'Can I see another's woe, Can I see a falling tear,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?
And not feel my sorrow's share?
Can a father see his child
Weep, nor be with sorrow filled?' -
I feel like I'm in a condemned man's cell - like I can see the hangman's noose outside of my window, and I know that this is my last night on earth.
And all I can do is wait. Wait to die, because I've gone beyond all hope of living.
The best I can hope for is a reprieve. A reprieve that will never come.
I huddle in on myself, pulling my knees up to my chin. I'm sitting on the ground, pressing my ear against the solid wood of the door, waiting for Lucius to come home, like a dog awaits the return of its master, because yes, that's how low I've sunk, thank you God.
What will he say, when he finds out what's happened?
What will he do?
And Draco… god, what can I even begin to hope for from Draco?
Perhaps… if he still loves his father, then maybe…
But no, I mustn't hope for anything. Hope only leads to disappointment, that's something I've learned.
Besides, if Draco really is anything like his father, then to him a Blood Traitor is a Blood Traitor, family or not. And Blood Traitors need to be punished, don't they?
Footsteps click smartly down the corridor outside.
My heart and lugs pull themselves up to my mouth in terror, and I scramble up to my feet, stepping away from the door as it creaks open.
It's him. Thank god, it's him.
He looks completely calm as he shuts the door quietly behind him. So calm and collected that he can't possibly know what's happened.
He raises his eyebrows when he sees me.
'What on Earth's the matter with you?' he asks coldly, taking in my expression.
I open my mouth, and close it again stupidly. My breathing is shallow, and we're finished, we're completely finished, and he obviously doesn't know and it falls to me to tell him…
He rolls his eyes at the look on my face and sighs. 'If you're going to rant and rave at me for what I might have done this evening-'
'Lucius,' I gasp, hardly able to speak, 'Lucius, Draco he… he knows!'
He blanches, just for a moment, before he collects himself, and he shakes his head as a mirthless little smirk curls up his lips.
How can he… how can he be so unconcerned about this, for god's sake?
'I don't have the patience to soothe your paranoia tonight, Mudblood,' he drawls. 'You thought my wife knew, and she didn't. You thought…'
He pauses for a moment, his expression giving nothing away, before he carries on. 'You thought Avery knew…'
He falters again, and I know why. Because he knows as well as I do that Avery suspects if nothing else, and Avery's suspicions are possibly the most dangerous thing we have to worry about…
Well, no. The second most dangerous thing we have to worry about, now.
He shakes his head again in irritation. 'Your unreasonable fears are beginning to irritate me, quite frankly, and I have no interest in dealing with them any more-'
'This isn't just me being paranoid!' I grip hold of the front of his robes, utterly desperate. 'He's found out everything, Lucius. He made me tell him all about it. And I don't know what he's going to do, but he's going to do something! He told me that he wasn't going to let me get away with what I've done.'
His face drains of colour. He looks at me long and hard, almost uncomprehendingly, because he doesn't want to believe it, I know that he doesn't.
Slowly, so slowly, I let go of the front of his robes, breathing deeply, trying to collect myself.
'You're… you're telling me the truth?' he asks, his voice no more than a whisper.
I nod, tears of pure fear burning in my eyes.
He swallows sharply, his frown deepening. And for one of the few times since I met him, I can see fear in that deep, fathomless gaze of his.
He turns from me for a moment, running his hand over the back of his head, before he looks at me again.
'For god's sake, why couldn't you just keep your mouth shut?' he asks furiously.
'I tried!' I say urgently, the tears rolling freely down my cheeks. 'I swear to you, I tried. But he used Veriteserum on me; there was nothing I could do!'
He curses under his breath before he turns and slams his fist into the doorframe, letting out a yell of rage.
And then he's quiet again, leaning against the door, taking in deep breaths.
I can hardly hear him breathe over the sound of my own furious heartbeat.
He turns to face me once again, his face a pale mask of forced control. 'I didn't see him on my way in,' he murmurs, pulling the small, familiar silver key out of his robes, 'and Bellatrix didn't behave as I believe she would have done if he'd have told her.' He locks his gaze onto mine. 'I shall return shortly.'
'Where are you going?' I yelp.
'To find my son,' he replies simply, and with that the key glows red and he disappears into thin air.
I look at the empty space that he was occupying just two, three, four seconds ago, before I shake my head, trying to clear it as I pace up and down my room, wringing my hands.
