World on Fire

p r o l o g u e

T H E Wizarding War of 1998 left the magical world in tatters for quite some time even long after the Battle of Hogwarts. Families struggled to grasp at whatever remnants of normalcy they could salvage and clung onto it tightly. How long this reconstruction era would last, one was far from certain. This was a time of mourning and of healing that hung over Wizard Europe like a storm cloud.

Draco Malfoy, however, took this time not to rebuild but to clean the slate entirely for, truthfully, there was no stable foundation to begin with. Even since Draco was small, everything was planned out for him from the little things like what he would eat that day to the large aspects like what his future profession would be. Draco was born as The Boy With No Choice, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Not that anyone cared, of course. The world around him was too busy celebrating the defeat of the Dark Lord and The Boy Who Lived to give a second glance to the son of a racist Pureblood. He was destined to be the way he turned out: snobby, self-preserving, and selfish. By the time he realized he didn't have to be, however, it was too late. His story was coming to a depressing finale, and the pages were prewritten years prior.

His years leading up to the Dark Lord's return were just Book One to the thrilling saga that was The Life of Draco Malfoy, and he was hellbent on being the sole author, publisher, and narrator of the others to come, thank you. Draco Malfoy was no longer the bratty coward the world illustrated him to be. He was Draco, (just Draco, if you please), and he was ready to set the world on fire, not just watch it burn.