched as he lost at the end and struggled to get out of the chair that he was chained to the whole while the chain was still winking at Draco mocking him in a way he would never forget. He would also never forget the cries of his father before he was silenced.
Sometimes I'd listen outside her door
And I'd hear how my mother cried for him
I pray for her even more than me
I pray for her even more than me
It had been only a few weeks ago from the time his father was so much as taken from him as well as his mother, although Draco could not get over the fact he was stupid enough to have hoped for his older father back. It had to be about midnight as Draco walked through the halls of his home, his mother had become far and distance from everyone, losing contact with her friends. Draco hated his father for taking the happy woman he had known as his mother and turning her into this thing that she now was.
He closed his eyes for the moment as he walked knowing his way around the house well enough to keep his eyes closed; it was then that he heard it. The muffled sobs of his mother's broken heart knowing that her husband was never coming on, that he was gone and never coming back. For the time Draco felt connected with his mother knowing that she had harbored the same wish that he had. Opening his eyes Draco listened to his mother and felt his own tears sting his eyes.
At the same time as he felt the pain of the lost he felt the hate for the man that had left them today, and had made it this way. Draco moved forward for the moment and raised his fist as if he might knock on the door to go and see his mother. But he knew that all she wanted was the man she loved back, and he could never give that to her right now.
He walked down the hall something missing from him now, something that he was never going to give voice to.
I know I'm praying for much too much
But could you send back the only man she loved
I know you don't do it usually
But dear Lord she's dying
To dance with my father again
Every night I fall asleep and this is all I ever dream
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