He left as silently as he had entered. Nobody saw, nobody cared and nobody was sane enough anyway. This was the dungeon of Malfoy Manor. An evil place where the smell of death still lingers in the air even after all the enchantments had been placed on it. For months now his father had been keeping muggles here for his personal entertainment and practicing the Unforgivable Curses on them until the whole grounds were alive with the sound of tortured souls echoing mournfully throughout the night. Draco was sick of it and had tried to put an end to it or at least stop their suffering for them.
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"Avada Kedavra" he whispered for the thirteenth time that night. This time a muggle girl of about 16 slid to the floor with a slight thud. She was quite pretty when she first entered the dungeon. But after months of terror and pain had her features had changed into permanent grimaces and eyes that looked out of her bars, empty. She knew she'd die when Draco came up to her and for that she was thankful. She raised her head up and her hands released the right grasp she'd had on her mangled red locks to stare deeply into his eyes. One green flash of light later and the light in her was out.
She was the last to be saved that night. He couldn't do too many at a time otherwise his father would get too suspicious. For now it was reasonable enough that they were dying with the sheer quantity of curses that were being thrown upon them. Draco had left it a bit late to be doing this tonight but he carried on regardless. He knew that his father would be down soon for more "evening entertainments" so with the thirteenth done he started to make his way out onto the grounds via the secret back entrance. Once outside he counted to ten and sure enough the screams of terror began and the dark creatures came skulking forwards to see what the commotion was. This was Draco's cue to go inside.
Angrily, he thought that he could no longer save them, for tomorrow he was going back to Hogwarts.
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Platform 9 and ¾'s was nearly full of smiling kids and tearful parents when Draco had got there at 10.30. The train didn't leave till 11 as usual and he had half an hour to wait out all the sickening displays of affection before they could be on their way.
"Draco! Draco, over here! I saved you a seat." Pansy squealed with delight when she saw her favourite blonde moving swiftly through the crowds. She withdrew her head from the window and swivelled in her seat to watch him come into the carriage.
He looked Pansy up and down with one side of his mouth turned up in displeasure. "Where's the others?" he snapped, irritated that it was just those two in the carriage…Alone. He shuddered at the thought.
"Crabbe and Goyle have gone looking for the food trolley already. Apparently two breakfast's aren't enough for those two." She giggled in a high-pitched manner and added "I haven't had anything all morning. I'm trying to lose weight for this Christmas" she added, shamelessly fishing for a compliment about her slim figure.
Draco took the hint and looked her up and down. Sure she was thin but she was so thin she looked like a child. Her bones were jutting out at her hips and her collarbone stuck out so far it looked like she could fit food in the gaps of her neck.
"You look far too skinny as it is." Draco added truthfully.
Pansy mistook this as a compliment and grinned happy enough for now to leave him be.
He was bored of her company already and took to staring out of the window. His thoughts kept drifting back to the poor muggle girl in the dungeons at his house. She looked very familiar and it pained him to kill her but they both knew it was for the best.
"Ron! Come here…you forgot you're sandwiches. There you go, now don't go forgetting them otherwise you'll be starving when you get there. That's right. Take care. Don't go doing anything silly this year. You too Harry." The reprimands of the Weasley mother snapped Draco out of his daydream and his eyes focused on the scene before him. Potter was getting crushed by the Weasley mother and the rest were making a little queue before her to give her a customary hug before boarding the train. Last to hug her was the youngest Weasley. He'd yet to hear her name being mentioned as they always had some horrid nickname for her like "baby" or "honey". As she turned around to look at the train before boarding she saw him staring and glared at him forcefully for a full minute before Hermione yelled, "Come on honey, the train's leaving in a second." Ginny gave him one last glance through the window then hopped on the train into another carriage.