Title: A Wonderful Life, Indeed

Author: Lindsay Paddington

Summary: A parody on "It's a Wonderful Life", HP style! Draco wants to kill himself. Can an angel save him? What led him to want to do this? Read!

Disclaimer: I own nothing in here. Not Harry Potter nor any character, not IAWL, just the names of the angels and things like that. Sigh. And I own Luke. Cute little kids.

Rating: PG-13 for slashy-ness

Author's Note: Thanks to all the lovely reviews I've gotten already! It's quite flattering and I didn't expect then so soon. You're all too kind and too wonderful! BUT I NEED HELP! In the next chapter, Draco and Harry will be walking around, and they're supposed to be singing a song together. In the movie, it's "Buffalo Bill" ("Buffalo Bill wont you come out tonight, come out tonight, come out tonight/Buffalo Bill won't you come out tonight/And dance by the light of the moon") so I need a modern-day parallel to that. E-mail (lpaddington@prodigy.net) me some suggestions, please!

*~*

"I like him, I think. What is his name?" Clarence finally spoke after digesting this picture for a while.

"Draco Malfoy."

"Draco Malfoy…" Clarence repeated. "Not-so-nice of a name, though."

"Yeah…just be quiet and watch." The other angel snapped. So Clarence did.

"Yeah, go Blaise!" Draco laughed as his friend (A/N: I'm making it a girl for this story.  That way it fits later. She has a part to play!) slid down the hill.  Then she made the sharp turn and stopped gingerly. She got off of her sled and carried it back up the hill extra nonchalantly. Draco eyed her for a few seconds with a smirk.  The same eyes then turned their attention to the hill, where a smaller, younger boy who looked about thirteen was.  A smile spread across his face.

"Up next, my brother-in-training, Luke!" he announced.

 "Brother-in-training?" Clarence asked Jason.

"Luke's father is also a Death-Eater, like Draco's father."

"'Death Eater'?"

"Yes, it's the name of a follower of Voldemort, who was one of the most scary, evil, powerdul, feared wizards of all time!"

"Oooh, sounds scary. So does this mean Draco is evil?"

"No, just watch."

"But you never told me who Luke was."

"Oh, yes, well his father was a Death Eater…until he was killed by fellow Death Eaters when he tried to leave. So Lucius-that's Draco's father-took Luke under his wing, hoping to put the boy on the 'right' track."

"Oh, I see."

"Yes. Now shut up."

"Don't break your neck on the way down!" an older boy taunted the younger.

"I won't, but I'll sure break yours!" he growled. Everyone just laughed. "You'll see! You'll all see!" he announced as he sat down on his sled. He pushed off with his feet and went whizzing down the slope. Something went wrong, however; when he was supposed to stop, the sled wouldn't cooperate; on he whizzed at an unstoppable speed. "HELP ME DRACO, HELP ME!" he screeched right before he hit the patch of thin ice. With a tremendous crack, the ice fell out underneath him and his small body fell under.

Without a second thought, Draco raced down the hill to the ice. He threw off his cloak and dove into the freezing cold. The water felt like a million tiny needles pricking him all over, but he couldn't think about the pain or the cold for now. His mind had to be focused on getting the one he now thought of as another pureblood Malfoy. He swam around for a few seconds before his hand hit something-someone!-else. He pulled hard, but the heavy cloak caused there to be difficulty.

I've got to save him! He thought. I can't let him die! With an amazing boost of adrenalin, he was able to pull his "brother" up out of the water before he drowned. The younger boy coughed and sputtered on the cold ice as someone raced to get Madame Pomfrey. Draco shortly after rose out of the water. He could think of nothing else but Luke for now despite the fact that he thought he would die of hypothermia, so he threw his cloak over Luke and his turtleneck followed. He then hugged him.

"You'll be okay," he reassured him. Right as an old man and a portly woman ran up, the image stopped moving.

"Draco got a serious ear infection and pneumonia from that incident and lost the hearing in his left ear. He was sick for weeks before he could return to his classes and, more importantly, his job."

"He had a job?"

"Yes. His father, ever the miser, wanted to make sure that he learned what it was like to make money of his own. He convinced his old friend and Draco's Potions master, one Severus Snape, to give him a part-time job selling potions ingredients to his classmates."

