Title: Redemption of a Malfoy

Email: tirel@pcnuthut.com

Site: https://www.angelfire.com/tv2/firebird_ascending/

Author: Constant Vigilance

Disclaimer: JK Rowling is God. I own nothing.

Distribution: Sure. Just lemme know where my baby’s going.

Spoilers: Oh, hell…none really.

Summary: Draco searches for the last spark of good in his father.

Dedication:

Lucius smiled ferally as Hermione backed up against the wall in terror. Ron’s eyes shot daggers at the blonde manhandling his best friend. Harry fought against the body bind, tears coming to his eyes as he realized he’d never get free quickly enough to save her. Seamus screamed helplessly and silently, his voice taken away with a spell, knowing that his love was so very close to death and he could do nothing to help her.

Lavender and Parvati struggled in the arms of the two Death Eaters Lucius had brought with him while Dean and Neville were held in the strong grasp of Vince and Greg. Every so often, one of the Slytherins would shake their charges and whisper for them to stop trying to get themselves killed as well. Snape lay unconscious on the floor of the potions room, blasted before he could make a move to stop Lucius.

“Well, little Mudblood, I think you will make a fine example for our dear Albus on why he shouldn’t defy the Dark Lord,” Lucius twirled his wand and aimed it directly between Hermione’s eyes. She shuddered and her eyes darted to the side to seek out Seamus, Ron and Harry. A blur passed in front of her and she shot her gaze back around to stare at the back of a blonde head, very similar to the one belonging to the man pointing a wand at her.

Lucius frowned. “Draco, move,” he commanded. Draco made sure his entire body covered Hermione’s and he reached back to grasp her hands. She gasped as he linked his fingers with hers and looked up to see the fury in Lucius’s eyes. With their fingers twined, it didn’t matter if Lucius missed his son and hit her, they would both suffer the effects of whatever spell the elder Malfoy had planned.

“No, father,” Draco replied softly, shaking his head.

A muscle in Lucius’s jaw clenched. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, my son, but-“

“I’m tired, father,” Draco cut his father off.

“Tired?” Came the incredulous question.

“Yes.” Draco sighed and locked gazes with his father. “I’m tired of pretending that I don’t have a clue about what you do as a Death Eater. I’m tired of pretending to be the dutiful son, the next in line for the Dark Mark, when I don’t believe in the cause anymore.” Lucius’s eyes widened. “I’m tired of blindly following an evil and insane shadow, wallowing in servitude and groveling for scraps of approval.”

Draco shook his head again. “And you should be too, father. You’re better than this. You’re better than him.” Lucius narrowed his eyes. The other Death Eaters looked scandalized.

“Are you turning your back on me, my son?” Lucius asked, his voice soft, yet a razor edge of threat ran through it.

Draco smiled wearily. “I will never turn my back on you, father. I love you. I respect you. I just don’t approve of your obsession.”

“They are one in the same, my son.”

Draco fixed a sneer on his face. “Your obsession, father, is a moldering corpse who doesn’t realize that he’s dead. He may have had some good ideas in the beginning, but years of death and destruction have warped him into a vessel for vengeance and hatred. He doesn’t care if he kills muggles, mudbloods, or purebloods. He just wants to kill.”

Draco could see the glimmer of agreement, of acknowledgement shoot through his father’s grey eyes before the mask fell again. “Nonetheless, my son, he is our Lord.” Draco snorted.

“No father, he is your master, and you his toy.”

Lucius gripped his wand tightly. “Move away from the Mudblood, Draco,” he warned again.

Draco gripped Hermione’s hands tighter. “No, father. She has a name, you know.” Draco’s voice hardened. “Look at her, father.” Lucius kept his eyes on Draco. Draco’s lip curled in a snarl. “Bloody hell, father, look at her!” He shouted. Lucius looked surprised but his eyes darted over Draco’s shoulder and Draco continued. “Her name is Hermione. She’s a person, father,” Draco’s voice took on a pleading note. “She’s a human being, a living breathing person. She’s also a witch; practically a genius.” He smiled waveringly. “She’s a lovely, sweet, kind girl who would sacrifice anything for her friends. She is a valuable resource to the wizarding world…and for Merlin’s sake, father, she doesn’t deserve to die.”

Hermione choked behind him and he squeezed her hand. Lucius pulled his gaze from Hermione and looked thoughtfully at the two of them. “Are you in love with her, son?” he asked quietly.

Draco chuckled. “No, father. I don’t even swing that way. But I can see the potential in her, father. The strength, the power, it’s all there if you look for it, even in one her age. That’s why Voldemort wants her killed. Not because he requires extermination until only purebloods rule; he’s afraid of her, of those like her.”

