All I Ever Wanted

DISCLAIMER: Warning! I make no claim to any property of J.K. Rowling's, and am in no way profiting by this. I do offer her my sincerest thanks for allowing us this garden of the mind in which we play. Further Warning! This story...and likely any I ever write...are dominated by gay themes and characters. That's how it is, if this in any way makes you uncomfortable...do not read further.


"All I Ever Wanted" chap. 27 'A Season In Hell'

Draco stepped into the chilly stone room where his father sat, chained and unarmed. When he saw the sickening glint in his father's eye, he couldn't help thinking of a shark; restless and eternally hungry, only swimming to its next kill, never at peace, never innocent. Draco sat in the room's other chair, only a few feet from his father, silent and ashen faced.

Lucius took the lead as always, smiling widely. "How very good of you to come, Draco. Always the dutiful son. No, wait...as I recall now, you never were much for duty. Providing heirs, serving our rightful lord, making yourself useful in even one meaningful way...yes that's right...I believe all of that was completely beyond you. How fortunate for me that at least once you managed to get something right. I should be beside myself with pride, shouldn't I?" His father's voice dripped acid and venom. He'd clearly saved weeks of bile just for such a moment.

Draco tried to rally. "Father, please...there isn't much..." Lucius broke him off almost immediately.

"Time? Is that it, Draco? Not much time? I'm afraid that's all I seem to have right now. I haven't a title, or lands, or even an HEIR worthy of the name! I appear to have nothing left but a little time. You have it aplenty, though. I labored a lifetime to make ours a name of power and you...you ungrateful little catamite, you are what is left! How do you spend your time, my son? Poring over your studies, working for a cause larger than your own pleasure? I think not...I expect you still squander it, offering yourself up as a rutting cushion to every ignorant Squib that crosses your path. What a source of pride you are! My only child and heir, a well-used repository for the seed of strangers."

"It isn't like that, Father...I...I don't...I wouldn't...I have someone."

"Oh, how charming." Lucius' eyes bored into him. "Well, I can only assume he understands all too well how to treat you. That bruise across your cheek suggests a man who, at last, is well suited to give you what you so richly deserve. Any other Malfoy might have left a trail of dead bodies for such an offense. You lack even the dignity of a whore, Draco. There isn't even profit for you in the matter."

Draco was cracking faster than he'd thought he would. He placed his head into his hands to hide the tears that were daring to form. "Father, I'm begging you, just let us..."

"Get out. Out of my sight, you pathetic and snivelling little slut! I thank the gods that you are a hopeless sodomite, for it would grieve me far, far worse to think that this...this wreckage I spawned would continue our lineage. Better the Malfoy name be utterly extinguished, than be carried forward by such a weakling. I may have no legal power here, but I will always know that I was the last of the Malfoys. I have no true heir! Take your comfort from the fists of your lovers, at least they can briefly stomach your presence." Lucius hissed the last in tone as cold as ice.

Draco crumpled to his knees with a sob. Lucius looked ready to vomit with disgust. Draco tried to reach for his father's knee, blinded by tears. "Don't," he croaked helplessly. "Don't be like this, please, I love you."

"The very sight of you sickens me. Love? What do you know of love except the grunts and thrusts of those you grant your favors to? You haven't the right to even use the word, you appalling little slattern! I rot here for you, and you have the nerve to cite love in my presence. I could have made us kings of the world of men, but I was surrounded by weak-willed and soft creatures. You stink of your mother's thin blood and soft ways. I should have smothered you in your sleep and had done with that insipid, sentimental tart before you both ruined me!" The pleasure he took from dispensing this torment was evident in the brightness of Lucius' eyes.

Draco fled the room in tears, unable to hear another word without doing himself harm. He was blind and fumbling to open the door when Lucius' last words struck him.

"Yesss. Run away like you always have, from duty, from honor, from pride and dignity. Run like the cowardly little trollop you are and always will be! Just don't insult me with your presence again!"

Kingsley closed the door behind Draco when he ran into Harry's arms and buried himself in Harry's chest. Harry held Draco close to him and whispered soothing words, even while his own heart was full of outrage.

Kingsley looked to Harry for a sign as to whether Lucius and Draco were done or not, and Harry nodded no. He had business of his own with Lucius Malfoy. Harry sat Draco in one of the waiting room chairs and turned to head through the door himself.

Draco looked aghast. "Harry! No! Please! It's over, let him be. Nothing...nothing ever does any good. It doesn't matter."

"It matters to me. I won't be long, love." Then Harry walked in to the room where Lucius sat, oh so smug and pleased with his handiwork.

Lucius drew instant conclusions on seeing Harry and immediately went ballistic. "YOU! YOU INSOLENT LITTLE..." Harry's sudden slap across Lucius' face brought a sudden and deathly silence to the room. Lucius' face blackened like a thundercloud. "Why I'll..."

