A/N:
As this story reaches its end (aprox. 4/5 chapters to close the deal)
I can't help but wonder which of the possible endings I'd choose…
Happy ending? Sad ending? Tragic ending? Open ending?
Dark ending? Twisted ending? Hopeful ending?
Hmmm…tricky
I've got already 2 different scribbled endings
RANKING #1: TRAGIC (DARK) ENDING
RANKING #2: OPEN (HOPEFUL) ENDING
And I was about to give proper life those 2 different endings
(and make this fic one of those "pick your own ending" kinda stories)
but then snapped out completely and said to myself
"NO!! I'VE GOT TO COMMIT MYSELF TO 1 ENDING ALONE, BUT WHICH ONE?!"
So…here's where YOU better send your reviews, PMs and/or comments while you still can so I can make an idea of the things you'd like to read because if you don't act NOW I'd pick the end myself and if you ultimately don't agree with the one I've chosen….well…
You can all kiss my bliss!
:venomous smirk:
To those who PM me asking me "Hey dude, where's Luna?"
Here's my reply: "You want Luna? You got Luna in this chapter!"
Phew! This is by far the LONGEST chapter I've written so far! HOLY CRAP I MUST BE INSPIRED!!
CHAPTER XXXVI
"Lie awake in bed at night and think about your life…Do you want to be different?
Try to let go of the truth, the battles of your youth 'cause this is just a game
It's a beautiful lie, it's a perfect denial, such a beautiful lie to believe in
So beautiful, beautiful lie makes me…
It's time to forget about the past, to wash away what happened last
Hide behind an empty face, don't ask too much the same 'cause this is just a game
Everyone's looking at me, I'm running 'round in circles baby
Plagued with a quiet desperation's building higher, I've got to remember this is just a game."
(30 SECONDS TO MARS – "A Beautiful Lie")
His desperate gasps for breath were frightening. His skinny body contorted spastically like a fish on land, he could hardly breathe or swallow, let alone speak. His bones, muscles and his head were throbbing painfully. He felt as if he was nestled in a warm pool of blood. Once he opened his eyes an intense light caused them to sting and water. Draco blinked hard and squinted until the image that projected his sore, burning pearl-gray eyes sharpened and realized that he was indeed laying in a pool of blood, Scorpius' blood…who had saved both his life and Blaise's at the cost of his own.
Draco felt like he was not only no longer in control of his own body but also of the world he was in. His son was dead and no matter how many times Draco repeated it - unwavering from his emotionless trance-like state - his tortured mind couldn't grasp it. Once the reality of what his eyes were seeing settled inside him, he immediately snapped out from his trance and got caught into a panic attack.
"NO! NO! NO!" He cried his heart out and soon began to feel light-headed; his muscles trembled with both tension and fatigue. "I never wanted this…not like this…never like this…"
As he slowly crawled out from that blood filled depression carved on the floor, dizziness, nausea and an extreme cold attacked his body, making him aware that he was shirtless and his tight black leather pants and boots were completely soaked with the thick crimson fluid.
Rubbing both hands against the sticky veil that covered his torso - his eyes not seemed sure what he was seeing anymore - Draco sensed that there was no sign of the mortal wound that Peter Pettigrew inflicted on him. He then took in his surroundings – Hogwarts deserted Great Hall - the place Scorpius chose to carry out the ritual to save his live.
Draco fixed his enraged pearl-gray eyes on his brother's figure – who lied on the floor scarce feet from him and was slowly waking up - and cried out with a complete hoarse voice.
"It's obvious I'm here to stay, ain't I?! I'm the closest of an immortal can be, ain't I?! No matter how many times death knocks at my door, no matter how much I wish to end it all, everyone I love would continue to die except me… BECAUSE I JUST CAN'T DIE, CAN I?!" The blond finished with a broken yelp.
Fighting against a funny light-headiness Blaise tried to bring himself back to reality and once he did he saw Draco shooting him a soulless murderous look. The red of his enraged pearl-gray eyes matched the crimson veil that washed the blond from head to toe.
A strangled sob escaped Blaise's throat. "I've told you I wasn't going to let you die if there was a way to save you."
"A way to save me…" Draco paused, getting hyperventilated and hysterical. "USING MY OWN SON AS LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER?!" He screamed desperately, curling his fists into tight rocks.
By then Blaise's facial features hardened with rage and impotence: "How does it feel like to have others making decisions for you?!"
Draco's pupils dilated in full as a memory struck on the back of his mind:
"I woke up in the middle of an end-of-the-days battle in the cemetery field that pretty much resembled Hell but it all became million times worse when I've realized that I was alive! How could you've made such decision for me?!For fuck sakes! Who do you think you are…God?"
Without waiting for his restored body to adjust or regain complete flexibility of his muscles, Draco struggled to rise, his shaking hands still curled into rock fists. "Whatever unresolved business you've got with me, we'd deal those issues between ourselves but never…ever dare to drag my son along the way! You leave Scorpius out…OUT!! Am I clear?!"
Fixing his stare on the floor, Blaise hissed annoyingly. "I wanted to take Scorpius' place but if I did I'd end up fucking things up and waste the only chance you've got to make it alive."
Suddenly, without warning, Draco's vision got haunted by in-and-out images that made him dizzy, his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell onto the water mirror oval shaped depression carved on the stone floor next to the blood-filled one that moments ago he'd crawl out from.
The moment his pearl-gray eyes fluttered open - still the recollection of that swirl of unrelated images tampering in the corner of his mind – Draco realized that Blaise had pulled him out from the water mirror. His back rested against Blaise's muscled torso, serving as support in his sitting position.
"Draco, please tell me you're not angry. I despise myself when you're mad at me." Blaise said with a thread of voice.
His strong arms were wrapping the blond tight, warming Draco's cold skinny frame with his body heat.
"I've broken my promise. I'd told you that I'd take care of Scorpius but I've failed you. I'm so sorry!" Blaise's throat clenched, he sounded mortified. "I should have taken his place. I'm the one who deserves to die."
"Brother, shut up. Each and every member of our family is irreplaceable: no-one deserves to die. I can't..." The blond paused - cursing under his breath - and took a deep breath before correcting himself. "I don't hate you."
Blaise pressed his cheek against Draco's bare right shoulder - the one that had burned the Lifespan Seal on it - and sighed blissfully.
"Now that we've both got part of each other's raw magic power you'd always be inside me and I'd be forever inside you." Blaise moaned the words as if he was climaxing.
He then brushed an open palm over Draco's forehead, healing immediately the blonde's throbbing headache.
Draco's eyelids fought to remain open; he was getting strangely sleepy all of a sudden. "I know what you're doing and you'd better stop right now. I don't want to fall asleep."
"Draco, let me take care of you: I'm your soul-mate and that's what soul-mates do. Your body and mind need time to heal." Blaise soothed with a calm voice that seemed to induce the blond to sleep.
With an inhuman will-power to keep himself awake, the blond Slytherin snapped from the trance. "NO! Time is exactly what I don't have!"
Pulling away violently from his brother's arms, Draco slowly rose to his feet - his head swimming with wooziness – and dragged his dead-weight legs forward with effort. His first steps were extremely precarious.
Shaking his head twice - sending water drops into the air from the dripping soaked wet silk blond blocks - Draco repaired on the sleeping figure of Luna.
"Scorpius, he was upset with her presence so I've cast a strong sleeping charm on her. She'll remain knocked off for another couple of hours." Blaise explained, slowly getting up from the floor, standing right behind Draco.
Luna was resting on a wood bench, deep asleep. The features traced on the blond Slytherin's pale face denoted his complex mixed emotions that overcame him:
"Why do you punish yourself? Can't you see that the more you want her, the more you chase after her the more she would elude you? The more interest you show, the more the object of your desire would repel you. This is because your interest is too strong and that makes her feel awkward, even fearful…and it makes you weak, unworthy and pathetic!"
His need to get close to Luna counterbalanced the ones of remain standing still on his place. But his indecision lasted a blink of an eye and rushed to her.
Refusing to look at Draco, the jet black haired Slytherin spoke with a trimming voice. "When I looked at Scorpius, really looked into those eyes of him, I could sense something disturbing and the moment I touched him, I knew that he was different from us."
"Of course there is no comparison possible with the rest: he's my son." Draco replied bluntly with conviction but with a bubbling uneasiness beneath.
Blaise stared at Draco for a whole minute without blinking. By the way those pearl-gray eyes were going back and forth he could tell that the blond was trying not to think about it, at least not in depth, not the way Blaise wanted to discuss the matter.
Exhaling soundly, painfully, Blaise started. "Draco, since I came back from the other side of the veil I perceive things completely different and I can see the true magic essence of a person by looking directly into his eyes. What I saw in Scorpius' eyes reminded me of the time I've spent in Hades fighting my way back into the world of the living. He's not entirely…"
"I don't want to talk about it!" The blond Slytherin said abruptly assuming a notorious defensive posture.
"…human." The other finished after snapping his mouth shut, finding himself tumbling into a bottomless pit of regret, but by then it was far too late.
After such stunning pronouncement, Draco found himself hurriedly catching it reflexively in silence as Scorpius' words come crushing inside his mind:
"I know I'm not like the rest, but you've always supported and helped me built a strong self-esteem, encouraging me to love myself more whenever I was in doubt. You've never harm me, not physically neither mentally, to make me feel afraid of you. You're the only one who'd never give up on me and always stood by my side. I thank you for that."
"You're not a monster and I'm remotely a precious being."
