Hey, Thanks for the comments/subscribe/favorites, I was really glad last chapter had a good reaction.
This chapter is another dark bit, there will be some heavy rape talk (with no actual rape), but also a bit of Draco proving he is Harry's perfect match ;)
I hope you all like this chapter!
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After his talk with Rabastan, Draco spent the rest of the day and deep into the night looking at the contents of the box. He didn't even need to try very hard to confirm his suspicions, the picture didn't show a face and it was useless to try to compare that body with the one he knew, James was indeed a lot more fit than his son, but the picture did show a piece of a scarred left shoulder that Draco assumed was from the werewolf's claws.
He felt a bit stupid for not thinking about this sooner, even the love notes made more sense now, all the mentions of Sirius and pranks and detentions... the little challenges when they had quidditch matches against one another… the bloody full moon!
Can't. I'll be with Moony tonight.
It begged the question of what exactly had happened to them, he would have understood if it was a little crush on Regulus part, liking the popular boy who also happened to be his brother's best friend, but said boy had, at some point, liked him back.
The irony was not lost in him and once again he found himself wondering about Regulus, the kind of person he had been, if their actions had been similar after all, but he was also making parallels between their situations. He could not help but to think about Harry and the way they parted, were they repeating what happened in the past? He always assumed Regulus walked away from his lover and was the main reason things ended, but considering all he had heard about James Potter, maybe the man had ended things.
He knew Regulus had joined young, was that what broke them up? Was Potter not willing to believe in Regulus? Was it because of Sirius? He had so many questions, but he knew answers would not come easily and considering the part Potter played later in the war and that his own son was still on, he didn't think searching for these answers would be wise.
Draco's mind was still turning with questions when exhaustion took him and he fell asleep, only waking up when his mother came to check on him to find out why he was not ready to leave.
Getting back on the train for Hogwarts felt like he was just moving from one horrible situation to another, but he still had to put up a face and pretend all was going exactly as he wanted, so he all of the questions and doubts in the back of his mind for the time being.
He was doing a patrol when he saw the compartment with Longbottom and Weasley, so making sure no one was around he got in. The two of them shut up immediately and looked at the door alarmed, but he saw Longbottom at least relax a bit when he realised who it was.
"Lovegood is fine" said Draco and he turned to leave, but Weasley stood up and took a hold of him.
"Where is she!" said the girl shoving her wand at Draco's face.
"At my cellar"
That surprised the two Gryffindors, but Weasley's fury came back in a few seconds.
"And you left her there?"
"The Dark Lord was there, what was I supposed to do? If she stays quiet she is going to be fine, but they are keeping her because they said Harry showed up at her father's house"
Again the two looked surprised, so they probably hadn't heard about Harry's whereabouts.
"Why would he go there?" asked Longbottom "he wouldn't know about Luna"
"I don't know, it probably wasn't about her, something bad happened on Christmas, but he is probably fine, because I'm not dead and the Dark Lord was in a terrible mood"
The group was in silence and Draco pushed Weasley away from him.
"I need to go, try to not piss off the Carrows too much, they were advised to take it easy, but I don't think they know what that means"
He didn't wait to see what they would have to say to that, he needed to keep a low profile and the last thing he needed was to get caught there.
Surprisingly it wasn't that hard to avoid trouble, the Carrows did start to take things a bit more slowly and the other teachers were less stressed and able to give more proper classes. But the biggest change was in Crabbe and Goyle, who were more than happy to indulge in the Carrows more sadistic punishments, in a way that even other Slytherins would look a bit scared of them.
The Gryffindors on the other hand did not hear Draco's plea and were causing all types of trouble and being punished for it just as much, at least when they actually got caught. It was something that sometimes would puzzle Draco, because he was sure the DA was using the room of requirements and Snape should know that, but maybe he didn't feel like telling the Carrows because he disapproved of their methods.
By February everyone was already tired and it was evident that just like on Christmas, even more people would try to abandon the school after Easter, a holiday that usually many people would just stay in school to prepare for their exams. Things were so down no one even remembered Valentine's day existed, except Crabbe.
