A/N: Greetings! It had been a very long time since I've worked on this story, but seeing the new HP DVD put me mind of it, so I've begun working on it again. I do hope you enjoy and will send some feedback so I know what you think and if you have any thoughts about the plotline and where it should go.

Thank you for reading!

Chapter 7: Moment of Weakness

Almost feeling disconnected from his body and his surroundings, Draco slowly walked back towards the Slytherin common room. His father's threats and words about his future stung, but the news of his mother's departure burned into him.

            Deciding not to return just yet, he walked on the paths around the courtyard until a small light in the east told him that he had been out all night.

            The sorrow in his heart had slowly been turning into anger and from anger to rage.

            'How could she? How could she just leave me? She never cared for anyone else as much as herself.' Malfoy had never thought that he would utter those words he had heard from others so many times before, but they were true.

            The rage that had built up and finally burst and a shockwave was sent out from the core of his being. The ground beneath him shook with a great force and before he even realized what was happening it was released. Power that was always within him was, for one moment, allowed out of its confines and to feel it so unbound from his body brought terror into Draco's mind. He knew he should not have let it out for one second and while on the brink of panic he was able to call it back, able to hold it once more, but only just.

            Climbing up from where he was, his legs carried him back towards his room, and a place where he could comprehend all he suddenly knew was at stake.

            Harry Potter was suddenly and oddly awoken from his slumber by the shaking of his bed.  It seemed to come from not too far away, but had a feel behind it that it had dove deep into the earth itself.

            With all the other Gryffindor students, he ran in his nightclothes out into the common area of Hogwarts.

            There, next to the courtyard was a large, smoking crater. It looked as though something he come back from above and hit the ground with such a force.  However, to look into this might crevasse one did not see anything that would have caused it, no rock, and no object at all lay at its bottom.

            "Very odd indeed." Those words spoken by Hermione knocked Harry out of his revere. Looking around, it was obvious that all the students stood here with baffled looks on their faces and the professors, also wearing their sleeping clothes, looked just as clueless.

            Professor Snape spoke up, "Perhaps all the students should return and get ready for classes."

            Dumbledore nodded, "Teachers, also go back to chambers and return when you are ready to greet the new day. Then we shall try to figure out how this has happened and if it means us any harm."

            Standing towards the back, Malfoy had come with the other though he already knew what brought them. He had arrived in the common room just as the others had descended from the sleeping chambers. Given Draco's odd sleeping habits, none found it at all unusual to see him in the common room at that time of morning. If he had not gone with them, certainly someone would have pointed it out.

            As it was the thought of the professors looking into this accident of his terrified him. What would they do if they found out what he was? What he contained? Would they kill him on the spot or lock him up and perform gruesome experiments on him until they knew all they needed to know about this monstrosity?

            No, his father would never let them get their hands on him, but his mother whom he would have applied the same words to just a few days ago had already abandoned him.

            His father would surely find out what he happened, he would know, and the punishment would be severe.