A Life Once Lived (1/1)
Title: A Life Once LivedRating: PG-13
Length: 1, 455 words
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange,
Ships: none
Notes: a request from tabitha666 in the mondmagique ficathon.
Summary: The Malfoys reflect on the life they once had.
As Draco sat there, staring at the charred rubble of what used to be the majestic Malfoy Manor, he felt tears come to his eyes. He remembered flying through the trees surrounding the large home on his toy broomstick, his mother keeping an annoyingly close watch on him, much to her chagrin. If there was one person that had always believed in Draco, it was his mother. She had never once doubted him, from the moment he was born. Draco was the product of several miscarriages, his mother sinking into a deeper depression, until that happy moment when the pregnancy test announced the news of their new arrival.
Narcissa was more than happy to show off her son, as was Lucius, very pleased that someone could carry on the family lineage. He was very particular about how Draco would be raised.
“I will not have my son grow up to be a failure,” he’d tell Narcissa, each time Draco would make a mistake.
“He’s just a little boy, Lucius!” Narcissa would plead. “Can’t you take it easy on him?”
“Do you want our son, our only son, to grow up to become nothing? I won’t have it, and I know your father wouldn’t like that either, had he still been alive…” Lucius would reply narcissistically.
Like his father, Draco always had a way of getting what he wanted, even if it meant in the most masochistic ways. He wouldn’t back down, and he was stubborn. The one thing that Naricssa had noticed about Draco, was how frightfully insecure he was. For being such a bright and handsome little boy, he thought the worst of himself. And Narcissa knew, that without even asking, it was all due to Lucius.
“You’re planting bad thoughts in his head about himself again,” Narcissa told her husband angrily.
Lucius did not even look up from his newspaper, “He can’t go about life too confident, Narcissa, and it’s not attractive.”
“Take a good long look in the mirror, asshole,” she spat back at him.
Draco would constantly hear his parents bicker like this, but in his mind, he was creative enough to actually think that they loved each other. In reality, the love had died a long time ago, Lucius was going bankrupt and his wife was in a constant state of grief and depression, and in turn, they were both bitter. It was not a surprise that Draco had turned out just a little bitter as well, he had inherited it. And it also didn’t help that most of his family were the worst kind of wizards, like Bellatrix Lestrange.
Bellatrix, or Aunty Bella, as she liked being called, was taken away for torturing Frank and Alice Longbottom, with an unforgivable curse, when Draco was barely a year old. Draco couldn’t remember much of his aunt; countless times she had escaped, taking refuge at the mansion. And Draco remembered her filthy stench and foul language filling up the whole house. His father could not stand her.
“There are bad wizards and witches, and then there’s Bellatrix,” his father had told him. “Don’t believe a word she says, Draco, she’s the worst sort and you cannot trust her.”
Draco had to go through his whole life not trusting one single soul, not even his own parents. Seeing as he hadn’t even known his father was a death eater, till he was eleven years old. Draco had gone into Hogwarts wanting to be popular. He had failed at winning his father’s affection and approval, and he was also incapable of making his mother happy, the best way to cure his failed, sheltered life was to make friends. He had tried, oh how he had tried with Harry Potter, but evidently even famous Harry Potter was too good for him. So Draco did what any other rejected kid would do, he started demeaning and putting down others to get his way. He quickly became the favorite of Professor Snape, and being a long time friend of the Malfoys, this had something to do with it.
School was hard for Draco, he had never wanted to be ‘that guy’ but he quickly found it was the only category he could really be placed into. The attention that he had so craved and longed for was slipping out of his hands, and he felt nearly invisible. It was then, that he decided to take the ultimate downfall into despair, and joined an allegiance to Voldemort, and became a death eater.
At first, he took pride in this; after all, he was the youngest death eater they had. He was the perfect link to get into Hogwarts, and his goal: to kill Albus Dumbledore. The task, at hand, did not seem anything too difficult to Draco, he wasn’t close with his head master, and had never really taken a liking to him, clearly because his father hadn’t. He promised Voldemort he would finish this task. However, his parents were not completely ignorant to Draco’s newfound path, and also weren’t too happy with it.
Narcissa and Bellatrix personally went to Severus to ask him to look after Draco, and promise that he wouldn’t step out of line and do anything rash.
“I can’t control a teenage boy,” Severus told them one day. “I’ve been teaching for ten years now, and God knows I’ve tried.”
“I know that, Severus,” Narcissa pleaded. “But just, please, keep my baby safe, he’s all I have.”
Severus winced at her words, “Alright.”
“Yes, please take care of him would you, seeing as Cissy’s foolish husband decided it would be a good idea to condone this,” Bellatrix snapped.
“I believe this was The Dark Lord’s doing, Bellatrix,” Snape replied coolly.
Bellatrix lifted her head and gave an apprehensive look, “Something he’ll regret, I’m sure.”
Narcissa constantly regrets her decision to keep quiet about this matter, leaving her child in the hands of Severus Snape and Voldemort was a horrible decision. She felt cruel and useless in her child’s life, and knew that he was falling into a deep pit of remorse and there was absolutely no way she could help him.
Draco remembers those few weeks leading up to the killing of Dumbledore. Several times he had break-downs, unable to keep his cool. He hadn’t wanted any of this, he hadn’t wanted to kill anyone, he wasn’t capable of this. All he wanted was to keep his family safe, to make his father proud. And if he didn’t do what he was told, God knows what could happen to him, or worse, his family. His parents were the only consistent thing in his life, and he couldn’t bear the thought of letting them go.
“You don’t understand,” he told his head master through a clenched jaw and wet eyes. “I have to do this. If I don’t kill you, he’ll kill my family.”
“But Draco,” Dumbledore replied softly. “You’re not capable of murder, you’re not like this.”
The words touched Draco’s heart, but he couldn’t admit that to himself or anyone else at the moment, “You don’t know what I can do.”
But he couldn’t do it, Dumbledore was right; Draco wasn’t this kind of a person. He wasn’t heartless or greedy like his father. In fact, he was starving for love and attention. Each day, he’d try and wear the right clothing, put some cologne on, and even fix his hair a certain way, but it never worked. No one at all seemed to notice him except for Crabbe and Goyle, but both were so thick, that he couldn’t ever tell them anything without some ignorant response.
The battle was the worst; he hated being separated from his family, no clue where they were. Narcissa had it in the hardest, sobbing hysterically into her husband’s arms. He had become an alcoholic then, and he even admitted to missing and worrying about his son.
“We should never have trusted Severus,” he shouted hysterically over his wife’s wracking sobs. “They’ve taken our boy!”
“We’ve betrayed Him,” Narcissa cried. “He’s taken our son away, Lucius, oh God, why?”
The aching feeling Lucius felt in his chest when he saw Draco that day at the final day of battle was agonizing, and for the first moment in his life, he was proud of his son. Not only because he had stood up for what he believed in, but because he had more important matters in his life than dark magic; his family for instance.
And as the family struggled to find lost possessions in the rubbles, they shared a hug, a hug full of tears and praises, ‘I love you’s and ‘thank God you’re okay’s filled the air, as the Malfoy family rejoiced in the rubble.