And with those words came along the vital information his unconscious held about his son's true genesis. Scorpius had been one of Lucifer's angels, exiled from Hell, ripped away from his original powers and his wings when he lost his immortality and – thanks to Draco's love and support – made it alive in a mortal human body...as a half-demon.
Feeling the burning of tears coming from the corner of his eyes, Draco shook his head furiously and wrapped his arms protectively around Luna.
When the blond Slytherin ducked his head, he noticed a blood stain on her jeans, coming from between her thighs. With horror, Draco realized what that internal bleeding meant, a miscarriage: Luna was slowly losing the baby.
After a sound, heavy sigh, Blaise spoke with a broken voice. "Draco, there's nothing written about Scorpius on the stars. He wasn't supposed to make it in this world and he knew it."
"Why would The Fates deny Scorpius the right to live!? To punish him because he's my son, my own flesh and blood?! I won't accept this! I won't let die what's most treasured to me!" The blond spitted angrily in between deep sobs.
Without wasting another second – or allowing his crawling panic attack get the best of his senses - Draco extended his right hand in the air. Immediately after that the blond was holding his wand: the Elder Wand, for after defeating Voldemort the young Slytherin had become the righteous owner of it.
"I've told you before that if my family wasn't supposed to make it in this world then I'd change the way the world is, haven't I?" Draco said to Blaise after drying with the back of his hand the tears from his moistened cheeks.
"Accio Time-Turner!" And from the depths of the crimson pool came out the shiny golden jewel, the one Scorpius had fixed and improved himself, the one with the third ring.
Placing the hourglass around his neck, Draco held tight Luna in his loving arms and whispered into one ear with a chocking, angsty voice. "Son, I want you to know that I'd never stop believing in you and that I'd always love you, all of you, unconditionally. I need you to be strong and fight back: grant me the time I need so I can save you."
Draco then felt Luna's left hand squeezing his forearm as tears started to fall from her closed-shut eyes and ran down her cheeks.
"I'd endure the pain… because I love you… and I want to see you again." Those words came out shaky from Luna's mouth but there was a solid and firm determination beneath them.
The Slytherin smirked sadly. Those had been the exact words he'd heard coming from Scorpius the day his son promised him that next time they both meet it'd be once he was born and have a body of his own.
"I'd protect and watch over you. I'd count the days until you're born." Draco repeated also the same words he once promised to Scorpius before kissing softly Luna's forehead.
Resting carefully his wife's back again over the wood bench Draco stood up. He walked towards the cushioned sleeping bag shaped mattress – the one Scorpius used to rest his unconscious body before performing the restoring ritual – and grabbed his son's black wool turtle-neck pullover.
Draco pressed one cheek against the softness of that combed wool - feeling the warmth and traces of Scorpius' scent in the sweater - and noticed that someone else's scent was mingled with the one of his son's.
"This sweater is not his…but mine. Why would Scorpius use my clothes?" He asked to himself after putting the sweater on, clothing his ice-cold shirtless humanity.
"Because it's the closest thing as having you touching his skin." Blaise shot back without daring to lift his gaze from the floor, he sounded burdened.
When Draco spoke, he did it with an anguish thread of voice. "Did he say that to you?"
Blaise looked painfully up from the ground and replied with a sad chuckle. "He didn't need to."
After closing his eyes Draco took a deep, steady breath and forced himself to slow those chaotic feelings from crushing inside him as he mastered a steady, balanced breathing. "I'd never regret anything I've done until today, when I've allowed Scorpius sacrifice his life for me. I've might have failed as a son, husband and brother but I won't fail as a father."
The moment he opened his pearl-gray eyes, Draco felt in complete control of his body and mind while an ice-cold sensation washed over him and his pulse and emotions aligned together into a straight flat line.
"I'm not God but whenever I want something done right I've got no option but to do it myself: that's the story of my life. Scorpius might have the Time Turner, but I've got the Elder Wand. I can and I will fix this. Ultimately, both the past and the future are determined by the choices we make today." Draco said with a firm and resolved tone in his voice.
Exasperated, Blaise curled his fists into tight balls and spitted out. "With Scorpius' existence diminishing in this exact time and space it makes that Time-Turner unstable!"
"Indeed, I can end up trapped inside a time loop." Before making a turn on the hourglass Draco looked at Blaise in the eye without blinking. "I can't turn back that far in time to fix everything.I just need to change the course of events of the last couple of hours, that'll do."
"I've got a terrible bad feeling about all this. I'm living in a constant déjà vu. What if it's best to leave things the way they are now? This way you'd spare Scorpius from suffering even more." Blaise looked back at the blond who'd got a perplexed stare plastered all over his pale face. "Draco, it hurts to look at the kid submerged in such consuming and tormented agony. The things he'd said were scary: he literally breathes for you. The way he feels about you despite your being his father, the way he'd been followed your every move since he was born…For fuck sakes, he even tried to curse you so that he could bind your soul and heart to him for eternity!"
Draco was about to reply when he clutched his right shoulder in severe pain. A stinging puncture forced him to hunch forward as a devastating burning whip-lash blow coursed all over him and the traces of the Lifespan Seal on Draco's right shoulder started to retreat.
The moment he replied, Draco's voice was low, holding the edge of a growl, he didn't sound like him in the least. "Of course that fucker would want what he cannot have, what did you expect? He's many times worse than you and I combined! Scorpius' fixation for me is just a manifestation of his hunger for power and control. He is the best and most dangerous example of a Malfoy there is. But he's my sole heir, the one who'd succeed me, without him there would be no future for the Malfoy's Clan."
Pursing nervously his lips – denoting with worry the harsh tone the blond had used while talking - Blaise ducked his head and stretched the collar of his t-shirt, checking out his Lifespan Seal and how it started to fade from his left shoulder as well. "Our Lifespan Seals are supposed to last forever!"
"Nothing lasts forever." Draco stretched also the collar of his turtle neck pullover, pointing at his unmarked right shoulder - the one that until minutes ago was burned with the Lifespan Seal - and smirked soullessly when he added. "Did you think I was going to let myself get enslaved again? I can no longer accept slavery, no matter how it's disguised. I've told you that, haven't I?"
His pearl-gray eyes darkened completely giving Blaise the shivers.
"I'd hate to disagree with my dearest mother, but it seems that the Light of my soul-mate is not enough to stop my darkness from rising…or maybe you've returned from the veil as a complete different man and you're no longer who you think you are, not anymore…or maybe…just maybe…I am the one who came back different from my near-death experience! Who knows? Who cares about it anymore as long as we're alive…whatever that means!" The blond snorted angrily as he balanced the wand between two fingers.
"No, that can't be true!" Blaise could feel the burn of the tears on the corner of his eyes. "Draco…you and I, we are soul-mates. Our flesh should be marked as such with a permanent stigma that reflects our bond: we belong to each other!"
Inhaling soundly, Draco's eyelids fluttered shut as if caught in a blissful trance. "I've never felt so liberated in my life and I'm starting to enjoy it a little too much but duty calls: I'm a father now. I've got no option but to delay getting hooked by my drug of choice and take responsibility. I have to go back in time and save my precious mistake." He ended the phrase with a marked ironic tone.
After reading between the blonde's words, an unexpected wave of relief flowed through Blaise, giving him the consolation he needed. "No matter how much you try to shelter yourself behind those impenetrable walls of yours, your heart would always be one of a kind."
Half-listening to what Blaise was saying, the blond rolled dramatically his eyes. "Who's the one living in denial now?"
Narrowing the distance that separated him from his brother, Blaise placed himself in front of the blond and looked at him in the eye without blinking. "Maybe the dark side of your magic will win you over in the end but your family would always come first."
"I…" Draco stammered when the rebuilding headache stricken him with another blow.
Promptly, Blaise smiled at Draco and answered for him. "You do care about us. Even after letting you down so many times you'd never give up on us." He finished with a thread of voice, wiping some tears away.
Draco blew a puff of air and replied harshly. "Don't fool yourself Blaise. The only truth here is that I certainly doubt I'd have another child, a legitimate heir I mean, because I refuse to share the same bed with that frigid of my wife again and the bastards I might or not have with my lovers won't count."
"WHAT LOVERS?!" Blaise roared exasperatedly as a peak of insane jealousy skyrocketed inside him.
He then grabbed Draco by his forearm and pulled him forward, both Slytherins were nose-to-nose. "Don't look further and think about the pros if you take me as your lover. I'd entertain you in every way you can possibly imagine because I've got both the brains and the arse. I'm tighter than any bitch you might come across. I'd never say no to you. I'm more than willing to give you anything you want and endure whatever you do to my body without complaining or making a scandal out of it like women use to do. Unlike the majority of the usurping bitches who'd most probably end up blackmailing you with the intention to escalate in the social status after they get into your pants I can perfectly keep a low profile and avoid making a scene in public so that any gossip would ever ruin your reputation without having to be bribed because I don't care about your money and to me the family's honor would always come first. Besides, if you're with me you won't need to worry about the bastards' issue."
The blond stared in silence at his brother for a brief moment and then smirked, without a doubt Blaise knew perfectly how to sell himself but he wondered it there was a trick to it.
"If I were to accept, what would be your conditions?" Draco inquired hypothetically looking at Blaise distrustfully.
"Just one: complete exclusivity." Blaise moaned the words slowly mere inches away from Draco's lips.
Draco let go a snort-like sound, shook his head in denial and took as step back. "No. You're asking too much."
"Fine then, no conditions!" The other muttered angrily but immediately after that he leaned closer, grinning from ear to ear. "Each and every time I'd make sure to wear you out completely before you finish me off so that you won't be able to lift it up for anyone else."
