Chapter 10
I opened my eyes, my vision blurred and hazy. Draco stood over me, his sleeve still rolled up, sweat rolling down his face. He looked scared. He twitched every few seconds, and closed his eyes, surely wishing for the pain to be relieved.
"Draco..." I groaned breathlessly.
He didn't move. His eyes were fixated upon his bubbling skin. It was a gruesome sight. It was as though he had been flesh-marked by the Beast. The outline of the skull and snake became more prominent as the minutes passed. Draco stood, silent.
"Draco. What. Is. Happening?" I stuttered. I feared for the worst.
"I-" He winced. "Andrea. Its the Dark Lord."
"What? I thought he was gone! Good and dead!" I shouted. I was getting a sick feeling in my stomach.
"Andrea, when he chose me as his apprentice, he left a piece of himself in me. That's what THIS is!" He shoved his wrist in my face.
"Then he's..."
"He's re-incarnating himself through me- using me to carry on his work." Draco whispered solemnly.
I felt dizzy again, as if all my blood had drained from my body. Draco. My husband. Carrying on the work of the Dark Lord? There had to be a way to stop this.
"Draco, there has to be a way to stop this. Tu n'es pas le nouveux Dieu Noir! Draco, you just can't. I won't let it happen to you!" I cried, my make-up streaming down my face in thick, black ribbons.
"Andrea... I don't think there is anything we can do..." He shook violently. He was trembling with fear.
Three Years Later
Dear Andrea,
I haven't heard from you in quite a while. I hope everything is all right, even more, I hope Draco hasn't discovered we've been writing to each other. That will most certainly lead to your demise... only joking. I happened upon a coincidence today. I was going through some of my old Hogwarts stuff, and found a letter you had written to me one summer, I believe after our sixth year. I had never gotten around to opening it, but I did today. I suppose its one of those things you take for granted, but knowing we could write to each other in that manner really struck something in me today. This is probably completely immoral of me to ask, considering we are both married, but I very much wish to see you. Please say you'll meet me.
- H.P.
My stomach sank. He wanted to see me, at the worst possible time in my life. It was true, though. I hadn't written to him in months, and hadn't seen him since that night at the Ministry Ball. Even after all these years, I still got butterflies when someone mentioned his name, or even when I saw a man with messy black hair. There was a void in my heart that Draco could never fill. At one time, he may have been able to, but he forced his way in, instead of earning his way in.
Draco and I had since moved from his parents' house. After Lyra was born, Draco deemed it time to move on from his family, but more importantly, get away from his mother. Draco knew I felt uncomfortable around his father, and felt very annoyed with the fact that Narcissa tried to raise my children. They hadn't done a very good job with Draco, and I would not have Scorpius and Lyra turning out as selfish, self-centered brats like Draco had been. Scorpius had just turned 5, and was already looking more and more like his father. They had the same eyes. Exactly the same eyes, and sometimes, when after holding massive temper tantrums, he would smirk in the same way Draco would when he got his way. Even Lyra, at the spritely age of 3, had eyes bluer than the sky, and a smile that could dazzle even the most stoic of people. I loved them so, more than my own life even.
"Mummy! What have you got there?" Scoripus had startled me. He attempted to climb onto my bed, pulling the covers down with every failed attempt.
"Darling, you mustn't startle mummy like that." I cooed endearingly as I stashed the letter under my bedside drawers.
"Mummy, when are we going to visit Grandmama again? I miss her." Scorpius asked, scrunching a curl that lay on my shoulder.
"Well, I don't know, mon chere. Soon. I will write to her." I reassured him.
"Mummy, why doesn't Daddy love me?"
I held my breath. This has gone too far. When a child doubts whether their parent loves them or not, something has to be done. I grabbed Scorpius off my bed, and carried him down the stairs to Draco's office. I set my son down next to me, and pounded on the door as hard and as angrily as I could. Inside, I heard books being shoved off a table, a chair slammed into a desk, and then footsteps stomping violently towards the door. Draco pulled the door open so fast he nearly ripped the door of the hinges. His hair, limp and greasy, covered his eyes, but I could see a snarl on his mouth.
"What do you want?" He hissed quite nastily.
I was taken aback for a moment. Draco had been growing more and more impatient by the day. He barely showed his face anymore. I hadn't even seen him in days. I recollected and placed Scorpius in front of me, my hands tightly gripping his shoulders.
"Scorpius, ask your father the same question you asked me just a moment ago." I couldn't see Draco's eyes, but I didn't take my eyes off of his face.
"Daddy, why don't you love me?" He asked looking a bit frightened himself.
Draco stood still for a moment, and then relaxed slightly. He sighed and put his face in his hands. After a few moments, he replied.
"Of course I love you, son." He said through his hands.
"I love you too, Daddy." Scorpius sniffled, and hugged Draco around the waist before running out of the study.
As soon as I was sure that Scorpius was out of earshot, I began to "bark", if you will, at Draco.
"You have some nerve, Malfoy. SOME NERVE!" I shouted at him, slamming his office door behind me.
"What the hell are you talking about?" He hissed in a low tone.