He'll look after you. He'll sort it out.
But how? How could he possibly sort this out?
Don't you trust him?
I…
I pause, lost in thought.
Once, I would have said no, absolutely not. That I would never, ever trust the man who killed my parents, the man who wore a mask to disguise his true self every minute of every day, the man who tore me down relentlessly time and time again…
But… I don't know why, but now I can't help but trust him. How can I not, when I know him so well, and he's become such a part of me?
Then trust him.
He suddenly appears again, and one look at his grim expression tells me he has not been successful in finding his son.
'He's not in his room,' he says, his voice low and urgent. 'We'll have to go and look for him around the house.'
I hesitate. 'We?'
He looks at me, his eyes dark with something I can't fathom, something besides the fear and the anger. 'If Draco has told anyone what is going on, then both our lives will immediately be at risk,' he says. 'And I will not leave you to the mercy of anyone who might decide to come after you. At least if you are with me, I can defend you.'
He opens the door and stands back from it, allowing me to go before him. As he does so, he crouches down, just for a second, and pulls a small knife from his boot.
The last time I saw him pull a knife from his boot…
He stands up straight again. His expression is severe, and yet perfectly controlled.
'Come along.'
I take a deep breath to steady my nerves, and I step out of the room, into the dark corridor.
The door clicks shut behind me.
He nods at me, his lips a thin line. He looks… strange in this light. It casts odd, dark blue shadows over his face, and he looks… frightening. He always has done, of course, but in this light… I don't feel like I even know him in this light.
He turns and starts to walk down the corridor, very slowly. 'Follow me closely,' he whispers, without looking at me.
He doesn't bother telling me not to try and run away. He knows as well as I do that if I run I'll only waste time for the pair of us. I couldn't get away from here anyway, and the sooner we find Draco the more chance we have of making our way out of this alive.
We make our way through the house at a snail's pace. The stone walls flicker with the dark blue shadows cast by the flames of the torches that line the walls.
Out of the corner of my eye I can see those horrible shadows dancing. They make me jump out of my skin every time they shift and flicker.
More than anything, I want to take hold of his hand for comfort. But I just can't. I want to, even though he'd hate me for my weakness, but his hands are already full. A wand in one hand, a knife in the other…
Would he really use either of them against his own son?
We turn the corner, coming into another long corridor. It's empty, thank god, but still we make our way along slowly, so slowly, looking all around as we go.
Every hair on my arms and neck and back is standing upright with fear.
'Draco?' Lucius murmurs, his voice barely audible.
A long, eerie silence is the only answer we receive.
And so we move along, down corridor after corridor, up flights of steps and more corridors…
And always there is nothing; just deathly silence and dark, dancing shadows and freezing cold air.
'Draco?' Lucius' murmur creeps through the stillness.
No answer.
'What is he's not here?' I hiss, wringing my hands. 'What if he's already-'
'Quiet!' he whispers back furiously.
I thin my lips out and force my panic down. I was a Gryffindor at Hogwarts, and that might have meant nothing when it mattered, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't at least try to live up to the house's reputation.
'I'm not angry with you, Draco,' Lucius murmurs to the darkness. 'Come out here, and we'll talk.'
The knife in his hand flashes blue as it catches the light.
And there is still no answer.
We climb another staircase, and another, and we move down more corridors, and more, and every call Lucius utters is met only with deafening silence.
Oh god, I can't… my nerves are stretched to breaking point, and I can feel them splintering with terror, and I'm cold and shaking, and the silence presses down on me, louder than a thousand screams-
Something moved. I saw it in the corner of my eye.
I stop where I am and I turn, looking at where I just saw… I swear I saw…
But there's nothing. Just dancing, mocking shadows of blue.
'Draco?' I whisper.
'For god's sake keep quiet!' Lucius whispers, and I can hear the anger and the fear in his voice. 'If he's not going to answer me, then he certainly won't answer you.'
With a long, agonising look at the… the nothing that I just saw, I turn and I follow Lucius once again.
And we're coming to a door; a huge wooden door, and it looks strangely familiar, somehow, but I don't know how…
But when Lucius points his wand at it and it swings slowly open, I know why it looks so familiar.
It opens up onto a balcony; a balcony I remember as clear as day.
I feel Lucius tense beside me. I know that he remembers too.
'Draco?' he murmurs. His voice echoes around the cave that surrounds us. 'Are you out here?'
