Draco opened his eyes to darkness and the sounds of thunder and lightning.
His room was cast with shadows, and the faint noise of the radio from his bathroom could be heard. Draco used the occaisional flashes from the lightning to help adjust his eyes to the darkness, and slowly sat up in bed. He looked around the room, searching for something. A lounging chair sat propped up against the wall across his bed, a tall mirror placed between it and the large french windows, revealing the grey night sky and flashes of blue light followed by the loud cracks of thunder. Several unlit candles were placed strategically across the surface of a black marble dresser sitting against the east wall of his bedroom, notebooks stacked in order of oldest to most recent, along with classic works of literature held up by gold bookends shapes like serpents. A bookshelf with works of well-known authors on everything from world history to greek mythology and spellbooks specializing on the rise and fall of the dark arts nearly covered the entire west wall, had there not been two elaborate doors leading to other rooms on either side of it.
Draco's eyes finally found what he war looking for, and so he moved quickly and quietly across the room to his dresser, where he picked up his phone. He turned it on and read with frustration the 'no missed calls' mesage typed across the small screen.
"Where the hell is she." he whispered to himself, frowning. A particularly loud roll and crack of thunder followed his question, and he jumped, nearly dropping his cell phone. He took a breath and threw the phone on his bed, walking across the room and through the door on his left - the bathroom. He took a quick shower and stepped out of the bath towel-less, out of the bathroom and past the bookshelf through the next door. He turned on the light to reveal his extravagant closet, and was about to pick out clothes when a sudden 'pop!' starled him.
"What the fuck-?" Draco growled. He whirled around to find Paryl, his house-elf, standing in the doorway with his tiny hands covering his large eyes.
"Begging your pardons sir, but you said to come back to Master Malfoy as soon as he was back from his trip sir! I'm sorry sir, I is not looking sir, I-"
"Shut up with your apologies, did you find them?" Draco interrupted, looking down at Paryl expectantly.
Eyes still tightly covered, Paryl replied "I...sir...I tried everywhere Master Malfoy instructed, but I is not finding them sir! I looked and looked, and I looked again to be sure sir, but nothing! Master Malfoy, there has been no sight of them...does Master Mal-"
"That's quite enough, Paryl. If I need you to look somewhere else I'll tell you. You're dismissed." Draco snapped, and turned away before Paryl could even respond. He heard another loud 'pop!' behind him, and was met with silence again.
Draco stood there for a moment, frustrated and, more importantly, worried. He then tried to collect his thoughts and think of other options - of other places to look. When nothing came to him, his frustration turned to anger, and he stomped over to the neatly hung pants and shoved a pair of black trousers on, went to the shirts and threw on a beige button-down, found shoes and a watch, grabbed his phone and an umbrella and disapparated from Malfoy Manor.
He ended up in Downtown London, the sudden noise of people and traffic near defeaning after the quiet seclusion of his bedroom. Realizing that the storm had already passed through central London, Draco closed his umbrella and headed west towards a set of tall buildings. He passed them, walking further and further until an hour had passed. He reached an old apartment complex and walked, not towards the entrance of the nearest building, but beside it, walking along the side of the buildings tall brick wall - an alleyway that led to the back streets and the garbage pick-up. He casually strode up behind what appeared to be a young girl in very little clothing and sky-high heels and simply watched her for a long moment as she teettered on the sidewalk.
From his viewpoint she looked freezing cold. Her body gave visible shivers every now and again, and the girl would occaisionally wrap her arms around her sides, rubbing her arms lightly, almost as if she were hugging herself. Her legs were covered in raised bruises that could be visible from her fishnet stockings - large splotches here and there of black on blue on green. She was wearing a sheer button-down shirt as a dress, but it only reached half-way past her behind. Her dirty hair was cut in a short bob dyed bright blood red, with several pieces of fake jewellery covering her arms and neck. Draco looked her up and down, sighed and snuck up close behind her. He leaned slowly towards her right ear and whispered "Pansy. You must stop this."
Pansy Parkinson jumped about five feet in the air from shock, a feat Draco dubbed as outstanding as he considered how tall her stilletos were.
"Draco, what - oh my God - what the FUCK, d-don't DO that!" Pansy screamed at him, stumbling over her words and her feet. She glared at him. "Why are you here?" she screeched. "I told you, I don't need you God-DAMN help, now go the FUCK away - I'm losing customers!" She whirled back around to the street in front of her, attempting to strut off, but stumbling on her first step. Draco shook his head. He couldn't believe Pansy had stopped this low just to prove a point. Then again, he should've expected nothing less - she was still as stubborn as she was back in school.
