Title: Like a Fairytale

Author: Stardrops

Genre: Romance

Rating: PG 13: Some violence and slash, precautions only.

Summary: Faced with difficult decisions about his future, Draco forms some unlikely friendships. A passionate romance is sparked – but is not as secret as he supposed. Someone is stalking Draco at Hogwarts – suddenly, protecting himself and Harry is more complicated than he imagined.

Chapter Ten: Lucius's Threat

Draco lay on his bed, still fully clothed, kicking his shoes against the curtain as he looked up at the ceiling with a little smile on his face. He'd just had a wonderful Christmas Day. It was still the afternoon, but he was rather content just to sit here and remember how wonderful the day had been.

The smile slowly faded from his face as he remembered the beginning of the day. How he'd woken with his Slytherin friends gleefully showing off their gifts only to realize he'd been sent almost nothing. It was as though everyone had forgotten that he existed. None of his Slytherin buddies had given him a card, save one. Blaise Zabini was the only person in the entire Slytherin house who'd gotten him a present – a beautiful Muggle book with gorgeous pictures of mythical creatures – a subject that Draco secretly adored. He'd never realized anyone had noticed his secret love for a subject so obviously studied and concentrated on by Muggles, but Blaise had surprised him.

Something he'd not thought anything of this morning surfaced in his mind. The significant absence of even a card from his mother and father was undeniably strong. Swallowing hard, he tried to convince himself that it did not matter in the slightest. He'd not sent them anything either.

It was just like his father to 'forget' to send him a card or a note at Christmas. He had the sneakiest ways of destroying people.

He shook his head and tried to think again of Narnia. It still brought warmth to his heart to think of Harry.

A knock came at the door. Draco sat up as quick as lightening. "Yes?" he called hoarsely.

Crabbe entered. "Hey mate," he answered. "We haven't seen you much today."

Draco lay back down on his pillows, in his mind cursing Crabbe for interrupting his solitude.

Crabbe stood awkwardly waiting for a reply. Draco lay still and offered none, leaving Crabbe feeling rather stupid.

"Uh ... we're having a Slytherin party down in the common room. There's only about eight of us. Want to come?" Crabbe asked, shuffling his feet and glancing anxiously towards the door.

Draco thought for a moment. Knowing Crabbe and Goyle, the variety of sweets and cakes that would be being served was likely to be grand, and he wasn't doing himself any favours by lying down on his bed by himself and thinking about his family. He looked at Crabbe who was glancing hopefully at him. "Yeah, all right."

Crabbe beamed and left the room. Draco groaned and rubbed his hands across his eyes. He'd only been in here for a while, but it felt like he'd just woken up. It must have been all the excitement and anticipation of that afternoon – but he was feeling really rather drowsy.

Sliding out of his robes, he pulled on a jumper which was slightly more comfortable, and splashed some cold water on his face from his wand. It had the desired effect of waking him up, but also the undesired effect of dampening his clothes and trickling water down his sleeves. Muttering in disgust, Draco attempted a drying spell, and when he'd gotten most of his clothes done, he descended to the Slytherin common room.

Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, Pansy and four other Slytherins from the years below them were seated around the table in the centre of the room, lounging around on the sofas. Pansy saw him enter and sat upright with a huge smile on her face.

"Draco!" she called out joyfully. Draco cringed. Looking quickly around to assure himself that there was no mistletoe or anything around her, he joined her at the sofa, wondering why everyone seemed so glad to see him today. The Slytherins had been acting oddly since he'd first arrived back from the summer holidays, but this was just queer. They'd used to worship the ground he stood on, but now they simply behaved like children hoping to be taught lessons in life from an older brother or sister. Draco exhaled impatiently when Pansy beamed at him and handed him a chocolate muffin.

"Where have you been all day, Draco?" asked Blaise. "You disappeared after breakfast and I didn't see you again."

Draco shrugged. "Out."

Blaise rolled his eyes and grinned at Draco. Come to think of it, Blaise was the only one who seemed to be treating Draco normally. Maybe there was a sane person in the house apart from himself.

Pansy, however, seemed not content with this answer. "Seriously, Draco, we were looking for you. Where did you go?"

Draco took a huge bite of his muffin to delay the time before he had to answer by chewing every morsel thoroughly. This only brought more attention to him, though, and by the time he'd swallowed, everyone around the table was waiting for his answer.

"I went for a walk," he snapped. This behavior was simply bringing back the old Draco – the snobby, stuck up Draco that he hadn't been since he and Harry had been in detention together. Maybe being with Harry was going to be a good influence on him. Or maybe it was a bad influence. Draco wasn't entirely sure. Being the old Draco meant that he got what he wanted and that people were either afraid of him, or they worshiped him. But being Harry's friend meant that he became more human. He started to realize that there was more to life than simply ordering people about and being rich. And he started to realize how lonely life could be without people who truly care for you.