A long silence, in which we are answered only by bouncing, mocking echoes, and Lucius turns to leave the balcony, but then-
'I'm here, Father.'
Lucius sucks in his breath.
Cold fingers dig themselves into my heart.
Draco steps out, standing in the open doorway. A shadow of a boy, his face hidden in darkness.
'I see you've brought the Mudblood to join us,' he says, a hard, mocking edge to his words. He steps forward into the corridor, and his features are harshly illuminated by the blue light. Angry. Furiously angry. 'How charming. But then, you've always known how to treat your guests with hospitality, father-'
'Let's not play games, Draco,' Lucius says, his voice hard. 'You know why I'm here as well as I do. So why don't you just say what you want to say?'
Draco's nostrils flare with temper. My stomach clenches. I don't want to hear what he's got to say. I don't want to watch as yet another person is damaged by what Lucius and I are doing.
At first it was only me getting hurt. Then it was Lucius, too. Now Ron, and Draco…
Draco's hand is clenched around his wand.
'You lied to me,' he whispers, his cheeks flushing.
He pauses, trying to collect himself, and Lucius' lip curls up in anger.
'And you disobeyed me, Draco,' he mutters. 'I told you not to bother the Mudblood again-'
'Or I would forfeit my position as your son!' Draco interrupts him, his voice rising with rage. 'Yes, I remember. I haven't been able to forget those words. Do you know what it's like, knowing that your own father values the life of a Mudblood more than he values you?'
Any other father would be hurt by those words. Any other father would drop his wand immediately, hug his son, and tell him that he loved him more than anything else in the world…
But all Draco receives from Lucius is a cold, heartless stare, and so he carries on speaking, his voice shaking slightly.
'You told me just this morning to grow myself a backbone, and so I did,' he says, with something like pride in his voice. 'I decided to find out once and for all whether my suspicions were correct. And it turns out I was right, doesn't it?' he says, almost triumphantly. 'And you're a liar, and a hypocrite, because all this time you've been fucking a Mudblood behind my mother's back-'
'Expelliar-'
'Protego!' Draco's wand slips slightly from his fingers, but he keeps his grip on it and manages to repel his father's spell. Father and son hold their wands aloft, trained on each other.
My heart is beating so hard it's going to explode.
The pair of them stare at each other, and there's cold hard rage in their identical pairs of eyes.
'I don't hear you denying it, father,' Draco whispers.
Lucius' lips thin out. 'What would be the point? You already know the truth, and I'm not going to insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise.'
That surprises me. Why isn't he trying to cover his tracks, like he should be doing? He's a master strategist; he must be able to come up with something.
He can't just be thinking that Draco might keep this a secret for us, can he?
He did the same with Ron.
But that's different. Ron loves… loved me, and I love him. Draco… Draco's never received anything but cold condescension from his father.
'Have you told anyone what you have discovered?' Lucius asks, his voice cold and calm, god knows how, but it is.
Ice trickles down into my gut as I await his answer. But-
'No,' Draco says sullenly. 'Not yet, anyway.'
Lucius' sigh of relief is almost inaudible.
Suddenly, I can breathe again. At least no-one else knows. Perhaps there's hope for us yet.
'Tell me, father,' Draco asks furiously. His wand is shaking in his hand. 'I want to know one thing - everything you've told me my whole life about the purity of blood, was it all a pack of lies?'
Lucius' face is set hard. 'Of course not.'
'Then why doesn't it mean anything to you?' Draco's voice is scratchy and hoarse with pent up rage. 'Everything you've told me about blood traitors and Mudbloods and the duty of Purebloods – what does it all mean, if you end up fucking the first Mudblood slut that comes your way?'
Draco's pushing it too far, I know it. A muscle goes in Lucius' cheek, and he raises his wand higher, but Draco raises his too.
'Watch your tongue,' Lucius mutters.
Draco presses his lips together, his eyes gleaming mutinously.
Lucius takes a deep breath. 'They were not lies, Draco,' he murmurs. 'It's still true, all of it. What you have discovered does not change that.'
'So she's different from the rest of the Mudblood scum, is that what you're saying?' Draco asks, his voice hard and mocking.
But Lucius doesn't rise to the bait. 'I never said that,' he near-whispers. 'She hasn't made my change my stance on her kind.'
And I know it's not true, not really, but it still hurts me like acid to the soul, and it makes me start to wonder whether he still, after everything, tells himself that, but… but how can he?