When the war ended, so did the life Draco was accustomed to. He and his father along with his mother had left the scene as quickly as possible, but in the end it didn't make all that much of a difference. They had mere weeks of solitude to share together as a family before the aurors came to look for them - for his father. They had taken as many belongings as they could to a small hide away house on the country side in Northern England. At first, Draco was beside himself with anger and shock over the small quarters, Voldemorts fall and Snape's death. He didn't know how to deal with and accept so many changes in one go - couldn't quite grasp that this was their life now. They couldn't go back to the Manor - it was the first place the ministry would look for Lucius, and they had vowed never to be separated again, so they fell upon a plan to stay by the countryside for as long as it would take until it was all over. What exactly 'it' was, Draco wasn't sure. The chase? Their fear? Their lives? Draco highly doubted the ministry would ever suddenly stop looking for them; he knew how high of a status Lucius was in the Death Eater ranks, before the Dark Lord made a fool out of him. But the ministry wasn't aware of Lucius' fall from popularity, and he had aided and abbeded in the murder of so many people, something Draco never wanted to think about, that they contuined to search for him. So there they sat and waited out the rest of their lives, and after a week of hard thinking, of trying for once to view the cup as half-full instead of half-empty, Draco had grown used to the idea of spending the rest of his days here with his family.
But it didn't last nearly as long as they had hoped. It didn't even last a month.
Someone within Lucius' close group of 'so-called' allies, had let slip to the ministry their possible whereabouts in exchange of a clean record and a life of freedom. What little wards they had placed on their small home to inform them of intruders went off in the dead of the night, a mere two and a half weeks into their new life. Draco watched with tired eyes as Lucius and Narcissa yet again packed away their lives, when he realized the possesions they were packing away included none of his belongings.
"Draco," he father whispered urgently to him, taking time away from his impromptu packing to walk across the room to his son and lay a hand on his shoulder. "Draco, we must leave. We must leave, your mother and I. You cannot come, we will not subject you to this...life" Lucius spit out the last word with deep contempt. Draco could only stare at him in disbelief. "This is not what we wanted for you. I don't want you to live the rest of your days in hiding. Listen to me, listen! Do not come looking for us boy, do you hear me? Do not come searching for us. It will be best for us all if you don't know where we are - the ministry cannot use veritaserum against you this way. They will try to interrogate you into finding out where we are, but once they use the veritaserum, they will know there's no use in trying to pry you for information any longer. Draco...I'm sorry. For everything. For all of it. I wish I could fix it but I can't and there's no way to now, so know and understand that I am sorry for the hell I've put us all through." Draco's eyes widened at his father's apology. He had never expected one, ever, and to recieve one now, after all the things he'd done...
"You don't need to forgive me just now, Draco. You don't even need to forgive me at all. It is simply something you need to hear. Do you understand me? Draco? Draco!" Lucius shook Draco by the shoulders, but Draco was in shock. First everything before, the war, the deaths, the Dark Lord...and then leaving the only home he knew to stay here with his family...only to be left alone. He stared at his father without really seeing him - he heard his words but could not respond. He simply stood there. Lucius stared back at Draco, directly in the eyes, a tangible fear mirrored in both of their faces. Then his mother came and stood beside him, and he broke the look he and his father shared to turn to her.
"Draco...I..You know how much I love you." She placed one hand on his cheek, and used her other to smooth his already perfect hair. The wards alarm grew louder - the ministry was getting closer. She gave him a light kiss on both his cheeks and, clasping his fathers hand, they dissapparted.
Draco stood there for and whispered for them to come back, but of course they never heard him. For the first time in his life he was truly alone, and he stood there in the living room of their small hide-away, a hide-away no more, and tried to take everything in. When the ministry came mere minutes later, that was how they found him.
Several months later, Draco was in Diagon Alley trying to keep a low profile as he looked for a new book to add to his vast collection, when he over heard a conversation between the storekeeper and a customer discussing the sudden dissapearance of several of the past Death Eaters - Pansy's parents included. Draco stood there in the shop and realized that he hadn't given any thought at all to Parkinson, someone he'd considered a close enough friend during their days at Hogwarts. He hadn't wondered where she was or how she was doing, and to hear this news now he began to ask himself these things. Further eavesdropping told him that her parents had been missing for a few weeks now, that they had tried to find out where they were through Pansy, but they never got anywhere, so they had let her go. `According to the storekeeper, Pansy was last seen on her way to her home a few days ago, just a town over from Draco's, escorted by the ministry officials. Draco paid for his book and decided that now would be the time to pay a visit to a fellow Slytherin.
When Draco apparated outside Pansy's home, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Her house, once grand and immaculate, was now run-down and near dilapidated. It seemed as if no one had lived here for at least a year, and Draco suddenly felt worried for his old friend. He did an elaborate hand movement and spoken spell to allow himself entrance to her land, and started his walk along the long driveway to the main entrance of her home. He was unsure of what to do next - knock? Ring the bell? Leave his courtesies behind and walk right in? The spell allowed him entrance, so he could just let himself in, but he stood there and weighed out his options. In the end he chose to walk in and find her, politeness be damned, and after searching her house from top to bottom he found her in the basement. He had never been down there before, and he could understand why now - the basment was damp and unfinished, and a small pool of leaking water in the far right corner could be visible from the stairs Draco stood on. She was lying on a transfigured bed, blankly staring in the darkness.
