CHAPTER XXXVII
"For what you did to me and what I'll do to you, you get what everyone else gets…You get a lifetime! Let's go!
Do you remember that day when we met you told me this gets harder? WELL, IT DID!
Been holding on forever, promise me that when I'm gone you'll kill my enemies
The damage you've inflicted, temporary wounds
I'm coming back from the dead and I'll take you home with me, I'm taking back the life you stole!
Hip Hip Hooray for me! You talk to me, but would you kill me in my sleep?
Lay still like the dead from the razor to the rosary, we could lose ourselves and paint these walls in pitchfork red
I will avenge my ghost with every breath I take!
I'm coming back from the dead and I'll take you home with me, I'm taking back the life you stole!
This hole that you put me in wasn't deep enough and I'm climbing out right now
You're running out of places to hide from me!"
(MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE – "It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's A Deathwish")
Shielding carefully the air of self-satisfaction around him - in a fair attempt not to stand out even more from the rest - Draco narrowed his sore mismatched eyes and watched skeptically the Death Eaters kneeled in front of him with a calculating and distrustful look, adopting a serious and immutable face appropriate for the occasion.
Removing his mask, a young man of brunette hair and piercing dark green eyes – no older than thirty – looked up at Draco and said. "We're at your service, milord."
"The Dark Lord is dead. I'm..." The blond Slytherin started but snapped his mouth shut.
Draco was perspiring profusely - literally suffocating inside his black snake leather hooded duster - yet the drops of sweat that started to fall from his forehead were ice-cold.
"I can be anything… everything." His unconscious finished the sentence for him and added. "Power requires the ability to play with appearances. To this end you must learn to wear many masks and keep a bag full of deceptive tricks. The world wants to assign you a role in life and once you accept that role you are doomed and your power is limited. You should learn to play many roles: that would make you responsible of your own creation."
Blaise looked with both worry and apprehension when Draco's cheeks went clammingly pale and his chin started to quiver. "I don't know who I am..."
Stepping closer, Blaise shoved an arm behind Draco's back, steadying the blonde's shivering skinny frame against his compact body. "Don't worry. Not always what you know makes you who you truly are. But here's a quick reminder to keep you back on track: You're Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black. You're my younger brother, husband of Luna Lovegood and soon-to-be father of Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy."
After a failed third try, the blond finally managed to say. "I'm Draco Malfoy."
At that particular moment – and thanks to Blaise's assistance - Draco didn't know who he was except for his name. The rest, his feelings, his fears, his dreams, his ambitions, even his deepest desires and afflictions, he could no longer understood those emotions anymore for they seemed completely foreign to him.
After inspecting Draco's sickly alabaster complexion and accented dark shadows under his mismatched eyes, Blaise spoke inside Draco's mind with supreme worry. "This is no good, you look worse than ever. Let me take you to St. Mungo's."
Squeezing his eyes shut Draco shook his head with a silent "no" shivering like a leaf.
Crossing his forearm his over chest, slamming his palm against his heart, the Death Eater spoke again. "Draco Malfoy, milord, your wish is our command!"
"My wish?" Draco repeated numbly, his mind was so muddled with fatigue and exhaustion.
Releasing himself from the support of Blaise's hold, Draco took one step forward and rolled the sleeve of his duster and shirt.
As he waved his bony unmarked left forearm in the air, he called out. "Look! The Dark Mark is gone! My wish has already been granted: I'm a free man and so are you! We are no longer owned by the Dark Lord, not anymore! No-one except us are the true owners of our lives!" He screamed his lungs out, his shaking voice losing some of its edge.
A collective gasp resonated through the room and Draco could sense the mix of emotions starting to surface in the Death Eaters' faces. The men stared at each other and exchanged confused looks, once the initial shock subsided the young man addressed Draco again speaking in behalf of the rest. "What would happen to us now?"
Draco tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but not to avail. "There is a great fear in freedom, isn't it? When you are a slave the responsibility for your life is never yours, someone else is responsible. So in a way, slavery is a very comfortable thing. There is no burden. Ironically it turns into a freedom from conscious choice!"
Staggering quite pronouncedly with the edge of a step that marked the difference of level between the room he was in and the adjoining one, the blond Slytherin stabilized his skinny body almost immediately avoiding an imminent fall to the floor.
Blaise exchanged a scolding glare at Draco for a moment with only a short distance separating them. "Draco, look at the shape you're in. You can barely walk less afford to waste any more of the time you don't have dealing with these fuckers. We've still got to find the whereabouts of that nutcase wife of yours and get you to the hospital as soon as possible. Just tell them what they want to hear and get this over with!"
"What they want to hear…hmm… fine…whatever…" Draco then started walking back and forth in front of the line of Death Eaters, he kept his hands on his back, clenching and unclenching his fits with repressed anger.
"There is potential in all of you, no choice is not possible, so you are forced to choose. Choose for yourselves, it's your responsibility for it's your life! Choose wrongly, freedom becomes a condemnation, choose rightly and it becomes a bliss. It depends on whether your choice turns. The choice is totally your responsibility. Follow the path that you believe in, just master the truth within yourselves. From now on let alone the commands of your heart to guide you. Now get up and dissaparate from my sight!" The blond Slytherin roared with a revolting face.
The group of men – about sixty pitiful souls – rose in unison but those dark green eyes in front of Draco spoke of uncertainty and fear.
Kneeling in front of Draco again, the brunette Death Eater lowered his head and pleaded. "Milord, you, more than anyone, knows what we've been put through. We're willing to serve you faithfully in exchange for your protection, for the sake of our remaining family members. Many of us already lost our parents, our wives and children for refusing at first to fulfill the wishes of the Dark Lord. Now that he's finally dead, we're afraid those loving ones who barely survived would get blamed for what we've been forced to do as Death Eaters."
Draco had an uncomfortable look on his face. Before he could formulate his answer one of the doors of the room banged open and members of the Order of The Phoenix and from the Ministry of Magic strolled in.
In one consecutive motion Blaise cast a spell around Draco to protect him and – assuming an offensive position - placed himself in front of his brother, clenching tight his wand, ready to strike. The rest of the Death Eaters formed a defensive line, placing themselves between the Slytherin duo and the new arrivals.
"LOW YOUR WANDS, ALL OF YOU!" Draco yelled suddenly and violently as if overcome by a mood swing.
The blond Slytherin's ear-piercing shout echoed on the stone walls, the candles of the wall sconces flickered and rose, the windows exploded in countless glass fractals and the floor rumbled under their feet. One by one the wands of each wizard present in the room clattered on the stone floor. The blank looks plastered on the wizard's faces were as if haunted by the Imperious Curse, but Draco hadn't used his wand at all: he'd just disarmed them using the will of his mind.
Once Draco opened his eyes again, he looked at everyone present with a bit of confusion before an overpowering wave of wooziness came over him. Dizzy, he stumbled backwards but thanks to Blaise's light-speed reflexes he caught the blonde's feather-weight when Draco's knees gave out and pressed the blonde against his torso, wrapping protectively his strong arms around his brother.
