Twists in the road Chapter 1, a harry potter fanfic

((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. This story is dedicated to Twiist for her constant badgering. The story is AU, Draco is around 24 years old, I haven't addressed the war for a specific reason which will become clear later. In this universe, Draco and Blaise have been friends for a long time, their back-story WILL eventually be addressed in later chapters, the characterisations are based loosely around my roleplay group; HPRPU as are some of the back-story details, I hope you enjoy it as I normally prefer to write Dramione fic and this is a one which is opposite to my preferred shipping so I hope I do it well.))

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Chapter one

"The sky's gonna open
People gonna pray and crawl
It's gonna reign down fire,
It's gonna burn us all…"

Christian Kane - LA Song

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The wedding had gone without a hitch, the proceedings had been lavish but tasteful, the bridesmaids pristinely dressed, the best man, the bride, the groom, everything had been foresaw down to the last detail. The reception had been huge, hundreds of friends and family wishing the happy couple their best as they meeted and greeted, shaking hands and accepting gifts, the speeches had been the usual ones at weddings, the best mans leaving half the guests roaring with laughter at the retelling of anecdotes and jokes of the couples history together, everything had been perfect. Arriving to their new abode, Draco carried Pansy over the threshold, rolling his eyes with a smirk at the ancient and somewhat corny tradition, placing her down on her feet as she gazed around the house, formally the Black Family manor, gifted to Draco by his mother. Pansy turned to Draco, a smile faded from her lips and she wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning in she whispered softly in his ear, her cool breath raising the hairs on his skin. "I'm leaving you…."

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The rain had started pouring in the early evening and as the night had begun to draw in, it was coming down in never-ending sheets. Stood at the oaken front of the Salisbury located mansion, Draco pounded on the door, his hair which had been neat and slicked back now fell in his eyes and stuck to his forehead from the rain. The door opened and Draco stormed past the house elf who looked up at him with a mix of fear and dismay, shutting the door and chasing after the young man in his early twenties till Draco slammed opened the parlour door, glaring with a look of utter malevolence. "Where is she?"

Blaise Zabini had been sat in the armchair by the fire when the door had burst open, not entirely surprised to see his best friend stood in the doorway, scathing at him, Blaise stood up and sighed, he walked over to the door, the house elf, chewing the ends of his fingers, Blaise handed down to him the young baby he had been holding in his arms, instructing him to take him upstairs before looking at Draco with a slight look of regret. "I don't know."

Draco pulled his wand out of his robes and launched forward, he wrapped his free hand around the taller mans throat, pointing his wand at him, the pair walking backwards till the broad shouldered, black mans legs hit the back of the settee, forcing him into a seated position. Draco's eyes narrowed at him as Blaise held his hands up in protest. "Where is she Blaise?"

"I'm telling you mate I don't' know where she is!" Blaise spluttered a bit as Draco's wand dug into his throat. "She doesn't want to be found!"

Draco's grip loosened and he made a scoff of contempt but backed off all the same, allowing Blaise to rub his throat. His wife was upstairs, sleeping off a bad headache, Blaise had been looking after their first born child, a doting father he was, but with their second on the way already, some of their minor spats usually involved her cursing his name, telling him he was a sperm machine and he shouldn't spoil the baby so much. Draco had often chuckled at his friends decision to marry young and start a family, rolling his eyes at the public displays of affection, but all Draco could think about at that moment was trying to find his own new wife. "Blaise, tell me where Pansy is."

Shaking his head, Blaise picked up a decanter of firewhiskey, pouring out two glasses and handing one to Draco. "Draco, mate, I swear to you I do not know where she has gone. If I did, you know I would tell you, that's probably why she didn't tell me in the first place."

Draco knocked back his drink and threw the glass in the fire, shattering the splinters everywhere. He walked over to the fireplace, putting his hands on the mantel, looking down, growling slightly. "I'm going to find her."

"I know you are mate, I know you are……"

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Six months later

It had been the talk in every party, every social gathering, even warranting a small paragraph in the gossip column of the daily prophet, Pansy Parkinson, within hours of marrying Draco Malfoy, professional quidditch player had left him and walked out on their marriage and to the best of anyone's knowledge, was still missing.

Draco had done everything within his power to find her, her parents ran a botanical shop in Diagon alley, he had been there numerous times to talk to her parents, his in-laws, Gareth and Rose Parkinson and her older sister Violet, trying to coax whatever information he could out of them but to no avail. The only thing which seemed to be helping Draco get through the monotony of his life was quidditch.

The Wizarding world had come along a great way since 1674, it had been in Draco's seventh year that the National Quidditch League had allowed the formations of the under divisions, there were plenty of open spaces in rural England that quidditch enthusiasts had purchased to play games with their own amateur teams, the setting up of the divisions had been an obvious choice to make and a welcome one, especially as it would turn out, for Draco.

