Fear Can Turn To Love

By Ange Black

Disclaimer: I own don't Harry Potter or Phantom of the Opera.

"Fear can turn to love - you'll learn to see,

to find the man behind the monster: this ...

repulsive carcass, who seems a beast, but secretly dreams of beauty, secretly, secretly…"

-I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt it

Phantom of the Opera

(A/N: I'm really sorry about the format of the first two chapters, I'm writing this story on a Mac and for some odd reason, won't let me post it on the Mac. So, I have to email mail it to myself and post it on my Dell, which is basically starting to melt. I also apologize for the spelling, as sometimes I just forget to use spell check.)

Chapter Three:

It was Saturday Night, Poker Night.

Ever since Draco had been two years old, he had joined his father in the drawing room with his Death Eater buddies to watch them play poker. His mother had always rushed him away when she came in to give them their drinks, but clever Draco had always found a way to sneak back in to the room and watch the game. Old habits die-hard.

Draco sat at a round poker table with Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise, his only intelligent friend. Draco seemed to be winning, Blaise had the second most coins and Crabbe and Goyle tied in place for last. Draco placed his hand of cards down on the table.

"Full House, my friends." He said. He reached for the pile of coins in the middle of the table. "I'll take THESE!"

A large, hairy, grey hand was placed upon Draco's when he attempted to reach for his money.

"Nuh uh!" said Goyle. "Not yet! How do we know you haven't been cheat'n?"

"Yeah!" said Crabbe. Blaise sniggered next to him.

"We all know he isn't cheating. We're using cards with an anti-cheating spell, remember numb-nuts?" Blaise snorted. "And by the way, Draco, where is your Lady-Luck?"

"You mean Pansy?" Draco asked. "We broke up last week. She wanted to take me to see "Phantom of the Opera" or something. Said it was something her sister did with her brother-in-law when they were our age. Like I would go some prissy Muggle play."

Draco finally managed to the pot to his pile of coins.

"My second step-father read that to me when I was five. It was a pretty good book, even for a Muggle-written one." Blaise said.

"Yeah, so did my tutor, except when my father found out she was reading it he nearly killed her." Draco said as he picked up more cards.

"But Draco," questioned Goyle. "Aren't you and Pansy betrothed?"

"Yeah," Draco snorted. "But who give a fuck about what our parents said. Her parents and my Mum are in Azkaban and my father is dead. I don't think any of them'll mind, all of the live ones are probably crazy by now. Besides, she was the one who broke up with me first. I mean, come on."

Blaise looked unhappy. His last stepfather had betrothed him, like Draco and Pansy, only it had been with some girl from Austria named Ute Furst. Blaise had only met the girl once when he was fourteen. The memory was still fresh in his mind; she was a short, cubby girl who had disgraced her family name by snogging with another boy.

"Lucky." Blaise said under his breath.

"Why don't you just dump her, your mum wouldn't care."

"I can't." replied Blaise gruffly. "There was this whole ceremony with a Unbreakable Vow and everything. Mum said to make the best of it and marry her anyway, and then pull a Zabini.

The rest of the table laughed, they knew exactly what "a Zabini" was.

"She rich?" asked Draco.

"Duh! Otherwise Aaron wouldn't have done it. Or Mum knew and suggested her out of the pool of idiots he probably picked out for me. Aaron was such an ass, he hated me from the moment he saw me."

Draco had only met Aaron once out his longest stay of Blaise's stepfathers. He had been a tall, tan man with black hair and unbelievable blue eyes. Before Blaise's mother had murdered him, he had bewitched her with a love potion. He had been very loving to Sophia, Blaise's mother, but very cruel to Blaise. Draco had once witnessed Aaron beating his stepson, it had been one of the reasons for his murder.

"Crabbe, Goyle." Draco said. "Are one of you guys betrothed?"

"Nope." Replied Goyle. "I've got it made.

The rest of the table looked at Crabbe.

"Yeah, actually I am." He grunted. "Some girl name Farrah Samelle, she's the daughter of my Dad's cousin's sister-in-law. She's…"

Draco didn't listen to the rest of Crabbe's lucky story of how hot his betrothed was. Instead, he looked at the picture of Pansy that was still on his shelf. He knew that he shouldn't be up there, but he couldn't bring himself to take it down. He remembered the first time he had met his betrothed.

Flashback

A seven-year-old Draco sat on his bed reading in his room when his mother, dressed in her best robes of silk pink, came in to his room.

"Draco, put your dress-robes on, it's time to meet her."