Steadying Draco's body against him – too worried for his brother's health to rejoice himself with the closeness of yet another physical contact with the blond - Blaise leaned Draco's head back against his shoulder and tightened his arms around the blond. "What the Hell was that?! You've just cast a wandless Imperious Curse?!
Unable to look into those judging pitch-black gems, Draco tilted his head to the sides, trying to clear up his mind. "Something similar happened when I wanted to avenge your death and forced my uncle, Rodolphus Lestrange, to kill himself. I controlled his body and mind and made him jump. I knew his death would never ease the pain I was experiencing but the rage I felt inside was literally burning beneath my skin. Right before he jumped I could feel his heart failing and his insides tearing apart, he was already dead before he could hit the ground. I did that to my uncle because I wanted him to experience in the flesh what I was going through."
For a long moment Blaise stood still, wrapping Draco in his arms, amazed by the implications his death had caused on Draco and on his magic.
The moment Draco turned to look at Blaise; his eyes denoted not a single trace of emotion, as if he were completely hollow inside. "But now I can feel the heartbeats of every single man in this room, even the sound of the blood pumping through their veins. I know that if I concentrate hard enough I could end up killing every single one of them."
Blaise's terror showed on his face.
"Except you of course." Draco soothed in spite of the hardness of his gaze.
Tightening the grip around the blond – guessing the worst - Blaise asked. "What did Scorpius tricked you into doing?"
As the blond tried to regain control of his tired legs, he acknowledged. "I've broken yet another taboo. I've allowed my son to breathe his magic into me. He unleashed part of my psyche that's been dormant all this time."
Blaise felt his stomach sink, his pitch-black eyes held a look of complete devastation. "We've got to find a way to undo this!"
"No, that's impossible. There's no way to reverse the effects of a psychic kiss. What's done it's done." The look in Draco's mismatched eyes then changed completely - becoming cold and impenetrable – making Blaise's heart beat strangely. "I'm not the same anymore."
"Scorpius must have taken something away from you when he kissed you." An annoyed crease formed between Blaise's eyebrows. "In order to enhance a portion of your psyche, he took part of your memories as well as imprints of your most deep emotions and feelings, am I right?"
Draco's sound, deep sigh of accented defeat and resignation confirmed his suspicions and Blaise found himself reflecting on Scorpius' words:
"I can read his mind, but not at all times. That's why I'm constantly watching my father, studying him, trying to understand the reason behind every little thing he does to come up with a way to make him forget once and for all what he feels for that woman."
"I guess there's an upside to everything." Blaise concluded to himself, he didn't care if the blond had heard him this time or sense the bitterness in his words.
Arching one annoyed eyebrow, Draco turned to look at his brother and smirked a little artificially. "You're right, brother. Let's give these fuckers exactly what they want."
Pulling away from Blaise's support the blond Slytherin began the performance of his life: after all Draco Malfoy was a man practiced in deceit.
There was a look of brutal determination on his face when Draco spoke again. "No more death, no more pain and no more suffering: no more war! It's over, OVER! I do believe the people in this room do not want to plunge this world into darkness again. That's why we must not act rashly and destroy ourselves! Those responsible for the killings of innocents already paid with their lives today! We are alive and we've got to honor and pay due respect to the ones that were left behind and made possible for all of us to survive this day!"
Pushing past the forming line of Death Eaters, Draco made a fast scan of the faces in front of him before resting his accusing gaze on Fudge and Umbridge. "I was wrong, I don't need them. They're of no use to me anymore. I'd better dispose of the garbage before it starts to stink."
His left pearl-gray eye started twitching."I know there are still many remaining loyal followers of the Dark Lord and traitors out there who are going to be seething over this. There's no way they are going to stay quiet about it: worse come to worse. Am I right Minister… secretary?!"
Without wasting another second Mad Eye seized those two from behind. "You're coming with me. You've got a lot to explain about the series of bribes and cover-ups that point in your direction."
"Well…well…that was quick." Draco said to himself, a wave of excitement tingling inside him.
Waving a hand in the air, Draco stopped the advance of a squadron of Aurors from getting to the group of Death Eaters. "This people are not to be blamed for their weaknesses. They were mere slaves of a higher power. They followed the Dark Lord because they've been extortioned: they had their families kidnapped, tortured, killed…they've suffered enough already! Allow them to be reunited with those loving ones who did survive before you decide to take any action against them. Don't deny them their right to speak up in their defense because if you do, you'd be the guilty ones for abusing of your privileged positions at the Ministry!"
Murmurs and humming filled the room in seconds.
"Why are you defending them?" An auror demanded to know with a creasing frown.
"I was a Death Eater myself." Draco replied bluntly and returned the killing stare without blinking. "My kind had always done the dirty work for others and we'd taken the blame but we did not create the Dark Lord, you did. The blindness, fear and cowardice of those of your kind along with your powerless actions made the Dark Lord who he was. Those of my kind are guilty for swearing upon the lives of those we loved that we would perform as expected, we've given our word and of course we'd died horoning it! We're guilty for being born with inherent qualities that made us able to do what your kind couldn't. We're guilty for loving our families, for fighting for our lives, for thinking smarter and acting faster than the rest, for refusing to surrender, for wanting to survive! YES, WE'RE GUILTY OF ALL THAT!! BUT IT'S THANKS TO THOSE OF MY KIND THAT THE DARK LORD IS NOW DEAD!!" He finished, practically spitting on the old wizard's face.
"Thank you, milord." The brunette young Death Eater grabbed and kissed the back of Draco's hand.
Pulling away his hand almost immediately, Draco shot a killing look at the man. "Dare to touch me again and I'd butcher your guts and feed them to the dogs."
As if stricken by a sudden mood swing, the blond then pursed his lips into a tight line. "If I had dogs…which I don't… the last puppy I've got was when I was seven but after it'd bitten Lucius' hand he chained it and left it to starve to death in the dungeons to punish me for not being able to train properly my pet." Scratching furiously his forehead with one hand, Draco's lips then curled into a vengeful sneer. "But I did train that dog…otherwise it wouldn't have bitten Lucius in the first place."
From behind the Aurors came into view some familiar faces.
Draco smirked to himself with an air of satisfaction. "We'd need the help and support of each and every one of us to restore the balance and order of the Wizardry World and to bring security to its inhabitants, am I right?"
"And I need to get a dog, a couple of them, the more the better. I'd always liked dogs and enjoyed a lot training them. No-one would ever tell me what kind of pets can or can't have!" The blond concluded to himself, firmly in his resolution.
"Yes, and for that matter we need someone who'd make sure that dream come true, someone who'd guide us all towards that goal." Remus Lupin stated as he made his way between the Aurors, carrying a walking stick to support the weight of his healing leg.
"We'd need someone that would secure a future for our children." Nymphadora acknowledged coming from behind her husband, holding her baby protectively tight against her bosom.
"We'd need someone who'd guide us and teach us how to defend ourselves properly, a role model to look up and follow." Justin Finch-Fletchley prompted.
Draco looked up, red sparkles ignited behind those mismatched eyes. "You bunch of shameful arse-kissers, opportunist hypocrites, weak cowards, I despise you all."
