Hello, I'm back! Thank you to the people who added this story to their favorites, it really makes it easier to want to write more chapters. In the last one, you got to see Holly's perspective so in this one I thought I would write from Draco's.
All characters to J.K. Rowling. Here we go!
"Draco, you can do better than that! You know what happens if you can't block me!" Bellatrix laughed maniacally. Draco wondered if she would ever admit that she wasn't really trying to teach him occlumency but just wanted an excuse to crucio him repeatedly. Thank Merlin Draco was resilient to her brutality. After the first few weeks after their "lessons" had begun in the Summer, he wouldn't stand to be tortured and laughed at anymore so he began to practice every night. A few times, Snape had even come over to give him some lessons when Bellatrix was on a mission and it was at one of those lessons that Draco had successfully practiced occlumency. Since the first time he was able to close off his mind, Draco found it to be almost easy to do. He couldn't imagine why, he thought bitterly. Possibly it was the fact that he wasn't constantly fearing the possibility of getting tortured to the point of insanity if he screwed up.
Furious thoughts filled his mind giving Bellatrix an opportunity to catch him off guard and infiltrate his mind. Before he had a chance to register what was even happening, Draco was being sorted. He sat on the stool smugly as he already knew without a doubt which house he would be in for the next seven years of his life. "Slytherin!" the mangy thing shouted as he hopped off the stool and followed another boy to the long table full of cheering kids. The next scene that came before his eyes was of Blaise and him throwing snow down each other's backs and yelping as his best friend shoved a handful in his face. Now he was in front of a hippogriff, mouthing off to amuse his friends when it reared up in front of him and scratched his arm. It hadn't hurt that bad but he shouted dramatically and swore to have the oaf fired. The Slytherins all jeered at the half-giant and rushed around him except for one who was too busy reading her book to even care if he was dying or not. His father stood before him now, a scowl on his long face. This memory was only a couple of months old so Draco still remembered the lashing that he had received for some trivial reason that he couldn't recall now. He fought back so forcefully to avoid having to live through his punishment again that Bellatrix stumbled back with a triumphant cackle.
"Now, now, Draco. You knew what would happen should you fail again," she smiled maliciously as Draco began to back up even though he knew it was no use. Bellatrix advanced on him, wand raised, and when she was within a few feet of him she shrieked the incantation.
Draco had no control of him movements, within seconds he was on the ground screaming out. His body was set on fire and plunged in ice water at the same time. Animals were ripping him apart limb by limb and he was being hit head on by the Hogwarts Express. His head was splitting open just by trying to register all the different types of pain he was experiencing. He didn't know how long he had been under the curse, it could have been minutes or only seconds for all he knew, but as suddenly as the pain had come, it stopped, leaving Draco a sweating, shaking mess on the cold stone floor. As his head spun, he vaguely noticed Bellatrix lean down over him as she whispered in his ear, "If you think that was bad, you don't even want to know what the Dark Lord will do to you."
Draco's vision swirled around him and soon his world became black as he finally succumbed to the pain.
He was floating. All around him was white. He liked it here, he couldn't feel anything besides a gentle tingle throughout his body. All he knew was that there were no worries or people expecting impossible things from him, it was all just nothingness. What had brought him to this place? For the life of himself, he couldn't remember; in fact, he couldn't remember anything, even his own name. That thought was a bit disconcerting but he tried not to dwell on it.
"Draco," he heard faintly, almost as if he were underwater. Oh, that's right, his name was Draco Malfoy, he thought, grateful to whatever had made him remember. His relief didn't last long, however, as he realized that something was wrong; the tingle that he had felt before was becoming very annoying and persistent.
"Wake up, boy. You can't be lying here anymore." There it was again! The voice was vaguely familiar but Draco couldn't put a face or name to it because he was too focused on the thousands of tiny needles that were now pricking his body. He could barely feel a shaking on his shoulder and he was no longer floating, but gently falling while the world around him got dark again. No! This wasn't right! He wanted to go back to where he was before because he subconsciously knew that wherever he was going would be full of more despair for him. The harder he tried to get back to the white place, though, the faster he fell down. His body was now screaming with pain and he could hear moving around him.
