A/N Alright, so that chapter of pain is now over. So here you go, the next chapter!

Draco didn't know where he was.

Trees were everywhere. Thick limbs were twining together. The leaves all molted black. There was no wind, yet the leaves swayed. Few filtered down, straight towards him, to land on top of his head.

The blades of grass under him were all dead. They were all coated in a mucky brown. If he had inspected closer he would have seen only bugs there. They crawled over each other. They ate one another, twisted and brawled against each other.

There was no sound. Nothing. The leaves didn't whisper, just watched. The trees didn't sigh, just stood rigidly still. The grass didn't dance, just drooped lifelessly.

A strong, rancid odor filled his lungs every time Draco took a breath in. It seared down his throat like moldy oranges. Sour, and disgusting.

Moving forward was the only logical thing he could think of. But when he tried to lift up a foot, he found that he couldn't.

Looking down at himself, he felt his blood chill and his body shiver. Chains slithered and climbed up his body, the only thing he seemed to be wearing. The end of the chain beginning to hiss. Slowly, it morphed into a huge snake.

Unblinking eyes stared up at him. A forked tongue ran along his bare skin, tasting. Around and around his body the snake slithered. It was up to his shoulders, it's tail still on the ground, but he couldn't see his lower body at all.

His entire body was covered by the writhering snake.

Wind blew, carrying a sound with it. Draco strained, trying to listen, but the snake pressed it's face on his cheek. The soft hissing sound slipping into his ears.

It was all he could hear. But then a gust of wind shook him and the snake, and the serpent barred its gleaming fangs.

Without another thought, the snake struck for his neck. But then, Draco heard it: "Master Draco" and he bolted upright.

His chest was heaving, his eyes blown wide, his hair a tangled mess. Warm blankets pooled around his waist, the soft material seeming to scrape over his skin. His hands, fingers shaking, slowly raised and ran over his body, checking for marks.

He found them.

Finally, he let his eyes wander down. His arms were covered in scars and marks. His chest covered. Gradually his hands drifted to the blankets and peeled the blankets off. Letting out a breath of air he hadn't realized he had been holding, Draco found himself in night pants.

"Master Draco has finally woken."

Draco spasmed in shock, his back screaming. In vain, Draco tried to keep sitting up, but he eventually fell back, a pained cry leaving him.

"Master Draco!" Dobby's voice speared through the pain, and Draco blinked away the hurt. The house-elf was leaning over him, tennis ball eyes staring at him. "Bad Dobby! Bad, bad Dobby for surprising Master Draco."

The elf grabbed a book - a very familiar book - and began to pound it against his head. Draco groaned, bringing a hand to massage his forehead, "Dobby, stop. I'm fine."

"Master Draco is brave. But sir is in pain!"

"I can live with pain, Dobby. Stop."

The elf trembled, but stopped. "Dobby is sorry for surprising you, sir. Here is Master Draco's diary." The elf handed it over with his head bowed, his floppy ears slapping against the top.

The boy flinched at the sound, but took the book. Luckily, Dobby had thought ahead and had it close to the blonde so he wouldn't have to reach too far. The elf gave a tiny bow before leaving with a crack!.

Sighing, Draco opened the book and frowned at the inside. There were five notes from the hellions.

Blondie,

So what's going on? It's nearly the middle of June and we just got home. Did Sevy ever tell you why we all passed out?

And what of Blaise? What's up with him being all: I want answers and bla bla bla? Such a killjoy.

Mum was furious at us when we got home. Apparently it was another prank we made up. Do thank Sevy for us, he gave us another bright idea.

F & G

Blondie,

Apparently adding P.S.'s doesn't works. Depressing, really. Anyway, where did you two disappear off to?

F & G

Blondie,

Now it's the almost July and we haven't heard from you. At all. What's up with that? That's why you gave us this journal thing. Unless you only made it possible for us to read what you wrote. LAME!

Write back, Blondie. We're bored.

G & F

Blondie,

Ron is driving us bonkers. He's been trying to eavesdrop on our parents for the whole summer - and has been failing at it. Honestly, we don't know why we call him brother. He and Percy are similar, seeing as they tend to act first and think later.

Now, Ginny on the other hand, is creative. We're hoping she'll join our joke shop one day.

