Although her vision stayed blurry for nearly a minute, she never fully lost consciousness. She continued to bat her eyelids until her vision cleared. People were still running around her frantically, but there were far less than there had been only a minute ago. Warm blood was seeping from her forehead, down the side of her face, and onto her shirt. She reached her hand up to try and find where the blood was coming from. She felt a deep indent in the side of her head. Must have been where the rock hit her. Fucking rocks. And why couldn't she just come to her senses? Get a grip Valencia she told herself. She stood up and looked around.
"Martin! What the bloody hell are you doing? You need to get out of here, now" someone said as they approached her. White-blonde hair. Draco.
"W-what are you doing?" she asked. "Why aren't you already out of here?"
"I was- I'm getting out of here right now" he said. "Martin! Hello! Will you stop just standing there? You need to get out of here and- what the fuck happened to your face?"
"Fancy lil' accessory. Like it?" she drawled. Blood was still pouring out of her head and her vision had been going in and out of focus ever since she had stood up.
"No," he said bluntly. "Come one, we're going- let's go" he said. His cold hand clasped around hers and he began to tug her towards the wooded area in front of them.
"Wait!" she said suddenly, causing him to stop. "My wand. I- I think I dropped it when I was pushed down." She tugged on his hand and pulled them back in the direction they had just come from. This was going to be fun. Finding a black stick, in the middle of a brown field, in the night, with blurry vision. So much fun.
"Are you fucking blind? Hurry up and grab it Martin" Malfoy said.
"I can't see you fat git" she retorted.
He huffed beside her before bending down to pick up the wand that she had been unable to see only seconds ago. "Here. Now can we get the fuck out of here?" he said with a stiffness in his voice.
"Mhmm."
He had let go of her hand when she had gone to search for her wand, but he grabbed it once more and began to pull her away from the group of people in masks that had still been approaching them.
"Can we slow down, please?" she said. They had been running for nearly a minute and the only reason she hadn't fallen down was because his grip on her hand had kept her steady.
"Right. I mean I guess so. What happened to your head anyways.? It looks awful" Malfoy said. He slowed their pace to a fast walk.
"Smashed my head into a rock. Not really my intention but I guess it adds to my appearance" she said.
"You're losing a lot of blood Martin. We just- we need to get to the forest. And stop talking. You're annoying" he said.
"Thank you. I try my best to be annoying around you. Fat fucking prick. You make fun of me for shivering my arse off-"
"That was your fault-"
"And now you're- well… I don't know. Shut up."
"You're fucking out of it."
"Am not. I am perfectly fine."
"Sure."
She rolled her eyes to the back of her head. They continued their fast paced walk until they reached the forest, but they didn't stop there. She stumbled a few times over various rocks and sticks that she was unable to see. And that's when she remembered. She wasn't wearing shoes. She hadn't noticed the pain before, mostly because the pain in her head was far worse, but her feet were most definitely scratched and bruised.
"How much farther are we going? My feet hurt" she complained.
"Oh, suck it up. We haven't been walking that long. Besides, it's not like you don't-" he stopped his sentence short. "Oh."
"It's not like I don't what?" she said.
"Have shoes on. But looks like your daft arse forgot to put any on" Malfoy said.
"I was in a bit of a rush," she said. She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly at him.
"Don't look at me like that," he said snappily.
"What? Look at you like what?"
"Nevermind. Just don't look at me" he said. They continued through the woods and only stopped when they were nearly a mile deep. Her vision had been getting worse and worse as they went and although the blood coming from her head had slowed, it continued to trickle down the side of her face. Her feet were burning, her head was pounding, and it was still all her fault.
"Can we- just sit. I'm so… tired-" she practically collapsed to the ground beneath her. "Can you make a blanket? Ow! I fucking hate rocks. Why can't we just- why are you staring at me? I thought you just said not to look at you and now you're looking at me."
He blinked a few times before tearing his gaze away from hers. She hadn't even noticed that they were still essentially holding hands until he ripped his hand out from her grip. He began to violently brush it up against his pants as if trying to get something off of it. Get her off of it.
She rolled her eyes at him before allowing her hand to come falling down to her side before she picked it back up to feel her forehead. Although she couldn't see it, there was warm sticky blood covering her hand as she pulled it away from her face. The bleeding had stopped completely now, but there was still blood covering the entire right side of her face.
