Day 2
„I don't understand, why would you want to move so far away?" His father asked, confusion in his voice.
Draco sighed. „Don't you get it, father? No one here will ever respect us again. People will panic when they see us walking down the streets, they will hide their kids behind them. This is not a life for me. I just need to start over."
His mother shook her head, tears dripping down her face again. „Please don't do that to me, Draco. We can get through this as long as we have each other. Please don't just leave me by myself."
As always it took Draco a lot of energy to keep his guard up and not give his mother anything she wanted when he saw her like that. „What do you mean „by yourself"? You still have father."
Both of his parents suddenly seemed to find everything on their plates very interesting. „What?" Draco asked harshly.
His father sighed defeatedly. „It his highly likely that I will spend a lot of time in Azkaban, son. They trust me not to run for now, the hearing will be tomorrow afternoon." He didn't seem to be upset about this, or even scared. He was perfectly calm and composed. Like a Malfoy man was expected to behave. Draco on the other hand was fuming inside.
"How can they do that? Don't they understand that you have changed? That we have changed?" He yelled furiously and the pain inside him became more intense with every word. He just swallowed it down. After a night of this pain he had gotten a little more used to it. Turned out sleeping potions had no effect on him anymore. That would have been too easy of course. So he had laid whimpering quietly into his pillow all night long, scared that his parents could hear him. He had to stay strong for them.
"It doesn't matter. I have done a lot of bad things in my life and I need to be punished for them. I deserve to be punished for them."
His mother sobbed quietly. Draco couldn't leave her all by herself. She wouldn't be able to handle it. She had never been alone, she had always had her sisters, or her husband and son. Now all by herself, with Bellatrix dead, her husband going to Azkaban and her son cursed. Andromeda, her other sister, was still alive but they hadn't had contacted each other in years. How would she be able to live through that? As much as the publicity wanted to think that Narcissa Malfoy was a strong and heartless woman, she was neither of both. She was a woman that needed support and crumbled if she didn't have it.
Draco finally laid down his fork and looked at the scrambled eggs in front of him. How did it happen that the life of the only people he loved had become so scrambled as well?
Without caring about any stupid etiquette or politeness he got up from the breakfast table.
"I really have to go. I have a party to attend." He mumbled as he was on his way of leaving the room.
"Draco!" His mother yelled after him and he reluctantly turned around again.
"What?" He sighed.
"When are you going to leave for Thailand?" She almost whispered.
"Tomorrow" He answered emotionlessly.
His father stared daggers into him. "Before you leave you'll have to make sure you give us your address so we can visit." He tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace.
Draco shook his head slowly. "I won't."
Lucius was up in one second, fuming with rage. "Why is that, son?" He spat out and Narcissa whimpered quietly.
"I don't want you to visit me." Draco replied, a big lump in his throat. These couple words were probably the biggest lie he had ever told anyone. Truth was he wanted to see them every day for the rest of his life. But if they knew it would cause them so much more pain than thinking that their son had abandoned them. To know that your only son had died before you...
"Why not?" His mother sobbed, pain and hurt in her voice and face.
He gulped heavily. He needed to hurt them in order to protect them from even more pain. He needed to do this. "I don't want you to visit me, because I don't ever want to see you again. You're like a constant reminder of everything that has happened and I just want to forget." He hoped that the tears that were rising up in his eyes could be mistaken as tears of anger and frustration, when really it hurt him so much to lie to them. They had lied to him all of his life, but now that he wanted to lie to them to protect them from misery he couldn't do it without almost tearing up. Before they could give him any reaction, he left the room, and his parent's house, and finally disapparated once he had left the property.
Knocking on the heavy wooden door doubts were rushing through Draco. Maybe this wasn't the best thing to do after all. Maybe it would be easier to just leave right away and not stay another day. Another day that he had to pretend like nothing was wrong and like the pain wasn't eating him up inside. What if he actually came to like the people? That would make it even harder for him. Or worse, what if they actually came to like him? He shook his head, repulsed by the thought and by the consequences that it would bring. He hurt so bad. And it would only spread further and get worse. He really shouldn't be here. Just when he was turning to leave a familiar bushy-haired girl opened the door. He had to get her to understand. He needed her to forgive him for his actions.
"Oh it's just you." She said, not even trying to hide the disappointment in both her face and her voice.
"I'm delighted to see you too, Hermione." Draco replied with a fake smirk.
"Come in." She moaned and turned around. He followed her into the house of his dead relatives. It was dark and old, but as clean as it could get. He found it even creepier than his own house, and that had given him some nightmares. There were people all around, he made out some of the Weasleys and some other familiar faces like Kingsley Shacklebolt.
Sighing he noticed that Hermione had disappeared into the crowd, leaving him all by himself. He walked over to a long buffet and grabbed some snacks and pumkin juice. When he sat down at a table, Harry sat next to him.
"Hi Draco." He said brightly.
"Hello." was all he replied.
"I'm happy you made it. I just wanted to thank you for everything you and your family have done for us again."
Draco almost choked on a praline. "What do you mean... my family?"
Harry shrugged. "When Voldemort tried to kill me he sent your mother to look if I was really dead. She saw that I was still breathing, but she didn't tell. She said I was dead, which eventually lead to me beating Voldemort. I owe her." He smiled widely.
Draco stared at him darkly. "If you really owe her you should make sure that her husband isn't being sent to Azkaban. Because her all alone would lead to her all dead in about two weeks." He hadn't meant for it to come out as a hiss, but he didn't feel sorry for it either. He was glad that Harry was happy, but if he really wanted to help he would save the life of the woman that had saved his.
He could see Harry's brain working in light speed. His face had become darker. "Draco, there is absolutely nothing I can do about that. Lucius has done too much. He has been involved in too much."
"He has changed!" Draco burst out furiously, almost yelling.
Harry just shook his head apologetically. "If you feel so strongly about leaving your mom alone, maybe you should stay then."
Draco's teeth clenched together. "I can't."
Harry eyed him for a long moment, then he murmured, "I'm sorry, but there's someone else I need to talk to."
Draco just nodded and turned back to his pralines. He had never noticed how good simple things like those really were. Draco just sat there for a while, eager to leave, when his eyes met the eyes of a certain blond witch. She stood next to her husband, Bill, but that didn't keep Draco from walking over to her and asking her to speak to her in private. She reluctantly gave Bill her glass and lead him out of the hall and into a small room.
A/N: Let me know what you think.
