For @lifecrumblesdown
What is it that makes a man, a man? A wizard? What makes a person who they are? Is it the trials they have faced, or the joys? The enemies, or the friends? For Draco, it took him quite some time to realize that it was all of the above. For everything he’s faced, he has become a better man for it. Not perfect, no. Perfection is an illusion. Even still, he takes pride in what he’s been able to accomplish. His career, his family, the changes he made to his family name and reputation. There will always be people who sneer at him, turn up their noses at the reminder stained into his forearm. That’s fine.
A mans mistakes are as much a part of him as his triumphs, after all. Even with all this, he must acknowledge that a part of him remains juvenile. The name Potter brings with it an old and familiar judgement and hesitance. The rejection that eleven year old Malfoy faced has burrowed it’s roots deep.
When Harry Potter went on to build his own family, he was neither surprised nor upset. It is to be expected of their age and generation, after all. What did surprise him, was the relationship - or lack there of - he seemed to have with said family. With Draco staying under the radar, it was easy to just observe. It was not joy or smug approval he felt as he watched the family suffer.
It’s easy to imagine then, isn’t it, that when James Sirius Potter started lurking around, Draco could understand why. He knew what it was. The same signs he sees in James, he remembers in himself. The shadow of anger under the arrogance. The flash of trauma beneath the smirks and smiles.
Hidden below the flirtations and banter, Draco sees the potential. Untapped and ready for use. He sees it, and he calls it forward. “You will intern at my firm from today forward, do you understand?” It is not a question. It is not an opportunity he will allow to be rejected. “What you do reflects not just on yourself, but on me as well now. You will get your life in order.” He reads shock in those (beautiful) eyes, but he will not stay to see what else is in them. He has work to do, and now, so does James.
Days, weeks, months pass. Malfoy finds himself growing accustomed to the flirtatious compliments, the innuendos, the smiles that ease the ache around his own heart in a frustratingly confusing way. He is too young.
