Harry Potter and the Rise of the Slytherin Prince

Malfoy Manor

Draco came to after only being out for a few moments with a slap to the face. His head pounded and his ribs ached but for an instant he could not remember why. He felt another sudden slap bringing him awake as he opened his eyes to his father's glower. Ropes tied his arms tightly to his body but his legs were free as his father tossed him out of the carriage onto the hard ground in front of Malfoy Manor. Lucius followed closely behind and forced Draco to his feet by grabbing his blond hair and pulling. The teenager gritted his teeth as his father pushed him towards the house and into the large foyer of his home.

"Draco, what are you doing...?" His mother Narcissa started before seeing the blood on her son's face and the ropes binding him. She frowned confused but did not say a word as Lucius pushed him towards the wall under the stairs. With a whispered password and wave of his wand a secret passage opened as Draco watched in surprise. The stairs were stone and curved downward into darkness. His mother rushed to the pair clearly distressed. "Lucius, please don't take him down there. There has to be another way..."

She was cut off when Lucius pushed her away and she fell hard on the marble floor. He then turned to Draco who felt panic starting to rise at his mother's reaction to the stairs before he was pushed. He rolled down the stairs hitting each one causing bruises and pain in his arms, chest, back and head with no arms to slow his fall. Finally he landed at the bottom, panting and trying not to moan in pain knowing that it would be far worse if he reacted. His father strode down the steps more slowly to stop beside Draco. With a gesture of his wand the ropes released and fell off his arms as Lucius grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged his son across the cold stone floor past a gate of bars. He was thrown against a damp wall where his arms were wrestled away from him and shackled to the wall above his head. Without a word the same was done for his ankles to the facing wall forcing him to stay sitting with his arms raised over his head.

"Why are you doing this?" Draco asked, finally breaking the silence with desperation in his voice. He nearly gasped as his father punched him full force in the mouth, breaking one of his back teeth.

"You know better than to speak when not spoken to." He removed his son's wand from his pocket and threw it out of the room before reaching in his shirt and taking the tiny mirror Professor Dumbledore had given him. With a smirk he smashed the mirror on the wall above Draco's head allowing the tiny bits of glass to fall in his hair. "You will stay here until you adjust your loyalties. You have turned your back on your family and the Dark Lord and I will not allow you to get in the way. Good night, son." Lucius turned on the last vengeful word, taking with him the light and leaving his son chained in the cold, black dungeon.

Draco allowed his tears to fall as he desperately tried to find a way out of the chains but the more he struggled the tighter the shackles got. He was able to bend his knees and lay his head on them for a few moments as pain and panic threatened to overwhelm him. He realized that without outside help he had no way of escaping on his own. With that thought and fears for Hermione and Marsali, Draco drifted in and out of an exhausted, pain filled sleep.