"Was he very happy about this?"

"Absolutely not." Jason answered. Clarence laughed at this. "Now let's move on."

Another image started up, this of Draco walking with some of the older boys that Clarence remembered from the sledding scene. They were all sneering and making fun of other people. The name "Potter" showed up more than once. Finally, they all stopped at a smallish door next to a very large door. All the boys scattered and left Draco alone. Draco opened the door and walked into the office.

The office was fairly large despite what it would look like from the outside. Inside was a whole cabinet full of ingredients from wolfsbane to nettles to, a classic, newt eyes. Before the cabinet was a counter with a few stools in front of it, and behind the counter was a chair. In the two stools sat two people: a boy and a girl. The girl had dark red hair and was sitting in the chair like she owned the place. The boy had messy black hair, piercing green eyes, black, circular glasses, and a peculiar scar on his forehead. The girl Clarence recognized.

"Ooh, that's the girl that Draco called 'Blaise'!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Congratulations. You get a cookie." The other angel sighed.

"Who's the boy?" he inquired.

"That's Harry Potter, Draco's worst enemy."

"Is he a bully?"

"No, right now it's more of the other way around. Just watch."

Draco made a face upon seeing the boy. Before he could get over to them, Blaise murmured barely audibly.

"Mmm, Draco sure is hot." She admitted, licking her lips just slightly.

"You think all the boys are hot." Harry said, rolling his eyes.

"What's wrong with that?" she purred. Harry rolled his eyes again. By this point Draco had gotten to the counter and behind it and had slid into his seat.

"What'll it be, Blaise?" he drawled.

"Mmm, I think I just need…some nettles and some powdered lions blood."

"Lions blood, eh?" he asked, making conversation as he gathered her ingredients. "Only special potions need powdered lions blood."

"Then perhaps I'm making something special," she answered.

Draco smirked at this. His eyes landed on a piece of paper on the counter. "What's this?" he asked no one in particular as he picked it up. Scribbled in curly handwriting was:

"Dear Mr. Severus Snape,

We regret to inform you that your mother passed away this morning in her bed with no notice. Her funeral is being arranged. We will be in contact."

Draco's smirk turned into a frown as he set the paper down. He then got out from behind the counter to get the nettles from a jar. Once this was done, he gave the ingredients to Blaise.

"Help me down?" she purred.

"Help you down?" he laughed. Blaise frowned and got down herself. Harry snickered, which caught Draco's attention and reminded him of his presence. Draco frowned again.

"What'll it be, Potter?" he asked in an annoyed tone of voice.

"A jar of snake venom," he responded curtly.

"No 'please' for me?"

"Not for you, Malfoy." He spat out the last word like it was the Avada Kedavra. Draco went behind the counter and opened a cabinet.

"What kind of snake venom?"

"Does it matter? Whatever we're using in class." At this, Draco spun around on his heels and stared.

"Does it matter? Does. It. Matter?" Draco gaped at Harry's audacity. "Of course it matters, dolt!" With that he pulled out a whole magazine from his backpocket and slammed it down on the table. "Don't you know how important snakes are? How different their venoms are?" He opened the magazine and pointed to the different snakes. "Diamondback, when mixed with the right things, heals. However, rattlesnake, no matter what you do with it…kills." He went on for the next few minutes like this. By the end, Harry eyes him with new respect.

"Wow, I suppose I should know these things."

"You should."

"How do you know all this?" Harry inquired, intrigued. Draco sighed.

"If you must know, Potter, it's my life's ambition to travel the world one day and study snakes. I don't think I could stand to be like my father and stay cooped up in the house pouring over money." He stopped, realizing he'd been pouring out his dream to Harry Potter of all people. "…I'll just get your snake venom then." He leaned down to get it, continuing a talk about snake venoms as he went.

Harry leaned over the counter and whispered in Draco's ear.

"Is this the ear you can't hear out of?" When there was no change in Draco's speech about venom, Harry continued. "Draco Malfoy, I will love you until the day I die." Then he quickly sat back in his seat as Draco popped up with the venom.

