Carbon Leaf
Warnings: Slash. M/M. Don't like don't read. Hints of child abuse which become more pronounced as the story goes on.
This is a massive H/D songfic to three albums of the band Carbon Leaf. I own neither Harry Potter nor Carbon Leaf. See my profile for how I handle songfics. The parts are named after albums, and the chapters after songs. You can look them up if you like, but you should be able to understand the story without it. This is a little vaguer than most stuff I write, at least at first.
Pt. 1: Meander
Chapter 1: Paper Thin
Young children see each other as equals, even young future Slytherins. Draco doesn't remember not knowing Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott. They were just around, boys who came over sometimes with their parents, and Draco's Father and Mother would wear nice clothes and serve Mr. and Mrs. Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott tea in the parlor, and they would send Draco out to play with the boys. They played in Draco's tree house, or in the attic. He called them Vince, Greg, and Theo at first, because that was what they called themselves. Then, one day, his father overheard, and he took Draco aside and told him that he should call them by their last names.
"They are beneath us," he explained. "They are not your friends, Draco, they are here for you to learn and use to your advantage, no different than history or Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Why are they beneath us, Dad?" Draco had asked curiously.
"You will learn, Draco, that some families are better than others. Some are purer than others, like the difference between gold and bronze. You remember that Galleons are worth more than Knuts, right?" Draco had nodded, unsure of the point. "Well, gold is a pure metal. All that is in it is gold. You cannot mix two metals and get gold, understand? Bronze, however, is made by mixing metals. Naturally, it is inferior. So it is with families' blood."
"And Vince—Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott are like that?"
"No, they are inferior in other ways. They lack intelligence, grace, poise, instinct, beauty. All things we Malfoys have plenty of."
"So who are my friends?" Who are my equals?
"No one, Draco. The mask is your only friend."
Draco recognized when he had asked his father too many questions, and to question the meaning of this statement would be crossing that line. Many years later, he would look back on that day and see it as having more than one meaning: the mask of the Death Eater, and the metaphorical mask behind which he was to conceal everything that made him human.