Something Ugly This Way Comes

Severus Snape pushed Draco Malfoy so hard down the hallway that led to his father’s cell that Draco was surprised when he didn’t stumble over his own feet and fall to the floor. He looked over his shoulder and saw that his Potions master was standing resolutely at the door with his wrists crossed over his midsection.

“Say your good-byes and make it quick, boy,” Snape sneered, his voice dripping with contempt. “We don’t want to keep the Dark Lord waiting.”

“Y-yes, sir,” Draco stammered as he continued to walk down to the end of the hall where his father was being held captive.

Upon reaching the cell, he saw the man that he had not seen for two years. Time had not been kind to Lucius Malfoy. His once prominent and distinguishing blonde mane had become matted and was beginning to turn grey. The eyes that Draco had inherited from him which had gleamed with life and exuded everything that a Malfoy was were now dull and seemingly lifeless.

“Father,” Draco said respectfully as he placed his hands on the bars that encased Lucius.

Lucius, who had been sitting on his cot, got to his feet and crossed to his son, smiling an odd sort of smile at him, one that Draco could only decipher as one a man who was on the brink of insanity might have.

“Draco,” he said softly, looking his son up and down. “It’s been so long since I’ve last seen you, you were but a boy…now look at you. You’re a man. Why haven’t you been to see me in all this time?”

Draco backed away, ashamed that he had stayed away from Azkaban all this time when his mother had tried all that she knew to make him come and visit Lucius with her when she went. He bowed his head and shifted his weight from foot to foot, biding his time in thinking of an answer that would appease his father.

The truth was that Draco couldn’t handle his father being here, in this cold and dank prison cell, It was easier to pretend that he was off on a mission for the Dark Lord or doing work for the Ministry than it was to face the fact that he was in Azkaban and would probably never see his father on the outside again.

For all of Draco’s efforts to find an answer, nothing came. He simply looked up and shrugged uttering something incomprehensible about how he didn’t know why and that he was sorry.

“Your mother has been here numerous times since my sentencing; she’s brought me lots of pictures.” Lucius turned his back and crossed to a small table that sat in the far corner of his cell. As he walked back towards Draco, he looked from the pictures to his son with a confused look on his face. “They don’t do you justice, boy. You look nothing like your pictures.”

He reached a hand through the bars and motioned for Draco to come closer. Without question, he did so. Lucius then proceeded to use an index finger to trace the outline of Draco’s jawbone, looking back and forth between him and the pictures once more as though trying to decide if the photos were really those of his son.

“Father-“

“Your features are not distinguishable in these pictures, Draco. You have such a handsome face-“

“Father, I-“

Lucius took his hand away and handed the topmost picture to Draco. “How old is this one? Is it recent? It looks like it would be; your hair looks like it does now, not like it does in these other pictures.”

Draco took the picture from his father and looked at it. It had been taken in the beginning of his sixth year, just outside of Madam Malkin’s. He remembered that photo being taken on the day that his mother had taken him into Diagon Alley to buy new school robes. She had wanted this picture of him because she felt certain that although she was sending her boy off to another school term, he would return to her changed somehow. He would be a man.

“Is your mother well? She hasn’t been-“

Draco opened his mouth once more to speak, he had to tell his father what he had come here to say, he didn’t know how much longer Snape would wait, or the Dark Lord would for that matter.

“Father, I’m-“

“I miss you and your mother so, Draco,” Lucius stated, casting Draco a mournful look. “You are of age now in my eyes and I hope that you will do the right thing and make sure that she is well looked after and taken care of…”

Draco gulped, not sure that he could say what he had come here to say. He blurted out his words before his father could say anything more.

“Father, I’m sorry! I tried to do it, I really did! I couldn’t, I froze! I didn’t carry out my orders and now he’s going to kill me!” Draco dropped to his knees and hung his head, half in shame that he could not do what had been expected of him; half in fear of knowing what was to come.

Draco hesitated in looking up at Lucius, thinking that he would not be able to face him. When he finally found the courage that he had lacked moments ago, he saw that his father was not staring back in disgust as he had expected, but he was staring back in concern.

“What do you mean, Draco?” he asked quietly. “Couldn’t do what? Who’s going to kill you?”

“I was meant to kill Dumbledore on Voldemort’s orders, father. I-I froze…Snape killed him…The Dark Lord knows…he-he’s going to kill me…kill mother…kill you....Father, please forgive me!” Draco hung his head once more and didn’t bother to try and stop the tears that had begun to spill from his eyes and down his cheeks.

“Draco, come here,” Lucius said softly as he extended a hand through the bars.

Had this been in the midst of any other situation, the elder Malfoy would have hexed his own son and made sure that he knew just how disappointed he was in him.

Draco thought of this first and for that reason, hesitated to start towards his father. But then he saw a softness that played across his face. It was such a look that led Draco to believe that Lucius would be more than understanding of his plight.

“Y-yes, father?” Draco stammered.

Lucius touched his son’s face and gently stroked his left cheek a couple of times.

“It’s ok. I’m sure that you tried atleast.”

“I did. I truly did, Father. I wouldn’t intentionally let you or Voldemort down.”

“I know. It’s ok, Draco. Really.”

“But you and mother-you’ll suffer for my insolence-you’re both going to die…” he couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. “I’m going to die!”

“Boy!” Snape barked from his position at the door. “You’re running out of time. Are you quite done with saying your precious goodbyes?”

“Coming,” he called over his shoulder. Turning back to his father, he said, “I have to go. I-I love you.”

“I love you too, son,” Lucius told him as he watched his son walk away.

Hours later, Snape sat in the foyer of Malfoy Manor awaiting a meeting with Narcissa. She had requested that he stay for a moment after bringing Draco back home to her.

