Draco Malfoy and the Mirror of Ecidyrue

Part 4: Draco Malfoy and the Wheel of Hecate

Summary:

Whatever Draco does in the past, it seems he is unable to change much for the better. But he hasn't given up trying, and in the year where Voldemort rises again, he will stop at nothing to ensure he prevents it, leading him down a dangerous path. Standing in his way is not only the force of evil and the force of destiny, but the force of his own indecision, as he finds he can no longer share his secrets with his godfather, nor can he protect his beloved cousin Luna- and nor can he keep his feelings for Harry a secret any longer either. For better or for worse, the reckoning has come.

: Maledictum

Chapter Text

It had taken more than three years since Draco awoke from a nightmare of a mirror he could not break, but finally, Lucius Malfoy had seemed to come to the realization his son might be powerful. Or at least that there was something unspeakably wrong with him.

Maybe it was Draco's suspiciously quiet behavior over the summer, save for his insistence on attending the Muggle World Cup final with the Grangers, to the point of threatening bodily harm to himself as well as others if he was not allowed. Maybe it was the handful of visits that Theo paid to Malfoy Manor that summer to play Quidditch together, which Father had put a stop to once Mother overheard the two boys earnestly discussing whether it would be possible to bring the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets back to life as a reanimated corpse.

Maybe it was the means with which Draco and the Grangers traveled to Pasadena, by a Portkey Draco told his father he had bought for them by perfectly above-board means. Father seemed to know Draco had illegally made it himself, with no way to prove it.

Maybe it was the safe return of their party to the Grangers' for his following stay in Hampstead, showing the Portkey had worked, which it damn well should have, given the amount of that summer Draco had incidentally spent devoted to research of the objects.

Maybe it was how on the day of Draco's return, Mother caught him sitting on the ground under the portrait of Grandfather Abraxas discussing young Voldemort, though in Draco's defense, that was just to ask some questions from Luna about him.

Or maybe it was that on the night of the third of August, 1994, Father caught his son performing Unforgivables on a frozen lot of two dozen of the Manor's finest cave spiders, all waiting in a line for their turn to be tormented. To Father's bewildered bellowing, Draco had whined whether Father would have preferred if he had been practicing on the elves, upon which he had actually rather gotten the impression of an affirmative.

But it disturbed Father more than Draco would have anticipated, enough to prompt one of their grand doomed attempts to replace Draco's wand which never bore fruit. He didn't get within a block of Ollivander's this time either, and all three Malfoys had the feel as they went that it was more of a ceremonial occasion than a practical one.

At dinner that night, neither of his parents resisted Draco's attempts to turn the conversation to a more interesting subject, namely the string of victims coming forward in the papers after having their memories restored, with tales of being Obliviated by Gilderoy Lockhart. Father pronounced himself unsurprised to hear the ex-Defense professor's supposed heroic deeds had not been his own.

"Style over substance can be excusable in a man," Father said, lip curling, "But only if it is in good style."

Draco could only think Severus would concur, and missed him all the more.

So the wand issue was ostensibly dropped. But Father continued his threats to leave Draco home from the Quidditch World Cup if he was so fond of the Muggle one, and upped the ante by threatening to keep Draco from visiting his Gryffindor friends there. Unlike the first, which Father would never do when they'd been invited to the Minister's box, the second was an absolutely practicable threat, for Father to do everything in his power to keep Draco away from Weasleys.