One thing he was always jealous of when it came to Harry was Harry's friends. Hermione and Ron cared so much about Harry – they would do anything to ensure his safety and happiness, and the way they always joked around together make them so close that Draco nearly smashed his fist into the nearest window every time he saw it. Crabbe and Goyle were good blokes. They were fun, if not a little stupid, and they didn't mind having a man-to-man conversation now and again to discuss issues with girls and school and teachers and so forth. But he knew as well as they did that the moment it came to safety, Crabbe and Goyle would always look after themselves and leave others behind, regardless of whether they would survive on their own or not. And that was the way Draco had been once. His primary concern had always been himself.

But since he'd come to Hogwarts, he'd seen Harry's courage in everything. He'd heard about it when Voldemort had threatened him in their first year. The Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets hadn't stopped Harry from going in to save his best friend's sister. In their third year, he'd ridden a bloody Hippogriff because his mate Hagrid would have looked stupid in front of his entire class otherwise, and in fourth year he'd been in the Triwizard Tournament, even though he'd been so young and hadn't the same experience as the others. He'd seen a fellow student die, watched Lord Voldemort come back to life and nearly been killed himself. Draco didn't think he could have stood that himself – he had of course met Lord Voldemort several times, and each time he'd been terrified. And then there was fifth year, when Harry had watched his own godfather die. After all Harry had told him on the train about the Dursleys, Draco was surprised that Harry had coped so well. Or seemed to at least.

Then last year. Draco shivered at the memory. His own father had joined a gang of Death Eaters that had attacked the Weasley home, not realising that Harry was staying with Ron at the time. The two boys fended off the Death Eaters and Harry himself duelled with Draco's father before the Death Eaters retreated.

Voldemort of course had not faced during that battle. His intentions were simply to kill those whom Harry loved.

Draco was reminded of the house he'd been brought to in the summer. He wondered what it was. It didn't fit his fathers scornful description of the Weasley home, so it must have been somewhere different.

A painful memory surfaced, how irritatingly suspicious Draco had been when Harry had first taken him into that house. How he wished he'd trusted Harry right from the beginning, things would have been so much simpler – not to mention much less awkward. He remembered with a half cringe and half smile how he and Harry had been so embarrassed to be doing detention together, and again marvelled at the attraction between them.

Harry certainly was one of a kind. He'd shown courage in so many events that Draco didn't know he himself would have been able to survive. Maybe that made Harry a bigger or better person than himself.

"Draco?" Pansy's voice jerked him out of his thoughts.

"What?" he replied irritably.

"Have a chocolate." She held out a brilliantly wrapped chocolate to him. He took it and looked around. No one else was eating them, but wrappers littered the table around him, giving the impression that everyone had already had one when he'd been absorbed in his thoughts. Shrugging, he took one and ate it.

He didn't see the sly nods and smiles exchanged between Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy as he chewed down on the chocolate.

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Draco was in his room after the party. It had ended rather quickly, he thought, and he'd gone up to bed straight away. His drowsiness had really taken over.

As he lay on the bed, he ran his tongue over the roof of his mouth. He'd eaten another of the brightly wrapped chocolates before leaving, and it had left a rather strange aftertaste. They'd made his head spin slightly and for a moment he wondered if they might have been alcoholic chocolates. With this last thought, he slipped off to sleep.

He was back home again. A figure stood with his back turned, apparently staring down at the desk in his study where they'd been arguing the last time Draco had ever been in his home. A shudder rang through him as he looked at his father. Those grey eyes, paler than Draco's but almost as expressive, were glowing fiercely with anger.

"Father," he said, his usually steady voice quivering slightly and faltering upon the last syllable of his utterance. His father had never looked at him like that before – like he furiously hated everything about the boy who stood before him. Draco hesitated momentarily before bowing his head slightly out of politeness, an old fashioned courtesy his parents had always insisted upon.

"Do not call me father," Lucius hissed, cold eyes still burning. "You are no son of mine."

Draco stood with his head facing straight down, his eyes were wide and frightened as he looked at his father from beneath his eyelashes as Lucius spoke once more.

"Life is not a fantasy, Draco. Love is not a fairytale. Do not treat either as though it were."

Draco involuntarily trembled. That could only be referring to one thing. But ... it couldn't possibly be. His father had no way of knowing. No one knew. It was a secret between himself and Harry. For a moment, he felt himself panicking and wildly wondering if Harry might have secretly been informing Lucius of what Draco had been up to at school before catching himself and realizing that such thoughts were completely ridiculous.

