Eleven reviews. ELEVEN reviews! Wow.

I turn my back on you people for, like, two weeks to get the Christmas done and over with and what happens? No, honestly, I'm delighted! I know I'm writing in a fairly small category and finding so many reviews for one chapter in this small amount of time makes me, makes me…wiping a tear from my eye
Now, thanks a lot to PoeticPoet for the nice suggestion about my career. Maybe it'll please you to hear that I'm working as a writer in my home country (where my grammar is dramatically better, I promise!). Let's just say that this is my little relaxing spot, where I can write about anything with my favourite characters and read the great stuff created on this site!
And specially thanks to Malfoy's Queen, Icarus Malfoy, GaBoO and Nardy for hanging on from the start.
And Desiree K troy, if you're still reading this…yeah, it was Theodore. Let's just say that…um…blushing it's Theodore Edwin Nott and that his close circle calls him by his second name. Uh. Yeah. Right. Blushing some more.

Great thanks to all of you! Nobody is forgotten and it was a great Christmas present to receive!
Hope your holidays were free from poisoning and family dramas such as this!

Ps. My boyfriend laughs now and says that I should write that we are all sick in the head, but we know that, don't we? And we're proud of it!
Love and Hugs

Redfern

22ND DECEMBER: EASIER TO RUN

Draco had not been asleep for longer than an hour before the sharp knocks on the door shot him back into the dreaded waking world.
"Draco? Wake up!"
A stab of panic was felt through his groggy state. Was he late for breakfast again? His father would kill him!
But as he opened his eyes and checked the time, he realised that something serious must have happened.
The clock had barely struck two. It was pitch black outside and the snow was raging like it had last night.
"Draco, we are to attend St Mungos! Rowan's state is critical!"
"I'm up, mother!" he shouted back, jumping out of his bed as if to illustrate his words.
"The hall in fifteen minutes, Draco!"
"Yes, mother!"
Draco stumbled into the shower, his head suddenly much clearer when thinking about Rowan.
What the hell had Pancy fed her with?!
He turned the water on quickly and decided to make it to the hall in ten minutes. He knew Lucius would be expecting it.
Lucius…
Their tumble in Draco's bed came back to him very suddenly. He had kept it neatly suppressed under heavy layers of his best behaviour yesterday and even managed to fall asleep very early due to a sinister amount of self discipline. And now, being too exhausted, he found the stone hard walls of defence built up around the subject falter.
He had been standing in the shower yesterday as well, satisfying himself after his father had left and then felt sick about it, sick and completely destroyed.
But it had woken reactions in his body being too strong to control, throwing him out of balance and leaving his will in shreds.
It was probably planned, all of it, including the cruel desertion at the end.
At the very moment Draco had felt the vast emptiness inside being soothed and filled up, just a little, then he had been abandoned again.
And for every time he walked into the trap Lucius laid out in front of him, the bitter aftertaste got harder and harder to handle.
It was as if his father tried to break him down systematically and yet try to build up just enough to have something to tear down the next time they met.
And then there was this subtle promise, or threat, as Lucius had walked out the door.
It's not Christmas yet, after all, is it?
Was Lucius planning to fuck him at Christmas?
Draco's limbs turned cold despite the hot water showering over him.
The panic was building up and no thought in the world could calm it down.
If there was something Lucius had proved to him during the holiday, it was that he was always one step ahead and Draco had a snowball's chance in hell to catch up with him.
Unless…

St Mungo's Emergency Ward was quite crowded when they arrived and Draco drew a great sigh of relief when they were let into the room where Rowan laid without hesitation. He could imagine that nobody in the hospital was interested in letting Lucius wait.
All the guests had joined them and as soon as Draco and the other younger members of the gathering had caught a glimpse of the deadly pale, thin Rowan in her hospital bed, Lucius threw them out, leaving only the adults in the room.
As the door closed and they were left in the corridor, Draco sank down on a bench there with his head in his hands. Edwin was holding an agitated speech about the injustice, but Draco just sat there, thoroughly pissed off about being dragged to the hospital in the middle of the night and then not getting to see Rowan at all. But then again, it suited his plans perfectly.
"Mourning her?"
Draco looked up and saw Pansy standing over him. He put on a perfect sneer of annoyance.
"I'm mourning my lost sleep! But speaking about loosing things…where the fuck are your common sense?!"
Pansy smiled coldly.
"In the same place as yours, I suppose. We'll just have to wait and see if the marks on your throat cease to appear, now, won't we?"
Draco stared at her for a second as a horrible thought crossed his mind.
If he does that to me again she's going to kill the entire house!
He could easily imagine both Millicent and Celina green and swollen in the face from Pansy's poison. And what if she didn't stop there?
"I need air." He said and got to his feet.
"Too scary for you?"
"Too pathetic for me!"

