Shards of a Diamond

Chapter One: Draco's Summer

Nothing from nowhere, I'm no one at all. Radiate.

Recognize one silent call as we all Form one darkflame.

Love your hate, your faith lost.

You are now one of us.-AFI, Miseria Cantare

---

Draco Malfoy sat in his father's abandoned study. He smelled suspiciously of fire whiskey but the only proof was the empty bottle at his feet. Somewhere in an above room Narcissa Malfoy's voice bore into his brain.

"Where is that brat of mine? Well?"

Chi Chi, the family house elf's squeak was audible. "Chi Chi is not knowing, Mistress Malfoy! He is just leaving out of his room a few hours ago!"

"You lying little tart! I know you're trying to protect him! Lead me to him now," Narcissa screamed at the cowering elf.

Seems like I'm not the only one who's been drinking, Draco thought before snickering thickly.

Suddenly there was pounding at the door. "Draco! DRACO, OPEN THIS DOOR YOU LITTLE GODDAMNED POUF!"

Even though he was terribly drunk, Draco flinched slightly. There was a crash at the door and Narcissa strode in quickly. "You little bastard (Draco flinched again), you know I was looking for you. Now you are going to clean the house with Key Key so it's sparkling when the Parkinson's come!"

The young boy chuckled drunkenly at his mother.

"What is it you're laughing at?" she shot at him.

"You called Chi Chi, Key Key," he got out before doubling over.

CRACK!

Narcissa slapped him across the face and marched out of the room. Her shrill, angry voice carried from the hall, "You better clean everything perfectly or you will have to sit through the Cruciatus all night!"

The gray eyed boy rubbed his face and giggled. "Chi Key, where are you?" he sang.

---

Chi Chi scrubbed the floor with the tattered rag Narcissa gave her. Draco was at her side fuming at the injustice of having to clean like a common servant. Now that he was sober (Chi Chi had given him a sobering potion) he realized what his mother wanted him to do. She even found it helpful to scream out the consequences everytime he made a snide remark.

As soon as Draco had gotten home for the summer he noticed an immediate change in his mother. His mother who was always smooth, cool, and classy in public, yet affectionate and motherly in the privacy of their home had changed. She drank, she yelled, she sat alone in her room at times and just cried. While she drank she was always angry at her son, always telling him "it" was all his fault.

As always, young Draco Malfoy believed his parent. Lucius was in Azkaban and it was all his fault. He could have stopped it from happening if he stopped Potter; stopped his friends, his followers. But no, he let them escape and imprison his father.

Scrubbing the floor in self-disgust, he stopped a moment. Why should I blame myself when it's all Potter's fault? It's always his damn fault, Draco seethed.

He'll pay for what he's done to my family.

Then the teenager got up and told Chi Chi he was getting a drink. Merlin knows he needed it.

"Where do you think you are going, Draco? You haven't finished cleaning and the Parkinsons are coming tomorrow."

"Mother, the kitchen and the rest of the house is spotlessly clean. I don't see any use of cleaning it anymore."

Narcissa sent him a death glare. "Fine. Let your future wife see that you live in your own filth. It will no doubt shed some light on your complete slothfulness." Her voice was soft but felt as if she was cutting him with a knife.

No matter how many times she screamed, belittled, and hit him, Draco always felt a deep pang of sorrow everytime she spoke like that to him. All because his damn father went to Azkaban because of Potter. All because of the damn bottles of alcohol she drowned herself in daily.

Potter is going to die because of this, Draco swore. He'd kill some part of him, if not physical, this year. No matter what he had to do to get it.

After grabbing a bottle from a cabinet, he forced himself to stop thinking and just sit in his room, downing shots of wizard vodka. Self-pity and anguish was heavy in the air that night in Malfoy Manor.

---

The next morning Draco found Chi Chi hovering over him with a worried look on her green face.

"Is Master Draco all right? Master looks ill," her high voice said worriedly.

"I'm fi-" Nausea suddenly engulfed him. The next moment he was kneeling in front of the toilet retching.

When he walked out of the bathroom he was grasping at a throbbing pain in his head. Accepting the sobering potion Chi Chi gave him, he went to go back to sleep. He looked in the bathroom mirror before and looked like a vampire. Translucent, pale skin with dark bruises under his eyes.

