[***Mea Culpa is Latin for "My mistake". FFN refuses to let me use any form of punctuation or separation between the Latin and its English translation in the title, So I'm just putting the Latin in now; I wanted to clarify this for any of you who might have been confused, but don't know to push the review button.***]

A/N: Hey, I'm not dead! o_O; I was having trouble with this bugger for awhile, that's all. First I lost part of what was going to be the second chapter, but then I read OotP and decided to just get rid of that part. Anyways, I am back, and with a revamped (and slightly longer) version of the first chapter of this lovely story. I promise things *will* get better. And no, this is *not* a mary-sue. So help me God, if anyone tells me it is, I shall turn upon you the demons of fanfiction hell. ô_O! There are original characters in this though, two females and a male who won't be introduced for awhile. The girls are pretty much what happened when *certain* people thought it would be fun to take all the evilness and fangirlness from our minds and make characters of such material. If you hate any form of bashing of any character, just don't read this, since I will probably end up 'bashing' in someway, shape, or form every character that comes into this, except for maybe Snape, because I'm not sure its possible to unintentionally bash him. Weird, I know, but true. ô_O Anyways, I'll end this little note with a disclaimer and an actual summary.

Summary: Draco is forced to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holiday during his sixth year, and learns just how tightly bloodlines can tie people down, even before they're born. When he is given the choice to rebel against the blood and family tying him down, he refuses. He won't learn that this was a mistake until it is too late to change not only his own fate, but the fate of others as well.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the characters I use in this story except my own. J.K. Rowling owns, and uses to her own twisted ends, the Harry Potter universe. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter One: In Limine (On the Threshold)

Draco didn't go home for the Christmas holiday that year. It had been decided that it wouldn't be possible to observe the Christmas holiday with all that was happening. He had felt the urge to protest, but ended up doing nothing to satiate it, mostly because he knew just how pointless that would be. So he now found himself trapped in Hogwarts, feeling very annoyed with his current fate. He didn't even have anyone to speak of his plight with; Crabbe and Goyle had happily gone home and left him without so much as blinking. Now he had little to do but study (out of the question) and skulk around the hallways.

And even that he was unable to do in peace. He had been wandering around for quite some time when he noticed two first year females (well they looked that way to him) following him while turning a corner. He swung around to face them.

"Do you mind?"

The two girls turned red at the realization of being noticed. They nodded hastily, and clumsily skittered away, giggling and talking rapidly. He glared in the direction they had gone until he could no longer see them before turning his mind back to his brooding. After this interruption, he checked his watch and noticed it was nearing lunchtime. Even though he had no appetite, he decided to go down to the Great Hall anyways, mostly to keep up appearances.

When he got there, he found the Great Hall as empty as it had been for every meal during the previous week of the holiday. The number of tables had been cut down to two; one for faculty and one for students. Most of the teachers seemed to be skipping out on lunch, but the student table was occupied by 6 or 7 groups of students, mostly from the other houses. He noticed that most of the groups had lowered their voices significantly when they saw him come in. He scanned the table for a spot that wasn't too close to any of the whispering groups, and found that the only way to avoid them was to sit almost directly across from Harry Potter, who seemed to be the only student there who wasn't part of a group.

He resigned himself to this fate, and silently seated himself two seats down and across the table from Harry, who looked up from his food to give him a look of disapproval. Draco ignored him. Harry took this as a cue to do the same.

After the groups closest to them left, Harry turned his attention back to Draco. Draco tried to ignore him; he quickly found it difficult to eat when someone's eyeballs were trying to burn a hole in your head. He gave up of ignoring Harry and turned his eyes up from his food to glare at the other boy.

"Yes?"

"I'm just wondering why you're still here." Draco couldn't tell if it was rude, or simply an innocent question. He decided it was rude.

"What do you care?"

"Its just strange that you, of all people, are still here," Draco saw something he thought was a smirk flash across Harry's face, but Harry continued before the expression could take hold. "I guess your mum decided Christmas just wouldn't be the same with dear old dad in prison, eh?"

"Something like that," Draco paused, trying to think of a good retort; his mind just wasn't in form that day. "But having a father in prison is better than having one that's dead, wouldn't you agree?"

Harry looked quite angry at hearing Draco say that. He quickly regained his composure and replied. "I'd rather have a father who died for what he cared about than a father who's in jail because he doesn't care about anything but gaining power."

Harry stood up as he spoke, leaving the table as he finished. Draco wasn't sure how to compute what he'd said, so he simply dismissed it. He finished his meal, not really thinking about anything in particular.

He left the Great Hall shortly after Harry did, still feeling a bit apathetic. He began walking back to the Slytherin dormitories, deciding it was a good time to study. When he stepped into the Slytherin common room, however, studying quickly left his mind.

