AN: Alright. So, if any of my normal readers are reading this, I want to say this is the idea I had that spurred on Legendaries. I wrote this 3-4 years ago, and posted it on another site. I've edited it, changed some of the characters names and added in some more narration. If you are just beginning with my writings, I want to thank you. Hopefully this story goes farther than the first time I posted it. Oh, and when you finish, please leave a review! Thanks!

Welcome to Reality

By: Rose1991

Chapter One: Final Battle Aftermath

Draco sat awkwardly in the corner of the Great Hall with his parents on either side of him, feeling detached and out of place in the room of happy celebrators. His lip was still bleeding from the fight for Hogwarts. Or was it against Hogwarts? He still was unsure. He looked around at the Boy Wonder himself, feeling his old loathing rise along with some other feeling he had never really felt before - gratitude. He would never admit it aloud but he was grateful for the many times Potter, Weasley, and Granger saved his life last night.

A very recent memory formed in his mind, along with a nagging question. The Room of Requirement was under a magical fire spell and The Golden Trio was trying to get out alive. Yet, Potter had come back to get him... Why had he? After all the hateful things he'd said and done to Potter and his little friends, why did he save him?

Well, that's easy to answer! He's a Gryffindor! It's in his genetic DNA! Draco thought to himself, still watching Harry move from person to person, offering condolences, celebrating with them, talking to them, sharing their grief... but looking as though he might fall over from sheer exhaustion.

Draco sat, staring at the proceedings. He was suddenly surprised when someone came over to him and his family.

"Mr. Lucius Malfoy?" He was a tall black man with strong soothing voice. The Malfoys looked up in unison, fear in their eyes.

"Yes?" Draco's father croaked out the words, scared and stunned to be addressed.

"You and your family are under arrest for conspiring against the Ministry, accessory to many murders and attempted murders, and for voluntary working for Voldemort." The man said. Draco's head flashed to look up at his father, who had stood up. Arrested?
"Not my family. Take me to Azkaban, but do not arrest them." Lucius pleaded. His one non-swollen and normal colored eye was near brimming with tears.

"All three of you have committed these crimes." The man said. Draco and Narcissa stood up as well, all three clutching each other, afraid that if they let go, they may never see each other again. They had been so close to losing each other, they couldn't lose each other now.

"Kingsley." The voice came from behind the tall man, and the man turned to see who it was. Harry Potter stood, exhaustion showing his eyes. "Don't arrest them."

Draco was shocked into silence. So was everyone else in the Hall, for no one spoke a word, as if Potter and Voldemort were facing off again.

"Harry?" Kingsley asked, confusion etched into his face.

"Don't arrest them Kingsley. They may have worked with Voldemort, but they did most of it against their will." Harry replied. Draco and his parents stared stupidly at the 17-year-old in front of them. What is wrong with the world?
"But they committed crimes!" The man said back. Harry set his jaw.

"Draco Malfoy had no choice to serve Voldemort, and Mrs. Malfoy helped me in the woods last night. If it weren't for her, I would be lying dead in the forest right now." Potter stated. Cricket chirp... a baby wails off in the distance... awkward cough ( I know... no babies... but it's that kind of awkward silence!) "I'll explain, Voldemort tried to kill me in the woods, but I didn't die, he still didn't know, so he asked Mrs. Malfoy to check my pulse. She said I was dead." Draco looked at his mother out of the corner of his eye. He would have to ask about that later.

The man named Kingsley stood in silence, as did everyone else, digesting this information.

"Just send them home, Kingsley, they need as much rest as I do." Harry said. Kingsley thought for another moment then nodded and turned back to the Malfoys.

"Alright, you may go home, but the next crime you commit you will be sent straight to a cell in Azkaban." And with that Kingsley turned on his heel and joined the celebrators who slowly began celebrating again. Harry turned away to leave as well.

"Potter." Draco said suddenly and Potter turned back slowly to face the Malfoy family. Draco could not think of anything to say but a simple, "thanks."

Potter nodded and Draco nodded back.

"Come on, son, let's go." Lucius said, glancing at Harry. The three Malfoys left Hogwarts just after that and returned home. Home not Head Quarters... Draco thought to himself as they apparated to the front door. They walked into the foyer and looked at the walls that had seen so much violence since Voldemort had made Malfoy Manor Death Eater's Head Quarters.

They were too happy, something was bound to go awry. But now they embraced their happiness. It wasn't like a Malfoy to hug each other and cry, that wasn't their style. They stood there shuffling their feet awkwardly until Draco nodded to his parents.

