Prometheus Unbound

Author's Note: The following work occurs in the same universe as Ritually Yours. It starts shortly midway through the "End of December" chapter of that work. I have decided to start releasing this work, even though it is not yet complete due to significant references to what I'm doing in this story being made in upcoming chapters of Summer Rituals. This story is a Malfoy redemption story. You have been warned.

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite

To forgive wrongs darker than death or night

To defy Power, which seems omnipotent

To love, and bear, to hope till Hope creates

From its own wreak the thing it contemplates

Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent

This like thy glory, Titan, is to be

Good, great, and joyous, beautiful and free

This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory

– from Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Prologue

The compartment door slammed behind Professor Severus Snape, and Draco Malfoy found himself practically thrown into a seat. Professor Snape was the one professor that he knew better than to invoke his father's name with. The last time he'd done it, he'd ended up scrubbing the entire Potion's Classroom at Hogwarts, and he'd only been eight. So he sat down, straight as possible and looked right into the furious expression on his Head of House's face.

"Mr. Malfoy, I had hoped that by now you knew better than to attempt to rile Miss Granger and Mr. Potter," his godfather said. "If nothing else, Miss Granger's morning eruptions should have done so. Apparently, though, since you've arrived at Hogwarts, all common sense has left you."

Draco knew it was coming. The glare seemed to be delving into his very soul.

"I am well aware that your father suggested that you ingrain yourself with Mr. Potter. It took you all of how long to end that? Didn't even make it to sorting. You had to insult Mr. Potter's first friend. After that, you most likely cost Slytherin him. You know what Mr. Potter was chanting in his mind when he was sorted? Not Slytherin, Not Slytherin. He could have been great in our house, instead, you pushed him off to Gryffindor.

"We would have gained the one real counterbalance to the Dark Lord's influence, and you were too immature to hold your tongue about Mr. Weasley and his family. You know what Potter thinks you are? A bigoted bully, and I have to agree with him. I hated his father for being one of those, and you are not going to remain one, if I have anything to say about it.

"You seem to think that your father's wealth and heritage is enough to make everything go your way. It is not. If it was, you would not exist as you are and Miss Price would be Miss Malfoy."

Draco felt his mouth opening. The idea that he wouldn't exist and Victoria would be a Malfoy. "That can't be right!"

"I assure you it is," Professor Snape said in that flat delivery that he often gave facts in.

Draco shook his head. It could not be.

Professor Snape sat down across from Draco. "I think it is time that someone told you of the price that Lucius Malfoy paid for falling in love and thus defying his father.

"As your grandfather has been in seclusion since you were not yet a year old, I doubt you have any memories of him. It is suffice to say that he is a man who always got his way, in the end. Only death stopped him. He had determined that your father would be marrying a Black, in particular, Narcissa Black, a girl two years behind him in Slytherin. Your father was not exactly pleased with this plan, and he believed that he could get out of it.

"In his fifth year, Lucius fell in love with Erlene Prince. Erlene wasn't the most powerful of witches, nor was she the most well connected. Being a second cousin of mine, normally I would have known more of her, but the Princes have a habit of throwing less powerful witches out into the muggle world at the slightest of offense. My own mother was thrown out for kissing a muggleborn on a dare.

"To Lucius, Erlene was his one true love, though I don't think it was love at first sight on his part. I understand that they first got together studying for Ancient Runes. Their first kiss was in the on the Quidditch Pitch, after Erlene held Gryffindor scoreless and your father caught the snitch in her hair. They were rather well suited to each other, and the only one who was surprised that she was his Yule Ball date was your grandfather.

"Your grandfather assumed that it was brief fling, and such flings are often encouraged. However, the relationship continued, and deepened. They were rarely apart, but neither father seemed to be in favor of the relationship. That did not stop them. There is a rumor that the summer between their sixth and seventh year, they spent several nights together above her uncle's shop in Knockturn Alley. Going into their seventh year, your grandfather informed your father that the day after he returned from Hogwarts for the last time, he would be wed to your mother.

"Now, your father was Head Boy, and Erlene had replaced Andromeda Black when she was discovered to be pregnant in her fifth year, just in time to ruin marriage plans. It was fortunate for your Aunt Andromeda that Ted Tonks was the son of a rather wealthy barrister in the muggle world. As his attempts at convincing his father to let him marry Erlene began to make clear that his father was not going to budge, that example, apparently suggested by your own mother, became the only way they could see to stay together.

"Your mother was rather close to Erlene, especially after Andromeda was thrown out of the family. Narcissa was the other fifth year prefect to me that year, and got a long with pretty much all the other prefects, even Remus Lupin and Lily Potter in Gryffindor. It was during those prefect meetings that your father promised to sponsor me though my Potions Mastery.

"Erlene wasn't pregnant at the end of the year, so they ran away the day before Hogwarts let out. For six months, they managed to hid away from your grandfather and her father, who disowned her for interfering with a pureblood marriage contract two days after she failed to return from Hogwarts. They were caught in February, and I don't think Lucius knew he'd finally been successful.

"Your grandfather forced your father to take an unbreakable vow to never contact Erlene again, and to marry Narcissa. He had no choice. He didn't even know that he had a daughter by Erlene until she started Hogwarts, and Victoria doesn't know he's her father, though she does know that she's not Fenton Price's child."

Draco had met Victoria Price in the Common Room. She was an outcast in Slytherin, but once she'd helped him with a particularly hard assignment in Herbology. He hadn't asked, but she had found his mistake. He wasn't quite sure that she didn't know that she was his half sister, now that he started to think about his encounters with her. It was not uncommon for Victoria to take a seat next to him, and a couple times in the Library she'd dropped just the book he needed next to him.

He'd pushed her away when she started really showing, and now, he felt really guilty about that. If his Godfather was right, he'd shunned his own family. His mother had always told him you should always be with your family, when you could. She often was hugging him when she said that.

"What happened to Victoria?" Draco asked. He felt he needed to know. He had to know, so he could do something.

"I can not tell you everything I know," Snape said. "It is up to Miss Price to decide what to tell you. Fortunately, it seems that Miss Price has told me that she would not mind if you and your father, especially your father, knew that her step-father was responsible for her condition." Snape smiled, suddenly. "She asked me if I still had my Death Eater robes, once I assured her that she was not returning to that house as long as it was in my power."

There was a long silence in the compartment after that statement. Draco knew his father and godfather had both been Death Eaters. He didn't know all of what that meant, but he knew that Death Eaters had been feared, and terrorized many. He imagined that Death Eaters showing up on anyone's doorstep would not be a pleasant event. Somehow he could not oppose his half sister's step-father receiving such a visit.

The trolley stopped by, ending the silence as Snape purchased a couple chocolate frogs and handed one to Draco. "Thank you," Draco said. "Can I talk to Victoria?"

"I think it best if you write her, for now," Snape said. "She will be spending this break telling her story to the people in the muggle world who could take her away from her step-father."