Choice (A Draco Malfoy Story)

Prologue:

"Bring me the girl." The Dark Lord hissed at the three teenagers that were trying desperately to hide their fear. 

Draco Malfoy felt his insides run cold. He didn't have to ask what girl Voldemort was referring to. None of them did. They all knew. 

"She's the key to everything..." He continued, but Draco couldn't hear him over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears.

He had to protect her. There had to be some way to protect her from all of this. 

Draco looked up when he felt a pressure on his left hand. Pansy Parkinson had squeezed it tightly before discreetly moving back to her position. She hated to see her best friend in such pain. She had never seen him look so afraid, and she had known him for her entire life. 

"Zabini, you're friends with her. You'll manipulate her to join us willingly. It will be easier if she is compliant." Voldemort commanded. 

It was true that Blaise Zabini had befriended the girl at the beginning of the term. She had been assigned as his potions partner, and they got on well. However, he knew her well enough to know exactly which side she would take when the time came. He knew that it wasn't his. 

"I'll do my best, my lord." The boy whispered, trying to hide the tremble in his voice. 

He knew, however, that his best would never be good enough. 

"She's dating a Weasley. She's decided her place in all of this." Pansy commented with false boldness. 

She knew that speaking out of turn was sure to get her tortured, but she knew that if Addie had been brought into this, it would break her best friend's heart. 

Draco Malfoy has been in love with Adeline St. Claire for as long as he can remember. They had grown up next door to one another until Addie's family moved her away when they were 10 years old. She had left him without any type of explanation or any type of goodbye. He just knocked on her door one day and never received a response. 

That was the first time that the girl had broken his heart. 

Draco spent the next year counting down the days until he would see her again. He knew that she would still be attending Hogwarts when they turned 11. He had heard his parents speaking about it in his father's study one night shortly after Addie had disappeared. 

It was to his surprise, however, that she had been sorted into Gryffindor. The bigger surprised was how she had looked at him when they first met eyes on the train to Hogwarts their first year. He had been expected a warm welcome, but instead, he was met with a girl that held more hurt in her eyes than he had ever seen in anyone else's. Instead of sitting with him, she had opted to sit alone. 

From then, she acted as if she had never known Draco Malfoy at all. She acted as though he wasn't the first boy that she had kissed. She acted as though he had never meant a thing to her. 

It was in their second year that Draco had started picking on her and her Gryffindor friends just to gain her attention. 

He spent the past six years watching the girl that he still loved fall in love with someone else. A Weasley no less. 

"Her place in all of this is by my side." Voldemort screeched. 

"Bring her to me by the end of the year or it will be the end of the three of you." He concluded. 

Before any of the teenagers could blink, Voldemort was gone. 

All Draco Malfoy knew was that this would going to be a long year.