So strange an accident has happened to Draco.
He had remembered the days in the manor, before the war had happened. Chasing the eyes around. Floating around on a broom across the vast green fields that astounded him. Playing with his new puppy that he got from his mother for his 5th birthday. Squealing unseen from a child raised with governesses and hits from his father.
He had named her Willow. Some name he had found in one of the sparse libraries that laid in the manor.
His parents struggled having children and to them, he was their god. The only heir to the Malfoy fortune. His father often reminded Draco of that.
However this happiness often did not last for draco. Not for long till the thing died, not a few days later when the puppy found itself drowning in the manor's pond. Draco had cried for days, crawling back to the pond and jumping into it. Hands grabbing onto nothing but water. He only remembered sitting at the edge the days that followed, even at the disgruntled grunts of his governess and the usual of whatever lucius malfoy did. Draco had asked why the puppy had did that. He had given it the best of everything a Malfoy could afford. Attention, sustenance… He used to think the puppy died because of him.
Fast forward to Hogwarts, he tried making friends. All of them were useless to be honest. Pansy and Blaise were alright, having being good company during nights in the common room. Talking about their futures and Draco's inevitable future to Astoria and taking over his father's businesses. Draco would protest against their giggles, while pansy spun her tale on another hogwarts girl. He was certain he would never end up in a suit and a wife on his arm who knew nothing but to pose for the daily prophet.
Now draco sits alone in a train cart dragging itself along the tracks, against the landscape of specks of rising smoke.
It smelled sickeningly of a sweet dry metallic scent. A few had died escaping Hogwarts the day Harry Potter died on the hogwarts express, his present destination.
Resting his arm against the window ledge, draco squeezed his eyes and hoped everything was just a nightmare and prayed that the cards was finally back in his hands.
Granger. They had given the mudblood to him to mentor.
Even her arm read that.
"You're gonna fucking lose, mate." Flint reminded him when Draco got his allocation. " Better give up now and let her succumb to fate."
The 4 flags had been stripped off the walls. The long benches that stretched across the hall now replaced by marble stands, some chipped off a fair lot from the manor before lucius tried to set up wards. The candle lit chandelier still remained though, shone brightly down on wizards and witches in black robes wearing silver masks watching the screen steadily.
He remembered the first day he met granger. Some strange girl she was for coming into his cabin, asking questions whether he had seen a frog, dressed up in simple black stockings and a hogwarts robe already. Caramel bushy curls stopped him from reaching out to twirl.
Then he had asked her if she had visited the newly constructed dagworth grangers potion factory when she mentioned she was into alchemy. Granger said no, mentioning casually that her parents were some muggle doctor.
Draco said nothing and had to close the door after that, against the pounding of a shouting girl. Granger and him had nothing much of a friendship after that. He called her names and she would ignore him during school. A horrid witch that haunted him.
Draco had complained about Granger to father. Father would just tell him girls like that were bad for him. Not would be wives but were nothing but holes for him to fuck.
Mudbloods lived to serve us, Lucius used to tell draco. That used to comfort him when he found himself waking up with his shorts all sticky. He used to dream about having his hands around that neck of hers, pulling that crazy hair as his hips snapped forward and back.
Dreams sickened him but reality killed him.
Now dark circles under her eyes, yet despite her seemingly thinner state, her eyes never shone brighter. She looked like a frail swan.
Standing stoically, draco wrapped his arms as the magical screen switched to another of the houses. Gryffindor.
Granger looked different. She had came out silent out of the crowd, dressed in a simple plaid short sleeved shirt and dress, where her curls seemed to have grown bushier with every step she took. She took the podium, standing next to Dean who had been chosen earlier, bloodied as he had chosen to squabble against the death eaters who patrolled by the stage.
"Say a little something as the golden girl, Miss granger!" Skeeter urged as she pointed the micro phone at her. " What do you feel to be the first of many muggleborns to be participating in the games?"
Draco was fucked.
Granger was silent for a while.
" Look at my arm. " She lifts it.
To the shock of the crowd where murmurings continued, she started to lift her shirt, showing a purple streak across her abdomen. Draco wondered how she had gotten that.
Draco swallows as Granger slowly says into the microphone, embracing it. "I'm not afraid."
At the corner of his eye, his former slytherin classmates were on their feet.
Hermione whispers once more. "You and I, let's see who's more in control." Her voice echoed throughout the stone hall from which he watched from, staring at draco through the screen.
Thus this was the start of the tragedy of draco lucius malfoy.