Beautiful, Broken

The door of the small room that was serving as a prison cell opened and a feeble splash of light entered the murky space followed by two men. One was tall with long pale hair, he strode in with decisive steps, the other dark haired man entered tentatively and looked about in astonishment.

His gaze fell on the only inhabitant of the room; a pale young man crouched in one corner with his robes clutched about him as if for protection.

"Draco, mind your manners. Say hello to Professor Snape," Lucius Malfoy spoke airily as if the room that they were standing in didn't reek of spoiled food remnants and the waste bucket in the corner.

He had addressed his son with a smile on his face, seemingly ignoring the fact that Draco's hair was dirty and hung in matted blood-streaked strings around his pale bruised face.

"Hel - lo Prof - professor," the young man said, stuttering the words toward his former teacher in a voice that sounded unused and rusty, his eyes never leaving his father's face.

"Very good," Lucius beamed at his son and turned toward the other man. "Severus, as you may can imagine, I have a situation here and I believe that I could use your assistance."

During father and son's interaction Severus Snape had not spoken. He had merely looked from one Malfoy to the other inquiringly. His expression never registered the shock or dismay that he was feeling inside. He wanted to gasp, grab his head in alarm or possibly begin shaking Lucius, screaming questions at him.

Severus drew a shaky breath and asked with a voice that sounded more in control than he felt, "Lucius, has Draco been here this whole time?" he swallowed and continued, "I mean when he disappeared after the final battle everyone assumed he was killed, hexed out of existence. Has he been here at the manor for the past few months? Living, like this? The whole time that you have been under house arrest, awaiting trial, he has been in this cell?" He gestured around the room and then looked toward the cowering boy in the corner.

"Yes, he has," the elder Malfoy smiled as he answered.

Snape looked at him and barely suppressed a shudder as he realized that the gleam that he had taken for cheerfulness in Lucius's beautiful blue eyes was actually insanity.

Well, isn't this just a messy kettle of fish, thought Snape?

"Lucius, why did you bring him here? Why have you imprisoned him?" Severus spoke calmly, slowly as if to a child rather than to a grown man he had known most of his life.

"He is my son. He belongs to me." Lucius said as if in explanation.

Snape reached and touched the other man's arm before speaking, "Lucius, for pity's sake. Let me take him. He needs medical help."

Lucius flinched away from the touch; he turned to look at Draco and asked, "Severus, do you think he looks like me? I have always thought he looked more like me than Narcissa. What do you think?"

"Narcissa." Yes, thought Snape. "Lucius, where is Narcissa?" He found that he was speaking slow and gently to the man.

"Dead."

Severus's eyes widened and he saw Draco react as if slapped. "Dead? Lucius, how?"

"She wanted to leave me. I took her to the roof and asked her if she could fly. She couldn't."

A moan escaped the boy huddled in the corner. Severus swallowed and started to speak but was cut off when the other man continued.

"Do you want him, Severus?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes, Lucius let me take him, please."

"No. Severus. Do you want him? Like you wanted me?"

"Lucius, please he needs medical attention. We can talk later, please." Severus felt beads of icy sweat begin to slide down his spine.

In a suddenly steely voice, the older Malfoy said, "I asked you a question. Do you want him?" His voice softened again as he continued, "I'll let you have him. Like I could never let you have me. You wanted me, didn't you Severus?"

"Please don't do this now, not here, Lucius, please."

"I like it when you beg, Severus. You sound like your sixteen year old self when you beg."

Snape felt a flush of embarrassment heat his skin, but he knew that his only chance of saving the boy was to keep his father talking and maybe make him see some sort of reason.

He licked his dry lips and said, "Yes, Lucius I wanted you. Now, may I take him?"

"Draco stand," Lucius commanded the boy.

Draco clutched at the tattered robe and pulled himself upright, using the wall as support.

Severus took note of the deep cut on his cheek that had crusted over but had broken the scab and begun to ooze. Draco held his arm against his chest, cradling it gently; the elbow was swollen and looked to be at an odd angle. As he straightened up, the professor saw that the bottom of Draco's robe was torn and a bloody gash shown through on his pale leg. He smelt a whiff of infection emanating from the young man and his stomach clenched in both revulsion and pity.

"It's over Lucius. The Dark Lord is dead. You need help, he," Severus gestured weakly toward Draco, "needs help. Let me take him out of here. I'll tell them that you aren't well."

"He needs to be cleaned up, then you might want him, he smells, doesn't he?" Lucius spoke as if he had not heard the other man's words. "I brought him a bucket of water, but he may have drunk it instead. He is willful that way."