Draco cocked his head to the side. “Do you love me, father?” he asked, the pleading note back in his voice.

Lucius looked mortified, his eyes darted to the Death Eaters, to the other students, and finally back to his son. He sighed in resignation. “Yes, Draco. I love you, my son.” Draco smiled tearfully.

“Then please, father. Walk away,” he whispered. “For me. Do this for me. You’ve told me my entire life that a Malfoy doesn’t bow down in servitude, that a Malfoy doesn’t beg,” he slowly dropped to his knees, keeping a careful hold on Hermione’s hands. “But I’m begging now, father,” he lowered his head, keeping his eyes on Lucius. “I’m begging you to just walk away from this.”

The Death Eaters sniggered, watching a Malfoy on his knees. Lucius looked horrified. “Y-you are begging for her life?” He asked in a mortified whisper.

Draco smiled and a tear fell from his eye, rolling serenely down his pale face. “I’m begging for yours,” he returned, “And hers, and mine…and anyone else that has had their childhood, their life ripped away or sullied by the touch of the Dark Lord. Please, father…” he supplicated himself. “Please.”

Lucius made a sound not unlike a whimper, deep in his throat. He turned to his companion Death Eaters. “Obliviate! Obliviate!” They shook their heads and gazed at Lucius in confusion. “Both of you, back to our Lord. I will take care of this myself,” he snapped. They nodded and released Lavender and Parvati. One held out a small box and once the other touched it, they disappeared with a whoosh.

Lucius lowered his wand and gazed at his son, prostrated before him. He sighed deeply and placed his wand away. “Get up, my boy,” he said softly. Draco carefully stood, still imposed between his father and the girl behind him. Lucius sighed again. “Come here…please.” Draco moved cautiously away from his position and approached his father.

Lucius Malfoy opened his arms with a resigned expression and Draco threw himself into them. Father and son held each other for long moments and then Lucius turned him loose. “You realize what I’ve done today is tantamount to suicide?” He questioned.

Draco shook his head. “Leave him, father. Please, just leave him,” he beseeched.

Lucius smiled wearily. “I threw my life away years ago, my son. I made my choices, poor as they were, and now I have to live with them.” He tipped Draco’s head up with a finger under his chin. “But your life is just beginning.” He looked behind his son with a wry smile. “As is hers. You have your own choices to make. And though they differ from mine,” he rubbed a thumb across his son’s face, “I will not stop you from making them. I’m proud of you, Draco. Proud of you for standing up for your convictions.”

Tears slid down Draco’s face. “No, please, father…don’t,”

Lucius leaned forward and kissed his son on the forehead. “It’s the only way I can keep you safe, my son. The only way I know how.” He kissed him again. “Officially, you are disowned,” he announced carefully. “You no longer have access to the Malfoy fortune, you are no longer my heir.”

Draco choked back a sob.

Lucius looked down at him, tenderly. “But, you’ll always be my son,” he whispered. “I will have some money transferred to your personal account and your things packed up and sent to you before I make it public. I need you to make one last trip to say goodbye to your mother as well” Draco lost control of the next sob and it burst from his chest in a wave of pain. Lucius stroked his hair.

“I love you, my dragon.”

Draco couldn’t speak; he just threw himself into his father’s arms again. Lucius searched the room until his eyes lit on Harry, and then they narrowed. “Kill him, Potter,” he ordered in an icy voice. “Kill him well, kill him thoroughly. Make sure no part of him exists to come back and haunt us. Use me if you need to, kill me if you must,” Draco whimpered in his arms, “But do not let him live to take my son. Finite Incantatem.”

Harry nearly fell with the abrupt release of the spell. He caught himself and met Lucius Malfoy’s gaze squarely. “You have my word, Malfoy,” he stated calmly.

Lucius snorted and a grin appeared momentarily. “The word of a Gryffindor. How the mighty have fallen that I rest my family on that promise.” He nodded and kissed his son once more on the head. “Goodbye, my dragon,” he whispered.

Draco straightened and wiped the tears from his face. “G-goodbye, father,” he managed.

Lucius turned with a swoop and faced the Slytherins. He pulled his wand again and pointed it first at Blaise. Blaise calmly shook his head. “I think, sir, that you will find that unnecessary on the lot of us.” He smiled at the confused look on Lucius’s face. “We stand with Draco.” Lucius snapped his mouth shut and nodded shortly. He then stalked from the room and the door shut behind him with an ominous clang.