The icy winds hit Draco in the face as he stepped outside the hospital building. It was bitingly cold, but refreshing.
Without looking back evenonce, he started to walk away and turned at the nearest crossing. He did not intend to go back, nor even stay in the city. He had brought some spare Galleons from his drawer and they would get him to Germany at least, maybe even Romania. And after that…he did not care.
He was going to prove his point to Lucius, even if it cost him his hide!
All he knew was that his life was insufferable and the limit was reached. Anything was better than this, absolutely anything!
But first he needed to get some help to leave the country unseen and he almost ran through the snowy streets to reach Diagon Alley. From there he could enter Knockturn Alley and its many dead end streets.

It did not take too long to reach the intended destination either.
Draco had been down Knockturn Alley a lot with his father and walked past a very fishy travel agency numerous times. He was not sure that the store would be open at this hour, but it looked quite promising, as he noticed a great number of stores and Inn's having their doors open and the dim lights flickering from inside.
It was slightly unnerving walking here without company, but he moved quite fast and suddenly he stood before the discreet Travel Agency with a beating heart.
What was he doing? Could he do it?
His father would probably look for him all over London and every inhabitant in Knockturn Alley would be turned inside out to reveal everything they knew…or maybe he would not care at all.
Draco stepped inside and found himself standing in a very small store that had the smell of something rotten.
Then a greasy old man with yellow teeth appeared from behind the counter, as if he had just apparated there.
"Welcome to Mordred Travels, taking you where you want to go or taking someone somewhere you want them to go. How can I help you?"
Draco did his best to gain some authority, hoping that he could show but a glimpse of his father's intimidation, but the dark store did not make it easy at all.
"I'm looking for…I need, uh, to get to…Germany. Or to Romania. I'd like to see your price lists."
The old man smiled viciously for unknown reasons.
"I see. Apparating or Port Key?"
"Any. It depends on the prices."
"I see." The old man repeated, looking at Draco as if he was about to feed him to his dogs. "I'll fetch the lists, if you just wait here…"
"I'll wait right outside." Draco interrupted and hurried outside, pressing himself against the soiled brick wall.
He had to put himself together! He was a Malfoy, damn it! HE should be feared, not the other way around!
He looked up and noticed that it was possible to see the stars. It was comforting to fix his gaze at them and just breathe, while listening to the mingled noises from the alley. Loud laughter was erupting from a bar nearby and from another there was music, a strange and eastern-sounding tune that had his nerves relaxing finally.
In an odd sort of way he felt freer than he had ever done in his life.
All journeys he had made, all decisions, had been somebody else's design. But this thing, this runaway was entirely his own.
And it felt great, just standing there breathing.
It was just annoying that the thoughts about his father never left him.
Would Lucius go looking for him personally? Would he miss him?
His stomach started to hurt when thinking about it and he pressed the tears back from his eyes.
He couldn't stand there looking like a complete loser!
Everything was going to be fine! He was doing fine on his own, fixing the journey and chilling out in the street corner, mingling with the crowd and…
There was a knife at his throat.
He didn't dare to move.
A crazy thought went through him; that his father had had enough of all his little rebellions and had decided to force him back under a life threat.
But as a typical East End dialect was heard, all such thoughts disappeared.
"Jus' stand still right where yeh are, eh, lad? We won't hurt yeh…much."
Then something hard hit his head and everything went black.