"Malfoy, there's a reason why you're the one in power of The Elder Wand; the wand that once belonged to Dumbledore. It's not only because you brought down the Dark Lord that made you the righteous owner, you deserve to have it: it's your destiny." Snape sentenced with a purring voice before crossing his arms over his chest, smirking proudly.
"If you're still unsure about yourself, maybe it's other people's judgments what make you who truly you are. Remember, if you don't want to obey, then you must command." Draco's unconscious encouraged this time with a mocking tone.
Submerged in a penitent posture, Draco shook his head in denial, trying to shut out the voice inside his head. "Having that kind of power is…no…I don't want it."
"Warfare is a game of deception. Look at them, your actions have already ensured the unconditional loyalty of your pawns, they'll stand by you even in death." The voice of his unconscious held a smirk this time.
Drinking in Draco's strong presence, Mad Eye's magical eye looked directly into those mismatched eyes and made a face. "I was right when I've told you that you were going to go far, boy."
The young Slytherin held an ice-cold stare and didn't reply, a dispirited smirk past over his face. "Yes, I went too far indeed… paid a steep price for it…and the worst part is… I did this to myself…"
A familiar scent made Draco spun his head abruptly to the side. That was when he caught sight of Luna. A shiver of Scorpius' memory caught up to him and started switching on-and-off inside his skull as well as in front of his eyes. First the blurring, fragmented scenes seemed static, then slowly started to speed up until everything exploded inside Draco's mind and the last image he saw was the one of the words Luna had written on the bathroom's mirror before committing suicide: "HAD ENOUGH".
Shaking his head furiously, Draco forced a swallow past the tight lump in his throat. "I don't want her to die but…why? What is it that I feel for her?"
A physical pain swept right through him, the idea of losing her caused an ache in his chest and made his breathing almost impossible.
Completely drained of energy, Luna remained kneeled besides the limp body of Harry and began sobbing. Hermione, Ron, Seamus, Parvati and Dean were also besides her. They all looked exhausted and dispirited, murmuring fainting sad whispers among them.
Despite being unable to steady his breathing, Draco broke into a run – pushing forcefully those who were in his path to get to his wife - and the moment he spoke his lungs sting like burning coals for the lack of oxygen. "Luna!"
At the sound of Draco's voice Luna opened and closed her mouth shut, unable to bring herself to speak.
Bending down, Draco gently raised her up. "You've just run out of places to hide from me."
An expression of fear, even of terror came into her eyes, she shuddered slightly and her sobs became louder.
"Why does my blood react this way when I'm near her? Do I hate her? Do I just want to use her or is it something else?" An impulsive craving swirled through Draco's body as he stared without blinking Luna's full, sensual half-open mouth.
"Just help me remember whatever it is that I feel for you." He said, his voice dropping to a hoarse whisper.
Encircling Luna's waist with one arm he jerked her tight to him. Their mouths met in an uncertain, forced kiss. Luna's arms hanged limply at her side, her amethyst-blue eyes held a terrified look.
Draco hesitated for a moment as the words she'd said to him in Scorpius' memory come crushing inside his mind with more intensity:
"If you really loved me, then you'd set me free but you keep treating me as if I were one of your game pieces. I'm not your pawn!"
Luna seemed scared at first, but as Draco moved his body slowly against her she sighed and closed her eyes, opening more her lips, inviting his tongue to enter her mouth. As he deepened the kiss, Draco explored cautiously Luna's mouth as if it were the first time he'd ever kissed her but in a matter of seconds he practically owned it.
Gazing into her watery amethyst-blue eyes, he said to himself. "I don't want to restrain you but at the same time I want to lock you away. Hurting you is the one thing I never want to do but my biggest fear is losing you. I know that keeping you with me would make you hate me and it'd end up destroying you but I don't think I'd be able to part from you."
Luna shivered, her entire body shaking. "Draco..."
She barely coordinated a ragged moan for she couldn't say anything else, seemed that she'd lost all ability to speak…and think.
There was something about the way that Draco held her body, something about the masterful way he was ravishing her mouth that started a fire inside Luna as well. Welcoming the feeling, she knitted her arms behind his neck, pulling him closer.
Draco smirked to himself at her positive response. "Even though I can no longer remember the times I've held you in my arms and kissed you before today, my body does remember everything about you. No matter how much we hurt each other by staying together, I want those wounds to scar like burns so neither you nor me would ever forget what we've got together, so that you'd never be able to leave my side as I continue to love you madly and devotedly like this."
And that was when his unconscious encouraged him to go even further. "Don't suppress yourself!
Draco then lowered his hands a little far down, rocking tortuously slow their hips together.
Overwhelmed by the sensations Luna started whimpering softly against his mouth. Her humming and the sound of her moaning built the tension to an almost raging climax inside Draco. On the other hand Luna's body was falling apart with the vibration of an orgasm so intense that she seemed to collapse on in.
"Mine." Draco breathed triumphally the word.
Draco felt a fiery and indomitable desire to make love to Luna right there but it was definitely not the place or the time for that. Yet he didn't stop what he was doing for he knew exactly how far he could go before it became too far…of so he thought.
"Luna, I love you." Draco heard himself murmuring between taking breaths.
He knew it was a bold, almost suicidal move to confess out loud his feelings, but he wanted her to know that it was not only sexual desire he felt for her, that it was more, so much more.
Gasping for air, Luna's amethyst-blue eyes threatened to be refilled with tears. "I…"
Draco knew that Luna didn't love him back and probably never would but it didn't matter to him, not anymore. Right there - between their feverish bodies - was proof that he'd just affected her every bit as much as she'd affected him. Even if she'd never developed a deep-rooted feeling for him, he was going to make sure her need for him would never fade, we was going to procure it became as insatiable as possible in order to secure her permanence by his side.
"Say you'd stay with me. That's all I need to hear." He bit softly her lower lip as a moan vibrated through her throat.
"Was that a yes?" He asked, blowing a soft puff of warm air against her earlobe.
But Luna was unable to speak as a knot of nerves sent yet another bolt of fire through her body.
Draco was starting to get impatient by her silence. The fingertips of one hand keep tracing up and down the line of her smooth silk neck.
A voice spoke inside Draco's head. "The longer you'll stay with her, the more pathetic and vulnerable you'd become. Don't let her destroy you. Kill her instead before you became too attached. Kill her… kill… her… now… before it's too late."
The Slytherin tried to clear up his mind but not to avail; his long fingers then started encircling around Luna's throat in a threatening way, flashes of Scorpius' memory came back to haunt him:
"I'm a fool for loving you but I can't stop feeling the way I do, you'll be the death of me. You make me weak and vulnerable."
The voice spoke again. "In the instinct for self preservation the question of truth or error, right or wrong plays absolutely no part."
Draco squeezed his eyes shut. "I can't…I won't kill her."
"Is that so? Then why do I sense that much confusion in you?" The voice of his unconscious denoted a tense and annoyed scolding tone.
"If I were to harm Luna I'd risk the life of my heir. I can't afford to jeopardize the future of the Malfoy's Clan." Draco replied copying the harsh tone of his inner voice.
"What kind of future would that be exactly if you allow that half-demon to exist?" His inner voice asked mockingly.
"Will you two cut it out and show some respect to Harry?!" Ron's envious and acid comment broke through the heat of desire, pulling Draco immediately and abruptly back to reality.
