Draco stopped suddenly outside the door to his room, which hung gapingly and abnormally open. It was wrong - Draco always locked his door behind him, always kept the key with him, didn't even allow the house elves in there without his presence. Someone had broken in. Setting his jaw, he stepped inside.

Lucius was sitting on the bed, looking completely out of place in Draco's bedroom. He was holding a piece of parchment in his hands, reading, and did not look up as Draco entered. Draco watched him, saying nothing. Finally, Lucius looked up and held the parchment out to Draco, who took it wordlessly and, with a rising sense of dread, began to read.

Draco looked at his father, who stood up.

"This letter is signed: 'With love, Harry'."

"I-"

"Why is it signed: 'With love, Harry' ?"

Draco couldn't breathe, let alone speak. It felt like an iron hand was closing around his throat.

"Why would Harry Potter, with whom I told you not to interact, be writing letters to you detailing how much he misses you?"

Again, Draco was speechless.

"Why is there a pile of these letters, dating as recently as last week, hidden under your bed?"

"I-"

"Why, in one letter, does Potter say that he misses the feeling of kissing you?"

Draco's face was hot. He clenched his hands to stop them from shaking, creasing Harry's letter.

"The Dark Lord, Master of Occlumency, dwells in our house, and yet you do this? " Lucius hissed into Draco's face, his anger finally becoming apparent. "You are a stupid, worthless freak who I am ashamed to call my son. You are not normal, understand? It is not normal for two wizards to be together, it is as disgusting and wrong as being a mudblood, and if you were not my only heir I would kill you, just as I would to any other of your kind." Lucius was breathing heavily, inches away from Draco's face.

"You came into my room," Draco said, quietly. He blinked fast. "You looked through my things."

"This isn't your room. It is the room inside my house that I allow you to inhabit, you ungrateful brat. You think you can tell me what is right and wrong?" Lucius sneered at him. "You're nothing. Nothing." Lucius straightened his back and looked down at Draco. "Go fetch Manimi."

"What?" Draco asked in surprise.

"Are you so stupid that you don't understand English? Fetch the snake."

Draco's heart beat faster. "Why?"

"You dare question me, Boy?!" Lucius yelled. "Go!"

Draco shook his head, and Lucius squared his shoulders, raising his wand. Waiting to hear Crucio, Draco closed his eyes. But to his surprise, all he heard was the growled "Imperio," before everything became silent in his head, peaceful and numb. Lucius watched Draco exit the room, and return a moment later with the snake wrapped around his wrist, trusting Draco's artificial calm and unaware of what was occurring between the two Malfoys. Waving his wand, Lucius caused the door to slam and lock behind them, and the snake hissed at him, low and long. As if waking up, Draco started and looked down to see Manimi, horror crossing his face.

"Put the snake on the ground, Draco," Lucius demanded quietly.

"No, no-"

"Do it, Draco. You know I can simply use Imperio if you don't comply."

Draco turned and grabbed at the door, pulling the handle with all his might in his efforts to escape the monster that was his father, until suddenly the curse hit him, and fire consumed his body. It was too painful to even scream. He fell to the ground, causing Manimi to release from his wrist and move out of the way of his writhing body, unable to do anything but watch. As suddenly as it started, the pain lifted and Draco gasped, instinctively curling into himself as his muscles continued to spasm from the torture they had been put through. In the silence, Draco tried to hold himself together.

"Stand up."

Unable to defy his father any longer, Draco pushed himself shakily to his feet and forced himself to lock eyes with Lucius. He watched as his father raised his wand, and pointed it at the snake on the ground as it slithered away from him, trying desperately to push against the door. Tears were burning his cheeks.

"Father, please," Draco's voice came out as a croak, and Lucius did not even look at him.

"Avada Kedavera,"

A flash of green light filled the room. Manimi's lashing body went still and fell to the floor in a heap of coiled green flesh, and Draco couldn't stop the scream from ripping from his chest.

Before Draco could reach the body, Lucius had pointed his wand once more. Draco watched in horror as the snake was engulfed in flames, leaving no trace that Manimi ever existed. Slowly, Draco turned to Lucius.

"You're a monster," He hissed, his voice breaking on a sob. Lucius ignored him.

"If you ever contact Potter again, if you even look at him in the wrong way, I will have no choice but to treat you the same as any other of your kind." He said, as though he was talking about the weather. "I will see you at dinner, and I expect you to act politely and normally."

The door clicked shut behind Lucius, but Draco did not move. He stood staring at the space Manimi had inhabited only a moment earlier.

She was gone.

Walking to the corner, Draco crouched down and put his hand out as if he thought he would feel her there, as if he could pull her back into his life. But nothing was there.

Draco sank into the corner, and felt himself shatter inside.

0o0o

Footsteps echoed loudly in the tiled corridor as Draco followed his father through the bowels of the Manor, Lucius' heavy treads accompanied by the sharp rap of his cane. In another life, Draco might have felt fear. But he had realised now that there were worse things than death. He bunched his hands into tight, angry fists, and felt the conspicuous absence of the silver ring. Then he cleared his mind and thought of nothing.

Finally, a door of ebony loomed out at them and Lucius knocked with the serpent-shaped head of his cane.

"Enter." A high, cold voice sounded from behind the dark wood, and Lucius swung the door open, allowing his son to walk through. He watched with dead eyes for a mere moment, then pulled the door sharply shut.

Draco looked at the creature before him without emotion. It smiled, a noseless face cracking open at the mouth.

"Draco," It crooned in its serpentine hiss. "I have a task for you."