The Night Draco Malfoys Life changed forever - not in a good way
The first time Draco experienced real pain was the night of his 6th birthday.
June 7th 1986.
It had been a good day. A great one even. There had been a ton of cake that day, a Vanilla monstrosity bigger than Draco himself.
His friends had been there too.
Well as far as you could call them that.
Pansy, Vincent and Greg weren't really his friends.
Not enough of a personality of their own, as far as Draco was concerned.
He saw them more as Followers. Lackeys. Sheep.
It had still been fun, though, running around the house, birthday crown tangled in his stark white hair. His black robe swinging in the wind, when running from one of his rooms to the next, shortly followed by the others.
Of course there had been a ton of presents from everyone on that warm sunny June day.
Although looking back it seemed hard to remember anything other than the deep green stuffed dragon his mother had gotten him.
When you went to Malfoy Manor now, you were sure to find it there still, laying in the depths of Draco's old closet, where he had left it, once, deciding at 11, he had gotten too old to own a stuffed animal.
His family had been there too. His father sitting down with Draco and his mother to eat, instead of hurrying off to work in the early hours.
His mother, all smiles, letting Draco make the decision of what to wear that day.
His decision had fallen on a blue cashmere jumper and those black pants he really liked.
In the evening, when Draco's guests had left, a few of his fathers old friends had come along too, joined by Draco's godfather Severus, congratulating the young heir on his birthday.
When Draco had gone to bed that day, he had been happy. Not a care in the world. Hugging his new stuffed friend to his chest with such vigor. He almost couldn't fall asleep with all of the excitement still reverberating through his tiny body.
Once he had fallen asleep though, it had taken a loud bang of the door downstairs to wake him up again.
It hadn't been day yet, the moon only just after it's peek.
Eager to go back to sleep, the young boy had rolled around, pushing his tiny nose into the stuffed dragon again, when there had been another loud noise.
A shattering this time.
Then screaming.
Yelling.
Steps on the stairs.
A loud rumbling.
A gruesome laugh.
Scared, the white haired boy had clutched his dragon, before tentatively leaving the warm confides of his bed. To see whether everything was all right.
Before the boy had reached the door though, it had been slammed open, revealing evil red eyes and a smirk more frightening than the painting of his late grandmother in his fathers study.
And then there had been the most excruciating pain the boy had ever experienced, when he had been thrown back, his throat ripped open, making his small form shudder in pain and shock.
When his parents found him in his closet a few hours later, there had been excessive amounts of blood running down his neck, colouring his pyjamas in a crimson colour, while tears ran down his cheeks freely.
After the night Draco was bitten, no birthday had ever been the same.
The cakes turned smaller.
Well if he's not able to stomache more than a few bites, then whats the point Narcissa?"
The lackeys stopped showing up.
"What if he goes around biting one of them? How would we even start to explain that Nacissa? Do you want our reputation ruined?"
The gifts became more practical than enjoyable.
"Come on Draco, you're too old to be playing around with kids toys. Instead your mother can show you how to play wizarding chess. That should be way more fun."
Overall there were no guest at all anymore.
"If they find out about him he will never live a normal life again. He would never be accepted by them. We have to protect him."
At least for a short while.
From time to time though, there had been Severus. A calming presence in comparison to Draco's parents, who sometimes seemed rather afraid of the boy, not smaller than the kitchen counter. Severus Answered every question attentively and honestly.
Guiding the young heir through his predicament with care. Helping Draco with his hunger by teaching him how to control it.
For all of two years Draco had thought his godfather a vampire as well, with how educated and informed he had seemed.
And then there was the bat like appearance.
As soon as Draco had figured out how to single out scents and assign them to the blood of the people around him, though, he had realised his mistake rather quickly.
With time things evened out again. At 10, Draco already thought himself an expert in controlling his hunger for blood. He could even eat normally without having to vomit everything out again afterwards, which he was rather proud of. As long as it wasn't meat he was eating, his fangs didn't even pop.
People started coming and going at the manor again. Draco even got to see his so called "friends" again, though that didn't thrill him as much as his parents had thought. Even wizarding chess was more exciting then hearing Vincent and Greg tell him about the amounts of chocolate they had eaten since they last saw him, or Pansy trying to boost his ego with compliments.
Life never fully turned back to normal, however. The constant knowledge of being different, nagging on Draco's mind every time he talked to anyone who didn't know. And after his father drilling into him to never ever tell anyone, that was pretty unlikely to change.
Which was why Draco had gotten so excited when his Hogwarts letter came on that same doomfull day only five years later.
Hogwarts would be a new beginning for him, Draco was sure.
He would finally be able to find real friends, and his fathers suffocating presence wouldn't be looming over his shoulder. Of course he would miss his mother deeply, but that seemed fine when looking forward to almost one whole year of living with his godfather.
Draco didn't really care that he would only see him from a distance at meals and in potions class. That made Draco even more excited for their shared lessons.
The day before departing, Draco's school equipment already crammed into his stylish black suitcase, -the day before, his mother and him had gone to diagon alley extra late, since Draco wasn't much of a fan of sunlight anymore- Lucius had taken him aside one last time and had firmly stated the rules Draco needed to follow, to allow him to stay at hogwarts for more years to come.
1. Draco wasn't allowed to slack off in lessons or fail any classes, to not bring shame to the Malfoy name.
2. Draco was to be sorted into Slytherin, as Malfoys and Blacks before him had.
3. "Don't you dare befriend some filthy Mudblood, or some idiot Griffindor."
4. Draco was not permitted to so much as whisper about being a vampire or anything other than the pureblood heir people thought him to be.
And 5. he was to deny any claims of any soul saying as much.
If anyone were to find out, Draco would immediately be send home and either transfer to Durmstrang or be home schooled by one of their tutors - which, in Daco's mind seemed like the worst case scenario.