You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with. -Wayne W. Dyer
"Busy? What do you mean, he's busy?" Pansy sneered, facing off with Goyle in the common room. Crabbe was sitting in the corner watching hesitantly as the furious vixen pressed the issue. Goyle's statement even caused her to forget that her audience included Hermione and Ron, who were descending from Hermione's room after retrieving some books she had left behind. "What's he busy with? Some tramp?"
Goyle's eyes flashed over to Ron quickly before he motioned to the exit. "He's not seeing anyone, Pansy," he replied as if he had rehearsed the words hundreds of times before. "You need to leave."
"I need to talk to him," she demanded. "NOW!"
This seemed to put the large boy on the defensive and he pulled his wand out. "Piss off, Parkinson," Goyle growled threateningly. "Anyone past those doors gets a wand up their arse."
"PISS OFF?" Pansy shrieked. "It is nine thirty in the morning, whoever is up there should have left by now!"
Hermione felt Ron stiffen beside her, but ignored it, instead choosing to address the commotion Pansy was making. "Parkinson, you have to leave," she snapped authoritatively.
"Oh shove it, Mudblood," Pansy hissed and Ron glared at her.
"Say it again, Parkinson and I will," he snarled, pulling out his wand.
Despite her overwhelming hatred for the Weasley, Pansy was outmatched even with the dimwitted Gregory Goyle's wand aimed on her. If Goyle and Weasley missed, Granger most certainly would not. Seething, she stormed out of the common room, followed closely by a nervous Crabbe and leaving behind a resolute Goyle. Hermione turned to them and her eyes narrowed.
"Tell Malfoy that guests aren't allowed in the dormitories and if he continues to do this, I will report him," she warned and Goyle's eyes moved to Ron.
"Speak for yourself, Weasley," he said pointedly and Hermione's face reddened. However, before she could respond, Ron checked the time and pointed to the door.
"Hermione, you're going to be late for your class," he exclaimed and her eyes widened, Goyle completely forgotten. She ran to the door, glancing back at Ron briefly to ask a silent question and he nodded. "I'll check on him." Ron waited until she disappeared before turning to Goyle. "Tell Malfoy he better not have touched my sister," he growled in such a threatening way that Goyle was taken aback. Without another word, Ron headed out of the common, leaving the large boy to stand guard.
Up in Malfoy's room, Pansy's tirade had gone by unheard. Ginny was curled up beside Draco, with her back to his as she slowly came to consciousness. The stillness around her and the darkness first indicated to her that perhaps she had not been asleep as long as she had thought, but after a moment of keeping her eyes open, she could see shafts of light peering in through the drapes of the window. A window that was not supposed to be there.
Panic was the first thing that flooded her when the fog of sleep began to clear her mind. Nothing felt right about where she was and the clothes she was wearing. Looking down at herself, she realized she was not wearing her usual pajamas and that the sheets covering her were nowhere near the same shade as what she was accustomed to.
What was going on?
Ginny bit her lip to squelch the scream that boiled up in her throat when someone shifted beside her. Turning around her eyes widened to see Draco lying there, sleeping on his back.
For one horrifying moment, she truly believed she had given in to the temptations of the past few months and slept with him, however after taking a few deep breaths, her mind slowly began to ease her into the memories of last night and reminded her of what had really happened.
She was safe, for now…
Taking another deep breath, she stared at Draco for a while, amazed at how unassuming he looked. There were no threats, no seduction. He was just there, suspended in whatever sub-consciousness he subjected himself to, unaware of her presence for the moment.
He was vulnerable.
The realization frightened her for some reason.
What if someone came in?
What if she was attacked and he was lost away somewhere in his own world?
Calm down, Ginny, her mind snapped. Do you honestly think that would happen?
No… but the fact that he was asleep suddenly was not as comforting as it had been a few moments ago. She took another deep breath and sat up, looking around the room. It was the first time she had actually seen the room and she realized it was exactly the same as Hermione's except that the furniture was rearranged to mirror the Head Girl room. The colors were also different. While Hermione's maroon and gold made the room inviting, Draco's silver and green, along with the black sheets and drapes only added to the chilling feeling that was beginning to creep through Ginny.