"We'll see. Maybe you've got something I want…maybe not." Draco teased darkly as the idea of taking away the purity of Blaise's magic essence crossed his mind.
Blaise tried harder to get inside Draco's mind but the blond was blocking him out, nevertheless he guessed what Draco's intentions were. "I'm not asking much in comparison with what you'd get from me. You can't deny it's a fair exchange."
"Fair? You're giving yourself too much credit. And what makes you believe that I'd still want you around after taking away what I seek in you?" Draco asked venomously while grabbing the Time-Turner between his hands.
"Guess we'll find that out after you try me." While thinking of the many things he'd like to do with and to Draco, Blaise paused for an intake of much needed air and added. "I know you want to fix things but by doing that you'd erase what happened today, this conversation included, and I certainly don't want to forget anything."
Arching one skeptic eyebrow, the blond sneered coldly. "I'm going solo."
"That's exactly why I want to give you this." After taking off his sterling locket Blaise stuffed it forcefully inside one of the pockets of Draco's leather pants and spoke with a shaky voice. "Inside it I've recollected my mementos. Do whatever you have to do in order to save your son's life but you'd better come back in one piece and return my locket with all my memories intact, you hear me?!" He finished, nervously rising his tone.
Ducking his head, Draco eyed warily his pant's pocket and replied annoyingly. "You just can't keep your hands to yourself, can you?"
Biting his lower lip, Blaise's cheeks went red. "The pocket was a deep one. I just wanted to make sure my locket won't fall from it."
Draco looked up and rested his gaze on Blaise's face for a moment. "Why did you have to go further and feel me up?" He demanded to know.
"You're kidding me, right?" But noticing that Draco was dead serious, Blaise closed briefly his eyes and exhaled soundly. "I guess after talking about sex so openly not many can master their self-control and act like an iceberg like you. I thought you wouldn't mind. Actually I was hoping you liked it because I did, a lot."
"I do mind because I didn't give you permission." Draco's pearl-gray eyes then flickered strangely and his face got stricken with both sadness and disappointment. "Blaise, you've got no understanding of trust, no wonder why we can't be soul-mates."
But before Blaise had time to produce an answer Draco had already disappeared right in front of his restless pitch-black eyes.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Running as fast as he could, avoiding taking the stairs, Draco took off from one of the windows from the second floor of the Castle and jumped up high enough to reach one of the balconies of the third floor, landing on a crouch. He unlocked the safety of the window and stepped inside quietly and silently as a cat.
Making a quick clockwise turn with his head, the blond Slytherin inspected with a keen eye his surrounding and that's when he repaired on the foggy black line encircling both Voldemort and his other self – still unharmed and fully dressed with his snake leather hooded duster - fighting inside it, inside the duel's circle.
Voldemort broke the silence addressing the mismatched eyed Draco with a cynic, cold and soulless voice. "You're quite a unique being yourself. It would be fool of me to kill the only wizard who, using his own Dark Magic combined with his broad knowledge in Alchemy, not only successfully cleansed and purified a dead body but also managed to retrieve its soul from the other side of the veil and restored its mortality. You, my boy, have unlocked the greatest mystery of all: you can raise the dead!"
Those words triggered again Draco's deepest fears and pushed his other self – the one from the past – straight into a panic attack. It was now or never, Draco had to make a move otherwise history would repeat itself.
Propelling himself into the air, Draco grasped the chain of the chandelier's canopy, swinging forward then backward his slim body before executing a half-turn in the air, landing smoothly on the floor, absorbing the impact with both bended knees.
While his other self – the one from the past - aimed his wand at Voldemort, Draco pointed his wand – the Elder Wand – towards the treacherous rat that was slowly changing back into his human form, ready to pierce with his silver hand the insides of the other blond from behind his back.
In perfect unison, both blond Slytherins called out with a determined and imminent voice that echoed the stone walls. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The killing curses hit their targets, sending crushing into the floor both Voldemort's and Peter Pettigrew's limp, dead bodies.
Arching an accomplished eyebrow, Draco rested his gaze on the Elder Wand confirming that it was true what they said about that wand after all, it could achieve what others couldn't. Thanks to it Draco could pierce successfully through the unyielding dark magic power of the duel's circle and managed to kill Pettigrew.
But suddenly everything around Draco started to spin at the speed of sound. A blasting sound deafened his ears and his vision field got haunted again by in-and-out images that forced his eyes rolled back in his head. His self from the past and Draco started to blend together into one single person again. Unable to stand the pressure of the time and space alignment Draco fell onto the floor, completely drained of energy.
Getting desperate, Blaise approached his brother – once the foggy dark circle disappeared - and kneeled by his side, he saw that the blond had his eyes opened but only showed the whites of his orbs. "Draco?!"
But the blond Slytherin couldn't hear Blaise. He was deep in a trance as the memories that Scorpius inserted in his brain – during that psychic kiss inside Draco's dying dream - started spinning inside his mind, overwhelming Draco completely.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Beginning of Scorpius' Memory IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Blowing from time to time the same untamed long block of silk blond hair that kept falling over his smoke-gray eyes, a small boy – no older than five years old - dressed with striped ink-blue and black cotton pajamas tiptoed barefoot past the expensively decorated hall.
Halting scarce inches from a closed ebony door he looked past his shoulder – scanning the immediate surroundings with a clinical and calculating eye – and then slowly, carefully he turned the polished bronze door knob and stepped inside the silent, dark room.
With a wandless flick of his left wrist, the fireplace of the bedroom came to life with vivid dark red and orange fire tongues, warming and illuminating the place in matter of seconds. Once the boy made its way towards the left side of the empty king-sized bed, he placed a leather covered clipping folder over the night table and jumped onto the bed. He then rolled playfully his small body back and forth until he bumped against the cushioned head rest. Picking up a corner of the mattress he uncovered the pillow behind it. Grabbing the feather stuffed pillow with both arms he hugged it tight against his small body, sinking his head in it - breathing soundly the traces of scent that perfumed that pillow's cover - before letting himself fall over the bed on his back without breaking the tight embrace.
The moment he leaned forward to pick up the forgotten leather folder from the night table, the blond boy caught sight of a black silk cuff of a pajamas jacket. Pulling it from under the bed sheets, he smirked devilishly to himself as he traced with his short fingers the pair of silver threaded monogrammed embroidered letters on one of the pockets: "DM".
After putting that jacket on top of his pajamas, the boy cushioned his body comfortably on top of the pillow and started flipping through the countless clippings, mostly from The Daily Prophet and others from The Quibbler:
- UNDERAGED MINISTER OF MAGIC NO MORE -
Draco Malfoy - a pure-blood wizard and emancipated minor, last living member of the Malfoy's Clan, inborn with a talent to lead and recently graduated with honors from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a year earlier than the rest of his classmates - was elected Minister of Magic last year at the early age of 17 but he turned down this position arguing that his priority was to take care of his young wife –Luna Lovegood (16) – who's expecting the couple's first child.
A month ago, shortly after his 18th birthday, he was urged to reconsider such significant proposition and this time his answer reflected the hopes of those who join forces and persuade him to accept the post: Draco Malfoy became the youngest Minister in the history of the Wizardry World.
When inquired about his change of mind, the teenager explained [exact quote]: "I've accepted only because I want to provide a better world for my beloved wife and my heir to live in. They're the inspiration behind everything I do."
Immediately after that it was impossible not to ask him about his opinion regarding the imprisonment of former Minister Fudge and his secretary Mrs Umbridge for treason, Draco Malfoy replied [exact quote]: "They were already imprisoned but they didn't know: the moment they decided to join the Dark Lord's command they'd enslaved themselves. Whether they're physical or psychic walls, slavery is still the same: it's a limitation of the self."
- MY SAVIOUR, REVISITED -
During a break from her duties at the Ministry – Agnes Luthsmurgh (74) - grandmother of two and head of family – confessed that Minister Draco Malfoy (18) saved her in more than a way [exact quote]. "Lots of people died in the hands of the Death Eaters. My daughter and her husband were attending Dumbledore's Memorial when the raid began. They gave their lives to protect me and the life of their children. We survived but were captured. Draco Malfoy rescued us from the cell we were imprisoned, the three of us are alive today thanks to him. He saved us from an imminent death. After losing my daughter and my son-in-law I was left in charge of my two grandchildren and I had to find a way to support my family but I was retired. I've worked all my life as a secretary for the Department of International Magical Cooperationbut my former employers were reluctant to hire me because of my age. I've lost count of how many doors I've knocked at the Ministry, practically begging for someone to give me a chance to prove that I was still useful. I was just about to leave when I've come across Draco Malfoy stepping outside his office. I didn't dare to ask him for anything so I motioned silently to the exit corridor when, without speaking a word, he waved a hand in the air for me to come inside. I did as requested and he pointed at a large number of cardboard boxes piled on the corner of his office. After indexing the files, completing the information of the destroyed records and correct those inaccurate documents …I was hired by the end of the day!"
- FAMILY TIES: (NOT) A QUESTION OF BLOOD -
Encouraged by his favorite subject at school, Potions – dictated by former Potion Master Severus Snape (39) current Headmaster of Hogwarts - the Minister of Magic, Draco Malfoy (18) had only one thing in mind during his childhood: to become an alchemist. It was not the love for that subject but the admiration towards his Potion Master what motivated the young student to improve and perfect his talent in order to gain the attention of his educator.