Draco looked at his mother with a puzzled look on his face.

"Who Mummy?" he asked. Narcissa laughed.

"Pansy Parkinson, silly. You're betrothed to her." She answered. She went over to Draco's large oak wardrobe and pulled out a mothballed, old, velvet, green robe with a snaked clasp. It was his least favorite to wear.

"But Mum," Draco protested. "What if I don't love her?"

Narcissa rolled her eyes and began searching for his dress shoes in the large room. She found them under the canopy bed.

"You'll love her, you just haven't met her yet." Narcissa said as she tried to fit Draco's small shoes on his larger feet. "Why didn't you tell me these didn't fit before?"

Narcissa took out her long, thin willow wand and stretched the shoes without a word. She sized them to his feet before trying to put them on again. After she accomplished her task, she handed Draco his robe.

"Put this on or you won't get any desert tonight. Pansy's father is a very important pureblood. He was in Master's inner-circle, Mr. Parkinson is also your father' s close friend. Please don't besmirch the family name. I want you downstairs in twenty minutes," She said coldly, after flashing Draco the "you'd-better-do-it-now-or-I'll-get-you-father-up-here" look she left the room

Draco donned the dreaded robe, combed his hair and brushed his teeth in his bathroom before going down the famous Malfoy staircase, which was decorated with green and gold to look good for the guests that were coming this evening. His mother smiled and nodded in approval at him as he made his entrance in the foyer.

"Draco!" His father said sternly. "You should have been dressed hours ago, they're nearly here!" The large doorbell boomed throughout the house. "Never-mind, they're here. Get in to the dinning room. Dobby, answer the door!"

Draco and his mother were ushered in to the dinning-room by his father. Draco could hear the sounds of a man, a woman and a girl being brought in the door by their house elf. Draco's father waited for Dobby to take their cloaks and offer to take them in to living room.

"Ahhh! Kensington Parkinson how do you do!" Draco's father shake hand with a short plump wizard. Narcissa took a glance at the woman standing next to her husband.

"Mrs. Luella Slughorn-Parkinson!" she exclaimed. "You look lovelier each time I see you!" The very skinny witch turned bright pink.

"Oh, Cissy, you didn't have to say that." Luella said modestly. She reached out to shake Narcissa's hand. Then Lucius turned his eyes on the girl standing behind her mother. She was rather short, but had long blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes like her mother's.

"And this must be Pansy. My, my she is a lovely young lady." Lucius doted. Pansy smiled shyly.

"Pansy," Narcissa said. "This is our son Draco, Draco Abraxas Malfoy. Draco, this is Pansy, Pansy Lucinda Parkinson."

Draco shook Pansy's hand but did not let go for some while, for he became lost in her eyes.

"Well," Kensington laughed. "At least they like each other."

The rest of the adults laughed and headed in to the fancy living room, the one only used for important guests such as the Parkinson's.

"Now then." Said Lucius as they entered the room. "About that dowry…"

Much later, Narcissa was helping her son get undressed.

"Did you like her, sweetheart?" Draco's mother asked.

"Yes, she's quite pretty. We got along well." Draco replied.

"Good, that's what it takes in these types of marriages. Did you use nice manners?"

"Yes mother."

Just then, Lucius came in to his son's room.

"Hello, Draco, Cissy." He gave his beloved two kisses on the cheeks.

"Lucius, darling. What did you think of her, the girl I mean?" asked Narcissa.

"She was pretty, and the dowry was excellent. More than I expected to be honest. She'll just need to loose some weight before she turns seventeen." Lucius said.

"No Daddy!" Draco interrupted. "She's perfect the way she is."

Both of the Malfoy adults laughed at Draco. Lucius ruffled his son's hair.

"Ahh, young love…"

End Flashback

Suddenly, Draco found himself coming out of his memory with a peck from an owl's beak.

"Draco, mate." Goyle said. "You've got some post."

Draco took the paper and letters from the owl and paid it. It gave a hoot of thanks before taking off again. He opened the letter he got from the Minstry and read it with increasing shock on his face.

"No fucking way!"

Blaise sat up from his slumped position on his chair.

"What?" asked Blaise.

"They're forcing me to marry that Mudblood girl from Hogwarts." Draco exclaimed. Crabbe and Goyle looked at the letter with extreme interest.

"Which one?" Crabbe asked.

"Granger."

(A/N: Pansy is NOT Sluggy's granddaughter, okay? She is related though. Luella's maternal grandfather is the nephew of Professor Slughorn.)