Draco Malfoy's Worst Fear

Draco's Nightmares

Draco finally walked back to the common room only minutes before curfew. Ginny looked up from her potions homework. 
"Hello, Malfoy," She said in a quivering voice. Draco gave her a curt nod before entering his room, shivering from the cold, before allowing his body to succumb to the numbness of the cold. Then he finally allowed himself to sleep.

"I can't..." Draco said behind ground teeth. Voldermort laughed his cruel laugh. 
"Can't?" He hissed. "I think that you mean you won't. There is a very large difference, Draco." He said, his words chilling Draco to the bone. "I gave you an order. Find Longbottom and punish him, but you didn't. I will bet that it is not because could not. You do not really want to find, him so you obviously won't. Maybe, you need a little reminder, hmm?" Draco trembled, before screaming in agony as an intense cruiatus curse was set upon him. 

"Master Draco," Draco looked from his bed which he was curled up on, hoping that maybe he would not have to deal with his father today. However, when Dobby showed up, he knew that he was asking too much of fate. 
"Yes, Dobby?" Draco whispered. 
"Master Lucius would like to see you in his study in five minutes." Draco's lower lip quivered, but he nodded. 
"I will be there right away." he managed. He thought he knew what this was going to be about. He may be eleven, but he wasn't stupid. His father was asking for him to do far too much, and he was unable to keep his grades to the perfection that his father would like. 
Draco forced himself off his bed, than walked to his father's study. He took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.
"Come in, Draco," Came Lucius's cold voice. Draco tensed to keep himself from shuddering. He maintained perfect posture as he walked into his father's study. He was holding his report card, great. "I see you still managed to be beat by a mudblood girl." Lucius said in a level voice. It was deadly, and void of all emotion. He hated it when his father used that tone, because that only meant that he was furious. In fact, some of Draco's worse punishments had happened when his father used that tone. "What have you to say for yourself?" Lucius asked. 
"I did my best, Father, I just..."
"You did Not. Do. Good. Enough!" Lucius said calmly. Draco stared into his father's eyes, terror clear in them. "Can you not respect me enough to obey what I expressly tell you to do?" 
"I am sorry, Father." Draco whispered, forcing his voice steady. His father hated it when his voice stuttered, or stammered, or he did not come out with complete coherent sentences.
"Sorry does not excuse the fact that you failed, and failure comes with punishment. So, turn around." Lucius said this calmly, and Draco was terrified, but did as he was told. To refuse would only fuse Lucius's anger. "This is your lesson, and I expect that next year you will do as I tell you." That was when the first lash formed on his back. Draco bit his lip to keep from showing weakness. He refused to let tears form, much less fall. His father continued, until he was close to passing out.

Draco hid in his room as he heard footsteps coming up the staircase and down the hallway. He clenched his teeth, and tensed his body. His father had seen his report card once more, only he was thirteen now, and his Mother was fighting with him. However, Lucius had never been one for seeing reason. 
Lucius burst into the room, door slamming against the wall. 
"You!" He said, eyes ablaze with anger. "You failed AGAIN!" Lucius raised his wand. 
"Please! Father, I am trying I just cannot do everything you are telling me!" Draco cried, trying to get Lucius to understand.
"I do not care for the simplicities, Draco,"
"Please!" Draco whispered. "I tried my best!" Lucius's lips curled into a cruel smile. 
"Obviously not!" He said, and a flash of green light, and Draco was screaming in sheer agony.

"Malfoy!" Ginny shook Draco awake. Draco automatically tensed and tried to push her away.
"I'm sorry, it won't happen again!" Draco muttered under his breath.
"Wha...I am confused, Malfoy, what happened?" Draco's eyes fluttered open, and he curled up in himself, shaking violently. "Malfoy!" Draco looked up into Ginny's concerned green eyes. 
"I-I am f-fine. J-just l-leave." Draco said, mentally slapping himself for stuttering so much.
"You where having a nightmare?" Ginny asked, trying to understand this.
"It...It does not matter, Ginny Weasley, you would not understand anyways." Draco said, stunning Ginny to absolute silence, it was the first time Malfoy had ever said her first name, even behind her back before or after the war. Draco was turning in on himself. Ginny had to do something. It was too late to get Snape, and besides, she had no idea where he slept anyways, or, for that matter, where any of the teachers slept.
"Malfoy," Ginny said firmly. "You are NOT fine. So don't try to pull that card. It may work with your Mother and with Zabini and Goyle, but it does NOT work with me. I know when someone is not fine, it it is clear that you are not! So, what happened?" Ginny asked, the last part in a gentle tone. Draco shook his head. 
"I can't." 
"Can't and won't are two completely different things." Ginny said softly. Draco Malfoy looked completely broken. His walls that Narcissa said had been put up, were completely crumbled down. Ginny hated to see him like this, a side she never thought he had.
"It...it isn't that I...I just, my Father..." Draco's voice trembled as he mentioned his father.
"Hay, Look, I thought a lot about what you said earlier, and you were right. When Harry said you were a Death Eater we never actually took the time to think of whether or not you actually had a choice in the matter. We should have known better, and I'm sorry." Ginny said, Draco hugged his knees. 
"It doesn't matter, not now anyways. To the world, it does not matter if you had a choice in joining the Dark Lord, if you did, well, than, you are condemned. It doesn't help that my father practically worships the ground he stepped on." Draco said bitterly. 
"Here, this should help you." Ginny handed him a sleeping potion. Draco smiled sadly at her, but it was not his classic smirk, it actually made him look ten times cuter than he already did. 
"Thank you, Ginny," He said, losing her last name, which took her by surprise. 
"You are welcome, Draco," And Ginny left the room.