"Your SON thinks you don't love him! You spend so much time in this goddamn office; your own children think that you have abandoned them! I don't even think you've said so much as a word to Lyra in a month! Draco, you have to try to get past this and be a father!" I nagged.
"Andrea, you have NO IDEA what I have been going through. How DARE you accuse me of being a poor parent when you KNOW what is happening!" He growled, turning away from me.
"You're a right foul git, you know that? You're a terrible father, dreadful husband, and an awful human being. No wonder you were so hated in school!" I spat at him.
"You stupid bitch. You're going to pay for that." He muttered with ferociously.
I could see his eyes now. They were almost... glowing through the hair covering them. Red. Like blood. It was horrific.
"What are you going to do, Draco? Go tell your father? Because he's a foul git too! He's the reason my parents are divorced, and the fucking reason I'm here right now, stuck with you! The half-witted bastard!" I mistakenly mocked him, and what a mistake it was.
"DON'T EVER SPEAK ABOUT MY FATHER THAT WAY, YOU FUCKING CUNT!" He roared.
He lunged across the coffee table, and closed his hands around my neck. He shook me violently, knocking me to the ground. He threw me away from him, and I skidded across the floor, hitting the door. I gasped for breath while holding my neck.
"You're a dirty little whore. You're lucky I even agreed to marry you, not that I had much of a choice. I think I would have taken the alternative." Draco snarled, throwing books at the wall, and smashing a vase on his desk.
"I never wanted to marry you. You were, and still are, and insufferable little son of a bitch. Look at you. Big, powerful Draco resorted to BEATING HIS WIFE!" I choked.
Draco roared in a furious rage and flipped the sofa over, causing it to crash and shatter near the fireplace. He raised his hand, and in one swift swipe, struck me across the face with such force, my ears began to ring. He grabbed me by the hair and began to kick me in the side.
"You want a beating? I'LL GIVE YOU FUCKING BEATING!" He screamed. His eyes were a blaze with insanity, shining unearthly, blood red.
He slammed me against his desk, causing papers to scatter all over the violent scene. I tried to reach for his hair, but he twisted my arms behind my back and threw me to the ground face first. I screamed out in pain as he began to kick me in the stomach, and then the spine. I gathered the strength to reach up and pull him to ground. He fell on top of me, and I flipped over, giving him one weak fist to the face, my wedding ring leaving bloody gash across his face. He paused for a moment to touch his face where the blood trickled down. His eyes widened, and fury spread through out his body like a wildfire. He lunged for my throat again, and pinned me down to the dirty wooden floor. His fist drove into my face, nearly knocking the wind out of me. He punched me over and over, blow after blow. Everything started to go black when he finally stopped.
A strange noise came out of his mouth, sort of like a strangled sob. I supported my weight on one side as I attempted to look at him through my hazy vision. He was staring at his hands in horror, shaking violently, as he was before. His mouth was twisted into a disfigured sort of frown as he choked back his sobs. I thought about just laying there until I passed out, in that spot...but then I remembered Scorpius and Lyra. My nerves spasamed as I weakly fought my way off the floor. I left Draco on the floor, as he slumped to the floor, suppressing his violent sobbing. I pulled the door shut as I fell into the hallway, and stumbled up the stairs to the children's rooms, sliding down the step as I attempted to climb them. I busted into Lyra's room, where she and Scorpius were playing, and put their cloaks on them with great difficulty. Scorpius saw my face and began to ask me panicky questions. Lyra touched her small hand to my bloodied lips, and began to cry.
"Mummy! What happened?" Scorpius began to cry as I clasped his cloak around his neck.
"We have to leave here, mon chere. We'll be safe once we leave." I croaked, my voice low and gravely.
I pulled my children out into the hall, and with Lyra in one limp arm and Scorpius holding my crippled hand, and dragged then down the fireplace at the end of the hall. All the way down, I could hear Draco's shrieks emitting from down the stairs. I set Lyra into the fireplace, and placed Scorpius next to her as I grabbed the black bowl from the mantle.
"Hold onto my cloak tightly, children, and don't let go." I bawled, scooping up a handful of the chalky beige powder.
Draco's shrieks resonated throughout the halls of our stately abode. A place that was once a home was now a nightmare. A family, now tragedy.
"Maison de Lefayvre!" I shouted, and threw the dust at our feet, tightly gripping Lyra with my other arm.
The green flames engulfed us as a screeching wind blew through our ears, sweeping us up, and tossing us all around. I could hear Lyra crying in my arms. She had never traveled by Floo Powder before, and what an awful time for it to be the first.
We landed with a thud a few moments later in a polished marble fireplace. Everything was silent except for Lyra's wailing. Scorpius was curled up into a little ball at my side, his eyes closed, but seeping with tears. The living room was dark, all except for a faint light glowing from the top of the marble staircase. A few minutes into Lyra's crying, faint footsteps could be heard hurrying down the stairs. I slumped down against the back of the fireplace and closed my eyes. Through my eyelids, I sensed a bright light, and then heard my mother's voice.
"Quelle horreur, mon enfant pauvre!" I heard her scream, just before I passed out.