'That doesn't make it any better!' Draco shouts. 'I mean… she's… she's my age!' He bursts out suddenly. 'MY age, for crying out loud! How can you even…'
Lucius' face is white and solid, but Draco's cheeks are pink, and his lips are moving furiously.
'Do you always go for girls young enough to be your daughter?' he asks, his anger egging on his bravery, no doubt. 'Did you want to fuck Pansy as well, when I used to invite her home for dinner?'
Lucius breathes a small, mocking laugh. 'What, that thing?' he drawls, his eyes alight with malice for a moment as he claims yet another brief triumph over his son. 'Oh, she was sacred, I can assure you.'
Draco's eyes flash with anger. 'That's not the point! I went to school with Granger. She's… she's only eighteen, for god's sake! Why can't you at least go for a Mudblood your own age?'
I wonder for a second at that. It must be weird for Draco, to know that his father's sleeping with someone he's known since he was eleven years old.
Lucius' face is hard, unmoving, but I can see the rage in his eyes. 'Would that really make the situation any better?' he asks quietly.
I don't think Draco knows how to answer that. His mouth works furiously for a few seconds with indecision.
What's Lucius playing at? Why isn't he trying to get us out of this?
Trust him. He'll get you out of this.
'Is she the first?' Draco whispers, as if he almost doesn't want to know the answer to his question. 'The first Mudblood, I mean.'
Lucius' features arch, as if the very question has insulted him. 'Yes,' he replies shortly. 'Of course.'
Oh, what an honour, I think bitterly.
That doesn't seem to be enough for Draco. 'Does my mother know?' he asks.
Lucius shakes his head in irritation. 'Of course not. Do you really think I'd insult her by allowing her to discover that her husband and a-'
He trails off, his words disappearing into thin air, because apparently it's still just too abhorrent for him to even put words to, thank you very bloody much, Lucius.
But Draco just glares at his father. 'Haven't you insulted her enough already?' he hisses. 'Just because she doesn't know, doesn't mean it's not going on, does it?'
Lucius' grip on his wand tightens, and Draco's own wand raises several inches. Neither of them have any colour in their faces at all.
'I just… don't understand!' Draco whispers. 'Don't you realise just what will happen to you if you're found out?'
Lucius stares at his son coldly. 'Your arrogance is overwhelming,' he murmurs. 'You seem to forget that I have been a Death Eater far, far longer than you have.'
He pauses, narrowing his eyes, and I realise now that still, after everything, his arrogance will not allow his pride to be insulted.
'Don't lecture me on a world I know far better than you do, Draco.' His voice is a quiet hiss of venom. 'Of course I know what will happen to me should we be discovered.'
Draco bares his teeth in a disbelieving sneer.
'Why are you putting yourself in so much danger for her?' he hisses uncomprehendingly. 'How could she possibly be worth all this trouble? She's got nothing going for her! She's ugly, she's irritating, she's arrogant-'
'And brave, intelligent, and strong.'
A long silence unfurls between the three of us.
I look at Lucius incredulously, my mouth hanging open.
He's frowning, slightly, as if he can't quite believe what he just said, either.
Draco looks like he's just swallowed a mouthful of salt.
'Oh,' he says, his voice oddly constricted. 'Oh, I see. So that's what makes it all worthwhile, is it?'
Lucius' knuckles whiten as he tightens his grip on his wand.
Draco eyes his father's hand warily before he looks him hard in the eye and carries on speaking.
'It can't be long before you're discovered, Father, you do know that?' he whispers.
Lucius' face is admirably firm. I don't know how he manages it. My stomach is churning so quickly I feel like I'm going to be sick any minute now.
'You underestimate me, I fear,' he mutters, his voice a steel thread. 'I know what I'm doing, and how to keep us safe-'
'Do you?' Draco sneers, mocking his father – something he wouldn't have dared to do once upon a time. 'Well, I think you'll find that you're not as safe as you'd like to think.'
Terror clutches at me like an iron fist around my throat. Breathless with fear, I look at Lucius. His face is ice-white.
'What do you mean by that?' he asks, his lips barely moving.
Draco's lips stretch back into a shaky smile. 'Come on.' He attempts a drawl worthy of his father. He fails, of course. 'Don't tell me you haven't thought about why Avery's here in the first place.'
For a moment, I can't hear Lucius breathing.