Sleep felt so good right then. She had been up all day- minus the thirty minutes of sleep she had gotten before Mr. Weasley woke her up. Exhausted wasn't able to describe how she was feeling. She laid the upper half of her body back until it rested on the cold ground beneath her. She closed her eyes and was peacefully laying there before-
"OW! What the bloody hell was that for!" she yelled at Draco. He had slapped her across the face.
"Stay awake" was all he said.
"No, I'm going to fucking sleep. Don't slap me again or I will hex you. And I mean it" she said in a warning tone.
"Fine, but don't get mad at me when you wake up here alone, freezing to death" he snarled.
"Conjure me a fucking blanket and I won't be cold" she said. She closed her eyes once more, not wanting to continue the conversation. She adjusted her position so that she was on her side, curled into a ball.
Draco huffed before sitting down on the ground, but he made sure to keep his distance from her.
"You know, this is all my fault really" she mumbled. Her body began to shiver again, but her face and the rest of her body felt warmer than ever. Nice. Sweating and shivering at the same time. How fucking convienent.
"What do you mean by that?" Draco asked. He was leaning up against a tree a few feet away from where she lay and was fiddling with the ring on his finger. "You didn't have anything to do with what happened tonight."
"I knew this was going to happen. I had a dream about it last night. Well, not really about this. I'm not really sure what it meant actually. Some freaky looking skeleton man was talking to someone in a mansion. He mentioned how he would act after the World Cup? I'm fucking stupid, honestly. Then there was this snake that was speaking to the creepy looking one… and I was able to understand it. Oh and then the skeleton baby man murdered a muggle. I thought it had just been a dream, but it was honestly too complex for my mind to come up with. My head hurts. I think I'll sleep now" she said.
She rolled over to her other side, but stayed scrunched up in a tight ball. Her back had been facing him before, but now she was able to slightly make out his figure in front of her.
"Hey," she said. Hey? What…
"Hey?" he said, but it was more or a question. "What do you want?"
"C- can you make me a blanket?"
"Make your own fucking blanket mudblood."
Her body was violently shaking now. She was cold, but she was also sweating. Why couldn't she have fallen into a pile of soft grass. Instead it had to be a sharp rock.
"F-fine. W-whatever" she stammered. But she didn't make herself a blanket. She doubted she could. Instead, she closed her eyes and urged her body to sleep. It listened. She laid there for less than a minute before her breathing pattern slowed and evened.
Her dreams weren't pleasant. Instead, she saw the mansion again- heard the entire conversation she had heard the night before. It was all there, the same. The snake, the hissing voice, the bony figure in the armchair, Wormtail, and the green light. It blinded her vision, but she didn't wake up.
The scene changed slightly. She was still in the same spot, peering into the same room, but the fire in front of the armchair was burning with less intensity than it had been in the other dream. Wormtail was whispering something to the person in the chair that had been turned back around to face the fire, but he wasn't the only one crouched near the chair. There was another man. He was taller than Wormtail and had a full head of short, brown hair. His pointed features and scrunched up brow were visible to her from where she stood.
"It has been done, My Lord" Wormtail said. She had a bad feeling she knew what he meant.
"And what about the situation at Hogwarts?" the cold voice hissed. "Has it been set in place?"
"Yes, My Lord," the unfamiliar man said. "It is set. I will be able to get close to the boy, bring him to you when the time is right."
"Good, good" the voice in the armchair said. The room was silent for a moment, giving her time to look around. She noticed the large snake, Nagini, curled up on the rug in front of the fireplace, almost daring anyone to try something.
The voices started speaking again.
"M-my Lord," Wormtail started, "when will the time be right to get the boy, to bring him to you?"
"That, Wormtail, is something we will have to wait to find out. Harry Potter won't be leaving Hogwarts, we have time" the cold voice said.
Wormtail hunched over into a sort of bow gesture before stepping lightly back from where the voice sounded. The other main remained standing beside the chair. He definitely had less fear and cowardice in him than Wormtail, but Val could still make out a sense of unwavering undecidedness in his eyes about the entire situation.
