Vienna

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN: I'm sorry this is so late, but everything just got really hectic, especially all my classes, and then I went away, but I have no excuse. So I've decided to go with another one of Draco's POV, but it'll probably be much shorter, so I apologize. Again, thanks to my amazing beta, Anna, for all her help. And thank you to all my lovely reviewers, you guys are all amazing too, even the anonymous ones. But if you leave an anonymous review, I can't send you a sneak peek or answer any of your questions. Make sure you read the AN at the bottom, there's a little surprise down there.

Draco Malfoy

Even after all these years, the manor still looked the same, large and foreboding. Not to mention all the memories.

I apparated right in front of the gates, taking a deep breath before I went inside. With one hand I pushed the creaking gate aside and walked up the cobblestone pathway to the main enterance. A house elf opened the door and lead me through the halls to a larger room from what I expected.

So this was my mother's plan.

She approached me, still as beautiful and as warm as I remembered. She hugged me close, and whispered to me, "It's good to have you back, darling. You were gone too long." She stroked the side of my face affectionately and grabbed my hand, leading me to the others.

I stuck a strained smile on my face, trying to match my mother's naturally radiant one. Out of the corner of my mouth, I whispered back harshly to her. "Mother, I thought you said this was going to be a small party."

"This is a small party, dear. And I would think you'd be happy to see everybody after such a long time."

"You invited half my year! I didn't even like these people when I went to school with them." It seemed to me that my mother's way of getting me to stay here for good was to shove as many friends down my throat as possible. Most of the guests also looked to be women.

Typical.

"Just be nice." Mother stated with that smile that spoke loud and clear to me.

"Easy for you to say," I grumbled back to her. She gave me a look as if to say, 'don't-screw-this-up-or-you're-screwed-young-man', and I took that as an order, not a friendly request. Adult or not, she was still my mother, and she was not to be messed with. She made a beeline through the crowd, she wasn't rushing, yet she sure as hell was determined to get me away from Blaise and into the crowd of desperate women so I could be ogled at and drooled over.

I knew my mother wanted me to marry, start a family with some nice pureblood tart who was only into me for my money and my status, but I wasn't having any of that.

Daphne and Pansy approached first, both as vile as I had remembered them. I smiled, or rather smirked, at them and I could see them swoon. I wasn't interested in either of them, but since I was stuck in hell, I might as well enjoy it.

Pansy reached me first, "Draco," she purred in her sickly sweet voice. She hadn't changed in the least bit, still thinking she had any sex appeal. Her hips swayed as she walked. She looked like a snake, fangs bared, approaching her prey. "It's just marvelous to have you back. I've sure missed you. Six years really is too long." For the love of Circe, she was a succubus, slowly yet surly draining the life out of me.

Daphne was right behind her, and used her hips to bump Pansy out of the way, just as I was placing a kiss on her perfectly manicured hands. Unlike Pansy, Daphne was a true siren, a real femme fatal, everything about her was designed to lure you; the mere sound of her voice was hypnotizing and she used it to trap you. But once you were in her grasps, and you snapped out of her spell, you were a goner. She turned your life into a living hell and was no better than Pansy and all the others.

"Pansy, shouldn't you be getting back to Theo, your husband? And your daughter?" Daphne pointed her pretty little finger out into the crowd where Theodore Nott was holding a little girl.

"You have a kid? Merlin, who would've thought?" I asked her, slightly bemused as her entire face flushed a bright red. Well, I guess Pansy has matured somewhat, but I still couldn't see her as a mother, let alone be responsible enough to care for a child. The thought was shocking.

"Yes, and her name is Ella." She walked over to Nott and took the child from his arms and came back over to me. The little girl buried her head in her mother's neck, peaking out at me through her hair. With that little girl in her arms, Pansy's whole demeanor seemed to change. Her face returned to a normal color and grew more serious, yet softer too as she looked at Ella. Not getting the attention she had wanted, Daphne walked off to join a conversation somewhere behind me. "Things are different now, Draco. Did you really just expect me to remain an immature bint the rest of my life? I had responsibilities. I knew I had to marry; I had to please my family, so I did. I didn't marry for love, but I found it. And then suddenly it wasn't all about me anymore, I was somebody's wife, and somebody's mother. I may have my moments, as you saw before," she blushed a little at this, "but I'm not the same person I was when I left Hogwarts. There comes a time where you have to think about something other than yourself. But what would you know about that, about responsibility? When something happens in your life that you don't like, what do you do, run away for six years instead of confronting your problems. You took the easy way out, and while you continued live in your little bubble of denial, the rest of the world isn't going to wait around for you. This is not school, there is no teacher to fix your mistakes for you, it's the real world and everything you do here is on your own back. Everything you do has repercussions, and until you realize this, you'll always be the same old Draco Malfoy." She smiled softly at me, something I still wasn't quite used to, and touched my cheek lightly, just as a mother would before walking away to stand by Theo, but not before saying, "Someday I hope you realize this."

