And if we dream - Draco Malfoy/ OC
Chapter 36- He knows
Summary: Like some magnetic force, like some unbreakable bond she was drawn back to him again and again. And now, staying away was an inconceivable notion. "Always." she murmured, one hand finding his, the other tangling into his platinum hair, "Always."
-….-
Hey everyone, it seems that I'm saying this all the time but I'm so sorry for the wait! It's been months and I promise I won't be giving up on this fic! Life is just insaaaanely busy! New job and my neice and family and holiday and stuff just ugh! Hope you all enjoy this chapter and it was at least a little bit worth the wait!
-….-
Avery knew the moment that Voldermort arrived at Malfoy Manor. The air itself around her seemed to thicken and darken and the metaphorical noose around her neck seemed to tighten , she swallowed dryly from her corner and waited for somebody to come. She figured that short of killing her there wasn't much more that Voldemort could do to her that Bellatrix and his other Deatheaters hadn't already done upstairs. She's been cruciod and cursed more than she had ever imagined she could be.
There was nothing that Voldemort could get from her, even if he knew where they had been she knew that Hermione was far too smart to go back to the same place twice especially when Avery was compromised and they had no idea where Ron was either. Hermione would assume that everywhere they had been up until now was compromised and know to never return there.
As Avery waited, she imagined numerous scenarios, none of which ended well for her in the long run, she imagined being tortured to death, being left for Greyback to do with her what he wished, she imagined Harry and Hermione swooping in to save the day only to find themselves caught too. She knew they wouldn't come though even if Harry had wanted to, their mission was too important to throw it away over one person. Even her.
She expected to be dragged upstairs to where her previous torture had taken place but was instead shocked from her daydream when various people filed down into the dungeon instead.
Bellatrix, her mother, the Malfoys and Snape, followed by their leader himself.
Avery shuddered, she had been around Voldemort before, they all had in some capacity and she knew just how terrible he was but she had never faced him this closely before not like Harry had. She swallowed and steeled herself, she was a Gryffindor! If she was going to die here then she most definitely wasn't going to do it cowering in a damp corner. She stood up as straight as her aching body would allow her to and looked the pale creature right in the eye.
A wiry grin crossed his thin lips and Avery held back a shudder as he spoke, "Hello Avery, I've been looking forward to meeting you. Though, I had always imagined that it would be under different circumstances. That we would be on the same side, like young Mr Malfoy here. Yet, you stand here in a cell."
Avery said nothing, held eye contact, shivering in the cold and with quietly escalating trepidation. She had never imagined it would be so difficult staring death in the face, Harry had always made it look so easy.
"Are you not afraid of me girl?"
Avery grimaced and lied through her teeth, "No." she spat.
Voldemort laughed, a slimy, thready sound, "Then what do you fear?"
"Get a Boggart and we'll find out."
Bellatrix shrieked loudly from behind her lord, "Have some respect brat!"
"Enough, Bella." Voldemort spoke calmly, his voice lacking any and all emotion, "You've had your fun."
He turned back to Avery and sighed, almost as if disappointed. "You are stupid."
Avery shook her head, genuine anger rising to the surface, "I'm not like you, I won't tell you anything, I won't give anyone up, I won't do anything you ask of me. I'm not one of you and I think that makes me pretty smart."
"We could make you take the mark." Avery's mother spoke from further away.
Avery kept her eyes on the leader even as she spoke to her mother, "It won't change anything, and I'd die before I helped you."
She couldn't hide her flinch as Voldemort pulled his wand from his robe.
"I'm not going to kill you Miss Greenwood." he unlocked the gate instead leaving no barrier between them at all. Avery stumbled back against the wall but the dark lord made no move to go in with her, instead he spoke again, "Severus. You see Miss Greenwood-" He spoke as Snape entered the cell instead, "I can be a benevolent leader, and it does not always have to be death and pain. Sometimes I like to take the less painful route go get what I want-" he smiled again, "though of course if you fight it too much then it will hurt."
Snape didn't say anything out loud but Avery knew within moments what Voldemort was talking about when she felt her old professor inside her head.
"No" she gasped, "No." She could feel him leafing through her mind as if it were a book, every memory, every secret, every fear and sadness laid bare to someone that she despised. She had never felt so violated in her entire life.
She could see behind her eyes what Snape could see as he opened memory after memory and scanned them quickly.
"Interesting" he mumbled as he watched the former Minister of magic, sat in the cramped burrow, hand Avery a beautiful ornate mirror.
