Title: New Beginnings: The Seventh Year
A/N: got graphic scene. I guess this is where the NC-17 comes in.
Chapter 10: Loneliness in a sea of people
Draco looked up to the blue skies as he laid on his back on the Quidditch stands. Subconsciously he could hear Ron's shouting as he bellowed at his players for their 'incompetence'. After spending two months helping the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain plan strategies as well as aiding him in his 'bellowing' during the practices, he had come to admire Ron's ability as a Captain. However, he had to acknowledge that Ron Weasley could really be a sadistic Captain at times. You could see that from the relentless way he trained his Senior and Junior teams. Although he first said that they were to start out slow when term started, but after their first Saturday practice, he was so dissatisfied with his team's performance that he upped the second week to three practices per week. Many a times, the players would drag themselves up to the castle after their practice to just fall into bed in exhaustion. Some of them even had problems getting up on Sundays after a full day of training on Saturday, choosing to laze in bed and do their homework there.
He subconsciously pitied the players, especially Harry. Due to the fact that the two of them deciding that learning how to transform into their animagus form was very important as a means of escape from danger, they had specially requested for Sirius to increase their lessons by adding a session on Monday evening. Between the Quidditch practices, extra Transfiguration lessons and their piling amounts of homework from the professors, all Harry had time to do almost every evening was fall into bed exhausted. The only chance the two actually got to practice new spells and interact was during their limited free periods and on Sunday. His bond with Harry had deepened due to their relationship, even though they had not yet gone all the way yet. They had not really discovered too many new powers, just that the emotional link between the two of them was stronger than before and that the two could actually dream at night together. Very often, they would comfort each other in their dreamscape when the other had nightmares. They also discovered that they could now handle charms and spells better than before and learn them faster too. Harry also discovered himself to be improving in his potion-making skills, such that Professor Snape could not really find many problems during his classes to deduct points for.
Draco then reflected on his stay in Gryffindor. Since the first Saturday, in which the weekend party was actually a welcome party for him, the Gryffindors had come to accept him as part of the house. Some of the junior Gryffindors actually willingly approached him to ask for help in Potions. Another reason was the chess game with Ravenclaws. The whole school seemed to get the impression that he entered the game as a Gryffindor, seeing that it was termed as the 'Gryffindor against Ravenclaw chess game'. A week after the chess game, he still had some of those Ravenclaws coming up to Ron and himself, asking them to explain the purpose of a particular chess move. They were still analyzing the game. Draco briefly wondered if they had nothing better to do with their time. His relationships with people in general, were better than ever. He had never in his life at Hogwarts, been surrounded by so many people willingly.
Looking up at the Gryffindor players in the skies, he caught sight of Day, going through the strategies. Draco had come to realize that he was quite protective of this 'little sister', after getting to know her better when he was spending time with her in the common room as well as other times when she joined the group for meals. True to her word, she didn't tell anyone about the relationship between Harry and he, and the school only knew about the relationship a month ago, when the two of them strolled into dinner hand-in-hand. Harry even gave Draco a chaste kiss in front of the whole school so as to make sure that everyone knew. He however realized that in the recent one week, she didn't seem as cheerful as before. She had also been quieter in the mornings and when doing her homework in the common room, Draco had caught her staring into space. He didn't want to invade her personal space, so he left it alone.
All a sudden, two figures blocked the sunlight that had been shinning on Draco. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be helping Ron do the torturing sequence?" Dean said, sitting down a step below Draco, looking up at the players, especially at Seamus.
Hermione sat down beside Draco with a lunch basket. She then sent out some red sparks with her wand to Ron, indicating the arrival of lunch. "Torture is right. I don't know how long they will last before they collapse from exhaustion." Hermione scowled.
"Herm, Ron will know what to do, after all he is the Captain." Draco answered, seeing Ron indicate to the team to go down to the stands for lunch. Everyone but Day flew down immediately. Day just shook her head and seemed to go on practicing flying. Draco frowned. He then pulled away his attention from Day when Harry came up and collapsed in front of Draco. Draco handed him a towel that he had ready for him to wipe his perspiration so as to not get a chill. Hermione just shook her head as she started laying out the lunch the house elves put together on a picnic cloth for the team. Dean started to pour drinks for everyone.
"Ron, why's Day still up there?" Harry asked.
