He'd been home for over a month and had been putting this off. He need not be afraid of his father any longer. The man could not hurt him any longer. Draco entered the family crypt and passed a hand over his grandfather's name there.

Abraxas Draco Malfoy
February 14, 1919 - January 12, 1986
sic gorgiamos allos subjectatus nunc

Then he stopped at the next one.

Lucius Malfoy
March 1, 1954 - April 13, 1998
quod me nutrit me destruit

Draco had to give a bit of a snort of laughter. Very fitting that Latin. What nourishes me also destroys me. Very fitting, indeed. Draco was betting Narcissa had chosen that. Well, yes, she would have had to. His mother did have a startling sense of irony though. Draco took a seat on the stone bench in the crypt facing his father.

"Father," Draco said quietly. "Thought we might have a bit of a chat. If that's agreeable. The last time we spoke, I'm afraid I was rather curt with you. Sorry about that. If I'd have known you were about to be hexed... what am I saying? I'd have done it exactly the same way. You know me, Father. There's no point in my trying to make any sort of peace now, is there?"

Draco sighed loudly. Sure, he did like the sound of his own voice most days, but not in a crypt, and not something so one-sided.

"I hate you," Draco whispered. "I hate so much I can taste it. For what you made me be. I'm trying to change that. I know you're offended. I'm sorry for that, but I'm trying very hard not to end up dead like you, no offense."

Draco sighed and looked at his hands.

"I miss you."

He rubbed a hand over his left arm.

"But I'll never forgive you for threatening me with Mother. You put me on a path that made almost all of my friends abandon me. You know I don't do well alone. Well, except for Crabbe. Would follow me anywhere, that one, but I'm no leader. All I wanted to do was play quidditch and dislike Potter, but that wasn't good enough. No, I had to be a minion to a megalomaniac. You lot were going to kill my mother if I didn't. And my friends."

Draco sighed again.

"I hate you. Kill Blaise and Pansy if I don't take the Mark. I should have been smarter. Calanthe would have eaten you all alive if you'd touched her boy. That could have ended it all right there, but I don't think Blaise would agree to being that sort of sacrifice. And besides, I'd miss him. I need him to keep me in check."

He was silent for a long while, lost in his own thoughts.

"I think someone's going to try to kill me."

"You could be right about that, young Malfoy."

Draco jumped. When he turned, Alecto Carrow was standing in the doorway to the crypt. He had not seen her since the last battle. He hadn't seen her brother Amycus since the trial when Draco had testified and had the man sent to Azkaban. Alecto was looking even more gaunt than usual, and her eyes were burning with something Draco recognized all too well - pure, unadulterated hatred.

"You the one been sending me those love notes, Carrow? It's not like you not to sign things. I was wondering who my secret admirer was. I'll admit, you really hadn't crossed my mind. I was under the impression that you were dead. So's most of the wizarding world. Sorry though, darling, you're not really my type."

She snarled at him. Spittle flew from her mouth then drool started dripping from her lips in a disgusting strand as her mouth stayed twisted in its anger and hatred. She was so beyond at Draco that she didn't even know she was dribbling on herself. This was so not a good sign.

"Well, as fun as this has been-"

The hex was flying towards him. Draco dove behind the sarcophagus of one of his Malfoy ancestors. Shite.

"YOU SENT AMYCUS TO AZKABAN WITH YOUR LOOSE TONGUE! HE DIED THERE! I'LL KILL YOU FOR IT! I'LL KILL YOU!"

Okay, excessively bad. Draco needed to get to the door so he could get out in the open to disapparate. The wards on the place would not let him do it from within. He really didn't fancy becoming a stain on the stone floor of the family crypt. Bloody suspicious and arrogant Malfoys thinking folks wanted to steal their bodies even after they were dead, so they put wards on the soddin' family crypt!

He stuck his head around the stone and took a stinging hex to the face. Draco howled in pain. Bloody hell! He needed to get out of here and fast. Draco decided to make a break for it. What choice did he have really? He pointed his wand, throwing wild hexes as a bit of cover while making a run for the crypt door. He took several hits. One of them burned his shirt off of his body. That was a neat trick. He'd have to try and remember that one. Another one seemed to sap all of his strength. She was trying to slow him down, but he still managed to escape.

He disapparated, wondering why she had not thrown the killing curse at him. She'd hit him well over a dozen times with various other hexes. She so could have gotten him. Probably wanted him to suffer first. That would be like her. The Carrows had liked torture just as much, if not more, than his Aunt Bella. They liked to draw a thing out, death being the absolute last after the body was broken beyond repair. Alecto should have killed him when she had the chance though. Her mistake, his lucky break.


{SUMMARY} Draco goes to visit Lucius at the Malfoy family crypt and runs into an "old friend".