Chapter Eight:
She remembered things in fragments.
A fire that never seemed to stop burning.
The smell of blood and death.
Red and blonde and black hair, open but unseeing eyes.
Bodies upon bodies, a massacre.
The sound of screaming, never ending and ear piercing. She wanted to find whoever it was and comfort them, she wanted to find whoever it was and tell them to stop or they'd be dead. She couldn't remember how long it had been until she realized the screaming was coming from her.
#
Undisclosed Location, England:
"What did they do to you?" he'd asked. Astoria still hadn't answered. Putting it off, telling him she couldn't remember everything, that the memories were too painful. It wasn't until she gave him another excuse that she realized he wasn't pushing her for an answer. Not really.
He wanted to know, he wanted to be able to help her. He wanted to not have to worry about her, wanted to be safe in the knowledge that she was okay, that she was going to be fine.
She wasn't and she probably never would be. Draco didn't have to know that though.
Ginny was nice, Astoria thought. Well, as nice as she could be. It was obvious the former Gryffindor didn't trust her. Astoria supposed she didn't help prove her innocence, though she had plenty of reasons for being a bit jumpy.
Luna was still as strange and peculiar as ever, though some of her wonder of the world had vanished. It was no secret that Luna had once been held prisoner at Malfoy Manor along with Dean Thomas, both knew what it was like to fear for their lives and both knew what it was like to live with that knowledge that any moment could be their last.
That's probably why they were so nice to her.
Luna lent the Greengrass girl some of her clothes, Ginny noticed as she and the others from the safe house sat in what had once been a formal dinning room. She watched as the younger girl nervously played with the frayed sleeves of her hand-me-down sweater, her eyes flitting around the room in quick succession. Taking in everything and nothing.
Ginny's attention moved to the doorway as Draco entered. She watched as he went by Astoria, briefly resting his hand on her shoulder before moving to the head of the table. Something inside Ginny's stomach twisted. Foolish girl, she thought. Let it go.
She didn't mind that Draco had stopped visiting her bed, what bothered her was his complete trust in Astoria Greengrass. Something is off, Ginny knew. She had a gut feeling and she always trusted her gut.
I'll figure out what it is, I have to.
A/N: I'm not giving up on this story either. Sorry, if you read my other fic then you probably saw the author's note there and know what's going on. If not then: I've been busy, I have a full time job and my laptop crashed (but it's obviously fixed now). Slowly I'm working through this. I don't know when the next update will be, I'm going to try and finish my other fic so I can focus on this one so we shall see.
