Disclaimer: I own none of these people - though I like to think I do. ; I just wrote the story for your enjoyment. All of the following are property of JK Rowling - she's the lucky one who can say that, but then that's probably why she's richer than Queen Liz II... I'll shut up now - enjoy the story and remember - rating gets you House Points!

"Now you boys play nicely. Draco? Show them what to do, and don't go nosing around your father's study again, heaven forbid he'll catch you one day."
"Yes mother," he replied. "We'll be good, won't we boys?" Draco kicked his two friends, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, underneath the table.

"Yes Mrs Malfoy!" They chorused.

"Good, I won't be long, I'm just going in the shower."

"Okay mother!" Draco called.

Three four-year-old boys sat round a table, one small with white blond hair and the others larger in height, and build too. The smaller, a boy known as Draco Malfoy, was teaching his friends how to play a simplified game of poker, a game his father had taught him that summer.

"So, Draco," whispered the smaller of his two friends, Vincent Crabbe. "Are we gonna raid your dad's office again?"

"No." Draco replied sharply, dealing out the cards with a little more force. "We are not. Due to the fact I'd be better with a pair of plantpots standing guard, rather than you two. Plus, mother threatened to tell him what we'd been doing."

"And? Draco, don't you want your father to know you're just like him? My daddy says he's always rooting around in other people's business," replied the larger of his two friends, Gregory Goyle.

"No," replied the blond boy, ceasing to deal his cards and stare at the family portrait on the wall. "I want my father to need me."

---- Twelve or so years later ----

3rd January

Lucius put on his slippers and sat in his armchair smoking a pipe. He picked up the headline of the Daily Prophet and chuckled, the headline which greeted him read: 'HARRY POTTER KILLED AT HOGWARTS'

"Serves the little git right, he always was a stuck up good-for-nothing."

4th January

Lucius did the same he had done the day before, and chuckled once more at the headline which read: 'ON THE SEARCH: WHO KILLED HARRY POTTER?'

"A very, very clever man. Pat on the back, old boy."

The Trial

He knew what he was doing. He was sure. If this was the end then so be it - he'd not had a bad life. Pushing the blond hair from his eyes he stood and took his place on stage while people rose around him. The people who would witness his final stand.

"Lucius Draco Malfoy," a voice bellowed from the stand. "Evidence against you has been gathered and verified. Please step forward!" Lucius did so, with an air of considerable pride, and adjusted himself accordingly so he was facing the Minister of Magic himself. "You have been identified as a Death Eater, and are guilty of the murder of Mr. Harry Potter. How do you plead?"

"Not guilty," Lucius replied cooly.

"Mr Malfoy, the evidence greatly proves otherwise. The curse which killed the boy was found on your wand," snapped the Minister of Magic, a Mr Rufus Scrimgeour.

"Not guilty!" Lucius replied, a little more demandingly this time.

"Mr Malfoy, regardless of your claims, the court has found you guilty here today. Take him to the Dementors," the Minister's mouth twitched into a slight, twisted grin. "I believe a death warrant is to be signed."

The court exploded, some cheering, some yelling in disgust and, louder than all, came a sharp and steady cry from a blond man of sixteen years, "NO!"

The court stopped, still, silence choaked the air.

Finally the minister spoke, "Excuse me, young master Malfoy, you can't rule against my decision, your father is going away for a very long time. Say goodbye."

"NO! He couldn't have done it!" Draco snapped.

The minister raised his eyebrows, "And why not?" He asked patronisingly.

"Because- because I did. I stole his wand. He wasn't anywhere near Hogwarts that night!"

The minister paused before replying coldly, "And what makes you so sure that we'll believe you? Your father, after all, is a suspected killer."

"I had motive, I hated the boy right from the word go in first year. He was always prouncing around with Weasley and that filthy mudblood Granger, I wanted to get rid of him. This was his last year, I couldn't take it anymore, so I let him have Christmas, and then killed him. I rid the world of scum like him, and I want some recognition for it!" Draco banged the panel in front of him with his fist.

The minister thought of this for a moment, the boy certainly seemed twisted enough, but then so was his father. It all came down to what the prosecution hadn't been able to put a watertight finger on, motive. It would have been all too easy for the boy to take his father's wand, he had killed Potter the night he'd returned from school from the Christmas holidays. Finally he decided, "Boys, let Lucius go," he sighed as he watched Lucius slip from his grasp once again, closed his eyes, opened them again and boomed: "Draco Lucius Malfoy, I am placing you under arrest by the Order of the Ministry of Magic - for the murder of Harry Potter."

Two large men grabbed the skinny sixteen year old, dragged him past his father and down the steps to be taken to a fate worse than death. Looking up at his father for the last time Draco saw tears in his eyes, and smiled. He may have been going to the ultimate punishment, but his father needed him. Without him, Lucius would have been nothing in Azkaban, his father had needed him.

And that was all that mattered to Draco Lucius Malfoy.