OH! We never did tell you about our joke shop. We already have a name picked out - Dobby helped that out when he called us Wheezy's, by the way. It'll be: Weasley's Wizard Wheezes! Catchy name, eh?

We just need the money to get it started and we were hoping that (the handwriting changed, and Draco gave out a low chuckle. But he had to stop quickly as it sent pain searing down his spine) you knew Fred is an idiot.

Onto a different topic, we would really like to know what the hell happened when we went to see Sevy. We just (once again the writing changed, and Draco only dared to smile) thought we should remind you that George is a git who likes to (George's writing was next) sing in the rain. Really, Fred, so do you.

Later Blondie!

G & F

Blondie!

Just so you know, we wrote: Seriously Blondie! But apparently the diary didn't like that seeing as your name was first.

Do you know it's near the beginning of July? What have you been doing all this time? Sleeping?

Blondie, we're bored! Save us!

The only thing we have to do is bug Harry now that he's with us.

Seriously, Blondie, write back!

F & G

Draco was about to set the diary down, but he watched, enthralled, as another note appeared and he watched as they wrote - Fred, again, if he figured out the difference between their handwriting.

Blondie,

Why aren't you wriiiiiiiting? It's the second week of July already!

There was a slight pause, and the writing changed, George seeming to take over.

Blondie, Fred is going insane. The whole point of this note was just because Fred wanted to say that we're going to be able to open the shop soon, no thanks to you. He's joking, of course.

Write back, and save me from my brother's insanity.

G & F

With a sigh, Draco took a look around the room. He was taken by surprise again when he finally noticed he wasn't in his own bedroom. This one was white, with a large, open window overlooking hills. A dresser beside his bed, his wand lying neatly on top.

After a few sluggish minutes, Draco finally remembered where he was. Sev's house, in the bedroom he stayed in when he visited his godfather.

With a raise of his hand, his wand went zooming into it and landing with a smack. With a swirl of it, and a murmured, "accio quill and ink bottle" the two items flew towards the boy who caught them easily. Placing the ink bottle on the table beside him, Draco wrote a short missive.

Hellions,

I have been... out of commission for a while. However, I will not be able to write for long. I will give you your answers next time I see you. There's too much to say on paper.

Draco

Exhausted from even that, Draco set the book down, not bothering to wait for a reply. Even as he placed his quill beside his diary, the door opened and Narcissa came running in, dress in hands so she wouldn't trip on it.

"Oh, Darling!" Tears streamed down her face as she rushed to him. He cringed when it seemed she was going to hug him, but she merely fell to her knees beside the bed and held his arm. "I am so sorry for what happened to you. Why didn't you stay away? Oh, Darling, how are you feeling?"

"Narcissa, let the child breathe." Sev followed at a more sedate pace, opting to stay near the door rather than go towards his godson. His face was carefully blank, and gave nothing away.

"It's alright," Draco said, moving carefully into a new position. "What happened?"

"First, I believe it imperative to find out how your health is." Because his godfather hesitated, Draco gave a tiny nod, wondering why he had to do so. The last thing he remembered was what Nott did.

At the thought of Nott, all the other memories rose up and he rolled quickly to the side of the bed and emptied his stomach. Thankfully, he went to the side where his mother wasn't. The bile that left his mouth left a nasty aftertaste. His body held a sheen of sweat, and all his muscles quivered. And his back hollered at him to stop moving.

"It seems you have emptied yourself of the potion at long last, and have remembered, at least partially, of what happened." Severus cleaned the mess up with a flick of his own wand, and then carefully placed Draco back into his original position. The older man did some diagnostic spells until he seemed appeased. "You will be able to get up in a week or two."

Draco carefully cleaned his mouth and greedily drank the water that his mother had at his lips. Once the glass was empty, Draco looked over at his godfather, "What happened after Avery? Everything got... fuzzy and..." Draco shuddered, a moan leaving him as his back twinged. "Dark."

Narcissa let her fingers trail over his forehead lightly. She brought up his blankets and covered him again. "You don't have to relive it, Dray. You made it through, that's all that matters."

"No, Mother. I have the right to know."

Tears welled up in her light blue eyes. "Very well, Darling. I was forced to see it, but I have no desire to hear of it again." She kissed his forehead before she hurried out of the room and into the hall.

When she was out, Draco turned his head to look at his godfather. Severus didn't meet his gaze. "There isn't much to tell after Avery, Draco."