Perhaps this was why no girl had ever spent more than a night with Draco. Everything about the room screamed that no one was welcome.
Glancing down at him again, Ginny tried to understand his behavior and why he failed to do the same to her. She had heard the tales and the only complaint every single girl had made was that he kicked them out before they could even see the light in the window. If his pattern was so ritualistic, then why was he still sleeping?
"I'm not sleeping."
This time, Ginny did yelp at his statement and looked down to see his eyes opening slowly. He stared at her for a moment before he sat up as well.
"You were talking out loud," he told her as he stretched his muscles and she blushed, looking away from him. She had known Quidditch was good for you, but the muscles on his body were ridiculously well-toned. Noticing her embarrassment, Draco tilted his head to the side and stared at her until she looked back at him. "I have my own reasons for keeping you here," he whispered in such a way that left no doubt in her mind that he had sustained just as much damage as she had. This veiled confession caused her to grin and she leaned in and kissed him excitedly, wrapping her arms around his neck as his hands gripped her hips, stopping both of them from falling off of the bed.
Ginny shuddered under his touch and sighed as he pulled her right up against him, running his hands up and down her back. Draco leaned against the backboard for support as their kiss became more heated and physical. Their tongues danced and fought fiercely, matching the intensity of emotions that were cascading through them. He tugged on the Slytherin jersey that covered her body and managed to lift it up over her head, breaking contact only briefly so that the cloth could come off. The feel of his cool abs against her burning skin was exhilarating and frightening at the same time. His actions had brought them only that much closer to consummating a relationship they were still reluctant and unwilling to acknowledge. His lips began to move away from hers, blazing a path down her jaw to her neck, nipping and kissing her skin with a renewed passion.
"Draco," she gasped, running her fingers through his lush, blonde hair as she struggled to breathe. Liquid hot sensations ran down her back, causing her to tremble with want as their bodies pressed heatedly against each other. His hand smoothed over her thigh and with deliberate slowness moved up her leg, torturing her with the anticipation of something unbelievable. Her breathing quickened as his lips caressed her shoulders, drifting down to the cleavage of her breasts, his teeth grazing her skin and causing her to whimper.
Ginny yelped, jolted spastically and fell off of the bed when Draco's fingers slipped under her knickers and brushed her intimately. She stared at him through wide, startled eyes for several minutes while both of them regained their breath. Ginny could see the lust pulsing in his eyes, but was surprised by how quickly it was replaced by another emotion that stunned her.
Regret.
Running a hand through her hair, Ginny shakily got to her feet and looked around nervously. Draco could see that she was close to tears and he suddenly hated himself for it. Without thinking, he reached out to her.
"Weasley-"
Her eyes snapped to him in shock but before he could say anything else she snatched up the jersey and backed up towards the bathroom, unsuccessfully covering herself with the clothing.
"I should go," she mumbled with a trembling lip. "I… I need to get to class…"
He got up off of the bed and she froze, watching him carefully. She was like a deer in the headlights and Draco could tell that one false move would send her running, and for some reason he could not bear to let that happen. What he had just done to her had crossed the line they had drawn several months ago when this entire situation had started, but in the moment he had been unable to help himself. Now he wished nothing more than to take it back, if even just to catch a glimpse of a smile.
"Weasley-"
His advance caused her to stumble back and fall to the ground, flinching and trembling as she continue to keep her eyes trained on him. She felt numb all of a sudden at the look on his face, but she knew her reaction was not from a feeling of violation. What he had done was barely even a factor anymore. It was the fact that despite how close they had come just now, there was a line, a very dangerous line, that they should not cross and it terrified her to think that Draco now wanted to. That she wanted to.
"I… I can't," she heard herself say, though she was not necessarily sure why. Draco had not said anything to promote the words, but she had said them anyway, as if anticipating some sort of persuasive argument. An argument Draco Malfoy of the summer past might have made. An argument Draco Malfoy of two days ago might have made. An argument Draco of three seconds ago had no intention of making.
A commotion outside of the room drew their attention and they could hear an argument making its way up the stairs. A familiar voice broke through the door and startled both of them out of their revere.
"I said no!"