His head was giving him hell as he woke up
But as he slowly returned to reality, he realised that it was the least of his problems.
He was lying on a dirty, crude wooden floor with his hands tied behind his back. Two exited voices were arguing about something and as he dared to open his eyes a little, he saw two grown men sitting by a simple table, looking like archetypes of really dodgy criminals.
"I say we sell him!" One of them hissed. "Yeh could be wrong, yeh know!"
"Wrong?! The lad 'as robes for a worth o' eighthundred galleons…easily!" I'm tellin' yeh, it's a Malfoy!"
"What the heck would a Malfoy be doin' here in the middle of the night, hanging in the corners like your local dealer, huh, Ernie?"
"I've seen 'im around, Buckley! 'E's been 'ere a million times with 'is father, all right? The ransom would top all cash yeh'd get for sellin' 'im in the street, if so a billion times!"
Draco frowned and twitched at the knifelike pain shooting through his head. What was this? Did they plan to sell him of lots of times? What kind of a scoundrel deceit…and then he realised what sort of selling they might mean and everything concerning his father and Pansy's poisoning suddenly felt very pale and even inviting.
Merlin, how could he have been this stupid?!
All he could do now was to direct the alternatives before him to the least devastating option.
"My father is going to kill you." He growled.
Both the kidnappers turned their heads to him at the same time.
"Shut up, yeh little twat, or I'll smack yeh up real good!" Said the one called Buckley.
To Draco the threat was a drop in the ocean of all the violence he had suffered from his father and he simply sighed and viewed them arrogantly.
"I'm telling you, my father is Lucius Malfoy! If you do not release me at once, he'll get very, very angry and I will not answer for the consequences!"
Ernie, who had suspected this, started to jump up and down with enthusiasm, clapping his hands.
"I told yeh, I told yeh!" He sang, almost dancing forward to Draco.
But Buckley's face turned meaner and he drew his knife out, pointing it at Draco's eye.
"Don't yeh talk to me like that, boy, or I'll dig yehr eyes out and feed them to the alley dogs!"
Draco shut his mouth tightly and stared at the knife, doing his best not to show how frightened he was. Despite the effort, the cold sweat started to break out on his forehead.
"We'll ask fer a billion Galleys, Buckley! Or two billions!" Ernie said, distracting Buckley not a moment to soon.
"Shut yehr trout, yeh idiot!" Buckley barked back. "If the kiddo tells the truth at all, we'll get our asses roasted in UNFORGIVABLES!"
And then they started to scream at each other, back and forth, and Draco was grateful for every second passing when he was still healthy.
Finally the most aggressive of the two, Buckley, drew his wand out and pointed it at Draco.
"Now, my final word is, we waste him or jus' sell him onwards, before the whole smoking inferno come crashing down the roof!"
Ernie had placed himself on a chair in the room, sulking in silence.
"Yeh hear that, boy?" Buckley continued. "We'll sell yeh! But don't yeh worry at all!"
Buckley was grinning as he bent over Draco and took hold of his robe. Draco tried to draw back, but it was annoyingly hard to direct his movements with his hands tied back.
"Ol' Buckley will have his fun first!" He hissed in Draco's ear.
Panick entered and without thinking, Draco slammed his boot into Buckley's Crouch as hard as he could.
Buckley roared with pain and fell back, but Ernie came to his feet fast as lightning and drew a long, rusty knife out while running towards Draco.
Draco tried to rise but failed and had the time to think that's it, I'm gonna die before a green light filled the room and Ernie fell over him, the knife landing with a clatter on the floor.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Another flash of green light, and then Buckley's moaning ceased too and he lied as still as Ernie.
Draco struggled to roll to the side and get rid of Ernie's weight. It was horrible to look into those staring, lifeless eyes!
But someone lifted Ernie away from him and threw the body aside.
His father was standing there, the fury beaming from him as if he was some demon of vengeance. Small green sparks still erupted from his wand.
Draco forgot everything about Ernie and Buckley and started to mobilise all defence speeches he had.
"Father! I…"
"Silence!" Lucius cut him off.
Then he squatted down in front of Draco and grasped his chin the way he did when he was really angry.
"Maybe I should let you keep the rope around your wrists, while discussing this with you!" He said in a low but furious voice.
Draco swallowed and didn't dare to answer. There was nothing to say.
He had been caught red handed and he knew it. And his father had just killed two people. Not that he had't killed anyone before, but it was the first time Draco had ever been an eyewitness. Creepy...
But Lucius could at least show a little sympathy for his condition, couldn't he?
Lucius waved his wand again and this time the ropes around Draco's wrists decayed immediately and fell off in shreds.
Then his father pulled him up with a firm grip round his arm and headed for the exit, almost dragging the stumbling Draco with him.
"We are going to discuss this in private, you and I."

