A/n- Thanks to NotSoSweet. Bundibird, Dwindlingcandle , ThePrincessWolf, OBLuvr13, heart5, and Lildaani for the review! You guys are super, super awesome!

Disclaimer: EH?!

Summary: Let the games begin...

The Other Side of Fate

Although Draco was sure he was alive, at the exact same time, he swore he was in hell- for all around him was the smell of burnt things- in his nose, in his mouth, in his lungs. He jolted awake and took a rasping breath only to choke and spit, coughing out ash and cinder.

His body ached.

Cracking open his eyes he found the world to be tilted. Realizing he was laying partly on his side, his legs under him; his panic grew. Closing his eyes he tried to recall what had happened before.

Running; running and screaming. Someone had called his name but he couldn't recall why. Snape was there, pulling him along by the arm, another Death Eater pulling him by the other. He remembered tears falling down his face and the two men having to pick him up as his legs kept sliding on the stone.

And then they were out of the castle and had Dissaperated.

Malfoy groaned and blinked open his long pewter lashes. He jumped, his arms wrenching horribly. Draco realized he was sitting in a small pit of gray powder. Stomach lurching he realized, looking around, that he was sitting- crouching- in the middle of the fire pit in the Malfoy Manor's private library. The logs and small stand-alone fire grate had been removed from the center hearth but they had let the ashes remain.

They…

Looking around he saw that the armchairs had been removed from the room as well. The only thing that remained to give clue that this had once been a small read-in study was the looming bookcase that molded itself along the circular room's walls; interrupted only by the dark door-less staircase.

Draco tried to wipe the soot off his brow but found that his hands were chained tightly back to a large metal rung that had been magically secured there in the hearth. He couldn't even pull his hands up but six inches from the ground behind him.

His mouth was so dry…

A noise issued from upstairs and Draco cowered.

Would they kill him? Now that his father knew about his disloyalty, would they torture him? Rip him apart? Send his mangled body back to The Order as a lesson?

Or worse…

Would they proclaim him a hero to the Wizarding World… say he killed Dumbledore?

Malfoy took shallow breaths; partly from not wanting to inhale charred wood and partly from the feeling that his lungs had suddenly constricted. Pupils dilated from fear, he could make out every shape around him in the dark.

The lamps on the walls suddenly burst on.

Draco's chest heaved and he tried to slump down again, look as if he was still unconscious. He heard people coming down the staircase.

Someone was crying.

As the group of people entered the room, spread out along the wall, Draco was assaulted by the sound of his mother's piteous crying from in front of him.

"Oh, Draco! My Draco! No… oh wake him up! My son!"

"See if the boy is living Amycus…"

The hissing snake like voice made ice flood Draco's veins. His brain was suddenly screaming over and over and over.

His mother let out a strangled cry just as a foot connected with Draco's stomach. His eyes burst open as he coughed into the hearth; curling up to protect himself.

"Boy's alive, my Lord."

"Sit up, Draco." Voldemort said. Draco's chest heaved. "Sit up." He commanded again.

Slowly, Malfoy pulled his legs under him and sat hunched over. Bringing his head up slowly he saw his mother and father standing across from him at the wall. Narcissa bolted towards Draco and flung her arms around him, a plume of ash nearly choking him.

Over her shaking shoulders Malfoy saw, alongside his father, four other Deatheaters- one of them obviously Amycus- and three others he wasn't sure he recognized, Snape, and finally, Voldemort.

"Ah yes, Narcissa, your boy is safe; Lord Voldemort is very please, very pleased."

"I- I don't know what I would have done…. if anything would have happened to you, Draco! Draco… oh Draco." She was cooing softly and petting his brilliantly blond head over and over again. "I don't know what I would have done…"

Voldemort looked sidelong at Lucius. "Ah, Narcissa, Narcissa; I think we can safely assume that you would have done absolutely anything for him…" His slit like eyes widened considerably. "Anything, Narcissa, correct?"

Draco felt his mother go ridged, her grip tightening. She was shaking minutely. Slowly, she let him go, pried herself off him. Malfoy looked at her wide eyed as she stood. Her face was carefully blank; like stone. Sniffing, she stood back with his father.