"YOU'LL WHAT? I'm not the child you get to frighten, Lucius. Are you proud of yourself? This close to the Kiss and all you can manage to do is attack the people who love you in spite of yourself! YOU'RE FUCKING PATHETIC! You know why you're here! How can you not? You gambled your family and fortune on following after a deranged, egomaniacal, murderous bastard...that COULDN'T EVEN MANAGE TO KILL ME WHEN I WAS AN INFANT! YOU'RE THE IDIOT HERE! YOU HAD EVERYTHING AND YOU FUCKED IT ALL UP ANYWAY! For what? To scare a few more people, or tell a few more what they can do? Was that worth this? Even if you'd won, you'd still have been nothing but a toady to a maniac!"

Lucius was growling and grinding his teeth, dangerously close to insanity. "If I were free..."

"IF YOU WERE FREE, I'D BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH MY BARE HANDS, YOU MISERABLE BASTARD! The only reason you get off with just a slap is for being here! How dare you treat your only child that way! Draco is the smartest, most gifted, most passionate and decent person I've ever known...and you're not proud of him because he isn't out murdering women and children in the night? YOU'RE INSANE! I actually wondered if the Kiss was too harsh for you! I was wrong! It's too easy!

Congratulations, Lucius! You made yourself the Dark Lord's BITCH, and your own people left you out to hang so they could save their hides! Is that the noble, honorable way you were hoping your son would act? One more conniving, cowardly, murdering prat who hides behind a damn mask? I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you this, but your son is a better man than you will EVER be, and I will love him until the day I die.

There's a reason your self-titled lord is in hiding, and it's because his time is up as soon as he gets within wand range of me. Go to your grave cursing and spitting! When it's over, this will be Draco's and my world!"

Harry turned and stormed out while Lucius was incoherent with rage and shock, spluttering furiously on retorts he couldn't quite make before the door slammed shut.

Harry turned to Kingsley and said, "Now he's done... throw him back in his hole and leave him there." Kingsley just nodded grimly, looking a little envious of Harry's impromptu speech in the visiting room. He'd been hating Malfoys longer than both boys had been in school and never managed to put it quite so succinctly. A frothing and ranting Lucius was escorted away a minute later, and Harry and Draco were alone for a bit.

Draco still hadn't fully recovered; whole sentences were out of the question yet, but he could slip occasional words loose. He thanked Harry, no longer crying, but still clinging to Harry's waist and burrowing into his neck.

The intoxicating closeness of his lover made the pain go away. Maybe not entirely, but enough that he could function. Draco still felt numb; the horror of that brief time with his father still looming large in his mind.

Kingsley returned and led them back to the departure point, Portkey in hand. A minute later Azkaban was behind them and the Ministry offices were a busy, well lit change of pace that offered relief from the gray misery of the prison.

They took some time in the Ministry office's bathroom to refresh their appearance and drop a few Cleaning Spells. Harry's chest and collar were soaked by Draco's tears, and both boys were red eyed and flushed from stress and grief.

In the crisp whiteness of the empty office toilet, Draco finally had the strength to speak clearly again. He gave a Harry a long hug, this time tearlessly.

"Thank you so much, Harry. I can't believe you said those things! And to Lucius! Merlin! I've never seen anyone out yell him before. Not that it'll change him. He's been like that since his arrest and I know I can't change him now. I'm just glad you were there. As soon as we're out of here, let's visit my mum. Then I can show you the manor's gardens. They're marvelous, Harry. You'll love them! I know it's not authorized by McGonagall, but we can take just a couple more hours for us!"

"Sure, love. I really do want to see the manor. 'Specially the gardens. Mostly I just want to see if your mum has embarrassing pictures of you as a baby!" Harry was chuckling at the thought when Draco swatted his ass.

"I'm fairly sure that violates some Ministry clause! They have one for everything else, so I'm assuming it's illegal...if it isn't...it ought to be! No baby pictures and that's final!"

"As you wish, love, but it may be a long time, and you're never going to be able to leave your mother and me alone in the room until after I've seen them at least once." Draco turned pink with frustration!

Feeling better for the bantering on the way out of the building, the boys made their way to the outbound Apparition point and prepared themselves for the journey to the edge of the Malfoy wards. From there, Draco would have to lead Harry in on foot.

The wards placed around the Manor were strong and potentially dangerous to intruders, and no simple spell would penetrate them. Perhaps not as secure as Azkaban, but awfully close by civilian standards.

The wave of two wands and a few uttered words and the matter was closed. Draco and Harry stood before the magnificent wrought iron gates of Malfoy Manor. With a majestic sweep of his hand, Draco commanded the gates to open, revealing a landscape carved in heaven.

A long and winding path meandered its way to the sprawling palace that was the Malfoy home. Along that path were nearly endless gardens that teemed with acres of rare and unusual plants, as well as animals that were selected for their compatability with the environment and their attractiveness. If God had owned a summer cottage, it would probably have looked a lot like this.

Harry was dumbstruck with awe, just standing on the hill overlooking it all, scarcely able to speak.

"Be it ever so humble...eh? Lap it up, Harry. This is no cupboard under the stairs, and what's mine is yours!" quipped Draco. Then Harry tackled him, pulling him down the grassy hill and rolling down with Draco in his arms, laughing like a banshee all the while.