𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐇/𝐃/𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐄 2008

Events in a Post War Life

Title: Events in a Post War Life
Author: chyldofeternity
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Harry/Draco
Word Count: 6775

You're probably wondering how I got to this point, how it is that someone with my level of recognition would be writing something that you're reading. Well, it is by far a long and convoluted story. Most of what happened in my life is already public knowledge, starting with my time at Hogwarts, and finishing up with the vanquishing of Lord Voldemort. My part in these events is well known and it is not something that I am planning to relive here in these pages for you. However, there are some things you would not know – things that have been kept hidden from the entire Wizarding population. Yet secrets have a way of never staying buried, and it is in response to a recent spate of articles in the Daily Prophet that I am writing this.

Let's start at the most important part – the turning point. A lot of people think it is important to start at the beginning, but me...well, I've always been one to wonder why the change, why the transition – and that's what I always wanted to know first. Some people dive into the end of the book to find out the ending, but me? I went for the middle. So, this time I'm making you come with me to the middle, the turning point. It's not quite the climax though, for that you'll have to keep reading.

Interested yet?

~*~

"Guilty!" The loud voice echoed throughout the courtroom. The three wizards charged with the crime flinched as the verdict was handed down. They had expected nothing less, at least the youngest hadn't, but to hear one's own beliefs made real was another matter altogether.
Aurors roughly grabbed the two older wizards and the Trial Wizard guided the youngest out of the room. He was left waiting in an antechamber, untold of the punishment being passed down upon the other two. Life in Azkaban for his father and exile for his mother. At that time, he had no idea that he would never see either one again. Perhaps if he had, he would have fought harder to stay with them, or to be punished like them. Sadly, as he learned at too young an age, life does not allow you any do-overs.

The sound of the door opening was loud, and silver eyes looked up slowly – as if taking the time to hide his fear behind a mask of indifference. The young wizard's gaze came to rest on the older man that walked into the room. The stylized 'W' on his robes showed that he was a member of the Wizengamot, the body of justice that had just handed down the guilty verdict to his family.

"We've sentenced your parents, Mister Malfoy, but I thought it might be best to give you your sentence in private." The elderly wizard sat down across from Draco, his off-brown eyes gazing into the Malfoy heir's steel colored ones. "You, Mister Malfoy, are to be sentenced to a period of no less than five years, but no more than ten, working with one Mister Harry Potter to pay back your debt to Wizarding society. It is – "

"What?!"

"It is our hope that this sentence will help rehabilitate you and make you a productive member of society!" With that the elderly wizard pushed himself from the chair with a surprising amount of vigor, and then left the room.

Draco stayed there, staring straight ahead at the wall as he evened out his breathing and tried to slow his racing heart. He was being sentenced into servitude! Him! A Malfoy! How did the Wizengamot think they'd get away with this! Surely his father would put a stop to it. There was no way a Malfoy was going to be forced to spend up to a decade as a servant in some pathetic half-blood's house.

~*~

Of course as you and I know, dear Reader, young Mister Malfoy's father never did come to save him, did he? No, instead I was left in Harry Potter's tender loving care, forced to live like a house elf in that dreary house. Of course, most people probably believe me to be using a bit of exaggeration in this tale, but there is none when I tell you that house of Potter's was not fit for human life when I was first sent there.