"Pansy?" Draco called out to her quietly, slowly moving closer. "It's Draco. What are you-"
"I know perfectly well who you are Draco, I'm not daft." Pansy said in a raspy voice.
"Well you look very...off. So excuse me for trying to take the gentle approach. What are you doing down here? Why does your house look like...well like this." Draco held his hands out and looked around him to emphasize his point.
Pansy glared at him. "My parents have been gone for several weeks now, we haven't been at our house for nearly a year, my brother is missing, I've been interrogated within an inch of my life and all you want to know is why my fucking house looks like this? Fucking go away Draco. I cannot believe it took you this long to even bother to come here. Fuck you and your friendship." and with that she turned her attention back into staring into the darkness.
Draco stared at her. "What the fuck? I'm trying to find out what happened, if you hadn't noticed I'd been gone for quite a while too, and I've been hiding myself away ever since, so I had no fucking clue about anything going on with you..."
"So it only took you until now to decide to come look for me? What you randomly decided several months after you got back that 'Hey, I haven't seen Pansy for a while, maybe I'll see if she's still alive.' ? Asshole."
"Look I'll admit that yes, I only just now decided to come by, " Pansy snorted at that "But it was only because I was dealing with my own shit, okay? Don't fucking act like that! The fact is, I'm here now, so do you want some help or not? We can go looking for your brother, but you need to get up and out of this basement first. We can even go looking for your parents-" Draco offered.
"I don't want to go looking for my fucking...parents" Pansy said scathingly. "I'm glad they're gone. " When Draco gave her a long look. Pansy said "Look, we were friends throughout school yes, but you don't know very much about my family Draco. You don't know anything at all. I'm glad they're gone and it'll make my life if they never come back, and I'll leave it at that.
Draco didn't say anything. It was her business, and with the way she was acting right now, he really couldn't care less about her issues with her parents.
"Fine. I don't really...okay. We can look for your brother then."
"I already told you, I do not want your fucking help. Get out of my house, Draco. Or what's left of it anyway. And to answer you're question, the reason my house is like this is because when my parents left, they took everything with them - including all the money. So there are no house elves to upkeep the house, and no money to upkeep...me. Now go." Pansy hissed, and turned over to face the wall so as to end anymore conversation.
Draco opened his mouth, then closed it again. The way she was going on, he didn't know why he still felt the need to bother with her. But here he was, still. He felt like he had to help her - he didn't like the guilt she'd given him when he'd reminded her just how long it took to remember about her after all of this. He wanted it out and away from him, and the only way that could happen was if he gave her something she wanted. Settled the score. So he'd help her find her brother, whether she wanted him to or not. He walked over to the bed and shoved Pansy over to face him. He yanked her up into a sitting position, leaned in close and said "Look, you little...I am going to help you, do you understand? I'll help you find your brother, and you can even come and stay with me for a little while, because you can't stay in this shithole. You've got no food, no money as you pointed out, and no one else. You can't help yourself this time Pansy, and I know how much you love to do things on your own, but it won't work. You need my help. It's either come with me or stay down here and fucking rot. Your choice."
He released her and stood up, crossing his arms and waiting while she sat there and glared at him for a long moment. Then she stood up, and Draco thought he had won, but instead she leaned in close to him, just as he'd done to her, smirked and said in her darkest voice "Then I guess I'll just have to fucking rot in here, now won't I?"
And that was how this began. As Pansy tried to collect herself and carefully get up from her tumble on the sidewalk, refusing to take off those ridiculous heels, Draco could do nothing. He mainly wanted to help because he felt guilty for not coming to her sooner, but he also wanted to help because...he had never seen Pansy like this. A new cut was growing red and pulsing on her kneecap, blood forcing it's way through her new found wound, and Draco could only stare. The Pansy he knew always looked nothing less than perfect - it was what drew him to her in the first place. She never took anyone's bullshit, she was cunning and sarcastic, and her words cut deep -just like him. Had things not turned out the way they did, he would've gotten with her, but here they were. Her on the sidewalk looking like a horrible mess of the girl he knew, and him standing there looking on, a shadow of the Draco he knew as well.
"Draco, " Pansy suddenly said desperately. She had fallen on the sidewalk again, and Draco didn't even have it in him to laugh at her. It was just sad. "Please, " she begged. "Just leave me be. Please...please..." she whispered to herself now, on the verge of tears. She didn't want him to see her like this, Draco knew. She didn't want his eyes on her as her life crumbled around her - as she fell defeated to the ground. He gave in this time, and left her there.
As he walked to the closest disappartion point, Draco began to wonder if this was how he looked to everyone else - just a broken version of himself. He wondered when things would change for the both of them. His biggest fear now was her. He was afraid more than anything that one day he might not find the will to wake up in the mornings - that he might stumble into the basment of the manor and never find the strength to walk back out again. That someday someone might pity him, the same way Draco pitied Pansy - and that someone might view Draco as only a sad shadow of the person he once was.