Malfoy lead Hermione through the manor, her heels echoing off of the empty walls. The entire house was cold and dark, eerie and silent. They came to a sort of library, where the hearth was alight. Hermione made her way to one of the velvet armchairs in front of the fire, Malfoy sitting across from her. Pulling her briefcase out of her bag, she grabbed a pen and notebook.
"Where would you like to start?" Hermione asked, looking inquisitively at the man. His hair was still messy along with his beard, but the wrinkled black robe was now green. He didn't look any better. Especially because he just stared at her with dead eyes, not answering the question. Blinking, Hermione asked, "How have you been, Mr. Malfoy?" She decided to try an empathetic approach, he may not want to speak of the case just yet.
"How am I?" He chuckled, lightening the tension somewhat. But his eyes grew dark again. "Both of my parents are dead, and I'm accused of killing one of them. And don't call me Mr. Malfoy, Granger." He spat, staring at the fire with disdain. Hermione sighed quietly under her breath. She wasn't sure why she expected this to be easier.
"Okay, Malfoy. Look, I'm sorry you're in this mess. And I'm sorry about your parents." His eyes met hers and she tried to reach into him, let him know that she truly felt sorry for him. Malfoy's face softened and he looked back to the fire. "I want to help you, you just need to tell me the truth, what really happened. I can build our case off of your testimony and then it's up to the Ministry. But I want to help you as much as I can."
"Fine. I'll tell you what happened." Malfoy slumped into his chair, eyes going distant.
Narcissa and Malfoy had been on the run ever since Lucius was sent to Azkaban. They weren't running from the Ministry, however, they were running from the remaining death eaters. The Malfoys fled when Voldemort was defeated by Harry Potter, and the death eaters noticed. Draco wasn't fighting at the battle of Hogwarts, and Narcissa told Voldemort that Harry was dead when he wasn't. They became number one on the death eaters kill list.
On the run, they stayed in muggle inns, hotels, they even resorted to camping in the woods. This lasted for years. Hearing news that Aurors were hunting death eaters one by one, they started to feel relief as their numbers dwindled. Narcissa apologized everyday for the way that she and her husband treated their son. She felt terrible for making him become a death eater, she never wanted that life for him. And now that it was only the two of them, their bond deepened and Malfoy finally felt like he had a family.
Then came that fateful day. Narcissa and Malfoy were spotted by death eaters by chance, both using the same space of forest to hide. It was a long battle, both of the Malfoys getting cuts and bruises everywhere. Then came the killing curse, hitting Narcissa straight in the chest. Malfoy didn't know what to do, so he apparated them blindly, ending up in the Malfoy Manor. Malfoy cried over his dead mother, wiping away the blood splattering her face, his own blood mixing with hers.
He could feel the Aurors running up to the manor, they must have been monitoring it for some time. He had a choice. To leave his mother to be discovered by the Aurors, or to take her with him, and have to bury her himself. The decision gutted him, but he eventually decided to apparate by himself, just as the Aurors burst through the door.
He was completely isolated for weeks. Having to grieve his dead mother in solitude was the hardest thing he'd ever faced. The guilt and depression of losing his only remaining family member ate at him, and he wished he had taken her with him so that he could bury her himself. Moving forest to forest, muggle inn to muggle inn, he almost hoped the death eaters would find him, only to end his constant misery. When he could get close enough to a wizarding village, he would grab a newspaper. It took a couple of tries, but he finally found what he'd been searching for. The graveyard the ministry buried his mother in.
Immediately apparating to her tombstone, he cried on his knees. The sight of his father's tomb beside hers didn't help. His tears of sadness turned to tears of hate, for himself, for his father, for Voldemort. He forced himself to pry away from those thoughts, and to focus on his loving mother, so that he could grieve in peace. However, it took all of three minutes for Aurors to swarm him, arrest him, and take him back to Malfoy Manor where he would await his trial. He went without a fight, staring at his mother's grave for as long as he could, for he knew he would never see it again.