Draco could barely hide the satisfied grin on his face as he watched the three intruders into his home grapple with the fact that he was standing right in front of them. He really had been waiting quite some time for them to eventually decide his house was worth investigating, and it was about time they got here. He knew he didn't look like his old self, but this was his home, and he stood straight and proud before them.
"Malfoy," Potter said, the surprise obvious in his voice. "We thought you were…"
"Dead," Draco finished bluntly. "No, not quite yet Potter. No doubt that's what all of those trumped-up wizards out there are saying - the end of a family who was nothing but ill news to begin with. Fools - the Malfoy's aren't as easily destroyed as that."
"But, no one's seen you since sixth year," a young woman that Draco only barely recognized as Granger said. The Mudblood had certainly grown up since he last saw her.
"That's because of Snape," Draco said, brushing some dust off of his black shirt. "He made an Unbreakable Vow to my mother that he'd protect me, and that's what he did. Admittedly, his definition of `protection,' wasn't quite what I had in mind. After," here he faltered for the briefest moment, memories of that night at the end of sixth term flooding through his mind, "Dumbledore was killed, Snape took me into hiding in one of his old haunts. He basically kept me locked there for months, but the place must have been enchanted, because there was nothing I could do to get out."
"Then one day, just like that, he was gone. All the doors were unlocked, all the spells lifted, and I was free to go. It was only several days later that I learned that was the same day my mother was murdered."
They were all silent for a moment, until he spoke again, his voice cold as ice. "Since then I've been trying to kill those who killed my parents and nearly destroyed my family," he said, feeling the white hot heat of rage course through his veins, and his face contorted in anger. "I've gotten close several times, but I'm still not certain who actually did the murdering, so I've been keeping an eye on the Death Eaters, hoping to find out." He was practically shaking with the hate, and had to rein his emotions back into the calmness he'd been teaching himself ever since he'd heard of his parent's deaths.
Not until I find who did this can I let it go, he thought to himself. Maybe then the loneliness he'd been fighting against would leave to, but he cast that thought away. On a mission of revenge, solitude is part of the road.
The sound of Weasley's voice stirred him out of his thoughts. "It's great that you're alive, Malfoy, and all the best in trying to take on the Death Eaters by yourself, but what does that have to do with waiting here for us?"
He just sneered at him and said, "Very simple, Weasley, if you would use your mind for a minute: you've already missed them."
He watched, very pleased, as they exchanged glances and Potter said, "Missed who, Malfoy?"
"Oh please, Potter, don't insult me. You know exactly who I'm talking about - the Death Eaters, and their new leader. The people you no doubt trespassed on my property to find."
"Who is leading them, Draco?" Granger asked, but before he could say anything, the silence of the house was broken by the sound of yelling and a terrific crashing sound from upstairs. Suddenly the ground under them started to shift, and the roof seemed to sink down. Rumbling and the sound of snapping wood could be heard everywhere, and pieces of stone started falling down.
Draco realized what was happening before the other three and yelled, "The house is coming down!" which seemed to spur them into action. He heard Potter yell "Come on!" to his friends, and he started running for the stairs. Weasley was right on his heels and Draco fell in behind him, with Granger at the end.
They ran to the staircase, dodging all the debris that was crashing down, breaking everything. They hit the stairs and were almost to the top, when a large piece of timber hurtled down and crashed through the stairs directly behind Draco. He kept running until he heard a voice behind him and turned to see Granger hanging on to a stair, dangling over a hole that would lead to a long drop back to the cellar. She was calling Potter's name, but he was too far ahead and the house was making too much noise for her to be heard.
Without even realizing what he was doing, or why, he as flying back down the stairs, and pulled her up, ignoring the undisguised shock on her face, and practically dragging her by the hand the rest of the way up the stairs. They came to the top to find Potter and Weasley waiting, and as soon as they saw them coming, they took off running towards the front door.
Right as they were entering the main room of the house, where the stairs to the upper level where, they heard a voice shout "AVADA KEDARVA!" and there was a flash of green light from upstairs. Suddenly three more wizards were running down the stairs, all of whom Draco recognized: Longbottom, Loony Lovegood and another Gryffindor, Dean-something.
They all met in front of the door, but the sound of a huge chandelier crashing down urged them forward, and they hurtled out of the house and kept running until they were several hundred feet away. Then, all of them panting for air, they turned to see the house crumble in on itself. Draco balled his hands into fists as he body pulsed with anger as he watched his home fall apart, the sound of crashing and explosions getting louder and louder until at last it fell, causing a huge explosion of smoke and dust to erupt from the house.
The silence that followed seemed to stretch out forever, until Potter finally asked, "What happened?"
Lovegood answered, in that weird, far-off voice of hers. "We didn't find anything, and were getting ready to leave when we ran into three Death Eaters. They clearly didn't expect us to be there, but as soon as they saw us, they all cast some spell on the house that made it start to fall apart. We tried to attack, but once they had cast the spell, they just tried to leave."
Potter nodded and did a head count. Suddenly, he froze. "Where's Callum?"
This time Longbottom spoke up, "O-one of the Death Eaters, they used the killing curse as we were running and…"
The whole group fell into a heavy silence, and Granger moved over to Potter and took his hand in hers. Draco could just barely hear her say to him, "It wasn't your fault, Harry. Don't blame yourself for this," to which Potter only responded, "I didn't even know who he was until tonight, and I led him to his death."
Granger sighed sadly, and suddenly looked at Draco. Their eyes met, and he had an uncomfortable feeling looking into those deep brown eyes of hers, like he and everything he thought had become transparent. If he had been paying attention, he would have seen the shook on the three faces of the new-comers when they realized just who it was that was standing in their midst, but he didn't.
He finally broke their gaze and shook his head. I've been out of the world too long, he thought darkly, to have someone like her make me feel uncomfortable. Still, the feeling of her eyes lingered, as did the feeling of her hand in his.
Suddenly, Potter spoke up, his voice hard as rock and his eyes afire with anger. "Malfoy, you said you knew who was uniting the Death Eaters. Who is it?"
Draco walked forward and looked at the ruins of the only home he had ever known and felt a wave of bitterness rise up as he answered, "The same person who destroys everything when its use is up." He turned and looked back at them and said, "My aunt."
-->