(Trigger Warning: Torture, Death)
Draco's eyes twitched at the faint sounds of arguments muffling in the distance, he didn't know whether it was happening or if it was just all in his head. All he knew was that as soon as his lashes fluttered open and the first light greeted him, the noise had diffused away like a bad dream and he had forgotten about it right when he saw her.
Sitting on the armchair by his bed and resting her head on the side of the soft mattress was his beautiful lady. Her hand was still laced in his tightly even in her sleep, as though she hadn't just let go when she was off to finish her other errands before. Her glossy long wavy locks fell in her eyes and melted with the white silky sheets. She scrunched her nose when the soft wind blew in and tickled her face, soundly asleep.
The Malfoy man's vision started to clear up after a couple of blinks and he gazed at Aine with affection blooming in his eyes. As he wondered how long it had been since he was put to sleep, his fingers gently brushed away her white locks disturbing her sleep and he softened. It must have been uncomfortable to be sleeping like that all night... He thought to himself.
Except that it wasn't.
Aine had only come back just four hours ago after she had settled scores with Maryse. Just as she promised that she would be back before he woke up.
Upon Draco's touch, Aine started to stir for a bit, brows pushed together as her forehead creased. She peeks open one eye and a sleepy smile tugged on her lips, "Hi..." she greeted sheepishly as she propped herself upright.
"Good morning, love," Draco greeted back with a small grin, his voice raspy and low. He took a sip of the glass of water that Aine handed him and went back to admiring her.
She shot him a look, still drowsy from the fatigue that she was not ready for his morning flirtiness.
"Why did you sleep in such a weird position? Your limbs must be aching," he commented, lightening the mood to delay talking about what he vividly remembered happened.
"My limbs are alright, Draco. It's only been a few hours," she reassured him with a pat on the hand as she updated him about the status of the ordeal she had with Maryse.
Regardless, her lover wasn't exactly pleased with her lying awkwardly while he was peacefully sleeping on his plush bed. So without hesitation, he swoops her into the king-size bed with his strong arms to offer her some comfort. Aine nearly shrieked aloud when he suddenly did it out of nowhere, her heart leaping out of her chest.
Unable to hide her blushing face, she avoided eye contact with Draco. "H.. How are you feeling now?" she asked, trying to change the topic as her cheeks heated up like her ears.
"Honestly, I am still feeling a little tired but I'm okay now," he snickered, watching her trace imaginary shapes on the blanket's surface as she calmed her shy self.
"You gave me quite a scare last night," she confessed, feeling her heart waver and her fingers tremble again when she pictured how harrowed Draco was. To witness him fall apart almost completely yesterday and how utterly lost she was when she almost couldn't help him.
"I'm sorry, Aine..." the platinum blonde-haired man muttered apologetically. He never meant for her to see that side of him, nor did he intend to have her worried. Draco just didn't know why the feelings and emotions that he had suppressed for years came back when he saw that little boy being tortured by Maryse. He thought he was fine since the attacks had stopped relapsing, but what he didn't know was that he merely pretended that he moved on.
He simply pushed the guilt back deep down into his abyss so he could live normally again.
Aine turned to him and cupped his cheek, his skin wasn't feverish anymore. She gazed sadly into his orbs and drew him back up as he peered into hers. "What did you see that makes you so distressed like that?" she asked, genuinely curious and yet concerned. It wasn't usually her problem to pry into his personal affairs but it was different this time. She wanted to help him, whatever demons he was facing alone, Aine wanted to be there for him just as how he was always there for her.
And Draco understood that. It was time he faced his traumas too and he was tired of running away from them, burying them beneath the dirt and feigning ignorance of what he should have come face to face to fight years ago. Back then, he might not be brave enough because he was always worried it would bring those around him more problems. But it was different now, he wasn't alone.
Aine was on his side and that gave him strength.
Draco pursed his lips and adverted his gaze down to his hands, eyes softening sadly as he played with Aine's charm bracelet to distract himself so he wouldn't break again. He lets out a quivered exhale before looking back at her, "The boy I saw getting beaten up by Maryse on the balcony reminded me of someone. Someone who used to be very dear to me."
Aine remained wordless and patient, she gave him all the time he needed to gather his thoughts and self to continue. Speaking about what had weighed heavily on his heart and mind, and having to spill what he was bottling up from fear and guilt was a heavy and tough topic to bring up after all.