Luna gulped soundly and immediately took a step back. Her cheeks denoted a vivid red shade of blush; her knees were shaky for the aftershocks of her orgasm.
Draco held out his hand to Luna and she grabbed it, snaking his other arm around her waist he pulled her closer, steadying her body against him until she regained sensibility of her legs.
"Have you no shame?!" The red haired Gryffindor accused.
Holding Luna's hand in his, Draco started playing with her slender fingers before returning the stare at Ron.
"Can't remember..." He then pursed his lips, looking pensive for a moment before shrugging apologetically. "Guess I've lost it somewhere along the way."
Ron's cheeks burned with repressed anger.
"What can I say? I've always experienced trouble when limiting the display of my faculties to others." Draco shot back, playful irony slipping through his words.
He then focused on Hermione's blushed face. "Maybe your boyfriend would finally learn something that'd end up benefiting you, who knows?" A satisfied smirk lifted his kiss-swollen lips.
Hermione made a few unintelligible sounds under her breath, her cheeks redden even more.
Dropping his eyes to the dead body on the floor, Draco shuddered and felt slightly nauseated at the thought that decay and decomposition had already begun their work in Harry's body. The Gryffindor's face was pasty white. His once vivid emerald green eyes were glassy gray. He was crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.
A rush of encountered feelings washed over Draco, Luna noticed how his pale face transfixed with a revolting frown. His hand went numb in hers and eventually let go the hold of her hand.
"He was your friend and you've let him die." The blond Slytherin almost spit his disgust the last word, shooting a dark look at the Gryffindors present.
"Potter would be alive today if he'd accepted my offer back in first year. I wouldn't have let him die if he'd been my friend." And with that thought in mind his blood literally froze. "Blaise…"
Alerted by the sound of frightened gasps that started to fill his ears, Draco looked behind his shoulder.
"This is impossible! You've died! I was in your Memorial!" Some wizards started shouting in unison, pointing their accusing fingers towards Blaise.
Blaise couldn't formulate an answer to any of that. He sighed and dropped his gaze to the floor. Clenching his hands, he stuffed them in his pants pockets to hide his trembling. It didn't help. His hands kept shaking. His nerves were getting the best of him, but he wasn't falling apart…yet.
"Dammit!" The blond cursed under his breath.
Once Blaise gathered courage to lift his watery pitch-black eyes from the floor he met Draco's unblinking mismatched gems. "Draco, whether you want to admit it or not…we both know that I'm a freak now."
But Draco's bright, reassuring smirk burned right through the jet black haired Slytherin's chest, comforting Blaise's burdened heart. "Come on! There has never been anything normal about us: we're Malfoys!"
Knitting both hands on the back of his neck, the blond ducked his head to the side and pursed his pale lips in a pensive manner. "Blaise, do you trust me?"
Wiping a shameful tear, Blaise smiled sadly. "No matter how many times you ask me that bloody same question, my answer would always be the same: I trust you a hundred per cent."
"You shouldn't have said that…" The blond shot back with a wicked sneer.
Draco then closed briefly his eyes and took a big breath. "Blaise Zabini didn't die! It was all a farce I made up!" He shouted loud and clear for everyone to listen.
Blaise froze, almost holding his breath. His heart thudded in his chest. "What the Hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Profiting from my genius and ability to improvise as I laugh at their incredulity and incompetence?" The blond sounded beyond amused.
All eyes were on Draco. He felt himself as if he were in the middle of a scenery and everybody was gathering around him to caught a better view of what was he going to do next. Truth was…he'd never got to work hard to catch the attention of people.
When Draco's eyes met Blaise's gaze again, there was a serious look in them. "Put it this way, these fuckers don't want to admit how much they need me. They all want to use me because they need a brain. They know that my greatness lies above the average measure of the general stupidity, inadequacy, cowardice, and arrogance. This is a test. If they pass then I'd be able to achieve anything: they'd become my pawns and I'd start moving the pieces as I see fit."
"But Draco, by doing that you're risking everything you've achieved so far!" The other accused, snapping completely.
"One has to sacrifice it all in order to achieve true glory." Clearing his voice, Draco spoke again. "I've faked his death!"
The jet black haired Slytherin bit his lip as soon as the engorged lie slipped out his brother's mouth and the farce started swelling with each word.
Accusations and aggravations started to fill the room, everyone talked at the same time. The buzzing sound was starting to escalate Blaise's nerves, fueling Draco's temper in the meantime.
"I've faked his death because no-one should be treated as bargaining chip! No-one deserves to be enslaved!" The annoyance didn't fade from Draco's temple; on the contrary…it now denoted a throbbing vein. "The moment I've found out that my best friend's future had been sold at the early age of five I've decided to come up with a plan to dissolve his marriage contract and set Blaise free: I've embraced him as my brother!"
A dead silence filled the room, no-one dared to speak. Mouths opened and eyes went wide.
"Through his veins runs my family's pure-blood line now, he's a member of the Malfoy's Clan!" Turning round to face the people present, he arched one eyebrow; his pearl-gray left eye started twitching. "Trouble is…this fired up a series of extortions from his fiancée's family because it jeopardized completely their interests."
Pacing the floor with bewitched magnificence, Draco started waving carelessly a hand in the air. "Taking advantage of a most unfortunate event that took place days ago at the Astronomy Tower where Blaise got seriously injured while risking his life saving the lives of the students at Hogwarts, I've decided then to fake his death with the hope this would put an end to my brother's persecution along with the horde of blackmails threatening him to fulfill the terms of a marriage contract that should have been considered void long time ago because he's longer part of the Zabini's Clan."
Draco stared at the people present for a moment, studying carefully, silently their facial expressions and how the built-up story – well, actually part of it was true - slowly sunk inside their narrow minds.
He then relaxed; everything was going just as planned. "After his Memorial, everybody was convinced that Blaise had died. But he's a Malfoy and he simply couldn't keep a low profile for long. As member of the Malfoy's Clan, he's been gifted with a forthright disposition, frank courage, bold aggressiveness, tenacious persistence and granite honorableness. Driven by those inherent qualities, Blaise offered to join forces with me and stand against the Dark Lord. Without him I wouldn't have been able to defeat my oppressor and regain my freedom."
Walking the short distance that separated him from Blaise, Draco made a halt in front of him and rested his right hand over Blaise's right shoulder.
"In front of me stands a free man: Blaise Malfoy. He's not only my brother…" He paused to smirk proudly - squeezing Blaise's shoulder with a reassuring and firm grip - before taking position right beside him and crossed his arms over his lean chest. "…but also my equal. Whatever prejudice you dare to incur to him would be a direct offence against my person."
Blaise's ego exploded and a warm feeling raced through him motivated by Draco's words. At that moment he wished he could just scream his heart out and tell the whole world he loved that man. He wanted to squeeze the blonde's skinny body in his strong muscled arms and kiss him hard and deep, claiming him. He wanted to slam Draco's back against the wall, stripped him of those tight leather pants he was wearing and swallow the blond to the root, deep-throating him, sucking him dry. At the mere thought of such pleasant fantasy Blaise's eyes rolled shut and his manhood began to ache.
