Back home once more for the holidays although he would have preferred to stay at Hogwarts. It was funny, not even a year ago he screamed black and blue to be able to go home, to where he was king of the castle, but now he almost cried at the thought of having to go home for a few weeks. Such an action caused her to cry as well though, which made him feel worse. She cried because she cared though and she cried a lot because she knew everything about his family and what went on when he went home, pain for his failure and weakness, pain so he could grow and learn from it...any excuse his father got really...

Sometimes he thought he deserved it though. That mudblood Granger (although his girl told him not to call her friend that anymore) beat him so easily in every class...she barely had to try and spells worked for her correctly on their second try at the most! It was an insult. He had to try harder, his father said. Or eliminate the competition. Make her feel bad about herself, too bad to study or do homework but he had tried that, after setting that hopeless girl onto her crush and all that had done was given her more time to do her homework! Without his friendship and distraction she only proceeded to get even better grades, so he had given up on that chase.

It was the second to last night before the holidays began, and tomorrow after class he would set off for home like most of the other students. She was curled up into his side, his arm wrapped around her bare waist protectively even though he wasn't able to fall asleep. How could he leave this all to go back to such hell? He wished there was some excuse, any – which would work on his father! But Quidditch hadn't worked and neither had 'figuring out what Potter was up to' either. With a sigh he turned and curled into his sweet, tucking the blanket around them both more snugly before he fell asleep finally, breathing softly into her hair.

"It's only for two weeks." She seemed to be trying to convince herself more than she was him. "We can keep in contact through the journals, don't you think?"
"As long as he doesn't go through my luggage…" he kissed her one final time, and then pushed her on her way, waiting behind for a few minutes. They couldn't be seen together of course, he would be literally killed if his father found out…

Home now, in his usual place and the mutter of a curse sent his spine bucking in pain. He tried not to make a sound, tried not to cry out because that would only give the old man pleasure, but it only took a moment and then…

Lucius turned and left Draco screaming. Weak little fool, he would make a man out of him.