𝙈𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙞𝙖 || harry potter

chapter eighty seven, switching sides

"Well it's nice to finally meet you Draco." Sirius greeted his nephew.

"Yeah, you too." Draco coughed, scratching the back of his neck. He was in such unfamiliar territory that every fiber of his being was telling him to run, but his feet never moved.

"I'm sure you didn't plan on coming here yourself. Cassie can be, persuasive shall we say."

"Something like that." Draco scoffed.

"I can only imagine why she has brought you, but i'll leave it up to you. You can walk out of that door, and we can pretend this never happened, or you can tell me why."

Draco's eyes drifted between the door, and Sirius. Cassie had quite literally dropped him into the shit and given him seconds to make a life changing decision.

"It wasn't my idea," Draco began defensively. "Cassie was pissed at me for what happened over the summer, she thinks I could've done more. I did what I could, I tried to tell Potter on the train. It isn't my fault he was too self obsessed to figure it out. What was I supposed to do? They would've killed me, i'm sure you know that."

"I do." Sirius agreed. "Unfortunately our family have never cared too much for their own blood. I really appreciate what you tried to do Draco, even given the risks you took."

Draco was taken back by that statement. It wasn't something he was used to hearing.

"Yeah, it's, yeah thanks. I don't want to be one of them." Draco stuttered quickly.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to repeat that."

"I don't want to be like them anymore." Draco explained again. "I'm supposed to 'move up the chain' soon, whatever that means. It started with just getting the dark mark, father said it would pledge our loyalty. But now, it's a lot more than that. The things they do, the things i've seen-. I'm not like them. I know what people think, but Sirius, i'm not like them."

Draco was close to tears. He had crossed the line, and couldn't take any of it back now. His life would never be the same again.

"I know you are not Draco. I've heard about how you and Cassie have always been friends. I know Cassie would never bring you here if she thought your intentions laid elsewhere. And I know you're nothing like them, because I was nothing like them either. You don't have to convince me of that."

"They'll kill me if they know i've even thought about this."

"Not if you let me help you Draco. There is a way out, as hopeless as it may seem right now. But I must tell you, it won't be easy. It'll be the hardest thing you'll ever do. I don't have to tell you that what's approaching will be nothing short of a war Draco, only you can decide what side of that you're willing to be on." Sirius explained sadly.

He recognized too much of himself as a child within Draco, but what hurt more was how much of Regulus he saw in Draco.

"I'm not like them, but I don't know how to be like you either." Draco admitted. He wasn't a death eater, regardless of the branding, but he wasn't like the 'good side' either.

"Then just be yourself Draco. You know that you don't want to be one of them, and that's more than enough for me."

The sun had already begun to rise when Sirius and Draco had finished with their conversation whilst Remus had spent the last few hours with his hands full, wrangling a drunken Cassie.

"Will you just sit down for five minutes." Remus pleaded, following Cassie around aimlessly.

"But Remus i'm happy!" Cassie bounced.

"You're fucking delirious." a voice echoed from behind.

"Draco! You're still here, and everyone's still alive!" she beamed.

"And you was supposed to be in the house all night. What exactly happened there?" Sirius asked sternly.

"There's bigger things to worry about like poor Draco." Cassie brushed off.

Cassie eventually crashed on the sofa, whilst Draco and Sirius discussed the finer details. It was going to be harder than they had first imagined.
Draco couldn't simply ask to leave, or ever tell them where he was going, he'd be killed in an instance.

"So I just what? Never speak to my mother again? Completely ignore them all and never go back?" Draco asked, learning his only option.

"I'm sorry Draco." Sirius sighed. "If only there was another way, but there simply isn't. You will never escape having to be a death eater being there. You will never be Draco Malfoy, their son anymore. You will always be under Voldemorts control unless you disappear from them. You'll be safe at Hogwarts for now, and you are more than welcome here where they will never know. It has to be this way, if this is what you want."

"Okay." Draco agreed, signing his life away for the second time.