Chapter Text
Two Aurors on each side, each shoving him forwards, all the way from his dreadful cell in Azkaban to the same courtroom he had been in just a month earlier where he had been sentenced to the dementors' kiss in one month's time. That being now apparently as he was forced onto his knees in front of hundreds of wixen’s right in front of a dementor.
‘When had it started to go wrong?’
Perhaps when he had gotten his wand stolen by Potter, or when he practically gave up the elder wand out of his own stupidity or maybe even earlier when he lied about Harry’s identity back at the manor,why did he do that? Even he didn’t have an answer, perhaps he was hoping that if the order somehow did win he could’ve been given a bit of mercy, ‘how wrong I was about that,’ Draco thought bitterly as the dementor took off its hood, kissing him goodbye to this world.
Darkness.
That’s all Draco saw and felt, his brain was foggy and his body felt like mist, like the abyss swallowing him whole, floating around in the void. He wasn’t sure about how long he was in that state for, but somewhere along that line, a shining bright light enveloped the darkness to reveal the blurry face of Pansy Parkingson.
“-co! Draco! Hello?” Pansy shouted in his face while shaking him, “we’re going to be late for our first class of the year! Snap out of it!”
Once his vision and mind finally cleared up enough to see that it really was the face of Pansy, at least a million questions flew into his mind.
‘Is this the Afterlife?” Was his first question, ‘wouldn’t that mean Pansy is also dead?’ Was the follow up thought, but as his thoughts settled a bit, his eyes finally focused onto the person who was currently shaking him, Pansy parkingson who, for whatever reason looked significantly younger.
“Why do you look like a child,” were the first words that came out of his mouth, except it was not of his voice, or was it? Instead it was higher and far squeakier
And pansy’s only response to that was apparently dragging him towards the direction of mrs pomfreys office.
Draco just followed in a daze, that was until he caught sight of himself on a reflection. Round cheeks, no eye bags, shorter and obviously younger, but with Pansy dragging him across Hogwarts he had no time to check for anything else strange other than the significantly smaller hands he had compared to how he remembered them to be.
Pansy burst into the infirmary shouting something, but Draco was too lost in thought to listen.
‘Why do I look like a child? Is this a dream or my life flashing through my eyes,” but a quick pinch to himself said otherwise. By the time he sorted through his thoughts he was in one of the infirmary beds - when he got in? No idea - but Pansy wasn’t here anymore and neither was Pomfrey, but by now he knew he was in the past, how? Well Draco didn’t have a clue but he would be an idiot to waste it.
There’s no way he would be like one of those idiotic Hufflepuffs or Griffindors and use the opportunity to ‘redeem himself’ or ‘become good’ and he certainly won't be carrying the fate of the war. He already knew whichever side he chose he will end up just as miserable or dead, hence why he’s currently sneaking out of the dungeons after visiting the dorms to put everything he had into an enchanted Trunk that could fit into his robe pocket, unfortunately that was just the moment Mrs Pomfrey showed up, clearly looking for him after he disappeared from the Infirmary.
“Draco!-” he didn’t let her finish as he did a 90 degree turn and ran straight through the windows, smashing through and wordlessly putting a slow falling spell on himself just in time before reaching the ground and sprinting towards the forbidden forest.
‘Nope, not today, I will let you guys deal with the war. Without me this time.’
He ran and ran, not looking back. a piece of glass was embedded into his left arm but he didn't stop he knew that if he was caught that sorry excuse of a headmaster would use Legilimency on his Oclumence-less mind and his life would most definitely fall apart, being used for his knowledge left and right until he's left discarded on the side so the golden boy could shine and take all the glory.
He wasn't sure how long he was running for, just that his legs burned. But eventually he sensed a small disturbance in the air, meaning he was finally out of the anti-apparition zone of Hogwarts.
He had a plan – a half baked plan since he made it while running – but still a plan, the first step was to get out of the Anti-Apparition zone of Hogwarts, which he had just done. Thanks to the year of frantic planning in his 6th year, he had managed to memorise practically anything that would help him, which included the anti-apparition borders and especially those within the forbidden forest. ‘Glad to know not everything went to waste,’
Judging by his current age – between 13-14 last he checked in the infirmary mirror – the trace still affected him, but that could easily be solved by standing near Hogwarts. Now the hardest part, Apparating to Wizarding France. After all, what could be a better way to avoid the war than to avoid everything altogether and disappear from the country? But the problem was apparating there in one go, he couldn’t take little pit stops between apparitions without leaving a trace meaning apparating from Hogwarts was his only chance to disappear with no leads.
Despite his pathetic ending in his previous life, he was actually quite skilled in magic (dark magic, courtesy to Aunt Bella) but even in the before he would have struggled apparating over such a long distance, much less in his young, untrained 14 (probably) year old body.
‘Not that I have any other options’
Taking one final breath, he lifted his wand, and with a final “pop” the people of Hogwarts Won’t be seeing Draco for a long while.