QLFC submission
Season 6, Semifinals
Use the song any way you like as inspiration for your story
CHASER 2: Vikings: If I Had a Heart — Fever Ray
Prompts: [word] Medieval, [object] Chess Piece, [quote] 'This need to prove that we are not the worst of ourselves can sometimes make us better people.' — Before Mars, Emma Newman.
Word Count:1187
song lyrics
BZBZBZBZBZBZBZBZBZBZ
"Blaise!"
I freeze, before spinning slowly at the sound of my name. There was Draco, clutching his wand and shaking from head to foot. He had soot in his hair and holes in his clothes. I could tell he had been in the fight, but not for which side.
"You're going with them."
He says it as a statement, so I don't answer. I watch, and I wait. My best friend had a decision to make and really, it wasn't a hard one. Survive, or go with his parents. I was a selfish creature, but that's why I was obviously fighting for the light, why I had started making friends with the neutral houses when I went to Hogwarts. I was a greedy creature as well, and I knew when I saw Potter that even if he didn't kill the dark lord, he was going to be the light champion. He was too good, too righteous, to ever help Voldemort. And he was a powerhouse with liquid luck running through his veins, so I knew that he wasn't going to lose. If I wanted to live, if I wanted to prosper, then I had to follow my best friends rival.
This will never end because I want more.
"My father is out there. My mother is fighting. I can't…" he trails off and glances out the space a window used to occupy. I knew what he was looking at, the forest. Where they had retreated. Potter was in the castle somewhere, hiding in the medieval fortress that we were tearing to the ground, and Voldemort had requested we handed him over. I just hope he was with one of his level headed friends, otherwise, he would actually do it.
"They aren't fighting now."
"But they will be when Potter doesn't go out there," he growls out, storming closer so that we didn't have to raise our voices.
"Draco, Potter is going to win."
"You don't know that! He's too soft. He hates me and not an hour ago he was saving my life! He's going to either walk out there like a lamb for slaughter or he's going to get the rest of the kids here killed!"
"He's going to win! Draco, please. Believe me."
We fall silent again as he narrows his eyes. I can tell he was reading my face, looking for those tells, as he calls them.
I can read you so well because we're so close, Blaise. You're like a brother to me.
I could never tell him what I really thought. He was my best friend, but he only knew half the story. Which is why he is so shocked now that I've shown my true colors. To be friends with a neutral wizard was one thing, and his father already hated it. But now that he knows I'm light? That I'm lending my wand, my magic, to Potter?
He would have never understood the silent vow I made to myself when I was eleven. Why I had started playing all the students like chess pieces when we got here, to make my life easier. To get what I wanted out of everyone. He was my friend, but Potter was power.
If I had a heart I could love you.
"I can't put my faith in Potter."
"You can't put your faith in Potter? Then put your faith in me! I make the hard decisions, remember? I've always taken care of us behind the scenes while you do the song and dance."
"I can't do that. Not this time."
It kills me that his voice breaks, that the mask we had perfected together shatters and he looks close to tears.
"Please. You don't have to follow your father! You hate him. You hate what he does!" I exclaim, moving to grab at his arm. He flinches away before I can make contact.
"I always have to follow my father. I'm a Malfoy." his voice has gone cold and I pull away my outstretched hand.
"And what about when this is over? Your father is going back to Azkaban, your mother is too. If you fight with us, fight with me, you won't go. Potter will speak up for you, you know he will. You said it yourself, he's soft. What are you going to do tomorrow when all of the deatheaters are rounded up and they ask you to bare your arm?"
He scowls at my words, and that's how I know they've hit a chord with him. I wait for a moment that seems like it stretches on forever.
"I'll see what tomorrow brings," he murmurs before he's striding away. He leaves me stranded in the middle of a ruined hallway, 17 years of friendship echoing off the ancient walls like his footsteps as he rounded the corner. I'm stunned. We had argued and fought over his fathers parenting, about the mark and what he had to do. But I had never had him turn his back on me before. Never had him say no, I can't do it your way anymore. I had always been the one in the right, always been the one making the hard decisions.
I slowly walk towards the entrance hall, expecting to see everyone gathered there. I was hoping to see Pansy, or Theodore, or someone that didn't make me the outlier in the Slytherin house. Pansy was the only other one that had seen what I was doing. I had always scoffed when she said we were proving that Slytherins' aren't all bad. This need to prove that we are not the worst of ourselves can sometimes make us better people, she had said. She wanted to prove that she wasn't dark, she wasn't dumb. But where was she now? I suddenly wasn't sure I had made the right decision. What if Potter didn't win? What if Draco was right and I had gotten myself killed? Had Pansy saw the tides turn and joined Voldemort?
"Blaise, over here!" I catch sight of Theo's straw-blond hair and see him running out the front doors with everyone else. I sprint to catch up, expecting a fight. Instead, I see Potter, dead.
No. He can't be dead. Who let him leave the castle!?
I listen to Voldemort speak as I scan the deatheaters. I spot Lucius and Narcissa. But no Draco as he drones on and on, no Pansy. I realize why I don't see Draco with his parents when he's called to their side from ours. I was so wrong. How could I be wrong? I had always read into every situation correctly before this. And this was the most important! I'm almost ready to step up and join myself when green eyes flash open and life floods the crowd again. Relief floods me when I see Pansy and she's fighting alongside the Lovegood girl. We hadn't lost. I can't help but grin smugly as I realize I was right. I had played the long game, and I had picked the side that let me live my own life.
More, give me more, give me more.