Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Childhood Consequences (Draco Malfoy)

I'm impatient as hell, so I've posted this early 

First of all, I actually cannot believe that this book is complete now ... how have I managed to write 200 of these stories??

Granted it happened over the course of however many years, but still - 200 stories is insane ~

This story is about Draco, because it only made sense to end this book the same way we started, with a story about Draco ~

As usual, this is unedited, but I hope you like it

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BEFORE (1987)

The children had disappeared. It wasn't strange that once the young master Malfoy and the young mistress Neal were forced together, they shot off into the depths of whichever aristocratic family home they were at, to escape the probing eyes of their parents. They weren't friends, this their parents were all too aware of - with the young mistress Neal always fervently protesting at having to put up with the arrogant Malfoy heir - but more like companions that circumstance had brought together. The two seven-year-olds would never choose to spend time together, which their parents were all too aware of. And yet, today it was different.

Today, after having arrived at the Malfoy family home, the young mistress Neal had found herself harassed by the young master Malfoy and reluctantly allowed herself to be led away from her parents, shooting an exasperated look from over her shoulder on her way out. On a normal day, as per the unofficial routine that all of these get-togethers had created, she should have returned to her mother's side within the hour, asking how much longer she needed to put up with the scion of the Malfoy family. Her mother would, without pausing in her conversation with the mistress Malfoy, send her daughter away with an insistent pat on the shoulder. Without shooting her daughter a single sparing glance, the mistress Neal would dismiss her daughter who reluctantly returned to join the youngest Malfoy. It was unsurprising when the mistress Neal had not noticed that her daughter hadn't sought her out.

On a usual day, not long after the young mistress Neal had attempted to escape, it would be the young master Malfoy who arrived, rubbing his arm, or his shin or wherever the young mistress Neal had hit him. He would skulk and make his way to his father, asking the master Malfoy to dismiss the Neal family or to, at the very least, offer his only son some reprieve. It would be master Neal who laughed goodnaturedly at the words, claiming that his daughter was a spitfire before master Malfoy would address his son, reminding him that the Neals were esteemed guests and would need to be treated as such. As always, young master Malfoy would frown deeply, grumbling under his breath about not wanting to hold the young mistress Neal in any form of esteem, but would disappear also. Neither of the men had realised that there had been no disturbance to their conversation.

In fact, neither of the four adults had realised that their children were nowhere to be seen, not until the air had grown chilly and the sky had begun to darken. When the children had not attended dinner in the dining room, mistress Malfoy had asked the elves to send dinner for the children to young master Malfoy's chambers where they were, no doubt, in the midst of a heated debate; when they were in that state, it was better to leave them be. But dinner time had come and gone and when the children did not emerge for cups of tea with their favourite biscuits, the parents had verbalised their surprise but did not look a gift hippogriff in the mouth. Even then, time had passed and with no sign of their children, not even the distance echoing sounds of their voices as they screamed at each other until they were red in the face, the parents finally stood.

The adults separated, taking off in different directions with mistress Malfoy ordering the house elves to spread out and search for the heirs of both families. Neither child responded to their parent's shouts or their pleas to come out. Their mothers, running in a manner they hadn't run since they were school girls, forced their anxious hearts to ease, and their brains to keep the worst thoughts from springing to their minds. The fathers losing all the decorum that had been bred into them from the womb tore through the grounds of Malfoy Manor; they were the ones to stumble across the children.