THE PERFECT STORY

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter. Gosh.

A/N: All right, all right. I'm so glad that I'm almost to fifty reviews! That rocks! And only eight chapters! I love you guys so much! Thank you! Anyway, I just wanted to say that the person who reviews #50 will get to choose a song- any song- for me to write a Harry Potter songfic about. I already have several songfics so I hope you'll pick a good song. Thanks! Now, off to the long awaited chapter nine!

CHAPTER NINE: THE MISTRESS & THE MASTER

Gloved hands trembling, Draco Malfoy wrapped his left digits around a sinister-looking knocker shaped in the figure of a snake. He pulled the knocker twice, just twice, and leaned back, pulling the hood of his robes down. A soft, constant drizzle poured from the grey stormy sky. Draco closed his eyes, preparing himself for the biweekly visit to the very house he hated more than his own (if that was even possible). A moment later, a series of locks were heard to unlatch from the other side of the threshold. The door was pushed open gingerly and Draco stared into the wide, haunted eyes of a very old house-elf with a terrible cold.

"Masder Malfoy," it wheezed, wiping its nose with its hand and smearing it on a toga-like grain sack it wore around its knobby shoulders. "Misdess is ride inside, she is." Draco stepped across the doorway, doing his best not to touch the repulsive creature standing before him. It led him down a series of familiar halls, all bearing similar sinister paintings of wizards murdering innocent muggles. Draco tried to look at his feet. He hated this house and its walls were closing in on him, locking him inside, forcing him...

An unpleasant image of Ginny Weasley sobbing on her jail cell bed broke through his thoughts, which he automatically dismissed.

Finally, the house-elf brought Draco to what looked like a sitting room, although he wouldn't be fooled. A stopper of what appeared to be human blood was placed in the center on top of a mantle above a looming fireplace, although there had been no fire for many a year. Devil's Snare plants hung precariously from the rafters and there was so much dark magic in the air it choked him. The ill house-elf motioned over to a threadbare sofa. Draco sat down cautiously, as though he wouldn't be surprised if something jumped out at him. The elf nodded solemnly as it left the room.

"Misdess will be in ady minud," it drawled softly as it left, the door shutting behind it. Draco welcomed the silence but not the solitude. He rubbed his temples with his thumbs, trying to ease his splitting headache. The door creaked open and Draco looked up into the unpleasant face of his least favorite aunt.

"Ah, Draco," Bellatrix Lestrange greeted him, her hand clutching an obviously pregnant stomach. "I was expecting you." She sat down across from him in an ancient armchair.

Draco snorted under his breath. Bellatrix appeared to not have heard.

"So," she continued, folding her hands on her bulging lap. "What's the damage this week?"

Draco remained silent. If he didn't speak he wasn't here. It was a five-year-old's logic but he hardly cared.

Bellatrix adopted a more forceful tone. "Well?"

"Nothing," Draco sighed. "Except for a massacre and a kidnapping."

"Oh?" Bellatrix smiled, interested. She leaned forward in her chair. "Do...elaborate."

Draco breathed heavily. He was ashamed of the week's events but knew he must be truthful. "Monday afternoon I took forty Death Eaters to Central Square in Muggle London. Each took a muggle and on my orders decapitated it. A single witch in the square witnessed it, save for around seventy other muggles."

"Hmm..." Bellatrix nodded, impressed. "And the witch?"

"Ginny- Ginevra...er...Weasley," Draco answered, slightly hesitating. "She's at the manor."

"Well, well, well, my dear," Bellatrix replied. "You have improved. Your tactics are most impressive." She stared at him coldly, Draco quivering under her penetrating gaze. "But have you even bothered any MASS murders, at least more than 200? The Dark Lord was so much more tactful than this, and I would hate to disappoint him."

"But how can you disappoint him if he's dead?" Draco pointed out. Bellatrix drew out her wand as if she had expected this and muttered the terrible curse Draco had inflicted upon Ginny just the day before. "Crucio!"

Draco fell to the floor, writhing in pain. Every ounce in his body told him to fight back, to retaliate. But he knew he mustn't, that the results would be disastrous...

Bellatrix relieved the curse. Draco limped back to his seat, slightly slumping onto the sofa.

"Rutherford has been telling me interesting things, Draco, very interesting..." Bellatrix sighed, staring at him with cold disappointment. "How you have been slightly soft to your prisoner, the Weasley girl. How you and her often talk...NO EMOTIONS! DAMMIT, DRACO! WHAT DID YOUR FATHER TEACH YOU!"

Her words hit him like a cold slap, but Draco remained a stone. She couldn't break through his walls- he wouldn't let her. He wasn't worthless. He wasn't evil...

"I could take your life right now, Draco, dear," Bellatrix continued dryly. "It would be quick. I don't know if it would be painless, for I have never died. But it wouldn't last all that long. And you, Draco, know you mustn't hurt me. My minions are in place right now. It would take seconds to kill your mother, my worthless, treacherous sister.

"So, you know what your job is. I want mass killings, Draco, darling. I want the public to know the Dark Lord has returned- just in a different form. And if you don't comply it will be your head." Bellatrix smiled evilly. "Think about it this way- their lives for yours."

And after that statement, Draco left the Lestrange household and apparated to his manor, Ginny's words echoing in his head:

"Why do you do it, Draco Malfoy? Why do you do it? Is something testing you, Draco! WHY? You could be so much! Yet you have to degrade yourself by succumbing to your overwhelming past. Why can't you defy your father's legacy and be something of actual importance and right?"


Preview of Chapter Ten

Pansy tried to suppress a grin. She, after all, had to play the part of the missing, dead, rose-from-the-dead, betrothed, ex-girlfriend. "Pansy Parkinson here," she answered stiffly, sticking her pug nose in the air. "Here to visit Mr. Draco Malfoy."

YQ