Draco had no idea how things had unfolded or what the little group of DA members had done, but there was a bit of a crowd and Amyco was holding Weasley by her hair and Ernie Mcmillan was unconscious bleeding at his feet and Crabbe said something about Valentine and people started screaming and Millicent, who was behind Draco just whispered something to her friend that made his blood run cold.
"Did I get it wrong or is he really asking if he can rape her?"
Draco moved to the front where Theo was, Daphne and Pansy not too far from him whispering at each other with horrified faces.
"I think I just might" said Amyco with a laugh and he threw Weasley at Crabbe and Goyle's direction.
Longbottom and one of the Patils broke out of the crowd to fight with the man at the same time as McGonagall, who immediately sent a curse at Crabbe, which surprised many people who did not believe the teacher would attack another student. Draco looked around hoping Snape would show up to break this stupidity, but the man was nowhere to be seen despite the loud crowd.
"He is not here" said Theo in a whisper "He left Carrow in charge for the day, it's why Crabbe thinks he can get away with this"
And then Carrow sent a big group of people flying, including the professor, Longbottom and Patil and then he grabbed Weasley again before she escaped. He mercilessly threw her back on the floor and made sure to have a strong hold on her hair.
"Just because of this, I'm giving the girl over" Said Amyco.
And as usual, Draco did something stupid.
"It's not like he even knows what to do with a girl" he said loudly and Carrow immediately turned to him, everyone else turned quiet looking at Draco with suspicion.
"Neither do you from what I heard" the man said laughing and Draco cursed inside his mind, trying to think what to say, but he never got to that.
"Daphne begs to differ" said Pansy in a totally staged whisper that had both Draco and Theo turning their heads to her, but Daphne just made a little giggle, so she was on board with whatever Pansy was doing.
"Please, as if we don't see her leaving Theo's bed every morning" said Crabbe with disdain.
"So does Draco" said Blaise with a smirk that Draco had never seen on his face before "the blond hair must be confusing on such a little brain" he pretended to whisper to Pansy who started giggling.
Everyone was staring at them with the most incredulous faces, because for whatever reason the scene became some kind of Slytherin expose where apparently Draco was sleeping with both Daphne and Theo, who was doing an impressive job of just keeping himself quiet while his girlfriend was used as bait.
"So now we can stop pretending Nott's bed is not as busy as a brothel?" said Goyle a bit sulky.
Considering Theo's surprised face, he wasn't expecting Goyle to get involved, but then, the boy rarely talked to them and probably didn't know a thing about Theo's relationship with Daphne, only that she was always there and only Draco was allowed to wake them if needed. Crabbe didn't look as convinced, but there was doubt on his face, probably because Goyle believed it and he hadn't spent time with Draco or Theo in the last few years.
Carrow started laughing and everyone was reminded of what actually started this entire thing.
"Is that what got your dad so pissy at Draco?" said Carrow looking at Theo with glee and everyone was looking at them with disbelief, the man had confirmed the story even though it wasn't even true to begin with. Draco wanted to laugh at them all, Carrow was so easy to play.
Theo on the other hand looked pissed and after throwing a murderous glance at Pansy he turned to Draco.
"If you wanted so bad to get one over Weasley you could have just grabbed her in the corridor" said the boy before pushing everyone out of the way to get out of there.
"Here" said Carrow throwing the girl at Draco's feet "you can get her as compensation, 'cause I don't think Nott is letting you in his bed tonight" said the man laughing and moving to leave, but Crabbe stayed, looking at Draco, not really believing he was going to take her.
Draco knew he couldn't leave her there, so he threw her on his shoulder like a potato sack, grabbed her legs so she would stop kicking him and smirked at Crabbe before pushing his way over the crowd who was already fighting again trying to avoid him leaving with the girl.
"Don't throw a curse, you might hit Ginny" someone said and Draco didn't wait to see who was trying to catch up with him.
Really, Draco wasn't sure what to do with the girl, was he expected to do it in an empty classroom? Taking her to his bed would mean a lot of people would see her leave, but Theo was probably there waiting to scream at him.
The hell Pansy!
He had two hours before dinner and he supposed if he was going to do something with someone for two hours a bed was better, so he would deal with Theo.