According to an undisclosed informer, the Minister and the Headmaster are deeply involved with one another - like a functionate unit - where mutual respect is exchanged. This same source informs that the relationship they share resembles the one between a father and a son. Such suspicions were confirmed shortly after the birth of Scorpius Hyperion, Draco Malfoy's first son. When the young man was inquired, once he left the hospital after the checking-out of his wife and son, about whom he'd name as the baby's godfather he replied immediately [exact quote]: "Severus Snape is my son's granfa…godfather."
And speaking about the treats of having a godfather for their baby this reporter spoke with Draco Malfoy's neighbor - Hermione Granger (18) single mother of a half-blood baby girl – whose daughter's godfather is no other but the Minister of Magic himself [exact quote]: "I've befriend with his wife, Luna, for many years now and I never expected things would have turned the way they did. Rose and I, we're both alive thanks to Draco. I've meant…Malfoy. Uhmmm…can you please cross that out when you print it, the fact that I've addressed him with his first name? It's just that Draco gets cranky whenever I treat him with such familiarity. Like I was saying, we're both alive because of Malfoy. The same day Rose lost her father in the fire Malfoy blamed himself for not being able to rescue his best friend, Blaise Zabini, from the flames. I believe the tragedy brought us together, neither of us could save those we loved and Malfoy promised me that he'd support me and my baby…and he did. I owe him everything I've got, literally!"
- GRAY & GREEN, GO GREEN OR JUST TOO MUCH TO DRINK?-
Even after the sudden and mysterious deaths of twenty-four members of the Ministry assigned to protect and secure at all times the life of the Minister of Magic - Draco Malfoy (20) – in the course of the last few months, the Minister dismissed all rumors of getting poisoned - along with two of his former classmates - at the Green & Gray Slytherin's Quidditch Glory Party held last night. When he was stopped this morning right outside St. Mungo's hospital, despite being jealously escorted by a protective squadron of aurors that hardly leave his sight when he's at a public place, the young Minister devoted a few minutes of his time to talk to the press, bring calm to the citizens the Wizardry World and even denote a friendly tone that made suspect he could be still under the residual effects of an hallucinogen toxin or maybe too much alcohol in his drink when he came to shake hands enthusiastically with this reporter [exact quote]: "High five! Low five! Down low! Too slow! Go Slytherin go! Woohoo! The only thing that encouraged me to go to that party was because I wanted to honor the memory of Blaise Zabini, my best friend. He was by far the best chaser Slytherin's team ever had, but most important of all he was a true hero: inside as well as outside the Quidditch field. He saved the lives of countless students from Hogwarts, my family included. Blaise saved my wife's life when she was still pregnant with my heir the night the Death Eaters kidnapped the teacher's staff and plotted the murder of its former Headmaster. I've lost count of how many times Blaise pulled me out from a most imminent death. He always looked after me like an elder brother would have done. The void he'd left is one impossible to fill…he's deeply missed. I don't recall how many toasts I've made in his name. They must have been a lot, trying to match the number of people Blaise had saved, for the last thing I remember before passing out was Daphne Greengrass screaming at me as I was laying face down on the floor of the girl's loo with Crabble and Goyle throwing up on the lavatories scarce feet away from me. I don't know how the three of us ended up there, probably because that was the closest bathroom. By the time I've regained conscience I've found myself no longer in the loo but in a hospital bed. I'm a vegetarian, that's what'd spared me from the intoxication Goyle and Crabble are still suffering from after ingesting too much red meat at the party, probably something in the sauce. Those two developed a mild stomach complain, nothing serious, but they'd certainly need to remain under observation for the next 48 hours. I've checked myself out earlier because I just can't wait to see my family. They had to follow the standard security measures for these cases and were refrained from visiting me at the hospital. I appreciate the huge amount of getting well cards, gifts and tokens that people left for me at the hospital. My boy, Scorpius Hyperion, turns three in a couple of days…he'd love all the extra stuffed animals and toys he's going to receive this year! Now, regarding the vast amount of exotic bouquets I've received, I'm proud to confirm that no flower – no matter how exquisite or rare - would ever outshine the unmatched beauty and sweetness of the precious rose I'm married to, my beloved wife, Luna Malfoy."
- PAST CAN'T CHANGE…WE DO-
When being asked about his past the Minister of Magic – Draco Malfoy (21) – points out that [exact quote]: "What determines the kind of person a man truly is? Definitely not the type of situations he'd endured but how he'd acted during those situations…by what he'd chose to do and what he'd decided to leave behind."
The brutal end of his mother's life – Narcissa Black (murdered at the age of 42) – by the hands of his own father – Lucius Malfoy (missing at the age 43) – was the initiator of the turnaround in Draco Malfoy's life. The only statement we could recollect so far of the Minister talking about his parents was this [exact quote]: "I respected my father, but I loved my mother."
Brought up and trained to become a Death Eater, this young man's tenancy born out from his personal misery, loss and pain had shaped a marked determination in his character, forcing him to sustain an open opposition to his upbringing that lead him to be the sole responsible for the resounding defeat of Lord Voldemort and his followers and the restoration of the Wizardry World peace and order.
- OLD FLAMES DIE HARD -
It's been over two years since the wife of the Minister of Magic, Luna Lovegood-Malfoy (21), was last seen supporting her husband during one of his public speeches. In reply to the horde of rumors stating that the young couple's marriage was on the rocks, Draco Malfoy (22) limited to say [exact quote]: "My wife is my life." When inquired about his repeated apparitions in public with Alecto Carrow (27) – a half-blood tiny and plain witch of questionable reputation because of her outspoken hatred towards muggle-borns wizards and witches in the past and whose passion for both magic and non-magic weaponry and her inclination towards the Dark Arts almost secured her a place at Azkaban shortly after the fall of Voldemort - the Minister acknowledged [exact quote] "Two years ago our paths crossed again during a most strange event. What started as a harmless jinx some students come up with in order to delay the year's start of terms at school developed into something out of control when an unexpected fire started at Platform 9 3/4 and the Hogwarts Express got practically burnt out. Alecto Carrow was supposed to fill the place Charity Burbage, professor of Muggle Studies, left vacant after she retired. I know Alecto since I was seven years old; she was the one who'd taught me how to defend myself properly without using magic but my own body as weapon. She also trained me in the handling of non-magical weapons such as knives, swords, bows and arrows. It was going to be a complete waste of her talents if I let her teach that class at Hogwarts, she needed something different, something challenging. Once I've finally succeeded to convince her of rejecting the teaching position I've hired her as my personal bodyguard. That's why she is with me whenever I appear in public. Yes, we did share a lot of common interests in the past and we still do. I've always admired how she disciplined herself in body and mind to achieve the goals she set in her life. I do care about her in many different aspects and my relationship with her is both professional and personal but it's remotely like the tabloids had described. Alecto might not be the stereotype of beauty, like most or you reporters use to label her when displaying her photos, but she's extremely intelligent and a very skillful fighter. Those qualities combined are rare to find in a woman and that's exactly what makes her stand out from the rest in a unique way. She's might weight only ninety-three pounds and be scarcely five feet tall but she can easily bring to the floor a six point five feet tall man of two hundred and fifty pounds in the blink of an eye without having to take out her wand. Before any of your sources distort the truth I'd like to confirm the information myself: Yes, I did have a crush on Alecto when I was younger but it never surpassed the platonic stage. Unlimited were the truths she exposed to me as an educator in my eager search for knowledge but when I wanted to unveil her mysteries as a woman she made certain to set the boundaries between us. I must confess that only fueled the firm conviction and determination that encompassed all through my teenager's turmoiled phase to tear down her unyielding unwillingness to see me as a man. But like I've said before, Alecto is a terrific fighter. I've ended up paying the price of my stubbornness very painfully, literally spitting blood. As time past by my respect for her, along with my sense of self-preservation, quieted my raging hormones and I've realized that it wasn't unwillingness but the unquestionable dedication towards her work what kept her from letting me in."
When questioned about the gossiping of their being involved romantically now that the Minister is no longer a student of hers, Alecto replied with a funny giggle [exact quote]: "Every woman in the Wizardry World would agree with me when I say that Draco Malfoy is everything we want in a man: he is charismatic, well-mannered, cultivated, quick-witted, enchanting…a true gentleman. He'd always been like that. Even then, when he was just a child, Draco made quite an impression the very first moment I met him, fifteen years ago. I was mesmerized by his many inherited qualities, yes, but I knew perfectly well which was my place. Nevertheless, with the passing of the years and because we'd come across many challenges together I ended up growing fond of him, who wouldn't? Despite our age gap doesn't weight as much as it did before, whenever I look at Draco I still see that small boy forced to grow up very quickly and eager to prove to himself and to the world what he's capable of. My relationship with him is strictly professional and I know exactly where I'm standing: my job is to safeguard his physical integrity. If Draco assigned me this task is because he knows I'd never dare to jeopardize the trust he deposited in me and it's because I care about Draco the way I do that I'm committed to fulfill my duties accordingly."
- DRACO MALFOY'S WELTANSCHHAUUNG – DRACO MALFOY'S "OUTLOOK ON THE WIZARDRY WORLD" -
After the shocking news of the "Death Eaters' Amnesty Law" approved three years ago by the Minister of Magic in which the living members of the Dark Army were absolved of their charges and granted the chance to reinsert themselves in the Wizardry World with clean records despite their past affiliation and connection with Lord Voldemort, today the Minister signed the "Werewolve's Tolerance Treaty" rising a turmoil of encountered opinions.
Some detractors accused Draco Malfoy - (22) German naturalized a year ago - of having created the former Amnesty Law and this Treaty to cover-up a thoroughly census along with a strict and rigid control over the number of dark wizards and witches and the infected people by the lycan syndrome that are still living in the Wizardry World. In his defense the Minister replied [exact quote]: "Völkisch gesellschaft!"