They were silent for a few moments, all of them, and Draco got the distinct impression that Voldemort was waiting for something.

Finally, his father raised his chin and, looking down his nose at Draco, addressed him. "It has come to my knowledge that you have still been in the company of that Mudblood!" Draco would have hexed his father back four generations if he had his wand; Lucius continued. "How dare you…" His voice was soft and dangerous. "After your correspondence! I had faith in you, Draco. And now I have learned that Snape has killed Dumbledore instead of you. You're plan was flawless!" He was leaning forward as if to emphasize his point. "And after our help and Severus' instruction!"

Malfoy's mouth dropped open; he strained against the chain that bound him. "What!?" Snape made a slight moment and Draco's head snapped over to him. His gaze lingered over the man- he was glaring so intensely that Draco thought he was about to burst into flame. Ignoring the look, he continued. "I don't know what fantasy you have been living in, father, but no letter of mine has ever graced your presence! You are delusion! Snape? Plan? Are you insane?"

There was complete and total resounding silence. Everyone looked at one another, even the masked Deatheaters peered around.

His mother was crying again.

Lucius looked extremely confused. "How- how is… you are lying. They have brainwashed my only son! They have Obliviated his memory!"

"Oh Lucius…"

The sound, the hiss, issued from Voldemort lips so sweetly it was nearly as if he was comforting the man. He moved around the room to circle Draco, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Lord Voldemort knows all, Draco. You should have realized that."

Malfoy felt ill.

"Do you know, Draco, why your father believes he had been receiving letters from you? Lord Voldemort knows, yes…." He smiled; bloodthirsty. "Yes… he does."

Snape had turned white as a sheet, had tore his eyes away from Draco. He was staring at the shuttering Narcissa Malfoy.

Draco couldn't respond to the absurd question; his mouth was too dry.

Voldemort clucked his tongue. "It seems as if I must educate you all- well…" That smile again. He peered at the other figures in the room. "… almost everyone. You see, Draco, you have not been corresponding with your father and I at all- not you by any means. You have been dealing with the Mudblood Granger and Harry Potter… yes… But someone was sending us Owls all year. Someone was sure that my plan for you- to kill that fool Dumbledore- was to be carried out. Someone was taking your place,Draco… "

Malfoy wanted to wretch every time he said his name… but then… something clicked in his mind.

Draco suddenly looked up at Snape.

"Ah, yes, Draco!" Voldemort hissed loudly. "You have always been a smart, smart boy. How proud your father must be… Yes, your Severus Snape has been impersonating you all year, you see, and he has been writing your father, carrying out your plans, doing your good deeds."

Malfoy was searching Snape's face, which looked livid. "My hair…" He said slowly, as if he were in a dream. "Polyjuice potion…" He blinked up at the man. "You pulled out my hair at the beginning of the year!"

"Be silent!" Snape hissed, barely moving his lips. Draco noticed his hands were balled into fists.

Voldemort laughed cruelly. "Let the boy speak Severus, for he is a bright wizard!"

Draco's mind was racing; he was staring at the wall; wouldn't look at his father. Why? Why would he…

"Why?"

"Oh, Draco." Voldemort mused. "If there is one thing I have learned from Harry Potter…" He trailed off and looked at Narcissa who was cowering behind her husband. His toothy grin, the mad smile he wore, grew exponentially. "… was the extent of a mother's love."

Stunned, Lucius Malfoy stepped away from his wife. "What is this?" He demanded. Narcissa began to weep bitterly.

"I had to, my Lord!" She was pleading as she slid to her knees, hands clasped together in a kind of morbid prayer. "He had to protect Draco! He had to…oh my son… my son…"

Lucius turned his back on her; although Draco thought it was more to shielding her from Voldemort then to disown her.

Snape looked like death warmed over.

The Dark Lord ignored the women's outcry.