"How possibly could you pull out such a farce all by yourself?" The voice of an auror denoted skepticism.
Draco found himself momentarily unnerved by that.
"I've helped the Malfoy brothers." Snape's voice prompted. Draco could perfectly tell that there was a malicious complicit smirk beneath those words. "After attending Blaise Malfoy's wounds I've made him drink the Draught of Living Death potion which induced him into a deep sleep, slowing completely his vital signs, decreasing as well his body temperature and heart-rate. The moment his mother came to prepare the body for the Memorial, his pulse was already imperceptible."
No wonder where Draco's cunning and manipulative skills had been perfected with. It'd been no other but his Head of House the one who trained the young Slytherin in the subtle art of deception.
The moment their eyes met briefly Snape could feel Draco's unquestionable admiration and respect plastered all over his student's face and when Draco read those pitch-black eyes he couldn't help but feel the unquestionable support of the only man the blond recognized as father figure.
"Why would you do that? For what purpose would you want to built-up such scandalous façade? What did you expect to gain from all this?" Some scolding voices started shouting coming from where the line of aurors was stationed.
"I did it because I'm selfish." The blond replied bluntly.
Without paying attention at the building tension that secluded the room Draco almost looked refreshed…as much as those permanent dark shadows under his eyes and clammingly pale complexion allowed.
"It was a matter of righting wrongs. Blaise was born in the wrong family. He'd always been a Malfoy in soul and spirit…now it runs in his blood too." Draco finished without even breaking a sweat.
"Have mercy, will you?! How can I possibly keep my hands to myself after everything you've just thrown at me?!" Blaise accused yet kept his thoughts for himself and sighed soundly, trying not to get caught watching Draco lusty.
By then Blaise's fantasy expanded its horizon completely. He imagined himself pushing inside the warmth of Draco's velvety smooth tightness, each time thrusting harder and deeper until he achieved a fast strong rhythm and both their bodies started snapping together, their climaxes rocketing through them. Blaise's eyes fluttered and the most exquisite grimace of pleasure formed on his face.
"Come on brain, don't do this to me, not now, not here… think about something else." Blaise bit his lower lip nervously as those erotic images kept replaying inside him over and over again, feeling like his mind and his world were spinning out of control.
"My mother and her girlfriends… in their underwear…or even worse….completely naked…" He started muttering under his breath, desperately trying to think in the most nauseating image possible. "Fuck! Now I want to throw up!" Blaise complained bringing a hand over his mouth.
It was in Draco's nature to be haunted, wanted, criticized, despised, feared, idolized, admired, loved…he was able to inspire all those feelings and more…but one thing was certain: Draco Malfoy was a hero. He'd defeated the most terrible and powerful wizard of the Wizardry World: Lord Voldemort. No matter what he did, from now on, in the eyes of every witch and wizard the blond Slytherin was someone to be respected and at the same time someone untouchable.
As the people present continued debating – taking in the whole deceit from beginning to end without question - the blond Slytherin meditated with his unconscious. "True power does not come from within oneself but from the unconditional, free and unquestionable offering from the rest. Fear does not strength power, it smothers it. You must flirt with control, it must be subtle and not harsh…you've got to seduce the mob with what you've got in order to get what you want from them."
The blond Slytherin smirked to himself. "Promise everything without surrendering a thing in the process."
Crossing his arms over his muscled chest, Blaise teased."Just like a frigid and uptight bitch would do?"
"Bitches sell themselves cheap. I'm not a bitch." There was a mocking expression around Draco's mouth when he added. "I'm not affordable."
"Let me be the judge of that." The other said, grinning darkly.
Draco made a tired snort-like sound, by then his left pearl-gray eye had darkened completely.
Parvati stared at Blaise without blinking. "I've always suspected something was going on between you two, as if an invisible string bound you together."
A sinking feeling in Blaise's stomach suggested that girl might have had a solid foundation to back up her words.
"What makes you say that?" He inquired. Although he was listening to her, his dark eyes were never off Draco for too long.
"I'm an intuitive person." She smiled shyly, following his pitch-black eyes. "I've noticed the way you two moved, always in synchronicity despite your being psychically opposites. This became more accented today, when you two fought side by side against Voldemort and his Dark Army. I've also paid attention in the way you look at each other, as if you could read each other's minds fluently. If I hadn't witnessed what happened earlier with Malfoy and Luna, I'd say you and him were together."
"Actions speak for themselves: Draco kissed her and not me." Blaise pushed away the venom of his envy as he continued to check on his brother while the blond retrieved the ruby gemstone radish shaped earring to Luna.
Parvati studied the couple for a moment before turning to look at Blaise. "You're in love with him."
Blaise refused to answer, yet his body language betrayed him when his shoulders slumped.
The tone in her voice softened, as if confessing a secret. "If it's of any consolation, those two are not meant to be. I don't believe they'd last too much longer together."
The jet black haired Slytherin spun his head violently to face her; there was an undefined expression in his dark eyes.
"Get ready to pick up the pieces when the time comes, he'd need someone strong to lean on." Parvati bit her lip and gave Blaise a worried look. "I hope by then you'd finally understood the meaning of trust."
Blaise looked at her steadily, showing no reaction to her words yet he was deep in thought, considering carefully what she'd said.
It was as if Parvati could read the question in his face, she said. "I can perfectly tell that you're a man used to profit from every situation."
Without saying a word Blaise started walking away from the Gryffindor girl. A wicked smile crossed his face the moment he rested his pitch-black eyes on Luna. "Your loss, my gain."
Placing both hands over her hips, Padma stood in front of her sister with a scolding frown. "I thought you've said you weren't going to do that anymore."
"I don't know what you mean." Parvati shrugged innocently.
"Just because your boyfriend recently broke up with you doesn't confer you the right to speak ill of other couples! Why are you so determined to ruin other people's relationships, to make you feel better with yourself?" Padma accused, twisting with two fingers her sister's earlobe.
"Yes, I mean no! Ouch! That hurts!" Parvati complained.
On the other side of the room Draco was caressing tenderly Luna's earlobe. "This belongs to you."
Luna passed her fingertips around the radish shaped earring and smiled candidly at her husband. "Oh my! I thought I'd lost it!"
"I've found it." Pulling her close, he brushed his lips against her mouth. "And I've found you too. No matter what happens, I'd always find you."
She glared at him, her hands clutching nervously behind her back. "Draco, a lot of things happened since the last time we'd talk. We both need to…"
"Hey Malfoy! If you were so determined to stop the engagement of Zabini with his fiancée why didn't you just marry him instead?" Seemed that Ron had overheard part of the conversation with Blaise and Parvati or just couldn't help himself to ask out loud with acid irony.
Peaking from behind Ron, Seamus inquired with a mischievous grin. "Which one would be the bride?"
Dean grabbed Seamus by the forearm and rushed into his friend's ear. "Think mate, Zabini was the one who'd taken Malfoy's last name."
"Ohhhh!" Seamus' eyes opened wide as the realization stuck his brain.
Turning to look at Blaise, Ron checked the immaculate clothes of the black jet haired Slytherin from head to toe and shot back. "Well Seamus, if you ask me I'd say that white does suit him."