"She said she'll be down later." Ron answered, as he started helping himself to the food from the basket. Harry nodded and pulled himself up to sit beside Draco for his lunch.
***
Day wasn't that hungry. She was chastising herself for all the mistakes she made that morning. Looking down at the group at the stands, and how everyone seemed to be with their beloved ones, she suddenly felt really lonely up in the sky. As an only child, she would have thought that she would be used to the loneliness. It didn't seem that bad when she reached Hogwarts, when she was surrounded by people, mainly the fact that she had friends here. And she did recently gain a 'brother'. She then recalled what happened on the first day of school, when she teased Draco, wanting to know what Draco's sexual preference was. She was so elated when Draco and Harry paired up in a relationship. However, casting another look at the group at the stands, she noticed that almost everyone was paired up. Ron was chatting with Hermione while Harry was resting by leaning on Draco and Draco was wiping Harry's perspiration off his forehead. Seamus had his head on Dean's shoulders and even the other players had friends chatting with them. How come I seemed to be the only one who was alone? And why on earth is this bugging me NOW? She scolded herself as she attempted to blink back tears.
She couldn't go back to the stands with this expression on her face, so she guided her broom towards the Quidditch locker rooms. I'll just wash my face and let them have the idea that I forgone lunch so as to clean up a little. She landed in front of the locker rooms and made her way to the sink. Splashing water onto her face, she looked up to the mirror, as she caught sight of her own reflections, tilting her head, thinking. She had found that in the past week, with all the couples forming around her, she had been having difficulty being cheerful in front of others. Some mornings she just wanted to lie in bed and not get up. It could be due to the furious Quidditch training, tiring her out. When doing her homework in the common room, she often found herself losing the concentration, and many a times just gave up doing, favoring going in search of Snuffles and hugging the big black dog. Something told her that the dog was special, because when she talked to him, it was as if he understood everything she said, and the dog never got sick of her, always sitting silently next to her even when she was not talking. Her own friends sometimes found her to be annoying and would shoo her away, thinking that she would never be hurt by that shooing. She sighed when she remembered that no matter how annoying she had been, both Harry and Draco had never shooed her away. She was thankful for that small gesture on their part, but even she knew that you don't take up too much time of people who were currently in a relationship.
She stared at her own reflection in the mirror again. Seeing her short black hair, and her face, she knew from experience that she was not pretty among Chinese, and not many people go for her type. She never had a boyfriend, as she once heard boys commented that they prefer pretty girls who were not as smart as them. Somehow the fact that she seemed to ace all her classes scared guys away. Not that she really wanted guys who were so shallow, but it would be good for her morale if someone would just send a small card to her during Valentine's Day. She sighed again.
"Why the long face?" She heard, startling her, as she whipped around, to see Draco and Harry lounging at the door of the locker room.
"Nothing. Why aren't you guys eating?" She asked, trying to smile for her two 'brothers'. Both Harry and Draco frowned when they saw that she was giving them a fake grin.
Draco had realized that Day was no longer in the air, and yet had not joined them for lunch. He softly told Harry about it and they decided to check the locker room to see if she was there. On the way, he mentioned to Harry that Day seemed to be a little depressed and Harry said that he noticed a little of that too. He once saw Day sitting at the steps to the castle, with Snuffles sitting beside her, staring out into the sunset, with a forlorn expression on her face.
Harry walked towards Day, tossing a wrapped sandwich towards her. Using her Chaser reflexes, she caught and unwrapped it. Biting into the sandwich, she watched both Harry and Draco warily as she chewed. Draco leant against the wall next to her and was staring at her with his grey eyes. Harry was leaning against one of the sinks and casually crossed his arms in front of him. A thought hit her, if those two in front of her were not wizards; they could easily be models out in the muggle world. She grinned to that.
"Now, that's the grin I'm used to seeing, but somehow did not get to see it all week. What happened to it?" Draco asked, using his hand to tilt Day's face up to look at him.
Day shook her head, looked down and continued eating the sandwich. Draco shot a glance to Harry, who seemed to not know what to do either.
"Day, for Merlin's sake, just tell us. Something is bothering you. What's wrong?" Harry sighed.
"It's stupid." Day finally muttered, finishing her sandwich.
"Try us." Draco said, almost ready to plead her to talk to them.
