Chapter Text
There was a saying between purebloods.
'A ----- bows to no one.'
They all used it really and even the famed Blacks would recite this exact quote when their own motto wouldn't feel like enough. Because there were times when not even 'Toujours Pur' felt like enough. Every respectable pureblood family would use that motto but just a single one actually owned that saying. The correct saying would be:
A Malfoy bows to no one.
The Malfoy's despite not being as many as the Blacks, Potters or even Rossiers, were the ones that were treated more as Royalty than any other Wizarding Family from Britain. Maybe it was the way they moved, like a snake that learned to wear too many skins at once. Maybe it was the way they talked, like every word was so important that you needed to listen and obey. Maybe it was the way they controlled their magic, the way it felt, electrified like strike by lighting.
Their magic felt like it lived for hunting.
Abraxas Malfoy was a perfect example of his family motto. Why? Because he didn't bow at his own father when he was almost forced to marry Walburga Black of all people but found his own wife and sticked to her till her death. Because he didn't bow when other families would tell him how to discipline his own son, he was plenty aware than pain worked on fear and Malfoy do not fear anything.
But above all , he learned later, much much later what everything means what had he done and he didn't regret it one bit he didn't bow when Tom Riddle entered their school and begin talking. And oh how he talked, how he swayed all the Heirs and their families. The teachers and the students and how the school looked like it would bow at his will at any second.
Abraxas would remember, at the brick of death, how Riddle would try to sway him as well, sweet words about domination, about the world being a better place without Muggles, about purity when Riddle himself was barely a Half-Blood. How Abraxas laughed when he heard of it.
Of a Half-Blood fighting for Blood Purity.
And how he screamed when he heard it.
Of a Half-Blood bending, killing entire Wizarding families for a quest of vengeance that would kill them all.
Abraxas Malfoy, died without telling his son, his only Heir, what their family motto actually mean.
Draco Malfoy was an ambitious child. He loved helping his Uncle Sev at making potions and helping his mother in the garden. He loved flying and doing magic with his mother wand, white, purple and golden sparkles falling out of her at ever move. His magic was still not stable enough to use properly but that didn't stop Draco from trying.
He found out quite quickly that doing magic without a wand was actually much easier. It was all about the 'want', intent his mother called it. But Draco was a child that if he wanted would get anything and if he wanted to wield his magic, to make pillows float at command and make his ceiling change colors than he would get it.
Because that's what he wanted.
Draco Malfoy was nothing more than a spoiled brat
----
Draco Malfoy was a child that loved his father and even though he know that his father didn't quite reciprocate the same feelings, Draco was always happy when his father would take him aside in his office and talk with him about the Family lineage, about how good, proper wizards like him were the greatest and many more things that Draco didn't really understand.
He was a child you see.
He didn't understand many things but there was a single thing that stuck in Draco mind at end of every lesson ( A Malfoy bows to no one ) and no it wasn't the weird things his father would say about blood purity.
After all, if blood purity was that important, why was Uncle Sev his Godfather when he was a Half-Blood? It just didn't make sense.
And if the saying was just so cool that it stuck to him much deeper than the other lessons well, he was still a child.
----
Draco Malfoy was a confused child when his mother tried to explain him about the Dark Lord. About cruel war and crueler deaths. About a crazy aunt and mad uncles. About Light and Dark and the sides they were on. About a boy, no, a babe who finished it all. A savior. A child with a name too big for his body. About a scar and monster and death once more.
A small part of him, unknow and unseen would want to find that child, that boy, for motives unknow to Draco.
'' Why are we on a side?'' he would ask his mother, interrupting her
'' The Dark side is the one we stand on, Dragon.'' his mother would say slowly, smiling when Draco would still frown. That wasn't what he asked, though his mother didn't look fazed
'' But why? Why aren't we on the Light side? Or the Grey side? ... is there a Grey side mother?''
Malfoys are Dark, she said and it sounded like a rule. And Draco quite hated rules.
'' Draco.'' his mother would warn sternly before shacking her head disappointed '' Go to sleep Draco.''
'' But we shouldn't be on that side. We shouldn't be on any side, that's what father said so.''
'' He...he did?'' his mother would ask confused forgetting her own words
'' Yes. He said that Malfoys bow to no one.'' Draco would say convinced and will not falter when his mother delicate laugh echoed in his room
'' That's just a saying Dragon.'' mother would say before petting his head and leaving him alone in his turmoil
----
Draco Malfoy was a hurt child when his father first slapped him with his cane. The cane was cold and hot at the same time, his face aching and body trembling. It took five whole minutes of trembling and staying unmoved and listening to his father raging that he didn't froze from fear. Draco body was trembling with rage and in a 'show of accidental magic' all the windows cracked before exploding.
Draco Malfoy was angry.
'' Never utter those words again, boy.'' father would say, cane stabbing Draco shoulder before he would leave the room with his head held high and arrogance going off his body
'' But they are true words.'' Draco said nonetheless and his mouth, jaw ached '' You just don't want to hear how you let yourself be swayed by pretty and become a shell of a wizard! You just don't want to acknowledge that you are weak! That you are just a petty man with too big of a ego and just want to put the blame for your lose on a child! On a baby!''
Draco body was slammed on the wall of his own house before he could say anymore words.
Lucius Malfoy did not see a child in those moments, he saw a man with hair shorter than his own that spoke true after true after true.
Draco wake up three months later with a jagged scar at the back of his neck, his mother sleeping curled up at his feet and his Uncle Sev sleeping on a chair upright. He looked up and grinned when the anger in his body was still there. He still wanted to scream at his father, to make him understand, to make him get it. Those lies he said to him weren't at all like any lesson he was thought before.
To bow at the Great Dark Lord? Draco was a Malfoy and he wouldn't bow to anyone, even if he was small, with cutting elbows and he didn't know any real spells. He was great anyway, he could feel it in his core how his magic would boil over sometimes and a simple sneeze would make anything nearby shatter.
'' Draco.'' his mother anguish voice made him blink startled and he lifted his arms high enough to hug her back. He felt the tremors in her body and heard the small prayers to Lady Magic and he just got more angry. He wanted to scream, to break something, to destroy, to burn.
Mother shouldn't cry after all. She should be happy with a messy hair bun and a small brush between her fingers, fingers stained with blue paint. She should be happy in her great, secluded studio where just the two of them were allowed to enter with Uncle Sev sneaking in so he could bring them snacks. House elves were not allowed in mother Space. Neither was father but he never tried to enter.
'' Draco.'' the calmer but firmer voice of Uncle Sev pulled him up and he grinned up at him. By the worried look and the resigned face of his mother his grin wasn't quite that good. '' Can you move your legs? Your toes?''
Despite the strange question, Draco let his mother arms get off him before throwing the blanket off his body and jumping off the bed, he was a little awkward at the beginning till he realized that he was a little taller than before. His elbows were still too skinny though.
He did a sudden pirouette before falling back on the bed when both of them sighed in relief.
Then his mother started crying again and he didn't care about the sudden heigh gain, the strange tingle under his skin that made him grin or sometimes giggle without a motive, he didn't even care about his hair. After all, a little Black on his normally Malfoy hair wasn't that bad.