What the Minister was talking about in his naturalized language was about a society without distinctions or divisions of class or blood status. When speaking about his outlook of the Wizardry World and his revolutionary decisions he said [exact quote]: "Subject of stares and prejudices many wizards and witches stand alone, unprotected, hated by everybody, marked as traitors before they got the chance to speak in their defense because they're denied of their rights. As long as those infected with lycanthropy take their regular doses of the potion to stop them from turning during full moon they represent no threat whatsoever to themselves neither to the community. The doses are given away for free at St. Mungo's Hospital where the benefit of privacy is assured to each and every patient unless they want to speak up like Remus John Lupin did. Eight years ago Lupin was appointed as D.A.D.A professor at Hogwarts but resigned from his position once his condition came to light. Thanks to this Treaty he'd be re-admitted at Hogwarts – the position was left vacant due to the impossibility of Severus Snape, currently Headmaster of that school, to cover both positions - and would be able to teach the new generations how to stand up and defend themselves against adversity."
- DEMOLITION OF AZKABAN SET FOR TODAY AT NOON -
The Minister of Magic – Draco Malfoy (22) – had made the boldest decision ever: order the demolition of Azkaban's prison. His detractors wonder whether he is in a sound state of mind or if they might not have caught his words rightly or that they had misunderstood what he meant. But the young Minister had explained his ideas with full determination and seriousness [exact quote]: "People are not won by the written word nor by the spoken word but with actions. In the course of these last four years as Minister of Magic I've proved countless times that my ideas are the exact reflection of my actions. We've learnt to live in harmony in spite of our differences. We're not determined, limited not shall be labeled by the purity of our blood or the mistakes those before us forced upon us. We've got to stop branding ourselves with the invisible marks of intolerance and hatred. The prison of Azkaban was created to corrupt even more, to the point of destruction, those wizards and witches imprisoned there. Its goal was never to rehabilitate them but to torture them into nonexistence. The assigned guards, the Dementors, are nothing but devious creatures of death that feed with the Light of those who have sinned. Yes, we all have Light within us, it's called Life, and the reason why salvation exists in first place is because there are sinners!" Referring to those still imprisoned there, the Minister acknowledged [exact quote]: "What's left of those wizards and witches, mentally ill and physically deteriorated, would be relocated at St. Mungo's psychiatric wing. The facilities of that part of the hospital had been fully modified to provide a safe and secure environment for both the interns and the medical staff."
Startled by the sound of voices coming from outside the door, the blond boy slammed his clippings folder shut and checked the mantel clock over the fireplace. It was a quarter to eleven in the night: his parents had arrived earlier than expected. Gulping soundly, nervously, he got rid of his father's pajama jacket, re-arranged the pillow in its place and stretched the mattress neatly in record time. With a wandless flick of his left wrist he extinguished the fire just by the time the door of the bedroom opened in synchronicity with the boy's closing the closet's door, leaving it slightly open to peek though it.
"Incendio!" Pointed out with her wand an out of breath and visible upset beautiful, slender young woman and the fireplace regain once again its life.
She was around twenty-one years old, waist long dirty blond hair and glassy amethyst blue eyes. Her long black satin strapless night dress contrasted exquisitely with her smooth milk-white skin.
Resting a hand against one of the carved ebony wood posts of the bed she started taking off one of her high heel shoes and squeezed it tight in her hand, as if releasing all of the sudden the anger and impotence she held inside. "It was my father's funeral, a day to honor and remember his good name but the press turned everything into a tragic parade."
A young and incredibly handsome ponytailed blond man – a year older than her - of piercing pearl-gray eyes replied tonelessly. "Well, your father was in the news business and those starving crows are always eager to take our eyes off. No matter how many aurors I've assigned to guard the cemetery premises, it was expected something like this would happen." He then paused to exhale soundly, he looked relieved. "Even if he'd missed the chance to say goodbye to his grandfather, I've made a right decision by not taking our son with us: the safety of my heir would always come first."
"First my mother…then Neville…then Harry…and now my dad…" She shook her head twice, forcing herself not to cry.
Throwing the jacket of his black suit and his tie over a chair, Draco looked suddenly melancholic. "Luna, you're not the only one who'd lost a parent or a best friend."
Placing a hand over his chest, his long fingers caressed the sterling locket that hanged around his neck, the same one that once belonged to Blaise with the photos of the two when they were children. Shaking his head twice, as if wanting to get rid of those tormenting feelings, Draco walked the short distance that separated him from Luna and leaned forward.
Burying his head in the crook of her neck, Draco said with a sad voice that carried an angsty bubbling tone beneath. "The mere thought of losing you terrifies me. I know I wouldn't be able to survive a single day without you."
Luna sucked up a soundly sob.
"Have I told you lately how lucky I am for having you by my side, princess?" He hissed softly, leaving a trail of kisses along her throat while losing his fingers in her hair.
As Draco pressed his tall and slim body against hers, his accelerated heartbeats - exited and frantic - resounded past his ears. When his hands rested on her hips, Luna shivered with anticipation.
"Kiss me, but do it like you mean it." He moaned painfully against her lips, slowly lifting her dress.
But Luna pursed her lips, refusing to do it. Despite his touch was soft and tender, her eyes saddened completely the moment she felt him pulling down her panties before unzipping his pants. "Draco, no, I've just lost my father, I'm not in the mood."
Draco's eyes narrowed and all traces of kindness left his face, his expression darkened.
Feeling a growl crawling up his throat, he shot back. "You're never in the mood, but soon you'll be."
"You and I, we're alive. Let me remind you how that feels like." Reaching Luna's lips Draco kissed her deeply, his tongue seeking access to enter and explore her reluctant mouth.
When he started biting softly, insistently her lower lip Luna had no option but to part her lips, granting him full access but her whole body started shivering like a leaf, she looked terrified.
Soft unsuppressed moans of pleasure were escaping from his throat as Draco continued to kiss Luna and the electric impulses started coursing all over his body, focusing more and more latent on his aching manhood.
Without breaking the kiss, Draco released his hardness from the prison of his briefs and hurled her body up - wrapping Luna's legs around his waist - before both fell onto the bed, Draco on top, Luna laying on her back.
Passion mounted and his heart, pounding through his aching chest. Draco rubbed his already dripping hard member against her tight entrance.
"Come on princess, you want this as much as I do." He panted, pressing his sweaty forehead against hers as some of his loose long blond strands of hair brushed her cheeks.
"Please Draco, spare me just this one, I can't do this tonight." Squeezing her eyes shut, a tear rolled down one of her pale cheeks.
"No exceptions." Without wasting time to find out in which part of her dress was the zipper or the row of buttons, Draco ripped the ethereal fabric of her strapless corset with one forced pull and sank his head in between her breasts, humming teasingly.
He then started licking with the tip of his tongue her nipples, nibbling her already perky nipples with a devilish smirk curling his lips. "You're loving this, I know you do."
Noticing the diminishing resistance of her body, Draco trailed one finger around her slick flesh and slipped it inside, shortly after that he added another finger – continuing with the intensely masterful scissoring - and by the time the third finger made its way inside her Luna was dripping with the juices of her arousal. "You're a gorgeous and exquisitely perfumed rose, fully bloomed, eager to be plucked."
Luna hated how Draco's sinful touches made her throat lock, preventing her from denying his words. No matter how she tried to deny it, she couldn't stop her body from reacting the way it did whenever he touched her.
"I'm going to give myself completely to you, everything I've got, just for you, only you, always you." Draco entered her, thrusting deeper and deeper inside Luna in perfect synchronism with the unconscious movement of her hips. "Yes, that's it. Take me all inside you."
"It feels so …ah…good …oh gods!" He cried with a high-pitch tone as Luna kept her eyes closed but her lips were slightly parted, panting, and her accelerated pulse start climbing higher and higher.
"I'm a fool for loving you but I can't stop feeling the way I do, you'll be the death of me. You make me weak and vulnerable." Draco confessed, brushing his lips against hers before kissing her again, his tongue sliding in and out her mouth teasingly, ravishing her lips with the same aching desperation he was pounding inside her body as his pace got faster.
The Slytherin felt himself getting closer and started moaning her name over and over again while pressing his lips against her half-closed mouth. As he continued to move in compass with the feverish language of her body, Draco wanted both of them to reach their climax and came together.
"Luna, open your eyes and look at me." His voice was low and husky.
But in reply she spun her head to the side, covering her blushed glistening sweaty cheeks with both hands.
Ringing his long fingers around her wrists he lifted her arms above her head and fixed his lusty stare on her closed-shut eyes. "You want me as much as I want you. You love this, the way your body craves for me and aches for more. Don't deny it, don't deny me!" He snapped angrily, thrusting in again and again.
"Finish…it…already." Luna gasped through her breath, refusing to open her eyes.
Keeping the fast pace of his thrusting, Draco was literally burning, knocking on the doors of his climax. "LOOK AT ME!" He roared as his body was racked with an orgasmic wave.
"I DESPISE YOU!" Luna shouted angrily as her own body exploded with the orgasmic pleasure she could no longer deny or fight back.
"FINE, HATE ME ALL YOU WANT, DAMMIT!" Draco screamed angrily as another wave of his orgasm released right trough him and he tilted his head back, coming inside her, filling her.
Exhausted, Draco collapsed, panting, on top of Luna but he didn't withdraw himself from inside her, not yet.