"My boy…" Voldemort reached out and ran a long fingered gray-white hand down the back of Draco's head. "You look confused." Malfoy shuttered uncontrollably. "Shh, shh, Draco, Lord Voldemort only wants to educate you…"

Malfoy stared at his father who looked furious; and shouldn't he be? His wife had disobeyed the Dark Lord and his son was revealed as a traitor. Whatever Lucius felt, however, was kept securely inside- Voldemort was speaking, and one never interrupted Lord Voldemort.

The absurdity of the neat little bookcase and the horrors within the room clashed so that the scene looked nearly fake.

"But…" Malfoy began, and everyone including the Dark Lord looked at him. "How did…" Draco faltered as he felt Voldemort's fingers lace through his hair. "How… how did you find out?"

The Dark Lord smiled. "Ah…Draco, that is a beauty all in its own… Blaise?" They all looked at where Voldemort's other arm was extended towards.

From behind one of the Deatheaters who moved out of the way, Blaise Zabini emerged in a long black robe- looking solidly dark. Only the blazing light from the torches illuminated the sharp lines on his face. He must been crouching down, awaiting his entrance.

Malfoy felt the bottom of his stomach fall away. Voldemort looked between the boys; Blaise was grinning wildly, his eyes large as saucers. He appeared a tad insane. "Ah, yes, Draco." Voldemort was speaking calmly through the silence in the room, still running a hand over and over Malfoy's silver crown. "Zabini knew you were loyal to the Mudblood and Potter…yes… He also knew that your mother had told you your father requested an answer to my proposal, for I told him that remarkable detail."

It revolted Draco how much Zabini looked like he was reveling in the praise. Although, it was a small comfort to him how Blaise's eager look faltered at the way Voldemort was feting over him, however disgusting the contact between his beautiful blonde hair and the clammy hands were.

"Zabini was my eyes and ears at Hogwarts, Draco. I knew, and I told no one. But now, now we know who has betrayed us…" His gaze looked from Snape to Malfoy's mother. A high-pitched laugh spilled from the man's lips. The candlelight seemed to flicker at the octave. "You have defied Lord Voldemort!"

But Draco, despite his fear at the present situation, burst through the mad man's diatribe with a sharp bark of noise; a cough. All eyes turned to him. Zabini's look darkened.

"You…" He started slowly, looking at Blaise intently. "What have you done with Goyle?"

At this point, Voldemort seemed to grow pensive, looking from one boy to the other with lustful malice. He was enjoying the exchange.

Smirking, Zabini folded his arms. "He's being taken care of, to be sure."

For a brief moment that meant to Draco that he was possibly alive. Insane and unfounded hope flared.

"What have you done to Pansy?"

At this, Blaise looked genuinely unconcerned. "She, like the rest of the Slytherin girls, could not understand the new order that the Dark Lord and I have placed upon the up and coming generation. The women of Slytherin are weak, and I treat them just like I would any other…"

Another revelation registered in the back of Malfoy's mind; why Blaise hated women... but the intensity of the present situation forced the thought deep into his brain for another time. Instead, Malfoy strained against his bindings, his head thrust forward.

He wanted to ruin Zabini, smother him. He ached for his hands to choke that slender dark neck more then anything.

This boy was the reason for him and Hermione's pain. This boy had been spying on him all year, to see if he really was carrying out the Dark Lord's plans. This boy was the reason that his mother and Snape, who miraculously had been trying to spare Draco, were found out.

Malfoy wanted blood.

He looked Zabini straight in the eyes, chin tilted up in the common Malfoy way. "You sold out your best friend…"

Suddenly, Blaise lurched forward and the Death Eater next to him had to hold him back. Narcissa made a noise as she crouches on the floor. "My best friend…" He screamed. "Died when he took up dealings with Mudbloods and that good for nothing dead old fool Dumbledore!"

Draco gazed up at the struggling Slytherin with wide, piteous eyes. A breath escaped his lips and he licked them absently.

Quietly, just above a whisper, voice rose within Malfoy's chest.

"My God, Blaise, they've murdered your humanity."

The struggling boy went slightly limp and stared dumbfounded, mouth open a few inches. Draco couldn't tell if Zabini was going to scream or cry; for he seemed ready to do both.