"Where are we going?" Weasley eventually asked.
"My dorm, people will see you leaving, Theo will be there and he is going to be pissed, so don't say anything"
She was quiet for a while.
"I can walk you know"
"And I don't want anyone to see you walking"
His shoulders would not be too good when he got to his room, but not everyone saw the commotion and some of them would already be at the common room, so he carried her all the way to his dorm, ignoring everyone who asked what he was doing and just trying to look like he was happy with his prize.
As soon as he opened the door, Theo was on him.
"What do you think you are doing?" he said furious and then saw Draco put Weasley down and he just looked at the girl incredulous "you brought her here?"
"What was I supposed to do?" he said and turned to put a ward at the door and a silence charm on the room, so Theo would not be heard "My bed is that one you can rest there if you want" he said to Weasley and she looked like she was going to refuse, but then she went ahead and sat on his bed while still keeping an eye on them.
"I don't know who I want to murder first" said Theo turning again to Draco and ignoring Weasley "did you and Pansy arrange this?"
"How was I supposed to know Crabbe would ever suggest raping a girl? He grew up with us and used to put flowers on Pansy's hair!"
"And now he is jerking off after torturing people, he is not the boy we knew! "
"Come on Theo! what we watched was a complete shitshow, Carrow lost his mind, none of us were expecting sexual harassment to became a punishment in a fucking school"
"So we expose our sexual life for the entire school? Everyone will talk about Daphne!"
"And everyone that matters will not believe it!"
"Doesn't mean I want people saying shite about my girlfriend!"
"You do realize" said Weasley slowly "that people will also talk about you and Malfoy"
"I don't care if people think Draco and I are fucking, I just don't want anyone to give Daphne a hard time over it!"
"You are so cute, Theo" said Draco shaking his head, feeling more amused than he should.
"Where did Pansy even get that idea anyway?" asked Theo, a lot less aggressive.
"I think she got it from Goyle actually" said Draco, he had wondered on his way down why the other boy would have fallen for the story so easily and he only had one explanation for it "he doesn't talk to us much and he knows I'm the only one allowed to open your curtains and he is the last one up, he probably only ever saw me leaving your bed whenever I woke you up, so he made his theory. He probably asked Crabbe about it and Pansy or Blaise heard it. Daphne was giggling, so she was on board with Pansy's idea"
"An idea that will make everyone think you are a rapist" said Theo "your parents will not like it"
"They know me and I told them I was gay after that meeting, also it's you, so they will know it's a lie"
"Father will believe it, high chances of him cutting me off"
"Not after the reaction he got last time, people would know it is because of this and he is the one who will get shamed. But if he does that though, it's not like Daphne is not rich enough for the both of you and even if she wasn't, Pansy and I would pay your expenses just to see you two ridiculously happy and married. Also you do know father has some money set aside for you, right?"
The three of them were silent for a few minutes, all of them thinking of the consequences of this thing they were now doing.
"You know you can't say anything, right Weasley?" asked Theo "if you tell people anything that is not 'I was violently raped by Draco Malfoy', shite is gonna blow on all of us and if Crabbe doesn't get his hands on you, I'm starting to believe Carrow just might"
"I know, I'm not stupid" she said sounding very annoyed.
"You need to keep you head down too" said Draco "at least until Easter, and then you don't come back"
Weasley didn't say anything to that, but it was clear on her face that she understood very well what the two boys were trying to tell her.
"I suggest ripping her shirt off or something" Said Theo and then he turned to her again "are you a virgin?"
"Excuse you?" asked the girl surprised and a bit offended.
"If you are, then throw some blood on the sheets, so if Crabbe is here when you leave he will see it for a bit, but if someone knows you're not it won't work 'cause they might talk"
"I can get away with a silence charm, but not with wards on the curtains, I need you to stay here and make sure he doesn't come and check" said Draco.
"Sure, I will tell you when it's dinner"
Draco then closed his curtains and cast a silence charm on it before laying down on his bed.
"And now we wait" he said to the girl.
Weasley looked at him with a thoughtful expression and Draco not knowing what to say just kept quiet until she made up her mind.
"I don't get you people" she said "you do things you don't want to do, you have to lie all the time… for what?"