The door burst open and Ginny bolted into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She slapped her hand over her mouth and sunk to the ground, screaming into her fingers. The adrenaline that had shot through her body when he had touched her was beginning to wear off and she was starting to tremble uncontrollably. Tears streamed down her face and she was beginning to hyperventilate, barely aware of the fury that had entered behind her.
Pansy had paced the halls for ten minutes after she had been ejected from the Head common room and had watched with seething hatred as Granger and, later, Weasley had left soon after she had. Crabbe was standing in the corner, still rubbing his chubby fingers together anxiously and watching her every move.
Fat bastard, she thought hatefully.
For years Pansy had accepted Draco's need and said nothing even when he deflowered little hussies from other houses. He was a man of very little words and many different responsibilities, granting him the leeway, in her opinion, to treat women the way he did. However lately, her patience with his addiction had run thin.
No longer did she sit still when other girls caressed his leg or gave him an obvious glance. Her blood boiled when she saw girls scramble out of his room under his heated command and she became troubled when she was no longer called to him.
Last night, he should have come back to her after escorting that little Weasley girl back to the dormitory as Warrington told her he had been ordered to do. Instead, he bypassed the Slytherin common room and went straight back to his own room. Alone, she presumed, though he might have picked up some little tart on his way back.
Then why was he refusing to see anyone?
He would answer for this.
Once again her blood began to burn and she headed back for the common room, ignoring the scared look on Crabbe's face. He and Goyle had not been on talking terms for the longest time and after Goyle's threat, he was not eager to go back in there.
Goyle looked up from the letter he was reading addressed to Draco and his eyes narrowed. "Get out, Parkinson."
"Get out of my way," she hissed, pulling out her wand. "I'm going up there."
"He's not seeing anyone."
"Too bad."
Goyle lunged for her, but she was much too quick for him and she was already up the stairs before he could get his wand out.
"I said no!"
Pansy burst through the door in time to see someone dash into the bathroom and slam the door behind them while Draco stood there by his bed, eyes fixed on her with very little emotion.
So there was someone up here, she seethed.
"You've been avoiding me, Draco," she voiced and his eyes darkened immediately. She hesitated momentarily and then pointed to the bathroom. "Tell your little bitch to leave. We need to talk."
"I don't have time for this, Pansy," he told her coolly, walking over to the bathroom and twisting the handle.
Locked.
Damn you, Weasley, he thought angrily. In the corner of his eye, he saw Pansy pull out her wand and he held up his hand.
"She's not worth the trouble," he snapped and Pansy's eyes narrowed. She approached him, her eyes shining with hatred.
"Don't forget who your first was, Draco," she hissed. "I think you've forgotten my importance."
"I think you've forgotten your place," Draco growled and she stepped back from him, her eyes clouding over momentarily with thought before she spoke again. This time her voice was calm, collected and filled with conceit.
"We've all fulfilled our duty to the Dark Lord," she said, choosing her words carefully. "Your parents want you to fulfill yours on Saturday."
Draco shook his head. "I'm not taking the Mark," he told her firmly and she raised an eyebrow.
"Why not?"
He grabbed her arm and lifted it up to display the tattoo on her wrist. "I will not be branded like cattle," he hissed. "I will not become a soldier in a war I have no interest in."
"The Dark Lord wants you, Draco," she responded, her voice dripping with fanatical and revolting devotion. "He selected you out of all of us to be his sword here at Hogwarts. You were chosen for something great."
"I will not be a pawn."
Pansy's eyes flared with a sudden arousal and she took his face in her hands. "Then be our leader," she said. "Lead Slytherin against those wankers and let us conquer Hogwarts, returning it to how it should have been. The Dark Lord-"
"Voldemort wants to control me," he sneered hatefully, causing a tiny gasp to escape her lips at the mention of the name. "I will not be controlled."
"When we win, you will control more than ever possible, Draco," Pansy defended somewhat deliriously. "This war is just a means to an end for us, Draco."
"And what is that end?" he asked incredulously and a smirk crossed her lips.