This was why whatever Draco was about to tell her, she was ready to accept him for who he was. He did the same for her when she disclosed her true identity and she was going to do the same for him. Be it his past tribulations and flaws, it wasn't going to change a single thing about who he was now at present and that was all that mattered to her.
"I never told you before, did I?" Draco said, realizing he had never spoken about it once to anyone but his parents. Not even to Blaise or Cyrus who were his closest friends. "About Leo..."
"Leo?" Aine blinked back her confusion and shook her head. She was only aware that during the time Draco was asleep, he kept calling out the name wistfully and painfully. She knew nothing about Leo and maybe it was because he hadn't told her anything about the mysterious said person. Until now.
The Malfoy lad looked up to his lover, silver eyes glossed with tears that he held in. "Will you listen to my story?" he asked, finding the courage to speak of his past that he had concealed in the bottom of his heart all these years. Yet, not once had he forgotten about his dear friend.
Even when he had lied to everyone who knew about what happened and that he was alright.
How could he ever be alright?
A kind smile crawled onto Aine's face as she nodded. She took his hand and intertwined her fingers in his, fitting nicely into his hand like a perfect puzzle. It offered him warmth and comfort almost instantly like magic and his courage had heightened just with that simple act. "Always. Whenever you're ready, Draco. I will always be here for you," she heartened him.
With a grateful heart, Draco mirrored her smile and took a deep breath before revealing to Aine his dark past and the trauma it had brought him to where he was. It still clinging onto him like a parasite, unwilling to let go.
"When I was young before I started Hogwarts... I had a friend. He was the first friend I ever had in my life," Draco said, reminiscing about the little boy who was always so cheerful, carefree and kindhearted. "His name was Heleo, but I usually call him Leo."
He went on, a faint smile creeping on his face as he told Aine all about his first childhood friend. "Unlike the rest of us who are wizards with magical blood running through our veins, Leo was, as my father and those currently around us like to call— Muggles, inferior and worthless beings whom blood purists thought deserved to be conquered and treated as chattels... Leo was a regular human child with no magical blood."
As a child, Draco rarely met other kids who were the same age as him as they were part of an aristocratic wizarding family. The Malfoys had their nobility and pride, so naturally, he grew up to be a pampered child living in controlled environments. The people he met, and the friends he made were in the end chosen for him. Even if he did have companions, they would be children of Lucius's colleagues. Children that he discovered to be calculative and guileful like their parents. And children who were tasked by their parents to be goody-two-shoes, who would try to get close to him by flattery and lies so that they would be seen as 'good friends' in the eyes of the Malfoy lord and lady. They would use Draco as a stepping stone, a means to earn a promotion for their family to boost their wealth, and status and to brag.
"In the end, they were all fake friends..." Draco stated bitterly and Aine's heart sank at his expression. That was always one of the downsides of wealth, you can always buy people to surround yourself with but at the end of the day, it doesn't change the fact that the relationship you foster with them was true.
Draco learnt and comprehended that from a young age and it was heartbreaking. He might have grown up indulging in luxuries and coddled with all the attention, but in reality, beneath all the opulence, he was a lonely boy who just wanted a true friend; someone to understand him without any pretence and fakery.
His friendship with his first true friend started when the young Muggle boy with chestnut brown coloured hair stumbled upon the Malfoy land once. Leo was an adventurous little guy who loved to explore by himself, sometimes he would even find himself bending the rules and probing into out-of-bounds places. To the point that he got in trouble sometimes because of it and the Malfoy Manor was one of those places. That was when he came across young Draco who was hanging out in a large garden nearby alone.
"Back then, the enchantments around the Malfoy Manor weren't as tough and strong as it was now. It was common for Muggles to trespass into our territories. Most of the time, they would be too afraid to venture deeper, which led them to leave as soon as they spotted the mansion," Draco explained, recalling a farmer man run away while screaming his head, terror in his eyes once, and the other time when he witnessed a runaway couple who wanted to elope to their home walking backwards in a trance.
The charms were set as precautions and were majority harmless. The idea of how Leo was able to set food and wander deeper than any Muggles so far was still a question Draco has yet to figure out.
"He was the first boy— Let alone a Muggle child of my age that I have ever seen come into my home," Draco stated, a chuckle escaping his lips at the recollection. The first time he saw Leo, he thought he was seeing things because Lucius was always strict with people coming into their grounds. For a moment, he even thought that Leo was a ghost.