"To Avery Ophellia Greenwood-" Avery sat forward in her seat, "I leave a mirror of my own creation in the hope that when it seems that what lies ahead is too hard she will reflect on what is, what has been and what can be again- no matter how hopeless or unlikely."
He let out a growl as he watched her stash it in Hermione charmed handbag before she was taken, meaning she didn't have it with her now and he was unable to get his hands on it. Good! She thought loudly and angrily.
Snape trolled through her memories of the last few weeks, of their daring and really quite brilliant infiltration of the ministry, Avery staring at herself in the mirror in horror under the guise of someone else. Avery's fear when they noticed the undesirable posters of themselves that were circulating the wizarding world-
"Look at this." Harry whispered. He showed her the files he had found in Umbridge's desk, posters and files on all of them, big red crosses through the photos of the friends they had lost already-
Avery tensed as Snape watched them take turns attempting to destroy the locket, Please no, she begged, Snape couldn't tell Voldemort what they were doing, they would be intercepted, stopped before they even worked out what the next Horcrux was. Maybe Snape wouldn't realize the significance of the locket, Please don't.
"It seems weird mate," Ron said, "That Dumbledore would send you after these Horcruxes and not tell you how to destroy them. Doesn't that bother you?"
Snape said nothing though and continued to search, maybe he hadn't realized what he had just seen, maybe no one else knew about Horcruxes. Avery tried not the make her relief too palpable.
Her memories passed by quicker and quicker, becoming darker and darker as the locket took its toll on all of them.
"I'm doing everything I can." Hermione said.
"You're not doing enough!" Harry screamed-
"He smelt my perfume." Hermione -
"And now for names of missing witches and wizards-" the radio presenter said solemnly, " these are confirmed-
"Do you know why I listen to that radio every day?" Ron asked, "To make sure I don't hear Ginny's name or Fred or George or mum."
"You think I'm not listening too?!" Harry screamed, "You think Hermione isn't? Avery isn't? You think I don't know how this feels?-
"Course not, it's always been Harry hasn't it- being with him is the only way to get out of your mums shadow."
"Do you see him?- Draco?" Avery gasped as Snape paused, she could sense his confusion, oh no.
Snape stayed where he was, watching that fitful argument play out and suddenly the enemy knew Avery's biggest secret. If Snape knew then she wasn't safe and maybe Draco wasn't either.
"You and Malfoy? You and MALFOY?" "NO I DON'T! I don't understand at all." "Death eaters are drawn to other Death eaters aren't they?!" "You're a traitor. You're not one of us, you never have been and this just proves you never will be!"
Avery felt a tear slip down her face even as she watched herself fall into the broken flooring at Bathilda Bagshots house screaming at Hermione to take Harry and go.
Stop. Please. Please stop. She begged as her professor went further back, watching Draco through her eyes, how she saw him, watching as her feelings changed for him as she fell in love with him and she did love him. She did, it had taken staring death in the face for her to realize it but she did.
I love him professor, she thought, He'll kill him if he knows.
She felt the greasy haired man pull back from her mind and shuddered, eyes raising to Draco's for the first time since they had come down to the dungeon. She could see horror written across his face too. She watched as Snape glanced at his godson and almost snorted to herself. She had begged the bastard but it wouldn't make any difference, had Snape ever loved anything? Had he ever done anything good or cared for anyone? She thought back to her early years of Hogwarts when she had actually been scared of Snape, he'd been bigger than her and meaner than anyone she knew even her mother. He had tried to poison Neville's toad, he had bullied and berated her house over and over for no reason and that had once scared her but now- now she almost pitied the man, he was nothing but a puppet and she felt sorry for him if there was truly nothing he cared about in this world. It probably didn't matter to him that Draco was his Godson- he would tell Voldemort everything.
"The girl doesn't know where Potter is going." Snape spoke. Avery dragged her eyes away from the blonde and focused on what was being said, eyes wide.
"Really?" Her mother asked.
"They weren't on the best of terms before she was captured." Snape replied.
"Why? What happened?" Lucius Malfoy asked.
Avery closed her eyes and waited for the professor to tell them all, for Draco to be thrown in the dungeon with her, for everything to become ten times worse but instead her teacher said, "Something juvenile and trivial I'm sure. The girl is barely competent with magic, she wasn't the one in charge of where they were going next, you won't get anything out of her because she doesn't know anything."
From the corner of her eye she could see the palpable relief on Draco's face and knew it must mirror her own. Snape wasn't saying anything. Avery breathed a silent sigh of relief. Maybe he cared more about his Godson than she thought.
"So what'll we do with her then?" Narcissa Malfoy asked quietly.