After only a few minutes walk, they had reached the place in Knockturn Alley known as the finest Inn. It was still a real rat's hole, compared to what Draco was used to, but no questions were asked there and special service could be included, stretching beyond the laws of the ministry.
Draco noted that it was still dark outside and that the hunger was raving in his stomach like a wolf. But he felt in no position to protest.
Lucius stepped in under the sign spelling Dragon's Den and Draco followed, bitterly noting the metaphor between his situation and the sign.
Lucius had them logged into the best room merely by making his presence known by the counter and then, to Draco's great relief, they went into the small restaurant that the Inn ran and had seats in a booth comfortably secluded from too many eyes.
Lucius ordered supper for them and as the food came to the table, he had still not uttered a word to Draco since they were in the scoundrel hideout.
Draco knew on instinct that he should be quiet until Lucius decided otherwise. And he did not mind.
Oddly enough, he did not feel very frightened, only a bit knocked about, as he was still trying to melt his narrow escape from the two kidnappers and from being…desecratred by…ugh…Buckley!
And in a weird way the possibility to be alone with his father out of all ordinary contexts, even though it might mean punishments, felt soothing.
Draco and his father ate in silence and Draco had barely finished his last chew on the tasty inlaid fish, when Lucius broke the silence.
"I think it's time for you to explain yourself, thoroughly."
Draco looked up at him as innocently as he could and tried to play on the misery he had just experienced, but it was useless.
Lucius just put his elbows on the table and leaned over him, his sharp stare spelling out a warning.
"Whatever mischief you try to pull off, Draco, you know that I will be a hundred times worse than anything you can possibly come up with."
Draco nodded.
"So now I expect the truth. What did you plan to do when you ran off?"
"I was going to apparate to Romania…or Germany!" He said instantly.
The words spilling from his mouth shocked him! He had planned to say that he was going for a walk and had been kidnapped or something like that.
Then he glared at the empty bottle of mineral water on the table.
So that's what 'extra clear water' meant!
"Yes, you've been drinking Veritaserum." Lucius said impatiently. "Why were you going to Romania?"
"Because…" Draco struggled in vain to hold the words back. "…you would know that you couldn't control me like that and that I had a will of my own and partly it was a test!"
Lucius arched an eyebrow as his gaze grew frostier by the answer.
"Really? What sort of a test?"
"I wanted to know…if you would care to come after me at all."
Draco felt like crying for the fifty-eleventh time this horrible Christmas, but he simply let his eyelids drop, so that he could only see the plate. Meeting whatever mocking reaction that would come from Lucius now was too much to bear.
But the silence was kept and stretched out for a good minute before Lucius rose and spoke in a surprisingly tired voice.
"Come, Draco. It's time to go up to our room."

As the door was closed behind them, Lucius lied off his outdoor robe and gestured for Draco to do the same. Then he simply sat down on the bed (the only bed in the room, Draco noted) and beckoned for Draco to come to him with a slight wave of the hand.
Draco walked forward hesitantly, his heart racing as it usually did when a punishment was near.
He was guided to sit down between Lucius legs, having his back to him.
Instead of exploding pain, the dangerous hands found their way beneath the shirt by the neck and started to massage his shoulders with slow, careful movements.
Draco was taken aback by this, but couldn't help wincing from the comfortable treatment.
Lucius mouth was close to his ear as he directed Draco to lean closer to him.
"You will never do this again, will you?" He whispered.
"No, father." Draco whispered back, inwardly cursing the effects of the Veritaserum. "If you prove you don't hate me, then I won't."
The fingers worked his shoulders a little harder suddenly.
"You have no right to ask that, Draco."
"Are they still at the hospital?" Draco asked with a very small voice.
"No, Draco. It's around midnight the twentysecond. You've been out cold for a day."
A day! No wonder he had been so hungry!
Somehow it was easier to speak to Lucius when having his back to him and Draco dared to continue his questioning.
"Is Rowan…alive?"
"She's in a coma."
A coma! Somebody ought to put Pansy in a coma!
"How did you find me?"
"That is my private matter."
Draco sighed and started to relax from the treatment. Maybe his father was doing this to catch him unawares when the punishment began, maybe not.
But it didn't matter. He closed his eyes.
Only when his father pulled him backwards and had him on his back on the bed did he look up again. But Lucius touch had for once been so light that he felt no fear or tension. He knew he should, but as Lucius was looking down at him, partly sitting up, supporting himself on his elbow, Draco couldn't sense any threat.
It was really strange.
Lucius hand caressed his cheek and his forehead, scraping with his nails over the dried blood from the wound in his head.
"I will put a spell on that, to keep it from infection until tomorrow." His father whispered. "Tonight we will both sleep here and you will continue to give me information whenever I want it."
"Yes, father."
Lucius smiled slightly and bent down to kiss Draco's lips. It was only much softer but more intense than before. Draco opened his mouth slightly and then their tongues had united again, Lucius seemingly taking his time to taste Draco thoroughly before releasing him.
Then he stroked a strand of hair from Draco's forehead.
"Did you like that?"
"Yes, father." Draco gasped, unable to reveal anything but the truth.
And it slowly dawned upon him that this night could stretch on forever, Draco high on Veritaserum and Lucius doing everything his twisted mind could come up with to use the advantage!
Draco tried to rise from the bed, but Lucius pulled him down softly again.
"Oh, no you won't." He smiled. "You'll have something to kill the pain from your wound and then you'll go to bed. With me."