Any more dialogue that occurred, she couldn't understand. How was she seeing this if the muggle man wasn't there? She wasn't seeing through anyone else's eyes, only hers. She stood there watching as the figures continued to move and converse in an inaudible conversation.
She was able to make out a few words like "tournament", "portkey", and "headmaster" as she stood there rather awkwardly. It was nearly a minute before she was able to understand their words once more.
"And the girl? She is at the school as well?" the cold voice said.
"Y-yes, My Lord. I- I am almost positive that she is in the same year as Harry Potter" Wormtail said. What girl? And why was there so much talk about Harry?
"Has she still been able to see into your mind, My Lord?" the second man asked.
"It is more complicated than that. I do not know how and why she is able to, but yes" the voice said.
"A-and how do we know who she is?" Wormtail asked.
"We don't" the cold voice hissed. "Clearly we do not, which is why Crouch will be keeping an eye out for her, as well as the Potter boy. I know nothing of the girl, but it's important you find her. I do not like having this connection with her without knowing anything about her."
"Yes, of course, My Lord" the tall man said. "I will find the girl for you."
What…? Were this girl and Harry in danger? This didn't give her much to go off of. She stood there almost frozen to the spot, trying to understand. There was still doubt in her mind about whether or not this was only a dream, or reality. The last time she saw something like this, it hadn't been a dream.
Her mind suddenly snapped back to reality. Her breathing was heavy and her forehead was warm with sweat. But she wasn't on the ground anymore. When her vision came into focus, it was almost as if she were bobbing up and down. She was being carried.
It was still night- still dark as ever. She saw then that she was being carried through the field of the charred and destroyed tents. The fires had stopped, the screaming and shouting people were nowhere to be seen, and instead everything was replaced with an eerie silence.
Mint. Musk. She breathed in through her nose to smell those two scents. That could only mean…
She tilted her head up to look at the person carrying her.
"You know, you're hard to carry when you won't stop squirming and muttering nonsense Martin" Draco Malfoy said. Why on earth was he cradling her like a fucking bride.
"What happened?" she asked.
"They left. Now can I put you down or are you going to collapse or some shit" he spat.
"Get off of me" she sneered. She pushed herself away from him and landed on the ground with a thud.
"Where's my wand?" she asked as she stood up. She had a somewhat intense headache, but the throbbing had stopped, as had the bleeding.
"Here." He jabbed the long black stick into her chest.
"Where is everyone? A-and why the fuck are you still here? It seemed more likely that you would have left me in the woods" she said.
"Believe me, I wanted to" he groaned in annoyance. "But Granger would have had my head if she found out I left you there."
"I would have had your head."
"Whatever. Don't think I did it for any other reason" Malfoy said.
"Oh I know you wouldn't" she said as she rolled her eyes.
It was still cold, but she had stopped shivering. She became blatantly aware of her blood covered shirt and her grey sweatpants which were most likely covered in a mix of dirt and blood. Nasty.
Malfoy began to walk ahead of where she stood, and so she followed.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"Back to the portkey I took here. My father and mother both apparated here but for some stupid fucking reason, mother wouldn't let me go with them. Insisted that I take a portkey instead" he said.
"Oh. Well how far is it?" she said. She was fiddling with her wand as they walked. She always seemed to be fiddling with something. Sometimes her ring, sometimes her wand, her earrings, the hem of her skirt, the list was endless. The habit of hers had started in her first year, with her ring. Ever since she received it on that Christmas, she was always toying with it or something else.
"Not far."
"W-wait. What about the others? What about Mr. Weasley and Harry and Hermione and Ron and Fred-"
"Martin. They're gone. They left. There's no way they would stay back for this long. It's been nearly three hours" Malfoy said with a scoff.
"What! Three hours! Why didn't you wake me up? Oh my God- they probably think I'm dead. Oh God."
"You told me you would hex me if I woke you up. I don't really fancy being hexed" he drawled.
"Right." They walked in silence for five more minutes before Malfoy stopped at the top of a small hill and began to look around. He stopped in front of a small silver goblet that gleamed in the moonlight.
"Come here" he snapped. She walked up next to him.
"Where exactly will this take us?" She hadn't thought about it before, but every portkey had a different destination, so this one wouldn't take her back to the hill she had first come from when she was with the Weasleys.
