Cracking the Gold

Draco Malfoy had taken the mark the summer before his 7th year at Hogwarts. After that it had been a simple matter for him to rise in the ranks as quickly as he did, through some combination of cunning trickery and sleeping with those above him to get what he wanted. And now, here he was, getting a present for it.

He arched a brow at the messenger, he supposed since it was a gift from the Dark Lord, he could be forgiven for interrupting breakfast, he listened boredly to the man\'s nervous speech about the good work he\'d done and how the Dark Lord wished to bestow this gift upon him.

It was then that the messenger tugged someone else into the room, someone cloaked and bound, face obscured from his view. THis bothered him. He hated not being able to see a person\'s eyes. The messenger was gone and Draco eyed his new pet for a long moment, waiting.


Harry Potter kept his eyes low, humiliated. He didn\'t know how he\'d gotten to such a rock bottom place, hell he didn\'t even know what he was, where he was. He\'d been kept within a cell barely large enough to hold his own, barely fed, barely moving after they took his wand and thwarted his escape and defeat attempts.

He was weak, yes, but he wasn\'t about to let himself be...nothing. Chains rattled from beneath the cloak which hid him. He was trying to slip his thinning wrists from them, unfortunately, the clasps were magically too smart for that.

Peering through shattered glass in his frames, Harry trembled on his feet, for once afraid of what might come.


Draco debated a long moment before crooking a finger, \"Come here pet.\" If anything his voice was even more of a honeyed drawl than it had been during their school years.

He went about peeling a tangerine, just watching, timing in his head how long it took his new toy to respond to the command.


Harry nearly gagged. Pet? God...what had he been reduced to? The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn\'t put a finger on it, sadly. He remained frozen in place pulling angrily against the chains, ignoring the random stabs of pain in his scar. But the scar flared up one moment, almost sending Harry to his knees in pain, scenes of past coming back to him, of what had happened to him when he had ignored Voldemort. He shakily took a step forward, willing the pain to go away, his face scrunched up in attempts to help subside it.


Draco smirked faintly, well that was better than the last one at least, \"Over here pet. Beside my chair.\" Maybe he\'d actually have a chance to have a little fun with this one before they gave up and died.

He had finished peeling the tangerine, so meticulous about it as to get all the strings off as well, lining up the segments around the edge of his plate.


His eyes clenched tightly, he moved to take another step, hesitating and making a few more with trembling and weak legs. He refused to crawl, or fall. Then he froze. That voice--it couldn\'t be... Malfoy?? He stopped entirely, hanging his head lower. It couldn\'t be, he couldn\'t give him that pleasure, not after all these years.

Tilting his head to the side slightly, he eyed the door then bolted for it, compensating for his restricted movements. Like hell he was going to listen to Malfoy!


Draco sighed, picking his wand up from where he always left it beside his plate at mealtimes, flicking it easily at the fleeing figure, hitting him square between the shoulders with a crutacius curse, \"Always with the running. Where do you all think you\'re going to get to anyway?\"