WE HAPPY FEW

Chapter One:

…and darkness came with him.

He held his wand out before him, walking slowly along a little used and perhaps nearly unknown passage, deep within the damp, moldy bowls of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The yellowish light reflected along crumbling stone bricks obviously in need of repair, and the tell-tale signs of an enthusiastic population of rodents.

Draco Malfoy, seventh year Slytherin, wasn't suppose to be here. He was supposed to be up in the Great Hall, enjoying a comfortable meal with what was left of his housemates. But he couldn't think on these dark thoughts, he had been called for.

"Who's there?" Draco whispered, hearing a shuffling of feet up ahead.

Moving his wand left to right across the passage he caught sight of a pair of bare feet sticking out from beneath black robes.

"Draco?" said a voice from the darkness.

Draco lifted his light slowly and stepped back in horror. "Father!"

Lucius Malfoy once a wizard of great esteems in some circles; now came before his son as a fugative from justice, chased by the Order and Ministry wizards alike. The immaculate appearance and arrogance was no more. Torn and Matted robes hugged his gaunt form and dirt covered every exposed area of skin.

"Father!" Whispered Draco heavily again. "You mustn't be here, the whole of England is looking for you."

"Shut up you fool boy and listen, we haven't much time. I'll let you get back to your little community of mudbloods and blood traitors in a moment." Lucius spat.

Draco closed his mouth and produced his patented smirk. It was true; that in the fall out of the Dark Lord's defeat Draco had been spared consequence. His farther wisely had persuaded the Dark Lord to not give Draco the dark mark of a DeathEater. He had felt slighted at first. His bumbling friends Crabbe and Goyle had taken the mark upon reaching their majority. But as the wizarding world fell towards the abyss of war over the last year and finally ending with the fall of the Dark Lord, Draco was relieved to have stayed neutral to either side.

He had of course suffered embarrassment at the hands of his housemates; but many of them were not around now.

"Draco." Said Lucius, breaking him out of his thoughts. " I've come to speak to you of family matters. I fear I will be caught soon and stripped of my fortune. It will be up to you to see that the Malfoy's continue on as we have for centuries."

Draco nodded his head in understanding. That had been the reason, at least his father's real motive for keeping Draco out of the fray; someone had to continue in the family name.

"You must…. you must marry soon Draco."

Draco furrowed his brow. "Marry, father, I've only just turned seventeen."

"This is why you've been spared Draco, you must marry to keep the titles and the lands, reaching your majority isn't enough, the Malfoy fortune is still endangered. With my permanent imprisonment or dishonorable death the money will be stripped from us." Lucius lowered his voice and leaned closer to his son. " It is wizarding law that criminals must pay restitution for their crimes…unless upon my death the inheritance would revert to an uninvolved heir that has met his majority and married in the eyes of the law, thus having proved their intentions as a contributor to wizarding community."

Draco's breath caught in his chest. "You mean, I would be destitute, I would be out on my arse, so to speak?"

"Yes completely undone, no money, no house, no honor."

Draco gulped audibly.

"Now, Draco, it's almost completely taken care of. I've spoken to our lawyers and they believe that they can tie the case up in court for perhaps a year, maybe more, it will be up to you to make sure you've married before it comes to a head."

"But…" Draco shook his head in frustration; it was madness, Marry! "I can't just do something like that, who am I to marry, I've got no prospects now as it is, and your telling me I have to meet, woo, engage, and marry sometime in the next eighteen months, your mad, its impossible!"

"Pull yourself together boy! Its your duty, this is what I've raised you for, provided your every wish, so that you would someday protect what our family has worked for centuries to attain!"

"What?" said Draco.

Lucius growled in frustration and with surprising strength, struck his son across the face.

Draco fell heavily to the floor; his wand clattered against the brick and spun light and green sparks against every wall.

Lucius looked down at his son, eerily haloed by the dim wand light. "I cannot believe that you my son, are such a fool. Do you understand what you are? DO YOU?"

Draco rubbed his chin and stared blankly back at the madman before him.

"You my son, are a Malfoy! A Pureblooded wizard, one of the last respectable bloodlines in our world, that is what we are Draco, a dying breed of superior men. It's what I've been trying to protect at the expense of my humanity for decades!" Lucius ran a hand through his matted hair. " I put my trust in the power of the Dark Lord, and he failed our family Draco." Lucius let out a cackle. "And he was a bloody mudblood himself!"

"What?" Whispered Draco.

"Yes, Lord Voldemort, was a damned half-blood himself, he had a pathetic muggle for a father, can you imagine! No wonder he failed us!" Lucius paced once across the passageway and leaned heavily against the wall supporting himself with his hands and hanged his head. "Now that my time and the time of my fellow Death Eaters is over, its up to you to continue the struggle; by marrying a pureblooded witch and making sure the next generation of Malfoy's know the truth of our heritage."

Draco's heart sunk in his chest. His father was a powerful wizard and here he was beaten and broken by his ideals. No man should feel that defeat, no one.

He pulled himself up off the floor and stepped up to the wall leaning next to his father. "Alright, I'll marry, I'll show the world what it means to be a Malfoy; I'll show them what a pureblood wizard can do."

Lucius turned to his son, and grinned hideously. " I know you will Draco."

"So what am I to do, most of the respectable pureblood witches are in prison, or 'ave died, and I won't just marry anyone, she'll have to be beautiful of course, and refined…. like mother I suppose."

"Yes." Said Lucius, he smirked at his son. " She will be, once you've taught her a lesson or two, and have gotten the stench of him off of her."

Draco arched an eyebrow at him " So you have someone in mind then?"

"Tell me Draco, what pureblooded witch, that is in this castle right now, would it give you the most pleasure of taking as your wife."

" We'll, there is this witch is Ravenclaw that isn't bad, but…"

"No, No, your thinking to small, think deeper, think like a Slytherin for god sakes!"

Draco searched his mind for a moment, and then looked sharply up at his father. "No." He said, and then added, " your mad! Your trying to get me killed!"

Lucius chuckled under his breath. " But imagine it son, it would break him, you would finally have victory over him and all the other mudblood's and blood traitors!"

"It can't be done, she'd never accept me, and you killed one of her brothers for Christ sakes!"

"Yes but she's got to many as it is. And besides, your not me are you, you stayed out of it, despite my urging you to join the ranks, you've lost your family, and all your friends, you're practically HIM!"

"Yes," said Draco " and what about him, he's too powerful as you well know, I can't defeat him, not in a duel, and if I tried to take her from him, it would come to that you know."

" There are other way's to defeat powerful foes Draco." Said Lucius, as he reached into torn robes and pulled out a potion vile.

"Poison?" laughed Draco. "You lot tried that remember, twice, and both times, his magic simply over powered it, it wouldn't let it kill him."

"No, my son, this isn't poison, this is a very powerful muscle relaxant, it isn't meant to kill, just provide a certain loss of control."

Draco frowned at the vile for a moment, trying to envision the effects. Then smiled up at his father "Oh, yes" he said smirking " yes I see."

" Exactly." Said Lucius " Think of it, with Potter out of the way, you would be free to pursue the Weasley girl and take revenge on that whole family of blood traitors."

Draco thought for a moment, marry the Weasley girl, it would be too rich, he could just imagine what that would do to Potter, it would break him completely, ruin him. He liked the idea immensely.