"Power…" Her eyes moved over him and she tilted her head to the side, as if assessing her options. "There's a war going on, Draco," she whispered silkily. "It's been going on ever since we were born and it's coming to its climax." She walked back up to him, pressing her body against his and touching her cheek to his. Her hands moved up to his arms and slid down them slowly. "And like every good orgasm," she murmured into his ear, her fingers curling around his left wrist tightly. "There's a brief pain." She turned her head so that their eyes met and he saw the lust in hers, and a small part of him wanted nothing more than to ravage her right then. "Can you handle that, Draco?" she managed to ask before his lips met hers, both of them forgetting the other occupant of the room.
Ginny wanted to disappear. She had locked the door after hearing Pansy's voice more clearly in the other room, but fear still struck her briefly when the knob jiggled around in a poor attempt to open the door. After listening to Pansy's little comparison to war and sex, she had become nervous when things suddenly became silent.
Her thoughts raced at what could possibly be happening and while her scenarios were all very different, the outcomes were the same and her chest constricted painfully at the very idea. The thought of the two embracing each other, caressing each other and ravishing each other only made her stomach churn and caused her to suddenly feel a sense of hatred towards Draco.
She knew she had no right to hate him. If she allowed herself to think things through, Pansy had every right to Draco. She was the one constant in his life and Ginny was technically the other woman… the other women were the other women.
Yet the sick feeling refused to leave Ginny and the moment she heard a sensuous groan from the other side of the door, she scrambled to the toilet and heaved. Lustful pleas soon followed along with labored breathing and the sighing of a mattress as two bodies fell on it. The tears Ginny had managed to bury found their way down her face and she threw up again into the toilet, unable to stop herself from trembling.
She hated him. She hated Pansy. She hated all of them.
God, she just wanted to die.
The scream that came from the bedroom at first sounded as if something amazing was happening, but when it happened again, Ginny realized that whatever had been happening there moments earlier had ended abruptly.
"Draco," Ginny heard Pansy yelp in a panicked voice. Ginny pressed her ear to the door in an attempt to hear more. "Draco, your parents-"
"GET OUT!"
A flash of light came from under the door and something hit the floor with a thud and a shriek. Ginny heard the door into the bedroom open and then slam shut quickly. Out of fear of being attacked, Ginny did not come out of the bathroom, opting instead to lie down on the cool marble floor and cry silently. She didn't know why she was crying, only that she wanted to and she was too afraid to do anything else.
It seemed like hours before the bathroom door finally opened and Draco walked in to find Ginny asleep on the ground, clutching her clothes in her fingers. Tear stains marred her pale cheeks and she was still shaking a little as she slept. He leaned against the counter and stared at her. She looked incredibly vulnerable and weak, though he had a feeling that if he woke her up, she would be willing to hurt him.
Draco closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair, taking several deep breaths. In the past hours, this entire situation had spiraled out of control at a break neck speed. Pansy had been the main cause for that.
The moment he had gotten her on the bed, she had begun to spill her guts about what her mother had planned for him when he went to Hogsmeade on Saturday. The first injury she had sustained after that had been an accident. The second one had not been.
Pansy had been slow in her retreat, which did her a great disservice when he aimed his wand straight at her and struck her with the Cruciatus Curse. She disappeared after that.
It had taken him two more hours to remember that Ginny was still there.
The girl may not have had Pansy's experience, but she was much better at handling pain than he gave her credit for. He suspected that the redhead would not have run off after he had hit her with the curse.
Then again, Weasley was smart enough not to get herself into such positions in the first place.
Sighing, he knelt down and shook her carefully, watching as she stirred and opened her eyes. She jolted a little at their close proximity before she sat and looked away from him, unsure of what she was to say.
"You have to leave," he said and her eyes snapped to him. The hurt was evident on her face, but he could also see some disgust. Mostly with him. Some with herself. "It's two thirty, Weasley," he told her. "They're going to be wondering where you are by now."
Ginny stared at him for a moment before a question popped into her mind that she could not stop from spilling onto her lips.
"Are you really going to get the Dark Mark?" she asked weakly and his eyes became blank, as if she had turned off the switch in his head. He gazed back at her for the longest while before he stood back up and helped her to her feet, handing her back her clothes before he left her to change. Without answering the question, he made his way to the common room, looking around to see Goyle standing near the exit with two other boys. All three of them looked up at Draco and the two others disappeared quickly, leaving Goyle behind. Draco could see the apology in Goyle's face but ignored it.