"Malfoy Manor" he responded flatly.
"B-but I need to get back to the Weasley's and I- I most certainly am not dressed like I'm about to go to some fancy ass manor" she said. With the way she looked right now and with the fact that she was a muggle-born, she was sure that Lucius wouldn't hesitate to kill her on site.
"You have a wand, Martin. Use a charm or something" he said. "And do it quickly."
She hadn't thought of that. She pulled her want out of her pant pocket and charmed her disgusting clothes into a sleek, short, black dress with a v neck and long sleeves. She also decided that some shoes would be nice so she pointed her wand at her feet and a pair of black heels formed. She thought it would be fitting, seeing as the Malfoy's always seemed to dress in dark clothes.
"Are you done yet? Can we fucking go now?" he asked in an annoyed tone.
"Mhmm."
They both placed a finger on the small goblet and seconds later they began to spin. This time, when they landed, she was standing on her feet. She wobbled a bit before regaining her balance and when she looked up, her eyes went wide with shock.
They were standing in front of a massive house that was surrounded by an endless garden. She must have been asleep for a while because the sun was beginning to rise, casting a slight glow onto the many windows.
"Come on," Malfoy said as he began to walk towards the massive double doors that led into the manor.
"How the fuck am I supposed to get back to the Weasley's?" she asked as she caught up with him.
"Don't know. Don't care" he said.
"I know you don't fucking care but believe me, I don't want to be at your house and I don't think you really want me here either. So…"
"Like I said, I don't know Martin. Maybe mother will apparate you back or something. Just- shut up. Don't say any more than you have to" he snapped.
And so Val closed her mouth and followed him through the double doors and into a large entrance area that had a fireplace, chandelier, and a set of marble stairs that led to the upper levels.
He then led her up the stairs with impatient and determined steps, and she followed with her black heels clicking against the hard floor as they went.
"Urgh. Great… Mother?" Draco called out.
They were standing in an even larger room than the last.
"They are here… right?" she asked.
"Yes, they should be."
The two of them waited for a few awkward seconds before Narcissa Malfoy came swiftly down the grand staircase in front of them.
"Oh Draco, there you are! Your father and I have been worried sick. Are you alright? Are you injured?" She practically came running over to her son and then engulfed him in a light but loving hug.
"I'm fine, mother. I'm fine" he insisted.
She gave him a nod before backing away from him. "You should get some sleep, Draco. You've been out all-" Narcissa stopped when she looked behind Draco and caught sight of Valencia. She looked between the two of them a few times before turning back to her son.
"Who is this?" she asked.
"Someone from school. Valencia Martin" was all Malfoy said.
Narcissa stepped away from Draco and began to make her way over to where Val stood slightly behind the two of them. She had slightly pointed features, similar to her son's, and pale blonde hair. She wore a simple floor length black dress.
"Are you alright my dear? That wound on your head looks quite awful" Narcissa said.
"Erm- I'm alright. But do you think you could get me back to the Weasley's? I- I really don't want to be a bother, but I got separated from them at the Quidditch World Cup. You could just apparate me there a-and it would be quite simple really" Val said nervously.
Narcissa gave her an almost apologetic look. "I'm afraid I do not know where the Weasley's live, and seeing as I have never been there, I'm afraid I have no way of apparating you there."
"Oh" was all she said in reply. What a great fucking day.
"I can send them an owl if you would like. Although I am not sure how long it would take for it to reach them" Narcissa offered.
It could work. But where would she go until then? She had no way of getting back to them. Waiting seemed to be the only option.
"Would you? That would be great. B-but, where will I go until they get the letter?" she asked.
"I'm sure we have a spare room here that you can stay in," Narcissa said.
"What!" Draco said suddenly.
"Oh no no I- I can't stay here" Val said.
"She cannot stay here"
"I could just- you could just bring me to a hotel or something."
"Yea, bring her to a hotel."
"Don't be inconsiderate, Draco. I will tell Arthur to meet us at King's Cross Station tomorrow morning, until then, you may stay here with us Valencia. Draco, would you mind showing her to one of the spare rooms?" Narcissa said.
