Hope to Sin, Draco Malfoy
Chapter Twenty One: Change
Artist: Tracy Chapman
Song: Change
A/N- Hello my lovelies thank you for staying tuned and oh btw I kinda used some parts of Lexie Grey's ramble love speech to Sloan. I am still pissed. I wanted them to be forever.
If you knew that you would die today, would you change? If you knew that love would break your heart; When you are down so low you cannot fall, would you change? If you knew that you would be alone; knowing right being wrong, would you change? If you knew that you would find a truth; That brings a pain that can't be soothed, would you change…?
"WE HAVE N'T CHANGED AT ALL!" I yell at Draco as I begin packing to start our journey home.
Draco wears a dumbfounded look upon his face as he asks in a shattered tone, "So that's it? We are just ending things like this?"
"This," I point to him and I, "should have never happened in the first place," as I close my eyes to attempt at not shedding any tears.
He stutters, "But I love you and you love me."
"Well love isn't good enough anymore," I have my rolling trunk in one hand and my pet carrier for Zephyr in the other, yet underneath the doorway I pivot my head back to him and utter solemnly, "Goodbye Draco."
***Three Days Earlier***
My eyes slowly flutter open and I can barely make Draco out sitting in a chair beside my bed.
"Nurse she's awake," Draco calls out. My father, Crosby, stands next to the nurse slipping her something in secret which I presume is money.
Draco tells me, "Your father got the best healer from St. Mungo's to come down and heal you."
I swallow but my throat is dry and Draco hands me a glass of water to drink. After I have drunk some water I ask him, "How long have I been out?"
Looking at my father to confirm in telling me Draco finally answers, "Five days."
"Five days?" I choke out spilling some of the water.
Then the memories, piece by piece, come flooding like a spring stream. I remember Bellatrix Lestrange using the Killing Curse and striking Sirius. Tears begin to fall from my eyes as I grieve for my dead father. Draco stares at me not knowing how to comfort me. He asks me what can he do and I have no clue what to say to him. They think my wound is hurting me, but they have no idea. No idea at all. Adrian appears from the shadows lingering and glaring at Draco. Oh God! Draco's eyes mimic his father's and they disgust me. I jerk my hand away from Draco's as I plead with my eyes for Adrian to come to me.
Draco somberly mutters, "Scar—lett."
I hiss, "You're not supposed to be here anyways."
His eyes turn down in a sad offense, but if he knew the exact truth would it change this situation or just make it worse. About thirty minutes later everyone leaves besides my non-biological father who plants his lips on my forehead and smooths my hair back a bit too roughly, "You had me scared Scar."
"Papa she-she killed him," I whimper out with the salty droplets falling again.
Surprised Crosby mumbles, "What are you talking about?"
"Lestrange—she killed Sirius right in front of Harry and I," I explain.
"Bloody Hell!" He exclaims as he ropes me in for an embrace. "Dumbledore filled me in on you all's field trip to the ministry."
I tell him, "Harry thought he saw a premonition of Sirius being tortured and well we couldn't let him go alone," I cry for a while in my papa's embrace, "Hermione and I thought it might be a trap and it was. Soon the Death Eaters were all around and then, and then." Crosby holds me as I let out all the emotions that have been plaguing me.
A few hours later I say my farewells to the only father I have left now and the healer from St. Mungo's gives me a clean bill of health. Now that it is dusk I head to the Great Hall for dinner, but on my way there Snape intersects me.
He greets, "Evening Miss Daniels I see your wounds have healed."
"Evening Professor Snape it seems they have. No one did tell me what happened to me and since you somehow know everything. Please do tell."
Professor Snape sighs as he informs me, "Whoever inflicted your wound Miss Daniels not only stabbed you but the tip of sharp edge had a fast acting poison. The one you encountered always leaves a nasty scar," he peeks around the empty hall before disclosing, "alas this isn't the reason I interjected you. I want to train you Miss Daniels in my ways. You seem to have an uncanny act for potions even more so than Slytherins normally do. Dumbledore told me you are an Occlumency and Legilimency since birth. That is a rare gift indeed."
My lips purse in contemplation but I reply, "With much gratitude about these rare gifts. I do not want them. I will have to decline your offer." I never wanted this in the first place. I want to be normal. A normal teenager who falls in love and does not have to be some "Chosen One" or have a rare gift. I most certainly do not want that."
Snape continues, "Do you still wish to be a Potioneer for St. Mungo in finding remedies and cures for curses or hexes?"
"Yes Professor," I answer him.
"Yes you, no doubt, have talent; but my offer will more than exceeds expectation on a resume," Snape slightly blackmails me.
In an annoyed voice that I am not trying to hide I inquiry, "When sir?"
"At the beginning of summer every Thursday for three hours, understand?"
I nod my head in agreement but before whisking himself in a dramatic manner he notes quietly, "it sure is funny how easily it is to forget what a crystal ball is."
My voice calls out to him but he does not come back and then I realize he is talking about my prophecy. I turn around quickly and hiss, "Where is it?"
"In my office safe and sound. It was very hard to put it there," he drones on.
