A Tasteless Victory

Chapter One

“Get out of bed! I made breakfast.”
Severus glared through half lidded eyes at the blond that was all but bouncing on his bed. “I hardly think telling the house elves to have something ready in ten minutes counts as having made breakfast.”

Draco laughed in his little carefree way. Making Severus want to slap him. It was all so predictable. It wasn’t as if he expected the rest of the world to understand the pain of the few, when the freedom of the many was at stake. He hated that the world didn’t understand the personal sacrifice that was inherent in any great victory. He wondered yet again if, he could continue. There was a part of him that understood like no other that the ‘Golden Boy’ had given his very soul to rid the world of the dark Lord. He wanted to call him something else, but he never claimed to be a Gryffindor. He had no desire to pretend that he was braver than he really was.

There was no glory. He felt that strongly, there was only the personal truth. He knew why he chose to follow the Dark Lord, and he knew why he chose to betray him. There was nothing resembling right or wrong in his choice. There was no right and wrong in his understanding of the world. If there had been, Sirius Black would have been expelled for trying to kill him. He knew better than to think that the world was black and white. In the world that he lived in there was only, secret motives and tuff sells. Dumbledore had protected some students to save the life of one. He couldn’t even argue the choice, but it didn’t help in any way that made sense now. Was it ever appropriate to choose one life over another?

Now he was left with the painfully clear idea that they had all chosen to throw away the life of a child to save themselves. It seemed that life chose to always give the answer to him after he had screwed up. It was painful to say the least to hear that the boy that he had always assumed had been spoiled and idolized had been abused and hated by the people that Albus had given him to. Given the reality, there was nothing that he could say to redeem himself.

Given this information, he was convinced of a couple hard truths. He had to acknowledge that he was complicate in the wrongs forced on the boy and worse he had compounded them. He wanted to make it right. but there was little that he could do at this point to even get close enough to try. He looked at the blond across the table from him, and wondered if maybe..... “Draco, what do you think of the golden boy?”

The youngest Malfoy’s face pinched into confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I mean what do you feel about him now.”

“He is the hero. I certainly am not holding any grudges, if that is what you mean. I hated him once, but I owe him everything now. I am not stupid, if you had seen what that man could do, you wouldn’t hold any grudges either. He was pure poetry in motion, it was like watching him on a broom. He was stunning. “

Severus took in the glazed look in Draco’s eyes and developed a plan. He knew that he had incomplete information and that always made him nervous, but it was a possible in. “Draco, I would like you to get closer to him, do you think that you can do that?”

“Why the hell do you care? It is over now. What do you want from him now?”

Severus was pleased to see that Draco appeared to be concerned about the golden boy at all. “I am hoping to make up for some mistakes that I made. I am hoping to use you to allow me to get close enough to him to help him. Right now he seems to be on the edge of self destruction, and I would like to see him in a better place. Do you think that you could help me?”

The Malfoy heir looked lost in thought for a while. “I am not against the concept, but how do you think that I can help, and why do you think that you can help?”

“I don’t really know that either of us can, but I want to try. I am sure of few things in this life, but one of the few I know for a fact is that that boy has been used and manipulated his entire life. I have looked at my own actions and blanched, if you can say the same then maybe we can make a dent in the damage that has been done.”

Draco smirked “I can do that. “

Severus smiled for the first time in a long time. It felt so right to him for the first time to help the child of his rival. It was right to try and help the orphan of people that he had unwittingly help to kill. It was right to help the boy that he had tainted with his hatred of his long dead father. There was no other choice now. He had to try to fix this last reminder of his sins. Some he knew that he couldn’t make right, but this one he could. He hoped he could. It was a long and twisted road, but he had the determination and the dedication.