Disclaimer: not mine, such a shame, but there you have it.
Warnings: Um, hinted m/m relationship, possibly chan depending on when you decide this is set
Pairings: Implied...well, I'm sure you can all figure it out ;)
AN: This has been hanging around on my harddrive and various disks for far too long. Just a bit of musing on Draco's part.
***
The suit does not become him, but it does not fit as ill on him as it does on the others. His condescending sneer for their discomfort is a hairs breadth away from a knowing smirk. How many layers, he wonders, of masks and illusion hide his true self, his true feelings? One for his father, who thinks him nothing more than a puppet dancing as his strings are pulled. Two for Hogwarts, whose students think him petty and spiteful, but not really a threat. Three for the sorting hat - his greatest moment he thinks - from whom he hid his true intentions, true desires... And four...four for Hogwarts' teachers, who, like the students think him petty and spiteful - if talented - but pity him for his father's controlling ways. All the teachers that is, except one.
He doesn't know why his father wants it done this way, goading Potter and his companions using clumsy and obvious muggle methods. Maybe Lucious doesn't want him to expose his true power - at least in the areas of skulking and spying. But he knows that this is not the way to turn Harry Potter to Voldemort's cause. A good hunter does not catch his prey by stomping through the undergrowth yelling at the top of his voice. A beater might drive the prey to a hunter though, and that, he believes, is what his father is having him do. The question is, who is the hunter? Voldemort? He doesn't believe that for a second. Voldemort tried to kill Potter once, whilst the boy was an infant, and failed so catastrophically that not only was he discorporated, Potter absorbed a goodly amount of Voldemort's power. So...who is the hunter? Where is Potter being driven?
If he had his way - and he knows it will not happen, not now, maybe not ever - he would lure Potter to the other side. Or seem to. But that would make him aware of the deceptions all around him, and Potter cannot lie. He has seen the three of them - no one ever said James Potter was the only wizard with a cloak of invisibility - fumbling together for a plausible alibi, managing only to get away with so many of their escapades because of Albus Dumbledore's promise to Lilly Potter. Another thing that he shouldn't know about, but he does, and he thinks that Dumbledore should be greatful he made no such promise about him. Then again, maybe Potter would be more reckless, more Slytherin...he laughs mentally, the sneer softening for the barest second. Potter wouldn't change. He's too Gryffindor.
But even puppets, actors, whatever he is now, have to dream. So he dreams that his father allows him to try his own theories, allows him to triumph where Lucious has failed... It can be done, he knows, to get so close to another that all the things you thought were true are made false by a single word from them. He knows it all too well, knows also that he will, one day, pay the price for allowing himself to be thus turned. But The Boy Who Lived is not for him, and not for Snape, and so he will continue to beat the bushes, driving the prey towards the unknown hunter. And he will continue to act, to dance as his father wills, but in the darkness of the night, he will return to his lover's arms, and he will let the masks and lies be stripped away where no one can see. Because if neither of them can have him, they can at least have each other.
***
AN: In case anyone is wondering about the suits, I imagine it's Dumbledore's idea of giving one of the balls a muggle theme.
Reviews and comments welcomed!