A/N: This is the next chappie. Hope u like it. This is abt Draco and what he's been upto. U 'll like it. I think so. Do read and review. ;)
Chapter 2 - HIS NIGHTMARE
He stood there looking out of the window. No matter how much he denied this but he knew that he did not belong to this world. Something that was even more hard to accept was that one day he would have to return... to the same people which had robbed him of his soul, his confidence, his ability to love , his home and above all his family.
He knew they would come to him after Lord Voldemort's end, he knew he would be expected to carry on the fight, but he chose otherwise. They called him 'a coward ', 'a spineless cold blooded slug' , 'a slander on his ancestors blood', but the truth was that what he did, could only be done by a man of iron will and of such courage and valor that is unheard of even in a Gryffindor .
He left his people, his world, his home behind him and went away because no matter what the other made of him, he knew about his potentials. He knew about the power. The anger. The hatred. The loathing, that he held within him and they made him almost afraid of himself, afraid that this volcano within him might erupt.
People thought he ran away ……true…...but from whom?
Himself .
His guilt never let him be at peace . He migrated to the muggle world……changed himself…...came out as someone else. Why? Because, he thought this was the best way of getting rid of his past. But they proved him wrong. Five long years could not prevent them from coming back to him. Yes! they were back again…... something that he always knew would happen.
He stood tall at six feet one, with silky platinum blond hair that reminded him of his parents, every time he looked into the mirror. The only positive (quite unknown to him as well) that he derived out of his horrible experiences was that he had started paying little or almost no attention to his looks and hair, that were now allowed to fall onto his face which otherwise till a few years back were always gelled back, he thought it looked cool . And mind you, his hair were something the Slytherin girls use to swear by.
His face, flawless as one would say, was emotionless, but his steel grey eyes had a storm raging in them . Still no one could understand what they said. It was almost impossible to break through the barriers that he had built around himself. But It was still very strange that no one could recognize the true person who was navigating through their souls from behind the careless locks of hair floating in front of his eyes , those eyes that had a hard time keeping anything to themselves.
His broad shoulders and strong arms had once been accustomed to giving support to swooning women who would die or kill to be with him. He was a true lady killer and undoubtedly the biggest playboy ever to roam the corridors of Hogwarts. But things had changed now. He seemed too emotionally exhausted to be in a relationship ever again. (It is a completely different matter that most women would bargain happily for a relationship without any commitment just to be with him. He was Draco Malfoy after all, but he himself was fed up of changing his girlfriends every third day.)
His trademark smirk (His mother said that he had a smirk on his face the moment he was born because the nurse that was beside his mother was really very, very, sy) was now rarely to be seen , save those times when he saw his best friend going mad in love all over again with his wife for the "25 HUNDRED 143 THOUSAND MILLION BILLIONTH TIME".
Yes Blaise Zabini , his friend and confidant had done extremely well in rising from the position of a class mate and then a business associate to being the only person in his life whom he ever opened up to (and one could consider him extremely lucky in being so) . Blaise had helped him with his family business, ever since he had left for the muggle world. He had put Blaise in charge of the properties and vaults at Gringotts (that were filled with galleons to an extent that there was probably no place to accommodate even a lungful of air) that he had inherited after his father's death .
Though he didn't need, or for that matter want the money or the properties. He took it anyway, one, because no matter what had happened, he was proud of his family name and loved his parents and would be extremely happy to possess every single thing that had once belonged to them. Two , he could not stand his useless relatives laying a finger on anything that bore his family's name . He thought that such sorry and disgusting figures, such traitors, who had never even earned their food had nothing to do with his family's hard earned money.
He didn't care from where his father brought the money because he knew that every Knut came with a lot of hard work put into it. He had successfully established a business of his own in he muggle world too, dealing in medical equipments and machines( needless to say he had hard time understanding how they actually worked.) As expected he had risen to great heights in this venture too ,he had been addicted to winning after all. But he had lost then and that one time had left nothing like it used to be.
That one defeat ( which hardly was one. After all he had been expected to fight the greatest wizard of their times) had led people to question his abilities, his guts, without giving any consideration to the fact that even the dark lord himself had never been able to damage as much as Dumbledore's nail.
But no. There was no margin for error. They had ignored him thereafter, treated him as a sidekick, without realizing that he was but a sixteen year old wizard at that time, who, though was born into one of the most influential and strong family of the wizarding world was still not mature enough to carry out such dangerous designs. That one defeat had left nothing like it used to be.
He himself was left with a lot of unanswered questions . And a strange awkwardness now defined him. His anguish and pain was not understood by anyone and nothing could soothe his aching heart. He had come away , migrated to the muggle world, to lose track of himself but ironically his loneliness was pushing his thoughts into a direction which led him towards himself. his thoughts were disturbingly wild, painful, almost catastrophic, they were good enough to make a nutter of a normal man.
But then again, he wasn't normal. Was he? He knew these thoughts were important for his existence. They told him the truth. He needed to know it, after all the truth was the only logical answer to all his questions.
