A certain blond boy, dressed in a crisp black suit, was sitting at the end of the elaborate bed whose colors seemed to scream out 'Slytherin'. The boy's trembling hands held a letter, and an envelope with the Hogwarts crest was thrown beside him. As his eyes darted forward and backward along the parchment, his eyes welled up with tears that slid down his cheeks and fell on the parchment, smudging the green ink. 

He had never known the greatness of Hogwarts to this day.

For all he knew, he did not deserve to be invited back. He hadn't done anything to deserve it. He was a Death Eater, after all. A dark wizard right in the Dark Lord's inner circle. He'd been part of the plans of the greatest evil wizard of all time. He'd helped destroy the same school he was being called back to. The fact that he was forced to do it didn't matter because he'd been too afraid to do anything against that.

He wiped away the tears, carefully folded the letter in quarters, grabbed his wand from the bed, and went out of his room and downstairs. There was only one place where he could go to say all that he had in mind; the only place where he could expect to be understood; the one place where he could show the demons in his head and not be ashamed of being weak.

He reached a dark, highly polished door with an emerald green serpent-shaped name plaque that read 'Narcissa Malfoy' in silver writing. This was the room of the only person he was living for. If it hadn't been for her, he'd have killed himself long ago.

He knocked on the door thrice. Immediately, a cautious voice asked, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Mother. Draco."

"Oh." The voice became much more relaxed. "Come in, dear."

His mother was sitting on the far end of the bed by the fireplace, and she had turned her head to face her son. She watched the confusion, anxiety, and desperation in her son's eyes with furrowed brows, emotions that he tried to hide from the world, but which she could read like an open book. Draco was her son, after all. She wished with all her might that everything was alright. Her boy had suffered so much already. Was it too much to ask, happiness for her only son, she wondered.

Draco came over to Narcissa's side of the bed, sitting down beside her. She worriedly asked, "What's the matter, Draco? Is everything okay?"

Draco drew in a long breath, then took out the parchment from his pocket, unfolding it. "I received this through owl some time ago."

Reading the letter carefully, Narcissa knew what was troubling her son. Keeping it aside, she held his hand with both of hers and brought it into her lap. "Do you want to go, Draco?" she asked gently. "I respect any decision you make. If you want to attend your last year at Hogwarts, you're free to go. If you don't want to, given... everything that happened, you're free to stay."

"I honestly don't know, Mother," Draco said. "I do want to study and give my NEWT examinations, but I don't look forward to my social life there."

"Exams and studies can be arranged at home if you don't want to attend Hogwarts," Narcissa said. "I can arrange for private tutors to teach you and you can take your exams as an individual candidate."

"I'm just... scared, Mother," Draco whispered, looking down at his hand that was so lovingly held by those pale ones. "I can't face anyone, given what I did-"

Narcissa cut him off by pulling him into a hug. Draco wound his arms around her. The gentleness of the way her fingers caressed her head triggered his tears. He cried his heart out in his mother's arms while she whispered, "You did nothing, Draco. Nothing. You were forced. I just want you to be happy. Wherever you go, whatever you do, I just want you to feel happy."

Draco's tears aggravated on hearing this.

"Listen to your heart, Draco. It often leads us to the right places."

***

When he had calmed down, he picked up his letter and exited the room. He needed time to think through this with a calm head, and he decided the best place would be the garden. While he was passing from outside the dining room, however, he heard people talking. He stopped at the bend and peeped to see who was there. 

At the head of the table sat Lucius Malfoy surrounded by fellow Death Eaters. Draco couldn't imagine his father having the guts to organize a meeting at his place when he was living in hiding to escape Azkaban.

Draco recognized Mulciber, Avery, Rookwood, Dolohov, and Greyback. They were all talking in hushed voices, but the voices still echoed around the room, due to the pin-drop silence in the manor. 

"...think we all have finally agreed on one point, that there can only be two possible places," Avery was speaking.

"Yes, and I think we all ought to agree on yet another point," Dolohov whispered angrily. "This is a completely foolish idea! What are we going to gain, may I ask you?"