Day looked up at the two of them and finally gave in. "I'm lonely." She mumbled, so softly that the two of them almost missed it. The eyebrows of both boys shot up, as this was something that they did not expect, seeing that Day seemed the kind who would be able to survive even if the world's population died out. Then both of them suddenly realized that that was what Day wanted everyone to see, and her loneliness was normal as she was human. Both boys looked at each other and all a sudden, Day found herself being hugged by both of them, front and back. She stiffened up at first, but relaxed in the hug, as she realized that they only wanted to comfort her.
"Maybe we had been insensitive. I did notice that people had the tendency to pair up recently. Must be the water." Draco gave Day a soft kiss on her forehead.
"Day, you kept us, remember? No matter what happens in the future, please remember that you said that and we are holding you to the promise. That means that we will be there when you need us. Not every moment, yes, but whenever you need company, all you need to do is to tell us. Okay?" Harry continued softly.
Day suddenly felt her heart tightened, as the tears that she had been trying to hold back in the past week overwhelmed her and flowed down her cheeks. She burrowed her head on Draco's chest and started sobbing silently. All Draco and Harry could do was to be there, comforting her with their presence. She finally stopped crying, pulling back from the three-person embrace and smiled up at the two guys. She suddenly felt lighter than she woke up that morning, knowing that no matter what the future holds, she would still have the two of them to count on. She then pushed the two away and headed to the sink to wash her face. Lifting her face to look into the mirror, she grinned at the two boys using the mirror and said, "I'm thirsty and hungry. Shall we go out to join them? And hope that Ron left me some food."
Seeing the sunshine grin plastered on Day's face, Draco was suddenly grasped by a wave of protectiveness for her. Somehow, in the two months that he was here, he had gained the family that he never had.
***
Harry sighed as he continued to frown down at the parchment in front of him. He was a little tired from his Quidditch practice, which Ron finally allowed them to pack up before dinner time. He shot a glare at Ron who sat opposite him, also frowning at the parchment in front of him. He knew that Ron was a little anxious about the Quidditch matches that were coming up, but the way he was torturing the team was as if their team was the worst team on earth. He then glanced at Draco beside him, who was humming to himself as he worked on his assignment. Harry rolled his eyes. Of course he was happy doing the homework. All three of them were working on their Potions assignment. Hermione was opposite Draco, doing her Arithmancy homework, as she had already finished the Potions homework on the day it was assigned. All of them were in the Gryffindor common room as Saturday nights was supposed to be spent with their housemates in the common room. Chastising himself, he tried pulling his thoughts back to the uses of the separate ingredients of Wound Cleaning Potion, but found his thought returning to his soul mate seated next to him.
Harry was now used to being with Draco for almost every hour of the day. On days in which they were separated for Draco's Advanced Potions lesson and Harry's Advanced Charms lesson, very often they would meet each other outside the Great Hall and their hands would search out for each other's to grasp together. If it wasn't for the fact that they were soul mates, they themselves would find the behavior unhealthy. After telling the whole school about their relationship, they were hardly seen without each other around the school. Both of them could feel their magic bonding, as Professor Dumbledore had suggested that it may be easier for them to draw magic from the magical pool between them instead of themselves the week after they were told that they were soul mates. In adapting to that change, they found themselves improving in almost all areas of their magic, and were able to learn their animagus transformation faster as well.
Their animagus transformation lessons were very painful. They had to first train themselves to clear their minds to learn to concentrate. Then they attempted to change their limbs into paws. The shifting of the bones within their body during the change was really painful, but as they practiced, they got used to the pain. The trick was to expect the pain. Then when the whole process was practiced to shorten the time needed and lessened the pain, Sirius had them attempt to transform their body as well, into forming the panther's body, and tail. The final change incorporated was their head, which was even more painful then before, because every single bone in the head had to move, and even their teeth had to be changed. Within the last two months, they had only been able to change into the full panther twice, and that was during the previous week's lessons. Both Sirius and Professor Dumbledore were impressed by the speed in which they had used to learn the skill, and all they had to do was to perfect the skill such that it was as natural as what Sirius could do.