That was until the Muggle boy poked his cheeks to get him out of the daydream did Draco found out that he was very much alive. Ghosts were unable to touch human beings after all.
As opposed to the many kids Draco had met through his father's connection, Leo was a different sort of kid. He was a curious yet naive boy who never once cared whether Draco was pleased or not. He wouldn't kiss up to him like the rest and was blunt in his remarks, going so far as to tease and jest with him all for the fun of it. Leo would never make Draco like him or shower him with praises to get on his good side. He would do the opposite and bicker around with the Malfoy boy.
"I supposed that was why he made me intrigued," Draco said. "Leo treated me as an equal even though I was deemed to be superior by our kind..."
Aine's lips curled as Draco went on to tell her about his precious childhood friend. She could see the happiness spreading across his face, and how he would light up the more he spoke fondly of the brotherly friendship he shared.
The two boys grew close quickly due to their contrasting backgrounds, fascinated by each other's worlds. Draco was interested in the Muggles' way of life without magic, especially how they could drive cars and planes. As a young boy, he was curious about many things about the Muggles but never got to learn much about them because they were considered taboo by his father.
Nevertheless, Leo would always tell him stories about them and in exchange, Draco would show him a glimpse of the Magical World secretly whenever they met deep in the furthest garden of the Malfoy Manor. He would sneak the most bizarre plant from his mother's greenhouse just to brag to Leo along with his family owl. Leo was a boy who loved birds too so sometimes Draco would even present his friend with the little magic he was unable to control back then, conjuring little birds made from the blades of the grass.
There were countless happy memories that Draco had shared with Leo; they would fight like boys at times but there was also so much laughter. Draco's life alone in the manor would be filled with colours ever since Leo came and he found his smile back with Leo by his side. Each meeting was full of happiness despite their differences.
"In time, we grew to enjoy each other's company and we became close... Very close friends, almost like brothers," the Malfoy male added before the smile that he had been wearing since the beginning of the story cracked and faltered. "That was a mistake."
The grip on Aine's hand tightened and she looked at him with anxiousness, fearing for what was to come next. Whatever it was, it definitely couldn't be good.
"Our friendship was exposed the day one of Father's acquaintances caught us. Someone that you knew too, love," he said, expression darkening when he remembered what that man did to Aine years ago. "Someone that we met during the Triwizard Tournament," he hinted.
Aine's gaze on Draco hardened with a furrowed brow. "I do?" she queried and he nodded, biting the bottom of his lips at that impersonator.
Word by word, he spelt it out. "Barty... Crouch... Junior..." Draco exhales heavily, resentment swirling in his silver eyes. Aine let out a sharp intake of breath at the revelation and she grasped at the silky sheets, having goosebumps again when the image of Moody melted into this other younger man after the Polyjuice potion wore off.
The sight of Barty Crouch Junior's mask dissolving away like acid had been rained on him persisted to haunt Aine even today. It was a gruesome scene that she was certain Harry would be equally disturbed if he thought about it again.
After a short pause, Draco continued to divulge his father's initial reaction. Lucius was absolutely livid when the news came to him from his underlings. Only when Leo was forcibly brought forth by Crouch Junior to confrontation with the Malfoy head did Lucius's anger fade into wrath.
It didn't just infuriate Lucius that Leo, a Muggle dared to befriend his son. He was also deeply insulted by the idea of an inferior being getting close to Draco. But above all— He was disappointed in his son for allowing that to happen, for letting a lowly child set foot into his land and interact with him.
Lucius thought that his son was better after all the lessons he had driven into Draco's skull since he was born. That Muggles are beneath them. That Muggles are scums that ought to remain that way. He believed that Draco would learn to tell the difference in their status as he was always a clever and sensible child.
"But I didn't care about any of that and neither did Leo. He was my friend and I was his. That's all we've known. Our blood status wasn't going to change the fact that we were best friends, nor was it going to affect the friendship we had fostered along the way. Despite our backgrounds, we empathized with one another, we cared for one another truly. In the most organic way... Nothing was ever forced for one moment unlike the other pure-blood kids who call themselves a friend of the Malfoys," Draco acknowledged.
Leo was the first true friend that he ever had. The boy who brought him out of his shell and taught him how to smile genuinely.
"As punishment, Father ordered Leo to never come back. He was lenient enough to not hurt him as per my request. Though that didn't stop him from using the Imperius Curse over his mind to command him to leave..."
