Bruise Pristine

Bruise Pristine - The Placebo effect

"Won't you join me now, baby's looking torn and frayed.

Join the masquerade."

Draco Malfoy opened the door to his Notting Hill apartment, only to swear and curse when it got jammed. He squeezed through the tiny gap (which was only possible because he was very skinny himself). He kicked at the huge pile of letters that had accumulated below the letterbox within the three weeks he had been away, while wondering how on earth he managed to get so much post when he had only moved in two months ago. No one knew where he lived except Steve, Stef, and the management. He picked up a random envelope; it was addressed to 'Brian Molko' and seemed to be an invitation to a club opening. Undoubtedly sent by the record company. He stopped going to club openings a long time ago. They were always full of the kind of celebrities that believe their own hype; they were all stereotypes and Draco hated being stereotyped, besides, he got bored easily. He dropped the letter in the bin, as he walked into his kitchen, without even opening it. It did not strike him at all odd that the letter should be addressed to Brian Molko instead of Draco Malfoy. He'd changed his name when he moved to London at eighteen, partly because he wanted to 'disappear' as it were, and partly because the name given to him by his father was like the dark mark to him: painful and ugly. A horrible reminder of who he was and to whom he belonged. Only Stefan and Steve knew his real name.

Lost? Maybe you should know a little about Draco's past, just to get you up to speed. The details will come later. Ready to step into his rather expensive shoes?

Draco Malfoy was born to Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. He went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where he was a ruthless, obnoxious, little Slytherin, protected by his fathers name and living in the shadow of Voldemort. That much you know. You also know that he had lots of enemies, Harry Potter being the most prominent, although he often wondered whether Harry really hated him or was just pissed off by him. Draco was sure however, that he hated Harry, he had been embarrassed by Harry's refusal of his friendship and by the way Harry refused to back down during their frequent confrontations, so he did a good job of making Potter's life difficult. But things were about to change as Draco settled down into his fifth year at Hogwarts.

Draco was always a little different. He was always petite and quite effeminate for his age; white/blonde hair with fine features and those often described grey eyes. Draco quite liked this about himself, people tended to underestimate him, assume he was weaker than he really was, but anyway, he was never picked on because of whom he was. Except by Potter. Harry and his friends were the only ones who dared to stand up to him.

Draco had always been advanced for his age. At fourteen, he was very interested in things people shouldn't legally do until they are sixteen, but he soon decided that he hadn't found what he'd been looking for and concluded that experimentation was the way forward. At fifteen, he became very interested in a sixth year Slytherin boy. This in itself was dangerous because that kind of thing rarely happened in Hogwarts and of all the houses Slytherin tended to be the least tolerant. Draco decided two months after his sixteenth birthday that this wasn't a 'phase' and decided not to tell Lucius. This secret came to a violent end, when, seven months later Lucius found Draco and a new 'friend' in a rather compromising situation in one of the many bathrooms of Malfoy Manor. Draco had received the Cruciatus curse for that one.

Before the start of his seventh year, Draco was removed from Hogwarts and placed in a school that promoted the Dark Arts...In Luxembourg. Lucius believed that Hogwarts (under the rule of Albus Dumbledore) had softened his son up, that it had turned him away from the Dark lord, plus he was embarrassed that his son was gay and removed him from Britain before he could do any more damage to the Malfoy reputation. Lucius believed that sending Draco to Luxembourg would squash any 'illness' his son had.

At the school in Luxembourg, it didn't matter who Draco's father was, everybody's parents were connected to Black magic in some way. He found himself small and quite unprotected. That year was one of the worst of Draco's life. He became almost unrecognizable and much more introverted. He rebelled against Lucius and Narscicca, against everything and he dyed his trademark Malfoy hair a glossy black. He began to listen to muggle punk and rock music, he also began to learn the guitar, the old fashioned muggle way. At first it was just because he knew Lucius hated anything invented by muggles, but he found out that he was rather good and, having never before stuck to anything, decided to keep it up. Being as stubborn and proud as always he refused to ignore what he wanted and who he was, as a result he was nearly killed on a few occasions.

When Draco turned eighteen, he broke away from any parental hold his mother and father still retained and renounced his loyalty to the magical world by moving back to England, London to be precise, to study Drama at Goldsmiths university. It was then that he was disowned, not that he cared, although it meant he was totally alone, with no financial support from his family. Draco Malfoy was changed to Brian Molko, Brian because it was an ordinary muggle name and he didn't want to be found by the magical community. Molko because it was the name of his favorite type of dragon, the Molko dragon, (a small but deadly species with striking black and white markings that was thought extinct until the eighteenth century when a colony was found on an uninhabited island in the south pacific.) Creating documents for his new identity was only possible using magic, he was loathe to give it up totally as it had become rather useful and was still such a huge part of who he was.

Steve and Stefan knew he was a wizard, but it was okay because they were too. Draco, or should I say Brian, also had quite a few magical objects round the house, one of the reasons he wouldn't hire a cleaner when he was away, which is why he had a huge pile of letters waiting for him at the beginning of this little history.

At nineteen Draco ran into, literally, a fellow student from Luxembourg, outside South Kensington tube station. This person's name was Stefan Osdal, he was Swedish, 6ft 3" (compared to Draco's 5ft 6") bleach blonde and also gay. I should point out here that Draco wasn't totally gay, he leaned towards the bi-sexual, he batted for both teams. But what interested Draco the most was that Stefan (Stef, as he would be called in the future) played the bass. Draco was a rather advanced guitar player by now and the little voice that told him he needed recognition and money had never gone away, no matter how much he wanted to blend into the muggle world.

Stefan was also interested by the fact that Draco could play and contacted a friend called Steve, straight (although he had kissed a bloke once whilst intoxicated), who came from Manchester and played the drums extremely well. Steve, although he didn't like to admit it, was a squib, but he made a fantastic muggle. Together they formed a band called 'Placebo'. I won't go into too much detail, you can learn about Placebo on any of the hundreds of websites dedicated to them, of course, you won't get the real history, no one will ever know that. Draco made up a past to go with his new identity, he made up parents loosely based on his own, you will never read that he went to Hogwarts, that he has a wand, or that he was ever called Malfoy. And you'll never hear about what happens next.

Sufficed to say, they became big. Placebo became big because they were different, and because they were very, very good. But there was also the shock value, Bisexual singer, gay bassist and straight drummer. Draco, being the girly frontman contributed largely to their image, he wore light make up and feminine clothing when it suited him. With money and fame, decadence and hedonism swiftly followed. Their reputation tended to precede them. Brian was often referred to as:

"An obnoxious, drug crazed sex dwarf."

Draco still held on to some aspects of his childhood self. He was clever and liked to mess with peoples' heads. He was arrogant, scathing, he didn't suffer fools, and he was mean sometimes. But most of the time he was quiet and reflective, happy and protected. It was funny, he loved Stefan and Steve more than anything. He once thought He and his friends were a bit like Harry, Ron and Hermionie must have been, although he hadn't seen them for at least eight years. But when he saw pictures of the band in magazines he was reminded more of Crabbe and Goyle, his two band mates towering over the diminutive leader, like bodyguards.

David Bowie and Coldplay were among their list of fans. Placebo had toured the world, yet no matter what headline grabbing situations Draco had found himself in (an incident involving on stage abuse from Fred Durst and another involving Oral sex from Marilyn Manson spring to mind) he had never been found by the people he was hiding from. For that he was grateful.

After a short European tour Placebo are back in London to play the last two gigs, both at the Astoria on Charring Cross road. In two days the first gig will be played, but in the meantime there is much press and partying to attend to and that is where the story picks up.