Power And Pride (Open)

It was a stark, chilly autumn night, the night Lucius Malfoy stood at the edge of the Astronomy Tower, overlooking the Hogwarts grounds outstretched before him. He didn’t know what he was doing there, and after hours, no less. He had been in the Slytherin common room, not even bothering to feign interest as one of his mates prattled on about something or other. He had stood then, ignoring their incredulous calls, and exited into the corridors. The perks of being a prefect, particularly for Lucius, was not having to answer to much of anyone; he frequently found himself needing solace and there were few times and places he could find such. Tonight was such a night. Leaning forward against the iron railing, it was as if the whole world were before him, but he didn’t want any of it.

The night before, he had had a strange dream. Lucius wasn’t prone to dreaming. Or at least, if he was, he never remembered them. Every morning he awoke to blank nothingness. Last night was different though. In the dream, he was in the Malfoy Manor. It seemed to him as if he had never gone to Hogwarts. He wasn’t the nearly grown man he was now, however. He was just a boy again, small and unassuming.

His boy-self stood in the foyer. He called for his father. He called for his mother. Then the house-elves, all of them. He waited, but no one answered. Everything was still, as if the manor were holding it's breath. He remembered wondering where everyone else and suddenly feeling very afraid. He moved into the dining hall. No one. He wentinto the parlor room. That, too, was empty. He searched the kitchens, the servants quarters, the drawing room, the cellars, his parents bedchamber, and then his own. All of these were vacant.

Finally he went to the library, his favorite room in the entire house. Ancient volumes and texts lined the entirety of the walls. Anything he wanted to know was at his fingertips. He stood in the center of the vast room. It appeared to be empty. He glanced to his left, and then to his right. The grand fireplace was unlit. Something stirred in the coals, however. He narrowed his eyes, suspicious, and drew closer. To his surprise, a basilisk – though not full-grown, perhaps just past infancy – emerged from the darkness. It raised its head, its fangs striking a tremor through Lucius. Everything after that happened very quickly.

Lucius heard whispering in his ear, and he wondered if it was the great snake. He started to back away. It suddenly felt as if the room became very cold. The snake opened its mouth wide. Then to his dismay, the snake grew larger and larger till it filled the entirety of the library. Lucius looked down at his hands and realized that he too had grown and was no longer a boy anymore. The snake hissed, opened its mouth wider, and then lunged at Lucius.

In the swiftest moment, everything became dark and Lucius knew he was in the mouth of the snake and would die.

Lucius had awoken with a start, panting and drenched with sweat.

As much as he struggled against it, his mind kept going back to that dream, the dream that still made him tremble inwardly. Lucius had never held much faith in superstition, in the art of divination, in the ability to foretell the future or make signs out of coincidences. Lucius believed in the strength of blood-purity, the corruption of mud-bloods and half-bloods infiltrating the magical world. He believed in the philosophies of his Salazar Slytherin and of his father. Lucius knew this was the point his life was headed toward. The world was changing and Lucius would be there to serve the stronger side.

Staring out onto the grounds, however, Lucius was at a loss. There was an emptiness in him he had never felt before. He was willing to chalk it up to youthful stupidity, childish ignorance, but this felt like something greater.

He couldn't voice his doubts to anyone, barely even to himself. But everything suddenly felt like a burden. He had never felt so afraid. Blood-purity, it felt like a tired, old lesson he was sick of hearing. He was sick of his mother’s inane pressure to find a suitable wife. He could scarcely imagine his life beyond the boundaries of school. What was it he really wanted, anyway? If his father only knew what he was thinking…

Lucius was on his way back to the Slytherin Common Room, when he heard quiet voices just ahead. They echoed eerily against the stone walls and Lucius felt as if he were back in that dream with the basilisk whispering in his ear. Up ahead then he saw two figures. Zeke Maxwell and Bellatrix's youngest sister. He drew closer, hands in his pockets. They probably thought he was about to reprimand them for breaking curfew, given his prefect-ness, but he simply cocked his head toward Zeke and his pack of cigarettes. "Care to share?"