Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm just having some fun.

Brief Summary: It is hard to believe how two small people in one giant world can change the course of fate. Even further, it is difficult to fathom how such a remarkable event can be forgotten, changed and scattered, skewed and warped by the passage of time, and the efforts of those who find the truth too painful. But every once in a while, fate conspires, and one person who sees through time, lies, and pain can see the truth, setting the twisted blown glass back into crystal.

Not to be Broken

Prologue: Alexus, Born Malfoy

She is precious to me. I can not bear to lose her. I can not allow myself to watch all that is good in life disappear as if happiness were a mere puff of wind sent to entertain the little summer butterflies until the real rains come. I have taken matters into my own hands. And should I not return, know that I am happier for it.

D.M.

That is what it says, hanging there in its glass case. The plaque underneath it has a fancy little inscription, proclaiming the date "July, 2005" and "written on the eve of his disappearance, confessing his love for an unknown maiden" with so many other words, irrelevant and false. Amazing how much can be contrived when the truth is so desperately hidden.

But I know the truth. Young as I am, although perhaps young as I am thought to be is a more appropriate phrasing, I know the full and unfettered truth.

Because had that man not gone after that "unknown maiden," I would not be here today.

I visit that glass case every Sunday because it is all I have of a past I have spent my entire life contemplating. And every Sunday I used to ask my mother why it hung there, what it meant, and what really happened. She would laugh and tousle my hair and dismiss it with that motherly talent. And I would be forced to hope for a whole other week that she might tell me next time I asked—next Sunday.

Well, I finally found out. I am sixteen years old, and already I know my destiny.

Last Sunday, Mother looked at me with those sad, sad blue eyes. She'd become morose in the few months leading up to the episode, and I realized then that it was simply a manifestation of the growing dread she'd been feeling for years. You see, I am quite perceptive when I'm not too busy attempting to ignore everything. It is both a curse and a gift, and I have come to understand it.

Accepting it is another matter. But I shall come to that later.

When Mother looked at me, I knew it was time. She was finally going to tell me.

"Sit down, Alexus."

I sat.

"Are you sure you want to hear this?"

I nodded.

"Then pay close attention."

I focused completely and utterly on my mother.

What she told me blew my whole perception of my life out of the water. What she told me made all the pieces of the puzzle fall morbidly into place.

And what she told me made me finally believe in magic.

I am a Malfoy. Alexus Malfoy, to be particular, though the particulars clearly aren't going to matter when history finally finds its way to the books. Or scrolls, if you'd like it that way. What matters is that, by pure chance, or perhaps by complete and total planning by Fate, I was born the fifth Malfoy. Since what, you ask? Obvious. Since Draco.

But to understand my life, you must understand the lives that passed before mine.

So I'll tell you. I will tell you the same story that my mother told me.

Once upon a time, there was a man. This man was caught in the middle of a war between worlds, and he wasn't sure which side he belonged to. Until one summer he met a girl…

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A/N: And there you are.  A plot bunny in its basest form.  For all those who were wondering: this story was formerly titled "Summer Butterflies," until I decided that was weak.  Please read and review.