"No matter how much you despise me, I'm your husband. It's useless to keep running away from me: I'd always find you. Next time you dare to plot your getaway I swear I'd ravage you five times a day instead of just once before we go to sleep, you hear me?" He warned her with a low, husky voice.
"If you really loved me, then you'd set me free but you keep treating me as if I were one of your game pieces. I'm not your pawn!" Luna turned her face away from him, she was disgusted with herself with the way Draco could easily do whatever he wanted with her body…and control her life.
Draco brushed with the fingers of one hand the perspiration of his forehead, combing those loose silk blond long strands of hair away from his face and smirked darkly. "You're right, you're not my pawn: you're my queen."
Tears were already spilling shamelessly down her cheeks. "You might have fooled everyone but I know what you're doing: you're gathering an army to tear down the increasing number of your detractors. You've got each and every dark wizard in the Wizardry World under your wing, and by demolishing Azkaban you've earned their full and blind loyalty. Your thirst for power has no limits. You're going to destroy everything!"
"Luna, there's something about being around you that calms the darkness inside me. As long as you're by my side I can perfectly control it and I'm using it in my favor, everybody's favor. I'm giving what people needs: security, peace, a future…hope!! I wish you'd trust me, confide in me a little. But no matter what I do, I'd still be miles away from being the man you need, am I right?!" Draco's face flushed with rage.
"You've got what you wanted, now get off me!" With an infuriated yelp, Luna tried to buck Draco from on top of her but not to avail.
"I'd never get enough of you and that's exactly what keeps me coming and coming for more. I'm addicted to you." Rocking slowly his hips against hers, his greedy manhood still deep buried inside her, he whispered hoarsely. "I want us to have another child, you make beautiful babies."
Luna's desperate cry was quieted immediately when Draco pressed his mouth against her, kissing her lips roughly, assuming position again as his libido rebuilt itself, swelling, hardening him. "Look at Scorpius, he's perfect in every sense of the word but he's a lonely boy. He's lacking the company of a brother…or a sister. Let's give our son a baby sister as lovely and as adorable as his mother."
Looking sick and pale, Luna grabbed Draco by his shoulders, trying to push him away but that only encouraged him to thrust deeper, harder and faster inside her. "Scorpius can't be my son! The things I've dreamt during those seven months they were no hallucinations, they were no nightmares. Those were visions of Hell itself and it was real!"
"WHAT?!" Draco opened wide his pearl-gray eyes and froze in shock and that was when Luna squeezed her from under his weight and managed to roll to a side over the bed.
With a lighting fast move Draco caught her from behind and spoon his body against hers. "Why would you say such a terrible thing?! I know you don't love me but don't take it out on our son! Can't you see that he's afraid of you?" He scolded her with a sad, angry voice.
"That's because everytime he looks at me, he sees the embodiment of death: he'd confessed that I was meant to be his deathbed. Draco, I'm the one who's scared of him." Luna said with marked terror in her trembling voice without turning to face him.
"He'd probably said that because he was born prematurely, in a fragile body. I'm aware that created a deep trauma inside him but he's a tough fighter and I couldn't be more proud of him." Spooning his body hermetically against hers, Draco hushed her with a tense voice. "Scorpius would never, ever do something that'd hurt or upset us. On the contrary, he's always trying so hard to please us! There's no doubt he inherited your artistic skills. His paintings are remarkable, breathtaking and I'm not saying that because I'm his father. Remember the five feet portrait he made of us three, the one that I've had it hanged from the wall of my office at the Ministry? Well, I've received many extremely generous offers from those who'd like to acquire it despite I'd rather cut off my right arm than let go of it. I'm constantly asked about who painted it and no-one ever believes me when I told them that the artist is our five year old boy. The director of the Arts Museum even asked me to convince Scorpius of accepting the offering to tutor such child prodigy. I believe this would be great opportunity for our boy to expand his passion for the arts, what do you think?"
"He did not learn it from me…nor inherit anything from me either." Luna shook her head in denial. "Scorpius is remotely interested in pursuing an artistic career. He only started painting when he heard you complementing my sketches. He made it very clear that he doesn't want me around for he could perfectly outbeat me in everything I do. Scorpius had always rejected the possibility of someone else tutoring him besides you or leaving your side for that matter. He doesn't even want to go to Hogwarts. He prefers to be taught at home and that's because he says he wouldn't endure stay away from you for that long."
"I know that he's reluctant about going to Hogwarts. It's okay to feel homesick at first, it's a big change, but he won't be alone, Snape is the Headmaster. He'd take proper care of our child while he's at school. Besides, Scorpius got two acquaintances of his age: Ted Lupin and Rose Granger. They might all end up in the same House…" Draco paused and his cheeks went a tint of sick green. "Oh Merlin, don't let our boy end up in Gryffindor, any House but Gryffindor!"
"Scorpius is a natural-born Slytherin." Luna snorted faintly. "He accepted, practically forced himself, to socialize with Rose only because you are her godfather and he treats Ted as if he were a pet, a puppy, only because you saved the child's life by assisting your cousin while giving birth. Scorpius would only take interest in something or someone as long as they're of importance to you: everything he does is meant to please you."
"I don't know what got into me when I've accepted to become the godfather of such annoyingly bossy little half-blood bastard, that was your fault." Draco complained, combing the fingers of one hand Luna's hair, smelling her perfume. "Come to think about it, Ted is sort of a puppy, he's a lycan." He finished mockingly with a dark smirk.
She half-turned to look at him from the corner of the eye. "So you're starting to make differences because Rose is an illegitimate child and Ted is a werewolf? What happened with your Tolerance Laws and Treaties?"
"That's not what I've meant. I'm just talking about the people our son already knows that would be at Hogwarts with him when the time comes. I don't want him to feel lonely while he's away studying, that's all." Draco pursed his lips tight and shook his head. "I know I should be spending more quality time with our son, being the Minister of Magic had always demanded a lot of my time and attention but that's no excuse. I'm trying my best to build up Scorpius' tolerance so that he won't look down on others less fortunate than him as well as strengthen his self-esteem, encouraging him to be always true to himself and fight for his happiness. He's got an unmatching empathy but I'm afraid that's exactly what's pushing him down. He keeps saying that he's ashamed of himself and his feelings. He's used to blame himself aforehead, stating he doesn't want to distress us or cause us trouble."
"Of course that child should be ashamed of himself, the way Scorpius loves you is sickening. The things he does when you're not around are disturbing." Once Luna realized what she'd just said she placed one hand over her mouth to stop herself from saying another word and started trembling with fear.
"You're keeping secrets away from me again?!" Turning her body to face him, Draco cupped her cheek, tilting Luna's face until they were eye-to-eye. "You'd better tell me right now what makes you say things like that about our son, starting with the nightmares you had once you were pregnant. Speak, now!"
Narrowing angrily her amethyst-blue eyes, she replied defiantly. "You're better off without knowing, trust me."
"I've always trusted you but the root of the problem is that you'd never trusted me back!" Changing drastically the angle of his emotions, Draco spoke with a tense yet quiet voice that denoted an accented perplexity and confusion. "Luna, help me understand what's going on. What did Scorpius do that I'm unaware of?"
Luna opened her mouth but closed it shut immediately, after trying a third time she finally mumbled. "Draco, his face…his face glows whenever you two touch. Didn't you ever stop to think what could possibly trigger that in Scorpius and why is only with you?"
"I did actually." Rubbing his chin with a pensive manner he added. "Our boy has a very powerful energetical magic. He's an extremely shy child and he's not physically demonstrative so there are scarce chances to see how he'd react when he's interacting with other people beside us."
"It's not shyness but a complete lack of interest in making contact with other people and what Scorpius experiences whenever you two touch is an explosive physical and psychic magical discharge that ripples inside him and manifests into both an intern and extern pleasurable glowing." Luna said with a nauseating face.
Draco gasped soundly with both shock and alarm; a hurtful look crossed his face when he looked at one of his trembling hands.
"You're implying that whenever I hold or hug him I'm stigmatizing our son?! You firmly believe that I'm so filthy and rotten inside that I can't get close to anyone without corrupting them, is that who I am to you?!" He asked focusing around him, his voice shaking with rage and impotence.
"Draco, not everything is about you. I'm talking about Scorpius and the way he follows you around like a shadow. He looks up to you and idolizes you to the point of your becoming his obsession. When you're not around he literally locks himself inside his bedroom and no-one can reach him." Shaking her head furiously, Luna started sobbing. "During the day he uses some part of your clothes underneath his and when he goes to sleep never wears his pajamas but your old school shirts. He spends countless hours staring at your photos and awards with a yearning face, he…"
But Draco cut her abruptly. "Luna, if you're talking about my old trunks with my Slytherin uniforms, school-year photo albums, Quidditch gear and Potion awards I gave all those things to him to play with but most important to encourage Scorpius to go to Hogwarts. I know he's skeptic about being away from home that long. I just thought it'd be okay to show all the things the school has to offer so that he'd be mentally prepared and don't get upset the day the letter of acceptance arrives once he turns eleven."
Nodding apologetically, she hissed. "I…I haven't slept well since I've lost my father and after what happened tonight at his funeral, it made me feel extremely upset. I need to go to the bathroom."
Unwrapping reluctantly his arms from around her tiny waist, Draco set Luna free from the trap of his embrace. "Let me comfort you for the loss of your father, we can go everywhere you want. Let's take a vacation, somewhere nice away from the Ministry, away from the press, from the past…"
"Away from you?" Her voice came with a thread of voice so subtle that it came out from her lips as a painful unheard hiss. "And away from Scorpius?" She finished, this time her voice did reach Draco's ears.
