A/N: So, here's my entry for dragons: write about someone who isn't who they seem to be

Also for the Cinema Competition (Beauty and the Beast category)!

Hope you enjoy!


ONLY HUMAN: 563 words


{I can hold my breath}

For years, that was all Draco did. He sat and listened to everyone, holding his breath, waiting for something to go wrong. Waiting for someone to kill the people he loved.

Sure, he may have seemed brooding and cunning, but he was only biting his tounge. He had so much he wanted to say to the Dark Lord. Things that would get him killed.

He would lie awake in bed for hours just thinking about all the horrible things that could happen to his family if he stepped a toe out of line with his words.

He did it for them. So they would think he was obedient. So they wouldn't torture him for his.

{I can fake a smile}

He shoved on that devilish smirk every day. Playing the part he was assigned.

He was a Slytherin. But he wasn't who everyone thought he was.

He wasn't the cunning, sneaky cockroach everybody thought he was.

Inside, Draco was just a boy, putting on a brave face for the people he loved. The people he needed to protect.

Because without them, he would be lost. A lost little boy with no one else to turn to.

He would give up everything just to ensure their safety, because if they were safe, he would find a way back to them.

{I can do it}

He could do it. He had to do it. He had no choice.

{But I'm only human, and I bleed when I fall down}

But Draco was only human. He wasn't immune to everything around him. He wasn't immune to emotion. He felt pain and sorrow like anyone else. But no one would expect it. No one would understand why the sneaky little Slytherin would cry over a broken heart if his parents died.

{I can turn it on}

And that's what he did. He turned on those automatic responses that came out of his mouth when he wasn't alone.

He was a machine when that happened. Laughing at jokes he found more mean than funny.

He held the weight of the world on his shoulders behind the snarky demeanour. No one knew how he really felt. He had to keep it that way. For their safety.

{I'll get through it}

And he knew he would get through it. He had to get through it. It wasn't an option.

{I'm only human, and I crash and I break down}

But Draco was still only human. If you threw him around enough, he would break. And breaking he was. But he knew he had to keep it all inside. He couldn't allow anything bad to happen to them. He had to keep it together.

{Just a little human}

It was as simple as that.

{I can take so much, 'til I've had enough}

He couldn't put up with it all alone. But he had to.

{Your words in my head, knives in my heart You build me up and then I fall apart}

So many people threw knives at him, laced with words that explained to Draco what they saw him as.

Idiot.

Cunning.

Sneaky.

Untrustworthy.

That was only the beginning.

But those people didn't know what he was really like. They didn't know the real him. And whenever he was about to break, he thought about that.

{'Cause I'm only human}

It didn't always help.