When she finally arrived, she stood before Snape, completely sullen, her voice tearful but her face as solemn as it could be.

“Draco says that he’s going to die,” she informed him. “He's in his room right now crying his eyes out because he thinks that he’s sent his father and me to our deaths!”

Snape merely sneered at her. “Didn’t he? Besides, what do I care? I can’t believe a family so high and mighty and prides themselves on bravery has managed to turn out a yellow bellied wizard like Draco.”

Narcissa gaped at his flippant attitude in disbelief. “He’s a boy, Severus! What did you or The Dark Lord for that matter expect? How was he supposed to carry out his orders?”

“No one questions The Dark Lord!” Snape roared. “The point is that he was supposed to do it for Him…” he said with the air of someone discussing the weather.

Enraged, Narcissa threw herself at Snape and relentlessly pounded her fists on his chest, finally giving into the tears that were threatening to come.

“NO!” she shouted. The point is that we preformed the Unbreakable Vow! The point is that you were supposed to protect my son from this very fate! What the hell happened?”

“I had my fingers crossed,” he said as a wry grin crossed his face.

Narcissa had been pushed beyond her limit and was not about to tolerate his manner any longer. She drew away from him and produced her wand from her robes, aiming it directly at his chest.

“You know the penalty for what you’ve done, Severus. I have no choice…”

“Woman, lower your wand,” he smirked, on the verge of outright laughter. “You don’t have the gall to use the Killing Curse.”

“Oh, don’t I?” she sneered indignantly.

“You don’t. You forget that you have to mean an Unforgivable in order for it to work.”

Her expression was now one of pure and utter hatred, her voice low and firm as she spoke: “Oh, rest assured, Severus, I mean it. Go to hell. May you rot, you pitiful excuse for a wizard. You weren’t fit to be The Dark Lord’s most trusted advisor.” Holding her wand steady, she got a better aim on Snape’s chest. “Avada Kedavra!”

And, just like that, Severus Snape fell over sideways, his very life completely taken from him.

At the same moment, Draco came running down the steps, his eyes widened in horror at the scene before him.

“Mother!” he gasped. “What have you done?”

Not looking at him, but at the limp and lifeless form on her sofa, she replied, “I had asked him to protect you while you were at school. I-we-your Aunt Bella and me-preformed the Unbreakable Vow. He’s sent you-sent all of us-to our deaths.”

She finally turned to Draco and crossed the room to him, clinging onto his robes pleadingly. “You must understand that I had to do it, Draco. You must understand why. It’s the price that he has to pay for betraying me!”

He stared back at Narcissa, still in horror, and then glanced once more at his former Potions Master.

“Mother…” he said lowly. “He was Voldemort’s most trusted advisor,” he shook his head. “Before Dumbledore died, he offered us sanctuary with The Order of The Phoenix. That doesn’t stand now that he’s dead. Mother, you’ll go to Azkaban.”

“What does it matter?” she said airily, tears rolling down her cheeks. “He sent us all to our deaths.”

Draco bowed his head and began to cry as well for what seemed like one millionth time that day.

“No, I did. I couldn’t carry out His orders. It’s my fault.” He flung his arms around her and hugged her tightly as though it were his last time. “I’m so sorry. I love you, I would never want to hurt you-I’ve done the worst-the unthinkable. Mother, I don’t deserve to live…”

He stepped down from the staircase, fell to the floor on his knees, and ripped open his robes, presenting his bare chest to her.

“Kill me, Mother. Please…”

Narcissa shook her head, her body wracked with sobs. “Draco, NO! Don’t be silly…”

“Please, Mother…I deserve it…”

“No, you don’t…”

He went for the pocket of his robes and produced his wand, aiming it at his mother, tears streaming from his eyes and leaving a pattern of little droplets on his robes.

“I’ll put you under the Imperius Curse if I have to, Mother. I swear it.”

Narcissa dropped to her knees and cradled Draco’s head in her hands. “Son, no…” she pleaded.

Draco forcefully broke away from her, got to his feet and aimed his wand at her, turning his head and closing his eyes.

“I don’t want to do this, but you leave me precious little alternative.”

Trying to steady his wand and succeeding after a few brief moments, he bellowed “Imperio!” and a white hot light shot from it, surrounding his mother and then fading away.

Draco opened his eyes and slowly turned his head. Narcissa was still crumpled on her knees, staring blankly ahead. He slowly walked over to her and encircled her as if he expected a total physical change. Stopping in front of her, he knelt down and looked into her eyes.

“Mother?” he asked slowly.

No answer. She continued to stare-unblinking.

He snapped his fingers in her face and she still appeared to ignore him. Then, having never cast the Imperius Curse before, and not knowing what to expect, he decided to give it a try.

“Get up…”

Narcissa got to her feet without question.

It worked. Merlin, I don’t believe it…

“Clap your hands.”

She clapped her hands together once and dropped them to her sides.

I don’t believe it…

He knelt down in front of her once more, baring his chest and watching her intently.

“Kill me,” he commanded softly.

Slowly, Narcissa raised her wand…

“I love you, Mother…”

She aimed it directly at the center of Draco’s bare chest…

“I’m sorry for what I’ve done…”

She hesitated for a moment and Draco thought that he saw realization dawn upon her face. Then it changed to the blank expression that she had once before…

Release me from my pain and sorrow…

A pained look settled upon Narcissa’s face-she began to softly cry once more. It seemed to Draco that she was somehow internally fighting the curse. It became obvious that it was a losing battle as she bellowed:

“Avada Kedavra!”

Draco swayed-limp and lifeless-to the side.

Complete realization now dawned upon her. The curse had lifted itself and she threw herself to the ground onto her son’s body. Unable to believe what she had done.