After school had ended, being told it was not expected of him to continue living off his family's wealth, he would have to have some viable source of income. Quidditch had been an obvious choice, although by almost everyone except Draco's admission, he had never been much cop on the pitch, at least in Hogwarts, but there he had always been trying so hard to get one up on Potter he was distracted. He could fly fine, pestering his father for flying lessons and a broom when he was young had seen to that, although he had to all too often sneak out of the house at night to practise flying alone. When he was ten years old and showing off, his grip had slipped and he had tumbled from the broom, landing on the rockery in the grounds of his parents house, although it was more of a bouldery in definition. This particular incident had set his mothers nerves on edge and his father would usually do most things to appease her if it would avoid her sniffling in the parlour for hours, the whole incident had led to Draco's flying practise being hindered, reducing him to only being able to fly at home under strict supervision. Even when he became of age, it had taken some persuasion and in the end, a firm talking from his father to get his mother to loosen her ruling, even then she had sat and sulked in her sitting room for most of the afternoon.

With the set backs aside, he had tried his hardest to make it into a pro team, however he had soon learned his hardest lesson, that money couldn't buy him everything he wanted. The pro teams weren't interested, he wasn't good enough, not even for the reserves, he had tried the second division league, not even they would touch him, in his try-outs for the two teams which had said they would give him a chance, he had blown it humongously, first by taking 4 hours to even spot the snitch on an empty pitch on a clear day, then on his try-out for the second team, being so determined to catch the snitch he hadn't been watching where he was going and crashed straight into the stands. When he had woken up three hours later to the howling faces of the teams coach he had stormed out in anger, not looking back and cursing under his breath the entire way.

Where Draco HAD finally made it was in a third division league team, having successfully moved up from the Sunday league they were keen to find new blood, especially since their seeker had gone missing during his victory lap of their last match and failed to materialise. It was off-season so there had been lots of people turn up, but Draco had given the best performance of his life, impressing the coach to the extent that they had had him signing contracts that afternoon.

Draco found the wage insultingly low, but that didn't matter much, he was playing quidditch and for a real team. The Thornaby Thrushes weren't a great team, but they would do. Draco was happy playing for them, once a week during the season time, the team were astounded by their own progress. Draco excelled, away from the distractions of trying to outdo the Gryffindor thorn in his side, away from the annoying banter of the inept Hogwarts student commentators, he found his niche. He trained hard, everyday he could with his coach, within two years, they had moved up to the second division, within another two they were in the premiere league, playing against the teams who had refused to even see him when he tried getting into the game. The Montrose Magpies had even had the audacity to try and pry him away from the Thrushes, but nothing could tear him away from the team he had grown to love and they certainly didn't want to lose the player who had allowed them fly through the divisions in less than a decade.

Thanks to all of this, Draco had become regarded as a highly eligible bachelor, not only was he the only heir to the entire Malfoy fortune, which popular rumour had stated was in its hundreds of millions, the truth in fact that it was in the billions, although the elder Malfoy had done an excellent job of hiding large amounts of it all over the wizarding world. Draco had been seen with more than one girl on his arm accompany him to various events over the years, but Pansy had been the constant.

She had always been at his side, all the way through school, when they left Hogwarts, she hadn't laughed at the extremely low position, the only position he had been able obtain in the quidditch leagues, she had supported him. She had smiled and played a dutiful girlfriend, attending the post-match celebrations with him in the early days, without too much complaining, when the refreshments consisted of low-quality fire whiskey and pumpkin pasties, then more willingly attended them with him when the team had more money from the higher leagues and there wasn't a pasty in sight.

So with everything that had seemingly gone so horrendously wrong following his wedding, the one constant in his life HAD to be maintained, he had to play quidditch and he had to play it well. Draco had left his home after sorting through his correspondence, seeing that there was no new word on Pansy, merely a letter from Blaise telling him he would be attending the crucial game he was playing that day and his wife would not be coming with him so they could talk afterwards, rather than assuring him it had made Draco edgy, ever since they had been young boys Blaise had played into the role of pseudo father whenever he thought he needed backing up or a good swift kick up the backside. It was rare that Blaise attended his matches, one of his favourite sayings was that he couldn't see how flying around on a glorified branch for hours was entertaining and often referring to Draco's treasured Lightning Bolt broom as 'his penis extension.'

By the time Draco had left his house his teeth were on edge as well as his nerves, he knew he had to concentrate on the game, it was a league table decider to keep them in the division, vying for place against the Ballycastle Bats since they had suffered an embarrassing defeat against The Pride of Portree two games ago when the seeker had caught the snitch within the first five minutes of the game and they had failed to recover from their loss of points.

It wasn't until he got to the stadium and saw the roaring crowd as he stepped out of the dressing room with his team-mates he was finally able to drown out the white noise inside his head and start playing the game he loved, the game which kept him from going insane.

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Authors notes:

Thank you for taking the time to read chapter one, please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive crit please, I want to know what I can do to make it better.

UPDATE:

The story has turned out to be very much a romance/mystery, which I wasn't expecting. This is one of the few chapters which doesn't end on a cliff-hanger. If the story hasn't interested you by the end of this chapter, then I ask you read to at least chapter 3 because that's when the plot starts to pick up.