"To protect the people we care about"
"You should fight against it, not do what they do!"
"If what we did today is not fighting, then I don't know what is. In case it wasn't clear, Pansy and Daphne, knowing Theo's father is an abusive homophobe, threw him over to help me get you out. Now, if Theo steps a foot back at his house, his father will most likely torture him, but he still went along with it. Not to mention all the stuff people will say about me and Daphne from now on. They all disagree with what Carrow was doing, but they only did this because I got involved, because they care about me"
"They should do it for everyone, they should do it because it is right!"
"And who would do it for us? You forget Weasley, that even before all this, Slytherin house was shunned by everyone, so we learned to only protect each other. Self-preservation is considered a sin by you people, but if everyone was constantly putting their necks at risk, many things would never have been archived"
"I would rather die than torture my friends"
"And I'd rather live to be able to see my enemy defeated and paying for all the pain my friends had to go through"
"Harry is out there risking his life for us!"
"And I don't think he would appreciate me putting the both of us at risk"
That shut her up and they both stayed still for a while in an awkward silence, until Weasley took off her shoes and her tie.
"Mind if I sleep for a bit?" she asked
Draco frowned, but looking at her it was possible to see she looked tired
"No, go ahead"
He moved his position a bit and allowed her to get under the covers and get settled, it showed how tired she was that she was asleep in a few minutes and Draco was left alone with his thoughts.
What he did today would have consequences, some of it might even follow him for years to come, not to mention he wasn't sure how the Dark Lord would react to it, he knew he would have to blame Weasley and say she was teasing him or something equally ridiculous, but considering the bad history between their families he wasn't sure if he would be believed. He could always play the card of 'I'm ashamed I find her pretty', but then he would have to deal with a lot of teasing that might turn into suspicious if he was turning into a blood traitor and that was the exact kind of suspicion he needed to avoid... because it was the truth.
"But if I do go with that I might make an impression it all was specifically about her and that I'm not planning on going after anyone else"
A lot of his choices obviously involved how people would react to what happened, having a fame could allow him to use the excuse again if needed, but doing all of this again with someone he didn't 'kind of' trust would be difficult and could end very badly.
"Who thought the Carrows in a school was a good idea? Aunt Bella has more morals than Amyco"
Draco's head was full, but eventually he too fell asleep while thinking and he was violently woken by Pansy.
"I really can't believe you!" she said as she took all the covers off his bed to mess it up, Weasley was slowly waking up too and was immediately surprised to see Pansy.
"What time is it? Where is Theo?" asked Draco.
"Dinner, he is outside, but so is Crabbe and Goyle, get naked!"
Draco looked at Pansy a bit startled, but pushing a piece of his covers over him, he slowly took his clothes off. Weasley looked completely out of the loop and Pansy started to take off her jumper and rip off her shirt, making a few buttons fly off it.
"What do you think you're doing?" asked Weasley trying to get the other girl off of her.
"We have to hurry, I can believe you two just decided to take a nice nap! Get your bra off, you're leaving with just your shirt and the skirt, he can make a big show off giving your clothes back later, you are only covering yourself enough to leave"
Weasley was still looking at Pansy as if she lost her mind and turned to Draco asking for guidance.
"Just do what she says" he told her
"Get your clothes off Weasley! He is gay, he doesn't care, take it off!" the girl said hysterical.
Weasley, bless her heart, did what Pansy said and Draco made sure to not look to give the girl a bit of privacy. Pansy took off of her pocket a little make up and started spreading red marks on Weasley's chest.
"Make sure to leave this part off the shirt" said Pansy and she reached for Draco "give me your hand" she put the make up on it and without warning put it on one of Weasley's tights, then she grabbed her want and cast a cleaning charm on Draco's hand and something that immediately made Weasley's eyes red and tearful.
"What is this? it hurts" said Weasley.
"You don't look like you can cry on the spot, this will last around half an hour"
Weasley looked quite the sight, holding her shirt over her chest and with half of her skirt open on the side around the waist, a little indication that she was not wearing underwear.