"Kill her." Bellatrix cried laughing.
"Leave her." Voldemort spoke, voice betraying nothing as he turned away swiftly and exited the dungeons, the others following slowly behind her. Draco sent her a confused glance as his parents ushered him up the stairs.
Avery glanced at Snape who was closing the bars to her cage and whispered, "Why?" as predicted though she received no response just the swish of his cloak as he left her alone again. Her entire body trembled and her head ached with the memory of having someone unwanted rifling around in there. Snape hadn't told and she was thankful but it also terrified her because what reason would he have to keep it secret? Draco had told her that she had been a part of his mission, he was to infiltrate her, Snape could just tell the others that Draco had done his job and Avery had fallen for it even though he knew that wasn't true, he had seen that himself. Heard the things Draco had said, watched him admit his guilt to her and show her his mark. But he could lie to save his godson if needed. Instead though he had withheld the information altogether which meant he had something on Avery and truthfully that scared her a hell of a lot more than anything else she had faced today.
-….-
Time passes slowly in the Malfoy dungeon, or perhaps is passes quickly Avery can't really be sure, it is constantly dark and damp and Avery sleeps fitfully on and off and time becomes nonexistent only broken by the occasional visits from one Death eater or another. Some taunt her; some bring her the occasional meal or glass of clean water to drink. Sometimes, when he can Draco will sneak down, he will use charms to take the grime from her skin and conjure fruit or food but it is difficult for him to get away and his visits are sporadic.
Avery hadn't seen Snape since he invaded her mind and then inexplicably covered for them. She hadn't heard anything either, because Draco seemed to know nothing, or if he did he never told her anything and the others who came never spoke of anything important. If they brought her food and water they did so silently. Those that taunted her just used insults and derogatory terms and she never learned anything that could help her.
Mostly, in the indiscriminate amount of time she spent alone in the dark she thought of Harry and Hermione and Ron. She didn't care if someone else was listening in on her thoughts, they wouldn't find anything that could help her and she imagined that if anyone else could do so then her Draco Malfoy shaped secret would no longer be a secret.
No one had come to hurt her again either, at times it seemed like she had been forgotten, like she would waste away down here only to be discovered by the next unfortunate soul to be thrown down here.
She sat there and she wondered where they were, if they were hurt or injured, if they were alive, she wondered if anymore Horcruxes had been found. She wondered if they were still following the original plan or if they had changed it thinking that Avery may give them away. She wondered if they thought about her, she knew Hermione would but would Harry? Would the hatred he had felt for her before her capture continue even now that she was here, here because she had saved him? She didn't know and she wasn't sure she ever would.
Did Ron know where she was? Had they found him again or were they all separated so badly now that they would never be a team again? Had Ron walking away caused the first crack that Avery had then turned in to a chasm with the revelation of her relationship with Draco. If that wasn't the case would she ever see them again anyway? Would she ever see Ron get angry at something small and insignificant, or hear one of Hermione's lectures that used to annoy her and that she now wished so badly that she could hear again?
She gasped as she felt hot tears sliding down her cheeks and realized that this was the first time she had cried since waking up in this nightmare. At least the first time she had cried when not being cruelly tortured. It felt refreshing in a way that, human in a way that the people upstairs no longer were, it felt that it separated her from the enemy. So she cried, and she cried until she felt like she could not cry anymore. She cried for her friends, for the pain she had gone through and her friends had gone through, for a childhood marred by evil and death, for a relationship that could have been wonderful if it had bloomed under the right circumstances.
-….-
"Ave- Avery! Red!"
Avery shot awake from the fitful sleep she had fallen into some time ago, feeling too weak and exhausted to keep her eyes open.
"Red- come on!" She could hear Draco's voice much closer than it should be and unusually could feel his hands wrapping around her, trying to lift her from the ground.
"Draco?"
"Sssshhh. Come with me."
"Are we escaping?" she asked, stumbling as she fought to get her feed under herself and lift her weight.
"No," Draco snorted bitterly, "We'd be dead before we could get out of the front doors."
"Where are we going?"
"Just stop asking questions you're coming with me, you're staying with me."
"What?"
"I asked him."
"What?"
"I asked the Dark Lord if I could take you."
Avery paused, wobbly, and stared at her blonde savior incredulously, "You asked him? You just … asked him?"
"He checked that I hated you of course." Draco explained, pulling her again in to motion.
"You do?"
"No."
Avery's head was pounding and her continued confusion began to frustrate her, she growled and pulled her arm away from his grip, wobbling without his added support "Draco!"