"So you see, this is why we use this venom is that potion." Harry just nodded.

"DRACO!" came a booming voice from a room behind the one that Harry and Draco were in which served as an office/potions lab.  Draco looked over his shoulder at the window, where you could see Snape's head. Even though it was far away, you could tell he had been crying. Harry just sat in the stool, staring at Snape.

"Ah, be right there," Draco called and he left for the room.

He slipped inside the office quickly and quietly. On the table he could see the ingredients used to make whatever Snape was making. There were frog lips, nettles (always used in everything, it seems), and, amongst other things, rattlesnake venom. Before he knew he was there, Snape shoved a cup with the potion inside into his hand.

"Here." He said curtly. "Take this to Hooch." With that he turned around and went back to another cauldron. Another part of Draco's job was to run potions to the people that needed them if Snape wanted him to. Draco might've asked Snape to do it himself as he was teaching Harry something useful, but he decided against it when he saw Snape's face.

Off he went, past Harry who was still sitting there when Draco went by. He walked out of the dungeons and was on his way to go Hooch's office when he saw his father walk by. Curious, he followed at a distance.

The elder Malfoy unknowingly led his son right up to Dumbledore's office.

"Rainbow Bites," he said. The spiral stairs whipped around and Lucius stepped onto them. Slowly he climbed up them and disappeared from sight. Only then did Draco step out from around the corner.

"Rainbow Bites?" Once again the stairs opened. This time, a younger Malfoy trod them all the way up. Instead of announcing his arrival by going into the office, he just stood outside the door and listened.

"I need the money now, Lupin," his father growled. "The Ministry is getting tired of your excuses." Remus Lupin has recently come back to the school to teach DaDA at Dumbledore's, and most of the school's, request. It wasn't unknown that he didn't have much money, for he spent a lot of his money paying professional potion masters to give him potions to help control the wolf inside him. It also wasn't unknown that he owed a lot of money to a lot of places.

"I can get you the money." Hey said. "Just not now." He added more quietly. Draco could practically hear the smirk in his father's voice.

"Right. And what makes you think we're going to believe you this time? We need the money. We might just have to take everything you have and leave you without a job if you don't pay soon."

"No," Draco breathed. Even he had to admit that Lupin and Moody were the only halfway decent DaDA teachers that has ever taught at the school. Draco would rather that he stayed, for he shuddered to think who would replace him.

"I'm telling you, I'll get you your money!" Lupin yelled at Lucius. Draco was impressed. His father obviously was not.

"Stupid, evil bastard." Draco thought. But then he heard footsteps coming toward the door, so he was forced to race down the stairs. Without thinking, he went back to the office.

Once he walked in, he knew he was in trouble. He could hear Snape in the back talking with somebody. Hooch? Draco peeked into the back laboratory to see.

Inside a fireplace were the head and shoulders of Madame Hooch, flying extraordinaire. Draco winced as he remembered that he was out on a delivery.

"He isn't there yet?" Snape growled. Draco started to back out of the room, but he knocked over a jar of (A/N You guessed it…) nettles on the way out. This caught Snape's attention and he promptly turned around and advanced on Draco. He caught him by the wrist and started smacking his head right on his left ear: the ear that was hurt.

"Stupid boy! You can't trust anyone these days!"

"Please stop!" sobbed Draco, who was in blinding pain from his hurt ear.

"I can't even rely on you to do a simple thing!" Snape continued.

"That's my hurt ear, Snape! And besides, you would've poisoned Hooch!"

"How dare you question my potions?" he asked, continuing to smack him.

"It's true! Look! Rattlesnake venom!" he cried, pointing to the table. Snape let go of Draco to look. Indeed, he had put rattlesnake venom into the concoction.

"It would've killed her." Draco whimpered, hands covering his ear. Snape's face softened as he looked at the face of the one he had just caused great pain to.

"I know about your mother. I'm very sorry, Professor." That did it for Snape. He advanced on Draco and…hugged him. Draco wasn't ready for that, and he certainly wasn't ready for the tears. But he hugged his favorite Professor anyway.

Suddenly, the image changed.

"Oh wow!" Clarence mused, for what he saw shocked and amazed him.