"Good night Mother, good night Father," he said and left for his room. A room he didn't have to share with anyone anymore. He walked through endless corridors that he had memorized in his early childhood until he came to his familiar door. Black oak with intricate snake carvings. He opened the door and stepped over the threshold. He had a feeling that something was about to go wrong, but he wasn't expecting wrong to come so quickly. There was black hole moving around his room!

"What the Bloody Hell IS THAT!" He cursed stepping back through the door and into the hallway. It must have heard him, because it flashed beneath him, faster than his eye could blink. He tried to back farther into the hallway and away from the black thing, but his legs were unmovable. "Get off of me!" He roared at the thing.

He stilled. A black shadowy hand - the same as the black hole itself - had come out of the blackness beneath him and grabbed hold of his ankle.

"BLOODY-" Draco screamed, but couldn't finish his sentence. The shadow yanked him down into the abyss and all the evidence left the Draco had been there was the echo of his yell. Little did he know, his parents had heard his screams and come around the corner just as his hand disappeared into the hole and closed instantaneously. Narcissa screamed.

Victoria and Briar Smith had been walking down the wet road to the creak with their Welsh Pembroke corgi, Napoleon, right after a huge rain storm. The hills were steep, but they had been marching them for the past seven years, with a lot of weight from their heavy back packs. They had been discussing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, which Victoria had just finished that morning.

"I tell you, Harry must have gotten Draco out of going to Azkaban. He did say in the last book he did pity him!" Victoria said.

"But they're total enemies! Why would he do that?" Briar asked.

"Why did they save him three times in the last book?" Victoria shot back. Briar ignored her, looking off into the surrounding forests. "Anyway, I wonder who that woman Draco marries is. They don't describe her at all!"

"I know, perfect Harry Potter fan fictions could arise from that couple because no one knows who it is," Briar scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"HA! Sucks for you!" Victoria laughed at her twin. Briar just stuck her tongue out. "Stop being childish," Victoria scolded.

"Ha! This coming from the younger one!" Briar laughed. Victoria just ignored her, looking at her surroundings. Suddenly, she noticed Napoleon was missing. She looked around, worry etched on her face. "What's wrong?" Briar asked, eyeing her sister oddly.

"Where'd Napoleon go?" Victoria asked. Briar began looking around fervently for the corgi, too. "LEO!" They both called out, occasionally whistling his calling whistle.

They heard Napoleon, who normally was a quiet dog - unless you were going in or out of the house without him - barking down the road near the creak. They ran down to see what he was barking at, because it had to be serious.

Victoria knelt down to pet her dog's reddish brown and white head. "What is it, Leon?" That was his family nickname, Leo or Leon, because sometimes Napoleon was just too much of a mouthful. He bit her sleeve, which was not normal since she was his favorite, and dragged her down the right bank of the creak on the right side of the bridge. "Oh my god!" Victoria gasped, looking at the sight Napoleon had dragged her to.

"What is it?" Briar asked as she walked down to join her younger twin.

"There's some random guy in black robes here!" Victoria called to her. Briar had reached her and they looked at the guy who could be taken by the creak's current at any time. Not saying that he was almost anorexic. He was slightly muscular, but almost all of his body was in the water. He had platinum blonde hair, which could only be told by his roots since the rest of it was lathered with mud. His pale face had mud smudge marks everywhere.

Victoria knelt down to check his pulse on his jugular. It was beating quite rapidly. Napoleon whimpered. "Bri, help me," Victoria ordered, gesturing to the man at her feet. Briar looked taken a back. "Bri, he's alive, but we need to get him away from the current."

Briar just nodded. They both knew that the current was unpredictable at best, especially after a huge rainstorm. The two sisters took him up the two steep hills to their home, much slower than usual because it was the most weight they had carried yet, but Victoria was persistent on getting him up. Something about him intrigued both of the teenagers as they dragged him to their home.

Once they got him back to their house, they replaced his wet clothes with some of their brother's old clothes. Their brother was at college, and all the clothes that he usually wore with him, so he wouldn't mind if he was missing a few discarded t-shirts and sweatpants. They washed his hair clean of any mud in Victoria's sink, because she was the only one to offer, and they cleaned off the smudges of mud on his face.

"Let's put him in my room, it's closer than yours..." Victoria offered. They dragged him into her room and placed him on the bed. Victoria went to her closet and got one of her old notebooks. She ripped out a paper and got a pencil and wrote out a note for him. Hopefully he would be able to read her horrible hand-writing. She left it on the night stand next to him and turned off the fan, so he could warm up from being in the cold water. He'll wake up when it gets too hot for him, she thought.

AN: Alright. That was the first chapter. Please review. Thanks for reading!