But as he curled under the covers and closed his eyes, he found that, no matter how groggy he felt, his mind refused to sleep. Damning the curse that is waking up, he took a cold shower instead.

Hours seemed to pass extremely slowly on this particular day. Draco wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing. He felt no real joy in seeing Pansy or her perfect family again. Yet, it was almost a relief to hear the loud magical door bell ring. Perhaps he just missed contact with others his age? This was a possibility, though a nagging feeling in his stomach thought different. After all, he never especially liked people his own age more than others. It was hard to find anyone he liked at all.

Draco strolled down the stairs to see his mother (sober) in elegant dress robes and sending Chi Chi to open the door. She followed slowly, gracefully, flicking up her nose in the process. It was as if she had not changed at all.

Draco suddenly had an idea why he wanted to see other wizards so badly.

"Hello, Draco," Pansy greeted at the door, her eyes glowing with happiness.

Draco looked her over and noted her expensive looking pink dress robes and smiled charmingly at her. "Hello, Pansy dearest. How have you been? I missed you greatly." He took her hand and bowed his head slightly to kiss it. Noting the chunky rings on her fingers.

Draco smiled wider.

The Parkinson's and the two remaining Malfoy's then walked over to the large dining room. Pansy sat across from the youngest Malfoy; she was beaming and fluttering her long eyelashes flirtatiously. It was all he could do not sneer nastily in her face.

Narcissa engaged in conversation with Adonis Parkinson; Pansy's father. With a melodic giggle she touched his hand from time to time. Adonis was as smooth as ever with his dark good looks and accepted her flirting with ease. Primula was oblivious, her bony hands lifting her wine to her lips occasionally when she had no comments to make on the conversation.

Draco again turned his attention to the female across from him. Icy blue eyes flashing with happiness, Pansy was talking nonstop about shopping.

"Oh, and I bought this just darling necklace, Drakie! I can't wait to wear it with my new dress robes..."

Draco tuned out. Like he cared about how cute her chunky necklace was. Or how the frills in her new dress robes matched it perfectly. How did his parents get off, making him marry this boring wench? Even that mudblood Granger didn't talk about shopping all day! Then again, he didn't know what she talked about at all. Though, therewas a pretty good chance it wasabout his carefully planned demise.

That's still more interesting than shopping.

The blond yapped on as he studied her parents. Her mother, Primula, looked remarkably like Pansy. She had light blond hair, just a couple shades darker than Draco's, icy blue eyes, and the infamous pug nose Pansy was known by. Adonis, on the other hand, had only a subtle likeness of his daughter. He was extremely handsome with dark, calculating eyes, and glossy black hair thrown over his lightly tanned skin. He and his daughter had the same pouty lips, which begged to be kissed. Her mother had thin, stern ones. Draco could also see they had similar bone structure. Primula was really thin and bony, while still looking beautiful. Adonis and his daughter were slim with gracefully long limbs.

Did Pansy get good luck, or what?

Adonis was looking right into Draco's eyes. Draco started. He had been staring. Blushing and looking away, he settled for listening about the latest fashions in the wizarding world.

---

The weeks of July passed slowly. Pansy and her family visited occasionally, making Draco feel he had hope to survive this summer. Narcissa was horrible. When she wasn't drinking she was depressed and quiet; when she was, she was angry and abusive. Only when Adonis came did she seem to be happy.

Draco just tried his best to stay out of her way and do what she said. It was much easier than being hexed into oblivion. Though she hadn't actually cursed him yet, she certainly would if he got her furious enough.

Since there wasn't much else to do, Draco just sat in his room drinking or doing homework. Sometimes a fellow Slytherin sent him an owl speaking of their summer and what they've been doing. Being bored out of his mind didn't stifle Draco's prideone bit. Surely, they would know if he responded too fast that he was had nothing else to do.

So he waited a few days before owling them on his exploits in France, Germany, and with Pansy. All lies, of course; but his house mates needn't know that, now did they?

But one day a different kind of owl came. Pitch black, with a razor sharp beak and red, beady eyes. This was no ordinary eagle owl. The parchment clutched in it's large, needle like claws fell onto his desk and the owl stayed. Watching him. Waiting. Draco picked up the scroll and untied the shiny black ribbon sealing it. A sudden gasp escaped his lips when he read the swirly, elegant writing.