"Draco, you need to get up now so I can get you back to your room before Bellatrix gets back." Draco now heard the voice crystal clear and knew immediately who it was. Only one person had that nasal drawl and that was Severus Snape.
Draco slowly opened his eyes to see that he was still in the dungeon that he practice in. Nothing in the room had changed from the time that he had closed his eyes except for the person standing over him. Snape now stared back disinterestedly. "Good," he said, "now drink this and then you can go back upstairs." Draco just stared at the bubbling green liquid, silently asking his professor what it was. "It will help with some of the pain, but it won't take long before your body burns it off so we must move quickly," he shoved the flask into the younger man's still shaking hands and helped him raise it to his mouth.
The acidic smell was enough to make Draco nauseous but he tried to push past it as he downed the potion in a matter of seconds. Merlin, that was awful, but he was already starting to feel the effects and decided it was well worth it. The throbbing in his body had gone down to a dull ache which Snape seemed to notice as he reached out a hand towards Draco. He took it graciously and Snape helped him to his feet. It took a couple of seconds for Draco to get his balance and after he gave Snape a nod saying that they could walk, the two wasted no more time before they were out the door and rounding the corner to the stone stairwell.
The light was blinding for a minute as they stepped out of the dingy dungeon into the brightly lit hallway. Draco felt slightly more safe up here but he still didn't want to run the risk of meeting Bellatrix again today after her especially brutal punishment. The two men glided down the hallway past a few large doors before turning onto another staircase. Once they were safely upstairs and standing outside of Draco's room, he felt safe enough to talk normally. "Snape, " he began, "I appreciate what you did, but I don't need your help. I have to do things by myself if I am to prove myself as a Death Eater."
His professor shook his head slowly, a disappointed look in his eye that made Draco feel like a first year again. "Draco, you still have so much to learn before you become a Death Eater." Draco highly doubted that, he had been taking countless different lessons for the last couple of months specifically for this reason. Almost as if he had been waiting for this reply, Snape cut him off, "yes, I know that you know all about cursing and dueling but you know nothing about how to keep yourself from becoming a monster," he lowered his voice at the last part, "the most important thing you need to know is that you cannot do this alone, Draco, no matter how much you think you can. Be thankful for the people who are there for you. Don't shut them out because if you do, you might look at yourself one day and not recognize who you're seeing." With one last meaningful look, Snape turned on his heel and returned downstairs, black cloak billowing behind him.
Draco sighed irritably. Snape didn't know what he was going through, he never had the weight of restoring his family's reputation on his shoulders so he had no right to be telling Draco how to handle himself. Deciding not to think about it anymore, he snuck into his room and shut the door quietly in order to avoid drawing attention to himself. The last thing he wanted was to have to deal with more people when all he wanted to do was to curl up in his silky black sheets and sleep.
As he crossed the room to his bed, Draco's eyed landed on his full-length mirror resting against the wall by his dresser. After his harsh lessons started this Summer, he had learned to cover it with a sheet to avoid having to see his ghostly reflection, but today he couldn't help but to feel tempted to take a look. Whipping down the sheet, Draco got the first real look at himself since June and it was worse than he had expected. His cold gray eyes were rimmed with black and his face was frighteningly gaunt. He looked like a skeleton of who he used to be and Draco was scared to look at the rest of his body though he knew that he needed to because he had already gotten this far.
He gingerly pulled his loose shirt over his head but didn't let his gaze wander to the mirror yet because he didn't know if he would be able to keep going if he did so he unbuttoned his slacks and stepped out of those, too. Now standing in just his dark blue boxers, he finally allowed himself to stare at the person standing in front of him. Draco inhaled sharply when he saw his ribs plainly through his chest and he let his fingers gently prod at a bruise that was already blossoming on his arm from this morning. He expected the pain that came with it; the potion was wearing off.