Lucius was quiet for a minute; the silence lay heavy in the small room.

"He never made me proud, did you know that? He was always a disappointment. The only time he ever stood up to me was that one time, on the battlefield. I saw the Lord fall, and when I turned, there stood my son. He was pointing his little wand at me and his eyes were ablaze with defiance. I hadn't seen him since he had become a traitor and ran to that fool Dumbledore. But here he was, standing up to me, his very own father. It was a good moment, but of course, I couldn't let him think that he could get away with such insolence. He paused to tell me why he was doing it and that was his undoing." Lucius chuckled as if reliving a fond memory and continued, "he actually told me that he thought that the Dark Lord was wrong, that he, Draco wanted to help stop the bloodshed and the war, that he had found a deeply buried well of decency and tolerance in his heart, his Malfoy heart. He wanted me to believe that he was willing to throw away his name, his inheritance and the power of who he would become, because he had seen the light, turned over a leaf and discovered a conscience underneath. But I knew why he was really doing this. Do you want to know why, Severus?"

"Please don't do this Lucius, let me take him." Severus said beseechingly.

"Shut up Severus," Lucius snapped. "I'll tell you why. He fell under the spell of that mongrel Potter. He let Potter have him. Didn't you my son? You may have called it love, but it is nothing but weakness," he turned to look at Draco with a maniacal glint in his eyes. "You let him defile you, didn't you?"

Draco shook his head slowly, never lowering his gaze from his father.

"See how he looks at me with such hate? That's how I know that I haven't broken him, yet. When I told him how I was going to bring his precious Potter here and flay him alive, peel the skin from him and feed him to the wolves, my boy cried and screamed, he begged for the bastard's life. He denied that he was Potter's whore, that he had knelt before Potter and allowed himself to be desecrated, but I know. I know that he grunted and begged, pleaded for the feel of James inside of him like a whore, like a woman, but I know what effect James has on someone. He had that effect on you, didn't he Severus?"

At the name James, Severus's head had snapped up and he looked at Lucius incredulously.

"Lucius, the boy isn't James. James is dead. He is Harry, not James."

Lucius's brow furrowed for a second but then he waved his hand dismissively, "no matter. A Potter is a Potter. You quit begging me after a while, didn't you Sev? Did you beg Potter? Was James the reason that you no longer wanted me?"

Snape felt nausea rise in his throat, he felt the broken glass of Lucius's sanity shift under his feet and he proceeded with caution. "Lucius, I never wanted anyone but you," he said quietly, "only you. When you told me no I stopped asking out of respect for your feelings, but there was never anyone else."

Snape refused to look at the expression of realization that fleeted across Draco's face. He swallowed back the taste of despair, black and sour in his mouth, and continued, "Lucius, let me help the boy."

"Did you know that I knew you were a traitor, Severus?" Lucius asked.

Snape did not speak; he waited to see where this would lead.

"Yes my dear Severus, the Dark Lord suspected, but he never could find proof. I didn't think that you had it in you to be so bold. Servitude and cowardliness seemed to suit you better, but people change. I often wondered if you would come for me, come to wreck vengeance upon me for denying you all of those years ago. But you didn't. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed."

The elder Malfoy walked toward Draco. He reached out and Severus saw Draco flinch slightly, but still he held his ground and met his father's gaze.

"Do you want this boy, Severus?" he asked quietly, "as a replacement for what I could not give you?"

"No Lucius. I do not want him. I only want to help him, and you."

"You can't help me, Severus. You never could, I was always beyond saving." Lucius said this last quietly and then turned suddenly, mood shifting, a bright smile upon his beautiful face, "but no talk of such sad things. I brought you here to assist me with a situation. Would you like to know what it is?"

Severus nodded, unwilling to trust his voice. He blinked his eyes and hoped that the tears that threatened to spill down his face would hold.

"When my son confronted me it was a small matter to subdue him, bring him here and return to the battlefield. I had to let them capture me or they would have come looking for me and might have found that." He spat the word and pointed at Draco, "because of who I am, and in no small part due to my wealth, I'm sure, I was allowed to stay here at the manor. Of course, they took my wand and set quite a few wards around to keep me from leaving or harming anyone, including myself, with magic that is." He smiled a sly smile and suddenly struck Draco across the face.

Draco fell backwards against the wall in response to the attack, eyes wide in fear, but burning with a vicious hate.

Severus tensed further, but held himself still. His head throbbed and his scalp tingled with nerves, his mind was racing, trying to find a solution to this hell. He cleared his throat and spoke softly, "Lucius, what do you need from me?"

