Lucius Malfoy's One Good Deed
Lucius Malfoy had always been a good boy in the eyes of his mother. He always did what he was told, helped when he was needed and never questioned her judgment. There was only one indiscretion in the past of Lucius Malfoy, one secret so buried that he would never utter it to another.
It was a shame he had born since his foolish youth, a decision poorly made.
He would die with this secret embedded deeply in his psyche. His entire world was fabricated around the knowledge that his father would have killed him. His mother would have buried him with no tears. Should they ever find out Lucius' entire life would topple down upon him.
They never would, but Lucius' fear kept his mouth firmly shut.
He was young, wandering around his house while his father and associates talked of business. They had known Lucius since he was a baby and trusted him with their secrets. He knew that they were Death Eaters, dark and evil wizards. He had been groomed and trained to be as evil as they were.
Yet something inside of Lucius was fighting against this evil.
He had heard his father's friends talk about killing a family of mudblood wizards and witches. They were going to massacre the unsuspecting family, shooting jets of green light into the night. They laughed as they talked about it, one of them mentioning in passing that the littlest of the family, no older than Lucius would die hugging her teddy bear that night.
That tiny something fighting the evil raged up inside of Lucius. He found out, by being coy and sweetly evil where the family lived and when the attack would be. "I wish I could go along." He said, his eyes big and round. "I wish I could see you kill the mudbloods."
His father had never had a prouder moment. Lucius had never felt more sick to his stomach.
That next night was the evening of the attack. Lucius had to sneak out during the day. He found an excuse to wander down in the direction of the girl's house. He saw her playing outside, making mud-pies on the first dry day after a straight week of rainy days. She did not know that tragedy was about to befall her family. He walked up to her timidly.
He told the little girl to run away knowing that his father's associates were going to kill her.
She didn't understand, but he made it clear that she needed to be far from this place. She wanted to tell her family, but Lucius wouldn't let her. He couldn't risk anyone finding out about his betrayal and if only the girl was missing no one would suspect him.
He watched her as she walked away from her home, knowing how much it cost her. He watched her back disappear around a curve in the road. She was walking away from death. She was walking away from her family. She was walking away from Lucius Malfoy, a boy who cared so intensely for her in a single moment that he would risk anything to save her.
He saved a life, knowing full well that it would cost him his freedom, his happiness, the rest of his childhood should anyone find out. He knew that his mother would punish him dearly should she find out. He knew that his father would beat him within an inch of his life and make the rest of his childhood miserable.
It was for those reasons that he never shared his one good deed. It was for those reasons that he could not feel good about doing something so right. No one would ever know the service he had done for the little girl. His good deed had become a bad deed and his perception of the world was forever warped in the fear of being discovered.
The little girl would never again see the boy with the white blond hair. He would never know that she had escaped the Death Eaters only to be killed in an automobile accident days later. The fates had it in for the little girl and no amount of Lucius Malfoy's interfering would stop them.
The tragedy was that his good deed had gone un-rewarded and that his efforts to save a human life would forever after be stunted because of his fear.
The End