This wasn't fair! Draco fumed as his fingers became bone white as they grabbed the edged of the mirror in a vice-grip. He shouldn't have to avoid looking at himself in a mirror for fear of what he might see. He shouldn't have to run his household now that his father was in prison. And more than anything, he shouldn't have had to grow up so fast and be faced with the knowledge that he would have to become a killer. Could it really be just last year that he had been prowling the hallways with Blaise and Nott without a care in the world? It seemed like that was just a dream now that he had been exposed to the darkness of what would soon consume his life, but he would do anything to go back to that fifth year naivety.
Draco was brought out of his dark thoughts when he heard faint footsteps coming upstairs. "Draco," a sweet voice called, "would you please come down for lunch?" He snorted derisively, he knew that she really just wanted to see how his lessons were coming along and there was no way that Draco would talk about it anymore. He quickly threw his clothes back on half-hazardly and went over to his fire place to throw some floo powder in. As the fireplace burst to life with green flames, his mother's footsteps knocked on his door delicately. Draco stepped into the fireplace at the same time that his mother came into the room. "Diagon Alley," he said, shooting his mother an ashamed look when her eyebrows knitted together and her mouth turned down into a disappointed frown.
As he whirled away, Draco couldn't get her face out of his head and guilt filled his head. "Damn it!" he shouted as he stepped out of a fireplace in a small shop in Diagon Alley. A young mother glared at him and pushed her children out of the shop but Draco didn't notice as he was thinking about his own mother. He hated to see her like that, he knew that she was just trying to get through this war with her family intact like everyone else, but seeing her worried face trained on him only made him more stressful. She was just going to have to understand that he needed time to himself so that he could think.
He dusted himself off and stepped outside into the busy street. Draco pitied the witches and wizards that were hurriedly getting last minute shopping done for the new school year; they only had the vaguest idea that they were on the brink of the biggest wizarding war in history. They didn't know that only hours ago while they were trying to carry on with their everyday lives, Draco was preparing to tear apart their families.
Without knowing where he was going, Draco began to walk through the throng of people and when he stopped a couple of minutes later, he looked up to see that he was at a little diner. Deciding that he should actually eat something after this morning's lesson, he pushed through the door and was hit with a wall of sweet scents.
"Hey hon," a very attractive young waitress with shoulder-length black hair and green eyes quickly greeted him by the door, Draco noticed that the girl's name tag said that her name was Jasmine. "I'll be taking care of you today," she added with a wink. She then motioned with her finger for him to follow her and led him to a booth in the corner of the room with an exaggerated swing in her hips. Once Draco had sat down, she leaned on the table in an obvious attempt at flirting and asked him what he wanted.
"Well, you're going to have to be more specific than that, Jasmine," Draco flirted back, smirking when he noticed her cheeks turn a faint shade of pink.
She cleared her throat quietly and rephrased her question, "alright, what would you like to eat, then?"
"Oh, well in that case I'll just have a chocolate danish and a cup of Earle Grey," he answered, also leaning on the table now.
Jasmine let out a girly giggle and with a "coming right up," she returned to the kitchen.
Once Draco was outside again, he took a crumpled receipt that had an address written on it in purple ink and threw it in the trash without a second glance. Though Jasmine was fun to flirt with, he just couldn't take a chance to do anything more than that in case she turned out to be a mudblood or a blood-traitor. No matter, Draco was in higher spirits now anyway from the conversation that didn't revolve around the Dark Lord. He also suspected that the chocolate had something to do with it; as much as he hated that bloody werewolf back in third year, he was spot on when he said that chocolate makes you feel better. Merlin, Draco felt like a hormonal girl right now.
Shaking his head at himself, Draco decided to at least be productive and buy some dress robes as long as he was planning on being here all day. After his father had been sent to Azkaban and Draco had been assigned his task, his mother had decided to "lighten everyone's spirits" and hold a masquerade ball. Ridiculous, Draco thought, but if that was what it took to make his mother believe that everything was fine, then that was the least he could do for her.
The walk to Madam Malkin's didn't take very long because it was only a block away from the diner that he had just been in. As he passed by the large display window, Draco noticed that the shop was strangely empty except for Madam Malkin who was standing near the back of the spacious room with her arms crossed like she was waiting for something. Without completely knowing why, he stalled his footsteps to get a better look. That was when a huge pink... thing... stumbled into view. Draco guffawed. Was that actually a person? Who in their right mind would wear that monstrosity?