"What do you mean?" He managed to keep his voice empty, his expression blank. But he knew his eyes would be giving away how frightened he felt. He could manage to tame his eyes to look blank and dull to everyone else, but for some reason, his father always seemed to know exactly how he was feeling.

"Do not fool with me. I know what you are doing at Hogwarts. I am warning you now Draco," Lucius's voice lowered to almost a whisper. Draco nearly had to strain to hear it. "I can use you. I have ways to use you in our army without you even knowing."

"What are you talking about?" Draco said, abandoning all attempts at sounding unconcerned. His father meant business.

"Potter ..." whispered Lucius, eyes narrowed and triumph apparent in his wicked expression. "I know you feel for him."

Draco's stomach clenched. How did his father know?

Lucius seemed to know what he was thinking and smiled knowingly. "Oh yes. I have spies within Hogwarts itself. People aren't as blind as you think they are."

He stood suddenly and Draco barely managed to stop himself from stepping back in surprise. Lucius swept around the front of the desk and Draco shivered at the cold gleam in his father's eye.

"Did you honestly think no one would notice you've changed? Sneaking about, becoming humble, and selfless ..." Lucius's voice dripped with mockery. "Associating ... even bonding, with ... the wrong people ..." he turned his back on his terrified son and clicked his tongue slightly, like he did when a younger Draco had done something wrong, and was being shamed.

"What ..." Draco tried to speak, but his father cut him off.

"Potter, of all people ... I honestly never expected you to stoop so low."

"Father, what are you talking about?" the desperation in Draco's voice was clear even to him. "I don't understand!"

"Honestly, Draco!" Lucius snapped, his hand slamming down onto the desk beside an ornamental crystal dish which lay upon its surface. In dismay, Draco stared at the dish, wishing he could wake up, get away from his father, be anywhere but here...

"Don't pretend to be innocent! Have I taught you nothing? I rarely bluff. I know what you have been doing with Potter. You yourself as good as told me tonight. All you needed..."

...Draco remembered the dish- as long as he could remember it had stood on the desk in his father's study, empty and hollow as he felt now...

"...was something to..."

...except that now...

"loosen your tongue..." Lucius's pale fingers caressed the bowl, brushing the shining coloured jewels inside, and he looked up at his son as though expecting something.

Draco's eyes widened. The bowl wasn't empty. And the contents, glittering every colour in the candlelight, were not jewels...

"Chocolates ..." he whispered.

"Haven't you guessed?" Lucius cocked his head slightly, a small smile creeping through for an instant.

Draco stared and this time he couldn't stop the strangled sound that broke from his lips. He dropped into a chair, his mind reeling. The shining jewels were sweets, wrapped in bright colours... sweets identical to those back in the common room... "They drugged me!" he gasped.

"Very good, Draco... I thought you'd never work it out..." Lucius jerked his head up to face Draco again, and with horror, Draco saw the fury had returned to his father's face. "Care for a sweet?" Lucius' voice rose to a roar and in a sudden vicious movement, he flung a handful of the shining chocolates at his son. They rained down on Draco, making his face sting as they pelted him like bullets.

"Becoming a homosexual." Lucius' sneer said everything his furious voice did not. "I thought I raised a human. And here, I find my only offspring is a monster."

Draco couldn't take it. Shaking, he leapt to his feet, his jaw trembling in hurt and fury. "I am not a monster!"

Draco saw his father's face contort, heard his sharp inhalation. These were the signs that it could get worse, that it would be worse for him, but he didn't close his mouth like he used too. Those were the signs, but he couldn't stop.

"I don't care what you think! You already disowned me, why should it matter what I do? I'm already your disgrace, remember? So what if I 'bond' with the 'wrong people'? So what if the only person who makes me real is a Gryffindor? So what if I love Harry Potter? Why should it matter? Why does anything-"

He hadn't realised how close his father was until his head was spinning from the blow that silenced him. Lucius slapped him again, leaving his ears ringing.

"Sit down."

"Father-"

"I said sit down!" eyes shining with disgust, Lucius all but forced the boy into the chair with his words. Draco looked up from beneath his bruises, silent but resentful. Lucius leaned forward, his hands on the arms of Draco's chair.

"Listen to me, Draco, and listen well, because I will not say this again. I know what you are doing at Hogwarts, you and Potter, and it will stop. I can destroy him, and with you getting this close to him, I will use you to kill him if he gets in my way. Kiss him once more, and the next time you touch him will be when you feel your own fingers around his throat, watching his life slowly ebb away, feeling his eyes on you as he silently asks you why? Could you bear to watch his betrayed self slip away, his own silence accusing you of worse crimes than you ever thought you'd commit? You may think I don't have control over you, but I have ways to use you. How else do you think you got here?"