"I know they made you surrender your wand before you were allowed to enter the manor, but I also know that you can do wandless magic, you also carry potions on your person that can be very useful."

Severus looked into the mad eyes of the man in front of him. Those same eyes had held such life and sparkle when they were young. It was his spark of life, quick wit and beauty that had originally drawn Severus to him, like an animal to a baited trap.

"Useful how, Lucius?"

"Kill us, Severus, Draco and I, kill us both."

Snape flinched as if struck, his mouth hung open and he reached toward Lucius, clutching at his sleeve.

"What? Why?"

Lucius did not speak for a moment. He walked away from the other man toward the far corner of the room, and then turned with his head bowed. Snape heard him mumble something quietly before he lifted his head and spoke clearly, "I am a Malfoy, he is a Malfoy. I knew even before my short stay a few years ago that I would not survive long in Azkaban. I will not, cannot tolerate the indignity of that place. And I will not tolerate the indignity of knowing that a Malfoy is allowing himself to be violated by a Potter. To actually have a son of mine believe that the devious spell that the dirty blooded, Potter bastard has cast upon him is some form of love. I won't have people laugh and point at me behind my back that I am on my knees for a Potter, crying out, begging for Potter's touch." His voice rose and became loud and shrill, his face turning a deep red.

Severus wondered if Lucius realized that he had changed the words to indicate that he was talking about himself, and knew that it would not matter even if he did know. This insanity was too deep, too far reaching, and then he wondered how long the man had been a raving lunatic kept in check by dogged determination alone.

"Lucius, I can't do that, please don't ask me to do that," he pleaded.

The blonde man walked to the dark haired man and reached out tenderly and stroked his face.

"You once told me that you loved me, that you would do anything for me. Prove it now. I am giving you what you always wanted, my life."

"No, Lucius not like this. I only wanted to love you, to show you what you meant to me. This is a perversion of that love. I won't do it." Snape shook his head and tried to pull away from the feel of cool fingers on his face.

Lucius dropped to his knees and began to fumble at Severus's robes, "do you want this? Will this make you help me, love me?"

A sob escaped Severus's chest as he reached and grasped Lucius, pulling him to his feet and clasping his body in a tight embrace.

"Oh gods, Lucius, please, please don't do this," he gasped and cried out, the tears flowing down his face freely.

In the corner unobserved and momentarily forgotten, Draco stood and stared at the two men. Thoughts whirled and spun in his pain-wracked mind. In his hand, hidden in the folds of the robes he held about him was the heavy wire handle of the bucket that his father had brought to him filled with dirty, stale water. Lucius had laughed and told Draco that if he was going to exist like a swine then ditch water was good enough for both thirst and bath.

Draco had long since drank the water and had been using the bucket as a toilet, but he had also removed the handle. At night, after he was sure that his father was asleep and would not be visiting him to torment him with beatings and accusations screamed into his bloodied face, Draco had begun to scrap and rub the end of the handle against the mortar that bound the stone walls of the room serving as his prison.

Clutching the handle in his trembling hand he took a tentative step forward and then another. Severus had his head on the other man's shoulder, sobs causing both men to shudder in the circle of their pain and desperation.

As he took one more step, Lucius whirled and faced him; arms held out, fingers hooked into claws. A scream formed on Draco's chapped bruise swollen lips as he lunged forward and shoved the deadly sharpened wire into his father's long pale throat.

Both father and son fell to the floor, each with a mirrored look of horror upon their faces. Lucius reached slowly and touched the piece of metal protruding from the bloody wound in his throat. He looked with astonishment across the distance between he and his son before falling over gracefully into a boneless heap, a ghost of a smile played across his lips as his eyes closed in death.

Severus dropped to his knees and pulled Lucius onto his lap, cradling the blonde head and weeping tears onto the suddenly peaceful face.

Gently he drew a ragged breath and straightening the dead man's robes around him, stood wearily, head hung.

"Is what he said true?" Draco's voice in the quiet room caused Severus to cringe. He looked at the boy kneeling on the floor next to his father.

Severus closed his eyes and nodded slowly. He couldn't speak for the pain that surrounded him, pain for the loss that haunted this room like the ghosts of children dancing unseen across a forgotten playground. He waited for the accusations and condemnation, but looked up in surprise when he heard Draco speak in a soft calm voice.

"Take me to him, please. Take me home to Harry." Tears started down the boys face, he wiped his hand across his cheek and standing, continued, "it's time this bloody war was over, for everybody."

Severus nodded and took Draco's arm. "Can you walk?" he asked him.

"If not I'll grow wings and fly."

Slowly they left the room and the past behind them.