"Actually I was thinking about a holiday trip that would consolidate our family bonds but we do deserve to have a second honeymoon. This would help you relax a little and open up to me more." Draco paused with a lusty, selfish smirk curling his pale lips before adding tonelessly. "There are only two people I'd trust to take care of our boy while we're away. Snape had always spoiled Scorpius like a grandson but he's too busy with his duties as Headmaster to keep a close eye on our child. So if it's not him then it has to be Alecto. She grew very fond of our child. Scorpius even denoted a marked enthusiasm with her vast knowledge of non-magical weaponry. I do believe that spending time with her would end up benefiting Scorpius. Yes, that settles it then. I'd speak with Alecto first thing in the morning."
"I want to be away from everything and as far as possible from everyone." Luna looked exhausted and incredibly sad. "I need to be alone."
After rearranging her torn dress she dried the tears from her cheeks with an open palm and made her way to the bathroom, locking the door shut behind her.
Draco then pulled up his pants and rolled to the left side - his side - of the bed. He untied the silk thread around his shoulder length blond hair before knitting the fingers of both hands behind his head. With the passing of the minutes Draco sighed soundly, annoyingly.
"This means that you're going to sleep in the bathtub again?" He demanded to know, his rage was both fierce and controlled.
But no reply came from the other side of the door.
"Come to the bed princess, here it's warm and smooth…but it's so empty without you…I need you…I love you…" Draco said with an aggressiveness that contradicted the tenderness of his words.
A vivid green flash of light of a killing curse coming from under the bathroom's door made Draco jump from the bed and come rushing towards the bathroom. Blasting the door open, the blond Slytherin stepped inside as the dust from the blasting spell suddenly cleared and found the dead body of his wife lying inside the bathtub, her stiffed hand still clenching tight from her wand.
Struggling to stay on his feet, Draco's expression drained completely of color but didn't show any other sign of emotion. Draco couldn't speak. He couldn't take his eyes off Luna as they grew wider. Recoiling in horror, he felt sick with guilt. He bit his lip to keep from crying out as he tried to remain calm in the worst nightmare of his life.
Something called the attention from the corner of his eye. Once he turned to a side he caught a glimpse of himself on the mirror and was startled by what he saw. Written with red lipstick, Luna's words assaulted him with no mercy: HAD ENOUGH. His reflection, denoting his terrified face, was distorted to the extreme of his shock.
"What have I done?!" His voice came in a painful, neurotic yelp, completely broken.
As his wide open pearl-gray eyes examined Luna's ghostly white flesh tone he repaired on her glassy blank eyes: an emotionless void morbidly beautiful.
Draco stood immobile like that for a long moment as conflicting emotions played inside him. He then closed shut his eyes - for the tears were already blinding him - and aimed his wand towards the side of his temple. "Avada…"
"FATHER!" The startling whip-lash shout that came from behind him made Draco's blood turn to ice, it literally froze his body and brought him at once back to his senses.
The moment Draco spun his head and looked desperately helpless at his son, he noticed that the door of the closet was open.
His mouth opened and closed several times before Draco was able to voice his thoughts. "Scorpius, son…you've been hiding in there…all this time?"
Scorpius pursed his lips looking pensive, doubt hiding in their depths, but then he shrugged almost apologetically. "I never meant to disobey an order. I know I'm not allowed to be in your bedroom but since you were out I thought I could stay, just for a little while. Problem is that you arrived two hours earlier than I've expected and I couldn't dissaparate....not without my wand. You've forbidden me to use it without your supervision, for my own safety's sake."
Staring from the corner of his smoke-gray eyes the dead body of Luna, Scorpius looked completely unmoved and unaffected with her death.
"Father, why would you want to harm yourself?" Despite the stillness of the child's voice, there was a vibrating anger behind it.
Draco was on the verge of a major breakdown. He looked completely heartbroken, devastated and then he started to shake badly. Cupping with one hand Blaise's locket, Draco stared at it with a distant and lost look.
"It's a long wait, isn't it?" Scorpius asked fixing his pearl-gray eyes on the sterling locket that hanged around his father's neck. "He loved you…but he did it selflessly. He would never have agreed with the idea of seeing you again before your time."
Unable to bring himself to speak or to stop the rapid deterioration of his body, his weak knees sent Draco crushing to the floor.
Narrowing his gaze with a confused frown, Scorpius tilted his head to the side. "You told me there's no need to use our wands inside the house because our home is the safest place. I'd put your wand besides mine in your office on the display stand right behind grandmother's portrait for her to watch over them. Is that okay?"
Fixing his watery eyes at his son's pale face, Draco hissed. "Yes..."
Leaning forward, Scorpius took the wand from his father's unyielding grip and stuffed it in his pajama's pocket.
"Father, what is it that you feeling?" The child inquired because with the passing of the minutes he was finding harder to decipher Draco's emotions.
"Feel?" Draco repeated numbly, as if anesthetized from head to toe. By then he felt nothing, a complete void, as if he were already dead, completely dead inside.
He then grabbed Scorpius' hand, placing it over his heart. "You tell me, son. Is it still beating?"
Scorpius face glowed beautifully the moment it touched Draco. "Yes." He answered looking right into his father's teary eyes.
Draco started chocking with sound, hollow sobs when he spoke again. "Is it?" He asked, finding hard to believe it for he felt…he simply stopped feeling.
Smirking brightly, the small boy confessed. "Yes and I can tell you how it makes me feel: it gives me relief, comfort, safety…it makes me feel happy. That's why I'd make sure it never stops beating."
Leveling his blood-shot eyes with his son's pearl-gray gems, Draco's facial features hardened. He then shook his head in a negative motion and spitted angrily. "Wrong answer."
"I know." Scorpius' smirk dropped from his face, his pale skin became even whiter. "But I can't tell you what you want to hear. I can't lie…to you." He added with a hiss of voice.
Fighting against a crawling knot on his throat, trying to keep his voice steady, Draco lectured. "Remember son, you're the future of the Malfoy's Clan: you're the one who'd succeed me. You'd not only inherit the family's fortune and possessions but also the Wizardry World. Don't make the same mistakes I did: don't allow your feelings become your weaknesses. Weak spots would be the death of you. Don't get too attached to anyone because it'd make you lose control and power. You can't allow yourself to low your guard ever, if you do people would take that opportunity to use you and hurt you. You've always got to take care of yourself because if you don't then no-one else will. Don't let the vultures feed from you, use them and then smother them before they got their chance to get to you. You always have to come first because, unlike the rest, you're irreplaceable." He said breathing against the back of his son's hand before dropping numbly both arms to the sides of his body.
Scorpius felt a surge of desire the second Draco's lips brushed the skin of his hand. Impulsively, he cuddled his infant body against Draco's chest – pressing his head against his father's heart - and wrapped his short arms around the young man's slim waist.
"Don't worry father, I'd procure everything you need in order to be happy, you deserve to have it all." He soothed with a tender, soft tone so subtle that it was almost unheard.
"Happiness does not apply for men like us, we're Malfoys." Draco padded the top of his son's head before grabbing Scorpius gently but firm by one shoulder - retrieving the wand from his son's pocket - and pushed softly the child away from him as he got up. "Go to your room. Now."
"But I want to stay with you tonight and keep you company. Can I, please?" The small boy pleaded with an anguish thread of voice.
"I've already told you: we Malfoys don't beg!" Draco then clamped his teeth hard, shaking his head looking furious with himself. "Scorpius, it's past your bedtime, go to sleep."
"No." Taking sit on the floor, the boy crossed his arms over his small chest and narrowed his eyes, staring fixedly at his father without blinking. "I'm not leaving your side. You're in no condition to be left alone right now."
Combing angrily his shoulder length silk blond hair back with both hands, Draco shot back. "You're disobeying a direct order and this means that I'd have to punish you: I'd forbid you to use your wand until you're eleven." He warned.
Shrugging carelessly, the small blond rested his back against the bathroom's door and sighed soundly. "Fair enough, I shouldn't have been using it until I reach that age."
Draco whipped a blazing harsh stare before snapping out completely. "I'm sending you with Granger and her daughter! You'd stay there and help them with their daily chores!"
Scorpius felt his heart skip a beat. "For how long?" He inquired with a shaky voice.
"Until I say so!" The elder sentenced angrily.
The child's chin quivered. "Father, don't send me away." It was a plea, overlaid with instinctive fear.
"It's settled. You're going." Draco smirked merciless.
He then leaned forward to grab Scorpius by his armpits and lift the child up but froze when his son's eyes flickered with iridescent reddish light. "If I part from you then won't be able to stop the sickness from taking me over. If you leave me alone with those two women I'll hurt them. I'll burn their house with their dead bodies inside and make it look like an accident…a most unfortunate accident."
Draco swallowed hard, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
The small blond got up from the floor, rearranged carefully his pajamas and asked with an immutable face. "Do you still want me to go?"
Draco started mumbling some incoherent words in his shocked state before he managed to say. "No."
Clenching the Elder Wand in his shaky hand, Draco stared at Luna's dead body from the corner of his eyes. His mind started to spin with a swirl of unrelated thoughts that this time Scorpius read right away. He small blond also defined clearly each and every one of the emotions that struck his father at that moment.
Curling his small hands into tight fists, the boy emptied his lungs out in a frightening scream. "You've already given her a second chance and look how she ended up repaying you! Life is a gift and it's supposed to be treasured…not thrown away! She died because she wished for it! She doesn't deserve to be saved again!"