"What we'll gain? What we'll gain?" Mulciber said incredulously. "Have you not been following, Dolohov? We have nothing to lose, and everything to gain! This is our only chance at -"

"Shh," Lucius suddenly raised a commanding hand and Mulciber immediately fell silent. "Time for the little chat to be disbanded."

No one said anything but silently complied. One by one, the Death Eaters got up and exited through the other door. Draco knew this must mean that Lucius had somehow spotted him, so he turned to escape. Before he had the chance, however, Lucius stood before him.

"Now, now, now," Lucius sneered. "I see someone's eavesdropping. Have we forgotten the rules? Or do we need a slight," Lucius raised his wand, "reminding?"

Draco was frozen. He stammered out, "I-I'm sorry, Father, I was just passing and - "

"Those would be, undoubtedly, very good excuses for a seven-year-old, but not very convincing for someone who's of age," Lucius said, dangerously softly. His wand was now brushing Draco's neck. "You chose to stand here. You chose to listen to something that is of no concern to you whatsoever. And what do the rules say? We do not try to interfere in anything that does not concern us."

As he had felt on so many previous occasions, Draco felt fear grip his mind and body again. He whispered, "I'm sorry, Father. I shouldn't have listened to anything. I won't do so again."

"Good," Lucius said. "I'm glad we got that straight."

As he turned to leave, however, his gaze fell on the letter still gripped tightly in Draco's hand. He saw the Hogwarts crest on top of the letter and Draco saw comprehension dawn in his father's eyes. He also saw anger and hatred, though, and knew that he was in trouble.

"What - is - this?" Lucius said slowly.

"It was delivered some time ago -"

"Don't feed me the half-truth!" Lucius shouted, making Draco flinch. He grabbed Draco by his collar and pushed him into the dining room. Draco stumbled and hit the wall, but recovered his balance, though his back ached from the impact.

"You have been corresponding with Hogwarts!" Lucius shouted again. "You have been acting traitor this whole time! You have been passing information from here to the Order members!"

"It's nothing like that, Father!" Draco said desperately. "If you just read this letter through, you'll know - "

"I DON'T NEED TO KNOW ANYTHING MORE THAN I ALREADY DO!" Lucius yelled. Pointing his wand at Draco, he shouted, "Crucio!"

Draco screamed - white-hot knives were piercing his skin - his knees buckled - fire was coursing through his veins - he was now lying flat on his back - his head was being hammered - the unbelievable pain was driving him closer to unconsciousness - 

"Stop!" a female voice cried. "Lucius, stop right now!"

Draco lay panting, still feeling the aftermath of the pain. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother holding Lucius back, but he broke free and advanced upon him, whispering dangerously, "To think I treated vermin like you as a son."

"As a son, you say?" Draco spat, standing up abruptly. Something about the torture curse had sent him over the edge. "Pretty sure about that, are you? Last time I checked, I was being treated like a slave here."

"You have the cheek to talk back to me?" Lucius' eyes glinted maniacally. 

"Lucius - "

"I see no better time to back-talk, father," Draco said, heavy sarcasm on the last word. 

Narcissa stepped forward and said to her husband, "Lucius, the boy wasn't contacting anyone, I read the letter and it's nothing like what you're suspecting - "

"So you're in on this?" Lucius abruptly turned back, his wand pointing straight to Narcissa's face. "Is there no one with their loyalties intact?"

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HARM MOTHER!" Draco shouted. 

"You are not going to tell me what I can and cannot do!" Lucius shouted back.

"That's settled, then," Draco sneered. "No one can order anyone else around. And we don't interfere with matters that don't concern us. Logically, it follows that even if I had been contacting Hogwarts, I'd not need to explain that to you, because who I talk to is none of your business."

"Draco, haven't I told you enough times how important it is to stay in hiding? Or would you prefer to spend the rest of your already useless life in Azkaban?"

"You didn't think about that before inviting a couple of buddies for a cozy chit-chat today, huh?" Draco shouted. "But I'm done. I'm leaving. And, though I would prefer Azkaban to any place with you, Lucius Malfoy, that's not where I'm going."

Draco looked at his mother and nodded briefly, and Narcissa smiled understandingly. With another scathing glance at Lucius, he wrenched open the door, walked out into the violent wind, and Disapparated.