Just when things weren't as bad as it seemed, Crouch Junior stepped in. The younger Deatheater mocked the Malfoy's head and his softness for his son which led him to decide for himself that Draco ought to learn to tell the difference— So that he would never make the same mistake of befriending a Muggle.
"So he—" Draco's voice cracked midway and he gulped, urging himself to go on when Aine reassured him that he need not push himself to continue. "He tortured Leo again... And again... And again before my eyes. Even as the little boy was on the brink of losing his mind and when I stepped in to stop—"
Little Draco's heart squeezed together as though someone was clutching it tightly. He shook his head furiously, eyes beaming with tears as he tugged on his father's robes. "Father, no! Please! Leave him alone!" he pleaded.
"Silence, Draco!" Lucius barked, yanking his son back so he wouldn't interrupt the punishment. He turned to Crouch Junior whose eyes widened with such thrill, lips stretching to his ears as he cackled with joy at tormenting the Muggle.
"Watch closely, Serpentine boy!" Crouch Junior instructed Draco who couldn't bear to look at the state of his friend who was writhing on the grass, one eye squinting through the agony he was put through.
"No! Stop! Leo! Get away from him!" Draco cried, struggling uselessly away from Lucius's firm hold. He could only witness his childhood friend's brown eyes enlarged with fear, tears spilling from confusion and pain.
"Draco..." Leo croaked out weakly, one hand still outstretched to the platinum-blonde boy who whimpers.
Despite his futile attempts to stop the torture, Barty Crouch Junior only continued whipping the young brown-haired boy with his wand. Each attack cuts deep into Leo, slowly driving the boy beyond excruciating pain.
It was only when Leo's blood-curdling screams rattled his core did Draco stopped floundering in his father's arms. He dropped to his knees and hung his head low, "Let him go... Please, Father— Please..." he begged with his whole heart, sniffling as he refused to raise his head.
He never begged anyone before but only saw others do it. Yet, there he was, actually on his knees with his head down to his father's shoes, nearly kissing it— Begging Lucius to stop Barty Crouch Junior from hurting his dear friend.
The act alone sent Lucius's blood to boil and Draco could remember clearly that was the first time his father had hit him.
"How dare you kneel for this weak Muggle boy?!" his father seethed, nose flaring as his brows were pushed together in shock. He didn't hesitate before pulling his son up from the ground and striking a slap across his face.
"Don't hit him!" Leo managed to yell, his voice hoarse from the beating and he pulled himself up. Brown eyes darkened as they glared at Lucius and Barty Crouch Junior daringly. He limped over to Draco's side and put one arm out to protect him. "Don't... You... Hurt... My... Friend..." he growled.
The adults could only gawk at the two young boys. A muggle with no magical powers whatsoever, protecting a wizard— A pure-blood wizard boy. The sight itself was truly amusing, or at least to Crouch Junior. With Leo defending Draco even when he could barely stand, the Muggle boy did something none of the wizards expected.
He fought back against Crouch Junior.
A noble yet foolish move.
"That was when driven beyond madness Crouch did the one thing that would be irreversible..." Draco said to Aine whose heart sank. She didn't need him to tell her what happened to know the ending.
"Father..! Father, please!" The Malfoy's son's pleas fell on Lucius's deaf ears. His face wiped off all emotions as he tore his gaze away from Leo and Crouch Junior. He didn't even cover his son's eyes as Crouch Junior stepped forward, plucking the Muggle child away from Draco's side.
He raised his wand to the little child who froze rooted to the ground, completely petrified. The next thing Draco knew, the reflection of the bright green light fired at his dear friend in the blink of his eye.
Leo's body collapsed before him, thumping to the ground as he lay unmoving with an empty gaze. Just a second ago, he was still alive. But now— Leo saw nothing and his brown eyes were still wide open but they saw no more. They were glossed over and there wasn't a single spark of life in it anymore. His lips parted but no words left his mouth, not even a single scream.
It took a moment for young Draco to process everything. It happened so fast that he couldn't even fathom what just happened. He let out a shaky breath, and a shocked empty laugh escaped him as his knees buckled in front of Leo. "W- W- What did you do to him..." he stuttered, dismayed by his friend who wasn't moving. Not even breathing.
He reached for Leo's cheeks, a single tear rolling down his eyes and turned his pale face to have a better look. Then he shakes his friend's body. "Leo..?" he kept calling but the child only stared at him, hollowed like a doll. That was when his feeble calls turned into frenzied screams. "Leo! Heleo! Heleo, wake up! Come on, this isn't funny!"