My eyes glare on in slits as I tell him, "I will pick it up later," but then my face softens as I ask, "How long was I dead?"
"Enough to scare Mister Draco," Snape answers and then leaves me there alone. Why do I feel so alone?
I open to the doors to the Great Hall and see Rayna eating as she looks up her face fills with comfort in knowing that I pulled through, and then suddenly a rush of warmth envelopes me and I stagger a bit.
"Do not ever scare me like that again Scarlett Daniels," Kasen breathes while still embracing me.
Rayna, Lincoln, Kasen, and I go to our usual spot on the grounds as they plague me with questions. They also did all my homework so I can turn it in and I gratefully thank them. But as this serene time ends we disperse and Rayna and I head to the Slytherin common room.
"Tell me what really happened?" Rayna requests of me.
Tears begin to well, "Listen I want to Rayna but I can't, I just can't it will be too hard."
She wraps her arm around me as she murmurs that it will be okay. Once we enter our dormitory and everyone falls asleep I take out a wooden box and lift the lid. It has Sirius's vials in it and one is marked "In the event of my death" I unscrew the vial and down it like a shot and then I am in his world:
I am in the library common room as a young Sirius paces and recites ingredients to a potion. Ruby, my mother, peeks her head around the corner as she huffs, "I can hear you all the way down the hall. If you haven't got Draught of the Living Dead potion than you are never going to get it."
Sirius asks curiously, "Have you gotten it?"
"Of course I have. Professor Slughorn loves me," Ruby brags while flipping her black, slick thick hair.
"We must not have the same Potions class," Sirius suggests stepping closer with his unruly hair covering his forehead that it emphasizes his grey eyes, "Because I would have noticed you."
Ruby stares intently right back at him as she says, "On the contrary we have had the same Potions class for five years until this one because I was moved into an advanced Potions class because I made an Outstanding in Potions on my OWLs," she raises an eyebrow, "now do you want to keep flirting with me or do you want me to help you?"
"Is both an option?" Sirius grins with a crooked mouth.
She smiles up at him answering, "We'll see," and then conjures up the ingredients and a mock cauldron to help Sirius out, but plain as day I do not think he understood a word because he is too busy being mesmerized by my mother's beauty. She is average height but her longs are long and muscled, her chest is a good C, and just the right amount of curves. Her nose is straight, but her eyes are chestnut brown with flickers of forest-green and gold. What man wouldn't stare? Then I realize this is the first moment that Sirius started falling for my mother. If I was mere human without magic I would never see or know this memory. I would feel even emptier than I already do.
I snapback to reality and from the door a paper airplane flies through my door. My fingers unravel the paper as it reads "Pack later than everyone and so we can talk. Love Draco" and a note that should leave me smiling actually does the exact opposite. It takes me hours to fall asleep. My eyes do not rest until I see the faint rising of the sun.
Rayna wakes me, "I turned in your homework. I'll tell the group to see you on the second train."
"How did you know?" I ask sleepily.
"We are best house mates for a reason," she half-smiles.
Somehow I make it to the shower as I constantly go over what I am going to say to Draco. I fix my hair into a messy bun with a few curly stragglers falling into perfect place. I wear a simple Slytherin house tee with skinny-flared jeans and green classic Converse with no makeup at all.
A knock on my door frame makes me jump and it is Draco with his platinum hair a bit tousled and wearing grey slacks, a plaid green; black; and grey flannel, and black oxfords. I have never seen a more handsome fellow in my life.
"You stayed," he says lowly.
"Of course I did," I reply with a frown of disapproval.
He reminds me, "You've been distant and I didn't want to bother you, but see here's the thing I wanted to. Harry brought you back to Hogwarts but you weren't alive Scarlett. Your heart did not beat!"
"I am sorry I scared you Draco," I confess as my nails clenched the desk beside me.
"Scared is a mild term," he discloses, "you died and I changed. My priorities changed because of you."
I lick my lips as I try to find the words to say, "How bad or how good does it need to get?
How many losses how much regret? What chain reaction? What cause and effect makes you turn around, makes you try to explain, makes you forgive and forget, makes you change?"
"It's like you said before you left. Your strengths are my weaknesses. You make me better Scarlett."
Then insert the beginning and I am about to leave, "Goodbye Draco."
In one quick stride he takes the pet carrier from, places it on the ground, and then put his hand on the small of my back and with his other hand he lifts my chin up as he declares, "Listen here I love you. I-I-I love you so much it's like you are a disease. Like I am infected by Scarlett Daniels and I cannot stop thinking about you of every minute of every day. I love you so bloody much that I cannot breathe or sleep or eat when I cannot hear that heart of yours beat."
I let out a haughty breath with tears forming in my eyes as I sigh, "Ohhh Draco," and I lean in as I plant my lips on his. His lips are a rare warm as they intercept with mine. Draco and I are my real parents. We are Sirius and Ruby and I don't know how it took me so long to figure it out. We are as forbidden and secretive as them and if he knows my secret just like I know his. Surely one of us will end up dead, but how can I think of this when his lips and touch feel this damn good.