There was no time for it.
"I need you to escort Weasley to her next class," he told the boy. "Then I need you to keep an eye on Pansy. Don't bother being discrete about it."
Goyle nodded, his eyes flashing up the stairs. Draco turned to see Ginny standing at the top fully dressed, holding his jersey in her hands. He heard Goyle walk out of the common room and waited until the redhead descended the stairs before speaking.
"I suggest you head to your next class," he said. "Your things will be waiting for you there."
She stared at him blankly before she started to move for the exit. "Have fun getting your Dark Mark," she muttered and he snatched her arm, slamming her into the wall.
"What was that?" he hissed and she glared at him.
"Say hello to your father from me," she said and his eyes darkened. "You'll make a wonderful Death Eater."
"Go to hell," Draco growled and she looked him straight in the eyes.
"I'm already there," she retorted spitefully. "Perhaps I'll tell Harry about your plans on Saturday."
The look of murder on his face was palpable and it looked like he might actually kill her, but instead he backed away from her and began pacing the floor like a caged animal. She watched him from her spot at the wall, afraid that if she moved, he would make sure she never got out alive. It was as if he was weighing his options at this point and she had moments to do something before he took the option that benefitted the Slytherin House.
"I love you," she blurted out without thinking and his eyes snapped to her, startled. For a moment she thought she saw the same sentiment flash through his eyes before they filled with rage.
"Shut up," he snarled, still pacing. Tears pooled in her eyes, but she was not about to back down now.
"Draco, I love you," she said again, with a bit more resolution in her voice. This only seemed to aggravate him even more.
"Shut up."
"I love you-"
"I SAID SHUT UP!" he bellowed, rounding on her and pointing his wand straight at her face. Ginny held up her chin and stared right back at him, daring him to do it. His eyes were blazing at this point, but his hand was trembling as he held the wand, allowing a glimmer of hope enter her. Then she saw it again. The same emotion that was pumping through her flashed so brilliantly in his eyes that she was moved to take a step forward.
"Draco-"
Just as suddenly as it had been there, it was gone, replaced by cold indifference and hatred. "The game is over, get out."
Ginny felt as if she had been kicked in the stomach. All of the air left her lungs and her heart shattered into pieces, leaving her to stand there in horror.
The game… a game?
"What?" she breathed, tears rolling unchecked down her face. He pointed his wand to the door.
"Get out," he ordered in a barely controlled voice. He was now shaking all over and she could see him struggling not to hurt her.
"Draco-"
"I said get out!"
Suddenly she became infuriated. Not because he had rejected her, but because he was in denial and she knew it. "What are you going to do?" she demanded angrily. "Toss me out like you did Parkinson!"
Draco advanced on her. "GET OUT!" he roared but she stood her ground.
"You are such a typical Slytherin," she hissed. "You're a coward." Draco could not believe he was actually tolerating this. She was insulting him in the worst possible way yet he stood there, unable to stop her from exposing him for what he was. "It'll probably be better for all of us on Saturday when you go join your father and become the second bastard in your family to have his head shoved up Voldemort's arse!"
Draco's eyes narrowed dangerously. She knew way too much for her own good. Not only had she deduced what was going to happen on Saturday, she knew his father had something to do with it as well.
"If you breathe a word of this-"
She stepped right up to him, their eyes locked in an electrifying hold. Gone was the love she had expressed only moments before, replaced by whatever fury that had been buried deep within her for many a long years.
"You'll do what to me?" she taunted, once again daring him to make the first move. She needed to know how far he was willing to take this and how much she was willing to stand before breaking under the pressure of it all.
He had her up against the wall before she could even react and she released a sob as his body pressed up against hers. She struggled fiercely against him, but he managed to pin her tight.
"I'll kill you myself," he growled into her ear. "You're not worth all of this and I will not give up Slytherin just so you can have your little moment."
"It wasn't a moment," she gasped.