I stood, completely and utterly speechless. She had one thing right, she was most definitely not the same person she was at school. What she said, though, hit some kind of sore spot in me. What did she know about my life? Of course I had responsibilities, sure I left, but it was necessary, I had reached my goddamn breaking point. I knew what I had done by leaving, by leaving her, promising her I would come back but never did, and it still haunted me. If I had stayed, would it have been different? I looked at her with Ella again, and I felt something like envy. What was I envious of, why? And if I knew what I did was wrong, and I could admit this to myself, then why did it even hit that sore spot?

"Draco, mate!" I turned at the sound of my name being called over my shoulder. Blaise was now on his way over to me. He was wearing a suit that gave him a more serious and refined look, though his olive skin, brown eyes and hair remained young and boyish, as did his wide smile.

We shook hands and moved over to sit on some couches. "Merlin, mate, I thought you'd never come back. The letters only say so much." Blaise was the only one I stayed in contact with all these years, though I never did tell him where I was, but he knew why I left. His silver wedding band glinted in the light, heavily contrasting with the darker pigment of his skin.

Through his letters, I found out that Blaise had married Astoria Greengrass, Daphne's younger sister, a few years out of school. It wasn't an arranged marriage, but their parents were thrilled none the less. They shared a love that was rare in the pureblood world, as so many were arranged in order to keep the pureblood lines going.

"So how was your first day back at the ministry?"

"Relatively uneventful, I spent the greater part of the day just following the head of the Auror department, filing paperwork, sitting in on meetings. I don't get my partner until later today." I smiled grimly up at him, "I did… I mean I saw… her. Just for a moment, though."

"Oh," Blaise was the only person I had trusted enough to tell. He knew when he should talk, and when to just keep his trap shut, and he never once judged me. "Did you talk to her at all?"

"No, she didn't even notice me, and she walked away before I could call out to her. You work with her right, in her office at the Wizengamot? Do you ever talk to her, how is she?"

"I don't work with her that often, mate, and I don't speak with her that much either. I'm sorry."

"Is she… you know…" I pointed to his wedding band.

"No, she isn't." He seemed a little uncomfortable answering this, and he averted his eyes, opting to look at the ceiling instead of at me. What the hell did he have to be uncomfortable about, unless he was hiding something from me, but I chose not to push him for it.

My voice was barely more than a whisper now. "Is she happy?"

"I don't know, I really don't know. If you miss her this much, why don't you just try talking to her?"

"After what I did, I doubt she'd want to talk to me ever again. I broke my promise to her, I told her that I would be waiting for her in London when she got home, but I wasn't."

Blaise seemed to be studying my face, evaluating my features and it looked like he was contemplating the color of my eyes, or something of the sort, because he took a few extra seconds just staring at them for some unknown reason, until he chose to speak again. "Then why did you leave in the first place?"

"Because I was stupid, I was young and stupid!" It took all of my power not to yell at him. "I just couldn't handle it; once my father died I didn't know what to think anymore. When he chose not to come with us, I convinced myself that it was because he didn't love us anymore. But when I got the news that he died, and that he had tried to change, spent the last few years of his life regretting everything that he had done, I was torn. And Hermione, I couldn't let her see me like that, I loved her too much and she saw right through me."

Then it hit me. Pansy was right; I was a coward that couldn't deal with every little bad thing that happened to fall upon me. And it had taken me six goddamn years to figure out what Pansy had seen instantly.

I could tell that Blaise was getting frustrated with me, for his voice rose just a little. "Did you really expect her to wait around for you when you decided to grow up and come back? Not everything happens the way you want it to, you have to learn to think before you act because one day it's going to come back and bit you in the ass, and you won't be able to run away when it happens!"

"I know that!" I roared. Some people looked over at me curiously because of all the noise I was making, so I lowered it back to a harsh whisper, "Don't you think I know that by now. My God, why does everyone feel the need to remind me of this!"

"There's a difference between knowing, and admitting, mate." He stood up and gave my shoulder a squeeze, and walked away.

Between the two of them, I had had enough reunions for one day.

I stood up and made my way over to my mother, their words haunting me. I need some time alone to process everything. I knew there was something I was missing; something that Blaise had known yet chose not to tell me, I had known him for too long.

I gave my mother a kiss on the cheek and aparated out before she could protest to my leaving.

AN: Again you guys, so sorry this took so long to get out, I was going to have it out over the weekend, but I had a depressing day. We had to put a horse down at work that was very old and very sick, yet we all loved her. Suffice it to say, it took me a thing of Ben and Jerry's and a Grey's Anatomy marathon to get this down. All reviews are always greatly appreciated and loved, they really motivate me to write more, and I promise a sneak peak to anyone who leaves a signed review. Now because this took me so long (and I still feel awful) I'm going to give you all a little present. Anyone who who leaves a review (signed of course) will not only get a sneak peak, but, they will be able to ask one question(it could be about anything you want, doesn't even have to be about the story) and I'll answer it for you.

Next Chapter: Six Years Ago – Hermione's POV