"Sev," Draco waited until his godfather finally looked at him. "I need to know."

"What I said is the truth. There isn't much left of the story. After Avery went it was my turn," Sev didn't even pause when Draco flinched. "I gave you two things. The first of which is called the Drink of Despair. The second was a potion so you would keep your scars, something the Dark Lord asked for me to do." Sev went to looking out the window, and Draco could trembled. "The Drink of Despair causes hallucinations. Of death, of creatures, of pain, of horrors. The drink would hold these effects until the drink leaves the system, which just recently happened to you, seeing as you have left your sleep induced coma.

"I am sure even as you slept you had hallucinations. Ones that you couldn't escape until it left your system. Lucius went next. Seeing as he is your father, his punishment for you had to be extreme, or it wouldn't hold merit with the Dark Lord. So he whipped you with flames."

Draco trembled and scrunched his eyes shut, but those monsters came back. The horrible ones with no eyes or noses. Just the large mouth, the huge teeth, and the piercing screech of a cracking whip.

When he opened his eyes, he found Sev looking at him. "After Lucius finished, everyone left except for the Dark Lord, your father, and I. Your mother was forced home by one of the other death eaters. The Dark Lord entered your mind to find your secrets, but your pain encompassed it all and he found nothing. Afterwards he left, and your father and I took you here. I healed you while your father left to gather your mother. After she was here, your father left and he hasn't come back."

Draco took a deep breath and somehow swallowed past the lump in his throat. "What did Nott do? I know it was based off witch hunts... but..." He shuddered and gripped his arms under the blankets.

"Why is it necessary for you to know?"

Pale, scared blue-gray eyes rose to meet with his godfather's. "Because I was blinded, Sev. I didn't know what would happen. He took away my sight, and things happened that I didn't understand. By the time Nott came around, all I can remember is his name and pain. Intense, crushing pain." Draco's hands left the blankets and his fingers embedded into his hair. "I could handle the darkness until I didn't understand what was happening. If I know... I'll... I'll."

A hand on his shoulder made Draco flinch, and the pressure eased off. But the fifteen year old looked up, ashamed of the tears that rolled down his cheeks.

"He did two things. The first was a stool that heated slowly. It nearly burned through your clothes before he stopped. The second was the skull crusher. I don't believe you need me to elaborate."

The boy shook his head, and Sev nodded.

"I will leave you to your rest. You're mother will be up shortly with your dinner. She will not like you here on your own."

Then he was gone, and Draco went to looking out the window. However, he wasn't able to think of anything before a bird flew through the window and plopped beside him on the bed.

The exotic, black owl held out his foot, waiting for Draco to take off the paper. When Draco took it off, the owl pecked at his fingers and flew to the top of the cabinet, waiting.

With a roll of his eyes, Draco opened it and began to read.

Brat,

I've been waiting - patiently, mostly - for your reply. I don't have forever waiting for your highness to get the time to write to lowly me. Either write back frequently, or not at all.

Cissy is important, but I will not write to a child who believes that he is better than everyone around him.

Draco crumpled the letter, face carefully blank.

Burn it. That low life doesn't deserve our time.

So Draco raised his wand, pointed it at the paper, and watched it burst into flame. The fire licked the paper, making the edges turn black first. Then it crumbled in on itself.

But Draco shook his head and quickly doused the fire. With the flames safely out, he lowered his head into his heads and waited for his mum to come back.

Burn it. Burn them all.

A/N Ahh, Sirius being a brat. Haha. And Malfoy making a reappearance. Hope you guys all liked the chapter! Oh, and a spoiler for the next chapter: the twins are in it!

So, I have never replied to a review where everyone can see, but seeing as it was a guest and they asked questions, I gotta... Lol. So if you don't wanna read, you don't have to. :)

To tammy6262: Yes, the last chapter was mean, but it is very much needed. I've had that scene in my head ever since Lucius had told Draco that he was planning on sending him and his mother away. Another reason I wrote it is because, in my head, I don't imagine Voldy as a very forgiving person. What better way to show your control and put everyone back in their place than to 1) torture the newest in the fold to show them that they are only for him to use and control, and 2) show the others what it means if they fail him again. :) So, I hope that clears up why I wrote and where I got the idea for it. And - though I'm not sure if this chapter makes up for the last one - I hope you like the new chapter! :)