"Shut up!" he snarled and she shivered at the hatred in his voice. He pulled away to look into her eyes, lifting up a finger as if to condemn her. "You… you are not worth it. You never were." His eyes clouded over briefly with a semblance of pain and regret, but it was quickly crushed by the cold, manipulative power that had wormed its way in and festered in Draco's heart. "Don't think for a second I won't hurt you if you tell someone." He released her and for a moment she just stood at the wall, trembling horribly and keeping her eyes averted from his. Tears were streaming down her face and slowly Draco could feel himself wanting to wipe them away. But before he could make any such move, Ginny struck first, rearing back and punching him so hard that she fell back as well, biting her tongue until she tasted blood.
"If you ever touch me like that again," she whispered, her voice shaking with anger. "I'll kill you too."
The rest of the day had been an absolute disaster. After running out of the Head common room, she had run into Pansy, reducing Ginny to tears. In the days that followed, Ginny once again fell into a phase of passiveness. Going only to her classes and never showing up at dinner. Harry and Hermione attributed it to Harry's episode in the Gryffindor house, but Ron knew better and after prodding Ginny for answers, he approached Malfoy about it. In a very non-subtle, extremely violent manner that was stopped only when Snape and McGonagall showed up.
Draco had been in constant communication with his mother and after receiving a cryptic letter acknowledging Pansy's message as true, he became distant and irritable, lashing out at anyone who got on his nerves. Warrington did his best to stay out of the young man's way while others gave Draco a wide berth.
A dark shadow had fallen over the Slytherin Prince and everyone within the house knew why. Draco had prided himself on abstaining from becoming part of the idiocracy that he deemed to be a Death Eater. The very name had made him sneer, even when his most trusted of associates had taken up the offending insignia. To be a Death Eater was to lose all identity of self and become caught up in the mass hysteria and drunken obsession that surrounded the object of their worship, Voldemort.
The man, or beast, was a self-proclaimed deity and just as bad as Potter in Draco's book. He loathed the idea of one man seeking to cleanse the world of anything impure just as much as he hated the thought of one boy being the salvation of that same unfortunate world.
There was nothing wrong with impurities. Impurities created the backdrop from which Draco was one of the standards of higher expectations. To wipe out impurities would shove Draco back into a place where he was no longer admired for a perfection he did not actually have, but a number in the long lines of pureblood and half breed fools who claimed superiority through birthright.
God he hated Voldemort.
Draco did not want the Dark Mark and he had done everything in his power to prolong the subject from being brought to closer scrutiny, but now that his own mother was declaring, through carefully articulated and ambiguous wording, that Voldemort himself wanted Draco to take the Mark…
He would have no choice, unless he wished to find himself at the bottom of the Thames with his parents. A death suitable for them, but he preferred a more lavish tomb with his actual name on it. Draco may despise the very ground Voldemort trod on, but he was smart enough to know that his skills were not on the same level as the great evil. Arguing would prove pointless at this stage.
Therefore he would have to accept his fate and receive the Mark, no matter how many nights it kept him up in cold sweats. No matter how many times he knew his station in Hogwarts would suddenly be more valuable and the little game he was playing with the other Houses, unknowingly by way of Blaise Zabini, would quickly become a tool the Dark Lord would use to devastate Hogwarts and bring Dumbledore to his knees.
His words to Ginny still haunted him and her confession left him tossing in his sleep. To believe that she actually loved him was somewhat farfetched. He knew that treating her differently might have created some feelings of infatuation within her but he had truly believed that she would never allow herself to entrench her heart so deeply in him.
His intention after that was to remove himself so far from the situation that it would never torment him again, but that plan had failed when his refusal of her switched love to rage and rage to threats. The fact that she had used his own fear of the Dark Mark effectively against him angered him as well. After that, it had all been a matter of which one would outlast the bluff. Draco had survived. Barely. Ginny's punch had brought him to his knees in every possible way and her threat had nearly destroyed his strength to resist.
Malfoy's were never one for self-loathing, but he found himself surrounded with the disgusting feeling constantly and after two days of wallowing in it, he went to Severus Snape.
"Your concentration is beginning to fade away, Draco," Snape observed as they sat in his dimly lit office. "Your mind is being filled with trivial things."