My brain is shutting down with fear. All I can process is one thought. Avery knows, Avery knows…
'Are you certain?' Lucius asks.
'As certain as I can be,' Draco replies triumphantly. 'Aunty Bella told me that a few day ago he'd told her that the Dark Lord sent him here to keep an eye on you and your relationship with… with her.' He spits out the last word with disgust. 'And if you carry on with her, then it'll only be a matter of time before you're caught. Will you put your life on the line for a Mudblood?'
Shit. Oh shit, I knew it! I knew that Avery knew, and I tried to tell Lucius, I tried… oh god, why didn't he listen to me?
What are we going to do?
Without thinking, I turn to Lucius, gripping him by the arm. His white face, solid with grim fear and resignation, doesn't turn away from his son.
'He can't know, can he, Lucius?' I gabble frantically. 'I mean, he suspects, we knew that he did, but he can't know-'
'SHUT UP, GRANGER!' Draco shouts. I turn to him automatically. He's got flecks of spit on his chin. 'Just keep that fat mouth of yours shut, for once! And how dare you drape yourself all over my father right in front of me? Cruc-'
'Protego!' Lucius rebounds the curse, as quick as a flash.
And without thinking about what I'm doing, I instinctively reach down and grip his hand in gratitude.
Draco sees this, of course. His eyes become narrow slits for a moment, before he seems to droop, suddenly.
'You're learning, Draco,' Lucius says in his cold, clipped drawl. 'And improving, all the time. You very nearly took me by surprise, there.'
Draco just looks at his father, his eyes brightening. 'Well, I know how that feels,' he mutters.
Lucius and I watch as Draco takes in a deep, shuddering breath, without taking his eyes off his father's face.
I slip my hand out of Lucius' grip.
'Do you know what it's like to have your values shattered by the one person who built them up in the first place?' he whispers. 'Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? You've betrayed me, father.'
Lucius takes in a deep breath through his nose.
'If you feel that way, it is not my fault,' he mutters. 'You put too much faith in others, Draco. I have told you time and time again not to do that. You should have realised long ago that you can only rely on yourself in this world, because everything and everyone else will only betray you in the end, albeit sometimes unwillingly.'
I feel cold, but that's nothing to how Draco must be feeling. He looks desperately into his father's face.
Why can't Lucius just see that Draco loves him? Or if he already knows it, then why can't he just show him some affection, even if in reality it's all false?
After all, are what's true and what we believe really all that different?
Draco swallows down hard. As his eyes begin to shine with tears, an ugly flush of humiliation spreads across his cheeks.
'Why can I never do enough to please you?' His voice shakes with suppressed anguish. He's been wanting to say this for years, I know that he has.
Lucius looks at him stonily. He offers no assurance whatsoever. 'What are you trying to say?'
Draco takes a deep breath through his nose, obviously trying to calm himself down.
I wish I could dissolve into the floor. I shouldn't be here, in this moment, I know that I shouldn't.
'All I've ever tried to do is live up to your expectations; to make you proud!' His voice wobbles all over the place, despite his best efforts to control it. 'And it's never been enough, never. And now I find that it was all a waste of time!'
Lucius rolls his eyes. 'Reprimand the mistakes I have made with the Mudblood if you must, Draco,' he drawls. 'But don't simper all over me; I'll not endure it.'
Draco looks as if his father's just hit him.
I can't help but feel sorry for him. If Lucius would just… oh, I don't know, just hug Draco, or something, or even just tell him that he loves him, then it would probably make up for all the crushing disappointment Draco's feeling right now.
But instead all he gets is a cold look, a slightly raised eyebrow, and narrowed eyes.
He presses his lips together for a moment, seeming to struggle with himself, before he bursts out with-
'Do you have any idea what it's been like growing up in your shadow? All I've ever been told is that one day I'll follow in your footsteps. You yourself told me time and time again that when the Dark Lord came back to power I would serve him as you have done. You've been telling me that since I was old enough to talk!'
And without even thinking about it, I step forwards, words escaping my throat before I can even think about them.
'Draco, it doesn't have to be this way!' I whisper, desperate that he should calm down before anyone can hear us. 'Your father might be beyond redemption, but you're not. You could be a better person than he is!'
Draco turns to me with a look of absolute hatred. Not just fury, but pure and utter loathing…
But his wand doesn't turn with him. It remains where it is, positioned in mid-air, pointing at his father.
