A Story of Change

Title: Losing his Mind
Author: Brandy (aka Anathema)





Draco Malfoy, the only child of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, heir to the Malfoy fortune and pureblood Prince of Slytherin house was losing his mind.

At least that's the first thought that popped into his head as he looked up into the night sky from his makeshift bed in the Forbidden Forest. It seemed so long ago that he had stood before that old coot Dumbledore, his wand drawn and shakily pointing at the elder wizard. Draco closed his eyes and tried to fight back the panic that rose in his chest every time he thought of that night.

Snape had been the one to finally end his standoff with Draco's headmaster with the Avada Kedavra. Draco could hardly believe that he had done it, truth be told. He knew that his godfather could be a right heartless bastard, but never in his wildest dreams did he think that the Potions master would take the life of the man who had, in essence, taken him under his wing. A breeze blew across Draco as he shivered slightly, remembering what it had been like to run for his life, being dragged by Snape. It wasn't until they had apparated the dungeons of Malfoy manor where his mother stood waiting, that he was told of the Wizard's Oath Snape had taken before the start of his sixth year at Hogwart's.

The tears that had earlier escaped him threatened once more. Now both Snape and his mother were gone. It had been a mere 24 hours since their deaths, but to Draco it seemed like years. Thinking about them, he played over and over in his mind, the look of shock on both their faces as his aunt Bellatrix and his father sent the Avada towards them laughing maniacally. Draco hadn't made a sound as he watched through the two way mirror he had been conversing with his mother through just moments before. As soon as he saw his father and his aunt lower their wands, he dropped the mirror. It broke into hundreds of pieces on the hard stone floor of the hidden room beneath the Hog's Head tavern. Snape had insisted that they split up, the two of them, as they weren't likely to look for Draco so close to the school. Earlier that morning they had left Snape's house at Spinner's End, after their two month seclusion. Draco flying beneath his great grandfather Black's invisibility cloak, while Snape and his mother apparated to one of the Malfoy's lesser estates in Ireland.

He wasn't sure what had made him head towards Hogwarts. Thousands upon thousands of thoughts raced through his mind and the closer he got to his former school, the closer temporary (or not so temporary) insanity closed in. Before he knew it, he was at the Great Lake, great heaving sobs wracking his slender frame. He had scrubbed and scrubbed, as if trying to rid himself of the horror of what he had witnessed. It was while his tears were slowly coming to a stop that he heard the snap and crack of twigs behind him. He knew that students weren't suppose to be outside after dark. Waving his wand he cast a concealment charm on himself at the same time making the water appear as though he had sunk beneath the surface. He heard a splash and then watched as someone appeared under the water, looking around as though frantic.

Draco wasn't stupid. He quickly left the lake and stood dripping on the bank, waiting for whomever it was that had been watching him to surface. He couldn't have been more surprised to see that his wand was trained at non other than the Gryffindor know-it-all, Granger.

“Well you certainly haven’t changed now have you Granger?” he had taunted, before he even thought about it. It had been second nature for six years to taunt the frizzy haired witch at every opportunity. “You never could take care of yourself without those sorry excuses for wizards hanging about you.”

Her eyes, which he just noticed were a particularly mesmerizing shade of amber, showed the fear that was evident in the stammer of her words. “What are you doing here Malfoy?”

Realizing he was going to have to make sure that Granger didn't head straight for the Ministry to rat him out, he said the first thing that came to mind to buy him some thinking time. “Just, washing up."

Granger's eyes took on an almost ethereal glow as they widened in confusion. "In the lake?"

Inspiration struck in the oddest form. Staring so intently at her eyes as he was currently doing, he noticed the dark circles underneath his current infatuation. A simple sleeping spell would work quite nicely. “Never you mind Granger, it is nothing you will have to worry about much longer."

A spark of the Granger he remembered, finally shone through as her chin raised a notch at her incredulity. “What do you mean I won’t have to worry much longer? You honestly think you can take me out?”

"Oh I could, but I have other plans tonight," he drawled and, not giving the witch before him time to think or move, he quickly muttered a sleeping spell.

Draco winced as she hit the ground with a hard thud. Almost absentmindedly he spell dried her clothes as he contemplated levitating her to the front steps of the school. No. It would be best if she stayed where she was. That way she may possibly think that everything that had happened was a dream.

Now lying in the Forbidden forest on his makeshift bed of transfigured leaves, Draco wondered why he hadn't tried to talk to the girl. Snape and his mother had been secretly sending information to the Order of the Phoenix for the last two months, although only two of it's members were aware of who the information came from. So why hadn't he tried to talk to the witch, explain what was going on and what his father and aunt had done to his beloved mother and his godfather?

Visions and thoughts swirled into a kalidescope in Draco's mind as his ears threatened to rupture from the pounding noise of his pulse racing through his body. Silent tears trickled down his smooth pale cheeks and finally, exhausted from his emotional battles of that day, he slept.




A/N: Hey ya'll! Sorry if anyone else had wanted this chapter, but I couldn't resist throwing a 'Draco' view point in there! Review please! We love to hear your opinions!^__^