The both of them had also used their free time to bond and learn new defense spells. Harry had come to treasure their free periods together, practicing the spells and discovering each other. One night in their second week together, Harry had woken up from a nightmare and could feel waves of comfort from the mind link they shared. He had gotten up from his bed to go to the washroom to wash his tears away, and coming back to his bed, he saw Draco sitting up in bed. Draco wordlessly beckoned to Harry and Harry crawled into Draco's bed to fall asleep in his arms. Since then, he had crawled into Draco's bed in the middle of the night numerous times and when Draco woke up from his own nightmares, he went in search of Harry in Harry's bed. Some weekends, they just randomly chose whose bed to sleep in so that they could wake up together on Sunday mornings. The bliss they felt waking up in each other's arms was something that they did not come in contact with before.
Looking fondly at the good-looking blond beside him, he noticed a light reddish bruise on his neck, which was not completely covered by the collar of the shirt under the robe. He blushed, remembering how Draco got that bruise. The two of them was kissing each other in the washroom before dinner. Slipping his mouth from Draco's mouth, he had trailed his mouth down Draco's pale neck to his collarbone. Concentrating on nibbling the patch of skin had made Draco moan with pleasure as Draco clenched his fingers in Harry's hair, arching his neck for Harry's mouth. In the times when they were fooling around, Harry found out that Draco was very sensitive around the neck area, and they would often emerge from their free periods with patches of pale bruises on Draco's neck. Shaking his head now, he glanced back at the parchment before him and hurriedly scanned his Potions textbook to quickly complete the assignment.
Finally half an hour later, he slammed the textbook shut and blew lightly on his parchment so that the ink would dry. Draco by then was leaning back on the common room couch reading his Potions textbook leisurely. Harry nudged Draco, who upon giving Harry a glance, turned himself and laid his head on Harry's lap, as he continued to read from the light from the fire. Harry then placed his hand on Draco's stomach and idly stroked his boyfriend. Looking up, he found his two best friends staring at him, both of them smiling.
"What?" Harry asked. Hermione then laid her head on Ron's shoulder.
"You two had really spent too much time together. You don't even need to talk. And I swear you know what each other are thinking all the time." Ron said softly, adjusting his position so that Hermione was more comfortable.
"But that's what you two did all the time." Draco answered, not even looking at them, even though he saw what Ron did from the corner of his eye.
Harry looked down at Draco. The two of them had decided on the night of finding out that they were soul mates to not tell Ron and Hermione or anyone from their dorm about them being soul mates. This was to protect them as the less they know the better. As good friends of Harry and Draco, they were already among those who were most likely to be targeted for kidnaping by the enemies for hostage or information. All they knew were that the two of them were in a relationship.
"Yah, we do that. But we had been together longer." Hermione argued.
"Time doesn't mean anything to a relationship right? It's the emotions behind it all." Harry answered, brushing a few strands of hair behind Draco's ear. In the past two months, Draco had stopped using gel on his hair, once Harry commented that he liked his silvery blond hair soft and free from the stiff constraint of the gel. Day even said after the change that in the unofficial survey did in the school, most of the students found that Draco without his impeccable neat hair was even sexier than before. That and the fact that Harry seemed to exhibit a love for ruffling his unusually blond hair made him throw away his bottle of gel.
Hearing Harry almost announcing his love for him to Ron and Hermione sent a feeling of being loved through Draco as he beamed up at his boyfriend. He sent that wave of emotion through their mind link and almost laughed out loud as Harry visibly shuddered and grinned down at him. Looking at the clock, he frowned as he saw that it was almost ten o'clock.
"It's almost ten. Day's not back yet." Draco commented.
Harry looked at him in surprise. "Where did she go?"
"Detention. Working in the greenhouses till nine o'clock. She told me that she should be back before curfew, as I told her that I wanted to talk to her." Draco said, looking into the emerald eyes of Harry.
Ron shrugged. "Don't worry. Most likely it ended late. She should be back soon." Ron said as he went back to frowning at the assignment that he had yet to finish. Harry nodded as he picked up his Potions textbook to start studying for a test that Snape was giving them soon, as Draco also went back to his book.
***
Day hurried along the dark passageways as she made her way back to the Gryffindor dorms. Her detention had ended late because of some plants which had grown too huge for their pots and Professor Sprout had requested their re-potting in the last minute. Glancing at her watch and reading the time using the limited light from her surrounding, she found that she barely had five minutes to go back to her dorm before curfew started.
Suddenly, she heard a noise in front of her in the passageway which was not fully lit. She froze and took out her wand, looking into the dark area.