Draco,

I am writing you tonight to ask that you and your mother come and see me. The ribbon sealing this letter is a portkey that will activate around eight o'clock. Your mother knows the password to bring you to my current location. Oh, and do be careful. My portkeys tend to be quite venomous. Especially to those that are not supposed to be handling it.

Draco just sat there; staring at the letter. Even though there wasn't a name, it was obvious who it was from. The Dark Lord wanted Draco to see him, but why? Was it about his father? Had he been freed? Or... or was it something else?

Draco felt a wave of panic.

What if he was to receive the mark today? What if he had to give up school and go join You-Know-Who? The panic grew. Draco wanted to join Voldemort, but not so soon! He wanted to finish his education, to train more, to take advantage of his last years of freedom!

Hissssss!

"What the Hell was that?"

Draco turned his eyes to the source of the noise, and dropped the letter at his feet. There, where he had left the black ribbon a moment ago, was a small, black snake.

"BloodymotherfuckingHell."

The snake then looked as if it was amused by his reaction and flicked out it's forked tongue for good measure. Draco was never one to admit he feared something; but anything that could even be remotely dangerous scared him out of his wits. Draco Malfoy was no Gryffindor.

Thank Merlin for that.

Flicking it's tongue out once more, the snake slithered to the edge of his desk. It's pale eyes glittered maliciously, giving Draco a sense of unease.

"Erm... Uh, you wouldn't go and bite me, right? I mean, heh, the Dark Lord wouldn't want you to go around biting people he summons, now would he?"

A soft hiss was his reply.

"Yeah, Potter would be the one who could speak Parseltongue. Fucking bastard."

Right then Draco could've sworn the damn thing smirked.

Oh, yeah. Snakes can smirk. Sure Draco, you just go on believing that. I always knew you were a nutter.

"I figured out I was a nutter when I started talking to myself," he muttered under his breath angrily.

"Draco, who are you speaking to? There better not be anybody in there!"

"Mother, who would be crazy enough to come into my room when you're home? Surely, you realize that is pure madness? I pity the poor fool that dares come into this house under their own free will," he replied, feeling decidedly bitter.

Just as Draco knew it would, the door crashed open. When his mother raised her hand to deliver a slap, he ducked and swiped the letter off the ground. Narcissa spun around only to find the piece of parchment shoved under her nose.

Without even questioning her son, she read it quickly. Then again, and again, and again. "I assume you remember how to read, mother?" Draco asked stiffly. He didn't like the odd blankness in her eyes each time they finished the short paragraph.

"What time is it, Draco?" she merely asked. Narcissa's voice was soft and Draco was reminded of the days when she gave him comforting hugs and sang him lullabies.

"Draco?" she asked, sharper this time.

Scolding himself, Draco looked over to the large grandfather clock across the room. Seven forty-five. They only had fifteen minutes to get ready. All of this didn't seem to want to be absorbed in Draco's brain. So he just stood there, dumbfounded, and stared at the clock.

Narcissa followed his gaze and inhaled sharply. The cutting insults were dimly registered, but the clock stayed in his full attention.

Tick, tick, tick. Tock, tock, tock. With one curse you'll drop, drop, drop.

A sudden, sharp pain shot from the side of Draco's face. Thankful for once of his mother's abuse, he ran off into his bathroom to change his clothes.

---

"Draco, Narcissa, I am pleased you have made the trip safely." The Dark Lord's voice was cruel and malignant. Even his condescending laugh made Draco shudder. He had to force himself from looking at his face in horror.

To her son's disgust, Narcissa knelt to her knees and whispered, "My Lord, dominus..." in such a way that made him want to gag. Dominus, he knew, was Latin. What made it even worse was that the Dark Lord acknowledged her with a simple "Servus".

"Welcome, Draco. I know you both have..." he examined them closely, "very busy lives, but Wormtail had a rather attractive idea for once." He looked speculative after that. The two Malfoy's dared not urge him on for fear of getting on his unfavorable side.

He shifted his attention on Draco again. "Mister Malfoy, I was wondering if you would like to become my apprentice."

---