When the girl turned around, his jaw hit the floor. Holly? Surely it couldn't be her, his mind was just playing tricks on him. Holly, the daughter of some of the most deadly Death Eaters would rather die than to be caught wearing that circus tent. Wait, was she getting that for the ball? His mother would have a heart attack if she came through their doors wearing that. Somebody would have to put Holly in her place and Draco just couldn't resist being the one to do it.
The door clicked behind his as he strode inside, but the two women didn't seem to notice as they were having a rather loud conversation so he quietly moved further into the room.
"Maxine! I look like a birthday cake!" a melodious voice yelled, followed by a giggle. Draco knew that the voice belonged to Holly.
"Oh hush, child," a deeper voice answered, and Draco peeked around the corner in time to see Madam Malkin swat Holly on the arm playfully. "Any of the girls at Beauxbatons would be thrilled to have this dress!"
"Well then let them have it, you know that I already had one picked out when I came in today," she answered back.
"Oh, very well. I'll go get it, you silly girl," she laughed when Holly stuck her tongue out at her and walked farther away towards a back room. Now that Draco was able to get a closer look, he realized just how atrocious the dress actually was. The whole thing was bubblegum pink with puffy sleeves and what had to be a hundred layers in the big skirt, each held up by tiny white bows. Clearly this was an attempt to torture the poor girl.
Just then, Madam Malkin bustled back into the room with an armful of golden fabric. Well at least it isn't pink, Draco thought. "Off you go, then," the gray-haired witch scooted Holly back into a changing room and returned to her seat by the wall.
Not long later, Holly walked back into the room, holding shiny dress up to her chest. "Can you lace me up, please?" she asked and turned around. Draco's eyebrows raised when he saw that the dress was opened until the very bottom of the graceful curve of her back. He almost felt dirty for watching her unnoticed in this very exposed position. Almost. All too soon, the dress was laced up to an appropriate place and she turned around.
Draco didn't think it was possible, but he was even more surprised now. The first thing that he noticed was that the tight bodice created subtle curves on her tiny frame. His eyes followed the line of the dress to the floor. Holly had gotten taller over the Summer, she would probably be just up to his shoulders now, but that wasn't the only thing different about her. Now her glossy brown hair fell halfway down her back and she wore a slight amount of makeup which made her dark blue eyes really stand out. Draco had always found her pretty, but standing here in this dress, he admitted grudgingly, Holly was stunning.
He cleared his throat at this revelation which caused two sets of eyes to shoot to him. Great, he thought sarcastically.
"How long have you been watching me, Malfoy?" Holly demanded.
Draco tried to look indifferent and come up with an excuse, "wow, Earnshaw. A little conceited aren't we? I was actually just here to buy some new dress robes, like you, and came back here to see why it was taking so long to get a little service," he matched Madam Malkin's glare.
He was happy to see that Holly looked flustered at her assumption being wrong. "you didn't answer me. How long?"
"Long enough to know that pink really isn't your color," he winked, making her cheeks red in embarrassment.
"Malfoy, get out of here!" she yelled.
As much as he wanted to stay and torment Holly some more, Draco figured that he should probably do as she said because he was finding it very hard to keep his eyes off of her body in that dress. "Whatever you say, Earnshaw," he rolled his eyes and started to walk back to the door but had to take one last look to cement the scene in his memory. Holly and Madam Malkin were still watching him suspiciously so he shook his head and walked back out into the bright sunlight and busy sounds of Diagon Alley.
He walked down the street for a while before leaning back against the wall to an apothecary. Draco had always found it easy to ignore Holly before, there were plenty of girls that fawned over him so he didn't really need to pay attention to another girl, but after seeing her looking the way she did today, he knew that he would have a much harder time now. He pushed himself back off the wall and growled. It was going to be a very long year.
Now that I have a lot of the background stuff done, I'll start getting into the actual story. I'll keep posting chapters as soon as I have them written up. Reviews are lovely! Thanks!