Two girls were sitting near the fire, throwing unidentified objects into the flames before them. They stopped when Draco came in, looking across the room at him, odd expressions on their faces. Draco recognized them as the two girls who had been following him before he went to lunch. They smiled when they saw that he recognized them. He quickly averted his gaze, and his attention, in an attempt to get to his dorm without having to deal with them. They seemed to know he would try to ignore them, and got up to block his path.

"Where are you going in such a hurry, handsome?"

"I- ah," he was lost for what to say. "Handsome?"

She nodded, batting her eyelashes at him. He glared at her, then found the words he wanted to say. "Look, I've got no time for some stupid first year with a crush. Bugger off."

"Fifth year," she raised her eyebrows in response to his assumption. "And what crush?"

"You called me Handsome. I classify that under what stupid girls say when they have a crush," he looked at her as if she was crazy to not make that connection.

"Well," she sent him a fake innocent look. "I guess wanting to bed you can count as a crush, if you want."

He stared at her. Before he could say anything, the second girl came over, giggling madly.

"Honestly, Lucinda," she smacked the other girl on the back of the head. "Do you ever think with your brain?"

"At least I don't imply dirty things about my friends," Lucinda stuck her tongue out at her.

"Hey, he's getting away!"

Draco had taken advantage of the distraction, and had slipped away from them. No sooner had he gotten to the stairs that lead up to his dormitory, then the two girls had caught up with him.

Ten minutes later he was bound to one of the armchairs by the fire by a thin green thread which was flowing from Lucinda's wand.

"Why must you insist on inconveniencing me?"

The two girls looked at each other, pondering his question.

"Because we can," they said together, nodding to one another.

Draco hung his head in defeat, deciding that his best chance to live through this was to let them so whatever it was they wanted. As he considered the odds, Lucinda decided to sit on his lap.

He screamed, which caused her to fall.

"Ow," she glared at him. "What was that for?"

"I don't take well to strange creatures sitting on me."

Lucinda continued to glare at him, and the other girl laughed at them both.

"Never seen you get rejected quite like that before, Lucinda."

"Shut up, Constance."

Constance ignored Lucinda, walking over to the chair Draco was trapped in.

"Scary, isn't she?" She smiled oddly.

"You're both absolutely terrifying."

She smacked him around the head. "Better scary than just plain mean."

"Oh I'm mean?" He glared at her in disbelief. "But you strapping me to this chair isn't?"

"No, not really," Constance replied, matter-of-factly.

"It depends on what we do to you while you're tied to the chair," Lucinda added, batting her eyelashes at him again.

Draco's glare turned into a shocked grimace. Before he had a chance to worry about what to say in return, a deeply annoyed looking Severus Snape slid through the stone doorway, into the common room. He looked at each of them in turn, his annoyance quite obviously growing as his eyes passed over each of them. Lucinda batted her eyelashes at him, and Constance glared at her. Draco simply shot him a pleading sort of look as the professor's eyes moved over him.

"I wouldn't suppose any of you could fathom why I might be about to take fifteen points away from each of you, would you?"

"Fi- fifteen?" Lucinda looked at him innocently.

"Yes, child, fifteen. Have you any idea how much it incenses me to have to deal with this sort of spectacle when I have serious business I must attend to?"

"Spectacle?" Constance thought about it for a moment. "I thought we were just having a little fun."

"A little fun to you is chaos to the rest of the world, or have you not grasped that yet, child?"

"Well," Constance glanced at Lucinda, who shrugged. "I guess that would explain the staring."

Draco looked at them as if they were the stupidest creatures alive, which was precisely what he thought of them at that moment. Snape gave him a very sharp, sarcastic look.

"You, Mr. Malfoy, have little room to talk yourself, as far as this little spectacle."

Draco immediately turned his attention from the girls to Snape. "Eh-?"

"I'm quite certain, Mr. Malfoy, that letting two fifth years girls take advantage of you is not something I would be proud of if I were you."

Draco hung his head in shame. "I suppose it wouldn't be, professor."

"Although, seeing that they had to use a restricted spell to contain you, maybe you aren't as weak as this situation causes me to think," Snape turned back to the girls before continuing. "I think a detention may be in order for you two, for using such a spell."

Lucinda and Constance looked quite guilty; Lucinda batted her eyelashes. Snape gave her an ugly look, as if to make it clear that he thought it quite disgusting when eyelashes were batted at him. She sniffed, then slid over to his side.

"Can I serve my detention with you, professor?"

Snape's expression turned from ugly to amused. "That's perfectly alright, so long as you don't mind cleaning the 7th years' cauldrons, without using vanishing spells."

"Alright professor," she said meekly, looking somewhat defeated. Constance was amused. Draco was perfectly amazed; he would never have guessed Snape was good at taming females.

"Anyway," Snape turned his attention back to Draco. "As for the real reason I'm here, Mr. Malfoy, I think you may have a good idea what that is."