Disclaimer: All rights J.K Rowling and related companies. No infringement intended.
The inspiration for this little fic comes from Jan McNeville's "The Student in Question" (Amazing story, read it now!!) Her little piece on how the Death Eaters are so much like the Nazi's attracted the plot bunnies. I'm not an expert on the holocaust nor do I have a book with me at this moment so be kind on the facts. This story really can work for any two characters one muggleborn and the other Death Eater or Death Eater in Training but I liked Draco and Hermione best. Fits Lilly and Severus well as well.
Here Endeth the Lesson
I was reading last night. Not too amazing you may think, but for me it was, not for reading in its self but the kind of books I was reading. A Muggle book. Never seen muggle books before, the shiny paper, the exact printing, they look rather nice. The most shocking thing, for me, was how I came to be reading the book. You all know Hermione Granger I suppose? You know the bushy-haired one, the bossy girl, the Mudblood. Well she was walking through the corridor near the common room, alone for once, not escorted by Potty and the Weasel. She was carrying her normal massive stack of books, piled high in her arms, almost blocking her view. She watched me warily as she passed; keeping as far away as possible, just before she left my sight I called out to her.
"What do you think you're doing Mudblood, it's proper manners to bow before your betters." I smirked. She swirled around, her face flashing with anger. She stalked over to me, and set down her books. Instead of physically attacking me, as I believed she would, she whipped out her wand, silenced me and bound me to the wall I had been leaning on.
"Betters Malfoy? If I see them I will be sure to do that." She snarled and turned to pick up her books. However, she stoped and turned back, a smirk slowly working its way onto her features.
"Well while I have a captive audience" Smirk "I think I'll teach you a lesson I have been wanting to for some time." A sliver of fear worked its way deeper into my heart. She smirked again. "No not like that Mr Malfoy, just something you really should know." She bent down and picked up one of the books in her stack and held open to a picture.
"Do you know who this is Mr Malfoy?" The picture was of a man in his 20's or 30's with dark, short greasy hair and a strange little block of a moustache. I shook my head.
"This man is named Aldof Hitler and he is readily agreed upon as the biggest son of a bitch in modern history and pretty much the cause of World War II." I tried to remember where I had heard about this World War thing before. Hermione smirked. "Don't know what a Wold War is? Well there have been two, one from 1914 to 1918 and the other from 1939 to 1945. They are wars that include almost all countries in the world, thus the term World War. Thousands of people die. Now, the first war was mostly against Germany and its allies. After that war, the countries who fought against Germany decided to beggar the nation and reduce it's army to only a token force, so there would never be another World War. However this only made the people of Germany bitter, what once was a proud empire, now could hardly feed it's people and it's currency was useless, the only ones with money were those with outside holdings. Most of those people were Jews. A religious and racial group, Mr Malfoy. From this rather desolate stage sprung a man who told the masses that the reason they didn't have enough food or houses or clothes was because of the Jews, the dirty filthy Jews, the Jews who were below them." She looked sternly at me.
"The man was Aldof Hitler and he was the leader of the National Socialist Party or the Nazi's. Before long, Hitler was in power and had begun to stockpile weapons and rebuild the German army. Shortly thereafter, he began to invade neighbouring countries and 'The Allies' allowed him to, thinking he would stop, but when he invaded Poland war was declared. Over this time life for Jews in Germany had quickly degraded, the people drinking in the propaganda of the powerful orator Hitler. 'The Jews are inferior' he told them 'They pollute your world' he said 'They all must be destroyed' he preached. Jews began leaving in the middle of the night, without saying goodbye, without most of their things, just packing up and leaving. These were the lucky ones. One night, 'The Night of the Broken Glass' the Jews were attacked all at once, pulled out of their beds, kicked, beat, made to scrub the pavement with toothbrushes, any businesses had their windows smashed. Then the Jews began to disappear, slowly but surely all the Jews in Nazi controlled country were taken off to concentration camps, horrible, cramped camps surrounded with barbed wire. However, it wasn't just the Jews, no, it was Gypsies, the old, homosexuals, the disabled and just anyone who didn't agree with the regimen. They were packed into cattle carriages and moved to the camps, when they arrived, they were divided into those who could work and those who would be killed immediately. Everyone was striped naked, their head shaved, a number tattooed into their inner arm and then they were given badly fitting shirts and trousers. Those to be killed immediately were left naked, handed soap and pushed into 'showers', however these showers were actually gas chambers and once the prisoners were inside they were gassed and then soldiers were sent in to beat to death anyone who survived. So many other atrocities occurred, and starvation and disease killed those who weren't gassed, shot or given to Dr Mengele to 'experiment' with. Over 6 million Jews and 10 million people in total died in what is now known as the holocaust." She showed me pictures of the gas chambers, the mass graves and people lying on what looked like shelves. She removed the silencing charm.
"What do you say to that?" I stared blankly at her. "What am I supposed to say? Some muggle killed a lot of other muggles, so what?" She snarled.
"Malfoy! The ideas of the Nazi's, why do they sound familiar?" I shrugged "Because they sound a hell of a lot like the views of a certain insane Dark Lord rampaging around the countryside." My eyes widened. She laughed dryly. "And he would do worse, have you ever been to a Death Eater meeting Malfoy?" I shook my head. "Then you don't know what you will be getting into if you let yourself be branded. Harry sees the meetings Malfoy and they aren't pretty, he tortures them just because he can, he kills them for the slightest mistake. If not to save the millions of people who will die at his hand or the hands of his followers, some of whom will be your friends, do it to save your own miserable skin. Here endeth the lesson."
She snarled once more, shoved a book into my arms and just before she rounded the corner shot a cancelling spell at me. I slumped to the ground and it took me several minutes to pull myself together enough to make it to my dorm.
And so it came to be that Draco Malfoy had a change of heart. Draco was a bully to be sure, but this little boy was just that, a little boy, who whenever trouble struck hid behind daddy or his henchmen. He wasn't going to let himself be killed or tortured. If Potter won and he was on the side of the Light, he would be free, but if he was on the side of the Dark no matter who won, he would always fear for his life. Draco was nothing if not a Slytherin.
Fin