"Hello? Anyone there?" She asked, as she slowly approached the area where she heard the sound from. All of a sudden, a pair of hands came from behind and one hand clamped over her mouth as the other went around her neck. Her screams were muffled by the hand above her mouth. Another pair of hands came up and snatched her wand from her hand and grasped her hands in a tight grip. She could feel herself being pulled backwards, towards a wall, and suddenly felt herself going through the wall with her assailants trying to stop her hands and legs from hitting them. She heard someone yell a spell and all a sudden, her legs and hands could no longer move. Her assailants lowered her onto the floor and suddenly the lights in this room lit as she saw who the ones who attacked her were.
"It's no use shouting. This place is soundproof. No one can hear you, even if that stupid dog patrols by outside later, it can't hear you. So you might as well save your breath, bitch." Pansy Parkinson sneered at her as she stood at her feet. Crabbe and Goyle grunted their laughter behind her.
"Parkinson, what do you want? Let go of me! Someone will know when I'm missing." Day tried to not betray her fear, as she stared at Pansy who was holding her wand.
"People would only think that your detention ended late. No one would know that you are missing till a few hours later. Or they may think that you are out playing a prank. By the time they find you, you won't be alive anymore." Pansy continued sneering at her.
"Why are you doing this?" Day demanded, as she stared at her wand. If I summon my wand, maybe it will fly to me. But my hands can't move and…
Pansy saw Day staring at the wand and with a vindictive smirk, snapped the wand into two. Day winced, as the wand had never left her side for the past four years and had almost become a magical extension of her. She suppressed the whimper at Pansy's action but couldn't keep the grimace from her facial expression as she looked at the broken wand that Pansy dropped on the floor beside her.
"Why? First and foremost, your face disgusts me. Secondly, orders from our Great Lord. He said that the three of us will be initiated when we get rid of a good friend of Harry Potter. Seeing that the whole gang seemed to travel around in packs, you were the only one whom we had access to. And lastly, my two good friends here are hot for your body. There is the additional incentive in that when we kill you, the Slytherin will be able to win the Quidditch match. Lots of advantages, so why shouldn't we kill you? Enough talking. Time for some action." Pansy sneered at Day and suddenly punched Day. Day could feel the blood flowing down her nose as she reeled back from the punch. Crabbe and Goyle gripped her robes and started ripping them off, while slapping her face. As her limbs were still unable to move, it was very difficult to fight the two boys who were trying to strip her naked. The two of them were mauling the flesh that they uncovered, making Day want to vomit. Day was screaming for them to stop what they were doing when she saw Pansy pull out a dagger. When Crabbe and Goyle finally got her naked, they stepped back for Pansy who was holding the dagger with a manic look in her eyes. By then, Day was cowering with fear on the floor and screaming for help, while trying to move backwards using her body, but was unsuccessful as Pansy's henchmen pulled her hands and legs to prevent her from moving.
Pansy kneeled down and looked at Day's body. "I heard that you are a virgin. So no one saw this before? Vincent, you won the bet right? So you get first taste of her tonight. But before you do anything; let's add some graffiti on your lovely body." She then pressed her dagger onto Day's breast and it cut into the flesh, as Day screamed from the pain. She sliced a few more times on the same breast, before doing the same to her other breast. Pansy then watched morbidly as the blood flowed down Day's torso onto the floor. She then moved on to the limbs of the girl who was withering on the floor in pain, as she slashed lines that crisscrossed each other all along her hands and legs. She then stepped back, satisfied with the large amount of blood flowing out of the girls body onto the dark floor, as the two boys behind her stepped forward, and Crabbe started to unbutton his pants.
Day was lying on the floor, as pain surrounded her. How could anyone do this to her? Why? All she could feel was the knife slicing into her flesh till she could no longer differentiate where the pain was coming from. She had stopped screaming, just lying there, hoping the pain would either stop or kill her. Her eyes started to blank out, as the only constant thing was the pain. Suddenly she felt some one spreading her legs, and someone lifting her hips up. The next moment, she felt someone entered her, with a sudden burst of pain from her lower body.
Her eyes closed as blackness greeted her.
*****
A/N: Took me really long to get this part up. Very unwilling to upload this chapter. This is really bad, especially the last part. I couldn't bring myself to harm the original characters so I bring in my own character to torture her…. Poor Day… (author pat Day on the head as Day sat beside the computer with tears flowing down her cheeks.) Warned you guys already. Next chapter: everyone trying to pick up the pieces of Day.