Instead, with an pained look on his face, the boy wrestled out of the Deatheaters grip, whirled around, and fled back up the dark staircase.

Malfoy watched the dark boy disappear as the gloom above enveloped him. Something satisfying about the way he twisted Blaise, the way he hurt him, exhilarated Draco. He felt pride and adrenaline surge through his veins and flood his brain until he was dizzy.

He could do it… kill the boy, murder, torture.

He was bred for it after all; it was the Malfoy way.

Draco could be everything his father wanted him to be…

Voldemort had released his grip on Draco's hair and Malfoy slumped forward slightly, unaware that the man had been holding his head up a fraction. The chains pulled taunt on his arms; painful.

He could be… everything…

A movement in front of his vision pulled Draco from his thoughts. As the world seemed to materialize in front of him he could again hear the sounds of his mother's sharp breaths, it was the only noise in the room.

Vaguely he could feel Voldemort circling him.

"Lord Voldemort knows what you are thinking, Draco."

Malfoy snorted, a small plume of soot mushrooming into the air.

"Lord Voldemort knows the struggle that goes on inside you, Draco. Should you accept your fate and die for your cause? Or will you come to the Deatheaters and join your father?"

Through heavy lidded eyes Malfoy looked up at Lucius. The man wasn't looking at him, but staring at Voldemort. Draco saw his father was nearly ridged, unmoving.

He hated the man… but he wanted to cry out to him. Wanted to have his father swoop down and protect him once, just once, like a little child.

But, Draco wasn't a little child, and his fate could not be changed because his father wished to save him. If his father still held any respect for him at all, wanted to save him at all.

"Draco, Lord Voldemort shall make the choice easy for you."

Malfoy pulled away sharply as Voldemort tried to tilt up his chin. The man smiled.

"You are not welcome among us; you are tainted with Potter and that Mudblood's touch. But nor shall we kill you just yet, for you hold valuable information."

Rasping, Malfoy's voice was a whisper. "Torture, then death?"

"That is the idea." The milk-white man replied.

Smirking, he let out a little laugh. "I'll never tell you anythi-"

"NO!" His mother wailed from the floor as she prostrated herself onto the stone. "No…" She wept bitterly. "No… no. Please, no!" The Deatheaters were staring at her, yet Lucius and Snape were looking at each other.

"Narcissa…" Voldemort began quietly as he stood opposite the women and her husband, on the right side of the room and Draco. "Narcissa, why should Lord Voldemort consider your words when you have betrayed him?"

The women wept harder.

"Stand up, Narcissa." He hissed quietly.

Draco watched, mortified, as he mother got weakly to her feet, shaking as she stood behind her husband. Voldemort smiled, his wand twirling round and round through his spindly fingers; as it had the whole time.

Voldemort paced back and forth between Draco and the other Deatheaters by the empty door-frame. He tapped his wand into his palm. Draco strained against his bindings but uttered no sound.

The tinny light rebounded off the walls in strange fractions.

"Severus Snape." Voldemort said finally, his wand pointed lazily at the man. Snape went still as he watched the wand tip, eventually meeting Voldemort's eyes. His face was set, determined, and carefully blank.

"Yes, my Lord?"

"You have disobeyed Lord Voldemort, why is this?"

Looking from Lucius to Narcissa, Snape spoke carefully. "She asked me to protect her son... and I did."

"Unbreakable vow?"

"Yes."

"Clever… clever…" Voldemort lowered his wand slowly. "I find your impotence and insubordination unacceptable and foolish on your part. However, you were able to murder that bumbling old headmaster…so you at least serve some purpose and have brought me glory."

Snape bowed sharply, his long nose dipping forward and his greasy hair sliding over his face. "Thank you, my Lord. You are gracious and kind."

Voldemort turned on the spot and looked directly at Narcissa, advancing a few steps, his wand out and pointing at her.

"You… you however are of no use to me."

Everything seemed to be happening so fast, Draco felt like the world was revolving at a ten fold speed.

"No!" He yelled.

"My Lord, please." His father reasoned.

"Step aside, Lucius."