A deafening rumbling sound shook the walls and the porcelain tiles started to fall onto the floor, the mirror reduced itself into countless fractals that went flying into the air, piercing Luna's flesh all the way through, butchering her body into pieces as the bathtub started filling itself with her blood.
The moment Draco turned to look at his son there was a hate in Scorpius' eyes that it wasn't human at all. "She isn't your wife anymore! Look at her for what she is now: carrion!"
Draco's eyes widened in shock, but then –as if stricken by an unexpected mood swing – his gaze turned empty, a blank.
"Luna is dead…dead…she's dead…" Draco heard taking to himself like an echo, trying to grasp the meaning of what he was saying.
Feeling a small hand pulling from the tip of his shirt, Draco ducked his head down to face his son.
"I'm here." Scorpius paused and tightened the grip - grabbing a fistful of his father's shirt in between his fingers - his eyes were immediately filled with pain and sorrow. "And I'll continue to be as long as you want me to…as long as you need me…and I'm useful to you..." He chocked in between sobs, forcing himself no to cry.
Draco's pale complexion became clammingly ash-white in a beat.
"Scorpius, son, you're not only my flesh and blood but also the embodiment of my pride. You know that, don't you?" He confessed with a torn, broken voice while brushing softly with his fingers the long silk blond blocks away from his son's pale face.
The child nodded in silence, his lips curling with a trembling smirking smile. He then encircled his short arms around one of Draco's legs, pressing his cheek against the soft fabric of his father's pants and gave a sigh of relief.
Once he repaired on the fact that there were splinters of glass and broken porcelain tiles spread all over the floor, Draco picked up Scorpius immediately, cuddling his son protectively in his arms.
"How many times I've told you not to walk barefoot around the house?" Draco scolded with a diminishing angsty voice.
"I love you too." Scorpius whispered in his ear with a musical voice. He then nuzzled in the warmth of his father's neck and – feeling comfy but also sleepy – he closed shut his eyes.
Draco then turned to look at what was left of Luna's body, hurt and anger warred his narrowed eyes. "Luna, I've given myself completely to you and I loved you…the only way I knew how. I've done everything in my power to make things better for you and for the citizens of the Wizardry World but it wasn't enough…it's never enough. I'm done giving. If you people can't appreciate what I've done so far, then I'd take it all away. It's not after losing everything that one understand the importance of things."
llllllllllllllllllEnd of Scorpius' Memorylllllllllllllllllllllll
Snapping out of his nightmarish vision, Draco opened his mismatched eyes without realizing they were closed. The pain inside his head was acute and maddening. Forcing his mind to the present - as the wave of dizziness slowly faded from inside his head - he rubbed his forehead and shoot up to a sitting position.
Gazing around with unfocused eyes, Draco didn't feel as though he was in his own body, let alone back where he was supposed to be – wherever that place was – and kept rubbing his temples. He then looked at his hands and the rest of his body, denoting that he was completely unharmed and dressed with his silk black shirt, black leather pants and black snake leather hooded duster…and he had no longer the Time-Turner hanging from his neck. Scarce feet away from him laid the stiffed dead bodies of Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew.
"For fuck sakes, don't you dare scare me like that ever again!" Blaise accused looking hyperventilated as he kept taking deep breaths to calm himself down but he was still shivering like a leaf. "Draco, the second you cast the killing curse on that asshole it rippled a strange ricochet effect all inside the duel's circle. I thought you've killed yourself!" He said without taking his watery pitch-black eyes from the blond.
Once he returned the stare, the pupil in Draco's left pearl-gray eye remained static but the one in his right amethyst-blue eye dilated, darkening completely his eye. The look of horror spreading across Dracos' face shot ice through Blaise's body.
"Please talk to me, say something, will you?" Blaise pleaded getting worried by the minute.
Draco pursed his pale lips tight and motioned to get up but he was soon caught up by a blind hot puncture that threatened to split his skull in two and forced him to remain sited on the floor. "ARGGG!"
Kneeling in front of the blond, Blaise lifted his hands up to the sides of Draco's temples in order to cast a wandless healing charm, but Draco backed up abruptly waving both arms in the air.
"Easy, easy… Draco, it's me. I won't hurt you." Blaise soothed with a calm voice.
The blond Slytherin looked at his brother without blinking as a familiar voice inside his head teased mockingly: "Are you sure you've crushed your enemies into nonesxistence? I'm not talking about the enemies you hate, but the ones you love."
Draco's face instantly turned into a porcelain mask devoided of emotion. "I'm going to kill you."
The moment those pitch-black eyes locked with the mismatched gems in front of him and read the truth in Draco's words Blaise's heart missed two consecutive beats. Fighting against the ice-cold shiver crawling down his spine, Blaise finally composed himself and lowered his gaze shamefully.
"Allow me to heal you first." He smiled sadly in a gesture of complete surrender.
The hurt look that crossed his brother's face made Draco's heart squeeze and turn in itself.
"Blaise, I was just kidding. We're equals, remember? Killing you would be like committing suicide." Draco then started laughing hysterically, rubbing his forehead nervously. "I'm okay. I don't need a healing charm. I'm fine… perfectly fine."
The other bit his lower lip and shook his head in denial. "No, you're remotely okay."
"I almost forgot…" After producing the sterling locket from his pant's pocket, Draco shoved it in front of Blaise's face. "Look!"
An entangled sob caught down Blaise's throat. "What…How?!" Unconsciously, he placed a hand against his chest, desperately searching for it. "I haven't taken it off, not once, in twelve years!"
"Now you'll remember why you've given it to me." And with that said Draco clasped the necklace around his brother's neck.
The pitch black darkness of Blaise's eyes flickered with a silverish light for a moment, by the time he looked up at Draco his pupils dilated in full.
"I've kept my word, I'm returning it intact." Arching playfully one eyebrow, Draco shot back. "That's what you wanted, right?"
Without wasting another second Blaise wrapped both arms around the blonde's skinny frame and gave him a bear hug. "You crazy bastard, you did it! You've saved Scorpius!"
Completely immobilized with such dangerously chocking hug, Draco squeaked with the small amount of air he'd got left in his lungs. "Shape up, you brute!"
Blaise savored Draco's closeness for a minute and then pulled back. "Draco, your eyes…" He gasped, fixing his stare at the blonde's amethyst blue right eye.
"When I went back in time I've restored part of Luna's Lifespan Seal in the process but..." Draco paused and contorted his face painfully.
"But that doesn't change the fact that you almost died and were brought back from the other side of the veil." Blaise finished the sentence for him with a worried face before asking. "How are you feeling?"
Ducking his head to the sides, refusing to make eye contact with his brother, Draco hissed. "Different."
"You still remember what we've talked earlier about you and I being together, don't you?" Blaise demanded to know, getting visible impatient.
"Being together?" Draco repeated absentmindly, trying to focus his thoughts. "Brother, I never said such thing..."
"For fuck sakes, this is so not happening!" Blaise's face redden with repressed anger, his eyes looked like they were going to pop out from their sockets. "Draco, you've admitted that you wanted me! Don't you dare to take that back now!"
"What I've said is that I wanted something from you. You've just heard what you wanted to hear. You weren't really listening to what was I actually telling you and in a way I'm glad you didn't. I didn't know what was I thinking, my selfishness was blinding me." Draco felt his mouth dry and started sweating despite himself. "Look, it's not the time…"
"Nor the place to talk this over, guess it never is." The other munched resentfully as he finished the sentence for him.
The blond Slytherin coughed quietly while filling his constricted lungs with much needed air in the process. "I've got to find Luna. Now more than ever I need to be with her and my son."
"You know what? I like you better when you are a selfish bastard. I can't wait to see that side of you again so that we can close our deal." Blaise shot back eyeing Draco lusty.
Draco's face got even whiter, as if completely drained of blood. "Do you want to die that badly?"
"I'm more than meets the eye, brother." Chuckling darkly Blaise then grasped the blonde's hand in his with their secret camaraderie handshake. "Let's find that nutcase wife of yours so that we can get the Hell away from here, okay?"
Draco nodded and interlaced his thumb while pressing his finger's tops against Blaise's wrist.
Pulling the Swastika charm from under his shirt, the blond held it in his shaking hand and stared at it fixedly. "I had a vision, more like a warning actually. I do believe Scorpius deliberately let it slipped into me so I could change things and stop tragedy from happening again."
"Tragedy?" Traces of worry and apprehension haunted Blaise's facial features. "What did you see?"
"If there's nothing written about Scorpius on the stars it isn't because he wasn't meant to make it in this world but because he was born before his time..." Draco then leveled his mismatched eyes with Blaise's pitch-black gems. "I won't stop until I procure my son with everything he needs. In order to save him, truly save him, I've got to find a way so that he'd make it to the ninth month. This way Scorpius' magic essence won't get chaotic or unbalanced because he'd be fully human."
But Draco stopped himself from saying another word and arched one annoyed eyebrow looking at what had caught his attention from the corner of the eye. Fully aware of the closing danger, Blaise looked past Draco and grinned darkly.
Carefully, both brothers got up the floor in unison. Draco – with the Elder Wand in hand –scanned with a keen eye the group of surviving Death Eaters who started to surround the Slytherin duo like a mass of starving vultures.
"I was starting to miss how it felt like to kill someone. Are you ready, brother?" Draco's lips curled with a cold and soulless smirk of pure murderous intent.
Blaise pressed his back against Draco's, his pitch-black eyes focused and alert. "I'm always ready."
But then something completely unexpected happened. One by one the Death Eaters kneeled in front of the blond, bowing sheepishly their heads. "We're at your service, milord."
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A/N:
"I respected my father, but I loved my mother." - A.H