However, no matter how much Draco shook Leo, the boy lay still. Dead.
Crouch Junior lowered himself down to Draco, eyeing the little boy whose silver pupils bleed with tears, glaring back. He put one hand behind Draco's head, gently stroking it as he spoke. "Now you should remember not to go around mixing yourself with those good-for-nothing Muggles. Remember to hold your reins, Serpentine boy," he reminded with a terrifying smile and more tears continued to flow from the Malfoy lad.
Draco never saw Leo ever again after that. His father grounded him in his room and forbade him from stepping out of the house since then. The last memory he had was watching from his windows: Leo's body was placed in a box and sent back to his family who had their memories altered and then moved away, never to be seen anymore.
Everything that Draco had shared with Leo was eradicated then after. Books he read together were burnt, toys they played with were thrown away, and even little trinkets they gave one another were destroyed. All physical existence of Leo was wiped from Draco's life from that day on.
It was as if the time they shared was nothing but a dream, a fantasy in his own head. A friend who would be forgotten in time, as if they never had a past before. And from that day forth, Draco would dedicate himself to pleasing his father. He rarely smiled anymore and even if he did, he learnt to perfect a fake one.
His smile was lost the day Leo died, until he met Aine who brought the light out of him again. Who gave him reason to love another and to give him reason to smile again.
However, the guilt stayed with him for as long as he lived...
Aine gasped softly, eyes welled with tears after the story and Draco sniffled. He rubbed his nose with the back of his hands and turned away from his lover to recompose himself. He felt so ashamed.
No words could leave Aine's throat, she didn't know what to say to him and was all but filled in horror and sorrow. The trauma of watching someone die before them at such a young age. How terrifying it was to a child?
"That's how I was able to see the Thestrals," Draco said and all of a sudden it just clicked in Aine's mind. The stifling atmosphere back when he confronted Moody who Barty Crouch Junior was posing as during the last round of the Triwizard Tournament— The way he was able to recognize her Patronus and see what others couldn't when they flew to the British Ministry of Magic on Thestrals. It all made sense now.
"It was because I saw my friend die... Because of me. I- I- I was the cause of Leo's death... I- I killed him..." he sighed, shutting his eyes as he shoulders the blame.
Aine shook her head and caressed his cheeks, making him look at her. "No... No, no... Draco. No... It wasn't your fault... If anyone is to blame, it is them. Those who created such a despicable system," she told him as she continued to comfort him in a tight embrace as he wallowed in his guilt and regret.
Draco would have felt better if he had gotten his revenge against Crouch Junior but the man was already gone— Back to Azkaban to face the consequences of other crimes— The Dementors had already taken his soul and there wasn't a person left that Draco could let out his remorse and hatred on besides his father. Even if he did, how could he? He didn't dare to go against his father because he realized that Lucius was also doing it to protect him.
Albeit, the wrong way to do so...
The world was truly a cruel place and so were its rules. That was always the disadvantage of having to co-exist with a different being who might be weaker in certain ways. You start to treat them as inferior, as lower-class beings and the hatred grows deeper with each generation, corrupting their children, grandchildren and their descendants' minds that Muggles are weak.
It was truly a dream if everyone could just live in peace, help one another out, fill the gaps of what the other is lacking and spread love instead of hate. But their world was far from a perfect one.
As were their realities...
"We're going to make things right, Draco... I swear."
Whatever it was coming their way, to whoever had wronged them both and those innocent. They were going to pay them back ten— Hundreds— Thousands fold.
─── ⋆⋅☀⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☀⋅⋆ ───
A little side chapter dedicated to Draco's past. I figured it'd be a nice little detail to make his character seem more realistic in a way. The reason why he was so afraid of his father and why he strived to do whatever his father had told him was because he was terrified there would be a repeat of such an incident.
Anyways! I'm not sure how many of you recognize that I have actually dropped hints across the past prequels of UNLEASH regarding Draco's friendship with Leo. The reason why he was so confused when Barty Crouch Junior (as Moody) called him a nickname that only he was familiar with and how out of the three Unforgivable Curses, he hated the torture curse the most because it was used before his eyes on his dear friend.
/* to Heleo (Leo). The fearless and sweet little boy.
What do you think of the chapters and plot so far? Do let me know your opinions and I hope it isn't too confusing! I promise we will see more familiar characters soon! Bear with me! ><
- Zeneria