He had again been thinking about the same thing for the countless time when 'Draco Malfoy' was pulled out of the pool of bloody thoughts by an impatient greeting from his friend Blaise Zabini.
" Hey! So the ' LOVE SICK' CHERUB finally managed to leave his nest. I'm seriously impressed.", Draco said teasingly.
"Cut it out, Malfoy.", said Zabini in the same impatient tone, waving his hand in front of his face.
" Oh Merlin, ANGER! Blaise, did I just see you getting angry? Goodness gracious me, I was almost convinced that you had forgotten all other emotions but 'PURE, SELFLESS, EXOTIC, BLISSFUL, ETERNAL, BEAUTIFUL………... PIOUS, SACRIFICING……..HEAVENLY LOVE.!" ,Draco said in a mock tone of thanks giving to the heavens.
"Have a life Malfoy! Blaise barked
"Tell me Blaise , what is it with her that you just can't lay your hands off her? You didn't find her that interesting back at Hogwarts, did you? You yourself once said you would rather sleep with Trelawney than fuck her. I don't see what could have changed her that much. I didn't notice much of a change in her when I met her last. But well 'SOMEONE', of course has changed. I didn't have to tax my brain much in figuring out the reason for your tragic loss of " logic and presence of mind.", Draco sniggered, hinting at Luna who was very famous or as one may say infamous for her absent mindedness.
" I see you are in a mood to meet your creator" said Blaise, in a threatening voice, and was almost fuming by now.
After all Draco had disturbed him in the middle of his honeymoon. (Can't blame Draco for it either, the honeymoon has been on since Blaise and Luna said "I do" four months back and there was not the slimmest of chances that it would come to an end in at least the next couple of months , or even later.)
" No one can scare 'Draco Malfoy' ! Blaise, no one." ,said Draco with an air of superiority, gracing his statement with the now rare smirk.
"You are getting all impatient here. But let me bet, Luna will be thanking me for helping her get rid of you. After all I am the only one who managed to get you out of the house."
"Yes. Flatter yourself Draco, but you didn't succeed. Did you, I mean in spoiling my party ?" ,Blaise said with a glint in his eyes
"What is that supposed to mean?' Draco eyed him suspiciously.
"Nothing, just that I told Luna that she was also invited for the lunch by you , and just that she will be joining us shortly,……… and just that you will be stuck with the two 'LOVE SICK CHERUBS' again.", Blaise said victoriously
Draco stood there with an expression halfway between laughing and passing out. He did not know how to react. He couldn't believe that he had done it again. He had again refused to be away from Luna even for an hour. He was seriously in love, Draco thought to himself. Actually He didn't understand how could someone really fall in love.
He had always treated girls as commodities after all , to be used and thrown away, though his perception about women was slowly changing as he was coming of age. And since that 'someone' was Blaise it was all the more unbelievable. This was the same pervert who switched between girlfriends once a fort night, an art learnt through his long association with Draco Malfoy though he never was as efficient as Draco was and most of his girl friends were courtesy Draco.
And now here he stood accusing him of trying to 'spoil his party' just because he had tried to give Blaise and Luna 'a breather', literally, away from each other. Well she must be great, he thought to himself. She better be. Blaise was the closest thing to a family that Draco had known for the last five years and did not want his friend to be stuck up in a relationship that would eventually give him a broken heart. This was not the first incident when Draco had seen Blaise's love for Luna and he sincerely hoped that she also loved Blaise with the same intensity and passion.
"Oh no! How could you? I don't want to be stuck up with someone who still finds the Quibbler interesting and who can manage to almost fall asleep while having her lunch." Draco pretended to protest.
But the idea worked well with him, because one ,he thought it would be good to know his best friend's better half and two, he had an important and very secret matter at hand that would require Luna's help. With this Draco's lips curled into a smile but his eyes were still disturbed and worried as ever or even more. And Blaise did notice this.
"Watch out for that god damn tongue of yours, Malfoy.", Blaise blurted out, followed by a hearty laugh which Malfoy joined in.
"Anyway, tell me what is troubling you now ?", Blaise attempted.
"How on earth did you-"
But before he could finish his sentence Blaise went on coolly, "Since when have you been a good actor, Draco? You try to put on this humorous act and think that I would not come to know. And as it is God didn't do much of a favor to you in making your eyes so expressive. Come on now, shoot, what is it?"
Draco's face contorted into a frown. He didn't like being that vulnerable. Had he spent five years trying to control his feelings and emotions just to have Blaise reading him like an open book ? Still he could not help but secretly thank God for giving him such a friend, who understood him so perfectly, sometimes better than even Draco himself.
"Will you stop acting like a 'Mr. Know It All'?", Draco protested .
Blaise chuckled. These were rare occasions, you know, you don't manage an upper hand over Draco Malfoy every day, and he tried to enjoy every such moment.
"THEY ARE BACK.", Draco blurted out. And these words were enough to wipe the smirk off Zabini's face.
Draco stood there watching his expression change as the full impact of his words slowly sank in. He waited for a reply, and watched him standing petrified and drenched in sweat.