"He'd look even better with nothing at all." Parvati and Padma whispered in unison and then looked at each other sharing an accomplice wink.
Blaise wormed one hand under his shirt and rubbed on purpose his well defined six-pack, exposing precious inches of his sculpted narrow waist in the process. "Is it jealousy or flattery what I smell in your comment, Weasley?" He inquired, smiling without humor.
A fainting sound and a funny giggle came from where Parvati and Padma were standing.
In spite of Blaise's intimidating closeness Ron took courage from the support of Seamus and Dean and confronted the jet black haired Slytherin bravely. "If Malfoy had married you it'd have spared you both from a lot of trouble, you know?"
Draco smirked tiredly at Ron's bad excuse of a joke and threw the punch right back at the Gryffindor. "It would have been easier that way. You're quite right about that, Weasley. After all, who says you can't marry your best mate?"
By then Blaise didn't trust his voice to work and lifted unconsciously one hand to his heart.
"If you admit that you wanted to marry Zabini you're saying that you're one of those guys, Malfoy?" Ron inquired venomously as Dean and Seamus mouthed silently the word queer.
Without taking his mismatched eyes off Blaise, Draco shrugged and sighed in a most studied theatrical way. "Oh, I am guilty of charge."
That pronouncement raised a sudden outburst of laughter around him.
"You've said it yourself Weasley, not me." Turning to face the Gryffindors, the blond Slytherin finished the sentence with a lethal ice-cold sneer. "I'm an arrogant elitist bastard: I deserve nothing but the best."
The incredulous paper-white faces of the three Gryffindors were priceless.
Blaise felt his heartbeats drumming so fast inside his chest that he thought he was going to die from the shock after the bomb Draco threw on him. "Did he say what I've just heard he said?!"
"If I didn't marry Blaise was because I was already committed to someone else." Draco then cupped Luna's hand in his and shoved in front of Ron's incredulous face their wedding rings.
"WHAT?!" Ron had to retrieve his jaw from the floor before being able to speak another word.
Ron's high-pitch cry muted the shattering sound of Blaise's broken heart.
"May I ask why you two have married?" Hermione demanded to know, her voice denoted both surprise and shock.
"You can ask." The blond Slytherin replied evasively, arching one annoyed eyebrow.
Curling a lock of hair behind Luna's ear Draco then repaired on the - still present, but definitely healing - marks of the iron collar she had to use when she'd been held captive by Pettigrew.
"Who did this to you?" Both asked in unison once Luna's amethyst-blue eyes rested on the faint traces of hickeys all around Draco's neck.
Unlike what Blaise had expected, the blood-thirsty love bites he'd imprinted on Draco's skin didn't last for long, they were hardly visible by then…but still present.
"Who was she this time?!" She gasped and Draco frowned slightly at her.
The blond Slytherin was startled by the intense stare he received from Luna, as if he'd been caught completely off guard. Truth was, in the pitiful condition he'd been submerged when Blaise assaulted him the blond barely realized that his brother had left marks on his skin.
Her eyes filled with tears again. "Answer me!"
Shamefully, Draco looked down and started to shift and straighten both his shirt and duster in a fair attempt to stop her from drilling her eyes deeper into his skull.
In spite of himself, Blaise stepped into the scene and placed his hand over Draco's shoulder, squeezing it. "If you don't tell her, I will."
Draco got caught in a swirl of emotions: terror, shame and fury were the predominant ones.
"Spit it out Blaise, now!" Luna's anger boiled towards a breaking point.
Sighing soundly, the jet black haired Slytherin looked at his brother without blinking. "I won't let you take the blame this time, I'm the culprit."
"We both are, you've said it yourself, remember? I've brought it on myself!" And with that, Draco shoved furiously Blaise's hand from his shoulder.
The hot, shameful puncture of guilt cursed all through Blaise's body. "Don't get mad at me. You want me to lie to Luna, is that it? Because I can do that, just say the word. What do you want me to do?"
Draco munched some words under his breath and grabbed a fistful of his silk blond blocks, he looked beyond pissed. "Drop the act Blaise, playing the condescend guy never suited you. You've always done whatever the heck you wanted. I was right when I've said you've born in the wrong family: you're a true Malfoy."
"Seems that you know everything when it comes to Draco, don't you Blaise?" Luna's disgust and scorn dripped like venom in her words.
Shooting a disgustingly harsh stare at Luna, Blaise narrowed their distance until both were face to face.
"Of course I do. I know him for over twelve years now. I've been there for him all along. I understand him in a way you never will." A rush of vengeance and anger swept through Blaise when he spoke his next words. "I hope what happened would finally teach you, love, about the consequences of neglecting your duties as his wife. You'd better take care of the man you are supposed to cherish dearly because if you don't I know of someone who is more than willing to take your place and give Draco everything he deserves…and more!"
"ENOUGH YOU TWO!" Draco roared snapping out irately and placed himself in the middle of Blaise and Luna, facing her. "I'm guilty, yes! I'm guilty for not telling you before and for keeping it in secret but I never cheated on you!"
"My 'ero!" A musical female voice called out from behind Draco.
The second the blond Slytherin turned his head over his shoulder, he saw Gabrielle Delacour – Fleur's little sister – waving both arms at him.
"You've saved my sister's life!" She sobbed, crying happy tears. "I wanted to zank you in person!"
Taking a step back, Draco held a hand in the air, stopping the girl from getting closer. "I'd rather pass."
Nodding shyly, she fixed her watery eyes on the floor. "Fleur told me w'at 'appened between you two. My sister 'ad always been a little too enzusiastic, I'm sorry."
"Enthusiastic?!" Luna arched an eyebrow, a scowl flickered across it. "What happened between you and Fleur after you saved her life?!" She asked, fixing her blood-shot eyes at her husband.
Shrugging innocently, the blond Slytherin confessed. "She jumped right at me and kissed me. I've lost balance and we both fell onto the floor…she on top." He found himself adding those three words in his defense.
Blaise opened wide his eyes, unable to process the unexpected turn of events.
"She practically owned your neck and you let her do it?!" A lightning shot through Luna's body, tracing through every nerve ending to pool at the base of her spine.
After shooting a murderous look at Blaise, Draco replied harshly. "Some people don't like to take no for an answer."
Luna's brain shut down and her fist flew. Blood exploded from Draco's nose and lip.
Draco hunched over, cupping both hands over his injured face. His head ached and his swollen lip throbbed. The blood dripping from both his nose and lip tasted sharp in his mouth.
He then started laughing hysterically and seemed that he was unable to stop. "You love me, you really love me, don't you princess?!"
"You selfish bastard! How could you!?" Luna's heart skipped a beat; a lump filler her throat. "What kind of example do you plan on giving to the baby?!"
But his bursts of laughter were interrupted by intermittent silences until Draco suddenly lost all humor and his laugh turned into razor sharp anger.
"Does anyone else have any other earth-shattering secret that would like to share?" Seamus' amused voice broke in the middle of the domestic violence scene.
Hermione nodded. "I'm pregnant too…with Ron's child!" She confessed out loud, her cheeks went purple red with excitement.
Seamus and Dean spun their heads towards the red haired Gryffindor. "BUSTED!"