"You look perfect" said Pansy after looking at Weasley and then she turned to Draco "lay over there and look like you just had the time of your life" and then she grabbed his face and kissed him hard, but suddenly bit at one of his lips until it started bleeding.
"The hell Pansy!" complained Draco.
"Let it bleed, any girl would bit you if she didn't want to be kissed" she said "lay down, I'm going to open"
And then she turned and did just that, making sure to open enough for people to see Draco laying there and making a show of disposing of the girl. Weasley, turned out, was either too scared by the whole thing or was really a good actress because she looked impressively convincing.
"Did you get the girl out of your system?" asked Theo ironically while sitting on his bed and pretending to read a book.
"More than once" said Draco smirking and then got annoyed with the cut on his lips and started to look for his wand and then cast a simple healing charm.
"Well I hope it was worth it" said Crabbe with a smirk "Cause Alecto found out and she beat the shit out of Amyco"
Draco raised an eyebrow and turned to Theo who apparently had already heard the story. This was both good and bad, because it meant it wasn't going to happen again, but also that Draco was in a lot of trouble.
"No sense putting it off" said Theo "go shower so we can get dinner, I'm not touching you until you get that blood traitor off of you"
"Are you jealous?" he teased and Theo just rolled his eyes at him, so Draco closed his curtains to get some of his clothes back on and his shower things and cast a spell so all of Weasley's clothes would be in a pile. He hoped she didn't care much for her underwear because he grabbed it and made sure to throw it at Crabbe as he left the room.
He didn't take too long on the shower, but when he came back to the room, only Theo was there.
"He bought it, but he made sure to say how much he looked forward to see you facing off Alecto, so I'm pretty sure you're in deep trouble"
"Well, at least we know we won't be doing this again"
"You were planning to?" Theo asked gobsmacked.
"Not really, but it's only February"
Theo shook his head at him and then stood.
"It would be funny to throw her clothes at the Gryffindor's table, but if Alecto is already pissed maybe it's better to just ask the elfs"
"Yeah… let's go with I fancied her and see how it goes" said Draco
"Sure"
The two of them left for the Great Hall, Daphne and Pansy were already there and everyone was looking at them with all sorts of looks. Most of the Gryffindors weren't there as well as some of the teachers, including the Carrows. Draco tried to behave as if nothing was wrong and it lasted for a while until Snape and Alecto came in and demanded him to follow them.
As he had been warned, Alecto wanted his head and for a while Draco thought Snape was going to follow her because he too didn't look much happy with him. But after preventing Alecto from casting a cruciatus on him and giving him an extensive lecture, Snape asked for his prefect pin back.
"In other… circumstances, you would be expelled and would be returning home at this instant, but as it is and mostly considering you had a teacher's consent, you will no longer hold any of the privileges you currently have, clearly you are not fit to be allowed after curfew or to patrol and accordingly punish other students. You will also no longer be allowed at Hogsmeade and be assured that if not for the Dark Lord's personal interest in your healing studies, you would not be doing that either. You will not set another foot off of line Mr. Malfoy, I don't want to hear your name, I don't want to see you doing anything except studying and I certainly don't want to see your bleeding heart for any Gryffindors, which also means you will no longer participate on your Defense classes, I suppose a theoretical learning will have to suffice"
In truth, not having to participate in Defense was a big blessing, but Draco was not going to say it out loud, he had a suspicion that Snape was actually helping him on that one, so he simply agreed with every punishment and quietly returned to his common room.
"Came to pack your things Malfoy?" asked Crabbe as soon as he got into the room, he and many others seemed gleeful at the very idea.
"Not today, Crabbe" said Draco trying to be smug, but not really feeling it.
Back in his room, only Theo and Daphne were there and he was surprised to find the girl crying.
"What happened?" he immediately asked, worried something bad had happened to the girl.
"Don't worry about it" said Daphne and with a last look at Theo she left the room.
"You two had a fight?" asked Draco carefully, Theo looked just as upset as Daphne.
"Yes and I don't want to talk about it right now" said the boy and right after he closed his curtains and didn't come out again.
Draco felt guilty, he could count on his fingers the times Theo and Daphne had any serious fights. With a tired sigh, he too went to bed, hoping that maybe the other day would be better.