Harry closed the door to Draco's room softly and looked toward Snape, Ron and Hermione all waiting in the hallway. "He doesn't want to come, sir."

"Very well, then." Snape glowered. "Mr. Potter, you're in charge of making certain we don't forget to provide for Mr. Malfoy."

Harry frowned. "What are we going to Diagon Alley for, sir?"

"Provisions, Mr. Potter. Come, quickly now."

The voices on the other side of his door faded and Draco tossed his robe over a chair and threw himself onto his bed. The apparition in the Odd Room had opened a door to memories Draco had thought were safely hidden away forever. Even his nightmares had been free of the sight of those blue eyes, that innocent face, and sweet laughter. A flood gate had been ripped apart in Draco's mind and he pulled the pillow tightly over his face in a futile effort to block the assault of the memories.

He was falling...

Elydree Malfoy had been born two years after the Malfoy heir had been born. Lucius Malfoy had been noticeably, but not unexpectedly absent for the birth. He had his heir. Anymore children were superfluous to his needs. Lucius tolerated the child for when she came of age, she would be a bargaining chip in cementing a good union between the Malfoy line and another pureblood house. He expected Narcissa, his wife, to raise Elydree as an obedient and proper daughter of Lucius Malfoy.

Narcissa doted upon the child and Draco was charged with keeping the little girl away from her father. He took his responsibility as her caretaker very seriously and did his best to teach Elydree that the tall, silver-blonde haired man was dangerous. He hated to frighten her, but it was necessary for her survival. Elydree trusted her older brother completely and loved him with an open devotion that he received neither from his mother and certainly not from his father.

Perhaps if his father had not been Lucius Malfoy, his mother would have been more open with her love as she was with her daughter. Draco liked to think so when the shadows felt too close and darkness seemed to surround him like a prison. His mother was not permitted to show love to her son, though; it was a weakness and Lucius would not tolerate weakness in his heir.

From the time Draco could walk, his father beat him if he showed signs of weakness. Draco learned, not to eliminate his love for his mother and his sister, but to hide it. He learned quickly to mimic his father and to give him what he desired. Out of sight of his father and within Elydree's world, there was freedom. At the time, he never thought it would end.

Elydree was a curious little girl, though, and one day she wandered into a forbidden area of the manor looking for one of her dolls. She was playing in her father's office when he discovered her. Draco had been looking for Elydree. He'd let his guard down for only a few minutes and she had vanished. He arrived upon the scene just as Elydree was on the floor, weeping. Lucius had his cane raised high above his head and was about to bring it down upon the child's dark-haired head.

Draco could never explain what had happened. He had cried out and the next thing he knew was that Malfoy elder was flying across his office, knocked backward by a strong force of accidental magic. Narcissa had arrived and swept Elydree out of the way. Just before she ran down the hallway to her parlor, Narcissa cast an agonized glance toward Draco. Both of them knew what would happen to him.

It was the first time he felt the agony of the Cruciatus Curse. It was only a few seconds, but the kicks and the cane that cracked his ribs and broke his arm, left his body bruised and bloodied. When he woke in his room, briefly, two days later he could not rise, nor speak. He could hear his mother weeping. He fainted. It was another two days later when he woke. Someone had healed him but had made little effort to remove the blood and filth from his body.

Lucius Malfoy was standing over his son when his eyes fluttered open. "Clean him up," he ordered the house elves.

"Father... Ely... " The name of his little sister froze upon his lips as his father's dark grey eyes bore deep into his soul.

"That name is never to be spoken in this house, Draco." He leaned closer to his son and hissed, "And should you be tempted to mention that... child to your mother, you will know pain worse than the cruciatus curse. Is that understood, Draco?"

Draco could only nod and watch as his father, the man he despised with every nerve in his body, stride out of his room. From that day forward, Draco became the perfect son of Lucius Malfoy.