"I don't hate you- Don't be stupid! The lord wanted to know that I was being sincere, that it wasn't some ill thought out escape attempt so he had Severus check in my head- to make sure."
"Severus-" Avery whispered, realization hitting her, "But he saw- are you saying that-"
"Yes!" Draco interrupted grabbing her arm again and propelling her forward, "Now come on!"
They stumbled up the stairs together and into the much fresher air of the grand hallway that was blissfully empty. Avery wasn't sure how long it took to get from one side to the other end of the mansion, she couldn't even be sure if she remained conscious through the journey and she probably couldn't find her way back to the dungeons even if she had wanted to.
"Where are you taking our prisoner Mr Malfoy?" A voice she didn't recognize stopped them in their tracks. Avery cringed, and turned as Malfoy did the same, only he was sneering, the same sneer she had seen on his face for years as he had tormented her house mates and herself.
She saw stood before them a Death Eater she hadn't seen before, or if she had she didn't recognize him he was tall and dark haired and otherwise forgettable, but there was a glint in his eye that screamed that he was capable of a lot of bad things. "My room." Was Draco's bitten off response.
"I assume you have permission to do so?"
"Of course!" Draco spat, "From our lord himself, if you don't believe me then ask him yourself, we can wait here." He gestured up the hall to where Avery assumed Voldemort was or had been. The nameless Death Eater smirked.
"Watch your mouth boy and make use of her at least."
Avery cringed and allowed Draco to pull her away again. The Death Eater still watching them as they moved on, "Will he ask him?" Avery asked.
"Shut up!" Draco snapped, roughly pushing open a door to the right, he allowed her to go through first and firmly shut and locked the door behind them once he had followed her through. Draco's room was huge was her first thought, and empty was the thought that followed. Her room in her mother's home, the home she had been raised in had been huge but this dwarfed it. Any child would have envied this room, Ron would love it, all the space and – There was so much space, she noticed. The room looked even bigger than It was because It was so bare, nothing hung on the walls, no pictures or posters or proud achievements. Nothing sat on the chest of drawers, the surface empty and clean. A bookcase stood by the window but the only books on it were ones she recognized, school text books. There was nothing personal here, nothing nice, nothing Draco. She could not imagine living in here, where everything was so blank. When Avery had moved in with Matilda her entire life had downsized, but she had been so much happier for it, Matilda's home, her home, was small, cozy, warm and most importantly full of love, she hadn't seen anything here so far to tell her that Malfoy's life had been the same. Of everything that had happened so far this made her the most sad.
She turned to Malfoy who was looking at her expectantly.
"What?"
"I said, I didn't mean to snap- I'm sorry- It's just"
Avery stepped forward and cut him off with a tentative kiss, "Thank you." She said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
"Come on." The blonde said, softly stroking a strand of matted hair from her face, "let's get you cleaned up."
He showed her to the connecting bathroom and if Avery had had the energy she might have cried with joy at the sight of a real water shower, she couldn't remember the last time she had had one. Charms and spells had been sufficient on the road with her friends and of course she hadn't had an adjoining shower in her cell. Once Draco had ascertained that yes she would be okay and no she wouldn't collapse in the shower- probably, he left her to it.
Avery thought she could have died and gone to this heaven place that Hermione sometimes talked about when the hot water began to hit her battered body and bruised skin and she stood there for an inordinate amount of time allowing it to soothe her aching muscles and her aching heart. She allowed her mind to go blank, her thoughts to leave her and closed her eyes. She wouldn't think about Harry, or Hermione, or Ron and the Weasleys, she wouldn't think about Matilda or just who lay beyond the wimple wooden door separating Draco's room from the rest of the mansion.
She dried the muggle way, her wand lost to her and dressed in the spare clothes Draco had left, they were his, the shirt at least. "Where did you get these things?" she gestured to the soft black material on her legs.
"I conjured them, I saw them in a muggle magazine they were called sweatpants." He said from where he sat on the bed, wearing some silk pajamas, Even his nightwear is posh, she thought to herself.
"Right."
"I could make you some like mine? I figured these would be warmer, I know how cold it can be down there, it seeps into your bones."
"These are fine, they're perfect. Thank you." She flopped down next to him on the bed and laid her head on his bony shoulder. Draco shuffled and situated them to lie on the bed, her wet hair soaking into his pillows. He was saying something she thought, but within no time, shower warm and clad in 'sweatpants' on a comfortable bed surrounded by Draco and Draco's unique scent she slipped quickly into a sleep so deep even a cruciatus curse couldn't wake her.
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What do you think? Please do let me know what you think so I know what to work on etc!