Ambiguous Aberrations

Chapter 3

"Yes Father," Draco said for what felt like the millionth time, his voice completely monotone, even as his eyes were glued to the polished tile floors. The sound of footsteps coming closer made Draco flinch, and it took all of his willpower not to stumble back.

Draco closed his eyes as the footsteps came to a stop, expecting something, but instead, he felt his father's cane tilt his chin upwards until he was looking straight at his father.

"Very good," his father whispered, his voice low and a bit terrifying. "You look exactly like a Malfoy."

Draco pursed his lips and said nothing, despite the small ball of boiling hate in his chest. Even though a part of him at least wanted to believe that his father was wrong, he knew that there was no point in trying because he did look like a perfect Malfoy. Gelled back white blonde hair and grey eyes, Draco was practically the picture-perfect copy of his father. It was as if Draco was meant to be nothing more than his father's son.

"Yes father," Draco mumbled, turning his head back down as his father's cane was once again pointed to the floor. "May I go up to my room now?"

Draco could feel his father's eyes studying him with approval. "Of course."

Making as little sound as possible, his feet as light as a mouse, Draco headed up the stairs slowly, even though he wanted nothing else than to run up the shiny steps and jump in his bed face-down. But with his father's eyes on him, Draco could do nothing but keep his spine as straight as could be and cordially walk up the stairs, as if he were someone at an important meeting instead of a 12-year-old boy who had never been granted a free childhood.

As soon as Draco reached his overly-done room, he closed the door behind him and let out a breath, letting himself slump with his back against the door as he slid down, dragging his hands over his face to stretch out his eyes. After a minute of just being in that position, Draco forced himself up and walked over to his bed, which was a large king-size mattress with a dark green bed sheet, the silver etchings on the corner a useless necessity. Draco sunk into the plush bed as soon as he lay down, and stared up at the stars that had been engraved on his room's ceiling shortly before his birth, the engravings spinning in his vision like it was trying to hypnotise him into accepting his fate as the Malfoy heir.

It was a tradition in almost all pureblood families to name their sons after stars or constellations, and their daughters after flowers. Draco's namesake in particular was a constellation that according to myths, was cast up in the sky by the Greek Mother Goddess, Hera, as a tribute to her faithful servant, Ladon. As if to symbolise the legend even more, the constellation was known to harbour the pole star, one that never moved in the night sky, which was a beautiful reference to the golden apples Ladon was protecting when murdered by Hercules in an attempt to finish his infamous 12 tasks.

(R/N: A courtesy of an extensive armoury of useless knowledge that will never help me later on in life... this is how I know I need to get out of my books and socialise more - not that I'm ever going to do that of course)

(D/N: Socialising? As in talking to PEOPLE? Are you okay? tbh I'd much rather be in a cemetery or a library.)

(R/N: Well. However, a library has people, so I'd rather lie in my bed and read books on my Kindle while using the skills I've accumulated over the pandemic to download books from definitely not illegal websites to read.... Because I would never do that...)

(D/N: But what about a cemetery tho? At like 2 am)

(R/N: We have to do that one day. Like at Halloween or smth. I know one nearby-)

On the right side of the ceiling was a bright star which was none other than the star named Lucius, Draco's father's namesake. On the left side was a silver etching of a daffodil, the most famous of the Narcissus flower group, Draco's mother's - Nacissa's - namesake. In the middle was the Draco constellation itself, separated by the other two by an extremely intricate circular pattern around the largely unknown constellation.

(R/N: Wait, I just got an idea... should I make a fanart of this? Okay if enough people comment on this, then I'll do this. Maybe... five comments here?)

(D/N: It should be oerfect.)

(R/N: And oerfect it shall be)

Letting his eyes only drink in the view for three more minutes, Draco rolled off of his bed, landing on the plush, impeccable white carpet before forcing himself up. The next and final destination in his unnecessarily large room was his desk and chair, both a pure white, although the chair had dark green cushions with silver threading. The chair was inviting as he sat in it, letting out a soft plea to rest his back, but Draco kept his spine straight and opened the first drawer attached to the huge desk.

While paying attention to the closed door through the corner of his eye, Draco gently took out the stack of textbooks. He felt around for the small hook he was searching for with one pale hand, and when he found it, his nimble fingers lifted the false cover, revealing an array of envelopes, all of them unopened with the cheap seals intact and small claw marks still visible from the edges where the owl had held them.

Draco took one out, cautiously, and turned it over to the back, letting his weary eyes read over the lettering at the back, carefully scrawled in handwriting that had been delivered by the owl who came nearly every week, somehow not getting caught thanks to the small mechanism Draco had made. He thought back to the time his father caught him eagerly writing a letter to his pen pal.

Draco winced as the memory hit him hard, just like his father's cane had. He was pretty sure there was a small scar. While Lucius Malfoy wasn't exactly a negligent parent, he was extremely strict and hated anyone going against his rules, evident by the numerous scars on Draco's back.

As he slipped the untouched envelopes back under the false bottom and then closed his secret away with a tiny click, his mind continued wandering the familiar path he had gone through countless times before.

His mother, although considerably gentler, wasn't much better, never quite stepping in when his father did punish Draco. Sometimes, Draco reminded himself as he had done many times before, his parents didn't quite want to do it either. Even though he was only 12, he knew that the two of them didn't exactly have very happy childhoods, and part of what they did was what they thought was necessary. They did think it was good parenting and they did love him. They were just... scared.

Pushing that thought out of his mind, Draco set his mind on the large textbooks in front of him, forcing his exhausted brain to continue studying, even as it begged him to take a break.

Malfoys must never fail.

(R/N: I'm practically writing this whole thing... D, I am disappointed in you. I've written every chapter so far! The next chapter is on you.

Okay, now I'm back and I'm bored so I'm going to be writing anyway. *Sighs*)

(D/N: Not true I did a couple of paragraphs.)

(R/N: Still *grumbles* You made so many spelling mistakes it doesn't count at this point (guys if I sound mean, it's because I'm sleep deprived and it's 4:17 a.m.))