A/N: Alright, I still don't own anything (the song is Sorrow, by Bad Religion), but I feel the need to write anyway, because no one else is updating... and writing is kinda like reading, right? By the way, does anyone know how to make chapters hold their formats (italics and such) when they're uploaded? Anywho, this is totally one of my favorite chapters, so thank you to NightFaery, because you're a wonderful beta and probably the only person still reading my story (Review People!!), and you have been the person to prompt my obsession with this song, among others... yeah, on with the story...
Draco didn't wait for the audience to catch their breaths, or even turn be for his first lyrics wafted over the crowd.
Father can you hear me?
How have I let you down?
A good portion of the school gasped to hear this from the cold and reclusive Draco Malfoy. Not to mention the fairly overwhelming fear of his father, the boogy man, Lucius Malfoy. The music grew and Draco looked up and somehow seemed to lock eyes with everyone in his audience.
I curse the day that I was born
and all the sorrow in this world
The music continued to grow in anger and intensity as Draco's voice did. Ginny felt locked by him as well as the rest of the Great Hall, she knew he was telling her something, along with everyone else. But why? She already wanted to know, why this song? Draco knew why.
*Flashback*
Let me take you to the herding ground
where all good men are trampled down
It was dark, and cliched as it was, it was also stormy outside. Draco stepped through the fire with his father, already wearing the robes of an initiate. He remembered the look on his Potions Master's face when he came in. He didn't know what it meant, it confused him, he was joining them, he was happy about this. Why wouldn't Snape want it too?
Just to settle a bet that could not be won
between a prideful father and his son
He remembered now how his father had railed against him. How could it be honorable to hold loyalty to a betrayer? He remembered Snape stepping forward, Snape under the Cruatius Curse... all so that they wouldn't bear the same mark. Snape in Saint Mungos, doubtfully to wake, and even more doubtfully to wake soon.
Will you guide me now for I can't see a reason
for the suffering and this long misery
He remembered his father putting the Cruatius Curse on him as well, a father who didn't believe in spilling the blood of his heir let him fall, his head cracking on the hard stone floor. He had locked eyes with his father then, and not let go of that contact, through all the pain, even as the aurors came in, breaking up the initiation of new members into Voldemort's Death Eaters. The werewolf had been there, the woman with the funky hair, the real Moody... even now he felt disgusted that they had saved him, they were Potter's, they belonged with him...
What if every living soul could be upright and strong?
Well then I do imagine
Draco didn't hesitate to lock eyes with the Gryffindor band at this point. Taking only seconds to look at them, on to Dumbledore, who he knew understood, to the point where he knew Snape would have been at this event, a Slytherin table set off into a corner where no one would speak to him and he didn't have to even acknowledge his own presence at this thing... where everyone knew he would be anyway.
There will be (sorrow)
Yeah there will be (sorrow)
His eyes focused back onto his main audience, which he now noticed was moving wildly to the beat of his band's music. He saw some people wonder where he was going with this song... how could goodness breed sorrow? Well, in many ways it can, but that's not the end of his song...
And there will be sorrow no more
He smirked at the audience's relief and continued, back to being the performer he really was...
When all soldiers lay their weapons down
or when all kings and all queens relinquish their crowns
Or when the only true messiah rescues us
from ourselves it's easy to imagine
His eyes shot to Snape's corner again when he mentioned the messiah. There were so many other than Potter who had given so much more. Potter wasn't the messiah they were looking for, he didn't even want it. His eyes found Dumbledore, he still couldn't believe his own belief that Dumbledore understood. Spoken and unspoken, he really knew the truth about all of it.
There will be (sorrow)
Yeah there will be (sorrow)
And there will be sorrow no more
A flash of red across the room caught his eye. She wasn't moving, but she was caught in the song. But more than that, she was caught in a question... she was caught up in him. Virginia Weasley intrigued him... a lion in the snake's den, she had joined up with Slytherins for her band, for the best she could belong to, even by her own statements. She was different than the other crimson puppets, he knew that already. Neither of them broke eye contact as he finished.
There will be (sorrow)
Yeah there will be (sorrow)
And there will be sorrow no more
Yeah there will be (sorrow)
Yeah there will be (sorrow)
And there will be sorrow no more
And for perhaps the only time in Hogwarts history, a cheer went up for Slytherins that had been held back from the Gryffindors. They knew something different had happened with that song and that band, they felt it still. Draco knew he had one that day, for once, really beaten Potter at something. There would of course be a party to celebrate. He was still smirking as he and the other band members packed up their things and began to join the general school populace for the dance, their bit was done for tonight and now they just got to be students instead of the entertainment. Pansy was not slow in latching onto his arm, but that didn't really matter for now.