The Rise of the Drackens: The Scaled Bits

This chapter is dedicated to Tracey. Keep your head up and fight on. Never be afraid to ask for help from those around you, remember that to suffer in silence is to suffer needlessly.

A Shoulder to Lean On - Draco and Nasta

When he caught sight of Draco’s face, he couldn’t bear it. It broke his heart to see that handsome face scrunched up in upset. Draco tried to hide it, but little signs gave him away. The crease around his eyes, the sucked in bottom lip, the slight quiver to his chin and the sheen of glittering tears at the corner of his eyes.

Nasta glared at the elder Malfoy and subtly moved to take Draco away from the tense situation for a moment, enough to give his blonde lover some time to regain control of himself.

“Draco.” He said softly. “Come with me a moment.”

He led Draco into the semi-privacy of the orchard; they would only be seen if one of the guests stood at the right angle and was actually looking for them, but then all the guests were family members, mostly of Max’s, but none of them would say a word about them.

“Your Father shouldn’t say those things about you.”

“He can say what he wants, he always has.”

“If that were true then he’d be dead. Everyone knows what he did to keep you and your Mother safe Draco, if he had just said what he wanted then Voldemort would have killed him.”

“What does that have to do with anything?!” Draco hissed.

“It shows that your Father is fully capable of holding his tongue when he wants to. He means to upset you and Harry. He wants to hurt you and he should be big enough to hold that inside of himself. He is your Father; no Father should say such things to their sons.”

“Harry has seen him at his worst, at his lowest, at his most vile and evil, but he has never seen my Father at his best.” Draco confided. “Father cannot forget what he’s done and he will never forget that it was Harry who saved him from prison. If Harry hadn’t forced the Ministry to actually hold full accountable trials then no one would have even known my Father was blackmailed by the Dark Lord to do his bidding.”

“He doesn’t like being indebted to Harry.” Nasta summarised softly.

“Our entire family owes Harry life debts.” Draco confided.

“That isn’t Harry’s fault. He is a loving, decent person, of course he was going to suggest, demand really, that everyone gets a fair trial after what happened to his Godfather.”

“I’m not saying that it’s Harry’s fault!” Draco argued. “I’m thankful, grateful that he saved my family.”

“But your Father saved your family all throughout the dark years and it was Harry who got the credit because he saved them in the end.”

“My Father is known for being rational in all things, but I’m afraid that when it comes to Harry he loses the ability to think and speak properly. He never wanted Harry dead, he was in the same school year as me, there is a month between us, I heard him telling Mother that every time the Dark Lord spoke of killing Harry that he couldn’t help picturing me in his stead. It has stayed his hand a few times when the opportunity has risen to strike Harry and kill him.”

“It was love for his son that stayed his hand Draco. He loves you. I can see it in his eyes, the way he moves, the way he touches you. He loves you but he is head strong and proud and he doesn’t know anyone here.”

“He doesn’t like showing his true self in front of strangers.”

“I can understand that Draco. I can. He’s lived through two wars and through the both of them he was close to a madman who was killing off babies, every one you met could mean your death. Husbands killed wives, Mothers killed children, the little old woman down the street slaughtered the neighbourhood. I know what it was like; I’ve lived through them too. I’m thirty-seven Draco. I was born in nineteen-sixty, I was ten when the war started picking up, I had to leave my family and go to school at eleven like everyone else, not knowing if the next owl would bring news of my Father’s death, or my sister’s or my brother’s. I was constantly afraid.”

“I didn’t realise you were old enough to have seen the first rising.” Draco mumbled.

“I am thirty-seven Draco, but it doesn’t matter. People couldn’t trust anyone back then, I didn’t speak to any of my classmates, I avoided everyone. I practised warding and alarm spells to place around my bed every night, just in case. No one trusted anyone, to show your true self was to invite death, your Father had to do this twice, he had to become a different person to stay alive and to protect his family, no one blames him for doing it Draco, everyone here understands.”

“I just want him to stop hating Harry. I want him to see the wonderful person Harry truly is, I want him to see Harry as I see him.”

Nasta pulled Draco into his arms and was surprised that the blonde allowed it, even pillowing his head on his chest, his tears darkening the light grey shirt he was wearing. He put his arms around Draco’s back and held him as the blonde cried silently, he felt that this was a real bonding moment between the both of them and hopefully Draco had leant today that he could come to him with anything, that he could trust him, that he knew Nasta would always love him and would always be there to hold him if everything got to be too much. Nasta loved Draco just as much as he loved Harry. Just as much as Max and Blaise. He loved all of them and he was determined to beat that into their skulls if he had to.

“Thank you.” Draco muttered as he rubbed away the tears, standing up straight to show that his cheeks had flushed pink and his eyes had gone red. “I look hideous.”

Nasta chuckled and pulled Draco forward into a loving kiss. “You look just as gorgeous as you did this morning.”

Nasta rubbed away the lingering traces of tears on Draco’s cheeks as the blonde went even pinker in the cheeks before kissing one of them lightly and heading back into the garden. He felt that he and Draco had had a real moment in the orchard and he wasn’t likely to forget it anytime soon.

Draco followed him into the garden and went to the table to get himself a cup of tea, pouring two cups and handing one to his Mother.

“Where is Harry?” He asked.

“Inside the house with your Father.” Narcissa answered a bit fretfully, trying her hardest not to show her worry.

Draco swallowed the mouthful of too hot tea and looked at the house in fear. If his Father and Harry couldn’t work things out, where did that leave him?

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A/N: The voting is now closed! Any votes cast after this chapter will not be counted sorry! You’ll find out in the next main chapter why you were voting and just what you were voting for in the first place, many of you will not be pleased.

StarLight Massacre. X