Ron's face went clammingly pale; he literally wanted to dig a hole in the floor and sunk his head in it.
Without being able to hold back the tears, Luna and Hermione came together in a tight hug. "Our children are going to be best friends!" Both girls cried in unison.
"Bloody Hell…" Draco grunted; his mismatched eyes rolled back in his head.
The blond Slytherin then lost control of his weakened body. His knees simply couldn't hold his frame and they gave out on him. Unable to sustain his feather-weight sack of skin and bones any longer, he slumped onto the floor.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
SEVEN MONTHS LATER…
Draco was bordering on devastation; his skinny body seemed to be in a lot of pain. He was shaking uncontrollably. His arms were wrapping numbly Luna's unconscious body. Crimson drops kept falling as the blond continued to drag forward his tired, shaky legs, creating a gory trail that contrasted with the immaculate white ceramic floor of St. Mungo's Hospital hall.
"Help…" He tried to call out with a vulnerable, barely audible voice, forcing everyone to listen, but his throat constricted, making his speech difficult.
A nurse - who'd just stepped outside a storage room with a cart full of medicinal potions and antiseptic unguents - halted in her tracks at the sight of Draco and Luna. Leaving the cart behind, she rushed towards their direction.
"Sir, what happened?" She demanded to know, her almond eyes traveled the Slytherin's clammingly sick pale complexion. His face was bruised and his right eye was all swollen, practically a massive blood clot.
"My wife…she's nine months pregnant… the contractions …" But Draco couldn't say anything more, it was as if his lungs couldn't fill properly with air and he started chocking.
After resting Luna over an empty stretcher, Draco slumped against a column for support. "Help...her…and my son…"
The nurse nodded and called for assistance. Immediately after that three mediziwards apparated scarce inches from where Luna was resting.
Removing the blood stained oversized wool pullover Luna was wearing, the mediwizards found out that underneath - she was wearing a pearl-white silk nightdress – her clothes also denoted several blood stains but her body presented no open wounds or bruises either. The blood wasn't hers but from her husband. Underneath his black trenchcoat Draco's white shirt and black pants were soaked in a crimson veil.
Turning to face Draco, one of them said. "Sir, you're in shock. You've lost a lot of blood. I need you to rest over this other stretcher. We've got to suture your wounds or you'd bleed to death."
Draco refused, shaking his head, barely clinging onto consciousness.
As his two colleagues pulled the stretcher, carrying Luna to one of the surgery rooms, the mediwizard asked to the Slytherin. "You look like you've been attacked by a beast. Do you have a recollection of what happened or who did this to you?"
Draco started mumbling indecipherable phrases, by then he was feeling way too light-headed.
"That bitch did this to my brother!" An angry shout came from the other side of the hall, it was Blaise.
The blonde's pearl-gray left eye opened wide at the sight of the jet black haired Slytherin. He wanted to run but the terror he felt was a paralyzing one: his whole body froze in shock. His wand slipped from his loose grip onto the floor, he was perspiring profusely, his mouth felt dry.
"DON'T LET HIM COME NEAR ME!" Draco's faltering voice came in a ragged, desperate shout.
With an effortless flick of his wand, Blaise got rid of a small group of St Mungo's security guards casting a stunning spell that incapacitated those wizards onto the floor.
Grabbing Draco by the collar of his black trenchcoat he slammed roughly - yet not too hard - the blond against a door that opened immediately for it was unlocked. Stepping inside the deserted room, Blaise kicked the door shut behind him and pressed Draco against a wall.
"This shit's gone way too far!" Blaise accused, a deep frown sunk in his sweaty forehead.
Draco's pale cheeks were wet with tears of rage and shame. "Get your hands off me!"
The blond struggled fiercely the first couple of minutes until his tired arms ended up falling numbly at the sides of his body.
Carefully, Blaise combed back the fringe from Draco's bruised face, running smoothly his long fingers through the silk blond damp blocks before resting his hand on the back of Draco's neck caressing it softly.
"For fuck sakes! What has she done to your eye?!" He demanded to know, fixing his gaze on Draco's swollen and bloody face.
The blond Slytherin refused to reply and started growling, kicking and screaming. With a strength fed on adrenaline, Draco jerked away from Blaise but bumped his head against the wall and he felt his head split in two with a blind pain that seized his whole skull.
"Shhhh. Hold still." Blaise ordered. His voice was tense but it bubbled with uneasiness.
As his fingers flipped the buttons on Draco's shirt, worming their way under the fabric the blond tried not to look too close at Blaise because those pitch-black eyes already stripped him mentally with such intense stare.
His brother's touch made Draco's skin crawl with a sickening feeling.
"I don't want anyone to touch me ever again!" Draco yelped hysterically.
A shiver vibrated through Blaise's fingertips as he traced Draco's burns and bleeding wounds. He also noticed that the stones from the Swastika charm that hanged from his neck were all shattered.
"Let me go...don't come any closer..." Draco looked like he was about to pass out as he continued struggling with his diminishing force to set himself free from the trap of Blaise's arms.
Blaise then lifted Draco's chin with his other hand forcing his brother to meet his gaze. "Mark my words: that bitch is dead."
"If you happen to touch a single hair of hers, you're history!" Draco spitted blood as he spoke.
Steadying Draco's head with both hands, Blaise's warm breath hit the blonde's face when he hissed angrily. "I'm not afraid of you, brother. Get ready to dig two graves then because by the time you finally got to me, I'd have smoked her to ashes. I won't let you continue with this self-destructive path you've chosen in order to protect that nutcase! I've sent an owl to Snape. He'd be here any minute now to make you see reason as well!"
Draco squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment and took a sound breath to fill his exhausted lungs with much needed oxygen. "All I ever wanted was for Scorpius to make it to the ninth month and have no recollection of his true origins and what he'd done when he was in Luna's womb. I wanted him to count with a fresh start… from scratch! But as my son's share of humanity increased, Luna's magic essence became more and more unstable…unleashing the enhanced abilities in her blood…the ones I've transferred to her through the Inferae's pact."
Blaise stood there, unable at first to digest Draco's words right ahead but then, as everything slowly sunk inside, he grew even more restless. "I've got this huge blank in my head from the nasty blow that bitch gave me in the head. I've been looking out for you everywhere, but I guessed in the condition you were in you'd end up here."
A strong emotion sunk inside Blaise's heart - a cross between sadness and anger traced his face - as his pitch-black eyes kept traveling Draco's stigmatized flesh.
Reluctant, the blond somewhat nodded. "Actually, I came here because her contractions have started."
But Blaise's gentle, worried touch was turning possessive, needy. "Why does my body feels like this when I touch Draco? It's like there's this energy flow coursing through me directly into him. The more I touch him, the more intense the stream seems to go to him as if he were a vessel for my magic essence. My temperature must have gone incredible high for I feel my blood literally burning and my heart is beating so fast that it's scary but I don't want to stop."
Emotion gripped Blaise's chest, he found himself out of breath. The feel of Draco's body under his fingertips was almost too much to bear. Need and desire then robbed him of the ability to continue thinking further.
"Quit touching me! Dammit!" The blond chocked with a distorted, pissed-off breathing.
