Path

Character: Draco Malfoy

By: Vanity Sinning (Leesha - Slytherin)

"take a number, stand in line." – Survive, Rise Against

He's fucked up. It's the only words to describe him - or so he thinks. He doesn't know how or why and that's what drives him mad. He just doesn't know. Yet he's survived. Not because he's been good at anything he's done or because he knew how to, no, that's not it. The reason why Draco Malfoy has survived this long is because he got lucky.

Plain and simple.

So this path is long and hard, so he has to put on this big charade, so he has to wear this mask. What's different? All his life he's been told that status is everything, that one day he will realize that his destiny is the path his father once followed. But he doesn't want that! He doesn't want to be King of the Slytherins, he doesn't want to become a Death Eater, he doesn't want to marry someone he knows nothing about and hasn't even met yet.

But this is the path his father treaded and so this shall be his path. Draco is the King of his fellow Slytherins, crown and all. He becomes a Death Eater proud and all, and when Astoria Greengrass finishes her 7th year at Hogwarts he shall be married and all.

So the simple question becomes how long? The war rages on and still he sits here, locked up in this hell of a school. How much longer must his charade go on? How much longer before the Dark Lord wins this battle? How much longer can he pretend to follow this path? How much longer will he have to?

He marches around this god-forsaken place like the King he is, his crown high on his head, the signature Slytherin sneer placed on his lips. He's perfected this act. Crabb and Goyle do what ever the fuck he says; Pansy Parkinson follows him around like some lovesick fool. And everyone else is scared of him.

They know he bears the mark, so they stay out of his way and they bow down to him. Those who don't are taught a lesson, are taught to respect him. He mercilessly tortures the half-breed first years as part of the new Muggle Studies curriculum. He shoots curses at those who have always hated him in the halls. Draco Malfoy is the perfect Slytherin and no one and nothing can say otherwise.

But underneath this veil of evil and perfection is a boy, not a man but a boy. A scared, alone, hopeless boy who can't even muster enough courage to say no to anything he's been told. So he sits in bathrooms to escape all the pressure, and memories of last year often temp him into hating him-self and what he has become. Yet through it all he must always remember he is perfect.

And as if all this isn't bad enough the Carrow's push him around, they tell him what to do and insult his father as if they were in control of this castle. But Draco isn't stupid. He bites his tongue and chooses his words wisely when he speaks to them because he knows he cannot make one single mistake.

But that doesn't stop the anger always bubbling near the surface. He punches mirrors because he hates his own damn fucking reflection, he has to use glamour charms to make the bags under his eyes seem non existent, he picks at the food on his plate every single meal, and every time he hears that damn snake slither his whole body tenses up and he goes rigid with fear, he has to watch as his father be disgraced, he has to watch his mother grow thin and frail, so he has to watch slowly, as he's left alone.

What does it matter?

Who gives a damn?

Where will this bloody path lead?

And then he remembers what they're fighting for, he remembers the pureblood traits he possesses, he remembers the crown he holds, the power that this crown gives him, and maybe, just maybe he's okay.

But it doesn't fill the hole consuming him - nothing ever does anymore. And as he stares at all the other students who just like him, are searching for something to hold onto in this bloody world, he realizes that he isn't special after all. Everyone is a charade of fear and uncertainty, of hopelessness and lose. Everyone is out to survive through these dark times, and everyone is desperate and alone.

So yes he has the crown and the power, yes he has the mark that will cause his down fall, yes Crabb and Goyle act as the faithful idiot lackeys while Pansy Parkinson is the lovesick halfwit, yes everyone is scared of him and yes he will have to marry Greengrass.

And yes life for him has been less then kind but now Draco knows that in the end he must take a number and stand in line. Because maybe he isn't as fucked up as he thought and maybe just maybe Draco Malfoy will make it out alive.