"It's a dream," Draco stammered weakly, terrified, unable to believe what he was hearing. "Just... just a dream..."

Lucius sneered. "A dream? A dream in which you felt that slap? It still stings, doesn't it, Draco? The potion in these is rather special- it was developed by the Dark Lord's closest circle. When you eat one... the next time you sleep, your soul is transported to a predetermined location, keeping you there until you are sent away." He straightened up, pacing back around his desk, fingertips resting on its polished surface. "I can call you back here whenever I choose, and believe me, it will not leave a single mark on my conscience to dispose of Potter. I will have him killed, and I will make you be the one to do it. You know I'm right. Don't lie to yourself. End it, Draco. End it, before I make you."

Draco's head spun. He could hear his own breathing, gasping and desperate to his ears, echoing in his skull. The world swam before his eyes; the candlelight suddenly seemed painfully bright, drowning out everything but his father's smirk. He cried out, but all he could hear was his blood pounding in his ears, his breath as loud as a freight train. His vision began to dim and suddenly there was a whooshing sound, pale green light all around him, drowning all other thoughts as he fell down, down...

Screaming, Draco woke in his bed in the Slytherin dungeons. Hopelessly tangled in his sheets, he struggled, trying to rid himself of the memories that burned inside his mind. Before he knew it he was lying face down on the floor, his body stinging from the force of his fall onto the stones. His stomach heaved, and the next moment the previous night's dinner, along with the muffin and chocolates, were spread out before him.

Draco Malfoy, formerly Slytherin's pride, now dishonoured, disowned and deceived, lay on the floor of his dormitory twisted in his sheets, his vomit beside him, and cried like his heart was breaking.

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A/N: Yeah, I know! I'm so sorry this took so long, but I got really sick last term for about two and a half months, so I wasn't in much position to write. The next chapter is almost complete though, and it will be up hopefully within the next week or two. :) Everyone who waited or liked this chapter, please also thank Rigella who not only badgered me to complete the chapter, but also helped to complete it. Read her fanfic as well, she's a really good writer. Special thanks to all my reviewers, without you I would not be bothering here, so thanks!!!!

Ronin Daiymo: Ever faithful, thank you for your review. Hope you're having awesome fun in Grafton mate. :)

Kazillion: Patience, my dear, patience. All will be revealed. And you kinda have had a few veeeeeeeeery subtle hints through the last few chapters of who the stalker person is. But yes. They will probably ruin everything. :) I'm so evil. Hope you enjoyed!!!

Sak: Wouldn't you just love to have someone do something like that for you?! How romantic is the thought...sigh...Thanks for your review!

Annie: :o Oh no, don't hate them!!! I mean, admittedly, Ron is not one of my favourite characters, but I love Hermione! They're not bad characters, honest! :P

Kate: Thank you! Sorry it took so long, hope you like it.

Sphinx Rebellion: Yes. Yes he is.

Dying Angel 83: I don't know if you got my email, but in case you didn't here are the answers to your questions:

1: No, it was just to display his niceness.

2: I don't know...:P And that is explained in this chappie just for you!!!

3: Hehehehehe kinky. Interesting definitely! Worth thinking about! ;)

Starlix: Thanks so much! I hope you continue to like it...

December jewel: Ahhh, you are a faithful reviewer. Been with me for a looooooooong time huh. Hope you like this chapter, I'm so very sorry it took so long.

Angel Wings 6: I'm glad you loved it! This one isn't quite so lovey dovey, and its going to get a bit more angsty and dramatic, but rest assured that sappy and fluffy fanfic is coming your way soon!

Hp Azn: You are one of my favourite people on this fanfic site. I'm so glad you like my stories, and thank you for reviewing like every single time. Here's your new chappie, and the next one is on the move very quickly.

Piper13: We'll have to wait and see, won't we? :P Im glad you liked that, I liked writing it and I'm really glad that you enjoyed my efforts. :) Keep reading!!!

JWGrey: I hope this is still up to your standards. It's getting a bit less romantic I know, but it's going to get more sappy soon, promise!

Rigella: Thank you for reviewing, and double triple quadruple thanks for helping me!!!!!

Evil Pilgrim: Since when was insanity a bad thing anyway? :P Well, he did kinda go a bit over the top with anger in the fifth book, so I kinda played on that a lil :P

Silver Dragon 161: I hope I haven't lost you!!! I used to love Narnia as a kid, and it sorta hit me that it would be really cute to involve in Harry Potter. I have strange revelations. Keep reading and tell me how its going!!!

Aaron19812000: Thanks! Hope you continue to like it, I try really hard to leave cliffhangers because I know how much they make me want more when other people use them!!!

Lyra Skywalker: Thanks! And by the way, I love that name – Lyra. It's beautiful!