DISCLAIMER: All characters, settings, and magical occurrences were all conceived and created in the brilliant mind of J.K. Rowling. Nothing except the glorious plot is property of mine. No profits are being made from my writing.
Chapter 2
With each passing day, he was regretting the choices he'd made. If he'd have just stood up and declared that he held no allegiance towards the Dark Lord things might have been easier. He knew they would've. He'd be dead and not in the pain he was experiencing at the moment. But he had his pride and he wasn't going to go asking for helping. He didn't want to admit to anyone what he was doing. Not even the one person he knew might have been of help to him.
So instead, he stumbled down the steps to the dungeons and let sleep take him quicker than ever before. It was, however, short lived for the visions that started after his eyes closed were enough to frighten even the most powerful wizard.
Since his initiation, he'd been called mostly to report on progress at Hogwarts. How Potter and Dumbledore were doing. Nothing too serious and he'd never been asked to do anything towards other individuals. He knew he'd only have that joy for a short time and that night had been the first of what he was sure would be many nights of torture, and not only for him.
Voldemort had captured a few muggle born wizards for the evening's entertainment. He didn't often engage in activity but he wanted to test Draco. Test his loyalty and quite unfortunately, Draco passed. The thoughts rushed back to him as if they were a movie replaying over and over in his head.
The first was a woman. He stood back as several of the men had their way with her or beat her physically. He'd never seen something so barbaric in his life. The poor woman wouldn't even react. She wouldn't let them watch her break down as she was victimized over and over again. Slowly her spirit completely broken and soon she had no plan left to feel. Voldemort had called him forth and told him to finish her off. He knew he'd never be able to produce an event Killing curse so he was going to have to go about it in a more painful way.
He wasn't sure where'd he'd learned all the spells that he used on her but he got the job finished and the Dark Lord was rather delighted by the whole thing. He'd never felt so awful in his entire life. Growing up he knew that was what he was being trained to do and at the time, having that much power over the life of someone was rather appealing. Now as he had age, that practice had lost its appeal greatly. Draco didn't even have much control over his own life.
"Draco?" There was a soft question that rang through the air and he was thankful for it to have brought him out of the thoughts he had sunk to.
"Hmm?" We all he could managed. The strain on his body was already too much.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." He could tell the voice had gotten up and was moving closer.
"Maybe you should go see the nurse, Draco."
"And tell her what? That I was tortured at a Death Eater meeting? I don't think she'd waste any time reporting me, thank you." He hated using all the energy he had arguing with Blaise. The boy was just trying to help and he was thankful for it.
The other boy crawled into the bed beside him, wand in hand. "Well at least allow me to clean you up a little. You can't go to class like this."
Draco had never been so thankful to have known the wizard. Zabini's mother had been a Healer in her day and he was pretty adequately trained in that sort of thing. He wasn't in any way as good as Pompfrey but it would save a lot of explaining. One by one, the abrasions were healed, bruises fading away, and most of the blood cleaned up. When all was done, the boy curled up behind Draco and sleep finally took both of them.
.-.
After his first conversation with Draco, he hadn't seen very much of him. He was beginning to get worried. He was often very withdrawn in class and had even taken a habit of not aggravating Ron every lesson. Instead, he kept discreetly to himself unless conversing with the Zabini boy or Pansy Parkinson. Even his lackeys seemed to follow a little more distantly. Remus wasn't sure if that was by his order or their fear.
He had known the boy was summoned again. He'd been discussing his potion with Severus when he suddenly had to go. This time, there was no sound of him in the corridors and he was all too happy to return to the class the next morning and to find him seated in his usual area, patiently waiting but tired beyond doubt.
He hadn't questioned any of it and for that the blonde looked rather thankful. But more importantly was that he hadn't even mentioned going to speak to Dumbledore. Of course, it wasn't as though he needed his permission to seek the Headmaster out. He was fully capable of doing so alone. Or at least Remus liked to think so. He still would've liked to know that he'd been sincere with what he'd revealed to him.