Draco snorted. "Not so trivial," he murmured, staring at the forbidding stone walls around them. "Not anymore."
"You're letting that girl get the best of you."
"You say it as if it's never happened to you," Draco snapped, drawing out a brief painful look in his professor's eye before it was crushed by indifference.
"And she's dead now," the man replied evenly. "Your logic has gotten you nowhere quickly."
"I do not want the Mark," Draco growled and Severus laughed chillingly at the rather juvenile remark. He had known Draco a long time and understood the boy's unwillingness to assimilate to the Death Eater world, but it still amused Severus that even after all the boy had been through he always seemed to revert back to the little boy still trapped inside of him.
"It is a fate we all must endure, Draco," he said. "For the cost of our allegiances."
"I have no allegiance."
Severus smiled at that and held up a finger. "Ah, and therein lies the problem," he reminded. "A man with no allegiances serves the worst master of all. Himself."
"I'd rather that than Voldemort."
"The Dark Lord would rather you picked a side," Severus hissed. "He would rather you followed after your father and took the Mark."
"I'm not a Death Eater, Severus," Draco snapped. Severus leaned forward and fixed Draco with a serious look.
"Carrying the Mark does not make you a drone, Draco," he told the young man. "It just means that you answer to someone other than yourself."
Draco stood up quickly and moved to the corner, his eyes darkening at the thought. "My parents have debased themselves for the service of Voldemort. Bellatrix has lost her mind because of it and half those bastards can't even find their bullocks anymore," he muttered irritably. "It's disgraceful."
Severus could not help the smirk from reappearing on his face. "And falling in love with the blood traitor is honorable? I'm sure your definitions of the word disgraceful will vary greatly." When Draco failed to protest the first statement, Severus began to go over other reasons why Draco was now against receiving the Dark Mark. He saw how agitated the young man looked as he batted the demons within himself.
The idea of Draco Malfoy actually falling for anyone, especially Ginerva Weasley, had never really crossed his mind. Severus always suspected that Draco would find some unfortunate pureblood virgin his mother approved of, marry the girl and then continue his explicitly sexual affair with Parkinson. It was promising to see that the young man had somehow managed to pull himself, even a little, out of the chasm his parents had forced him into.
"Draco, I spoke to your father," he announced after a few more minutes. Draco stopped moving and his eyes snapped to Severus, emotionless and waiting. The professor sighed and leaned back in his chair. "The Dark Lord is fed up with waiting for you to take the Mark."
"I already know that, Severus," Draco muttered and Severus slammed his fist down.
"I don't give a shit if you know that, Draco," he growled and the young man sat down in his chair. "This is their last chance."
A frown fell upon Draco's face and he sat up straighter in his seat. "What do you mean, this is their last chance?" he asked slowly.
Severus rubbed his hands over his face, releasing a frustrated sound. "If you do not receive the Dark Mark on Saturday… Voldemort is tired of waiting and will move on to another option," he said.
"I don't understand-"
"If you don't receive the Mark during the Hogsmeade trip, your parents are ordered to have you killed."
Severus looked up from his desk and for the first time since he had known the Slytherin, he saw all of the blood rush from Draco's face. He saw traces of fear fill the young man's eyes.
"Perhaps you should go finish your homework," he suggested quietly and Draco snorted.
"I'm about to head into a situation where my parents could quite possibly kill me, and all you can say is to do some homework?" he asked incredulously as he stood up.
"Draco, stay out of trouble," Severus warned. "And stay away from Weasley."
"Which one?"
"Does it matter?"
Draco's mind when to his interaction with Ron Weasley and he ran a hand over his arm, which the redhead had dislocated in their recent fight. Ginny had been there, but had done absolutely nothing to stop her raging brother.
"I suppose not." He took a deep breath and walked to the door. "Not anymore, anyway."
A/N: Not much to say. On to the next chapter. (When I publish it.)
Chapter Tease:
"Do you think we'll all survive the war?" Luna asked suddenly, her nose still glued to the menu.
Harry's head snapped to her and Ron shifted in his seat and tilted his head as if to figure out whether she had said what he thought he heard. "What?" he muttered and she looked up at them.
"Do you think we'll all survive the war?"