7. Pain [340]
Draco has a steady sort of mind, and once he starts something he likes to finish it, so he tends to confront his fears head on.
(His Boggart was his father for a time, and he spent days straight staring into its eyes until it eventually shifted shape for good.)
It's part of the reason why his sixth year onward was so difficult for him, because that was about when he realized the level of his self-delusion (epiphany under pressure, he thought with a laugh, what timing) and there was nothing he could do about it but think on it and be afraid.
(Sometimes he would see flickers out of the corners of his eyes, shadows that he knew were waiting on him, and he thought what an idiot he'd been, and beckoned the darkness closer.)
When he starts something he likes to finish it, so Draco hates himself for hating what he's doing, but goes on as ever, and though wishing there were a way out, he digs himself deeper and deeper with complete knowledge.
Nothing stops him once he's set his course, and when he comes across a girl in the tunnels of his making he simply brushes her off and looks her up and down. In his new clarity of mind he sees, understands his heart and hers and he sees no contradiction in the way he levels his wand at her and hurtles green light out of it.
(Aunt Bella likes to cackle that you have to enjoy causing pain and death, but that's not true. You just have to find it absolutely necessary.)
Draco has a steady sort of mind, so he understands when he's just ripped his heart apart. But he does what is necessary to continue down the path he has chosen, and if that means making himself into something cruel and twisted and terrifying, so be it. He regrets nothing.
(To his credit, he still faces his fears. Each night he lets loose the Boggart and watches himself kill her again.)
