The Boy Who Missed The War
One-shot story * POV Draco Malfoy * Time Turner * AU Voldemort Wins * Draco Takes Matters Into His Own Hands * Pining Draco
I wrote this short story last year and it's still living in my head rent free haha! Hope you like it!
CW... maybe? Draco hits his younger self with a spell in the hopes of a better future... is that self harm technically? idk. It's not traumatizing, more of a merciful act tbh.
It’d been many years since he traversed the corridors of Hogwarts, and yet, it didn’t feel as if any time at all had passed. The tapestries were just as he’d remembered; the faint echoes of ghosts still a comforting lullaby. Draco ran a finger along the stone wall as he walked, reminiscing of childhood memories come and gone. The Hogwarts in his time had long since crumbled under the Dark Lord’s reign. It survived the first battle with most of the ramparts and buildings intact, but barrage after barrage saw the castle taken down to its very foundations in less than a year. What wasn’t destroyed in the battles was soon demolished by trolls enslaved by Lord Voldemort until all that remained was Dumbledor’s grave. It’s said that the Dark Lord himself visits the old headmaster’s grave to boast of his accomplishments. Draco didn’t care to know if the rumors were true; to know that knowledge first hand would require gaining the Dark Lord’s favor more than he already had, and that prospect sent a shiver down his spine. As the Death Eater that started the war, he was already a prominent member of the Dark Lord’s army.
Draco paused at a junction of hallways, peering down first one, then down the other. It was nearing midnight on a chilly October night. Would his younger self still be within the Room of Requirement or would he have departed for the dungeons by now? He’d set the Time Turner to deposit him back into his 6th year at Hogwarts on a Sunday night in October; October was the only month he could remember spending every single Sunday evening within the Room, working on repairing the Vanishing Cabinet and hiding out. It’s been so many years for him since then that his memories for the other months couldn’t be trusted. October though… that’d been the month he’d first noticed her. Hermione- bloody -Granger became something more to him then. A dream that he could never obtain. She haunted him throughout the halls and classrooms so much that he took to hiding in the Room of Requirement more than even Snape expected of him. Draco spent that October running away from her and from everything that was good in his life.
With the remembrance of how powerful that fear was to him back then, Draco made his way down the corridor that would take him to the Room of Requirement. Surely his younger self would still be hiding in there, toiling at all hours of the night on that blasted cabinet in lieu of facing his emotions. Draco tapped his wand and placed yet another disillusionment charm on himself. If anyone was likely to spot him, it would be himself. He couldn’t be too careful; this mission meant everything to him, to his family, and to the wizarding world.
Once he reached the tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls ballet he found an alcove to wait in. He couldn’t get too close to the Room’s entrance, else he’d trigger the warding spells he used to place around the area on nights that Crabbe and Goyle didn’t guard him.
Draco didn’t have long to wait. A small arched doorway appeared on the wall across from him and to the left. After a couple of minutes a 16 year old version of himself emerged from the room. Draco couldn’t delay as he needed the element of surprise on his side, and so he silently rushed forward to grab the boy in a headlock. Without a moment’s hesitation he cast the strongest Obliviation spell he could muster.
Without the knowledge of even his name this boy couldn’t repair the Vanishing Cabinet. He couldn’t let the Death Eaters into the school, and he couldn’t fight in battle after battle. He couldn’t watch his friends and classmates die because he couldn’t remember who any of them were. With his memories stripped, young Draco would spend the next few years living in St. Mungo’s trying to retrieve his memories to no avail. This particular form of Obliviate had a time lock release built into it; after 3 years his memories would be returned to him. By that time hopefully Potter would have defeated the Dark Lord and Draco could re-enter the wizarding world not as the Death Eater who started the war , but as the boy who missed the war. Better to have never fought than to have killed innocents. Maybe then he could have a chance with her...