He gave up on trying to figure the situation out. It seemed a rather dangerous activity, especially when the Death Eater involved was the son of Lucius Malfoy. Despite the severity of the problem, he still felt obligated to help. If the boy didn't want to follow in the dark footsteps of his father, he shouldn't have to. That was all the motivation he could possibly need.
.-.
The darkness began to envelop him like a hand to a glove. Grabbing on tight and molding around his small frame, the only option being to let it come. He knew he didn't have any strength left to fight it. He was barely walking, more along the lines of crawling, through the hall, barely conscious but enough so to know where he was going. He had no other hope at the moment. Finally he caught a glimpse of the wooden door he'd sought out. After raising a hand to knock, his body gave way and the ground was not too kind as it broke his fall.
It was rather late and disturbances and this hour weren't for no reason. He suspected Harry might've had another nightmare. Since fifth year, almost on a schedule, the nightmare of Sirius' death would haunt Harry and the only thing that could soothe him was the light hearted tales only someone as close to him as Remus was could tell. It would usually help Harry enough to find a same amount of sleep before morning.
But his suspicions had proven wrong. At first, he didn't notice a soul wandering the hall and he though it might have been a prank or something of that sort, until the lifeless body beneath him caught his attention. A very battered and bloody blonde, faint breath all that could escape, was a disturbing sight at any hour.
Not considering another option, he lifted the small figure up and carried him quickly inside. Clearing the small sofa he kept in his sitting area, he laid Draco down, instantly searching out his wand. He was no where near as proficient with healing spells but when he took him to see Dumbledore in the morning, he'd be fixed up better. Yes, he did intend on taking him to see the Headmaster.
He manually cleaned some of the caked on blood from his body, removing the cloak he carelessly forget to. He wadded it up and tossed it out of sight for the moment, examining what he could still see. It seemed Voldemort still remained ever creative with his punishments for his new recruits. Whether or not he was accepted directly into his Inner Circle was not the case, he liked his followers broken, spiritually as well as physically. He finally sealed most of the wounds off to prevent any more blood loss and covered the boy with a thin blanket.
He knew he should just get to sleep. He still would have class in the morning but rather than retreating to the bed that was rather inviting, he shoved aside some of his possessions and took up his position in an armchair. He stayed until he was awoken the next morning, rather frantically.
"Where am I?" The blonde questioned nervously, evidently having just woken himself. He hadn't given himself enough time to examine the room itself just that it wasn't where he normally would be.
"You showed up at my door last night, I healed you to my best ability and let you sleep." His voice faltered by a soft yawn that escaped his mouth.
"You didn't say…"
"I haven't said anything to anyone, yet. But after last night I think maybe it is time that you did."
"I take it I have no choice."
"You're not leaving me with one. And honestly, you're not doing a very good job of convincing me where your loyalties may lie." Although, he strongly doubted had the boy not intended on helping the cause he would've shown up the night before. Then again, being in a situation with a great deal of pain like he no doubt was can cause you to do rather strange things.
"Professor, I do want to help but it is rather hard."
"I understand, Mr. Malfoy though sometimes the right choices are often the hardest to make. You ought to try and make it back to your dorm before anyone notices that you're not where you should be. It might get back to your father."
"Thank you." His words were soft and rather than just of courtesy which was when he normally used that specific expression, he meant it. He meant it more than anything. McGonagall would've completely gone mad and thrown him bloody and bruised in Dumbledore's office not waiting for an explanation. He hated feeling a debt to the man but he didn't know where else to go.
Remus helped him up of the couch and tucked his robes close to his body as he started for the door. There were no more words exchanged as he sauntered down the hallway obviously in need of help but no where near being able to ask for it.
.-.
A/N: I know this is much shorter of chapters than I usually post but I don't plan on this story being ungodly long anyway. Besides, I can get more out this way. The chapters that follow will get much longer though, I'm sure. So stick with me if you are waiting for those. But most importantly…REVIEW! You know you want to :-D
HPSlashfan4evr: Thanks for the review! After I read one and became fascinated with the pairing, I searched everywhere and could find hardly anything. So then this story came about. I've got so much of it written already I'm just editing and giving a little time in between chapters. So look out for Chapter 3 pretty soon…