Splendid. A day with the Malfoy's. How was she supposed to stay here when Hermione and Ginny and everyone else probably thought she was dead. It had been hours since she had seen any of them; been separated from them. She wanted more than anything to get back to them, not to stay here in this mansion that was far too fancy for her. It seemed lifeless, unlike the burrow where Fred and George were always running around, playing pranks. Where Val, Hermione, and Ginny had stayed up late the night she had arrived to talk about their summers. Where Mrs. Weasley treated her as one of her own.
Malfoy Manor was the last place she wanted to be right now.
"I will have one of the house elves come and clean up that cut for you later in the day, Valencia" Narcissa said. "Dinner will be at six tonight, if you are feeling up to it, and I will have Draco give you some clean clothes." The older witch gave her a warm smile before turning to her son and giving him a stern look as if to tell him to listen to her.
Malfoy huffed and rolled his eyes before turning to Val. "Come on," he groaned.
He led her up the stairs to the second level and then turned left down the long hall.
"Here" he said as he shoved open a door. "Don't fucking complain about anything and don't expect special treatment mudblood."
A queen size bed sat against the back wall of the overly large room. Unnecessarily large. All of it.
"Is there a bathroom where I can take a shower?" she asked, ignoring his snide remark. She wanted to fall back onto the bed and sleep for days, but she was filthy.
"That door over there" he said as he pointed to a door to the left of the room. "Now can I fucking leave now? Or are you not done being needy?"
"Sod off. And don't bother bringing me any clothes like your mother said to" she scoffed.
"I wasn't going to anyways." And with that, he slammed the door shut behind her. She could hear his heavy footsteps walking further down the hall to where his room was.
She hated this. All of it.
She made her way over to the bathroom which was also unnecessarily large. She stripped off her clothes and stepped into the burning hot water of the shower. God it felt good.
She shuddered slightly when the water hit her forehead, but the small sense of pain died out quickly. The water beneath her feet became a shade of crimson red, filled with the dried blood from the gouge on her head.
She ran her hands through her dark hair, allowing every inch of her body to soak in the heat. She stood there, doing nothing but let the water hit her face for nearly five minutes before slapping a glob of the shampoo she had conjured onto her hands. Her naturally long nails dug into her scalp as she moved the suds around her hair to cleanse it.
Every single thought possible flooded her mind as she continued to stand there. She didn't even know if Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron and all the others had even made it out. Had those masked people gotten to them? What if they were hurt? Dead?
Then her mind shifted to her dream. She hadn't had much time to think about it after waking up. The voice in the armchair. Wormtail. The unfamiliar tall man. All of it. Harry had been mentioned. Should she tell him? Probably. And the girl. What girl had they been talking about? She was in the same year as her at Hogwarts.
"Crouch will be keeping an eye out for her, as well as the Potter boy. I know nothing of the girl, but it's important you find her. I do not like having this connection with her without knowing anything about her" the cold voice had said.
What connection did this girl have with him and why was it so important? Was it some sort of magical connection or just a blood connection? Family connection possibly. But then…
"Has she still been able to see into your mind?" What the fuck? See into his mind? And why the bloody hell were Wormtail and this other man calling the shriveled up skeleton man "My Lord"?
In her previous dream, the one with the muggle man… hadn't they said something about him coming back to power? But who was the thing in the chair. He was frail, weak. How was he supposed to come back to power? She sure as hell wouldn't be calling something that looked like that "My Lord", and she saw no way for something like that to come back to power.
She never wanted to have that dream again… but she also wanted to know more. Needed to know more. She kept thinking of it as a dream, but her stomach told her it had been like her other dream. Not a dream at all. Reality. Her reality. Everyone's reality. But how?
Bloody hell. It was all too much.
She finished washing her body and then stood there in the burning heat of the shower for a few more minutes before stepping out. She found a stack of white towels on the sink counter and dried herself.
She wrapped the towel around her before grabbing her wand and leaving steaming the bathroom.
Being far too lazy to perform any more charms than necessary, Valencia only gave herself a new pair of underwear and a baggy white t-shirt before crawling under the sheets of her bed.
She fiddled with the ring on her finger, thoughts still in her mind, before falling asleep. Her sleep was dreamless. Peaceful. Long. Much needed.