Chapter 16 Escape
As Draco sat down to dinner he glanced across the table at his father. He could not believe this was happening. He contemplated where he thought he should have been. If he had been at school he would have been watching the sorting ceremony at this moment. He would have been seated between Crabbe and Goyle, facing towards the Gryffindor's table. Seamus would have been seated across from him at the Gryffindor's table. They had always sat so that if the looked up they could gaze directly at one another. Small things like that had always meant a lot to Draco. His chest contracted and he pushed all thoughts of Seamus and school from his mind. It was too painful. The only way he was going to cope with this situation was by avoiding all thoughts of what he had lost.
Draco dragged his way through dinner. As the day had worn on, his spirits had fallen. All that had kept him going through the summer break was the thought of returning to school, and more importantly, returning to Seamus. Now that hope was going he had nothing left. As they were finishing dinner Lucius turned to his son.
"Now Draco, tomorrow is going to be a very important day. Tomorrow you will have the opportunity to prove your worth. I realise now that at Christmas you were not ready to make this commitment. However, I have spent the summer holidays preparing you for what is to happen tomorrow, and I feel confident that you are ready for this next stage of your life. You are being bestowed with quite an honour. Lord Voldemort usually has no time for people of your age. It is a mark of your maturity and your upbringing that he is allowing you to become one of his servants. I hope you can live up to the expectations."
When his father had finished, Draco excused himself and returned to his bedroom. He lay on his bed and contemplated what was going to happen the next day. It occurred to him that he was about to become everything people expected him to be. Draco felt his skin crawl. Maybe when he was younger this is what he wanted. But not now. Now he understood exactly what it meant to become a Deatheater. He knew exactly what they stood for. Something inside him snapped and he knew that he could not go through with this.
He stood and extracted his darkest cloak from his wardrobe. He had to leave. He could not just sit and wait. He did not even worry about the consequences if he were caught. If it was his destiny to become a Deatheater then he was not going to give up without a fight. He was not going to let Fate rule his life. He was going to make a run for it.
Draco was not sure where he was going to go, but anywhere was better than facing this possibility. He locked his bedroom door, hoping it would delay any search for him. If they thought he was asleep they would not chase after him. As he opened his window and climbed out he thought of nothing other than getting as far from Malfoy Manor as possible.
He fled across the lawns and paused on the outskirts of the surrounding forest. He turned back for one last fleeting glance at his home. Why had his life turned out like this? Other people believed that he had everything he had ever wanted. If that was true, then why did he always feel that everything he had was worthless? He had always felt the most important things had been missing from his life.
Draco turned his back on his home and his life, and fled into the welcoming darkness of the forest.
Lucius had been less than impressed at his son's behaviour at dinner. Something strange had been happening to his son over the last year. It was almost as if Draco no longer wanted to become a Deatheater. Lucius suppressed that horrendous thought. Lucius blamed the boy's reluctance on the influence of Albus Dumbledore. Lucius had been trying to remove the headmaster from his role for years, but to no avail. He had known for years that having Dumbledore as the Headmaster of Hogwarts would only mean trouble. It was a shame Lucius had so much difficulty convincing the other school governors. Regardless of whether Draco wanted it to happen, he was going to become a Deatheater. Lucius had decided he was going to try and make as pleasant as possible for the boy. After all, he was his son. Even if they didn't have the closest of relationships, Lucius still wanted the best for the boy.
This was why late that night Lucius found himself heading towards his son's bedroom. The last time he had walked this route was shortly after his son's return from school. He was hoping this would be a far more pleasant encounter.
As he reached Draco's room, he turned the doorknob and pushed. The door would not budge. Lucius' anger flared. How dare the boy lock him out of a part of his own house! What made the insolent brat think he had that right! The boy showed absolutely no gratitude for the pain his father endured to make his son's life so pleasant. Lucius removed his wand from his robes and blasted the door open. As the smoke cleared he looked through the doorway to see the room was empty. Lucius' anger dared to flare again but he suppressed it, and instead a deathly calm rationality washed over him.