"My Lord…"

"Lucius…!" Narcissa was wailing.

"Stop this!" Draco pleaded loudly.

"Step aside, Lucius!" Voldemort said again, harsher.

His mother was moaning into her hands.

"Do something!" Malfoy screamed at Snape who was staring at him with a blank expression.

His father looked frightened and rooted to the spot.

"No, please!"

"Stop this!"

"Father!"

"Lucius Malfoy!" Voldemort screamed at the top of his lungs, his wand hand quivering with calculated rage. "Step aside!"

All was silent.

For a moment, a split second, Lucius' gaze quivered and darted towards Draco, who was pulling so hard at his restraints that his shoulders were wrenched at an extremely odd angle. A peace flickered over the man's face and Malfoy felt a stab in his heart as the gaze turned oddly cold.

It was if, with that look, his father was condemning him of murder.

"Yes, my Lord."

Slowly, Lucius Malfoy stepped away from his wife and to the wall of the bookcase. He exchanged a glance with Snape then stared hard at the ground, his jaw clenching and releasing, clenching and releasing.

"No! Lucius… please… my Lord… please, no. Please. Don't. No… Lucius!"

"You were stupid, Narcissa. You had to understand, Lord Voldemort knows all." He raised his wand at the women's. "Avada Kadavara!"

In the blinding flash of green, Draco saw his father's face illuminated- the man's eyes were closed. Draco let out a sharp scream that stuck in his throat and slowly faded into a bitter moan.

Narcissa fell sideways onto the stone, her shoulder connecting with the hard surface and her head falling flat onto the ground. She lay, dead, her face white, blank, and staring towards the center of the room, towards Draco. Her mouth was still open from the pleading, her eyes still wide with fear.

Draco couldn't breath. He was dying. He was becoming nothing. Blood wasn't flowing. His heart wasn't beating. All was dead silent. Dead, dead. Dead.

His mother's pallid face filled Draco's vision as he stared at its beautiful porcelain features.

From the far reaches of his mind he heard a cackling as Voldemort drew near to him, whispered in his ear.

"And the best part, my sweet, sweet boy…" A cold hand ran over Malfoy's shoulder as the Dark Lord spoke. "I can touch you…. do you know what that means?"

Malfoy was staring into his mother's dead blue eyes, blue and stagnant like filthy water. He didn't answer, wasn't even registering the questions. He could her laughter in the cold man's voice.

"I can touch you… unlike Harry Potter, your mother did not die saving you… she did not give her life, for you. She tried to save herself. Selfish, is it not Draco? Now, you see, you have no protection against my immense power..."

The room dissolved as grief swept through Malfoy's body, the other occupants of the library seeming to disappear.

Terror mingled with the hurt as Draco felt pressure on the right side of his head.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Voldemort was pushing Draco's shinning head down, down to the edge of the hearth with his cold fingers. Draco didn't even flinch when his ear, then the whole side of his head, was pressed against the painfully cold stone.

Voldemort had pushed him down so he was merely six feet away from his dead mother; their faces looking squarely at each other.

Tears were pooling around Malfoy's face as the pressure of Voldemort's hand was lifted, although, Draco had no strength to lift himself up again.

The world was lurching as the man laughed again, the Deatheaters escorting a stunned Lucius Malfoy out of the room.

"Come, Severus." Voldemort walked past Snape to stand in the doorway. "We have much to discuss."

The old Potion's Master was staring at Malfoy and with one last glance at the boy, he followed the Dark Lord up the library's staircase.

Draco was left alone then, with the body of his mother, in the fading light.

And he felt so terribly cold.

A/N- Sorry for the lateness, I hope it being 11 pages long makes up for it (yet again).

Will start chapter 14 tomorrow.

OH! Some people e-mailed me about the status of the chapter this week while I was working on it. I don't mind the pestering (it helps me go faster) but I do have 'news' and 'status' sections on my profile here which I update multiple times a week with current chapter-by-chapter information. That way, you can see where I am and when the upload will be without sending a PM!

Anyway.

Please review, it helps- even constructive critisizm! Review!