Author's Note: Short, but I kinda want to get this story done. It's not gotten much response, and I would like to go back to my main story.
Draco the Daring
Usually, when there's a controversy, people are often firmly on one side of the argument, with not many stuck in the middle.
And when this happens, people will often feel very strongly on the issue, and naturally assume the other side is automatically wrong, and that their followers are idiots.
People often judged Draco Malfoy too quickly, whether to hate or exonerate him.
(Even Draco did it sometimes, but we'll get to that later).
They, who had been born on the 'right' side, didn't understand how difficult it was to turn away from the side you grew up with.
They said "Sirius Black did it", and they smile smugly, like the matter was closed.
But Sirius Black had a raving lunatic for a mother, didn't he?
Everyone knew the main branch of the Black family went downhill after Orion married Walburga.
But they didn't know easy it was to be brought up in a loving family, with absolutely no alternatives.
Sirius Black didn't become a Gryffindor because he turned his back on his family; he turned his back on his family because he became a Gryffindor!
One does not decide to leave ones family at age eleven, one decides to be a bit rebellious at age eleven, and it grow into something more.
With both sides available to him, he made a choice.
Good for him, but it wasn't available to everyone.
Besides, Draco had made an attempt to befriend Harry Potter, but he had been rebuked because of a childish insult to a boy Harry had only met an hour before.
Potter never truly realized the power he had, the influence he could have wielded, if only he tried.
Draco loathed to admit it, but Harry would have been a great Slytherin.
There were times he knew.
Knew that he had chosen the losing side.
And it was even more than that- not only was Voldemort the losing side, but he was the wrong choice.
Draco always knew it, but by the time he had enough courage to change sides, he was in far too deep.
It took more courage that one would expect to try to betray one's parents, the people who raised him.
This was their cause, their lord.
How could they have brought him into this?
But they protected him as much as they could, and he couldn't leave and abandon them to their fate with a raging lunatic.
Draco had many doubts in those last few months.
He wondered...
Wondered, if he had been a little more courageous, whether he would have changed sides.
Courage was always a feature Slytherins hold with caution, because it causes people to act brashly.
But on the other hand, maybe if he was braver, he would have left long ago, a decision which would prove foolhardy.
And...
Draco wondered if staying here was perhaps the bravest choice of all.
A layer of self-deprecation fell over his mindset, and he snorted, throwing the thought away.
Perhaps not.