He looked around the room; one swift glance was all the investigation he required. The door had been locked from the inside. He knew that before he had entered. The window stood open, a slight breeze blowing the curtains in Lucius' general direction. Lucius smirked. How far did the boy think he was going to flee? Draco had never quite mastered the art of apperation. Until now Lucius had only ever though of this inability as a disappointment. Now it had sealed the boy's fate. Lucius removed a tattered old teddy bear from its place on the mantle and headed towards his study. The boy was not going to get far.
Draco sat beneath a large oak tree to rest. He had been walking for a couple of hours. It had been a long day and he was both physically and emotionally exhausted. He needed sleep but he didn't dare. He knew he needed to flee as far as he could as quickly as possible. It was only a matter of time before his father realised he was missing and began searching.
Draco leant against the trunk of the tree and closed his eyes. As he considered some of the things his father had forced him to do he became disgusted with himself. The things he had done were disgusting; unforgivable. If Seamus knew what Draco had been doing over the summer break even he might not be able to accept him. How had life degenerated to the point where he was this desperate? As he sat there he subconsciously began toying with his bracelet. He missed Seamus more than he had ever thought possible. He would give anything to be able to talk to the other boy. As he sat there he could almost feel Seamus' presence. It was almost as if he could hear the other boy's voice.
Lucius sat in his study behind his desk. Upon the desk he had spread a map of the general area surround Malfoy Manor. In one hand he held a crystal dangling on a chain. In the other he held the tattered teddy bear. When Draco had been a child he had loved that bear more than any other toy he had ever owned. Any object that well loved retains traces of the owner's essence for years. This was going to make it incredibly easy to find Draco.
Lucius dangled the crystal over the map and closed his eyes. He concentrated on his son and created an image of the boy in his mind. He felt the crystal's string vibrating as the crystal pulled, searching for the boy. The crystal swung, until suddenly it pulled vehemently in one direction, landing on the map. Lucius opened his eyes and smirked. He knew exactly where the boy would be. Lucius withdrew his wand and apperated out of the Manor.
Seamus lay on his bed brooding. Harry felt for him. The blond boy had told him about his encounter with Snape, and Harry knew that Seamus would be feeling responsible for what was happening to Draco. He watched as Seamus fiddled with something around his wrist.
"What are you thinking about?" Harry asked, certain of the answer. Seamus sighed and looked across at the other boy.
"Draco." He paused for a moment. "I just wish I could talk to him. Just once so I could be sure that he is all right. I hate to think that he could be in any danger." Seamus lay thinking about the other boy. He would give anything to be able to talk to Draco. Not knowing what had happened to the Slytherin hurt more than Seamus could have imagined. If he had known the other boy was safe there would not have been a problem.
As Seamus lay wishing he could talk to Draco, he imagined the other boy sitting on the floor in front of him. When Harry stood up started, Seamus realised he wasn't imagining it. Draco was there. Or at least an image of him was. The boy sitting on the floor was slightly transparent, similar in appearance to the castle ghosts. Harry walked around the ghost-like apparition and looked questioningly towards Seamus. Seamus shook his head. He didn't understand either.
"Draco?" he called softly.
"Draco?"
At the sound of Seamus' voice Draco's eye flew open. He looked in front of him and could not believe what he was seeing. It was Seamus. But something was not right. In the dark it was hard to tell, but Draco realised what it was. The vision in front of his was transparent. It wasn't really there in the same way as a ghost was a substantial being. Draco could see the boy, but he knew that if he tried to touch Seamus his had would glide right through him.
"Seamus? Is that really you?" Draco didn't dare believe what he was seeing "Where are you?" The mirage in front of him smiled.
"Yes it's really me. I am at school. Where are you? How are you? Are you all right?" There were so many things Seamus wanted to say to the other boy, but he didn't know where to start. He didn't really understand what was occurring, but he realised that he was being granted his wish to talk to his boyfriend.
