My Father’s Path
“No Draco! Don’t! I have already lost your father, but please … not you too!”
“Mother, can’t you see? He chose me. This is our chance to redeem ourselves. A chance for me to take father’s place by his side.”
"You're only 17!"
"It doesn't matter. Age does not matter. We either serve the Dark Lord or die."
The mark burned on my arm,
the price for reaching for the stars.
I never really meant to do harm;
how did I let things go this far?
“Draco.”
“My Lord?”
“I have a job for you.”
He told me that it’s but an easy task,
bring the Death Eaters in; throw a single curse.
That is all that the Dark Lord ask.
Why do I feel that our situation is now worse?
“You’re taking far too long, brat!”
“The Dark Lord has yet to pull me off this task, Greyback. Until then, you wait as I tell you to do.”
“I can smell the fear in you. Your false bravado will not work on me.”
“I’ll get the task done!”
“Be sure of that. Else you will not be the only one to pay the price. Your mother is a pretty one …”
“Leave her alone, you animal!”
“The Dark Lord has agreed to give her to me if you fail.”
“You lie!”
“Do I?”
My path has always been clear,
to be my father’s son.
I feel the goal ever so near.
My fate cannot be undone.
“I just don’t want to do this anymore, but I have no choice …”
“Sometimes there is no choice, we just have to deal with whatever miserable fate that is thrown our way.”
“Thanks for listening Myrtle, you know I never thought that I, of all people would end up here talking to you; but I’m glad you’re here … Myrtle? What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry Draco, I don’t mean to cry like this, but you’re the first real friend I ever had. You’re the first person to have ever come looking for me, and actually want to talk with me. You have no idea …”
“At times like this I envy you. You don’t have to worry about things like this anymore ...”
“What do you plan to do?”
“What needed to be done. I cannot risk failure.”
“I wish I could offer you another way.”
“Unfortunately, there is none. No one defies the Dark Lord and lives.”
I had made my choice,
but my armour, he saw pass.
That wise and gentle voice,
shattered my illusions, like glass.
"Draco, Draco you are not a killer."
"How do you know? You don't know what I'm capable of, you don't know what I've done!"
''You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts ... so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has been really in it ...''
He was right, the truth be told.
My heart was not really in it,
but my soul has already been sold.
Still … I cannot bring myself to do it.
"I don't think you can kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe..."
My mind knows I have to finish it,
but my heart stopped me from moving.
By that wall, the man does not seem fit.
My hand shook, for I know not what I'm doing.
"There is little time, one way or another, so let us discuss your options."
"I haven't got any options! I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"
"No harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived ... I can help you Draco."
He offered me a chance,
but the others finally came.
Hope was gone in a glance.
Things will never be the same.
“Draco, stand aside...”
“Severus … please …”
“Aveda Kedavra!”
The deed was done by his wand;
saved at least part of my soul.
No blood flowed by my hand,
But it filled not that gaping hole.
“Go Draco! Go!”
I left my body whole, but innocence lost.
I grasp the remains of the shattered glass.
He too was haunted by which it has cost.
All this, just to support my father’s cause.
“Professor Snape?”
“What now, Draco?”
“I’m sorry you had to do it … just because … I …”
“Draco, remember this: If you wish to survive this sort of life, you should never show weakness … even to me.”
“Yes sir, I understand, but … thank you.”
“Draco.”
“Yes, Professor?”
“You’re welcome.”
Shattered glass I cling upon.
The shards hurt me,
but I have nowhere to run.
Dark Abyss is all I can see...
“Myrtle, I wish you were here to at least talk. You know, for a short while there, I had seen hope. Dumbledore offered me an alternative; but he’s dead now … and I do what I must …”
EPILOGUE:
“Harry?”
“He didn’t want to do it, Ron.”
“I don’t get who or what you’re taking about.”
“Draco. Funny how I always saw him as the enemy, but up there I saw that he was just scared. Draco Malfoy is as much as a victim of Voldemort as everyone else.”
“But I thought Snape killed …”
“Snape did. Draco cannot bring himself to do it.”
“But that git almost killed me.”
“It was but a desperate, ill-planned attempt to get Dumbledore.”
“Why are you suddenly taking that prat’s side?”
“I’m just thinking … how I wasted so much time concentrating on Draco, when in truth he was not the real enemy.”
“Snape?”
“Snape might have had a hand in Sirius’s death, and he was also the one who killed Professor Dumbledore. But he is just a right-hand man; the real enemy has always been Voldemort. I will put all my effort to bringing him down.”
“And maybe Snape with him?”
“Hopefully.”
AN: The dialogues between Dumbledore and Draco were taken from pages 585-591 of the American hardcover version of Half-Blood Prince: