Pride
Draco is eight, and he has just been given a toy broom.
It flies, just like a real one, and when he zooms around the chandelier in the drawing room, his mother’s shrieking is like music. Flying is freedom, and the rush of it is still buzzing in his veins when he lands and grins up at his parents.
“You are never to do that again,” his mother gasps, gathering him into her arms and holding him tight.
The pride on his father’s face as he says “You’ll be the best Seeker Slytherin has ever seen” is better than flying.
He doesn’t yet know that he’ll be chasing this high for the rest of his life.
___________________________
Draco is fourteen, and has come home to be measured for dress robes.
The look in his father’s eyes is cold when he demands how Harry Potter has managed to best him again.
“He cheated,” Draco protests, scared to let tears fall, knowing it will only make the anger worse. “It’s not my fault.”
A traitorous tear runs hot down his cheek. Lucius takes one look at it and hooks his cane beneath Draco’s chin.
“Pathetic,” he hisses, and Draco has to look away. He cannot bear the disappointment he sees in his father’s eyes.
___________________________
Draco is twenty, and the War is over.
He wouldn’t know it from the dirty looks aimed at him, nor the lack of employers willing to take him on. The search has been humiliating, but necessary if he is ever to distance himself from his family’s reputation.
Of course it’s Saint Potter who offers him a hand. “I’ll put in a good word for you at the DMLE.”
He cannot bear the pity shining on Potter’s face, but swallows his pride and accepts gratefully anyway. It is, perhaps, the hardest thing he’s ever done.
___________________________
Draco is twenty-six and has fixed his tie four times already.
He didn’t expect Hermione Granger to be the witch that changed his life, but here they are: enemies, turned coworkers. Reluctant friends, turned enthusiastic lovers. And now, he is meeting her parents.
“They’re going to love you,” she says as they stand on the doorstep, squeezing his hand.
When she says his name, says what he is to her, her voice is filled with pride.
And he knows then, that he’ll be chasing this high for the rest of his life.