The Aftermath

Chapter 1

Draco let out a large grunt as he dropped a weight to the ground. During a random stroll through a damaged muggle city he caught sight of his slender body in a broken window and decided it was time for change. If he was going to be a different person he could start with the easiest thing; his physical appearance. Draco reasoned if he were different on the outside it would maybe help him change on the inside. Inside he was nothing but shattered, scared, bruised, abused and traumatised. He didn't want to be that Draco anymore.

A lot of things had changed since the war. His father was gone. It was probably the single best thing to happen to his household. He never loved him. Everything he did was out of fear of him and all that live and admiration was just a front to hide his true feelings. He sometimes questioned what his mother saw in him. The way she described him, evil or not, he was amazing to her in the beginning. But the more he got involved with the Dark Lord the more he turned into something else. By the time she realised he was a lost cause there was Draco to think of. Knowing how much she knew about the Dark she stayed to protect him.

Draco didn't want to think about how much worse it would've been if she had left. Would she have been able to take him? Not likely. Would someone like Lucius have left her alive? Even more unlikely. He wondered what would have happened had his father known she had secretly hoped the cause would fail. That the Boy Who Lived would indeed win. The answer to that probably lead to death as well. That's where all signs pointed when it concerned Lucius Malfoy.

He got into the shower and tried to wash off anything about himself that he didn't like. All the things that made him, him. As the steam rose, he let all the pain of his existence wash away. Let his mind go blank and enjoyed the peace and comfort of solitude and the renewal of cleansing envelope him.

When he got out of the shower, he dried himself off and made his way towards the mirror while wrapping himself up in the towel. He brushed his teeth still with very little on his mind. The mirror was spelled so that no condensation would form from the heat of the shower. As he looked at his thick, almost white, blonde hair, a wet mess on his head, he sighed. Maybe drying it would make a difference. He mumbled a spell and used his wand to blow dry his hair.

In an effort to not look like his father he'd cut it all off. But had gotten lazy and now had at least two inches of slightly wavy hair. As he looked at his pale reflection, he saw the one thing that always brought him a tinge of pain. His father. He didn't want any memories of that man yet he looked just like him. Even taking up exercise and reshaping his appearance did nothing to ruin this fact. In moments like this, he wished he looked more like the blacks, but then he'd have to think about Bellatrix who he also had some features off due to his mother.

Draco took a deep sigh resigned to the fact that no matter what he did to himself he could do nothing about his face. There was evil on both sides. He walked out to his room and got dressed. A pair of sweat pants, not jogger style, a plain white T-shirt and blue sneaks the exact same colour as his pants. After all those years of being a Slytherin and a Malfoy, there were just some things he couldn't quit. And matching everything was one of them.

He sat down at the table, pleased to see his mother had actually cooked the meal and not the elves this morning. She was surprisingly good at this having never had the need to cook without magic. But he found these days even she put her wand aside to do the cooking. He reasoned it was the same as him. To somehow separate from the evil that was done during the time with the Dark Lord.

"How are you feeling today?" She asked as he sat down at the table. For a while Draco said nothing. Narcissa didn't push. She allowed him the time to begin his meal before responding. She had somehow landed a good position at the ministry of magic and was using that to create more fair laws. Anything to get as far away from the Malfoy legacy her husband created. She had to use some of the Malfoy tactics to get in but she was going to make it count, and prove everyone wrong about her.

"Okay. I still have nightmares about..." Draco stopped. His mother knew he didn't like talking about his father. And he definitely didn't like reliving the year he had to kill Dumbledore. By far one of the worst times of his life.

"You're filling out nicely," Draco smiled. His mother smiled back before returning to her Daily Prophet. She was working on a law for better protection of Muggle-borns. It wasn't a very favourable article mostly due to all the not so subtle jibes about whether she can be trusted and if her intentions were pure. She was glad to see that the picture of her was rolling her eyes at the insanity of it all.

"Seriously. You marry an evil man, do some evil things. I never murdered a single soul. If this is what happens when you're a mere follower,"

"Be grateful. If you were father you'd be no more." Narcissa nodded in response. Even happier to see herself sigh with exasperation and attempt to walk out of the picture only to be forced to sit back down by the Minister of Magic who encouraged her to put up with the reporters.

"You do think I look better?"

"What. Anyone would be a fool to not want you. I'll admit this sudden interest in muggle type exercise was interesting. Even insisting we turn one of the manor rooms into a gym but it seems to be helping." Draco knew she meant both his appearance and his depression and gave a nod of thanks in response.

"Are you ready for school at the end of summer."

"I guess. So many people will hate me. And then there's always this." He raised his arm where the faded but visible mark was. There was no magic in the mark as far as healers could tell. It just didn't go away entirely. Narcissa rubbed her arm absentmindedly as she looked at her son's forearm.

"It'll be okay."

"That's what you're saying now before all the other students hex me into oblivion and beyond." Narcissa decided not to talk about that much more. There were other things they could talk about.

"Have you thought about Potter?"

"Thought about him how?"

"You're going to encounter him."

"Can we not talk about this."

"You always say that. There will never be a right time to talk about it."

"Maybe I don't want to ever talk about it!" Draco was indeed trying his hardest not to think about the boy he tormented through his time at Hogwarts. What could he say? He was forced to care more about pureblood ties and his family name out of fear. Where would he begin with an apology for all the things he had done? Couldn't he just ignore him?

"You can't just ignore him Draco."

He really hated how she seemed to just know what he was thinking. Instead of responding he decided he was just going to go check on the plants in the greenhouse and maybe work on some potions. Those things always made him feel better. As he stormed out of the kitchen rather unceremoniously his mother watched with a sigh. She wasn't stupid. She knew there was another reason approaching the subject of forgiveness was so hard for Draco.

She went into her study to look over some laws on magical creatures and humans with creature blood in them. When she came across dragon blood, she had a rather interesting idea not related to the work at hand. She went through some muggle photo books in the archives, all knew since her husbands sentencing and ultimate death due to insanity in Azkaban. Narcissa found the picture and made a strong impression of it in her mind and sent her Patronus to find Malfoy and deliver it to him. She knew he was too mad at her to talk to her directly. Moments later a plant leaf shaped into a bird flew in and landed on her table. It flattened out in her hand with a message engraved on it.

Thanks, mother.

She smiled and got back to the task at hand and only hoped her son, even if he couldn't deal with the depression at hand, could at least deal with the situation concerning Harry Potter.