Draco smiled. "I have run away. If I remained at home father was going to force me to become a Deatheater. You know better than anyone that I do not want that. I wanted to resist, but there was nothing I could do. If I didn't do what father wanted when he wanted, he would torture me and then use Imperius to force me to do it." his smile faded. "The things he did to me were bad, but they were nothing compared to what he forced me to do. After everything I have done I am not sure if Dumbledore will even allow me to return to school. I have to try and convince him to allow me to stay. I don't have anywhere else to go. Nowhere that I will be safe. I don't want to be like that Seamus. I never have. I don't think I could live with myself if I became one of them." Draco closed his eyes "I'm not sure if I can really live with myself now…"
Draco stood and walked towards the illusion. Seamus extended a hand to the other boy. They touched fingers, and to both boys, the image in front of them felt almost solid. Draco sighed. Seamus had seemed so near, but he was forced to acknowledge that the other boy was far away. Draco was gong to need a lot of luck to travel that far without being discovered.
Harry was incredulous. He could hardly believe what was happening. If Seamus hadn't been seeing it as well he would not have believed any of this was really happening.
"Seamus, do you know what's happening?" the Irish boy broke his stare at his boyfriend to look at Harry.
"What is it? What's going on?" Draco sounded worried. Obviously he could only see Seamus.
"It's okay, it's just Harry. Where are you Draco?"
"I'm in the forest near my home." Draco was terrified yet strangely excited "I'm actually doing it Seamus! I am actually standing up to my father! I'm not going to let him dictate my life anymore. I am going to be the person I want to be. The first step in that process is to get as far from my father as possible…"
Seamus beamed. He knew he had been right. Regardless of what anyone else thought, Draco really was a good person. The only thing that had ever been holding him back was his fear of his father. Now Draco was going to prove the other boy right, and show the world just who he really was. After this no one would believe that he was a 'malicious, evil, exploitative, noxious brat.' Seamus' mother might even find it in her to respect the young Slytherin. Seamus looked over at Harry with a distinct 'I told you so' look on his face. The other boy just nodded. Recently Harry had come to realise that perhaps there was more to Draco than he had ever believed possible. A voice inside Harry's mind whispered to him that perhaps Draco wasn't entirely aware of all that was involved in what he was trying to do. Harry knew that the other boy was going to need all the help he could get if he was going to go through with this.
"…I am actually standing up to my father! I'm not going to let him dictate my life anymore. I am going to be the person I want to be. The first step in that process is to get as far from my father as possible…"
Hearing those words poor out of his son's mouth angered Lucius. For someone with such a strong hold over his emotions he was shocked by how angry he was feeling. If he had felt betrayed by his son when he had discovered the relationship Draco was having with the mud-blood it was nothing compared to the betrayal he felt now. After everything he had done to provide his son with a good home and a good upbringing, his son repaid him like this. It was not acceptable, and Lucius was not going to allow the insolent brat to get away with this. Lucius crept up behind his son and placed a hand on the teens shoulder.
"Father!"
"Father!"
Seamus and Harry's attention was immediately redrawn to the image of Draco. As they watched a hand appeared on Draco's shoulder which was slowly connected to the rest of Lucius Malfoy. This could not be good.
"You didn't really think I would allow you to insult me like this do you?" Lucius scolded, apparently unaware of the image of Seamus. "You had the choice to make this easy for yourself, but you just destroyed that. You could have just done as I had asked and enjoyed it. You are such a selfish brat that you couldn't even do that. Well you no longer have a choice. You are going to do as I say and I will not tolerate arguments. If you are not become involved willingly we have ways of forcing you. If you are not willing to fight for your Lord you will be forced to regardless. And with the treatment you will endure, you will soon be wishing that you had been a little more compliant."
With that Lucius firmed his grip on his son, and he disapperated. The imaged faded. Seamus and Harry looked at each other. This had gone well and truly beyond their ability to handle.
