The One Loved...and Lost

   Draco Malfoy sat in front of the fireplace at the Malfoy Mansion, reflecting. Somehow, he couldn’t get rid of the feelings, feelings that had been there for almost twenty years. Pain...regret..and love.

 

   He could see her face clearly in front of him. Melody Praeficio was his first love, his only love. And now she was gone.....

 

Ten years before....

 

   Draco Malfoy sat in the compartment on the Hogwarts Express, thinking about the year ahead of him. The past year had been exciting with the Triwizard Tournament, and he hoped this year would be more normal.

 

   Draco was your typical Slytherin. He was arrogant, rude, and mean. He was overly confident and knew the effect he had on girls. And yet, through it all, he wholeheartedly didn’t want to be a Death Eater. Draco was mean, not evil. He couldn’t stand the sight of blood, couldn’t stand seeing people die.

 

   That summer at the Malfoy Mansion had been a living hell. As usual, his parents had been unemotional and unmoving, avoiding their son as much as possible. Draco had woken up several times in the middle of the night, hearing his father slap his mother and walk out the door with another woman. But his mother had stayed, letting it happen over and over.

 

   He had been glad to get away from the mansion. At Hogwarts he didn’t need to worry about his every move. 

 

   The compartment door opened. Crabbe and Goyle came in and sat down, making Draco feel a bit claustrophobic. Being the idiots they were, they ignored the fact that Draco was ignoring them, and asked how his summer had been.

   “The usual, what did you expect?” he snapped, turning to look out the window. Crabbe and Goyle weren’t smart enough to come up with anything else to say, so they sat in silence, occasionally grunting.

   The train was still at the station, and out the window Draco could see Potter, Weasley, and Granger laughing. For a second Draco almost envied Harry, who had friends intelligent enough to have a good conversation with.

   He was still silent as the train zipped off into the countryside, bound for Hogsmeade Station.

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   By the time they got to Hogwarts, Draco was starving. The Cauldron Cakes he had eaten on the train had seemed like so long ago.

   “Draco!” Blaise Zabini was heading towards him. They had been friends since they were little, sharing the same babysitter. Draco was grateful when she sat across from him and Pansy Parkinson was forced to sit further down.

   Blaise looked around. “Did I miss the Sorting?”

   Draco shook his head. “Nope. And I’m bloody starving!”

   She laughed in response. “Still haven’t learned to become patient, eh Draco?”

   “Nope,” he smirked.  

   A few minutes later, Draco and Blaise were caught up and Professor McGonagall walked in, followed by the first years.

   Draco tapped his foot impatiently as the hat sang its song and the first years took their places at the house tables, one by one. Finally, the Sorting was over and delicious food appeared on the tables. 

   “Finally,” Draco said, reaching for the chicken.

   After he had eaten his fill, he headed to the Slytherin common room with Blaise. Crabbe and Goyle stayed behind, eating away at what was left of the food.

   “Serpent-tongue,” Blaise muttered when they reached the common room. They walked in and Draco stood still a minute, looking around appreciatively. This was the only place that seemed even remotely like a home to him. In the Malfoy Mansion he was always being watched, was unwelcome. 

   He hung around the common room with Blaise and Marcus Flint, purposely ignoring Pansy whenever she tried to talk to him.

   When the common room was nearly empty, Draco went up to his dorm and put on his pajamas. Settling in between the green silk sheets, he fell asleep, despite the snores coming from Crabbe and Goyle. 

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   Draco woke up in a bad mood the next morning, having had multiple nightmares of his future, of his fate to be married to Pansy Parkinson.

   “Stupid plan,” he muttered, pulling on his robes. His father had told him about “The Plan” before his first year. “The Plan” included and arranged marriage between him and Pansy, everything leading up to Voldemort becoming immortal. Draco, being secretly related to Voldemort, had a bit of Salazar Slytherin’s blood in him. He and Pansy were to have a child to be sacrificed, for Voldemort needed another heir’s blood in order to achieve immortality. 

   Draco despised “The Plan.” He also knew as well as any other Slytherin (well, except maybe Crabbe and Goyle), that Pansy had come to Hogwarts hating Draco, knowing she had an arranged marriage to someone she had never met. After a week, however, she had realized just how handsome, popular, and sought-after her future husband was, and stuck to him like a fly to honey. 

   He walked out of the common room and headed towards the Great Hall. He was earlier than most people, and Great Hall was pretty empty. But by the time he was half done, the Great Hall was full and Pansy was sitting next to him. She kept scooting closer to him and sliding her hand towards places he didn’t want touched. He quickly lost what was left of his appetite and got up to leave.  

   As he was going out the doors, he collided with someone coming in. They both ended up on the floor, muttering in pain.  

   “What was that for?” he asked as the girl got up.

   “Sorry, it was an accident. I’ll try to watch where I’m going,” she replied, brushing off her robes and holding out a hand to help him up.

   “I can get up by myself, thank you very much!” he snapped as he got to his feet.

   “I said I’d try to watch where I’m going,” she said. “I’m Melody.”

   Draco finally looked at her. He knew her vaguely as a fifth year Ravenclaw, even though he felt like he had never seen her before. She was petite and was a half a head shorter than his medium-sized Seeker's frame. Her Big eyes seemed to reflect some of his own sorrow and frustration in their dark blue depths.

   Finally Draco spoke. "Draco Malfoy."

   Melody raised her eyebrows. "Oh, so I'm finally meeting the infamous Draco Malfoy. I've heard a lot about you." She winked and went to sit at the Ravenclaw table. Draco stared after her in shock, then shook his head. He had forgotten where he was going. Then he remembered and left the entrance hall.

   

   On the sixth floor there was a room Draco went to often. No one else but him knew about it, as the door was concealed in a stone wall. It was simply furnished with a desk and a window seat with a view of the lake. Draco often sat there, deep in thought.

   Draco hurried up the stairs and opened the door after first making sure no one was watching.

   He sat in the room, thinking about “The Plan.” Then suddenly, his mind flew to the Ravenclaw he had bumped into. Melody. What exactly had she heard about him? That he was evil? That he was the school’s resident ‘sexy rexy’? Draco grinned to himself. He knew he was one of the most popular guys at Hogwarts and also knew that rumors ran wild from Slytherin girls about how good he was in bed. 

   Melody intrigued him. He had seen a little of his own sorrow reflected in Melody’s big eyes.

   Puh-lease! Draco thought. Don’t even know the girl, and her I am, thinking her sorrow reflects mine. I don’t even know if she’s a sad person, and I’m definitely not sad!

   Deep down, he knew he did have sorrow within him. The years without affection and only pain, and the years of the same to come.  

   Draco sighed. He needed to be happy. Getting up, he gathered his things and went back to the Slytherin common room, quickly surrounding him with people.

   “So which class do we have first?” he asked.

   “Herbology,” Pansy replied, settling herself on Draco’s lap. “With the Ravenclaws.”