By the time Blaise awoken from his trance and ducked his head to see what one of his hands was doing, he'd already got one finger hooked in the blonde's waistband and the others pressed against Draco's warm skin, snaking their way downwards.
Draco snapped out irately, he never looked so out of himself, it was scary. What started as chocked cough-like sounds to bring air to his tired lungs developed into a distorted and hysterical breathing.
"YOU FUCKER! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME OR I SWEAR THIS TIME I'D KILL YOU!" The blond strangled a desperate scream.
But the moment Blaise's other hand let go of the pressure point on Draco's neck, the blond smirked a drugged grimace at him. Grabbing hard, Blaise pulled Draco against his body and rested the blonde's chin on the crook of his neck.
"The room is spinning…way too fast…make it stop…now." Draco ordered in his dizzy state.
"Draco, I don't know what's going on but my magic seems to be going directly towards you. Take it. Take whatever is that you want from me." Heat fired through Blaise's lower stomach.
"Why is so cold in here?" The blond swallowed painfully, he'd lost a great amount of blood.
"I'll take care of you. Just let me hold you, I want to feel you close to me, very close." Embracing Draco tighter, Blaise pressed his body against the blond in all the right places.
The immediate increase in contact made the vulnerable position worthwhile: with such closeness between them, the inner flow inside Blaise wrapped Draco with the warmth of its magic essence, slowly healing and soothing the blonde's battered body.
When Draco tried to speak again, he felt a rising pressure of bile crawling up his throat. "Blaise, wait. It's too much. You're making me feel nauseous."
"I can't find a way to stop it: you're drawing my magic like a magnet." His arms were gripping the blond with unyielding strength, refusing to let go.
Draco felt his eyelids getting heavier as the burning sickness of his stomach kicked inside with more force. "Back off or…I'll throw up…all over you."
"Do it." Blaise encouraged panting heavily. "Just give me an excuse to take our clothes off."
Draco yelped and tried to set himself free but couldn't move an inch, trapped in the imprisonment of those strong arms seizing him like chains.
"Shit, I'm getting way too sensitive. I want you. I want you now. Relax. I won't hurt you, I swear." Blaise whispered his perverse need for acceptance while nibbling Draco's earlobe.
Draco's voice as well as his conscience was coming-and-going. "No. Blaise, don't do this. I'm getting really sick. Get off me."
"Draco, you feel so damn good. I can't wait any longer. Here and now I've got to make you mine." Pressing his hips against Draco's crotch Blaise stripped the blond off his trenchcoat and let it fall on the floor.
"Stop! Don't touch me!" The blond trembled with raw fear and shame.
Blaise tried to stop himself but he couldn't. Like an addict, he was helpless to his need for Draco and the fixed idea of having the blonde's naked body pressed against his was turning him even harder. His vocal chords were locked by the intense sensations going on deep inside him as he lowered the zipper of Draco's pants.
In a moment of sheer hysteria Draco cried out with the scarce amount of energy left in him. "DON'T FAIL THE TEST THIS TIME! I TRUST IN YOU!"
Unable to contain his fervor a second longer Blaise kissed Draco with bruising force, whole-mouthed, sucking the blonde's tongue between his lips, licking and teasing it like he planned to do later with Draco's manhood.
After throwing into the air his suits' jacket and shirt the jet black haired Slytherin kicked his own pants out of the way, strangled sobs got caught in Draco's throat when Blaise stripped them both of their briefs.
"Brother, look at me…look into my eyes…" Draco gasped, desperately struggling for air as he tried to break the kiss in his disoriented state.
Blaise did as requested and locked his pitch-black eyes on the blond but that didn't stop him from continuing to stroke firmly along Draco's length.
A ragged, broken hiss came out from Draco's torn throat. "Can't you see…that I've got…nothing left…to give?!"
"I disagree." Blaise said bluntly as a burning lust ignited.
Draco held still - frozen with paralyzing terror - as Blaise's fingers continued to touch him, his muscles tensed completely holding his breath, fighting to ignore the shameful pleasure rising inside him. But in spite his efforts to shut his body out; Blaise's masterful, knowing touch was slowly awakening Draco's body.
"Don't take my name away from me! I can't lose that too!" A stream of tears started to fall down the blonde's cheeks feeling Blaise's hot naked hardness bouncing against his bare skin.
Out of the corner of his eye - as he continued to explore and taste every inch of the blonde's reluctant mouth - Blaise noticed Draco's body starting to shiver with unconscious spasms, he wasn't going to stop stroking him until the blond started licking.
"Yes, that's it. Feel it, it's in here. The craving, the need, the hunger… they're all inside you eager to come out. Surrender to your passions and I'd give you everything you want without restrictions." Blaise whispered after breaking the breath-taking kiss with a wickedly lustful grin on his swollen lips.
Draco shook his head with a negative harsh motion but his resistance diminished against Blaise's firm determination. His weakened body fell backwards and Blaise's body went with him, both Slytherins landed over a bed.
Excitement colored Blaise's voice this time while sucking a finger coated with Draco's early juices. "Now get ready to experience the most inhibited sexual experience of your life!"
Unable to keep his eyes open a second longer Draco closed them shut and he passed out, wishing he'd never wake up.
"Come on, we haven't even started. The handjob was meant to warm you up not beat you down. There are still a lot of things I'd like to do to you. The night is young and so are we…let's milk it for what it's worth." Blaise hissed into the blonde's ear with a teasing chuckle.
But when he noticed that Draco was not only losing his hardness but his body temperature was diminishing drastically and his wounds refused to heal and his cuts started to bleed again Blaise panicked. "Draco?! Can you hear me?!"
While pressing two fingers on the side of the blonde's neck, feeling Draco's low but present pulse, Blaise immediately caught his breath but the feeling of the blonde's skin against his fingertips made Blaise's heart missed two beats.
After caressing up and down the soft curve of Draco's neck, refusing to believe what his heightened sense of touch was silently telling him, Blaise lifted his hand in the air. "No. This can't be happening, not to Draco."
Curling his hand into a tight fist, he tilted his head up. "You fucking bitch, how could you do this to him?!" Without being able to contain his turmoiled feelings a second longer Blaise screamed with raw anger and murder intent. "YOU'VE TAKEN AWAY HIS MAGIC?!"
His pitch-black eyes stared at his shaking fist without blinking. "So that's why Draco was attracting my magic's inner flow like that, he needed it in order to heal but now that he passed out the flow stopped going to him..."
Blaise then turned to look at Draco's ghostly pale face and swallowed hard, guilt already pounding violently at his conscience. "Forgive me brother for what I'm about to do."
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A/N:
GET READY FOR THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL TWIST OF THIS STORY!!!
There are still 4 Chapters + (most probably) an Epilogue. There's still a lot… A LOT to come!! ANYTHING and most certainly EVERYTHING will happen!!!
A big THANK YOU to those who reviewed the previous chapter and send their comments!!
Haven't made up my mind yet, but the final chapter would have quite a mix of a lot of things with the intention to try to please everybody but also keep things real and be true to the plot.
Reviews, comments, PMs, critics, flames & else are always welcomed because any feedback is better than no feedback at all.