I feel Lucius step up closer behind me, his wand still raised, and Draco's eyes flash when he sees it.
'A better person?' He spits the words at me. 'What, like you, you mean? You're so bloody self-righteous, Granger. Who are you to lecture me on what's right and wrong, after what you've been doing to my mother?'
I close my mouth like a trap in pure abashed humiliation, because he's right. I can't claim a real moral high ground over him, not anymore. And not just because of what I've been doing to his mother. There's that old, dark secret of Lucius' and mine – I became a murderer to save his life.
A hard look of defiance creeps into Draco's gaze as he turns away from me to face Lucius once again. I never really noticed it before, but his eyes are almost as expressive as his father's.
'Why should I keep this a secret for you?' he whispers.
Lucius raises his head slightly. Draco's treading a very thin line, I know it. I can see his father trying to keep his temper under control.
'You're suggesting you might do otherwise?' he asks quietly.
The fear on Draco's face is slowly hardening into cold, hard rage.
'You told me yourself, so many times, that loyalty to the pure-blood cause comes above family ties.' He's breathless, but with anger or fear, who can say? 'No doubt you were always talking about Aunt Andromeda and her side of the family. But… but why doesn't the same rule apply to you?'
Oh god. He's really going to do it. He's going to condemn me and his father in return for years of neglect on Lucius' part.
I'm shaking. I'm really, really shaking. And I can't ask Lucius to hold me and make everything better, because that would only make everything worse.
Lucius' expression is unflinching. After all, he's a master at hiding his emotions.
'If you want to tell the Dark Lord what you have discovered, then I will not stop you.'
For god's sake, isn't he even going to try and stop him?
But… no. I know what he's doing. He's calling Draco's bluff. He's a master strategist. His son could never match up to him.
That's why his voice is refusing to shake, while Draco's wobbles all over the place.
Draco hesitates, his wand shaking furiously in his hand, and Lucius takes advantage of his indecision.
'But you must realise, Draco, that if you do decide to tell him, then you will no longer have a father,' he murmurs. 'My life, and that of the Mudblood, will be over in the brief second it will take the Dark Lord to mutter a killing curse.'
Draco's already pale face turns marble white, but he seems to hold firm.
'I know that!' he hisses. 'I'm not stupid, father!'
'Did I suggest that you were?'
There's a sliver of urgency in Lucius' voice. So fine, so small, that you wouldn't know it was there if you didn't know him.
But… but he said to me, so long ago, that he wasn't afraid to die; that there were worse things than death, and he would be a poor excuse for a Death Eater if he feared it…
So why does he seem to care so much about dying now?
Because it's not just his life on the line, is it?
But… but that would mean…
Think about it. If you were to die, then what would be left for him? You've taken everything else.
Draco's wand seems to lower a fraction.
'I should tell him,' he mutters, his voice desperate. 'I know that you would do the same if our roles were reversed.'
My breath clogs up in my lungs with terror. Oh no, I don't want to die… I don't want him to die…
Lucius' reaction gives nothing away. His face is a blank mask.
Draco's wand lowers further, and further, oh so slowly, until it eventually rests loose in his hand by his side.
'But… but I couldn't condemn my own father… could I?'
Tears are rolling slowly down his cheeks. I feel like I'm watching something indecent and wrong. Draco Malfoy doesn't cry. And if he does, then he certainly doesn't want the Mudblood that's destroyed all of his illusions to see it.
Lucius' face doesn't even flicker. If anything, all his face shows is scorn.
Draco swallows, and when he speaks again his voice cracks.
'I just… I just can't.' He takes a small step towards his father, his eyes bright and shining. 'I couldn't do that to you. I'd do anything for you, Father – you know that!'
It's like watching a puppy that still looks hopelessly for its owner after it's been abandoned.
I can feel tears of sympathy starting in the back of my own throat.
But Lucius has no sympathy, no pity. His face is rock hard.
'Sometimes I wonder if I have taught you anything at all, Draco. Surely by now you know never to lower your wand in front of an adversary,' he mutters, before quick as a flash, he flicks his wand at his son, his own son. 'Stupefy!'
What… what?
The shock doesn't die from Draco's face as he falls backwards, slumping on the ground, unconscious.
I watch numbly as Lucius steps towards his son, his own son, and he points his wand at him, only his face betraying his utter relief.
'Obliviate!'
Draco's eyes flutter for a moment before they close once again as his memory is wiped away forever.